Grilled Sweet Potatoes

 

                                                         Yummy!!!!!!

 

 

Ingredients:

• 4 medium sweet potatoes
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation:

Cup sweet potatoes into 3/4 inch slices. Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and add potatoes. Boil until potatoes are just starting to soften. Cool and peal. Combine butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, brush over potatoes. Place Potato slices on preheated grill over a medium low heat and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, turning once. When the sweet potatoes as soft through the middle and browned on the surface they are ready.

Great deal!

I'm trying to get back into homeschool mode and prepare for this upcoming school year. We homeschool all through the summer but it's more relaxed then it is during the regular school year. I came across this great deal in my emails this morning. It's for The Old Schoolhouse magazine.  I've wanted to get a subscription for this magazine for a long time but it just hasn't been in my budget to do so. It's packed with great learning ideas and resources. The deal is for $25 you get 7 back issues of The Old Schoolhouse,a Homeschooling with heart tote bag, a surprise bonus gift, and it's free shipping. If your interested hears the link:

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=214&products_id=20110

New Goals

So lately I've been having some trouble staying on track with my diet and exercise goals. I've become lazy My ambition is seriously lacking in these departments. I haven't been doing terrible, but my drive is definitely slowing down. The last 3 days were the worst yet. I ate so much food and I did NO exercise..... unless you count lifting my fork to my mouth. According to my scale I gained 2 whole pounds a little weight back. I think that the reason for this is some extra stress in my life compounded with the fact that I'm just getting tired. I'm in the last stretch of my weight lose and I feel like I've been working on it forever. So I've decided I need a do over. I'm going to take a closer look at my goals and my reason for loosing weight to begin with.
  I started The 30 day shred last Friday and then I fell off the diet wagon. So today I'm starting over with Day 1. So my new end goal is to lose 12 pounds by the time I do The Warrior Dash in August. I know it's a huge goal to accomplish in a short amount of time but I think it's possible.  My plan is to stay within my calorie limit and run at least 3 days a week along with doing The 30 day shred every day. I also want to add some weight training in there too. I'm also going to reavaluate some the things that may be causing me extra stress and scream at the top of my lungs while pulling my hais out pray about them. If you have any other ideas that you'de like to share with me, feel free to do so.

Let's be real!

This mornings devo was all about being real with others and taking off the mask that we put on around others. The mask of perfection. The one that we use to make everyone think that we're perfect in all area's of our life. We get up and put our nice clothes on and go to church on Sunday with smiles on our face. When someone asks us how we are, we reply "Fine, how about you?" and that someone will reply "Fine" and then we move on to the next set of "Fine's". We ask the ?? without wanting the real answer. We would rather just go on with our day the same as always. Why is that we all answer fine even when we're falling apart inside. I think it may be for a couple different reasons. First it's probably because we don't want anyone to see our weaknesses. We want everyone to think we're perfect and we have that "I got this" attitude. Our marriage is perfect, all our bills are paid, and our kids our straight A students. When really the marriage is just holding on by a thread and the house is in foreclosure and the kids are a mess.
 The other reason may be that we just don't want people all up in our business. It's embarrassing! We don't want to deal with the drama that we deal with day in and day out at church. The church is our safe haven. The place where everything and everyone is "fine".
 Can you imagine if you walked up to someone at church and asked them how things are and they just bursted in to tears and told you everything that was going wrong in their life at that moment. It's rare that this would happen but it does happen on occasion. It's happened to me. How would you react? Would you feel uncomfortable? Your reaction could have an awesome effect on that person. It may either give them the confidence that they needed and the feeling that someone cares or the opposite. They could leave you feeling like nobody cares...even the church. My life sucks! What if you were the person that God put in that persons life to fix a problem and you just blew it.
  Can you imagine how awesome it would be if we all were honest with each other and helped each other out to best of our abilities? For example: A single mom is struggling to pay a day care for her children and can't pay her bills because of it. She needs someone trustworthy and someone who will except less pay to watch her children. What if your that somebody who God wants to use to help her out. You could either watch her kids for free or for very little. At least until she could get back on her feet. Yes, that would mean sacrifice. You would have to give up some free time. But you would be doing God's work. That's what being part of God's family is all about. That's the church family that I want. A family that helps each other out and is honest with each other. A church full of real people. People who screw up once in a while. We're all human, we're all a mess in some area in our lives. Next time your in a situation that you could be of help ... find that "I got this" attitude and do what God has called us all to do. Help someone in need. Peace out!!!

Chioces!

So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.

