Life Homemade

Go Green!

2012-01-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

A while back friend on Facebook told me about green smoothies. The rest of the world apparently was already clued in. I was just slow on the uptake or something. I was intrigued but... spinach in a cold drink?? I don't think so! But she kept saying how good they made her feel. How her energy had returned, how satisfying they were, how easy they are... so she convinced me and I gave it a try.

Now I can't imagine not having a green smoothie! They are so refreshing and yummy! We don't have a high speed blender or anything special like that (though it is on my dream sheet), so we just use our food processor to mix 'em up.

I fill the processor with fresh, organic baby spinach, a banana (broken into pieces), fresh frozen fruit (there's a combination of mango, pineapple, strawberries and peaches in mine but you can use any fresh frozen fruit about a cup), a sprinkle of pure stevia extract, 1 or 2 TBS freshly milled flax seed, and 2 cups of cold water. We've recently been learning about all the benefits of coconut oil, so I'll probably start adding a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil in it as well.

Process until smooth.. here it is gettin' all worked up!

Poor into a cup and enjoy! YUM YUM! It tastes like a fruity shake. You wouldn't know the spinach was in there.. you know.. if it wasn't green!

This is probably what's considered a "beginner green smoothie." One day, when we get our dream machine.. a Vitamix 5200.. we'll branch out more, but for now this does just fine for our family. Yes, family... even our 6 year old loves them!

First Project of the New Year

2012-01-04T10:33:00.001-05:00

I'm quickly becoming a seasonal blogger, aren't I? Well, whatever you call me I'm here again, just past New Years.

We had a lovely Christmas. Did you?

Speaking of Christmas, my favorite gift came just after the 25th. We purchased it with gift cards and I absolutely love it. It's my Nook Simple Touch. I forgot how enjoyable reading can be. While it's always been a favorite pastime for me, my eyes aren't too thrilled with reading in standard books. This little contraption allows me to adjust font size and is very easy on the eyes.

TA DAAA!!!

Ain't it purdy? Yeah, but it's nekkid. Have you priced those silly covers? Thirty to forty dollars for ONE cover seems a little out there to me. So, I took one of my other gifts (a Joann's Fabric gift card), bought a pattern and some fabric (all it requires is 2 fat quarters) and made my own.

I love it!

Couple more views for good measure:

Pre-button


Placing button, but not yet sewn

You just slip the Nook into the little pocket on the left when you're not reading. Then pop it into the open holder when you are. It's completely padded with stiff, padded interfacing so it will protect it against falls... don't ask my why I already know this.

Now, as you may have noticed, I have the Nook Simple Touch. This pattern was just a tad too big for my petite reader. It comes in two sizes (large and small) but mine is even smaller. All I did was cut the height of the pattern down 3/4 of an inch and it was perfect. Just the height, not the width.

However, if you have one of the standard readers, whether Kindle, Kindle Fire, Nook Color, Nook Table, etc.. you won't have to make any changes to the pattern. It's made for yours!

By the way, if you haven't noticed the links above to the pattern, it's the E-Cozy Palooza Pattern and you can find it at Etsy by clicking here. It's only 8.00 and has so many options for design, very easy to follow, etc. No.. I don't get a kickback. Just a satisfied customer. :)

Oh! Christmas Tree....

2011-12-01T10:45:00.001-05:00

Happy December, friends! It's finally here! Christmas will be here in the blink of an eye!

The Christmas tree is up and decorated. We did things a little differently this year.

1. Colored lights. I'm a white light person myself but our two younger children begged for colored lights and well.. so did my husband. Being totally outnumbered I conceded. I actually like it! We even added a couple of "twinkle light" strands and that's not even bothering me. Must be changing in my old age. Just makes me happy to see the kids happy.

2. The two little ones did the majority of the decorating. It's really for them anyway. I wasn't really "feeling it" like I normally do, so since I was less OCD about it this year they got free reign. I still did the topper and added the gigantic snowflakes and ribbon, but they pretty much did the rest. I say they did a fine job!

3. It was just the four of us putting on the "Thanksgiving" ornaments this year. Missed having the rest of our family here!

4. We also began typing up the stories for each one so we were able to read those while we added the special ornaments. I think it made it much more memorable. Also, it helped to really focus on all God has done for our family over the years. Still haven't found just the right ornament for this year, though I do have an idea), so it's not added quite yet.

You know I have to share a picture now... :-)

The top of the tree.. love the little snow dude hanging out at the top :-)

The whole shebang! :-)

Here's last year's tree, so you can see.. things really did change!

In other news I'm about 85% done in my Christmas shopping. That's pretty much unheard of for me! Now, to wrap!

Today, we're getting the house really clean and starting the holiday baking. :)

How about you? Have you started your Christmas decorating/shopping/baking?

Apples!

2011-11-03T10:52:00.000-04:00

A local orchard had U-Pick apples for 5.00 a bushel this week. It's the end of the season so there aren't a lot left. It was more like "gleaning" but there were still plenty for us. Just had to walk around a little for them.

Yesterday the kiddos and I worked to get them put up. We decided on apple sauce and apple pie filling.

I was so impressed with my kiddos. They worked so hard, peeling, coring and slicing.

We don't have any new-fangled equipment. It was just peelers, knives and a hand held corer. That's OK though.. it was fun!

We have one more bushel to process and will hopefully get that one finished by the weekend. This whole food prep and storage thing could become addictive!

Do as I say...

2011-10-10T16:30:00.000-04:00

I told my son he could go out and paint on the deck. Later, when he asked me to come see what he painted, it was apparent that he took me a little too literally. :-)

Friendship

2011-10-07T12:55:00.000-04:00

There's this warm fuzzy popping up on Facebook right now. When I first read it my response was, "Aww! How sweet is that!"

That was pretty much my response to it when the next 20 or so friends posted it. But there was something about that 21st post that got me thinking.

I've had many friends over the years. They have all been so important to me. There were some with whom our hearts instantly connected and there was no going back.. we were (are) family! There are those I still count as family who have moved on for whatever reason. Then there are those who came for a shorter season and are no longer part of my life. They are missed but does that mean they weren't true friends? Does that mean our friendship wasn't a real friendship?

I don't think so. I believe they are just as true, just as important to my growth, just as precious to me. Those memories I will forever hold dear and when I think of them it makes me smile. They were true friends. They still are in my heart.

So I believe that friendship isn't defined by those who "never leave my side" but instead by the imprint they left behind. Even if those imprints left some pain behind, those are the ones that seem to have the biggest impact on my growth.

The original quote is, "Friendship isn't about whom you have known the longest; it's about who came and never left your side..."

For me, I think this might be a more fitting quote:

"Friendship isn't about whom you have known the longest. It's about who came and never left your heart."

A Beautiful Weekend Wedding!

2011-10-05T19:44:00.001-04:00

Well, now we have two married sons. I don't think the day could have been any better! The event was a perfect representation of the happy couple.

I didn't take one picture but several others did. There are beautiful photos taken by a young lady named Savannah here. I thought she did a great job! She captured so much fun from the day. One thing they had was a "photo booth" for the guests to take part in. :-)

Another dear friend took a bunch of photos of the day and you can view those here.

Oh.. and the jr. bride's maid dress turned out just fine. My little one seemed very pleased.. though a little chilly.. at the ceremony. :-) It was a cool day, but the hosts provided a trunk of quilts for people to use if they got too cold. I loved that idea!

Sorry I'm not posting any pictures here but since I didn't take any of them I felt better about linking them. However, we had another exciting thing.. our neighbor's alpaca just gave birth to a new cria! Our daughter was able to go over to see it and even got to hold it! That photo I can share. :-) Isn't it sweet??

Hopefully there will be more pictures soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Complete! Well, almost. :-)

2011-09-16T12:05:00.000-04:00

The bodice could be more fitted, but since my daughter is 11 years old, I opted for "relaxed" fitted. Think I just made up a new style term. :) How cool is that the dress has pockets?? Love that part!

It did seem I was over my head and times when drowning seemed inevitable. Thankfully, I didn't completely ruin the dress. In hindsight I probably should have narrowed the yoke to match the cutting down of the bodice, but hey, it's done! Really, not so bad for my first "alteration on the fly" attempt. :)

It's pictured here without the sash. Someone else has the material for the sash, which will be floral. It's going to be so pretty. The bridesmaid dresses will be floral with brown sash and the Jr. bridesmaids have brown dresses with floral sashes.

Won't it look pretty with the floral sash for color? Perfect for an autumn wedding. My DIL has wonderful taste. :)

My dear friend Emily from "Doll Clothes of Yore" came over today and did the zipper for me. What a treat to watch her put it in. It's a great way to learn. Since I taught myself to sew through patterns I miss a lot. Seeing a professional apply common sense technique is a valuable thing.

So, there ya go. All finished... well, except for the hemming, but the hard part is done and I'm a happy camper.

Two weeks from tomorrow, our second born son gets married. :)

Over my head?

2011-09-12T12:49:00.000-04:00

Personally, I think it was a stroke of genius to go to a four day school week. We just add a little each day so we can take Mondays off. Our weekends are normally so full and busy, later bedtimes, etc, that by Monday we're all exhausted. So, we decided to revamp the lesson schedule to make Monday's a rest/catch up on projects/housework day.

Today my project is to sew my daughter's jr. bride's maid's dress. It's all cut out and ready to go!

I have a couple of challenges with this particular pattern. First it's not a "girl's" pattern. It's a women's size 4. Now, I'm not an accomplished seamstress. I can sew, can follow a pattern and all that, but altering patterns is not my forte.

After putting the bodice front and sides together it was obvious more than just a little alteration would need to be done. *sigh* What makes it difficult is it's a fitted bodice, so fitting it to my not so curvy 11 year old from a relatively curvy grown woman is making it interesting.

Thankfully, realizing this might be a problem , I did purchase a little extra fabric in case a "redo" was necessary, and a redo is definitely necessary.

The second challenge is it's a Simplicity pattern. I don't know what it is, but apparently I just don't speak their language. I speak Butterrick or McCalls. Even a little Vogue from time to time, but Simplicity and me? Well, an interpreter might be needed.

BUT, it's a learning opportunity, right? Right. I wouldn't be so stressed about it if it wasn't for a wedding.. my son's wedding no less!

So why am I in here on the computer instead of hashing it out at the sewing machine? Because I stuck myself with a pin and good! Just chillin' until the bleeding stops. The last thing the dress needs is a blood stain!

But stopped it has so... deep breath and back to work. I'll let you know how it goes... and if I have to head back to Joanne's Fabrics to start all over again or hire someone to do it for me. We shall see. :-)

A weeks worth of food

2011-09-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

It's an extremely tight week. Well, it's been an extremely tight month. So we can't spend a dime, not a dime, until payday on Friday. Mostly because there's nothing to spend! :-)

We've had to stretch the food we have for two weeks. Well, except for the fact that I found 20.00 in the pocket of my jeans the other day and I was able to purchase a little something extra for my daughter's birthday Saturday. I think God just blessed my girl that day!

This week should be interesting. I made an inventory of what we have in the pantry/fridge, to know for sure what we're working with. So, here we go:

Monday:

Breafast: grits and turkey bacon
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches
Dinner: pintos and great northerns, rice and veggies (made a HUGE pot of beans so can set some aside for dinner Tuesday and the chili on Thursday)

Tuesday:

Breakfast: pancakes
Lunch: vegetable soup
Dinner: ground turkey burritos and refried beans (made from last night's beans)

Wednesday:

Breakfast: whole wheat muffins
Lunch: Leftovers from dinner last night
Dinner: spaghetti with italian turkey sausage

Thursday:

Breakfast: fruit and yogurt smoothies, whole wheat toast
Lunch: leftovers from dinner last night
Dinner: ground turkey chili and cornbread

Friday:

Breakfast: grits and turkey bacon
Lunch: out.. because we'll be grocery shopping! It's payday! :-D
Dinner: homemade pizza.. at home

Saturday:

Breakfast: pancakes
Lunch: soup and sandwich
Dinner: grilled chicken and salad

Sunday:
Cook's off duty!!! :-D Well.. except for after church. Having friends over so but haven't yet decided what to fix.

Lookie what returned!

2011-09-09T16:17:00.000-04:00

Remember the "distracted" post the other day? Remember the demise of my beautiful Pampered Chef 8 cup glass measuring cup and the subsequent series of unfortunate events that lead to a bread-tastrophie?

Well, just in time for bread making endeavors today, a gift was given to me.

Here it is...

Isn't it wonderful?! A dear friend had one just sitting in her kitchen cabinet. She SAID she never used it. I don't know how that's possible, but that's what she said. ;-) At any rate, I will use it and use it and use it again!

In fact, I did use it, today, to measure out the ingredients for making the bread. There were no mishaps. It performed it's duties meticulously. The universe is once again in order.

Such a nice way to wrap up the work week. :-)

Before and After

2011-09-08T13:27:00.003-04:00

The school year is in full swing around here. One of my goals was to have less stuff to fuss over and better organization this year. If my life is cluttered so is my mind, which doesn't lend to the best kind of teaching.

In order to deal with this we've been hitting the "hotspots" in the house. Here's a before and after of one in the kitchen.

I don't know about you, but I think the dried rose in the green bottle is a nice compliment to the cleaning solution bottle with the green rimmed lid. Oh, and the orange accents on the label really made that orange binding on the cookbook pop. :-/

Now how's that for an "after"? :-)

Seriously... this particular counter top had become a major "drop zone" for anything that didn't have a designated place. So, I designated some places, trashed some of it, put the rest away and got it back in order.

Speaking of order, we actually have a "school room" this year. I wasn't sure that was necessary, but now that we have it, I love it! The kids are really enjoying the dedicated area. They both have their own little desks. It's nothing fancy and still needs a lot of work, but we couldn't put off school any longer, since we already started a week later than I intended.

This my "desk". :-) That small table beside the big comfy recliner is actually a file cabinet. Inside holds all my teaching books for easy access. When it's time to read material together, the kiddos come cuddle up with me in the chair.

This is the school cabinet that holds all of our books, manipulatives and such. The drawers hold extra paper, art supplies and extra notebooks and other sundries.

The kiddos hard at work at their own desks. They're separated by another file cabinet and a basket of pens, pencils, scissors, etc, help to create a barrier between them so they don't get distracted.

