Vlogging?

Jeff is trying to talk me into doing some vlogging.  That's video blogging for those of you who don't know.   I am a little hesitant as I don't really know what I would vlog about and I don't know that I want everyone to see and hear me!  I don't like to be in front of the camera!

But, supposing I did go ahead with it just what would I vlog about?  I thought I would make a list of potential vlog topics and let you all help me decide.

-freezer cooking
-frugal shopping (but would that mean taking a camera into Sam's and Kroger?)
-soap making
-something homeschool related
-I am really at a loss here!
-making cinnamon rolls, stuffed sandwiches and pizza?

If you have any ideas or opinions please leave me a comment, even if you don't think I should do it, let me know!

Around, About and All Over the Place with a Couple of Recipes Thrown In

This weekend I had so much that needed to be done.  It seems that it is utterly impossible to get my to-do list done when Saturday rolls around, especially this Saturday when I discovered that our perishable food items were dwindling severely.   So my to-do list was dropped and Jeff and I headed out to Sam's.   We really like to stock up at Sam's.  Having cabinets and freezers full  of ingredients that we can use to make  good wholesome meals for our family is important to us.  Every time Jeff goes to Sam's with me he comments about how there sure is a lot of food in that one store.  LOL!  I very rarely buy any frozen or instant foods, sticking mainly to single ingredient foods like fresh fruits and vegetables and the HUGE cans of green beans.  I also stock up on toilet paper, oils, yeast, spices, sugars, honey, flours and dairy products.  Oh!  We can't forget the coffee, either!

Thankfully the skies were clear so we were able to put all of our groceries in the back of the truck.  We have a system.  I call home when we  leave Sam's and have the children make sure the kitchen is clean, countertops wiped off and floor swept.  When we pull onto our country road we again call home and have the boys and Kaelan meet us out at the truck with the wagons.  The kids load everything from the back of the truck into the wagons and haul the groceries inside.  I then unload the wagons putting the food either in the cabinets, in the freezer or in the fridge.   Then they take the wagons back out for another load.  This time, however, I wound up missing a large bag of fresh broccoli.  K says she knows it got in the house, but I have  not found it.  Jeff was looking forward to a large batch of my broccoli salad.  One time we found a roll of sausage that had been left in the truck for several days in warm weather.  Thankfully, it did not stink.  I have no idea where that bag of broccoli landed!

Saturday was a beautiful warm day and the children were able to be outside for most of the day.  Jordan has been making more boxes for our raised bed garden.  He has been busy researching and planning for our garden.  It will soon be time to gather seeds, amend the soil and start planting.  He is excited about eating some fresh tomatoes!

While all the younger children were out playing or working Devin decided to get creative.  A few months ago she bought a painted canvas at a small boutique and paid over $30 for it.  She decided she could make another one herself.   She has never really painted before except for school projects, but once she decides to do something, she does it well.  In fact, a friend encouraged her to start drawing when she was in her mid-teens.  We were studying the Civil War and she was inspired to draw a portrait of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.  Her drawing placed at a local art contest and at a state wide contest.  And we named our next child Thomas Jonathan Jackson Chamblee!!

In case you can't read the scripture:  "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, 

in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5: 8

And I tried my hand at making poptarts from scratch.  Although I suppose you can't really call them poptarts, so I'll just say tarts.  Look for the recipe and pictures here.  You must know that I changed the recipe!!  It calls for yogurt and I was out (making some tonight), so I substituted buttermilk.  I used mainly fresh ground whole wheat flour, but next time I will use more all-purpose flour as the crust was a bit heavier than we would prefer.  I wound up making two batches.  One batch was with my homemade strawberry jam.  The second batch I made with my homemade applesauce to which I added some brown sugar and cinnamon.  We sampled them for dessert Saturday night and I got the biggest compliment!  Kaelan declared they are do-overs which means they liked them well enough to want them again!  We had some for breakfast Sunday morning and I froze the rest of them for breakfast another day this week.

