Barbeque In The New Crock Pot

A few weeks ago, I entered a giveaway for a CrockPot iStir on Plain Chicken and if you have ever entered to win a giveaway on a blog, you know there can be thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of entries.  This particular giveaway, I had 5 entries.  I got the most wonderful email a couple of Sunday's ago stating that I was one of two winners!  WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!!!!  I was so excited to win such a cool gift.  Doesn't sound very cool, but this is the daddy of all crock pots!  It will cook for two hours and then stir every thirty minutes!  You can set the timer then when it's done, it will switch to warm.  You can use the stirrers or not.

Then I came across this little gem at the Dollar Tree of all places.  It's a fairly new item on the market so I thought what the heck, I'll try it and BBQ sandwiches was on my menu plan for the week.

I threw a roast in the crock pot and poured the hickory season on it and let it cook for 10 hours on low. Then I took out the meat and pulled it apart, poured out the liquid from the crock pot and put the meat back in there, poured the BBQ sauce on it from the pack and added a little juice from what I had poured out and let it cook on low for 30 minutes.  I toasted some hoagie rolls in the oven and cooked some fries.

I originally gave Sarah half of my sandwich, some meat on the side and some fries, but she loved it and ate my other half (I took 3 bites) and another side portion of it. Needless to say, it was a hit and I'm sure I will make it again soon.

Polar Plunge Benefiting Special Olympics

On January 18, our local law enforcement (shout out to my awesome husband, Mike, for pulling this together!) decided to take the plunge at Oak Mountain State Park to raise money for Special Olympics. This is something Mike has been doing for the last couple of years. He enjoys it and I enjoy supporting him and the cause!  I'm not a spokesperson for Special Olympics or the Law Enforcement Torch Run, but all of the money raised goes to help Special Olympians pay their way to participate in the games!

I'm proud of everyone who participated in this year's event!  Here are some snapshots of the plungers....LOL....

If you would like to donate to the Special Olympics, please do, it's for a great cause!

Redo Vase With Twine

My sweet mother gave me this great vase, and I was going to use it in my living room, but I decided I wanted to use it in my kitchen instead, but the colors didn't match.

I used my Elmer's spray on adhesive and I always have twin hanging around.  You never know when you might need it!

I sprayed the adhesive around the vase as I went.  I wound it around the kind of pushed the twine closer together so there wouldn't be any gaps.

Finished product.  I am happy with it and may very well do the vases I have gotten at the Dollar Tree.

My fingers got pretty sticky and gross, but not anything a little WD 40 couldn't fix!  

Our Daily Morning Schedule

The kids drive me crazy in the mornings.  We just never seem to have ourselves together and do things in a timely manner.  Sarah gets on the bus at 6:45 and Maggie gets on the bus at 7:00 for school.  We have very little time in the mornings to get dressed, breakfast eaten, etc.  There is ALWAYS a fight.  Pure frustration.

I made up this schedule and the first morning we used it, it worked like a charm AND they were even ahead of schedule!  They were completely ready by 6:10 a.m.  Sarah was so cute, she kept running to the fridge where I have it posted checking to see what task was next.  She loves stuff like this. Hopefully the rest of our mornings will be this way.

You can download our new morning schedule here.

What is your morning schedule like?  Got any tips?

Bacon Cheeseburger Flatbread

YUMMY!  I made this Saturday night for dinner and  I have to say this was really good and 3/4 of my family liked it.  Sarah doesn't even like hamburgers so she had leftover fettuccine alfredo.  Dinner was a hit!

You can find the recipe here.

Enjoy!!!

Menu Plan Monday January 27-31

I just started planning my meals again and buying groceries two weeks at a time, just because that's how our paydays are.  Here's my plan for this week!

Monday - Cheesy Honey Mustard Chicken and a pasta side and broccoli

Tuesday - Roast, Potatoes and Carrots and crescent rolls

Wednesday - BLTs with baby carrots, blood oranges and fries

Thursday - Pesto Chicken and Creamy Rice with green beans

Friday - It's payday so not sure what's on the agenda for dinner

I'm excited to be linking up with Laura at I'm An Organizing Junkie.  Come check her out for more menu ideas!

Kitchen Transformation

I had been wanting to make some changes to the kitchen because it was seriously on my last nerve.  It just seem as functional as I wanted it.  So I took a day off work when the weather was beautiful and one of my favorite radio stations started playing 24/7 Christmas music and I was one happy girl! 

First I started by emptying the cabinet where my dishes are, I had plans for those.  Then I moved all of the glasses, cups, etc over to where the plates were and realized there was a lot more room.

Then I moved the coffee pots (yes we have two) down to the other end of the counter and moved the coffee cups, sweetener, etc down to where the glasses and cups used to be.

Now comes the fun part.  I have small pantry, I actually hate and because the door is small, we can't find anything to put on the door to store stuff like plastic wrap, foil, Ziplocs, etc.  So I decided that I was going to move some food out of the pantry into the cabinets and I moved food out of my pantry to put where the coffee cups and such used to be.

