The Wild Gems

When Is The Right Time?

August 8, 2024 The Wild GemsLeave a comment

When is the right time?

I don’t know what you’re going through, but maybe this blog can resonate in some way.

In some cases there is no “right time”. You just go, and trust it will work out or that you will figure it out.

However in some cases there is such thing as a right time. But it takes work to identify. There are cues and signs, you have to pay attention.

Have you ever gardened before? Or maybe grown a fruit tree? Let’s take a lemon tree for example, before they turn yellow and are ready to pick they are small, hard, and green. Picking a premature lemon robs it of its process. It cannot grow anymore once it’s picked from its tree.

You have to be patience and wait until the right time. When they are brightly yellow, they are ready and it’s time.

So some things do have a right time and trying to fasten things up is impossible. This lesson of a lemon tree can apply to many things. Learning to trust yourself is being able to identify the cues if something is ready or not.

Trusting your timing is so important in whatever your journey is. Deep down you can feel when something is right or not.

Understand that some things can be a go for it now type thing. But if there’s something you’re waiting for, well, you may have to wait a little bit longer. But that is okay, it’s more than okay.

Life is on your side always, no matter what. It will all work out as it always does.

I don’t even feel like I have green lemons yet on my tree. Right now my tree is barely sprouting. 😉

Lots of love,

Marie

Hello My Readers – I’m Still Here

August 8, 2024 The Wild GemsLeave a comment

Hi my beautiful readers!

I have not posted in awhile and I am so sorry for that! As most of you know I have 4 little ones and they keep me very busy! It’s been hard to get moments to really write or share anything.

I do want to share though that I can be followed on Facebook and instagram where I share things on there as well 🙂 .

Instagram – thewildgems

(On this instagram I share all sorts of things! It’s kind of like an abstract painting lol. There’s a lot going on)

Facebook – the wild gems

On this Facebook page I share videos that I’ve watched that inspired me, quotes, feel good things)

And I did create another instagram very recently where I kind of just share my thoughts under

gemwilde

Looking forward to connecting more! You all mean so much to me! I am grateful to share this journey with you all! I feel truly thankful.

Lots of love,

Marie

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

July 12, 2024July 12, 2024 The Wild GemsLeave a comment

What You Need:

1 large zucchini or 2 small ones finely shredded

1 beaten egg

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 handful of dark chocolate chips

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

Steps:

1. In one small bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

2. In a separate medium/large size bowl mix the beaten egg, sugar, vegetable oil, and shredded zucchini with an electric mixer.

3. Begin adding the dry ingredients (the flour and spices) to the wet ingredients (the egg and oil) slowly till batter is consistent. Add in the chocolate chips.

4. Generously butter up the loaf pan and pour batter into pan. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

5. Allow bread to cool for a moment and enjoy!

Dear Readers, My Birth Mom Passed Away

June 7, 2024 The Wild Gems2 Comments

My birth mom passed away. It’s been a week now. It’s lead to an indescribable type of grief that I feel very alone in if I’m honest. And I feel compelled to just release some of the things that I’m feeling at the moment.

My aunt (my birth mom’s sister) texted me last Wednesday telling me that she had passed. I had never met her. That wasn’t my choice. I’ve been wanting to meet her my whole life and I actually almost did last spring but it just didn’t happen because she had somewhere to be apparently. Who knows what the full truth is. I can feel I’m not being told everything. I know she was mentally unstable. Suffered from schizophrenia. But how she died seems to be unknown. She checked into the hospital for something, was there for a few weeks, and passed “with family by her side”.

I was really upset at first, clearly I still am. My birth mom was in the hospital for a few weeks and my aunt didn’t tell me? The opportunity to meet the woman who birthed me is gone and it breaks my heart.

All of this pain as being an adoptee has resurfaced I don’t even know how to handle it. I just keep crying. I never knew any biological family until I turned 29. I always felt so completely alone growing up.

I haven’t even told my adoptive parents that my birth mom has passed because it’s just going to make them uncomfortable and they’ll probably say I’m sorry and that’s about it.

When I told them I had found biological family on ancestry there was no happiness for me. There was fear. Never have they ever really talked to me about how I felt being adopted. But they didn’t know, I know that. I was just a grateful child who hid the wounds very very well.

Having adopted two children (my niece and nephew on my husband’s side) I will be a different parent. Their wounds will get the oxygen they need. And I will help them find answers.

I’m just sad right now. I’m just really really sad and another adoptee told that I’m experiencing disenfranchised grief. Basically it’s a grief that’s not understood or validated.

It’s lonely. It’s lonely to want to share this with more people in my life but they won’t get it but also I think…I don’t want to share because I’m not ready to fully reveal how much I’ve been holding in and for so long. Plus I can’t talk about this without crying.

