The Joys Of Family and Hearth

By Robert Herrick Lord, Thou hast given me a cell          Wherein to dwell, A little house, whose humble roof          Is weather-proof: Under the spars of which I lie          Both soft, and dry; Where Thou my chamber for to ward          Hast set a guard Of harmless thoughts, to watch and keep          Me, while I sleep. Low is my porch, as is my fate,          Both void of state; And yet the threshold of my door          Is worn by th' poor, Who thither come and freely get     ...

I haven't really given a full family update in a while.  But I wanted to give you all an idea as to what is going on in our lives. Big Daddy is currently living in Pennsylvania, While I hold down the fort at home.  Our plan is to eventually transition our home to Pennsylvania. I'm basically living the single mom life here. Sometimes it's utterly exhausting. The past few weeks have been exceptionally exhausting. As most of you know this is my kids first year in public school, One of my munchkins came home with a cold and it basically spread through out the whole house rather quickly. We had a week of 4 kiddos running fevers, coughing, vomiting etc. My youngest was hit the hardest and got pneumonia. He spent a full week in the hospital. And he is now home but we are still undergoing breathing treatments every 4 hours. It's taken me two days to attempt to get my house in order, and I'm still not done but now I'm down with some sickness. I'm rea...

                                                                     Good Apple Pies  are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.  Jane Austen So anyone that knows me, know that I love to bake. One of my sons friends went apple picking over the weekend. He dropped off a huge bag of apples and requested an apple pie. I've had a very busy week of work. But they cancelled me for tomorrow so I decided to bang out a few apple pies.  I followed a very simple recipe. it's a beautifully cool evening here, and my house smells of fresh apples, warm cinnamon and total deliciousness. 

Cast of Characters: 2 Medium Butternut Squash- peeled and cut in chuncks 1 medium onion- Diced 5 Tart apples- cored and cut up quart vegetable stock  In a large heavy duty pot, I use my  pour some olive oil and throw in the diced onions. Stick it in the oven at 350*  Bake for 20 mins. until onion soften.  Toss in squash and apples and veggie stock Bake for another 40 mins, until everything is soft.  WARNING: Your house will smell amazing at this point and will start to rouse people from their usual hangouts!  Once everything is soft.. remove from oven. pull out the trusty ol stick immersion blender and have at it.  You may want to add some heavy cream and cinnamon!  Oh MY MY MY is it delicious!!!  Enjoy! 

Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul!  Our life has literally been a whirlwind of change for the past few years. What a challenge that has been for me, as I loved my previous life.  Yes, I call it my previous life..because it was a totally different life.  I was a stay at home, homeschooling mama, who took great care of her husband and children. I loved my life of cooking and cleaning and caring for my people.   When my husband lost his great job 4 years ago it slowly rocked our world. And as much as we tried to hang in there and resist change.. We had to accept it and move forward.  So this mama has had to put two of her precious babies into school full time. You will never know the despair my heart felt. It was something I never thought I'd see myself be doing.  This mama has had to go to work full time. Again, not something I pictured myself doing.  This mama has a beautiful...

I was locked out of my blogger for almost a year! But after hours upon HOURS of research. I was able to fix it!!! yay!!!