Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

CAMERA!

It's here! But more importantly, IT WORKS!

The UPS man actually came early to my house. My camera was waiting on the doorstep when I got home from MOB this morning. I quickly grabbed my battery and memory card and put them in and flipped the switch to on...YES! It turned on! It took pictures!

And since a camera can't take a picture of itself I had to use my old camera. Can't wait to start sharing more pictures with you!

Pumpkin Soup

Yum. That's pretty much all there is to say but you guessed it, I'm saying more because, well, I can.
Usually I use pumpkin in things like pumpkin bread, pie or waffles but that just didn't sound thrilling at the moment and I've wanted to try pumpkin soup for awhile. And so much for the "not running to the store all the time" - I was out of carrots and celery.
I'm attempting to cook one meatless dinner a week, we eat a lot of meat. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just really expensive.
The kiddos weren't quite thrilled with the soup but they ate it. Erik on the other hand almost ate himself sick he liked it so much. And paired with sourdough bread straight from the oven...YUM!

Pumpkin Soup Recipe

1 large onion, chopped
6 fresh carrots, grated
3 stalks celery
4 TBSP butter
3-4 cups mashed cooked pumpkin
1 TBSP minced garlic (I used 3 or 4 cloves, pressed; we like garlic)
2 tsp thyme
4 TBSP chopped parsley
2 cups 1/2 n 1/2 (I used 1 cup milk and 1 cup 1/2 n 1/2)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion, carrots and celery in butter until soft
Add the remaining ingredients except the 1/2 n 1/2 and simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add the 1/2 n 1/2 and reheat gently, salt and pepper to taste.

We sprinkled Chives on top because my children are obsessed with chives right now.

Happy Spring...

...we're having pumpkin soup for dinner.

I know, they don't really seem to go together. Pumpkin soup, spring...nope...but it is what it is. I have a whole bunch of frozen pumpkin, real pumpkin from a friend's garden, that is languishing away in my freezer and no ideas for dinner tonight. Okay, well, I had no ideas until I remembered the pumpkin. It's part of my "use it up and don't go to the store more than you have to" goal.

And the rambling is only to get to the point of telling you that I have never made pumpkin soup before but I've heard of it.

Last night it was really cold and windy and today is much of the same, so I think winter is still keeping it's claws in and holding on for a few more kicks and giggles...at least it's a good excuse for something warm and cozy like soup. I like soup. I'm hoping I like this soup; I'll make sure to let you know how it turns out. Maybe if you're lucky you'll get a picture too. Not off my new camera though, that doesn't get here until Wednesday and I have hopes that the soup won't wait around that long to be photographed.

Happy Spring to you!

The Crusades

So I've done it. Last night I finished all 620-odd pages of Zoe Oldenbourg's "The Crusades". It was a fascinating read and I must say that my mind is still whirling. I think Erik might also be glad that I'm done as he won't be subject to me dialoging on the Crusades at 10pm while he's trying to fall asleep. I found that if I didn't process out loud what I was reading I dreamed about it all night long and let me tell you, the Crusades make for some interesting dreams. I also spent a good part of yesterday, while the kids were watching a movie trying to recover from colds/snotty noses, researching online different things from The Crusades that the author assumed were common knowledge but that I did not know. And then I got caught up in researching Vlad the Impaler. I had researched him some in high school and was curious as to where he fit in in history in relation to what I had just read. He comes later...about 1450-60 during what are also called Crusades but are any war against the enemies of Latin Christianity.
What's next you may ask? Well, this morning I started "Many Infallible Proofs" by Arthur T. Pierson, D.D, written about 1886.
I found this one in the church library too. Church libraries are fascinating things and deserve a post all their own, so someday I may write one...but don't hold your breath.

Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

Some days I feel as if I am just sliding by, waiting to put the kids to bed so I can breathe on my own for a few minutes before I fall into bed myself, continually hoping that maybe tomorrow will be better than today. I don't like this. I want to enjoy my children, I want to enjoy laughing with, playing with and teaching them. I do enjoy my children immensely but if I'm not proactive in keeping this goal in mind I find that the everyday tasks required to keep up with a house of four children start to take over. I find I'm frustrated with my children when they won't leave me alone long enough for me to finish the dishes or sweep the floor.
Along these lines I am working on a song for my kids, so far I have this:

"I want to dance with you.
I'll hold your hand.
Tell me all your stories and your dreams.
The dishes and the laundry will wait,
this house won't crumble down
while I spend these moments here with you."
Hannah has helped with the tune a little.

But back to the story at hand:
I really was not looking forward to today. Erik is gone most of the day at a Rope Rescue Drill and I always look forward to weekends when he's around to help out. He's amazing at helping out and when he's not here I miss that (and him); sometimes so much that I turn grumpy. So last night I prayed for creativity and the ability to live life and not react to it. I'm so glad that God cares about these little things too. Right before falling asleep I had an idea; why not go for a walk through Manzanita and see if we can find objects or letters for each letter of the alphabet?! Fun and educational! So this morning after a yummy breakfast of pancakes we headed to Manzanita and started looking. I'll admit to helping a little and receiving help from a man that goes to our church who was out walking and the nice ladies at T-Spot but Hannah and Ivan were really excited to play and did quite well on their own too. We also had to cheat just a little for Q, X and Z.
This is what we found:
Alpaca yarn/toy
Bank, building, birdhouse, burritos
Coffee, car
Dog
Espresso
Flower, fence
Grass, gate
Hand
Ivy
Jogging
Knit, kite
Light, Left Coast
Magazines, motorcycle
Nehalem Valley Historical Society sign
Overboard
Puppy
sQuirrel
Rock
Stop sign, sand
Tulip, tree
Unfurl
Vino, vacancy
Water, whale bench
meXican resturant
Yarn
ManZanita, SyZygy

I must say that we are blessed to live in a creative town that gives their stores interesting names; that helped to.
I've found that "learning to live life instead of react to it" is a common theme in my life; one that I have to learn over and over and over again. But it's a good lesson to learn and I don't mind the review.
My kids don't mind so much either; we've had a lot of fun so far today.

Spinach Feta Pastries

I actually got my menu all planned out for the week.
I try to do this every week and invariably there are gaps but oh no, not this week. This week I was on top of things and I tried a few new recipes.
I didn't have nearly enough spinach for the Spinach Feta Pastries but they still turned out quite yummy and having some extra dough I made mini peach pies.

Spinach Feta Pastries from Nourishing Traditions:
3 cups cooked chopped spinach, squeezed dry
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup crispy pine nuts (I left these out, I didn't have any)
sea salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups crumbled feta cheese
1 recipe yoghurt dough (recipe to follow)
unbleached white flour

Mix spinach with onion, pine nuts, and nutmeg. Season to taste. Form dough into 1 inch balls and coat in flour. Roll into rounds. Place a tablespoon of spinach filling on each and top with 2 teaspoons crumbled feta cheese. Fold up edges to create a three-sided pastry, leaving a small hole in the middle for air to escape. Place on well greased cookie sheet and brush with butter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden.

Yoghurt Dough

1 cup plain whole yoghurt
1 cup butter, softened
3 1/2 cups freshly ground spelt or whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons sea salt
Cream yoghurt with butter. Blend in flour and salt. Cover and leave in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours.

Mini Peach Pies:
I grabbed a jar of peaches and drained the juice. Cut the peaches up and added a little sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and a handful of flour; mixed it up and put maybe a 1/4 cup in each round of dough that I had gently coaxed into my muffin tins. Folded the overlapping dough over the filling and baked them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. They turned out yummy too and it was nice to have a bribe to get the kids to finish lunch... though Hannah and Ivan ended up liking the spinach pastries.