Oh me, oh my.

Do you ever have a moment when you realize that your child is taking after you in all the wrong ways? If you haven't yet had the pleasure I am sure it is coming soon. At least I hope so because the other option here is that I am totally crazy. Which is mostly true looking at the facts alone. Today I asked Damian to copy four sentences from his latin book explain etc. Which as you know is et cetera which is a Latin expression meaning "and other things" or "and so on". He started crying and yelling and ranting and raving. Me I am standing at the counter reading a recipe on making ricotta cheese. I look up at him and see myself when he says, "I am going to be a dried up old prune by the time this is finished and it is going to be all your fault." I swallowed hard and smiled at the absurdity of it all. This is my child acting like me. Not that I have ever said those words in that way before but I have been known to yell crazy things when I get upset including, "Oh all hail the King of the House for he has spoken and so it will be down!" or "Don't tell me that my argument makes no sense, it makes plenty of sense, I know your thinking it so stop thinking it right now. I make total sense and just because you are currently thinking I am crazy does not in fact make me crazy. No you are not right stop thinking that too. I am going to pull out of my hair trying to tell you that I am right not you." Maybe this last argument was a lacking in content but I was totally right at the time I knew I what I was talking about. Plus I get mad and I don't want to be hurtful so I yell, "Your lucky I love you right now!" I don't know if it is just me but it feels good to just yell something anything. Here is the thing my husband lets me talk crazy until I calm down. He sits there and smiles at how absurd I am saying next to nothing. Believe me we had an argument over fig vinegar and that just got completely out of hand on the crazy meter. Even he could not believe the crazy things coming from his mouth. Sometimes the crazy spreads.

Anyway as I was saying I realized that my sweet boy was taking after his nutty mother instead of his usually calm quiet father. I am so sorry that he is taking after me. I feel like maybe I am the wrong parent to take after most of the time.

There is a bright side of this crazy train when we are happy we sing about daily life. If you watch How I Met Your Mother you have seen Marshal sing about paying bills, doing laundry, walking, cooking, drinking, etc. That is me and the boys. I sing about driving the car, traffic, cooking, chopping, walking, folding laundry doing dishes, reading, playing, lunch, so on and on. It is weird and wonderful to make up little songs that fill you up with happiness. I only hope that when my children grow up they find a partner to balance them out. I hope I haven't ruined them.

I have no idea how the universe aligned to allow for Rob and I to find each other in this crazy world but it did. I have to believe That God brought us together because he knew we needed each other to fully grow into the people we were meant to be. Not to sound totally dependant on my husband but even the flowers need to be watered in order to grow.

I hope that your children take after the right parent and that your day is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

New thoughts on old ideas

I am sure you noticed that I stopped doing the photo of the day. I ran out of steam on day 23 which was technology, day 24 something new and so on. I just did not find the creativity in these days plus I miss updating about my garden, crafts, cooking and schooling. The picture of the day is fun but it gets to be a little overwhelming towards the end. So I think I will lay off trying to be so consistent  on one single topic. This month I have found my love all thing homemade including ketchup, and crackers. I have made two sets of matching hats and scarves with at least one more coming in the next week. I starting making a log cabin quilt for a dear friend's children (one is still cooking. So I am waiting to get the news on where to add pink or add monsters). Honestly I want to try and focus on me, me, me. Well on the things that I am interested in. I want to be able to give you new ideas to try out or just share my new ideas. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed taking pictures and I had some fun working on the picture of the day. I just feel like it is time to move on. I hope you will continue to read along on this crazy jumble of words and thoughts that I call life. I enjoy sharing the pieces of me with you friends.

Today I am planing a BBQ to celebrate Memorial Day hamburgers, macaroni salad / pasta salad, baked beans, grilled corn salad, and a blackberry cobbler. I am just waiting on some replies to my guests. I found some flavored water that sounds yummy, and just now I want a lemon drop martini in a mason jar. Summer is coming which is always exciting but now that I live near the sun (I mean south Texas) summer takes on a whole new meaning of heat. Fortunately for us the pool is finally open so we all will be getting more exercise by way of walking to and from the pool in the mornings.

