Journey – Mothersense and Miscellaneous

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If you walked into my kitchen today, you wouldn’t find a Pinterest-perfect setup with high-end gadgets. You’d find a dusting of all-purpose flour on the counter and me with a rolling pin in hand.
I’ve never been much for the “easy way” out. Whether it’s pressing out tortillas by hand or hand-stitching a memory quilt for my son, I like to feel the work. There’s a rhythm to using a pastry blender to cut the fat into the flour—a steady, grounding pace that helps clear the “topsy-turvy” noise of the week.

The “Spiral” Songwriter
While the dough is rising, I’m usually reaching for a notebook. But you won’t find any fancy leather-bound journals here. My catalog of 180+ songs started on the back of index cards and old student spirals left over from my teaching years.

There’s something about a scrap of paper that makes the lyrics feel more honest. It doesn’t have to be pretty to be powerful. It just has to be true.

The Tech Pivot: KitchenIQ
Even with my “old school” heart, I’m still a believer in moving forward. That’s why I’m building KitchenIQ. I’m taking all those scratch-made traditions and my “Grandmama” hacks and putting them into an app that actually understands a busy household. I’m learning FlutterFlow the same way I learned to bake—one step at a time, failing until it’s right, and not being afraid to get my hands a little dirty.

Living the “Second Half”
I spent a long time throwing myself into projects as a distraction. But today, whether I’m studying for my General Lines license, coding an app, or rolling out dough, I’m doing it with intention.

Life is too darn short to wait for the “perfect” tools. You use the flour you have, the scraps you can find, and the rolling pin your mama probably used. You just start.
Julie’s “Old School” Kitchen Favorites:

The Pastry Blender: — This is the workhorse of my kitchen. Simple, effective, and doesn’t need a plug. I had to replace my old one I found at a thrift shop, it had a wooden handle…But I do enjoy the upgrade with the biscuit cutter and dough blade for splitting tortilla dough or making rolls.

Pastry Blender set

A Solid Wood Rolling Pin: — Sometimes the simplest tools are the ones that last a lifetime. I do enjoy a good thrift find but the best is marble for tortillas and pie crusts, but that wood for the biscuits and breads. Either one works well or if you can have both, why not?

Marble Rolling Pin

Wooden Rolling Pin

Bulk All-Purpose Flour: — Proof that you don’t need fancy ingredients to make something people love. You can get a great 25 lb bag on Amazon, but I also get it from HEB or Wal Mart in 10lb bags, depending on how much baking I intend to do in any given period of time.

As Cody Johnson sang so well :

“If you got a chance, take it, take it while you got a chance
If you got a dream, chase it, ’cause a dream won’t chase you back
If you’re gonna love somebody
Hold ’em as long and as strong and as close as you can
‘Til you can’t”

Go chase dreams, be the light, change the world, protect the children…..

Always Julie

When one is trying to grow personally and develop a plan for a business there are some obstacles that will inevitably come up and perhaps slow the progress. I have taken my hubs disability as a sign that maybe we all needed to slow down and work on things as a couple, a family, and rethink where our priorities are. We seem to constantly be re-evaluating what is most urgent to deal with because we are in a lengthy “crisis” mode and I am trying my best to keep the kids away from that mode and absorb most of that onto myself and a little on my husband because feeling like you are “on the verge” all of the time is exhausting.
We have run into financial obstacles. I have unfortunately had to sell things, ask for help from local churches, cash in life insurance, pretty much take everything down to the bare bones of living so that we can continue to afford to live in our home and not be forced to surrender another home and move in with family. SO far we are managing alright but most recently the federal TANF program had me so dad gum irritated. I have medical documentation that my husband cannot work, he doesn’t even travel well. I have a document that the doctor signed that says my husband cannot be left alone because he is a fall risk, meaning I do not get to “get out” much of anywhere without arranging care for him. Finding appropriate and hopefully free care for him has proved challenging. Imagine my surprise when hubs actual physical presence is REQUIRED for an “orientation” despite the documentation provided by a medical professional saying that he cannot!! SO my TANF application has been denied, no opportunity for appeal and I will need to re-apply because re-applying takes less than 30 days and appeals can take up to 90 days….and this folks is our federal government at work. I am not really complaining because at least the help is there; I am just shaking my head at how bogged down the whole thing is for applicants and recipients.
Emotional obstacles and here I can only speak for myself but this journey has days that leave me so depleted I honestly cannot comprehend how I am awake and even remotely functional. I deal with ANGER, the whole “why us?” sort of thing and I don’t get it and I lash out and wonder what I did to be getting beat down like this…And then I realize that I am NEVER going to understand the reasons WHY. And I reconnect to a calmer place and shake off the anger and put on my smile and get back to the work of whatever the day has left to bring us. It sometimes happens as fast as it took you to read that, but certain days, days that have been just way too much, it may be 15 minutes or a couple of hours of just being in a mood. It isn’t really angry, or sad, or upset its just a dreadful place that I prefer not to be so I try not to stay there. I am not a pity party sort of person but that is usually how I refer to these lapses in my normal upbeat self. I also try to stay away from people when I feel like this. I tried the whole “keeping it in” and TRUST ME, It doesn’t work, at all, EVER! Instead of keeping it in I usually have 15 minutes a day that I sort of “let it all hang out” and it may be in the shower crying or outside away from everyone but the cat while I have a little alone time talking to God. Either way it heals me just a little bit and I can breathe a little easier and continue on my journey.
Scheduling obstacles are the most frustrating. It would not matter if I wrote out a minute by minute plan of every single day we would still end up with something not getting done because someone would want to take the schedule literally and someone else would be so free with it …well I guess you get the picture. Between my autistic/bipolar/adhd daughter and her other terrific siblings we have pretty hectic days with homeschool lessons, co-op days, chores (kids just love those), meals and meal plans. It is still a journey y’all and this household is a never-ending work in progress.
Love people even when you think they don’t deserve it, and be the light you want to see in the world!! = Love and light readers! always Jules

Tag: Journey

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