My favorite afghan to make

This is my very favorite afghan to crochet. You use a 8H afghan hook - it's a long hook and you crochet it in strips. It works really fast. I have made about three of these so far. They are very heavy and very warm because of the single crochet. My favorite yarn to use is Caron Simply Soft but when I can't purchase it on sale I will then purchase Red Heart. I can't figure out how to attach the instructions so if you would like a copy email me and I'd be happy to send them to you.

Happy Crocheting!

January 29, 2007 Monday Menu

Well, this weekend was a quiet one for us and I really needed it to be. I spent Friday evening with my friend Michele and her three boys. We made fried rice and had spring rolls - YUMMY! Then Parker (Michele's youngest boy - he's 5) gave me a sack of pecans that he's been picking up and asked me to make him a pecan pie!LOL These are the little bitty pecans and it may be easier to purchase pecans to make him a pecan pie! He associates me with Chocolate and if I don't bring chocolate he thinks I don't love him anymore! He is a cutie! I'm doing very simple meals the next few weeks.

Sunday: Pork tenderloin cooked in crockpot with dry lipton herb soup mix, roasted potatoes, garlic biscuits

Monday: Chicken with garlic parmesan noodles and green beans

Tuesday: Class

Wednesday: Meal at the church

Thursday: Class

Friday: Homemade pizzas

Saturday: Erynn's first formal dance!!!!

I have been awful about not posting photos lately and I promise to get better about it. I have lost 3 lbs since starting WW 2 weeks ago. Last week was completely blown because of conferences we had a work and all the junk food laying around from my favorite bakery. So today is a fresh start on a new week. I quit going to the weigh ins because honestly - I can weigh myself in and pay myself the $10 since I can't ever make the meetings. Hope everyone has a great week and be sure to check out Laura's blog for more menus.

Monday Menu January 22, 2007

Well, this week certainly looks like it's going to be a easy cooking week for me. With class two nights a week and then church - it's only a few day!LOL

Sunday: Autumn Chowder (my daughter's favorite) with cracker bread

Monday: Poll Fajitas new recipe I found on someone's blog and thought I'd try it

Tuesday: Class - dd will eat leftovers before going to mom's

Wednesday: Church

Thursday: Class

Friday: Chicken Parmesan Strips with Roasted potatoes and salad - I think I have had this on the menu several times but I promise I'm going to make it this week!LOL

Saturday: Homemade pizzas

I made the hummingbird cake yesterday and it was so yummy. I had a small slice and then brought the rest of the cake to work today. They are really enjoying it. This is my second week of WW and I think I blew it this week. I wasn't as well with my water as I had been. I'll see tonight when I go weigh.

I made me a household notebook from organizedhome.com and I am really loving it. I have sections for emergency #'s, then address/phone book, menu's/takeouts with phone #'s to local restaurants - the menus are put in page protectors instead of digging through a drawer trying to find them, shopping list/menu - in here I have a menu for the current month and the next month so I can jot down ideas as they come to me - organizedhome also has a recipes to try list that I have been writing recipes on and putting the recipe behind it in the page protector, then lastly bills. I have my monthly list of bills and then a page protector to put the bills in as they come in. So everything is in one binder and if I need it I can carry it with me. It's great. I normally keep it in a drawer at home and my daughter knows where it's at too incase she needs it.

Hope everyone has a great week. Be sure to check out Laura's blog for more menus!

January 16, 2007

Well, I didn't get my menu posted for this week yesterday.

Monday: Tacos with salad

Tuesday: Class night

Wednesday: Chicken Parmesan strips, green beans, roasted potatoes

Thursday: Class night

Friday: Homemade pizzas - I did these last week with individual biscuits that I rolled out. Erynn loved it.

Saturday: Spaghetti

Sunday: Autumn Chowder

Hummingbird Cake

I honestly didn't do much this weekend. I actually scrapbooked some this weekend and got about 4 pages done.

I weighed in with WW yesterday and I lost 2 1/2 lbs. How I'm really not sure - I've tried to be good but well it's hard. I haven't started the exercising yet and I talked to our WW leader and she suggested that I just focus on the food for another week or two and then add in the exercise. A lot of it is portion sizes and well the vending machine at work. When I walk by that machine it calls my name. This past weekend I fixed some brownies and I just had little (i mean little squares). With me usually I just want a bite and just eat the rest just because it's in front of me. I thought I'd make the hummingbird cake and then take the rest to work on Monday. That way - I got a little treat but don't over do it.

Hope everyone has a great week!

A full week of work....

uGGGGGGh. I tell you after being off 11 days with the holidays and now finally working a full week of work and starting my class this week - I'm tired. So tired. I have a ton of laundry, a dirty house (not really but I feel like it's dirty because I haven't mopped or dusted this week) and a craft room that is calling my name.

