Christmas Notebook

book and binder storage

March 5, 2011 – 4:31 pm

I’ve tried several ways to store the books and binders I use for homeschooling our daughter. I had them on the counter…no good. They were in the way, it looked cluttered…I had to shuffle them to find what I needed. I set them on the floor, against the drawers next to my desk area. But I had to lean over to get them…they fell over and got in the way…they found their way under the desk. I stored them in a plastic box and kept them on the floor nearby. But it didn’t hold everything I needed and the binders that I stored in a file drawer didn’t stay upright.

So I ordered this slanted shelf book cart.

Well, I didn’t order exactly that one. I ordered one that would fit under the counter so I could stow it away when we weren’t having school. But they sent this one. Too tall for under the counter, but it works great otherwise. It holds everything I need, plus a few extra things. I keep the things we use each week on the top shelf and the things I need less often on the bottom. Look closely and you’ll even find a “Christmas Decorating” binder…you never know when you might need to refer to one of those!

Items and supplies we aren’t currently using are stored in cabinets and drawers at the end of the room near DD’s desk.

It rolls easily away, so I can put it aside when I don’t need it. It keeps everything at my finger tips without hogging counter space. I’m glad I “sorta” ordered it.

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in homeschool | Comments (0)

more time in the garden

March 3, 2011 – 10:39 pm

Wednesday, DH and I were able to get out into the garden for a bit. It was a little cool, but sunny.

The light purple crocus are up, but the day was too cool for them to open, so they were just peeking out.

The daffodils are leaping sunward.

These are ‘Von Sion’ daffodils. The bulbs came from DH’s family farm.

This particular patch of trumpet daffodils are usually the first to open in our yard. They look like they are ready to pop!

The achillea looks soft and tender here, but what a garden thug! We are still digging it out of the garden beds. It’s a great plant for places where it can spread at will…just not good for a garden bed where it overruns the neighbors.

The star magnolia almost looks like a pussy willow right now. The first few buds have burst their sepals, though, and soon they will open beautiful creamy white blossoms with a heavenly scent.

‘Jane,’ another magnolia, is a later blooming pink flowering shrub. It is usually late enough to miss the last frosts.

Here it is in April of last year.

We spent most of our time outdoors clearing flower bed debris. DH trimmed the butterfly bushes back to about 18″. They will grow back out to 8′ or so by the end of the growing season.

He also cleared a lot of the autumn aster stems. I think we took six wagon loads of these to the compost pile.

It was a beautiful day. Blue skies, sunshine and a greening garden. It won’t be long before the neighbor’s beautiful white oaks are leafed out, but for now, we enjoy their silhouette against the early spring sky.

I hope you are finding signs of spring to enjoy in your own yard or garden. And head over to Glenda’s at Tootsie Time and check the links to see what’s happening in other gardens.

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in spring | Comments (13)

menu plan monday ~ february 28, 2011

February 28, 2011 – 5:31 pm

We are thankful we came through the storms last night without mishap. We were up till after 1:00 a.m., though, keeping tabs on the weather. We were ready to dash to the basement if need be, but, needed not. We were grateful our oldest daughter was home with us, and not at her apartment where she doesn’t have a basement refuge. Our middle daughter and our son and his wife live an hour plus north of us and they were without power, but no damage to themselves or their homes. Thanking God today for His gracious care.

I know some families in Kentucky did not come through the night with their homes and possessions intact. We are grateful there were no deaths, though. Thanking God for that. When I look around my home, I see so many things that mean a great deal to me, but none of it is worth anyone’s life.

Today I’m grateful for my “things” but am holding them lightly. I am most thankful for the memories they evoke, the feeling of home they give me, the sense of history and family I feel when I’m here. But that’s all with me, whether the possessions are or not.

These fragile bits of pottery and glass are from DH’s grandmother and my grandmother. I would hate to be without them. But they are just trappings for the now. They are expendable.

I love to cook and bake and make dinner for my family. I’m thankful we have our home and our family so we can enjoy sitting down to a meal together. But we could eat sandwiches from a disaster aid truck and be grateful in the moment, if we were still together.

I’m hoping you are aware of your blessings, as we are aware of ours. Count them, appreciate them, and thank God for them.

