30 day Photo Challenge

30 day Photo Challenge

30 Day Photo Challenge

A friend of mine is doing this, and I thought it looked like fun so I'm going to do it too. It really is a personal challenge to myself.

Here's the list of the photos needed.

Day 1: A picture of yourself with fifteen facts.

Day 2: A picture of you and the person you have been close with for the longest.

Day3: A picture of the cast from your favourite show.

Day 4: A picture of your night.

Day 5: A picture of your favourite memory.

Day 6: A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.

Day 7: A picture of your most treasured item.

Day 8: A picture that makes you laugh.

Day 9: A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

Day 10: A picture of the person you do the most messed up things with.

Day 11: A picture of something you hate.

Day 12: A picture of something you love.

Day 13: A picture of your favourite band or artist.

Day 14: A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

Day 15: A picture of something you want to do before you die.

Day 16: A picture of someone who inspires you.

Day 17: A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.

Day 18: A picture of your biggest insecurity.

Day 19: A picture of you when you were little.

Day 20: A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.

Day 21: A picture of something you wish you could forget.

Day 22: A picture of something you wish you were better at.

Day 23: A picture of your favourite book.

Day 24: A picture of something you wish you could change.

Day 25: A picture of your day.

Day 26: A picture of something that means a lot to you.

Day 27: A picture of yourself and a family member.

Day 28: A picture of something you're afraid of.

Day 29: A picture that always makes you smile.

Day 30: A picture of someone you miss

Almost New Years

Well this year has been full of ups and downs for our family. We moved making most of my goals for last year moot. I gained twenty or so pounds during our move to Texas and traveling around the country. We almost stayed on track with the no credit use, we lasted eleven months all together. We took apart our little vegetable patch in Florida. We bought a house in San Antonio and have started planting fruit trees and berry bushes in the back yard. My children have grown and grown. The year seems to have disappeared before our eyes. I am hoping that this year slows down so we can enjoy it. I guess it is time for new year resolutions, but I will post those in the next week. Goodbye 2010.

Glory To God

This morning I woke up with this hymn playing in my head. I don't know why but as I made breakfast I felt compelled to sing. Sing I did while I mixed the batter for the apple cinnamon muffins. Then as they baked I went and looked it up online:

Glory To God In The Highest

Glory to God in the highest
And peace to His people on earth
Lord God, Heavenly King, Almighty God and Father
We worship You
We give You thanks
We praise You for Your glory

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father
Lord God, Lamb of God
You take away the sins of the world
Lord, have mercy on us
You are seated at the right hand of the Father
Receive our prayer

For You alone are the Holy One
For You alone are the Lord
For You alone are the Most High
Jesus Christ
With the Holy Spirit
In the glory of God the Father

Amen

Every night as I lay in bed and pray before I fall asleep I pray for guidance, patience, and strength. While I sang along to the song in my head I felt like I was answered. There is something truly beautiful about this song so I have listened to it in it's many forms online today. The music in Mass is beautiful. I love it when the priest sing while they prepare Communion. Maybe this song was to tell me that I am not alone here. Let me remind you that even though I attend Mass I am not yet Catholic. We are searching for a church we belong too. We have been to four here in as many months. I am off track.  Yesterday I was praying for the lord to walk with me. Today he lifted me. I am always amazed that the glory of god can appear in simple humble ways, a song to lift my spirits, a soft breeze on a bike ride, a child's smile, these are the places I have seen the lord.
My question is if I know the lord and I am trying to give faith to my children why do I feel like a lost sheep?

A lost travler looking for the light

I know I haven't posted an update to our goals for the year in a couple of months. I will get to it but not today. Today I want to talk about searching for meaning, a higher power, God. I have always wanted to believe in God but I feel as if I have taken a left turn and missed that part of childhood. So believe it or not I want God in our daily lives. I have seen his work first hand through my children and my husbands complete recovery from cancer. I know God is Good and I know he is always there. I know he listens when we ask him too. What I am not good at is prayer. I have heard the most beautiful prayers that touch the soul on the wings of angels. Mostly when I pray I ask for strength, guidance, patience, or I pray short prayers for those I love or ask for it. I want my children to have faith, where they can turn to God when they need him most. So how do you have a relationship when you have no church? When you don't know how to join the church. I feel Lost.

