Archive for Family News
Branson Ziplines, Springfield Meet and Greet, Playing Games, and My Weekend Plans
Posted by: | CommentsIt has been a very busy few months, and I’m not sure we’ll be slowing down any time soon. Spring soccer season has begun, our kids are preparing for LTC, and now that the book is finished, I hope to get caught up on all the work I am behind on! (Are any of us ever really caught up, though?!)
I wanted to take the time to share a few more highlights of our Branson trip:
Thanks to Donna, one of the awesome gals I met at the Branson Meet and Greet, Matt, Asa, and Justus got to experience the Adventure Ziplines of Branson. They loved it!
The final day of our Branson vacation, my dad took us to ride go-carts and play games. The boys had a blast!! Who am I kidding? I had a blast too. :)
On our way home from Branson, we stopped in Springfield for a Meet and Greet. I so enjoyed meeting and visiting with these wonderful ladies!!!
Now that we’re home, we’ve been busy packaging and sending books, then picking up more books from the printer to start the process over again! Our boys were supposed to have their first soccer games Saturday, but they were cancelled because of snow. I have to admit, I was happy that they were cancelled. I feel like I’ve been given a bonus day to be home, rest, and get work done this weekend!
So, what do I plan to do with my bonus day? COOK and BAKE!!! I need it, I want it, and I can not wait to get all floury and messy while I get caught up and maybe ahead in the kitchen. Here’s what I’m planning to make:
- Chicken Fried Steak Strips for the freezer
- Homemade Poptarts
- Whole Wheat Butterhorns
- Homemade Peanut Butter
- Mudballs
- Healthier Rice Crispy Treats
- And whatever else sounds good. :)
We’ll see how far I get. Sometimes, my to-do list gets longer than the hours in my day.
What are your plans this weekend?
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When Family Business and Homeschooling Come Together
Posted by: | CommentsIt was really all because of Matt. He’s the brilliant one.
After breakfast, Bible, history, and math on Wednesday, Matt picked up several boxes of our Oh, For Real books from the printer and got everyone started on putting them into envelopes as we filled orders. Thanks to my friend Jenny, we had many of the envelopes already addressed and ready to go. By the time I made it out into the living room to help, here is what I found:
If that isn’t the picture of a family business, I don’t know what is. I was thrilled and grateful. But Matt hadn’t just put the kids to work on preparing orders. He had a geography lesson going on at the same time. Impressive, huh?!
You see, one of the many fun parts of printing off invoices as your orders have come in has been seeing where they are coming from. So, Matt had the younger boys get out our big U.S. puzzle to fill in the states as they showed up on each package.
Here’s Malachi, looking to see if the state on his envelope has been put into place yet. In the meantime, I was burning lunch. Yep, I had hastily put a frozen casserole into the oven that morning while we worked, but had the oven turned up too high. Good grief. It seems as if I should get out my Oh, For Real book and read it! I’m pretty sure the instructions in the book tell me to heat the casserole slowly at a low temp. Duh. Be glad you can’t smell our burning noodles as you look at our book packaging process.
By the time we were almost finished with “round one” of book packaging – our map looked like this:
I believe by now, it is completely full. How fun!
I want to say thank you to all of you who have ordered so far. We continue to pray that you will be blessed by Oh, For Real: Real Food, Real Family, Real Easy. For those of you who live outside the U.S., if you are interested in a copy of this book, please email me for details! Then maybe we can get out our World Map Puzzle to see where our book is headed… :)
Malachi’s Thanksgiving Song
Posted by: | CommentsFrom our house to your house. From our kitchen to your kitchen. From our hearts to your hearts. From our piano to your….ears. We bring you this song that our seven year old, Malachi, composed and wanted to play for you today.
We wish you all a Thanksgiving filled with blessings that can only come from our loving Father.
My First 5K!
Posted by: | CommentsI am so pumped! I just participated in my first ever 5K Walk-Run Event! I was going to wait until Gratituesday to share it with you, but I’m too excited, so I’m telling you about it now. :)
The race would have been a little much for Elias and Malachi to participate in, so they went with us,
but hung back and played soccer with a college girl. Asa was out of town, so we were bummed that he missed the event.
