for good or bad, better or worse… life happens

It’s been quite the busy October ’round here. A few weeks ago, my eldest son, Jason, who is an aviation technician in the NAVY got word that he will be getting deployed overseas around the first of  December.

While the news should not have come to a surprise for me, I was shocked & blown away at my reaction. I had a roller-coaster of emotions over the course of the next couple of days.

I was proud, scared, sad, & worried all at the same time.

He himself put in in perspective for me when he said, “mom, this is what I signed up to do”.

It’s a strange feeling when your children become your voice of reason…

One of the things about him leaving at the beginning of December is that they obviously won’t’ be home for  Christmas 😦

He was given 2 weeks leave immediately so he & Amanda booked a last minute 3-day weekend away.

Scott & I were trying desperately to figure out when we could see him before he left and given the time constraints could not find a suitable time to fly south.

Then Scott had an idea…

It was crazy, irresponsible, only heard of in movies.. which is why we decided to do it!

We dipped into our savings, scrambled our lives around & decided to crash their vacation!!

With 4 days notice.

And didn’t tell them 😉

They were very excited to see us & the 6 of us spent 3 whole days just hanging together, playing games, doing scavenger hunts, horseback riding & 🙂 eating 🙂

and well, just being as silly as we always are..

We were sad when it was over

After our 3 days together, we spent a whole day flying home, switching planes & waiting in airports.. to come back to reality.

And in one of the next days to follow, I had a birthday.

A big birthday.

I’m now 40.

I had all sorts of wonderful ’40’ posts planned, but with the chaotic-ness of the last few weeks, this is as good as it gets.

I may through a random post up at sometime about my thoughts on aging, but for now… I want to bring you a recipe that I made last month….

This IS a food blog, correct?
here is what I did..

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded & cubed

1 box low-sodium chicken broth

1 can Tj’s light coconut milk

4 cups canneloni (white) beans

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 carrots, peeled & chopped

2 onions, peeled & chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled & chopped

2 TBSP Madras Curry Powder ( I actually used a little bit more than this, bit I like it spicy 😉

pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon & allspice

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup whipping cream

(only a few minor changes from her recipe)

Add everything except the cream to the crock-pot

cook on low for 5-6 hours, then use an immersion blender to puree. I didn’t add the cream to the whole pot, instead..

I swirled in some cream for serving & topped with some pumpkin seeds.

Heaven. In a bowl.

And we haven’t heard that last about Jason’s deployment, we are still waiting for details, so I’m sure that you’ll hear from me on this subject again.

but in the meantime…

life happens.