Kicking the Fast Food Dependancy

In the last 6 years, years I affectionately term my birthing years, our family has fallen into the dreadful habit of eating out. Not only will eating out pack on the pounds it is incredibly expensive! Granted it was an ebb and flow of eating out. If I was pregnant or had a 6 mo. old or younger we were much more prone to load up and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning up. I am so grateful for a husband that will support my need for help in what ever way!

But now, I am fast approaching that 6 month mark with Judson. I am more rested, or at least used to less rest, and not to mention trying whole-heartedly to live as frugally as possible. Sometimes you just don't have the choice. You have to save money some way. There gets to be a point where the only way to save is to stop eating all together. (this is sarcasm ONLY!! We have never been so financially strapped that we couldn't eat!) Thankfully we aren't there yet but we do have to sinch up the belt a little tighter these days. There just isn't any wiggle room in our budget. Not even for eating out. We know ourselves pretty well though so we did make an allowance for a mail order movie rental but even that is way cheaper than going out once every two weeks.

So how do I compensate when I have gotten lazy in the kitchen? What do YOU do when money is tight and you need to LOVE cooking again?

I have recently fallen back in love with my bread machine! It saves lots of time and those fresh made goodies keep mouths watering and hoping for more. I recently made some cinnamon rolls. It made two batches and I froze one. I also am loving this soft italian bread sticks recipe! See, for us it's the little things that make meals yummy. I am making an effort to make special things or if we are really craving something I head to the computer and search out a recipe that will fulfill our wildest dreams!! It is amazing how many different recipes you can find on the internet for any given thing. Ellen turned me on to Recipe Zzar and it's great but I usually just google what ever it is I am wanting to make and get tons of different web sites.

Some other tried and true tricks for making meal prep easier are the crock pot, freezer meals, and early prep. I realized that the reason I had gotten lazy in the kitchen is because I wasn't doing any work on the meal or putting any thought into it until about 4:30 or even 5. That's obviously too late! SO for days that still happens I have some 10 min. meals handy on stand by.
Things like tacos, grilled chicken fettucine alfredo, spaghetti and mac and cheese. ( my kids are 5 and under so we can still make a whole meal from one box of mac&cheese;) Every time I shop I make sure to get the ingredients for these meals. So I always know I have a stand-by that both Dan and I can make in a pinch.

Some other time saving tips :
-When I make cookie dough I usually bake a pan and then roll the rest into balls and freeze them for future use. That way I have something for dessert if someone shows up at dinner time AND it saves me from eating cookie dough all afternoon!
-My family LOVES french toast so I always buy a loaf of french bread for breakfast. To keep it from going bad I slice it up the night I shop or soon after and freeze it. Then when ever we want french toast it's cut and ready.
-I also buy green peppers on sale and cut them up and freeze them.


Baby steps! But I AM loving to cook again. It is so much fun to cook when your husband can tell you at lunch how excited he is about dinner! The girls are getting better about eating and it is just more fun to cook for people that eat!

My biggest problem is getting in a menu rut. I need some easy, yummy meals. What are your favorites? What meals do you always keep on hand for those crazy days when there just isn't time to cook? What are your crowd pleasers? Do you have a dish that you are famous for? Do share!! You don't have to give me Aunt Ethel's secret recipe but at least tell me what it is and I can google it!

Maybe I will share some of my most requested recipes as well......

The Stud Man is a SUPER STAR!

Not so much of this any more
A WHOLE lot more of this!

Yeah!! Our sweet boy is REALLY a sweet boy now! A few weeks ago on the crazy day that I took all 4 kids to the doctor we had a catastrophe! I spilled Judson's reflux medicine. That was the straw that broke the camel's back! I lost it. The girls were worried about me as I sat in the Wal-Mart parking lot crying my eyes out. Up to this point that medicine made life bearable. Judson had just started sleeping again and not very well. I was just starting to feel like I was getting my feet under me and then I spilled the liquid gold. My insurance wouldn't allow me to refill it since I had just refilled it two weeks earlier. I was devestated!

I just knew the ugly cycle was going to start all over again. Instead of trying to pay for the medicine out of pocket I decided to see how things would go. He is supposed to grow out of the reflux anyway. Well it's been about two weeks since I started to wean him and he is still doing great. Even better than before for that matter! He is more alert and he started rolling over like crazy. He is like a new baby! Thank you, Jesus. I know now you don't have to cry over spilled medicine.

A Dream Coming True!

FaithLyn has been asking me for a while to teach her to read. She is getting pretty proficient in her letter and sound recognition. The last couple of weeks she has been trying to put words together with her magnetic alphabet so today we took the plunge. Mimi gave us some of her A Beka books so I dug them out and we got started. FaithLyn did so GREAT!!! I was amazed at how well she did. She made it through this first book. It was just about the best thing in the world to see the moment every word went from being sounds to an actual word in her head. She finished the whole book. It goes through all of the vowel sounds a,e, i, o, and u. They are all three and four letter words focusing on the basic vowel sounds. It goes through them all twice. She was so proud of herself. I was pretty proud, too. By the end of the book she was a little tired and had a harder time concentrating but she powered through it. You can see from the grin on her face that she was pretty excited to reach this landmark in learning!

