Life or something like it

This week has been rough….

Since last Friday, I’ve been slammed with the worst sinus/upper respiratory/ear infection.I am as of now- not completely over my sickness, but I can report that I feel less like the plague. My husband has been a life-saver; after a year and a half of marriage I think we’ve finally got the “in sickness, and in health” thing down especially after this week.

Early Easter morning I woke up from a dead sleep with a piercing ear ache. I slept through the alarm, woke up 20 minutes late but was still determined to go to church. I’m not exactly sure how I managed to get there, with the way I was feeling, but I made it all in one piece…. at least externally.

After service, I still felt terrible that I opted to stay home and sleep instead of eating lunch…. not just lunch- Easter lunch. No ham, no crescent rolls, no fruit cobbler….. It made my heart sad.

Monday rolled around and I still felt like death warmed over. I spent the morning self-medicating with what I later found out was 3 and 4-year-old sinus relief medicine that we had  stashed in our cabinets; it provided no relief.  Thankfully, my husband, who had the day off, didn’t mind taking his sick wife to the clinic.

Kleenex, Powerade, and Mucinex have been my best friends this week

Before we left, I got a call from my Mom; I thought she was calling to check up on me since I left a very terrible sounding message on her voicemail the day before, but I later found out that she was calling for other reasons.

My cousin, A., had been in a head-on collision; the other driver, a young mother, didn’t make it.

Bad news: It’s just not something you can ever prepare yourself for. Learning what had happened made me feel numb and powerless; knowing that I was here in Knoxville while my family was in Michigan. I felt defeated and weak in body and soul. I knew that there was nothing that I could do except pray, and even in my state, it felt like not enough.

The night of the accident, I got a call from a family member that told me more about A.’s condition; that he had been severely injured from the neck down, including a lacerated liver, but had no head injuries to speak of even though he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt.

I don’t know why bad things happen. I won’t lay claim to know how God works, but I know he does. It’s a tested confidence that I am even more aware of. That even when bad times come, He is still God, still good, and still in control. I believe what it says, “that he does all things for good”, that even while  this terrible freak accident that is still fresh, I believe completely that there will be good that comes out of it. I don’t know what it is, but I can only hope that in this season that even in our weakness we’ll be made strong.

He has never, in any point in my life, given me an opportunity to doubt. His love is alive and real, and I know that just as much as my heart hurts for my family, His aches too. Not just for mine, but for the woman who lost her life as well; God’s love doesn’t discriminate.

Ode to an Avocado

So this isn’t exactly a Tasty Tuesday post.

Any of you who knows me outside of cyberspace, knows I love food…. no not love- adore. People can have love affairs with books, shoes, clothes, their spouses (*wink wink*); I have mine with food (and well my hubby–but that’s for another post). Give me a home-grown tomato, crispy bacon and a few leaves of lettuce, and I’d be a happy girl.

Julia Childs- I'm glad someone else realized how memorizing the smell of melted butter can be.

It’s been quite warm here in Knoxville, unseasonably warm, which means the skirts and sandals have come out early, as well as the farmer’s markets. Regrettably, we have yet to venture out to one, but it is in the works and I am eagerly awaiting it. There’s just something about fresh produce that still has the smell of earth on it. I like the idea of being able to shake the hand of the farmer that grew my food. Things just taste better when you know they’re grown with care.

I have been eating a lot of Avocados recently; they’re delicious, and high in nutrients. Can I just say, I love when I find out that something I like to eat is actually good for me, like with dark chocolate, being able to justify that second piece is better than a nap on Sunday.

I haven’t ventured with many  recipes with avocados yet, my standard has been a killer guacamole recipe I found on Pinterest (if you don’t have a Pinterest account please do, it’s amazing); I am all for simple recipes, and all this little recipe entails is slicing the avocado, adding lime juice, dehydrated onion and diced tomatoes, and dumping it in the food processor. Easy peasy.

Good…. but I want more! So this is where you come in dear readers, post me your avocado recipes! I want them if their complicated or cave-man easy, but please post them!

UPDATE: If you get Pinterest, you can follow me at therockerswife!

Another Apology…..

So… it looks like “Tasty Tuesday” might be every other Tuesday. It’s not my plan to post just don’t just throw together at the last-minute; this is fun not forced. And I don’t want to post anything that I haven’t at least made once before. It is a commitment for me to do this; I don’t want to turn it into something that I leave half-finished. So I’m sorry if you came here on Tuesday expecting to see something yummy. I hope this doesn’t mean you’ve completely lost faith in me.

I do have some plans to keep me blogging though. I know I’m just starting out and my ideas might be haphazard- I promise I am doing more than just staring at a blinking cursor.

More later….. I promise!

Allison

Random Act

I’m not sure what made me do it.

Last Sunday, on my way home from church I did something I have never done before.

I gave water to a homeless man on the side of the road.

I have to be honest and say that my first reaction was to lock my door, even though I was four cars away from him, even with my husband in the car in front of me, I still felt uncomfortable.

I admit I wanted to ignore him. But something in my heart welled up. I glanced up as I saw him retrieve a dollar bill from a car in the next lane. I felt ashamed.

