Monthly Menu Plan

I figured since I was doing it up anyway I would show you how I do my monthly menu plan.
Here is an example of this month.

 This is my amazing calendar. I write everything down on it and it even has some pretty cool stickers so we just have to look at a quick glance to know what is up for the month.

 Next I take a piece of paper and write down meals that we normally would like to eat. We have a few favourites that we make every month. Such as crock pot roast beef, spaghetti, lasagna, meatloaf, steak (because we bought a cow a year and a half ago and we are trying to use it all up), etc...

 Then I look up recipes. As of late I have been pulling a lot of inspiration off of Pinterest. So off to my computer I go to try and find new recipes.

 Once I figure I have enough recipes I head back to my trusty calendar and figure out what meals go on what day. Certain days such as Tuesdays, when she dances from 2 till 8:30 I know supper has to be either made early or is leftovers from the night before. On the weeks that it is just Sarah and myself, I often cook a normal meal every other night and then the next night it is leftovers.

 Then I write down my grocery list. I write down everything that is needed in the recipes that I do not have. When I add it to my phone I then add things like milk, eggs, fruit, etc...

Here is a close up view of March's menu plan. As you can see my baby is turning 14 and she requested pizza.

I don't know if this helps anyone but there it is.
I love doing a month at a time. I would never stay dedicated if I did it every week. I am pretty flexible as well. Sometimes we eat out so then the food that I would normally make that day is open to make a different day if I am not feeling in the particular mood for something.

It has drastically cut down my grocery bill to do this and I find I am not struggling at 4 trying to figure out something to make for supper. We are also eating way more healthier as it is not junk, because I never defrosted anything. :)

What a day.

So last week I lost another Uncle. One that although I was not close to still was close to my parents.
Now I must admit that I was tossed up about going. It is a 2 hour trip one way and to be honest I was being a bit lazy. However I decided that I should take my daughter. She had never been to a funeral before and with the age of my family I figure it is only a matter of time before she will be put in that spot.
I figured that the funeral of a family member that she really never knew was a good one to begin.

So we dash around this morning getting ready, ironing pants, picking out shirts and shoes, grabbing a large travel mug of coffee for this tired Momma and away we go.

I am really glad we went. I am super glad that I could be there to support my parents as well as my Aunt and cousins.

I am also really happy I brought Sarah. They did have an open casket at the front of the church so she also was able to see a body without it being someone really close to her.

Afterwards we went back to Mom and Dad's and visited for a while and then they insisted they take Sarah and I out for supper.

The drive home was also a lot of fun. We spent the time talking and singing songs. Ranging from country to gospel and back again. We took turns picking the song from my phone and away we would sing. Sometimes acting crazy and sometimes lost in the rejoicing of His word.

Halfway home when the sun was setting so pretty we pulled over and grabbed a few shots with my phone.

As always I was amazed at how God provides and works in my life.
I hope you are all having a glorious week so far. :)

Randomness

I started the evening actually updating my blog. Actually following the blogs that I have been already reading and putting them on my dashboard so that it makes life a whole lot easier. So here I am adding blogs and catching up on some that I have not read in a while. Then I added Here I am.... I read her most recent post and I stopped adding. I then spent the next few hours lost here.
I so badly want to be able to help each and everyone of these beautiful children. My heart is hurting tonight.
The really ironic part is that lately I have been feeling that God is moving me away from adopting. I actually have stopped reading most of my adoption blogs that I was scouring and settling into my new life. (The life where we actually do not adopt any children that is). Then I find this site and I am lost again.
How can I not want to help at least one of these beautiful children? How can I not want to be able to make at least one life somewhere somehow better.
I realize that financially right now that this is possibly out of the question. I also realize that neither my hubby nor I are spring chickens. However that doesn't stop my heart.
So now I ask for prayer.
Prayer that God leads myself and my hubby in the direction that we are supposed to go and that whichever way it is he helps prepare our hearts for what lies ahead.

3 in 30 update

I had a kind of a lazy week here this week.
Nothing major happening.
School is going actually really well. She is settling down into a great routine and seems to be able to focus a lot better. We are doing our morning devotions before she does school work and then I started a Lent reading plan on my YouVersion App. (I love this app!!)

