I posted this to my local Flylady group a couple of minutes ago….

Wooohoo!  This day is OVER WITH!!!   I was reminded this evening just why I despise Halloween so much!  I went into the supermarket  by my house this afternoon to get more candy (we only had a small bag, and I was sure I wouldn’t be enough) and THREE of the employees had fake blood dripping down their faces/necks and fake “raw” flesh on their faces.   It was SOOOOO disgusting, and I was VERY VERY VERY thankful that my children weren’t with me!   They have enough problems with the icky decorations in the stores.

Thankful that tomorrow is a new day and that all of the disgusting Halloween stuff will be out of all of our stores!!!!

I actually came to post this, not to rant on about Halloween, but to ask you all a question.   For those of you that live in neighborhoods, did you notice a VAST decrease in trick-or-treaters this year?   When D or I went driving this evening, we barely saw any kids this evening, and I only had about 7 kids and one teenage/young adult girl come to my door.   Anyhow, did anyone else notice a HUGE decrease this year?

Two weeks ago the ladie’s Bible study that I co-lead finished Beth Moore’s “Jesus the One and Only”…..it was a very good study, and I’m planning on going back over our Christmas vacation and completing the homework that I didn’t finish during the 11 week study (I know, bad me!), but I am really looking forward to that.  Anyhow we ended our study 2 weeks ago, and this Thursday we will be starting Part One of Beth Moore’s “Wising Up” DVD series on the book of Proverbs.  Part one is only 3 weeks long and does not have any homework involved, only a listening guide.   So, what have I been doing/am I going to do during my quiet time with God each morning while I don’t have Bible study homework to do?   This past week and half I read through the book of Joshua.   It was so great just diving back into the Word without trying to find answers to questions, etc. (I am sure that I SHOULD be doing that already in addition to my Bible study homework, but with homeschooling and caring for my family, I just don’t get both done!).    Anyhow, God really pointed out some new little nuggets in the book of Joshua, and I was very excited to have had the opportunity to read, pray over and journal in the book of Joshua.   This morning I began the book of Judges, and I’m having a little bit harder time with this one because I think that it happens over a span of several generations, and that is a little confusing to me to keep up with (Sorry, just in case you haven’t figured this out yet, I’m pretty “simple minded”).   But I shall continue to pray through the book and remain confident that the Lord will give me nuggets of wisdom and truth in this portion of His Word as well!

What are you studying?

This week’s menu is (again) from the Menus4moms site and is from the week of October 13-17.   I do have a carryover meal from last week, as that night we had spaghetti.   A couple of the meals that I made this past week were VERY good, and we are looking forward to having them again (and I will blog about those separately so as not to get this posting too convoluted :)).

Here’s what’s cooking in my kitchen this coming week:

Sunday:

• hot dogs
• sauerkraut
• chili
• apple slices

Monday:

• waffles
• scrambled eggs
• fresh fruit

• chinese cashew chicken
• rice
• steamed broccoli

• baked fish
• brussel sprouts with cream sauce
• couscous

• pinto beans
• cornbread
• sliced peaches (IF I get any in this week’s basket, otherwise it will be sliced pears or maybe some canned sliced peaches)
• green salad (I’m thinking a spinach salad)

• crockpot beef casserole
• egg noodles
• veggie (the menu plan calls for buttered lima beans, but none of us really care too much for lima beans, so I’ll use whatever comes in my basket this week)
• dinner rolls

• crockpot lemon chicken
• multi-grain pilaf
• veggie
• green salad

To share your own menus and recipe or to view hundreds of other menus please click on the Menu Plan Monday banner above.

Today I got to do one of my favorite things….I served my God and community and church by working along side my family at a school carnival.   YES, we homeschool but our church has adopted an inner-city school that is VERY low income, and we help them with lots of different things throughout the year.  One of the things that we’ve done for the past 3 years is to help them with a school carnival.   Oh it is SOOOO much fun!  And something that we can do as a family…..we even have Miss r and Miss H (they are 8 and 11) out there helping at the game and food booths.   It is a lot of fun interacting with the teachers, students and parents/grandparents.   They are such neat people, and they love their families and their community, and want to see their kids succeed in life.  They want their children to have more than they do now, they want them to do well in school, graduate from high school, have a chance for job training or to go to college and to stay out of the gangs.  This particular neighborhood is very active gang territory and most of these children know and/or love someone that has been a victim of some level of gang violence or that are in gangs.    In some ways there are so many difference between my family and these families……we know EXACTLY when our next meal will be and where it will come from, many of these children/families don’t know how they will feed their children one simple meal per day.   We know that D will be going to work on Monday and that he will bring home a paycheck on Friday….many of these families don’t even know where their Mom/Dad are, let alone if they will have a job on Monday or bring home a paycheck.   Those are the differences…..but they have so many of “Sames” as we do…….those mommies love their children just as much as I do.  Those Daddies are just as proud of their children doing well in school as D is.   Those children look up to their mommies and daddies (even when there is drug/alcohol/gang involvement) just like my children do, and they expect to be protected just like my children do….and they are!   The other same that they have?   They have the EXACT SAME opportunity as I do to serve a God that will love them, care for their basic needs, and give them eternal life.   And many of them are asking how to have that opportunity!  PRAISE GOD!!!!!!

