Five questions with Kara Ellcey

Everyone has a story. What’s yours?

Kara Ellcey

What does an average day look like for you?

Wake up to a smashin tune on my phone, who uses real alarm clocks anymore? Hit snooze twice, then get up for real. Head to work sometime between 7:30-8; Spend my day with our elderly brothers and sisters, trying to figure out what exactly I can do to make the day better for them, whether it be eating or communicating better. Then head home for the evening. Squeeze in a workout, waste a lot of time busying myself with projects, then get ready to do it all again in the morning.

What’s been the best day of your life?

Gee that’s hard…..I have been blessed to have more good days than bad days. To name a few; engagement, grad school graduation, every Christmas, the day we brought our Izzy home…. any day spent traveling to a new place.

What’s been your greatest achievement in life thus far?

Completing graduate school, and finishing a 1/2 marathon.

What made the biggest difference in helping you achieve that goal?

Support of family and friends, setting expectations high for myself, knowing that I had full support of my mom and dad who knew I could do anything I put my mind too.

If you could solve one problem in the world – what would it be?

Having a home of love, trust, and hope for each orphaned child. There are too many lonely hurting kids out there who have no idea what it means to feel the arms of their mom hold them, and know the joy of hearing their dad say, “I’m so proud of you.” Each child should have open loving arms to run to when their world crashes, someone to pat them on the back and tell them to keep it up, someone to wipe away their tears and hold them…… and to tell them about their heavenly father whose love we can not even begin to fathom.

Kara Ellcey is my youngest sister. What else do you need to know?! 😉 She lives in Mesquite, Texas with her husband and their dog Izzy. She doesn’t blog or Tweet – but if you’re lucky you might be able to find her on Skype from time to time. You can also read some of her thoughts that she shared after the death of our sister Amy – Modern Day Medical Miracles

Life in 140-characters at a time

Addition by Adoption - The new book from Kevin Hendricks

Yesterday, I briefly told you about Kevin Hendrick’s latest book, .

I want to be sure I give it it’s just due.
Continue reading Life in 140-characters at a time

Weekly Meal Menu

Ingredients needed

We’re trying a new practice around Casa de Blundell. Trying to get back to planning ahead more and cooking more at home. I’ve volunteered to do the planning and cooking. So here’s the first week. (Probably a little different schedule than normal due to continued holiday/birthday events.)
Ultimately my goal is to try and reduce all the different things we buy – and have enough left overs for lunches the next day.

Sunday Lunch:
Spaghetti
Rolls/bread
Sunday Dinner:
Sandwiches/Cereal (can you guess who’ll be eating what?)
Monday Dinner
Southwestern Turkey Chili
Tuesday Dinner
Rosemary Scented Grilled Chicken
Salad
Wednesday Lunch
Chicken salad (using leftovers from the night before)
Wednesday Dinner
Out to Eat/TSO Concert
Thursday Dinner
Chicken & Chipotle Soup
Friday Dinner
Birthday Parties
Saturday Dinner
Small group

So what do you think? What does your menu look like for next week? Got any pointers for future menus? Especially for a family of 2?

Oh and for the record, while this wasn’t built using the site, HEB has one of the best weekly meal planners — EVER. Granted much of it is based around their products (including several partially prepared meats/meals) but its a great resource even if you’re not near an HEB.

Goosebumps and Justice (advent reflections)

If you haven’t had a chance to – I’d highly recommend taking 40 min and listening to our advent reflections from the podcast last week.

Perhaps pull it up on your computer/Hi-Fi/iPods and listen as a family around the fire tonight or tomorrow evening.

Enjoy the thoughts, reflections and music and remember what this season of the year is all about.