Easy BBQ Chicken Salad, Tea Party & a Child's Thought

Recently the Hubs has taken on some extra stuff at work.  While I know it is only for a season, it is sometimes hard to remember that it won't last forever when the day seems like it will never end. (I know there are some of you who can really feel me on that one!)  In the last couple of days I've tried some different things to see if I can help our family experience a more peaceful evening.  Here's how it went down:

YESTERDAY - Strategy: give them something productive & calm to look forward to after nap.

I told the kids as they went down for nap that when they woke up we'd have a tea party.  This was actually motivation for them! They slept well and actually woke up well too.  I told them to wait on their beds until I called them upstairs to the balcony for tea. (Bonus points to me for thinking of a cool place to have a tea party on a rainy day!)

I made some caffeine free blueberry tea, put some berries and graham crackers on plastic plates and took it all upstairs on a silver tray.  When the kids saw the tray, they were beside themselves.  We sat and sipped tea and looked at the rain together.  I don't know about you, but my kids are usually starving when they wake up from nap - which makes for a miserable time between nap and dinner.  And who can cook anything under all that stress?! This little tea party made a great transition to play time and gave me some peace and actual quiet to get dinner ready.  Genius, right?!


TODAY - Strategy: get a simple, healthy dinner ready with minimal mess.

I've slacked off at working on my weight and realizing that the baby is going to be 2 in a couple of weeks has reminded me that I really want my body back.  Whatever that means.  Just not what it is now.  So I've been trying to make dishes with a lot more veggies and a lot less carbs.  I want to share with you a dish that I've made twice this week that meets my "healthy choices" standards and requires so little prep and clean up that I can actually enjoy a peaceful meal.  It's my BBQ Chicken Salad!

Not in the picture since it was already in my bowl when I
thought of taking a picture: lettuce, cilantro, avocado. 

Here's what you need:
- Lettuce (I use anywhere from a few leaves to a whole head of romaine - just depends on how many you feed)
- BBQ Sauce (I got my Sweet Baby Ray's for $0.99 a bottle before Super Bowl - stocked up!)
- Chicken (Earlier this week I shredded up Costco rotisserie leftovers, today was Costco canned chicken)
- Can of corn
- Can of black beans
- and whatever else sounds good from veggie drawer or pantry (cilantro, red onion, jicama, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, avocados)


I shred (or open) the chicken into a bowl, squeeze a little bit of BBQ sauce in and mix it up.  I microwave it for about a minute.  I don't know why... something about it being hot before I eat it seems right, but I suppose if it is already cooked, you could just eat it?  Next, I chop/tear and wash the lettuce and throw it in a large bowl.  Rinse and drain the corn and black beans; throw them ontop of the lettuce.  Chop any veggies you might want to place in the salad; throw them on top.  Toss in the chicken and toss the whole thing together.  You can leave out the bottle of sauce for folks to add more to their liking. Just remember that it does contain sugar... so be careful not to indulge too much if you are trying to watch your weight ;)

Simple, right?

Since it was sooooo easy, I decided to make a soothing ambience to see if that would make for a peaceful dinner.  I set the table and made the kids wait in the living room.  I turned off the majority of the lights and lit some floating candles in a bowl for the table.  And I turned on some peaceful worship music.  Can I tell you what a difference that made?!  I don't know if the kids were more calm because it was new or because these things actually worked, but I am willing to find out.  Dinner still had messes and sibling quabbles, but it was far more pleasant than usual.  I even had a pleasant conversation with kids about the candles.  I asked questions about what they looked like, what they did, how they would feel, etc. (Very educational of me!)  Here's where the biggest blessing of the night came in.  D$ said, "Dios hizo todo la luz. Y el nos dio todo la luz que tiene." [Translation: God made all the light. And he gave us all the light that he has.]

I don't think my son realized what he was saying (though I am impressed that looking at a candle made him think about God making light and giving it to us out of his goodness). What really struck a chord with me is the idea of God being creator of all light, all good, all hope and God giving us ALL that he has.  What a profound privilege it is that we are given his light, his goodness and his hope.  And what an awesome responsibility we have to give it to others - as freely as he gives it to us.  We were created for this.

