Patience, Peace, and Potatoes

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul." Psalm 143:8

This verse just makes me smile every time I read it! God remains constant despite our inconsistency. Every morning, every moment, His love is present and vibrant. This is a prayer I need to pray throughout everyday, that He show me the way I should go....no matter how small the day's events may seem.

Speaking of day's events....let me tell you about our DPS adventure. This was the second trip to the DPS in an attempt to get a new license with my married name, new address, and new state. The first attempt failed due to the fact that we only had a copy of our marriage license, not the real deal. Got the real one in mail...yay....all set to go to the DPS! Woo hoo! Second attempt....had all the necessary paperwork, IDs, and documentation needed...except my Social Security Card. Oh wait...SS card is gone due to the fact that the lady at the social security office took my old one while I wait for 2 weeks for my new-married name-one. Drove home to retrieve the paper I got from the SS office saying I'm getting a new one, only to find out that my number is nowhere on that slip of paper. Back to the DPS in the middle of nowhere to get the husband. Fruitless day of errands. However, after becoming extremely frustrated I was determined to see the good in the situation. A lesson in patience? Sure, God, I'll take that one!

Speaking of frustrating situations, whenever I am taking myself way too seriously and am in a really bad mood, God always send something my way to show me how ridiculous I am acting. Example A. Upon returning to Texas after our awesome honeymoon, we discovered that the fridge had gone out sometime that week, leaving delightful mounds of science-project-esque moldy limes and other spoiled food. The next night, our AC went out and was out for 3 days before being fixed. 95 degrees is only pleasant on a beach with a constant breeze, an umbrella overhead, and a cabana boy who brings you a cold drink with the snap of a finger....NOT in a 2 bedroom apartment in Texas in July!!! Anyways, AC was eventually fixed, we were waiting on the fridge repair man that afternoon, and I was braving the crowds at  Walmart to stock up on food to cook our first homemade meal as a married couple. Thinking and believing our fridge would be fixed during my grocery run, I was extremely sad to hear that the repair man came, looked at the fridge, declared it broken, and left without doing a single thing. Well that just made the whole Walmart excursion even worse and I left in an incredibly foul mood. As I walked to my car in the parking lot I heard "Miss! Miss! Excuse me Miss!" called out and was soon followed by an energetic young man who spoke broken English. He ran to catch up to my cart and was pointing at my bag of sugar located under the cart. My thoughts immediately became, "Seriously buddy, don't talk to me right now. Yes, I know the sugar is there. Why do you care if the sugar bag is under the cart vs. in the cart. Kinda lame excuse to come up and talk and all I want to do was get home...blah...blah...blah". I (trying to be polite) said, "Yes, thanks I put it there" and walked away thinking all those things I mentioned earlier. WELL...I got to my car and discovered that my sugar bag had opened and I had been leaving a trail of Great Value Sugar from the door to the parking lot..excellent. I just shook my head at myself, laughed, and looked up to the sky to say thanks.

So after lessons of patience and peace I decided to come up with a tasty loaded baked potato dish for dinner. I made it up (but really it's not very creative) based on what we had in the fridge and it turned out delish! There are a few tweaks I'd make but I'll tell you the original game plan first for.....

Easy Cheesy BBQ Chicken Potatoes

4 small russet potatoes

Enough chicken for a nice big spoonful for each potato (I used 5 chicken tenderloins since that's what I had)

3 slices American cheese

2 slices bacon

Butter, salt, pepper, milk for mashing the potatoes

BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's...what more can I say?)

First I washed and scrubbed the potatoes, rubbed butter on the skins, sprinkled with salt and placed a 375 degree oven to cook for 35-40 minutes. Once done, I cut each potato in half long ways. Let the potatoes cool a bit then scoop out the insides, leaving an empty potato boat.  Mash the scooped out insides with a masher or hand mixer, adding butter, salt, pepper, and milk according to your taste and texture preferences.  Fill each potato boat with the mashed potatoes.  Cook the chicken with olive oil, salt, and pepper in a skillet and shred when done. Mix with a nice helping of BBQ sauce. Cook and crumble the bacon. Sprinkle the bacon on top of each filled potato boat and place 1/3 of a slice of American cheese on top of the bacon. Then place a scoop of the BBQ chicken on top of the cheese and place back in the oven until the cheese is melted. I broiled it at the very end for about a minute and a half to brown the cheese a bit. Tasty! And cute!