Archive | October, 2013

Thrifty Thursdays

31 Oct

Last Sunday I was reaching my wits end and needed some time away from, well, everything.

So after church the kids headed for their naps and I headed for Hibbing- the closest place with stores and options.  I pulled into the goodwill parking lot only to find that it was closed on Sundays…dang.  So I headed to the next best things- Caribou and JoAnn Fabrics.

As I am sipping my fancy beverage and walking the aisles looking at beautiful fabricI think to myself- ah… this is nice.

I finally got to use some gift cards from last Christmas on the drink and some super soft material for kiddo Christmas presents.  And the best part- I got a break.  I got to walk leisurely around a store and focus on the things I came there for and I got to drink MY WHOLE COFFEE!!!  You have NO idea how many coffee cups I have poured and never finished because someone needed to be wiped or someone needed me to un-dreadlock their hair.

Since I was on a use up some gift card  kick- I walked across the “mall” to JC Pennys and walked right to the $2.97 rack.  I was quite pleasantly surprised when I found 4 shirts that I wanted.  Go me.

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Then I meandered back to the kid section and found some gems for $0.97!

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I bought 4 pairs of shorts, 2 kid outfits and 4 shirts for myself and spent $17.

Win, win.  I got some alone time AND got some great deals.

After my outing I headed home and was ready to be a good mom again =) it’s amazing what a few hours of quiet can do

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Good Bye Summer

25 Oct

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As I look out the window and see a thin speckled layer of snow blanketing the earth, it is nice to look back through my pictures and recall our wonderful summer.

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I can almost feel the warmth of the sun and hear the laughter through these photos.

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Thank you summer, I love you and will miss you.  Until we meet again…

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Eggs!

21 Oct

Yeah, I have been blog slacking.

When it comes down to getting my laundry done, going to bed sorta early or playing Uno with the kids I have chose the former instead of blogging.  My apologies to you poor people who check in every day only to see the same lame picture of bread for the past two weeks.  Sorry!  =)

Back to the exciting egg news-

WE HAVE EGGS!!!!  The three older chickens are heading out of their molting time (evidently hens don’t lay when they are molting- this is a learning experience) and the young seven are mature enough to start producing.   As the snow started to fly, Jared and the girls headed out to check on the chickens.

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It is a pretty incredible feeling to head out to your yard and then return a few minutes later with a handful of eggs for your breakfast.  Jared and I only got a few bites since the girlies were demanding more and more deliciousness.  Hopefully soon we will have too many eggs to handle.  What a wonderful problem to have!

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The two eggs on the bottom of the picture are from our young hens and the big one on top is from an older hen.

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Thanks for breakfast!

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Fresh Bread

9 Oct

There is no smell in the world quite like the smell of homemade bread baking in the oven.

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And now that most people have traded their popsicles and fruit salads for pumpkin and hot beveragaes I thought I would give all you wonderful people a super easy recipe for homemade bread.  And the best part is it doesn’t require a bread machine or kneeding.

I want to get better at making bread, fancy bread with sunflower seeds and cranberries in it or even rye bread.  Some day I will be a bread superstar.  But until then I will make this bread and my family will think I am awesome because they don’t know any better =)

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups water

1.  Mix: In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt.  Stir in water.  Don’t fret over the shaggy. sticky dough.

2.  Rest: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rest at room temperature for at least 12 hours, preferably 18.  Dough is ready when dotted with bubbles.

3.  Deflate: Lightly flour a wrok surface and scoop dough onto it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it once or twice.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap; let rest 15 minutes.

4.  Shape:  Dust dough lightly with flour; gently and quickly shape into a ball.  Coat a cotton towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal.  Put dough seam side down on a towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal.  Cover with another towel and let rise for 2 hours.  When it is ready, dough will have doubled and will not readily spring back when poked.

5.  Bake:  At least half an hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees.  Put a 4- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats.  Carefully slide pot out of oven.  Pull off top towel.  Slip hand under bottom towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up.  Cover pot with lid and bake 30 minutes.  Remove lid and bake another 10 minutes, until beautifully browned.  Cool on rack (yeah right- I don’t have the patience for that!  I am diving right in!).