Always...

I think one of the biggest worries I had about having children 8 years apart is that they wouldn't really be friends.They would grow up in the same house but not really together. I will have a freshman in High school and a 1st grader. at the same time. It just seemed weird to me.

I have to say I worried for nothing because their relationship is so unique and fun and they love each other so much. Izzy thinks that Emma hung the moon and gets upset when she leaves the room and wants to play with her all the time! Emma loves to help her learn new things, and she loves to get the both of them in trouble! She has a little partner in crime now! But the best thing about their relationship is how in the quiet moments they can just sit and be. This picture was taken a few days ago. Emma was watching TV and Izzy just grabbed her sippy cup and sat in Emma's lap. They sat like this for a good while and it just made me so happy to know that they will always have each other.

Stuck In Between

I feel like my life is a series of in betweens. I always feel like I am striving for something and doing better then I did but never quite achieve that goal. Stuck in between! I have found myself lately realizing though that maybe it is truly more about the journey then the destination. Now this is not my way out of achieving my goals, but giving myself a chance to learn lessons along the way. I am always so busy worrying about the finished product like raising kids, or events I need to get plan for PTA, or weight loss struggles or money struggles and many more! But I just this summer have started really trying to enjoy the little moments with the girls instead of being consumed with saying please and thank you and growing up to be our next president. And instead of being so worried about the events I have to plan, I am looking at it as making new friends through the process. Some of these people I see myself being friends with even after I am done with PTA. Now when it comes to weight loss struggles I have really had to learn to love myself and realize I am so much more then the size of my body. This has been so hard for me but I am slowly seeing myself as a person of worth. The biggest change in my life this summer is trying to overhaul our finances. We got our selves into some pretty impressive debt but we are on the other side of it now but trying to live within your means is almost harder then getting yourself out of the debt! But I have learned that my life is not about things. When my friends get something I am not jealous anymore but happy for them and happy with what I do have because I am truly blessed! The lessons I have learned from managing our money better are that I can get excited by a sale or coupon! But more then that I can and am satisfied with our life and don't always have to have the latest and greatest to make me complete. This has been a summer of praying that God fills those holes instead of things, or food, or even sleeping or reading not to deal with emotions. And by all means I am not on the other side of a lot of it. But I am stuck in between and I am finally realizing that maybe that is where God wants me to be!

Chicken Pot Pie

This is a great recipe! It is quick and easy and their is actually very little you have to cook but yet it tastes very homemade! My husband LOVES this and he is not a chicken eater. SO I hope you will give it a try. The first pic is the

inside after it has been cooked. The

2nd pic is before it goes in the oven.

1 box refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts)

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup diced onion

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt and pepper

1 3/4 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup milk( I use soy and it works perfectly fine)

2 1/2 cups cooked chicken( I get the rotisserie chicken at the grocery store)

2 cups frozen veg.( I get the corn, peas, green bean, carrot combo but use whatever you like/ make sure they are mostly thawed before you put them in your pie.)

Lay one of the crusts in the bottom of a pie plate. Then melt the butter and saute the onions until tender. Then add flour and mix until smooth. Then add your broth and milk. Bring up the heat to med/high and let the sauce thicken. Once it thickens take of the heat and add salt and pepper, chicken and thawed veggies. Fold it all together and pour it over the crust in the pie plate. Then top with second crust. Take the bottom crust edge and fold over the top crust edge and pinch together so none of the filling will come out. I make mine look kind off like a braid all the way around. Then put 2 or 3 slits on the top of the pie to let the steam out. Place the pie on a cookie sheet and put in a preheated 425 degree oven for 40-50 min. After the first 20 min. cover the edges of the crust with a crust cover or tin foil so the edges wont burn. Then after it is done, let it set up a little before you cut it. Now I have never been able to cut a clean wedge out of this pie but it doesn't matter because it is sooo good!