Thanksgiving!

Sorry this is all out of order blogger is giving me issues...

~

We took a little trip since Dan was free for a couple days! We got to play with Grandma & Gran-pa, and Aunt Mary, Ryan, Novella & Koa!!

Our Thanksgiving was exciting as this was the first time that we had all been together since Mary and I started our own families!

Also I passed the torch to Riley, he made the Cranberry Apple Crisp I have been making for every Thanksgiving since I was 5! It was a recipe I got out of my Highlights magazine!

Thanks for the fun family! Love you!

Muffin Brain...

Seriously, we've been sick here and I've had a head cold that has left my brain pretty fuzzy. But I have also had muffins on the brain, tongue, and tummy!

It helps alot that we found this GREAT gluten free flour mix recipe, my in house baker keeps my flour bin stocked and it is much less expensive then the pre-made mixes! So far it works great, I'm not the biggest fan of it in cookies but gluten free cookies are all a little grainy in my opinion.

Much to Fern's dismay I am a veggies in the muffins kind of mama...

Zucchini are a favorite (even Fern likes zucchini in muffins but not in dinner), I use Dan's mom's recipe with a couple minor tweaks... This week we tried a new recipe, Carrot Date Walnut Muffins! They were tasty and have been put in the "make again" pile (I just substitute our flour for theirs). Another favorite are Morning Glory Muffins, (we tweak these as we are not so into sugar, maple syrup or honey are good, and a little shredded zucchini is good) Dan makes these when he is trying to sweeten me up! ;) Banana's are a common one too, Max's Christmas Cranberry Bread is also a favorite (we first made it for Winter Solstice last year). Most bread recipes transfer great to muffins!

Yesterday I started thinking about pumpkin muffins. Big surprise hu! I am a pumpkin fanatic and now you know my muffin fetish too. Anyway the mix at TJ's keeps staring at me but I knew it would rip up Miss Leili's tummy and mine too. I thought about going rouge and trying to make some on my own (I am not the baker Dan is so that is a little scary). But the stars aligned, my desires were heard (Our Heavenly Parents love us and know us!) and just this morning Amanda over at Soulmama posted their tried and true, yummy Pumpkin Muffin recipe! I think we may have pumpkin muffins today!

Now I need that acorn muffin pan!!

{this moment}

This week and last!

Tour Time!

So I'd just like to take you on a little tour today. This house we are renting is a little small for us, it's in a great location, there is inches of counter space in the kitchen, but the BEST part is this little room in the garage... It's my favorite room!

IT'S A FOOD STORAGE ROOM!!! Oh it is so LOVELY!!
Potatoes, squashes, grain and bean buckets, and those beautiful jars my Mom & Daddy fill with love for us!

Onions from the farmers market hanging, the dehydrator hanging out waiting to be loved, more potatoes!

This is the shelf we mostly filled up with our canning this year, apple sauce, apple butter, crab apple jelly, strawberry jelly, and ketchup on a lower shelf. Alot of our work is in the freezer, corn, bell peppers, strawberries, raspberries, zucchini, & elderberries (I think I'm forgetting something).

Mmmm, apricots & green tomatoes! Grandma spoils us from her garden, dilly beans, green beans, corn, tomatoes, jellies, cherries, apple juice, ortega chilies, pimentos, salsas, tomoillos, carrots, sour kraut, beets, beet jelly... I know there is more but it's 32 outside and I'm not going out to the garage to look and see! ;)

Mom even dried parsley, corn, & plabano chilies for us this year!

So there is your tour for the day, when someone asks if you went anywhere cool lately you can say, "I went to Danna's food storage room, and it was awesome!"!!!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

BOO!!

Yep, Halloween pictures! We had our Trunk or Treat at church last Thursday, it is the big candy night for the kids. On Halloween night we get dressed up, makes lots of yummy treats, watch fun Halloween movies and the kids give out candy, it is LOTS of fun!!

Riley flip flopped about costumes up until a couple hours before... no surprise here! He's a pilot!!
Jake was also a flipper, he settled on a spy!

Miss Fern's dreams came true! She grew!! Finally after MANY years of waiting Fern was big enough to wear MY princess costume that my mom made me! She was beautiful!! And SOOOO happy!

