~Freezer Slow Cooking~

Pinterest is awesome! If you don’t have an account..every woman needs a pinterest account. I have tried so many new recipes and LOVED them all.

I have been pinning several different pins lately that are of peoples freezers and freezer cooking. What really interests me, is they are using their crock pots. They are opening their freezer bag and dumping the contents straight into the crock pot..no prep..no opening cans..no cutting vegetables…no touching raw meat….no mess, just open and dump! I love it!!

I cant tell you how much time I don’t have. And what time I do have….honestly I don’t want to spend in the kitchen. I want to spend it homeschooling my kids in the mornings, napping with Mia in the afternoon….oh wait who am I kidding? That is what I like to do when we aren’t running to church, puppet practice, grocery shopping, 4H, 3 dance classes, music lessons, errands…but when supper time hit and I hear what’s for supper? I cringe….oh why didn’t I throw something in the crock pot this morning.

My husband is wonderful when it comes to this. He will get carry out..pizza..or fix supper for all of us. He NEVER complains.

So I think my problem is that I am out of the habit of fixing dinner, meal planning, organizing, planning grocery shopping or whatever. But I am determined to get my groove back. I love to menu plan….its my thing. It’s my job!!

So I decided to prepare 18 meals for my freezer that can be dumped into my crock pot for an easy meal. Because I need easy lately….I wont use these everyday but when I can’t wrap my brain around dinner…this is my back up.

Now…everyone has been asking me to post the recipes…however I chose meals that I don’t use a recipe for…meaning I don’t have the recipe written down. The recipe is only in my head.

Below is the picture..a terrible picture…but a picture of all 18 meals.

Here is what I fixed:
2 Chili’s
2 Taco Meat
4 Spaghetti Sauce (whip up lasagna or spaghetti in no time)
2 Roast, potatoes and carrots
3 Italian chicken breasts
3 chicken noodle soups
2 chicken alfredo

Okay…now recipes. I always use my moms chili recipe…its in my head. Lasagna….come on…EASY peasy…really. The chicken noodle soup is complete except for the noodles.

Now I don’t really like raw meat…the only thing different I did was not add the raw meat with the veggies. I kept it in a separate bag. Lots of websites say it is not a problem, but I just could not do it. Just me…I am a food snob…always have been ….always will…:- /

Did I cover it all? I think so…feel free to ask any questions. And please don’t pin this horrendous picture!!! 🙂

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~Fun with Friends~

Mia loves her friend Bowdy. Bowdy goes to our church and homeschool coop. Today Bowdy’s mom left preschool for a well deserved break and I watched Bowdy. He is a mamas boy. So he was fussing, it was so cute. Mia says,” Baby, mommas always come back…all the time and every time.”


Hmm… Maybe she is catching on.


Bowdy was hoping mama would come back and rescue him from this little girl who kept rubbing him and saying its okay baby.


Mia and her best friend, Elle.


Hugs.


I am not sure what happened here. Mia and friends decided to be funny and were posing. Mia kept saying, “Hurry… Take a picture.”


Mia making her Hangul valentines.:)


Mia and Oppa Paul or as Mia likes to say little Oppa.


Precious.

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~God’s Rainbows~

Never before have I had a friend to teach me so much yet we have never met.
Never before have I followed an adoption story as heartbreaking as this.
Never before would I have believed with my own eyes.
Never underestimate the power of Satan.

God knew exactly what he was doing with that extra special chromosome when he blessed human beings with it. Have you noticed a child with this extra special chromosome who wasn’t smiling?
Have you ever been hugged randomly by a person blessed with this extra chromosome?
Have you ever been high-fived at Walmart….Have you ever laughed at…Have you ever made fun of….Have you felt sorry for the parents…..

SHAME on us! Shame…I have been following many blogs and have become friends with many people who are adopting from foreign countries, chromosomally enhanced children. I have looked so intently into these children’s eyes. You can see the hurt…the abuse…the neglect…the hunger not only for food…but for a glance…yes a GLANCE…little lone a touch. Where are we??? Where are the christians that should be flocking to adopt these children? Where am I?

But you know what else I see….I can’t even tell you what it is. These children are blessed, almost as if they have seen something we haven’t seen. I wonder if they haven’t seen a glimpse of heaven. SO happy…loving….feeling..You can look at these children and think it could NOT have been an accident or a mistake or a mutation. Look…you can’t miss God’s handiwork there. They are beautiful.

