Working With My Whole Family!

One of my favorite things to do as a Compassion Advocate is to work at different events, being able to answer questions of potential sponsors, and encourage them as they begin their journey as a Compassion sponsor. Up until the past weekend, I have not been able to work at an event with my whole family. But now that Kelsey is a Compassion Advocate also, we were able to work at the Rock and Worship Roadshow together!

The Roadshow stopped in Sacramento on Saturday night, so we all put on our Compassion shirts and made the drive up to work the event.

This picture was before the concert started, this place ended up being completely packed with thousands of people!

I had to have Kelsey help me with this picture! Hadn’t taken a selfie with the new phone yet. We were getting ready to do the child packet pass during intermission.

I know you can’t see him all the way down there on the stage, but that is Jeremy Camp down there. Other than helping to get Compassion kids sponsored that night, his performance was my favorite part of the concert. And he is a Compassion Artist which gives him brownie points in my book (wink).

While we were waiting inside the stadium for the child packet pass, I was able to listen to Kutless. I didn’t realize that I knew so many of their songs! They were selling their CD for $5 a piece at the concert, so I have a little giveaway for my readers since I bought 2 of their CDs!

Giveaway: One new Kutless CD

Giveaway rules: In the comment section below, tell me who your favorite Christian artist is. I will give you a bonus entry if your favorite artist is also a Compassion Music Artist. Deadline for entries is Friday, March 15th at midnight pacific time. Limited to readers in the continental US. Winner will be announced next Monday, March 18th.

I can’t wait to hear who your favorite Christian music artist is!

Update: Congratulations to Jill for winning the Kutless CD!

My take on Fiesta Chicken Tortilla Soup

Last week while I was looking through my Pinterest feed, I found a recipe for Fiesta Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup. Everything sounded great until I saw the words ‘slow-cooker’. Now I know a lot of people just love their crock pots. But I am not one of them. The thought of vegetables slow cooking for hour after hour and turning into mush just does not appeal to me. I would prefer to cook a recipe over the stove top and eat vegetables that still taste fresh. This does require a little more planning and discipline on my part, but it is something I am willing to do to have a good tasting dinner for my family. If you love your crock pot, you will love the simplicity of dumping all of the ingredients into the crock pot for this recipe. If you want the stove top method, follow along with me here:

Fiesta Chicken Tortilla Soup

• Olive oil
• 2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (15 oz) petite diced tomatoes
• 1 can (10 oz) red enchilada sauce
• 1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies
• 1 can (14.5 oz) black beans, drained
• 10 oz frozen corn kernels
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 limes, juiced
• Extras: tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, avocado for serving

Over medium-high heat on the stove, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the chicken pieces and saute until no longer pink. Add the chopped onions and cook until translucent; add the chopped garlic and cook for about 30 seconds more. Then add the rest of the ingredients, except the cilantro, lime juice, and extras. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for at least 30 minutes. Before serving, stir in the chopped cilantro and lime juice.

Note: I am thinking this would be good with browned ground beef instead of the chicken also. In fact, I am going to give it a try this week with some homemade cornbread.

Recipe adapted from Fiesta Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

December Photo Project – Day 23

This year, we changed up the traditional Christmas chocolate fudge recipe. Kelsey thought it would be a good idea to experiment and try to make cookies and cream fudge.

 

We started out with the basic fudge recipe: sugar, butter, and evaporated milk. So just follow the recipe for heating up those ingredients. I have always used the stove top version of the recipe, so make sure you have a candy thermometer on hand. Make sure you have a bag of white chocolate chips, one jar of marshmallow creme, vanilla extract, and about 16-20 crushed up oreos ready. Once the sugar, butter, and milk mixture has reached the right temperature, take the pan off of the stove top and add the whilte chocolate chips. Stir until the chips have melted. Then add the marshmallow creme and vanilla. Once the mixture is nice and smooth, stir in the crushed oreos. I like a pan with aluminum foil to make it easier to remove and cut up the fudge.

 

You can leave the pan on your counter to cool, but I really like a nice cold piece of fudge, so I put the pan in the refrigerator to cool.

 

Hope you enjoy the recipe!

December Photo Project – Day 17

Gifts for Kevin to take to his work

 

Today I was able to bake some biscotti to go with the chai tea mix. While I was out shopping a couple of weeks ago, I found some cute 1/2 cup containers which I thought would be perfect to give the chai tea mix in. Kelsey helped me bag up the biscotti and get the bags ready. Each bag contains one printed copy of the recipe, one container of the chai tea mix, and 2 pieces of biscotti in a snack size bag. We took some fancy scissors to cut the top of the paper bags, folded them over and put two hole punches toward the top of the bag. Threaded some red ribbon through the holes and tied a bow.

 

What homemade gifts are you making this week?

December Photo Project – Day 13

Our generous church family has been donating their spare change to purchase treated nets to help prevent malaria through Compassion’s Bite Back program.

 

Are you looking for a way to make a difference this Christmas? Compassion has a whole gift catalog to help you make a gift purchase that will last a lifetime for a family living in extreme poverty. This is one gift that doesn’t need gift wrapping or a trip to the mall.

