Bellamia... a children's shop: still working on my groove....

I have missed blogging, but have been so busy lately that it seems that if I were to sit down and start blogging then it would be "forced". Does that make sense?

I actually have become very fond of writing over the last year. I have never really been a "journal" kind of girl (although I encourage it now :) ). In fact, the last journaling I did was when a friend gave me a journal after I had my hysterectomy 7 years ago. She told me that she kept a journal for every major event in her life and encouraged me over that major event in my life that I journal about it.

Even when writing it, I remember being so mad at some points that I would hope no one would EVER find it and read it. To say I wasn't very nice over that week is an understatement. I believe that probably most of my journals throughout that event was triggered by my most absolutely hot temperness towards Tim. For what you might ask????..... not getting flowers sent to me while I was at the hospital.

Yes, yes, I am that selfish and I would like to to blame a lot of it on my hormonal state, but truth is, I held on to many stupid things like that and so therefore I think I was vulnerable to blowing my top even more with the state I was in. Just writing this brings to reality just how many crazy lies Satan fed me that I used to hang on too. Man, God is Good. That was an emotional time....hmmmmm, maybe journaling about that wasn't so bad of an idea.

Now, back to what I started this post with!

When I feel as though I can't get to the computer and type, or that computer decides it doesn't have enough space to load anymore of my pics and tons and tons of recipes are backing up in my head and I am not it my groove.....well, I just don't "feel" it in a post. Like it is "forced". I love it, I want to, but I feel like I am jumping hurdles sometimes to get to it.....

So, I have decided that I WILL post every other day, at least through this month. Why??

1.) because I love it
2.) because I need that challenge
3.) because sometimes I need a little forcing
4.) challenges me to cook more
5.) encourages me to dig deeper for creativity and activities with our girls
6.) and documents pieces of our life
7.) keeps me sane

so without further ado. I made this recipe last night. It is not a new one, I have had it several years and it is a favorite of many.....

Potato and Leek Soup

This is what you will need......

Chop your bacon (I normally use a half a pound, but I only had a quarter) and add to hot stock pot.....

while bacon is cooking chop and clean your leaks (two)...if you haven't ever cooked with leeks, they can be VERY dirty. Best way to clean them is cut off the bottom(where roots are) and slice length wise all the way down (creating two long halves) then flip to the flat part and chop them like you would a green onion and add to a large bowl of cold water and run your hands through them to separate them and the dirt will fall to the bottom of the bowl.

When your bacon gets done cooking, remove it and set it aside. Reserving about 2 tbls of dripping in Stockpot.

You can use any baking potato, but I found a bag of these minis at Publix and well, they were cute and I thought it would look nice and cut my prep time down. So wash, and slice in half all potatoes and add to med high heat in your stockpot with reserved drippings....

this is where you will need to season with salt. So sprinkle 1-2tsp of salt (this depends if you get sodium free chicken stock). Toss and cook for about 5 mins....

Then add your leaks......

Stir leaks and let those two ingredients cook for about 3-5mins....

When you remove all your leeks from the bowl of water to discard, you will happy you cleaned them this way, and you will see the bottom of the bowl full of dirt.

Now add your stock....