Congratulations to our Graduates!

Well, it’s taken me a little while, but I’m finally getting around to posting about our graduates! We are so proud of these two sons as they have achieved two important milestones in their lives – graduating this spring from college and high school!  Ryan completed his Bachelor of Science in Ministry Leadership from Moody Bible College and Tommy has earned his High School Diploma from our home school.  They have both worked so hard and a special dinner celebration was in order.  We took them out for a nice steak and Mexican dinner and were joined by our family, which made for a lovely evening.

I decorated the long main dining table at the restaurant, as well as a side table with framed pictures of the graduates, and another which held dessert and gifts. On the main table, I used a burlap runner, sprinkled with Hershey’s kisses, and then added candles, green plants, and an assortment of wisdom/advice quotes.

Jeff gave a nice speech with teary eyes and Ryan spoke for a little bit too. We presented Tommy with his high school diploma and took some pictures (all photo credits to our daughter Sarah!). It was a very wonderful and special evening!

We’re so excited to see where the Lord takes these two in the coming years. They are quite a blessing to our family!

Blessings,
Nancy

My Family Page is Updated!! (Finally)

I’ve been tweaking and testing things around the blog this week, trying to reaquaint myself with things, and am feeling a bit more comfortable on the whole.  One area that has been so woefully neglected over the past few years is my Family page.  My children have chided me on numerous occasions about how outdated it was and pleaded with me to please do something about it.  “Mommmm!  It still says I’m 14 years old!!!” (spoken by the current 17 year old).  “Mommmm!  You neeeed to add Jessica to the family page soon!!” (spoken by her youngest sister-in-law and flower girl).  “Mommmm!  I gave up ice skating two years ago! (spoken by the soon-to-be high school graduate).

In my own defense, I haven’t written a blog post in a year (until this week), and so I certainly wasn’t thinking about being up to date on everyone’s statuses.  But – I am now proud to announce – that I have finally taken the time, tackled the challenge, and typed in the updated information for all of these sweet little baby chicks in my coop.  You can hop over and take a look, if you’re interested, by clicking on the “My Family” tab at the top of this page.

I’m sure that my children will all sleep easier tonight once they know that they are finally current and all is well with the world.

Blessings,

Nancy

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Happy 21st Birthday to my sweet Mattie! You are a wonderful young man and I am so proud of you. You are a blessing in my life and I thank God for His special gift of you to me twenty-one years ago today!

Happy Happy Birthday!!

Love,
Mom

Anna’s Snickerdoodles

Anna is working on the cookie baking badge for her Keepers of the Faith club. She needs to bake 6 different types of cookies to earn the badge. She has already made Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies for us and now has added Snickerdoodles to her list. We got the recipe from this book ~

This is a wonderful cookbook that I found at Half Price Books a few years back, and which Jeff bought me for a Christmas present. Many great recipes from everyday cooks around the country! This recipe is credited to Michelle Goddard of Memorial Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Anna almost didn’t get to make these the other night when I realized that I had no cream of tartar, called for in the recipe. I decided to just go ahead and let her try them without it and see how they turned out. I am happy to report that they were just fine, delicious in fact! And Anna was quite proud of herself as she served them to the family. Here is the recipe ~

Snickerdoodles

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Additional sugar and cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cream the shortening, sugar, and eggs until light and fluffy. Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Stir in the vanilla extract. shape into balls the size of walnuts. Roll each ball in cinnamon/sugar mixture. Bake on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes; watch carefully so they don’t burn. Makes 5 dozen cookies.

This was a good learning recipe for Anna, and she had a great time with it!

Blessings,
Nancy

Nature Day

Our second Summer Theme Day this month was Nature Day, originally scheduled for last week, but moved to earlier this week. We started the special activities with a picnic lunch in the yard. While we ate, I read a couple of chapters from “The Story Book of Science” by Jean Henri Fabre, a wonderful storytelling book that celebrates the wonders of God’s creation.