There was an Angel figurine that I want it is an Angel on her knees praying and across her belly it says Lord Hear our prayer. I thought it was profound and beautiful. Isn't that what we are always asking. Lord hear me. Lord Lead me. Lord Help me. Lord Know me. Maybe we should go to him and know him and his glory. The question I have is How do I get there?

God is God, and God is Good.

Painting the house Yellow.

So for the last four weeks I have been trying to pick out paint colors for my kitchen and the living room. It is mostly an open floor plan so I want to choose the right three colors. Something that I am happy to be in and comforted by. A soothing popping wonder color that I am starting to doubt is out there. I have been pulling out my hair because I hate the vomit colors that came with the house. Yes that is harsh and everyday I get more complacent. I don’t want to get used to it, the mustard on my living room walls is horrible. I want some livable colors. I just didn’t know that a yellow kitchen was so hard to match or how many yellows there are. I want a green and orange but what shade of them? My brain is melting and boiling. It should not be so hard to pick paint colors. I am tempted to just go pick some colors and say this is what I want. Bam! It’s done. I’ll read about it to death stare hopelessly at little sample colors. I would be happy to paint a couple of samples on the walls to choose but I am having trouble narrowing it down.


I know that you have been wondering what we decided to paint the ugly kitchen. I am happy to report that it is now a very bright happy Yellow, Acorn Squash in fact. It took 3 coats to make the old ugly kitchen disappear. It is now bright and wonderful. We are going to paint the ceiling a light green, celery. I now love the kitchen.

Now what shade of orange to paint the rest of the house. Pumpkin Pleasure or Autumn Harvest. I really like squash and Autumn. The office will be a bright blue in the future and the boys room will be painted a light blue. My bathroom will follow the blue path. Hum My bathroom is getting a nice serene blue to match my bedroom. Maybe I should find a nice different color for the boys like green, or something. I have time and their walls are a greyish white color. I bet the paint was on sale when the last owners painted.
All the same a month in and it is beginning to feel like home. We have another 4-10 years before we move again. We have only just begun!

Cream of Mushroom Soup

One hint before you start chopped everything before you heat your first pan. This may be common sense but I don't have all the change all the time. It will save you a ton of time if you just cut the stuff and put them aside in bowls until your ready. Other then the cutting it is an easy recipe to follow. Also turn the chicken stock on to boil on medium high when you start so that by the time you are done cutting it will be ready to use.


For 6-8 people


1/4 cup minced onions (So I just chopped them up, if you have a food processor use it if not dice the onion about half of one)
3 TB butter

Cook the onions slowly in butter for 8 minutes until they are tender but not brown.

3 TB Flour Add flour to the onions over med heat for 3 minutes with out browning.

6 cups (3-4 14oz cans) Boiling Chicken Broth 
1/3 Bay leaf (just throw one in)
1/8 tsp thyme
2 parsley sprigs
1 LB of whole mushrooms (chop the stems and slice the caps)


Off Heat, beat in the boiling chicken broth. (If you are using a frying pan for your onions you are really just mixing in some of the chicken broth to make it liquid then add it to the bigger pot and just use your whisk until it is all blended) Season with Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the Mushroom stems and simmer partially covered for 20 minutes. Stirring occasionally. You need to strain, pressing juices out of the mushrooms. (told you not to worry about the onions being minced or not;)  Return soup to pan.

2 Tb butter
The sliced mushroom caps (save some slices to top the soup)

1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Melt butter in a separate saucepan. (Use your onion pan. You don't have to wash it in between) When it is foaming, toss in mushroom caps, salt, and lemon juice. Cover and cook on low for about 5 minutes

Pour the mushrooms and their juices into the strained soup base Simmer for ten minutes. *If not to be served immediately, set aside uncovered, and film the surface with a spoonful of cream or milk. Reheat to simmer just before proceeding to the step below, which will take 2-3 minutes.

2 egg yolks
1/2 -3/4 c Whipping cream

Beat the egg yolks and cream in a mixing bowl. Then beat in hot soup a little at a time until a cup has been added. Gradually stir the egg mix into the soup. Stir over medium low heat for a minute or two to poach the egg yolks, but do not let the soup come near a simmer.

1-3 softened butter

Off heat stir in butter 1 TB at a time. Pour the soup into a tureen or soup cups and decorate with optional mushrooms and herbs. Minced 3 TB parsley or chervil.