I think that’s why I love this blog world so much. I can be so raw and just let it out. And no one close is going to read this because hardly anyone I know reads my stuff, and if they even do they never say anything.

And if you just read this, wow, thank you. Thank you for hearing me for a moment. Thank you for letting me cry and share.

To be a grown up and still this lost at times and here I am raising children…..

How do you guide children when you aren’t even sure of the way,

Ps – I do have a picture now of my birth mom when she was probably about 18. My youngest daughter has her eyes. They’re so beautiful.

Cheesy, Saucy, Baked Pasta

May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 The Wild Gems1 Comment

What You Need:

Between 1 1/2 lbs and 2 1/2 lbs of ground beef or sweet ground up sausage or you could do a lb of each of meat

2 jars of your favorite marinara pasta sauce we like ragu

1 lb of your favorite pasta noodle (ziti, rigatoni, macaroni, or spiral pasta are all good ones)

3 zucchini’s chopped green and yellow

3/4 of a sweet onion finely chopped

4 – 5 tablespoons of Olive oil

1 heaping tablespoon of jarred minced garlic

2 cups of Mozzarella cheese or extra depending on your cheesy level

1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

Steps:

1. Heat up a large skillet while you chop your onion, and zucchini. Once skillet is heated through add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the onion, zucchini, and garlic until soft. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Then set aside.

2. Cook pasta as directed in a large pot. (Tip: once the water begins to boil, add a few dashes of salt. THEN add your pasta. That will flavor your pasta) Once cooked, drain your water, and add the pasta to a 9 x 13 baking dish.

2. In the same skillet you cooked your veggies, add your meat. If using ground beef season as you normally would (I like to use salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, a little turmeric, and maybe a little oregano.) If you’re using the sausage you don’t need to season, should already be seasoned. Once cooked, drain fat if needed.

3. Add the veggies to the meat and mix well. Add both jars of pasta to the meat and veggie sauce, reserving about 1/2 cup of sauce. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the sauce and a tablespoon of Italian seasoning mix. Allow the sauce to cook for just of minutes or until heated through.

4. Add the reserved pasta sauce to the naked pasta in the baking dish and mix well. Along with a tablespoon of olive oil.

5. Next add the meaty and veggie sauce to the pasta and mix well. Then add in 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, give or take and mix well.

6. Once fully mixed, top with the rest of the Parmesan cheese and then top with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake at 375 for 25 mins covered with foil. Once the 25 minutes is completed, removed foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

7. Allow to sit for a few minutes, garnish with fresh parsley (optional ) and serve with your favorite crusty bread with unsalted butter.

Enjoy!!!

Summer Bucket List – 2024 edition

May 7, 2024May 8, 2024 The Wild GemsLeave a comment

Plan a staycation somewhere with a good pool and beautiful scenery – better with some friends!
Catch a movie at your local cinema – indulge in the buttery popcorn (snacks are so expensive at the movie theater, we like to visit the store beforehand and sneak in some goodies into mamas purse. Shhh! )
Have a day at the water park
Visit the beach, get in the water, and enjoy a pina colada – Mexico is calling our name
Spend a weekend at the lake with friends
Watch fireworks
Have an ice cream date
Enjoy an outdoor concert
Have a picnic at your favorite park
Make a time capsule and bury it deep into the ground open it in 10 years!
Make friendship bracelets
Camp in the backyard on a Friday or Saturday night and watch a movie on the projector
Go bowling
Dance in the rain
Host a movie/game night
Participate in a water balloon fight
Visit the library and visit more than once
Create your own tie dye shirts with some friends
Make ice cream sundaes
Go on a boat
Swim in lots of pools
Make homemade pizza
Do a science experiment
Have a total lazy day with no obligations
Complete a puzzle
Visit Grandma
Have an all day girls day – brunch, pedicures, shopping, Starbucks!
Start and finish a new book
Go for a morning hike
Go for an evening walk
Learn a new recipe
Play in the sprinkler
Make a clothing/toy donation to your local thrift shop
Have an electronic free day
Spend more than one morning doing yoga
Paint a canvas to display in your home
Watch a sunset
Make a recipe book
Have a family dance party

What will you add? 🙂

Party Pico De Galo

April 29, 2024May 7, 2024 The Wild Gems4 Comments

This is one of my favorite things to make for outdoor parties along with homemade tortilla chips. It’s yummy and refreshing, and guests love it!

What You Need:

4 limes

6 to 8 jalapeños chopped depending on your spice level

1 medium white onion chopped

27 to 30 roma tomatoes chopped

1 bunch of cilantro finely chopped

Salt for taste

Steps:

1. Chop all veggies and mix together in a large bowl.

2. Add your lime juice from the limes and mix well. Add salt lightly, mix, and taste until you achieve your desired taste.

