Pie day!

Yesterday we were off to produce. Dad had time off so he stayed home with 1/2 the kids while I took 2 and my grand baby off to produce, Walmart and the grocery store. We had lots of wonderful produce to sort through. Everything but the eggs that I needed came in. I ordered 6 doz. but only 4 came in. I wasn't even sure that 6 was enough. So I make a quick stop by the grocery store for eggs and a few other things I thought of that I could use.

Yesterday evening we chopped the onions and celery for the dressing. Since I had the privilege of baby sitting I even let him get in the act!

Today we do two main things Tortilla roll ups and pies. MJ was in charge of measuring and mixing the tortilla roll up stuff. Lots of onions and peppers to chop.

As they are rolling them there is lots of chatter on who gets the messed up pieces. Everyone wants some!

Pies are 1/2 made. I still lack the fruit pies. Kids have had a great learning day measuring and rolling out pie dough. Rolling out pie crust is a challenge. I loved it when J made the mistake of bragging about how "good" she was getting at it, only to have the next pie crust stick and refuse to do anything. She had to start it over. I did point out that Pride goes before a fall.

Pies in the oven, 3 chess, 2 pecan and one pecan less pecan.

Even Dad gets into the act of checking pies.

Don't you love this "flower"? MN was breaking eggs and made such a beautiful flower she wanted to show it off.

I have 3 cherry pies left to put in the oven. Then we will be done with pies. Our pie count is:

3 cherry

3 apple

3 chess

2 coconut

3 pumpkin

2 pecan

1 pecan less (pecan recipe without pecans. This is what my mom use to make for my dh every year. He doesn't like pecan, but likes the filling.

Left to do today is cook my sweet potatoes. Put them in dishes for tomorrow.

I had to edit this to show off my red neck pie safe. This holds about 10 pies. I have plates between them.

Monday, counting down to T-Day

Today I did..........hummmmm I am sure I did something to get ready for Thanksgiving. I did grind my wheat to make pie dough. I am using soft white for my pie dough. We will see. I use prairie gold for all my other stuff.

We did do some extra cleaning. Not much, just some of our treasured piles got unpiled. What you see is pretty much the way it is. Like it or not!

Oh, I thought of another family to invite. They have 8+ kids. I hope they get to come. They haven't made plans so maybe.

I did laugh at J over inviting a family of 10 or so. She was like, "will we have enough food?" I died laughing. I have a 25 lb turkey, a 20 lb turkey, and an 18 lb ham. I make my dressing in the same container you saw I used for trash. I will use a about a gallon of milk for my giblet gravy. The fruit salad bowl is my largest bread making bowl. Think at least 18 inches across and 10 deep. Pie count is about 12-15. This isn't counting what ever others bring. Oh forgot the sweet potatoes! Two kinds! Just butter and one that is really messed up with all that marshmallow "stuff" on top.

Tomorrow I have produce to go get and my dh should be home. I may split the kids with him. Leaving some to help him here and some to help us sort produce. We both have list that need doing. I also need to put a note on one jar of milk do not shake! I need the cream to make chess pies.

I will try and get pictures of Thanksgiving day progress as we have some.

What I am doing instead of getting ready for Church...

Yesterday we got a new dinning table! Yea! This is our old table.When it was a circle it was a good sturdy table, but add 3 leaves so we could all fit under it like this and it was much like setting at a see-saw. I have been looking for a couple of months for the "perfect" table at my low end garage sale price. We found this solid oak table and 6 solid oak chairs in the paper. It was over what I wanted to pay, but it is also a very very well built table and chairs. I was excited because it had 2 huge leaves. Making the table 9 ft. I can use the 9 ft table, but not and cook at the same time in the kitchen. One less leaf allows me to have 8 chairs under the table and room to move around the kitchen.

I did splurge and buy material for a table cloth and a new plastic cover to go over my material. I had wanted to use something fall like, but didn't find any that floated my boat. I did find John Deere that I loved! What do you think of the finished product?

Now on to what I am doing today. I decided to take the camera as I went to do chores. I am getting quite a few lambs. They are so cute. Here are a few pictures of them. Yes, they are just as soft as they look. If you look at the spots you will see that they are all different lambs. I have lost count of how many now 10-12. Most are spotted, I think 3 are white and one is white with a black head.

After I fed my sheep I went to the barn to milk. Is this a bunch of beggars or what? All but one cow is a milk cow. Most are not being milked right now. The blond one is due soon. The others have orphan calves on them. The horned one is our one and only beef cow we have left. The donkey isn't sure if she is a cow or donkey.

