Sewing again. . .

Had so much fun today, went to the meeting, which was a wonderfully uplifting watchtower study. And the speaker was a brother I've known for over 30 years, haven't seen him in decades. I wanted to talk to him and his wife after the meeting but they left early. awe well. Maybe next time. It's so nice though that I have been able to see so many people since moving back that I grew up with. Almost every one in my congregation I grew up with at some point. Kind of neat.

Came home to a delicious roast that I had put in the crock pot before we left. Next time I'm going to put it in the night before on low, instead of in the morning on high. I am pretty sure I like the texture better on low, but it sure was tasty anyhow! Yummy sandwiches in our future for leftovers.

Julie came over, ate lunch with us, and then we sewed, gabbed and just had a good time. I got started on one of my winter skirts. I'm thinking when I get it done, it's time to start on my spring/summer clothes, winter went by so fast!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window. . .beautiful weather.

 I am hearing...my husband snoring.

I am thinking. . .I've had a wonderful week so far.

I am thankful for. . .a wonderful congregation.

I am remembering. . .Lela's babyhood.

I am hoping. . .to have some people over soon.

I am creating. . .a clean home.

On my mind. . .getting the laundry all caught up.

Noticing that. . .Lela is really growing up.

From the kitchen. . .Cream cheese chicken chili, and corn bread.

One of my favorite things. . .happy children.

A few plans for the rest of the week. . .Getting a little more caught up on laundry.

What I am reading. . .email.

Picture for thought I am sharing. . .

Lela, Belle & RJ, at the Winter Hot Cocoa Party

Winter Fun. . .

Saturday was so much fun, the girls were invited to a winter party. Hot cocoa station, with every imaginable add in you can think of. Every chocolate chip known to man, lots of flavored creamers, spoons dipped in chocolate with mini marshmallows and m&m's to make little snow men, marshmallows, whipped cream, and even a blue punch to look like water with snow on top. Then they had chili with snow man shaped cornbread. The tables were sit with all kinds of fun stuff, glitter, hershey kisses, snowman mugs, with skewers with marshmallows dipped in ediable glitter, and rollos on top made like snowmen sticking out of them, snow balls all kinds of fun things, not to forget a teddy bear in every chair to go home with each child, along with paper mugs, with a packet of hot cocoa mix, marshmallows and more hershey kisses, labeled snow man soup. Then there was a backboard of snow with sugar cookie snowmen, and cakes shaped like snow men/women too. There was even helium balloons filled with hershey kisses, with fishing wire hanging from them with cotton balls and different parts of the fishing wire to make it look like it was snowing inside. When we first went in a sister who is a photographer had a scene complete with bear rug for each child to get their picture taken. I made deviled eggs, rice crispy treats, and pinwheels. But, I surely wasn't expecting the party to be so nice. It was just soooo much fun! The kids had a artic blast!

Julie went with us to the party, and then gave us a little tour of Maize and how it was when she lived there. Then she came home with us and we ate dinner with my dad and the kids. Yummy salmon, fish and cous cous. Then she helped and groomed the kitty, Willow, after dinner, and we got to talk and laugh lots.

We had a wonderful meeting this morning, our congregation is just so sweet. A little brother named Malachi came up to us after meeting and said the cutest thing, he said how do you two (Vince and I) keep making such cute babies. He just thought RJ was so cute, and he said Belle and Lela was too. He has 5 siblings himself so it was pretty funny. I told him Jehovah made them that way, and he said well still it's you and him that made them. haha Funny kid.

