Bean's Life

Knitting Projects - January 2012

2012-01-30T10:16:00.005-05:00

I hope this day finds you well. I have just enjoyed two toasted slices of my Grants Loaf whole wheat bread, one slice with marmite and the other with marmalade all washed down with a large mug of tea. I just absolutely love the Grants Loaf, and I will definitely make this recipe again and again, it is an excellent tasting bread with a wonderful texture. More info about the Grants Loaf here http://www.beanielife.blogspot.com/2012/01/fun-with-bread.html.

Well enough about my breakfast :) I wanted to talk about my January knitting projects. I finished the sweater for Dave, I used the Lions Brand, Vanna's Choice and the color is Denim Mist, the pattern is the modular pattern in my Vogue Ultimate Knitting Book. I knitted a sweater for grandson Patrick in the same yarn a few months ago and I am going start on one for grandson Henry. I will take a picture of Grandpa and grandsons in their matching sweaters as soon as Henry's is done.

I have knitted two hats this month, one for me, I used the Lions Brand, Vanna's Choice Eggplant colored yarn, it matches my cardigan, and I knitted another in the same brand only a dark red color for Dave. The pattern came from a book I found at the library, 100 Knitting Projects, by Jean Leinhauser & Rita Weiss. The stitch used is a Fishermans Rib, it is a thick ribbing, the rows are alternated, one row knit all stitches, the next row knit one below (knit into the stitch in the previous row and let the stitch on the needle drop) purl. The resulting work is very thick, and very warm and the hats are great. I found a pattern for a Fisherman Rib Sweater in a book from the library, Traditional Island Knitting by Pam Dawson, I plan to knit it for Dave in a slate gray color.

I just finished a pair of hand-warmers for myself, I used a pattern given to me by a friend. There are many free patterns for hand-warmers, or fingerless gloves on the web. The hand-warmers were knitted on double pointed needles, I still struggle to avoid "ladders" when knitting on dp needles but am noticing some improvement. If any one has any suggestions to avoid ladders on dp needles please advise :). I used a variegated sock yarn to knit with and was very pleased with the pattern created by the yarn and I love the colors.

Grandson Henry wanted some new mittens, I took him upstairs to my yarn stash and had him pick out a color, he chose bright red, I brought the yarn and mitten pattern downstairs and put it on the kitchen table, a little later he brought the yarn to me and demanded, "Make my globbes". Although I didn't start them right that minute, I have finished the mittens, they knit up very quickly. I am going to make Patrick a pair in turquoise. The mitten pattern I use is one that I purchased about twenty years ago, it is Leisure Arts Leaflet 2473 Many Mittens and has instructions for 9 different sizes. I have lost count of the number of pairs of mittens I have made over the years, but it is many, and they are so nice and warm on a cold winters morning.

I am currently working on a bonnet, cardigan, and blanket in a light blue for our newest grandson, Charlie who is due to make his arrival into this world on May 23!! Henry is very excited about getting a new baby brother, Patrick who is almost two has no idea that his world will change in late May :)
My future knitting goals include the Fisherman Rib sweater for Dave, and a cardigan for myself, this time I am opting for a oatmealish color, but have not yet found a yarn that really excites me, I think I am going to go to a proper yarn shop and seek inspiration and probably be parted with more money than I really want to spend.
What projects are you currently working on?

Fun With Bread

2012-01-28T18:30:00.001-05:00

Herb Bread with Fennel Seed

We have made our own bread for years and years now (I couldn't tell you when we last purchased a loaf :) and although we have our tried and true recipe sometimes it is fun to experiment with new recipes. Most bread recipes are much alike, a basic recipe will contain flour, yeast, sugar, fat, salt, and water, but any slight change will result in a different end result. Many recipes call for milk rather than water, and some for a combination of the two, some recipes have butter, melted butter, shortening, or oil and some omit any fat altogether, most have sugar, honey, or molasses, occasionally sweetener is omitted. And then of course there is the flour, white, wheat, spelt, rye, just to name a few, one thing for sure the higher the gluten in the flour the better result you will have. Always make sure that you use bread flour as it is higher in gluten than all purpose or cake flour. Some recipes require that the dough rest, be kneaded, rise, be kneaded, shaped into loaves, rise again and then bake, some completely omit kneading and do a short rise, other require everything be mixed at the same time, some require a sponge start with the yeast, but whatever the method the end result generally is delicious.
Years ago I purchased a bread book at Border's, it was on a bargain table and cost less that five dollars. The book is nicely done, talks about methods of making bread. There are recipes for all types of bread and they are separated by country, and each is complimented by beautiful pictures of the finished product. Today, and yesterday I tried several of the bread recipes in the Breads of Great Britain section. Last week I made dinner rolls called French Dimples, from the Breads of France section, they were good and we enjoyed them with an onion, beef soup/stew. In the past I tried the English Muffin recipe, they were good but a lot of work to do. Yesterday I made a Grant Loaf, this is a whole wheat bread recipe developed by Doris Grant, a British nutritionist, in the 1940's, she wanted to create a simple, yet wholesome loaf. The recipe is super easy, 12 cups of whole wheat flour (I did 11 and added 1 cup of wheat bran), water, brown sugar, yeast, and salt, and fat, you simply mix the whole lot together, put it into three warmed, greased pans, let it rise for half an hour and then bake. You can find many directions to make the Grant Loaf on line, simply google it. The resulting loaf is dense, moist, and very wheaty, I enjoyed a slice toasted this morning with butter and honey, along with an apple and a mug of tea. I would not recommend this bread for making sandwiches as it is very dense.

The Grant Loaf

Today I made two loaves of herb bread, the recipe had 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 3 cups of white, a mix of water and milk, salt, herbs, (recipe called for fresh chives, parsley, sage, and crushed garlic, I used lesser amounts of dried parsley, sage, a few dried onions as I had no chives, and crushed garlic) and melted butter, this bread started with a sponge* and required a ten minute knead, and an hour and half rise, it was then shaped into loaves and left to rise for 30 minutes, just before baking each loaf was brushed with beaten egg and sprinkled with fennel seed. The resulting loaves were beautiful, and the bread was mildly seasoned with the herbs but not overpowered, and the bread was light and chewy with a pleasant crust. I also made the Split Loaf, a white bread with a split down the middle. This loaf required a sponge* start, it contained no sugar, only, flour, water, milk, yeast, and salt. The process to the Split Loaf was the same as the herb loaf, except it was not brushed with beaten egg and sprinkled with fennel seed. The resulting loaves were splendid, large with a wonderfully crunchy crust and a soft chewy, semi-dense middle. I was pleased with all of the breads and will certainly make them again.

The Split Loaf

*A sponge start simply means combining the flour and salt in a bowl, creating a well in the middle, adding the yeast/liquid into the well and mixing with a little of the flour to create a wet sloppy mess, then cover the bowl and sit in a warm place for twenty minutes. The wet sloppy mess becomes a foamy, bubbly mass, simply mix in the rest of the flour and continue on to kneading.

A Very Inexpensive Latte

2012-01-07T19:31:00.001-05:00

Warm a mug of milk, either on the stove, or in the microwave, then stir in a spoonful of instant coffee! Voila milky coffee - a pleasant warming drink any time of the day!

My Cardigan is Finally Finished :)

2012-01-06T13:54:00.000-05:00

My new cardigan

Lions Brand Vanna's Choice - Eggplant

I started knitting this cardigan a couple of months ago the color is called Eggplant. I used the modular pattern in my Vogue Knitting book, http://www.amazon.com/Vogue-Knitting-Ultimate-Book/dp/193154316X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325874029&sr=8-1 . The modular pattern offers ten styles to knit, the sizes available are from a childs size 4 to a mans XXL. I found the modular pattern fairly easy to use and will definitely use it again.

This morning I was determined to finish the cardigan, I had worked on the neck/button band for the past two evenings, I had to pick up 369 stitches on a circular needle and work 9 rows. Let me tell you, 369 stitches make for a very, very long row. This morning I had two more rows to knit. Everyone left the house by seven, so I put in a DVD from the library, Berkeley Square, and started knitting. Once I had bound off the 369 stitches, I sewed in the sleeves, sewed the the side seams, finished the pockets, took care of all the yarn ends, then finished up by sewing on six buttons. I thought I had an hour or so of work to do, when I was done, I had watched/listened to all four episodes on the DVD, and then worked on in silence, it took me about five hours to finish the cardigan, but such a feeling of satisfaction upon completion.

I started knitting a sweater for Dave, it is in a variegated blue yarn, I recently knitted grandson Patrick a sweater in the same yarn, it is Lions Brand Vanna's Choice and the color is called Denim Mist.

Patrick is wearing his sweater - color Denim Mist

Now let me tell you about Berkeley Square, http://www.amazon.com/Berkeley-Square-Clare-Wilkie/dp/B00004W5P5/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1325875216&sr=1-2 , I found it really enjoyable, I watched the first four episodes and plan to borrow the next episodes from the library. The story is about three young women, each from different backgrounds, who all wind up working as nannies in three homes located in Berkeley Square, London in the early 1900's. I would compare Berkeley Square to Downton Abbey, another series I thoroughly enjoyed.

A Simple Meal for a Cold Winter's Evening

2012-01-02T11:09:00.001-05:00

Ingredients:
1 lb of beef cut into small pieces
4 onions sliced
4 carrots cut in thin strips about 4" in length
1 1/2 cups of burgundy wine
4 cups of beef broth
2 T butter
2 T flour
Salt/Pepper

Melt butter in dutch over, add beef, carrots and onion, let cook for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the flour, stir well, let cook for a few minutes. Add the burgundy wine, stir, scraping the bottom of the pan, cover and let simmer for ten minutes. Add the beef broth, stir, scraping the bottom of the pan, cover and let simmer for several hours until beef is fall apart tender.
Serve in a bowl with a thick slice of fresh homemade bread and butter on the side for dipping!

Delicious.

De-cluttering

2011-12-30T13:11:00.001-05:00

Today we put away all of the Christmas decorations, except for our nativity scene which will remain out through epiphany, and the tree went off to our local drop off point for recycling. I stored everything in two storage bins and wrote on the lids exactly what was contained inside and ran them up to the attic.
Then I went to our bedroom and decided to sort our my closet, I simply went through everything in my closet and pitched anything that I have not worn in a very long time, this created quite a large pile of clothing to donate to the Goodwill along with a rarely worn pair of gym shoes. I then sorted out one drawer in my dresser that needed a going through. As I was sorting things out Dave came upstairs and was motivated to sort out his clothing, now he can fit everything into his chest of drawers, he threw out a lot of totally worn out items. We loaded up the van, piled in the grandsons and headed off to run a few errands and make a donation to Goodwill. It is freeing to clean things out, organize and eliminate no longer needed items.
Next week I plan to sort out some storage bins in the attic. Last spring I had a major sort out in the attic and we purged many, many things, I now would like to empty some of the storage bins. Some contain outgrown clothing from our children, two of whom are now married and have their own homes, we will donate it since it was kept because it was in good shape. Another bin contains the collection of stuffed animals, most are Emily's, I think she will want to keep her Build A Bear animals, but everything else can be donated. Another box contains junk, so I will decide what needs to be donated and what needs to be pitched. I would also like to sort out the closets in my sewing room, they have become a dumping ground for items that we don't know what else to do with, again I think I will end up with a large donation pile. Anyway this should get me well on my way to purging 365 items from our home for 2012!
What areas of your home do you need to sort out, de-clutter, and/or organize?

Two Fun Projects for a Winters Afternoon & a Thought for the New Year

2011-12-28T17:49:00.000-05:00

A few months ago my mother gave me many yards of fleece, I have not yet decided what to do with it all, but had thought that it would be excellent to use to make hot water-bottle covers and super-hero capes for grandsons Henry and Patrick. Not only did these items cost nothing to make, except for a little time with a pair of scissors, the water-bottle covers will be useful and the entertainment factor of the super-hero capes is very high!!

The boys in their splendid super-hero capes

Two warm fleecy hot water-bottle covers

On another note Ember at http://kindredofthequietway.blogspot.com/2011/12/365.html had a good thought for de-cluttering with the suggestion of getting rid of something each day for one year, with the thought that if you acquire something new you not only get rid of one thing for the day but you also get rid of something in place of the new item. With the goal of having 365 less things cluttering your home. I started today, I cleaned out the drawers of the sideboard in the dining room, a haven for sticking things that I don't know what to do with, I then cleaned out the junk drawer in the kitchen, and the cabinet that contains some basic first aid items phone books and infrequently used glassware. I am not sure why I had three years of phone books, I decided to keep the most current one and pitched the others into the recycling bin. After my efforts I had two plastic grocery bags of trash - why I housed this trash in the sideboard drawers for so many years I cannot imagine :). Anyway, it is a chore that needed to be taken care of and now it is done!

What are your goals for the new year?

PS please vote in the poll at the top left of my blog - Thank YOU!

28 Years and Counting

2011-12-27T07:19:00.001-05:00

Today is our twenty-eighth wedding anniversary!

Our wedding day, December 27, 1983

And, twenty eight years later, :)

What a Wonderful Day

2011-12-26T08:19:00.000-05:00

As Dave and I sat on the sofa yesterday evening recuperating with a glass of wine and an episode of Doc Martin on Netflix we agreed that we had enjoyed a wonderful Christmas day with our family.
The day started out early, literally at the very beginning of December 25, as we went to midnight mass at St. Peters to begin our celebration of Christmas day.
At eight in the morning we ran over to our daughter and son-in-law's home to watch grandsons Henry and Patrick open their gifts. Let me tell you, little children really make day, they are so excited and so caught up in the moment and of course they are just so gosh darn cute!!
We headed back to our house so Dave could carve the ham while I finished some other meal prep. Then then we waited for our younger two, Ben and Emily, to emerge from their bedrooms, and our oldest son Matt and his wife Traci, and Brad, Amber and the boys to arrive. By eleven everyone was assembled in the living room and a fun and crazy chaos took over as we opened gifts. My sister Marika, husband Brian, and nieces Carly and Caitie arrived at one thirty and the feasting began. After dinner, dessert, much snacking and glasses of wine, everyone staggered to the family room for a Chinese gift exchange! The rest of the afternoon we chit-chatted and enjoyed each others company. By six everyone had gone home, our younger two left with their dates, and Dave and I put the house back together. We really enjoyed our day, it was a wonderful Christmas and we feel truly blessed. Some pictures for your enjoyment.

The Holy Family

Henry was up bright and early to see what Santa had brought him.

Patrick found his stocking to contain many interesting things!

The boys take a good look at their new toy box specially built for them by Grandpa.

Emily, Ben, and Henry wait patiently for gift opening time.

Emily

Dave is thrilled with his grilling apron. Grill Master, The Man, The Myth, The Legend!

The joyful chaos of Christmas morning.

Brad and Henry try out the basketball hoop while tired Patrick has a cuddle with Mommy.

Mission accomplished - Patrick is taking a much needed nap!!

Marika and Brian model their loot from the Christmas Crackers.

Carly.

Caitie

Matt and Traci.

Dave and me.

Christmas Cookie Fun

2011-12-18T18:31:00.000-05:00

Sugar cut out cookies - 6 dozen

Chocolate chocolate/mint chip cookies - 3 dozen

Peanut butter reindeer cookies - 6 dozen

Peanut blossoms - 3 dozen

Rice Krispie treats - 2 dozen

Chocolate covered pretzels - a lot

Fun had by all - PLENTY!!

Merry Christmas

The little guys!

This frosting looks interesting

Decorating cookies for Santa

Cookies anyone?

Good job Henry!

Wowsers, what bright cookies!

Do you like my Santa diaper?

Cookie Central

Reindeer cookies

Order your Traditional English Christmas Cake

2011-10-05T10:52:00.003-04:00

I am currently taking orders for Traditional English Christmas Cakes. Enjoy throughout the Christmas season with a nice cup of tea, or a glass of sherry, the cakes contain raisins, sultanas, currants, almonds, and cherries and are made following a time tested recipe from England. Each 6" round cake weighs just over two pounds and can be ordered plain, or with the traditional finishing of marzipan and royal icing. Order yours today: Plain Cake $18, finished with marzipan and royal icing $25. To order email englishchristmascake@yahoo.com

Contemplation on "Tension", a Recipe, and Bits and Bobs

2011-10-03T13:28:00.001-04:00

A Contemplation on "Tension"

As a knitter I have often struggled with getting the tension right while knitting, too loose and the end result is a shapeless garment, too tight and the end result is a skewed garment. I struggle with "too loose" tension, after a google search I discovered that I held the yarn incorrectly, I have corrected this and am pleased with the results.

