Comfort Food!

Veggie Soup

Homemade Cornbread Muffins

I can read!

As long as there are flaps to flip!

Yes, I love my books!

Hats All Folks

Small boy trying on a Hat Tall girl threw down stairs.

too funny and way too pink for him!

Superbowl Fan

Yay... Football!


No, really... I am excited !

Hungry... Growing Food

Tonight I am getting ready to plant my first seeds of this growing season. I am going to plant peppers and eggplant tonight into little seed trays. To grow them up in the basement or kitchen window until such a time as I can plant them into our new country * Vinland * . They need 8-10 weeks before the last spring frost to make good transplants.

This new country * Vinland * is a series of container plantings that my plants can flourish in, instead of digging a garden. Digging a real garden, with my back, is impossible. A container garden... now that is do-able for me.

I have big plans for the food I want to grow... I have my seeds purchased... some of my containers and bins are ready for dirt. Of course, the dirt, which is actually a soil-less mixture is not ready, but soon. The 5 gal food grade buckets and rubbermaid type bins are waiting.

Soil-less won't stop the seedlings ... they will grow in peat pellets.

I am really looking forward to having our own veggies and fruits growing. Ask what I want for my April birthday... Two dwarf blueberry plants :) from Gurneys.com! or perhaps a dwarf clemantine orange or a key lime tree! anyway... my focus is on the raising up of healthy food for my family....

which brings me to my next point. What am I hearing from God about this garden in the works.

besides the obvious Song of Songs Garden imagery...

Tonight, he gently points out to me that I am to feed the hunger ... feed my kids in His word and learn and teach them His ways.

It wasn't that I didn't already know it... He just gently reminded me that the HUNGER is not just for healthy organically raised fruits and veggies...

the HUNGER is for Him, for His Word.

... His Touch ... His Promises ... His Indwelling Spirit ... His Signs ... His Wonders ... His Word.

The hunger increases, the more oil that flows into my life, onto my head... the hungrier I become... the more I realize I NEED more of Him... the more I hear, the more I want to hear...

somewhere among the diapers, the school lessons, the laundry and the paintbrushes...

I must reach for MORE of HIM...

sowing, tending, planting transplants, watering ...

reading, studying, waiting, searching, journaling

He reminds me of the importance that my children be able to stand rooted and grounded in Him in the days to come.

He is showing me how to sow that, how to grow that, how to root that...

How the food of this world is not food at all, but a counterfeit... a substitute for what He intended us to eat...

and THAT revelation is what Vinland is truly for.

Of course, we will enjoy the fruits of our garden as we go.

Truly local, organic peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, lettuces, beets, turnips, beans, radishes, watermelon, spinach, etc. :)

Healthy food in a world that pushes the counterfeit.

Good Morning!

This is what makes for a good morning around our house... eggs cooked in the bacon grease... with hash browns and bacon. Funniest part about it is that is what we had for dinner saturday night!

The eggs look speckled from the meat bits left in the grease. The only reason the smile is there is when I went to flip grease onto the left eye... a segment of the egg fell off ... this is a smile that made itself in the pan!

We are still having sick kiddos... small boy is getting over his ear infection, but has a snotty nose and a pretty rough cough. Medium boy is still coughing a bit. The snow is still on the ground in places, but as Tall girl likes to say "it's not good for sledding anymore". (repeat phrase several times in a row, until someone notices how pathetically sad you are about this, making sure you help disappoint medium boy as you go) Medium boy is actually happy to just run around in the muddy leftovers and just be a boy.

Here he is getting to use that Christmas present finally!

As I got him ready to go out to play he says
"I look COOL"

Self Portrait in Homemade play-dough

A picture worth 1000 words

No More PHONE BOOKS

How many phone books do you get a year?

Why do we still get them?? ... we don't use them ... they simply go into the recycle bin.

Until today... I found this link where you can have simply opt out... for FREE!

OPT OUT OF PHONE BOOKS

Thank you and have a (more) paperless day!

Now back to our regular blog... :)

When I put on big brother's glasses...

...I'm fussy enough...

...but ultimately entirely too cool to be the world's smallest rock star!

Is that MEAT????

Every now and then....

we have a BIG country breakfast.

Eggs, Hash Browns & BACON !!


When I got up this morning, my lovely Medium boy said "I'm starving".


