Online Pot-Luck

 I would like to do something kinda strange today! Have any of you heard of "Pot-Luck" dinners? You know, the things churches do once a month where all of the ladies bring a dish, and you get to fill your plate with tons and tons of homemade goodness? Well, I would like to do an online "pot-luck"! This can be on-going. I think it'll be a fun way for people to access everyone's favorite recipes in one, simple place.

Here's what I'm thinking. In a comment, type your favorite recipe, and hit submit. It's that easy! Then you will have access to everyone else's recipes from the other comments posted. This should help to find variety in meal-planning, and hopefully, we can all try some different dishes that we would have never known about before!

All I ask is that the recipes are all different. Please look at previous recipes and make sure you don't duplicate someone's. (This will give us more variety) If it is something that can be frozen and enjoyed later, AWESOME! Just let us know! I hope you all enjoy this! I am SO excited to enjoy new recipes from you all.

I'll kick it off with one of my favorites:
Green Chile Chicken Pasta
Ingredients:
- Spaghetti noodles, cooked al dente
- 16 oz Sour Cream
- Two small cans of Chopped Green Chiles
- Two large (three small) chicken breasts boiled and shredded
- 2 cups of shredded cheese (I use the Mexican mixed bag, but cheddar would work)

Combine noodles, sour cream, green chiles, and chicken in a casserole dish (I use 9x13, but almost anything would work) and mix together. Spread cheese over the top. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling. Serve! (I will add that I haven't frozen this recipe before, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work to freeze it before baking it.)j

Now, it's your turn!!

Love is all you need

This is not the reason for my post today, but since it's Valentine's Day, I felt like I needed to at least mention it! So, my thoughts on today:

This holiday is so difficult for so many people. All holidays that exclude a large number of people tug at my heart every year. Other examples of these holidays are Mother's Day and Father's Day. The reason why I think these days are particularly difficult is because we truly don't have much control over whether or not we fall into the category of being allowed to celebrate it or not.

Valentine's Day excludes anyone who is not currently in a healthy, loving relationship with someone. It is painful because the whole day is a constant reminder that they do not have what they so desperately desire. Even though I am married and have a wonderful relationship with my husband, I choose not to celebrate this day in a big way, simply because I don't like for anyone to feel excluded!! It just doesn't feel right! I know this feeling well from my years as a single woman before getting married, and up until this year, I felt this way every time Mother's Day rolled around. It was a constant reminder that, yet again, I was not a mother, and I did not have what my heart so desperately desired. 

Therefore, in my own way, I would like to honor those of you who are in pain on this day by simply telling you that God loves you.  I hope you find a time today to simply rest and bask in the love of your greatest admirer. Love from a man or woman on this earth is NOTHING compared to the love of our Lord. I love you all, and I hope you have a great day!

__________________________________________________________________________________

It's a DATE!!!

We finally have a date to finalize Little Bug's adoption!!! YAY!!!! He will officially be ours on April 14th! Exactly 6 months and 3 days after he was born. I have already called my mom and gushed about how excited we are, and I can't wait to leave work and tell the little guy! :) I have a feeling he will be thrilled. 

Even though I know that God determined that he would be ours before the creation of the world, I am so excited to have his birth certificate in hand and make it official that he is OUR SON FOREVER!!!  Phew! What a long road...

I can't wait to be able to post pictures and be able to show the world a tangible picture of God's faithfulness in our lives. Thank you for your prayers so far. We appreciate them still!

Holy Pot-Roast, Batman!!

Well, I tweaked up my pot roast recipe yesterday, and WOWZA!! It was AMAZING!!!

4lb Chuck Roast
LOTS of salt & pepper
About 2tbsp Rosemary
About 2tbsp Thyme
1 big bag of baby carrots
1onion chopped (they don't HAVE to be chopped, but we don't like onion texture, so we like 'em small just to add their flavor)
A whole bottle of Red Wine - I used a Pinot Noir for the richness of flavor
2 cups of Beef Broth

I cooked it in the slow cooker for 8 hours, and the roast fell apart and had an AMAZING flavor!!! SOOOOO GOOOOOD!!!! I wish I'd taken a picture before I devoured it! Instead of cooking the potatoes in the slow-cooker, I quartered them and covered them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary, then baked them for about 40 minutes at 350 (or until soft). DELICIOUS!!! The hubs RAVED about this!! Yay, me!

