Make Disciples

This verse is great for this week! I'm happy to announce that this Saturday me and my family are officially joining Compass Christian Church! Which also means that husband and I will be getting baptized. Please let me know if you have any questions or words of encouragement. I've never been baptized before.

Hello Neighbor!

So for The Shine Project, the first challenge was to bake something and take it to a neighbor you don’t know and introduce yourselves. This works out since about two months ago (probably more) we had some new neighbors move in right next door. We’ve never introduced ourselves, and vice versa.
It’s slightly rainy yesterday when I did the project. I had some Ready to Bake cookie dough (cause I’m not the best baker in the world.) Houston and I popped them into the oven, tried to set my phone/timer which froze.

Proceeded to “overbake” said Ready to Bake cookies.

Let the slightly “overbaked” cookies cool off.

I figured a pretty platter *might* make up for them being slightly “overbaked.”

For a non-baker like me, these are NOT burnt.

I will admit that I was very nervous going over there. For one I didn’t have my “talkers” with me. Kinzey was down for a nap, and Aaron was at work; it was up to me to speak. Houston did go with me, and we are happy that we delivered them. Hopefully, our new neighbors understand my stuttered “Welcome, sorry for not saying hello sooner. I’m not a baker” speech.

3 in 30 Goals

I love setting goals. I love reaching them more than anything else. To be more successful at reaching goals, it’s best to have a way to be accountable. That’s what the 3 in 30 project is all about. A way to meet with others, set reachable goals, and hold each other accountable. By only doing three goals in thirty days, you focus your efforts on what is important and attainable in the amount of time given. Not far off outrageous goals. This is my first time joining up (it started back in January).

1. Read the Bible every day. I try to everyday right now, but I want to make sure I am putting effort into this.
2. Run four or more times a week. As you know April 16th I’m participating in the Warrior Dash. I want to make sure that my “healthy kick” doesn’t begin and end there.
3. Start and catch up on The Shine Project. Once I catch up (and have enough saved), I’m purchasing a necklace from there to reward myself.

 

If you have any words of encouragement, I am definitely open to them!

Meal Planning

Before I begin today's post, I just want to say thank you to my new followesr and my old. I love all the comments I get on my blog website and on my facebook page. Your kind words help get me through the day.

I've been lacking lately on the meal planning, as well as falling behind in my house cleaning. A few hard hits in the past couple of weeks have knocked me down, but it's time to pull myself back up.

Sunday: Baked Chicken and Sweet Potatos

Monday: Winger Crock Pot Chicken and French Fries

Tuesday: Pizza Rolls and Salads

Wednesday: Crock Pot Venison

Thursday: Cod Filets and Rice Pilaf

Friday: Mac and Cheese Casserole

Saturday: Mini Chicken Pot Pies

To Do:

• Sort through the kids clothes, make an inventory list of spring/summer clothes we need to obtain
• Run
• Pray
• Spend time in God's word every day

Priority Organization

In order to keep my outlook on my life from going to the "dark side" I need to write my priorities down, instead of just "knowing" them. It helps keep everything in perspective for me over here.

1. Spending time with God-I've noticed more and more that if I fail to do this, I am depressed, stressed, grumpy, and just flat out mean. It's like those first five minutes of being woken up rudely, but all the time. No God time, watch out!

Image Credit

2. Husband-He is my everything (except of course for number one). We need to make sure that we come first. yes, even before the children. That is the way God intended it.

3. Children-Of course they come in almost second here. I am to show them the way to Christ, to ensure their futures, to show them love and understanding. Notice that I am not one of my top three priorities? I need to constantly remind myself that others come first.

4. Family/Friends-The rest of my support system comes fourth. The only way to get support is to give support. Otherwise trust and security cannot be built.

5. Education-I believe that by getting a higher education I am not only promising our family a better future, but providing my children an example. Hopefully, they will one day look up to me for finishing my dreams of a college education. This also covers the education I am extending to my children (via tot school or reading together). The smarter they are, the prouder I get of them.

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6. Home-This covers a multitude of items from working to pay bills to keeping it clean and taking pride in it to ensuring that my family and friends always feel welcome. It's not a home without love.

7. This-my blog is for me. Mostly. I hope to continue expanding, to continue to gain the insight I get from writing it all out. The release this provides helps maintain my sanity. It also gives me some alone time, some great friendships, and something to show my grandchildren one day.

8. Family time-The moments I get with the family, when there isn't something that has to be done (soccer games, car shows, cleaning, visiting other family) are precious, and very sparse. I love our active lifestyles, but we don't get as much quite time together as I wish we did. We use this down time to pray together, to discuss hopes and dreams, to express concerns or encourage change in each other.

9. Health-This one is pretty far down on the list but is still very important. The older I get the more I realize my lifestyle choices are not just affecting me, but my children. I want long healthy happy lives for us all!

10. Charity-I have a wealth of things. Those things are not money, but my time, my expertise, my physical body. I need to make being charitable a priority, as God calls us to help those in need.

Organizing my cleaning schedule.

