My husband and I have a mixed marriage.  I come from a gun free, non-hunting family.  My husband… doesn’t.

So when our sons were born, there was some good natured speculation about what our parenting choices would be.  When a relative inadvertently gave our children a gift that included a gun as part of a dress-up kit, family members held their breaths to see what my reaction would be.

(i gently removed the gun from the play set and kept on going.  no big deal.)

<reminder – go enter my giveaway, you can earn entries each day>

Honestly, I tried to raise my boys without guns.  I gave it my best… shot.

Until they were three and two, I thought I was totally successful.  We had not even uttered the word G-U-N in their hearing.

I carefully avoided any cartoons or television shows that featured guns or hunting or army play.  Even the Tom and Jerry episodes were off limits.

It didn’t work.

When Watty was three and GoGo was two, I was watching them play at the park one day.  It was just the three of us, and I was really enjoying the freedom to let them run around and play without worrying about other kids.

That’s when I realized my kids each had picked up a stick.  Their chubby little fingers were wrapped around small tree limbs that each had a secondary limb branching out.

(visualize an “L” shaped stick and make the long part be pointing out, leaving the short part to be the handle.)

As I got closer, I began to hear my boys more clearly.

Watty:  My pew-er is better than your pew-er.

GoGo:  No!  Mine bigger.

Watty:  My pew-er is louder.

My kids invented the pew-er

Like you, I was a wee bit confused about what a pew-er meant.  So I asked them.

Boys:  When you hold it, it goes “pew pew pew”

Yes.  That’s a gun sound.  The universal sound of little boys picking up sticks and pretending to shoot each other by making shooting sounds with their mouths.

Since they didn’t know the word “gun” they invented their own word.

I just stood there and laughed.

All the long intellectual conversations about guns were rendered senseless.  All the research I’d done in parenting books was pretty much a waste of time.

My boys made their own choice.  Even my most anti-gun relative had to agree.  My kids “invented” the concept of a projectile weapon and came up with a name all on their own.

My kids make me laugh – still

That was over five years ago.  They’ve learned quite a bit since then, including the word “gun” and much of what it means.

They’ve hunted.

They understand that not every adult is equally comfortable around guns and have begun to ask complicated adult-level questions on the subject.  I would give anything to be able to shelter them and keep them innocent.  In a perfect world, there would be nothing scary for me to shelter them from.

In my own heart, the conflict between gun and non-gun rages on.

Sometimes, it can get to me.  When it does, I can still clearly hear my kids

Pew – Pew – Pew…. got ya!  Pew – Pew – Pew… missed…

and then I laugh.

I laugh at my own absurdity.

I laugh at the impossibleness of wishing to protect my children from anything and everything, including the figments of my own imagination.

I laugh at the sweet memory of my children playing in the park, inventing words for a game as old as man.

Care to share?  What memory of your children’s play still has the power to make you laugh?

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Susan Baker

Houston Mom Blogger Susan Baker has a passion for encouraging weary worn out mothers to find joy in everyday motherhood. She has two elementary school boys, one engineering husband, and one cat. She has a strange fascination for eggs, PINK, socks, and books. She spends far too much time on Social Media and at Target. She is crazy in love with her family. She serves an amazing God. She lives an ordinary life filled with wonder.

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I’m thrilled to be giving away one of my very favorite products in the world – a large utility tote from Thirty-One Gifts.

In honor of my blog-a-versary, Thirty-One Gifts has kindly put my favorite bag on special this month for 70% off.

(OK, not really.  They have no idea it’s my blog-a-versary.  It’s a total coincidence.  Honest.)

Disclosure:  I am an Independent Consultant for Thirty-One Gifts.  Any links to their product will take you to my sales portal.  Any orders you may chose to place there will result in me earning commission.  This giveaway is sponsored entirely by me.

Here’s the deal.

Enter to win using Rafflecopter.  I’ll contact the winner and let them pick the Large Utility Tote of their choice and have it shipped to them.  That includes the June exclusive super-cute Flip-Flop pattern tote.

It’s that simple.

