Rachel...This One's For You

My darling Rachel,
   Please forgive me for being so very late in saying "Happy 12th Birthday" to you on my blog. I hope this little video makes you feel better. I love you, Lu! You are precious to me!

Easy and Cheap Recipes

Here are a couple of recipes I've discovered recently. These are all easy to prepare, cheap, and actually liked by every member of my family. They also use ingredients that with the exception of a couple, are staples in my kitchen.


"Maple" Syrup
I really like this maple syrup recipe, not just because it costs less than what I can buy at the store. We tend to go through a lot of the stuff thanks to our affinity for crepes, waffles, pancakes...you get it. This recipe is made without corn syrup, and in my opinion, tastes really good! It does need to be refrigerated, but can be warmed up as needed.


1 3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1/2+ tsp. vanilla (I always like MORE vanilla!)
1/2 tsp. maple flavoring


Combine sugars and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the stove, but allow the saucepan to remain on the burner for several minutes, stirring occasionally (make sure the sugars are completely dissolved).
Remove from burner and allow to cool a little, then add the vanilla and maple flavoring, stirring well. Cool completely before pouring into container (I use a store-brand syrup bottle!)




Cake Mix Cookies
This is another super easy recipe, and a great way to use up that cake mix that is just sitting in the pantry, or those leftover nuts from another recipe (or the half-eaten bag of chocolate chips...because your family thinks your pantry is a snack bar). You could also just buy a box of cake mix, such as German Chocolate Cake (yum!), since on sale or with a coupon you can usually get them for around $1 per box.


1 box of cake mix (any flavor)
2 eggs (better if you have Piper Crazy Chicken Farm eggs!)
1/2 cup oil
Optional ingredients: nuts, chocolate chips, m&m's, coconut, etc.
Optional: Flavoring such as vanilla, orange, etc. if you are using a white cake mix.


Preheat oven to 350.
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. I did this by hand with my strong arm (cough, cough) and a wooden spoon.
Drop by spoonfuls or cookie scoop onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until done. Let cool slightly on cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack. Or just eat them as you are taking them off the cookie sheets!!!
If you manage to not eat them all at once, you can frost them or make ice cream sandwiches with them.


I saw a variation to this recipe where one egg, 1/4 cup oil, and 1/4 cup water was used instead of what I listed above. I have not tried this variation, but am curious to know how they differ. I wonder if the cookies come out flatter...they are probably a little healthier with the smaller quantity of oil. All in all, not a big difference, so you can choose.


I think I need to go make some cookies now!

The Swim Princess turns Eight...and Mommy makes a Pool Cake!

My second baby had a birthday last Saturday. She turned eight...thankfully not fourteen! We let her open her family presents in the morning, because patience is still a hard-fought-for virtue in this house...and hey, that's just what we do!

My thanks was a kiss from the dog! (not really)

Actually, Grace wouldn't stop thanking her daddy & I for her presents...it was so sweet!

Then it was on to Grace's pool party, which she had been talking about non-stop fuh-evah! Which means that I had been cleaning and improving our home a little too much (can you say *cough* frustrated perfectionist *cough*) Well, I am much improved from my previous self...

So, the house was clean, except for the nasty, hairy cat chair (doesn't something always get missed?) and the kids arrived, and it was a wonderful party. The weather was windy and a little on the cool side, but the kids had fun getting in the pool, squealing about how cold it was, getting out of the pool, jumping on the trampoline, and then getting back in the pool. I edited the other kids out of the pictures to protect their privacy, but really, they were there! =)

The fun part for me, with a little anxiety thrown in for kicks, was making the cake. We decided to make a pool cake to fit the theme of her party. At first, I was just going to frost it blue and call it done. Then while looking for party ideas, I saw a picture of a pool cake with, of all things, blue Jell-O! Why not? So I made the cake, and we made cupcakes, too, because I had made this cute three tiered cupcake stand, so we had to have cupcakes to put on it! Rachel frosted and decorated the cupcakes (which came out super-cute...she even put bathing suits and sunglasses on the teddy grahams!) and I worked on the cake, which was not without it's disasters. Poor Craig got an earful the night before the party and I had to apologize to him later. But by the grace of God and the miracle of frosting, it all came together, and yes, I did get that Jell-O to become a pool. The 8 year olds were impressed, my 8 year old was impressed, and that's all that mattered to me!

What could make a day like that any better? Going out to dinner...to one of Grace's favorite places, "Good Times." In fact, we went there for her birthday dinner last year. It looks like a 50's diner, with lots of movie memorabilia and "I Love Lucy" episodes playing on the TV. The food is fantastic, too. We always have a good time when we go there (oh, sorry about the pun)!

So, that's Grace's birthday. She is eight now. Oh, how the years go by!

I love you, Boo!

I started it...she finished me

Me to Grace: "Just to let you know, you cannot turn eight this weekend. I forbid it. Seven is a nice number."


Grace to Me: "I could turn fourteen."

Our Garden of Promise

We have a garden again this year. I'm very excited. Last year, we planted a garden in the only spot our one acre will allow us to...a sloping plot of ground towards the front of our property. The garden did okay for a first effort, but this year, Farmer Beloved & I were determined to do better!


