A Hot Mess And Godless

     A guilty pleasure I've found myself sucked into in the past is magazine hoarding. I've held onto months, even years, of old magazines such as Woman's Day and Good Housekeeping, swearing one day I'll need them because I really want to make that really cool looking Halloween craft or yummy recipe featured on the front cover. Some day I'll need those cleaning tips and how to work out without a gym articles....and I won't say it never happened, because there was the rare occasion I'd whip one out and start flipping through it looking for something new to cook that weekend. However, once I did I usually found myself just being very disappointed. That pretty recipe was bland as fuck and now I'm left with a jar of tarragon sauce I'll never touch again, or that "quick and easy crafting project" ended up being a nightmare and waste of my time, money, and sanity, and in the trash that magazine goes - where it should have gone eight months ago....

     I strive to be one of those moms that successfully not only plans her meals out a week in advance, but also ensures she has all the necessary ingredients, AND remembered to take the meat out of the freezer in time...when and if that ever happens I'll let you know. So, that leaves the same pattern of that first half hour out of work being "what the hell do I feed these kids tonight?"      Last night I was craving tacos and I remembered the last time we were in Food City (we had just popped into the nearest store for water) they had 3 packs of different taco meat for $20. Now that was last summer, but I thought what the hell, we went to check if they still had it and they did not. BUT they did have a complete fajita meal kit with veggies, chicken, and beef for ten bucks! So we grabbed a thing of corn tortillas for less than two bucks, a dollar bag of tortilla chips and salsa for $3.99, some jalapenos and onions to grill and had the most delicious fajit...

     I've had a bad mental health week. I'm sure many of you have been there: pulling yourself out of bed and forcing yourself to shower and head to work so you can pay bills is hard enough, but the idea of standing in front of a stove and cooking seems completely impossible. Kids still gotta eat though.      So what do you do? Well I for one am a big fan of encouraging independence in children by giving them the occasional opportunity to feed themselves (at age appropriate levels of course) so "mom's feeling like a bowl of shit tonight meal" #2 was them making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with apple slices for dinner. The apple slices were impressively their idea. I'm very lucky to have kids that actually enjoy eating fruits and veggies; night #1 we ordered pizza. By night #3 I was feeling guilty about not cooking so I popped in the kitchen to make one of the easiest and quickest things in the pantry: ramen noodles.      Yes, ramen ...