Afterwards we went to Kabobs, and had a delicious lunch. Mmmm I could eat the sivaiyan all day long I think...even though it's dessert. The tandori was delicious, the puri so good, but who can't love fried bread? haha Yummy yummy Pakistani buffet....mmmm I can't wait to go back! Of course I always crave the sivaiyan & dalia till I can go back again every time! lol The waitress really loved RJ too and thought his suit and tie, and little hankie was so cute. Also we can't believe the kids are free there till they are 6 super bonus for us! haha

Then we went to Dollar Tree to pick a few things up, I seen they had Ball canning jars there the real thing, so I called my mom to let her know. She told me my step brother was visiting and wanted to know where the pizza buffet I go to was, just so happened I was sitting there in Dollar Tree's parking lot which shares the parking lot with Italiano's! lol So I told her and she said he and the kids, and her would like to meet us there. We were still dressed for meeting so decided to go home and then come back for them especially since we had already eaten. So we came back and chatted with them a bit, and then all went to see the Muppets again, the kids loved it and it's such a good movie. Then afterwards the kids played in the arcade for hours, and even RJ got to ride the horse, and was so happy, laughing and smiling the whole time. He had been watching Belle, and Lilly ride it and ride it and kept looking like he wanted to too, boy was he happy when he got to ride it too! He even held on to the saddle on his own! I guess he had watched Belle enough to figure that part out! haha I also seen Anette Hildalgo there, she is so sweet, I haven't seen her in years, maybe decades. It was so nice to run into her there too!

Had a great time. Found out the Drive in is open again, I hope it has good movies this next weekend, this weekend had great ones, but I didn't know they were open.

However, once we got home RJ screamed, and screamed. I could not calm him down for anything. I finally decided to step outside with him to see if that would help, he calmed down quickly and then vomited all over me, and I was literally dripping in vomit. Poor baby, I think he had a gas bubble way down low. We changed him and went back to bed and he was fine the rest of the night. Poor baby.

SURPRISE! ! !

Last time I posted, I said I had gotten some energy back and had been cleaning my house, well thank goodness for that and being Flywashed. Friday evening Vince was taking a bath getting ready to take me grocery shopping when I heard a knock at the door. I asked Lela who it was, but she was upstairs playing with my little sisters, so I was heading to the door to see who it was, as we rarely get unexpected visitors I was fully expecting to see my father, when I heard my mother in law's voice, say It's Kathy! I was like, wha what!? I literally looked around the room to see if I was dreaming or awake, I was pretty certain I was awake. Thank goodness the house was in decent condition! It was quite the shock they truly did surprise us. When Vince and Lela came back to the apartment they were in total shock as well!

We had a good weekend, went to the Amish restaurant, meeting and Bishops, then had the kids pictures taken, they also bought Ralphie a Sophie girraff which Belle quickly took over, and so ended up having to get a second one. haha. While we were taking photos, the camera broke, but they still got several good ones, and gave us a voucher for next time. So we will be going back soon. My dad invited them to dinner tonight too. So we had a nice visit and they have to go back home in the morning. But, whoa were we shocked. lol They truly, truly got us!

Company Ready. . .

I finally am coming out of the fourth trimester. haha I've been so tired since before the move here, between being pregnant with Belle, the big move, nursing Belle and being pregnant at the same time, pregnant, triple digit heat all summer long, and then nursing RJ...well he's sleeping pretty well through the night now, and I'm starting to feel normal again! All that takes so much more out of you when you have diabetes, and are old (over 35) like me. Whew. I still want another baby, but am glad to finally start feeling normal again! I've been working on getting the house cleaned up with my new found energy. Also been having Vince go to the barn and bring in boxes for me to unpack. So it's starting to look like a home! Saturday I'm going to have him bring in a dresser my mom gave me for Belle, and clean it out, put all Belle's clothes in it and put RJ's clothes in Belle's current dresser. That should free up Vince and I a couple of more drawers, since right now RJ is sharing our dresser! haha

I've been making a ton of cakes too as I had a bunch ready to expire or just expired last month. The kids are really liking it, and frosting got so much easier to make once I found my electric beaters! Boy hand creaming with a spatula to make frosting is hard work! haha I can't wait to buy myself a big free standing mixer...some day...some day. Maybe another two years, I could have the money saved up.

