Multitude Mondays - More Than I Need

I am thankful for God's creation....

1. Quiet mornings
2. cracking pecans in front of a burning fire
3. long phone calls with my mom
4. cold rainy days inside a warm house
5. a child's ability to laugh with their whole being
6. intimate conversations with a spouse
7. chocolate dessert with ice cream
8. family movie night
9. sewing time
10. my beautiful home
11. a refrigerator full of food
12. a shiny, clean car (the outside at least:)
13. aprons
14. crisp apples and tart oranges
15. a great smelling candle
16. my wonderfully, and fearfully made family
17. bright, sunny days
18. monopoly with my daughter over popcorn and hot chocolate
19. snuggling with my son
20. time here on earth to experience God's goodness
21. music that makes your heart sing
22. our Sunday School class
23. BSA smoked turkeys
24. Christmas decorations
25. chubby baby cheeks
26. hand-me down furniture


Join me and many others who are counting our 1000 blessings at Holy Experience!

Menu Planning Monday - Gluten-Free Rachel Ray

It's been a while, but it is high time I got back in gear!! Several of my recipes are modified Rachel Ray recipes to be gluten free! By the way, check out Organic Valley, they have some great coupons for their products.

Sunday - Sauteed pork chops, with Italian beans (recipe below), and salad
Monday - omelets, spinach salad, crescent rolls
Tuesday - Fish sandwiches (recipe below)
Wednesday - Mediterranean- style chicken (recipe below)
Thursday - Spaghetti
Friday - I'll be NYC - Dad is cooking!!

Italian Beans (great fiber!)
Northern beans soaked and cooked
3 slices of bacon
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery, sliced thin
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 bay leaf
1 cup chicken stock
2 tomatoes, chopped

Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a pan. Add bacon and cook until crisp, add onion, carrot, celery, garlic and bay leaf and cook for about 5 minutes. Add beans and stock and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about another 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, stir and serve!

Mediterranean-Style Chicken
EVOO
4-6 Chicken cutlets, pounded thin
4-6 fresh sage leaves
4 -6 slices of bacon
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 cupfresh parsely chopped
2 T. butter
1/2 cup grated parmasean cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
bag of chopped kale
1 T. sugar
2 T. red wine vinegar

Heat 2 T. EVOO in a large non-stick skillet. Place a sage leaf and a piece of bacon on top of a cutlet and roll on a diagonal. Add chicken to the pan. Cook and turn until all sides are brown. Remove from skillet and add 1 cup stock to the pan. Scrape up any brown bits with wooden spoon. Allow to cook and reduce for about 2 minutes. Add parsely and butter. Once butter has melted, add chicken back to the pan and turn off heat. Sprinkle with cheese.

In a separate pan, heat 2 T. in a large saute pan. Add onion and garlic and cook until transluscent. Add kale and toss and turn frequently. Add sugar and vinegar and 1/2 cup chicken stock.

Serve with rice.


Get more great menu ideas at Organization Junkie!

SAHM vs Working Moms on Dr. Phil

I usually don't catch Dr. Phil. 5:00pm is a busy time of athletic practices, HW and supper, but we are on fall break and I actually turned the TV on. All I can say is ...WOW! Having been both a SAHM and a working mom I think there is a much larger issue here:

Why are we so upset over this???

I have a single thoughtful idea. We are all working at the most difficult job in the world...MOTHERHOOD. We are (deep deep deep inside) afraid that we are doing a bad job and that someone else is doing a better job and that our kids will suffer because of it. This FEAR, this GUILT will drive us to do or think most anything to defend our decisions and choices even to where we are willing to tear down other (struggling) moms.

This is the same underlying reason that moms are willing to go to war over who breastfed their children until they were one, had natural childbirth, feeds their kids the healthiest foods.

We want to believe that if our kids are successful, healthy and happy that it was all because of our wonderful parenting so that we can shed off some of that FEAR and GUILT. But alas, we discover that it never really goes away.

God alone can remove these life destroyers called FEAR and GUILT and allow us to more fully love others!

P.A.T.H. - Teaching kids to Pray

If your family is anything like mine, you try to be a good parent and teach your kids great habits that will carry them through like. Praying is one such habit. The difficult part is trying to slowly transition from parent-prayed goodnight prayers to your child initiating prayer on their own. I was really feeling that my kids had hit a plateau and stopped "transitioning". We were stuck in our patterns..."Thank you God for mom and dad"...We needed another boost!

P - Praise

A - Apology

T - Thanks

H - Help (for others then yourself)

The kids and I took four poster boards and wrote one of the above words on each. We arranged them in order all around our backyard ( in order to spell PATH). Quietly and reverently, we walked and encircled a poster. Each person gave praise, apology, thanks or asked from help as we arrived at the designated poster. Do not forget to pull out your Bible and compare the Prayer Path to the Lord's Prayer!

What a difference this has made at bedtime prayers! Good luck and please let me know if you give this a try!

Zucchini Banana Nut Bread for Breakfast!

