Lead me....

As I was driving to work today, this song came on the radio. Any wife would be lying if she said she had never felt the way the wife in the first part does. Problems arise when that feeling is more the norm than a passing season. I thank the Lord that I have a husband who is willing, and I believe does, pray a prayer for strength to be the head of this house. I do have to wonder, that if more men prayed this prayer, would more marriages would be saved....

Sanctus Real - “Lead Me”

I look around and see my wonderful life
Almost perfect from the outside
In picture frames I see my beautiful wife
Always smiling
But on the inside, I can hear her saying...

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can't
Don't leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight
That I'm still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone”

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes
They're just children from the outside
I'm working hard, I tell myself they'll be fine
They're in independent
But on the inside, I can hear them saying...

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can't
Don't leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, but what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight
That I'm still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone”

So Father, give me the strength
To be everything I'm called to be
Oh, Father, show me the way
To lead them
Won't You lead me?

To lead them with strong hands
To stand up when they can't
Don't want to leave them hungry for love,
Chasing things that I could give up

I'll show them I'm willing to fight
And give them the best of my life
So we can call this our home
Lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone

Father, lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone

My Chocolate Chip Cookies

You may ask - "What is so special about these cookies?" Well, nothing except they are exceptionally moist, soft, rich, and delicious! If you are a fan of flat and crispy cookies, don't bother. If you like the kind of cookie that can stand up on its own & that a big glass milk is a prerequiste for - this is the recipe for you! I will spare you the step by step pictures for this one.

I will just say that this recipe goes from this......

To this..... in less than 30 minutes.

Shelly's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 c. butter (softened)

3/4 c. brown sugar (packed)

1/4 c. sugar

1 small pkg vanilla instant pudding

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 bag milk chocolate chips

1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and stir.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until it is creamy.
• Add sugar, brown sugar, pudding mix, and vanilla extract to butter and beat until creamy.
• Add eggs and beat until well combined
• Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until combined
• Stir in chocolate chips with a sturdy spoon
• Place golf ball sized dough balls on a cookie sheet or baking stone. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies just start to turn brown.
• Let cookies rest on a cooling rack and EAT!

Last time I made these cookies I was feeling nice so I put some of the cookie dough in a seperate bowl and stirred in pecans for my hubs.

They turned out really yummy!

Since I don't necessarily want to be stuck with 2 half bags of chocolate chips, I usually double the recipe. (You can use all of one kind of chocolate chips but I like the two different flavors in the cookie) When I double the recipe, sometimes I will freeze dough balls on a cookie sheet or in a pyrex dish overnight. In the morning, I put them in a freezer bag and keep them in the freezer. Then we can have cookies anytime!

Enjoy!

Crockpot Beef Manhattan

Not long ago, I started recipe planning in order to be more purposeful in our grocery purchases. I have even went so far as to make a binder containing a list of all the meals that I make often and the recipes for those I don't have memorized. Beef Manhattan wasn't on my list but was a request from my hubby. This recipe is a hodge podge of a few different recipes so I suppose that makes it my own original!

Crockpot Beef Manhattan

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Cube Steak

2 small onions

seasoned salt

salt & pepper

water

stick of butter

worchestire sauce

package of brown gravy mix

jar of beef gravy

Slice the onions into rings. Melt 1 tbsp butter in a skillet then saute the onions until they are nice and brown.....

Meanwhile, slice your cube steak in long strips against the grain. See how the lines in the meat are running left to right? Slice it up to down... Then sprinkle it with seasoned salt on both sides.

Here are the onions all yummy and brown...

Then add those onions to the bottom of the crockpot. I guess you probably don't have to saute them before but I did.

Now melt about 2 tbsp of butter in the same skillet you sauteed the onions in. Place the strips of cube steak in and brown for 2 minutes on each side.

Let's not talk about what this looks like...

Add the meat onto the onions in the crockpot along with 4 tbsp of butter and worchestire sauce. I used around 4 tbsp of worchestire sauce but that is up to you how much you put in. Personally, I love that stuff! Also add about a half cup water.

Cover and cook on low for around 6 hours. You want this to practically fall apart when you poke it with a fork. I think the crockpot is the best way to cook cube steak no matter what recipe you are using. Otherwise, it is really difficult to get the meat tender.

About 15-30 minutes before you are ready to serve it, add in the brown gravy packet, the jar of beef gravy and salt /pepper to taste. This is what it will look like. It still looks...well...let's say it doesn't taste like what it looks like!

My husband says that this is how he has been served Beef Manhattan. There is one piece of bread cut into 2 triangles, a scoop of mashed potatoes in the middle, and then the meat/gravy on top of all that. I used the Steam n Mash potatoes in the freezer section. Yes, I could get a whole bag full of potatoes for what I paid for one bag of the Steam n Mash. But not having to peel potatoes is worth the extra money.

I have to say it was VERY tasty and is now part of our menu planning list!

Obviously, this is not the healthiest dish. Next time I make this, I believe that I will try to cut the butter use in half by using evoo to saute the onions and meat. That definitely won't make it super healthy but every little bit helps, right?

Sloppy Joes, Slop, Sloppy Joes

I've decided to start posting recipes and sometimes pictures of what I cook. So first up is Sloppy Joes!

Here is a link to the recipe from www.allrecipes.com. I actually follow this recipe pretty accurately. When I cook, I have a tendency to embellish the recipes with my own touches but not this one!

Ingredients:
2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
8 hamburger buns

Directions:
1. Place ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook until evenly browned, stirring to crumble. I like to use a potato masher to even out the lumps. Add onion and celery, cover the pan, and cook until tender and transparent, about 5 minutes. Drain off any grease.

