Happy Homemaker Monday

The weather in my neck of the woods: it is a very nice day here...praise God! There were 2 tornadoes in our area Saturday. Both were EF0 and a EF1 but living in western NY it is VERY rare. Praise God no one was injured in either. Just a couple of houses were damaged.

One of my simple pleasures: reading a book out under our maple tree.

On my bedside table: fan, alarm clock and my Bible.

On my TV: nothing at the moment

On the menu for tonight: stuffed zucchini. If you get a very large zucchini out of your garden, here is what you do. Scoop out the seeds to form a "boat". Stuff with the same ingredients you would use to make stuffed peppers. Bake in the oven for about 30-40 mins depending on the size of them. During the last few minutes sprinkle with cheese and melt. YUM!! My family loves this.

On my To Do List: Finish getting items around for school to start next Monday. We start early here so I can ease us back into a routine after being off for a while. Finish painting the house. I can't wait to share the transformation our home has made during the past month. Start ripping the bathroom apart.

New Recipe I tried last week: Have not really tried anything new.

In the craft basket: cards. I've become a Close to my Heart consultant. I LOVE it! I get to teach others how to make cards for less. I also love to find ways to reuse other items. Also, something I'm going to try soon is a virtual workshop. I've seen it done other places and I thought I'd give it a try. So any of you out there that might be interested check back soon for more information.

Looking forward to: Getting our home back in order after the remodel!

Homemaking Tip for this week: when you are in the middle of remodeling your home do not stress over the extra dust. This has been VERY hard for me to do. I think I have almost worn out my new vacuum. LOL!

Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other): have not really had time for extra computer time. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get back to it.

Favorite photo from last week: the storm coming in this past weekend! I've never seen clouds like this in a long time. Believe it or not this was taken around 4pm, notice how dark it is.

Lesson learned the past few days: See homemaking tip.

On my Prayer List: my sister, Sherri, about 4 years ago she developed an infection in the brain and had to have major surgery. Well today she is moving into an assisted living apartment. I also found out her husband is filing for separation. This is going to devastate her!!

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses: Psalm 46:1-2 "God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;"

To see other posts visit Sandra at Diary of a SAHM.

Slow Cooking Thursday

To see other Slow Cooking recipes visit Sandra at Diary of a SAHM.

Orange Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup molasses
2 T cider vinegar
2 T orange juice (I add some fresh oj along with some zest from that orange.)
2 T Worchestershire sauce
2 t Dijon mustard
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Place chicken in greased slow cooker. Combine all ingredients and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on high 3-4 hours or on low 7-9 hours. Makes 6 servings.

Happy Homemaker Monday

To see other posts visit Diary of a SAHM.

Weather in my neck of the woods: is BEAUTIFUL!! Not too hot or cold. We have had a very cool summer, but we are loving this weather. Average temps have been in the mid 70's! We have not had to use our air conditioner at all this year. Another reason to be thankful!!!

One of my simple pleasures: is going to the library and looking through all the books, or just picking up a magazine and thumbing through it.

On my bed side table: is my Bible, and scrapbooking catalogs from Close to my Heart, which I'm signing up for on Thursday to become a consultant!

On my TV: some kids show that my son is watching.

On the menu tonight: Shepherds Pie and veggies from the garden.

On my To Do list: clean the kitchen...deep clean. Go through school materials for next school year, which for us begins in 2 weeks. Finish going through all MY school stuff....yep...I'm heading back to college in September for Medical Assisting (which is a lot like a nurse but I can't administer medications).

New recipe I tried last week: I did not have time for new things last week. Last week was our VBS at church and I taught the Pre-K class.....I had over all 15 kids in my class!!

In the craft basket: skirts for the girls and I. Also, I'm making up recipe cards for our nephew and his wife to be who will be married in August.

I'm looking forward to: starting classes! I only have a few classes to take before I'm finished with my degree. I'll be a graduate next summer!! I love being home taking care of my family, but we just can not make ends meat on one income here in NYS.

Homemaking tip for the week: use your crockpot a lot in the summer. It does not heat up your kitchen like the stove and oven. It also saves money on your propane or electric.

Favorite Blog post of the week: I did not have time to read any blogs last week. I did not have time to blog myself last week either.

Favorite photo from last week: I did not have time (again) to take pictures or upload them to the computer.

Lesson learned the past few days: Listen always to what God is telling you to do. I mentioned before that I love being home taking care of my family. But God was directing me to pursue other options to help care for my family. I chose to ignore him for a while now. God always wins....isn't that great! Also, my husband and I have been called into ministry and are feeling God pull us in the direction of missions so the medical field will help out a lot.

On my prayer list: my family, my church family, missionaries and those serving our country.

Devotionals, Scripture reading, or Key verses: In the adult Bible study at church we are going through the book of Ecclesiastes. The author of the study book, says this, "Modern life often becomes so busy that we do not take time to think seriously about where we are heading. Ecclesiastes challenges us to take stock of what we are doing."

We were asked to answer these questions: How am I spending my time? What am I living for? Is my lifestyle really fulfilling to me? Why? or Why not? When I stopped and really thought about these I was convicted about many things. One being how much time I spend on the computer. I hear over and over again of people saying I just do not have time for...... Well I said that myself, and realized that my computer time was time being wasted on facebook, blogging, and surfing (I'm not giving these up but will just limit my time on it, unless it becomes a problem in the future)! Not only time but some things I was doing I needed to step back and ask.....am I honoring God with my tasks on the computer??

