I have so many blessing which I think I forget regularly. Our life is quite crazy with working, school, Reagan school, managing who is watching our kids and so on and so forth.
A few weeks ago, I had been reading about freezer meals and after reading all sorts of the different ways to do freezer meals, I decided to do it. I spent a Friday night and part of a Saturday morning cooking. I mostly did meats. For example, Friday night, I put a rump roast in the crockpot with diced chilies and italian dressing mix and let it cook all night. I put chicken breasts in two roaster pans, one with mexican seasoning and one plain. The plain I diced to use for chicken salad or enchiladas or stuff like that. The seasoned chicken I shredded for chicken tacos, tortilla soup and so on. Then I grilled a few chicken breast and sliced them for alfredo, nachos or whatever. The next morning I shredded my roast for italian beef sandwiches. With the leftover I made chimichangas. I also put in a pork loin and shredded it to use for pulled pork or cafe rio tacos. I left it unseasoned so it could be versatile. Then I cooked hamburger with green peppers and onions for spaghetti and just as a basic thing. I also cooked a batch a hamburger and added beans and taco seasoning for tacos. Oh yeah, I also froze sliced peaches for smoothies and made twice baked potatoes to reheat. I think I am liking this. I did take about 3-4 hours but it wasn't spent hovering over the stove cause I did the crockpot and stuff. So every night when I get home from work I go to my freezer find what I want and just heat and add stuff to it, add some sides, and you have a great meal. It really has cut down on the what should I make for dinner dilemma. I was pretty good about planning meals but this is a few steps faster when the meat is already cooked. That day I also put a few crockpot freezer meals together. I through all ingredients including raw meat into a gallon size bag and put in freezer. When I am ready I pull it out and put in crockpot and turn it on. Last time I forgot to turn it on until noon. Duh!
Tender Mercies...
Last year we bought a new washer and dryer. The front loading kind and I love them to pieces. A few weeks ago as I was doing my million loads on Saturday, I noticed something was not quite right with my dryer. The timer on it was not going down and when I put my hand in, it was hot but really wet heat. I talked with Brian about it and we decided to call in on Monday to have someone come look at it. So I hung two loads of laundry all over my house to dry. Monday, I called to have a technician come out and they told me to check the vent to make sure it was not obstructed. So as I was heading out to work, Brian said he would check it. I told him if there was an animal in it to take care of it and not tell me. He called me about 10 minutes later and told me it was full of water, hence the wet heat. He said he had talked to Jaxon and Jaxon told him that he had put the hose in the dryer vent (which does not have a vent cover on it and is just at his level) with the water on and filled it right up. A little funny in the morning did not become so funny that night when I checked to see if the dryer worked. Nope, it didn't. I am thinking we are going to have to replace the $700 dryer. Deep breath as you look at your cute little boy. So I sit down with Jaxon, telling him how he is going to have to work (take out garbage...) from now until he goes on a mission to help pay for a new dryer and how that was not a good choice. Tuesday came around still didn't work. Tuesday night when I got home I checked the dryer and IT WORKS! And it still works. The Lord knows every little thing that we need and can I just tell you the faith grew a little that day. So Jaxon is off the hook, at least until the mission part but he still does have to do his work.
Where do boys come up with these things they do? I will never know and may never want to.
With that note, and since Thanksgiving is around the corner, I am going to try to post a quick thing that I am grateful for everyday or once a week I may post a list of 7, You should do the same, we have so many blessings to be thankful for.
Great Things
1. The tender mercies of the Lord
2. a cute little boy that knew he had done wrong and was willing to work
3. A dryer that after if dried out still works.
