"she gives instructions with kindness"

Turkey Week

 This Thanksgiving is special for me because it will be the first Thanksgiving that I've ever hosted Thanksgiving dinner at my house and also done the legwork - meal planning, cooking, etc.

Last year I had just had my second baby and so my parents came to our house and my wonderful mother cooked everything. The year before that my in-laws were here and my wonderful mother-in-law cooked everything (I'm a lucky girl, aren't I?!)

Over the past year, though, I have really worked on my cooking and meal planning skills and so this Thanksgiving I told my parents that I would be cooking. Granted I bought jar gravy, bag stuffing, and canned pumpkin... but I will still be mixing ingredients and producing an edible (hopefully) dinner.

 

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.

Turkey Handprints

It was rainy this morning and the perfect weather for another Thanksgiving craft with my 2 year old. Turkey handprints are as basic as crafts get, but my son has a current obsession with tracing things so it worked out nicely.

We simply traced his hands, added beaks and feet, and colored in the "feathers." I cut our turkeys out while he painted a background paper in fall colors.

 And voila!

Creamy Beef Taquitos

Tonight I tried a new recipe: Creamy Beef Taquitos from Comfy in the Kitchen:

http://comfyinthekitchen.com/2012/03/creamy-beef-taquitos/

Thankfully, this recipe was SUPER easy, because my boys were not down with me cooking tonight. Somehow I managed to scrape everything together amidst a high level of background noise and little people tugging at my pant legs.

Although the recipe calls for ground beef, I think if I make these again I will try using shredded beef as well as a bit more cream cheese in my "Salsa Fiesta" mixture. But overall these were a hit (my toddler could even be convinced to try them... that's a win in my book!)

Breakfast Hot-Pockets

I saw this recipe for breakfast hot-pockets on a blog and they looked deeeelicious, so tonight I decided to make breakfast for dinner!

Here is the original recipe:
womenlivingwell.org/2013/11/homemade-breakfast-hot-pockets/

I couldn't find the brand of rolls that I needed and my boys were, shall we say, less than cooperative at the grocery store... so I came home with a smaller version of the same thing and ended up using two rolls worth of dough for each hot pocket.

My husband didn't seem to share my opinion that these were a dinner food so next time I will probably make a batch, freeze them, and then have a week's worth of breakfasts stashed in the freezer! These are definitely worth a try; just keep in mind that the rolls need to thaw and rise for 4-6 hours before you can make the hot pockets.

Thankfulness Tree

Lately I've seen a number of different friends/bloggers making fun crafts with their kids to foster a spirit of thankfulness in the season leading up to Thanksgiving. Thankfulness is something that naturally flows from a heart directed to God, but it is also an attitude that we can choose even when we feel we have little to be thankful for.

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Hebrews 13:15 

I decided to make a thankfulness tree with my 2 year old. Here are two examples of much fancier ones:

http://www.nurseryofthenation.com/2011/11/thankfulness-tree.html

http://www.meaningfulmama.com/2013/11/thankfulness-tree.html

We had crayons, brown paint and paper on hand, and it was cold this morning, so voila! A thankfulness tree was born. I was planning to trace my son's hands and use them as leaves, but he also wanted me to trace his feet... so we ended up with hand and footprint leaves (you win some, you lose some.)

I asked my 2 year old what he was thankful for, explaining that it could be things like food, his brother, our house... things that we thank God for at night when we say prayers or at the table before meals. I then wrote something that he is thankful for on each "leaf:"

In addition to mommy, daddy, eggs, airplanes, and bounce houses my son is thankful for... GIRLS. Yep, he came up with that one all on his own. I better watch out for this one...

Weekly Meal Plan

4/5 recipes are new this week... I find myself more motivated to cook when I have new yummy looking recipes to try :)

If all turns out well perhaps I will post pics of the finished products. No promises. My cooking is a work in progress, and that's being generous :) Eventually I hope to add a recipe index to my blog... I've received a bunch of great recipes from friends and family!

I found this menu plan template here:
http://organizedhome.com/printable/household-notebook/weekly-menu-planner
(One of the blogs I read linked to it:
http://thankful-homemaker.blogspot.com/p/homemaking-binder.html)

Your home, your ministry.

I love the following excerpt from the Thankful Homemaker blog:

"If you have a family to serve, you have a ministry.  You are making eternal differences daily as you tend to the needs of your family and daily learn to die to self through God's help and loving care.  In each of those moments the Lord is molding and shaping you more and more into the image of His Son.

Don't look outside the walls of your home to find your purpose - look to the Lord Jesus Christ.  May you gain your strength from Him to love and serve your family to His glory.  

Be faithful to where the Lord has called you - do all things to His glory.  Serve and love your family as unto the Lord." 

http://thankful-homemaker.blogspot.com/2013/09/living-in-mundane.html