In the midst of your holiday celebrations – take time to remember that the freedom we celebrate today was not free.
“And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free,
And I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me…”
Lee Greenwood
We’ve got a big weekend planned!
Jan’s entire family is gathering here for a fun weekend of family time. This big ole’ farm house will be bursting from the seams with people and laughter!
Meals are planned and the freezers are full of food.
The toys are brought down from the attic.
Beds are made and ready in every available piece of floor space!
Every blanket and pillow in the attic is ready to be used.
The picnic tables have been fixed, painted or borrowed.
The lawn is getting mowed.
Tents are being set up.
Games have been planned.
Surprises are prepared.
Excitement is building as our driveway starts filling up with out-of-state license plates!
Let the fun begin!
Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend everyone!
We have a GPS.
I will admit that I resisted its purchase for sometime. I told Jan that he really didn’t need another woman in the front seat telling him where to go. 🙂
I finally gave in just before our big Western Adventure. We set it to speak in an Australian accent and named her Matilda Garmin Shervheim – “Tilly” for short.
Tilly has proven to be quite helpful in locating campgrounds, directing us through large cities, pointing us to the nearest gas station and finding a Sonic at 2:00 for Slushie cravings.
But recently we discovered a weakness in our newest toy: she’s only as good as the information in her data base.
As Jan and I traveled along around northeast Iowa on our adventure day attempting to find a farm, Tilly took us on a wild goose chase. The map in my hand said we should continue going north but Tilly insisted that we turn around and head east.
She was adamant that we were heading in the wrong direction.
We muted her so we didn’t have to continually hear, “Recalculating. Recalculating. Please drive the highlighted route.”
Silly Tilly.
It was quite frustrating since I knew that general direction we needed to go and the map agreed – but Tilly was quite clear that we were all wrong.
Her database just didn’t contain all the information for the gravel roads and off-the-beaten track places our adventures often take us.
Finally after driving over an hour up bluffs and through valleys – in desperation – we called the guy we were looking for and he led us out of the mess we were in.
The same thing happened during our latest adventure. Tilly was worth her weight in gold as we traveled through St. Louis – but once we got off the pavement she got quite confused.
We discovered that we can only trust Tilly when she knows where she is leading us.
Otherwise – we might as well mute her because her advise is worthless.
And so it is in life.
There are people all around us sharing advise, telling us what to do, giving us directions.
But do they know where they are going?
What’s in their database?
The only one we can fully trust to lead us is the One who has our entire life mapped out. He is the one who knows the past, the present and the future.
His data is never flawed.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.”
Both of my parents and most of my siblings are pretty adventurous when it comes to food.
So I always love to try new recipes – especially desserts – when my family comes to visit.
This last trip – when dad and my sister came to help prepare for graduation – was no different.
Even though the larder was pretty empty and our time was short, we were still able to dig up enough ingredients in the pantry and freezer to make these yummy bars.
The combination of butterscotch chips and graham cracker crumbs intrigued me – and of course I love anything with cream cheese!
Butterscotch Cream Cheese Bars
1 cup butterscotch chips
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/8 cup flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Melt the butterscotch chips and butter. Add the graham cracker crumbs and walnuts. Mix well. Reserve about one cup of the crumb mixture. Spread the rest of the mixture in the bottom of an ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Bake 12 minutes.
Beat the cream cheese and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Add the flour and lemon juice.
Pour over the baked crust and sprinkle with the reserved crumbs.
Bake 20-25 minutes.
Cool. Cut into bars and refrigerate.
These are best when eaten after they have been in the fridge for 24 hours.
This post is linked up with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace and Tasty Tuesdays over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.
I feel like I must confess here.
After all my noble efforts to start my own plants this winter – well – ahem – things haven’t worked out so well.
Let’s start with my pathetic cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plants.
They were so bad that when I was shopping with my sister at the Amish stores – in a moment of weakness I bought all new big and beautiful plants and planted them in my garden.
That’s not all – the spindly little cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower starts that I’ve been nursing for months got yanked out of their pots and – are you ready for this – fed to the chickens.
Ouch.
But wait – there’s more!
Most of cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, and squash plants looked fabulous for a while – but then started shriveling up and dying. Anything that had at least one green leaf got planted in the garden this week.
I think I will need to do a lot of replanting!
But on the bright side -we’ve have several meals of asparagus, a few tiny radish and our first garden fresh salad. The lettuce I planted was a mix of different varieties – some I am not familiar with.
Pedro took one bite of lettuce last night and announced, “I think I just ate a weed!”
I must confess that since my garden is not exactly weed-free that I”m more that a little worried he did!
Speaking of lettuce – during that same shopping trip with my sister Teresa – I also bought 2-4 packs of head lettuce to put in the garden – thinking they would give me a head start on salad.
Two nights later there was a bunny convention in my garden and all my beautiful heads were served as the entree. Let’s just say that was some expensive bunny food. 😦
But then there’s my tomato plants. We moved them into bigger pots a few weeks ago and planted them in the garden this week. They are doing great!
My friend Mendi asked me at Matt’s Graduation party just how many tomato plants I actually planted this year. Would you believe I didn’t even know?!
But since this post is a confessional of sorts – I sent Angel Girl out to count.
58.
Yes – I need to confess to going slightly overboard and planting fifty-eight tomato plants. I may be handing out bags of ripe tomatoes to random strangers come mid-August! 🙂
There – now that all of my garden blunders are out in the open – I have nothing more to hide.
They say that confession is good for the soul – I hope it’s good for a laugh or two as well! 🙂
I’ve linked this post up with the Tuesday Garden Party over at An Oregon Cottage.
We did it!
Our first born has successfully been graduated, celebrated, and appreciated.
And this mom is exhausted – but oh – so proud and happy!!
