Wednesday, September 28, 2011

good thoughts...

be sure to celebrate the many

small things...

bright days

good friends

and anything with sprinkles.


meals for 9.27.11 through 10.2.11

happy October :)
pumpkins, crisp leaves, frost on the windows, chilly mornings :) i love fall... :)

i'm not in the mood to meal plan in detail this week (again)... i kinda feel like i'm in limbo...had to do a little traveling last week/weekend...and this week is a layover week b/c the girls, my mom, and me will be traveling to see my grandma next week... that is really no excuse for a lacking plan for meals...but again, we're not doing major shopping (end of the month=not a lot of $$ for food) and we're dealing with what we have HERE to eat... :)
and, my parents will be here at the end of the week (so we can leave from here, my dad is bringing my mom down :))...so that will probably mean more eating out *blah* and less home cooking... *boo hiss*

plus, sleep has been a bit lacking...hannah has a touch of something (fever, and projectile vomit tonight :-\) and K has started to cough and was wayyyyy off on her sleep today and was very weepy before bed (she was up a lot and for long periods through the early morning, slept late this morning, so no nap)... so, i kinda feel like "survival of the fittest" over here... :) as long as i'm dressed and showered, i think i've accomplished something :) hehehehe :) i really have some things i'd like to do...so i hope things get themselves together a bit... :)

anyway...here's what we're eating this week...

Monday: homemade pizza
Tuesday: tomato soup w/ shells, grilled cheese
Wednesday: ?hamburger helper (homemade)
Thursday: french toast
Friday: grill out
Saturday: eat out (maybe)
Sunday: something home cooked...maybe chicken and noodles?

nothing like mood driven meals here... :) hehehe :) hope that you have a good week and that your life is a little more organized than this one here :) hehehe :)

:) ENJOY the changing weather! :)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

meals for the week 9.19.11 through 9.25.11

here's somethin' to make you think....
on Sunday, there will only be 3 more months before Christmas...
that means approximately 90ish days left for Christmas shopping...
but it also means pretty lights, snow, and Christmas cookies :)
but first, let's get through the amazing season of Autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving... :)

this week is a wacky week for meals... i didn't "assign" a fare to a particular day... we're not grocery shopping this week (except for necessaries like milk, bread, fruit, etc.).... so, we're going to eat what's here...and we're gonna be HAPPY about it :) hehehe :)

sooo, here's what will be served here... :)

omelets and biscuits
spaghetti and garlic bread
french toast
fried rice (maybe)
ham sandwiches
and, if necessary, hot dogs and mac n cheese :)

i opened a jar of homemade apple butter from one of my fabulous 3rd grade students from my teaching days... and let me just tell you that it was fabulous... :) so maybe we'll just eat biscuits and apple butter for dinner one night... :)
or apple butter and butter sandwiches...YUM! (childhood favorite)
:)
what are some of YOUR favorite foods (comfort food?) from your childhood?
either way, i hope your bellies are full and your smiles are big... :)
have a great week... :)

Monday, September 19, 2011

heart work...

i saw this post and happened to read it... it's called Family Matters (http://blog.familymatters.net/2011/09/19/raising-kids-is-heart-work/)

so many good points here... :) and a great message, for sure... :)






Raising Kids is Heart Work


by Tim Kimmel on September 19, 2011




Every once in a while Hollywood gets it right. Unfortunately, when they do, people of faith have to accept the fact that for the rest of their waking life, they’re going to have to agree to nod their head and smile when some preacher evokes the same worn out line from some epic movie to make his spiritual point.



So, all of you faith veterans get ready to nod your heads and smile. The movie Chariots of Fire captures the center-stage drama as well as back story of the great Scottish runner Eric Liddell. If you haven’t seen the movie and you’re over 40 years old, shame on you. If you’re under 40 and haven’t seen it, put it at the top of your next NetFlix order. I’ll save the details of the movie for you to either remember or enjoy when you finally see it. But there was a powerful line in the movie when someone was quizzing Liddell about his amazing abilities on the track. Eric said, “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”



And man oh man did he run … for thousands of miles … in all kinds of conditions … against extraordinary competition.



