My New Resume

In this economy it is a good idea to diversify your skill set as to appear more lucrative to companies, so I decided to update my resume.

Julia Ping
123 Main St.
(317) 222-2222

Professional Experience:

Professional Laundry Maid -- skilled in removing all types of stains and smells.  Can make your clothes look new again, or at least wearable.

Professional Housekeeper -- skilled at tossing toys long distances into proper receptacle and scraping unknown particles from tile floors.

Professional Reader -- skilled at making any children's book exciting

Professional Nurse -- (no nursing degree) skilled at applying Elmo band-aids to any real or imagined hurt.

Professional Insomniac -- I can stay up all night if needed.

Professional Wiper -- skilled at wiping down walls, floors, couches, chairs, televisions, but especially faces and butts.  


Please call me only if you don't need me to perform any of these skills.



I have been thinking about what a great but wiper I have become and ran with the idea for a new resume.  I hope it makes you smile or even giggle right our loud.

Testing the Strength of Your Marriage

It has been a really, really busy few months for my family.  We had to make some repairs to our home which led to a month and a half long remodeling project.  My husband and I began home improvement projects from the first day my husband purchased our home.  The old saying is:  If you want to know how strong your marriage is, wall paper together.  Well there is a lot of truth to that.  Jason and I have put tile into our kitchen and dining room, remodeled our upstairs bathroom, made two bedrooms out of one, remodeled our bedroom, and painted our entire basement.  Painting the basement was one of our first projects.  I spent most of the time complaining and being confused, not understanding what my husband wanted me to do.  He spent most of the time being frustrated with me.  6 years later, we have learned how to talk to each other about what we need, how to offer encouragement, and give compliments.  We have also learned to stand up for ourselves and say when enough is enough.  We have learned that it is okay to walk away from the project and each other and start again the next day.  Our last remodeling project, the bathroom, was long and hard on the family waiting to have their bathroom back, but was smooth going for our relationship.  We have come a long way.  If you can remodel together, you can do anything.

The Sin of Pride

As I have mentioned before, I listen to a lot of Moody Radio.  In many of the sermons I hear, the preacher mentions that the sin and temptation that is most common and hardest to deal with is the sin of pride.  And if you really think about it, most of the pain we inflict and is inflicted on us is rooted in our pride.  What do I mean?  Well, when our feelings are hurt, it is often our pride that is hurt.  For instance, if someone makes a negative comment about the dinner we made, we are hurt because we took pride in our effort.  We hurt others often because we are more worried about ourselves than the other person.  I would say that attitude comes from pride.  Also this mind set that we deserve something.  Like today, I had a terrible attitude and was not a very good servant to my family.  I was extremely tired from a very busy week and all I wanted to do was rest today -- I didn't want to cook or clean or really show any effort.  Deep inside I thought I deserved a rest.  So I was spoke rather rudely to my husband and my children.  But let's really analyze that attitude.  All we really deserve when we peel everything away is death.  Yes, that's right, we deserve death.  Everything else that is given to us is a gift.  Our very breath is a gift.  Yes we do work hard and often get rewarded for that labor.  But we don't deserve anything.  This attitude leads to all kinds of problems: failed marriages and a bad economy just to name a few.  We can't live our lives with our hands stretched out expecting a handout.  Instead we need to be grateful and gracious.  I didn't have much grace today with my family and I pray that they will forgive me.  My pride has taken a much needed hit and now is the time for humility.  God said it  best, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

