New Year! New Goals...Menu Plan Monday

I'm back in 'blog land'...and find that I've missed journaling my thoughts and a little about our lives. I also am finding that menu planning is now ESSENTIAL...especially as my wonderful husband gets paid twice a month now instead of every week...so, if I can stretch menus out to 2 weeks worth at a time and only go grocery shopping once...I think we can save a lot of money, and always be prepared with whatever we need on hand. So...here is this weeks "Menu Plan Monday" for 1-3-11 thru 1-15-11 (we have kefir smoothies everymorning as a snack between breakfast & lunch...so I won't list them repeatedly)


Monday 1-3-11

Breakfast- oatmeal & apples
Lunch- leftover ham/potato casserole, greenbeans, tangerine
Dinner -Black beans & Rice, salad with homemade dressing

(to do: make hardboiled eggs, granola, gluten free bread and yogurt)

Tuesday 1-4-11

Breakfast-Granola & yogurt
Lunch -bean & cheese quesadillas and salad
Dinner-SmokedTurkey leg paprikash in crockpot with gf pasta and steamed carrots

Wedneday 1-5-11

Breakfast -GF pancakes with homemade jam , tangerines
Lunch - Homemade tomato soup, cheese, nut crackers & apples
Dinner- Crispy chicken breasts, roasted potatoes, salad

Thursday 1-6-11

Breakfast- eggs and gf toast, pineapple
Lunch -potato soup, cheese & nut crackers, homemade pickled veggies
Dinner -Pepper steak with mushrooms and brown rice

Friday 1-7-11

Breakfast -GF apple muffins
Lunch -chicken lettuce wraps, tangerines
Dinner -Crockpot orange chicken, jasmine rice and steamed broccoli

Saturday 1-8-11 (9AM basketball game)

Breakfast-muffins and yogurt
Lunch - Leftovers, fruit
Dinner .-Homemade gluten free veggie pizza and salad


Thru out the week, we eat fruit everyday, fruit kefir smoothies everyday, so I don't list every snack. But this is our plan for the week. I've been loving my crockpots...sometimes the main course is in one and rice is in another....I've also been loving my pressure cookers...yes, plural...a huge one for large meals and the smaller on for main courses or for rice.

You can link up for menu plan Mondays by going to http://orgjunkie.com/ or just to glean some great ideas from others who have benefited from menu planning!

Now to TRY for an earlier night and earlier wakeup tomorrow! Due to a lot of health issues that I've had this year, and especially this past 2 weeks, we are seriously in need of some organizing and getting into workable routines for our family....and God is so faithful to lay them out for us......back to schoolwork tomorrow! Have a blessed week! ~Sue~

In Thanksgiving and Gratitude....

~May you all have a very, very blessed Thanksgiving! May we all praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ for his love, provision and many blessings! I cannot express it as well as my daughter can, so please ....go to my daughter's blog and read a special Thanksgiving blessing!

www.justasiam-meghan.blogspot.com

~Sue~

Simple imaginative fun....

It is a very dark, chilly, gray day here today...but inside...it is warm and wonderful!

My ALMOST(on Monday!) 6 year old littlest daughter, Anna, was playing in her room with her 2 year old cousin, when she came to the kitchen like this.....to tell me her play was about to start! She had spent tons of time patiently teaching her little cousin and coaxing him to say the right words and BE "Joseph" to her "Mary"...
Scene one....take one....in Bethlehem praying over baby Jesus...

Ty (Joseph)....looking more like "Linus" clutching his blankie!

This was a 'scene' from Tinkerbell (guess who is Tink?)...she dressed Ty up as the boy tinker fairy, Terrance...he plays along with whatever she wants so well!

And of course....the ever-present 'Star Wars'....these things and Legos are very present thru-out our days....Anna LOVES to color and spends a lot of her time doing that and playing with her dolls....and she loves it when her big brother or little cousin plays along with her.

Now....rest time for everyone! Have a warm, wonderful day! ~Sue~

Operation Christmas Child...a God moment...

We've always heard of Operation Christmas Child...and years ago, filled some boxes when my older girls were little. But this is the first year that we've gotten involved in a big way. My dear friend, Cindy, is the coordinator and she really needed some help...so...we jumped right in!

Today, my oldest daughter , Meghan, and I went to our local Chick-Fil-A and promoted Operation Christmas Child. (OCC) What a blessing it was to us to see how many people wanted to bless a child! To see children excited to give to others...to see teenagers excited about filling boxes for little ones....at this time of year, when consumerism 'peaks' I was humbled and blessed by being surrounded by the generousity of people and the people of Chick-Fil-A.

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse, to reach children all over the world. Each box is filled with generously given gifts for a child who might not otherwise recieve any gift. But, the most precious gift each child recieves is the gospel. Yes...the gospel of Christ's great love goes out in every box.

It really is the "Power of a Simple Gift" that makes such a difference!

For anyone wanting more information about Operation Christmas Child, please go to: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/

With the economic downturn and rising prices, many many families in our own neighborhoods are very hard hit, many for the first time. We'll be looking into serving in our community to help other families.

