Chicken Taco Soup

When it's my turn to cook for the youth group, I have to be a little creative because I live in the dorm. Occasionally I can invade someone's kitchen, but most times I try to wing it on my own. This means sandwiches or anything I can put together in my Crock Pot (gift from God; I'm a huge Crock Pot fan!). On Sunday, I made Chicken Taco Soup. Adam and I first ate this when the previous youth pastor and his wife served it. Then when I was learning to cook this Summer, I asked her for the recipe. This is SO easy. You can't screw it up and it's delicious. Enjoy!

Chicken Taco Soup

1 onion, chopped

1 can chili beans

1 can black beans

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

1 package taco seasoning

1 can beef broth

1 can whole-kernel corn (drained)

2 cans diced tomatoes w/ green chilis (undrained)

3 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Place onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beef broth, and diced tomatos in crock pot. Add taco seasoning and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by other ingredients. Cover and cook on low heat for 5 hours. ---

Remove chicken breasts from soup and allow it to slightly cool. Shred of cut into small, bite-sized cubes. Stir the chicken back into the soup and continue to cook for 2 hours.

Serve with tortilla chips or corn bread, shredded cheese, and sour cream as desired.

**Total cook time: 7 hours.

**Serves 8-10.

(From allrecipes.com via Caitlin Chapman)

People are People

Maybe it sounds crazy, but this is something God has taught me... and re-taught me... and is now re-teaching me again. People will not think, act, or react in the same ways that I do. And that's okay. In addition to that, people are not God. They make mistakes... just like I do. So I'm taking a big dose of grace and forgiveness and moving on!

God has been so good about reminding me of His grace today. Luke 12:4 says "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of him who can kill the body and after that do no more." Although my "woes" are certainly far from being killed, it does remind me that people cannot take away my joy. In the grand scheme of God's kingdom, they cannot hurt me.

I recently read a friend's blog on Perspective. You can find it here. She referred to this quote: “Often it isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out, it's the little pebble in your shoe.” ~Muhammad Ali. I have to confess that the pebbles in my shoe most recently have been people who don't think, act, or react in the same ways that I do (see first paragraph :)). I'm learning. What are you learning?

Dear Self...

Dear Self,

I hope that tomorrow you will love Jesus more, that you’ll pray harder, and love people more deeply.

When you wake up, I pray your first thought will be “Jesus” and that your one motivation will be to glorify Him. 

When you lie down to sleep, I pray that you will be exhausted from serving Him with everything you have and that your final thought will be “Jesus.”

If tomorrow your world crashes around you, I pray that you’ll remember from where you've come, that you’ll trust God’s incredible faithfulness and remember that He’s never let you down.

If tomorrow your dreams come true, I pray that you will live a life of humility and gratitude.

And if tomorrow your life comes to an end, I pray that you will stand boldly before the throne of God, covered by Christ’s blood, and that you’ll hear “Well done.”

Sincerely Yours.

True Confessions: TV

I was a TV-hater. I'll admit it. I was for a long time. It drives me crazy to yell over the TV to get someone's attention or to call only to find out they're engrossed in the latest episode of whatever. Anyways, my point is that I've changed my tune...



I began watching Army Wives last semester. My sister and her best friend had watched a few episodes a couple of years ago and for whatever reason, I decided to try it out. After episode 1, I was hooked. Now... it's not what you think. I can go for weeks at a time without watching an episode, but I'm on my third episode for today 0:) AND even worse, I cry like a baby every time someone deploys on the show or something terrible happens. I can't help it!

So now you know. I'm a little obsessed with Army Wives.

This Week...

1) Arkadelphia called a snow day!!! On Monday, I ran some errands, had lunch with great friends, attended a worship service on campus, and generally enjoyed my surprise day off!
2) I officially applied to two public school districts. (As you know from "Discontinued Dreams," this is a huge step for me. I have a peace about this decision and I'm trusting God's faithfulness that He will direct my path.)
3) I had my first taste of Professional Development... I'm not sure why hearing about the Reading and Writing standards of Common Core for 3 hours is beneficial to a math teacher. I'm all about collaboration and helping each other, but it was a little over the top for me. Let me know if you know what I'm missing!
4) We ordered the Bridesmaids' dresses!
5) I saw a rainbow. They're so beautiful and such an amazing reminder that God keeps His promises.

How was your week? What does next week hold?

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Student teaching is both challenging and fun. My cooperating teacher at the high school is so wonderful to work with and I will be very sad when the time comes to leave her. I've learned so much through this experience already. In reference to my previous post, I am in the process of filling out the application for a nearby High School. God is so good and He has given me a sweet peace about this decision. May His will be done and His name be glorified!

On Tuesday of this week, I taught a lesson on the applications of matrices. I was so excited about this lesson because it gave me an opportunity to connect mathematics to the real world and even more specifically to professions that my students may be interested in. One of the applications of matrices is in cryptography. I showed students how to "encode" their initials into a matrix and then we "decoded" them as a class. I then had them "decode" a secret message that I gave them in the form of a matrices. This sounded like a really cool activity to me and I was excited about the students going through it! However, many of my students were uninterested or didn't see "the point." This was disappointing, but in the very last class where I taught this lesson, one student looked up and said "Hey, this is kind of fun!" I wanted to hug him right there. Even if the other students didn't care or were uninterested, I reached this one student. I'm quickly learning that "you win some and you lose some."