Big Things

After several months of having zero furniture in our living room….

or dining room...

I am happy to say that things are slowly starting to happen around here...

and I like it!  

We've got a long way to go still, but progress is progress and I'm excited! 

Four Things....

Glen's been working long hours the last couple of weeks. We are hoping that the long hours are temporary and will eventually lead to more opportunities later, but right now I am just tired and wishing for more time with my hunny!  Today I was feeling particularly discouraged at how little we've seen of him lately and I decided that I  needed to stop being negative and instead refocus my thoughts and remember some of the many things we have to be grateful for right now.  This list could be a mile long, but here are a few that popped into my head tonight:

1.  These amazing young women who are busy from morning until night and yet still make the effort to come to mutual on Tuesday nights!  Tonight we made fleece blankets and headbands for Inova Fairfax Children's Hospital (the place where Spencer stayed for 6 months during his treatment for leukemia).

2.  Four-day weekends where we can sleep in past 5:00am and enjoy the opportunity to spend time together with the kids outside in this gorgeous autumn weather!

3.    Cousins!    I never had a cousin live within 1000 miles of me growing up and  I love that my kids live near enough to theirs that they are friends.

4.  A kitchen that's almost done!   Only a couple more minor things to tweak, a fridge to install, then just the painting and the floors are left!

Woo hoo! 

The Writing on the Walls

Someday, in a few decades, someone is going to decide to redo their kitchen and maybe...just maybe...if they decide to replace the drywall too, they will get just a little peek into the family who lived in that house a long time ago.

They will get a glimpse of who they were and what they believed...

They will see in whom they put their trust...

and know that they were not ashamed of His Gospel...

They will see that they believed in a God that is loving and forgiving...

and who will always lift them up when they are weak.

When they lift their eyes and notice the writing on the doorframe, they will see the 23rd Psalm and know that theirs was a family that looked to Christ for their redemption...

and were seeking the treasures of a better world.

When they look down at the raw floors....

and at the beams over the patio door,  hopefully they will also see that they were a family that tried to have a bit of fun...

whether in their attempted scriptural humor   ↑ ↑ ↑

or in spending an evening together....

filling the very walls of their home...

with words of love and trust...

and faith in God.

Although drywall may cover the words for now, it is my prayer that every person who enters that house in the years to come will know that, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 

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Thanks to my friend, Shawni, for the inspiration for doing this.  

Kitchen Updates

For years and years we've been daydreaming about one day redoing our kitchen and now that it's finally happening I can't believe how petrified I've been through the whole process.  While we are quite excited to finally be rid of the 47-year-old cabinets, countertops, oven, and linoleum, it has been a painstakingly slow process of deliberation to choose their replacements.    

On the one hand I know that brand new anything is going to feel amazing after living with a half-working, broken down kitchen for the last year or two (our dishwasher, oven, and sink were all broken at the time of tear-down), but still I have this nagging worry that I'm in way over my head with these expensive  (and permanent) decisions!  Thank goodness our contractor has been patient with us, because it's literally taken 9 months after signing the contract, to get to a place where we felt comfortable enough with our decisions to let them start working....and still we have our doubts.  

Now here's hoping that all the polling of my friends,  my Houzz and Pinterest perusing, and frequent Home Depot and showroom visits will have proven helpful to my cause, because the further we get on in this process the more I realize....

there's no turning back now!

And one of the only good things about taking so long to make all the decisions, is that I started freezing meals for these days back in April and had plenty of time to compile quite a stockpile in the meantime.   Now I have a freezer full of delicious homecooked meals ready to pop into the toaster oven most nights and I am proud to say that we've made it through one week of being kitchenless without a single fast food run.  Frozen convenience foods...yes, but fast food...no!   (I'm sure this streak won't last, so I better brag while I can...) 

Here's a glimpse at what we ate:      

Day 1:  Lemon-Herbed Chicken and Veggies (frozen 3-1/2 months) - 3 stars-- we froze it already cooked with  all the juices, then cooked it frozen in 450 degree toaster oven (convection setting) for about an hour and 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The veggies were mushier than we preferred, but it was still enjoyable.

Day 2:  Homemade Pizza (frozen 2 months)-- 5 stars -- we baked the pizzas as usual, allowed them to cool, and wrapped them in plastic to freeze.  Then we put them still frozen directly onto the rack of the toaster oven (2 at a time) and baked them at 450 for about 15-20 minutes.  They turned out perfectly!

Day 3: Grilled burgers and hot dogs

Day 4:  Thai Chicken Peanut Noodles (frozen 4 months)--4 stars-- We cooked this as usual, then combined the chicken, sauce, and noodles all together and wrapped it tightly in plastic before freezing.  We thawed it in the fridge for about a day then baked it in the toaster oven at 450 (convection setting) for about 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes (as soon as it's thawed enough to stir).

Day 5:  Boxed Taquitos from Costco with homemade salsa that Cami made with the heirloom tomatoes from our garden

Day 6:  Yogurt Baked Chicken Parmesan (frozen 4-1/2 months)--5 stars--Freeze raw and wrap in plastic.  Allow to thaw in the fridge for 24-hours, bake at 400 degrees in toaster oven (convection setting) for 50 min.  Increase temp and cook at 425 for last 10 minutes.  These turned out delicious and you could not even tell they'd ever been frozen.

Day 7:  Turkey Taco Casserole--Chicken Pot Pies from Costco--we had the turkey taco casserole thawing out in the fridge, before I realized that I was eating dinner at Enrichment night!  No need to waste a perfectly good homemade meal on a night when I won't be eating it.

*I froze all my meals in disposable 9x13-inch baking pans and wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap and foil.   I used sharpies to label each dish with what it was, the date, and any cooking directions.  I intended to do most of my cooking in a  toaster oven and didn't realize until I almost bought one that was too small, that most toaster ovens are not big enough to fit 9x13 pans.  It wasn't as big of a selection in the bigger sizes, but we have still been happy with the oven we bought and intend to keep using it even after our kitchen is done.  

Welcome to Crazyland

/ˈkrāzē/land/

noun

definition:

the part of the earth's surface where insanity prevails synonym:  "Lara's house"

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Welcome to Crazyland....

where barely a week into trying to figure out this whole homeschooling thing...

the entire contents of our kitchen....

and dining room....

have been moved to boxes and bins in our basement....

until this....

turns into this.

In the meantime,  all of our food will be coming either from here...

or from here....

and I  am trying to look at the bright side of all the chaos by appreciating paper products and the good excuse it provides not to do any dishes for a few weeks!

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