I told you last week I was going to wash my hair with baking soda water. I was certain I’d need a full box to get all this grease out. I was totally wrong! I mixed about 1/4 cup with warm water in a mug while I was showering and scrubbed it into my hair intending to rinse and repeat to infinity. Imagine my shock when during the scrubbing and subsequent rinsing the grease in my hair just disappeared! When I rinsed that first dose out my hair was absolutely, completely clean!

Now, to be fair a day later it was starting to grease up again. At the end of the week now it’s still gross and oily. But, it’s not as bad as last week. Not even close. I’m planning on washing again tonight to see what happens. At this point I’m certain I’m going to carry this thing through. It’s been remarkably easy to get used to not shampooing. It’s frustrating to have greasy hair still but since there’s evidence of improvement I’m going to push forward. Honestly I’m getting excited about the possibilities!

Right now the top of my head feels like I gave it a paraffin wax but never peeled the wax away. I had NO IDEA my head could produce this much oil. It’s not slick oil either. It’s greasy and stiff. When I can get a brush through my hair I can brush it straight up and IT WILL STAY THAT WAY! I’d thought I would include pictures of this experiment but after the first week, no way!

The thing I’m most startled at is that the oil is not really just on my scalp. It’s like it’s moved down down down to the very edges. The scalp is the worst, but it’s as if there’s so much oil it couldn’t all stay at the top of my head. It’s as if it’s slowly gooped down to the edges.

I realize this description is gross, sorry about that. I’m being honest. Tonight after the kids are in bed I’m going to try washing it with some baking soda water. I know that when I did let my hair get greasy before it took me 2 or 3 times of shampooing it to get it clean. Who knows how much baking soda I’ll need to use? Hopefully not more than an entire box! I’ll let you know next week how it goes.

I’m not going all hippy or anything, well, at least I don’t consider this a hippy measure. It’s a decision born of desperation. My hair is a goopy, oily, mess every 8 hours. Every time I wash and dry my hair a clock starts ticking. I’ve got about 8 hours before my scalp has produced more oil than necessary. I look at my friends hair with envy, their hair is thick or wavy or whatever, it looks CLEAN even the 2nd day! They can shower before bed and skip out the door with a mere brushing. Sigh.

Anyway, I got fed up with this mess a few weeks ago and started to do some reading. Over the years my shampoos have become harsher and harsher to strip my hair of all that gross extra oil. And, it works for a while… I may get 3 weeks of fairly normal hair before it all falls apart again. At this point I’ll be pouring bleach on my head in a year or so. I don’t want that!

Imagine my surprise when I found that other people with my problem have gone to a ‘no poo’ system. No poo means they don’t use shampoo AT ALL! EVER! From what I’ve read the first week or two is going to be bad, really really bad. But, eventually my scalp will get the message that it doesn’t have to make all that extra oil and it will stop. So, I’m going to try it. Honestly what do I really have to loose?

If you’re reading this post then I’ve come to some sort of conclusion about this no poo thing. I felt really bad about the milk thing when I didn’t finish it. One of my biggest pet peeves with people is when they say they’re going to do something and then they don’t do it. So, I’ve not really told anyone I’m doing this. Well, I mean I’ve told a few of my girlfriends and Scott of course. I need them to tell me if I’m completely insane. They already think I might be, but this has not set me over the edge in their minds so I take it as a good sign.

No poo. We’ll see how it goes! I’ll update you after the first week is over.

This Christmas and New Years wore me out. Really really REALLY. It was a great Christmas but I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle at the very end. I swore 3 Christmases ago to never share Christmas Eve and Day with anyone. I should have stuck with that. This year I’ll remember.

Anyway, if you’re like me the last thing you want to be undertaking is major life change. I’ll be setting my resolutions again in March, just like last year. From now until then I’ll be evaluating how I did last year. I set some lofty goals and honestly I met most of them (for the first time ever I might add). So if you’re feeling overwhelmed and distraught right now you’re in good company. Don’t let anyone tell you to fix yourself right now. Not even me :-)

Click here to read my post on resolutions from last January.

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

Thank you Ira for explaining my current frustration with every single creative thing I attempt to do. Time, all I need is time.

