Menu Plan Monday ~ Jan. 14

I am very excited to do my menu this week after DJ led me to a wonderful new meal planner. I worked with it over the weekend and I absolutely love it! It is so easy to use and I will be using it from here on out. If you're looking for a good online meal planner, check this one out. You can schedule breakfast, lunch, and supper. I've never planned breakfast or lunch before and because I haven't, we tend to have the same things each morning for breakfast. I'm sure the kids are not excited about that and it gets old really quickly. I love that you can plan all three meals and you can even pull menus from the Meals Matter recipe database! You can print out your menu and stick it on your fridge once you've finalized it. I can't say enough about it! Now on to our menu for the week.....

Monday ~ Blake's lasagna, salad, garlic bread ~ I will post the recipe for this as soon as I find it. It is very good and I call it Blake's lasagna because he cooked this for our family recently. He is a young, single man from our church whose rental house recently burned down. He lost all of his possessions in the fire and is working hard to try and resume his normal life. If you go here, you can scroll down and read a little about Blake's loss. Please do pray for him.

Tuesday ~ Eat Out ~ We usually go out on this night since Jeff has bagpipe practice. We normally go to our favorite local Mexican place. So yummy!

Wednesday ~ Burgers, fries, broc 'n' cheese. We haven't made burgers at home in at least a month! I think I'll add some bacon and swiss cheese to them!

Thursday ~ Pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls

Friday ~ Corn chowder (from Fix It and Forget It), bread

Saturday ~ Smoked pork roast w/slaw, potato wedges, cowboy beans

Sunday ~ Pizza (probably DiGiorno or Freschetta)

Along with using a new menu planner comes the excitement of using new recipes. I hope to use a couple of new ones next week. For more menus, check out Laura's place.

Drug Rehab Help

I am blessed to be able to say that I've never had anyone close to me that has had a drug problem. Many families know at least one person with these types of problems. I'm sure it is a hard situation to be in and I can't imagine watching someone you love go through this. The good news is that there are facilities out there that specialize in drug rehabilitation. No matter what the situation, you will find information to help you learn about treatments and facilities that are right for your situation. With professional help, many people are able to overcome their addiction and get their lives back. If you or someone you know need help, check out the many resources that Drug Rehabilitation Network has to offer.

Beyond The Gates

Genocide: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.

We all know what genocide is. It's horrible. It is stomach turning. It's brutal. It's hard to believe that it goes on around us even today. Last night, hubby and I had the opportunity to watch Beyond The Gates . It is the best movie we've seen in a very long time. It's brutal so if you have a weak stomach, maybe you should skip the movie and just research the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Synopsis:

Based on true events and filmed in Rwanda with genocide survivors as cast and crew, BEYOND THE GATES tells their shared story of humanity in the most inhumane circumstances.

In April 1994, a secondary school in Kigali, Rwanda called the Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO), being used as a UN army base, became a refugee camp. Belgian UN troops, school children, NGO workers and over 2,500 Tutsi citizens and their sympathizers took refuge against a raging genocide while the Hutu militia, clad with machetes, clamored outside the school gates.

Five days later, the UN troops withdrew from the school, taking the whites with them. Within hours, almost all of the Rwandans were dead.

BEYOND THE GATES is about the choices we make when we are free to choose. In the tragic circumstances of the Ecole Technique Officielle, would you have left with the UN troops on the fifth day or would you have stayed?

Directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring John Hurt, Hugh Dancy and Clare-Hope Ashitey, BEYOND THE GATES was co-produced by David Belton, Pippa Cross and Jens Meurer. Belton who also co-wrote the original story was a former BBC Newsnight correspondent stationed in Rwanda during the genocide.

End of Synopsis

This was such a moving story. It made me hopeful at times. It made me sad. It made me angry. It made me question our government, the United Nations, and humanity. I found myself laying in bed last night thinking about the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi. It is an age old conflict centered around the status of each group. The Tutsi were in power; the Hutu were considered poor. The poor got tired of this and decided to kill all Tutsi, to snuff out the group so that Hutu would be the only remaining group. There's so much to ponder. There are so many questions. There are so many emotions. I just can't say enough about the quality of this film. It was so moving that it made me want to do something, anything. Since I can't go to Rwanda and do relief work, I decided that I will educate myself on the subject so that I might share it with others when the topic comes up.

I think as Americans, we sometimes feel we are beyond this type of situation.We think there's no way a civil war could break out here and people behave so brutally. Last night, my husband reminded me that this sort of thing is not beyond us. This country suffered terrible loss in 1861. Abraham Lincoln started a "civil war", not because slavery was his main concern, but because he would not have states secede from the Union.

This is just a well done movie and I can't say enough about it. As I mentioned above, the movie does show the brutality of the situation so use your own judgment when viewing it. We watched it without our children but will have our 13 year old watch it when we cover Rwanda in history. I hope if you watch this movie, that you are as moved by it as I was.

 

And The Winner Is......

I had the girls randomly pick the winner for Jerome Teel's book, The Divine Appointment, and I'm happy to say that Zenaida is the winner! Congratulations! I'll be contacting you shortly so that I can get this mailed out! Thanks to everyone who entered.

On another note, I'm having a bit of trouble with spammers leaving comments so I've had to switch on word verification for anyone who comments. Sorry for the inconvenience but I'm tired of the spam and lewd commenters. Hopefully this will take care of things.

