New Year Italian Sausage Soup

Well..we are a week into the New Year, 2012! Crazy as you get older how fast time goes by. Mike is back to work, the kids are back to school and I am back to working from home again. While I miss the lazy days of everyone being together I do sorta need my schedules and my controlled chaos I call life. I've been doing pretty good with exercising and cutting calories, nothing crazy but just being aware of what I am eating and thinking twice before popping it into my mouth. Gym twice a week and home wii zumba 1-2 times per week and feeling good. Always looking for new dinner recipes ( I made up a really good soup one) and on the hunt for good baking projects. My cookie dough business/project whatever I am calling it is good, up and down but fun doing something and getting good reviews form the customers I have had. Really missing women's bible studies and excited for it to start up again soon. I now start to crave the studies, I miss being in the word with a set goal other than just daily reading (which I am not very good at) I love leading my small group and look forward to being with them again in the next couple of weeks. Youth group is going good, we have Winter Camp next weekend and I am looking forward to it. It's always fun and exhausting. I have most of my Life Group coming this time and I am really excited about that. Many of them are first time campers and I can't wait to see what God will reveal to each of them this weekend. We are bring the kids with us this year, it has been 2 years since the last time we brought them along. Hoping it goes well..They are older now and I think they will be able to handle it..I hope I can handle it..It's sometimes really hard dividing my time between the youth and connecting with them and trying to guide them and being my #1 role as mommy. Just need to find the balance and relax, have fun, let go of our normal daily schedules and let the kids have fun as well. We really want them to love the youth and to never feel jealous towards them or the church, never want them to feel like the youth come before them. We want them to desire the Lord and experience him from a young age so they grow up having their own relationship with God and having a heart to Love and Serve Him and His People...

Italian Sausage, Potato and Minnestrone Soup


3 link italian sausage,skins removed, crumbled and cooked
1 chopped onion
1 stalk celery
1 handful chopped baby carrots
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 red potatoes diced
5 cups beef broth
1 small can tomato sauce
1 can cannelini beans, rinsed/drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed/drained
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup small pasta
add olive oil to pan saute sausage, saute vegetables, add spices, broth, beans and tomato sauce, cook for about an hour or more, about a half hour before add pasta. Yummy