Tonight we went to see a play at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church that was performed by their Poiema Homeschool Group. What an excellent production!

My children performed with this group five years ago, so we already knew it would be a topnotch performance. This year's play was about George Mueller, the famous missionary who started many orphanages.

As you can see, this is a Bob Jones University Press play. I am so thrilled that my children were able to see it. It was also a sort of reunion evening for us since we got to see many old friends.

Remember the snow pictures I shared with you just five days ago?! Well, those are long gone, as is the snow. Yesterday and today we enjoyed 75 degree weather. Tomorrow should be more of the same. So today we joined all the other southern Marylanders who were suffering from cabin fever, and off we went to the farmer's market. We found Uncle Norm doing the same thing.

Ruthie found this cowboot lamp for her bedroom nightstand. We thought $13 was a good deal for it. It sure was worth her excitement!

I'm not sure if you can see what this is, but it is a level that has bolts for hanging keys. I thought it was cute. We saw lots of farm animals and antiques.

My friend Joan, from Wyoming, sends me fun brain games from time to time. Well, today she sent me an email with the next picture. Joan says she can tell spring is right around the corner because they are seeing the deer wandering around now:

Aren't they cute?! And what a fun joke.

Well, I am being kicked off the computer since Sarah has an English paper due on Monday. Enjoy your weekend. We hope to spend more time out in the warm weather after worshipping our Lord in the morning.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Spaghetti for 100 people

I decided to post this since I would have liked to have had this info before our church's Spaghetti Dinner. The amounts below are what was consumed. It is up to the cook how much extra to make.

Spaghetti:
Prego spaghetti sauce ~ 9 - 4# bottles (1 cup per person)
ground beef ~ 10#
noodles ~ 14#

Garlic bread and pickles:
loaves ~ 10 (2 slices per person)
butter ~ 3#
garlic powder ~ 1/2 cup
pickles (spears, slices, baby dills)~ 1 jar each
green olives ~ 1 large jar
grated parmesan cheese ~ 1#

Salad:
baby spinach ~ 10 oz
spring mix ~ 10 oz
garden mix ~ 8#
romaine ~ 6 heads
6 cucumbers
grape cherry tomatoes ~ 2# (sliced in half)
3 cups italian dressing

Dessert:
pound cake ~ 20
coolwhip ~ 5 16-oz containers
strawberries ~ 16# (sliced in quarters)

Iced Tea ~ 8 gallons
Lemonade ~ 3 gallons
Coffee ~ 5 potfuls

Tips:
It is crucial that you cook the spaghetti noodles the day before, adding lots of canola oil as you go (both to the boiling water and the cooked noodles). Cook the noodles one minute less than called for. Completely cool with cold water and store in the refrigerater. (Must be completely cooled.) An hour before serving, turn on water to boil. Boil noodles for one minute (or until heated through), then place in a well-oiled Nesco roaster (or crockpot). Keep roasted on warm setting. Do not stir the noodles once in the roaster.

Cook your ground beef and add it to the sauce the day before. Cook the sauce mixture about 20 minutes to get the flavors going. You can spoon it back into the jars and refrigerate.

Since the bread is the cheapest item on the menu, it makes sense to make extra.

I got the most compliments on my freshly-brewed iced tea not being too sweet (I used 3/4 cup sugar per gallon) and Lipton tea bags (5 bags per gallon).

I also served the following spaghetti for vegetarians (and because this was not a fundraiser):

spaghetti noodles ~ 4#
mizithra cheese, grated (Greek cheese with the saltiness of parmesan...only tastier)
1/2 cup olive oil

Toss and serve warm.

I know everyone is tired of looking at snow pictures by now, but I've been too busy to post mine.

This is the only bad part about getting so much snow...the dangerous road.

I tiptoed out and measured 15" in two different places. My neighbor did the same. I think we get so much because we are up on a knoll. Anyhow, the rest of the county got between 11 and 12".

I hope I never tire of looking at snow. Isn't it wonderful the way God chose to make snow white and beautiful? He could have easily designed snow so that it absorbed all the dirt in the atmosphere...then we would have black snow everywhere to remind us of our sin. Ugh!
This is the only part of snow I don't like...the dangerous road. Anna took this picture. You can only hope that no one is coming up while you are going down.
This picture is for my friend, Lee, who asked me what mayonnaise we use since we are allergic to egg whites. These three mayonaises are available at our Walmart supercenter, and contain only egg yolk...and they don't taste half bad. (My favorite is Duke's.) There is a 4th mayonaise that is in the Mexican food section that is lime flavored. I like it but my children don't. Hope this helps!

HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY, MAGGIE!

Yesterday was a very busy day, so Maggie's birthday was lowkey. I love this picture of Maggie. At one time, Maggie had 12 bunnies. Now she is down to five. But for all of her growing up years, Maggie was the one person responsible for the 12 bunnies. She fed them daily and kept their cages clean. No small feat. So for her birthday, I found this adorable bunny hutch from Target:

Isn't it cute?! These are dollhouse toys that are part of a large collection of very different but realistic toys.