This is the one milk cow I am milking. How is this for milking the lazy way? She isn't giving a lot of milk. She is giving about a gallon a day plus 2 coke bottles for the bottle babies. It is keeping us in milk and sorta keeping a friends little ones in milk part of the time.

Now I saved the cutest for last. Tell me doesn't this sleeping armed baby look just like is dad? Don't you love it? He is crazy about guns already. He knows exactly what sound a gun makes.

Trash!

Party Mix

1 box Cheerios

1 box Rice Checks

1 box Wheat Checks

1 box Corn Check

sack of Pretzel
sack of Frito's

Nuts

Dump all the above into a HUGE oven safe pan.

Combine the following:

¼ lb. butter

1 c. bacon drippings (Palm Oil)

5T.tabasco sauce

2T. savory salt

1T garlic or powder

5T. worcester sauce

Pour over the dry ingredients stir.
cook at 250* for 2 ½ hours stir about every 15 or 20 min.

If you look at mine and wonder how I managed to stir it look at the color of my pans. I would dump half into the other big pan stir both and dump the rest in the cool pan. Cook 15 minutes and repeat. Cook until everything is crunchy. It takes at least 2 hours. Everyone likes something different. I like the pecans and Frito's best.

Share and Enjoy!

Thursday!

Joy joy Thursday has arrived! Our high today is 56 which is better than the 53 they say for tomorrow. I know some of you have snow on the ground so you have no sympathy for me. :) This to shall pass! We are getting so dry that I wouldn't fuss much if it would just rain, even a cold rain.

Yesterday went in a blur. It seems most of my days go that way. I didn't make tortillas. I had planned on it. But, it seems my dishwasher of the day decided to see how long she could drag out dishes. The winning number was about 3-4 HOURS. I went to start them only to find my mixing bowl still dirty. Maybe tomorrow. For those that want the recipe it is on my recipe page. http://pub43.bravenet.com/forum/3635605761

I also added some more Thanksgiving recipes. I think I now have most if not all my Thanksgiving recipes on there. So many things I don't have recipes for. I just make. Like dressing, giblet gravy and fruit salad. Those I just add and put and taste and add some more.

Wednesday... I think!

This morning when I got up and looked outside. This is what I saw.
Isn't she cute in the stroller? I wonder how long she will fit? She was quite happy there this morning.

This morning kids were eating breakfast as I went to feed sheep and check on them without 2 legged help. Not without help though! These were my co-pilots. What makes this funny is RC, the black dog is a grump. He doesn't want any of the other dogs to near, much less touching. Yet he is OK with Rosie riding there even putting her feet on him. Silly dog!

As I started out to check sheep I remembered my camera. So I got this picture of one of the little lambs. He was napping and mama walked off from him. Don't you love his droopy ears?

Yesterday I made tortillas. I used 7 cups of flour. Last night there was ONE tortilla left. It has been suggested I make more today. Maybe I need to "suggest" they make more. They were good. I managed to roll them out extremely thin. They gobbled them like hot cakes!

Tomorrow is town and therapy day. I have this huge grocery list. I am not looking fwd to it, but it is only once a year right? I need to break it down to a "Sam's list" and a Grocery store list. Add library to the list for tomorrow and it will be a full day.

Then I got an email from J's case worker. "Sorry for getting in touch with you so late. I am going to have to visit with J. Are you going to be in town any time this month? Thank you" Remember the mess last month? Remember she assured me she wouldn't wait until the last minute? :) Oh well, I know they are busy. I really would rather come into town than stress MN out with a visit from CPS here. She is going to meet us at therapy. That will make my life much easier.

Kids are learning to make breakfast omelets. They are getting good at them. They either share or make their own. Adding all the stuff they each want. I am trying hard to give them more freedom in the kitchen. :)

This morning I was thinking as I plotted out my day tomorrow about how much they will all be learning as we make the list and shop for all the ingredients to cook Thanksgiving Dinner. How important is this life lesson? Not only the organizational lesson but the giving lesson as we invite people, some we don't even know to join us. They are all open and looking for anyone they can invite that will be spending Thanksgiving alone. My SIL called yesterday to make sure it is OK to bring a single mom and her 3 kids. I laughed and said bring more! I keep looking for anyone God wants me to invite that I haven't.

I guess I better round up my library books. I need to get them in the car. I also need a couple of ice chest for tomorrow. Most of what I am buying isn't cold stuff, but a little is. I just hope that my produce order comes in with all that I ordered there. Other wise I will be scrambling to get stuff Tue. At least I will be have most of it.

Time flies...

