Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

 Today was momentous.
 My first born son, my little boy, made his first apple pie.
 He chopped the apples (I peeled for him), mixed them with the toppings, helped cut the shortening into the flour for the crust and even rolled it out.
 Fabulous!

 It seems that his interpretation of a "dash of salt" is a bit more than I would normally use. But I put a dollop of ice-cream on top and it blended in nicely.

 I am so proud!!

 He is growing up. Sigh.

 In other news, I have to brag about my garden. We built a 3rd bed this summer, and it is growing beautifully.

Back in March....

 potatoes were growing nicely already.

 Canaan had green hair... can't remember why!

 Maybe green hair goes with a green thumb?

Green shirt too. Definitely have a theme going here!

 Most of the herbs survived the winter.

 (But we have added more. You can never have too many fresh herbs when you are married to a cook like Andy)

This little guy is just too cute not to post. 

In May we harvested the potatoes.

 It was a decent crop - better than last year - but still not as much as I had hoped.

 And that is an UGLY potato!

A few of them were almost too small to count.

(But we ate them anyway!)

Just a few days ago...

 Mini Peppers - which are supposed to turn orange.

 The start of a pea...

 and some beautiful sugar snap peas.

 Spinach is kind of taking over the herb garden.

 Cherry tomatoes peeking out.

 Green beans, butter beans and watermelon are all together in the bed that use to hold potatoes.

 Tomato and cucumber and a peek at the squash

Zucchini squash

I don't have any pictures of the carrots, but they are tucked in there too. 

We ate potatoes from the garden with fresh rosemary tonight. Makes me happy. 

But what makes me even happier than my garden?

 

My boys! (and my girl too)

Hope your summer is off to a good start. 

Blessings, 

Bethany

Christmas Creativity

During the Christmas project season Canaan declared that he wanted to make a quilt for his friend Katie Grace.

He was very very involved in the process.

So was little brother.

I don't really think it can be called a true quilt, since it was merely four patches, then four again on the back... but it had batting in the middle, and edging, and was slightly "quilted" in the middle.

Somehow I didn't get a picture of the finished project, but here is Katie opening it.

Once we started quilting, it seemed like the thing to do. So, we made one for Maddy too.

Hers was flannel, had buttons instead of quilting, and was missing the edging, because Andy accidently picked up single fold instead of double, and I didn't have time to run out and exchange it.

All in all, it was a fun adventure, quilting with a six year old!

We also made some pretty awesome cookies... if I do say so myself.

The variety pack was mostly your basic stuff, my favorite being Flipz/peanut butter sandwhiches covered in chocolate.

The sugar cookies, and the multitude of interesting ways to decorate them - Now that is what makes life fun!

Canaan's

Zion's

Mom and Dad (and of course, about 3 dozen others.... but that was all I could stand taking pictures of. My attention span for pictures is only so big)

Last, but not least, we made Gingerbread, or rather, Graham Cracker, houses at Noni and Papaws house on Christmas Eve.

Canaan's (See the bi-plane in the background? He had a little help with that)

Zion's

Our Christmas season ended up being very creative.

Yummy Tummy time

My friend Carrie called me the other day to ask for the recipe for The World's Best Peanut Butter Cookies. You can read her blog about it, and see a lot of delicious pictures, and hear the story. My job in all of this is to post the actual recipe. First, a little back story.  This recipe came from a cookbook called "Cherished Recipe's" that was acquired by my mother at one of the many churches either her father or my father preached at sometime in the late 1970's or early 1980's. I LOVE church cookbooks, because you never know what kind of hidden treasure they will contain. They almost never try to be healthy, and the recipes they contain are usually absolutely delicious in their unhealthiness. Since I grew up with this cookbook, I am especially fond of it. I even tried stealing it from my Mom's house when I first moved out. She noticed, and reclaimed it. Sad times. 

 Do any of you remember me mentioning in an earlier blog, Homeschool wonderworld, how I clearly remember cutting a recipe in half while I was studying fractions? This is THAT recipe. So, not only is it delicious, it is full of history. 

1 1/4 cup butter (the real stuff) 1 1/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy, depending on your mood) 1 1/4 cup white sugar  1 1/4 cup brown sugar  3 eggs  2 1/2 tsp vanilla  2 1/2 TBSP milk   2 1/2 tsp baking soda   1 1/4 tsp salt   4 1/2 cups flour  Hershey Kisses if so desired

Cream together all ingredients. Roll into balls and slightly flatten. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. Top with Kisses immediately, and remove from pan to cool. If you prefer plain, they are plenty delicious without kisses. I sometimes put dark chocolate chips in and bake them like that. 

 Of course, since this is me, the health conscious diabetic, I usually use Splenda instead of the white sugar, and half the flour is freshly ground whole wheat. That still doesn't make them good for you, but a little less bad....