This recipe is as simple as they come. It can be used to stuff the turkey or you can prepare it as a side dish instead as I’ve done. Since Thanksgiving is over you can make this for Christmas, or you can adapt this recipe for holiday pot lucks and get togethers. Just add some mushrooms and additional vegetables you have on hand and you’ll have a unique and simple side dish.

Here’s what you need.

6-8 cups bread crumbs, 1 package Italian Sausage, 1 handful of parsley, 3 garlic cloves, 1 large onion chopped, ground cumin, and ground ginger. I’d like to note that some of you use cornbread in your stuffing. After tasting this stuffing I think cornbread would be fabulous with it! Keep the measurements the same as you would with white/wheat bread.

First, take your sausage out of the casing. This is easy, lay the sausage on the counter and cut a line in the top of the sausage from end to end, from there simply peel the casing away and break the sausage up in a pan.

Let the sausage cook until it begins to brown then add your onions and garlic.

When the onions have become tender (4-6 minutes of cooking) add 1/2 tsp ginger and 1 tsp cumin. Continue to cook your sausage for another 3 or 4 minutes to allow these flavors to settle in.

When your sausage is done pour it along with your fresh parsley (chopped) into the bowl of breadcrumbs. Mix it up really well.

I realized quickly that my recipe was anticipating a LOT more grease off the sausage than my grass fed beef was offering. To solve that problem I melted a stick of butter in my pan and added that to my stuffing. This brought it to the correct consistency to stuff a turkey with.

If you aren’t using this stuffing for a bird we’ll need to add some moisture to the stuffing before roasting it in the oven. So, first what we’ll do is lay out our stuffing in a pyrex dish. Leave the stuffing 1.5-2 inches thick in the pan. Then simply pour 4 cups of beef broth gently around the edges to saturate everything. It took a little trial and error but I found 4 cups was the perfect amount for a tender, fall apart sausage stuffing. If you’d like you can leave this to sit in the fridge overnight and bake it the next day (or even 2 days later). Bake at 350° for 40 minutes.

Try this for Christmas! I promise you won’t be disappointed! The stuffing is simple, flavorful and best of all EASY!

“The most important thing of course, is taking great care of your kids.” Duh. Of course it is. What mom needs reminding of that really? We’re all on top of the most important thing. I do wonder from time to time if we ever spend any time identifying the 2nd most important thing? You might wonder, ‘what’s the point of that?’ Well, I’ll tell you. The point of that, I’ve found, is my sanity. After the kids are taken care of, what’s the most important thing then? (Scott would interject his name here, but that’s not the point.) Seriously ladies, what’s the most important thing to you after the kids are cared for?

For me, it’s having my house clean. This sounds crazy I know but seriously, when my house is clean I can handle anything. I’m kinder to my kids, more patient with my husband, more relaxed in general. I sleep better, eat better, and even breathe better when the house is clean. So, once the most important thing is taken care of, I take care of the 2nd most important thing. Then, all the other important things just seem to fall in line.

My 2nd is a tad large to be honest. It’s hard to get it done. But once it is the effect is staggering. I write this so I can ask you, what’s your 2nd most important thing? There’s a myriad of them. I’ve got a friend who’s 2nd most important thing is a glass of wine before bed, another who reads a novel a week, another who plays classical music on her ipod first thing in the morning. These are very simple 2nds. Others are even more complex than mine, specific things for breakfast, a 5 mile run in the morning (God help that poor woman), a blog you read every day, whatever. I think we all have that one thing that keeps us sane when the world around us is on fire. I know mine, my husband knows mine too. Whenever things are insane you can always tell because of the condition of my house. I view it as a reflection of the condition of my spirit. If all is well the house is in order. If all is in chaos you’re ready to call merry maids or something. It’s just me. So when I’m frazzled and the house is a disaster Scott will clean the kitchen. It’s an amazing thing to me. I feel loved in a very special way.

This is not a post telling you to take care of you above all others. This is just me pointing out that there’s likely something that is really important to you. Something that makes your world seem a little more stable. Figure out what that is and guard it. It’s not selfish to make sure that one of your needs is cared for each and every day. It may be difficult and it may take work but the payoff is so much greater than you could even imagine. Take time for the 2nd most important thing today.

