Long Time No Talk

I hope all is well to those who may read this. I forgot about this blog for a while. I have been up to a lot. Hope to post something tomorrow or at least soon. Check back!

What I have been up to this week

Well I am failing you all already. I haven't posted since last Friday. I dedicated Monday and Tuesday to laundry and cleaning the house. It takes me two days to fit it in with home school and the blonde monster.

I have been sewing a lot too. I am making a robe for myself which is coming out pretty good. I hope to finish it today while Brooke is napping. I made three pair of pj pants for Trent a few weeks ago. It has inspired me to try sewing some other things.

I made a pair of pj pants for Brooke, Faith, Grace and Evan. I fitted the girls pants to them over the weekend they look so cute. Evan...I need your inseam measurement and yours will be in the mail.

As far as food goes this week, the highlights are; Ham, Green Beans and Potatoes, Ham and bean soup with the leftovers. I added a twist to my bread this week. I put flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and basil in the bread. It was pretty good, but not great.

I also made homemade granola, with Bran Flakes, Oatmeal, ground flax, whole flax seed, unsweetened coconut, banana chips, honey, applesauce, and something else that I can't remember. :)

Oh, LOL the croutons I made got burned. I don't have a kitchen timer. Brooke broke it a few months ago. But, if I don't stay in the kitchen I forget that I am cooking!

Well the house is dirty again and the laundry is mounting so I best get back at it.

I think I will be running out of my laundry soap today, so I will take pictures of how I make my own soap. It is cool!

Messes

I am thoroughly convinced that a major mess must happen at my house on a daily basis or something is wrong.

Ok, lets start with 4 days ago...Brooke was in the bathroom and spilled an entire bag of red bath salts. That was lovely trying to clean up. The floor was pink after I picked them up and I had to dump my mop water twice to get it cleaned. Oh and by the way, this is hours after I had just scrubbed the bathroom including washing the floor.

3 days ago-Brooke spilled her bowl of cereal, a cup of water, and Trent's Glucose Strips (there are 50 in a bottle).

2 days ago-Brooke spilled an almost full bag of Flax Seed. For anyone who doesn't know what they look like they are small and thinner than sunflower seeds. They went all over the counter, in the silverware drawer, and onto the floor!

Yesterday-Brooke knocked the garbage can over (not on purpose she ran into it)

Today- she spilled an entire bowl of peaches on the floor!

I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me. Or maybe even later today!

More Cooking

Since I mixed up bread dough last night I made some hamburger rolls and a small loaf of bread. The rolls turned out awesome. I cut them out using a large mouth jar ring. Then let them rise and bake. I love those rolls when we have sloppy joes.

The bread was a total flop, it sunk in the middle for some reason. So, I cut that up into cubes this morning to make croutons. I didn't mix up any seasoning for them yet, but that is on the agenda for the afternoon.

Maybe the hubby will pick up salad ingredients on his way home and we can have grilled chicken salad with the fresh croutons!

Have you ever heard of the love dare? It was what the book that the movie Fireproof was based on. It is awesome, you have to rent it if you have never seen it. But anyway, the Contemporary Christian station I listen to is broadcasting the daily love dare. It will run now through Valentine's Day. So every day they tell you what the dare is for that day.

It started Wednesday, with the first dare to not say anything negative to your spouse. When I first heard it I was very glad that he wouldn't be home until 5:30 pm! LOL It went well, but it was hard. I asked him as we were falling asleep if I said anything negetive to him all night. He said no, but you did seem distant. I laughed so hard!!!! On the radio they said that if you are tempted to be negative just bite your tongue and don't say anything. I caught myself doing that a lot, but I didn't think it made me distant! So what is worse not talking so you are not negative or being negative? Ok, so maybe I should learn to be able to talk with him AND not be negetive.

Yesterday the dare was to do something nice out of the blue. I choose to pack his lunch for him. (I hate packing his lunch, so that is a big deal) How does his sandwich look?

