MOVING

I'm moving...and in about 6 seconds the page will change and will take you to the new blog destination (well if I did all the HTML right it will)!!

still working out all the kinks.  So if it doesn't take you automatically just Click

HERE

Rollin' 'Rollin' Rollin

A fabulous rolling pin is super helpful when making a delicious pie crust.
The pin, was my grandmothers, and I adore it.  

I love holding it in my hands and imagining what all she made with it?  

How many rolls were made using this pin? 

How many cookies?  

Somehow using the pin that my grandmother used to lovingly prepare things for our family, makes me want to make more things for my family.

I know I'm weird.

I'm okay with that!
(well most of the time)

The pie crust I made with THIS recipe.  Well at least pretty close to it...as you can see from the previous post I'm not one to follow recipes religiously or cautiously
measure ingredients.  But it turned out yummy!
 Granted it's filled with the ooey gooey yumminess of  fudge pie!!  

What doesn't taste delicious when filled with oooey gooey fudginess??

Do you know the muffin man??

I don't, so I got to make my own.  I posted this recipe a few years ago HERE and decided it was worthy of reposting. 

Why am I double posting tonight?  Well I'm supposed to be packing.  I really have a ton to do....makes sense right?  yeah....to my husband either, but I'm crazy that way.

But hey, we made these for my daughter and I have to have when we leave our house tomorrow on the little mini-trip I'm supposed to be getting ready for.  Does that count?

We're leaving before the sun rises.  Okay so maybe not really before the sun rises, but PERHAPS I don't really have a single clue when the sunrises lately because just PERHAPS since I've been back form church camp I've not been up early enough to have a single little clue.  Just maybe I've been sleeping til....cough cough...well let's just say the sun is up.
MaryKyle and I decided to make these today after picking berries so we would have them to grab in the morning.  We are heading to a homeschool convention with my sister and cousins (HOORAY!!!) this weekend and to visit dear friends of ours we've not seen in too long now!!

These are our very favorite muffins. The recipe is a super duper forgiving one.  For the original recipe click the link above. Here's what I did to it today.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

1 cup milk
1/4 cup cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla (oh just squirt some in)
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup turbinado sugar (oops...I was out...used natural sugar instead)
1/4 tsp lemon extract  (oops...just squirted in some lemon juice didn't measure that either though)
1 Tbsp Honey  (totally out...we go through tons of raw honey in our house....just skipped it and added about a Tbsp more sugar)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup fresh blueberries (tossed in what I thought looked like a yummy amount)
STREUSEL TOPPING
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar (guesstimated)
2 Tbsp butter, cold (guesstimated)

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees
2 grease bottoms only of 12 cup muffin tin
3. Beat the milk, oil, vanilla and eggs appx 2 min
4. Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon extract and honey (will be lumpy). Stir in blueberries.
5. divide batter among muffin cups.
6. Cut butter into flour and brown sugar with pastry blender for topping
7. sprinkle each muffin with appx 2 tsp topping
8. Bake 20-25 min or until golden brown.

Who needs cute shoes when you have squash?

Bought these Zephyr squash at our local farmers market from the local farmer where we always pick our strawberries!!  
The kids said I just HAD to buy some because they matched my outfit that night. So of course, I did.
I mean, honestly, who doesn't love a coordinating squash now and then??  I had just thrown on some flip flops that night afterall...I was in need of a a little accessorizing!

 I sliced them put them on a cookie sheet and drizzled on some olive oil, then some garlic powder, sea salt, thyme and pepper.  Baked it at 450 and turned it halfway through the cooking.  We all LOVED it!!

My sweet daughter decorated our table tonight on her own with no prompting.  There's something about flowers in a mason jar that screams simplicity and loveliness to me!!  Just love it!!  And that she tore a piece of toile to tie around....yes I love that girl, she makes me smile from my inside out!

our life a few weeks ago

I'm presently curled up on my couch in my living room.  

I was wondering what to blog about.  And it hit me just a SHORT few days ago my life was so different.  We miss it so much!! 

So I thought I'd give a short tour of our home in Honduras a few weeks ago....thanks to the Bilodeaus and the folks at Little Hands Big Hearts for allowing us to use of this space!

This is the kitchen.  Notice a few things are missing....like the kitchen sink!  

But there is a fridge...a REAL full-size FRIDGE with a FREEZER!!  You have NOOOO idea how exciting this was for us.  The last 2 summers we have not had such a treasure...or DRAWERS!!  

Oh yes this was luxury to us!!

But no worries about that missing sink....it's just in the bathroom!

Worked just fine.  Well til dishes would fall off the ledge behind the washer and MK was the only one that could fit to get under and through and get the fallen dishes!

Our functioning toilet is to the left of the sink.  There was another bathroom with a functioning shower.

Here's the stove.  No oven.  but I had use of the oven in the
main building on the campus as long as it wasn't being used for something else.  It worked fine, except it was HOT...As in furnace HOT.  My friend Sara once put an oven thermometer in it to get an idea of the temp and at the lowest setting it maxed out the thermometer which I think was 450.
My Mother guessed that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego might have been familiar with this oven.....seriously it was HOT!
I'm pretty certain my Honduran friends think I am a lousy cook because it's like learning to cook all over again as far as ingredients, pots, pans, ovens, stoves, etc etc.....ha ha ha!!







Here's our living room.  The couch is an old van seat.  the coffee table one of our travel trunks.  And you know what, it worked just fine!!


