"Work with might for a cause that's right"...

Brielle is our resident artist. She is always drawing or crafting in some way or another. I have snatched up a few of my favorites of the pictures she has drawn over the last few months. The other day I thought I had lost one of them and was so sad. After finding it, I determined I needed to blog the pictures so I would always have them. Noah and the ark, featuring Noah and his wife as well as a lion, giraffe, zebra, elephant and a mouse.Blue (I think it looks a little more like "polka dot") and Joe from "Blues Clues". Joe always wears squares on his shirt. Our family in the temple. From left to right: Nathan, Dad, Brielle and Mom (with baby #3 in her tummy)

Another picture of what our family WILL look like in a couple of weeks. Baby Brother, Brielle, Nathan, Mom, and Dad.

And my personal favorite: Here is the background. In one of the recent Friend magazines it had the words to the primary song about being a Pioneer..."You don't have to push a hand cart, leave you family dear, or walk a thousand miles or more to be a pioneer. You DO have to have great courage, faith to conquer fear..." with pictures illustrating each line of the song. Then it had a large box with the final phrase of the song under it "and work with might for a cause that's right to be a pioneer." The children were to draw their own picture depicting that phrase. Brielle and I talked a minute about how she could "work with might for a cause that is right", discussing being kind, sharing, not fighting etc., then I left her to choose what to draw and draw it. She chose something completely different: It is a picture of me, lying on a bed, with a baby coming out of my tummy and the nurse is standing by to help.

I know, it looks like I put her up to it. I didn't.

From the mouth of babes.

It was a good reminder to me of the great cause that I am working for every day. And here is the artist herself...standing next to the tower she built to get a dress down to wear. She has quite a bit of Aunt Michelle in her. As soon as we get home from somewhere, she is in a dress. I need to teach her the correct term, "dancing pretties." And she has started to show a lot of interest in dancing. Girls are so fun.

Our kitchen

This week a ton is happening out at the house! Here is the outside...we just need the rock.

It has been fun to watch things come together. Last night we were surprised to walk in and find half of our kitchen cabinetry done. They weren't supposed to start until today. It was a very happy surprise. My new kitchen makes me happy. :)

It makes the kids happy too! It was fun to see them get excited about everything. Brielle got excited about every drawer, door, light, space for the sink etc.

I think Nathan was more excited about his caterpillar friends he finds everytime we go out there, (He is going to like living in the "country.") but he had fun exploring the house too.

Here is a quick tour of our totally unfinished kitchen...I just was too excited not to share.

From left to right: The arched entrance to our back hallway/entrance from the garage (with laundry room, mud room, powder room and desk for Kristen), range wall, and doorway to our walk-through pantry.

Walk-through pantry entrance on right, then our refrigerator wall (we pulled the the cabinet above the fridge out several inches and added tray dividers for cookie sheets, 9x13 pans, pie pans, cutting boards etc...we changed that last minute due to a recommendation from a friend. Isn't that a great use of space that never gets used?!?), corner pantry, and dishwasher/microwave wall.

Dishwasher/microwave wall on left, sink, then corner breakfast bar and counter space. It looks into the gathering room and the dining (I should have taken a picture of that...I guess I will just have to do another tour when it is all completed :) ).

View from gathering room into the kitchen.

Our bathroom floors...which I love.

Brielle estimated 2 more days until we move in...I wish. But we are down to 3 weeks! And hooray for low interest rates. We locked in at a great rate yesterday. Yesterday was a "happy house day."

Nathan

Here are a couple of recent Nathan shots... Man, I'm tired of this car!

His butterfly! Whenever Nathan colors we get a beautiful page full of scribbles. And that is it. The other day Nathan and Jared were outside BBQing and Nathan announced he was going to draw a butterfly. Jared looked over a minute later and saw...a butterfly! How cool is that. I love watching my children learn and grow.
Then the other day he came in and asked to do preschool. He grabbed a bunch of index cards and a marker. So we did preschool and I taught him a new letter. Then I asked him to write that letter on the card and he did. Then he churned out a whole bunch of other letters. Who knew he could do that?

Autumn Activity

Yes. Autumn is here. It was here before September was! I wasn't ready for it then, but yesterday morning I finally embraced that summer is over and was craving some type of Fall food. We didn't have any pumpkin in the house, so we decided to make...

