Greetings from Gilead... The Hopeful Homestead...

Hey.

I'm trying out a new blog HERE since things I want to talk about sometimes seem out of place here.  That, and I'd like to have one spot for all my bloggin' stuff, and I'd kind of like to go in new directions with my blogging.  So, check it out.  Peace~

Shari

Remember that song??  Poison Ivyyayayayyay, Poison Ivayvayavyavay!!!!!

That's right.  Little Bit has Poison Ivy.  It seems to have started on her hand.  Then she must have had an itch on her hip... then her neck.  Then her nose.  Eyelid.  Forehead.  As the day goes on, I keep finding more.  We scrubbed her bedding.  Washed Cheetah.  I gave her children's Benadryl, an Aveeno oatmeal bath, and slathered on some Burt's Bees Salve.  I hope she didn't actually get in in her eyes or mouth.  Poor Baby.  The girls were picking leaves to make a play salad the other day.  I think that's where things went wrong.  We've done the poison ivy (and poison oak... we have both...) show and tell a millon times (a million and one if you count today...) but, alas, it's everywhere.  Won't she look pretty for the Pentacost thing the Sunday School is doing tomorrow.  I guess we won't be getting pictures taken THIS week.

Peace~

(scratch, scratch...)

Shari

Here's how my hubby, Al, made his kickin' pot pie...

Gather the stuff:

1 pkg chicken tenders (about 2 lbs- 1 package)

6 potatoes- peeled & cubed

about 6 lg carrots- peeled & sliced into rounds

1/2 lg red onion chopped (red is what we had)

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup frozen peas (rest of the bag)

4 c. homemade chicken stock (he made this too, last time we did a whole chicken in the crockpot...mmm)

flour, b. powder, salt, crisco

S & P

Mix it up!!

Cook tenders in frying pan w/ S & P & a bit of oil.  When no longer pink, remove from pan, and slice into bite sized peices.  Return chicken to pan with onion & garlic, cook till onions are translucent, add carrots, and potatoes, add about a cup of flour, (more or less, till it looks right) stir to coat, add chicken stock, add peas last.  Raise temp. to Bring to a boil to thicken sauce.  While boiling, make crust: 1 1/2 c. flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp b. powder, 1/2 c. crisco.  1/2 c. water.  Mix dry ingredients, cut in crisco w/ fork until it makes clumps, add water, mix 'till it sticks together.  Roll out crust between 2 sheets of waxed paper to about 9 x 13.  Grease 9 x 13 pan, add chicken mixture.  Top w/ crust, bake at 450 for about 30 min (use a drip pan underneath, or it will get messy...) YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.......

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

See the flaky, biscuit crust in the bottom of the bowl???  OH MY GOSH!!!  Can I marry him again???

If you cook this you'll want to thank his Mom for raising him right!

Enjoy!

Shari

Good Morning!

Man, is it GREEN up here!  We're so far in the trees, I'm finding the light in our house to be green!  Cool, and strange all at the same time!  Friday is... Odds & Ends day!  The day I catch up with anything in the girls' schoolwork that's fallen behind during the week.  AND any housework that may have fallen behind in the week as well.  Like dishes...  (sigh.........)

Al cooked the BEST homemade chicken pot pie last night!!mmmmmmmmmmm.  If he can figure out HOW he made it, I'll post the recipe.  He started with a different recipe, but we were lacking a few ingredients, so he made it up as he went along, and the results were FANTABULOUS!!!  He cooks, he cleans, he builds a mean chicken coop, and brings home the bacon too!!  (Not to mention I like the looks of 'im!)  Sorry, ladies, he's spoken for, and has no brothers!!! 

So the other things I'd like to get done today are...

• find the dead fries I know must be in my car (the smell is giving them away)
• decide if the table cloth I want to make should be cream w/ green edges, or green w/ cream edges, and get it & the resulting coordinating napkins cut out (and maybe sewn!)
• work on my laundry room picture some more.
• I think it's jam day.  My berries are all trimmed, I just need to see how many jars I have.

I think that's enough of a list for one Friday, don't you?  So I'd better get to it.  Peace~

Shari

What a great day at home!  That's right.  We went nowhere today!  Actually, I'm wrong, Al actually went to the Dr., but then came home once they fixed him up.  I spent the morning puttering around, I hung the wreath on my kitchen window, fixed up the curtains in my laundry room, got rid of the last few vinyl blinds, ironed, mended a few things, and baked a batch of brownies.

This afternoon, Fr. Bill dropped by for a visit, and to do a House Blessing for us.  It was VERY cool.  The best part was it was just us, our kids, and our priest, thanking God for our wonderful home.  It rained most of the day, and we had severe storms rolling through south of us, but, just as we all finished the Lord's Prayer, the sky opened up, and the sun shone right down on our little home.  Amen.

Since then, we've been hanging out watching a Dr. Doolittle marithon, and enjoying each other's company.  Al's cooking chicken pot pie for dinner, and it smells GREAT!!!  I guess I should go out to the coop and check on OUR chickens.   Peace~

Shari

More of the usual, should I list, or are you tired of that??  Well, sorry, here goes...

