Favorite Blueberry Muffin Recipe

I made these this morning, and they are a family favorite, so I thought I'd share the recipe.  The recipe comes from my Betty Crocker Cookbook.


Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Streusel Topping:

2 Tbsp firm stick butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Cut the butter into flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl using a pastry blender or 2 knives until crumbly, set aside.

Muffins:

1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottoms only of muffin cups.

Beat milk, oil, vanilla and egg in a large bowl. Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder and salt all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fold in blueberries. Divide batter into 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle each with about 2 teaspoons of streusel topping. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12. Eat quickly. =)

Every Potty needs a Pooper

Sorry about the title of the post. I couldn't resist. But it perfectly reflects today's big event:

Emma pooed!

Yes, I know this is not something that people typically get excited about. But I have two children in diapers ( and we're back to using cloth for them both), so dealing with poo is a frequent occurrence for me. This time it was different. Emma pooed.....

IN THE POTTY!!!

Can I hear a collective, "WOOHOO!" from all mom's everywhere who dislike potty training as much as I do? 

I don't think Emma was quite as excited as I was, but she wanted to flush. When she did she looked in the potty and said.........

"Ew."  

I have to go now. Sophie just learned how to take off her diaper cover.

Legal Discrimination

This is one of those posts that portrays me as a really opinionated person. That's OK. Because I'm a really opinionated person.

I've noticed lately that there are so many efforts to desegregate and stop discrimination that we've become a segregated, discriminated people. And now it's legal.

Case in point: The National Black Homeschooling Convention recently took place. Pardon me, but why is it alright to have a Black convention, but not a White convention, or an Asian Convention, or an Indian Convention. How about a National Redhead Homeschooling Convention? If we're going to divide people based on something as superficial as skin color, then why not divide based on hair color, or eye color, or height or weight. (Oh, sorry, I mentioned weight. I didn't mean to offend.)  One woman defended the Black Homeschooling Convention by saying that black people need to teach their children about culture, where some other parents don't need to do that, and that a convention uniting them in this cause strengthens people.  Please excuse my ignorance, but do all black people share the same culture? And why is it more important for black people to teach culture to their children? I'm just asking. And since when does any kind of division result in strength? A house that is divided against itself cannot stand. (Matthew 12:25) So let's stop dividing the house.

Here's another example: a company nearby has a Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender support group that is openly supported by the company. Anyone who wants to find out when and where they meet need only ask. Anyone. Yet the Christian Bible study group is "allowed" to meet, but you have to know someone in the group to find out when they meet. It isn't allowed to be openly advertised because it might "offend" someone. Another person I know works at what she referred to as the "gayest company in (her city)". Her company allowed an employee to decorate his/her workspace with gay pride related items. I wonder though if a Christian working at the same company would be allowed to have a Bible out, or bible verses on a whiteboard. 

Just this week a woman was fired from her job because of a video that showed her telling a story of how she didn't help a white farmer as much as she could have, just because he was white. The video didn't show the rest of her speech, only the part where she didn't do as much as she might have if he was a black farmer. So her bosses jumped to conclusions and "forced her resignation".  They were so sensitive about discrimination they forgot to be sensitive about the context of what the video showed.

Our country has fallen so far from our founding fathers ideals that the name of the country is almost all we have left. The standards have been lowered over and over again and now the standard is based on each person's own reality and opinion of right and wrong. And we've allowed it. There are so many laws that attempt to force people to accept all other people that we're not allowed to have an opinion anymore. It's called "Hate Speech" if we say that we disagree with a lifestyle. We aren't supposed to divide people based on skin color, unless your skin is dark, then it's OK to set yourselves apart from others.  Prayer is allowed in public schools as long the prayer is addressed to Allah or Buddha or goddess, but don't address Jesus or God.

So where do we go from here? I'm not sure.  Maybe we need to stop passing laws that try to force people to approve of things they don't approve of.  Maybe we need to show everyone Christ's love to others regardless of who they are and what they look like. Maybe we all need to understand that love and like and approval are all different things and none of them can be forced upon us by laws.

Dancing in the Minefields

This Friday, a sweet young couple we know is getting married. Yesterday they were baptized together. They were each baptized before, but wanted to be baptized as adults to show their commitment to each other and to God as they begin their lives together. What a beautiful illustration of love. I can't tell you how blessed us "old married folks" have been by them. Every time we see the soon-to-be-husband he tells us how many more days until they are married. I'll say that again. Every time we see the soon-to-be-HUSBAND he tells us how many more days until they are married. Usually we see the bride counting down the days, and she is, but it is so beautiful to see a man who is anxious to claim his bride.

