Sweet Partings

When I started blogging I really needed a place to think out loud, to process what was going on, and to have a safe place where nobody knew me to emote all over the place.  As time passed I needed that less, but liked the little community I had found so I kept going, and it has definitely been fun.

But as the girls get older my schedule got more crowded, and now I find it is so crowded I cannot get it all done, as I am sure you can tell by the more and more frequent breaks around here!

As I prayed about my schedule the topic of this space came up, and when I asked the Lord if I should close down this space the answer was an immediate yes.

So it is time.

I wish the richness of the Lord's blessings upon you.

Cherry Conclusion

What does 30 lbs of beautiful Bing cherries get you?  Besides oddly stained hands of course?

• 29 pints of canned cherries (plus the 1 that broke)
• 10 quarter pints of quartered canned cherries that are the home made version of the fruit cups you get in the store
• 1 batch of cherry jam that yielded 4 and a half pints
• 2 pies worth of cherries frozen
• happy snackers - we ate to our hearts content

I learned that my daughters are more than capable of stemming cherries and not eating each one they stem, that Miss Pear can pit them with the pitter, and that next year I need a second pitter...and probably twice as many cherries!  We had a lot of fun, and are enjoying the results very much.

It makes me very happy to see the pantry filling up again with delicious treats, healthier too as we use a very light syrup.

And we pick up 10 lbs of Rainier cherries Thursday night.....

Cherry Insanity

Today we sorted 30 lbs of cherries.

Over 2/3 were ready to be worked with, rest set to ripen more.

The ready ones were cleaned, and the craziness began.

We got 17 pints of cherries completed and they are so pretty.

We had 1 broken jar which broke after the cherries were in and processed, the jar boiled over and then on the cooling rack cracked - very weird...and smelly.

More to do tomorrow as we did not get all the ripe ones done.

When we run out of pint jars we are freezing cherries for pie and will try dehydrating again.

And then we found out we get 10 lbs of Rainier cherries on Saturday after all.

I don't know if I should jump up and down or hide under the covers.

I do know that those 17 pints of cherries make me very happy.

Cherry Week

Happy Monday, and I am much happier this Monday than I was last monday when I was almost in tears from my re-injured hand!

I am still going very slowly, wearing a brace, and taking lots of Motrin to make it through the day, but if I follow all the directions I was given carefully I actually stay ahead of the pain - huge improvement!  Thank you Lord!

We found out this morning that the 30 lbs of cherries we ordered for canning and eating will be here at least a week early, and at a better price...they will be here tomorrow.

So I think Baby will be pulling the stems off, Miss Pear will be pitting them with a cherry pitter, and us adults will be putting them in jars with syrup and processing them - should be interesting, but my husband grew up with a mom that cans and is actually better at it than I am!  So we will get it done.

But typing is still very hard for me, both time consuming and messes up the calm in my hand, so I will be back as I can, but probably not very much.

What would you be doing if you were blessed with 30lbs of organic bing cherries?  (At $1.50 a pound!  I am doing such a happy dance!)

Oops

Hey - I hurt my wrist on the weekend, aggravating an old injury, and by monday night it was bad enough I went to see a doctor who put me in a brace,  on my dominant hand.

Typing is very hard.

See you next week.

If you have any lunch ideas that require no cutting I would love it if you would share them with me.  Dear husband of mine came home to make lunch yesterday, but cannot the rest of the week because of meetings.

Monday Morning

It is Monday morning, and the girls are playing doll house.  I am sitting at the island listening to them, and the washing machine, looking out at the back yard and the beautiful sunlight playing on the green of the leaves.  And I am reminded of the fulfillment of simple beauty, simple provision, simple joy.  I am reminded of the joy I have Monday mornings now that I stay home with the girls rather than the dread and knot in my stomach when I went to work, and it gives me joy.

I had to write a few quick emails this morning, and it gives me joy to know I am emailing local friends, new friends in our new area who have become great friends.

I listen to the girls playing together, real friends, real joy, no yelling, and it makes me so happy.

Monday mornings have found a delightful joy over time and I did not notice the gift because I did not slow down enough to look, I would just look at my to do list instead.  Our lives are becoming increasingly simple, and with that I am finding increasing joy.

Joy

I am learning to look for joy around me.  The giggles of little girls, the singing of birds, the clear surface of our kitchen island...okay that last one may be a miracle it happens so rarely.

But just like I purposefully slowed myself down to give thanks, I am learning to slow myself down to find joy.

Just today, reading through my blog subscriptions I found things that gave me joy:

This great article about preserving the family dinner table - something dear to me!

I laughed at this post about what to do when you run out of table linens because I keep 2 white twin sized sheets just for this reason!  Maybe I should just quit pretending and put them with the table linens?

And I loved this article about serving nourishing meals to crowds because the very idea of filling our home with friends gives me great joy!

And then the CSA we are part of emailed me about next week's box, and that definitely gives me joy!  As does slowly working through the surplus of veggies we had and not just putting them all in stock, stir fries, or roasting them....although I will be roasting veggies for supper tonight.

Where are you finding joy today?

Potty Training Week

While I still want to share about the thank you note table a little more, and point you towards this great post about Perfectionism Ruining Entertaining, we are potty training this week.

It might be the hardest part of parenting as far as our wonderful but strong willed girls are concerned!  But the hardest part is the first couple days, and we are already seeing hope that our little one is getting it, which is great.

So I am throwing out my to do list and agenda this week and just focusing on getting Baby through this time and convincing her that going potty is really a great thing...it is a harder sell than you might expect!

Simple Baby Shower Decorations

When it came to decorating for the shower I wanted to be very careful to find balance between fun and unique, and using what I had.  While I certainly could have asked for donations for the decorations I felt very strongly that I did not want to ask for them!

What happened to just say yes?

It met logic!  This is a first time mom and I did not want any money that could be going to items she needed to be going to decorations!  I kept sending people to shop her registry!

So that left decorations.

I went through all our toys pulling out cars, trucks, and construction vehicles.

My theme became Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

I put a copy of this well loved book on the piano with some other construction themed books we borrowed from friends.

