Tomato sandwich.

My favorite summertime lunch. A big slab of tomato on a sandwich with a generous helping of mayo.  Yum.  Please notice that the above tomato fills my bread entirely. And look at all the wrinkles!  It is a really great heirloom variety that we got this year.  And did I mention that tomato slice FILLS MY SANDWICH?  amazing.  :-)

Sam Turns 4!!

My "Sweet Baby Sam" turned four today!  Can you believe it? Me either.

Fall 2008

Winter 2009

Sam has always had a heart for worship (Fall 2010):

Sam turned three at the beach last year! (2011)

Just look how he's grown!

Sam wanted beef tacos for dinner and chocolate cupcakes for dessert.  I made these chocolate muffins and iced them with a very (homemade) butter-heavy (so it would be super creamy) icing. 

They were super moist and delicious! I used half the sugar, omitted the chocolate chips and subbed butter for the oil.  We made butter earlier this week from the thickest heavy cream I have ever seen!  It was basicaly butter when we started.  :-)  Thanks to Milky Way Farm for selling it and my lovely friend Monica for telling me to buy it!

We love you, Sam!  Happy birthday.  :-)

Dishwasher Responsibilities!

One thing I am working to make a habit before we start school is doing chores around the house.  Right now, my kids are young, and need to be encouraged (prodded) to do what they need to. Plus, I want then to learn to do it correctly, and faithfully and diligently.  So, in the mornings before school, I have a few things around the house that I want to get done, and I have the kids help me.  Then, we are all learning to keep our house in good order, the kids see and participate in keeping our house, and they learn from a young age that it is important to keep your house well.  Now, I'm not saying I'm the housekeeping champion or anything like that.  Ask my mom what my room looked like when I was young.  This does not come naturally to me!  But, I am hoping this will help form a habit, not only for my children, but also for me-- so that soon, it will just be second nature to keep my house tidy and do the things that need to be done everyday diligently.  :-)

Today I made a dishwasher responsibility chart.  When I envisioned this, it was laminated and had magnets stuck to the back, but this simple print out with post it notes works great too, and is much cheaper! I do have to edit it a little bit--

I decided today after I printed it that these would be permanent jobs, not rotating ones.  So Ben's jobs will be silverware and mugs, Sam's jobs will be bowls and glasses, and Ellie's jobs will be plates and cutting boards.

You can see from the picture that the mugs are too high for Sam and Ellie to reach, so Ben automatically gets that job.  Ellie is not great at putting glasses away-- I am always sure she is going to smash them all, so Sam gets that job. Ben gets the silverware because he is best at sorting (when Ellie does the silverware it all gets rearranged!).  Sam is better at stacking bowls than Ellie, so he gets bowls and she gets plates-- she can carry them one at a time.  And, Ellie needed a second job so she gets cutting boards. 

And, there you have a quick outline of our dishwasher responsibilites at our house.  Hopefully, they will be age appropriate and the kids will get good at/ used to their jobs quickly. 

Garden Bounty

Why I love summer:

Okay, well one of the reasons I love summer anyway.  :-)  Most of this was picked tonight from our garden.  There are a few tomatoes from our CSA thrown in there (maybe four), but other than that, it's all homegrown!

ps. see that cute, tiny potato right out in front?!

Plans for the Fall

Hey, this was originally an all-food blog, but I have desired to write about other stuff in my life too.  So, today we will take a break from talking about food and I will let you in on my plans for the fall.

I am homeschooling, and this year I have a first grader, a pre-schooler, and a little girl who 'does school' too.  :-) I was stressing about how in the world I was going to manage a household, a one room school house and an infant this fall. 

I started praying, and came to the conclusion that I am going to have to have a much more structured life than I used to.  This is going to be good for me and for our kids.  We are going to have a 'routine' that we go through every day. I don't like calling it a schedule, because that sounds so strict and rigid.  I want structure, with a little give.  I have a four month old, after all, and things are going to need some leeway. 

