• On Dec, 12, 2017
•  lady
•  Life

It seems as if my life at home has been heading down the road full speed ahead lately. I essentially have 3 toddler/preschoolers running through my home at all hours of the day producing squeals of laughter as they destruct and destroy. Up until the past few months, my littlest one didn’t quite participate as much…but based on the looks and the laughs I get from other moms that don’t know me, I have become THAT mom who has THOSE kids. Ahhh, man…never thought that would happen.

However, in my attempts to keep searching for something to anchor my sanity, I have to be forever thankful for the goodness God has shown to my family and I. He continually shows me, through the daily struggles and laughter my kids bring me, that He has blessed my life with more than I ever imagined. No…I don’t own a home, I don’t have a beautiful new car, and I surely don’t accessorize myself with all of the latest fashions…but I will proudly admit that looking over my life these past 27 years, I have been blessed in some pretty amazing ways. God has always provided me with shelter…from double wide trailers to the in-law’s house, I was never without a warm place to snuggle. I have never been without a meal for dinner. There were times when Caleb and I lived on $50/week to feed a family of 5, but we still ate. God still provided in the times when we had nothing at all. Through these times, what He provided us with the most was an opportunity to be thankful for His absolute goodness. I am now completely confident in the fact that God will NEVER give us more than we can handle. We have all heard that, but have you ever really believed it? I didn’t, until now.

Last year, I attended a Bible study that changed my way of thinking and opened my heart to the goodness of our Lord.
This particular verse, Ephesians 3:20, was repeated week after week and I will never forget what it says or what it means for my life today.
Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
Amazing.

He works in ways that exceed abundantly”…meaning whatever we ask of Him will be surpassed by something greater and better than we could ever imagine! I love that, it gives me peace as I pray, knowing that my problems WILL be solved…in a perfect way that I can not fathom. My life is proof of this…I never imagined I’d live in Las Vegas…but I never imagined that I would one day discover that my life is full of amazing blessings either! And I’m afraid it would have taken me much longer to learn this had I not gone through the darkness.
Thank you Lord for your goodness, thank you for finally allowing me to see the amazing result of a continuous personal struggle.
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My family is quickly approaching the 2 month anniversary of clean eating! Woo hoo! It’s getting easier, I’m hoping meal planning will be second nature pretty soon. I’m learning that we aren’t necessarily eating different” than everyone else, we are just adjusting ingredients here and there to eat more natural foods. I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen more, which is always fun…except when you ruin an entire dish! It’s happened more than once
A few people have asked me what I make for dinner, so I have decided to post my dinner menu from last week. Some have pictures, others don’t, but all have a link to the recipe I used, because I’m not that creative on my own

Monday:
Paleo Pizza- THIS WAS GOOD! Try it, whether you eat clean or not!
Recipe from Deliciously Organic I used a can of diced tomatoes rather than crushed because we like our tomatoes chunky
I also had a little trouble with the crust, it was a little mushy in the middle, I think it’s because the seeds and the bell pepper had too much moisture. The recipe recommends using dehydrated seeds (I didn’t) and also suggests dehydrating the entire crust over night, which I didn’t do either. Next time, right? Because I will definitely be making this again!
Tuesday:
The chicken recipe comes from The Gracious Pantry , my go-to website for all of this clean eating stuff
The chicken came out moist and full of flavor, yay!
And this zucchini, YYYYUUUMMMM! I love zucchini anyways, but this one tops it all! Just let me warn you…you don’t need all the olive oil stated in the recipe, it was too much! I originally snagged this recipe from Pinterest, here’s the link to the actual recipe; Zucchini Boats
Wednesday:
No picture for this one…you know why
This was another great dish that I will surely be making again!
This one comes from Skinny Taste , another one of my favorite websites. We didn’t eat it over white rice, because, well…”clean eaters” don’t do that. Haha, I spooned some of the mixture into my Trader Joes natural” tortillas for my husband and the kids. And for me, I just ate it like soup. Delicious!
Thursday:
Tuna Salad
No recipe here, you all know how to make tuna salad…right? Use clean, organic mayo, a little mustard, some onion, some tomato, a little lettuce, a side of baby carrots, and waa-laa…a perfectly healthy, EASY Friday night meal!
Saturday:
Barbecued Chicken & Steamed Broccoli
Another quick and easy meal- a bottle of TJ’s natural barbeque sauce smothered on top of chicken breasts and grilled to perfection by none other than the grill master, my husband. Perfect chicken, every time. Steam the broccoli and serve.
Sunday:
We have bible study on Sunday evenings where we have a potluck dinner each week. I brought the veggies, a yummy broccoli salad. We’ve had plenty of broccoli this week, I received quite a bit from my basket co-op earlier in the week. This is actually a Paula Deen Recipe that I transformed into HEALTHY! Her son would be proud!
So what did I do? No bacon, sorry…it’s not lean protein. No raisins, just because I don’t like them and they really don’t have a lot of nutritional value. 1 cup of mayo, really? How about 1/4 cup of clean mayo…much better. No sugar. And, I added 2 Tbsp. of red wine vinegar, love the taste of that stuff! The only thing I would do differently is make a tad more dressing. I pretty much doubled the veggies, but didn’t add enough dressing, according to hubby. So, I must take his advice!
My daughter received a double-sided wooden easel for Christmas this last year. She loves to draw, create masterpieces, and even attempts to spell words these days. It was the perfect gift for such an artist.
The boys on the other hand, received a talking t-ball set. They scored big time on this one, it’s their favorite thing to do together…such athletes they will become making their dad so proud.
So, I’ve seen this image often in the past few weeks. Mackenzy proudly illustrates all the creatures she can on one side of the easel, paying careful attention to each and every detail.
On the other side of the easel, you will find this…a makeshift baseball holder while they are playing t-ball. They even have a system in place, when they are sharing that is. One will place his ball on the tee and hit. The other basically fields the balls as they are hit and places them in the easel for easy access on their next turn. Every now and then I will hear Camden sing, What’s gonna work?” and Miller replies, Teamwork!.”

See…ALL of my children are talented AND creative!