Sister Wives

My husband took this coffee cup to work yesterday. Yep, this coffee cup. He didn't realize what it said until he picked it up to bring it home. Imagine the look on his face when he walked through the door into the kitchen last night for dinner. To him, this cup was the object of a hilarious blunder stemming from a night up with a sick baby, a desperate need for a large cup of coffee, and a rushed morning to get to surgery on time. To me, this cup is so much more...

Let me back up to our road trip to NYC that I told y'all I'd update you on in my last post (No Pain, No Gain). To say that I was scared to make this long, long road trip with three small children would be an understatement. There was a lot of anxiety going into the trip due mostly to the fact that our one year old is not a great traveler...there was also the fact that I have never driven very far North, and I have never had ANY desire to drive THROUGH midtown Manhattan!!

Legoland's version

The prize at the end, however, was spending several days with some of my favorite people on the planet...four of my husband's best friends from Wake, their children, and their wives who I have come to affectionately call my "sister wives" whenever we are together...oh, and doing Soul Cycle with Kim & Kourtney Kardashian (kidding...sort of).

Seven years ago, this same group got together for the first time. Three couples were married, one was engaged, and one was about to get engaged. There was one child in the mix, and it was a weekend full of late night antics, days sleeping in, hours on end spent on the beach, dinners out, and a lot of cluelessness by eight of the ten of us about kids!! We finally got back together three years later and had added six kids to the mix. We had one on one coverage for each child, everyone there had at least one child, and one couple had one about to be born so they weren't there. Our experience was just a taaaddd different than our get-together several years earlier. There were early mornings, early bedtimes, limited trips to the beach, lots of hungry mouths to feed, simple dinners, and more fun and laughs than any of us could've imagined. The husbands are all really great daddies, and they were fantastic entertaining the kids...but the wives had the rhythm behind the scenes down pat. I still can't explain it to you...how it happened...how these four women who really had only spent time together in small doses could somehow come together and make this ship run so smoothly. It was awesome...we all pitched in with babies, with diapers, with meals, with sunscreen, with baths, with everything. We took on each others' children as our own and we got what needed to be done done. This is when our bond as sister wives was formed.

Again, fast forward two years, add three more babies to the mix, and you have our trip to The Hamptons that occurred this summer. There were ten adults and ten children staying in one house...granted it was the PERFECT house with the PERFECT yard and the PERFECT pool, but it still could've been a lot of chaos and confusion. Nope, not this time, and you know why? The sister wives were back in action!!

From the moment we arrived, it was apparent that this was going to be a great week. We drove up to dinner al fresco and children playing in the yard. The tiniest babies were all snug in their beds, and the rest of the kids were reintroducing themselves to each other and making new friends. I walked in the door and was met with a delicious, hot meal and a very large glass of wine. My childrens' plates had been made, and they were immediately swept out of my arms and into the fun. My husband was whisked away to the corner with the guys to laugh and laugh and laugh (aka giggle and giggle and giggle...a sound that only comes out of his mouth when he is reunited with this group of guys). It was a better greeting than I ever could have dreamed up but also no less than what I expected from the sister wives.

Our week was filled with days in the pool, baseball in the backyard,  fireworks, a very rainy Fourth of July with a trip to the children's museum thrown in, great food, long chats, and lots of time to hear what was going on in everyone's "every days." The couples are all on the same page having small children and small peoples' schedules to adhere to...this makes it easy to help each other out and fall back into a sister wives rhythm. Again, we all chipped in with nap times, with pool time, with drink refills (for the small and big people), with feeding children, with preparing meals, with clean up, with coffee making, with making sure that everyone was taken care of. It was an awesome week, and I would drive 13.5 hours again tomorrow to do it all again...every single minute of it...these sister wives of mine and their precious husbands are some of the most important people in my life, and I would literally move mountains for each of them.

The coffee cup pictured above was a gift from one of the sister wives to the rest of us. I drink out of it almost every morning (well, except for yesterday, when someone decided to drive to work with it), and I am reminded of these amazing friends who are kindred spirits separated by many many miles (NYC, Raleigh, Boston, Chicago, and me in Winston). I love starting my day with gentle reminders of what matters most in life. I usually read whatever devotion happens to be on my nightstand while drinking my coffee from my "sister wives" cup. What could possibly be better than starting my day with faith and friendship?

