Lately with all the sickies and consequential grumpy people at my house, Papa has popped this particular verse into my head more times than I can count.
The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in Him and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, and with my song I will thank Him.
Psalm 28:7
Even in a solid 6 weeks of sickness, I knew that Papa was caring for us.
In the middle of the 6 weeks of sickness we had a $750 repair that had to be done on our van. With one swipe, the credit card I had just paid off was right back where it was before. I can trust. I can. Really, I can. Sometimes I have to continually remind myself to trust. I have never been given a reason not to trust. A few days later Office Man gets the flu. Papa had it covered. He had the funds for the flu and the brakes in the mail before we even spent the money. The Lord is my strength and my shield
I am human, in all it's sinful fallicies. I still get nervous, I over-react, I yell and scream and throw tantrums right along with my children. The Lord is my strength and my shield
By Papa's amazing grace, when I am about to lose control, I CAN indeed lose control. I can lose it because I shouldn't be holding onto it in the first place.
My strength is not my strength. My Papa is my strength, I need not fear what is falling on me, or what is thrown at me because by His strength I will stand through it all. I will stand with Papa's strength, and be shielded by Him as well.
The more I begin to walk in faith, and learn to truly trust (instead of just saying that I do) the less I find myself losing control. I can't lose control if I do not claim control for myself. I do not lose what I do not have. If Papa's strength flows through me, and His love shields me, I have nothing to fear.
The Lord is my strength and my shield
I get stressed out. I lose my temper. I worry. I get frustrated. I yell.
The Lord is my strength and my shield
I am loved. I am safe. I am precious to the Father that created me.
The more I remember that the Lord is my strength and my shield the less I find stress stresses me out. I don't lose my temper unless I forget where my strength comes from. I have no reason to yell if I am un-afraid because I know Who my Shield is.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Wednesday's REAL menu
Originally slated for Wednesday was Fish Tacos. But I switched those to Tuesday, and moved the ground beef and rice casserole to Wednesday.
Enter Wednesday, day 18 of a child home sick from school in this current semester.
Enter sick child #1, AKA "Pookie" bored silly and wanting to go to school, but still with just enough fever to keep him from actually GOING. Pookie is cranky.
Enter sick child #2, AKA "Deedle bug" my 2 year-old that seems to pride herself on being 2. Complete with potty learning accidents, pouring water on the new puppy, and leaving a wake of chaos behind her. She is also in a stage where she either wants me to hold her, or she wants milk. Yes, I am still nursing my 27 month old. Deedle Bug is cranky.
Enter Mama. Mama has had 39 days of at least one person in the household having some sort of virus. We've been through 2 rounds of colds, one round of stomach virus and one round of flu. Mama is cranky.
At approximately 1pm, when Deedle Bug wakes from a nap that was too short, Mama decides it's time to get out of the house. So we load up the mini-van with coloring books and crayon rolls, and cups of water, to make the 30-40 minute trek into Santa Fe. The ride up goes well, we are singing along with "Little People Sing the Alphabet" and silly songs such as ~5 Huge Hippos, Hopping on a Hill~ and hooray, we are out of the house!
We go first to see Office Man at Office Max (original huh?) and get some new markers, pencils and hand-writing paper for Pookie who is doing fabulously writing letters, and even writing the addresses on the envelopes. I am very proud of his progress.
Next we go to Petco to see about some new toys for our new pup "Little-Bit" Now Little-Bit is a black lab puppy, and is already more than double the size he was when we got him 2 weeks ago, but I digress. Little-Bit is his name.
After Petco the kids talk me into a snack from Wendys, which happens to be in the same shopping center. French fries for all, and a berry lemonade for Mama. MMMmmm. What a happy outting :)
Next up is Natural Grocers, we need coffee, echinacea, emergen-c and "fake butter." Upon pulling into my parking space, Pookie informs me that I never said we were going to the grocery store, and he didn't want to go. We go anyway, get our stuff and head home. By the time we get home, its just after 5 O'clock, and Deedle Bug has been crying for the last 15 minutes of the car ride home.
By the time I got to the kitchen to start dinner, I realized that in my "cranky" haste to "GET ME OUT OF THIS HOUSE" I neglected to put the meat out to thaw. Ok, no biggie. I'll use that lb of breakfast sausage instead.
So, now that you've read about why I changed my recipe last minute, I'll tell you whats in my casserole. Originally this was made with one can tomato soup, and one can cream of mushroom soup. We like this much better, not only because it's healthier, it just tastes better.
