I am convinced that in a perfect world, there would be the perfect music playing all the time. We all love to watch movies (I take that back, most women love to) that have an amazing song to soar you through the scene and take you to just the emotion and memory to let you relate to the characters.
In this sense, I feel that playing music in my home helps to create the emotions and setting I am looking for...peace, comfort, joy....
Today was a day where I needed to remove the emotions and feelings I was having (ie-exhaustion, frustration, headachetion-yeah, I made it up:) and replace them with the above setting.... When I remember, I pull up a website called Pandora and type in whatever type of music I would like to listen to, a favorite band, or even a song I want to hear. The website then creates a station they think would appeal to your listening interests....its amazing. Over time, you can rate whether or not you like certain songs and eventually create a bunch of different stations to fit your mood.
In our house, we listen to bands like Robbie Seay Band, Hillsong, David Crowder, Sara Groves, Brooke Fraser, we play Classical music, or one day I typed in Raffi (you know, the old 80s child advocate?) and was so pleasantly surprised, its one of my favorite stations.
My oldest daughter loves the "pretty music" which is classical, or romantic period music. She really loves the sound of violins which is great!
Over all, I think its important to create a home that not just you, but your children want to be in. This is one way I "attempt" to accomplish that and create
PEACE, COMFORT & JOY
Thanks!
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Sometimes one of the best things about being a SAHM, is that you have the ability to pray whenever, wherever and however you like. Today was a day where much prayer was needed, and still is if you'd like to join in.
A wonderful family in our church is going through a terrible time. The husband and father has just been flown to Boston for more surgery, after he's already been through surgery at least 4 times that I know of. He has a loving wife and a 5 year old son. The husband had his spleen removed two weeks ago, and is now having some sort of liver failure as well as possible kidney issues. The hospital has had him in a sedated coma and his body is not even closed from the previous surgery to see if they can keep the fluids down. Please pray for this family, for peace, for healing and most of all, pray for this family to have their daddy back. In God's Will...
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I am always looking for areas of inspiration and "like-minded" people. I wanted to share a little about the magazine called Mothering. It's not your typical run of the mill magazine. It is filled with articles that push the boundaries on what is culturally acceptable, it has information on healthy children and families
the natural way, and the editor is not afraid to "tell it like it is" which I always feel is the best way! If you are looking for a little mommy break and wanting to fill your brain with something useful, not just junk and advertisements, try picking up a Mothering magazine. You will either be pleasantly surprised, or hate it! But I guarantee you will learn something new...maybe even about yourself!
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Since this week is a kitchen cabinet week, I thought I would share a little tip with you. This tip is great if you have an item in your refrigerator that you want to use up, or a spice you have never used, or just want something different.Its at allrecipes.com, and its their ingredient search. The site itself is amazing in finding great recipes, but if you dig a little deeper in their site, you can find their search page by ingredients. This is great for picky eaters too because it also has an "ingredients I don't want" section too. My husband, Brian doesn't like cheese-(I know, ridiculous, but nevertheless, we deal with it) so I always type in cheese on the items I don't want list.If I have a lot of chicken, I will type that in the ingredient search, without cheese of course, and find some pretty great recipes with chicken.I have also used it for spices- for example- I had garam masala and wanted to try it. I typed it in the ingredient search, and many new recipes came up....that's how I found the great Vegetable Masala recipe that I use.So there's my thing to Try on Tuesday!!Hope you like it!Here's a direct link to the ingredients page:Ingredients Search on Allrecipes.comOtherwise, you can just click on the word ingredients at the top of the homepage for allrecipes.com
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This week is a kitchen cabinet week. This means I am not going shopping due to a tighter budget, and we are making due with whatever we have in our cabinets and fridge:
Last week I tried out the Mexicali Casserole which I attached the recipe to. I thought it was OK, just OK. I would definitely make it again and keep it in the fridge for an easy go-to lunch. We all ate it, but it was a little plain and bland. Thanks!
