Hi, may I help you?

Here in Kansas City, we have a chain of BBQ restaurants that is famous for the greeting each customer receives. As you walk up to the counter, the energetic folks at Gates BBQ will shout, “Hi! May I help you?”

Although, to be honest, it sounds a tad bit like, “Hahmehaheppyou!”

Last week, we spent several days in the South. And I lost count of the times I was asked, “May I help you?” The difference down there? It wasn’t followed up with some smoked meat and fries tossed onto a platter and pushed down the cafeteria line. No, what came next was outstanding customer service and, more often than not, amazing food.

(Not that I’m complaining about Gates by any means. I’m just saying that our Southern eating experiences were something completely different.)

I’m so accustomed to mediocre or even lousy service that for the first couple of days, I honestly thought we were “lucking out.” It actually took me about four days to realize we weren’t just reaping the rewards of some good restaurant karma; we were experiencing that wonder we hear about, but rarely get to see firsthand up here in the, ahem, North.

We were experiencing Southern hospitality.

And ooooh, I loved it! Southern hospitality – from the friendly waiter at Chevy’s and the apologetic waitress at Flipper’s who gave us a discount after the cook put sausage on the sausage-free pizza we ordered to the helpful hotel desk guy who drew me a map of (wrong) driving directions from Orlando to Tallahassee and my Aunt Roz who welcomed us into her home and offered “something cold to drink,” which meant apple juice or Coke – works for me.

For more tips on what works, visit We Are THAT Family.

And for a few vacation photos, check out my Flickr albums.

Here's the thing: I like muffins.

But I don't like baking. Well, that's not true. I don't mind baking. It's just that it takes so much time. And measuring. And ingredients.

Okay, I don't like baking. Cooking, yes. Baking, not so much.

I manage just fine, though. Don't be feeling sorry for me. Brownies from a box mix are delicious enough to be my specialty (quit laughing!), and rice krispy treats don't require me to turn on the oven at all. Neither do chocolate pudding pies.

But there's something about a muffin. Or a biscuit. Or a roll. Really, any bread will do.

My dad is a big fan of bread. So growing up, our meals were never complete without some sort of bread. My mom taught me how to make biscuits from scratch, several kinds of muffins, garlic bread, banana bread and more.

But, sadly, I've abandoned my cook from scratch ways.

Thankfully, I'm obviously not the only cook who prefers convenience over scratchiness. Because you can get a mix for just about anything.

And my favorite is the muffin mix. Specifically, the one that says "just add water." At less than a dollar per mix, it's easy to stock up and have them on hand.


I was glad I'd done just that last night. Mark had the night off, so I actually had to got to cook dinner for us. And a packet of muffin mix was quick and easy - and rounded out our meal.

Please, don't ask about a vegetable. Surely the onions in the cheesy chicken count?

Do you like to bake? What's your favorite type of bread? Or you a non-carb type of person?

For more kitchen and cooking stuff, check out A Southern Fairytale and Balancing Beauty & Bedlam.

Me, Myself & Lies, Week 3 Recap

I missed you all on tonight's chat! Here are some questions. Let's discuss in the comments.

• Do you have issues? (I sure do!)
• Does your issue define you or refine you?
• How can your relationship with or your understanding of God make a difference in your self-talk, when it comes to your issue?

In the video for this week, Jennifer talked about a survey she took of her 3,000 newsletter readers. Those women responded about their various issues, and the top two were self-image and rejection (or a desire to be accepted). Can you relate to that? (I sure can!)

Tell me what you thought about these last two weeks of the study. I'll be honest: I haven't finished the homework for Week 3. But I really want to hear about what God's been teaching you over these last couple of weeks. Please chat with us in the comments!

I'm back.

And a teensy bit tired. But that's nothing a night in my own bed won't cure. I can't guarantee I'll be up to my blogging norm around here this week, but we will have our Bible study chat tonight.

So, please, if you're interested in talking (or reading) about Weeks 2 and 3 of Me, Myself & Lies, join me here at 8 p.m. CST.

Chat with you tonight!

Have I mentioned that Lee Greenwood makes me cry?

A few years ago, my good friend Triple's husband was sent to Iraq with the Army National Guard. I'm not sure I really breathed the whole time he was gone, so I'm not sure how she managed it.