Today's dare is to buy him something small to show your appreciation. I will not be doing that for two reasons. One, I don't have a car to go anywhere. Two, love is not shown through purchases. So in lieu of purchasing a gift. I am going to do three of his chores that I hate doing. I will take out the recycling, and the garbage. I am also going to feed and take the dog out each time tonight. Whew...again all things I hate to do that he normally does. I will let you know what his reaction is!

More Pirates!

The Pirate Lessons continue. Yesterday our cousins Faith, Grace and Hope were over for the day. They got to join in with my little mate's.

We all have pirate names too (the kids came up with these themselves) Trent is HD short for Hot Dog, Brooke is Powder, I am Captain Bun, Nate is Billy Wagg, Faith is Tink, Grace was itty bitty or something along those lines. LOL it was a blast.

They had to swab the decks, find treasure and bury it. The treasure was a cup, paint brush, a snow boot and marker. They buried it in the couch cushions! That couch eats everything and nobody can ever find anything when it is buried there! Smart Kids.

What would I do with out my SIL's?

Thanks to my sister-in-laws we had another wonderful supper last night. Christina had my name for Christmas, and one of my gifts from here was a pizza stone. I have had a pizza stone for years, but it is really small. One pizza on my old stone did not feed us all. Well, that was not a problem last night.

Krista got me and amazing deal on yeast which made the whole dinner possible. Thanks Gals!

Trent helped from the start.




Then the duck woke up and helped in her own way.





The house smelled so good baking our pizza. The dough was whole wheat(my fav bread recipe). The sauce was made from scratch, but the mushrooms were canned. We also added turkey pepperoni and onion. Here is the final product!




Don't forget the bread sticks MOM!

Home Cookin'

I am so thankful to have a mother-in-law that has taught me how to cook, preserve, and be frugal. Even if I do pick on her about her own frugal efforts.

My own mother has given me all of my crafty skills and desire to make my own things. These two Mom's combined have created a homemade machine. Well at least I would like to be. I think most gifts should be made by the giver and most meals should be homemade as well.

Gardening is a huge love of mine. It is fun for me and the kids and best of all it is yummy! My favorite part of having a garden is being able to eat a meal made of all homegrown foods.

Tonight was one of those nights. We had canned venison, creamed potatoes that I canned, and yellow beans from the farm. I didn't get a picture of what the prepared meal looked like, we all dug in to fast once I had it all cooked. But here is the before picture:

I did remember to take a picture of desert. I do not make sweets very often, but I wanted to use some of my newly found apples.

It is a apple cake with cream cheese frosting. YUM!

This cake is made with 100% wheat flour and is sweetened with honey. The frosting is also sweetened with honey. There is also no oil in this recipe. It turns out sooo moist. Nate even had two pieces!

Applesauce

I am tired and the applesauce is done. It was a busy day today with home school and a little blonde monster. She put herself in time out three different times. When I asked her what she did she told me she was grumpy! That kid is nuts.

We got the grumpster down for honk shew (that's our code word for nap) and Trent and I got busy. Here are some pictures of our day!

What a find

I found apples in our garage last week when we were cleaning it out. I had thought I took care of all of them months ago. Well, I didn't that means I have applesauce to do in January!

LOL there is another first for me. I am guessing I will get about 10 quart out of what I found. I should make something yummy to go with dinner tonight.

I will post later and let you know how it all turns out.

My little Pirates

Well I might as well start with the little cuties that give me so much enjoyment. We are studying about pirates for a few weeks. Trent and Brooke listened to a pirate poem and then they were to paint a picture of what they were imagining while I was reading!

Cute little mate's!

Here we go!

Welcome Everyone,

I have been thinking about creating a blog for a long time. I do not like the idea of facebook, but this seems like fun and will hopefully be entertaining for you guys at the same time.

I have always wanted to blog about my frugal attempts and some of my cooking expeditions. Not to mention the kids...oh the kids. That could be a blog in and of itself.

Happy reading and hopefully the hubby doesn't get mad about leaking an inside view to our crazy life.

Love,

Kate