I know a lot of you are expecting some very cold weather in the next few days, so I will leave you with a delicious broccoli soup recipe.  You know,  just in case you find my missing bag of broccoli.

Broccoli Cheese Soup


5 cups broccoli florets
6 cups chicken broth  (I use homemade)
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 cup flour
3 cups finely grated cheddar cheese

Cook broccoli until tender in the chicken broth.  Remove broccoli from broth with a slotted spoon.  Place into your blender.  I can do about half of the broccoli at a time.  Add some of the broth to the blender as well.  Blend until you reach the desired texture.  My kids don't want to see chunks of broccoli, so I pretty much puree it.  Add back to  your pot.  Add milk and flour to your blender and mix well.  Add this to your pot and stir with whisk.  Add 1 t. of salt, freshly grated pepper and any other seasoning you desire.  I've used thyme, red pepper flakes and Spike seasoning at different times.  When soup has thickened add your cheese and continue stirring until melted through.  Serve.  I think a small dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of chopped bacon would be very pretty on this soup.  Sour cream and bacon would probably taste pretty good, too!  LOL!

I have been bagging up the leftovers and freezing them.  I will pull out a bag or two for lunch this week and let you know how it turns out from frozen.  I don't see why it wouldn't be just as good.

A Makeover and Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls were lined up cooling for the freezer last night.  We will have cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and at my mom's on Sunday morning.  The smaller pans will be given as gifts.  I partially bake my cinnamon rolls then freeze.  I will mix up icing in quart size bags and tape to the top of the package to give.  An easy and yummy treat!!

Last night I was trying to clean my blog up a bit and accidently took out the background which made it necessary to add a new background.  I had the other background since just after last Christmas so I guess a change is okay.    It's a little lighter than I would like, but I am going to give myself time to get used to it!

Today is a wet,  gray day.  I have the laundry to do, as usual, a couple of cookie recipes to make, a few pies to bake, several loaves of bread to bake and two kinds of jelly to make.  I also hope to sit down and play a game or two with some of the children and read to the little ones.

I'll soon be posting my 200th post and will be having a great give-away.  Stay tuned!!  Time to get the show on the road!!

What Happened?

In my last post, almost a month ago (!) I told you that my all night viewing on hulu while Caedmon was sick and needing to sleep upright ate up the bandwidth on my internet.  That prevented me from posting all this time and we have been busy with Christmas preparations anyway!    Well, we were sick back on Nov. 28 and we are still sick today!  Caedmon and I will be heading to the doc this afternoon and I think I will insist on an antibiotic this time for both of us.  Caedmon has never had an antibiotic and it's been a long while since I have had one, so I think it will be okay!  We have much to do this week and a little traveling as well, so I would prefer to have everyone as well as possible.

Some of us still have a little shopping to do, we have some baking and jelly-making to do, some games to play and books to read!  Kaelan hosted a small group of girls to make Christmas ornaments out of dominoes (thanks to raising olives for that idea!)  They turned out cute and Kaelan made enough to give to my extended domino playing family as well.

Mid-Christmas season the clutter that is in my home began to bother me greatly, so I started a great de-cluttering session.  I will continue to declutter as we get into the attic next week to go through boxes and eliminate unneeded items.  I am ready to organize for next semester and get things in good order for a great year.  I know we will have lots of traveling and times of meeting new people, so every bit of organizing and planning I do know will help to keep things going strong during the more stressful days ahead.

So much for my rambling!  Baby Caedmon (he's walking everywhere now, so not so much the baby anymore) is trying to climb into my lap.  He needs some mommy time!

Signs of the Times

Have you noticed the new trucks that are probably driving around your town?  They are built like the infamous self-moving trucks that are usually orange in color, but these trucks have moving advertisements of each side, front and back.  The ads change as the truck is driving down the road and each side rotates about 4 different ads before repeating.  How do I know how many ads?  Because I was distracted by this truck yesterday that I passed very s l o w l y waiting for the ad for the new Mexican restaurant to reappear because I missed the location the first time around.  Hmmm....cell phones are driving hazards?  What about these advertising trucks?

