Lofty Plans...

Does anyone recognize this spectacular palace?  It is in fact Hampton Court, which was the residence of King Henry VIII.  If you read the previous post, I talked about some exciting developments for my 16 year old daughter.  This is the exciting development...this is where she wants to go to school...in this building.  Is that not magnificent???  What school could possibly be housed in a palace, you ask?  Well, it has an amazing history and it is called the Royal School of Needlework.  It has a prestigious reputation and would be a fantastic place for her to learn and be immersed in such history.  My daughter has a passion for fashion and this would be a great avenue for her to pursue.  She is going to apply for their 2 year foundation degree program once she is done with school, then if she feels so inclined, she can do a third year which would have an emphasis on fashion and textiles.   I had heard of this school before, but never had any thoughts about it for my children.  It came up again last week and I thoroughly researched it and it seems to be the perfect fit for my daughter.  She does great embroidery and this would possibly give her a high-brow entrance into the fashion world.  Once this came up, I talked about it with my daughter the next morning.  She loved the idea and then I went to my part-time childcare job and a good friend of mine just found out she's going on a trip to England with her husband.  I told her all about this place and sent her questions to take to the school because she is in fact going to visit!  She is actually in England right now!  All this has progressed so quickly...we are continually researching and my daughter really wants to pursue this!

So, I have to sit down and realize that my daughter may be going to school in England...that she has to leave home...oh, my heart!!!  We are on spring break right now and she is looking for jobs.  She actually was offered a job without even applying just because we knew the person who is her neighbor.  All of these things are falling into place and I can see how exciting the future is for her...I have homeschooled her since third grade and these are the moments we have been preparing her for.  It's a bit scary.  As a high schooler, she's been doing a dual-enrollment program at a very good charter school and I don't regret it at all.  It's a hybrid program that's been started specifically for homeschoolers.  With all that said, all I can do now is to keep helping her go in the direction she wants to go and to pray.  God has orchestrated all this up to this point and we will continue to leave it in His hands.

If you are interested in information about the Royal School of Needlework, here is the link.  How have you dealt with your children leaving the nest and going to school???  This is my first child so I have three more to go, but the first one is really hard!  We still have two more years, but as you know, time flies! 

There's been the excitement for this week...I hope you are having a lovely week!  Blessings!

My Daughter's Quilting/Embroidery Project

I hadn't posted for a few weeks due to my oldest daughter's fine arts project--I stayed up with her so she had company at all hours of the night.  She is part of AWANA and as a high schooler, she goes to the national competition with her team.  They do Bible quiz, games, and fine arts projects and can win scholarships.  She actually won last year.  She had quite the lofty project this year and almost to the detriment of her health and grades, she finished it.  I must say, it turned out beautifully and has led to some exciting developments.  First, let me share some pictures with you!

View from the center

This project features Galatians 5:22 about the fruit of the Spirit.  The top tier has the reference, the middle tier has the beginning of the verse, and the lower portion has nine miniature quilts with each of the fruit of the Spirit.

One of my favorites is the quilt on love.  All these quilts are embroidered with mostly silk ribbon, and my daughter has perfected the french knot.  Look at the tall flowers...I tell her that I have no other way to describe them except as "delicious", hahaha!!!

Thank you for letting me indulge you about my daughter.  I really am a proud mama because this project was a huge undertaking and took so much work.  She is sixteen and after all this was said and done, we think we know where she would like to go to school.  I am going to do a separate post on that because this would be an exceptionally long post otherwise.  However, it has everything to do with these pictures and will be about a school most people have never heard of.  It's got a magnificent history and as a homeschooling mom who has taught her girls some things about embroidery and quilting, it makes perfect sense for the skills and direction that my oldest daughter would like to go.  It is all coming together so amazingly that the Lord's hand has been on her and it's becoming so clear what she needs to do!

I can't wait to tell you so come back again!!!  Have a great day and blessings to you!!!

Stretching the Food Budget Friday

Fast Food at My House

Are you ever in a pinch and need to make something fast without having to go to a fast food joint???  With four kids and many different schedules, my instinct is to get something quick.  However, the budget is too thin to be going out all the time.  Another problem I have is that I make everything from scratch and sometimes meals take a while to put together.  Things are frozen in bulk and time is of the essence.

So, what do I do?  Well, a little planning never hurt anyone!  Add a bit of creativity and you have yourself a meal!  One of my easy go-to quick meals is bread pizza.  I got a nice loaf of sourdough bread on the clearance rack.  I use my homemade sauce and top with cheese and I throw it in the oven for a few minutes and boom, quick meal with great results. 

I also made a second batch in which I put some leftover sausage.  I have a stash of cut-up green peppers in the freezer which I bought on sale during the summer for such a time as this.  A little bit of pepper goes a long way!  I added the cheese and crushed red peppers and my husband was very happy with it!!!  He eats late at night due to his work shift so this is also a quick dish to reheat. 

This also is a super-cheap meal idea...we have been in a bind lately financially so this was quite delicious and very affordable.  Who doesn't like pizza?

Hope you have a great week...we are going into Spring Break now, hallelujah!!!!  We have lots of cleaning to do and fun projects.  Lots of posts to come!  Blessings to you!

Wordless Wednesday...sort of...

Only in the suburbs can you see a fox on your neighbor's shed, hahaha!!!

A couple weeks before the shed incident, these foxes were all in my backyard, relaxing on our deck.  We love that our entire property is full of life...I just don't want to see these critters when I get chickens!!!

Hope you're having a great week...I have lots to blog about and will be back soon!!! It's been non-stop busy around here but I see a nice break coming called spring break...Hallelujah!  Blessings!!!

