Happy Birthday, Mountain Man!

Happy Birthday to my Beloved and our Mountain Man!  Thank you for being such a faithful husband and father and for leading your family in His truth and His ways.  We love you!

Love,

Your Princess and Your Arrows

Corned Beef and Cabbage and This-is-Way-Too-Delicious-to-be-Soda-Bread Bread

Yes, yes, it's a bit past St. Patty's Day, but with our life being mostly a chorus of coughing, we're not quite on schedule.  I love making holidays special around here, and since I've got a bit of Irish blood in me, St. Patty's Day is normally quite green in our home.  Plus, Mountain Man has traveled Ireland, which means he likes to celebrate this holiday, too.

But, in all of our years of marriage, I've never made corned beef and cabbage for him.  Honestly, I've dreaded the smell of the cabbage.  However, I recently came across a slow-cooker recipe for this Irish meal and decided to give it a try.

The soda bread can in no way be REAL soda bread because it's just too tasty.  I left the raisins out, by the way, since Mountain Man insists there were never raisins in any soda bread he had while in Ireland. 

This combo turned out to make a lovely meal for those who dared eat it, and of course, the bread will now be seen on our dinner table regularly.

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

1 medium onion, cut into wedges

4 large red potatoes, quartered

1 lb. baby carrots

3 c. water

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 bay leaf

2 T. sugar

2 T. cider vinegar

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 corned beef brisket with spice packet (2-1/2 to 3 lbs) cut in half

1 small head cabbage, cut into wedges

Place the onion, potatoes and carrots in a 5 qt. slow cooker.  Combine the water, garlic, bay leaf, sugar, vinegar, pepper and contents of spice packet; pour over vegetables.  Top with brisket and cabbage.

Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender.  Remove bay leaf before serving. 6-8 servings

~Taste of Home recipes

Gerry Austin's Irish Soda Bread

6 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1  (15 ounce) package dark raisins (I leave these out)

6 large eggs

3 c. buttermilk

1 T. vegetable oil

Preheat over to 350.  Lightly grease two 9 inch round cake pans and set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, soda, salt, and raisins in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, buttermilk, and oil, mixing until the eggs are broken.

Move the dry ingredients to the sides of the large bowl and pour the liquid ingredients into the center.  Fold the dry ingredients over the liquid pool with your hands until the dough is sticky.

Scoop the dough from the bowl, dividing it between the prepared pans.

Bake for one hour. (ours was done in 45 minutes, so watch carefully)  Test doneness with a sharp knife, making the shape of a cross in the center of each loaf.  If knife is clean, bread is done.

Serve warm with butter.

(I've only made one pan of this at a time, cutting the recipe in half.)

~from Back to the Family by Art Smith

Love, cough, cough,

P.S.  It's snowing here again. :)

~shamrock courtesy of www.karenswhimsy.com

Little Bit's Last Word Prayers

Since our children actually fight over who gets to pray at meals ( I know.  I know...), we decided to assign each meal to a child.  Reaches Up prays at breakfast.  Boo prays at lunch, and Little Bit prays at dinner.

Little Bit's prayers keep us stifling our laughs and grinning the entire time.

Daddy:  "Thank you, Dear Heavenly Father..."
Little Bit:  "Father"

Daddy: "for this food..."
Little Bit:  "food"

Daddy:  "We thank you for this day."
Little Bit: "day"

Daddy:  "And for keeping us safe."
Little Bit: "safe"

Daddy:  "Please keep Mommy and the baby healthy"
Little Bit:  "healthy"

Daddy: "We love you"
Little Bit: "you"

Daddy:  "In Jesus Name"
Little Bit:  "name"

Little Bit: "Ahhhhhhhhhh-men."

Our World Today

Blanketed in snow....beautiful as only He can make it.  While others are rejoicing in signs of Spring, I'm thanking God for perhaps our one last snow...

And if you've made it this far, would you please consider skipping over to my personal blog and giving a bit of your time to someone you don't even know?  I promise you'll be blessed.

Love,

Weekly Rewind 3/8-3/14/10

We're just a few days from Spring, but here's what we're enjoying right now as I'm typing this post.  A couple of the interstates are closed right now, and we might even be enjoying a snow day tomorrow with Mountain Man at home. :)

our front porch

 ice crystals on the window

~The week passed quickly while Mountain Man survived an audit at work.  He made it through lots of late nights, getting home about 11, and still having to be at work by 8. (Remember he has to drive 1 hr. 45 minutes one way).  So we're especially thankful that God kept him awake and safe on the roads!

~I had two doctors appointments this week, one with the perinatologist and the other with my OB.  Everything is looking great with Baby Boy, and at my next visit, I'll actually be scheduling the date for the c-section.  I can't believe it's only about 3 months away.  Here's an ultrasound picture taken at the perinatologist's office.....isn't it wonderful?

