A Day in the Life.

Hello there to all!! Hope you all have had a great week. The LORD has been good to us. Six years ago today HE blessed me with the best gift ever with the most wonderful, beautiful woman I have ever known - Barbie. I love you so much. Thank you for marrying me and for taking care of our family throughout the years. I look forward to the rest of our lives together. I love, love, love you.

Going around the horn with the pictures. We have two wannabe firefighters (with hats courtesy of Firehouse Subs). Then we have Fireman Jarod. And then my gorgeous wife with our two adorable children relaxing on the couch. And lastly, the cousins hanging out. We love you all.

We heard that the Arkansas family spoke with Mom and Dad wia Skype. That is great! I feel a conference call coming on. Let us know when you all want to "get together". Can I get Lika and Jason's Skype contact info from somebody? Thanks. Love you guys. Have a great week.

Sightings of Cows and Cuties

Hello there, all! We just wanted to post something quick. We have had a great week; school and work were good. Everyone here is doing just fine. The children are still learning to get along with their cousin, but all in good time. Praise the LORD for the chance to help Mandi and Ayden. Well, here are just two pictures from last weekend. For those who were not aware, last Friday July 10, was cow appreciation day at Chick-Fil-A (chicken restaraunt). If you dressed up like a cow from head to toe, you got your meal for free. If you were only partly dressed up, you could get a free sandwich. So Barbie made costumes for the children and they were the cutest little cows you ever saw. The next picture is of the children wearing new shirts that they got from Pop pop. Well, we will post something else later this weekend.

P.S. Asian Chicken Salad - excellent. Cream cheese/onion/bell pepper tortilla Pinwheels - awesome. Lika, Res, Jason, hope you guys have a great week in NC.

Here are the little cows singing. Enjoy.

More About Once A Month Mom

Once Talani got home from running his errands he was able to keep the kids occupied. Here, they are relaxing after a tough round of watching cartoons. So cute! This was actually taken just after I finished cooking, so I promptly got in the recliner for a little nap. I nearly stole one of the kiddos from the couch to join me, but couldn't make myself possibly wake them.







Before Talani got home, I had already begun cooking and preparing the food. Once a month mom (OAMM) suggests having a baby sitter to take the children away so Mom can work on cooking. Since I didn't get a sitter, I had to take frequent breaks to entertain Dianna and Jarod. Here, Jarod and I cuddle on the kitchen floor after he brought the blanket in with him to get some "Mommy Love".
Another OAMM rule I broke: the instructions for preparation are for 2 moms working together. Since I just made 4 recipes, I worked solo.




In the last post, Talani posted a picture of chicken in the crockpot. That was 5 pounds of chicken, all to be used in our Asian Chicken Salad. I shredded the chicken in the food processor, added chopped red and green bell pepper, pineapple, onion, garlic, and a sauce made from teriyaki sauce and peanut butter. I ended up having to use my largest container to hold all the chicken salad for mixing - a 9 x 11 deep dish cake carrier. Each of the gallon bags pictured here contain a quart bag of chicken salad as well as several pita halves. To serve this meal, all I will have to do is thaw the chicken salad in the fridge during the work day and nuke the pitas for a few seconds to soften them up. A little rice on the side will be all we need to make this a complete meal, since there are plenty of veggies in the salad.
I also made mocha-chip muffins for breakfasts. The recipe made enough to provide four weekday breakfasts.
Next came sundried-tomato-basil pinwheels: cream cheese, garlic, sundried tomatoes, and basil all blended together, spread onto flour tortillas, rolled up, and sliced into little pinwheels. That recipe also made 4 meals. We will need to add a salad or baked potatoes or something to fill out that meal.
Last, I prepared a crock-pot meal of cheesy chicken. Boneless, skinless chicken, cheddar cheese soup, red and green bell pepper, and a little bit of salsa each went into 4 gallon-sized ziploc bags. Now, to prepare these meals, I will empty the bag into the crockpot in the morning and let the crockpot do the work over the course of a day. A pot of pasta or rice will finish out this meal; maybe a little garlic bread on the side.
So, over all, we have 4 breakfasts and 12 dinners or lunches. I spent about $100 buying the groceries for this, although some of what I bought was more than I would need. For example, I needed 1 c. of sugar, but I bought 10 lb. I have enough instant coffee and chocolate chips to make another 4-breakfast-batch of mocha chip muffins. I'm figuring that the average cost per meal, after I make the other batch of muffins, is around $5.00, and that includes the cost of pasta, potatoes, or rice added to the side.
I'm praising the Lord for the opportunity to provide good quality, healthy, EASY meals for the family at an affordable price.
I suppose we'll have to blog again later this week and let everyone know if the food was actually any good! In the meantime, check out the website: onceamonthmom.com.

Long Time No Post

Hello, there. It has been a little while since our last posting. We are all fine and doing well. The children are doing very well and enjoying their summer. This weekend Mom and Dad Bailey brought Ayden to live here in Pensacola. We are happy to have him here and more so that he his reunited with his mother after their month apart. A.J. was so happy to see her little man. We can already see that there will be some adjustments as far as sharing goes - but that is to be expected with children. In preparation for the family's arrival, Barbie and the children were cleaning the house. So, below, are two pictures of the children helping to vacuum the house to get it ready for our guests. They are so adorable. I love them so much. Barbie found this website called onceamonthmom.com in which the authors tell of doing all the cooking for all the meals for an entire month in one day. The concept is a very cool idea. I mean being able to have your meals in the freezer or fridge ready to be warmed up and subsequently consumed is a very smart and a time saving gold mine. So one would prep some the night before and the next day you would do all the cooking for the month. Barbie did only four recipes for the month as a test run to determine whether it was something she could do with the time constraints of our schedule. Perhaps she will blog later with more specific info about her cooking day. As the month goes on, we will post on how it is going. I am excited about trying it. The food looks good. There are bags of vegetables that she chopped for the meals. There is also a picture of five pounds of chicken breasts cooking in the croc pot. That is about it for now. It is time to get ready for the evening service. I love you all and miss you. Silly me! I forgot about something so tremendous. We talked to Mom and Dad via Skype. It was so spectacular! Mom and Dad, you look so good. I was so glad that you got to see Jarod and Dianna. I look forward to our next call. We shall post again soon. I love you both.