Here are a couple of summer songs to get you in the mood.

What is better then John Travolta? Well as long as you don't read the tabloids . . .

Hello Kieth Urban. "We should be together. . . Singing along with the radio."

You know you love to slow down for a minute and slow dance with your partner or child.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend filled with love, laughter, and music. Be well my friends.

15. Love

Photo of the day for the Month of May.

Day 15 Love

Rob learned to play a song so he could teach James. I love this.

I love the piano.

This is my baby's first Piano recital.

I have always loved the piano. Now I get to enjoy it as my children continue to learn to play.

I hope your day is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

7. someone that inspires you

Photo Challenge for the month of May

Day 7 Someone that inspires you

Of course you can guess the person who inspires me.

My husband who believes in me more than I do. Who encourages me to follow my dreams and to believe in myself. Who has been known to say, "whatever makes you happy" in response to my crazy ideas or plans. I love you Mr. Bartlett.

My first born son who is passionate and encourages me to be better. I love you Mr. Bartlett.

My baby, I mean youngest child. Is honest and super stubborn inspires me to be Proud of being me.I love you Mr. Bartlett.



It is funny when I call for mister Bartlett around these parts all three of these boys answer. It is one of my favorite things. As for inspirational people I have three of the best people to look to for a little big idea or encouragement. Love is really an amazing thing. I am blessed to have so much around me. I thank god for these blessings every day.

I hope that you are inspired by someone you love today and that your day is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Time to Jam

I have always wanted to learn how to make my own jellies, and jams. I love it when someone hands me a homemade jar of jelly, to me it is like a rare jewel being gifted to me. In fact if you must know when we get to travel home to visit my grandparents I always raid the pantry and leave with at least one big box of random jellies, jams, preserves, and whatnot. It is a taste of home that travels 3000 miles to my table and lasts kind of a long time. I personally have been nervous about making jelly. This little quark has more to do with my canner that I have only just started using within the last year. When my husband and mother in law first gave this giant scary looking metal pot to me it felt like I could cook my small child in there. We eyed each other (the canner and me) and I happily pretended that it was the best gift I have ever gotten. I put it away just out of sight. Turns out the canner was saying, "Yes, we can be friends. I already like your wonky style." True story. As you know I have fallen in love with canning chicken broth, and turkey broth (fowl broth? um. that sounds a little like foul. so we will stick with chicken or turkey broth. sorry for the side track). Now I even use alone and can tell by sound when I need to lower the temperature. I never go far from that massive beast because I am still nervous. This last week I finally made my very own Raspberry Mango Jam and also I canned some dried beans but that is another story. Turns out it is not recommended to pressure can fruit all it needs is a really hot bath. Of course you know I have pictures.

Due to my utter lack of knowledge I bought a book and crossed refernced with my manual. 

In this pan 3 pounds of not chopped enough mango (I thought it would breakdown more), 12 ounces of frozen raspberries, and half a lemon worth of juice.

Four cups of sugar.

A helper trying to get the sugar.

Into the fruit instead.

I am so lucky to have two wonderful helpers. Even if they really only wanted to eat the Jam.

Boil the jelly jars.

And the fruit mixture. Then you carefully put jam into the jars. Try not to splash any of the boiling liquid on to your hands, chest or feet. It really hurts but is one way of knowing your almost done.

This recipe made 8 half pint jars of sparkling goodness.

Next time I will actually cut the mangoes a bit more.

This Jam was a great hit with the family and it is really easy to make.



I want to encourage you to make some homemade jelly for your family. There are tons of recipes out there for freezer jam/jelly. Also if you want to make jam with a hot water bath all you really need are some jars, a big pan with a fitted lid, a wide mouth funnel (if you can carefully pour jam into the jars with out spilling go for it. I need the funnel), and at least some tongs to help lift the hot jars out of the water. Good luck on your first batch of jam. I know you will love it.