Which is highly usual.


He is always starving.

Except when he is not hungry.


So.... after I made the coffee...

I grabbed that package of bacon from the bottom drawer


the one that says ! delicious, salty, yummmy !

oh, I mean low salt bacon.

And Medium boy comes running into the kitchen

sees me with said package in hand

and says "Is that MEAT???"

after we crack up and take a picture of that precious face with his fingers wiggling...

I begin to cook that yummy bacon...

Once the pots and pans clang about a bit...

down the stairs come the bug...

walks sleepily into the kitchen announcing....

"I'm hungry".


um... okay... wait over there with the rest of the vultures! hee hee.



I mean cute hungry people I love to cook for!

Gardening in January...

So... the closest we (here in eastern missouri) typically get to gardening in January is reading seed catalogs, perhaps growing sprouts inside or if we are lucky enough to have one, play in our greenhouse on a sunny day. Well, I don't have a greenhouse (yet, though I've seen one I want, but $1000 is no way no how in my budget for the next few years) so I have been reading seed catalogs and looking at the online seed catalogs. Last night after the boys went to sleep, I went out to Home Depot and looked at what organic Burpee seeds there might be available. Sure enough, I found a few packets of exactly what I was going to buy online this year for a little bit cheaper, so I saved a few bucks.

I am still planning on buying a couple more packets online of a few specialty tomatoes, and then I will move on to buying (and mixing) soil for my upcoming container garden. I also have to plan out my calendar by the predicted last frost so I know when to start each set of seeds. Fun, fun, fun. Who knew veggies could take so much planning. Oh, but how I look forward to eating them!

Remember when I said I spent a few days pulling up bulbs and flowers and such ... well, I looked in the garage today and it seems my narcissus bulbs were sprouting. So, I actually did get to garden today! It was a balmy 56 degrees so I headed outside and put all the narcissus bulbs into two beds at the front of the house. I encountered two or three bulbs in each bed that were also sprouting, so I left them to come up among the narcissus. I think a couple were hyacinth and tulip. I cannot wait to see how lovely those beds are about mid March.

Happy Birthday!!!!

All your Grandkids !!!

Happy Birthday Mom !!!!

We all wish you a very happy birthday!

Love,
Chris

Paige

Tall Girl

Medium Boy

Small Boy

Have a Beautiful Day ... We love YOU!

Feeling FOXY!!

Either the Mommy or the Daddy... this is the one
controlling where the other two went....
It is at the foot of our backyard!

For perspective, I am standing at the sliding glass door in the basement, about 40 feet from it.

Dashing up the hill toward the other two
(and yipping at the other two)

These two were following what the "boss" said.

this one is standing in front of the other... maybe the baby and parent?


They were just getting ready to run off.
They were standing straight out from our deck on the rise.

These are our fabulous pics (too cold to go out close) of the foxes we were visited by today. Caitlyn heard them calling out during schooltime, so we took a quick break to see where they were and what they were up to.

Stinkin' CUTE !!!

This is the way small boy smiles at us
... when he is touching something he knows is a no, no. Too Stinkin' Cute!

Yahtzee Night

Chris got home late from teaching at Summit,

so we played a game of yahtzee with tall girl and ate popcorn...

Tall girl eating the popcorn

This is tall girl getting yahtzee with sixes!!

Tall girl loves to play games, but loves the popcorn more!

Chris is a little enthusiastic about his turn...

And always a ham for the camera

this roll is taking forever!

All that to say we had fun!

Sssshhh don't tell the boys... they were fast asleep! Poor little guys both have colds. (which really means Chris and I did not sleep more than an hour or so at a time last night!)

Peas and Corn

Medium boy:

"I love peas and corn and if they could grow peas and corn in the same patch... that would be GREAT"

Just the cutest things they say.

I wonder if he will feel the same way this summer when we are weeding. I know he will LOVE eating it all fresh! He is my veggie guy! Tall girl cannot get enough of them either... we never have leftover veggies!!

Tonight we met Baby Swanner

Danielle & Brandon

Cute new baby Swanner ...
"Baby Nugget"

who does not yet have his name... though Mom and Dad are close!

The current vote is due to be completed at Midnight... We are excited for what they pick.

It is officially announced for a few days now...

Elias Josiah Swanner!

We are very fond of his name.