Coffee & the Word

Coffee and God’s Word… Best way to start the day!!! And two of my most favorite things! My day goes much smoother with coffee but especially when I read His Word first! And us moms need smooth days, that’s for sure!

Reading 1Peter 5:7 this morning… “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” Thank You Father for loving ME!!!

Dry Bones Living Again

This song is powerful to me today!

Great I Am

Sometimes with everyday life, being a wife, mom, teacher to my kids, helping run my husband’s business, etc, I feel like dry bones. I just want to be ALIVE in Him again!
So thankful the Joy of The Lord is my strength!!!
Psalms 35:9-10
My soul will be joyful in the LORD, it will rejoice in His salvation! All my BONES will say, LORD, who is like YOU?!
Amen!! I needed that!!!

Distractions Fast

I decided last weekend to take a much needed break/fast from my biggest distractions. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I can get on those apps a little too easy with my iPhone. Nothing wrong with them, they are just MY biggest distractions. We have five kiddos that I homeschool and honestly I don’t where I can even find the time to Facebook, Twitter, etc, but I do… Ugh! I’ve felt like I’m missing out and I don’t want to regret that time I’ve missed. Sooo, I’m taking a break! It’s actually been nice. When I pick up my phone, I still look for the apps to check them out. Haha and I probably will get back on but I want to use some restraint or limit myself. I want to be a better mom and I have a long way to go… just being real here. I am so thankful for God’s mercies!

Squash Spaghetti

For dinner tonight I made one of my favorites… Squash Spaghetti. Yum yum!!! It’s a really good healthy, Weight Watcher meal, and in our case it feeds a big family well!!

My recipe:

Spaghetti Squash:

First this, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut the spaghetti squash in half, take out the seeds & center stringy stuff, place it inside face down on a cookie sheet with about at least one cup of water on the cookie sheet. Bake for 45 minutes.

Spaghetti Meat Sauce:

I used a little over 1 lb of ground beef (I usually use ground turkey and sometimes use 2 lbs, it’s just what I had this time). While browning the meat in a little olive oil I added 2 cloves of garlic chopped, 1 chopped onion & some mushrooms chopped. You could put bell pepper, in it as well. I let everything cook together, probably 15 mins or so.
Then I add two cans of 15 oz tomato sauce or your own sauce, half a cup of water, salt to taste, and about 2 teaspoons of brown sugar. Let that simmer until squash is done.

When squash is ready, take out of oven (it will be squishy when pushed), scrape into the pot of meat sauce. Add mozzarella and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Voilà! It’s REALLY good! My kids actually eat it up with out complaint and I prefer the squash over pasta!

My husband REALLY DOES likes it and he is a meat and potato guy! Yay!

Mrs. Criddle

Amber Teething Necklace

We purchased an Amber Teething necklace for our little baby boy after hearing about it from several friends. Going to give my honest to goodness thoughts on it.

First of all we ordered it from Amazon for $19.99 which included shipping. Received it around the first of March. I put it on him immediately because he’s been teething pretty bad. He is almost 9 months old, has two bottom teeth in and his top two teeth are about half way in. He has more teeth coming in as well. Anyway, he hasn’t been sleeping very well and is cranky. I do nurse him pretty much exclusively. The first night I didn’t really notice much difference after putting the necklace on but I’ve heard it takes a while. The second night he slept until 1:00 am nursed and slept until 6:30 am. For him that is awesome! My husband remarked that he seems less cranky, that’s good! But his nightly waking up has not improved completely. He’s has had good nights and bad nights still.

It does not hang far down on him, which is good because he hasn’t really discovered it to pull on it. It screws together, which I like, no clasps or metal attachments.

My thought so far…I think it’s worth a try. It won’t solve all the problems but does seem to help baby with the teething pain. A good natural pain reliever and helps [our] baby boy’s mood.

Trying New Things…

Yesterday was a LONG day of being the the car with five kids, my man, & myself! By the time we finally made it to our home town we were STARVED! Shrimp sounded good! Also being on Weight Watcher, I knew it would be a low point meal. So we stopped & picked up 4 lbs of shrimp. Took it home and realized I didn’t know what else I would make with it. Then I remembered I had seen a sweet potato recipe on the Weight Watchers App that looks really good!! Here it is below:
Sweet Potato Slices

It was a hit with Jarod, myself, & our kiddos! Going to make it again!

Needless to say we consumed every last shrimp & sweet potato! Haha!

Over the next few days I’m going to blog about some of the things I’ve been interested in, ie, dehydrating things, homemade yogurt, etc, and post pictures/recipes of what I do. Things I’ve wanted to try but have thought it would be too much trouble for a momma of 5 kiddos. We shall see!!
Blessings from the Criddle home…

Chocolate oatmeal cookies

Yummy this is my hubby’s favorite cookie!  Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!  Not to mention they are good for you right??  I mean, all that fiber! Haha well, at least I tried!!  I decided to use a small muffin scoop to make my cookies all match in size.  It worked!  Now for the baked-taste-test (already had the “dough”-taste-test)…