self-absorbed.

i’m living too fast and too slow at the same time
i love all wrong but not too much so maybe it’s just right in the end
i prioritize backwards but somehow what matters gets accomplished
i follow my instincts and second guess my decisions all in the blink of an eye
i shoot from the hip
and i don’t always hit the mark
i’m constantly amazed that i get anything right
i am infinitely in need of infinite grace
i recently apologized to my mother
for being her daughter and for making mistakes
and knowing they were mistakes before they were made
she said she would love me anyway forever
i’m positive my children will hate me
don’t take me too personally
i expect most people to disappoint me
but look for the surprises in humanity incessantly
there is much i won’t volunteer
but will give if asked by those few souls
who know who they are
i’m dying to be asked
i love that human beings are broken creatures
with a perfect Creator
i am trying to love more
no matter how unlovable the human
no matter how unlovable myself
but i’m broken, so it’s hard
i distrust myself and my ulterior motives
you probably should too
but please don’t
my actions say that i trust far too easily and with what seems to be little discrimination
everyone is potentially trustable
few actually are

what goes behind

In typical obscure fashion, I learned some things after 31 years that most, no doubt, figured out much earlier.

Lessons learned in 2014:

• getting rid of negative situations/people isn’t as hard as it seems
• the way you handle stress is more important than avoiding stress
• the worst possible conclusion isn’t very often the one that happens
• asking for what you want frequently results in getting what you want
• how beautiful it is to care enough to lose sleep over your job
• how beautiful it is to be so confident in your work that you sleep like a baby
• the course that makes the most sense isn’t always conventional
• being true to who you are might mean saying no to perfectly wonderful opportunities
• it’s never too late to figure out what you want to be when you grow up
• apothic red really is the best everyday wine ever
• it’s ok to talk about what you love too much
• cats are the best
• coffee is a health food

The Eagle’s Nest Breakfast Casserole

I’m not really a cook. I throw stuff in the pan or the crockpot and hope for the best, most of the time. But I like yummy, healthy, easy things, so one day when I was getting ready to make some breakfast cupcakes I decided I was not in the mood for the annoying clean up involved with muffin tins. I grabbed a small casserole dish (one of those awesome little rectangular Pyrex containers) and here is what happened:

I sprayed the dish with nonstick stuff. You could use coconut oil instead if you’re being all pure and stuff.

Ingredients:
-Lunch meat: ham or turkey or whatever you like, thin sliced
-Eggs
-Bacon (though sausage would work too.)
-Starch (optional, but I threw in leftover sweet potato fries this time and it was really good.)
-Veggies: I used green onions and bell peppers but you could throw in spinach or whatever too.
-Seasonings: I used sea salt (Hawaiian black lava salt actually), Mrs. Dash’s Southwest seasoning, and black pepper, but you could use curry or cumin or whatever.

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees
-Lightly fry your bacon after cutting two or three pieces into little strips
-Prepare casserole dish with nonstick substance
-Layer the lunch meat to cover the bottom and the sides two or three pieces deep (duh, like a nest.)
-Add the veggies on the bottom, not too thick
-Crack your eggs over the veggies to they sit next to each other with the yolks unbroken. I used 6-7 for a small dish.
-Distribute the bacon on top evenly and decoratively
-Season with salt, pepper, etc

Bake for about 25 minutes and then check to make sure the eggs are done. The whites should not be runny. It will probably need 5-10 more minutes in 3-5 minute increments.

Voila, done. I cut it into slices like a cake and carted it around to work for breakfast on the go. Delicious reheated but not bad cold either, if you’re in a hurry.

Michael’s Famous Carlsbad Ribs

Michael is a great chef. He never follows a recipe, and never makes the same thing twice exactly the same way. I asked him to help me with OMG Korean BBQ Ribs – which are pretty delicious in their own right, I must say. He did me one better and came up with his own! They were so good I made him give me the recipe to share for posterity. Here it is:

 

2.5 lbs pork back ribs (beef would probably be good, too.)

dry rub: equal parts brown sugar
garlic powder
onion powder
chili powder
Mrs. Dash’s Chipotle seasoning
 

Rub liberally over ribs and let them sit for a few minutes.

Rub with about a tablespoon or less of liquid smoke.

Top with a drizzle of honey.

In the crockpot, put 2 whole jalapenos, 1/2 Cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 can chunk pineapple with juice.

Place ribs in liquid and cook on Low for 6 hours. Adjust half way through if they don’t sit evenly in the liquid, but don’t turn over.

Voila! be amazed.

Wobbly Legs

Starting a business is not an undertaking for everyone. We keep reading things like “Expect utter hell, and you’ll be just fine.”   

Our little business is still on newborn legs, striving gamely to walk and run like full grown businesses but still a little wobbly. We’re learning a lot about things like accounting, SEO, social media, and customer service. And honestly, we’re having a great time, though it’s certainly not easy.

While many other and more amazing people have written many other and more amazing words on starting a business and entrepreneurship, we’ve got a little of our own perspective that we’d like to share as we go along. Maybe some of it will be helpful.

To be honest, running our own business was not really a goal of ours. Most business owners (i.e. bosses) that we’d had were stressed out ALL.THE.TIME. and frankly, seemed miserable. We might not make as much as they did, but at least we slept at night.

But isn’t it funny the way a little time can change your perspective? There came a moment when we’d said to each other lightheartedly, “if THAT guy can do it, we can do it” enough times that it started to sound like an actual idea and not just a little snide remark.

So, one step at a time, little by little, over the course of weeks and months, we did it. We quit our jobs and held on for dear life. And now we work HARD and we boss ourselves around and we love every minute of it.