Mother Knows Best (and dad too)

My parents are very smart people.  I mean, not just intellectually smart, but common sense smart.  I turn to them for advice almost on the daily.  

That being said, the lesson I'm learning now (the hard way, might I add), could have been avoided had I just modeled what my parents taught us while we were growing up. 

 

Every time we left the house for more than a day or two, we had to make sure everything was "cleaned up, picked up, put away" before we left.  Like totally spotless.  Now, at the time, their rationale for doing these things was a bit morbid, but it worked.  They said we needed to leave the house spic and span clean in case something catastoprohic happened while we were away.  That way, whoever had to deal with the aftermath of said catastrophe, wouldn't think we were slovenly human beings.  And it was just plain courtesy.  

Well, in June, we set out to leave our house in Tallahassee to head to Orlando for a few days, and then on to spend seven weeks in Illinois.  Due to doctor appointments and a few other obligations, I stayed behind with the kids, planning to join Heath a few days later.  

Because I'm a stressed out packer, and because I have two tiny humans who rather enjoy tearing into things, I may or may not have left our house in somewhat of a disarray.  (Read - complete and utter chaos...toys everywhere, clean laundry folded on the couches, mail on the kitchen counter, last minute things I decided needed to stay behind kind of everywhere, Finley's most recent art projects, you get the picture.)  

Now, normally this wouldn't be that big of a problem.  I knew I would come home in August and have suitcases to unpack, PLUS a house to tidy up.  But, as my parents always said, in case of a catastrophe...

Our catastrophe started as something that was annoying, but not a major issue.  Inconvenient, sure, but catastrophic?  Not at all.  Our neighbor texted on July 19th (Finley's birthday) to ask if she could park their RV in our driveway while they had some work done at their house.  Of course, no problem!  By all means...

Well, thank heavens she asked!  Our other fabulous neighbor went over to the house with her so they could access an electrical outlet in the garage, and when they opened it up, they found that there was standing water covering the majority of it.  Awesome.  Turns out our water heater had sprung a leak, and it took down several boxes of books and a counter with it.  

Okay.  Simple fix.  Remove water heater, clean up water, and replace.  Heath and our neighbor got it all worked out, and a new water heater was to be scheduled the following week, the 26th.

Fast forward to the afternoon of the 26th.  I had taken the kids on a mini tour of the Midwest, making stops in Louisville, southern Indiana, Indy, Champaign, and Springfield.  While I was pulling into our next stop in Indy, my neighbor called and asked me to have the plumbing guys come back to the house because he thought there was something wrong after they had installed the new water heater.  Oh, there was definitely something wrong.  Turns out the common wall between the garage (where the water heater was) and our family room had gotten wet...very very wet, and now we had buckled flooring, wet drywall, and best of all...mold.  Rock on.  

*Thank heavens for our neighbors.  Seriously.  The best people on the planet.  

Keep in mind that all of this was taking place while neither one of us was in town...I was running around the Midwest, and Heath was in Orlando.  Our neighbor became the physical contact for several insurance people, as well as our new mold specialist friend, Chad.  We began the slow and grueling process of insurance claims and adjustments and mold mitigation.  So many hurdles to jump through.  And because of the nature of mold, we couldn't be in the house while all of this mitigation was taking place.  

September 1 brought hurricane Hermine which also delayed the progress of our mold mitigation.  

Tonight, October 3, is our first official night back in the house.  We have no flooring.  There is drywall dust everywhere.  The walls are not finished being repaired.  The contents of the two "containment areas" are now dispersed among the already messy house.  Our furniture isn't ruined, but is sealed up in the garage to be treated for mold at a later time (by us) because we maxed out the allotted insurance monies for mold damage.  We have suitcases and bags piled up everywhere because we have now been away from our house for 16 weeks.  And we have no food in the house because both the refrigerator and upright freezer had to be purged because of the storm outages in September. 

But tonight, instead of running around like a complete crazy person, attempting to clean and rearrange, Finley and I made a Halloween paper chain, because that was more important.  

So, the moral of this long story is three-fold:

1.  Mother knows best;

2.  Enjoy the moment, for this too shall pass all too quickly;

3.  And for goodness sakes, clean your house before leaving for any period of time beyond 24 hours.  

Whitening bugs

Also known as lightning bugs or fireflies...Finley is fascinated with these "whitening bugs."

Where do day wiv?  Do day have a nest?  And do day watch tv?  Do day drive in tiny cars?  Do day come in the house?  What do day eat?  We don't want dogs to step on dem uhcuz day is so cute and widdle.

So sweet and so innocent.  I will miss her mispronunciation of words.  