Hard at work. The charts on the side are a Melissa and Doug chore chart and a calendar. Helps keep us organized.

My classroom "planner." It's so much prettier than all those big things with squares to fill in. Plus, since it's only for two students, it just works better for me.

See, not real big, not real fancy, but it's perfectly functional and even have a nice sunny window. Will definitely be making some fun curtains for that room once we get past the next wedding.

Distracted

2011-09-02T10:50:00.001-04:00

I was only washing dishes.

It's not my favorite job to do but was trying to be diligent about getting the breakfast dishes taken care of since bread needed to be made. Plus breakfast was baked oatmeal and my favorite large glass measuring cup was used and would be required for bread making activities.

I washed it then set it in the small side sink to drain while working on the other dishes. Yes.. it rocked just a little, but then I became distracted by the dirty dish sitting on the kitchen table so I went to get it to bring it over to the sink to wash.

...then CRASH!

I stood there and stared at it for a second, as if in shock. It just rocked over and shattered. It was gone... my favorite cup/mixing bowl. I will miss you my friend.

But bread still needed to be made, the rest of the dishes still needed to be washed, so I pulled on my big girl gloves and cleaned out the sink.

What to do now.. my cup was gone. I always measured out my bread ingredients into that cup. Oh well, guess I have to use the plastic one (I really dislike using plastic) that was kept "just in case." Today was the "just in case" day, so it was pulled out for it's bread making debut.

Still large enough for the job, so I measured out the warm water, poured it into the mixer and started the process. I ground some wheat berries to make flour and added it like I always do, but it seemed to barely make a dent in the moisture. So I added more... and more... and more. Then I had to grind MORE flour to add. What in the world?! Wait.. the cup. I was all distractedly discombobulated from the measuring cup debacle that I added EIGHT cups of water instead of 6!!

Oh dear. I added a little more yeast, a little more this, a little more that and prayed the 16 lbs of whole wheat dough wouldn't kill my mixer! It didn't. It trudged on like the 700 watt work-horse that it is and I was finally able to turn it out into the bowl to rise.

It's a big bowl. I thought it could handle the extra load. At about 10 minutes into the first rising I go check on it.

Uh oh.. "Houston, we have a problem!" So, I started to get another bowl to transfer some of the dough into... but... I get distracted by the kids and then the phone and then the computer and about 10 minutes later I remember the dough.

Finally get the dough back where it should be and all turned out onto the floured surface, form it into a ball to divide it out. It was SO BIG we just had to have a photo shoot. So we did.

It's almost as big as they are.

In addition to the 3 loaves of bread baking for our family, there are 5 bags of dough in the fridge. Oh my. Thankfully some folks from my hubby's work would like to purchase some cinnamon rolls. Maybe it's a good time to start my bread/cinnamon roll selling business? Perhaps a morning of distractions was the best thing that's happened to me this week.

No, probably not, but this is a good lesson in learning to "roll with the punches." Only I kind of punched myself. Hmmm.....

Back at it..

2011-08-30T19:33:00.000-04:00

School is back in session..

...which means I'll be blogging more. :-) See you soon!

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-04T13:20:00.000-04:00

In honor of the 4th.. we had Patriotic Pancakes!

I didn't decorate the table or use REAL plates.. the paper plates weren't even red, white and blue, but the kiddos didn't seem to mind.

But the pancakes were red, white and blue.. with STARS! Once a year using a little food coloring probably isn't SO bad. Right? The rest of the ingredients were nice and healthy, made from fresh ground wheat, eggs from our back yard courtesy of our free range chickens,

We decorated them with all natural maple syrup and whipped cream stars...

I think the little one approved. :-)

The Letting Go

2011-06-13T10:28:00.001-04:00

I'm getting a little melancholy thinking about my two oldest sons getting married and moving into their new lives. Could I be happier for them? Nope. Could I love my future daughters-in-law any more than I do? Nope. Would I want it any other way? Nope.

But then there's this Mama in me. The Mama that has a million and one memories from the first time I kissed their tiny little faces to all the laughter, tears and joy they brought me their whole lives.

I've enjoyed every single stage of their development. Yes, even the hard times. I watched how they matured, changed, grew, were humbled, were victorious, when they forgave and when they were forgiven.

I was blessed to spend my time as a Mom not only raising them and loving them, but educating them, walking along the way with them, and to borrow a Facebook term... "friending" them. The greatest blessing of all; they "friended" me.

I cherish every moment. I cherish them. I'm going list reasons they will be sorely missed, but not in order of importance, just in order of my thoughts. By no means is it an exhaustive list for this would be the never ending blog!

Reason #1 I'm going to miss the boys... Listening to Brandon play his guitar and singing worship songs along with him in the morning.

Reason #2 I'm going to miss the boys... Great conversations until the wee hours of the morning with Jeff, hashing out matters of the heart, faith, friends and future.

Reason #3 I'm going to miss the boys... All the HILARIOUS antics and dialogs. I can't tell you the number of times they've had me laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face!

Reason #4 I'm going to miss the boys... Watching them play with their younger siblings. Seeing how they encourage their brother to be considerate of his sister, me and other females is so incredible and how they protect their sister from others and herself!

Reason #5 I'm going to miss the boys... Hearing their dreams and insecurities.

Reason #6 I'm going to miss the boys... The hugs and the "I love you's". Yes, I know those won't cease completely, but will be greatly reduced.

Now I'm going to end this blog, because it's kind of hard to see through the tears: happy and sad. This is a good exercising in preparing to let go completely. To let go but continue to love with our whole hearts.. that's the goal.

Another Good Reason...

2011-06-11T05:49:00.002-04:00

There are so many good motivations for being frugal and learning to do things "the hard way."

1) Better off financially because you're not always paying someone else to do things for you or blowing all your money on regularly priced items.

2) Generally eat more healthfully since you're not buying processed foods which in turn makes YOU more healthy.

3) Keeping your mind sharp by learning new skills.

I'm sure this list could be very long, but I'm going to get to my point now. Another good reason is in order to be more prepared for the days to come.

Has anyone been watching what's going on with the Stock Market? We nearly crashed, again, yesterday. Apparently the Fed printed some more cash and propped it up.. one more time.

Our country is in so much debt. So much debt. Why? Because we don't do things the hard way. We've been taking the easy road for far too long. I'm putting myself into that equation. I've wanted ease as much as the next person.

We have to pass something different on to our children. We need to teach them to have a strong work ethic, to not look for someone else to bail them out all the time, to do things "the hard way" and to make decisions with the future in mind.

I've discovered "the hard way" can be so much fun. Repurposing lost treasures, gardening, creating clothing, bedding, curtains, etc, out of a little fabric, cooking from scratch, watching a loaf of homemade bread rise, looking at all that and realizing.. "Hey! I we did that!" God supplied our need. Not only through giving us the ingredients, but also the strength.

Yes, there will be those who simply can't, but that's why we can come up with an abundance.. so we can share!

Amazing how that works, isn't it?

I woke up so early this morning, thought after thought pouring through my brain concerning this topic. The conclusion, for me, was to prepare my children. They need tools, training, mentoring. Just showing them where to shop isn't enough, but showing them HOW to shop and when they don't need to shop at all; creating instead.

A little while back I ran across this quote on "America's Cheapest Family" blog:

"We’d rather live in a smaller house, with smaller utility and tax bills, so we can sleep peacefully at night and put some savings in the bank rather than to live big and have stress. Our part of stimulating the national economy is to make sure our household finances are not in need of a bailout and that we have a little extra to help others who can’t afford to put food on the table."

And that's another good reason.

Grocery shop run-down

2011-05-30T10:00:00.001-04:00

Didn't do so well this time around. It's very frustrating. Can't seem to get a handle on our food budget which is very new for me. The problem I'm having is clean eating on a budget. Here's what I've spent for the next two weeks:

Sam's Club about 40.00:

2 large containers of organic spinach for 3.56 ea.
1 container of raspberries for 4.88
1 container of blackberries for 2.86
3 flavored butters for 10.97 (that was stupid.. one of those small businesses that came in with an all natural product and I wanted to support them. Shouldn't have done it, but did).
4 bottles of water because we were SO THIRSTY! .67 ea
200 pack box of stevia for 9.99. This is so we can carry them in my purse when we go out since we don't use artificial sweeteners or sugar.

Wal-mart 98.03:

Everything else... really too long to list but includes brown rice, fruit, veggies (lots of those, fresh and frozen), chicken broth, turkey for turkey burgers, meatballs and soups, chicken breast for various meals, lentils, pintos, great northerns, canned goods, extra virgin olive oil, 100 % maple syrup, unsalted peanuts for making peanut butter, potatoes, almond milk, half-n-half for hubby's coffee, greek yogurt, regular yogurt, etc., etc., so on.

Oh.. also had to purchase wasp and hornet killer, decaf coffee for hubby and a pair of shorts (3.50) to go over my daughter's swimsuit. I found her a cute suit at Crazy8s, who is having a GREAT sale right now, for only 6.99, but they didn't have any board shorts for girls. So I found some swim shorts for her at Wal-mart.

In addition to all that, I spent 26.00 on plants for the garden, vegetable and herbs. That was separate from the 98.36 because I bought it with birthday money given to me by my Mom.

I also spent 10.00 on a pair of shoes for my daughter for my son's wedding coming up July 7. Also had to pay for her dress for the wedding, which came in the wrong size and has now gone away again. :-( Anyway, that was 116.00.

There's all my spending for the next two weeks. My goal is not to spend another dime until the next paycheck, if at all possible. We'll see how it goes!

Good Health Journal

2011-05-28T13:20:00.002-04:00

Posting my food and exercise goals for the day. I've decided the best gift I could give myself is better health, so shooting for it one more time.

Breakfast:

1/2 cup 0% greek yogurt
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1/2 banana

Lunch:

2 very thin slices whole wheat bread
2 oz. lean, low sodium turkey
1 small orange

Lots of water

Snack:

sliced cucumbers

Dinner:

sliced tomatoes
oven roasted squash, zucchini and onions
1/2 baked sweet potato
1 cup brown rice

Exercise:

Light walking (messed up achilles tendon), push ups, sit ups

Gone but not forgotten! :-)

2011-05-19T14:47:00.000-04:00

I wanted to thank those of you who contacted me in my absence. It feels good to be missed. :-) I'm doing fine. Well, much better at least. Had a little health scare but all is well for now.

Life keeps moving forward. My Mom was in the hospital for a bit but is home now and almost fully recovered. She's doing much better than she was. Breathing more easily and able to get some much needed rest.

Our sons' weddings are being planned by their lovely brides-to-be and their families. The first wedding is coming up July 7... 50 days.. who's counting? I've never been more happy/sad in all my life. If any of you have grown children leaving home to start their own families you'll know what I'm talking about.

Our second born son and his fiance recently had an engagement photo shoot.

All the photos I've seen so far are beautiful! Can't wait to see them all! The photographer did a beautiful job! Her name is Bethany King. Pop over and check out her work if you get a chance. There is a sampling of the engagement shoot that day as well.. if you want to see more. :)

I'm trying to get back into a routine with everything that's been going on and it's slow going. But hopefully I'll be back to regular blogging soon. Thank you for hanging in there with me!

Grocery shopping today.. but first..

2011-04-15T08:10:00.000-04:00

I'm heading out to do my bi-monthly shop, but on the way out the door I just HAD to share these with you. Katie from The Cutting Back Kitchen whipped these up and posted the how-to. Aren't they the cutest things??!

Pop over to The Cutting Back Kitchen to make your own. Fast and EASY and something fun to do with the kiddos this weekend. :-)

Calm Kids...

2011-04-14T12:03:00.001-04:00

Don't let the picture above fool you, my littlest is a bundle of energy. His mind and his body rarely slow down. However there are things that serve him in the area of self control. When I notice he is beginning to lack focus or becomes more impulsive we immediately make some changes.

1) Limit video stimulation (or cut it out altogether); This includes DVD watching, playing the Wii or any other kinds of video games, even educational ones. We turn to books, coloring pages, playing outside or playing and pretending with building blocks, toy cars and tools instead.

2) Give him a productive project which will involve a lot of positive feedback. Something that teaches him that concentrated, earnest effort pays off is a good thing. We've found having him help with a task that normally only Dad or I would do and involving him in it is especially helpful... being careful to praise honest effort and not requiring perfection.

3) Don't overwhelm your child. Give them responsibilities that are reasonable for them. Clean out the clutter in their lives. Instead of having 50 toys that do the same thing, choose a few that will be easier for them to manage. Reduce the amount of clothing they have in their drawers and closets. Less clothing means less laundry and it also makes it possible for them to be in control of what they have.

4) Change his diet. Did you know there are not only foods that will ramp your child up, but also foods that will calm him/her down? THIS is a wonderful list of a variety of foods to try with your child. Also try to avoid foods that are high in refined sugars. Try switching to whole grain crackers rather than serving white flour saltines. Protein is key for focus. Serving a balance of a healthy protein with complex carbs is a good thing!

5) Don't expect perfectly calm kids all the time. Even if you do all of the above their behavior may adjust somewhat, but hopefully they will still have plenty of energy to explore the world! That's what's wonderful about children, their zest for life. It's all amazing to them. Try to discern between normal childhood excitement and out of control hyperactivity. The former requires simple guidance and direction, while the latter may require a lifestyle overhaul.

5) Establish a routine or daily schedule and have order in the home. This doesn't have to be to the minute scheduling, but a general guideline that allows for some flexibility. Order is very good for a hyper active child, so their minds do not shoot off in a thousand different directions.

I have a nearly 25 year old son who was diagnosed with ADHD when he was only 6 years old. After being required to try medication for two weeks (long story.. the state I was in could have taken away my child if I didn't) we pulled him out of school and I began homeschooling him. We had up and down days, but found ways to cope. Building a relationship with him was most important to us and the above safeguards helped us do just that.

Now we're raising another one! :-) He's full of life, interest, imagination and creativity. He's also impulsive in his speech and his actions and when it gets too difficult for him we apply all of the above. We're thrilled that it keeps him off medication and really does work... if only I'm consistent with it. I'm writing this mainly for myself as a reminder, but also for anyone out there who may have highly active children that may need a little hope in this area of parenting.