Here’s our menu for the week.

Monday
Homemade Pizza with Sausage and Portobello Mushrooms
I use the linked recipe (minus the egg) and make the pizza on a cookie sheet.

Tuesday
Penne Pasta with Chicken and Mushrooms
Green Salad
Corn
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas
Homemade Rolls

Wednesday
Chicken and Dumplings Soup
I’ll add chopped celery and carrots to the simmering chicken.

Thursday
Pork Chops over Potatoes in the Crock Pot
Green Salad
Corn
Steamed Green Beans

Friday
Tacoritos made with Chicken
Tortilla Chips
Served with / Shredded Lettuce, Tomatoes, Shredded Cheese and Sour Cream

Saturday
Fridge Food

Sunday
Julie’s Fake Baked Ziti (with Italian Sausage added)
Garlic Bread
Green Salad

You’ll find more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Comments (2)

am i willing?

February 24, 2011 – 5:54 pm

To open our school day, we have a Bible reading schedule we follow, a devotion at least once a week, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism to memorize. Via email each week, our pastor’s wife sends a copy of the next Sunday’s worship bulletin to those who have asked to receive it. Sometimes I peruse the appointed hymns and choose one to use as a basis for the devotion we use for school.

This week, I chose the hymn “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” to use for tomorrow. While researching the hymn, I found this little statement, which I liked so much that I printed it and put it in a frame, after modifying it from “Thou givest,” etc. It was simply titled “I am Willing.”

The women at church are preparing to study “Respectable Sins” by Jerry Bridges and I’ve been reading that. Today, I also read an interview with John McArthur where he talks about being a slave for Christ. Between the hymn, the book, and the interview…a lot to think about. And the statement above seems to resonate with what I’ve been reading.

If you like the statement, here it is to copy for yourself.

I AM WILLING, MY GOD
To receive what You give,
To lack what You withhold,
To relinquish what You take,
To surrender what You claim,
To suffer what You ordain,
To do what You command,
To wait until You say “Go.”
~Unknown

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Bethel, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

spring is greening

February 22, 2011 – 4:14 pm

Sunday afternoon DH and I toured the yard, looking for bits and pieces of spring. Here is what we found.

Lots of daffodils coming up. The green spikes are so refreshing after months of brown and gray. And white.

Yes!

Lovely, green moss on the bricks in the veggie garden. Come hot summer weather, this will be gone. But for now, its cheerful bright green is a welcome spring color.

And more daffodils.

The maple trees are flowering.

The Southern Oak behind the house isn’t as far along. The oaks are slower to swell in the spring than the maples. Perhaps not as rash in their response to a few days of warm weather as the maples can be.

While we were out, DH did some bird watching for the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Happy followed us around for a little while, keeping an eye on DH, I suppose. She thinks he belongs to her.

The iris and the surprise lilies are popping up. These are along the east side of the fenced garden. The surprise lilies in the fenced garden came from my paternal grandmother’s house.

Here are the same ones…this picture was taken the first week of August in 2008.

And more daffodils.

An early spring? I hope so.

Best of all?? The cheery yellow crocus blossoms. All of a sudden, after looking for them for days, there they were.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in our garden, spring | Comments (4)

menu plan monday ~ february 21, 2011

February 21, 2011 – 6:09 pm

Can you believe we had temps of 70 yesterday? Here? In February? It was enough to coax a few crocus from the ground. So great to see!

Monday
Spaghetti and Homemade Sauce
Homemade Rolls
Green Salad
Peas / Corn

Tuesday
Hearty Lentil Soup
Cornbread

Wednesday
Chicken Wraps (We use tortillas instead of pita bread.)
Celery and Carrot Sticks
Red Grapes

Thursday
Shrimp and Edamame Stir Fry with Basil
Rice

Friday
Parmesan Chicken
Baby Baked Potatoes
Roasted Cauliflower
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas

Saturday
Fridge Food

Sunday
Pork Chops and Potatoes in the Crock Pot I am changing this recipe to add the diced potatoes and some of the other seasonings to the crock pot with the pork chops. I want it all done when it’s time for dinner, without the extra fuss of making mashed potatoes.
Green Salad
Green Beans
Crock Pot Apples
Homemade Bread

You’ll find more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Comments (0)

that potato and hamburger soup with the french onion dip in it that mom used to make

February 19, 2011 – 12:10 pm

I looked all over the internet and did not find a recipe for this soup that my mom made during my childhood. So I’m putting it out there. We loved it as kids. And it’s easy to make. It never really had a name. We just called it “that potato and hamburger soup with the French onion dip in it.”