When you came up the front steps you were greeted by a Tonka Truck Crane borrowed from friends and our friendly stork sitting on the bench that was given to us at Miss Pear's baby shower.

Inside was the welcome table.  I asked that attendees write their address on a thank you note and put it in the large Tonka dump truck that was borrowed from friends.  The table was a card table covered with a white sheet and one of our receiving blankets.  The cards were ones I had leftover from my babies, but all the same.

The girls' art table was covered with the blanket I made for our gift and was the gift table...and there were some of our lego cars and trucks around it and on the window ledge.

The meal was served on the island in our kitchen.  For a table cloth I used receiving blankets (also on the kitchen table), knives and forks were in the Little People School bus that was lined with a napkin, and the spoons were in the Little People Minivan that was lined with a napkin.  I used my collection of everyday blue cloth napkins for the occasion, rolling them up and placing them in our dump truck.

It was all using things we had in creative ways, and everyone seemed to comment on the napkins in the dump truck!  

It was fun, it was unique, and it was very frugal because it was all stuff we had, so all funds went to gifts!

Simple Baby Shower

We had the great joy of hosting a church baby shower this past weekend.  Everyone said they had a great time, I had lots of fun, the mommy got spoiled, in fact, I think she was overwhelmed!

So I wanted to share her what I did, not only to encourage you, but so I remember for next time!

To everyone else it looked like there was tons of work in the shower, and there was, but it was spread out. 

The first thing I did was make a list of everything I could easily delegate.   I decided to have a brunch, so the list of things we needed were:

1.  Paper products

2.  4 hot brunch dishes

3.  4 breakfast bread dishes

4.  2 fruit

5.  Juice

6.  Volunteers to help set up

7.  Volunteers to help tear down

8.  Chairs from church

9.  Someone to do the evite who has all the addresses set up.

If figured I would do whatever was left.

There was nothing left.  I ended up doing decorations, cleaning the house, hot beverages, and all the planning.

I also asked a lady at church to bring a devotion for the morning and it was wonderful.

What I found was that everyone wanted to help!  And when people called and emailed asking if they could help, I just kept saying yes!  People want to serve, and saying no is not helpful, it denies them that chance!  so JUST SAY YES!

Would you have delegated all this or done it all yourself?

A-Z Construction Vehicles

If you have ever needed a list of construction vehicles for every letter of the alphabet, here you go!

A - Ariel Lift, Asphault Reclaimer, Articulated Truck

B - Backhoe, Bulldozer

C - Cement Mixer, Cement Pumper Truck, Compactor,

         Cold Planer

D - Dump Truck, Double Drum Compactor

E - Excavator

F - Front-End Loader, Front Shovel

G - Grader, Grapple

H - Horizontal Borer, Hydraulic Excavator

I - Impact Hammer, Integrated Toolcarrier

J - Jack Hammer

K - Knuckleboom Loader

L - Laser, Loader

M - Mobile Rock Crusher, Motor Grader

N - Night Lights (those really big ones)

O - Off-Road Dump Truck, Off-Highway Truck

P - Paver, Pipelayer

Q - Quad-Axle Lowbed, Quary Truck

R - Road Cutter, Road Reclaimer

S - Scraper, Skid Steer Loader

T - Tower Crane, Telehandler

U - Utility Truck

V - Vactor, Vibratory Drum Contractor

W - Wrecking Ball

X - X-Bracing

Y - Yard Crane

Z - Zipper

CSA Box This Week

This morning we unpacked a delicious CSA box that also included a green grocer order of yougurt and half and half cream!

The box was filled with:

Box Contents
Roma Tomatoes, Organic - 1.5 pounds
Bunched Carrots, Organic - 1 bunch
Green Cabbage, Organic - 1 each
Spring Onions, Organic - 2 bunches
Cucumbers, Organic - 2 each
Arugula (Greens), Organic - 1 bunch
Green Bibb Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Minneola Tangelos, Organic - 6 each   These were unavailable and Navel oranges were substituted.
Navel Oranges, Organic - 6 each
Nectarines, Organic - 6 each ..
Peaches, Organic - 6 each
Cameo Apples, Organic - 5 each

Unfortunately I did have a fair bit left in the fridge after so much yuck in the house, including another cucumber, another head of lettuce (okay, half head), and bunch of carrots.

I don't think this is going to be a problem because I also have to goal of eating more fruits and veggies myself, and putting veggies in the snack bowls too - even if it means breaking out the salad dressing!

If you were feeling slightly over run by fruits and veggies what would you be doing?

Summer Goals

I noticed this morning during school time that we only have 22 reading lessons left to go, much less on math, and are completely done our hand writing.  Not bad considering all the yuck, broken arm, and move our family had this past school year!

That has me thinking about our summer plans.

While we do take a break from "formal" school, we also think that learning is life long and more learning happens away from the school table than at it!  However, we also know that we have to be deliberate to challenge and stimulate our children each day - it helps them so much, especially in behavior and being kind to each other!  There is definitely a link in our family.

So my plans for this summer include reading that will actually follow the Rod and Staff introduction to science and social studies, drawing, and lots of reading!  This is in addition to lots of playing and just having fun, of course!

I also made some key goals for the summer, things I have been meaning to get back on track, and things I know will help us tremendously in the fall if we already have them in place!

1.  Read Aloud Time - this has completely fallen apart.  We love this time, and we know it is important!  My plan is to re-establish this time into our day.

2.  Chores - our girls want jobs around the house, and we certainly encourage them to help, even Baby wants her own jobs!  We have tried chore charts, and that just isn't working for us as the jobs needed change every day, and let's face it, I don't have napkins to fold every day!  So now that we are in our new house I am going to get my housekeeping binder updated with a cleaning plan, including daily jobs for the girls.

3.  Scripture Memory / Children's Catechism - we are doing this, but not consistently.  Actually, we are doing a fairly good job on scripture memory, and a terrible job on the catechism.  My plan is to get back to doing scripture memory each morning after Breakfast Bible time (instead of just 3 or 4 mornings a week).  I don't know exactly where to slot in Children's Catechism, I just know it is important to us and I need to find a place.

4.  Personal Bible Time - Miss Pear is turning into an excellent reader, and she loves God and His Word, so we want to encourage her to being a quiet time of her own.  I am thinking this will start at our table with the two of us having a quiet time together, we will see.