Monday: Spaghetti w/ meat sauce, broccoli and bread
Tuesday: Spicy Turkey Burgers (Recipe Below) w/ attempted homemade buns- usually served on whole foods buns...so good
Wednesday: Honey Mustard Chicken w/ String Beans and RiceThursday: Black Bean Chili w/ homemade corn bread and spinach
Friday: Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup- w/ a secret ingredient....recipe to come
Saturday: Picadillo w/ Naan bread, brown rice and mixed veggies...recipe to come
Sunday: Slow Cooker Thai Chicken
Spicy Turkey Burgers Originally got this recipe off of allrecipes.com, but I have tweaked it a little to fit our needs. I also have it doubled so I can save some in the freezer.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 pounds lean ground turkey
- 4 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
- 1.5 medium onions, diced
- 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
- 2teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons Bragg's Amino Acids- (replacement for soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 5 tablespoons paprika
- 2 tablespoons ground dry mustard or even 2 tablespoons course mustard
- 2tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
DIRECTIONS - Preheat the grill for high heat.You can also heat a frying pan and put a little oil in it.
- In a bowl, mix the ground turkey, garlic, ginger, onion, cilantro, salt, Bragg's Amino Acids, black
pepper, paprika, mustard, cumin, and Worcestershire sauce. Form the mixture into 16 burger patties. - Lightly oil the grill grate. Place turkey burgers on the grill, and cook 6 minutes per side, until well done.
- Serve with Fresh Spinach, Tomato and your favorite condiment. I love to use mayo, but my husband uses a hot pepper relish which he loves....
- Place extra patties on plastic wrap and individually seal them. When ready to use, place in refrigerator that morning or night before.
Enjoy!
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A lot of you were wanting to see how the poopy party went...well, in my opinion, it couldn't have gone any better. First off, Lily made out like a bandit.....many guests actually brought poopy party presents!!Lily received amazing boa type socks and a flower headband. She even got a build-a-bear gift card which we just used last night to get a teddy bear. Lily aptly named this teddy bear "potty bear", with no help from the parents, she just remembered that she got the gift card for her poopy party...awesome.Anyway, Lily's favorite gift wasn't really a gift at all. My cousins were in Florida vacationing and happened to stop by for the party. They brought with them their miniature doberman pinture named "Jazzy". I couldn't tell who was walking who, but Lily and Jazzy hung out for hours. Not only was Jazzy the proper size for Lily to luv on, but Jazzy was also wearing a princess outfit, which I'm sure Lily was a little jealous of....
The night ended up with a dance party... couples dancing. Lily with G-Bob, S with Claire and cousin JJ with Jazzy..... for me, this is classic memories in the home:)Now the only problem is to convince Lily to go on the potty again....maybe this isn't the best potty training tip....but it was fun while it lasted!
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These past two weeks have been so crazy for our family. Two sick girls last week, and now L is sick again with a high fever! I realized that I was dragging these poor kids around all over the place and it probably wasn't helping them. So yesterday, I decided I was going to declare "Thyme at Home" for REAL! I skipped my Stroller Power class, and went for a stroll around the block with my girls. I skipped story time at the Library, and had a story time with my girls in our own rocking chair; L even got to read her favorite story. By the end of the day, I got more cleaning done, the kids were fairly calm and in good moods and I felt refreshed. Sometimes I think "staying at home" is so underrated. Hope I don't sound too old fashioned, but I thought it might be nice to emphasize the importance of making your home a place you want to be as well as where your children want to be. I am currently in the process of trying to create a welcoming "Pre-School" type atmosphere for my 2.5 year old that is also kid friendly to the baby who is crawling and touching everything. Home-schooling is not for everyone, but I am definitely headed in that direction and I thought Pre-School time at our house is a good way to test the waters. If any of you are interested in possibly home-schooling, or just even furthering your young children's learning skills at 
home, here are some great resource tools and books. I am finding that the Montessori approach is so creative and insightful for the little ones to really use their brains in new ways. Blogs:
Chasing Cheerios- One woman's journey to home-school/unschool her toddler. She gives great ideas for activities and posts all the timeTOTally TOTS- Anything and everything toddlers!My Montessori Journey- A blog about Montessori teachingsWhat Do We Do All Day?- A blog about moms and kids at home....great easy activitiesList of Best Montessori Blogs by AP- Haven't looked at all the sites, but there are so many creative things you can find with just a little searching....time to pull our the crafty teacher in me!Montessori for Everyone- She has her own store, and also free downloads for learning cards to work with your children.Montessori World- This site is amazing, and tells you step by step how to do things... love it!Hope you all are inspired to take control of your childrens learning, your home and what is BEST for you and your family...God Bless y'all!
(Here, L was learning about patterning, which is one step to learning how to read...whew, we're one step closer!)
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