Moving and other Chaos

Moving is going well, I was working towards our planned April 8 move date and felt I was on a good schedule. But now we realize we may be able to pull our move date in to be completely out by March 31. No guarantees, but if that is a possibility we will work to that!

All this to say that I will be stepping away from here to be packing and organizing the new home, which I adore!

Along with packing here, we have some repairs to complete (for which we were given a credit at close, plus some small things we just want done), some painting to do in the bedrooms before we move, and I am hoping to move and unpack most of the kitchen before we actually move to avoid the dreaded "we are in our new home and I cannot find anything to make a meal with or serve a meal with because the boxes are all mixed up!

So I might pop in between now and then, and I might not be able too. Please pray for our move to be smooth and directed by God.

oops

Well, apparently the word study on grace I had been working on will be completed after our move due to technical difficulties...

...the difficulties being I just packed all the commentaries and lexicons when we were packing the office forgetting I wanted to keep those out.

Oops.

However, if that is the worst that goes wrong with our move I will be a very happy homeowner!

Spinach Cheese Bake

I had some baby spinach from the last CSA box that needed to be eaten up, and a salad would not work because with sore throats all around we are not buddies with salads right now. So I pulled out my Simply in Season Expanded Edition (World Community Cookbook) and started looking. I finally decided on Chard Cheese Bake because spinach is the other option to chard in it. Although rather than steaming the spinach I put some olive oil in the bottom of a heavy pan and added some minced garlic. I slowly brought it to temperature so the olive oil was lovely and garlicky too. I was pleased with the results, but thought it was missing something...I just don't know what. What are your thoughts?

Here is the recipe (page 210)

Spinach Cheese Bake

1lb Spinach cooked

4 eggs (beaten)

1 cup milk

1 cup Swiss cheese (or another cheese) shredded

1 cup bread cubed (I used home made)

1/2 cup green onion (I used red because that is what I had)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

(I cheated and added some salt and pepper too)

Combine with cooked greens. Pour into a greased 2 quart baking dish. Cover and bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

What are your thoughts on adding some more flavor to this? Or is the problem that I used mozzarella cheese because that is what I had and it just did not have enough flavor?

CSA Box This Week

Now that we are finally on the mend and food tastes good again, I am looking forward to our CSA box that will arrive tonight/tomorrow morning!

We will be receiving:

Box Contents
Carrots, Organic - 1 bunch
Cilantro, Organic - 1 bunch
Broccoli, Organic - 1 bunch
Red Onions, Organic - 3 each
Celery, Organic - 1 each
Tomatoes, Organic - 2 each
Red Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Rainbow Chard, Organic - 1 bunch
Minneola Tangelos, Organic - 6 each
Mangos, Organic - 2 each
Braeburn Apples, Organic - 5 each
Cameo Apples, Organic - 5 each

In addition, the following Green Grocer items are scheduled to be in your order:

Qty.	Item	Price	Total
1	Brisket - Approx. 3-lb/order.

The brisket is for St. Patrick's day, I am going to try something new as I have never made brisket before but hear how great it is - is this something you make? What is your favorite recipe?

I am also looking for a new recipe for chard, so if you have one, I would love to hear about it! So far I usually saute with garlic, but something new would be great!

And the cilantro will go with black beans and rice, and probably some guacamole as I have 2 avacadoes to use up too!

Hospitality for Our Own Family

I have been absolutely loving the blog Reluctant Entertainer ever since I read her book: Reluctant Entertainer, The: Every Woman's Guide to Simple and Gracious Hospitality, which I highly recommend! Today she had an excellent guest post called "It's The Little Things" about showing love and hospitality to our own family as part of making our home a sanctuary.

Getting Ready for St. Patrick's Day

I have learned something about my girls over the years, they like it if we make a big deal about something and make it fun. I have started thinking about St. Patrick's day next week, and realize that it will not take much to pull this off!

I am planning on making honey marmalade mustard glazed corned beef but will start with a plain beef brisket because the corned beef will likely be too strong a flavor for my girls! Side dishes will be Easy Cabbage Roll Casserole, Carrots, and maybe roasted sweet potatoes of some kind seeing as we cannot have regular potatoes around here!

I am also thinking about making a cake, and decorating it like this, but in white and green instead.

