Coffee for Breakfast

I have a cute little friend who I lost touch with several years ago, when we moved away from my hometown. Actually then she was just a little girl. A playmate to my oldest daughter and a week long love interest of my son. LOL I distinctly remember her coming to my son's costume birthday party dressed as a princess. :) We moved away and have been gone for lots of years now. Facebook reintroduced us. She is now a grown up married lady! How time flies. As we reconnected through a few text messages, she told me the thing that she remembered most about me was how I always made a weekly menu plan. She thought it was a very weird thing to do. LOL Seems to me that I was way ahead of my time. Menu planning seems to be a very popular topic online nowadays. Having five children at home all day everyday made it necessary to plan meals. Who knows, my friend Summer may be finding menu planning a little less weird now that she is cooking for her own new family. This is mine for th...

  For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Gal. 5:13-16 This verse strikes a very raw nerve in me this morning. I wonder if one of those desires of the flesh might be a human feeling of being understood? Do we bicker, argue, and gossip because we feel like no one understands us? I hear it and I say it. "They don't even know me. They couldn't possibly understand my pain. They would understand my reaction if they only knew what I've been through." EXCUSES. I think we all have them. We excuse our own behaviors. We know how our own heart aches. We excuse our own words to others. We know what we were try...

"Do what you can with what you have." These words have been on my mind all week. Especially when I come up with excuses for not doing certain things. "I don't have (fill in the blank) to do this or that." "I'll do it later, when I have more (time, money, etc.)." Or one of the most common... "I'll start (fill in the blank) on Monday." Monday comes and goes, week after week. Time moves forward. I get older with each passing day. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is found in Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. I want to be a part of this new thing God is doing in my life. I want to be fully aware of His presence working in my life. I want to obey His words to my heart. "Do what you can with what you have." I believe the time is now. No more procrastinating. God says He is doing ...

I've been on a quest (a long drawn out quest) for a healthier lifestyle. I won't pretend to have it conquered. Not even close! On the other hand, we have started to make some positive changes. We are attempting to eliminate all processed foods. This is going very well. I say attempting because we will continue to use things previously purchased. I grocery shop on a very tight budget and can not bring myself to throw some items out. I'm happy to say we don't actually buy very many processed groceries to start with. This change has been fairly easy as long as we are eating at home. The only challenge has been eating out (very seldom) and fast food (daughters, quite often). The choices may be limited at fast food places, but they usually do have a few items that could be considered "healthy". I have chronic thirst. I am known to have something to drink at all times! I know this could signal a health problem or dehydration. (I'm working on it!) The ma...

The website I can't get enough of this week is... 100 days of real food Oh my goodness! If you want to eat real or whole foods, this is a good place to start. Having been a "whole foods family" in the past, I have been able to skim some of the how-to get started articles while learning a lot of new information at the same time. Eating healthy can be a challenge at times. Mostly getting started is a challenge. Once you make up your mind and stock up on a few staple items, eating healthy can become second nature. You do have to be willing to research, experiment, and if you aren't a gazillionare...you have to be willing to cook from scratch! Some successful recipes I have tried this week: egg salad (I know... this is simple. I have fresh eggs from our new chickens though, and had to list it.) banana pancakes with maple syrup (yum! these were a hit and I froze the leftovers for an easy breakfast later this week) Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (wonderful! I...

How cute is this??? I have been on pinterest a little too much this week. My husband and youngest daughter took a little work trip so I have had some time on my hands. It's hard to sleep when he isn't home. I like to snuggle! :) I think I'll make these cute pillowcases to welcome him home.