Bulk Cooking with a 3-month old: A new test of endurance!

Yesterday, I attempted to stock my freezer full of delicious, healthy meals while at home alone with my 3 month old baby. Today, I have recovered enough to be able to talk about it without my eye twitching or tearing up. The blood has dried up from my finger, and my baby is now in infant counseling for PTSD.

Let me explain.

I had a day off of work, and I decided it was time to embrace mommy-hood completely and get some bulk cooking done! The baby is only 3 months, not walking or crawling, and takes naps - so, how hard could it be?! HA! Let me also preface by saying that I did everything... EVERYTHING... to try to calm the baby throughout this process. He was fed, dry, clean, had no fever, and I did all I could think of to get him to nap, but he just refused. Thus the chaos of the day ensued.

I spent my morning meal-planning and finding new recipes to post about on my blog. The babe slept and cooed while I made my lists and organized everything. The true test of will started when he screamed (I can only imagine, but I'm pretty sure he was screaming death threats and curse words) throughout Wal-Mart for 2 hours while I got my shopping done. People were ducking and swerving to get away from the crazy lady (me) who brought their infant to Wal-Mart. I just smiled and kept going at my own pace to make sure I got every ingredient necessary to complete my task! I was determined, and I am a firm believer that everything will work out if you keep smiling and stay on task! hahaha... oh, how I want to drop-kick my own thoughts now.

On my way out of Wal-Mart, as I congratulated myself on accomplishing the bulk shopping trip, an entire carton of 18 eggs dropped *SPLAT* in the parking lot and every single egg broke. ugh. "Oh well" I thought to myself. "I'll just get Austin to pick some up on his way home!" Cue baby screams. 

 Once I arrived home, I unloaded all of my groceries while the baby put on a performance of that scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre where everyone was chopped to bits. I tried (to no avail) to calm the baby, tried to feed him more, tried to get him to sleep. Nothing worked. My nerves were a little frazzled at this point, but I held strong to my resolve to finish my task!

I began by making a slew (like the use of the word "slew"?) of healthy breakfast burritos. They actually turned out AMAZING, and I couldn't wait until the morning to try one, so I scarfed one down immediately! Next, I began the prep for a couple of pot roasts to freeze. This is when all hades was unleashed. The babe was still reciting his monologue of screams, but I was all in to finish at least one more meal before I went to try to soothe him again. I was chopping the onion to the sound-track of tortured baby noises, my eyes were tearing up from the onion gas, when the knife slipped and sliced my finger. It was a pretty deep cut, and blood went EVERYWHERE. I washed and wrapped my finger tightly, went to pick up the baby, and held him while he cried on my shoulder as I cried on his. I called Austin and refused to hold back on the hysteria. Here's a taste of the conversation:
A: "Hello?"
Me: "SCREW IT. SCREW IT ALL!"
A: "What are we screwing?"
Me: "I can't do anything! The baby keeps crying, there's blood EVERYWHERE, and the onions hate me!!"
A: ummm... what?! 
Me: "BLOOD. EVERYWHERE!"
A: I'll pick up a rotisserie chicken on my way home...
Me: click.

Poor Austin.

Finally, I picked up the baby, walked outside, cried a little, fed the baby again, watched an episode of New Girl on Netflix, and decided to try again! I found the Moby wrap, strapped the baby to my body, and he immediately started giggling. seriously? Is that all he needed? Maybe I'll figure him out eventually. Silly baby. :)  I was able to finished 6 more meals and freeze them for later. Yay!

The meals: 
1. Breakfast burritos
2. Salsa Chicken - from a previous post - two bags of this one
3. Taco beef - from previous post
4. Beef Burghundy - previous post
5. Chicken Enchiladas - I made two batches of these and we ate one last night - SO GOOD!!! 
6. Honey Chicken - previous post
7. Chili - Didn't prepare it, but I froze the meat and assembled the necessary ingredients into a basket for later
8. Turkey Spaghetti - Didn't prepare it, but I froze the meat and assembled the necessary ingredients into a basket for later

I would say, all in all, it turned out to be a successful day. It just started ROUGH!!! I might call a babysitter next time :)

Quarter of a year already?!

