Achieving something always feels so good, doesn’t it? Even a child can appreciate the feeling of working hard and meeting a goal!

My son has been working for 3 months to earn his first colored belt in karate. And he has been working hard. On Tuesday, he achieved his goal. I haven’t seen a smile on his face THIS big in  a while.

As we left the studio, he told everyone that walk passed him “I’m a red belt now!”.

I am glad he was doing, it saved me from having to do it for him

We are still holding off a week or two on planting but I am doing the most important part: getting my soil ready.

If I could only give two gardening tips to any gardener, it would be:

• Take the time and spend the money to build up your soil AND
• Get to know your local cooperative extension office

Garden soil is such a science, and  honestly I don’t have the time or brain capacity to figure it all out. For years we have been doing the Square Foot Gardening method, and I have learned the hard way that you can’t skimp on the soil.

Secondly,  your Cooperative Extension office can help you learn more about gardening in your area, usually even offering very inexpensive classes, are a great resource for information on their website and most have a loaner library for books, and are also a great resource in finding inexpensive gardening items and plants. Last year mine got me all the worms I needed for worm composting for free. You can find a list here of US Cooperative Extensions.

If you are like me and waiting on planting until the danger of frost has past, maybe you can share your favorite gardening tips. What would you tell a new gardener if you could? I am sure I will learn something here too!

To participate, link up your gardening related post below. Please be sure to link back here and share this meme so others can learn an join in too!

I don’t really consider myself someone who is a clutter bug. I actually hate clutter. But I only really notice it in my main living areas, which I am proud to say are relatively  clutter free. I am a “clutterer in hiding”. The hidden spots, such as what I can hide in a drawer, in a closet, or even worse, in the basement are my clutter “hot spots”.

I guess I have always viewed clutter as something visible. If you can’t see it, then it isn’t really clutter, right? Yeah, I guess that is denial in its finest form

Being a busy home schooling mom, working part time, and just being plain old caught up with day to day life hasn’t left me much time to get through the clutter or organize those hidden areas. And like it always does, over the years it has multiplied and grown.

My goals for this year have been to de clutter and organize those hidden areas, my basement, and get all those memories and pictures of my children when they were smaller into photo books and appropriate memory boxes.

What a mess I have let happen. Ugh.

I began the year with the usual procrastination. I actually didn’t even know where to begin. Then we have had a few curveballs come our way, and I just kept putting it off.

But last week, I decided enough. I hate not completing a goal even worse than hating clutter, so I just went in the basement and started. I picked up a box, went through it and kept going.

The good news is I got a lot taken care of.

The bad news is it is going to take me a lot longer to actually get it finished. A lot longer than a day, or even a week. At my husbands encouragement I did what I could, and left it for another day. Today I go back down to tackle my mess. It may take me several weeks to get it all done, but doing it in small quantities is actually going better than I thought and isn’t quite so overwhelming.

I brought up my cardboard boxes of photos, cards, mementos, pictures my kids have drawn etc. etc. and put my two daughters in charge of organizing them. (I can’t even believe I haven’t taken better care of that stuff- shame on me!) They are having a blast scrap booking and going through all their old stuff, and it is one less thing I have to spend time doing. In the end, all of our favorite photos will be organized and each child will have a dedicated memory box for all their stuff. Ahhh, that is going to feel SOOO good.

When I took this picture of my basement before I started, I just thought to myself this isn’t MY basement. This isn’t me! I am an organized person. I hate clutter. But  it is my basement. And it is my clutter. It also is in my control to do something about it!

So here you go, the ugly mess. Have you ever seen someone post a photo of their “dirty kitchen”, and it looks spotless? Or their cluttered closet that has two things on the floor? And you think gee, if that is clutter then I must be really bad. Well you won’t feel that way after seeing this. This is humility folks. And a true blue clutter disaster.

Yeah, I know. GASP! But it already looks a lot better than it did, and it is getting better every day. I can’t wait to share my “after” pictures!

So do I have any fellow “clutterers in hiding” like me?

These are so yummy and easy to make! Have you ever seen what they charge for one of these goodies pre packaged? Over $2 for one. Why do that when you can make them at home for much less than that?

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches are easy to make. 

You will need:

Chocolate chip cookies (make your favorite soft cookie recipe, or use the Nestle refrigerated ones if you get them during great sale. Make sure the cookies are soft or it won’t work as well)

Chocolate chip ice cream

Mini chocolate chips

Plastic wrap

Lay one cookie flat and place a scoop of chocolate chip ice cream on it, enough to fill out the sides. (This works better if your ice cream is a little soft.)

Then top with another cookie and smoosh together

Roll in mini chocolate chips

Wrap individually and freeze.

You can also use chocolate or rainbow jimmies for a fun twist.

Yummy!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!

We have been watching lots of All In The Family re runs lately. Say what you will, but that show cracks me up. And in comparison to most junk that is on TV today it is relatively uh, wholesome? Ok, maybe wholesome isn’t the word but there at least some old fashioned morals on the show and some comic relief has felt pretty good around here lately.

