Blessings From Home

Magic Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

	1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
	1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
	1 (14-ounce) can EAGLE BRAND Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
	2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips -I used butterscotch
	1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
	1 cup chopped nuts -I used pecans

Directions:

	Preheat oven to 350°F (325°F for glass dish). In small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and butter; mix well. Press crumb mixture firmly on bottom of 13X9-inch baking pan.
	Pour EAGLE BRAND® evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with remaining ingredients; press down firmly with fork.
	Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store leftovers covered at room temperature.

Big Miss's Room clean (and with pictures!)

Can you believe it? Big Miss cleaned her room before she jaunted off for her 3rd and final week as Councelor-In-Training at Girl Scouts. This week she is at Camp Ekowa (there are only 2 in Ok) which is only 20 minutes away compared to Portwood in which she has been at so far this year but it is 4 hours away. We have missed her but she was home last week as all the counselors were off for the 4th of July week break. Big Miss (aka Chalk) brought home with her Bec. Bec (aka Aussie) is an international scout counselor from Australia and they have become quite close and have been bopping all over town this week.

Bec has especially enjoyed fireworks as these are not permitted back home. We have enjoyed having her here and we even had a bbq with Full House so she could meet up with native Australian Full House Dad. Lotta fun going on that night!

Anyway, her room IS CLEAN and here are some pictures I thought I would share with you.

Frontier Man and I had a nice ride on the bike up by Turner Falls yesterday. The falls are the largest in Ok at 77 ft. and it looks so peaceful and cool down in that valley. Can you so the old castle ruins there in the woods? Neat huh? I will tell you more about that castle later...

We were on our way back from seeing The Little as Frontier Man had not got to see and hold him yet. What a little doll he is and so sturdy and healthy -a perfect man baby!

This was taken by Big Miss when we went out for an evening ride I told you about.

B'cause of our vacation right around the corner I am going to take the easy way out this week and last and simply state the menu as odd pkg's from the freezer or fast fixens from my cookbooks. I did manage some Magic Cookie Bars for dessert yesterday and we had some nice taco salads too.

I will be checking back in a few days before we are headed out.... blessing to you this day!

Happy Monday

We spent the weekend working on furniture projects. So very frustrating when we spent high dollar on a certain primer and sanded diligently, then it still didn't adhere! Such is life. Now we're in the spraying process, and then waxing afterwards. ITs working!

Son2 is home from summer visitation with his natural dad so we're thrilled to have everyone home!

Today's chores are laundry, completing the furniture we began, moving it to the spaces chosen and reorganizing what goes in them!

Be blessed! God has promised us a life we can only imagine if we follow HIm! The covenant with Abraham is true for us today!

Busy...

I likely won't be on here much for the next week as cleaning officially begins tomorrow. I have been busy however filling boxes and taking clean wash out to the camper. Boxes are going into the outside mudroom. I am exhausted just for yesterday's filling of boxes. I have no idea where they are going to start, so that is a bit frustrating as well. I may be packing up boxes that I don't need to mess with for a few days. OH well!

I quick checked my measurements from my increased activity...although I wouldn't say I am getting an aerobic workout... climbing the steps and lifting boxes and moving boxes has given me quite a bit of undeliberate strength training. And what happened was just as I suspected... many of my sizes went UP... but I know I had little muscle underneath, so this is beefing up the muscle and for that I am glad. It is noticable. My lower thigh... those muscles above your knee... I can see them now... Woo Hoo and that size went up nearly 1.5 inches. I laughed. My calves went up, my upper chest and my hips went up... which I have big butt muscles when they are toned! I did have two losers... the more important ones... slight loss on my upper arm, which is flabby! And a loss of over a 1/2 inch on my waist. This wasn't an official check, I just wanted to see what was going on...

Anyways, I need to get back to packing. I think I might head out and get our groceries while it is raining this morning and then come back and pack the rest of the day and evening. I was going to stop at Menards and get a few laundry baskets... they are on sale for $2.48 and that would help with moving so many books back and forth. I hope to find some more free boxes as well. I see Menards has throw rugs for a buck... those rag woven rugs... we use them for camping and some are nice colored...browns and my daughter picked out a few pink ones... my other daughter some harvest colored ones... Fun! I likely will use these in the bathrooms as my b-room rugs are disgusting and likely ruined.... My yellow rug is gray from the soot and everyone walking on it. Also on sale are canning jars for $3.48 with a rebate... so I will pick up two of those cases as well.

Thoughts of this Mama...

It's early morning, and both boys are still asleep. I have the time to blog, but the most interesting parts of the day have yet to happen!

I'm headed into my 12th week of pregnancy . . . it's went by so fast! There is a little bump, when I stretch to put away dishes on the middle shelf, against the counter-top that reminds me that I'm pregnant. I always go crazy and sleep the first 2.5 months on my stomach - no other time of my life do I sleep this way! That's past, now, too. Last night, when we played Ring-Around-The-Rosey and all "fell down" I was a bit slower getting up. I'm starting to feel pregnant, even if I don't look it quite yet!

