November 1st

Wow! I can not believe it is November already!

I haven't been keeping up with the blog very well :( I think since I last posted, Jacob experienced the flu, we celebrated my 37th birthday, did the corn maze, then there was my grandma's bday, my nephew's bday and my bil's birthday is today. We had a children's evangelist at church this weekend, the harvest party last night, and that's about all I can think of right now! The end of October was full of many things!

Now on to November. This week is pretty busy. Paul flew to Ft. Lewis this afternoon, he will be home tomorrow evening. Just a quick trip this time. Tomorrow evening is the last day of the children's evangelist at church and there is also my monthly Keepers at Home meeting. Both of those we probably won't make unless Paul can fly in early. Wednesday of course is JBQ practice and church. Thursday our mother/daughter book club meets here at our house. Friday we are going down to Twin and spending the night, Abby has a quizmeet there on Saturday. Whew! We'll be moving along the whole week. I have all schoolwork for the week down in the assignment books and laid out and organized. So we should do well to get it done!

The weather has been crazy. This last week it got really cold and snowed, but the last few days have been sunny and around 60 degrees. I never know how warm to dress or what to keep the thermostat set at! LOL

Kids are doing great. Jacob is over the flu, no one else caught it. Can't believe it, but I'll take it! He's been reading alot and staying busy with schoolwork. His literature class is taking up a big chunk of time each day, but he's doing it all on his own(even the typing!) this semester. He has divided the assignments up according to how many days he has to work on it, and also been looking at my planner/and asking about activities so those can be worked out too. Good lesson on planning his time wisely. I'm excited to see him take the iniative to do so. He sure is growing up. He's been talking alot more lately too. I've overheard him in conversation with adults and other kids at church. This just makes me beam inside, as he has not always been good at this and kind of awkward about it. I've had to learn to step back when someone approaches him and let him take the reigns on speaking. He no longer looks at me to save him! :) Abby is doing great as well. She got to help in the nursery at church this morning. In her Missionettes class they are learning about childcare and each are taking a turn in the nursery. She really enjoyed it and asked if she could help next year sometimes when she is no longer in the children's service. Jacob said he might like to do that too, so I will check into it. They both love to be around younger children.

Haven't made a menu for this week. I really need to do so, so we don't end up eating out with all the activies. As long as I have a plan, we should do well. So guess I'll go work on that now :)

Be blessed!

Sweet Sixteen

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the day Paul and I married. We received a card from my dad and he called it sweet sixteen :)



We had plans to spend the day doing some touristy things, but the Army had other plans and Paul ended up in Salt Lake City working a promotion board :( I did just find out he is coming home today instead of tomorrow though! Our weekend is busy so we can't reschedule our original plans but that's quite alright. His dad and stepmom are coming up to Boise on monday for an appointment at the VA hospital. They are going to stay the night and watch the kids, so we will get to go out kid free for the evening! Thankyou Papa and Grandma!



We have just been so busy. Trying to remember what all we did...... LOL. My mind is coming up blank though. Oh last week we went to a free Lincoln Brewster concert. It was alot of fun. I got to exercise my mama letting go skills as Abby met a friend whom we didn't know was going to be there. She asked and was granted permission to go sit with her friend and family, out of my sight... Heehee. I slightly know the parents (from church) and the concert venue wasn't too large, and I gave her my phone, and Paul thought I was being over protective.....LOL She had alot of fun and all went well. Best behaviour according to friend's parents :)



Saturday evening, we had some friends over for dinner and they taught us to play a new game, Killer Bunnies. I wasn't too sure about this based on the name of the game, but it really is a fun and innocent game(well except for getting your bunnies killed I guess!). We really enjoyed our time and will definitely have to get together again soon :)



School is going quite well. We have found our groove for the year, and as long as mama stays on top of things we run pretty smooth. I have to say that with these older grades there is a bit more prep than I'm used to, but then they are able to work more independently as well. And they are doing very good work. Jacob is taking more initiative with his assignments and even on his own broke down his Literature assignment from co-op into daily portions to work on and have complete before his next class. Go Jacob! So proud of him. He's also really starting to fit in and make some good friends at co-op and at church. He's always been so shy and quiet and had a hard time joining in, but consistent routine seems to be working well for him. When I went to get him from youth group Wed. night I was able to catch sight of him before he saw me and it did my heart good to see him conversing and having a good time with a group of guy friends!



