A Whole New World

S-I-G-H...That was me just taking a cleansing deep breathe from a very busy Saturday in our family of four! I never knew we could cram so much into such a small time period but we did it, and, I might add, without a single melt down by any of the small ones in tow. Blessings definitely bestowed on the parents from that angle!

Our princess, as you can see from the picture, was over filled with joy to go see her friends Mickey and Minnie Mouse at Disney on Ice. I have to admit, as I mentioned in the previous post, I was pretty excited about it too! We joined up with some of our friends and had a mommy/kiddos afternoon out. Such wonderful memories were made. Below is just a couple of pictures taken by Mommy (when I stopped long enough from watching sweet SG's reactions) and even some from what I think might be a future blogger on our hands...SG!

SG's Quote: "If Daddy were her Mater would have been his favorite!"

Full Attention

Another blessing of our day was getting to meet our new youth pastor and his precious family! God showed up and showed off is all I have to say! We are blessed. SG hit it off right away with their daughter, while E-Bug tried to steal their son's (5 weeks old) passie and bottle all in the matter of 2 minutes. Needless to say our little man is feeling MUCH better and is back to being all boy. One of our friends even commented that he thought E-Bug probably did at least 3 miles in our youth center of crawling trying to chase all the kids and get into trouble.

For this occasion, I had been asked to prepare some desserts as I mentioned in the previous post. I ended up making the following: chocolate chip cheesecake, candy corn cupcakes, trash cookies (recipe to come later this week), and my newest creation, caramel apple cheesecake with and animal cracker crust. The recipe I actually was given by my sweet mother-in-law who cut it out of a magazine that the Tennessee Farm Bureau publishes, go figure?! I read through it and made some slight changes to make it my own. You can find the recipe here. According to our pastor, "It's an award winner!"

I have to personally admit I rarely eat the desserts that I prepare. I know...weird. But deep down inside I am pretty much just an ice cream and cookies kind of gal, if that. I get such an enjoyment preparing food for others and to see how much they enjoy it! Now, that is a true blessing!

Cupful of Blessings,
Carri

Step in Time

I can relate a lot of my life experiences to music. I guess that is because growing up I played piano, clarinet, dabbled in the cello and guitar and was always involved in some kind of singing/dancing group. Then I ended up marrying a music minister...so go figure.

This time of year I love music in more ways than you can imagine. For one things, we have already been fully immersed in our Christmas music at church for over a month now. Plus I can just hear the drum warming up at the local high school just behind our church almost everyday for band practice. This brings back so many memories of the LONG, fun, LONG, hot, LONG hours spent on the marching band field standing on the metal podium at least 15 ft in the air. But I will have you know that I LOVED every minute of it and miss it greatly.

All these memories flooded  my mind today for some reason, but then other songs, as I was working around the house today, started spinning too. These are songs of Disney. For you see, I am going to be surprising our little princess with tickets to see Disney on Ice tomorrow! I am so excited to see her face tonight and even tomorrow when we go! Thanks to a great friend, Jennifer, and her awesome talents, we will be arriving in style!

However, I couldn't let all my excitement let me miss a "step in time". (Can't you hear the chimney sweepers singing from Mary Poppins?!) Today, I knew that my pin of choice was to return back to food. I am preparing desserts for a dinner we will be attending this weekend. One of the 4 desserts was chosen from Pinterest, one was a new one that I will write about in tomorrow's post, and the other two are some of my tried a trues. The idea from Pinterest got me even more excited about fall.

Candy Corn Cupcakes! I don't know about you but candy corn is one of my biggest weaknesses during fall. Especially, the ones I can get from the Fresh Market in Huntsville. They have these cinnamon ones come Christmas time that just lighten the mood of any day good or bad. Any ways...these cupcakes actually came from a professional bakery in California. So I took the picture and idea a step further and made my batter in candy corn layers too. Much like this rainbow cake. I will later be decorating my tray with candy corn pieces just to add the special!

