Posts Tagged ‘Windham Familia’
My greatest lover
Posted on: November 29, 2009
- In: Life
- 3 Comments
Before leaving for Tennessee, Jonathan and I prayed for several different things, one being to have a blessed, joyful time. Yesterday, I realized that joyful doesn’t mean happy, carefree, but God centered and God focused.
Here are some highlights from our Thanksgiving week:
Wednesday – Julia fell off the front porch step and busted open her lip.
Thursday/Friday morning – Hannah was up every 1-2 hours because something I ate for dinner bothered her tummy. We were all up from 3:30-5. Started the day at 7. I woke up to: having started my cycle (what the what?!?) and a sinus headache. That lasted all day. Sweeeet….
Saturday – Julia got attacked by the family dog. You read that right. Not by Jack, mind you, but my parents’ old Golden Retriever mix dog, Buddy. Apparently, she was playing with him like she does Jack. Buddy didn’t like it so well, and in one split second had Julia pinned to the ground, teeth in the back of her head.*
Still, Saturday afternoon as we were packing, I thought “I’ve had a really good trip.” Then as I reviewed the last four days, I realized, there was a lot of bad mixed in with the good. A lot of “not happy” moments that took precedence over the “happy”. But for whatever reason, my heart wasn’t focused on those. My heart was focused on the good. And then I realized that God had answered our prayer. Our trip had been blessed. We arrived safely, we stayed unified as a couple and family, we enjoyed the company of our family – even more it seemed than usual, and God’s grace was being played out minute by minute. From keeping us joyful while the girls’ sleep patterns went askew, to ensuring the right parent was outside when Julia had both accidents (that would be Jonathan!). On our drive home last night, I listened to David Crowder Band’s new song How He Loves from their album Church Music. This song capitivated my heart and made me see that God is my great lover, the protector of my heart, the one who guides me through life and allows me to see His grace over shadowing the muck of this world.
He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
And oh, how He loves us oh
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…
That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
*For the record, after a nap Julia was fine. With my supervision, she petted Buddy without reservation and played with the little dogs completely without fear. Jack is still her Jack. And we realized, now more than ever, we really have to teach her about interacting with other dogs. Lesson learned for all of us!
A little Thanksgiving cheer
Posted on: November 24, 2009
We signed an agreement last night for our new house! Our closing date is scheduled for March 2nd. I haven’t done much daydreaming about where all our stuff will go and what color paints to use. But, one thing is absolute, we want need NEED this for our living room:
And we’re off!
Posted on: November 19, 2009
- In: Life
- 7 Comments
Come December, our family is moving.
Our church family knows about all the changes going on in our lives, but I haven’t shared it with the rest of the world. As of right now, we are in the counter/re-counter process on buying a house here in town. We have found renters for our current home and will be moving out mid to late December in order for them to take over. We won’t actually be moving into our new house until spring, so have arranged to live with our pastor and his family in the interim.
Truth be known, this isn’t my favorite thing in life. Moving and all. Frankly, it’s one of my least favorite.
As a kid I moved. A lot. At one point in my life, I calculated that I had lived in 11 places in 3 years. That’s crazy. College wasn’t much better, but less stressful. Since being in Iowa, we’ve moved three times (into our condo, in with our pastor, and into our current house). When we bought our current house, we knew we wouldn’t be here long-term (7+ years), so I have never seen my children “growing up” in this home. But, still, moving is hard. There are a lot of fears for me that come with moving; moving means life is uncertain and things are ending. Having not had the most stable of childhood’s, I worry what impact moving will have on my girls. Granted, in the grand scheme of things, they will never really remember this move (Hannah especially). But it opens up too many “what ifs”. What if we move again and they DO remember? What if they feel insecure? What if they doubt the security of their home life? What if they don’t adjust well? What if, what if, what if?
Last night, while driving to church, I told Jonathan some friends offered to let us stay in their house while they are gone over Christmas break. He was humbled and grateful and asked me to take them up on the offer. While discussing everything, I flippantly said, “Maybe we can do something completely different for Christmas this year, since it’s not going to be a normal real Christmas.” Jonathan said he was hurt by that remark, since Christmas isn’t comprised of trees/lights/decorations but family. We arrived at church and dropped the girls off while we listened to one of our pastor’s share on the book “Love and Respect”. At one point, he said “Women, what men hear when you criticize them is “You aren’t good enough. I don’t trust you.””
And in that very second, I had an ah-ha moment.
This move isn’t the same as when I was growing up.
We aren’t moving because we are broke.
We aren’t moving because there’s been a divorce.
