Crawfish, Crayfish, Crawdaddies- Give 'Em To Me!

It's that time again folks- #FoodDayFriday is here and I am super excited to tell y'all about our Crawfish Boils!

Spring is always over-packed super busy for us. There are tons of birthdays, events, and travel. We also wrap up school and get ready for summer vacation. Last year my honey wanted a crawfish boil for his birthday-- in the middle of all of our craziness! So what did we do? Move stuff around of course, and started making plans for a crawfish boil! We had never done it before and actually had never been to one either, but with the help of our dear friends we had great food and a great time!

If you've never had a crawfish boil, I highly recommend having someone in your party who has. It can get a bit overwhelming, but in the end it is fabulous and so much fun! If you add other stuff into your crawfish boils, I'd love to hear how and what you do!

Where to begin?  (for 10-12 people)
Necessities:

• 20 gallon crawfish pot or turkey fryer pot with basket 
• propane stand and full tank
• lifting hook to set and remove basket from pot
• 5-7 gallons of water
• Table covered with newspaper (we used a big roll of white butcher paper from Lowe's)

Ingredients: 

• 5lbs small red potatoes
• 12 ears of corn, halved
• 1 sack of cleaned crawfish, 15-20 lbs
• 1 (4.5 lb) bag of Crawfish, Crab, and Shrimp Boil seasoning

Optional Add-Ins:

• andouille sausage, sliced into 1/4in pieces
• 5 large lemons, halved
• 5 large sweet onions, peeled and quartered
• shrimp in the shell
• bell peppers
• garlic, unpeeled and separated
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter

Options For The Kids:

(if they don't want crawfish)

• corndogs, baked and cut into quarters
• frozen hamburger sliders, cooked and halfed
• french fries
• cheese puffs
• anything else you want to throw on their table that they will love :)

What To Do!

1. Rinse your crawfish in a colander until the water runs clear to remove any debris or dirt.
2. Add water and seasoning to pot and begin to heat to boiling.
3. Once the water is boiling, add the potatoes and corn (and sausage if you chose to add it) to the basket.
4. Using the hook, lower the basket into the boiling water.
5. Stir and boil for 10-20 minutes, or until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally.
6. Carefully, using the hook, bring the basket up, and add the crawfish and any of the other optional add-ins you chose.
7. Boil for additional 5-7 minutes.
8. Turn off the heat and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes. 
9. Dump pot onto paper covered table and enjoy!

*Depending on how many people you have and how many add-ins you choose, you might want to have another burner and pot, or work in batches. 

Let Him Lead Already

In learning to Zip It, I have also learned that when my mouth is shut- someone else is able to speak. More specifically, my husband can speak when I'm not. 

When I was in the sixth grade, my parents got a divorce. It seemed to consume the next few years entirely. The bottom of our "family" basket had fallen out, and scattered into a million pieces. I absolutely could not stand the "despair" feeling. I couldn't handle the broken basket. I shut those feelings down so quick it would make your head spin. 

This feeling of controlled emotions continued well into the early years of my marriage, and still lingers to this day. Any time my husband and I got into an argument, I immediately went into emergency shutdown mode. I told myself things to make me have the control from what I considered to be a downward spiral. 

"You're not going to hurt me. I can totally do this on my own. I don't need you. I have this job, and this much money. I can do this with the kids. I can afford to live in this place. I can afford this car."

The list goes on...

And when I felt I had no control, I tried to leave. I was not going to be left without any control. You can't leave me, I'm leaving you! Who did he think he was? Did he even know who I was? He was not going to leave me with my hands in the air, crying, wondering what happened. No sir, not to this gal. 

The problem though, was that he wasn't wanting to leave me high and dry. He wasn't wanting to leave at all. It was just an argument. It was just a misunderstanding. One of the many we had had and would continue to have. 

And so, in our sixth year of marriage we found ourselves broken and in marriage counseling with our pastor. After a few sessions, our dear pastor looked at me and asked why I always defaulted to an escape plan. The thoughts I was thinking, and the plans I was mentally making- were an "escape plan"? I honestly had never thought about why or what started it until we started digging. 

The bottom of the basket had fallen out, and I wasn't ever going to let that happen again. 

In my need to be in control, I was being proactive in destroying the commitment to my marriage. A marriage is a partnership, and I didn't want that. I wanted to be in control. I wanted to make the decisions. I wanted to be in charge of the kids. I was definitely in charge of me. What was so wrong with me being in charge, anyways? 

The problem was that I was actively working against God's will for me and my marriage. I wasn't ever supposed to be in charge. God is, and God says that I am to submit to my husband. 

"Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." Ephesians 5:22-24

Submitting does not mean that I am inferior or weak. It does not mean that I play second. Jesus submitted to God's will (Matthew 26:39) and died on the cross and was no less inferior to God. Wives, when we submit to our husband we allow him to take the leadership in the relationship. His position as leader is biblical. 

