A Couple of Pumpkin Recipes

I just love fall and everything that goes along with it, especially the baking!  Making wholesome and yummy food is something that I have always enjoyed doing for my family - at any time of the year.  It feels good to serve them things that I have put my time, effort and love into creating for them.  When I am able to combine nutrition with fun things that they will consider a treat, I feel as if I have hit the jackpot!  That said, I bake pretty much all year, but I love using pumpkins and apples when they come in season.  Not long ago, I read about a recipe on GoodLife Eats called Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.  We love oatmeal when it gets cold and pretty much love anything with pumpkin, so I decided to give it a try.  While it wasn't cold here by some standards, we were waking up to upper 50's and low 60's several days in a row.  After waking up to 79+ for weeks on end, that was a huge difference that sent shivers up our spine!  It was amazing, actually!  Anyway, the oatmeal was so good that I think you will love it, so here's our version of the recipe to try!

1 cup old fashioned oats - not quick cooking
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2-3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp butter, softened
3/4-1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup milk (we used almond - use your favorite!)

Topping:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3 tsp. softened butter
2 tbsp brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 375* and grease 4 individual ramekins - then set them aside.  Combine the oats and the salt.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Divide the mixture evenly between the 4 ramekins.  Place the ramekins on a baking sheet (this makes it easier to get it in and out of the oven) and bake at 375* for about 10 minutes.  Now, while that is cooking, combine the ingredients for the topping.  After the oatmeal has baked, remove and divide the topping evenly over each one, then bake for an additional 7 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes before serving.  We added an extra splash of almond milk to it before we ate it, just to add to the creaminess.

That's it!  I had never had a baked oatmeal before, so I was a little nervous.  And I must admit that the first bite was different, as far as comparing the texture of regular oatmeal to this.  But, it was intriguing enough to go back for another and before I knew it, my ramekin was empty!  It was not too sweet, but had just the right combination of hearty, autumn yummy-ness to make this a definite keeper!  Here's what ours looked like (before consumption!)

You owe it to yourself to try this!

Another of our new favorite fall recipes is Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  They are denser than a regular cookie - more like a scone or cake-like.  You have to try these too!  Here's what you do:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300* - not a typo!  You will bake them this low to get them just right.  Next, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg, pumpkin and vanilla.  Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.  Add the chocolate chips and mix thoroughly.  Scoop cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet ( I make them kind of smallish).  Bake at 300* around 22-24 minutes (a little less if smaller).  Remove from the oven, let sit for a minute or so and then place on a rack to cool.  Oh, and try not to eat too many at once! 

Well, I have some more, but that is enough to get you started - so get to the kitchen and cook up some good things for your family!

MaKenna's Birthday

15 years ago today, MaKenna Morgan DeVore entered our world and changed it forever - in all good ways! We are so blessed to have such an amazing daughter. She is beautiful inside and out, talented, creative, funny, loyal, fun-loving, and best of all, a God's girl through and through! Around here, in case you don't know, for birthdays we let the birthday girl (or boy) choose all of the meals and dessert. This year, MaKenna chose homemade waffles for breakfast - a family favorite. Here's our recipe in case you want to try:

2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 3/4 cup milk (we use almond)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup ground flax
1/2 cup kefir or buttermilk
cinnamon

Beat the eggs until fluffy, then add the other ingredients and mix just until smooth. Cook in a pre-heated waffle iron until golden brown. Sometimes we add blueberries before cooking, too. These are so good with fresh strawberries and whipped cream!

For lunch, she wanted homemade chicken salad sandwiches on croissants. I make my chicken salad with a rotisserie chicken, mayo, miracle whip, grapes, pickle relish and toasted pecans. Yummy served on a croissant!

She won't be having her dinner today since her daddy had a work schedule change and she wants to have it with all of us. But, she will be having Spinach Stuffed Chicken, homemade mashed potatoes and green beans. Her dessert will be homemade fried ice cream - so worth the effort!

MaKenna asked if we could go to Crane's Roost, the lake behind Altamonte Mall, to walk around after dinner and since it is her day, that is what we did! Mark had to work, so the kids and I took Maggie and made 3 laps - 3 miles! Maggie has been sleeping soundly since we got home! It was a great day and an awesome evening - there is nothing better than spending time with your family! I'll end with a picture from the lake - such a pretty evening.

A Moment

The other day, I had "a moment." Holly, MaKenna and I are organizing all of the pictures that we are intending to scrapbook, with the intent to actually complete some projects in the near future! It is hard to sort pictures without looking at them and reminiscing. So, there we were, looking through all sorts of pictures from over the years. One of the girls found a silly one of them when they were only about 4 or 5 and we had a good laugh over the event.

