I didn't forget

Tonight, I didn't forget to post the recipe ~ I'm probably not gonna do it every night, anyways. We just had a scrounge dinner tonight. Xavier, Gunner, Jesse, and I had tomato soup from the can, Tucker and Gunner had extra cheesy boxed Mac and Cheese.

Today was just one of those days.
Jesse worked a few hours of overtime today. When he left for work, we were all still in our jammies. Gunner and I were watching cartoons in my bed under the electric blanket and the other boys were watching tv in the living room. It was SO COLD today ~ which is why when I did get out of bed for the day it was with great reluctance! Then it was a lazy, stay bundled up and snuggle day all day, so I didn't get much accomplished. Got some laundry folded and put away, but other than that ~ not much.

The boys finally broke out some lego kits they got for Christmas and they had a grand ole' time working on that today. Gunner had a good time stealing parts to them and hiding them.

We are going over to our friends house tomorrow for dinner after church. I'm excited, but kinda sad. Excited to be getting to know some people from our church a little better, but sad that we are no longer having family dinner at my father in laws. ~But that is a long, emotionally charged post that I am just not ready to delve into yet ~ if ever. So, for tomorrow, it is dinner at a friends house, which is SUPER DUPER nice! Any time I don't have to cook, is a good thing for me!

So, that is what has been going on today ~ And did I tell you it was like 11* out today ~ Yep, super cold. I have a love hate relationship with living up here in the north ~ AKA the frozen tundra. Love it in the fall/spring. Hate hate hate LOATHE winter. But most do, so I will probably survive!

Today's Recipe ~ ala cuban flare

Tonight, I am making Chicken steak. This is kinda my own concoction. It is a favorite around here. And even asked for! This has a cuban flare to it ~ as we fell in love with cuban food living in South Florida. All we are missing is fried sweet plantains!

So, for dinner tonight we are having Chicken steak and Black beans and white rice.

Chicken Steak:

Boneless chicken breasts sliced in half ~ sometimes I use chicken tenders if that is all I have

Then I take a Stove top Stuffing (chicken flavored) and the zest of 2 lemons and their juice, and put it all in the food processor (I add the juice a little at a time) and zip it all up fine. The juice makes the crumbs stick together more

Then I beat about 4 eggs with lemon juice, salt and pepper

I take the chicken, dip it in the eggs then coat with the stuffing crumbs. (prior to this, I beat the sliced breasts really thin, so it doesn't take too long to cook)

I then pan fry in oil that garlic cloves and lemon zest has been in (to lend it a garlic-y/lemon-y flavor ~ then I remove the garlic cloves)
And I just fry until they are golden brown then flip.

For the black beans and rice, I just use the boxed Goya stuff. I put it in the rice cooker ~ it's just easier that way.

So, there is dinner for tonight ~
Gotta run and flip my chicken!

Chinese Baked Spare Ribs

Can you say ~ yummo?! Now, I usually don't like to eat the ones I cook. LOVED the ones my mother in law made (but, generally, I don't usually like my own cooking anyway). And maybe it is the fact of knowing my mother in law is no longer around to make these, but I loved them today.

Here's the recipe ~ but I changed it a little today so I'll give it to you both ways. The first one is the real recipe ~

1 1/2 -3 lbs country style (boneless) pork ribs
1/4 cup mustard
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp Worcestershire (I never pronounce this right) sauce
2 tsp Tabasco sauce
3 tbsp vinegar

Place ribs in baking dish. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over ribs. Chill for 3 hours covered. Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350* Baste frequently with sauce in the dish turning ribs once ~ Keep them covered until the last half hour to keep them juicy.

Now, here's how I did it today ~ I basically double the amount of everything, Jesse likes the extra sauce
3 lbs boneless country style pork ribs
1/2 cup mustard
3/4 cup brown sugar dissolved in a 1/4 cup water
1 cup -ish light corn syrup
1/2 cup soy sauce
I eyeballed the next things
4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tsp Frank's red hot
6 tbsp apple cider vinegar.

With the amounts doubled, it pretty much covers the ribs, so I don't bother basting and flipping. And, I didn't let them marinade for as long either (I kinda forgot). The flavor infuses more if you let them marinade over night.

And I made white rice and use the sauce over the white rice. It was yummo! Also, the best place I find my boneless pork ribs is at Aldi's. I love their pork stuff!