In the meantime, I was painting a cute little cart I bought for $10 and another little cart/shelf that I had when Maggie was a baby.  I am using these for every day dishes and cookware that I don't use alot (I need the room under the counter for miscellaneous cooking stuff.

I'm very pleased with how everything turned out and it didn't take the family too long to figure out where everything was and get used to it.  Now I feel like I have kitchen that is flowing with ease.  I'm not finished decorating yet with the colors I want, but as I do some, I will post them for all to see!  I'm loving my semi-new kitchen.  Everything is neat, and I like it that way!

What I Learned From Fasting

As stated before, our church was having 21 days of prayer and fasting from January 5 to January 25.  Since I can't fast food or drink (surgery took care of that for me), I chose to fast social media and stupid games on my phone.  That included Facebook, Instragram, Twitter, Pinterest, Candy Crush and Dragon City.  Those are the main ones.

The purpose of me doing this was so I could focus on my family and work on organization of our house.  Now, don't get me wrong, those things were not taking over my life, but after working all day, sitting in the car for at least an hour trying to get home from work, cooking dinner, helping with homework, etc, Mike would turn on the TV and watch Bizarre Foods or something, I would get bored and pick up my phone and socialize or play games.  I wanted to put that wasted time to good use.  

Little did I know, I feel like like I got a whole lotta nothin' done.  I tried to make good dinners every night even though I was having to work late.  I tried to keep laundry done even though it kept on piling up, while still not being able to work on the stuff I intended to work on.  I tried to just keep pushing on through and trying to make this work.  I don't know what it is about me. I have real good intentions and ideas, but my pea brain won't get itself together.  

Mike and I tried to get the house cleaned, but it just didn't happen.  One week was pretty rough, having to work late because of doctor's appointments and just stuff that comes up.  I mean on one Friday night I worked until 5:30.  Who works until 5:30 on a Friday night?  Everyone was gone except me and Mr. Joe, our 92 year old cleaning guy.  

So we had to end up calling the lady that cleans for us about once a month.  I feel like a failure as a wife and mother when I can't even get my own house clean.  I mean, my mother kept our house clean and she worked full time, just like I do. I don't know if it's just the times we live in, but I feel like a loser.  

Although, I will say that I enjoy the house being clean right before the weekend so I could focus on the things I've been intending to do, which still didn’t happen.  Although, I did get our meals planned out for two weeks.  That is a HUGE thing for me to accomplish.

After this first time of fasting from social media, I do like feel I was more focused on my family and I can only hope that they noticed.  I'm excited to be back blogging now!

What I learned from this fast was that no one really cares if you are on social media or not.  Life goes on with or without you, in many ways.  I really didn't miss it too terribly bad, I just missed talking to old friends and stuff like that.  

Before and After - Not For The Weak

Okay, so on July 3, 2013, I had gastric bypass surgery.  It was an easy decision for me and I got a ton of support and I continue to get support.  Today is exactly 6 months post surgery.  The before picture was taken in May 2013 while on vacation and the after picture is today in my favorite Old Navy clothes.  First time I have been able to buy clothes at Old Navy and boy does it feel good.  Enough is enough.....here it is....
                                                             

                                                            

80 pounds lighter.....

P.S.  I was just told by Sarah "Wow, you look really fat!"  Thanks Sarah......

Fasting Hiatus

Well shoot, I decided to start blogging again, but Sunday starts the 21 days of prayer and fasting at my church, so I will be on a 3 week hiatus because I am fasting social media and those stupid games on my phone.  I need the 3 weeks to get myself in order in a lot of ways!  Me, my family, my house.....and the list could go on and on. AND school is starting back Monday and I need to change the way my household is functioning.  I'm going to go batty if things don't change.

Google

I'm going to try to get a post in tomorrow of my before and after photos since surgery in July.

The transformation of mind and body has been incredible.  I feel good about who I am, I feel good about my overall health and I feel good about what I'm eating and drinking and really only missing a couple of things that I once loved.....Milk and a good wrap from Roly Poly or sandwich with lots of meat and cheese, mayo and mustard.  Oh well.  I don't miss it enough to even gain a pound, so I will just admire it from afar.

The support I have gotten through this journey has been overwhelming.  I thought I would be judged for "taking the easy way out" but it hasn't been easy, but a lot easier than I thought.

Hope everyone had a good New Year and I just know 2014 is going to be great!

I will be back to blogging in full force on January 26!

My Thoughts on Turning 40

No......I'm not about to turn 40.  I'm past that.....Just turned 43 in November, but I was reading through some of my old posts and this post from 2010 is pretty funny!  At least I think so!

Enjoy!

I'm Back!

I haven't blogged anything since this summer but I'm back at it again.  I enjoy it.  I am going to make more time in my life to do the things I enjoy, including this.  I will be blogging about the kids, great stuff I find on Pinterest and maybe some really yummy recipes too, I guess just Life With Us in general!!  

Hope everyone had a good New Year!  Bring it on 2014!!!