New Fabric

I know I am supposed to be packing....  I have been.  Nothing but packing.  I am running out of things to pack!

I went to the fabric store yesterday and was looking for a certian fabric, that I did not find.  But I found these 3 instead.  I am putting them all together on one Lollibag!  I have the image in my mind, now I just need to do it.  I want to come up with a new pattern, but now of all times, I just don't have the time.  But I really, really want to, so I may just go ahead and do it. 

Which one do you think will be the interior?  The flower?  The bag?  The handles?
I better get working!

Food Friday~Super Fudge (it's healthy)

When I was in 4th and 5th grade my family lived in Arizona.  During that time my mom had gone to a health food class.  And our lives were instantly transformed, I mean that in a funny way....

We went from eating Doritos to wheat germ, from drinking pop to raw milk.

Now that I am older and know the benefits of that I really appreciate all my mom did.  But I don't think we stuck with it very long.  Probably to many complaints from the family, just like I hear.

And now you can't even get raw milk anywhere, it's illegal!!  Which is ridiculous.

This recipe is from my mom's health food days.  I have such fond memories of it, I'm not sure why, I do love it though.  The original recipe calls for peanut butter, but since Sophie is allergic to peanuts I used almond butter.  But it's better with peanut butter.

Super Fudge

1 C honey

1 C chunky peanut butter

1 C sunflower seeds

1/2 C raisins

3/4 C carob powder ( I used organic cocoa powder)

1 C sesame seeds (I used less)

1 C unsweetened coconut

Heat honey and peanut butter till smooth on low heat.

Quickly add rest of ingredients, which have already been mixed together. 

Pour into greased 9x9 pan and chill.

Cut in pieces.

I adore this recipe, for many years I didn't have it and I searched my recipe files for it but could not find it.  Then I wrote a letter to my grandma and asked her if she remembered this fudge and she had the recipe!!

Please pray for me, I am super duper stressed.  I am grateful our farm is sold, but the stress is giving me migraine after migraine and I cannot function with them.  We have to be out of the farm in 3 weeks and there is oh so much to do!  And to top it off I have sick children.  Portia was sick last weekend and Sophie this weekend.  Sophie even got a trip to the ER.  I'm not sure she really needed it but the nurse on the phone sounded very sure of herself when she told me to rush her to the ER even call an ambulance if I have to.  Which scared me.............  I am grateful that she cared, but now I have the ER bill.  Oh well we would do anything for our children, wouldn't we?  Yes.

She has a double ear infection, fever, maybe starting migraines, sore throat, and lets top it off with barfing, YES!!!

Well we must be thankful in the good times as well as the bad.

So thank you Jesus for all these things and for all you are doing behind the scenes that I cannot see.  I am grateful I cannot see it all, because I may just go off the deep end if I did.

Amen.

and amen.

A Lollibag Giveaway!

Bella Vita is having a giveaway!

Go here to win lots of goodies, including this LOLLIBAG!

Share the love with your friends too!

I would love to see one of my followers win.

hey guys, I'm really having issues, I cannot comment on other blogs!!  And if I try it says I am anonymous and keeps making me sign in, but never publishes my comment, do you know how to fix this?

The Move~part 3

If you missed it, here's The Move part 1 and The Move part 2...........Ok so part 2 wasn't really about "the story", but I called it part 2 anyway.

Well the closing has already moved from May 31 to June 1.  Not bad, only one day, but I don't like that.  I don't like it one bit.  This is such a huge ordeal for us that I want each and every detail to stay neat and tidy in the appropriate boxed section it was meant to be in!!

PLEASE no more changes, PLEASE!  But, alas, I know there will be more changes to come, little bits of testing.  Shall I call them "opportunities to grow"?  Or how about "character building"?  Or should I just stick with my "lessons"?
And why do lessons have to be so darn painful?  I am getting off track, lets continue..........

Almost a year ago, I wrote this.  Now some of that angst, I knew, I knew, I knew was God.  So that gave me a sense of peace.  I don't know how I knew it, but I did, in the pit of my being, I knew my changing relationships were God doing something, something BIG.

