Story Time

We ventured out to story time at our local library this morning. It was nice, but it was not Milledgeville. I had to call mom on my way home to keep from crying! It's so funny to me the things that make me miss Georgia... This was definitely one of them. I just couldn't help but wish we were there, meeting with our friends, checking out loads of books, going to play with Samuel afterwards. This one was led by a young girl who just didn't have the same touch as Miss Anne. We basically just sang songs with a cd and read books. Most all the children were pretty young and just ran around screaming the whole time. Then they got to color a worksheet with markers...

There was no felt board, no movie, no puppet show. Blah. Can you tell I've been a bit homesick for Georgia lately? It's funny how we only lived there for not even two full years, but it totally felt like home. And we've only been away for a couple of months, but there are new babies that have been born and so many changes that have happened since we left. I think we must make a trip back sooner rather than later to catch up.


"Dear Zoo" was the first book we read at story time in Georgia. Grace wasn't much older than Jack then. We bought a copy the next time we went to the bookstore. It has been a favorite ever since! We read it before nap time today. :-)

Just A Reminder

"Feelings come and feelings go
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God,
Naught else is worth believing."
-- Attributed to Martin Luther

It is so easy for me to become discouraged lately and question what it is exactly that is happening to us and why. But I know that the Lord has a reason for this season and is faithful. My prayer is that my feelings don't get in the way and that the Word is my encouragement and truth that sustains me.

Chicken 'n Dumplings

Since I'm on a recipe kick, I figured I would try and put up a few more over the next week or so.

Here is our family chicken and dumplings recipe... And of course a story to go with it. :-)

When we lived in Louisville and Grace was a baby I worked. I was doing what I had always thought I wanted to do... Be an architect. Have a successful career. Use that degree I worked my tail off for. And you know what? I was miserable. I hated leaving my baby every day. I was stressed to the max with all of the responsibility I had. I was SO busy trying to work, keep house, cook, be involved in social things... It was just way too much. I was not consistent in my quiet times. I felt like church was just another stressful thing on my list. My time with my family suffered. We ate out all the time. It was just not a good situation. I felt totally trapped because we had a mortgage to pay and I was the only one who could pay it. When I got laid off we had the opportunity to make a big life change. It turned out to be such a blessing! Jonathan got his job in Georgia making peanuts, but we made the decision that we would never be dependent on two incomes again. I was going to stay home and take care of my family! I remember once we got moved in I took Grace to Walmart one morning. We took our time, looked for letters and colors and shapes as we strolled the aisles, and I stayed on budget! When we got ready to leave it was pouring down rain and we got soaked putting our things in the car. Grace thought it was great! We laughed and laughed cause really, why did it matter? We had no where to rush to! We just went home and changed our clothes and unpacked the groceries! And then we made chicken and dumplings! We opened the blinds and watched the rain, turned up our Getty's CD, and cooked together... Taking our sweet time. Grace sat up on the counter with me and helped me put in the ingredients and stir and roll out the dough and put it in the broth (as best a 15 month old can!). We were covered in flour by the end of things. My kitchen was covered in flour! But it totally didn't matter! We had a great time on a random rainy Tuesday morning just me and my girl! And I felt SO thankful that we were on a super tight budget living in a little apartment with brown industrial carpeting in milledgeville, Georgia! I always think of that day when I make this meal and I think back on the faithfulness of our loving Father who blesses us when we obey. Even when things are difficult (because trust me, I do not enjoy rainy walmart runs with two kids in tow every day) I am reminded of what a blessing it is to be at home, taking care of my family, spending time with my family, spending time in the Word. And what a blessing it is to have a husband who sees the value in this and encourages me in it even during these really hard financial times!

And now on to the recipe:

Ingredients:

One whole chicken
2 1/2 cups All purpose flour
1/2 cup Self rising flour
Extra self rising flour to dust with
1 cup of ice water
1/2 cup veg. oil
Salt
Pepper
Poultry seasoning
Milk

Direction:

Rinse your chicken and make sure the cavity it clean. Put it in a pot and fill with water till the chicken is completely covered... Then add a couple more inches of water. Put in a good bit of salt, fresh cracked pepper, and poultry seasoning. Boil the chicken for about 45 min to an hour (you'll notice the meat is pulling away from the bone and it will start to fall off the bone). Let it cool and pull the meat off the bone. Set half the meat aside for another recipe and add the other half back to the pot of stock. Bring the liquid back up to a rolling boil.

For the dumplings mix your flour and water and oil in a large bowl. Start with a spoon and then end with your hands. You may need a bit more flour depending... It should not be too dry but should not stick to your fingers to much either.

Dust the counter top (my Mama has a huge marble slab!) with flour and roll out half the dough till it is about 1/8 in thick. Then use the back side of a butter knife to cut the dough into strips about 1 -1/2 inches wide. Pull each strip into about a 3-4 inch long length and drop it into the boiling broth. Stir it every now and then to make sure the dumplings don't stick together. Do the same with the rest of the dough and let it all boil for a good 15 minutes or so till the dumplings are cooked all the way through. Add a couple of cups of milk to the mix and stir till it's creamy and white.

