Mushrooms Everywhere

Today was a day we do not see much around here... sunny and clear. I went outside for a while, picked up some branches from our recent storms and spied some beautiful mushrooms. I ran in the house to get my camera and take some pictures.


Here is a mushroom my husband carved out of wood from a tree years ago before we met. I thought it would do well right by our front porch.


We live about 7 minutes from the ocean. It's very cold and wet around here. This is a patch of grass up by our home. Look at all the moss. We even have moss growing on trees around here... strings of it. It's kind of pretty though.


Here's the start of many different pictures I took of the variety of mushrooms around our yard today. I wish I knew if any of them were edible.

This one reminded me of a toad.

I think this one is really pretty.

Another favorite of mine.

And yet another favorite.

Thanksgiving Day 2009

We started raising turkeys last year... three of them. We bought fifteen since then and have butchered some, given some away and still have a few left for hopefully reproducing.




Here's a picture I took a few weeks ago. Our turkeys escaped their pen and made their way up to our home.

Yesterday my husband picked out one of the three big toms we had left. You're Thanksgiving dinner you big guy!

He weighed 35 lbs dressed. He's cooking now as I write and smelling delicious~!

Homemade dressing! And I mean homemade. I made a loaf of bread the other day, cubed up and left out to dry. This morning I added celery, onion, sage, chicken broth, fresh ground pepper, lots of butter and a splash of worstershire sauce. I still have yet to cook it. It smells delicious already.

Here's our big guy. It's not done yet but I had to take a picture after basting it.

Now for the important part. Thanksgiving. Our family. Our God. What He has provided. Here's our fourth child little Leah. We've had a new baby every Thanksgiving for four Thanksgivings in a row now. It is beautiful.


Here's Elisabeth. She's spending her nap time with momma today coloring. It's a special day for her. The other kids are still napping and it's so quiet in here today, I love it. The turkey smells delicious and I'm thankful, actually grateful for what we have. I'm grateful that I know the Lord and that through the Lord I met my husband. Nobody could be as compatible as we are for each other in all the important areas. We couldn't have met other than through the Lord. And of course these children and lives wouldn't be here either if not for the Lord. There were just two of us on Thanksgiving in 2005. Now there are six of us in 2009. I hope to live another 50 years. It's hard to see that these little lives will be here possibly another 75 years. We try hard to raise them up right. It's very hard right now but we are getting better.

Here's the finished product. He's a big boy all right! Made a fantastic gravy.

Here we are ready to devour our meal. Daddy is taking the picture.

Here's my husband included as well. He loved the gravy so much he had two servings of it.

Yam Pie. I had the pumpkin in my hands at the store the other day and went to put the evaporated milk back, I thought I could do better with cream or half and half. Well, I had put the pumpkin back. I looked up a recipe for pie made with yams and found one on foodtvnetwork.com. It sounded delicious, I had all the ingredients and I thought I would give it a try. It turned out beautiful. The color is magnificent on this pie and it was delicious. I did still kind of miss my pumpkin pie but I may experiment with a mix of the two next year. We will be growing some sweet pumpkins this next year so I'm sure it will be a hit. And of course I didn't forget the whipping cream on this. : )

Our Storm

Right now I am sitting here without any power. However, we have gotten smart and we're running a generator so I can do some blogging about a storm we had just the other night. This wasn't quite like the storm and winds we had on December 2-3 2007 with winds up to 120 mph but we did have wind gusts 90+ mph the other night. And momma gets scared with winds like that.

Here is a picture of a broken tree (as I share with my kids) across the highway from us. This is a close up shot. You can see the winds took the top right off!

So, here I sit waiting for the power to come back on and getting ready to go to bed too. I hope it comes back on before my beddy-bye time! :)

Just Who is This Little Miss Leah???

Leah is one of our prettiest babies yet! Here are some pictures from 0-3 weeks old. The first couple of pictures which are my favorite are blurry. : ( I will try to see if someone an fix them for me and I will re-post the pictures.

At nearly 2 weeks her eyes really started opening.

Isn't she pretty?

She has very long, pretty and delicate fingers.

I like this picture. I often wonder who she will be and what she will look like next year.

Sleepy pictures...

Little squish face!

This was taken this morning. Mouth open wide!

Elisabeth and Baby Leah

These pictures were taken of Elisabeth and Leah within a couple of weeks of her coming home. They are just priceless.

Elisabeth is so excited to be holding Leah. She cried when I had to take her away after a while.