The last thing is that my husband and I are planning on studying James together this summer.  With the yuck we are off to a bit of a rough start, but hopefully we will be able to start this weekend.

What great habits are you trying to establish this summer?

Help!

The yuck continues.

My husband and baby are now sick, and someone shared a cold with me.

But I realized something.  Today is our 12th anniversary and we are all together because everyone but Miss Pear is too sick to leave the house willingly (well, I could leave, but I am the nurse).  But we are all together and all on the mend, so I am choosing to focus on that blessing.

I am trying to think about ways to give the girls the responsibility they want with chores and a chart is not working because the needed chores change daily, so do you have any creative ideas for me?

And I am also looking for good children's book and read aloud ideas too!  The more the merrier!

Ooh, and if you have a fabulous brunch recipe please share, I am hosting a baby shower on Saturday and would love some new ideas!

Costco

I made a stocking up run to Costco this morning, shopping solo.  I almost forgot how to do that!

After filling my cart to the brim and higher, checking out and heading to the car I was feeling very successful in my shopping!

Until I heard a thump followed by a crunch in which my cart came to a complete stand still.

The tomato soup I had bought had been stacked on the bottom front of the cart on top of the gatorade and had fallen off, flipping over en route before being run over by the cart.

Seriously.

2 cans were crushed to 3/4 their normal height and the rest were badly dinged.

I made it to the car, unloaded the rest and went back into the store.

The gracious lady at member services offered to go get me a new case.  While she was gone I retold the story to the other member services lady, and she said what I suspected all along, "Wow, I have never heard of that happening before."

I live to entertain.

So tell me, what is the weirdest grocery related misadventure you have ever had?

So it has been a while...

Somehow I ended up taking an unexpected break following very sporadic posting.  After the move there was all the craziness of unpacking and getting settled, and then my MIL arrived to help and we started lots of projects and things were going great!  We had Miss Pear's 6th birthday and had a lot of fun!

And in the past 2 weeks it seems like were passing around the yuck.  No fun.  On the plus side I know that my carpet cleaner still works wonderfully!  The stomach bug seems to have passed, and now a cold bug came to visit.  Not fun.  So while I have a couple things I want to blog about, no promises this week, I might be snuggled up beside little sick girls watching Wild Kratts.

I did see that Sandy over at the Reluctant Entertainer is doing a great series in June about outdoor entertaining.  I loved her book and have found a lot of inspiration and encouragement from her site, so I highly recommend it.

Other than that, my brain is tired from caring for little ones who are not feeling well, I just wanted to pop in and say hi and find out if anyone has found something fun to share.

Today's CSA Box

This morning we received our third CSA box in 3 weeks, and what I learned is that we are still an every second week kind of family, but with company I love this alternative of upping our delivery as needed.

The recipe I tried with baby bok choy of Pork Lo Mein worked out great, even when I substituted ham, so I will share that with you soon.

This morning's box contained the following along with a slug who managed to eat a fair bit of lettuce and all the leaves off my broccoli - both of which I will receive a credit for, and the slug was enjoyed by the neighborhood crows.

This week's box:

Box Contents
Avocados, Organic - 2 each
Bunched Carrots, Organic - 1 bunch
Broccoli, Organic - 1 bunch
Cilantro, Organic - 1 bunch
Roma Tomatoes, Organic - 1.5 pounds
White Sweet Corn, Organic - 4 each
Green Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Cucumbers, Organic - 2 each
Navel Oranges, Organic - 6 each
Minneola Tangelos, Organic - 6 each
Celery, Organic - 1 each
Braeburn Apples, Organic - 5 each

In addition, the following Green Grocer items are scheduled to be in your order:

Qty.	Item	Price	Total
1	Broccolette, Organic - 1 bunch/order
1	Watermelon, Organic - One small, approx. 4.5 lb melon/order.

We have pico de gallo and guacamole on our menu list for this weekend along with chips, of course!

I am also planning the favored brocolette with a balsamic vinaigrette that Miss Pear could not get enough of (she loved it so much that we all ended up giving her some of ours once the bowl was empty!)

I confess, the first watermelon of the season for the long weekend was too good and too tempting! I could not resist temptation and added it to our box.

What would be at the top of your list if this was delivered to your door?

Monday Madness

Today is completely crazy in a wonderful way!

I found the Happy Birthday banner I made from fabric that I need for Saturday - huge! It has been lost since we moved even after I put it somewhere safe so I would not lose it!

My sweet husband picked up the futon his mom bought us for a housewarming gift and brought it home at lunch.

My book I ordered that I need for tonight arrived with enough time for me to read the introduction and the first chapter.

The ladies are meeting here tonight - our first really gathering! A gentle test drive!

I worked on the table runner for Miss Pear's birthday party on Saturday made with scraps from the napkins I made (because I needed more napkins anyways and space ones sounded fun).

My MIL made jam, brownies, and 2 trays of meatballs today and would not let me help.

It has been a great day and I have time to pray uninterrupted and unrushed for our company tonight!

Wood Pecker Update

IT WORKED! There have been sunny mornings all week and no wood pecker sounding on our chimney.

It makes it worth our chimney looking like a weird space satellite!

CSA Box This Week

Thursday morning our CSA box was waiting for us on the front steps full of delicious produce. This is an extra box we ordered while we have company and it was filled with:

Red Radishes

Bunched Carrots

Yellow Onions

Swiss Chard (Last minute substitution for Bok Choy when it was not available)

Broccoli

White Sweet Corn

Red Leaf Lettuce

Tomatoes

Navel Oranges

Strawberries

Mangoes

Apples

Plus we added on yellow beans, blueberries and yogurt.

It was such a great treat to have yellow beans! I never order them because they are so delicate and expensive, but my mother-in-law said she wanted them so order them and put them on her tab - how could I argue? They were delicious!

I am also looking forward to that delicious sweet corn for the first time this spring!

What would you be planning if this box was arriving on your door step?