Wow, I'm actually posting ~

I hope the shock of it all didn't kill you!

I personally have just been down lately, and just haven't really had the desire to post. What I would've posted about ~ well, it would've just depressed anyone and just made me look sad a pitiful, so I have slacked here so it wouldn't totally be a downer to EVERYONE!

Thanks to my husband's cousin's wife ~ well, I'll just say, my sweet friend Julie ~ you'll find her blog here: http://greeneggsandhammes.blogspot.com/2011/01/meal-planning.html
Anyway ~ her blog post about meal planning (the link I posted) inspired me.
I'm going to try to post my weekly menu. I know I get tired of the same thing over and over again, and I'm sure some of my readers feel the same about their repertoire of meals they cook too ~ so I'm going to post my bi-weekly menu ~ and maybe just maybe I will be more faithful creating my menus. Thereby possibly actually sticking to some semblance of a budget. Plus, Jesse is *fingers crossed* going to be taking over the finances in our family for a little while. He usually is more apt to save than I am. I am a shopaholic, so to control the $$$$ side of things is sometimes laughable.
But, I digress ~ as usual :D
Now, another friend of mine ~ Kris ~ here's her blog ~ http://cropluvingirl.blogspot.com also posts her weekly menu. What she also does is (and she is one very busy chica) if she gets to around to it, she tries to post her weekly goals. And that has also inspired me to do this. I read her weekly goals, and menu plans and every single time I think, I NEED to do this.
She has awesome posts too. She encourages me as a mother ~ her oldest is in his preteens/almost teenager, and I value her insight and her desires to see her son become a man after God's own heart. She is experiencing these things before I am going to with my little men,so I really value hearing/reading her experience and Godly advice she gives! Kris ~ if you read this ~ I admire and look up to ya! Love ya, girl!

So, anywho here goes. Yes, it's Thursday, so this week I will only post one week of daily menu's. Well, I will start from Tuesday when I read Julies post (Thanks, Julie ~ love you!) I'll post recipes on each day too ~ In case any of you want any of them! I will. I promise!

Daily Menu’s

Tuesday:
Sausage Penne ~ Salad
Wednesday:
Help yourself
Thursday:
Chinese baked spare ribs, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes (or rice?)
Friday:
Chicken Steak ~ Black Beans & Rice
Saturday:
Pizza
Monday:
Tuna Noodle Casserole and Corn
Tuesday:
Steak ~ baked Potatoes ~ salad
Wednesday:
Hamburgers and French fries

Okay I'm here again

So, I didn't get back to posting those other pictures! I'll get to it eventually!

We had a good Christmas. EXTREMELY exhausting. But good.

On Christmas Eve, we went over to Aunt Terry's for ham dinner and family time and games. The boys LOVE it over there what with the game room above the garage and all. I love being over at Aunt Terry's just because I love spending time with them! Last year, I still had all my wrapping left to do and was up for hours after that to get it all done. This year, we thought ahead and so when we got home at 10:30 pm from Aunt Terry's we just had to get the boys in their Christmas jammies (which we opened up earlier in the day) and get them in bed. Then Jesse and I got out all the presents (half were already out) and put the stockings together then we got to relax and have hot cocoa and watch some of a movie! Then off to bed BEFORE MIDNIGHT.

Christmas morning, I woke to the sound of whispers in the living room. Xav and Tuck were up and we went in and woke Gunner up and the hours spent wrapping those presents were discarded in about 20 minutes! LOL ~ But SO. WORTH. IT. It was great. The boys got all that they asked Santa for, plus got more on top of that. Jesse completely surprised me by having bought me a "big girl camera". I was so excited. And COMPLETELY unexpected. I'll try to get a picture in the mirror with it, so I can show it off! I told him that that was probably the BEST present he ever got me.

Then we went to present-palooza at my father in laws and we spent the entire day over there. While us girls were getting the finger foods ready for the open house that night ~ I somehow sprained my wrist and it was all swollen, and it hurt! Then I started not feeling well AT ALL. when we got home that night, I just kept getting worse and Tucker and Gunner were also not well. So we spent all day Sunday resting, and trying to recuperating (which none of us are still completely well). I think my body still is not acclimated to frigid Northern temperatures.

So, that was our Christmas in a nutshell. Missed my family terribly. Hoping to possibly go there next year. But, it was a good Christmas.
How was yours?!

