Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup
It’s soup season, still! Here’s another great one that I make all the time.
- 1 large onion
- 4 stalks celery
- 2 peppers
- 3 cloves of minced garlic
- 1 can of corn
- 1-2 cans of black beans
- 1 cup of salsa
- 2 cans of mexican stewed tomatoes
- 3-4 cans of chicken broth
- 1 tbs cumin
- 1 tbs chili powder
- 2 lbs of chicken (frozen or raw)
- Optional add ins: zucchini, spinach, rice
- Optional toppings: rice, sour cream, chips, cilantro, avocado
- Dice the tomatoes, celery, and peppers. Add the corn black beans salsa tomatoes and salsa. Pour in chicken broth and seasonings and stir. Set the crockpot to 4-5 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low (depending on frozen or raw chicken). After the chicken is cooked, pull it out and shred it or cut into smaller pieces. Put it back in the crock pot to soak into the rest of the soup.
- Enjoy!
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Get a Jump-Start on Your Spring Cleaning!
Clutter can be a real negative influence on the health of our minds and bodies. During the fun activities of the holiday season it becomes so easy to put many important aspects of life on hold (especially cleaning and organizing) until the busyness calms down (or should I say IF the busyness calms down). This year, don’t let that happen! Let’s be more prepared and not wait until Spring to free ourselves from the stress of clutter. There are fun ways to clean and organize your home and I am going to share one of those ways with you today!
ThredUP is the name of my recommendation for de-cluttering your closet and/or improving it on a budget.
“thredUP is the easiest way to save money on great Women’s and Kids’ clothing brands and sell clothes for cash. We’re like a consignment store, but simpler. On thredUP you can refresh your entire wardrobe online without ever leaving your house.”
Browse thousands of like-new clothing items, which we’ve hand-selected and certified for quality. You’ll find all your favorite brands discounted up to 90% off, year-round.
And, when you’re done with clothing, simply fill up a thredUP bag and put it on your doorstep. thredUP covers the shipping, and pays you for every item we can sell to other families.
Our goal is to make your life just a little bit easier.
- We eliminate the stress of deal hunting by offering consistent discounts every day.
- We take the hassle out of bringing your kids into a store by allowing you to thredUP online.
- We relieve that recycling guilt by helping you lighten your family’s carbon-footprint with every order.
Ready to give thredUP a try? We think you’ll love what you find.
I was ready to try! It is so simple! Once I …
Read MoreLove in Action
Falling in love through service is an incredible experience. When your heart is moved by an unmet need and you know that you are being called to participate in fulfilling that need, an instantaneous thing happens in your heart-you fall in love with the people you are serving. TRUE greatness in this world comes through serving others. True love also comes when you give 100% to another person and that happens through serving one another.
This weekend, I attended a Gogo Grandmothers Board meeting where I spent a glorious day with friends renewing our hearts and reaffirming our commitment for the continued work being accomplished in Malawi. I feel so privileged to be a board member for the SAFE /Gogo Grandmothers ministry and have loved every minute of my time serving with the other members of the board. (SAFE stands for Sub-Saharan Family Enrichment) We serve a mighty God who moves in mighty ways! My current project involves organizing a manual for preparing groups who want to go have a hands on experience in Malawi with the SAFE/Gogo Grandmothers ministry. I am excited for the day when I get to go meet the Gogos and the staff in Malawi. It will be a blessing to someday meet the people that my heart already loves.
Here is a chart from the 2015 End of Year report that shows how our ministry has grown because of people like you who have joined in to serve and put their Love in Action!
Gogo Grandmothers provides for the orphans of AIDS in Malawi, Africa by assisting the grandmothers who care for them. In America, and across the world, individuals and Gogo Grandmothers groups (often uniting women who are grandmothers themselves) gather monthly to pray and carry out fund-raising projects that provide what poor …
Read MoreHave More Happy
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.”
Proverbs 17:22
I’ve been learning a lot about how important it is to take care of yourself and pour into yourself so that you can better serve and love on others! One of the best ways to do that is to be filled with joy and do things that make you happy!
One thing that fills my heart with joy is going to Disneyland with my girls. We just love it. Yes, it takes a lot of work to pack up our food and gear and make a day of it. Yes, it makes me tired. BUT sharing the experience together and seeing their happy faces makes it worth it to me.
