No More Mrs. Mean Mommy

We were sitting in the floor watching some YouTube videos on the TV about how to organize your room. I let my children pick which ones they wanted to watch.

My daughter says, “Mom, I like you now that you are nice.” Puzzled, I asked her what she was referring to. “Well, you used to scream all the time and all we did was clean the house. Now, we get to have fun with you, and enjoy the real you!”.

I smiled at her but inside I cried. You see, my daughter is 8 years old. So was I this mean mommy for 8 years?

Since January God has been teaching me. Jesus has been my rock so many times when I wanted to give up. I read and re-read this Scripture

Philippians 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

A lot of days I wanted to give up and go back to the old me…. But, you know what the funny thing is? I couldn’t. I enjoyed the results too much. God was blessing my family and showing me that it is NOT TO LATE to change. He created in my children forgiving hearts and that alone was so great that I had no choice but to show love and mercy towards my children as my Motherly worship to Him.

The Holy Spirit taught and is teaching me how to be a Godly mother to my children. If I have anything to say it is this:

Be There for your children. My 3-year-old son is potty trained. Recently he has been urinating ALL OVER THE HOUSE. Frustrated, tired, and irritated I would lash out at him and all my progress of “no screaming at the children” would fly out the window. So one day I decided to see what was triggering this behaviour when I realized that also recently I had been using the computer and my cell phone A LOT. I was on the internet A LOT. (This is one of the many reasons I also decided to give up Facebook) I noticed that a few minutes after I got on the internet my son would do something crazy, which I would respond a half-hearted “STOP” his way. Then he would urinate on the floor. This was happening every time. My older children would try to hold a conversation with me and I would just respond “mmmhmm” because I was so absorbed into something online. They were screaming on the inside for my attention!

Finally I woke up from cyber world and realized the damage I was causing by being here but not mentally being here. 

I have since decided not to get online on my laptop or phone until everyone is in the bed. My cellphone stays in my back pocket but only to receive calls and I answer texts when I have a free moment that the children do not need me. My son has stopped urinating on the floor as often so obviously he needed his mommy to be there mentally for him. 

Isn’t God there for us when we call on him? What if he decided to ignore us when we thought we were having a crisis! You see a child wanting you to look at their drawing may seem small but to a child they want you to just notice something they find awesome. Maybe give them a critic, some tips “why don’t you add detail to your garden”, ask questions “Why did you draw the puppy so sad?”, maybe just listen to the story that goes along with it… Or maybe they just want you to see the picture and acknowledge it? What if God didn’t have time for us? To listen to us thank him a million times for our babies and husbands and parents and neighbors and home and car and food… To rant about our day?

Thank goodness he does care. 🙂

Isaiah 49:15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Deuteronomy 31:8 And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee, he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

Initially, I created this blog to write about my personal interest. Now, I am seeing that it is to record what I have learned, hopefully learn from others, and maybe JUST MAYBE teach someone else. I hope that you all can pray for me. I am still learning and growing as a parent. I have made a lot of mistakes, but, I have very forgiving children and I thank God for that. 

May God bless you all,

Love ,

Tiffany

How I Make 2 Whole Chickens Stretch for 3 Meals for a Family of 7

Children playing in “restaurant” at local museum

God makes a promise to us that he will provide. I feel it is important that we use what he provides for us wisely 🙂

To help stretch dollars a little further I am going to share how I make a 2 whole chickens (or 10 lbs of chicken thighs) last for 3 meals.

