Happy 6th Birthday Hannah!

I haven't gone crazy.

I know it's the end of July and Hannah's Birthday was the end of June but I realized this morning as I was organizing pictures on my computer (sure beats doing dishes) that I hadn't ever shared a picture of this year's birthday cake.

I've started asking the kid's what type of cake they want for their birthday and last year Hannah wanted a cow and pink flowers on her's. I don't know if you remember that one, but it looked like this:

I'm sort of proud of that one.

This year, she was a little more elaborate. She wanted layers and each layer had to be decorated differently. We drew this one out first and then I followed the plan. Please don't send this in to Cake Wrecks. I'm obviously not a professional but Hannah thought it was beautiful and that's really all that matters.

Breakfast at Emily's

Over on Cowgirl Clippings today I'm sharing my favorite-ist Banana Bread recipe.

Things, They are Getting Done

But not by me.

Well, I am doing things but not these things.

Namely cleaning my house and re-upholstering my dining room chairs. Those are all getting done thanks to my wonderful mother.

I inherited a set of table and chairs from my Grandma Dorothy and I love them but the upholstered seats were quite worn and with four kids sitting on them for three meals a day plus random times during the day they've gotten even more worn. I've been meaning to re-do them in oilcloth since I got them; alas it has not been high on the priority list.

But this week my mom is here and she's awesome. Not only do we get to stay up late talking but my house is always cleaner when she leaves and this time she also offered to not only buy the oilcloth for me but recover my dining room chairs also.

So yesterday we took all four kids to Creative Fabrics in Wheeler and picked out the oilcloth.

It's quite bright but I love it and it goes well with my green walls and the orange walls of the laundry room that are sometimes visible when the door is open.

So my chairs that once looked like this:

Have received a make-over and now look like this (and the oilcloth is so easy to clean off!):
Did I mention my mom is awesome?

This Week...

...is VBS and I am in charge of games. Please pray for me.

My wonderful mother is coming down today and staying through Thursday to watch Clayton and Mod during VBS 'cause they're just a tad young for it yet. Yay mom! I signed up to help before it dawned on me that I had two kids that are too young. And I was put in charge before I could remind "the powers that be" that I had two kids that are too young.

So I've been stressing just a little. Only a little 'cause I'm not big on stressing, I just figure that it will happen and if it doesn't I probably won't be put in charge again! I've got some fun games planned and a last minute switch of some games to include water balloons. I was going to skip that whole mess but then decided I just couldn't, it's too much fun.

I don't know that I'll have pictures to share but I'll definitely let you know how it goes especially since I'm counting on your prayers.

Thanks!

Breakfast at Emily's

It's time for oatmeal. This is a staple at our house. We soak our oatmeal overnight in a little whey and water so I've also included how I make whey and cream cheese in this week's edition of Breakfast at Emily's over on Cowgirl Clippings.

Blueberries

Okay, I fail as a wanna-be photographer.

We took a trip into Banks, OR yesterday to meet Erik's mom and pick up his air-nail gun that he left at their house. I painted all the floor trim for our house (that we've had forever) only to discover that Erik couldn't do his part and attach it to the wall were it belongs because he didn't have his air gun.

Not wanting to just make a trip for that we decided to go pick blueberries at Gordon's Acres farm that my neighbor told me about. Thinking that it might be a good photo-op of the kids I grabbed my camera and brought it along.

This is where I fail. Maybe if I had completely forgotten to bring my camera it wouldn't be so bad but I did bring it and then utterly failed to use it. And oh my, was that a missed opportunity. The kids were semi-color coordinated in reds and pinks that would have made a nice contrast to the green and blue of the blueberry bushes and the sun was glorious but not too bright. The farm was situated atop a hill with rows of blueberries and raspberries stretching out before you. On top of that the kids were really well behaved and picked a lot of blueberries. They were so excited about filling their special buckets full of blueberries that they just kept on picking without complaining. Erik got tired of picking blueberries before they did! Marilyn also picked blueberries but they did not end up in her little red bucket. She ate the blue ones and if she happened to pick a green one she put that in her bucket because it didn't taste good. Then she would pick those out and throw them on the ground before heading off down the rows to explore and visit other blueberry pickers in hopes of "gleaning" from their buckets that they unwittingly placed on the ground in easy reach of little fingers.
We left the farm with about 25 pounds of blueberries and 5 pounds of raspberries.
And I am proud to say that the raspberries have all been turned into jam and the blueberries are washed and residing in pre-measured portions in ziplock bags in the freezer.

Oh well, maybe next time I'll remember to take pictures.

Breakfast at Emily's

My favorite Buttermilk Pancake recipe is up over at Cowgirl Clippings today. Check it out.