When your a mom. Is that the way this saying goes? I'm not sure where Monday went. I took MN to the hwy about 8. Came home and got chores done. Since girls had chosen to not respect me the night before when it was announced I was going to bed to please read/draw or do something else QUIT so I could go to sleep I had to come up with a creative consequence. About the time I dozed off they woke me up arguing. Consequence? I taped the light switch down and removed all the bulbs from their reading lights. Last night there was very little talking after bedtime.

In doing this I again discovered that they had carpeted the upstairs in clothes. No matter how much I want to I just can't allow them lots of clothes. It just makes for a lumpy carpet. I had the two offenders that were home trash sack all the "stuff" on the floor. Games, clothes toys, clothes, clothes, trash, clothes, clothes and more clothes. They are all down stairs waiting to be wash sorted and given away. If they want any of them they will have to buy them back.

T was mad at J over it. She said "Your lucky! Mom didn't take any of your stuff!" Hummmm was any of her stuff on the floor? "No" LOL she couldn't explain how luck played a part in J taking care of her stuff and not throwing it on the floor. I guess we will go back to having very very few clothes for each of them. I love finding cute things at second hand stores for them. Won't be happening for a long time again.

I had to beat my DIL to posting this picture. This is what happens when some one misses his morning nap. She decided to feed him before she put him down for a nap since he was starting to get a little fuss and it was lunch time. I really don't think he had 2 bites before she looked over at him and saw this. He didn't even fuss when she took him out of the high chair and put him to bed.

This is Rosie and MN taking a ranger ride. It is kind of hard to tell but Rosie has her head resting on MN's. This is her favorite way to ride. Either with he head on some ones shoulder or if they are short the top of their head.

This is our only bottle baby lamb for now. She is about 2 weeks old. She is just as soft and lovable as she looks here. MN was trying to get her to look at me and stop nibbling on her chin. :) She thinks if you are near you should have a bottle for her.

This is a just because I was playing picture. I thought it was kinda pretty.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Different Day...

The play day didn't happen for us. Dh woke me up about midnight with chills. Yuck! He didn't start tossing his cookies until this morning, but he has been a sick puppy all day. Kids and I talked about going without him. I didn't really want to, but didn't want them to miss. We decided our friend probably wouldn't want us there with DH sick. So they were OK with staying home. To make the day more fun I made bubbles for them to play with. This was simple, easy and fun.

I also ask each of them to share three of their favorite recipes that I cook. If someone had already shared a recipe then they had to think of a different one. With 4 kids it got hard to come up with one that hadn't already been requested.

I then dug out the requested recipes and typed them all on the computer. After I did that I used my smilebox to make recipe cards of each recipe. They then cut them out. This was to be the start of their personal cookbook. They loved the idea. Soon they were requesting LOTS more. I then let each one of them type out the recipes they wanted on the computer to add to my growing recipe file. After they had exhausted their fingers or my personal cook book I printed them all off. I think they have them all cut out now. Next time we go to town I want to look for picture albums that are 4x6 to hold all their recipes. They have a bunch! They are also talking about which other ones they want to add.

I will be adding more of these recipes to my recipe pages as I have time and energy. Of course they are in no order in the file I have. :) So I will try to organize them as I put them on the web page. I added a few today.

I am hopeful that DH is on the mend. He is keeping coke down or has managed to for a couple of hours now. That is an improvement. He does still feel like he is running a fever. I am praying tomorrow will be a better day for him.

Friday!

Yesterday was a great day, for me any way. I think I may have finally gotten my point across on getting up in a timely manor. I have children that don't think being up and dressed by 8 AM is important. We have ask and ask and talked and talked about how learning to be responsible is important as they get older. Still can they make it down stairs ready for the day by 8, HA!

Yesterday was no exception. So instead of getting mad/frustrated/crazy I smiled. Did their part of the chores and as they strung out to the barn to "help" I questioned each one on what time they needed to be ready for the day. They all knew the correct time. So then I pointed out they were making a choice to not do that. When you make choices you have to be willing to accept the consequences of that choice. Nuff said! I finished what I was doing. Wouldn't to further in discussing it. When I get back to the house they all want to "do their consequences now." Not happening!

I baked bread, showered and got read to go ............ somewhere. Part of them finished school, part didn't. Part did their chores, part didn't. They knew mom had plans, but not what those plans were. DIL knows but like me is mum. We all load up and off we go. They are still in the dark.

When we get about 5 miles from my friends I ask them what does the Bible say about how much a thief should pay back with they steal? After a moment some one says 7 times. :) So I then ask them if they "stole" my free time by making me do their part of chores? Hummmm seems they could see that. So I ask how late they were coming down? Answers ranged from 15-30 minutes. So I had them take the 15 minutes times 7 and see how long they each needed to set. By then we had pulled up in the drive of our friends house.