Elisabeth still looks like such a baby here herself.

Such a pretty picture. Matthew heard from the Lord after Elisabeth was born that she would bear many children. I see her nurturing side come out many a times and think about that.

Matthew at One Year Old

My how this year has gone quickly. Never would I have thought that I would have been pregnant twice and borne two children within one year. Here are some pictures of our little Matthew.
You can see he isn't too little here. I had trouble feeding him a bottle in later pregnancy. You can see why. I'm just starting to feed him again now that I'm recovering from my c-section.

You big boy. I can't believe you fit in momma's belly a year ago!



This picture I took this morning. November 17th. His birthday was on November 14th. It was a glorious day, labor and birth I will never forget. I walked around in the sun for 4 hours near the hospital to make sure I was in labor. I kept talking to my husband on the phone to let him know about the progress. I was so excited! He called for childcare and came to meet me at the hospital when I was 5cm and getting some good pain. He was so big when he was born, we couldn't help but be proud of our boy.

Here's our little softie. I always shared with Matthew that our son would probably be the most "wump womp", even more than the girls. And he is! But, I love his tender heart. Now I know why some are "momma's boy". Though I will let him become a man too one day. : ) You'll find me praying and filled with worry when Matthew teaches our son how to cut wood or chop the head off of a turkey.

Standing but not walking yet. I'm in no hurry.

Matthew sitting quietly. I love this picture.

Birthday boy and his cupcake.
I made homemade vanilla cupcakes with our blackberry preserves with a dollop of homemade whipping cream. Yum!

He's having fun with his cupcake.

More fun!

Just look at that mischievious expression on his face!

Matthew didn't eat much of his birthday cupcake but he sure did have fun with it! I guess that's all that matters. : ) Happy birthday my son. I love you so very much.

Here he is with his momma not too many weeks after his birth. I miss his first year already dearly. It went too quick. I shed a lot of tears this past week. A lot. Of all the children I didn't want him to get any older. I wish I could keep him between 4 and 7 months old for life. I'd tote him with me everywhere and he'd be such a joy to me. But, I guess God intends for our little ones to grow up. I pray I can savor their babyhood and childhood moment by moment so much more. It seems the moments get lost in dishes, diapers and daily work. I'm far from it and far from where I want to be there. It is hard having lots of little ones. Please pray that we continue to mature that we can look back and know that we have done well and more so be pleasing to the Lord.

Our Little Leah

First for the pictures... : )


Here she is still at the hospital. Born October 28th at 1:09pm. Weight: 6lbs 14oz, Height: 20". She is really tiny.

Mommy and baby Leah.

Our growing family, all six of us. I can't believe there are six of us already. We now have four children three and under. I would have never thought it possible if someone told me we would have this many children by now.


Marilyn. She was with us with three of the four children. She is a wonderful lady and we hope she'll be coming to our home for a visit soon. She has her beautiful, black horse next door to us on our neighbor's property. She just loves her. We love how wonderful she is to see each year when we return for care with another labor and postpartum care. Lovely, lovely lady.

Another picture of Leah. Almost like the first one but a different pose. : ) We think she's pretty!


Our story: On the morning of October 28th I got out of bed and found I was bleeding again. I had been bleeding throughout this pregnancy and though I had had several ultrasounds, there was no appearance of a separation of the placenta. I went in for my nearly 39 week appointment I had scheduled that morning at 10:00 and had an ultrasound to see if she was head down. I mentioned to the ultrasound technician that I was bleeding again and could she please check the placenta. She quickly found a separation from where my scar was in the front from a c-section in 2006 and called a couple of doctors in for confirmation. They confirmed and shared that I needed to get up to labor and delivery for a c-section right away. She shared that once it starts to separate from the womb, it's like a cloth tearing... it can tear away pretty quickly and we could lose Leah or I could even possibly die due to blood loss (though rare today). I called my husband and he made arrangements for the children to come to the hospital.

Once in labor and delivery they wanted to get me in the operating room quickly. I discussed with the doctor about the spinal not working in 2006 and how terrified I was about it not working again. I've also had two epidurals that didn't take as well. She talked to the anesthesiologist and when the anesthesiologist came in she immediately shared they would have no problem giving me a general to put me out completely providing the circumstances. The only thing is my husband couldn't be in the room with me then. I was okay with that as I knew I would see him and Leah when I woke up. I couldn't believe we were going to see our baby for the first time so soon and this day.

