My Church family

Thankful, a photo by machris (Mary-Ann) on Flickr.

I've said it before, and I will say it again, I have the BEST church family! I cannot even begin to explain all the reasons I am thankful for my church family, not just the church the organization, not just the church the building, but yes the church the people.
one thing I like about the church is that they accept us....and they are there though good times and bad.

after our last experience I truly thought I would never feel comfortable in a church again, yet here I am!
And I can say I am looking forward to becoming more involved next year :-)

I want to share a conversation this morning as we were getting ready for church
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Me- "Girls do you want to get moving and get ready for church, or do you want to stay home with dad?" girls- "we wanna go to church!" me -"are you sure? you remember it's summer now so no Sunday school, do you still want to go to Church?" girls - "YES Church! Church! Church!"
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How cool is that?
Oh the boy is at boy scout camp.

the journey that took us to boy scouts

Technically I took this picture yesterday but I figure you wont mind right? it's been a tough day for pictures.


Today I am thankful for the boy scouts, I certainly never thought that Mapboy...the kid who wont go outside. the boy who doesn't like bugs, or dirt or mud, the boy who wouldn't swim, or ride a bike, would ever EVER want to join the scouts.

And now here we are. If you saw him the other day after cleaning out some things that we needed for a church fundraiser covered head to toe in dirt....or if you heard him saying to his little sister "bees wont hurt you unless you hurt them"  if you had seen the big smile on his face as his dad drove him off this morning to a week of camp!  Yeah I  give a lot of credit to the scouts, and his friend H who talked him into Joining!
Scouts ROCK!
Being thankful ROCKS! 

I am waking up my blog today

I want to restart my 365 of thankfulness, but I want to be realistic, so I am calling it "approximately  365 ones of mostly thankfulness"








I Am sure my tens of followers will be thrilled! :-)

A Recipe----Chicken catch a tory Ravioli Stew-- a Rachael Ray recipe

Link to the recipe

So this is the recipe I made for the pot luck, and for my sisters birthday party. I thought I had posted it, but I guess I didn't  The recipe is very easy, it's from Rachael Ray's "Cooking Rocks!" cook book for kids, which is why the wording on the recipe is a little weird, it's geared toward kids, and the GH she refers to is "Grown up helper" Mapboy used to make it back when he used to like cooking. and he asks me to make it quite often.
I do a few things different, I use Boneless skinless Chicken thighs instead of breast tenders, I find the breast meat dries out especially if you have it in a crockpot at a potluck KWIM?

Also to lower the sodium we use Herb ox Sodium free Chicken bullion mixed with water instead of the Chicken Broth...because I do this, I also do not go through the trouble of draining the spinach, instead I just add a little more of the bullion to make up for the added liquid---Ive tried it both ways and there is not a difference in flavor for me, so I go with the easier way :-)
Also I almost never can find fresh Thyme so i used dried, and I also use frozen Ravioli.

It makes the whole house smell awesome!  Enjoy!

Chicken Catch-A-Tory Ravioli Stew

Serves 4

Submitted by

Rachael Ray

on 09/17/07

Cacciatore is the real way to spell the name of this stew. It's the Italian word for "hunter." Chicken Cacciatore is made with wild mushrooms and strong flavors. It is hearty, so it would keep a hunter full for a long hunt. This stew uses some of the same ingredients and flavors of the original dish, but it's even easier to make. Everyone in Rachael's family really loves this recipe!

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, skins on
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2 stems fresh rosemary
• 2 stems fresh thyme
• 1 cup pre-sliced fresh mushrooms, or have a grown-up helper (GH) slice them for you
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 can stewed tomatoes with peppers, onion, and celery (15 ounces)
• 2 roasted red peppers from a jar, drained
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 package chopped frozen spinach, defrosted in microwave and drained (10 ounces)
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 3/4-1 pound chicken breast tenders
• 1 pound fresh ravioli, any flavor
• 1 cup grated parmesan, Parmigiano Reggiano or Romano cheese, to pass at the table
• Crusty Italian bread or rolls, to pass at the table

Preparation

Have a GH heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat.

Place three cloves of garlic on a cutting board and WHACK each clove with a small, heavy frying pan. Pick out the skins and chuck them into a garbage bowl.

Ask your GH to add the EVOO to the soup pot. Throw in the smashed garlic and two stems each of the rosemary and fresh thyme. The leaves will fall off the stems and give a delicious flavor to your special stew.

Add the mushrooms and help stir as the mushrooms cook, about 3-5 minutes. Season the 'shrooms up with salt and pepper as they're cooking. Next, you or your GH can open the can of stewed tomatoes and add them to the pot.

Then, use a sharp, small knife to chop the roasted red peppers. Keep your fingers on the hand holding the peppers curled under so you don't chop off your whole finger! You just want to cut up those peppers into pieces as big as your mouth. Add the chopped up roasted red peppers and add one cup tomato sauce to the soup pot.