I hope that your day is filled with jelly love and Sweet laughter. Be well my friends.

Post roast dinner

If you know my youngest son then you know three very important things.

1. He only likes peanut butter.
2. and Oatmeal
3. He hates, hates soup.

I wanted to make something nice that all of my boys would enjoy and feel a sudden urge to worship me a little, write songs that would be remembered forever. All of the songs would start with, "Oh mom your so great, made us a wonderful meal." What was for dinner tonight?

Wine braised Pot Roast.

First you cook the onions and carrots in a little olive oil.

Salt and pepper your grass fed beef. Then brown all sides of the meat. Put the vegetables and the beef back in the pan and then.

Add the Merlot. You want to add it until the wine is half way covering the meat. It does cook down so you will have to add more wine occasionally. I used the whole bottle before it was finished.

Yum! This drunked pile of meat and carrots and onions were so good. How good you ask. We ate in silence every single bite. Oh honey... I missed meat.

I sauteed onions, mushrooms, and a green pepper to make this wonderful meat topper. Really we ate it as a side because the wine braised meat was so flavorful.

Lightly sauteed squash. I also made roasted fingerling potatoes but I forgot to take a picture.

Finally Dessert. Peanut butter bars. I think if I had planned it better it could have been a peanut butter cup. James' favorite things. Turns out he did not like the meat because, "It gets stuck in my teef". He skipped dessert over eating a few bites of the pot roast.



 I am going to post the recipe for the peanut butter bar tomorrow and well more pictures. I kind of want another piece but my stomach it satisfied and very happy. As for the songs being written for me well it is the sound of silence. My husband is happily washing dishes, the boys are outside cleaning up dog poo. I guess they all wanted to show me how much they enjoyed dinner. Between you and me I like it when they want to do chores. I love them so much!

I hope that your dinner turned out perfect and that your day is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Upcoming Homeschool Year

The next school year in our house starts on May 1. Second grade has felt like a transitional period where we experimented with different ways to homeschool. What I found is Damian does better with structure which I kind of suck at in general but I believe that I can do better. Damian is starting third grade, and James will be learning to read. James will not have a grade level attached to him until he can read. I believe reading is the foundation of knowledge. James is finally showing signs of reading readiness and I am ready to watch him fall in love with reading. This year I have decided on six weeks school one week off. Christmas will be two weeks off. This way I can assign reading to Damian during school weeks and he will have a whole week of just piano practice and fun reading to look forward too. I want to show what the basic matrials look like for the school year.

These are the baskets of school books. Third grade books on the left and the teaching reading books on the right. 

I am using this book to teach James to read. Fingers crossed.

Third grade is looking harder then second grade. All of this work plus the weekly classic that goes along with the lessons. We are going to be busy.

Here is how our daily schedule is going to work.

James will do one reading lesson for 15-30 minutes in the morning.

Damian's schedule looks like this

Language arts 60 minutes

Math 30-60 minutes

History 30 minutes

Science 30 minutes

Latin 30 minutes

Piano practice 30 minutes

Reading at least 60 minutes

On average a school day will last about 4-5 hours depending on how willing the kids are to do the work. He is growing up fast. We are excited to start the new school year and we are starting with hope in our hearts. Wish me luck I am going to need it.

I hope that your day is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Invitation

I love having company over at our house whether it is for dinner or a week of visiting. I love surprising my extended visitors with gift bags, or baskets depending on what I am currently in love with. This year I have found a new love for my sewing machine and handmade gifts. Which means you are likely to be gifted some random assorted things that you may or may not like. This year for Easter we have our Florida family coming in to help us celebrate. They will be here today. Here are some of the things they will be greeted with.

This year I made these tote bags. I am sure they will be good for beach trips.

I filled it with fresh towels, handmade soap from Hanson Family Farms, and a few other trinkets.

Believe it or not these bags are based on the personalities of the guests.

I made lots of pockets, because this friends like to pack everything.