I know that I have said it before, and I will say it again. Finding good friends in life is so so important. It's crucial to find those friends that you love and who are always looking out for your best interest, who will keep you in check, and who will support you through your victories and through your mistakes...and vice versa. My sister wives have each others' backs. They are an open book. They say what's on their minds. They support each other through thick and thin. They love each others' husbands and each others' children. They can read each others' minds. They know exactly what the others need even if the others don't have the words to express what they need themselves. I know how rare it is to find a group of sister wives such as these, and I also know how important it is to have people in your life to be your rock(s).

There is so much joy to share as well as a lot of heartache to bear in this life. This week has been filled with reminders of just how fragile life can be...of how fragile people can be. It is always my hope that I can understand the "why" behind people's behavior rather than the "what" of the behavior itself. There's the hope that I will look at others with more discerning eyes, that I will look past the facade that others may put up and see through to their core. So many times we get caught up in what we have going on that we forget to share our lives with others...whether being a friend or finding a friend that we need. So, friends, it is my hope that you find someone to share your joys and your sorrows with each and every day. Friends, that you will find the time to spend with each other. Friends, that you will take the time to find out what's really going on in each others' lives. Friends, that you will go deep and not be scared of what others may think when you open up and tell your truth. Find a sister wife to confide in...whether that looks like a best friend, a sister, a husband, a brother, a mom, a dad, a pastor, a counselor...find someone who you can share your whole self with...someone who is safe and who will listen and get you through. Be someone's sister wife that they can reveal themselves to, that they can trust, that they don't have to pretend around. It's a two way street, and all that we have is each other. "Love one another."

The sign that hangs in our kitchen

...so how did that road trip go, you ask? It was hard, it was fun, it was longer than expected, it was easier than anticipated, it was a good thing I didn't do it alone ;), and it was WORTH IT! Everything that's hard usually is.

Happy Cooking!

Sister Wives Chicken Pot Pie

Recipe from one of my "sister wives," Elena Boiardi!

Elena made this while we were at the beach with 9 adults and 10 children. I can't remember if she made 5 or 6 pies, but all of the pies were eaten for dinner and then for leftovers for lunch the next day. The prepared pie crust, pre-chopped veggies, and rotisserie chicken make this recipe a breeze. All of the adults and children loved it. It's great to make for just yourself, your family, or for a crowd. Most chicken pie recipes that I have made have frozen carrots and peas in them, and I love the change from peas to celery in this recipe. This was by far the easiest (and yummiest) chicken pie I've ever made, and I will be making it over and over again all year long!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter

1 pint of pre-chopped onion, carrot, celery (or you can chop it yourself using one small onion, two carrots, and two celery stalks)

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

1 1/2 cups chicken broth (you can make your own by using 100 Days of Real Food's Crockpot Chicken Stock)

2 cups chopped rotisserie chicken (you can chop beforehand and use the carcas for the above chicken stock)

1/2 cup half n half

1 to 1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 to 3/4 tsp pepper

(salt & pepper depend on how salty your rotisserie chicken is)

2 prepared pie crusts (I use Pillsbury)

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Line a pie plate with one of the prepared pie crusts.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and cook until softened but not browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Add chicken broth slowly, stirring constantly, and bring to simmer. Stir until thickened. Add chicken, half n half, salt and pepper and cook for a couple of minutes until just heated through and half n half is incoporated.

Pour chicken mixture into pie plate lined with the crust. Arrange second crust on top and cut slits into the top of the pie. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until pie crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Let pie rest for 10 minutes, then serve.

Happy Cooking!

Sister Wives

Well, it has taken me about 2 weeks to get to the point of recovery from 27 hours in the car to rehash our trip to the Hamptons. Let me begin by saying that 13.5 hours in the car each way is a LONG time, but it is totally worth it to have the week that we had with our friends and their kids. We began our journey by waking the kids up at 5:30am and hitting the road. We took I-81 up through VA, WV, MD, and PA to get there. We scooted over through NJ and then headed straight through downtown Manhattan. Now, I have to tell you that driving through midtown NYC right past the Empire State Building was NEVER on my bucket list. Thank the dear LORD that I wasn't driving because I seriously would've had a wreck. I was the absolute worst back seat driver to my husband gasping and freaking out that he was either going to crash into another car or a person. The drive up to that point had been pretty easy...only two stops the whole way and very minor meltdowns. Then, we reached the Lincoln Tunnel and the baby kept pointing at her diaper saying "poo-poo, poo-poo." Seriously?!?! You couldn't have taken care of that when there was a nice rest stop or ChickfilA to stop at? Nope, it happened as we were pulling into Manhattan. Guess what? There's no way we were going to attempt to stop at that point...we got through the City and I did a little sniff test...yep, false alarm, so we muscled through. About 45 minutes from our destination my other child announced that he needed to go pee-pee. Good grief! I never understood people who made their children pee in bottles on long road trips...but I was prepared to do it! I was told that I should've brought pickle jars rather than water bottles...you know, less room for error. Luckily, it didn't get to that point...believe me, I was ready to try it, and we made it to the beach house without stopping (by the way, he completely forgot about it once we turned on a cartoon about sports...go figure!).

