Time flies when you're having fun.

We have had some fun since my last post of more than 8 months ago! We've also had some difficult times. Here's what we've been up to:

January/February: Another year has passed since my cousin Melissa went missing. We continue to pray for closure. We celebrated 3 birthdays between the 2 months. There were field trips & tee-ball registration.

March/April: Addison's 3rd birthday was celebrated, along with my mom's birthday & my parent's anniversary. My brother & his family came to visit for a few days (yay!) and tee-ball practices started. Ian was in his first parade for Little League opening day. He did great!

May/June: Celebrated Ian's 6th birthday! and my mother-in-law's birthday as well. Enjoyed watching Ian play tee-ball & had my nephew off & on for a week. Ian graduated kindergarten & won the "best handwriting" award! We also had to put my Grandma in the hospital for a strep infection. She was there for a month & then placed in a nursing home up north. We have been looking for a place for her closer to us, but keep waiting for something to open up.

July/August: We have been making trips to see Gram. She is fairing well. Her dementia has kicked in full force. It's hard to see her not remember things. So far, she still recognizes people, but does have a hard time recalling names. We took her to a family reunion & she was able to see her sisters & 2 of her out of state daughters. Aunt Bobbi came home for the reunion & married her longtime boyfriend in a quiet ceremony on a small lake. It was beautiful! She continues to fight her cancer & has remained postive throughout. The kids were sick for 2 weeks straight with a virus. No symptoms other than a high fever that lasted 5 days each. I've been canning, as is par for the course this time of year. Keith had a staycation again & we were able to make it to the Erie Co Fair this year. Ian had a blast on the rides! Addison, not so much. They had to stop a ride & let her off because she was crying! We also had our annual ABF picnic at the lake. It was fun despite the rain. We're also getting ready for Ian to go back to school & for the MOPS year to start.

I'm sure I have forgot some things, but that's what's been happening around here!

Smoothies

Ian has a thing for smoothies lately. Can't say that I blame him, they're fantastic. Except I had no real way of making him one and I'm not willing to pay good money for one. Somewhere out there, I read that I could use my food processor to make them. Yeah, not a good idea. Nothing really pureed well enough and they were too thick to drink.

So, what to do now? Smoothies are so healthy & any way I can get more fruits & veggies in my family is great. I decided I was going to research blenders. There are way too many choices for blenders! I read reviews, compared features & thought I might lose my mind! So, I just gave up & decided to go get one.

My mom gave me $50 for Christmas, so I set that as my budget. Have you checked blender prices lately?!? For something that just makes food drinkable, they want an awful lot of money! Anyway, I found one at the local bed & bath store in my price range (-ish). AND, I had a coupon (which turned out to be expired & I pretended I didn't notice & they used it anyway!). So, I spent $51.83 on this beauty (IN BLACK), and we've used it just about everyday since we got it. It's fantastic.

Cuisinart® SmartPower™ 7-Speed Electric Blender

My next wishlist item is a good Belgian Waffle Maker. Any suggestions?

So, what have we been up to?

It's been almost 6 months since I last posted! Needless to say, we have been quite busy. Ian started Kindergarten in September and he's had a wonderful experience. I am so glad we chose a private Christian school. Driving back & forth to school has taken up most of our time, but has been well worth it. There have been field trips, parties, a Christmas program & a book fair so far. I love being able to help at school!

Addison & I have had some great Mother/Daughter time while Ian's at school. We really haven't had much time for that before. She is quite the little princess & loves to pretend!

I have also been busy with Northgate MOPS as I continue to help as the finance person on the steering team. The fellowship with other moms is awesome! It's a great time to just recharge & grow. We have also participated in some wonderful service projects this year, including making food baskets for our Teen MOPS moms.

Keith still works at the farm. Not much has changed in that respect. His boss seems to be gone quite a bit on business, so that keeps Keith on call and has been difficult on family time. I am thankful he continues to be a valued employee in this crazy economy. He did recieve a nice Christmas bonus this year, but alas, it is already gone as we try to push ourselves toward financial freedom.

We had a nice Thanksgiving & Christmas. My brother & his family came to visit in between. The kids had a riot playing together. I love how they interact now! I wish they didn't live so far away.