Crispy and Creamy Doughnuts!

The kids and I had a blast making them.
Cutting them out

Frying them (I know, something made from pumpkin would have been healthier, but still...)

Letting them drain and cool

Glazing them Eating them! Yum.

Lion House Tomato Bisque

Here is the recipe for the Tomato Bisque we made last Friday. It isn't a "canning recipe", but we just love it so much that we decided to try freezing it a few years ago. Even though it has cream/milk in it, it worked great. No curdling or anything. So we have continued doing it. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have:

12 to 15 roma tomatoes
4 cans tomato soup
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup beef stock or consomme
1 bunch fresh basil or 2T dried
1 cup sugar
2-3 cups cream (can substitute milk--we usually do 1 cup cream and 2 cups milk)
salt and pepper

We start the process by blanching the tomatoes and removing the skins because we don't like having small bits of skin in the soup. But that isn't part of the original recipe.

Cut tomatoes in half and roast in oven at 350 until the tops begin to blacken. (We often broil them after a while to speed up the blackening process) Combine soups and stocks in a large pot. In blender or food processor, blend tomatoes and basil puree (cover blender with a towel). Add to soup and simmer. Add sugar and cream and heat back up being careful to not overheat so that the cream doesn't curdle. Season and serve. Makes 10 servings.

Ready or Not...

All ready for the first day of school
Can't you just feel her excitement?!?
Brielle started school this week! In some school districts here in Wisconsin, they start public school at 4 years old. They have 4K 4 days a week for 3 hours each day. Sounds a bit like kindergarten to me. When I first heard about it my heart sank. I didn't want to send my daughter to school a year earlier. When Brielle first heard about it, her heart leaped for joy and has ever since. She couldn't wait to start school! For the most part, I have come to accept the fact that she is starting school and it has been so fun to watch her look forward to, prepare for, and go to school.

• It was cute to watch her faithfully mark off the 2 countdown charts she created (one for the number of days left until school started and one for the number of nights left). Jared and I were grateful she was able to answer her own question of how many days were left that she undoubtedly asked numerous times daily.
• It was fun to take her "school shopping" and let her try on clothes in a fitting room for the very first time (I have such good memories of doing that with my Mom and sisters through the years).
• It was endearing to watch her pack her backpack over and over with things she might need at school and things she wanted to give to or show her teacher.
• It was exciting to see her excitement at going to see her classroom and meet her teacher at back to school night.
• It was wonderful to hear all about her first 2 days and the exciting things she did.

Ready or not, my little girl is growing up. Man, I love her!

Are We Missing Out?

By the end of the week I am usually longing for a break, to do something fun and relaxing. So often that is what we do on Friday nights...go out to dinner, watch a movie while eating a yummy snack etc. This week we decided to do something different. My good friend Whitney is a wonderful gardener and she brought over a bucket full of tomatoes on Wednesday fresh from her garden. Can we say heaven?!? So for Friday night date night we made 5 batches of Lion House Tomato Bisque, aka "The Nectar of the Gods" to freeze for the winter. All 4 of us put our aprons on and went to work. It was a blast. Ironically, after 5 hours of good hard work I feel more rejuvenated than I usually do after spending a bunch of money for a "break." It feels so good to work together for something worthwhile. It is so rewarding to see the fruits of your labors and to feel self-sufficient (Well, at least kind-of. Whitney did the hard part. Thanks Whitney!).

Brielle and I are reading "Little House in the Big Woods" together and I love learning about how they were able to live in those conditions. They provided nearly everything themselves through good, hard work. In our day we are surrounded by conveniences that make our life "easy." Sometimes I wonder, "are the people of our day missing out?"

• Are we missing out on the family bonding that occurs when everyone works together for the good of all?
• Are we missing out on the physical and mental health benefits that come from good, hard, physical labor?
• Are we missing out on the satisfaction and education that comes from physically providing for oneself and one's family?

I know there are other ways to get those benefits and I am surrounded by many wonderful examples of people who do those things and provide very well for their families (temporally and educationally). But sometimes I wish I could step back in time and just dig in and work hard to survive.

We look forward to having room for a good garden again next year and to several date nights filled with canning. :)