Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours...

"in everything give thanks..." 1 Thess 5:18

I am truly thankful this holiday season! Let me tell you why!

- We're heading to TN very early tomorrow morning! It's always to so nice to get away from home so that there isn't so much to do. We have lots of family and friends there so we're bound to be busy, but it'll be a different kind of busy.

- Chaeli gave me a massage today! It was one of those tired pregnant days and she was so kind to rub me all over. And I gotta say, for a five year old, she does tremendously! I felt so much better when she was done!

- Family time all week long!!!

- Health (although I gotta say that at almost 32, pregnancy is different than at 26!!)

- Hearing my kids recite memory verses every morning during worship does my heart good. And hearing them sing hymns all throughout the day is so cheery! They can be quite vibrant about it!

- cheap gas!!! Who would have thought it would be back down to 1.71 in town!?

- Two wonderful churches to be a part of and pastor!

- Good friends...(that's each of you who are reading this!)

- A warm house, enough food, clothes to wear, vehicles to drive...God truly does take care of us. He provides so much more than even necessary!!! God is good!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours! What are you thankful this season??

Holiday Recipe - Day 7

Tofu "Egg" Salad

16 oz firm tofu, mashed
1/3 C vegenaise
1 T Bill's Best Chiknish
1/3 C diced onion, optional
1/3 C dill pickle relish, optional

This is soooo yummy! Usually we just use the first three ingredients and absolutely love it! We use it on sandwiches most often, but it's also good with chips and crackers.

Baby Shower

This past Wednesday evening one of our churches had a baby shower for our little one! I felt so blessed! It was a double baby shower for another girl who is due in only a month...and she's having a girl. It made the baby shower very special and fun, in my opinion. They did a great job decorating and we played the most hilarious game!! It was a matching game. And when someone matched a pair, such as contractions, mommy's tummy after delivery, epidural, etc, they got a very appropriately named candy prize. Here are a couple of the prizes...

Matched pairs:
contractions - a good and plenty box of candy
epidural - lifesavers
mommy's tummy after delivery - jelly bellies
baby's laugh - snickers
triplets - 3 musketeers

...and so on! It was soooo funny!

What a fun time we had and I felt so blessed by the things I received. Thanks to anyone from my church who reads this!!!

Holiday Recipes - Day 6

Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

2 1/2 C quick-cooking rolled oats
1 C chopped walnuts or pecans
1 1/2 C brown sugar
2/3 C soy margarine
1 tsp vanilla
2 T cornstarch
1 T water
1 C unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C dried apricots, finely diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In large mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, margarine, vanilla, and water. Mix well, then add the rest of the ingredients.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, placing them about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly, then remove from the cookie sheet.

These are delicious!!!! They are soft and chewy and oh so good! We even substituted cranberries in half of them and that was good too.

Giving Thanks

Sometimes life just seems to get us down, and it's at those moments that we must remember to give thanks in ALL things! Today Ruth at http://www.wordkeeperinja.blogspot.com (what is wrong with my link button!!?!) wrote about giving thanks when all else fails. And it's so true! It just seems to brighten my disposition when I make a conscience choice to give thanks and dwell on the positives in life!

So here are my ten things that I am thankful for tonight!

1. my heating blanket is on and waiting for me!
2. a healthy growing baby inside of me
3. a computer, even though it gives me hassles
4. a husband who loves me!
5. Sabbath!!!!
6. God, who personally cares about me!
7. potluck tomorrow...it really is easier than making a whole meal
8. naps
9. early mornings
10. hymns...I just love to sing hymns and they lift my spirits as well

"in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Holiday Recipes - Day 5

Once we found this recipe, it istantly became a family favorit. It also gets compliments EVERY time I serve it. This would be great for one of the days around the holidays when feeding a crowd (I'm so sorry they got eaten up before I remembered to take a picture!!).

Burritos
6-8 Flour Tortilla's
8 Vegan cheese (I just use cashew cheese, sauce form)
1/2 Onion, Chopped
Chopped olives
1 1/2 cans Refried Beans

Layer the beans, onion, olives, and cheese in equal amounts among the
tortilla's. In a 9x13 casserole dish, place them side by side and
then make the sauce:

1/4 cup Butter/Margarine
4 Tbsp Flour
2 Cups Water
2 tsp Chicken Seasoning
1 tsp Lawry's Seasoning
1 Cup Vegan Sour Cream
4 oz Mild Green Chilis

Combine butter and flour in a saucepan over medium heat. When it's
hot and bubbling add the rest of the ingredients and stir until thickened.
Pour the sauce over the burritos in the 9x13 pan and cook at 350
degrees till hot and bubbly - usually 20-30 minutes.

Absolutely and without a doubt, YUM!

Holiday Recipes - Day 4

Okay...I'm cheating today. This isn't a recipe I've tried, but I want to soooo much. If only anyone else in my family would love them like I'm sure I would!! :)

Brussel sprouts with basil and garlic. And here's the link. :)www.blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/03/brussels-sprouts-with-basil-and-garlic.html (sorry...for some odd reason, I couldn't get the link to show up...happy cutting and pasting...)

It looks wonderful and hopefully I'll get a chance to try it too!