I know we have lots more to learn but I am just so thankful! I have always wanted to teach my kiddos to read. I wanted to be the one to see that "AHA!" moment. It is so exciting and gratifying! It was nice to be able to encourage her and tell her how great she was doing. Unfortunately, I find myself nagging more often than praising.

Thank you, Lord that I got to experience this first flicker of a love for reading that I hope to instill in my children. Thank You, Lord that I was available for this teachable moment. May there be SOO many more!!! Bless FaithLyn as she develops a desire to learn and may she never grow tired of learning. Please protect her from ever thinking she has learned enough!

Checking in From Glorieta

Hey all- We are enjoying our time here at Glorieta. It's been a nice change of pace for me. I am sure the girls are having a blast at Nana and Papa's too. We are here for the National VBS Training Conference. We come here to get trained to go home and lead our own conference, state wide or associational. I am in charge of Younger Children, that's 1st-2nd grade. Then I will also be in charge of the adults who will actually be leading our VBS 1st and 2nd grade classes. I am pretty excited to use my brain again on something besides the family budget but it's a daunting task. You see, my problem is that I am really good at seeing all the work that will go into any given task. Even though I am really excited about leading a conference I know what kind of work it will take to do the kind of job that I will be satisfied with. It's a blessing and a curse really. I have a few months to prepare so maybe I can do a little at a time. That will be my best intention anyway!

Judson came with us and that has been . . . . . .interesting. He is the ONLY baby here. I used to do this kind of thing ALL the time when we worked at the camp. They really appreciated the fact that our whole family was a part of the ministry and they accomodated to that A LOT! Plus it was a FAMILY ministry, so it worked. I am realizing how uncommon that is. No one has made me feel unwelcome or even a distraction but it is very apparent that we are the exception. Which really makes sense, this is meant to be a time to get away and prepare for VBS. But for me, it IS time away. It also helped me realize that no matter how much we want Youth Ministry to be our family ministry, it just can't be the way we originally envisioned it. My first and foremost ministry is to my husband and children. My ministry to the youth group would come at the expense of my kids. It's just not a price I am willing to pay. SO we are having to revamp our view on our family involvement. It's a good thing. We are growing and learning. That's always good. We have realized how niave we were coming in to this ministry. I do what I can but I have to keep to focus on MY ministry to my family and THEN if it fits I can do ministry elsewhere. And there have been lots of things that I CAN do. They just look differently than we thought they would.

Back to VBS. It's going to be fun to dust off my old teacher self for a little while. I was really nervous about having to decorate my room, I was a Secondary ed. person so I didn't take classes in bulletin boards and the such. Thankfully there is a decorating team and they will just give me the stuff and I will put it up. The Lord is graceful! It takes WAY to much effort for me to do that kind of creative thing. I could do it but I am SOOO thankful I will not have to. Now I better go and try to catch the session on conference leading 101! Every one deserves a little refresher, right?

Weekend in Review

She's not looking so sad anymore.
"MOOOMMMMYYYY, I need more milk, please!"
On the road to recovery. Our sweet Judsocerous.
WHAT A WEEKEND!! We had three ear infections, breathing treatments, coughing fits, a haircut and a visitor! BERGNER! had to be the highlight of the weekend. Oh, and the time alone at the beauty salon for me!

You know I realized that when you are inside the four walls of your home for a few weeks your world gets pretty small. I needed a fresh perspective. I got one tonight. I can gladly deal with ear infections, snotty noses, chronic coughs, and minor skin infections! Thank You, JESUS that my kids are healthy. They do not have any long term illnesses. When this bit of sickness is done I will be able to leave my house and resume regular life. But even if this was regular life....I would do it. I would choose this and I would learn to make it productive and exciting for the kids and myself. But THANK YOU, LORD that I am not faced with that particular challenge. My world got pretty small. I lost focus and I forgot that it could be SOOO much harder. Life is good and we are so blessed.

What's Taking Up Room in Your Cupboards?

Sad Little Sickies

Ok, seriously Y'all! We need some prayer. All four kiddos are sick and I am not sure I can handle the prospect of a 4th Sunday at home! They are all coughing. FaithLyn, Olivia and Judson all have fevers and it looks like Elise has an ear infection. This is how we spent most of nap time. pretty sad. They both fell asleep but Elise was woken up by her aching ear and FL woke about an hour later. Olivia was playing in her bed, but that's another story for another time........

Please pray that we will all be feeling better soon. Perhaps Judson is only teething? He has all the tell-tale symptoms; runny nose, LOTS of loose stools, fever, cranky. But Olivia has similar symptoms and there is the cough.

With four kids we are bound to have sickness run its course through our family. I just hate it when my kids are sick and I can't do anything for them. They are looking pretty pitiful.

Those are my sentiments exactly, Judson!