We aren’t moving because life situations are bad.
We are moving because of God.
We are moving to advance His Kingdom.
We are moving so our family can be closer (Jonathan’s work is a block away).
We are moving as a family, in unity, in love and in security.
Like a ton of bricks, it hit me, that my comment about Christmas was a slap in the face to Jonathan. A way of saying “I don’t trust you. I don’t trust this move.” I don’t want that. I don’t want past fears to dictate future events.
And with that, I decided, I am going to rejoice in our newest adventure. We’re setting out, as a family, as husband and wife, in something faith-filled and life changing. Who knows, we might not stay in this new house for long, but that’s okay. Four walls don’t dictate the stability, security and love that comprises our family. Our trust in God does.
No Cook November update
Posted on: November 17, 2009
- In: Life
- 3 Comments
We are officially 17 days in to NCN.
How’s it going so far?
A-maz-ing.
Seriously.
I love “not” cooking.
I did actually cook this past weekend for house church, but aside from that my cooking has been pretty limited (I made breakfast once). Most of the recipes I have used are big hits. However there are a few duds. One night we had pumpkin soup. Dud. Well, in all fairness, it was much better once I added more salt. A lot more salt. But, I went into it knowing it might flop, so I grabbed a rotisserie chicken from New Pi as back up. Jonathan was grateful. 🙂
The best dinner (in my opinion) has been Maple Dijon Chicken or Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. The first dish has sweet potatoes that turned into these delicious buttery morsels. The second dish has some nice kick to it and the chicken was so tender and juicy. We had no leftovers.
Speaking of leftovers… That has been the one down side to NCN. We aren’t getting as many leftovers as I planned. Most of the dishes have been consumed that same night or only enough is spared for just Jonathan’s lunch the next day. But that’s a nice problem to have when it comes to leftovers I suppose.
I’m not sure I could do a 365 crockpot plan, but I most definitely plan to keep using it more after November is up. We’ve got some crazy life changes coming in the next four months and I’ve no doubt the crockpot will be a staple in our home.
Monthly menu planning
Posted on: November 3, 2009
- In: Life
- 2 Comments
Whoa! I gotta say I’m excited at how excited everyone has been about my No Cook November! Hopefully all you ladies (and gents) will be inspired and start your own No Cook month and open up a little more time for yourselves.
My friend, Leah, asked me how I was liking NCN this afternoon.
I love it!
Hands down.
I know I’m only on day two, but there is something about having dinner “done” by 10 am that makes a girl smile.
Anyways, I thought I’d share what I do to plan for a month of meals.
We have a large monthly calendar that hangs on our fridge. At the end of every month I write up next months meals (ok, ok, I confess, I have waited until the month starts before planning). First things first, I see what we have planned for the month and assign the easiest meals for the hardest days. Thursdays are killers around here. Jonathan has work and then class and I have the girls all day till my Body Attack class. So, I usually make bean and cheese tacos, salad or spaghetti on these days. Our babysitter never complains, so I keep it really simple.
After all my easy meals are on the calendar, I start filling in.
With a red pen.
Red on my calendar always means food.
I did that as a way to make the meal stand out, catch the eye and hope that people would want to join us for dinner.
And just so you know, you can always join us for dinner.
Always.
Anyways…. back to my planning.
I will put down oldies but goodies.
I will put down surprises (Jonathan loves him some steak!).
I will put down something more adventurous (i.e. time consuming).
If I plan to use chicken one night (for a soup or stir fry), I will plan to thaw extra to use two night later. The same night I thaw it, I grill it on my Foreman (LOVE my Foreman) and use the grilled chicken for a salad or something two days later. A sample week might look like this:
– Turkey tenderloin with potatoes and veggies
– Tex Mex lasagna
– Turkey salad (using leftover turkey from Monday)
– Spaghetti (using leftover ground beef from Tuesday)
– Bean and cheese tacos (a staple for my family!!)
I have several “healthier” cookbooks that I take ideas from, but I love All Recipes and have gotten some amazing recipes from them.
I plan to eat leftovers or sandwiches on the weekends, as we tend to be on the go and need food that is quickly reheated and doesn’t take much time to cook.
As for getting good deals on food….
I plan ahead.
Way ahead.
Like buying 40 pounds of ground beef and chicken ahead.