But anyhoo...back to my update.
1. Clean one room thoroughly and completely, purged, window washed (if have any) ceiling and walls washed. Lights washed, bulbs changed. If have curtains, them washed, iron or replaced if need be.


Well I definitely slowed down on this one. I have wiped down some walls, organised my container drawers and organised our electronic box, but other than normal house cleaning I have stalled a bit in this area.


2. Keep up with making a new recipe every week.


This is still going great. I am loving trying out new recipes and scouring the web or more ones that appeal to us. I have even started to get more adventurous and try to create my own. 
This week in addition to making more of my version of granola energy balls, these delicious german chocolate bites and lemon chicken (which by the way I was out of lemons so I used limes and just as delicious), I also made this Reese's Peanut Butter Banana Bread (which my hubby loved!!), Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Larabars (which are in the fridge setting up), and these amazing Flourless Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. They made 7 cookies and I ate all of them in one day. So good and so easy to make. Highly recommend these!!


3. Take more pictures.


So I am totally going to write this one off for the month. I can never remember to bring my camera. I need to check out a blog somewhere that has take this picture for each particular day of the month.


Well not the best of weeks as far as 1 and 3 go but hey I rocked out 2. Hahahahaha
I hope the rest of you had much better weeks!! 


I am linking up this week with the 3 in 30 challenge update.
Pop on over and see what others are up to in their monthly challenges. 

Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful for my parents. They have truely been a blessing to me. I thank God daily for having me born to this particular set of people, into this crazy family.
I know I have said this before but my parents are not young anymore. My Dad (Pappa as I call him) is 87 and my Mom is 83.
We are seeing more and more memory loss in Dad. He still remembers us all and all our children, but he sometimes forgets where to turn to go to the grocery store. (They have lived in town for the last 28 years) He now lives like what happened 50 years ago is happening now.
I just found out last night that Dad just had a minor heart attack. He is in complete denial and it scares me. He was always my rock growing up. Dad only had 1 boy in the midst of all us girls. 5 in total. My brother is 13 years older than me. Needless to say growing up on a farm I did my fair share. I often went out to lay the bedding down for the cows or feed them. Milk them when I was much younger. Feed the chickens and gather the eggs. ( I must say I am petrified of those darn birds) I even went out to "feed" the gophers with my Daddy.
Now the thought of losing him freaks me out. I have always know that the chances that I will continue to walk this side of heaven without my parents is great but to have it almost tangible takes my breathe away.

OK OK I know that now all of you are saying 'I thought that this was supposed to be Thankful Thursday?' and it is.
I am thankful that I was given these two beautiful individuals to be my parents.
I am thankful that I was raised the way that I was.
I am thankful that my parents thought that it was important to take me to church and to instill that in me.
I am thankful that although my parents are elderly they are still with me.
I am thankful that I have been blessed with at least 40 years of love and wisdom from these two.
I am so thankful that my children all got to know my parents and that they have amazing memories of grandparents, that tend to spoil them rotten while loving them unconditionally.
I am so thankful...

A trip back in time..., and some musings from this chick.

My handsome hubby managed to get my printer/copier/scanner/fax machine working again so I decided to try and scan my first picture in. Please bear with my as I never realised that when my lovely daughter sent her fax to her teacher today that she never removed it from the machine so when I scanned the picture in it now appears to be on lined paper. But... oh well...

This is Brandon. When we lived on Vancouver Island our boys were very young. In fact when we first moved there Brandon was only 6 months old. It was a great game that when Daddy came home they went and hid and Daddy had to find them. However they had no real concept of time so sometimes they would go to 'hide' way to early and Brandon almost always fell asleep waiting for Daddy to come find him. This was one of his favorites, another one was in his closet. I have tons of pictures of him like this. I have ones when he fell asleep reading and the book is still in his hands over his face. They are priceless.
My how time flies.

I just also wanted to let you know that the things that are happening are not live threatening. We are all healthy and happy. Just a touch stressed. It has stuff to do with the community we are living in and the house that we are trying to purchase. I will have more on this on a later date.

Have a great night everyone!

Truth Tuesday

It has been one of those days.
A day of discoveries.
A day that makes you sit back and wish you could take a holiday.
There are some things that I am not ready to share just yet. However I do ask for prayers for my family and myself.

I hope everyone's day was much less stressful than ours.

