First Meal Without Gracie

I don't have a picture, but this is what I fixed up: Egg (from the backyard!) and bacon sandwich with sauteed onions, mayo, El Tapatio hot sauce, cheddar cheese, Italian spices, Mrs. Dash SW Chipotle spice, and fresh mint leaves for my veggie. I tried it as a closed and open sandwich....the closed tastes better, but the open looks better....hmmmmm, difficult choices.

Now here's my question. How many egg sandwiches am I going to make over the next 4 weeks?

HAA! You have no faith in me! We shall see.

My little tribe got to CA OK. I know they are in good hands and enjoying themselves. My dear sweet daughter evacuated her stomach during the final approach into Chicago....she has my motion sickness propensities. Last I heard, her uncles were chasing her through the house as she was squealing with delight.

-S.

A smile and a thought...

A couple sweet shots to bring you a smile:








And a quote that struck me today:

"The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else."

- Oswald Chambers

Convicting and encouraging.

Today

Today Stephen is working second shift, so we got to enjoy having him around this morning! He was able to get a lot of work done on one of our cars! Yay for mechanically minded husbands!!!

Of course, he needed a lot of supervision, management and direction from a certain small, but capable source:



Later in the morning, the kids and I headed out to meet up with some new friends.



This was Kiah-man's second time ever to try out park swings!!! Enjoy! :-) And blow up one of these pictures to check out how his hair likes to stand up on end!




I know, if you're not one of the grandparent followers of this blog, you're going "alright already with the swing pictures!"... but if you ARE one of the grandparent followers, you're just eating them up!!! :-)


And about an hour and a half after getting home, you could see signs that nap time was right around the corner. :-)

Honestly!!! Who needs a teething toy...

...when you've got perfectly good toes to chew on!!! :-)






Equally in the culinary department, may we recommend a couple recipes we've enjoyed lately!

These are from one of our favorites, Eating Well. Eating Well sure lives up to it's subtitle: Where Good Taste Meets Good Health!

The first is Sesame-Honey Tempeh and Quinoa Bowl.... except I made it Sesame-Honey Chicken and Quinoa! :-) I've never used Tempeh and figured chicken would be just great... and it was! Give it a shot this was "yumm-oh", as we say around here! :-)


The second was Hungarian Beef Goulash . Delicious! Super crock-pot dish! We ate it over rice. I did makes some fairly significant changes when I made it and we enjoyed how it came out... however, according to the recipe, it might be even better! Instead of diced tomatoes, I put in tomato sauce. Also I did NOT put in the beef broth, I simply threw in four beef boulion cubes. Not having the extra liquid probably made it a thicker and richer sauce, and I really liked it that way. Besides, with the tomato sauce and slow cooking the meat, we ended up with plenty of sauce! Also didn't use the caraway seeds, bay leaves, or parsley. They would probably be great additions, but turned out just fine without. Give it a try! This ones a keeper!

Note: I was just now reading online that cooking caraway seeds to long can turn a dish bitter, so if you do use 'em, might want to add them at the end. I have no experience from caraway... so I don't know!

Beautiful Mornings

Since Tuesday we've been blessed with some beautiful, sunny, cool days. Several of those mornings, the kids and I spent time out in the yard. I was able to do some yard clean up and we let the chickens out. Clara is now able to catch them fairly regularly. Some of them are "smart" and just run away, and in those cases she isn't able to get them. However, some times they just freeze and sort of hunker down, in which case she is able to simply pick them up. She has been having a grand old time carting them around, bouncing them, showing them to Kiah, carrying them into the bushes, talking to them, etc. And believe it or not, they put up with it quite nicely!

Down At The River

Went down to a little beach on the river with Emmie Lou a few weeks ago. Girls had a grand old time, as you can see! They're like two peas in a pod when it comes to water... very little fear! When it came to Emmie Lou, it seemed more like no fear! :-)

Month in Review: September 2010

Wow. September is already gone and October begun! Time surly is flying by! Ok, a quick recording of this past month and a few of it's happenings for this family.

We started it off with a Labor Day trip to York, PA to visit family. The kidos did well on the long trip and what a blessing it was to visit and spend time with some relatives, who we haven't yet got to know too well!

We started up a home Bible study, primarily for people in the neighborhood who are interested in learning more about the Lord and His Word!

Stephen was very blessed with a more interesting job at work to spend time on and has been enjoying that. He was able to work some long days so that he could take a day off this week. On his long days, we were able to go and meet him for a picnic supper!

Clara continued to grow and learn so quickly! She enjoyed playing in the river with her friend Emmie Lou, playing at the park, playing with neighborhood girls who would come over, painting, and entertaining her little brother. She is popping out with longer and longer sentences and keeps making us laugh with funny stuff she says. Here are a few examples:

The other day she and I were walking out to the car. It was about the fourth day in a row that was grey and wet. It was also a warm day, so add muggy to the grey and wet. Well, we go walking out and head to the car when I hear a little girl say "Priee (pretty) day, Mommy. Priee day." Made my morning! :-)

She called me "honey". :-)

She's been been using cute little phrases like "Let's see" and "hold on".

Kiah-man (or Ki-boy, as his sister likes to call him) lived his fifth month on the outside. He is getting so big and cuter and cuter. He's been a happy, easy going little guy. Such a blessing. Sleeping through the night has been hit and miss :-/ But last night was wonderful! He went down a little late, but slept until 8:00 this morning! What a treat! Kiah also popped in his first two teeth this last month. They make his adorable smile even cuter!

Our once a month young peoples Bible study started our new topic, which is an in-depth look at the offerings, primarily found in the first several chapters in Leviticus. Before that we had done a study on the book of Joshua. We have been so encouraged and blessed by the young people that are a part of this study!

I've been keeping busy with my responsibilities as wife, mommy and homemaker! It truly is such a wonderful job and such a privilege to be able to stay home with my little family. Sure, there are days when I would like to "clock-out"... but I wouldn't trade it!

One of my new interests is learning more about using herbs for natural healing and general health. I've been learning quite a bit and enjoying it! One of these days I might have to share some of what I've been learning! I love The Bulk Herb Store! They have tons of free information and you can buy bulk herbs at SUCH reasonable prices. Right now I'm sipping a cup of echinacea and peppermint tea, sweetened with honey. Echinacea is good for boosting your immunities. Peppermint has health benefits too, but we mostly drink it for the great flavor!

September was a month full of challenge, joy and great blessing! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Memories

The pictures of Hil and Stephen, in my last post, reminded me of these ones of Clara with her Daddy! Had to go find 'em!


Cute Little Feet!

Playin' With Daddy

Clara hit the hay really early last night and Kiah-man got to have some play time with just him and Daddy! :-)

Enjoy!