Not Your Mama's Chicken Salad

To be fair I suppose I have no idea what kind of chicken salad your mama makes. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even tell you what kind of chicken salad my own mama makes! But I am going to go ahead and assume (and yes, I do know what they say about people who assume thank you very much) that since I threw this together out of the randomness of what had in my kitchen and have never actually had this particular mix of salad, your mama probably wasn't serving this to you on a regular basis.

Enough mama talk, let's get around to making this salad shall we? I am going to give you the gist of what I did since I was just winging this and not measuring as I went. If you are someone who needs exact step by step instructions, this probably isn't the post for you. But don't be afraid to go crazy and give this a try nonetheless. I am sharing a lunch that turned out good for me simply as an inspiration, I promise you can make it work too!

You are going to need:
- Shredded chicken (I always buy chicken on sale and throw it in the crockpot at the beginning of the week so that I can have shredded chicken on hand - so many uses! For this salad I probably used about 2 cups)
- Mayonnaise and sour cream - probably 2 parts mayo to 1 part sour cream, make it as creamy or as dry as you like it
- 1/4 cup chopped red pepper
- 2 Tbsp each of pepitas and sunflower seeds
- Sea salt, freshly ground pepper, garlic powder and roasted red pepper flakes - season to your hearts desire
- A vehicle for your salad - I made tortillas (this recipe from The Happy Housewife is the one I used), you could use pitas, bagels, bread, lettuce....you get the idea.

Throw the above mentioned ingredients into a bowl and stir.

Lay out your vehicle of choice.

Spread some chicken salad on along with anything else you want with it (we put some shredded cheese on top, lettuce would have been good too if I would have had some on hand).

That's good stuff!

Motherhood is a curse

Yup, you read that right. I said motherhood is a curse. Shocked? Did you expect that sentence to end on a more positive note - like say, with a word like blessing? If you know me, you know that I believe that. That motherhood is a blessing. It is an amazing gift and one I am fortunate to have experienced 5 times over. And having experienced it I can also confidently say that my first statement is also accurate. Motherhood IS a curse. It also causes you to curse..but I digress.

I can give you some pretty solid reasons why I think this to be true but let's just go straight to the source. Genesis 3:16 says, "To the woman he said,"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.Your desire will be for your husband,and he will rule over you." God told us that our curse for disobeying Him by eating from the tree of knowledge would be pain during childbirth. And what is a result of childbirth? Children. And motherhood. While all great sources of joy they can also be great sources of pain. And the kicker is that God designed it that way. At first it's enough to make you shake your fist toward the heavens but when you stop and spend some time looking into it more, it makes sense and I am quickly reminded why God is God and I am not.

Let's look at a man's part of this curse - he is cursed with laboring the land. What was once supposed to be a haven, a place for man to rest and be fulfilled became a constant source of turmoil and back breaking work after Adam disobeyed God. They must work to eat, work to live, work to provide for their families. Men are to faithfully and obediently serve God through their work. In that same way, we as mothers are afflicted by bearing children. The misery of pregnancy, the threat of miscarriage, the agony of birth and all of the tribulations of child rearing. It's enough to make you wonder why we bother! We bother because it is one way to faithfully and obediently serve God.

I don't know about the rest of you but I know I have learned so much since having my children. It revealed things to me I couldn't have seen without first becoming a mother. It has given me so much insight on my own parents. My relationship with my kids has also given me a glimpse of who God is and how He feels about us. It made me look harder at myself and taught me so much about what I want in this life and what is truly important. It also points a big fat blinking light-up sign at all my insecurities and weaknesses. I have never felt so incompetent in my life! But through that weakness and insecurity I have been forced to lean not on my own understanding but to instead trust God in everything. To let Him come through for my children where I cannot. It's not easy (hence the pain part of it all!) to realize I am not ultimately in control, and that I don't have all the answers, that they aren't even mine to try to control in the first place.

It is hard work. I would say harder than laboring the land, but these kinds of discussions can start World War 3 (at least in our house) so I will keep from comparing the two. It requires dying to self in so many ways. Truly a curse! But within that curse is the opportunity for so much blessing. When we choose to live out motherhood in a way that glorifies God we not only receive His blessings in our own lives, but we have the opportunity to spill that over into our kids' lives as well. What an awesome responsibility! One that can easily become a chore if I don't remind myself of what it's really all about. Lately I have needed that reminder which is why I think God planted the seed for this post. Maybe someone reading this needed that reminder too. I think that one of the devil's greatest tools is isolation. He makes us feel as if we are the only one struggling in this particular way and this can leave you feeling lonely, ashamed, and unworthy. What a lie! If this is speaking to you, know that you aren't alone and that it isn't all for waste. There is a purpose in what you do and it is not supposed to be easy on our own. I encourage you to form relationships with other moms where you can be encouraged and supported on your journey. I also encourage you to give the burden over to God and let him carry it for you. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 11:29-30, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Motherhood is a curse but it is also a huge blessing and my prayer is that you can see the blessing in it today.

They're here!



A little over 2 weeks ago we celebrated the birth of our twins. On July 9th I got up bright and early for my scheduled C-section (Samuel was breech the ENTIRE pregnancy, little stinker). I was nervous having only experienced vaginal deliveries before but it all went quickly and smoothly and at 8:13am Samuel Craig came into the world weighing 7lb 5oz, followed immediately by Amelia Joyce at 8:14 weighing 6lb 13oz. You read that right folks - about 14 pounds of baby in all. And that was at 37 weeks, imagine if I had gone longer! Such an answered prayer to have them come into the world healthy. They went to the nursery initially as is protocol for all C-section babies but joined me shortly in recovery and were with us the rest of our stay in the hospital. They were actually ready to be released before I was! Let's get on to the good stuff - pictures of my adorable babies.