He came home safely. And he came home a hero.

I didn't have a blog back then, or believe you me, I'd have told you all about it. So I'm telling you today: My friend Cory served our country, and he is a hero. Thank you, Cory, from the bottom of my heart.

And thank you to all the men and women who serve, and everyone who waits for them at home. When I think about the sacrifices that are made every day, well, I just can't get over it. And really, I shouldn't get over it. Our armed forces and their families are incredible, and I'm so very thankful for what they do.

Which explains why I tear up every time I hear those words ("If tomorrow all the things were gone, I'd worked for all my life. And I had to start again, with just my children and my wife . . .").

Indeed, Lee Greenwood, God bless the USA. And happy 4th of July!

When it rains, it pours.

I expected to see rain every day in Florida; that's just how it is in the summer. But I didn't expect it to pour on the day we went to the beach.

Which it did.

But the good news is that we went again today and it was bright and sunny. (Of course, that means my back is now fried, but that's what happens when you forget to have someone put sunscreen on those parts you can't see...)

I'll have pictures of Annalyn on the beach for the first time sometime next week. Until then, you'll have to settle for our feet:

Is that a weird picture? I couldn't decide. I promise I'll share better ones soon. Have a good Friday, everyone!

In our house, we rock . . . softly . . .

When my daughter was a newborn, my mom gave me several classical music CDs.

But we didn’t need them. No, we were all set – with Chicago’s Greatest Hits and a Chris Tomlin/Matt Redman mix tape. (Okay, technically it was a mix CD, but that doesn’t really have the same ring to it.)

See, I’d read in one of the many parenting books that graced my nightstand during those early months that babies need loud sounds in order to be soothed. In essence, my baby needed to rock out.

So Chicago it was. And…I have to admit…Air Supply. Don’t laugh! They rock…softly…

The thing is that cheesy as it might be, there was something special about singing my daughter to sleep with the words, “Even the nights are better now that we’re here together. Even the nights are better since I found you.”

It got me through some late nights, that’s all I’m saying.

Music has been a part of our bond since the beginning. (And yes, it’s likely that my daughter will blame me for her secret love of Air Supply, just as I blame my own mother. It’s a cycle and it will not be broken.) I’m happy to report, though, that our special songs have evolved from elevator music.

There was the counting song, making diaper changes bearable. And then we had the Veggie Tales song, which made my daughter smile so big I was able to stuff one more spoonful of cereal into her mouth. Recently, though, we’ve officially graduated to Children’s Music.

These days, my daughter doesn’t just listen to music or smile at her favorite songs. No, that funny girl dances to her tunes and even tries to sing along. And as she learns her words, I’m so thankful we’ve moved on to uplifting choruses and praise songs like those found on Praise Baby CDs and DVDs.

Although I’m not gonna lie. I’m sure we’ll be “Lost in Love” and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” at some point – I just think I’ll save that for her less formative years.

Originally posted on February 26, 2009, at Praise Baby Blog.

How do you avoid drowning in the ocean of social media?

“Of course!” “I’d love to!” “Sure, no problem.” “Absolutely, yeah, I’ll do it.”

I don’t know how many times I’ve said or written these words, only to realize days, weeks or months later that either I have completely dropped the ball on whatever project I agreed to do or I am overwhelmed with the stress involved in completing said task by its deadline.

How about an example, you say? Well, let’s take this blog post for one.

Writing a blog post for Chicks Who Click seemed like a simple request. And I didn’t even consider saying no, for two reasons. One, I’m always looking for ways to promote my personal blog, and guest posting is a well-documented method to do this. And two, I had the opportunity to attend Chicks Who Click in Kansas City thanks to a kind scholarship from Metzger & Associates. So I could hardly turn down their request for a blog post.

But when I turned the page on my calendar to June . . . and remembered that I had yet to write for the Chicks Who Click blog . . . my heart just sank. I frantically opened my e-mail and realized I’d gotten the request for a post almost three weeks ago. In today’s social media world of immediacy and urgency, I’m pretty sure that’s about two and a half weeks too long.

Am I the only one who’s done this sort of thing? Or are you finding yourself in deeper social media water every day, too?

