Hello! Thank you for stopping by my blog this week. I hope you enjoy reading about my week here in Reno, NV.
Sunday begins bright and early. With a pretty sunrise.
It was a busy day at church. It was the last day of our "Emma Strong" fundraiser.
Emma is a young lady, 13 years old, who battles epilepsy. Her dad is a pastor in Illinois. We wanted to be a blessing and encouragement to the Beutow family. She is a good candidate for brain surgery to cure her epilepsy and we know they have many costs involved with something like this.
Can you imagine your 13 yr. old daughter or son going into brain surgery? I can not. Please pray for them!
A family in our church purchased bands for this fundraiser. For every $5 that someone donated, they received a purple Emma Strong band. We had a wonderful response and on Sunday, we reached the $1,000 mark in which we were able to send to Emma and her family. So thrilled!
Thank you to every person that donated! What a blessing you were able to be to this family. We set up a photo booth and I stayed busy taking photos of everyone with their bands. It was a lot of fun!
Below is a group photo we took at our Thanksgiving dinner with everyone and their Emma Strong bands. So neat!
After church, I made lunch - Rustic Italian Tortellini Soup and cheddar and swiss grilled cheese sandwiches. Yummy! The only bad thing was where was the leftovers? LOL!
Then off to do my second plasma donation for the week. It was super busy - I got home just in time to leave again for evening church.
Of course, I have to share a picture of my favorite nursery kid. LOL!
Then off to my Sunday night shift.
Monday, home for coffee and a shower. Laundry and finish up the items that I needed to mail. Housework.
Ran two errands to Wal-Mart and the post office.
Home to finish up the ham and bean soup I was cooking that morning.
Ham and bean soup always reminds me of my favorite book - The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is a cold winter day - one of the blizzards was raging around them. Ma Ingalls is cooking bean soup all day and though it is not much - it warms their spirits. I love that book and I always recall that story when cooking it myself.
If you have never made ham and bean soup, it is pretty simple. I don't really go by a recipe. You take a pound of great northern beans and add about 8 cups of water or so to it. Bring it to a boil and let it cook covered for awhile-a rolling boil. Then turn it off and let the beans soak in the water and soften.
Then add more water and chicken granules. The chicken granules will add a lot of flavor to your soup. Like I said, I don't really have exact measurements. You will find that you have to keep adding more water anyway as the beans soak it up and as it cooks. At this time, throw in a package of carrot chips and two packages of diced ham. Some seasoning like garlic and pepper. Onion too!
Cover and just keep cooking! On a medium high. You want it semi boiling. It takes awhile to cook this soup so don't start too late.
Not exactly a specific recipe but it is hard to mess it up. LOL!
I remember as a kid not really caring for ham and bean soup. My family - the whole pot will be gone. :) Literally. Add it with a cornbread muffin - and you got a perfect winter day dinner.
After dinner, finish up the laundry and ironing. Girls off to finish the dishes and cleaning their rooms. Awana verses and read our Christmas book.
Then off to my Monday night shift.
Tuesday, boy was it cold! Good day to stay inside. School, housework, clean out the fridge, dishes.
Made a pot of broccoli-cheese soup for dinner. So good!
You can find the recipe HERE.
Also threw in some chocolate chip break-n-bake cookies for our monthly staff meeting. I wanted to make some banana nut bread but time was too short.
Off to our meeting at 4pm. Then the chiropractor, gym and off to my Tuesday evening shift.
Wednesday, off at 8am. Breakfast - coffee and an English muffin with Cracker Barrel blackberry jam.
School, housework. Remembering the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
Piano lessons at 1pm. Summer and I went to Winco for groceries during that time. Then home to make dinner - breaded chicken sandwiches and french fries. Youth group then off to the gym and back to work. It had started to snow on the way to work that night.
Snowy and cold Thursday. But warmed up pretty quick. I got off at 8am and stopped to pick up a poster for my husband. Then I went to do my plasma donation. The staff seemed underbooked and very slow so I didn't get done until after 10.
School and housework. Tried a new recipe - Sunrise Breakfast Enchiladas.
They were yummy! I'll share this recipe this week. :)
Choir practice at 6pm and then home for the evening.
Friday was a busy day of school. Finishing up quizzes, tests and grading for the week. Addie had all her semester exams - we completed those, graded, grades completed for the quarter and ready to mail. One down and three more to go before Christmas break. :)
This crazy girl.
So glad to have school finished that day! Some days, it seems like forever. I was exhausted!
Then it was gym time with the husband and then home to watch Miracle on 34th Street. One of my favorites.
Wow! Friday night, it rained so much! You could hear it all night long - wind and pouring rain. Yay!
A perfect Saturday - staying at home in pajamas listening to the rain fall. LOVE! I just love this view. :) Rain running down the windows with dark skies.
More planning on our family 2017 vacation! Five years ago, we planned our first trip to Disneyland. That kind of trip is not cheap so I took a lot of time to plan. Down to the ages of our kids so that we would be able to really enjoy our vacation. I wanted them old enough to enjoy it and remember it. We had an amazing week on that vacation! So we had told ourselves - we would go again in another four years.
Well, it will be the five year mark next year. We have been working and saving since last Christmas. This week, I reserved and paid for our hotels for seven nights and purchased our City Pass tickets for our family of six.
City Pass tickets include three day hopper tickets to Disneyland and California Adventure, one day to Legoland and one day to Sea World in San Diego.
What means so much to me is it is already paid in cash - $2,800. I know you have read it before - but nothing is better than going on a vacation with no credit card bills to come home to have to THEN pay after the fun is all over. Take the time to save! It is so worth it! We made a goal and then I worked a plan to meet that goal. And then I worked that plan. All those plasma donations added up - $1,400 was just from doing plasma. :) The other was scrimping and saving!
