Rice and Egg Drop Soup Recipe

I love experimenting in the kitchen, especially when the experiments turn out well! It's starting to turn a little chilly here lately, so I've been in a soup mood. I'm not a conventional soup eater. I can't stand chicken noodle, but I do love chicken and rice. Last week I got creative and coupled chicken and rice with egg drop soup. The result? Absolutely splendid!

You will need:
4 chicken boullioun cubes
5 cups of water
1/2 cup rice
1/4 chicken breast
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup Green Onion (optional)

Boil 3 of the boullion cubes and 3 cups of water in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat to medium and add the rice. Cook for 20-30 minutes, or until rice is done. While waiting on the rice, cut up the chicken breast in small pieces and cook. Set aside. In another saucepan, boil the last boullion cube and two cups of water. Take about  1/4 of the resulting broth and set aside. Mix the eggs together and begin dropping into the boiling broth by spoonfuls. Continue until there is no more egg left. Mix the cornstarch with the 1/4 cup of broth. Now mix the green onions, the egg broth, the chicken, and the cornstarch mixture in with the rice, stir, and voila! Chicken, Rice, and Egg drop soup! So easy, and tastes delicious!

Please note, this is an original recipe. Variations can occur. This soup is also very thick, not a lot of broth. If you want more broth, add another boullion cube and another cup of water to the rice.

Happy eating!

Pumpkin Planters DIY

I was thinking the other day how cute it would be to have little pumpkin planters out front. So I made some! You're going to need two large pumpkin candy bowls ($2 each at Walmart), two hanging baskets ($5 at Walmart), soil and whatever plants you want to put in the hangars (I used purple mums).

Step 1:
   Drill two holes on opposite side of the pumpkin bowl.

Step 2:

     Drill holes on the bottom of the bowl, so that water can pass through instead of pooling up.

Step 3: 

     Attach the pumpkin bowl to the hanging planters using zip strips (or string, or whatever you have handy). Make sure you cut off any excess.

And there you have it! So simple and easy! Now, put a plant in, hang from a  hook, and enjoy your new Halloween decoration!

I Heart Faces Weekly Challenge

This weeks challenge is the Best Face Photo from Summer 2011. I was able to travel to Missouri to visit my grandparents for the first time since my son was born. This was the first time they've been able to meet their great-grandson, and much fun ensued! Above is my Grandfather holding my sleeping son. It was his favorite nap place the entire stay!

Check out the other entries at I Heart Faces!

This photo was entered into the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

Reasons

One question I am always asked is, "How do you do it?" How do I do what, exactly, is my normal answer. How do I attend class full time and raise a kid by myself? How do I deal with the fact that my husband has been gone since May of 2010, won't be home until January of 2012, and has spent less than a month total in the presence of his family? How do I juggle the demands of motherhood with starting my own business? Those three questions have a very easy answer. I do it because I don't have a choice. There's not some heroic phrase that I can say or something I can do to make it sound like this is something I want to do. The simple fact is that I was given this lot in life, and I have to take what is dealt to me.

I wish you knew how many mornings I wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and cry until my head felt like it was going to explode. However, I have a 15 month old who wakes up very hungry and wet at 9. I know that if I want to get anything done around the house, I'll have to get up at 7:30. So I do. It's that simple. I do this because it is what is required of me. I can't neglect my son. I can't neglect my home. And I can't neglect my studies.

Am I happy? For the most part, yes, I am. I have an active, healthy, intelligent son. I have a husband who has sacrificed a lot to give us what we have today. And I have friends and family who care deeply for me. Do I wish that I could change some things? Oh most definitely. But I can't, so I keep moving forward. Forward to the day where my family is a family again. Forward to the day when I have my degree and can pursue my dreams. Because this... This is my life.

Woman in the Mirror

One of my friends (Cassandra) posted a question as her status the other day. She was asking the general public what they see when they look in the mirror. The answer could be literal or figurative. 

When I look in the mirror, I see a 24 year old woman, who could pass for a 20 year old, struggling to get her weight under control (that's the literal). She's very self conscious and has a pretty low self esteem. She has troubles fitting in with this world. Sometimes she's okay with that, but other times, like today, she resents it. She strives to be like everyone else, to be normal; but then, if she were normal, then who would she be? I see a woman who has based her identity off of what others have told her about herself. She's either this or that, one day she's this and the next she's that. Today, she is beautiful , energetic, friendly, and accomplished. Tomorrow, she will be lazy, and hate herself for it. I have a love/hate relationship with this woman, which is perhaps why I avoid mirrors when possible. That's another reason I'm a photographer. If I'm behind the camera, then no one has a chance to capture me on film, and I don't have to deal with the harsh realities of life. 

Today, at least, I'm happy with the woman in the mirror. Tomorrow will be different, but save for tomorrow what is tomorrows, and enjoy what today gives you.

Easy Peasy

I love burning candles. I have at least ten different candle holders, and they are burning almost non stop in my house. The worst part, though, is cleaning the wax off of them. Candle wax is so incredibly difficult to scrape off. While perusing Google earlier today, I found an easy way of getting the candle wax off of any candle holder!

Boil a cup or two of water in a small saucepan. Set the holder in the saucepan to where none of the water gets in. The boiling water will begin to melt the wax. Wipe out the inside of the holder with a paper towel until all of the wax is gone.


See how simple that is???

Truths

It's late, and I'm about to head to bed, but I just wanted to shout out a truth right quick.

I am completely and madly in love with the most amazing/wonderful/compassionate man that God has placed on this earth. It's a truth. He is absolutely awe inspiring, and the love of my life.

