My Adventures Making Meadow Tea

Its difficult to find exact directions on how to make meadow tea.... and I love the stuff and want to have it all year long... so I found a recipe to make it and freeze it so I can have some this winter...

Basically you pick a bunch of mint... 

 (I like to use apple mint but you can use a mixture or anything really)

Make sure you wash it really well...

Bring a large amount of water to a boil

Add leaves and let it steep for 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours pushing leaves down occasionally

Pull out mint leaves and add 2-3 cups sugar

You can freeze this concentrate in quart boxes (I prefer bags because they lay flat and take up less room in my small freezer) 

To use add 1 quart concentrate to 1-2 quarts water (it all depends on your taste preferences) and serve

Hurricane Irene

We were lucky no real damage... just a mess! we never even lost power...

 Making a pile of the larger sticks....

 Leaves just scattered everywhere... We were thankful for the tree's we didn't hear the wind... all 4 of us slept soundly the whole night...

 My pepper plants blew over...

4 inches of rain in the rain gauge... and not a lot of water in the basement (I had more the day before when the washer overflowed.... gurr!)

Now on to the rest of the clean up... made some big piles... now what to do with it all...

One year:

One year from today my world is gonna change...

I am gonna put my little one on a school bus and he is going to come home a kindergartner...

Parenting is hard...each stage you look a little ahead and think about how awesome it would be: 

If they slept through the night...

If they could just walk to what they wanted...

If they could just tell you want they wanted....

If they could just use the potty like a big boy...

If they could just...

Now with only one more year to go... I worry...

I can not control this...

I have loved him from the moment I first knew about him and for the most part I have been the one to choose and make choices for him...

4 is had for me anyhow because the is discovering he has a voice and an opinion.. and is is quite good at  fond of expressing his opinion... he can do it faster, better and stronger...

His own personal pushing away from me is tough enough... 

The thought of sending him away to SCHOOL is killing me...

He does not need me as much as he did... He wont ever need me like he did before...

My baby is turning into a stubborn, opinionated, strong willed person.... I need more time...

I pray for my little love but I feel a new intensity... basically I feel the need to PANIC!

Dear Heavenly Father....

Do not give Connor a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy1:7

Teach Connor to obey us in everything, for this pleases you, Lord. Do not let us do or say anything that would embitter or discourage him. Colossians 3:20-21

Don't let us exasperate Connor; instead, help us bring him up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4

Work in Connor so he will think and act according to your good purpose. Philippians 2:13

Lord, Enable Connor to be strong and courageous. Don't let him get frightened or discouraged, but let him know that you will be with him wherever he goes. Joshua 1:9

Help us to train Connor in the way that he should go, so that when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6

Lord help me to leave what is my fears with me and for Connor to take strength with him Amen

I remember when...

Tonight I was cooking dinner...thunder is booming outside... children are settled in the living room watching pbs...one on the couch and one on his tummy on the floor wrapped up in his special blanket...

I was cooking dinner... nothing special... just browning burger and I was lost in a memory... back when we were first married, oh how much I wanted to cook good food for my Husband.. I would be constantly looking at recipes and trying to make measurements... I don't know if it was the burger, or the pan I was using that brought this memory/ feeling back to me. The memory put a smile on my face. Why was so "difficult" to make sure that dinner was on the table when he got home from work? ...it seemed to be my main focus...  My how we have changed and grown!

Us 2005 (Married about 2 months)

I am so thankful for my husband who was wiling to eat my experiments... and he still does...

Us 2011 (Married 6 years)

The only pictures I can remember taking in our first place were of a cookie baking incident where  my friends and I got together to bake some Christmas cookies.. unfortunately... I didn't have enough flower or butter (I am still not the best planner).. We had to run out and get more as we went...

 Something sure was funny... not sure what

 Maybe it was terrible looking cookies...

 Maybe it was my card table kitchen table...

I can't help but thank the Lord for giving me someone that I can grow and have fun with... good memories and many more good times to come...

~ Momma

Between Business Trips and Weddings

Between business trips and weddings I have somehow found my desire to paint... I have been painting everything!
Husband went away for a business trip and I got the urge to paint our bedroom... I mean what else do you do in the evenings when you husband is gone?

This is what our room looked like before we moved in a little over a year ago.. WHITE walls and DARK green shiny painted trip... NOT my taste!

Not the best pictures my little helpers wanted to be in every shot... I still have something special I want to do to the wall behind the bed, but for now at least the color is better...

We had this little incident happen in our kitchen... Riley found out that baseball bats can break glass...

I found a bunk bed for FREE beside the road about a year ago... I had big plans for it in our spare room...( I dream of having room for foster children in my family) after visiting with some friends of ours who have bunk beds for their kids Connor has become "inspired" he really wants bunk beds for his room...

I put a lot of work into his old blue bed with chalkboards...

View from door (yes his room is a little messy)

but he really wanted a change, and a free bed well I guess it couldn't be too much of a risk.. I chose black because they were spray painted white and it was NOT working for me...  and black spray paint was much less expensive than other colors...We added Chalkboards to his chest of drawers...

I asked Connor if he thought it was strange that his mommy was using a circular saw to cut boards to support his mattress... he just looked at me silly and was like ..um no...

Picture by: Connor

New view from door

 They were both very excited about the new bed.. there is no "bunkie board" so for now the top is just for hanging out and siting up high

I feel like it's all ok.. but there are still finishing touches I need to get done... to end these crazy 2 weeks we went to Dutch wonderland for the evening... 

Momma came home with a fever and spent the rest of the weekend in bed till I finally went to the dr. Monday afternoon... got a prescription and I am slowly feeling better....

Tomatoes!

Well its that time of year... when my garden is overflowing with veggies! this really has to be one of my favorite seasons... I finally get to reap the rewards from planting/ weeding/ and watering the garden...

remember where we started?

And today...

I remember making sauces with my mother when I was a child... but we had TONS of tomatoes... I just had a bunch ... 

I quick called my grandma to go over the process... what I was suposta do I also wanted to know if there were any tricks ...
She gave me a great tip: put the tomatoes in Hot water then in Cold water and the skin falls off.. and it does! this meant that my little helpers could help me peal the tomatoes with out using a knife!.. this ment playing in water so they were in!

The first step:  get the skin off the tomatoes and get most of the water and seeds out...

 the skins were just falling off ...

Pealed and seeded and squished I put them in a strainer in the sink to get any extra water to drain out before cooking

The second step: add spices and simmer over heat....

...until tomatoes reduce in half...Yes I know my kitchen is messy.. I am not the neatest cook in the world...

The third step:  Once the sauce has reduced place it in canning jars

The fourth step: Put the lids on them and put them in the boiling water for 35 min. Making sure to have at least 1 inch of water covering the jars...  when finished let cool for 24 hours ... then remove outer lid and you are done

The second batch I made I just froze.. instead of putting in jars, let cool and put into plastic baggies and put in freezer I wanna see which way I like better...