We borrowed our neighbor/friend's rototiller, and Farmer B got to work. Truth is, the work was hard, but I think he had fun with that rototiller! Then we, I mean he, surrounded the garden with chicken wire to keep out the wild rabbits that hang around here. They'll not be free-mealing off my veggies!


Here's Gardener Grace and Gardener Rachel helping plant the seeds.

Before long, Grace disappeared, and it was the three of us planting.

So far, we've planted tomatoes, green peppers, basil, carrots, red and yellow onions, radishes, garlic, green onions, potatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, green beans, corn, and an artichoke plant (we're told they do very well here). Later in the year, when the weather cools, we have lettuce and other seeds still to plant after we harvest what's in the garden now.

My favorite time is the very first veggie that is harvested to be eaten. It always tastes the best! Isn't it wonderful that even with our average gardening skills (well, I will say that Farmer B is awesome at most things), and soil that is nothing to brag about, yet God still blesses our efforts with these amazing vegetables, providing us with food from our own garden, that we for a season, don't have to go out and buy. I'm even thinking of learning how to can and store the excess so we can use it later on...isn't that a kick? 

Here's myself and Farmer Beloved after working hard in the garden (you can guess who worked harder!)

Don't you love our hats? Sooo stylish, and they protect our heads from burning. I wear mine every time I go outside now...I just wish I could keep it from blowing off my head when the wind picks up!

Oh, and for those of you that think you need a big space to garden, container gardening is the "in" thing to do right now. So go buy yourself a couple of large, cheap teracotta pots, throw some mixed seeds or plants in there...you could even have a themed pot, like a pizza pot or herb pot...and get gardening!

Berries!

These are homegrown berries. There would have been more in this bowl when I took the picture, but they were so delicious, some got eaten before I could get the shot!

Now, if we can only keep the pesky birds from snitching them off the vines!

They finished well...

School is out, summer has begun (officially this weekend, I think) and I am here to tell you that my girls finished well...very well. We pulled them out of public school with six more weeks to go, and put them in a Christian
co-op home school. What an amazing blessing! We had already made the decision to home school them next year, but being able to transition them now was such a gift. It was not without it's drama, tears and difficulties, but God just worked through all that in wonderful ways.


These pictures are of the last two days of school. The first group is where the school spends the day at this beautiful, local place with a large swimming pond, sandy beach, palm trees...hard to imagine such a place exists where we live! =) The kids had a blast, swimming, catching frogs, kayaking, just having fun with one another.

The last day of school was for graduation and awards, and for receiving their character quality certificates. This was all new for my kids...they never received character certificates with Bible verses from public school! Grace's character quality was "determination" and Rachel's was "joy" - how special that in just that short time with these teachers, they were able to see these qualities demonstrated in my girls!


Both girls also received Gold Level Honor Roll certificates, which means they each earned 4.0 on their report cards. They were super excited about that, Rachel for finally getting straight A's, and Grace for finally getting letter grades on her report card!


Here's what made their mommy cry, though. They showed a video during the morning's event, and in it, they asked the kids how they wanted to be remembered, or known by others as. Grace said, "I am a very sweet girl." Rachel said, "I am a fierce lover of God." How awesome that God is not only shaping their brains, but more importantly shaping their hearts as well!

(This is how sad they were that school was out for the summer!)

So, now I officially have a 7th and a 3rd grader. How do I feel about that? Ask me in August. For now, I'm going to enjoy my lazy, summer, swimming, reading, playing, loving, silly girls. Thank you, God, for entrusting them to my care. They sure are special!

Design Dreamin'

I'm feeling a little unlove for my house right now. It's not the house itself. It's the design inside...or rather, the total lack of design. So, this afternoon, while I was enjoying my "day of rest," I was looking at pictures from House Beautiful online and thought I'd share some I liked.

I found it interesting how just looking at pictures made me realize that my idea of good design has changed in the last few years. Maybe it is living in a small house, too. I love color, always have. But I find myself more drawn to a dominant background of white, with large punches of color to break up the white. What gets my attention the most is a combination of bright, crisp whites, warm wood tones, and plenty of color to complete the look. The following pictures are all from the House Beautiful website and while none of them are my ideal spaces, they all have elements that I would love to use in my own home.

Love the yellow chair and all the natural light!

I'm a sucker for classic farmhouse.

Those bar chairs are so inviting, and I like the yellow-green

wall color against the white cabinetry and tile.

Modern, but fun! Love the green fabric on the drum shade

and chairs. I wish my island did double-duty with storage shelves.

This is just fresh, with the farmhouse sink, green canister, pops of blue and yellow and grass growing inside. The green glass subway tiles are so nice against the white cabinets.

I want to grow a patch of perfect grass inside!

These living rooms all have a common design theme. 
White or neutral background,

neutral furnishings, colorful accessories (or colorful accent furniture).

The effect is light, spacious, calm.

Did you enjoy this little tour of homes? Did it make you think about your own design style? Even if your own home is already decorated "just as you like it" it's always fun to take a peek into someone else's home...you never know what might catch your eye!

Grace Got Glasses!