Cloth Diaper Giveaway!!

2011-04-14T11:11:00.000-04:00

These are super cute, right? Well, if Manager to Mom gets 100 followers today she's giving them away! She's giving one away regardless, but will add another if she reaches that 100 mark!

I didn't sign up for the giveaway, but I did click her "follow me" button so folks out there who would like to have these can get them! Plus, she has a great blog, lots of yummy recipes.

Even if you don't need the diapers they would make a wonderful shower gift for someone.

So, lets help her out... click here and head over to follow her page!

Can't resist this giveaway!

2011-04-13T07:20:00.000-04:00

Tatertots & Jello is hosting a Giveway for a Giant Sewing Mat and an entry to win a Sewing Box (a fold up sewing workspace).

Since I love to sew, I couldn't resist linking up!

Whole Wheat English Muffins... on a whim

2011-04-11T13:24:00.001-04:00

This morning I was surfing through some blogs and came across Joseph's Grainery's blog. Love their stuff. Today they posted a recipe for Whole Wheat English Muffins. Now there's a bread product I've never attempted.

Decided today was the day.

First I mixed up the recipe, only I didn't have any soft wheat or red wheat which Joseph's recipe called for; only white hard. Plus I used Demera sugar. Oh, and I doubled it. I knew a single batch wouldn't be enough for my crew! Here's my slightly altered recipe:

2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
4 TBS demerara sugar
2 tsp salt
10 tsp instant active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
10 cups hard white wheat flour
cornmeal (ground organic popcorn in my mill to make the cornmeal. VERY good!)

I heated the butter and milk in the microwave like JG said (you could also do this on the stove top just make sure not to get it too hot and not to scorch the milk) and stirred them until the butter was melted and the temp was lukewarm. I poured that mixture into the bowl of my mixer then added sugar, salt and water. Next I put in the wheat flour and then finally the instant active dry yeast. If you're not using an instant active dry yeast you'll need to do it like JG did! Check their recipe for that instruction. Once I had half the wheat flour in my mixer I started my machine on low speed. Then I added the rest of the flour.

Increase speed and knead for 8 minutes. Turn dough out into a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled in size. It's nice and warm here today so it only took 35 minutes. In cooler temps you may need to allow it to rise a bit longer.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Now sprinkle cornmeal on your work surface. This will keep the dough from sticking. Punch down the dough and push out the air bubbles. Then turn it out onto the counter top. Roll the dough out until it's 1/3 of an inch thick. Then cut out circles using a 3 1/2 to 4 inch cutter (I used a glass like JG did!).

Place muffins in a lightly greased skillet. Cook on medium-LOW for about 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Move to a cookie sheet. Once the cookie sheet is full cook in oven for 5 minutes.

Cool on wire racks. Once they are cool, fork split and toast them! YUM!

There were more nooks and crannies once they were toasted. Very tasty. My test subjects quickly mowed down three each! They didn't wait for them to be toasted!

Yum...

YUM!

Pop over to Joseph's Grainery to see this and other tasty recipes.

Bread questions.. and answers!

2011-04-04T09:57:00.000-04:00

I recently received a couple of questions about the whole wheat bread I make and wanted to address those here in case anyone else had the same questions.

One reader asked if I added gluten or dough enhancer to my bread. No, I don't. The recipe posted here is the one I always use and it's simply water, salt, oil, sugar or honey and whole wheat flour. Pretty simple recipe!

The follow up question had to do with texture; Since I don't use added gluten or dough enhancer is my bread heavy. No, my bread is not heavy. In fact it's very light. The secret is in kneading and rising. Kneading dough enough but not too much and allowing it to rise enough but not too much is key. Another common mistake is "proofing" instant active dry yeast, a process in which you add a bit of sugar to warm water then adding the yeast to see if it gets all foamy. This can actually shorten the life of the yeast and affect the rise of the dough. You definitely need to "proof" inactive yeast, but not instant active dry.

Instant active dry yeast can and should be added directly to the dry ingredients. I use a high quality yeast which has a long life so it isn't as affected by it. But generally the brand you buy off the shelf at the grocery store may already have a compromised shelf life, so you need to exercise greater care with it.

I'm fortunate enough to own a heavy duty kitchen mixer. Prior to that we had to hand knead our dough. It takes a full 10 to 15 minutes by hand to get the dough to the right texture. There are artisan breads that require no kneading.. that's not this bread!

I took some photos of my most recent batch of bread to try to communicate the texture.

Not allowing the dough to rise long enough or not doing a second kneading will generally result in large air bubbles forming in your bread, causing the bread to crumble. Make sure to allow your dough a first rise of about 40 to 45 minutes and do a second kneading at the end of that time for 3 to 5 minutes to get all the air bubbles out.
When placed in loaf pans allow the dough to rise about 30 minutes. Again, do not over rise!

When I explained the bread was light, the question was asked if it held up to peanut butter. Well, yes it does! In fact it holds up to my peanut butter, which is homemade and then stored in the fridge.

Here it is, all coated with PB right after removing it from the fridge. The peanut butter is very firm, much more so than the normal brand. I mush it around in the jar a bit to loosen it up, then put it on the bread. No rips in the bread!

Hope this helps those of you who are curious about making whole wheat bread. Like I said, there are artisan breads which require no kneading, using regular yeast and are fairly simple to make, just time consuming. But if you want a soft, light wheat bread for sandwich making, which is also nutritious and delicious.. this could be your loaf! :0)

"...even in their sleep."

2011-04-02T01:05:00.002-04:00

My brain is so full tonight it's pushing out all the sleep.

While sitting in a quiet house listening only to box fans and the heat pump cycling to keep us warm the sound of my own thoughts seems deafening.

These days thinking, for me, is much akin to juggling. I throw all the balls in the air and try to keep them in play, but the more balls added, the more that drop. While scrambling to retrieve the displaced spheres I drop even more. Finally, when it's time to resume the juggling, I can't remember how to get the balls back in the air.

And on and on it goes.

I'm not writing this evening to vent my thoughts so sleep can finally come. It simply occurred to me that my thoughts plague me because of my inability to solve any of life's puzzles going on right now. The good news (the thing I desperately need to remember) is I don't have to.

Psalm 127:2 says; "It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep."

So I'm giving up on trying to solve anything tonight. My Father already knows and He never sleeps. Perhaps I'll wake in the morning with answers, or maybe even more questions, but whatever comes I'll need to recognize it as the gift it is... a gift given to me by my Loving Father while I rested quietly in His care.

April Fools in Love

2011-04-01T12:01:00.001-04:00

This day means pranks and shenanigans to a lot of people. To me it means something else.

Twenty-seven years ago today my husband got on one knee and asked the *big* question; "Will you marry me?"

I said yes. Neither one of us have ever said
"April Fools!"

Always thought he asked on April ONE so he had an escape hatch. But apparently he hasn't felt the need to use it yet. :-)

Spend Time With Me, Daddy!

2011-03-31T14:12:00.001-04:00

In order to be intentional about making time for my husband to have a bit of enjoyable time with the children, not just on the weekends which always happen to be crazy busy with activities, we created a "spend time with me, Daddy" system.

It isn't fancy. It's just pieces of paper with activities of the child's choice (one jar with our daughter's choices, one with our son's) and placed them in a plastic freezer container. There is a third jar for Saturdays. These are things that may take us away from home. The daily jars contain activities that will only take about 30 minutes to complete since dinner and bedtime routines aren't far behind.

Here's what they look like:

Inside you'll find things like "play Yahtzee, put together a puzzle, go for a 30 minute walk. My daughter chose things like "work in the yard, work on doll house (a project she and her dad are doing together), read Pilgrim's Progress."

One they both chose was "pretend with me." Yesterday that one was drawn. They all decided to be animals in the jungle.

My husband was the monkey... in a tree:

hubby liked this game as much as the kids did :)

The kids were laughing so hard I could hear them inside the house! :-)

I guess the point of this blog is just to share that spending time with your children doesn't have to be expensive or taxing. They just want us. They want us to look them in the eyes, laugh, enjoy, interact. Sometimes my parenting is all about survival and keeping folks in line. I often forget to ENJOY my children. Since starting this one simple thing I've been reminded.

The difference in their behavior, the tone of our home has changed so much... for the better. My husband and I spend less time frustrated with them and more time amazed by them.

Because, quite honesty, they are amazing. God Himself blessed us with these precious treasures. We need to be mindful of that fact, all the time.

Tuesday Morning...

2011-03-29T10:00:00.001-04:00

A decimated pan of cinnamon rolls...

Active 5 year old mind, designing..

The dog interrupts sock sorting for a little cuddle time.


Young men preparing for work, slowly sipping coffee and having a meaningful interaction with the dog; evidence of said cinnamon roll devastation close by. It goes well with coffee. The dog doesn't understand why he didn't get any. Another young man off to get his passport for his upcoming honeymoon. Life moves on. It makes one thankful for the occasional slow Tuesday morning.

Saturday Morning Pancakes (Weight Watcher friendly)

2011-03-26T09:42:00.001-04:00

Not sure if I've shared or not, but I've been following Weight Watcher's PointsPlus program. Well, at least I've been trying to. This morning I "skinnied up" my tried and true pancake recipe and it turned out great. Even hubby and the kiddos loved them.

Here's the recipe (only 3 points each on Weight Watcher PointsPlus):

1 cup whole wheat flour (you could also use a gluten free flour)
1 TBS sugar (I used Demerara)
1 tsp double acting baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
6 egg whites, slightly beaten
1 TBS healthy oil (light olive, coconut, canola, etc)
1/2 tsp extract flavoring (I've used vanilla, orange and maple.. all very tasty!)

Mix together flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl mix milk, egg whites, oil and flavoring. Gradually add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, mixing well but do not over mix.

I cook mine on my counter top griddle at 350 degrees, 1/4 cup batter per pancake. Flip when the edges look dry and small holes begin to form. Serve warm! Makes 8 pancakes.

Don't forget to add in points for the toppings! I used an all-fruit with fiber jam which was 1 pt per tablespoon and some yummy homemade no sugar added apple butter. Of course the hubby and kiddos poured King syrup, honey or molasses over theirs! :-)

I just love a good giveaway!

2011-03-25T12:40:00.000-04:00

And this one is a very, very good giveaway!

Jenn at First Comes Love is giving away some wonderful Shaklee products. If you're not familiar with Shaklee, maybe you should be. This would be a great way to get introduced to them... FREE!

Pop over and put your name in the hat today!

How cute are these?!?!

2011-03-22T10:02:00.000-04:00

The creativity of some people... well... it never ceases to amaze me. Then you have someone who comes up with something that's not only practical but absolutely adorable. Suzanne at Just Another Hang Up is one of those people.

Look at these little adorable rice filled cooling pads she came up with:

She also made some adorable "Love Bird" heating pads which you can see here.

If the cooling and heating properties of these little cuties don't soothe your child's discomfort, then the cheerfulness of the colors and the soft texture surly will!

Eating Clean on a Budget

2011-03-17T13:57:00.000-04:00

I have been doing a little pre-get-together research for a friend of mine. She wants to discuss eating healthy on a budget. Our family tries to eat as "clean" as possible with the occasional lapse. By that I mean no prepackage processed foods and organic when we can. There is the occasional bag of Turkey Sausage Crumbles I'll purchase for a personal treat... and because it's easy... but for the most part our foods are "from scratch" meals.

Our breakfasts consist mostly of eggs produced by our backyard birds, oatmeal, which we buy by the 50 lb bag through a local group, toast made from our loaves of homemade whole wheat bread, fresh fruit and greek strained yogurt, homemade whole wheat pancakes, cinnamon rolls or muffins.

Lunches tend to be revamped leftovers from dinner the previous night.

Snacks are fresh fruit, popcorn, light string cheese, yogurt and almonds. We make our own peanut butter, so we're not paying the high price for the natural stuff at the grocery store. We purchase unsalted roasted peanuts and process them in the food processor for about 4 minutes and have smooth, creamy natural peanut butter.

Dinners vary, but for the most part we eat simply. Soups are a big menu item served with homemade bread, cornbread or crackers. The more simple your meals, the least the cost. Plus soups are loaded with all kinds of wonderful nutrients.

For purchasing meat I've found a local beef supplier. She raises her cattle on pesticide free grass (100% grass fed, not grain or corn finished) and sells it very reasonably. It's about half what it costs for organic beef in the grocery store. Locally grown birds are far more expensive, so I tend to watch for sales then stock up and freeze.

The important thing to remember is while it's against the law to treat poultry with steroids, you might see that on packaging, it isn't against the law to feed them grain treated with things you do not want in your meat. If you're buying organic birds, then you don't have to worry about the steroids. I check the grocery store regularly and as soon as the organic chicken is marked down I purchase it and stock up the freezer. There is also lean ground turkey and turkey cutlets.

We've known people who drink a LOT of milk... we do not. From what I've read, some milk is OK, excessive milk seems to be far less than OK. Here's a "quick and dirty" discussion on the pros and cons of milk consumption. If you're a heavy consumer of milk, then you may want to consider cutting back, if not simply for the budget then for long term health benefit of it.

If you need to spend more on your grocery budget to get in more organic foods or for a low gluten diet, then maybe you could cut costs in other places to make up the difference.

One way to make room for your grocery budget is to use couponing or discount hunting on non-food items. Clark Howard has a pretty extensive list of coupon and discount websites. He also has a "free and cheap" section on his website. There may be a service you're currently paying for that you could find for free.

Evaluate the extras in your family life... gym memberships, maxed out cell phone plans, cable TV, an annual two week vacation, movie theater outings, eating out, etc. Maybe there are less expensive ways for your family to enjoy time together.

You may also want to consider taking up gardening and canning food. If gardening isn't something you can do, check out local farmer's markets and buy fresh fruits and vegetables by the bushel, then store it away. Learn to can... with a friend! That will make it all the more enjoyable. Go in together on some bulk fruits and veggies, work together to get the food put up, then split it right down the middle.

A good piece of information to have is the "Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15" list.

Begin Quoted information:

The Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 list which is based on data from the Environmental Working Group on pesticide residue. These lists make it easy to select foods with the least contamination when buying organic isn’t an option.

