Humble Beginnings
Another Autumn dayAfter days and days of rain, the sun finally came out from behind the clouds....today was gorgeous. The sun was so warm to my face that I longed to be outdoors...but Karisa came for a visit and that kept me inside visiting with her...she was to be studying for school, but she said she prefered talking with me...so I made tea and we had oatmeal raisin cookies...I did manage to get a couple loads of laundry done while she was taking a nap....studying is hard work
The children had their last cross country run today...they were very glad it was the last because now comes soccer..Yahoo!
After we got home from cross country we all headed to the back field to pick some more Concord grapes...the rain has prevented us from doing anything this past weekend so I was anxious to see how everything was doing back there...and wow, lots more were ripe....so we picked till our buckets were full. Then headed back to the house where I decided to cut part of the back yard while Anika started dinner. She made "sloppy joes".
Dh is still not home from work again....he left this morning at 6:00am and it's now 8:19pm...a very long day for him...dinner is staying warm on the stove and I made coffee, but so far I am drinking alone (coffee I mean)...Anika is practicing her piano...the boys are playing lego's, Tianna is doing homework and Stephanie is on her computer. The children miss dad putting them to bed...it's been his routine every since our kids were babies....and when he's not around to pray with them, they really miss it. I guess mom's not the same Well, that's all for tonight....I pray that each of you are blessed by God and thank you for the visit.
Bedtime Blog..............It is a bit after 10 and I planned to be in bed awhile ago, however I was baking cookies and cleaning up the kitchen... We had pork chops, corn casserole and mashed taters for supper.. Don't ask it was kinda kids pick the meal night.. LOL Of course Jeremiah wanted green beans, but did not tell me till to late to get them cooked.. He is so funny everynight just about he says hey mom can we have......... and I will say way it will say starts with Gre...................en and ends with beeeeeeeeeeeeannnnnnnnnnnnnnnns,,LOL He loves green beans. He is even learning to cook them... Jill is the only one still up besides me and she is finishing her homework from where she missed yesterday due to dentist and most of today for another appointment.. She is almost done.. I myself am getting ready to go to bed as well.. You can tell the weather here has been crazy the kids were wild after school today.. LOL I was like what is the deal and so it took a bit of extra time to wind down and get to sleep.. It was raining and cold here this evening.. Tomorrow they go with their dad for a bit after school.. I always say boy I hope they act for you like they have acted for me and my ex always says well that is not very nice of you.. LOL I then say why should I be the only one to have this much fun.. LOL Of course he has said the same thing a couple of times to be... Well I would love to chat more, but I am off to bed.. I wanted to say Good Night my Blogging friends... Sleep well.. God Bless, Mars New Food: MazidraTonight I tried making Mazidra. A lentil dish that is saute'ed before adding the water. The effect is to create a more nutty texture, rather than the traditional mushy lentil texture. However, I used red lentils, which already appear to be shelled and I still ended up with a mushy texture. The flavor was good, but it was a bit to soupy for me. It was supposed to be poured over rice or potatoes. I made baked potatoes and the finished dish was similar to a rice soup, with a real watery broth. In looking at the picture in the recipe book, that is not really how it is to turn out. The flavor was good enough for me to try it again with some brown lentils. The rest of the family hasn't tried it yet, as it wasn't done until a bit later than when the potatoes were done. I did wait to eat it with my potato and found it ok, once I strained the water/broth a bit. As I look at the dish, however, it is not one that will appeal to the rest of the family, so I think I will continue my search with some more recipes. I myself enjoyed the dish and may make it again for me, if I get to wanting a lentil dish. It tasted similar to a recipe I have called Armenian Lentil Loaf. My Dad came to visit and he took us out to eat. We went to a buffet and had a tired little one with us (we were eating later than normal) and saying no brought loud screams. If it was just us, I would have left the restaurant, but beings my Dad was visiting and had a long day, I succombed to allowing cottage cheese. I did limit it to one scoop, but I fear it was enough to bring on another tantrum at another date when she is told no. She wanted cheese on her baked potato tonight and we ran out because dd number 2 ate what we had left. This caused a small ruckus at home, but when she realized she wasn't the only one not having cheese, she calmed down. I also ate some cheese when eating out and I am unsure if the stress of dealing with saying no to Paige is doing me in, or the dairy allergy is becoming more noticable since I was not eating it. I have a good case of the hives. Dh thinks it is silly that I'm trying to eat better and here I am appearing sicker. He knows that something is up with Paige however and that we are on the right track. Even though we