Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you. 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18
Monday, January 24, 2011
Menu plan Monday (and a crockpot, meatless meal)
Monday: crockpot African chickpea, curry soup and brazilian chebe bread buns
Tuesday: crockpot cream cheese chicken, gf pasta and salad
Wednesday: Great-grandmother's beef soup( Baba's soup) with meat/potatoes eaten seperately. (short story...when my great-grandfather and great-uncles worked in the steel mills, my great grandmother HAD to make soup for them everyday...and only the men got to eat the meat....if there was any left, then the women could have some. There were 8 children....4 guys and 4 girls...and all 4 guys worked in the mill with their dad...so the reasoning behind only the men eating the meat was because they worked so hard in the mills....I've always found this interesting)
Thursday: meat and cheese Papusa's, homemade salsa and salad
Friday: crockpot Beef Stew
Saturday: gf steak/mushroom white pizza , pickled veggies
Sunday: roast chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots and corn (one of my husband's favorite, traditional Sunday suppers)
Now for the recipe for the african soup....you can follow this link to http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/03/african-coconut-chick-pea-soup.html
You can also find more Menu plan Monday's over at Frugal Granola's site at: http://frugalgranola.com/2011/01/menu-plan-monday-1-24-1-30/
(This new setup on blogger has me slightly confused ...have to spend more time getting used to the links) Have a great day! ~Sue~
Thursday, January 20, 2011
One Thousand Gifts...a give-away.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Yarn Along....
This week...not as much knitting has been going on as I would like, but after starting over 3 times, I'm making progress on my hat. I also received a book that I've been waiting for for months from the library....Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanders. This is the 13th book in a 14 book allegorical series that I started reading over 17 years ago. I love the good vs. evil and GOOD always prevails! I love long series of books where you feel as if you know the characters and can't wait for the new book to find out what happens next.
We're expecting quite a bit of snow over the next day or so, and since my oldest daughter had 4 impacted wisdom teeth out this morning, I've cleared our calender at least until Saturday, so am hoping to make plenty of progress on my knitting AND reading this wonderful book! ~Sue~
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Everyone is an artist....
Here at Moonbeams Dreams , she is participating in a create something (anything) everyday for a month. I was inspired to think about the many ways that I 'create' everyday. By the way, please....go to Moonbeams Dreams and check out Jessica's etsy shop. I use her soaps and they are the creamiest, most delicious high quality soaps I've ever used. (her orange vanilla is my favorite)
As a homeschooling mother of 4, I had many years where I felt I had no creativity. I realized a few years ago, that just homeschooling 4 kids IS creative! LOL I was inspired by our Creator...by His creation....and since we are made in His image, ....I felt the need to be creative for me....to use the Godly creativity that I was given. I started making new recipes from foodnetwork...and tweaking the recipes, and loved being creative in the kitchen! I also started falling in love again (as I had years ago) with fiber....yarn, sewing, quilting....and started crocheting, and quilting....then in the middle of 36 inches of snow and 2 sick small children...I taught myself to knit. I also fell in love with writing again and started this blog along with journaling.
I was inspired by Jessica's post, to create "something" everyday....and as I usually work on something everyday, more specifically....I want to work with my children and get them into creating more....to look for the beauty more and to help them figure out what their medium or mediums for creating bring them the most joy.
How do you all feed the creativity that our magnificent Creator gave each one of us? Have a blessed, creative day! ~Sue~
Monday, January 17, 2011
Menu plan Monday...
Monday: crockpot venison stroganoff, brown rice, sweet/sour red cabbage w/bacon
Tuesday: chicken and rice soup, brazilian chebe bread
Wednesday: chicken enchiladas and salad (my daughter, Sara is cooking that day!)
Thursday; gf pierogie casserole, peas
Friday: chicken and gf dumplings, veggies
Saturday: homemade gf mac and cheese, green beans
Sunday: porcupine balls, mashed potatoes, peas & carrots
~Next week....trying some new 'international' recipes, such as homemade 'papusas'...can't wait! This week...we're all about comfort.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
A fun filled birthday weekend....
What a whirlwind the past few days has been! Lots of preparing to host 2 birthday parties in 2 days here....don't know what I would ever do without my oldest daughters...they are such a help and so accomplished in the kitchen, too! (you should taste their cupcakes!)
We hosted family last night for Ronnie's birthday....lots of fun and visiting going on...Ronnie is a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey fan and my cousin got him a hat and an official winter classic puck...cool!

I love this picture! Ronnie and our cousin, Maggie share the same birthday! When I was expecting Ronnie, my cousin, Kim was anxiously waiting for the go-ahead to get Maggie from China and brought her home a few short weeks before Ronnie was born...so we were expecting together....what a blessing family is!
This morning, Ronnie woke up very early on his birthday to brave the cold and snow for his basketball game....here is the team picture with his buddies.
After the game, we brought home 5 of his best friends for a party....lots of food, Star Wars and Legos going on...and a fun pyramid, too!
While I was the commander from the 'mother ship'...these were my Jedi....they saved the universe and rid the galaxy of evil this afternoon!
Our tired, but happy birthday boy! Happy 9th Birthday, my son! We love you!Thursday, January 13, 2011
One Small Change...
We've been homeschooling for 12 years now, with another 11 to go and over the years my husband's job situation has changed many times, and the Lord has taught me to trust in Him...and to be prepared and a good steward of what He has given us...so, all of this to say our change is....'purging'....scaling down, getting rid of excess.
We have been going thru the house...filling up boxes of books to donate, recycling books/magazines...donating clothing and household items that haven't been used and finding creative ways to store what we do use and have it accessible. This has been so freeing, on the one hand and opened up so much space. But, I also have the dilemna of wanting to save certain books and curriculum that we've collected to use in the future with my youngest two children. It is very hard, at and 9 to know what curriculum will work with them best in middle school or highschool and yet...I already own it, and want to use it with them. Problem is how much do I keep and where do I store it?
But I feel like I am being a much better steward by donating our excess to people who could use it....to better utilizing our space to make it more open and hospitable....what would be one small change that you could do in your lives? ~Sue~
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Yarn Along...
~This week, I've started a hat to match a scarf I finished using Paton's chocolate wool and simply softs 'toast'....I've found working with 2 strands of yarn are trickier for me, but as that is what I did for the scarf, I want the hat to match. Underneath, I have a shawl that should be finished soon...as soon as I have a little more time to sit and knit! LOL I've been working hard at purging our home of 'excess'...excess everything! Not a lot of knitting going on, but I try and do at least a few rows a day. I've been reading a lot of books by Ruth Bell Graham at night and have been challanged and inspired by her writings....In the above book, Legacy of a Pack Rat...these are various writings of hers thru the years....mostly journal entries and her thoughts thru the years...wonderful reading! So concludes my 'Yarn Along' for this week! I'm looking forward to getting some good reading ideas and yarn inspirations over at Small Things! ~Sue~