For Sale By Owner

We took the plunge. We set up a "For Sale By Owner" sign in our front yard last week and yesterday I finally posted our house for sale on Craigslist. It's kind of a scary step but it's also really exciting. Not that anyone has shown any interest yet.
About a year ago I was talking with a friend about houses and remodeling. She was saying that they needed a little more room and had thought about turning the garage into a bedroom/bathroom suite or something but didn't know how they could afford it. Sort of in jest, but only kind of, I said, "Well, just have your parents divide off a few acres and sell them to us."
The next day she called and said that they all thought that was a great idea and since that time have been working on doing just that!It has been our dream to build our own home since we got married. We have also dreamed of land; room to run and grow things and have animals.
To say that we are excited might be an understatement.
Last Monday Erik borrowed an excavator and went and dug septic approval pits for the land division, the kids helped put up the caution tape around the holes and Hannah only tried to fall in once.Then we went hiking through the woods and had a grand time. It's so easy to dream and hard to be patient and practical. We don't know how this will all work out and would really appreciate prayer in all of this. Thank you!...and if you know anyone that's interested in buying our house...

Bok Choy Beauty

We've really been enjoying Bok Choy lately. It's a wonderfully yummy Chinese cabbage for those of you that don't eat it regularly. I mostly use it in salads and stir fry. Usually I just pull a couple stalks off and cut them up but last night I didn't have many veggies to add to the stir fry so I figured I'd just use a lot of Bok Choy. I grabbed the whole head (?) and cut off the entire end at once. And then I stopped and looked at it. It was really pretty. I set it on the shelf and let it dry till after dinner. Once the kids where in bed I pulled out my paints and used the Bok Choy end as a stamp.

Today I made cards.
Erik laughed at me but he still had to admit that it was pretty darn cool looking.

Breakfast at Emily's

It's that time of week again! And this time you're in for a real treat. Not only are the M-m-m-m Muffins really easy to make and delicious but you also get to see a picture of me from 6th grade. So head on over to Cowgirl Clippings and enjoy!

Parade!

Yesterday we went to the parade. My kids have been looking forward to the parade since, oh, last year's parade. Ever since Hannah was born we have ridden in the fire truck that Erik drives but this year he wasn't driving so I figured we would just watch. Hannah and Ivan were more disappointed than I thought they would be but while we were walking around looking at floats beforehand they were invited to ride in the bed of the truck that was pulling the church float. I was told that Hannah is a very good "waver".
So just Clayton, Marilyn, Grammy and Grandpa and I sat on the side of the road and watched the parade. We were sitting near the end of the parade and the funny thing is that we could see both ends of the parade at the same time!
It's a good thing that Grammy and Grandpa were there; they could help keep Miss Moddy contained. That little girl was marching up and down the road in her own little parade while we were waiting. She made friends with all the people around us. At one point she marched over to a lady near us and hugged her legs and then rested her head in the lady's lap. Wherein I was told, "Don't worry, she'll get over her shyness someday" and I replied, "That's what I'm afraid of."
Finally we got to see the front of the parade. And when the church float made it to us Hannah and Ivan climbed out and watched the rest of the parade with us and helped Clayton collect all the candy that was thrown.

I was hoping that by sitting at the end of the parade, everyone would have run out of candy by the time they got to us...no such luck, everyone was over-prepared this year and I think we might have gotten extra as the people on the floats realized they were near the end and wanted to get rid of their stashes. Then our "neighbors" who didn't have any kids in the their group brought over all the candy they had collected. We ended up with a gallon ziplock bag full of candy.(This is only halfway through the parade:) And bandaids. The Rhinehart Clinic was throwing out neon colored bandaids. I personally would have loved coming home with a ziplock bag full of bandaids and no candy.
For a family that does not buy candy or eat very much of it a whole bag of it is a little overwhelming but I read a very timely suggestion just the other day and I think I might buy the candy off of my kids and throw it away. Hopefully they'll go for it. In the past I've had no trouble secretly throwing the candy away but Hannah and Ivan's memories are sharper now and they would notice.
I love our small town parade but I laugh because a lot of the people marching in the parade, who are so proud of how many years they've been in the parade, are "weekenders". Those of us that live here year round are in the minority amongst the marchers. Ah well, it's still fun and next year maybe we'll try riding again so that we don't collect so much candy.

Flags they are a-flyin'

Happy Independence Day!

I'm not trying to make any type of political comment but this is just wrong...

Breakfast at Emily's

Head on over to Cowgirl Clippings for Swiss Oatmeal this morning. I'm not sure where the Swiss comes in. Do the Swiss really eat it this way? All I know is that I really like it. I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it too.