Beautiful Weekend

Leslie, Brianna, Lana, Mom(l to r)

Mom on the left playing her guitar

What a gorgeous weekend it was. Yesterday, we couldn't have ordered better Fall weather if we had tried! Friday night my mom, sister and I went to Ark City to the Arkalalah Coronation. Our neighbor's daughter whom we have known since birth was up for Queen Alalah...(for those who have NO idea what I'm talking about, this is a BIG Fall Festival in a town about 10 miles from where I live). It was a fun girls night and we had a good time, even though our Brianna didn't win, she looked beautiful and is such a true witness for the Lord! Each contestant got to present a little slide show about themselves...her's brought a tear to my eye! It was so neat, It's All about God for her and I was Sooooo proud of her. Actually, all the girls gave glory to the Lord and all are active in their churches/youths. It was really refreshing! After that, headed home and walked into complete quiet...everyone in my house was crashed out! I stayed up awhile(totally out of character for me) and enjoyed the peacefulness--that is something do treasure. Saturday morning brought a breakfast of waffles, coffee and me running around still in my robe until about 10. Did a lot of laundry, picked up the house, etc. Then it was time to get around to go back to Ark City to the parade at 2. We left a little before noon, made it down there to get a delicious pork burger and visit. My Grandma Birdell was there, JB's grandma Pearl, who is 100 was IN the parade, my mom was in the parade, playing music with a group. It was fun. Today was beautiful as well, but WINDY!

Grandma Pearl in a sporty little Red Car

The Good Lord gave me a scripture a few weeks ago, Ephesians 4:19...it was a Friday and it just kept coming to mind, I was busy at work and finally took time to look it up online. Didn't make a lot of sense at the time, when I got home later that day, I looked it up and understood it a little better.

Les, Grandma Birdell and Jennifer

Ephesians 4:17-24 says.....(NIV)

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility(useless account) of their thinking. (18)They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardeneing of their hearts. (19)Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. (20)You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. (22)You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; (23)to be made new in the attitude of your minds; (24)and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

So many people in the world today fall into this. Especially(sp?) our government/politicians/etc. I wonder how many of them were separated from God because of their ignorance? How many of them were taught the way of Jesus and have been corrupted by deceitful desires OR were they raised not knowing Jesus? I have pondered this for several weeks now...wondering if I should share this and the Lord has said "OK" I'm certainly NOT a Bible scholar, I'm a constant work in progress for the Lord. I am sure there are many other ways that these verses can be interpreted. I'm simply sharing with others what the Lord has shared with me. Let's be in PRAYER for our country and our leaders as we face our upcoming election. God be with us and let the mud-slinging be OVER!

Have a great week...Pastor Dennis shared today about LOVE...the greatest commandment. We need to learn to LOVE intentionally. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Have you really, really thought about that? Then...after that, LOVE EVERYONE ELSE!!!! My challenge to you (and myself) is to find someone to love this week and Love them with the Love of the Lord! I didn't mean to make this a sermon or soapbox....Bye Now!

What do ya think?

I've been making a few scarves for our church bazaar...keeping 1 or 2 for myself and thinking of gifting a couple. Let me know if you think they are goofy! They are super easy to make and not too expensive! Forgot to rotate the picture..but you get the idea!

These are just some dish cloths...they are my favorite to use.














Some chow-chow I'm cookin up to can.

Bread Recipe...as requested!

This recipe can be used for bread, rolls or cinnamon rolls...it's a tried and true recipe given to me by my Aunt Gail who makes THE BEST cinnamon rolls EVER!!!! She always brings 2 large pans to any family gathering and we've been known to hide a whole pan somewhere just to assure ourselves of one of these delicious rolls...every time I've attempted the cinnamon roll thing, it's never like hers...I'm saddened by this...but I'll keep trying. Anyway. I use my bread machine to mix my dough, yes I'm lazy and I'm ok with it. I half the recipe for my bread as it makes a nice loaf for my family and the whole recipe doesn't fit in my machine. For the garlic side of it...I bake it as usual...as soon as it comes out, I cover the top with butter and garlic powder. Pretty easy huh?



