This Crazy Army Wife

Hello to those of you that follow my blog, although there are a few of you (especially since I'm SO inconsistent with blogging).... The New Year is bringing some changes to our home... I start my graduate program to become a Nurse Practitioner so I will be busy with that as well as work and Momdom. I have decided that in an effort to improve our overall health and mood I'm going to make some dietary changes in the household.  I'm going to convert to as much whole food/ gluten free food as I can.  I expect some protest amongst the masses so it will be a slow and gradual change over.  I have some definite carb and sugar lovers in my house and the kids think Pasta is a must several days a week....  As I try out recipes I will share them with you and how they were received here...  For now, I'm researching and gathering recipes :)  I hope that you enjoy your New Year's Eve celebrations tonight :)

Quiet time is something I crave.  A few minutes here or there where it's just me, no noise and no distractions.  For everyone this time looks like something different..... Lately for me it looks like this My alarm goes off at an ungodly hour so that I can start my day.  I let the dogs out, poke the teen to get her started and turn on the coffee pot.  I brew that first lovely cup of coffee. Then I get my coffee, and my bible and go sit on the couch.  I take a few minutes to pray and ask God to help me see what he wants me to see in the bible.  I thank him for my blessings and open up to whichever chapter I am studying.  If my teen is up, sometimes I read it out loud (she asks me to sometimes) sometimes I don't.  I don't turn on the TV, check the internet or anything else before I get this quiet time.... I always start out with one chapter in the old testament, one psalm, the days proverb, and one chapter in the new testament.  I get sidetracked sometimes, something ca

Good Morning World.... I have spent time in prayer this week on marriage.  This morning while I was reading in 1 Corinthians I came across a devotion in my bible that brought the points home.  I have the Woman Thou Art Loosed bible (among several other bibles) from T.D. Jakes.  I have been talking to friends about marriage and what our priority should be.  What comes first our marriage or being a servant to God?  How do you balance the two?  For many people marriage comes last, not first.  The bible calls us to minister to our families first.  1 Corinthians 7:33-34 we are admonished not to be so caught up in the spiritual duties that we forget to be a wife and see to his needs, and vice versa.  God wants husbands and wives to see to one another, then to the needs of the world.  We are to be concerned with pleasing one another first.  Your priorities need to begin at home... God has called you to be a wife/husband and a parent if you have kids first.  Then to be a minister, teacher

School is back in here, for which I'm so grateful and I am getting back into a routine.  I have to say that after many years I think I have finally gotten the hang of this housework thing (as long as I don't get sick of course).... Let's be real, most of us don't enjoy housework.  Yes, we all enjoy a clean house and peace but we hate doing the actual work.  Now, I know there are a few of you that like cleaning but I don't really.  I like seeing that the work is done, and that I have crossed stuff of my list but there are a million things I would rather be doing.  Sewing, reading, knitting, writing something, vegging out and doing nothing.  Those things can't  happen though unless the house is clean.  I have a hard time relaxing in a mess. I have tried all sorts of systems and of course none worked exactly for me.  I read a book years ago (really I think it may have been when my teen was a baby) that talked about my specific problem, perhaps it is your proble

I have a budding baker in my house...  Samantha loves to bake bread.  For real, from scratch bread.  She has done this a few times in the past and has been bugging me since we moved to let her bake her bread again.  Today I let her.  She uses a recipe from Paula Deen's My First Cookbook for honey butter and Homemade Bread. Sammie's Bread Ingredients 1 cup Milk 3 Tbsp sugar 1 Tbsp salt 2 Tbsp vegetable oil 1 cup warm water 2 packages dry yeast 5 cup all purpose flour (with a little extra for kneading) Cooking Spray Measure the milk in the liquid measuring cup. Put the cup in the microwave and nuke it for 40 seconds on high, until it's slightly warm.  Pour it into the large bowl.  Add the sugar, salt, and vegetable oil and stir them well.  Measure 1 cup warm water from the tap, put the yeast into the water and stir it about 5 times.  Let it sit on the counter for about 10 min.  It should bubble up pretty good (Sammie likes to watch it bubble). Pour the yeas

My plan for today was to share the yummy lettuce wraps that I cooked for dinner last night...  Except, they weren't all that yummy. The girls did eat them without drama, which is always nice but the recipe needs some tweaking (or maybe a whole new recipe who knows) before I share. Today's plan includes Banana Hotdogs (A new breakfast food we are trying, banana on hot dog bun with peanut butter and jelly), sandwiches for lunch and homemade pizza for dinner.  Nothing new to share there either.  We have been prepping for back to school this week (have I mentioned how happy I am that school starts Tuesday) so I have been doing some stockpile cooking.  I made a huge pot of Minestrone soup on Wednesday and froze it in individual servings for after school snacks or lunch.  My oldest loves soup for snack and I would rather she have a nice healthy bowl of Minestrone then a package of Ramen.  I hit up Sam's club and stocked up on baked chips, fruit leather, granola bars etc...

We all see the recipes passed around on facebook.  We share them to our walls so that we can find them later but how many of those recipes have you actually tried. I admit,  have NEVER actually made one of them.  I always mean too but then I just don't get around to it and it's buried somewhere and I'm not digging it out. Today was different.  I had apples that the girls hadn't eaten yet and needed to be used or thrown out.  Normally when I have apples like that I make Ozark Apple Pudding (a family recipe from Jim's side).  This morning I decided I was going to make the Apple Cinnamon Loaf that has been floating around facebook.  It said it cooked in 20-30 min... Now I have baked many breads and that seemed a bit short to me but figured it was worth a shot. I increased the apple because I wanted to use more and make it nice and appley (is that a word?). The girls of course woke up while I was making it and they were anxiously waiting for it to cook so they cou

Well my girls love Pasta... they would eat it every night of the week if I would let them (which of course I won't).  We have been experimenting with gluten free pasta and so far we have been pleased.  That being said, tonight we just used normal pasta.  I forgot to pick up the gluten free pasta at Woodman's and didn't feel like going there after my dental work today so I just picked up a box of fettucini at Target.  I found the basic recipe on another blog and imported it to Plan to eat.  If you have plan to eat here is the link http://www.plantoeat.com/recipes/1431713 For those of you who don't (and this includes me because I'm still on my free trial and I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it or not).  The basic recipe is from abearinthekitchen.blogspot.com This is a Cajun Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo and of course I modified her recipe a bit to our tastes. Ingredients 1 lb Fettucini Noodles boneless skinless chicken tenders cajun seasoning b

Well my friends, long time no blog...  When last we met I was frantically trying to finish my bachelor's degree and awaiting my husbands return from Saudi Arabia.  We knew we were due to move, but not where we were moving too.    Welcome to Kenosha, Wisconsin....  Jim has been assigned here as a recruiter and is currently away at school. We have had a very busy summer, visiting family and friends in Texas, saying goodbye to all of our friends and family in Missouri and moving north.  It has been quite the adventure. The house is finally fully functioning and set up (well aside from my room, why is my room always last.... oh well I will get to it at some point).  The girls start school next week (can I get a Halleluiah anyone?) and so far I am still unemployed.  I have had a few interviews at the hospital I am hoping to work at but no decision has been made about the position yet so I'm in limbo.  There are other hospitals, clinics, jobs etc but this is the place I want