Comfort Food

I love soup.
Soup is a comfort food for me. Creamed Pea and Potato Soup, in particular.
It brings back so many memories of my childhood. I remember my grandma Florence making it for me. It brings me back to my grandma and grandpa Wilcox's garden. I loved going there and picking peas and strawberries. This was one soup I could make all by myself. I would pick peas and patiently shell them so I could make my own bowl of soup. I remember getting sick at my dad's house and throwing up all over the bathroom. He insisted cleaning it up. I could hear him throwing up from the other room. When someone offers to clean up after you even though it makes them sick too, you know they love you. Anyway, I just love this soup and we had it last night for dinner. It is comfort food for me. I never quite make it the same every time but I thought that I'd share my basic recipe with you. If you are like Matt, don't forget to spice it up afterward with lots of cayenne pepper. Some days my heartburn and I am just jealous of his eating habits.

Creamy Pea and Potato Soup


Boil your potatoes in enough water and a bouillon cube (I like the boxed chicken broth) to cover them until they are tender but not mushy. If I add in onions I cook them at this time too. If I have celery I like to dice up the leafy tops (they have the best flavor in soups) and add that in there too. After your potatoes are soft, add in your frozen (or fresh if your lucky) peas. I like lots of peas! Then I add in some milk, or cream, or condensed milk, depending on what I have. Not too much, just some. Then I thicken it with a little cornstarch (or flour) and water. You can add what ever spices you want. I always add in a little garlic and lots of parsley because I like parsley. I also will add in celery salt sometimes if I didn't cook any celery in it.

I like how versatile and forgiving it is. It is always good however you choose to make it.
Mostly, I love that it brings me back to my childhood.

The Plan

Kassidee and Mikelle love their dry erase boards. Kass was busy writing something on hers last night. I didn't really pay too much attention to it until this morning. It said tomorrow's plan and then listed what she wanted to get accomplished. Having a plan is very important to Kassidee. She is not a spur of the moment kinda girl and she doesn't like being rushed or forced to do anything. It makes it extremely difficult when we have a time limit or somewhere we need to be and especially if it isn't something she figures was in her plan. In fact it can be quite dramatic and involve a lot of kicking and screaming. (You can be rest assured though that I am trying to learn to behave myself. ha ha ha) I am not much of a planner. I am a more of a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal. If I was a better planner then I wouldn't have taken my desk that I'm refinishing outside to work on. Instead I would have looked at the weather and seen that there is a chance of rain. Maybe if I would have looked at the weather I could have planned better. There are of course some things that we just can't plan for. Most of them are hard life lessons and some of them are happy tender moments. All of them are good in their own way. Some times in the hard life lesson ones we lose focus and forget that it really is part of the plan, maybe not what we planned or intended but it is what our Heavenly Father intended. He is a loving and kind Heavenly Father and he didn't just send us here without a plan. I know that there are times when I'm just not sure if I can handle what is going on. I wonder if I am good enough. Am I a good enough parent? Am I teaching them all that I need to? Am I smothering or mothering?Am I a good wife to my husband? Am I helping him be successful in everything that I need to? Am I emotionally, mentally available to my family? Do I pay enough attention to them? Do I get too caught up in my own selfish desires? Then I remember. I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and there is great divinity in my role as a mother and a wife. Yes, my daughter is crazy emotional at the moment but she is MY daughter. I have been trusted with her in my care. It is part of the plan. She chose me and I chose her. If my Heavenly Father believes in me, why don't I believe in myself? Some weeks we may be barely scraping by, but then I remember how blessed we really are. Even when we are kind of tight some how we are always able to make it. We are always taken care of and have always had sufficient for our needs. Sometimes we just need to remember that there is already a plan in place and we just need to trust in it, believe in it, work for it. Today was one of those days when I was just worried about how things were going to turn out, but then was reminded by a simple plan that a 7 year old little girl wrote on a dry erase board. There is a bigger plan in place, but for the moment we just need to take each day one at a time and have faith that it will out work out okay.

Slacker

Yeah, I know I have been a slacker lately on blogging. I just haven't felt like it. It's not that I haven't had time or that there isn't anything exciting to blog about. I just have been feeling kinda lazy in that area. Mostly I just hate taking the pictures off from the camera. I know, lazy! You can be rest assured that we have been very busy lately and I will post some pics of our fun soon. I haven't been that great at taking pictures either but I will post what I have. I usually keep a camera in the diaper bag but it seems that when I want to take pictures the most, I seem to forget the camera. Example: ice skating for Mikelle's birthday party. Oops! I have also been busy on a few projects too and I didn't even take before pics or even any pics at all before I gave them away. Quick update: We are doing great! Having fun! Enjoyed lots of great company and friends. Enjoying good weather at the moment. Learning new things. Growing up (sometimes it's hard, emotionally crazy and sometimes painful.) Mikelle turned 10! Dacia (that's me, but you know that right?) turned 30! Lately Kass has found her niche in the family as the golden child and likes it. Logan is starting to talk and sometimes surprises us with phrases. Example: he heard the roadrunner on tv and said," Beep beep. Dat's funny. Beep beep. Dat's funny." He loves his sea animals that he plays with in the bathtub and if you ask him to show you certain ones he can find them. He knows the Orca, shark, dolphin, sea star / star fish, octopus, lobster, seal, walrus, beluga whale, narwhale, hammerhead shark, and the sea horses if asked. He even knows some of the colors. Of course you have to ask him to show you, he won't say the word. He also will only do it when he feels like it. Mikelle is really growing up. She recently told me that kids her age do not play, they hang out. She has been somewhat emotional lately and I can just tell you that I am not ready for a teenager yet. Holy Moley! Matt is doing well for his age. ha ha ha Actually I was going to say that he is doing well in his calling and also at work. I know that he is worn out and tired and worried that he's not doing enough, but I think he is amazing. Me? I'm doing well too or should I say I'm doing well for MY age? Thank you for wondering. I'm flattered. Well, that pretty much sums it all up. We are putting in our garden so I'll take a few pics when we get a little more completed. I'm refinishing a desk right. Wish I could have shown you before pic. I had a really hard time getting the sharpie off of it! Eek! Sharpies are banned from our home from now on. Well, maybe not but I need a better hiding spot. Stay tuned for more posts coming soon...... hopefully...... and hopefully with pictures.