Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

We have some exciting family events coming up in the next few weeks – including a very special 50th Anniversary Celebration for my parents in which my entire family will gather here at our home for a weekend full of surprises and fun.

To make the “Golden Weekend” go more smoothly, we decided to make as much of the food ahead as we could.

So two of my sisters and a couple of nieces came down for a few days this week and we had our very own “Cook-a-thon” (complete with lots of chocolate and laughter and even some vintage music!)

My kitchen was hopping as we had every available surface covered and in use.

We made 4 cavatini’s that were put in aluminum foil pans and frozen.

We peeled over 70 potatoes and made 3 large pans of make-ahead mashed potatoes. These were also put in aluminum foil pans and frozen.

We baked a large batch of crescent rolls…

…a very large batch of crescent rolls (because you can never have too many hot buttered rolls!)

We also brined, roasted and pulled apart a large turkey, made a batch of hamburger buns, made 8 pounds of taco meat, prepped 4 egg casseroles, made 4 pans of cinnamon rolls that we froze before baking, and covered 40 pieces of chicken in Mom’s original marinade before freezing them in plastic bags.

Whew!

Not only did we make a freezer full of food, we also made some great plans and fun memories.

We discovered once again the truth in the old saying “Helping hands will get things done, half the effort, twice the fun”!

This post is linked up at Design’s by Gollum.

Can you see the little pretties coming up? Aren’t they cute?!

Don’t even try to count them – there are too many! And these are just the ones I started early.

You should see all the seed packets that are going directly in the garden – the huge pile of sweet corn, green beans, peas, pumpkins, and much more!

Let’s just say I went a little overboard.

I stood in the seed aisle at Menard’s and lost my sanity.

Maybe it was the result of a long hard winter, or the warm breeze blowing outside. Or maybe it was the bright colored pictures of the big beautiful vegetables. I don’t know what caused it – but something snapped.

I was a kid in a candy store. I bought 4 different watermelon varieties, 2 different muskmelon, a cantaloupe and a honey dew variety – never once remembering that last year we failed to have even one melon seed of any kind germinate.

I have 36 cabbage plants, 36 broccoli plants, and 36 cauliflower plants started – 4 times as many as I normally plant.

Then there’s the peppers – both green and jalapeno (I can just taste those poppers!) and tomatoes.

Did I mention the 6 kinds of herbs I started from seeds?

I guess hope is new every spring. This is the year that the rains will come at just the right time, we will keep ahead of the weeds, and the bugs, coons, and other varmints will not appear.

My gardening mistakes and failures in past years are forgotten in the wonder of springtime.

I’ll let you know when reality hits!

I hope it stops raining.

I hope my package comes in time.

I hope my kids remember to say thank you.

We hope about things all day long….and we face many disappointments.

But what exactly is hope?

Sheila Walsh in her book Let Go (which is a fabulous book and I hope you all read it!) said it so well…

“Hope is only as strong as the object or person it is attached to. It has no value of its own…”

Wow. That is so true! If my hope is in the postal service or the every changing weather, or even my wonderful, yet quite fallible family, my hope is rather… um… hopeless.

Sheila Walsh goes on…

“As I sit here today, one thing is crystal clear to me: my hope can be summed up in one name – Jesus!

If my hope is in anything else apart from Jesus, then it is too small. He is the answer to everything I need or anticipate. He is my deepest desire even when I don’t immediately recognize that.

He is my yesterday, today and tomorrow.

When everything fails, He will not.

When I can’t count on myself, I can count on Him.

When I’m not sure how to pay my bills, I can hope in him.

When I don’t know what’s happening in our country, I can hope in Him.

When friends fail, He will not.

When my health fails, He will not.

When I disappoint others and myself, He will never disappoint.

When I want to give up on myself, He will never give up on me.

When I find it hard to love myself, He does not.

When I have no grace for myself, He does.

When I don’t know what to do any more, He does.

Do you see how securely your life is tucked into the very hand of the one who holds the universe in place?

You are loved, you are loved, and yes, you are loved!”

What is your hope in today? Are you feeling disappointed?  Discouraged? It’s time to put your hope in God.

He is the only one strong enough to never let you down.

“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5: 5

My husband is absolutely the easiest guy to cook for – ever. Seriously. He rarely complains, just enjoys what’s put in front of him.

I’m not sure if this is the result of living on his own it for several years before we met and fell in love – or if he has always been so easy going?

But since he seems to like everything I cook – when he does compliment a dish, I take notice!

I first tried this recipe a few years ago – never dreaming that he really liked coconut. Surprise! He finished off a tray hot from the oven!

So simple. So yummy. What a great way to make my handsome guy happy!

Coconut Macaroons

Combine:

1/2 cup flour
3-3/4 cup flaked coconut
1/8 tsp. salt

Add:

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix well. The batter will be stiff. Drop by tablespoons about 1 inch apart on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Yield: 2-1/2 doz.

Enjoy!

I finally did it.

I cut my bangs.

Ever since Christmas I’ve been growing them out.

Why? I’m not sure.

I think it started when Dagmar had her hair cut and styled. As I sat there in the beauty parlor watching a professional turn my little girl’s pony tail into a young woman’s style – I started to feel a little dowdy. After all I’ve been wearing my hair the same way for years now.

Maybe it was the combination of country music and the intoxicating scent of hair product -  but I suddenly realized that I wanted a change. I would grow my bangs out and get a style.

The problem is that I have naturally curly hair. It doesn’t like change.  It does whatever it pleases on any given day. I’ve learned to subdue it by keeping it trimmed.

What was I thinking?

This life without trimming was fine at first – but slowly started to drive me crazy.

My subdued locks went wild with no restraint.

I actually bought <gulp> product to use. I gummed my bangs up with hair gel and sprayed them with hairspray – but as soon as I left the house the curls would bounce out every which way.

Sigh.

The family was supportive at first, although their eyebrows went up in amazement when the hair spray came out. Was their minimum maintenance momma actually using hair product?! What would be next? Heels?

When I would get discouraged the girls would say, “Just give it a little more time Mom”. Even my husband encouraged me to let it grow.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday was one of those incredibly awful bad hair days.

The humidity was high after two days of rain and no amount of hair product was going to subdue my errant curls.

I had corkscrews growing off my forehead in random patterns. I cringed every time I passed by a mirror.

I mentioned to my girls that I was ready to chop off those bangs – and in return I got wan little smiles that seemed to say, “Yes Mom – it’s time!”

This morning I casually mentioned to my husband that I thought it was time to cut my bangs. Even he agreed, saying, “Will you cut it yourself or go in to the salon?”

So I cut them.

It was such a relief.

I felt like myself again. It was comfortable. My curls and I were at peace.

I feel a little like Olivia Walton. In several episodes of the Walton’s she feels the need to make a change, to be or look different. Yet at the end of the hour-long show, no matter what she tried – soloist in the church choir or a new hairdo -  she realized that she rather liked things the way the were before.

She went searching for something that she already had.

Me too. It just took me four months.

But I found it – my very own style – the one that has worked for years.

It’s good to be back.