My Life Revolves Around Food

I have always had a slight obsession with food.  I enjoy cooking and of course eating.  I especially like to eat the items I cook.  But lately my entire world seems to revolve around eating.  It seems that my thoughts are often going to when I am going to get my next meal.  Now this isn't from any lack of food, so I put some thought into the why.  And I think I figured it out -- becoming a mom.  Just think about it.  When you are pregnant you start obsessing about food, with weird cravings and having to eat to ward off nausea.  Then the baby comes, and if you are breastfeeding, your hunger is unsatisfiable.  Your children's need for food fuels the obsession.  Babies eat every 2-4 hours for up to 6+ months, then when they start eating solid foods, you have to start packing snacks from every trip, even the 5 minute trip to the bank.  The time and thought used up by preparing, serving, and eating food is astronomical.  I am hoping that as my kids get older and they can better get their own snacks, that maybe my obsession will diminish -- my waistline needs the break. 
In honor of these thoughts on food I want to give you a list of all the things my soon-to-be one year old son has tried to eat.  I hope it makes you giggle:)

petroleum jelly
groat
rocks
a lady bug
a dead leaf
dog food
part of a oak tree helicopter seed
a dust bunny from behind the stove
a used bandaid
a dandelion
a coupon
crusted food from his high chair (who knows how old)
the stuffing from a bean bag
banana peel
chalk

And yes he is fine:) 

Veggie Non-lovers

I have talked before about trying to get more veggies in my diet and just trying to eat more healthy in general.   But I wanted to give you all some more ideas about how to sneak veggies into your meals and still enjoy them. 
Here are a few quick add on ideas:
1.  Add broccoli, cauliflower, and/or tomatoes (tomatoes are actually a fruit) to mac and cheese.
2.  When making a salad for dinner add extra veggies besides lettuce and chop them up nice and little and you will not notice they are there. But don't over do it on the dressing -- it kind of defeats the purpose of having a salad.
3.  Add extra veggies to some of your favorite meals.  Add peppers, onions, and mushrooms to your pizza and tacos.  I sometimes cook them down a little and blend them to add them to my sauce so I don't even know they are there.  You can add veggies to just about anything if you get creative.  Add shredded carrots to your sloppy joes. 

Okay now here is the even more fun stuff.  Look online for different veggie salad recipes.  Like broccoli cauliflower salad or fun coleslaw.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Broccoli Cauliflower Salad
1 cup chopped broccoli
1 cup chopped cauliflower
4 strips crisp turkey bacon, crumbled
3-4 medium chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped onion (your choice what kind)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
Add any other veg if you want
Sauce:
1 cup light mayo
1/2 sugar or Splenda
1/4 cup cider vinegar (Now some people don't like that much vinegar so play around with ratio)
Directions:
Mix and eat.  Don't eat the whole batch in one sitting because the sauce isn't the healthiest but you will enjoy eating your vegetables.


This next recipe is from my buddy Andrea.  She is great about adding fun and different grains to her diet.  This recipe calls for quinoa but I couldn't find any at Kroger so I used couscous and that worked too.  I also used all variety of veggies I hard on hand.  I used carrots, radishes, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, and tomatoes.  Get creative or throw in all your soon to expire vegetables.
Quinoa Vegetable Salad
1/2 C chopped or shredded carrots
1/2 C chopped pepper (any color or add all the colors)
1/2 C chopped broccoli
1/4 C chopped onion
1/4 C diced Roma tomatoes
1 C cooked quinoa
Sauce:
Juice from 1 lemon
Zest from 1 lemon
1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
2 T olive oil
Directions:
Mix and eat:)

Before you try these recipes I want you to know that I make up recipes from trying food that others make and I recreate them to my taste.  So what I am saying is that these measurements may not be correct -- I didn't follow a recipe when I made them.  I like to eye ball it and add stuff as I go.  But I would love to hear how all of you sneak vegetables into your diet and please improve or correct my recipes.  Good eating to you all.

What to do about Bullies?