are at square one again with the wetting, we know that going back to not eating dairy that it likely will go away again. Now to stay firm. That is so hard. Like last night, the restaurant just didn't have much for options. The salad bar was slim to say the least... then there was the choice of pizza or chicken for the main meal. We went with chicken to stay away from the cheese, but still ended up with little variety and I suppose I could have sat and ate a salad with unripe tomatoes and mushy peas... that was about my only choice as a vegetarian, non-dairy. I realize now that I ate the mashed potatoes which likely had milk in them as well. UGH! So much thinking to do! This restaurant just didn't have enough variety, even though Dh and my one daughter thought there was plenty of variety... once there they were like... bugging me about eating cheese and I wanted to say... my Dad just paid $8 for me to eat and you want me to pick at the food and eat a obviously poor salad choice and that's it? I shouldn't feel sorry for myself, but it seems that I am the only one thinking about the big picture when it comes to eating out and in. Somehow it is up to me to do it alone. Which if it helps both my daughter and I to feel better, it will be so worth it. I need to keep that in mind as I start feeling down about my "lot" in life right now. Tomorrow is a new day with NEW aspirations... Hopefully we will start anew and have new determination and vigor in this fight against allergies. Oh how great to know that when we mess up... we can start fresh and new in our walk with God. If I can smile with that thought, I will make myself smile with our battle of the food intolerances and allergies. May they open my heart to God's mercies as we experience the ups and downs of this battle of appetite in our war against the foods that hurt us. Warmly, ~Melissa
I love fall!The crisp morning air, crunching leaves, the smell of freshly picked crop fields, and the sound of the augers pouring fresh grain into the bins are a few of my favorite things about fall....Fall is my absolute favorite season! It goes by too quickly and I am trying to cherish every moment of it... I have been super busy lately and I would like to slow things down. Today Abby had cheer practice, tomorrow she has Girl Scouting, Thursday is a 4-H club meeting plus more cheer practice...Life can become so busy it is easy to forget the simple things. I love simplicity...my favorite days are spent hanging out at home with my family, cooking and cleaning, and not having to be "somewhere." Tonight we also had a water softner salesman come to our home. (Courtsey of Home Depot when Joseph signed up for a washer/dryer giveaway last month.) He had an impressive sales pitch. He showed us how hard our water actually was and how much money we could save with a water softner...the poor man arrived at 7 and did not leave till 8:30! I felt sorry for him, for wasting his time, but a water softner is not in the budget, no matter how much softer hair and skin I can have. I better keep repeating that...I do not need softer hair and skin, I do not need softer hair and skin... I am looking forward to this weekend...now time for some rest. I think I can hear my pillow calling my name. Blessings to you~ Laura Fall MusingsLast night was our first frost. Not until late last night did I notice on the news that there was a frost advisory, and by then I just decided it was too late. I was going to cover the grape plant and blueberry plants and put the tomatoes to hang indoors to ripen. Oh well. Actually the Grape and blueberries seemed to fare well and just might stay green a while longer. The grass actually crunched under my feet as I walked to let the chickens out of the hen house thismorning so it was quite a heavy frost. And surpisingly, the tomatoes look fine! I am going to pull them anyways and see how they end up. My hubby's aunt and uncle have been pulling bushels of peaches from their trees and offered us as many as we can deal with. I took three grocery sacks full. You can imagine what I've been up to for the last couple of days! Actually, it's funny how, once the fruit is pitted and sliced, there seems to be so little. I canned 11 pints of sliced peaches and have just enough peaches left over to hopefully get a couple pints of syrup. Does anyone have a good peach syrup recipe to go over pancakes? I am hoping to go get some more peaches from them if the the freeze didn't get hit them. I would like to make some peach jam as well. We lost a chicken. We we didn't actually loose her; she is out in our front garbage bin. We think a racoon got her, though I have no idea how! She was still in the hen house, and not bloodied or eaten, but had lost a good many feathers. There was no hole where a critter dug in, and the lid of the house is so heavy, it's difficult even for me to lift. But there she was, poor Georgette, lying there dead in the house. We are assuming it was racoons because their food bin ( a metal trash can I keep next to the coop) was raided as well, and there was racoon scat on the roof of our shed. Just a week ago we awoke to three small racoons on our back deck. So racoons it must have been. I'm trying to decided if I should replace her with another pullet before winter to keep up our eggs, or if I should just get a couple more chicks next spring. Hubby got his hunting tags. Two deer tags and an elk tag. We can almost count on him getting his