I did have one child foot loose and fancy free. She had gotten up and helped. So she scampered off to play. I had to laugh as I placed the other three around my friends table. She had three setting at the bar finishing school work so they too could play.

I didn't make them set the whole 105 minutes, but I am sure it seemed like HOURS to them. MN did earn the right to set the whole time since her school work wasn't done.

I guess it did make an impression on them. That or the fact that mom announced if they want to continue playing the push mom on getting up game she is now ready to play! The consequences will only get more creative! Bring it on! I had two girls up before 6 this morning and dressed!

Now the down side of that is that they want to chat during my time of a morning. But I am sure we will find a balance if it continues for many days.

After our great afternoon of visiting we came home and I checked sheep, separated my cows and fixed supper. I cooked the last two packages of steak I could find. :( I did announce to everyone no more steak until the beef is done. He is ready to go to the processor. I just need the trailer unloaded (DIL and son's garage sale rejects.) and backed up to the pen so I can feed him in it a few days and make loading him much easier and less stressful on me.

Today is produce! Yea! I really need to up my produce order somehow. I can't seem to order enough fruit. We have been out almost a week again. I did cook the last of the potatoes night before last. Last of the squash last night. I need to print out what I order and double it in some areas I guess. Apples go first around here, then the oranges. If I get soft fruit they are gone over the weekend. Strawberries or any kind of berry for sure. I keep adding to the apple order, but they still eat them all! Each two week period I hear from a week to 4 days worth of "We're out of fruit. I wish we had some fruit." We are going to do produce back to back for Thanksgiving so I will get to order two weeks in a row.

Guess that is along enough ramble for today. All be blessed!

Joyful Spirit and other Child ramblings...

My daughter in love is working hard to teach grand son to have a joyful spirit. He falls in a heap because he doesn't get his way and quickly and sweetly finds himself setting in a chair until he finds his joyful spirit. It seldom takes him very long to find his joyful spirit. He is a delight to be around. I laugh because he ha

s started appealing to a higher court. If he gets in trouble with me then he goes quickly to mama crying the whole way. The other day he was in grand dad's stuff. He knows that is off limits. I happened to be the one that found him. After a pop on the hand and removing him from UNDER the desk off he went to tattle on me. Mommy was most sympathetic..... not! She and his other grand mother did get a good laugh at his appeal since she was talking to her mom.

This is the latest picture of him. He is doing the fussy baby bit. Not wanting to be held, not wanting to play. He does seem to take great pleasure in being passed between all that tote him around today. I have a feeling he is cutting more teeth the way he keeps holding his mouth. At the moment he is being ergoed around by mommy. He is happy as a clam for the moment.

Since the ergo had such a wonderful effect on him do you think it would help this less than joyful spirit?

I don't send children to their rooms for long term. I don't ground to their rooms. Face it there are just to many "fun" things in them. I ground to the chair in the center of the living room. Yes, this child who really isn't named "Mark" as her shirt implies, (garage sale special) has lost her joyful spirit and is indeed searching for it, or should be anyway. If anyone finds it please ship it to me ASAP. She and I would both appreciate it.

She seems to have lost it yesterday and hasn't recovered it yet. She decided to start the day off being tacky to J. Didn't fly with mom. She and MJ both had to spend some time upstairs. They assured me they had lost the ugly spirit. Maybe MJ has. MN then decided to draw goat pictures instead of work on her school work. My thinking is if she isn't going to WORK on school she doesn't need to be setting at the computer, where she was using her school time to draw. As the picture shows she isn't happy.

Can she go back to working on school? Sure! She is going to have to speak truth to me about what is going on. We are going to have to have a nice long talk, probably in the swing. She did try earlier, but she forgot the main ingredient, speaking truth. Setting on the porch swinging is much more fun than growing roots in the middle of the living room floor. She tried to skirt the issues and enjoy swinging and not answer. Didn't fly well with mom.

To top off this bad attitude tomorrow we are going to spend the afternoon at a friends. No, they don't know. I see no reason to use carrots to finish school work. It needs to be done because it is their responsibility. Those that have it done will play. Those that don't won't. I may even copy off LOTS of pages of basic review for anyone that needs to keep their hands and mind busy. I am pretty sure that MN won't be playing. She didn't finish yesterdays school because of attitude and hasn't done much/any of it or today's. Oh well, her choice.

I did bake a batch of granola bars for tomorrow. Instead of adding chocolate chips I added craisins, raisins and almonds. They look really good. I will have much less trouble staying out of them with the raisins than chocolate chips. I am thinking about making some no bake oat meal cookies, but may talk me out of it. I would like to take more than one pan of granola bars. Way to many kids for that. Maybe I will do bread in the morning. I will add cinnamon and butter and sugar to it and roll it to cook. That is always a treat and would be easy.

