CategorySlice of Life

Monday – Salmon patties and baked beans

Tuesday – Scrambled eggs in tortillas

Wednesday – Hotdogs and fries for kids, Bratwurst for adults

Thursday – BLT’s and chips

Friday – Spaghetti

Saturday – Grilled chicken, pasta, salads

Sunday – Luke’s birthday!  He requested Papa John’s pizza for supper, so we’ll order that after church.

I only plan the main dish and one side for each meal.  We add additional veggies for each meal based on whatever is in the house at the time.  Our local Aldi is hit and miss on what veggies they have in stock at all times, so it’s easier to just stock up on what they do have and fit that in around the planned meals for the week.

Hubby and I are also following the Keto style of eating.  We take each meal and “keto it” for ourselves.  For example, Monday’s salmon patties will be made with almond flour, and we won’t eat the baked beans.  We’ll eat Tuesday’s eggs without the tortillas, and the BLT’s we’ll make with leaf lettuce instead of bread.

Lunches and breakfasts we also don’t plan specifically.  We have a pre-planned rotating menu on the fridge that we follow every week.

Well, our trip to Goldsboro last weekend was most definitely eventful.  After our church’s youth meeting on Saturday, we headed across the state of NC to Goldsboro, where Stephen was preaching all three services on Sunday.

We made it about halfway there before we had a flat tire.  That was the quickest AAA call we’ve ever had – from the time I called to the time the truck pulled up behind our van, it was 30 minutes.  20 minutes after that and we were back on the road…..in less than an hour and all.  I’m so thankful we have AAA, and even more thankful we were all safe.

We finally arrived to the host family’s house about 9:00.  They had made supper for us, and WOW did they ever make a lot!  We all stayed up late chatting, while the kids ran some of their energy out.  It was so wonderful to meet this family face-to-face.  

Sunday morning started off bright and early.  Stephen and the older boys went with the men early to church, and the kids and I followed later with the lady of the house.  After the morning service, the church had a fellowship dinner.  I couldn’t believe how much food there was!   Then a bit after dinner, they had the afternoon service.  I just love hearing my husband preach.

We left after that to head back home.  It was a long day, but a good one, filled with getting to know new people and forming friendships.

Monday – went to the inlaws.  They ordered pizza, I had a salad.

Tuesday – grilled chicken, green beans, rice

Wednesday – fellowship after church.  Because the kids are so little, we’ll snack before we leave to tide them over.

Thursday – grilled chicken sandwiches for the kids, chicken over salad for hubby and I.

Friday – Pizza Night.  Regular homemade pizza for the kids, low carb pizza for hubby and I. 

Saturday – not sure yet.  NOT chicken.

Sunday – chicken and dumplings for the kids.  I’ll have the chicken and veggies, but not the dumplings

So after a year’s break from blogging, here I am again. Our old host’s server crashed. I downloaded a database backup and hope to have them uploaded here too.

I decided to start blogging again so I have a place to document my adventures in low carb, gluten free cooking. I went keto to try to lose some weight, and discovered I feel amazing now that gluten is out of my diet.

I’ve tried some gluten free foods and honestly wasn’t impressed. They were edible but not great. We already cook most foods from scratch (hubby can’t have MSG and that is in everything, it seems like). This will be where I take notes on what recipes I’ve tried, and how they taste and compare to the foods I’m accustomed to.

Today is my last day as the mom of a seven-year-old. How did time go so quickly???

Here’s a picture of Esther that my friend Sara took the other day. Esther is now 3 months old. Crazy. I can’t believe how quickly time goes by.

Today is Caleb’s birthday. He turned four today. . .and I didn’t take a single picture. He was so consumed with his “Happy Birt-day take” and the fact that it was going to be chocolate! There were three little ones at my side the entire time, watching and hoping for licks and tastes of the frosting. Homemade frosting is so good. . .

Ok, so I’m behind on posting like never before. The kids and I took a two-week trip to Michigan to visit my family, and we got home last week. We haven’t stopped going since. Hopefully I’ll get more than a moment to blog soon though – God provided for us in a miraculous way while we were there and I do want to at least blog about that! I keep meaning to come over and post, and then usually end up promptly forgetting.

Sometimes it feels like I’ve fallen off the face of the earth, when life has just been super busy. There have been so many things going on, but making it here to post about it has not always been easy.

The boys have a blast outside and often come to the door to show me the treasures they’ve found.

This time it was a lizard.

They also like to be silly.

Anna loves her baby sister.

I partnered with Groopdealz.com a few weeks ago again, and my desk has looked like this since then.

Here’s what the bracelets look like finished.

Stick Figure Kids Personalized Cuff Bracelet

I’ve had a little helper sometimes. . .or maybe she’s a supervisor. . .

Our babysitter has been wonderful in helping watch the kids at times so I could finish bracelets faster. She brought supplies to make Christmas ornaments with the kids last week and they had a blast. This was before things got really messy!

Anna decided to see how the green marker tasted!

So mostly a lot of daily life and work around here.

Oh! I realized last night that I never mentioned here that we got our new well put in a couple weeks ago. It was so neat. God sent us a check for $2000 – exactly the amount needed to put a down payment on the well so the crew could come out and start drilling. It was amazing to see how God provided. Now I’m looking forward to seeing how He provides to finish paying it off.

We had some adventures once it was installed too. They drilled the well (they had to go to 300 feet to hit water!), and connected it to the house. They turned the water on, and a pipe burst under the house, creating a geyser. Stephen went down there to fix the plumbing and discovered that the ductwork from our new a/c (installed this spring) was in the way. The company who put the a/c in is the same company that owns a plumbing business, so we called them. They sent out both a plumber and an a/c repairman to fix the ductwork. . .but didn’t charge us for the extra service call. In fact, they even offered to put us up in a hotel overnight so that we could have water. We decided to stay home though because the kids sleep better here, and because we could still get water at the well itself to flush toilets.

We got the plumbing fixed and started enjoying water pressure again. Then the hot water heater decided to act crazy. It’s been failing for a while but we’ve been putting off replacing it. Stephen is planning on going today to pick up a new hot water heater at Lowes – I’m thankful there’s enough money from the bracelets to be able to go get one instead of having to wait longer.

Oh – speaking of jewelry – I’ve been really busy with jewelry other than the Groopdealz bracelets too. I’m so thankful God has sent the orders my way. It’s such a blessing to me to see how my little business has grown this year. By the way, all handstamped jewelry in my shop is 25% off today and tomorrow for Black Friday. Then for Cyber Monday the discount will be 20%. If you’ve been eyeing a certain Hope of My Heart Designs piece of jewelry, now is the time to get it. I won’t be running another sale for a while.

I try not to blog about my jewelry too much here, but if you’re interested in seeing some of the other jewelry designs I’ve been making, head over to my jewelry blog to see them.

So that’s what’s been going on around here. . .