Okay, so I know my title is not very grammatically correct...but who cares??? This is all about the cute pictures of Grace, anyway! And who can say she isn't super-cute is these glasses she picked out all by herself?

Her mommy tried to get her to pick out something more, uh, subtle. I mean, these are black on the outside and a brilliant shade of blue on the inside. But this girl knew what she wanted...and besides, she's the one that gets to wear them, right?

Looks like she made a smart choice...smart girl!

What Makes Us (Almost) Late to School, Part 2

Rise and shine...it's going to be a bee-you-ti-ful mornin'!

What? Not so easily convinced?

Come on, I see you peeking at me a little!

 Open those eyes...do I need to bring the dog in here???

Money Saving Methods...and Coupon Craziness!

I used to think I was pretty good at saving money. You know, a pretty frugal person. I clipped my coupons, looked for sales, shopped at thrift stores and hated to pay full price for anything.

I still feel that way. It's just that I have recently discovered that there are so (and put a bunch of o's after that) many places and ways to save money that I never knew about. In fact, I think I still have only uncovered but a fraction of what's out there. I am having fun looking for them and saving money, though!

There are countless websites and blogs devoted to helping you find deals, print coupons, and reduce your spending. For me, that primarily means on groceries and household items like paper goods, cleaning products and toiletries. Websites like Money Saving Mom and The Krazy Coupon Lady provide great resources like upcoming store ads, printable coupons, and deals on everything you need (or didn't know you need!).

There are also coupons to be clipped in the Sunday newspaper and even in magazines. We recently canceled our newspaper subscription, to save money, which is fine because I can find out what coupons will be in the Sunday papers by looking online and then buy a Sunday paper if I want to. My sister-in-law gave me a great tip that you can get multiple copies of the Sunday paper on Monday at the dollar store (for $1.00, of course), which I will do if the coupons are worth it.

I really like to print coupons online. I set my printer preferences to everyday and greyscale to save on ink. Many online coupon resources will let you print multiple times before the print limit is reached, allowing you to get more of the coupons you use the most. Sometimes those same coupons will reset soon after, allowing you to go back and print them again. They also tend to have higher values then the newspaper coupons. You can also go to the websites of the brands you purchase (Coffee Mate, Freschetta, etc.) and often they will have printable coupons. Don't forget to go to the store sites themselves, too. All the major stores (Vons, Albertons, Target, etc.) have store and manufacturer coupons that you can print.

I have discovered the magic of combining store and manufacturer coupons. When you do this, and if the item is already on sale or at a good price, you can get it for free or next to nothing! Check the store's policies on quantity limits and when the coupon exceeds the price of the item, but at most stores these things are not a problem. Where you live, your grocery store might still double coupons. If so, take advantage of that! Ours do not, although once in a great while they will put "special" coupon doublers in the paper to use with a coupon. I bought three papers that week just for those coupons.

There are some great online deals to be had, too. Site like Amazon and iTunes offer free song downloads. Shutterfly and Snapfish both offer great photo deals. For example, a couple of weeks ago, Walgreens was offering a free 8x10 and Snapfish was also offering a free 8x10 that you could pick up at Walgreens. Sweet deal...two free 8x10's that I could order from the comfort of home and pick up at the same place. Check out this free deal right now from Shutterfly and Wink: http://moneysavingmom.com/2010/04/shutterfly-free-photo-strip-mailed-free-internationally.html (Thank you, Money Saving Mom!)


Drug Stores have their own reward programs, too. I currently just use CVS and their Extra Care card. They "pay you back" every time you shop. They also give you "Extra Bucks" when you buy certain items. I didn't realize the full extent of what I could accumulate until I was there the other day and scanned my card at the in-store kiosk. I had earned $14.50! That is like cash! That was a fun day, because it also spit some coupons out at me, so I ended up saving more than I spent. They even scan your card when you get your prescriptions, go figure! Check out your local drug store for their program.

The ways to save really are exhaustive. You can spend as much or as little time as you have available searching out deals. To me, the key is to continue to be wise with the amount of money I have to spend each month. Just because something is a good deal does not necessarily mean I should go out and buy 12 of them. It's tempting...but then what if I cannot buy the other things I need to feed my family?

I am learning that I can find the deals if I only look for them. And coupons do work. It's crazy fun, and I will share with you what I find along the way. Will you share with me, too?

Spring has Spru...Hatched???

We did it again. We just couldn't help ourselves. We pulled out the incubator and put some eggs in it. And three weeks later...



Fourteen fluffy balls of chirping sweetness. And since then we've added four more, because I wanted green eggs. There is something so simple about just sitting and holding a chick in your hand. Something so mesmerizing about watching them scamper about the brooder, pecking at food, each other, or my ring when I put my hand in and the warming lamp hits the diamond and catches their eyes.

The girls keep pointing out the reality of how many chickens we now have. 40. Forty. Four-Oh-Wow! We had not planned on that many. We are looking for loving homes for some of them now. And we will love all of the rest of them. We just hope most of them are hens and not roosters. And we pray we get more egg customers! =) 

Life is good on the Crazy Chicken Farm! Thank you, God!