Funny for the day

Hannah's reading a report she's working on "When the mommy penguin lays an egg the daddy penguin sits on it, is that a fact?" Jackson: "Yes, it takes a real man to sit on an egg" ... okie dokie then!

Wordless Wednesday

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Menu Plan Monday 91310

I love recipes. Cookbooks are my favorite books to read. I recently started re-reading a Cooking Light Annual Recipes cookbook ... the 1999 edition. It's just awesome. It's not uncommon for me to attempt to plan out our meals for the week, then I scaled myself down because I was so disorganized that after shopping for a week's worth of meals, I would fall behind and the produce would be less than desirable come time to use it. I seriously need to get organized or I will never make it to November 2 ... I won't or my family won't, that is ;o) So I'm trying something semi different: I'm planning a week's worth of meals. but I've broken my grocery shopping down into two and three day increments. This week I'm going to only focus on dinners, maybe next week I'll start planning my lunches, and so forth.

I figure if I post my meal plans, this will make it official. I'll post the recipes if they turn out to be hits with the family.

Monday:
Seasoned Chicken & carrot sticks for the kids, grilled chicken salad for myself (chicken sandwich for Jay if he's hungry- we think he had a tad of food poisoning this weekend)

Tuesday:
Beef Stew in the crock pot.
Tuesdays are a big day for us because I'm generally not at home, and since mom has been home from the hospital I've been trying to take a meal or two over for them. So I'm going to double up on this and see how that works. I'm using the recipe from Lost Recipes. I LOVE this book!

Dessert: caramel apple cupcakes. These are going to be fun.

Wednesday:
Shepherd's Pie made with deer sausage; corn pudding (from Lost Recipes)

Thursday:
White Bean & Apple Chili, cornbread

Friday:
Tomato Soup, black bean quesadillas for me and Jackson, grilled cheese sammies for Hannah & Jay

Saturday we'll clean out the fridge ....

9-11 Remembrance service

Hannah and I attended a 9-11 Remembrance service last night. It was a very nice service, and the key note speaker, NC State House Representative Dale Folwell gave a lovely speech.
This thought keeps running through my mind:

Daily we remember Jesus died for our sins.
Daily we must remember that our Military die for our freedom.
Daily we must remember that First Responders die for our safety.

Never Forget.

First day of fall soccer

Today is the first day of the fall soccer season. For the past two years, the kids have been playing with the YMCA league. Jackson took a huge step forward this year in skills, and Hannah showed marked improvement, as well. Towards the end of Spring soccer Jackson mentioned interest in travel soccer. Happy to see him interested, I checked on it but we were too late for tryouts. On the same note, I must say I was relieved as well, because travel ball would cause a huge conflict in our schedule this fall. The main soccer league in the city was recommended to us as a good bridge for Jackson. It was said this league was more "by the book" and would be more challenging for both kids. that by the end of fall season Jackson would be better prepared for travel ball tryouts.



So far I have been impressed. I tried to get their practices on the same night, but it was not possible with our availability. Jackson's group practices on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Hannah's practices on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We have church on Wednesday nights. So the family schedule is: visitation on Mondays, Jackson's practice on Tuesdays, church on Wednesdays, and Hannah's practice on Thursdays. In the middle of all this I also have three to four events each month that need to occur between Monday and Thursday. God is good and we can work it out!

The kid's first games are today. Hannah has already played. Her team lost 6-0. Jackson is just beside himself. He has begged Hannah all week to practice with him, and she wouldn't. Then in 2nd quarter she was goalie and the ball rolled right by her twice. Her attitude was awesome. She realizes what happened, but didn't let it bother her. Jackson was mortified. We're gong to have to sit down and explain to him that most people don't know she's his sister, and the ones who do don't care that she plays ... like an eight year old girl!


His game starts in 45 minutes. It's going to be interesting to see the difference in his age group. I know they try to make a point to keep the same kids on the teams from season to season. You can really tell, too, because even with Hannah's age group, there's a difference in teamwork (more) and skill level. Those girls are doing things with the ball that Jackson only learned this Spring! It's going to be a great season.

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Where's Wendy?

Hi there! I've missed blogging! Man where has 2010 went? I was thinking that the other day and I started reflecting on where I was a year ago, to where I am now. All I can say is God is good ... ALL the time. If you seek Him, you will find him. If you seek His Will, He will show it to you ... in due time. But you have to wait on Him! I'm so thankful I did.

It's really funny, a year ago I bought my domain, and started working on a new website of my own. God obviously had other plans for me ... because a year later that site is not even closed to being finished, and it's time to renew my domain again! That's okay, I've learned a lot of new things pertaining to web design while doing web work for other people. I believe I'm on the road to mastering that thing called "social media"- well, coming to a greater understanding of it's many uses, that is.

I've learned a lot about politics in the past year. The most important thing I have learned, above all else, is that we ALL should be concerned with what is going on in politics! The days of letting other people do the worrying while we sit at home reading a favorite book, watching our favorite TV shows, baking, cooking, even doing laundry, are over. I so desperately resent all of those years I said "I don't watch the news ... it's too depressing". Know why it was depressing? Because there were a million other people like me out there, not being engaged in their own communities, letting other people take over our own country! For those who have been around this blog a while, you know the 2008 election totally sucked me in. That year was a turning point for me. The day when America voted and John McCain was deemed "the best" conservative choice, I knew there was a problem. You know what the problem was? Not enough people were doing their civic duty and paying attention to what was going on. The penalty for our civic apathy now is we must work double time to restore our country back to something we recognize for our children, and it cannot wait. Conservatives, and in my own opinion- Christians, must be more engaged than ever THIS year, for THIS November. THIS is the year history must be made.

I've learned a lot about "people" in general. That's been an interesting feat. I've always considered myself a "people" person. Being around more of them has given me a great insight into understanding where "people" might be coming from. I've learned ... that we all need to see "people" as if we were looking through God's eyes first ... then understanding comes a lot easier.

I've learned that while the appearance of humanly perfection might be attainable, it's better to acknowledge our own faults, and fight the fights that truly need fighting within us. Even if it's the urge to appear "all together" and be "bright & shiny". Balance, is the key.

So what to look forward to in CalvaryGirl's near future?

You'll see a lot more of me.

I'm going back to the basics of posting regular devotions. Food, food and more food, in all styles, shapes and forms (from the good for you to the bad for you!). Politics ... but it won't be posted with food ;) and reviews. I thoroughly enjoyed reading reviews last year and wanted to get more regular in posting them. I've tried lots of new things this year and have thought "wow, this would be a good review on the blog ..." and that's as far as it's gotten. Who knows, maybe there will be a giveaway in the future? We'll have to wait and see.

All the better? I'm gonna have some new bright & shiny websites for you to visit these topics under. So while we may not agree on politics, we will indeed have the ability to connect and agree on the best low-fat high-taste -crock pot recipe!

So how are you?