Here's the menu for the week:
Sunday - snacky foods and leftovers
Monday - oatmeal - red beans and rice, ham, and turnip greens
Tuesday - smoothie - chicken enchiladas
Wednesday - baked rice pudding - spaghetti dinner fundraiser for the triplets at church
Thursday - smoothie - meat and beans
Friday - oatmeal - chicken noodle soup and saltines
Monday, October 20, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
The work...
This morning, taking the kids to school, Shout to the Lord was playing on the radio. I will admit, a lot of the time when a slow paced song comes on the radio, I change it to something a little heavier : ) but today, I din't. I don't know if I blogged about this before, but oh well. It's a story I love to tell.
My father passed away in November of '05. The more time that passes, the more I miss him. We had a very rocky relationship. I had huge steel walls set up around my heart which prevented me from letting my guard down. I learned to do that because when I did let it down, I was hurt. His alcoholism had many terrible effects on me and everyone with who he had relationships.
I really see God's work in my life, especially because He drew me to him at a time when life was really hard, dealing with Dad. God knew that for me to forgive dad, I needed Him first. End of story. Or beginning??? I was still a very immature Christian when Dad passed away, and I never made it to give him the love and compassion and approval that he so desperately desired. It wasn't till the Christmas that followed his death that I came to true forgiveness.
Christmas Eve happened to fall on a Sunday that year. I was pretty emotional going in, a combination of hormones and grief (not good). We had a big day ahead of us, Danny's family has a very large celebration on Christmas Eve, steeped in tradition and family. I was extra tired that morning, too. Anyways, to make a long story short, during the music portion of the service, the song Shout to the Lord came along. I was once told to envision our children when we came to the part that goes...I sing for joy at the work of your hands...and I was doing just that - thinking of my babies - when a beautiful voice, loud and quiet at the same time, spoke directly into my heart, "Your father was the work of my hands, too, Melanie." I was stunned and joyful, all at once. I couldn't accurately express the range of emotions that swept over me at the time, but I can tell you that relief and love and forgiveness came in to replace the regret, anger, unforgiveness, and sadness in me.
That year, I received the best gift of all, God spoke directly to my heart and enabled me to forgive Dad, once and for all. From that point forward, I have been able to remember the good things and love him like he needed to be loved. I hope he knows that.
My father passed away in November of '05. The more time that passes, the more I miss him. We had a very rocky relationship. I had huge steel walls set up around my heart which prevented me from letting my guard down. I learned to do that because when I did let it down, I was hurt. His alcoholism had many terrible effects on me and everyone with who he had relationships.
I really see God's work in my life, especially because He drew me to him at a time when life was really hard, dealing with Dad. God knew that for me to forgive dad, I needed Him first. End of story. Or beginning??? I was still a very immature Christian when Dad passed away, and I never made it to give him the love and compassion and approval that he so desperately desired. It wasn't till the Christmas that followed his death that I came to true forgiveness.
Christmas Eve happened to fall on a Sunday that year. I was pretty emotional going in, a combination of hormones and grief (not good). We had a big day ahead of us, Danny's family has a very large celebration on Christmas Eve, steeped in tradition and family. I was extra tired that morning, too. Anyways, to make a long story short, during the music portion of the service, the song Shout to the Lord came along. I was once told to envision our children when we came to the part that goes...I sing for joy at the work of your hands...and I was doing just that - thinking of my babies - when a beautiful voice, loud and quiet at the same time, spoke directly into my heart, "Your father was the work of my hands, too, Melanie." I was stunned and joyful, all at once. I couldn't accurately express the range of emotions that swept over me at the time, but I can tell you that relief and love and forgiveness came in to replace the regret, anger, unforgiveness, and sadness in me.
That year, I received the best gift of all, God spoke directly to my heart and enabled me to forgive Dad, once and for all. From that point forward, I have been able to remember the good things and love him like he needed to be loved. I hope he knows that.
Monday Meal Planning
Here's the plan for the week:
Sunday - leftovers and snacky foods
Monday - oatmeal
Roast beef with potatoes and carrots
Tuesday - smoothies
Burgers and chips
Wednesday - sausage biscuit sandwiches
Tacos (with leftover beef roast) rice and beans
Thursday -smoothies
Sloppy Jalopies (renamed, thanks J.R.)
Friday - oatmeal
Sausage and ribs, corn, mashed potatoes
Saturday - TBD
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Catching up on pictures
Sunny
Oliv, peering into the distance.....
Sophia, chilling on the swing...
Icees - these were Danny and Sophia's first ever!
Our morning coffee...our propane tank was empty this morning so we made our breakfast outside. It was so fun!!!!!!!
Bacon and eggs
The kids eating their breakfast...
Moon and Star
Midnight and Moon (no picture, but we still have Eddie!)
Last Sunday's baking - bread and peanut butter cookies
Homemade breakfast sandwiches.
We made sushi for lunch Monday. It's D Jr's favorite lunch.
Here are the babies. Final head count is ELEVEN!
Oliv holding a baby. Awwwwwww.Thursday, October 9, 2008
Following up on pet drama and yogurt making.
My suspicions have been confirmed. Yes, we do, in fact, have two female fancy mice. Lizzie had a litter over the weekend and Dungeon had her litter yesterday. Now we have many little mouse mutts. I will count them tomorrow when we transfer them to an aquarium to keep them contained till they wean and are big enough to go to the pet store. I'll take a pic tomorrow when I transfer them.
