The Best Soup Recipes + Real Life

Hey friends!

So 2018 started off with a bang. Literally. Well, technically January 2nd ended with a bang. This week has been full of some tough stuff. I should preface, I am a feel it all, emotional, overreacting, passionate kinda girl. I feel everything HARD. I react IMMEDIATELY. Then I typically calm down a bit and react appropriately. I should mention that my overreacting happens to my tribe. My besties, my husband, my sisters. Thank goodness that they let me have my moments! One of my goals this year is to try to calm it all down. Most of the things I freak about aren’t worth the energy. Really. I should also say that I am so grateful for my life. Even with the bumps and bruises, I am pretty damn lucky.

I teeter between sharing it all and keeping it in. Usually, in my personal life, I let it ALL out! {thank you to my people for just listening and giving me hugs. I love you people SO MUCH}.

So let me just say that even though my week was extra tough, I am OK. We are all OK and today has been a pretty perfect day. Facebook friends, you are about to hear why I told 2018 to kiss my ass last week 😉

Warning – longest paragraph EVER ————-> Tuesday morning my youngest got braces. This caused him a couple of days of a super sore mouth. We decided to grab him a Jamba Juice at our local Safeway. When we got to Safeway, I bumped into a friend inside and let my kiddo and his bestie head to the car. Yes, my kids have waited in the car for me plenty of times. Yes is he’s 12.5 and his buddy is almost 13. So they aren’t little ones. Within a few minutes, after I had said goodbye to my friend and was ordering a smoothie for my oldest son that was at home, I got a call from a stranger. She said, “Hi, your son has been in an accident in the parking lot but he is OK”. OMG – Sheer panic! I ran outside thinking that he’d been hit by a car. Nope. He had started my car {which he’s done before – for radio + the heater, it was chilly out} but he somehow put the car in drive, bumped the car in front of him and then panicked and threw it in reverse! He then hit another car and pushed that car into yet another car! You guys, I couldn’t even believe it! He and his friend were totally OK. No one was in the other cars and no one was behind him. I mean, it was so scary BUT no one was hurt. That is what I keep telling myself. He doesn’t know how he did it. Everything is push button in my car. He had his foot on the gas from starting the car and I just don’t know how the rest transpired. He swears he wasn’t doing anything. If you know this boy, then you know how much this scared him and how much he plays it safe. Today, he didn’t even want to sit in the front seat when we went to the store! The other car owners were so kind and forgiving. Which of course really helped the situation. Thankfully everyone could drive away in their cars. Sadly, they will all need some repairs. I felt awful. Wednesday was pretty OK. Nothing to newsy to write about. Thursday brought a migraine {lifelong sufferer here} and yesterday was a long day. I had a bad toothache a couple of weeks ago. After a trip to my dentist and then an endodontist, it was determined that I had a fractured root canal which would require an extraction and an implant which then would need a crown. Ka-ching! My appointment time was between 9-12 as I was considered an ’emergency’ due to the holidays. Well, noon rolled around and I still hadn’t been seen. Finally, I was taken back around 1 and the procedure was done at 2. Sigh. Nothing like a long day of waiting at the dentist office when having major anxiety over any and all dental work. I let the doctor know that I struggled with the novocaine and I don’t feel like he was as gentle as he could have been. 🙁 Then the crown had to be pulled off. I sure wish I had headphones on to block the awful, crushing sound that it made. AWFUL! I had no idea how much pain I’d be in after numbing went away. Oh boy. I literally walked through my door in tears. I retreated to my bedroom with an ice pack on. The pain meds kicked in and took away some of the pain. THANK GOODNESS!  Today I woke up feeling so much better! My mouth feels kinda ick but the pain meds have been constant and I have really felt pretty good. Whew! The upside of yesterday? I read almost all of Capital Gaines and felt completely inspired which was a plus. Also, my sweet boy hung out with me and watched all the funny shows last night. He loves to snuggle. So yeah, silver lining! But I have to go back for 2 more appointments for this tooth. Ugh. I don’t wanna. Ever. Go. Back. I am so traumatized. Sigh. On top of all of this, I am navigating the teenage years with my almost 15-year-old. What I know is this. Teens do stupid stuff. They test boundaries. They think that they are invincible. They are also hilarious. Put all of those things together and well, I am exhausted and constantly on my toes. Again, I am so grateful for my tribe. It’s so easy to beat yourself up as a parent. I take it all so personal. Like every choice he makes is a reflection of me BUT he is almost 15 and even if I have given him all of the right tools, he’s still his own person and guess what? He won’t make all of the right choices. Neither did I. Nor do I now! The level of worry has grown tenfold since the toddler days. So yeah, this mama brain is tired. Again, none of this earth-shattering, end of the world type stuff. I am grateful. I am lucky. I have just had some extra tough moments as of late. There are a lot of deep breaths happening. Speaking of which, I am getting back into a routine with yoga next week. It’ll be good for my mind, body and soul. Namaste friends. Namaste.

