Telling the truth!

I have been thinking about this thought over the past couple of days..."Does my blog really reveal the truth about our lives?" Much like a scrap book, my blog captures the 'Hallmark Moments' that tells of a story of sweetness. So, I wonder if I had a really bad day, would I blog on that day and write about how I was truly feeling? I don't visit many blogs but the ones that I have read always seem to be about this perfect life. I am going to try to be honest and write about those terrible days and not sugar coat them
when they come up...which I am sure there will be some since we are a family with 6 children!! Just a thought!

Christmas Pictures

Does the excitement of Christmas have to end?

Does the excitement of Christmas have to end? We have had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve day in Kearney with Dave's mom and her husband. They are always such a blessing to us and spoil us terribly! This year their focus was on games for the children. It was the first time that we all played games together. We had such a great time. My personal favorite was watching Darcey play Horseopoly. She was hilarious with her expressions and business like attitude! Ha Ha! We ended the evening by going to our church for the Christmas service.

Christmas Day was spent at home with the children. It is tradition for the children to wake up and to open their stockings. Our bedroom sits right by the living room and I love to lay in the bed and listen to them as they oooo and aaaah over their treasures. We then read the Christmas story from the book of Luke and open gifts. After hours of playing with all of our new toys, we had our Christmas dinner by candle light. It was a wonderful day to remember just how much the children are growing.

It is now three days after Christmas and I am just now really enjoying the season! How do we get sucked into the hustle and bustle of the season so quickly even when we are trying so hard not to lose focus on the real meaning of the holiday? We, like many of you, were rushing around with last minute shopping, Christmas programs and baking. Of course, I also had to paint the bathroom in the midst of the holiday!
Bad planning on my part!!

Now that the holiday has passed, I finally feel that I am able to relax and enjoy the children being off of school and getting caught up on the daily household chores. I have been thinking a lot about the many gifts that we recieved this year and wonder if I will truly remember each of them. But then my thoughts began to wonder if I would truly remember the greatest gift of all. How often I go through my day only thinking of what room needs attention, which child needs my help on school or what creative punishment I can come up with for a certain offense!! I rarely even think about the gift of my Saviour during the 364 days of the year. I am hoping to purposefully take time to remember that He came for me and to be thankful for
Him.

I hope that all of you had a very Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year!

I have waited 13 years for this day!!

For you mothers that have many young children under the age of five I want to encourage you that your day is coming!! Today was the very first time that I cooked with ALL of our children at the same time for a three hour stretch!! It was amazing!! We had so much fun and it is a memory that I will never forget...I hope!! Ha Ha!

Here is the list of what each child did:

Dylan: dried dill pickles, covered pickles with cream cheese and place fillo pastry cups in the mini muffin pan. He is 5 years old!!

Dana: dried dill pickles, wrapped the cream cheese covered pickles with ham and mixed the filling for the fillo pastry cups. She is 6 years old!!

DJ: peeled over 22 potatos, cut half of them into chunks to boil for mashed potatos. He is 8 years old!!

Darcey: made an egg casserole for Christmas morning and prepared coctail sausages.She is 10 years old!!

Dalton: helped Darcey with egg casserole, browned the sausage for casserole and appetizers and diced potatos for broccoli cheese soup.He is 12 years old!!

Danielle: sliced the pickle and ham appetizer and arranged them on a platter and did dishes. She is 13 years old!!

We had such a good time and I look forward to more moments like today! And by the way, the picture is NOT of me and the kids!! Our kitchen did NOT look that good nor did I!! :)

By the request of someone very special I am listing two of our holiday favorite recipes:

Sausage Wonders

1 Pound Sausage (could use 1/2 spicy and 1/2 regular)

16 oz. bottle of Ranch dressing

3 Cups shredded cheese (I used mexican)

Fillo pastry cups (found in freezer section in grocery store)

Brown sausage. Mix dressing and cheese with cooled sausage.

Fill pastry cups and bake at 350 degrees till melted.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

2 medium heads broccoli

3 carrots

5 medium potatos

10 C. water

Cut veggies into bite size pieces. Cook in the 10 C. water until tender. Drain.