You can come back every day this week for additional entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Susan Baker

Houston Mom Blogger Susan Baker has a passion for encouraging weary worn out mothers to find joy in everyday motherhood. She has two elementary school boys, one engineering husband, and one cat. She has a strange fascination for eggs, PINK, socks, and books. She spends far too much time on Social Media and at Target. She is crazy in love with her family. She serves an amazing God. She lives an ordinary life filled with wonder.

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Dads are amazing.

Without dads in my life, my education would be incomplete.  There would be huge gaps in what I know.  The lessons I learned at the hands of dads make me a better mom.

My dad taught me to spit.

Not a little dribble down the chin or a discreet “lady spit” into a tissue.  Nope, those wouldn’t do.  My dad took the time to teach me how to spit a watermelon seed across the yard.  He taught me to make that spit fly several feet out the car window instead of landing somewhere on the car.

Hey, I was eight.  It was a big deal.

As a mom, I’m blessed that there are manly men in own children’s lives that took time to teach them the manly art of spitting.  My husband (their dad) handles that department.  But — because my own dad taught me all about spitting long ago, I’m an appreciative audience.  I can tell you…

My husband is doing a mighty fine job of teaching those boys to spit.

My dad taught me to fish.

I can do it all.  I can put a worm on the hook.  I can cast.  I can stand there for what feel like hours waiting for a fish.  I can even get a fish off the hook.

My grandfather taught me to clean and cook the stuff.

My best friend’s dad taught me to tie fishing knots when we were both in girl scouts.

As a mom, I wish I could say I sit contentedly in the shade while my husband and boys fished.  It doesn’t work that way.  Teaching two sons to fish takes two parents.

I’m thankful for the men in my life who taught me the basics in fishing so I can provide backup support as my husband teaches my sons.

My dad taking time to show my son exactly how to tie a knot for fishing.

My dad taught me to camp.

I was probably four when I slept in a tent the first time.  I’ve spent a lot of time in cabins, tents, boats, rv’s, and the like.  I’ve cooked and/or eaten a ton of meals over the campfire.

Most of them were under the supervision of a dad – mine or someone else’s.

I learned ingenuity.  I learned common sense.  I learned to think ahead or do without.

Under the gentle supervision of dads, I learned about maps and stars and bugs and bears. In the process, I learned about life.

As a mom, I so thankful.  I’m thankful I learned enough to know which bugs to be afraid of and which ones to ignore.  I’m thankful I learned that a few germs really didn’t hurt.  I’m thankful I’m not scared of dirt.

Happy Father’s Day.

For everything you taught me dad, thanks.

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Susan Baker

Houston Mom Blogger Susan Baker has a passion for encouraging weary worn out mothers to find joy in everyday motherhood. She has two elementary school boys, one engineering husband, and one cat. She has a strange fascination for eggs, PINK, socks, and books. She spends far too much time on Social Media and at Target. She is crazy in love with her family. She serves an amazing God. She lives an ordinary life filled with wonder.

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It features steak, the flavors of buffalo wings, and fried onions.

According to hubby, the fried onions add just the right touch of “unhealthy” to make it enjoyable to eat a salad for dinner (and the baby spinach provides enough nutrition to make up for it).

He was thrilled with the flavors and textures, and pronounced it a satisfying all-in-one dinner.

You can make this as simple or as complicated as you want to.  Much of the prep work can be done ahead of time.  Trust me, it’s worth it.

Man Salad Recipe

First, you need meat.  I used a flat iron steak.  You could use whatever you want, as long as it will hold up to several hours of marinating.  I suspect it would work well with chicken as well as beef.

Use however much steak your conscience and budget allow.  Then, you want to submerge the steak in some vinegar based hot sauce, the kind you would use to make buffalo style chicken wings.  I use the Frank’s Red Hot brand, but if you have a different favorite brand, go for it.

Marinate the steak for two to three hours in the refrigerator.  I wouldn’t recommend a longer soak because the steak will start to pickle in the vinegar.  You can go for a shorter time, but the flavor won’t be as intense.