How humbling is it to us that we are the bearers of HIS light?  I don't know about you, but I often feel like I am the worst vessel that God could choose to carry his light.  And what is more humbling is that somehow others can see how amazing his light, his hope, his goodness is - through my facades, through my messiness, through my humanity.  God is so good that his light, his goodness, his hope can be seen, even through someone like me.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
 2 Corinthians 4:7

Antique Mirror Project

On the day I made my daughter's Hair Clip Frame, I went ahead and spray painted a few more things that I had hoped to hang on my daughter's wall one day.  One of those things was a vintage/antique (Note: I still don't know what term to use.  Any help on that would be greatly appreciated!) mirror that I found in my grandparents' garage the last time I was there.  I am sad to say I don't know the story behind it, but figured since it would be hanging in my daughter's room rather than collecting dust in the garage that my Nonnie (Rest her soul) wouldn't mind me taking it and spray painting it.

It is one of those cool mirrors that has the mercury spots starting to show and the frame itself is very ornate.  I did a quick search to see if I was destroying some precious piece by layering on a couple coats of bright paint, but came up empty handed.  So I went with the idea that it was better off being used and bright than "antiquely" original and left to collect dust.

Since it had been professionally framed, I couldn't remove the mirror for the paint process.  I went ahead and slid some paper under the frame in a gap between it and the mirror and taped it down.  I did the process a couple times for good measure.  Then I took it outside and sprayed away.  After a couple of coats, it turned out beautifully!  I am so pleased.

Here is the mirror with tape removed alongside the other projects of the day.  I am only sorry that I didn't snap a before to show you.

I have a few more things I am working on for the wall above my daughter's bed.  When it all comes together I will post a picture.  She will be 2 in a couple of months and has lived in a room with her brother since she was born.  I really wanted to get something in the room that was special for her - something that let her know that she wasn't just an afterthought.  A surprise - YES - but an afterthought - NO!  I bought a reproduction of an art piece when she was just a baby that has kind of inspired this.  It has some words on it that are taken  from this passage of scripture:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19

So I pray that for not only my daughter, but for you today - That you may know the depth of the love of the Savior and be filled to the point of overflowing with this amazing God!

Hope Out of Hatred

Today, I have a lot more hope than I had yesterday.  Though it was fun watching Oakland from my balcony as its citizens set off more fireworks than I have ever seen, and while it was amazing to watch the enormous explosives my neighbors set off over my garage, these weren't the cause of my increasing hope.  The cause was actually something horrific that happened before any fireworks hit the sky.

One of my neighbors fireworks

I had run down to the local drug store to pick up some last minute items for our little bbq.  As I got out of the car, I heard a man on a megaphone yelling something.  Being very familiar with the street corner evangelists around our city, I expected to hear words like, "Repent", "Salvation", "Sin", etc.  But as I turned my head, I saw the man with the megaphone marching across the parking lot, carrying a hat full of bagged cookies and the men following him were doing the same.  I realized that they must be having a fundraiser of sorts.  As he neared, the man with the megaphone said, "Black babies and brown babies shouldn't be hung out in the streets."

Now, my initial thoughts on this man and his cookie-carrying followers had shifted.  As disturbing as his words were, I began to think that he was trying to raise support to stop violence against brown & black children.  (Because why else would someone be marching through a parking lot, carrying cookies and shouting in a megaphone?!)  If he tried to stop me, I began for formulate my out... "Sorry, I can't financially give today, but I do believe that all people are loved by God and I pray against harm to any children in the world."

As I turned to walk into the store, the man walked right toward me and shouted in his megaphone, "It should be the white babies hung out in the streets instead!"

Yeah, it was like getting the wind knocked out of me and being too shocked to even process how evil, how racist and how hateful those words actually were.

I made it through the store, bravely walked to my car and drove toward home.  As I was driving, emotions started welling up.  Who talks about any babies like that?  It doesn't matter what color someone is - you NEVER talk about hanging a baby out in the street!  It doesn't matter what you have been through in your life or any hatred or injustice you have experienced.  It really doesn't.

I pulled into my driveway to see the miraculous job my husband did cleaning out our garage and tried to put on an excited face to let him know how amazing of a job he had done.  But it didn't last that long - I broke down.  I just sobbed.  SOBBED.  And through my tears, I relived the story.

After talking it through, I think God began the healing in my heart.  What that man said, whether it was to me because I am a white girl that crossed his path, or whether he was going to say it anyway, he was just a glimpse of the hurt in this world.  He is a symptom-bearer of the evil in the world.

Our view of the citizens of Oakland's free fireworks show

But the good news is this: God is at work redeeming His people!  This man, and his evil words are not too far from the redeeming hand of God.  I have HOPE that God is at work in the world!  God invites me to be a part of this work - to not live into the hatred that was shown to me - but to live into the HOPE of a loving God who is turning the world upside down with his Love.