When we finished lunch, it was time for a nature scavenger hunt. The kids took their lists and paper sacks all over the yard looking for rocks, leaves, seeds, insects and flowers, to name a few of the items. We were able to find everything on our lists except for a feather, and clover (which seems to have only been around in the spring).

It was a very hot day, but there was a strong breeze and nice shady trees overhead that made it bearable to be outside. Eventually, though, we were ready to head back into the air conditioning to cool off.

My next plan didn’t turn out so well. We piled into the van and drove about a half an hour to visit a natural science museum. We were looking forward to exploring the indoor exhibits and to walking on the nature trails. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the only discovery we made was that the museum was closed for the day. Oh well, next time I’ll remember to check the schedule before I burn up my gas! We got back in the car and started for home again – with a stop by Sonic for slushes to make the trip not a total waste!

The extra time when we got home turned out to be a good thing, because we had more time to work on our nature craft. Everyone sketched something on a small sheet of paper that they had seen in the yard that day. Then we painted wooden picture frames to put our sketches in.

We enjoyed a trail mix snack while we worked on our craft –

A few of their sketches, which they decided needed paint as well –

No, we did not see a volcano in the yard! That last one isn’t a volcano, but rather a picture of an Autumn tree – and no, we did not see an Autumn tree in the yard on this Summer day! We did see the tree, however, and this particular child decided that she preferred to paint it in Fall colors. 🙂

A few more colorful frames –

Jeff grilled out some Teriyaki chicken tenders for dinner, which we ate with brown rice and grilled zucchini and onions from the garden. For dessert, I made these yummy “Dirt Cups” to go with our nature theme. They were a huge success!

Nature day turned out to be a great day, although I was dissappointed that we had to miss the nature museum. We will make plans to go another day – when we know it will be open! – sometime soon. I’ll post the recipe for the dirt cups as soon as I can – super simple and fun!

Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Anna’s Ballet Recital

Anna’s first year of ballet lessons culminated a week or so ago in an end of the year ballet recital. It was quite a busy day for us. The day of the recital was also our oldest son, Robert’s 26th birthday, so we started the day by meeting him for pizza at lunchtime. After lunch, we hurried back home with just enough time to dress Anna in her recital dress, put her hair up in a braided bun, and run out the door to her dress rehearsal. Sarah went along with us. We arrived in time for dress rehearsal, and then spent the next few hours enjoying watching all of the different classes practice and admiring their beautiful costumes.

At the end of dress rehearsal, Anna changed back into street clothes and the two girls and I walked down the small town main street to a nearby restaurant. We had such a good time just spending “girl time” and enjoying a delicious and filling Mexican dinner. Soon enough it was time to head back down the street and get Anna dressed up again and ready for the performance. As we waited for curtain time, we were joined by the rest of the family, as well as Anna’s aunt and uncle, who also happen to live just down the street from where we were.

The recital went very well and Anna danced beautifully, as did all of the other dancers. Jeff presented Anna a lovely pink bouquet of flowers at the end and she was all smiles. All of the girls in Anna’s class danced with their baby dolls, so that is why she is holding “Ramona” in this picture.

Soon it was time to leave and we all went down the street again – this time to the old bank building – aka my brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s home – for cake and ice cream and a nice visit. Anna kept her costume on the rest of the evening and all the way home. I think she would have slept in it if I would have allowed it!

We arrived home late and tired, but it was a lovely day that I know Anna will always remember.

Blessings,
Nancy

Some random pictures . . .

I finally uploaded the pictures from my phone that I had taken here and there – whenever my “real” camera wasn’t around (although I sometimes think that my phone actually takes better pictures!) Here is some of what I found –

Anna cheerleading in the Upwards program – she is the first one on the back row to the left ~

Michael and Jeff during a basketball game – Jeff coached Michael’s team this year ~

Some pretty ice crystals on the car window – you can tell this was a while back, probably from January or February ~

We saw the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile one day when we were out and about – how fun! ~

Some of the kids playing with toys in a bucket of water on a recent warm day – it was their solution to my “no” about swimming in the too cold big pool ~

My “Grandmama bench” on the front porch – called that because it is identical to one that my Grandmother had on her screened porch – sporting a new pillow for the new outdoor season ~

Pretty jars of homemade Strawberry preserves cooling on the counter ~

Anna and Sarah at American Girl posing in an exhibit for this year’s Doll of the Year ~

A Luna moth on the wall of a building I spotted while out one day ~

I also found some sweet ballet pictures and I have some of Tommy’s skate competition this past weekend, but I’m saving those for posts of their own. Be back soon!

