Thursday, July 31, 2008

Dinner tomorrow

I am afraid I may not get to the computer tomorrow because I will be canning apricots all day. So for dinner tomorrow it is:

Waffles
Sausage

Yummy!

We always have breadfast for dinner a couple times a month. With tomorrow being a busy canning day I needed some thing easy~ although making waffles is not that easy. Anyway, my husband loves waffles and it is something my kids love too. I think they are good if they are cooked a little longer and are really crunchy. I make our syrup. I do 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water and bring to a boil add 1 Tablepoon mapleline and presto! Syrup. I usually do a 5 times batch or so and store in qt jars in the fridge. Two years ago I did strawberry syrup when I was canning strawberry jam. It is really good too. We might have that.

dinner anyone?

Here it is:

Baked Potato Bar
fresh apricots

No zucchini tonight.

I know not very exciting.

krista

Apricots & Pickles

We went and picked apricots yesterday. We picked two and a half 5 gallon buckets full. I will be making jam~both freezer and cooked, canning some, and I think I will try apricot nectar this year. I will post pictures when we are finished with them.

We also have gotten enough pickling cucumbers from our garden to do one batch of pickles. I will be doing dill and bread & butter ones this year.

It is so staisfying to see all the jars lined up on the counter when you are done.


krista

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

On the Menu this Evening

We are having:

Pasta with red sauce
Italian sausage
sauteed zucchini
Cottage Cheese
Water/lemonade


We do not normally have this in the summer, but I have a goal to use what is on hand for the next two weeks. Kind of a food storage practice. I did buy milk, eggs and bread today. I have been too busy to bake bread for the past couple of weeks. I do have dry milk too but keep forgetting to make it at night because it is not the instant kind and you have to let it sit overnight. My kids really can not tell but I can. We really use a lot of eggs so I can not be out of them too often. So I figured that is all I will buy (Oh I did buy bananas today too) for two weeks. So, you will probably see lots of zucchini because we planted a TON and have lots.

krista

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Krista's Parents

Krista's parents have built a house about 15 minutes from us in Caldwell, ID. Her dad will be moving in this weekend and her mom will be staying in WA until she retires hopefully in December. It will be nice to have family in the area. We have not lived near family since we lived in WA, seven years ago next month. I will post a picture of their house as soon as we take one.

Dinner Tonight

Well, my dear friend, Tami, thinks that posting my daily dinner menu is a high mark to reach. She knows me too well. Anyway, I will do my best. So, to prove her wrong here is tonight's menu.

Grilled Chicken
Grilled Zucchini (from our garden~ yummy)
Brown Rice
Apricots


Krista

Monday, July 28, 2008

Benjamin

Here is our Ben. One of Ben's namesake is in the background (Krista's Dad, Benjamin) his middle name is William and Brian's dad's middle name is William too. This picture was taken at Krista's grandma Emily's house in Olympia, WA where Krista spent most of her growing up years.


Ben is a child of a thousand faces. Ever since he was a baby he always has funny faces. He loves to ham it up in front of the camera. He makes us laugh a lot.







When we were in Ocean Shores at the beach and found this great "little river" the kids liked to play in it.

Sonny

Here is our oldest child. I can not believe he is 12 (he is only 11 in this pic). This is at Ocean Shores, Wa.



On our way home from Washington we stopped in OR and Brian took the boys on a bike ride through an old car road by Hood River. This is Sonny before the ride.













Princess Julianna

This is Julianna and Rosie in our
home in Idaho.






This is our beautiful Julianna. She loves having her picture taking and is always willing to smile.



This is Brian and Julianna at Ocean Shores, Wa. We went there in August 2007 for a weeklong camping trip. We also visited with Brian's brother, Gary, and his parents. We were also able to see Krista's parents, grandma, and uncle Gary.

Dinner Menu

I thought it might benefit someone if I posted everyday what we are having for dinner. I know I am always looking for new ideas. So for tonight we are having BBQ pulled pork sandwiches with homemade jojos and green beans.

krista

Sunday, July 27, 2008

A bit of History for you from Sonny

Here is a paper Sonny wrote for his Constitution & Freedom class in our Friday Co-op. (for more info on our co-op go to www.teachcoop.com ) Enjoy!!


John Dickinson
By Sonny Collins

John Dickinson was an amazing person. Born in Philadelphia P.A. November 13, 1732, he went to London to study law. Later, he became a lawyer. After his return, he alerted town people the Townshed Acts. The people got very angry. Some were sons of liberty and caused the Boston Tea Party which led to the Intolerable Acts. John did not like this. Later, he wrote the most detailed account of the Boston Massacre.
John also wrote other articles such as, Letters of a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the British. Some of his works were printed and taken by Ben Franklin when he went to see the King of England. Some copies are in French and Italian as well as others. He also co-wrote A Declaration of the Right to Bear Arms. Although his writings were against the British, he did not want independence from them. Instead of war he thought the king would settle the acts of the British on the Americans.
Much later, after the Declaration of Independence was signed, he was put in the army as a Brigadier-General. He didn’t stay long in the army. Once the war was done he was called to continental congress to represent Pennsylvania. He wrote the first draft of our constitution. He wrote more things such as a series of 9 essays, using a pename, Fabius.
John Dickinson retired from public life, in 1797, to his home in Wilmington where he later died on 14 February 1808. Later, in his memory a college was named after him and his wife. The college was first a grammar school. Its original name was John and Mary’s College. It was changed to Dickinson’s College. Today, many students are taught there. Some might even become writers like John Dickinson.

About Us

Hello to our friends and family!

Brian is the head of our family. He is currently a manager at RC Willey. He has a B.S. in History from Brigham Young University-Idaho. He is working on getting his teaching certificate so that he can teach secondary history. He is currently the first counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency at church.

Krista is a stay at home mom. She is very busy homeschooling our children. She loves to read in her spare time. She is currently a Relief Society teacher teaching from the Joseph Smith manual. She is also the Wolf Den leader.

Sonny (Brian Jr.) turned 12 this year and received the Aaronic Priesthood. He is an active member in the Boy Scouts and has just earned 5 merit badges and is working on 8 more. He is currently working on becoming a First Class. He is an avid reader. Whenever we can not find him he is somewhere with a book in his hand. Sonny is still pursuing the violin. He took last year off from private lessons, but has been playing since he was 7.

Benjamin will be 8 in November. At that time he will be baptized and join the Cub Scouts. He is our little comediean. He loves to work. He is one year above grade level and is reading 3 grade levels above where he should be. He is continuing his pursuit of the piano. He has been playing for 2 years.

Julianna is our little princess. She is three but thinks she is 16. She loves to dress up and put nail polish on. She is a handful, but she brings a ray of sunshine into our home. Her favorite color is pink.

Husky is our guinea pig. He is 2 years old. Sonny got him from a friend for his 10th birthday. We decided to start with something small. Husky's favorite food is celery. He loves to be petted.

Rosie is our 2 1/2 year old Basset Hound. She is a sweet dog~ for the most part. She hardly ever barks but does get too excited for her own good. She loves to sneak into the boys' room and sleep on their bed. She loves all food.

Thank you for visiting our blog.