Susan featured my Etsy shop on her blog today. She’s starting a new series on her blog on Fridays called Handmade Showcase. I’m honored that she would showcase my store!

Following the plan I made up for the entire month is still going well. I think I just might stick with planning monthly instead of every two weeks or more often.

Sunday – pork BBQ sandwiches
Monday – chicken stir fry in tortillas
Tuesday – scalloped potatoes and ham (crockpot)
Wednesday – tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
Thursday – baked ham and mashed sweet potatoes
Friday – pizza
Saturday – chicken pot pie

The veggies for each evening meal we pick out when we go to fix supper. I like to plan out the higher carbohydrate sides in advance though.

Breakfasts are eggs, grits, oatmeal, biscuits, waffles, cereal, and smoothies.

Lunches are sandwiches, mac and cheese, fish sticks, leftovers, etc.

I was also invited to a cookie swap next weekend. I’ve never heard of a cookie swap with contests before. Maybe I’m just clueless, but this could get interesting. My family won’t mind if I practice on them. Besides, having extra cookies in the freezer isn’t a bad thing, right? The only problem is trying to figure out which cookies to make. Don’t know if I’ll blog about it while I practice – can’t give away my top secret recipes, right? ;O) Or maybe I will and you’ll just have to guess which one I’ll make and if I even have a chance at winning. We’ll see.

You can read more menu plans over at orgjunkie.com.

. . .or maybe I should title it, “Why I hate stray dogs so much.”

A stray dog dug under the fence into our chicken coop this morning. It killed 18 of our birds so far, plus two more that are alive now but won’t be for much longer.

It’s so frustrating. We’ve tried to make sure the fence keeps out animals, but apparently the ground was extra soft out there from all the rain we’ve had lately. Either way, that’s a lot of our birds that are now gone.

Two weeks ago something got in our small chicken pen and killed all the birds we were fattening for the freezer. Now this happened today. I’m more aggravated that the birds (and their eggs) were a source of food for us that we don’t get to eat now.

One small consolation is that it will free up some extra cash in our budget. Our egg selling days just came to a halt, but at least we’ll still get a few fresh eggs for ourselves.

It’s going to be weird having such a big coop with so few birds in it. . .

A friend of mine on Facebook sent me a recipe for Pumpkin Cookies. I thought they sounded good, but made a few changes when I made them. Here’s the recipe the way I made it:

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Pumpkin Cookies
Makes roughly 3 dozen cookies

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Cream together butter, sugar, pumpkin, egg, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Drop by tablespoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 96 Calories; 5g Fat (49.6% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 11g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 20mg Cholesterol; 115mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

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I used regular all-purpose flour tonight, but next time will probably make them with at least half wheat flour. They seem like they would taste better with a flour that’s a bit heartier than regular white flour. They were delicious though!

Stephen just returned home from his parents’ house with a ton of leftovers. When Dad called earlier, he said he had some BBQ plates, but I wasn’t prepared for what Stephen would bring home. 30 BBQ plates, 7 subs, and an entire cheese pizza. Nearly all of it went into the freezer. I’d say we’re set with ready-to-eat meals for a while.

I love it when God provides for us like that!

Today was pretty unusual in that five packages came in the mail. It was so fun!

There was a box from Amazon.com, paid for with Swagbucks gift cards. I can’t wait to try out the cute little nested cookie cutters – they’ll work as flowers or snowflakes.

Two of the packages were supply orders for Hope of My Heart orders.

One package was a Christmas gift for Stephen, but of course that’s not pictured. ;O)

The biggest box was Tupperware. It was huge! I felt like a kid at Christmas unwrapping it all. The boys loved the boxes. I can’t wait to get it all washed so we can use it. If you need a Tupperware lady, go check out my friend Erin’s Tupperware site. She’s the best!

She’s growing so quickly!

We have a winner for the necklace giveaway!

It was so fun to read what everyone’s favorite piece of jewelry was. Many ladies wrote that their favorite piece of jewelry was their wedding band, and I definitely understand why. My wedding band is one of my favorite pieces as well.

The winner, chosen via random.org:

#20 is Karen. She says:

My favorite piece of jewelry is a mother’s bracelet that my dh bought for me a couple of years ago. It has three strands of silver and colored beads. Each of my girls names are in silver blocks – one per strand. I love it!

Can’t wait to make your necklace and get it out to you!

If anyone is interested in buying a pendant for themselves, you can get it at my store – Hope of My Heart Designs.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted my menu plans here. I haven’t stopped planning them because it makes grocery shopping SO much easier. This time I tried planning out the entire month at once. So far things are going smoothly. We’ll see once we’re farther into the month though.

Sunday – crockpot chicken breast, breadsticks and dipping spices
Monday – meatloaf (from the freezer) and mashed potatoes
Tuesday – tacos (also from the freezer)
Wednesday – chicken broccoli casserole (from the freezer too) and brown rice
Thursday – Spanish Rice
Friday – pizza
Saturday – crockpot potato soup

The veggies for each evening meal we pick out when we go to fix supper. I like to plan out the higher carbohydrate sides in advance though.

Breakfasts are eggs, grits, oatmeal, biscuits, waffles, cereal, and smoothies.

Lunches are sandwiches, mac and cheese, fish sticks, leftovers, etc.

We’re still using up a lot of the meals I put in the freezer before the baby was born. It has made things so much easier though, that I think we’ll be doing a lot more freezer cooking in the future. It might not be once a month cooking the way that’s usually defined, but every little bit sure does help.

You can read more menu plans over at orgjunkie.com.

“This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” ~ Psalm 118:24