It’s amazing how much you literally walk on sunshine when you feel good after a couple of days of feeling so bad. I was literally painting my guest bathroom and dancing to music all afternoon. I felt so light and relieved. Awwwwww!

Aside from the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week {that movie just popped into my head. Ha!}, I have been having some emotional highs/lows. At the beginning of the year, my husband and I decided that after my job was done at the tax office I’d been at for almost 5 years, I’d take some time to just focus on blogging. This has been a total blessing and I have a year {I officially stopped working in October} to see how it goes. BUT the downside? I am not making money and I have put so much pressure on myself which takes some of the joy out of it. There is so much behind the scenes stuff and the direction of what to do are changing all the time. I am trying to change my mindset. To not compare or compete with everyone. To be authentic. To find joy in my posts. In social media. In my projects that translate to my blog posts. I am trying to be kinder to myself. To find people in the same blogosphere as me. Is that a thing? Yes, it is! I have met some great bloggers and joined a local group that helps feed my creative spirit. I also have to say, I have seen some blog and Instagram posts from very successful bloggers who struggle so I guess it’s just part of adulting, right? #thistoshallpass

So now that I have had a complete emotional purge {thanks for listening. You guys are awesome}, how about I share some soup recipes? The weather is a bit chilly here although the sun has been shining a lot. It’s been pretty perfect except we do need the rain. It’s awesome soup weather though! I love soup with fresh bread and a salad. It’s my favorite cold weather meal. I should also clarify that to me, soup is, soup, stew and all the chili recipes too!

Easy Thai Shrimp Soup – Damn Delicious

Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Copy Cat Soup – Cooking Classy 

Spicy White Cheddar Beer Cheese Soup – A Flavor Journal

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup – A Spicy Perspective

Slow Cooker Steak and Potato Soup – Plain Chicken

Slow Cooker Homemade Minestrone Soup – Little Spice Jar

Creamy Tuscan Garlic Tortellini Soup – The Recipe Critic

One Pot White Chicken Lasagna Soup – Carlsbad Cravings

Crockpot Creamy Taco Chicken Chili – Chelsea’s Messy Apron

Slow Cooker King Ranch Chicken Soup – House of Yum

Best Clam Chowder – Reluctant Entertainer

Mexican Street Corn Soup – Closet Cooking

Slow Cooker Chicken Boodle Soup – Damn Delicious

Slow Cooker Creamy White Chicken Chili – The Chunky Chef

Slow Cooker French Onion Soup – Spend With Pennies

Hearty Chicken Stew With Butternut Squash + Quinoa – Cookin’ Canuck

Homemade Pale Ale Chili – Homemade Interest

Simple Asparagus Soup – The Food Charleton

Stuffed Pepper Soup – The Country Cook

20 Minute Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Soup – Gimme Some Oven

As I sat here typing this, my oldest and two of his friends just hung out in my kitchen while eating brownies and chatted with me about everything from grades to girls to the ways guys beat each other up. Hey, I will take what I can get! It did my mama heart good to just be with these kids in a relaxed atmosphere and just let them banter about whatever they were feeling. I was telling my sister in law the other day that my ego was feeling bruised and needed a hug. She suggested that we make t-shirts or printables that said, “My ego needs a hug”. Ha ha! These little talks are like ego hugs. They are small reminders that I have got this!

I hope you have a most fabulous week. Do something that makes your heart happy cause YOU deserve it!