Tidbits from the past few weeks

Here's a sampling of randomness from some ordinary moments around the home the past few weeks.

 

A good friend of ours agreed to mentor the boys in painting for four sessions.

I traded her a grow light for it.

Guess who got the good part of the deal?

 

Anna has gone above and beyond what I was even hoping for and my boys have eagerly completed their homework for the next session, even though it's not due for another seven days.

That's huge.

 

Yay!

If you know Anna, you know what love and attention to detail my boys are receiving from her.

She's wonderful.

 

We've been blessed by some amazing works of art at sunset this last week.  Whenever I see a sight like this my mind always thinks of how the Heavens declare the glory of the Lord.

Amen.

 

Not only did I manage to give four boys haircuts in the last week but my onions needed a trim, too.

Aren't they unruly?  I'm happy to report after their haircut they are standing tall and proud and growing strong again.  AND, we have our first recordable harvest to file under 'onions' for the year.

 

1/20th of a pound.

When one works so hard to provide their own food every single harvest counts.

 

We enjoyed minced baby onion tops over our soup last night.  Divine.

And I only have 999 and 19/20ths pounds to harvest from our garden to reach my goal of 1000#s!

 

 

I've been experimenting with sourdough this winter by catching my own starter and feeding him {it?} faithfully.  He's taken on a personality of his {its?} own on our counter and is affectionately referred to as Mr. Bubbles.  The boys are quite sure I have lost my marbles at this point, but that's okay.  It's good to keep them on their toes and wondering what Mom will do next.

 

Despite being an extremely busy stay-at-home-homeschooling-homesteading-home-doctoring kind of person, I still have time for a slumber party every now and then.  Apparently last night I had a slumber party with Luke Skywalker and Jenga Fett.   A little secret here on boys and love languages- if your little man feels you are worthy to sleep with his favorite Lego minifigs that is just like  receiving a four page love note from said child.  Girls might make a beautiful picture with markers and bubble letters and lots and lots of hearts singing the praises of their mothers...boys will trust you with their most precious Lego pieces and that means the world to them and to me.   It was an honor to wake up and see these guys sparring at my feet at 6 o'clock this morning.  I truly felt loved!

 

Keeping with the Star Wars theme-- which is at epidemic levels in our home right now and please come soon Spring so we can concentrate on bike crashes and hiking in muddy creeks -- I found some Ewok puppets playing in the onions this morning as well.  I was told that our guest room makes the best forest in our home, and it's no wonder because...

 

Tarver-made Ewoks for Ry and Langston

 I am the proud mother of over 500 seedlings right now.

The air quality in our guest room is amazing.

 

 

And with all that typed and saved, I must return to the needs of my family.  A few young men need to be read to this afternoon, there is still vacuuming and laundry to finish up.  Chicken Noodle soup to start for this evening's meal.  Mr. Bubbles to feed and make fresh bread from.  A boy who has sheep to tend to at a farm not near enough to our home.  And a few plants to water, too.

 

By the way, am I the only wondering why I didn't get issued that maid servant at the birth of our first child?  I've always wondered about that ...

July Harvest Total

From our humble little plot of ground -

 

174.2175 pounds

40 eggs

9 bouquets of flowers

 

*To celebrate our bountiful harvest, besides just enjoying eating meals provided from our garden, I just purchased a book that's been on my wish-list  called

The Planet Whizbang Idea Book for Gardeners

by Herrick Kimball

I'm excited to read it and hopefully have an even more successful garden this fall and next year!

{harvest} Pomp & Circumstance

 

The first cucumber and first tomato of the season are a big deal.

When they come on the same day, though -

Time for a huge party.

 

{thank you God for providing for us through our garden!}

Homemade Taco Seasoning

I've finally mastered our family's favorite combination of spices for our famous Taco Tuesdays, observed weekly in our home. :-)  From our pantry to yours, here's our Taco Seasoning recipe.

