Recipes, Laughter, Transparency
Recipe, Laughter, Transparency
by Jacci Lightfoot
Recipe
Cheesy Fries
For the Whole Team:
Any kind of frozen 2lb bag of French fries (seasoned, tator tots, steak fries)
Gallon size (cheese whiz) creamy cheese. (Sam’s club or Costco carry the large cans.)
1 lb of bacon fried and crumbled…or 2 if you’re feeling sporty. (The team will thank you later!)
Huge foil pan…
Throw the frozen fries in the pan.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven, pour on the cheese, top with bacon.
Return to oven for another 30-45 minutes.
Oh. My. Word.
Easy and a team favorite.
Laughter
Funny…but wrong.
It was our first year. Me…holding the hand of a 2 year old and a babe in my arms.
I was new at this which is my only excuse. I still had visions of sugar plums and fairy tales. I believed in harmony among all people both home and visitors.
I was so naive!
It started slowly as most conversations do…me cheering for my team, never shy about my loyalty.
A voice from behind (apparently not shy about his own loyalty) started mimicking and then mocking. I didn’t understand. Weren’t we all here for the same reason?
I learned quickly that night that we were not.
I glanced back and sneaked a peek. An angry burley man and his wife. He loud, she quiet. On the quiet one was perched a big tall hairy hat.
I’m sure there was a story there…
I turned back around slowly and only slightly intimidated. I didn’t let it deter me though. I carried on zealously in my loyalty to my team.
From behind me words grew louder and stronger. His sustain for me grew.
Why was he sitting in my section? The visitors? Why didn’t he just move?
Then it happened! So fast and so forceful… Why couldn’t I let it go? I remember it so clearly for it was my first of another 30 years of bleachers and concession stands and comments.
I did it…I turned around, stood up with hands clenched and then it came.
“Why are you so mean? How can you sit in judgement of me when you are sitting next to a woman with a squirrel on her head?!”
There it was..it was out. I let that cat…AKA squirrel right out of the bag!
I didn’t feel better. I felt Horrible.
I got up with my babes and rushed out. I came back to say I was so sorry but they were gone.
I always remember that first outburst. Funny…but wrong. There were many more to come over the next years.
It’s hard. Hard to listen to the voices around you. The critical ones aimed at your husband and team.
I chose my seat wisely after that. Sometimes hiding in a stall where there are plenty of porcelain seats with doors to hide the noise! Sometimes I go there when I put myself in a “time out.”
My challenge? To have sweet ears to hear the good. To have patience to remember they don’t know you or your husband..the real you.
Be blessed. This calling is not easy but it is important and God chose you!!!
Transparency
Keeping it real…
I chuckled when we started this journey, my friends and neighbors telling me of their envy.
You’re a “coach’s wife.” “How glamorous!”
I’m sorry…what?
I came home from a long day as a nurse to throw off the scrubs and put on my “team” shirt. I ran out the door to my “other job” as a mom of a team and a cheerleader in the stands only to do it all over again the next day.
My glamour? Knowing If we had a chance for a date night it would be to someone ELSE’S game.
Knowing if my husband bought me a nice supper “out” it would be popcorn and a hotdog.
If I had a chance to dress up for this date? You guessed it! I wore my (what I thought) sexy skinny jeans instead of the baggy boyfriends.
Glamour….I guess it’s all in the perspective.
I may not feel it on the outside but on the inside I am called from God, the King on high to his calling as his child and princess.
I am called to be glamorous in his sight to a calling that is greater than I.
I am a coaches wife…
God finds glamour in that and so will I.
Blessings,
Jacci