Bake your fears away

 

I never thought there would be a time in my life when I stayed awake at night, listening to another human being breathing. Maternal Instinct; an innate knowledge of how to take care of a child without having prior experience or teaching. They say most of the thoughts you think on a daily basis are things that will never happen. It's just dreaming of the Worst case Scenario.

On the outside, I am a very relaxed Mom. My kids eat things off the floor, They lick the shopping cart at the grocery store (gross, I know), and they have no qualm about sharing germs. On the inside, I've been in Panic Mode since Day 1. Will they stop breathing when they are sleeping or how many falls can they take til it actually hurts.

I've looked a lot of these fears straight in the face.

A few months ago heading home from vacation we were in a 3-car accident. My maternal instinct told me to go give the Driver who caused the accident a piece of my mind and to rip Liam out of his car seat just to hold him. Both bad ideas. This woman hit two cars filled to the brim with kids and their parents. I bawled the entire way home thinking of the What-Ifs. I didn't want to drive ever again. I rotated leaving one or both of my kids at a sitters if I had to run errands. My instinct told me to protect my kids, even if it meant living my life in fear. I fear that Leah's CF will take her. I fear that people will make fun of my kids differences. So in the face of a Hurricane last night, in between Liam's 20 minute naps he calls sleeping, I listened to him breathing. Here I was worried about Flooding, and Power outages, or if we will have heat and he's probably wondering what he'll have for breakfast. So today I'm baking. Some people think while in the shower, I ponder life over a bowl of cookie dough. I will bake my fears away and simply enjoy the look on my kids faces when they know I've made cookies.

....And if anyone is wondering how our weekend went, it was great.

 

(Liam ready to go to Pap and Gram's)

 

Friday Night was date night. As promised I got something new at the restaurant. Bill and I always end up at the Local BBQ place and I always get the Pulled Pork. Now because it's a BBQ place there weren't tons of new things to try, but I got the ribs. The only thing I've ever had to compare it to were the ribs they gave us in our High School Cafeteria. Needless to say these were much better. After that we went to see Taken 2. Poor Bill said jokingly one time, " If I would have known you talk during movies, I probably wouldn't have married you". After 30 seconds of the movie and I had already asked 3 questions, I knew I was bad.

BUT the real fun came on Saturday; Conquering 3 new meals/appetizers and countless new techniques.

The Red Lobster Biscuits were so delicious and So easy!
I don't know why I've never tried something like this before!

 

This is my Roasted Potatoes and Asparagus. I have never had Asparagus, let alone tried to cook it. So simple and it was delicious. There are tiny pieces of Garlic mixed in as well. I usually just skip right for the garlic salt if I want Garlic, but crushing a bulb and cutting the cloves was totally worth the freshness.

And Finally my Jalapeno Popper Chicken. This was beyone Amazing! I have been seriously missing out on how great food can be. I butterflied the chicken and stuffed it with cream cheese????? and Jalapenos. Never would have thought cream cheese and chicken went together. I had enough Jalapenos to put some on top. Can't wait to make all of these again, and I'm sure Bill can't either!