A Good Week...

In the early morning while the kids did their independent studies, I worked on getting some veggies from the garden blanched and frozen...

 

 

This little man decided to UNtidy the kitchen while I worked.  The bummer for him is that once the mess making is over, he is stuck in it...is that not the perfect pout!?

 I also used some of the veggies for dinner...

 
 I made the pork chops in the crock pot-they are ranch pork chops complimented with garlic parmesan potatoes.
 

                                                   

And this little man...lost his first tooth this week!  Quite exciting.  In the morning when he woke to find 4 quarters under his pillow in place of the tooth, he was quite concerned about the tooth fairy...

He said, "I am not sure how this is a good deal for the tooth fairy, she gets a tiny little tooth and I get a whole lot of money."  I assured him, she is quite happy with the deal:)  Aren't little minds wonderful! He has the second tooth just about ready to make him a rich man-haha.

What's for Dinner...and the Recipe...

We are back to school very faithfully now.  As I was out this evening, I passed the water park and at first was surprised to see it open.  I was forgetting that we are still in the midst of summer-ha.  Been buried in the books with the kiddos this week.  But we are just getting our rhythm down after all of the summer events that we took off of our studies for.  But the water park did remind me to get back to enjoying the beautiful weather this evening.

One of the best ways for me to keep us on track and allow me to be available to the kids during the school months, is to have dinner in the crock pot before 9 am.  I absolutely love smelling dinner all day long, and who doesn't love that extra little reminder that something did actually get accomplished when the day gets to those hairy, chaotic moments!

This is a favorite, at least amongst a some of us.  It is a creamy potato soup.  I will give the recipe and show my steps as well.  It is very simple and very yummy.

Here is the list of ingredients...

5 lbs russet potatoes-not peeled-and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
1 medium onion(I use about half due to preferences and health reasons)
5 teas minced garlic( it is 10 cloves if using fresh)
64 oz chicken stock or broth (8 cups)
16 oz of cream cheese, softened

Optional garnishes...

cheddar cheese, bacon, and chives

So let's begin...

 Cut up your potatoes...throw them in the crock...I have a large crock pot and this recipe fills it, just so you know.

 Cut up onions...throw them in...

 Add the 5 teas of minced garlic...

 Pour in the chicken broth....and cook for 6 hours on high...

 Here is how it looks after 6-7 hours...


Soften the cream cheese....

 Now you need to put the crock pot contents through the blender along with the cream cheese.  I add some of the cream cheese to each batch that goes through the blender.  It takes about 6-7 batches to get all of the soup blended and put back in the crock pot.

This is the consistency of the potatoes after blending them.  I like to keep a bit of texture with the potatoes instead of completely making it smooth.  That is all preference though.

 The soup is back in the crock and just needs at least a half hour to warm through-the longer it simmers, the more the flavors blend.  Once you are ready to eat, these are fabulous garnishes!  Cheese, chives, and bacon.

And the finished product...Yum....

This recipes serves eight of us and there is plenty for lunch the next day as well-that makes a happy mama!

Garden Goodness...

Oh yummy fresh goodness...

This is one of my favorite times of the year because of the harvest.

A garden is a reminder of many things...

when that harvest starts coming in, it makes all of the work become worth it...

reminding me how important the work the Lord has given me is...

whether it be as a wife, a mother, a friend, a women of God...

so often, just like a garden, the work does not come with immediate results...

the work can be tedious, toilsome, and dirty...

we can even wonder if anything will come of it..

but just like in a garden...

we get glimpses along the way, of what is to come...

glimpses that urge us on in our work...

and just like in a garden...

we learn from our mistakes and from our victories...

helping us to do our best...

and the results that takes so much time...

in our marriages, our children, our friendships, and our work for the Lord...

becomes beautiful, amazing, what we need and...

well worth the work.

You know what...

I really like how God reminds us with His creation.

TUESDAY SALE...

HELLO LOVELIES!  JUST A QUICK LITTLE NOTE TO LET YOU KNOW THE SHOP IS HAVING A TUESDAY SALE.  ALL ITEMS HAVE BEEN MARKED DOWN 25%.  SALE WILL END AT 12AM CST TONIGHT.  HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

Repurposing an Old TV Armoire...

Years back, Matt and I had purchased this armoire to house our older tv upstairs.  But when that tv died and we ended up with a flat screen, the armoire kind of floated around the house filling temporary purposes, waiting patiently to fill a need.  It is a rather large piece for our size home, but I was confident it could fill the right spot.

When we were working on our kitchen a few months back, I also worked on the armoire at the same time, sanding it down and painting it in between kitchen projects.  But, finding the time to build it out inside, just kept eluding us, that is until this past weekend.

Matt built in permanent shelves to make it into a much needed school cabinet for me.  I have been needing a "central" location for all of my teacher's manuals, grade books and test keys for 5 different grades.  I am schooling a sophomore, 8th grader, 6th grader, 2nd grader, and 1st grader!  Not having an organized place to coordinate all of that, has certainly not been helpful.  I am clearing my brain and gearing up for a fresh year of school now.

This is the raw look of the shelves Matt built for the cabinet.

Here it is painted and filled with school books.

Looking forward to an organized school year(hopefully!)

Creative Days to Put the Busy Days Behind....