Merry Christmas

I know I have been super duper bad about blogging. So, here's my attempt!

Jesse finally got home and we are thoroughly enjoying it. He is working his shift now ~ 12 hours 6 pm to 6 am. He leaves about 4:30 pm and gets home usually no later than 7;15 ish am. He doesn't have his creds yet, so he is just going in in civies. and doesn't get his badge or gun yet, so he's quite disappointed about that. But very grateful for his job ~ he just went up a pay grade due to time in service! THAT is awesome!

Before he got home, it was a mad dash to get everything done, but I accomplished it and it looked like Christmas threw up in my house! Here are some pictures! before the Christmas tree.
This one is why he requested it mostly be done before he got home:


Here's some of the other decorations!

the piano all decked out

my corner hutch

the front entry way

my file cabinet

I've got lights in my front window, lighted garland in my living room over the door and in my kitchen above my cabinets. I love decorating for Christmas. SO. MUCH. FUN. Some (ahem, Jesse) say I over do it, but it's hard not to!

On Saturday, we got our tree. So fun ~ we went to lowe's and argued, Ilike this one, no I like this one and I went finally to the last aisle of live trees and picked one out and we both said THAT'S IT! It is beautiful and perfectly imperfect. It only had one bare spot, but we were able to fill it in with branches cut from the bottom to get it in the stand right!

Here's some pix of the tree and us decorating it. We used 7 strands of lights white and multicolored!

Jesse bringing the tree in:


Here's the ornaments on the table waiting to be used. This is only half of what we normally put on:


I have to jet off here now ~ later on, I will post pix of us decorating the tree and the final results of it! TTYL!
Merry Christmas!

And so the holidays have begun

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. We are SO blessed in my family. We were missing 2 people this year. Jesse away at federal Police Academy and Christine. Missing her was almost tangible for me. I spent pretty much the week leading up to Thanksgiving pretty much weeping for missing her. And, I'm afraid that Christmas is going to be even harder cause it was "her holiday". She did it up so well. But, I think we are just going to have to muddle through this holiday season.

I have so much to be grateful for ~ my faith, my family, my friends, my freedom, my home, my health, and my heritage. God has blessed us so utterly and completely. I can never thank HIM enough.

Right now, I am in the process of cleaning and decorating. Jesse has requested that all decorating be done before he gets home. I refuse though to get the tree until he gets home! And he should be home Friday night! OMG (oh my gosh) I AM SO EXCITED. I cannot even begin to explain! It has been a very long 8 weeks. And wouldn't you know it, I'm just getting used to this whole single mommy thing! But I am so grateful my other half will be here this weekend! I love him so much and am so grateful that I don't have to spend the rest of my life without him.

The boys miss him so INCREDIBLY! They have pretty much cried themselves to sleep most every night. It was heart wrenching. But Friday that should be remedied! YAY! But they don't know yet. And I'm not planning on telling them until Friday, since he is flying standby so i don't want to get their hopes up until he is on his way! But we can't wait.

Anyhoo ~ I know I haven't been on much, but will try to post more! Hopefully I can post Christmas decorating pictures too!
I hope ya'll have a wonderful Christmas season!

Trying to get back to normalcy

That's all.
We have been so busy. Not like that is a shocker. On Monday morning, Jesse's gramma Berg passed on to glory. We miss her, but one of his cousins remarked when they were here for Christine's funeral, that Gramma Berg hasn't really been Gramma for quite a while. Heaven was pretty much her longing. So we celebrated that she got her true hearts desire.
At her funeral, Jesse's dad made the comment at how surprised Gramma must've been when she got to heaven to be greeted by Christine. She probably asked "How did you get here before me?" Dave also said that it would be just like Christine to have been up in heaven lobbying for her mother to be loosed from her chains of this life.
We are so happy that Gramma is with her Sonny and Christine. Not that we aren't jealous. But, oh, what a family reunion that awaits us. I CAN'T WAIT!

I gotta say, I didn't expect to cry like I did at her funeral. Yes, we miss her, but she has been longing for heaven, and she has been suffering for 10 years, it was a relief to see her at peace. But I think that we are still raw with grief over our loss of Christine. And we are jealous that Gramma gets to be with her. We still miss Christine so acutely. Her absence is still so hurtful for me. Tears still fall almost once a day. Some days more than that. But, we are just putting one foot in front of the other.

