Kathie's Kabin

2012-02-09T16:03:00.000-05:00

Our family is busy preparing our upstairs for wood flooring. Hooray!

First we have a lot of work to do. We decided to move most of the bedrooms downstairs. Sounds easier than it is! Last night we filled all the nail holes with putty. Made a shopping list for Lowes. Made another list of everything that has to be done. Gave up. No...just kidding. But I do feel overwhelmed.

She doesn't know I'm taking her picture, hee hee.

Oops, Momma has the camera...better smile!

This is what we call our "Clara look." Only Maggie can do it. (She is having fun. Now that I'm proofreading this page, she almost looks angry!)

It's hard to have everything out of place. So far no one has been brave enough to carry my heavy cactus downstairs. I'm not sure it's possible to do without getting pricked.

Mike attacked all the picture hanging nail holes with joint compound.

We now regret giving Lizzie and Ruthie the "temporary" western art decorations. We had already removed most of them (along with the attached sheetrock!) before Maggie reminded us that they are easily removed with a hairdryer. Oh well.

Remember all the water stains on the ceiling thanks to Hurricane Irene? Mike painted over the stains with Kilz so that the stains won't show through the paint. Hope it works...those stains are ugly!

I finally came up with a new system for our kitchen. Usually everyone tries to find a weirdo glass or hides their glass in a weird place in an effort to remember which glass is his/hers. Then when it's time to fill the dishwasher, there are glasses all over the kitchen. Now I know exactly where to find all the dirty glasses. I was originally going to put the coasters in a nice piece of oak...but I finally realized that was never gonna happen. I bought these coasters at the thrift shop.

Guess who was the first person trained to use the coasters?!

Try to guess what we had for lunch today! We had leftover mashed potatoes that were chunky, so I heated them up with chorizo and onions. Our local Giant store has the best chorizo around. Delicious!

Yesterday I showed you Ruthie's new Waring Professional Deep Fryer. Today I want to show you how easily this comes apart for cleaning. I love it! Just lift everything out...no screws or buttons.

I also like the three baskets that come with it...

...and the way all the baskets and plug get stored inside the fitted lid. There's a reason why this got many 5 star customer reviews!

Today Ruthie is cleaning out her room and she made the tough decision to give this plaque to the thrift shop. Breaks my heart. We love anything to do with Texas...but there's nothing like a move to make you prioritize your junk...even if you're just moving downstairs!

Well, it's time for me to get back to cleaning out my closet. My neighbor has been driving his dump truck back and forth today, so I've got to go find out what he's doing.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

"I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." ~ Psalm 34:1

2012-02-08T09:52:00.002-05:00

Ruthie asked for a professional fryer for Christmas, so we were able to find a super good deal on one. We tried it out tonight for the first time.

We tried tempura. Usually tempura batter has egg in it, but we made a box version that is vegan. We were expecting Banjo Man to stay for dinner, so I made extra. Note to self: Next time buy 5 boxes of tempura mix...or make my own. I actually found a good recipe, so I will probably do that next time.

I enjoyed this Dipping Sauce as well as a version I made.

We fried shrimp, chicken, asparagus, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, white potatos, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, red and green peppers, and snap peas. My favorite was broccoli and asparagus. I don't fry often, so this is a real treat. We served the tempura with rice pockets. Definitely not the healthy momma's dinner!

Allen has been busy these days. He enjoys listening to his ham radio and keeping track of all the different locations he's connected to. Right now he is busy as he buys more bees (we lost a hive this winter), orders his chickens for this summer, practices singing for special music, and now...setting up 55 gallon drums to raise tilapia. I am excited about his new tilapia farm! (And all his banjo lessons are starting to pay off...you should hear him!)

Spring seems to be just around the corner with this unusually warm winter. Our red-headed woodpecker is busy on his favorite tree, our bluebirds are busy coming and going to their birdhouse, and of course...there are dozens of cardinals and chickadees about. I love birds!

Enjoy your week. Many blessings ~ Kathie

2012-02-02T21:34:00.000-05:00

This picture is for Mrs. P so she can pin it to her pinterest board. The meat is called Carne Asada (served here with pico de gallo and guacamole). My family never tires of this dish.

Recipe for Carne Asada:

Flank or skirt steak

3 tbsp lime juice

1/2 cup canola oil

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp mexican oregano

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

In a glass 4-cup measuring cup, mix everything but meat. Add meat to mixture and let it marinade for 1-2 hours (at least). A few minutes before serving, get a large, cast iron skillet very hot. Sear the meat in the pan. In a separate saucepan, cook the marinade for a few minutes. Serve the hot marinade with the meat. Enjoy!

Clara likes me to take a picture of her so she can see herself on my camera.

She is talking so much nowadays...and she doesn't like me to use baby talk...like horsey instead of horse. She corrects me every time!

I finally remembered to take a picture of the pillow I made for Clara for Christmas. Above shows the backside with the zipper...so Adina can take the cover off for washing. I bought the alphabet buttons at Joanns Fabrics. So cute.

This is the front with all the fun zippers. I can't find my picture from which I got the inspiration for this pillow. If you google "image zipper pillow" you can see a lot of creative ideas.

Anna and I returned all the sorted and laundered baby clothes to carenet today. This time we only brought home four large bags. Not so overwhelming.

We had to keep our eye on Ranger while we were bringing the bags out to the car. He wanted to take a nap on our plush seats!

This past Saturday, Sarah gave Ruthie a birthday tea to celebrate her 12th birthday. The girls were in the kitchen baking all day. Our family doesn't usually have birthday parties...except for family...so this was a special treat.

Ruthie chose green and pink for her colors.

Then Sarah transformed the music room into the party room.

And these are the four princesses, Anna and Elaina (from church), Ruthie, and Brianna (l. to r.).

Sarah had the party all planned out with games and crafts. The first game the girls had balloons tied to their ankles. Then they had to stomp each other's balloons and pop them. But Anna was too sweet for this game...she whispered to the other girls to let Ruthie win because it was her birthday!

One of the crafts involved painting their own miniature tea sets.

This was also an American Girl Lookalike party. Each guest brought her own doll. These are Ruthie's dolls.

The food was delicious. The candies in the last picture were a gift from Mrs. Joyce at church. Each December, Mrs. Joyce makes dozens of jars of candies with her granddaughters. I think it's a wonderful Christmas tradition. And the many different flavors are delicious!

This tea party was definitely a memory Ruthie will treasure. Thanks for all your hard work, Sarah, Maggie, Anna, Lizzie and Allen.

I've been enjoying seeing the 100% cotton yarn (Peaches n' Cream brand) our Dollar store has been carrying lately. I bought these seven colors to knit and crochet some washcloths. I always enjoy projects that take one afternoon!

We are enjoying unusually warm weather. Anna and I drove past an amish field that was being disced. I wouldn't be surprised if they already had green peas growing! Allen listened to someone from Frederick, MD, on his ham radio...and the cherry blossoms are already in bloom there! I better go check my tulips tomorrow.

Our funny moment this week came from Anna. "I did an experiment and came up with this hypnosis!" It took her a few tries before she finally came up with hypothesis.

Our other funny moment happened when Abigail was cooking with Maggie:

"Maggie, I taste flour?"

"Yes, Abigail."

"Maggie, I taste sugar?"

"Yes, Abigail."

"Maggie, I taste cocoa?"
"Yes, Abigail."

"Does it taste good, Abigail?"

"Maybe not!"

We were all laughing.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Happy 12th Birthday, Ruthie!

2012-01-27T15:52:00.000-05:00

My baby turned twelve yesterday. My how time flies. Ruthie was born 4 weeks prematurely in a 16" snowstorm. This year we have the windows open to let in the 65 degree weather. Only in Maryland!

Maggie, Anna, Sarah, Ruthie (l to r) and I went to Red Robin for dinner. The food was delicious. This restaurant is friendly for folks with food allergies. You can see the thick loose leaf binder in front of Maggie. The foods are listed according to allergies. Maggie and I split a chicken and spinach wrap. Ruthie had grilled chicken on a stick, and Anna had the Teriyaki Chicken Burger wrapped in lettuce. Sarah had chicken tenders. All the meals came with bottomless french fries that we enjoyed too much.

(Mike, Allen and Lizzie didn't come because they had a ham radio meeting.)

Here's my 2-week progress on Allen's lettuce. I think they look weak and need nutrients.

Ruthie chose a western themed birthday cake, as usual. Lizzie made the cake and did the icing.

Make a wish!

We ate the cake with Vanilla tofutti ice cream.

We're making headway on our baby clothes for carenet. We ended up washing 24 loads. I washed them at home and then took them to the local laundromat to dry them. (I have 2 washers but no dryers.)

Ruthie loves all the cute clothes. Anna has taken over sorting the clothes into piles according to Season, Sex, and Size. Whew! I think that's the hard part! We return the clothes on Thursday...and I will be glad to have my living room back to order.

Our family watched two good Henry Fonda films this week. We got both dvds, The Ox-bow Incident and The Tin Star from the library. Both were family friendly with no foul language.

