New Drying Racks.

Papa got me a couple of these to replace my old and newly broken drying racks. I LOVE them. They are awesome, they hold tons of laundry and they are sturdy and not at all tippy.

Sometimes it truly is the little things. 

CORN!!

                                 

                           We bought a couple of boxes of localish corn, around Billy's pond, 

            and friends of ours picked it up in the city for us and we ate like kings for a few days :) 

We also decided to do an experiment and  freeze some. 

No blanching.

 Just cut it off the cob and freeze in bags. 

We did it team work style!! 

The kids shucked it, G (picture above) brought it to me and I cut the kernels off and bagged it. 

So far we have had to limit ourselves HUGELY as this is the best corn EVER, besides fresh on the cob, and we are already making plans to do TONS more next year!! 

In other words.. it was a HUGE success and we are loving it :) 

Oh and if you were wondering, this is a catch up story, these pictures were taken Sept 16th :) 

Samuel Is Here :)

My wonderful Dr. Nicole, S and I,and Papa about 45 minutes after he was born. It was a quick labor and delivery and we were all relieved that it was over and that Dr. Nicole made it there on time. She RAN in and arrived soaking wet from the rain. Other then a couple of things; he had a LOT of water in there with him and soaked the entire room, he was born face up, and he was a bit limp at birth, but still pink and crying, and had to be assessed for a bit, everything went super well and fast. 

The proud Papa holding S for the first time!! 

The afternoon after he was born I woke up to find my whole family staring at me. They'd come in to my hospital room while I was asleep, S asleep on my chest. S slept through the whole visit and the kids loved on him the whole time. 

J walked into my room and said.. I'm the oldest I get to hold him first :) 

He was the least impressed about the new baby during the pregnancy, and even then not unhappy just sort of vague, so I was very pleased to hear him ohh and ahh over S right from the start. 

Tickled PINK!! That is the only way to describe the kids reaction to their new brother. 

E and S. 

G petting him. E is so proud of him!! 

R looking serious. He weighs almost a 3rd of what she does which made it a bit hard for her to hold him. J3 was waiting for his turn.

Kissing that little forehead! 

J3 loved him and was so pleased he got to hold him! 

G kissing him.

G loved him, kissing him and petting his head, until we tried to get her to hold him...
NOPE NO WAY!! I love how S looks so peaceful and G is the one that looks like shes going to cry..

normally it's the baby who is unhappy and the older kid looks pleased. 

The Griggs Family... numbering NINE!!! Thanks Crystal for taking the pictures!! 

My flowers from Papa and the girls flowers they picked for me. 

Samuel is named after my cousin Blair Owen, B&B on here :), and Papa's childhood friend Brett Quinn. He's a beautiful baby, peaceful, eats like a champ (I call him my little Barricoda!! for his latch!), sleeps solid and rarely makes a fuss. He has the Griggs baby nose and Papa's ears. His toes are short and stubby and his fingers long and slim. He was born with large bruise on the top of his head which is slowly going away. My labor with him was from 5:30pm to his arrival at 7:45pm. The fastest labor I've had yet. 45 minutes shorter then E's. He was 8 days over due and was born a day before his father did 36 years earlier. He shares a birth month with Papa but is the only Griggs kid born in June. Keeping up the tradition :) Each of our children, so far, have their own birth month! 

We are both doing fantastic! His bruise is going away nicely and I'm feeling almost 100%!! I'm still resting lots, and will continue to rest lots until Papa goes back to work next week, but physically I'm amazed at how fast I felt pretty much back to normal already. So much different then G's birth 19 months ago which took several months to recover from. I'm pretty sure that the 5 week herbal formula and the red raspberry leaf tea have been very beneficial to a fast birth and healing! If #8 is in Gods plans I will be taking both of them again :) 

Easy Peasy Pizza Night!!

Everyone helped! 

Pizza the super easy way! 

Sliced bread

Ketchup 

Italiano seasoning

sausage

cheese

Mushrooms were optional.. :) 

Pineapple would have been fantastic but we don't have any :( 

You could do anything you like though!! 

We get 6 loaves of bread a week in trade and we are getting over run with bread in the freezer so we are looking for ways to use up more bread. 

These are awesome and totally make the list!!

Bonus.. the kids just did it tonight... completely alone... 

And they loved every minute of it :) :) :) :) :) 

Baby S's Blanket.

Here are the 6 types of squares for Baby S's afghan I'm making :) 

I've made one for each of our children before they were born. 

