It's no secret that I love to bake.  It is my stress relief.  It is my joy.  It is my passion.  A freshly baked batch of chocolate chip cookies goes a long way to healing my soul.  Trying new recipes makes me giddy.  My children also enjoy helping me bake up something yummy.  My younger two even have their own "love jar" to use when helping out in the kitchen.  What is a love jar you ask?  Well, I have always told the kids that the secret ingredient in all of my baking is love.  I little hokey, I know, but serving up homemade goodies to friends and family is my love language.  A couple of years ago my son, Jake, found an empty jar and deemed it his love jar.  He opened it up and blew kisses into it and closed it right back.  Whenever we are baking up some yummy goodness he grabs his jar and pours out the love into the bowl.  He fills it back up with kisses and puts it back on my baking shelf, ready to go into the next recipe.  Not to be left out, Melia, had to fashion her own love jar.  I love how she and Jake take delight in pouring "love" into whatever we are baking.  I hope they always remember to add "love" to whatever they do.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention my oldest child, Cameron.  Though he never felt the need to have his own love jar, he prides himself as my official taste tester!

Cooking is a whole different ballgame for me.  I could bake sweets all day, every day and never tire of it.  Coming up with a variety of wholesome yet tasty meals for my family intimidates me.  In the past, I have tried to plan meals for a week or two at a time.  While it was very helpful to know what I would be making each day, it took FOREVER to come up with the menu and find the recipes and write out a grocery list.  Sometimes I would lose the paper that I had written down what we were having each night and then I would be left with ingredients that I had purchased and not a clue as to what they were going to turn into!  This frustrated me to no end.



Enter Plan To Eat.  I came across this site on someone's Facebook post and it intrigued me.  On the site's home page it says "Eating at home should be easier".  Oh how I agree with that!  You are able to try out this site free for 30 days.  Then it is $4.95 a month or $39 a year.  I decided to try it out for a month and see if I would actually use it for more than a week, which is typically when I give up on whatever menu planning method I am trying at the moment.

Once you sign up you are able to start uploading, organizing and sharing recipes.  I love looking for new recipes and I have created a folder on my computer called "recipes to try".  At last count, there were 170 recipes in that folder.  170!  How many have I actually tried?  Maybe around 10.  When it comes time to plan out our meals, I just don't want to bother with that huge, disorganized folder so I don't.  But I know there are some great recipes in there.  One cool thing that Plan To Eat offers is the ability to instantly upload recipes from sites such as Allrecipes.com, which is one of my very favorite sites!  You can put a button up on your toolbar that you click on once you find a recipe that you'd like to save on Plan To Eat.  You are not able to do this with recipes that are on people's blogs but there is a pretty easy way to copy and paste the recipe into Plan To Eat.  You can also type in your own recipes.  The nice thing about taking the time to do this is that once you do it, the recipe will always be there.  You are able to organize your recipes according to different categories and types of cuisine.  Another cool feature is the ability to share recipes with friends.  I have a friend who is also trying out Plan To Eat and we are able to see each others recipes and add them to our own.  This is nice, especially since I do not have to bug this friend every time I would like one of her delicious recipes!

Once you have some recipes stored you can start planning your meals.  On the planner page, your recipes are on the left and a calendar is on the right.  You may plan for any length of time but I like to plan one week at a time right now.  Maybe someday I'll graduate up to two weeks at a time...baby steps....  Want your favorite chicken casserole on Tuesday night?  Just click it on the left and drag it over to Tuesday.  Want to try out that new recipe for homemade pizza this Friday.  Click and drag.  That's it.  It is actually kind of fun! 

Once you have your meals planned then you go to the shopping list page.  Like magic, there are all the ingredients you will need for the meals you just planned!  You can easily remove items that you already have.  I really like how, on the shopping list, there is a recipe key.  Next to each ingredient on the shopping list is a letter that corresponds to the recipe(s) that this ingredient is used in.  This came in handy recently when I had planned to make a pasta salad for the 4th of July but ended up not having enough time to make it.  I was able to mark off those ingredients when I went grocery shopping and didn't end up with some random things that I didn't necessarily need.  There is also a separate list of staple items, such as bread, milk, shampoo and cereal, that you can use for other household items needed from the store.

