RETREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15 years ago i started a movement. among some friends. we started going away for a girls’ only retreat to scrapbook, laugh, and get away from the everydayness of mommyville.

my friend, jennifer, once told her husband it was a RETREAT- not in the Christian women’s time away for Biblical reflection and edification sense, but in the military sense of we were RUNNING away waving white flags and screaming RETREAT at the top of our lungs so that we wouldn’t die kind of sense. yeah, she nailed it with that description.

and we go RETREAT every february. the first weekend. right after the dust has settled on Christmas and new years. the kids are back in school. there aren’t any real holidays anymore. it is dark and cold. and we need some warmth and perspective or we will never make it to spring break.

a lot of these women are teachers that i used to teach with. and then there is my HOME TEAM that goes also (dina, deaver, and karen). and some various and sundry other characters just to keep it all real and fun. 

we used to go to my mother-in-law’s beach house in garden city, sc. but that was far for the nashville girls. we tried some other places that were okay. but now we have got the PERFECT PLACE. and this was our third yerar there. we go to a 4h camp in eatonton , GA. rock eagle. and stay in the founder’s lodge. it is perfect. lots of room to scrapbook. right in the middle of where we all live (only a 5 hour drive for dina and deaver. 4 for me. about an hour for everyone else.) someone cooks and serves all three meals to us everyday. we never have to take off our pajamas (if we don’t want to. and some of us don’t want to). someone makes my hot tea in the morning and hands it to me. let’s have a moment of silence for how wonderful that is... 

the whole weekend (which begins on a wednesday, so it is a bit more than a weekend) is just heavenly. we sleep. we eat. we scrapbook. we eat again. we sleep someone. sometimes we never even set foot outside the entire time. my car thinks i have died since i park it and no one drives it for FOUR FULL DAYS. 

it is where i recharge. relax. RETREAT.

and make a heck of a lot of scrapbook pages. 

and even more memories.

it is fun to have been with these gals through potty training. pregnancies. entering school. and now the teenage years. our stories keep flowing. sometimes we have to tell the old stories over and over again. we have all stepped on each other’s toes enough to just keep dancing because it is all a part of the process. it is comfortable. and reassuring. to have such long term accepting friends is a lifeline.

it is like someone handing you a cup of hot tea. with just enough cream in it. and then handing you another one when that one is gone. rare and beautiful. warm and caffeinating. it is real and RETREATing. and worth repeating every year...

monday night dinner...

“The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star.”

―Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

and here is the new dish that i discovered this week in my cooking for *monday night dinner....

pioneer woman’s sweet rosemary acorn squash wedges.

i had never cooked acorn squash and i have never been a huge squash lover but it was DEEEEELLLLLLIIIIIOOOOOOOUUUUUUUSSSSS. and it has convinced me that i need to invest in some good knives (do NOT send the knife salesmen to my house, i don’t want to spend that much money on knives). but i do need to buy a nice chef’s knife. hmmm, what kind of message would it send if adam bought me knives for christmas? we have the same unsharp cheap knives that i received as a wedding gift. and now that i am doing a lot of new and different cooking (with older children and more time it is easier to really do some COOKING), i am discovering that i need some items that would make cooking easier. like sharp knives. 

and i also desire this little item. who doesn’t need a $324 dutch oven? in some cool color. like flame. or cobalt blue. or lime. i can’t decide. good thing i can’t decide. because i also can’t afford to decide. but i can dream about the roasted chickens that would come out of this dutch oven. yes, a girl can dream about roasted chicken. 

monday night dinner is dinner on monday night. ha. it is the one night a week i cook a BIG dinner. meat, two or three veggies, bread, and dessert. the kind of meal my mom and grandmom made EVERY DAY but i can only really muster up the whole meal deal once a week. the rest of the week is leftovers, church supper, crock pot meal, soup, sandwiches, salads, and other “easier” fare. 

monday night dinners include our family plus the three greene girls, jeffrey (when he likes the menu, not this week because he did not want the squash and he missed out on that yumminess), edub, my dad, this week we added the lovely eva (blog stalker), and sometimes there are various and sundry other people who show up because they smell good things cooking. 