Because of all that has went on the past month and a half, we are severely behind in our school work. We are about 9 days behind. The goal is to, when Jesse is gone for a few weeks, to do make up days on Saturdays. And hopefully by Christmas break, we will only be a few days behind and can make it up then.
As I am typing this, I am sitting in Tucker's class listening to him quote his Bible verses, and sing his songs of praise to Christ. And Gunner is sitting on the couch eating some dry cereal and he sings along with Tucker. It is so precious. I can hear Xavier doing the same in his room. WOW. What an utter blessing it is to have my kids love singing and worshipping God. It's such an awesome thing hearing them quote their verses. It is a blessing to see them do their best to serve God. I'm blessed to have little men who desire to do what God wants them to do. And I'm so grateful. Now, don't get me wrong, most days, they fight and gripe about cleaning their rooms. BUT .......they try.
They love to help around the house. They have both decided that they want to be able to do laundry for me. So they come down and help me. And they don't mind vacuuming for me. But to clean their room, it's a chore! But, they do have a servant's heart and I'm grateful for that.

So, anywho, we are just trying to get back to normal around here. I gotta work on getting up earlier, but that is something different in and of itself!
sorry for the ramblings!

Four Weeks

That's all it's been.
It's so hard to believe. I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that Christine is gone. Sometimes, I still just sit and weep knowing that my children will no longer be able to spend time with her. The holidays are forever gonna be altered. Our lives are just irrevocably changed. And it hurts to have had this part of our lives ripped apart. But, it just makes me ever more grateful for the promise of Heaven.

In this last month, this song has been going through my head and my heart.





Knowing You'll Be There

The other day I passed the place,
You always liked to go
And I picked up the phone because,
I thought you'd want to know.
But I forgot you weren't there,
I miss you all these days.
That I'm reminded of your smile
And the funny things you'd Say.
I see you most at christmas, you were like, a little kid
You always loved a good surprise, and now I must admit,
That I long more for Heaven than I ever did before
You give me one more reason, and each day I want it more.

(chorus)
Knowing we can spend a life time reminiscing on the past,
Knowing I will see your face again where tender moments last
it makes me wanna go there
Knowing I wont be alone
Kowing you'll be there
Mkes it easy to go home

You left a group of fishermen
Somehow, you left me too
Though I have felt you many times,
I know you saw me through
I always long to feel your arms
And look into your eyes,
And talk foever me and you
Somewhere in paradise

Poor husband

My poor husband ~
I tell ya ~ He got the raw end of the deal.
I am SO not a great housewife. I am mediocre at best. BUT ~ I'm learning AND trying!
You'd think that after 10 years, I'd be and expert. And I was ~ way back when. I had some pretty mad cleaning skills. But that was back when we only had one, and for some time after we had our second. But let me tell ya, baby number 3, he killed my ability to keep a clean house. He is SO active. ALWAYS on the go. And he wears me out.
But, I recognize that my housecleaning skills have went down the crapper recently. And from what I have always heard ~ recognizing there is a problem is the first step :D And I am working on that.
Now, not that I'm making excuses, mind you ;) ~ But I do have 3 boys, homeschool, and have a husband with odd hours. And let me tell you ~ and it's not like you don't already know ~ but being a homeschooling SAHM of 3 boys (one who is super duper active) is like having a gazillion full time jobs.
I am SO NOT looking forward to Jesse's upcoming "deployment". He'll be leaving at an undisclosed time {not gonna post it online} for police academy at an undisclosed location :D.
I just hope that when he returns, he will find 3 still alive children (the ones he left behind, preferably :D ) and a still semi sane wife to greet him. And hopefully a clean house to boot!

And here is a song that has been running over my head all day long ~ AWESOME song. And awesome CD. I got it from my friend Kelly! Thanks!

Sing over Me ~ by Bethany Dillon

I live in the wonder of Your love
You rise like the sun in my heart
Even when the night draws near to me
There You are

I will wade in the water of mercy
I will walk in the light of Your will
Whatever should come against me
Teach me to be still
As you

Sing over me
Draw me close to rest in Your peace
Sing over me
Oh, sing

Sing of Your unending faithfulness
That knows no doubt or fear
In the face of all that I don't know yet
Remind me of who You are

You are mighty
You will save
Rejoice over me with singing
You will quiet
By Your love
Glory over me with singing