Upon arrival, we had tons of smiles and hugs to greet us. I must say, we were no worse for the wear from our road trip, and we were all in good spirits...the 2.5 hours out to the Hamptons after NYC gave my husband some time to forgive me and my panic attacks ;) Our hostess had dinner hot and ready for us, and we dined al fresco watching the kiddos play with their buddies, most of whom they hadn't spent time with in a couple of years and some of whom that had not yet met. We got the babes to bed and stayed up entirely too late laughing and catching up!

The next day started out with a little Soul Cycle excursion with my "sister wives." We had joked the night before about running into the Kardashians as they had a pop up Dash store in the next town over during the time we were there. Well, guess what? We walked in, took our place at our bikes, and we spotted none other than Kourtney Kardashian getting suited up for class...the next time we looked over, Kim was right there with her. We were all a little star struck to say the least (I'm really not even a fan, but it was fun regardless!). We headed to a local coffee shop after our workout, and low and behold, Kourtney and Kim were there again in their giant escalade with their mini-van security team behind them. We walked in and saw Kourtney waiting for their beverages...yep, we snapped a pic...obviously, we were fooling no one :)

That afternoon, we spent time with the kids and the husbands in the pool and playing baseball etc in the backyard and headed to the grocery store to get our goodies for the meals we had planned to prepare. Each family took a night of cooking, which worked out so well. Here was our menu for the week:
Baked Ziti and Salad
Crockpot Chicken Tacos, Quesadillas, Spanish Rice, Guacamole, and all the fixin's
Grilled Mini Meatloaves, Oven Roasted Corn, and Tomato Pie
Pasta Salad with Three Kinds of Gouda, Sundried Tomatoes & Arugula & an assortment of Pizza

We have done this trip with this same group of friends (10 adults and 10 kids at this point) three times now, and we sort of have it down to a science. The beauty of traveling with this crew is that we're all on the same page and the same agenda. We all have small children (the kids ranged in age from 9 months to 9 years,) and recognize the way of life that surrounds traveling with kids...naptime/downtime, early dinners, early-ish bedtimes, and early risers. We also all pitch in wherever needed to make things run smoothly. There were several times when I was putting the baby down for a nap when one of my sista wives was making my kids lunch, there was the night that we were in charge of dinner that another sister wife was my right had woman and the dads pitched in with all of the kids. There were multiple times when someone needed to shower, run an errand, or just attend to another child when we all took over parenting responsibilities of whoever needed taking care of. This is just the way this group works...like a well oiled machine...regardless of how much time has passed or how many kids have been added to the mix. It's controlled chaos at its finest and well worth 27 hours in the car to make the trip happen.

The memories of all of our kids playing together in the sand, chasing each other in the yard, playing cards, drawing and displaying their artwork, playing soccer on the beach and baseball in the grass are memories that will not soon be forgotten. We definitely stepped out of our comfort zone to make this road trip. I was a nervous wreck beforehand worrying about that much time confined in the car. There were meltdowns and fighting and sleeping in one hotel room with all the kids on the way home and losses of patience. These were the exception to our time in the car, however. Most of it was spent with the boys coloring and writing in their journal, with the baby being entertained with lots of new toys from the Target one spot (and one of us in the back entertaining her as well), with enjoying the gorgeous scenery of the drive, and with quiet moments while the baby napped and the boys watched shows (there were lots of them!). All of that to say, I had set myself up with low expectations for the roadtrip, and I was very pleasantly surprised with how it went....AND, it was obviously worth the effort to have an amazing trip with wonderful friends in the Hamptons. So, the next time something sounds overwhelming and like "too much," I hope that I will take a step back and remember this trip and weigh the benefits with the effort. Chances are, it will always be worth it!

Happy Summer and Happy Cooking!