Day 115 - Barbecued Spare Ribs & a Purpose

I'm having bittersweet day today.   The baby boy is having his 8th grade promotion ceremony tonight.

I know, he's 14 years old, but he'll ALWAYS be a baby to me!

It reminds me of the book, 'I'll Love You Forever', by Robert Munsch.  I absolutely adore that book!
 I've often said to my son that when he's a grown man I still want him to sit in my lap - even though I know he'll probably crush me.

And it's not even like he's graduating high school and going off to college at the end of the summer, it's only 8th grade!

But still it saddens me because I know with our oldest, her four years of high school FLEW so much faster than I ever thought they would.
Our middle child, our daughter, is now an official high school senior and I have no idea when that happened.
I think what really gets me is that my work here is almost done. 
I know I still have A LOT left to do, and I'll never stop being a mother, but I'll miss the dependency; my oldest standing at the door when she hears me pull into the garage, doing their laundry, proofreading reports, making their lunches, shuttling them to practices and games.
They're not going to NEED me as much and that hurts.
I know my purpose in raising these little people was so that they could be responsible, self-sufficient, competent, caring, compassionate, loving, etc., etc. adults., and I'm so happy that we're almost there.
I couldn't be more proud of those three kids and I love them far more than I ever imagined I would.

(I have SO many thoughts going through my head right now about how I want to write the rest of this, but it isn't coming to fruition, so I'll end it here to prevent excess sappiness and unintelligible grammar.
I also think the hormones may be playing a supporting role in this as well.)

It's a question of purpose, my purpose, after the kids have left the nest.
I think I'm afraid that when this purpose ends, I won't be able to define the next one or who I'm supposed to be.
WHAT DO I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP?
I still haven't figured that out and don't know if I ever will, but until then,
I am a MOMMY.  The hardest and by far the most rewarding thing I could ever possibly do.
And with every ounce of my being, I am going to continue to be the best mommy to those three kids I can possible be.
Because they need me.
In some ways, they will always need me.
And I love that.
Because that's why I'm here.

How do barbecued spare ribs with some Southern Potato Salad from The Food Network and some corn on the cob for dinner sound?  Oh, and some fresh tomatoes from the garden.
Mmmmhhhmmmmm....that's what I thought.

This comes from my New Doubleday Cookbook, p. 251; authors, Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna; publisher, Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-385-19577-X.

Favorite Barbecued Spareribs - 6 servings

5 lbs. spareribs

Sauce
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup soy sauce
¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup chili sauce
½ cup ketchup
2 teaspoons prepared mild yellow mustard
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Line a cookie sheet with heavy duty foil and spray with cooking spray.
Place ribs on sheet and bake, uncovered, for 3/4 of an hour.

Drain off all drippings.
Mix sauce ingredients in a blender and pour over ribs.

Bake uncovered for 1¼ - 1½ hours longer, turning and basting every 20 minutes until tender and richly browned..
(Note:  For even better flavor, marinate the ribs in the sauce in turned-off oven 3-4 hours after first 3/4 hour of baking and drain off drippings; then bake for 1½ hours longer as directed.)
I doubled the batch, for what reason, I have no idea, but I'm glad I did because now we have leftovers for tomorrow.

I absolutely LOVE going to restaurants and gettin' me a real good slab of ribs with lots o' barbecue sauce!
These were as good and even better than some I've eaten in those establishments. 
My husband was thrilled, too!
I was pleasantly surprised at how these turned out.  The meat was very tender, but not quite at the point of falling off the bone in some spots and the sauce.
The SAUCE!
You know how sometimes when you're eating something barbecued and you get that sauce that sticks to the front of your teeth that you can't quite get off?
It was that good and sticky.
It was all-over-the-fingers-good, too.  EVERYBODY needed a paper towel.

Everything I bake is rated on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being you shouldn't go to your grave without at least giving this a try.  These lip smacking ribs earn 4 rolling pins!

Yee Ha!
Happy baking, y'all!