I Saw The Goodness of the Lord This Morning....

So when I explain how I saw this in a lowly coffee filter in the back of my cupboard, some may think I am saying this casually or tongue in cheek...but I do mean it.  We've had sick kids here the past few days and very little sleep at night.  I went to make coffee yesterday morning and realized I had no coffee filters.  Jamie searched around the cupboard and found one, lonely last filter that got separated from the pack.  He made me coffee---what a great husband! Now Jamie is not a coffee drinker, so let's just say the coffee could have put hair on your chest.  Last night was not exactly restful, so when I realized my only option for my morning cup of coffee would be reheating some of yesterdays tasty brew, I was less then excited.  Let's just say if it put hair on your chest yesterday morning, this morning it was like drinking motor oil...with a touch of hazelnut!  But then I thought, "If there was one stray coffee filter up there yesterday morning, maybe there's one more."  So I got a chair and looked through the cupboard and low and behold, there was one rogue coffee filter pressed way in the back behind some cups--yay!  So, after a long night I was able to have a fresh cup of coffee.  And I thought---I don't deserve this cup of coffee.  But more than that, I don't deserve rest, healthy children, a warm house, breath in my lungs--I deserve nothing, but through the mercy and kindness of God, he has graciously and freely given me all things.  More importantly that things he has given me, he has given me his love, life and grace abounding in Jesus Christ--in fact, as his adopted child, he has lavished this on me!  So, it will probably be a rough day with crabby, tired, sick children and an overtired, crabby Mom... BUT in perspective, it will be fine.  I have so much in God and his undeserved goodness to me.

Pictures--A Few Snip-its From the Past Few Months

I, obviously, haven't updated on our family in a long time...I mostly blame it on the lack of a camera cord but now that I have a new one, I have no excuse.  SO, I'm just posting some of my favorite pictures from Nov-January,

Emrey and Daddy goofing around

Trenton, Hayden and Owen wrestling at Grandma's at Christmas

This is the look Emrey would give Uncle John every time she saw him--we called it the "Uncle John Staredown"

Checking out Grandpa and that silly mustache

Grandpa showing me his doggy--I love it!

Owen got his first, big John Deere Tractor

Owen LOVES helping feed Emrey! Most of the time he does okay, but sometimes he either misses her mouth and she's wearing most of it or he gets the spoon in a little too far and gags her

I took Owen out after our first big snow and he still just wanted to play ball!

I bought this old, toy computer thing from Goodwill and Emmy loves to pound on it!

Excited and ready to go to Hayden's sledding birthday party.  The bus and a blanket are necessities when sledding!

So proud to be standing by my toy by myself!

Food Creations-Putting Leftovers To Use

So, I love doing the "typical" Sunday dinner of roast and potatoes.  And we always have leftovers.  And in the past, I ALWAYS did the same thing with it--BBQ beef sandwiches.  And while those are tasty, we got kind of sick of it and then I ended up letting my leftover roast just sit there and eventually get dumped :( SO, I had a new idea one night.  I had onion, green pepper and a tube of crescent rolls.  So, I thought I'd try to combine all those things, roll the meat mixture up in the crescent (along with some cheese, of course) and bake them and see how it turned out.  It turned out great--super easy and tasty and sort of like a mock steak sandwich.

So first I chopped up the onion (and green pepper, but I didn't have green pepper tonight) and let it saute in olive oil a few minutes.  Then I added 1 clove of mined garlic.  Then I chopped up all the leftover roast beef I had and added it along with a little water, a couple shots of Worcestershire sauce, and some seasonings--I used the Weber Grill Steak and Chop seasoning blend.  I let that simmer and heat through until the water was all absorbed.

Then I put a healthy dollop of the meat mixture in the crescent and topped with mozzarella cheese.  I then rolled them up and sprayed with a little bit of spray butter.  I then baked them at 375 for about 15 minutes or until golden.  I also still did some with barbecue sauce.

Final result with spinach salad and peas on the side.  Owen and Jamie had fries and tater tots with peas instead of salad.

The first time I made these I used beef broth, but I have to say this time it was much tastier with just the little bit of water and seasonings.  Any leftovers also reheat easily the next day for lunch.

What's For Dinner? Menu Planning

Every Sunday evening after the kids go to bed is my new ritual of "Menu Planning" for the week.  This usually involves parusing my cupboards and freezer for what I have on hand and then my cookbooks and online recipe sites and blogs for ideas on what to make.  Monday is usually grocery day, so sometimes Monday's meals are rather boring...although a lot of our meals can be boring when trying to feed kids. This also keeps me from just grabbing stuff at the store and I also don't end up stumped at 4:30 when I all the sudden realize I have no idea what's for dinner that night.  You may say, "yeah, duh," but this is how things "worked" for awhile.

