More Than A Song

Thank you Laura for hosting this each week…..it helps me with shopping each week to have a plan, even if it doesn’t always go according to plan, it helps to have it in place! Visit Organizing Junkie to play along and to get more ideas.

Monday……..Herb Salmon, veggies
Tuesday……..One dish chicken bake
Wednesday…Church supper
Thursday……Crockpot Cajun Cabbage, bread
Friday……….Chicken Spaghetti, salad
Saturday…….leftovers or eat at a wedding we are attending
Sunday……….eat out

My daughter will be home for a few days at the end of the week, fall break for her from school. So this could change also depending on what she might want to eat!

Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom hosts this each week and I thought I’d start playing along. I love to use my crockpot and I’ve found some good recipes here…..made this beef roast Sunday and it was really good! Thanks for sharing it Susanne!
Click below for my recipe:
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Thirteen of My Favorite Kitchen Tools

1. Kitchenaid mixer…..oh yeah!
2. Food processor
3. Crockpot
4. Wusthof knife
5. Silpat…..love mine
6. Immersion blender
7. Pampered chef stoneware
8. Electric knife….only need it occasionally but comes in handy
9. Cooling rack
10. Microplane grater
11. Spoon spatula
12. Wisks…..love them
13. Grill pan

I got tagged by my sister Stacy last week to do this meme. This one involves memories and even though I think I’ve always thought I had a good memory, when it comes to childhood memories, I’m not so good at all! Stacy & I are alike in that way, we don’t remember much of our childhood. Some of my answers could be similar to hers….surprise, surprise! But I might put a little different spin to a couple; so here goes…….
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Lately I’ve been trying to go through the many recipes I have collected and actually try them out! So I’m trying to do at least one new one a week. A couple of weeks ago I tried something for breakfast, French Toast Loaf. I don’t cook breakfast as much now as I used to, mostly we have cereal or oatmeal but the family likes french toast pretty good so I thought this might be a good one to try and see if it was a keeper or not…… Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s my plan for this week.
Thanks to Laura at Organizing Junkie for hosting this each week! Check out her site for more great recipes and ideas.

Sunday…….Crockpot Roast, corn, salad
Monday……Broiled Snapper, veggie
Tuesday……Southwestern Bean Soup with cornmeal dumplings
Wednesday..church supper
Thursday…..Honey Dijon Chicken, orzo, sesame green beans
Friday……..Creamy Salmon Chowder, sourdough bread
Saturday…….not sure

I’ve been working on my books for this challenge that Katrina is doing on her site, Callapidder Days. She has a list of participants up on her site as well.
So far I have finished 3 of my books! Not sure if I’ll get to them all but at least I’m making progress.

At Home in Mitford………the first of the Mitford series of books by Jan Karon. I had “read” this one last year on tape while driving to Charlotte and enjoyed it. I almost went straight to the next one and decided I needed to be up to date on the characters so I reread it. Lots of people have probably read these but they center around Father Tim, an Episcopal priest in a small North Carolina town in the mountains. For being a bachelor, he leads a very full life and has lots of characters in and out of his life and home. I was glad I reread it.
A Light in the Window……..the next Mitford book. I think I will enjoy reading most all of these; very clean, easy to follow with some fun characters and there are usually several sub stories to go along with the main one; and in this case it involved his neighbor Cynthia that he was becoming very attached to. It was hard for me to not go immediately to the next one! I love reading series of books like these.
Lincoln at Home……this is a book we’ve had here at the house that the kids gave Don a few years ago. Subtitle is: two glimpses of Abraham Lincoln’s family life. Glimpse would be appropriate because it doesn’t go into great detail in the first section about his life and the second section has reprints of letters hand written by him, his wife and a few by one son. The introduction included an interesting tidbit by the author, David Herbert Donald. He wrote that this book originated in a talk he prepared at the request of President George Bush and delivered in the White House in 1990. He said that the president and his wife had a deep interest in Lincoln and that he wanted the author to focus on Lincoln’s domestic life for the talk he gave. Thus, this book. It was interesting to read also that Mary Lincoln intended to become, and was, First Lady of the land—-a term coined to describe her. She made it her main project to refurbish the White House and Congress appropriated $20,000 for her to spend over 4 years to do so. That was an immense amount of money for that time. (if I remember correctly, I think she went over the amount!) I also thought it was amazing to read that the Lincolns discovered that the White House was very much a public building as well as a home. In those days most all rooms on the first floor and many on the second floor were open to all visitors, and that anybody who wanted to could come in at any hour of the day or night! That would never happen today! Lincoln’s office area was full of people all day long; senators, congressman, applicants for jobs, military people and ordinary citizens and they all either wanted favors of him or just to talk to him and shake his hand. It said the line was so long many days that it extended all the way to the front entrance. He found himself a prisoner in his own office. Eventually, he ordered an addition; a partition built through the reception area so he could retreat to the family quarters unseen.
I don’t often read books that aren’t fiction and it’s not what I enjoy the most. I thought it was good for me to read something different and I’m glad that I finished it!