He looked old. And sad. And so desperate.

I wondered about who he was, if he had a wife and grandkids, and what had happened that cause him to stand outside on the exit ramp in nearly 80 degree weather. Who was I to judge him?

I decided I had to do something, but I knew I had no money. I had nothing to give him, and it made me feel sick; in my rear view mirror I saw the sunlight reflecting off of a pack of water left over from a road trip I took with John from the day before. There wasn’t a second more to think- I mashed my foot harder on the brake pedal and did a matrix backbend to grab the water. I rolled down my window and stuck the bottle of water out , “Hey! You want some water?”

Matrix backbend- quiet a feat if you're still strapped in your seat belt.

He ran over. I wondered how he was going to react, if he would be mad that I didn’t have any money, I prepared myself for the worst. I knew that Johnny was in front of me so if anything happened he’d be right there. When the man finally reached my window all I could muster out was “It’s not opened”, I felt like an absolute idiot.

“Thank you, thank you so much”, with tears welling he reached for the water. I looked up to see the cars in front of me starting to pull away. I didn’t look back , and I don’t remember if he said anything else as I drove away. I was tearing up too as I turned on our street. “It’s not a big deal,” I kept thinking, “I just gave what I could,”. But I realized it was to that man. And that even as an insecure unemployed college graduate I felt so unequipped to do anything; I had been so wrapped up in my issues that I couldn’t think of anyone else but myself, but in that moment, I had exactly what I needed to give away. Maybe, the truth is I always have.

When I got out of the car at our house, my husband was beaming. I admit I almost wanted him not to notice what I had done, but when he gave me a big hug, I knew that he had.

“Sweetheart, you make my heart happy!”

I don’t know what made me do it. I didn’t do it for brownie points or to get noticed, or even for a favor, I knew there was nothing this man had to give back to me. I did it because it was the right thing to do; I believe more that you can get fulfillment from a small random act of kindness then you can from  anything monetary.

It is so easy to go about your day oblivious of what’s around you, believe I know, but it is so hard to look for opportunities to give. So dear Reader, whoever you are, let me urge you with this: Aesop, in one of his tales wrote that “No act of kindness, however small, is wasted”. So do it. Go out of your way to show some kindness to someone. It’s radical.

An Apology….

Hey all, First of all I wanted to apologize for not posting anything sooner. I’ve had a slight annoying setback. A few weeks ago, my laptop decided to “kick the bucket” in a very dramatic fashion. So the post I had been working on for a week went up in flames, along with all my files. It was a fun day….

The dreaded dreaded blue screen of death....

But RIGHT NOW- I am on a beautiful refrubished Macbook Pro- thanks to my amazing husband, Johnny, who I promised I would treat this Mac like a newborn. I’m getting used to it; things are a little different but I’m loving the changes. But I can promise that I’ll have the next Tasty Tuesday up and running next week….

Much love,

Allison.

It is so hard to keep a kitty photo ready… but treats help!

Three seconds is apparently not long enough….

GIMMIE THE TREAT!!!!

Here’s to new beginnings!

I’ve thought for a long while about starting a blog; I know this seems like a small feat, I mean it seems like everyone and their grandmother has one. There’s something like 6.7 Billion people on this earth, and more than 156 million of us have blogs (thank you, Wikipedia). Well… plus 1, hopefully. Writing one is seems  so revealing; you get a glimpse into another person’s life, their beliefs, their hopes and dreams, their interests, their reflection of the world. Some blogs are really good- they’re honest, heartfelt, inspiring, and sometimes extremely funny.

I want this little piece to be mine; a place where I can share what I love about my crazy corner of life, and maybe let you share too.  So what better way to start then share 10 things about me.

TEN THINGS PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME (and some that a few do):

1. Yes, I am 25 years old and absolutely terrified of clowns.
   

   Stephen King- I hate you.

2. Both of my middle fingers are crooked.
3. I share my birthday with three relatives: My great Uncle John (truly a fantastic man!), my beautiful Aunt Tracy, and my second Cousin, Marie. And uhh.. Bill Clinton.
4. I can’t watch any commercial with people eating. The sound of amplified chewing and smacking makes my skin crawl.
5. I am a”transplant”. Born in the great state of MI, but I call Knoxville, Tennessee home. Good old rocky-top.
6. Chelsea Clinton and I were both married on the same day, July 31st.
7. Cash & Cari is one of my favorite shows. I love that she makes the old new and hip again. She has really inspired me to start my own projects, because of her I call myself a craftaholic. It’s all her fault…..
8. I have a crazycrazy calico named Sushi.
9. I secretly dream of being a singer/banjo player in a bluegrass band. I already have a band name picked out!
10. It honestly took me since October to get up the guts to write this blog.

I’m going to try to do my absolute best to make this blog unique, and to update it as frequently as possible. I want this place to share what new projects I’m working on, new recipes I’ve discovered, and things that I find interesting. I can’t promise this blog is going to be an award-winner (do they even give blogs awards?), but what I can promise is that this will be an adventure.

Allison.