Our Family's Gift...

Every year our family adopts an "angel" from the giving tree, either at church or one of the stores. We purchase everything that is on the wish list and we also get extra items like books, socks, underwear and I try and find a coat in really good condition at a consignment store.
We started doing this when Alex was 2 years old. A girlfriend and I would put in together and get whatever we could. As the years have gone on, I try and do extra things for family's that I know are in some type of need.

This year I have come up with an idea and I wanted to share it with you all....

If you have a Publix supermarket in your area, then your familiar with their .01 cent coupon in their Sunday ad section. Every week they offer an item (usually a Publix brand item) for a penny. I've seen it range from peanut butter to coffee to a 4 pack of toilet paper.
What I have decided to do is, every week (I started last week ) buy that item and make a basket of goodies with it.
I will do this until December 14th, that gives us eleven weeks. (That's .11 cents out of my pocket).

Also, I don't know about you guys, but I am a coupon momma!! I get very excited to see how much money I have saved at the end of the week.

What I'm going to do with the money I save is, at the end of the week I'm adding up all my receipts with coupon savings and putting the money in a fish bowl that is labeled "Our Family's Gift" on our counter. Even if it's only .30 cents that week. (I usually in one week save about 2- 5 dollars, with my coupons.)
Whatever money we collect by December 14th, we will buy either a turkey or a small ham for the family were donating to.

We have a family that we know has fallen onto some really hard times this year and I know would be more than grateful to have some of Santa's magic delivered to their door one evening. I have talked it over with my hubby and kids and everyone is on board!

I want my kids to know the importance of helping others. Writing a check to help different charities is a wonderful thing that we do every month. But I want them to see the pile of goodies get bigger and see that fish bowl fill up with coins and dollars.....

It really is a wonderful feeling to "give". Whether it's your time to a friend in need, your expertise to someone who needs help with something or your pennies that really can add up to something much more!!

What special things do you and your family do??
I'm always looking for good ideas!!

The Most Tender Roast Ever!

This week was a week of some good EATINS' in the Johnson house. Last Saturday I made Red Beans and Sunday I made Spaghetti and Meatballs.
Monday was a leftover night....

YEAH for leftovers!



Tuesday I made a roast in the Crock pot. Ever since I started putting my roasts in the crock pot I rarely cook them any other way. You can prepare your crock pot the night before and when you leave in the morning for work, shopping, whatever you do in a day, just plug in your pot and go!

Sometimes I add potatoes and carrots to my roast and put a whole chopped onion in it with some garlic, black pepper and Kitchen bouquet.
Other times I mix some Lipton Soup mix with some beef broth and garlic and pour that over it.

This week I used the laziest method ever for cooking a roast, beer, garlic and Lipton Soup mix.
How can you go wrong with that?
RIGHT??

Here We Go.....
3 pound Sirloin Tip Roast, I usually use Eye Of Round. But these were on sale and looked BEAUTIFUL!
1 bottle or can of beer, I used Guinness Extra Stout. (If you know my husband, you know why :)
1 package of Lipton Onion Soup Mix (my little something something)

I have used a regular lite beer before but I find the dark beer makes it so much more tender.
1 jar of Organic chopped garlic
A sprinkle of pepper and some Tony Chachere


Rinse the roast
Poke holes all throughout the roast so it can soak up all the flavors



(Another little tip I learned from Take A Whisk) if you roll up 2 balls of aluminum foil and place your roast on top of it, all of the fat will fall off and you can just scoop it up after it's finished cooking.
Put the roast in crock pot on the high setting, sprinkle seasonings on top.
Pour garlic on top
Pour your bottle of beer and the 2 packets of Soup mix together and mix.


Cover and cook, I always let my roast in the crock pot cook for about 8 hours.
Let me tell you, when I took it out to shred it, it was falling apart!
I put it on French bread and made asparagus with it!
OH MY WORD, it was SO GOOD!



Happy Cooking!

My trees!!

These are a few pictures I snapped with my phone while driving Hannah home from swim team today.
Our weather is just GORGEOUS!
I tried to get the tree lined road that I told you all about yesterday. I'll try again with my camera in the coming days. You get the idea though, it's just peaceful......

That Damn Cow!

One might say that I have a SLIGHT addiction to sweet tea. Chick fil a is my favorite! I have been known to step out of my "hood" occasionally and also get my crack tea from a few other dealers restaurants. McAlisters Deli and Atlanta Bread Company are my 2 other favorites....

I never really thought that I had a problem until one day when I was just having "one of those days". I found myself pulling out of the drive thru, ripping open the straw and with the sheer feeling of ecstasy knowing that everything was going to be better, because "momma just scored the goods"!

And then thinking....is this wrong?

NAHHH!!

We all have that one thing....WHAT'S YOURS??

Linguine with Spicy Crawfish Butter sauce

(this is from one of my Cooking Light magazines)this is also very simple!!


1 pound of linguine(I mostly use De Boles pasta's there sold at almost all the stores in the organic section...they carry organic whole wheat in most varieties of pasta and they are YUMMY!)


