Grace On Rainbow

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Am amazing truth . . .

Children are such a wonderful blessing. In truth I do not always see that in the day to day training and teaching, but in God's perfect way He gently reminds me. Tonight as we were getting the kids ready for bed, Noah came in and asked if I would rock him. He loves to snuggle and I use to always rock and sing to him. However, it is getting increasingly difficult as he is getting bigger and I am getting older. My hip often protests under the weight - but how could I refuse such a sweet request. As he climbed in my lap he told me "You wont be able to do this much longer - like when I turn 9, but then maybe I could rock you". What a joy it is to have such a child with an incredible sweet spirit. I pray that he will always remain true to God in such an innocent way. As I fought back tears I said, "I am going to miss you when you leave me Noah." . . . . "Don't worry Mom I'll come visit you every weekend. I promise, and maybe I will live at the metal place where they can build trains. I will have them make trains and the parts will actually move and when they get that done, I will take the extra metal and make tracks with wood under them . . . " Oh yes - everything always comes back to trains, but it was still a precious moment none the less - and then off he went to bed looking over his shoulder saying "I love you Mom." Now those are words that melt my heart.
Have a wonderful evening everyone - Lisa

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Monthly Menu Planner

My cousin asked me about my monthly menu planner. Well I was a little late getting this set up this month, but here it is. There are a few things that I try to keep in mind when planning our menu. One thing is that we are trying to eat a lot healthier. All of these recipes, although some are standard comfort foods, can be altered to be a healthier version. I will be posting some of these recipes later on. I also like to do a lot of crock pot recipes. I truly LOVE my crock pot and the convenience it gives me. I also try to plan things that will give leftovers for next day's lunches (killing two birds with one stone).

The other thing I plan for is using something in multiple recipes. For this monthly menu I have several ham recipes. I can get a spiral cut ham for under $1.75 a pound at Wal-Mart. This will give me baked ham - ham & beans - ham & potato casserole - breakfast casserole - and ham for sandwiches and the backed potato bar. Now this could be ham overload, but if you limit it to once a week it works out well. I will also plan ahead and dice up the ham I will need and freeze it for later on in the month.

Setting up a monthly menu not only helps relieve the stress of the last minute dash of "what's for dinner", but it helps save money as you know exactly what you need for groceries. Generally if we don't have any plans for dinner we will succumb to the fast food frenzies of life.

So I hope this has helped and will get you thinking about how and what you will need for your monthly planner. Oh and just as a side note. This planner will last me until the Spring when more fresh fruits and vegetables come in and less warm comfy foods are needed.


Just click on the picture to enlarge.

Have a wonderful day everyone -

Friday, January 2, 2009

Do you like the new look?

So I am just completely tickled with our new blog heading. It took me all morning to finish it, but I LOVE how it turned out. When digital scrapbooking first came out I thought . . .Why would anyone want to do that. The fun in actually "touching" everyting? Well I must say that I love working with digital elements now. There are so many things that you can do with them and it is fun to see what you can layer and create. OK enough about that, but here is a great site if you are ever interested in getting started. You need to have a photo editing program like Photoshop or something similar. http://www.pclayers.com/

Have a wonderful day everyone (and yes I was even crazy enough to create a signature too)