Starting to plan the garden...

It's that time of year...we're getting tired of the cold and we can see little snippets of warm weather that definitely has me dreaming of spring!!!  Today is Valentine's Day and my youngest daughter and I are going to start some flower seedlings indoors under lights.  We have a tradition in my house to make heart-shaped pizzas and have a few chocolates, but other than that, I'd rather have flowers in the garden than overpriced ones that will die in a few days...it's just me!  We try not to buy into the ridiculous commercialism...we love Valentine's Day and we all love each other, but we do not appreciate the expense or hype just to tell someone you love them.  My husband and I got breakfast in bed from our kids with some heart-felt crafts they made this morning.  They can't sell that in stores!!!

So my youngest daughter (age 9) is my little gardener and loves to pick and grow and plant with me.  We have a splendid time and she is great at preserving seeds for the next year.  We have both been leafing through our seed catalogs which, by the way, are now about three times as much as the picture I took.  If you're looking for a great catalog that is committed to saving seeds and preserving heirloom varieties, my very favorite is the Seed Savers Exchange.  They have beautiful plants and are highly committed to preserving our food and flower heritage of the past.  As you can see by the cover in my picture, it is a stunning catalog.  It's nice to see that many growers are becoming more interested in non-genetically mutated, non-pesticide tested, pure heirloom seeds.  Thank you very much. 

This was just a quick post, but I'll keep you updated with pics with our indoor seedlings and such.  It's still a little early yet for our veggie seeds, but soon I will be starting tomatoes!  For my friends on the other side of the world that are enjoying summer...I'm sooooo jealous!!!  We'll be there soon, I suppose and everything in its own time!  But until then, I'm dreaming of my summer garden!!! MMMMMMMM...fresh zucchini...I'm not sure how much longer I can last!!!  Hahahaha!

Blessings to you and happy planning and dreaming!

Stretching the Food Budget Friday

Lasagna

Sorry for such the delay in blogging; between bad weather, getting sick, and my oldest daughter's algebra class, my hands have been full.  So back to blogging I go.  We have to forego getting groceries for an extra week due to some budget issues, but with a well-stocked pantry and freezer, that isn't a huge problem.  I decided to make lasagna last night.  I did have a problem though:  I had no cottage cheese.  The lasagna I make is fairly traditional: mozzarella, meat sauce, cottage cheese, a sprinkling of parmesan.  However, with no cottage cheese, I felt my lasagna would fall pretty flat.  I didn't have any extra meat to put in it so what to do???

Well, this is where the homemaker must get creative and improvise!!!  We had some leftover mashed potatoes...yes, mashed potatoes!  I mixed in extra sour cream and layered the tasty potatoes as I usually would with cottage cheese.  I baked it and served it and it was quite tasty and gave the lasagna some bulk and substance!  It absorbed any extra liquid and made a very nice substitute.  Is it traditional?  Of course not.  But we made do with what we had on hand and turned out an excellent meal without having to run to the store.  Problem solved.  Stretching your food budget means being creative with the food you are blessed with and not running to the market every time something comes up.  Mashed potatoes (or potatoes in any form) can be substituted to give your dish an extra oomph...try it and see what happens!  I'd love to hear what you're doing to stretch your food budgets!

I hope you all have a warm and toasty weekend as I know many are still digging out from the snow!  Blessings to you and hope to hear about any awesome substitutions you have made with your meals!!!

Stretching the Food Budget Friday

What to do with 12 ounces of pecans??? Part 1



Stretching the food budget:  this is a skill that can net you big gains in the finance department. As a homemaker, I've had to make magic with what I have on hand.  I can make a vat of chicken noodle soup with two chicken breasts or make a few pounds of hamburger last a couple of weeks.  For our family of six, this skill is a necessity.

Coming out of the holidays, do you splurge on a few extras to make special recipes?  I do. I get all giddy when I see all those displays of nuts during the holidays because there are so many recipes that use them.  However, they are expensive.  So I bought 12 ounces of pecans for $5.99.  I had considered making a pecan pie for Christmas, but that would have taken most of the pecans and I wanted it for many other recipes.  Here is a recipe that will take something ordinary like apple pie and launch it into extraordinary with a twist using pecans.  I found the recipe while cruising through the grocery store.  They always have little free pamphlets put out by companies full of recipes using their products.  I found one by Pillsbury and it's called Topsy Turvy Apple Pie.  I'm not going to give you the apple pie recipe...use your own favorite recipe for this because we all have one, LOL!  What makes this pie amazing is this...before you assemble your pie in the pie pan, mix together the following ingredients at the bottom:  1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1 TBSP. margarine or butter, melted, 1 TBSP. corn syrup, and then arrange 1/4 cup pecan halves in the mixture to make a nice design.



Now assemble your pie as if there was nothing on the bottom of the pie pan.  Here's how my pie looked before baking.

Here it is after baking.  Notice I didn't go crazy making the crust look perfect...there's a reason for that.





Immediately run a knife around the edge of the pie pan and carefully with all the skill you can muster, turn the whole thing upside down onto a platter or cake stand.  I know...it goes against everything within you...but look at the result!



This is why it's not important what your "top crust" looks like.  It will be the bottom crust.  This pie was absolutely delicious because of the pecans and the unusual twist on an old-fashioned recipe.  I hope you try it sometime and enjoy!!!  It is absolutely delicious!  It's a great recipe that with the use of pecans, takes it to a whole other level.  Only 1/4 cup of pecans were used, so we still have plenty of pecans left for many other recipes.  Blessings to you and enjoy the nuts in your life, hahaha!