Puddle jumper

We are glad no student are at college during the summer! The campus is such a nice place to explore. 

Evening

Evening from Charles Spurgeon on August 5th. 

"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?"
Numbers 32:6

Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conquered, and had left the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We have received much by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks. Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or excavating perishing ones from amid the ruins of the fall, and if we fold our hands in idleness we had need be warned, lest the curse of Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the vineyard saith, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" What is the idler's excuse? Personal service of Jesus becomes all the more the duty of all because it is cheerfully and abundantly rendered by some. The toils of devoted missionaries and fervent ministers shame us if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from trial is the temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they would fain escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them the question for this evening's meditation is very applicable. If the most precious are tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible? If the diamond must be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be made perfect without suffering? Who hath commanded the wind to cease from blowing because our bark is on the deep? Why and wherefore should we be treated better than our Lord? The firstborn felt the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It is a cowardly pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken couch for a soldier of the cross. Wiser far is he who, being first resigned to the divine will, groweth by the energy of grace to be pleased with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the cross foot, and, like Samson, to find honey in the lion.

Two new recipes

I tried two new recipes last night from my new cookbook, chicken molè and chocolate cookies. They were both delicious and quick! The chocolate cookies were fudgy with little pockets of melted chocolate that burst in your mouth as you ate them. 

I am trying one or two more out tonight for dinner (maple orange glazed chicken and broccoli & red pepper stir fry). 

You should probably buy a copy while it is still on sale. :) It doesn't explain any of the science behind the recipes. So, if you are looking for a cookbook that makes you a better cook I suggest subscribing to their magazine (the lack of ads is so refreshing) or purchasing their The New Best Recipe. Warning: it is all in black and white with few pictures of anything. This one is more user friendly and has a lot of colored photos throughout. I think they are both worthy additions to your cookbook collection, but especially this one because it is on sale. 

I love America's Test Kitchen because they do everything excellently. I respect that. The first few pages summarize their favorite kitchen equipment.  So far I only own the chef knife, but as my kitchen items break I hope to replace them (I am looking at you blender, measuring cups, whisk, and cookie sheets). I wish I had had that list when I registered. 

Have you tried any new recipes lately? What inspires you to try something new? 

Two things came in the mail yesterday...

One I don't like and one I LOVE!! 

Ugh. Everytime I find a Martha Stewart living in my mailbox I have a sense of hope that there might possibly, maybe, hopefully be something, anything, useful in it. There NEVER is!! I am so glad I signed up for a free subscription because I would be mad if I had paid for it. 

I did the calculations this time of how many ads are in the magazine, as you can see scrawled on one of the full page ads that I ripped out. Out of 66 pages there are 13 full page ads (ads on both sides of the page) and 26 half page (ads on one side, pictures or story on the other side). That is 39 percent ofthe  magazine. 

Moving on. 

The second item I LOVE! It came in the mail yesterday. I ordered it a week ago when it was on sale at the America's Test Kitchen store for ONLY $10. This cookbook has 750 recipes that take 45 minutes or fewer to make! I am so excited about many of them.  This will greatly help on those evenings when I am busy all day and just want to let my family eat oatmeal for dinner. :) I will let you know how some of them goes as I try them. 

If they are still on sale I suggest buying a copy. They are normally $35.99. 

My favorite blogger posted a recipe from the cookbook and a link to the sale last week. I tried the recipe. You should too. It is so easy. We had the leftovers in burritos the next day. It was delicious. 

http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2015/07/chipotle-chicken-kabobs-with-cilantro-lime-dipping-sauce/

Camden

When the weather is hot and muggy around here, I dream of Camden or the mountains somewhere. It has been in the 90s for the last two weeks.  I am ready for some cooler days. 

Do you check the weather in any other cities? I check Camden and DC (because I went to college there). 

Hot Air Balloon

Guess where I was at 6am on a Saturday? We were going to wake up at 4:30am to leave by 5, but Warren had other plans and woke up at 3:51am. Oh, well! It was a lovely morning. We met my sister and Michelle to watch 14 balloons. Martin has been asking every since to go see some more balloons. Maybe is a few years, buddy. I can only get up so early so often. 

A plane flew by and drops ChickfilA cows tied to parachutes. You can see a person jumping to catch one. 

Creepy teddy bear balloon. 

We had breakfast and walked around a small town for an hour afterwards. We were home by 11am. Some of us were more worn out than others. Ha ha. 

Peach Caramel Pecan Cake

It was delicious! 

I might need new dish towels...

I have had mine for six years now. I don't think about them much. But as I was folding the laundry this week it hit me, these are gross looking. 

A gift idea for my sisters and/or mom to give me at Christmas. :) 

Since the walls in the kitchen are now yellow, I would like blue and red ones as replacements. They can be solid or patterned or a combination. And there can be other colors mixed in... I don't care as much about the color as the material. They have to dry well!! 

Letters

I received three very sweet thank you notes last week. They were the kind that covered the notecard with writing, both top and bottom. I appreciate cards like that. They inspired me to write some letters. I finished two letters and posted them this weekend. Finding mail in my mailbox, that isn't junk, is so exciting!

All three boys are sick. Warren has had a snotty nose for 13 days now, but I think it is almost over. I have been saying that for a week... Martin is running about 8 days of snot. Today he had a fever. Jared is on day 4 of fever and sore throat. Weird. 

I woke him up from his nap and he fell back asleep on me. Sweet grumpy boy. 

Sometimes...

