We eatin' good! :)

Last night I fixed Cheesy Beef Casserole. It's kind of like lasagna with egg noodles, and it's one of our favorite dishes. I almost never make it because a) I rarely had the time to make it; b) I don't usually keep some of the ingredients on hand, things that are crucial to the dish and buying them extra costs extra money...which I wouldn't usually spend, and c) I keep forgetting about it.

I brought home salad the other day from Jan's. She'd cooked dinner and had tons left over, so we had that and garlic bread with dinner last night. Normally, it's just the casserole. We don't get very fancy 'round here.

Not only that, but I tried to make frozen pudding pops! (Lesson learned...it doesn't work in cheap popsicle molds. Stick to Dixie cups.) The kids are feeling pretty special because Mama's actually cooking stuff other than hot dogs and mac and cheese.

Know what's really awesome about it? Guess what I had for lunch? Heck yeah! AND...it's very filling, so I put enough leftovers in the freezer for dinner another night! :D I have teenagers, remember? I've almost forgotten what leftovers look like!

I've planned about a week's worth of all of our favorite dishes that we rarely have because I never had time to cook them. Like, I don't remember the last time we even had meatloaf. But you can bet your sweet bippy we will have it in the next couple of days. And maybe even some fried chicken and gravy! Oh, man. All this time to cook could be a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps I need to start walking in the mornings, too! LOL

If you're interested, here is the Cheesy Beef Casserole recipe:

4 cups uncooked medium egg noodles
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce (or 1 regular can)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup (8 oz) small curd cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup sliced onions (I usually omit them)
1/4 cup chopped green pepper

Cook noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add tomato sauce, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
In a bowl, combine cream cheese, cottage cheese Parmesan cheese, green onions and green pepper. Drain noodles.
Layer half of the noodles in a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish. Top with half the meat and cheese mixtures. Repeat layers. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan, if desired. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until heated through.

This freezes really well, so you could make two at one time and freeze one for later. :)

Just reflecting. Man, I am blessed!

The kids are back in school. Some of my friends have settled their kids into college dorms. The scorching August temperatures have abated into the low 90s. According to the academic calendar, fall is here.

It's one time of the year my ex is closer to the surface. This year not so much as in years past, but still he's on my mind now.

It hit me the other day that it's coming up on five years since we split up. (For those of you who don't know, we haven't seen him in 4 1/2 years. He comes close to the surface of my memory in May, too...for that reason.)

Five whole years. That's hard to believe. Within those five years I have graduated college, established a career and took fabulous trips I would not have been able to take while I was married. Through the grace of God, the kids enjoy a stability they never knew before, and I had forgotten. I have re-established friendships and created new ones. I grew closer to my kids and my family. I have a house that I am not embarrassed by, and a car I don't have to apologize for. I found a church I love and am growing in. I like myself...for the first time ever.

I really don't have anything insightful to share today. There is no need for me to recount for you the details of "the day", though every detail is burned into my memory. Nor am I trying to pat myself on the back for what I've accomplished, because I really didn't accomplish much. God has blessed us. I've only tried to do what I thought was right...one of the great freedoms of my "new" life.

I guess I'm just in a reflective mood this morning, and I needed to, in some way, put it writing.

Look how God has prospered us in five years. So, dear friends, if you see me struggling to keep my chin up now, please remind me he has brought us out of...and prospered us after...much tougher times than these.

Useful again!

Today was my first day of volunteer work at Golden Harvest Food Bank. Have I mentioned I'm excited to be doing something useful? I hope to find a way to continue volunteering there once I find a job.

I spent the afternoon sorting cans of soft drinks - tossing those that were too far out of date and replacing the ones that are still usable.

My hands got filthy. I wanted to take a picture of them after I finished working, but I got thirsty and the sweat from my water bottle washed them off. Trust me. They were nasty. This could be a reminder to us all to wash our soda cans before we drink from them. Who knows where those things have been. But I digress.