While walking the other day I was thinking about tension and how important it is in sewing and knitting, and realized that it is important in life too. We have to have things in balance, too many activities, too many deadlines, too many obligations and we end up skewed, stressed out, and unpleasant to be around. If we have no obligations we end up a shapeless mess, we are created to be productive, after all there is great satisfaction in a job well done, helping another, and feeling useful and necessary.

When we have things in balance, time for God, time for our spouse, time for our children and grandchildren, time for work, time for rest, we find contentment. I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 3. 1-8.

A Recipe - Jumbo Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

Yum, Yum, Yummy O!!

Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl and set to one side:

4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

Cream together:

1 lb of soft butter

2 cups of white sugar

2 cups of brown sugar

Add to the creamed butter/sugar mixture and stir well:

4 eggs

4 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cups of peanut butter

Add the flour mixture and stir well.

Add 12 oz of chocolate chips and stir well.

Bake at 375 for 15 - 16 minutes. I bake 8 cookies at a time, I use an ice cream scoop to measure the dough, I would say the dough is an extremely rounded tablespoon size blob.

This recipe will make about 60 cookies, they freeze very well.

Bits and Bobs

Last Friday I made my annual Traditional English Christmas Cakes, each year I make one for us, one for my parents, and one for each of my sisters. Traditional English Christmas Cake is a rich fruit cake, the recipe includes 2 lbs of dried fruit, cherries, almonds, and sherry, it is very rich and very enjoyable. The cake is always made at least five or six weeks in advance, after baking it is stored in an airtight container, the cake is pierced in several places with a skewer and each week is fed a few tablespoons of sherry. A week prior to Christmas the cake is covered in marzipan, then one week later the cake is covered in royal icing. English wedding cake is traditionally this type of fruit cake, the top tier of the cake is saved in an air tight container and is enjoyed as a Christening Cake when the first baby arrives. Fruit cake keeps amazingly well as long as it is kept in it's tin (airtight container). This year I am advertising to make fruit cakes, I will be selling a six inch round fruit cake (no marzipan or icing) for $18, with marzipan and icing $25. If you are interested in ordering a Traditional English Christmas Cake please email me or leave a comment and I will contact you to make arrangements.

Cake with marzipan and royal icing.

Grandson Pictures

King Henry busy with his play dough.

His crown is Grandmas tea cozy.

Henry and Patrick model their new winter sweaters, they were made by my Mom, their Great Grandma!

A Busy Time of Year

2011-09-07T08:41:00.005-04:00

Hello,
I haven't posted in quite some time!! It sure has been busy around here lately. August was a birthday month, husband Dave and son Ben, celebrated their birthdays on the 8th, son-in-law Brad on the 14th, grandson Henry turned three on the 26th, and my Mom was exactly "three packets of candles" on the 27th. Between all the birthday parties we have all had enough cake and ice-cream for a while.

Daughter Emily started her senior year of high school three weeks ago, and started her first job as an hostess at Buffalo Wild Wings, she seems to be managing everything well.

The garden has kept us very busy, I have canned many tomatoes and will be canning more today. I canned a half bushel of peaches and taught daughter Amber how to can peaches, I don't think she was very excited by the process but was pleased with her quarts of peaches. Our concord grapes are ready, I will be picking as many as I can today and plan to make grape jelly. The first step in making grape jelly is to juice the grapes, I will start this process today, tomorrow I will have plenty of grape juice to make jelly with. We have also been enjoying cantaloupe and watermelon from the garden, yummy, they are so juicy and refreshing to eat on a hot day.

In early July we started a crock of sauerkraut. Dave and I picked about thirty-five cabbages and started the process of making sauerkraut. I shredded the cabbages and tossed the shreds in salt, after a bit Dave would take the shreds and pack them into the crock. The packing part is hard work, the cabbage shreds just have to be packed, the salt begins to draw water out of the cabbage and eventually you have a brine covering the cabbage. Once the crock is full you add a little more brine, salt and water mix, tuck a cheese cloth over the cabbage and place a plate with a weight on top of that, then move the crock to a place where it will not be disturbed too much. Fermentation takes about six weeks, it can be a bit smelly, so we put the crock in the basement, each day you must "skim the scum" a gray colored scum that forms on top of the brine. We sit our crock in a galvanized laundry tub so any mess from the crock is contained. Always make sure there is enough brine to cover the shredded cabbage. We were able to can the sauerkraut a few weeks ago and ended up with seventeen and half quarts - we tried some last week with a pork roast, it was very good.
Now you may be wondering what we are going to do with seventeen and half quarts of sauerkraut, well we will eat it over the next year, and will give a few quarts away.

Last night we took our pig in to be processed, the pig did not live at our property, some friends were raising a couple of pigs, Dave helped last night with the transportation of both pigs to the meat processor. In about a week our pork, sausage, bacon, and hams will be ready for pick up. I know we will enjoy some of the pork with sauerkraut.

Our hens are doing well, we have seven, one died in the extremely hot weather we had in July, we are getting seven nice brown eggs each day and have a glut of eggs that I plan to start selling. One of our favorite treats this time of year is egg salad with chopped tomatoes. We only eat this delicious egg salad this time of year because it is best made with garden ripe tomatoes.

This past weekend was Labor Day weekend, we planned to get a lot of painting done but the weather did not cooperate. Last week we were able to prep and prime the hen house and Dave was able to put the first coat of fresh paint on it first thing Saturday morning, by noon it was too hot to paint and by mid-afternoon the temperature had reached ninety-six degrees. The hot weather made it ideal for power washing the pole barn, so Dave started in on that job and then popped down to our neighbor Nancy's house to put trim on her shed. Nancy then had us over for supper later in the evening.

While Dave was busy with outside chores I worked in the house, I had some sewing projects to finish, I made Henry a shirt on Friday, and started on Dave's shirt, on Saturday morning all I had to do was hen the shirt and do the button holes, well my machine has had button hole issues and this it would not make a button hole to save it's life. I had recently had the machine serviced, when I got it back it worked better than it ever had and the button hole feature worked again, I made Patrick's shirt, then Henry's, although the button holes were looking a little less than desired, and of course the feature stopped working completely. Boy was I frustrated!! Dave said I could get a new machine, so after some internet research on Janomes, the only brand I wanted to buy, and a lengthy fact finding discussion with my mother, I arrived at Edwards Sewing Center. After a demo and learning that the Janome Magnolia 7330 had all of the features suggested by my Mom, I purchased the machine. I have never had a sewing machine like this, it is amazing, it sews beautifully, and is an absolute joy to use. I finished Dave's shirt and shortened a pair of jeans for him and hemmed a dozen napkins. I then went to Jo Anne's and purchased fabric, battting, and interfacing to make a new raggy bag for fall. My Mom made me a beautiful raggy bag this past spring, I receive compliments on it all the time, I have wanted to make one for some time, so chose fall colors for mine and the Janome performed splendidly.

On Sunday the high was sixty-six, a chilly north wind was blowing, and it was very cloudy, and we were cold! On Monday it was still very cool out, we got up early, I always do my heavy house cleaning and bread baking on Mondays so I started in on that and Dave headed out to put primer on the pole barn, he was able to get some painting done, then had to go to Lowe's to pick up five more gallons of primer.

Dave's Dad came over Monday afternoon and we had a nice visit and Amber, Brad, Henry, and Patrick stopped in, Ben was home for the day, Emily had to work, and Matt and Traci were at the lake. We made dinner for everyone, we decided to make beef ribs, we have never made them before, we followed a recipe but after two hours in the oven they were still too tough to eat, so we thawed some hamburger to make burgers, and I decided that it wouldn't hurt to put the ribs in the pressure cooker, which turned out to be a good decision, because thirty minutes in the cooker and the beef was tender as could be and falling off the bone. So we ended up with rather a lot of meat, the plan B hamburgers, and the salvaged beef ribs, we also had spanish rice, macaroni and cheese, corn, banana pudding and pumpkin pie. The nice about preparing a large meal is that there are always enough leftovers for supper the next day, and the next day!

Anyway it has been busy lately, once the garden is finished and the pole barn is painted things will slow down and we will have the winter to rest. By February we will be anxious to start planning our garden for next year.

A nice day, and another recipe....

2011-07-27T22:21:00.000-04:00

I was up at four this morning, took care of Dave saw him off to work and went back to bed until seven thirty. When I got up I headed out for my walk, I decided to do six miles today, the only other plans I had were to do some house cleaning, laundry, and sewing, then go to mass with my Franciscan brothers and sisters in the evening. Well as I walked I kept receiving text messages, a couple from my friend Cindy, a fellow Franciscan, regarding our plans that evening, a couple from Emily letting me know what she was up to, she had spent the night at her friends house, a call from Matt telling me that he had had a call back from a job interview he went to on Monday and he had to go in for a second interview, and one from Amber asking if I wanted do something with her and the boys as she had the day off. Well I walked for a bit, responded to the texts and thought about what Amber and I could do with the boys and decided that a day trip to Shipshewana would be fun. I called Amber and she thought my idea was good and said she would be over in a bit, I told her to take her time I still had a couple of miles to walk to get back home.
By ten thirty we were in Amber's van and heading north west on our way to Shipshewana. As Dave is working about twenty miles south of Shipshewana we decided to stop by the job site to say Hi. Henry was very excited to see Grandpa climbing down a very tall ladder to come over to see him! After our brief visit we continued on our journey. By the time we arrived in Shipshewana it was noon, and I was feeling pretty hungry, we parked the van, popped Pat in the stroller and headed over to The Bread Box to get some lunch, I really enjoyed my chicken ceasar salad wrap while we sat outside on a covered, sunken, patio. Once done with lunch we walked to the Davis Mercantile building, we went directly to the third floor to the candy store, then purchased tokens for the giant carousel. Henry and Patrick really enjoyed the carousel! We wandered around a few stores, purchased some adorable Cat in the Hat fabric, one print in yellow and the other in red, I will be making the boys a shirt each in the near future. Our next stop was Yoder's General store, we looked around and then went into the grocery store section for an emergency BINKY purchase, Patrick was getting tired and we couldn't find his binky!! As both boys were tired we decided to head home, both were asleep soon after we left and they stayed that way all the way home.
By four thirty I was off to Fort Wayne to pick up Cindy, we were heading to St. Joseph Catholic Church for evening mass. Our Secular Franciscan Fraternity had scheduled the mass and it was said for the deceased members of our fraternity. The mass was very nice, afterwards there was a dinner in the church basement, I guess each Wednesday evening they serve dinner, so we all got to hang out together while we ate dinner, it was good fellowship.
Matt was at our house when I returned home, great news, he was hired at Erie Haven, they have a fleet of cement trucks and do cement work, he starts on Monday and will being doing truck maintenance. Tracy was at work so Matt stayed for dinner to celebrate his new job! Dave cooked two t-bones on the grill, I cooked some yukon gold potatoes that I tossed with butter and parsley, made hollandaise sauce, and creamy cucumber salad, the guys then sat down and enjoyed their supper. It is satisfying to make a meal that is enjoyed, and really satisfying when much of the food eaten we have produced, the steaks were from our steer, the potatoes and cucumber from our garden, and the eggs in the hollandaise sauce from our hens. Following is a recipe for creamy cucumber salad, it is a favorite summer time treat that Dave really enjoys, it is very good served with baked potatoes.

Creamy Cucumber Salad

1/2 cup sour cream

1 T vinegar

1 t sugar

1/4 t dried dill

1/4 t salt

1 cucumber thinly sliced

1 small onion thinly sliced

Mix the first five ingredients together, then stir in the sliced cucumber and onion.

That's it!

(you can substitute plain non-fat yogurt for the sour cream if desired)

Hot Summer Days and Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe

2011-07-20T10:47:00.003-04:00

Henry the Farmer

Patrick the Little Urchin!

We are in the middle of a heat wave, the temperatures have been in the mid to upper nineties since Saturday, and the humidity is very high, we are looking for a cool off hopefully by next Monday. Today it is very overcast which has helped keep things cooler, but has done nothing to reduce the humidity.

I got up at four this morning with Dave, I made his coffee and a couple of sandwiches for his lunch, tidied the kitchen and got the laundry going. Dave left for work at five, I showered, tidied our bedroom and headed out for a five mile walk. When I returned I let the chickens out and Henry and Patrick arrived. After the boys ate breakfast, a nice bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon and applesauce mixed in, we went outside to hang laundry and weed the strawberries. It is nice to get the outdoor activities done early in the morning before it really heats up, or in the evening as it starts to cool, but lately it has still been ninety degrees at nine in the evening. While I weeded strawberries the boys played, Henry really likes to play on Grandpa's tractor, and Patrick just likes to muddle around getting into this and that and always manages to get himself very dirty!

The boys will be picked up later this afternoon and then I plan to get some sauerkraut going, I use a recipe that allows the cabbage to ferment in the canning jar for a few weeks prior to processing in a hot water canner. In August we want to get a pig and take it in to be processed, I am looking forward to some pork and sauerkraut dinners this fall. I also plan to make chocolate zucchini bread this afternoon, we did not plant any zucchini but we have been given some, so we will make good use of them. If you have not had chocolate zucchini bread you really should try it, it is a delicious sweet bread, I enjoy a slice of it spread with raspberry jam - YUMMY. Which reminds me, I need to get my raspberry jam made. I picked all of our black raspberries over the last couple of weeks, they are currently bagged and in the freezer, perhaps on Friday I will get the jam made. It looks as if we will have a bumper crop of concord grapes in another month or so, so I know I will be busy making making many pots of grape jelly, it is a favorite in our house.

Well that is all for today, Patrick is evidently worn out from his outdoor adventure this morning, because he fell asleep on my lap as I was typing :)

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups of sugar (don't forget this, once I did and the bread was revolting :)
3 large eggs (this reminds me one of our new laying hens started laying :)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup of nuts (optional)
1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350, grease two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pans.
2. Combine first six ingredients in large bowl.
3. Combine sugar and eggs, beat until blended, add oil and vanilla, beat until blended, add zucchini. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients in the first bowl, stir until just moistened, add chocolate chips and nuts. Divide batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.
4. Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

***Helpful Hint***

If you have lots of zucchini, grate it, a food processor will make this much easier, then bag up in 2 cup quantities and freeze, then whenever you want to make chocolate zucchini bread you will have the exact measure of grated zucchini ready in your freezer.

Late Evening Walks and the Wonders of Nature

2011-07-05T22:16:00.005-04:00

As the weather has been warm and it does not get dark until almost ten at night, I often take my daily walk in the evening. Today was very warm, it was ninety degrees outside this afternoon, it was still ninety degrees at eight this evening when I left for my walk, if I had walked at three this afternoon it would have been miserably hot. I ended up walking six miles this evening so did not get back to the house until ten. I enjoy my walks, I have time to think, I pray, and I enjoy all of the sights and sounds of the ever changing country side. There are grasses along County Line Rd that are taller than I am, and I am 5'10", insects abound, I hear scurrying in the grasses and the occasional chipmunk rushes out in front of me, I see plenty of rabbits, a ground hog who lives by the creek, red wings who chatter and squawk at me, mourning doves with their beautiful mournful cry, an occasional possum, and gold finches darting in and out of the hedgerows and thistles. The corn has grown more than knee high, tiger lilies grow wild, fragrant dogwood roses grow wild in the hedgerow and are in full blossom. The many, many shades of green I see as I look across the rolling landscape of fields, trees, grass, hedges, all contrasting with the sky bring peace to my soul. This evening as I was close to home the fire flies were suddenly out in abundance, as I walked past an open area of very long grasses I felt as if I was in Aladdin's cave, the twinkling, winking lights of hundreds of fire flies was spectacularly beautiful. One afternoon recently I was walking with the grandsons, they were in the double stroller, as we came to the same open area with long grasses I saw something, we stopped and were blessed to see a very young fawn, it was no more than a foot tall, with white spots all over it's back, a sweet little face with very large ears that needed to be grown into. Henry was impressed with the fawn, we stared at it, it stared at us and then it started and ran off towards a wooded area, it was a truly a gift to see the fawn.