Today I saw a large RV driving down the highway.  Not that unusual, but THIS RV was totally covered in one of those vehicle wraps that are quite popular now.  There was a big red hand that said something like "Don't mess with my health care!!"  It was huge.  I hope their message is heard!!

Plans

I am working excitedly on our school plans for the next year. We will be doing a two year stretch on American history and will begin with eight weeks on the explorers. I love planning and tend to over-plan--trying to do way more than we can attempt. Notebooks are semi-ready and I hope to do my daily plans for the week during some quiet time this week. Jeff and the older guys are headed up to Chicago for the homeschool expo there this weekend while the rest of us, along with Lauren and her two babies are headed down south to visit my extended family. We will all return this weekend and I plan on starting school Monday. So much still to do, but I will have to settle with what has been done! The freezer is full of frozen meals, so dinners will be easy for our first week back to schedule.

Enough here! I still need to do some packing and hit the road in about an hour. I don't think we will make it on time!!

Long Time No Post

Hi! It's been a long time since I have posted, but hopefully I will be here a little more frequently in the future. Several things have been keeping me busy around here namely Jeff, Lauren, Devin, Jordan, Aaron, Kaelan, Jackson, Caedmon , Chase and Eli! In addition to being busy with family matters--you know, cooking, cleaning, laundry, discipline, shopping, etc. we have had a busy time working on a couple of projects for The Homeschool Channel. Jeff and Jordan went to the Alabama homeschool conference where they conducted lots of interviews and filmed several speakers and then they came back home with Bob and Tina Farewell with their son James. Bob and Tina are the former owners of Lifetime Books and Gifts and we meet them several years back when they came in their big bus and parked in our yard for two days for visiting and conducting a "Have Books Will Travel" meeting. We had a great time back then and it looks like we will have many more opportunities for visiting in the future. Bob is now working with Jeff on The Homeschool Channel and we are so excited to have him and Tina joining the team. They know most everybody in the homeschool world and have made some great contacts. Anyway, they came home with Jeff and Jordan where we enjoyed a couple of meals and fellowship together along with Ken Carpenter and his son Cole from Franklin Springs Films. Why were they all here? Well,Tina conducted two workshops that were filmed and Bob conducted his Gettysburg monologue which was also filmed. All will be presented at a future time on The Homeschool Channel.

In other news... I have a new Canon Rebel something something camera that is all fancy and such that is taking great pictures...and I have a new iMac computer of my very own (ok, some of the kids will use it as well). I have a lot to learn about how to operate it as all I have used before was a Dell PC, but I think I am about ready to delve into the vast unknown and at least figure out the word processing program. Jeff is still uploading or downloading or installing or whatever it is that you do to get all of the "stuff" that I "need" on here in order to conduct business and school for the next year. Hopefully we will have all of that taken care of in the next few weeks and I can actually blog more frequently and include pictures taken with the new camera.

All of the girls' birthdays have now past. Lauren had her 25th in April. Kaelan turned 10 in May and Devin turned 21 in June. We now begin the boys birthdays starting next week with Chase who will be 2. He was just here the last two days with his mom and baby brother. I had been working on his "preschool in a box" for the last couple of months and was able to add a couple of Melissa and Doug puzzles and some board books for them to take home with them yesterday. I didn't get all the file folder games done that I wanted to, but I was able to include 16 activity bags that they can look forward to using for the next few years. Lauren was really excited to look through everything...or maybe she was just making me feel good about it!

I have actually planned out our yearly overview for school and have our first 8 weeks loosely planned. Now that I have a computer again, I can soon get our weekly lessons typed out (yes, I do that) and can get Jordan's study guides typed out as well. Jordan officially has 2 years of homeschooling left and we are trying to plan a course of action. He is really interested in photography and videography and is interested in a career in that area. Ok, it's no coincidence that he is learning and getting paid to learn how to do these things as he works with his dad on The Homeschool Channel. I think instead of us planning the course we are looking to see the course that God has planned. Jordan has no desire to go to college (math is a hindrance) and Ken Carpenter last week mentioned that he doesn't look for a college degree when he is hiring for his film companies. He looks for experience and that is what Jordan is now getting...and some of that is training with Ken Carpenter himself...How cool is that?