Potato Hamburger Soup with French Onion Dip

2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
1 pound ground beef
1 small yellow onion, diced (this is how my Mom made it…I use 1 T. dry onion flakes due to an allergy DH has to fresh onion)
1 tsp. dry basil
1 tsp. dry parsley
2 chopped garlic cloves or 1/4 tsp. garlic powder (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp. celery seed
freshly ground pepper to taste (Personally, I like a lot of pepper in this soup.)
milk
1/4 c. flour / add enough milk to make one cup and whisk to remove all lumps
8 oz. French Onion Dip
salt to taste (Don’t add salt until you’ve tasted the finished soup, as the dip has a lot of salt in it.)

Boil the potatoes in water until soft. Drain. I pour the water off, just until I can’t pour more off without losing potatoes. I don’t drain all the water off. The water contains starch which helps thicken the soup.

Meanwhile, brown the ground beef and onion in a skillet. (Note: I doubled the recipe when I took these pictures…the soup was going to a church supper…filled a large crock pot when finished.)

After draining the potatoes, add the meat and onion to the pot.

Add enough milk to top the mixture by 1/2 – 1 inch.

Add the spices.

Add the flour/milk mixture and cook for ten minutes, stirring now and then, until soup has thickened. Add more milk if it’s too thick for your preference.

Turn off the heat.

Add the French onion dip to the soup and stir well. If you add it and then reheat the soup to a high temperature, the dip may curdle.

Taste and add salt if needed.

Except for the spices, which I just had to add, that’s the way I remember my mother making it. No embellishments.

Next time I make it, I will add freshly diced celery and carrots to the potatoes as they cook. And if I have fresh parsley, I’ll finely chop a small bunch of that and stir it into the finished soup.

I’m wondering how this would taste made with an envelope of Lipton onion soup mix and a container of sour cream instead of the French onion dip. Close enough to the original?

When I made the soup last night, it really brought back memories of the kitchen in our house on Oakland Avenue. Just smelling the aroma while the soup simmered took me back. I felt like I was in high school again. Yikes…

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in cooking | Comments (9)

are you spring?

February 19, 2011 – 12:48 am

We’ve enjoyed a few days of temps in the 60s. I hope you have, too. It’s been a wonderful change from the very cold winter weather we’ve had for so long. DH and I spent some time outside. We picked up branches in the yard…there were a lot down from the ice storm a few weeks ago.

This branch was split during the ice storm.

The tall grasses were spread this way and that by the weight of the ice. This miscanthus reminds me of waves on the beach, pushing back and forth, frothy and tumbling.

Wild garlic…it’s coming up here and there around the yard and along the paths and open spaces in the woods.

Also in the woods, tiny sprigs of green are showing among the leaf litter.

Ground Ivy (AKA Creeping Charlie) is greening, too. Anywhere and everywhere.

These trumpet daffodil buds will soon be higher than the leaf litter.

The Poet’s Daffodils won’t show buds for a while. They bloom later than the trumpets.

Soft green moss…looks like a miniature landscape of rolling hills.

Dogwood buds…waiting to open sometime during the end of March or the first week of April.

Lichen in blue and green.

The big oak in the back yard…it’s beautiful even without its leaves, though you can see a few broken branches on it, if you look closely.

I think spring is seeping northward.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in spring | Comments (0)

a breath of spring

February 17, 2011 – 12:00 pm

When we returned home from vacation on February 5, DH gathered some forsythia branches and a few redbud branches from the yard and brought them in. He placed them in a vase and we waited. Yesterday we noticed the forsythia has started to bloom.

It usually takes ten days for forced forsythia to bloom. We do it every spring and always enjoy the bouquet.