When was the last time you ran really fast for a long period of time? Did you feel God’s pleasure? I ran the New York City Marathon. For the entire 26.2 miles from Staten Island, through Brooklyn and Queens, into Manhattan, up into the Bronx and finally through Harlem to finish in Central Park I can honestly say that I never ONCE felt God’s pleasure. For most of that marathon what I felt was the enormous urge to call a cab. Running is hard, hard work. Eric Liddell pushed his muscles, tendons, and blood pressure to their absolute extremes over and over again.



And he felt God’s pleasure in the process.



The reason he felt it is no big woop of a secret. I’m holding up two fingers that represent the two biggest reasons: he was doing something he was called to do and he was doing it for God’s glory. What I mean by “called” is that God gave him some abilities and arranged some circumstances that inclined him to rise to a great challenge. Doing it for God’s glory simply seemed liked the logical next step. He had been bought and paid for on a cross by the very God who had given him his gifts and opportunities. Pushing glory back in God’s direction seemed to him like the least he could do.



Raising kids is very difficult work. You’ve got to sweat like mad at your place of employment to make the massive sums of money it costs to finance them from birth through college. Then there’s the whole thing of being perpetually exhausted for 20 years. Add to that a typical kid’s love affair with testing your fear quotient. They over-tax your doubt and second-guessing tendencies too. Usually they figure out what lights you up and wear out their abilities to push all of your hot buttons in order to bring your frustrations to an instant boiling point … simply because they can. We can’t forget the uncanny ways they have of negating all of your academic credentials by making you feel royally stupid most of the time. Tear ducts endure a lot of wear and tear, and knees get calloused from having to assume a desperate parent’s prayer posture so much. Sometimes they actually drive you to point where, at least momentarily, you wouldn’t have any trouble seeing what you could get for them on eBay. This is parenting. It’s what you do if you’re going to raise kids.



If these demanding parts of the job are what you focus on, then most likely, you won’t feel much of God’s pleasure in the process. But guess what, neither will your kids. They’ll know that they irritate you. They’ll know you aren’t excited about the roll you’re expected to play in their life.



There’s a way to keep the nasty demands of raising kids from framing your attitude toward it and them. Don’t view parenting as hard work; view it as heart work. It’s the gritty and spitty stuff that fathers and mothers do in the process of transferring God’s love and grace to their children’s inner lives.



The heart work of parenting is our calling, and it’s the least we can do based on the heart work our Heavenly Father did when He moved all of heaven against the worst of Hell to buy our eternal freedom.



Sure, parenting is extremely demanding, but so is EVERYTHING that’s worth doing in life. Just ask Eric Liddell. When you’re surrounded by a mountain of dirty laundry, or trying to find the floor of your teenager’s room, or waiting up every weekend night for your son or daughter to get the car and themselves home in one piece, it’s hard to envision the up-side. But the heart work of raising kids pays off. It pays off for time and for eternity.



So, next time you’re wishing that Fischer Price also made Tasers, take that thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. Feel God’s pleasure in the wonderful role you’re playing in raising a member of the next generation for eternal greatness.

Monday, September 12, 2011

meals for the week 9.12.11 to 9.18.11

already greeting the middle of September! amazing how time flies! we'll be saying hello to pumpkins and crunching leaves soon! :) i can't wait.... :)

here's what we're eating for the week :) nothing fancy, nothing major...just food :)

Monday: bbq chicken, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob
Tuesday: homemade pizza (didn't get to it last week)
Wednesday: fried rice
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: leftovers or french toast if we're out of leftovers :)
Saturday: having dinner with friends
Sunday: turkey burgers & mac n cheese

hope you all have a great week! :) enjoy every minute! :)

Friday, September 9, 2011

adore....





































i love these girls with all that i have in me...
i know i'm blessed beyond measure...
:)
happy friday...

