Preparing for next week

Made it through the first week of subbing:o) It was a lot of fun, and we got to see Spoon Man on Thursday. The kids really enjoyed watching him play his spoons. Thursday was very interesting, all three of us in the Pre-K room were subs. I don't think we traumatized them to much:o)

This weekend I am getting more prepared for next weeks meals. So today I am making bread, raisin bread, chocolate pie (using a new pudding recipe that has chocolate chips in it, yum) noodles for Chicken Alfredo, and making the sauce up, meat loaf, french dressing for salads, getting some vegetables ready to cook and had to grind flour. This will make meals so much easier this coming week. Subbing is making much more organized!

Chocolate Pudding

1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
2 T. cornstarch
Pinch of salt
2 c. whole milk (I use 2%)
1 large egg
4 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in heavy sauce pan.
2. Stir in milk until well blended.
3. Bring to a boil and cook until thickened, stirring.
4. Take off heat.
   
5. Take a small amount of cooked pudding and gradually add to egg, mixing constantly.

6. Add this back to the pudding in the sauce pan (off heat) and stir in the chocolate chips until melted.

7. Put into small dishes or a bowl and cool in the refrigerator.

I have used the following French dressing recipe for many years.

French Dressing

1 c. ketchup
1 c. sugar
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. light olive oil or canola

1. Put all of the ingredients in the blender.
2. Blend until smooth on high.
   
3. Put in a container and store in the refrigerator. ( I put mine in an empty ketchup bottle)

Quiet Days

It has been rather quiet here lately.
I have been subbing a couple of days this week, and will start
subbing for three weeks next Tuesday in the pre-k room. Will be a little different spending all day with 29 preschoolers.

The weather was so nice today
here in the upper 30's. Just had to go out and take
a few pictures.
The picture on the left taken by my dd is of the ice melting on a cover over our burning bush, we have to cover it or the rabbits will eat it off.

For the past couple of weeks the birds have disappeared in this area. I had filled the feeder below about two weeks ago. Today for the first time there was a female Cardinal and some Chickadees in the yard. I was so excited! If you look closely in the far left picture there is a bird sitting on the tree branch. I am waiting for the weather to warm up and the birds to start singing again in the mornings.
Warmer days like this remind me that spring will be here soon.

Happy Valentines Day

GOD'S VALENTINE

By Paul J. Twist

Of all the valentines ever sent, none is more significant than the love message from God in John 3:16.

"For God so loVed the world,
xxx That He gAvexxxxxxxx
xxxxxx His onLy xxxxxxxxx
xxxxx BegottEn xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx SoN xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxThat whosoever

xxx Believeth In Him xxxxxxx
xxxxxShould Not perish,xxxxx

xxxxBut have Everlasting life."x

The dictionary says a valentine is "a note containing a message of sentimental love." But God's valentine is more than emotional sentiment. It expresses tenderness, but it also offers God's solution to man's greatest need, the salvation of his eternal soul. God's message of love was in His heart before creation and, according to Romans 5:8, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God's valentine is not for those who think they are good, but for those who admit they are needy sinners.

If you receive God's valentine with a repentant heart of faith , His love will fill your heart and life with great joy and lasting peace. His valentine expresses love that will never end!

Check It Out

You will want to check out the great give away that Farming On Faith is having to celebrate spring. Carrie has made a lovely Tulip pendant to give away. So go on over and leave a comment, the give away was posted on Feb. 11th.

I made a batch of heart shaped sour cream sugar cookies for Valentines Day, for the grandson's and our neighbors. Got them all decorated and packaged up and given away and realize I never took a picture of them.

Happy Valentines Day!

Easy Easy Yogart

I have always wanted to try and make yogurt. Last Wednesday I saw a yogurt recipe that Cindy at Farm Girl Cyn had used. This recipe is so easy and it turns out great.

Last night we took about 2 cups of the yogurt, 2/3 cups frozen strawberries thawed and some ice and made a smoothie. This is sooooo good! Will be making more of this yogurt.

Yogurt Recipe

8c. whole milk
1/2 c. organic yogurt for your starter
crock pot & big bath towel

Put the milk in your crock pot with lid on and turn on low for 2- 1/2 hours.

Unplug crock pot and let sit undisturbed for 3 more hours.

Take out 2 cups of the milk and stir into it the 1/2 cup organic yogurt. Mix this mixture back into the milk in the crock pot.

Put lid back on and wrap the crock pot with a thick bath towel (I used two as our house is a little colder at night) let sit for at least 8 hours. (make sure and save out 1/2 cup for your next batch)

This yogurt is not as thick as store yogurt but soooo good~believe I have mentioned that before.

We are getting some snow again today, not anything like some places have been getting. We are suppose to get 3 to 5 inches. Yesterday it was snowing such big beautiful flakes, they always make me think of Christmas. It is always so pretty when every thing is white again after a fresh snow. We have not had near the snow we usually get this winter and it has not been as cold. Makes the winter seem shorter, I'm thinking spring can't be to far away!

It's time to go clean my oven, decided today was a good day to get that job done, then I have a wall hanging to work on.

Have a good afternoon!

Noodle Making

We had Chicken Noodle Soup the other night with homemade noodles.
Sorry not sure what happened to this picture.

I finally got a thickness down for the noodles that we like in soup. Before I have always run the dough through all of the settings and they were just to thin for soup to our liking. This time only went to number three, much better.

The recipe that I have been using is just the basic one that came with my pasta machine~ 3 eggs 2-1/2 cups flour and a pinch of salt. Would love to hear if someone has a recipe that they like for making whole wheat noodles!

We enjoyed the soup!
Serving left overs tonight.

CIC#6 & Paper Garden Challenges

CIC#6 challenge this week was to use black, red, white, and you could use pink also. The card was made from mostly paper that was in my stash, and the stamp was one of those that I picked up at a craft store once. The bookmark is out of white card stock that I stamped pink hearts on then embossed them with clear embossing powder. The sentiment is from stamping up, which is put on with some pop ups and I added a button (the button is from a dress that I made for my DD when she was little) a ribbon is added at the top.

Paper Garden Friday Fun Challenge was "Pulling on your heart strings." This challenge was to make a valentine card or project using ribbon and if you add buttons they will enter you twice in the drawing. My red paper is from one of my Paper Garden Kits. Hoping these pictures show up better, used my daughters camera, she showed me how to put the lenses on and gave me a quick lesson in operating it. At least enough so I can take some pictures with it.




This card is just a fun extra card that I made. I had seen the advertisement on tv for Disney World where the person opens up the envelope and the balloons come out, so I decided to try and make a card that looked like hearts were coming out when the envelope was opened. Used an envelope from a thank you card as my temp plate to make this envelope. The hearts, rose, and love were cut on my Cricut, also used my Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder on a couple of the hearts. It was fun to see what could be created using the Cricut. My first try making a card that didn't use any stamps. Had fun making it.

My DH had to ghost our computer this weekend so today I am getting some of my information back in to my bookmarks. At least now the computer is working like it should. It seemed strange to have the computer down.

We had a couple of inches of snow last night now it is nice and white out again. Looks like it is snowing again!

Making chicken noodle soup for supper, need to get going on making the noodles and some corn bread. Have a good day!