I enjoy my walks in the spring slowly everything turns green, the birds return, and then suddenly everything seems to go into overdrive, the rate of growth of some plants is truly amazing, by August things are looking a little shabby, a bit over the hill, and then the queen anne's lace blooms, followed in September by the golden rod and a beautiful purple wild flower, the days are pleasant the sky a clear beautiful blue, with October the weather is a little erratic the leaves change and look amazing and suddenly it is November, chilly, damp, and gloomy, everything is resting for a season and the threat of snow is ever present. Then winter arrives, snow falls, everything is quite, sounds travel in the crisp air and January can be bitterly cold and very sunny, by February the temperatures are warming up a bit, then March arrives with wind and rain and can't seem to make it's mind up if it is winter or spring, and then we are back to April and the whole wondrous cycle begins again. So why do I walk? It is good for me, physically and mentally, it keeps me grounded, and although I walk the same roads most days the sights and sound are always changing and occasionally I am blessed with a special gift to see.

Garage Sale Treasures

2011-06-29T08:40:00.008-04:00

Last Friday morning Dave and I went "garage sale-ing" and boy did we find some good stuff. Dave left for work at five in the morning, he was back home by eight as they were unable to work due to a persistently steady light rain. It was too wet to garden and my daily chores were done we decided to head out to visit the garage sales. The first sale we went to had a ton of stuff, I got a purse for Emily and a really nice baby gate, I spent three dollars. As we drove away from this sale I realized that I had left our weekly local Courier, with all of the garage sale ads, at home. We called Amber to see if she still had her Courier, she did, so we stopped at the gas station picked up donuts for Henry and Patrick and popped over to their house, there we did a quick trade of donuts for the Courier.

Then we were off, we went to so many garage sales and we really found some good items, I picked up 6 sturdy wooden puzzles for the grandsons for a total of two dollars and twenty five cents. I purchased a box of cookbooks for five dollars, a glass serving bowl for fifty cents, a chicken cookie jar for three dollars, a wooden storage bench to keep the grandsons toys in for ten dollars, pants and snow pants for the boys, a lamp and doily, a table cloth, a yard of floral, backed, quilted fabric suitable for a bag, some games for the grandsons Memory, I Spy and puzzle cards, and a USA map place mat. I ended up spending just over thirty dollars.

By the time we returned home we were ready for lunch. After lunch the rain stopped, the sun came out and we were able to spend the afternoon working in the garden, I hoed the vegetable gardens and Dave mowed.

Garage Sale Treasures

The new toy bench modeled by Henry and Patrick!

My pretty lamp and doily.

The $2 Baby Gate!

Flowers in front of our home.

Birthday, Fathers Day, Welcome Home, Mission Trip, Birthday make for a Busy June, recipes included!!

2011-06-27T09:02:00.011-04:00

A Very Busy June

Two weeks a go we celebrated youngest daughter Emily's eighteenth birthday! Just think all of my children are now "adults" :) Emily invited her cousins and some friends to share the day along with family, we enjoyed tacos and of course cake and ice cream.

This past Saturday evening Matt and Traci arrived safely home for good :) from Wyoming!!! YEA!!!

Last weekend we celebrated Fathers Day, Dave cooked some fabulous baby back ribs on the grill!!

After a rainy, cloudy, cool week of weather Saturday morning arrived with blue skies, abundant sunshine and a gently breeze. Dave left for work at five in the morning and I started to plan my day. I had started laundry the night before so had a couple of loads ready to hang out, so ran my last load and did my normal morning chores consisting of letting the chickens out, putting away dishes from the previous evening, making our bed, and putting away folded laundry, and sweeping the floor. Daily chores out of the way I left to run a few errands, I dropped off the recycling, stopped by a couple of garage sales, popped into the grocery store for a few items and on my way home stopped at Convivium, a farmers market sponsored by a local church, where I purchased caffeine free mango green tea and orange papaya tea. I then headed home for heavy duty house cleaning consisting of window cleaning inside and out, carpet cleaning in high traffic areas, scrubbing the floor in the kitchen, eating area, hallway, foyer and bathroom, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, ironing and making an ice cream cake for Amber's 25th birthday, and a jar of salsa. Around eleven in the morning I received a call from Matt, he said they were just leaving Cheyenne, WY ready to start their sixteen hour journey home. During the afternoon Emily mentioned that Matt had posted on face book some ten hours earlier that they were over half way home, she called Matt to ask if he would be home soon, he said not until Sunday afternoon as they were currently in Nebraska. The busy day continued, at five Amber brought Henry and Patrick over, they were going to have a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa while their parents went out to dinner with friends and then had a get together at their home. I fed the boys dinner, changed diapers, put them in their pajamas and plonked them in the double stroller and went off on my daily four mile walk. Both boys fell asleep quickly, when I was almost home, around eight thirty, I received a text from Matt stating that they were in Des Moines and were stopping for the night. I thought it was odd that they would stop while it was still daylight and thought back to the face book posting and wondered what they were up to! Around ten pm Matt called to see what we were doing, I said not much, just looking for a movie to watch on Netflix, he said well stay up, we are almost home and after we drop the moving truck off at Traci's parents house we will be over. We were so excited that they were home a day early. Around midnight a pick up truck pulled into the driveway and Matt, Traci, and their puppy Daisy came into the house, HOW WONDERFUL TO SEE THEM HOME, and HOME FOR GOOD! We visited for about an hour, then the kids left to run over to Brad and Amber's house to say Hi. By two in the morning I was asleep, the alarm went off at four am and I went to get Emily up, she was leaving on a Missions trip, she will be in Appalachia for week either roofing or building porches for people in need, and had to be at the church by six am. At five thirty we left the house, we turned onto St. Rd. 1 and had gone about a quarter of a mile when we saw something in the road, large black shapes, we slowed down and realized that about nine head of cattle were standing in the middle of the road. We called 911 to report a hazardous situation and then headed to the house where we believed the cattle had "escaped". Bear in mind it was five thirty in the morning, we had to knock and knock and knock on the back door of the cattle owners house, finally we woke them up and were able to let them know that their cattle were out, then contineu on to the church. Emily grabbed her luggage gave me hug and headed to the church vans to leave for Copperhill, Tennesee. I headed home with the hopes that the grandsons would still be sleeping and I could catch an hour or two of sleep. As I came back along St. Rd. 1 the sheriffs were slowing traffic and the family who owned the cattle had the herd rounded up and headed towards home! I got home, the boys were still asleep, Dave left for work, and I dozed for about an hour until they awoke, well rested to start their day. After a breakfast of pancakes, some play time and getting dressed, I made enchilada sauce, filling and prepared 25 enchiladas for dinner around nine-thirty, Amber arrived to take the boys home, I decide that I would not go to church as I was very tired so instead I went to bed and took a nap!!

Matt and his friend Jay arrived at our house around one with the twenty six foot long moving truck fully packed, the truck was unloaded, many, many, boxes were stored away in our attic, and all of their furniture and washer and dryer were put in our basement where they will remain for a short time until they are moved to a storage facility. By five we were ready to celebrate Amber's birthday and eat enchiladas and all the fixings we then headed outside to watch the guys play horse shoe, and some of us played a little badminton, we all enjoyed a pleasant evening and then headed in for ice cream cake. The party broke up around nine as we were saying good byes in the driveway our neighbor Nancy popped over to welcome Matt and Traci home. With all the kids, grand kids and, visitors gone, we invited Nancy in for a glass of wine. We enjoyed a glass of Dave's blueberry wine by candlelight it was a lovely way to finish a very busy weekend. (Nancy's weekend had been equally busy). Needless to say, I slept like a log last night and today I feel well rested and ready to tackle the world.

Amber with Henry thinking about how they are going to blow out all of those candles!

Emily's birthday cake. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting and fresh strawberries. I sliced the strawberries early in the day mixed in a little sugar and let them sit for a few hours, they were nice and syrupy when I placed them on the cake.

Birthday girl Emily holding her nephew Patrick.

Ice Cream Cake

1 package of Oreo's

1 stick of butter

2 cartons of ice cream ( we like Breyer's)

Whipped cream

Hot Fudge or Hersheys Syrup

9/13 covered baking pan (or use foil to cover)

Put the entire package of Oreo's in the food processor and blend. Add to the oreo's 1 stick of melted butter and blend well. Put the oreo mixture into a 9/13 pan, bake in the oven for eight minutes at 350. Remove pan from oven, put hot fudge sauce, or hershey syrup over the oreo base, let cool. Put out the first carton of ice cream, we used vanilla, let it sit out for about twenty minutes to soften, carefully spread the ice cream over the oreo base, cover the pan and return to freezer for an hour. Sit out the next carton of ice cream, we used chocolate, carefully spread the softened ice cream over the vanilla layer, cover and return to freezer. Decorate with whipped cream and drizzle hot fudge or hershey syrup over the top to decorate. I used Redi Whip, and made 25 florets on the cake, I used these to place the birthday candles for Amber. Cover the cake, put in the freezer overnight. This is a really nice summer time "cake", make sure you have enough people to eat it all in one go as it will melt! You could double the recipe to make a cake for a very large group, or half it for small group, you can add whatever flavor or flavors of ice cream you like, and whatever toppings you like. We had a large group and all but one piece of "cake" was eaten.

Salsa

1 quart of tomatoes

1 clove of garlic ( I buy the jar of crushed garlic so about 1 tsp of this)

1 hot pepper ( I have a jar of sliced hot peppers, I use about seven slices)

1 onion cut in quarters

1 bunch of cilantro

1/2 tsp of cumin

1 tablespoon of lime juice

1 tsp salt

Put all of ingredients in the food processor, blend well. My family loves this salsa!

A prayer request and happenings around the homestead

2011-06-07T18:03:00.004-04:00

Well first off I want to ask for prayer for my son Matt and his wife Traci, they will be driving home from Cheyenne Wyoming in two weeks - please pray that they have a safe trip home. It is about a 16 hour drive and as they are moving home for good they will have a U-Haul truck containing all their worldly possessions, and their own truck. Hopefully Matt's good friend Jay will be able to fly out to help them load up and drive home. Matt has served in the USAF for the past four years.

LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

We are so excited that they will be home permanently in two weeks time!! Did I mention we are really, really excited!!

Yesterday we finally were able to take our steer, Jersey, into C & C Meats for processing, we had hoped to do it a few months ago, but due to all of the rain it was just too wet and muddy to drive a truck and trailer back to his paddock area. Jersey took some encouragement to get into the trailer, in fact our neighbor ending up picking up her Amish friend, Joe, and his son Jeremy to come and assist, once Dave, Joe, Jeremy, and our neighbors son Brian, were making the point that Jersey needed to get moving he took the hint and compliantly walked in.

The hard thing about raising a steer is that you do get attached to them, Jersey was such a friendly guy, everyday when I went out to feed him he would come over to the fence and let me scratch his nose and he liked to lick my hand, he would always come over if I called him, and if I ran alongside the fence he liked to race with me to the end of the field.

Most of our garden is now planted, just a few more things and we will be done. Sunday evening I spent about an hour to weeding in the blackberry patch, I have the wounds to show for my efforts, blackberry brambles are so spiteful! I have some herbs to plant out and some rhubarb, they are currently in pots on my front porch. We have potato bugs, YUK!I had to breakdown and purchase some Sevin, we are not organic, but we try to avoid pesticides unless absolutely necessary. Potato bugs are relentless and if left unchecked will eat all of the foliage on the potato plant resulting in a very, very low yield.

Good news on the chicken front, The Great Eight, have decided that they do like to go outside, they are still very cautious about food scraps, hopefully this will change, as all other chickens that we have had always loved to eat bread crusts, leftover pancakes, vegetable/fruit peels etc.

Thank you again for keeping Matt and Traci in prayer.

Emily Goes to the Prom

2011-05-22T10:38:00.006-04:00

Emily was so excited about going to the prom, her date, Luke, arrived promptly at four and both were looking forward to a lovely evening. After the picture taking they left in grand style to head to Vince's for dinner and then to The Orchid reception hall for the prom. Around midnight Emily and Luke returned home to change out of their finery and left for after-prom activities being held at a local bowling alley until three am. A little after three Emily arrived home and tired Mom was able to retire to bed. Up at seven this morning, Luke arrive at eight, and the tired prom goers left to go on the after prom trip to Cedar Point amusement park, they will return around ten this evening.

It has been almost seven years since Amber went to the prom, she went twice, we think our son Matt holds some kind of record for most proms attended, he went to five! Ben didn't go to the prom.

Here are some pictures of Emily and Luke.

Pinning the Boutonniere

The Corsage

All dressed up and somewhere to go!

Riding in Grand Style

Looking Good!

Emily and Katie's crazy sandals

Emily with best friend Katie

Proud Dad and Mom

This and That

2011-05-18T12:06:00.005-04:00

We are attempting to get our garden planted, all of the potatoes, onions, cabbage and some corn are now planted, and we were able to plant out 100 strawberry starts to renew our aged strawberry patch. There is much more to plant, we will plant peas, green beans and beets and finish the corn. On Memorial Day weekend we will put in about forty eight tomato plants and a variety of peppers, broccoli, (my new favorite food is steamed broccoli!), and plant some melon and squash. Other chores that need to be taken care of in the garden, prune out the dead brambles in the raspberry patch, they are very prickly and I always look as if I got into a fight with a cat when I am done, gloves are an absolute necessity, we need to pick a spot to plant some asparagus root and we want to make a built up box area to plant some new rhubarb and transplant some old rhubarb into.

Our steer, Jersey, who should have gone to butcher in February, has had a pleasant extension to his comfortable life because of all of the rain, it has just been too muddy to get a truck and trailer back to his home, so I know for sure Jersey is very happy about all of the rain :)

The new chickens, we started with a dozen chicks, we now have eight, at one month we moved them out of their brooder in the basement, they get kind of stinky, and out to the chicken coop, once they were two months we started opening the door so they could venture outside, the first time they went out a hawk got one of them, and now, and who can blame them, they are rather leery about the great outdoors. Anyway, I am pleased to report that the Great Eight, are all doing well, and in another couple of months should be producing a bountiful supply of brown eggs.

Today I am baking bread, I have a dozen loaves rising on the kitchen table, the grandsons are coming over later so they will be pleased to have warm bread and honey as an afternoon snack, and come to think of it, so will I.

I really like to sew, but have a hard time finding a pattern that I like, I recently visited a blog, clevsea.blogspot.com, Clevsea is an avid seamstress and she has pictures of completed garments along with the pattern she used, I particularly liked the jumpers she had made using an old McCalls pattern, I googled the pattern number, and amazingly found one copy for sale in my size for $4.65, so I ordered it, I am looking forward to its arrival. Clevsea's site then led me on to another site, Sense and Sensibilty at sensibility.com , this site has patterns for historical dresses from the Georgian, Regency, Edwardian, and Romantic era's, they are delightful. My daughter Emily's best friend Katy really likes Jane Austen, this morning on the ride to school I told the girls about the dress patterns, and suggested we make some and have a Jane Austen party, I think it would be a hoot!! Another site that has beautiful fabric at a reasonable price, and unique, handmade patterns, is Candle on the Hill, http://www.candleonthehill.net/store/catalog.php? item=265, this link takes you to their site, specifically to a pattern that I think I will order. If you do not sew you can order ready made items from Candle on the Hill.

Ben, our almost twenty year old son, purchased a new unicycle last week, it has a 36" diameter wheel and a brake. He is a little wonky on it, but is improving, it is a big change from his first unicycle.

Emily, who will be eighteen next month, is off to the prom this Saturday, she is getting very excited, they are going out for dinner, then to prom, then the afterprom party at the bowling alley which is supervised by parents, then home for a brief sleep and then a bus is taking the tired prom goers to Cedar Point for fun on Sunday - we will have a quiet weekend and an extremely tired daughter returned to us on Sunday evening.

Matt and Traci will be moving home from Wyoming in late June, early July, as Matt will have completed his time with the Air Force, it will be wonderful to have the two of them home for good.