Quite Ramble

School is in full swing this morning. The house is quite. At least our version of quite. It is never quite. I set here and listen to one child mumble under her breath as she does mouth. The click click click of several keyboards added to the squeak of chairs is about as quite as it gets.

One child is upstairs reconsidering the tone she decided to address mom in. She hasn't decided to find a joyful attitude and a respectful tone. Until she does she can stew upstairs. It is her time she is wasting.

I had to laugh a few minutes ago. In our quite house the deep sigh of the grand baby made both MJ and I turn to check on him. How blessed and loved he is!

How sweet is this picture? I had to snap it to go with this post.

This morning my day started with a couple of hams. Don't you think both of these look like hams?

Don't you wish every one woke up with such smiles? They were wound up to start the day. Maybe that is why I hear such deep sighs from the play pen. He was exhausted from such a busy morning playing with is Aunt T before she had to stop playing and do school. He really doesn't like it when she is required to do school or chores. She is his personal play toy.

OK back to our regularly scheduled day! Everyone have blessed afternoon.

Drip Drip Drip and other rambles

Rosie


It seems I have been busy dealing with kids. Nothing bad, just drip drip drip. Lets see, T decided to "share" her chips Thursday with her brother and sisters. She was so kind she put them UNDER each ones pillow. These were those really nasty Cheetos type that turn every thing they touch orange. She got the privilege of washing everyone's bedding the next day. She decided it wasn't worth waiting until they were dry. She would just make beds with... damp bedding. Didn't fly! The good news is it was noticed before bed time. So she again had to strip a bed and re hang stuff on the line.

MJ spent his week avoiding ALL his chores. Come Sat. and Dad had him do his WHOLE chore list. This took most of the day. Yesterday he did his few chores without fussing.

Then Sunday morning I had 3 children that decided they didn't need to get up and help get ready for church. They were still "upstairs" at 8:30. I was not a happy camper when I went to do chores and saw them watching from the windows. By the time I got through with chore and I had simmered to a fine boil. Came in only to find dad beat me to the punch. He was chewing all three out. I just joined in!

That brings the dripping to Monday. Monday miss J got up came to the couch and parked. She was "reading". Didn't get dressed, didn't help set stuff up. Did finally get dressed way after the time she was suppose to. Didn't go to the barn. Was waiting on mom to explode. I had to take MN to the hwy. I fussed at her quietly all the way there and back. She still was not admitting she was pushing mom's buttons. I don't check the work all time on the computer. I allow God to lead me. Drives kids nuts. Monday I was let to check J's school. BUSTED!!!!!! 17 behind! This is lessons/test/quizzes total. This is NOT counting what she had to do yesterday. We spent about an hour on the swing talking. Good news is she was able to voice a lot with me. Including how hurt and angry she is at bio mom. She has never before put that into words. She has been told she shouldn't be mad at her. Why??? I have no clue! But in talking she seemed to have worked out what ever it was. She sat down about 11 at her computer and worked until 7 pm. She got them all done! Including yesterdays. She now has to show me before she shuts the computer down she finished.

Yesterday we had a 40% chance of rain. We are really dry. We prayed all day it would rain. It didn't. It built just east of us and moved east. Oh well, maybe next time. Then about 2 AM we woke to boooooooom! Hummm rain? Yep! DIL and grand baby scrambled over here just as it started. I didn't even hear them come in until I heard the chatter of the grand baby this morning about 6. It came 2 different little thunder storms. All total we had abut 1/2 an inch. This is the first since the last of Aug. Chores will be nice and muddy. YEA!!!

I will be checking this morning to see if I had anymore lambs born last night. They seem to like stormy nights to be born. My lamb count is up to 7. Three sets of twins and one single. They are so cute. One set is funny and you would never think of them as twins. One has the wool sheep look, tight mat of curly wool the other looks totally hair sheep, straight soft hair. They are black and white spotted. I have one white set, the spotted set, the other set one is white, the other is white with a black head. The single is spotted.

Yesterday Rosie gave me a chuckle. She was barking like crazy at the end of the porch. I went to see what she had. She usually does have something when she barks. It may be a paper sack, but it is strange to her! When she saw me she ran to me and back to the edge of the porch. At that point I thought it was the laundry on the line. I kept walking and she kept barking. The hair on her back was standing straight up, mean dog! I got to the edge and looked down the side of the house. She had "found" 4 male peacocks strutting their stuff. I'm sure they were also rattling their feathers along with the full fanned tail. Now granted they don't have much to fan yet, but still 4 of those monsters! I reassured her it was OK and we kept walking she was in front of me most of the time. Still on full alert growling at them. She finally got close enough they gave it up and hopped the fence. Oh such a proud dog! I did tell her how proud I was of her. I do want her to alert on anything strange. I also didn't laugh in her face! I waited until I was in the house.

