Ranch Stew

A stew similar to chili and just as tasty.

I get all excited on Wednesdays when my husband comes home with the mail. Every week we get a local shopper/newspaper and it is loaded with recipes and tips for ladies. After weeks of collecting recipes I finally tried one yesterday. One thing I have had to learn about the cooking here is the people do NOT season their food.  Recipes also call for things like Accent; which is a mostly MSG seasoning and I stay away from that ingredient. This recipe called for it and in it's place I used a little cajun seasoning.

Ranch Stew is a stick with you recipe. I ate two bowls and was stuffed. I will definitely be making this again and doubling the recipe for leftovers.  ~SO GOOD!

Ranch Stew

1 Tbsp. oil                                               

1 medium onion, chopped  

1 bell pepper, diced                      

1 can whole kernel corn (drained)

2 cups tomatoes, diced

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cajun seasoning

1/2 cup water

1 pound ground meat

1Tbsp sugar

1 can kidney beans

salt and pepper

shredded cheese ** optional

In a heavy pot brown meat, onion and peppers, drain. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.

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The original recipe did not say whether to drain the corn or not, but I DID. I also added a little more chili powder to the pot.

Did You Miss Me?

I am so happy our internet was hooked up yesterday evening. I've been thinking about all the thoughts that have been rolling around that I wanted to write about and now that the internet is on, the thoughts have stopped rolling. Yep, I should have been taking notes on everything, but you know how it goes.

Believe it or not, there is not much snow around. We've had a about a total of 6 inches since we've been here and most of it  melted last week. We woke up to another dusting on Tuesday morning; you never know what you'll wake up to here in the mornings.

Here's a picture of our trip home from Miles City on Saturday.  The scenery in both directions is beautiful. I giggle when my husband reminds me of a comment a friend of his said about not much to see in this area. Really? I still get excited when I see this~


                                     As Phil Robertson says, I'm "HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY".

Just a Peak

Just a peek at life around here.

I know some of you have been patiently waiting for pictures. So here are a few of the many we have taken.  The first full moon photo is from October and the second is from November. Both pictures were taken right behind our house.

 

These two pictures are of the main street downtown where we live and of course, there is NOTHING, because there is nothing where we live, except for the fire department, post office and one school.

                                               
 This is a picture of many of our neighbors. :)

Hopefully, I can get some more pictures posted, soon.

About our Town

I never dreamed our family would be living in south eastern Montana. I figured if we came back we would be living more in the central part of the state; a more populous area. I remember the first time we came to Montana; as far as you could see were rolling hills of luscious green waving grass. After a change in direction and several hours later, we were right below massive snow capped mountains. I was in awe of all the beauty that my Lord created and placed where many could enjoy it.

Over the last four and half years, I expressed I think I would rather live on the eastern side; if we were placed back in this state. It never crossed my mind the Lord would be taking into consideration of my rathers. Life here is not like it is on the other side of the state. Believe it or not there is a HUGE difference in the lifestyle and hospitality of the people between the two areas. On the western side of the state you will have a lot of transplanted Californians and others from around the country. These are people who search out a luxurious lifestyle in the many mountainous towns and cities. There are also several mining towns that speckle the mountain side. The western side of Montana is known for tourism.

Here in the eastern side of the state, you will find families who have been here for one hundred years or more making a living in farming. These are people who are up before there is even a hint of morning sun light working to care for their cattle, and other farm animals. They are the ones who pray for cooperative weather when it comes to wheat, corn and sunflowers. These are the people who depend on their farming skills to live. These are the people who will wave when they meet a passing vehicle. They are the people who have worked to instill a strong work ethic in their children. These are the people who will stand beside their neighbors and do what they can when the neighbor has hit a rough spot in their lives.

In our area you will also find oil men. There are some who have grown up in town and worked many of the odd jobs that are begging for people to come and fill. These people have seen the affects of oil and made the decision to leave their familiar jobs in search for a better life for their family. There are also many outsiders who have come in and set up a temporary home and will work in the oil fields to make a living for their family. Once their job demand slows down, they will move on to another area and another oil field.

