Celebrating

Over the past few weeks, I've had a chance to slow down a bit and enjoy being with friends and family. As a celebration for ending some classes I've been taking, my friend Anna Ruth and I traveled to Scott's strawberry farm to pick some delicious strawberries. There's nothing sweeter than fresh picked strawberries. I made some strawberry smoothies that were really good. Next on the list is to make strawberry shortcakes. 

This past weekend, we enjoyed having Trevor's parents at our house to celebrate his mom's birthday along with Mother's Day. On Sunday, Trevor's brother and family came to surprise her but she had already figured it out. Oh well for surprises, we had a great time together anyway!!

As for baby update, things are moving along smoothly. Hopefully on Friday, we will get to find out if we're having a BoY or a gIrL!!!! 

As for school, we're down to 16 days left! I think I'm more excited about summer break than my students. There's so much to be done this summer and I'm so looking forward to being off from work to get it all done. 

Other things I'm looking forward to: 
                                                            planting the garden
                                                            working on some home projects
                                                            catching up on my scrapbook
                                                            spending time with family/ friends
                                                            cook outs/ picnics
                                                            having some fun Fridays with my baby

Summer break can not get here fast enough!!!!!!!!!!!!

I leave with a couple of pics of some cicadas I took a couple of weeks ago on field trip with my students. Actually, the field that we were in was covered with them. 

Playing Catch-Up!

Ok, so I dropped out of blogland for a little while but not permanently. It's been a busy past couple of months and it just seems when I finally get a chance to blog, I'm too tired or seem to find something else more important to do. So I'm finally on spring break and am able to relax a little this week before going back next week to finish out the year! 

Well, a lot has happened so I'm going to highlight some fun and great things that I've been up to over the past months. First of all, as an update from one of my last posts, I was very excited to finally see SNOW!! 

Not only was this snow beautiful, but was enough to close school for the day!! Yippee!! 
But what's really crazy, the weather had been so warm that I was worried that it was going to damage my daffodils that had bloomed much earlier than usual but the snow actually melted quickly and they survived.

 Normally they bloom in March but I took this picture on February 21. 

I also had a lot going on at school. We celebrated the 101st day of school with 101 Dalmatians and of course lots of counting activities. The students enjoyed dressing up as dalmatians and celebrating with a party at the end of the day. We also celebrated Dr. Seuss week and Read Across America. We kicked it off by watching Tim Tebow read Green Eggs and Ham. I love Dr. Seuss week! We had such a fun week!!

To end the month of February, I was able to enjoy a Girls Night Out with some girls from church. It was such a great time of worship and fun. I really enjoyed hearing Mandissa and singing some of my fav songs that she sings. Another artist that I wasn't as familiar with but seemed to know some of her songs is Laura Story. Wow, she was great and what an amazing testimony she has. I needed this night so much and I enjoyed being with these great ladies!

And then yesterday, I was able to see my family for Easter. We had a great lunch and enjoyed spending time with the kids. My dad's birthday was this past Tuesday so we not only celebrated Christ's resurrection but my dad's b-day. We had fun eating cake, hiding eggs, and  just spending time together. 

We had a great day but the wind ended up being a bit chilly for hiding eggs outside. We did it a few times but decided we would rather be inside. 


Trevor and I also had a big surprise in February. We found out we are having a baby! It's been a whirlwind of a couple of months and at times I still find myself in awe and amazement of God's blessing. As most of you know, we have not been able to have children and as from previous posts we pursued foster care upon which the door was closed. Over the past year, we had become content with not having children and enjoying the life God had blessed us with. As I continue to learn, God desires us to be content in whatever situation we've been placed in. At times, it may feel like we are in a deep, dark pit but it's important to remember that God will never leave you, no matter how you may feel. Not only will he never leave you, He also has a plan for your life. In my case, I had made a decision to trust God and live for him with or without children, in times of plenty and in times of need. It truly helps you appreciate the tough times in life because it helps you to remember who is ultimately in control and where your strength and foundation has been planted. Although Trevor  and I are very excited and thankful for this gift, we realize that this child is not our own. This child belongs to God and we pray that he or she will bring Him glory. So, we continue to trust in God. We have six more months to go. He is in control and we must trust and believe that his timing is perfect and his will is perfect. 


Have a blessed week!

Menu Plan Monday

Well, we completely fell off the menu plan wagon last week. I had a plan but many other things seemed to get in the way... laziness, forgot to thaw the meat, blah, blah!!


Anyway, hopefully this week will work out better. I plan to keep it simple and use my crock pot and an easy "go-to" recipe.


I'm linking up with I'm an organizing junkie for menu plan Monday.




Here's our menu plan for the week:


Monday-      chicken fried rice 


Tuesday-     leftovers


Wednesday-  Crock pot pizza, salad 
                  (this one is new for me)


Thursday-    leftovers


Friday-        out (date night)


Saturday-     Chili- for me!/ BBQ meatballs for my man


Sunday-       leftovers






So tonight I made this for dinner. It's super easy, quick and delicious. I actually found the fried rice recipe on a coupon insert and thought it would be good with chicken.