CSA Box as Reading Lesson

Recently we have been trying to show Miss Pear how important reading is to every day life. One of her newest jobs is to help me "inventory" the CSA box. Our method goes like this:

1. Pull the CSA box in off the front steps before breakfast, open to warm if it was really cold putting away anything that requires refrigeration.
2. Eat breakfast.
3. Empty box all over kitchen island putting like things together.
4. Give list and pencil to Miss Pear.
5. She reads each item and quantity.
6. I say we have it, sometimes pretending to not be able to locate it to help her identify things.
7. She checks it off
8. Repeat items 5-7 until the box contents are completely reviewed.
9. Store all veggies and fruits.

This has been a lot of fun for her, and it helps her to feel useful and productive, something she loves.

We have only had one problem with this process, and that was the day Daddy snuck an orange out of the box and did not tell her. It was quite cute.

How do you make reading a practical thing in your home - I love new ideas!

Last Week's CSA Box

Last week's CSA box was readily anticipated around here. I was down to 1 grapefruit, 1 pear, and 1 mango for fruit along with about 10 apples I had bought at Costco. The veggies were holding out a little better, but not much.

Our delivery consisted of:

Cucumbers

Bunched Carrots

Broccoli

Baby Bok Choy

Snap Peas

Romaine Lettuce

Onions

Navel Oranges

Strawberries

Apples

Tangelos

Mangoes

I also added cilantro so that I could make a pasta dish that ended up being kind of bland, unfortunately or I would have shared it with you.

As we have company right now we are getting an extra box this week, making it 3 weeks in a row that we get the larger box delivered. It will be a great to see exactly how that works because we are definitely trying to eat more fruits and veggies around here.

I confess thought that I did swap out the Zucchini for Tangelos because I was tired of trying to come up with different ways to serve zucchini and really wanted more tangelos because they are one of my favorite.

We are having salads, and the bok choy will turn up in a lo mein recipe this week that I will share with you if it is as good as I remember. I cooked up the second half of our Easter ham this week so I am looking for all kinds of ideas to use it up - today it is ham soup without the split peas.

Also, in my continuing love for my CSA I realized that the small box is defaulting to avocados while the large box is defaulting to mangoes - such a treat.

Woodpecker Saga

You may not be able to tell from around these parts, but I do wish to return to blogging and talking about the CSA box with seasonal food, books, Bible study notes, and other fun stuff, like a return to freezer cooking which I kind of dropped of on when I started seeing it everywhere online. Unfortunately as long as I am NOT getting sleep that is not going to happen, I can barely string two sentences together with out trying to think where I was going with this.

So it comes down to this.

The woodpecker arrived every sunny morning between 5 and 6AM. Yes, when morning has not officially started around here. It is loudest in Baby's room so she wakes up scared and crying. So I bring her back to our room and we try to rest a little longer.

It is not working.

Either the woodpecker goes are we do, and we own the place, so his days are numbered...

...he gets 1 more day because the exterminator company comes tomorrow!

No, they are not going to exterminate him, however tempting that has been some mornings, they specialize in nuisance birds and have a number of ways to make sure he does not land that are harmless.

I am looking forward to more sleep.

Motivated

When we moved I was very motivated to move as much of the kitchen stuff as I possibly could so we could do practical things...like actually eat meals almost right away. I was also highly motivated to get rid of as many boxes as possible because I was sick of boxes after not unpacking everything for a year, just the stuff we needed.

Then there were THOSE boxes.

The difficult ones, the random ones, the "I just don't have the energy to deal with it ones" that were left.

And help arrived.

And a birthday party is on the horizon.

And a baby shower for a friend just got scheduled.

And a group of ladies is meeting here next Monday.

Suffice to say I am now HIGHLY motivated to get rid of all the boxes and get organized, including decluttering and donating all that we don't use and love, and repacking a lot of seasonal stuff, especially Christmas decorations now that I have some proper storage totes, and sorting all the books...oh the books.

Did I mention that the movers actually were a little discouraged by the number of book boxes they had to move? We love books.

So that is where I am. I just cannot bear for this move and unpack and organization to linger, it really needs to be done yesterday.

Early Morning Visitor

We have had an early morning visitor here off and on since we moved in, and as much as I enjoy company this is one visitor I am not crazy about...a downy woodpecker.

I could certainly be more hospitable if he was visiting the trees.

But that is not the case.

He is pounding on our metal chimney....

At 5:30 in the morning.

The chimney that runs down the center of our house and is loudest in Baby's room, often scaring her awake...at 5:30AM.

I understand that it is mating season and he is trying to announce to the world how hansom he is, but might I suggest he begins a little later because unless the women of his species are a long different from the women in our house, starting that early in the morning is not winning him any admirers!

Here is hoping some lovely female downy woodpecker takes pity on us soon...I mean HIM, takes pity on HIM soon!

Cradle Cap

My little 2 year old had a terrible case of cradle cap this weekend, and after plan A of the special shampoo did not work, everything I knew said to use olive oil for a massage, let it sit, and then comb her hair. I was at a loss as to how I was going to apply olive oil to Baby's scalp then let it sit and not have it all over the house now that she is an active girl. It was a mystery.

Until I discovered plan B...er....C?

Coconut oil, which is a solid at room temperature but softens at skin temperature and is excellent for dry skin.

So I began slowly massaging it in, and the cradle cap started coming off just as I was massaging the oil in, that has never happened before!

And it ALL came off Sunday night. I just did a thorough inspection (Tuesday afternoon) to see if we had to apply again to take care of what developed afterwards, and there is nothing but a beautiful, healthy scalp.

It is wonderful! And I have a new secret weapon for cradle cap I hope to never use again!

This Week's CSA Box

I am eager to get our CSA box this week, and not just because we are almost out of bay leaves!

Here is what we are getting in our box this week:

Box Contents
Avocados, Organic - 2 each
Tomatoes, Organic - 2 each
Broccolette, Organic - 1 bunch
Cilantro, Organic - 1 bunch
Ruby Grapefruit - 3 each
Snap Peas, Organic - 0.75 pound
Green Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Yellow Onions, Organic - 3 each
Navel Oranges, Organic - 5 each
Strawberries, Organic - 1 pint.
Mangos, Organic - 2 each
Braeburn Apples, Organic - 5 each

Qty.	Item	Price	Total
1	Bay Leaves, Organic - Approx. 1 oz/order.
1	Half & Half, Organic - 1 pint/order.