So today I’m tired, but it’s a good tired!   Heading off to bed now folks…..I’ll post more tomorrow or Monday

is voting/election day.   I am thankful that God is in control, and that He knows the outcome of the election before the first vote is cast, and He knows the consequences of that outcome on our school districts, our cities, our counties, our states, and our country and even the world, as our federal elections will affect the outcome of world events in the coming years.   I have always voted, and always done it prayerfully and with great thought, but not once in my 22 years of voting history (if you are good mathematicians you have now figured out that I am 40 years old) have I felt the importance of this election.   Yes, every election is important, but there is so much more riding on this year’s election.   Not only is this probably the most important presidential election of my generation, but if you live in CA, we are voting on one of the most important ballot issues in the history of the state of California….and for those of you that don’t live in California, I can guarantee that the outcome of our election this year WILL affect your state eventually.   For those of you that haven’t heard, there is a ballot measure in the state of California this year that could change the entire moral fabric of our schools (and the California Educators Association is trying to convince voters that Proposition 8 has nothing to do with our schools….BOLONEY!!!!!!!), our churches, our homes, etc.    If you don’t know what it is that I’m speaking of, it is Proposition 8….. here’s a little history….

A few years ago, California voters voted a law in that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman ONLY.  Well, this past spring the wonderful (said with the most sarcastic tone that I can muster) appellate court in our state overturned that ruling and made gay marriage legal in the state of California.  Has it affected our schools?  Yep! Please read this article…..  Has it affected our churches?  YEP!!!!   The churches that still believe that homosexuality is a sin and that marriage should only be between a man and woman are  being ostracized and labeled as “intolerant”.  Has it affects our homes?  Sure has!  I have heard friends and acquaintances discuss with their VERY YOUNG children why our media is being BLASTED with pictures of men marrying men and women marrying women…..  Our children are being introduced to concepts that I believe are too mature for their development, but as parents, we don’t have a choice!  We need to make God’s word known to them, even in areas that they are not ready for in order to protect them.   And how many of us have been invited to same sex weddings?  And then had to deal with the ramifications of saying no?   I’m sure many more than we’d like to say!

Folks, this is probably one of the most important elections in our generation (to date, anyhow)….PLEASE take the time to pray over your voting decisions and the ballot measures on your ballot, the officials that are running, etc.  PLEASE take the time to VOTE on November 4.    And PLEASE take the time to pray for our country during this very difficult time.

Today’s produce basket just arrived, and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!! :)  I always love the colors in that basket!  And the produce is always so fresh and nummy! :)  I LOVE MY CSA!!!!!!

In today’s basket I got:

• apples
• cucumbers
• radishes
• peaches
• baby bok choy
• squash
• garlic
• pears
• tomatoes
• grapes
• lettuce
• curly endive

I see  a baby bok choy and tomato salad in my future this week for lunch!!!!! :)   I think I will also make some egg drop soup one day and put some of the baby bok choy (I got A LOT) into it

Last night we had the Menus4moms version of Tater Tot Casserole.   It was VERY good, but we all decided that next time I will mix the green beans into the casserole (which is the way we are used to…..but I wanted to follow the recipe as written the first time we had it…..YES Serina, I actually FOLLOWED a recipe as written….well, mostly.  I didn’t use canned soups….my homemade version’s recipe to follow).   This will definitely be in the making again!   We really enjoyed it

In place of the can of cream of mushroom soup and cream of celery soup I made a homemade  (GREATLY reduced sodium version….and the soup/sauce can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator….even for a couple of days).

Here’s how I replaced those two cans of soup:

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 stalk celery, finely diced

1 4oz. can mushroom pieces and stems, drained with the “broth” reserved

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can skim evaporated milk

chicken broth*

salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup organic unbleached flour

In a 3 quart sauce pan melt butter and oil together over medium heat.  Add celery and cook over medium heat until the celery is softened (you can also add the onion from the tater tot casserole to this part to soften up the onions).   Stir in flour and let cook for 2-3 minutes to get the starchy taste out of the flour.  In a 2 cup measuring cup mix together can of evaporated milk, drained “broth” from mushrooms, and chicken broth to measure a total of 2 cups.  Slowly whisk liquids into the flour/celery/butter mixture (you want to add just a bit at a time and whisk it thoroughly to avoid getting lumps).   Once all of your liquid is added, bring to a boil (over medium heat), whisking often until it is nice and thick and creamy.   Add salt and pepper to taste.     Once the sauce is nice and thick and creamy (the thickness of condensed cream of ____ soup) you can add all of the other sauce ingredients for the tater tot casserole.