We've had quite a bit of rain this week, but warmed up today and supposed to tomorrow too. Back to the low 70's. Have a busy weekend ahead. Abby is making crafts with the other girls from Girl's Ministries at church tomorrow to sell in the craft bazaar. I'm going to try and do some Christmas shopping after I drop her off. Sunday afternoon we have a membership class for church. Next week we have Paul's parents staying overnight, co-op, my birthday, a trip to the corn maze and my friend's "Pink" party along with our regular church activities and services.



My menu for this week was scattered. I didn't grocery shop, so we ate from freezer and pantry. Did mostly good on eating out, we will eat out tonight and we had lunch out with Paul one day last week.



Running out of things to share. Think I will go see what needs to be done before I pick up Paul at the airport.



Be blessed!

Crockpot Beef Stew

I stumbled upon this recipe when we were living in Chicago. But I cannot remember where exactly it came from!

Beef Stew

2 lbs. stew beef
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. paprika
4 lg. carrots
3 lg. potatoes(I usually used 4 or 5)
1 cup beef broth
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 large onion
1- 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 cup bbq sauce

Peel and chop potatoes and carrots. Brown stew meat. Layer potatoes, then carrots , then meat in crockpot. Sprinkle with soy sauce, salt, paprika, pepper and flour. Spread chopped onion over the top. Combine beef broth and tomato sauce. Pour over top of all. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours. During the last 30 minutes of cooking add bbq sauce.

If I used reduced sodium broth, soy sauce and tomato sauce then I use the salt, if I don't use the reduced versions then I don't add the salt. I have kidney issues and Paul is on blood pressure meds, so I try to watch the sodium. You can also add any other vegetables that sound good. I'm actually going to add a bag of frozen peas to mine today towards the end of cooking, if I add them too early they will get mushy.

Be blessed!

October 4, 2009

Menu for this week:
Monday- Beef stew (crockpot)
Tuesday- Enchiladas
Wednesday- Chili
Thursday- we are eating out, we have free tickets to see Lincoln Brewster, we'll pick up Paul from work with a snack on the way to the concert and then we have IHOP coupons to use afterwards :)
Friday-Meatloaf(different recipe, than last week)
Saturday- My mom's lasagna. We are having friends over for dinner :)
Sunday- Leftovers or breakfast for dinner.

What a week. It just seemed so busy! Thursday evening Abby and I had our second mother/daughter book club meeting. We read "My Louisiana Sky" by Kimberly Willis Holt. Misty(my friend who started the whole book club idea!) had set up a conference call with the author. It was so neat to be able to ask her questions about the story and about how she became an author. Abby liked it to, but what was too shy to ask any questions! We had a very good time. Paul and Jacob heard about a dirt track for racing their remote control vehicles and so they checked that out while it was still light out. I think they had a good time :)

Paul had drill this weekend. It was a MUTA 5 so he went in late Friday afternoon and came home this evening. It was a cold, wet weekend and he got to spend the whole time outdoors in it. He came home looking like he rolled around in the mud, couldn't even tell what color his uniform was supposed to be. LOL.. he went to shower and I took his uniform out back and hosed it off before putting it in the washing machine, it was that bad!

The kids and I played monopoly yesterday(the Star Wars version of course), we went to the library again and Abby found a book on making thumbprint pictures so they both spent the rest of the afternoon messing around with that(and have green and purple thumbs to show for it).

This morning was church of course. I laid in bed wide awake last night, always happens when Paul isn't home at night. So therefore yawned all through sunday school and the service. Both were very good, and I feel bad for yawning, I wasn't bored, just tired! We came home and had lunch, finished the grocery list and went to the store. I really don't like shopping on Sundays, but couldn't put it off any longer! It was a zoo and the pouring down rain didn't make it any nicer to be out. And then I couldn't get everything on my list so had to stop at a second store :( The price of milk has gone up, I noticed too. It will never end will it?