Last week we were so busy that I kept telling myself I had to keep my focus on Sunday when everything would be over. On Friday we took Anna and Lizzie to Walter Reed for doctor appointments. We left around 10 am and returned home around 7 pm. Long day!

Anna has been busy sewing and quilting. She has a nice blog to feature her sewing projects. Take a look!

Anna got up bright and early this morning to work on her treefort. She loves warm weather.

One of our friends from church sewed this beautiful tablecloth for me for Christmas. I love it! Mitzi sews curtains, tablecloths and upholstery for a living. We lovingly call Mitzi and her hubby Tom, Mitzi and Fritzi. Thanks so much, both of you. I've always enjoyed the pastoral scenes on toile.

On Saturday evening, our church hosted a showing of Courageous for men and their sons. My daughters had been baking all week to provide the cookies. I heard someone say there were about 50 who came. It was a chilly evening since no one remembered to preheat the building. I took the above picture because it warmed my heart when I walked into the kitchen and saw that my good friend Bonnie had set everything out to make sure we didn't forget anything. Thanks, Bonnie!

The W-- ladies offered to help us serve. The evening ended up being simple to take care of, so we ladies retreated to the toasty Teen room during the film. Thanks for coming and helping!

This past Tuesday I made brisket and sourdough dinner rolls for dinner. The next night Ruthie cut up the leftovers for fajitas that were delicious.

Tuesday evenings is when Allen's banjo teacher comes to dinner. Afterwards my five youngest take off to visit Meemaw and Grandad while we visit with Banjo Man. We enjoy these evenings.

Abigail came over for the day on Wednesday. She loved helping Maggie bake. She also had fun running around with The Cousins.

Guess who got worn out from everything?!

Right now everyone is busy baking for Ruthie's little birthday tea party tomorrow. She has invited her 3 closest friends to come for the afternoon. Maggie sewed up a fancy dress and I sewed the buttons on...but the dress didn't fit. Neither one of us has the heart to sew another.

I've enjoyed this week immensely...I got to stay home today! We thought we were going to get lots of rain, so we filled up the front and back porches with firewood...but so far we've dodged all the storms. That's how it usually works!

Enjoy your weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie

2012-01-19T20:26:00.000-05:00

I took a peek at pinterest.com to see how things were. I was pleasantly surprised. Not one bad photo. I really like the above statement...it's how I feel. I've been doing a pinterest experiment that seems to work: when you go to the website, you will see this at the top:

Pinterest
Everything ~ Video ~ Popular ~ Gifts

Click on Popular...and the nasty stuff should not appear. Stay away from Everything!

I brought home a carload of clothes to be cleaned and sorted for our local carenet.org ministry. If any of my local friends have toddler-size clothes, that is a need right now. We have plenty of newborn and infant sizes.

In early January, my children and I took a trip to Cobb Island...about 45 minutes from us. (This is just north of the MD/VA bridge.) I've always wanted to visit this area, so when my children said they had cabin fever, I knew exactly where I wanted to go.

I tried to see if there was any historical significance to the island...but all I could find was this milestone in radio history.

As you can imagine...the scenery was breathtaking. I also enjoyed driving through the miles and miles of farmland to get to the island. Beautiful!

I was amazed that the only church on the island is a Baptist church...Cobb Island Baptist Church. (And this is Catholic territory!) I wrote to the Pastor of this church to see what kind of music (Baptist Hymnal) and what version of the Bible (KJV) they use for their Sunday morning services. Our family hopes to go back and visit them on a warmer Sunday.

The island is small (.4982 square miles) and has two seafood restaurants and a little market.

There are all kind of houses on the island...from tiny cabins to large brick homes. I thought this was a different sort of house. I was surprised to learn there are 1166 people who live on the island. That's a lot! We only saw a few folks when we went...but we could imagine the bustle of the summertime crowd.

If you want a fun one-day trip, we highly recommend this area. We drove up and down all the little roads we could find. We drove home through LaPlata and saw two large thrift shops that we'd like to return to someday.

This week has flown by. Our family watched the Courageous movie on dvd last night. It was every bit as good as everyone has said.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2012-01-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

This past December, I took my 5 youngest for a morning out on the town. First we met Sarah and Abigail at the thrift shop in Charlotte Hall.

Abigail loved the big bin of Beanie Babies.

Abigail loves animals, especially stuffed animals, so this was a thrill for her.

Every day when Abigail takes her afternoon nap, she surrounds herself with lots of stuffed animals...and we laugh about how she can glance at her collection and know in an instant if one of her beloved animals is missing! Heaven forbid!

We were all standing around watching her...with fear for the moment when we had to tell her it was time to put the animals back so we could leave.

But then we told her Grandaddy was meeting us at Burger King...and she quickly returned the animals to the bin. Voila!

Meemaw couldn't come, just Grandad. It was our first blustery day of the winter.

Smile for the camera, Abigail!

On December 2nd, we had our annual dinner with the XYZers from church. (Stands for Xtra Years of Zest.) I knew I was going to forget to take pictures, so I took one before everyone came. We only had 16 folks come this year.

Anna made her famous teacakes. The theme for this year was, "It's a Cowboy Southern Maryland Christmas." We had lots of fun putting on the 35 minute "operetta" afterwards. If you want a copy of the dvd, let me know and I will get one to you.

I was nervous about this year's food because my oven wasn't working. I borrowed my Dad's huge smoker, and we served carne asada shish kabobs. All the women enjoyed the veggie shish kabobs. (That's an artichoke?!) Mike fixed my oven the night before, so we were able to bake our sourdough dinner rolls after all.

Here's the performance. We hope to have another XYZer event this summer since we heard a lot of them say they wished they'd known it was going to be a Western event so they could've dressed western. We'll have to have a real hoedown!

I miss the Christmas season and sitting in front of our fireplace with the Christmas lights on. My children slept outside under the stars on Christmas eve. Now they are waiting for a snowy night so they can wake up and brush off the snow. They also have plans to sleep under a tarp some rainy night. Never a dull moment.

Mike is working late tonight, so dinner is every man for himself. I made a skillet full of Tandori chicken...a family favorite...so I know there will be no leftovers. One good thing about being busy...the time sure does fly!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

"Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

~ Isaiah 40:28-31 (KJV)

2012-01-16T14:31:00.000-05:00

Our amish friend gave us the bad news that there would be no more duck eggs this season...not until spring. So I decided to make Rachael Ray's Pepperoni Puffs with the last remaining egg. I followed the recipe...but next time I would add the fresh basil to the puffs...not the pizza sauce. These were so delicious! (And they freeze well too!)

Do you think she likes them?!

We enjoyed having hubby home for Martin Luther King Day. My children have enjoyed playing this game a lot. It's called Tetrus. (Maggie stole it from Cody in the Christmas Chinese Auction. She has felt terrible about that ever since!)

Mike took the week between Christmas and New Years for vacation. He spent a lot of time outside digging up stubborn tree stumps. He also did something special for Anna.

Remember Anna's treefort that got smushed by Hurricane Irene? Well, Anna really wanted to save her heavy duty steel steps...but they were buried under some heavy trees. So they went on a mission to see what could be done.

Anna was afraid the steps were bent in half.

I was afraid for what our tree man calls "a widow maker"!

They followed the directions of Mr. Tree Man and pulled the tree while Mike was cutting it. That didn't work so they abandoned the rope and Mike cut the tree away with no problems.

Then they had to dig the stairs out of the ground. (We used to be so proud of how we had reinforced the stairs by burying them 4 feet deep!)

And they're out! Mike had to do a little straightening, but I think they look perfect! Hurray!

There's nothing sweeter than doing something for an appreciative child.

They spent the rest of that cold afternoon moving logs and preparing to build treeforts.

Then home to play Tetrus again!

It always takes Anna longer to warm up than the rest of the family.

Allen planted cilantro, basil and lettuce in his Aerogarden a few days ago. He wants me to document the progress.

Mike and I are home alone today...something I still can't get used to! We're going out in a few minutes to stack the woodpile again. We are going through much wood on these cold nights. Very thankful for toasty fireplaces and free firewood!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2012-01-15T16:51:00.000-05:00

This morning we enjoyed a wonderful Sunday School class and church service thanks to the drama team from Bob Jones University. I've always enjoyed both their drama teams and their music teams. The theme for today's drama was the second coming of Jesus Christ. What a blessing it was.

Our dinner at Lynn and Al's home was wonderful. It's always edifying to fellowship with like-minded believers. We enjoyed beef stew and salad (with lots of broccoli!) and a delicious strawberry cobbler. Thanks, Lynn. We found out later that Lynn had had some unexpected visitors that day. When it rains, it pours! What a champ!

We exchanged Christmas gifts with Adina, our violin teacher. Usually the gifts are homemade...and I really like that. Adina made two bars of soap (I already finished one!) that were unlike most soaps. Very creamy. And they smelled of delicious citrus.

Adina also made this lovely pillow for us! I laughed when I read the inscription, "Violin Outfits: Consisting of violin, bow, box, and teacher, sent to any part of the United States on 1 to 3 days' trial before buying." Thanks, Adina. I love it!