Plus I found some fun ideas here.

I have a couple other things up my sleeve too, but that is for another post when I can find my camera cord!

Do you have any plans for special St. Patrick's Day fun? I am definitely looking for ideas.

Plus I am thinking about finding a verse to mark the day, something about the spread of the Gospel. Any ideas?

Multitude Monday 31

Last week was week 2 of the yuck in our house that included the flu, colds, and generally yuckiness. So in addition to this list I was thankful for a lot of things like Tylenol and Curious George.

Monday February 28

Miss Pear seems like she is on the mend, but still feeling rough.

Baby is doing better, but still very tired, coughing

Friends to pray with

Tuesday March 1

Doctor confirmed Miss P is over her bad reaction

Girls get flu shots, thankful for this in light of the N1H1 going around again

Baby definitely doing better today

Friend's baby arrives! Healthy, doing great!

Wednesday March 2

Roast chicken for supper

Extra snuggle time with Baby

New books

Thursday March 3

Tortilla soup for supper - always makes me happy!

Baby "I mama's widdle baby." when asked if she was someone else's

Miss Pear announcing her refusal of any more bad behavior from being sick - it was really cute.

Friday March 4

Husband home for lunch just because

Miss P's skating lessons start again tonight

Great talk with my husband and his boss, very encouraging

Special time just me and baby when we were feeling better, but not well enough to sit in a cold ice rink.

Saturday March 5

Errands successfully run

Lunch to celebrate new house

Meal delivered to family with new baby! (He is cute! The baby....and his brothers too).

Trip to the new house to begin cleaning.

Girls LOVE the house and their rooms.

Pizza for supper

Husband finds verse I was searching for and could not find!

Sunday March 6

Worship

God speaking during the sermon to my overwhelmed heart

Friends offering to help us move

the gift of time

442-469

Very Happy

I was thinking about our day tomorrow.

In the morning we are running errands for our new home (looking at washer and dryers which is not a top priority, but something we need to look into, getting electrical outlet covers that are baby safe, getting new toilet seats, looking at the paint store), picking up some groceries at Trader Joe's, and dropping off a meal of tortilla soup for friends who just had a baby.

In the afternoon we are going to the new house with a load of stuff. We are planning on vacuuming the carpets that were washed this week (they are original to the 10 year old house and in great condition, but have NEVER been washed...eeew), mopping the floors, and cleaning the bathrooms. Just to make it feel like ours so we can get down to work.

And the plan is to pick up a Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza for supper because they do a great split of hawaiian and combo on one pizza.

Just thinking about the day tomorrow makes me feel tired, and it also makes me really happy.

I am very excited to move and to have a place of our own again. I had lost sight of what a blessing it is!

Chicken Multitasking

Last night for supper I made lemon garlic roast chicken and gravy for supper (cooking breast down for extra juicy meat). Then put the carcass and other chicken parts we did not eat into the crock pot with veggies overnight to make stock.

I also put black beans to soak.

So this morning I will have stock and leftover chicken (plus some from the freezer) to make tortilla soup. I even have cilantro from our CSA box waiting. Yum.

One of those days...

...it was one of those days where being a mommy was just hard.

As were the reminders to "do all things without complaining and disputing" and "whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men."

But here is what I do know.

God's grace is sufficient, especially for days like today, and the hardest day at home is still better than the experiences I had working in an office. :-)

On the Mend

Today is the first day where I look at my sweet daughters and don't think they look very sick. They are still tired and run down, but it feels like we are on the path back to health. Such a blessing. There were many things I was grateful for this past week, but I forgot to write them down. High up on the list were tylenol, kleenex, flannel hankies, humidifiers, Vicks Baby Rub, and lots of jammies.

In the midst of the yuck, or the Great Flu of 2011, I got a terrible sinus cold and that did not help matters.

But in good news, we closed on our new home and the girls LOVE it, Miss Pear declares it to be her favorite home yet because of the big yard and she cannot wait to move (end of March). The carpets were cleaned there today for the first time ever in the 10 year old home (eeew!), so next up is cleaning the floors and bathrooms, then putting shelf liner in the kitchen. Along with painting. So we are moving right along.

And in other news, I saw this recipe for lemon curd ice cream and had to share - yum!