It was gorgeous outside, so that probably helped us all love it a little more. ;) The race was set up as a fund raiser for Tiny Hands International, an organization our family loves to support.
I typically don’t run much because I have found that running is much harder on my knee and hips than power walking. BUT, I was excited and wanted to at least run a little bit of it. We started out all jogging together. After about a mile, Matt and Justus went on running without me, and Jen and I finished it out by doing our typical power walk.
It felt so good!!!
Being able to participate in a REAL 5K event, and knowing that the money we paid went for a great cause we believe in – well, the morning was just awesome.
Then Jen and I were so pumped up, we went and lifted weights when we were finished. We figured we may as well make it a complete workout, right?
Loved it!
Have you ever done a 5K? Half Marathon? Full Marathon? Wow.
And don’t forget, even if you never have or never will do any of the above, if you at least do something to get moving, you’re doing great! It pays to be fit!
It’s That Time of Year Again!
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s time to feed the York College Ladies Soccer Team again!
My husband is an assistant soccer coach at our local Christian college, something he loves and is very gifted at doing. Each year, I am privileged to feed the team several meals when they come into town for pre-season workouts and practices. Having me cook saves the soccer budget quite a bit, as reimbursing me for my food expense costs less than feeding the team in the cafeteria.
This has become somewhat of a tradition that the girls look forward to each year, and I love being able to bless them in this way with home cooked meals and special treats.
Today and tomorrow, I’m getting a jump start on all the work since the fun begins on Sunday evening. Today Elias, Malachi, and I went to the store to get all the groceries. Two full carts later, we were ready to check out.
Why no, we weren’t finished yet at this point. Still had to hit the frozen food section!
Can I just say how nice it was to have the boys along to help? Last year I went by myself, thinking that it would be easier. But, no, it was not easier. I am not capable of driving three carts, which is what I had after checking out. (Thankfully a kind man from church happened upon my poor struggling self and helped me to my van!) This time, Elias and Malachi helped push carts, fill carts, load groceries onto the check-out counter. And don’t forget unloading once we got home! That was an entire family affair. Phew!
With that, I’m off to start making lasagnas. I’ll share my entire soccer team menu on Sunday, and as much as possible, I will take pictures to share with you.
Now you know why it was so important for me to try and get ahead a few weeks ago! :)
I know it’s only July, but I have to start preparing now if I plan to survive the busy fall season. August through October are always our busiest months of the year, as we start school, freeze and can garden produce, and juggle umpteen soccer practices and games. I love soccer season, and am so excited for it to start I can hardly stand it. My husband helps coach our local York College ladies soccer team (I can’t wait for these gals to get back into town!), three out of four of our boys play on teams, two boys referee, and two boys are on additional traveling teams. There are a lot of schedules to keep up with.
I’m not complaining. I soooo love it. But at the same time, I’ve started to feel almost panicky about being away from home so much and keeping up with all of my responsibilities. My solution? I’m praying for peace. Panicking helps…nothing. Oh yes, I’ve proven that over and over. I’m asking God to help me relax, to use me to bless people, and to help me enjoy the ride this fall. Oh, and I’m also already starting to warn and remind my friends that in a few weeks, I will not be able to formulate cohesive thoughts or finish my sentences. I am so blessed to have friends who continue to put up with me during these busy months.
In addition to spending much time in prayer, I’m doing as much as I can now to make my homemaking and home schooling efforts easier once we’re in “the thick of it”. I decided to share my “to do” list with you, then blog my way through it during the next several days. You do want to watch me prepare for the insanity, don’t you? Yes, that’s what I thought. ;)
First, here are the home projects I’d like to complete by August 5:
- Clean and organize our “School Room”.
- Help the boys get their bedroom and the “Lego Room” cleaned and organized.
- Type up book lists and writing goals for the boys for the year.
- Take the boys on our traditional “school supply shopping, then eat lunch out” celebration. (They’ll never be too old for this, right?!)
Here are the kitchen projects I’d like to work on so that our fridge, pantry, and freezers are stocked and ready for busy days ahead:
- Make a double batch of Homemade Chewy Granola Bars for grab and go snacks.
- Make a batch of Whole Wheat Graham Crackers.
