Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

 

Apparently, we have a budding artist on our hands

And apparently she thinks the house is her canvas.

This would be the oven.

and this is the fridge....

and now we have the window seat in the girls room. (good thing we were already planning to repaint it and I still needed to make a padded seat cover for it)

And still not done. She needed to go for the bedroom window too.

And, to finish up her work for the day....her crib.

If she thought we wouldn't know who 'done it', she probably should have thought again....

 

Not only do we have a budding artist on our hands but we apparently have a mom who needs to go back and read Raising Godly Tomoatoes again and start tomato staking her 2 year old!

*ETA: If, because I'm making light of this here on this blog, you don't think we're taking this seriously don't worry, we are. She did and has continued to get in trouble for her coloring on anything except paper.

Did I ever share this?

When we first started this blog last month, and were working our way through 101 Simple and Thoughtful Ways to Give This Christmas Away, I never dreamed anyone remotely close to the book would run across our blog.

BUT, about mid-December a guy from Tyndale House Publishers, the ones who published Matthew West's book, did indeed run across our blog! He emailed me asking if he could include our names and blog address in a Tyndale press release. How cool is that?!

Our family was also featured in an Examiner.com article!
Hopefully, through our giving, others saw all of this was done to bring glory to the Lord!

So Long, Pillsbury!

One of my New Years resolutions is Proverbs 31:27.

She looks well to the ways of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Oooh, ouch. Now, I know I should be striving to be all of Proverbs 31:10-31, and I am. But, the whole does not eat the bread of idleness is really what I am striving towards this year.

Its so hard though. With the internet, (um, hello Facebook) and all the other things that can take up your time its hard not to be partaking in the bread of idleness. Can I get an Amen?!

For me, at least, it's a daily partaking. As much as I like to believe I get a lot done I still waste time on stupid stuff. *cough cough Facebook*. Or, this was a huge thing for me a few years ago, what about message boards, like Babycenter, for instance. We gave the TV the boot and have just replaced the idleness with other things.

If I truly am convicted and believe my calling and mission in life is as a wife and mother, raising little people for the Kingdom of Heaven, then am I doing things daily to further my success in this calling? I can pretty much guarantee Facebook does not further that calling. Although...I might be able to find some good 'groups' that would allow me to beg to differ with that last statement ;) har har.

Seriously though, 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us-

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

and how about Colossians 3:23-

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

This year I really want to analyze everything I do in this daily job as wife and mom.

Am I eating the bread of idleness?

Is everything I'm doing bringing glory to God?

Am I working heartily as unto the Lord?

And what about doing all things without grumbling and complaining like Philippians 2:14-16 tells us to do. (On a side note; that is our family verse) My sweet friend Marie made a good statement to me once. She said it's not just doing our job as a wife and mother it's doing it with JOY! Now, I just can't get that out of my head. Thanks, Marie!

So, all in all, this is where I'm at right now.

With all that said now I can share with you what I made today! I'm really excited about this accomplishment. Yesterday I gave the recipe for the No Need to Knead Bread but I didn't mention the fact that I had never made it before. Ha! I trusted my friend Brandee's word and suggestion and passed it on :) I really did plan on making them though. And today I did it! And they turned out!!!!! *Hallelujah chorus* I also made the dough into a batch of homemade, made from scratch cinnamon rolls. YUM!

Here is Audrey helping me spread sugar over the dough. (I know, I know, she really should have clothes on but we took them off for our messy BBQ chicken lunch and never put them back on. And then Derek took these pics)

And here are the finished product. Hey! Don't laugh because they're ugly! They taste REALLY yummy!

Obviously, I need to perfect my rolling and cutting method of the cinnamon rolls. ;) I didn't have any string to cut them with, like the recipe says to do. So, I used a butter knife. It did fine, they just don't look pretty.

So, in conclusion of this long winded post, today I kept up with my New Years Resolution and have not eaten the bread of idleness! And it feels great!!! Now I feel like I can give the boot to our Pillsbury Cressant roll addiction and be more than happy with homemade rolls!

01-02-2010

Today's date is a palindrome (same backwards and forwards)! 

