Master the Meal

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of GravyMaster for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have to be honest with you here, when Social Spark sent me an offer to write about Master the Grill Gravy Master, I thought my hubby makes the best gravy around.  However, I read more about it and thought "Hmmm, maybe I will write about it."

So here it goes.  First off, you know that hubby and I are trying to eat vegetarian/vegan.  (That is a whole other post.)   And most gravies (especially hubby's) is NOT vegan at all.  Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when I read: "Gravymaster is both vegetarian and vegan, it contains NO meat."  That's good.  Second, we try to eat products that don't have a lot of junk, you know all of those additives and stuff.  So, another plus for GravyMaster is: "Gravymaster contains a carefully concentrated blend of celery, onion, parsley, garlic, caramel, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, apple vinegar, salt and pure cane sugar.  NO chemical preservatives, artificial color, flavors or additives are ever used."  What a great way to yummy up your Christmas dishes.  It is wonderful for caramelizing veggies too.

There is more information here: http://gravy.com/t-GravyMasterProductInfo.aspx

I would love to make this:   only try it as a bean burger.  Or the first thing that came to mind was slow cooking our beans in it.  I tried that with BBQ sauce and they were delish!  What would you make?

Find more information here:

GravyMaster

Master the meal

catching up

We went here for our 20th...

This is happening today...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

the blog boards are by lauren reid designs and the lilypad.

good morning monday before thanksgiving.
got a good night's sleep.
will start on my thanksgiving to-do list today.

i have been planning (sort of ) a post about homeschooling, our school day, etc. 
do you have any questions you'd like answered?

off to shower...you didn't really want to know that did you.

20 years

(photos are unedited as is our marriage.)
20 years ago I married someone who would become my best friend.
We only knew each other 8 months before we got married.
We knew that we were going to marry...so much so that hubby just assumed we'd get married.  I had to ask him to ask me to marry him.  Funny, now.
We didn't really know what we were doing in the beginning, but golly, we made it work and made it fun.

I could go on and on about our marriage, but instead I will give you a list of 20 things I have learned in 20 years of marriage. (in no particular order.)
1. I am one selfish person.
2. I really need my hubby in my life.
3. Just how deep I can love.
4. How fun it is to have someone in my life.
5. Some things are better left unsaid...
6. ...unless they are kind.
7. It is such a stabling feeling knowing the same person is there with you all the way.
8. How to laugh...hubby is a character.
9. How to forgive.
10. How to press on in hard times.
11. How to get close to God in those hard times.
12. It is really nice to have someone who knows me inside and out and still loves me.
13. That two really do become one.  (I realized that when hubby went overseas in the Marines.)
14. Having a hubby makes me want to be a better person.
15. Sometimes holding hands says so much, so very much.
16. How to appreciate picking up after someone.
17. How to rest in the good times.
18. I have learned just how strong and vulnerable I am.
19. (19 already...) How to live out the vows we said..."for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health..."
20. I would do it all again.

some shots

our daughter went to a sweet 16 birthday party sunday.

they had a photo shoot.

love this girl and her precious smile.

most of these girls have grown up together since birth. 

each birthdays are within months of each other.

 while girls are girls, these photos warm my heart.

because i can

i have been able to stay home with the kids their whole lives.
for that i can't even start to express my gratefulness.
staying at home has many advantages.

my mom had to go back to work.
and a conversation with her one day brought this to mind.
all of the little things i can do because i am home, i have the time.
like cut up carrots for my daughter.

while this may seem like no biggie and i may be able to do this even if i worked outside the home, but to me it really struck my heart and gave me joy.

some crafts

remember these frames?
i finally filled them.

 son found this butterfly.  matches our bedroom perfectly!

look what i found

while digging out the chalks, i found this.
my old art book from high school.
(i'll keep most of these small since there's so many.)

from my more depressed days.

a friend.  i drew the pink one while on vacation with their family.

one of my faves.

from this album...i think the actually picture was inside of the album.

from a tears for fears album cover.

love her eyes.  when i took it out her face looks like someone i know now.  weird.

and a later one...my hubby.

a right of passage

my mom used to draw.
she had this fancy chalk set.
i remember watching her take it out and drawing.
i loved the colors.
i love the square chalks.

once i got old enough she let me use them.
what a pleasure.
today they are mine.
we dug them out (honestly, dug them out) this morning for art.

the colors still delight me.
though this morning i was the one saying, "be careful" and "put the colors back in the right spots."
this morning i passed on a right of passage to our children.

we were to draw those pears.

they seemed WAY too much for daughter.  she switched to an apple.

here's what we ended up with.

daughter's ended up looking the best.  maybe we all need to do a bunch of complaining for our art to turn out so nice.

son turned a practice pear into a punk avocado.

we ate the model pear i used tonight.

son did two.  here's his black and white version.

Happy Veteran's Day

to my hubby.
to my brother-in-law.
to my uncle. my cousin, my father-in-law...and ALL those who served past and present.