I saw this video, what a beautiful song. We are dancing in the minefields. It made me think of my own wedding day so many years ago.  No, it's not easy, but the promise is there for us to claim.



Just a few minutes ago I called my husband to see how he's doing at work and let him know I'm thinking of him (it will be a rough week for him this week).  He told me of a friend whose wife left him yesterday. She took his children and left. She called him this morning and told him she wanted to talk to him.  As far as I know, they are not believers, but please pray for them. They are truly in the minefields. I hope and pray they'll dance again.

Three Days Off

I love three day weekends. Back when I worked outside my home, they were a time to recharge, to get things done at home that I normally didn't have time for, and to have some fun.  Now that I'm a full time homemaker, three day weekends are for.... the same thing!

Last year we spent most of our time settling in. We had moved into our home in December of 2008, and in February we found out we were expecting. Between unpacking, morning all day sickness, two months of nonstop rain in the summer, the arrival of Sophie, the arrival of Allie (our grand baby), and Allie's health problems, well, last year sped by in a bit of a blur.

I'm trying to make up for it this year, well, this last month. After last weekend's accomplishments, and the stripping of the upstairs bathroom wallpaper. I painted the bathroom. It used to be a soft, pale, wildflower blue color with an iris print wallpaper border. Not exactly the style for a bathroom used mostly by 3 of our children. Now it is creamsicle, sunset orange. (By the way, I LOVE it. More than I thought I would.)  That project took up most of my week, because I still needed to attend to my children, cooking, cleaning, laundrying..... You know the drill.

This weekend I was able to stain the front porch which REALLY needed it last year, but never got done.  That was done on Saturday. My wonderful hubby attended to the needs of our little ones and the older children spent the day boating and tubing with friends. Sunday was the 4th. After church we had an impromptu picnic at our house with some great friends. Oh, and we met the best veterinarian in the world. But that's another post topic. And on Monday, the "bonus" day, I stained the back deck, which REALLY needed it even more! Once again, hubby stepped in to watch over the little ones. I can't tell you how nice it is now to walk out front or out back and not think of work that needs to be done. We can enjoy the space now instead of fretting over when we'd be able to get to protecting the wood.

We have been blessed by this beautiful home and setting, and we're doing our best to be good stewards. There are a few more projects we need to get to, but we're on a roll!

Weekend Warriors

Thank God it's Monday! No really. I mean it. I needed a down day. We had such a busy weekend! We:

• fed children
• fed babies
• fed baby goats
• baked 2 coffee cakes
• washed the laundry
• changed diapers
• vacuumed floors
• hung 2 windows in our shed
• framed out the 2 new windows
• cut down trees
• took hubby to emergency room for using chainsaw on his leg (long story, he's fine, small cut, one big running stitch)
• went to a Geoff Moore concert after hubby returned from E.R.
• built dividers in shed for the goats
• built a gate for inside the shed for goats
• built a holder for salt/vitamin/mineral block
• cleared brush
• installed 20 T posts for fencing
• installed 200 feet of fencing

So, it was a great productive weekend. The goats now have semi-permanent housing, and mostly secure fencing. Today was a down day. I stripped wallpaper in the upstairs bathroom. Yep. It's what I do to relax.

Eating Better for Less

I'm a numbers kind of person. I love them. When I'm doing something that keeps my body busy, but not my mind, I often run numbers through my head. I figure out how much it costs in gas to go to the grocery store, how many gallons of oil give as much heat as a cord of wood (still working on that one), I do my budget in my head, then figure out how much I spend annually on certain things (a fantastic eye-opening exercise by the way). 

A huge amount of my figurin' time is spent on budget related items. I'm always trying to figure out how much I'm spending and how to spend less and the largest flexible area of our budget is for food.  So when I came across this post, I was definitely interested. The thought that I could spend less money for nourishing food is huge. The thought of spending less money for nourishing food that I could spend less time cooking? Oh, I can't even put it into words! Ok, so maybe my family won't go for eating kale, oats and milk every day, but it is definitely food for thought. (Sorry, had to do it.)

Birthday Boy!

I absolutely cannot believe it's been 11 years. Eleven years ago today, my third child was born.

My little Zach. So much of our lives changed when he was born. Having him was our first step away from the cultural "norm". We had finally realized that we didn't want to be past childbearing age and wish we'd had more children. (Thank you Pat Sarver, wherever you are, for teaching me this.) Zach was our first homebirth. (I got into an argument with my obstetrician when I was 32 weeks pregnant and we found a midwife who agreed to attend our birth.) After Zach's birth I finally left the corporate world behind and became a stay at home mom. We began homeschooling.

