December 2011: Gingerbread Houses!

We have never made gingerbread houses before - hard to believe, I know!  Well, daughter and I spotted some cute kits at the grocery store and decided that this year was the year to make our first gingerbread house.  And of course we had to buy one for everyone  :-)

Harrison laying everything out and getting ready -

The kits came with a wide assortment of candies - so much fun!

Rachel doing a beautiful job in spite of her cast ~

I think Harrison made Eve from Wall-E as his snowman - lol!

Beautiful girl and beautiful house!

Great job!

This is Jackson's house.  He and I made ours a few days later.  Notice the gingerbread man and the snowman are holding croquet mallets -

Here are the rings for the ball to go through -

And he even made a little cheering section of gumdrop minions!  :-)  I think they're my favorite part.

While croquet was happening out front, no one noticed that the fire got out of control and now the chimney is on FIRE!!

My simple house - lots of rainbow colors, and lots of candy everywhere!

I think I'm the only one who used all of the candy that came with the kit.  And I love the way my little tree turned out.  Frosted the cookie and then dipped it in green sugar sprinkles.

My gumdrop roof with colored sprinkles and a light dusting of powdered sugar.  LOVE it!

We will definitely have to do this again next year!

An Unwanted Journey

Life moves along at a steady pace and after days and weeks and months and years of a certain pattern, I got lulled into thinking the pattern of our days would continue on the same way.

What a rude awakening I had when that rhythm was interrupted. Not by some disaster, nor anything traumatic. It was a simple decision by my husband to stop paying our mortgage in January of last year. Quietly done, yet after a few months irreversible, and the constant phone calls were a very noisy reminder of that decision. My name was on our mortgage, yet this was done against my wishes and I had no choice in how things would proceed.

Six months later, my husband announced that since we would be losing our home, he had decided to go ahead and retire from work at the end of the year. He is many years older than I am and I knew of his desire to stop working, but I had always hoped he would wait until retirement age, 65, when our children, or at least our middle two, were graduated from our homeschool. Instead, he would retire with a 17, 16, and 13 year old still home to school and support. Again, I had no voice in this decision.

The final blow came when I was warned that with our home being foreclosed on and his retirement approaching, I ought to prepare myself for a move back to our home town at the beginning of next year, 2012. No asking how I felt or what I thought.

To be fair, I must say that this was always our plan. We had moved here for his job, a move that I did not want to make then - leaving home, family, and everything I had ever known - to move to a strange place where I knew no one. And yet in so many ways this became home. Our daughter was born here. We made wonderful, lifelong homeschool friends here. Our children grew up here, with all of their memories of home based here, in this place that I didn't want to come. And finally, in our eleventh year here, we found a church, a body of believers to join. With love, fellowship, encouragement, and a beautiful Christian example they became our family. And now what had once been part of the plan was something unwanted. Something disrupting. Something to be dreaded.

My only real choice was: would I live out my faith in Christ as Savior and Ruler of all, or would I give in to the sadness, anger, and bitterness that seemed so natural.

Bits of Our Day

It was a beautiful day today, more like May than March, and we spent the afternoon outside working on some backyard projects.

Dear Son #3 built a gate for one of our garden areas, Dear Son #2 and I beefed up the chicken yard fence and then Son made a new gate for their yard, and daughter planted some new lettuce plants that have sprouted and are growing well ~


Over the fence I spied this very interesting overgrown lemon of the neighbor's tree -


- and loved to see that our pea plants are growing well. I can't wait for our first harvest!

Feeding Finches

I found this four-armed feeder on clearance at the pet store last week and quickly put it to good use. It was not long before our little goldfinches had told all of their friends and family to come along for the feast ~


If I could take a larger picture and blow it up - Oh!! There are finches on the tree to the left and the tree to the right all just waiting their turn to get at the feeders. The movement and the jostling and the beautiful birds and colors, and their size is all just wonderful to watch. We stop often during the day to look at out the window and smile.

The Lord is good ~

New - to Me!

I found these dishes at Goodwill this week, four bowls and four plates for $8, and they immediately caught my eye - a sweet pattern, scalloped edges, and that great neutral color that goes with almost anything!

Where's Mom?

I have a slight addiction to magazines and in the past few weeks I feel like I've struck gold! They are all safely tucked away in the bathroom cabinet just waiting for that lull in the day when I might actually get to spend 5, 10, or maybe even 15 minutes alone.