3 in 30 update

We had another great week here.
Homeschooling is getting back on track and we are getting a lot of help from one of her teachers which makes this mom VERY happy. They want her to succeed! It feels so different than conventional school. This really makes me happy we decided to home school.

1. Clean one room thoroughly and completely, purged, window washed (if have any) ceiling and walls washed. Lights washed, bulbs changed. If have curtains, them washed, iron or replaced if need be.


Although I have not stuck to one room. I have done a lot of stuff in many different rooms. For example this week I cleaned under our master bathroom sink and I am a little ashamed to admit that I took out a big black garbage bag of stuff for the garbage. I also cleaned out under the kitchen sink and got rid of a ton of stuff. I managed to clean out the fridge and completely wipe it down inside and out. I cleaned out my oven, which was an enormous task. Hubby cleaned the shelves above the washer and dryer. I wiped out the washing machine and cleaned out the soap/laundry softener slot. All I can say for that is EWWWWWWW!!!! I am so happy it is clean now. I LOVE the stove!!!


2. Keep up with making a new recipe every week.


I have also been doing this. I made those cute little pies for my handsome hubby that I wrote about here. I also made a couple of repeat recipes this week. I made the Granola Energy balls and the Lemon Chicken again. These are super easy and my daughter inhales them. 


3. Take more pictures. 


OK this one is a complete fail again. I have not managed to take my camera with me once this week. My excuse? Nope no excuse, just plain did not remember. Maybe this weekend I will remember. :)


I am linking up this week with Michelle at Caffeinated Randomness.
and with Ashley at the 3 in 30 weekly update.

Thankful Thursday

I am continuing my theme this week of love.
Love for my amazing children.
Love for my oldest whom still wants to get together with us regularly. He phones often and desires our opinion.
Love for my middle child. Whom likes to march to his own beat. Whom is very independent and determined to this his way.
Love for my daughter. Whom is growing up so fast, yet still wants to cuddle with her Daddy.

Love for my handsome hubby. Whom I love and adore more everyday. He surprised me today with some chocolate and candy. In fact I asked him if he had read yesterday's post. I chuckled out loud when he proved my point once more.

I am a very fortunate lady. I have my health. I have both of my parents still living. I have a fantastic family, whom all are healthy as well.

I am a very blessed lady!

I am linking up with Brandy at The Marathon Mom who also was blessed this week with the birth of her 8th son. Congratulations to her and her family.

A change of plans

I know today is the day I normally post my old film picture, however as I was reading Sam's post today it really got me thinking.
I married a 'good guy'. One that I would call a good guy anyway. He works extremely hard so that I have almost always been able to stay home and raise our children and take care of the home. He loves his parents and his brother very much and even phones his parents very regularly. He loves me and the kids very much. He does buy my flowers occasionally, but more it is the little things that he does. Such as picking me up a chocolate bar on his way home, (I am VERY lucky) or doing dishes one night, maybe making supper or giving me a spur of the moment back rub while we are watching some TV. He takes time to talk and listen to our children. He is curious about what is happening in their lives. He writes me poems, he love talks to me on Facebook. He makes sure that we all know just how much he cares.
So for Valentines Day I wanted to show him how much I love him. I do things in my love language as well to show him I love him. Like make sure the house is clean when he comes home from work, or let him have naps on his days off. Watching some documentary with him that when I would sometimes sooner be reading. ( but I really want to spend time with him doing the things he enjoys).  So for Valentines Day as I wrote about yesterday, I did some baking for him and made him his favorite meal.
As I was doing this my daughter was all giddy. She kept making me smile as she was exclaiming how cool this was and telling me that I was the best wife ever.
Now I must admit I do not always feel like the best wife ever. I let down my husband in many ways, but I do strive to be better every day.
But what it really got me thinking today when I read Sam's post.
I realized that what I did yesterday was more than just show my husband how much I love him and honor him, it was also about showing my daughter how to love her future husband.
I pray that one day she looks back on yesterday and pulls from that experience so that she can show her husband just how cherished he is.
So yesterday I hopefully showed not only my love but how to love.
Tonight that makes me one happy Mom/Wife. :)

Happy Valentine's!!!!

What a great day to tell someone you love them.
Whether it is your spouse, your significant other, your children, your parents, your siblings, friends, etc...