I think I will be all caught up on laundry, and have the house presentable in two more weeks. Then I am inviting people over! The only company I have had is Julie and Raquel as they are the only people I'm not ashamed to let see the house. haha So it will feel good to have some company over. I'm thinking about inviting the brothers and their wives over who are going to have our shepherding call as that is coming up, and since we live way out here in the boonies I thought maybe they could all just come and eat dinner with us. At least I'm hoping. Been planning a easy menu to have mainly in the slow cooker and ready after meeting for them to just follow us here after meeting since they don't know how to get here. Going back and forth with what to have. One of the brothers is not from here, and so I know some people from where he is from doesn't like Mexican food, so that limits my menu items. Will have to just ask him what his family preferences are. Especially since I am going to invite his parents too since they live with him. But, it's fun tossing around ideas any how. For some reason I really like to menu plan. haha

30 years coming!

My LLL cookbooks came yesterday and spent all Ralphie, and Belle's nap times meal planning. I have 3 months worth of meals planned now, and almost a years worth of snacks for both the LLL meetings and the supplemental meetings, lol. I think I will go through my pintrest, and two other cookbooks I have here at home already and try to plan a few more months of menus, I would like another healthy crock pot cookbook though. It's so much easier when I schedule our menus. Especially cooking for so many people. And so many taste. I'm hoping every one will like the new recipes. Thank goodness the kids mainly eat what I cook with out much if any complaint. I think they are getting to really like quinoa. I'm glad cause as much as I like cous cous, I don't like the very little nutritional value, and the expense. With quinoa in the bulk section now in our local Krogers it's a bit cheaper and a lot healthier then cous cous. And especially now that I have discovered the joys of Bragg's dry seasoning! I am going to buy their aminos next! I also am going to start using coconut milk more often, I really loved the soup I made with it last week. Of course I love coconut period, and so do the little Haitians in the house, so that's a double bonus, as they are the pickiest when it comes to the food in the house. I can't wait to try to cook quinoa in coconut milk next!

Today I made a peanut butter cookie recipe I found on pintrest a few weeks ago, cause Lela was begging me to make more Rice Krispy treats I had made for the LLL meeting the other night. It's a adaption of the old peanut butter cookie recipe I've made since I was 7 years old. My old recipe was 1 cup pb, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. The adaption recipe I found on pintrest calls for 1 cup pb, 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and I believe chocolate chips. But, I didn't double check the recipe, as mainly I knew it was the sugar difference, and I can't remember if I thought of the chocolate chips myself or if it was part of the recipe I found. Either way I love chocolate chip cookies because of the chocolate chips and the taste of the brown sugar in the batter. However, I rarely if ever have made chocolate chip cookies cause of all the ingredients. I have always fell back and made the old stand by peanut butter cookies cause of the very very few ingredients. I would sometimes add a few reeses pieces to the top or a hershey kiss, but it never dawned on me to stir in chocolate chips to the mix, or to do half brown and half white sugar. WOW this bumped my peanut butter cookie recipe up to a whole new level. I will never make them the old way again. The greatness of a good chocolate chip, mixed the ease of my reliable peanut butter cookie, what could be better? NOTHING! Even Lela and Vince my two who hate sweets, can barely keep their hands off these!

Well, it's off to get out one of those other cook books and see if I can get another months worth of menus planned up!

Updates. . .

Ok I've been horrible about updating my blog this month. A lot has happened. Although I must say I think they are much cuter in real life. She loves them. And they were on sale. They are supposed to be as good as Stride Rite. I guess we will see.

That same day we went to Yoder and picked up our haul-less popcorn, and went to the Amish restaurant for lunch. Mmm the best chicken and mashed potatoes ever.

We found out we are going to be welcoming a new little nephew into the world in May. So I've been planning his little baby shower. I went to the Cake shop today and bought flavoring and a new mold. I so want to add to my mold collection. I wanted some new teddy bears, but resisted and just bought diaper pins mold. I may buy the teddy bears later, I also want the double wedding bells. And also some graduation shapes. And, and, and! lol I over looked a cupcake book or two, as I got some ideas from others I browsed at Lowes the other day. Settled on making a lion cake, and hippo and alligator cupcakes to go with it. I ended up buying orange, and keylime flavoring. The keylime is soooooo good. I am going to make the frostings one of those flavors for at least one cake. Not sure which though. I want to try the pina colada flavoring too. But, I know the keylime one is soooo good.