It's tradition :) 

If you didn't know what sex the baby is, I guess you do now :) 

I have to make one more of each and put them together and I'm done :) 

Quilt Tops :)

E's is the purple and R's is the pink :) 

G's is on the list for tomorrow :) 

Backs are also on the list for tomorrow. 

They are laying on the wool blankets they will be covering, and have some room to spare.. 

Perfect :) 

Quilts Update :)

Well this is what I've been up too lately!! Sewing all these strips into sets of 3. There are 33 sets of 3 which means 99 strips total! They are each different! Some have the same 3 fabric's but the order they are in is different. Now I iron these and then cut them into squares. I'm following this video...Here! and making each of my girls a blanket cover or quilt. I bought some wool blankets from my mom for E and R's quilts and bought some cotton in fill for G's. I was actually only going to make them for E and R as G still has lots of blankets but my wonderful sister R pointed out that I had enough fabric to make G one too.. so I'm going to. One will have a purple back, another a pink back and the 3rd back will be yellow :), all flannel backs. The diamonds will be a dark purple... and I have it washed, but need to iron and cut it up yet. 

Sorry the picture is so blurry. I'm still taking pictures with the ipad. The colors are a bit off too.. 

sigh! I went to take these pictures with our camera, freshly back from the camera doctors, only to find out the camera now refuses to admit there is a memory card in it.. and therefore will NOT save any pictures. Grrr... 

Anyway I will keep you updated on my progress :) I'm also working on a crocheted baby blanket for Baby S which keeps my hands busy while my feet are up :) 

Thankful Thursdays. Jan 24th/13

Ah well it's been a long day and there is still a fire to stock and a cow to milk. So this will be brief. Apparently I'm also having trouble typing... I guess my nap earlier didn't do me as much good as I'd hoped. It's 9:25 pm. Kids are in bed, G is still chattering and kicking her feet. We've recently found if we leave their bedroom door open she is much happier at bedtime and will go to sleep with much less fuss and carrying on. This is suppose to be a thankful post so I'll tell you about my day and why I'm thankful for pretty much every minute of it.

I woke up 3 minutes early. I almost never set the alarm but yesterday I did. I really didn't want to be running late today. I got up, filled the stove with wood, made myself a cup of coffee, did my morning devo's and checked my email and FB. Then after a glass of water, granola bar, banana and shower I jumped in the car to go to my doctors appointment. I left the house, alone, at 9:20. By 12 I'd seen the doctor; both baby and I are fine (heart rate was 135), had blood drawn, read a good chunk of my book while I waited in various places and eaten a Teen burger.. fulfilling a craving I've had since Tuesday. :) I was going to get a chocolate shake to go with it but they don't sell them this time of year?? It must only be crazy pregnant ladies who want a milkshake when it's - 5 or what ever it was outside.  What is with that.?. for sure a good thing though if you talk to Papa :) or know me much at all.

I got home and found my wonderful hubby working hard on the house... The way he was half asleep when I left I half expected the kids to still be playing and him to be in bed. Instead they'd had, and cleaned up, breakfast and had even done their morning chores!! Impressed!! Papa and I chatted out in the house for a bit and caught each other up on happenings and got a few little things done while we were there.

Papa went to work a little while later and as the big kids were happily playing outside in the snow, I fed the little 3 a snack and got them ready for naps. Big kids came in, did an hour of school while I sat with R and J and had myself a little rest while making sure they napped. Then the bigs put leftovers together for their lunch, ate and cleaned it up and went back to school, while I did some laundry and some prep for some school stuff I'm hoping to do tomorrow. Bigs finished school. Little's got up from naps. Play time!! And nap time for me. I set the alarm on my ipad but it didn't wake me up. I woke up to E screaming with a bump on her head. I needed to get up anyway. We worked together and cleaned all the floors. Very nice!

Supper was a salad with beef roast, hard boiled eggs, crackers, Ranch for the kids and Blue cheese for me. Kids ate theirs with 'Animals Are Beautiful People' and I ate mine with "The Nanny" on Netflix in the entrance... the only place I can get a good enough connection to watch Netflix.

After everyone got ready for bed J read them a chapter in a Robin Hood book he enjoys. I picked out the kids new reading assignments for the morning, we prayed together, gave hugs and kisses.. and I went into the entrance to finish the Nanny I'd put on hold. Now I'm here at the computer. Typing slowly so my fingers don't have to re do every word more then once!! Oh wait.. I ate a very yummy chocolate my wonderful sister in law sent me up for Christmas.. I still have half the bowl as I've been hording them for those moments when you just NEED a fine chocolate. My oh my are they fine!!