I woke up extremely groggy of course and remember seeing my husband and Leah when they wheeled me to my room. Matthew was holding her and feeding her a bottle. She was so pretty like our other children. She looked and still does look a lot like Hannah to us. Marilyn helped me a lot through the next few days in the hospital and Leah started nursing well. Much of last week is a blur to me as I've been on pain medication but I'm recovering very well compared to my c-section in 2006 and we are already getting a little back on our comfortable schedule at home... two weeks earlier than we would have ever expected. Leah is a week old today and we are all loving her. Little Matthew is just starting to come up to her lately and wants to touch her head. Of course he being a boy wants to pat her kind of hard on the head. Elisabeth and Hannah love getting little things for me, her blanket, a towel or anything I forget when I am nursing her. They are doing really well for having a new baby here. I love them all. They are all such a blessing to us. I can't wait to see what this next year brings forth from finding out who Leah is more and more to looking forward to the excitement of wanting to be pregnant again.

So, welcome to this world little Leah. We hope to provide a good start in life for you. We know things are a little noisier here at the Geraci household than when your earlier siblings were born. But, it's a good noisy... most of the time. ; )

Baby Leah is Here

Little Leah was born on October 28th, at 1:09pm via c-section. She and her mama are doing great. I had started bleeding again that morning and found through the ultrasound that I did indeed have placenta abruption (separation), so we were happy to go forward and have our baby that morning safely. I will post pictures and a birth story within a few days when I am feeling better. She is beautiful and a doll. All 6lbs 14 oz of her. She is so tiny!

Baby's Coming

My husband just took the kids down to the barn to play for a while and it just hit me hard that within three weeks we will have a new baby here again. I can't believe it. I'm so excited! These past few weeks all I can think about is having the baby so I'm finding it hard to blog or sew or do much but a little cooking.

It seems that each pregnancy goes by quicker than the last one and each child hits their first year quicker than the last one. All through this pregnancy Matthew and I have been in a good anticipation about me getting pregnant with our fifth child because that will be a fulfillment of what we saw three years ago from the Lord - five children. Now we are praying for more by faith.

I have another ultrasound tomorrow to make sure Leah is head down. I will be 39 weeks the following day. I always felt that she would be born in October... we still have some days left so we'll see. Little Leah sleeps more than any of the children I've had in my womb. I have a good feeling she will be a good sleeper after she is born. So far with these three children I've borne, they have all been sleeping through the night (until 5:30am) by twelve weeks. By six months our lives are really feeling quite normal.

Please pray that all does go well with the birth. The bleeding I've had concerns me as I am hoping it's not placenta accreta where the placenta attaches to the c-section scar in my uterus (and the placenta is in the front). This causes bleeding through late pregnancy and hemorrhaging at birth as the placenta detaches from the scar, usually resulting in an emergency hysterectomy. I wish the doctor hadn't have shared this with me because it is always there in the back of my mind. My midwife shared that if it's the cervix (which I hope it is), I may have a really quick labor or bleed a lot. So, I am a little scared up front but my spirit is at rest with all that is before me. I just really have a feeling that I can't shake that all will go very, very well. So, as long as I stay in God's rest and not put my mind to such things I think I can be at peace throughout these last hours or weeks.

I may not be blogging anymore until Leah arrives so please be patient with me as I'm sure I will have plenty of new pictures of our newest daughter very soon. : ) May the Lord be with you.

Turkeys

Here is my favorite turkey. He is always the first to come near us, to puff all out, has straight legs for reproducing and is one of our largest of the three largest toms. I've just always liked him. So, we are going to keep this one for reproduction purposes to three of our hens.

Here are a couple or more pictures of this big guy.

Can you tell the difference between a hen turkey and a tom turkey?
See the hen in the background?

Homemade Vegetarian Pizza

Poor Matthew wasn't feeling too well to his stomach last week so I made a vegetarian pizza instead of our usual. It was just as delicious and made for a nice change.

Here I rolled out some dough that I made earlier that day. When I first started making pizza a couple of years ago, I sure had trouble rolling out the dough and getting it on the pizza pan.


I usually just heat up some tomato paste with olive oil and Italian herbs on the stove for my pizza sauce. That way I can get it to the consistency I like. I like to slather the sauce on the sides of the crust too.


Added cheese. I received a large hole type cheese grater from Matthew's mother a couple of years ago. It saves me time when shredding cheese for pizza.

Lots and lots of mushrooms. Yummy!

