Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Gratituesday: Cats!

I have to admit that I love cats. I grew up with a dog and dearly loved my Grover, but when I was a single teacher living alone in my apartment I decided to adopt a cat. So for my birthday I went to the shelter and found this beautiful cat, Katya. She was perfect for me. She and I instantly bonded and it was so wonderful that my future husband loved cats because there was no way I was going to give up my precious Katya. In fact, I think Katya loved Jeremy more than me at times. We had her for 7 years before we said a very heart wrenching goodbye in our living room on a Tuesday morning in November 2007. I really grieved a long time for this cat. But it made it a little easier because we had....

Abby!
We actually got Abby 6 months before Katya died. We met her when we stayed at a friend's house for the weekend. We fell in love with this sweet, loveable bundle. We really wanted to take this kitty home. So, it was an answered prayer when our friends offered for us to adopt Abby. We were thrilled! She has been such a blessing to us. Abby helped us through the loss of Katya. However, we really liked cats, so in January 2008 we rescued....

Chloe!
Chloe and Abby DID NOT get along well for several months. One lived upstairs and one lived downstairs. It was pretty bad. But when Abby and Chloe finally decided to tolerate each other we found out that Chloe had kidney disease. So in October 2008 we layed Chloe to rest next to Katya in our backyard. It was very hard to bury another cat in less than a year, but actually it worked out OK because we had our baby in November 2008 and having one cat was enough for me.

Here's a picture of Jeremy with Chloe and Abby.
I will always love cats and I definitely don't want to say goodbye to Abby anytime soon. Each one of these cats was a blessing from God for times in our lives. I really thank God for animals, especially cats!!

Do you have a precious animal that you want to tell me about? :)

Head on over to Heavenly Homemakers for more Gratituesday!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Freezer Cooking this week



I am loving cooking for the freezer. This week I will be filling up the freezer again. Here are my recipe plans:

*Enchiladas
*Zesty Italian Chicken- crockpot (2-3 lb chicken, 16 oz bottle Italian dressing, 1/4 c. parm cheese- place everything in crockpot, cook low 6-8 hours until tender, serve with mashed potatoes or rice- Alison's Perfect Brown Rice)
*Baked Salmon with mustard crumb crust- 30 day freezer gourmet
*Parsley Parmesan Chicken- 30 day freezer gourmet
*Lentil Soup
*Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup
*Garlic Lime Chicken
*Ginger Peanut Chicken
*Coffee Shop Corn Muffins - to go with the Lentil Soup

And for Shrade:
*Apple Muffins- Finding Joy in My Kitchen
*Sweet Potato waffles- Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Goodies:
*Almond Joy Granola cookies
OK, let's see if I can do this!

What are you cooking this month? Go to Life As Mom to find more great recipes.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Giveaway by Heavenly Homemakers!

I love giveaways. This one is for a $25 gift certificate to FBS books. You can find them online and facebook. Head on over to Heavenly Homemakers to enter.

Friday, March 26, 2010

God's Nuggets: Old and New Testaments- One story!

Last week I just finished my Beth Moore study of A Woman's Heart. What an amazing Bible study. If you have ever been confused about all the things in the Old Testament concerning the tabernacle and ark of the covenant and wonder how in the world it would ever relate to you...this is the study for you!

Here is just a brief glimpse of how the Old and New Testaments are intertwined:

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Tabernacle-
*Door (John 10:9)
*Bread of Presence (John 6:35)
*Altar of incense (Hebrews 7:25)
*Mercy seat (Romans 3:25-26)
*Basin (John 13:8b)
*Lampstand (John 8:12)
*Veil (Hebrews 10:20)
*Tabernacle (John 1:14)

I hope this gives you a thirst to study this more in depth.

What God Nuggets do you have to share?

Blessings, Shonda

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Recipe of the Week: Wheat Oatmeal Quick Bread

I was trying to find a quick and easy bread to make. Well, check out this Wheat Oatmeal Quick Bread from SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. This tastes so good toasted with a little bit of butter. Eat with any soup for a full meal. Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Great websites for teaching little ones

Here are some great websites that I mentioned I was going to post last week for toddlers and preschoolers:

*Pocketful of Posies- letter of the week with arts and crafts

*Totally Tots- Bible verses, books, giveaways

*Tot School- tot tray ideas and tons of other things

*ABC and 123- so many ideas!

*365 days of TV free toddler activities- a mom of 9 who has 3 toddler age sons (2 are twins)

*First School activities- You can build your whole preschool from here, printable pages too

I am in the process of starting to form my at home preschool curriculum with these websites and others as well as many books I have collected during my teaching. I'm so excited! Let me tell you, there are so many great resources my head is swimming, but I will pick and choose what is right for me and my child. Have fun looking!

PS. I'm so excited! I just started another blog totally dedicated to teaching- Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow!

Friday, March 19, 2010

A giveaway: Preschool Curriculum



If you are interested in a winning a preschool curriculum, just head on over to ABC and 123 for this giveaway!