Large Family Logistics Book Giveway

http://raisingolives.com/   Attention everyone Raising Olives one of my favorite blogs thanks to Lisa Emslie sharing it with me!! is having a giveaway for a copy of the book Large Family Logistics that came out right before Christmas.  I know Lisa has a copy of this book and it's getting rave reviews from around the net, so you can enter on the blog link above by just leaving a comment of what area of this book interests you!  Why not take a moment and do that, then you can read the book and share it with others to be a blessing! 

Sorry I can't post a pic. of the book, looks like blogger is having a glitch, or it could just be me!! you can see it at:  www.visionforum.org

Hi everyone, please click the link on my page & Pray for Noah

he's sick with a fever and was headed to the hospital, flu has been ruled out.

What's for dinner?

Just finished making our meal for tomorrow after church.  We share a meal together each week after the service and I love to try new recipes, although tomorrow's main dish is not new to our family.

Night-Before Taco Bake
1 lb. grd beef
2 c. frozxen bell pepper and onions stir-fry (16 oz) I used fresh green peppers and green onions if I can get them
1 bag yellow corn or an 11 oz can
1 4.5 oz can  chopped green chiles
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 c. taco sauce
3 c. coarsely broken white corn chips
2 c. shredd. mexican cheese blend

spray a 9x13 pan then cook your beef till done, drain, stir in pepers and onions, corn, chiles, and taco seasoning. Cook 5 min. stir often, till peppers and onions are tender. Stir in taco sauce, remove from heat

spoon 1/2 of meat evenly over bottom of baking dish, cover with 2 c. chips, sprinkle 3/4 c. cheese over, then repeate layers and top evenly with remaining chips. cover tightly w/foil and refrigerate 4 hrs or overnight.
bake 375 for 20 min covered, then uncover sprinkle with remaining 1/4 c. cheese and bake 5-10 min. longer.

I actually mix all my ingredients together rather than layering, but end with some chips and cheese, we like it served with guacamole or topped with sour cream.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Topping
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t ground cinnamon
2 T. cold butter
1/2 c. chopped pecans
Cake
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c sour cream
1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1 t vanilla
2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t salt

In small bowl combine sugars and cinnamon, cut in butter till coarse crumbs remain, stir in pecans, set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter, and sugar, add eggs, one at a time, beating well, combine sour cream, pumpkin and vanilla, mix well. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture with sour cream mixture. Beat on low til blended. Spread into two greased and floured 8 in rd pans. Sprinkle w/topping. Bake 325 for 40-50 min or till done.

I used a 9x12 for this one and it worked out fine.

Herbs anyone??

I've added a link to the Bulk Herb Store which is a fantastic place to learn about herbs and purchase them.  This is run by Shoshana Pearl Easling who has a real knack for teaching.  This summer we purchased a number of items from the site, namely "Vinegar of the Four Thieves".   We used it over the summer at Deep Creek as in insect repellant.  One time in particular it spoke for itself was when Steve had gone to a Father/Son Campout which was in the middle of a farmfield.  He parked our van there and left the windows down as it was a hot summer day/night.  Flies were abundant as they are on all farms.  He noticed that when he came back to the car there were no flies in the vehicle at all.  He had left the bag of herbs in the car, closed and there were flies all around, but none inside.  So that was enough to convince him they were potent.

I've read recently that these herbs can be taken to hotels and put around the mattress to avoid coming in contact with bed bugs.  I don't know about you, but that's something I'm not thrilled about in the least! in fact when I read this article that night I kept waking from my sleep, dreaming I was being bitten by bedbugs, when I awoke I was convinced we must have them.  So putting this around my mattress at home is something I'm thinking of doing, haven't done it yet.  This isn't spoken of on the site, but came through another email list I belong to and I noticed some of the herbs in VOT4T were the same, so this is my own inference.  Don't trust me, do some research yourself.

So if you are interested click the link on my blog here and you can read and learn about the many things Shoshanna has to offer, sign up for her youtube alerts where she teaches how to mix and make your own tinctures.  You'll be glad you did!