My friend blogs an incredible blog over at….click here… Gods Rainbows. They are bringing home 5 incredibly awesome children.

My friend’s husband is making the required one week visit to each child. They then must wait 4-6 more months to bring these children home.

Pray…pray big…pray like you have never EVER prayed before.

~What’s Going Here~

Okay now really try to control the jealousy because of all the fabulous things going on here. My only thoughts that cheer me over the past rough few weeks is that things must be moving in our adoption and Satan isn’t liking it.

So Camye went on a fabulous
Cruise with her grandma and grandpa … As soon as I get a moment of free time I will upload her pictures.
I am so thankful she is back!! Wow how i missed her!!:) don’t you love our unpacking mess!!


This I love… Paul writing stories phonetically. So adorable!! Until mommy has to read them but honestly has no clue what they say!!!


Be afraid … Very afraid. I am.


A new Easter dress for Mia…. And maybe a matching one for Avah.:) not for Easter but later for matching church dresses.


Aww the randomness of Mia’s picture taking, which she is so proud of.


Sleepy sleepy mommy and Mia.


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I know…exactly what you are thinking.
And yes ..she is this beautiful!!
And yes..she looks 7 or 8 years old.
And she is only 4 years old.
We recently received an update from our fabulous K*rea Agency, SWS. This update included 2 pictures and about 15 minutes of video. Of course, about 12 minutes of this is her coloring…;) but she does play with a little computer, calls to her friend SeungJoo from the other room, sings on the top of her lungs, dances, jumps and acts like a horse, pig and a cow!! it is sooo adorable and I have watched it like 100 times and will probably watch it another 100 times.
I have received many questions lately about our adoption. I am going to answer a few.
1. Why did it it take 6 months for you to start your paperwork?
Our US agency has a rule that you must finish and finalize one adoption before starting another. It is a good rule and completely understand their reasoning. After Avah, comes home I will NOT look at Waiting Children lists until she is finalized.:)
2. Why is Avah’s adoption going to take longer than Mia’s if she is older and has more needs?
The K*rean government has temporarily stopped issuing all exit permits and has since last June. Without getting into this on a public blog, K*rea would like to stop adopt international adoption eventually, but I can only imagine this is every countries goal. This has been their goal for over 50 years. So they have been downsizing their international programs, which has slowed every thing down. She will come home…it just may not be in the 7 weeks it took Mia to come home. I don’t for see her waiting for a long period of time and hope she will be home this summer.
3. Am I crazy?
Yes
4. How many kids are we going to adopt?
As many as God puts in our heart, it isn’t easy, cheap or even fun to wait and agonize over what is happening with your child in another country under the care of someone you do not know. But I can not NOT adopt because it isn’t easy. 

~Avah’s 1st Care Package~

Avah’s first care package!! So surreal!!! It only took 7 months of waiting but it is shipped to my agency and then onto Korea sometime soon!!

Hoping she gets it soon!!
Now to mail these and few other goodies to my friend Jen who will be traveling to Korea very soon!:):)

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~South Korea has arrived~

Mia Grace is soooo precious!! Our older kids have participated in our Homeschool International Fair for 5 years now. This year we did South Korea, not a big surprise.;)
Mia was so adorable in her Hanbok and new Hanbok Avah Bow.
She was showing off and bowing for everyone.

Lots of kids and parents show up and enjoy food and info from other countries.
We had a 2 tables this year because we had such an elaborate spread…:)

Mia and Mommy

WOW I love these 2 littles…so precious!! They are waiting to go on stage!

Paul loves being a big brother and helping little Mia onto stage!!

I LOVE KOREA!!!
Camye is out of town on a cruise with Grandma, Grandpa and her cousin, Alycia. She missed the fair but did lots of work on it before she left.
Here are the 4 that were here!
I am thinking next year we may do North Korea.

Mia and her friend Paulina. Paulina is a beautiful…I mean beautiful little girl that was born in Guatamala. She adores little Mia and Mia loves Paulina. 
Me, Stacey and Heather…we have taken this picture for about 5 years. Wow have we changed..and wow how many more kids have we added in the meantime!! Stacey is pregnant for #6 here . She is dues in a few weeks.:) Between the 3 of us we have 16 kids….crazy!!:) But we love it!:)