Not a bag person or I can't find material I will find a nice basket.

This is filled with handmade gifts from the children.

I am really excited to see our wonderful visitors and I hope that they have a nice time visiting us.

I hope you have a very wonderful Easter weekend filled with love and laughter. Be well Friends

Philosophy Bites

Officially my computer is no longer in working condition. In fact I have to replace it. I am sharing my husbands temperamental laptop which occasionally gets to hot and shuts down randomly. He has been home for the last eight days so doing school work has been fun, considering he is also in college and was studying for his next rank test. He is taking the test right now, I hope he is doing better than he thinks he was going to do. I am taking a Philosophy class, I was so excited to take this class when I started. I was filled with hope that I could learn a new way to look at the world. In truth 30% of my grade is based on weekly tests. Every week I am assigned at least six chapters, 3 articles, 3 podcast, youtube videos, and several power point lecture notes, the quiz only has 10 questions and they could be on anything that was assigned. I am not good at testing. I can write a paper that clearly shows that I read and understood the material. When I am taking a quiz I second guess myself, I change answers, I generally freak out a little, and it is starting to show. I think I am going to squeak by with a B despite by best effort. It is disappointing. At least now I know I am not a philosopher and I do not have to take another philosophy class.

On another note, I have Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes and we are loving the recipes of course. In this book he puts the meals together on the same page starting with the Main dish all the way to the desert. I still spend about 30-45 minutes making these meals but it is nice to have everything go together. I recommend this cookbook if you are in the market for a new one. The other day I realized that I talk about how much I totally love Jamie Oliver and I told my husband that I don't mean the person, (I don't know him and as far as I know he is happily married with four kids. He talks about them in his books.) but as the chef who loves to share his recipes. He laughed at me and told me he never thought anything of it. Yes friends, I am a bit of a nut case. 

I hope that your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Changing the game plan

This last week I have been in a funky mood, you know the kind that is starting to stink at the back of the refrigerator. My attitude has been in the toilet and mostly blah. I felt totally deflated and then I woke up and realized that I was the problem. Me. I was the problem with my life, not school, not the kids’ noise, not my husband being constantly busy, not the dog eating everything he can sneak while we are not looking, no not anything other thing. I was the problem, am the problem. My attitude, mood swings directly affect those around me and this week it has been a bit sour.



The first step to any problem is admitting the problem. Hello My Name is Trisha and I am a problem. Done. Now for the game plan. One of the things that drive me completely nuts is my messy house. I have two boys who come through it like a tornado every few minutes, a dog that likes to roll around in the dead grass and shake it off the minutes he comes back into the house, a cat who rolls around in the leaves and then lays on the clean laundry, and my husband who thinks it is perfectly acceptable to garden in the bath tub and on any given window sill. These are the people I blame; now I am the person responsible for cleaning after them. I often try to make weekend clean up fun for everyone so that I feel like I am not alone in housecleaning, this past weekend we decided on trying out housecleaning Bingo. Fail, Epic Fail. While I was looking up bingo cards on the web I came across http://flylady.net/. It is a website dedicated to helping poor slobs like me to get their act together. It is a 31 day step program that helps (it claims). So far the website looks like it might help so today I am going to start.



Day 1. Shine your sink. http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/flying-lessons/shine-sink/



Day 2. Get dressed to the shoes. (Um, but I haven’t finished my coffee yet.)





Another problem I have been mulling over is the fact that we still eat processed bread. We have given up most other processed food, I say most because chocolate, coffee, flours, and sugar. Am I really so lazy that I can’t make fresh bread for my family, seriously I have a bread maker. The answer is no, I often run out of flour. I think I found a reasonable solution at amazon, I can buy 25 pounds of Organic, unbleached flour and have it shipped to me for free. I love Amazon Prime for this reason, the free shipping that is. They also offer a subscription to the flour to lower the cost. http://www.greatrivermilling.com/. So starting on the first I will be buying 25 pounds of flour every other month for about 92 cents a pound. Problem number two solved.