Then, I said it - "Yep, those were the good old days!" I didn't think much of it at the time - just a casual, common remark. But, it creeped back into my mind later and I realized what I had said - the good old days? Back then, I got very little sleep, money was short, life was busy and overflowing, we didn't own a home, I was eyeball deep in the raising and training of 3 children (whom I poured my all into, mind you!) - and I called that the good old days?

Now, before I go further, let me start by saying - I would do it all again! I loved raising my children, losing sleep to nurture them, seeing the world through their eyes, and watching them grow and change before my eyes into their own little person - even the trials of "tantrums" and conflicts. So, I am not discounting any of that by what I just said! However, what I realized was that often, we don't see how blessed we are in the time we are in. We can live in a perpetual state of looking back at what was (either in regret or with longing) or we look to the future for what we are anticipating. And in doing so, the moment called NOW slips by without notice.

I started thinking about my NOW time - money is still tight, I still don't get enough sleep, I am still over the head deep in raising and training 3 children with unique personalities (and the decisions don't get any easier!), my life is still busy and overflowing. But, I am also blessed beyond measure. I have an awesome relationship with my children, who are growing into Godly young men and women. I have an amazing, hard working husband. My life is full of things that I love and am passionate about - homeschooling, teaching children, church, God, family, friends (not necessarily in that order!). I don't want any of my NOW moments to pass me by. I want to keep in mind that I am NOW living in the "good old days" of tomorrow and I want to make the most of every moment! I pray that you do the same.

End of Summer Reflections

It is already the first day of September! September always takes me back to childhood in Pennsylvania where school started the day after Labor Day. It meant baking, apples, jackets and breezes. In Florida, not much changes from August to September (or October, November, etc!). In spite of that, I always start thinking about baking, apples, pumpkins, walks outside, etc. at this time every year. The change of seasons (not necessarily summer or autumn, but seasons of our lives as we go through the changes around us) is so exciting to me! It is a time of renewal, no matter what season we are going into, because there is an element of change and expectation of things to come.

There is also always a time of reflection of what was accomplished in the previous few months. That is where I find myself today. What did I do with my summer (that is suddenly over) that was meaningful? I always expect too much of myself as far as what I will be able to/want to accomplish, and this summer was no exception. However, we had a great summer nevertheless! We accomplished a lot of organizing, planning and rearranging. We helped friends, several times around, and enjoyed the rewards of hard work, good times and fond memories while doing so. We had fun together - doing things {beach, day trips, conferences, etc.}, and doing nothing {reading, being home, playing games, watching favorite movies}. We stayed busy with church involvement, piano lessons, friends, couponing, and everything already mentioned above.

Basically, while we did nothing "spectacular" or "out of the ordinary," we had a summer with no regrets - only wonderful things to look back on in years to come. Sometimes, MOST times, it is truly the simple things that make all the difference. Hope your summer was just as amazing as mine!

Back to School

We started back to school a few weeks ago and have been so busy with it that this is the first chance that I have had to blog about it. This is an interesting school year for us in many ways.

First, we are using new curriculum. After trudging through history the past 2 years with a satisfactory but not favorite curriculum, I was ready for a change. After much research, looking around, talking to lots of moms at convention, etc. I came across a curriculum called Tapestry of Grace. You may be familiar with it, but I had never heard of it before. It takes a Classical Approach to learning and uses various sources to make history come alive. It brings in Socratic discussions to encourage thought beyond the books and incorporates all of history as it happened from a Biblical World View. TOG covers history, government, fine arts, church history and literature. Sounds impressive, right - so what's the catch? The catch is that it has taken a TON of time to familiarize myself with the ins and outs of the program, to track down at the library the resources I needed and to plan out our units. Once I got through all of that, it was awesome! We are on the 3rd week and LOVE this study. We started with the beginning of American History, but they are learning about everything that was happening around the world at the same time. Did you know that the KJV Bible was written at the time that the Pilgrims came to America? There are so many things that I have learned as a homeschool mom that I never learned in Public school! And, Caleb is learning the same topics as the girls, but on his level, so we can have group discussions and they are learning from each other. We are all thoroughly enjoying school!

Second, Caleb is doing all subjects for the first time. He is doing Bible, History (and all the subjects mentioned above that go with the TOG curriculum), Science, English, Reading, Math, Spelling, Writing (with a Writeshop Curriculum that I am Beta testing for release!), and Handwriting. He is handling it all so well and today, came out and asked when we could start school - talk about a milestone!

