The Deer Slayer

Well, if you know us, you know Benji is a serious hunter. I give him a hard time, but I really do enjoy having deer meat in the freezer throughout the year.

If you have never cooked with deer meat you really are missing out. It is VERY lean, so much so that you have to add fat when browning it. And contrary to most opinion, it is very mild, not gamey at all...IF it is cleaned and processed properly.

A few years ago Benji got a commercial grade meat grinder. Which has saved us a ton of money in deer processing.

I love not having to buy ground beef! The only time buy it really is when we've finally run out of deer meat (usually in the summer sometime), or if we want to make grilled hamburgers. There just is so little fat in the meat that making burgers out of it tends to be a little tough, and I want a juicy burger!

Any way, we had some meat that had been frozen, but not ground yet. I decided to try and cut it up in large cubes and cook it like a roast in the crock pot, and it turned out great!

I found this recipe online and used it as a guideline, but tweaked it a bit and made it my own. (I did end up cooking it like 8-9 hours on low, since it was in the crock pot instead of stovetop.)

It was delish!

Venison Stew

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 pounds venison stew meat
3 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups water
7 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 pound carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water

Directions
In a skillet, deeply brown the meat in oil. Add onions, garlic. Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, oregano, salt, and water. Simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until meat is tender.
Add potatoes and carrots; cook until tender.
Combine flour and water. Stir into the stew. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Church

"No one drives past a cement foundation in the dirt and thinks,

'Looks like they're about ready to move in.'

We know that a foundation exists to be built upon, not lived in all by itself.

Who wants to live in a basement without the rest of the house on top?

No one I know, except for the Christians who want Jesus but not the church." [Kevin DeYoung, "Why We Love the Church"]

It is okay to love your church home. God does.

The Next 48 Hours

Well, okay.

I only made 48 hours off of facebook.

But I cleared my head. Cleared some people....(170ish)

And now I feel better.

So sue me. I'm a female. I'm entitled to change my mind.

Want Face Time?

If you want face time, come see me!

I never thought I'd say this, or see this day.

Benji is probably more surprised at this day.

But it has come.

I have deactivated my facebook account.

It is just temporary. I will be back. Good thing about facebook is you can leave and come back at any time.

I left for a number of reason......

And no, "because I spend to much time on it" was not one of them.

I really don't spend THAT much extra time on it....Considering that I spend most of ALL my waking hours at home. Any way, I don't really care about defending my time on it....and that wasn't' the reason.

The reason is complicated.

One, being that I love my friendships. I cherish my friends. My real friends call me, text me, visit me....

My real friends KNOW me.

I felt like recently that I have been overwhelmed with pseudo-friends. Which is a by product of social networking sites such as facebook.

I LOVE being able to connect with friends from the past, friends I rarely see, friends I loved long ago. Even new friends I've met recently.

Don't miss understand me. I cherish most of my connections on facebook.

But we have lived many different places, I went to two different colleges, two different high schools, and a graduate school. We've moved three times since we've been married.

All these variants equals a ton of connections I do not need or desire.

I've just gotten a tad bit overwhelmed.

So I'm taking a breaky break.

Needless to say. If I love you, If you love me. And even if you are reading this..... We probably talk at least once a week, once a month, if not once a day......

My philosophy has always been "You make time for who/what is important". So if you need me, you know where to find me. :)

Never Knew Beauty Until You

So I think the birth of a daughter is what every woman needs to feel truly beautiful.

I can tell you this. That when someone tells me Emery looks just like me......

Well that is the greatest compliment I could ever receive.

I have never felt truly beautiful until I saw myself in my daughter.

I mean she is absolutely, with out a doubt the most beautiful female ever created.

And for someone to say she is my spitting image.

Well that just makes my day.

Feels Like Home To Me

I can not explain how much I love Whole Foods. I can not explain how much it has changed my life.

I've said before, when Benji was looking for a job I had two requirements.

A city w/ a Starbucks and a Whole Foods.

Well God honored my request. And I thank him often.