Meal 1: Chicken Pie

Meal 2: Chicken and noodles

Meal 3: Fried chicken/BBQ chicken

These meals feed my family of 7 with a little leftover for lunch the next day. Here is a list of what I buy for these meals:

2 Whole chickens (I like to get the ones that have the baggy  on the inside with the liver, and gizzard, and neck… we use those too on a later date )

Flour

cream of mushroom

cream of celery

1 can of sweet peas

1 can of carrots

1 bag of egg noodles

eggs

milk

vinegar

salt and pepper

BBQ sauce (optional)

A lot of these items are pantry staples so I usually already have them ready. Now, how I prepare these Items…

Saturday Night

I usually go grocery shopping on Friday evening or Saturday morning. If the chicken is Frozen I will let it thaw so I can work with it that evening or the next morning. I clean the chicken (if it has the baggy on the inside I freeze them in separate baggies I have in my freezer for chicken livers, chicken gizzards, and chicken necks) Then I cut the chickens. I cut the chickens into

4 Chicken breasts

4 Chicken tenders

4 wings

4 Thighs

4 Legs.

2 Carcasses (the breast bones and the back)

(For the fried chicken)I Then take the thighs and legs and wings (optional: you can save these up and use for hot wings when you get enough) and soak them in milk with a splash of vinegar. You can use buttermilk but I save money by just using the milk and vinegar. Put all this in the refrigerator until the next day.
(For the chicken pie) Next I take the breasts and tenders and boil them in some salted water until they are done. Save the water! Put the cooked and cooled chicken in a container and put it in the freezer for later this week.
After I have the breasts and tenders boiling I put the two carcasses (For the chicken noodles) in my crock pot with onion, celery and carrots and fill it to the top with water. Turn it on low and let it simmer ALL NIGHT or at least for 8 hours.

Clean up and go to bed 🙂

Sunday Morning

(Fried) Take out your thighs and legs soaking in sour milk or buttermilk and begin to season and flour them. Put them in a clean container and let them sit again in the refrigerator for AT LEAST 30 minutes. Afterwards begin to fry the chicken. I Usually leave the chicken in the oven until lunch  or dinner. We have never been sick but if you want to put yours in the fridge until meal time then do so 🙂 We eat ours with cornbread, collard greens, beans, and corn or potatoes.
(Chicken Noodles) Remove your chicken carcasses from the crock pot. Add the stock from yesterday when you cooked the breasts and tenders and cook 1 more hour on low. remove all vegetables from the crock pot as well. After the stock has cooled put this all in the fridge. (IF you only have one crock pot you can transfer all the stock to containers and then put in the fridge. This is the time i take the carcasses and pick ALL the meat off of them and put them in a container and put THAT in the fridge as well.

Tuesday Morning

On Mondays we usually have pasta. Tuesdays I take care of my grandmother so I will pull out the Chicken stock in my crock pot and the chicken pieces that I saved and warm it up. I sometimes add garlic to it at this time. I turn it on low and leave it until i get home. About an hour before we eat dinner I boil a dozen eggs and add the egg noodles right to the crock pot. You can add as many or as little as you like. I add enough that i have to almost press the noodles down into the water. This is how my family likes them. Cook in crock pot for at least 30 minutes or until the noodles are done. After you eggs are done boiling  peel them, chop them roughly, and add to your chicken noodles. Adjust the seasoning and enjoy. We usually eat this with a salad.

Thursday 

Wednesday night i pull my chicken breasts and tenders out that I cooked Sunday and let them thaw in the fridge overnight. Thursday morning I shred the chicken with two forks in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Evenly spread it in the bottom of the pan. Add one can of cream of mushroom, one can of cream of celery, on can of peas, and one can of carrots. mix well. Now take your favorite biscuit recipe… and take the measurement for butter and melt it. Mix your biscuits up with the melted butter and spread on top of the chicken mixture in the 9×13 inch pan. Bake at whatever temperature you normally bake your biscuits. Its done when the food is bubbly and the biscuit topping is done. We eat this with a salad as well. 🙂

The Lord will provide food for your family. Pray and the Lord will show you many ways to make items stretch and to save money 🙂

It is easy to stretch your dollar you just have to be creative. I hope this helps you all out. if you find any errors let me know or if you have some more ideas then leave them in the comments! You can make this completely customized to your family. These are the three meals my family loves and I know they will work. But remember to do what works for you and your family 🙂

God bless you all.