If you read my yogurt making post, the one where I provided a link to a recipe, and are considering making your own yogurt, please read this. I made my third batch last night and this one came out perfect. The first batch, I used organic yogurt, 2% milk from HEB, and about 12-16 oz of yogurt for the starter. This came out very thin, although it tasted great, made great smoothies and yogurt cheese. I held back about the same amount from that batch and made a second batch of yogurt. (Both times, I heated the milk to 160 then cooled to 110). I used 2% milk from Walmart. This batch came out grainy - sort of the texture of ricotta and was much more sour than I was expecting. I strained this and now have a container of sour yogurt ricotta in my fridge. If I can't think of something to do with it, it will be a nice nutritious snack for the chickens.
After batch 2's failure, I decided to do some research to where I could have gone wrong. I found 3 things: 1) it is not recommended to save some from each batch as a starter, like you would do with sour dough. The bacteria loses it's potency. 2) every other source said to heat the milk to 180* rather than 160*. This ensures the opposing bacteria are killed off and all you have working are the ones you need for the yogurt. I still cooled it to 110* before adding the starter. 3) You only need 2 T of starter. That is way less than I used and much more cost effective. I used plain Dannon yogurt. You can freeze the starter and it works just fine when you use it. An ice cube container works perfectly because each cube holds 2T of starter. One container of yogurt gave me 14 doses of starter plus about a cup and a half of yogurt left. If I had another tray, I would have frozen what I had left. Instead we used it in smoothies this morning. I used half whole milk and half 2% milk from HEB for batch 3. I am sure the added milk fat helped.
Two tablespoons of yogurt and one half gallon of milk yields 2 quarts of yogurt. A half gallon of milk is about $2, and one quart of yogurt is about $2. Without getting the calculator out, this comes out to about $1.10 a quart of healthy, additive free yogurt. That so works for me. : )
Batch 3 turned out nothing short of perfect. It had the right thickness, tastes great and I will be going with that formula from now on. Yay!!!!! I love kitchen science! (did I just reveal myself as a nerd???)
If you read my yogurt making post, the one where I provided a link to a recipe, and are considering making your own yogurt, please read this. I made my third batch last night and this one came out perfect. The first batch, I used organic yogurt, 2% milk from HEB, and about 12-16 oz of yogurt for the starter. This came out very thin, although it tasted great, made great smoothies and yogurt cheese. I held back about the same amount from that batch and made a second batch of yogurt. (Both times, I heated the milk to 160 then cooled to 110). I used 2% milk from Walmart. This batch came out grainy - sort of the texture of ricotta and was much more sour than I was expecting. I strained this and now have a container of sour yogurt ricotta in my fridge. If I can't think of something to do with it, it will be a nice nutritious snack for the chickens.
After batch 2's failure, I decided to do some research to where I could have gone wrong. I found 3 things: 1) it is not recommended to save some from each batch as a starter, like you would do with sour dough. The bacteria loses it's potency. 2) every other source said to heat the milk to 180* rather than 160*. This ensures the opposing bacteria are killed off and all you have working are the ones you need for the yogurt. I still cooled it to 110* before adding the starter. 3) You only need 2 T of starter. That is way less than I used and much more cost effective. I used plain Dannon yogurt. You can freeze the starter and it works just fine when you use it. An ice cube container works perfectly because each cube holds 2T of starter. One container of yogurt gave me 14 doses of starter plus about a cup and a half of yogurt left. If I had another tray, I would have frozen what I had left. Instead we used it in smoothies this morning. I used half whole milk and half 2% milk from HEB for batch 3. I am sure the added milk fat helped.
Two tablespoons of yogurt and one half gallon of milk yields 2 quarts of yogurt. A half gallon of milk is about $2, and one quart of yogurt is about $2. Without getting the calculator out, this comes out to about $1.10 a quart of healthy, additive free yogurt. That so works for me. : )
Batch 3 turned out nothing short of perfect. It had the right thickness, tastes great and I will be going with that formula from now on. Yay!!!!! I love kitchen science! (did I just reveal myself as a nerd???)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Snack
Last evening, as we were watching a family movie, Little Danny, my bottomless pit, asked me for a midnight snack. I told him, "Honey, you have been eating all day! Besides, it's not midnight yet." A moment later, he asked me, "Mom, what time is it?" I replied, "8:19." ...."Can I have an 8:19 snack, please?"
Goofball!
Goofball!
Talents and Gifts...Possessions???
A very large dose of reality hit me the other day after I wrote about The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.
I have been struggling with pretty bad wrist pain for the last several weeks. This pain has come from repeated movement associated with knitting and is not showing signs of going away.
I have been praying to God about this - why does my wrist have to hurt so much? This stops me from knitting! Knitting is my gift! You have given me this talent! I love on people with my knitting! It calms and relaxes me and I exercise my creativity with it!
It's funny how we can read words on a page and pick up new things every time we read them. Case in point:
(again, a quote from The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)
"Our gifts and talents should also be turned over to Him. They should be recognized for what they are, God's loan to us, and should never be considered in any sense our own. We have no more right to claim credit for special abilities than for blue eyes or strong muscles. 'For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?' "
I have been struggling with pretty bad wrist pain for the last several weeks. This pain has come from repeated movement associated with knitting and is not showing signs of going away.
I have been praying to God about this - why does my wrist have to hurt so much? This stops me from knitting! Knitting is my gift! You have given me this talent! I love on people with my knitting! It calms and relaxes me and I exercise my creativity with it!
It's funny how we can read words on a page and pick up new things every time we read them. Case in point:
(again, a quote from The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)
"Our gifts and talents should also be turned over to Him. They should be recognized for what they are, God's loan to us, and should never be considered in any sense our own. We have no more right to claim credit for special abilities than for blue eyes or strong muscles. 'For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?' "
How humbling. What else can I say?
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