Because This Should Really Be a Cooking Blog

Right?!

We can talk about the pregnancy journey with Levi being the size of different fruits and vegetables.

I can share all the new recipes I find and cook as brand-new dishes or else use to refurbish leftovers.

We could explore the international food journey my family is taking now, in studying a new country every week.

And perhaps best of all? You know how annoying it is when you find a recipe online and have to scroll through the  cook’s entire kitchen history before finally locating the actual recipe at the bottom of the super-long article? Well, I’m not gonna do that. When I post a recipe, I’ll post the recipe. And then if I want to say something else, I can say that afterwards. But I know that when you’re looking for a recipe, you want to see the RECIPE, lol. 🤣

Well, so there’s my introduction for this new endeavor. And now it’s off to dinner with my family!

P. S. If you have any recipes you’d like to share, or any that you’d like me to try out for you, please let me know at naomilyn_h@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Hope After TBI

Are you struggling to find hope after your own heavy trials or those of a loved one? At first, my TBI was emotionally hard for my family but not for me; because I was asleep. 😉 However, things like these were some of their clues that I was still there, inside the vegetable that some said I would always be:

1. When a former boss (Pat Callahan of Laurel Lake Baptist Camp) visited me early on and said he needed me in the kitchen, I stirred and apparently tried to get up so I could go help in the kitchen, lol.
2. One time my brother Caleb was getting clothes ready for me to go take a shower, and he asked me what I wanted to wear. I told him I wanted to wear a skirt, of which I actually had none at the hospital - which was really weird, cause I had decided to always wear skirts when I was five years old....
3. When I became able to eat a little food with my mouth, the hospital put me on a puréed diet. But after someone gave me a letter-board with which to communicate, I spelled out “cinnamon toast crunch” (my favorite cereal since Bible college 6 years previous).
4. When they brought a cake into my hospital room for my brother Caleb’s birthday, I immediately started singing him the birthday song.

My TBI was the result of a major car wreck on October 31, 2012; and I did not fully wake up until March 8, 2013. At first, it was very hard for me emotionally.

1. It was the wrong season. I had gone to sleep in the fall and then woke up the next morning in the early spring, with snow on the ground.
2. My brothers’ and my bedrooms had been switched.
3. My voice sounded funny.
4. My legs didn’t work right, and I spent all day in bed.
5. My mom regularly changed my diapers, which were often dirty even though I never felt like I’d gone to the bathroom and never smelled anything either.
6. I always wore glasses instead of contacts, and my hair looked super-weird (long on one side and only an inch on the other).
7. I feel like I had eaten 27 meals in one day without ever sleeping at all (because of the medicine amantadine).
8. I had tons of homework to do, & work to do at Chick-fil-A; but for some reason I never did anything besides laying in bed. 
9. My parents claimed I had been in a car accident, but I didn’t remember any such thing - so obviously they were just telling me a story to keep me content in whatever horrible nightmare I was living out.

Until they showed me a picture of my car, and of course pictures can’t be argued.

So that was depressing. Turns out the nightmare was real! But it was only depressing for about an hour. Cause who wants to be sad forever? God helped me to see that all the problems were only temporary; whereas Heaven is eternal, and would include full restoration even if I never got any better on earth. So I kinda shook myself, and determined to get back as much  as I could by working really hard in therapy. God alone got me through those early days, because otherwise I’m sure I would’ve been depressed like all the non-Christians who were in therapy with us hopeful Christian “patients.”

And He has given me back so much! Not everything of course, and honestly it’s still depressing at times. I do really wish I could still drive and run and swim and jump and help more with physical chores and play piano well and do other things that require coordinated hand-movements. I wish I had more control of my stress & emotions, and I wish I could be more of the hands-on wife & mom that I always wanted to be. There are lots of things like that, but there are also lots of blessings that have come out of my accident. 

1. I have free time to help with foster care and elder care (more hands-on “social work” than I probably would’ve been able to do otherwise).
2. I have new compassion and understanding for people with special needs.
3. I saw far less legitimate marriage potential in real-life, which made me keep resorting to online dating so that my wonderful Christopher eventually looked at my profile, eventually sending the first message that was the start of our fairytale relationship.
4. Oh, and everybody said I wouldn’t be able to have kids, but our first baby is coming in about 5 weeks!

Yes, TBI’s are hard. And yes, there’s hope after TBI. Hope exists because Jesus exists! “And lo, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

Conflict Styles in the Movie Frozen (2013)

Elsa’s conflict style was one of withdrawal, while Anna’s conflict style involved engaging.
And which way worked? Well, neither way worked at first (either personally or relationally), since both lived pretty miserably and both disliked the separation.

But then for a little while, Elsa’s way of withdrawal seemed more promising since she could be “happy” in her cold-hearted isolation; while Anna in her engaging felt the full force of the estrangement for which she never asked and never even received an explanation.

In the end, though - Elsa’s way very nearly killed both of them. And if it were not for Anna’s sacrificial, warm-hearted engagement with the conflict around her, all would have been lost. But happily for both of them, Anna never gave up on her sister - never stopped pursuing a relationship with Elsa, even at the cost of her own comfort, even at the cost of her own LIFE!

