Much To Be Thankful For and Delicious Green Bean Casserole Recipe

This year I have so much to be thankful for. I am truly thankful for all God has blessed us with this past year and I try to not take it for granted. We had three wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations with the various sides of our families and ate way too much food.

I am thankful for my husband. Not only is he a loving husband, a great provider, wonderful dad, he also is my best friend and I truly enjoy spending time with him. I can hardly believe we've been together 6 years at the end of the year.

I am thankful for my kids. They truly are wonderful. They are polite, they are smart, they are responsible, and overall they are just great kids. I am so thankful God chose me to be their mom.

I am thankful for the new baby growing inside me that we will meet this spring. I have longed for another baby for many years and am beyond overjoyed that our new baby will finally join our family in a few months. This baby will be part hubby, part me, and something as a stepfamily we all have in common.

I am thankful to be living in Colorado again. I am thankful we now have so much family so close and to have lots of long time friends close as well. I love seeing the mountains everyday and going and playing in the mountains as often as possible. I love all the sunshine we get here in Colorado. I love the slower pace of life and the fact that strangers are friendly and take the time to smile and talk to you.

I am thankful for my hubby's job. Not only does he get to make beer for a living, his job allows me to stay home and raise our children, something I don't take for granted.

I am thankful we were able to purchase our first home this year. Not only is the home bigger and nicer than anything we ever though we'd be able to afford, it is close to hubby's job, in a neighborhood full of kids and really great neighbors.

I am thankful we have finally found a church here in town and I look forward to becoming more involved. This morning church refreshed my soul and changed my bad attitude and I really appreciate it.

I am thankful for so much. I know as college educated Americans hubby and I have more than most others worldwide. Thanksgiving is a great time to pause and reflect on everything we truly do have here in America.

And as an added bonus here is the most delicious green bean casserole recipe you'll ever have. I made it for our first Thanksgiving celebration and it was amazing!

Paula Deen's Green Bean Casserole

From: foodnetwork.com with my modifications.

Ingredients:


1/3 stick butter

1/2 cup diced onions

1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

2 cups canned green beans (drained)

1 - 10 3/4 ounce can of cream of mushroom soup

1 - 2.8 ounce can of French's fried onions

1 cup grated sharp cheddar

salt, black pepper, and garlic powder to taste


1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Melt butter in skillet and saute onions and mushrooms.

3) Add green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and fried onions to onion and mushroom mixture.

4) Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste, at a ratio of 2 times more salt than pepper or garlic powder. I didn't measure but maybe 2-3 good shakes of pepper and garlic powder, and 5-6 shakes of salt.

5) Stir well and pour into baking dish.

6) Bake for 20 minutes, then add shredded cheddar on top (don't stir) and bake for 10 more minutes.

7) Serve hot out of oven and enjoy!

Meet The Two Newest Members Of Our Family

We added two new members to our family in April and I never got the chance to introduce you to them, how rude of me!

God has truly blessed us over these past 6 months and we wanted to share some of our blessings with those in the world who are less fortunate than us. Back in September we began sponsoring our first child through Compassion, Ruth who lives and Ghana. Over the past 9 months we have enjoyed getting to know her better and be able to help her life be a little easier. I won't lie that the "get to know you" process is easy, it isn't. Communicating through letters across cultural and language barriers takes time. A hard thing for us Americans in the technology age to understand, but it's happened and we look forward to getting to know Ruth even better.

Compassion International was a charity I heard of as a teenager at church. It seemed like something that would be a great experience, not only for the child whose life you are changing but for your own but I never seriously considered it since we were never in a financial position where I could make the ongoing commitment. Then things began to change, mostly in my heart, but I began to realize I didn't have to wealthy or have everything figured out to change a child's life. When we began to sponsor Ruth our financial situation was improving but nothing to the degree it has now. Instead we took a leap of faith and decided to sponsor her and have loved every minute of it. Also, reading about Kristen from We Are THAT Family's trip to Kenya with Compassion really put the idea of sponsoring a child on my heart again. And now Kristen has started her own charity, a maternity home in Kenya. It is amazing the things God can do with one little person!