Third, I am back to full teaching and planning for all 3 of them. Last year, with my dad recovering here from his heart operation, I did not do as much as I like to do to be hands on with them and we really just made it through the year. I am happily back to doing what I love most - teaching and interacting with my children full time!

This is a challenging year for the girls. They have a lot of upper level reading, discussion questions as well as all of their other subjects. However, so far so good! They are both doing all of the History mentioned above, Science (Biology for MaKenna and Marine Biology for Holly), Math (Geometry for M and Algebra 2 for H), PE, Music (Violin for M and Piano for H), Foreign Language (Sign Language and some Latin), and Writeshop 2 - I think that's it! Whew - can you tell that we are going to be very busy this year? But what an incredible honor and blessing it continues to be to homeschool my children - even in the midst of the busy-ness it is worth it all.

That's it for us! Here's to the best school year ever - no matter what yours looks like!

Hadassah =

As a summary of Hadassah 2010, I decided to do a picture post showing all the things that Hadassah equals to us.  Enjoy!

Hadassah = Mother Daughter Time:

(Ready for Church)

(Ready for the Banquet)

Hadassah = Tutus:

 

Hadassah = Friends:

Melissa and Delaney

Rebecca and Cheyenne

Me and the girls with Denee

At the skating rink

At Mimi's

At the Banquet

Hadassah = Church:

MaKenna during a Stix Ministry

Holly during a Stix Ministry

Holly and MaKenna during Signing

Denee and Sister Varnum

Hadassah (this year) = Roller Skating:

Hadassah = Motion Songs:

Hadassah = so much more than a blog post can tell, because the best part of Hadassah is BEING THERE!

Hadassah

I have had the honor for the past 5 years to take Holly and MaKenna to a mother/daughter conference called Hadassah.

Hadassah was the Hebrew name for the young girl who would become queen of Persia, despite (or maybe because of) her Jewish heritage.  In the book of Esther, we learn about this young girl, the circumstances surrounding her being chosen queen, her uncle (who had an obvious and outward love for the one true God and stood on the truths in His word, even at the risk of his own life), and an evil plot to kill of all of the Jews by a man blinded by greed and power.  In the midst of all of this, Mordecai, her uncle, makes the profound statement to Esther - "who knows if you were not brought into the kingdom 'for such a time as this.'"

Now, I was not on the planning team for the first (or any, for that matter!) Hadassah conferences, but knowing what I know of the story of Esther and what I have experienced at this conference every year, I have a pretty good idea of why it is what it is!  Christ-minded parents of girls are raising and training daughters who are prepared to meet the King one day.  We are guiding their paths, directly their steps and believing that they are in the kingdom "for such a time as this."  This conference affords us just another opportunity toward that end.

So, now that you know the "background" info, here's what we have to look forward to this week.  (Warning: this may create feelings of covetous attitudes in those of you with daughters who are not going and may create a need for a time of repentance!  Maybe you can come next year and share in the fun with us!)

We start the conference with a Royal Banquet for our Princesses - and it is formal to the max!  The girls and their moms or (chaperons!) get all fancied up in their fanciest of ball gowns, tiaras included.  It is so fun for us to get to be all girly, with no boys around!  After all, their first goal should be to impress the King of kings.  In fact, I read a quote a long time ago that a girl should love God so much that a boy has to seek Him to find her.   How true!  So, there we are, all dressed up and at the Royal Banquet - delicious food, entertainment, friends and fun make a perfect evening.

The next 2 days, during the day, the girls take two sets of classes - one on Personal confidence and one on Ministry.  The Personal Confidence classes include things like hair care, skin care, nail care, healthy habits, etc.  Basically, they learn about how to care for their body in a way that reflects God.  The Ministry classes involve things like Singing, Drama, Hospitality, Stix, etc.  In these classes, they learn how to use their talents for God and then get to use them in the evening services.

Thursday night is a church service - and these girls know how to worship!  There is always such a powerful presence of God in the service and lives are changed.  Following the service is the annual "Fuzzy Slipper Party" - music, crafts, motions, games, food, candy and fun reign until midnight!  This is the party to end all parties - and no boys allowed!!!

Friday night ends with a special ceremony called Coronation for 15 year olds.  It is a very special time for the girls and their parents as the parents commit to raise her according to God's ways and the girls commit to follow their parents and stay pure.  It is emotional, beautiful and powerful.

In the 5 years that we have been going, I never cease to be filled with thanksgiving for the opportunity, for all those who give of themselves to make it possible and for the amazing opportunities for my daughters to learn in multiple ways and places to live a life pleasing to God - because they love Him and He loves them.  Our walk with God should never be about rules, but always about relationship.  I am so looking forward to another chance to build my relationship with them, but more importantly, their relationship with their God.