I also gave Maggie an automatic soap dispenser from Superhuman, and a cute little bolero jacket that was too small (for which Lizzie is the happy recipient!). One good thing about having 5 daughters...there is always someone that will fit into whatever I buy!

Sarah, Anna, Lizzie and Ruthie spent the week in the sewing room making gifts for Maggie. I will show you their gifts tomorrow...after I take pictures...after I recharge my batteries.

We had a nice dinner with Mom, Dad, and cousin Dustin. I guess we had a lot of fun because we were too busy to take pictures. Today we have one appt in the afternoon, so it's a slow day.

The one good thing about having 7 appts each week is that I get a lot of time to listen to the radio. Our town has a good station (88.1 for you locals) that is the FBN (Fundamental Broadcast Network) that I call my Sword of the Lord station. Anyhow, I've gotten to listen to Lester Roloff most days. I enjoy listening to his sermons (10:30 am). He sounds like a grandfather who loves me and is concerned for my soul. This week he is focusing on the verse, "Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me." (Ps 51:10) Mr. Roloff is tying this verse with his theme of spring cleaning.

Enjoy the last of the snow before this weekend's warm temps melt it all away. Many blessings ~ Kathie

Ask and you shall receive! Just look at this snowstorm! Yep...we are in the 8-12" spot.I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture earlier today. We now have between 4 and 5 inches...and it's coming down steadily. Ruthie wiped off all the railings, so you can't see how high the snow is. Tomorrow I'll make sure to take a daylight picture.

This morning Mike left for sunny California for two weeks. He can't believe he's missing the snowstorm of the year! We have my Dad to thank for the snow. He just came home from Texas yesterday...and snow follows my Dad everywhere.

For the past two weeks, Dad has been fishing and enjoying 80 degree weather on North Padre Island, Texas. One day he called and said it was terrible weather. "Yeah," he said "We all got sunburned. Just terrible weather!"

This morning we stayed home and watched some videos from Vision Forum. The weather was lousy, and I keep coughing because of some cheese I accidentally ate this week. I sound like I have a cold. Every once in a while I read a blog from a guy out west. His website is called Adventures of a Buffalo. I enjoy reading his blog because he has great buffalo pictures, but he is as liberal as they come. Anyhow, his blog is easy reading and I learn a lot about buffaloes, frontiersmen, and native americans.
This year I joined Facebook online. I only did it because many people would write to Sarah and ask her if she were my daughter. Well, I rarely looked at who was writing...until recently. I joined a group from the ranch where I spent many summers, and I've been having a wonderful time catching up on old friends.

Since some of us have posted a bunch of pictures (202 so far!), we've been trying to name everyone in the photos. I thought you'd enjoy the above picture...so typical of our skits. These two gals were poking fun at the head counselor (who was one of the girls' dad). Oh, how I loved that camp!

I guess piano and violin lessons are off because of the snow. Maggie has 4 appts on Tuesday, so I hope something melts before then!

Enjoy your new week. It's my turn to be both Mom and Dad, so you can be sure I will be thanking God for my husband...and a host of other things. So much to be thankful for...that's for certain and for sure.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Allen passed his testing on Thursday. He now has a stripe on his Orange belt. We are so proud of him!
It was painful to watch Allen during his sparring routine. He had a stuffy nose and could barely breathe...and he had to wear a mouthpiece that cut off his oxygen supply. But he braved through!

He did it! This was the back kick...hard to do. Next time he has to do this kick in the air!
Tonight our church is hosting a Fireproof evening with a free spaghetti dinner and movie. Guess who is cooking the spaghetti dinner?!
So last night we precooked all the spaghetti, sliced all the bread...

...and added meat to the sauce, and put it back in the jars. I studied several websites about cooking for 100 people, and they all recommended precooking the pasta. Now that it's done, I'm so glad I did. It was a hot job! Besides that, my Viking range has 10x more BTUs than the church's stoves, so the job went pretty quickly.

For the past 9 years, I have been meaning to plant asparagus in my garden, but I always wait until March to go seed shopping...and miss out on the asparagus plants. I prefer to get my bulk seeds at Southern States. Good prices and good quality. When was the last time you got that?!

I bought 30 packages that have 8 roots each. We have a 4 acre field that I hate to mow, so this spring my goal is to expand my garden a bunch. This should be a good start!

I also bought one package of horseradish roots that I plan to plant in a half barrel. Horseradish will take over your garden if you're not careful, so hopefully it will be contained in the barrel. If you'd like some this summer, stop by!

I also bought 32 packages of gladiolus at the dollar store. There are 6 bulbs in a package. Walmart sells these 6/$3.99. The dollar store bulbs are much healthier.
This morning I experimented with my sourdough biscuits. I forgot to set out my batter overnight, so I made it this morning. Yuk. Even though everyone else in my family liked them, I think they were hockey pucks.