NOTE:  I did not add the mushrooms into the soup base since the recipe called for them already.  For a recipe that doesn’t call for a whole can of mushrooms, only the mushroom soup, I will dice up about 1/3 of the can of mushrooms and add into the thickened soup so that it is more like the canned cream of mushroom soup.

Well, our lives have been hectic for the past several months, and I’ve been really flying by the seat of my pants as far as cooking is concerned, and frankly we’ve been spending WAY too much money on quick fix meals and take out.   So this week I’m back to menu planning and I’m making it easy on myself……I’m following the menu plans (the free ones) from Menus4moms .  This week’s menu is from the week of October 6-10 and because it is only a 5 day menu plan, I’m adding a couple of  my own meals

Sunday 10/19:

• tater tot casserole (totally not healthy, but yummy, and we don’t eat like this very often!)
• seasoned green beans
• fruit salad

Monday 10/20:

• crockpot roasted stick chicken
• wild rice pilaf
• steamed broccoli

• Baked ham
• macaroni & cheese
• sugar snap peas

• linguini with ham, peas and mushrooms
• sliced apples
• salad
• homemade italian bread

• mexican chicken corn chowder
• dinner rolls (or maybe some flour tortillas?)
• salad

• crockpot lemon chicken
• multi-grain pilaf
• butternut squash
• salad

• bbq ribs
• cole slaw
• baked beans (crockpot)
• fruit salad

If you’d like more ideas for menu planning or to share your own menu plan, please click on the picture above and visit Laura over at Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday!!!

Hi everyone,

Well, this will be a short post because I only have a few minutes….we have friends coming over for lunch after church (I went to 1st service…like normal, and they went to 2nd service because they (they being our friends) had some girls spend the night last night and took them to 2nd service for our High School youth service….so I have a bit of time before I have to go back to the kitchen to work on lunch).

Well, things have been busy around here since my last post (which I think was early in August, if I remember correctly).   The biggest thing that I’ve personally been dealing with since that time is coming to terms with the fact that I do have a chronic health condition that comes and goes and that does limit my capabilities  to be the wife, mother and friend that I desire to be.    I’ve dealt with this condition (vertigo that varies from being mild to very severe depending on the particular “episode”) for almost 8 years now, but it gets worse each year and this past year when I am having an episode those episodes are lasting longer and longer.   For the past 7 years I’ve just taken each episode as it has come and just get through it (the episodes can last for as short as a few hours to as long as  8 weeks), but over the summer I came to realize that t his is a chronic condition that I really need to treat as an illness and rather than working my life around each episode, I need to work my condition into my life……I know that that doesn’t make sense, but I’m not the best at articulating these thoughts clearly.    For the past 7+ years I have prayed for healing from this condition, and it has not been in the Lord’s will for Him to heal me, and I know the the Lord has used this condition to work in my life, so over the past couple of months my prayer has been for God to show me how He wants me to change through my health problems.   One of the BIG things that He has shown me is that I needed to change my priorities.   I’m still working on that, but one of the things that I have done is to start saying “No” when I am asked to do things that I realistically can’t FULLY commit myself to….and boy has that been a BIG shock to the ministry leaders in our church!   In our 4  years at our church, I rarely so no to serving my God and my church through whatever means I’m asked to.  But God has shown me that I need to get my priorities in order.

Something else that I’ve learned is that in MY life I have two different types of priorities…..physical priorities and heart priorities.  Physical priorities are those that require my body to be used (obviously), and they now (after much prayer and introspection!!!) are different from my heart priorities.

My heart priorities are in this order:

1)  God

2) Husband

3) children

4) church

5) others

My physical priorities are NOW:

1) family  (and myself in order to be able to better serve my family)

2) church and community

3) others

Well, my time is just about up, but I wanted to share with you all where my heart has been these past several weeks while I’ve been away from you all!

Hi all,

Yes, dear readers, I am still alive.  And things are going well here in our home……I deeply apologize for not blogging for the past 80 or so days.   I am getting ready to head out for church, but I will begin blogging again later today or tomorrow.  I have so much to share with you all, and I am so touched that some of you noticed that I’ve been gone and sent me emails and left comments……

Love you all, and I pray for all of you even if I don’t know your names!