Menu 4/23

I was so proud of myself. I sat down last week and planned a great week of meals. You know there is a "but" in that statement. It happened Monday as I was cooking dinner. I ran out of gas. We ended up at the Indian restaurant in our town.

Monday
Indian Restaurant

Tuesday
Chicken Broccoli Casserole

Wednesday
Carrot soup with tomato cheese pie

Thursday
Lentils & Rice taco style

Friday
leftovers

Saturday
hmm either Greek night which was moved from Thursday or maybe a hike so we will skip that.

Rethinking my dream

I had a dream of someday having land and being able to raise some chickens. I thought it would be nice to have my own eggs and have hormone free chickens. I worked up the courage and told my husband my dream. I wasn't sure how he would react. His reaction in a way shocked me. He didn't laugh but said that sounds good. So for the past months we have been talking about raising chickens.

Today I bought a chicken and now I am rethinking that dream. Did you know that chickens have heads and their feet have nice nails? Somehow seeing the head on the chicken made her look a bit too real. This was a yellow chicken and not a black chicken. I just grabbed it and ran out of the store wanting to get home.

Menu 4/16

What are we eating this week?
That is a good question. One that I do hope to answer prior to the end of the week and hopefully before 5:30 each day. I need a plan.

Monday
Indian restaurant - we just got home from traveling and had no food in the house
Tuesday
Big huge salad using Island China's copycat dressing
Miss K had a hard boiled egg, veggie and cheese
Wednesday
Out with friends - these are friends that live in town but we rarely see
Thursday
Out with friends - these are our new friends who are moving here and so this is our chance to get together
Friday
leftovers or whatever Miss K and I can find around the house as Bo has his Friday night fellowship
Saturday
I can't think that far ahead. I don't know what we will be doing. I might go to the Scrapbook Day or we might go hiking. We might see our new friends again. I might cook or we might go out.

Now I do have a plan for the week and we will be eating.

A Beautiful God

Last week a friend and I were wandering an Asia antique market. There amid the dishes, teapots, paintings were various idols. One thing that struck me as I looked at these were how scary they were. Their facial expression was what would be described as scary. Maybe it is done that way to cause people to fear them.

Additionally as I looked at them, none of the idols looked beautiful. As we wander the market, I thought of how beautiful my God, the living creator God is. I was reminded of David's words in Psalm 27:4 "One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple." Oh, to gaze upon the LORD and to see his beauty. To me gaze has the idea of looking, pondering, looking again, seeing new details and just looking. That is not what I did in the market that day. I glimpsed and looked the other way.

I am so thankful to know the living God who is a beautiful God.

Worldwide Down Syndrome Day

I missed it. I guess that is a result of living in my own little world here in what often seems to be the middle of nowhere. Now that I know about it I will remember it next year. It is rather easy to remember 3-21 is Worldwide Down Syndrome Day. Why that date? Down Syndrome is 3 copies of the 21st chromosome.

We have lived with DS for 2 1/2 years. It is full of ups and downs. Now seems to be more ups than downs. I do remember the downs, the days of wondering, tears, fears, and not knowing.

Things I am thankful for about Down Syndrome:
1. There is quite a bit of research and books available. I have a collection on my shelf -- Teaching Math to Down Syndrome Children, Teaching Reading, Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor skills, Language and Communication, Babies with Down Syndrome, and a few more.

2. This might sound a bit strange but in a way I am thankful for the distinct features. That clues people in a bit. I am also thankful for her small size because people don't often realize she is as old as she is so their expectations are not as high.

3. I am thankful for the community I have met through DS. I have met so many wonderful moms and dads and extra blessings. I remember soon after Miss K was born and we learned she had DS I asked a missionary if she knew anyone anywhere who has a DS child and was living overseas. No, she didn't but then a week later she called and said they just remembered a couple living 2 hours south of us with a 10 year old son. That was the first parent I talked to and I was so encouraged. I also joined an online homeschool group after we learned Miss K had DS and even before she came home from the hospital. That also has been a source of encouragement and help.

4. I am thankful to God for all he has done in the past 2 1/2 years and know that he will continue in the years to come. He actually began working before she was born in moving us to deliver in a hospital that had a NICU. He provided doctors who were willing to take risks and perform her heart surgery. We had a wonderful PT who pushed Miss K and donated her time to help us. This list goes on including the Speech therapist that lives here in my village in the middle of nowhere and is working with Miss K.

Today most days she is just Miss K who keeps us laughing and some days she is Miss K with that extra chromosome that gets in the way.

So today I am celebrating a bit late Worldwide Down Syndrome Day but really I celebrate it every day.

30 days to an organized kitchen

Organizing Junkie is hosting a 30 day organizational Challenge. I decided to tackle the kitchen. My reason for picking that area is because that is my biggest challenges in this apartment. I love to cook but things are not organized they are stacked and often I am rearranging piles to get to things I need. The room is small but has quite a bit of stuff both food and things I use.

