Trying My Hand at "Once a Month" Freezer Cooking

Well... today is the day. I finally decided that I was going to pull the trigger and try my hand at "Once a Month Freezer Cooking". I have wanted to try this for a while but have felt so overwhelmed at the idea of even starting that I have always quit before I began. One thing I really enjoy is searching the internet... and while doing so I ran across a website called www.OnceaMonthMom.com where you can pay monthly or yearly and pick a menu and they will send you a whole month worth of breakfast, lunch and dinner for you to make for the month and freeze. There are printable grocery lists, recipe cards, and cheat sheets for your monthly menu. While I hope that this way of cooking saves me money I did feel that it was worth the investment of $8/month to try my hand at this and see if it is workable for me and my family. I have printed all the sheets, have my grocery list ready and have blocked out time (the site says 6 to 8 hours) to get this going. I will grocery shop on Saturday, do any "day ahead" prep Saturday night and start cooking on Sunday. I hope this works and I hope it is easier than I am anticipating. We shall see... I'll check in on Sunday night and let you know how it all went. Wish me luck! Erin

Here we go...

I haven't always wanted to be in politics. In fact, all I can tell you about politics up until I was in college was that Bush Jr. ran a couple of times and I wanted him to win. It wasn't until I met a guy that I developed a crush on, who wanted to be in politics, that I got interested. My how far I have come...

I now find that politics can light a fire in me more than almost any other subject. And if you were to ask me what the number one thing was that I wanted to express to others about politics I would tell you it was to start a great awakening in my generation as to the importance of getting informed and getting involved. There will be a day when we will be running the world and there are many patterns that need to change in my generation before that happens.

What I have found is so many people 30 and under really have no idea, and almost no interest, in who or what is running this country. It seems that so many of us are just comfortable with being ignorant about issues like foreign policy, economics, history, and especially politics. I have so many friends that if I was to start up a conversation with about fiscal conservatism or entitlement programs and ask them their opinion about the issue, they would look at me like a deer in headlights and say "um.. I don't know". I think that is a shame. It is our duty as human beings to take part in deciding who we have representing us at all times.

We have got to wake up. We have got to realize that it doesn't matter whether it is interesting to us or not... we have been called to be knowledgeable and informed. When we are not regression is all that we have to look forward to.

With this blog I hope to challenge friends and strangers to realize that we do not have a choice but to know what is going on in this country. It has been intrusted to us by men who risked everything to help make it what we see today. We have the power to make such a difference in the world around us and one of the easist ways to do this is to read up and study and actually have knowledge of the people we have in office as well as the people who are soon to be in office. With that knowledge we can inform others and hopefully light a blaze in someone else which then starts the great awakening that needs to happen in this generation because the weight of the world is about to sit on our shoulders.

My HCG Journey

So... five months after Clara was born and I still have 25 lbs to lose before I am at a healthy weight for my body. Looking at that number on the scale is so overwhelming... I hate that I am so unhappy about the size that I am and the way that I look.

So... after much prayer and conversations with some close friends, I have decided to do the HCG diet to lose the weight.

I was very hesitant at first for several reasons.

1. I don't want to just jump on the band wagon of some fad diet. In fact, I have passed so much judgement on some friends I have that have done it that I didn't think needed to because they didn't have much weight to lose.

2. I only have 25 lbs to lose and does someone with that little of weight lose need to do something so drastic?

3. I am a little scared to get into this not knowing whether I will survive or not.

But after talking to my friends, I have decided to go for it. I know myself and if I get determined enough I will do great and stick with it for the entire thing.

So... I am going to start while I am in Arkansas visiting my grandmother and I should be done in early October. I have to admit I am excited... excited to have the weight off... excited to die to myself... excited for the journey I am going to take and the challenge it will be for me to deal with my issues with food.

This blog is going to be my journey... the good and bad, the ups and downs... and I hope that if there is someone out there going through this as well, I hope that this will help and maybe inspire you.

Ready??? Set??? GO....

Old Church... New Home

Well, Zach and I have decided to return to The Church on Rush Creek as our official home church. We were there 3 years and then left a little after we got married to find our "own path". We started going to a different church, where we have been for a couple of months, but never felt the desire to get involved.

I finally told Zach that I wanted to get to a church and get involved and stay there. So, after much prayer, we have decided to return to The Church on Rush Creek. We are very excited to once again have a "home church" where we feel like we belong.

Plus, I can't wait to start watching the little kiddo's once again... and possibly get involved with the youth there.

Fun Stuff!

Presidental Speech Last Night

Ok so once I found out American Idol was NOT on.. i flipped through the channels and found that there was nothing worth watching.. so, although I do not usually like watching Presidental addresses whether it be Obama or anyone else, I ended up watching it anyway.

After the speech I also watched O'Reilly to get his take on the speech. Overall I thought Obama's speech was fairly good to watch. O'Reilly said he was boring but after Obama being raked over the coal's for him chuckling about the economic situation on 60 minutes, I would think he would be more somber.

This is my take on things... either way you look at it, this is a tough situation for any President to be in. I pray that this new plan works and that the Lord can restore the nation economically and that we do not have to switch to sociallism. No normal person can even begin to wrap our minds around 1.3 Trillion dollars to even understand what that will mean for future generations. We just need to pray that the Lord is working all this out for the GOOD of this Nation... we are GOD's nation and I believe He still wants this nation to succeed.

Overall... I would give the speech a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

The FEAR in our society

Recently, I have discovered something a little disturbing about myself.

My confidence can be shaken so much easier than I ever imagined.

I have found myself going through this weird growing period where I am being challenged more than ever to stand on faith. Everyone know that our economy and our nation are going through tough times... it is shoved into our faces 24/7. Well, I have decided that is nothing more than satan's attempt to SHAKE our confidence. Once he can attack our confidence, FEAR can rise up without even a warning. Once fear arrives everything that you know and believe about the power of God can be challenged.

I was listening to Miles Monroe, a Pastor in Chicago, the other day and he was talking about unplugging from the world's system...not in some cooky "get off the grid" way but in a very practical "we do not belong to this world" type of way. He said something that was a real a-ha moment for me. He said "Jesus did not come to repair the world's system but to replace it".

Here we are worried because we feel like the economy is crashing and along with it alot of dreams but what we fail to remember so often is that God did not say "I will provide for you as long as your economy is good". He said that He would provide everything that we need..no matter what the world's system looks like because we DO NOT belong to the world's system. We belong to a much greater and powerful system and we serve a God that promises to take care and provide our every need.

If gas goes up to $100 a gallon and I need gas to get somewhere then I will believe that God will provide and meet my need past my expectation.

So...fellow believers... FEAR NOT! We serve a God that has more power in his pinky than the world could ever even dream of.

First Blog

So I know that while the whole world has been blogging I have been missing out. Honestly, I always thought I didn't really have the time to keep it up or even enough to talk about in order to have an interesting blog...but the other day I was thinking "huh..maybe I do"... so I am starting.

Hope you enjoy all I have to say :)