Using the lists below (updated for 2010) will limit your family’s exposure to pesticides while also keeping an eye on your budget.

The Dirty Dozen:These foods retain the most residue from pesticides, additives and hormones even after washing.

Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Blueberries
Nectarines
Bell Pepper
Spinach
Kale
Cherries
Potatoes
Grapes

The Clean 15:These fruits and vegetables were the least likely to have pesticides detected on the parts you eat whether or not they’re certified organic (after washing).

Onions
Avacado
Corn
Pineapple
Mango
Asparagus
Sweet Peas
Kiwi
Cabbage
Eggplant
Papaya
Watermelon
Broccoli
Tomato
Sweet Potato

The bottom line: It’s better to buy organic when buying something on the Dirty Dozen list. Produce on the clean 15 list can be bought conventional with little risk.

End Quoted information.

Hope this helps someone else out there. It's been a good exercise for me because I have been backsliding into some bad habits lately. Now I feel all geared up again. Of course it doesn't hurt that the sun is shining and it's 70 degrees out there! :-)

Master Bedroom Makeover

2011-03-10T10:11:00.002-05:00

My poor, poor master bedroom... it remains neglected. Not neglected entirely. Yes, we use it. We sleep in it every single night. We throw clothes all over it and stack papers on the sole dresser. Occasionally we make up the bed and fluff the pillows. However, the walls remain unpainted, there is no theme or arrangement, hardly anything on the walls. It can not be called a "haven" for the weary, but instead a place to flop when exhausted.

One of my goals this is year is to redo the room. I can't bring myself to post before pictures.. not yet anyway. I'll post this when there are after shots. I know, wicked pride, but it is truly embarrassing. We've been in this house over six years and yet it remains a styleless blob.

So I've been scouring the internet for pictures of bedrooms that make me... well... relax. I love the mantle over the bed in this photo:

And the ceiling in this bedroom:

Really not sure about color yet. The warm tones are nice, but I'm also a big fan of light blue. These blue rooms caught my eye:

This one is my favorite:

Our bedroom is very small, only 12x13. I've been researching ways to create the feeling of space in the absence of a construction budget. So we are considering replacing our queen-sized bed with a full-sized bed to give the room a feeling of space. Going with light colors could also help accomplish that goal. I've also been trying to decide what to do about our large dresser. Perhaps painting it as well, something that blends into the walls, rather than standing out.

If anyone has ideas, please share! I will keep you posted on the progress!

Dizzy Bugs and Tweets

2011-03-04T16:21:00.000-05:00

We are busy fighting tummy bugs. It has burned through everyone in the house, except my hubby. He is the last man standing.

The most annoying part for me has been this ridiculous dizziness. No kidding.. my world is spinning. It is better today than yesterday, and better yesterday than the day before. So hopefully the trend will continue.

So.. Twitter? I don't understand it. I signed up, started following a few folks and there it sits. Do any of you "tweet?" Do you find it to be a beneficial? Enlighten me, because I just don't get it.

Now it's the weekend. Hubby's on his way home. It's Friday, which generally means pizza and family movie night. Unfortunately with the tummy bugs no pizza. Not so sure about the movie. We're all so tired. At least I am. *yawn*

Happy weekend folks!

This Blog Stinks

2011-02-25T09:18:00.001-05:00

We all love a clean smelling home. I know I do. With a very sensitive nose it's of the utmost importance. However there has been a nasal assault in my home.

Last night this innocent looking, way to curious family pet...

...decided to tangle with one of these:

After a cry for help on the Facebook Alert System and having received tons of helpful advice, I purchased these:

We applied the acquired knowledge and second born son donned old clothes and rubber gloves to start the odor removal process. She smells better. Not ALL better, but definitely better. I still have to make a run out to pick up this to finish off:

The house is still smelling pretty rough, however, because the creature apparently sprayed the back of the house when it nailed her. So no opening up the back door.. at all.. and I'm mopping, cleaning the furniture and burning these:

Thank you to my Facebook buddies for all your help! Hopefully I'll have a clean smelling home again soon!

Tutorial Time - Origami Album

2011-02-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

I know I said this would be posted a few days ago, but better late than never, right? I hope these pictures are clear. This was done first thing this morning, before the morning chores even. Hey, a girl's gotta have her priorities, right?

Here we go...

The supply list:

1) A 28 inch ribbon.. I used double ribbon, but you can go with a single if you wish.
2) 5 squares of 8.5 inch card stock
3) Double stick tape
4) Two 5 inch squares of card board.. I used photo matting board which works great.
5) Two 6 inch squares of decorative scrapbooking paper. I used coordinating, but you can go with matching. Get a little crazy.. do what you wanna do. I've even used fabric before.
6) Two 4 3/4 inch squares of card stock
7) Scissors

First thing we do is cover our card board. This is the top and bottom cover of our little album. I started out photographing the white side, then flipped it over to the yellow side for visibility. So when you see it go from white to yellow, don't be confused. It's the same board.

Take your board and your cover...

Place a small piece of tape in the middle of the wrong side of your scrapbook paper. This will help secure the board in place while we're working.

Place the board directly in the middle of the wrong side of your decorative paper. Just eye-ball it the best you can. Later our little 4 3/4 square of card stock will hide any imperfection.

Here's where I flipped the board over so you could see the contrast... it's still the same piece of board.
You simply cut each corner as shown below. See how the cut doesn't go all the way to the corner? That's because I leave a little space to account for the thickness of the board.

Cut all the way around:

Lookin' good!

Now add some tape all along the side of the board, allowing it to go over the edge onto the decorative paper. It's a little hard to see, but hopefully it shows up well enough. You go all the way around the board, just like this:

Our next step is to fold over the edges of the decorative paper onto the board, like this:

Do this all the way around. It will end up looking like this:

Now take your 4 3/4 inch card stock and tape around the edges. Add to the board:

Cover both of your boards exactly the same way.

Now it's time to set aside our covers and get busy on the folding! You will need your 5 sheets of 8.5 inch square card stock for this part.

Fold one end to the other.. Dinah Zike calls this the "hot dog" fold.

Make a nice crease...

Open up your hot dog, turn...

...And make another hot dog fold:

Flip your paper over so it forms a peak...

Now we're going to do a "taco fold".. point to point.. only one.

Make another nice crease! Here's what it will look like at this point:

Open up your paper and Turn over again to form another peak...

...And push down the middle. The paper will pop up on the sides. Always fun! :-)

This part always seems to confuse folks, so I'll try to be very clear.. just fold in the sides like this:

Then fold it down on itself, forming a.. can you guess? A Hamburger!

Do that to all five sheets of the 8.5 inch square card stock. Go ahead.. I'll wait. :-)

Waiting.. Waiting.. Waiting...

Still waiting...

Don't forget to turn your paper over to form the peaks. It really is important to get that good POP!

OK, all done? All five 8.5 inch sheets look like little square hamburgers, right? Good!

Let's put them together now!

First open your hamburger just a bit like shown below and add tape to the very corner of the flat side:

Little more close up...

Do this to 2 of your hamburgers.. and then fit them together like so:

The tape is on the tips of both corners, the one in the left hand and the right hand. The tape is facing DOWN on the one in the right hand and UP on the one in the left hand. Hope that makes sense!

You push them together, all the way to corner, so they fit together tightly.

Continue the process until all five sheets are joined together. When finished it will look like this unfolded:

Here it is all folded up:

Now grab your covered boards. We're going to add the ribbon. Choose which board will be your BOTTOM board. Place a 2 inch piece of tape in the middle of the white side of the board, going left to right. Center your ribbon and place it right on top of that tape. Set aside.

Take your folded paper creation, the "meat" of your album, and tape all the way around the edges. It should look like this:

Now turn over and center it directly on top of the bottom board which has the ribbon on it. Yup, right on top. Here's what it looks like:

Now tape all around the edges of the top of your folded paper:

Now it's time to add the top board. Center it with the bottom board, lining up the bottom and top boards as perfectly as you can.

Now tie your bow and you're DONE!

Check my previous Valentine's Card post to see how it looks opened up and pictures added. Feel free to add embellishments to the inside and outside of your album. You can do seasonal albums and then set out in a basket on your coffee table to share with friends and families. These make wonderful grand-parent gifts.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-21T10:50:00.001-05:00

I haven't done this a while, but need a little help getting my menu organized again. Problem is, lack of planning really smacks the budget around.

By the way, if you're a Weight Watcher, this is a pretty WW friendly menu.

Monday: Flemish Beef Stew (6 pts on the Weight Watchers Points Plus program)

Tuesday: Tilapia with Pineapple Relish (6 pts)

Wednesday: Crockpot Salsa Chicken (4 pts)

Thursday: Maple-Mustard Pork Tenderloin (5 pts)

Friday: Pizza and Salad

Saturday: Chili, Corn muffins with toppings (sour cream, sliced black olives, cheese)
We're celebrating our daughter's "Gotcha Day".. the day she came home to us from South Korea. :-) We're also celebrating our son's engagement and having some friends over. We went with a big pot of chili to make it easier.

Sunday: Cook's Day Off
We tend to eat leftovers from the week, popcorn, whatever! It's a free for all!

Pizza Night!

2011-02-21T10:48:00.000-05:00

We love homemade pizza around here and nearly every Friday night, that's what's on the menu. Thing is, we like to make it as healthy as possible. I always make whole wheat crust and use plenty of fresh ingredients. We also measure out the cheese so we know exactly what we're getting.

Doesn't that look yummy?

Thank you, Ladies!

2011-02-21T10:19:00.000-05:00

The girls have started laying again...

Lovin' the longer days!

Friday Funny

2011-02-18T09:19:00.000-05:00

Happy Weekend!

Origami goes greeting card!

2011-02-17T09:05:00.002-05:00

Wanted something a little different for the Hub's Valentine's card this year, so I went with an origami photo "album."

I was showing the women in my care group how to make it anyway, so I decided to go with that for my sweetheart as well.

This is the top...

This is the bottom...

The inside all opened up...

Since the onset of the digital photo age, printing off pics and slicing them down the middle is no problem. I still like how it turns out.. every time.

And yes, I just went with my lefty scrawl, but it made it more personal, like a handwritten note.

Didn't want to use a traditional bow, so I did a half bow to go for masculine. Didn't really work, but it was OK. Again.. he didn't seem to mind.

Tomorrow... the Tutorial.

Links to remember...

2011-02-14T19:29:00.002-05:00

I followed a couple of links today and didn't want to forget where they are, since I'm on my son's computer and not my own.

The first one is an excellent article about how a woman finally got her eating habits under control. The article is called, "My faith: When the fat girl kissed sweets goodbye."

The other is an excellent article on frugality called, "7 Habits of Highly Frugal People."

OK, that's all. Back to your regularly scheduled days. :-)

Simple Valentine's Day ideas

2011-02-08T09:16:00.002-05:00

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

It's Valentine's!
Well, almost.
Here are a couple of our favorite projects from last year's festivities that were simple, fun, and enjoyed by those receiving!

The first one we picked up at The Trendy Treehouse, the fabric card idea we found at Missouri Quilting (this is a video "how to"), and finally an adorable bookmark idea found at mmmcrafts.

The lil' Smarties Butterflies were so fun and extremely simple to make. After a demonstration the children were able to do them all by themselves. They're friends seemed to enjoy them too.

The fabric cards were really fun to make, but the kids couldn't do it alone. I had to do the iron work, but they were able to pick out the fabrics and position the shapes. The possibilities are endless with these cards! Use card stock, just the standard sort you get at Big-Mart wherever, then use fusible web to attach the fabric to the card. Iron just as you would any other fabric. We put the fusible web on the fabric before cutting out the shapes.

Here are a few of the ones we made:

We just put a little heart on the back of the cards as well.

Finally look at these:

Aren't they great?!

Here are the ones we made:

We laminated them for durability and because we have a laminator.

Then we added a little scripture on the bottom. My daughter passed them out of her friends last year.

So what are you making for Valentine's Day?

Incredibly Early and HAPPY News!

2011-02-01T10:17:00.000-05:00

I suppose it's better than being incredibly late. By 9:00 PM the day had drained nearly every ounce of energy from my body, so I went to bed. I'm not an "in bed by 9:00 kinda gal. In fact, 11:00 is early for me. So my day actually started about 2:15. TWO fifteen, people!

Here it is 6:00 and I've already been up nearly 4 hours. This is going to be a very long day. Hopefully it will be better than yesterday.
Actually, it probably will.

I'm already feeling more grateful. As the day progressed yesterday, Oldest son brought in wood for me so we could warm the house. I talked to 2nd born several times throughout the day and just seeing his faith brings me so much peace. My husband came home with a wonderful attitude and sent me out the door to Weight Watchers where I was very surprised to find I actually lost a little weight and didn't gain it. Then last night slept so hard, albeit not very long.

I didn't fret over the house and no one gave me a hard time about it. My little ones were very, very good yesterday. Then there were your sweet comments, encouragements and hugs... God gives sweet gifts in the midst of turmoil.

Then there's the added blessing that just happened recently. A true reason to celebrate. I'm so thrilled we have another engagement to announce, as 2nd Born Son asked his lovely young lady to be his wife and she said yes. He placed this beautiful ring on her finger on Friday.

Aren't they adorable together? I love the happiness on their faces and the cellphone at her ear! They were under strict orders to call immediately... you know, should it ever happen.

So there are many blessings, much joy, abundant grace.
OK, now I'm ready to face the new day.. even if it is incredibly early.

Dips for Super Bowl!

2011-02-01T10:07:00.000-05:00

I'm in the process of moving my favorites from my "personal" blog to this one since I'm closing the other. Please forgive all my additions today, but hope you enjoy the recipes! :-)

Tex-Mex Pimento Cheese, hold the pimentos

This is my absolute favorite dip.. EVER.. and it's a real crowd pleaser. We'll be carting these to a Super Bowl party we'll be attending. With a nice big bag of homemade tortilla chips!

1 lb of shredded pepper jack cheese (four cups.. the original recipe called
for shredded cheddar cheese, but I decided to use pepper jack and just
omitted the Serrano chiles below)
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes, drained
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 tsp cumin
1 TBS lime juice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 clove of garlic, minced
Salt, black pepper and Cayenne to taste
Optional: 2 Serrano chiles, finely diced (I did not add these since I used pepper jack cheese)

Mix all ingredients together and chill for a few hours. I only chilled it for maybe 30 minutes, but I've served it without chilling it and it was still very tasty.