Sweet Bread/Rolls/Cinnamon Rolls



1 1/2 cups water(warm)

2 eggs

1/2 butter or margerine--I'm a butter gal

5 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup dry milk

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp salt

1Tbsp bread machine yeast...or 1 pkg of quick rise yeast.



When I put this in my bread machine...I put all these things in as listed, all wet ingredients on bottom and dry on top...I usually dig a well to put my yeast in. Viola!

Enjoy!

Leanna...I know you'll love it and it really is good with that ravioli stew!!!

Give it a Try!

You guys have motivated me to Post a recipe. This is one of my favorite Fall/Winter soups. It serves a lot so it's great for company.

Ravioli Stew
1# Italian Sausage or ground Beef(it's what's for dinner in my house!)
1 chopped onion
1 jar Ragu Chunky Garden Style(any flavor of your choosing)pasta sauce
1 8oz pkg sliced fresh mushrooms, and 1 large can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes w/Italian seasonings
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 6 oz. can black olives, sliced
2 beef bouillon cubes
2 cups water
1 sm. pkg pepperoni slices
1 25 oz. bag frozen cheese ravioli
Mozzerella cheese(shredded)

Brown your meat and chopped onions in your favorite large soup pot. Drain thoroughly. Mix the rest of the ingredients in, except ravioli and cheese. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and add raviolis. Simmer for 15 mins uncovered or until desired tenderness in raviolis. Serve with shredded mozzerella on top and Enjoy!

I always make a loaf of homemade garlic bread to serve with this. It is great! I hope you guys all enjoy this as much as I have! Also, I use 2# of meat. My beef is in 2# pkgs and my guys like lots of meat!

Rain, Rain Go Away

We are really getting a lot of rain. That peaceful sound tapping on my roof is wonderful. It also makes me want to be at home, baking, taking a nap, reading and doing domestic things! What is it about rain and/or snow that makes a person want to cook something wonderful? Does anyone else have this problem? I'm curious to see what everyone else loves to cook, I'm asking that anyone that reads this to please list 1-2 things that you love to cook. Be prepared...you may be asked to share the recipe! I'm in somewhat of a cooking "rut" so I'm open to new recipes. I made something new last night that JB and I really liked...my boys thought it was awful. Whatever. I'll share it later. Gotta run now. Can't wait to see what everyone else loves to cook!!!

More Pictures

More of the pumpkin patch.














Remember CB's pumpkin creation? It made a perfect Halloween Kitty!




Miss Pearl, the baby Shih-tzu!





















My front porch.























My homemade noodles....drying.

Another Sunday

Miss Piper and her new puppy...Pearl

Piper's Pumpkin was definitely the most trendy!

Mom and her boys...or at least part of one!

CB's creation. I wasn't sure what we would do with it...

Where does a full week go to? That should be the title of my blog since I seem to ask that question about every other post!

Well, here in the Sunflower state the last week flew by...literally, it's been HOT and WINDY here. ICK. Hello...it's October 12th not June 12th. Not often do you go to the Pumpkin Patch in shorts and a tank top and flip flops and still feel Warm. Anyway. We went yesterday. It was sort of a fast trip as we had somewhere to be so we sort of grabbed our punkins, took some pics and vamoosed! I'm sorry to say that the trip to the pumpkin patch was not what I wanted it to be. My boys wanted pumpkins, but they were NOT into taking any pics(another repeat) or just having fun there....you know, taking pics and stuff.(smile) Anyway, I sat down and had one boy on each side and tried...repeat, tried to take a pic of the 3 of us...didn't happen, well not very well anyway. I look so ridiculous...never mind the fact is blowing my wig all over the place and ZB proceeds to be too cool for school.......anyway. I cherish the memories I have taking my boys to the pumpkin patch and them having so much fun and getting the best pics. When we did arrive to our destination....aka my cousin's house we had a ball, her daughter is turning 9 the end of this month and she rec'd an early bday present....baby Shih-tzu....she is an absolute ANIMAL LOVER! So we all got together to surprise her with the dog and....paint some pumpkins! Oh what fun we had. It was good. Lots of pics to share. Great weekend just went to fast as usual!