Love ,

Tiffany 😀

Deleting my Facebook. Once and for all.

Z using Khan academy. Which he could not use because I was on Facebook so much.

Facebook is time-consuming if you allow it to be. Some people have immense self-control when it comes to social media and it can be a very beneficial tool for making connections on a personal and business standpoint! Keeping in touch is also a benefit to using Facebook. However, for me, this past month it has been very difficult for me to benefit from Facebook without suffering consequences.

Connecting with other humans is important in my opinion. Personally, I love meeting new people and interacting. Peers from high school and tons of extended family have reconnected and shared lives through pictures and status updates. Recipes and knitting patterns have been shared and so have news. Unfortunately lately a lot of negative news has been going on and it has influenced the way I go about my day.

I was so caught up in what else had happened that I started to neglect my housework. My husband started growing irritated and I neglected reading the bible. The horrible part is I also started to neglect my children by having them in the same room and turning on a movie while I checked my Facebook. It was getting bad. Tony and I had an argument over the house and then I saw that this was becoming a problem. Then my final straw was when I looked at the pictures Aji drew of me; ALL SITTING IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER. I was heart-broken! I do more than that! I cook! I clean! I take them to the park… two weeks ago…. I read to them… 3 days ago… WHO AM I?

I am not  blaming Facebook!!! I think it is great for those who can handle it and control their social media online time. But for me I can not. So I am taking it out of my life. I dunno if I will ever be back on or create a new account but for right now I am permanently deleting it.

I love you all!!! God bless you!

Tiffany

Live in the Truth

I know I will sound like a broken record… but GOD IS SO AMAZING.

Sometimes he will lead you to a place that you know is not where you want to be. A place that you have to remain in prayer. Sometimes just the presence of a God fearing soul can lead people to conviction. It can lead people to try to embarrass you or call you out. I’m telling you, you need to let all fear of embarrassment go. For the bible speaks of this. We as sons and daughters of God are not popular. But you really are not popular if you are stubborn in your soul… succumbing only to God.

I strongly feel that the truth is NOT popular right now. Everyone is standing up for someone or an issue they feel has been handled wrongly. In their hearts they truly believe that this is right. I am asking for everyone to just come to peace with each other. Please. Its not about getting revenge or justice as we politically correct people want to call it. My soul hurts for those who have wronged others but we cannot turn around and blame everyone that fits one person’s description. We cannot turn around and a be afraid. The devil does not discriminate against race, age, religious background, size… But he does choose to play unfairly and cause people to separate because YOU are sensitive to these things and he knows it. I weep for those of you who still see a difference in each other. You are all beautiful, made in Gods image. We are billions of people made in HIS image… not billions of people made in billions of images.

What is weird to me is that out of the mouth can come truth. Then in the same sentence lies. Pray for the spirit of discernment. Let the Holy Spirit shew unto you truth. There are a lot of fallen men out here that tell you truth and lies in the same sentence. If you don’t have that discernment you will believe it all to be true. But the spirit of Truth will let you know that it is tainted… and none of it you can believe. Please test everything with the Word of God. Lean not unto your own understanding! Lean not unto man’s lessons or teachings! Let the Holy Spirit teach you! I am not saying that you can’t listen to ANY man’s teachings but test it all!!! Have your bible open while you listen! Pray before you listen if you can! Pray while you listen.

Praise God always and don’t chase after things of this world. God will provide. He clothes the trees and the flowers. He feeds the birds and the squirrels. He will provide. I love you my brothers and sisters 😀

God bless your day,

Tiffany

Sister in Christ

God is so amazing.