Blessings,
Nancy

Sarah’s Cooking Night

Sarah decided last week that she wanted to cook one of the meals for dinner this week. She had seen a recipe for chicken fingers on a Bisquick box and this inspired her to want to cook a whole meal, something that she had never done before. She has made a number of desserts for the family over the past few years, but never anything as ambitious as a complete meal. So, on Tuesday, I made sure we had all of the ingredients she needed and joined her in the kitchen to supervise, teach a bit, and help her out. The menu she planned consisted of ~

Ultimate Chicken Fingers
Homemade Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans
Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

Here are some pictures of her time in the kitchen ~

She started by making dessert – Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies. She has made these before, so she didn’t really need my help with this part. She gave the younger kids a spoonful of dough before she baked them.

Next she began work on her mashed potatoes. She used this recipe and learned how to wash, peel, cut and cook the potatoes. Her arms were a bit tired after scrubbing and peeling 5 lbs. of potatoes by herself!

While the potatoes cooked, she started her chicken fingers. As I mentioned before, this recipe was on the back of the Bisquick box. She had to triple the recipe for our family, so she got a little practical Math practice along the way. It was her first time to handle raw chicken, but she decided that it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. I gave her lessons on why it’s important to wash it well, and then she trimmed it up and sliced it for fingers.

Her potatoes were ready to mash before she got her chicken breaded, so she put the chicken on hold and finished up the potatoes – I told her that timing was one of the hardest parts of cooking.

With the potatoes all mashed and covered to keep warm, she went back to the chicken, which she found to be messy job!

While the chicken cooked, Sarah heated up the green beans (canned) on the stove. Finally, everything was ready, and we sat down to a delicious meal!

This chicken was so wonderful – it had parmesan cheese and garlic salt in the coating, which gave it a scrumptious flavor. I will post the recipe as soon as possible (if you can’t wait, go out and buy a box of Bisquick – it should be right there on the back of the box) –

Homemade Mashed Potatoes – she did an excellent job on these – they were smooth and creamy –

A great dinner –

and a delicious dessert to finish it up –

See you again soon!

Blessings,
Nancy

My Little Ballerina

Anna has recently traded in her ice skates for ballet slippers. She actually has been wanting to take ballet lessons for awhile now, but it just hadn’t worked out to do so. When it came time to register for the new session of ice skating recently, we had heard of a great ballet school and decided that this was a good time to switch. We left the decision up to Anna, who decided that she wanted to try ballet. I took a few pictures of her before we went to the first class –

She has had two classes so far, and I am really pleased with it. Anna is enjoying herself and I get to sit and watch. It brings back many memories of my 7 years of ballet classes growing up. I took this picture of Anna at her first class – my sweet little ballerina . . .

Have a nice day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Laura’s First Job!

Yesterday was Laura’s first day on her first job! She is following two of her brothers by joining the Chick-Fil-A ranks. We are very pleased with this, because it is a great place to work – wonderful atmosphere and people. Of course, this means that Mom and Dad will be back in the chauffeur seat again, as Laura will need rides back and forth (we had a temporary vacation from this when Matthew bought his car), but she already has her sights set on a little black VW bug, so maybe it won’t be for too long!

She enjoyed her first day – all 3 hours of it – but that’s good – the first day is always the hardest, and now she’s looking forward to going back again and feels much more comfortable. And while Laura was experiencing her first 3 hours at work, the rest of us spent some time at the ice rink with a very special celebrity guest – can you say “Olympic gold medal winner”???? Pictures coming soon!

Have a nice day!

Blessings,
Nancy