The Elsa’s in the world do not often appreciate those of us who keep engaging with them like annoying little Anna’s.... But don’t feel bad, my fellow Anna. Our way might hurt us more than their way hurts them, but in the end it’s our way that works. That’s all. 😉

Key song lyric: “Beware the frozen heart!”
Elsa’s key admission: “I don’t know how to unfreeze!”
Elsa’s key lesson: “Love can thaw!”

1st Thanksgiving as Mr. & Mrs. Austin!!

I’m so excited to share my childhood-favorite holiday with my all-time-favorite man! ❤️
Here’s tomorrow’s menu; will post pics & recipes later....

For breakfast:

• French toast muffins with candied bacon,
• Sausage & apple stuffing, 
• Coffee - but I’m afraid I don’t have enough pumpkin purée to make both pumpkin pie AND pumpkin spice lattes, so we’ll have to try that out next year 😉

For lunch:

• Turkey, 
• Cranberry sauce, 
• Creamed corn,
• Mashed potatoes & gravy, 
• Homemade croissants,
• Sweet potato pie with spiced walnut streusel

For supper:

• Dinner at Cracker Barrel with my mom, Little Bit, and her bio-mom & bio-grandma 

For Saturday’s family get-together:

• Pumpkin spice latte pie, from the pumpkin that Little Bit helped carve & purée yesterday 

Do We Have Santa All Wrong?

What if Santa was never about getting after all? What if he was always about GIVING?

Read  the real story of Santa Claus here.

So as a family, will we be Santa for our kids or not? Well ... I think that question is the wrong one to ask. Because Santa was never about the rich parents of the world giving gifts to their own already-rich children. No - on the contrary, Santa was always about giving out of his own abundance to bless the poor people around him.

And therefore, if we really want to do Santa Claus and get into the spirit of Christmas, why would we even think about “being Santa” for our own very-blessed children? Why not encourage our kids to instead “be Santa” for the poorer/unhappier children around them?

Yes, my family will probably always do Santa Claus. We will spread that tradition of blessing the needy around us; and through that medium, hopefully we’ll also be spreading the love of Jesus - Immanuel - the truest meaning of Christmas, which the original St. Nicholas was always about anyway!

How to Get More Blessings?

When we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner in a couple weeks, will we enjoy the meal more if we think of ourselves as blessed recipients of a fine meal or if we see ourselves as food critics?

When we sing songs at church, will we have more joy in them if we bask in the love and glory  of God or if we see ourselves as worship critics?

When we hear the pastor’s sermon, will we get more out of it by listening eagerly for a word from the Lord or by listening critically for errors?

When we play games or read books or hang out with friends or shop for groceries or watch TV or whatever we do, will it be more fun if we expect to have a good time or if we have an eagle’s eye for the problems that come up?

Yes, we’re supposed to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1). But that’s just talking about times among people who profess faith - otherwise, God sends us TO the people with bad spirits, as His witnesses. And with Christians, if we know we’re in the presence of the Holy Spirit rather than demons that need to be cast out, then let’s love our brothers & sisters and seek the manifold blessings of God! I think we can get more blessings by opening our eyes and hearts to them!

Thoughts on Divorce and Amputation

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my friends who are married, those who are divorced, and those who are considering divorce. And thanks to my husband’s  more relaxed temperament, my own thoughts and feelings are starting to become less rigid also.

My question is, how’s divorce like cutting off your own hand? Well, neither is ever okay - right? God says we are all fearfully and wonderfully made, with no reason to engage in self-harm. Then why did Jesus  tell us that we should cut off her own hand sometimes to avoid being consumed with sin? And isn’t amputation sometimes medically necessary to  avoid being consumed with germs? So there are definitely good reasons to cut off your hand! Jesus and science agree on this, just as they do on everything else (since God created science, after all).

But what about divorce? Let me say first of all, and unequivocally, that I will never divorce my husband for any reason. God hates divorce as much as He hates it when His creatures commit suicide or other forms of self harm. Plus, I know my husband and I know that he’ll never EVER give me a reason to need to get away from him! He’s the most wonderful person I know! ❤️ There are a couple of hypothetical reasons that would lead me to divorce him though - purely hypothetical since Christopher’s just not that kind of guy and since I know without a shadow of a doubt that these kinds of things would never happen.

#1 - I would have to divorce him if I discovered that he was physically or sexually abusing someone. But he would never do anything like that! He’s far too good hearted. ❤️

#2 - I would have to divorce him if he repeatedly cheated on me. One affair? I could forgive and heal from that. But a pattern of affairs? Yes, I would still love him and forgive him; but how well could I heal from that? Only to have my heart crushed  again and again in the future, with no end in sight? My main focus in life would be always trying to do a little more to earn his love and loyalty. My self-esteem would be wrecked, my confidence would be on the floor, and even my sanity would become dangerously questionable. I doubt I’d be much of a blessing to anyone until after leaving him to protect my own heart; but even after leaving, I think it’d take considerable time for me to heal from all that. At the same time, I’m sure I’d still always care deeply about him - just from the safety of a little emotional distance....

But - hallelujah, thank You, Jesus! Cause my beloved - my sweetheart - my Christopher? He’s not the kind of person to ever cheat on me either. So I can boldly, proudly, joyfully say -
I am my forever my beloved’s!
And he’s forever mine!
The two of us are beautifully attached ... FOREVER!!! 🥰