Menu Plan-May 27

May 27-June 2

Well... I'll be honest with you. The menu plan has not happened this week. It's not been a bad week, just busy. I don't know how I let the week slip by me without planning my menu. I'm usually on top of what we eat around here.
The plan is to eat from the freezer for the month of June, 5 days a week, if not more. And our challenge is NO eating out for the month of June to see how much save.

What are you plans for this week and the month of June?

Friday Favorites

It's Friday.... and a long weekend.... and Daniel is taking Tuesday off... yay!! I'm excited, can you tell?!?!
Anywho, I'm linking up with SnoWhite for her Friday Favorite Finds. Check out these awesome looking treats! Have a great weekend and take a minute to remember those who have served our country and thank those who are serving now!!

Please note: Click on the picture to take you to the original recipe. These are not my recipes!

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream... my ice cream freezer bowl is freezing now to make this for Monday night dinner at my parent's house... excited!

From: Joy the Baker

Source: joythebaker.com via Ginny on Pinterest

Frozen Hot Chocolate... mmmm!

From: MamaFoodie

Source: mamafoodie.com via Ginny on Pinterest

Baked Oatmeal (to-go)... We like to-go breakfasts in our home.

From: Sugar-Free Mom

Source: sugarfreemom.com via Ginny on Pinterest

More Than Monopoly

What immediately comes to mind when I say the words "board games"? For most people, you probably think about the picture on the left. Monopoly. Scrabble. Life. Candy Land. Those I'm sure you're all familiar and have probably played at some point. But Puerto Rico? Agricola? Acquire? Power Grid? That's an island, a soft drink, a business term, and a new exercise DVD (you think). Those are actually also board games, four of my favorites actually.


Board games have been a part of my life since I can remember - playing Chutes and Ladders and Sorry, Life and Monopoly, you know, the games everyone plays. However, I noticed a game that my dad, uncles, and cousin would play every now and then at family gatherings. It most definitely was not Monopoly. It was not Yachtzee or Clue. It was called Acquire. It looked interesting, putting tiles on a board and getting to buy stock in hotels. When I was 11 or 12, they let me sit down and play the game with them. Acquire definitely was not Monopoly or any of the other games I had played. It was more "grown up" and, in fact, 1000 times more fun. Since then, I've been hooked on the board game hobby.


As I said at the top, the games I play most people wouldn't recognize. They would take a look at the boards and pieces and think, "That looks hard." I would respectfully disagree with that statement. The goals of these games - what most board game enthusiasts refer to as strategy games or Euro games - are very straightforward, i.e. accumulate the most wealth (Acquire) or power the most cities (Power Grid). The game's objective is easily explained. The "looks hard" part comes from how you achieve that objective. In Monopoly, you basically roll the dice, either buy a proper or pay rent, and then can negotiate trades with fellow players. In Acquire, you have several decisions to make each turn. Which tile do I play? Do I grow a current hotel chian or start a new one? Which stocks do I buy? Do I try and compete with this person over that chain? These games are relatively easy to pick up, but mastering them takes play after play. That's why I like these games - easy to learn but takes time to figure out all the strategies.


If you're intrigued by the thought of doing more than just rolling and moving, here are some excellent titles to cut your "strategy game" teeth on:

• Ticket to Ride - In TtR, you're collecting train cards in order to build routes across America and earn points for connecting two cities. This is a great introductory game and still gets play in our house.
• Carcassonne - This is another game that is fun to play, as you lay tiles to build the countryside of Carcassonne and then have the option to lay your wooden people (meeples) on the tile you just laid to "claim" a certain feature on the tile. My only caution with this is the scoring is slightly complicated, so a thorough read of the rules is required.
• The Settlers of Catan - You've probably heard of this one, as it was one of the first of these games to go mainstream. In this game, you roll dice, collect resources, trade for resources with other players, and try to be the first to 10 victory points through building roads, settlements, cities, and special cards. Plus, you get to ask your fellow players, "Got wood for sheep?" How can you beat that?