Here’s what you’ll need. Minute steaks (marinated overnight in beer and onions), onions, green peppers, mushrooms, buns, and cheese (not pictured because I’m forgetful).

Grab a skillet, I use cast iron because it’s what I’ve got, but any large skillet will do.

Before you cook each vegetable you’ll need to give the pan 1 TBSP of oil to keep the veggies from sticking.

I started with the onions. Make sure your skillet is at med-high heat.

Cook the onions down until they’ve taken on a nice grilled look. I added pepper to mine.

Set the onions aside on a plate.

Then add the green peppers. These guys can cook with the onions but in our house my husband hates green peppers so I cook them separately.

Finally cook the mushrooms. These guys won’t take long at all. Did you know at the markets at any given weekend you can find freshly foraged mushrooms? They’re delicious and you can buy only as many as you need, as opposed to the big cartons.

You’ll want to remove the mushrooms when they begin to glaze and break down. Don’t overcook them, or they’ll turn mushy.

Finally, the best part! The minute steaks will be deliciously tender after an overnight bath in beer and onions.

Lay the meat in the skillet, and get yourself a fresh cutting board.

See how the juices have come to the top and the edges are brown? That’s how you know it’s time to flip them. These steaks had sat on one side for a minute or less. (Hence the name Minute Steaks)

See? Perfect!

Lay the steaks on a cutting board to rest a minute while you toast the buns.

Personally I like to brown the buns in the same pan I cooked the steak in. There’s not much juice left and they take on a nice meaty toasty flavor.

Yum.

Slice the steak against the grain and you’re ready to make sandwiches!

Take your buns, top with meat and your choice of veggies. I like onions and peppers, Scott likes onions and mushrooms. We’re different like that. While you’re making the sandwiches turn your broiler on.

Top the sandwiches with cheese, put them under the broiler for a minute and….

Yum. Here’s mine with sweet potato fries.

I could stop there with the ‘…’ seriously. Now that my son is a little older I’m really starting to have to think about Christmas gifts. He’s getting the idea that these gifts are different than normal gifts. They have a greater meaning. I wrote HERE about my ongoing struggle with defining Christmas in our family. A big part of that defining is what to do about Christmas gifts. When you’re a kid you get focused on the important stuff in life. Staying up late at New Years, candy at Valentine’s day, chocolate at Easter, cake on your birthday, sparklers and ice cream at the 4th of July, candy at Halloween, pie at Thanksgiving, and presents and candy and cookies and chocolate at Christmas. They’d be shocked to know that the aforementioned important things aren’t the reasons for those holidays. So when I do gifts now I want to be intentional. Part of the way I do that is during December my kids spend an inordinate amount of time buying, making, and sending gifts to other people. Those other people, I explain, need these gifts and what we’re doing makes their lives better. We also (this might be cheesy) buy Jesus a gift at Christmastime. That gift so far has always been a toy. My son so far has always chosen the toy. He helps me wrap it and we give it away to a boy for whom that will be a big deal. Every year when we do this I’m reminded of a Christmas morning where 2 people from our church showed up at our door with bags full of gifts from other people who bought toys for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have one. That particular year those kids were my siblings and me. I remember even at that young age what a humbling and amazing experience that was for my parents and the joy I had as a kid to get presents when I thought there wouldn’t be any that year. Because of that I’m a HUGE supporter of presents for kids in need at Christmastime.

But, what about my kids? They’re so totally awesome and I want them to have the excitement of opening gifts on Christmas. I know other people who’ve done a variety of different things but none of them seemed right to me. Until, I read THIS post. The author in a very simple way outlined what I’ll be doing for gifts for my kids this year. It just makes so much sense to me I cannot imagine doing it another way. Who knows, next year might be different. But for this year here’s what I’m doing.

Something they WANT
Something they NEED
Something to WEAR
Something to READ

It even SOUNDS catchy! 4 gifts. That’s financially doable, it’s also fiscally responsible. It’s practical and it’s fair. 4 gifts for each kid.

