Give me your tired, your poor, your dirty socks…

What? Yeah. Dirty socks. And dirty sweatshirts. And holey t-shirts. And shredded, stretched out, dirty underwear. Are you totally disgusted?

STOP! Think before you donate: Would I wear this?

Child #2 and I were. We found all these items in the donated clothes given to the shelter where we are staying. So, you really want me to dress my child in your child’s old, poop-stained underwear? Is this just to humiliate me? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but it doesn’t! It simply makes me disgusted and angry.

Those nasty, crusty, shredded things go straight in the trash, where you should have put it in the first place! What exactly is wrong with people? Honestly? I mean, I get if the clothes have been sitting in the back of your closet for a while and might be a little dusty or out of date. However, do you seriously think that anyone wants your fuzz-balled pants or any item in which the elastic has deteriorated to the point of crackling?

Now, think what someone might enjoy finding – a warm sweater, gently worn shoes, new underwear and socks, gently used bras, a warm coat. We are not asking for designer wear, people! We are asking for some dignified clothing to wear to an interview! It doesn’t have to be fancy, just solid and serviceable!

Think about donating items that can be worn to an interview.

So, please, think about it before you throw those worn out, stained, elastic – shot socks into the donation box. Turn around and put them in the garbage can instead!

It’s nice to be able to keep warm!

I’m not saying that everyone does this, or even most people, but when you sort and organize the clothing like Child #2 and I have been doing at the shelter, it’s beyond frustrating. Let’s actually try to help our fellow travelers on this planet and not use it as a place to dump your garbage.

Please consider donating the following gently used (cloth items or shoes) or new items to your local homeless shelter:

Warm coats, gloves, mittens, scarves, and boots

Pants, shirts, dresses, and jeans

Diapers, baby bottles, wipes, and blankets

Feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, soap, laundry detergent, dish soap, cleaning wipes, and paper products

Popular movies and books, coloring books, crosswords, word finds, crayons, art pads, colored pencils, and crafting supplies

Think about teaching a class on whatever your specialty is. Spend some time with the residents, or offer babysitting so that the parents can go for a job interview or do grocery shopping without bringing the whole family.

Please send prayers!

And above all, pray for us. Obviously we are struggling if we are living in a homeless shelter. We may not have everything here, but we are blessed to be here, even if we long for something better.

The Face of the Shelter

Anyone can be homeless.

As some (or all of you, if you’ve been paying attention!) know, Children #’s 2, 3, 4, and I are currently residing in a homeless shelter.  It isn’t bad.  It’s not ideal, of course, but at least we have our own room and bathroom.  There is a kitchen that we share with several other rooms. 

Coming here, I had no idea what to expect.  I have, in fact, never before been homeless.  It is not a situation in which I ever dreamed I’d be. I feel like such a failure. It is a completely humbling experience to have to rely on others for help. I’m usually so proud to be independent. I just couldn’t this time. I had fallen too far.

Is this what you think of when I say homeless?

So, dealing with Child #3’s mental health issues while in the shelter are a challenge. The kiddos are bored, not sleeping well, and wanting a home of our own. I know. I want that too. It just takes time.

So, when Child #3 throws a fit and wants to play in traffic, I have to be right on the heels and trying to convince them that they are loved and wanted. Yeah. Nothing says that like life in a shelter! 😔.

Mental illness is no joke.

I’m doing my best, filling out applications for apartments and doing offered programs to help our chances, but so far, nothing. It’s beyond frustrating.

There are good times, of course! Cooking together, even in a shared kitchen, can be lots of fun. Watching movies together (Friday Family Movie Night is still going strong!) and sewing or doing crosswords together (just the easy ones, please!) are great memory makers.

Yum!

Child #4 and I joined the gardening club and are having a blast picking fresh veggies (eating and cooking with them!) There’s nothing like a fresh-picked tomato or green bean! Yummy!

Our cooking has definitely been taking advantage of all the fresh produce. Tonight I made stuffed zucchini again (so yummy!) and tomorrow pork stir-fry is on the menu. So darn tasty!

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed this little update. Please pray for our family! God bless you!

Rita

Garden Stir-Fry

Mouthwatering goodness from the garden!