For three and a half hours, this is all I did. And do you know what? It was awesome. There were maybe 10 people working in the area (that I could see, anyway). Someone had a radio playing on the other side of the room. The lady I worked with had gospel music playing from her phone. She started on one side of the shelf, on the opposite end, doing the same work. Sometimes she sang along with the music - and beautifully, I might add.

"Lisa! You still on your first box?"

I'm on my second, I told her.

"I'm on my fifth! Keep up!" she teased.

"Give her a break. She just started," the manager chimed in. We all laughed.

I loved the jovial mood. It was so nice to be doing something useful, and to be working with my hands. It's hard to forget the reason I am there, and who the food is going to bless.

The area I worked in resembled a warehouse-style grocery store. People from non-profit organizations come here to get food to distribute to the needy.  

Sometimes, I couldn't read the expiration date. Maybe it didn't look old, and I'd briefly consider putting it back in the box. But then I heard my co-worker's voice again say, "When in doubt, throw it out. I don't want to make anybody sick." Out it went.

It hurt to throw away a whole case of apple cider. It looked fine to me, but I couldn't find the expiration date. But the people who need this stuff deserve to get good stuff. Out it went.

Stress relief, apparently, comes from throwing the cartfuls of old drinks into the dumpster. I had to empty my cart several times. Chucking bottles hard enough to break and splatter definitely relieves some stress.

"Pretend it's somebody you're mad at!" I was told. :)

And just like that, it was over. I can't wait to see what I'll be doing next week!

I love being a woman!

I'm sweating like...well, I don't have to tell you. But it's sure not ladylike.

Weatherbug says it's 88 degrees outside. When I stepped out to go for a walk about 45 minutes ago, it felt great. By the end of my walk...not so much. Is it October yet?

Cathy says she can't walk this week, just because she's got to get up at 5 a.m. for work. Wimp! ;) Catie happily stepped in. But she walks too fast! And in jeans!

For some reason, she has decided that she only likes wearing jeans, even during a sweltering Georgia summer. Something about not wanting to show off her legs. Are we sure she's my child?? I know I carried her and all, but...

Me? I'm out walking in a skirt. I have decided that skirts are God's gifts to us women. See, men can only wear shorts so short before they start talking soprano and we start to wonder about them. Skirts allow a lot of air and minimal fabric to trap heat. I love them!

Plus I have no qualms about showing off my legs. Even if I had cankles, I've decided I'm too old to let comfort fall by the wayside in order to look...hot?? (Jeans sure don't look cool during a southern August!)

I figure skirts are the nearest thing to wearing nothing at all and still look decent. Nice, even. I told my daughter I refuse to put on pants until I absolutely have to. We live in Georgia and God gave us skirts, for crying out loud!

The Unemployment Chronicles, Pt. 2

I know...I know. You would think since I have all of this time on my hands, I could write more blog posts.

The kids are in school now. Perhaps that will help. And I don't feel as much in turmoil this week. Last week I found myself sobbing into my pillow at oddball times, laying around feeling lethargic, not wanting to be home, not wanting to go out.  I'm telling you it feels like the end of a relationship! It's a good thing I'm not a bon bon eater. I'd weigh 400 pounds by now. Although I am craving ice cream.

But now my eyes are dry, I finally got some sleep (okay...in between finally falling asleep about midnight and hearing Christopher's alarm at 5:30 a.m. One perk to not having a job: going back to bed after the kids leave!), and I feel much better.

Over breakfast and coffee I filled out unemployment forms. I've been holding off. When I worked at Winn Dixie all those years ago, people occasionally came in and asked for applications. When told we weren't hiring, they replied that they didn't care, they just needed to put in applications and then asked the manager to sign their paperwork. I really, really don't want to have to ask anybody to sign off on a form stating that I've applied for a job. But after reading carefully over the website, it looks like all I have to do is keep a record of where I've applied or sent my resume. I was going to do that anyway, for my own records. So why not let that bring me a paycheck?

I also dusted off my resume. It's almost ready to go. I expect to spend part of this week just poking around the internet and seeing what I come up with. If I see something interesting, I'll be ready to apply. I plan to meet with a career counselor very soon to hopefully help me find some direction and focus my job search. I plan to set that up by the week's end.