As I go through this room, I really do want to look for things that I can get rid of or maybe move to another place in the apartment. I think we might eat quite a bit of the food that we have around that we have not yet eaten.

My goal is to have an organized useful kitchen at the end of 30 days. I might have to get rid of some things to reduce the clutter and also buy a few containers to help keep things organized but I also want to see what I have around here that I can use.

Here is the current state of the kitchen.

This is actually a drawer. It looks like a junk drawer but that is just because it is not organized.
Technically the refrigerator is not in the kitchen but in the dining room but I decided to include that in the organizational challenge not necessarily the inside but the top and the outside.

This is under the sink. I have cleaning supplies, soft drinks, onions potatoes, and trash bags aka grocery bags.
This is the cabinet with the baking pans and my stash of almonds.

This is above where the stove would be so it is high up and you can see the vent. It needs some organizational help. I couldn't even turn the spice shelf last night as I think something was caught in the back.

It is almost impossible to get a picture of the whole kitchen. You can see the stove/oven, the place where a 2 burner stove would go and then the sink.

This is a bookshelf that fits along the wall that holds food and containers and my cookbooks. You can see how things are piled on there.

One more cabinet. You can to be careful when you open this one that things don't fall out.

A few of the challenges that I face in the room are the available space and the amount of things that need to go in that space. I do have to keep stocked up on things as you can't always find it at the grocery store.

There now the whole world can see my kitchen but I am planning that in 30 days you will see a new organized and clutter free kitchen.

March's Results

It is hard to believe that it is April already. Time to reflect on how I did on my goals for the year.

Read one book - I did it. The exciting this is I found a place where I can give my books away and know they are being used. I have a bag here to give to my friend.

Reduce - I used some more fabric making bags. I didn't buy any more fabric. I did buy some ribbon but that is so small. Paper - I scrapbooked 27 pages so that used some paper. I also gave some paper away to a friend who is beginning to scrapbook. I will confess I bought some new paper but it was just what I need for my Asian pages.

Exercise - I am walking with my walking partner when it is not raining. I will admit that I am not where I should be in that.

Quiet time - I am continuing in my Romans study and currently am in the middle of Psalms.

That was March. Now we move into April.

Menu 4/2 to 4/7

I sat down and planned my menu on paper and then drew arrows all around the paper as I moved things around because of various changes in our week.

Monday
Asian style beef stew which I made for lunch as Bo was not going to be home for dinner and we didn't have leftovers. I don't like cooking my big meal at lunchtime.

Tuesday
Thai meal out with friends

Wednesday
We have a lunch appointment and so for dinner we are going to have something easy
Lemon Asparagus with bow-tie pasta

Thurday
Chicken with potato casserole Need to make some sides and dessert as we are having company

Friday
Chicken stir-fry - I want to make a stir-fry once a week. My gas canister is the biggest one which tells me that cooking western uses more gas so I am going to try something new more Asian cooking

Napkins

I have had this fabric for too long. There is a coordinate fabric that goes with it but I don't have much of that left over. It is a beautiful French print actually produced there. I decided it would make great napkins so yesterday I cut and sewed 6 napkins. I still have quite a bit of fabric so maybe I will make them for gifts. I also did some mending, sewed a button on Miss K's jumper, sewed a button on my coat, and sewed up a hem that was coming undone.

Travel Swap

The scrapbook group that I am part of meets once a month and we often have a swap. April's theme is travel. I had some time this afternoon and wanted to see what I could create. I was pleasedwith the outcome. I started with a pocket envelope, then stamped a world map using the watermark pad and then used my fun travel stamps around the edges and then added some hint of colour with my chalks.

I made 12. I think that should be enough for the swap.

Need to Create

Yesterday I was feeling the need to create something. It seemed like life had gotten busy and I had not been doing anything creative. The easiest thing was to do some beading. I had fun with these two pieces. The one is pink and black beads with a bit of silver just perfect for for a pink and black skirt that I have. The other one is just blue seed beads with some other colourful beads that I have. I can always find something to wear with blue.

Carrot Cookies

Today's was the mom's group Easter party. I decided to make some fun cookies for the kids. I think I had about 45 in the box and would you believe I actually brought cookies home. Last night I taught Miss K how to lick the beater. Hey, it is therapy. That is one of the things that we special needs moms do label just about everything "therapy". I can find all kinds of things to buy as long as it is "therapy". Now if I could figure out how to have my scrapbook supplies considered therapy I would be set.

We are working on licking in speech therapy so I thought why not practice at home.

Menu week of March 26

I wrote the menu on Friday and ended up changing things around.

Monday - pizza with the leftover sauce from meatball sandwiches and fresh mushrooms instead of canned since I had those that needed to be eaten.