Maggie took the above panorama picture on Christmas morning to show me this feature on my new camera. I look forward to trying this.

Recently we were learning about the line of Griswold cast iron and how that line is superior to all other lines of cast iron. We were told the Griswold is much smoother...more like a non-stick pan. I started looking on eBay to find a cheap Griswold skillet to see if this is true...but I ended up buying a good deal at our local antiques store.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to see the difference in quality! The dealer told me that the recent kitchen fire in our county happened when someone was frying chicken in their Lodge cast iron. The hot oil split the skillet in two causing an immediate fire. Since most of my everyday cast iron is made by Lodge...it got my attention...especially since I recently experienced two large cracks in two Lodge pans!

I brought my new Griswold (no longer manufactured) home and re-seasoned it, then stirfried some baby carrots in it for dinner. Delicious! Definitely a keeper. My only sadness is that Griswold rarely made any large cast iron skillets...and my everyday skillets are 13, 15 and 17 inches.

When we were in Florida this past Thanksgiving, Grandpa told us he'd like to eat fries once in a while...but Grandma doesn't make fries. We were all surprised when she agreed to let us buy some frozen fries to bake! So I told Grandpa I had to take a picture to remember this momentous occasion. I took the first picture and then told him he had to smile and look happy about it! He obliged.

Well, I have a minute left before leaving for evening church. Next Saturday our church will be showing the movie, Courageous, for men and their teen sons. Our family will be serving cookies and drinks...so this week we will be busy baking. If you live locally, please send the men in your family to see this life-changing movie.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2012-01-14T13:16:00.000-05:00

This past week, Maggie and I went to Silver Springs to keep Maggie's appointment with Dr. Yvette Ross-Hebron at The Doctor's Point. Dr. Hebron is one of two people who is responsible for Maggie's healing. She has tried many different therapies as well as given her life-changing acupuncture.

We love her like family. Now that she has her own medical practice, we have fallen in love with her hubby/receptionist/accountant. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Mr. Hebron and I both grew up in Glen Burnie...practically across the street from each other! Thank you for all you do, Dr. Hebron! You gave us our Maggie back.

This past week was my hubby's 59th birthday. Maggie and Lizzie made carrot cake cupcakes complete with a pecan brittle on top. Delicious!

My parents invited us over to celebrate with a spaghetti dinner. My brother Simba and his family came too.

It's always fun to see family.

I took salad and dairyfree garlic bread. Simba brought the best fried oysters I've ever tasted. Thanks, Simba!

This week Grandaddy is taking Anna to get registered to vote. Three down and three to go! Next month my twins will be getting their drivers' permits. This will be one busy family with 120 hours of driving to accomplish:-)

This past December, Lizzie, Allen, Mike, Maggie, and Anna (l. to r.) all sang in the local Cosmic orchestra's performance of Handel's Messiah. This is the first time for the twins. We already knew how well Lizzie could sing...but we were astonished at how well Allen held his own with his new bass voice. (We have enjoyed teasing Allen on being able to go from singing a soprano to a bass in one year.)

Of course, we were glad Meemaw and Grandad were able to come. We also saw Lyn and Harold as well as Doris and Dick, all from church. Allen's Tang Soo Do teacher came to the first performance. (We all came to the second performance on Sunday afternoon.)

If you ever need a good laugh...ask Maggie to perform the bass rendition of "Thus Saith The Lord, The Lord Of Hosts." Hysterical! I don't understand how my ultra-soprano can also be a bass!

Ruthie has decided she would rather play violin in the orchestra than sing in the choir. Fine by me!

This past month, Mike helped me rip out the straps on my kitchen sofa. This is a vintage/antique sofa probably dating in the 1940s-50s. The straps were brittle and were breaking.

All done! The new stretchy straps have nice metal brackets so we were able to screw them to the wood. A lot of work...but worth it. Sometime I hope to make cushions for this sofa...but until then, I just have foam rubber cushions that I cover with a sheet. Thanks for helping, Mike.

This has been a funny week for meals. We ate at Mom's on Thursday, took a meal to a friend on Friday, and are eating at Lynn's tonight. I like that!

The weather has turned cold. Today we are doing serious cleaning. (I'm on break to do this blog post.) Lizzie and Maggie are using their break to play violin and piano...playing celtic hymns. Sounds wonderful!

Enjoy your Saturday while preparing your heart for Sunday's sermon.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2012-01-11T21:53:00.000-05:00

We got our first snow dusting this week. It's unusual for us to not have snow before January 11th. But we will take what we can get!

Tonight I made a fast and easy dessert called Sopapilla Cheesecake. I see this recipe is listed on many blogs and websites. Go here to find a copy. I followed this recipe except I used Tofutti's nondairy cream cheese and Fleischmann's unsalted margerine. I also used Pillsbury's sheets of crescent rolls instead of the individual crescent rolls. Same ingredients.

Since I got my copy of the recipe from Feb/Mar 2012 issue of American Cowboy, we've nicknamed this dessert Cowboy Cheesecake. See the creamy cheese filling?! I am sure this is a rich dessert if you use real butter and real cream cheese. I got to use my real vanilla flavoring that Lizzie gave me for Christmas. Yummy!

We all loved it. Sorry...there are no leftovers.

Back in early December, I bought this beautiful oak bread box at our local thrift shop for $4. It was filthy dirty and greasy, so I cleaned it up well with vinegar. (I think it must've sat near someone's range top.) Then I sanded it down, restained and sealed it. I also replaced the 32 hardwood plugs with oak plugs. What a difference it all made!

It wasn't until I was sanding the bread box that I noticed the engraving on the bottom, "By JH 11-10-88 Joseph Horst." Well, I knew we had an old order Mennonite family across the highway whose last name was Horst. I checked with them and they assured me they have no Josephs.

This photo shows 10 of the 32 oak plugs.

I looked on anywho.com and found 4 Joseph Horsts in Maryland...one of whom was related to my cousin...and he happened to be a woodworker! I sent them pictures and created quite the buzz on facebook. Yes, their Pappy made my bread bin 24 years ago! I sure wish we could figure out how my bread box travelled from Carroll County down to southern Maryland...3 hours away. It's a small world...and getting smaller everyday.

In the midst of all the excitement, I saw my friend Deb's bread box on her blog. Her hubby, Tom, made it years ago as a gift. I like the window on hers. I may be tempted one day to replace the heart on mine with a window...but it's not gonna happen anytime soon! Thanks for letting me share your photo, Deb.

I learned something new about making basil vinegar. When Maggie went to strain the basil out of her vinegar...we found an intriguing "skin" on it.

Evidently this is normal. It's called a "mother" and is formed from the residue of the basil. Interesting.

The vinegar mother is harmless but Maggie put hers in the compost pile.

Now she has basil vinegar ready for use in our salad dressings. Smells wonderful!

Our family has started studying the book of James for family Bible study. I know this is going to be painful! James teaches about the touchy subjects of the tongue and temptations. The editorial in my Bible reads, "An authentic faith requires an authentic Christian lifestyle." My heart is open to learn all I can...and I'm praying I will be just as open with the application part.

My friend, Lynn, has invited us to dinner this weekend. Anticipating the fellowship (and the food!) has added a spring to our step!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2012-01-10T21:53:00.000-05:00

The Christmas season flew by, and as usual, I am behind in blogging. My pictures uploaded haphazardly, so I will do the best I can. Sarah's friend, Rebekah, flew up from Alabama for a week between Christmas and New Years. We had a lot of fun with her almost 2-year old, Khy. (I will get pictures of them off other cameras.) Rebekah gave me the above plaque for my kitchen. I love it!

Ruthie and Allen helped me wrap my gifts. That was a real blessing! And we didn't wait until the last moment!

As usual, we made lots of Christmas gifts. Maggie made this ladybug ornament for her therapist...who loves ladybugs. Lizzie and Maggie made the usual plates of homemade marshmallows dipped in chocolate, seasoned nuts, teacakes, almond crunch, and cookies to give away.

This is Anna on her way to sit in front of a DVD while she sews eyes on her elephants for all her baby relatives/friends. I love these cute elephants!

Here's a finished elephant with his eyes. So adorable.

Gotta have a food picture. Walmart has been selling avocados for 50 cents each for almost the whole month of December. Here we combined two favorites...Shrimp Ceviche and guacamole. Delicious!

Christmas Eve we went to church for a lovely candlelight service. Maggie, Anna and Lizzie sang, "Mary Did You Know" while Meemaw accompanied them on the piano. I wish I'd taped it.

After church, we drove around looking at all the Christmas lights. We usually attend a second service at 11 pm, but since we had church the next morning...and the girls were singing again...we decided it would be better to get a good night's sleep. Wise decision.

Christmas morning was a blur as we got up early to exchange gifts, then headed off to church. In the afternoon, we headed over to my brother's home for the day.