Cooking spray


1/2 cup finely chopped onion


1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning


1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper


1/4 teaspoon salt


3 garlic cloves,minced


7 yes 7 tablespoons butter, softened


10 ounces frozen(I know Louisiana people, the words crawfish and frozen should not go together but were in Georgia and that's all they have)cooked peeled and deveined crawfish tail meat, thawed, rinsed, drained


and finely chopped 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley


Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain


Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray.(I use an organic Olive Oil)


Add onion to pan; saute' 3 minutes.


Add Cajun seasoning, red pepper, salt, and garlic to pan; saute' 1 minute, and transfer to a large bowl.


Add butter and crawfish to bowl;stir well to combine.


Add hot pasta and parsley; toss well.


Serve immediately


Happy Cooking!!

A Mean Mother....

Years ago my momma and I went to this HUGE craft fair (Louisiana people, remember the one in the Pontratrain Center?). We seriously walked around for what felt like HOURS, I'm not really a Craft Fair person. I have enough of my own crap and don't really need any doily napkins made to look like a smiling animal.



But I went because, well honestly if my mother would of asked me to donate platelets with her at that time, I would of.
Alex was about 15 months old (SIGH....the days when it was just me and my boy taking on the world and all the smiling doily people.....BIG SIGH those were the days) I was the ripe ole age of 21. At that time in my life I was trying desperately to be the daughter that I had not been for most of my teenage years, I was trying to make my mother my friend.....



All of my teenage years (13 - until) were spent trying to stay away from my parents as much as they would let me. I didn't like them and I was ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that they didn't like me, because you know when your a teenager, you just happened to gain all the knowledge in the world!!

2 months after I turned 18 I left my parents house in a very mature way, I moved out because they didn't want me to not stay out during the week until 5 AM.....THE HORROR!

For years I would tell myself how much better I would be, if I didn't have to deal with HER (her being my mother) I never really blamed my daddy for anything it was always HER.
You know the HER who almost died giving birth to me, the same Her that sacrificed everything in her young life for me, she was evil and I knew that because I had being given all the knowledge....REMEMBER!

After I had Alex, I wanted a better relationship with HER and I thought that my mother and I would instantly have this fairy tale life together. Which would include us holding hands, skipping through the mall together and maybe even singing a little Kumbaya completely in sync of course.

Really I didn't know what I wanted, I just knew that I wanted, needed my mother.

Nothing of what I thought would happen, happened.


Back to my original story.....

While we were at the Craft Fair there was a woman selling this cards that had all kinds of different sayings on them.

One of them was titled " A Mean Mother".

It was all about the MEAN, MEAN things that mothers make us do. Like learn how to take care of ourselves, eat our vegetables, you know HORRIBLE things. I admired it for awhile but didn't buy it because I had already bought Alex 2 little wooden cars and didn't have any more money. (did I ever tell you guys that WE WERE POOOOR back in the day)

That evening as we were leaving the Craft Fair my mom hands me this little bag and she has a smile on her face. She tells me to read it and not to forget what it says. Inside the bag was the card that I had been admiring and also another one about daughters, I was so happy to have them. I framed them both, the daughter one I put in my room and the other became a staple on my cabinet in my kitchen.

It took me a few more years to understand that I couldn't make my mother my friend, because well honestly, she's not. I will always be her daughter and she will always be the SUPERIOR BEING that gave birth to me!!

In the last 5 years we have developed a relationship that I thank the Blessed Mother for everyday....

As soon as I realized that she is who she is and that it's not always about me (in other words, I grew up), things started to change.

My mother and I are very different but also very similar people. She is a very relaxed person who doesn't talk a lot. And then there's me, you know the person that loves to GO GO GO and would talk to the tree if I had to....
We are both very strong people and both are good at keeping it together in any situation.

One thing I know for sure is, we are mother and daughter.
And if I had to go through all the crazy years again just to be where we are today, I would do it in a heartbeat......

A girl that I work with at the preschool just recently lost her mother and another girl that I work withs mother just became really ill, really fast and there's a chance she might lose her.

The thought of not having my mother and father with me everyday is something I can't even imagine (and don't want to imagine), I know as adults it's something that we all will have to deal with.

But for now, I would just like to honor my "mean" mother and father.

Thank you momma and daddy, (you are the wind beneath my wings, you know I had to throw a joke in there somewhere:)

I love you both so much and hope you know that I strive to be just as "mean" as you are.

Love,
Your daughter

Just A Little Piece.....

Driving through the main entrance in my subdivision is one of the most relaxing drives that I've ever known. It's lined with beautiful trees and has wonderful rolling hills (not so wonderful when your trying to walk them), it's just something that I have enjoyed since the day we moved into our house.
Before I even laid eyes on my house for the first time I told my agent, I'm sold just by this street alone. It was early Fall (just as it is now) and the trees were starting to turn wonderful colors of red, orange and green that I had never seen before.

In Louisiana I never noticed the beauty of the trees. Maybe some were as pretty as this, but for the life of me I don't remember any like this.....

Maybe it was that after the hurricane, I started to try and remember all of the "little things" in my life and not focus on the "non little things" so much.

I just remember driving around Georgia in AWE of the trees and their beauty....

I so desperately wanted my parents, my brothers and my girlfriend Stacey to see them
(as if they had never seen a freaking tree before).

It was just one of those times in life when you sit back and want the ones you love to experience all the good things with you.

All of these feelings over some pretty trees.

Yes I am a big sap and I don't want to be any other way......... :):):)