I made a turkey sandwich.

Literally.  Am I becoming that mom??  The one who spends hours creating the perfect appealing lunch so that my kid will actually eat at school?

Probably not.  I don't have the patience or the creativity for that shit.

But I did start this awesome little Facebook group at the beginning of the school year!  I called it "What's for lunch, Mom?" and it's been a pretty big hit!

There are nearly 100 of us in there now and we post the lunches that we make for our little eaters every day.  These women are dedicated!  But seriously, even as the creator, I have gotten some serious inspiration from seeing what other moms are packing. #momlifeyo

Which leads me to the turkey sandwich.

With Thanksgiving being this Thursday and also my FAVORITE holiday {{a food lover's dream, AMIRIGHT?!}}, when my girlfriend posted a picture in our group of a sandwich cut out as a turkey, I KNEW I HAD TO MAKE IT!  

So I made a turkey sandwich....and then I cut a turkey out of the turkey sandwich.  It's pretty awesome.  I hope the girl doesn't expect this kind of amazingness on a regular basis, though.  She will be seriously disappointed. 😜

Here's how I made it:

Make the sandwich however your kid will eat it
Cut the "body" of the turkey out carefully, in kind of an egg shape
Cut straight lines out of the remainder of the sandwich, to make the tail feathers
I used muenster cheese and an orange snacking pepper to make the eyes, beak, and feet, but you could use whatever you have on hand!
Use a larger sized straw to punch out the whites of the eyes and then a smaller sized straw to punch out the centers
Carefully cut a beak and two little feet from the pepper and voila!
A turkey! #gobblegobble 

If you're a mama who could use some lunch inspiration, feel free to come join us over in our little group on Facebook!  Follow this link and request to join. 💕

What's for lunch, Mom??

Three years in the making

Oh hello....hi there!  I feel like a stranger writing here on my own blog.  Just looked at my last blog post...it's been three years to the day.  Wow!  How have I let the time pass so quickly?

I would love to recap you on all of the things that have happened over the last three years, but I'm afraid we would be here all day, so I'll tell you why I'm returning, instead.

You see, I believe that every once in a while, you go through a big, monumental "seasonal" change in life.  A shifting of your whole world.  Like the creation of a new continent.  It's not always easy, and can sometimes be quite painful, but there is joy and so much beauty in it, as well.  

I believe I'm going through one of these shifts right now.  I go back and forth on how I should embrace it, but I do know that it's happening and that I have to embrace it.  

Anyway, we took a family vacation earlier this month to visit Mitch's family on Maui.  It had been 9 years since he had gone home and we figured that it was about time that Sophi and I met the rest of the family, too.  Mitch jokes and says that he "had to make sure I was sticking around before taking me home to meet the family".  He's so funny. The honest truth{s} is/are, though, that we live entirely too comfortably here in our little bubble and we never made the effort to save to get back.  Until this month.  More on this later!

Since we returned home from Maui, I have had a hell of a time getting the bubbles in my brain back in order.  Lots of questions and new feelings.  I started thinking of this space again.  This was always a space where I could just be ME.  Outloud.  It was always the perfect way for me to arrange my bubbles and also to share my struggles/triumphs/mess with you.

So, I'm back!  YAY!  Yay...right???

I'm changing the name of the blog and going to be doing some major construction around here, but I have to get my blogger toes wet again and remember how to steer this ship...or something like that. ;) I didn't want to hold off on writing any longer, though. 

Sit tight and enjoy this ride with me!

Oh yeah, here's us now :)

Kammi, The Hot Mess.

Do you ever feel like there is just so much on your chest that you need to get off and you don't know where to start?

That's me right now.

I know I've been talking a lot lately about how we are facing another deployment and it is getting closer and closer.  I know that some of you are probably sick of hearing about it, but whatever.  This is me.  This blog is my place to be happy and to be sad when I need to be.

I've had my sad moments, like I always do, but for the most part lately, I've been ok.

Except...I'm not really ok.

My head is a jumbled mess.  I have things that I want to write about and I just can't untangle the good things from the bad things in my mind right now.

I'm strong.  For my family.  I always will be.  But there is that part of me that just wants to fall apart.