Summer is always a unique time, isn't it?  A change of schedule, fun trips or outings, maybe a vacation, etc...

I think for mom's particularly, it can be a bit hard.  At least for me, I struggle with it.  All of those trips, events, visits, etc take a whole lot of planning and preparing.  The quote "I need a vacation from vacation" hits a little too close to the truth.  And in all honesty, I prefer everyday life.  I do look forward to vacation for the time we get to spend with my husband, because everyday life for him is crazy busy-and vacation time is so nessasary for him to recoup.  Vacation for us just means rest, each other, and catchup on some much needed repairs or projects around the house:)  I do hope we can take at least one vacation away before the kids start leaving home but we chuckle at the line in "cheaper by the dozen 2" when the mom is asked why they do not buy a lake house and she replies in a type of humor "oh, well, we need the money for things like food...water...hahha. "  Yep, we can relate:) and for now I find contentment in that!  We are quite blessed with camp, missions trips, family visits, and the like.  So much so, that I have become a tad overwhelmed at packing for 8 of us and then unpacking and doing it all again!  My mind just has felt like it got packed away in one of those suitcases and I think it got lost in transport:).  Between the 8 of us, we have traveled for a wedding, camp, a wilderness trip with the youth, a missions trip to CA with the youth group, had most involved in a week of VBS and a 2 day visit to a friends cabin for some time to rest as a family(thank you thank you thank you sweet friends-we were so blessed).  We are now back from it all and about to change direction to prepare for school.  But this week is kind of a bridge between the two.  A time to just kind of coast-whew-it has been nice.  The kids are simply playing and creating this week(except for my sr higher-he is hitting the books already).  So I have been resting my brain a bit with creating, starting new projects, finishing some old. Here they are...

 One of my favorite ways to work with t shirts, is to make them into throw pillows.  Quilting them first makes them so cuddly!  Sure brings those fun scenes to life again!

 I have been playing a lot with my reclaimed linens.  I finished a few quilts that have been waiting to be quilted for quite some time now, began making some new sets of napkins, and added some new bean bag sets and rice packs to the shop.

And...it is that time of year again!  I have been making a pair of mittens a day again to prepare for the winter months.  Last year I made and sold approx 120 pair!  One a day is a good pace for now. 

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That....

 

A little back tracking here...Our family started out the summer by taking a group of kids from church, to camp for the week.  We stayed as well and had a great week!  Always a favorite week for our family.

One of the days, up at our cabin, Joslyn and I drew out an oversized mural on a white sheet for the kids(and neighbor kiddos) to paint.  It was a fun afternoon for us mom's to just sit and chat while the kids were enjoying the craft project!

This year I planted 32 broccoli plants!!  It is a staple in our home-bet you can't tell:).  We have had an excellent year of broccoli so far!

I have had fun making a few batches of journal/notebooks for the teens this summer.  Both camp and for the missions team this year.  These were some of them.

The kiddos are of course living in the pool.  Even little Israel is enjoying it!  He is going to be 1 in a few days!  Can you believe it, where does the time go?

Our church has been in another building project this year and it has been amazing to watch the progress!  God has blessed us so much!  We are at 5 services on Sundays, so a new sanctuary is in great need, and is well underway to being finished-Praise the Lord!

And we just celebrated the church's 50th anniversary this month.  We had our church service and summer picnic out under the big top:) this past month to celebrate and thank the Lord for all He has done and is doing-it is always so amazing to be all in one service(all 1300 of us).

Was a bit sad not to have matt there to celebrate with that Sunday, but he, Cole and a team of students and leaders had just left on their missions trip to work with Filipino immigrants in California.  More about that amazing work of God to come!

I have been pluggin along with my new creations in the shop.  I have been making necklaces from wood and it has been a wonderful distraction from my normal creations with fabric. 

While Matt and Cole were away, I was able to dig into some bigger projects around the house.  Israel will be moving into his room with Noah very shortly, so it needed some work to make it baby friendly.  

 And the much larger project was moving Madison into her own space!  She turns 14 today!!  Our three girls have shared a room since the beginning of time:), and I never thought I would split them up.  But the Lord has given me a great peace and confidence that giving Madi her own room will be a positive change for all of them.  I have been seeing Madi's need to have quiet time, a place to express her growth and maturing, and I have also seen the younger two's need for play and imagination that just wasn't happening with the little room they were all in.  I think a few months back, a shared about how we were putting a carpet remnant in a small little corner nook in our basement and were trying to give it a good purpose since we were in such need of space as we grow.  It has cycled through as a playroom, school space, teen hang out, etc-but was still just not being used to it's potential.  So Madi and I have been working to transform it into her own room.  It has been so fun!  We have gone with an industrial look since it is unfinished still.  She picked grey, black and white to go with her "pop" of orange bedding.  We are still slowly working through ideas, but how fun it has been for her and I!  And just in time for her birthday-yea!

She has been enjoying that Israel is in there right now with her.  W moved him out of our room a few months ago to get him ready for going upstairs with Noah.  Once we have him sleeping through the night, he will make that move.  But for now, Madi and Iz are roommates.  And she has actually been helping with him in the middle of the night.  And for this tired mom, that has been a real gift!  Somehow, this change has just made our home feel even fuller and I am loving it!