~ Galatians 6:9

I received this verse in my email this morning. It made me start to think about how as Christians we're always trying to do what is right in the eyes of God. Well most of us anyways. Why is it so tough to do the right thing? Sometimes I wonder is it really worth it. It would be so much easier to be like rest of the world and go with the flow. It would be so nice to only care about my own well being and do what is best for ME. A lot of the stress in my life is because I choose to swim against the current. I choose to do the right thing. I have this feeling deep inside. This feeling that makes me choose in all kinds of situations. Both the kind of situations that define who you are and the ones that don't really matter to anyone else but you. For example: this might sound really trivial to some of you.. but when I worked at Stewarts I opened the store early in the morning and I ran the register.  So sometimes it was only me working because it wasn't busy enough to have a second worker. I was new at the time. Every once in a while I would get a rush of people on their way into work. I would be running out of coffee and I'de have a line anxious men who haven't had there coffee yet.. all the way out to the door. You can imagine how intimidating this is to a 5ft 3in young girl. Sometimes the situation only got worse. I would run out of change because being by myself I hadn't had a chance to get the proper change out of the safe for my drawer. So now I need to give the guy in front of me 3 pennies back in change and I only have 2 and the line is only getting longer. So I have a decision to make. I could A: just hand him the 2 pennies and hope I wont need anymore, he probably is late for work and isn't going to miss his penny or B: explain my situation to the annoyed man in front of me and leave the line of people while I go into the office, unlock the safe and get the proper change out. Being the person that I am I chose B. For a couple different reasons. It would completely eat me up inside if I shorted him that penny. "Why?" you ask. It's only a penny. It's because I know that God is watching my every move. While I'm driving my car, while I'm at home with my kids, while I'm at work. He is always there through the good and the bad. The other reason for going to get the change is I know that there is no way that I'm going to get through that line without getting more change. Most of the time I would explain the situation to the person in front of me and they would say "don't worry about the penny". :)  After a while I got to know my morning crew pretty well and learned steps to prepare myself for that morning rush. As a parent I'm trying to teach my children that in this life there will be many choices to make. Choices that are both big and small. Choices that will define who they are.We wont always make the right choices. We are after all only human. But I encourage all of you when you make these choices to remember God's presence. Stay strong in your decisions. Don't ever waver from what you know is right. The Bible tells us to never forget that and to pray without ceasing. We should remind our children of him in every situation we face. We will all one day reap a harvest of blessings.

The opposite sex

Oh yes the opposite sex...Opposite is the key word hear. The sooner ladies except that men are just that, the better off they'll be. I believe that at some point men stop growing mentally but their bodies continue to grow. They're just big boys in a man's body. I haven't pin pointed the age in which this happens yet. Having 3 boys and a husband I'm going to be studying them very closely. Maybe by the time my daughter is old enough to be in a relationship I'll be able to give her an exact age.
  I think that men marry woman thinking that they'll never change. That they're never going to gain an ounce and that their hair will always be one color. Then 10-20 years down the line they're shocked at the fact that the woman that they married has changed. Remember that lovely woman you called mom. Well that's what's your going to end up with. The funny thing is though..men want us to be that woman who fixes their plate and raises perfectly well behaved children in a perfectly clean house. They just want it to be done in the nude.
  Now woman on the other hand marry a man thinking just the opposite. They think I'm going to FIX this man no matter what it takes. He's going to be perfect when I'm done with him. Haaaaa!! Yeah right. It'll never happen ladies. Take a good look now because he will remain this way till he's 90. His physical appearance may change but he will remain mentally a young boy forever. We complain about the things that we once thought were cute.
  If men and woman would except these facts then the divorce rate would be almost none existent. I have excepted my husband sits and plays his xbox at night. In fact I encourage it. Because I understand that he needs that outlet. I know that while he's at work supporting our family like a grown up he's also shooting his co worker with a nail gun because it's just funny. In the end he's still a wonderful man...the man that I married. He's a great father and husband.  I'm also trying my best not to change my appearance too much. After 4 kids it's been a challenge but I think I have a handle on it....for now anyway.

Stromboli Recipe (Happy Father's Day!!!)

In honor of Father's Day I'm going to show you all how to make Stromboli because it's one of my husbands favorite meals. It's also cheap to make and super easy too. So here we go. Here's what your going to need

2 rolls of refrigerated french bread dough
1/2lb of baked ham
1/4-1/2lb hard salami
1/2lb of provolone cheese
1/2 package of pepperoni (you could use deli pepperoni if you want)
1/3 of a stick of melted butter
garlic salt
grated Parmesan cheese

First set your oven too 400 degrees

Then your going to open up your french bread and carefully unroll it into a large rectangle

Then your going to layer your meat and cheese across the middle. Starting with the cheese, then pepperoni, then the ham, then last comes the salami.

Then your going to grab the top end of the dough and fold it down and start rolling it up.

Once you have it all rolled up.. seal it along the side by pinching it. Then pinch the ends closed. Then your going to spray a baking sheet with non stick spray and place your rolls on the sheet. Now your going to make several slits going across the bread with a sharp knife. Now repeat those steps and make the second roll.

Then brush the melted butter across the length of the rolls and top with garlic salt and Parmesan cheese

Then place it in the oven for around 25-30min. We like ours crispy so about 30min works well for my oven. Until it's all brown and the cheese is oozing out.

See that melted burnt cheese on the pan. That's my favorite part. Yummm.....

Now when it's cooled off a little cut it into slices.

You can dip it in pizza sauce or honey mustard sauce. Enjoy!!