I wonder how much my age effects how I'm doing this pregnancy, and how much is simply having two boys to take care of as well as myself and Jonathan? The morning sickness is waning (most days) and time marches on. I'm so excited to be pregnant again!

Elijah is healthy again. He's putting on weight. Last night, he ate an entire bannana, part of a plum, and a half a handful of graham cracker bears. Where does he put it all? I don't have a clue.

Samuel is learning by leaps and bounds. This boy of ours loves to sing! There isn't a bit of problem with the first part of church, because he's waiting on pins and needles for the song director to say "Hymn number . . . . ." He's the first one to grab his hymnal and he belts out the songs joyfully. At first we worried about distrubing people around us, but they seem to find it endearing, so we let him sing away. He even holds notes at the end of verses - it's truely adorable.

I was only kidding about my "Will I Be Able To Homeschool?" post. Honest. His arguements are truely a bright spot to the day . . . and he is like a sponge right now. There is no way to stop teaching him!

Elijah is pulling himself up on things now, and Samuel gets giddy with excitment. "Walk! Mommy, Yi-ya walk!!" I can't imagine two of them mobile, chasing each other through the house. While it's been important that Samuel stay in the same room with me, it's going to be even more important that both of them stay in the same room with me, so that they don't divide and destroy the house when I'm distracted.

Yesterday, Elijah was fussing in the backseat. Jonathan reached in the back and let Elijah grab his finger. Within seconds, our blue-eyed boy was sound asleep. It was so precious! He just needed to not feel alone, I guess!

Since Jonathan has been on a cash-only budget for over a month now it has helped him to keep track of his spending and limit it in a wonderful way. I'm not thinking about what he buys anymore and wondering how it will effect our credit card bill, and we've actually stuck to our budgeted spending amount!!!! I think this might have been the final key to our finances. It also encourages me mightily to stick to my budget as well, and overall it's been wonderful. We might just meet (or exceed!) our savings goal for one of the few times in the past four years, which hopefully encourages us to keep going.

Mustang Grapes - tips & recipes + Homeschooling question

Mustang Grapes are in season! We picked for 30 minutes yesterday and had enough grapes to make 20 quart jars of grape juice (super easy recipe!). And, I've got a huge bowl of juice ready for jelly-making tomorrow. In fact, I could probably make 3 batches of jelly tomorrow. This is the beginning of the mustang grape season so we should have plenty of time to get enough for more grape juice (to drink). I'd like to have a total of 40 (or more) jars of grape juice.

Mustang grapes cannot be eaten raw or the juice either. They are so acidic that they burn your hands when picking or preparing. So, when I make the grape juice for drinking, I simply add 1 cup of grapes,½-cup of sugar and boiling water to quart jars (that have already been cleaned, sterilized and hot). I can them in a water bath canner for about 15-20 minutes. Everything processes at once so there's no need for any pre-mixing or cooking. You need to let them set up for about 2-4 weeks before you start using them so that the grapes and sugar have time to blend together. I also use this recipe for cranberries later in the year. Last December our local grocery store had bags of fresh cranberries on sale for $.99. I bought about 10 bags and made lots of cranberry juice. I can make 3 quarts of cranberry juice out of 1 bag. Also, if you mix 1 quart of grape juice and 1 quart of cranberry juice, it makes the best crangrape juice.

And, when I get the grapes ready for making jelly, I simply throw them in the pot, cover with water, turn the burner onto medium high and when they start to pop, I stir and mash them up. Then, I strain them into a large bowl for several hours. Once it's drained, the bowl goes into the fridge until I'm ready to start canning (usually the next day). Or, you can freeze the juice until you're ready to make jelly. I follow the recipe for making jelly that's included in the pectin box.

I'm hoping to also make a batch or two of Mustang Grape wine. These will probably become Christmas gifts for my family. If anyone wants the super-easy wine recipe, let me know and I'll post it.

We've also been busy cleaning out our shed. It's been packed for many months - too packed. Hubby couldn't even get in there to get his tools or store his tools properly. So, today we cleaned it out and threw out half the stuff. I plan on posting most of it on freecycle. We have some really great stuff, but we just don't use it. It's been in storage for 5 years!!!! I am definitely sure we won't be using those things. It's nice to know that we've pared down on a lot of what we use. Having an extremely small kitchen, I quickly realize what I need or don't need and what I don't need or takes up space goes ... it's as simple as that. We are down to one box of toys in the shed. I'd say about 1/5 of the shed are bills/receipts and homeschooling material.