But for now it's almost time for Christopher to come home. I'm anxious to hear how the first day of 11th grade went. And Catie's all excited that she gets to use a locker this year. But she won't be home for quite a while.

Today, I accomplished what I wanted to. And now that I've found an ounce or two of energy, I will be spending the rest of the day going about the business of being a mom!

Those golden summer days

How is it I have two children who do not enjoy the lake?

We went to Lake Springs yesterday. It was Tuesday. No one was there. This made me happy. The kids...not so much.

About an hour into it they started in with "I want to go home." I was like, "Really? You've been home all summer!"

They wanted the computer. Television. Phone.

"I loved going to the lake when I was your age. And it was usually just me, Aunt Rhonda, Papaw and Grandma Jo!" I told them.

"We're bored," they said. Perhaps this is a failure of mine as a parent.

We had the best times at the lake when I was a kid, let me tell you. It was our second home. You could go anywhere if you could find a spot, and Daddy was good at finding them. I can picture those places in my head, but I couldn't tell you where they are now for the life of me. Now you can't go anywhere if it isn't in a park, where you have to pay for a day use pass.

Daddy had an S-10 pickup with a camper shell on the back. He cut a piece of foam rubber to fit the bed of the truck, and that was our camper. The two adults and one of us children could sleep back there. The other child slept on the front seat. We were small enough that it worked.

The lake was so pretty in the mornings. We woke up earlier than we ever could in town. The air was cool, the water was still, the birds would sing. And we'd have to go find a tree somewhere. Because you know, park fees pay for facilities, and the freedom to move around the lake freely came without toilets. Name the one thing I hate about camping!

Daddy would rekindle the campfire from the night before, and brew coffee using an old tin percolator coffeepot and water from the lake. All of the silt sunk to the bottom of the lake overnight, leaving clean water on the top, he explained. We never really were convinced. Luckily I still believed coffee would stunt my growth.

Hours upon hours were spent floating on the lake, drinking Cokes and eating Pecan Sandies. JoEtta would try to get more freckles, she said. Rhonda and I splashed, swam and shrieked when fish bit our legs. Daddy's back was our diving board. We did fantastic somersaults using his hands as a springboard. Sometimes he just threw us, and that worked really well, too.

If we weren't swimming, we were fishing. I learned to bait my own hook. I learned that fishes respond to "Here, fishy, fishy, fishy!" and will promptly swallow my hook. To this day though, I need a strapping savior to take that fish off my hook. I've been finned enough! 

If we weren't swimming or fishing, we were walking through the woods. We had the best times hiking little known trails, although we probably complained that we'd rather be swimming. We'd see neat rock formations, foundations from old houses, all kinds of things. There were some scary moments, too. Snakes also like to hike little known trails. And then they raise their little heads and pretend to be sticks that your sister and dad breeze right past. Or run across little girls' paths trying to get to the water, causing little girls to scream and dance and yell "Daddy! Snake! Heeellllp!"

I always had a book, too, so if we weren't doing any of that, I was on the beach happily lost in a fantasy world.

*Sigh.* I asked Catie what on earth she thought she would do all day if I took her camping. Did she say "Please don't take me camping?" Is that what she said? I think it sounded something like that.

Perhaps it's time I teach my children to enjoy being alone and quiet for a minute.

Earworms

One line from a Tanya Tucker song has been running through my head since yesterday morning.

Without you, what do I do with me?

Okay, two. The other is "What do I do with all of our plans, and how do I spend all this time on my hands?"

I'd forgotten I really like that song. Until I just YouTubed it, I hadn't heard it in years.

It's not because I miss the job or wish things were different. It's just that the days suddenly seem interminable. I can only read so much and watch so much TV. And it's only Tuesday! (Incidentally, I have discovered I love Rizzoli & Isles. Thank you, Comcast, for having multiple episodes on OnDemand.)

Luckily, I do have plans for tomorrow and Thursday. And Friday evening, for that matter. Plans are good. I like plans.

Anywho. I was making my bed and those lyrics ran through my head one more time. I needed to share them. Carry on!