He Has Risen!

Have a wonderful day!

April Irises

This morning, I was out walking around, yep,
in my pajamas, and my house-shoes only I got
them soaking wet, so glad I don't have close
neighbors. :) I just love all of my blooming Irises
they multiplied like crazy last year and I separated
them so it has surprised me how much they have
multiplied thorough the fall and winter.

We are having all of our family here for dinner
on Easter Sunday. The babies and their older brothers
will get to hunt Easter eggs. Being three this year,
I imagine they will understand better than last year.

One of the very nice things about our grandchildren
at this age is they won't know it yet but they have
aunts and uncles that aren't that much older than
they are and aunts and uncles are lots more fun than
Moms and Dads and Gama' and Pa.

I am going to post some steps I have been thinking about
just because I think I complain too much just as a reminder
to myself. I found them in the book I posted about yesterday
Stepping Heavenward. Since the book was first published in
1869 they must have been well known at some point.

"If we wished to gain contentment, we might try such rules
as these:"
"1. Allow thyself to complain of nothing, not even the weather.
2. Never Picture thyself to thyself under any circumstances
in which thou art not.
3. Never compare thine own lot with that of another.
4. Never allow thyself to dwell on the wish that this
or that had been, or were otherwise than it was.
God Almighty loves thee better and more wisely than thou
dost thyself.
5. Never dwell on the morrow. Remember that it is God's
not thine. The heaviest part of sorrow is to look forward to it.
'The Lord will provide.'

"Be content with such things as ye have." (Heb. 13:5)

" I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
(Philippians 4:11)

All of these things I wish I did, I complain of the weather, I wish I was skinny
I worry about the future all of those things. So for today, I won't complain
about any of them, and I am going to hula-hoe the weeds some more,
so I won't have to think about not being skinny.:)
Have a wonderful Saturday.

Fiber Friday

Odds and Ends


One of the things I love about Friday's is its the
day I stop working, well okay, I don't work as much,
but I get to fool with sewing projects. I got these patterns
from a wonderful little site called http://primitivebettys.blogspot.com
She has the cutest little cross stitch patterns and today,
I am going to turn these into those little needle keepers.

Here is another one I made this week.

I know they are for the fall, but I have always
thought I was to dumb too do cross stitch. I never
could finish a project or make it turn out.
Then as I watched my daughter-in-love try to knit
the other day I saw it wasn't that I was dumb, but
when you go to pick up a needle the baby sees it
as a signal to climb up in moms lap. So lets see,
my youngest is 14 so I can finally do counted cross
stitch. My oldest is almost 29 so there is a bunch of years
that I just couldn't sew because of a baby.

I also wanted to talk about one of my all time
favorite books. It is called Stepping Heavenward
by Elisabeth Prentiss.

I ran across a lovely site today called
http://www.myletterstoemily.blogspot.com/
She reminded me of Stepping Heavenward,
This is a book of letters and I just love books
with letters as the subject. I have learned so much
about being a Mother from this book.
I read it every spring so it must be about time to
read it again, because I have been thinking about
it so much.
Oh I almost forgot, I wanted to post a picture of my
first rug hooking project.

I do love rug hooking too. I think though, since
it is April I will be doing more gardening in my
field of dreams. It calls to me and keeps my attention
for now.
I hope you have a lovely Friday.

Thankful Thursday

I need to get a photo shop account so I can doctor
up my pictures, sorry this doesn't look yummy.
But it is, I would say, family level of excitement for
this dish is at a all time high. They even like eating
it for breakfast.
So one of the things I am thankful for today is that
my girls cook and they teach me so much.

This is my daughter-in-loves recipe. I must admit
it started out her recipe and I can never leave anything
alone so it has become this.

Olive Garden has a dish on their menu called Chicken
Scampi. My family loves this dish and I have used copy
cat recipes and I have tried and tried to copy it. I never could
come up with the right balance.
Not to mention it takes hours to prepare.

I took the recipe Meg gave me and now it is Chicken
Scampi that my family likes better than the one at Olive
Garden.

Chicken Scampi

2 chicken breasts cut up in small bite sized pieces.
One whole bell pepper
one half of a onion, brown is what I use, chopped.
garlic cloves. I use powder if I am pressed for time.

I also start my water boiling for the pasta, again,
I use what ever I have that has at least 4 cups of
dry pasta. I have used fettuccine noodles and it
works too. I prefer bow-ties. (just so you can eat it
faster.)
I also cook my broccoli with my pasta and I use
about two cups of that.

So while the pasta is cooking, I brown my chicken
in Pam, olive oil works best but since I will forever
be on Weight Watchers, I just use Pam, and a little
water. ( This dish for a cup is 7 points.) Just thought
you would like to know.

Oh, Meg said to really salt the water with the pasta
and broccoli which is very nice to do it adds flavor.
I use kosher salt because I love the taste of kosher
salt very much.

Just as all of the pink is gone from the chicken, add the
vegetables and saute until softened but not mushy.
remove from heat and drain pasta.

I love this part, pour everything else back into the
pasta pot, pasta, broccoli and then add chicken and
vegetables.
To this add, and I use two jars of whatever Alfredo
sauce was on sale at the store. Add one cup of mozzarella
cheese, ( I use two handfuls) then stir it all up, it smells
wonderful.
I have to use my largest casserole dish because I make so
much for my family, which I think would feed 20 normal
people. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake uncovered
in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
Now if you serve bread sticks and a green salad, you can
pretend you are at Olive Garden having dinner. As the kids
said last night it was better at home because it isn't noisy, and you
don't have to listen to Italian opera music.

I am thankful for being this age and having been given the gift
friends and family.
I wish you a very happy Thursday indeed.