Pain!

We haven't catered in awhile and we are all paying for it! Oh my!! My feet think I hate them and I think I do.

12 hours of labor payed off in the way of a wonderful Eagle Scout banquet with a sit down dinner. We made Cheese crusted chicken, red potatoes with parsley, whole green beans, yeast rolls, salad and dessert.

Did I mention that we are tired?? Oh and did I mention that the scouts mother didn't let us know she wanted us to decorate until 24 hours before the dinner? Talk about scrambling; fortunately we are on top of July 4th and Eagle Scouts use red, white and blue! And we love a challenge. I think...

The girls and I are saving all our farmers market money and any other we can make for a vacation. A scouting family has a condo out in Wyoming that they like to bless people with by allowing them to use it. YES!! We so want to go West. So today helped a lot!

Now I must go and rest, and rest, and rest, and rest, and dream of the wild West.

Things Change

In 1995 the first Toy Story came out and our first born was 5 years old. She fell in love with the toys, their personalities and their adventures.

Another movie followed in 1999 our youngest just 2, our middle one 5 and our first born 9. We had many of the toys in our house by this time and the movie played on the TV over and over.

Tonight we went to the drive-in to see Toy Story 3 and it became something we couldn't have imagined. See Andy is all grown up now and it is the end of his childhood. Sitting next to me was our first born, who turns 20 next month. It was for her, and us, the end of one season and the beginning of another rolling right in front of us on a huge screen.

Hannah and I both shed a tear. The sweetness of Andy passing his toys on, but not forgetting the happy childhood he had. As our oldest moves from one season to another I can rejoice that she has had a happy childhood and moves into adulthood with wonderful, precious memories.

Go see the movie, you may shed a tear also...

Or act goofy and cute like the two younger ones!!

A Moment In Time

My two guys...

They Have Regressed!!

We went to dinner tonight and all three kids (which I use loosely, as they are 13, 15 and 19) were in the seat behind us because farmers market stuff takes up half the car now. So, things got a bit wild...

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Hannah: singing

Hayden: Hannah shut up!

Sarah: He is leaning on me!!

Hayden: Your face is leaning on me

Hannah: Touch me again and I'll kill you

Hayden: Your face is killing me

Sarah: Mom, tell him to stop

Hannah: singing...louder

Sarah: He is still leaning on me

Hayden: Your face is stupid

Hayden: ouch, ouch, they are making me a sandwich. (oh Hayden is in the middle of the two girls)

Hayden: yells

Mom: Hayden why are you yelling

Hayden: Hannah just stuck her cup down my pants!

Mom: Hannah don't 'cold crack' your brother

Sarah: I don't feel good

Dad: You look great

Hannah: Hayden I am going to hurt you

and on and on and on!!! of course, all in jest!!

From these little angels...

Opening Day of the Farmers Market

5:30 AM came very early this morning, especially after baking all day Friday. But we dragged ourselves out of bed and made it to the market by 7:30!

We had a great opening day with about 20 vendors and lots of customers. Being back downtown made a big difference.

Being unsure of the crowds today, we baked a little less, but sold all but 3 loafs and probably would have sold those had we not left early. We sold all but 2 dozen eggs also.

Today He is 13

Handsome funny smart musical

Cherries!!

My sweet hubby brought home several large bags of cherries from his dads earlier this week. These are sour cherries so we decided to make jam!

It turned out wonderful and we didn't have to use a hot water canner or pectin! Just sugar and lemon juice, then we put the lids on and turned them upside down. Sealed!

photos by Hannah Queen

“Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. Ideas are of spiritual origin, and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony; but we must sustain a child’s inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food.” Charlotte Mason

New Chickens!!

I completely forgot to post a picture of our new girls, or at least some of them. Can't get the girls to all stand still together!

Almost 20

Simple beauty

Almost 13!

Terribly handsome...

photography by Hannah, visit Honey and Jam Photography

Nehemiah 9:6 - You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

Almost 16

Just pretty!

New Chickens Soon

I have been wanting more chickens for awhile, but haven't been able to find what I was looking for. So patience as been the word!

