flavored coffee syrup recipes/free recipe book

Molly over at Econobusters shared this, can't wait to try it, this list of ingredients will be way shorter than on the bottled brands.

Homemade Coffee Syrups Work for Me!

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 05:18 AM PDT

I have a friend who drinks coffee a lot! She loves flavored coffee syrup, like the ones they use at Starbucks, but it is about $7 a bottle where she lives.
I decided that this year, I was going to make some homemade coffee syrup and send it to her as a gift. When my package arrived, she fell in love! She told me that they tasted better than the real thing and that I was now her official Starbucks replacement!
Here is what you need to be able to to do the same:
~Start with a simple syrup. To make a simple syrup, combine 1 cup water and 1 cup white sugar. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until it has reduced by half, which should take about 5 minutes. Now if you want flavoring, you have to add those ingredient(s) at the same time you add the water and sugar.
Vanilla Coffee Syrup: Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla flavoring to the simple syrup. Taste to see if it is vanilla flavored enough. If not, add an additional teaspoon.
Cinnamon Coffee Syrup: Add about a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the water and sugar mixture.
And to top off the flavored syrups, here is my favorite coffee from Starbucks! I don’t go there hardly at all any more since I have been making all my favorite coffee stuff at home! In fact, It has been months since I have been. I think mine tastes much better (I know, I am biased)!
Pumpkin Spiced Latte
2 cups milk
1 cup very strong coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons sugar (or one packet of Splenda)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus extra for dusting)
2 heaping spoonfuls of canned pumpkin
Pour all of the ingredients into a pot and heat over medium-high heat until the coffee is steaming hot. Pour into mugs and top with whipped cream & cinnamon. Enjoy!

Today she also has a link to a free ebook of Smart Schooltime Recipes there are 125 in there! so you can download that if you choose:
http://www.econobusters.com/?p=5248

Thanks Molly!

Appreciate your prayers

Steve's Dad had been feeling especially tired the last few weeks, enough that he felt he needed to get to the doctor.  After some initial bloodwork they deteremined he was anemic and requested some further blood testing, an ekg, and stress test.  After all that was complete and another round of bloodwork they were able to determine his red blood cell level was very low and dropped more on a third round of blood testing.  

They were able to get him in with a hematologist this coming Friday.  So please pray for the doctor to have wisdom and guidance as he interprets all the information.  And please pray for Dad and Mom both as they are anxiously awaiting the diagnosis.  I'll post next week and let you know the outcome.  Thanks so much for your prayers on his behalf, they are greatly appreciated!

Book Review

Wow! I don't even know where to start telling you about this book, except that you SHOULD read this one!
I read this one in about a 24 hr. period, my mother in law read it even quicker, and my friend Debbie probably has finished it in that same amount of time as well.  Once you start you can't put it down, you must find out what happens.

It is a TRUE account about a Pastor and his family and their life in North Carolina during the 1970's.  It is truly unbelievable and very eye opening.  You cannot read this book and not be touched by these folks who lived what they believed in spite of great persecution. This books is a real life fulfillment of the scripture to "Bless those that Persecute you, Bless and do not Curse" and comes from this family who lived right here in the USA, not a foreign country. A great lesson and a great read, one of those that you can say you'll never forget.

It is available at Amazon.com or from Library and Educational Services. 

more Tennessee

Stephen outside the knife works, every boys and mans dream place!!

another bear at Cades Cove

one of the many, many deer at Cades Cove

View of the Smoky Mts. from Cades Cove

this is one of the bears we saw in "Cades Cove"

Audiobooks from our trip

http://www.visionforum.com/search/productdetail.aspx?search=lamplighter+books&productid=55470

I can't recommend these audiobooks enough!!! This is the set I purchased when they were on sale and I had a $25 off coupon from Vision Forum a few months back.  Let me tell you they were such a hit, we can't wait for more to be released.  A new one just came out last week and they are working on 2 more for September release.  So I'll be waiting for a special day to buy the new one and get it out or I'll use it as some type of motivation for schoolwork. 

We listened to all 6 of the audios in the set throughout out trip to TN.  I have to say there was only 1 that was not as good as the others in my opinion, not that it wasn't good, it just wasn't as dramatic I guess you could say. Most all of them had us laughing and crying throughout the stories and that was not just the children!

Each night when we'd be traveling home (Balega's and our family together) we'd put one of these in and the children would all stay awake and quiet, despite the activity of the day.  Even little Ruby stayed awake all but one evening.  Then we couldn't finish the whole book so they'd have to wait till our next trip down the mountain to hear the conclusion.  They were all chomping at the bit to hear the story each day, asking to put the cd in from the second we entered the car.  

I'd have to say these were a well worth the money spent to purchase! I know I'll have to keep these in a special place or they'll be scattered throughout the house with everyone wanting to listen to them over and over.  The lessons they teach are so valuable that you'll be glad you had the opportunity to listen.

I can't recommend them enough, we are hooked! buy a set for a trip or buy a set and use them as a special reward.  If you can buy only one I think I'd recommend Sir Malcolmn and the Missing Prince, I think that's my favorite although it's a very close call between the others for first place!

Our Tennessee/Kentucky Trip

Sunset from the back deck!!!

Well what a wonderful week we had on vacation last week.  We left on Fri. night and drove to West VA for an overnight to cut down on traveling time for Sat.  We arrived in TN to our cabin around 4:30 on Sat. and settled right in. 

Our Rental Cabin "It's a Wonderful Life"

Now to say that it was on top of the Smoky Mts. would be, well exactly correct.  It was a 10 min. right to get to the top of the Mt. from what we could tell there was only one more road up and that belonged to the mini-van we saw when we check in at the guardhouse who said they almost made it but couldn't get over the last great to make it to their cabin.  I was starting to get nervous when I heard this conversation, then it worsened as we started the drive!!! What had Barb & I picked out??? we wanted private and serene, well this was it!!  Our van slipped a little on the gravel parts of the road and hairpin turns, but we made it. After this we vowed to only go down the mt. once a day, the last night trip up the car did overheat as we had the a/c on it was like 10:30 at night but still in the 90's.  Steve got quite intune witht he terrain and we could make it down the mt. in about 5 min! 

Stephen is turning eight years old!

Tomorrow we are having a football themed birthday party for Stephen.  He's invited some of his friends and of course his cousins next door for a celebration.  This is the first boys party I've done, so we'll see how it goes.  tonight Ellen helped me make the cakes, we did a helmet, a football, and tomorrow will finish a football field. 

We are planning on playing some skill games, like throwing the football into a basket, through a hoop, pass the water football, and dress up like a football player relay. 

We'll have hotdogs and chips for lunch, then cake and ice cream with gatorade to drink (well the G2 kind that has no high fructose corn syrup in it! LOL!)

The weather is to be good so it should be great fun!  Will post some pictures to follow-up.