A Village: In Sickness and in Health

When Evelyn started elementary school in August 2017, I gave myself a mission. My mission was to make myself vulnerable by meeting new families and building relationships with new people so that I would could have a village in our school community. I prayed that God would help me to be open to meeting new people in all types of settings and opening my home to others. Little did I know my hearts desires would be matched unmeasurably. Below is a condensed version of how powerful a village can be. 

I started out by joining the PTA and volunteering to coordinate the STEM Night and Science Fair. Throughout that experience I met several moms that were coordinating other parts of the PTA. Though that experience I learned so much. I was then asked to be the Vice President of Ways and Means for the PTA for the 17-18 and 18-19 year. My responsibility would be to support all of the board members that were coordinating events that brought in money to the PTA. Of course, given my background in education and project management, I took my responsibilities pretty seriously and set the bar high. During the planning of our annual carnival and auction I learned about people. I learned that volunteers engage in volunteer opportunities for different reasons than employees engage in work. 

I learned that everyone has different styles of managing their time, 

priorities, and a different passion level for what they are doing. 

I learned that it's ok to be unique and do things in different ways...not just my way. 

I learned that my priorities may not really be priorities in the 

grand scheme of what others have going on in their lives. 

I learned that you need to consistently be aware that you never know the whole story. 

This was a life lesson that will carry me through the rest of my life. 

Through this time, I continued to build relationships with some very special moms. Moms who were what I had been praying for. We came together over a commonality of our school community/PTA, but it turns out that we all love peanut M&M's and we all were searching for something, something I don't know we all realized we were searching for! We laugh together, cry together, problem solve together, tell each other what we need but don't want to hear, and just do life together. During this time, I also learned that it's totally cool to have lots of friends, new friends and old friends. Each friend is unique and while friendships seem to ebb and flow, I'm so thankful that many adult friendships seem to be the ones that you can pick up right where you left off. 

Fast forward to December 1, 2018. I found myself in the hospital, with stroke like symptoms, unable to smile on my left side and scared I would never be normal again. It was during this that I found that my village was longer, wider, and deeper than I realized. 

The love that has been poured out on our family is unmeasurable. Taking care of my children when I was greeted by an ambulance and firetruck in a Walmart parking lot,  sitting at the hospital with me while Scott went home to put the kids to bed, staying with my kids until my family could arrive from Arkansas, delivering me snacks to the hospital, THOUSANDS OF PRAYERS for very specific desires, phone calls, text messages, meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), offers to go to doctor appointments with me, driving my kids to and from school, and an employer and staff that have given me the time and space I needed to try to regain some normalcy again. 

It turns out my village is my husband, my family, my Janie Stark friends, my current and former work community, Evelyn's Girl Scout moms, college friends, FB Carrollton friends and FB Dallas friends. All that to say you just never know the cards you will be dealt in life and know that while you may think your village is your current closest friends, it turns out that people will "come out of the woodworks" when you need them the most. 

During this holiday season I want everyone to remember 

it's about the relationships, not the presents.

It's about making yourself vulnerable when you would rather 

just be a hermit in your own universe. 

Be real with people, and people will be real with you. 

Be willing to learn and use what you learn from others. 

Be thankful and tell people how much you appreciate them. 

Be present for others. 

PS: I am still experiencing a tingling sensation on the left side of my body and am working with a neurologist  cardiologist, physical therapist, and chiropractor to try and determine what happened and what is causing my ongoing symptoms. These symptoms and the fatigue of my arm after writing and typing are impacting my ability to work full time. So as you say your prayers, please pray that we may find answers to the unknown and that my family may find peace in the outcome and be able to determine what our new normal will look like. Thank you! 

Sample Meal Plan: Using My Freezer Stash

In last week's blog I talked about how I try and clean out my freezer during the month of August since so many expenses for back to school come into the budget. Below is this week's meal plan and  some details about what came from my freezer. I'm excited to that my freezer is slowly being cleaned out and is almost ready for fall soup making!