The small town we live in has a population of less than 170. All the local stores, garages and original “city” folks have either closed up, passed on or moved away. The once active grain elevator still stands as a reminder of a day not all that long ago. This town was founded by Russian railroad workers and many of their descendants still farm the surrounding area.

From reading books about this area, this was a homesteading community. There were enough people to have seven churches; which four are still active. I visited with one of my neighbors who are up in age and own a cattle farm. They decided to move to town and allow their children to live on the farm. Hearing some of the stories of their childhood made me wish I could have been around to see how all the school aged boys would take a day off from school during the spring to go out and pick up bones from the cattle that died during the winter blizzard and sell them as a “fundraiser” for the local school. If you've ever been hammered with the bothersome fundraiser newsletter, can you imagine sending your child out to pick up bones? Yeah, me neither.

The nearest city is about 15 miles and many of the people in our town work in this larger city and grocery shop. Unfortunately, the grocery store prices have seen the affect of the oil. Our closest Walmart is about 80 miles away and our nearest mall with major stores like Costco, Lowes, Hobby Lobby, and Hancock Fabrics is 225 miles. I was a little surprised to hear how many people in this area actually drive the 225 miles so they can stock up on much needed items while saving money. We've not driven the 225 miles yet, but we’ve driven the 80 miles several times so we can save money.

I had a friend tell me she could not imagine living so far out from everything. When I think about all the conveniences we left behind when we moved; two Walmarts within ten miles, countless grocery stories and of course, the ten malls within 80 miles. We are saving so much money by not having the “oh, I need to go here” moment. Living here is definitely a lifestyle change; a change that I love, a change that I’ve experienced once before, a change that we can quickly adjust to it.

Just as soon as my husband finishes up editing some pictures, hopefully, I'll be able to post some of them.

Waiting On God During Our Move

Before I can even begin to tell you about our new home, I want to tell you a little about how we got to where we are. After you read this you will be shaking your head in amazement. ~ Like we're still doing.

Waiting On God During Our Move

In July, we faced a difficult situation with the house we had been in for a little over a year. In the end, we had to leave. At first I was very upset, but as the two weeks we had to move marched on, I was beginning to wonder what was going to happen. We looked at houses closer to our church, since we thought that was what the Lord wanted. Every time I called about a house, it was either out of our price range or it was a tumbling down, flea infested shack. Yep, really!

For some reason, the Lord did not see fit to give us a house. We had to move in with my parents and while we were there, I continued to look with no avail. While all of this was going on, my husband’s job began having some problems. He was cut down to three days a week with no explanation and no hope of regaining those two days.

The last week in August, my husband asked me to start looking for any openings for jobs he was qualified for, no matter where it was located. I started with counties inside the state of Georgia, and moved on to states close by and didn’t find anything.  I took a stab in the dark and thought I would try looking in Montana. We both have an account through the work force for the state, so I signed in and began looking. I came across one job with several others to research.

After talking with my husband I began rewriting his resume and wrote a cover letter. Neither one are my specialty so it took me a couple of days. While working on both, I kept my eyes open for other jobs and was shocked to sign in one day and find about ten openings for the state of Montana D.O.T.

On Labor Day, I took the time to verify the resume and cover letter again and began sending them for the state jobs. Before I clicked the mouse to send the information, I prayed and asked the Lord if he did not want us there, for us to not receive a call back. I did this for all the state job openings. Once those were sent, I felt at peace. Over the next few days, I prayed if God wanted us there, for them to call.

Since we were dealing with the state, I figured we would not hear from them for several weeks, boy was I wrong. Four days after sending the resumes, we received a phone call for an interview for the following Thursday. Yep, four days and the interview would be the next week. ~ A little mind blowing, for sure!

