God Provides in His Time – A Chapter Draws to a Close
Not quite a year ago, we put our house on the market. We knew Zac would be getting orders sometime this summer and I really felt God telling us it was time to get out of debt. We put it on a over a year early thinking it would sell, we could live in the trailer (or base housing), and potentially be debt free by the time we moved.
Up until just recently, it was also an IF we move. We knew we wanted to sell, but we were still working to see about staying here for another tour. We came close, but in the end, we’ve been called to elsewehre. It’s been a bit of a struggle in this market to remain hopeful, but we knew that God would provide in the right time.
Last month, the military confirmed that Zac would be going to Scott AFB in Illinois at the end of May. While it is not set in stone, the assignment now shows up. This meant that besides just “wanting to be out of debt”, the pressure was on to get out of the house by then.
Since January of 2011, we’ve had 10 showings. That’s it! In this real estate market houses in our price range and location are just not moving. We live in the country on five acres. People are moving closer to town to save on gas. Two of those ten showings were Saturday. One of those showings has made an offer that we accepted yesterday. It could still fall through (let’s all pray it doesn’t), but now we need to look forward to what selling the house means.
First, it means we have to PACK! I’m not sure if the military will pack us four months before our scheduled move date, let alone store our stuffs for four months. Zac and I will both be out of town a week this month so if we have to do it ourselves that will consume us for the next few weeks when we are home.
Second, it means that I really need to figure out what we need to have on hand to live in our fifth wheel through the end of winter, spring, and into the summer. Fortunately, the trailer is stocked with most of the essentials, but still – we’ve never lived in it more than a week or two. What do you do with two kids, a dog, and a husband in a “house” the size of a bedroom? How do I set up a workspace that allows me to work from “home” successfully? What do I do with ALL of the food we have? No way I’m storing it for 4 months and I can’t fit it all in the trailer pantry. More importantly, how do I entertain a 5 and a 10 year old in a trailer for 4 months?!?! How do I do laundry for a family of 4 without breaking the piggy bank ? (The RV park machines take lots of quarters!)
Even with the stress and the questions, God is good and has provided this opportunity at the perfect time. We’ve made it to within a few months of the move, past the majority of winter, and just before the pressure would have really started to mount. Ohh, and since the trailer has been in the shop the last 2 ½ months, He’s waited until we had a chance to actually get it back in time! Let’s pray they can actually deliver by the time we need it!
Soon I’ll be writing posts about the best way to clean out black tanks, cook in a kitchen w/ no countertops and a stove the size of an Easy Bake Oven, and how to manually adjust the satellite dish we’ll be throwing outside! I’m REALLY looking forward to it!
Polenta Squares
Takes a lit bit but it is easy.
| Polenta Squares |
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cook time: 2 hours 45 mins
Total time: 2 hours 45 mins
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 6 cups water
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2½ cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon dried basil or oregano
- teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Heat water to boiling in a large saucepan. Add salt. Reduce heat to bring water to a simmer; slowly pour cornmeal in a thin stream into the saucepan. Stir constantly with a whisk to prevent clumping. After adding all the cornmeal, stir with a wooden spoon until the polenta is thick and pulls away from the sides of the pan; this may take 15 – 20 minutes. For best results, stir constantly until the polenta has reached this consistency.
- Wet a paper towel, and rub the bottom and sides of a 9 by 13-inch casserole dish with water to prevent sticking. Once polenta has cooked, transfer it to the dish. With a rubber spatula, press polenta until it is well packed. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or until completely cooled.
- Preheat oven to broil setting. Using a paper towel, rub a large 11 by 17-inch baking sheet with olive oil and set aside. Remove casserole dish from refrigerator and cut polenta into 2½-inch squares. Place squares on prepared baking sheet, and place 3 – 4 inches under broiler. Bake 15 minutes, flip, and bake 15 minutes more. Both sides should be crispy before serving.
Notes
Recipe from: Feola, Kristen (2010-12-14). The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast (Kindle Locations 1669-1686). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Confetti Hummus
This was a little runny when I first made it, but after a day in the fridge it was the perfect consistency.
| Confetti Hummus |
Recipe type: Appetizer, Lunch
Prep time: 5 mins
Total time: 5 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- cup chopped canned artichokes, drained
- chopped jarred roasted red bell peppers, drained
- cup tahini ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- cup fresh parsley, packed
- teaspoon salt
- teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process, scraping sides of bowl often, until mixture is a smooth paste. Refrigerate, or serve immediately.
- Serve as a dip for fresh vegetables. Use as a filling for Romaine Wraps or Whole Grain Tortillas. Spread on top of fresh tomato slices. Use as the main ingredient in Hummus Casserole.
