Treasures from the past

Mrs. C (Doug's mom) recently did some closet cleaning and came across some wonderful treasures from the past. She found dozens of old photos, mementos of her family, and some simple beautiful every day items that she graciously shared with me! BTW, her mother crocheted and knitted these pretties!

Some hand made potholders which are truly works of art!

Simple dishtowels beautifully transformed:

An apron made from a dishtowel - and girl, you know how I loves me some aprons!

One very kitchy cool deviled egg platter:

And the most wonderful treasure of all is this silver brush & comb set, silver cup, and coin bank from when Doug was a baby!

I couldn't bear the thought of leaving them in their boxes, so they're on display on a bookcase in the living room. John asked about the items as I was putting them out, so I told him that these were daddy's when he was a baby. John replied, "Man, those things must be REALLY OLD!"
But I just smiled and thought about the day when he would be combing his own baby's hair with that little brush...
I'm feeling very rich today.

Festivities from the 4th

Ryan's CAP wing put on a great display at the Bay City airport during the fourth of July celebration. They marched out in formation on the tarmac and recited their oath in fine military fashion:

They also assisted the Bay City police department with security and parking. During their bake sale, they were able to recruit several more members. It turned out to be a really great day for their flight!
Later that night we saw a spectacular fireworks show set to patriotic music. Danny and John Paul loved the display, but were a little freaked out by all that loud booming!


We had such a great time! Happy fourth of July everyone!

Happy Fourth of July

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance:


Very poignant....especially that last part!
Happy Birthday America!
God bless us all!

My newest obsession

I found these cute little girl's "smockets" online one day while blog browsing and it was love at first site! I don't have any little girls to sew for but I was DYING to make some....so I did!
And it's reversible!
I raided the dollar fabric bin at Walmart and got all kinds of cute prints. I'll be spending this rainy Saturday making them and sending some out to some special little girl's we know!
I fitted them on little Danny to see what they looked like. He said, "Look mom, I'm a cooker now!" (he thought it was a chef's apron!). Isn't he CUTE? (Sorry Doug, I just HAD to do it!)

I love them so much that I've been trying to figure out how to scale it up to my size. I found a template HERE. I just think that I will make the shoulder straps longer so I can tie them! Until then I'll just have to be happy with my other smock.

Cookies

Ryan's CAP flight is having a bake sale tomorrow so I've been inside all day baking cookies. The house smells pretty darn good right now, but good gravy is it hot! Word of advice, one should not run the oven for three hours during the hottest part of the day during the summer!
The cookies turned out great and I've been beating JP and Danny off with my wooden spoon to get them to stay out of them. If you'd like to try them they are super easy and inexpensive to make!
Easy Lemon Cookies and Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Coolin' Off!

I found this cute summertime project on The Crafty Crow. They are called 'sponge balls' and are super simple and fun to make! To save $$$, get your sponges at the dollar store!

To start, cut you sponges in thirds lengthwise:

Tie a bundle of nine sponge sticks together with heavy string. We happened to have some nylon ties and I figured that would be pretty sturdy, so that's what we used:

Pull tight to secure:

Dunk the sponges in a bucket of water and let the kids pummel each other to the death!

Working in the garden today

Lots to do in the garden today! Our corn is spent and Ryan got out there and pulled it all up for me (ok, I *bribed* him to do it) so we can plant our pumpkin patch!