"But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:3

When we submit to our husbands, we are submitting to God. We submit because it it pleasing to the Lord. We have to learn to trust God's goodness and His sovereignty, and only when we do that can we fully submit to our husbands. 

This is not an easy task for a control freak like me! Realistically though, marriage can't work without unity and structure. The structure is a joint-relationship working towards the common goal if getting closer to God. In this relationship, decisions will have to be made. If an agreement can't be made, a leader has to make the call. That leader is our husbands, ladies. Our husbands are responsible to God for those decisions first and foremost, then us. This is a heavy task for our hubbies, and we should encourage and offer our opinions and support. 

Ladies, married or single, let me give you this last bit of advice- take it from someone who has fought to be in charge, and seen the bottom fall out because of it:

• Submission is not an easy task to take on. It takes humility, and if you are not submissive, you are not humble before man or God. Pray that God works with you on that. Actively seek opportunities to be humble and submissive to God's will. When we humble ourselves to God's will first, it's a lot easier to be submissive to our husbands.
• Rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you in your words and actions. Look to Jesus' example of submission. If he submitted, who are we to not? 

He loves us so. Be blessed my loves. 

Zip It- Zip It Good!

I know, I know... "where have you been?" Well, there has just been so much going on lately, that I had to force myself to just zip my mouth and keep quiet for a while. I had to have time to process and pray so that I didn't just spout out nastiness for all of the world to see. 

I would like to clarify a few things though; there have been a couple of questions/issues that do need answering. 

1. My post, No Pictures, Please was posted because my children made a request, and I had a choice to ignore or listen to them. There is no way, that I know of, to remove all of the pictures I have ever taken from the internet world. My children have seen the pictures that have been previously posted. Their request was for future posts, and I have worked diligently to respect their requests. And request, on their behalf, that family and friends do so as well. It's just common courtesy. 

2. I am definitely pro-freedom of speech! Obviously, I have a public blog. I love and welcome your comments and encouragement and opinions. However, I will not allow comments that incite drama in any way. Please do not use my blog to "make a point" towards someone else. We are to show love as Christ loved, and I hope by letting you into my little world, I am showing you love in my way.

Okay, enough with the administrator in me... :) 

Last Sunday evening, mine and Bill's bible study was called "The Source of Love." We were reading through Song of Songs 2:1-13. As I said, there were a few situations that have been brought to my attention in the last couple of weeks, and a couple of the take away questions really caught me with my mouth open, yet speechless for a bit.

The last question was this: 

In what ways can you show love to those who seem unlovable?

Think about it, God loves us in two ways; sacrificially and unconditionally. 

Sacrificially- It cost Him something. It cost Him the Son. It cost Christ His very life. It costs an unimaginable price, one we could never repay. One He doesn't require us to repay. A price He paid freely, so that we might be saved. What is it costing us to love others? Pride? Time? Forgiveness? 

Unconditionally- the very definition gives me chills; not limited in any way, complete and absolute. There are no conditions for God's love. He loved us and knew us before we were even conceived (Jeremiah 1:5). He died on the cross for them, for you, for me, for our kids, for our future grandkids-everyone! Not just some people, not just the good ones, not just the ones who do good things-everyone. He died and took on the sins of the world for all of us, in hopes that we would only love and accept Him. He died, knowing we would need His help, that we would need Him to save us. People said and did horrific things, and still do to this day; and guess what- He still loved them and loves us. How can we then put conditions on the folks we love? If you do this, then I'll love you. If you behave this way- I can't love you. If you believe this- you're unlovable. If you're not like me- just forget it. Unconditional- no conditions, complete and absolute.

Photo from Shutterstock

My answer to that devotional question was simply this- ZIP IT! 

And whadaya know; God reinforced that the next morning in my personal study time. He has a great way of driving stuff home with us. This is what I posted to FB Monday (the next day) morning:

My verse for the week: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14.  Yikes! I will admit, this is a tough one y'all. Sometimes I have a downright nasty mouth. I say things off the cuff, and blurt out stuff that could never be taken back. I am judgemental with my thoughts, and words, sometimes. But you know what, God calls us out on things we know we shouldn't be doing or saying, or even thinking. We get the gift of that still, small voice that says, "My beloved, why are you doing that? Is that loving? Is that kind?" And we get the chance to say, "You know what God, you're right. I apologize for not showing love. Help me show love better." And He will! We all struggle and all fall short, but He can and will redeem us!

My point is this; there will always be a group or type of people that we feel are unlovable, people that we are not partial to, maybe even people we have previously "written off", we should still love them with the 'affection of Christ Jesus' as Paul says in Philippians 1:8. And if you think you can't love someone because of your mouth, stop and pray about it. God will show us where we need work, and He will give us the direction in which we need to go.

He loves us so. Be blessed my loves.