When Fareway runs an amazing deal on meats, I buy it and freeze it. I might not have pork on the menu this month, but it will be on next month’s! Example: Monday Wal-Mart was marking down a lot of meat that was coming up on it’s use/freeze by date. So I bought a lot. I mean A LOT. I have no plans to use it this month (with the exception of a few things), but I will set out to use it over the next few months. I don’t worry so much about saving 50 cents on sour cream or that sort of stuff, so I’ve stopped really running around town looking for the best deals. I won’t move around meals because potatoes are on sale this week but I don’t have them on the schedule till next week. I figure if it’s going to save me lots of money (like $5 plus) then I will budge. But I’m way too lazy to buy something that is on sale when it’s inconvenient for me. On the other hand, it’s nice knowing what we’re having at the end of the month when pasta sauce goes on sale. I buy it and save it for three weeks.
So, that’s pretty much what I do. It’s not too hard and after a couple of months is really quite easy. I love it. I love having everything planned out and ready to go. Makes life that much simpler.
The month I stopped cooking
Posted on: November 1, 2009
- In: Life
- 12 Comments
November is a big month for our family.
Julia turns 2.
Two of my best friends from college are coming to visit.
We are spending Thanksgiving in Tennessee; it will be the first time in 10 years the whole family has been together.
And, of course, I’ve decided to give up cooking.
Well, not entirely.
I might, on occasion, brown some meat.
Or boil water.
But for the most part, I will not be cooking.
My crockpot will.
In the “eating healthy on a budget” world, I have stumbled across this site numerous times. I’ve read about it, heard about it and even talked about it, but never given it much thought. Until this past month.
I love to cook.
I love to bake.
I love pretty much anything revolving around the kitchen and food.
But it’s gotten harder and harder to incorporate Julia and Hannah into my dinnertime cooking. I want Julia to “help” as much as she’s able, but 4:30-5 seems to be Hannah’s fussiest time of the day (she’s phasing out her last nap). Which means, I find myself a tad stressed with a little helper, a cry-baby and the clock ticking. So, I resolved to make things easier.
Starting tomorrow (or for most of my readers, today), I am making crockpot meals every week day for the month of November*. This will allow me to have Julia help me with dinner in the mornings, free myself up to have more time in the late afternoon to focus on both girls, while still providing nutritious meals for the family.
It’s a win-win.
Here is our meal schedule for the month (most of these recipes are from Crockpot 365, but a few are ones I already had):
Pumpkin Soup
Pasta Fagioli
Maple Dijon Chicken
Harvest Stew
Turkey and wild rice soup
Peppercorn steak
Potato Soup
Sloppy Joes
Salsa chicken and black bean soup
End of summer harvest soup
Philly cheesesteak soup
Chicken makhani Indian butter
Autumn sausage casserole
Chicken and sweet potato stew
Pumpkin black bean soup
*I currently have planned to have leftovers for the weekends, but I’m sure I will end up cooking at some point over the next month. Unless I can convince Jonathan on those times….
New favorite recipes
Posted on: October 27, 2009
- In: Life
- 9 Comments
Last week we bought a pumpkin for carving. I was at a loss as what to do with all the pumpkin guts so I asked my BFF, Google.
Turns out you can just puree up those puppies.
So I did.
I set aside the pumpkin seeds for roasting, then I tossed all the guts into my blender (a little at a time) and hit “puree”.
I ended up with about 30 oz of puree.
With all my yummy pumpkin-ness, I made some new favorite treats I thought I’d pass along.
Pumpkin Pancakes*:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar (I used sucanat instead)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I ran out of cinnamon, so I used pumpkin spice)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt, stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
I made about 4 pancakes the first day and saved the batter. It filled up 1 1/2 12oz mason jars. It was even better the second day! And the third. 😉
Pumpkin Muffins*:
1 small sugar pumpkin, seeded (about one can of puree – 2 cups)
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose)
2 cups white sugar (I used sucanat)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. *Makes 24 muffins.
Split pumpkin in half. Remove seeds and strings. Place on baking sheet, cut side down. Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven until tender, about 90 minutes. Remove pumpkin pulp and puree in blender. Measure out 2 cups pumpkin puree; set aside. *Again, you can just use the canned puree, or homemade puree.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together 2 cups pumpkin puree, vegetable oil and eggs. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Jonathan and I both agreed that these taste awesome, but are lacking something. Next time I make them (which might be pretty soon – as they are almost all gone!) I’m adding chopped up cranberries.
Regift Christmas
Posted on: October 20, 2009
- In: Life
- 4 Comments
Yes, yes, I know Christmas isn’t for another 66 days. My Christmas lights aren’t up yet, promise*.
Every year, without fail, I never know what to get Jonathan. Last night I asked him what he wanted. He had no clue.
