MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

We are finished with health!  Isn’t that great?  The girls decided yesterday that since we were so close to being finished, they would just work on through to the end.  (This decision was made all on their own, I didn’t even suggest it)  I think that is amazing in itself but so typical of homeschool kids. 

Today is a very nice day.  Lots of sunshine.  Temperatures are in the low 40′s.  Amazing!  I have clothes on the line, I love it.  The girls and I have been walking down to the barn to get milk this week.   Today’s walking should be fairly nice except for the mud.  I know, complain, complain.  But I really do not like walking in mud.  Good exercise though. 

Tonights menu will be kielbasa with sauteed mushrooms, onion, garlic and green peppers served over brown rice.  I haven’t decided what to have for dessert yet , maybe a peach cobbler.  I have made little progress on the matching aprons.  I am very frustrated with myself.  I made an unfixabe error on the little girl apron.  I will have to transform it into a doll apron.  At least, it will be usable for something.  Well, that’s how you learn, I reckon. 

I hope you all have lots of sunshine today and warm temperatures and that you are able to go outside and enjoy the beauty of the day.  God bless.

Hubby worked some more today on splitting wood.  He wanted to know why I took this picture of him splitting a toothpick, why didn’t I get him splitting a real piece of wood. 

Julie splitting her first piece of wood. 

Grace getting ready to split her first piece.  All girls need to know how to split wood.  After practicing splitting, we got busy and hauled all that Hubby had split into the wood building and stacked it up.  He almost has all the wood split that we have cut so we will soon have to cut more.  Oh the joys of heating with wood!  Seriously, it is a lot of work but it is definitely good heat and all it costs us is our work.  Not a bad trade in my opinion. 

We worked on school today, did some house cleaning.  The ladies will be coming tomorrow for bible study.  Supper tonight is baked spaghetti with lots of mozzarella cheese and home made garlic breadsticks.  We also have some cushaw pie left with whipped cream. 

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

One of the girls favorite eat out food is crazy bread from Little Ceasars, so today I decided to try my hand at making it.  They actually turned out really well.  They tasted very similar to crazy bread.  I used my butter rich roll recipe for the dough, then when they were baked I brushed melted butter over them, sprinkled on garlic salt and parmesan cheese, and YUM!  I think this will definitely be a keeper.

I thought you all might want to see our progress so far.  The electrical is done, insulation finished and the drywall is hung.  Hubby will start putting the mud on next week.  Thankfully, he has some work for next week. This means the room will go slower but we need the work.  I am glad to have it this close to finished.  He estimates it will be finished and everything moved in by the end of the month. 

This has been my major project all day.  We decided to do a recipe exchange among the ladies at church.  We ended up with about 40 recipes. We thought it would be nice to have them in their original form so most of them are handwritten.  I arranged them into categories today.  I have only a few that I need to find out who donated them.  I hope to find this out tomorrow, then I will put them all together into books.  This has been a really fun project. 

Cooler temperatures have arrived here once again.  We had a fire yesterday and last night however we didn’t need one today.  Temperature is about 58 degrees here now with lots of sunshine, quite a brisk wind though.  If you are outside, a lightweight jacket feels pretty good.  I think I will enjoy some of that sunshine while we still have  it.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.

Here on the farm we are blessed to have lots of blackberries.  They are not the thornless kind, however, so they can be difficult to pick.  They are domestic though and have huge berries on them, so it doesn’t take long to pick a gallon.  They looked so pretty  with the snow on them.  My thanks to Julie for the pictures.  We got about 3-5″ of new snow yesterday.  More shoveling!  My peach pie  was very good.  I also made homemade rolls.  I kinda made up a recipe for supper.  We had some chicken left over from Sunday. I sauteed onions, garlic, italian seasoning, and spinach.  Added the  chicken.  Next I added a can of my homemade spaghetti sauce.  Then I added cooked whole wheat penne noodles.  Mixed it all together, added cheese to the top and baked covered 30 min. at 350 degrees.(cast iron skillet of course)  It tasted really good.  Well time for school.  Take care and God bless.

I have been asked to post my salsa recipe.  This is a very good recipe and can easily be divided to make less.  This recipe makes about 10-12 pints depending upon how thick you let it get when simmering.

Salsa

7 qts tomatoes chunked
6 cloves garlic chopped
5 med. onions chopped
5 green peppers chopped
1/2 cup hot peppers chopped(this makes med. hot-lower or increase amount for your preference)
2 cups vinegar
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp cilantro
2 tsp chili powder
Combine all ingredients.  Simmer until thick.  I  simmer 4-5 hrs.  Process in hot water bath canner 20 min.  I use pints.

Enjoy!