YUM! My kids ate this all week for breakfast. I sliced it up and toasted it in the oven for a few minutes and VOILA, breakfast. My daughter likes hers with cream cheese and my son prefers butter. Either way, its a great way to get your day movin'!













Zucchini Banana Nut Bread

2 eggs
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil
1 c. grated zucchini
1 mashed banana
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat four
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. shopped pecans

Combine first 6 ingredients. Sift dry ingredients well together and stir into first 6 ingredients. Gently fold in pecans. Pour into 4x9 greased and floured pan. bake at 350 for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Some Fabulous Blog Finds Today!

While snooping around BlogWorld this morning, I came across two fantastic blogs. I wanted to share them with you. They are fun, upbeat and wonderfully inspiring with lots of ideas and freebies. I can't wait to make the Affirmation Gift Set from Kind Over Matter for my friend's birthdays. The DIY Wipe Off Menu Planner from Perfect Sentiment is high on my list too! Great ideas ladies, please keep them coming !

Envelope System Wallet for Debt Free Living!

New for Fall and back by popular demand - The Envelope system Wallet! A huge thank you to everyone who has sent me a kind message about these wallets! I hope you find them useful and fun to KEEP money in! Wallets can be purchased at my etsy store.














The Envelope System Wallet features:

1) a Velcro closure and one main pocket, in which the envelopes fit.

2)Three envelopes have been made in a coordinating fabric. I transferred labels to each of the wallets for easy reference. I would be happy to transfer a Bible verse, saying or other labels at your request.

3) Last but not least, there is a zippered pouch for coins, driver’s license and pictures of the kids (plenty large enough for up to 10 cards).

4) This wallet could easily also hold your checkbook and deposit slips.

5) Envelopes and zippered pouch are entirely removable for easy access and budgeting. Remove it if it not to be used!

Dog Days of Summer - Children's Summer Activities

The best idea that I have ever had came to me about four years ago. My kids were 3 and 6 years old. Since I teach school, we are all home together each day and boredom was already setting in by July. I was also craving some alone time, but was too cheap to find a babysitter.

A good friend of mine owns and runs a dance studio, but like me, spends her summer days galavanting with the kiddos. We organized a kid swap over Happy Meals at the McDonald's playground. We each planned to take all four kids one day a week allowing each mom an entire FREE DAY. Sitting down with our schedules, the entire summer was planned around things like vacation, VBS and camps. Times were also scheduled. Kids arrive at 8:30 am and will leave around 5:00pm.

Theme days quickly developed and the kids would get so excited about them. We have had "Pirate Day", "Colonial Day", "Candy Day", etc. It wasn't long before my kids were helping plan our weekly theme day too (giving us other things to do during the week).

"The Dog Days of Summer" occured last week and I wanted to show you our FUN!

The day started with puppet making around our kitchen table. The puppets were to be dogs to be used later in the day for a puppet show.










The crafts were going so well, that the girls made puppy dog ears on some headbands while the boys went to ride bikes for a while. We then played "Doggie Doggie Who's Got your Bone" (pardon the grammar, but that is the name of the game). Did you play this in school? One person is the dog and sits in a chair with their eyes closed. There is a bone under the chair. Someone sneaks, steals the bone and sits on it then the doggie tries to guess who has it.

Our dogs were in on the act also. Wizzie got a walk through the neighborhood.










We had a few other neighborhood kids join in for the dog races! If you have a pool, you could have doggie paddle races!











We also made doggie biscuits. This proved to be a kid favorite also. By this time, my group of 4 had become 8 so I made them in 2 batches (girls and boys).











Doggie Biscuit Recipe
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup oats
2 tsp beef or chicken bouillon granules
1 egg
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Stir all together and roll out to about 1/2inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

By this time, mom and kids were exhausted so we settled down to watch Benji (I found this DVD in the $5 bin at Walmart. It brought back a lot of memories).

I hope you have gotten a few ideas to try your own theme day. Have fun and don't be afraid to let the kids help plan it!

New Appliqued Summer Dresses

I can't believe that I have turned into such a crummy blogger this summer! Believe it or not, I am getting a little sewing accomplished, though it is not as much as I would like. Aren't these A-line jumpers darling? My sister wanted them for beach pictures. The white is pique and the letters have been done in Pop Garden. Too cute! I will deliver them this weekend along with the fourth Twilight book. She will be thrilled with both!

Almost There!

I am only 18 months behind, but the end is near! My 2008 (yes, 2008) New Year's Resolution was to read the entire Bible. I am only 2 months away from finishing! Some books are not easy to get through and have required sheer determination to read. For me, many of the "prophet" books at the end of the Old Testament are not easy. It is difficult to understand what many of the prophesies are referring to and difficult to make much of it relate to my everyday Christian life. I am sure that using a study guid book would be helpful.

To help motivate myself in this final drive home here is a list of the books that I have read:

Old Testament

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalms

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Isaiah

Jeremiah

NEW TESTAMENT

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Acts

Romans

1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Phillippians

Colossians

1 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy

2 Timothy

Titus