It is the same way with exercise. It’s never easy to make that time, but the rewards outweigh any excuse I might make. And fitness makes me so happy. It is one of my passions.
Here are a few of my favorite ways to Have More Happy:
- Be Grateful. Start your day with gratitude so you are focused on all the blessings in your life.
- LAUGH! Do things that make you laugh, hang out with people that make you laugh. Watch a funny movie. Watch funny clips on YouTube. I recommend Jimmy Fallon Hashtag skits. They are hilarious.
- Add value to others. Give, serve, tell someone you love them, connect and listen.
- Take care of yourself. Drink water, get sleep, nourish your body. When you feel good on the inside it shows on the outside!
- Surround yourself with joyful people. Who we spend the most time with has a HUGE influence on our attitude and behavior so choose wisely.
- DREAM. Make plans and goals that you can get excited
Honesty is the Best Policy
from http://mobilefomo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ID-10035027.jpg
We always think of lying in terms of saying something that is not true… But sometimes, avoiding being honest, manipulating the truth, not saying enough, or just not saying anything is a form of a lie. Yes there is a time and a place to keep your mouth shut… but other times, its time to speak up. If you are in the middle of processing through something and it’s better to keep working through it before you say anything… you can say “I need more time”. If you are going to speak out of a reaction rather than a response, maybe think about counting to 10… But the worst thing you could do is bottle it all up, let it ruminate, let it turn into bitterness, and let it EXPLODE a few days later. Be honest with yourself, be honest with others, be honest with the Lord. Don’t keep it all in. We weren’t created to figure this life out by ourselves. Even in the context of prayer, ask for help. Yes the Lord already knows what we are going to talk about. But still ask, still pray, still be open. The Lord still wants the honesty, the worship, and our awareness. We can’t hide anything from him. But we still try. So why not be real with ourselves and be honest with God. He knows exactly what we are thinking, exactly what we are going through, and exactly how it ends. In terms of relationships, sometimes being honest hurts a little bit at first, but it always ends up better in the end. When something is brought up weeks later it comes as a shock to the person on the receiving end. Sometimes even a shock to yourself to realize you have been holding it all in …
Read MoreInspired through Others
Do you get inspired by other people? A new year is the perfect time to set your own goals, be motivated by the goals of others, and encourage the people around you to reach their goals!
Last weekend, I got the opportunity to support my hubby through his first marathon! The training wasn’t how he expected with two different stints of stress fractures on each foot. But, he pushed through! He may not have gotten his ideal time for his first marathon, but he finished it and I was able to be there to support him at the finish line! Now, I wouldn’t go far enough to say he inspired me to run a marathon…but seeing someone so close to me accomplish something so big and important to him was really neat to be apart of! I hope that someday he gets to support me in such a big bucket-list accomplishment!
How to find inspiration through others:
- 1. Don’t compare!
Don’t allow others’ goal setting and accomplishments make you insecure. Use what others are doing to push you and energize you to reach your own ambitions.
- 2. Set clear intentions!
Be clear and distinct with what you want to achieve.
- 3. Make a plan that follows those intentions!
“Direction, not intention, determines your destination.” – Jeff Vines
Making a plan allows you to see step-by-step how to reach your goals. You make it easier to see the end goal when you break it down.
- 4. Don’t give up!
There may be will be trials and tribulations when working to reach a new objective. But DO NOT GIVE UP! The time and hard work will be worth it in the end!
Who inspires you?
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Complacency
As the new year rolls into “full steam ahead”, I have tried to take time each day to be grateful for all of my blessings and focus on having my “walk” match my “talk”. I want to be a person who at the end of the day, lives out the things that I believe in my words and actions and behavior. I really want to be a genuine person, vulnerable and open to growth, correction and change. I strive to have my attitudes and motives support a life of authenticity and service. I am hoping to be an example for my daughters to follow. I believe that each one of us has a circle of influence. Those people who we interact with on a regular basis or people that we see once in a while but when we are together we have an instant deep connection with them. I am not a person who likes to be in a clique and I love interacting with people from all walks of life. But that does not mean I am not regularly tempted to get caught in the lie that tells me my significance is determined by who likes me, who emails me, who stops by…….I think we all get caught in this insecurity cycle. I want to be free to live and love and learn. I want to be ready for whatever circumstances come my way. I want to stand with conviction and face the challenges in my life with confidence and willingness to trust God in every situation.