One of the highlights of the day was a goofy game that Natalie and Simba organized. Everyone was given a wrapped gift. (We normally have 26 folks in our family, but Leslie was home with sick boys. Not counting babies, we had 19 people play this game. The more people, the more fun the game.) Simba read a paraphrased version of the Christmas Story...and every time he said right, we had to pass our gift to the person on our right. Every time he said left, we had to pass our gift to the person on the left. It was hysterical. By the end we were laughing so hard we didn't know which way to give our gift!

The above pictures were taken at the beginning of the game...when we were still in the "This is easy!" part of the game. At the end, we all got to open our gifts. What a wonderful game.

I found many different versions of this game online. Simba used the Nativity Story that I found here.

Brothers Mike and Simba. "I don't know. He said right...but everyone was passing their gifts left."

Simba chose to make Italian dishes for this year's food. It was soo good...and yes, I completely forgot to take any pictures until the end. The italian shrimp was my favorite. We had lasagna ("Remember everybody...the Landmann's lasagna is on the left: Landmann, Lasagna, Left!") The Landmann Lasagna was made with goat cheese. Thanks, Simba. I always look forward to Simba's dairyfree meals.

I had a hard time getting Abigail to stand still for a picture. I have a dozen blurry pictures of her! I want to show you her darling outfit that she wore all day. What a princess!

Maggie kept her distracted so I could get a picture of her high heeled shoes...complete with Minnie socks!

This is my brother's stepson and daughter. The babies have sure grown this past year!

I was pleasantly surprised to see the nativity displayed in town!

We weren't going to have a New Year's party...but at the last minute we invited a family friend and his Mom. Matthew lives in VA and is going through medical school. We had fun asking him lots of questions.

One last picture. I made this kale and bean soup since kale soup recipes were in every magazine this month. It was delicious. I got this recipe from the December issue of Cappers.

This was probably the fastest holiday season I have ever lived through! I have to admit that while I enjoyed shopping in warm weather...it didn't seem like Christmas without being cold!

Hope you enjoyed this season. Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-12-15T21:17:00.003-05:00

Anna finally bought a Jeep! She is enjoying having her own car again. She couldn't decide between another pickup truck or a Jeep...but this one finally won her heart. It's hard enough parking with 5 cars in the back yard...I'm not sure where the twins will park once they start driving their own cars!

We went to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with Mike's parents. This picture was taken in Grandma's neighborhood. I remembered to upload my pictures in reverse so they would be in chronological order...but they got posted the opposite way. Oh well. We took this picture just minutes before we got in the car to come home.

Family pictures. It's hard to smile when you're staring at the sun and waiting for the camera's timer.

My hubby and children went on many boat rides. They usually left during daylight and came home after sunset.

The beach has many fascinating creatures.

My children enjoyed Grandma's golf cart. Since Grandma and Grandpa live on a little island, there is no fear of fast cars.

Ruthie and I took many rides on the bikes.

On our way to the mall for Black Friday shopping, we passed this animal hospital.

For some reason this entrance door caught our fancy. The other side of the building had a door marked Dogs & Exotic Animals.

My pictures are really out of order! This was taken on a boat ride.

Eating pie and Tofutti ice cream on Thanksgiving Day.

Grandma has a nice big table so we all can sit comfortably at meals. We ate like royalty...as usual. Thanks, Grandma!

Allen caught this animal off Grandad's pier. When we tried to get close to it, it would squirt a stream of water at us! We threw him back in.

For years, Mike has told us the story of how every Thanksgiving holiday, Uncle Herb (Grandad's brother who lives in NJ) would come up to Connecticut and bring lox and bagels. Mike has been trying to revive that tradition ever since. He finally got his lox and bagels. Grandad was pleased!

When we got to FL, we learned that Grandma and Grandpa are planning to sell their FL home and move closer to Dwight and Linda, about 3 hours north. Grandpa misses his tractor and wants some land to mow. They are looking for a little farm. So we tried to make the most of the beach since this will probably be the last time we come to this home.

Grandma does her grocery shopping off the island at a Publix. Behind the store is a large pond with two alligators, a large turtle, and birds. We stopped many times to see how they were doing.

Grandma and Grandpa eat breakfast out in the lanai most mornings. Grandpa watches the morning news and does his crossword puzzles.

Coming home from the beach and looking for Grandpa's pier. We had a wonderful time. We left Maryland on Sunday morning and drove nonstop, arriving in Florida around 3 am. We stayed until Saturday morning when we left to visit Dwight. After an hour catching up with him, we headed home to MD, arriving around 5 am on Sunday.

When all was said and done, we decided our children are now too big to be bunched up in a mini van for that many hours. We need to rent a bigger van for long trips.

Hope you and yours enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday as well. Many blessings ~ Kathie

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

2011-11-17T17:32:00.001-05:00

Little Clara loves to sit on our laps and play or read. We love that!

This past week Maggie made 5 Layer Greek Dip. It was delicious. The recipe is a cinch...hummus, then tomatoes, black olives, green peppers, cucumbers, feta (we used goat feta) and dill. We got the recipe from here. I had to add the picture of how our dip was supposed to look:-)

This afternoon Allen, Lizzie, and I made a quick stop at Apple Basket store and saw this weird antique. Anyone know what it is? Added later: It's an antique egg poacher! I googled "antique egg poacher photo" and saw many wonderful examples.

The handle moves and lifts the three rings. There are little drain holes on the bottom part. It sure has our curiosity!

Speaking of curiosity...Maggie and I went to Silver Springs yesterday for her acupuncture appt...and as we were sitting at a light, we came up with the sudden inspiration to see what this store is all about.

We're always on the lookout for hard-to-find ingredients. We didn't buy anything...but we sure had fun looking!

This "Special Gunpowder" is actually green tea! I'm not sure why it's called gunpowder.

This is yam powder or flour. We also saw lots of casava flour.

We were walking down the aisle when there was a strong fishy smell. I turned around and saw all the refrigerators full of dried fish and eels...and some other unidentifiables...but best left unidentified! Yuk!

Last weekend our church had special evening services (Sat thru Mon) with BJU evangelist Mike Shrock preaching. His sermons were based on II Peter 1:4-8.

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Each of the young men represented the seven characteristics we should be adding to our faith. As usual, Mike Shrock was very energetic and kept us entertained while teaching Bible truths. He is already scheduled to return next year.

The first three days of this week were wonderfully warm and sunny...but today the weather has turned cold and rainy. We are thankful for our fireplace. Tomorrow we will be cleaning diligently in preparation of hubby's homecoming...and Anna's get-together.

Just one note: To all my friends to whom I recommended pinterest.com: I apologize for my recommendation. I enjoyed three days of collecting wonderful ideas and recipes...but since then that website has had profane and obscene pictures. I'm not sure why it changed so drastically, but I'd support anyone who wanted to start a godly pinterest!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Janome 712t

2011-11-16T19:26:00.000-05:00

This blog post is an attempt to answer the many questions I receive about the Janome 712t. The "t" stands for treadle. Yes, this is a green machine...it runs on physical energy. Let me first say welcome to the folks from sewmamasew.com. Most of my questions come from their excellent website...specifically their forums.

First, a few quick answers:

Yes, we still love our Janome and consider it the best treadle sewing machine on the market, bar none. We've had it for two years.
Yes, we did have to adjust our cabinet so that the Janome would fit in it...and yes, it was scary to saw off parts of the cabinet!
Yes, we consider the Janome to be extremely smooth...even when sewing in reverse.
Yes, we would buy another Janome before buying any other treadle sewing machine.

What to look for when purchasing a cabinet and treadle for your Janome machine. See the two round circular metal discs? There are two metal plugs protruding from these discs that fit into your machine. This is how your machine attaches to the cabinet...just these two metal plugs. The key here is to make sure you get a cabinet that has these plugs exactly 9-1/8" apart. I have never seen a Singer cabinet with a different size...but I have seen many other brands with much wider plugs. This measurement is from the center of the disc to the center of the disc.

The White company makes beautiful tiger oak cabinets...but the plugs are 7-1/4" apart...and only White treadles have 7-1/4" plugs. My hubby tried hard to put my Janome into my beautiful White cabinet...it just wouldn't work.

The cabinet that I ended up putting my Janome into is a Singer cabinet...bought for $75 locally on craigslist.org. That seems to be a typical price here in Maryland.

In the above picture, if you look closely, I have circled (in white) a piece that my hubby had to saw off to make the Janome fit. If you look even closer, you will see a long white line that I tried to use to show where hubby sawed off the length of wood. You can see the rawness of the cut. Those were the only two cuts he made. However, he also had to yank out the beltplate on the end.

In the above picture, you can see the drawer that keeps me from being able to put the Janome down into the cabinet to close the top.

The beltplate is the black metal piece you see to the right of my Keystone machine. I'm sure the plate is meant to keep the belt in line, but so far my Janome has done just as well without it.

This is a picture of my Keystone machine. The metal "plugs" are a little easier to see here. You can also see the hole where the electrical cord went into the machine. My Keystone used to be electric...until I took off all the electrical parts and made it a wonderful treadle machine. I did not have to make any adjustments whatsoever to fit the Keystone into my Singer cabinet. Sometimes that happens...but that is more the exception than the rule.

