Peace on Earth - December Challenge

I'm linking up to Women Living Well blog where Courtney is challenging us to find peace during what is probably the most hectic month of the year, December. The first part of the challenge is probably the easiest.  It is to write 1 Peter 5:7 on the top of my calendar.  The hard part will be actually letting go of my anxieties!  (side note...notice my calendar?  It is a home made calendar that Sarah made me last Christmas at school.  I have LOVED seeing the pictures she picked out each month and her art work.)

Sometimes when I see a verse quoted on the internet, I like to look up the "rest of the story is".  I mean, with a verse about letting go of my anxieties and giving my worries over to God, there must be some other really important stuff that goes along with it!  Right?  Here is 1 Peter 5:1-11 (from the NIV)....

  ¹ To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: ² Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; ³ not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. ⁴ And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

 ⁵ In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

   “God opposes the proud
   but shows favor to the humble.”

 ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

 ⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

 ¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

I just thought I would share that with you because as a mother, I am entrusted to look over part of God's flock and sometimes it's hard for me to remember to not lord over my flock so much, but to be an example!


Another part of the challenge is to light a candle daily and each time the flame catches you eye, say a prayer for peace in you home.  This is also easy, because I love to burn candles in my home.  I love the way they smell and the way I can change the smell of my home, based on the season and my mood!

My candle is lit, how about yours?

Peace on Earth December Challenge

Country Potato Frittata

Mackenzie had a friend spend the night last night so this morning I got up and cooked breakfast for us all.  I found a recipe on Cooks.com for a frittata that used most of the things on had on hand.  Here is what I ended up with after looking through my supplies.  Try it, it was really, really good!

4 slices of bacon cut into half inch pieces
2 large baking potatoes cut into half inch cubes
salt and pepper
4 green onions, chopped
6 eggs
2 TBS half and half
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

cook bacon in oven proof skillet.  after bacon is done, set aside.  Leave about 2TBS bacon fat in skillet and add  potatoes.  Cover and cook over medium heat until tender, stirring occasionally (mine took about 30 minutes).  Add onions (I added a little olive oil at this point because they were too dry), salt and pepper to taste and saute over high heat about 5 minutes or until potatoes are slightly browned.  Beat eggs and half n half in a bowl, add salt and pepper to taste.  Turn down heat to low and pour eggs on top of potatoes.  Cover and cook over low heat until eggs are set, but not done.  Remove from heat and sprinkle bacon on top.  Place skillet under broiler and cook until eggs are done.  Add cheese and return to broiler to cook just until cheese is melted.

 Potatoes and onions cooking

Eggs added to skillet

Put under broiler

 It's done!!  Come eat!

I've linked up to--

Dishwasher's Grace

I found a poem in Taste of Home that I wanted to post with a great picture of my dishes piled high in my kitchen sink, but luckily I have a great husband and a fantastic daughter who jumped in and started doing dishes (without any hints from me) before I could take a picture.  Here it is, minus a picture.  I'm sure you all can visualize your own kitchens late in the day today!  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Dishwashers Grace
Thank God for dirty dishes,
they have a tale to tell.
While other folks go hungry,
we're eating very well.
With home and health and happiness,
we shouldn't want to fuss,
for by this stack of evidence,
God's very good to us.
     -Kristen Emmerton

Turkey Black Bean Chili-Mac Flamin' Hot Frito Pie!

YUM!!  I have to say this may be one of my favorite cold weather meals.  We have a friend who is always cooking up strange meals (such as spaghetti burritos) who posted a picture on Facebook of Chili-Mac Flamin' Hot Frito Pie.  I couldn't wait to try it!

On Friday, I cooked up a big pot of Turkey Black Bean Chili (really no recipe-- just add as I go, but I'll try my best to remember).  You will never know it is turkey and not beef... promise!
Here it is:
Olive oil
1 chopped onion
3 or more cloves minced garlic (depending on how much garlic you like and how big they are)
1.25 lb ground lean turkey breast (or 1lb... my store sells it in a 1.25lb package)
2+ TBS chili powder
1 TBS dried oregano
1 TBS dried basil
1 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)
1 TBS paprika
1 TBS ground cumin
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp seasoned salt (more or less depending on taste)
2 tsp cocoa
1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp liquid smoke
2 cans black beans (partially drained)
1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
about 1/2 of a beer
1 TBS Tabasco brand Chipotle Pepper Sauce

Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat; cook onion and garlic until onions are translucent.  Add turkey and cook, stirring, until meat is done  Season with chili powder, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper and cocoa.  Mix well.  Stir in Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, black beans, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and Rotel.  Pour in 1/2 of a beer and drink the rest.  Add Tabasco.  Mix it all up and let simmer for an hour or longer (Until it is consistancy you like-  I usually cook for at least an hour, sometimes 2 or more).  Stir every once and a while so that it doesn't stick to bottom.

When chili is almost done, I cook macaroni and cheese.  Then we get a bowl and put mac-n-cheese in the bottom, a layer of chili, a dollop of sour cream and a layer of Flamin' Hot Frito's to top it off with.

