We enjoyed a wonderful Valentine's Day dinner.  It was hard waiting for Allen's banjo lesson to be over so we could eat...everything smelled delicious!

Each of my children drew names for their special valentine.  Lizzie made eggfree eggrolls for Allen. He loves eggrolls and has sorely missed being able to eat these (egg whites in the wrappers). 

Hive-free eggrolls!

Sarah was in charge of the meal/day.  We started off with salad in bacon cups, then heart-shaped meatloaf, almondine green beans, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Yummy!  Sarah made the cake the night before...and it collapsed:-)  It still tasted good!

I am still learning how to take candlelight pictures (and even in regular light!)with my new camera.  Not being very successful.  

For my local friends, the Apple Basket has a new line of totes, bags, cosmetic cases, etc.  I think the line is by Donna Sharp of Oklahoma.  (Not sure of the last name.)  If you like the Vera Wang bags at the Loveville Traditions store...then you will like this line...but without the expensive price!

Ruthie enjoyed browsing through the extensive collections of jewelry.  (This was a Momma and Ruthie outing...and she chose Apple Basket!)  The spring inventory is on display, so be sure to stop on in soon!

Valentine's Day is also the birthday of one of Maggie's therapists, so Maggie made a bunch of cupcakes to take to the office.

Lizzie makes these chocolate toppings.

Fortunately Maggie made some for us, too!

Maggie and Lizzie are in search of the perfect gluten-free bread.  This looks like it!

Somebody looks content!

When Lizzie and Anna go to Uncle Mike's to babysit, I always tell them to take their cameras.  This is Kathryn Rose.  So adorable!  They say she likes to peek around the corner and smile.

Ruthie, Lizzie and Anna were invited to a beading party at Jenna's home last Friday.  They had a lot of fun...especially Ruthie, who has talked of beads ever since. 

This is a fun bunch of ladies whom we know from are annual tea parties at the W--- family home.

I was amazed at the beautiful necklaces and bracelets they made.  I'll have to get a picture of Ruthie's and share that later. 

My daughters said Jenna had trays and boxes of beads and charms!

I should've gotten a closeup of Lizzie's necklace.  Yesterday Ruthie used some of her Christmas money to buy beads at Joann's Fabrics.  One more person in line to use the coupons!

Finally got a picture of Mike!  Yes, those are crutches.  Last Sunday evening he was playing soccer with the youth at church...and tore his achilles tendon.  Fortunately he hasn't felt any pain...except at first when he thought someone had kicked him.  After a week of an xray, mri, drs and surgeon's appts, he gets to have surgery on Monday afternoon...if he survives the crutches:-)  He's already in search of a knee walker. The prognosis is 3 months in a cast and on crutches, then 2 months of therapy.  This has been hard for a man who is having his first physical ailment at age 59!

The weatherman is teasing us with forecasts of "maybe snow."  The pictures show the snow down south in southern VA...but the weatherman says dusting to 1".  My daffodils are looking beautiful...so I'm not sure I want snow or not.  The gnats are already annoying so maybe a good freeze would solve that problem.

Enjoy your weekend.  Many blessings ~ Kathie

 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 

 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

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