Wonderful Day . . .

Today has been a pretty good day and I just wanted to share it. My husband doesn't get many Sundays off (goes to work right after church) but today was one of them. Church in it's self was nice. Today is the first Sunday of Advent and our family was asked to read the scripture and light the candle, the candle of HOPE.

After church our two oldest kids went with a friend up to her house to give a hand and hubby took me and the twins out to lunch, so sweet : ) Then we all went over to the flea market, don't think I've been there in like six months. I tell you what though, the best time to make a deal at the flea market is late in the afternoon on a Sunday! LOL No huge finds or deals, but did enjoy the 'treasure hunt' as we told the twins. I did pick up a box of vintage blue Christmas tree ornaments for $1, 11 still in the box and none broke. They will look great on my sons tree, he received a white one last year as a gift. Feel so blessed for days like these, and the weather wasn't half bad either, almost 70 today.

Well I think we will put the tree up tonight and get at least the lights on it, the new LED lights that Clark Griswold, I mean my son, is coveting - LOL When he saw them he said our lights are 'pimping'. I am assuming that's a good thing? Anyway, yes we are now calling Z, Clark = as in 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'. He has been very manic this year with putting up outdoor lights, just like Clark. Only thing standing in his way is money, or should I say our money and our lack of it. He did confess that he could easily spend an entire pay check on nothing but outdoor lights, and would that be bad? To be honest I too struggled with that answer. After all isn't it more fun to buy light up reindeer and inflatable toy soldiers than pay the sewer bill?

Blessings, Beth Ann

Day After . . .

Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! Ours was quiet, but one of our best. It was the first time ever we didn't have company, unless you count Izzy. We dog sat for our Pastor : )

I made a pumpkin cheesecake - YUMMY
I had a request for the recipe and I'm always happy to share:

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

butter
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
2 pkgs. cream cheese (8 oz. each), softened
3/4 cup sugar/splenda
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1 TBS. pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt

1) Preheat oven to 300
2) Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 1/2 cheesecake pan. Sprinkle pecans evenly over bottom of pan.
3) In a large mixing bowl, use an eclectic mixer to beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy.
4) Add the pumpkin and sour cream, mixing thoroughly. Add eggs and mix thoroughly. Mix in pumpkin pie spice and salt.
5) Pour the batter over the nuts in the pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes. Chill at least 2 hours before serving.

Yield: 12 servings

*I don't have a cheesecake pan, so I used a 9 inch pie dish and it worked great, except there was enough leftover batter for a second smaller pie. So really this recipe could make 2 pie sized cheesecakes : )

Blessings, Beth Ann

It's all about family

Only two more short days until Thanksgiving but I want to share what I'm thankful for now ~ FAMILY! I don't have much but my family is the most important thing to me and I am ever so grateful for them every night when I go to bed. When I look at my wonderful children or my amazing husband I could (and have) cry. Here are a couple recent pictures of my crew . . .


All of us on Edisto Island

Here they are getting ready for Halloween, L to R : Inspector Gadget, can of soup, little Red Riding Hood and down front we have a princess and a clown!

Here is our new addition, although he is three times this size now. This is Levi, a boxer/American bull dog mix. He is another of our handicapped rescues. He was thrown down a flight of stairs when he was six weeks old and ruptured his back. He has no feeling in his hind end. Four months latter though, he can do a walk/stagger like our mini doxin who has a similar problem.

I would love to hear what your thankful for this season.

Blessings, Beth Ann

More Vacation

Well we're in the home stretch for Thanksgiving this week and things seem to s-l-o-w-l-y be getting back to normal here. After my trip to the ER, I started to feel better but developed a chest wracking cough and the kids are still dripping. Looking forward to a more healthy Christmas season : )

Here are a few more vacation pic's from our trip to South Carolina this year -enjoy!

This is a view of the salt marsh we camp in front of. Can you see the Monarch butterfly? This campground is on their migratory path and they stop about the second week of October every year.

Here is middle dd with a blue crab she caught.

Here are the twins following a set of golf cart tracks on the beach.

Oldest son walking our anxity ridden dog along the ocean shore. He looks pretty happy here huh?

Middle dd walking to the "point" for some serious shell hunting!

Thanks for sharing our ups and downs with us and have a blessed day, Beth Ann

Good news and bad news . . .

The good news is I'm going to be a grandma again! : ) Yea! LOL The bad news is that everyone here is sick - yuck! They either have sinus,runny nose, cough, soar throat, well you get the picture. I have been sick since Monday and by 5:30 this morning couldn't take it anymore, or should I say hubby couldn't. He got up for work and found out that for the third night in a row I hadn't slept and was vomiting. He took me to the ER and got me fixed up. No, it wasn't the swine flu, although that had crossed my mind. Just sever sinusitis, high b/p, and dehydration. I got a shot in the buttocks and some good drugs. Twelve hours later I am well enough to blog about it, go figure!

Blessings, Beth Ann

Holy smokes!

Here is another chapter in our vacation story. . . While camping we try to cook outside the motor home as much as possible. Main reason is space, but some foods just aren't compatible, such as bacon. Husband had been banned from cooking bacon inside on a previous trip, so now fires up his portable Coleman on the picnic table when we have BLT'S (oldest sons most favorite food). I never gave it a second thought on this trip when he prepared to do the same again, imagine my surprise when I heard shouts outside as I was busy inside chopping the L and T! Apparently some of the grease caught fire and set our canopy a flame!

Here is a shot of the canopy, after the flames and all the shouting.