It's been pretty chilly the last few days. Finally caved and have had the heat on the last couple of mornings. It's gotten into the low 30's at night, barely reaching 50 if that during the day. Paul's parents in Twin Falls got snow today!

Well, need to close and get ready for the new week. I'm trying to be better about blogging, but haven't done many out of the ordinary things lately! LOL I'll have to try and get some more pics of the kids up soon.

Be blessed!

Pink for October

My friend, Misty, is going Pink for October to raise funds for breast cancer research, everytime you read her blog, money is donated to Susan G. Koman(Sp?) breast cancer research fund. Please go visit! I know Misty in real life and she is a beautiful, generous person. She also goes all out for anything she does. Her blog can be found here www.mistywagner.blogspot.com . Breast cancer hadn't affected my life until both of my mothers in law (yes I'm blessed to have two!) recently were diagnosed and so far successfully fought the battle. I'm sure we all have a link to someone who has dealt with this awful disease. Please go check it out :)

Be blessed!

End of September Already!

Wow! I cannot believe how quickly this month flew by. Our temps are finally dropping and I was cold most of today.

Before I forget, here is this weeks dinner menu.

Monday-turkey burgers

Tuesday- tatertot casserole

Wednesday- homemade potato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

Thursday- homemade chicken pot pie

Friday- sloppy joes

Saturday- meatloaf

Sunday- ravioli

We've really been doing well on the not eating out! Though I've been tempted a few times and then I think of the cost of that one meal out compared to how many meals I can make at home for the same cost! The kids haven't even been asking to eat out either, which is a surprise!

This weekend was busy. Saturday, Abby participated in her first Junior Bible Quiz meet in Nyssa, Oregon. She did pretty good for her first time, she needs to just be quicker on the buzzer, but her team took first place in their division. We all went with her and got to help out, Jacob even ran the buzzer box once. That pretty much took up the whole day! Picture of Abby with her ribbon is above. Sunday we got up for Sunday School and Church. We came home made lunch and then just worked around the house, this week I started working on cleaning out our bedroom closet and the bedroom, Paul and Jacob worked out in the yard, and Abby helped everyone.

Yesterday, Abby had gymnastics again. She did very well, they worked on the balance beam and the swinging rings. Her arms and calves are sore today! Last night Paul's dad and stepmom came into the airport from their trip to Georgia. We had their car here while they were gone the past couple of weeks. So Paul and Jacob picked them up last night and brought them here. They stayed the night and drove home early this morning. They had a great time and sounds like a highlight of their trip was visiting the Kennedy Space Center in Florida over a couple of days. The kids loved the souvenirs they brought back, Jacob got an autograph from a real live astronaut ,so he's been asking to go look for some astronaut books all day(library trip will be tomorrow!) . Abby got a really cute tote bag that says "I Need My Space" on it. They were both surprised and not expecting anything. I can't wait to see their pictures!

Today, the weather has turned. It's cold and windy and looks like rain might be coming. We've just stayed home, worked on school lessons, played some math games, just about finished laundry, and some picking up that needed done. Just a cozy day at home. Actually put on a sweater late this morning. It was warmer when we got up at 7 then it is now!

Well dinner is in the oven and just about done, need to go steam some veggies and Paul should be home soon.

I almost forgot! Happy Birthday to my sister, Jessica, today and to my brother, Jason, yesterday! I'm still older than both of them! LOL

Be blessed!

Zucchini Corn Cakes

Here is the recipe for those that wanted it. It's out of the Woman's Day magazine.

Microwave 1 shredded small zucchini for 2 minutes on medium high. Drain.

Combine zucchini, 1 pouch(6.5oz) cornbread mix, 1 large egg and 1/2 cup milk. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Heat oil in a pan, drop heaping Tbsps of batter into hot oil. Cook 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on each side. Makes about 14 pancakes.

Enjoy!

Be blessed!