• Shrimp from Costco ~ I actually buy most of my meat except chicken from Costco and pull it out as I need it from the freezer. I rotate and buy fish/shrimp one month and ground beef the next month typically
• Trader Joes stuff ~ I typically go to Trader Joes every other month and stock up on sides and main dishes that make my life easier. This week includes cauliflower fried rice, mashed cauliflower, asian veg, and bbq beef brisket. 
• Hamburger Buns ~ A few bread hacks. I freeze hamburger and hot dog buns because we never use a whole package when I make something. I also stop by Jimmy John's and buy their day old bread loves for 50 cents each. Slice them into 4ths, freeze them, and pull them out to use  for meatball subs or garlic bread.
• Frozen Green Beans/Broccoli ~ I buy both of these at Sam's (I think...) and love that the bags can be steamed in the microwave or I can cook a partial bag on the stovetop. 

Three nights we are using chicken, so I bought a big package of chicken this week and I have divided it between 3 days.

Sunday
one sheet wonder
I use a cookie sheet lined with foil and pop
all of this into the oven.
 I separate the shrimp so that the shrimp juice
doesn't get on the veggies because leftover veggies
 will be used Friday night.
Shrimp, Carrots, bell peppers, asparagus
 with old bay seasoning.

Monday
Grilled Garlic Lemon Chicken
Cauliflower Mash
Green Beans

*Will grill Wednesday Night
 chicken tonight too.
**Some Green Beans will be left for Friday

Tuesday
Asian Chicken,
Cauliflower Fried Rice, and Asian Veggies
Cut up chicken breast with Soy Sauce
and Penzy's Seasoning.
Marinading in fridge until Tuesday.
I just pan fry the chicken,
and pan fry the cauliflower rice and veggies. 

Wednesday
Grilled Chicken Ranch Baked Potatoes
Will grill the chicken on Monday.
It is in the fridge marinading in milk
 and ranch powder.

Will serve with cheese and broccoli.
I might cook the potatoes in the crockpot
to lessen the cook time after I get home.

Thursday

No picture...sorry

Taco Salad

Ground beef seasoned is in the freezer 

from the last time I made a large batch...

I already pulled it out and put it in the fridge so it could thaw. 

Will add tomatoes, shredded lettuce, 

queso, salsa, and maybe some black beans. 

Friday
BBQ Beef Sandwiches
Leftover Veggies

Bought this at Trader Joes and put it in the freezer.
Buns have also been in the freezer.
Will put in the fridge on Wednesday
so it can pre-thaw.

Leftover green beans, asparagus,
and bell peppers as sides.

Hangry Family + Working Mom: How I Get Dinner on the Table in 20 Minutes

I haven't written on my blog in almost 3 years. Clearly having baby #2, buying a house, and my ever expanding career forced writing this blog on the back burner.

As time has passed, I continue to have a passion for sitting down to the dinner table and pre-planning my meals. Sometimes in life it feels like meal planning is the only area of my life I have control of...ha! Yes, my plans change and some of my meals don't go as planned, but I always get a do over the next day and week. Meal planning has taught me to be flexible and I truly love that we sit down to the dinner table together almost every single night. Tim Challies blogpost 5 Reasons We Eat Together as a Family resonates with the reasons why I enjoy sitting down to the dinner table:

• It keeps us healthy: When we eat at home, I can more easily control what goes in our bodies. I can choose the sodium level, choose not to fry the foots, select organic ingredients or ingredients with some things that are on my no no list like high fructose corn syrup and red dye 40. 
• It keeps us relationally healthy: At the dinner table, we talk about our days and we find out things that happened at school that we may not find out otherwise. We get to try new things and we learn about manners, which help us with our relationships with others. 
• It keeps us spiritually healthy: We have a calendar of verses we read from every day and we talk about new vocabulary words and break down the verses so our kids can better understand the meaning. 
• It keeps us financially healthy: Wow does it ever! Going out to eat is a treat for our family because we eat in so often! I can make a meal for less than $10 and we can't get out of a restaurant for less than $25 ~ and that's fast food most of the time! We save so much money by eating at home! 
• It keeps us behaviorally healthy: At the dinner table we can talk about expected behavior outside the actual incident. Sometimes as parents we have a list of behaviors we would like to talk with our kids about and I personally don't always like to talk about the expectations when the expectations are not met. So, we randomly talk about expectations at the dinner table sometimes! 

