Meals for a month!

I was just invited to be in a "make your meals for a month" club. Well, not really a club. It is just me and 2 other friends. And, it is not enough for a whole month, but it helps.

They have been doing it for a couple months, and their 3rd member dropped out and they asked me to join them. Yea!

Here is the deal: Before the day you schedule to get together and prepare the food, you have to organize a menu and shopping list and go out and purchase everything you need. Then, on the big day you prepare all the meals and freeze them for use later. I was fortunate this month (since I was the Freshman), because I had no prep work ~ I just showed up and helped. It only took us about 5 hours to put together 11 meals for 3 families.

This is the prep area. I spent most of my cooking/preparing here.



Angie was in charge of buying this time and prepping most of the meat.

Sarah was our sauce girl. Just call her "saucy"!


The finished work.



Because we make everything in bulk, the cost this time per each meal averaged at $7.07 meal, $1.23 per serving. I love the cost savings for my family!

I had a GREAT TIME! And I can't wait until next month!! This time though I don't get off so easy ~ I have prep work to do. But, I don't mind. It is actually fun.

Bon Appetite!
Kendra

Happy Tuesday!

I really wish I knew how to download pictures off my camera phone!

This afternoon, Brian and I went to our church for a marriage checkup. This year we have been married for 15 years! Some days I wonder what happened to all those years. Then I look at my kids!! Yikes, these are mine and they are old :-}

After our marriage checkup, we ran some errands and went out to eat ~ A DATE!! Very exciting for me, as I didn't have to cook. Have you ever noticed that food tastes so much better when someone else cooks it? What is that??

Anyway, we went to a new restaurant in Peoria called Kaiserhof. This restaurant used to be in Bradford, IL and has moved to Peoria. I suppose to gain more business. It has a German menu and tonight they happened to be celebrating Mardi Gras. Go figure. The place was packed by 5:30! They had a yodeling contest, costume contest, and a give away for a trip to Munich. We didn't stay around for the prizes, but the entertainment was so worth the price of the food. Oh, the food, was so yummy!!

We were so flustered leaving from the spectacle of it all that we forgot our take home boxes. I am so bummed that I might just have to go back!!! I really wish I had my camera, it was hilarious. (For those blog watchers: I promise to have my camera with me more often, right Kevin?) Here is a pic that Kevin posted on his blog. I will make sure he doesn't 1up me again! Joel was having fun making a family on his fingers (look close for the faces) last week and Kev caught it. Thanks, Kevin.



Anyway, back to my night: after eats we did a little more shopping, had a dessert together, then came home. We had a great day and have strengthened our marriage for another 15+ years.

Have a great night. I did!
Kendra

The latest list on Facebook

In case you haven't heard, I am addicted to Facebook. Here is the newest list to come from there. I know it is starting to hit emails too because someone sent it to me as an email. So, I guess the best way for me to do it is on my blog again so my non-FB friends can see it.

Anyway, this quiz is alot like Scattergories, one of my favorite games. I really feel sorry for the people who have X and Z for their initial!


Subject: Quiz

Rules: Its harder than it looks! Copy to your own notes, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag 10 people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real...nothing made up! If the person before you has the same first initial you must use different answers. You cannot use any answer twice and you cannot use your own name for boy/girl name questions.

Have fun!

1) What is your name: Kendra
2) A four letter word: kite
3) A boy's name: Kenneth
4) A girl's name: Kathy
5) An occupation: kiniesiologist (someone who focuses on human movement, like a therapist)
6) A color: kelly green
7) Something you wear: khakis
8) A food: key lime pie
9) Something found in the bathroom: kleenex
10) A place: Krygyzstan (in Asia)
11) A reason for being late: kids
12) Something you shout: Keep out!
13) A movie title: K-9
14) Something you drink: kool-aid
15) A musical group: Kutless
16) An animal: kangaroo
17) A street name: Kennedy
18) A type of car: Kia
19) A song title: Knowing Me, Knowing You by ABBA
20) A verb: kept

Have a great day!
Kendra

My Special Valentine!

We are trying to save money everywhere in our budget (gotta pay for that new van, and etc.). So this year we decided not to give each other anything for Valentine's Day. The only thing we did to "celebrate" was to go to the Valentine's banquet at our church Friday night and a mini-conference the next day on the "Basics to a Great Marriage" with Dr. Stuart Scott. He was entertaining and encouraging. One point he made: embrace and cherish your differences, for these are some of the reasons why you love your spouse. We are all uniquely made by God, and compatibility is overrated. Amen!!

The fellowship at the table Friday night was a blast! We got to sit with Paul and Cheryl D. They just won the WCIC radio contest for a "Weekend to Remember" trip. It was a remarkable come from behind victory! Also at our table was Terry and Karye S., which we just found out are friends with our next door neighbors ~ SMALL world!