Yes, more half and half - my dear husband gave me a half pound of my favorite coffee that he had to have a friend pick up when he was on business because it is that hard to get and they don't ship. It is great with milk, but it is delicious with half and half!

The tomatoes, half an onion, avacadoes and cilantro will be made into pico de gallo, guacamole and served over soft tacos on Saturday...that is also were some lettuce will go.

That leaves lots of yumminess for salads, fruit desserts!

What is your favorite Mexican food? Does your family love pico de gallo too or is it just my family that makes it vanish?

Free Copy of 31 Days to Clean!

Sarah over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee wrote an ebook just recently that sounds DELIGHTFUL and got some great reviews called 31 Days to Clean...why do I tell you this? She is giving it away today!

Bloggy Goodness

There have been a few posts that I liked a lot today, and because I am watching cartoons with the girls (we finished school already...except for math, but mama needed a break), I thought I would share them with you.

Lindsay has had an excellent series about hospitality, but I particularly enjoyed this post about keeping meals easy when having company.

Erin has Quesadillas 5 Ways, and these are one of our favorite quick lunches or appetizers! Plus there are more great ideas on the comments section! I am thinking pizza quesadillas for Saturday....

Kate has a great post that has a simple formula for making Soup from Scratch. I love making soup from scratch, and am always surprised when people think this is difficult! Plus I love a simple formula that you can work to make new versions!

Sandy is one of my new favorite bloggers...at least, new to me. I love her book Reluctant Entertainer, The: Every Woman's Guide to Simple and Gracious Hospitality! She has a great post about how friends showed hospitality to her college aged son through a care package! Great ideas here!

Have any posts caught your eye lately?

Moving Slowly

We are slowly making progress, with each emptied box making things more like home.

Things are moving a bit slower with lack of sleep for mama (I have no idea why, everyone else is asleep!), and the girls still settling in.

So it will likely be fairly quiet here again this week, but making a house a home takes time.

I am reminded of this as I watch a foreclosed home be cleared out on our street. It is sad to watch all the possessions left behind being thrown into a dumpster.

I wonder how many meals were fed to a family on those dishes, now many books were read cuddled up in that chair, and how many treasures were in those plastic tubs.

So often life is measured by what we can count and measure like possessions and bank account balances and size of houses.

I just want to live and breathe for an audience of One, blessing and caring for the family He has given me.

All Done

I am thrilled to report that we are completely done with our rental. Our lease ended yesterday and we had the walk through today. We are getting back our full deposit.

Such a blessing from the Lord!

It makes me very happy.

Making Home

It seems like the past week has rushed by and I cannot quite figure out how it is already Thursday night. The big accomplishes for this week were getting rid of the last kitchen and family room boxes, unpacking all our homeschool supplies and making serious headway in unpacking the pantry I keep in the garage (all our canned goods and a few other odds and ends) and organizing one one upstairs (anything that would attract critters in the garage).

I also found and washed our bedroom curtains and we put them up for color. That helped make things seem more like our home.

Basically we just keep plugging along! Progress is slow but steady. As I see our home taking shape it makes me very happy.

Even though this is Easter weekend we do hope to make more headway in a few areas that require two sets of adult hands!

How has your week been?

Red Radish and Cucumber Salad

So they put radishes in the CSA box, and I kind of like them in salads in small amounts, and figured I could just make it work because they last this side of forever, so no swap.

Then the fridge froze my lettuce.

And while I learned a valuable lesson and adjusted the fridge, I still have these radishes.

So a little research and I found this delicious recipe, but now am out of radishes, which is too bad because it is all gone:

Red Radish and Cucumber Salad

1 lb red radishes, cleaned and thinly sliced in circles

1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

1Tbsp white onion, thinly sliced

3Tbsp sugar

2Tbsp olive oil

2tsp fresh dill, chopped (I skipped this)

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1tsp lemon zest

1 lemon, juiced (I used a Meyer lemon)

Salt and pepper to taste

Place thinly sliced onions in a small bowl of ice water while you prepare the other ingredients, this will take away some of the bite.

In a small bowl, mix sugar, vinegar, oil, lemon juice, zest and dill. Add radishes, onions and cucumbers. Toss all until evenly coated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve as a side to grilled meats or spicy dishes.

Medicine Cabinet Confliction

If you have been reading around here for a while you know that my girls are very blessed, but they have not always had it easy. Our oldest is almost 6 and had open heart surgery last winter. Our youngest is 2 and a half and at 7 weeks was in the hospital for viral meningitis, shortly after that she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia that required Pavlik harness treatment, and a year ago this past November had a cyst removed from her mouth. Our medicine cabinet is well stocked, and my preferred children's pain and fever medication has been Tylenol.

My husband subscribes to Bloomburg Business week, and he brought home the issue from March 31, 2011 where the feature story is Johnson and Johnson's Quality Catastrophe and their Recall Rap Sheet.

After reading the article I feel shocked! When my children were born I used many Johnson and Johnson products, thinking they were a trusted name, and yes, I would cite the Tylenol recall of the 1980's to support my claim that they had a culture of quality and care for consumers within their company. But now I just don't know what to think, and I seriously doubt I will be buying Johnson and Johnson products when they return to the market of another alternative is available.

Unfortunately I don't know of an alternative for Children's Benedryl!

What are your thoughts on this?

And why do you think this story did not get more play in the media because it seems like a huge deal when you connect all the dots like this?

This Week's CSA Box

I am excited to get my CSA box this week - the fridge is looking a little bare after missing an extra week with the move (plus we lost a couple things, like our 2 beautiful mangoes due to moving induced forgetfulness!)