Amber and Brad are busy with their new house, they had to purchase their very first lawn mower this spring, and they just love having a yard of their own to take care of, they dug a garden, Amber calls it her Salsa Garden, as she plans to plant tomatoes, peppers and onions, so she can make salsa. Henry and Patrick are just delightful little boys, growing up too quickly, but so much fun. Henry is two and half, last week he was playing in the front yard and noticed that when he yelled he could the yell come back, he was absolutely fascinated by his echo and much yelling ensued and he kept saying, "Henry talk to me", it was really neat. Patrick is now thirteen and half months, he has been walking for about two months now, he is a bundle of energy and a boy who knows what he wants!

If you are PRO-LIFE please read this

2011-04-18T13:55:00.002-04:00

I heard the following on the radio today, and I couldn’t believe it, a short internet search later, I had confirmed what I had heard.

PEPSICO, KRAFT, and NESTLE work with a company called Senomyx, who uses human embryonic kidney cells, taken from voluntarily aborted babies, to isolate taste receptors to test flavorings to find out which ones cause specific positive responses from the receptors. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS ON SO MANY LEVELS!

Not only are they testing on aborted fetus cells, they are manipulating chemicals to make flavors that will “addict” people further to most of the highly processed, low nutrition garbage they sell to the public in the form of food and beverages. I guess if they don’t abort a human for testing, they will kill you later along in life with the toxic effects of years of ingesting their processed foods and high fructose corn syrup laden products.

Please also be aware that some vaccines are also created from cell lines that originated from voluntarily aborted babies. You can read more about this over at Simple Living Alaska Blog:

http://simplelivingak.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/aborted-fetal-cell-lines-in-some-vaccinations/

We live in a sick, sick world.

PLEASE, PLEASE BOYCOTT PEPSICO, KRAFT, and NESTLE. PLEASE, PLEASE DO ALL YOU CAN TO LET EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS EVIL COMPANY SENOMYX and their HORRENDOUS taste testing methods.

PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY

Thank you,

Bean

Baby Pat Pat is 1

2011-04-02T11:55:00.004-04:00

Last night we got together to celebrate grandson Patrick's first birthday. We arrived at Brad and Amber's home at six, Henry was just waking up from a nap and Patrick was ready to start his birthday party.

Grandpa and Patrick are ready for the party to begin.

Getting ready to eat cake!

Where is my cake already??????

Yummy, it's good to be King for a day!!

Cake for everyone else

They're letting me make this mess and no one has told me No :)

I LOVE Elmo

A gift that will be enjoyed for years to come

2011-02-23T08:14:00.006-05:00

One Christmas, when I was a child, my parents decided to get a live Christmas tree. I have never forgotten that tree, after the joys of Christmas day the decorations were removed and the tree was placed outside and later in the spring my parents planted it. The years passed, the tree grew, and we emigrated to America. After six years in the US my mother went back to visit family in England and while there she stopped by our old home and took a picture of the tree, we were all amazed to see how tall it had grown. The tree grew and grew for almost thirty years and then there was a gale and the tree blew over and that was the end of our Christmas tree.

Many years ago my husband and I purchased an artificial Christmas tree, every year the box was opened, the tree assembled, decorated, and enjoyed, then taken down and put away. I enjoyed the convenience of an artificial tree, but missed the scent of a fresh cut pine, and the uniqueness of a fresh cut tree. I always wanted to get a live tree but never actually got around to finding one. Last fall I was out with my daughter Amber, we drove past a tree nursery where there were many pine trees for sale, I mentioned something about having to remember the tree nursery closer to Christmas and perhaps I would get around to purchasing a live tree this year.

Much to the frustration of my children, I do not put my Christmas tree up until a few days before Christmas Eve, so imagine my surprise when I arrived home one afternoon and saw sitting on my front porch a live Christmas tree! I walked up to the tree and tucked in amongst it's branches was a homemade card, I opened the card and discovered that our children and grandchildren had given the tree to us for Christmas. I was overwhelmed, what a truly wonderful gift, a gift we will enjoy for years to come. We brought the tree inside on Christmas Eve, decorated it with a few lights, ornaments and tinsel, celebrated Christmas and a few days later removed the decorations and placed the tree on our back deck where it will stay until we can plant it later in the spring. I enjoyed the tree when it was in our living room, I enjoy it each day as I wash dishes and look at it out of the window, and I will enjoy it for years to come when it is planted in our back yard, I know exactly where I want it planted. I enjoyed the tree when we decorated it, and have enjoyed the tree outside as it has been decorated many times with snow. I was so touched by the thoughtfulness and generosity of our kids, and grateful to Amber for coming up with the idea and getting it organized!!

The Snow Decorated Tree

The Christmas Decorated Tree

The Gift Givers

Projects worked on this winter

2011-02-21T14:08:00.010-05:00

Bed Covering

Barn Jacket

Emily's mittens

Hat, scarf, and mittens

Bonnet and Booties

Baby Quilt

Winter is a good time of year to work on knitting, crochet, and quilt projects. My Mom is an avid knitter and gives me lots of leftover yarn and with some of it I crocheted a nice blanket for our bed. About a year ago I started to knit myself a cardigan, it was a complicated stitch where I not only needed to continually count the stitches in each row, I also had to count the rows, somewhere I got out of sync and realized too late that I had made a major error early on. Discouraged I put the project away but felt guilty that the yarn I had purchased was going to waste. This fall I found a simpler cardigan pattern, I unraveled the messed up cardigan back, and started over to knit the "barn jacket" cardigan. I really like the barn jacket, it is a very roomy, comfy, cozy cardigan that I use it as a light weight coat. I knitted some mittens for daughter Emily using left over yarn from Mom, they match a scarf and hat my Mom had knitted for Emily about a year ago. I also knitted my self a hat, scarf and mittens to go with a new winter coat my parents gave me as a Christmas gift. This weekend I had a baby shower to go to, so over the past few weeks I made and quilted a baby quilt and crocheted booties and a bonnet.

Homemade Quilt Frame

2011-02-16T09:41:00.004-05:00

I had wanted a quilt frame for a long time, I make a lot of quilts, and last summer decided to make one. The total cost for the frame I made was about $30. I purchased two 8 foot long 1" x 2" smooth finish pieces of wood, and two that were 10 feet long, and 4 C clamps. I then took some leftover cotton material and cut it into 6 inch wide strips, I then folded the material in half lengthwise and in half again and pressed it with an iron. I made eight of the folded strips, each was approximately 44 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide, and 4 thicknesses of material. Using a staple gun and 1/2 inch staples I then attached the material strips to the lengths of wood,leaving about a quarter inch of the strip hanging over the edge of th e wood. I did not leave space between the staples as the strips need to stay firmly attached. At this point the frame is finished, it took me less than an hour to make.

To put a quilt into the frame I simply attach the backing of the quilt, using pins, to one of the fabric strips attached to the wood, I then attach the opposite side to a second frame piece, then take the C clamps and hold the two pieces of frame in place on my supports. (I have two bar stools and two arm chairs from a dining room table that I use to support the frame, they hold it a comfortable height so I can sit at the quilt to work on it). Once the top and bottom of the quilt backing are in place I then begin to pin the sides to the remaining two sides of the quilt frame, and then hold all pieces of the frame in place with the C clamps attached to my supports.

Once the quilt backing is in the frame, simply lay out the batting, then center the quilt top in place and pin the edges. Everything is now ready to quilt. As you finishing quilting a side you can undo the C clamp, roll the quilted part of the quilt around the frame and then fasten the clamps again.

I use my frame in the basement, as you can see by the picture, the quilt that is in takes up a lot of room, it is approximately 90 x 90. The nice thing about this frame is that I can use it for any size quilt. When not in use the four C clamps and the four pieces of frame are easy to store.

The pattern in the quilt pictured is called Jewel Box.

2010 Chicken Massacre

2010-12-17T09:13:00.006-05:00

On October 19th of this year we became the owners of fifty broiler chicks, after seven weeks of non-stop eating the cute little broiler chicks were not so cute and were well ready for butchering. For seven weeks I prayed that we would be blessed with good weather for butchering day, and we were, Saturday warmed up to a balmy thirty-eight degrees, the sun shone for most of the morning and conditions were perfect for the task at hand. Dave had a couple of friends come over to help, Johnny and Clayton arrived at ten in the morning, and the 2010 chicken massacre began.

Milk jugs make okay killing cones, they held up through most of the flock, but the last ten or so chickens we held upside down by their feet and Clayton would walk by and cut off their heads, as the milk jug killing cones pretty much were done. A few of the roosters were too big to go head first into the cones so they had to go to the chopping block.

We rented a contraption called the Whizbang Chicken Plucker - an amazing machine, it plucks the chicken clean in about 1 minute, and with forty plus chickens to pluck it saves a huge amount of time.

I really enjoyed my Saturday, we were busy for about four hours, the weather was nice, we all had a good time and all ended up with a nice lot of chicken for our freezers.

October 19, the day old chicks arrive

December 11th, into the killing cones

Headless chickens ready to head :) over to the scalder.

Into the scalder for forty five seconds at 150 degrees.

THE WHIZBANG CHICKEN PLUCKER

an amazing contraption!

Whirling around in the Whizbang!

Removing all the nasty bits!

Washed, bagged, and ready for the freezer!

St. Nicholas Eve Celebrations at Manitou

2010-12-06T17:36:00.008-05:00

Santa is a bit of blur, he just would not sit still!!!

Mrs. Claus eagerly unwraps her present!

Christmas Joy!

Dehydrator Fun - Making Beef Jerky!

As Santa and Mrs. Claus will be away this Christmas, we got together to celebrate the season yesterday, and it happened to fall on St. Nicholas Eve, which seemed very appropriate. Fun was had by all, as a fine dinner of prime rib was enjoyed and gifts exchanged. Pictured is Dave having fun today with his new possession, a food dehydrator, the first recipe he tried was beef jerky!

Contentment

2010-10-11T07:56:00.006-04:00

According to my Oxford American Dictionary content adj. contented, satisfied with what one has.

I have to say that I feel very satisfied and very content, with my life. There are moments that I feel such joy, and it is always over the very simplest of things. For example, in the morning I head out of the back door with the Lady, our puppy, and a bucket of feed for our steer, I walk towards the west, the sun behind me and lighting the trees at the back of our property everything looks peaceful in the early morning light. Lady and I stop to let out the chickens, she always has to jump up at the gate just in case the chickens don't realize she is there, then we head out to Jersey. Jersey always ambles over to greet us, although I am sure his main interest is for the contents of the blue bucket, rather than Lady and I. Then we turn to walk back to the house, oftentimes there is a light mist over the back yard, and I feel such contentment as I see our house rising out of the mist and the morning dew sparkling in the sunlight, it is truly one of my favorite things and when I feel stressed I picture this view.

I feel contentment when I hang out the laundry, behind the wash line there are a number of white pines, they always look beautiful against the blue sky and are a perching place for any number of birds, the clean laundry smells pleasant as it flaps in the breeze, the sun feels good against my skin, it is peaceful.

I feel contentment while making bread, this Saturday I made two batches of bread, each batch requires about fifteen minutes of kneading. I find the rhythm of kneading very relaxing, it slows everything down, it is just me and the bread dough working together, the dough changes slowly from a somewhat gloppy mess to a smooth, elastic mass. Then there is satisfaction in seeing ten loaves rising on the counter, at last ready to bake, and then the whole house filled with the delightful aroma of fresh baked bread. And finally, loaves of baked bread cooling throughout the kitchen, the inevitable cries of, "I want the heel!" as the first loaf is attacked with gusto.

I feel content when I preserve food. It can make for a long day, but what satisfaction in harvesting, cleaning, preparing, canning, and finally storing the food that we have grown.

I feel content when my newest grandson, Patrick, is snuggled up sound asleep on my shoulder, or when I play with him and he squeals and giggles and laughs. I feel content when my two year old grandson rushes up to me and hugs my legs, or calls me MamMaw, or stands in my pantry pointing to the ice-cream cone box and saying, " want ice-cweam".

I feel content when all of my children are home and we can sit down to share a meal together.

I feel content when my husband and I are working together on various projects around the house.

I feel content at the end of Mass, it is a joyful time, I leave feeling renewed, challenged by the homily, content and ready to face the week.

I notice that all of the things that make me content, the above list is but a small sampling of my contentment list, cost nothing yet are priceless to me. I can truly say that I am the definition of contentment - I am satisfied with what I have! :)

What brings you contentment?

Health Insurance - it makes me CRAZY!!!!

2010-09-29T10:44:00.005-04:00

I called our insurance provider today to ask who the least expensive service provider (hospital) is in our community - they cannot give out that information! How exasperating!!!!

I was told by our insurance provider that they have contracted specific pricing with each hospital and that they cannot let me know what it is and that my only option is to call the hospital ahead of time to find out what they will be charging. This option works well if you are scheduling a test or procedure ahead of time, certainly you can call around and find out who has the best price, but it really would not work well in an emergency situation. I suspect that the insurance provider pays the exact same amount for specific procedures at any of the hospitals so probably my out of pocket will be the same regardless.

BUT WHAT IF all of the medical facilities had transparent pricing, so you knew exactly what the charge would be and could compare prices to determine who has the best price? WOW what a novel idea and one the medical providers hate, because obviously we would all flock to the best price hospital and it would only be a matter of time before the others in town would have to offer competitive pricing in order to keep patient count up. This would be a win win for the patient and the insurance company.

Instead we have mystery pricing, there is the amount the hospital would love to charge, the amount they will contract to charge with the insurance company, the amount they will charge if you can pay cash up front, the amount they can charge to medicaid/medicare, the amount they can charge to the uninsured. Could you imagine going to Sears to buy a sweater, there is no price tag on the sweater, you will not know the price until it is rung up at the register, and then you HAVE to buy it, and your price will be completely different to the next person in line buying the exact same sweater, because their insurance is different to yours? It really doesn't make sense at all does it? But this is exactly how medical billing is done.

It is unfortunate that medical billing has become such a murky, convoluted mess, and there seems to be no way out of it, and I seriously doubt that any of the Obamacare solutions will make it simpler, or cheaper. Most medical bankruptcies occur to people who have insurance - think about that, they have insurance and still cannot afford to pay the remaining balances owed.

The best thing to do is make sure that you fully understand your insurance coverage, have a savings account with at least your full family deductible saved, and then add to it, this way when a medical situation occurs you are not left high and dry, work towards saving $10,000 as a medical emergency fund, you cannot afford not to. And, take care of your health, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Pictures from a recent visit to Shipshewana, Indiana

2010-09-16T10:08:00.004-04:00

One place I have always wanted to visit is the Shipshewana Flea Market, well on Labor Day I had an opportunity to check it out. It was okay, not something I would visit again, as most of the booths either sold knick-knacks, or "as seen on TV" merchandise. Usually while the Flea Market is open the cattle/horse/antique auction is also going on. Many people descend upon the little town of Shipshewana to attend one or both of these events each week, traffic is very heavy, so be warned if you ever decide to go.

I love visiting Shipshewana, one of my favorite stores there is Yoder's, they have a hardware store, department store and small grocery all sort of separated yet together in one building, there is a large hallway running through the center of the building, the walls are hung with beautiful quilts, and lined with an abundance of rocking chairs, mainly occupied by husbands. The hardware store carries all the usual hardware type things, and looks of cooking ware, china, toys, very heavy duty laundry drying racks, carts to haul your laundry basket to the wash line, brooms, outdoor cooking cauldrons for making large vats of apple butter, just to name a very few of the items to browse. The department store reminds me very much of an old five and dime store, it has a large fabric department, with an amazing selection, large rolls of table cloth fabric, bridal fabric, quilting fabric, wools, flannels, and on and on, rack after rack of quilting stencils, tons of quilting notions, and cross stitch items, hook after hook of buttons, lace, and that is just one half of the store, the other half sells good quality shoes, work boots, cowboy boots, underwear, cowboy hats, Amish hats and bonnets, work clothes, and baby clothes, they have lovely cardigans at very reasonable prices, handkerchiefs, cloth napkins, table cloths and dish towels.

While visiting Yoders' I was pleased to find a child size broom for grandson Henry, he is two, and just loves to "help" sweep, I also found a couple of quilt stencils that will work well for the quilt I am currently working on.

Shipshewana is the home of the Davis Mercantile Building, the original building burned down a number of years ago, but a new one was built and it is four floors of fun, there is a very large carousel on the top floor, a favorite with many children, an old fashioned candy store, a wonderful fabric store for quilters called Lollys, and the usual knick-knack stores, it is a nice place to wander around. There are plenty of restaurants in Shipshewana, the largest is, The Blue Gate, great food for a good prices, lots of noodles, potatoes, fried chicken, roast beef, you know lots of comfort food and then there is dessert, if you have room.

For a relaxing day out Shipshewana is the place to go, I visit a couple of times a year and always enjoy myself. http://www.shipshewana.com/

Below are a few pictures from our most recent visit.

One of the booths at the flea market!

Emily took this picture, I really like it, it is another flea market booth.

Henry is very pleased with his new broom!

A cutsie schoolhouse we found on a back road as we traveled home.

This made us laugh, a buggy towing a boat!

Some type of steam powered contraption sitting by a barn.

AHHH, one of my favorite places to go, YODER's!!

Well you know, when there are horse and buggies around you are going to have manure.

Horses waiting patiently for their owners to finish shopping.

You were a good dog Tasha - we will miss you dearly!!

2010-09-10T12:35:00.003-04:00

A sad day at our home today, we had to have our dear old dog Tasha put to sleep. Tasha joined our family 16 years ago. Dave came home one day and said come out to the car I have something, I followed him out, and there on the front passenger seat was what I thought was a kitten. I was wrong, it was a very small puppy, the runt of the litter, Dave had taken pity on her and brought her home. Tasha grew into a nice dog, she was a german shepherd/chow mix, she was loyal to the family, behaved well and shedded a lot!!! As Tasha grew older she suffered from arthritis, particularily in her hips, she became less and less active, but still pottered around the yard with us, followed us out to feed the cows, and really liked to lay on the deck and snooze her days away. Over the past several months Tasha declined, she barely left the deck or front porch, she would occasionaly wander a little ways into the yard, but getting up was a struggle for her, it took a huge amount of effort to stand. Yesterday evening I heard a strange noise and went to investigate, it was Tasha, she was attempting to get up and go into the kitchen, but was unable to get her back legs up, Dave carried her to her food bowls. Tasha eventually did get to standing and limped to the living room where she laid down. This morning she was still in the living room and completely unable to get up, we knew that the time we had dreaded had arrived, I made an appointment with our vet. Amber came over to help me carry Tasha to the car, carry her into the vet, carry her back to the room, it was very upsetting, yet I knew that it was the right thing to do. We were with Tasha to the end, we petted her, we cried, we sobbed, it was so sad........ We love you Tasha the cow dog, we miss you, you were a good dog and much loved and we are so glad that you were a part of our family for the past sixteen years. Good Bye Old Girl.

To-mah-to, To-may-to........

2010-09-03T14:02:00.006-04:00

The jars make an attractive display in my dining room.

A 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes will fill anywhere from 7 - 10 one-quart jars.

The tomatoes are washed and ready for processing.

Into boiling water for a few minutes, then plunged into cold water to loosen the skins, then peeled and cored.

Peeled and cored tomatoes are put into quart jars, each jar has 2 T of lemon juice and 1 t of salt added ahead of time. The lemon juice MUST be added to ensure that the acidity is high enough for safe processing in a hot water bath canner.

Jars are placed in the hot water canner. Quart jars process in boiling water for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Time for a break, how about a delicious cheese and tomato toastie and a giant mug of tea??

Canned goods stored in the basement.

Homestead Update

2010-09-01T10:47:00.003-04:00

Banana The Steer update: Last Saturday we went to the meat packer to check on our steer, Banana, we decided exactly how we wanted to have him butchered, and then to our surprise we were allowed to go back and see him. Hanging in the cooler were two large halves, formerly Banana, that were aging prior to butchering. One half weighed 330 lbs and the other 337 lbs. We anticipate a call later this week asking us to come pick up our meat, hopefully just in time for Labor Day.

Tomato update: I have canned 40 quarts, and was worried that I would not get many more, but with the very hot, humid weather we have had this week, 90+ degrees each day, the remaining fruit has ripened and I think I will easily get 20 quarts, or more, canned.

Cabbages update: We planted our cabbages very late, once the peas and onions were harvested we had room to transplant all of the cabbage seedlings , they are progressing slower than I had hoped I think in part because of the very dry, hot weather we have had. I hope that the cabbages take off because they probably have about 5 or 6 weeks at best to finish out.

New Puppy: Lady is doing well, she is still having a few "accidents" in the house, but has made a lot of progress (thank goodness for carpet cleaner machines). Lady now spends a good portion of her day outside, and enjoys going for walks, she sleeps in her cage at night and when we leave for an extended period of time.

Ben's car: finally the mechanic called, it definitely needs the water pump replaced, and the other problem is either a broken timing chain, or a problem with the cam shaft. We will repair the water pump and broken timing chain, but if it is the cam shaft we will not proceed with repair as it will cost more than the car is worth.

Fresh Salmon: Our neighbor went to NY state to fish, while there he caught a lot of salmon. Last night he gave us a huge filet taken from a 20 lb salmon, this was in "payment" for us feeding his pig while he was gone fishing. Emily and I enjoyed some of the salmon last night, pan fried in butter and served with a slice of homemade bread and butter - YUMMY!

Henry's Birthday

2010-08-27T07:58:00.007-04:00

Here are a few pictures from Henry's birthday party.

I like this cake!

Little Brother Patrick enjoys the party.

Henry shows off his favorite toy, Rex the Dinosaur.

Look at my new undies!!!!!

Ooooh, Birthday Cake.

Showing off my new Big Wheel.

Hurry up with the singing, I want to eat my cake.

Yogurt - How to Make It - EasyPeasy!

2010-08-24T05:58:00.007-04:00

Pictured above are the items you will need to make yogurt, Powdered Milk, Water, 1/4 cup of yogurt with live cultures, a thermometer, whisk, pan, and incubator. In a large pan add 1 and 1/3 cups of non-fat dry milk with 3 and 3/4 cups of water, whisk well, let sit, then whisk again. Heat the pan of milk on low until it reaches a temperature of 180, remove from heat and allow to cool to 115. When the milk has cooled to 115, add the 1/4 cup of yogurt and stir until blended.

Pour the milk/yogurt blend into the incubator (ours is a rubbermaid water cooler).

Put the lid on and let the yogurt sit overnight.

The following morning pour the thickened yogurt into a storage container and refrigerate. This recipe makes approximately 1 quart of plain yogurt.

This is an easy peasy way to make yogurt, I have always had success with this method, just make sure that you have plain yogurt with live cultures to start with, and that you do heat the milk to 180 and then make sure that it cools to 115. To make more, simply use a 1/4 cup of the yogurt you just made to get the next batch going!
Not only is this an easy recipe, it does not take any expensive equipment and it uses no energy while it incubates. I made a double batch in a larger water cooler, and I would assume that you could make large amounts in a regular cooler. The key is to have a container that is well insulated so the mixture stays warm long enough to thicken.

Farewell Banana

2010-08-22T20:02:00.006-04:00

Hey, What's going on?

I DON'T want to get in the trailer

Okay, I will get in the trailer but I am NOT happy about it.

You win, I'm in the trailer.

All good things come to end and this evening Banana left us, but not before putting up a fight about getting into the trailer. Emily took things in stride, as the truck left she said, "Bye Bye Banana, see you at dinner in a few weeks!"

Promised Pictures

2010-08-21T13:24:00.014-04:00

Lady, our new puppy, loves to lie on the register and cool herself with the a/c.

Lady supervising feeding time in the cow pen!

There were three in the feeder and the Big Steer said, " Move Over, Move Over", so they all moved over the Jersey was out,

There were two in the feeder and the Big Steer said, "Move Over, Move Over",
so they all moved over and the Big Steer said,

"Ah, that's better. "

Patrick's baptism, May 15, 2010.

I had a lot of fun figuring out the pattern to crochet the gown, blanket, and bonnet!

A Picture of me holding my precious grandbabies!

A Busy Time of Year!

2010-08-18T21:53:00.004-04:00

Phew!! We have been busy putting away our garden. We have canned a dozen pints of beets, a dozen pints of peas, fifty quarts of green beans, and ten quarts of peaches. The tomatoes are ready, we have put up 24 quarts so far, and will continue to can until there are none left! The potatoes and onions are all in and stored, and we have five, one gallon bags, of cut up green peppers in the freezer.
Dave cut our hay, we obtained a sickle bar this year, and after some new blades were put on and couple of adjustments made, it worked well. The hay was then raked up with a leaf rake, time consuming job, especially wearing when it is 90 out and very humid. A few days later the dried hay was hand loaded onto the pick up truck and moved to a couple of spots to make huge haystacks, fortunately our neighbor was able to help out, it was quite a job getting everything raked, collected up, and stored away.
On Monday we will be taking our steer, Banana, and our neighbors cow, Sprinkles, to the meat packer. Banana and Sprinkles have lived together in our field for the past year and a half, they were a few weeks old when they arrived, and so very cute, they are now large lumbering beasts, I am glad that they are not aware of whats going to happen next week :( We will have just one steer left, a jersey, that we share with our neighbor, he will be ready later in the year, notice we don' t have a name for the jersey.
A few weeks ago we added a puppy to our family, Lady is a blue heeler/golden retriever mix, she is now ten weeks old, she was free, is a friendly little thing and has settled in well. Lady is slowly getting the idea that we really would prefer that she take care of her personal business outside. Our older dog, Tasha, is sixteen, she came to live with us when she was six weeks old, she was the runt of the litter, she was free too. Tasha has been a great dog, she is now old, very stiff in the hips, and spends most of her day napping, she particularily enjoys a nice snooze on the deck each morning, and when the sun moves around the house making the deck too hot, she walks around to the front porch to take another nap!
I will post some pictures of Tasha, Lady, Banana, and Sprinkles.

Homemade Laundry Soap (and use less plastic)

2010-06-24T20:23:00.006-04:00

Just add water to these three inexpensive ingredients.

Grate 1/3 of a bar of Fels Naptha laundry bar soap.

Melt the grated Fels Naptha with 6 cups of water in a pan, then add 1/2 cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, and 1/2 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax, stir until dissolved then remove from heat. Pour 4 cups of hot water into a bucket, add the soap mixture and stir well. Then add 1 gallon, plus 6 cups of water to the mixture.

Let the soap sit for 24 hours, it will somewhat gel. Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry. Store the laundry soap in an empty laundry jug. Just think you will never have to recycle or throw away another large plastic laundry jug instead you can reuse the one you have! Total time to make this concoction - 20 minutes. I found this recipe at http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm there you will also find the calculations used to figure the cost per load - approximately 1 cent!!!

July 7, 2010 - Update on Homemade Laundry Soap
I have used the soap for almost two weeks and I have been pleased with it's performance. Clothing is clean, smells fresh, and no one has complained about any skin irritation. I have adjusted the amount used per load of laundry to 1/4 cup because we have a front load washer that uses less water per load.

Silent Auction

2010-06-18T08:26:00.002-04:00

My sister Marika is holding a silent auction to raise money for medical expenses for a man she knows. Many neat items are available at the silent auction, I donated a hand quilted baby quilt, pictured above. To visit the silent auction go to http://www.lunchforbill.com then select "silent auction". In addition to the silent auction Marika is selling all Jimmy John's subs for $3 each during lunch on June 23rd - $1 from each sale will be donated to the medical fund and a local business will match the monies collected! Be sure to visit the West Jefferson location of Jimmy John's on June 23rd.

CLASS OF 2010

2010-06-12T12:58:00.008-04:00

Last night we went to the graduation for the class of 2010 - it was a nice ceremony, and we were very proud of our own graduate Benjamin! Afterwards we came home and celebrated with family, we enjoyed pizza and cake, Ben had requested his favorite cake, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, covered in m&m's, it was a pleasant evening.

It was eight years ago that our oldest child, Matt, graduated from highschool, I remember saying, "one down, three to go!", well last night made it three down, one to go, daughter Emily will graduate in 2012.

How time flies, it seems not so very long ago that we had four youngster running around the house keeeping us busy, and now they are all grown up.

Are you a JOYFUL Christian?

2010-06-08T05:57:00.005-04:00

View 1
Do you see the wonder of creation in everything?
Do you seek to see Christ in everyone?
Do you offer praise and thanksgiving to God?

View 2
Do you complain about your lot in life and wallow in self-pity?
Do you only see faults in others?
Do you continually bring your "wish list" to God in the form of prayer?

The other morning I heard a brief meditation on the radio, in summary, it was a story aboutf a woman who stood before Jesus and asked, "I want my life to make a difference", Jesus replied, "I don't give fruit, only seeds". The message is that each of us are given all that we need from God, but it is up to us how we choose to use those gifts. We can do nothing, and bear no fruit, or we can use our gifts and bear much fruit. As the Gospel tells us, we reap what we sow.

As Christians we should be JOYFUL, not a fake happiness, but a JOY infused in our soul because we know the Love and Mercy of God and we see God working in all aspects of our life. We are JOYFUL because we know God is with us!

We all know people who have faced tought situations in life, some remain joyful throughout, and others wallow in self-pity. When my mother-in-law was dying of cancer, she never talked about her pain, she never complained, she always had a smile on her face, and she spent a lot of time in prayer - when the end was near she said she was ready to go. My father-in-law lovingly took care of Sharon, went with her to all of her treatments, sat with her when she needed him, and never complained and lovingly took care of everything. My in-laws were truly an inspiration and an example of coping with a difficult situation with grace and dignity.
On the flip side are those who always take a "woe is me" attitude to everything that happens to them in life, these people tend to use absolutes in the way they talk about their life - such as, I never, I always. A lot of time is wasted comparing what they perceive that they don't have compared to others, such as, "I never get to go on vacation, everyone else does", when you hear a person speak like this it sounds childish. This "woe is me" attitude is really a way for a person to avoid responsiblity for their situation - they choose to see only what they can't do and choose to never see what they can do. We must use the talents God has blessed us with and bloom where we are planted.

How are you going to use the gifts you are blessed with today?

Blessed Franciscan Morning!

2010-06-05T12:51:00.003-04:00

Our diocese received a new bishop last fall, one of the first things Bishop Rhoades did was to move a group of Franciscan Brothers to Fort Wayne. The brothers moved to a closed parish and are in the process of repairing the church building, they live in the old rectory. The brothers all wear homemade, traditional franciscan robes - a long brown robe made of rough fabric - they do not wear shoes and go barefoot most of the time. The church building is in rough shape, it is usable so the brothers are "rebuilding the church"; how Franciscan is that ??? The building is old, when the parish closed the pews were removed and taken to another parish, the stained glass windows are beautiful and appear to be in good shape, the floors are solid but rough and the paint is peeling everywhere. The brothers do NOT accept money, but will take food donations, using what they need and re-donating elsewhere if they do not need the items. Pretty COOL!!

Today the brothers started the first of First Saturday Devotions - it was attended by about thirty people. This simple, prayerful time, started with Mass, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, some quite time for personal prayer and adoration, recitation of the rosary, followed by a reflection on the mysteries of the rosary, then benediction and dismissal.

When I arrived the brothers were waiting in front of the church and in the parking lot to greet visitiors and direct us inside. How very joyful and excited the brothers were to welcome us to this first, of hopefully many, devotions.

When I walked into the church there were no pews, just a hodge podge of benches and folding chairs, I quickly spotted my franciscan brothers and sisters from Holy Family Fraternity, and sat with them. I was impressed by the brothers, some young, some old, all seated together, all dressed in brown robes, most with long beards, all with bare feet.
Afterwards the brothers gathered outside to visit with us. I spoke with Brother Lawrence Mary Guadalupe, he has been with the brothers for eight months, prior to joining he was a carpenter and handyman. A pleasant young man originally from rural NY. Based upon the amount of repair/carpentry work to be done Brother Lawrence will be busy for a long time! Some brothers are college/university educated, some are not, all are joyful and happy to part of the community.
As an SFO (secular Franciscan order) I am a very excited that we have this group of Franciscan brothers living in our midst - I will definitely be attending the First Saturday Devotion on July 3!

Around the house

2010-06-04T06:02:00.003-04:00

Garden Update
We are still planting! We have had so much rain that it has been a challenge to get things planted in a timely manner, we hope to finish this weekend. We have about a hundred potato plants up, rows of onions, peas, beets, and greenbeans are growing rapidly. The lettuce I planted has not come up yet. Forty-eight tomato plants are in, and we will finish putting out the pepper plants and the cucumbers. I picked the first of our strawberries yesterday, we will not have nearly as many berries as we had last year, I think partly due to a couple of very late frosts. A cherry tree we planted five years ago bore fruit this spring, there were not many cherries, but the few we ate were very nice! The peach tree has about 100 little peaches on it, hopefully some of them will make it to maturity.
I spent some time yesterday afternoon weeding, a horse shoe hoe makes clearing weeds a cinch. Grandson Henry ran around the gardens with his plastic hoe and rake and had a good time playing in the dirt and eating strawberries while his Mommy and baby brother Patrick watched.

Sewing Update
I finished a quilt for new Grandson Patrick. I am currently working on a quilt to donate to a silent auction fundraiser, the proceeds will go to assist with medical bills for a man with cancer. A local Walmart is getting rid of it's fabric department, initially the fabric was marked down 25%, then 50%, and now 75%, although the reduced prices are nice I am disappointed that they will no longer be selling fabric. I have stocked up on fabric for several projects, Henry and Patrick have new matching shirts, and will have a few more over the next weeks, Dave has one new shirt, and one to be made.

Family Update
Son, Benjamin, will graduate from high school next Friday, he plans to attend a local college in the fall. Ben doesn't want an open house for graduation, he would prefer to have a bonfire with friends a little later in the summer. We want to celebrate his graduation with friends and family, but are fine with skipping the whole "open house" thing - instead we have invited close family and friends to enjoy some pizza and refreshments with us following the commencement excercise.
Daughter Emily left yesterday, with her friend Katie, for a four week visit to Europe, the girls will be travelling from Venice to Amsterdam with my parents, staying in campsites all along the way - it sounds like a wonderful trip - and one that they will both always remember. I am being an anxious Mom this morning, they are due to land in Venice any minute, I was up at four this morning to check the United website to make sure that they landed safely in Munich, they did, and I just checked the website again and they have landed in Venice, I should be getting a phone call shortly! Phew!!! The girls will be exhausted, they left at three-thirty yesterday afternoon, and arrived at their final destination at six-thirty this morning, which is twelve-thirty in the afternoon Venice time. Ahhh, life in a tent for four weeks!!

NEW GRANDSON HAS ARRIVED!!!

2010-04-03T02:07:00.006-04:00

Our second grandson was born this morning at 1:32 am April 3rd, 2010!! Patrick James weighed in at 10lbs even, and measured 22 inches long! Patrick has a lot of coal black hair and, of course, is absolutely adorable. Amber and son-in-law Brad are doing fine, big brother Henry is a bit bewildered by it all!!!

Spolied Baby!!

2010-03-13T08:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday evening we watched our grandson Henry, when his mother arrived to pick him up she declared, "Henry you look like a spoiled brat!" :) King Henry was reclined on the sofa with Grandma and Grandpa, he had a rice cake in hand and was being spoonfed applesauce! All was right with little Henry's world that is for sure!

Laundry Shenanigans

2010-03-05T10:57:00.008-05:00

Yea!! High in the mid forties today and abundant sunshine. I am washing bedding today and it is so nice to be able to hang it outside to dry. We rarely use our dryer spring, summer, and fall, we hang everything outside to dry. About a month ago our dryer broke, we have had it for years and years, it lasted so long because it wasn't constantly in use. Anyway we had a pile of laundry to do and we were going to take it to the laundromat to dry it. We really didn't want to spend our afternoon hanging out at the laundromat, so decided to hang wash line in our basement and hang the laundry to dry. Well long story short the clothes dried quickly and it has worked well for us, and we still haven't made it over to the parts store to get a new heating element for the dryer. I am anxious to recieve our gas and electric bills this month to see what kind of impact not using the dryer has had. We have been very pleased with our gas bill this winter season, the highest bill we received was just over $90, gas has been cheaper/therm than prior years, but we have also used less by keeping our thermostat set at 62 overnight and when we are away, and at 64 during the day/evening when we are home.

I googled clothes drying rack today and found this website :

www.clothes-drying-rack.com/index.html

I thought the videos were fun, and judging by the second video it appears that
people who hang their laundry to dry have a lot more fun!!

Saturday

2010-02-20T07:59:00.002-05:00

Not too much going on around here today, Emily has a jazz band competition a bit later, so we will be going to enjoy that. Weather is supposed to be snowy and rainy for the next couple of days so I imagine the track out to the cows will become muddy, muddy, muddy. The temperatures will be highs of 39, and that is absolutely wonderful - after so much cold 39 will seem balmy!

Ash Wednesday

2010-02-17T09:18:00.003-05:00

Today, Ash Wednesday, starts the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting and abstinence. Lent lasts for forty days and represents the forty days Jesus spent in the desert after He was baptized by John the Baptist. It is also connected with the forty years the Israelites spent in the dessert.
Lent is a time of preparation, it is time of prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial. Different people do different things during Lent, children will often give up candy as an act of self-denial. During Lent the church offers us many opportunities to spend more time in prayer, parishes usually have The Stations of The Cross each week during Lent, many offer opportunites for Eucharistic Adoration, and all should make an effort to take part in the sacrament of Reconcilliation.
Lent is also the time of final preparation for Catechumen's, those preparing to enter the Church, as Holy Week approaches the Catechumen will participate in several Rites, concluding at the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday, where they will come into full communion with Church, it is a wonderful time. Catechumen's may be baptized, confirmed and receive first communion, or confirmed and received first communion if they were already baptized. The Easter Vigil Mass is a brilliant, vibrant Mass celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior and makes all of our preparation time during Lent well worth it.
Lent is what you want to make of it, it can be a time of prayer and fasting and spiritual growth, or it can be a time of nothing, just griping that you can't eat meat on Friday's.
Our parish bulletin states, "We remind ourselves that the Holy Season of Lent is the time for all of us to search our minds and hearts and make the necessary improvements in our spiritual lives."

May the season of Lent be fruitful for all.

Local newspaper does not report pro life march!

2010-02-01T09:33:00.003-05:00

It amazes me that our local newpaper did not report upon the annual march for life rally in Fort Wayne. I guess people who are Christian and believe in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death, are a really scary bunch and must not be reported upon by the local paper.
It makes me wonder just how many things are not reported to us because the newspaper doesn't agree with the objectives of specific groups. It is a form of censorship, and it is wrong!

Annual March for Life

2010-01-30T18:23:00.005-05:00

Today was the Annual March for Life in Fort Wayne. The featured speaker was Abby Johnson, a former Director for a Planned Parenthood facility in Bryan, TX. Abby worked for PP for 8 years and then resigned after witnessing an ultrasound of an abortion taking place, and seeing the 13 week old baby fighting for it's life as it was killed. It became apparent to Abby that the babies do feel pain and abortion really does end a human life; she resigned from Planned Parenthood and has become a PRO LIFE advocate, traveling the country giving speeches, and working for 40 Days for Life. The forty days pray and fast begins at the start of Lent, February 17, 2010. Visit the website http://www.fortydaysforlife.com/ for more information.
The Allen County Right for Life Rally was very good. About a 1000 people attended, many city, state, and federal elected officials spoke, and it was wonderful to see just how many are PRO LIFE and do NOT want to see taxpayer dollars support abortion. Many Priests and Pastors were present and opened and closed the event with prayer. After the rally we Marched For Life through downtown Fort Wayne, it was wonderful to see so many people involved, particularily as it was so cold, 13 degrees with a brisk wind!
Everyone speaking at the rally challenged us to get involved in the Right to Life Movement in some way, whether giving a financial donation, volunteering time, praying and holding vigil outside of the abortion clinic, or voting PRO LIFE - we can all do something.
Whether it is the unborn child, the chronically ill, the elderly, or those deemed to have a low quality of life, we MUST respect life at all ages and stages.

"It is a poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.." Mother Theresa.

Yea the Quilt is Finished

2010-01-23T15:17:00.003-05:00

I finally finished this quilt last night at 11:30 pm. The quilt is made from left over fabric from other quilts I have made. There is fabric from the quilts I made for my sons, for my daughters, for my mom, and fabric from the quilt my daughter made for our grandson. It is a simple nine patch block hand quilted diagonally through the blocks.

Random Updates

2010-01-22T07:26:00.004-05:00

Good Grief!! The quilt I am attempting to finish by tomorrow is almost done, YEA! But my house is now a disaster :( I hope I can post a picture of the finished quilt tomorrow, it seems very likely.

The Maine Baked Beans I made the other day turned out well. I have never made baked beans from scratch before, they take about 6 hours to cook and this is after soaking the beans overnight. I do not have a bean pot so decided to cook the beans in the crockpot instead of the oven. The beans smelled wonderful as they cooked, and tasted good when they were done.

Today I need to get the house pulled back together before I do another stitch on the quilt. This morning Ben and Emily are home later than usual due to a two hour delay caused by freezing drizzle. I am going to clean up the kitchen and make them some pancakes. The kitchen is in a state, last night I planned to make chili for dinner while I worked on the quilt, then Ben decided that he wanted to learn to make chili so with a bit of direction he made it and I quilted! Everyone enjoyed the chili, but it was a bit of a free for all, Henry was here and chili is not suitable for a 17 month old, so he had a cheese toastie and apple sauce, then Emily wanted a cheese toastie with her chili, son-in-law Brad arrived so he ate chili, we had crackers all over the place, the butter was melted in the microwave rather than softened, and everyone kept bumping into each other in the kitchen! It was enjoyable chaos!

Around the House

2010-01-20T07:26:00.002-05:00

Knitting
I finished a prayer shawl last week, I learned how to do cable stitch while working on it, and then gave the shawl, along with a copy of Pilgrims Progress, to a dear friend for her birthday. My friend just loved the shawl and is looking forward to reading Pilgrims Progress. I am not sure what I want to knit next, I have a cardigan in progress, but need to undo the back and re-knit as I made a mistake in the pattern, I am not feeling motivated about this project at the moment.

Quilting
I am now finishing a quilt that has been in progress, partially quilted, for a long time, I have worked on the quilt every day for the past week, and believe that I should have it finished by the weekend, I will post a picture of the quilt once it is finished. In my sewing room I have two other quilts in progress, still piecing, I would like to get both of the tops done by the end of the month. I will then need to stop all work on the two quilts to work on the baby quilt for grandchild #2, as he is due to arrive on March 25!

Today
I have to bake more bread today. I am trying a recipe for Maine Baked Beans, I soaked the beans overnight, so today I can move to the next step, baking the beans for about 6 hours with onion, bacon, sugar, molasses, water, and a couple of spices - this recipe makes a lot of beans and they are supposed to freeze well for future use. I am going to make a pot of soup today, we will eat some for supper and I will freeze the rest and reheat for lunches etc.

New Year Traditions

2009-12-30T07:38:00.005-05:00

At quilting the other evening we were talking about New Years traditions and what each of us does to mark the first day of the new year.

Two of us serve pork and cabbage on new years day, this meal is supposed to bring good luck for the new year. The pork can be served anyway, a roast, ribs, sausage, as can the cabbage, sauerkraut is a good cabbage option. This was not a tradition in my family, and it was not a tradition in Rose's family, we both learned of it from our inlaws. I have not decided what I will serve this year, it is narrowed down to two choices, stuffed pork loin with roast potatoes and cabbage augratin, or a pork roast cooked in sauerkraut with mashed potatoes.

Bonnie will serve black eyed peas cooked all day into a robust soup. Bonnie's husband is from North Carolina, and this tradition comes from his family, it is a popular new years day meal in the South. Eating black eyed peas on new years day only, brings promises of wealth for the new year! Maybe I should add black eyed pea soup to my pork/cabbage menu :) A popular black eyed pea recipe is call Hoppin' John, if you have left overs to serve the next day, they are called Skippin' Jenny! Beans have been thought to bring good luck since the Roman times - and they are very nutritious, high in fiber, and inexpensive, a winner all around.

The other ladies had no particular tradition for new years day.

Another new years tradition, not involving food, but I bet a steaming bowl of Bonnie's Black Eyed Pea Soup would be welcome after participating in this activity, is the Polar Bear Plunge. Crazy people plunge themselves into icy cold rivers, lakes, ponds, or any cold body of water at hand, for no particular reason other than it is new years day and it is cold outside??? I am not sure if this is to bring good luck to the plungers, or what, but everyone seems to have a good time.

What are your new years traditions?

Anniversary - 26 years and counting

2009-12-27T08:35:00.005-05:00

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary! We went to the butcher shop yesterday to pick out two steaks to cook for dinner this evening - of course hollandaise sauce will be on the menu. We have a lot to celebrate - 4 great kids, a great son-in-law, and a great daughter-in-law, a splendidly perfect grandson, and another grandson due to arrive in March.
We both know that our parents played a big role in helping us get up on our feet in the early years of our marriage, and we are forever grateful for their love, caring, and support of us.

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-20T20:52:00.004-05:00

We had such a pretty snowfall Friday evening and most of Saturday. The temperatures hovered around freezing causing a heavy wet snow to fall, it clung to the evergreens, trees, and bushes and transformed us from the dull days of winter to a winter wonderland! This morning the sun was shining, and the snowy winter scene outside was something to behold! Everything sparkled in the sunlight, the temperatures were perfect, and the snow packed well for snowball fights, snowmen, and sledding!

A Ladies Day of Prayer

2009-09-23T07:27:00.003-04:00

This past Saturday I particpated in A Ladies Day of Prayer, organized by the Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend, it was an excellent day. My good friend Cyndi arrived at my house at seven in the morning, and we then set off on a forty minute drive to Lagrange, to St. Joseph church, it was a beautiful, sunshiny morning, so we took back roads, and very much enjoyed the Indiana countryside. The guest speaker for the day was Sr. Ann D'Arcy, from the Diocese of Boston, she is the sister to our Bishop, what a fiesty, fun-loving lady, she spoke to us about the power of prayer, a session in the morning and one in the afternoon. Sister spoke about how sometimes we pray and pray about a situation and it does not seem to change, (I think we can all relate to that), however she said that in praying perhaps the situation doesn't change, BUT we DO! I found this very comforting, and realised that it is true, it was one of those Aha moments for me. During the day we had opportunity to attend two break out sessions, the first was, Being Quiet with God's Word, we learned about Lectio Divina, (sacred reading). We read the gospel for last Sunday, then we were guided through a meditation upon the word. There are four parts to Lectio Divina, Read (lectio), Reflect (meditatio), Pray (oratio), Dwell (contemplatio). Cyndi and I both though that Lectio Divina would be ideal for Adoration Chapel. Our second session was Praying through Meditation, the presenter showed us four icons, (religious pictures), and explained the symbolism of icons, and how they tell much more than they appear to on first glance. An icon is a picture, but they are not considered to be painted, but written, the bodies of those pictured in icons are never proportionate, as specific characteristics have special meaning. For example one of the icons we looked at was the Icon of the Holy Trinity - the faces are identical, this is because the three figures represent the trinity, so although three, they are all one - the figure representing the Spirit is dressed in a green robe (new life), and a blue robe (divinity), a mountain is pictured behind the Spirit, because in the bible God was often encountered in the mountain. Christ wears a blue robe (divinity), a brown robe (humanity), a gold sash (kingship), he rests two fingers on the table, one represents his divine nature, the other his human nature, (in all icons you will notice that Christ always holds out two fingers to represedn the divine and human). The Father wears a blue robe (divinity) almost hidden by a shimmering robe, He clasps a staff, showing His authority in heaven and on earth, behind Him is a house, this is the house of love where the Trinity dwell. "This house of love has no boundareis and embraces everyone who dwells there. There is a place at the table fo you! The Trinity invites you to enter and stay with the Divine Persons at the table." This session was very interesting, and after attending I know that I will never look at an icon the same way again. By providence, while in the library Monday morning, a book out on display was by Sr. Wendy, all about icons, so of course I picked it up, I started reading it last night and it is very good and a nice follow up to our session on Saturday. Anyway, I digress, back to the Day of Prayer, in the afternoon our dear Bishop D'Arcy arrived, (such a good man, our diocese is truly blessed to have him lead and serve us), after a brief talk we moved to the sanctuary for Eucharistic Adoration and Reconcilliation, then ended the day with Mass.