{  Taco Seasoning  }

2 Tablespoons each: Chopped dried onion, Oregano and Garlic Salt

1 Tablespoon each: Granulated onion, Chili Powder, Granulated garlic and Cumin

1/2 Tablespoon: Paprika

*Dump into a glass jar, mix thoroughly and use at will with your favorite taco recipe.  I usually quadruple the recipe and it will last me a few weeks.  I add about 2/3 cup to 4#s of taco filling {meat and beans}.  Some days we feel like more, some days less.  It's very forgiving.

Let me know if you try it and how you like it!  Adios!!

A Novelty: Sack Lunch

 

Kids' Conference happened over the past two days, which means sack lunches for the boys.

{so fun!}

 

World War II was the backdrop for the conference and Valor was the godly character quality being taught.  On the back flap of each lunch we honored the boys' Great Grandpa who is a WWII hero - and just a hero to us in general.

 

Such a fun time, but we are all very tired and ready to head to bed so we can be fresh for worship services in the morning.

Harvest

Mmmm...spinach!  Our first harvest of the season.

I know it's only 1/8 of a pound - or 2 ounces if you want to make the numbers sound bigger,

 

 

But hopefully it will be the first of many this year.

 

Manly Porridge

Because this is how breakfast goes down around here - it has to be manly.  All these adventures to fuel, work to do, play- breakfast has to be hearty!  Here is how we do porridge around here.  Enjoy!

 

Set 4 cups of water to boil in a large pot.  Once boiling, turn the heat down and add 2 cups of milk; stir.  Add in 4 1/2 cups steel cut oats, 2 cups peeled and chopped apples, 1/2 cup ground flax seed.  Cook about 4 minutes just barely under simmer.  Add in 3/4 cup coconut, 1 cup chopped nuts {almonds, pecans, etc.}, 3/4 cup dried cranberries, 1 cup brown sugar and 2 Tbsp. apple pie spice. Cook a few minutes longer over low heat, stirring occasionally and adding more milk as you see fit.  When the oats are cooked, scoop into serving bowls, cover with a slosh of heavy cream and a touch of maple syrup.

Layers of Love

I'm a very blessed lady to have FIVE wonderful Valentines to spoil on St. Valentine's Day!

In honor of them, we enjoyed five scrumptious layers of chocolatey goodness . . .

Stacked together with Espresso Tainted Whipped Cream -

oh my!

 

Also in honor of our favorite Valentines, hubby grilled us six layers of filets.

Beautiful tulips {thank you, Love!} graced our feast. . .

We found that {Canadian imported} heart straws really do help us not to cry over spilled milk!

Another very fun celebration goes down in the books for our family - how about you?

When they rise up and . . .

Make breakfast all by themselves.

Training, encouragement and enthusiasm - a recipe for success.

{Oh, and the willingness on Mom's part to put up with a bit of messiness while they are in the process of learning.}

A beautiful morning to wake to this!

Camo apron and 'chef' hat courtesy of Gramma Carol.  Being able to dress the part plays a huge role in success, too!

Taco Tuesday Tutorial

Taco Tuesday - a tradition near and dear in the hearts of everyone residing under our roof.

It is such a big part of our family that I thought I'd share ...

1. Mid-morning: Add 10 c. filtered water to your crockpot and turn it on HIGH.

2. Forget about your crockpot and supper because you are explaining right, acute and obtuse angles with one of your sons while simultaneously explaining to another son why he can't use the comics for his current events report this week.

3. Soon after lunch remember that your beloved varmints will be hungry again in just a few short hours and get the package of dried black beans out of the pantry.  Say a sincere prayer of thanksgiving to our Lord that you still have a bag of black beans in the pantry and you don't have to make a run to the store after all.

4.  Pour a 2# bag of dried black beans on the counter, sorting out the bad beans and debris from the beans.  You have to watch it because quite often there will be little stones in with the beans.  Make a pile of bad beans and debris and put the good beans in a colander.

See the little stone in this pile of rejects?

5. Once all the good beans are in your colander rinse well under cold water.  Add beans to the hot water in your crock pot and leave it be for about 4-hours, on HIGH.