ZB's creation...pretty cute huh?

Dad and the boys...making a decision or wondering why I have to take pics of Everything!

Sunday

11:30 pm Saturday--Hit the Hay--very late for me
7:00 am Sunday--get rolling-also late for me-have coffee and just get re-grouped for the day
7:30 am Hit the shower
8:10 am Head out for church
12:00pm Sunday dinner at Pizza Hut
12:30pm Finally home, change clothes and think about a nice little nap while watching the Chiefs get throttled.
12:45 pm Head upstairs to watch the game and try to nap...DH and oldest DS are too loud for me.
1:15 pm DH cell phone starts ringing and it's of course UPstairs in our room, I let it ring....
1:25pm DH cell phone starts ringing again and I answer it...someone about cattle
1:30 pm It's IMPOSSIBLE to get a nap
1:35pm Head to the laundry room and start a nice big load.
1:40 pm Getting some iced tea, thinking about how I really wanted to nap for just a little while.
1:50 pm My poor football team is pathetic
2:00 pm Decide I can't watch the Chiefs...too sickening.
2:15 pm Head out to start mowing the yard
3:00 pm Finish mowing, need a big drink of iced tea
3:10 pm Fire up the weed eater and get moving
3:30 pm Finish weedeating--now I'm officially filthy and itchy
3:40 pm Another iced tea break(darn pizza makes me thirsty) I can hardly lift my right arm, it's got a case of the shakes from holding that darn weedeater!
3:50pm Decide to start pulling flowers, trimming the dead ones, watering, etc and as I go into the garage I decide it needs to be cleaned out.
4:00pm Garage can wait a bit...I've got apples all over the ground and a few left on the tree...
4:20 pm 2 1/2 five gallon buckets of apples sitting on the patio--I proceed to take some to my neighbor.
4:30 pm Head back to the garage project...ever since we sold our boat, I've had this "PILE" of stuff in the garage and you can hardly walk thru there. So I got some trash bags and started bagging up stuff, life jackets, etc to move out to the shed. Skis, knee boards, wake boards, bouys, etc etc...
5:00pm Well, now I can see the garage floor, it must be swept! Stuff thrown away, oh I feel better about all that!
5:30 pm Head to the kitchen to begin supper....whip up some corn bread, start warming left over potato soup and I have about 30# of green tomatoes in my kitchen that a friend gave me and I have not yet had time to grind them up for chow-chow. So I decide I'll fry a few with supper.
6:30 pm Supper is over, everyone needs haircuts in our house...DH heads back to the garage to set up for that. I put MY dishes in the dishwasher and head down. 1,2,3 haircuts out of the way.
7:00 pm Sweep my garage AGAIN! Oh yea, that load of laundry I started...just now getting into the dryer.
7:30 pm Supper mess is finally cleaned up...and......I start peeling apples for apple butter. Thank goodness for the Pampered Chef, Apple Peeler, Corer, slicer....wow!
8:30 pm Apples in crock pots, mess cleaned up, boys showered, headed to bed....they were tired and crabby.
8:45 pm I got into the shower...it was so nice!
9:00 pm I sat down and worked on a scarf I'm crocheting.
9:30 pm I decided I wanted to read, headed to bed....aaahhhh to lay down!
10 pm I crashed!

Now I listed all of this...not to sound like "I'm so busy" I was busy but it was a very productive day in our household. The guys all did stuff too....I love those kind of days when you get a lot done and....there's a little something to show for it! My goal is for this week to be as productive as my Sunday was!

I don't think I've ever shared my LOVE for Pampered Chef. I have a lot of things that I've acquired over the last 12 yrs or so and I LOVE THEM ALL! I refuse to bake anything unless it's in my stoneware. It is the Best! If you have never tried it...I recommend their stuff. Now some of it, I would NEVER use...but the day to day stuff that I have purchased...I would replace if something happened to it! There's your tidbit for the day!
Have a good one!