This will be our third deployment in three years.  I should be used to this by now, right?  It has always been the same thing.  I am a mess leading up to deployment and then once he has been gone for a little while, things cool down and I'm good.

This time has been different, though.  This time, I've gone back and forth between being ok and being a mess.  My emotions are like a light switch when The Sophster get ahold of it...off...on...off...on...etc.

Gah!  It makes me feel looney!

I'm struggling with how sad The Sophster will be.  I hate that so many of her loved ones are in and out of her life.  Her sister and Bryson live in Louisiana, her Daddy goes on deployment, her Aunt Janine lives in Germany.  She gets to hold onto them just long enough to be super close and then they are ripped away.  While I love how in tune she is with her emotions, it makes me really sad when she says "I really miss my Sissy {Daddy, Aunt Janine, Brysee}".  We talk about how those people don't ever leave because they want to, it's because of work, school, etc.  She seems to get it.  Except, Daddy comes home from work every day now.  And he won't soon.  Not for almost eight long months.  That's somewhere around 245 days.  That's a life time for a two year old.

I'm struggling with the fact that this will be our longest deployment yet.  I'm now struggling with the 12 hour shifts that The Mister will be working {probably} until they leave.  There isn't enough time.  There aren't enough kisses or hugs or smells or snuggles or feels.  There aren't enough date nights left...there may not be anymore date nights.

Basically, what I'm saying is, I'm trying.  I'm trying to be here and to write.  But my posts may be sloppy and jumbled and all over the place for now.  So I just want to prepare you.  But don't worry, I never stay like this for long.

WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesday

Can I tell you guys a secret?

I have had ZERO inspiration to write this last week....and I apologize.

It's just that, between Mitch being on leave these last two weeks, deployment coming up in a matter of days, and planning our Thanksgiving feast...I haven't had much energy to put onto this blog.

I did do some cooking this week, however.  So hang with me because I made some of our favorite things to eat this week and also some new things!

Can you believe that I cooked dinner FOUR times this week?!  That hasn't happened in what seems like forever!


I have a confession...I have no idea how to work a grill.  There.  I said it.  I bought The Mister this fancy schmancy infrared gas grill for Christmas last year and I have no clue how to work the thing.  He is the grill master.

What this means for us, is that, mama doesn't usually eat steak at home when The Mister is deployed.  This week, I demanded sweetly requested, that we grill out some big juicy rib-eyes!

I absolutely love that we can find 100% grass fed beef at Target now!!  We love the Thousand Hills Cattle Company beef.  I always buy their hotdogs for The Sophster and the ground beef for my Veggie Spaghetti with meatballs, but on occasion, we love to treat ourselves with their rib-eyes. And they never disappoint!

With the steak, I made our favorite brussies with bacon and also glazed some carrots.  This was something new for me, because glazing carrots used to mean lots and lots of brown sugar {which is now a no-no}.  I didn't do things much different this time, though.  Just used coconut palm sugar, a couple of dates {chopped}, and some cinnamon in place of the brown sugar.  I don't have step by step pictures, so you'll have to use that imagination of yours!

• Chop carrots
• Put carrots in pot with about a half inch of water, 3 Tbsp grass fed pure butter, 2 rounded tsp of coconut palm sugar, two dates, shake of cinnamon, and about a tsp of kosher salt.
• Bring to a boil
• Cover and reduce to simmer for about 8 minutes
• Remove lid and crank the heat back up to a med-high until water is evaporated, carrots are cooked, and sauce is ooey-gooey and delicious!
• Don't let your husband eat all of them! 

Somebody couldn't keep her fingers out of mommy's brussies long enough for me to get a picture!

Thursday night, The Sophster and I went to visit some friends in the hospital who just became first time parents!  Yay!  We spent more time than I had originally anticipated up there, so I had to come home and throw something together quickly because we were all HAAANGRY!

We had some chicken breasts in the fridgey, so I cooked them the way that The Sophster loves them, and just prepared a quick salad to pair with it.  

The chicken is super easy.  It's just boneless skinless breasts, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then pan sear in coconut oil.  Easy peasy and certain to be loved by toddler palates everywhere!

We bought some Four Pepper Hot Sauce at the farmers market last weekend.  It only has ingredients that I can pronounce.  I like that.  So we put the hot sauce {it's more like relish, really} on our chicken.  It was yummy.