Avocado Salad

3 avocados, diced
2 medium sized tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can kernal corn, drained
1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 TBS lime juice
1 tsp cumin
dash of cayenne (optional)
Kosher salt to taste (optional).. I don't add any salt

Carefully stir all ingredients together. Chill. Serve as a side dish or with tortilla chips.

Makin' Banana Pancakes

2011-02-01T09:48:00.000-05:00

After listening to Jack Johnson's song, "Banana Pancakes," I went on a search for this recipe. If you love bananas, you're gonna LOVE it.. seriously, you are. The more ripe the bananas, the tastier the result.

So what I like to do is purchase the "on the brink" discount bananas from the grocery store. The ones on the side cart "on the brink of rotting" and on their way out the door if someone doesn't take them home SOON! Go ahead, pick up these super great deals, go home, pull off the peels and place them in Ziploc freezer bags. When you're ready to make banana pancakes (or banana bread or banana muffins) just take some out to thaw.

Here's how you make the pancakes:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 TBS white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

2 TBS vegetable oil

2 RIPE bananas, mashed

Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil and bananas.

Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides. Serve hot.

What I did:

I tripled the recipe for my group. Here are the changes I made.. I used self-rising white flour and whole wheat flour mixed. 4 cups self-rising white and 2 cups whole wheat. For the milk I used 2 cups reg milk and 1 cup buttermilk. Added just a touch more sugar and since I was using self-rising flour, omitted the salt and baking powder.

THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go ahead.. make them and pretend that it's the weekend!

Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs

2011-02-01T09:32:00.001-05:00

So.. since I'm now on a health kick, research has ensued for lean recipes that don't break the bank. We LOVE meatballs around here, but hate the high fat version that comes in those frozen packages at the grocery store. I found a Swedish Meatball recipe that is really yummy. I made some alterations in the recipe to suit my family (which I'll list below) but you can find the original recipe HERE. The photo below is from Kayln's Kitchen. Make sure to drop by and check out her other recipes.

Oven-Baked Swedish Meatballs
(Makes 36 meatballs)

1 lb. very lean ground beef or turkey (less than 10% fat) I used turkey because beef doesn't agree with me.
1 lb. low-fat turkey sausage
1 finely diced onion
1 T garlic puree
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 400 F. Use food processor to finely chop onion. Put meat in mixing bowl and allow to come to room temperature, then mix in onions, garlic, salt, pepper, ginger, cardamom, and allspice. Mix with your hands until spices are well distributed and sausage and beef are well combined.

Spray pan with non-stick cooking spray. Use a tablespoon to measure out meat, forming small meatballs by rolling with your hands and placing them on the rack as you go. Bake until meatballs are slightly browned and cooked through, 20-30 minutes. Serve hot.

NOTE: When ground turkey (or beef) is on sale, I tend to purchase a bunch. This would be a good time to make up a huge batch of meatballs and then store them in the freezer for adding to soups, spaghetti sauce or making meatball subs. Much better for you than the bagged frozen version in the grocery store.

"Heavenly" Yummies

2011-02-01T09:24:00.000-05:00

There are so many wonderful blogs out there in cyberspace. I have subbed to several since joining Blogspot, but prior to that I used Google Reader to keep up with my favorite blogs. There is one that I spend a great deal of time surfing because I get many wonderful recipes from her. Her name is Laura and she keeps a blog called "Heavenly Homemakers."

I absolutely LOVE her whole wheat cinnamon roll recipe and make it frequently for friends and family. They haven't been fed to one single person that didn't just melt. Now, I do change the filling a bit. I follow her instructions to the letter on the dough, but my family likes a little heavier filling. I've made her filling before and think it's amazing however, so try hers first as it's definitely healthier! and not as sweet.

Her dough recipe makes a BUNCH of rolls. It's also her soft pretzel recipe, which I highly recommend.

For the cinnamon rolls I used little round aluminum pans and fit 6 to 7 in each one. It made 6 pans of rolls, but the recipe would easily fill 7 pans (it would have been better if I had 7!) and would probably fill 8 if I hadn't cut them so thick. This is nice for sharing with others or freezing.

Here's my filling in case you want to try it:

2 sticks melted butter
4 cups brown sugar
1 TBS cinnamon
1 cup crushed pecans

I mix all the ingredients together with a pastry blender until it's spreadable and then spread it evenly, all the way out to the edges, of the rolled out dough. Feel free to leave the pecans out, as I do that often. As a matter of fact, frequently I'll make a 1/2 and 1/2 batch, one with, one without.

I also double the frosting recipe because my crew likes a lot of frosting on their rolls. Can you say "sweet tooth?"

Here's a big batch I made one evening and remembered to take some pictures. Here's what they look like getting ready to be put in the oven:

Here they are coming out of the oven. As you can see, they're really popping out of there.

And here they are all frosted and ready to serve:

These whole wheat cinnamon rolls are really fairly simple to make and extremely tasty! Laura has all kinds of wonderful, whole foods recipes at her site. Make sure to stop by for a visit. You won't be sorry!

Homemade Cleaning Products

2011-01-31T08:31:00.002-05:00

This is a well-worn topic, but it stands repeating on my new blog so I can find it again later. I've been trying to find decent recipes for cleaning products for quite awhile now. Yes, I'd like them to be enviro-friendly, but quite honestly, I need them to be COST-friendly.

Over the last year or so we've been experimenting with several recipe suggestions. A few I've found to work extremely well, rivaling what you find at the grocery store and many that seemed to have the same cleaning power as.. say.. cold water.

Here are my favorites so far:

Laundry Detergent:

On the stove bring 4 cups water to a gentle boil. Add 1 bar of grated Fels Naptha soap. Reduce heat, simmer and stir until soap is completely dissolved. Pour into a 5 gallon bucket with 3 gallons of water, stir. Add 1 cup borax, 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup Oxi-clean. Stir, cover, allow to sit over night.

It will be the consistancy of goo-gel. Yup.. that's what I meant.. goo-gel.

Use 1 full cup per load, 1 1/2 cups if you're using a full, super-capacity machine. Pre-treat heavily soiled items. Cost is about .03/load. The cheapest detergent I've found on the market is about .13/load, but it was one I picked up from Sam's and it didn't work well at all.

Fabric Softener:

Mix together, 1 cup cold water, 1 cup hair conditioner of your choice and 2 cups distilled white vinegar. Stir. I always double the recipe and place in a Downy Ball and put in the washing machine. Make sure you like the smell of the hair conditioner!!

Strong Glass Cleaner Recipe:

Mix together in spray bottle:

1 TBS clear, non-sudsing amonia, 1 cup rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol, 1 cup water.

Furniture Polish:

Mix in a sprayer bottle:

1 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup lemon juice

Shake well and apply a small amount to a flannel cleaning rag or cleaning cloth. Spread evenly over furniture surface. Turn cloth to a dry side and polish dry.

Wet Mop Solution:

I have one of those Swiffer Wet Jet mop thingies. The bottle of solution is pretty pricey so I decided to see if I could find something else. One website mentioned that a professional vinyl floorer recommended using a 1 to 1 ratio of window cleaner and hot water. It worked just as well as the one I picked up from the store!! Just save your bottle and refill.

All Purpose Cleaner:

Mix together in a spray bottle:

1/4 cup dish soap, 2 cups vinegar, 1 cup lemon juice, 1 to 2 cups water

I haven't found a dish detergent recipe I like. Every one I've tried either leaves an annoying film on the dishes or just simply doesn't clean. So the hunt continues on that front. So, for now, I'm still purchasing it off the shelf, most of the time, with coupons!

UPDATE: I just found a recipe for a Borax Free dishwashing detergent HERE. The basic ingredients are:

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup liquid castile soap (scented is fine)
1 lemon

Check the website for the "how to" portion.

Read more: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent Without Borax | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6132891_homemade-dishwasher-detergent-borax.html#ixzz1CcU1sC5i

Warning: When trying to make your own cleaners, NEVER mix amonia and bleach. The fumes are toxic. I'm sure many folks know this, but just wanted to make sure to state it here. If you're trying to come up with your own recipe, make sure to search the internet for possible chemical reactions. Number 1 priorty.. keep your family safe!

A good example is one recipe I kept seeing over and over again; a dishwashing detergent recipe using Borax. Well, Borax is toxic to humans. Being the recipe didn't rinse well, but intsead left a film on the dishes, I decided to do a bit a research and discovered this fact. So, when trying out recipes, just make sure it's safe.

Happy Healthy Cleaning!

Here's your sign!

2011-01-29T11:19:00.001-05:00

While reading my old blog from last year, I found the following story and got a real giggle out of it. Thought I'd share. :-)

One of the shared duties in this house is laundry. What this means is often things aren't done to everyone's specifications. Every now and then you get a disgruntled individual who doesn't like the way their laundry has been handled.

One evening, hubby came out of the laundry room and I noticed he'd left a sign on the dryer. It read:

"Please do not fold scrubs."

Two days later, little girl (9 years old) left a sign on the dryer, beside her daddy's. It read:

"Please do not fold dresses."

The very next evening I see Second Born Son in the laundry room, writing on a piece of paper. He comes out, gets some tape and goes back. I ask him, "did you leave a sign on the dryer?" He says, "Yep!"

Peeking into the laundry room, I see the newest sign:

"Please do not put signs on the dryer."

Dutch Baby for Breakfast!

2011-01-21T09:01:00.000-05:00

I had never heard of a "Dutch Baby" until yesterday. Another blogger had mentioned making one in her blog so I went researching for information on it. I read about the history here, then searched for a video "how to" and found this.

Mine turned out nicely and the children thoroughly enjoyed it. They asked for seconds and even thirds! Here's what ours looked like:

Here's what it looked like after being sprinkled with powdered sugar:

I also cooked some apples in butter, juice squeezed from half of the orange used for zest and some cinnamon, to spoon over the top. YUM!

It would also be nice in ramekins and served individually. Would make a lovely dessert that would be a nice finish but not overly sweet.

Homemade Chapstick!

2011-01-18T20:02:00.000-05:00

Oh yes I am making this! Look at what their doing over at the Elliot Homestead:

They are brilliant! Can't wait to give this a go. She lists Mountain Rose Herbs as the place to get the ingredients.

Do your pictures give your location?

2011-01-17T23:29:00.000-05:00

A friend, my sister in law to be exact, posted this news report on Facebook this week. So many of us share random pictures on our blogs, Facebook and other networking sites on the internet, I thought this might be a good thing to share.. to be on the safe side.

2011-01-16T13:55:00.000-05:00

Do you know what this is?

It's a shiny sink.

Do you know why I have a shiny sink?

Because I am now a Fly Baby.

I know, I know.. I said I would never do it. I said I would never wear lace up shoes and shine my sink.
Thing is.. never say never.

Bottom line, Fly Lady is inspirational. Not just about house cleaning but about a lot of things. Today I received an email about the way we speak to our children and spouses. It spoke of our tongues and how wicked they can be and the affect they have on our relationships. Boy.. did I ever need to read that.

There will still be the occasional PJ day in my house.. which means lace up bedroom shoes? I don't know, we'll figure it out. There's time. I'm just beginning to learn how to Fly!

Healthy and Hearty!

2011-01-14T10:47:00.001-05:00

I made this casserole this morning and it was yummy! My kids went back for seconds! I was satisfied on the first serving.

For my Weight Watcher buddies..

Throw some zero point fruit on the side and it's a great way to start the day. :-) I chose to mix it up on the egg front, but you could just go with egg whites or egg beaters to reduce the points further. If you go with all whole eggs that will increase the points value by 9 points for the entire recipe and 2.25 per serving. I also used regular triple cheddar cheese, but you could go with 2% or fatfree.. it will reduce the points! You could also add chopped onions, peppers, mushrooms.. anything omlette-ish to give it even more of a hearty punch.

8 slices reduced calorie whole grain bread, cubed

1 1/3 cups Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage crumbles

1/2 cup shredded cheese )1 cup egg beaters

2 whole eggs

4 egg whites

1/2 cup skim milk

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Place bread cubes evenly on the bottom of the dish.

Next sprinkle evenly with sausage (if adding veggies, now is the time)

now add the cheese, sprinkled evenly across the top

In a blender or mixing bowl mix up the egg and milk, adding salt and pepper to taste. I even put in a couple dashes of Texas Pete. Mix until well blended then pour evenly over dry ingredients.

Now, you can do this the night before and allow it to sit overnight, but I found with the lightness of the reduced calorie bread there isn't really a need.

Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. SERVE and ENJOY!

Makes 8 servings.. 3 points per serving!!*

For you workin' outside the home folk out there, it would be great to cut this into individual servings, allow it to cool, wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. That way when it's time to go, grab and go! No muss no fuss! :-)

*These points are based on the most recent PointsPlus program at Weight Watchers.

Time for some changes

2011-01-11T09:41:00.000-05:00

Don't ya just hate it when you type out an entire blog and then accidentally delete it? It's probably never happened to you, but it did to me, just now.

I poured my heart about need for changes, then went on to make a detailed list of the areas that need a major revamp or a slight tweak, and now it's gone.

It doesn't erase my need to change some things, to prepare better for life's in-eventualities. It just erased my orderly thoughts on the matter. Now you'll get the "reader's digest condensed version" of my thoughts. Probably better that way!

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but with everything that hit the latter part of 2010 the need for change is more than evident.

I'm thankful God sends a bit of heat from time to time to show us where improvement is needed. Nothing like fire to bring the dross to the top. I've seen the dross of laziness, self-focus, disorganization, poor stewardship, lack of discipline, insecurity and a few more rise up. They definitely need to be scraped off and He's faithful to do even that.

So while making a list of some changes I can trust my Father to provide all that's needed to make those changes. Good to know!

1) scheduled Bible study
2) get rid of more stuff and/or find a way to organize what we have and utilize it best
3) develop a better financial plan, seek counsel
4) keep a calendar and check it daily, build it into my morning routine
5) develop a morning routine!!!!
6) make an effort to build meaningful relationships and practicing hospitality with greater regularity

It's not an exhaustive list by any means, but at least it's a start. By God's grace maybe we'll be better prepared next time. :-) OK, time to get up from here and get busy. Hope you're all having a great start to this new year!