Notes
Recipe from: Feola, Kristen (2010-12-14). The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast (Kindle Locations 1703-1715). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Quinoa with Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Cranberries, and Red Onion
This ended up being a hit with my whole family. Definitely a must-add to the regular menu rotation.
*If you’ve tried quinoa and don’t particularly like the flavor, there are two things to try that significantly improve its flavor. First, be sure to rinse it thoroughly before you cook with it. The natural oils on it do not taste good. You want to rinse it just like you do rice. Second, browning it before cooking it (just like you would rice) brings out a nutty flavor. To brown it, rinse it thoroughly and get out as much water as possible. Put it in a pan and stir it around for about 15 minutes. Store it in a container until ready to cook with it.
*If you’ve tried quinoa and don’t particularly like the flavor, there are two things to try that significantly improve its flavor. First, be sure to rinse it thoroughly before you cook with it. The natural oils on it do not taste good. You want to rinse it just like you do rice. Second, browning it before cooking it (just like you would rice) brings out a nutty flavor. To brown it, rinse it thoroughly and get out as much water as possible. Put it in a pan and stir it around for about 15 minutes. Store it in a container until ready to cook with it.
| Quinoa with Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Cranberries, and Red Onion |
Recipe type: Dinner
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 medium red onion, sliced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 cups kale
- 5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups water
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place sweet potatoes and red onion slices in a medium bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss together and then put them on a large baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are tender. Stir a few times while baking.
- Drizzle kale with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and place on a baking sheet. When the sweet potatoes and onions have been in the oven for 15 minutes, put the kale in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, or until kale is wilted and starting to get a little crispy.
- While the vegetables are roasting, make the quinoa. Using a strainer, rinse the black quinoa under cold water. Add quinoa, water, and salt to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 5 minutes. Turn the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Let cool quinoa cool to room temperature.
- When the vegetables are done roasting, let them cool to room temperature. Chop up the red onion slices and kale. In a large bowl, combine quinoa, sweet potatoes, red onion, and kale. Drizzle the salad with remaining three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and add in the dried cranberries. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Notes
Original Recipe from: Two Peas and Their Pod
Flatbread
This bread is delicious and takes about 45 minutes to make. It is kind of like a soft cracker.
| Flatbread |
Recipe type: Appetizer
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 25 mins
Serves: 4 / 2 pieces each
Ingredients
- 2½ cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
- 1 teaspoon dried crushed rosemary
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water
- Topping
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- teaspoon dried basil
- teaspoon minced garlic
- teaspoon dried parsley
Instructions
- Mix flour, flaxseed meal, rosemary, salt, and water in a food processor until dough forms a ball.
- Turn dough onto a floured work surface, and knead for 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a bowl, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at room temperature 30 – 60 minutes. (I simplify this by just using my stand mixer from start to finish)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough out to ¼-inch thickness to cover an oiled 11 by 17-inch baking sheet. With a fork, poke holes all across dough.
- Mix olive oil, basil, garlic powder, and parsley in a small bowl, and stir well. Use a basting brush to spread oil mixture across dough. Score (make shallow cuts without separating into pieces) with a knife into 12 (3 by 3½-inch) squares.
- Bake 15 – 20 minutes or until slightly crispy, and remove from oven. Let cool on baking sheet 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Notes
Original Recipe: Feola, Kristen (2010-12-14). The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast (Kindle Locations 1746-1761). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
This can be made into a sweet bread by using ½ teaspoon cinnamon instead of basil, garlic powder, and parsley.
Black Bean Dip
This dip is absolutely delicious! It may not look like much, but it is filling, fairly quick to make, and goes with any cracker/veggie scoops you have on hand.
| Black Bean Dip |
Recipe type: Appetizer
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 25 mins
Serves: 3 cups/6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 cup diced red bell peppers (about 1 large pepper)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- cup water
- 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley or 1½ teaspoons dried parsley
- teaspoon dried crushed rosemary
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and red peppers, and cook until onions are soft and translucent. Stir in garlic, and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly so garlic doesn’t burn.
- Place water and 2 cups of beans in food processor or blender; process until smooth.
- Pour the pureed beans into skillet and stir. Add the remaining beans, parsley, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
- Reduce heat to low and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a serving dish and serve warm.
Notes
Recipe source: Feola, Kristen (2010-12-14). The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast (Kindle Locations 1649-1663). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Parenting – The Hardest Job I’ve Ever Had – Thanks DragonVale!
I’m a people pleaser at heart and I hate it when I must do something that hurts someone else – even it is for their own good, and ESPECIALLY when it’s one of my children. That is why I’m the pushover in the house and Zac is the disciplinarian.
Monday I was reminded of how hard parenting really is. It’s difficult because you are responsible for helping your kids make wise decisions, whether they want to or not. And, more importantly, you are supposed to help them learn to make those decisions on their own.