The salad was just some baby spinach with an orange bell pepper cut up over it, some s&p and garlic powder.  We used our Tessemaes red wine vinegar dressing.

Side note: I went to Whole Foods yesterday and was so excited to see that our WF actually carries more than one flavor of Tessemaes now!!  WooHoo!  I bought Zesty Ranch and Soy Ginger.  I can't wait to try them both!

Remember the saga about the lamb roast that wouldn't fit in anything??  And then my super wonderful Mister went and bought my dream slow cooker and the lamb still wouldn't fit???  

Yeah.  I decided to take that baby for a test run this week!  I made the Easy Shredded Beef from paleomg.com.  I hadn't spent a lot of time on Julie's blog until recently.  That chick is FUNNY and she creates some delicious looking food!  Guess I'll be adding her book, OMG. That's Paleo?, to my wish list.

I made the beef a little different, because that's just what I do, and I added a pack of sliced cremini mushrooms and a handful of peeled and smashed garlic cloves.  

I also could have sworn the time said low for 6 hours, so I didn't start until right at about 6 hours before dinner time....it says 8-10 hours.  Fail.  So, in an attempt to save dinner, I put it on high for 3 hours and then low for 4 hours.  I figured we could eat a little late that night.  Anyway, I think cooking it on high those few hours might have messed me up.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad...it just wasn't beautiful and shreddy like Julie's was.  Next time, I'll know better.  Next time, I'll also add some fresh thyme or rosemary for a bit more flavor.  The meat was, however, awesome as leftovers!

With it, I cooked some burnt broccoli {we love our green veggies crispy and burnt around here, if you haven't noticed}, sautéed in some coconut oil, with some parmesan grated on top, and the most amazing, most delicious {I did that in my best Gordon Ramsey voice, btw} sweet potato medallions.  Seriously.  Those things were so flippin' good, YOU GUYS!  You have to make them. 

Here's how:

• Preheat oven to 400*
• Clean and scrub your sweet potatoes
• Slice them into about half inch rounds
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat in melted coconut oil
• Place potato rounds onto baking sheet in a single layer
• Coat each round with coconut oil
• Season with s&p and garlic powder
• Put in oven for 15 minutes
• Take out, flip over, coat with coconut oil and season
• Cook for an additional 15 minutes
• Remove from oven
• Devour
• You're welcome 

The weather here has been especially dreary and gloomy the last couple of days.  Most of you may be used to that this time of year, but this is Florida.  We are not.  We are used to wearing shorts.

Anyway, I've been eyeballing this recipe over on the Paleo Parents blog for a couple of weeks now, and last night seemed like the perfect time to make their Creamy Dairy-Free Butternut Bacon Bisque.  

I love how they break down all of the good stuff that makes this soup so wonderful.  Stacy says:

" The best part of this dish is how freakishly good it is for you. With nutrient-dense and healing stock, anti-oxidants from the beta-carotene-rich butternut squash, tons of vitamins and minerals including a good punch of Vitamin D from the lard, this soup is the perfect food when winter germs approach and winter squash is in season."

BOOM!  Plus....there's this...

I followed the recipe exactly, except, I don't have pork stock made, so I used the chicken broth that I cooked up over the weekend.  

It was divine!  The Mister and I each had two bowls and The Sophster really enjoyed dipping her bacon into her soup and eating it like the delicious meat candy that it is.  I mean really, everything is better with bacon, right?!

On a more serious note, I do want to say that I'm glad that you all are here reading these posts.  In a few days, I will be experiencing some gloom and doom and I probably won't feel like writing {or maybe even cooking} at all for a while.  Having you here and seeing that you are interested makes me want to not go hide away in my little deployment cave.  So, Thank You.

On a funnier note, I love that this WFD Wednesday series of posts has kept me accountable for how long leftovers have been in our fridge.  I'll be writing one week and go to link back to a meal from a past week and I'm like, "Ew...that's still in the refrigerator...time to do a purge!"  haha So, thanks for that, too!  

I am not linking up with The Pajama Mama this week.  Today is her birthday and she is probably out partying it up PJM style!  If you get a chance, pop over to her Facebook page and send her some happy birthday wishes!  While you're there, make sure you like Our Life with The Sophster, too!

