I think I'm going to try to start blogging again. We'll see how it goes this year. Two years ago I tried to blog about recipes that I had been trying. I think that's where I'll start again. I love trying new recipes and want to attempt to make a new one each week (on average). When I do, I'll post about it here. Hopefully I'll find a few winners! I'll also post some of my favorite recipes so that you can have them too! :)
So to play a little bit of catch up since my last post (yikes!), Janessa Jean was born on August 8, 2013! She arrived at 8:22 a.m. and weighed 8 lbs 3 oz. I love that the number 8 appears so often in her stats. Biblically, eight is the number of new beginnings. I just love that! I've also started planning her first birthday party. I know, I know, it's early. But I get so excited and I love planning parties (maybe that's what I should have done for a career).
JJ will be turning 3 this year! Time is flying by but it's exciting to watch him grow and learn. He loves to help out with Janessa and can almost always make her laugh and calm her down when she's crying. Overall, he's a wonderful big brother and we're so proud of him! He knows most of the alphabet (he still gets hung up on "L M N O P"), can count to 10 and is working on making it to 20, and can identify several shapes.
Hopefully I keep up with this blog this year. If you're reading this, hold me accountable, will you?
Enjoy your day! :)
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Encourage a new mom
I saw a pin on Pinterest recently and I absolutely loved it! In fact, I cried a little thinking about the wonderful things that we as women and moms can do to be an encouragement to one another. Now, some of these things I will never be able to do (like paint toe nails...yuck!). But there are many feasible suggestions on this wonderful list of 100 Ways to Encourage a New Mom!
Five things I will try to do for my friend who is going to be a new mom soon:
1. Help with cleaning her house (this encompasses several suggestions)
2. Bring chocolate
3. Be honest about how hard motherhood can be
4. Bring a meal
5. Send a special prayer, encouragement, or blessing to the baby via snail mail.
Five things I will try to do for my friend who is going to be a new mom soon:
1. Help with cleaning her house (this encompasses several suggestions)
2. Bring chocolate
3. Be honest about how hard motherhood can be
4. Bring a meal
5. Send a special prayer, encouragement, or blessing to the baby via snail mail.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Running and Rain
Today I ran the Harvest Hustle in Lowell. And it poured! My shoes aren't even a year old yet but I had a puddle in the bottom of both by the time I was finished. I certainly didn't want to buy new shoes, but I just wasn't sure what to do. I've heard of other people washing and drying their shoes in the machine but I was skeptical. Until I came across this Web site! It worked wonders, and in about an hour I had completely dry tennis shoes!
Instructions:
1. Open the dryer
2. Put your shoes (still laced) in the dryer, but keep part of the laces out.
3. Shut the door on the laces.
4. Tie a bow with the laces on the outside of the dryer.
5. Set dryer on low and run for about an hour.
6. Remove from dryer and enjoy your warm shoes! And in Michigan in October, you know how great that feels!
Instructions:
1. Open the dryer
2. Put your shoes (still laced) in the dryer, but keep part of the laces out.
3. Shut the door on the laces.
4. Tie a bow with the laces on the outside of the dryer.
5. Set dryer on low and run for about an hour.
6. Remove from dryer and enjoy your warm shoes! And in Michigan in October, you know how great that feels!
Monday, May 7, 2012
Blue Punch and Chicken Salad
I thought I would combine these posts into one since they were both featured at JJ's first birthday party. We'll start with the punch. It was a variation of a baby shower punch which I found at this Web site. We tweaked it a little bit because we didn't want it to look like bath water, but more like a body of water. Our recipe is below.
Blue Punch:
1 2 liter bottle of Sprite
1 64 ounce bottle of white grape juice
1 packet of unsweetened blue Kool-aid (we used the blue raspberry iced tea)
8 scoops of pineapple sherbet
First add the white grape juice and Kool-aid. Then cut a small hole in the Sprite bottle and add that to the mix. Slowly add 8 scoops of sherbet in small amounts so that it won't bubble.