If you happen to be a family that likes to buy a lot more presents for your kids you could just divvy them up so each kid gets the same number of presents in each of the 4 categories. If you’re looking for less in the way of presents you could assign the grandparents each to one category and the other 2 you could take on yourself.

It’s just a suggestion. Maybe it will be a lightbulb moment for you, maybe not. But a plan is a plan and now I’ve got one so I’m tickled about it.

I’ve heard that question a lot this week. First from my own mouth. Then from the mouths of my friends and family. We’re all wondering the same thing. What are we doing for Christmas? Some of us are searching for ways to make Christmas more meaningful. Perhaps we’ve been consuming Christmas like a binge drinker the last few years and we’re wanting to get back on the wagon and make a real change. Perhaps this year there’s just no money and we’re wondering how on earth we explain to our kids that we’ve created a gift hungry monster in their lives that we now need to slay because if we don’t we’ll be eating beans and rice for Christmas dinner. Perhaps the question is posed by one spouse to another in the desperate hope that they will curb their spending this year so that they can avoid such a large credit card bill. Perhaps the question is posed by one spouse to another in a desperate attempt to get them to feel joyful this year instead of the overwhelming depression that has attacked them in years past.

Oh gosh guys, Christmas is a loaded gun isn’t it? We’ve messed with it and genetically altered it and put it on steroids and we’ve mangled it beyond recognition. I’m as culpable as you are in this, please don’t feel judged because that’s not my heart. It just occurs to me as I sit here writing that I don’t even know what to tell people about Christmas anymore.

If you’re a Christian then Christmas is HUGE. Christmas is the culmination of thousands of years of the world’s hopes and dreams. Christmas means there can be a tomorrow after we die. Where before the Law was the only hope, now because of Christmas we have a hero to save us from ourselves. Christmas is a magical mythical time. There’s a tenseness on Christmas Eve, it’s an excited anticipation we feel as we wait for the birth of a baby. The Christmas story has angels, and big songs, and explosions of light and sound. There’s danger and evil and good triumphs. Christmas is Harry Potter on steroids. It really really is. There’s mass murder of infants as a tyrannical dictator attempts to wipe out this newborn king. That king flees to Egypt under the careful guidance of his adoptive father. I’ve got a little boy and I’m dead serious when I say that the Christmas story would be his ideal action movie. I was a little girl once and I can tell you with the same conviction that the Christmas story is the kind of romance story that makes my heart sigh. How is it that we turned all that magic into something as boring as camping outside of Best Buy for 3 weeks in a tent to buy an iPod for $39 which we’re going to tell our kids came from a magical fat elf who snuck into their house through the chimney?

I don’t like it when people tell me I’m bastardizing Christmas because I buy presents and let my kids believe in Santa. I’m not saying all of this to say that. Do Christmas however you want to, you’ll get out what you put into it. I guess I’m just asking if focusing on presents and Santa is the most exciting and satisfying kind of Christmas you can offer your kids. It cracks me up when I read blogs where people are imploring you to put Christ back in Christmas and they make it sound SO INCREDIBLY BORING AND A DOWNER AND AWFUL AND WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO DO THAT? They make it sound like you’re turning Christmas into this 25 day church service in Latin. Ugh, I’d run for the hills. As I start to think about the reality of Christmas I get excited. There’s a serious amount of magic and mystery and adventure in this story. The trick for me is figuring out how to harness such a HUGE story into a 25 day marathon. Perhaps that’s why it’s a story to be lived out all year rather than assigned to a particular season.

I’m not following this up with a 12 step process to making your Christmas Jesus centered. I’m also not offering any advice on what to do with Santa right now. I’m just hoping to spark some thinking on what Christmas means to you and what you want it to mean to your children. Throughout this week I’ll be posting a few things I’m doing and thinking about Christmas. I hope we can journey here together.

In addition to me there are some AMAZING bloggers writing about Christmas. Some of them are friends and some of them are strangers. All of the posts listed below offer ideas, hope, and encouragement.

Amber’s Christmas Plan

Advent Conspiracy

WANT, NEED, WEAR, READ = BRILLIANT

Heifer International – One of the very best places to give charitably this year.

Planning your Peaceful Christmas – so helpful!

What I said about Santa Last Year

My Christmas 2 Years Ago