Holiday Recipes - Day 3

Meatless "Jingle" Balls
1 ¼ cups cornbread stuffing, generic or Pepperidge farm
¾ C pecan meal
1/3 C minced fresh parsley (not dried)
1 large sweet onion, finely chopped and browned in skillet in 1 T oil
½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet basil
½ tsp oregano
2 T braggs liquid aminos
½ C water
1 tsp chicken seasoning
2 T flax seeds

Combine cornbread stuffing, pecan meal and parsley in a bowl.

Brown the onion very brown, then add cumin, basil, oregano and liquid aminos. When onions are well-coated, add onion mixture to the cornbread mixture.

In a blender, blend water, seasoning and flax seeds for 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of blender and blend until mixture gets very think, about 2 more minutes.

Put flax ,mixture into a glass measuring cup , being careful to get most of it out of the blender, and cook it in your microwave for 1 ½ minutes (check it...it'll boil over). When mixture is cooked, add it to the above cornbread mixture and mix well.

Using a 1 T scoop, form balls on a 12x15 rectangle baking stone or cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

SAUCE:
1 jar (10 oz) smuckers all fruit seedless blackberry or black-raspberry jam
1 jar (28 oz) classico sun-dried tomato sauce, or favorite

Makes 16 meatballs.

24 weeks and all is well....

Not really a good shot of the pregnant belly, but a pretty good picture, none the less, for a five-year-old. :) I'm feeling pretty good, but I have a hard time sitting still so I have to discipline myself to take a rest. Being pregnant with two kids already is definitely different than being pregnant the first time around!!

Holiday Recipes - Day 2

Double Layer Cheesecake

(original recipe taken from www.fatfreevegan.com - it was pumpkin)

8 oz Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
12 oz firm tofu (or extra firm)
1/2 C agave nectar (or sugar)
2 T cornstarch
1 1/2 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 C fruit puree
3 T brown sugar or natural sugar
OR
1/2 C pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
3 brown sugar or natural sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp grated fresh nutmeg

1 pre-made 8-inch graham cracker crust

Preheat oven to 350.

Put the first set of ingredients (tofutti through vanilla) in a food processor and puree until completely smooth. It should be silky smooth - not chalky and lumpy.

Remove a cup of this mixture from the processor and spread it on the bottom of the crust.

Add the next set of ingredients (pumpkin through nutmeg -- or in my case I added 1/2 C strawberry puree and sugar, but didn't blend anymore -- to the ingredients remaining in the good processor and process until well blended. Smooth it carefully ove rth white layer in the crust, heaping it slightly int he middle. bake until the center is almost set, about 45-55 minutes. remove from the oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 3 hours or over night is better. Serve to delighted guests.

My fruit version would have been great with strawberry drizzle over the top also. And it tasted the best a couple days after it was made.

Orderliness

"Let all things be done decently and in order." 1 Corinthians 14:40

I am definitely not the messiest of people, but I've been contemplating this area in my life and do see that there is need for improvement in the little areas. You know...the junk draw or closet or deck that starts to pile high because of the convenience of putting things there. So as I look around and see these things, I have started to ask myself, "would Jesus have a junk draw...would Jesus let things pile high?" Well, I don't think there will be clutter in heaven so I've decided that since my home should be a foretaste of heaven, I better clean up even the small areas in my life that are a mess.

Here are a few things that are helping me in this area:

1. Having a schedule! This helps tremendously because there are times in the day for everything. And I include my kids when we clean or do chores or declutter or organize, etc. They see that I'm making efforts to keep all areas of my life "decent and in order."

2. Being all ready for the day when my kids wake up. This way I don't get behind or end up wasting much of the day (although I was so tired I really felt like it today!!).

3. Setting a time limit and working within that time frame. If the job isn't done, we come back to it later or just the next day. This way all my time isn't spent on just one thing. There's time to get everything else in as well.

4. Simplifying! This is a major help. The more things I get rid of, the easier it is keep things looking nice and organized.

"Order is heaven’s first law and the Lord desires his people to give in their homes representations of the order that prevails in heavenly courts. How can we invite Christ into our homes unless all is neat and clean and pure?” (Mind, Character, and Personality, 177)

I don't think this means Christ won't be with us even if our house is a mess...we just all have those days. But I want to try to represent Christ's order in my home, my person, and my life as best I can.

Practicing for cold weather

We've had a few cold days here already so we've had our cold weather gear out and ready. The kids like to get dressed up in it...practicing, you know. Here we are in November now, and two days after they tried this stuff on, it's 70 degrees!!

Holiday Recipes - Day 1

My goal is to share at least 10 new holiday recipes with you this month (and that's before I leave on the 24th!). I love new recipes and it's fun trying new things for the holidays. So here is the first one. I've never before made anything with fresh cranberries so this was fun for me. And it was sooooooo easy, and even better, it was sooooooooo good!! Really...one of my favorite cranberry sauce recipes ever!

Orange Cranberry Sauce with Apricots and Golden Raisins
1 C orange juice
1 C water
4 C fresh whole cranberries
3/4 C cane juice crystals
1 C diced dried apricots
1 C golden raisins
1 T orange zest or 2 T extra o.j. concentrate

In a large saucepan over medium heat, mix the orange juice, water, cranberries, cane juice crystals, apricots, raisins, and orange zest. Stir constantly until sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Bring to a boil , and cook 10 minutes, or until cranberries have bust. Remove from heat, and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight, before serving cold.