Well, hello there! Were you wondering what on earth to do with the bounty from your garden? Today Child #4 and I were out playing in the dirt in the community garden and we dug a few new potatoes and onions. We also picked tomatoes, peppers, (both hot and sweet!) cucumbers, green beans, and zucchini. A bountiful harvest to be sure. But what to do with all of that goodness?

You will need the following:

1/4 cup butter (or non-dairy alternative)

1 large, sweet onion sliced in half and then sliced lengthwise in 1/2 inch strips (or four small, sweet garden onions if you don’t have a leftover one from the store like I did!)

6 – 8 new potatoes cut into smallish chunks

3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled, smashed (with the side of your knife) and sliced

4 small chicken breasts cut into 1″ chunks (about 1.5 lbs.) or tofu done the same way, if you’re doing this vegetarian style

1 large green pepper cored and sliced into 1/2 inch strips

1/2 cup of fresh green beans with the growing ends taken off and the rest of the bean snapped into 1″ pieces

Salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper)

2 cups sour cream (or non-dairy alternative)

In a large frying pan, melt butter over medium heat. When melted, add the onions and potatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover if you have a lid. I did not, so there you go.

Can’t wait!!!

Add garlic and chicken. Cook until potatoes are able to be sliced with only a little bit of resistance and the chicken is cooked through, while still stirring occasionally.

Add beans, green pepper, salt, and pepper, still stirring frequently.

Almost done…

When all is cooked through, add sour cream and stir constantly until mixed in and warmed through. Enjoy!

Are You Stuffed Like Zucchini?

Ah, yes, the promised stuffed zucchini recipe! I got a lovely, large zucchini from the community garden, along with a green pepper, and three small, purple onions and their greens, as well as a medium tomato. Ok. The medium tomato came from the grocery store and was looking a little worse for wear. What can I say? The garden tomatoes weren’t quite ready and I wanted to use up my store tomato before it spoiled. So sue me!

Chopped Goodies (mostly) from the Garden!

You will also need a 24 oz. jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce, 2 lbs. of lean ground beef, salt and pepper to taste, and 8 oz. of mozzarella cheese. Don’t forget the 9″ x 13″ pan and aluminum foil along with your favorite gf oil spray!

Peel the zucchini and slice it in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeded section and discard. Mix the ground beef with the chopped onions, peppers and tomatoes. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Fill the cavity of the zucchini with the beef mixture.

Can’t wait to finish and get it cooked! Yummy!

Top with spaghetti sauce and cheese. Bake at 350° F for 60 – 90 minutes, or until meat is done and zucchini is soft. Enjoy!

Here it is! Yummalicious!

Frustration

Yup, tears. That’s right. It was that kind of day.

I had a very bad day today.  I was going to write about the dinner I cooked tonight, but that will have to wait until Thursday.  I need to vent!

You may or may not know that children #’s 2, 3, 4 and I are currently homeless. We are living in a shelter. I am filling out mounds of paperwork trying to secure a place to live for the next year. It is scary and frustrating, not to mention depressing. All of this while crammed in a small room with three of my kiddos.

Oh how I long for this!

Don’t get me wrong. I am grateful to have a roof over our heads, a safe place to be, and the hope (however slight my depression tells me it is) of finding an apartment or house to rent. And yes, our three emotional support pups are with us too! It’s just so overwhelming.

Then today my speedometer decided it was done. Um… excuse me? How am I supposed to figure out how fast and/or slow I’m going? Great. Not only that, but my odometer crapped out as well! Seriously? I stopped in at my friendly neighborhood auto store, where they told me my car had 11 codes being set. However, since some of them repeated, it might only be 7! I’m like “Only 7! Well, hot dang! My car’s gonna run forever!!!”

Going nowhere…

Next, I stopped to pick up my mail and found that I had a letter from the court regarding checking my assets for child support. Seriously? I’m freaking homeless and he’s worried because he might be paying too much child support? How does he live with himself? 😡!

So, what to do? Well, first, I wrote some song lyrics. At least I think that’s what they’ll turn out to be. And then I had a stern talking to with God. So frustrated to love Him and serve Him and get shat on at every turn! 😡!

Where to from here? Prayers, my friends. Prayers. When it comes right down to it, I’d rather suffer for God and know where I’m headed at the end of this life, than get caught up in the greed and sin of this world and head the wrong way when I’m done. Wouldn’t you?