Here's a better picture of the beltplate.

I took as many pictures from different angles as possible.

Many folks don't know but you are supposed to release the belt each time you are finished sewing for any length of time. Otherwise the belt will permanently stretch. The above picture is showing the release pull.

Here's a closeup of my treadle.

Here's a closeup of my cabinet.

One last comment that I just remembered. The Janome has the thread on the back of the machine like you see in this picture. Nothing unusual about that...but that also keeps the machine from fitting inside the cabinet. If you want, you can keep a screwdriver in your cabinet and take the threadholder off each time, but since I already can't fit the machine in my cabinet because of the front drawer, it doesn't really matter. But I wanted to let you know that in case your cabinet doesn't have a drawer.

Hopefully I have answered some of your questions. I do not have the gifts of teaching or photography (or even blogging!) so this is difficult for me to explain.

If you still have questions, please ask me by leaving a comment or sending an email (located on my "complete profile" page).

Enjoy sewing!

Kathie

2011-11-11T15:09:00.001-05:00

Last night we had several families over to watch a dvd and to enjoy some fellowship. As expected, we had a fun time. I asked everyone to bring a dessert, so the food part was easy. Maggie made these apple cider cookies with caramel drizzle as well as some oatmeal cookies. Delicious!

Mike is setting up the video for our home theatre.

Afterwards we played Rumikub, Blokus, and Checkers.

Allen was pleased to beat Tom in two games of checkers.

I copied a bunch of pictures off Anna's camera, so there are a few oddball pictures. This is Abigail and Ruthie at the McDonald's playground this past week. Ruthie declared herself to be too big for crawling around the tunnel...she came home with skinned knees!

Driving through amish country and seeing the amish scholars walking home from school.

On Wednesday, we went to the Battle Creek Cyprus Swamp. We enjoyed the falcon. I was looking forward to seeing the owl but the man said the owl finally died after 19 years. However, the huge copperhead will be returned to the living display area around Christmas.

The swamp is usually noisy with birdcalls and animal sounds but on this day it was quiet. Very quiet.

The cyprus tree is related to the tall redwoods in California. It was hard to capture the magnificence of these trees on camera.

I see here that Maggie has her good camera...so I'll have to find that and see if there are any good pictures to add here.

One last picture. The indoor displays are very nice...except for the observation beehive. I was surprised at how dirty it was. Usually these hives are fascinating to watch but the bees were barely moving.

On Thursday night we went to my parents' home for family time. Here's baby KathrynRose and Leslie. What a fast year. Kat is walking around with ease.

This is a terrible focus but I wanted to include this picture...since Uncle Floyd always ends up on the floor with the babies.

Mike and Dustin. Dustin has gotten 2 deer so far this season!

Floyd and Cody.

Abigail in the arms of her most favorite person in the world...Mommy!

Last month, Sarah took Anna and Maggie up to VA to see the latest Courageous film. They loved it and have talked about it a lot. So Anna talked Mike into returning, and this time they took the twins. Ruthie is too young for the adult themes. I am looking forward to seeing this when it comes out on dvd.

Here's a picture of Grandaddy and Mr. Harry clearing out the treefort path after the destruction of Hurricane Irene. Thanks again!

This morning finds us scattered to the four winds. Sarah is running with a friend as part of her "Couch to 5K" class. Lizzie and Anna are cleaning house for Aunt Leslie. Mike is off to Alabama for a week. And as soon as I am finished this post, I will be sitting in front of a roaring fire and watching an episode of Laramie with three of my children.

Enjoy your weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-11-05T22:02:00.001-05:00

Happy Veterans Day tomorrow. I was looking forward to going to the parade tomorrow but CSM (College of Southern Maryland) doesn't have off tomorrow, so the twins have chemistry class. Nonetheless, thank you veterans for your sacrifices. And thank you families of the veterans who also sacrificed. Thank you for paying the price for freedom.

Our family has been busy practicing for our annual XYZers dinner. Time is flying by. We almost have the music perfected, now we have to find our western costumes.

I took this picture because I thought it was funny how the cowgirls kept their hats on after practice. Maggie made us pecan pie...with no eggs or dairy...but you sure couldn't tell!

Maggie also made some delicious eggfree eggrolls. Allen has sorely missed eggrolls, so he was especially grateful.

I had fun watching my daughters move Ollie's run from one side of the yard to the other side. Two wagons and a lot of team work!

Allen dug up his few sweet potato plants. He's very pleased...enough to think about planting a bunch next year.

My children had fun with the youth group at church on Sunday evening. One of the games they played was Duck, Duck, Goose. Aaron miscalculated by choosing Lizzie...who quickly caught up to him. Never think you can outrun a goat farmer!

My jeep-loving daughters saw this today and just had to take a picture.

We have enjoyed seeing Abigail a lot this week as Sarah comes over to help my children with their schoolwork.

Yesterday we met Sarah and Abigail at the McDonalds to eat lunch and play on their playground.

Afterwards we were all going to drive over to the Battle Creek Cypress Swamp in Calvert County to hike through the swamp...but Abigail wore herself out on the playground. The picture above is Abigail and Lizzie. I wrote that because it looks like Maggie, not Lizzie.

As Abigail gets older and has more school and gym days, our time with her gets precious.

I had fun watching Abigail giving everyone hugs and kisses while eating. We love you, Abigail!

I was finally able to get some sewing done last weekend. I made these three jumpers for Ruthie. The two on the left are denim.

The jumper on the right is Ruthie's favorite. Here's a closeup of the fabric. Ruthie loves this jumper best for two reasons...first because of the horses...and secondly because Aunt Natalie and Uncle Simba gave her this fabric for Christmas last year. What a perfect gift!

Last week when Abigail came over to play, she wanted to snuggle with our hawaiian ukulele. She asks for it every time she comes over. So funny! You can be sure I will be teaching her the uke as soon as she turns five.

When Abigail got sleepy around naptime, we took her up to Sarah's room to snuggle for a video. I joked about how many cousins it takes to put a niece down for a nap. Sweet memories.

I like this picture hanging on Sarah's bedroom door. On facebook I've enjoyed reading some of my friends' daily lists of what they're thankful for this month.

On Tuesday evening, my children decided to spend the night outside on the trampoline. The temps reached 36 degrees, so early the next morning I quietly went out to take these pictures. They were snuggled in sleeping bags and 5 quilts...of which the heavy dew saturated the top two quilts. They came in smiling and said they had actually gotten a little too warm. The full moon and the stars were magnificent. I'm so thankful they enjoy God's handiwork.

We are preparing to leave in a few minutes to spend the evening with my extended family. Dad is serving us Mac and Cheese, soup, and chili. Should be fun!

Six of us made it to the Cypress Swamp and hiked the trail. The staff said the displays of live animals should be back in service in several months' time. So we need to return in the spring.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-10-29T11:09:00.000-05:00

I've sat down several times this week to write this post...and each time I've gotten interrupted. Hopefully this time I will finish.

Every Friday, Allen and Lizzie take a 2-hour chemistry class at CSM in LaPlata. They love this class! We have met some wonderful folks there. The class is only for homeschoolers...a real plus.

I saw this license plate and just had to take a picture. "Bless it."

Our basil plants love this cool weather.

My lettuce growing on the back porch is also doing well. I have two planters like this.

My mustard greens are still going strong.

And I have actually developed a taste for fresh jalapenos. (Hard to see but there are 3 growing on the plant.)

There's nothing like freshly-picked lettuce for salad!

Today the weather is very cold and rainy. Most of Maryland is getting some form of snow...some as much as 5". I'm sure our first frost is right around the corner, so Allen is looking forward to using his new AeroGarden that he bought at the thrift shop for $5. Since this cost $149 new, he's doubly excited! We keep changing our minds about what we want to grow...but I think cilantro and lettuce will win.

I didn't realize I hadn't posted Ruthie's winnings from the county fair. She got Honorable Mention for sewing her doll clothes. (Ruthie sews on a Janome treadle machine.)

She hand-appliqued a cross on this pillow for second place.

First place for a dress.

Second place for a gift wrapped pillow. We were blessed with a bag of ribbons and laces...and Ruthie just loves to sew with them.

Last year, Ruthie asked for Polly Pocket dolls for Christmas. Since then, she has spent hours playing with them, sewing dresses for them, and building a dollhouse for them. She got first place for sewing their clothes.

Ruthie took some of Maggie's honeycomb and mounted them in a shadowbox for Honorable Mention. (The honeycomb has since slipped down.)

First place for sewing these felt pants. (Why felt? Because someone gave us felt!)

Ruthie made this owl candle for second place. Not bad for having dropped it on the way to the fair!

My children gave me this picture for my birthday. I love it!

This picture is for the folks at church. Dan and his family moved to Florida last year. Here he is at the Pensacola County Fair last week. We miss you, Dan!

