Easy Weekend Dinner

We're having chili tonight!

    If you have never made homemade chili, you are missing out.  It is simple to make and delicious to eat!  I make this dish often, as it cooks in less than 30 minutes, or I can let it simmer all day in my crock pot and have a tasty meal ready when I get home from work. 

   My recipe is my own creation after adapting recipes from the Betty Crocker Cookbook, Flat Belly Diet Family Cookbook and my friend, Angela's, recipe.   Here's what I came up with:

Chili

                                                  1 pound lean ground hamburger  

                                                  1 27 oz can of red kidney beans

                                                  1 15 oz. can of white kidney beans

                                                  1 can of diced tomatoes

                                                  1 can of diced green chile's

                                                  3 cloves of garlic minced

                                                  1 tsp. cumin

                                                  1 tsp.  Italian seasoning

                                                  1 1/2 tsp. baking cocoa

                                                  1/2 tsp. of salt

   First, brown  hamburger and drain off excess fat.  Combine all of the other ingredients in a stock pot.  Add browned hamburger.  Simmer on low for 20-30 minutes.  Serve with sour cream and shredded cheese.  If you are following the Flat Belly diet you will noticed I skipped the MUFA, instead of cheese and sour cream top your chili with a 1/4 of avocado.   Serving size is 1 cup, calories are about 396, including 1/4 of avocado. (Tip:  When purchasing an avocado look for one that gives slightly when you gently squeeze it.  My dad was in the produce industry for over 30 years, and he taught me lots of nifty ways to purchase fresh, ripe fruits and vegetables.)

   Of course, I had to serve our chili in my new bowls!  :)  I like to pair soups and chili with a nice salad and fresh bread.  Today's salad was:  spinach, diced Fuji apples, a sprinkling of feta and raspberry dressing.  I would love to tell you the bread is homemade, but that is not the case, instead I will let you in on a simple, easy secret.

  Rhodes dinner rolls are a great choice for "faking" homemade.  They are super simple:  place frozen dough balls in a greased 9x13, let rise for 3 to 5 hours. 

   Bake at 325 for 15 minutes. 

 Your friends and family will think you slaved away all day making fresh bread.  Yum!

Blessings to you and yours!





Festive January

    Here we are, already January 6th, and everyones' taking down their holiday decor.  Now mind you, I understand taking down the tree and turning off the Christmas lights to save a little money, but I still want my house to feel warm and festive.  All of my "Christmas" decor is packed away, the red and gold gone for another season.   In it's place I have added touches of blue, silver and white, after all, winter just began on December 21st, and will last another two and half months.

     A few day's after Christmas I ordered these fantastic snowmen to add to my holiday decor.

   I had eyed these babies at Kohl's during the holiday season for a whoping $34.99 a piece.  My sweet husband would not have been pleased if I had purchased them then, so I waited until December 27th and got them for 70% off!!  I got both sets for a little over $23.00, including shipping.  Aren't they cute?  And check this out:

    They are actually bowls! Gotta love a multi-purpose item.  I am using them as January table decor, the kids will love it.  They can have their cereal in snowman bowls.  Fun! 

    I try to decorate on a budget, honestly, I would prefer to go nuts and throw caution to the wind, and shop to my hearts desire,  but I prefer a good and healthy marriage, so budget it is.  Each holiday season I give myself a mental goal of how much I am willing to spend on decorations.  I usually restrain myself to adding one item or collection to my current holiday decor.  This method allows me to dream big, but stay within a reasonable budget. ( Note: Sandy has no idea about my mental goal, and is probably reading it now for the first time.  Honey, pay no attention to any money spent.  I'm just decorating your castle.)

    For other fun frugal idea's checkout The Shabby Nest and join the Frugal Friday link party.

Blessings to you and yours!