After that we went to Talliano's for dinner with the kids. It's really cheap pizza buffet and oh so good. Then it was off to dollar tree to get some more ideas. I have a idea of which invites I want now, either girraff's which would go with the jungle theme, or blue and chocolate striped ones, which would be more contemporary and classic. I also looked at little favor stuff to put in snow globes I am making for the favors. Hopefully with a picture of little nephew in it. I also am working on truffle boxes like I made for Belle's shower, and I am going to make orange with blue rice krispy treats to put in them. I'm floundering between teddy bear ones, and animal train ones.

When we got home, Lela, Loudine, Belle and I made mints. Bennette helped me clean the stuff to make them though and find all the stuff. We made diaper pins, and baby booties. I just may have to go buy those teddy bears. haha We made them buttermint flavored. And only orange tonight. We will make blue ones later. And maybe chocolate brown ones too. But, not positive yet. The orange came out really pretty though. What was really funny is I bought the orange icing coloring to make the frosting for the lion cake at first. And I practiced making a lion cake. Lela seen my first attempt and said, were you trying to make it orange? Cause I didn't use much coloring cause I was afraid of making it too bright, however, it's prettier brighter like I made the mints. Any way, I said yes. She said, lions aren't orange mommy, they are yellow with brown manes. Maybe you should go to the zoo and look at them so you will know what they look like. It was hilarious! Ok Lela I will go buy yellow food coloring and try it with that! lol I also used toasted coconut for the mane, it was brown, but kind of blah. So I'm going to try to tint it orange and then toast it and see how that works.

I have also finally went to a really cute local shop, that I have known about for around a year just hadn't gotten to. It's called Sweet Cheeks. They are great. I have discovered the joys of nursing necklaces. And Ralphie has already figured out to play with it instead of pinching me like Belle does! Belle still likes to pinch me even though she hasn't nursed in months! ha So I hope I can nip that in the bud with RJ! Plus the ones I picked out are really cute too. But, I may go ahead and buy the chew beads too. To try to wean Belle from pinching me. She also says we can have the shower in her shop if we register there, so cool!

I've been trying new soups too. And discovered the joys of pintrest. I have tried a red lentil coconut soup and a cream cheese chicken soup so far from it. And they were both delicious! I also finally was able to order my Whole Foods La Leche League books, and a sister on my JWLW  group started a cooking club. So I can't wait to try even more new recipes healthy recipes. Oh and I also found out the Bragg's seasoning is great in quinoa! Also we have a great new health food grocery store, that sells quinoa, Bragg's, and hyland stuff, all at good prices. And has awesome hummus for only 1.99! I want to try the babaganoush next!

The other day we were puttering around town and trying to think of some place to eat. When I suggested we try Don's. Which I hadn't been to since I was a teen. So glad we went. Still get a ton of food for a good price. And it was still good as ever. It's not as nice inside any more since they added the gambling. But, the service is great, food is great, and not a bad price. So glad I thought to go back. I've been missing a good diner. And the few we tried since I moved back that I used to like had really really went downhill, nasty places now! So glad Don's had stayed clean and good!

I've also been able to finish making my coat. And learned to make baby legs for the kids. So things have been going pretty good in that regard. And I was able to get my new sewing machine out of layaway! I also found what I want for this years anniversary gift, haha I already told Vince. I found a place that engraves bakeware with your name and every thing. And it looks great. So that's exactly what I want! I am missing so much of my stuff. ARG!

My Loves!

My Little Brother Caleb, Sister Loudine, and my baby girl Lela!

Monster Truck Rally in Town

You know you are in a redneck diner, when you hear that waitresses complain that it's slow cause the monster truck rally is in town. True story! We ate at Don's on Broadway and Harry today. A true redneck diner. haha

She said it so seriously too. It took all I had not to laugh my fool head off! I didn't want to offend her. lol But, I was like that is just too funny!

The funny part is, I had a flicker of a moment of wanting to go to it! lol haha But, the noise would probably just get on my last nerve at this point n my life. lol I did used to like them when I was little though.