This Week's Menu

Freezer meal

I wrote this on Thursday. Now I'm editing it on Monday.

This week's menu begins on Wednesday. 

Friday evening is full of question marks. The young folk have a Christmas banquet. I thought maybe the rest of us could go somewhere to eat also. If Thomas feels so inclined after another long day of work. We used gift cards to eat at Domino's pizza. This Mama ate BBQ'd wings and garden salad while the others ate pizza. 

On Saturday we are butchering our steer with another family. Some more meat for the freezer. Yes!! More about this later.

On Sunday we are the host family which means we are responsible to make sure any visitors at church have a place to go for lunch. Instead of potatoes and burger we ate rice and chicken. Also some leftover chicken and dressing that Stephen brought home from Penn Valley. And in place of pie I made cobblers.

Tuesday (the last day on the menu) is Christmas day. I didn't think about that when I was planning the menu. It may need to be revamped. We'll have something with potatoes and burger for lunch and switch the Mon & Tues evening menus. 

All meals written with color and a line underneath are linked to either the recipe I use or a similar one. 

For the enchiladas I use corn tortillas.

Oh my! It's almost time for another menu. Tell me how you keep up with this monumental task. If I wasn't so frugal I would purchase menu plans from Eat at Home. I did that for one month and we really liked it!

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Breakfast enchiladas Yogurt & fruit salad	Leftovers	Honey/Rosemary chicken Rice Lettuce salad Applesauce & cottage cheese
Scrambled eggs Bacon Yogurt & fruit salad Cereal	Leftovers	Taco soup Lettuce salad
Scrambled eggs Biscuits Tomato gravy	Leftovers	???
Overnight apple-stuffed French toast	Lebanese chicken stew Cornbread Applesauce & cottage cheese	Pizza Lettuce salad
Baked oatmeal	Potato/hamburger casserole Mixed veggies Lettuce salad Apple pie	Black bean dip Apples Popcorn
Pancakes Sausage gravy PB & syrup		Chicken tortilla soup Spinach salad
Potato/meat quiche		Beans Cornbread Coleslaw

Last Week's Menu

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Wednesday	Leftovers	Vegetable soup Cheese Apples	Potato & ham casserole Green beans Lettuce salad
Thursday	Scrambled eggs & sausage Yogurt GrapeNuts	Tomato soup w/ Hot dogs and pinto beans Cheese Oranges Cookies & milk	Beef stew Spinach salad Chunky applesauce
Friday	Breakfast burritos Oranges Yogurt	Leftovers Applesauce & cottage cheese Apples & PB Cookies & milk	Mashed potatoes Sauer Kraut Sausage Waldorf salad
Saturday	Pancakes Sausage gravy P.B. & syrup	Chicken salad sandwiches Apple cake Oranges	Chicken “enchilada” casserole Lettuce, tomato, etc
Sunday	Granola Yogurt	Rice and chicken Coleslaw Green beans Chocolates & biscotti	Egg, sausage & cheese biscuits
Monday	Leftovers  Fruit & yogurt		Turkey, sausage, potato dish Caesar salad
Tuesday	Egg sandwiches Yogurt & fruit salad		Ham Peas & carrots Potato salad

This is the basic menu plan for the week past. If you like to see what we're eating. Or maybe you need ideas. 

We had visitors for Sunday lunch so for dessert I served some chocolates and biscotti that we had been gifted. 

The potato and ham casserole was also a gift -leftover from a church potluck.

The chicken "enchilada" casserole was made with rice instead of tortillas. 

My sister brought the salad Monday evening because we were together for my mother's 70th birthday. We had the big party for her in October. Her birthday was actually Tuesday the 18th.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Change of Occupation

Over the last year Thomas has helped an overhead doors contractor a lot. This contractor asked him if he would like to buy the business. The contractor was moving away from the area and his business covered three states- West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.

It was a job that suited Thomas well. Repetitious work. Not a lot of time to estimate a job. Not a lot of time running after supplies. A lot less headache. But the cost of the business was prohibitive. We already had enough debt and the bank wouldn't give him the loan he needed. So he had to give it up. 

He continued helping the contractor occasionally with large jobs. After a few months the contractor said he has no one to buy the business so he'll either have to just quit and walk away or give it away. Was this from the Lord? 

Thomas chose to believe that it was and took over the door business. Now he is busier than he has ever been. The boys are able to help him and there's no shortage of work. No waiting on supplies. Except when the company sends the wrong thing. Like a 10 ft panel for a 14 ft door.

He has a few construction jobs left on his plate that have been driving him crazy. He can hardly wait to finish those up and get them off his mind. But we are grateful to have plenty of work that can be done even in rainy weather.

A lot of his jobs are just "handed to him" by a company that sells to a pole building company. These make up the majority of his work. They just call him, tell him when the doors need to be installed and ship the doors to the shop. How easy is that?

One problem we face is not owning a place to put the doors until they are installed. We are currently using the previous owner's shop but if he sells it, we're "up the creek". You can join us in prayer about that.

This job was a beast. In the top photo you can see mud. They said it was awful to work in. Mud sucking at your feet at every step.The doors were huge.