We have now had our little guy - we have been calling him "Little Bug", so that is what I will refer to him as here - for 3 months now! I can't believe it has flown by so quickly!!! I have to say, he is probably the cutest baby I've ever seen in my life, and his personality makes him even more lovable. He is such a smiley guy, and he gives cheesy grins to everyone he meets. *soap box: most people call this "flirting". I REFUSE to call it flirting when a baby smiles at someone. I think this is just creepy to think of a tiny human flirting with grown adults... I mean, seriously!! Ok, soap box over* 

He is so strong, and his favorite thing is to stand up while holding on to our fingers. I can't wait to post pictures of this tiny baby standing and smiling. SO cute!!!

So far, he has already traveled to Lubbock, Atlanta, and Phoenix. Soon he will also travel to Denver, Red River, and Dallas. He is a nationwide traveler and has the best attitude about it! At the risk of sounding braggy He didn't cry or make a peep on any of the flights - even though we were delayed, re-routed, had flights canceled, and ran out of formula and had to make a late night, out of town, wal-mart run. Good baby! Needless to say, the travel experience could have been MUCH worse if he had been a grumpy-gus traveler!

I will write more at a later date about all that God has been teaching us and how He has been working in our marriage and in our relationships with Him through having this baby and developing a bond with him and his birth mother... There is so much to say on this topic, but I don't think I have the right words at this point. I promise to do it when the words come. :)

For now, I am back to work, praying through God's plan for our lives, and just enjoying the moments as they come. Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers. They mean the WORLD to me!

As we begin 2014, I can't help but look back on all The Lord has done in our lives over the last year. He brought us from a place of hopelessness in infertility to a place of joy and fulfillment of His promises through adoption. He established deep, meaningful friendships with brothers and sisters in Christ who encourage and uplift us. He weeded out many things in our lives that were meaningless and unfruitful - this was, at times, very painful, but it yielded so much reward in the end. He has guided us into a sweet relationship with Himself, and for that, I am eternally changed and grateful. Praise God for His Faithfulness. 

Ba - Da - Ba - Ba - Ba... I'm Loving It!

Yes, I am that cheesy that I used the McDonald's theme song in my post title. Admit it. You love me for it. ;)

He is 6 and a half weeks old already!! Wow, how did that happen?! We honestly can not imagine our lives without this little guy. He has been a total joy and has also taught us so much about finding our strength and rest in The Lord already! (I mean that quite literally!) He has had pretty bad reflux and colic. (Before you ask, yes, we have tried gripe water, zantac, mylanta, peppermint oil, positioning, rice cereal, scheduling, swaddling, swinging, placing on the dryer, pacifier, white noise, specialty formula, and many other things to soothe) Unfortunately, with some babies, you just have to follow some of the advice many parents give: Just cry it out. (I'm not talking about the baby...) We have been a bit sleepy pretty exhausted, but like I said, we are truly finding our strength and rest in The Lord, and it has actually been a very sweet time, in spite of lack of sleep. I could not be more grateful for the fact that our sweet little guy loves to cuddle when he's unhappy. It melts my heart and makes me feel like I am his only source of comfort - which fills my heart to the brim!

I have to say, he is the cutest little guy on the planet, and now that a lot of the fussies are starting to dwindle, he is developing the sweetest personality!! He will smile with his whole face, and he has these tiny little dimples that pop up when he's really excited. He LOVES to swing, and he really loves it when his dad flies him around the room like an airplane. He is so strong already! He holds his head up and pushes himself all the way up during tummy time. He met Santa for the first time last week during the open house at his dad's shopping center. He just looked up into his face and stared at all of the Christmas lights. He got to experience snow for the first time yesterday, too! So many firsts!! He has become such a sweet, fun baby! I am mostly just glad that he is feeling better!! I was starting to ache just seeing him cry so much.

I truly wish I could post a ton of pictures!! I promise I will once the adoption has finalized in April. I can not express how much it means to have so much support and so many sweet comments from you all. We know we have been blessed beyond measure, and I thank God daily for this sweet little boy!