Let the while thing cool and put it in the fridge over night (yes, we do this a lot at our house!). The next day put a bit of milk in the pot to thin it out and heat it up real slow over low heat.

This feeds our family for several meals and don't forget the entire half chicken you still have ready for enchiladas or chicken spaghetti or chicken salad or whatever! It is also really easy to double. And if it needs to stretch a bit more you can just add milk or water or broth to make enough for a surprise guest!

And there you go! The chipper chicken n dumplings!

Mama's Red Beans and Rice

I usually don't put recipes on the blog, but I made red beans and rice yesterday and thought about how many times I was supposed to sit down and write out this recipe for someone. I figured it would be a good idea to put it somewhere easily found and easily copied and pasted... The Blog it is!

Now, it is important to note that in Louisiana every family makes their beans and rice differently. Ours is really different because we use canned dark red kidney beans (my mother in law uses the more traditional dried Camilla beans) and we put sugar in ours. But this is my favorite way to eat them... Probably because it's how my Mama always made them for us!

Ingredients:

3 cans dark red kidney beans (drained)
4-5 ribs of celery
1 large onion
1 large bell pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 package of sausage (I use hillshire farms)
Olive oil (I use virgin)
Salt (I use kosher)
Pepper (I use fresh cracked)
2 big bay leaves (penzys are the best by a long shot)
2-3 heaping spoons full of sugar

Directions:

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or big pot (I use my enamel coated cast iron) and start chopping. :-) Do the onion first, then bell pepper, then celery adding each to the pot as you finish chopping. Stir till things start to get a little brown. Then add the garlic last and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Once all that is done and your kitchen smells great add in the beans and then some water till it's all just covered. Then put in your spices and sugar (don't forget the sugar... It's the key to success!). Bring it all to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer. Then you've got to "just cook the fire out of it, y'all" as my Mama says.

After you've got the beans part going on one burner start on the sausage. Use a cast iron skillet if you've got one (lodge sells seasoned cast iron that is great for a really reasonable price... Usually you can find it at hardware stores and even in walmart sometimes). Cut the sausage on a diagonal into rounds about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and put them in your hot skillet to brown. DON'T move them around and peek under to see how brown they are getting. Just let them be. And then let them burn... Not all the way through, but give them a nice char... You are going to have to trust me on this one. Flip them and do the other side the same way. Then drain them for a few minutes on a paper towel and add them to your bean pot.

Continue simmering the whole mix for an hour or two... The longer the better... Adding water when it looks low and stirring occasionally. Then turn off the heat and stir in a good palm full of dried parsley. Let it cool and then let it set in the refrigerator over night. Some things just have to set over night. This is one of those things.

The next evening you can heat it up (slowly... Stirring often) while you make your rice and cornbread! All take about 20 minutes, so although there is a bit of work on the front end the actual day you eat it is not much work at all!

And can I give a hint on the rice too?!? Don't ever peek at that either! You put double the amount of water as rice you are going to cook (we use 2 cups of rice for a batch of beans, so I use 4 cups of water). Bring the water to a boil, add the rice and stir once around. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil or butter to the water once the rice settles. Cover and simmer. And do not peek under that lid! Set your timer for 20 minutes and leave it alone. It's ok if it simmers over a bit. Once you have waited patiently for 20 minutes then you may kill the heat and remove the lid, fluff with a fork and serve it all up!

And to serve you put a couple of spoonfuls of rice in the bottom of a bowl and pour the beans over the top! Add some sweet cornbread and butter to your bowl and it's just about one of the best meals ever... Especially with fall coming up!

So there you go! A very yummy, very easy, very cheap, very easily doubled for large crowds, Louisiana dinner!


Would you like more fun facts about red beans and rice?!? I know you would! They are traditionally eaten on Monday in Louisiana because Monday was wash day and your beans could cook down all day while you washed. Then they were ready for eating after a long, hard day of work. Jonathan's mom still makes them every Monday as does his sister. The Milford's aren't so particular about when we eat them... Except that we always have them for dinner on Christmas Eve after the Christmas Eve service at church. Nothing feels more like home to me than a bowl of beans and rice in a Blue Danube bowl at my Mama's kitchen table... And a Christmas cookie for dessert isn't too bad either... Perhaps I'll give you that recipe closer to the holidays!

Enjoy!

To My Sweet Jack

My sweet one year old, Jack. Oh my, where can I begin. I've been putting this off and putting this off because I don't know where to begin! What a blessing you are! What a wonderful gift from our God! It is just amazing for me to think that the Lord knew we needed you at this time, in this place, in this season. How could I even begin to imagine our family without you? What an amazing, giving, loving God we have!

And what are you up to now that you are one whole year old?!? Well...

You are happy happy happy!

You love to play with Mama and sister in the playroom.

You can stack blocks.

You can "roll 'em up. Roll 'em up." with your hands.

You can wave "bye bye" and "hello"

You can say "dada" and "yay" and "baba" and "ack" (jack).