As for many of my other problems well I think is mostly a lesson in being grateful. Grateful that I have two beautiful children. Thankful that my husband chose me. Grateful for our house that the bank owns but they allow us to act like we do. Grateful that my husband works a job that allows me to stay at home with our children. Thankful that he is willing to pay for my education even though I might not work later either. I am grateful that I have this life. I am happy.



I hope that you are happy today too, and that your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Moments

Yesterday was was my baby's birthday. I can not believe that he has grown up so fast. Every time one of my children have a birthday I reflect on the past birthdays and the future ones. One day they may not want to celebrate with their parents. They will want to go out to dinner with all of their friends instead of choosing their homemade birthday dinner from me. I realize that I only have a few years left before they are adults. These sweet years are mine forever, because for them they will become part of the fiber that they are made out of. The story's they tell their future wives and children. I am hoping that by having this tradition of a big meal of their choice and all of us being together will bring them home. Maybe the hardest part of being in the military is knowing that there is a real chance that the kids might move away from us. The difference is I know that I will go to them. I am living the dream right now, living the moments that I will remember my whole life.

I made my sweet little man a Cape for his birthday.



I hope your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

My family is completely obsessed with food

I have a confession to make, one that you have probably already guessed, but here it is all the same. My family is completely obsessed with food. I read cookbooks when I am not reading for my college classes. My husband is getting a degree in Horticulture. My kids wake asking what we are going to eat for all of the days meals. Our food is about more than what we put in our mouth, it is about who raises it, who grows it, how it is grown, where it came from, and what is in it. I know a lot of people who say my kids won’t eat this or that or my favorite they will only eat ______ fill in the blank. My question is this, what have you told your kids about food? Why do you keep giving it to them? When my kids start asking for something and demanding and refusing to eat anything else we stop eating it. Ice cream is a good example we go months without it so that it is a special occasion. Today we wrote our list of meals for the next couple of weeks, Damian pulled out the cookbooks and chose what sounded good to him Spicy sausage tortillas, Chicken pasta salad, Broccoli Orecchietta, and Cassoulet. James wanted Cauliflower Macaroni and cheese and Roasted Root Vegetable Pizza. When I put a meal on the table James asked what it in it so we spend ten to fifteen minutes talking about what the ingredients are and how I cooked them. We talk about gardening, a lot. What we hope to grow, when we need to start seeds, or when to plant the transplants. My kids all ways ask is that edible?

We also talk about composting and recycling. Because of our chose to be as sustainable as possible we only take our trash to the curb once every two weeks, and the same with the recycling bins. It is a nice realization that we have reduced our waste so much. I know that we have a long way to go before we completely sustainable but I know that we will get there one day, year from now. There is no time limit but the fact we are actively making improvements is a success.

Last month I read an article on the use of wood pulp as filler in food. The USDA allows up to 10% of any food to contain this wood pulp. Yeah that extra fiber in your bread or cereal it could be wood, you’ll never know because it is called cellulose in the ingredients. You can read about it here  http://www.thestreet.com/story/11012915/1/cellulose-wood-pulp-never-tasted-so-good.html.  Here is a fun fact about cellulose it is also used insulation, that’s right insulating your house. Wood pulp it is the modern day Soylent Green.  Shortly after reading more about the wood in meat products as well as breads and cereal, we went out to eat for the last time. I ordered nachos and it hit home when that plate was set in front of me. What is in that? I looked up almost in tears and said, “I don’t think we can eat out anymore.” My husband said simply, “Yeah, I think you may be right.” We have taken out almost all processed foods. We still eat frozen vegetables, canned tomatoes, chocolate, coffee, and bread. Yeah I know it probably has wood in it, but it is the hardest thing to switch over to completely homemade bread all of the time. I am hoping to buy flour in bulk this year to make it easier to make bread at home. I want unbleached flour. Turns out it is not readily available at local super stores.  Here is our boards of dinner meals for the next two weeks.  