(these gorgeous shots are from our recent photo session with the incredibly talented Carrie Coleman of www.carriecolemanphotography.blogspot.com)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

the best little cookie

we have cookie cravings here ALL the time...
conversations around here are often like this:

me: Katherine, what do you want for lunch?
K: cookies
me: Katherine, you can't have cookies for lunch unless you eat your lunch...and then, you can have ONE cookie. what would you like for lunch?
K: brownies and cookies
me: OK...your choices are _____________, _____________, _____________ (i usually give her three choices - like spaghetti, cheese and crackers, peanut butter crackers, mac n cheese, grilled cheese, french toast, pancakes, etc.)

there's rarely a week that goes by that i don't make cookies for us...
they don't ever last the week (i'm a big reason for this) unless they're really not that good :) or we forget about them (haha, yah right!)

well these little cookies are never around long... they just might be our new favorite cookie!! :) i love them because they're soft and chewy, they are so quick to make, and K can help me make them (she's a great "dumper" when it comes to the sugars, flour, and chocolate chips. :))

go ahead and try them... you won't be sorry :)

Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
6 T. butter, softened
1/4 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
dash of salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 c. flour
1 cup chocolate chips

preheat your oven to 350*

cream together the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars till it is nice and smooth. add the egg and the vanilla and stir well. add your flour and then your baking soda and salt and mix well. at the end, add your chocolate chips (and fight with your almost 3 year old to not eat the batter even though she'd like to eat the whole bowl!)

use a teaspoon to make little cookie drops (about an inch or two in size) onto your cookie sheet. bake for 11-15 minutes... your recipe should make around 2 1/2 dozen cookies... :)

they taste divine...not too peanut buttery...more like a chocolate chip cookie with a little bit of peanut butter taste... :)

YUMMY! :)

Sunday, September 4, 2011

meals for the week 9.5.11 to 9.11.11

here's what's happenin' in the kitchen at the 115 :)
happy labor day...
:)

Monday: grilling out - hamburgers, mac n cheese, and corn on the cob
Tuesday: creamy chicken enchiladas (new recipe!)
Wednesday: stuffed shells
Thursday: leftovers

Friday: homemade pizza
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: leftovers

i'm also going to try something "different" this week... i'm going to make some soup so that i have something healthy, fast, and filling for lunches... i find that my schedule with the girls, on most days, keeps me from having lunch until 2 or 3 in the afternoon...and by then, i'm starving... hopefully having some good soup in the fridge will keep me from trying to satisfy my hunger with "whatever" i can grab quickly... for lunches this week, i'll be having chicken and rice soup from the Pioneer Woman's recipe library :)

have a great week :)

Friday, September 2, 2011

conversations from an almost 3 year old perspective...

on wednesday, we spent some time outside... K wandering around and enjoying nature, H and i were hangin' out on a picnic blanket, and then there was Beezer, flaring his puppy nostrils sniffing the sweet breezes...

it was gorgeous out...

before we came in, we all headed to the mailbox to put a few thank you notes in for tomorrow's pick up. as we were walking back, K was lagging behind a bit... when i turned around, she was looking up at the sky...

"Mommy, yook at the clouds..."

Me, stopping to look... "Oh, yes...look at them!"

"They are pitty, Mom...yook!" (grinning)

"Yes, Katherine, they are very pretty...so puffy and white..."

"Mommy. God made the clouds."

"Yep, Katherine, He did..." (grin on my face...i love that she gets God :))

"Mommy? Where is God's house?"

"Oh, well, Katherine, His house is all around us. He lives everywhere."

"Oh, yes, Mommy, he does...wow! Oh yes..." (eyes lit up and big grin)

:)
i want to always remember times like this..................

Thursday, September 1, 2011

karaoke, Katherine style :)

as i mentioned in my last post, my grandma's house is also a funeral home... so, she has a huge chapel that can be found through some doors off of the living area...
in the chapel, there's a microphone that's set up (but plugged in) for when there's a funeral...
Katherine has a thing for music... (i'm so happy about this because i want her to love music as much as i do) and it's not uncommon for her to sing to herself throughout the day... :)
at one point, Ry took her out to the chapel to play ball (there's A LOT of space) and she found that, maybe, she could be the next karaoke star :)
she's singin' a little french tune here, "Frere Jacques" - first in her French and then in English :)