- Put together a boat load of Meat and Cheese Burritos for the freezer. (How many is a boat load? We’ll just see how the energy holds out that day…)
- Bake at least one batch of 24 Corn Dog Muffins for the freezer.
- Cook two Pizza Casseroles and freeze.
- Make 4-6 pounds of Sloppy Joe Meat for the freezer.
- Experiment with Whole Wheat Pizza Dough to make frozen pizzas.
- Make a double batch of Chicken Patty Sandwiches for the freezer.
- Make a double batch of Whole Wheat Calzones for the freezer.
- Refill all jars in my pantry with beans, rice, etc. for convenience.
- Make sure Taco Seasoning, Ranch Dressing, and Italian Dressing Mix jars are full.
- Make four batches of Peanut Butter.
Disclaimer: All items on these lists are subject to change. I may not be in the mood next week to make calzones. I may instead decide to make Creamy Chicken and Rice Casseroles. Or maybe I’ll make both. Or neither. I will likely think of something in the middle of the night tomorrow that I forgot to add to my list. I’ll be sure to call you at that time so that you are aware that my list has changed. You’re welcome. I may decide that cleaning the Lego Room isn’t even worth it since it’s likely to be a mess thirty seconds after we finish. If produce becomes freezable or cannable during this next week, that will trump all else. (“Cannable” isn’t a word and spell check wants me to change it to “cannibal” but that is obviously not at all related to my plan for next week, so I am leaving it as is. We all know what I mean. I think.) Regardless, I do plan to take lots of pictures and blog my progress. It
maywill be messy. Read at your own risk.
Family Pictures!!!
Posted by: | CommentsRemember how I told you about meeting up with friends at Soul Quest last week? One of those friends was Tracy who is a wonderful mother of three boys, and as you will soon see, is also a wonderful photographer.
When I saw Tracy the first night of Soul Quest, she whispered, “Hey, I brought my camera. Do you think you can pull Asa away from camp for an hour sometime this week for a family photo shoot?!” Wow, I’d seen her work before, so this was an offer I couldn’t refuse.
Now that we have our pictures back, I can’t stop looking at them. I have five of the most handsome men in my life. God is so good.
Aw, how sweet is this, all of my men looking at me in admiration (yeah, yeah, they are all just doing what Tracy told them to do). :)
Will you just look at all of us, standing still in one place with arms intertwined and looking like a calm, peaceful, little family…
Oh here we go – now this is more like our crazy family reality…
This has got to be my favorite shot. :)
And here I am with my amazing hunk of a husband!
Thank you for letting me show off some of our pictures. Tracy is super talented and I am so thankful that we were able to be blessed by her giftedness. Check out our About page here if you have time. I updated it with some of our new pics!
P.S. If you live in this general area, you can look into more of what Tracy does at TracyWoodPhotography and/or her facebook page here. :)
Our Mini Vacation (Part Two)
Posted by: | CommentsThe first day of our mini-vacation was spent at the Durham Museum, Red Mango and our hotel swimming pool. The next day, we headed to the Henry Doorly Zoo, truly one of the best zoos in the U.S.
I will say that our day at the zoo wasn’t perfect, but that was due to the 101 degree heat that threatened to do us in a time or two, which of course wasn’t the zoo’s fault. And thankfully, there were some lovely air conditioned areas we took full advantage of!
Here we are enjoying the “Desert Dome” (which our oldest said he wished was the “Dessert Dome”, because wouldn’t THAT have been fun!). We saw some really amazing birds, some (not so) cool snakes, and my favorite – a little armadillo that I totally wanted to bring home. Me, the girl who doesn’t want pets. Cutest little armadillo ever, he was. Ran so fast in his little round shell he looked like he was on wheels. Mmm, so adorable.
We only missed a few of the zoo’s great attractions, pumping our legs hard in that heat to make the rounds. We left the Desert Dome and followed our map and we were not a bit disappointed with what we saw.
Isn’t this bear a sweet one? Amazing how sweet they look when they aren’t growling in your face. Kinda sounds like me. I can be real sweet when I’m not growling in your face. It’s true. Just ask my kids.
We stood and stared at the penquins for a long, long time. Ever read Mr. Popper’s Penquins? Oh, you’ve got to read it. And then stare at some real penquins for a while. They’re fascinating.