I have had this for 3 meals straight and can't wait for lunch tomorrow to finish it off!  Hope you try it and enjoy!  You have to use Flamin' Hot Frito's-  There is something about them that just makes the entire meal!  I have to go down to the Love's Gas station to get mine because I can't find them at any grocery stores around here.  Well worth it though!  I hope you try it and enjoy!

Linking to:

Sarah's Heart Chart

One of the blogs I follow is called "Women Living Well".  It is done by a Christian stay at home mom.  Last week she did a vblog titled Positive Parenting Tips.  It was very inspiring.  One of the tools she uses to encourage good behavior is called a Heart Chart.  I thought I would make one for Sarah and see if it could help us encourage better behavior from her.  I went to Joann's fabric with an idea of what I wanted to do, but no real plan.  I wandered around the store for well over an hour thinking and looking at everything.  I finally decided on a wooden plaque and some wooden hearts.  Sarah was excited when she got home from school and we set off to work.

Sarah painted the larger hearts pink

I wanted it to have a distressed look, so first I spray painted the base with a dark brown paint and wiped it off with a paper towel (didn't have a stain, so I improvised with the spray paint), next I painted it lime green and finally pink.  I also painted the smaller reward hearts the lime green color.

Here is everything painted.  I used scrapbook paper for the center of the board.  I distressed the painted wood using sand paper.  In some spots I went all the way down to the wood (which was sort of stained brown from the brown spray paint)

Notice how the paper on the left looks nice and new.  It didn't look right up against the distressed wood.  I tried a couple of things on a piece of the paper that I trimmed off.  Sanding the paper with 400 grit sand paper worked perfectly!  I was so happy with the way the paper turned out.  I wanted it even more distressed in a couple of spots, so I used a tiny bit of water on my finger.

Sarah wanted me to use the Mod-Podge with glitter in it for the big hearts.  I used the regular Mod Podge to glue on the scrapbook paper. I used a hot glue gun and glued the big hearts on the board and glued ribbon on to the small hearts.  I picked up some upholstery tacks at Home Depot to hang the tacks on.

Here is the finished "Heart Chart" 

Each of the small hearts is worth 1 heart and the bigger ones at the bottom are 15.  Sarah and I came up with ideas about how she earns hearts.  Some of the ways are getting ready for school on time with no one having to yell at her to get a move on, getting to bed when she is told, sharing and basically just doing what we ask her to do.  She can also lose hearts by not doing what is asked of her and pestering her sister.  We also wrote down what the rewards are.  She can turn in 30 hearts for Baskin Robbins ice cream, 45 hearts gets her a dipped waffle cone and 60 gets her a milk shake.  She also decided that she wants 1,000,000 hearts will get her an i-phone!  Fine with me ;-)

Another GREAT giveaway!

Judy from Green Fairy Quilts is doing a fantastic giveaway for an Origins Fat Quarter Bundle to celebrate the birth of her baby.  Check it out and enter today!  She has so many wonderful fabrics in her shop.  I can't wait till the new ones are released.  CLICK ON ME! I'LL TAKE YOU THERE!!! ;-)

Have a fabulous day!

Sarah's Crafts

There is a place in Modesto where you paint pottery and then they fire it for you.  Sarah has been wanting to go there for a while, so a couple of weeks ago when David was out of town, we had a girls night date and went painting.  We had a great time.  We missed Mackenzie and wished she would have gone with us, but I guess a boyfriend is more fun on a Saturday night than mom and Sarah.  Go figure!

Here is Sarah with the "before" picture:

Here she is painting:

Here is Sarah with the finished product.  It is a soccer bank.

 A while ago Ripon had a city wide garage sale.  Sarah had a soccer game that morning, so we got a late start.  We were lucky enough to find a couple of things, one was a paper mache box for 50 cents.  Sarah wanted to Mod Podge it.  She decided to do Starburst wrappers, so off to the store to buy 2 BIG bags of Starburst.  After eating them for over a week, we finally had enough.  I ironed a bunch of them so that they would be flat, but after Mod-Podging them to the box, I figured out ironing wasn't needed.  The inside of the box had some bumpy stuff on the bottom that I couldn't get off, so I crumpled up a couple of brown paper bags and Mod-Podged them on the inside.  After doing about half of the box lid, Sarah decided she was board with it and left it to me.  Should have known.  She loves it and I had fun with it.

Here is the finished project.

Don't Waste Your Homemaking Giveaway

I found a blog today (named Don't Waste Your Homemaking) through one of the other blogs I follow (Not Just A Housewife) that I'm really excited about.  I haven't had much time to catch up and read all about it yet, but look forward to checking it more tonight after Sarah is in bed.  Anyways, she is giving away one copy of Deceptively Delicious.  It is a cookbook written by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld's wife I believe... but don't quote me on that one).  I have looked it over at the library, but haven't checked it out yet.  It has lots of healthy recipes (where you hide the healthy things in with other things).  I would love to win this.  If I don't, remember Christmas is just around the corner  ;-)     Here is the link to the giveaway.  Don't Waste Your Homemaking Giveaway