This week I did a bit of swapping and a bit of shopping in the green grocer section, so now my box looks like this:

Box Contents
Cucumbers, Organic - 1 each
Italian Parsley, Organic - 1 bunch
Snap Peas, Organic - 0.75 pound
Yellow Onions, Organic - 3 each
Zucchini, Organic - 1.75 pounds
Tomatoes, Organic - 2 each
Green Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Radishes, Organic - 1 bunch
Minneola Tangelos, Organic - 6 each
Navel Oranges, Organic - 6 each
Mangos, Organic - 2 each
Braeburn Apples, Organic - 5 each

Green Grocer:

Qty.	Item
1	Golden Guernsey Vanilla Yogurt - One quart/order.
1	Green Beans, Organic - Approximately 1 lb/ order.
1	Half & Half, Organic - 1 pint/order. .

Okay, I confess the half and half is a special treat for me to help me unpack my desk. Did I mention it is a huge roll top that was a gift from my grandparents?

I am planning a wonderful salad, and spiced green beans with the addition of a bell pepper I will pick up at Costco before the box arrives.

The yogurt will go in with some granola I really need to make for breakfast.

The fruit will be lunch desserts for us and I will pick up some bananas to round it all out.

I am still trying to think of what to do with the parsley and zucchini.

What would you be making if you were receiving this box this week? I am always looking for new ideas!

Boxes

Do you need some?

You can have mine!

Just be sure to empty them and put the contents where they belong before you take the boxes out the door.

Happy Monday from our NEW HOME!

We moved on Friday, and it was crazy! And Wonderful!

3 weeks before our move my husband had a freak accident and separated his rib. That slowed down our painting plans...a lot! But we kept going and were doing great!

The Tuesday before the move I was taking out the garbage and fell and hurt my hand and badly skinned my knee. Okay, that kind of slowed me down, but we kept going.

Thursday a deacon and his son came and helped us take apart all our furniture so we would be ready.

Friday the movers showed up and did a wonderful job moving us to our new home. They were done shortly after 3!

Our new home is wonderful, we love it, and it has a great sized yard! Not huge for up here, but huge when you are 5 and have grown up in California! And when you have to cut it! :-)

We are slowly working on the boxes, and are down to 3 boxes in the kitchen, so that counts as some success!

I am so grateful to be in our own home again.

What did I miss while I was packing and moving?

Moving and other Chaos

Moving is going well, I was working towards our planned April 8 move date and felt I was on a good schedule. But now we realize we may be able to pull our move date in to be completely out by March 31. No guarantees, but if that is a possibility we will work to that!

All this to say that I will be stepping away from here to be packing and organizing the new home, which I adore!

Along with packing here, we have some repairs to complete (for which we were given a credit at close, plus some small things we just want done), some painting to do in the bedrooms before we move, and I am hoping to move and unpack most of the kitchen before we actually move to avoid the dreaded "we are in our new home and I cannot find anything to make a meal with or serve a meal with because the boxes are all mixed up!

So I might pop in between now and then, and I might not be able too. Please pray for our move to be smooth and directed by God.

oops

Well, apparently the word study on grace I had been working on will be completed after our move due to technical difficulties...

...the difficulties being I just packed all the commentaries and lexicons when we were packing the office forgetting I wanted to keep those out.

Oops.

However, if that is the worst that goes wrong with our move I will be a very happy homeowner!

Spinach Cheese Bake

I had some baby spinach from the last CSA box that needed to be eaten up, and a salad would not work because with sore throats all around we are not buddies with salads right now. So I pulled out my Simply in Season Expanded Edition (World Community Cookbook) and started looking. I finally decided on Chard Cheese Bake because spinach is the other option to chard in it. Although rather than steaming the spinach I put some olive oil in the bottom of a heavy pan and added some minced garlic. I slowly brought it to temperature so the olive oil was lovely and garlicky too. I was pleased with the results, but thought it was missing something...I just don't know what. What are your thoughts?

Here is the recipe (page 210)

Spinach Cheese Bake

1lb Spinach cooked

4 eggs (beaten)

1 cup milk

1 cup Swiss cheese (or another cheese) shredded

1 cup bread cubed (I used home made)

1/2 cup green onion (I used red because that is what I had)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

(I cheated and added some salt and pepper too)

Combine with cooked greens. Pour into a greased 2 quart baking dish. Cover and bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

What are your thoughts on adding some more flavor to this? Or is the problem that I used mozzarella cheese because that is what I had and it just did not have enough flavor?

CSA Box This Week

Now that we are finally on the mend and food tastes good again, I am looking forward to our CSA box that will arrive tonight/tomorrow morning!

We will be receiving:

Box Contents
Carrots, Organic - 1 bunch
Cilantro, Organic - 1 bunch
Broccoli, Organic - 1 bunch
Red Onions, Organic - 3 each
Celery, Organic - 1 each
Tomatoes, Organic - 2 each
Red Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Rainbow Chard, Organic - 1 bunch
Minneola Tangelos, Organic - 6 each
Mangos, Organic - 2 each
Braeburn Apples, Organic - 5 each
Cameo Apples, Organic - 5 each

In addition, the following Green Grocer items are scheduled to be in your order:

Qty.	Item	Price	Total
1	Brisket - Approx. 3-lb/order.

The brisket is for St. Patrick's day, I am going to try something new as I have never made brisket before but hear how great it is - is this something you make? What is your favorite recipe?

I am also looking for a new recipe for chard, so if you have one, I would love to hear about it! So far I usually saute with garlic, but something new would be great!

And the cilantro will go with black beans and rice, and probably some guacamole as I have 2 avacadoes to use up too!

Hospitality for Our Own Family

I have been absolutely loving the blog Reluctant Entertainer ever since I read her book: Reluctant Entertainer, The: Every Woman's Guide to Simple and Gracious Hospitality, which I highly recommend! Today she had an excellent guest post called "It's The Little Things" about showing love and hospitality to our own family as part of making our home a sanctuary.

Getting Ready for St. Patrick's Day

I have learned something about my girls over the years, they like it if we make a big deal about something and make it fun. I have started thinking about St. Patrick's day next week, and realize that it will not take much to pull this off!

I am planning on making honey marmalade mustard glazed corned beef but will start with a plain beef brisket because the corned beef will likely be too strong a flavor for my girls! Side dishes will be Easy Cabbage Roll Casserole, Carrots, and maybe roasted sweet potatoes of some kind seeing as we cannot have regular potatoes around here!

I am also thinking about making a cake, and decorating it like this, but in white and green instead.

Plus I found some fun ideas here.

