Strawberry lovin'

Drew is my strawberry jam lover. Actually we all are when it's homemade. I grew up with homemade freezer jam. My mom would make batches and batches with fresh strawberries we'd all help pick. The last few years I've just been buying frozen strawberries and making it one batch at a time throughout the year. Drew eats a tablespoon in his oatmeal almost every morning. It's also great in plain yogurt and of course in a PB&J sandwich. It tastes sooo much better than what you get in the store (very fresh), it's cheaper, and very easy to make!! It takes 4 cups of crushed berries and I end up with 3 mason jars and a yogurt container full. Here is my stash, now in the freezer, that I made Thursday morning.

We follow the recipe from the Sure-jell box. We get the the pink one because it uses less sugar.

Randomness for your enjoyment...

Drew entertained us while we waited for Trent's basketball game to start. And let me tell you, I think he found his calling ;)




AND Mike's experiment over New Year's...a BEARD.

Did he just say that?!

So I'm sitting on the couch checking my email and looking up a new egg casserole recipe, and Drew peaks out of the bathroom and asks, "Mom, can we have something to eat."

"Sure, what would you like to have for lunch?"

He turns back around to his brother and says, "She's awake so we can't steal anything."

Did he really just say that? Now there have been many days when I've walked into the "play room" and almost stepped on a bag of tortillas, Cheerios, Cheeze-its, and various other snacks that Drew snuck out of the pantry while I'm otherwise distracted. Each time this occurs, mind you, they have a consequence. We have a talk about how we ONLY EAT AT THE TABLE. If we take food to the other rooms and make crumbs then we get little ants that like to come and help polish them off for us. They know all this by heart and can repeat it back to me, but it doesn't deter their attempts to sneak in the pantry, hide food behind their back, and run as fast as they can to the play room. I do catch them on occasion and make them put the food back. They also enjoy an nice reminder (the above said conversation) and after an apology and a hug they're off to play again.

Not 5 min. after Drew's comment the phone rang and out of the corner of my eye I catch Drew running down the hall. It hits me as I hear the sound of plastic slamming down onto the table...the OREO's!! I tell Drew to come bring back what he had just taken and sure enough it was the package of OREO's.

Will they ever learn?? Any suggestions, besides feeding them 3 meals a day (ha ha)??

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

I wanted to write quick note before I head to bed. Jen and I just finalized some thoughts for our speaking engagement tomorrow. It is Sanctity of Life Sunday and Jen and I were asked to share our stories at Hope Missionary Church in Bluffton, IN. Please pray for us to be calm despite our nerves. We are so glad to be able to share our boys with these new friends, but it can also be emotionally draining. Our prayer is that in our sharing hearts will be challenged and moved to compassion, and that God would be praised in the peaks and the valleys. There is joy along this journey!

Blessings friends...

Feelin' crafty

I've made a couple nursing covers for friends, and they are so neat. I first saw them here. My friends have said they are very handy. I googled some instructions and they were fairly easy to follow. I just finished another one. I know some of my far away friends are expecting and I wanted to pass on the instructions I found from another blog in case you might feel inspired, but when I went to place the link it must have been deleted from the archives...AHHH! I'll work on it! For now here's what mine looks like.

I also tried my hand at felting. I picked up an old wool sweater from Goodwill and felted it. (I did find out that it needs to be at least 80% wool to felt. Wash it on hot with a couple of tablespoons of dish soap - not laundry detergent!) I found the basic idea here, and sewed on a few pockets, a couple free hand flowers, and a cute button. Here's how it turned out.

A weekend in the 'ville!

Last weekend we took the boys down to Cedarville,OH to see a college basketball game. My brother Loren helps with the team and so it was fun for us to see him "on the bench" with the other coaches and meet some of the team. (There is a guy from Jamaica on the team, Chris Walker, whose sister was the winner of the 100m in the Olympics.) The boys were excited to see the "BEE." We ate at the best pizza place in town, Colonial, of course! The boys loved that they cut the pizza in squares instead of triangles :) It's the little things in life, huh!


Here is a picture from our LAST visit to compare
Trent was so excited to get a Cedarville hat and t-shirt.





Not sure what is so interesting off to the left, it seems to be holding Drew's fascination in each shot! Oh well.
We did get to hang out with the family this weekend, here is one of my boys with grandpa.

Photo Tag - Snow Ice Cream

I’ve been tagged by my friend Jen P. on her blog It's a Wonderful Life in a post called “Photo Tag”. Here are the rules:

Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures.

Pick the 4th picture in that folder.

Explain the picture.

Tag 4 people to do the same.

I've never done anything like this, but I was curious, so I quickly pulled up "My Pictures" and this is what I saw...

This picture of Trent was from December of 2005. He was 3 1/2 years old. It was our first attempt at making Snow ice-cream. When I was in the third grade my teacher made this with us at school. I just loved it and we got to take the recipe home. My mom actually made some with my bothers and I at home...we just had to remember to scoop off the top layer, not collect any that touched the grass, and STAY away from any snow that looked yellow :)

I didn't have that recipe, nor did my mom, so I began searching the internet to see if I could find something that sounded similar. I did find quite a few and ended up combining a couple because of the ingredients I had, or didn't, in my kitchen.

We tried chocolate, and mint with mini chocolate chips!! YUMMM!

The recipe went something like this:

1 cup milk

1 t. vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

4-5 cups of clean snow (don't pack the snow)

Mix together the milk, vanilla, and the sugar. Stir until dissolved. Add snow to reach desired consistency. All ingredients can be adjusted to suit your preferences. ENJOY!

Now onto the fourth rule...I would like to tag...Ruth P., Karla H., Sarah S., and Andrea S.

Looking forward to a blast from the past, ladies ;)