Thankful Thursday

Welcome to my first Thankful Thursday post.

I am so thankful for my church and pastor. We attend Cape First Church, which is pastored by Gary Brothers. Thank you, God, for this man!

We've attended Cape First since the spring of 2001. Jim and I have both grown soooo much in that time. This is the home where Jake was saved and baptized. These are the friends we are closer to than a lot of our family. This is what it's supposed to be!

Pastor Gary is a practical preacher. He doesn't just tell you what to and not to do, but he focuses on making sure you know HOW to make that happen. He's exactly the type of pastor our family needs.

This is where God has called us. This is where we're staying till God points us in a different direction. (but not anytime too soon please)

If you're ever in Cape Girardeau on a Sunday, please come to a service (9am, 11am, 5:01pm). Stop by the website for news, events, podcasts, and more. http://www.capefirst.org/

What's Cookin' Wednesday

My first What's Cookin' Wednesday post isn't some super-duper recipe that I've spent hours in the kitchen perfecting. However, it's a staple in our home...a breakfast loved by all three of us. Also, since Jim's diagnosis of diabetes in August it's a breakfast I've made weekly because with a couple simple tweaks it's an absolutely acceptable diabetic breakfast.Ok, so I don't usually make THAT many at one time! But I'm going to start. Hopefully, that will be enough for all of us for about three breakfasts through the week. I put the extras in the freezer so that a simple "zap" in the microwave makes them butter and syrup ready.

Because we have to monitor carbs intake for Jim, I searched my local WallyWorld's grocery shelves for the best bang for our buck. I found that the generic (Great Value) brand only has 9 carbs per 4" pancake. I use the "fluffy" version because it has fewer carbs than the "buttermilk" version. We also switched to sugar-free syrup and use the generic brand of that, too. We like it just as well as the full-sugar version. Finding out there was pretty much no difference in taste between the two syrups was a great surprise!

Jim LOVES pancakes, so being able to eat them makes being a diabetic not such a pain in the rump!

That's what's cookin'!

Menu Plan Monday

Here goes my first attempt at Menu Plan Monday...at least my first PUBLISHED attempt. I am a firm believer in planning your meals. For me it just helps keep us from eating out more than planned, keeps us from eating more junk, and keeps me more sane! :)

For more Menu Plan Monday info, head on over to http://orgjunkie.com/ and read away.

Sunday (yesterday):

breakfast - pancakes

lunch - leftovers

supper - tacos

Monday:

bfast - english muffin sandwiches

supper - sloppy joes, broccoli, hominy

Tuesday:

bfast - french toast

supper - baked chicken breasts, stuffed shells, green beans

Wednesday:

bfast - eggs, toast, gravy

supper - pizza from Domino's (we purchased a discount card from our school's band boosters that allows us to buy one large and get a second large free --> so we get two larges for less than $15!)

Thursday:

bfast - pancakes

supper - leftovers

Friday through Sunday:

out of town for football tournament

Watch out for my What's Cookin Wednesday and maybe I'll have a picture of something yummy I've made!

My Beloved

I've been "tagged" for the first time. So here goes...

1. What's his name?

Gary James Monteith Jr., but he goes by Jim.

2. How long have you guys been married?

We will celebrate our 15th anniversary this New Year's Day. We start each year off right. And, neither of us can ever forget our anniversary! :)

3. How long did you date?

Ok, here's the good part...He helped some old friends of his move. As payback he told them they could introduce him to a good Christian girl. His old friends had gone to church with my folks for years. The wife of the couple said I was the first person she thought of. She called to ask if it was ok to give him my number. I said it was fine...I'm thinking "free meal"! We talked on the phone every night for a week. I mean four or five. hours. a. night! We finally had our first date. Two. I repeat TWO weeks later he was slipping that beautiful ring on my finger and asking me to spend the rest of my life with him.

4. How old is he?

Quickly approaching 45...like in about 25 days!

5. Who is taller?

He wins this one hands down. He is 6'7", and I'm only 5'7".

6. Who can sing the best?

Again, him hands down. I have to really try hard to make it sound good, but the beautiful notes and harmonies just flow out of his mouth.

7. Who is smarter?

Him again. I had to quit helping Jake with his math homework when he was in about 4th grade. Now, I got great grades in school...I just swear they've changed the math! Jim will tell you that I've got him beat, though, especially in the arena of the kitchen or household things.

8. Who does the laundry?

Finally one I win! :) Jim absolutely CAN and will do it, but I have this slight control thing. Need I say more?

9. Who pays the bills?

I do. Even when Jim quit full time work to go back to college full time, I've always paid the bills. I guess I look at it as one less thing he needs to stress over.

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

If you're looking at the bed, I always sleep on the right. It used to be the other way around, until I was BIG pregnant with Jake. Not really sure anymore what caused the switch...possibly for me to be closer to the bathroom, or so I could sleep a specific way. Jake's now 12 1/2 and we've never gone back to the other way.

11. Who mows the lawn?

Now it's usually Jake with some help from Jim. Before Jake was able, it was always Jim.

12. Who cooks dinner?

I do. However, Jim's the "grill master". Let's just say that I cook inside and he cooks outside. :) Except for the mornings he makes us awesome omelets!

13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong?

Hmm...I guess I'd say we're even on that. We don't argue much.

14. Who kissed who first?

This one was mutual! :)

15. Who wears the pants?

Jim. I am soooo thankful to be married to a man who is not afraid to step up and be the spiritual leader of our home. He is an awesome man of God, and I pray Jake absorbs every little piece of that...I know we're doing all we can to make sure that happens.

So there you have it...all about my beloved. Consider yourself tagged!

M.I.A.

Ok. To say that I haven't posted in a while would totally be an understatement. My reason for this absence? Life. And a little bit of a lack of creativity. In short - I guess I just didn't want to take the time to figure out what to write. My apologies to my great throng of readers...all two of you. :)

So today while I've been sitting at home with the rain outside I have surfed the net and drooled over lots of really neat blogs. After doing this for a while, I've decided that I'm going to attempt to change the format of my blog a bit. My plan is to roll out some specific topics for certain days of the week. I'll begin Mondays with :

Menu Plan Monday

I'll also try: What's Cookin' Wednesday (will hopefully include a photo of a great dish along with the recipe); Thankful Thursday (my thankful thoughts for the week); and Free Tip Friday (some great tip I've learned in life - could be domestic, relational, spiritual, etc.).

My hope is that knowing where I'm supposed to go on certain days will keep me motivated to make the post. I'm not going to guarantee anything here, folks, but will promise to do my best. I am excited to try the new format and will probably change my background and photo also at some point.

And we're off...

You're never too old to learn.

I'm here. I'm really here. I was just doing....life.

Today was Diabetic Education Session #1. It went MUCH better than Jim or I either imagined. This last week wasn't that much fun for Jim. I actually made him eat fish for dinner one night and made him taste a fresh peach. (For those of you who don't know - he doesn't like fish, and the only fruit he eats is apples and bananas.) You should have seen the look on his face today when the diabetic educator told me I didn't have to make him eat fish OR fruit. It was like a weight was lifted off of him, and he realized this new way of eating wasn't going to be horrible after all.

The session today focused on getting the patients to realize what carbs do and where they come from. By the time we left the session, we had a meal plan outlining how many servings of carbs he gets at each meal and snack and also how many calories he gets per day. In two weeks we go back (actually Jim will...I'll be at the Joyce Meyer conference) they will teach about fats.

The two ladies who worked with us today were great. Jim and I both expected an old lady with a ruler she would use to smack our nuckles, but we got just the opposite. What a pleasant surprise! They were real and personable and interested in us and our life. What an encouragement for Jim! We learned that no food is off limits really...you just have to plan your meals...if you want that one scoop of ice cream for dessert or a piece of cake, then you must make sure you have an allotment of carbs left in your daily plan. These dishes of ice cream and pieces of cake can't be the norm, but an occasional treat.

My plan is that by Monday I'll have a meal list made up to get us through the next two weeks. Then I can just repeat the meals for the next two weeks, or make adjustments if needed after his next education session.

I've said it before, and believe it even more now...this diagnosis of diabetes is not a good thing, but I think that we can make a good thing from it. We're making these changes as a family, and Jim will have our support. We should both begin to lose weight, especially when we get more activity into our schedule. Up until now we've been really good about talking about making a change, now we HAVE to. I want Jim with me for MANY more years, and he wants to be with us for many more also. These are steps we must take for that to happen.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for us. If you have any great low-fat recipes, please send them to me. Any questions or suggestions...send them too.

Until next time...

Change is coming

Change has been officially announced in our household as of today. My husband has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Thankfully his numbers are still relatively low, but they're still high enough to qualify for the diagnosis.

I went to the bookstore today and purchased two different cookbooks and a book solely about type 2. Since I'm the chef of the house, I'm going to have to learn a different way of choosing and cooking foods. The doctor did not set him up with a diabetic educator yet, so I'll be investigating that. I know one of the hospitals we have access to has an educator, so it's just a matter of coordinating the details with the doctor's office.

To be honest, I'm concerned. I won't say that I'm afraid because I know I can change. But...it's changing the way I was raised to cook. Maybe we'll get into all of this and I'll find out it won't be that big of a change...maybe just switching out a few ingredients. Truthfully, we don't fry our food. Most things are baked and not breaded. I'm thinking a lot more chicken and turkey and a lot less beef.

I know it will be a slow process to learn all of the ins and outs. Please pray for us. Pray that the learning process will be smooth and that Jim will make right choices in what and how much he eats. We will all three eat what he eats, so that will help. If I have to, I'll clear every food item out of our house and only restock what's allowed. Diabetes is not a good thing, but this will be a good change for our family. We CAN do this!