Beef in Onion Gravy

This is yummy and great anytime:

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 pkt of onion soup mix

2 beef boullion cubes

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 lb. beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes

Hot cooked noodles, mashed potatoes, or rice

Combine the soup, soup mix, broth, and cornstarch. Let stand for 15 minutes. Stir in the beef. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or until meat is tender. Serve over noodles, rice or mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

WFMW

This is something that I recently read about and decided to give a try.

One of the many beauty supplies that has recently gotten my attention is Primer. This is suppose to smooth lines and allow your make-up to have a flawless application and make us look great! Well, some of those 'Primers' can have expense tags starting at $ 25 and going to where the sky is the limit. After some research, I found out that most of the same ingredients can be found in Monostat Chafing Relief Powder-Gel. Many beauty chat rooms are filled with happy people who are using this product as their primer and find the results to be the same as the pricier products. This product is less than $7 and can be found in the supermarkets or Walmart. This is what works for me this Wednesday and I hope it will for you too!!

Oh Lordy Be!!

Yes, only 8 1/2 days left till school ends and don't I know it!!! The kids know it too and are just going bananas!! So much to do and so little time but the excitement in the air just can't compare!! Oh how I love the summer breaks and the time it gives me to be the full-time Mom I so long to be!!

It's because of this busy time of year that I haven't had time to post to this blog and I have missed it!! It's also a time of year where the Lord has plans to prepare us for patience, and endurance and faith. You see, in the course of a week, our van has been totalled (no one hurt), the blender died, my carpet cleaner is on it's last leg, and I killed the washer machine yesterday. Sound familiar to anyone? Now I have no less than 2 loads/day and the washer is 12 years old so I'm not sure if I should call a repair man or just try to find a new one. Our issue is that our needs are quickly out numbering our resources. My son also needs to visit specialists in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks and this too adds to the need/resource ratio being out of wack. We will be traveling from our home state of NC. But I know our God is in control and he knows our needs and I will be still and wait upon Him.

I heard a new song on one of our Christian Radio stations and it was called "Before the day Begins". That song spoke directly to my soul and I felt such peace that we are in Christ's hands and there isn't anything that has happened that surprised God...just us. We will need to make some decisions so please keep our family in prayer and thank you in advance for that!!

Side note: Since the above mentioned song is new, I missed who the artist was. If you happen to know it, please send it to me. I'd love to down-load this to my iPod. Thanks all!

Kielbasa and Sauerkraut

This is one of those great crowd pleasers that can be scaled down to accomodate smaller family sizes. Measurements below can be adjusted to reflect your needs. This is good alone or can be eaten on hoagie rolls with honey-mustard and ooh so good!!

2-3 lbs kielbasa (beef or pork)cut into links (for rolls) or slices
2-3 small pkgs. of sauerkraut
2-3 Tbsp. celery seed (can be omitted if not in pantry)
2-3 tsp. dry ground mustard.

Combine all ingredients and if frozen keilbasa is used, cook on low 6-8 hours. If thawed, only 4 hours. My kids think of keilbasa as big hot dogs so they enjoy ketchup on theirs. Add a salad and you've got a complete meal. Enjoy and Happy Cooking!

WFMW

This is a goody for me and my household: Crud-Kutter. You can buy it by the gallon at Lowes or Home Depot and it does it all!! I first found out about this product through our home builders. They were using this product to clean carpets, windows, and anything that needs cleaning. It's usually $11-12 and that's in it's concentrated form. I use it full strength on carpets and have since used it on everything else including our cars. It's really good at getting that black, sticky stuff off the underside of my car (which is white and shows all stains). We also use Crud-Kutter to power-wash our home. It really is a does all product and that's my tip of the day :). Hope you get to try it out...it's usually found in the paint departments.

Getting Ready

Summer is coming sooner than I can get my mind ready for. Maybe it's because the weather here has been so strange...80's one day, 60's the next. This spring doesn't seem to know which way to go just yet.