I am reading a book called Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.  It is about a school shooting.  I am only about half way through the novel, but it has really got my mind churning about what is the right or wrong way to deal with a bully.  You see, the boy in the story was teased and abused relentlessly by his classmates and even his older brother since the first day of kindergarten.  His parents were blissfully unaware and totally shocked when one day he shot 10 people at school.  One point of the novel thus far is that the shooter is someone's child just like the children who were shot.  He has a mother who nursed him when he was sick and washed and laid out his clothes for school just like the other kids.    None of us what to be the parent of the bully or the one getting picked on.  So how do we help our kids. 
Well let me start off by saying that I am no expert!  I really just want to open the discussion to the viewing audience to get some feedback that may help all of us.  I have a little personal experience with bullying.  In fifth grade I was bullied by a boy in my class.  He would trip me in the hall, pull my chair out from under me, and slam my head down into my desk.  My friends told me to tell the teacher, but I was so scared of this boy.  Finally one day he kicked me so hard in the shin that I bled.  My friends demanded that I tell the teacher.  So I did.  He never really bugged me after that.  I don't know what punishment he received but it must have worked. 
I also experienced a lot of intimidation from an entire group of girls that ran around together in middle school.  They would make up stories about things that I had done to them that required them to get revenge on me.  They also would threaten to hit me in gym class where it would look more like an accident.  They never actually ever hit me, but one of them did attack my friend while we were in the locker room.  My friend had walked in a few seconds ahead of me and the girl that was waiting inside jumped on her and started punching her in the head.   I didn't know what to do. I was completely in shock.  But when the bully saw that I was standing there, she stopped and left the room.  I don't think my friend and I told anyone about it.  Telling on bullies can sometimes lead to more violence because they see you as a rat. 
My youngest brother was often bullied and it infuriated my other brother and I.  We often weren't there to witness it or to help him.  I do remember that we walked through the school with him one day after he had been slammed into a locker and had his backpack thrown down the hall.  We wanted to give him safety in numbers so that no one else would mess with him.
When my husband was young, if someone bullied him, his parents told him to ignore it the first time, but if the kid kept messing with him, then he should defend himself, even if it meant getting into a fist fight.

So what have these experiences taught me?  Well I am not in favor of fighting violence with violence, but I think kids should be allowed to defend themselves, just like adults are allowed to do.  I also think there is safety in numbers.   Bullies are less likely to pick on a kid if he is with someone else.  Now I know that there are kids who don't really have any friends.  But here is where we can teach our kids to help.  I want to teach my kids to stand up for the little guy.  I want my kids to tell the bully to stop if they see him/her picking on someone.  And I want someone else to do the same for my kids. 
I think one of the best deterrent of bullying is when the bystander speaks up.  Kids and parents, don't sit on the sidelines and say nothing!  Get involved.  You don't have to throw a punch but make your presence known and let your voice be heard. 
I would appreciate any thoughts on this subject!

Ever had one of those days?

This last week I have had zero motivation and it has taken all of my will to make myself get up and get stuff done.  So I was super excited when I woke up Thursday morning with extra energy and renewed clarity of mind.  However the rest of the world did not get the memo that since I had energy, I wanted to get stuff done.  My kids decided to be extra needy.  Then right after I swept the dining room floor, I proceeded to knock an open tin of straight pins onto the floor.  Then after I re swept and mopped that same floor, my husband walked through it with muddy boots.  So I started over to then discover that while I was cleaning that floor again, my kids found a container of toddler puffs which were now strewn all over the living room.  After cleaning that mess, while the kids were napping, I went into the basement to try and get a small sewing project completed.  But I knocked over another tin of straight pins.  Are you kidding me? 
It is days like this that it seems that dishes magically appear in the sink just as you put the last clean one away.  It also seems like a mystery to the family how the house gets so dirty and why mom can't keep up.  Isn't the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again with the same result?  Sometimes I think motherhood and insanity walk hand in hand.  But thankfully everyday is not alike and it may seem like everyday has the same result, but as mothers we are building a lasting future for our families by cleaning up all those messes.  The example we set with our determination and our attitude is molding their little minds to become strong, confident, problem solvers.  May God help us to keep a good and positive perspective.  Especially when I turn away from typing this to find my dog has gotten into the trash:)

May you find time to laugh at yourself and your circumstances -- sometimes it helps:)