Put veggies in crock pot with the following ingredients:

1 1/2 C milk

2 tsp. liquid smoke

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

3-4 dashes of tobacco sauce

12 oz. can evaporated milk

16 oz. velveeta cheese-chunked up (don't use generic)

1 10oz. can cream celery soup

1 10 oz. can cream nacho cheese soup

1/2 C. sour cream

Cook on high about 1 hour until cheese melts. Then turn on low for 1-2 hours stirring occassionally. Double recipe fits into large crock pot.

(sorry the recipes are so close together...I was having difficulties on the blog and have to close!!)

Danielle's Potato Soup

The other day, I needed to run to the store at the last minute and didn't have anything planned for dinner. I thought of Danielle wanting me to make this recipe that she had gotten from a friend of hers. It was a potato soup recipe that her friends mother had made for the girls. So, in a rush for time, I told Danielle to make this while I was away. She hadn't ever made it before and was a little caught off gaurd but I assured her that she could do it!

She had to peel 12 cups of potatos to start! That can take some time!! My first phone call came when it came to the onions. The recipe called for 4 cups of chopped onions or 2 T of minced onions. She opted for the minced onions. After about 6 more calls and while I am leaving the store she calls to tell me to get more minced onions! I ask her how much she had. She said not nearly enough because she needed 4 cups!! I pointed her back to the recipe...oops, never mind!

Now, if you know our family, you will know that there is one parent in particular that likes to joke around! This parent also likes the saying, "what goes around, comes around"! That takes me to my drive home. I was about 5 miles away and the phone rings. "Mom, this soup is REALLY thick."

"Oh? How thick is the soup, Danielle? Is it like mashed potatos? What does it look like?"

"Well, it is a lot thicker then it was when Mrs. Palmer made it."

"Danielle, what does your recipe say? Did you add any water?"

"OHHH! It calls for 12 cups of water!!"

"Ahhhh! That would help."

Then I hear giggles. Then I hear the words "Got ya!!" "Of course, I added the water! Hee Hee!"

What is the old saying? A chip off the old block? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree?! She definately does take after her...father!! Can't help but to love her!

By the way, this was the best potato soup that I have ever eaten!! Great job, Danielle.

Potato Soup

6 Cups cubed, peeled potatos

5 Cups water

2 Cups chopped onion (or 2 T minced)

1/2 Cups chopped celery

4 tsp. Chicken Bouillon

2 tsp. Salt

1/4 tsp. Pepper

1 Can Evaporated Milk

2 Tbs. Butter

3 Tbs. Flour

Combine 1st. 7 ingredients and boil about 15 minutes. Don't drain off water.

Add remaining ingredients-milk, butter and flour.

Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Remember the beautiful days of fall?

As I write this, it is only 24 degrees outside and the wind is blowing. We are expecting some freezing rain tomorrow night and I have a lot of family in Iowa that are in worse conditions! It is hard for me to believe that 8 weeks ago we were enjoying a beautiful day at the nearby pumpkin patch! We had such a great time!

So where does all the time go? Darcy has been fascinated with this question for a couple of weeks. The conversation usually goes something like this..."Mom, do you ever wonder where the time goes?" "Mom, the words that you just said...where are they now?" "Mom, do you ever wonder if your 'time' that is all used up is floating around in space?" "Well, Darcey, I don't think it 'goes' anywhere. It is just gone." or "No, Darcey, I haven't thought of that before!" "Hmmmm, that is very interesting Darcey!"

These thoughts of Darcey's reminds me of a passage in the Bible that teaches us to number our days Psalms 90:12. As I downloaded these photos from my camera I enjoyed this precious day all over again. The children are all growing so fast and the days are so full...especially during this holiday season. Our days are spent shopping, Christmas programs, Christmas parties, cleaning, cooking and wrapping the gifts...don't let this holiday go by without cherishing these precious times. Tomorrow...'today' will be all gone...as Darcey might remind us! Merry Christmas and may the peace of God be with you this holiday season!

God uses children to bless us!!

