Things are getting back to normal, so I have been able to write up my menu again. For more great menu ideas, be sure to visit Laura.

Monday: Gene & I– date night: the girls– homemade soup and sandwiches

Tuesday: Chicken & Sausage Gumbo, homemade bread, salad

Wednesday: Roasted Chicken, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, butter beans & homemade bread

Thursday: White bean Soup with Smoked Turkey
cornbread & salad

Friday: Stuffed Manicotti, french bread, & salad

Saturday: leftovers

Sunday: For our meal at church I will provide the sides, which won’t be determined until later in the week

This weekend we did some re-decorating in the family room… or at least 2/3 of the family room. It came as somewhat of a surprise to me when on Thursday evening while we were running errands, Gene told me he wanted to lay new flooring in the family room. We had been talking about doing it, I just didn’t know it would be so soon. After we bought the flooring and returned home, it hit me. I wanted to paint the family room before the flooring was laid. So at 10pm Thursday night, some of the girls and I went to Wal-Mart to buy paint and supplies.

Gene took the day off on Friday and replaced the faucet in the kitchen… which entailed taking out the whole sink. While he worked on that, Caroline, Rachel, and I began emptying the family room and ripping up the carpet. When Gene finished, he helped us with the carpet. It was a dirty job; it always amazes me how much dirt is under our carpet. (Yes, we’ve done this many times before.) My helpers and I began prepping the walls by spackling, sanding, and cleaning them. Then we applied two coats of primer. Living in a mobile home creates its own unique set of difficulties when painting. Our walls have a vinyl type wallpaper covering them that cannot be removed, so you have to prime them well before painting. After that, it’s like any other wall. I had been wanting a tan-ish color for the walls. The color I bought was Dutch Boy Manila Envelope. We ended up putting two coats of paint to get good coverage. We finished up about 2 am Saturday morning.

When Gene got up on Saturday, he began laying floor. While he did that, the girls and I began working on the house. We had to have everything back together Saturday night, because we have a house church in our home each Sunday morning. During this time I also had lunch for Sunday in the crockpot. I made Crockpot Steak (I’ll post the recipe below) which is a family favorite. We also had bad weather approaching due to arrive late Saturday afternoon. They recommended that anyone living in a mobile home seek shelter in another structure due to possible tornadoes. You can imagine the fun we were having. We left for a couple of hours while the worst part of the storm passed over and we went to the mall. While there I decided to take a group picture of the girls that I had been wanting to take for a while, but had been unable to get, due to illnesses. We took the picture at Bass Pro Shop by the aquarium.

After we returned home, we finished cleaning up the house, and I took some pictures of the end result.

In the upper picture you can see that we already have the toys out for the three year old that comes to church with us. After church was over Sunday, we all crashed… it had been a busy but satisfying weekend. There’s nothing like the feeling you get after setting out to complete a job, and seeing it come to fruition. In the next few weeks we will do the other side of the family room, and I’ll be very happy when it’s finished. But we will still have several more rooms to do. Our goal is to get this flooring down in the whole house… eventually.

Crockpot Steak

This is titled Crockpot steak because initially called for 1 1/2 lbs of round steak, cubed. I changed it to stew meat for ease.

1 1/2 lbs stew meat

1 onion, cut in half and sliced

1 can rotel tomatoes (we use the mild tomatoes)

3 T. soy sauce

1/2 cup mushroom (optional)

Place all ingredients in crockpot and cook on high for about 4 hours, or until meat is tender. Serve over rice or egg noodles. I usually double this when I make it and for our family of 7, and we have a little leftover.

Last week I found ham on sale at Kroger for $1.29 lb, so I bought 2. We had one for dinner last week, and I saved the bone out of it to make soup. Saturday I made a soup with lentils, which turned out quite well. One of the great things about this soup is that the lentils don’t take that long to cook. I hope if you try it, you will let me know what you think.

1 ham bone with meat on it

3 cups lentils

1 onion, chopped

2 T. olive oil

4 carrots

2 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp. Tony Cachere’s Cajun Seasoning

12 cups stock (made from ham bone)

Stock:

Make stock by placing bone with meat in 14 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours.

Soup:

Saute onion in 2 T. olive oil until translucent, then remove from heat. Clean, chop and steam 4 carrots. Remove ham bone from pot and strain stock. Once carrots are tender put in blender with onions, some of the juice from steaming and enough stock to make it blend easily. Blend until smooth. Rinse lentils and combine with stock, carrot & onion mixture, and seasonings. Remove ham from bone, then add to soup mixture. Bring to a boil and reduce to medium and cook for 45 minutes to an hour or until lentils are tender. Serve with homemade bread and enjoy!

Lindsay just returned from the doctor with the following ailments:  the new strain of the flu, fluid in both ears, a sinus infection and noisy lungs.  I have been having the same symptoms that she had last week which are: stomach cramps, vomiting, exhaustion, headaches, and weakness in my extremities.  I will feel better, and then relapse with no warning.  Lindsay did this last week, and we are hoping the bug I have is a different bug from the flu bug she has now.  To help control the spread of cooties we are boiling toothbrushes, and disinfecting counters with homemade cleaner. Rachel made a great homemade soup for us last night which will carry us through the next day or so.  I hope to feel well enough to run to get some groceries tonight, but I’ll wait and see how I’m doing after eating a couple of times.

I hope to get a couple of posts I’m working on posted in the next few days, that will depend on how many of us are sick and how I’m feeling.

I’m getting this done rather late, but at least I’m getting it done. I ran to Kroger tonight and picked up a couple of hams for $1.29, which is within my target price for meat. Everyone here loves ham; so I will be cooking one of them later this week, and I put the other in the freezer. I also be cooking an experimental meal this week, Italian Shepherd’s Pie. I’ll let you know how that one turns out. Be sure to visit Laura to get some great menu ideas!

Sunday: we all were sick

Monday: Date night

Tuesday: Homemade soup & cornbread

Wednesday: Ham, sweet potatoes, cabbage, butter beans and homemade bread

Thursday: Fried Chicken nugget bowls

Friday: Italian Shepherd’s Pie

Saturday: Ham & Lentil Soup