I never realized what huge responsibility we as wives have. But recently God decided to show me. This whole year so far has been filled with so much growth, I was not sure I could contain all the lessons. Some I did write down in my journal and that has proven to be very helpful. I look back in my journal and see the things I asked of the Lord and the answers and results he has bestowed upon my inquiries. One entry was me begging God to send someone to teach me how to be a woman of God. He answered the next day.

http://www.wallconvert.com/wallpapers/girls/best-friends-17014.html

Six months ago, December 2014, I was sitting in Chic fil a with my family when I met a woman named Christi. She commented on the scarves I had knitted for my children and we started talking (BECAUSE I LOVE EVERYTHING KNITTING) and before I left she came out of the bathroom and said “I can’t be disobedient… Here is my number” BIG WOW total STRANGER!!! I knew then God had told her something about me.

Well I texted her with my name and number and we carried on random chitchat for like a day. Then one day, I had a BAD DAY and completely unloaded on her. She was so calm and called me and told me her testimony. It lined up with what I was going through at that time I thought I was talking to myself! I actually had to look at my phone to make sure I wasn’t crazy and that I was actually talking to a real person. She gave me some advice, some scriptures, and prayed with me. It was so much. It was the most anyone had ever done for me spiritually and it helped me grow immensely.

Our friendship flourished and I learned everything from her from husbands, to housekeeping, to letting go of worldly stuff, to being a wife, being a mother, homeschooling, living simply… the list goes on. I know our meeting was NOT by chance and it was orchestrated my God. I love Christi like a sister and this year a lot of my growth has been because of seeing her example of being a Godly woman.

I did mess up. A lot. And I know she couldn’t tell me everything. I thank her for that. A lot of this stuff I learned straight from God after Christi gave me all she could. I am so glad she was obedient. I am so glad I found this sister in Christ.

If you are going through marital, parenting, or any other kind of stress I suggest you stop and listen to God. If you don’t have a Godly sister who can help you grow let me suggest a website for you
http://www.peacefulwife.com — This website helped me so much. With it, prayer, and rekindling my relationship with Christ my relationship with my husband and my children has flourished. I could not have approached this website without the prior lessons that I learned from Christi though. So I encourage you to approach with an open mind 🙂 I will pray for you. Continue to pray for growth for the both of us : )

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
(even rebuild a home)
Proverbs 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

God bless your day,

Tiffany

Lord give me rest

Sing me a lullaby, Rock me to sleep.

sometimes… I am just so tired.

I whine and cry and collapse in a fit of frustration in the floor.

My words are lost. I can’t tell anyone how I feel yet I want everyone to know! so…

I have a temper tantrum.

I scream and thrash the floor and scream some more. Then finally in exhaustion I cry for help. Someone please help me! Father please!

And he comes.

And he holds me so tight.

I feel his presence wrap around me.

His arms melt my anger into hot tears that flow down my cheeks… Into primal wails and groans of so much pain. Released. finally.

he tells me “Tiffany, It is ok. I will fix it. It will be ok”

I cry some more. this time cooling relaxing tears. my breathing shallows. I listen to his heart beat in the night…the crickets chirping, the trees rustling with his breath, the breathing of my resting children. he is still holding onto me. his grip softening. into a cradle. then drifting… im so tired. he gives me rest. i close my eyes. so safe and warm. swaddled in a love so strong, powerful, so happy. He closes my swollen eyes and I drift off to sleep.

Joy comes in the morning.

To: my Heavenly Father who sent his son so that I may be saved and be called his child.

Prepared

God will go before us he will prepare the way.

Deuteronomy 31:8 And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

On Tuesdays I go and sit with my grandma. Partly for companionship and for her to see the great grandchildren. But also to help her with any tasks she needs to get done.

I laughed when my mom initially asked me to go. She gave me the run-down. Grandma had been falling while Grandpa was at work on Tuesdays. Mainly because she would forget to eat and drink and would get dizzy. Funny thing is that I told God about three years ago that I was NOT going to do ANY MORE CNA WORK EVER AGAIN.