We have three varieties of pumpkins to plant this year, Big Max, Prizewinner Hybrid, and Jack-O-Lantern. Danny and JP are so excited to get out there and plant! Prizewinner Hybrid and Big Max are the super huge exhibition variety with fruits getting as big 300 pounds! JP is determined to grow a monster pumpkin this year...we'll see how it goes! I spent the better part of the morning pulling up small weeds and hand tilling the soil to get it ready.
I also pulled up my cucumber plants. They were mostly spent and we were getting some really scrawny cukes. So up they came, trellis and all, and I think I'll make a second planting of them.
Cukes grow super fast during the hot summers, so I think I'll be able to get another harvest by late August.
All this plant debris is going to be great for my compost pile!
By next spring I'll have quite a bit of organic matter to put right back into the garden! It really is amazing how quickly this stuff breaks down!
We also did some harvesting of figs this weekend. My figs are ready and my globe-trotting sister is away in Israel! Who's going to help me process all this fruit?
I didn't quite have enough for strawberry-fig preserves (like my mom used to make!) so I decided to make some fig kolaches instead! We live in a heavily populated Czech community and I absolutely love fruit kolaches! I'm going to have to buddy up with little old ladies from the church so they can show me their secrets! I used this recipe for the dough and then just cooked the figs with a couple of tablespoons of raw sugar and the zest and juice of one lemon.
They turned out really good, even the kids ate them! If you end up using the recipe be sure to flatten out the dough quite a bit, these guys have enormous oven spring!
Then there are the peppers. I have hot peppers coming out my ears so I'm off to Walmart for pickling salts to put up some pints today.
Please, somebody remind me next year that I do not need six jalapeno pepper plants...two will do just fine!
I love working in my garden, I really do! But after all of this I'm kinda looking forward to going to work at the hospital for the next two days....Seriously!

My new favorite blog!

If you love gardening, you must go check out Urban Ministry Garden Blog
Here's an excerpt from their "About Our Community Garden" page:

"Our garden is a garden first, and other things second. It exists to serve the neighbors (as we call those who come to us seeking help, rather than label them “homeless” or “clients” or some such thing. As in “love your neighbor as yourself”). Probably, the most important benefit is the chance for people, homed and not, to work side-by-side, talking person to person. Yes, we also harvest some delicious organic food - and it makes a huge difference that we grew it ourselves. And we are always learning. Some people may well learn enough here to begin doing horticultural work as a livelihood. But, above all, this is our garden, a safe place for healing, reflection, laughter, beauty, work and a “ministry of presence”."

I just smile as I read each blog entry! It gives me hope to do something like this in my own community. This year I really wanted to do something like this for our neighborhood. Just a small garden for folks to come work and talk. I thought about how fun it would be for all the neighborhood kids to join in and learn about organic gardening and help them develop a good work ethic. Even though we live in a small neighborhood (about 20 houses) we still don't know a lot of our neighbors! I think this would be a wonderful project for people to come together and learn about each other as well as harvest some good food! I'm seriously going to contemplate this for next spring. There is no reason this wouldn't also work at our church. We have lots of land surrounding it and lots of able bodied persons to help out.
I just love this blog and it gives me hope and encouragement to do the same thing in our community! Check it out!

Road Trip!

We took a late afternoon trip to the beach yesterday. We just packed up some snacks and towels and hit the road. Matagorda beach is only 45 minutes away and it's a great (and cheap!) day trip. By leaving so late in the day, we practically had the place to ourselves. Plus, the sunsets on Matagorda are spectacular!

I'll be spending my Saturday washing sandy beach towels and bathing suits, but that's ok, we had a great afternoon!

Whole wheat flour tortillas

DE-LI-CIOUS!

I found this recipe online and it is so simple and tasty that I don't think we'll buy store brands ever again! I doubled this recipe for our family of six:

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (or sprouted flour)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (aluminum free if you can find it!)
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup water

Preheat electric skillet to 350°F or a cast iron or non-stick griddle over medium heat. Do not oil griddle or skillet.

Combine whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in oil until mixture is crumbly; add the water to form soft dough. Knead by hand for 5 minutes. Cover; let dough rest 30 minutes.

Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Flatten and roll each ball of dough on well floured surface until paper thin, turning frequently. Roll from the center outward until tortillas are 8-inches in diameter.

Cook tortillas 45 seconds to 1 minute on each side, until light brown specks appear. Do not overcook. A well made tortilla puffs as it is cooking. Remove from griddle or skillet and wrap in clean towel to keep warm. Serve warm or use in your favorite recipe.