Now the chicken. My family has used this chicken salad recipe for many showers and other events. We love it! As with any chicken salad recipe, you can add other ingredients or take some away, but ours is very basic. We also put them on croissants from Gordon Food Service.
Chicken Salad Sandwiches:
Salad:
Chicken
Celery
Grapes
Dressing:
Mayonnaise
Sugar
Lemon Juice
A little salt and pepper
For about 25 people (not including children) we made 18 cups of the salad and had some left over. For the dressing, we mixed 2 full jars of mayonnaise (one at a time) with the other ingredients until it tasted "right". It's difficult sometimes to figure out what it needs to taste right but you just don't want it to taste like straight mayonnaise.
We put the first full mixture onto the salad before making the next batch. When we put the next batch on we added half first and mixed, and then added a little bit at a time until the whole salad was moist (it didn't take the whole second batch).
Blue Punch:
1 2 liter bottle of Sprite
1 64 ounce bottle of white grape juice
1 packet of unsweetened blue Kool-aid (we used the blue raspberry iced tea)
8 scoops of pineapple sherbet
First add the white grape juice and Kool-aid. Then cut a small hole in the Sprite bottle and add that to the mix. Slowly add 8 scoops of sherbet in small amounts so that it won't bubble.
Now the chicken. My family has used this chicken salad recipe for many showers and other events. We love it! As with any chicken salad recipe, you can add other ingredients or take some away, but ours is very basic. We also put them on croissants from Gordon Food Service.
Chicken Salad Sandwiches:
Salad:
Chicken
Celery
Grapes
Dressing:
Mayonnaise
Sugar
Lemon Juice
A little salt and pepper
For about 25 people (not including children) we made 18 cups of the salad and had some left over. For the dressing, we mixed 2 full jars of mayonnaise (one at a time) with the other ingredients until it tasted "right". It's difficult sometimes to figure out what it needs to taste right but you just don't want it to taste like straight mayonnaise.
We put the first full mixture onto the salad before making the next batch. When we put the next batch on we added half first and mixed, and then added a little bit at a time until the whole salad was moist (it didn't take the whole second batch).
Sunday, May 6, 2012
JJ Turns One!
Yesterday we had JJ's first birthday party! It was a great time with wonderful family and a few close friends.
The theme was jungle/safari. We had lots of food which I added themed names to such as "Monkey Mash" and "Cheetah Chips". The punch was blue and we set toy animals around it to make it look like a watering hole. This was all topped off with a great monkey cake!
For decorations we had white and orange striped balloons that represented zebras and tigers. And the valence from his bedroom set, which we've never found use for, worked great as a banner on the fireplace!
Of course, the best part was having such wonderful family and friends around to celebrate with. We had a great time and enjoyed watching JJ experience his first birthday!
Below are a few pictures from the party for you to enjoy. :)
Monkey Mash
Safari Sandwiches
Watering Hole - Blue Punch
Monkey Cake!
While this wasn't at his party, this was JJ's first taste of cake which I just had to share. He really loved it! :)
The theme was jungle/safari. We had lots of food which I added themed names to such as "Monkey Mash" and "Cheetah Chips". The punch was blue and we set toy animals around it to make it look like a watering hole. This was all topped off with a great monkey cake!
For decorations we had white and orange striped balloons that represented zebras and tigers. And the valence from his bedroom set, which we've never found use for, worked great as a banner on the fireplace!
Of course, the best part was having such wonderful family and friends around to celebrate with. We had a great time and enjoyed watching JJ experience his first birthday!
Below are a few pictures from the party for you to enjoy. :)
Monkey Mash
Safari Sandwiches
Watering Hole - Blue Punch
Monkey Cake!