Who says that children are a burden? I know that on some days I have those thoughts in my mind. How quickly we forget that 'children are a blessing from the Lord'. When I am reminded of that, thoughts of little boys bringing me flowers from the pasture, little girls bringing us breakfast in bed, pictures colored in love and words like..."I wuv you, Mommy" come to my mind. But there are many times that they bless us in bigger ways. Yesterday, I took Dana to her orthopedic appointment in Kansas City. Darcey came along for the ride and I was sure to show her the city...not by my choice. If any of you know me very well, I get lost frequently and end up calling Dave to help me out over the phone. Who needs GPS when I can talk to a living person!! :) Needless to say, it was very stressful and some tears were shed on my part and a headache was created! The appointment took much longer than we expected and we then went to Target for some Christmas shopping. By the time I got home it was 6 pm and I was emotionally tired.

As I drove home, I realized that no plans were made for dinner and we were starving since we didn't stop for lunch. When I walked in I found Dalton and DJ in the kitchen working very hard. The table was set with re-heated leftovers of mashed potatoes, steak and chicken casserole. They also had made gravy on the stove and there was a chocolate cake in the oven!! And, to top it off, the counters were cleaned off!! WOW!

Dave and Danielle were outside working hard on things outside. Danielle had a blue handkerchief on her head and was dirty from head to toe! It was good to see her hanging out with Dave. Dalton and DJ are usually his right hand men!

So, the next time I feel overwhelmed with the housework, laundry, school, pernament marker on the doors and children fighting I hope that I will remember that they truly are a blessing from the Lord and that I wouldn't trade any of it for the world!!

What is a trillion dollars?

What is a trillion dollars? A trillion dollars=$1,000,000,000,000. That is 12 zeros to the left of the decimal point. A trillion is a million million dollars! The U.S. government spends more than the entire Gross Domestic Product of Australia, China and Spain combined. If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills! One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills.

So, this has been the conversation at the breakfast table this morning...as we were eating delicious oatmeal! Dave has been amazed at this thought...if you spent $750,000 dollars each day since Christ walked on the earth (2,000 years) you would have spent $547,500,000,000! He was told this by a man we met at dinner a few weeks ago and wanted to see if he was right. He did the math and it came up to be very close!!

Wow! And our government wants to spend how much to get our country back on its feet? Just food for thought as our nation is over $46 trillion in debt already!!

Introducing Darcey!!

Good morning! This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24 God is so good and I am thanking Him for another day!

Right now, it is 7:20 am and the house is humming with children doing their chores. The piano is playing in the basement and soon the kitchen will be full of children eating breakfast. I am going to make a recipe from my best friends blog that sounds very delicious.

Darcey, 10 years old, is here as I type and wants me to introduce her to all of you!! She is a sparkly young lady that has the gift of imagination. She is a very sensitive girl that often is thinking of others interests other then her own. She loves animals and has her own cat, horse, rabbit and fish. The horse is probably her favorite. He is a 'flea bit' gray Arabian with a white mane and tail. His name is Dreamer. She rides him all over and he takes very good care of her as they canter out in the pastures of our property.

Dave is home from work today to help me as I take Dana to her orthopedic appointment in Kansas City. He is always so kind about helping me out and looking for ways to make my life easier. I am thankful that God put us together. Dave is definately a man after God's heart and strives to lead us in a closer walk with Him.

Finally back to blogging!

Wow! Only three months later I finally post once again! Alot has happened around here lately. The biggest news would be that our girls fell of their horses and Dana broke her arm. We are so grateful that the injury was not worse. She did require surgery to have the bones plated and screwed together. She just asks "Would you please forgive Camelot? He didn't mean to hurt me!"

Dalton, our oldest son, is sitting here wanting me to introduce him as the 'Great Buck Hunter'! So, there you go Dalton! He is, should I say, slightly excited to have a shot at his first buck this coming week. I only will be excited to have some meat in the freezer and to not have to hear him talking...talking...talking...talking...talking about hunting!!!!!

Well, Dave is at work so in order not to feel guilty, I should get to work myself. The children have been playing outside and it is time to get some school done. Hopefully it won't take three months for me to post again!!

Wow! Does this mean that I am a "Blogger"?!

Wow! Does this mean that I am a "Blogger"?!

This is my first time using a blog site and am inspired by a friend's daughter who is only 10 years old and has her very own blog site! I thought that if she can do this, surely even I could blog! So, here we are!!

I am so impressed that I was able to actually get a picture from a file...too bad that I didn't pick the best one!! Maybe tomorrow.