    

One of THOSE days

     Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like this:

 

Source Google Images

     When in all reality you wanted to act like this:



Source Fandango

    And by the grace of God you hit somewhere in the middle, well, at least you hope you did.  :)

     Parenting  can be a challenge and sometimes I need to take a deep breath- a long, deep breath.  Then I need to pause and pray, and ask the Lord for wisdom, and beg Him to control my tongue.  Sharp words can pop out of my mouth faster than my brain can process them, this is an area I struggle.  I desperately want to be a Mary Poppins mom, when my children fuss and fight I want to break into song and gently rebuke them.

    The simple fact is I'm not a Mary Poppins mom.  I screw up.  I get frustrated.  I over parent. I under parent.  I'm not perfect, and it's okay.   The point is not for me to be perfect.  God wants me to be a woman who seeks Him first and my own desires second.  He wants me to equip my children to be Christ followers who love God and others.  He knows I will screw up, and He can use my messes for His good.  When I mess up my job is to humble myself, seek His forgiveness first, and then seek the forgiveness of others.  When I humble myself I honor God, and my children learn how to be humble and ask forgiveness when they mess up.  They are able to recognize no one is perfect- we are all sinners saved by grace.  I'm thankful for the lessons God teaches me and my children.

  

Blessings to you and yours!

  

Can't Find Fat Tuesday

   Happy Tuesday evening to you!  I'm having quite the quandary tonight,  I have been mentally preparing to participate in a link party for Fat Tuesday for at least seven days now.   Now that I am preparing my first post I canNOT find the link! (insert annoyed face)  Poor me, alas, I will post all alone- no parties for me.

   Fat Tuesday news:
   
      1.  I restarted the Flat Belly Diet on Monday.  I have been mentally starving since.  Note to self:  Keep on your eating plan, it's yummy, and so much easier to follow when you don't cheat.

      2.  Next Monday I am joining a "friendly" Biggest Loser competition.  I plan to annihilate my competition.  My best friend informed me that we are supposed to support and encourage each other in our weight loss goals.  That's nice.  I still plan to annihilate the competition. 

     3.  I will NEVER blog my weight.  EVER.

    4.   My gorgeous, thin sister-in-law asked if I was going to start exercising this round.

 PLEASE.  I would rather starve.  Yes, it's true I loath exercise.

     5.  I will be posting my weight loss, in pounds, every Tuesday for the next 12 weeks.  I will not post my actual weight (just incase you missed #3).

It was a LOT.

Now it's less.



The plan is to be 25 pounds less.

Blessings to you and yours!

Gratitude

  Christmas vacation is over, and I am already overwhelmed with responsibilities on the horizon- homeschooling, work, wifely duties, mom, friend, accountability partner, etc.   I am a planner by nature so I tend to run months ahead of myself and rarely enjoy the moment I am in, but that is not how I want to live this year.  I want to be full of gratitude, living in the moment, and not in the future.  I want to experience the joy of the  moment,  and not get ahead of myself worrying about  the future.

   Today I was reading Matthew 6:25-34, and it occurred to me that often my planning comes in the form of worry.  I plan a little for the future and worry a lot.  Verse 34 really stuck out to me: 

 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."  Matt. 6:34, NIV

   What really struck home is that I can plan for tomorrow, that is all well and fine, what I need to refrain from is worrying about tomorrow.   Tomorrow has enough worries for itself,  I will be present and engaged in today. 

   Today and every Monday from now on I will be linking up with  Multitudes on Monday- One Thousand Gifts,  a link party hosted by Ann Voskamp .    My goal is to have a gratitude list reaching a 1,000 by January 1, 2010.  Here's this weeks list:

      

         1.  Hot coffee made by my sweet husband in the morning.

         2.  Snow forts & snow covered little girls.

         3.  A son who is making progress (by leaps and bounds) in reading.

         4.  A chocolate haired girl who asks for my advice.

         5.  Family movie night.

         6.  A husband that reads his bible.

I think this picture is so cute- I couldn't resist.

         7.  Grandmas and their stories.

         8.  Good book's and flickering candles.

Blessings to you and yours!