Another time they went, the concrete was poured, making it easier to work. Interestingly, the last name of the client was Boggs. The guys referred to this one as the Mud Bog job.

Praise the Lord for His goodness and His wonderful works to the children of men. Psalm 107:31

Bishop Ordination

Since we live here in this community, we have twice experienced a bishop ordination. The first was soon after we moved here in 2007. 

At that time Dan Stoltzfus and Elmer Glick shared the lot, meaning both were deemed eligible, by vote of the church, to be bishop. The Lord was allowed to decide between the two by a "throwing of the dice".

We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall. Proverbs 16:33 NLT

The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Proverbs 16:33 KJV

No, dice weren't thrown, but a slip of paper was placed in a Bible. The slip of paper was placed in such a way that no one knew which Bible it was in. There were two Bibles on a table and the two men each chose a Bible. The one who chose the Bible containing the paper was the one who became bishop.

At that time Elmer was the one chosen to take this responsibility. He led out in the administration of church life. Now he is ready to hand the responsibility to a younger man; so we had another ordination.

This time both Dan and our deacon Winston Miller were chosen as eligible men for this position. Sunday evening (Dec 9th) "the lot was cast" and Dan became our next bishop.

We thank the Lord for His working and trust Him to give Dan His Spirit for this great work. I appreciate how our leaders work with the lay members to sense the Lord's leading. They are not dictators, but true servants.

Here's a picture of the family. I took a picture of a picture. :)

Pray for our church as we move forward, seeking God's will for our purpose here.

Spinach Salad

Our family really enjoys spinach salad. Yes, these GUYS love spinach salad. Amazing. Most times one thinks of spinach-and-fruit salads as a girl kind of thing. To my surprise I've served this numerous times and there's still a fight to clean out the dish.

Ingredients-
Spinach
Fresh fruit - apple, pear, strawberry or whatever you like
Cheese- feta preferred, but you can use any kind
Lemon
Olive oil
Maple syrup
Nuts
Butter (or coconut oil)
Salt, optional
Pepper, optional
Poppy seeds, optional

Use a whole (8 oz) bag of spinach. I use Aldi's spinach- $1.19 @ bag. Tear it into smaller pieces, wash and spin dry.

It has a strange color because I accidentally grabbed
the grapeseed oil instead of olive oil. It's still good.

Juice a lemon. Make a dressing using equal amounts of lemon juice, maple syrup and olive oil. Add a bit of salt and pepper if you like. Poppy seeds are good but we seldom use them. 

Add fruit (an apple or two, cut into small slices, sliced strawberries or pears) to the dressing.

With the spinach in a serving bowl, spoon the fruit and dressing evenly over the top.

Sprinkle with 2- 4 oz of cheese.

Put 1/2 - 3/4 cup of nuts (sliced almonds, walnuts or pecans), a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of maple syrup in a cast iron skillet. Heat over low heat, stirring to spread butter and syrup evenly over the nuts. Watch it carefully, stirring once or twice. Spread it evenly over the bottom of the pan after every stirring. 

When it is nicely toasted, turn the heat off and immediately remove from the pan. I usually sprinkle it directly onto the prepared salad at this point but you could put it in a small dish and break it up when it's cool.

Thomas says there's only one thing wrong with it. There's never enough!

The Five Senses

I hear-
The washer is rattling with an unbalanced load. The dryer is humming over a load of polo shirts, socks and underwear. The youngest clears his voice as he lies on the couch reading. The keys click under my fingers as I inform you of all these things.

I see the fourth son walking down the hill with an ax on his right shoulder and a knife in his left hand. He is speaking convincingly to the air before him of an unknown (to me) subject. 

There is a pile of ice on the ground beside the water trough that sets not far from the window next to me. There is a pile of receipts and the draft of this week's menu beside me on the table, waiting for me to work on them.

The sky is varying shades of gray, white and blue. The trees are bare and brown, the grass looking more brown than green. 

I feel-
The house is pleasantly warm. No sweater needed and flip-flops are my choice of footwear today. It has warmed up this week outdoors. Tuesday morning the temperature was in the lower teens and this afternoon it is in the mid 40's. 

I taste the lingering mixture of garlic, onion and dates. For lunch I ate leftovers of this 'n' that. Caesar salad, tossed salad, melon, pizza, sugar free cookies. 

There are no outstanding smells currently. 

What are you experiencing today?

Problem Solved

In my last post I mentioned that I was puzzling over the problem of the chickens needing shelter. 

A thought came to me as I was watching a video on homesteading. I saw someone lift the lid of a tote and they said it was a chicken nest. Well! I have lots of unused totes sitting around. I kept rolling this around in my mind. How could a tote be successfully used as a shelter?

Then I searched YouTube for ideas. After watching a few videos with Melvin and Christopher, their wheels started turning. So I just turned them loose to build whatever they thought up. This is what they came up with. They set it inside the privacy fenced garden and moved the chickens on in. 

Now the chickens can take on the job of getting the garden tilled and fertilized by spring. Yay! Praise the Lord!