Winter and woodstoves

 Any of you heat with wood? After many years we once again have a woodstove and are raring to go with its use :)

We have been so blessed by God with firewood this year. We had a few trees taken down and my husband and son did a lot of splitting of wood ... we will definitely be warm this winter!

Anyone else heat with wood? Tell me how you like it!

Bible Gateway

 Do you like to begin your day with a Bible verse? Bible Gateway is a really neat site for finding Scriptures, and they offer a really neat, FREE service of emailing you a verse of the day. Check them out and sign up for a word from the Bible daily!

Treasure

Treasures today, thanks to some blackberry plants! 

Thankful for s

urprises 

that

remind us 

of God's blessings.

Hiking downhill...tips

Do your knees bother you when you are hiking downhill? Quick and easy tip ... raise your hands up and you will fall into a slower and smoother rhythm--something to do with shifting your center of gravity probably. Give it a try! Seriously you might look a little goofy but it's well worth the slow down and the control it gives you! :)

Self-waterers for planters

This year we do not have a traditional garden--we have all of our veggies planted into planters. I was surprised how quickly they dry out and need to be watered! To accomodate for the extra watering sessions needed we made some self-waterers out of pop bottles!

Here is how we did it:

1. Gather up a bunch of pop bottles (we had a lot since we hadn't taken any to the redemption place for a long time!

2. Cut off the bottoms of the bottles and rinse them out (BE CAREFUL to not slice your hand!)

3. Drill 2 or 3 holes into the cap (we started out with more holes but learned that the more holes there are, the faster it empties! I guess that should have been obvious, but...) :) 

4. Dig down an inch or so and "plant" the pop bottle cap-side down into your soil.

5. Fill the waterer with...water (of course!) and let it water the plant for you throughout the day, right into the root area of the plant!

Chicken salad favorite

Do you like to make chicken salad? One of our family favorites is to make it with chicken (of course!) and strawberries (smallish pieces) and onions (tiny pieces). Mix in mayo and serve on bread or rolls! It turns a funky pink color, but that's okay--it tastes delicious!!

Tell us about your favorite ways to make chicken salad in the comments below! :) 

Strawberry Lemonade!!

My daughter found this recipe for lemonade for a crowd (makes like 100 servings!) and has been making it for the past two weeks--we are LOVING it :) Yummmmmmmmmmmmm

It is super easy and we just store the concentrate in the fridge and freezer. She made a few batches of strawberry lemonade as well -- the same recipe, just pureed strawberries added in.

Give it a try!!