I took this picture today on my early morning run to the amish farm for duck eggs. Our local highway is getting two new traffic lights this month. As much as I loathed traffic lights in our once-rural county...I have to admit that every time I drive by there, I think about the 54 lives that were ended at this intersection.

Anna made three thank you cards recently. She made two of the above for Grandaddy and Mr. Harry for all the chainsawing they did.

The second card was for Uncle Glenn to thank him for taking them water skiing and tubing last month. I always enjoy seeing her creative cards.

Lots of miscellaneous pictures on this post. This shows my "new" washing machine that I bought for $50 on craigslist. I love it...it has a supersize tub...huge! Ever since Hurricane Irene came through, our appliances have been acting up. We had to replace a part on one of my dishwashers. And now the heating element on my Viking range doesn't work...again!

Last week I had fun with an afternoon project. I bought this bread bin at the thrift shop. All year I'd been looking for something to serve rolls in when I'm having picnics/parties. My overhead fans tend to make the rolls go stale quickly. Now I can keep the rolls out of the draft!

Only a thrift shop would write the price in permanent marker...on wood. But since I needed to sand the whole bin anyhow, it didn't matter. I used a one-step stain and seal process.

I didn't want to stain the inside because of the chemicals, so I used mineral oil to seal it. Worked perfectly!

It's hard to see how much difference there is in this "after" picture...but it sure looks nice! Wish all my projects required one afternoon...!

Here's a great picture of my nephew, Cody. He's the same age as my twins.

Hunting season is in full swing around here (blackpowder season)...so orange hunting vests are par for the course.

I came home to find my bedroom blind turned into Modern Art. My new blinds are on order.

Mike drove Sarah and Maggie to NC to the Wilds for a College and Career weekend. Anna and Lizzie are visiting their Aunt to help out with cleaning. So it's just Allen, Ruthie and me doing our own housecleaning. We are hoping the weather clears up enough to stack firewood on our porch. We woke up to a chilly 62 degrees in our upstairs...so all our talk about not using electric heat was easily brushed aside as we turned on our pellet stove. Now it's warm and toasty!

We are feeling very blessed these days as Maggie has returned to her pain management/acupuncturist dr. She has even re-started writing again. She's up to a small paragraph. PTL!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-10-18T20:00:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, our family was invited to dinner at my friend Lynn's new home. What a wonderful time we had! The food was delicious (as always) and we are still talking about the fellowship. Praise the Lord for like-minded friends! Lynn's new home is fabulous. We loved her huge kitchen and felt right at home there. Thanks so much, Lynn, Al and Tim.

This will be a boring post for most people but I want to document all our family's winnings at the county fairs this summer. My children entered many things in the St. Mary's County Fair and a few things in the Calvert County Fair. (Why so few in the CCF? Their process for entering items is long and drawn out.) But now that the checks for CC have been cashed, everyone here is smiling! The above wallet was made by Lizzie.

Table runner made by Anna.

Pillow sewn by Anna.

Landscape quilt by Anna.

Applique quilt by Anna.

Patchwork rug by Anna.

Shirt by Anna.

Lizzie pieced this pillow...which has two sides. We like the other side better...but the picture was blurry.

Anna sewed the above three dresses.

Lizzie pieced and quilted this music quilt for me for Christmas. I love it!

Anna sewed the three doll dresses.

Lizzie sewed this tote bag. I can't find the picture of Allen's tote bag...but it also won first place. (They entered them in two different categories so they wouldn't be competing against each other.)

Maggie was so pleased that her honey won second place in the SMCF and first place in the CCF. We were pleased too!

Anna was pleased to win first place for her quilt that she made for her Grandaddy.

Anna put together this display of sharks teeth from San Pedro Island, FL. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa L for taking us there!

Anna won first place for her wallhanging quilt she made for me.

Anna had a lot of fun piecing together this quilt. Her only 3rd place ribbon. This picture does not do the quilt justice.

Abigail loves this stuffed elephant that Anna made.

Anna made this little boy's shirt. Adorable.

Every once in a while when Maggie is doing well, she'll make her way to the sewing machine. She sewed this dress...and was happy to win 2nd place!

Lizzie's coaster set.

Anna had too much fun sewing this Othello game set with 2 matching bags.

The weeks of the fairs were extremely busy...so when it was all said and done, everything came home and got dumped onto the table. When we went to take photos, we found some of the clothes wadded up. I assure you...they were neatly ironed when we took them to the fair! Lizzie made the jumpsuit shown above.

Lizzie pieced this quilt together to earn Junior Grand Champion in quilting...for the second year in a row! Hurray, Lizzie! She also won two 3rd place ribbons for her muffins and sourdough dinner rolls. Not bad considering we didn't know our oven's heating element was dying and never heated past 200 degrees! Oh well. (The judges commented that the food was undercooked.)

Autumn is definitely flying by. Tonight was the first practice for the Christmas Messiah. Allen is trying out his new bass voice and joining the choir along with Mike, Maggie, Anna and Lizzie. I love it!

Enjoy this wonderful time of the year. Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-10-10T19:49:00.000-05:00

Our cosmos are in full bloom right now and just as beautiful as can be. My cosmos garden looks dreadful thanks to Hurricane Irene but the flowers are still growing. I like the pinks best, but I also have some autumn cosmos growing out front that are beautiful as well.

I was finally able to find some crocs at the thrift shop for little Clara. They fit perfectly! Clara used to enjoy wearing my crocs while we were visiting for violin lessons. (For my own info: size 5-6.)

My friends on facebook post some of the funniest photos. Here are two for your enjoyment.

This photo is called "Find the cat." If you know what my cat looks like, then look for him. I'll leave a clue at the bottom of this post. You should be able to double-click on the picture to see a larger version.

Time to post a picture of Abigail. She loves her cousin Maggie.

I was originally going to post the photos of all the county fair winnings...until I saw how many photos there are! I'll save that for tomorrow. This is one item...Anna's denim rug sewn from recycled jeans.

My son is a night owl...just like I was in high school. He tries hard to get to sleep early but it rarely happens. Since he plans to attend Bob Jones University in two years...and they have an 11 o'clock lights out...I think he should start getting into the habit now:-) Anyhow, Allen has a loft bed with an enclosed desk under it. That's how he gets away with staying up late...in secret.

Caught him! My daughters don't mind if he does schoolwork on his computer...but they do mind when he makes noise with his ham radio or morse code practice!

Here's his loft from the outside. Right now he has a twin mattress on it...but we're looking for a full size on freecycle.org. So far all the full size mattresses have been from homes with indoor cats...but we'll keep looking.

Ruthie made my cherry birthday cake this year. I think ukulele cakes are now a tradition!

You have to look closely to see why I took this picture. See all the slanted trees right next to the Outback Restaurant? They were straight before Hurricane Irene!

This is my latest use for my spanish cazuela from Clay Coyote. If you remember, this is the only stoneware that is made for stovetop use. I think my homemade bean dip looks perfect in it. Actually...I like to make all my heated dips in it.

Easy Bean Dip

1 lb shredded colby (we used goat cheese)

1 large can refried beans (I made mine from 2 cups dried beans)

1 jar salsa (I used a large jar from Walmart)

Mix together and heat until cheese is melted. Serve with tortilla chips. If you are serving this to the Henry Boys (from church)...make a second dish just for them. They love this dip!

We enjoyed having hubby home from work today for Columbus Day. He took the youngest 5 children to his brother's home for an afternoon of water skiing. They are still shivering. But NO stinging jellyfish!

As I am sitting here typing, my windows are open and a gentle breeze blowing. This is such perfect weather. Hope you are enjoying the same.

Clue: The grey cat is in front of the rocks, to the right of the picture.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-10-05T20:40:00.000-05:00

Grandad our hero! We came home and found Grandad and his friend, Mr. Harry, chainsawing all the many trees that were blocking our path to the treeforts. Hurray! Let the rebuilding of the treeforts begin! Haha

When I come home in the afternoon, I am greeted by the turkeys and ducks. The ducks were just outside the picture. I'm not sure yet if I should feel loved or not.

For dinner tonight, Maggie and Lizzie made butternut gnocchi. It was so delicious. We also had fresh mustard greens from our garden.

Today my children took advantage of the beautiful weather and drove to Calvert County to the Calvert Cliffs State Park. (Some of you may know this as the tire park since it uses many tires in the play area.)

My five youngest went. The park has a trail leading out to the Patuxent River. It's 1.8 miles out and 1.8 miles back. A beautiful walk on a day like today!

Anna found a shark's tooth in perfect condition. Lots of fossils.

The cliffs part of the beach has been off limits for years because of cave-ins and falling trees. That doesn't stop most people from going around the barrier ribbon.

I wouldn't be surprised if this tree fell over during Hurricane Irene.

They had a nice picnic of hummus and celery, and chicken salad sandwiches. Everyone came home full of smiles and memories...my favorite kind of day.