This picture is looking straight up through our new sun roof.

It doesn't look to bad from this angle and it was handy for catching rain in a glass to see the inches with the kids - LOL

Yet another shot, this one taken from the motor home steps.

And there is the offending culprit, small little guy isn't he?

Good times, Good times. These memories are what family vacations are all about!

Blessings, Beth Ann

Here they are . . .

OK, I know many of you have been waiting, patiently,for some vacation photo's. I picked them up yesterday, did they raise the price? Anyway, here they are . . . My family on Edisto Island, South Carolina.

My three youngest darlings, hanging out : )



Picture postcard perfect, flip flops on the beach. If you look closely you will see a mismatched pair of crocks, yea that's our twins sons', what a rebel - LOL

I call this pic 'scruffy hubby and drugged dogie'. They both look happy though.

Here is oldest son up a tree, what a monkey.

Here is a Loggerhead sea turtle nest. The island is a nesting site from May to the end of October.

Well that's the first instalment. I will post some more pic's in a day or so.

Blessings,Beth Ann

Autumn is in the air and the supermarkets ~

Well I guess autumn is officially here. I finished my first knitted scarf, a teal eyelash. I finished my first crocheted scarf, multicolored for twin son. I was even going to put tassels on it! But oldest son said it would be . . . 'too much'. He's our fashion maven, so I conceded. Let me put it to you this way, remember the old ZZtop song, 'Sharp dressed man'? They could have wrote that about oldest ds - LOL Hopefully I'll get some photos taken of the knitting/crocheting soon.

And if you were unsure before, the arrival of 'the NUTS' is the definitive sign of the pre-holiday season! Everyone has a holiday nut bowl and we're no different here. Even though it was a cold, rainy (Thanks IDA) day here, I splurged and brought home some nuts when I stepped out to Fred's for some OTC cold medicine. As I poured the little beauties into Grandma Lawaine's nut bowl, I could defiantly hear the strains of "It's beginning to look alot like Christmas . . . " in my head : )

Lets hear about your nuts!

Blessings, Beth Ann

Foo~isims *

I haven't done one of these in a very long time, but here are a couple of recent 'Fooisims' from my 5 year old daughter.

1) "Mom, it makes me upset when your mad at me"
2)"Your mean. You treat me like a . . . a . . .a. . . HUMAN!"
3)"Mom, E (her twin brother) is just not fitting in here, lets relocate him"

For good measure, here is one I heard just this morning from twin son:
"MOM! The puppy has a worm in his pee-pee!" Puppy didn't, puppy was just real . . . excited. Know what I mean?

*A fooisim is named after twin daughter, who is nicknamed foo ~ as in 'little bunny foo-foo, hoping through the forest . . . '

Blessings, Beth Ann

Pineapple Corn Muffins

So OK, most of you already know my computer died yesterday and I am now hanging out at the library. So that means more limited posts and no cute pictures! So please bear with me and hopefully this will be a short term set back.

Here is the recipe for yesterdays breakfast. The fruit replaces the oil and eggs in the recipe, leaving it healthier and moister ~ scrumptious!

Pineapple Corn Muffins

3 boxes 7oz. corn muffing mix
20 oz. can crushed pineapple, with liquid

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a muffin tin or use the paper cups with a shot of cooking spray. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup fill the muffin tins. Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool at least five minutes before releasing them from pan and placing on cooling rack. Repeat.

Makes 18 yummy muffins and one extremely happy family!

Blessings, Beth Ann

Menu plan Monday ~ 11/02/09

November? Seriously? Huh.

I guess it struck me full force when perusing the local sale flyer's and saw both whole turkeys and cranberries on sale. Have you seen the price of fresh cranberries not on sale? Are they growing them differently? A bog is a bog is a bog, right? Anyway, sigh, guess I will still factor that in next weeks shopping and still stick to my $75 budget, including holiday food fare. Just want to mention a note here on that: I was going to try and make my world famous cheese ball for a Halloween party last week, but couldn't fit it in the budget. Just when I was wondering what I could sub, a friend gifted me a new product she had tried, a fresh (cooked noodles) pasta salad kit! Awesome. It was yummy, but I felt the need to embellish it a bit so added my own chopped up celery and carrots(the kit came with fresh broccoli and diced red onion). Wonderful! Then I thought, "needs protein". So I threw in some white beans w/pork seasoning, truly incredible. It made about 8 good size servings and was an unexpected hit at the party! Just wanted to say, don't ever feel tempted to overspend to 'make' and event. Stick to your budget and gradually you will learn to make wonderful things from what you have, including friends!

Breakfast: Pineapple corn muffins

Sausage egg cups

Amaranth porridge

Pancakes

Amazing blueberry and banana muffins

Hominy cheese patties

Sweet potato muffins

Lunch: P.B. & J

Turkey dogs

Noodles

Tuna fish

grilled cheese

Hamburgers

Mac & Cheese

Dinner: Crockpot stuffed cabbage and beef w/corn bread

Spaghetti w/ tossed salad

Church/ dinner and bible study

Bratwurst w/ Spanish rice and black eyed peas

BBQ lentils over mashed pot w/mixed veggies

Beef and Barley soup w/home made dinner rolls

Baked chicken w/steamed rutabaga and green beans

I will try to post a couple of the recipes. Wish I could figure out the link thing, since I already posted the recipe for the blueberry muffins two weeks ago. I will keep trying. Whats for dinner at your house? For more MPM visit www.orgjunkie.com

Blessings, Beth Ann