I am very fortunate to have an amazing husband who I love with all my heart.

I truly believe he completes me. He can easily make the worst things seem better. We compliment each other very well. Unless we are arguing you rarely see both of us angry at the same time. We always manage to balance each other out.

Now as you know we are in the process of trying to buy a house so money is exceptionally tight right now. However I could not let the day pass without notice. Especially since this is the first Valentines that we have been able to even see each other in 5 years.

So I planned for a couple months what I wanted to do. I scoured Pinterest and managed to come up with a couple ideas. One I really wanted to do and that my printer stopped working so I am going to save it for our anniversary in a couple months.
I knew that I wanted to make his favorite supper, which is spaghetti and meat sauce. Pretty easy to do. The other thing I found on there was these adorable little pies in the shape of hearts. I knew I also wanted to attempt to make my own pie crust so back to Pinterest I went and found this great Pioneer Woman pie crust recipe.
So here I am last night making the crust and throwing it in the freezer overnight. This morning I browned the meat for the spaghetti sauce and got right to work on making the little pies. Now my original plan had been to make my own filling but time ran out and I had a can of apple pie filling in my cupboard that was just begging to be used up. I used almost all the crust, (I have one more package saved up for another time) and still had have the can left so I grabbed some frozen tart shells out and filled them up. Cut up cute little hearts for pie tops and voila another surprise. For the leftover pieces I sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top and baked them as well and made a cute little treat for my daughter.
Now hubby got home around 7:30. I had laid out the pies and tarts onto a plate on the counter. Had made him a plate with spaghetti, meat sauce and parm cheese, covered it and put in the fridge and then wrote him a little note. When I phoned when I was on my way home from Sarah's dance he told me he was stuffed. He loved it all.
I am so happy that I planned enough in advance that I was able to show him in this manner just how much he means to me.
I hope that everyone today had a fantastic day.
Does anyone else have some great stories that they would like to share with me on how they spent the day?

Just a quick update.

Things were pretty crazy here today.
First of all I didn't sleep much as my poor kitty has a cold and was sneezing all night long.
I also was not feeling great with tummy cramps which continued on most of the morning. Accompanying  a headache. So much fun so little time.
I had a coffee date this morning that I ended up cancelling just simply due to the fact she has a young daughter and I didn't want to take my germs to her.
After a while I decided that I had to much to get done today so I needed to haul my sorry tush out and go to work. I will admit I did work some and then rest some and then work some and so on.
I managed to clean out my fridge today, wipe it all done and dump out old groceries. I hate it when food spoils.
I also managed to do 99% of the laundry, as well as I made some homemade wipes today. I must say I love the cleaning power but not so much the smell. The castile soap that I bought has Tea Tree in it, which has amazing powers but stinks to high heaven.
I cleaned up our bathroom today and I am a tad assumed to admit that I purged a big black garbage back of stuff that was from under our sink. Old medicines, ( one that had expired in 03. oops) old soap that nobody had touched in at least 10 years, etc. It felt amazing to get rid of all that.
Home schooling went great today. I even got way more organized on that front as well.
Now tonight I am making a surprise for my hubby for tomorrow. I will let you know tomorrow what it is. :)
So on that note, I hope everyone had a very productive Monday. I will chat with you all tomorrow.
I hope you have an amazing Valentine's Day!!!!

Happy Saturday

It was a great day today.
Well actually it started last night.
Our kitty that was missing while it was -30 came home last night. We were so thrilled.
Then today Sarah and I went to town for Scrapaccino. It is an event held at our church that once a month for the winter months a bunch of ladies with or without their daughters get together for two days to scrapbook or make cards.
It is a great time of bonding, scrapping and socializing. I always thoroughly enjoy myself while there. I have only been scrap booking for just over a year but I was hit hard with the bug. I started out doing a few trips but now I am doing our oldest son's book. It is hard trying to remember 20 years ago, but loving every second. It is amazing that just by looking at a picture how the mind goes right back to that moment. Even smells and feelings come rushing back.

Tomorrow it is church and then hoping to do a bit more tidying up. Maybe just watch a movie or so with my girlie we will see.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!