I have used Plan To Eat for three weeks now and have successfully planned, shopped for and made three weeks of meals with ease.  Plan To Eat has really made the menu planning part of my job so much easier.  I talked it over with my sweet husband last night and we agreed that we are going to continue on with Plan To Eat once my 30 day trial is over.  I think he is enjoying having decent meals each night and not having to resort to sandwiches or cereal because I don't know what else to make that night!

I feel like I need to add that I am not in any way affiliated with Plan To Eat nor am I receiving any form of payment for this post (although that would be nice!).  I know how hard it is to plan meals for your family, day after day, year after year.  I just wanted to share this cool resource that has made my life easier.  Who doesn't need that?

Faith Like A Child

Happy Easter!  It has been a great day here in the beautiful mountains of western NC.  The sun is out and the temperature feels good.  We got up nice and early with the kids to check out Easter baskets and hunt for eggs.  Spent the morning at church and we are now anxiously awaiting the arrival of some of our family to continue the celebration.  The kids wanted to have breakfast for dinner tonight so I am trying out a couple of new recipes.  One is for a breakfast casserole with bacon, cheese (I could just stop there and it would be perfect!), hash browns and eggs.  I found a recipe for Red Velvet Pancakes that I can't wait to try!  I got a can of cream cheese frosting that I am going to thin a little bit to pour on top of the pancakes.  Yes, I do realize that these pancakes will just be a glorified dessert!  I am also making regular pancakes for those who are less adventurous (my mom!). 

Easter is a very important time for me as a Christian.  The fact that God sent His only son down to Earth to eventually be put to death on the cross for my sins humbles me.  The fact that God raised Him from the dead and that Jesus is alive and well today amazes me.  And that's not all!  God goes one step further to offer eternal life with Him in Heaven rather than the alternative, which isn't too pretty.  I used to think that I would go to Heaven because I am a pretty nice person and I try to do good things and be kind to others.  I learned the truth in 1996 (another story for another day).  I learned that no matter how good I try to be, I'll never make it to Heaven on my own.  There is no sin in Heaven and we all sin, no matter how hard we try not to.  I prayed for forgiveness and to accept Jesus as my savior and my sins were forgiven.  Washed away.  Forever.  Now I know, without a shadow of doubt, that I will one day be in the presence of the Lord in Heaven.  I no longer have to wonder or worry if I am doing "good" enough.  How freeing is that?!  Turns out that having faith is much easier than trying to do it all on my own. 

Our pastor said something today that really struck me.  He was talking about how some people believe there are many ways to Heaven.  He said if that is true then what happened to Jesus on the cross was very foolish and God does not do foolish things.  I'd never thought of it that way but it really makes sense.

OK, so I didn't mean to get so worked up!  I guess it is something very close to my heart.  I'll end with this sweet little story.  I was talking to the kids on Friday about Good Friday and what it means.  I told them that Jesus came back from the dead on Easter Sunday and Melia said "Does that make it Great Sunday?"

Happy Great Sunday to you all!  

Christmas in March?

I love Christmas.  I adore everything about it.  I am that annoying person that will remind you on the 25th of each month how many more months it is until Christmas (Just under 9 months to go!)  First and foremost, it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus that makes Christmas so special to me.  I also love seeing Christmas through the eyes of my children.  But what really makes it Christmas for me is all the yummy baking that goes on.  I was recently reminded of a recipe called "Christmas Crack" and I just had to make it for my family.  I had not made it in many years, none of my kids remembered ever having it.  That is just wrong!  So I thought I'd share it with you, just in case you are in need of a little Christmas in March.

These are all the ingredients you'll need.

Heat the butter and brown sugar until boiling and let boil for 3 minutes.

Spread a layer of saltine crackers on a pan and pour the butter/brown sugar mixture on top.  Bake for 5 minutes.