So Grateful

2010-12-07T08:57:00.000-05:00

I haven't participated in Gratituesday for quite sometime, but it's a good time to join in. We have so much for which to be grateful. Today I want to express my gratitude for my husband's job and the coming change.

My husband is a registered nurse, a floor nurse. His schedule changes from week to week. He works holidays, nights, weekends, even a couple of Sundays a month. I'm very grateful for a profession that meets the needs of this family and a husband who is willing to work so hard. He also cares deeply for his patients and has many opportunities to not only meet their physical needs, but often they ask him to pray with them, to hold their hand when they're afraid or to keep their children from worrying. He loves his job.

The hours have been a challenge, but we've learned to adjust. It just keeps him (and us since we are a one car family) from taking part in events with our friends or church family. He can't really commit to some things because of not having the time off in the evenings, weekends or holidays.

So we have been praying for sometime, that if he is supposed to be more involved, the door would be opened for a different work opportunity. We were prepared for the pay cut, because when a RN goes to a day job, no weekends, tends to mean loss in pay.

Through an incredible set of circumstances, our prayers were answered. My husband starts a new job in January. He worked Thanksgiving and will work Christmas this year, but not next year. Next year he won't work any holidays, weekends or nights. He will be working Monday through Friday, 7:30 to 4:30. He will be home for dinner. The most surprising news is it's considered a promotion, so there will be no loss in pay but instead a slight increase. It's with the same hospital so there will be no lapse in insurance coverage or loss of benefits.

We are extremely grateful for God's kindness to us!

For more "Gratituesday posts, or to particiate, visit Heavenly Homemakers!

Thanksgiving Recap

2010-11-28T10:30:00.003-05:00

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I came down with a nasty bug. It started off with fatigue and a cough. Not too bad. I knew family was coming in so I kept pushing. I was hosting the family meal this year and was very excited about it. Didn't want to miss a moment!

The day before Thanksgiving I was really starting to feel lousy. My niece and sister graciously offered to cook the bird for me and the mashed potatoes and I cooked the few dishes I would still be responsible for, cleaned house, set up, etc. The food was ready!

The turkey was perfect. She did a great job on it!

The day came, family poured in, and it was a great day. We ate, sang, talked and laughed.

I loved having everyone here. I was tired, but knew there was shopping to be done! Black Friday started out at midnight so I made the decision to stay awake rather than trying to get 2 hours of sleep then get up. My sisters, niece and I never get to shop together, both sisters live out of town and we had planned to do this one thing and I didn't want to let it go, so I put on my big girl pants and went!

No, I didn't find any great deals, but the rest of them did. I had a wonderful time with the girls and wouldn't have traded it for 14 bottles of Nyquil or a few hours of sleep.

Needless to say, Friday night the fog rolled in. I took one tablespoon on Nyquil and hit the bed.. HARD! Thankfully I slept through, but by Saturday morning I was so sick. My fever was pretty intense and so was the cough. Body aches were back.

So yesterday, Saturday, I slept off and on all day, going from chills to burning up, coughing every few seconds. Today I'm still feeling pretty weak and tired, but definitely an improvement from the last several days.

It really was a nice holiday. Even had someone here to take a Christmas card photo for us. Yeah, I look pretty bad, but hey, I earned it! :-)

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with your friends and family.

Off we go toward Christmas!

Early Shmearly.. I'm decorating!

2010-11-21T08:19:00.000-05:00

The days have shortened and I NEED LIGHT! Putting up a little holiday twinkle is good medicine for the seasonally challenged.

I'm home almost every day all day (since we're a one car family) and so fighting the blues can be a never ending mission for someone like me. I'm not a natural homebody. Wish I was, but I'm not. Add to that the fact that I'm nearly always without adult interaction. Add to that the shortened daylight hours and.. well.. it's a recipe for major mood crash.

My chosen form of therapy is decorating for Christmas... early! The big guys balk a little bit (in a good humored sort of way), but the little ones love it. This is just the beginning. I used to decorate everything in a more grown up way, but with the little ones we went whimsical a couple of years ago. I want them involved in the process, so I want the items touchable and playful.

The tree won't actually be decorated until after Thanksgiving. If we can work it out, I'd like to have a family dinner with everyone, including the boys' young ladies, in order to decorate it together. This was a full year and it would be nice to go over it together and remember God's faithfulness to us through everything that's gone on.

So there ya go.. a sneak peak to my holiday decorating. You'll notice (except for the tree) it's mostly just winter decorations. That way I'm not in a big hurry to get them down right after Christmas.

Now we can plan Thanksgiving dinner! :)

Brighter Days...

2010-11-15T17:02:00.000-05:00

Whenever I hit a bump in the road, or clouds overtake the sun, or loneliness looms, I try to remember there will be brighter days.

Often reminded by nature that life isn't always gray.

Sometimes it's bright yellow and blue...

...and fire orange and red.

The clouds are rolling in for a couple of days of rain and colder weather, but just this weekend it was warm, sunny and brilliantly beautiful, and it will be again.

Just don't want to forget...

A cat nest?

2010-11-10T09:54:00.000-05:00

My husband made me a wreath out of some vines he found while gathering wood. We had it sitting out on the glider on the back porch until I decided how I was going to use it.

This morning I walked out and saw this...

I guess Kitty Kate thought we set it out just for her; her own little cat nest!

He's been decorating again...

2010-11-09T18:47:00.001-05:00

My 5 year old son that is. Today I decided to start getting some stuff picked up and put away so I could start pulling out some things to "deck the halls." Not everything, just a few things. I tend to start pulling out snowdudes right about now. Yes, I know it's early, but just can't help myself.

Anyway, my son found a few of the snowdudes I had pulled out. One was a large ceramic fellow that has a little tea light in him that lights him up. The others were little stuffed guys. He apparently got his hands on them.

I walked into the room and found this:

I wonder what my house would look like if I left all the decorating up to him!

A new family member!

2010-11-03T16:04:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I made a call about a Standard Poodle pup I found listed on a site I've been watching. He was still available and the adoption fee was very reasonable. I talked it over with the hubby and he and I decided to drive the 1 1/2 hours to Cripple Creek Kennels to meet him and see if he might fit well with our family.

It was definitely love at first sight! He's 15 weeks and has been named Ivan Fitzwilliam.

He did very well on the ride home, hanging out in my lap, or in the back, or just chillin' between the seats.
When we arrived home he quickly started surveying the territory. He's a calm, intelligent, sweet fellow and the kids love him and he loves them!

Today we went for his vet check and everything looks great. Everyone in the office wanted to keep him. We stopped off at Pet Smart to buy some supplies, and folks there wanted to snatch him up. I can't say that I blame them. :-)

We are VERY happy to have another one of these amazing creatures in our lives. I know he's not our Ginny, no dog ever will be, but he's amazing and a real lovebug and we're looking forward to many years with him!

Free Reading Program Anyone??

2010-10-28T09:22:00.000-04:00

I received a link in an email this morning one of my education email lists about Progressive Phonics. It's a completely free reading program for beginning to advanced learners.

Did I mention it's free?

I checked it out this morning, got registered and checked out the material. It looks very nice! You do need a printer as you'll have to print off the books and activities. I guess that part makes it not quite so free, but still, it's a great deal when you look at what they offer.

It starts with the alphabet and children start reading right away. It's the way their program works.

Yeah.. and it's free. Seriously.

Whether you are a homeschooler or a mom who wants to help your child get a jump start on reading before starting school, it looks like this program would work.

By the way, I'm not getting any kickbacks here for endorsing them. They don't even know I exist. Just wanted to share a free resource with you like it was shared with me. Hope it's helpful for someone!

A bad mama day...

2010-10-27T13:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday for lunch I fed my kids pizza. Yes, pizza.. but it was healthy pizza. It was whole wheat crust, turkey pepperoni and Canadian bacon. Not so bad, right?

Then today I made this...

Caramel cream cheese rolls with butter cream glaze and autumn colored sprinkles. They are whole wheat and.. well.. that's where the healthy ends and the junk begins. But they loved it.

Me? I had an avocado, tomato and spinach wrap (whole grain) and half of a banana.

I'm a bad mama aren't I??

No! Not the dishwasher!!

2010-10-26T10:10:00.000-04:00

It sits there full of dishes and silent.
I push the buttons to no avail.
It remains unresponsive and still.
What will bring about it's resurrection?
Will anything?
A fuse?
A part?
A kick?
A scream?
No.
For now I must wait and while waiting...
Hand-wash.

A lesson in politics

2010-10-20T09:51:00.002-04:00

This morning my son comes into the kitchen where I'm working and his hands are full. They are full of small notebooks he has found in his sister's room.

He begins to explain, laying them all out onto a box:

"Mom, she has all these notebooks! There are two small black and white ones, two colorful ones, three flip ones and a yellow one. She has too many notebooks!"

Me: "Yes, she does have a lot of notebooks. She's a notebook junkie."

He clarifies his intention for highlighting this fact: "She has too many and I don't have any. May I have some?"

Me: "No, they are hers. If she wants to give you some then she may, but if she doesn't, I'm not going to make her."

He goes back into her room with the armful of notebooks and my daughter decides to share with him, on her own, without government intervention. :-)

As a side note, I read a couple of things that were of great interest to me today and wanted to share. If you get a chance to read them, do. They are both excellent food for thought.

When the Formula Fails

There are no magic fixes for what ails us. The article above puts it so beautifully.

Lost in Darkness

A short thought on harboring resentment, unforgiveness or anger.

She wasn't there...

2010-10-19T11:53:00.000-04:00

Every morning when I get up, Ginny is by my bed. My husband gets up very early, and at that point, she may get up and go drink some water, but always comes back to lay beside my bed. It doesn't matter if I get up at 6:30 or 8:00.. she stays until I decide it's time to start the day.

This morning, I put my feet to the floor but didn't feel her fuzzy hair beneath them. She wasn't there. I realized this was the first time in 14 years I would be starting the day without my fur friend. She would go outside with the kids at playtime, to keep an eye on them. If they came in, she was right behind them. When they went down for their naps, she'd come over to me to be petted for a bit, then we'd go about our naptime routine. Ginny would sometimes follow me from room to room while I cleaned. She would lay on the floor until I was done and then we'd have our sit down time. She would lay her head in my lap and we would be quiet together. Even now, while I'm on the computer, to look down and her not be curled up right beside me just feels wrong.

Today everything feels off. I went outside onto the porch and saw where she was laid to rest, under a white oak tree... and the tears flowed again. The kids have decorated her grave with red seeds from the dogwood, doggie treats and a favorite bone she liked to chew on. The kids chose a large stone to decorate as her headstone.

When outside, they sit and play beside her. My daughter came in just a bit ago, in tears once again. Yes, I know she was a dog. I know what she was.. but I also know what she was to us... an exceptional, beautiful, unconditional friend who is missed more than I can say.

Thank you for all the kind words yesterday. It was such a blessing to read how so many of you really understood. Meant the world to me.

Goodbye Old Friend... :-(

2010-10-18T13:10:00.000-04:00

Haven't been to sleep.. I stayed up to say Goodbye to my dear Ginny Bell. Her 14th birthday was this past Saturday. We brought her home as soon as she was old enough to leave her mum. Our little family was so excited the day we went to pick her up. We had thought long and hard about what kind of dog to adopt.

We loved her at first sight, even though she was considered to be a "defective" dog. She couldn't be shown because she was too big for her class and she had an umbilical hernia. We didn't care. We knew she was supposed to be ours. There was something about the way she looked at us, like she really saw us. She really was amazing, but we had no idea we'd be bringing home the greatest dog in the world.
She was the smartest, sweetest, most gentle animal you'd ever care to meet. You could literally stick your hand in her food bowl and she wouldn't even growl. She learned very quickly to not fight the lead and would heal and come without any kind of external control. She just obeyed. Once trained (in a single afternoon) a leash nor a fence were even necessary.

Ginny loved the kids and when they were outside, she wanted to be out with them, following them around the yard, keeping watch.

In the evenings she wanted to be on the couch, beside me. That was definitely her happy place.

I knew something was wrong last night when she couldn't make it up onto the couch. About 11:30 PM she started standing strange and acting unsettled. Jeff propped her up with pillows and I sat on the floor with her head in my lap. At 3:40 this morning she took her last breath.

If you saw Marley and Me, then you know how our Ginny died.

Life will never be the same without my precious Ginny Bell. Ask anyone who knew her.. she really was the greatest dog in the world. I'm sure the tears will eventually stop, but right now it doesn't feel like it.

My sweet Ginny.. I love you. Rest well.

Oreo Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes.. YUM!

2010-10-11T21:16:00.000-04:00

A Joyful Mother posted a link to this recipe last week. When I saw it I knew it had to be made for my family. Since we were finally having my oldest son's birthday dinner this evening, I made them as his "birthday cake" since he's not really crazy about cake, but dearly loves cheesecake. The original recipe is posted at Grace's Sweet Life along with some beautiful photos.

I actually did make them today and they are as wonderful as the bloggers report, and very simple to make. I am not a baker and these could not have turned out any better. My pictures are horrible, because all I have is a cell phone, but I wanted to share how mine turned out.

It worked! You can clearly see the Oreo! You use white cupcake liners and they just shine through.

Here's one with the cupcake liner removed.

Before cutting open...


After cutting open. Doesn't it look tasty?? Well, it IS! It was also the perfect serving size of cheesecake. The texture was absolutely perfect. Seriously, there was nothing wrong with these. If you try them, follow the recipe and you will not be disappointed. A BIG thank you to Joyful Mother and Grace for introducing me to these!

What makes a Monday better?

2010-10-11T10:02:00.000-04:00

Homemade whole wheat biscuits!

Granted, it's not a very appealing cell phone picture, but they really are delicious. Light, fluffy, truly a family favorite. I make a pretty big batch for our crew, but feel free to cut the recipe in half. These biscuits are more technique than ingredients, but easy techniques at least.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

4 cups whole wheat flour
2 TBS double acting baking powder (I use aluminum free)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (if using the thick organic variety, then use an additional 1/2 cup of milk)
1 1/2 sticks of softened butter

Place flour, baking powder and salt into to a bowl. Blend well. Cut in softened butter, but leave the butter in larger chunks than when making pie crust.

