Praying for your Husband

Prayer is one of the areas of my spiritual life where I struggle the most.  Revive Our Hearts Ministry has several wonderful downloads especially some challenges for prayer.  Here's what Nancy Leigh Demoss says about praying for your husband:

“She does him good . . .” (Proverbs 31:12a)

Bless your husband by praying for him! The Apostle Paul instructed all Christians to pray for one another (Ephesians 6:18). This includes wives’ responsibility and privilege to pray for their husbands. Earnest prayer for your husband is good for him, for you and the spiritual health of your home (Proverbs 31:11-12).

Satan desires to destroy your husband, especially his character and his leadership in your relationship. Trust God through prayer as you daily surrender your husband and marriage to the Lord’s wise, loving care.

Will you join me for 31 Days of Praying for Your Husband?  Go here for the print out from Revive Our Hearts.


(Also check out the great free wallpaper downloads for your desk top here.)

Mission Family Nutrition - Week Four

This week I attended The Heart Of The Matter conference.  Monday through Thursday I logged into my computer for four "webinars" each day for wonderful homeschool inspiration and practical tips and tricks.  Wow!  Was it good!  After all the audio is edited, etc. it will be available on their website to purchase.  They also have a bigger online conference in August that I am already planning on "attending."  If you homeschool, this is a great inexpensive way to attend a homeschool conference!

So with webinars daily, and Buddy Bear getting sick, I didn't complete my Mission Family Nutrition goal of introducing my family to a new grain.  But I did try two new recipes that were Very well received by my family.  Early this week I received a free issue of Taste of Home's Healthy Cooking.  I was excited to sit down and browse through the magazine to find recipes to try with my family.  I love that Taste of Home always has such practical recipes with ingredients that most average people have on hand and not a lot of ingredients that I have never heard of nor have any clue where to buy them!

Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas
   This was very good!  Even Ally, my picky eater, ate some!  RaeRae
   had seconds (unusual), and My Man had thirds!  And as a plus, it
   was quick and easy to make.
Prep: 30min  Bake: 15min   Yield: 8 servings

2 cans (15oz each) black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 can (15oz) enchilada sauce, divided
1 cup (4oz) shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend, divided
8 whole wheat tortillas (8in), warmed


1.  In a small bowl, mash 1 can black beans (great way to involve kiddos!), set aside.  In a large nonstick skillet, cook the turkey, pepper and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.  Add the mashed beans, remaining beans, half of the enchilada sauce, and 1/2 cup cheese;  heat through.
2.  Place 2/3 cupfuls of bean mixture down the center of each tortilla.  Roll up and place seam side down in two 11"x7" or one 9"x13" baking dishes coated with cooking spray.  Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the top; sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake, uncovered, at 425 for 15-20 minutes or until heated through.


Nutritional Facts:  1 enchilada equals 360 calories, 11g fat (3g saturated fat), 55mg cholesterol, 808 mg sodium, 42g carbohydrate, 7g fiber, 24g protein.

This next week my goal is to experiment with making a healthy Ranch dressing from scratch.  Ranch dressing in our house is like white gold... it gets served with everything from vegetables to pizza, from chicken to watermelon (although the later doesn't happen often...yuk!).  Ally has even been known to dip her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in Ranch...YUK!  Personally, I prefer to leave Ranch for fresh veggies, salad, and sometime sandwiches; but I think that sometimes the rest of my family would starve without Ranch!

Mission Family Nutrition - Week Three

My week two goal in Mission Family Nutrition hosted by Melinda at Coming Clean was to make a new bean dish.  I don't cook a lot with beans.  I'd like to do more because it's a great source of protein and it's a great food to store long term.  One of the long term food storage rules is "store what you eat, and eat what  you store."  In a time of emergency or major crisis for our family, beans and rice won't do us much good if I don't know how to cook with them; so I figure I'd better learn now.  And even when there is not a crisis, it's a very inexpensive meal that can be quite tasty.  All that to say, I now have a new bean dish that my family approves of... well... Ally didn't actually approve, but she hasn't been approving of any food besides peanut butter and jelly sandwiches lately...  Here's the recipe:

Red Beans and Rice

1lb pkg. dried red beans

water

ham, salt pork, or sausage cut into small chunks (I used ham)

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

3-4 cups water

6 oz can tomato paste

8 oz can sauce

4 garlic cloves, minced (I used my garlic press instead)

1. Soak beans for 8 hours.  Drain.  Discard soaking water.

2. Mix together all ingredients in slow cooker.

3. Cover.  Cook on Low 10-12 hours, or until beans are soft.

4. Serve over rice. 8-10 servings

I didn't follow this recipe exact.  I used canned beans, so I also used less water.  I also didn't use the crock-pot.  I just combined everything together in a large kettle and heated it through on the stove top while the brown rice was cooking.  It was really good.  I cut the recipe amounts in half since it was a new recipe and I wasn't sure how well it would go over.  It was ALL gone!  My family of 5 (even Buddy Bear had some) ate the whole thing and would have eaten more!  So next time I can definitely make the whole batch.  ☺

My goal for this next week is to introduce my family to a new grain.  And to continue making a menu.  It's way to easy to just throw a pizza in the oven when I don't have a menu... 

....................................

Check out this link here for a free e-cook-book of 22 healthy chicken recipes.