Heat 2tbsp. of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1.5lbs of cut up boneless, skinless chicken breast. After cooked through, remove chicken. Add another 2 tbsp. of oil. Add 2c. of minute rice, brown slightly for about 3min. Add two slightly beaten eggs, scramble until cooked thoroughly.


Add 1c. of chicken broth, frozen stir fry veggies, thawed, cooked chicken and 3tbsp. of soy sauce (I like 5-6 tbsp.). Bring to boil. Remove from heat and let stand 5 min. Enjoy!


It takes about 25 - 30min. total, including prep time!!


My husband and I don't really care for onions. So for the veggies, I actually used frozen peas and carrots and fresh broccoli and it turned out fine.
















         
          

Menu Plans for the Week

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Well, we started off our first week of the year doing well at sticking to our menu plan. I did alter a few days but I must say I was impressed with our determination. Usually, we start off well but succumb to the desire to just eat out either because I'm too tired to cook or I wasn't prepared to cook what was planned for that particular night.  So I'm linking up again with Laura over at I'm an organizing junkie. Hopefully we can keep this going because we really want to save, save, save and continue our debt snowball. 


As I went back to work this week, I realized that keeping our weekday meals simple is the key! My crock pot also helps to make dinner quick and easy. It feels good to come home and know that dinner is ready... that makes me one happy girl. So, this week I'll be cooking dinner with the help of my crock pot, again! 




Here's what we're having this week:


Monday-           Crock pot porkchops, cooked apples, and mashed potatoes


Tuesday-          left overs (I usually cook enough on Mon. to have it again the 
                       next night)


Wednesday-     Eating dinner at church this week!


Thursday-         Out- Date Night!!!


Friday-             Breakfast for dinner- Bacon, Eggs, and pancakes (hopefully I 
                       can convince my man to fix my fav- choc. chip) - Don't 
                       judge.... I know this is not too healthy.. heehee!


Saturday-          Copycat Cracker Barrel Chicken Tenders, Annie's
                       mac n cheese, steamed broccoli


Sunday-            Eating at church (mission team fundraiser)




Last week I tried a new crock pot recipe that we really enjoyed. The recipe is actually my aunts recipe that I have in a cookbook her church put together last summer... which I love because it also has several other family members recipes as well. It's nice to have so many of them in one place.


The recipe is simply called Crockpot Chicken Meal. It is so easy and delicious!


First, put four boneless, skinless chicken breasts in 1 cup of water. Then I sprinkled the chicken with salt, pepper, and an applewood seasoning. The original recipe calls for lemon pepper seasoning.

Then you take a package of corn niblets and wrap them in aluminum foil. The recipe also calls for4 whole potatoes wrapped but I chose to fix just corn.

Then place the corn/ potatoes on top of the chicken and cook on low for 5-6 hours.

Before we ate, I heated up some green beans and dinner is DONE!!

This is definitely a new favorite that I plan on using again soon... maybe even try out different seasonings.

Have  a blessed week!! 

Check this out

I just came across this you tube video on another blog this week about the book, Kisses from Katie. I had seen the book at the store but I never actually knew what it was about. I now have to read the book.... what an amazing
young lady!

Menu plan

I know I tried this awhile back but I'm linking up to I'm an organizing junkie for inspiration and encouragement to keep this going. 


For the new year, my hubby and I are trying to stick a little closer to the P90X diet. Although, I'm doing a combo of P90X and going to the gym. So here's our menu to start off the year. I'm also starting back to work this week, so I'm using my crock pot alot!




Monday-        Baked Tilapia, steamed broccoli, and corn 

Tuesday-       Crockpot hamburger steaks, green beans


Wednesday-   Leftover hamburger steaks


Thursday-      Crockpot Chicken Meal (I'll post this recipe soon)


Friday-           Eating at a friend's house


Saturday-       leftovers


Sunday-          out    

Lord Reign in Me

Happy New Year!!

I'm very excited about 2012! Although I must admit, I was ringing in the new year in deep sleep. We've had such a busy, fun, family packed two weeks that my sleep schedule has suffered and I'm gonna feel it when I have to go back to work this week. We celebrated Christmas three times over the past week and it seemed that Christmas could go on forever! One thing that I love about our Christmas celebrations is that every year it's a little different. This year we celebrated with Trevor's family on Christmas, Trevor and I celebrated the day after Christmas, and then we traveled to my parents to celebrate on the 30th. It has been a blessed week.

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I've been thinking a lot about 2012. I've been thinking of goals I want to set and changes I want to make. It's no secret my husband calls me "the list queen". I know I may annoy some people with my lists. I have a to-do list at work that I keep on my desk to keep me on track of things needed to be done each week.  I have a cleaning list, monthly menu list, shopping list, gift list, and so on. To keep them organized so I don't lose them all, I keep them in a  three ring binder. To some people that may be too much but it works for me. So, making lists and setting goals for the new year just comes naturally. I can be quite detailed when it comes to my goals but this year I'm trying to keep it simple. I have been praying about this years goals... to have a clear direction of what God wants me to do. As I've been thinking about this, one song always comes to mind and we sang it in church today, Lord Reign in Me.  I think this is my song for the new year. The words reflect my heart and desire to be filled with more of Him and less of me so that I can be vessel He works through. In case you've never heard the song, here it is.....

 

Praying you have a blessed new year!!!!