On the Menu this week....

I really love menu planning! Not only does it keep me organized in my shopping, it has saved us a great deal of money. It's much easier to just go out to eat when you don't have a plan! That's why I participate in Organizing Junkie's Menu Planning Monday! And away we go!!! By the way, if you'd like the recipe for anything you see, just let me know and I'll post it!

Monday - Breakfast: Cereal (because I'm planning! LOL)

Lunch: Leftover Soup and Sammies

Dinner: Salmon croquettes, pinto beans, fried potatoes and cornbread.

Dessert: Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Tuesday - Breakfast: Apple/Cinnamon Muffins

Lunch: Homemade pizza & tossed salad

Dinner: At my son's Scout Blue and Gold banquet. He's bridging to big Boy Scouts!

Wednesday - Breakfast: Sausage/Egg Breakfast casserole

Lunch: Chicken Chunks, Mac & Cheese, Peas

Dinner: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn pudding

Thursday - Breakfast: Blueberry Pancakes

Lunch: Ham & Cheese Hoagies, chips

Dinner: Lasagna, tossed salad & garlic butter biscuits (Red Lobster type)

Friday - Breakfast: Oatmeal & Toast

Lunch: Lasagna & Garlic Biscuits (IF there are any left!)

Dinner: Chili, grilled cheese sammies

Saturday - Breakfast: Ham/Cheese omlettes

Lunch: Chili dogs, twice baked potatoes, baked beans

Dinner: Fish, rice, steamed veggies

Sunday - Breakfast: at Church

Lunch: Out

Dinner: Stuffed Peppers, hashbrown casserole, glazed carrots

Dessert: Honeybun Cake

If I read every blog I love,

I would never get anything done! I've started adding some buttons to the right. I encourage you to visit Mad in Crafts...what a beautiful, informative blog! I spent a lot of time there today and will be posting some of my own Dollar Store makeover crafts in the near future. (Really! Like tomorrow! I promise!)

Works for Me Wednesday!

Today is Works for Me Wednesday, hosted here. I'm participating this week with my tip for making those wonderful magic erasers last longer!

I don't know about you, but I am completely ADD when I have one of those wonderful little bits of foam in my hand. I clean and scrub one very grungy area only to notice a spot on the wall or woodwork. Without thinking, I swipe it and leave behind...a most decidedly NOT improved area of my home. The grunge on the exterior of the sponge has created another chore.

One day, after just such an experience I eyed the offending sponge. I just KNEW that there was clean, useable sponge under the grime. So, I grabbed a serrated knife and...


Suspicion confirmed! Look at that lovely, clean interior! I tried just peeling the top layer off to use the interior, but it crumbled in my hand.

So, I decided to cut the larger sponges into smaller ones first.

Worked like a charm, and now I make much better use of this valuable cleaning tool.

Works for me!

I'm finally on the road to wellness and organization...

and I will be updating this blog at least weekly. I'm sorry for the absence!

Todays entry is a semi-rant.

Dear Can Opener, It's not like I want you to fix the entire meal. Just open the stinkin' tomatoes. I'm already irritated that I'm out of home canned tomatoes, so don't push your luck. Signed, The Cook

God's Way, by Lydia S. Leach

God’s way is the best way,
though I may not see
Why sorrows and trials
oft gather ’round me;

He ever is seeking my gold to refine,
So humbly I trust Him, my Savior divine.

Refrain:
God’s way is the best way,
God’s way is the right way,
I’ll trust in Him alway,
He knoweth the best.

God’s way is the best way,
my path He has planned,
I’ll trust in Him alway
while holding His hand;
In shadows or sunshine He ever is near,
With Him for my refuge, I never need fear.

God’s way shall be my way,
He knoweth the best;
And leaning upon Him,
sweet, sweet is my rest,
No harm can befall me,
safe, safe shall I be,
I’ll cling to Him ever,
so precious is He.

Happy "Day Off"?

Today - on my day off - I'm washing clothes, washing dishes, organizing, cleaning, planting, entertaining, sweating and more. And griping. Oh yes, I was griping about it.

Then it occurred to me that those clothes I'm washing -- they're ours. Mine and my family's. We own them. They don't belong to my employer or worse yet, my owner. They're unique clothes - chosen to fit and compliment someone in my family. They're not oppressively hot with only a window for the eyes. They're weren't given us because we had none. Even better, they don't bear the stripes of a prison or the Star of a concentration camp. Our clothes. Purchased, worn and washed in freedom.

Those dishes? They're dirty because we have enjoyed meals on them. Simple meals, prepared in love and enjoyed around a table under a watertight roof. The scraps placed in the dog's bowl show how very blessed we are to have not only enough, but more than enough. And we ate at our leisure with utensils and cold or hot drinks. Food served on plates, not out of plastic pouches. We didn't huddle over our food in vain effort to keep out the flying sand or the rain. We dined in freedom because others ate MREs and wished for Mom's cooking.

Cleaning, organizing and planting are tiring work when done for one's own family. Imagine those who clean the mansions of a madman only to return home to squalor. Those who plant and harvest gardens and rice all day, then cradle a starving child at night. Those who cook for thousands of troops until they're too tired to nourish their own body. Those whose organizational duties include getting ammunition, food and other supplies for several platoons from point A to point B -- while being shot at. Imagine if you will having only one thing to clean...your weapon. Feel the burden not lighten from less cleaning responsibilities, but weigh down on shoulders barely out of high school. Shoulders that left wives and children behind in the states. Shoulders that have seen too much war and carried too many bodies. So in freedom I will organize my closet and remember.