I started on Weight Watchers this week. I have a good 20 pounds to loose. Looking at me you would have no idea that I need to loose that but when the jeans come off the junk starts falling out of the trunk. I'm just carrying too much weight, my knees are sore and I can see it in my face and arms, too. It's been tough. I've tried not to feel guilty for going over in points each night but I have. I keep telling myself little changes and I'll get there but I feel like I'm starving and I'm really not. I haven't got the exercise going yet - one change at a time - let me get the food under control and then I'll start it - I promise! Have you ever notice that certain foods trigger you to eat more - mine is mexican food. I love mexican food but I know if I eat it and even just a little bit it throws me off plan for days! Did I say I love mexican food?!! The little lady at El Canaverals will be asking where I have been.

I got the hardware for my kitchen cabinets in the mail on Monday and I'm anxious to get started but I'm tired and I think it can wait a week or two or maybe three. I'm awful about wanting to get things done and like my neighbor said this summer, "you aren't moving anytime soon are you?" He also asked for a list of things I planned to do to the yard so he was prepared and knew how much it was going to cost him too!LOL I have done a lot with my parents and friend Michele's help since moving in the last of April 06. My parents came over within a month of me moving in and dug a flowerbed the whole length of the house in the front for me. Then they put in a little garden for me out back (it was late summer by this time so other than my herbs there is weeds again and needs to be dug back out - on my list to do). Michele and I painted my daughter's room three shades of lavendar when she was gone to Germany in July and I painted her bathroom a bright fun orangy color that matched her shower curtain. I then painted my bedroom/bathroom. So the only rooms left is the living/kitchen that are opened to each other and my scrapbook room. All the flooring is new throughout the house. It's hard to believe that in April I will be there a full year! Where does the time go?

So, I'm tired and I think I will piddle around in my scrapbook room and maybe take a nap or two if my World Lit II instructor doesn't give us a ton of work to do.

Monday Menu January 8, 2007

Well, it's another week of the new year. Today I start Weight Watchers. YUCK! I know I have to get in the right frame of mind - it should be a change in lifestyle not a diet. I'm really trying to get there. I have about 20 pounds that have snuck up on me somewhere.


This weekend I cooked for my parents. I cooked the sausage and three cheese mac and cheese from Rachel Ray's show. The recipe link is in last week's menu. I also made a tuscan salad and a lemon yogurt cake. On the tuscan salad it asked for cannellini beans and I couldn't find those so I used chick peas. Both of these recipes call for lemon juice and they really suggested using fresh. I have always used the bottled juice but this time I squeezed fresh and oh my goodness. My mom, dad and I ate like little piggies. The mac and cheese makes a ton - I bet it could serve 8 to 10 people so be sure to half the recipe if you need to.


I painted this weekend again! I painted my bathroom the color that was behind my bed in my bedroom. It's called aged copper - I believe. It really made a difference in the room. Now I just need some rugs and and few chocolate towels and that one will be finished.

This is before
This is after!



The kitchen is my next project. I purchased black swedish iron twisted pulls from ebay for 60 cents each. I'm so proud of that purchase. I am going to glaze these with a mocha stain so it will antique them a little bit. I will have to paint the hinges black since they are painted silver right now. When I purchased the house they had painted the cabinets white but the pulls are cheap plastic covered where they peel the silver off. I think this project won't get started for a few weeks. I'm hoping for a quiet weekend this weekend.

Ok here's the menu:

Monday: dry smoked ribs and a large salad - my dad is cooking these for us

Tuesday: Class

Wednesday: Chili dog, salad - not sure how much of the chili dog I will be able to eat - check pts

Thursday: Class

Friday: Tacos or taco salad for me

Saturday: not sure yet

Pretty boring week here. Just trying to get back in the groove of eating right with WW. Hope everyone has a great week. Be sure to check out Laura's blog for more menus.

Making friends in unexpected places...

Right before Christmas, I was getting ready for a cookie exchange at my church. I have been going to this church off and on for the last couple of years and have finally joined the singles group and going regularly. Well on this particular morning, I just didn't really want to go. I wasn't sure there would be anyone there that I knew and thought I might be bored.

I got there a little bit early and helped finish setting up room that the exchange was going to be in. I met on lady who is about my age and she was to be baptised the following morning. She was telling me that at first she was having problems with it because of her age and that she felt she should have done it when she was younger - she was embarrassed. I told her that I was proud of her - because it was something that I needed to do too and she was talking to others out there in the church that needed to take the step too. My daughter and I have both accepted God as our Saviour but have never taken the step to be baptised. I know that Erynn is very nervous about taking that step and I have told her I will wait for her so we can do it together but I feel the need to take that next step but I don't want to pressure her about it.

Anyway, next I met the neatest person, Linda. Linda is from the area that I grew up in. She is a few years older than me but we just clicked. She is a missionary with her husband and four children in Central Asia. Every three years they come to the states and spend time before they go back. She had such neat things to tell about the culture of the area they had been staying in and the people. Linda is one of those people that when she speaks God speaks to you. You could just sit and listen for hours and I did and was just in awe of her and the wonderful work they do for God in Central Asia.