And this post would not be complete without a few of my favorite games:

• Agricola - The theme of farming on the surface does not sound interesting, but this game is a lot of fun and the variety of cards added to the game means your plans change from turn to turn. G and I play this game more often than the others we own.
• Power Grid - Auctions, resource management, network-building. This game can be a brain-burner. When my family plays this, we know going in that the game is going to be tense and come down to the wire. Just a fantastic game.
• Airlines Europe - From the creator of Ticket to Ride comes this new game. I received it as a Christmas present this past year, and it is quickly becoming a favorite. Again, the goal is simple. Invest in airline companies; help them grow; and score the most victory points at the three scoring rounds in the game. Wonderful game.

There you have it. What are your favorite games? What are your favorite board gaming memories? Let us know!


-D

Crazy Love [Book Review]

This post will continue my series of posts of books I've recently read... today's book? Crazy Love by Francis Chan (Amazon Kindle link here).

Of course, right away, the title grabs your attention. Crazy love. What is that all about? The subtitle or tagline to the title is "Overwhelmed by a Relentless God". That's the main focus of this book. Francis opens up the book by describing God's love in terms of Creation and encourages readers to stop and view a video at the book's website. Too often we as Christians pass through each day without truly taking a step back and appreciating, admiring, worshipping, and revering God and His love. The opening pages of the book remind us to stop and do that.

At this point, Francis changes gears. If we are to be overwhelmed by this crazy love, what are we doing in response? Because it can very easy to acknowledge this crazy love yet do little about it. Francis quotes Jesus in Revelation regarding being neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. This book challenges believers to evaluate their lives against what Francis calls "the profile of the lukewarm".

There's a danger in a book like this of being too offensive or overly critical - to the point where people could potentially get down on themselves. Certainly the chapters about the lukewarm and serving "leftovers" to God may be difficult to read for some; however, each word has been carefully used. Francis also points out that God's grace also hovers over everything. As I read, I did not feel defeated at what I was or was not doing but instead was reminded that His grace is amazing. And because of that, I am motivated to get better and be more overwhelmed. The purpose of the book is not to be critical but to encourage.

Overall, this is an excellent book. Yes, it will challenge you. Yes, it might point out a behavior you engage in. But I walked away from the book feeling encouraged and thinking about how I can be better at what I've been gifted with. I definitely recommend this book and hope that you'll take away the same challenge yet encouragement from it as I did.

-D

*These opinions are my own. No one contacted me about writing this review.

Menu Plan-May 20

May 20-26

Well, I did some more freezer cooking and baking this week. I know what you're thinking, more? Yes, more! I went grocery shopping on Tuesday and bought a few more items to prepare for the freezer. Our June goal is to NOT eat out any during the month, this includes getting ice cream. This is going to be a challenge as we like to get ice cream about once a week, but I have quite a few ice cream recipes I've been wanting to try and June will be the perfect month for it! Not only will we save money by not eating out we can SEE how much money we'll be saving. I'm very interested to crunch the numbers.

Anyways, back to freezer cooking. I made another batch of oatmeal-peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, loaf of wheat buttermilk bread, english muffins x2 (english muffin pizza's and breakfast), french bread x4 (for cinnamon roll toast and french bread pizza's, 3 pounds of taco meat divided into 1 pound portions, 2.5 batches of smothered "aussie" chicken and 3 bbq chicken pizza's. I think we'll be eating out of the freezer for awhile now. :) And that's the point... I'm ready to eat every night from it!!