Now you know I have horrible handwriting.

Why do I have 20 meals listed and there are only 18 days left in the month; you ask. We like to have a couple of extra meals in case nothing else sounds good. I want to share this journey with you. One thing I realized is how much less it is to just eat at home, even with the grass fed meat. A couple of days ago we had Jamie Oliver's Sweet and Sour Pork with brown rice and Roasted purple Cauliflower. The total cost per person was only $3.75. Let me tell you I do not skimp on food either. Don't believe me? Let's take the chicken listed at the top of my list.

Let's say I paid 18 dollars for that lovely bird. First, because I haven't learned to cut up the chicken I will usually roast it in the crockpot with an onion $1, a couple of cloves of garlic 20 cents, sliced lemons $1 and rosemary from our garden. So far for the chicken it is up to $22.00. Wait I use this chicken for two meals and chicken broth. So lets divide the price by 2 which is $11.00. So here is what we might have with the chicken.

Chicken       $11.00

Brown rice  $     .50

frozen veg   $   1.50

Total            $13.00 now we divide that by four and we have $3.25 for our whole meal. A lot of times we will have a green smoothie but we use the greens we are growing in our garden and a handful of frozen fruit at most it might make that individual total go up fifty cents. I want to encourage you to eat at home too. I have tons of cookbooks and I am more then happy to tell you how it is going complete with the total cost of the meals. It is completely reasonable to buy organic food, local food, and grass fed meat.

I want to leave you with a quote from Oprah Winfrey, "When you know better, you do better."

I hope that your week is filled with a revelation that moves you, Love and Laughter. Be well Friends!

Love Language

Have you read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman? My husband and I read this book a few years ago, I think maybe four years ago, I can't remember if we had James yet, I just remembered we did have James he was a baby so three years ago we read the book. I know it is not important when we read it, but it was bothering me so I had to work through it. Thanks for bearing with me. This month we have made it to being married for Ten Years. I have been thinking a lot about why we only have one single day to reflect upon our marriage and celebrate each other. I love my husband every day, and I am still thankful that he chose me even after all of these years. This morning that book came floating into my mind and I was inspired. I am going to reread this slowly working through all of the activities with the hopes of building my husband up without his knowing. Also I wonder if it would work for my kids. I have no idea what love language each of my children speak so it might be revealing and help to bring us all closer together, and it starts with me. Yesterday at dinner Damian asked if we could give up meat for lent, and my husband said he didn’t want to give up meet and alcohol (I had talked about giving up alcohol, wine for lent). That is when it hit me hard, these people depend on me to guide them, that I am the spiritual guide for our family, and I am the one that they look to as an example (well the kids, and my husband is the head of the house). I think maybe this is a good opportunity for me to become a better version of myself as a mother and a wife.



There are Five Love Languages



1. Words of Affirmation

2. Quality Time

3. Receiving Gifts

4. Acts of Service

5. Physical touch
 

When we read this my love language was Acts of Service and physical touch, and my husband’s was Quality Time and Physical touch. It is possible that they can change but it is unlikely. Still I am going to work slowly through this book starting at Chapter 1. I will update you on how it is going in the next week or so.



I hope your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons learned

Lessons  Learned I learned last week. I know I am late on this post by two days but know that I am thinking about you even when I am not posting. I think it is the time of year when I would rather be in the kitchen baking and candy making add on that we are homeschooling and I am in college and we have a clash of responsibilities verses hobbies. I do my best and I always find a way to write to you again.

My favorite lesson I learned this week comes from Martha Stewart’s School of Cooking book. You can freeze cookie dough for up to a month. So I baked one dozen and then carefully divided the rest of the dough into two dozen cookies and froze them in a Ziploc bag.  That means I get fast cookies that are better than Tollhouse Cookies (sorry Tollhouse I am just against the random preservatives that you have to put in your cookie dough to sell to the general public. Don’t take it personally.).