Thrift store find

I saw these beautiful vintage glass canisters WEEKS ago at our local thrift store. I didn't buy them because they were listed for $25. I also figured that someone would snatch them up quickly so you can imagine my surprise when I went in today and they were sitting there marked down to this:


I absolutely love thrift store finds but I get absolutely giddy when I can get something marked down even more! These were a steal at $25! They are vintage, super heavy and the most beautiful emerald green I have ever seen. I literally gasped when I saw them sitting on the store shelf! I quickly grabbed them for fear that some little old lady would tap me on the shoulder and say that she saw them first!

...and trust me, I'd fight an old lady for these!
;-P

Happy Birthday Doug!

Happy birthday Doug! Praying for at least another 46 wonderful and happy years surrounded by your loving family and friends. Also praying that I'm around to share every minute of them with you! Sorry today was a little anti-climactic, but hey, at least the cake was good (thanks Mrs. C!)

Tomato Sauce

I thought I'd try my hand at making some homemade tomato sauce. I scoured the internet for recipes and finally figured that the simplest ingredients probably made the best sauce.
So I assembled my cast of characters:

Fresh tomatoes from the garden that were blanched and skins removed, bell peppers from the garden cored and seeded, garlic, onion, fresh basil from the herb garden, dried oregano, salt and pepper to taste, and some good olive oil.
Since my kids won't eat a sauce with chunks of vegetables in it, I blended all the ingredients (except the oregano and basil) in the food processor until smooth. I'll add the herbs at the end of the cooking time so that they keep their fresh taste and color. Cooking them all day would just turn them brown. I thought cooking low and slow in the crock pot was the way to go. One, it wouldn't heat up the kitchen, and two, we could enjoy the smell of it simmering alllll day long!

Instead of canning it, I'll probably just put it in quart sized freezer bags since we'll be using it up pretty quickly. Can't wait to taste this on pizza margarita or hot pasta!

Sunflower seeds

The sunflowers that John Paul and Daniel planted have finally grown and started producing seeds! I cut this flower head off yesterday (much to the kid's amazement!)

I was going to just let the seed head dry naturally in the sunshine on our little patio table, but then I spied the squirrel (who daily raids the bird feeders) eying it like a brunch buffet!

It really is amazing to look at!
John Paul: "Are these going to taste like the seeds we get at the ballfield?"
Me: "Nope, they'll taste better!"
John Paul: "Are you going to put salt on them?"
Me: "Probably not."
John Paul: "Hmmm...I won't eat them unless they have lots of salt. I'll stick with popcorn!"

Home at last!

After a VERY long road trip, I am pleased to report that Ryan successfully graduated from Texas CAP Encampment! I think I was a nervous as he was driving up! When we got there the cadets were already lined up in their flight groups and preparing for the ceremony.

We found our way to the bleachers and tried to spot Ryan in the sea of identically dressed cadets. We found Ryan's flight easily but didn't actually spot him until he processed right in front of us:


Let me tell you he was walking tall and looking sharp! He didn't look like the scared little boy who had left our home a week ago. He was tall, proud, and confident, he was a man now! My heart absolutely swelled with joy and pride...so did my eyes with tears.
After the ceremony, we walked across the field for a big bear hug. Ryan couldn't wait to tell us everything but first he wanted us to meet his TAC Officer:

She is a SAINT in my eyes! She, along with senior members of Ryan's flight, were able to help Ryan through his rough patch and got him back on track. They didn't yell or belittle him. They were compassionate and caring and took great care of my son when we couldn't be there to help him. We are forever grateful for their leadership!
Ryan and his flight were quickly discharged and we loaded up the van for the long trip home. The first thing Ryan wanted was REAL FOOD! So we stopped in Longview for his favorite - mexican food.

We were just about thirty minutes from the place where Doug grew up, so we made the detour to Marshall for a quick trip down memory lane. We visited the beautiful church where Doug was baptized. We saw his grandmother's home and the home he grew up in. We took a tour of the town square and saw where his grandfather used to work. Then we drove into this place:

It was a little shack no bigger than our living room and Doug claimed it had the best BBQ sandwich on earth! Well, we got two pounds of "brown pig" to go and headed home.
We weren't five minutes out of Marshall when this happened:

...and he stayed that way the entire trip home!