You still won't say mama! You say dada instead.

You can stand up and look like your about to take off running across the room, but you have only taken a couple of steps. I know you are about to get the hang of it and start walking everywhere!

You DO crawl all over... Fast!

You are not a picky eater. You will eat just about anything I give you. You love fruit and spaghetti and home cooking food the best.

You really like to nurse still. I'm not sure how the weaning process is going to go, but we are about to find out... Gradually, but surely I know we will get it done.

You are doing great with your sleeping! You take two naps a day (in your crib finally!) and sleep from about 7:30 at night to 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning.

You adore your sister and want to be where she is doing what she is doing! You DO pull her hair sometimes, but she is incredibly patient about this and thinks it is funny. I am thankful for that!

You really like to swing and play with the octopus toy you got for your birthday and play peekaboo.

You also like to take things off the shelves of the play grocery store and play kitchen and throw them on the floor.

You also love to throw the ball and roll the ball! Yes! You can do these things! I am really amazed at your fine motor skills!

You love your Papa (just like all the grandboys before you) and will sit still in his (and only his) lap for an extended time.

Most of the time though, you are on the go. Busy, busy, busy!

Oh, and how you love music! You dance and sing and have a great time with it! It is so much fun!

You are starting to understand simple commands. You will "go get your ball" or "find sister" when I ask you to.

You will also disobey. The cable box is proving to be a very big temptation for you. And so it begins... Discipline! Slowly but surely we will figure this thing out. :)

I have been with you every day for a whole year... Every night I've put you to bed. Every morning I've gotten you up. Every meal I've provided. Many miles have been rocked in our rocking chair and many thousands of songs have been sung in the dark. Feeding and playing and changing and growing... I have done all these things and have been so happy to do them! What a blessing it is to be able to do them! I am so thankful that I have been there for everything. I am so thankful at milestones like this that I don't leave you at daycare. Think of all the time we would have missed with each other! It has been a difficult year, but a sweet season too. So many changes, adjustments and wonderful memories have been made! What a blessing you are to our family, sweet Jack. We do love you so and are thankful for each and every day we get to spend with you!

What A Difference A Year Makes

Louisiana Tech! Go Dawgs!

A Few More Party Pictures

Ok... So that was more than just a few!

And I have to thank my sweet sister in law, Jody, for taking such great pictures! She took pictures the whole time so that I didn't have to worry with taking them. I just enjoyed the party! Thank you, Jody!

Jack's First Birthday Party!

We had a birthday party for Jack Saturday night, and it was wonderful. Just wonderful. Most everyone from both sides of the family was able to make it. We talked and ate and talked and ate, and it was just wonderful to be with family. I think we had 18 people at the house! Jack thoroughly enjoyed all of the attention he received, and we thoroughly enjoyed giving it to him! Here are just a few pictures that my brother in law took...

I have to start by telling you that I have been lax on the blogging lately because I've been working on the party. This was a total home made party if there ever was one. I made all of the decorations from one pack of scrapbook paper (that I got 50% off). Jonathan smoked a couple of pork shoulders and sausage. I roasted some corn. Dad made beans. Mom made Asian slaw. Granny made New Orleans style potato salad. And I made the desserts. Like I said... we ate and talked and ate some more... Anyway, it was a lot of fun to get to be crafty over the past couple of weeks, and I was really happy with the way everything turned out! I even got everything done by Friday so I could enjoy spending time with my parents and sister while they were in town all day Saturday before the party.

Birthday boy in his birthday hat!

We had a barnyard themed party. I made a birthday banner from the scrapbook paper, hats to match, used the Little People Farm as a centerpiece and put pictures from the year on the table for people to look through. Jonathan's sister got the balloons for me. I think they just made the whole thing look so fun!

I mounted our "month-by-month" pictures on the same scrap book paper and hung them on the wall above the dessert table.

We had cow cake pops...

pig cake pops...

and chick cake pops...

I was going to make a barn cake, but my cake got stuck in the cake pan so I improvised and decorated it like this instead. SO glad that happened because this way turned out to be really easy and it went well with the other desserts!

Jack's smash cake...

Granny with the kiddos! I appliqued a red gingham farm animal on each of their outfits. Grace had a lot of extra white shirts, so I just used one of those and let her wear a skirt that matched. Jack had a plain hand-me-down romper that I didn't mind using because it did not have snaps at the crotch, and every parent knows that an outfit without snaps will not get used very often for obvious reasons. :) Grace really wanted a pig shirt so that is what I did for her. I chose a horse for Jack. I tied some red yarn in Grace's pig tales too.

I found these wooden masks in the dollar bin at the craft store. The kids seemed to have fun with them... and I think the pictures are priceless! The 3 boy cousins...

And the sweet cowgirl Grace!
My sister in law took some pictures as well and I'll post them once she has a chance to upload them! And I'll post more about our birthday boy on his actual birthday (September 13th). Now, I think I may go eat a piece of cake. :)

Jack and the Birthday Cake...