Slow Cooker Meal

I will be honest, I don't use my slower cooker that much. My husband ate a lot of casserole & slow cooker meals growing up, lots O'siblings + hockey practice... He won't even touch anything made with cream-of-anything soup from that experience.

This is one of my favorites to make for a crowd..  ( asked for at my work potluck every year )



Pulled Pork
Ingredients:

Pork Tenderloin 2-4 lbs ( depending on how many you are cooking for )

2 liter of Root Beer or Dr. Pepper or Faygo Rock-n-Rye

18oz Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, for every 2 lbs of Pork.

Buns-- We like to get Hawaiian sweet rolls for them.

How to:
As I said I normally  make for work potlucks ( so I am taking with me at 7:30 am )
So I would start at bedtime by putting the pork in the cooker, cover with desired Pop. Let cook all night. I usually do high, then sometime during the night switch to Low.  By the morning, it is falling apart. I drain off the liquid ( saving about 1/2 cup ). I shred the pork with 2 forks. It should be falling apart by this time. Put  all including liquid back in the slow cooker on Warm.. mix in the BBQ sauce.. and leave on Warm til serving ( lunch time )

Simple easy and delicious.

Mixed

I have such a hard time --still--- with family members who haven't acknowledged any of losses, but are the first to gush over pregnancy announcements.  

Breaks my heart that these pro-life people, don't get LIFE.

Pregnancy announcements never get easier; when God keeps blessing others, and skipping over us, it just hurts.  I know it's hurting the hubs more this week, he has the more fertile siblings who multiply like rabbits; and have no tact, or thoughts for our feelings. Yes we were inundated with Text message announcements this week. Not a one, said anything about David this week, but 100's of congratulations for those newly expecting.

Passionate

I saw this almost immediately after I had David. Unfortunately my hospital ( like 99% of the hospitals in the US ) do not have one.  

I decided to wait and let my heart guide me what to do with the information I have on it. I have decided to write several hospital(s) and hospital (systems), and a group who works with stillbirth parents in our state in hopes that A) the hospital would feel inclined to purchase one for their hospital.  B) If I get no's start a crow-funding campaign to get one somewhere local.   My biggest hurdle, I thought these things would be like 100's of thousands of dollars, or geez, every hospital should have one. Really, they are only $3,000 . Come on hospitals wake up. I get in their defense, why pay for something that's not "saving" the babies life, but really I've paid out to hospitals way more than $3,000 in extravagant bills over the course of 3 pregnancies.

So this thing pictured is called a Cuddle Cot. It's basically a cooling device disguised in a moses basket. Color changes/body changes can be delayed if the body is kept cool.  What it allows is a family to have more "time" with their deceased child, before they are pressured to send it to the morgue for good.

Interestingly enough, I've had several people send me articles about them.

I wish I could buy a 100 or even a 1000.

NO parent should have to feel pressured to say good-bye, they should have adequate time to spend with their child, in a meaningful way.

The only hospital I know in my state to have one, interestingly enough, is, not a hospital that has a maternity dept. They are at a children's hospital ( used for NICU infants that pass ).

I think that 6 months has passed, the teary emotional side of me has passed, and the feisty, get it done side, is ready to get some cuddle cot placements happening.

If you would like more info on them.. shoot me an e-mail : luckysunshine25 at gmail dot com

NFP Awareness week.

For NFP Awareness week, I would like to resurrect a post from earlier this year.


Abstaining


I think for some most people abstaining is one of the hardest parts of NFP. Some people have the mentality well if I'm open to life, why would I ever need to abstain!!!

Most people will find at some point or another they will need to abstain, for one reason or another. I hope the abstaining post offers some practical advice on how to make NFP more do-able.

6 Months

Today is 6 months since our sweet David was born into eternal life.

We still miss him every day.

Hubs and I both took the day off from work ( well as much as we can )

We are going to take our new to us boat out for its maiden voyage. I honestly am glad the hubs asked me to take the day off. This week, has been very hard on him. He's been looking at David's pictures a lot, he's been posting on FB a lot, about memories from 6 months ago.

Quiet- but not silent

Sorry for the long period in between posts.  Things (life) has been super busy. 

I still have lots to say. It's just having the creative time to write it all down. 

Short story from the weekend & then I'll give you some pictures. 

One of Hubs sisters who lives in Columbia, was making a stop overnight, one the way to the family cottage. She had asked us & other sister who lives local to have dinner when they made their sleep stop. 

My SIL brings a lot of her in laws when they go to the cottage. So when the first van rolled up, pulling a camper. It was exciting to see who would jump out. Second SUV pulls up pulling a boat. Some young men I didn't recognize but didn't question, I recognized her FIL was driving. 

So we started the grill & got food going, to be hospitable. The guy's had to drive out and fill up gas. While they were gone, I kept hearing the little kids mentioning "father". I was uber confused. 

So about the time food was ready from the grill. The guys were all back, and we were getting ready to say grace. Everyone was super appreciative for cooking. So grace was said by "father".  Yes Fr. Dan.  

They invited their pastor to go on vacation.. He is a younger priest. The kids all adored him.. It was great for the older boys to have a good role model with them.  Columbus you are lucky to have Fr Dan.  I'm glad that he is spending the week at our family cottage. I found out that he went last year for guys weekend. He enjoyed it so much, he was elated to be invited again. 

Okay some pictures of the last week 

Mulch

Free mulch body scrub 

Before

After

Saw this at Tim Horton's

My buddy. Always calling asking to come over. 

Walrus ( my brother ) playing guess the animals with the nephews

He emptied my purse out looking for gum, when i told him to put it back, he told me it doesn't fit. & put it all on the counter. 

I have 20 pics of this view. Guess the games got boring. 

That's all I got for now. 

Have a joyful week 

IF story

So someone in our family shared our IF /Loss  story with a Cardinal recently.

The intent was asking for his prayers for us. 

Our family member put in the note to the cardinal; because of their ages being 41-- time is of the essence.  

The Secretary for this cardinal ( a nun ) said she would also include is in her prayers, and ask for the intercession of St. Gianna Beretta Molla.

I soo dislike that once I turned 40 ( 6 months ago )  everything seems to be a ticking time bomb.

When I met with the geneticist a few short weeks ago, she made me feel like I was ancient ( in her 26 year old mind, I probably was ) but also that my child, will likely have all these issues, because of my age..   

Childbirth

I've always been open to questions from people after our losses. One of the questions that people ask, comes from a place of not knowing.

How did you "have" the deceased baby?

I answer the same way you would have had your living child. How I envisioned my birth(s) changed slightly when I found out I was delivering a baby that had already passed. I still however had my vision of what birth would be like. I had very detailed birth preference sheet; knowing that I was "high" risk, I was well prepared that birth may not go according to my preferences. I simply asked that we be consulted with choices that had to be made; so we could make an informed decision.

The preferences I planned out, were to make my experience the most relaxing, warm, welcoming, enjoyable experience as possible.

I asked for a room with a window, and was obliged with it. May sound weird, but not being cooped up in 4 walls for 12 hours was refreshing.

I was not able to avoid things like the Hep Lock, but within minutes of delivering my placenta, it was removed.

Everyone has some "things" that they envision for their birth, even if they don't know them the day they find out they are pregnant. Things may not always go as envisioned, your baby may help you decide that an epidural, or C-section is necessary, but as long as you don't have fear in making that decision, that is what's most important.