Patience has paid off, a gentleman that I serve with on the farmers market board has what I want!! He has RIR young hens.

So William and Hayden re-purposed the wood from the kids old play set and have almost finished the new chicken coop and the nesting boxes are done.

We should be able to bring the new girls home later this week!

This will give us enough eggs for our use and sale at the farmers market.

Loving Where I'm Living

My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places. Isaiah 32:18

This dog is going to do me in. He loves to be outside, but has NO common sense. He runs all over the place and loves to chase rabbits. He comes in with briers in his fur, and cuts and scraps from running through bushes. Tick checks happen several times a day since he comes inside. The girls worry about him if they hear him howling, but I know, he is on the scent of something.

Then, he crashes! Rotten dog!!

Delicious Stir Fry

Tonight we didn't want to spend a long time on the evening meal. The guys had to go back out to work and frankly it was hot in the kitchen. The weather and well, us too, demanded a stir fry.

Side note: I love working in the kitchen with my girls! We clean, chop, stir, check on and basically work in symphony (think crowded, klutzy symphony) together. It is such a blessing to be able to pass on knowledge and learn from them.

Ok, so take some chicken breast and cut into strips and cook in a skillet. Remove to a bowl and add about 1/2 cup of water to the skillet. Add veggies, any kind. Cabbage, onion, broccoli, red pepper, and so on. Don't over cook, you want to retain the color and texture. I don't care for mush... yet anyway, I still have my teeth!

Prepare noodles or rice.

You can buy or make a sauce. Everyone has their favorite. Tonight Hannah made ours from low sodium soy, toasted sesame oil, red pepper flakes, rice wine vinegar and sugar. Much lighter than the commercial sauces.

DELICIOUS!!!

Cost: 3.00 to 4.00 per person

Hannah & a Magazine

Hannah and her blog Honey and Jam are in the current issue of Ready Made!! She is the second listing under "Fav Follows", but she is there.

I continue to marvel at how God is leading her. I try hard to not over advise, but allow her to do as she is led; not easy for a momma. She has just done what comes natural to her and allowed God to place her where He desires. She has not pursued contacts, but allowed them to come to her.

She is truly getting an education. She works hard to learn so much in so many areas of her craft. I would imagine that she spends more hours in a week here learning than she would in 3 college classes. And still she is seeking to take classes online.

Hers is a different road than the 'traditional' college approach, but one that has proven right for her. We have certainly learned to not limit God when it comes to higher education.

For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corn. 5:7

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Us(*addition)

I haven't talked much about what our family is doing to simplify our lives. Due to economic restraints we have tried to find ways to cut back. For health reasons we have worked to improve our diet. To help the environment, we have implemented several things.

We have actually recycled for quite awhile. Plastic and glass are all put aside to go to the recycle center. It has become second nature to all of us. We also compost which reduces our garbage.

We make our own clothes detergent and it has worked well. In warm weather the clothes and towels go on the line outside. We moving to homemade cleaning supplies.

Mostly we cook at home. It is so much cheaper, we can avoid the preservatives and it tastes so much better. I work to buy what is on sale also.

Right now we are working on removing high fructose corn syrup from our diets. It is so many things it is ridiculous. Ketchup, pancake syrup, drinks, jellies, salad dressings, etc. We also try to cook mostly fresh vegetables and have added more fruit.

Our chickens provide us with fresh eggs and we are planning to add to the flock this year. Fresh eggs are so different from store bought.

This year we are going to focus our garden on what we use most. Then work to put up as much as possible for winter. We will grow tomatoes for ketchup and sauces. Green beans are a favorite sauteed.
We use a lot of peppers and onions. The girls want to grow more strawberries for jam.

We also want to reduce our food miles. This will take some work to find where we can find the foods we want within 200 miles of our home. Of course the farmers market where we sell in the summer will provide much of what we do not grow. The biggest challenge will be finding meat at a price we can afford. (sorry, not giving up meat!)

I am sure I have left out some things. I'll update as I think of them.

* We have used cloth towels in the kitchen for a long time now. I thought getting rid of paper towels would have been difficult, but it wasn't that hard.

photography by Hannah Queen