You Might Be A Homesteader If...

Your husband gives you these for Christmas!

To go with this that he got me for my birthday. (Click the comments to find the answer.  Mr. Herrick Kimball of The Deliberate Agrarian guessed correctly.)

You also might be a homesteading/fly fishing/bamboo fly rod building kind of guy if you get these from your wife for Christmas...

And you might have homeschoolers in your household if you purchase things like this for Christmas...

And what celebration would be complete with out cookie decorating! (And eating.)

  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Inexpensive Thank You Christmas Gift Idea

A simple and easy "homemade" gift to give to teachers or others that deserve a little "Thank You" gift this Christmas time is the time honored Candy In a Jar.

Everything I used to make these, for my youngest two daughter's Sunday school teachers, I had on hand- except for the M-n-M's.

We used to run a hand crafted soap and body care business and I have a few odd jars left over from that time.  I used a square jar with a cork lid but any shape will do and if you can't find anything with a lid a wad of tissue paper will work nicely.  Garage sales and thrift stores are great places to look for containers but craft stores and supermarkets will usually have something too.

We sorted the M-n-M's by color- something all the kids enjoyed helping with- by dumping our Costco sized bag onto a cookie sheet and grouping them into piles. Then we carefully filled the jar by the rainbow... ROY G BIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) and sealed it up.

 

Next I tied some wire-edged ribbon around the jar.

 

 

And attached a little thank you note with string and a hole punch.

 

Simple, pretty, and inexpensive!  It works with a lot of different types of candies and can be adapted to other holidays and occasions.  Being thoughtful doesn't have to break the bank.

Happy Fourth of July!

Remember why we celebrate!

 

 

 

God's Plan For Us- Father's Day

 

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"- which is the first commandment with a promise- "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth." Fathers do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.  Ephesians 6:1-4

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Mom's Day recap!

My DH and children made sure my Mother's Day was a good one. Above are my gifts (of which I didn't expect). A wonderful drink dispenser, lots of Lipton tea and green tea, three homemade cards and a photo album with the children's baby pictures put in it. Plus... I didn't have to cook.

My oldest made me "breakfast at table". She sprained her ankle the day before and couldn't move around too much but still managed to scramble eggs and pour milk. The rest of the family either took care of their own breakfasts or I poured cereal and milk. For lunch and dinner my DH cooked and the kids helped. Garlic chicken, salad, fresh lemonade and baked potato for lunch and steak, sun tea and salad for dinner. Since DH is losing weight we had no formal dessert (sigh) but I whipped out the hidden Nutter Butters for me and the kids. (Yes, I'm a bad mother/wife- I hide cookies.)

I also took the time to listen to a download of Victoria Botkin's Curriculum Advice Volume 1 and read more of Steve and Terri Maxwell's Keeping Our Children's Hearts. Though I did feel guilty about this. I listened to the download out on our picnic table so I could hear and concentrate on it without interruption and read on our deck in a lounge chair with the slider closed and my 1 1/2 year old tapping the glass and smiling at me every few seconds. We also spent part of the day watching TLC's 19 Kids and Counting marathon as well as the new 1 hour special they had on the Duggars. The Amazing Race finale was also on so that was watched as well. Our favorites, "The Cowboys", came in second. (My niece Katie and I plan on applying to be on The Amazing Race. The experience would be great!)

All in all a very nice day.

My wonderful drink dispenser sitting out on the deck working on heating up that sun tea! Yum!

Off To Candy Making Class Today

I'm busy gathering supplies for the candy making class I'm teaching today for my church's ladies group. Here's hoping nothing catches on fire! Just kidding! Anyway since I'm crunched for time this morning and morning is usually when I blog, I thought I would post a few pictures from this just past Easter. We celebrate Easter as the glorious ressurection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but the celebration does have its fair share of candy!

Just a sampling from one child's basket.

The family portrait where the BOY isn't doing something silly. (Death threats from Dad do wonders.)

Understand my son's personality?

Think you got that personality yet?

We spent Easter with family friends. Here is a mix of some of both family's kids. Notice the grass and lack of heavy clothing. It was super nice this year as opposed to the Easter we spent with them two years ago where everything was covered in 1/2 a foot of snow.

Family Easter Pictures- for the Grandma's

The Family

The boy

Reagan posing

Taylor folding her hands

Tomboy Andi couldn't get her dress off fast enough.

My almost teen

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Current Reading

Slow Cooker Classics (Reader's Digest)- to save time and money and beat the eating out or prepared food habit.

The Bread Bible (Rose Levy Beranbaum)- to master the art and eventually make saleable loaves.

Candymaking (Kendrick & Atkinson)- to master the art and eventually make saleable products.

Total Money Make Over (Dave Ramsey)- to GET OUT AND STAY OUT OF DEBT! Whoo... this is a whole other post.

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm off to bake bread and make some heart shaped sugar cookies for my kids to frost and contemplate what lucious dinner to cook the DH. We're sending the kids downstairs early tonight and having a date/movie night. (Watching Fireproof- for the second time.)

Father's Day!

Posing on dock

Posing on dock 2

Fisherman with poser

Seven tolerating fishing

Andi trying her luck

Rem waiting patiently for a bite

I was fairly sure at some point we'd be fishing Reagan out of the water. She liked the ducks.

We had a great Father's Day. The rain held off and we were able to take John fishing. It wasn't his ideal spot, but he wanted to go somewhere where the kids were safe (not standing in a river) and where they might actually have a better chance of catching something. We went to Grandville, a couple of towns over from us. They have a lovely little city park with a pond/lake. (It's really too big to be a pond and not really big enough to be a lake.) It has a nice board walk and fishing dock plus a playground, bathrooms, drinking fountains and the Grandville one room school house. The kids fished for a while and then we left dad on the dock and went to the playground as well as toured the school house which was open for a short while. (They had it set up complete with a dunce cap corner! The kids loved the look into the past.) I love family days.

Show and Tell Friday

Every once in a while we break out the craft supplies and create. The above picture is of my middle daughter's party invites. Card stock, scrapbook paper, computer printed wording, scrapbook embellishment flowers, sequins and stamps. We had it all on hand and we had a blast creating. The flip flop was made from a quilting pattern I had from a magazine.

The back of the invite: More computer wording and stamps. Simple yet pretty!

Here's the front of our Father's Day card; card stock, stamps and individually cut out computer lettering.

This card has an inside, unlike the invites that are just a front and back. I wrote a message on the top portion and printed out pictures of the kids/dad fishing, cut them out and glued them in. For those of you wondering about the bottom picture... John was showing off his "Bogga Grip". (Last year's Father's Day gift.) It's a tool that helps you lift fish out of the water. He was demonstrating that it could lift up to a fifty pound fish by lifting our 30 pound three year old. Don't worry... it didn't hurt her. She kept asking for him to do it again. He only did it once.

For more Show and Tell Fridays go to http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ .

Easter Egg Hunting- For the Grandmas!

Reagan- Dress courtesy of Grandma Lewis

Seven with full basket

Gabrielle Hall and Grandma

Reagan with best friend Will Hall

Seven adding more to her stash

Andi Rose on the go- Dress courtesy Grandma Lewis

I know Easter was a week ago but I'm a bit behind. Here are the pictures I managed to snap in the midst of the chaos. As you can see, poor Rem didn't get a picture. He was moving awfully fast though. I think he pulled in the most eggs and candy. I also didn't get a good shot of Seven's dress which Grandma Lewis also made. I'm still planning on dressing the kids back up and taking posed shots. They'll just have to be Spring photos and not "Easter" photos.