Gradually add in buttermilk, blending well. The dough will be just a touch sticky. Turn out onto a well floured surface, press to about 1/2 inch thickness. Place on an ungreased jelly roll pan, making sure the biscuits touch. Why? Because this ensures the whole wheat biscuits rise up instead of spread out. Makes for a fluffier biscuit.

Pat the tops with a bit of buttermilk. Place in the oven and bake for 17 minutes or until golden on top.

That's all there is to it!

Guaranteed to make even Monday a good day. :-)

Spiced Pumpkin Dip

2010-10-09T17:34:00.001-04:00

Anyone who enjoys pumpkin pie or other pumpkin desserts will love this super simple to make dip. It's very festive AND yummy! You can hollow out a small pumpkin and serve the dip inside to make a festive presentation. I am fortunate to have a very cool Longaberger ceramic pumpkin (pictured on the left) a friend gave me a couple years ago. That's actually where I developed the idea for this dip. She had also given me a packet of pumpkin dip mix and I decided to try and replicate it without an expensive packet. The result is DELICIOUS and every time I serve it someone is asking for the recipe.

Spiced Pumpkin Dip

One 15 oz can pumpkin
One 8 oz package cream cheese (softened)
2 TBS pumpkin pie spice (recipe below)
1 tsp orange zest or 1 tsp orange extract (optional)
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Blend all together until nice and smooth. I use my food processor for this part. Chill in the refrigerator for about an hour. Serve with ginger snap cookies (our personal favorite), graham crackers and/or apple slices. Makes a beautiful presentation at a party.

Pumpkin Pie Spice:

4 TBS ground cinnamon
4 tsp ground nutmeg
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cloves or 3 tsp allspice

We always use cloves because we like the little bite it gives.

Should have been three...

2010-10-05T18:06:00.000-04:00

I knew it... that was too much dough for two bread pans. I stared at it and thought, "Nah! It's whole wheat bread. It won't rise that much. It'll be fine."

It wasn't fine. They are gigantic! I have to cut the slices in half to make a normal sized sandwich!

Oh well. Next time I won't be so lazy and will take out another loaf pan.

It did go well with dinner this evening. We had turkey vegetable soup with bread pictured above and then for dessert.. apple crisp topped with vanilla ice cream. Oh, it was so tasty. It's been nippy outside today so this warm comfort food was a perfect way to warm up the kiddos. They are really enjoying the weather and spending a lot of time outside.

I love this time of year!

Must.Clean.House.

2010-10-04T11:58:00.000-04:00

The weekend has once again left our house in shambles. This is a recurring theme for me, isn't it? Every Monday I'm cleaning the weekend out of the house. Maybe I should do it on Sunday nights so everything would run more smoothly on Mondays. But generally by the time Sunday evening rolls around I'm too tired to move.

I love the concept of a day of rest, but have yet to find a place to apply it. Sunday is not the day. It is packed with church goings on, fellowship, meals, meetings, etc. It's probably one of our most busy days of the week. Saturdays are sometimes restful, but in a yard-work/do-something-fun-with-the-kids kind of way. No, our day of rest tends to be chopped up into smaller sections and scattered throughout the week... a little here, a little there, most often during nap time. I told Ken it's my sanity hour.

But that hour isn't now. Now is the time for work and plenty of it. Laundry has to be done, floors have to be vacuumed and mopped, everything has to be cleaned. It's all messy right now. It is good to have a home to clean and a family to care for. It's a very happy thing that dear friends are coming over for dinner for the first time in a long time. There's reason enough to clean up. I suppose the restful part could be in the joy for the reason for the task. It's not really laborious to serve those you love.

OK, time to get off this sofa and start resting!

Daddy's Home!

2010-09-30T21:48:00.000-04:00

Still no autumn decorating, but hubby was home from work today, so we just enjoyed time together. The kiddos love it when he's home.

See?

Other than that, we made it out for Coldstone Creamery's FREE ice cream day to benefit Make-A-Wish foundation. We met up with friends and then went back to their house to have dinner and play games.

The kiddos had a great time and so did we.

Now everyone is tucked in, including hubby. The two big boys are off visiting their lady friends and I'm relaxing in a quiet house.

It's been a good day.

Really am still here...

2010-09-29T10:49:00.000-04:00

It's been a while.. but I'm trying to catch up. We've just had some family stuff to deal with that's required extra time. Any creative pursuits have been temporarily put on hold.

Still haven't decorated for Autumn.. but hopefully will get around to it today. Don't want to miss the season! Will try to post pictures if it's accomplished today. :-)

Breakfast.. delivered.

2010-09-16T10:30:00.000-04:00

Apparently one of the chickens got out early this morning. I walked out onto the back porch at 6:45 and found this..

Guess they provide delivery now.

I did it, but I didn't want to..

2010-09-15T08:50:00.000-04:00

Last night we watched it. Several friends recommended it. Every time I was surfing around on Netflix trying to find something to watch, there it was. I just didn't want to watch it.

I finally gave it. Netflix had it on "Play it now" so I hit the button and it started.. we were committed. We were watching "Food Inc."

I watched the first half by myself, then my son and husband came home from work. We all watched with out mouths hanging open.

We decided to make some big changes. The farm they highlighted as "doing it right" is a fairly local farm to us. We have actually been up there to visit as some dear friends of ours know the folks and the husband apprenticed there. The chickens in our backyard even came from there.. Polyface Farms.

I know the meat is more expensive than the on sale meat at the grocery store, but since the men in my family aren't keen on going vegetarian, this may just be the way we need to go. We talked about the possibility of only having meat a couple of nights of week, then the rest of the week having vegetarian meals. They seemed open to that. I'm always sneaking vegetarian meals in anyway.

Now comes the difficult task of tweaking the food budget. I am a long time bargain shopper. This is going to challenge me greatly. Any of you organic whole foods eaters our there have any tips??

But, I'm not alone. This morning while visiting blogs I found this dear blogger, also changing over to clean eating. She recommended an online class called "Real Food for Rookies" which costs 10.00 per class for 12 weeks. I can't swing that, but I have clean eating cookbooks. Just need to start using them!

I also went over to Collette's Kitchen and signed up for her Fall Fitness Challenge. I'm going to get my kids to do it with me. Yes I am.

Who knows, maybe our family will actually get healthy. It could happen. Stranger things have happened.

A difficult day

2010-09-02T08:47:00.000-04:00


Because it's a difficult day I will praise I will count the many blessings of grace in my life Under every rock I will find a gem of joy There will be moments when these things are hard to find And when they are I will exercise faith not of myself but a grace gift from God Because it's a difficult day I will cling to hope When my soul is stirred to retaliate I will remember my Savior bled My Savior died My Savior rose and ascended and will return again and that His promises are yes and amen There will be moments when my mind will wander into the well worn rut of doubt And when it does I will fix my eyes on Jesus the Author and Finisher of my faith Because it's a difficult day I will practice peace This life is a compass pointing to Christ It tells the story of His love even in trials and tribulations may my meditation be They result in my sanctification and are for my good There will be moments when accusations and condemnations arise And in those times I will look to the cross and remember "There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" And I will "let the peace of Christ rule in my heart To which indeed I was called in one body; and be thankful" In each moment I will endeavor to recall Christ is preeminent His grace is sufficient His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

A little help here?

2010-08-31T15:47:00.000-04:00


A dear friend of mine brought these li'l treasures back from the beach for me. Currently they are propped up on the back of my stove, just sittin' pretty. Every time I walk by them I think "there must be something crafty that can be done with those!' Today I had the brilliant idea to ask all you super crafty crafters out there to give me a hand.. or a brain.. and throw out some ideas. They are approximately 13 inches tall and 4 inches wide. I thank you in advance!

Baked Blueberry Apple Oatmeal...

2010-08-26T09:24:00.000-04:00

...with cream cheese streusel is a serious yum! We served it for breakfast at our house this morning.

Lousy cell phone pictures do not do it justice.

Ingredients

4 cups cut or rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups milk (I use almond milk)
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup melted butter
3 medium sized apples, peeled and diced (no need to peel them if you're using organic)
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries (you can also use fresh frozen)
1 tsp vanilla - optional
2 tsp cinnamon - optional

Mix all ingredients then pour into a lightly greased 9x13 casserole dish.

Cream Cheese Streusel

8 oz cream cheese, softened (a traditional streusel calls for butter.. I substituted cream cheese)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp cinnamon

Mix together well with hands until it forms a crumbly mixture, sprinkle over oatmeal evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

Serve hot out of the oven or let it set up a bit.

You can garnish it with nuts, dried fruit, whipped cream or even vanilla ice cream. Of course.. breakfast.. ice cream? Sure! Why not!

Be advised, this makes a lot of food. Feel free to cut the recipe in half for smaller groups. We're feeding 7 here (4 adults, 3 children) and we have leftovers.

More super simple sewing

2010-08-25T10:51:00.000-04:00

It's hard to throw out kids clothes that are still in pretty good shape just because they don't fit perfectly. After visiting a bunch of blogs I realized those clothes still have great fabric on them and they can be repurposed. Not long ago I found a bunch of rayon fabric at a yardsale for 2.00. So I had an idea.

My daughter had this pair of overalls that were officially too short. So I made the decision to marry the fabric and the way-too-short overalls.

The fabric and overalls, before surgery began!


And after complete. Easiest thing ever. First I cut the bibs off the overalls. Then I created a tube with the fabric. Gathered the tube to fit the bibs, then sewed it on. Finally, I hemmed the skirt.

After finishing the dress I realized there was a lot of fabric leftover. The pants from the overalls had a lot of possibility! I removed the back pockets with a seam ripper, cut the up the pants for the panels, used the leftover fabric for the lining and made this matching purse/tote bag. I decided to make the handles reversible so instead of sewing them in they were attached with buttons.

Here it is with the handles reversed.

Here's the inside of the bag. We call our daughter "the bag lady" because she LOVES bags and she stuffs them with EVERYTHING!

See what I mean?

Here she is, all coordinating and ready to go.

Best part? I paid .25 for the overalls, 2.00 for the fabric, buttons were given to us and there was no pattern.

Total cost, excluding thread, was 2.25 for bag and dress. Not too shabby!

One last hug...

2010-08-23T11:18:00.000-04:00

I told him it was going to happen.

He was warned.

"Son, may I have a hug? This is my very last day of 4 year old hugs."

With a big smile across his face, quickly closing the distance between him and me, "Sure Mom! Because tomorrow I'll be FIVE!!!"

This morning I walk out and there he was, completely morphed into a 5 year old boy; toddler-hood securely behind him. I said to him,

"Son, may I PLEASE have my very first FIVE year old big boy hug??" With another huge smile on his face, he was more than happy to oblige.

In the years to come, there will be many "lasts", but also many "firsts." I'm looking forward to savoring the journey to each one... together.

Happy Birthday, my big boy!! I love you!!

Sour Dough Bread

2010-08-18T20:00:00.003-04:00

Many, many years ago, nearly 19 to be exact, I started baking bread. Up until my oldest child was 4 years old I worked outside of the home. Most weeks both my husband and I worked 50 plus hours so grabbing take-out or cooking processed food was pretty much our norm. It was all about survival.

Up at dawn. Kids out the door to day care. Hubby and I off to work. Push it to the last minute, many days rushing to get to daycare by the 6:00 pm pick up deadline. Road rage was a regular event. Running in the door breathless to greet tired, irritable children, begging them not to scream at each other in the car, fed them whatever I could find, bathed them, put them in bed and collapsed. Got up the next morning and did it all over again.

Those were the days. Needless to say, I have a great deal of a respect for the mom who works outside of the home.

Then I became a stay at home mom. I had all these grand ideas of just what that meant. Cooking in the kitchen, really cooking, not just opening boxes and cans, keeping a spotless home, the laundry would always be caught up, my husband would never have to go digging for underwear in the clean clothes that were piled up beside our bed which had gotten shoved under our bed... it would be a blessed panacea of domestic bliss!

I was wrong.

What actually happened was being home with two children, now 4 and 2, who were used to the constant activity of a day care environment were not so keen about being stuck at home with a mom who scarcely knew what to do with them. Now it was just the three of us, all day.. every day. Cooking? Um.. barely. Cleaning? HA! My husband still had to dig for underwear. Still all about survival.

What has all this to do with Sour Dough Bread, you may ask? Well, Sour Dough was where it all started. I began to realize a dream with the very first loaf I made. Sour dough is when I decided it wasn't all about survival. There were hidden treasures all around us. It was time to start looking for them.

I had actually been home with my children for nearly two years and I was firmly stuck in that survival mode. We had made a move to a new community, a bigger home, a quieter neighborhood. There were other stay at home moms in the area. Two in particular were quite domesticated. I was in one of the ladies homes one day and she brought this incredible creation out of the oven. It nearly radiated perfection! It was this sweet, golden, soft loaf of sour dough bread.

It didn't come off of a grocery store shelf. She had somehow blended a few simple ingredients from her pantry, mixed it in a bowl, put it in a loaf pan and the result was something that could have made the angels sing. The first time I bit into it, I'm sure I heard them!

She assured me even I could do it, gave me a starter and wished me luck.

The original recipe sent me home with 19 years ago. It hung on the inside of my kitchen cabinet door for years, but is now in my homemaking notebook. I keep it as inspiration.

Eventually I worked up the courage and decided to give it a try. Much to my surprise and my family's delight, a beautiful, soft, sweet loaf of sour dough bread emerged from my very own oven. That did it. I was domesticated.

It was the opening of a new door for me. It was a door of possibilities. Suddenly there was nothing I wouldn't attempt. The same women who handed me that recipe introduced me to sewing, crafting, teaching children, spirited discussions and home; a home that was filled with living, not just survival.

Women mentoring other women is becoming less and less from door to door and more and more from blog to blog. So many of the blogs I visit on a daily basis are nothing short of inspirational. It may not be bread recipes they're posting, but are still very much like that first loaf of sour dough bread coming out of the oven. You may be mixing up poetry, photography, political awareness, spiritual nuggets, homemaking 'how to's', but whatever it is, keep baking, ladies. You have no idea whose life you're about to change.