I have a couple other things up my sleeve too, but that is for another post when I can find my camera cord!

Do you have any plans for special St. Patrick's Day fun? I am definitely looking for ideas.

Plus I am thinking about finding a verse to mark the day, something about the spread of the Gospel. Any ideas?

Multitude Monday 31

Last week was week 2 of the yuck in our house that included the flu, colds, and generally yuckiness. So in addition to this list I was thankful for a lot of things like Tylenol and Curious George.

Monday February 28

Miss Pear seems like she is on the mend, but still feeling rough.

Baby is doing better, but still very tired, coughing

Friends to pray with

Tuesday March 1

Doctor confirmed Miss P is over her bad reaction

Girls get flu shots, thankful for this in light of the N1H1 going around again

Baby definitely doing better today

Friend's baby arrives! Healthy, doing great!

Wednesday March 2

Roast chicken for supper

Extra snuggle time with Baby

New books

Thursday March 3

Tortilla soup for supper - always makes me happy!

Baby "I mama's widdle baby." when asked if she was someone else's

Miss Pear announcing her refusal of any more bad behavior from being sick - it was really cute.

Friday March 4

Husband home for lunch just because

Miss P's skating lessons start again tonight

Great talk with my husband and his boss, very encouraging

Special time just me and baby when we were feeling better, but not well enough to sit in a cold ice rink.

Saturday March 5

Errands successfully run

Lunch to celebrate new house

Meal delivered to family with new baby! (He is cute! The baby....and his brothers too).

Trip to the new house to begin cleaning.

Girls LOVE the house and their rooms.

Pizza for supper

Husband finds verse I was searching for and could not find!

Sunday March 6

Worship

God speaking during the sermon to my overwhelmed heart

Friends offering to help us move

the gift of time

442-469

Very Happy

I was thinking about our day tomorrow.

In the morning we are running errands for our new home (looking at washer and dryers which is not a top priority, but something we need to look into, getting electrical outlet covers that are baby safe, getting new toilet seats, looking at the paint store), picking up some groceries at Trader Joe's, and dropping off a meal of tortilla soup for friends who just had a baby.

In the afternoon we are going to the new house with a load of stuff. We are planning on vacuuming the carpets that were washed this week (they are original to the 10 year old house and in great condition, but have NEVER been washed...eeew), mopping the floors, and cleaning the bathrooms. Just to make it feel like ours so we can get down to work.

And the plan is to pick up a Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza for supper because they do a great split of hawaiian and combo on one pizza.

Just thinking about the day tomorrow makes me feel tired, and it also makes me really happy.

I am very excited to move and to have a place of our own again. I had lost sight of what a blessing it is!

Chicken Multitasking

Last night for supper I made lemon garlic roast chicken and gravy for supper (cooking breast down for extra juicy meat). Then put the carcass and other chicken parts we did not eat into the crock pot with veggies overnight to make stock.

I also put black beans to soak.

So this morning I will have stock and leftover chicken (plus some from the freezer) to make tortilla soup. I even have cilantro from our CSA box waiting. Yum.

One of those days...

...it was one of those days where being a mommy was just hard.

As were the reminders to "do all things without complaining and disputing" and "whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men."

But here is what I do know.

God's grace is sufficient, especially for days like today, and the hardest day at home is still better than the experiences I had working in an office. :-)

On the Mend

Today is the first day where I look at my sweet daughters and don't think they look very sick. They are still tired and run down, but it feels like we are on the path back to health. Such a blessing. There were many things I was grateful for this past week, but I forgot to write them down. High up on the list were tylenol, kleenex, flannel hankies, humidifiers, Vicks Baby Rub, and lots of jammies.

In the midst of the yuck, or the Great Flu of 2011, I got a terrible sinus cold and that did not help matters.

But in good news, we closed on our new home and the girls LOVE it, Miss Pear declares it to be her favorite home yet because of the big yard and she cannot wait to move (end of March). The carpets were cleaned there today for the first time ever in the 10 year old home (eeew!), so next up is cleaning the floors and bathrooms, then putting shelf liner in the kitchen. Along with painting. So we are moving right along.

And in other news, I saw this recipe for lemon curd ice cream and had to share - yum!

Nurse Mommy On Duty

2 girls

2 doctors appointments at the same time last night

2 x 2 tests (strep and influenza)

2 cases of Influenza B

2 sick little girls

See you next week.

Recipe LInks

In the past couple days there were two lists of recipes I don't want to lose that I thought you would enjoy too!

Amy at Mom's Toolbox of Bible in 90 Days fame shares a whole list of easy, time saving meals with a link inside for even more easy meals!

Aimee at Simple Bites shares a long list of ideas of meals for when you are taking a meal to someone called the Cooking For Others Edition!

There are definitely lots of ideas on both lists that I plan on giving at least a chance, and a few others I know will be favorites!

What is your favorite quick meal?

What meal is your favorite when you are taking a meal to someone else?

Multitude Monday 30

Monday February 14, 2011

• Valentines from little girls
• with little girl kisses
• heart and flower shaped pancakes
• Chinese food for supper
• A special gift this year - our new house on the anniversary of our engagement all those years ago!
• storm ending by the time I leave for BSF, and a beautiful night to return home in.

Tuesday February 15, 2011

• Classical Conversations Valentine's Day Party
• Painting with textures
• Farm eggs through the connection of a friend!
• So sick after supper but but baby brought the Dr. Juice delivery and big one brought the water delivery.

Wednesday February 16, 2011

• lock repair delayed
• good books to read
• warm quilts
• get well kisses and snuggles
• Grandma on the phone talking to little girls for almost an hour until Daddy got home when momma needed her pillow.

Thursday February 17, 2011

• We are moving to our own home, no more accommodating repairs on someone else's schedule.
• bagels, cheese, and jam
• Coffee with milk in a special cup
• little girls playing lego and duplo
• My Thursday Afternoon Perspective Check - a list of 14 to correct my bad attitude.