What kind of goodies are you baking up this fall? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cupful of Blessings,
Carri

Sand of Time

Did you, as a little kid, ever think you could find some way to speed up the flow of the sand in a sand timer? Did you try flipping it back and forth or just plain shaking the tar out of it as if you were trying to add some kind of flavor to one of your mom's latest new kitchen creations? I know that I did do a few of these "tricks", especially when playing a game that used a timer of this sort; however, these days if I had one of these timers to measure the time in my day, I think I would try to discover some way to put a cork in the middle of the hour glass to make the sand STOP!

Today, our family got a rather S-L-O-W start. I am a early riser at our house generally up between 3:30 and 4:00 AM and hitting the pavement for my morning run by 4:30. But after yesterday, I knew that my body needed a little rest. Boy, I never knew that my back, biceps or abs could have taken such a beating from holding an 18 pound little boy for at least 5 hours yesterday. I was SORE! Needless to say, we all slept in until 8:00 AM, including both kiddos! I don't remember the last time I did this. Even after the extra sleep, my body just couldn't get into motion, but I knew my hour glass of time was quickly fading away.

So I got busy...As in the days previous (except yesterday), I decided to tackle a pinterest pin. This time I stepped away from the edibles and went to one of my other favorites cleaning/organizing. I chose to tackle my pesky glass cooktop that has those boil over, water on the bottom of the pan, you name it caked on stains. I had read THIS pin the other day about a proven homemade cleaner that was guaranteed to remove such above named stains. So I thought, 'What the heck!'

After following the directions, I have to say I have never been able to see myself so clearly in my cooktop as I do now. I think by the next treatment it will look almost brand new! I highly recommend this easy treatment to anyone with a glass cooktop.

This day, even though my hour glass I think may have sprung a leak causing it to fly by, has been a wonderful blessing. Besides the wonderful cooktop cleaner I now have in my back pocket, the kiddos and I have enjoyed the wonderful fall weather the good Lord has sent our way! All the while, I began to refinish a bookshelf turned hanging area for SG's dress-up clothes. Can't wait to show off the finished product!

Cupful of Blessings,

Carri

Just Keep Swimming

Monday and Tuesday this week in our area we received A LOT of rain! So much rain I contemplated taking up the sport of rowing to build up my upper arm strength as a trade off for paying a gym membership somewhere, but that would not ever happen considering I am terrified of capsizing a boat of any kind and not being able to get out. (Betcha didn't know that about me.)

Anyways...all this talk about rain (Isn't that a title to a country song?!) has absolutely nothing to which I am writing about today. Do you ever have those days that you wake up and you just have a gut feeling that nothing is going to go quite as you planned? Those days where you feel like the fish from Finding Nemo, Dori, and you keep telling yourself, "Just keep swimming...Just keep swimming," as a personal pep talk that everything is going to be just fine.

Well, today was one of those days for me or shall I say us because before all was said and done I had the whole family involved to help make all the gears turn in proper fashion. It all started with our Elijah-bug just not sleeping so well the night before. I felt like we were back in newborn stage getting up every 3-4 hours. Scarily I thought we might be entering into this with child #2. However, our God is much BIGGER than those deceptive thoughts one might have at 2:00 AM as your loving Hubby rolls over in bed says your child's name but shows no inclination of getting up to see what is wrong.

After multiply middle of the night feedings and uncharacteristic behaviors of our E-bug (i.e., cuddling and falling asleep in our laps, which is so NOT him our mover and shaker), I knew it was time to batten down the hatches per say. With a temperature gradually rising, I quickly put the adorable candy corn cupcakes I had planned to make for my KidsPraise kiddos on the back burner for this week and "Saddle Up My Horses" (A great Steven Curtis Chapman song if you've never heard it.) to take action. I knew by mid-morning things were not improving considering our moocher of a son was not taking a bite of food and didn't have a lick of interest in a bottle/cup of milk. I know, surprising to some of you who know our E-bug.

A quick phone call, a trip to our fabulous pediatrician, a car's backseat covered in projectile vomit and we have the good 'ole stomach bug! You wouldn't know it now considering my Little Man is quietly entertaining himself, while I my legs are slowly coming to a halt for the day as my "Just keep swimming" is about to drown out of pure exhaustion.