~that's his fist curled up to the left of his head :)

~Scribe and I did a bit of shopping after the doctor's appointments and found the neatest book at Tuesday Morning for just $3.99 called Happily Ever After.  It's a collection of  "happy ending" quotes from various books, and you can take a look at it here.   I didn't have time to read the whole thing, but during that brief look I only came across one passage that wasn't appropriate reading for our family.  Most of the quotes are from familiar classics such as Black Beauty, The Hobbit,  The Last Battle, Lad: A Dog, etc. 

~As exhausting as the week has been, Mountain Man blessed me with a bathroom makeover of the children's bathroom.  The paint job turned out great, and I'll post pictures of the before and after later this week.

~Most importantly, today's my Mom's and my Aunt's birthday!  Happy Birthday to the twins.  We look forward to celebrating with you next week. :)

Love,

Spaghetti Noodles and Oranges

I love watching our children discover new things.  God gave them such a natural sense of wonder and delight.  When Claire eats an orange, she eats an orange.  She smiles.  She even laughs sometimes.  But, one thing is for sure, she enjoys it.

She had spaghetti noodles for the first time the other day, and it was simply entertaining for her.  How many of these simple things do we experience day after day but take for granted.?  We forget to delight in them, much less truly thank God for them.

 Learn from the baby.....thank God for every good gift He's given you, including spaghetti noodles and oranges.

Love,

Hodgepodge

Just a bit of this and a bit of that....

Are you familiar with Christian Audio?  Each month they offer free downloads, and this month there are TWO great ones!  Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship and John Piper's Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die are yours by simply setting up a user account, adding them to your cart, entering the promotion code, and checking out.  It's really not as complicated as it might sound. :)  Check it out here.

We're planning to listen to Piper's audio during lunch each day as we prepare to celebrate Resurrection Day.

***

You know it's going to be a great day when the new recipe you try for breakfast is a hit.  Yep, the pan is cleaned out, and there are lots of "this is a keeper" being spoken by everyone (ok, almost everyone.  Sweet Boo wasn't quite convinced this was a keeper).

Of course, I love that it's easy and a great way to use up those leftover frozen hashbrowns sitting in the freezer.

Breakfast Tater Pie

6 eggs, beaten

1/3 c. milk

2 c. shredded cheese

2 c. frozen shredded hash browns

1 T. melted butter

salt and pepper to taste (I added 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper)

Optional add-ins...green peppers, bacon bits, onions, ham, etc.

Mix eggs and milk and then stir in cheese and salt and pepper.  Add potatoes.  Mix well.  Pour into greased 9 inch pie plate.  Drizzle butter over top.  Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

****

Did you see the amazing photos Scribe posted yesterday?   Take a look, and be in awe of our Creator.  He paints the most beautiful skies.

***

Did you know this Mama can read books to the Littles and keep Claire from falling off the couch at the same time?  Gotta love that peripheral vision.

***

And here are some wise thoughts to encourage your hearts.....

The world says "seeing is believing," but God wants us to believe in order to see.  The psalmist said, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

Do you believe God only when the circumstances are favorable, or do you believe no matter what the circumstances may be?

~C.H.P.

Love,

Life in Pictures~3/5/10

We're beginning to see signs of Spring here.  The birds are singing and, and........those dastardly mice are coming out in numbers.  It was the Great Mouse Chase around here this week...literally.  Oh, if you could have seen Scribe and Little Big Man boldly capture one of them in a paper bag. Sorry, I was too busy freaking out to get this chase on film.

I'm ready for Spring, but I despise the mice.

But God does use all things for good to those who love Him...last night as another mouse emerged, we discovered what has escaped our attention for the 11 years we've lived in this house.  There's a piece of molding missing in the kitchen that has been a most welcoming entrance for those nasty rodents.  Perhaps this discovery will bring us a bit more peace. 

Sweet Claire has been under the weather all week.  Finally, last night we began to see signs that she's on the mend.

Mountain Man has been working late most of the week preparing for an audit.  We've just used the extra time to catch up on things around the house as well as some of our reading.

I'm feeling well, and sweet baby boy seems to love the music of Mozart. 

Here are a few more moments from the week.........

Claire found some delight in leafing through Weight Watchers Books.  Amazingly, this kept her attention for about 20 minutes.

No, she's not practicing her squats....she's actually in the middle of a carefully executed dance move.

This really was a loving kiss!

Scribe finally captured those two front teeth!

Sweet Boo running around the kitchen making crazy faces at Claire just to get a laugh.

Ahh, nothing like a foot with a bit of juice.

It's amazing how I get Daddy to make such silly faces when feeding me.

Didn't you know that all super-sweet, super-cute babies come with a sticker of authentication?

Life is good.  Praise Him for it!

Question of the Year

So, just what do you do with torn money?

Thankfully, you can take it to the bank and exchange it for the good stuff.

Teller:  Ahem, guess a little person did this?
Mountain Man: Uh, yeah
Teller: That's what I thought. I don't know too many adults who would want to tear money these days.  Of course, you never know.


Now, can you guess which "Little" in our home had such "this-isn't-funny-at-the-time" disregard for money?  And, no, it wasn't the littlest Little. :)  The guilty "Little" actually has a reputation for making life a bit more exciting in our home.  And, yes, we were right in the room.