Prayer Life and Discernment

2009-09-14T09:46:00.002-04:00

Oh Boy! While I pray a lot throughout the day, not formal prayer particularily, but prayer to God about different things that come to mind as I move through the chores of my day, prayer for family, for work, for our country, prayers of thankfulness, but it seems that my prayer time is spent more seeking resolution to concerns that I have about situations, and giving thanks, and less in adoration of our Lord, this I need to change! I have times each year where I am very fervent, I get up early, I read the Bible and meditate upon the Word of God, and spend time in formal prayer, this can last for a month or more, and then I seem to fizzle out, drift for serveral months, and then get back in line again, this cycle has gone on for a long time, and I get very frustrated with myself. Does anyone else deal with this struggle in their prayer life?

Another area that I struggle is with discernment, we often hear that we should pray for discernment regarding a particular issue we may be dealing with at the time, but it is very difficult to totally remove my own bias about the situation, and truly be open to what God's will is for me. I do know that whatever God's will is for me, it will not contradict the bible, or teachings of the church, but it is extremely difficult to remove my will from the equation. I know that I am not the only one who struggles with this.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions, comments, thoughts, please share.

How do you deal with hard times in your life?

2009-09-08T17:58:00.005-04:00

I know that no one ever said that life is easy, but for some people life seems really hard, and there seem to be no easy answers. I like to read blogs, and some that I follow tell a sad story, the mother who is blessed to stay home and raise/homeschool her children, but has no insurance, and her husband is working three jobs, they are barely scraping by, life is a struggle, they have a lot of medical debt, they are having a hard time seeing God in all of this........the retired couple who want to homestead, but are struggling with health issues, financial issues, and don't know where God is calling them to be. Don't get me wrong, these two bloggers do not complain, generally they are upbeat, but at times their struggles get them down. Life is hard, sometimes it is difficult to find the positives when we are suffering, yet often times it is suffering that brings us closer to God. In the book Anne of Green Gables, Anne says that she is in the depths of despair, and Marilla responds, "to despair is to turn one's back on God", how true this statement is. No matter what is going on in your life it is important to thank God for your blessings, and to know that He is with us at all times.
If I am facing a difficult situation I pray for the grace to see me through it. We should ask others to pray for us when we have difficulties, and we should pray for others when we know they are struggling, and we should let people know that we are praying for them. Often when we are struggling, others are struggling more, a good way to take focus off of your own problems is to help others, donate a little something to the local food bank, or soup kitchen, volunteer, set time aside each day to pray for others, put a smile on your face and praise God, take a moment to lift someone else up with a friendly comment and a smile.
Don't dwell on your issues, this is self-defeating and does not resolve anything. This is not to say that we should ignore problems, we should think about what is going on, pray about it, make a plan of action, and move forward. This saying is an oldie, but a goodie, "Let Go, and Let God".

Sewing, Sewing, Gone!!!

2009-09-05T08:40:00.002-04:00

Whew!!! What a busy Friday night. Earlier this week, the mom's who volunteered their sewing services to the marching band, were called to action. A huge roll of sequined material, and a large amount of lycra, some patterns, and thread were delivered to us, and we were asked to have nine jump suits completed for the Color Guard in time for the first marching band competition next Saturday!!! Yikes, after a moment of panic we got ourselves organized, three mom's showed up at my house at 5:30 last night, and we sized, measured, cut, assembled and sewed the jump suits, and at midnight we had them completed, except for hemming the pant legs, and a little finishing to the top. I really think the chocolate zucchini bread helped fuel us along :) All of the jump suits left my house, they will be tried on by the girls, and on Wednesday evening we will make any necessary adjustments, hem the legs, and finish the tops, I hope we are not up until midnight. We had a really nice time, we were busy sewing, sewing, sewing, and chatting, and laughing, and as we worked the evening away.

Busy Time of Year!!

2009-09-02T06:33:00.005-04:00

I have to say that every year I never cease to be amazed at the bounty from our gardens, it is amazing just how much grows in such a short period of time,. Thinking back to late April and early May, preparing the gardens, planting the seeds, waiting inpatiently for the first green shoots to appear, then, it seems almost overnight, the plants are established and producing. There is a satisfaction in growing, cooking, and preserving food that you have grown yourself, and an awe in all that is provided for our family, when we are in the garden we feel very close to God!
Well with all of the product out of the garden the canning and freezing has been in overdrive, earlier this summer the green beans and peas were ready, we did about 90 pints of green beans, and a dozen pints of peas. Peas are a lot of work for a little, but I really love peas, and we have had nice time spent together chatting as we shell pea pod after pea pod... Jams are made, the strawberries and black raspberries did well this year, the tomatoes are going crazy, we have put up 63 quarts so far, and more to come, cabbages are looking good, we have a dozen jars of kraut on the go, and another dozen will get started today, green peppers are doing well, we have 5 quart bags of chopped peppers in the freezer, and will be adding to that today. Bags and bags of potatoes and onions are hanging in the basement, and some onions were chopped and bagged an put into the freezer. It is also enjoyable to make meals with most of the ingredients coming out of the garden, we have eaten some of our sweet potatoes, the first time we have grown them, and they were very nice. Our corn did horribly, I think we need to add nitrogen to the soil, but as any gardener knows, there is always next year :)
In addition to all of the harvesting we have been busy with other projects, Dave had to dig up and repair the water pipe coming into the house from the well, it had developed a leak, but is now fixed! I thank God that my husband is always able to take care of things around the house! Dave has also been busy, with the help of our neighbor, putting up fence posts so that the cow pasture can be enlarged, and he had to dig out a tree stump behind the barn so that he can build a lean to for some additional storage. I have been busy sewing, I made a couple of cute shirts for our grandson Henry, a new shirt for Dave, and a couple of shirts for gifts. I am working to finish hand quilting a quilt that has been put aside for a while, my goal is to have it finished by the 14th of September, I work best with a deadline. My next fun little project is to knit a sweater for Henry, winter will be here before we know it.
I love this time of year, the days are beautiful, blue skies, puffy white clouds, low humidity, comfortable temperature, the insects outside make a glorious chorus all day long for us to enjoy, it is truly wonderful. Soon it will be time to clean up the vegetable gardens and let them rest over winter, but by February, when we are inpatient for spring to arrive, we will start planning next years garden and the whole cycle will begin again!
Ways to use some of the bounty from your garden:
Homemade Pizza:
We use a little bit of ranch dressing instead of a tomato based sauce, sometimes we make a wholewheat thin crust, and other times a thick crust, top the pizza with onions, peppers, and tomatoes from the garden, a little seasoning, some cheese, whatever you have handy, and voila - a fabulous pizza for all to enjoy.
Soup:
Brown up about 1lb of hamburger, add an onion, some potatoes, carrots, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes (if using fresh tomatoes peel them first), celery, a couple cups of broth, season as you would like, I usually add a bit of salt and pepper, and let it cook, this is nice served with cornbread.
Soup:
Cook tomatoes, diced potatoes, green beans and ham until all vegetables are tender, this is a rich soup, and very nice with cornbread. Generally you do not need to add salt to this, the ham adds enough salt as it cooks.
Egg Mush Sandwiches:
Boil eggs, chop up, add a chopped tomato, add a little mayonaisse, salt and pepper, mix up, serve in sandwiches - this it SO good, even better when served on homemade bread.

Pizza Dough Recipes:
Wholewheat Thin Crust
3 T hot water
3 T milk
1 1/4 tsp yeast
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
1T oil
3 T wholewheat flour
5/8ths of a cup of white flour.

mix first 6 ingredients together, let yeast start to work, add flours, knead, place in a greased bowl to let dough rise, this should take about 20 minutes. Roll out the dough, add toppings, bake in a 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until done.

Thick and Chewy Pizza Dough
3/4 cup of warm water
1 T yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 T oil
2 cups of flour

mix first 5 ingredients together, let yeast start to work, add flour, knead, place in a greased bowl to let dough rise, this should take about 20 minutes. Roll out the dough, add toppings, bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Homemade Bread recipe:
Oatmeal Bread
this makes four loaves, they freeze well, just double bag.
1 cup of wholewheat flour
2 cups of oats
1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed
2 T salt
4 T butter
4 cups of boiling water

Mix the above ingredients together, let cool to luke warm.

Mix 2 T yeast with 1 cup of warm water, add to oatmeal mixture.

Add 9 to 10 cups of bread flour, I usually add only 9, and add the last as needed. Knead the dough until it is smooth, about 10 minutes, place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise, about 40 minutes. Punch down dough, divide into four, using a rolling pin and roll the dough into a large rectangle, fold into thirds, then roll into a loaf, place into baking pan. Cover the pans, let the loaves rise, about an hour and half, then bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes, just until lightly brown.

Enjoy!

Beautiful Rainbow This Evening

2009-08-22T20:53:00.005-04:00

"God added: This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the convenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings."

Genesis Chapter 9, verses 12 - 15

Happy 70th Birthday to Dad and Mom

2009-08-19T21:29:00.008-04:00

Sunday afternoon was the birthday party for Dad and Mom, both turn 70 in 2009, hard to believe as they are so active and enjoy life and are always open to adventure. Again all of the family was on hand, we enjoyed filet mignon, grilled to perfection by Marika's friend Brian. My nieces thought that Nick and Michelle should have a practice wedding, just so they know what to do when the actual day comes, so after a hunt for some dresses for the "bridesmaids", the faux wedding started. Emily played the wedding march on the piano, my Dad walked Michelle down the "aisle", preceded by the lovely trio of bridesmaids, and the happy couple embraced, and... well that was it, it was only a practice run, but it was fun. Later in the afternoon Emily played Rhapsody in Blue as a birthday gift to Grandma and Grandpa and Caitie played And When the Saints Come Marching In. Happy Birthday was sung, cakes were cut, and all in all it was a fabulous day.

Happy Birthday Dad and Mom - and May the Adventures Continue!

A Celebratory Dinner Out

2009-08-19T20:45:00.004-04:00

Saturday evening was wonderful! A dinner had been planned to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Nick and Michelle. Dinner was excellent, I love rare Ahi Tuna, and the restaurant we went to does really good Ahi Tuna. How wonderful to spend the evening with my husband, both sisters, my future brother-in-law, and my parents! How fortunate and blessed I feel to have had this time together, we all enjoyed each others company, and were the only people left in the dining room when we realised that the staff were kind of waiting around for us to leave so they could go home. Life is Good :)

Marching Band Parent Preview

2009-08-19T20:28:00.003-04:00

Beautiful, hot, summer weather was on tap Saturday as the Marching Band presented their show at the Parent Preview. Emily and her fellow band mates had spent the previous two weeks, working eight hours per day, to learn their drill and music, and their hardwork paid off, as they did an excellent job performing.

It was also a special day as my sister Michelle, and her fiance Nick, who were visiting from England, were able to attend the Parent Preview, along with my Dad and Mom, everyone enjoyed the show. Emily was thrilled to have so many special guests watching the performance.

And more birthday's

2009-08-11T20:48:00.006-04:00

Saturday was husband Dave's 51st birthday, and son Benjamin's 18th birthday, we had a nice family celebration at home. Delicious hamburgers on homemade buns, still warm from the oven, sliced tomato and onion fresh from the garden to garnish, potato salad, fresh corn on the cob, and of course birthday cake and ice cream. Every year Dave and Ben want the exact same cake, chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, covered in M&M's and served with Edy's Double Fudge Brownie Chocolate ice cream! Hmmmm - I think they might like chocolate - what do you think? Ben blew all 18 candles on his cake out with one breath, and not to be outdone, Dave, blew all 51 candles on his cake out with one breath - WOW! It took a while for the smoke to clear!!! A good time was had by all - obviously, you can tell by the pictures, it is much more fun turning 51, than 18.

An interesting fact, Dave and I used exactly four packets of candles (24 ct) between us this year, so those of you who are not mathematically challenged should easily be able to figure out how old I was in March.

Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte

2009-08-07T14:52:00.003-04:00

What a great movie!! Made in 1964, starring Betty Davis, Olivia DeHaviland, Joseph Cotten, and Agnes Moorehead. Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a suspense drama about Charlotte Hollis, played by Davis, who has retreated from the world since the brutal murder of her lover many years before. Charlotte lives in her mansion with her housekeeper Velma, played by Moorehead. The highway department has acquired the mansion and Charlotte has to leave, she refuses, and invites her cousin, Miriam, played by Dehaviland, to visit with the hopes that she can save the family home. However things are not as they seem, and..........well you have to watch the movie to find out what happens. If you like Bette Davis, you will enjoy this movie, she is classic Davis, her long diatribes are executed perfectly. Bette Davis is at her best when she plays deranged characters, and Charlotte Hollis is definitely a whacko.

I found Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, at our local library, they have a wonderful selection of classic movies. Tonight we are going to watch David Copperfield, a 1935 version starring W.C. Fields, I am looking forward to watching it! The third movie I borrowed was, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, starring Doris Day and David Niven, it was okay. I wanted to like it more, but found it kind of slow moving. I decided it would be a good movie to have on in the background while working on a project.

It is very nice that our library has such an extensive collection of movies, and they are FREE to borrow, unless you return them late.

A Special Day

2009-08-03T14:49:00.007-04:00

Yesterday was a very special day for our family, grandson Henry was baptized! After the baptism service at Our Lady of Good Hope Church we returned home for a celebration. Henry had both sets of Grandparents doting on him, two great aunts, and one great uncle, three uncles, three aunts, three cousins, two second cousins, and of course his Mom and Dad - what a fortunate boy!

Dave and I feel truly blessed, we have four great kids, a great son-in-law, a great daughter-in-law, an adorable grandson, and another grandchild is due next April - Life IS GOOD!!

Matt and Traci back home again in Indiana

2009-07-24T10:15:00.003-04:00

In early July son Matt, and his wife Traci, made the 19 hour drive from Cheyenne, WY to NE Indiana to visit family and friends. This was their first visit home since their wedding in January, and boy was it nice to see them. The visiting couple spent a busy 8 days in Indiana visiting with parents, siblings, grand-parents, aunts, uncles, nephew, and many friends, and we all wished that they could have stayed longer. We sure miss them and we look forward to their permanent return home in a couple of years time when Matt's finishes his time serving the United States Air Force. Here are some pictures of our time spent together one evening at daughter Amber and son-in-law Brad's home, (Brad makes excellent hamburgers!!)

Amber's Birthday

2009-06-28T07:35:00.009-04:00

June 26th was Amber's 23rd birthday! And as you can tell from the pictures, Amber's son, Henry, loves birthdays!!! A fun time was had by all and as usual Henry rather stole the show! What joy Henry has brought into Brad and Amber's lives, and we absolutely love being his grandparents! Happy Birthday Amber!!

How Does My Garden Grow!

2009-06-18T18:55:00.010-04:00

Wow!! What a difference a month makes!!! The vegetable gardens are in full gear, the fruit trees are loaded with fruit, and the grape vines have many clusters of teeny, tiny, grapes.

As I work in the gardens I never cease to be amazed at the speed the plants grow, and when we begin to harvest I am awed, and sometimes overwhelmed, by the abundance of food produced in the gardens.

While working in the gardens a favorite hymn often comes to mind, it is: We Plough the Fields and Scatter.

We plough the fields and scatter

The good seed on the land,

But it is fed and watered

By God's almighty hand:
He sends the snow in winter,

The warmth to swell the grain,

The breezes and the sunshine,

And soft refreshing rain.

Black-capped Chickadee

2009-06-17T06:44:00.006-04:00

The other morning, as I was sitting at the computer reading the newspaper online, I heard a thunk, then a clunk, and realized that a bird must have hit the window. I went to the patio door and lying on the deck, chin on the ground, tail feathers in the air, was an unconcious little bird. After a couple of minutes the bird regained conciousness and sat up, it proceeded to sit on the deck without moving for almost thirty minutes, poor little thing! Because the bird was so knocked for a loop I was able to sit my camera on the deck about a foot away from him and take the picture above. I am assuming that the little bird is okay as it did leave.
If you click on the picture to make it larger you will be able to fully appreciate the delicate feather patterns.

Sweet Sixteen

2009-06-14T18:38:00.003-04:00

Today was Emily's sixteenth birthday! We had an enjoyable time together eating pizza and salad, and then the birthday cake of Emily's choice - homemade chocolate chip cheesecake with oreo cookie crust - YUMMO DELICIOSO!!

Strawberry Jam

2009-06-03T17:02:00.004-04:00

This morning Dave and I headed out to our strawberry patch for a second picking of strawberries. To date we have picked 14 pounds of strawberries! Not bad for a little strawberry patch.

