Wednesday's Household - Getting ready for spring!

Pictures of the onion project

And here's the project that we started last night - broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and peppers.

It's so fun to start thinking of spring!

Keep pressing on,
Steph

Cooking Tuesday

Carribean Pork Loin

#26

1 1/2 lbs pork loin

1/3 c white vinegar

2 T oil

2 T br sugar

2 T soy sauce

1 t thyme

1 t allspice

1 t salt

1/4  t pepper

1/4 t cinnamon

3 gr.onions

1T minced ginger

1 t minced garlic

1 gallon bag

Place 1 ½ lbs of pork loin in each freezer bag.  Mix together oil, vinegar, brown sugar and soy sauce.  Pour into bag.  Measure 1 t thyme, 1 t allspice, 1 t salt, ¼ t pepper, ¼ t cinnamon in bag.  Mix in.  Measure 1 cup green onions, and ½ c onions in bag.  Next measure 1 T minced ginger and 1 t minced garlic in bag.  

Keep pressing on

Steph

Project Monday - get those papers in order!!!!!

I found this picture on my camera and don't know who took it, but I love it!!!

 Today is organizing papers, though I'm pretty sure I can't finish all I want to do with my business yet.  I'm waiting on some hanging folders and I think I'll have to get a small file box for the majority of the hanging files.  I love my Fold N File though for sitting on my kitchen counter.  It makes for an easy way to quickly grab a catalog or order form.

 All the catalog, order forms, brochures and fliers at my disposal.

I do have another file box, not near so pretty sitting on my kitchen counter, for the school papers, and technically it's for bills, but that's never been a good place to leave something for me.  A white little tote type thing like the one below works for all my office stuff, since I work on the kitchen table.  This white tote is holding my extra catalogs and papers till I make an office.

Most everything is filed away and ready for the next party.  Another great use for the file box is for recipes.  Those recipe boxes are awful small and usually don't fit those 9x13 sheets of paper that you print from your computer.

Got any other ideas for getting papers in order?
Keep pressing on.
Steph

Thursday's Thoughts

As I sit here this morning, not really where I want to be, which is in a town about 1/2 hour from here, staring at the snow falling outside, I can't help but be thankful for a warm house and electricity.  I was so ready for the snow to be done.  A couple of days in the 50's and one in the 60's really makes one ready for spring.

I am enjoying being home with my one daycare kiddo playing quietly with cars - he can remain fascinated for hours driving those things in a line all around the living room.  I am thankful my husband is home, and that my own kiddos are safe at school and not out in this weather.

God has really given us so many blessings, and lately I've been forgetting them.  I've spent my time obsessing a little much about a thirty-one party as opposed to just resting in Him, knowing He is in control and no matter the outcome, He says my job is not to worry.

So the snow has come to make me stop and consider where I'm headed in this new adventure - the Thirty-one adventure.  Seems to me whenever I've fallen fully on His grace through this adventure, He totally amazes me and throws something unexpected my way.  But like I told my husband this morning, even if He doesn't do that with this, me trusting and resting on Him is way better than the alternative.

Keep pressing on,
Steph

Wednesday's Household - busyness in my business

Through all the changes in our house lately, this blog has suffered.  I really want to keep it up and I really want something new daily, but it hasn't been happening.  There are other things that are more important, but I still need this.  I still need to remember my biggest and most important job - my family.

So please bear with me through the bumps.  I'm still figuring out which way is up.  I'm enjoying where God has us right now, but sometimes I just forget that there's this thing called a blog that I started.

My Daily Five are getting done pretty much daily.  And I have my times scheduled out, just need to write "Blog Now" on my daily routine calendar.

Change is usually good, but sometimes it's stressful and sometimes even discouraging.  Also, have you heard?  It's tax season and that is taking up quite a bit of my time.

Keep pressing on, and keep your head above the water.

A quote I've been thinking about is from 31 Days of Clean - “Life-giving, in its most basic sense, is raising life above the level of mere existence.”

Steph

Cooking Tuesday - BBQ Pork chops

Barbeque Pork Chops

40 pork chops

2 T oil

8 cups of BBQ sauce or make your own BBQ Sauce

Brown chops in oil.  Cook chops.  Put 10 chops in each bag.  Pour 2 cups BBQ sauce over chops. 