You can try it with any spring blooming shrub or tree. Some work better than others. We’ve never had good luck with redbud. Star Magnolia will bloom, but doesn’t have it’s wonderful scent. Lilacs will produce small green flowers, but they won’t progress into full-blown blossoms. At least ours never have. But the leaves are a beautiful lime green and the flowers are pretty enough, even if they aren’t lavender, white or purple. Pussy willow works great. Fruit trees work, too. Try it for yourself! It brightens the kitchen table and brings an early breath of springtime to these late weeks of winter.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in spring | Comments (1)

biga bread

February 16, 2011 – 11:34 pm

We have been making our own bread long enough that we would never think of going back to store-bought. If we do buy store-bought, it’s because we have a house full of company and that’s what they prefer. (Hard to believe, but there are some people out there who do not know what they’re missing!) DD wouldn’t make a sandwich one day because, while there was half a loaf of store-bought bread, there wasn’t any “real bread.” Her words.

Once in a while I try my hand at a different bread recipe and this week I tried biga bread. It makes a wonderful rustic Italian bread. Hearty and chewy. So good! I baked the dough as two free form round loaves on a baking sheet.

This is very easy to make. I hope you’ll give it a try. I found the recipe on Heart of the Matter where it was posted by Hannah. It is also on Hannah’s blog Cultivating Home.

The bread is made over the course of two days. The first 18-24 hours allows the biga (the starter) to develop. This gives the bread its chewy texture and wonderful flavor. It also helps the bread slice easily and store well.

Begin by combining, in a small bowl:

1/4 tsp. yeast
1 c. warm water
2 c. unbleached white flour

Cover and leave on the counter overnight. The next day, cut the biga into eight or ten pieces. This will make it easier to incorporate it into the dough.

I used a mixer to knead the dough, so I placed the biga into the mixer bowl and added:

1/2 tsp. yeast dissolved in…
2 c. warm water
1 T. salt
2 T. sugar (optional…I added this to mine…it wasn’t included in the recipe I worked from.)
I also added 1 tsp. finely chopped rosemary leaves, 1 tsp. crushed oregano, and 1/4 tsp. garlic powder…not in Hannah’s recipe.

Using the dough hook, mix that thoroughly, then add:

4-5 c. unbleached flour.

You can add some whole wheat as part of that, if you like. Mix to make a tacky but not sticky dough. Knead on a low speed for six or seven minutes.

I scraped the sides of the bowl down, sprayed the top of the dough with cooking spray, and covered it with a cloth. That’s my usual modus operandi for bread dough. Why put it into another bowl just to rise? Allow to sit until doubled in size. It may rise more slowly than bread made without biga. Mine was ready in about 80 minutes, though, if I hadn’t been in a time crunch for supper, I would have let it sit a while longer. BTW, if you bake a lot and don’t have a King Arthur Flour bowl scraper, you need to get one. I love mine!!

Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or a baking stone) by sprinkling it with corn meal. Form the bread into any shape you like. It makes two lovely round loaves. Sprinkle the top with poppy seeds, cornmeal, or anything else you like. Or leave plain. The bread can also be formed into loaves and baked in loaf pans. Spray the pans well with cooking spray and/or line them with parchment paper.

Slash the top of the loaves, if you like. I didn’t and it came out fine. Let the dough rise until doubled.

Preheat the oven at 475. Reduce the temperature to 400 just before the bread is placed in the oven. Bake until done. Ours was ready after 30 minutes, though the recipe I followed said it would be 40-45 minutes. We used an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature. Bread is done when the internal temperature reads 190 – 200.

Let the loaves rest for ten minutes before removing from loaf pans to cooling racks. Enjoy!

Today, I had a chicken sandwich made with this bread, a little light mayo and some Havarti cheese. It was delicious. The chicken was leftover from the Baked Chicken Parmesan we had Monday evening for supper. Heated the whole thing. It made a great sandwich! May be lunch again tomorrow! 🙂

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in cooking | Comments (0)

Christmas Notebook

book and binder storage

more time in the garden

menu plan monday ~ february 28, 2011

am i willing?

spring is greening

menu plan monday ~ february 21, 2011

that potato and hamburger soup with the french onion dip in it that mom used to make

are you spring?

a breath of spring

biga bread

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