I am hesitant to put more time in school planning as Jeff is determined that we will be traveling together whenever he travels. That will generally mean leaving home on Wednesdays and returning at the earliest on Sundays. God's plans will definitely overrule my plans. Please pray with us that we can get a 12-15 passenger van soon so that we can travel in one vehicle and that we may be able to secure an RV which will make traveling much more enjoyable. It will help us car school if we can all be in the same vehicle!

Devin returned from Iowa Monday and was full of talk about the Amish stores that she visited while there. She impressed us so much that we are all going up next week. Ok, we were already going there but it just so happens that she was in the same area that we are going to be visiting next week. Jeff and Jordan will be filming and conducting interviews at the Fathers of Vision conference just outside of De Moines next week. The conference speakers include Scott Brown, Kevin Swanson and Peter Bradrick. If you are going, we would love to meet you. We will be the family lugging huge pieces of video equipment and pushing a baby stroller!

We are finally enjoying some peppers and tomatoes from our own garden. I haven't had enough to do any major canning yet, but hope to have some in the next few weeks.

Caedmon is now calling for mommy, so this long post will close. Hope to be back soon!!

Today

Yesterday we had 25 people (that's not including the nine that were already here) for a birthday party for Kaelan. We had a great time fellowshipping with friends!! We haven't been as involved in extracurricular activities this past year, so we really soaked up the time with others. Jeff and Jordan left way before daylight to head down to the Orlando homeschool conference which begins tonight. I just called to check on them and they are breakfasting with Bob and Tina Farewell at the Chalet. I am green with envy!! OK, not really. I chose to stay at home with the children because we have so many other things going on this week as well. Next year, I will be there.

So today, we are cleaning things up from yesterday and getting ready for my mom and her husband to arrive mid-afternoon. This evening Aaron and Kaelan are playing in their piano recital. I think my sister is in town and will be joining us there are well.

Devin is playing violin in her first wedding this weekend and will have a rehearsal tomorrow night and provide some background music for the dinner. She has another wedding (much bigger) in a couple of weeks and will be meeting with the accompanists a couple of times to work on things with them.

Mom is bringing shrimp, so tomorrow we will have a grand dinner! A family get-together is almost incomplete without shrimp, whether it be in gumbo, fried or boiled! Yummy!

Continue to keep Jessica Hulcy in your prayers! Jessica is an amazing woman and has an incredible family. Read the lastest update at www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicahulcy/journal. Good news from yesterday!

Back to the laundry and the mopping and the sweeping and the dusting and the.....nevermind! I just need to get busy!

Time Off

I am going to take some time off to set my house in order.

Can It Get Any Better?

Good morning in school....
Good piano lessons...
Fun field trip with friends...
Date with my hubby and baby...
Delicious tender medium rare steak cooked just right...
Loaded baked potato...
Sauted mushrooms...
DOUBLE scoop of strawberry cream cheese ice cream in a warm waffle cone...
Quick run through at Sam's...
Kid's fed and bathed, kitchen clean and all ready for bed...

AAAHHHHH!

We just won't talk about the broken camera...shhhh!

My Valentine's Day!

Devin and Kaelan were spending the weekend with Lauren, getting things ready for the new baby's arrival. Jeff was involved in the symphony this weekend (I know, many of you don't know about our past lives....Jeff is a great trumpet player and plays with the Tupelo Symphony...we both have master's degrees in music!). So, at home it was just me and my four boys. Sounds ridiculous to say this, but things were a little quiet around here!

One thing on my to do list that I accomplished was cleaning out my fridge. I hadn't taken out all of the shelves and drawers to clean since we purchased it last year. I wish I had taken a before picture (no I don't, that would be too gross to post!). What a great Valentine's gift to myself!!


