You Don't See That Every Day

Most mornings begin with a little groaning and slow moving these days. But once I get out of bed, I generally enjoy mornings. Especially when the sun is shining. This morning I noticed the beauty in the mundane, everyday bits of life. Making lunches for the 3 who leave the house each day; we go through a lot of bread!  Some homemade goodness I whipped us yesterday, oatmeal zucchini bread; it's thick and yummy and chock full of good things like walnuts.  Our dog is part bovine I think. She loves to eat the grass, especially when I mow and the sweet fresh stems get dropped. As I watched the dog I saw the lilacs are in full bloom. So pretty, and they smell so good!  Breakfast and some reading awaiting me  along with grading. I like to grade the girls' books in the morning while it is still quiet and my mind is awake and working. I wonder if most people have a morning 'routine' ...

The farm is in its abundance this time of year. We headed out early this morning to help harvest more garbanzo beans. This time around I got to help. Thankfully it is a lot easier to harvest the beans than it is to weed them, and keep them weeded! While we were there we helped my parents pick produce - ending up with apples, tomatoes, green beans, onions, cabbage, beets, squash, and zucchini. SO many green beans. When we got back home I immediately got to work; first I got the crockpot going with supper - split pea soup; one of our favorites. One of my girls absolutely hates it, but I still make her eat some. Then I had the kids start snipping beans. We had about 4 buckets full of beans to process. I got the jars and all other paraphernalia ready for canning and started in on the process. We finally finished up with it all by 7 pm tonight. And I was so thankful for a crockpot of supper ready and waiting. Because after I started my canning, the kids cracked a bunch of walnuts for m...

It's a rainy Saturday in Oregon. I have a child who is still sick. So she and I and Little K. stayed home this morning while the other 3 kids and G. went to the Awana Games. Our sick girl was quite disappointed she was not able to go! It was her last year of competing and she was a key player. Unfortunately, her body didn't cooperate with her plans. So we stayed in and watched TV. Well, they watched while I cleaned and baked. We like to watch the Food channel; Chopped is one of our favorites. The only problem with that is ... I then go in the kitchen and crank out some kind of goodie, but tweak the recipe a little. (I guess that isn't really any different from any other time I cook.) This time I took my oatmeal muffin recipe*, the one from my awesome friend Debbie, and I added jam to the center. Wow! Such a little change, but so yummy! I've got the chili in the crockpot going, and I'm working on cinnamon roll from PW 's cookbook . Here's the thing ab...

Is it donut, or doughnut? Either way it was yummy. Do you remember Grandma's donuts? Oh, the memories! Way back in my childhood, my parents bought a donut maker. (I'm going to go with the shorter spelling.) I remember just a few times of it being used. And somehow - thankfully! - we have inherited it. If any of my siblings want it ... we could probably work out a loaner system. So the two older girls begged me to get a pretzel recipe from the neighbor. And so I complied, because that sounded yummy too. It's winter in Oregon. Homemade bread always makes the gray days better. As they were compiling the ingredients - we've learned from past experience to check first - we realized we were out of unsalted 'real' butter. And I am pretty sure the recipe we had wouldn't work so well with our cheapo margarine. So they dug out the donut maker and 'convinced' me that they could do it. And they made donuts. Hallelujah. They've been listening to me cook...

  I've been baking. But not just because the weather has turned to rain again. It was my husband's night to bring supper to the deacon meeting. And since I don't cook too well, I knew I could at least bake something that would turn out. So I've tried: Brownies, cookies, and these beauties: cream puffs! I settled on the brownies to send away, and kept these awesome creations. They are so super simple to make and so super delish to eat. It's a good thing we have neighbors to give them to and a sister to share with (oh, and 5 hungry minions!), or I would have eaten them ALL. All I can say is my sister better get here soon or the 3 remaining puffs might be ... gone.

It's been quiet here this week. Not too much out of the ordinary happening. Here are some seriously random ramblings spewing from my brain: Today is my son's last track meet. And I can't make it to see him run. It was hard to accept that, but I've moved on. I'm looking forward to hearing how he did. And kind of hoping he'll call in between time to tell me. I've got a lot of thoughts running through my head concerning money. Specifically lack of it, or how to stretch it. How do we raise our 5 children on the single income we have? How do we get out of debt? I'm thinking Thoughts (with a capital T). I might even unscramble them enough to write about it. Feel free to offer suggestions. I made some awesome zucchini bread the other day.  I bought 25 pounds of oats awhile back because we were using them so fast. So I am looking at everything I bake with the idea of adding oats to it. And Zucchini-Oat bread is delicious! I'll have to rummage that 2-re...