And now here we are, 11 years later. The time flew by so swiftly and I know that no matter how hard I try to slow it down, the next 11 years will go even faster. I don't know exactly when he stopped being a little boy. He still asks me to come tuck him in at night though. I'll enjoy that for as long as I can.

Happy Birthday Zachy Bear!

Adding on

We welcomed two new additions to our home this week. These little beauties are sisters and are a Nubian/Toggenburg mix.  Nubian goats are the ones with the adorable long floppy ears. Toggenburg goats have more erect ears. Since these are a mix, their ears are really long, but they stick almost straight out. Kind of like an airplane's wings.

 

They'll grow into full sized goats, and hopefully next year they'll give us baby goats and lots of milk. We don't have names for them yet. For now they're sleeping in a pen in the garage (for safety), but during the day we let them out into a fenced in area put up just for them. They don't like to be left outside alone though, so my middles have been spending lots of time out there with them. 

Summer List

I'm already a week and a half into summer, and I feel like it's going way too fast. So much to do, so little time.  So I'm going to try to make a list of things to do this summer and check them off as I go. Maybe it will make me feel like I'm accomplishing more.

• Paint Josh's bedroom.
• Read A Charlotte Mason Companion
• Reread Teaching the Trivium
• Stain the front porch
• Clean out the basement
• Make skirts for Maddie
• Organize my recipes
• Paint the upstairs bathroom
• Finish painting the hallway and guest room
• Go to the beach with the kids
• Learn how to use my camera better
• Make a quilt for Maddie
• Learn how to make yogurt and cheese
• Learn how to identify the plants in my yard
• Learn how to play the violin (this has been on my list for 7 years now)
• Learn how to play the piano
• Learn how to draft a pattern
• Sew aprons for Maddie and I
• Get a laptop for the kids for schoolwork

As of right now my list is nowhere near complete yet, but it's late and that's all I can remember. The good news is that the first one is done. Yay me!  I'll try to keep it up to date with what I get done and any new additions to the list.  Looks like it will be a very busy summer!

Evenings

IMG_2202, originally uploaded by Honoring Home.

Homemade pizza.

Tossed salad.

A glass of red wine.

The scent of lilacs.

A cool breeze coming in the window.

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in the background.

Sense and Sensibility Patterns

One of my very most favorite sewing sites online has a brand new completely updated website.



To celebrate the new look, Sense and Sensibility Patterns is having a HUGE sale! The sale was supposed to end today, but I received a notice that it's been extended until Monday! So head over and check it out. All patterns are 15% off!

Extreme Makeover Garden Chair Edition

We inherited these chairs from the previous owners of our home. They are among the many things they graciously left behind for us when they moved out and we moved in. They sit under a pine tree in our back yard, next to the bird feeder, which the previous owners also graciously left.


I love these chairs. I enjoyed sitting in them last year, after walking up from the garden, very pregnant with Sophie, and carrying Emma on my back. (I'm sure that was a site to see.) These chairs welcomed me. Emma and I sat and watched birds coming to the feeder. We rocked. We nursed. She slept. Did I mention that I love these chairs? They looked a bit neglected though. So I sanded them.

Found out one of them used to be red. You can see it right next to the rust.

The other one used to be sort of aqua blue.



Now, they are all blue and white. The picture makes them look like they're different colors, but they are both the same blue, like the one on the right, with white arms. And the table is blue with a white top. It's what color they wanted to be. They told me so. Now they match the forget-me-nots. You should come sit in them with me. I'll make the tea.

Busy Day

Today was a full day!

• We did school.
• I cut the front grass (most of it, till I ran out of gas in the mower).
• Josh cut the back grass.
• I baked 3 loaves of bread.

• We did hammered flower impressions on fabric.

• I made a wire ribbon flower, like this one, only mine is turquoise blue.

• I made dinner with Maddie's help.
• Maddie brought me flowers.

But most of all, I enjoyed my children. It was a good day! How was your day?

Our Weekend Gift

This past weekend's weather was gorgeous. We went to a nearby favorite park to enjoy a bit of God's creation and we celebrated Emma's 2nd Birthday (technically a couple of days late, but she didn't mind).Swinging on favorite swings.

Playing in the VERY COLD water.

Sophie enjoyed her first ride in a swing.

Loving the sand and the water, which she called "Weee".

Skipping stones.

I've found that there are days where my To Do list can be a mile long, but the best thing for us all is to scrap the list and go have fun. Our days of enjoying each others company are too few and far between, so when God gives us a gift - beautiful weather and everyone home at the same time - we should unwrap it with joy and not stick it aside for another day. What a beautiful gift that day was!