We saw the biggest butterfly ever. Except that it was really a chair and Malachi and I sat in it to take a little break from walking.
Possibly our favorite area (although it truly is hard to say) was the Aquarium. This place is incredible, with glass all around you so that you can see all of the amazing creatures swimming. Yes, sharks swam over us and beside us, as did sting rays and sea horses. We also made friends with a big turtle, that in my opinion, had a lovely personality. I’d never seen one like him before and I named him Fred.
It was hard to walk away from this round “tube” of fish. Again, we stared and stared…
We left the zoo exhausted and fulfilled…with still enough energy to talk all the way to dinner about “Remember the monkey on that rope?” and “Are you sure we can’t go back and get the armadillo?”. Not really. I didn’t really say that. I’d never contemplate something like that. Really.
Dinner was fun at Ci-Ci’s Pizza where we’d printed off a coupon and were able to feed our family for an incredibly low price. What a treat!
Last but not least, we stopped at Whole Foods, because if I can’t have an armadillo, I at least need to have a Whole Foods fix while I’m in Omaha, right? Thanks to those of you who signed up for Shop it to Me, we had accumulated a few Whole Foods gift cards to use.
Can I tell you what a blessing those are to us, and how much we appreciate those of you who take the time to (painlessly) sign up for the Shop it to Me email? It means a lot to us, and provides us with a few gift cards to spend on wholesome groceries for our family. I hope that you too are taking advantage of the Shop it to Me referral program and telling YOUR family and friends about this so that you can earn gift cards as well!!
Here’s a picture of some of the items we grabbed at Whole Foods. We also got some chicken breasts while we were there, but they were in the freezer at the time of this photo shoot and refused to come out. Stubborn little chickens. (Should have got me an armadillo instead.)
And there you have it…our Mini Vacation. It was a wonderful getaway and I’m so thankful we were able to do this!
Now you tell me – do you have fun travel plans this summer? (And if you’re coming through Nebraska, do you think you could bring me an armadillo?)
Just a little reminder, Friday, June 10 is the final day for our Heavenly Homemakers eBook Overload sale!! Read details here!
Our Mini Vacation, Part One
Posted by: | CommentsFirst, let me say that I really had no idea I was torturing so many of you by not revealing what our boys’ “surprise” was. On Gratituesday when I was very vague again about what we were doing, that truly was because I had just spent part of forever at our hotel trying to get online and then stay online (my only complaint about our otherwise lovely hotel). Then, once I was finally able to post, my brain was so tired, all I could do was write, “we’re having fun – I’m going to bed”.
Now that I’m going to reveal what we’ve been up to, you are likely to say, “oh, is that it?” because really it was just a little getaway and a fun mini-vacation we surprised our boys with. That’s all. Ah, but it was fun. :)
I had been contacted several weeks ago by Corrie from Visit Omaha about sending our family to the Durham Museum and the Henry Doorly Zoo. We were thrilled with the opportunity! Matt and I decided to plan a little mini-vacation around these two visits, and then we decided not to tell our boys. We thought, why not surprise them?!
Sunday night right before bedtime (yes, the perfect time to spring a surprise on them so they would for sure never go to sleep – duh), we told them that they needed to go pack a back pack with clothes for over-night and be sure to include their swimming trunks. Well, their eyes lit up, but as you can imagine, they were hardly satisfied with so little information. We went ahead and told them part of what we’d be doing, and that we’d be staying overnight in a hotel, which is why they needed their swimming gear. (I had booked our hotel through Hotwire, by the way, and got a great deal!!)
Earlier in the evening, when I’d had the kitchen to myself, I had packed a surprise breakfast for them to eat on the road the next morning…
The next morning, the boys got up and dressed and we all loaded up. I handed them their breakfast bags and we were on our way to Omaha!
Our first stop: The Durham Museum. We really had no idea what to expect there, but wow were we in for a treat! After we ate our packed lunch in their nice lunch area, we got to explore everything from real train cars to an earth lodge to an “old time” grocery store – and oh so much more. We loved the Durham Museum and would highly recommend it if you’re ever in this area!
Malachi made a new friend while we were there, and carried on a lively conversation. I have to wonder what family secrets he shared.
Asa did his best to look like a wooden soldier on a train station bench. Except for the long hair and lack of uniform, I think he pulled it off quite well.