Monday, January 16- Crock pot chicken, mashed potatoes, corn

Tuesday, January 17- Cheeseburger casserole (from Monica cookbook), green beans

Wednesday, January 18- Chicken pot pie (recipe from Owen's babysitter--this is an Owen favorite)

Thursday, January 19- Leftover night and salads (Yes, Jamie is learning to eat leftovers)

Friday, January 20- ? I think we're going out with friends?

Saturday, January 21- Breakfast- monkey bread and fruit; Dinner- Mexican potluck with friends

*This isn't on our menu but the only picture of food that I've made that I had--this is a slow roasted pork shoulder I did for pulled pork for Owen's First Birthday.  I know, pulled pork for a one year old...he showed that he liked it once and so I decided to make it for his birthday.  It was delicious but he didn't even eat it.

To Blog or Not To Blog...

So it's obviously been a LONG time since I updated this blog.  I go back and forth all the time if I should even attempt to keep up or just stop and send pictures and updates via email to people.  BUT who should I send it to?  I am definitely not a "true blogger" by any means but I do enjoy keeping up with others and enjoy their blogs and have really enjoyed blogs on cooking/meal planning and saving money (although I have more work to do on the latter one).  I've even had some recipes I've made up lately that I thought were "blog worthy" but never did anything about it. So today I am at home with kids and things are going well and time is permitting for a quick update, so I decided to "Carry on."  We can't find our camera cord so we can't upload any recent pictures from Christmas and the last 2 months.  My husband was "cleaning" the area where the camera cord is kept and we have yet to find it...for those of you who know Jamie's "cleaning" methods, this could mean the camera cord is gone forever.

Here is a sweet picture of Owen feeding Emrey her bottle--he tends to be very sweet with her and is just recently getting a little rougher with her.

Emrey continues to be our little,happy baby girl!

Laundry basket rides are always a guaranteed good time!

Oh, Owen!

Until next time...if there is a next time!

Fall Is Officially Here

My new desk and storage space in the basement

Emmy and her "B" and, of course, sucking her thumb

Owen riding the "horsey, horsey". He could really have cared less if Jamie was there, but I sure did.  All he cared is that he was riding the horsey.

Auntie Carissa and Uncle Kurt took the kids overnight and Jamie and I went to Chicago overnight.

Grandma Van Vugt came last weekend and we headed to the pumpkin patch.  Here are she and Trenton on the hayride out to the pumpkins

Daddy and Emmy at the pumpkin patch

Hayden finding his pumpkin 

Trenton found a nice big one!

Owen and Mommy on the hayride--Owen was a little scared at first

Fall is finally here...I think.  After a beautiful weekend of temps in the 80's and gorgeous sunny skies, this week has been a bit different.  Grandma Van Vugt came out for Trenton's Grandparent's Day last weekend and we had a good time with her and the rest of the family.  We headed to the pumpkin patch and each picked out a pumpkin.  The kids also did some activities there.  We took Owen to an orchard the week before and they had pony rides and he had to go on the "Horsey, Horsey."  I was sure he would be sacred but he loved it and is a very serious rider :)  We go by the mall on the way to church every Sunday and he always asks, "Horsey, horsey," since he knows there is a carousel in the mall and then he could ride the horsey.  So, we can add horses to his list of "obsessions," which also includes Thomas the Train and eating "Fies" (fries).  Emrey is our petite little girl but growing and is ever smiley and content--such a little sweetie!  Owen shows all of his 2 years old most days but still minds pretty well.  His biggest thing is he'll say, "NO ____" to whatever you ask him to do or ask him if he wants to do.  So, I'll say, "Owen let's put your coat on," "No coat."  "Owen let's go downstairs," "No stairs." You get the idea... every now and then he stops for a second and realizes it's something he wants to do so he'll quickly stop in the middle of his "no" thought and reply, "Okay downstairs," or "Okay yogurt."  We keep plenty busy with the two little ones, work, church, and Jamie taking classes towards his bachelor's degree.  Emrey is also getting her first tooth in, which seems crazy that she's that big already....but she is.  Everyday the kids get older...and so do we.

Smiles and Giggles

Here is some video smiling and giggling--ignore the person making weird noises behind the camera!