QUESTION: We live in Texas. What do we need to keep for homeschooling records? I know that in high school we'll need to keep better records of what the kids have done for college, etc. But, what about elementary school? Middle school? How are other Texas families keeping up with their children's school work? Each child gets a box for the year (like a storage box). If we keep this up, we'll have 24 boxes in the shed just for school work!!! Any ideas? What can we purge? We should we keep?

Budget Talk and More…

Tightening the budget belt has been on my mind lately. With the cost of gas continuing to go up as well as the cost of food and other items it is requiring an extra degree of thought to how the money is spent. One of the things I have been doing is instituting a “No Leftovers” policy. In the past if I had a few leftovers from a dinner I would not think to much of it. But now I have started to scale down how much food I make (especially with Leanne gone and Emily not always home for all meals) and make sure the kids eat what leftovers we have for lunch the next day… or I even serve them for dinner the next night if there are enough. I did this yesterday. I made Yummy Pinto Beans the day before and used 4 cups of dry beans (and a pound of hamburger added to the recipe) so it made a large pot of beans for us. We had enough for dinner last night too. I also will examine all leftovers that aren’t enough to serve a second time and see what new creation I can make from. Stir fry from leftover rice, chili over baked potatoes, goulash from a small amount of leftover spaghetti sauce, fried potato patties from leftover mashed potatoes, adding leftover pot roast to noodles or potatoes and adding a cream sauce to make a casserole. It is amazing how much I can save by thinking creatively with leftovers! I am also watching what I buy so it does not go to waste.. like too many tomatoes or fruit or whatever it may be. I am keeping my meals simple to make with a minimum amount of ingredients. So far my efforts have been noticeable on the budget! And I am still able to buy various organic products and still save.

The next area we looked at was how many cars we have on insurance policies that we don’t drive. My husband has a truck he only drives occasionally and we have a full size 12-passenger van we now only drive occasionally due to that $125 price tag at the gas pump fill up. So we talked with our insurance man and he said it was fine to put the cars on a comprehensive policy only as long as we are not driving them. IF we would want to drive them we just call the insurance company up and let them know we need the vehicle for the day and they adjust the policy for that day. The cost has been about $10 every 6 months for each vehicle.. which has been a huge savings. I have heard that not every insurance company will do this but I do know State Farm is one that will.

Driving with multiple purposes is also one way we are saving money. We live quite a ways from town so combining errands and shopping trips and not going into town more often than necessary is helping. Although things seem to come up some weeks that make this hard to do. So if I need to grocery shop I will also use that trip to go to the bank, the post office, combine the trip with appointments and so on. If Emily needs to go to the local college to take a CLEP test then afterwards we will grocery shop and I try and buy my gas at the lest expensive gas stations in the city when I am out rather than the more spendy ones that are closer to home.

In the home I am working harder at reusing as many things as possible like plastic zip bags or my bread bags. Also when I think I need something I stop and ask myself if there is something I already have that would work just as well. As an example a few weeks ago I made up a batch of homemade disinfectant cleaner and used some paper towels that my husband had sitting in the shop (he got them from cleaning out his dad’s house as normally I don’t buy paper towels). I needed a container to put them in but did not have one big enough to work. So instead I used a gallon size zip lock bag and have been reusing the bag since then. It works fine.

Leanne sent us another letter.. I think she is feeling a bit homesick and that makes my mama heart sad for her. But I know this will be a wonderful experience when she looks back. She is a real homebody and I figured before she left she would have some difficult adjustments to make. So we continue to keep her in our prayers daily. We all are missing her so much. She has 6 weeks left to go and this week her team leaves for Egypt. I hope to have more pics from the Teen Missions website to post soon.

Updates from the homestead...

Let's see...My past week or so has been filled with picking & preserving the bounty from our garden. My mom came for a visit over the weekend & this morning we all met at a restaurant for breakfast to wish them a safe trip.

I'll probably not see them again for a couple of months. It's a bit strange not seeing her anytime I want. We still talk on the phone alot, so it doesn't seem like we loose touch, so that is good. While she was here I showed her some of the things we'll be using for school in August.

We've checked out a couple of properties, but none that just really seem right for us. I'll never give up hope though!

whole kernel corn, tomatoes & ro-tel are what we've done most of lately. It's alot of work & time but with food prices these days it will really pay off. The food prices are actually getting me worried lately. Some things have jumped so much it's ridiculous.

I have been looking into buying a grain mill. I've wanted to do this for some time but did not know where to purchase the wheat berries. Well, I've found that the health food store is now carring them. You buy it by the pound. --To those of you who buy this already, what is a normal price?

I've gotten my old clothes on & I'm about to get started in the canning game for the day! Rotel is on the menu!

Blessings From Home

Magic Cookie Bars

Big Miss's Room clean (and with pictures!)

Happy Monday

Busy...

Thoughts of this Mama...

Mustang Grapes - tips & recipes + Homeschooling question

Budget Talk and More…

Updates from the homestead...

The 4th of July in Kansas

Happy Saturday!

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