My last pregnant picture, I think the day before delivery at 36w6d -

Here are some pictures from that first day:



And a few of my favorites since then:

We are just overflowing with new baby love (times two!) and getting used to being a family of 7. Looking forward to watching them grow but so trying to cherish this sweet time that I am sure will fly by. Lack of sleep and all!

End of School and Orange Themed Teacher Gift

I can't believe another school year has gone by! 9 months ago Nathan was excitedly getting ready for 1st grade - remember this picture?

And now here he is on his last day....he's grown so much!



His thoughts on his last day of school:

Of course he wouldn't have so many great things to say about first grade if he wouldn't have had a wonderful teacher. And a wonderful teacher deserves a special gift for getting us to this point! Last year I used some subway art to make a teacher appreciation gift for his Kindergarten teacher {you can check that out HERE if you are interested}. I have spent the year pinning all kinds of fun gift ideas for this year's teacher gift and finally settled on one when I saw this adorable Orange You Glad It's Almost Summer Gift Basket from Shaken Together. I just thought it was super cute and loved how bright and cheery it was.  I decided to check out the Dollar Store for my supplies and found plenty of fun orange themed stuff. Altogether, less than $10 spent (including the white tub to which I hot glued some orange ribbon). The tag is part of a free printable pdf, from Shaken Together, where you can also find some more fruit inspired tags for future appreciation gifts. I love how it turned out! What do you think?

kitchen towel, flowers, reese's, orange flavored water, an orange shaped popscicle, fan, tumbler, and citrus juicer

Can't wait to see what Second Grade will bring!

Baby Shower for the Twins

Don't you just LOVE baby showers? I could look at teeny-tiny baby stuff all day long -when you add in a group of friends and double the baby stuff, I am in heaven! This past weekend some of the ladies I work with in ministry came together to celebrate our sweet twins. I wanted to share some of the fun we had with all of you.

First of all, how much do you love these diaper cakes? My sister-in-law made them and I just love that they have the babies first and middle names with meanings as well as scriptures poking out of them. She made these out of size 1 diapers so that we could have them around for awhile to look at. So adorable!

My SIL also made these cute little cupcake toppers - mustaches for the little man and lips for the little lady:



I brought along the onesies with bows and bowties from the gender reveal party and we hung those up with clothespins to make some cute banners:

We played some of the typical shower games but livened things up in the end with this relay race. After putting the ladies in teams of 3, one had to diaper the baby (the old-fashioned way with safety pins and everything) and then swaddle it, the second person had to put a balloon up her shirt and then put the baby in a stroller and race it around the outside of the house. Once inside the third person undid the swaddle and diaper and gave it back to the first person to do all over again. After the second time around, whoever has the baby undressed first wins. Lots of fun!

 What a great time of celebration and fun! It has me that much more excited about meeting Samuel and Amelia in a few short weeks.

Catching up.....it's twins!

I'm back!! It has been months since I last posted and I have been dying to get back to writing so I wanted to start by sharing a big reason for my absence. I am 29 weeks pregnant with boy/girl twins! While I have actually had a relatively uncomplicated pregnancy so far, it has taken a lot out of me and for a long time I wasn't doing anything blog worthy. And though I am now in my third trimester and slowing down more than ever, I wanted to at least make an effort to document part of this pregnancy and hopefully get back to sharing some of the stuff I love. So let's catch up a bit on the last 7 months.

Here's the first ultrasound from the day after Christmas when I found out it was twins. My husband wasn't with me so the sonographer left him a special message on the ultrasound. It was priceless handing this to him and watching his face as it all sunk in:

We had a gender reveal party which was such a fun way to share the news with close friends and family (and we got to trick them a little bit while doing it!):

The invitations

Bow and Bowtie Onesies for the Banner

What will they be???

Want to see the video of the reveal? Click HERE and make sure to watch until the end :)

We also did a fun Mad Gab to reveal the names to everyone. Want to take a guess for yourself? These are their first and middle names, just read the string of words aloud (I'll put the names at the bottom of the post so you can see if you were right):

Baby A: Say I'm Yule Car Ray Egg

Baby B: Aim Eel Haw Joy Sis

Here are the latest ultrasound pictures taken at 27 weeks. They are getting so big!

Amelia with her feet at her head

Samuel looking right at us

And here is what I am looking like at 29 weeks:

Well, that's the last 7 months in a nutshell. We are so excited for these two blessings who will complete our family. Nathan, Jordan, and Isaiah daily talk about and to their new brother and sister and are ecstatic to meet them. As everyone likes to remind me, we are going to have our hands full and while to some that seems like a burden, I am truly grateful and wouldn't have it any other way :)

Answer to the Mad Gabs:
Baby A is named Samuel Craig
Baby B is named Amelia Joyce

Opportunity Drawing - Win Disney Tickets!

Awhile back I introduced you to the Gunderson family who are trying to bring two of their kids home from Ethiopia (you can read about them HERE if you missed it). They are still fiercely working to make that happen and it has been amazing to watch how God has brought together people from all over to step in and be a part of their journey. Through the month of February you have an awesome opportunity to not only help them bring their kids home, but possibly win tickets to Disneyland in the process. I'll let Jessie share all the details with you, just head over to her post Help Orphans and Win Disney Tickets to get more info.