Please pray for me and my family!

Ratatouille, Anyone?

Ratatouille – topped pub burger… yummmmm!

Hello, readers! I know it has been a long time since I last posted a recipe for you. Our family has been in a transitional time, seeking out new housing options with very little money, so cooking lovely, gluten free recipes for you, was not on the docket.

So, a couple nights ago, I decided to make a simple, yet nutritious meal for the kiddos and me. It was a ratatouille – style topping for some delicious, thick pub burgers that I had gotten on a good sale.

Here is what I used:

2 large, sweet onions

1, large (but not huge!) zucchini (about 12 inches long)

1, 30 oz. can of diced tomatoes

Peel the onions and cut them in half. Slice the onions with the grain and place in your large frying pan. Save about 1/4 of your onions to flavor your pub burgers (unless you aren’t doing the burger in which case you can cook them all!) Cook on medium heat with a little butter (or vegan margarine for you lovely vegans and vegetarians!) for about 10 minutes.

Peel and slice zucchini into 1/4 inch rounds. Add these to the cooking onions. Fry, stirring frequently, until onions and zucchini are opaque. Add tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano. I used approximately 2 Tbsp. salt, 2 tsp. black pepper, and 1 Tbsp. dried oregano, but you can use whatever tastes good to you. I didn’t measure any of it, since I don’t have my measuring spoons with me, so you’ll just have to do with that what you will.

While the zucchini mixture is cooking, put your 1/4 onion into a smaller frying pan and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add pub burgers on top of the onions and cook, flipping every 2 – 4 minutes until they are done to your liking.

Top done burgers with ratatouille topping and enjoy! This fed four of us quite large servings. Yummmmm!

My plate!

Summer Fun!!!

What do you like to do for fun in the summer? We like to visit water parks and theme parks. We have a pass that gets us into two water parks and a theme park, of which we are making good use.

Today we visited a water park and the theme park. We started out at the water park. The water was a bit chilly, but we persevered. The wave pool was warmer and we enjoyed that.

We ended up at the theme park, where I got the good news that the ex is finally cooperating with the short sale of the house! Yay! This is awesome news! Praise the Lord!

What this means is that in a few months after we close, my credit will be good again! Yay! Then we can get more stable housing. In the meantime, please pray. We will probably end up in an apartment, but we’ll live. It’s better than the car!!!!

Thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts. Keep them up!

Another note: theme and water parks can be a bit overstimulating, but I have noticed a few low sensory zones here. This is an awesome addition to the parks for families with disabilities. Child #3 can get overwhelmed quickly, so by having these zones, tension is very helpfully to diffused.

Sorry for no pictures! I took some, but WordPress was not cooperating and neither was my phone, so we are pictureless tonight. Forgive me!

That’s it, guys! Thanks for the time you took to read this and your good thoughts and prayers!

The Rope’s End

End of the rope

Swinging, swinging

From the Rope’s End

Just a little more

Let go.

It can’t hurt more than it already does.

Too much pain!

Too much suffering!

Only the evil really thrive!

Where is He?

Just. Let. Me. Go.

As you may or may not know, our family has been going through many tough times. We are currently homeless, seeking options, and finding no solutions, even temporary ones.

I just finished a talk with the great depressor, who told me, basically, what a loser I am and how nothing is ever going to work out for me. Thank you, mother.

So, I am sitting here in tears, wondering where God is in all of this. If He doesn’t give us more than we can handle, then what the hell? Pulling in front of a speeding vehicle just sounds better and better. What good am I to anyone?

I’m so tired of struggling while my evil ex gets off scott free. Do you know what the court did? After he has been screwing me on child support for about three months or so, they just tacked on another $50/month – that’s right, you did not misread it – $50 per month, otherwise known as $12.50 per week! to his payment. What? At this rate, he’ll be paying for his oops for the next three years!

Why is it that evil flourishes in this cock-eyed world? Where is the love? Where is God? How is it that there is so much suffering for the good?

Please, people, if you care about me at all, send me your love and prayers. I am in a really dark place. I feel there is no where to go. I know God loves me, but I can’t find Him here. Where are you, God? Please help me!