In keeping with summer rituals, the new list of books to read has begun. Some I've purchased just for summer, others I've had but haven't gotten time to read yet, and others still have been started but not yet completed. I've got about 4 of those. Working full time limits the time I have to read so I really try to make up for it when not working (summer break)! Check out Sandra's site http://familycorner.blogspot.com/ for her current book give-away offer.

A New Day Dawns

I hope all the Moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day...mine was! Treats, gifts, lounging in jammies, good movies, popcorn, cuddle time, and a meal planned, prepared, cooked and cleaned-up by DH with an awesome dessert to top it all off. Who could ask for more? It's a good thing Mother's Day is only once a year because I could get pretty use to that kind of living!!

I'm in the middle of a Jennifer Rothschild Bible Study on Faith. I wasn't aware until this study that Jennifer was blind. She uses her experience to parallel our faith in things unseen and to blindly lay down our struggles, concerns, and anxieties to our God who sees all and knows all. It's hard to let go of our control and to say "Lord you are my God and I give this thing to you" but without relinquishing our control, we can lose all control in all our circumstances. We can't surprise God, but oh how the daily living stuff can surprise and knock us off our path if we let it. My prayer today is that we "let go and let God". I hope you have a wonderful day and I am gonna try to do the same. Be a blessing to someone today.

Enough Already!

My daughter just turned 9 in April. She is smart, beautiful, strong-willed, independent & overly dramatic. I know that God is going to use her talents & personality to do mighty things but sometimes I just cannot get a handle on how to be the Mom she needs me to be. She is resistant to advise yet very much needs to be loved and held and very defiant all at the same time. Did I mention she's 9? I shutter to think about the teen years.

Given these traits, she is extremely anxious about our upcoming End-Of-Grade (EOG) testing that takes place in 2 weeks at school. I am so fortunate that the Lord has given me my work at my children's school and so I can help know more about the ins & outs of testing and curriculum and really know and be a part of their schooling while fulfilling the calling the Lord has given me. Had the Lord not guided me in my work, then I believe I would be a homeschool Mom. However, that's not where I have been led to this point.

Anyway, my daughter is aware that she is in no way at risk for retention given her hard work and dedication to her school studies and she has done quite well academically this year. She just refuses to accept that these tests are not the end all be all and the closer it gets to test time, the more anxiety she displays and she is now demonstrating classroom behaviors that are distracting to the teacher and students around her. It's not fun having a parent conference with your co-worker especially when it's not the best of news. I don't feel equipped enough to properly guide her to decrease her behaviors especially when it may be outward displays of anxiety. I' m trying to use scripture to help her relieve this level of stress but I would definitey welcome any and all advise/counsel to help me help her relax. I think it's a shame that so many of our kids endure this kind of stress at such a young age and wonder what the effects will be years down the line. Is seems that so much more is now expected of our children than we ever encountered in our schooling.

I am so fortunate and blessed that the teachers I work with are mostly Christian. We as a collective school personnel body say pray before our school lunches and after school meetings. We support other personnel in prayer in school and I thank God for allowing me to be in this place and to do His will among so many believers but sometimes I just don't fell like I can be all I need to be for my children when so much of my time is spent with other children.

Please keep my family in prayer and please send all advise...I welcome the counsel of the godly!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's reading this!!

Slow Cooker Thursday

This is dinner my family enjoyed last night and I hope you will too!! (Be patient as these are my first few days blogging and I'm trying to learn all I can about postings)

Chicken and noodles

6 frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 12 oz pkg of frozen stir-fry veggies
1 pkg of onion soup mix
1 24 oz pkg of frozen chopped spinach
1 32 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
1 8oz can of cream of celery soup
3 Tbsp of dried Rosemary
Salt & Pepper to taste

I placed all ingredient in order and let it go on low for 8-9 hours and served over egg noodles. It was simple and quick to set-up and that's what I love about crock-pots!!

First Day!!

I'm not sure who will see this or what will appear as this is my first blogging experience and who knows what will happen. I'll learn as I go along and hope to soon be among those I have so enjoyed visiting. If anyone see this, let me know what to do next so that I may learn from the those who have gone before me. Thanks!!