3 in 30 update

For the most part this week has been very productive. Things are looking up with Sarah and home school. I just have a small beef that I need to vent. Why is it that just because I decided to home school my daughter everyone is so curious how it is going. No one asks each other how things are going with their child in the conventional schools. I always feel like people are waiting for me to say it's horrible. We are putting her back into school next month.

OK now that I have that off my chest here is the update for my 3 in 30 goals.

1. Clean one room thoroughly and completely, plurged, window washed (if have any) ceiling and walls washed. Lights washed, bulbs changed. If have curtains, them washed, iron or replaced if need be.

This is a very ambitious goal for me. However it is one that I really want to accomplish. I did not get one complete room done this week. However we did change all the light bulbs in the house and in turn all the lights got a through washing. I completely washed the ceiling in the kitchen and my hubby took apart the kitchen window and thoroughly cleaned it. We took down the kitchen curtain and washed it. (My kitchen window faces my neighbors house and she moved out a couple months ago so we have no plans to rehang the curtain) We also packed away a couple boxes of stuff in preparation if our bid gets accepted. (We are planning on moving in a couple months one way or the other) I still have to clean out the cupboards and finish washing walls in the kitchen but otherwise it is almost clean. 

2. Keep up with making a new recipe every week.

This is awesome for me. It really gets my creative juices flowing. The Italian chicken that I made last Friday was a complete flop. In fact we ended up throwing it out. :(

However this week I made these to die for healthy German-Chocolate Fudge bites! They are amazing!!!!! Sarah's dance teacher plus one of the dance moms there have many severe food issues. They are not allowed gluten, processed sugar, etc. So when I came across this recipe and made it and LOVED it I knew I had to make it for them. So I made up another batch last night and brought it in. They all LOVED it as well. I even had other moms ask me for the recipe. It is fast, easy and healthy and delicious. Combinations that you do not see often. LOL 

I also made banana ice cream. My daughter fell in love and I must say she is a bit of a picky eater. I made a big batch of the plain, scooped a good bit out and froze it, then added cocoa powder (which I really like, my daughter not as much), scooped some of that out for moi, then added Nutella. I know the recipe says to add peanut butter but my daughter is in love with Nutella so I stuck with a faithful. She really like that batch as well so I scraped the bowl and throw that in the freezer. 

I love that these recipes that although taste amazing, seem to be junk food are actually not bad for you at all. 

Tonight for supper I am making the lemon chicken recipe again. I wanted to make lime coconut, but my link to the recipe is gone and I am unable to find the exact recipe I wanted. Might have to try and make something on my own with those ingredients. :)

3. Take more pictures. 

OK this was a complete fail. I brought my camera with me to town twice this week and never even took it out of the bag. I am not sure why. I love my camera, I love to take pictures, I have an idea sheet and in fact I even have an idea for some framed pictures at home. I will admit that the temperature has dropped so I was not in the mood to go traipsing through the parks in -25. Yep I am a wuss. LOL

All in all it was fairly successful. This weekend is scrap booking so maybe it will inspire me to get out and take more pictures. 

I am linking up today with Ashley at the 3 in 30 challenge update.

As well with Michelle's Caffeinated Randomness.

Thankful Thursday

This week has been a turning point. Or should I say more specifically today. 

Today my daughter (in her words) had an epiphany. I must say I almost chuckled at this. Her epiphany happened during school today while she was reading a story. In the story it was about keeping your head high in time of trouble and you will reap rewards. Now I would be remiss if I didn't say that I am torn between being absolutely thrilled for her and part wanting to choke her. I have been saying the same thing to her for the past several months, her dance teacher had a long similar talk with her on Tuesday, and she gets the epiphany while she is reading a story?  

But hey lets be honest I am so thrilled to have this girl back. She has done a 180 degree turn. She is happy, joking around, working hard and getting praised. Everyone and I do mean everyone noticed the difference today. She had people coming up to her and telling her how much she had improved over last week.

I am so thankful that she is growing up and finding her way. 

I am thankful that she is realizing that hard work pays off.

I am thankful that she is happy again, smiling and joking around.

I am thankful that the she wants to pray again. 

I am thankful that God helped us get through this.

I am thankful that once again she is enjoying full hardily dance. She is working her body the way that she does so well.  

I am thankful that she is growing. Not physically this time but mentally as well as spiritually. 

It makes this mamma's heart full and happy.