We've contiued to stay pretty healthy in our immediate family. Our extended family has had a rough health year, though. From cancer, to broken bones, to life threatening falls, and other ailments along the way, we continue to pray for improved health & safety for both sides of the family.

We have set some goals that we'd like to work on throughout 2011. The biggest one being for our finances. We really want to go credit card free. It's a major step & is awfully scary! But, I know it will free us considerably.

Another goal that I have, is to try a new recipe every week. My cooking passion has grown considerably & I'd like to step outside my comfort zone a little more to try things I normally wouldn't.

So, that's a little snapshot of what we've been up to. Hopefully, I can get back on the blogging train!

A blueberry story....

This is where I spent 2 hours this morning

picking 8 quarts of these
while my children played in the van because they didn't want to help.

Happy Birthday To My Firstborn!

Today is Ian's 5th birthday! I cannot believe how the time has flown! God made me move out of my comfort zone when He blessed us with a boy ~ what was I going to do with a boy?!? I've learned to look at bugs, dig in the dirt & spend time with the cows at the farm; not to mention that I can name most of the different kinds of tractors! It has been a joy to watch him grow & learn. I can't believe he'll be starting kindergarten this fall! Anyway! Here are some pics to look at:

May 4, 2005

May 2006

May 2007

May 2008

(for the record, he asked for pink frosting!)

May 2009

May 2010

Famous?

Ian is in today's local paper! Why, you ask? We went to a train show in Batavia yesterday with my in-laws and he was just too cute to resist photographing I guess! Anyway, here's the link & picture: http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/

Sweet Treat

A couple weeks ago I found a cookie mix at the batavia farm market. It wasn't just any old mix, it was labeled as "All Natural 8 Grain Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix". I like easy, healthy food, so I bought it. It has all sorts of good-for-you ingredients. Including, 8 types of flour and sunflower seeds. Ian and I whipped it up this morning and by golly; they were great! I highly recommend that you check out their website: www.allenshillfarm.com They even have an 8 grain brownie mix, which isn't bad either.

Cleanup

I'm so glad today was rain free! I've been looking at my poor, neglected garden. It needed to be cleaned up in the worst way! So after supper tonight, Ian and I went out to work on it. I pulled out dead plants and Ian picked the stakes out of the weedblock. [Of course, the stakes needed to be transported in his dump truck :)]. It felt so good to be outside working in some of the last nice weather of the season/year. Maybe when it's time to plant next year, we'll have a new house to garden at! That would be nice, but I'm ok if that's not the case. How did you enjoy the day?

Weekly Recap

I decided that because I'm so busy and hardly ever home that I would do a weekly recap. Here's what happened this week:

1. I made applesauce. 2 different types of apples. Canned 11 quarts and 7 of them separated. Chucked them down the drain. Don't know what happened, but not pleased that I only have 4 quarts left.

2. We went to the apple farm in the dreary rain. The highlight of Ian's trip was that he got to "go into the apple frigerator which was only 40 degrees!". We got to pick Red Delicious apples which you can't use for anything but eating the way the Good Lord made 'em. I thought maybe I could replenish my sauce reserves with the apples we picked, but apparently not.

3. We had preschool open house, which we weren't supposed to bring the kids to (even though no one said otherwise). It's kinda hard not to when my mom is out of town and my friend Julie, who's my backup, is at open house with her kids, too!

4. I attended calling hours & helped with the funeral dinner for a young man who died way too young. His mom (mentor) & ex-wife (mops mommy) are part of our MOPS group. He had a motorcycle accident last saturday.

5. Today, I found fresh brussell sprouts at the farm market! SO excited! They are my new favorite food and taste great when roasted.

6. My aunt moved to Tennessee yesterday. The doctor told her she needed surgery to remove the cancerous spot on her liver. They don't believe it has spread, but she'll need chemo in 3 months as well. Please keep her in your prayers.

7. We are meeting with the mortgage broker from our bank tomorrow. We looked at a house we really liked last weekend and want to put our house on the market. Anyone want to live in the Wildlife Refuge? We'll see what happens. If this is in God's plans for us, then He will put everything into place. If not, then we will just keep praying and looking.

So, I'll probably just end up with another weekly recap next time, unless I somehow end up with a little extra time to blog.

Blessings for now!