Here's our menu for the week:

Sunday-
B: donuts at church
L: bbq chicken pizza (from the freezer)
D: leftovers from the week

Monday-
B: banana bread (from the freezer)
L: leftovers
D: cheesy chicken and salsa skillet (from the freezer)

Tuesday-
B: banana-blueberry muffins
L: leftover cheesy chicken and salsa skillet
D: on your own

Wednesday-
B: strawberry shortcake muffins
L: sandwiches
D: chicken quesadillas (making my own flour tortillas x2 and making extra for the freezer)

Thursday-
B: banana bread
L: chicken quesadillas
D: english muffin pizza's

Friday-
B: cinnamon rolls
L: english muffin pizzas
D: wheat-blueberry pancakes (from the freezer) and eggs

Saturday-
B: cinnamon toast (made by Daniel)
L: french bread pizza's
D: grilled chicken roller (from the freezer), baked potato fries and vegetables


What's cooking in your kitchen?


Linked to:
On the Menu Monday @ StoneGable
Menu Plan Monday @ I'm an Organizing Junkie

He Alone

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken.


"He alone..."


David in two words has made a huge statement of faith. He's not relying on his riches or his power or his armies. He's relying on God alone as a stronghold. (He certainly wouldn't be relying on the stock markets today.) If anyone had reason up to then to rely on things he had done or accumulated, David was the guy.


"He alone..." But David doesn't do that. And with good reason. If David couldn't see God as his rock, salvation, and stronghold, then I'm not sure who could. His route to the kingship was, shall we say, a little difficult, having spent time running from Saul. David had to wait for his moment to become king. He had to rest in the promise God made to him.


So what does it mean to have God as our rock and stronghold? It means we have stability. It means our current mood/status does not depend on what the economy is doing, what leaders are in charge, or _______. Temporal, material things don't shake us, because we have to place our trust and faith in the eternal Creator. And when we do let things get to us and face stress, anxiety, conflict, etc, we can climb back to our rock quickly.


In verse 8, David gives us advice on making God or rock and stronghold. "Trust in Him at times... pour out your hearts before Him."


"He alone..."


-D

Simple Journaling

I love to journal but I never feel like I have enough to say. Plus I don't have time to sit down and write 2-3 pages of my days activities each night. Not only do I not have time I'm too tired!

I was snooping around Pinterest one day and came across an easy way to journal. And I'm in love! I found this great journal that is divided into 7 days and approximately a 2 inch section to write in. I have enough space to write funny things the girls do and say, a new recipe I tried, a quote I like, what's happening in my garden, what the weather was like, etc. The possibilities are endless! Naomi turned 6 months last week so I traced her little hand in colored pencil (after I wrote in pen for that day) and wrote "6 months old." Now I'll always know how small her hands really were.

I've been saying for a couple of years how I wish I was writing more down with our everyday activities. But I felt overwhelmed by having to fill up a page per day. But not anymore! I'm finding some days I need a little more room to write just one more thing. :)

I write about:
-what the weather is like
-what Nyla and Naomi do or say during the day, there's never a dull moment with the two of them!
-what I cook for dinner, especially if I try a new recipe (I did write about my freezer cooking days)
-things that are going on in mine and Daniel's lives outside of the girls, because we do have a life outside of them :)
-when the girls are sick and what's going on
-when the girls hit a milestone or have a birthday
-any little moment that I want to remember

I draw: (but I stink at drawing)
-the weather
-little handprints or footprints
-plants from the garden
-whatever else I want

What I use:
1. A spiral bound notebook with no lines on the pages. The size is about 8.5 x 12
2. A gel pen. I'm in love with gel pens and we have way too many in our house. :)
3. Colored pencils. I may do a little drawing at the bottom of some sections or just color in lightly for a certain day. I'm not specific with my drawings. I just draw when the moment strikes.

I just started my fourth week and am still going strong. I love that I can write just five things and my little section is full. I can write about crazy random stuff that some people may think is meaningless but it's not to us. It's all about remembering the little words and moments. I wish I knew about this when Daniel and I started dating and then first married. There are so many sweet times when we were first married that I wish I remembered. But I have this now and I'll continue it.

Do you journal? If so, what do you use, how much do you write, etc.? I'd love your thoughts!