More about Me---Tagged Again!

I find this hilarious! I do a post in honor of my birthday because I was tagged and then the day after I was tagged again by Donna over at The Frugal Mom Blog! LOL!

These are the rules for tagging…

1) Link back to the person who tagged you and share the rules on your blog
2) Share 7 facts about yourself
3) Tag seven people and list their links in your post
4) Tell those 7 people by commenting on their blog!


So I am game to give 7 more things about me!

1. I have a scar on the bridge of my nose up into my right eyebrow. In October, 1988 during my senior year of high school, I was driving my four siblings at the time and myself to school. I was less than a mile away from home when a car backed out of a driveway in front of me, I lost control of our new 12 passenger van and hit a 3 foot in diameter willow tree! NO ONE was killed in that wreck because we all were wearing our seatbelts!...three of us had head injuries(mine was on the right side of my face, one sister was on the left side of her face, and one brother with a concussion) and the other two walked away with bumps and bruises.
   
   
2. All five of my children were delivered naturally and with no pain medications! After delivery and once I was settled in my room, I would ask for Motrin and cranberry juice!
   
   
3. I was a resident assistant in college for a year.
   
   
4. All five of my kids' first names are Bible names. The boys' middle name is all the same and matches hubby. While my daughter's middle name matches mine.
   
   
5. The only pet I have ever had was a goldfish. I am highly allergic to cats. As for dogs, I have a hard time not being afraid of them.
   
   
6. I didn't have my first car until I was a sophomore in college. Then my brother,who went to the same college as me, shared the car.
   
   
7. I have a key chain collection that I started back in high school, so when I go on vacation or mission trips I look for a gift shop to purchase a key chain to add to it.

Well there you have it! Seven more wonderful facts about me! Read more about me here!

Since there has been lots of tagging going on recently, I am unsure who to tag! So if you haven't been tagged in the last couple of weeks and you are reading this post...consider yourself "IT"--you have been tagged!

Works For Me Wednesday--Toys

It's the beginning of the month and that means that it is time for a themed edition of Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in My Dryer. This month with Christmas right around the corner, Shannon is asking that we share about the toys that are actually worth buying! So what are the toys that my kids(4 boys & 1 girl) play with the most? What are those toys that I am always requesting that they put away so that they can get school work done or so that we can have a play room that looks uncluttered?!


For my boys, it is Legos! My house is being taken over by Legos!! At last count between my 4 boys and hubby's collection we have over 50 sets of Legos in this house! For my boys this seems to be a common bond between them, they could sit for hours working on different creations. My 10yo loves to take Legos and make his own creations, it is so fun watching his mind work in the creating of his masterpiece.
For my daughter it is her 10 gallon Rubbermaid rough tote of play kitchen supplies. She loves to sit and have "picnics" with her dolls or with her brothers(if she can get them away from their Legos long enough!).

For the whole family, various board games are something that we love to do together. It is so fun to get a new board at a birthday or at Christmas because we can't wait to sit down together to play it!

Legos, play kitchen supplies, and board games is what works for me and my family!

To find out what works for others, head over to Shannon's blog--Rocks in My Dryer!

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday--Chicken Veggie Stew

This is my second week participating in this meme over at Blessed with Grace and I must say there is some great looking recipes over there!! This week, Lisa shares her "quick meal" so I thought I would share one of mine! This meal is really quick when you have leftovers in the fridge that need to be used up but you don't want to eat them all separate! I love making this "leftover makeover"!


Chicken Veggie Soup/Stew

1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1/2 cup milk
1 can of chicken broth
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
2-3 cups diced cooked chicken
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
2 cups frozen cut green beans, thawed
2 cups sliced or diced cooked potatoes
1 can green peas
1-2 cups carrots, diced and cooked

In a large bowl, combine soup, milk, broth, thyme, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir in chicken, corn, peas, beans and potatoes. Pour into a greased 1 1/2 qt. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 400° for 15 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 6 servings

Sonshine's notes: This recipe can be doubled and even tripled! This recipe works well in the crockpot on low for 4-6 hours! When I put it in the crockpot I don't grease it. I even have decreased the liquid(didn't use the chicken broth) and used as the filling to potpie!

For other tempting tummy recipes and more; head over to Blessed with Grace!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

I love buying in bulk because it saves me money and time. But I don't like dealing with those big packages on a daily basis. So when I do my Sam's run or my grocery shopping and come home with those huge containers of items, I take the time to do what I call "divide and freeze" or "divide and store".

Here is a 5lb bag of pepperoni. It is the only topping other than cheese and sauce that goes on our homemade pizzas!
I took the time to divide it into five-1# bags for the freezer. By doing the dividing, I can just pull out the one bag and not worry about defrosting more than I will need for one meal(which is 3 or 4 pizzas). The 5# bag costs $12.57 so that is $2.51 per lb. In the grocery stores, I usually can't find pepperoni for under $4 per lb.

I have talked before about my version of once a month cooking but I wanted to show you one of the ways I handle dividing up my packages of ground beef! This is 4.32lbs ground beef from round that I got on markdown last week! I was able to make 13 decent size hamburgers from that meat!

I took the 13 burgers and put them into one gallon size freezer bag. I put them into two different "stacks" one at the bottom of the bag and one at the top. Then I labeled the bag with the number that was in each "stack". This way, I can pull the bag out of the freezer and get out just one "stack" for a meal and cross off the number that I used. I used the gallon size bag rather than a quart size bag so I wasn't using LOTS of bags. Doing up the burgers this way saves me lots of time especially on those nights when I need to do something quick and have no meat thawed! I can pull out a "stack" of burgers and pull them apart and put them on my "indoor grill"(similar to a George Foreman grill) and have dinner done in a 1/2 hour!

These are just a couple of ways that I save time with my meal preparations. Looking for other "shortcuts" to meal prep, check out Fishmama's post here! She gives some great tips!

For other kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes!

Singing Sunday

Your Grace is Enough
by Chris Tomlin

Great is Your faithfulness oh God
You wrestle with the sinner's heart
You lead us by still waters and to mercy
And nothing can keep us apart

So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me

Great is Your love and justice God
You use the weak to lead the strong
You lead us in the song of Your salvation
And all Your people sing along

So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me [x2]

So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me

Your grace is enough
Heaven reaching down to us
Your grace is enough for me
God I see your grace is enough
I'm covered in your love
Your grace is enough for me
For me