I am linking up today with Brandy over at The Marathon Mom. This beautiful Mom is expecting her eighth boy any day now. So exciting!!!

A trip back in time...

I love this family picture. I am the baby of the family and I will fully admit a tad spoiled. There is almost 22 years between me and my oldest sister. There is a bunch of these pictures from this day that my Mom still has. In a couple of them I am playing with a snow globe as I was not in the mood to smile. Then there is one where I have an enormous smile and the snow globe is peeking out from under my sister's dress. I must of thought that was hilarious. I believe I was 2 here. So that was 38 years ago.
We have added to the family just a bit. We have 33 more people in our family now. Hard to believe the changes.

Homeschooling mania

Homeschooling this year has been interesting. We started out the year with a bang. Things were going amazing. I mean we did have our ups and downs, but for the most part it was mostly up.
My daughter's attitude had changed. She was happier, more relaxed, less moody and generally all around a much more grounded young lady.
Then December hit.
Since then it has been a roller coaster of emotions. She doesn't want to work. We fight discuss everyday. It has been like pulling teeth to get her to concentrate.
So I decided to take a different approach. I figure if something is not working try something new until it does.
I mean we have had good days. Days when I am like YES this is why I am doing this. However when the bad days out weigh the good days it is time to do something different.
We have been fairly relaxed around here. I am trying to get her to mature so I am taking a step back and letting her make some decisions. I have since realised that maybe I have stepped back in the wrong places. She needs structure and a set routine. I can step back in other areas, like her dance, or her cleaning her room,  both of which will be toughies for me. But in school I need to step WAY UP!!
I should let you know that her program is mostly on line teaching. I actually do very little in terms of the actual teaching and the actual curriculum. However one of the things that I enjoy about homeschooling has now become a bit of a nightmare and that is working at your own speed. I believe both my daughter and I interpreted that as only working a few hours a day and we were both wrong. She might need to work full days to be able to grasp what each subject needs and to understand all that she needs to understand.
I realised today that she has a lot to do by the end of the year. So I had to (out of necessity) set up a time line for her. I went through the calendar and figured out how many weeks were left. I adjusted for when we will be away for dance so that we are not trying to do school as well during that crazy time. I also stopped a couple weeks early so that if need be we have a couple extra weeks at the end.
It will make for some crazy time for a while for her but I am praying that this structure will actually help her in the long run.
This is all so new for all of us, hubby included. It honestly is a bit scary sometimes, but I am still confident that this was the right thing to do.
If anyone has any ideas on how to keep her on task during the day, please, please, PLEASE let me know. :)
For her sanity and for mine.

Sometimes life can change in a blink of a eye

Two years ago tonight my cousin and her husband were getting ready to go on a night out. 5 kids and many work trips made this couple try to get out and enjoy each other as much as they could.

They never made it home. A drunk driver ran a red light slamming into their car and killing both of them.

5 children without their parents.

2 sets of parents lost not only one child but also another one of their heart.

Siblings lost siblings.

Cousins, aunts, friends, nieces, nephews, etc all lost something that day.

All because an individual made a choice. Made a choice that he had made before, and that was to drink and get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

My heart aches.

It aches not only for my cousins family, (children, parents, siblings, her husbands family) but also for this individuals family.

One of the shining joys in this is that my cousin and her husband were Christians. They knew God. They believed. I know that one day I will see her again. We will sit down and have a long visit.

I pray that in this tragic event that something amazing will happen. May this prevent many other individuals from climbing behind that wheel intoxicated. May they call for that ride home. So that another family stays safe together. Their lives goes on just like they always have.
That when tomorrow comes I pray that another family is not dealing with the sudden loss of a family member taken away too soon.

3 in 30

Wow is it really that time already.
A wrap up and a new month. It is amazing how fast time flies.

Ok enough chit chat. lol
Here were my last months goals.
1. Finish up my to do sewing list I have.
Nope never did this one at all. Not once all month. Oh well. I have big hopes that I will get at it eventually. HA!

2. Clean up and declutter my desk.
Well this was mostly a yes. My desk is way cleaner but I never did get around to my files. I really need to get to that as it is already February and I need to put away last years files so I can start putting this years files where they belong.

