I try to keep the “Sunday Dinner” tradition going. My generation of friends (the 40-somethings) talk about whether or not you we do Sunday Dinner at home. Sunday’s don’t feel like Sunday to me with out. Growing up, my Mom threw DOWN on Sunday. Usually she baked a hen, made collards or snap beans (which involved me snapping beans into a big wooden bowl after church), rice-a-roni or potato salad. Mom always did dessert on Sunday too (banana pudding, dump cake, peach/apple pie). She wouldn’t eat it of course, but she made it, Praise God 🤣. I get all my cooking skills from my mom. I try to branch out a little more though, than chicken and sides. For one, that takes all day and my kids require a ton of attention, and my house is a mess. I usually need space on Sunday’s to clean and cook something. I got wise and started using the crock pot to free up some time. My mom never used a crock pot; I don’t even think she had one. Some how her house was clean and Jonri and I were low-ish maintenance. If we dared become high-maintenance, my parents had their way of putting a stop to that 😊. So, for today, it’s curry chicken in the crock pot. The recipe is something like this: 2lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, 2.5 cups chicken broth, 1 can of coconut milk (I use Goya), 2 Onions, 1 red bell pepper, some shredded carrots, 1 potato – cubed, 3 tablespoons of curry, 1 teaspoon of coriander, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, kosher salt and pepper to taste. I’ll let this stay in the pot for about 6 hours on low, then I’ll add frozen peas and cauliflower. Charn is cutting carbs, otherwise we would have it with rice, but instead we will have it with broccoli. The boys will have Stouffer’s Veggie Lasagna. That’s another thing my Mom was NOT having. All I could hear her yelling from the kitchen is, “I am not a short order cook!” We ate whatever she fixed. But for me, the boys will not be having curry just yet. Maybe another day. In other Barr news, Happy Birthday Aaron!

I usually cook on Sunday with the aim of having leftovers for a day or 2. I accomplished that this week. I cooked Sunday and we finished up the meal on Tuesday. So today, I’m ashamed to say, we threw in one of our usual rotations…Chick-Fil-A. I feel like one of the biggest stressors for a mom is, what to feed the kids everyday. I’m a planner in life and I like to have a plan. Chick-Fil-A is one of my go-to’s when there is no plan. I tell myself, it’s “better” than McDonald’s. I can get a salad there (I got the cobb salad, excellent, by the way) and I know the boys will eat it. They would eat McDonald’s every day if I let them. I think when they were starting table food I would get panicked by what I should feed them, because heaven forbid they have empty tummies and not sleep through the night. I still have that panic every week about feeding them; but it’s time to let that go. I’ve learned, they won’t starve and now they will sleep no matter what. My mama’s no-plan meal was beans and franks or tuna (I hated tuna night). Mom would teach all day, drive home from another county, just to have me lean out the door and yell, “What’s for dinner!?” Literally, before she could get out of the car. I walked in stressed today and she said Karma’s a witch ain’t she (she didn’t say witch 😅). Then she quickly said, just joking. But as she always says, that Aunt V used to say, “There’s a lot of truth told in jokes.” That’s true and Karma is who she is. More to come I guess. Happy Wednesday! ❤️

Kee

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.