However, through all of this I have to say the rest of my family put out their star-studded walk of fame! Hubby took on dance duty taking our SG to ballet and tap. Then SG handled everything like a pro without an ounce of complaining. Lastly, God knew all of this in advance because he truly sent an angel to clean out E-bug's car seat so he could ride back to the doctor and home safely. Praise the Lord!

Needless to say it has been a pinterest-less day, but I am so grateful for JUST a stomach bug and to be continually blessed by an awesome family and friends!

Cupful of Blessings,
Carri

Just a Little Country

Being a girl from Knoxville, TN and married to a man from Nashville, TN, country music is just part of our blood. I am a fan no doubt of some good Martina McBride, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Zac Brown Band and many others. I even know that it is 5 o' clock somewhere, even though I am a "dry" Southern Baptist. And I absolutely LOVE cowboy boots, even if mine may never have stepped into a single pile of cow plops!

So tonight I thought I would try my hand a something a little "country", at least that was in the name of the recipe on a recent pin on my Dinner Board. It fell under this pin that claimed to have 40 recipes for shredded chicken. Well, the site did have 40 recipes for shredded chicken and some, I must admit, sounded a little, shall we say...scary to the taste buds. I decided to take the safe road tonight and not the "road less traveled". I chose this recipe.It sure has made my kitchen smell like one pulled out of a farm house. (It is still countrifying itself as a write this post.)

I did not feel that this was enough for my accomplishments today, for I had to get a little taste of fall in combination with our recent fall in outside temperatures. So I tested out one of my neighbor's and fellow blogger's recipes...Pumpkin Crunch Cake. If this makes your mouth water go ahead and jump in your car because there is more than enough to share. A lucky person might receive a gift tomorrow of this delectable dessert. I LOVE fall with all the colors, food and essences that go along with it. Just melts my heart!

In combination with all of these exciting new recipes I roped my mind around, my SG had quite a break through today in our schooling. For those who may not know, my Hubby and I have chosen to try our hands at homeschooling this year. As part of SG's curriculum, we have started the beginning basics of reading. Well, today she read 2 beginner books from the BOB book series. I was so excited because this area of study has been quite a tooth puller because she is such an artsy person. I almost cried! But she didn't stop there, she also proved that she could recognize and order all numbers 1 -20!

HOWEVER, the biggest blessing of today had nothing to do with our scrumptious dinner/dessert that we are about to devour or even the fantastic academic break throughs that we had today...No, the best blessing was when SG asked me this, "How do you get to go to heaven? I want to go to heaven!" So I explained the ABC's to her. We are on our way to having another sister-in-Christ. Such a BLESSING!

Cupful of blessings,

Carri

Where the Boat Leaves From

Well, this is where my boat leaves from (Yes, I am a HUGE Zac Brown Band fan!)...yep, I finally broke down just a little over 2 weeks of my strike and went to the grocery store. I, personally, could not face another night of pasta, eggs or some other weird concoction.

Following an adventurous day on the lake with some friends (who shall remain nameless and our story is safely secure with us), I broke down. However, I am happy to report that over the past 2 weeks I had saved enough from our grocery envelope that I was able to pay complete cash for groceries that will last us long past this week...minus the 2 gallons of milk that I will be lucky to stretch to Wednesday. I know this maybe astounding to some but I was able to stock us up for at least 1 1/2 weeks for right at $120, including meat purchases. I did this without any coupons! I know some of you are probably shocked, but with the stage at which I am at right now my couponing has gone on the back burner.

We are trying to still get in the swing of a new "routine" as well as adjust to homeschooling while being interrupted by an almost 1 year old! Quite interesting at times.

Now that my pantry is fully stocked, I look forward to posting some of the new recipes I have pinned on my pinterest boards. I generally try to leave my comments under the pins that I complete just in case you are curious as to how it turned out.

I am continually reminded how blessed we are even if I did eat pasta much more than I ever desire (not a big pasta fan!). Looking forward to the blessings the Lord will bestow upon us this week!

Cupful of blessings,
Carri

Penguins, Chickens and a Fish Bowl

I know I already have your mind wandering what in the world penguins, chickens and a fish bowl all have in common. Well, I promise they all have some things in common...at least at our house.

