Thankful Thursday!

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Happy Thursday!  Thankful Thursday!

The greatest gifts I have been blessed with is my children.  God has been very gracious to us and has blessed us with 5 children.  There was a time in our marriage we wondered if we would have any children at all.   Then we wondered why after 2 biological children, God was sending us on a journey across the world to bring our 3rd child home.  We were then blessed with 2 more children through birth.  Now we wonder what God has in store for us next...but that is another post!!  (No, no announcements are forthcoming!)

Today I am reflecting on the gift of adoption.  When I think about our adoption story, we can see God's hand at work in so many different ways.   From the financing to the flight over, from the paperwork to the placement, from beginning to end...He was with us.   We have so many things in our story to be thankful for.
But our adoption would not have been possible if our son's birth mom had not chose life for her child.  It would have been so easy for her to choose abortion.  She had so many reasons not to choose life for her child.   But she had one very big reason to give him life.  Love.  Like me, the minute I saw the positive line on the pregnancy test...I became a mom.  This was no longer my life, but our life.  Decisions no longer were made for me, but for us.   We felt a love so great for someone we had never met.  

 Today our son turns 8.  I am more thoughtful of his birth mom on this date each year.  And I am thankful for the gift she has given me.  So today we celebrate a special birthday in our family.  And we'll say a prayer for the woman who gave life to a precious gift from God.

 

It's a wonderful day.  And I am thankful!

For more thankful posts, or to participate, please visit this month's host, Iris, at Grace Alone.

Have a great day!

Blessings,

Wordless Wednesday!

Have a great day!


Blessings,

Frugal Living--Making Ground Beef Go Farther!

I learned this trick from Michelle, who sadly no longer has her website. She had a website called "Leaving Excess", and I learned many good tricks from her. Unfortunately, her website became the excess in her life and she let it go to concentrate on her family. But here goes for making your ground beef go farther.








You will need 8 pounds of ground beef...

I like to use a combination of ground beef and ground turkey.  The ground turkey is better for you, but it is also cheeper than ground beef (unless you can get ground beef at an excellent price!).


along with 2 onions, four carrots, and 6 celery stalks.

First, chop your vegetables into small pieces.

If you have a food processor, it would probably work wonderfully for this. I really wanted one, but really didn't want another small appliance in my kitchen. The first time I did this, I chopped all the vegetables by hand. It was very tiring to say the least. I found a hand chopper on clearance for $4, and almost ran to the checkout. The hand chopper works so nice. You can chop your vegetables into any size you wish. I used to chop them all sooo small, because I feared if my family knew that there were vegetables in their meat, they wouldn't eat it. Now they all know I do it (the carrots are a BIG giveaway!), so I don't stress about trying to chop them into invisible pieces!!



Place all your vegetables into a bowl and mix them up.

Start frying your hamburger with the veggies mixed in the meat.

Place the amount you desire into freezer bags. 

I like to put it into quart size bags, then place those bags into a gallon size bag.  Place in the freezer, and you are finished!  It is nice to have hamburger already made up, and just pull it out and thaw it.  I generally use ground beef for taco's and casseroles.  It took a couple of hours out of my day, but saves a huge amount of time from another day.  It also makes a huge amount of grease, so have a large bowl handy for draining the meat.

This also helps my grocery bill go farther.  I started with 8 pounds of meat, and when I was finished I had 12 packages made up.  I can't really say whether they were each exactly a pound or not, but I have what I know my family will need for meals.

I have also experimented with other vegetables in the ground beef.  I generally always use the carrots, onion, and celery; but sometimes I have been known to sneak something else into the meat.  The last time I made this I had a few mushrooms leftover that I chopped into it, and I have also chopped broccoli stems into the meat.  It is a good way to get some extra vegetables into your family's diet, and a good way to use up things that you may not have another use for.   I sometimes will add in some brown rice to the ground beef.  This really helps make the ground beef go farther.  As I said, we generally use ground beef for taco's or casseroles~ the rice in the ground beef works perfectly for the taco's, and if it is in a casserole, no one will probably ever know.  Try whatever you think would work for your family!

Have a great day!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY~December 6, 2010
Outside my window... SNOW!!  Very cold this week with windchills below 0
I am thinking...about some good points our pastor had in the sermon yesterday
I am thankful for... the health of my children.  I have heard a lot about ill children and I realized how much I took our health for granted
From the kitchen...lasagna and salad
I am wearing...jeans and sweater
I am creating...burp cloths for some friends
 I am going...to get Christmas cards done this week and enjoy this holiday with our families
I am reading... Bible
I am praying...for simplicity in our lives, for some specific needs for a couple of friends
I am hearing...little ones playing and watching "The Magic School Bus"
Around the house...Christmas decorations up, thinking about moving our curio cabinet
One of my favorite things...spending time with my family~we had a great birthday party this weekend for 2 of our boys
A few plans for the rest of the week...a birthday for one of our kids, piano and guitar lessons, date night with hubby on Friday~it's been waaaay tooo long
Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Thanks for stopping by!  For more daybooks, please visit Peggy at The Simple Woman's Daybook.  Have a great week!

Blessings,

Christmas Baking!

I love baking, but at Christmas time, I really love baking!  Everything is better at Christmas, including the goodies.  This year, while I am trying to scale things back to just mildly out of control :), I want to try a few of my grandmother's recipies.  She loved baking at Christmas time also.  I got started today with our 2 littlest kiddo's.  I am waiting to do cutout cookies until all the kids are around, but today while the oldest 3 were at school we made Christmas tree cookies with the cookie press. 

Of course, the best part about cookie baking is licking the beaters!

Waiting patiently for them to come out of the oven...

And since the beaters have been licked clean, it's now time to start on the empty bowl....

....And finally enjoying the finished product!!

Yummy!!  Have a great weekend!

Blessings,