From the Kitchen

So I absolutely love J. Gumbo's. Derek and I eat there all the time. One of my favorite things is the bumble bee stew. I decided to try to make it at home and I was so pleased with how it turned out. I love cooking and I love trying to make new dishes. When I am cooking Im usually not so great with measuring. My mom and grandmother said that my great-grandmother (who was a fabulous cook) never measured anything really. She always had just the right touch and knew what her recipes needed. I had a good attempt today with that and would like to hope I could be at least half the cook she was. So here is my attempt to explain what my recipe for today's dish included.

Ingredients:

1 can of black beans

1 can of corn

1 can of diced tomatoes

1/2 of a small onion sliced into thin pieces

1/2 stick of butter (used at different times)

About 4-5 teaspoons of sugar (The sauce is supposed to be kind of sweet and I just kept adding sugar to taste)

Salt and peper to taste

10-12 drops of tabasco sauce (or to taste it you like it really spicy)

1/2 cup of milk

2 Tablespoons of flower

dash of paprika

First I sauteed the onions in a little butter and salt to soften them up in a skillet. Then I added the can of tomatoes, corn, and beans (drained and rinsed) to my skillet and let them cook.

In a seperate pan I made a butter sauce. I used about 2 tablespoons of butter melted and added 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix those together and let the flour cook a bit. Then I wisked in about 1/2 of milk slowly. I wanted a the sauce to be slightly thickened. Then I added the salt, pepper, paprika, hot sauce, and sugar to this sauce.

Once finished I added the sauce to the vegetable mixture and let it continue to simmer. Taste to see if you need more sugar, salt, hot sauce to your liking.

Prepare white/brown rice. Serve stew over the rice and enjoy!

When I think of Summer...

I think of the beach! So while I am trying to figure out how to spend my everyday, I am patiently awaiting our trip to Charleston South Carolina in July. Neither of us have ever been there before. There is just something about the ocean that makes me feel complete. Until then I have been reminicising about vacations past at other wonderful beaches :)

Beautiful scenery- sweet serenity

Toes in the sand

Crashing waves

Walks on the pier

Palm trees- my favorite

Sunsets

Usually accompanied with a fun city to explore....who doesn't love the beach?? (my husband, but thankfully he humors me). So until then I will be researching great sites and food in Charleston.

Summer Days Approaching!

Wow...I can not believe I only have one more day with my students. Then after than I am only a few professional development sessions away from freedom for the summer. Now comes the big question....what to do with my time!? Being in a new house gives me plenty to work on automatically. Besides traveling, resting, reading, and enjoying the company of friends and family I have a few projects in mind. This past weekend I went shopping at some local thrift stores here in Louisville....and I loved it. I found so many things that I liked that just needed to be given a face lift. So that is what I plan on doing. Here are some of the items I happened to find:

This great old window. I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet, although I have some ideas. I've seen people use them before and they look awesome.

Shadow Boxes - I LOVED these. They had artificial roses inside already but I took those out. I have been wanting shadow boxes for a while and saw some at IKEA before. I like these so much better because of the detail they have (and they were only $2). Now....what should I put inside these little gems???

Finally I found these little wooden wall decorations. They should be really nice wall accents somewhere :) I definitely think im going to sand them down and paint them.

I have no idea yet where I am going to put these items....but I am going to enjoy re-designing them and finding the perfect spot.


I also painted one of the bathrooms a very bright green. I have been very cautious with color so far but I love how this turned out. I am kind of partial to green after all. :)

Blessings

Wow....what a busy, stressful month this has been. You know, I really thought this last month of school would be a breeze. Yet, again I was wrong. Ive been working 10-12 hour days most days. I was asked to help present a few professional developments this summer for Science which I am really excited about. It was quite an honor to be asked to help with this since I am a first year teacher. So this means I have been working several extra hours after my days at school. Not only that but our school is being renovated over the summer. So we have had to pack everything in our classrooms and storage rooms. Its been interesting. We've traveled to our hometown a lot for weddings as well and we have tried to continue working on some projects for our new home.

Needless to say I feel like I need some more hours in the day. Yet I feel I can not truly complain about feeling busy. Lately I have felt so aware of so much hardship going on in the lives of people I love and people in the world. I feel so helpless at times when people are hurting and I do not know how to comfort them. And I hate that feeling. So in the midst of feeling overwhelmed by the duties of life I realize how wonderful it is to be needed. I realized that instead of complaining, I really need to be counting my blessings. I take so MUCH in life for granted....sooo

I am so thankful to have a job. I am thankful I have been offered such a wonderful opportunity to work with other teachers to share what can with them. I am so thankful for a supportive husband. I am so thankful that when I am stressed, nervous, and sad I can call on Jesus to calm my nerves and help me to find peace. I am so thankful for a wonderful first year of school. I am so thankful for life that allows us to grow each and every day. I am so thankful to feel like I am finding purpose for God. I know that I may have days where life hits me with pain and confusion. I pray that despite all I am going through in life I will remember these things. Despite whatever is going on in life.....I NEED to remember the blessings I have had.

Progress So Far

Ok, so after 3 weeks in the house we are pretty proud of all we have accomplished. We managed to lay flooring, paint our kitchen (cabinets and walls), paint all the baseboards, and get everything moved in. Here are some pictures of our house.

Our bedroom which still needs to be painted and pictures to be put on the wall.

Our dining area
Living Room

The kitchen is open to the living/dining areas
Kitchen


Front Door

Upstairs Loft

Also, on a side note. It is Derby day here in Louisville. This also means it was one year ago we brought home our little puggle Marty. We named him Marty after the race horse "Smarty Jones".....so we have "Marty Jones". :0)

Home Owners

We closed on our house this past Thursday. This is what we have done since then...3 straight days of flooring, taping, and painting. Much more to come!

Kitchen with new floors and a coat of primer on the cabinets.

Living/Dining Area

View from the front :)

Changes Ahead

We found a house! Before I go on, I must say that house hunting was much more stressful than I imagined. Looking at houses was so fun, until I started getting worried that I liked too many of them! I was afraid I wouldnt be able to decide. There is so much to think about when buying a house. Location, space, affordability, which will be more marketable later, features I wanted most in a home, appearance, etc. It gets really complicated when you are trying to decide between two houses you really like. How do you decide which one wins? Ha, well we found our house and after some negotiating we got an accepted offer. Now if the home inspection goes well on Tuesday we will be set for a closing date in early April. We have moved pretty quick considering we just decided to buy about 2.5 weeks ago. :)

So we are very excited about that. There is a lot to think about and get ready for. Also today we attended an adoption seminar at Southeast Christian. We have been thinking about adoption for a while. It is not something we can do immediately but we know it is something we want for our future. It was really exciting to think of expanding our family in such a wonderful way. We just pray that God will help us to know when the time is right and where we are called to adopt. It is just the beginning :)