We have now entered Day 9 of my grocery store strike. I have to admit a trip to the Farmer's Market might be in my near future because we are almost out of all fruits and veggies and I HAVE to have at few of these items for my mere everyday survival. But I digress.

Yesterday proved to be a very busy day despite my calendar being blank on September 10. Our family has now lived in the Tennessee Valley for almost 2 years and to say we have completely adjusted would be a lie. You see every year we get hit by what the Hubby and I have coined as the "Fish Bowl Syndrome". You ask, "What?!" You see we live in Tennessee Valley and when allergy season sets in I think it takes up residence for at least the next 6 - 8 months in our "Fish Bowl" and doesn't escape until a good hard freeze and/or a super scorcher of a summer with some afternoon rain to rinse the pollen away. 

Thanks to the "Fish Bowl Syndrome" make its grand entrance upon us this past week, our poor kiddos have invited this unwelcomed guest into our home first. Therefore, a trip to our favorite Decatur Pediatrician became very apparent during Saturday and Sunday when SG sounded like a chain smoker. (Sorry if you are a smoke but we are NOT for many reasons.) Then came our next little friend to enter the house...Miss Penguin. Yes, we now have a penguin, or shall I say a child's nebulizer, that resides at our home. She is like a pet to SG, for she cares for it and watches over it as she receives her breathing treatments every 4- 6 hours for the next week. So the Fish Bowl Syndrome brought us a Penguin and then lead us to having Chicken Pot Pie for dinner.

This is one of SG's favorites because it includes 2 of her favorites, chicken and eggs. The recipe I use was given to us from some friends from Seminary. We have loved every sinful part including the whole stick of butter that is poured over the topping.

As promised last week when I started this journey, I have prepared yet another tasty treat for my family to start off the week. I made honey cinnamon swirl bread. I was given a bread machine for Christmas and I LOVE it! I use it mainly for making doughs and then bake in the oven because the machine, itself, tends to over bake the bread and dry it out. I have found from other bloggers advice that just baking the bread in the oven makes it so much better. I was so stoked about my bread and had plenty of ingredients left that I  even made a loaf and took it to a friend today. I think what truly made this bread was the honey that my friend had bought me from the Savannah Honey company last year. DIVINE!

I must depart now to go turn on Miss Penguin, dose out some more Fish Bowl Syndrome antibiotics and figure out "What's for Dinner?" tonight.

One Cupful of Blessings,
Carri Duke

P.S. My kiddos had their pictures made today by an awesome Christian couple from Madison. Go check them out! Gallery Seven Photography

Breaking In

I left you all hanging, I know...So for the answer to "What's for Dinner?" on our movie night, we chose what was deemed as the BEST cast iron skillet baked mac and cheese. I took a recipe off of pinterest and adapted it to what I had on hand. It was originally this 3 cheese (not all common cheeses mind you) baked mac and cheese. The picture, I am a very visual learner, showed it being baked in a cast iron skillet; so, I thought, 'What the heck? I AM a southern girl who DOES know a thing or two about cast iron skillets!' It turned out divine. My favorite part of baked mac and cheese are what we call the "crunchies" and this method left plenty to be had.

Our family is now in day 7 of my grocery store "strike" and today I REALLY wanted to go to the store, not because we needed something, but because Elijah is in the process of breaking in his first tooth finally and I just needed a break from all the whining and crying. Believe it or not the grocery store is generally my break time and I LOVE it!

But I am glad to say that I have not caved in yet. SG and I did go on Friday to get ONLY milk. It was tough looking at some of good buy one get one deals of the week and just passing them by but I did it! Our dinners on Friday and Saturday we not too exciting:
Friday
Pancakes
Cheesy Eggs
Fruit

Saturday
Parmesan Chicken Wraps with Marinara Sauce
Mixed Veggies

Despite the blah menus, I did manage to have the ingredients to make a killer buffalo chicken dip for college football watching with friends (ROLL TIDE!!) and some scrumptious bread machine cinnamon rolls for a friend to take to church. Both were out of this world!