LOL. ..And I THOUGHT I had good reasons for saying that. I mean… I had went through the horrors and heartbreak of working at a nursing home, then stuck my foot in the waters of home health until God let me know it was time to go. And I remember that day so clearly. There had been some trust issues with the company and when my client asked me what to do I told her to pray about it. At the same time I was pregnant with my son, Beans, and I was experiencing those first trimester symptoms…. all of them… everyday :). I went home and prayed that God would make it clear what he wanted me to do. I was not ready to leave my client! We listened to sermons and praised God together. I grew a lot spiritually while with her. I witnessed her unwavering faith. The greatest day was when she walked without assistance… no cane or walker… then collapsed in her wheelchair and praised God. I wanted to stay with her forever. But, my body and soul said it was time to move on…. as I listened to God he told “It is time to go, Tiffany” and I cried. I had no idea how I would break the news to her. So the next morning, I went to her house, walked in the door with my heart heavy and she called me into her room. She said “Tiffany. I prayed.” her eyes welled up with tears “And God told me everything would be OK. But I have to let you know that I am not going to be with your company anymore and will have to loose you as a CNA”…. I was speechless. I let her know what God had told me and we cried and laughed the whole time I was there. That was my last day. I went to the office to see if I was supposed to maybe work another job. But that was a negative. God spoke. It was done. I thanked God and turned around and had the AUDACITY to tell him what I wasn’t going to do.

Silly child. He let me know when I got that phone call… But I laughed because he let me know my CNA years were for a reason.

My grandparent’s coffee table has had the same things on it since MY childhood; telephone, candy dish, peanuts, and the bible.

So now. God has led me to take care of my grandma. I don’t have a license and I am not doing outrageous work. And I get to take my children and listen to grandma’s stories. It is such an honor and blessing. I get to see her face light up when the children play or when she holds one in her arms. I listen to her funny outdated jokes. She still tries to have such hospitality towards me. I love walking in her home and it smelling like sausage and pine sol. Lol. It reminds me of my childhood. I also get to sit with grandpa and listen to his views on life. It is just an overall blessing and honor that I am so glad God chose me for.

When I first took the CNA classes I thought I was doing in vain. I didn’t want to be a nurse. But I see that God has a plan for everything. Now when I pray I listen more. Now when I am doing something and I do not see the purpose I continue on and ask Jesus to lead me. God goes before us and even when we do not see the outcome JUST YET he has already set the table and prepared the food. All you have to do is walk with his son Jesus. And your eyes will be open

The Famous First Post

Well hello there! My name is Tiffany and this is my blog about my children, chores, and all the wonderful choas mixed in between. This is a document of my Journey. Dishes and kids is the name of this blog because it seems I am always juggling the two (three if you count laundry as well… but thats not in the title IS IT lol?!). God is my pilot and I am enjoying every minute of it.

These are the things that basically go into our everyday life and probably the things i will blog about the most. Our family consists of a lot more than just these basic things and they will pop up in my posts as well. Another reason I designed this blog is so family and friends could keep up with us and to possibly learn from YOU THE READERS during this experience. Anyways here is my list:

1. I have 5 children. Their nicknames on here will be Aji (7yrs… she will be 8 in July), Z(7ys), Beans (3), Banana(almost 2), and Big’n(6 months).
2. I am a SAHM
3. I love making and using homemade and natural cleaning products.
4. I love crafts of all kinds. Knitting and Crocheting BY FAR are my favorite. I also sew, reupholster, and do a variety of random crafts and ENJOY IT.
5. We are a musical family. I play piano, flute, piccolo, alto sax, and acoustic guitar. My husband plays bass guitar, piano, and the american drumset.
6. We live in an apartment. (for right now)
7. We plan to homeschool
8. My husband works third shift. (That is a post all by itself)
9. I like holistic and all natural approaches to our health and wellness. I think most of it works better than most things the doctor throws at you
10. I love God, Jesus, and the Holy spirit. He is the author and writer and the head of our EVERYDAY life :). Without him…. Our family would not exist.

I can not wait to get started with blogging. Any tips and suggestions would be awesome! I kind of feel like I don’t know where to begin. Oh well here we go!!!!

I hope you all have a blessed day 🙂

Tiffany

Dinner and a Movie