Next, I added green peppers, black olives, fresh garlic and onions. I then cooked it up and added fresh basil, tomatoes and topped it with parmesan cheese. Sorry, the cooked picture just didn't turn out but you'll have to trust me, it was delicious! We had no problems not having the meat on it this time.

Home Grown Turkey

Here is our first turkey we butchered out of our flock. My husband picked out a smaller one and he could barely fit in the pan. I don't know what we're going to do when he butchers one of our big boys. We raised the White Broad Breasted turkeys this year as they do not show any pin feathers and come out looking really clean as you can see for yourself. My husband does a wonderful job cleaning them. He just made a stainless steel table for the rest of the birds he will be butchering. I will try to get a few somewhat clean looking pictures of the procedure again this year (depending on when this baby will be born).

And how was the turkey? Absolutely delicious. Full of flavor and the gravy is nothing like you've ever had. We're still enjoying turkey sandwiches now and I can't wait to cook another one for Thanksgiving.

Fresh Collards

My husband picked these collards a couple of weeks ago to go with dinner. They are simply delicious. He shared with me that each night when he would put the birds away he would walk out to the garden and pick a little bit of a collard off with dew on it and eat it. I tried a piece and couldn't get over how delicious it was. I almost didn't want to cook them. We still can't believe how different food tastes when you grow it yourself.

These are just a few of what we bagged up to freeze for the winter.


They are just as rich and green as the picture here.

Coming Up on a Year

Oh, how this year with Matthew went fast. Emotions well up in me that it went so fast and my baby is fast becoming a toddler. I have always wanted a son and God gave me such a beautiful child in heart and beautiful to watch him too. I sometimes can see him at the age of five or eight already. I can't wait... to see him running through the yard or fields. I will so much enjoy watching him grow through his childhood and love that I get to be the loving mom he needs to help him develop into a good, young man one day. I believe a son really needs a good mother while a daughter really needs a good father. Oh Matthew, I will always cherish you as my little boy. I know it will go too fast so all I can do is love you each day. I'm so glad the Lord brought you into our lives. We love you so very much son.

Here baby Matthew is going to get his first real haircut. I think Daddy is looking forward to this. We always thought it would be at about 18 months but after I give him a bath he looks like a rooster in the back and top of his head. So, I guess it's about time little Matthew.

All innocent looking and ready to go.

What's going on back there?

Wow, this is neat stuff. I love the noise daddy's toy makes.

This isn't too bad!

All done and given back to mom. He was a good boy and did very good for his first haircut. I'm glad the change wasn't too drastic. Daddy did a great job!

You Little Three Year Old

I really like the age of three. To me it's when you start to get that first break. Elisabeth is finally softening down. Boy was she a hard child as a toddler. She makes all the others seem pretty easy so I guess that is good. I'm looking forward to sharing some things about the Lord with her this year and just watching her come to a greater place of maturity. She's a sweetie and still so much of a baby.



I

Free Strawberry Plants

A couple of weeks we drove to Westport and saw a sign that said, "Free Strawberry Plants". Of course my husband wanted to stop and could you blame him? A very kind, older gentleman gave us two huge black bags of strawberry plants. He shared that they were picking over 5 gallons of strawberries a day and he just couldn't keep up with it anymore. So, here are our strawberry plants all ready for next year. Looks like we will have a nice size field of them. I bet the kids will eat half of them!

Homemade Laundry Soap

Here is the 18 gallons of laundry soap I have been making for nearly 3 years now.

INGREDIENTS:
Three bars of Fels Naptha (Top Foods $1.59 per bar)
Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate).
Borax Powder
Grate or chop up 3 bars of Fels Naptha. This has been around as a laundry bar for over 100 years now.


Melt on stove in 54 cups of water. This is the longest part but still only takes about 40 minutes.


Once melted add 4 1/2 cups of Borax powder. I paid about $4.50 for this 4lb 12 oz box.

Add 4 1/2 cups of Washing Soda (not baking soda). This is sodium carbonate. I bought this 50 lb bag for $19.00 nearly 3 years ago and still have lots of it left. You can find this at many pool supply places. It has a higher PH and gives your clothing a good cleaning.

Here I have it added to the Fels Naptha soap mixture. It dissolves in about 5 minutes. Make sure to stir it really good.

I had my husband transfer the mixture into our 22 gallon container we've been using. Now add 235 cups of water. Yes, 235 cups of water. We have a line on our big, black pot we used to melt this all together in that is 55 cups so we only have to fill a little over 4 times. Maybe use a milk jug as that holds 16 cups. Hopefully, you have something larger. Stir with a stick or something large several times a day for the next 12 hours or so or it will gel up.

