Rambling and a Recipe

Hello, all my sweet blogging friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

As most of you know, our last day of school was Friday. The last day is always super crazy! This year was no exception...I'm so glad it was a half day. :)

Our school's graduation was Saturday. Our regular sound man had to go in to work at the last minute, so we called one of our youth leaders, and he was able to come in and help. We had a few glitches, but for the most part, all went well. We were so grateful he could help out. We couldn't find the Pomp & Circumstance music, and thought for a minute that we may have to hum it, but we finally found it five minutes before it was time to start. :)

I didn't get sick, so I was able to sing, but we had to restart my CD because my microphone was dead and we had to get another one. But, that's life!

We have a GREAT sound man, and we really missed him, and it's easy to take him for granted because he's always there. This past weekend made us appreciate him even more.

We have a couple of families in our church who home school their children, and one of them had two sons graduating this year, so their graduation was yesterday afternoon. It was really nice. Their older sister put together a slide show of the boys growing up. Of course their mom was crying, so that meant she really liked it. :)

I really enjoy the smaller graduations. They're much more personal than just walking across a stage and getting a diploma. After the ceremony, we had some refreshments and just enjoyed the fellowship.

Switching gears now, here's the recipe for the Cheesy Chicken and Noodle Casserole I told you about last week. I'm sure some of you already make something like this. It is super easy to put together. I don't do a lot of measuring with this recipe, so the amounts are approximate, and will have to be adjusted to your taste and the size of your family. This recipe will easily feed the three of us, and we usually have a little left over. Katie took a picture of her plate so you could see what it looks like. :)

Cheesy Chicken and Noodle Casserole

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken breast

3 cups dry egg noodles

10.5 oz. can of cream of mushroom soup

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Cut or shred the chicken.

Cook and drain the egg noodles.

Put the chicken and egg noodles in a casserole dish, add the cream of mushroom soup and about a half cup of cheese. Mix well. Add the rest of the cheese on the top. (Sometimes I add a little milk to it before I put it in the oven.) Bake uncovered at 350° about a half hour.

Approx. 4 servings.

Well, I'd better close for now. After such a busy weekend, I have a lot of housework to catch up on!

Hope you all have a great week.

Take care,

~Melanie

The Simple Woman's Daybook

For today...April 18, 2011

Outside my window...a beautiful spring day! It's sunny and in the 70s.

I am hearing...Katie humming. :)

I am thinking...it's hard to believe this Sunday is Easter. Time just seems to fly by so fast.

I am remembering...the nice time we had at church yesterday. We had a potluck dinner after the service. Everything was decorated so pretty and the food was delicious. We're going to have to buy some more tables and chairs, but that's a good problem! We've had quite a few new families start coming to our church recently.

After the dinner, we had an Easter egg hunt for the children. I always enjoy watching them hunt for eggs...they have so much fun! :)

I am thankful... that we did not have any tornadoes in our area this past weekend. We were under a tornado watch, but nothing ever came our way. We did get a lot of rain, though.

I am also thankful Katie was safe and had a great time at her youth convention this past weekend. :)

From the kitchen...beef and cheese quesadillas and corn.

Around the house...cleaning the house and the garage. What a job! I have a lot to take to Goodwill and a lot to throw away.

A Scripture thought...Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

~Matthew 11:28-30

One of my favorite things...Easter. This is such a special time of year.

A few plans for the rest of the week...a ladies' meeting tonight at church, work until 3 o'clock tomorrow and Wednesday, half a day Thursday, then we will be out of school for Easter break until May 2nd! :) I have been so busy lately, I'm looking forward to a break.

We have invited one of our new church families to our house for supper on Friday night.

A picture I'm sharing this week...

The flowering cherry tree in our front yard. I think it is so beautiful!

Please visit Peggy to read more daybooks!

Have a great week. Thanks for stopping by. :)

Take care,

~Melanie

Busy Week!!

It has been a busy week around here - one of those weeks that makes me sort of cringe every time I hear the phone ring. Have you ever had one of those weeks??

The husband of one of the ladies in our church passed away Sunday morning. He was in his 80s and in poor health, but it's still sad for the family.

We also have a very dear friend in ICU right now with cancer and other complications.

So, I've been praying for these families this week. They're going through a lot right now.