The Recipe is from Mastering The Art Of French Cooking by Julia Child page 40 I changed some things that seemed easier to me. Let me know if my little tidbits are helpful or not. If not I can always just post the recipes... Good Luck, and let me know if you try it out.


Happy Eating

August Goal Update

I wanted to do a quick update of my goals because it is the easiest blog to post. I am hoping to get in to the library/office and upload pictures of the last couple of months so I can blog about traveling across country with the boys, house hunting, and the adventure which is our lives. If I can find some witty words to help you follow along the journey even better. I do wish I had taken more pictures of my family. I don't know why I didn't. I think that maybe I was trying to fit in as much time in a single day with them that it didn't come up. Ten days is not enough time to do more then a quick hello and goodbye again. Really I hope that we can go back again next year with more time to breath. Both my sister and brother are going to have babies and I would like to hold them before they start running. All of my cousins are growing up and suddenly are adults. I would like to get to know them. The hardest part about the military life is the distance in time and space it creates waiting to go home again. Don't get me wrong I am incredible blessed and I would not change the life that I am lucky enough to live. I just hope that we can share it with the family we had to leave behind. I want my kids to know there is a tribe who loves them all of the time. That there is a bigger family out there...

I just realized that I was rambling and really off subject. I am good at that for sure. Anyway here is my updated goal list....








Family goals


1. No credit use- We have done Amazing! We have been in the middle of moving and took a trip to Oregon, stopping at hotels along the way. Basically eating out every meal for 2 months straight and we have not used credit yay! That feels good even though our savings account is moaning and groaning with hunger. Meaning that is about empty. Let me tell you it is really up lifting to know that we have control over our money and not the other way around.

2. To pay off 5 of 6 bills- Starting debt- $17928.61 August Debt 159581.56

Ok so we bought a house and I thought I should through it into the whole mix. Which makes us look like we went crazy but we choose wisely. We debated the benefits of renting and buying. So far it is really nice to know that I can paint the walls the colors I like and I know that when we move I don't have to paint them white. Really we owe 9932.56 in total small debt car included. Our car will be paid off in April and we have a smallish card that will be paid off around the same time. Then a big credit card that will take time. If I haven't already said it then I will now. We have made some bad money decisions but slowly we are fixing the problems we made. Because we are new to our house and haven't gotten bills for the utilities or the HOA I am not sure sure how to budget to pay more towards our debt. So I will just pay the minimum until we have a good feel of what we can do. I guess it is better to do what you are able then to push yourself to the edge. I have started a rough estimate I tried to be high on my numbers and hopefully they turn out to be a close fit because it would be easier all around. I'll have it sorted out just in time to worry about the Holidays. So really I will start paying more towards our debt in January. It will be a good start to 2011. Still I am really proud of what we have accomplished this year. I will still be saving but on a much smaller level for awhile but I'll let you know how it goes.
   
3. Vegetable garden that we can use for meals.- We have 1/4 of an acre to plant on! Rob has already planted some greens in the back near the house. It will be while before we get it up and going but we have a lot of yard to play with. This is really just starting and I am excited to see it grow.

5. Damian reading chapter books, Damian loves reading Chapter books now.We'll be starting a reading time everyday with school work. It will be good for us to get back to basics after 2 months of T.V.


My goals- Redo... Restart...Start over. It seems I have gained 20 pounds this PCS and travel season... Let me tell you I feel every pound of it too. I feel sluggish and heavy. My feet hurt when I walk.  I can't believe that 20 pound can be so hard on a body! So I will be restarting my fitness goals very soon. When I am done unpacking this house! Anyone want to help, do it with me, support my new weight loss goal of 30 pounds please be free. Lord knows I need a good kick in the pants.
1. Get Fit
2. To be able to run 6 miles in 1hour.
3.Be a better mother-
4.Be a better house keeper-
 
 
 
 I do want to say something to those of you who are at the beginning of  your debt free journey.. It may seem impossible at the first baby steps but the more you baby step forward your steps slowly get bigger. It is hard but not impossible. If we can do this so can you. It feels good when you can see the light at the end of the road. That road while not paved with gold will be paved in lighter steps. (This is a great quote from the end of my last blog and because it still applies in more way then one I have decided to keep it.)

Be Well my blogger friends and Peace Be with you...Always