Lets make granola!

2010-08-11T15:00:00.001-04:00


Homemade granola is simple to make, nutritious, delicious and easy on the pocket book. The entire process take about 30 minutes, including bake time. The basic recipe is: 4 1/2 cups rolled oats 1 1/2 chopped cups nuts 1 1/2 cups dried fruit 1 cup shredded or flaked coconut (optional) 1/2 cup healthy oil (we used extra light olive oil) 1/2 cup honey 1/2 TBS cinnamon 1 tsp extract (vanilla, orange, almond, butter and nut, etc) For this batch I used slivered almonds, dried cranberries, coconut and vanilla extract. Around the holidays I often use cranberries, orange extract, almonds and pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon and then put it in jars for Christmas gifts.

Place oats, dried fruit, nuts and coconut into a large bowl and blend well.

Now mix honey, oil and cinnamon in another dish, blend well.

Pour wet ingredients over dry and mix well.

Place in a lightly greased jelly roll pan (something with sides so it won't spill out), spread out evenly and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.

Allow to cool completely then break up. Leaving clusters makes it really tasty. Now store in an airtight container. Tasty as a breakfast cereal or put in a snack baggie.

Enjoy!

A decorator, curtains and a skirt

2010-08-05T10:53:00.000-04:00

First the decorator:

While I have been bopping around the house, trying to get some things accomplished, my 4 year old has also been busy. Earlier this week he said to me, "Mom, did you see how I decorated?" I replied, "No son, why don't you show me."

He takes my hand, tells me to close my eyes, then drags me into the dining room. Then he says, "TA DAAAHHHH!! Open your eyes!" This is what I saw:

The next day he brought me in to show me the variation:

Gotta love that boy! Such a creative way to use what you have. :-)

Now the curtains and the skirt...

Yesterday I finally got around to cutting up a sheet I picked up at Goodwill weeks ago. They have all kinds of linens, rarely for more than 2.00. I found this cotton, queen sized top sheet with pretty detail and it was only 2.00. My daughter has been begging for a long white skirt, and I wanted cotton curtains for my master bathroom, so this was an inexpensive, easy way to get both.

Here's the sheet:

Here are the simple curtains:

Here is the skirt:

Now I want to make an over skirt with a slit in front. May just have to do that today! :-)

Another super simple sewing project

2010-08-04T20:02:00.001-04:00

I love to sew, but really don't have the time or the space to do much. That's why I LOVE super simple sewing projects. The ones that take minutes rather than hours make me especially happy.

While walking around a local quilt shop I saw this adorable table runner hanging over a display. I looked at it and realized it would be a cinch to make! I picked up the fabric and tucked it away. Today I decided to pull it out to see if it really would only take 10 minutes to make. Well, it took me more like 15 to 20 minutes to make, but if you're not as persnickety about pressing as I am, 10 should be just about right.

There are other links where this can be found, in case my directions aren't clear. Here's one. They also have the pattern for free download. They used buttons to tack down the ends, I just sewed it down since I wasn't familiar with the pattern.

It was difficult finding who had the original idea for this project, but I think I found them. They're tutorial is also available free, by email.

Here's how I did it:

Use two coordinating fabrics. They must be equal in length, but the coordinating fabric must be wider than the focus fabric. That's what creates the border. My coordinating fabric was about 5 or 6 inches wider than the focus fabric. Here's what I chose:

Put right sides together and sew 1/4 inch seam down both long sides, creating a tube.

Once both sides are sewn, turn right sides out, so it looks like this:

You'll need to work with it to make sure the coordinating shows evenly on both sides. Then press. After pressing, trim off selvage edge.

Next fold right sides together so it looks like this:

Now pin it so it doesn't slide while you're sewing the end:

Sew across raw edge:

Once that's sewn together, you pop out the ends so it forms triangles. It will look like this:

Press down the triangles nice and even!

I decided to sew a decorative stitch across the edge of the triangle to hold it down, so it wouldn't move.

All done! :-)

Brothers and Sisters

2010-08-02T12:04:00.003-04:00

The other day the second born fell asleep on the couch for a quick catnap. Mischievous 9 year old sister seized the opportunity to paint his toenails. Second born sleeps like the dead!

When he awoke this is what he found:

And this is what he picked up on his way out the door to go pick up my hubby's truck from the garage:

This is what he did while I drove:

Gotta love siblings! :-)

testing...

2010-08-02T11:55:00.001-04:00

testing...

Where, Oh Where? (Update)

2010-07-28T08:57:00.001-04:00

.. did my background go? It disappeared and I can't figure out why. My blog used to be pretty, now it's just dull and brown. Wonder how long it took me to realize this.

I had a "Cutest Blog on the block" background and it has simply evaporated. Hmmmmm...

So, when you don't have looks I guess you need substance. Well, maybe I'll just fix the background and worry about substance latter.

UPDATE:

Thanks to my new blogging friend, Elizabeth, for helping me realize what happened to my blog background. I now have a new background and feel much more presentable. :-) It's good to have friends in cyberland!

He Gave Thanks...

2010-07-26T13:13:00.000-04:00

Lots of catch up work to do today. At least a load or two of laundry to wash and fold, must clean floors today, time to wash linens and menu planning.

Also going to start journaling my clean eating journey again. I lost both my local clean eating buddies, but still have one that lives out of town as support. She has lost 31 lbs and is feeling great! Eating clean is definitely a blessing. I had lost 22 lbs. During the kitchen reno it was extremely difficult to eat clean. Finally jumped on the scale this morning and faced the music. It wasn't as bad as expected, but I did gain 5 lbs. Must get those off!!

Monday's Menu Plan? Um.. not yet.

I do know what we're having for dinner tonight.. Colonial Virginia Country Style Bean Soup. Someone gave it to me a while back so I'm finally making it tonight. Looks yummy. The pack contains the beans and seasoning, I have to supply the rest which I just so happen to have in my pantry and freezer. Well, everything except the ham hock. Don't have one of those. I'll just leave that out.

Guess that's all for now. I will leave you with a thought. Yesterday was a beautiful day at church. We took the Lord's supper together, but before we did one of our pastors shared something that stood out to him as he read;

"And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

The part that stood out to him was "and given thanks." Jesus knew exactly what the cup and the bread represented. He knew even as he poured out the cup and broke the bread it was His blood which would be poured out and His body which would be broken.

And He gave thanks.

Jesus was thankful for the pain He would suffer, because it would reconcile me to Himself. I thought this would be a beautiful meditation for the week ahead, to understand even though Jesus knew what He was going to have to endure for our sakes, He did it, not only willingly, but with thanksgiving. May we face the week ahead with that knowledge of His amazing love for us!

The Path of Least Resistance

2010-07-22T04:14:00.001-04:00

I recently read a blog asking the question, "who do you surround yourself with." It was concerning finances. It was a valid question. The point made was that if you run with folks who are big spenders it's going to be more difficult to be frugal minded and it is very draining being around them, even if you're committed to your financial goals.

That can be very true, can't it? Being around "like-minded" folks is definitely easier. Not only in the area of finances, but in every other area. There are people who are just easy to be around. We all like easy, right?

Not to challenge this blogger because I like her. She has some wonderful ideals and I suppose we would fall into that "like-minded" camp, in several areas. But this brought up a subject that has been rolling around in my head for some time now. It hit a "hot button" with me and I nearly wrote a blog in her comment section, which I deleted because it really was not the point of her blog. I decided to bring my thoughts here, to my own blog.

Here's the question that incited this rabbit trail:

"So who do you surround yourself with? Do you run with the dogs and catch their financial fleas? Or do you surround yourself with like-minded friends who share your goals and values?"

I used to be from the "like-minded" camp, but found I stagnated. Nothing challenged me. Never needing to deal with questions made me forget the answers. Relationships were easy breezy and didn't push me to become anything. I just kept on keeping on. Found myself in a mush-ball life.
The only thing that builds muscle is resistance. Some of my best friends are the ones who give me the most push-back and I love that they do. Doesn't always mean I'll move, just means I'm having a little "workout."

I surround myself with people who are friends. Some have money, some do not. Some spend, some do not. Some homeschool, some do not. We have friends who have credit cards; we don't have them. We have friends who buy mega-money-mocha-lattes-extra-whip every single day; we stay home and brew our own. When we get together we laugh about our differences and we grow from the experience. I have a close sister who lives in a high rise in Atlanta while I live on an acre in the country. I couldn't live her life. She couldn't live mine. We couldn't love each other more.

Granted, there is generally something that draws people together; often faith, family structure, education, line of work, music, art, the literature we enjoy, but then growth happens when we don't allow our differences to push us apart.

This subject of "like-mindedness" keeps coming up, however. Why is it so important? Pride could be involved. We do not like people thinking we have made a poor choice and if someone has made a different choice than us that must mean they think we made the wrong one.

A bigger factor could be insecurity. If one is not truly convinced in their choices, it leaves them open for doubt and fear of the unknown. If there is still weakness there, a hunger for things outside of the chosen path, it makes it incredibly difficult not to fall to the temptation of "other-mindedness." This applies to those on either side of the path.

For instance, I have a horrible weakness for food. If I go out to eat with a friend, it's more than a little difficult for me to make a healthy menu choice; especially if that friend orders something cheesy and greasy.

I have a choice to make; either dump the friend who always wants to go out to eat, or tell them I'm weak and can't do it. Would they mind doing something else with me. My friend has a choice to make as well; take great offense because I just said I don't like what she eats and dump me because I won't go out to eat with her, or adjust her temporary choice to help me not to stumble. She can always order a pizza later.

Instead of rejecting each other for our choices we have just chosen the relationship over some preference and grown together. This applies to so many areas of life.

Choosing the path of the least resistance may seem like a good idea, but I fear we give up too much when we do. There is so much we can learn from one another. Staying in our "comfort zones" is basically robbing ourselves, and others, of blessing upon blessing.

There will always be non-negotiables in our lives and I am not suggesting we change those things that are truly convictions for us, but when our convictions do not line up with someone else, it's still not a basis for rejecting them. It's an opportunity for grace and growth. It would be sad to miss it.

What's Cookin'...

2010-07-20T14:18:00.002-04:00

I get asked a lot about my whole wheat bread dough. I've tried several different ones in the 20 plus years I've been making bread, but none of them have given the consistent, positive results this one has.

The basic recipe is:

6 cups warm water
10 to 15 cups whole wheat flour (depends on how fresh the flour, the fineness of the grind, and how much moisture is in it)
1 1/2 TBS salt
3 1/2 TBS yeast
2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup oil

That's it. That's all that's in there. When I'm making pizza dough I reduce the honey to a 1/4 cup and increase the oil to 3/4 cup.

For donuts and cinnamon rolls I increase the honey to 3/4 cup and decrease the oil to 1/4.

When I do make the dough it makes a HUGE batch. It's enough for 6 loaves of bread or 3 loaves and 4 pizza crusts or, this time, it was enough for 3 batches of refrigerator dough, 8 hoagies and two pans of cheesy garlic swirls.

Here's the ginormous blob of dough, fresh out of the mixing bowl. I use my digital scale (in the corner of the picture) to measure out the divided dough to make sure it's even. This is particularly handy when doing things like hamburger, hotdog and hoagie buns.

Here I've measured out 1/6 of the dough and rolled it out to form a rectangle. Next I sprinkled 8 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese evenly over the rectangle, then sprinkled with melted butter, garlic and basil.

Next I rolled it up nice and tight and then squeezed it together to make sure it was all even (that's a 36 in wide counter top by the way to give you an idea of how long that is). Then I used a serrated bread knife to cut the rolls. They were about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch thick and I placed them in a pan, barely touching. I want them to rise up, not out!

Here they are fresh out of the oven. You should smell them! They're amazing! You can also see the hoagie rolls we made for dinner last night. They make great snacks for the kids and they freeze well. You can also throw pepperoni on before rolling them up, or try using cheddar cheese, ham and even jalapenos instead.

Here are some donuts we made. You just use a donut cutter, deep fry them for a few minutes (about a minute on each side), then take them out of the pan into a dish with cinnamon and sugar. Set on paper towels to drain.

I mentioned refrigerator dough above. I divide the dough and then spray the inside of a gallon sized zip lock bag with non-stick cooking spray. I put the dough into the bag and pop into the fridge for future meals. I use it for pizza, cinnamon rolls or calzones. It keeps for a few days, but if you're going to wait longer than that to use it, freeze it. When you're ready to use it, just thaw it, then allow to rise and use it however you like.

Working with whole wheat flour really isn't as scary as it sounds. It's a lot of fun to get your hands into it too. I absolutely love the feel of the dough when it's been kneaded to that perfectly smooth stage. It brings me back to my play dough years and I feel like a kid again. Only now my Mom won't yell at me if I eat it!

Because a person's gotta eat...

2010-07-19T11:06:00.000-04:00

....and save money. We have a "no spending" declaration going on right now. We're recovering from the kitchen project and beginning prep for the next one; the eradication of all remaining paneling in the house and the changing of light fixtures.

A couple of challenges to the no spending declaration are 1) I'm going to need laundry detergent, but will just make my own. 2) We'll also run out of sucanat this week and have already run out of demerara, but there's already an order in for a 50 lb bag to stock up. It will probably be in the end of the month. Living without sugar is probably a good thing.

We will be cooking out of the pantry, freezer and fridge for a while. My current goal is to stay away from the grocery store until Friday and then only purchase 25.00 worth of perishable items. My limit for spending for the entire month is no more than 100.00, but would prefer not to go over 80.00. We shall see!

Breakfasts:
Oatmeal, baked oatmeal, healthy eating pancakes, whole wheat toast and yogurt and whole wheat blueberry muffins

Lunch is generally leftovers from the night before or some mixture of leftover breakfast and dinner from the night before.

Dinners:

Turkey Brats and Sauerkraut on homemade whole wheat hoagie rolls
veggie stirfry
chilli lentils and brown rice and sliced cucumbers
grilled chicken breast with Brussels sprouts and baked potatoes
Mixed bean soup with veggies and homemade crackers
Mexican pizza (deep dish)
Quinoa chicken and red lentil stew

So what's cooking at your house? :-)