This afternoon daughter Amber and grandson Henry stopped by for a visit. While Henry took a nap in the chair with Grandpa, Amber and I made a couple of batches of strawberry jam - what rewarding work!

Peonies

2009-06-02T19:48:00.007-04:00

I don't know about you, but I love peonies, they are a rather old fashioned garden standard, and they know how to put on a show. Unfortunately after blooming a storm will roll in and the heavy rain and wind will leave the poor peonie looking a little worse for wear. Last week we had very wet weather, my peonies were on the cusp of blooming but they waited until the weather improved on Friday and then bloomed. We had beautiful weather all through the weekend, so enjoyed the peonie show, but all good things come to an end and the past two days we have had a lot of rain and the top heavy flowers are now bowed to the ground, but still look radiant. A word of warning regarding peonies - although lovely to look at they are loaded with ants, if you bring them into the house you will bring along a lot of six legged visitors as well!

Disgustingly Rich Brownies

2009-06-02T19:38:00.004-04:00

We love these brownies!!!!

In a large saucepan melt 1 cup of butter or margarine then remove pan from heat, add 2 cups of sugar and 3/4 of a cup of cocoa, stir well. Add 4 eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, stir well. Add 1 and 1/4 cups of flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, stir well. Place mixture into a greased 9 x 9 pan and then bake in a 350 oven for 45 minutes - ENJOY

Frugality

2009-05-20T07:54:00.007-04:00

Being frugal can be a temporary state to get through a financially hard time, or a chosen way of life. Either way a frugal person has to be creative in figuring out how to do more with less - you can look at this as a loathsome chore, or an adventure! As with most things in life, it is best to have a goal, and a plan to get there. Why do you want to be frugal? To save money for a new home, be a stay at home mom, retire, pay off debt, start a business, send a child to college, be free to volunteer, have more to donate to church or charities, and/or to be a good steward of all that God has blessed you with, the reasons are different for each family.
Deciding to live frugally can be a hard adjustment for families, perhaps one spouse is not on board with the plan, children have been used to getting what they want when they want, extended family and friends think you are crazy! It is best to start with small changes and slowly add more as time goes by and before you know it frugal living has become the norm for your family. As Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else, so that you can live like no one else!".
Getting started, get a grip on how much money is coming into your househould each month, how much is going out, and how it being spent. Once you have done this you can begin to look at ways to cut expenditures - how much are you spending on food, entertainment, clothing, eating out, services, gas, loan repayments - what can you cut back on or elimate? Perhaps you purchase a latte twice a week at $4/cup, eliminating this adds up to a savings of $208/year, reducing your grocery bill by $25/week adds up to a savings of $1300/year, dropping the land line because you have cell phones, saves approximately $45/month or $540/year, just making three small changes saves over $2000/year - imagine how much more you can save by making small adjustments here and there. An excellent resource for the frugal soul is, The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn - it is, in my opinion, a must read for anyone wanting to live frugally. (check it out at your local library :D).
Food is a large expenditure for any family and reducing costs in this area will make an impact on cash available each week, so how do you reduce costs? Cook from scratch and avoid convenience foods. Potato chips cost about $3 for a large bag, weighing no more than a pound, if you were to purchase potatoes at this price a ten pound sack would cost you $30!! Do you need gourmet coffee or will the $5 - $6/can of coffee suffice? Can you incorporate store brand foods in place of name brand? Make a decision about how much you will spend for an item and then stick to your guns. For example, we like to spend no more than $2.00/pound for hamburger, and $1/pound for chicken, we watch for sales and when the price is right we buy a LOT and load up the freezer. A good cook book to use in a frugal kitchen is More-with-Less by Doris Janzen Longacre. Cook books from the 1950's and 1960's generally have recipes that use basic ingredients, look for them at used book stores, flea markets, and garage sales, and of course the library has tons of cook books for your enjoyment.
Clothing - look at garage sales and thrift stores first, you may not always find what you want, but you can certainly find some items. Garage sales are a great place to find clothes and toys for little ones, and at a fraction of the cost of new, and if you take care of them you can resell them in oyour own garage sale for about the same price you purchased them for. Only purchase what you really need, avoid the "latest fashions" as they tend to go out of style as quickly as they came into style.
Other frugal ideas, use the library rather than purchasing books, change your own oil, grow your own food, learn how to can and preserve, repair items rather than replacing them, cut your own grass, ditch the gym membership and walk or jog in your neighborhood, when pratical walk or ride a bicycle to run errands, depending upon what you are purchasing it may be better to buy used rather than new, stay out of the grocery store, use a wash line, eliminate newspaper and magazine subscriptions, and most of all save your money so that you can avoid going into debt to purchase needed items or repairs.
Being frugal not only stretches your dollar, it stretches you. Out of necessity you become creative as you figure out how to accomplish a task spending the least amount of money and using items that you already have around the house. As you incorporate more and more frugal ideas into your daily living you will be able to manage better on the income that you have, and hopefully move ever closer to accomplishing your goals in life.

Voluntary Simplicity - What is it?

2009-05-05T05:15:00.005-04:00

First the definition of simplicity from my Oxford American Dictionary - simplicity - being simple, to be very easy - this hardly seems a correct definition of a Simple Life Style does it? When we say that we want to live simply what do we really want?? Freedom from a demanding job, a long commute, telephones, TV, people, clutter, debt??? Well the list could go on and on because a simple life means different things to different people, and defining it is not that simple! Often times our quest for a life of simplicity is more a quest for contentment.

If you google Voluntary Simplicity 244,000 web pages are found for you to peruse - and I am sure that each page has it's own idea about how to live a simple life, and why you should live a simple life, some would be based on religious reasons, to be apart from the world, frugality, environmental concerns, anti-consumerism, anti-capitalist, self sufficiency,vegetarianism, just to name a few.

Searching for a simple life is nothing new, people have been doing it for centuries, in this country we can start with the Pilgrims, they fled religous persecution, and wanted to start anew, many religous groups, the Quakers, the Shakers, the Anabaptists all came to America in part to start fresh, to be away from the influences of the world, and to live simply. Move on down, a few centuries, Henry Thoreau, writer of, Walden, or Life in the Woods, was seeking the simple life, and his writing have inspired many to want to live in a "cabin in the woods". Move forward to the 1930's, Scott and Helen Nearing, famous for their self sufficiency and ascetism, lived in rural Vermont, grew almost all their own food, built all of their buildings, and lectured around the world. The Nearings co-authored Living the Good Life: How to live simply and sanely in a troubled world - the Nearings were members of the communist party. Move forward to the late 1960's and the "back to the land movement" started, hippie communes started, (most failed because communal living is not so simple), and the need to be in rythm with mother earth. Today two reasons seem to send people on a quest for the simple life - religion, and enviromentalism(a religion of it's own??).

If you would like to see a community of people who are living a "simple life" because they want to minimize their carbon footprint, you can visit http://www.dancingrabbit.com/, a diverse community of people who want to live sustainable and socially rewarding lives - this is definitely not a community based on Christian values.

Scott Savage, author of The Plain Reader, Essays on making life simple, is a Quaker, living in SE OH. Scott has completely turned his back on life on the modern World - he and his wife no longer drive, preferring to use a horse and buggy, no longer use electricity, and home school their children, just to name a few things that they do. Scott has quite a following - after all he has made a radical change to living the American Life. You can subscribe to the monthly(?) publication of The Plain Reader newspaper, but there is a limit of 5000 subscriptions, as Scott and his helpers hand set all of the print, and use no electricity at their printing press. You will not find Scott on the internet - he is true to his goal of turning his back on technology and calls himself a Neo-Luddite.

Others feel called to simplify because of their faith, in removing all of the clutter of the world they can be closer to God and free to serve Him. St. Francis of Assisi gave up everything to live the Gospel life, and although he lived in great poverty, he was a spritually rich man. Franciscans to this day strive to live simply, it is hard to do when we live in a country of plenty.

Ultimately I think living a simple life is all about finding contentment - we have a need to create, to produce, to feel useful, and getting back to the basics often fills this need, how satisfying to bake bread, to grow food, to paint a picture, to write a poem, to build a house, to be a little bit self sufficient. When we remove the clutter of daily living, and focus on God, we truly see and appreciate all that our Lord has given us in creation, and know that we are truly Blessed.

Calling all Colts Fans

2009-05-02T09:48:00.004-04:00

Husband, Dave, selected some fabric for me to make a new shirt and shorts for Grandson Henry. I am not sure if Henry is the Colts fan, or Dave, but I sure think he looks cute in his new get up!

Quilting Anyone?

2009-05-02T09:39:00.004-04:00

On Monday evenings I go to hand quilt for 3 hours with several ladies, we are making quilts for MCC Relief Sale in September were all of the quilts will be auctioned to benefit MCC. All over the state groups of ladies come together to hand quilt these beautiful items, they truly are a labor of love. There are so many benefits to this activity, most of the ladies I quilt with are much older than I am, one is 91, most are in their 70's, and all come out to work on this worthwhile project, and while giving of their time and talent, they receive good fellowship, and a goodwill feeling of a job well done. I find these ladies admirable, almost all volunteer in a thrift shop whose sales benefit MCC, some participate in other quilting projects, and all are active in their church community, and all are very generous with their time and talents. I really enjoy my Monday evening fellowship with these ladies, we younger folk could learn an awful lot from the older people in our communites.

In the field of opportunity it's planting time again

2009-05-02T09:25:00.006-04:00

Spring is upon us, and so it time to plant the garden. Husband, Dave, does all of the planting, he likes everything to be very organized, and all plants must be properly spaced, and lined up like soldiers on parade - this makes for a very nice looking garden. So far, potatoes are in, we anticipate about 100 plants to come up, peas are planted, and the onions are in. Cabbage will go in shortly, then green beans and corn. Dave started 48 tomato plants, they will be ready to plant out by the end of the month, and we will then plant some peppers. We plan to do pumpkins, but this year we are going to wait until late June to plant them, in prior years we have had pumpkins all ready in mid August, and by the end of the September they are rotting on the vines, and we think that we probably planted too early.

In the middle of winter it is nice to start thinking about what will be planted in the spring, what seeds we want to start in the house, where we will plant things, and once the weather breaks it is wonderful to get out and start working in the gardens. In August I will spend a lot of time canning, and freezing the bounty from our garden, such rewarding work, and the food will take us most of the way through to the next years harvest. There is nothing like opening a jar of home canned tomatoes in middle of winter and breathing in their wonderful tomatoey aroma and in your minds eye you are immediately transported back to a warm summer day in the garden!

Here Chicky Chicky, Here

2009-05-02T09:06:00.005-04:00

Sometime during the night on April 10th our chickens had an intruder visit and wreak carnage on the flock. Whatever came in, dug underneath the fence, then proceeded to kill 5 chickens out right, two completely disappeared and are presumed dead, and two managed to survive. The two survivors were so traumatized that they did not leave the chicken house at all, and stopped laying altogether - and who can blame them??

Well fast forward two weeks, the chicken house is completely cleaned out, repairs made, and the new flock all settled and moved in. Fortunately my brother-in-law and wife also keep chickens, they had more than they needed and were willing to sell us 10 new hens. We went to pick up the hens, popped them into some large cardboard boxes and transported them back home, none the worse for wear, the hens moved into their new home and promptly started laying eggs. We now have 4 barred rock, 3 rhode island reds, and 3 black star chickens, a mighty fine looking flock if I do say so myself. There is nothing as lovely as a fresh brown egg!!

Spring Time Tea Party

2009-04-27T08:06:00.010-04:00

What beautiful weather we had this weekend! Abundant sunshine and warm temperatures were all that was needed to push spring into overdrive - the grass glowing bright green, blossoms popping out everywhere, tulips, creeping phlox, violets, all flowering - the humming birds and gold finches returned - Spring in its Glory!

So with spring in its full throws it was time for tea on the front porch - what a pleasant way to spend the afternoon - Mom and neices, Carly and Caitie, came to visit, we enjoyed tea, or soda, and cookies on the porch and an enjoyable time was had by all.

BBQ Anyone??

2009-04-24T10:29:00.007-04:00

Meet Sprinkles and Banana, and of course, Tasha the CowDog!! Sprinkles is a 2 1/2 month old Black Angus Heifer, she belongs to our neighbor, and thinks she is a dog!! Banana is a 3 1/2 month old Holstein Steer, he belongs to us, and does not have an identity issue. Both will reside in our field for the next year or so, and then...... Well, you know, when they return to us they will be wrapped in freezer paper and will then reside in the freezer in the basement - ah, such is the fate of cattle - but mmmmm can't you just taste a nice, juicy, banana burger!!!

Do You Like To Knit???

2009-04-24T06:59:00.004-04:00

If you like to knit, you might be interested in this project: HAP - Handmade Afghan Project - http://www.rectangle6x9.org/ collects donations of knitted 6x9 inch rectangles, they provide directions on the site. Rectangles should be knitted out of redheart acycrilic yarn, the cheapy stuff at Walmart, and once you have a stash you mail them off to HAP, they have put together parties and all of the donated rectangles are put together into afghans, then given to wounded soldiers recuperating in military hospitals. Check out the pictures on the HAP website of the beautiful, cheerful, afghans!!!
If you are interested in knitting, or crocheting, rectangles just email the HAP lady, her email address is on the home page of the website. One note, I found that I had to use size 7 needles to get the right size rectangle, not size 8 as noted on the site, I must be a "loose" knitter ;)

This is such a portable project, the rectangles take less than 2 hours to knit, it is a simple pattern, and easy to take with you to work on as you have a spare ten minutes here or there.

Your sister in Christ,

Martine

Spring Time

2009-04-22T14:55:00.007-04:00

From Two Tramps in Mud Time by Robert Frost

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.

You know how it is with an April day

When the sun is out and the wind is still,

You're one month on in the middle of May.

But if you so much as dare to speak,

A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,

A wind comes off a frozen peak,

And you're two month back in the middle of March.

Cookie Press Creations

2009-04-20T15:34:00.004-04:00

About a month ago I found this fun little gadget at an estate sale, a 16 piece cookie pastry press, for the bargain basement price of $2.50, and figured that it would provide some entertainment on a rainy, dreary afternoon. Well today the weather fit the bill perfectly for experimenting with the cookie press, and I think for a first try the cookies turned out quite nicely.

Another fun project

2009-04-19T20:36:00.004-04:00

A quilt for the new grand daughter of a good friend, this is a simple quilt, 45" x 45", finished block size 5 inches. It was fun to pick out fabrics for a "girl" quilt!

Ben has a new hobby

2009-04-19T20:29:00.004-04:00

Ben sold his video game system and used some of the proceeds to purchase a uni-cycle. He is a shy uni-cycler - I am not allowed to take his picture while he is practicing - maybe once he has mastered his new skill I can get a picture :)

The Frugal Quilt

2009-04-19T20:16:00.007-04:00

This was a fun project. After purchasing a denim Disney jumper from the thrift store for $2.50, and deciding it was not me, I wondered what I could do with it. I cut off the 14 buttons and put them away for a future project. I then cut the jumper into 5 1/2" squares, making sure that the embroidery of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet were included in two of the squares. I had some left over white flannel which I used to make the contrasting blocks, and when I ran out of white I used a little bit of left over yellow flannel. I had to purchase batting, and 2 yards of flannel for the back of the quilt. The finished block size is 5 inches, making the quilt 45" x 45". My grandson Henry enjoys snuggling in this quilt.

YUM YUM

2009-04-19T19:04:00.002-04:00

Emily had a cooking project to do for school, so while I sat on the sofa quilting, Emily made dinner. On the menu, no bake chocolate cookies, BBQ ribs, scallop potatoes, corn, and seven layer salad!! After dinner everyone pitched in to clean up, even little Henry!!

Marengo Cave Hi-Jinx

2007-03-22T17:55:00.001-04:00

The Meeks Family Trapped in a Cave!!!

Did they get out???

Were they able to celebrate Christmas??

How many yards of denim is the family wearing?

Check back to find out the answers to these and other fascinating questions about this family!

Valentine's Day 2007

2007-03-22T17:49:00.001-04:00

Nothing says, "I love you", like heart shaped meatloaf!!!

Christmas 2006

2007-03-22T17:42:00.000-04:00

It was Christmas at the cabin and I was forced to wear a purple, paper crown, Oh My!!!