Flylady has saved my life. Well, at least my house! She made has made it where I understand (most of the time) that I do not need to do everything and a few simple routines will help keep my home guest ready!
The first way was to help establish routines. We all know that these help. By following my daily schedule I can keep ahead of what gets me behind!

The next is breaking my home into "zones" or smaller areas that will be focused on during each week.

Then after identifying my zones. I used her template for detailed weekly cleaning and modified it for my own home. I *try* to stick to it each week, but since the home is generally clean, I don't beat myself up if I miss one of the deep cleaning items!

Gift of God

 

The verse is a reminder (among many that God and Jesus) given to us throughout the bible that we cannot pave our way to salvation, to eternity in heaven, without the gift that God gave us; Jesus. There is no way for us to earn a way into heaven except for having faith that Jesus Christ is our savior.

I’ve been feeling the need (okay call from Him) to write my testament out. I will post it on my blog once I have it written, as I have never written or told my story before. I hope you’ll visit again to read that, and if you have any questions you would like me to answer during that post, let me know in the comments below. Thank you.

 

 

Garlic and Rosemary Chicken

So to whip up a quick meal last night I thawed out some chicken (via the microwave) threw some edamame in after to steam up, followed by some corn.

Since this is supposed to be a recipe post, ingredients:

Chicken breasts (I use boneless, skinless)
Peanut Oil
Flour
Rosemary
Garlic Salt

Put flour in a bowl for the chicken. Fill a large frying pan with peanut oil (about halfway). Heat on medium to medium-high. Toss in rosemary and garlic salt. Enough rosemary to sparingly cover the oil, and garlic salt to taste.Let “saute” (fry?) for about five minutes. your kitchen should smell of both prior to entry of chicken.

Dry chicken breasts off and dip in flour (sorry hands were to messy to get a post-flour pre-pan picture). Place in frying pan. Let brown on each side (about 5-7 minutes depending on thickness of chicken breasts). Test with meat thermometer to ensure that the breasts are cooked through.

Serve with edamame (tossed some garlic salt on them, too) and corn. I will say that my seven year old said “The chicken is good, but eh.” Such a  critic.

Us adults love the light crispiness without there really being a batter. Guess I should just get McDonalds for him every night now, huh? Can’t win every chicken dinner…he still loves my mini chicken pot pies, so yay.

Tot School

We started off a new section of Tot School: Stories of the Bible

I read the children a story from the bible each night, but I don’t know how much they take away from it. So to incorporate more biblical teachings we’ll be doing crafts or activities associated with the bible.

To start off, we went with a simple youtube video watching. Kinzey liked shouting out the day we were on and what she was seeing appear.

Bible Story Series: Genesis The Creation of the World

Kinzey loves videos, so I knew this would be an easy way to start.

After the video we played with her puzzles for a bit with color matching. She has so much fun with anything active and where she can yell out what she is wanting. She is often taking over the teaching, once I show or ask her through the first round she starts asking me instead.

After matching the colors up, we got up and placed them on the floor. I would call out a color and she would stand on it. Once she got tired of that, I had her bring me the colors as I called them out.

I’d say it was a success. Hopefully, we’ll do letters and sight words later on this week.

I’m also excited to announce that 1+1+1=1 has new tot school activity sheets, so be prepared to see those start showing up!

Want to be bffs?

I know I do! I know you’ve seen my twitter button over there

Well, I’ve recently started hanging out there! I’ve gotten to talk with some great bloggers, and well just some awesome people in general.

Why don’t you join me? Follow my twitter (but be careful I will talk to you)

I hope to talk to you soon!

Chicken Baja Tacos

 

Remember how I said I made some super easy, but extremely tasty Chicken Baja Tacos? Check here for a reminder.

Well, hubby REALLY liked them, and requested them Friday night. I had my first softball game (hence the outfit), and we didn’t eat until after. So quick was necessary.

Instructions: (You might want those huh?)

Gather all ingredients: canned chicken (we were really hungry so we used four cans and still have left overs), fresh cilantro, lime juice, feta cheese, and tortillas. If you want some spice use Tabasco(like) sauce. Remember to take lots of pictures till your seven year old gives you that smile above. It’s the “I’m only smiling cause you said to, now take the darn picture” Smile. Love you too hooter!

Drain chicken and pour into large mixing bowl. Pour some lime juice in (no measuring here probably around a tablespoon worth). Pinch of cilantro and mix into chicken. Do this, till it looks about evenly mixed (more for spicier). We use a wooden spoon to break the chunks of chicken up to make it more shredded. You can use any type of chicken here, so if you want to cook some chicken and use it, that works too.

After the cilantro, start crumbling some feta cheese in. Not too much, just some to be mixed in. Put the entire bowl into microwave. I’d try it for 30 second intervals until the meat is heated through. Start warming up tortillas however you choose. We do them on the stove and make them puffy. Explain once again to your two year old that food needs time to cook.

Spoon chicken mix into the middle of the tortilla, add more feta and now’s the time for Tabasco sauce. Try not to eat too many! They’re addictive!