Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday. This was a great Thursday. I am most thankful for the gift of life and good health. I am thankful that my new nephew Jaden came home this week and is able to snuggle with his mom and dad. I am thankful that it snowed today, just enough to make the kiddos hurry up with their assignments so they could go out and play. I am thankful for Precious wanting to get out there and play with the smaller ones. I am thankful to God for letting our friend Mark make it out of his experimental brain surgery. We are going to just continue to pray that all goes well and he is able to come back home to Mississippi from Florida soon. I am thankful for Patience. She is always a ray of sunlight on even the cloudiest of days. I am thankful for Jimmy, my soul mate. He went to work and was able to get off early because of the icy conditions. He came in and helped with the kids as soon as he hit the door. I am thankful for my sons Tre' and PJ, for without them there would be no floors to mop (maybe that's a little wishful thinking). I love them all the same. I am so thankful to God for sending Jesus. What would we do without him. Shalom
Toni

January 4, 2010 MM

Monday Minute is an idea that I use for my children when they are journaling. It seems that they can drag it on forever and ever. I started this last year. Basically they spend a minute writing as many short facts as they can on a subject. After doing so they get nine more minutes to elaborate on those facts. So if it's good for the Geese here goes the gander.
No school
teacher's recoup from the holidays day
room cleaning
huge de-cluttering of Patience's clothes
drop off at charity
Worked for WIC
cold with some flurries
burgers and fries
bologna and cheese sands
eggs and bacon
not in that order
lots of mail
Man, I am cruel to these kids. A minute is not long, but, I have started now so it is going to have to be my Monday thing. For a little while at least. Have a great Tuesday
Shalom

FQF

I was reading some blogs and I ran across five question Friday. Seems fun. Let's see how long I keep it up.

The questions for today are:

1.If you could bring one character to life from your favorite book, who would it be?
Well I am one of those weird people who does not have a favorite book. I read and read and read and whatever I just finished is my favorite book. I would however love to have Mary Poppins here with me. Man, she had it together and could sing and dance too.

2.Where did you get your very first kiss?
I don't think you are supposed to kiss and tell. Isn't there some rule against that or something? It was in my mother's living room and only just a peck.

3.How did you welcome in the New Year?
I am an old fogey I guess. We just spent some time with the kids eating pizza and cookies and when the clock struck we said whoooooooo!! Happy new year!! Okay all of you guys better get in bed now because we have lots of stuff to do tomorrow morning.
At least I let them stay up I guess. I was sleep by 12:45 which is very unusual for me.

4.What is your favorite Beatles' song?
you just can't pick one. What kind of question is that?

5. Donuts: overrated, underrated or 'bout right?"
Depends on the kind. When I lived on the coast, I absolutely loved Tato nuts. They were donuts made from potatoes and were the bomb. Those were totally underrated. When it comes to Shipley's which is here in Tupelo I guess they are 'bout right. to me Krispy Kreme is overrated. Of course everybody has their own opinion on that.

That was fun maybe I will remember to do it next week!

Happy New Year!

I thought it would be totally neat to actually blog more than once in the same week so here I am. We had a great family day today for New Year's. We were here together with my sister Raven and my mom. I cooked a bigger feast than I planned. I wanted to experiment with a couple of buffalo wing recipes. I used the marinade in the freezer bag idea that I got here. I was not sure what kind of wings I had a taste for so I made three kinds.
first kind I used
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup of soy sauce
a couple of dashes of Tony Chachere's
4 or 5 slices of jalapeno
dash of garlic
1/4 of small diced onion

second kind I used:
1 cup bar b Que sauce
1/4 cup honey
dash of garlic
1/4 of a small diced onion
Tony Chachere's of course

Third kind I made for me had:
1 bottle of hot sauce
1/2 bottle of Tabasco
3/4 diced jalapeno peppers
1 habenero
lots of Tony's
lots of garlic
1/2 of a small diced onion

I marinaded all of the bags over night. I cooked them all for about an hour and a half on 350 F. Boy were the last ones good and hot. I was tearing up when I got some of the jalapeno but, it was good. I think I am going to tweak them a little and use more stuff in the first two though. The kids loved them though. PJ was full after his second cup of tea but, asked for seconds later. Of course I fixed the usual cabbage and black eyed peas. Had some cornbread too. For desert, of course that's the most important part. We had buttermilk pie. I tried a new recipe. The kids didn't seem to like it as much as the one I usually use out of the Bell's Best book. I didn't make my own shell either. I was lazy and bought one. It must have been a long day because the kids are all asleep now. I think daddy and I are going to sneak some ice cream and watch a movie.
Shalom,

New Years Resolutions, wishes, goals whatever

So I guess I will be like tons of other bloggers I see and blog about all of my expectations and goals for the upcoming year. Then like most of them, I will get to look back on 2010 and see everything I planned to do and didn't. lol

1. Pray without ceasing
2. Continue to study the Word of GOD diligently.
3. Eat more fruits and vegetables. You know the whole 5 a day thing.
4. Exercise more frequently instead of every now and then.
   