it is the night i experiment with new dishes almost every week it is something new and different. sometimes i break out an old favorite, but since monday is my grocery day it is the day when i dedicate almost the whole morning to cooking and preparation of this meal and other meals during the week. the afternoon is pretty busy with picking up kids, but i do most of the prep work in the morning. and i enjoy it. i love a challenge of something new to cook and learning new techniques. and i love being prepared for meals all week. 

i have found that this one morning of pre-planning and prep can set us up for good meals all week and a lot less stress on me around 5:00 every evening. i am learning that every 15 minutes i can spend in planning and preparation saves me HOURS of time later and saves us lots of $$$ as well. our family commitment to not spending $$ eating out or on fast food has required me to be a lot more prepared with meals for our family. i make it my daily goal to know by 10 a.m. what is for dinner that night. because if i don’t figure it out early... it sneaks up on me and we end up eating cereal or driving through chick-fil-a. 

okay, that was your new dish for the week. it is almost like i discovered a new star. and much tastier than a new star.

ten things for tuesday...

ten things to be happy about today...

1) when rosalea makes lunches for everyone she always adds notes and leaves me one on the kitchen counter for my lunch. and my note for today has a smiley face made entirely of m&ms.

2) waking up early is going SO well, in fact so well that it must be God’s hand on it. obedience is always so hard to do, and so sweet after it is done that we wonder how it could have ever been so hard.

3) i went to a spin class with sister-in-law, meredith on monday. i remember that i LOVE to ride my bike. i remember that my butt hurts when i haven’t ridden my bike in a while. i remember how good it feels to exercise AFTER you are done exercising...

4) reading poetry to go along with my Bible reading every day. from these books...that my friend, jennifer gave me because she knows i LOVE poetry AND the Bible.actually they don’t have the TWO hardback HUGE volumes that she gave me, but they do have ONE paperback that might have a nice selection. i do love a bit of poetry everyday. i want to be a poet when i grow up. but poetry is always about word conservation and that just really isn’t my style. i am so worried that the future of poetry is in jeopardy because children aren’t being taught poetry anymore. so i printed up some great poems and have laminated them and am hanging one a week in the shower that the kids and i shower in everyday. we are memorizing them as we shower. the kids and i already know these two...i never saw a moor by emily dickinson AND almost perfect but not quite by shel silverstein which i did not pick for its religious value, but when i googles it to find a link to put on for you, i found it in a SERMON. that may be the ONLY time shel ever got a mention in a sermon....

5) millie being so funny at the dinner table last night. that girl is seriously wittier than i am. which does not bode well for my future (or hers, if i decide to “snow white” the whole situation and have her killed... “mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most humorous of all?”)

6) maxx reading 2 books yesterday afternoon and evening AND playing outside for 2 hours. he has turned into a voracious reader. AND eater- he ate 3 servings of dinner last night.

7) making breakfast in the morning. one of the best parts about getting up early is making a nice big breakfast for everyone. the kids are slowing starting to forget their fickle friend, the pop tart. 

8) i am riding my bike to Bible study today. it is just a little over a mile away from my house, but i should get in some riding time before and after the study. whoops, i just checked the weather. i may or may not get to ride my bike due to rain and 40 degree temperatures. but i will try!

9) cleaned out my big freezer yesterday. one step closer to maybe, just maybe getting a new refrigerator with and ICE MAKER. yes, i said it people... there could one day be ice in the marshall house. of course, the kids have never known the thrill of ice at home. they all like their drinks lukewarm. we are preparing them for their european touring days. 

10) hot tea- no list of top ten would be complete without the beverage of the LORD. i know that scripture never directly speaks of tea. but i think that when people called Jesus, TEAcher, that it implies that TEA was given by the LORD for our benefit. (barry will have something to say about that). and when He spoke of milk, He meant add half and half to your tea. and i have no scriptural basis for adding splenda, but sometimes you just have to know what the good, pleasing, and perfect will of the LORD is for your life...