It will take me a while to get through all of these, but I am looking forward to being inspired and most likely expanding my crafting wish list for the next few years.

Family & Remembering

Today was spent with family. The children and I walked with sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and more for the 2010 Alzheimers Memory Walk. There were 600+ people there and it was a really nice way to spend the morning and have some fun with family that we don't get to see that often. Afterward we all went to lunch and then it was home for us.

I couldn't go home, though, without making a stop to remember my grandparents. I went out to the farm on my way to the cemetery and got a few branches from their grapevine to leave at their headstone. It's so much more personal than buying flowers.



Recently, at the funeral for my grandmother's sister, I realized that my grandfather has been gone for half of my life; and yet I miss him probably more, not less, as time goes on.

A Happy Habit Birthday for Husband

Birthday Adventures

Daughter is officially 9 years old now.  What a great time we had yesterday!  Grandma came up on the train with her buddy Miss L.  (Grandma and Miss L come up for each child's birthday.)  Daughter wanted to go to the Zoo for her birthday - so I had to think of a zoo that was near the train and that we could visit in the time allowed -- and Voila!  Micke Grove fit the bill perfectly.

So we drove for a bit - picked up Grandma and Miss L at a semi-distant station - and off we were on our adventure!



We saw several species of lemurs, some birds and bats, sea lions, baboons, tamarins, a mountain lion, chinese alligator, beautiful scarlet ibis', turtles and tortoises, and several pudus!



















After a cool water break, we walked over to the Japanese Garden and strolled through it before lunch.  The children had a great time seeing the huge Koi, and finding many crawdads in the ponds which they could cross on large, flat stones.  (Although the ones we saw were smaller and beautifully colored red like all the ones found in our fabulous Delta region!)

Off to lunch we went - and then back to the park where we explored the Historical Museum for our remaining time.  It was great - very interesting - and lots of fun!  We came home with some treasures from the "mercantile" -- I found an adorable set of metal measuring spoons (I'll have to take a picture of them and post it later), the children got some little wood kits, a nail puzzle, a kazoo, and two "twig crayons". 

Grandma got the best deal of all -- she bought a set of three Lovely bowls for only $20.00.  They were ivory colored nesting bowls and had a beautifulflower/scrollwork design on the upper rim.  We were all stunned at the price and decided that one of us HAD to buy them.  ;-)

Then it was time to get Grandma and Miss L back to the station -- the train was delayed a bit, but they were finally safely on board and headed for home.  It was a great day!

Pampered Life

We have a couple of extremely pampered pooches at our house.  These are just a few examples from what's happened this week:



This is daughter during our bible reading time - and of course if she's sitting still, that must be the perfect opportunity to get a tummy rub, right?  Obviously!



Here is our other doggie, renamed as "The World's Most Tolerant Dog" being treated to a snuggle in the toy box with all of the stuffed animals and beanie babies!  He is also the one who gets carried in the sling like a baby, put into boxes and wagons and dressed in anything daughter can find to make him "cute."  At times I think it's torture -- but he stays put and tolerates it all so well, he MUST like it / or the attention to some degree, right?

This post originallypublished @ HenandChicks.typepad.com

We're Almost Home

June 05, 2007

* we're almost home *

Yeah!  We are enjoying a whole morning home today -- we don't have to be at the Fairgrounds until 12:30 p.m.! So, it's time to take a look around at what we've been missing for the past few weeks:















I guess you can't leave radishes alone for very long.  ;-)
The largest one at bottom right is about 6-7" around and the plants themselves are over 2  1/2 ft. tall!
Oh well, the chickens will enjoy them!
And speaking of the chickens, they enjoyed a dustbath this morning, along with some delicious seeds and bugs they found.
 















The chickens can only be out when we are at home, so we can keep an eye on them - no cat attacks and no flying over fences - since they are city chickens.

Then we also enjoyed some great puppy love with the doggies who have been left outside (gasp!!) for days while we've been working and out of town. 
 Our doggies are very much inside doggies and are always underfoot wherever we are and whatever we are doing.



So that's what we are enjoying this morning, besides the usual round of dishes and laundry and a MUCH needed cleaning of the bedrooms.

OH!  And I took a picture of the photo I mentioned here



That's my back and the top of my head -- isn't it great!!  It's pretty much the very best angle of me he could have taken because my body shape is essentially an apple with legs!  ;-)  And that is the Photography Judge that I was clerking for.  Not only fun but I learned a LOT!

