Simple, Sacred, Sweet: October 2024

Saturday, October 12, 2024

What I Used/What I Used Up (Week 41)

What I Used of My Meal Plan-

Breakfasts:

Belgian waffles (Rise and Run)
Instant Pot hard-boiled eggs (Omnivore's Cookbook)
Fluffy pancakes (All Recipes)

Oatmeal in various forms
Super simple granola

3 ingredient apple pie donuts (Kirbie’s Cravings)

Lunches:

Carrot and romaine salads with shredded chicken (365 Days of Crockpot), salsa, and spicy ranch dressing (The Spiffy Cookie)
Iceberg lettuce salads with hardboiled egg, shredded cheese, and Caesar dressing
Instant Pot baked potatoes (Platings + Pairings) with toppings
Rice with green chiles (Easy Vegetarian Slow Cooker), Instant Pot salsa chicken (Simply Happy Foodie), and cheese bowls
Tempeh oat brussels sprouts scramble (Oatrageous Oatmeals)

Dinners:

Carolina gold barbecue chicken sandwiches (The Gracious Pantry) on pumpkin hamburger buns (Travel Cook Tell) with Greek yogurt coleslaw (Gimme Some Oven)

Chicken lettuce wraps (The Kitchn) and fried rice (Made by my husband)
Fusilli with herbed ricotta and grape tomatoes (Good Housekeeping Family Italian Cookbook)
Spaghetti carbonara (Good Housekeeping Family Italian Cookbook)

Snacks:

All butter apple shortbread cookies from Trader Joe's
Apples
Bagels
Bananas
Belgian waffles (Rise and Run)
Blender gluten free pumpkin muffins (Kroll's Korner)
Cajun peanuts (Cajun Cooking Recipes)
Cantaloupe
Cheese sticks
Honeydew melon
Leftover pancakes
Monster cookies (Handle the Heat)
Oatmeal in various forms
Peanuts
Pumpkin cranberry crisps from Trader Joe's
Pumpkin spiced teeny tiny pretzels from Trader Joe's
Roasted pumpkin seeds (The Minimalist Baker)
Tortilla chips

What I Used Up--

Freezer:

Two pound bag of frozen broccoli
Chickpeas
Chopped carrots, garlic, and rutabaga for chickpea stew (Oatrageous Oatmeals)
Bag of frozen green beans
Rice with green chiles (Easy Vegetarian Slow Cooker)
Shredded chicken (365 Days of Crockpot),
Tomato paste

Fridge:

Cantaloupe
Five pound bag of carrots
Coleslaw mix
Old garlic
Pint of grape tomatoes
Container of Greek yogurt
Green onions
Package of ham
Head of iceberg lettuce
Half gallon of milk
Old onions
Ricotta cheese

Pantry:

Curry powder
Can of pumpkin
Four cans of tomato sauce
Fusilli pasta
Pumpkin spiced teeny tiny pretzels from Trader Joe's
Tuna

What went bad:

Nothing that I know of yet!

What I Prepped for Next Week:

Chickpea stew (Oatrageous Oatmeals)
Curried lentils (Budget Bytes) over brown rice (Add a Pinch)
Instant Pot hard-boiled eggs (Omnivore's Cookbook)

What I Froze for Future Me:

Curried lentils (Budget Bytes) over brown rice (Add a Pinch)

Monster cookies (Handle the Heat)

Pumpkin hamburger buns (Travel Cook Tell)

Pumpkin oatmeal cream pies (Sally's Baking Addiction) (unfilled)

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Real Life Marriage: Identity Shift

We've been married over five years now, and as the seasons shift, I am also sensing a shift in our identity as a couple. Our last close family members (my parents) left the state. We are starting to recover from our four year (plus!) grind to get my husband to graduation. We've been working at more fairly dividing our household chores for several months. And it feels like we are shifting to more of an us, not a mini his parents or my parents, but an us.

As much as I admire and respect my parents and their marriage, my husband and I are different, and we do things differently. We aren't going off the rails morally or ethically, but we communicate differently than my parents do. We divide household responsibilities differently. We practice our values differently. Sometimes we vote differently. It's us, versus a mirror image of the family in which I grew up. Honestly, that has taken some getting used to. It's probably taken some getting used to for my husband, too, as our relationship also differs from those of his parents.

Our identity is different from the culture around us. I do see my husband as the leader or our home and submit to his leadership, but we each submit to each other, too. This often results in us responding to questions of us individually, "Let me ask [spouse name]" and get back to you. We share a joint bank account. We don't count tit for tat. We are an "us," even as many couples we know live more independently, than corporately.

There is an "us" factor of the two of us being family, too. We don't have kids or pets, but we are a family. We have sometimes very separate interests, but still enjoy spending time together. We are a family. We live out our callings somewhat differently than others, with my job being at a ministry, for example, which results in us not serving in places like church. This is what it means to be us at this stage

I've heard people say before that what is most important is to get your horizontal orientation right, that is, prioritizing relationship to God above all else. By God's grace, Christ is the center of our marriage. He always will be, and in pursuing Him, we grow closer together. Horizontally, though, our marriage might not align with others. It might stick out instead of blending in. I am learning to be okay with that, because it is our marriage, not anyone else's. Not my parents', not our friends', not our churches. It is our marriage, created by God, founded in God, and lived out by us. That's our steadfast identity, one I hope that will stand amidst the shifting sands of life.