I woke up at 6 to the sound of rain,   I...

...dashed outside to haul in the laundry off the line, checked on the chickens, and "watered" the dogs.  I tossed to damp stuff in the dryer, then read the chapter in my book for prayer group later.  Then on to Fit TV for a 1/2 hr workout, quick shower, did last night's dishes, grabbed breakfast, started movie on China for girls, started bread, got sucked into movie, made coffee, finished bread, got it rising, headed downstairs, crammed in a full day's worth of school in about 1 1/2 hrs, back up to punch down bread, make bed, fold laundry, de-breif hubby on bread (and math slackers I was leaving behind...), off to prayer group. 

Ran late, great conversations, off to Kroger, ran into a friend, caught up, off to Sonic, to grab a BLT & Happy Hour Drink, drove home, grabbed mail, put away groceries, trimmed last gallon of strawberries, loved on kiddos, checked out chickens with hubby, raved about our house, life and "vibe", watered garden (really didn't rain much...) , collapsed on couch.

Talked hubby (love of my life) into driving me back to town for choir.  Off we go, hop out at curb, hubby and girls off to TSC to price fencing, Sang.  Chatted with Fr. Bill.  Back into car, off to Chinese for dinner (homeschool field trip?? we used chopsticks...) , back home, tidy house for Fr. Bill's visit tomorrow (eek!!) put away laundry, put kids to bed, watched a bit of UFC with hubby (bonding, but spins me up...) checked e-mail, sent Fr. Bill directions, collapsed on the bed w/ laptop.  And here I am.

Whew!

Good Night!

Amen!

~Shari~

What we're up to today...

School:  We seem to be hitting our stride with this.  It's only taken a year. LOL!  We don't start as early as I'd like, but we're getting everything I want to done, so it's a good start.  Al brought the girls an Eastern Fence Lizard he found outside.  Very cool.  We keep a species list on Enature.com.

House: There's 3 loads of laundry on the line, almost dry, and more in the works.   I have the new curtain fabric up in our room (just stapled to the window frames so far) very ala Nester's Mistreatments. I LOVE it.  (I'm just using hidden clothes pins to hold them back when I want them open.  The velvet is SO POSH!!  ooh la la!!)  I hope to work on my "little project" list this afternoon.  You know those things that take 10-15 minutes, but really add up!  Most of them involve my sewing machine or a paint brush...

Kitchen: We discovered my sourdough starter was NO GOOD this morning,  so that will need to be redone...  and I need to bake some bread (as usual), and, there's Strawberries everywhere!!!  I have 2 gallons sliced, we've been eating them plain, and we had strawberry pancakes for breakfast.  To DIE for!!!  Hopefully, I'll be making jam soon, but I need a few more jars first...  Lunch is my leftover fajita mix from last night's Cinco de Mayo dinner/ mixed with Rice, (yes, enough of MY dinner left over for all FIVE of us to have it for lunch!!)  and dinner will be this recipe from PWCooks (Ree cracks me up!!)

Yard: Al got the push mower and weed eater going, so now we live in the sticks w/o it looking trashy. (we had knee high weeds everywhere!)  Looks great!  I need to pot some of the lemon balm growing in the driveway, to bring some inside, and move a bit more of it to some empty beds I have, since it will fill in the holes nicely.  Al's putting up my flag bracket for a bit of red, white & blue out there, too.

Animals & Garden: Chickens are doing well.  Loving the coop.  Al is putting the green trim on, it's the prettiest coop in the county.  We hope to get some fencing started this week, budget permitting. The garden is doing really well.  I think my tomatoes were suffering from lack of water, so I've upped how much they're getting and they are doing much better.  My potatoes are huge.  Must be what happens when a girl from Maine marries a boy from Idaho and they grow taters in Tennessee together!!  Lol!!

This Afternoon: Today's our planning/ paperwork day: we'll be sitting down & hashing out our budget & bills for the week.    Then I'll plan my menu, grocery list, and errands for tomorrow (our "town Day") and we have library books due, and the farmer's market opens today in our little town  (we may be too late for that today, maybe next week!)  I've been working or re-working my schedules (I do this a lot) and have gotten things back under control a bit.  I didn't get all my housework done yesterday, so I'll tidy up a bit more today.  (I re-habbed our bath and it looks very spa/ zen in there.  Less is definitely more!  I even got the rest of the rice paper/ window privacy film on, and it looks really nice, plus kids can no longer stand on the Pew to peer in the window at you in the shower  ... MAMA??!?!??-sigh-)

So we are busy here, as usual, but happy.  I'm feeling much better, and will be even better tomorrow, as today's my last day of Prednisone (hate the stuff, but it works when things have gotten bad) Now, if Al could get HIS allergies under control, we'd be all set.  (He, of course, is too stubborn to go to the Dr.)  I'm just waiting for Miss E to finish copying her spelling words, then I'll be free to get on with my day.  She seems a bit SLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW at schoolwork today... (sigh)

All in all, life is GOOD here in Gilead.  I hope it is wherever you are too.

God Bless~

Shari