Ingredients;
1lb ground beef or sausage (sausage was a hit)
2 cups rice of choice
4 cups water
1 large can tomato sauce
1 1/4 cup milk like substance, (Almond) or 1 can of full fat coconut milk
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp onion powder (or 1/4 cup chopped onion)
1 tsp garlic powder (or 2 cloves minced garlic)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 lb cheese-like substance (Dayia) (optional)
While browning meat in a skillet, mix all other ingredients (but cheese) in a 13x9 casserole dish, and pre-heat oven to 400. Add the meat, and place in the oven un-covered for 30 minutes. At the 30 minute mark, add the cheese, cover, and bake for another 30 minutes.
Last night, after getting Deedle Bug calmed down, we went out front as a family to play with the puppy. This took my attention away from coming back to cover my casserole, and therefore some of the rice nearest the top was not cooked through, but all the liquid was gone. The reason I cover after baking some is that the texture is much less mushy if it cooks un-covered for a while. I could work on adjusting the water to a less amount, but honestly, this is easier.
Because of many things, I did not get my beans cooked, nor did I make a vegetable. We simply had casserole. Everyone was happy with it, despite the fact that the rice wasn't all tender. A half success I suppose.
The moral of this weeks menu so far? It is subject to change.
Enter Wednesday, day 18 of a child home sick from school in this current semester.
Enter sick child #1, AKA "Pookie" bored silly and wanting to go to school, but still with just enough fever to keep him from actually GOING. Pookie is cranky.
Enter sick child #2, AKA "Deedle bug" my 2 year-old that seems to pride herself on being 2. Complete with potty learning accidents, pouring water on the new puppy, and leaving a wake of chaos behind her. She is also in a stage where she either wants me to hold her, or she wants milk. Yes, I am still nursing my 27 month old. Deedle Bug is cranky.
Enter Mama. Mama has had 39 days of at least one person in the household having some sort of virus. We've been through 2 rounds of colds, one round of stomach virus and one round of flu. Mama is cranky.
At approximately 1pm, when Deedle Bug wakes from a nap that was too short, Mama decides it's time to get out of the house. So we load up the mini-van with coloring books and crayon rolls, and cups of water, to make the 30-40 minute trek into Santa Fe. The ride up goes well, we are singing along with "Little People Sing the Alphabet" and silly songs such as ~5 Huge Hippos, Hopping on a Hill~ and hooray, we are out of the house!
We go first to see Office Man at Office Max (original huh?) and get some new markers, pencils and hand-writing paper for Pookie who is doing fabulously writing letters, and even writing the addresses on the envelopes. I am very proud of his progress.
Next we go to Petco to see about some new toys for our new pup "Little-Bit" Now Little-Bit is a black lab puppy, and is already more than double the size he was when we got him 2 weeks ago, but I digress. Little-Bit is his name.
After Petco the kids talk me into a snack from Wendys, which happens to be in the same shopping center. French fries for all, and a berry lemonade for Mama. MMMmmm. What a happy outting :)
Next up is Natural Grocers, we need coffee, echinacea, emergen-c and "fake butter." Upon pulling into my parking space, Pookie informs me that I never said we were going to the grocery store, and he didn't want to go. We go anyway, get our stuff and head home. By the time we get home, its just after 5 O'clock, and Deedle Bug has been crying for the last 15 minutes of the car ride home.
By the time I got to the kitchen to start dinner, I realized that in my "cranky" haste to "GET ME OUT OF THIS HOUSE" I neglected to put the meat out to thaw. Ok, no biggie. I'll use that lb of breakfast sausage instead.
So, now that you've read about why I changed my recipe last minute, I'll tell you whats in my casserole. Originally this was made with one can tomato soup, and one can cream of mushroom soup. We like this much better, not only because it's healthier, it just tastes better.
Ingredients;
1lb ground beef or sausage (sausage was a hit)
2 cups rice of choice
4 cups water
1 large can tomato sauce
1 1/4 cup milk like substance, (Almond) or 1 can of full fat coconut milk
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp onion powder (or 1/4 cup chopped onion)
1 tsp garlic powder (or 2 cloves minced garlic)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 lb cheese-like substance (Dayia) (optional)
While browning meat in a skillet, mix all other ingredients (but cheese) in a 13x9 casserole dish, and pre-heat oven to 400. Add the meat, and place in the oven un-covered for 30 minutes. At the 30 minute mark, add the cheese, cover, and bake for another 30 minutes.
Last night, after getting Deedle Bug calmed down, we went out front as a family to play with the puppy. This took my attention away from coming back to cover my casserole, and therefore some of the rice nearest the top was not cooked through, but all the liquid was gone. The reason I cover after baking some is that the texture is much less mushy if it cooks un-covered for a while. I could work on adjusting the water to a less amount, but honestly, this is easier.
Because of many things, I did not get my beans cooked, nor did I make a vegetable. We simply had casserole. Everyone was happy with it, despite the fact that the rice wasn't all tender. A half success I suppose.
The moral of this weeks menu so far? It is subject to change.
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