Happy Thanksgiving!

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise;
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continures through all generations.”

-Psalm 100

Blessings,
Nancy

Pumpkin Harvest Bread

I baked some of this bread Sunday evening, to rave reviews from all. The children loved it (probably the chocolate chips) and were going back for seconds. We have since then finished it off, eating it for breakfast and snacks the last couple of days. I found this recipe a year or so ago at Kristin’s site Bits and Pieces From My Life, but just got around to baking it this year. I won’t be waiting that long again – it was really delicious – thanks, Kristin! Oh, and I doubled the recipe, so the pictures will show twice the amount of the recipe (making 2 loaves, rather than 1).

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Cream butter and sugar -

Add eggs and beat well -

Blend in pumpkin -

I thought it looked really pretty at this point -

Sift dry ingredients -

Add to pumpkin mixture -

Stir in chocolate chips -

Pour into loaf pan(s) and bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes -

Really good warm from the oven, with a spread of butter -

Blessings,
Nancy

The Simple Woman’s Daybook ~ November 23

Here is my Daybook entry for today ~

Outside my window. . .a foggy morning with the promise of sunshine later on today.
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I am thinking. . .about my blessings.
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From the learning room. . .no lessons this week – enjoying a week off!
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I am thankful for. . .my family, faith, and friendships.
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From the kitchen. . .pumpkin harvest bread for breakfast this morning; Smothered Chicken for dinner tonight with tossed salad and watermelon.
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I am wearing. . .navy t-shirt and blue jeans.
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I am creating. . .getting started making our Christmas cards.
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I am going. . .to try to get the birdfeeders filled up this week – a long overdue treat for my feathered friends.
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I am reading. . .“Christmas in the Big Woods” (Laura Ingalls Wilder) with Anna – one of my favorites.
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I am hoping. . .that the nice weather holds out a little while longer for our daily walks.
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I am hearing. . .girls chatting while dressing dolls, “Grinch” (Jim Carrey) dvd on tv, Tommy singing Christmas carols.
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Around the house. . .the Christmas boxes are down from the attic and are sitting around the living room, already sending forth some of their contents (many excited children, as well!). I hope to get a lot of decorating done this week – I am determined to get it done quickly this year, so that the boxes can get back into the attic earlier than the two weeks that they usually sit around!
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One of my favorite things. . .24 hour Christmas music on the radio throughout the season.
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A few plans for the rest of the week. . .decorating, baking, Thanksgiving dinner with my family, the annual Dickens festival with Jeff next weekend (so excited!).
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Here is a picture thought I am sharing. . .

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To read more Daybook entries, please visit Peggy at The Simple Woman’s Daybook, and have a thankful day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Checking in . . .

Sorry to be so lax in my posting this week ~ it has been a bit busy. This last week has seen us in the emergency room with Anna (5 stitches), celebrating Jeff’s birthday, an evening visiting with a friend from church, Ladies Bible Study, Ice Skating lessons, cookie baking (see picture above), and monthly stock-up shopping.

I’ll be back as soon as I can catch my breath!

Blessings,
Nancy

Brrrr. . . it’s cold in here!

I am writing this blog post as I sit at the ice rink freezing. Tommy and Sarah begin lessons today, and they have a couple of hours of free skate before their lesson starts.

This is our first time at this ice rink. We normally skate at the mall, however this rink just opened up ~ brand new ~ and it is much closer to home, so we opted to do lessons here. The rinks are really comparable – floor made of ice, and me sitting outside the plastic walls watching. Big difference, however, in the air temperature between here and the mall. I normally am perfectly comfortable in a jacket, but here – I think I’d feel better in a heavy winter coat! I tried sewing for awhile, but my fingers were getting numb, so I stopped.

I’ve got a crockpot filled with nice hot soup waiting for us at home, when we are done. I’m trying an experiment – I poured chicken broth into my crockpot, added some chopped carrots and celery, a few spices, and left it to simmer. When we get home, I will toss in a bag of tortellini from the freezer (minus the bag, of course) and let them cook until tender. Then we will try out my experiment and see how it is. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I think I’ll put in some cornbread while the tortellini cooks. I may need to break out the hot chocolate to thaw myself out sufficiently.