Cleaned out!!


And organized!!

Regrets? I Have a Few

I was brought up to believe that I could do whatever I set my mind to do. And I still believe that way. Only what I have set my mind to do is not probably what others would have had me do. I have absolutely no regrets in the decision that Jeff and I made over 20 years ago for me to be at home with our children. No regrets about that at all. However, I do have regrets about some other things..time wasted on television, not spending more time in Bible study with the older ones when they were young, cultural influences that were allowed, etc. But, I truly believe that my job is the most important job that a mother can have....to stay and home and daily see to the needs and training of her own children. I am so very thankful that God has allowed me to have this career. It is definitely challenging, thought-provoking, tedious at times, and joyous always even in the midst of challenges.

Below is a link to an article I found on Doug Phillips blog. This is written by a 37 year old single career woman. She is regretting much. Cut and paste this link to read the article.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article5662099.ece

What a Week!

Busy Hands Busy Minds is really an excellent title for my blog....We are always busy...even without leaving our home!

This week we finished our study of New England. My goal was for the children to do some fiction and non-fiction reading about New England to get a feel for the region, explore the geography through learning the capitals and location of each state, and sample some typical foods for the region. This week we will cover the mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. Our studies will mainly focus on New York and Pennsylvania and our cooking will be mainly Amish. I love reading about the Amish. It is so easy to romanticize their lifestyle, though. I know they do not live easy lives, but how blessed it would be to simply shut the world out at times.

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Caedmon turned four months old Friday and is wearing 9-12 months clothes. I think he is a little bigger than the other three boys at this age! He is so very precious, rarely fusses and gets lots of love from his parents and ALL of his siblings.





Look at those chunky legs!! We don't get to see them much because it has been so cold. Can't wait for it to warm up so he can go without pants and socks. Love those precious little toes.

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This weekend was incredibly busy. Devin was in Memphis all day Saturday. Jeff and the middles worked outside cleaning out some flower beds and just looking around. Jackson picked two crocuses for me. It's hard to believe that just the week before we were in 9 or more inches of snow, while here at home we are expecting 70 degree weather today!

While they were all outside, I baked....and baked.....and baked some more! I baked three loaves of bread, five pans of rolls, two buttermilk cakes, one recipe of buttermilk cookies, and several dozen applesauce muffins. And baked a 13 pound roast and made turkey salad. Delicious and now I have lots of food prepared for the week.

Here is a picture of bread rising. If you have never made your own bread you are missing out on a blessing. I love seeing a countertop of rising bread or bread freshly pulled from the oven. And it smells heavenly!!!




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James has an out-of-town trip again, so Lauren and Chase are heading up here this morning. She has five weeks left until her due date and seems to be doing well. She is getting antsy to get everything ready for the baby. Their church blessed them with a new stroller/car seat combo yesterday along with a few other items. She was very excited. Devin and Kaelan are going down to her home later this week to help her get some things completed before the new baby arrives. Pray for her to continue to be healthy and to have an uncomplicated delivery. Her asthma has not been as bad with this pregnancy, praise the Lord. After delivering Chase without an epidural she is making sure that she has one this time. I pray that her delivery goes as easy as my last one!

Everyone is busy with chores, so I need to get busy as well. Hope to have more time to post this week.

Getting Older/Nursing Mother's Disease Part 4

Yesterday I had typed up a very witty and engaging post about how I was losing my mind...I needed to tend to a child, so pushed the SAVE NOW button.. When I returned it was no longer there (my post)!!!...When one is getting older and has nursing mother's disease these types of mishaps can send one over the edge.

So about losing my mind...

