Food and Prayer

My dinner was a flop tonight. It wasn't intentional...it just happened. I made the minute rice as usual and when dinner was ready I took it off the stove and removed the lid. When I took a test bite I realized that I had accidentally used the regular rice and not the cheater rice I'm accustomed to. I quickly resorted to microwaving (to me microwaves are for reheating, not cooking) the instant rice. I pulled it out of the microwave and it wasn't done. I was incredibly frustrated! I set it aside and decided to deal with it later.

When I started cleaning up (an hour later) I saw that somehow the steam that was trapped in the bowl for that hour had cooked my rice. Now what? I couldn't be so wasteful as to throw it out now. I made Will a plate for lunch and decided on making atole de arroz.

The Finished Atole de Arroz w/ cinnamon sticks

Atole de arroz is basically like a rice pudding. Growing up, my maternal grandmother, Ama, knew how much I loved it. She took care of me often until we moved 2 hours from her when I was eight years old. Even then, we would visit almost every weekend to help my mom cope with her, very difficult, home-sickness. Ama would have it waiting for me when we arrived at 9 or 10pm.

My mom, Ama, me and my sister (1999)

How I treasure those precious memories. She would wake up at dawn to prepare for my grandfather's day (and hers) and then here we came, our family of six. She would ALWAYS have something for us to snack on when we arrived. Sometimes it was a full dinner, even if it was 10 o'clock at night.

Since Ama has passed on my mom has made it for me and my Tias have been readily available with their version. One of my Tias even made it for me while she was visiting for the day.

It wasn't  until I started making it for the first time did I realize what a labor of love all these women put into making this wonderful snack for me. It was an emotional moment for me. I just thought about all of them and the prayers followed. I am beyond blessed with amazing women in my family and am grateful for all of them. The ones I see often and those I should do better about seeing more often!

I'm grateful for women who put those they love at the heart of what they do and why they do it! 

Some of my cousins and my maternal Tias

My Daughter

November 11, 2000. The day my precious daughter entered the world.

The first thing I remember about her entrance was what a large mouth she had. Yes, she was tiny, but her mouth...my goodness.

What I didn't know was that 11 years later she would still struggle to be quiet. I know, I was a tween girl once too, but she is always talking-and laughing. Mostly laughing. She brings life to our home in a way I could never imagine.

I'm not a great writer. I leave that to my husband. So here is his take on 11/11/11. It brought me to tears in such a good way.

"Eleven years ago today, my baby girl entered this beautiful, crazy world. The first thing I remember about her was the shape of her mouth, which reminded me of her mother's, and the loud cry she let out. She came at a time in our lives when we needed stability, closure, and a new beginning. She was and is a wonderful gift from God, and I love that little girl more than my own life."

Which brings me to 11/11/11. Savannah and I came up with the idea to have a "Crazy in Neon" Party. We made out black invitations with neon ink and encouraged those who could attend, to dress in neon or white clothes.

With the help of some wonderful friends and some great, after-halloween sales, we taped the garage in black garbage bags and splattered neon paint all over them. We sprayed the ceiling with glow-in-the-dark paint added a few black lights in the garage, shut off the lights and prepared for the onslaught of tween girls. Here's Will's take on this evening:

Since she was born on 11/11/00, we knew the day was coming in eleven years when we'd celebrate her 11th birthday on 11/11/11. We always said we'd throw a big party, and now that day is here. There are at least 15 kids in my house, little girls dancing around and laughing, a few of us boys are having a Nerf gun war and causing havoc, and it's a great day. Sorry Disneyland, but HOME is the happiest place on earth. Happy Birthday, baby girl. Your Papi loves you."  And so does your Mommy!

Life Support by Robert Whitlow

Another Booksneeze review underway!  I am so grateful for this wonderful program where I get to read books that I would otherwise pass over because I only budgeted for one book purchase that day.

Life Support is the first in the Santee series. Santee for the town it's based in. It follows newly married Baxter and Rena Richardson. Baxter a child of a wealthy businessman and successor to the family fortune and his troubled wife with a troubled past.
It then takes us to a law firm in Santee and the young attorney, Alexia Lindale, who is on track on becoming the firm's first female partner.

The story collides when Baxter Richardson finds himself in a coma and his wife has to deal with an onslaught of emotion and practical issues that brings to her. The Richardson family is represented by the firm Alexia works for and Alexia quickly finds herself representing Rena Richardson to end Life Support of her husband Baxter.

This author is new to me and it took some getting use to but I certainly have grown attached. I'm not sure I liked the way the story jumped around from story to story. Because I read as time allows, I would pick up where I left off and forget what book I was reading. I had to start over a couple of times. It could just be me...However, once I got into the characters I was following right along.

The twists and turns were everywhere. Just when I thought I knew exactly where Whitlow was taking the story, he shocks me..again and again! The suspense collides with the spiritual in a rather forceful way but by that point I'm so vested that I hardly noticed.