And, contrary to most people's opinion, they have the cheapest milk, eggs, cheese, bacon, peanut butter, yogurt.... etc in town....the list could go on of the things that I buy that are staples there.....That are the cheapest in town.

And all the staples I buy I can feel good about feeding my family.

I might cry, I am so over come with love.

www.wholefoodsmarket.com

Bojangles Medicine

My sweet precious friend Jocelyn brought Emery and I Bojangles biscuits, magazines and chocolate yesterday morning.

I'm telling you, everyone needs a Jocelyn in their life. I have waited a long long time to have a friend like her. God truly answered my prayers when he brought her back into my life (we knew each other briefly when we lived in Greenville the first time).

It has been a long hard week for me. And worse for Emery. She has been really really sick. This flu is no joke.

She finally has been fever free for 48 hours but her appetite and energy is definitely not back to normal.

Yesterday, though thanks to Jocie, things started looking up. It was rainy so Emery and I ran to Publix to get a few things for the chili I had prepared for lunch. The cashier walked me to my car and held the umbrella while I put Emery in her car seat.

(Which is exactly why I drive a little farther to shop at Publix rather than Bi-Lo).

Benji came home for lunch, as he usually does, we had our yummo chili....Totally hit the spot on such a rainy dreary day.

Emery took her nap and so did I.

Then we splurged and had PF Changs take out and vegged out on the couch. A good and relaxing night, ending a long and stressful week.


Jocelyn and Emery on New Years Eve...precious. :)

My Wedding Regret

My wedding was perfect.

Perfecto.

Since it was before digital photos. I have no pictures to show.

One day I will get the negatives converted to a disk.

But for now, we must discuss the one thing I regret.

It has nothing to do with the groom.

He was perfect. I would marry him again today.

The minister, perfect. My bridesmaids.....I'd have the same again.

My family....they behaved themselves.

My dress....The dress of my dreams.


My one regret was my shoes.

They were sort of a side note. Because they weren't going to be seen. So I really didn't give them the attention they deserved.

I even took them off during the reception. When I look at them now, I think..."how could I have neglected such an important issue!"

So if I had one do over.

Just one. I would have had some classy shoes. Shoes that I could be proud of later.

My advice for anyone about to take the plunge.

Get some cute shoes.

It's A Good Thing

It's a good thing I love our house. Because I spend a lot of time here.


Emery has the flu this week. Totally took me by surprise. The flu was not even on my radar....There's been a nasty stomach bug going around, but Emery goes and gets the flu! And she had the flu shot....sigh.

She has been so pitiful. Thankfully I got her to the Dr. in time for Tamiflu. Which I think has worked well. She finally slept all night last night and four hours for nap yesterday, after not napping or sleeping at all for two nights.

This was one tired family.

She's not eating great, or drinking. I've worried the most about getting fluids in her. So luckily for me, her granddaddy has taught her to LOVE eating ice chips. So we've been having a lot of this for snack.


On top of ice chips and sips of Frappuccinos, she's also eating about an apple a day. If I keep them in the fridge they are nice and cool and crunchy. With plenty of water in them, I've been more than happy to push these too.


As sick as she's been, she still asks to go outside about, oh, 100 times a day. We usually try to spend at least an hour outside each day. And spent probably a total of 2 hours outside yesterday, it was beautiful and was probably a good thing for her, but..... thankfully today it is raining.

We've been watching a lot of Nick Jr. I mean I can't even describe how pitiful this child is. Just think of the last time you had the flu. And she isn't even old enough to understand or talk about how she is feeling. Pitiful.

The Nick Jr. moose has been our friend this week.


Hopefully with the Tamiflu, Rx antihistamine/decongestant, and Motrin....we are on the mend!

There Is Perfection

And it is found here. In an egg. A peanut butter egg no less.

It's not love. It's lust.

I believe in the commercialization of Easter, just for these.

Bliss. Perfection. Magic.

LLAMA!!!!

I mean. For real. Benji has been reading a book to Emery that has pictures of animals.

One in particular is a Llama.

Well she thinks it is a mama.

So every time she sees the book, and the image. she says....."Mama!!!!!!!!"

Hilarious. Every time. "MAMA!!!!!"