I think I had a similar haircut when I wore this costume! ;) Mom you'll have to dig out a photo of me in this dress!!

Sweet Leili once she saw Fern was going to be a princess wanted to be one too! Luckily just the day before a friend had given her a dress that had been outgrown in their house! I whipped up a crown to match and Leili was a HAPPY princess!!

My spookables are not so spooky this year but they had big smiles and that makes for a happy mama!!

Happy Halloween!

(this moment} + a couple words...sorry!

So it's 3:30pm on a Wed. night we have no scouts... 2 1/2 hours later we were strolling through Ikea ( I love Ikea). And we crossed the Sierra Nevada's, saw Donner Summit, and I finally went to the capitol city of my birth state (did I mention Sacramento has a Krispy Kream to make my yearly pilgrimage to get a pumpkin donut!!)!!!

I LOVED this moment!

Oh the Randomness of Our Days...

I seem to have a few pictures from the last week or two that are all just so random that they don't fit together nor do they need their own post (or most likely a post at all). So we'll just be random and then move on!

My little artist, she sat there LONG after the big kids had their flurry of art and ran off. The older three are whirl wind artist but Leili savors it!

Yes, a mama and her silly boys. Just this time someone got us with the camera!

We had a fun visit from Grandma J. & Grandpa M. And how about that this is the only thing there is pictures of from their visit and I did not even take it!! And now that I look at it this is not even the picture I wanted to share but I don't want to reload... sorry. They are playing army men!

We foraged and dried two levels of elderberries!

We celebrated Fern's 6th birthday!

Miss Cool, pizza for breakfast wearing sunglasses. She is mine!!

And we found a fun nature center/study area just across the river from our house!!

We've Got Knitting Fever....

It is fall, it is getting cooler (some days), our rhythm is moving more indoors these days than out and I have tried a new angle on a desired goal...

More than once I have had someone teach one of my children how to knit, and then they get home and get stuck or mess up and then that is the end of knitting. I have always regulated learning how to knit as learning Chinese, or learning to read music... just not in my brain level. :) So fall is here, I taught Jake to crochet. I taught Fern to finger knit (I learned that on youtube)! And then I found another willing (crazy) kind person who would show Riley how to knit... but she didn't. She sat down next to me. ME? She showed me how to knit. My fingers have not felt oh so awkward in I don't know how long. I thought of Jake and how awkward his hands were just a couple weeks before and I felt a deeper connection with my children. They learn new and awkward things all the time but do I give them enough time and understanding?

So guess what! I KNIT a washcloth! And I taught Riley to knit, and I figured out how to fix his mistakes! What in the world?!

And since then there are the impromptu knitting parties that spring up, just like our impromptu book times that I love! And so Fern finger knits (she a professed professional), Leili "finger knits" with her yarn, Riley is knitting a doll blanket for Leili, and Jake crochets or weaves! All while I knit. And I am not so awkward now. I think I like it more than crocheting. Maybe I'll learn to pearl too!

When you teach a girl to fish, everyone eats fish...

{this moment}

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Ketchup!

Ever since I was a little girl and was traumatized by my sister eating ketchup with a spoon it has not been my favorite condiment. I now eat it on my french fries but that is about it (which is better than when I boycotted it for fear of retching). Thankfully I have grown hard and crusty in my old age as ALL OF MY CHILDREN EAT KETCHUP LIKE AUNT MARY! Bleck! Oh yea and my husband...while wearing his Heinz ketchup shirt...

Anyway back to this post! As you can see we go through enough ketchup that I run out easily. SO the perfect storm of canning season, a shared ketchup recipe, and a good friend inviting us to the farm to pick tomatoes at .50 cents a pound lead to the CRAZY idea of, "lets make ketchup and can it!!!"!

Picking was a great day, I almost moved to the farm...
I haven't found my kitchen scale so we made due...

Tomatoes, green bell peppers, & onion chopped (all from local Nevada growers)!

Spice bag made...

Simmered and run through the food mill! This food mill was my grandma's, I think I have used it more than she did and let me tell you I would have never guessed that when I inherited it!

SMOOTH....

And then I started cooking it down....

And down....

Until finally! We have ketchup! We celebrated by having tater-tots for lunch... and then we started another batch...

Yes we are crazy...