Until later ~

Blessings,
Nancy

Crockpot Potato Soup

Potato soup is one of my favorite soups, and I have wanted to make it homemade for awhile, so recently I went online and found a recipe that sounded good and printed it out to try. I especially liked the fact that it was prepared in the crockpot, so I could start it in the morning and let it cook all day. There are many different and varied recipes for potato soup on the internet – if this one doesn’t appeal to you, you can surely find one that will. I found this recipe at the Potato Patch Recipes site, where you can find many yummy potato recipes for your table.

Ingredients
1/2 lb. thick sliced bacon
2 medium onions, chopped
10 medium (not large) potatoes
4 cups chicken stock (broth)
1 pint half and half
3-4 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves

Peel the potatoes and chop into one inch cubes. Place the potato cubes into a large bowl of water and quickly add a few squirts of lemon juice to the water. This will prevent the potatoes from turning brown.

Cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan but leave the fat in the pan. Dice up the bacon and refrigerate until serving time.

Add the chopped onions to the bacon fat in the pan and heat the onions until they become translucent.

Take all of the ingredients, except for the half and half and bacon, and put in the crockpot. Cook on low for 10-12 hours.

After 10-12 hours, add the half and half to the mixture and stir it in real good. There is no need (don’t do it) to cook the half and half. At this point, decide if you would like the potatoes in cube form in your soup or if you would like creamy potatoes in your soup. If you would like creamy potatoes, get out the masher and go to work.

Ladle the soup out into soup bowls and sprinkle the cooked bacon bits on top. I heated the bacon bits briefly in the microwave to take the chill off. We also added a dollop of butter and sprinkled Monterrey Jack cheese on ours.

I served this soup with cornbread on the side ~ delicious on a cool Fall evening!

Blessings,
Nancy

Anna’s 6th Birthday!

Our youngest daughter Anna celebrated her 6th birthday last week. Her choice for a birthday outing was a girl trip to McDonald’s for lunch and then to the American Girl doll store. Jeff took the day off of work, so that all of the girls could go – Laura, our oldest daughter is our resident babysitter, and she was included in the trip.

Our first stop was lunch at McDonald’s. The playground wasn’t very crowded so she had lots of room to play -

We took a minute to check out Ronald’s shoes – aren’t they great?

After she had her fill of the playground, we headed off to American Girl, stopping by to pick up my Mom, who made our girl party complete.

Once inside the store we spent the next hour running around following Anna and Sarah as they explored every nook and cranny of the store. Anna was choosing a new doll – her birthday present, and Sarah was choosing a new doll outfit. They finally decided on their purchases, we paid for them, and then decided to have a little snack at the Bistro inside the store. I pulled out my camera and took a few pictures while we relaxed and had a bite to eat (thanks, Mom!) -

Here is Anna with her new doll, Elizabeth, enjoying one of her favorite snacks – strawberries!

And here is Sarah with her doll, Mia, who is wearing the new doll outfit that Sarah picked out -

When we left, I took our traditional picture in front of the store -

Dinner that night was Anna’s favorite food – fried chicken (she calls it “bone chicken”), with mac and cheese, cole slaw, and biscuits. She chose chocolate meringue pies for dessert. I found these sweet glittery star candles to put in the pie -

As you can tell, something else was put into the pie, too – David’s fingers, I believe!

Anna is growing up so fast – it seems that she just turned four and now she’s six. She is such a sweet girl and is loved dearly by each and every one of us.