Did you make anything delicious this week?  What about Thankgiving?  It is next week, you know!  Who does the holiday cooking in your family?  Do you leave it to one person or is it more of a Turkey Day potluck?

Hope you all had a delicious week!

**Disclaimer: This post does include at least one affiliate link.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.  In hindsight, this isn't so bad when you think about all of the many hours that go into this blog, right??**

WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesdays

Hey there!  Remember last week when I said that Sandra was coming to visit and we had a very busy week planned?  Yeah.  That happened.  As a matter of fact, I only cooked two meals this week.  I did not cook a single thing from Wednesday to Saturday.

We ate out A LOT.   For me, it can be a bit defeating in the kitchen when Sandra is here.  She is used to eating all of the foods that we don't keep in our house, so it's very difficult to please her palate with my cooking.  So we ate out, where she could get what she wanted and we could make the healthiest choices possible.  Either that, or we ate leftovers.

The good news is, the two meals that I did end up making this week came out really yummy!

Sunday, I decided to cook dinner as more of a late lunch meal, since The Mister was driving Sandra back towards Louisiana that afternoon, and I wanted everyone to have full happy tummies.  I made the Pina Colada Chicken that is featured over at The Paleo Parents blog.

This recipe was posted by the Paleo Parents, but it is a review of the Pina Colada Chicken from the new cookbook, Well Fed 2.  I have the first Well Fed cookbook and I honestly love it, and I have to say that, after trying this recipe, I will surely be buying the new cookbook, too!  This stuff was delicious!

The recipe in the book suggests pairing the dish with some cauli-rice.  I didn't want to make plain ol' cauli-rice, so I jazzed it up a bit to go with the tropically inspired chicken dish.

I shredded the cauliflower as usual in my food processor.  Then, sautéed it in some coconut oil, the rest of the coconut milk leftover from the recipe, and some crushed pineapple with some of it's juices.  It was really yummy!

Last night, I set out to make a paleo version of shepard's pie.  In our PP {pre-paleo lol} life, I made a pretty tasty shepard's pie, and as I've mentioned before, my recreations haven't always come out so good the first shot.

Long story short, It.Was.Awesome!  So awesome, in fact, that it is already gone.  Which makes me kind of sad because now I will have to cook tonight {which is usually a night off for me}.  Just kidding.  I love being in the kitchen!

I made this paleo by using some beautiful locally grown butternut squash instead of mashed potatoes, and just adjusted the spices from my usual pie.

The only thing I would change here is, I usually add about a half cup of beef broth to keep the pie moist, but this time it seemed a little soupy.  Tasty, but soupy.  Today, as leftovers, it was not at all soupy.  So maybe the next time I make it, I'll leave the broth out or just use less of it.

Want the recipe?  Let me know!  I'm happy to make it again and create a post with tons of pics!

Comforty Goodness right here!

I know that I said I would spend some time this week working on some grain free mug cakes also, but to tell the truth, we ate so much junk that I just didn't feel up for baking any more sweets.  I did take one shot at a cake recipe I want to figure out.  It's definitely not ready to give out the recipe yet, but hopefully it will be soon!  See the sacrifice I make for you people?  I have to make all of these yummy cakes and then EAT THEM.  Tough life for this girl.

Can you guess what I'm working on here?

Well, that's it for this week!  I'm linking up again with The Pajama Mama, so don't forget to check her out along with any other blogs that have linked up over there!  I love that she lets her son, Mango, shop for his own items and then she actually came up with some things from items that he chose!  She is one cool mama!

What kind of meals were on your table this week?  Do you have "lazy" weeks where you don't cook much for your family?  What are some of your favorite cool weather comfort foods to cook up?

Hope you all had a delicious week!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**

We Are Picture People

We recently had The Sophster's Fall/Halloween pictures done with the fabulous Sheri, from Wurth Images.  I just wanted to take a moment to share about Sheri and how wonderful she is!

We met Sheri last December.  She was introduced to us by a friend.  She is involved with Welcome Them Home, a group of photographers who do military homecoming photos and then she offers you the edited photos on disc for dirt cheap {basically the cost of gas and a little time for editing}.