I guess this pretty well catches up what has been going on around here. Life as usual. Nothing exciting or note worthy. Hope everyone has a blessed day! Leave me a note along so I feel like I am sharing not just journaling for myself.

Thursday~Town Day

Never my idea of fun! We are off to a long day of town. I have a list. We have therapy this afternoon, but before that groceries and other stops to make. I know I will drag home exhausted about 7 pm tonight. I am thinking of being really bad and doing fast food on the way home. Much easier than getting home and then doing supper and still trying to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

I wanted to share this picture.

I just took this setting at my computer. That is my view this morning! Rosie has decided she is half cat. I have my wheat order neatly stacked outside this window. It is 5 gallon buckets of wheat, 2 high. With one row of one high for the step to help her get up here. She isn't begging to come in. She is being a cat. Getting some place high and looking around and sleeping. I had to tap on the glass to get her attention for the picture. This is where I found her when I went out about 6 to check on her. She has since gotten up and down a dozen times. Now I wonder if the window was open if she would be wanting in?

When T got up she had to go love on Rosie. So blanket and child in night clothes when out the door with no shoes on to cuddle the dog. It was about 45 degrees. She came in once to "warm up" and back she went. Finally she decided to go put clothes on.

I guess the time has come for me to start my day. I hear kids but have only saw one. I will get busy and maybe they will catch the drift and come join me. Cow to milk, baby goat to feed and beef to feed outside. Then put milk up. Package milk to take to a friend. Get list for town and every one change into town clothes. I hope to be on the road by 9:30. I am probably dreaming, but hey it is worth a try.

Kids are getting excited about Thanksgiving. They keep thinking of others to invite. They also keep saying, "I can't wait until Thanksgiving!" :) Bet they can! I know of about 4-5 that are planning on coming. Yea! We need a lot more or cold weather so I can use the BBQ grill as a refrigerator until we eat the leftovers down enough to fit in my 2 frigs in the house. As you can tell I am not a bit excited about Thanksgiving! I do keep thinking I am forgetting to invite some one I want to. I hope if I am they will call and ask if I am doing Thanksgiving.

What we are doing this afternoon....

Chewy Granola Bars

1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
3/4 cup honey
2 tbl. hot water (opt.)
2 tsp. vanilla
mix all these together in bowl
2 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 tbl. sesame seeds
1 cup chocolate chips or carob chips
1/2 cup nuts, dried fruit, seeds whatever you like ( I put in flaxseeds and pumpkin seeds)mix all these together in large bowl
then mix both bowls together and stir well Press into greased 9x13 pan 350 for 15-20 min.
Cut into bars while semi-warm and let cool completely beforeremoving from pan
Approx. 24 bars

Come join us for coffee and a treat! Should be ready in 20 minutes.

Productive Day

After a real dry spell of swinging I did lots of swinging today. Not anything serious. Just little things that if I can catch them little won't be big. MJ got up with an attitude about the girls but mainly J. I finally sat him down and he could set until he could tell me what was going on. He ask after about 30 minutes if he could tell me on the swing. Seems he was "mad" at J because she shares more stuff with MN than with him. I really think it all boils down to him wanting to have his nose in every one's business and the girls don't put up with it, especially J. I wasn't overly sympathetic to him. Girls were even less. Like they say when they include him then he doesn't want to hear it or he stares off into space and doesn't listen so, "Why should we tell him?" Hummm good question.

Then J and I talked about stuff from her past. We have agreed to allow LIMITED contact with her bio's. I set some very straight fwd guide lines. By mail and no pressure to do anything. J wrote her and got a reply. I read the reply before I gave it to her. It was all about what she wanted J to do. NOT acceptable. She did include some pictures and a halloween card. I gave those to J and was honest about why no letter. J looks at me and says, "Thank you for setting boundaries for her." Not the answer I had expected. J wasn't surprised. In fact as we talked she pretty much told me what was in the letter. Seems this is normal. All about what "mommie" wants done, nothing realistic or considering what J needs are even wants. J wanted to hear how her grandmother who is in a nursing home is doing. Not one word about her. I also told J there was nothing about her grandmother. It hurts my heart for her. We talked a while and J admitted she is sad and mad and disappointed in bio mom. Over all J handled it very mature. I was proud of her.

