Summertime, Socially Distanced of Course

Our summer is quickly coming to an end with schools starting soon.  Our oldest goes back to college in two weeks!  The youngest goes in three weeks and our middle goes in 4.  Three kids at 3 different schools is fun, really.  I am thankful they are all in-state.  We are 1 hour and 15 minutes from two of the schools and 1 hour 30 minutes from the other.  They are just far enough away that coming home is possible but not likely to happen too often.  For the first month, they will stay put and we will come to them if they need anything.  The semester will go quickly as they will all be home for 8 weeks the end of  November.  Already looking forward to it! 

Monday our state becomes a masked state.  I know it is a controversy, especially if you have clinical reasons not to wear a mask.  I just wear mine and go about my life.  Hopefully, this trial will ease some soon. 

We did manage to get up to Lake Michigan for a day trip on Jeff's staycation week.  We were able to avoid the crowded beach.  We had a yummy lunch at one of our favorite restaurants.  We walked up a dune trail.  We sat on the beach and read books while Grace produced a lovely watercolor.  I never want to take for granted again these times with my kids at the beach.  I was tempted to despair a little.  I wanted a week at the beach, not 3 hours!  But I realized that 3 hours was more than some get so I needed to be thankful for them.  

We have been riding our bikes, playing disc golf, walking to the little park when the weather is not unbearable. We were going to go camping but the weather turned super hot and humid so we have put that on hold for September and October.  I am looking forward to camping this fall, something Jeff and I can do together without children.  

Speaking of the empty nest, since the kids have been home since March, I am ready to send them off!  It is time for them to be working towards something productive. Yes, I will miss the daily interactions.  I will probably not hear from the oldest very often.  I will eagerly await any and all text messages.  Thankfully, I have been down this road a couple times now and I am prepared for the emotional toll.  I am actually looking forward to a few of the perks of the empty nest, especially, less food to buy and fewer dishes to wash.  It has been 22 years since Jeff and I lived alone.  

Summertime freedom is almost over but there is still a lot of summer left to enjoy! 

Time For a Reboot

Well hello, friends!!

I am back.  I am going to pick up where I left off because so much has happened in almost 2 years, 2 years!!!  Anyway, I am going to blog to please myself, record my hum-drum life so that I can remember these precious days the Lord has blessed me with.  So let us do get on with it!!!  :)

My most beloved kitchen appliance, my slow cooker, died last week.  I have been known as The Queen of the Crockpot around my circles for awhile. I mean I really loved that thing!!!!  We were joined at the hip.  And it was a nice one, an All-Clad!!!  It lasted for over 10 years.  I always told myself that if anything happened to it, I would rush out and get a new one.

Enter the Instant Pot!!  My father purchased this Instant Pot a few years ago and never used it beyond the first few times experimenting.  He, bless his heart, decided to give it to me, way before my slow cooker died.  I was always curious about them and scared to death of them at the same time!  Silly really.

I have decided to give it a go, a real go.  I am going to wait for 6 months and see if I can live without my slow cooker.  This one is a basic model, 6 quarts.  I think it will do fine with my shrinking family.  (3 in college this coming fall!)

I just love how the Lord orchestrates things like this.  He knew my slow cooker was going to die. He knew my Dad had an unloved Instant Pot. He even knew that Walmart pick up was going to give me 36 eggs for the price of 12 this week.  (What??)  So my first pressure cooking will be of hard-boiled eggs!  Wish me luck!!

Finally a System!

Since 2009, I have been keeping household journals that have evolved from a place to hold my to-do lists into a weekly-at-glance with a to-do list, memory verse, counting my blessings, write down recipes, quotes, notes, ect., book. Not exactly a bullet journal, but close.  I have filled up 9 composition notebooks, working on number 10. Nothing fancy, but it works for me! 

Fortunately, I started out by numbering pages and making an index in the front of all but the first.  If I wanted to find a recipe, I would dig through the indexes and there it would be.  That is ok when you have a small number of books, but wow, dig through 9 and you have a job.  So....  my dear husband says,"Take a picture of each index and store it on your phone in an album."  Wow!  He's a genius!  It works!  I'd like to say that I used his suggestion as soon as he offered it, but after a few more times digging through the 9 journals, I decided to give it a try.  It's brilliant!  And that's my tip of the month, perhaps the year!

A Good-Bye House Tour

The other day we had to get the house all tidy and clutter free to take pictures to send to a Realtor who was going to give us some comparables, so I thought I would share some of the pictures here as a sort of memory post.  We have had a lot of good memories here. I have never had a nicer home. Selling is bittersweet of course.  I don't want to go into that here.  I want to remember this house as just another example of God's great mercy to me.  He is an amazing God!!  As it turns out, I was already living in my dream house and now it is time to move back home.  Good-bye home sweet home.  You have been very good.  I am so very thankful.

Cakes, Cakes and More Cakes

We had a wonderful birthday celebration for Grace's 17th birthday last month. She and her nana made a couple cakes and she made cupcakes to share with friends.  It is hard to believe she is 17.  The cakes were very yummy, but I must confess that I have had enough cake for awhile!

Winter Offerings

Yesterday was my "kitchen focus day."  That means I put all my extra energy into food.  I finished prepping a batch of yogurt that I made the day before.  I made pumpkin muffins for the week's afternoon snacks.  And I made a batch of chicken stock.  Half of the stock went into a yummy soup for dinner.  It felt good to be productive in the kitchen!  The recipes that I love are from 100 Days of Real Food.

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/09/25/recipe-whole-spelt-pumpkin-muffins-and-other-spelt-recipes/

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/01/24/recipe-overnight-chicken-stock-in-the-crock-pot/