While this wasn't at his party, this was JJ's first taste of cake which I just had to share. He really loved it! :)
Monday, February 20, 2012
Hunter's Stew
I got this recipe from my mom. I know she's told me where she got it from but I don't remember where. But this is a great meal, though a little pricey if you don't already have some of the ingredients.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground beef
Onion
2 cans uncondensed minestrone soup (I use Progresso)
1 can Bush's baked beans
32 ounces V8 Juice
1 can of corn
2 Tbs. brown sugar
3 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
Directions:
Brown beef and onion together, drain
Mix all ingredients in large pot and heat through
*The last two times I've done this I put everything in the crock pot and let it sit on low for a couple of hours. Keep in mind though that you'll want to leave the lid off while it's heating or remove it for about a half an hour before serving. For some reason this enhances the flavor.
Enjoy! :)
Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground beef
Onion
2 cans uncondensed minestrone soup (I use Progresso)
1 can Bush's baked beans
32 ounces V8 Juice
1 can of corn
2 Tbs. brown sugar
3 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
Directions:
Brown beef and onion together, drain
Mix all ingredients in large pot and heat through
*The last two times I've done this I put everything in the crock pot and let it sit on low for a couple of hours. Keep in mind though that you'll want to leave the lid off while it's heating or remove it for about a half an hour before serving. For some reason this enhances the flavor.
Enjoy! :)
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Blogger Award (7 Things)
My sister Sarah tagged me for this "award" on her blog, Moments Like This. I thought it would be fun. You can find the rules there and participate if you want. I'm skipping the tagging portion because I don't have anyone that I know who updates their blog (except Sarah). But if you've come across this and want to do it, feel free!
Seven things most people don't know about me:
1. I would really, really, REALLY prefer to be a stay-at-home mom than a work-at-home mom. While I enjoy making my own money, it's way too stressful and I don't think that it's really what God has called me to do.
2. I only consider three people in my life (besides family members, Claudia, you're included in family) to be true friends. One of them doesn't even live in Michigan which leaves me with only two truly accessible friends.
3. While I know I would miss my family like crazy, I would love to move to a place that doesn't get much, if any, snow.
4. I think it's really neat when married couples renew their vows and I would love to do that someday. John doesn't want to so I may never get my chance. But I have time to work on him. ;)
5. I love lists. If I can make a list, I will.
6. While I have read a lot of the Bible, I honestly don't know if I've ever read the whole thing. I'm trying to read it all this year. I won't be sticking to a schedule because life is too busy right now, but I'm trying really hard to get through it by the end of the year.
7. I love running races but hate training. Therefore, I don't train. I'm not in it to win or get a prize. I just want to feel a sense of accomplishment. Even if I don't run the whole thing, it feels great to cross that finish line!
I hope you all enjoyed these little tidbits of my life that I don't usually talk about. If you write your own blog post about yourself, please comment and let me know. I'd love to learn more about you too! :)
Seven things most people don't know about me:
1. I would really, really, REALLY prefer to be a stay-at-home mom than a work-at-home mom. While I enjoy making my own money, it's way too stressful and I don't think that it's really what God has called me to do.
2. I only consider three people in my life (besides family members, Claudia, you're included in family) to be true friends. One of them doesn't even live in Michigan which leaves me with only two truly accessible friends.
3. While I know I would miss my family like crazy, I would love to move to a place that doesn't get much, if any, snow.
4. I think it's really neat when married couples renew their vows and I would love to do that someday. John doesn't want to so I may never get my chance. But I have time to work on him. ;)
5. I love lists. If I can make a list, I will.
6. While I have read a lot of the Bible, I honestly don't know if I've ever read the whole thing. I'm trying to read it all this year. I won't be sticking to a schedule because life is too busy right now, but I'm trying really hard to get through it by the end of the year.
7. I love running races but hate training. Therefore, I don't train. I'm not in it to win or get a prize. I just want to feel a sense of accomplishment. Even if I don't run the whole thing, it feels great to cross that finish line!
I hope you all enjoyed these little tidbits of my life that I don't usually talk about. If you write your own blog post about yourself, please comment and let me know. I'd love to learn more about you too! :)
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