A few weeks ago I found out that we'd been eating cow's cheese thanks to a misunderstanding with the amish seller. The good thing is that Ruthie was barely affected...and she usually ends up in the hospital. I, on the other hand, have been suffering much more than usual and have kept as close to home as possible. I am finally on the mend...but you can imagine I am re-reading every label of anything I eat! Unfortunately, the exposure has sapped my energy...the main reason I haven't been posting. My other four children are mildly hurting...but we're all consuming sudafed, nyquil, nosedrops, mullein, etc.

So once again I will be playing catchup with my pictures of the county fairs and another picnic. We are busy as always but thankful.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-09-17T21:16:00.000-05:00

Maggie is gathering all her photos so she can enter them into the upcoming fair. I chose a few I like to post here. Tonight I mowed this corn patch flat. The weather has turned very cool this week, so my thoughts have turned towards preparing the gardens for the winter.

This is really a miscellaneous bunch of photos. Maggie took this photo when my parents' piers were underwater during Hurricane Irene.

My turkeys have discovered the birdseed on my platform feeder. Now I can't keep them off the porch railing. They also ate all the blossoms off my flowers on my porch. I had been enjoying those flowers so much lately.

This picture shows how dark our honey is this year. (Obviously this honey hasn't been strained yet...you can see bits of beeswax floating in it.) Last year's honey was almost crystal clear. Evidently the color of the honey has to do with what time of year the honeybees gather their nectar...as in fall vs. spring.

I couldn't believe it when I saw Ranger drinking out of the dirty duck pool. Yucko! I hope I have the camera ready for when he falls in!

Maggie took this fantastic picture of the Blue Angels. She certainly didn't take this with my camera!

Well, this is a quick post. Hubby has been up in Baltimore for a few days attending a digital communications conference. I hear him downstairs...he just got home. So I'm off!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-09-11T20:15:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, August 24th, we drove to the city to Strathmore for the annual Ukefest. This is part of the free outdoor concerts series. This year was special because we tried to break the Guiness world record for largest number of uke players...which was 851 players. We did beat 851...but what we didn't know was that Sweden broke that record 4 days earlier with 1500+ players. Oh well, at least we had fun!

We arrived early because you never know what traffic will be like. We packed a picnic lunch of homemade sandwiches.

Aren't we a happy bunch?! We were a bit nervous...not knowing what to expect. Sometimes these events are too worldly for us, so we were anxious.

We ended up waiting an hour for the show to start...but it was a fun wait. We got to hear lots of people strumming their ukuleles. There was also a father/son team walking around who entertained us with their juggling act. They were very impressive. (Sorry, no photo of them.)

Mike practicing his ukulele. To break the record, we played two songs...This Land Is Your Land and Aloha 'Oe. If you go to the website, you can download the music for both songs. There are also videos of both songs...for beginners.

As the night went on, there were hundreds more folks showing up. We ended up having 944 folks. At one point, the speaker asked how many folks had bought a uke just for this event...and the number of folks who raised their ukes was a lot! Probably half the folks!

We were given a copy of the music as well as chords. Our family had a lot of fun playing the two songs. We wish the entire evening had been a strum-along. All too quickly the strum-along part was over, and the concert part began.

It was a fun night out for our family. I have to admit...I've been pondering how to organize a ukulele strum-along here in our county. It's such an enjoyable and relaxing hobby.

My friend, Joan, from Wyoming, has sent me another good, fun, online game called Underwater Bowling. Really a stretch to call it educational...but have fun trying anyway! Thanks, Joan.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-09-07T21:56:00.001-05:00

I have switched my blog over to Blogger's new and improved system...and so far I love it! It's super easy to upload photos, I can once again click and drag my photos...and so far there are no huge spaces that appear out of nowhere.

I stumbled onto my childrens' pictures from The Wilds camp this summer. Anna, Lizzie and Allen had a wonderful time. Steve Petit was the guest speaker.

Anna and Lizzie joined the 150-person choir and enjoyed that. One thing about the Wilds...they have excellent music standards.

Here's Lizzie getting ready to go on the land trolley. Lots of fun things to do at this camp.

This is Allen coming in for a landing on the trolley.

The rifle range.

I am impressed with the amount of bullets they use!

Here are Allen and Lizzie getting ready to take off on the giant swing.

Up, up, and away!

Lizzie got hit by the big, muddy ball. Nice face print.

Allen loved his counselor, John (in the green shirt).

Lizzie and Anna loved their counselor, Lauren. I'm glad my children had a good time...but it is nice having them home again.

This week we brought home an adorable female duck from the Farmer's Market. We haven't given up hope of raising duck eggs. We are surprised that the drakes aren't fighting over her...but just in case, we're trying to give one of them away on freecyle.org.

My marigolds are doing beautifully thanks to all the recent rains.

I love the way Tom turkey fans out all his feathers and looks like a true Thanksgiving turkey.

And finally...this picture of a line of traffic behind an amish tractor. The line was just as long behind us.

Well, I'm not sure yet if I prefer the new blogging system. There are just as many quirks. Hopefully I will get used to it.

This week is surely a rainy week. With all the drought and fires in Texas, I'm extra thankful for any rain we get. But all the lightening makes it hard to get my blog written...like right now. Time to quickly unplug the computer.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-09-07T08:00:00.018-05:00

Last Friday, my hubby and children went down to the base for the preview of Saturday's airshow. The Blue Angels performed...always an amazing time.

I always hate this part of the performance...where two jets go full steam towards each other and then roll to the side at the last moment. Makes the hair stand up on my neck! I stayed home and enjoyed cleaning and reading...but not sewing. Need to sew!

One of the best things about shopping at amish/mennonite stores is the drive through the countryside. We enjoy seeing cattle and horses. This is on the road to Pine View Store on Glock Road, Mechanicsville.

And sheep. I was hoping they'd be out grazing for a better picture.

Lizzie loved this cow playing King of the Hill. This is on Route 6.

These goats were not having fun in the humidity. Photo taken at Locust Grove store on North Ryceville Road.

Now that organic lettuce is starting to reappear in the stores after the summer's heat, we have been enjoying Maggie's grilled lettuce salad. It is SO delicious! She sprays the lettuce with oil, then grills, then serves it with the best balsamic dressing ever. Never leftovers. Fast and easy.

I love seeing my children enjoy the wonders of nature...even at the risk of collecting chiggers! Anna was in a deep contemplative mood that day. I guess if you don't have a truck or a treefort, the burnpile is the next best place.

This past July 14th, our county suffered a glider accident on Route 235, just outside our small regional airport.

We were very nervous that day because we thought Mike's boss was one of the victims in the glider, knowing he had bought a glider that morning. Later on we were relieved to learn he was the pilot of the cessna towing the glider. The accident killed one man and injured a second.

The wires made recovery tricky. My parents own two houses right next to this accident...so it was a close call for them.

We joined a bunch of onlookers and watched from across the highway.

Finally to the ground and carried away on a flatbed truck.

I discovered a new recipe this summer that my family loves. Best Ever Chinese Chicken Salad. Since asparagus isn't in season, I will wait until fall to add that. And I used flour tortillas instead of wonton wrappers (since they contain egg). Definitely a recipe to try.

We were supposed to take a day trip to Harper's Ferry today...but the weatherman says 100% chance of rain...even though the sun is shining brightly right now. I am so disappointed. It took a lot of work to keep this day free of appointments and lessons! Instead, I think we will go drive around and see a few houses that are for sale. Our tenant has requested to buy our house...so we need to find another house to buy. It's definitely a buyer's market.

My children are practicing almost daily for their Christmas performances. Skits, music, solos, etc. This year their theme is "It's a Cowboy Christmas!" I love it!

Enjoy your day. Many blessings ~ Kathie

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-31T12:55:00.040-05:00

Well, we survived Hurricane Irene. After we got our electric back, the computer was very slow for three nights. So slow that I couldn't even upload photos. I guess everyone was excited to get back online after the break.

I realize the newspapers have been full of photos of downed trees, but since this blog is my family diary, I'm going to post a few more. The above 3 pictures show part of our mile-long dirt road. We figure we lost about 30 trees all told. We were so fortunate that this tree fell next to the beehives!

We lost several tall trees. This tree left a big gap in the treeline. I am amazed how much sunlight shines through now.

We lost a bunch of shingles. I got a good laugh today when I was up in Charlotte Hall and saw a similiar shingle lying on the road up there. I tell everyone they probably saw our shingles blowing around all over the county.

All our orchard trees are leaning badly. So much work to be done outside now.

I enjoyed watching our neighbors work together. They don't normally get along...so this warmed my heart.

This is our driveway...after we picked up the sticks and branches.

I was glad to see my special area safe from trees. I would've moved the furniture had I remembered.

Our third beehive also survived.

My neighbor, Lloyd, had his truck totaled when a tree fell in it. Lizzie and Ruthie are pouring tea and water for the workers.

We were able to see what was causing our electric to be out. Oops...I uploaded the wrong picture. I meant to show the transformer lying on the highway. Three poles had to be replaced.