Well, time to take the laundry out of the dryer and get the next one going.  Have a wonderful day in the LORD.

This post was originally published @ HenandChicks.typepad.com

One Down - One To Go

Okay - so this morning I'm debating with myself. My last post was Tuesday the 22nd. It was still up on Tuesday the 29th, and if I just focus on what I need to get done and ignore the whole blog thing for a bit longer, it can apply to one more Tuesday.

But, alas, I fear it is too late for that since I am already sitting comfortably with blog-gy thoughts running through my head, though I will warn you, they are random. Alright, you've been warned. ;-)

We are finished with the County Fair, at least until it is over and then we will work a few more days to help get everything taken down and cleaned up. We had a wonderful time - and I mean Wonderful - but last night on our way home I was sooooo glad that it was over. I'm done, the children are done, husband is done and I'm sure even all of our little critters are done and ready for us all to be HOME! I was so tired, but had to putter around for awhile before I could get in bed and get really comfy, you know? Like my muscles couldn't just go from work, walk, work, carry, work, work to relax, rest, peace without sufficient in between time to wind down.

> Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging:

I'm not really done, though. Because today is Day 2 of our countdown to my mother's 70th birthday party that has been in the works sine the beginning of the year. The big stuff is done - place secured, invitations out and RSVP'd back, menu chosen, colors and centerpieces planned and at the ready, cake ordered, music ordered and arrived. Today I need to do little detail things like get bowls for the nuts and candies that my mother would like at each table, do the toppers for the party favors, maybe make a batch of her famous cookies to have as well. I also need to get a display board and mount the photos of her through the years. Tomorrow, Friday, will be Day 1, making final arrangements (like paying for it all!) and checking out the room and deciding how we will arrange things. The B-Day Saturday will be an early one for me - get the balloons, get the cake and be in the room by 9 a.m. to decorate and set up in time for party starting at 11 a.m. Then hopefully it will be time to just sit and enjoy!

Next week - Monday and Tuesday will be our last days at the Fair. We'll be working on taking down the exhibits, assisting with entry pick-ups, and cleaning out the two buildings where our work has been concentrated. Then a quiet few days at home and ending the week with the children's piano recital on Friday evening.

Can my brain handle all of this?

We'll see.

New Restaurant In Town

I wandered outside today and what should I find but a new place to eat. Let's take a look!

It looks like a nice off-the-beaten-path kind of place.

I think I'll go in and try it out!

The waiter, a very nice young man, was so quick and attentive!

Banana ~ $o.01, Banana with Peanut Butter ~ $0.02, Peanut Butter Banana Stack ~ $0.03, Water ~ Free

Well, the prices are certainly reasonable!

The waiter brought my water and quickly took my order.

He was very persuasive, too! I was going to have a half order of the Banana with Peanut Butter but he talked me into the most expensive dish, the Peanut Butter Banana Stack. ;-)

I enjoyed the peaceful surroundings while I awaited my order. The lavendar and greenery on the table was a lovely touch.

Very nice! Beautifully prepared, and if I may say so, quite delicious too!

I will certainly be visiting this little out of the way spot the next time I'm in the area.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

. . . . . . . look who's in the tub! Or more correctly, the wading pool, but it just doesn't have that "ring" to it, ya' know?

This is my oldest son and youngest son keeping cool in the pool. Would you believe that all four of the children squeeze in there at one time? It's just legs everywhere! And of course the Angel doesn't play fair and wants to splash and lay down, preferably on someone else -- hence the photo above. Doesn't he look just perfectly comfortable and happy? Someone to lean against in a pool of water -- what could be better?! (youngest son is singing a song with brother and sister who are out of the picture! :-)

Catch-Up and Smile

Home again, home again, home we are. How wonderful it always is to come home. We were out of town, actually we went home - where we are both from and where both sides of our families live, for the funeral of my husband's cousin who was tragically and accidentally killed a few days before his 52nd birthday.

We were down for two nights and were able to catch up with family that we don't get to see very often, see both Moms/Grandmas for Mother's Day, as well as spend some time swimming at the hotel ( a small secluded pool that is always empty ) and seeing a few of our favorite shows on television since we don't have television at home and only watch videos or dvd's related to school or things we borrow from the library. So sometimes we look forward to going out of town and catching up with Alton Brown, the Meerkat's, and Deadliest Catch.