3. Try new recipes weekly.
This one I had a slow start on but I did do really great later on. I made this recipe for Granola Energy Balls  from The Marathon Mom. In fact I made it twice once following the recipe to a 't' and the next time cutting back the peanut butter by half and adding half nutella. Which was a huge success with my family.

Then I tried this recipe for lemon chicken. I even actually used real garlic for the first time. I even had to google how to skin the clove. Sad but true. The only thing that I never added was rosemary as my hubby is allergic. This was AMAZING!!!! Everyone loved it, even my daughter whom was so sick with a cold she was barely functioning ate the entire meal. The only problem I had was that I found the temp to be too high for my stove and I kept setting the smoke detectors off. So I turned it down and voila a delicious meal. I took prep pictures of this but I forgot to take final pictures so maybe next time I make it I will write about it again.

Then I even made homemade cheese crackers from a recipe my friend gave me. It is very similar to this recipe but with a few tweeks. The outcome? It was super easy to do. Made cute crackers and my daughter really likes them. However both my oldest son and my hubby did not. So I think I need to do a bit more tweeking.

Tonight I am making Crockpot chicken and rice from this recipe but as usual I am tweeking it a bit. I am unable to have canned soup or at least I haven't bought any gluten free kind and when I checked out the recipe the night before I realised that I don't have the Italian seasoning so I am using actual Italian dressing.
I will let you know what the family thinks because unfortunately we did not get a chance to eat it tonight so it is sitting in the fridge awaiting supper tomorrow night. Between running the entire day, supper at home was an impossibility. Tomorrow. At least I have most of tomorrow's supper made. Bonus. :)

Ok so now on to February's goals.

1. Clean one room throughly and completely, plurged, window washed (if have any) ceiling and walls washed. Lights washed, bulbs changed. If have curtains, them washed, iron or replaced if need be. Guess I could possilby be sewing this month. :) I want to do at least one a week. Hoping to be able to pull off maybe two a week.

2. Keep up with the making a new recipe every week. I love this idea and even though I had a slow start last month I had great success at the end and now I am hooked. However having this forum has helped keep me on track and not just fall for the old stand-bys.

3. Take more pictures. I love my camera. I love taking pictures. However I seem to leave it at home often. I am a landscape picture lover and have recently fallen in love with the picture that are words with each letter being a different piece of landscape. I am hoping to do the same thing and make my own pictures. Possibly gifts this year???

Wow looks like a busy month. Good thing it is a short one. hahahahaha

I am linking up today with Ashley for the 3 in 30 weekly link.
I am also hanging out tonight with Michelle over at Caffeinated Randomness.

Thankful Thursday

Wow what a roller coaster of emotion today.

 I started this post as not thankful Thursday. 

I started to tell you all about the emotional evening I had with my daughter. 

I wanted to share about how upset I was with what was happening in my daughter's dance studio. How the teacher was running her business and how things are so hard that my 13 year old daughter is turning her love for dance into hate and how she now wants to drop everything because she is becoming scared of her teacher.

However I decided that I NEED today especially to be thankful.

I had to dig deeper into myself for that today though. 

Some days are just like that.

So...

Today I am thankful for...

The fact that hubby and I are back looking at houses and think we might have found one we can see some real potential in.

I am thankful for the fact that even though my beautiful daughter was having a terrible, terrible day she still manages to laugh and to know that we love her unconditionally. 

I am thankful that my hubby is home so that we can address this issue with her dance studio together. We will be able to keep each other grounded.

I am thankful that my beautiful daughter finally seems to be kicking her head cold.

I am thankful that there is beautiful weather in February.

I am thankful that I have an amazing family who love each other and hurt when one of the other ones hurt. We worry about each other and want the best for each of us. 

I am thankful for a God that loves us, cares for us, forgives us each and every time and is there for us always.

Join me with Brandy over at The Marathon Mom. 

A trip back in time...

This is by far one of my favourite pictures of my kiddos. It was taken in 2000. Matthew my oldest was 9, Sarah was 2 and Brandon was 7.
I realise that this is a trip back in time pic day but I couldn't resist putting up a picture to compare this one too.
Taken this past August 11 years later. My kiddos have sure grown up.

In case anyone is curious the boys are reversed in this picture. This was on Brandon's 18th birthday. Sarah is 13 and Matthew was 19 (now 20).
How did that much time fly by???