Don’t be scared of the hot sauce.  It won’t make the steak too hot, it just gives a wonderful flavor to the finished dish.  Honest, it won’t be nearly as hot as you think it might be.

The butter is totally optional.  It made my hubby happy.

While the steak is marinating, you need to make some celery salad and start working on onion straws (if you’re making them from scratch).

Celery Salad

Easy way:  equal parts chopped celery  (including leaves) and blue cheese dressing from a bottle.

Fancy way:

That will make enough for at least four salad servings, you might want to cut the recipe in half for your family.  It’s good the next day, but won’t keep much past 24 hours.  I used homemade yogurt in my photos (it’s in the giant mason jar).

Onion straws:

Easy way:  Open the can of fried onions from the grocery store.  Honest.

Fancy way:  I can’t do any better than Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Onion Straws.  Hubby had fun frying them outside.  They are fabulous.

Back to man salad:

Once the steak is ready to grill, you want to cook it over medium high heat for 6 minutes per side.  I’m not as good of a griller as hubby, but I followed the instructions on the package that said how long to cook the steak.

If you use a different cut, adjust your cooking times accordingly.

Let the steak rest and finish making the onion straws.  Then slice the steak into thin strips.  If you are using flat iron steak, be sure to cut across the grain to make the steak more tender and easier to cut with a fork at the table.

Everything up to this point could me made in advance.

Now it’s time to assemble the salad.  For each plate, you need a bunch of baby spinach on the bottom of the plate.  You could use a different lettuce, but the dark green of spinach really made this salad pretty.

Then I put a generous portion of celery salad on the spinach.  This was about a third of the recipe I was using.

Then, you need a handful of baby tomatoes.  I cut mine in half because I don’t like to bite into them and have them squirt into my mouth.

Place a serving of the grilled steak on top…

… and then top with a generous handful of onion straws.

It’s delicious.

This salad deserves it’s very own man card.

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Susan Baker

Houston Mom Blogger Susan Baker has a passion for encouraging weary worn out mothers to find joy in everyday motherhood. She has two elementary school boys, one engineering husband, and one cat. She has a strange fascination for eggs, PINK, socks, and books. She spends far too much time on Social Media and at Target. She is crazy in love with her family. She serves an amazing God. She lives an ordinary life filled with wonder.

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If you aren’t familiar, the rules are simple.  Lisa-Jo Baker gives a single word writing prompt every Friday.   Each of us have five minutes to write and post.  No editing, no second guessing, no fancy stuff.  Just plain writing – straight from the heart. (click HERE for the official rules and details).  Then we go visit other participants and shower them with comment love.

Last week, the word was FALL

This week, the word is LISTEN.

Listen.

Listen to the silence as it falls softly on my ears.  The only sound is that of the wind and the birds.  If I am still enough, I am certain I will hear the earth settle.  I am certain I could hear the heartbeat of the trees.   I could possibly even hear my own hair growing.

Better yet, I can actually hear my own thoughts.  I can actually hear myself thinking in complete sentences – the complex ones that make an English professor smile, not the simple ones I normally speak in.

Even better still, I can hear God.

Not audibly in the narrator voice of the movies.  I kept trying to “hear” God that way when I was a child.

No, I can hear him in my heart.

Be still and know that I am God…

To listen… to hear… to be still…

That is my heart’s yearning.

In my ever crazy world, it happens rarely.  It happens only with intent and purpose and forethought.

Listen….

As I sit in the sun I drink in the silence.  I drink in the beauty of this place all alone.  I gobble up the silence, greedy for more.

I sit.

I am still.

I listen.

Five Minute Friday

STOP.

Author information

Susan Baker

Houston Mom Blogger Susan Baker has a passion for encouraging weary worn out mothers to find joy in everyday motherhood. She has two elementary school boys, one engineering husband, and one cat. She has a strange fascination for eggs, PINK, socks, and books. She spends far too much time on Social Media and at Target. She is crazy in love with her family. She serves an amazing God. She lives an ordinary life filled with wonder.

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