Work

We recently had some changes take place at work. We added a provider to the practice.
I told one of my friends that I was actually looking forward to the challenge that this would provide.
I would learn new things and it would be fun!
I take it back.
That is all.

cooking...

The first part of this post is an excerpt of an email I sent my kids today:

For some reason we decided we needed to do some dutch oven cooking today. Frank originally wanted to do the whole charcoal briquettes/cooking outdoors thing but in the end (what with the weather and all. And the fact that I was like "no way!") we are just using the oven.  I bought ingredients for beef bourguignon -for some crazy reason- and I made some dutch oven bread. The bread is rising now and will go into the dutch oven in about an hour so if it turns out, I’ll send a picture!

Beef Bourguignon is sort of like a beef stew with a red wine sauce. I love a good wine sauce so I even ventured to the liquor store for the actual type of wine that the recipe called for.  I know nothing about wine, obviously, but found a bottle that had the same name listed in the recipe-- and it was even on sale! (4.99 so I’m assuming it’s not a stellar bottle of wine that I bought) ha!

Then today as I was putting the recipe together I realized that I do not own a corkscrew to open this bottle!  I was thinking that maybe Frank had some sort of multi-tool contraption that maybe would have one but even after searching the garage I couldn’t find one. He wasn't home so I just had to figure it out on my own...

I turned to google of course. There were a few options there so I tried the first one listed which was to basically stick a serrated knife into the cork and twist.  This felt like it might work at first but then it started to shred the cork, which seemed like a bad outcome. 

The second option was to push the cork into the bottle. Which, in hindsight, I should have just done first before the cork got all shredded. But I was feeling desperate so I gave it a shove with the end of a spoon. It did go into the bottle but the wine also shot up and out with a fair amount of force.  I might have drops of red wine on my kitchen ceiling now…I definitely had it on my face, arms, hands, countertop and floor.
(A day later I discovered the front of one of my cabinets covered in wine. It wasn't anywhere near where I was working so I didn't think to look there for damage. Oh boy...I might still find a few surprises I'm thinking)

Right after this happened I realized I was about to be late for a meeting at church so I quickly rinsed off and ran out the door. As I sat in the chair at church I definitely got a whiff of wine coming off of me. Hopefully no one noticed! hahaha

In any event, I got the wine out of the bottle and into my stew. I did have to pour it through some cheese cloth though since I didn’t want cork pieces in my stew. 

Cooking is always an adventure when I am involved. 

The stew has about an hour left at this point and it smells divine. Hopefully it tastes as good as it smells.

It was so tasty!

_____

I also made dutch oven bread. It's a no knead bread and it rises for 18-24 hours. It turned out beautiful and tastes amazing. I might have to make it all the time!

_____

I was out running errands and stopped at a little boutique near my house. I saw these amazing looking cookies by the checkout and found out they were chocolate chip coconut cookies! Why didn't I ever think of that combo? Anyway I bought them for a dessert surprise. But I ended up being the one surprised when they had pecans in them!  I was so sad! So Frank got to eat two cookies for dessert while I sulked.

I felt deprived for like two days afterwards until I just up and made some myself!  They are quite tasty.

Addiction

I'm including a video here that most people have probably seen. It talks about Millenials in the work place and I think he has a lot of valid points (though I hate to think that I was a bad parent since all my kids fall into the "millennial" category and therefore I fall into the bad parent of millennials category).  But when he talks about the effects of social media and the constant access to phones, I feel that it isn't just the young people he's talking about. I see a lot of that in myself as well. I think, perhaps, I am addicted to my phone.  I have trouble putting it away. I look at it more than I should and even when there is NOTHING to see, I just keep scrolling scrolling scrolling.
Frank and I don't really look at our phones when we go out to eat unless we are discussing plans and need to look at maps or google something so we are doing ok there.  I think I try to be intentional with my phone in public or at work.  But there are still LOTS of times when I am acting like an addict.

I've been pondering this whole blog situation and why I don't feel drawn to write like I used to. Why don't ideas pop into my head like they did in the past?  And I think some of it has to do with the fact that I am always being inundated with information...news, facebook, instagram, audio books, blogs etc etc etc!  I almost always have something playing when I'm working around the house or cooking or driving.  I don't think that was the case in the past. I used to have quiet time more than I do now.

We encourage our young people to make sure to have quiet moments so that they can feel God's spirit in their lives.  And I haven't been heeding that advice.  I'm missing not only God's spirit but also just my old creative self.

And so, I am reevaluating my relationship with my phone today.  Also my obsession with the news.  I know it is not healthy for me.

I can't decide if it is ok for me to go to work without my phone at all. I know we used to survive without a phone all the time, but if I get a text that is important and don't see it until after work, that seems bad. But, again, what is "important" in this scenario.  We are all so used to instant responses!

For now, I think I will use the screen time app to limit my phone use and see how that goes.
Wish me luck because I might be twitchy for a few days...