What brought this up is I sent them a email because they went back right after Christmas. Linda said that it always weighs heavy on her heart until they leave but she knows that this is what they are called to do. Isn't it funny to know that others have that problem too - don't want to but know they are to do God's work. She and her family have made me think of things differently. At Christmas, when I wanted to make a purchase at the spur of the moment - you know not really needed but wanted - I thought - here is Linda and her family and they do without so much more than we do and they are fine - do I really need this? All the material things that we think we need and we really don't need. I have received several emails back from Linda and again she is just an awesome person that I can learn so much from and am very excited to have this special friendship with her.

So on that day that I really didn't want to go - two amazing things happened. A woman talked to me about being baptised at an older age (which spoke to me) and Linda, a very special person that has a lot to teach me about faith. Could you say an extra prayer or two for Linda and her family trying to adjust back to a completely different culture and for God to watch over them and keep them safe while they speak the word of God to the Muslims and try to convert them.

Chicken Adobo and Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle Recipes

4 chicken breast boneless
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 bay leaf, whole
2 cups water
1 large onion

1. Put chicken into a kettle and add salt, garlic, black pepper,
bay leaves, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and water.
Place a sliced onion in bottom of pan and then put chicken
on top of it.
Cover and let simmer until chicken is tender and brown.
2. Serve over hot or cold rice.

Our neighbor shared this recipe with us. We had it tonight and it was delicious. Even my picky eater daughter ate it.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle


2 packages gingerbread mix 14oz pkgs each
5 ounces cook and serve vanilla pudding mix *
30 ounces pumpkin pie filling *
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 teaspoon ground cardamom or cinnamon
12 ounces whip topping mix
1/2 cup gingersnaps, crushed

Bake the gingerbread according to the package directions; cool completely.
Meanwhile, prepare the pudding and set aside to cool.
Stir the pumpkin pie filling, sugar, and cardamom into the pudding. Crumble
1 batch of gingerbread into the bottom of a large, pretty bowl.
Pour 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the gingerbread, then add a layer of
cool whip. Repeat with the remaining ingredients ending with the cool
whip on top. Sprinkle the top with crushed gingersnaps. Refrigerate.

*This had a strong pumpkin taste - so if you like pumpkin pie you should really love this. I think that when I make it I'm going to use the pumpkin pudding mix if they have it out again and not as much of the pumpkin pie filling.

Reflections on last year

It's so hard to believe that a year has went by. Where does the time fly? I'm in such a better place this year than I was last year. Last year I was in a very unhappy, unhealthy marriage. The end of February of last year would have been a year of this marriage. I remember being scared of what I was going to do, hoping he would realize what he was doing, and hating that I had my daughter and myself in this mess. As parents, we try to do what's best for our children and well, I thought this marriage would do that for my daughter. It got us in a nice, big house and my daughter in a great school district but these were not the right reasons for getting married. I loved him but well love isn't always the best. I had separated myself for God and church. When I was going through my thyroid cancer, I lost my faith. I was mad at God for my divorce from my daughter's dad, being 30 and being divorced, and then adding cancer to the mix. I was so scared and so mad and well it took me several years to realize he was right there with me but I chose to ignore him. When I was writing a paper for my freshman english class, I wrote it why I do the "Race for the Cure" each year and it was my cancer story. As I was writing it, well I cried the whole time that I wrote the paper. Reading back over it, I saw the times when God was right there with me. He sent my dad to the hospital with a "Leroy's" hamburger and french fries (when you get ready for a radioactive iodine treatment you have to eat a very special diet - you feel like you are starving and then when you get to the hospital for the treatment you can eat whatever you want). God also sent a wonderful nurse in that night to check on me (with the radioactive iodine treatment you are put in isolation until your counts are down to a safe level - Arkansas now lets you do these treatments in your home but several years ago you had to go to the hospital and have everything in your room covered in plastic and the nurses usually treat you like you had the plaque) - which I was so thankful because the hamburger made me so sick or the iodine treatment did. It's amazing that when we are so low, and God is always there whether we realize it or not.

In April, I purchased my first home by myself. Erynn and I were so excited. I had a cedar chest, kitchen items, enough Christmas decorations to decorate three houses, a bed and two night stands and our clothing. It was a very scary time again. We started going back to church and in July I started going to Sunday School classes again. I'm getting there. We are all tested at times with our religion. We just have to find our way back.

So, I have almost went a whole year of making house payments and all the utilities that go with it. I know that I am truly blessed because not all single mom's are able to do this and I'm truly blessed to have the parents that I do.

Today, being the first day of a new year - you never know what the year will bring but I hope it's half as good as last year - even with all the turmoil - it was a very blessed year.

Wishing all of you a very prosperous, happy new year.

Monday Menu January 1, 2007

Sunday: We had appetizers at a friend's house.

Monday: Recovering from Sunday - I did eat some black eyed peas, and Erynn had some soup.

Tuesday: I have stamp club so I'll grab something on the way

Wednesday: Chicken Adobo - new recipe - if it's good I'll post it next week.

Thursday: Chili Dog, french fries and salad

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: Sausage and 3 cheese Mac n cheese with a big salad

Well our Weight Watchers wasn't open today so I'll have to wait until next Monday to go to my local meeting but I'm going to start watching those points. I got on the scale last night and it was a shocker! Exercise and eating right here I come.

Check Laura's blog for more menus!