Kaleb, my 10 year old, is an online gamer. He loves his Roblox and his iPad games. The one currently on the top of his list is DragonVale. From what I can gather, it is a game that you collect eggs and grow dragons, something akin to the old Sim City but with Dragons. The game was free to download; however, there are NUMEROUS opportunities, and I really do mean numerous, to do an in app purchase to collect more gems and coins. Kaleb received several iTunes gift cards that were intended to go towards music or new apps; however, my son saw the potential spending opportunity on DragonVale’s in-app gem and coin options. This means that we, Dad, Kaleb, and I, have been going round and round about how irresponsible it is to spend real money on “monopoly money”. Dad finally took the iPad away but I’m still hearing about how it’s his money and he should be allowed to do what he wants with it.
Zac and I have now decided that he needs to go through a little exercise to help him see the value of money. (Don’t get me wrong, he’s great at saving his allowance for specific things. It’s just this whole “pay for fake money” we’ve suddenly encountered.) So this weekend, from Friday after school to Sunday night, my son will be going through “money bootcamp”. He will be paying for everything he does. Go to the bathroom – that’s 50 cents. Get a drink – that’s 50 cents for water, $1 for anything else. Watch TV – $1 for every half hour. And the list goes on. He will then also need to earn the money he is spending by doing some chores around the house.
Ultimately, we are trying to show him that everything we do either costs us money or earns us money. As an adult, he will need to earn money and then live within that amount. We hope that he will walk away realizing that money should be spent on things that have value – NOT gems that speed up a game once for a “small price to pay of only $1.99” over and over and over and over ……. And if he still wants to spend his money on “monopoly money”, I’ll throw up my hands and let my husband deal with it!
Shrimp Tacos with Grilled Poblano Salsa
Word of warning – The poblano chili makes this salsa pretty spicy. I love spicy and it had quite a bit of kick. Zac doesn’t love spicy but he commented several times on how good & different this spicy was.
| Shrimp Tacos with Grilled Poblano Salsa |
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 20 mins
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- For the salsa:
- 1 ear corn, husked or 1 can corn
- 6 scallions, white and light green parts only (about 5 inches)
- 1 poblano chile
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 large (or 2 small) haas avocado
- 1 small bunch cilantro, minced
- Juice of two small limes
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- For the tacos:
- 1 lb shrimp
- Corn or whole wheat tortillas
Instructions
- Heat your grill up to medium high. Brush corn, green onions and poblano chile with olive oil and place on grill. You want everything to have a nice char to it—to chile should be black and the corn and onion should be charred. This will take about five minutes, flipping occasionally with tongs.
- When done, remove veggies from grill and let cool on a plate. When cool, peel the now black skin off the pepper, remove the seeds and chop into small dice. Run your knife down the corn to remove the kernels from the cob and place into a bowl with the pepper. Chop onion and place into bowl as well. Add chopped avocado, cherry tomatoes and cilantro to the bowl and add lime juice and salt. Season to taste and set aside while you prepare the shrimp.
- Wash and de-vein if necessary then grill only a few minutes until pink. Be careful because shrimp cook extremely quickly! When done, place into tortillas, top with salsa and eat immediately.
Notes
Original recipe found at: Two Peas & Their Pod
Heathier at Work – A New Standing Desk
I work from home. I’ll admit it – that means that most days I stay in my pajamas and, worse, I work in bed propped up with a pillow. I’ve decided that means two things. First, it means that I’m officially a lazy bed potato. Second, it means that my back and knees hurt regularly.
With the start of the new year, there are some changes coming to help me make healthier choices. The first one happened completely on a whim. Jeff has a standing desk in his office that peeked my interest. Then, one of my bosses, Terri, posted this link about building a standing desk. It was enough inspiration to get out of bed, put on something other than pajamas, trek to the workshop, pull out the power tools, and make one.
This is the finished product:
It was really easy and required very few materials. Even better, I had almost everything at home already. I used:
- 2 ½ lengths of 2x4s (probably 12 ft long)
- 2 ½” general purpose screws
- A nicer 1″ x 10″ x 8′ board (for the printer shelf and the monitor shelf)
- An existing desktop from our no longer needed family desk
Then I set to work to build something like this desk.
They had a great screenshot that showed height details which helped figure out the correct heights for the desktop, cross frame in the legs, and the monitor shelf.
My husband lent some muscle to counter sink the screws, but it felt great to do the majority of it myself. It’s not often I make something that I’d actually want in my house. But as a short-term solution, and for a whooping $15, I figured I couldn’t go wrong. And I’m thinking that we can even keep it after the move!
So far, I’m really enjoying it and am using it. I am finding that I need to wear tennis shoes or my feet and legs begin to hurt, but I’ve been told that will last about a week regardless as your body gets used to standing.
Now, I can still work in my pajamas, but I’ll move the five feet from the bed to the desk!