After we left the Durham Museum, we headed to the hospital to visit our friends whose son has been undergoing intense medical care for over a month. It was great to see them, and we are so thankful we could make that a part of our get-away.
From there, we told the boys we were headed to check into our hotel (which we were), but on the way, we stopped to surprise them with frozen yogurt from Red Mango. Have you ever been to Red Mango? Matt and I had discovered this fun treasure when we’d gone to the Weekend to Remember conference a few months ago. It’s so much fun and comparatively, a healthier treat than most!
The boys were able to choose from a large variety of frozen yogurt flavors, then stand in line to fill their bowl with toppings ranging from crushed candy bars to fresh fruit.
We hardly ever splurge on things like this, so yeah, this was fun!
From there, we checked into our hotel for a little pool time. Matt and the boys all had fun swimming. Me? I watched them from my very incredibly relaxing spot in the hot-tub. Ahhhhhhhhh.
After we dried off, we went out for a late dinner, then headed to bed so that we’d be ready to hang out with some sharks, gorillas and armadillos the next day.
To be continued…
The Story of My Mom’s Salsa (and Why I Can’t Share My Salsa Recipe)
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I’ve been promising for months to share my mom’s salsa story. Not her recipe…but her story. I can’t share her recipe. But the story is kind of a nice one. :)
My mom began making salsa when I was a little girl, tweaking and playing with ingredients from her garden until she figured out a recipe that was just right. We all loved it. Neighbors loved it. Family members loved it. Friends loved it. There was nothing incredibly fancy about Mom’s salsa. It was slightly sweet. Slightly spicy. Just right.
When my brother and I were in college, she would send her home-canned salsa to the dorm with us. It became a hit with our college friends and it wouldn’t last long. :) I’m not sure when Mom’s salsa really began to become a “big thing” locally, but I believe it was around the time I was graduating from college and getting married.
People all over the town where she and my dad lived were requesting that she make them some of her salsa. She began receiving orders. A downtown shop began to request her salsa so that they could sell it to their customers. After a while, she was making so many jars of salsa, she could barely keep up. She knew with the volume of salsa she was making, she needed a licensed kitchen to work in. She was swimming in salsa. :)
Around that time, my uncle and aunt in Chicago who had “connections” set up a meeting with a company who could make and market my mom’s salsa for her. Mom and Dad flew to Chicago, toured the commercial kitchen, made necessary negotiations, signed a bunch of papers…and my mom’s salsa officially became BJ’s Salsa:
(My mom’s name was Bettye Jo…her family and some friends often called her BJ.)
Now my mom didn’t have to break her neck to keep up with the salsa demand! It was being made and shipped out to stores and marketed by others. My mom was so pleased with this success, and well she should be. She’d worked hard for this!
My mom was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease) in the fall of 2002. Salsa sales had begun to slow by then anyway, and all of us were so focused on Mom and her health and keeping her comfortable, salsa was really the last thing on our minds.
After she went to be with Jesus in July of 2004, our family was so thankful to have a few jars of her salsa left. We cherished and hoarded them. We were out of sorts and grieving. We weren’t thinking very logically (or at least I wasn’t), which is why it took over a year for us to talk about or realize that it may still be possible for her salsa to be made and sent to us.
Dad checked into it and sure enough. We could get ourselves some BJ’s Salsa.
We still cherish each jar of my mom’s salsa. But we don’t have to hoard it anymore. And every time I open a new jar, I feel like I’m opening something made by my mom. There is a simple statement on each jar:
“Developed in the kitchen of Bettye Jo Hamm”
It helps me not miss her quite so much. Or maybe it makes me miss her even more.
I use her recipe now (which must be kept a secret) to make salsa with ingredients from my own garden. It’s not quite as good as “Grammy’s salsa” was, but we like it okay. ;)
Now, anytime I talk about using salsa in a recipe, you know that I’m not just using any ol’ salsa. I’m opening a treasure each time I open a jar of salsa. One that came right out of “Bettye Jo’s kitchen”.
{Edited to note: BJ’s Salsa isn’t sold in any stores right now (except for one small shop in my hometown). Thanks for inquiring about it. Maybe we should look into putting it in stores again? Hmm…}
