Linda @ Linda’s Lunacy

What’s For Dinner?

April 5, 2010 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I’m feeling very uninspired this week. No great ideas for cooking means no great menu plan. So I pulled out my $5. Dinner Mom Cookbook for inspiration. I found one recipe that we like, Beef Burrito Skillet and one new recipe to try, Chicken and Potato Pie. Which you don’t actually make into a pie. So it looks pretty easy.

Saturday – Spaghetti with meat sauce, beets

Sunday – Chicken, mashed potatoes, beets

Monday – Beef Burrito Skillet (from The $5. Dinner Mom Cookbook)

Tuesday – Roasted Chicken, baked potatoes, cauliflower

Wednesday – Lasagna, green beans

Thursday – Chicken and Potato Pie (from The $5. Dinner Mom Cookbook)

Friday – Hamburgers with all the fixings, hopefully over the fire, if the weather is nice.

We’ll also have salad most nights.

For more Menu Plan Monday ideas, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

While your here, don’t forget to enter this weeks giveaway!

Saturday on the Farm

April 3, 2010 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

This week started out sad. One of our baby girl goats died. She looked fine, then a couple of hours later she was dead. We have no idea what caused her death.

The grass has greened up nicely here. The yard even needs to be mowed! The goats are liking all the green grass.

Despite all the green grass in their field, the baby goats keep getting out.

They are very bad little goats, though. They keep eating all my plants! Look what they did to the iris!

They have done the same thing to a few other plants also, including the day lilies. Now they are starting on the roses. So frustrating!

D is doing lots of yard work today and he’s going to fix the fence. The goats were going through the fence, but now that they are too big for that, they are going under. D has been watching where they are getting out at, and he’s going to anchor the bottom of the fence. Hopefully, they won’t find any new places to get out at!

D trimmed the butterfly bush today. It had gotten huge. Abby helped with some of the trimming and other work.

Looks like cleaning the siding will have to be on the spring to do list, also!

We have flowers blooming still. Here are two that just opened in the past couple of days. So pretty!

While your here, be sure to enter this weeks giveaway! An Absence So Great by Jane Kirkpatrick. Go Here to Enter!

An Absence So Great – Book Review & Giveaway

April 2, 2010 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

This contest is now closed. I used random.org to generate a random number. It picked #4. Congratulations to Tabby. I have sent you an email. Thanks to everyone who entered. I have another giveaway coming up. A movie this time. Check back soon!

An Absence So Great by Jane Kirkpatrick is inspired by the engaging stories told through her grandmother’s photographs taken at the turn of the century.

Eighteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele is a photographer who operates photographic studios for those ill with mercury poisoning, while saving for her own studio.

She exiles herself from her family and friends to move to other towns. Exiled because she is trying to remove herself from a forbidden love situation. But no matter where she moves to, a job she loves can’t keep those painful memories from seeping into her heart.

She really does try, (that’s why she kept moving), but how can you stop loving someone?

The last chapter of the book is written in diary form, where Jessie tells of her life. I love this line:

When I’m feeling low, I pull out my photo album and remember as I did that day that photography was my life only until I discovered what life is really made of: the settings, props , and poses we encounter, then put aside so we can cherish family and faith, live fully, and abide until we go.

That’s what life is really all about – family and faith. Not jobs, and certainly not “stuff”.

I love biographies and historical fiction and An Absence So Great is both genres in one book.

In the Authors Notes, and An Interview With The Author, both in the back of the book, the author shares her grandmothers story and tells what parts of the book are fictionalized.

This is Book Two, but you can enjoy this book without having read the first one. I know I did. But I will be looking for the first book, A Flickering Light.

WaterBrook Multnomah sent me a copy of An Absence So Great by Jane Kirkpatrick to give away! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. So easy, right?

This giveaway will end on Friday March 9th, at 8 pm, when I’ll use random.org to pick a winner.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. They also provided me with a copy to giveaway.

Friday Follow

April 2, 2010 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

It’s time for Friday Follow again!

I’m glad I found this blog hop, I’m having so much fun visiting new blogs.

Even if it takes me a few days to visit everyone who commented on my blog. Yeah, I was behind last week. I finished yesterday. lol Just in time for today! lol

Displaying Puzzles

March 31, 2010 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

We love to work puzzles together as a family. My kids worked to put together a puzzle last week. This time, they wanted to hang it up, instead of taking it apart.

I remember gluing puzzles together when I was a kid, so I thought it would be fun for them. I told them we couldn’t yet, though, because we didn’t have the right kind of glue.

My 15 yo son found a picture frame that we weren’t using and slipped it in there without gluing. Then brought it to me to see.

It worked great! We have it hanging up, enjoying it. Because it is a snug fit between the glass and the backing, it has stayed in place, even while hanging. When they get tired of it, we can take it apart. Much better than gluing it, now we can take it apart to share it when they are finished with it.

What’s For Dinner?

March 29, 2010 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

We could not find matza bread in any stores around here. We have been looking for about a month now, and there was none to be found. So I learned how to make it. We have been looking for lamb for several weeks, now also. My husband was able to find one piece that had the bone in it, Saturday. Let’s just say lamb is expensive!

Breakfasts this week will be: eggs, matza bread, fruit, yougurt, breakfast tacos, Fried Matza

Lunches this week will be: roll-ups with homemade tortillas, pasta, pizza made on tortillas, salad, fruit

Saturday – Dinner at Church

Sunday – Pizza

Monday – Matza Ball Soup, Roasted Lamb, salad,

Tuesday – Left-overs

Wednesday – Chicken Tacos, with lettuce, tomatoes, onions

Thursday – Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes, broccoli, salad

Friday – Baked Chicken, Potato Knishes, salad

We will be having deserts, also.

We are celebrating Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the first time this year. So our menu reflects this.

Please note: We are not Jewish, and are not trying to be Jewish. We are trying to follow the Feasts that God has told us to follow in the Bible. I have removed all the leaven from the kitchen, as directed in the Bible, but I have not removed the flour. So I will be making tortillas (without leaven) and matza bread as we need them this week.

For more Menu Plan Monday, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.