I'm missing the simplicity and tons of time together.
We read together for HOURS every day.  Or we crafted or just hung out together.
Too much to do and too much going on here to do that most days.

I miss it.  I miss being excited over a full size fridge and my kids LOVING the ice trays that provided our ice cubes.  I'm now of the opinion that everyone should own ice trays.   Otherwise how will you teach your kids how we made our own popsicles as kids, and oh the joy kids find in twisting to get their own ice cubes out??
Ice cube trays are now on our shopping list!!!

no time to rest when life is so much fun!

(

Ack....PDA!!!!!  Shhhh...don't tell the counselors!

My sweet honey and I have spent the last week at church camp.  

We had just enough time to throw some clothes into wash when we got back in the country and headed off.....

are we a bit overprotective or what? 

 But we both loved church camp as kids and we wanted our kids to start creating those awesome memories too.  

Except we weren't quite ready to pack them up and walk away....

so off we went!!

My cabin of girls!

Me and my precious friend Ashleigh.  

we giggled til I nearly wet my pants just about every night.....well and all day too for that matter!

Such a blessing to serve as co-counselor with her!!

Not sure she'll have any desire to be around me for a while now....I'm guessing she might need a break.

She stayed in my house while we were gone to Honduras, then came over one of the nights before we left for camp (right when we got home from Honduras) and then spent the week in the bed next to mine.  

Yeah I'm thinking she'll need a good long break from me to recover from the insanity!

and no...I'm not sleeping yet or getting rest.  Some day soon I'm declaring a PJ day.  Might even put a sign on my front door that day....

"DAY OF REST.  Enter at your own risk, but do NOT ring the bell before 1pm.  Even then, don't expect us to be presentable...."

We have a full weekend this weekend as well.  Two extra kiddos who we love are here and we have an all day event tomorrow. 

Life is too much fun to slow down right now. 

I figure instead of whining, might as well smile big, laugh and enjoy the ride.....

The day we arrived back in the country we lost a precious friend.  James Olson was a great man of God.  

His smiled put you at ease instantly.  He never seemed to have a non-intentional conversation.  When he asked you to go out to eat after church, it was never "hey we're going out, you guys want to go?"  Instead he would walk up to you, look you directly in the eye, and with pure sincerity he would say something like "we would really love to spend some time with you this afternoon.  We'd love to chat with you and see how your week was and what's going on in your life"  

Every conversation with James led to the cross, Christ and his passion for a loving God!

Today we celebrated his life.  

Sharri, his precious wife, asked us all to adhere to a strict dress code....no suits, no ties, casual, and bright....Hawaiian shirts were suggested even.  This was to be a true celebration of this man who's smile never seemed to leave his face.  Who touched the lives of everyone he came into contact with.

Whose light SHONE to all around him!!

I've read messages from people who never met him, but had chatted with him on HAMM radio (a passion of his) about the impact he made on their lives even though they never actually laid eyes on him.  Today at the service a friend from California who he chatted with each day recalled how when he found out about our loss of James the entire trading room floor where he worked was torn up and crying.  They'd never met James in person....only knew him over the phone from when he called his friend
each day.  

Wow....just wow....

I knew he had that impact on me.  

I knew he had that impact on my children.

I knew he had that impact on my husband

I knew he had that impact on all the teens from our congregation who have spent the last 3 days gathered at his home helping to support his wife and children...and each other.

I knew...I knew in my heart how much impact this man made in this world in his short time on this earth.  

But looking around today at the over 600 people who gathered to celebrate this amazing man....

It made me want to be better.  

Again.

because every conversation with this man made me want to be better.

Made me want to be happier.

Made me want to smile more.

Made me want to be more content.

Made me want to love more fully and laugh more richly.

Made me remember that Christ is the center of my life!

James....you will be missed!

Your impact on all of us who were blessed to have known you, is phenomenal.  

We will live life differently because of you.

Your memory alone makes us better people!

Thank you James!

Thank you God for allowing us to know him, and be touched by him!!
Thank you for reminding us through James that each moment is precious,
each moment an opportunity to touch a life, or save a soul!
Thank you for reminding us that each moment is one that we should
spend ensuring that we are working for you God and making you proud!

I'm baaacckkk!!

Our time in Honduras flew by yet again.....
The last 10 days were just positively NUTTY!!  But good...just nutty....up at 5-6am and back to our house and in bed by midnight-1am.....
Now it's laundry and packing for camp which starts Sunday.
Hopefully I'll get to upload some pictures from Honduras really soon!!  
Our daughter cried last night for the longest time because it hit her we were back in the states and she wants to go back to Honduras!!  I tend to agree with her and am feeling the same today!!

Anyone in the N'ville area?!

My friend, Amy, over at CRAFTY MOMMY MADNESS is having a fun contest.  So many of my relatives and friends are in the N'ville area so I thought I'd share this with any of you.  Please be sure to pass it on because this is a great and fun contest for sure!!

The new Peek-a-boo Playtown opens this weekend in Cool Springs (My friend Amy designed their adorable logo above!  She's awesome that way!).  They are going to have lots of fun for sure it sounds like. Definitely something that would be a fun day for the kiddos with lots of activities and giveaways.  A great activity on a hot summer day so kids aren't whining that they are hot, etc!!

Amy is giving away 2 open play passes for either location and a t-shirt (you even get to pick the color and size).  The Contest ends July 9th at 6 pm Nashville time.  So be sure to get over there!!

So hop on over to her blog and enter to win!!!