Now we have four months to simply save up gas money, meal/food money and the extras like parking and spending money.
It is so nice to know it is set, planned and paid for! Hooray!
Saturday morning, the girls and I went online and did some fun browsing of the websites checking out new attractions, rides, shows - just all the fun things we will be doing. :)
Then we watched a fun old Christmas movie - Ernest Saves Christmas. Those 80 hair and clothes styles! LOL!
Then we made some pancakes and french toast for the week to put in the freezer. Summer insisted on being the flipper of the pancakes. :)
Sierra helped me make mini banana nut bread loaves.
Oh my goodness...I so love Frank Sinatra!
All the Christmas classics!
Then we made two batches of puppy chow.
We made up little bags of the puppy chow for all the children's ministry workers. Just a small thank you to the people who work with our girls in our ministry. The girls made little cards as well. Sometimes, we think we have to do something big or expensive. But it really is the time spent and thought that makes a gift special.
I have to remind myself of this! Sometimes, I think I need to keep doing more or bigger but I don't.
Watched my nephews and niece online with their Christmas program.
More rain! It drizzled lightly all day and then just started coming down again. Beautiful time for a candle and my white poinsettias. LOVE!
Then after cleaning up the kitchen and all the dishes, we made Shepherd's Pie for dinner. I so love this dish! So good on a rainy night!
Then we watched another Christmas movie - one that I used to watch in my childhood. Prancer.
Shower, dinner, get ready for church and then Mary Poppins to end our Saturday. I hope you had a good week as well!
Tuesday, boy was it cold! Good day to stay inside. School, housework, clean out the fridge, dishes.
You can find the recipe HERE.
Also threw in some chocolate chip break-n-bake cookies for our monthly staff meeting. I wanted to make some banana nut bread but time was too short.
Off to our meeting at 4pm. Then the chiropractor, gym and off to my Tuesday evening shift.
Wednesday, off at 8am. Breakfast - coffee and an English muffin with Cracker Barrel blackberry jam.
School, housework. Remembering the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
Piano lessons at 1pm. Summer and I went to Winco for groceries during that time. Then home to make dinner - breaded chicken sandwiches and french fries. Youth group then off to the gym and back to work. It had started to snow on the way to work that night.
Snowy and cold Thursday. But warmed up pretty quick. I got off at 8am and stopped to pick up a poster for my husband. Then I went to do my plasma donation. The staff seemed underbooked and very slow so I didn't get done until after 10.
School and housework. Tried a new recipe - Sunrise Breakfast Enchiladas.
They were yummy! I'll share this recipe this week. :)
Choir practice at 6pm and then home for the evening.
Friday was a busy day of school. Finishing up quizzes, tests and grading for the week. Addie had all her semester exams - we completed those, graded, grades completed for the quarter and ready to mail. One down and three more to go before Christmas break. :)
This crazy girl.
So glad to have school finished that day! Some days, it seems like forever. I was exhausted!
Then it was gym time with the husband and then home to watch Miracle on 34th Street. One of my favorites.
Wow! Friday night, it rained so much! You could hear it all night long - wind and pouring rain. Yay!
A perfect Saturday - staying at home in pajamas listening to the rain fall. LOVE! I just love this view. :) Rain running down the windows with dark skies.
More planning on our family 2017 vacation! Five years ago, we planned our first trip to Disneyland. That kind of trip is not cheap so I took a lot of time to plan. Down to the ages of our kids so that we would be able to really enjoy our vacation. I wanted them old enough to enjoy it and remember it. We had an amazing week on that vacation! So we had told ourselves - we would go again in another four years.
Well, it will be the five year mark next year. We have been working and saving since last Christmas. This week, I reserved and paid for our hotels for seven nights and purchased our City Pass tickets for our family of six.
City Pass tickets include three day hopper tickets to Disneyland and California Adventure, one day to Legoland and one day to Sea World in San Diego.
What means so much to me is it is already paid in cash - $2,800. I know you have read it before - but nothing is better than going on a vacation with no credit card bills to come home to have to THEN pay after the fun is all over. Take the time to save! It is so worth it! We made a goal and then I worked a plan to meet that goal. And then I worked that plan. All those plasma donations added up - $1,400 was just from doing plasma. :) The other was scrimping and saving!
Now we have four months to simply save up gas money, meal/food money and the extras like parking and spending money.
It is so nice to know it is set, planned and paid for! Hooray!
Saturday morning, the girls and I went online and did some fun browsing of the websites checking out new attractions, rides, shows - just all the fun things we will be doing. :)
Then we watched a fun old Christmas movie - Ernest Saves Christmas. Those 80 hair and clothes styles! LOL!
Then we made some pancakes and french toast for the week to put in the freezer. Summer insisted on being the flipper of the pancakes. :)
Sierra helped me make mini banana nut bread loaves.
Oh my goodness...I so love Frank Sinatra!
All the Christmas classics!
Then we made two batches of puppy chow.
We made up little bags of the puppy chow for all the children's ministry workers. Just a small thank you to the people who work with our girls in our ministry. The girls made little cards as well. Sometimes, we think we have to do something big or expensive. But it really is the time spent and thought that makes a gift special.
I have to remind myself of this! Sometimes, I think I need to keep doing more or bigger but I don't.
Watched my nephews and niece online with their Christmas program.
More rain! It drizzled lightly all day and then just started coming down again. Beautiful time for a candle and my white poinsettias. LOVE!
Then after cleaning up the kitchen and all the dishes, we made Shepherd's Pie for dinner. I so love this dish! So good on a rainy night!
Then we watched another Christmas movie - one that I used to watch in my childhood. Prancer.
Shower, dinner, get ready for church and then Mary Poppins to end our Saturday. I hope you had a good week as well!
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