Abbie Lynn <3

I went into this book - "Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Star" knowing how much Kanye praised his Mom, but not really knowing anything about her and her life and how Kanye was raised.  Ms. Donda West and I had way more in common than I ever thought - especially when it comes to parenting. She seemed like an AMAZING mother who never capped Kanye on his abilities.  "I believe that your parents have a tremendous impact on the kind of parent you become." "Kids pay attention to what they don't have monetarily only when there is a real lack of everything else." "A lot of people like to coddle their children. I don't want to hurt their feelings, or make them for not achieving. But if you don't set the benchmarks, and if you don't set that bar high, you can't expect your children to excel."  "I made sure that Kanye always knew he was loved" "In fact, listening is the only way we can be effective

Happy Sunday and NFL football and Broncos day:)  NFL football means cooler weather and that it has been this past week. After an 8-day heatwave of 111+ degree weather, I was so ready for 3 days of rain and finally in the 80's. Yes, I realize it's almost October and it's still in the 80's but I would rather have it be the 80's than 111 right now :)  Earlier this past week, I made this Creamy Chicken Chili which is perfect for cooler weather. The original recipe is from All Recipes and can be found HERE . Kevin has to be on an "organic" diet as much as possible as well as no salt or low sodium so we adjusted it to his diet below. Ingredients: 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breast 1 can cannellini beans (15oz, white kidney beans) 1 can black beans (15oz) 1 can corn (no salt added, 14oz, undrained) 1 can organic diced tomatoes (14oz) 1oz package of ranch dressing mix 1 tbsp chili powder 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp onion powder 1 package cream cheese (8oz) Directi

I forgot I had several packages of boneless ribs in the freezer so I decided to break them out to make this amazing Honey Garlic Slow Cooker Rib recipe from Tasty . Jace had a friend sleep over and let's just say we all basically cleared our plates. Although the original recipe calls for bone-in ribs, I used both bone-in and boneless in one crockpot and they both turned out GREAT!  Ingredients: 1 tbsp Rosemary Thyme Salt from Salt Smith 1 tbsp pepper 1 tbsp paprika powder from Pinch Spice Market 1 tbsp chili powder 2 packs of ribs - one boneless, one bone-in 1 cup Activist Culinary Honey by Norden Goods 1/2 cup soy sauce 2 tbsp garlic powder Directions: In a small bowl, combine the salt, pepper, paprika powder and chili powder. Season the ribs evenly, all over, with the mixture.  Add the honey, soy sauce, and garlic powder to a large slow cooker. Place the ribs in the slow cooker and turn them into the sauce. Place the boneless ribs at the bottom of the slow cooker and the bone-in