My favorite things about today

I am sitting here in a quiet house – a very rare thing for me! The kids are at church with Nini and Papa and Mike’s at a meeting. I have about 40 things to do around the house but I wanted to put down a few of my favorite things about today:

* waking up and snuggling up to the most wonderful man in the world – it was cold this morning (see below)

* heat – our gas ran out late last night (we have new gas water heaters and the company had underestimated how much we would use) so we were cold until about lunch time – heat is a good thing in January

* reading Emma’s research paper about Hermit Crabs – it is soo cute – she is a great little writer

* watching Drew eat ice cream – nothing is cuter than a 3 year old with ice cream all over his mouth

* watching Luke be a man – after Drew knocked down his train track – Luke said “that’s no way to respect a man” he is the funniest kid – I have no idea where he came up with that

* going to Cones and Coffee with my kids – it’s the closest thing to Starbucks we have here – good latte and great kids

* a long chat on the phone with one of my favorite people in the world – Stephanie

* a few minutes alone in the car – sometimes that is where I do my best connecting with God

Need a new car

Here is Parents magazine pick for cars for families -didn’t see the Honda mini-van on there but I still love mine -even if it is a mini-van! Gotta admit the turn around seats in the Chrysler are pretty cool but it looks like throw up just waiting to happen with my car sick little one!

Cookin’

Last night Drew helped me cook while Mike took Emma and Luke to bball practice. Took a little extra time (ok alot of extra time) and a bigger mess to clean but it was worth it. He loves to help in the kitchen. We made fish tacos. My friend Sonda used to live in California and these are big out there. This summer she told me how to make them. If you’ve never tried them – you are missing out. Here is how I do it (Sonda hope I don’t mess this up)

I used talapia

Cut the fish into bite sized chunks
– last night I fried them with a beer batter mix
– or you can grill or pan fry in a little olive oil season with a little salt and lime juice

Make the sauce (this is what makes them sooooo good)
– mix together some mayo, sour cream, lots of chopped cilantro, tabasco to taste and a little lime juice and enough water to make it slighty runny (I like it a little runnier than salad dressing)I think Sonda didn’t make it with sour cream but I use reduced fat sour cream so I don’t feel like I am using so much mayo I don’t know how much of everything to tell you because I just make it in a cereal bowl and that’s about how much we need

To make the tacos
– warm tortillas (I use flour but you could do corn) put the fish on top with shredded cabbage ( use the preshredded cole slaw kind to cut down on prep time – I actually used broccoli slaw last night – it’s healthier than just cabbage)top with the sauce (don’t be stingy – this mixes with the cabbage and makes kind of a slaw)
fold it up and enjoy!) You can also top it with salsa and guacamole

Have fun – it brings a little summer on a cold day!

Just be the Mommy!

I have had this on my fridge for several years now. I cut it out of a Focus on Your Child magazine and I wish I had read it at about 9am this morning instead of now before going to bed – there’s always tomorrow. It has been one of those days! If you’ve had one too – read this. This is a scan of the one on my fridge – I was too lazy to type it. Just click on it and it will be large enought to read. Better yet print it out and stick it on your fridge.

Funny video

I ran across this video and got a good laugh. It is a “infomercial” type skit from 1948 from Simplicity Sewing Patterns. So girls do you have “the know-how” look. It’s a long video just watch the first couple of minutes.

Some links

Where we buy our fair trade coffee for Cornerstone

Where to get other coffee stuff (cups, sleeves, etc) for chuch

Where to get everything printed – cheap

Great children’s ministry stuff – all their documents and great ideas

Great church in Charleston SC – lots of ideas and free documents

Free documents from this AWESOME church

Where I just ordered my new side table from – finally that void beside my couch is filled

Just found this awesome kids furniture site

Youth stuff and movie reviews

Most of my homeschool curriculum

A great blog with awesome recipes

If you homeschool and haven’t heard of this for every book imaginable you must live under a rock

Just a few – I’ll put up more later – I am too frustrated with internet shopping (for clothes) to post any of those sites – more about that later

Organized with less stuff

A few days ago Mike was putting in an order to Booksamillion and he needed a few more dollars for free shipping so I had him order a book I had seen here. It’s by Peter Walsh from TLC’s show Clean Sweep. It’s the show that makes pack rats cringe. I am not at all a pack rat – I love to get rid of stuff. I do not function well in clutter besides I’m not taking it with me! So I am anxious to read the book and get started! I could probably organize all my stuff in the time it will take to read the book but maybe I’ll get some inspiration and new ideas.

Think Spring

On this cold January day I thought it would be good to think forward to spring . . .
Some things I am looking forward to….

  • Winterjam with our teens (ok it has winter in the name but it’ll still be fun) it’s such a low stress trip because you go in and everyone throws their $10 in the bucket and finds a seat no tickets or paying ahead of time. You just have to get there early to get a good seat.
  • Unleash Mike and I went to this conference last year and it was AWESOME!!! Newspring church really has something special that God is blessing and it was great to get some insight into how they do things. Everyone serving in your church would benefit from this conference. I fell in love with Anderson, SC while we were there – great place. So it’s 31/2 hours south and it has SPRING in the title – Yeah!
  • White Board Sessions another conference that we are planning to attend. I really enjoy traveling with Mike and learning EVERYTHING I can about church planting and reaching people for Jesus. This looks like a great place to do that. AND Mike is keeping up with the details of the conference and said to me today “Hey Jenni, free Starbucks coffe at the White Board Conference” – I’m there.
  • OK this is a little leak of information to see if any of you teenagers read my blog – you’ll be glad you did so you can comment and tell me what you think about a CRAZY AWESOME summer camp for the summer – I’m not making any promises yet. Did I mention it involved the beach. Just an idea – anyone interested?

Date night

Mike and I had a date yesterday!  We went to Winston and did a little shopping and then went our to dinner at Village Tavern (one of our favorite restaurants).  We also went to the mall and I got my Starbucks fix (grande nonfat carmel macchiato).  The kids stayed with Papa and Nini and ended up spending the night there because we were later than expected getting home because of an accident.  So – it’s off to pick up the little guys and get some school work started.