Yes, I lean on him more than he thinks I should. Yes, I frustrate the living bejeezus out of him. Yet no one has shown me love the way he has.

It's amazingly gratifying to say that, beyond all reason and logic, I am in love.

I love you, John Zachary.

Come What May.

Facebook Friends

We all have them. Those friends on Facebook that only exist in the realm of the internet. If you see them outside of that realm, conversation is short and awkward, however, as soon as you are able to retreat back inside your safe place, you message that person (or they message you) saying how awesome it was to see you, followed by an hour long comment war on their post. Why could that conversation not have taken place in public?

We are in a dark and desperate spot when it comes to needing fellowship. Most just choose to remain on Facebook, in chat rooms and forums, instead of venturing out into the world because, let's face it, we're getting lazy. It takes less effort to talk to people online than it does in person.

I have a couple of friends on my Facebook that I personally do not know. One is the wife of an amazing friend, the other a friend of a very close friend. I finally get to meet my friends wife in December, and I'm terribly excited! She is a very awesome person. The other friend, however, I've never met, but apparently everyone is getting the impression that we're best friends. I find this slightly annoying since I've had maybe two conversations with her and, bless her heart, love her to death, and all that, but I just didn't feel like we would be good friends. If I don't feel like I can hold a decent conversation with you in person, then I'm not going to talk to you through a social medium to make you feel better because you are socially awkward.

There was a time, in the not too distant past, where people went to parks, talked with their neighbors over the grill, had community cookouts... The days of our kids playing with other neighborhood kids is swiftly coming to an end. Instead of going outdoors, our children now get online and play o nvirtual playgrounds.

And we wonder why kids are as disrespectful as they are today. We worry over their obesity and put them on diets and make them exercise at gyms. We wonder why there's such a heavy amount of adhd diagnoses, why there are more and more kids fighting with each other. It all comes back to social interactions.

Teach your kids how to behave in public. Take them to a park, let them run and play outside. Sign them up for Rec sports, where they can be with other kids their own age. Don't let them spend hours gaming. Don't let them spend hours in front of the TV or the computer.

Take a vested interest in your childs life.

Let's get back to a social place. Let's stop hiding behind monitors, fake screen names, fake care and compassion.

Let's stop hiding and start living.

Just another really really bad day...

Yesterday morning started out the same as usual. I left for class on time (for once) but arrived two minutes late because of traffic. I have no idea why traffic was so bad yesterday. Maybe it was because of the motocyclist that decided to swerve around me and cut in front of fifteen other cars in order to make the light. At any rate, class yesterday morning (Theology and Politics) had me reeling on a few different aspects. When I disagree with someone on points that I feel that I am right on, I have a tendency to become aggressive in my defense of the points (something I have to work on). After class ended with the same fight over my parking spot as I was leaving and ended with me almost being hit by a camaro (not my fault! He tried to turn into me!). A very frustrated me was thinking about just calling it a day right there, but decided to suck it up and go to my next class, where something very disturbing happened. I started having this tightening in my stomach. Honest to God, it felt like a contraction. I've been having these off and on for a month or so, but more so in the past couple of days. So after class I called my doc, who then told me to go to the er, where I sat for six hours while they told me I was fine, but they were going to treat me for a UTI. The doc himself said that UTI is just words for "I don't know what's going on". That really instilled a lot of confidence in me. I got home at around 10, still feeling sick and crying on top of that. I have since decided that a lot of my issues center around stress.

I stress out easily. I don't do it on purpose, and it generally doesn't last long. Today ends my third week of class, and I have been stressing almost relentlessly. I have a paper due on Monday, a paper due Thursday, plus near 500-1000 pages of reading to do a week. On top of getting my photography business off of the ground. On top of raising Balian (whom I am missing somewhat desperately).

It has just been a bad week (with the exception of Tuesday, which was a glorious day). I am still working as diligently as ever on my school work, but I am very ready for this to all be over. I miss having my freedom. I miss spending time with Balian. I miss being me.

Baby Fever

John's gone and done it again. Ugh.

My hubby's greatest wish is for a baby girl all for himself. The way he acts, you would think I'm already pregnant with his princess on the way (an impossibility since I haven't seen him since January). So for the past week (after seeing his love-lorn face when talking about the non-existent princess) I am completely and totally ready to get pregnant again. For him.

John has missed out on 15 months thus far of Balian's life. Everything that he's seen Balian accomplish, he's had to watch via Skype. And while we are eternally grateful for this huge advantage in technology, it's not the same. When he found out I was pregnant with Balian, John wanted nothing more than to be there for the birth. He wanted to watch his little boy grow up, and that's been difficult for him to do. I can definitely understand his want to have another one, and I'm finally jumping on the bandwagon.

Last night I was looking at crib bedding for our non-existant little girl. Yeah, I have baby fever pretty badly right now. It increases whenever I see new mothers cradling their tiny ones. I love my little boy so so so so much, but I would love to have that tininess again. The pain kind of increases whenever I see a mom breastfeeding. I was never to be able to do that comfortably with Balian. He's always been a... *ahem* voracious eater.

The cure for baby fever? Remembering delivering Balian. The immense pain. Yup. Baby fever gone.

Fix It Friday 112

It's been a while since I've done a Fix it Friday. This weeks photo was an adorable one taken by Angie Arthur Photography. Here is the original:

For my first edit, I raised the exposure levels, added a bit of warmth to the photo, riased the highlights and midtones, then added a diffused glow texture. I also straightened the picture and cropped it.

For the second one, I converted the image to black and white, then raised the highlights and midtones and added a bit of a vignette.

Check out all of the other edits at I heart Faces!