So on the one hand I was crying weeping over changing friendships and leaving my church,  but on the other hand in my spirit I was excited, thinking ok, God would not be doing this, unless big changes were coming!

OH     little did I know.

So not even a month after I wrote the above linked post, I wrote this.  More on that, in The Move part 4.

New Lollibag's

Here is a new bag I made, I'm calling it a market tote because it would be perfect for that.

It is made from vintage linens.  The lining comes out over the top of the bag and the straps are made of jute.  This bag is huge!

This lollibag, I made for the lady who is buying our house.  This is her "color".  I thought it would be fun to suprise her when she comes up in June for a final walk through.  The hot pink flower is linen and the bag is made from the gray suiting fabric I used last fall.



I made another one just like it, and I was going to list it on etsy, but when I was cutting through the button hole, I accidentally sliced all the way through, even though I had a pin over the top... ugh!  I have no idea how it happened!!!  I put the buttonhole over the first layer of pink flower so I had to repair the flower and the top of the bag. It did not slice through the whole petal just past the top of the buttonhole.   I just thought it was tacky to sell.  It is all repaired but still I hate to send out a Lollibag that had a mistake like that.

What do you think? 

Food Friday~Chicken Spaghetti

hi, so sorry, this is late today, Portia stayed home from school with a fever, then I started cleaning and packing and well you know........

This is Pioneer Woman's recipe and it is really really yummy comfort food.  As always I switched it up a bit and I'll let you know when I changed  things.

Chicken Spaghetti

1 cut-up fryer chicken (I used 2 chicken breasts)
1 pound thin spaghetti, broken into 2 inch pieces
One 4 oz. jar diced pimientos, drained (eewww, left out)
1 small onion
1/4 C finely diced green bell pepper (I only had red, so used that)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (eeewww again, I used cr. of chicken)
2 1/2 C grated cheddar cheese
1 t seasoned salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/8 to 1/4 t cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350.
Add the chicken to a stock pot.  Cover with water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 25 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the water using tongs or a slotted spoon and set it aside on a plate to cool.
Remove 2 cups of broth from the pot and set aside.
Bring the remaining broth back to a boil and add the spaghetti.  Cook al dente. (ok, I tried this but for some reason the remaining broth bubbled over before I even put the spaghetti in, and then it wasn't enough, so I had to keep adding more water cuz 1 pound of broken up spaghetti is alot.)
Drain the spaghetti, discarding the cooking liquid.  Set aside.
Shred chicken or cut in chunks.  Drain the pimientos.
Dice the onion and pepper.
Place cooked spaghetti in a large bowl.  Add the cream soups, add 2 cups of the cheese.
Then add onion and pepper and pimiento.
Add the salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.  Use less cayenne if you don't like the heat.
Add chicken broth that was saved.  Stir together well, then taste to check seasonings.
Pour the mixture into a large baking pan, and top with the remaining cheddar.  Bake for about 35 minutes until bubbly.

So if you like this you should just go buy her cookbook, cuz I have loved everything I've made so far!

The Move part 2 Goodbye part 1

You can't move without saying goodbye can you?  The sun is out today and as I walked out back to see just how warm it was the realization hit me...............I have to say goodbye to all this.  And while we want to move and believe we are in God's will by moving... it does not make it easy.
And I am starting to count "my last's".

This is THE LAST time my hubby and son's will put out the irrigation.  Yes, yes, yes, we have had our fair share of arguments over farm work and how it's done, actually SEVERE arguments over this issue, but it is still a bittersweet last.

Goodbye small pasture, you are bumpy and full of ruts from the cows, but we faithfully irrigated you to keep you green and growing.

Goodbye beautiful view of the "hills".  I will miss you most.  In the soon to be 9 years we have lived in Oregon, I have never tired of these hills, it has never grown old or just....oh ya there are the hills again.  Nope I have thanked the Lord thousands of times for how beautiful they are.