Especially on facebook, some of the things people I know are doing on there really scares me, mafia wars (sending threats to people, kidnapping etc, all in the name of fun?), vampire quizzes etc. Oh they may be innocent enough but IF you are living your life for God is this the testimony you really want to send out to others???

It made me think of that song I use to sing when I was a child..."Oh be careful little eyes what you see, oh be careful little eyes what you see, for the Father up above is looking down in love, oh be careful little eyes what you see." Then it goes on and puts in hands/touch, ears/hear.

Slow Cooking Thursday

Since we have been spending a lot of time at camp recently and lets face it...no matter how big your camper is it comes with a teeny tiny stove! Besides I have a "thing" about fire inside of the camper! So I'm taking one of my crockpots to camp this weekend. I can set it up in the morning and go about our day at the lake and come back to a cooked meal!!!

Here is one I've made.....

Taco Casserole

1 lb ground beef/turkey

1 med. onion chopped

1 clove of garlic minced

1/2 cup green pepper chopped

2 drops of hot sauce (more if you like heat)

1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 tsp chili powder

1 cup corn

2 cans of chili with beans

3/4 lb. grated cheese (I always use more)

Doritos

Brown meat and drain. Add onion, garlic and peppers, cook until tender. Add hot sauce, tomato sauce and chili powder. (I do all this before we leave and freeze it) Grease crock pot and layer ingredients into 5 layers. Start with meat. Add Doritos, corn, chili, and end with cheese. Cover and cook 6-8 hours on low.

To see other slow cooking recipes head on over to Diary of a SAHM.

Happy Homemaker Monday

The weather in my neck of the woods: beautiful sunny, cool breeze, temps in the high 70's low 80's today. I love this type of weather. Not too hot not too cold!

One of my simple pleasures: lately I've been sitting out by the garden just looking at everything around us. We have so many birds around us this year.

On my bedside table: Bible, fan, cell phone

On my TV: nothing

On the menu for tonight: ground turkey and stuffing meatballs cooked in gravy over noodles. Something I am making up as I go along.

On my To Do List: laundry from camping this past weekend...with the amount of rain we had I should of just placed them in a bucket with detergent. Also, we are going back to camp this weekend...hopefully no rain this time!

New Recipe I tried last week: I forgot many of the ingredients to make my macaroni salad. Oh I remembered the mayo and macaroni. But...forgot seasonings!! So in the refrigerator we had a jar of bread and butter pickles, so I used 2 tablespoon of pickle juice, ran to the store for garlic and onion powder. My hubby said it was the best he's ever tasted! He doesn't even like pickles...LOL!

In the craft basket: many things to go through. My brother in law's Mom passed away and she had a ton of yarn and crochet hooks that they gave to me!! I now have almost every size available. I'm going to make myself a hook roll to keep them him...something like a crayon roll but a bit bigger.

Looking forward to: going back to camp this weekend. The speaker was GREAT! Even though we got soaked Thursday night...we had such a good time, after we dried out. We do have a camper but my Mom and Dad were there also, so hubby and I usually stay in a tent. For the last few days we were there we slept in their van with the back seat taken out and our air mattress in there...which I might add didn't keep air in it for some reason!

Homemaking Tip for this week: when you leave home for a few days clean clean clean! You will love coming home to a clean home. Although...I spent most of last night cleaning it again!

Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other): My vacation post! We felt like "Lucy and Ricky" that night...except I was crying....Matthew...instead of Ricky. I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of us water logged but I didn't even want to take the camera out during the rain.

Favorite photo from last week: This is the storm rolling in on us Thursday night.

Lesson learned the past few days: It's ok to laugh when things are going wrong...like pouring rain on you while camping.

On my Prayer List: family, soldiers, church family

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses: "Love is the beginning, love is the middle and love is the end. After He comes in, all you see is Jesus only, Jesus ever." Oswald Chambers

To read other Happy Homemaker posts visit Diary of a SAHM.

Vacation

Well it has been raining here since we pulled in yesterday. It cleared just enough for us to put up our tent and have a fire. We all got snuggled in for the night and the skies opened up and let loose! It rained all night. Around mid night hubby and I woke up to *drip* drip* on our heads. Yep...our tent was leaking. Here it is pouring rain and we are trying to collect all the pillows and blankets to make it to the car...without waking up the rest of the family snug as a bug in the camper. My arms full of my pillows and blanket trying to zip the tent up...hmmmm why you ask...so it doesn't get wet in there??? When the zipper gets stuck! I decided to just leave it...LOL! Made it to the car soaking wet...laughing so hard I could barely speak. How hard could it be to sleep in the car??? Recline the seats and snuggle in....yeah right!

Hubby and I laughed most of the night until we sort of fell asleep. Then around 3 am I woke up to a face peeking into the window at me. Talk about startled!! It was Andrew worried about us. He was sleeping in the connecting tent and started getting wet as well. So he also climbed into our car. Andrew and hubby slept pretty well. I just couldn't get comfortable!! This afternoon I cleared about a quart of water out of the bottom of our tent.

Well I'm off to find something to do while we wait out yet another storm! Hopefully tomorrow it will clear enough for the fireworks! I'm just rolling with the "punches". The kids are having a wonderful time here and we are having great fellowship with my parents...who are celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary today!!