Sometimes It is just such a beautiful morning that you pack up the kids and walk (and run) around the local college campus for two hours. It was a gorgeous morning! 

We watched the crane truck again and visited the library too, but I didn't take pictures of those things. 

Mozzarella

I made Mozzarella again. 

It was definitely easier the second time. 

Weekend

It was a good weekend. On Friday Martin and I cleaned the house well. He helped me wash all the windows, which I hadn't done in three or four years. Jared finished a lot of yard work (he almost filled our whole dumpster with weeds). Martin trotted around and "helped" pull weeds. We had dinner with Grandma Cindy for her birthday and went to a special hymn sing at church. I am thankful for a relaxing weekend. 

Hope

His first written word. I am guessing it will be several more months before he writes anything again. Ha ha. 

Ham

He thinks he is funny. 

120 Backpacks

So, In case I start to blog once a week or every other week, I am running an English as a Second language school this coming fall and spring. I'll probably be a bit busy. :) To kick off the semester, I am collecting and giving out 120 backpacks to kids at a local elementary school that my church teams up with.  The school has a lot is immigrant families, who hopefully, will want to attend an ESL class. 

I just received the first shipment of backpacks!! So excited. These will go great with the 320 glue sticks we bought on Tuesday. 

Peaches, plums, and blueberries

This is my favorite part of summer. Add in some fresh corn and green beans and life is perfect. 

I buy half bushels of peaches at a time. People ask me, "what I do with them all."  I eat them. Sometimes I buy a whole bushel and eat all of those too. :) In that case, I would probably make Jared a pie or two. Peach pie is his favorite. 

Happy Friday!! 

Children's Lit Baby Shower Details

I know I said I wouldn't be posting about my sister's shower, but I found out that several people snapped a couple photos. So I have pieces them together into a post. It was lovely and by far my favorite shower that I have ever attended. And it was also quite simple!! Well, my part was simple; I just brought books. Anna put more work into her book decorations, games, and plates. :) She's a champion. 

Decorations 

For my sisters shower we decorated with garland that was made from little mini books. Here is a picture Anna sent me to show me hers as she made it. She ended up hanging hers across door ways with streamers above and below it. It looks amazing. 

I topped the cupcakes with mini books that i glued to toothpicks. 

I made them on the sewing machine. It was super easy. 

We used these plates and cups mixed with some light blue plates because more people RSVPed then we expected. 

I also set stacks of children's books around. I lined the counter behind the food with them. We lined the mantel downstairs with them. I had a mini lorax (The Lorax), Horton (Horton Hears a Who), and corduroy (Corduroy). We set them around with their books. Also, I set a cap on Caps for Sale and baby shoes in front of The Foot Book. And then we had a book for each food... More of that in the food section. 

Games

For games we found two free downloads online (which Anna printed on very fancy paper):

1. A children literature's quiz to see how much you knew about children's books. Example: which one of these is not a child in the Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe? Peter, Susan, Lucy, Edward. 

2. A games where book titled were written in other words and you had to  decipher what they were. 

Example: Farewell to the Celestial Orb. 

Food

Ham sandwiches (Green Eggs and Ham)

Meatballs (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs)

Veggie Tray (Peter Rabbit)

Nuts (squirrel Nutkin)

Spinach Salad (The Little Engine that Could)

Pasta Salad (Strega Nonna)

Crab Dip (Harry the Horseshoe Crab)

Spinach Artichoke Dip 

Fruit Kabobs (The Hungry Caterpillar) 

Pink Lemonade (If Ran the Circus)

Water (Oh, The Things You Can Think)

Yellow cupcakes with strawberries and whipped cream (Jake Baked the Cake)

Invitations

I wish I had used library card invitations, but I was rushing to get them out and just printed them on white paper (I tried card stock, but it kept getting jammed). I did use a rhyme from Dr. Suess's ABCs, "Big B, Little b, what begins with B? Bird, Boy Baby, Bubbles, and a bumblebee. 

Fiesta Part Three

This didn't post last week. Oh well. Two posts today. 

I saved this picture from Facebook and didn't notice it had the tags across the face of each of us. So, I just cut all of us out because I really just wanted to show you the deer. Ha ha. We put sombreros on all the deer in the room. These are just two of them. 

And I made cupcakes. 

Beach and some more sewing...

We spent last weekend at the beach. I didn't take any pictures. We played a lot of board games, ate good food, and watched some fun fireworks. The boys slept well away from home. It was a relaxing weekend. 

Martin and I did a bit of sewing yesterday. I will quilt again someday. For now all I am doing is mending.  

1.  I mended a reusable bag. It seems as if I have to mend all my reusable bags once, usually along the seams.  They aren't made to last. 

2. I turned a tattered pair of pajama pants into pajama shorts. The bottoms were all frayed. I chopped them off and hemmed them up. 

3. I turned another pair of pajamas into a hanging laundry bag, maybe for the boys room or bathroom. We only have one laundry hamper currently. I sort of used this tutorial, but I sewed my wooden hoop into the top. I didn't have embroidery hoops big enough. 

http://makingniceinthemidwest.com/2012/09/20/diy-make-your-own-hanging-laundry-hamper/

4. One of my new dresses split open along the front bust seam at church on Sunday. Thankfully, it was a small split and the dress was lined. I hand sewed it back together today. It is as good as new. You would never be able to find where the split had been. 

Today I set out some squares for a table runner, but I am not sure if I will finish it in time for this weekend. We will see. 

Also, how does one sleep like this? Both my boys do this. 

One of these things is not like the other...