Goodbye magnolia trees, I have enjoyed the huge saucer blossoms every year.  Although my children have not enjoyed picking up your leaves day after day.  I don't care, I love you!

Goodbye passion flower vine.  You faithfully came back every year from new shoots that started.  I finally had to make  up a huge trellis for you out of an old bedspring and an old barn gate.  I sure hope the new owners keep my set up!

Goodbye bush, I don't know what you are called but I love you too, you are my favorite, especially when your branches bloom with tiny yellow flowers!



Goodbye river rock path, that I painstakingly put in one rock at a time, while I was 8 months pregnant with Sophie!!  You are my favorite too.  That is why I planted you with steppables, my favorite plant!

Goodbye river rock.  We brought you up load after heavy load from the McKenzie river.  I wanted to do so much more with you, like build a river rock wall out front.......sigh, that is not to be.

Bittersweet from websters says:  2. both pleasant and painful or regretful: a bittersweet memory  5. pleasure mingled with pain.

I'd say that sums it up perfectly.

FOUND!

I follow the blog Dreamy Whites, I found it one day after I had decided to go with all white in our new home.  Today I found these fabulous pillows through a link on her blog.  I love them!

So in my new house I am painting almost all the inside, Cotton Balls by Benjamin Moore, 'cept Benjamin Moore is to expensive so the painter is color matching and I hope, I really do, that the color match is MATCHED.  Because I am IN LOVE with Cotton Balls!!  I don't know why, but I am.  Why you ask am I hiring a painter when I can paint myself?  Because our new house has 12 ft ceilings and I am afriad of heights, that's why.  AND, my husband is tired of seeing paint all over our baseboards.

I have also found that eggs, fresh from a neighbors chicken, are fabulous!  There is absolutely no comparison!!!  Look, there is even a blue egg!  And there was a white feather on one egg!  The yolks are a bright, bright orangy yellow. 

And this egg had a double yolk!  I screamed when I saw it, for some reason I was super excited, it made my day.  See it doesn't take much to make me happy!  My hubby isn't so sure though.....

Look what I found on my driveway!  A 3 year olds impression in chalk of a cow.  LOVE it.

                                                                             Said artist.

Then I turned around and found her dancing, oh if only we could all be so carefree and tra la la-ish as a 3 year old little girl.  They are dreamy and sing songy and full of wonder.

And I get all sing songy and happy just watching her play outside in the sunshine!

What have you found lately?

The Move~ part 1

I have waited so long to be able to say these words, and those of you with a house for sale KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING!!!  I have several blogger friends that are selling, have just sold or have moved into the new house and are still waiting to sell the old.  It is a gut wrenching, hand wringing, trust testing, emotional experience, no?

Well, here goes......we are closing on our farm on May 31, and I would really like to be able to tell this story in that time.  But it cannot be in one post, there are to many miracles to share.  And when I say miracles I'm not talking parting the Red Sea kind, it's the little occurences, that you almost have to do a double take to make sure you read/heard/thought right. 

Now, mind you, there are HUGE things occuring here, but it's the little things that are the biggest sometimes.  I am going to link up to old posts now and again, because God has seemingly woven this tale together over quite some time and I hope I don't lose you as I am trying to tell it.  It is all there in my mind, but sometimes I don't convey my thoughts exactly right.  I have to remember that you have no idea what has been happening.  I've wanted to shout it from my farmhouse rooftop, and at times whine and complain about all this waiting and trusting. OH wait I did whine and complain didn't I?

I have experienced Mt. Everest highs and Death Valley lows in the last few years, I say few because honestly I don't even remember when this all started, but the further into it I get, the more I realize, God started this process long before I had any notion of it at all!

Remember this post?  This is a precious gift from God.  It may be neither here nor there as to what is happening now, but I did always wonder why God sent us to Oregon.  I don't know if this is only part of the reason or the whole reason, but it meant the world to me to discover this.

And that is where I'll begin........

pending

I know so many questions, right?  I promise I'll have a LENGTHY story in the weeks to come.  Until we are closed I can only show you this happy picture!  The things God has done over the last 6 months are truly miracles.

