Chicken Mojo and Kid Friendly Veggies

Every week we meal plan. It's for our sanity. To make a family run smoothly, something has got to give---and we gave up spontaneity! But, our meals are delicious, so it's not much of a sacrifice. We cook everything on the weekends in double batches. Sure it takes time on Sunday, but we don't have to cook anything during the week.

This week, our highlights were...

Mojo Chicken Avocado Cups from Rachael Bryant from Meatified. Think mango, avocado, lime juice, cilantro, and chicken walking into a disco and doing the electric slide on your plate. Amazing. And the kids liked it enough. They like all of the ingredients on their own, but in this plate, they didn't love it as much as I expected. Maybe they were having an off day--they didn't even eat all of the mango! Perhaps it was all of the cilantro.

Mac and cheese with....wait for it...beef and veggies. There is no official recipe for this. We have made it so much, it just comes natural. Maybe we like macaroni and cheese too much! We start by browning some beef. I prefer beefalo; it has more flavor in my opinion.Then we grab some veggies from the fridge or freezer, cut, and cook. We pick kid friendly veggies like carrots, peas, tomatoes, cauliflower, and potatoes. In a large pot we cook a whole bag of gluten free noodles...it does have to make 2 meals for the week...if it makes it that far. When the noodles are done, I put them in the strainer in the sink (bonus points if you don't have to take dirty dishes out the sink to put the strainer in it). In the now empty pot, we make the cheese sauce with almond milk, gluten free flour of choice, cheese, salt, and some other spices depending on our mood. We add the beef, vegetables, and noodles with the sauce, stir, and consume.

My life---The Stove

Do you ever think you can’t do it all? Maybe having children is what pushed me over the edge…or perhaps it happens when you get sick or have a full time job. I feel the overwhelming weight of life’s responsibilities on my shoulders looming over me every day. And I just have to walk away from it. Sometimes I take out a box, put the looming cloud inside, and throw the box out. This balancing act of person, parent, working-mom, housekeeper, wife, daughter, sister, friend...it is hard. And the GUILT when the juggling fails, or the guilt when the people around you finally call you out on it! It’s too much.  

I once read something by David Sedaris about a four burner stove that struck a cord with me: 

Pat was driving, and as we passed the turnoff for a shopping center she invited us to picture a four-burner stove. 

“Gas or electric?” Hugh asked, and she said that it didn’t matter. 

This was not a real stove but a symbolic one, used to prove a point at a management seminar she’d once attended. “One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work.” The gist, she said, was that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two.

From Laugh,Kookaburra, The New Yorker, August 24, 2009

Since I read this, I have this image of me looking down at a stove that is my life. On each burner is a pot filled with the various things I am trying to manage. Which burners am I turning on today and which ones am I turning off? And the greater question of life: What do I truly want to be successful at? 

Today, this week, this year, I am turning off my garden. I am turning off my idea of a perfectly clean and organized house or a professional groomed yard. And we are definitely not moving or having another child anytime soon. 

With much guilt, I know I have turned off my friends. I don’t call, I don’t see them. I ‘like’ facebook pictures and text occasionally. {guilt, guilt, guilt} 

My work burner is definitely on. It takes work to work, but it isn’t challenging in a mental or physical way. It just sucks up time. Precious, fleeting, never enough, time. 

My family pot is boiling over due to the amount of attention and energy that goes into raising a 1 and 2 year old. It is wonderful, hectic, fulfilling, stressful, and life-changing every.single.day. 

My health burner has been warming up since this past fall. Trying different diets, experimenting with recipes, seeing specialists, resting, taking medications…getting healthy, that is where my energy has been focused. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but I keep trying.

But, I KNOW I need to make my life more balanced while continuing to focus on my family and improve my health. I have decided to do that by creating easy, yearlong goals to help me identify and create a balanced life…baby steps. I am going to start with just three. 

My goals to ignite some heat in my life: 

1. Everyone loves their birthday, and everyone deserves to be remembered on their birthday. Goal: remember birthdays of my extended family and close friends…send a card, give a gift, or go out of your way to connect
2.  My husband does so much and I recognize maybe 1 out of the 50 things he does for me and our children. Goal: do one thing a month that is just for my husband…go on a date planned for him, give him a small thoughtful gift, thank him sincerely 
3. I need to nurture my adult, human side. I need friends…we all need friends! Goal: once a month, make time to see a friend in real life and do something fun with or without the children (I might need more friends.)

Do making these goals make my life better? No way. 

Can achieving these goals help achieve success? I am not sure. It might make things more stressful.

Will they help me find more balance in my life? Yes, the reminders and forced focus on life outside of work, children, and my health will encourage me to live more deeply. 

Does this stove analogy resonate with you? What do you take away from it?