So much for following the recipe! I actually like to cook down the celery and onions a little before I add the ground beef. The less crunchy they are for my family, the better.

I used 80/20 ground beef but you can use whatever you want.

Here is a little trick for those without a garbage disposal or who don't want to dirty another dish to drain the grease off. I like to mix the tomato soup/ketchup mixture in a seperate bowl so that I can control the sweetness of the sauce. What is really nice about this is that you can drain your grease straight into the soup can and then throw it in the trash can once it is cooled!

2. Stir the tomato soup (undiluted), ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce into the beef mixture. Season with salt and garlic powder. Heat to a simmer over low heat, and cook until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently to prevent it from burning on the bottom.

Pour it in!

Up close and personal...

Yum!
.

3. Spoon the hot beef mixture onto buns, which may be toasted first, and serve

I don't have time to toast the buns. We had the Sloppy Joes with corn and plain chips. Then we had them again the next night as leftovers because the kids had ate at my parents house.

This recipe freezes very well. So why not double the recipe and freeze some for another meal? I didn't but have frozen leftovers in the past. There is not much better at the end of a long day than just having to throw supper in the microwave to heat up!

Enjoy!

Things Have Changed!

Well things have changed quite a bit in the File house in the past month. We are no longer a family of five. Beckett Paul was born on June 19th to make us a family of six! So this blog address has changed to www.filefamilyofsix.blogspot.com !



Eli has turned 7 and finished 1st grade. He played soccer in the spring and then tball this summer.


Delainey turned 10 this summer and finished 4th grade in the spring. Next year she will move on to middle school which makes her Momma a little sad :(


Cait turned 3 in May. She is still adjusting to having her position of "baby" thwarted by her little brother. She LOVES him dearly but is trying to gain control in some way. Cait still goes to daycare and will start preschool when she is 4.


Life as a family of six has been a bit of an adjustment. Beckett is an easy baby for the most part. However, getting out the door with 4 kids is a challenge. We deal with quite a bit of acting out on a daily basis which tries our nerves. I'm getting used to doing things one-handed again and the kids are learning patience as they have to wait on me to take care of whatever Beckett needs before I can do whatever they want. But on the postive side, I get to enjoy little baby grunts again and get to snuggle a baby. We get to watch him discover his world and laugh at his little baby faces. The kids absolutely love him and they are developing their nurturing side. Shawn has another son to pass on the family name - although if we had all girls we would be fine with that!

I'm going to attempt to update the blog more regularly with stories from our family. I can't promise to be the most grammatically correct writer or to look on the bright side all the time. But I can guarantee some entertaining stories!

What do I want to be when I grow up...

When I think of my future, as in "What I Want to be When I Grow Up" I still really don't know. Maybe that is because we are always in a process of growing and changing. When I was younger, I wanted to marry a Christian man, be a Mom, and be a dental hygienist. So far so go. But who knew that I would soon be a Mom to 4 kids!

So do Mom's of 4 kids really work outside the home?? I guess in my mind, I stereotype Moms of large families as stay-at-home Moms who are totally devoted to their husband and kids. I now find myself preparing breaking my own stereotype and am not really sure how I feel about that. Sure, most days it would be a whole lot easier not to drive a half hour to work, put in my day, then come home and start my second "job" of the day. However, I enjoy my job and am fortunate that I make a decent salary with excellent benefits - both of which we depend upon. When I leave work at the end of the day, I don't feel as if I have just wasted 6-8 hours of my life. I feel like I have made the difference in a life of a child, who isn't even my own flesh and blood. In the US today, I honestly should be thankful to have a job period even if it is for a near bankrupt state!

So what does the future hold? I really couldn't tell you. I know that God will show the way as it comes. I used to think that in a professional sense, I wanted to be a dental hygiene instructor. That is still partly true. I would love to be a clinical instructor however, I'm losing the desire to teach didactic classes and I have absolutely no desire at this time to attempt to be a tenure track instructor. In my position at SIU now, I feel lucky to observe what I thought I would like to do in the future from the outside. I get to see what is really involved with being an instructor for what it really is. There is a WHOLE lot that goes on that I never realized as a student. At this point, there is no way that I could handle that as a Mom of almost 4! In our family life I would love to say that things will remain the same even after #4 makes his/her appearance but that would be very naive. A baby changes everything. Money will be tighter, rivalry will be stronger, the house will be messier, but I can tell you there will be even more love!

It's been a while....

I think a half year has passed since I blogged last - wow! This I am informed of by my dear friend Alicia :) So for Alicia and everyone else who cares to read this, here is an update!

The biggest news in our life is that we are expecting baby #4! After my annual exam and some testing to find out the cause of pelvic pain I had been having for many months, God decided to use his sense of humor and give us a 4th child. No, the baby is not the source of that particular pelvic pain - possibly endometriosis or adenomyosis. Neither of those can be fixed now but probably will require some attention in the future.

Baby #4 is expected to be here around June 22nd of 2010. This will be the final baby for Shawn and I as he will be getting a vasectomy in the spring. We have both come around to the idea of a 4th child and are starting to get excited. It is funny that when we were dating, before we had one child, we always said we wanted 4 kids. I guess we will get what we wanted!

The kids have started 4th and 1st grade this year and are doing well. Eli's new obsession is drumming on anything and everything in site. Delainey has been learning how to sew with her Maw Maw. Cait is quite cute lately speaking like a little adult.

Shawn is in the midst of basketball season which is off to a fairly good start. They are 2-1 as of Friday. Hopefully they will add to their wins this next week.

My newest endeavor is selling Premier Designs Jewelry. I found out I was pregnant AFTER I already signed up to sell the jewelry otherwise I may not have done it. Thus far, the business has been a success!

That's about it for now. I'm sure I will update later about pregnancy news and such....