I got a bit of crocheting done - ran out of yarn and had to stop! And some hand sewing too. My mother buys all kinds of crochet books and I love looking through them for patterns and ideas -- I was soooo tempted to borrow a few of them this time but I have so much on my plate now that I just couldn't. I told her that I would leave them and that way I would know where they are when I have the time to do something new. One of them is still in my head -- a totally adorable little granny square that is a bunny face with ears. I can absolutely see that for my new soon-to-be-born granddaughter, but it will have to wait. Maybe it will be a Christmas present that I can start in June when my life and time will hopefully be more my own again. :-)

I did get some great cookbooks from my Mom, though. One is a Ladies Home Journal Cookbook from 1960 with a lot of great basic recipes I can't wait to try. I've got post-it notes in several places already. Maybe I'll try and make the doughnut balls in the morning if I feel really ambitious!! The other cookbook is actually the first one I grabbed. With a name like The Prudence Penny Regional Cook Book who could resist? This one is from 1939 and not only has a recipe for Berry Fluff that both son and I found (LOL!!) but it also has one for Opossum, too!! You never know when that may come in handy!

Our garden is growing by leaps and bounds - so exciting. Our corn is already 3 feet high, our squash plants are getting bigger by the minute and the beans are doing their best to keep up! The cabbage is coming along nicely, and we've been harvesting the radishes for a week now! My Basil and Lemon Basil are doing great - now I can't wait to plant the Sage, Parsley and Cilantro that I bought, too!

This week we'll be working on our projects for the County Fair and I'll be finishing up some other odds and ends. The ASF Walk is fast approaching on Saturday, May 19th. We've never attended and this year one is being held only an hour away. I'm really going to try and go. I think Angel would enjoy it immensely!

Wanted: Recipes

Are you always seeking new recipes? Then I NEED your help!!

I don't know what is going on lately, but in the past two weeks I have received four, 4, FOUR!!, letters about recipe exchanges! First my cousin, then my mom, then my grandchildren's other grandmother, and now my sister-in-law. What is happening here? Is spring the season for recipe exchanges and no one told me?

Now I love sharing recipes, don't get me wrong. But I feel inadequate when it comes to choosing a recipe for someone else. What if they're looking for dessert recipes and I send them my favorite casserole? What if they really don't like enchiladas and I send them our favorite secret recipe for the best enchiladas? Do you see? I would feel so much better if I could just mail them my recipe box for them to go through and pick out what they like for themselves. ;-)

And the other side is, I think I would be seriously testing my circle of friends if I sent them multiple letters for exchanging recipes themselves. (You know the drill: copy this letter 6 times, put my name at the top and your name on the back and mail to six of your friends)

So I thought, what if there is someone on-line who might like a chance to exchange recipes with others in a different part of the country? Two of the exchanges are actual letters, which means you'll get REAL mail!! The other two exchanges are via e-mail. If you are interested, leave a comment and tell me which exchange you would like to join (mail or e-mail) and I'll reply and get your address and send you off a recipe! (Please do not leave your address, e-mail or physical, in your comment. But you already knew that. )

BTW, the picture above is a Giant Ding Dong Cake I made a few months ago. Yeah, it really does taste like a ding dong. :-) If you make it, I would suggest making it in layers like I did above, rather than strictly according to the recipe. Having a center full of fluff is fine when you're holding a little circle in the palm of your hand - but when it is in an 8 or 9 inch cake it's a little overwhelming!

Great Hair Day

Oh, Oh, Oh how can I tell you how happy I am today? I LOVE doing daughter's hair and most of the time we just do simple braids, sometimes one sometimes two with a ribbon for extra effect.

This morning, she suggested that instead of a french braid why don't I do This! (see below!)

Oh the joy!!

I absolutely love her hair this way but we haven't done it for at least two years.

It just makes me think of all things young and innocent and sweet.

And her new pink dress just adds to the sweetness.

It's a beautiful day in our neighborhood!

Girl Finds Amazing Giant Dandelion!

Can you believe it?

This dandelion that daughter found in MY backyard yesterday is 19 inches long from base to tip!

I had NO idea that they could get that big.

Did you?

Just Some Stuff

It's just been a day, or a few days as the case may be, and I have an hundred thoughts going around my head -- none of which will be still long enough for me to put some coherent words together for posting! So, I'll just post some of my random thoughts and hope they make at least a bit of sense.

I'm on the last stage of daughter's last dress (the pink one). Waist seam and four buttons are all that's left. Hopefully it will be done before the weekend!