Tuesday - Chili con corn - I have the tomato sauce leftover from making the spaghetti sauce and everything else.

Wednesday - might be leftovers as I am going for tea with a friend in the afternoon. It is a buffet from 3:30 to 6:00

Thursday - Chicken and pineapple over rice

Friday - Asian beef stew only because we have not had beef for a while and this is one of our favorite beef dishes

Meatball Sandwiches

I was really hungry for a meatball sandwich. It is just a bit too far to run for a good V&S but if I were going for a V&S sandwich I would probably go for a ham and cheese. Anyway, I decided to make meatball sandwiches. First I made the rolls. I just made bread dough and shaped it for the rolls.Then I made the meatballs and added them to the sauce.
They were yummy. Now we have the sauce without meatballs and will have pizza this week for dinner.

Weekly Menu 3/19

We have been eating this week. I am getting back into posting my menu and doing a bit more planning.

Monday - Chicken with peanut sauce and couscous - it was yummy
Tuesday - pork chops, noodles and asparagus
Wednesday - meatball sandwiches
Thursday - enchilada chicken casserole - I am going to use up all the bags of corn chips that we have
Friday - Chili Con corne casserole

This week's meals didn't leave much in leftovers so lunch has to be created. We had quiche and then a few other things that we could find around here.

Pasta with pesto

This is one of our favorite quick meals. It is a combination of a recipe from a missionary friend in Italy and a restaurant entree in Asia.

Cook pasta. After a few minutes of cooking add green beans and cauliflower. Cook until done.
Drain. Mix pesto according to taste preference. Serve. If it is lunch, we just serve ourselves out of the pan.

Crustless Quiche

Yesterday, I tried a new quiche recipe and this is a winner in my book.

Ingredients

4 oz	Bacon
1/2	Yellow onion
6	Eggs
3/4 cup	Cream
2 boxes (10 oz	Each) frozen broccoli or spinach
1/2 pound	Shredded cheese
1/2 t	Salt
1/4 t	Pepper

Preparation

heat oven to 350

Butter a 10" tart pan or 9" deep pie plate, or muffin tin

in large skillet over medium heat cook bacon until crisp. drain on paper towels; coarcely chop.

Remove all but 1 T bacon dripping from skillet. Add onion and cook minutes until softened but not brown.

In large bowl combine eggs, cream, broccoli, cheese, salt and pepper. Stir in bacon and onion.

Pour mixture in prepare pan. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes (tenting with foil if necessary to prevent over browning) or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes before cutting or removing from pan.

I found it here.

As usual, I made some modifications to the recipe. I didn't have any bacon and so I skipped that and fried my onion in a bit of butter. I used spinach and honestly just added some cheddar and Emmental cheese (it is some French cheese with holes).

Bargain Find

The other day I was in the grocery store and saw the Play-Doh Fun Factory and thought it looked neat but wasn't really going to pay the full price for it. They say that Miss K loves playing with play-doh at BSF but the last times she did it at home she ate it.

Well, later I was in the store and saw the crowds of people crowding the clearance bins and look what I found at almost 50 percent off the original price. I grabbed two one for Miss K's birthday and one for my gift box.

The results

It wasn't the best of weeks in a number of ways. Emotional up and downs and my steady husband was halfway around the world. His plane is supposed to land in about an hour and we here are excited.

So I did manage to get rid of probably 60 things. I took a bag of craft things to a friends house which probably had about 20 things in it. I gave lots of paper to two friends who were wanting to start scrapbooking. That was about 20 things. I did get rid of a few other things as well. I have a few things that are sitting here to go to clothing recyle and also to be mailed.

I was going to say that next week was back to normal but we have a staff conference the first few days and then we have Keswick that we want to attend. Oh, and I have been asked to bake for Keswick. I do enjoy baking. I made 9 loaves of banana bread already. They were just little loaves and my freezer is full.

February Results

It is hard to believe that it is the beginning of March already. It is time to reflect on how I am doing on my goals for the year.

Exercise - I found a walking partner. We go out 2 mornings a week. That is good but I still need to find 2 more times a week for some exercise. I really should get back to do Slim in 6.

At the beginning of February I picked a book to read and evaluate if it is worth keeping. I didn't start reading the book until the 26th or maybe even the 27th. I think I ready enough to know that I don't want to keep it. I did read a few good quotes but not enough to keep it on my shelves. I need to find some place where I can donate books.

Using & Reducing fabric and paper - I scrapbooked a total of 20 papers in February which used up some paper. I will confess that I orderd some Asian paper some of which I already have and some which I won't receive for another week so I guess paper is a wash as I used some but I also bought some. I used some fabric and didn't buy anymore even though I was tempted.

I am continuing to have my quiet time in the morning. I am in Romans and Psalms.

February was a good month. We had a big holiday in there and had company for a week. I am looking forward to March.