The children and I needed to make a trip to town...I haven't taken them to the library since before Caedmon was born..(he was three months old Tuesday!) and we needed to buy horse feed as well as some salad fixings. We had all gotten ready to leave (which is a major undertaking) but I COULD NOT FIND MY WALLET!! We searched for about an hour to no avail. So, we squeezed into the truck (six of us in a five-seater....which is enough to make me lose my mind as well). We were headed to Jeff's office so I could pick up the check book and his debit card and it occured to me that I left my wallet in the car that he drove to the office. Great!! I will now be able to get it and use the cash in it to pay my fine at the library, so I can now check out more books/movies that I will probably get late fees on as well.

Well, my wallet is not in the car....So I think..We were at Barnes and Noble the last time I had my wallet...which was on Sunday. Now, we normally adhere to the no shopping on Sunday, the Lord's Day, but I really needed to get Shakespeare's Henry V which Jordan needed for Monday's school...you know, our first day back to school in a month!! So we drive to B and N and I leave the kids in the car...go to B and N and ask if anyone turned in a wallet.... Sorry, but NO!!

So on to Scrugg's to buy horse feed then to the library and Kroger. Back home to put it all away and try to get a little bit of school work done. Then Jeff calls and I rehash my wallet story to him and it dawns on me that we had gone to B and N in the TRUCK, not the car on Sunday and I sat in the backseat with Caedmon and I had put my wallet at Caedmon's feet as he sat in his car seat...so I run out to the truck and guess what I find? MY WALLET!! RIGHT WHERE I LEFT IT ON SUNDAY!! I am hoping this will be my last post in this series. However, I am getting older every day and I am still nursing....So....who knows?

Getting Old part two

I left out something kind of funny/kind of rude/kind of "What?" that happened to Jeff and me the other day.

Jeff and I were together with Caedmon when someone who knows we are "older" new parents (OKAY!! We are at the point that is obvious that we are OLDER new parents, but we still feel young....well, every once in a while!) made a statement that really baffled and bemused us. A single, childless woman my age who knows how old Jeff and I are, came up to us and talked for a little while and then said before departing, "Let me just look at ya'll for a minute. I want to see what OLDER new parents look like. I still have hope that I will marry and have a baby someday."

Don't know whether we should be offended or just laugh it off! (OK, we have seven children...we are past being offended about how many children or how old we are when we have/had said children.)

p.s. I am finished Christmas shopping as of early this afternoon!! Hip! Hip! Hooray! Now I just need to finish the wrapping and the cleaning and the cooking and the.....

Am I Getting Old, Do I Have Nursing Mother's Disease or Both?

I don't know if it's just that I'm getting old ( I am 44!) or if I just have Nursing Mother's Disease....those of you who have ever been a nursing mother know what I am talking about...those of you who haven't are probably just grossed out by the thought! Lately, I have had a few times of confusion or just plain out stupidity.

A week before Thanksgiving I inventoried my freezers and made a detailed list of all my prepared foods and meats ready to cook. My plan was to get back in the habit of weekly menu planning, but my list disappeared after Thanksgiving and I don't have time (and just don't want to make the time) to re-inventory. So, no weekly menu, but thankfully, I can still pull out prepared foods each morning to suit my mood for the evening meal.

The other day I was in my Research Room deeply submerged in research (this actually means I was soaking in my tub!) when my youngest daughter discreetly passed the phone to me as her father needed to speak to me. We were having trouble hearing each other and he asked if I had put it on speaker phone. I said, "Let me check." After checking I asked him if he could hear me now and he said, "Yes, that's much better. What happened?" I had been holding the phone upside down!!

Then I called my mom to check if she had worked on a little Christmas surprise that I had asked her to do. When I had asked her to do it she was just getting out of some outpatient surgery and was very groggy, so I didn't think she remembered. She didn't, but one of the recepients of the surprise was in the room with me and I couldn't reveal too much. I asked the recepient of the surprise to leave the room while I continued talking with my mom. Said recepient had been gone for several minutes and I had continued talking when my mom asked, "What did you want me to do?" I said, "What are you talking about?" I had forgotten what I called her for...even after asking the recepient to leave the room.

I think maybe it's a combination of both.....I'm just an old nursing mom!