Meal Planning

so I started this blog a few days ago and only knew how to put a couple links on it and then tonight Janelle (my computer savvy friend) filled me in on how to put a link to my main recipes from our recipe planning- here are Janelle's recipes.

Here is my meal plan and my recipes. Now I just need to get started doing this great plan!

A few great websites I found when recipe hunting: Heavenly Homemakers

Tammy's Recipes

Crockpot Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

Bourbon Brown Sugar Flank Steak

Chicken Enchiladas

Duck, Duck, ...

No, not Goose. The beach of course. Well and duck hunting. We all really wish James could have gone with us but were also very glad that we did not cancel our trip to the beach when he had to work. At the last minute, my Mom flew up and we drove to Duck, NC for a week in the Outer Banks. We had a terrific time-although we really wish James could have gone with us. It was fun just getting away and doing fun stuff. It was also neat to go back to a place that James and I had been several times before but very different this time. We'd been once with Janelle & Rob and their sweet little 6 week old boy, once with James' Mom, once for New Year's Eve just the two of us, and once with our own sweet 6 month old boy and my mom had been twice (once a math conference and once with Dad). All very different from our group of Mom, me, 5,4,2 year old boys and 10 month old baby girl. And we were blessed in so many ways- like getting upgraded to a 3 bedroom (plus a 4th bedroom if you count KG's room- the laundry room!), being there for the annual free day at the aquarium, having terrific weather for January, and having our own swimming pool, pingpong table, and movie theater! A really good week.

here's us by the water at Currituck Lighthouse- I have a couple great pics from that same spot almost 9 years ago with me, James, and a little bitty boy and Janelle, Rob, and that same boy.
the boys had a blast playing in the sand. the beautiful beach all to ourselves!
we went swimming almost every night. every one loved it. K & C learned to play sharks and minnows, KG & T had a blast splashing around
our new hunters after a visit to the Wildife Center- they went to "Catch of the Day" and got a class on fish. The park ranger was terrific. I wish I had a video of him and the boys swimming around using their tail fins.

sweet baby boy who says he's not a baby anymore- he's started sleeping in a big boy bed now after spending the week climbing into bed with me.
Cape Hatterhas lighthouse in it's new (since 1999) year old spot. The boys became Junior Park Rangers at Hatterhas and at the Wright Brothers Kitty Hawk Memorial. They love their badges.
outside the aquarium- beautiful spot for a picnic if we hadn't been stuffed with yummy quesadillas- the boys can eat!!
climbing up Jockey's Ridge- the largest sand dune in the eastern US. it's very steep! James and I took hang gliding lessons there a lifetime ago :) K & C & I climbed all the way to the top!
Nana & napping baby girl.

Happy 4th Birthday!

Here's C opening his singing card- he was so excited about every card and present he got. he's still checking the mail hoping for more cards :)
can you tell the theme of his party?
how about now?
ok- here's a little help- it's a space turtle starwars superman party of course!! all the little boys had lots of fun & yummy strawberry cake. C was very excited to pick out and help make his cake this year. Our little boy has lots of spirit and heart. We are always thankful for our little miracle but thank God even more on his birthday each year. And pray for the families with vasa previa angels up in heaven. It only takes a moment to diagnose life... Here's the link to his story- our miracle baby

Birthday bash

our day didn't go quite as I planned, but reading Janelle's blog before we set out this morning helped me pray for contagious joy while I go out about the day to day tasks of being a mom, wife, friend, & follower of Christ. We were accomplishing things- the house was fairly clean (aside from lots of toys about), I just learned a new word on flylady- CHAOS- can't have anyone over syndrome. we don't have that- although that may be due more to my being more okay with people seeing our everyday lived in look, than a super clean house. anyway I digress...

breakfast eaten, kitchen cleaned, birthday hugs given, kids dressed, kids loaded up for Keegan's speech, going to be on time when I got a phone call that his speech was cancelled for today. For a couple minutes, I was pretty upset- it takes some work to be all ready & out the door & for what? but I decided not to let them steal my joy so we called a friend, picked up her son and headed out for a morning of fun. A quick trip to the library, then coffee (for me) and biscuits with jelly & playtime at Chick-Fil-A to celebrate C's birthday (again!) He has had lots of celebrating this year. We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. Then Thursday we began celebrating again. Thursday we went swimming on post with new friends. Then Friday we went to (how do I type a drum roll on a blog) Monkey Joes with 40 (or so) of our closest friends. We even got to take a friend in the car with us. 3+ hours of bouncy houses & pizza- how fun!

The party continued Saturday with Grandma & Pops Leon coming over to celebrate. C had a space turtle star was superman party & tons of fun- even if it was 30 degrees outside. He was so excited by each of his presents & loved his birthday cake- a turtle cupcake cake. We had a good time. Would you believe the celebrating went on another couple days. Sunday after church friends came over for playing & leftover hotdogs. Then Sunday night we went rock climbing. C loved it (except when he swung on the rope to the hole and got stuck way up high for a while but he did climb right back up again.) Both big boys did great climbing & T had a blast playing. KG patiently hung out in her stroller most of the time. Then a kids eat free pizza place for dinner!

Sleep

So finally last night after blog reading, tossing and turning, thinking about how to become a better mom & person, more tossing & turning, I gave in and read my Bible and was able to go to sleep. I knew I should read but it was dark & cold & I was tired. Thankfully God still spoke even if I was slow to listen. What a great passage from Deuteronomy- just what I needed to read! And then a great phone call from Janelle today to remind me not to listen to lies.

1 Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. ² Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; ³ the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; ⁴ what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them. ⁵ It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, ⁶ and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. ⁷ But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.

⁸ Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ⁹ and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. ¹² It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

¹³ So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul- ¹⁴ then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. ¹⁵ I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶ Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. ¹⁷Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

²² If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him- ²³ then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. ²⁴ Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the western sea. ²⁵ No man will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.

²⁶ See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse- ²⁷ the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; ²⁸ the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. ²⁹ When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. ³⁰ As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal. ³¹ You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there,³² be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

Focus!

So it's almost midnight and the house is quiet- except for the washing machine and me on the computer. Why am I up now? I know why I got up- one almost 4 year old boy made his nightly trip to our room. But why am I still up? I walked past the computer to check one thing. Then I stumbled onto one neat blog, which led me down to another with a cute craft, then I found a woman with 5 kids 6 & under who is doing such cool things with them, so I started out reading them, then found myself feeling bad that I'm not doing all those things, and bam now it's almost midnight. How could I have better used this time? read my Bible, sleep, pray, actually planning homeschool stuff instead of letting the good idea fairy (or worse the why can't I do more) get carried away, clean, organize, ...

I did find this great link on a friend's blog. wait that's to my church- I should be doing that now instead of thinking of all the things I'm not doing. Blogs are great unless you spend too much time on them, or you get down on yourself because you're not doing all the cool things others are. maybe I need a blog detox- my facebook one was really good for me. I do think I'm going to borrow my good friend's ideas of not turning on the computer until afternoon and writing down the things I want to work on in my life- more of Jesus, less of me. I don't think He gets wrapped up in blogs! good night- sorry for all the ramblings!