Mike is off to the farmer's market to get strawberries for tonight's strawberry shortcake. I am giving my children the day off from heavy chores because I know they will be working hard tonight. Just feeding the pets. Sarah is in charge of the free childcare tonight, so she is busy organizing who will be babysitting who...forty-eight children!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Is this a happy child or what?! While Maggie was at Physical Therapy doing her painful exercises (across the hall), we had fun seeing how out-of-shape we are when it comes to bowling.
We had two teams...the blonds (Ruthie and Lizzie) and the brunettes (Anna and Allen). The blonds won by a long shot.
Part of the fun of bowling, is watching the cartoons on the screen.
It was over too quickly. The only sad thing is that the price has doubled. The discount time is from 10 am (opening) until 1 pm. Shoes cost $2 and games cost $1.75. That's a lot...especially for being a military operation. It makes me wonder what the cost is in town.
When we left, the worker gave each child a printout of their individual scores. I think these are wonderful! Each child can see which pins are his weakest, how many strikes and spares he got, and what his average is. Very nice!

I had some canned peaches leftover from church, so I chopped them up and added them to our oatmeal. Delicious! I even added the lite syrup, so no one needed to add any additional sweetener. Definitely a hit in this family.
After bowling, we dropped Maggie off at her Occupational Therapy appt, then went to Joann's Fabrics to use our 50% off coupons. Since everything was already 30% off, we could only use our coupons on the patriotic fabrics. Very disappointing. I wanted to show you this Debbie Mumms fabric called Family Reunion. Beautiful colors. It sells for $6.99/yard. Unfortunately, as is becoming more and more common, there were white bleach spots throughout the whole bolt. Price goes up but quality goes down. It's just not the cowboy way!
Since Maggie's appt lasted 1-3/4 hours, we had plenty of time to window shop. We went to Marshalls and had fun browsing through the housewares dept. I found this bread bin that got my curiousity.

Here's a better picture. This is called a Typhoon Capsule Bread Bin. I couldn't tell if this is for bread dough to rise in, or to store baked bread. Now that I've had a chance to look it up online, I know that this is a bread storage bin.

While learning about bread bins, I found some others to show you. I like this Spode bin best.

How about this modern bin?

This bin appeals to me because it looks big. I usually have a loaf of bread, some rolls, and miscellaneous bread leftover, so I'd want a large bin.
One last bread bin, this is a retro red bin.

This set has bins for cakes, pasta, utensils, crackers, etc. Not my style, but pretty to look at.

Today we have been busy. Mainly cleaning, but also doing little fix-it jobs. This week the weather will be cold, but no snow. I am trying to be thankful for that since I hate to be driving around in snow. But I sure could use a whopper snowstorm that shuts the town down.

I made a huge pot of chicken noodle soup this morning, and we've been eating it all day long. It's my best chicken noodle soup ever. Warm soup, warm heart, and now....warmest blessings ~ Kathie

This past Wednesday was our day to cook for Grandad's church, so several times I handed my camera to my children and said, "Take pictures for my blog." Wouldn't you know it...I have 24 pictures now...all of darling Abby! Isn't she cute as a button?!

We didn't have many folks for dinner because of the rainy and cold weather. Our menu was chicken...chicken noodle soup (a real hit), chicken salad sandwiches, baked chicken, green beans and potatoes, grilled cheese sandwiches, hotdogs and fries, spiral sliced ham, salad, fresh fruit and pies for dessert. Yummy!

Maggie's Occupational Therapy appts take about 1-1/2 hours, three times a week, so I have lots of time to sit and read, knit, or go to the nearby Dollar Store (in San Souci Plaza, for you local folks). Today I bought this pack of cleaning wipes for leather furniture. It works wonderfully! My only hesitation is that there are no ingredients listed on the package...just a warning to wash hands well after using...and made in China. Yikes. Next time I will wear plastic gloves and only wipe the back of my sofas where it gets dusty...and no one touches.My other purchase was a tube of Breck's Lavender Bedtime Baby Cream. I have always had normal/dry skin and hair, but now that I am middle-aged, I have dry skin and hair. No fun! For the past 2 years I have been diligently trying every lotion available. My problem area is my feet. Even though I never go barefoot anymore, I still have dry skin on my feet.

But this Baby Cream lotion has kept my feet soft and smooth for a week now. I love it! My only concern is that even though the #1 ingredient is water, the #2 ingredient is mineral oil...a petroleum product. Yuk! I've tried staying away from any petroleum products, so this is disappointing. But am I willing to give up my nice soft feet? What a dilemna!
Some other products I have tried and liked are the udderly smooth lotions. These are water based, but I have to reapply these lotions regularly.
I have also tried and liked many of the Burt's Bees products. They are sticky after applying, but it does work...for a time. I especially like their lip gloss.

I also need to mention that there is some concern about the Lavender Oil in the Breck's lotion may be a source of estrogen. The homework for all this stuff never ends! (Added later: I learned that this lotion does not use Oil of Lavender that has estrogen, but merely a lavender fragrance. All clear!)

We are off to take Maggie to her physical therapy appt on base. Since the bowling alley is in the same building (the drill hall), it is only right and fitting that the rest of us go bowling! Then we are off to occupational therapy. Today Maggie will be getting an ultrasound as part of her therapy. Something new everyday!

We will take my camera and try to come up with a more interesting post than dry feet:-)

Many blessings ~ Kathie