We bought this 55 gallon barrel at an Ocean Spray cranberry factory for $3 last year. I asked my husband if he could configure it to hold our soap. We already took some out as you will see below but it looks like we will get nearly 3 batches in here. So, I guess I will be making another batch next week if I don't have the baby by then.

Here are some of our gallon milk jugs filled with the soap from the barrel in the garage. It makes it very convenient for many months to come. The clothes wash wonderfully in this and smell so good. We've had no complaints about using this formula so far and the savings is phenomenal. We used to go through all 18 gallons in about 9 months. Now we are going through it pretty quick with all of the kids.

You can use as little as 1/4 cup of this detergent. We use a full cup though as we have kids playing on the farm and Matthew working with chickens, etc...

Upcoming Pictures...

First of all, things are looking great these past few days with my pregnancy. I do feel that I may have an early baby and hope so. There are some signs... : )

Here are some posts I will be posting in the upcoming week:

Making homemade laundry soap - 18 gallons
Our homemade pizza
Sugar cookies from my favorite cook book
Little Matthew's haircut from daddy
Homemade scones
Collards from our garden
Matthew's stainless steel table he built

I may be posting a little less frequent since the baby is nearly due. But, you can count on me to post tons of baby pictures for the first several months after little Leah is born. I can't wait to meet her. Our children are just beautiful to us and so precious. After three hard years of learning to adapt to having to be on demand to everything... especially when tired or sick, we are getting the hang of it. We have a wonderful routine that has just saved us so much. It has improved the home and our marriage tremendously. We get things accomplished and have rest (8 hours of sleep and a nap many times too), teach and read to the kids daily, read the Word, sing a hymn, cook delicious meals, tend to chickens, gardening and harvesting, butcher turkeys, build things for the home, enjoy company and more. Our lives are full. They haven't been for either of us until we married and now we are in the fullness of it. It is rich. It is beautiful. We are so, so grateful. Thank You Lord, only You could have put us and this together.

In Need of Prayers - Pregnancy

I've had bleeding throughout this pregnancy. Last night it started again and I went to have an ultrasound this morning to check the low lying placenta for separation. Unfortunately the ultrasound won't pick it up unless it's 30% or more separation. It looked fine. The doctor noted the amount of blood with the exam though and sent me to Labor and Delivery with a warning that if it didn't stop within a few hours they would be doing a c-section TODAY! I prayed and prayed while there during my 7 hour stay. The bleeding did cease but started again lightly right before my release. They do not know why the bleeding. It could be the placenta separating or the placenta growing into my c-section scar which is not good. Please pray for the health of our baby, my health and that the next time I go in will be to deliver a baby vaginally. I was just in last week for bleeding. I am on complete bedrest and know that if I go in for ANY kind of bleeding again they will do an automatic c-section. I am just humanly scared, but I also love being in the position of having to turn something completely over to the Lord. My eyes look upward now so much more than when all was well. Thank you for your prayers.

Getting to be Closest of Friends

We always heard that one of the benefits of having children close together is that they will be best of friends. We are already starting to see that this year with Elisabeth and Hannah. I pray they will be close throughout their lives and that they will be of comfort to one another one day when a spouse dies.

Jumbo Garlic and Sweet Onions

Last week my husband gave away some of our roosters and Lloyd gave us some jumbo garlic and sweet onions from his garden. Boy, what a treat!!! The fragrance is delightful.

Fresh Snap Peas

Here are some fresh snow peas from our garden. We have so many of them that we cannot keep up with picking them. We've given much away, sold some, tried to make baby food - yuck, too fibrous and have eaten much. The girls love to pick these and eat them raw. Yet, if I put any greens on their plate they will not touch them. Live local? Stop on by to get some fresh snow peas. : )

Baby Chicks Made it to Kansas

We sent these baby chicks out to a family in Kansas about a couple of weeks ago. The hatch we "intended" to send out to this family ended up hatching and needing to be sent out on Labor Day. Of course the Post Office was closed but thank God we had more hatches coming up. Here are some pictures of this special event.

Hatched and just a few hours old.

Getting ready for the journey

To the Post Office you go you little chickies!!! May God be with you on your journey.

They arrived to their destination 36 hours or so later - All alive. They did lose two since then but we recently sent them a hatch of 29 chicks and they made it as well and are thriving beautifully. They are well taken care of.... especially by their new momma! : )

Daddy Workin?