It was a great read and if you decide to try it (which I recommend...be sure you have Book 2 close by...you'll thank me.)

My Baby isn't a Baby

My last baby lost his first tooth today. Maybe he lost it last night. The reason for the confusion is that we didn't notice it was lost until 9:15a.m, two hours after we woke up.

While combing Xavier's hair he smiled in the mirror and I said, "Hey, your tooth!" He threw his arms in the air and screamed, "Ah! My tooth!!" I said, "Wait, where is it?" He screamed again and ran out of my room screaming excitedly, "My tooth, my tooth, where is it?"

Honestly, I thought there was no way we'd see it again. I mean when and where did it get lost? He'd already had eggs, bacon and pancakes. I figured he swallowed it.

I suggested we crawl on our hands and knees from his room to my room as a place to start. Then I realized that he had come to my bed in the wee hours of the morning. Will thought he probably knocked it out in his sleep. I told them to start looking in the bed.

Isaac, our nine year old seeing his opportunity to help runs to the bed and starts throwing the pillows everywhere and voila'!! The tooth was there, just waiting to be found!!

Xzavier has been nervous for weeks thinking through how his tooth would fall out, wondering if it was going to hurt or bleed. Now he's so proud. He's looking forward to when his next one falls out.

As his mom, I'm proud too. But I keep thinking, how did we get here? Wasn't it just last week when I was juggling a newborn, two toddlers and a kindergartner?

Confession Time!

I have a confession to make it. My pride hit me square in the nose today and it did not feel good!! I'm just going to lay it out there, is that okay with you? Since this is a post on pride, I might as well go all or nothing.

I have been the same weight now for 5 years. It's not fluctuated since I gave birth to my last child, five years ago. I say that to make the point that I have had 5 years to get rid of the extra weight that is not healthy for me.

For months I have been reading posts by people I love telling about their trials and successes or failures and all the while my pride kicks into overdrive.

"I'm happy sitting here enjoying my coffee and snack. Why would I want to go through all that hassle. I don't feel like spending my money on diets, gyms, programs, etc. I walk, I'm active, I don't need to exercise." Whatever!

Okay, so why am I telling you all this? I'm glad you asked.

A friend of mine invited me to a cardio-kickboxing class. I laughed when I read the text. We went back and forth and while I really really wanted to say no, I didn't.

I started out okay. I watched a couple of people and tried to keep pace with them. First dumb mistake, it was clearly not their first time. After 3 minutes, (yes, 3 minutes) I thought I was going to have a heart attack. After 5 minutes I had to take a 5 minute break. I was so ashamed. Not because I couldn't keep up but that I couldn't keep up after only 5 minutes.

All the stupid thoughts came back to me and I realized that through my pride the only person that was suffering was me and my health.


Proverbs 11:1-2 "The Lord detest dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with Him. 2. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." 


The classic verse on pride...Proverbs 16:18 "Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall." 


I was most definitely humbled last night's work out. Wisdom I hope will come with that humiliation. 


I found this blog very encouraging!! The Truth About Regular Exercisers

"Baby" Sin

I love simple life illustrations that can cause us to check our spiritual selves.

Today I recorded a short thank you liner to a Business Impact Partner the station I work at, KAMB. I went into studio C and sat in front of the mic and hit record on our Sound Forge program. I read my script and went back to my desk. I asked our Production Coordinator and IT guy to come and constructively critique my liner. We laughed at the fact that it had been very rare that a woman had asked for his criticism.

He played it, then played it again. "This can't be good," I thought.

Then he asked me to say, "support."
I said, "suppordt."
"Support" he said, enunciating the "T" at the end. I was clearly leaving that "t" off my pronunciation.

I don't think people understand the difficulty of radio and speaking publicly. Trust me. It's more than talking into a mic.

We laughed about it and I went back in to re-record.

This little episode got me thinking about life and the "small" or "baby" sins in our life. Things we do over and over and probably don't even realize it's wrong until someone points it out to us. News flash! There is no "small or baby" sin, at least in the sense that all sin is disobedience.

Let us always be aware and accountable. 

Women of Faith 2011, Sacramento

I'm going to Women of Faith!!! Thanks to my blogging and BookSneeze I am taking a friend to Sacramento.
I haven't been to a Women of Faith Conference since my oldest child, now 10, was a baby. I remember what she dress she wore and what color her bow was, and I remember Chondra Pierce. That it. That's all I remember.
This time I'm all in. Nothing will get in the way of my focus on what or how God will speak to me through the various speakers and musicians.
Speaking of the line up; I'm just getting into the music of Mandisa. Scandelous, I know...in my defence I wasn't an "Idol" fan until season 7, so I'm really excited about watching her sing; Also excited about seeing Andy Andrews. I've recently read a couple of his books and anticipating the others I haven't read yet. (See my review of The Final Summit on my blog)

I attend a small church but I think even 3 or four of us together could be life changing. When I'm done here I'll head over to my Facebook and see if there's any one else who want to have an "Over the Top" weekend!!