And that’s when it happened.
My genius of a husband came up with a spectacular idea.
Regift Christmas.
Here’s the idea:
We have to regift items the other person hasn’t used in the last year, or hasn’t used as it was originally intended.
Honestly, I’ve no clue what I’m going to regift Jonathan, but I’ve got a garage and closet full of things I’m certain he hasn’t used that will be pretty sweet to regift.
I’m really looking forward to Regift Christmas and what I re-get! 😉
*Last night, while discussing our regift idea, I told Jonathan I was planning to put up the Christmas tree on Sunday, November 15th. His response, “Why so late?”. And that, my dear friends, is why I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my husband.
For those curious minds, the tree is going up November 6th. Oh yeah.
- In: Life
- 4 Comments
This last week I watched King Corn. It was very fascinating. It’s a genuine eye opener about what Americans ingest and how corn has taken over our diets. I highly recommend it.
Anyways, two things I learned from this movie kinda unnerved me:
– 70% of the antibiotics used in America are used on cattle.
– Americans, on average, only spend 16-17% of their monthly income on food. 50 years ago it was closer to 50+%.
My friend, Dana, recently posted her thoughts on eating more organic. She’s taking baby steps towards using organic meat in her meals once a week.
I like baby steps.
Well, not really.
Really, what I love to do (and Jonathan can attest) is start these really grand wonderful schemes.
And never follow through.
So, in all reality, Jonathan likes baby steps for me.
And so, I like baby steps.
Rather than banish the 40+ pounds of chicken I have frozen in our freezer, I decided to make a list of the products we consume on a regular basis that could easily be substituted.
Here is said list:
potato chips
graham crackers
snack packs (100 calorie packs)
chicken broth
eggs
I went to New Pi to do a little more price matching. I knew the amounts for the eggs (roughly $3.50 for free range organic) but needed a better idea on the other items. Wanna know what? Organic potato chips are $5.99. Organic chicken broth – $3.99. Ye-ow!
But, really, if I step back and think about it, I’m use to only spending approximately 16-17% of my income on food. So, I need to change my expectations… and start experimenting.
Which leads me to my newest adventure:
potato chips
I borrowed a mandolin from Ambre and sliced up 3 potatoes. I did them in different sizes (1/4″, 1/8″, 1/4″ ruffled) to get an idea of what might work best. I covered them with a tad amount of EVOO and salt and baked them. So far, the only ones that came out crispy like a chip were the 1/4″. The other two were just french fries in a chip form. I think it might be because I had a smaller amount of the 1/4″, so they were spread out and given a better chance of baking without getting soggy. They turned out really tasty and chip like. Julia and I ate them all. So, clearly, no complaints. 😉 I’m gonna practice a little more tomorrow and this weekend. I’m hoping to find the perfect potato chip so we can start substituting as soon as our current bag runs out.
My second adventure was making homemade chicken broth. I’ve done this once in the past, but it didn’t turn out nearly as good.
This time I used the bones from a chicken we purchased at New Pi. I followed a trusted recipe and got 80+ ounces. I refrigerated most of it, since I will be using it next week in two soups. But I also froze two ice cube trays full, in order to have it on hand when needed in the future.
I’m kinda proud of myself. I felt all pioneer-y and susie-home-baker.
Next week I plan on tackling the graham crackers.
- In: Life
- 2 Comments
*This is a week late, because I forgot to schedule it. Oops.
Jonathan went out of town two Sundays ago for a work conference. He got home around midnight Thursday morning, went back to work at 8am and was gone until 10pm for class. That means, in essence, I’ve been a “single” mom for 5 nights and 4 days. In that seemingly short amount of time I have learned:
– a one-year old can be a bed hog
– a 3-month old can be an even bigger bed hog
– a king size bed can feel small when squished between two small children
– a knee to the back is not how I like waking up
– 4:40 am is really, really, REALLY early – especially when Julia acts like it’s not
– coffee is essential to the well being of my life
– when my children are teenagers, I’m never letting them sleep in – it’ll be my revenge for their younger years
– laughter is key to long life and less stress
– in order to not go crazy, always join in activities, activities, and more activities
– the sound of Jack playing with his tennis ball at 1:30 in the morning sounds an awful lot like a) Julia playing or b) a burglar when a) has been ruled out
– my already high respect for single moms has tripled
– I am so glad the long distance phase of our relationship is over, I disliked it in college and I really dislike it now
– Jonathan is the best husband this girl could ask for
– Julia and Hannah love, love, LOVE their daddy
– I love, love, LOVE their daddy
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
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