*tip: taste test your pico with a tortilla chip. And always add salt gently. better to have little salt where others can add salt to their pico vs your salsa coming out too salty*

3. Serve immediately or allow to refrigerate overnight before your big party.

Enjoy!

Click here to learn how to make homemade tortilla chips

Super Easy Chicken Thigh And Veggie Sheet Pan Dinner

April 24, 2024April 24, 2024 The Wild Gems1 Comment

What You Need:

1 1/2 lbs of chicken thighs (bone in and skin removed)

1 large sweet potato peeled and chopped into bite size pieces

1 yellow squash sliced with skin on

1 head of broccoli chopped

1/2 of a sweet onion chopped into bite size pieces

1 tablespoon of olive oil plus 2-3 extra tablespoons

1 tablespoon of jarred minced garlic

1 packet of McCormick Seasoning Farmers Market Chicken And Vegetables SHEET PAN

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400 and line a cookie sheet with foil. While the oven is heating up prepare your veggies and remove skin from chicken.

2. Place veggies and chicken on sheet pan. Prepare McCormicks seasoning packet. Rub majority of mixture on the front and back of the chicken. Any additional mixture add onto veggies.

3. Drizzle the extra olive oil on veggies, next add a few dashes of salt and pepper on veggies, and then add the minced garlic throughout the veggies. Mix well with your hands.

4. Ensure the chicken is directly on the foil surrounded by the veggies (see photo below) . Bake at 400 for 30 mins. Once complete, allow the chicken and veggies to rest for 10 mins.

Best served with rice or potatoes.

Enjoy!

Happy cooking! 🙂

It Was In A Health Class….

April 11, 2024April 11, 2024 The Wild Gems1 Comment

Describe something you learned in high school.

I took this health related class my junior year of high school with Mr. Paul Johnson. He was such a cool teacher.

I loved this class btw, I had a group of friends in here and I looked forward to this class everyday. We would laugh uncontrollably, tell secrets, notice things that others didn’t and honestly it was more of a giggle class than anything.

Anyways, we were taking a test and my friend was letting me cheat off her test. One of the questions was a fill in the blank.

It said,

“When in doubt, (fill in the blank)”

I could have sworn my friend wrote, “pull it out”.

So on my test I wrote, “when in doubt pull it out.”

I finished the rest of the test and my teacher begins grading our tests while he let us do whatever.

As my teachers grading at his desk he calls my name.

Mr Johnson: “Marie, come up here…..”

Me: “Yes….”

Mr. Johnson: “What does this say?”

Me: “Ummm……When in doubt pull it out?…..”

*we just stare at each other for a moment and I realize how inappropriate that sounded and that it definitely was not the answer*

Mr. Johnson: “It’s THROW IT OUT.”

Me. “That’s what Kristina wrote though!”

We all started laughing immediately! Me, the teacher, and my classmates! It was hilarious. I’m laughing now just reminiscing on this memory.

But guess what, I’ve never forgotten this saying because of this moment in a high school class.

I especially say it whenever I’m cleaning my fridge.

And I literally said this yesterday to my husband last night because he was asking if it was okay to take Benadryl that’s been expired for two years.

“I don’t know honey, I’ve always known, “when in doubt throw it out.”“

That is something I have learned in high school.

Dear Readers, I’m Sorry I Haven’t Posted In Awhile

April 11, 2024 The Wild Gems2 Comments

Good morning my beautiful readers, how are you all doing?

I’m still here, and I am sorry that I have not shared anything in quite some time. To be honest I’ve just been very busy and this blog hasn’t been a priority at the moment.

I have 4 kids in case you didn’t know. An 8 year old, a 7 year old, a 4 year old, and a 1 year old. I’m a busy mama. And no, we didn’t just boom boom and decide to have kids back to back. Two of them are biological and two are adopted.

I know I don’t have to share that at all but I want those who read this to really understand. I like to joke that I got the “have a baby get one free deal” because that’s exactly what happened.

We actually just adopted my son (the one year old) in January. So thankful that that has been finalized.

I like to consider myself an open book so if you ever read any of my posts and would like clarification on anything don’t ever hesitate to ask me. We are friends on here I like to think.

Anyways, I’ve been busy. But it’s been a good busy.

I’m going to make an effort to release all that I’ve been absorbing and share it with you all.

I’m getting back into reading and I’ve already gained so much new insight! I love it!

Thank you my readers for taking the time to read what I share.

There’s something so intimate and comforting about being in the blogging community.

Lots of love, always

– Marie

The Wild Gems