I've been working on a cute poncho for my younger granddaughter, when it's done I'll get pictures.

Laundry has been my shadow for almost the past week and I'll be glad when the sun can shine freely on my washing machine again! (there's a metaphor in there somewhere, or is it a simile?, but I can't find it right now ;-)

I'm giving my mother a 70th birthday party this June and so that has taken a lot of my thoughts recently. It's been a little more stressful than I thought it would be, but in general all is going well. She finally gave me the guest list which put me into action on making the invitations! This is a rough draft, if you please. It's made with the Roses in Winter set from Stampin' Up!, which is not only beautiful but extremely versatile. This is the design I'll be using - I think I like the color combinations and the weight of the three roses on the bottom. It will be mounted on the blue cardstock at the top.

I've already made the RSVP cards, which are just the opposite of the invitation, almost. I printed them on the green cardstock at the bottom of the picture and mounted them on white cardstock stamped with the roses. When I'm all finished with them, I'll get a photo for posterity!

Our little garden outside is doing well, and not so well. The corn is taking hold and growing, as are the radishes and carrots, in spite of the fact that the dogs think the planter boxes are there for them to practice their hurdle jumps on! My cabbage is coming up beautifully, and the squash and peppers are, too. We need to re-plant the beans, though, and probably the eggplant.

For school, we've been learning about colonial history both for this country and Australia. We read about Jamestown colony today. A few weeks ago, we also borrowed the PBS series Colonial House and Frontier House from the library and had a great time watching them and talking about if we would be able to do that! Colonial would be a bit harsh for me - don't think I could do that. But Frontier House was totally something that we could see ourselves at - even though it would be incredibly hard work from sunrise till sundown. Then as an off-shoot of that, I checked out some books on pioneer/frontier history. They are all letters written by women of the time, to friends and family, describing their experiences. I've started one and I'm looking forward to reading the others as well. Here are some of the books I've discovered: Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Apron Full of Gold, Covered Wagon Women (a Series of 9 books), and Bachelor Bess. On a side note: we've been trying to do without lights in the evening at least a few times a week. As the sun goes down, we get out the candles and will have dinner or do chores, or read by candlelight. It's amazing even to the children that after a while they feel tired and ready for bed. We're all learning how the artificial time created by electric lights really affects us. If the lights are on and we stay busy, it can be 10:00 pm or later before anyone thinks of bed, but with the candles glowing we're all ready to get in bed before 9:00pm! It's pretty interesting.

Here's a picture of sweet little baby K that I made the blanket for. My niece sent it today, along with some great pictures taken with K's big brother! Isn't she irresistible?

I experimented this morning with our breakfast. I had lots of ripe bananas to use and was planning on Banana Bread, but have been having a hankering for Pumpkin Bread. What to do? Combine them of course! I compared the recipes and ended up doubling the Banana Bread recipe, except instead of using more bananas, I added an equal amount of pumpkin! There were some cranberries in the cupboard so they went in -- and husband doesn't think it's really a quick bread without nuts - in they went, too! What did we end up with? The most delicious Banana Pumpkin Cranberry Nut Bread!! Really! We all agreed that it was excellent - not too banana-y and not too pumkin-ny, either. The perfect blending of the two.

I think I've just gone over my allotted time --

Oh!! But I did want to point your attention up to the list on the right of Posts I've Enjoyed from other blogs. If you have a few minutes, check out some great writing and tips - at least ones that I found helpful for my own life.

May you be blessed today!

Grandma & John Muir

Grandma and her buddy, Miss L, came up on the train today for a visit. (Grandma doesn't like to have her picture taken, so most photos will be from the back ;-)

Waiting in the cold for the train to arrive . . . . .

Then on to visit the John Muir National Historic Site. We've been there three times now. It's a lovely spot and interesting (and fun) to look through the house. Miss L hadn't been there before so we thought she would enjoy it.

We get to climb all the way to the top of the house and ring the bell in the bell tower!

Beautiful! We're walking across the grounds over to the Adobe House. Grandma, youngest son barely visible up ahead, Miss L and middle son. Daughter was hiding behind some trees on the right!

Sons having a bit of fun on the way back . . . .

. . . and daughter resting on an odd-shaped palm tree.

And a nice stroll along the shoreline after lunch, before it's time to catch the train home again.

It was a great day, if a bit windy. But then it's always a bit windy. BTW, Grandma and Miss L loved daughter's new dress.