doe, and his brother actually spotted a small herd of elk in their area just two days ago. But they are not hunting until fourth season and the elk may be scared off by then. I am so looking forward to a freezing full of wild game! Happy Trails! Mom's Mac 'n' CheeseMom's Mac 'n' CheeseFrom Good Housekeeping triple-tested at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute 1 package(s) (8 ounces) elbow macaroni 3/4 cup(s) (about 1 1/2 slices bread) fresh bread crumbs 4 tablespoon(s) butter or margarine, melted 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 tablespoon(s) all-purpose flour 1/4 tablespoon(s) dry mustard 1 teaspoon(s) salt 1/8 teaspoon(s) ground black pepper 1 1/2 cup(s) milk 8 ounce(s) (2 cups) Cheddar cheese, shredded DIRECTIONS 1. In 3-quart saucepan, cook macaroni as label directs. Drain well. 2. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease 9-inch square baking dish or casserole. In small bowl, toss bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons melted butter until moistened. Set aside. 3. To saucepan, add remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add flour, mustard, salt, and pepper; stir until blended. Stir in milk; cook, stirring, until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in cheese. 4. Spoon macaroni into prepared baking dish. Pour cheese sauce over macaroni. Sprinkle crumb mixture over top. Bake until bubbly and top is golden, about 20 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes for easier serving. COOKING INFO Serves -- Yield -- Prep Time 45 minutes Cook Time 20 minutes Total time -- Oven Temp 350 Creamy Salmon and Broccoli ManicottiCreamy Salmon and Broccoli Manicotti ~Click On The Link~
And the State of the Month is....!
.....COLORADO!! I'm a fickle gal sometimes, so I can't promise this won't change, but at the moment, Colorado it is!
So here's the low-down. DH and I absolutely fell in love with Alaska 16 years ago when we spent the summer there on a short-term missions trip. We have dreamed of going back, and once or twice actually started to formulate a plan to make it happen.
Then we had kids.
I used to swear that having kids wouldn't change my dreams. And it hasn't, for the most part, but it has caused me to make some adjustments. Alaska is just too far away from New England for us to feel comfortable just packing up and moving there. Basically it would mean saying good-bye to everything and everyone we know and not looking back. Yes, we live in the jet age, but flights are expensive, esp. for a family of five. The dream is still there, but we have decided to put it to rest for now and stop trying so desperately to get there.
Almost 2 years ago (it's archived somewhere here on my blog, I think) we were looking into finding a job in Christian camping. We came oh-so-close to heading out to Colorado, but in the end we just couldn't be ready on their time-table and we had to pass. But Colorado is still there, even if that particular job isn't! It's not "close' to New England but at least it's still in the contiguous Lower 48. It's got everything we're looking for - large cities to visit, expansive wilderness to explore, tons of "old West" history, Native American history, lotsof horses, and the unequaled backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. I am starting to do some research on what it's like to actually live there, relocating from the northeast. DH won't be looking for any very specialized type of job; he's in manufacturing now and wants out. He much prefers work with his hand- and power-tools and enjoys construction and fix-it work quite a bit. All I need is a stable to clean and I'm good!
If anyone reads this who is from CO, I'd love to hear your comments on living there! Are you a native or did you move there from somewhere else? What part of the state are you in and do you like it or would you prefer another location? Anything!
~Tuesday Thoughts~
Wow here we are another Tuesday! Most of the kids are home today becuse it's fair day so they get the day off too go, We will not go becuse it cost too much that's for sure and well no car too get there dosent help much eather.....But anyway On a better note they will be comeing this Thursday too put our new door in....Yay!! Also looks like they will be putting a new seal around the kitchen window wich will be great becuse there is a mighty nasty wind that comes threw there, The will probly be giveing us a new kitchen floor but that probly wount be till spring but I deffently dont mind as long as I know there going too do it. I hope they will re-seal the window in Jack's room as well it was so cold in there last year even though we had plastic up.....I know they will be here all of Thursday and half of Friday becuse they have too put a hole new door frame in as well....So I cant wate, I will have too take pictures of it when its all done. Jarred and I are watching tv right now, After his show Im not sure what we will do....Maybe make some cookies....Not sure? On Sunday I will turn 26....Im starting too get old :)....Well I fell it that's for sure, I dont think we will do too much, Im kinda not looking forword too it becuse Im scared that no one in my family will call and I know I will be up-set about it that's for sure, But I guess I wount know for sure untill than. Well that's all really for today. Blessings ~Ruth { Last Page } { Page 1 of 5 } { Next Page } |
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