VitaMix Giveaway!!

Holy Cow, what a great giveaway!  Go here  to enter.

waiting

Isaiah 30:18

 ¹⁸ Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
   therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
   Blessed are all who wait for him!

Psalm 27:14

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Romans 8:23-25

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.  But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Psalm 40:1

I waited patiently for the Lord, he turned to me and heard my cry.


Are you waiting for something?  I am.  I think it is safe to say we are all waiting  for something.  I decided to see what God says about waiting.   I guess I am supposed to be doing it patiently.  I would also assume that means, no complaining or being negative while I wait.  So I'm thinking I will have to keep learning this waiting lesson.

Help me to wait on you Lord, and to trust you.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day mom, I sure do miss you!

The baby in her arms is me and the toddler is my sister.

Hope I turn out as beautiful as you mom.

Love, Prudy

Food Friday~Salmon Burger

  Do you think this looks good?  I do!  I LOVE SALMON!
So I have not actually tried this recipe I am sharing today.  I just got my new issue of Coastal Living magazine and a recipe for salmon burgers was in it.  I just thought it looked so yummy, but this is not the actual photo of Coastal Livings salmon burger either.

Salmon Burger

1- 14.75 oz. can salmon, drained
1/4 C sliced green onion
1/4 C diced pimientos, drained    ummm, yuck, won't be using those
1/2 t lime zest
2 T fresh lime juice
2 t dijon mustard
1/2 C plain greek-style yogurt
1/2 C panko (japanese breadcrumbs)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 T vegetable oil,  I'll use coconut oil
4 whole wheat or poppy seed buns
garnishes: lettuce, tomato slices, onion slices, cucumber slices

Combine first 11 ingredients in a bowl, and form mixture into 4 large patties about 1/2 in. thick.  Patties will be soft.
Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add patties, and cook 5 minutes on each side.  Serve on buns; garnish, if desired.  Makes 4 servings.

So either you guys never try my recipes or you don't like them or you never come back and give me feedback.  COME ON GIRLS!!!  Let me know how you like it!

Mother's Day gifts?

Every year around Mother's Day I start thinking...............if I had a mom I would buy her this or make her that, I would purchase this card and take her to lunch, I would tell her these things.......

Do you love these vintage glass turquoise beads?  I am going to put them on a charm bracelet.  If mom were here, I know I would have already made her a charm bracelet AND  a handful of Lollibag's!




I also bought this vintage flower pin.  I am going to put it on a Lollibag.  Isn't it so cute and cheery?  I bought these two items from here.

I would also take my mom to lunch at The Good Earth.  I love that place, it reminds me of her so much!!  My mom and my sister and me would go there, ( I know I've told this story before, but...) mom would always get the chicken cashew salad sandwich with an ice tea.  After mom died, sister and I have gone there and gotten the same thing.  It's just comforting some how.

So let me live vicariously through you, what are you doing with your mom or for your mom on Sunday?

Sometimes I look up a word in the dictionary to make sure I am spelling it right..... I just looked up vicariously.  Here's the meaning:
Felt or enjoyed through imagined participation  in the experience of others.

Perfect!




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Monday, what are you doing?

A post without a picture?  So sorry, the weekend has been a whirlwind.  The showing on Saturday went great.  I found out the people that flew in are.....kind of a big deal.  We had a family come out Sunday to walk the property also. 
Can I tell you, how tired I am of keeping the house spotless???  I know I shouldn't complain, because this is what I want, showings.  Thank you Lord for the showings. 

The new Where Women Create magazine is out at Costco.  I'd like to pop over and get it, but I have so much to do.  I have to list all the new Lollibag's on etsy that didn't sell at the show. 

I have some new Lollibag idea's percolating in my head, that I would like to get started on.  Let's not forget my daily going's on of laundry, children, cooking, more cleaning, taxi for a teenage girl, bills to pay, e-mails to write, and certianly not least....coloring with Sophie.

I assume you guys are doing the same?