Now granted, I am super grateful that it's not worse. I know it could be. Thank You, Lord, for that. Besides the fact that I am about to become a shut-in by choice rather than face the world again, I mainly just want my babies to feel better! You hate to keep pumping them full of medicine. I know there are some prayer warriors out there. Would you please offer up a prayer on our behalf?

The Sick House

We are well into our third full week of confinement. The impetigo isn' t contagious anymore but now all three girls have croup! Today was the first day FaithLyn was going to get to go back to school but she has a fever. She was pretty sad. I was pretty sad, too. Today was the first day of the Women's Bible Study at church.

You know being stuck at home I found out just how selfish I really am. I *LOVE* being a mother to four kids. I admit I am frazzled, four kids five and under is harder than anything I have ever done. I often get covered up by dirty diapers, laundry, dishes, and the ever present mantra ringing in my ears, "Mommy, MOmmmmy!" But I wouldn't change it for anything. I also have to admit that there are days that I wish I could switch jobs with Dan just to get some adult interaction but if I was actually given the opportunity I would never really have the nerve to take it up. So I find myself thinking I NEED to get out. I NEED to have adult interaction. I DESERVE to leave my germ infested house. I have been putting in serious overtime.......where's my overtime pay to show for it? Know what I'm sayin'?

Last night I woke up to hear Olivia barking like a seal and I almost started crying. I knew my chances for getting out were shot. I didn't even hear Dan taking care of FaithLyn when she started barking later in the night. It's times like this that I find myself dreaming about what I want to do when the kids are grown. I would like to go back and get my Masters in Library Science.

What I remembered, or more likely God reminded me, is that the job I am doing now, no matter how absolutely draining and repetitive is the MOST important job I will ever have. I made the choice to stay home. There have been lots of times that I could have needed to work. But we CHOSE to have me stay at home. Are we suffering? Not in the least. Do we have to be careful with all that God has blessed us with? Absolutley. Just like every one else. You see, we believe that income does not determine your lifestyle. It may determine some of your choices but our happiness is not dependant on what kind of car we drive or if we have all the latest stuff that advertisers are shoving down our throats at the time. I am the first to admit that some of those things are nice, fun, and convenient but life goes on with out them.

At the same time we have been so blessed. God has provided for us in crazy amazing ways. Just ask about how we got our minivan or any of our cars for that matter. Then it's also pretty amazing how God led us to ALL of our (Dan's)jobs. Even the job Dan worked in Fort Worth.

We have never gone with out. Our needs are continually met by THE Provider. Dan works really hard too. He is a wonderful provider and an amazing father and husband. He continually puts this family first over his own "career goals." For that I am SOOO thankful.

All that said, it's easy to lose focus of the end goal. It is easy to forget why I choose to stay home. It is easy to forget how much I love changing diapers and taking care of sick kids. I know that one day when all my chicks have flown the coop I will look back on this time and wish I had cherished it more. I will NEVER look back and wish that I kept my house cleaner or that we had driven new cars or that I had spent less time with my precious children. So WHY do I so often find my self wishing I could be somewhere else; that I could finish my shower with out someone peeking in the shower curtain letting in the cold air; that I could finish at least one task with out having to rescue, change a diaper.....whatever. It must be cabin fever.

Even though I can't get anything done with out doing three other things at the same time I am so thankful that I get to be the one doing it. Because that also means I get to see my kids grow. I get to shape their worldview. I get to kiss their scraped knees. I get to watch them learn to play together and become friends with their siblings. That FAR outweighs the long nights and the endless chores.

I was reminded today that just because I am in a job of service doesn't mean I will have a servant's heart. But I want more than anything to enjoy this role that I am in. I want to be able to put the needs and wants of my children first with a good attitude and giving spirit. I don't want to WANT to be doing anything else. I really want to enjoy giving of myself for these precious little people even if I never hear "Thanks, Mom!" But that's the funny thing, I do hear that in a thousand ways every day! Smiles, laughter, so many things that make me know that my kids are thankful. Especially when a sad little sick girl walks into the room and says, "Mommy, I not feel good." and then reaches up for you to hold her........there's nothing better than being able to comfort a baby!

Worst Mom of the Year Award Goes Toooo.......

ME! Yep. I am officially a loser mom! I finally took my poor daughter to the doctor today to see if she was clear to go to preschool because we just couldn't seem to beat these chicken pox. Well, obviously, I knew three weeks was too long for chicken pox but I had no idea it could be anything else. She has a skin infection, impetigo. It probably started as chicken pox and then just kept going as impetigo. The only difference is hers was SUPER itchy. Oh well, she is still supposed to stay away from others because it is contagious but should clear up immediately with her atibiotic. SO, we will see won't we?

And Elise has croup and is feeling awful. But we know about this and she doesn't have it badly enough to need to see the doctor but it looks like my self imposed quarintine could have been a few weeks shorter if I had just gone to the doctor! Lesson learned!

Here is our version of Cindy Lou Who. (The Grinch, Dr. Suess)