Priorities

Projects.  I have so many projects going on right now.  So many things that need to be done... or rather I want to be done.  I wanted so badly this morning to roll up my sleeves and get to work.  Especially on my decorating projects... I have these dreadfully naked windows and just yesterday got a few things to help dress them up. (I hate naked windows! And I have to come up with something creative for the ugly polished brass rods, and eventually the books in those boxes will find a home on a yet to be built bookshelf, and...)  Yes, it was quite tempting to take a break from "preschool" and work on "house."  Then I was reminded that houses don't build relationships; doing preschool with your children builds relationships.  My kids don't care if our windows have (or don't have) curtains, if the desk is a mess, or you can't hardly walk through the basement sewing/laundry room. 

What they want... what they need ...is quality time with Mom.

Heat wave in the Nort Wuds!

OK, so you know you're living in the "Nort Wuds" of Wisconsin when... you go to the grocery store or gas station and you feel like a wimp because it's 25 degrees (F) and you're wearing a jacket and hat and everyone else is in short sleeved T-shirts...  (and that is a terribly long run-on sentence...)  Only the "old" people were wearing jackets.  Seriously?!  Yeah, I've lived here before; but honestly, I don't remember 25 degrees (F not C) being a heat wave!  "Ya gotta luv it!"  :)

Mission Family Nutrition - Week Two

 

Week Two of Mission Family Nutrition at Coming Clean.  Last week my goal was to create and follow a menu.  Well, the menu was created, but I can't say that I followed it exactly!  Of course right after I make the menu Ally got the 24-hr stomach flu that RaeRae had last week.  Since my whole day was spent taking care of her the only thing that we ate from the menu that day was breakfast (eggs and whole wheat toast, but not the fruit salad).  But it worked out well later in the week, yesterday.   Since I forgot to pull the chicken out of the freezer to thaw for dinner yesterday, I substituted what we were supposed to have for dinner Tuesday.  ...Be flexible...be flexible...

 

Here's a recipe for Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits that we had last night.  It's from Sue Gregg's Eating Better Cookbook series Main Dishes.  (Very educational cookbooks as well as delicious recipes.  I highly recommend them!)

 

1. Blend together:

   2 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour (pastry preferred)

   2 teaspoons baking powder

   1/2 teaspoon baking soda

   1/2 teaspoon salt

2. Cut into dry ingredients with pastry blender or two table knives until crumbly like small peas:

   1/4 cup butter (unsalted preferred)

3. Blend egg and milk, then stir into dry ingredients just until blended; do not overwork dough:

   1 egg

   3/4 cup buttermilk (if using buttermilk powder combine powder with dry    

      ingredients in step one, and add water here.)

4. Knead dough lightly about 10 times on lightly floured surface with flour on hands.  Pat out to 3/4" thickness and cut biscuits with rim of floured glass.

5.  Place on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

These biscuit are better made with Whole wheat pastry flour (ground from soft white wheat that has less gluten) instead of normal whole wheat flour (ground from hard wheat).  All I had last night was the normal whole wheat flour and the biscuits were definitely not as light and fluffy as traditional biscuits.  You could also use half whole wheat flour and half unbleached white flour.

This week it's my goal to make a new bean dish.  Thanks to WIC we get plenty of legumes.   I didn't grow up eating many beans (except for chili or burritos), so it's a challenge for me to serve my family beans.  If you have any tips, I'd definitely appreciate reading them!

Funtastic Frogs Review

 

I can't remember where I first saw these fun math manipulatives, but I was immediately drawn to the bright colors.  I knew that they would be a hit, and they are.

  

The girls love "playing" with them!  

 

As you can see the large frogs fit perfectly on one's fingertips to make great finger puppets!

The frogs themselves come in a container of 108 frogs in 3 sizes and 6 colors (orange, green, red, blue, yellow, and oops I forgot the purple!), and strings for lacing.  The happy frogs are made of colored plastic (they are not painted) and have a larger hole in the bottom (for putting on fingers or the logs you can get) and a small hole in the top for lacing.  Please note that the medium and small sized frogs make excellent choking hazards so keep out of the reach of any at risk children (you know your child)!  I purchased these from Rainbow Resource for $13.25.  They do have a smaller package available with 72 mixed frogs for $11.25 or 108 of just the small frogs for $9.00.  Keep in mind though that many of the cards and activities require all three sizes.  These are great fun on their own ("how many frogs fit in this circle?") as well as with the activity cards or workbooks.

I bought three sets of activity cards: Matching and Counting, Color patterns, and Number Patterns.  Rainbow Resource is the cheapest place to buy these at only $6.25 each.  Each set has 17 cards, and each durable card has one brightly colored side and 

 

one "coloring book" side that you can photocopy for recording or making your own patterns.

Matching and Counting Activity Cards: Using the frogs, match the color and size of each frog on the card.  Count the frogs.  Great for color and size recognition and learning to count.  The recommended age is 5 and up, but Ally can do this well and she is not yet 3.  This is the easiest set of activity cards.

Number Patterns Activity Cards:  Match the frogs on the card.  Look for a number pattern. Use the pattern to show what comes next or to find the missing frogs.  This set of activity card only uses the small frogs.

Color Patterns Activity Cards: Match the color and size of each frog on the card.  Look for a pattern.  Use the pattern to show what comes next or to find the missing frogs.

There are other products available as well such as counting logs (that the small frogs snap onto. Available on Amazon.), Lacing Patterns Activity Cards, and a wide variety of math workbooks.

"Funtastic Frogs are FUN!"