Then it was MN's time to swing. Why? Maybe because others had? Just some little things that were bothering her. After we talked MJ said he wanted to swing again, but was busy with school work and said maybe later. I hope he decides before it cools off.

In other news girls are making flat bread for pizza for supper. I mixed it up and then we all made balls and once it was ready to roll the three girls are doing it. NOT without some bickering, but not to much. :) Normal sister type stuff.

Once that is done we will cook the hamburger meat. I'm not sure what I will put in it besides some garlic and onion. I may sneak fennel seed in to give it an "Italian" flavor. I am to lazy to make sauce from scratch so I will use some spaghetti sauce for the sauce then every one will add what they want to their pizza.

Lots of singing and giggling and such coming from the kitchen. I love it when we have days like this. Days that are "good". Not melting down or running scared making bad choices trying to see if we really are committed and do love them. These are the days that make those days worth while. "Normal" days!

Why is it I have accomplished very little that you can see yet I feel it has been a full and busy day? A day that is filled with God's peace. I love it when the kids aren't so draining. At times that is so consuming and exhausting. I never know if it is me or if it is them. Am I out of balance or just over my head. Usually after much prayer and some down time I find a new balance and can deal with what ever they throw at me. I know that is getting me back in balance with listening to God, even when I didn't know I wasn't.

Blessed Tue.

Today I plan on spending a lot of time in prayer for our nation. I have been praying already. I have to walk in faith that no matter who wins God is still supreme and in control. My faith has to be in Him, not in what I see.

Jan ask me about Grandmothers dip. It is easy to make. Not good for you and yummy! This is the original way my mom made it. I will then share how over the years I have changed it.

Dip
1 lb ground beef
1 lb sausage
1 onion
1 bx 2# velveta cheese
1 can Rotel
Fry meat add finely chopped onion, cheese and rotel. Heat until cheese is melted and mixed well.

My mom use to make this the day before Thanksgiving. Then we would snack on this for breakfast. It is good with chips or spread on bread and toasted. Kids beg for it several times a year.

Here is how I have changed it over the years.

First I double everything. I use 2 lbs of hamburger and 2 of sausage. I like the hot breakfast sausage for it. Then I got lazy and buy a can of nacho cheese instead of the velveta. I never buy rotel. That stuff is expensive! I can toss tomatoes, onions and peppers in the vita mix and have the same thing at a fraction of the cost. Besides I can control the hot. We use it as a dip, and pour it on chips for nachos. For Thanksgiving I keep it warm in a crock pot.

Hope someone enjoys it!

Thanksgiving!

Invitations are sent! Well the people I could think of to send to. We will all be inviting up until that day! I thought I would share our menu and my to do list.


Thanksgiving
Menu

Turkey
Ham
Giblet Gravy
Dressing
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet potatoes with and without marshmallows
Fruit Salad
Pies: Pecan, Cherry, Chess, Pumpkin
Grandmothers Dip
Tortilla Roll-ups

Grocery List
Turkey
Eggs
Giblets
Celery
Onions
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potatoes
Marsh mellows
Fruit
Pumpkin
Sour Cream
Cream Cheese
Pimentos
Big Tortillas
Cool Whip


Do Ahead
Biscuits
Cornbread

Monday
Cranberry sauce in Ice box
Cook Pumpkins

Tuesday
Crumble bread
Thaw Turkey
Thaw Ham
Chop onions
Chop Celery

Wednesday
Make pies
Cook Sweet potatoes
Dip
tortilla Roll-ups
boil eggs
slice eggs
Wednesday Night
Cook Turkey
Cook Ham

Thursday
Slice turkey & ham
Make dressing
Make gravy
Heat Sweet Potatoes
Fruit Salad
cook giblets
slice giblets
Bread

We have Thanksgiving dinner about 1 pm. This allows every one that is traveling to make it home before it is to late. I have no clue how many will show up. Not enough I am sure! I will have way to many leftovers.

Anyone want any recipes? I will try to post any that are requested, IF there is a recipe!

Anyone want a place to come for Thanksgiving?

Meet Rosie

Yep, we did it. We got a new mountain cur puppy. She is 13 weeks old. Very socialized. I was much impressed with mama and daddy too. They are working dogs, not lap dogs. They are hog dogs. That takes grit and fight. Yet they were not aggressive to us. They were in their pens, but they weren't hanging on the fence trying to rip arms off. Her 1/2 sister sat and begged to come play. She is almost a year old so they are friendly.

