Thursday, August 26, 2010

Bourbon Chicken

This is a delicious recipe. And it doesn't even have bourbon in it. I can't remember if I had ever posted it before but its what we had for supper last night so I thought I would go ahead and post it.

2 lbs chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1-2 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 c. apple juice
2 tbsp ketchup
1/2 c. water
1 garlic clove, crushed
3/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/3 c. light brown sugar
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1/3 c. soy sauce

Heat oil in skillet. Add chicken and cook. Remove chicken. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium heat until well mixed and dissolved. Add chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
NOTES-I did buy ginger just to make this recipe but we like it so much that its worth it to me because we eat this pretty frequently. Also, the sauce is really thin so I add about a tbsp. of corn starch to thicken it up. And of course we eat it over rice!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Letters to God

Thats the movie I watched last night and it was amazing. I highly reccomend that everyone watch it. It is such an inspiring story and its also based on a real story. I often sit and think if I died today what kind of mark did I make on this world? I want to be a world changer. I know that may sound like a far off goal but to think the simplest thing could change everyone around us. Which then leads to more change and so forth. It has really got me thinking about areas in my life that could use some purging. It also made me thankful that we dont have tv as yet another distraction. There are a couple of shows that we enjoy watching but we could just watch online. Now we've even stopped watching those except one or two. First we had an AMAZING service at church Sunday and now this inspiring movie. I can't wait to get alone with God and see where He takes me.
On another note, at the end of the movie I was just sitting in the floor boohooing and my sweet little girl walks over to me and wipes the tears off my cheek. It made me laugh and lose it all over again. To think that God picked me to be her mom! Wow! I am truly blessed.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Homeschooling

I know that my first baby being in school is still a few years off but I wanted to write this down while it is still fresh on my mind. Brad told me before we got married that he felt God wanted us to homeschool. Now I have come along way since then so to say I threw a fit would be putting it mildly.

So to explain that part I have always wanted to be a teacher. I love being in the classroom. I had started college and everything was going great. Except for the fact that I had been forced to move out just 2 months after I graduated and because of somebody else's mistake my rent went from being about 100 a month to 300 or more. At the time I only worked part time. So I tried doing what I could. I switched to night classes the next semester and took a job in a different apartment. So I started going to work from 6-230 every day and going to school at night. But I wasn't making ends meet. I ended up getting a second job on the weekends. We had a one year lease on our house and I find out right before its up that the person I was living with was deciding to make other plans. Didn't even bother to tell me. So for a month or two I was pretty much homeless and bounced from place to place. During this time I ended up just having to drop all of my classes and would go back as soon as I could.

Well then life pretty much happened. I fianlly got an apartment and I was working all the time just to try and make due. At this point I ended up switching over to one of my part time jobs as my full time one. I still worked another part time job as well for awhile. Then I met Brad and after 3 weeks of dating we were having this conversation. So I was almost heartbroken to hear this. I wanted a degree. I wanted to go be a teacher not sit at home. And I DEFINITELY did not want to be a stay at home mom.
Now 4 years later I have been at home for the past 2 years and have 2 babies. I still struggle with being a stay at home if Im honest about it. There are so many days that I don't even feel qualified to do it. I honestly think its harder than going to work every day. But we are all built different and I have always loved having a job. And then you put homeschooling on top of that. I have people comment to me about how I can go back to work after my babies start school. They of course don't know our plans to homeschool.
I watch the news though and I'm thankful that my kids won't be going to school. I'm thankful to have a husband who wants to follow God. I'm thankful for the oppurtunity to get to watch every leap and step that my babies make. I'm thankful that though we have to live a tight budget lifestyle, God provides just what we need that I can continue to be a stay at home mom. I may have sounded like I was complaining too much earlier but I am so THANKFUL. I can't stress that enough.

So the whole point of this background was to tell this one little thing about homeschooling....haha. Sunday we were eating lunch with some friends and either they or one of their teenagers asked if we knew what we wanted to do about school yet and we told them we were going to homeschool. One of their teenagers who goes to public school looks over and says "they'll thank you for that." I wish I had thought more of it at the time to talk to him and get his thoughts. But what a blessing to hear someone say that! Or I think so anyways.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Staying True

I wonder how many times as parents or even as humans we make a decision and then once something comes along we just take the easier route? I believe happens a lot more than we realize. At the moment we are on our third day of taking my daughter off of her pacifier. Paci as we call it. And I honestly have to give all the glory to God. I pretty much knew I would never be ready. It would take me awhile to go into detail on how much this girl loves her paci. But belive me, she is ADDICTED. We just laughed about it and it was cute. And then just last week we were having a conversation with our Pastor and his wife and she was telling me about our Pastor preaching somewhere when one of their girls was young and still had a paci. She was sitting in a seat to the side of him and he was talking about addiction and then suddenly realizes their daughter was addicted to hers and he then tells the whole congregation that they were going to take it away that day! It was a pretty funny story because she was sitting where everyone could see her and she said she had to sit there and try not to let any emotion show on her face. This was not something they had at all talked about since it had just come to him and she also knew that it would be her having to break her from it and deal with it.
So Saturday morning we were at a huge flea market and pulling our kids around in a wagon. When we got back to the truck we realized there was no paci and it must've been thrown out at some point. Which wasn't unusual for her to throw it somewhere. Well, by this point it was way past nap time and she was so sleepy and this is when she especially wants her paci. Luckily she was so sleepy that the screaming and crying didn't last too long before she eventually fell asleep. We even tried to give her a different one that we had but she refused to take it. It broke my heart watching her cry like that. The kind where she sat and sniffeled in her sleep for awhile afterwards. I prayed about it and I know that God had his hand in the entire situation. She only had one more crying episode after that. She is still walking around looking for it but we have been able to put her to bed and in the car and she has been doing great! It is still breaking my heart just because she looks so confused walking around and looking for it. She has also been sticking her thumb in her mouth a couple of times (uh-oh!) Hopefully, that will not become a problem. And this happened over the weekend and my husband has been here the entire time. Its a good thing because I am weak and would have given it to her just because she looked so lost!
So the point of this story and staying true? We decided before we ever had kids that we weren't going to give them a paci. When our daugther cried non stop we gave in so she would go to sleep. We would have never had to go through this if we had stuck with our original decision. Now we have realized that we have made it through breaking one kid from a paci and another one who would never take one and still doesn't go to sleep without some comfort. Therefore, in the future we will not give them to our kids. Now I pray that God helps me remember this and be strong with this decision! We truly need Him in every area of our lives.