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!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
A little time out
I will go ahead and say that this post is probably going to end up being a complete soapbox. But I dont really think in a complaining griping kind of way.
So anyways, this week the youth at our church are at youth camp. They go to Florida for a week. Now, we went to Florida during some of my youth camps as well. But it was still more like camping staying in long rooms comlpletely full of bunk beds. These kids go and stay in these fancy villas. But that is pointless to what I really want to talk about. I was looking at my facebook and I can see where all of these teenagers are posting about camp. And to be honest it just made me sad. I mean here they are posting about what an amazing service but seriously? There was no tv, no phones, nothing when we went to camp. And it should be that way. It should be a time of getting away from all of those things. Thats just my opinion. I wanted to say something about it on facebook but I know exactly what kind of riot that would cause. Its not just the youth on there anyways. Its the leaders that are down there with them. So thats what I wanted to share.
So anyways, this week the youth at our church are at youth camp. They go to Florida for a week. Now, we went to Florida during some of my youth camps as well. But it was still more like camping staying in long rooms comlpletely full of bunk beds. These kids go and stay in these fancy villas. But that is pointless to what I really want to talk about. I was looking at my facebook and I can see where all of these teenagers are posting about camp. And to be honest it just made me sad. I mean here they are posting about what an amazing service but seriously? There was no tv, no phones, nothing when we went to camp. And it should be that way. It should be a time of getting away from all of those things. Thats just my opinion. I wanted to say something about it on facebook but I know exactly what kind of riot that would cause. Its not just the youth on there anyways. Its the leaders that are down there with them. So thats what I wanted to share.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Weekend Getaway
Wow...even sitting here my body still feels completely exhausted. Just from one day! Friday morning we drove up to Clarksville, TN. for a little mini getaway. A friend of ours had given us a hotel room for the weekend. If we didn't have a baby nursing we probably would have really taken advantage of it and had some alone time. But we had a blast! We got there a little bit before lunch time. Then we went to lunch with a friend and came back to the hotel room. I was already starting to get a headache and the we were trying to get the babies to take a nap and my head started hurting really bad and I started getting sick to my stomach. For some crazy reason I didn't have any tylenol with me. So after realizing these babies werent going to sleep anytime soon we headed out and ended up at the mall. This is where we learned that apparently my 6 month old son absolutely HATES shoe stores. And I am not exaggerating. Every time we went into a shoe store he started screaming. And then we were walking around Target and he was doing just fine. My husband started to go look at the shoes and he started screaming again. It was definitely strange. After the mall we went to eat and we still had a gift card we had gotten so we were able to go out to eat with that. So that first day was an extremely inexpensive day. We had been discussing what we wanted to do the next day and we eventually decided on going to the zoo. I have never been to a zoo and I've always wanted to go. We probably would have went on our way down Friday if we weren't meeting for lunch. So when we woke up Saturday we decided to go ahead and pack up. The zoo was an hour back towards home and we didn't think there was much point in driving an hour back away from home just to get up and drive home the next morning. We had a birthday dinner to be back for today..(Sunday). So we went to the zoo and I probably enjoyed it more than anybody. It was extremely hot and then it became nap time. There was a few times that my daughter pointed and was like "ooooh" or "wow". But for her age it was hard for us to point out the animals to her. She has quite mastered looking where we are pointing. And these animals aren't in cages like at other zoos. There was a couple of animals we never even found. They were hidden so well in their area.
We ended up being at the zoo for about 5-6 hours then we went to this restaurant we read about on The Travel Channel. It was really good and really cheap! I would definitely go back. Then we walked around downtown and took pictures with the statues of Elvis and the giant ice cream cones.
At one corner there was a Mennonite family singing and handing out tracts. We ended up talking to a guy with them and it was surprising to me to learn that we really have a lot of the same beliefs. We got to talking about how so many "Christians" have the mentality once saved always saved. It was funny to me though that after having this discussion with him you would think it was clear that we knew we were saved and living the right way but he still wanted to give us a devotional and encourage us to read it.. But then it may have been its a book he enjoys and thought we might too. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. We did get the family on video singing. Then we drove 2 hours home, passed out and now its Sunday morning. We wont be making it to church this morning which makes me sad since our Pastor will be gone all next week but we are still exhausted. Sorry, I am a horrible story teller and I hate going back through and reading and seperating out paragraphs. Maybe one day....
We ended up being at the zoo for about 5-6 hours then we went to this restaurant we read about on The Travel Channel. It was really good and really cheap! I would definitely go back. Then we walked around downtown and took pictures with the statues of Elvis and the giant ice cream cones.
At one corner there was a Mennonite family singing and handing out tracts. We ended up talking to a guy with them and it was surprising to me to learn that we really have a lot of the same beliefs. We got to talking about how so many "Christians" have the mentality once saved always saved. It was funny to me though that after having this discussion with him you would think it was clear that we knew we were saved and living the right way but he still wanted to give us a devotional and encourage us to read it.. But then it may have been its a book he enjoys and thought we might too. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. We did get the family on video singing. Then we drove 2 hours home, passed out and now its Sunday morning. We wont be making it to church this morning which makes me sad since our Pastor will be gone all next week but we are still exhausted. Sorry, I am a horrible story teller and I hate going back through and reading and seperating out paragraphs. Maybe one day....
Friday, July 16, 2010
Waffle Maker
So my husband absolutely loves waffles. I however am a pancake girl myself. I had actually been planning on buying him a waffle maker for father's day but he ended up getting a bicycle instead. And of course we go yard saleing almost every weekend and I've looked there for one too. I had originally looked at Walmart and the cheapest one was close to $30 I think. It could have been closer to 20 but I dont really remember. Anyways, last week I got the chance to run real quick into a thrift store and there was a waffle maker for $4.00. I was so excited to get it for him! It was just the cheapest one you could get at Walmart and makes two waffles at a time. This morning was the first chance I've had to use it and now for the experience. IT WAS AWFUL! First the directions even said that it takes 5-7 minutes. Thats for TWO waffles. So we have two adults and a one year old going to be eating. So the end result was the waffle maker didn't cook evenly. Instead of getting the nice crunch that waffles have they were completely brown in the middle and soft on the outside. It took me almost an hour to finish the one bowl of mix I had made up. And in case you cant tell by the cooking process they weren't even good. They were actually almost cold by the time the last two finished cooking. So then I was grumpy because I had wanted to make these for Brad and then I informed him I would never be making them again. So now Im thinking ahead to Christmas. Im going to have to research them and get a good one. It may cost more but if it works it will get used. And it absolutely must cook at least 4 waffles at a time or it will never be worth it.
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