01 02 2010

Thought that was pretty cool. I wanted to share it and make it an 'official' observation with a blog entry all its own. :)

 

Aaah, the Aroma

We're on day 2 of our No Spending 2 weeks. So far, so good.
Normally on a Friday and Saturday we would pick something up to eat for at least 1 meal. Saturdays are usually busy so we're eating on the run or they're lazy days so I don't want to cook.

Today was the second of the 2. It was a lazy day for us. We got a ton accomplished though. There is an end in sight for my laundry. For me, this is a big accomplishment! I've been behind since Owen was born. So..its been awhile now. We also took down and put away all the Christmas decorations. I'm sure anyone else in a small living space can relate when I say, once Christmas is over I'm ready to have my house back to normal and less cluttered!

I really didn't feel like cooking tonight. Tonight would have been a time when I was willing to drive 20 minutes (one way) to the nearest fast food restaurant just so Ididn't have to cook.
But, I knew I couldn't. So, instead I made chicken Fajitas with homemade refried beans for dinner. Pretty simple considering I already had the refried beans made.

Since tomorrow is Sunday and, again, I usually don't feel like cooking we will usually pick up Little Caesars  pizza on the way home from church if we don't have plans. Can't beat feeding the family for $10. But, I knew we wouldn't be stopping for pizza tomorrow. I also knew the last thing I would want to do was take part of the afternoon cooking. We also have a members meeting at church tomorrow night so that limits when I can cook. So, what is the solution to my problem you ask? I went ahead and put BBQ Chicken in the crockpot to cook so it would be ready for us after church tomorrow! Yay for planning ahead! :) I'm also planning on making homemade No Need to Knead Bread rolls to eat the chicken on.

My friend Stephanie brought this chicken over to us the week after I had Owen and we all couldn't get enough of it. (Thanks Stephanie!) It makes quite a bit so we'll have a few lunches covered this week as well. I can smell it cooking and the aroma is making my mouth water as I type!

Would you like the recipe to this yummy (and easy!) dish? Here ya go! Let me know if you make it and what you think.

Crockpot BBQ Chicken:

INGREDIENTS

• 6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbeque sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
2. Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low. 

And the recipe for the No Need to Knead bread? Heres that one for ya, courtesy of my friend Brandee :)

INGREDIENTS

2 C of warm to wrist water
2 pkgs of dry active yeast (or 2 tbsp if you buy in bulk like I do)
1/2 C sugar or honey
5 C of flour
1/4 C oil
1 beaten egg

Directions

Put water into large bowl along with the sugar and yeast. Allow yeast to activate, become bubbly. then add reamining ingredients. Mix together, gently (Yeast doesn't like to be overly handled). DO NOT KNEAD. Let rise to double in size.(took about an hour or so) Make into rolls or loaves. Let rise again. (another 45 minutes or so) Bake in 400* oven until done.


Hope this New Years weekend has been great for everyone! So far, this year is starting off wonderful in our home.

Note to Self:

Note to Self: 

When going shopping to stock up for your no spending 2 week period make sure and double, even triple, check to make sure you have your shopping list, competitor ads to price match and coupons with you. Especially if you live 30 minutes away from the grocery store.

And, to answer my friend Stephanie.....Oh, yes I did. :( 

To make matters worse it was rainy and like 38 degrees and I had all 4 kids with me. But, my mom was there to help too.  I had to make the decision of whether or not to drive all the way home (30 minutes), get my stuff and drive back to the store (another 30 minutes). If I drove home I would be getting back to the grocery store at like 5 pm so it would be getting dark and I would risk it turning icy on the way home. Why I waited until so late in the day is beyond me. So, I made the deicsion not to drive the extra hour (total) and spend the gas, which would take away from the money I was saving anyways. I pretty much cringed at my grocery total though. But, at least we'll have food to eat and can embark on our no spending 2 weeks and Eat From the Pantry Challenge.

On a side note; some people can be so rude. I know all you other moms with many littles know what I'm talking about. So, if you aren't a MOMY and see one out and about I think just about the worst thing you can do is look at her and then look at your 2 teenage daughters and laugh together under your breath.  For the record we chose life for our children and count them as a blessing!

Oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2010 is gonna be a great one!