I got a few things done today that needed doing and a few I put off for another day. I washed and hung a load of laundry. Washed another load and dried it. They are both still either drying or sitting on the chair in the living room. I got my regular clothes out of my dresser and in a tote and my newly found mat clothes in the dresser. I got the load of girls 24 month clothes, that had previously been stored in the bus in a black plastic bag that I washed and hung to dry yesterday, in a tote. Which has been on my to do list for ages.. but I didn't have any empty totes and I found one :) I started my 'puzzle swap.' An idea that Papa's mom does with hers. You cut the top pictures off the puzzle boxes and one of the little pictures off the side of the box. Then you put the puzzle pieces in a ziplock bag with the little picture and store the big picture in a tote with the bags of puzzles. I plan on doing all our puzzles as it's a great space saver!! But alas I ran out of ziplocks a while a go so I could only do those puzzles that were already in ziplocks. I also played with J3, cuddled with R, chatted with E, helped L with a problem, listened to J and played with G... she is walking quite well now and she loves it if you pretend she's scary and run away while she's walking at you. So I must say all in all it was a GOOD day. And now I must go milk Miss Isabel.. while checking FB :) Oh and I have a date with a large cup of tea :) and a book after that.

So good night all!! Hope you had as Thankful of a Thursday as we did :)

T-Shirt Chairs

A friend of ours gave us a set of chairs a year or two ago and I finally got tired of looking that the worn tops.. 

So I did something about it. 

The first one I did lasted only a few weeks. I took an old T-shirt and slipped it over the cushion and stapled it on. It had a few issues from the start. The shirt had a TINY hole.. and it soon grew and grew! Before long it looked worse then before. 

First I took Papa's little drill and removed the cushions from the chair.. 4 easy screws. No problems! 

This time I decided to use the shirt doubled up and make sure there were no holes!! 

I lay the shirt back side down on the table, put the cushion in the middle right side down. Then I  pulled the two layers over the back of the cushion and stapled it to the back of the cushion. You have to make sure you have both layers and that you do it so that it is tight all the way around. These were 100% cotton so they stretched pretty good. I did not have any trouble getting the whole front covered. Fold the corners over in a neat tuck before you staple them. Gives it a nice corner. 

Tools of the trade :) I stapled it like crazy!! 

When your all done stapling just screw them back on to the chairs!! 

I also ran my hands over the staples to get any that were at all loose out.. I don't want the baby finding them. The only thing I will do differently next time is mark the cushion so I know which way is the front of the chair. It would make them easier to put them back on. 

Finished!! I'm leaving the backs alone.. they are in good shape yet and I'm not that sure I can do BOTH sides nicely. I did 3 different colors on purpose :) and I'm glad I did!! I love them!! They brighten up the kitchen and the kids love to rotate chairs. 

Oh and by the way I just used old shirts of mine. The green ones ribbing on the neck and arms was worn out but the shirt was fine. The blue one had a picture on the front but it was SO worn it didn't look like a picture anymore. And the red one had a couple of burn holes in the front and was a bit too small on me. 

The whole project took me about 30 minutes :) a drill, industrial stapler and 3 shirts :) Totally worth it. It's been about 10 days now and they still look great. I can't see these wearing out any time soon! 

~Strawberry Jam Night~

My wonderful friend Mrs. B and I made strawberry jam together last week. 

The kids helped and we had a blast! 

Strawberries rinsed and the tops cut off. Lucky worms :) 

Smashed up strawberries in my food processor.. 

Chopped up strawberries waiting to have the pectin and some sugar added in before cooking.

Wonderful Mrs B who stirred both large batches of jam! 

A closer look! You can see it is boiling :) 

The very yummy strawberry foam. 

We got to this point and I found out that Mrs B had never ever canned or made jam or anything like this before!!  She was amazing! I told Papa later it was like working with myself :) Like as in TWO of me! We worked very well in sync together! And we got 8 pint jars and 6.5 quart jars full of jam!

Putting it into jars! Clean hot jars, wiping the rims, putting lids and rings on and placing each jar upside down to heat the seal.

Mrs. B's finished 8 pint jars with 3 of my quart jars! Good Stuff! 

A few days later I made 6.5 more quarts for a total of 13 quarts of jam.. should last us for a bit anyway! 

Oh and if you are wondering about a recipe? 

It's easy.. 