We got home late yesterday evening. Kids played until dark with her. Then I had a kid out side at daylight playing some more. Last night Rosie treed a cat. Oh the barking! This morning cat educated her. Yep, right on the soft leathery part of her nose. They will come to an understanding of what cats are allowed in the yard and stray cats are fair game.

I am trying hard to let her be a the kids dog. Meaning I don't mess with her much. I don't seek her out to pet. This morning I sat down on the steps with my coffee. She really wanted to share. I loved on her kids loved on her. Then one of the other dogs came up the steps. Grrrrrrrr came the rumble from deep in her throat. Hummm this dog wasn't quite sure what to do. He just stopped and looked at her. Then got distracted back into the yard. A little later my dog RC came up behind me. Again Grrrrrrrrrrr only louder since RC wasn't impressed. Teeth and curled lip next. RC still wasn't impressed. I am trying hard not to laugh as I pet RC on one side and Rosie on the other. She finally turned totally facing him and I seriously think had plans to jump his bones over the top of me. I scolded her and made her stop. I think she is going to be protective, which is what I want. Just have to find the balance of obeying and protecting.

Something I find interesting is yesterday MN was checking to see if she had the bump on top of her head like Sam. His was very noticeable. Why he had it I don't know. She had a tiny one you could sorta feel it. This morning I was petting her and Wow! the bump is there! I know that sounds strange. I showed MN and she agreed it wasn't like that yesterday. I hope this helps MN bond to her more. Of all the kids she is the one standing off the most on accepting a new puppy. She had the hardest time loosing Sam too.

When you read her good bye to Sam and understand this child didn't know how to love 3 years ago it helps you understand how she has grown and changed and how the attachment to Sam was so important and healing to her emotional health. Now she has the ability to love and attach. She just isn't sure she wants to right now. I so totally get that. Loosing a pet is hard. Loving another pet is an act of faith.

Saturday

Since kids had all their school work done early on Thursday we made cookies. I helped them mix in the kitchen aid and over saw the measuring. We started out with everyone having to re-write the recipe doubling the ingredients. Then I left them to cook the cookies with just enough overseeing to not burn the cookies to much.

Yesterday was a very productive day. We accomplished a lot. It was produce day so we were off, not as early as we should have been to help sort produce. No great deals or wonderful buys. We did get some yummy apples. They are sweet and tart and crunch.

After that a quick stop at the grocery store for cream cheese to make a very late birthday cake. I had all the stuff to make it, but discovered that they put the cream cheese on the shelf with the other ingredients. Maybe this afternoon we will get it made. It is a cherry cheese cake. It is made the quick and lazy way with instant pudding and can cherry pie filling. Still it is yummy.

Kids also got a reminder mom doesn't like to be manipulated. T put J up to asking, "They were wondering if we could have a snack?" Even "I" was wondering would have went over better. This was in the grocery store. They had just taken fried chicken out of the fryer and mmmm it smelled so good. I was going to be really bad and buy some to eat on the way home. Didn't happen! We had fruit when we got home. T and J both new better. J tried to blame T. I pointed out that J has a wonderful brain God gave her, use it! I also pointed out that T didn't even try it with the other two as she knew they wouldn't do her dirty work. Mean mean mom!

We came home and kids just played around. I snapped this picture of MJ being a boy.

The gun is a play gun and his "ammo belt" is a chain off of some piece of machinery from days gone by. He looks dangerous doesn't he? :)

We also got our gin trash to feed the livestock yesterday. Kids couldn't wait to play on it.

I'm really not sure who had more fun the goats or the kids. I had to call them in just before dark. To say they were dirty wouldn't even come close! It is fun!

I now have a new favorite picture of my oldest daughter. Isn't this a wonderful picture? Doesn't she look happy?

Plans for today? I get to baby sit! At least a little while. DIL is helping with a garage sale. Daddy is off deer hunting. Today is the first day of deer season. I am sure he will return with a deer. Mean while I get to have the grand baby until such time as daddy is through hunting. After that we may go look at some mountain cur puppies. I really want the kids to have a dog that is bonded to them. We will see if this pup is the right one. Mountain Curs are hard to find in our area. They are more popular east of us. So finding one in driving distance was an accomplishment.

I also hope to work in the garden some this weekend. I would like to get it planted. DH needs to work on his back hoe, but can use the bucket to bring some old cotton seed trash down to mix in with the soil before we plant. Then he is taking a fitting off the hydraulics that leaks to get it replaced.

Sounds like we will have a busy day/weekend. Hope everyone else has a great weekend. I think I will get off here and go make biscuits and gravy for breakfast. I need to start stock piling biscuits for dressing next month. Stock piling them means grabbing them and putting them in the freezer as soon as a meal is done. If I wait there is none to stock pile.