6.  After about 4-hours your beans will look like this.  At this point, I begin cooking 2#s of hamburger in a skillet.  Meanwhile, I like to drain 2-3 cups of liquid from the cooked beans, leaving some in there so the seasonings have something to soak into.

7.  Add your seasonings!  Whatever you normally use for your taco night will do.  Sometimes I have enough bulk ingredients on hand that I don't have to pull out the premixed taco seasoning.  Tonight I didn't so I added about a Tablespoon of *RealSalt* {please, for the sake of your health - make the switch.  You can find this at Target!}, about 1/2 cup of the Taco Seasoning, 1 Tablespoon of Cumin and 6 cloves of garlic.

For your health, garlic.  Beautiful, beautiful garlic . . .

8.  So, you've added the seasonings to your crock pot, the ground beef is browning gloriously and it is now time to start mixing the dough for your tortillas.  Here is a recipe which makes enough dough for 16 tortillas.  This is enough for the average sized family but I have found that for our crew I need to double it.  But, for tonight we'll keep it small and simple.

To your mixer bowl, add:

4 cups freshly milled hard white wheat

1 1/2 cups filtered water, slightly warmed

1 tsp. Real Salt

1/4 cup Olive Oil.

Mix barely, like 30-seconds'ish.  The trick to beautiful, stretchy tortillas is having a very wet dough.  Add a bit more water if you need to.  Once you have mixed, cover your bowl and let the dough rest for 30-minutes.

9.  By now your hamburger should be done and it is time to throw it in the crockpot.  Once added, mix everything together really well, replace the cover, turn the crockpot down to LOW and you can start grating your cheese or setting the table or reading your mail since we need to wait for the dough to rest.

10.  About 20-minutes into dough resting, get your tortilla press out and start preheating.  If you don't have a tortilla press, you can still make the tortillas!  You will just need to preheat a skillet instead.  You can use a rolling pin to make your tortillas nice and flat.  In any case, divide your dough into 16 equal pieces.  It helps to have some butter standing by as the press can start to stick once the dough starts to dry out.  No one I know ever complains about extra butter around here so it just seems more like a bonus.

11.  Pat each ball into a small disc, then quickly

12.  Place on preheated tortilla press, and 

13. Quickly and firmly press down about 4-5 seconds or just until you start to hear the first squeals of steam.  Any longer and you run the risk of 'blowing' your tortilla.

14. Beauty, eh?  {That's for you, Amy D!  See, I do have a bit of Canadian in me!}

15.  The rest is pretty self-explanatory, transfer to serving bowls, ring the dinner bell, etc.,

Taco Tuesday is a good thing.  Maybe it will make its way into the heart of your homes as well!  Let me know if it does.

Thanksgiving Campout with a Feast

 Our two Boy Scouts had a great time camping out and then preparing and serving a Thanksgiving-style meal over the campfires - to feed approximately 150.

Moms and younger siblings were invited to join the feast so that meant - no planning, no fixing, no messy kitchen and my favorite:  no cleaning up.

I love the Boy Scouts.

Tarver chose to contribute baked sweet potatoes to the meal.  Langston was fascinated with the 'rocks' he was pulling out of the campfire and once Tarver walked away with his bucket of spuds decided he would fish for a 'shiny rock' too.  *See bandage picture below.  Ugh!

Braden wanted to impress his mother with his extra large frying pan. {Ahem, if you are reading this kiddo, know that Mom put that on her Christmas list!}  He whipped up nearly 10 pounds of french fries, made the old fashioned way, and cooked them over the fire.  They were a huge hit!  I'm not sure they count as a traditional Thanksgiving food, though . . .

Outdoor crock pots {sometimes known as Dutch Ovens}

Deer roast with veggies - another contribution from Braden.

It was a beautiful afternoon to spend with all of the families involved in Scouting in our area and so much fun to watch the boys prepare, serve and clean up from a meal cooked over coals.

Beauty!