Year End Remembrances in photos

Ruby and her friend Ava playing while the older kids take an art class.

Ellen, Rubyk, Emma, Emily, Max, & Stephen on a visit to the Civil War Museum in Harrisburg

Road trip

TOG Group outside the Johnstown Flood Museum

Dad to the rescue!!

Bobby & Stephen in their Penguin gear at Kara's wedding

Grace & Steve, this wedding stuff comes too early!

Angelo, Dom, Andrew Family Fun Night Wiffle Ball

Ellen and her Meritorious Award from AWANA

Buster

Ruby

Ashley, Ellen, & Bethany on the way to Worldview Academy Week

Laura at the summer Bible Study

Moms with thinking caps on planning for TOG Co-op

Nate & Tyler at Stephen's birthday party

Isaiah's 1st birthday party

Amy & Zeb

The Groom and his groomsmen

Marina, Anna, Emma, Angelina, Lydia, Eli at the wedding

Kara saying goodbye to Stephen

Ruby's Rambilngs

Dearest Ruby, what can one say she truly is a precious jewel.  She always has a smile on her face and can help you bring one to yours.  She is now 5 years old and loves to do schoolwork.  Her reading has improved a lot this year and she often asks her Dad if she can read the Bible with him.  She tries her best to sound out all the words without getting discouraged.  Her math skills are unbelievable to me, so glad at least a few children of mine like math, it always seems to be a battleground subject if you don't like it.

Ruby has had a year of firsts, she learned to ride a two wheeler, tie her shoes (she just did this the other night during devotions, we had been working on it from time to time, but suddenly it clicked), and she learned from the dentist a week ago that her bottom teeth are wiggly so now she's waiting to lose that first tooth.

Ruby with her usual group of buddies Mal, Ruby, Stephen, & Nate

The oldest and youngest all prepared for the big day

At the Creation Musuem

Doing school like the big kids/model of the earth's layers

Painting at Kara's house

As you can see Ruby does pretty much whatever everyone else is doing, age segregation is not in her vocabulary for the most part.  She is close buddies with cousin Nate next door, they are usually paired up
in the yard playing together, while Stephen & Mal are together.  He is like a second big brother to her, always looking after her and just being kind, it's very sweet to witness.

Stephen's Section

My attempt at a football cake! it's triangular!!

My attempt at a helmet cake

Stephen turned 8 in July just two days before we headed out for our trip to Tennessee.  This year I thought it was appropriate to have a boys birthday party (plus Ruby).  So we had a football theme and played games related to football!  This was quite different for me, as I'm used to doing pink princess parties! but I think it went well.

Stephen does so enjoy sports, both playing and watching.  Hockey seems to be a mainstay so rollerblading is an everyday occurence when the ground is dry, unfortunately in August this resulted in a broken arm.

This is smile is the result of realizing he wouldn't be able to write when school started!

Stephen is in 3rd grade and seems to enjoy school, his favorite subject is math.  His favorite book so far this year was ,"When We Were Very Young" by A.A. Milne which is a collection of poems about Winnie the Pooh.  He enjoyed our year end game of  "Jeopardy" which was filled with questions based on our history studies and science. It was a riot when we were studying the Jazz Period a few mos. back, Stephen listened to the samples of music we played and decided he really liked Louis Armstrong, so now when we hear him in the store or on the radio he gets this big smile on his face, it's very cute.

Here Miss Barb is teaching Stephen how to dive while on vacation in TN

Here beside Ruby as Ring Bearer in the wedding

This was taken after the Resurrection Day Service at Pleasantview Baptist Church in MD

Stephen and Ruby are very close, they still share a room, although it has been offered for Ruby to move across the hall with Emma, at this point she's staying put and he's not complaining, which is nice to see, I'm not sure that this will last too much longer.

Here's Stephen in his Charlie Chaplin getup for a film festival we had with Tapestry of Grace Co-op