God bless the power of a simple gift!

~Sue~

A Quiet day at Home...

~My motto lately....Keep Calm and Carry Yarn! ~

Today is a quiet day at home....church was wonderful last evening...lots to reflect on today.

Resting in the Lord and His word....resting while doing my planning for the week on this overcast, chilly fall day.

Special homemade wings and 'snack' foods this evening in front of the first fire of the season...while enjoying being together.

A perfect, quiet, family Sunday....may your Sabbath be blessed.

~Sue~

technologically challanged...or learning something new

Ok...I know I was born for another era...not sure which one...I think I could fit well into many different time periods...but not this one!(although I DO like electricity and especially plumbing and running water!) LOL

So...last night, our family went to the "mall". Now, you must realize that I hate the mall...my husband hates the mall...and I actually hate shopping at all...but all 6 of us trooped to the mall. This is because I would rather talk to a human being in person, than try and do something online or by touch-tone phone. The reason, (for all of you waiting with baited breath) is because it was time....time for my daughters to get cell phones.

We've held off on the whole "every child must have a cell phone" thing, but lately they've been babysitting so much and working/volunteering so much outside the home that after an incident when Meghan was done early from an activity and had to wait for me to pick her up...after much prayer, we decided it was time for the girls to get phones. And...in the interest of time and convenience, we decided to get texting as well. We have also discussed with them the importance of being responsible, paying for them monthly themselves...and not giving their numbers out to everyone.

For anyone who knows me...this was a surprise! LOL My mom and sisters are so excited...as is a close friend who does not have internet, but does have texting...and 8 children and is very hard to get a hold of.

I'm getting the hang of it..as my girls good-naturedly laugh with me. I love learning new things and I am determined to conquer this! LOL I don't want all of the bells and whistles of technology...but will use it to my advantage and benefit for my family.

There are so many things I want to learn! I'm hoping that having texting will keep me off of the phone (now if my dad would only get texting! LOL)...and still allow my extended family and friends to keep in touch if they need me.

What new things would you like to learn? Winter is the perfect time to cozy up and learn something new. Blessings on your weekend! ~Sue~

Piccalli...or what to do with all my green tomatoes?!

Green tomatoes...we had SO MANY of them when last week, the weather forcasters were predicting the possibility of a frost...so my son Ronnie and I picked all the green tomatoes (and semi-red ones left), and all the peppers and filled bowls and bowls of them....and I wasn't sure what to do! LOL This year, we put a fence up so the deer wouldn't eat all of our hard work...and we had a wonderful yield! We were so grateful to eat from the garden all summer and still have a lot of celery to harvest and dry in the dehydrator, basil to be made into pesto and frozen and even a couple of large cabbages to make into fermented saurerkraut. So...on Friday, my oldest daughter, Meghan, and I canned. For the first time, I made piccallili (followed the recipe in the Ball Canning book) and it is delicious! I didn't think I would like it...I actually made it for my dad and mother-in-law who mentioned that they liked it, but we love it! Especially my little ones love it and kept asking for more at dinner! This is a recipe I'll have to make more of next year.

We have about 4 quarts of pickling brine left, and will be going to our farmer's market on Tuesday to see what else we can pickle! We'll be getting some apples and hopefully pears to can apple/pear butter and applesauce.

My kitchen counter right now. We canned so many jars (I am so happy to have 4 gallon jars filled!) of pickled green tomatoes with peppers, onion and garlic as well as our piccallili. I have to re-arrange our pantry to accomodate all of our jars.

One small change we're making in our family is preserving...canning, freezing and dehydrating...and enjoying the fruits of our labors in the cold, winter months. We're finding that actually living a simple life, and doing some things the old-fashioned way (preserving, cooking from scratch, etc...) is actually a lot of hard work! LOL But....satisfying.

Have a blessed week! ~Sue~

Fall Fun day!

My husband grew up in scouting...his parents were very involved and he was a scout well thru highschool...and it looks like we're a scouting family, too! Today was Cub Fun day at South Park. The weather was so beautiful! Blue skies, white fluffy clouds, a small breeze...and the perfect temperatures...60's and gorgeous! What fun all the boys had! My husband and son....Ron is so proud to involved with his only son in scouting!
Ronnie is in the orange t-shirt pulling back a catapult...he got very close to his target...and had so much fun!

Ronnie and his best buddy, Aaron. These two have been friends since birth....it is so special that they get to experience scouting together!

I love this picture! Ronnie is shooting a slingshot...he is so good with this tool! He can hit almost any target!

There were BB guns, archery, marshmallow shooters, large and small catapults, slingshots, and they even made rubber-band shooters. (we call them 'gum-band' shooters in Pittsburgh!) They played games like frisbees, paper airplanes, scoops and rockets.

Some of the boys from pack 215...what fun they had! It was a great day for scouting!

So glad I was able to experience this with my son! Hope your day was bright and sunny! ~Sue~