Put defrosted chopped spinach in a kitchen towel. Gather the towel up and twist it to get the water out of the spinach. Squeeze the spinach over a garbage bowl until it stops dripping. Separate spinach with your fingers and add it to the soup. Pour in the chicken broth and stir the stew really slowly or it will slosh out of your pot! Have your GH cover the soup and raise the heat to high.

Ask your GH to cut up the chicken for you on a separate, plastic cutting board (different from the one you cut the vegetables on). Cut the chicken tenders into 1-inch pieces and add them to the stew. Ask the GH to go wash up right away with lots of soap and water – and also to wash the board – so that the raw chicken doesn't get on anything else in the kitchen or any other food. If you touched the raw chicken, you go wash too.

When the stew comes to a boil again, add the ravioli and leave the lid off. Cook the stew until the ravioli is almost done, about five minutes. Turn off the heat and let the stew cool down a bit.

As your GH to help serve up the stew and pass cheese and bread at the table to go with it.
This is one of many "Yum-o!" recipes – it's good and good for you. To find out more about Yum-o!, Rachael's nonprofit organization, go to www.yum-o.org.

Twenty three ---- vacations

Today I am writing my blog entry while on our way home from our little
Mini vacation I won't be able to send it until I get home but I am writing it now!
It's been a great week and I am very thankful for re time we have spent together but I sure am looking forward to get back on the same
Old schedule Also can't wait to get back to the gym again, I hurt my knee one day just landed on it wrong so it's probably a good thing I haven't been making it to the gym this week huh?


I had made some goals for the family of things to achieve for this week and I have to say that we didn't reach one of them but I think we all had fun so that is good!
Tomorrow is Easter we are looking forward to spending the day with good friends!

Today I am thankful for school vacations! For this opportunity to bond as a family to just have fun! It was nice! Even If we didn't finish our set goals!

Here is a picture of my youngest and my oldest just being kids :-)

Twenty two --- Butterflies!

Oh it's so hard to keep this up while on v acation


sorry I didn't do Twenty One *sigh*
So Today we went to the place with the butterflies
everyone was so excited, until we got inside and we all remembered that Jess is terrified of butterflies landing on her!!!!! It took most of the day to get her to stop being so frightened and actually look at the butterflies once she did she had a great time.

Today I am tired LOL So i will get right to the point :-)
Today I am thankful for the patience I have learned to have with my daughter, and rice paper butterflies (I think that's the name) which is her favorite

Twenty - - - video

Today I will try something new
I have a video that I took today at Jordan's Furniture. Why did I decode to change it up? Well I like to keep it fresh....ok so maybe it has something to do with my taking that video and then running out of batteries LOL so not being able to take any pictures all day LOL
Lets hope the upload works :-)
Today the kids wanted to go to Jordan's Furniture. The water fireworks show, the Trapeze was great the kids loved the ice cream LOL the furniture was nice----and expensive!!!!! I actually enjoy making fun in my mind about how pricey it is LOL

The kids did fantastic!!!
What s great day!!!!
Ok can't do a video

I'm going to try it from the computer.

This is Wally the green monster taking care of a pesky Yankee, Moo thought it was so funny she asked me to take a video of it :-) No Yankees were harmed in the making of this film ROFL!

Today I am thankful for computers that do what you want them too :-)
So glad this worked out!

Nineteen -- a Day at the Zoo

Today we went to the Zoo with some friends
Jess was very happy on the way to the zoo, but once we got out of the car and she realized it was cold AND raining she wanted to go home....it was tough but I must say she did awesome!  it used to be we would have had to leave, but she didn't even have a real meltdown, just a mini mini tiny one :-) and she eventually  recovered and we even saw her smile and have some fun later on :-) I'm so proud of all my kids, they have been doing so well  even with the disappointment of finding out we were not going to DC this vacation there was not too much complaining, And they are getting along pretty good! Well you know they are siblings so it's never going to be perfect!

The boy had a headache....He seems to be getting a lot of headaches lately. *sigh*

Today I am thankful for the ability to see how far we have come.

here is a picture of my Jessica actually having fun today :-)   Ohh can I also be thankful for the Church, and Judie  who gave her this thing....what is that called anyway?

Oh here I jsut watched  The redsox lose in Oakland and I realized I crossed over the date again....it's tomorrow ROFL

Eighteen--- Bird watching

OOPS THIS DIDNT POST LAST NIGHT FOR SOME REASON....OH WELL YOU CAN SEE IT NOW!

Today we did a bit of work around the house....seems like our 50-50 Vacation (50% projects around the house, and 50% fun activities  is turning into more fun than work LOL and that is ok for me at least for now.....ask me in a week when I still have projects to complete LOL
When we finished our work we went to Parker river  it was a great day and totally Meltdown free!
the kids and parents are doing so great   Sibling civility LOL

Today that is what I am thankful for....Sibling civility!!!!!

we were lucky enough to see a pair of osprey there and a kestrel  No I didnt get a picture of the birds LOOL but I did get a picture of this
Daddy got a spontaneous hug from this little redheaded   cutiepie!