Later this evening I will visit with friends. Friends of my own choosing who have seen good times and bad. But not compatriots. Compatriots are thrown together in the very worst of situations and their lives are forever intertwined. Whether they don envelope hats and march in parades or go on to live quiet lives out of the spotlight, on days like today they are never far from one another's mind. In their own gruff way, they love each other. Sometimes they even miss their buddy from their time at Normandy, or in Seoul or Saigon...the Delta, the jungle, on under or over the seas. Some, if not all, will think today of their buddy "Joe" or "Don" or "Rick" who didn't come back. For whom the wail of Taps echoed off the headstones of those gone on before. I'll think of "Joe" today as I sit - a free woman - and sip iced tea with friends.

And then, later, in a quiet time and a quiet place I'll speak the prayer my heart has been murmering all day long, "Oh God...thank you for the GIJoes and Janes who have given all that I may live in freedom. Thank you God that even today someone fights not only to ensure my continued freedom but to enable someone who hasn't known freedom the chance to breath it's fresh, clean air. Thank you God especially for those Joes and Janes who are serving Your higher calling. Those who, even as they obey the orders of men are praying for those still in bondage. Give them strength today and always Lord."

Our Earth Day Celebration

We're celebrating Earth Day! First we DROVE our 7 passenger mini-van (just the 2 of us) to a printing company to pick up their payment. They paid me with a check using profit they get from killing trees.Then, we went to the bank. Then we went and ate at KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN. We used styro plates and plastic forks. Paper napkins and to go cups.

Later today, instead of being frugal and having common sense in using dish towels - I will use paper towels to clean the sink. I will spray WINDEX on the surfaces, then flush the rinse water down the DRAIN. Later, I plan to take a 20 minute shower. At 8:00 this evening for the great "lights out" thingie we will be turning on every light in the house.Tomorrow I will return to my frugal ways, using dishtowels, not wasting water, using natural inexpensive cleaning products. I will cook & eat at home to conserve energy, money and gasoline. I will use my china and glassware and cloth napkins like I do every day.

In short, my "footprint" is smaller than most people's. And it is because of frugality and God's admonition to care for the earth and all in it.But on this day I refuse to participate in the environmentalism practiced by those who have nothing more meaningful than foisting their near religious ferver on the rest of us. I'll reject their admonition to "save the earth". I'm just not that narcissistic. I know one person can make a difference. That much is true. But teaching children that they can "save the earth" and there will be a utopian society is just setting them up for a fall. Sure, teach your children responsibility to our temporary home. Even non-Christians know they're but a wave tossed in the ocean when you look at the whole of history. But when your child is 30 and still hearing about the dying polar bears, they're going to figure it out. Hopefully.

The best way to celebrate Earth Day is each day to be sensible in your consumerism. Not letting the water run isn't just careless, it is costly. So is using disposables. And harsh chemicals that induce asthma attacks. Be each day a good steward of the home God has given us. But lets not worship it. After all, it is temporary.

Was It A Morning Like This

Was it a morning like this
When the Son still hid from Jerusalem?
And Mary rose from her bed
To tend the Lord She thought was dead

What is a morning like this,
When Mary walked down from Jerusalem?
And two angels stood at the tomb,
Bearers of news she would hear soon.

Did the grass sing?
Did the earth rejoice
To feel you again?
Over and over like a
Trumpet underground,
Did the earth seem to pound:
“He is risen”
over and over
in a never ending round
“He is risen, alleluia, alleluia!”

Was it an morning like this,
When Peter and John from Jerusalem?
And as they raced for the tomb,
Beneath their feet was there a tune?

Was it a morning like this,
When my Lord looked out
On Jerusalem?
He is risen, alleluia, alleluia.

By Request

We have some kids playing their music way too loud. I asked some friends for mucis suggestions to have a little fun and make a point. I now have a polka-Barry Manilow loaded boom box on the front porch. ;-) Someone wanted to know more, so here goes:

This is a nice neighborhood. No mcMansions here, but good, modestly sized houses. We still live here because a child born 3 months early at Vanderbilt costs around $1 million and we don’t do bankruptcy.

The first full day we lived here, there was a little boy with a deep, dark tan playing in our back yard. He was a cute little thing, around 6 and left to pretty much raise himself. Mama was an alcoholic. He hid when hubs called him down for throwing rocks at our metal outbuilding because he liked the sound.

Through the years, we befriended this little one and introduced him to our friend Jesus. When he was left outside on his own, we took him in and gave him a good meal. We always returned him back home safe and sound when his mom sobered up. One night hubby even picked his mama up out of the front yard and got her in when then-preteen boy could not.

Finally, the lure of money and the empty “love” offered by the streets in the city got him. For years we would only see him occasionally at WalMart (where he would yell - Mom! Dad! Caused some confusion, lol.) or when the police came looking for him. 9 years or so ago we found out he’d been dealing drugs and all the other bad stuff. He knew these other boys even then - and unbeknownst to us put the word out that anyone harming us or our home would be dealing with him and his gang.

3 years ago he showed up with the prettiest 2 children I’ve ever seen. The next day he sat on my porch (I don’t allow men inside when hubs isn’t home) and talked with my pastor. That day, he met - and accepted - my friend Jesus.

These are not bad children. Even if they were, they don’t really scare me. First I have my Father watching over me day and night. Secondly, I have Smith & Wesson doing the same. If I deal with them creatively, I know they will come asking. And I will have a chance to begin the cycle over again.

What joy!