Matthew goes out each day for some time to do some of his work in the garden and fields. Hannah looks out the window when she realizes daddy is gone and asks, “Daddy workin?”

Working another piece of our land.

This is our garden just weeks ago. You should see it now! It’s huge… we even have corn stalks that were planted a wee bit late that are taller than our chests! I’ll post some pictures very soon.

Here’s our snow peas. We can’t keep up with picking them each day. Bear in mind, this was a few weeks ago. They are much taller now and bearing plenty of peas. We pick about 4 lbs a day. We have heard that you just cannot freeze or can these because the quality goes way down. Well, I tried to freeze and then steam them with lunch yesterday and sure enough the quality went from a 10 to about a 2. So, we’re giving plenty away, the girls are eating them like crazy and we just keep a pickin’!

Up close – Aren’t they just beautiful? I will take some new pictures this week. They now have flowers and tons of snap peas hanging from them. They are just so pretty to me.

Oh, these were simply delicious! My husband stored up enough blueberries from our new blueberry plants this year that I could make us some homemade blueberry pancakes.

Don’t skimp – use real butter and real whipping cream.

Here are the egg whites being folded into the pancake batter.

Our blueberries

Here’s the pancake recipe I use from Mr. Breakfast:

(8 servings)

• 2 Eggs (separated)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 cup milk (plus some for consistency)
• 1 1/3 cup
  

  flour

• 1 tsp. vanilla (opt.)

Beat egg whites until stiff – set aside.

Beat egg yolks, add sugar and salt, beat in.

Add baking powder, beat until just mixed in well.

Add flour, milk, and oil. Beat until smooth(not too much otherwise the baking powder won’t react correctly) add vanilla.

Add egg whites to batter and FOLD gently. Let batter sit for 15-30 minutes prior to cooking.

Have a great breakfast!!!

My husband is such a good father. He really includes our daughters in a lot of things. Here they are cleaning green beans together to put in our freezer.

Everyone looks so happy!

I made some dresses for the girls out of fleece. It is mighty cold and windy here in the winter and these will keep them warm and toasty. So far they’ve worn them for dress during the day and for nighties at night when it’s dropped down to the 50’s in temperature. They are comfy!

Here’s Hannah

Elisabeth playing with her playdough

All Smiles!

Fun with Blocks

Here are some beautiful hydrangeas from our yard. They are special to me as they were our flower when Matthew and I got married. We had a small intimate wedding at our friend’s John and Karen’s. They have a beautiful home and Karen and some other ladies put everything together for us… the flowers from her garden, a cake from Rosa who has been cooking for probably over 50 years now (catering, owned a restaurant, culinary student in France). I wish I could remember the cake. I wish I could remember the flowers. I just remember being nervous and excited. My husband to be and I were to kiss for the first time in 2 1/2 years after being announced husband and wife. It felt strange. It felt like I was kissing my brother – though I don’t have a brother. About an hour later though we went outdoors and snuck a kiss and he didn’t feel like my brother anymore….

Silly – you top it with homemade blackberry preserves! We pick tons of blackberries each year down our driveway and make yummy things like this. Of course this cake isn’t 3 weeks old, I pulled out a couple of pieces from the freezer for me and Matthew to eat after the kids went down for a nap.

I found these comfy, cute pajamas at the Goodwill about a week ago. He was just so snuggly soft in them, I had to keep hugging and kissing him.
Matthew is 10 months old already. He’s moving around so much and so heavy for me right now as I am 33 weeks pregnant, that it’s hard to hold him much anymore. It makes me sad sometimes. : (

Earlier this month I bought a 22 quart, stainless steel stockpot at Walmart for big family cookin’. I know one day with just four hungry kids and probably more, we will get good use out of this pot. I plan on using it for making big batches of soups, stews, etc… and freezing a lot of it. I’ve already used it for split pea soup to pull out of the freezer sometimes after the baby is born.

We’ve been making homemade noodles for about 2 years now. We love them and just can’t go back to the store bought. Anyone can make them and the ingredients? Egg, flour and salt.

First, crack 2 eggs into a bowl.

Add 2/3 cup of flour and stir with a fork.

Add one more 2/3 cup of flour and stir really, really good. Add a couple dashes of salt now too.

Get your hands in there and mash it around. Squish it, mash it, whatever you need to do to get it into a firm, solid consistency.

Now we just bought a hand crank pasta maker last year. You really don’t need one of these to make wonderfully, delicious noodles. If you don’t have one, just roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is the thickness you desire for the noodles you are making. I always had Matthew roll these out. They take some serious man-power to roll them out well! Here, I rolled out a sheet as I wanted to see how it works for future lasagna.

Here’s my noodles for our chicken noodle soup.

And walla – here’s our deliciously fragrant chicken noodle soup. It was wonderful.

I found this fun toy at a garage sale last week for only $2. What a find! It has all sorts of activities they can play with on this including a magnetic board with letters, shapes and the appropriate holes to place the shapes in, zippers, buttons and more. Here they are all playing together. We have so much joy watching all of our children play together.