That’s one graduation down – just four more to go!
Graduation is tomorrow.
Everybody’s been asking me if I’m ready for the big day.
Ready?
Well – the house is clean, the food is prepped, the invitations are sent, the cap and gown are pressed and we have several house projects completed in anticipation of the after-graduation party.
But am I ready?
Hmmm…good question.
Is it ever possible to be ready for major life changes? Was I ready when Matt was born? When we sat down at the kitchen table and started school? When he started driving?
Yet – at this point – after all the planning and preparations – I think I’m ready to just get it done and get back to normal.
But wait – that’s the problem isn’t it.
After tomorrow our “normal” will be different.
At the end of the summer there will be only be four students sitting around our table doing school.
My first-born will be out of the nest.
And it’s that thought – dear friends – that leaves me in a puddle.
When my sister Teresa graduated her oldest – she would burst into tears whenever anyone even said the word graduation.
I used to tease her about it.
Silly me.
I guess it’s my turn now.
Somebody please pass me the tissues – ready or not – here we go!
One of the difficulties in renovating an older house is finding doors and trim that both fit in the space needed and the look of the house.
We changed the bathroom around a little when we removed the plaster and lathe – leaving us with an odd size door opening and no door that would fit it.
My amazing dad found a slightly bigger door and made it fit.
But it had no hardware.
We just made do with a simple hook and eye latch – which worked great until we put the trim up. Then we realized that the eye part of the latch would have to be put right in the middle of my newly refinished trim.
No way.
So for a few months – we used a bleach bottle to hold the bathroom closed.
It worked okay until we started opening windows – then the wind would blow the door open despite the bleach bottle. Rather embarrassing…
Now I started to worry.
I know that very soon we would be having a graduation open house here – followed in a few days by a large family reunion – followed in a few days by the visit of several nieces and nephews.
We needed a permanent solution. So I started to pray for a door. I needed a 28 inch solid wood door – vintage 1920’s – preferably pine – that had a door knob at exactly the right height.
It would take a miracle.
Silly me – I have a God that specializes in miracles!
It only took 2 trips to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore before we found them – 2 pocket doors – 28 inches, pine, vintage 1920’s and since they are pocket doors – they have no hardware so we could buy new and put it where ever we wanted on the door.
I cried in the ReStore. 🙂
We bought them both.
A little bit of sanding – well – alright – a whole lot of sanding! 🙂 Some stain and a few coats of varnish and we have a perfect door!
The new – but old-looking doorknobs fit right in the decor – and – as an added bonus – even lock!
My dad installed it this weekend and my heart sings every time I heard the click of the door knob!
Bye-bye bleach bottle! 🙂
There’s a graduation gown hanging in my dining room, a pile of to-do lists on my counter, and a ka-jillion cookies in my freezer.
I can’t believe that we’re less than a week away from graduating our oldest son!
My dad and sister came down over the weekend to help out with the long list of projects.
What a blessing they were!
Dad worked on hanging doors and trimming out another room.
Teresa baked, sewed, ironed, cleaned, organized, and helped me make more lists. She even did windows. 🙂
All that good help needed some good food – like this shortbread cookie with a yummy mixed nut center topped with a layer of chocolate. Don’t even ask how many calories – trust me we worked them all off! 🙂
Chocolate Nutty Shortbread
Shortbread:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter (1-1/2 sticks)
Nutty Filling:
14 tablespoons butter
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
4 tablespoons light corn syrup
9 ounces mixed nuts
Chocolate topping:
12 ounces chocolate – I used a mix of semi-sweet and dark
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line 9 x 9 x 2 inch-square baking pan with regular or nonstick foil.
Shortbread: In food processor, process flour, sugar and butter until mixture looks sandy and begins to clump. Turn into pan; press over bottom. Prick all over with fork. Bake in 325 degree oven 5 minutes. Lower heat to 300 degrees; bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is pale gold. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack.
Peanut-Caramel Filling: In large bowl, melt butter. Whisk in condensed milk and corn syrup. Cook on medium heat until boiling, stirring all the time. Mixture should be thickened and lightly golden brown. Let stand 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk. Stir in mixed nuts. Spread over cooled shortbread mixture.
Chocolate Topping: In double boiler, combine chocolates. Heat until melted, stirring to combine. Spread chocolate over nutty filling. Let cool. Once chocolate is set, with sharp knife, cut into 24 bars.
Enjoy!
I’ve linked this post up with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday At the Well and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.
Jan and I had yet another adventure this last weekend.
In a 1990 blue Ford pickup with a bench seat and manual windows pulling a borrowed trailer – we drove over 8 hours to pick up some new calves.
Eight long hours fighting a head wind.
Eight fun hours talking, laughing and enjoying each others company.
Eight hours that included over an hour of white knuckled driving through St. Louis. Boy did we look out of place – like hillbillies from the sticks! We should have rolled the windows down and spit every now and again to complete the look! 🙂
But these cute little ladies were worth it! They are Belted Galloway heifers – otherwise known as Oreo Cookie cows. (Now – how perfect is that for a Chocolate Lady like me!)
We loaded up early Saturday morning, turned the rig around and headed it right back home – another 8 hours.
And of course the wind changed – so we got to fight a head wind all the way home! 🙂
Along the way I made a few observations:
Riding on a bench seat in a pickup truck helps you discover muscles and bones you forgot you had – and the experience stays with you for several days! (A strategically placed heating pad helps!)
A Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup McFlurry is the perfect treat while cruising down the highway in the sunshine with your windows down.
Six calves in a stock trailer for 8 hours can make a really big mess that requires a power washing on Sunday morning before you leave for church.
My husband is still my favorite person to take an adventure with.
And – the very best part of any road trip is pulling in the driveway and knowing your home!
Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees 