Monday's Menu

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend, with whether with tricks and treats or harvest parties, this weekend was a fun one to celebrate! We started Friday morning celebrating Minte being officially declared a US citizen, then went to lunch at Chuck E Cheese... what better way to celebrate! Minte loved it! Friday night we had a wonderful time at a harvest party with some friends, and then on Saturday evening we went to Minte's first American wedding! It was a beautiful ceremony, more like a worship service really. I love experiencing all of these "firsts" with him. He loved getting a suit of dress clothes and enjoyed each part of the service. One of my favorite parts, which I hadn't seen before, was the "salt covenant." The bride and groom each poured some salt into a beautiful glass vase, and I love what it symbolized. (You can read more at the link...) It was truly beautiful. Congratulations, Sarah and Jimmy, and we hope you are having a fab-u-lous time in Hawaii!

I came home from that beautiful wedding with a renewed sense of love and gratitude for my wonderful marriage (a gift I don't take for granted!), my precious kids, and the privilege it is for me to be the one who gets to love and take care of them every day. I flashed back to our wedding day almost 18 years ago and wondered to myself what I would've thought if I could've seen a snapshot of my life now... what our children would look like, what our home and family would be like... I wonder what my reaction would've been? I know what my reaction is now: total awe and gratitude to a God who is moving and doing great things in our family. And, as moms we get a front row seat! Isn't that exciting? Even in the small things, daily. It's important to be there for those moments, and to have your "spiritual eyes" open to what is happening. Edith Schaeffer says, "The thing about real life is that important events don’t announce themselves. Trumpets don’t blow, drums don’t beat to let you know you are going to meet the most important person you’ve ever met, or read the most important thing you are ever going to read, or have the most important conversation you are ever going to have, or spend the most important week you are ever going to spend. Usually something that is going to change your whole life is a memory before you can stop and be impressed about it. You don’t usually have a chance to get excited about that sort of thing...ahead of time!"

There's no particular reason for this other picture, besides that I thought it was cute! The kids snapped this in the back seat while we were driving to the wedding. It's always fun to go through their memory cards in their cameras and see what they've been up to! Sometimes I look at my kids and I can hardly breathe... I just love them so much. (Other times I look at them and I can hardly see straight... but thankfully those times are fewer and farther between, LOL.)

Okay, now I want to share with you a wonderful tip I recently discovered. You probably already knew this (I'm always a little slow), but did you know you can substitute apple sauce for cooking oil in most recipes? I recently tried this in a cake and it turned out perfect! Over the weekend I did it with this whole wheat pancakes recipe, and they were awesome. It cuts down on some of the fat, and it's easy. You just substitute the same amount of apple sauce as the recipe calls for. Love it!

Here's what we're cookin' up this week:

Monday: Orange-glazed Pork Chops, Skillet Lo Mein
Tuesday: Chicken Enchiladas, black beans, corn casserole
Wednesday: Mediterranean Spirals (my husband loves these!), steamed veggies, salad
Thursday: Crock Pot French Onion Soup (from my FIFI cookbook, but similar to this), salad
Friday: leftover buffet

For more menus, or to share yours, visit Laura at Orgjunkie.com. Have a great week!