So as I sit here in my first moments of silence in the last 2 hours, if you feel so compelled to hand me your grocery list this week, I would be thrilled to shop for you! Maybe by the time I return, all 4 of Elijah's first teeth will have cut through!

Just kidding! Continually astonished and blessed by our abundance!

Cupful of blessings,
Carri

Treasure Trekking

Today I called my sister-in-law to catch-up and to see how my favorite niece did in her first day of preschool. Gosh I miss her chubby cheeks! As she and I were exchanging stories of what our kids are up to and our new "normals",  I told her that today the kids and I started our Community Bible Study class and how that was the last item on our "list" to put us back into our school routine.

As I have been talking about stretching myself to places I have never been and/or doing things that have only crossed my mind, I was shocked at this year's theme for our Bible study...Trekking for Treasure. All of the things that our lead teacher was mentioning that we will cover in the course of 8 months and 5 Old Testament books made me stop and think. 'Wow! All the things that she is mentioning almost coincide with what I have been writing about for the past 4 days.'

So on our way home, I was discussing the remainder of the day with our SG and politely yet pointedly asked, "What are we having for dinner to go with our movie night?" (At our house, family movie night is generally on Thursdays since Daddy has Fridays off.) That is when it hit me. I have been doing really good all week about diverting the thoughts of going to the grocery store but today the temptation became very high. I really just wanted to go and pick up the ingredients for homemade pizza and be done with it!

But once again, my competitive nature kicked in and started talking to me. "Make this into something fun...go on a "treasure hunt" and see what you can come up with for dinner?" After all, my pantry looks nothing like Old Mother Hubbard's at ALL. So I went treasure trekking! Came up with not one but 3 options for dinner. So my little chef will help pick one of the three options and you will find out tomorrow what was chosen:
1) Baked Mac 'N Cheese with green beans
2) Chicken Parm. Wraps with green beans
3) Breakfast: scrambled eggs, waffles and fruit

Realizing once again the over abundance of blessings in my life!

Cupful of Blessings,
Carri 

We Need a Cow

I know what some of you that know me and where I come from the title of this post is a little, shall we say, out of the box?! For those who don't know my family now resides in what we refer to as our little "Mayberry". We don't have a stop light and things get fixed all in good timing...or shall I say when someone gets around to it.

Well, one of the things I joke about with my husband is about moving further out into the "country" and buying some chickens and a cow. To which he always responds, "I am not have ANYTHING to do with their upkeep." Who can blame him? If you have never been around chickens, well, frankly, they STINK. We have a chicken farm only about 15 minutes from our home and the chicken trucks roll through town like cars drive into Sonic from the hours of 2-4 PM. CRAZY! You don't realize the stench until you are either A) Running with a group of girlfriends and one drives by or B) driving on your motorcycle and one pulls right up next to on your way to Chick-fil-A to which you divert your trip to another eating establishment. Not that I or my husband have had first hand experiences like the a fore described I am just saying they stink.

All this to say that I have always said that we need a cow for its milk because we go through at least a gallon a week and we eat at least 2 lbs. of cheese a week too! Surely a cow would help cut down on some of that expenditure. Right?!

As I digress, I write all of that to lead into the meal I made for dinner on Day 2 of my grocery store, I guess you could call it almost, strike. Last night, being Wednesday our crazy afternoon day, I had to come up with something that was quick but still "homemade". As I racked my brain and skimmed the pantry and fridge I knew immediately...Chicken Salad Melts. These are one of our go-to recipes that we picked-up from one of the our favorite places to dine when we were dating called the Green Hills Grill in Nashville. It is no longer in business but their Chicken Salad Melts were to die for and I am not a big chicken salad fan at ALL.

This melt is built in this manner: First you take some kind of bread, in our case last night it was a slice of homemade bread. Then you take a heaping, don't skimp yourself, scoop of your favorite chicken salad. Finally, top it with mounds of either slices or grated cheese of your choosing. Our favorite is either Sharp Cheddar or Muenster. I prefer the cheddar just to break up the white color scheme. We usually serve this with fresh fruit and a small side salad. Last night, being it was already 9:30 when hubby and I sat down to eat, we simply just had the melt and called it a night.

