my blessed life

Yes, it's been quite a while since I posted my menu plan.  April and May have been some of our busiest months in a long time and while I have kept up pretty well with my menu plans on paper, they have not always been executed very well in real life.  I am working to get back in a good cooking groove though. Also, in an effort to eat more fresh foods I have started ordering occasionally from Bountiful Baskets .  Do you have one of their co-ops in your neck of the woods?  If so, have you tried them out?  I definitely recommend giving them a try.  I have been very pleased with my baskets so far.  And they sure do encourage my family to eat more fresh fruit and veggies! Here's a shot of my last basket offerings (except for the blueberries--I ordered a flat of those as an add-on to my conventional basket) : So far this order has yielded us delicious salads, limeade, mango salsa, blueberry muffins, and much freshly cut fruit to snack on.  Can...

I know it's been a while.  And I've missed being here.  I hope things are going well with you. Life has been fast and furious around here these past few months and I simply needed to step away from so much time online in order to keep my sanity. I had lost my zeal for blogging.  Sort of lost my direction, in a way.  There are so many voices out there telling me how to improve my blog, how to make more money from  blogging, how to promote yourself better...  I just got tired of it all. I needed a little break.  So I took a couple of months off and it's been good. ***** Life has been a bit hectic lately and I am desperately trying to be intentional about how I spend my time.   More intentional in my walk with Jesus.  More intentional with my children.  More intentional with my marriage.  More intentional in my home. Believe me, I'm not getting it perfect.  In fact, most days I fail miserably.   Bu...

I've been reading A LOT so far this year!  I hope that's a good sign for the rest of the year.  I have so.many.books. that I want to read right now.   I'm just glad that I've read as many books this year as there have been weeks so far! What I've been reading: {Fiction}: The Prairie Legacy Series by Janette Oke The Tender Years A Searching Heart A Quiet Strength Like Gold Refined Stealing the Preacher , by Karen Witemeyer The Mysterious Benedict Society , by Trenton Lee Stewart (with the kiddos) The Clocks , by Agatha Christie {Non-Fiction}: Intentional Marriage , by Crystal Brothers Bucket List Learning , by Kimberlee Wilkes Say Goodbye to Survival Mode , by Crystal Paine Notes From a Blue Bike , by Tsh Oxenrider  (more on this one later this week!) No More Perfect Kids , by Jill Savage and Kathy Koch (more on this one later this week, too!!) I'm currently reading Emma by Jane Austen.  Trying to get some more cl...

( free printable artwork found here ) Happy St. Patrick's Day!!   Top o'the morning to ye!! I'm back on track this week with the menu plan~whoo hoo:)  It's going to be a full week so I've gotta stay on top of things.   Here's what's cooking this week: Monday:   Corned Beef with Cabbage, Potatoes, and Carrots ...and Soda Bread, if I get around to making some:) Tuesday:   Hamburgers Diane , Potato Cakes, and Southern Green Beans Wednesday:   Tostadas Thursday:   Ranch-Style Chicken , Baked Potatoes, and Salad Friday:   Girls-Night-Out with The Princess and her friends for her birthday Saturday:   Tacos, Rice & Beans Casserole, Chips and Homemade Salsa Sunday:   {The Princess' 11th Birthday!} Lunch out with family and friends This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie .

Yep.  It is time to wrap this week up!  In my life this week... ...we celebrated Vince's birthday over a period of three days~he's finally learned to stretch out the party beyond just one day ....like I do! :)  We were actually snowed-in on his birthday, but we had cake so it was all good! (the photobomber getting photobombed) We had lots of fun on our first snow days of the year.  Even though our local school have been out for LOTS of snow days this year, none of it was actually snow so we didn't bother taking the days off.  It was fun to set the books aside for a couple of days and just play (and, for me, do lots of laundry...ha!).   I posted a little more about our fun in the snow earlier this week here. (getting ready to head down the hill) (feeding the birds) The Princess also had oral surgery on Wednesday of this week.  She needed to have some teeth extracted due to crowding so that she'll be ready for braces s...

This has been quite the winter!  And this week proved that it's not over yet.  On Sunday night we got hit with freezing rain, sleet, and snow ...several inches of it!  We've been wanting a really good snow all winter long and just when we were starting to get in the mood for spring ...it came.  ha!  So we have just been enjoying it as much as we can.   Early in February we had some winter-y weather, but it was during that extremely busy week of travel for our family and the kiddos didn't get to enjoy it at all (except from the car window).  So since they haven't taken a single snow day this year (our local public schools have been out for over 2 weeks all together now!) , I thought it was high time!  We took off Monday, partly to celebrate Vince's birthday and partly to enjoy playing outside.  Then we took off Tuesday, partly to go sledding on our local golf course and partly to finish celebrating Vince's birthday with dinner at his...

And it's Tasty Tuesday again!!  Yea!! We celebrated my awesome hubby's birthday yesterday.  We were snowed/iced in (still are!), but we had CAKE !  That's all that matters, right? :) Black Forest Cake is his fave and this is a recipe that I've made often for his birthdays in the past.  It had been a while though and I decided we needed to have it again this year. It's SO good!!  Traditional Black Forest Cake is actually a little heavy for me, but this one is light and delicious! Black Forest Cake (cake) 6 eggs 1 cup granulated sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I like the Hershey's Special Dark) 1/2 cup butter, melted (filling & topping) 2-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream 2 tbsp. powdered sugar 1/2 tsp. vanilla 1 can cherry pie filling grated chocolate chocolate curls ***** Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease and flour three 8" round cake pans.   Whisk the egg...