Matthew goes out each day for some time to do some of his work in the garden and fields. Hannah looks out the window when she realizes daddy is gone and asks, "Daddy workin?"

Working another piece of our land.

This is our garden just weeks ago. You should see it now! It's huge... we even have corn stalks that were planted a wee bit late that are taller than our chests! I'll post some pictures very soon.



Here's our snow peas. We can't keep up with picking them each day. Bear in mind, this was a few weeks ago. They are much taller now and bearing plenty of peas. We pick about 4 lbs a day. We have heard that you just cannot freeze or can these because the quality goes way down. Well, I tried to freeze and then steam them with lunch yesterday and sure enough the quality went from a 10 to about a 2. So, we're giving plenty away, the girls are eating them like crazy and we just keep a pickin'!

Up close - Aren't they just beautiful? I will take some new pictures this week. They now have flowers and tons of snap peas hanging from them. They are just so pretty to me.

Real Blueberry Pancakes

Oh, these were simply delicious! My husband stored up enough blueberries from our new blueberry plants this year that I could make us some homemade blueberry pancakes.

Don't skimp - use real butter and real whipping cream.

Here are the egg whites being folded into the pancake batter.

Our blueberries

Here's the pancake recipe I use from Mr. Breakfast:

Homemade Pancakes

(8 servings)

• 2 Eggs (separated)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 cup milk (plus some for consistency)
• 1 1/3 cup
  
  flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla (opt.)

Beat egg whites until stiff - set aside.

Beat egg yolks, add sugar and salt, beat in.

Add baking powder, beat until just mixed in well.

Add flour, milk, and oil. Beat until smooth(not too much otherwise the baking powder won't react correctly) add vanilla.

Add egg whites to batter and FOLD gently. Let batter sit for 15-30 minutes prior to cooking.


Have a great breakfast!!!

Cleaning Green Beans

My husband is such a good father. He really includes our daughters in a lot of things. Here they are cleaning green beans together to put in our freezer.

Everyone looks so happy!

Fleece Dresses - Getting Ready for Winter

I made some dresses for the girls out of fleece. It is mighty cold and windy here in the winter and these will keep them warm and toasty. So far they've worn them for dress during the day and for nighties at night when it's dropped down to the 50's in temperature. They are comfy!

Here's Hannah

Elisabeth playing with her playdough

All Smiles!

Fun with Blocks

Hydrangeas

Here are some beautiful hydrangeas from our yard. They are special to me as they were our flower when Matthew and I got married. We had a small intimate wedding at our friend's John and Karen's. They have a beautiful home and Karen and some other ladies put everything together for us... the flowers from her garden, a cake from Rosa who has been cooking for probably over 50 years now (catering, owned a restaurant, culinary student in France). I wish I could remember the cake. I wish I could remember the flowers. I just remember being nervous and excited. My husband to be and I were to kiss for the first time in 2 1/2 years after being announced husband and wife. It felt strange. It felt like I was kissing my brother - though I don't have a brother. About an hour later though we went outdoors and snuck a kiss and he didn't feel like my brother anymore....

What do you do with Leftover B-day Cake?

Silly - you top it with homemade blackberry preserves! We pick tons of blackberries each year down our driveway and make yummy things like this. Of course this cake isn't 3 weeks old, I pulled out a couple of pieces from the freezer for me and Matthew to eat after the kids went down for a nap.

Matthew and His Cute Pajamas

I found these comfy, cute pajamas at the Goodwill about a week ago. He was just so snuggly soft in them, I had to keep hugging and kissing him.
Matthew is 10 months old already. He's moving around so much and so heavy for me right now as I am 33 weeks pregnant, that it's hard to hold him much anymore. It makes me sad sometimes. : (

Big Family Cookin'

Earlier this month I bought a 22 quart, stainless steel stockpot at Walmart for big family cookin'. I know one day with just four hungry kids and probably more, we will get good use out of this pot. I plan on using it for making big batches of soups, stews, etc... and freezing a lot of it. I've already used it for split pea soup to pull out of the freezer sometimes after the baby is born.

Here it stands next to my old 12 quart pot.

Homemade Noodles

We've been making homemade noodles for about 2 years now. We love them and just can't go back to the store bought. Anyone can make them and the ingredients? Egg, flour and salt.

First, crack 2 eggs into a bowl.

Add 2/3 cup of flour and stir with a fork.

Add one more 2/3 cup of flour and stir really, really good. Add a couple dashes of salt now too.

