Glimpses of the New House

We have been adjusting to our new home.   No time for much extra besides school, meals, memorizing for Bible Quizzing and taking care of family.  I’ve been gone LOTS of weekends lately so that hasn’t given us any extra down time.  Last week we were home 4 whole days!  Only our regular Tuesday errand day was spent in town.  It was awesome to have a calm normal week.  I’m so thankful for our new place and the time we get to spend here.  God has really blessed us with a special place that brings peace to my soul.

A new season has snuck up on me while I’m still trying to hold on to summer.   We finally got our pool put to bed for the winter this weekend.  Next year we will definitely know more about what we are supposed to do.

One project I’ve completed in stolen minutes & hours is to paint the kitchen.  I have a hard time in the winter with clouds and no sunshine.  So the prospect of living with this dark red color(while beautiful) was giving me the willies.  (Please ignore all dogs & teenagers and focus on the red.  Really the teens & dogs are just accessories in the picture.)

So I primed it and painted it a lovely blue.  The color of the sky.  The color of a summer day.  My favorite color. I can do this.

So there are still boxes around but mostly we’ve unpacked the most needed stuff and we are working on the odds and ends that do not have homes.

Here are some pictures stolen from Elizabeth’s Facebook page and they show some of the outside views that we get to enjoy.  .

Falls glorious colors take my breath away

And here are a few of my own.

(Again ignore the dog)

        

I hope that as life slows down I can get back to scrapbooking, blogging, sharing recipes, projects and crafts.  Be back soon . . . .

Linking up at

A BIG move here!

We did it.  We moved.

There are really no words for how much we LOVE our new place.

So I’ll just give you some pictures!

Kitchen & eat in nook

POOL!

Garden bounty!  I’ve canned 7 gallons of tomatoes & there is much more to come!

More POOL time!

Kids bath!

Back of the house in the pasture with the dogs

This was the beginning of filling this room with boxes.  Its full & well I’m working my way through unpacking

Movie night on Labor Day in the new place!

I will share more as we unpack & do some of the fun things we have planned for the new place.  In the mean time PRAY that our previous home is LOVED by a new family soon!

Working Smarter Not Hotter!

We are in house clean up mode around here as we have high hopes to sell our home this summer!  It has warmed up to summer temperatures so that means getting outside early to work in the garden & yard!

The last thing I want to do when I come in is COOK!  So I have been stockpiling meals and the basics of meals.  As one of the things on our list is go get new counter tops & do some kitchen updating that means the meals will be ummm interesting for a week or so. 

I’ve been following a new eating plan(notice it is not a DIEt) and it has been AMAZING for my energy levels.  AND for the first time in forever I am off soda(and all sugar for that matter).  I don’t crave it at all.  If you want to check it out, then head over to the  Trim Healthy Mama website.

So to make life easier I have done 3 things this week.

1.  Bought strawberries while they are in season.  We go through a lot of berries & it is WAY cheaper to buy them fresh & freeze them.  I stalk the produce aisle at Aldi’s for those $1 boxes.

2. Bought chicken.  I know everyone buys chicken but I never even put it in the frig.  I cooked it up, diced it, shredded it & basically made some meals ahead of time.  My favorite one is at the bottom of this post.  I also caught precooked chicken(grilled) on sale last week at Kroger so I can head that REALLY quick in the microwave(cooler!) for grilled chicken salad.  I also put the broth in quart jars so I have that to make up some easy soups pretty cheaply. I will freeze that soon but ran out of time!

3. Bought ground turkey.  This is for breakfast mostly.  We love sausage but I hate the high price!  I caught ground turkey on sale this week so I used Heavenly Homemaker’s recipe for homemade turkey sausage.  Quick easy breakfasts are a must!

Then I made my kids Chocolate Pudding Pops with no sugar!  Thank you THM for such great recipes that are healthy!

Chicken Bacon Salad—S meal (no picture because we ate it too fast)

4 cups cooked diced chicken

1/2 c cooked crumbled bacon

1/4 c slivered almonds

1/2 c sliced celery

1 can water chestnuts

2 tsp dry minced onion or 1 T chopped red onion

1 cup miracle whip

1/4 tsp ginger

Mix it all together & serve on a bed of greens!  Cool and healthy meal!

Serves 5  Calories per serving 276  Carbs 8 Fat 14 Protein 27  Tallied up from myfitnesspal.com

Diet Changes & Challenges

This blog has moved.  Sorry for the inconvenience!!!


The new location of this post is

Diet Changes & Challenges

Starting again

Its been almost a year since I posted.  No excuses just reasons.

No time as I’ve managed to accomplish a REAL school year for 2012-13.  We are close to finishing it all up and having a few weeks off for the summer.(PRAISE GOD!)

My mom has pancreatic cancer, lives with us & I am often away at doctor appointments.

My dad has a delusions and that has been taking up bits of time.

Blogging can take over my life and it is better to just live it some times.  But that said I know that I want to post more here.  Enjoy these random pictures from the past year.

You never are too old to play dress up

New puppy in the house—meet Bear

A new boy scout!

Still a kid—looking for Easter eggs!

Having fun coaching again

Michael & Rebekah announcing . . .

Something exciting in their future!