Decorating Fever

  Does anyone else have the after Christmas decorating/ shopping bug?  I definitely do, though I probably shouldn't do any shopping.  I want to redo my whole house. 

         There's that dresser in Grace's room, from our dear friends Nancy and Gene,  that needs sanded and painted white.

     And if I'm going to paint the dresser I probably should repaint her room pale pink.  And if I'm going to paint her room I should try my hand at installing some crisp white bead board to really make the room POP.

Then there's the dresser that's in Christian's room that I want to paint dark blue and then distress it. 

I should mention that this particular dresser is the first piece of furniture Sandy and I bought together.  We found it at a little second hand store in a neighboring town for $50.00.  I've been meaning to paint it for the last 14 years.

   To add to my shopping/decorating debacle I had to go and read Traditional Home's Holiday issue.  Seriously, why am I torturing myself? 

Source: Traditional Homes



     I rolled across this article and now I can barely contain myself from heading out to Hancock's and loading up on glorious amounts of ribbon. 

Traditional Home 2010 Holiday issue.

    Just image how I could jazz these babies up with some turquoise and jewel toned green ribbon.  Hummm...it is only 4:15, I could head over to Hancock's.

Note the hideous white and gray tile in our bathroom.  Hummm...we could retile the bathroom.

   Alas, I should not, so I will decorate my mantel with what I have on hand.



   We put away all of our Christmas decorations, except my favorite Costco trees.  I realize they don't really go with my grass vases, yet I don't care, because I really like them.  I plan to keep them out until January 30th, and then they will be tucked away in the Christmas vault (garage rafters).

   These candle stands were blah by themselves, so I added some candle rings that I picked up at Micheal's for 75% off.  (No, I didn't go out today, or I would have grabbed some ribbon, too.)  I used my favorite scarf as an accessory to add another pop of color.  Fun, easy and  free- just the way Sandy likes me to decorate.

   Checkout more fun, frugal ideas at the Frugal Friday link party at the The Shabby Nest  or the Winter Mantel Party from The Stories of A to Z.

Blessings to you and yours!

10 Random and Fairly Useless Facts

1.  The year of 2010 was my favorite New Years Eve ever!  Sandy wanted us to hangout as a family, so we canceled plans with friends and stayed home.  We had a "feast" made up of snacks and other delicious easy prep stuff from Costco.  Then we watched movies and missed bringing in the New Year by about 30 seconds. 

2.  Costco is my favorite store, period.  

3.  I LOVE my husband!  Our life hasn't been perfect,  it's been full of challenge and character building moments, but there is no one I would rather live this crazy life with than him!

4.  I like exclamation points.  Don't over analyze this statement.

5.  Parenting is much harder than I expected, but worth it. 

6.  Gracie has a hilarious knack for telling people exactly what her dad thinks of them.  The only problem is she doesn't always relay information correctly. 

7.  Sandy and I took the kids and some of their friends skating today, we're crazy I know.  The day was fun, but my favorite part occurred when the D.J.  had kids 12 and under skate to a song by themselves, and then  anyone 13 and older got to skate to the next song.   All Sandy heard was, "anyone 13 and older can skate to this song".  He turns, grabs my hand and says, "come on hon, they just called our grade."  He cracks me up.

8.  My dog has an annoying habit of trying to bite random people he deems irritating.  Sometimes I think it's funny.

9.  One day I would like to write and publish a book, one that people will actually read.  My fear is that I over use commas.

10.  Grandma's are funny, endearing and particular ladies.   My Grandma H's birthday is in November, and I find gifts for her increasingly difficult to pick out.  So, being the gal I am, I gave my grandma a call and this is the conversation the ensued:

    Me:  "What would you  like for your birthday?"

Grandma:  "Well, my photo album is full, so I could use another one."

Me:  "Okay, anything else?"

Grandma:  "No, just make sure you get a small photograph album,  after all, we just don't know how much longer I'll be around."

Seriously, how do I respond to that?!   

Well there you have it- ten fairly useless and random facts.  Hope you enjoyed them.

Blessings to you and yours!