One year ago this week, we were at Disneyworld! Had a blast…..went with Trent, Shanna and the kids. We’ve talked about it some this week and Trent says that Shanna has the Disney bug again! It is such a fun place and that trip was one of the best that we had taken there before. I’m posting a few pictures, just because I want to remember the trip again!
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Thirteen Books I Have Loved
It’s hard for me to pick only 13 because I have loved to read all my life, but these are some that I have loved and enjoyed over the years.

1. Nancy Drew books (favorite from childhood)
2. Little House on the Prairie books (loved these too)
3. A Wrinkle in Time (I think I read this to my classes when I taught school)
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Zion Covenant series
6. Zion Chronicles series
7. Where the Red Fern Grows

to read to kids:
8. Goodnight Moon (first book for all my kids)
9. Love You Forever (love this one now)
10. The Napping House
11. The Velveteen Rabbit
12. Tikki Tikki Tembo (a family favorite)

one of my all time favorites
13. Les Miserables (I didn’t want it to end!)

One night recently we were looking for a movie to rent; had several on the list and had trouble deciding but finally settled on
“Akeelah and the Bee” . I had wanted to see it when it came out at the theater but missed it. I loved this movie! It was a heartwarming story and feel good kind of movie. Akeelah is an eleven year old little girl living in South Los Angeles with a gift for words. Her father is dead, her mom ignores her and her brother is running with the wrong crowd. Her environment isn’t the best and could keep her from making something better for herself.
I thought the young girl that played this part was so adorable and did such a wonderful job in the role. Laurence Fishburne was excellent too. Ever since I had a child that participated in spelling bees, I have been interested in them and enjoy watching it on tv. I’ve helped coach kids at the school and my own but never did I help them like one method that was used in this movie! You’ll have to see it; I fell way short in my abilities!
If you’re looking for a good movie to rent, I highly recommend “Akeelah and the Bee”. I think it did have some bad language in it toward the beginning but seems to be a pretty good family movie. Don commented after it was over that it was a good movie to have the captions on for! So you can see all those words being spelled, incredible! Try it……..I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

My calendar says that it’s October, but the thermometer here says that it’s 95 degrees!
I mean I know it’s the South and all, but 95? I think it’s supposed to be like this all week………
No sir, that’s just not right at all!

Stacy had a friend at the butterfly gardens……….a good friend that stuck to her and liked her a lot while we were in the butterfly room!
Come see!
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While at Callaway Gardens, Stacy & I visited the chapel there. The first time we went, on Saturday, there actually was a wedding about to take place and it had a closed sign on it! So we just peeked at it from afar and went back on Sunday. Got there after the service but before the organ concert; sorry to miss it but we did hear music being played before the wedding and it sounded really pretty. The windows in it were absolutely gorgeous, beautiful stained glass. I read that the chapel holds about 50 people with standing room for a few more. It was very quiet & peaceful there & just a neat place to visit.

This window that you see on the outside looked just beautiful from the inside with the sun coming in behind it……………….
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Got mine ready for the week. Head over to OrgJunkie for more ideas or to play along.

Sunday……Crockpot Chicken Santa Fe; one of our favorites!
Monday….Baked Salmon, broccoli, salad
Tuesday….Tuna & cannellini bean salad, corn (didn’t have this last week as planned, went out to eat instead!)
Wednesday..Church supper
Thursday…Out to eat with family
Friday…..Creamy swiss steak, green beans

Last week a friend gave me a few “real” tomatoes, last ones of the season I would imagine. I ate some of them on a sandwich, my favorite way probably. But saved the rest of them for something for dinner one night. I decided to try a new recipe…….Tomato-Pesto Tart. I thought it turned out good and we both really enjoyed it. When Don got in and saw it, he thought we were having pizza for supper! It looks like a pizza but is somewhat different. Recipe and pictures are on the extended page:
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