The lad in this picture is my neighbor, Harry. His Momma and I were expecting our babies within 4 weeks of each other...but Ruthie was born on Harry's due date, and Harry was born on Ruthie's due date! Yes, Ruthie was born 4 weeks early. What a winter that was!
You can see our ridge vent here. The shingles that blew away were holding down the ridge vent. The rainwater seeped through the ceiling, and through the insulation, to my bedroom ceiling. My ceiling looks like it has brown mud puddles all over it. Like I said...so much work to be done! After we helped the men work on the road, I dropped Anna, Allen and Lizzie off to see how their treeforts held up. They didn't. Mike and I were amazed that these huge trees only had 12" of shallow roots! Scare!

This is what's left of Anna's fort. She was heartbroken. Losing her truck (thanks to a deer) and her treefort in one year was sad. She's already making plans to rebuild. And Anna had wanted to wait out the hurricane in her fort!

Bad Lizzie for laughing. Evidently Ruthie's treefort was situated between the two trees. Perfect aim!

After the storm was over and the electric was still out, we were sitting in the kitchen enjoying the breeze blowing through the kitchen window. With every breeze was a cracking sound! So our good neighbor, Chip, came over and chopped down this tree that was leaning badly. What a tricky cut this was...between another large tree and the house. Thanks so much, Chip.
Both my parents' piers were underwater.

My parents' road had this bunch of trees lying across the road. That didn't stop traffic!

We know of several folks who lost their homes because of trees. We still have folks without electric. The three things I am most thankful about this storm are: the weather was beautiful for the whole week after the storm, no trees touched our home or our beehives, and our generator kept our freezers running.

I found this photo on facebook last week before the hurricane. I guess the Californians think we easterners are wimps when it comes to earthquakes. I'm just glad we're able to laugh about it!

Each day we work trying to clean up the mess. Our burnpile is getting high so our thoughts are starting to turn to bonfires. First we have to get through the heat and humidity of this weekend.

I have used the hurricane as a chance to talk to folks while standing in line while shopping. I was surprised how many folks agreed with me that God is still in control. I need to find a tract that is written for post-hurricane folks. If you know of one, please send me the info.

Enjoy this last holiday season of the summer. Many blessings ~ Kathie

We have electric again!

2011-08-29T19:19:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, Hurricane Irene paid us a visit. When she came by our neck of the woods, around 2 am Sunday morning, she was a category 1 hurricane with 50 mph winds and 75 mph gusts. We lost our electric around Saturday at 8 pm. Today (Monday), our electric was restored around 6 pm. I have lots of pictures and stories, but after madly running the dishwashers and washing machines, scrubbing down the inside of the refrigerator, and putting away oil lamps and coolers, I have just taken a shower and feel human again. But I am tired and I'm off to watch a video. I'll definitely post again tomorrow. Many blessings ~ Kathie

2011-08-23T20:14:00.023-05:00

Allen had his first banjo lesson today! This has been a dream of Allen's for several years, so he was excited. Afterwards, we invited his teacher for dinner. It was fun getting to know him.

Lizzie has been teaching Allen the guitar as well, so he is a busy guy...and sounding great!

Okay, time to play catch up. This photo was taken when we went to the outdoor concert series on the St. Mary's River located at St. Mary's College. This was the Friday evening before July 4th. We were looking forward to some patriotic music and fireworks. However, after enduring the first song that was rock music, the second song was no better.

Here you can see the orchestra down under the pavillion. After the second song we left. Allen said the only good thing about that trip was our chicken salad sandwiches made with my homemade bread. I agree!

I found this photo leftover from our July 4th picnic. My Aunt Jeanie is quite the quilter and always brings some quilts for us to be amazed at. This little quilt is made with 1/2" squares...that end up being 1/4" finished. Wow! (The fork is to give you an idea of the size.)

In July, we also had a church fellowship evening. I had so much fun that night! I wish we did it more often. Allen always tries to find someone to play chess.
The rowdy gang played Rumikub. My favorite story from that evening involved Mr. Owen, Mr. Roy, and myself. I served chili dogs and everyone else brought desserts and side dishes. Mr. Owen commented that he loved the chili for the hotdogs. I told him it was Hormel chili that I bought in a restaurant-size can. It contains no beans...which is handy for chili dogs. Well, Mr. Owen went over to Mr. Roy and said, "You like the chili? It has no meat!" Mr. Roy said he did like the chili, and that it was amazing that it had no meat. Even when I corrected Mr. Owen and told him the chili does have meat just no beans...he still said, "I just can't believe it has no meat!" My girls and I were laughing too hard at we three hard-of-hearing people. At that point, Mr. Roy was too confused, and Mr. Owen was still grinning about the chili. Oh well. At least when he reads this, Mr. Owen will finally know that the chili had meat but no beans. We love you, Mr. Owen :-)

Note to self: Be sure to cook 2 large cans of chili sauce when serving chili dogs. I kept adding little cans as we got to the bottom of the pot.

That night I received three lovely gifts. My friend Susan gave me a beautiful pot of purple petunias that are now growing nicely in my planters out front. Unfortunately our turkeys keep eating the flowers, so I will be sure to get a picture after we send them off to the butcher. My friend Lyn gave me a lovely prayer journal that one of my daughters has claimed. The third gift came from my friend Bonnie (as in Bonnie and Mr. Owen). I thought this was a creative gift bag, so I'll share it with you. I'm always looking for different ideas for hostess gifts.A chicken rub...complete with the ingredients recipe on the side, a ball of yarn that matched the notecard, And a homemade crocheted washcloth that I love! She even included the directions so I can make my own with the above yarn. I enjoy fast projects like this, so I've got it tucked away for a rainy day when I can sit in my bedroom recliner and enjoy every stitch. Thanks for your gifts, dear friends. I never think about receiving gifts, so it is always a double surprise when I am given one. My hubby just loved the Chicken Rub. He loves to tease and say, "I keep rubbing the lid but no chicken appears!" I've already used up the rub (very delicious btw) but thanks to the recipe, I've already refilled it. Clever idea!

Chicken Rub
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika

Early in the summer, we went to visit Nanny and Billy at their new farm. It's heaven on earth for goats. We took plenty of townhouse crackers which they gobbled up. Lizzie was thrilled that Nanny remembered how to shake. Billy was just as clueless as ever. I am so glad we made the trip since we found out later that Nanny went to another farm that was just for nanny goats. No billy goats to boss you around and steal your food. We sure loved you goats!

Well, all 6 children are again over at my parents' home, so it is very quiet. Last night my children camped out...and it was actually cool. Temps got into the 60s!

Our big news for today was the earthquake located in Richmond, VA, but felt from NC to NY! I have lived through a 6.3 and a 6.1, but I have to say...this 5.9 was impressive! I was in town, so I immediately tried to call home. Right away the phones were overwhelmed and not working. So far we haven't felt any aftershocks, PTL.

Local schools start tomorrow, so it's bus season again. Many blessings ~ Kathie

Church Comedy

2011-08-22T18:58:00.025-05:00

This summer our church had a comedy/drama for VBS. Each day there would be a 15 minute skit. The skit was so well received that it was decided to combine the 5 skits into one play, and be performed for the whole church. Last night was the performance. What a great job everyone did! As usual, Owen and Karen did a magnificent job building and painting the set.

George G. and Chase S. were the bumbling sheriff and deputy. Our church loves a good western!

I don't know who these girls are...but they were funny! (Just kidding, they're my drama queens, Sarah and Maggie.)

Nathan, our church's Youth Leader, fits in well with our group.

Plenty of blackmail material here.

Believe it or not, this play actually present the gospel in a good way...in spite of the comedy.

Yes, that's pie on Nathan's face. My only regret is that I forgot to take a picture of the Sheriff and his deputy in their pajamas, and my batteries ran out before Craig came out as Big Bad Jake. Anyone in our church may copy these pictures without asking my permission. Thanks everyone for all your long hours of rehearsals and work. It was definitely worth it!

Mike videotaped the whole performance, so if you'd like a copy of it, let us know and we will burn a dvd for you.

Remember Buttercup and Buttermilk? Here they are at a week or two.

Here they are at a few months old.

And here they are this morning in their beautiful colors. (Yes, I know I need to scrub the pool.)

When I came outside, all three turkeys were standing on the edge of the pool watching the ducks. But then I got out my camera and two of the turkeys ran away.

Showing off for the turkey. The ducks and turkeys are still best of friends. They walk through the field gobbling up bugs.

This morning was Sarah's first day back with Abigail after going to Alabama for a week. Abigail was just giddy to be back with her favorite cousins, Sarah and Maggie. Sarah gave Abigail a gift...a pair of purple Fwip Fwops! Abigail was so excited to get her very own pair of flip flops just like Sarah's! She was pleased as pumpkin to pose for me.

This afternoon Mike and I took Ruthie to Annapolis for her twice yearly appt with her asthma dr. She did very well and the dr is pleased. She even talked about taking Ruthie off the meds next time. PTL! That's extra good news considering Ruthie is still recovering from a headcold.

We are desperate for rain again. We're hoping our first hurricane of the season (Irene) comes up the coast to bring us some much needed relief. The rest of MD has gotten more than average rainfall...just not here.

Many blessings ~ Kathie