This list is a great reflection (and check out Tim's blog) of why eating together is so important, but I can't help but think about how great it is just to sit together as a family every day. In this fast paced world, it's my opportunity to just be with my family. It's sacred and so important to us. 

I work 45 minutes from home and after picking up two children my commute home from work is 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes daily. By the time I get home, it's 5:30-6:00, depending on traffic. When I walk in the door, everyone is HANGRY (Hungry - Angry) within about 15 minutes! So I've determined that I have to be on point with dinner timing so that we can spend the most time together and so that the kids can get to bed at a decent hour. 

For the rest of this blog I'm going to focus on what I did to prepare for this week. It took me about 1.5 hours and my meals are ready to go in the fridge.

Each year at the end of July and all of August I work really hard to use everything possible in my freezer and pantry. This is for multiple reasons:

• In August, extra money from our budget goes to back to school expenses, so by cleaning out my pantry and freezer I can save on groceries and put those funds in the back to school fund. 
• Starting in October, I make a lot of soups. When I make soup I make double batches and freeze one batch for meals...so I need freezer space.
• We are going on vacation next week, so I'm using a lot of things in the fridge so it won't go bad. 

Here's the menu for this week with some details about how I prepped everything. 

Sunday: Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed and ready! 

• Cooked 2 pounds of ground beef (1 pound for this recipe and 1 pound for the nachos on Friday)
• White Rice cooked in a can of diced tomatoes
• A random assortment of spices (garlic, pico seasoning)
• Bell peppers cut in half or with the top cut off
• I mixed rice and beef together put it in the bell peppers, put shredded cheddar on top and put in the fridge so the only thing needed is heating in the oven. Veggies are included in the stuffed bell peppers, so we probably will just have that for dinner with a side of fresh fruit and carrot sticks. 

Ingredients for greek chicken on left
Ingredients for chicken fajitas on right

Monday: Grilled Greek Chicken

• Bought one big package of chicken breasts, used half for this recipe and half for the chicken fajita recipe. 
• Put in ziplock bag with greek yogurt, basil, oregano, garlic, lemon juice, and red wine vinegar
• Put in the fridge to grill Monday night
• Serve with Broccoli and green beans

Tuesday: Chicken Fajitas

• Put in a ziplock bag chicken breasts, salsa, chicken Taco Seasoning
• Will grill with greek chicken above and put in fridge for Tuesday night
• Serve with salsa, cheese, shredded lettuce, on tortillas

Wednesday: Meatball Subs

Here's my shelf with (a) meatballs and bread, thawing;
(b) greek chicken marinating, (c) chicken fajitas marinating

• I buy day old bread from Jimmy John's for 50 cents a loaf. I can cut one loaf into 4 sections. When I buy them I always buy two extra loaves and freeze them.
• On Sunday I took my bread out of freezer and put in the fridge along with my frozen meatballs.
• On Wednesday night, meatballs will be thawed reducing heat time. I heat on the stove in spaghetti sauce. 
• Slice bread and put in toaster oven with a little butter and garlic (love my toaster oven because I don't have to heat my big oven, which heats the house.)
• Serve with cesar salad 

Thursday: Fish and Vegetables

• Put tilapia from Costco in the fridge on Tuesday, so it will be thawed, reducing cook time. Pan cook with garlic and old bay seasoning. 
• Serve with veggies, typically broccoli and green beans.

Friday: Nachos

• I always keep a bag of tortilla chips in the house because sometimes nachos just make life easy on Friday night! 
• Using the 1 lb of ground beef I cooked earlier in the week.
• Using the leftover rice I made for the stuffed bell peppers too as "Spanish rice" 

So essentially, putting my frozen ingredients in the fridge to thaw and precooking meat when I can is how I get dinner on the table in 15-20 minutes every night. 

What are your tricks for success?