I met her when she met us on base for Mitch's homecoming and I immediately loved her.  She was actually there to mostly capture pictures of my girlfriend and her family, but she managed to get some awesome shots of us, too.  They all make my heart skip.  This one still melts me every time I see it framed in our living room.

She also shot our family photos in January of this year when Sandra and Bryson visited.  It was a cold day and The Sophster was being less than cooperative.  Still, Sheri had some great ideas to keep all of the kids involved and to keep them all from getting bored.  

She is also about to become a photographer for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, infant remembrance photography.  

The woman has such an incredible heart for people.  She absolutely blows me away by what an incredible human she is.  And also what an incredible mother she is to her beautiful daughter, Alice, or as The Sophster has so lovingly deemed her, Baby Awice.

So when it came time to get fall pictures done of The Sophster, there was no other choice for us.  We are forever clients of Wurth Images.  I'm also proud to say that she has become a friend to me.  

If you are local to the Jacksonville, FL area, please please please check Sheri out.  I promise you will love her.  I promise your kids will love her.  I very very highly recommend her services!

Now, without further ado...The Sophster...

Check That One Off The List! An Epic Mommy Fail.

You know that list that parents have of things that you hope never happen?  Ever had one of those things checked off?  I got to check off the first major one {seemed that way at the time, anyway} on Wednesday morning....

My mother-in-law is out of town and she left us with her car.  This had been nice because we have been a one car and one bike family since The Mister decided to sell his truck months before deployment and has been riding his bike to work every day.

The car has this little quirk where the driver's door doesn't lock/unlock with the electric locks or the key fab.  My guess is the actuator, but what do I know?  Anyway, you basically have to unlock the doors from the passenger side and climb over to the driver's side to lock the driver's door and visa versa for locking it.  Only, if you press the driver's door lock down manually, all of the other doors lock in the car.

Wednesday morning, The Mister left out of here to drive to Louisiana to pick up our oldest daughter, Sandra.  Naturally, he took our car.  It's a lot of miles from North Florida to almost New Orleans, we know that our car is dependable, and then there's the whole thing about insurance or whatever.

The Sophster and I needed to make a quick run to Target, so we got dressed and jumped in Oma's car.  When we got to Target, I went through my usual run down for what we needed to take into the store with us.  Into my purse went keys, phone, water bottle.  Then, I opened the door and thought "Hmm...I wonder if this door will lock from the door switch?"  I flipped the switch up and down a couple of times.  Nothing.  "Oh well", I thought, and shoved the lock down.  Jumped out of the car, closed the door....and immediately realized that I had locked all of the doors...with The Sophster inside the car.

So I locked my kid in the car, in a parking lot.  I mean, who cares about the parking lot, really?!  I LOCKED MY KID IN THE CAR!

I immediately started shaking like a leaf.  What was I going to do???  My purse, phone, keys, and CHILD were locked in this car!!

Thankfully, there was a nice gentleman across the parking lane from me and I very nervously asked for help.  He was very gracious and called the Sheriff's office for me and they were out within just a couple of minutes.

He asked if there was another key and I had no good answer...."No sir, there's not.  This is my mother-in-law's car, she's out of town.  My husband has our one car and is on his way to Louisiana to pick up my step daughter"

....I felt like puking.

I stood by Sophi's window making funny faces at her, praying she wouldn't start wigging out.  She did fine right until probably the last few seconds she was in there.  The officers were able to get into the car quickly and we got her out.  She was a little freaked out by all the policemen standing around and you know, from being locked in the car, so she wouldn't speak to the officers that just rescued her, but she did manage to give them each a high five and they gave her a Sheriff's Office bracelet for being so tough!

Also, that very same night, as The Mister was on his way home, our kitchen sink backed up.  The garbage disposal was clogged and I had a sink full of dishes to wash.  So, there they sat until the next morning when The Mister could fix it....and give me lessons on how to fix it, in case it happened again in the next 8 months.

These are the things that are supposed to happen during deployment!  Maybe they are just getting themselves out of the way before he leaves?  Oh that would be wonderful!  I hope it's not a sign that the worst is yet to come.

Stupid Deployment.  We really can never be friends.

Have you ever locked your kid{s} in the car?  What are some things that you have checked off of the "hope that never happens" list?  How did you handle it?  If you are a military family, what have been some of your toughest deployment/pre-deployment challenges to tackle?