The ladies in our church have been taking turns making meals for several families in our church this week, so all of our stoves have been extra busy!

On a happier note, we had the back half of our roof replaced this week. Our friend who is in ICU bought the roofing supplies for us last year, and was going to work on replacing it until he got very sick with cancer. Thankfully, we were able to find someone who would fix the roof for a good price. It rained last night and no leaks!! We can now put the buckets away! :)

More happy news -I would like to wish my mom a happy birthday today!! I have such a wonderful mom. She is so talented. She can quilt, sew, crochet, paint, etc. I'm going to have to take some pictures of some of the things she's made so I can show you just how talented she is! More important than that, though, is her love, care and kindness, and her desire to raise her children to love the Lord! She and Dad made my childhood a very happy one. I have wonderful memories. They're not based around fancy vacations or expensive gifts, but just being together.

Before I go, I'd like to tell you to go to v8juice.com and print out a $1.00 off coupon on V8 V-fusion juice. Katie and I like it a lot, but I don't usually get it unless it's on sale.

I hope you all will have a wonderfully blessed weekend.

Melanie

Fun, Family, and Fireworks!

We had a great day yesterday. We had a church picnic after the service and just enjoyed some good food and fellowship.

When it got dark, we went downtown to see the fireworks. To be such a small town, they sure can put on a beautiful fireworks display! The only problem is that when SO many people pack themselves in such a small space, it can take quite a while to get out of town when the fireworks are finished. Thankfully, it only took us about 20 minutes to get out of town last night. We were surprised!

These are a couple pictures of the fireworks last night.

You have to click at just the right second or you miss them.

You're either too early or too late!

This is the anniversary card Katie made for Lee and me. It is a BIG card! I had to set it on the floor to take a picture of it. She spent all day making it! She had written little notes and a poem, and had drawn pictures on the inside for us. She is such a sweetheart.

Lee and I had a very nice anniversary. Katie has youth group on Tuesday nights, so since she was there, we decided to go to one of our favorite Italian restaurants. We don't normally get desserts when we go out to eat, but we even splurged and split a chocolate cannoli. It was so good!

One of our church families went away for the weekend, and asked Katie if she'd like to go along. She had a great time hiking and swimming. We really missed her, but she's back home now, and all is well.

Lots of great memories made!

Have a wonderful week! :)

Melanie

This Generation

Hi, everyone. I hope you're all doing well.

We had a wonderful church service this past Sunday. Our youth group went to our district youth convention and had a great time! I always enjoy it when they come back, and we get to hear their testimonies.

Our youth leader said something that has really stuck with me. He said that he noticed a couple of the kids on their cell phones during the message. He asked them to put their phones away, and then realized they were paying attention and following along with the Bible on their cell phones! That was so amazing to me!

The guest speaker even asked the kids to text message their friends and let them know where they were and what they were doing.

We hear so much about the evils of text messaging and cell phones, and I know there are legitimate problems in that area, but I thought it was so neat to hear about them being used for good.

America's Christian youth of today are in training right now to become the next pastors, missionaries, youth leaders, evangelists, deacons, etc.. They're also in training to become the next moms, dads, teachers, doctors, ... (well, you get the picture!). As Christian parents, we have such an awesome privilege and responsibility to raise our children for the Lord. Isn't that something to think about??

As Keith Green said, "This generation of believers is responsible for this generation of souls." I think that is such a profound statement. How are we doing?

For those of you unfamiliar with Keith Green, he gave his life to the Lord in 1975, then was killed in a plane crash (along with two of his children) in 1982. But in that short amount of time he wrote some amazing songs. His wife, Melody, wrote a biography of him called No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green. If you don't have his music or his book, please get it! I know you will be challenged! There is no doubt that his influence is still here today even though he's in Heaven.

Have a great week! :)

Melanie

Teen Challenge

We had a wonderful church service this morning!

Our local Teen Challenge director was our guest. For those of you not familiar with Teen Challenge, it is a Christian organization that helps people with drug and alcohol addictions.

I always look forward to them being our guests. The director usually brings along a few of the people in the program so they can give their testimonies. It is truly awesome to see how God is miraculously and completely changing their lives.

Their website is teenchallengeusa.com.

Hope you all are having a great Sunday. I'm going to get off of here now, and go enjoy the great weather we're having today! :)

Melanie