I am still utterly amazed at what I am able to come up with and it is now almost Friday. Usually I would be scraping the car door to go to the grocery store because I am one of those weird people that absolutely LOVES to grocery shop. I will have to admit, I have found myself thinking about it a time or two but then I divert to my goal!

How have you realized this week the abundance of blessings the Lord has bestowed upon you?

Cupful of Blessings,
Carri

Date this Challenge

To catch those of you just joining in on my little "game", I have challenged myself to something I have never done before. After discovering this weekend that I do better if I just face my fears head-on, I realized I could take the same approach to other areas of my life. Upon returning home from quite an exciting motorcycle ride with the hubby (You might see us on an upcoming episode of Storm Chasers...just kidding), I concluded that my family is beyond richly blessed and one of the areas that we are blessed is through the abundance of food in our pantry, fridge and, yes, 2 freezers. So with all this being said, I have challenged myself to see how long I can take my family, while still providing 3 meals a day and snacks, without going to the grocery (except for milk and eggs).

Today is day 1...I started this challenge off right by making my family a little treat, Date-Cranberry Nut Bars. My little chef in training "helped" by taste testing the dates, cranberries and walnuts that made these oh so delectable treats. I have to say that I have been so proud of her lately, for she is not afraid to try anything new when it comes to food. This is a HUGE step because when she was a toddler we found that she leaned towards the picky eater side of life.

I am hoping to start each week, yes I said week (hoping to last at least 3 weeks or more), with some sort of treat for the family. In hopes that it might overshadow some of the "creative" meals that might come along further into my challenge.

Tonight on the table for dinner we will be taking a stab at something that I had pinned on my Pinterest wall sometime back Cream Cheese Grits topped with some kind of meat (haven't decided) with a side salad and fruit! They only seemed so fitting for a southern gal.

One thing I did learn from preparing last nights dinner and trying to be more frugal in preparations is that I tend to think I am preparing for 6 grown men when in reality I should only prepare for probably 2 grown men considering SG and I tend to eat like birdies.

The one thing, overall, I hope to take away is how abundantly blessed we are to be able to keep our pantry, fridge and 2 freezers overflowing with edibles. We are truly blessed!

Cupful of blessings,
Carri

P.S. If you choose to take on a similar challenge, don't starve your family, please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom. Would love to see some others join in on the fun!

Stretching the Limits

We just gave a giant wave bye-bye to a wonderful and fun-filled weekend with Mimi and Bobo. If they learned anything from our weekend it probably was 2 things:
1. Elijah LOVES to eat!
2. Elijah is a polar opposite of Samantha Grace comparing them at this stage (9 1/2 months). Extremely active and into EVERYTHING!
I am for certain that they felt like they had to be Stretch Arm Strong in order to keep track of him.

This weekend I taught myself to overcome some fears in the same manner we make our Samantha Grace...facing them head on. One of my biggest fears was riding the motorcycle with Josh on a "fast" road (aka Highway 20/24 that both straddle our little town). Well, I faced this fear head on and just before and after a major storm hit the area we were heading. On our way home, I felt a bit like a storm chaser but always checking Josh's side view mirrors to make sure the sunshine was just behind us. Quite a thrill once we got home without a drop of rain. Bobo and Mimi said we must have direct communication with the Lord on a golden line because we were all for certain that Josh and I were going to get soaked! Boy did I feel stretched out of my comfort zone.

Now that the "normal" has settled back into our lives of just the 4 of us, I have set out to make my weekly goals. I made my, for certain, final weekly trip to the grocery to gather a couple necessities. Upon arriving home and looking in my pantry, fridge and freezer, I realized how blessed beyond all measure our family is with an abundance of food. Therefore, I have decided to stretch us to the limits and see how long (minus milk and eggs) we can go without a "MAJOR" shopping trip. Now being a full-time stay-at-home mom I think this would be a fun challenge of myself and my family. So I invite you on this journey.

I will post a short blog each day to let you know how we are doing. I think I am going to be surprised. Let the creative cooking juices flow and let me stretch us to the limits...

Cupful of blessings,
Carri