Pour a bag of chocolate chips on top as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Once the chips have melted, spread them out over the crackers.  Let cool in the fridge for a while.

Once the chocolate is hardened, break up the crackers into small bite-sized piece.  Serve to family and friends and reap in the accolades!


Here is the recipe:

Christmas Crack

1 sleeve saltine crackers
1 1/4 - cups butter, not margarine
1 1/4 - cup light brown sugar
1 - 12 oz package chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Lay crackers out on sheet in one layer. In a medium sized saucepan melt the butter and the brown sugar. Stir often and bring to a full rolling boil. After the mixture comes to a full rolling boil set your timer and boil the mixture for exactly 3 minutes.

Pour over the saltines and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips and wait until they are almost melted then spread the chocolate evenly all over all the saltines. Refrigerate for two hours and then break up into pieces and store in a air tight container.


Enjoy! 

It's The Little Things

40 years ago my mom and dad got married in San Antonio, Texas.  While they have faced lots of ups and downs over the years, they are still together and are still in love!  We should all be so lucky.

I have been thinking lately about how it is the little things that make a big difference.  Don't get me wrong.  I love a big surprise or gift!  But if I look back on the things that have brought me the most happiness and joy, 9 times out of 10 it's something seemingly small.  The bookmark my 5-year-old made me because she knows how much  I love to read.  The invitation from my 8-year, after tasting my homemade brownies, to work in the restaurant he wants to have when he grows up.  A fun evening spent with friends I dearly love.  You can't put a price on these things and no amount of money in the world can buy moments like these. 

Recently my husband, Myk, and I were out on a date.  After a lovely dinner, we ended up where everybody in our small town ends up...Wal-Mart.  We had been contemplating purchasing a certain item for a while and we had decided to go for it.  We were so giddy going into the store to buy it and even more excited to get home and put it up.  We had first seen this thing during hotel stays over the last few years and knew that we had to eventually have one.  I am pleased to say that we have been using it for a little over a week now and it totally rocks!  Curious?  Scroll down to see a picture of.......

.....our new curved shower rod!!  As you can see, I wasn't kidding when I said it was the little things that make me happy!

Nothing To Lose

Greetings and welcome to my first post on my first blog!  I have all of one follower (Hi Cheryl!) and that is OK.  I've tossed around the idea of blogging for a while now but didn't really know what to say.  I know that people blog for different reasons so I searched for my reason. 

In high school, I hated to write anything that wasn't a note to a friend (and that got me almost beat up one day but that is another story for a different time!)  I was more of a math girl.  Love me some algebra!  The dislike of writing followed me into adulthood until the birth of my third child, Melia.  Two months before Melia was born,  she was diagnosed with a rare and complex congenital heart defect.  I felt as if I were sitting inside of a video game as I listened to the pediatric cardiologist go into great detail of the half a heart that Melia would be born with and of the surgeries and procedures that she would need.  My life and who I was changed that day. 

With all of the drama that surrounded the choices we had to make and the trauma of giving birth to a very sick child, I quickly realized that I needed an outlet.  I set up a CarePage in order to keep family and friends up to date with all that was going on.  My first posts were probably mostly jumbled thoughts and random things because I was still in shock.  Once I got going, though, I found comfort in updating the CarePage.  It was very therapeutic for me to write about what was going on with Melia and how I felt about it. 

I recently realized that I enjoy writing about what I am passionate about, like our heart journey with Melia.  So this blog will be filled with whatever I am feeling particularly passionate about at the moment.  Product reviews, recipes, cute kid stories, homeschooling things, what makes me happy and sad, my walk with God, whatever I need to get out will end up here.  It doesn't matter if I have 1 reader or 1000, my heart is full and this is its outlet.

I couldn't end without posting a picture or video!  This is Melia talking about what she thinks would be a funny April Fool's joke to play on her dad.

In case you couldn't understand her, she wants to get something shaped like an apple, paint it red and give it to her daddy!