While watching it the other night, I started thinking about how women equate submission to being a wife like Edith Bunker. A homemaker who is a slave to her husband, getting no respect, and not very bright to boot. While it may be funny on TV, that is not at all what submission looks like, or should look like according to God’s Word.

When we submit to our husbands, we aren’t enslaving ourselves to a crude task master so we can be pushed around, insulted, and ridiculed. We don’t check our brains at the door and become mindless. That is far, far from what God’s Word portrays.

Submission doesn’t enslave you, it gives you freedom. Freedom to be who God created you to be. Freedom in life, in marriage, in relationships.  Freedom to receive God’s blessings.

While the word submission may sound like enslavement, in action, it is  God’s way to be anything but a slave. The only enslavement is to sin.  Don’t let the world define submission as handcuffs for you. Learn about it from the One who created it!

The Bible tells us that all things work together for good for those who love Him. Since finding out that my husband has a terminal illness, I have to say I have had a hard time processing that. How could any good come of a disease so ugly? I kept asking “God, how? If there is any good in this, please show me.”

And He has faithfully,  ever so gently, shown me.

Seeing family come together to help and encourage….even though they are grieving too

The kindness and generosity…often times from people we barely know

Memories captured in pictures and in hearts…that can never be taken away.

Prayers going up…… when we aren’t strong enough to pray.

We could have all the money and the resources in the world and it still wouldn’t cure my husband, but it doesn’t matter because we have what money can’t buy.

They are the things that are working together for good.

Family.

Friends.

Love.

Kindness.

Generosity.

Memories.

Prayers.

The only good I could see is my husband being healed. But He doesn’t promise a healing on this side of heaven. He promises that He will work it out for good.

I am so thankful that His promises are always true.

After my husband’s diagnosis, it was obvious we were going to have to move to a more manageable home fairly soon. I didn’t want to start up a garden under those circumstances, so I sadly decided I wouldn’t do one this summer. But then my kind father in law offered me use of his 12 x 12 raised bed! It’s a perfect solution and I can’t wait to get my hands in the dirt again. This will be by far the largest garden I have done in a few years, but with the help of my children I think we will manage it ok!

But…planting time around here isn’t until after Memorial Day. And good thing I listened because I woke up the other morning to a frost on the ground. So my garden is still safely on paper for now. It’s hard to be patient but I learned the hard way that planting early just doesn’t work out

How about you, how does your garden grow so far this year? Share your gardening related post on your blog, add pictures if you can, and then link up here to that post (not the main page). Please mention the How Does Your Garden Grow meme in your post, and feel free to use the logo too. I can’t wait to see your gardens!

I know menu planning for many can be a daunting task some weeks. I know there are many times I procrastinate my menu planning just because I don’t feel like taking the time to do one. But I have also found that  having a menu plan makes my life so much easier. So I had to come up with a way to make it easy and fast in order for me to stick to it. I have found that my menu planning by dividing my days of the week into themes, or categories has simplified and cut back on my time planning my menu.

For example:

Monday- Crock Pot Day

Tuesday- Casserole Day

Wednesday- Soup Day

Thursday- Pizza Day

Friday-Potluck Meal

Saturday- Leftovers

Sunday- Out

I can usually just plug in recipes very quickly, and if I can think of anything off the top of my head, at least when I go to a recipe book I have a category to start with!

Sometimes, when I am really on the ball, I can double my recipe and freeze one. Then in a few weeks, I can just pull many meals from my freezer! I love those weeks!

The funny thing is now my family know basically what I will be making each day, and they look forward to it. I always thought I had to change my menu up, so as not to continue serving the same meals week after week. I have found the opposite is true, my family actually looks forward to familiar, routine meals!

In the summer, I usually change one of the days to “Grill Night”. The weekends we are usually a little more relaxed and I don’t always plan an exact menu.

And by the way, have you seen this wonderful assortment of free menu planners from Money Saving Mom? With the large selection of planners she has there, you should be sure to find one that works for you!

One of these days I will really have my act together and make a monthly rotating menu plan. But until then, this works well for me! What menu planning strategies work for you?

photo credit

I miss you my sweet little blog ……

Oh ahem, excuse me. I was just talking to my blog. {blush}

When we found out about my husbands illness, I thought there was no way I could blog the same again.  And at the time, I really couldn’t. I was too steeped in grief.

But as the weeks have worn on, every now and then something would come up and I would say “I should blog about that” and then talk myself out of it. One night I said that to my husband about a book I read. He said “Why don’t you then?”. I was silent for a moment and I told him “I can’t, because you got sick and it seems so vain”. He laughed and said “Honey, life still happens”.

I have been thinking a lot about that. And you know, he is right. I still have a house to clean, dishes that get dirty, suppers to cook, children to train, a husband to love. Yes, life has taken on a different meaning but we are still living life. Life still happens.

And so will this blog, as long as I can, as much as I can. I still want to share my life, share my thoughts, and keep this ministry going. Because even though our lives have changed, it is still happening. We are moving forward.  And that gives me a lot of things to write about.

While we can’t just move on, we can move forward, right? This is what we are trying to do. Read more about it here.