Thanks for visiting! Have a lovely day ~

Blessings,
Nancy

The Simple Woman’s Daybook ~ November 9

Good Morning! Here is my Daybook entry for today ~

Outside my window. . .a wonderful blanket of leaves covers the front yard.
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I am thinking. . .about starting my Christmas shopping list – just ideas for now.
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From the learning room. . .Pilgrims and Thanksgiving reading, art of N.C. Wyeth, along with our basic studies.
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I am thankful for. . .a hot shower on a cool morning.
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From the kitchen. . .Chicken Stuffing Casserole for dinner tonight with a green salad, and gingerbread.
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I am wearing. . .pink t-shirt and lt. blue jeans.
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I am creating. . .school plans for the rest of the semester.
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I am going. . .to be helping Sarah finish up her “Cookie Baking” badge this week – she still needs to bake 2 different types of cookies, which should make for a sweet-smelling house this week!
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I am reading. . .Thanksgiving books with the children.
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I am hoping. . .to get a booklist up in my sidebar soon ~ books we’re reading at the current time.
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I am hearing. . .outdoor noises through the open window – crows cawing, little birds twittering, traffic noise on the highway nearby; and inside noises – Michael talking and humming, “Spongebob” dvd playing, and various children conversing.
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Around the house. . .A few less pumpkins on display ~ we cut open a few and roasted the seeds this weekend ~ I then roasted the pumpkins to freeze and use for pies, breads, etc. ~ We still have enough pumpkins outside and in that are continuing to provide decoration for the Thanksgiving season, but whose time will come soon enough!
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One of my favorite things. . .Land O’ Lakes French Vanilla Hot Chocolate ~ I slipped a few into my grocery cart not long ago and will soon be enjoying my first delicious cup of the season . . . yummmm!
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A few plans for the rest of the week. . .helping the kids finish up their Keepers badges for the year, first skating lesson for Tommy and Sarah, shopping, basketball and cheerleader sign-ups and evaluations for Michael and Anna, and celebrating Jeff’s birthday next weekend.
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Here is a picture thought I am sharing. . .

A lovely place to rest on a beautiful Autumn afternoon at the natural science museum we visited last Friday.

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To read more Daybook entries, please visit Peggy at The Simple Woman’s Daybook,
and have a wonderful day!

Blessings,
Nancy

One of the things I love about homeschooling . . .

is this ~

I assigned Laura the book “Calico Captive” by Elizabeth Speare for History reading on Thursday. She was to read one chapter each school day until it was finished. I expected this to be sometime after Thanksgiving.

Thursday afternoon she reported that she was in the middle of chapter 10. The book had caught her and she was a captive herself. Friday morning she announced that she had finished the book before she went to bed the night before.

Did I mention that there are 23 chapters in the book?

I love that homeschooling offers my children the opportunity to fall in love with a book that they never would have picked up on their own and the flexibility to read it all the way through without having to wait for the rest of the class.

Blessings,
Nancy

A Few Snapshots From Last Weekend . . .

Last weekend was a busy one for us, but thanks to a glitch with my computer and uploading pictures, I haven’t been able to post about it until now. But, I have managed to outsmart my computer for once in my life . . . heh, heh, heh (evil scientist laugh) . . . when even the resident tech go-to support people couldn’t solve the problem. It just goes to show you that if you fiddle around and have a little patience you can beat it at it’s (the computer’s) tricks – either that or completely crash it – in which case, the computer has the last laugh. But, not this time. Thank you for indulging me as I digress.

Anyway, like I was saying, it was a busy weekend for us last weekend. Friday night was our annual Reformation Day celebration at church. Costume opportunity #1. Everyone is invited to dress in medieval attire, which means six costumes around here. Thankfully many of these are worn and handed down year to year, and we only ended up having to purchase 2 new ones this year, which wasn’t too bad – especially since we waited until the last week and they were already marked down 30%. Here are a few snapshots we took before leaving home ~

We spent the evening enjoying a fellowship meal, hearing a short talk on the life of John Calvin, and, after the costume contest, the children ran around the church – attending various booths to play games that each, in some way, taught about Calvin’s life. Jeff and I ran the “Authority of the Bible” booth, where the children had to throw balls and knock down every book (cardboard reproductions) except the Bible. It was lots of fun, but I was so caught up in the events that I forgot to take pictures! So, these will have to suffice – and the older girls looked so lovely in their long medieval dresses, too! Oh, well, maybe I’ll do better next year!

Costume opportunity #2 -the next night we attended the Fall Festival that we have been going to for many years back in our old town. It is full of games, bounce houses, ponies, and candy. It seems to get bigger every year and is sometimes a lesson in patience as we wait in line with the crowds for each event. This night required 5 more costumes (now you know what I spent the previous week doing). I managed to get more pictures this night ~

Our group included three clowns, a cheerleader, and Elizabeth Swann -

We played Limbo . . .

Baseball (or should I say “air-ball”?) . . .

Decorated cupcakes . . .

And pet the animals in the petting zoo . . .

When we were sufficiently worn out, we headed to my mom’s house (an annual tradition) and the kids dumped and sorted their candy – always a highlight of the evening – especially since the rest of us can sit down and relax finally!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend – ours is gearing up to be another busy one, but at least no costumes are involved this time!

Blessings,
Nancy