Later this year, Brian and I celebrate 15 years of marriage. Woohoo! Our church does something wonderful by offering marriage checkups for those "special" years (5th, 10th, 15th, and so on). We have scheduled ours next week. Brian has taken the day off, and we are making it a date all day long. Kinda like another Valentine's Day! Check the blog later next week for the details!

After Valentine's weekend, Brian has come down with a stomach illness. My funny valentine is recovering, but he is not 100% yet. I'm praying I won't come down with it!

Aren't we adorable??!!! Well, he is anyway!


Love and blessings,
Kendra

WARNING: I'm on my soapbox today!!

Today is the 200th anniversary of one of our greatest Presidents ever. Happy 200th, Abe! Ironically, he happens to share the exact same birthday as a man who has single handedly destroyed the Christian faith more than anyone in history. This man was Charles Darwin, author of Origin of Species (which is subtitled The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, in case you didn't know!). Was he a racist? Absolutely! Do people know that? Probably not. Darwin’s view of dark-skinned people like the slaves was different from that of Lincoln. Most people idolize Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately, many people do as well for Darwin. Today we should honor a man who saw all people as God’s creation, not a man whose ideas spurred and justified the devaluing of human life.

One of the coolest things about where my family lives is that we are in the flight path of the airport. Air Force One flew over my house today!!

I would post the video, but I haven't figured how to do that yet. It is so cool to see and hear it. I don't agree with the agenda of our current President, especially his view of abortions and the sanctity of life. Am I a racist for not liking him? Some would say yes. What I believe is that there is only 1 race: the human race!

We are all created by God, not through evolution. We are made in His image, not evolved from the muck. Biology textbooks will try to teach you otherwise - molecules to man theory, but the most reliable and accurate textbook teaches us this:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Gen 1:27

Hope you have a great 200th birthday party ~ for ABE!!

Kendra

Church work day, Schaffkopf, and Chinese food

Saturday was such a beautiful day. The high temperature was in the 60's ~ it felt like spring! Brian, Noah, and Joel spent the morning helping to work at our church's new construction getting ice off of the concrete floor. At 60 degrees, you would think it would be melted, but Brian had to explain to me that it was very thick and it was inside the building, not outside, so no sun could reach it and melt it. OK, I kinda understand ~ but how does ice/water get inside to begin with?? Apparently, the roof is new. Ah-ha!

Here is Joel scooping some ice.

My men hard at work :-)

In the afternoon, my parents came down from the farm to visit. It has been such a cold winter, that it had been over a month since they had come to visit. We went shopping at Kohl's before we went out to eat to celebrate a couple of birthdays: Brian's 44th (January 15th) and my dad's 72nd (February 15th)

After supper, we came home to play the German card game, Schaffkopf. I would be surprised and impressed if you know how to play this game. It is a game from my heritage that has been handed down through the generations. The closest thing that matches it in our country is a game called sheepshead, which is the literal translation of schaffkopf. It takes a bit to master and can be confusing. Simply put, it uses 24 cards (9 to ace) and 12 of them are trumps. If you want to learn it or play, let me know! Growing up, I loved the game, but my sister disliked it. Tonight, I got a sample of why she disliked it so much. I remember almost always winning this game. I don't believe in luck, but I always got good hands and she didn't. I was lucky. Well, my son Joel is reminding me of my life 30 years ago ~ he is lucky!

And, in case you are wondering, yes, we use chips, but never exchange them for real money.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Kendra

Seriously, is this really necessary?

Did you know that there are at least 6 different kinds of pronouns?

Well, there are. Not different ones, but types of pronouns. I imagine that 95% of the population could not name more than 2. Quiz for the day: Can you, with some of their examples name them? I didn't think so. The answers? They are as follows: personal (I, me, she, etc.); interrogative (who, what, etc.); demonstrative (this, that, etc.); indefinite (each, either, one, etc.); compound (myself, yourself, etc.); and relative (the same as interrogative, but used differently in the sentence, not as a question, but as a dependant clause (what?!) ).

Have I bored you yet?

I would also venture to say that very few people know what appositives are, but they use them every day! But I'm just guessing. Noah, my oldest son, struggles with language arts. (by the way, in the last sentence, son is your appositive, in case you didn't already know!) Pretty typical of boys, I'm told. Today was a tough day of school for him. He really frets over quizzes and tests, even though I'm his teacher and I don't punish him with "No PE class for you!!". I just want him to get the concept or principle down. That is it. He does pretty well in math and history, but language/grammar has always been hard for him. And, unless he becomes a sports writer, I don't see him ever having to put his pronoun knowledge to use outside our classroom.

I want my kids to enjoy learning. Not "school", but learning. I want them to succeed in life, but does that mean straight A's? I don't think so.

Now, how far do I go without a meltdown? Mine or my kids? HaHa!! I mean, seriously, is knowing the 3 cases to personal pronouns really necessary? I don't think that will be a question that we get in heaven.

Have a great night!
Kendra