We began praying for the money to drive out for the interview. We really thought the Lord would provide the money so we could leave on Monday morning and not have to drive at break-neck speed.

Funny, how his timing is not our timing... I began praying the money would come through by lunch time. When lunchtime came and went, we felt hopeless. We went to the grocery store and while we were in the store, the Lord provided the money for us to go. I think it’s funny... it was not quite lunch time in Montana.

My trip to the grocery store was the fastest I had ever run. You really should have seen us; we were running through the store putting items back on the shelves while picking up a few things for the trip. We flew back home and packed as fast as we could and were able to leave by 6:00 that evening.

During all the running around in the grocery store, my husband called his boss and told him that he needed off the next three days.  Little did we know that those three days were going to be a problem with his current job.

All the way to Montana, I prayed that if God really wanted us there, he would give us the job. The entire trip went smoothly. The interview went good; my husband had hope. We left for home after the interview.

On Monday afternoon, my husband received a phone call from his boss; he had been fired with no explanation. We had talked about the possibility of him being fired and until it actually happened, we were alright with the idea. Boy, when he received that phone call, I was floored.

Two days later the Lord answered our prayers. The state called and wanted my husband to go in for a drug screening. Since we were 1,700 miles from their doctors, a lab in our area was used. My husband had to go three times. Two times they couldn't get their act together and the last time, the lady finally came right out and said that they could not do it due to some paper work. While what seemed like a huge mess, the Lord was working everything out for us to have a place to live.

We finally decided we would move on out and take the drug test at the state’s approved doctor’s offices. We knew there was no possibility of failing a drug test but we did not want anything to hinder the test and the start to work date. So, we felt this would be best. Yes, that was a huge step in faith, but the Lord knew.

 From the day of the interview, we knew housing was a major problem in this area. With North Dakota oil drilling right across the state line, and the beginning of drilling in the area bringing in oil men all hotel rooms, apartments, etc. are full all the time. Inside the city, where my husband’s job is located, there are man-camps set up on empty lots. There are many campers with families living in them and some have been there for at least two years. With oil comes greed and inflated prices. Housing prices are doubled and even tripled in the area. Within the month of September, my husband had made several phone calls to people in the area trying to keep an eye out on a place to live.

We were shocked to receive a phone call while we were in Missouri from a lady who had just heard about a house coming open that was the exact price we had been praying about. After making a couple of phone calls we had people praying that this would be the one. ~ And it was!

We drove almost all night so we could be in the area around lunchtime on Wednesday. We met with the couple who had the house and we fell in love with it and with them. They are an older couple who had just bought the house the week before we got there. Funny how God’s timing is always perfect.

When my husband called his bosses to let them know he was in town, he was asked where he was staying. When he told them we had a house and we were in the process of moving what few things we brought with us. They were extremely shocked! Every time they have the opportunity to tell about our situation, they do it. Anyone who hears it, is amazed.

I’m amazed!

• When I think about the crazy mess with the Lab and how I honestly felt they couldn’t do their job, God was working to keep the drug test held up so a house would come open up just when we needed it.

• When I think about how my husband went without a job for four weeks, God provided our every need.

• When I think about the prayers I prayed before each click of the mouse, God already had a job for my husband.

• When I think about all the mess with our house and how we had two weeks to move, God was opening doors for our family.

• I think about the prayers our family has prayed since 2008 about returning to Montana to serve the Lord (these prayers are a whole different story, hopefully I can share at a later time), he was working even when we thought he had put a stop to us serving him here.

I’ve always heard you can’t put a time limit on God. Talk about a learning experience our family has learned and experienced.  This is definitely a story that we’ll be sharing for years.

Way Out on the Prairie

It’s been a while since I’ve shared about our family. Well… we have moved.



It's been a little while since I last posted. I'm excited about the reason why ~ we have a new home town in eastern Montana. We are among lots of ranches, farms and wonderful people.