Froozen cookies

Froozen cookies ready for the oven

Fresh from the oven

So I am going to Share with you the cookie recipe which can be found in Martha’s School of Cooking with my own notes added along to suit my tastes. This is a basic recipe so you can add anything that makes you happy. Don’t be afraid just through in those yummy mini M&M’s, heath bits, or butterscotch chips, or dark chocolate, or milk chocolate, and any nut you can think of or a combination of all of the above.

Basic Drop Cookies

3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (or whatever kind of butter you normally buy.) room temperature (it makes it easier to cream)

2 large eggs, room temperature (just set them out when you get started, mine were cold and the cookies were still good)

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

2 Cups add- ins(again anything you want chocolate, dried fruit, nuts, candy, whatever makes your heart sing)

Preheat oven to 350* line pan with parchment paper (I didn’t do anything to the pan). Combine dry ingredients flour, salt, and baking soda. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy then add eggs one at a time, and then stir in vanilla. Add dry ingredients in three additions and stirring until completely incorporated. Then stir in two cups of your add-ins (I did three. Two cups milk chocolate chips and 1 cup of walnuts). Then use an ice cream scoop to drop the cookies on to the pan. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Allow to cool. After I put the cookies in the oven I used my little scoop to sort out the cookies for the freezer.

yummy...

p.s. I just wrote the highlights of the recipe. Here is a link to her website http://www.marthastewart.com/food

Did you know that when Chickens molt they stop laying eggs? I guess it gives their reproduction systems a welcome break, which leads to healthier chickens, and better quality eggs. They molt for 2-6 months depending on the bred. It is good for them, and it is good for me but I have found a love of fresh eggs. I am happy that the famer is so natural and wonderful and treats these animals with respect. So when she announced the molt I was both happy and a little sad. Maybe I should disclose that I buy five dozen eggs every two weeks.  If you make the switch to a local farmer with the same high standards as The Hanson Family farm you will understand how wonderful an egg can truly be. Honestly the price is slightly higher than the organic eggs at the market. I pay $3 a dozen; $2.75 if I return the egg carton which I do.  Like I have said before it is a wonderful feeling to know the farmer you are supporting. There is no middle man, there is no supermarket. I hand my money to the farmers, they take it and use it on their animals, or to care for their family. I am the lucky one because I get to support their dreams. It is really a beautiful cycle.  When was the last time you went to a grocery store and could say the same by buying factory eggs that are .99 cents a dozen.  

Okay enough about food. I learned how to end crochet projects by threading about twelve inches into the hat. I also learned how to attach the flowers on to my hats. I only made eight hats last week. I have a problem. I will make more next week.

I bought Rob a Pecan Tree for Christmas.  He planted it and then said lets go look at this nursery I found. They had trees on sale we bought three more. I got two roses 60% off. Rob planted all of them. I hope that we get some fruit off of these trees before we are forced to sale the house in 3-? Years.

Speaking of trees I let the boys pick the tree with out me. Because it was so short I also let them decorate it. Too. So far this is how the tree looks. Damian is working on Christmas banners to hang on it.

My post is getting long so I will stop now. For your sake. You know I could carry on unashamed.

I hope that your week is filled with magic, music, love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Christmas Ornaments

A couple of years ago my husband and I bought a big box of wonderful matching tree decorations. We were so excited to finally have a respectable tree. I especially had visions of people coming far and wide to see our wonderful tree in its entire perfect beauty.  Yes, I can be unreasonable delusional. The point is I knew that our tree would be perfect. Then we decorated the tree and it was perfect for five minutes when the reality of having young kids hit. James wanted to play with all of the pretty balls, Damian want to rearrange all of the store bought decorations every hour. When I was finished pulling out my hair to keep them away from the tree I put all of them back into the box and they do not come out any more. Lucky for me we were invited to a pottery place where the kids got to make their own ornaments. So they got put on the tree and a tradition was born. I forgot that the beauty of Christmas is found in the hearts of children that perfect is overrated. Now I let the kids decorate the tree with candy canes, homemade ornaments, and lights (The grown-ups hang the multicolored lights). Now we love the Christmas tree for its uniqueness, it is special to us. If the ornaments get broke it isn’t a big deal because we made them with love and laughter (sometimes a cranky mommy overwhelmed with giving the reins to the kids while we make ornaments) it all works out for the best.