COMPLACENCY is a word that keeps coming up for me as I have been preparing to teach a lesson at our women’s bible study. Complacency is a feeling of security, a sense of quiet pleasure often while unaware of the potential danger …
Read MoreHealthy Winter Soups to Warm You Inside & Out
Winter has settled in and this year in Northern California we are having the first really cold winter in years. The days are cold and the evenings are colder. It seems overwhelming day after day to come up with healthy and hearty meals to feed the family. I love cooking a big pot of soup and serving it for dinner on these wintery nights. Add some delicious crusty wheat bread, cornbread or high fiber bran muffins and a big salad and you have the perfect meal. Not only will your family love any of these four soups below…your budget will love the low cost and you will be supporting your new year’s resolution to eat healthier in 2016. Here are 4 of the Growing Weisser family’s favorite winter soups.
Italian Kale and White Bean Soup
https://www.growingweisser.com/2014/03/11/italian-kale-and-white-bean-soup/
Skinny Vegetable Minestrone Soup
https://www.growingweisser.com/2015/12/17/skinny-vegetable-minestrone-soup/
Smoked Paprika Chickpea and Chard Soup
https://www.growingweisser.com/2015/10/13/smoked-paprika-chickpea-and-chard-soup/
Vegetable Delight Lentil Soup
https://www.growingweisser.com/2013/12/04/vegetable-delight-lentil-soup/
What are your favorite winter soups?
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Don’t not try!
January is often focused on goals, resolutions, new things to try, old things to bring back, revamped disciplines, create new habits, break old ones… and so on. We focus so much on what we want to change, which can be a really good thing. People either get invigorated by this dreaming and goal setting, or they get paralyzed because they don’t think they will succeed. Sometimes people get even discouraged before they ever start… But that is the habit we have to break. So you may not be able to stick to it forever… don’t let that stop you from trying. So you may do something for a few days, then lose track, don’t completely get off the saddle. Get back on a few days later and keep trying. I know for me, I so easily get discouraged. And my idealism of wanting to be perfect and setting goals and actually accomplishing them keeps me from even setting goals to begin with. I need to stop that negative and destructive thinking. I have to believe that it’s okay to just try things. It is okay if things are just for a season. It is okay if I am not perfect.
And the amazing thing that I have that I don’t even realize is the people around me to support, encourage, stand by me, and spur me on to accomplish these things. We were created for relationships, to work together with other people, and to be there for one another. And more important than that, I was created for a purpose even bigger than goals or dreams or efforts I make. I am in a race, on a journey, that is far bigger and far greater than anything I can even imagine. So may I not be my own worst enemy, …
Read MoreWho likes Giveaways??
Are you or someone you know preparing for baby?
I have been doing A LOT of research on Baby Items for our registry. It was quite a fun surprise to get an email for a giveaway that includes some of my favorite registry items including the Tula Baby Carrier and the 4Moms Playard! Not only are these items some of my favorites but they are also some of the top rated brands and products today! Here are just a few of the items that are included in the giveaway! The link to enter is at the bottom of the post!
1 Year of Diapers & Wipes from Seventh Generation (www.seventhgeneration.com)
If there’s one thing babies need a lot of, it’s diapers! That’s why Seventh Generation is giving the winner a year of ’em (plus wipes, too). Made with 0% bleaching chemicals in the core. Free from fragrances and lotions, and clinically proven to be gentle on skin.
The Land of Nod Dream Nursery (www.landofnod.com)
Your baby’s nursery isn’t just a regular room- it’s a home for your little one that you’ll want to create with care, tenderness, and a maybe even a little magic. This gift card to The Land of Nod is that fairy tale passport. From furniture to bedding and decor to handmade toys, the stylish and high-quality products from The Land of Nod will help you build a nursery that feels unique and yes, quite magical.
4MOMS Breeze Playard (www.4moms.com)
Playards are hard to use. The breeze is easy. It opens or closes in one step. Just push down on the central hub to open and pull up to close – the latches are automatic and there’s no tricky sequence of steps. It’s a breeze. Fold it and you’ll …