5. slow down. Yeah right like that's going to happen with two jobs, college, homeschooling, birthing project, La Leche League, birth........okay we are really going to work on that one.
6. spend more time with my family in true quality time fashion.
   
7. STAY AWAY FROM FACEBOOK - This one is going to be hard. I'm sure all you fellow facebookers feel the same way I do. Or is it just me.
   
8. Stay on my budget. -this one is not too hard. I have no choice. you can only stretch a dollar so far, right. We do tend to splurge when it comes to things for the kids just can't help it they are so cute.
9. Don't half do anything
10. Read more books...... I am going to try to keep my reading list this year. I will make my goal 50 books. Let's see how I do.

Happy New Year, you few, you proud, you people who read my boring blog. Maybe I should add that I will blog more frequently to my list. No need to lie. I will continue to do what I can.
Shalom. Toni

Christmas Gifts

Note to self. Don't wait until the last minute to make Christmas gifts next year.

freebie

http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/

Bears

A couple of weeks ago we learned about bears. I normally don't do a lot of unit studies. Our schooling is usually individualized but, I thought I would try something different that week as Tre' who is in 3rd grade won't stay out of Precious' school work. She is always saying that she didn't know this or that when we do things with Tre' for science. So of course I didn't want to buy new stuff since its only November so I am utilizing stuff we have and the internet for this one. Apologia's Land animals of the sixth day, which is what Tre' and PJ use for science is what helped me decide on a topic. I figured if they didn't like it we would just have extra stuff for them for the week. I got a Bear book from a friend in a boohoo of homeschool hand-me-downs so I included that. I also had some flannel board bears so of course we utilized some bear stories for the little ones. We did Goldilocks and the three bears Friday as a play. We read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see". We have tons of Bernstein Bear books, we read two of them Monday. We picked up some Paddington Bear from the library. We went on a large-scale bear hunt. I went out and hid stuffed bears around the neighborhood. Since we are the only kids at home this time of day I figured it would be fine. We watched a couple of videos online too. The kids loved it so much we are working on another unit study this week.

day 48

Ok so far for the 365 day clutter challenge, I have declutter clothes. I have in keeping with the challenge gotten rid of an item per day.. Some days I don't and I catch up when I think about it. So I will try to keep a journal on what I declutter so I can see the progress I have made in the end.
Today-I am decluttering the game station. We have a game station right next to the front door where all the board games and card games goes. I have done a good job of organizing all of the pieces in little zip lock bags for each individual game since the boxes take up so much space some time ago. The problem is it looks junky so today I will move all of these things into the coat closet to get rid of some of the visual suff in the living room. I have bought a few plastic shoe boxes so they will all fit neatly on the shelf. Hopefully I can find my declutter thing of the day while I am doing it.

why do I keep getting asked how I feed my family?

I get asked all the time-how do you feed all of those children? I don't understand why people ask me because I only have 4 kids. I always wonder the same thing about bigger families so I guess they feel like me but, ask. Anyway the answer to the question is big meats, crock pots, beans and prayers. My mother taught me a long time ago that its cheaper with the bone in it. Yeah of course when we first got married we ate steak all the time, center cut pork chops, and boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Now a days we eat a whole bunch of chicken, no pork (because of Jimmy's blood pressure), roasts, and fish. Oh and of course beans.
Beans- they are not all that bad. I am very "naughty" when it comes to my bean cooking. I really like having a little meat in them. The main bean of choice in our house is pinto beans and red beans. The kids love pinto beans because I let them add sugar too them. Not to much but, it makes them soupy and sweet. I don't like my beans sweet though.
Now so far as meat in them goes-I used to use ham hocks like all the other women in my family, but when Jimmy developed high blood pressure and then chose to not take his medicine, I decided that he would not eat any pork or salty foods whenever I was around. I do miss the ham hocks though but, now its turkey necks or chicken broth, homemade of course. He doesn't really know the difference now but, he did complain some when I first started doing it.
Back to beans- I never had red beans until I lived on the Mississippi gulf coast. There is something about those red beans and rice. They are so good! To cook my red beans I don't soak them I just throw them in the crock pot with water, tony chachere's (my most fav seasoning), chicken broth, an onion, whole garlic cloves, and let um ride. When they are done I throw a little ground sausage and a lot of link sausage and put, it all over rice. Oh my goodness, I want some now!
cornbread- You can't eat beans without cornbread. Well, I guess you can but, for the Hill family they are just not the same. I never ate a lot of cornbread growing up but, when I got married Jimmy was a conasuer of cornbread so I had to learn how to make it. My basic recipe is:
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup of cornmeal
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1 tblsp of oil
1 tblsp of sugar - started adding that after Precious was born.
Now to this basic recipe I add lots of stuff. I have been known to add sausage, corn, broccoli, cheese, sour cream, barbecue sauce, carrots, cream cheese, and even food coloring. Anything to make a kid eat. Oh yeah and more sugar. A lot of days though we just eat jiffy. I don't see how Jimmy's grandmother does it, making a pan of cornbread everyday from scratch. I guess its her "me" time. This post got longer then I planned to make it so I am going to have to discuss this one later. shalom, Toni