Finleyisms - Part 4

I'm not sure if I will grow tired of hearing some of the quirky things you say :)

• Yogurt = oh-grit
• Oatmeal - et-milk
• I do it all myself...have I mentioned this one already?  Because it's pretty popular.  :)
• You refer to mustard as "dat yewwow stuff."  You are not a fan.
• When we tell you that it is time to stop doing something, you immediately respond with, "but I juss need to do _____ a tiny widdle bit.  I come in juss a second."  Quite the negotiator.  
• Nank you = thank you
• Widdle nice guys - Little Einsteins 
• "I wuv pink mommy.  I wuv pink so much.  Iss my favowite cowor."
• Beshtables = vegetables 
• Fridge-a-Der = refrigerator
• "It's called..."   I honestly have no idea where this came from, but you say it all the time.  It's basically your opening line to most explanations and arguments.  For example, "it's called, daddy tell me I can do diss." It's pretty funny.  
• "Fimme not go in time out uh cuz gails (girls) don't do time out."  Okay.  Sure.  
• You refer to going number two as doing a stinky diaper.  Again, whatever floats your boat, girl.  
• You use the preposition "to" for the preposition "for" all the time.  "This is not to babies."  "This is not to you."  "Is this to me?"  "I have a gift to you."  Sometimes it works, but most of the time, it does not. 
• Jingle Bells = gingerbread.  You interchange these words :)
• Ornaments are also called jingle bells...or instruments.  
• Pesky dust = pixie dust
• Nakesgiving = Thanksgiving
• Valetimes = Valentine's
• Shammiches, shammiches = savages, savages 🎶🎶 from Pocahontas.  

You are definitely a chatterbox, and I love it :)

You also love to make up songs to narrate what you are doing.  You still love for us to sing to you at night, and you often quote songs to us.  The funniest song that you sing DAILY is from Daniel Tiger.  "STOP, and go right away.  Flush and wash and go on your way."  God bless Daniel Tiger and the manners and life lessons he shares with us.

You sing the Veggie Tales theme song in every store we go into. Your translation of all the different vegetables is pretty fantastic.  Perhaps I'll be able to capture that on video soon.  

You are interested obsessed with mail right now.  You love to receive things in the mail and always ask me if the mail is "to you."  But recently, and I attribute this to our Christmas card season, you want to send mail ALL DAY.  You ask us to work on your mail all the time.  Because Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I recently found the cutest Disney Princess mailbox for $2.88.  BEST.BUY.EVER.  We have tiny envelopes, rubber stamps, stickers, princess tape, all the goodies for fun mail.  We will need to tap into your piggy bank to help foot our stamp bill, but you are loving it and that is what matters.  I love your innocence and that you love simple things.    

Right now you love Princess Sofia, PJ Masks, Peppa Pig, Doc McStuffins, Daniel Tiger, and Veggie Tales.  And of course we are still die-hard princess fans :)

You still pronounce your name "Fimme Jo Willmums."  Precious.  

Resternot = restaurant 

Hostible - hospital 

Aminal = animal

"Th" sounds are still pronounced with an "f" for the most part...fee-uh is THEA, free is THREE...

Don't grow up, baby girl.  Just don't do it.  

Apple Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

So, I've been trying to maintain a clean diet since December, and I've failed many, many times.  In an attempt to "spice up" my food rotation, I hopped on Pinterest last night and found a few ideas before heading to the store for the week.  I stumbled upon a pin with 21 Day Fix clean eating recipes, which turned out to be only partially true.  However, I found a few that I'm super excited about trying, including this one.

First, I will share the link to the original post here because that seems like the right thing to do.

Next, I will share how I modified it based on what I had in my kitchen and my personal preferences.

Ingredients:

5 small sweet potatoes (our grocery store was out of regular sweet potatoes, so I opted for the bag of smaller ones that can be microwaved)

2 large chicken breasts

1 small sweet onion, chopped (I don't like red onions as the original recipe called for)

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

3 cloves garlic, minced (again, I cheated...I had a jar of minced garlic in my refrigerator and probably used 2 large spoonfuls because I just like garlic)

1 apple, peeled and chunked

A splash of white vinegar (I didn't have apple cider vinegar per the original recipe, so substituted this)

1/4 cup apple juice (I was worried about moisture so I added this at the end)

A drizzle of olive oil (again, I was worried about moisture)

Salt and pepper

Directions:

The original recipe was meant for a crock pot, and needed to cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Because it is Monday, and I didn't get my act together (and because I had originally planned a different meal for tonight but was missing an ingredient), I went to option B...the INSTANT POT.

*If you do not know what I am talking about, Google it.  It is amazing.  Or click here.  I received this as a gift from my MIL and I am obsessed!!!!  It is so fantastic, and clearly saved my tail tonight.

So, because I didn't need to use the crock pot, my meal was done in less than 30 minutes, from prep time to my plate.

First, wash, peel and cut the sweet potatoes into smaller chunks.  Place those at the bottom of the pot.

Next, place your raw chicken breasts on top of the potatoes.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Peel and chunk your apple.  I used an Ambrosia apple because I can't afford to buy my beloved honey crisps at this time (my husband refers to them as the filet Mignon of apples right now).  Place on top of your chicken.

In a separate bowl, combine the unsweetened applesauce, garlic, onion, and vinegar.  Spread on top of the chicken breasts in your pot.

Add the apple juice to the pot.

If you are using a traditional crock pot, cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until chicken is cooked thoroughly and your sweet potatoes are tender.

If you are using the Instant Pot, select the POULTRY SETTING and close your lid.

Oh my goodness, I was so delightfully surprised at how delicious this turned out.  I did have to add a dash of salt to my plate.

I sure hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

My new best friend, the Instant Pot.

Before, in the instant pot.

Not the best presentation, but the after picture on my plate.  :)

One final note...the Instant Pot has a lovely KEEP WARM feature, and my meal has been soaking and staying warm for a couple hours now.  The chicken tastes even better now that it has sat for a bit :)