For my family and friends back home with right around the corner conviences; we are about 70 miles from Walmart along with McDonald's, Wendy's, and Arby's and of course Taco John's. Looks like we'll be saving lots of money and losing a few pounds. We are about 200 miles from the nearest Costco and major shopping in Billings. Some of the locals tell us it is worth the drive to stock up and save.

We do have another city about 12 miles from us and this is where my husband is working out of with his new job. There are several gas stations, a grocery store, and Rexall Drugs in the city. Of course, the area does have bars which have restaurants and casinos just like all cities in the state.

I can't wait to introduce you all to southeastern, Montana. Since it's a little slow at obtaining telephone and internet service here, I'm stopping off at the library to post this. I give two thumbs up for our library! It's small and up to date on technology. ~ Yippie Skippie!

I can't begin to tell you how much I love it here already!

Answers in Genesis and A Little FYI

We had an opportunity to attend an Answers in Genesis Conference on Sunday evening and Monday morning. To sum it up in one word ~FANTASTIC!~ Both Ken Ham and Dr.Tommy Mitchell spoke on Sunday evening and both did equally wonderful.

In the first session, Ken Ham spoke on One Race, One Blood. He has a book entitled One Race, One Blood  and this session was based on his book.  Once the technical genetics part was over with, he went on to explain how the skin colors and different features (facial) about people are formed. Some pretty amazing information was given on how everyone ~ red, and yellow, black and white are all related. We are all one race; the human race. There are no races but different shades of skin. We are all children of Adam. No matter what continent someone is from, we are all related.

Dr. Mitchell spoke on Why Can't a Day Mean a Day. This session was extremely informative about how the days of creation were literal 24 hour days. He went on to explain  how the days in Genesis 1 were just like the same 24 hour days that made up the week that the Israelites walked around the wall of Jericho. The same 24 hour days when Jonah was in the great fish.  And how they were the same 24 hour days that Jesus was in the grave. So if the days in the other parts of the Bible mean an actual 24 hours, then the days in Genesis 1 mean the same thing. He even pointed out that evolutionist only questioned the days in Genesis 1. I really enjoyed this session, I think it had to do with the way Dr. Mitchell talked ~he talked just like us ~ with a strong southern accent.

Yesterday morning was a lot of fun! These sessions were geared towards children. Ken Ham spoke at both of these and in the first session he was able to break down the dinosaur fact for anyone to understand and believe. He gave scripture verses that backed up dinosaurs being in the Bible and gave evidence that they could not have lived millions of years ago. In the second session, Ken spoke on how to be able to defend our Christian faith biblically and scientifically. A lot of the information from Sunday night was taught while explaining how children can share the gospel while defending our faith.

If you have a chance to attend an AIG conference in your area, do it. You won't be disappointed and will walk away with something new you've learned.

This week was suppose to be our week off in our school. We were looking forward to it like it was a vacation to some exotic place. Yeah, right! Actually, we were looking forward to this week since it is a week off from school. But since we are moving we decided to use our week off for when we move. Since this move happens within the next few days, I'm not sure when I'll post again. I know I've not mentioned a move on here, but I will once we are moved.  Have a good week!

Spelling Study Sheet

We've been using Spelling Power for little over a month now and I wish I would have started this program years ago. You can read about how I use the program HERE.

In the past, I've always had misspelled words written several times on notebook paper. It worked, but it is something that we've been doing from the beginning of elementary school. When I got the Spelling Power book, a printable study sheet was included in the back of the book. Unfortunately, I really did not care for this particular sheet. So, I decided to create a study sheet that would work for Jamie and his needs.

We've been using this sheet for a couple of weeks now, and we love it. Each day when the flow word list is given and any words are missed, I simply write those words in the top box. When we are finished with the list and Jamie has corrected the words on his paper, he is given this sheet and all he does is write the words and spell the words out loud three times.  If there is an extremely difficult word, then he will use another row for some added practice.

You are more than welcome to use this study sheet. You can also find other related items HERE.