Chicks Who Click was the third social media conference I’ve attended in the past four months, and with each meeting, I find more blogs to read, more people to follow, more tools to use and more topics to write about. During the classes and panel discussions, I feel my head swimming with ideas and energy and motivation.

But to continue the water analogy (because these things never get old), I arrive home feeling as if I’ve spent all day at the pool. You know what I mean, right? Drained, sleepy and, most likely, hungry.

Because the thought of actually doing all these things? Using the tools? Connecting with the people? Well, it’s utterly exhausting! And when you add them to an already busy life – filled with work, family, friends and hobbies – it can really seem like too much to handle.

So my question for you is this: How do you manage to stay afloat?

Obviously, if I’m forgetting guest blog posts and putting off work projects to clear out my Google Reader (Oh, I didn’t mention that one? Well, please ignore that should you happen to be the person who signs my paycheck!), then I am not your role model for a balanced life.

However, I have been doing this long enough that I know a little bit about what works for me and what other people have said works for them. Here are a few tips and ideas:

• Have a designated time for each online task. For instance, only comment on blogs on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
• Similarly, have a time limit for online tasks. For me, this means closing out my Google Reader at 9 a.m. and moving on to “real” work for the day. I also limit my Facebook sessions to once in the morning (before 9 a.m., of course) and once again after my daughter goes to bed in the evening.
• Take advantage of planning tools, such as TweetLater.com or Blogger’s ability to schedule posts for any time you choose.
• Only read blogs you really like. This is a tough one for me, because I feel there are certain blogs I must read to be current and relevant in both my professional and my personal life. My solution? Continue to subscribe to these “obligatory” blogs but just skim them. That’s all.
• Be brave enough to try new things . . . but also brave enough to decide when they’re not for you. Or when it’s time to take a break. I’ve seen more and more bloggers talk about taking a break or getting back to basics lately. And I think that’s great. For me, I only Twitter every other day or so.
• Consider instituting an Internet-free day. In order to keep the peace and my sanity, Sunday is my [mostly] computer-free day. That makes getting a Monday post up difficult, but having the mental and physical energy to give my family all my attention more than makes up for it.

What about you?

Do you write blog posts weeks in advance or every morning as soon as you get your coffee? Do you have a computer-free day, or do you go into withdrawal after just a couple hours away from a screen? How do you balance an active online life with an active offline life?

Originally posted on June 5, 2009, at Chicks Who Click.

"Be a work in progress” is not on my list.

Travel to Europe.
Learn to dive.
Sing professionally.
Have a Martha Stewart home.
Write a book.
Wear a Wonderbra.

I’m a big list-maker. I love me a good list. Sometimes, when I’m feeling overwhelmed, just the act of writing everything I need to do on a list relieves my stress. Seeing my life in words – accompanied by bullets, glorious bullets – is enough for me.

So it’s no surprise that, back in high school, I made a list of the things I’d like to accomplish in my life. In case you’re wondering, the lofty goals above are just a few of the items I have not yet accomplished.

What’s funny about this list – and for the record, I actually have two, one dated 1996 and another I believe was written a couple years later – is that I can look at the things I wrote down and acknowledge just how ridiculous some of them are.

But that doesn’t stop me from still wanting to do them or expecting myself to accomplish them.

Learn to dance, travel to New York City, earn a doctorate degree, solve a mystery. These are things I still think I could – and perhaps should – do. (Yes, solve a mystery. After reading and watching, literally, hundreds of suspense novels and cop/detective shows, a small – delusional – part of me believes I could do it. I mean, really, with the help of a good crime lab, who couldn’t?)

I know. It’s ridiculous. But it’s who I am.

And it’s who I’m not. At least for now. When I look at those lists, or even my 2009 Goals (also known as resolutions, but I call them goals because “resolutions” is so cliché), I see the person I want to be, the life I want to live. I see potential and possibility.

When I look in the mirror, though, I don’t always see that potential. And it’s those times that I have to remind myself that God’s not finished with me yet.

I may have gone to my class reunion overweight and still reeling from the news that I would soon be losing my job. I may have started a family before finishing my master’s degree and establishing a career, any career. And I may have a layer of dust insulating my entire house, the tiny house that is not as nice or new as any of my friends’.

But I’m still here. I’m still breathing. And God’s still working out His plan for me.

Because I am a work in progress.