2 year olds have an amazing outlook on life. Everything is so new and fascinating. They are just soaking it all in, and pouring it back out in their speech and actions.  Earlier in the week Little K figured out she has pockets! She was quite pleased with this new concept. On Saturday she wanted to help me make bread. "I bake!" she kept saying   And so she did.  She stirred the flour into the bread.  Never too early to get them in the kitchen.   Later in the day, she found the sunshine - which is a rarer occurrence in our neck of the woods; and so she laid down in it for awhile, after figuring out what it was. The Boy and Dad tore into the doors this weekend. Another step in the remodeling process. They took off the door that leads from the laundry room to the addition, and added the door to the garage..   Here's the door, outside, waiting to be removed from the premises. Anyone in need of a door?? After the do...

It seems my life revolves around food. Feeding 5 little - well, some are not so little - mouths; And making sure the grown-ups around here are fed; and the two dogs need to be fed regularly also ... it all makes for a lot of food buying, prepping and consumption. So anytime I can find a quick, easy, and good recipe, I will try it out and probably make it way too many times! A friend passed this one on to me last week - Peanut Butter Cookies, without flour! The original recipe calls for 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar and 1 egg. That's it!! Mix it up, pop some spoonfuls on a baking sheet, bake for 6-8 minutes at 350 and they are done! Cool and eat - yum! But it you know me, I had to 'tweak' the recipe. I cut the sugar in half - it was way too sweet and 'granulary'; And then I added a half a cup of oats instead They still taste delicious - better I think! And the kids eat them up as quickly as I let them. Quick, easy and yummy. (it is also posted on my recip...

( Written on Monday, finally posted today. Sigh. It's that kind of week. ) I had time to work on some fun stuff today. Since there was no school for the Boy, the girls and I decided to make it an easy day also. Which gave me time to bake! I tried pastries on Saturday, so today was my attempt at cheddar goldfish crackers. But I didn't have a fish shaped cutter so I used a small heart instead. The consistency probably should have been finer, and the dough rolled thinner, but overall they aren't too bad. They are more like cheddar biscuits than crackers. So I will have to play with that recipe a little. Doesn't seem to stop the small fry from eating them. We also stirred up some graham crackers and then dove into the banana bread mix my daughter received as a gift. Good stuff! Watching the snow fall, eating warm banana bread in front of the roaring fire - a beautiful afternoon.

I should be posting most of these over on my other blog . Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. You'll have to just check over and see. So on Saturday our little Princess M had her very first basketball practice with Upward Basketball. You may recall the BOY playing in this league for the past 7 years. The two older girls also had a chance to play a few years ago. Now it's her turn She was so excited! And I think she did rather well. I might be a little biased, but she dribbles really well, and she even made a basket - an amazing feat when you're only about 40 inches tall and the basket is about 6 feet in the air. Our puppy is getting easier to handle. She loves to be outside romping with the other dog. But she also really really enjoys the nice cozy warm indoors. Her sleeping positions are hilarious .. although this one seems rather comfy. Princess girl also had a cousin sleep over this weekend! Add this in to basketball practice and she was so wound up on Frid...

Getting ready to go on vacation is a lot like having a baby. This thought came to me as I was stirring up some rice crispy treats. I had found a very, very old bag of marshmallows (like from Christmas ... maybe). I decided I had better use them up, and what better way than to make a little treat for the family I am leaving behind. Tomorrow I start my trek to Texas, with my little Baby K. Taking a one year old on the plane doesn't excite me. But the end result should be worth it! I get to see my brother's house (finally) and visit with him and his family, whom I haven't seen in years. And I get to see my niece (my god-daughter) graduate from high school! I still remember the day I got the call from my brother about her birth; ah .. happy memories. So I have been cleaning, and making lists (oh so many lists!) and shopping, and storing up groceries for G. to utilize while I am gone. Just like I did when I was planning before I had the baby. Except this time it is a little e...