After our experience with Ruth and experiencing all the blessings that have came our way over the past 6 months, God put it on my heart to sponsor more children. I thought my husband would think I'm crazy and say no. Things are going well for us but we still have a ton of student loan debt to pay off and lots of financial goals to meet ourselves. But guess what, hubby didn't bat an eye, he said, "I think that is a good idea" and here we are today with the two newest members of our family.

Maite, age 4, Bolivia, shares a birth date with Phoenix

Samuel, age 11, India, shares his exact birth date with Brennan

Ruth, Maite, and Samuel, on our fridge as our daily reminder of their presence in our lives.

I don't know what God has planned for my life. I'd love to change the world in big ways! I've thought about starting a local non-profit, I've thought about a lot of other things, but for now I am okay with making big changes in a few children's lives. We'll see what the future holds.

Beautiful

Today was Youth Sunday at our church. Youth Sunday is the week where the worship service is turned over to the youth of the church to run and man, is there some energy in the room! Youth Sunday two years ago was actually the first time we attended Grace church and while energized, we weren't sure what to think, it was definitely more upbeat than we were used to. Now that I know what to expect I was delighted to walk into service today and to see the stage full of high schoolers on fire for Jesus. We sang so many great songs and I love worship music but this is one of my favorites we sang today so I wanted to share it with you, enjoy!

You Must Be The Change You Wish To See In The World

~Mahatma Ghandi

Helping others is an interesting thing. I find it brings more joy to me than anything else.

The Matthew West song, "My Own Little World" touches my hear each time I hear it. Yesterday on my way back from running errands and I heard the song and it spoke to me. I thought if I saw a homeless person or someone in need instead of passing by them and pretending they don't exist I was going to acknowledge them as a person and give them a little money, regardless of what they spent it on.

Not 2 minutes later as I pulled off the interstate there was a homeless man, not a lot older than me. One thing I remember about the interviews with Ted Williams, "the homeless man with the golden voice" is him saying one of the worst parts of being homeless is you feel invisible, people don't even acknowledge you exist. This touched me as well. How hard is it to say, "hi" and acknowledge someone else is another human being that deserves respect like the rest of us?

The exchange was simple, I rolled down my window, smiled and said, "hi, how are you"?, to which the man responded with a smile and, "a little better now". I handed him all my change, couldn't have been much more than a dollar, I smiled again and said, "may God bless you" and the light turned green and I went on my way.

The interesting part is how it impacted me. I've given money and food to the homeless before but over time has become a bit cynical about the whole situation. A lot of people are homeless because they struggle with mental illness, or alcohol or drug addiction, and money is often spent on drugs or alcohol, but you know what I realized yesterday, it is not my place to judge. I will not miss a dollar or even five. We have always been blessed with enough to meet our needs, even when things have been tight. It is much more important to respond to someone in need with compassion rather than judgement. This doesn't mean every time I see someone asking for money I'll be able to give but it does mean when I feel moved to give I won't resist it.

We Took A Big Leap of Faith

and I hope our lives are never the same.


I'd like to introduce you to Ruth, our newly sponsored child through Compassion International. Sponsoring a child through Compassion has been on my heart for a long time but the timing never seemed right financially for us but after watching this on Kristen's blog a few weeks back I knew God was speaking to me and our time, Ruth's time was now. I hope over the years we get to know Ruth well and our sponsorship and support will truly be a blessing in her life. I know sponosoring her will bless my family in ways I cannot even imagine. I know my children will learn countless lessons of compassion, love, poverty, generosity, and thankfulness through this experience. Ruth shares a birthday with my middle daughter Wyn, which makes it even more special. Can't wait to share with you all how this has touched our lives.