The Divine Appointment Giveaway (Sticky Post)

I received The Divine Appointment by Jerome Teel a few months ago from Joyful Days. She was giving it away as part of the Pay It Forward Book Exchange. I recently took time to read it and just finished it up.

Synopsis:

A liberal Supreme Court Justice dies, leaving a vacant seat for conservative President Richard Wallace to fill. Can he gain the nomination for his pro-life candidate against Senate Majority leader Lance Proctor and the pro choice gang who stop at nothing, including murder, to accomplish their evil purposes?

Small town Southern lawyer Elijah Faulkner wonders if he’s on the right side when a seemingly unrelated murder in Nashville brings his associate Jill Baker and himself into the crosshairs of a murder plot.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. There was a lot going on and it kept me on my toes. It jumps from situation to situation, place to place. It reminded me of watching an episode of Law & Order. I do not normally read political thrillers but I'm glad I had the opportunity to delve into new territory. It was easy to relate to the book because the same type of corruption in the book goes on in our own government today. The book gives a glimpse of what it would be like to have an honorable, Christian president who would do what was right regardless of the consequences to himself. The book offers insight into two marriages; one that is in shambles because the husband and wife are somewhat estranged due to adultery, and another between a Christian lawyer and his wife, who have difficulty seeing eye to eye about starting a family. In the end, the book pulls everything to a close and does a nice job of repairing the broken relationships.

This book is an easy read at 340 pages and I would definitely read another Jerome Teel novel. If you'd like to find out more about Mr. Teel and his novels, you can visit him at Jerome Teel.

Upon completing this book, Joyful Days asked that I pay it forward. If you'd like to win this copy of The Divine Appointment, leave a comment and I will draw a winner on Wednesday, January 9th. You do not have to have a blog to enter. All I ask is that you leave an email address so that I can get in touch with you.

Christmas 2007

I haven't taken time to write about our Christmas holiday because we have had a lot going on. Just like I've heard many of you say, the past two months have gone by so quickly that I barely remembered to breathe. We have had such a wonderful time and I'm a little sad that the holidays have passed. I love being around my extended family because they are just loads of fun.

We enjoyed a wonderful worship service with our church family bout 6:00p.m. Afterwards, as per tradition, we spent Christmas Eve night with Jeff's family. His mom always cooks a huge meal and this year was no exception. We enjoyed spiral sliced ham, cubed steak in gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli, biscuits, her world famous mac 'n' cheese, and a bunch of other goodies that made me gain five pounds! We enjoyed eating, looking at her pretty decorations, opening gifts together, and playing Scattergories. We were having so much fun that when we looked at the clock, it was 2:30a.m!

The girls had fun posing for pictures

They were even able to get a quick shot of me and Jeff

Christmas morning we all slept in. Once everyone was awake, we enjoyed opening gifts together. Caroline was thrilled to get a Liberty doll from Vision Forum and Logan was equally thrilled to receive several books, including Jane Austen's complete works and the Love Comes Softly series. Hubby got an awesome orange UT dress shirt that the girls picked out. He surprised me with a set of videos from Franklin Springs Family Media. If you have never heard of Franklin Springs, please check them out. They are a small company making wonderful, meaningful videos.

In the evening, as per tradition, we drove a little more than an hour to spend time with my family. We arrived around 5:00 to find aunts, uncles, cousins, my mom, and grandmother all waiting for us. We enjoyed another big supper and then spent lots of time chatting. We opened gifts and then spent an hour or so singing Christmas songs. Jeff was kind enough to play guitar for us and we were amazed at how many songs we forgot the lyrics to! It was great fun and I think it'll remain part of our yearly tradition. My grandmother seemed to really enjoy herself and I am so thankful that we were able to spend another Christmas with her.

Me & My Grandmother

My mom, oldest daughter (I'm not sure why she has such a look on her face), and grandmother

This Christmas was such a wonderful time. We made so many special memories and I'm already looking forward to next year! I have decided that I want to exchange homemade gifts with everyone next year so I've got to get to work.

 

Personalize Your Car

I've never really been into dressing up my car. However, several years ago, we purchased a very plain, black Toyota Echo. While we were filling out the paperwork, the car salesman asked if we'd like to add a spoiler to the back of it. We decided to go for it and I'm very happy we did. It added lots of character to the car for just a small amount of money.

As I look around while I'm driving, I see so many vehicles that have been customized. Whether it's a cool color or an awesome accessory, it seems that many people take pride in personalizing their cars. Wood Dash Experts, Inc. is a company that offers many different types of those accessories. They have everything from dash kits to car spoilers . If you are thinking about personalizing your car, check out Wood Dash Experts to see what unique touches you can add to your vehicle.

I ~Heart~The Holidays

One box of Jiffy baking mix: $1.68

One roll of mild sausage: $1.50

One bag of shredded cheddar cheese: $1.98

Making a batch of sausage balls to cook on New Year's Eve but forgetting to actually do so, which results in your eating them for breakfast and lunches for the next three or four days: PRICELESS! (And incredibly yummy)

And did I mention that DJ gave me a recipe for puppy chow, I made it, and the bag is completely gone? The girls, myself, and my BIL managed to eat a gallon size bag of it over a three day period. Can you say holiday weight gain?

Ahhhhhh, I love the holidays!