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

Originally posted on March 26, 2009, at InProgress.

This is something I’ve learned – and have to keep learning! For more lessons learned, visit Musings of a Housewife.

I am not the poster child for Once a Month Cooking.

I can’t even begin to count how many times I have made a list of all the meals my family likes to eat, broken it down into ingredients and planned to make several of those meals ahead of time. I can, however, tell you how many times I’ve made a month’s worth of meals in one day to put in my freezer, and that is zero.

What’s that saying about a paved road and some good intentions and something?

Honestly, Once a Month Cooking is overwhelming to me. I’ve done the research, I’ve collected recipes, I’ve made my lists, I’ve even bought a package of about 50 foil pans (thank you, Sam’s Club). But when it comes down to picking a day to devote to cooking, I just can’t pull the trigger.

However, cooking a bunch of food every once in a while? That I can do.

So here are the top 10 steps to giving up on perfect and cooking a lot of stuff in one day to have later down the road.

1. Recruit your husband (or daughter or neighbor or mail man) to grill up a bunch of chicken. For me, “a bunch” was two bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
2. Buy and/or thaw 10 lbs. hamburger. Count them, because if you get halfway into your cooking and then realize you can only account for 9 lbs., well, I’m just saying you might get confused.
3. Remember that you only have one big pan, so plan your cooking accordingly. Non-meat items first, unless you really want to scrub the meat bits off in between rounds.
4. Chop up a bunch of onions. Do not attempt to photograph this activity, unless you a) are a professional or b) don’t mind having a shadow over the bottom half of your pictures.
5. Make one recipe of cheesy potato casserole and split between two pans. Wonder why the recipe insists that you fold the hashbrowns and cheese into the soup and sour cream mixture. I say if I wanted to fold, I’d be doing laundry, right?
6. Take a moment to note that it’s best not to do this cooking project late at night in the middle of the week all by yourself. I’m not saying you and a partner have to spend an entire Saturday doing this. But traveling the gamut of emotions, from gung-ho to determined to slaphappy (see #5) to dog tired, might be better saved for a project like painting the bathroom or organizing your collection of CDs and DVDs.
7. Brown 3 lbs. of hamburger at a time (twice). Add onion, garlic and basil. Portion 5 lbs. into 1-lb. plastic containers.
8. Boil water and add a box of pasta in your other pot that’s not really big enough but will have to do for tonight. Add remaining pound hamburger and spaghetti sauce. Pour into two pans.
9. Chop and slice the chicken. Portion as you’d like into plastic bags. Double bag it if you’re too cheap to buy actual freezer bags.
10. Brown 2 lbs. hamburger and add taco seasoning. Put last remaining pound of hamburger back into the fridge to use later.

If you add my husband’s grilling time to the time I spent on this project, it’s a total of less than three hours. And here’s what I got out of it:

• 2 pans baked pasta (I’ll just need to add mozzarella and bake for 30 minutes.)
• 2 pans cheesy potatoes (It’s nice to have a side dish other than corn or baked potatoes at the ready.)
• 2 lbs. taco meat
• 5 lbs. seasoned ground beef to use for spaghetti, pizza or sloppy joes
• 1 bag of sliced grilled chicken for fajitas
• 1 bag of chopped grilled chicken for pizza
• 1 bag of grilled chicken halves for my daughter’s dinners

That’s about a dozen meals, plus leftovers. And once I use that last pound of hamburger to make some mini meatloaves for my daughter, I’ll have at least that many healthy meals for her, too.

Did I accomplish everything I put on the list this time? Um, no. For one, I didn’t bake a single muffin, even though I was totally prepared.

And for two, I didn’t make chicken spaghetti, macaroni and cheese or cheesy chicken casserole. Maybe next time. Because while spending three hours doesn’t yield a full meals for a month, it makes dinnertime at our house a lot easier. And who doesn’t like easier?

And let’s be honest here. If I have chopped up grilled chicken just a microwave minute away, then I don’t really have an excuse for eating half a bag of tortilla chips with Velveeta and salsa and calling it dinner, now do I?

Not that I would do that, of course…

Originally posted on May 7, 2009, at Once a Month Mom.

For some yummy recipes that you don’t have to make in advance or in bulk, visit A Southern Fairytale.