I think (hope!) I have left adequate 'extra time' built into our routine so that our days will go smoothly without me getting stressed out, but also so that our days will be completed.  I don't want to be discouraged at the end of every day that we didn't get through everything I wanted to. Or get to the end of the day and have a house that looks like a war zone. I want peace.  :-)

Here's my plan for the fall:

7AM-8AM-- wake/ shower/ breakfast/ get dressed/ make beds/ brush teeth/ do hair/ nurse John

8AM-9:15AM--start laundry/ fold, put away laundry that's clean/ empty,fill DW/ clean up breakfast/ daily room clean up*

9:15-9:30-- quick pick up of toys or clutter that has amassed so far

9:30-10-- scripture time with kids*

10-11:30--School with Ben, Sam and Ellie*/ Nurse John at some point

11:30-12:30-- Make lunch/ eat lunch/ clean up lunch/ continue laundry

12:30-1:15-- daily room clean up, if we didn't get to it earlier/ outside, if it's nice/ read with mom

1:15-1:30-- clean up outside/ read book with Ellie for nap/ clean up toys

1:30-Ellie's Nap (Nurse John)

1:30-2-- School with Ben and Sam (History, Science, or Art)

2-3-- Quiet Time/ Nap Time

3-4-- Outside or free play inside

4-5:30-- Make Dinner/ Clear, set table/ Nurse John

5:30-6:30-- Eat dinner/ clean up

6:30-7:15-- Play, outside or inside

7:15-8-- Clean up/ pajamas/ brush teeth/ read stories/ Chris play guitar

8-- bedtime/ nurse John

And, there you have it-- our daily (on school days at least) routine. The Starred items will require another post about how I am going to do these things more specifically.

John throws a small wrench into the whole plan because his day really depends on what time he wakes up in the morning, how loud/quiet it is for his nap, if some well meaning (or not so well meaning) sibling comes in to 'say goodnight' while he is already sleeping, if he is insatiably hungry and requires me to feed him every 2-2 1/2 hours... you get the idea.  Usually he eats every three hours, sometimes up to 3 1/2.  As he grows, he'll get more consistent.  And, being home more often in the fall will also help him fall into a good routine.  Right now, it's summer, and our life is very flexible-- we are out a lot at parks or pools or traveling to grandparents, etc. The fall will be more calm and more predictable.

Well, that concludes my plans for the fall so far.  I do have a 'daily room plan' that I will share in a future post.  But for now, I must go cut up watermelon, make pickled eggs, and shop for a cheesecake.  :-)

Goodnight!

Homemade Barbeque Sauce

The other day I wanted to make some grilled chicken, and add some pizzazz. I usually just grill the chicken... but I felt that would be boring this particular evening.  I thought of barbeque sauce because we were also having potato wedges and Chris and the kids love to dip their fries in barbeque sauce.

Again, I 'poked around on the internet' meaning, I googled "homemade barbeque sauce" and clicked on the first one.

I modified it, mostly because I didn't have enough ketchup to make the original recipe. (And also because it has WAY too much sugar for our family.) And I don't have red wine vinegar.

Here's what I came up with:

Homemade Barbeque Sauce
3/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup honey
3 TBS- 1/4 cup molasses
Generous TBS Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp ground mustard
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Whisk all ingredients together. Put on whatever you want!  Yum.

We really liked this.  Chris said if I hadn't mentioned it, he would have assumed it came from the store.  :-) I will definitely be making this again.

Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic Butter Spaghetti

This is one of our favorite summer meals.

The roasted cherry tomatoes come from our garden.  Some came from our CSA this time.  It is simple and easy to prepare, and filling for those summer nights when you have been outside all day and come in ravenous for dinner.  :-)

I roasted the tomatoes on a cookie sheet for about 1 hour at 250*. I only put salt and pepper on them, although sometimes I drizzle with olive oil and even some crushed red pepper spices it up a bit.

I cooked one pound of whole wheat spaghetti.

I melted one stick of butter and sauteed three cloves of garlic, although I would do six next time-- it hardly tasted of garlic.

I tossed it all together with 2 TBS of fresh chopped basil from my back porch and brought it to the table.

So easy, and so delicious.

Another variation of this meal is to make alfredo sauce to go with everything.  I personally love this!