Get your hands in there and mash it around. Squish it, mash it, whatever you need to do to get it into a firm, solid consistency.

Now we just bought a hand crank pasta maker last year. You really don't need one of these to make wonderfully, delicious noodles. If you don't have one, just roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is the thickness you desire for the noodles you are making. I always had Matthew roll these out. They take some serious man-power to roll them out well! Here, I rolled out a sheet as I wanted to see how it works for future lasagna.

Here's my noodles for our chicken noodle soup.

And walla - here's our deliciously fragrant chicken noodle soup. It was wonderful.

All Three Playing Together

I found this fun toy at a garage sale last week for only $2. What a find! It has all sorts of activities they can play with on this including a magnetic board with letters, shapes and the appropriate holes to place the shapes in, zippers, buttons and more. Here they are all playing together. We have so much joy watching all of our children play together.

The Girls' Baby Animals

I downloaded the camera and saw that Matthew had taken a picture of the girls playing beddie by time with their stuffed animals - drinks, blankies and pillow. I'm sure they all slept really good.

Leah's Blankie

Here is Leah's blankie I made for her. And the first blankie I have made. All the kids have their own blankie (store bought) and they love it. They take it to bed with them and Hannah still has to have her blankie after she falls down or gets hurt. Here is a blankie I made for Leah this week. I am happy with it and I think she will be too!

Here's the bassinet she will sleep in. The other kids slept in this until they were almost ready to turn over. I bought it before we got married as I knew at one point we would be having kids. I remember it sat in my apartment and I would just stare at it. Now it's been filled three times and is about to be filled with a new baby again. I love how the Lord unfolds things in our lives.

Here's the blankie all laid out.

A close up of the fabric I coordinated with it.

Dinner from our Neighbors

YUMMY! We invited our neighbor over to get a bag of our snap peas grown from our garden. And look at what he brought us over! It was delicious. We finished the rest at lunch today.

This corn we got from Jim the bee man the day before. So, we had to have it accompany our wonderful salmon. We had some fresh green beans also from our garden and some homemade rolls I made from a James Beard cookbook.

Labor Day - Giving Thanks to God

Many of us here used to work outside the home. Here we can give thanks that our work is inside the home now and pray for those who want to come home.

Thank You Lord that my work is productive now inside the home and that You have changed my heart to seek after heavenly things. I thank You that when I did have to work that You gave me hope and a place in my heart that it would only be for a season... Let me pray for the women who work outside the home that I do not judge but pray that You will instill a place in their hearts to want to come home even at sacrifice of giving up the greater things of the world for the greater things of Christ. Let those who work outside the home be a testimony through you Lord. And though they be separate You put them together with their own kind. Let me be more thankful that I am home than when I first came home in 2005. I am forgetful and take much for granted Lord. I forget how easy it was not to complain as I knew I could have been at work that day. I pray for our brothers and sisters who labor outside the home that they be good stewards and diligent and upright in the midst of a corrupt and vile people Lord. Help them Lord. Let us pray for them. Many are weary and need strength. Let us pray Lord...

Fresh Green Beans from our Garden

We had fresh green beans last night. Matthew picked them from the garden, I cleaned them and lightly cooked them in butter. They were the best green beans I have ever had. Not rubbery, chewy or just yucky! If you can get your hands on some fresh green beans, you must try them!

Hannah's 2nd Birthday

Hannah just turned two on August 23rd. She is the best, little, sweetie! We can't imagine life without her now. She's full of life, joy and energy and loves to cuddle and please. We adore you little Hannah. We're so happy God put you in this family with us. We look forward to the years ahead with you.

Here she is chowing on her birthday cake.

Oh, almost gone!!!

I have never used real vanilla before. We received this from Matthew's brother Mark last Christmas. It has been calling me to use it. So, I decided to make a "real" homemade cake with "real" vanilla, butter and all that good stuff.

Scraping the yummy vanilla out of the pod. It reminds me of the stuff that comes out of a pipe when a man cleans out his pipe. Gooey, moist and full of fragrance. It smelled sooooo good!


Here's the vanilla bean in the frosting. It's in the vanilla cake too. Pretty, little flecks of vanilla.

The finished product. I had to cook it in a pie dish as I am in need of a cake pan. It was heavenly. I put little, colorful sprinkles on the kid's cake. They ate it all gone! I will make this again. Nothing like making cake from scratch. I can't go back to the box after this one. Happy birthday Hannah. You bring joy to our lives. We can't say enough about you.