Friday February 18, 2011

• a husband who comes home when there is a problem with the repairs that is not ours and...
• fixes it...
• and takes us to lunch when the smell is too bad.
• a drawing book for mommy and daughter to learn to draw together
• buddy skate - daddy and daughter
• the moon across my husband's cheek as he sleeps

Saturday February 19, 2011

• House papers are all signed
• Costco errand run done - Little One's favorite store.
• Husband fixing car himself after researching the problem and ordering the car rather than just taking the car in.
• Learning to draw chickens with our older daughter and realizing that I can indeed draw
• God healing childhood wounds through the gentleness of our daughters.
• wind in the trees - love that sound!
• Safety when there was a small house fire at the bottom of the hill.

Sunday February 20, 2011

• Little girls piling in to bed with us - Mommy and Daddy on the outsides as bread, big girl bologna, little girl cheese, lots of laughter.
• Miss Pear's sadness over being too sick to go to church and missing worship.
• Watching the pile of packed boxes slowly grow.
• Little girl confidence that bedtime prayers are especially powerful.

390-441 and counting, thank you Lord!

New Home

Okay, it is official, we are moving. We bought a house!

Our new home is in the same little city, just a little further east, but still close to work, church, and all our friends. It is a four bedroom house so we will finally be able to set up a proper guest room, and we are hoping God will allow us to enjoy lots of hospitality! And the kitchen looks like it will be great to work in!

We actually signed the closing papers on Saturday and are closing on Wednesday if the final walk through goes fine on Tuesday!

After renting for over 10 months I have to say that we are done renting. There were just some things that were hard, and somethings that are just weird after having your own house.

We will have the entire month of March as overlap between the two houses so that we can get the repairs done that are needed (they gave us a credit), and paint the bedrooms.

If you think of it, or feel like it we would love prayers for God to work out some issues at our rental that need to be resolved, and the logistics of it all. Plus provision for our needs, the repairs, and a dining room table. (We had to sell ours at our last home in Southern CA and would love another one as our kitchen table is so small that seating 6 can be tight, so we cannot even fit another family around it!)

Sick, or Multitude Monday Midweek Edition

I am sick with a touch of the flu - only one in the family. Which is kind of ironic because I am the only one who got the flu shot this year. Sigh.

I was having a rotten attitude and nap time was ending and I realized I needed a perspective check or it was going to be a rough afternoon.

And I started counting the gifts.

• warm quilt
• cold sprite
• excellent book followed by excellent book
• beautiful view out the window
• clouds running across my window
• sun playing in the clouds
• sky peaking out
• crow hopping in the tall evergreen trees
• the stacks of clouds - I still love it! You don't see this in California.
• the burst of rain to be sure I was paying attention
• the bright sun against the dark clouds
• little girls waking up singing Jesus Loves Me...
• ...and wondering where her socks went
• kisses from the big one to make me feel better

My attitude improved tremendously.

Grace Word Study Step 3

We have talked about what a word study is, we have completed step one of selecting a verse/word and finding the Strong's number, and step 2 of finding the various translations. So today it is time for step 3, which will appear to be the most challenging, but is actually quite simple because you found the Strong's number in step 1.

Step 3 is to find definitions of the word you are looking at, definitions to the Greek word. You will find these in Greek lexicons and Bible Dictionaries (especially dictionaries of Bible words).

Hebrew and Greek lexicons are readily available online. The Strong's site we used in step 1 will also give you the Strong's definition of the word. Plus if you scroll down on the same site you will find Vine's - that is 2 definitions already, and two I always use!

A quick search for "Greek Lexicon" resulted in finding a great site called Bible Study Tools and their Greek Lexicon! It says it uses Kettle and Thayer, two of the ones I use in book form, so I think it is solid

But here is the biggest secret to make this step easy, or at least manageable: Most of the lexicons available are keyed to the Strong's number, so once you have that you can pretend to be a Biblical Linguistic scholar as you plug that into the sites and they give you the definition! No knowledge of Greek necessary! (It would allow you to go deeper, but for your personal study it is not required).

For a personal study I would recommend at least 3 definitions - and I have given you 3 sources above, so you could use those and be done! Or you could search form more sites, if you would like.

For an academic study it was recommended to me to use at least 7 definitions at a minimum, and that is still the standard I shoot for.

Therefore I always start with the Strong's definition, then go through all the ones available on my computer software, then the one in my Bible if it has one, and then any books I have.

When I was done my definitions looked like this, and it was kind of surprising what those definitions showed:

Lexicon’s/Bible Dictionaries

Strong’s – graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual); especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in life; inculding graditude: acceptable, benefit, favor, grace, joy, liberality, pleasure, thankworthy. (From 5463 chairo, verb; to be cheerful, to be well, to be glad, to rejoice)

NAS Greek – grace, kindness, blessing, concession, credit, favor, gift, graciousness, gratitude, thank, thankfulness, thanks

NIV Greek – grace, the state of kindess and favor toward someone, often with a focus on a benfit given to the object; by extension; gift, benefit, credit; words of kindess and benefit: thanks, blessing

Thayer – good-will, loving-kindness, favor; the favor of Christ, assisting and strenghening his followers and ministers to bear their troubles.

Dr. Mills (from my Bible) – From the same root as chara “joy” and chairo, “to rejoice.” Charis causes rejoicing. It is the word for God’s grace as extended to sinful man. It signifies unmerited favor, undeserved blessing, a free gift.

Vine’s – friendly disposition from which the kindly act proceeds, graciousness, loving-kindess, good will. On the part of the receiver a sense of favor bestowed a feeling of gratitude. To be in favor with is to find grace with.

Analytical Greek Lexicon – favor, acceptance, a gracious provision, free favor specially manifested by God towards man in the Gospel scheme, gracious dealing from God, a graciously vouchsaved spiritual position (specific to this verse)

Word – grace, particulary that which causes joy; of the grace, favor and goodwill of Christ as exercised toward men; every kind of favor, blessing, good, as proceeding from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; forgiveness of sin and reconcilliation to a Holy God.

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament – you (Paul) will get no more grace because you need no more, the grace you have been given perfectly fills the need you have. Grace is the basis of justification. It is a gift.

Is there anything in these definitions that surprised you or changed your thinking a little bit? Anything that stands out?

Do you have any questions at this point because there are only 2 steps left, and these last two are the easier ones!