This year I decided to try out the cinnamon applesauce  ornaments.  Here is the recipe from  http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1815,154190-231207,00.html 

APPLESAUCE - CINNAMON ORNAMENTS

Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1815,154190-231207,00.html Content Copyright © 2011 Cooks.com - All rights reserved. 1 c. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. allspice 1 tsp. ground cloves 1 tsp. nutmeg 1 c. applesauce Mix dry ingredients. Add applesauce a little at a time. Mixture should have consistency of playdough. If too dry, add 1-2 tablespoons applesauce. Roll 1/4 inch thick on ungreased surface. If too sticky, sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on level surface to dry 4-5 days. Insert fine wire at top of ornament before drying. Tie with ribbon. Yield 2 dozen. I put them in the over at 200 degree for 2 hours. Also I used a straw and poked out holes in each ornament so that I could easily add the ribbon when they have cooled. The house smelled really yummy while they were baking. I am sure that you can decorate these with a little glue and glitter, paint, markers, and googly eyes but my boys wanted them to go on to the tree as soon as they were cool enough to handle. I hope that you have a very wonderful week filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons Learned December 5

Lessons I learned last week.

My lovely husband was home all last week which is why my blog has been quiet. I love having him home but I am always glad to get the house back when he returns to work. I have no idea what we are going to do when he retires. Wait we'll be farmers so he will be busy with a thousand projects that need to get done.

So last week nap time some how became optional and went out the window. I am paying for this today and most likely tomorrow too.

School work for all parties became unbearable. With all the extra help less got done then normal.

I read Chaucer for the first time. I was surprised that his vulgar story telling is considered classic, also I had to write a short paper on whether he was for or against the church. I am pretty sure he was against it.

I sent the boys to pick our Christmas tree and some how all three of them decided on a 5 foot tree. I am 5'7". The lesson is always go as a family to pick the Christmas tree. It is pretty all dressed up even if it is the smallest tree we have ever had.

Finally I have found a new obsession . . .

Hats

Flowers

Adding flowers to Hats

Making my boys model flowery hats.

I have to be honest this yarn is some that someone gave me because they didn't like it. I have kept it around to try things out. If I don't like the outcome no big deal. It is kind of Christmasy if you squint a little to the left.

Then I discovered the five petal flowers. 

Oh yes friends, I like these flowers a lot.

Now what can I attach them too.

You guessed right a hat. I love the color of the flowers on the white hat.

The boys realized that these were girl hats.

I had to force him to model it for me.

I made them each their own hat. Which caused happy faces. Isn't he cute!

I am glad he is missing a tooth if he wasn't he would look a lot older. Then I would worry.

This is for one of my little nieces. I am so happy her mom said I could make her stuff with flowers on it. Then she said in natural colors or yellow. Wait! What? I want pink. Still I like the hat. I hope she does too.

So I am afraid you will be seeing more crocheted flowers and other stuff as I learn how to do them. I want to learn to make socks. Then I can make myself socks with flowers on them. I wonder if that is hard?

Any chance you were impressed by this new super talent? No. I don't blame you. Yes? You would not be so impressed if you knew how super easy these projects are. If you want to learn the secret to these lovelies check youtube. That is right step by step instructions. I hope you don't mind all of the pictures this week. I can not control myself. Do you know what I found that is next on my list? I won't make you guess it is a dinosaur hat. I have to buy yarn. I also need to con some people into letting me make them one. Do you need a hat? I am just kidding, kind of.

I hope you have a wonderful week filled with Holiday cheer (We celebrate Christmas but I love saying happy Holiday's because we are all in it together trying to spread goodwill to all)  I hope it is full of peace and hope and Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.