Label: Place in the crockpot frozen for 8 hours on low. Or thaw and bake at 350 for one hour.

Cooking Tuesday - Make ahead Freezer Chili

Chili

3 lbs gr beef

1 T minced garlic

9 c Red Sauce

3 cans pork and beans

3 T chili

6 cans kidney beans

3 T hot pepper sauce

3 t oregano

3 t pepper

3 gallon bags

Cook ground beef. Drain

Label with this label:
Thaw on counter during the day and cook in a pot, or place frozen in a crockpot on low all day. 


If you have your own chili that you love, I'm pretty sure it would work the same way.  My suggestion is....instead of laying your freezer bag flat.  Stand it up.  That way when you cut the bag off to put it in the crockpot it fits - especially if you have an oblong crockpot which I do not have. :)

Wednesday's Household and Thursday's Thoughts - Busy times!!

I'm combining these posts because I've been super busy this week, - starting a new business and planning for our youth group combined with another church youth group to attend the Dare2Share conference this weekend.  Twenty-two of us are going.  It's a big undertaking and I'm working on the arrangements and all the details.  I love doing this, but a few things came up to try to make it harder than it really needs to be.

We got new tires for the van and found out the wheels needed new ball joints and some other stuff.  So the van is in the shop right now and we are leaving in 2 hours. :)  Hopefully it's done and just waiting for me and hubby to have a chance to get it.

Bread has to be made for sack lunches, and for the kids who are staying home for chili tonight and sandwiches tomorrow.  So 8 loaves of bread - don't want to run out. 2 pans of brownies - for lunches and for snacks here at home.

Laundry done and sheets changed for the one staying with our little kiddos and also because our friend is coming over on Sunday and she'll spend the night.

Packing for five to go to this conference.

Making sure we have maps and all the release forms needed for the trip

Oh and on top of that the pipes were frozen yesterday - no water for most of the morning.

But the Lord gave grace through it all and the only time I was truly overwhelmed was this morning when the table was full of all the things that need to be done.

So this is all you'll be hearing from me for this week.  :)  Have a great weekend.

Keep pressing on,
Steph

Cooking Tuesday - Spanish Rice

This makes three recipes, or two for bigger groups.

3 lbs gr. beef

12 cups Red Sauce

6 cups white rice

1 onion

1 pepper

1 can olives

6 cups cheddar

6 gallon bags

3 quart bags

Cook meat and drain.  Cool.  Divide between three gallon bags, unlabeled.  Add 2 cups of cooked white rice to each bag, and 4 cups of Red Sauce.  Add onion, pepper, and olives to the bags.  In the quart bag put 2 cups of cheddar (shredded) and place the quart bag and the gallon bag with the casserole in the labeled gallon bag.

Label with this label:

 Thaw:  Bake in a 9x13 pan for an hour at 350 degrees uncovered.

Project Monday - that silly kitchen drawer!!!

It's that drawer. It's giving me fits.  I clean and organize and in no time it's a mess!!  Really, a mess.

"Can't find the calculator, honey."
"Didya check "the" drawer?"
"Yep, it's not in there."
"K, gimme a sec.  Um here it is in the drawer, under all kinds of stuff.  "

Yep, that's me.  It feels like it's never-ending.  Today I tagged my bins with little labels.  I'm hoping at least it will help me remember what was in there when I organized it today.   Maybe I'll remember where things were at the starting point of organization.

Brushes don't go in here, nor do hair things.  Because we have a hair drawer with all things needed for hair in the bathroom closet.  It's only a few steps from the kitchen.  No need to have them here.  It's still necessary to have this drawer for the calculator etc.  Hubby's always looking for pens and pencils, here, so I need to keep them here and tape, etc.  Even some tools are handy to have here, but not like the picture above.  Ugh, so frustrating.

So it's organized again and it's hopefully going to stay that way, well it will... in my dreams.  But I'm hoping that if people see the tags, they'll know where to put the stuff when they put it away.  But at least I'll know, and that's what matters.

Keep pressing on,
Steph