 

 

InstaFriday

Time for a review of my Instagram photos from the past week!

 

 I was inspired last week by one of the InstaFriday posts to do some organizing in my kitchen. I decided to work on my cupboard at a time. Here is the contents of one cupboard.

 

The picture on the left is at after photo of the cleaned out cupboard, the picture on the right was the one I needed to tackle the next day.

 Compassion Event Volunteer Time! I love being available to help find sponsors for these kids at events and concerts.

 

 The concert we attended this time was really close to home this time. And, the Compassion table was set up inside the auditorium. We enjoyed listening to Heavens to Betsy, Dara Maclean, Jason Castro, and For King and Country. If this concert comes through your town, be sure to go! It was a great night of worship!

 Day 3 of kitchen cupboard cleaning…the dreaded baking cupboard! Yikes!

 

 Ahhh, so much better! And look, there is room on the top shelf!

 

 On Wednesday night, Kelsey decided the two of us should play a game of Scrabble. We only had just a few tiles left by the end of the game.

 

 Even though my photography class was postponed last night, I decided to work on my homework. This little guy sits on a shelf in my entry way. The ‘trust God’ sign was made by Matthew a really long time ago. Isn’t it the perfect reminder for all of us? So simple and so profound…

 

 Another amazingly full cupboard! I believe I have enough tea to last me for years to come! Tea party anyone?

 

Petite Vanilla Bean Scones – these are for Kelsey’s game night tonight with some of her friends, but I am exchanging a few of these with a young lady from our church. She made coconut macaroons last night and posted a picture on Instagram. So tonight I will be able to have scones and macaroons…maybe with some tea!

 

Are you on Instagram? Let me know in the comments and I can follow you! Be sure to link up with Life Rearranged each week for our InstaFriday posts too!

InstaFriday!

Have you had a chance to pop over to Life Reaaranged yet? I am really enjoying taking the time to recap my Instagram photos each week!

Here we go…

 It was a Pinterst week around here! Kev cut and put together this mason jar box project for me, so I spent time this week finishing it up. To give the wood a weathered look, you start by staining the wood with a somewhat dark stain. Since the stain has to dry, of course we move onto other things…

 

So about mid afternoon on Monday, Matthew mentions that he has to bring something to his Italian class the next day. Good thing he knows his way around the kitchen. He actually made biscotti and impressed his teacher!

Getting really tired of pale hospital green paint in my bathroom. It is the only room in the house that hasn’t been repainted since we moved in here 6 1/2 years ago. Not really sure if I want to go with these colors yet…

 Happy Compassion mail day! I received a letter from Abner this week!



Finally finished! One summer afternoon, Kelsey and I found a cute tear-off pattern sheet at Michael’s. I thought, that would be a really cute blanket to make! Three months and over 200 rows later, it is done! Now to decide what to do with it, Kelsey thinks I should save it for one of my future grandchildren. Not sure if I should hang onto it for that long…

Kelsey and I enjoyed fall tea and cookies one afternoon this week. The last few days have been unseasonally cool, overcast, and a little gloomy. Looks like our normal October weather will be returning soon… :o)

Mason jar crate done! After the stain, you spray paint the wood with an antique white paint. Then you sand off most of the spray paint to give the wood that ‘weathered’ look. I forgot to take a picture of the box with the jars and flowers in it! I was hoping to use it as a centerpiece for our table, but it is larger than I anticipated…still trying to decide where it will live…

Yesterday brought use a sprinkle of rain, so we lit a few candles. Kev and the kids made this tea cup candle for Mother’s Day, isn’t it cute? :o)

 Pinterest Party treat! Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

 

Since I had 2 cups of hot tea yesterday, I starting searching on Pinterest for mug cozy patterns. Found this one which is actually a mug cozy coaster! So quick and easy to crochet, I made 2 yesterday!

 Got together with some of the young ladies from our church for our first Pinterest Party! We each brought our own project supplies and spent a few hours this afternoon working on one of our Pinterest pins. We have already scheduled our next meeting we had so much fun!

 

I had planned on working on this project, but I didn’t have the right color paints at home. So a little last minute scrambling and I was able to work on these which will be new ornaments for our Christmas tree this year.

It was a pretty busy day around here, but we made time tonight to work on Christmas cards for unsponsored Compassion kids. This is something we did last year too. If this is something you might be interested in doing, be sure to leave a comment and I can get the information to you.

So how was your Instagram week? Be sure to link up with Life Rearranged to share your Instagram week with us!

InstaFriday

Here is a roundup of some of my Instagram photos from the past few days…

 

Now that we have been in a good rountine during our school week, I have gotten back into my walking schedule. A while back, Kelsey bought an iPod, so I was able to ‘buy’ her old iPod from her. I love that I can create a playlist of walking songs. I usually ‘shuffle’ the songs before I head out the door. Two days this week, my walk started with Shaun Groves songs. Have you heard of him? If you haven’t, you need to go check him out…like right now!