You buy a box of pectin from the store and follow the instructions :) 

We both bought lite pectin which uses less sugar and then both used less sugar then they said..

which makes the jam a little runny but really easy for kids to spread :) 

SUPER EASY!!! 

I love easy :) 

Momma's New Maid.. A Mixer :)

Papa got a nice bonus from work this spring... This spring it was really nice as he wasn't going to school and his bonus didn't just get thrown into the 'surviving while going to school' pot. Instead he picked out some beer stuff he WANTED not needed.. er.. as much as anyone NEEDS beer making stuff. :) Just kidding honey.. I know I know beer is your chocolate :) *blog about beer stuff coming soon :)

ANYWAY.. he also picked out a mixer for me! He's been wanting to get me one for quite some time and I've been not letting him.. why, now that I have it, I'll never know.
I LOVE IT!! Makes my life ten time easier.



Mine has cookie paddles that make great chocolate chip cookies and clean butter like nothing else!! It's got a dough hook and a large enough bowl that can make my bread recipe THREE TIMES!! Which means I can do less bread making and more other stuff! It makes wonderful ice cream too! He also got a slicing thingie to go with it but I haven't used it yet. I imagine I'll be using that a lot more in the fall for canning etc.

As I've been typing this out J's has been getting everything we need for chocolate chip cookies ready by the mixer.. I love how he can read the recipe and get everything out and all I have to do it throw it all in the mixer (J could do that already too! But a momma gets to have some fun!) and then I let him turn it on and wait for it.... all of 20 seconds and we have the. best. cookie dough. EVER!!! See ya!

Ahhh Now This Is Mega Laundry!!

The long and short of it is.. when you have 5 kids, soon to be 6, on a farm and your husbands a mechanic and a farmer.. you do A LOT OF LAUNDRY!!! We've gone through a used washer roughly every two years since we've lived here!! They just don't seem to last long. The last one had been on it's 'last legs' for several months. You know you got washing machine trouble when you have to hand turn the churny thing in the middle so it'll churn the clothes down so they'll wash!! :) I told Papa, NO MORE USED WASHERS!!! And it took us a bit but we found one we liked online, paid for it over the phone and got it delivered right to our door!! SWEET!!! I LOVE it!! It easily does a full TOTE of laundry at a time, and they still come clean!!, and spins the clothes so dry you could almost wear them right out of the washer. No Joke!! The 1st week it was set up I did about a weeks worth of laundry, normally 8 loads, in 4 loads and ALL IN ONE DAY!! Because the washer spins them so dry I can use my dryer again without it taking HOURS to dry my clothes. About 50 minutes in the dryer is all it takes for a TOTES worth of laundry.. before it would take TWICE that long for HALF as much!! No wonder our dryer was costing us an arm and a leg to run!! ( We totally quit using the dryer last Feb because of this!!) The washer is 5.2 cf and sings a little song when you turn it on or off.. and when your load is done. Very cool!! lol. The lid is a no slamming lid and the kids love it because they can 'watch' though the glass window. The loudest part of washing used to be the addition spin when the washer did.. now the loudest part is the water pouring in.. and I have to admit for someone who has been filling her washer with a hose for several months, OK a year!, the water noises this thing makes has made my head thump and my heart turn over and for at least a second or two I wonder if I've, yet again, left the water running and the washer is overflowing! Then I remember that there is NO LONGER a hose in my addition and the washer is plumbed into the hot and cold like a normal washer and there will be NO MORE overflowing of the washer.. at least not that will be MY fault!! :) And that does my heart good :) 

Momma's Maids.

I love my maids. They work hard. They wash dishes, make bread, cook supper and keep our clothes nice and clean! One makes butter, another dry's fruit, yet another keeps the kids entertained while I milk the cow. Some days they all work together and other days none of them work. They all work hard to keep us tidy, well fed and looking nice. There was a time I would have had to pay them but these days it's a one shot deal. They eat very little and I rarely have to supervise them. I find them at yard sales or Walmart, 5 came with the trailer we live in. Live in Maids. Very cool. Some days I try and see if I can get them all working at once. They are quiet and normally well behaved. Every once and a while one quits or breaks down and we have to replace it. They never sleep and work even when I'm asleep. They are the only way I can keep up around the house. I love my maids. Just think there was a time when we did not have washers and dryers. Dishwashers and toasters. Breadmakers and electric butter churns. Stoves and fridges. Freezers and dehyrators. Mircowaves and computers. Furnaces and fans. Hot water tanks and electric fences. I'm very thankful for my wonderful maids. And I bet you are thankful for yours:) If your not you should be!!