Pickin Plums

We have the most delicious plums on our property. I believe they may be Italian plums.
They are only around for a couple of weeks or so, so we got to pickin!

Matthew and the girls picking plums.

Look at how excited little Hannah looks! She got to pick plums on her birthday!
I wish I had birthdays like this as a child!

We filled this box pretty good. And you'll find out later what we made with it!

I love, love, love this picture of Hannah. She's looking up in awe at the plums on the tree.

Yummy! Psssst... don't tell anybody. They ate too many plums.
It had it's lets say, laxative effect on all of them.

Pretty eyes

Here's our plum jam. Matthew canned the plums into a jam. It is one of the most delicious jams we have ever tasted. A friend of mine in Maine suggested marinating chicken in it. Ooh, that's sounds yummy. I would love to try this on homemade pancakes or english muffins.

Our Cutie Hannah

Here are some pictures of Hannah that I took last week. She just had her 2nd birthday on August 23rd. I will be uploading those pictures next week.

Elisabeth and Hannah

Happy Hannah

Pretty girl

Three Hours of Fun

Once a week Matthew takes ALL of the kids for 3 hours in the morning and I do the favor in turn once a week for 3 hours. We get a lot done in this time... and the kids who are with the one parent have lots and lots of fun!

Last week Matthew painted Hannah's wall as the kids had torn the wallpaper on it over the past couple of years - it wasn't the prettiest sight. So, I decided to try a campground/State park an hour away.

Here's Hannah running down a ramp.

And here comes Elisabeth.

Ah, look at little Matthew sitting here all by himself! Big Boy!

Watching his sisters...

A beautiful day. I put up lots of pictures here so those who haven't been
to Washington state yet can see the beauty here in the summer.

The water here is very, very shallow. Great for little toddlers who want to walk in the water.

Isn't this pretty? I bet that tree leaning over in the background
is from our storm in December 2007.

Another beautiful picture.

The last picture of the girls playing in the water. I just caught this of Hannah falling IN the water. I didn't know I had this until I downloaded my camera. She got her face all wet!

The girls loved playing in this water fountain more than they enjoyed the river.

Sisters sharing a drink.

Hannah helping Elisabeth. I think they've got it figured out.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Here's some more pretty pictures I took before we left. It was a peaceful day.

Our Turkey's Little Venture

What could this be coming up our driveway? Company?

Why, it's our turkeys! All 14 of them!

They look a little happy to see us!

Well, daddy wasn't too impressed. Back down the hill and into your home you go.

Now you best get going. I got a stick!

Well, Matthew finally got those darn turkeys back where they belong.
We're gonna have turkey dinner out of you yet! We love them - they are fun!

Homemade Refried Beans

Here is another money saver as well as delicious... Our homemade refried beans. I just fill a pot about 1/3 with beans and fill with lots of water. Let simmer for several hours until the beans are soft. I then add some salt and some monteray jack cheese and mash up with my wisk to desired consistency.

Fattening Sour Cream

Here's my improved version of the sour cream I made the week before. This I made with real cream and some buttermilk. The cream provided a much better texture and it stood well on our bean burritos. It was deliciously sweet too, not sour like in the store bought. I will be making this regularly.

OH ASHLEY......

You won't believe this... my husband just candled the 42 eggs and 35 are viable!!! Looks like you are definately going to be into some baby chicks!
I hope your move went well.
I'll give you a call next week. : ) : ) : )

Just Look at Those Luscious Lips!!!

How can a boy have such pretty lips and features??? Maybe it's normal for a mother to think her son is gorgeous as a father thinks his daughter is the prettiest. I don't know. But, I sure think he's beautiful for being a boy. ; )

Free Apple Pie

I went to the Goodwill last week and as I was heading out, noticed a cart full of free apples. The checker didn't mind if I filled a box full of them. So, I did and went home to make an apple pie!

Yummy apples! I believe they are a cross of Granny Smith and something else.

Preparing the pie. I did it on my kitchen table. I had more room there...
I think I will use the table more often for preparing such items.

The final product. Don't think we even have a bite of this left in our house.
I had to make homemade whipping cream just to top it off!

Daddy's Little Helpers

Here's our girls helping daddy halve apricots and nectarines for the freezer. We put them in the blender each day with homemade yogurt and milk for a healthy, wholesome drink. I tell them it's ice-cream because it is very similar when I put the fruit in somewhat frozen. Just look at that smile though! Elisabeth loves to help! Hanni too of course!