We had a little visitor over the other day and there was no bib in his bag. I improvised with a wash cloth, some fabric, and some safety pins. After he left, I figured I could find a cute pattern on Pinterest for an apron to keep at our house, just in case. I found this pattern and just loved how quickly it came together! Now to make a couple more…

Just a week ago and up until a couple of days ago, our day time temperatures were right around 100 degrees! As of yesterday, it looks like the weather is starting to cool off, hopefully not too quickly!

On Thursday afternoons, I am at home by myself for a couple of hours. Yesterday, I wanted to keep myself busy, so I pulled out a project that has been sitting around that needed to be worked on. This is the third cloth book I have put together in the last couple of weeks. These make great gifts, but I am thinking of keeping this one if my church bag, just in case a little one sitting near us needs something to keep them quiet for a bit…

 

Today I pulled out some fabric I bought a few months ago and sketched out a quilt block to make a small quilt. I was able to finish piecing the top together, now to wait for my friend to let me know that her quilting machine is up and running!

 

 

Are you on Instagram? You can put together a blog post of your Instagram week with the rest of us at



Time for InstaFriday…a little late

Here is a recap of my week of Instagram photos…

 

Last Friday, we held our monthly Compassion sponsor letter writing night. Found this idea on Pinterest! I also found some cute fall stickers at Michaels to send along with this month’s letters.

 Saturday was our annual beach trip with our church family. It was a beautiful sunny day, and as tradition would have it, we ended our day together singing worship songs before heading home.

 

 Sunday was an exciting day at church! We started the service in our old building, squished together and just a little warm like usual. Just before it was time for our pastor to deliver the message, he invited us all over to our new building! Many faithful workers have set aside many hours to complete our new church building!

 

 Last time we went through Mystery of History, I was teaching both kids. This time, Kelsey gets to do all the projects on her own. We just finished reading about the early Egyptians. Project time was to construct a pyramid. She did a great job working on her own!

 

 The mornings have started to get just a little bit chilly here, decided to have my first cup of hot tea in quite a while! Harney & Sons Vanilla Comoro is so yummy with a little bit of raw sugar… :o)

 

 Time to start learning how to use my Photoshop Elements 6.0 program. So glad the library has these books so I can decide which one to look for used.

 

 Found a couple of cloth book kits on our last trip to Wal-Mart. I love making these types of gifts!

 

 Compassion Event Time! We signed up to be volunteers at the first stop on The City Harmonic’s new tour as a headline band. Matthew and I had heard these guys a couple of times already this year. We knew this would be a great event to work at because Bob Lenz would be speaking! And it was a great event! 28 Compassion kids were sponsored that night! Yay!

 

Since I didn’t get my InstaFriday post up yesterday, there is one more picture to share with you. Today is the first day of autumn and I finally took down all of my summer decorations… :o(

 

Want to join in the IntsaFriday fun? Be sure to visit the link at Life Rearranged’s blog!

 

 



Time for InstaFriday!

It’s InstaFriday time! Here is a recap of my Instagram photos from the last week:

 

Saturday was our anniversary! We spent the day in the city at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival. We were able to get 15 samples of different chocolate items: brownies, tarts, ice cream sundaes, malts, cookies, and of course, Ghirardelli chocolate. It ended up being a little different than we expected, but it was a beautiful, clear day in the city… :o)

For dinner that night, we were able to use our Buca di Beppo gift card. We had never been there before. This bowl of spaghetti and meatballs was meant for 2 people, but it could have fed at least four people! So glad we didn’t order appetizers or salad. Maybe when we have the kids with us.

Since Kev bought our tickets for the chocolate festival early, we received two $10 gift cards to Macy’s. On our way home from the city, we stopped at a Macy’s and found these cute fall mugs. We both thought they would be great for tea and a reminder of our day together.

I have been enjoying the Hello Mornings Challenge. This has been a great way for me to get my mornings started the right way. Our fall Hello Mornings Bible study is in 1 Peter. I love digging into God’s Word this way.

Tuesday found me at jury duty. It was really strange being at jury duty on 9/11 and the court house is on 11th Street. I spent the morning reading and looking through some magazines. We were let out early for lunch, so I ran a couple of errands. Once we returned from lunch, most of us were called into court rooms for jury selection. I ended up in a court room for a month long murder case. Because I am the primary caregiver for my daughter, I was excused from service. Maybe I will be able to serve next time.

Months ago, I found an idea on Pinterest to send to our Compassion kids. We traced our hands, cut them out, and wrote a Bible verse on them. We mailed along extra paper and a note asking the kids to do the same, then mail them back to us. This week, we received our first hand back!

My camera has been off being serviced, so I thought I would make a new camera strap while it was away. This strap has a pocket to hold the lens cap. So handy!

Still making progress on the baby blanket…126 rows done, 95 to go. I usually will sit down and knit two rows at a time. There are quite a few mistakes, but I don’t think anyone will really be able to tell. Can you see the hearts?

Yesterday, there was a group of us that headed over to the National Heirloom Expo. My friend and I went last year and really enjoyed ourselves. This year, there were five of us that spent the day learning about how to grow better tomatoes, basil, and garlic and what to do with some of the herbs your might be growing. It was a fun day out with friends!

Have you been Instagramming this week? Join us for InstaFriday!