weekending: rest

This weekend was filled with more rest and hopefully restoration, I am getting stronger everyday!

Brunch, pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries.
Thrift store trip with my beloved friend.
Rest while the kids played over at their best friends house.
Back to school shopping at one place. Amazing!
Dinner and more rest watching the olympics.
Coffee in the cool morning air on the front porch.
Lunch with a dear friend, yummy roast!
A nap and some knitting.
A post dinner trip to our favorite place in the world. The kids and Eric play while I snap some photos from the shore.

We didn't 'accomplish' much but we had a beautiful and restful weekend just being together.

What did you do this weekend?




Joining The Habit of Being.

Snow and Winter, Winter and Snow

If you haven't heard about the weather in the Midwest, it's been cold and snowy.

Now, don't be alarmed. This is normal.

However, the amount of snow boggles the mind (24 inches Christmas eve/day alone). Snow, teamed with wind and negative temps (-30 one morning before windchill... yikes!).

So here are some pictures of the house, when it warms up to 12 degrees or so, we let the kids bundle up and play outside!

30 Days of Happiness: Pumpkin Spice Lattes

(Day 26) It is starting to look like fall, the leaves are changing, the soybeans are yellowing, the grass is browning and the kids wore their sneakers to the park. I'm sure I've said this before, but this season leaves me nesting, cleaning, cooking, canning, knitting...

And drinking dreamy warm drinks.

I do like me a good Starbucks once in a while, but after a conversation about coffee shops this evening, I was craving a pumpkin spice latte. Starbucks is 45 minutes away, and I don't have a tank of gas and three bucks to blow. I thought I'd make one.

Lattes are in four parts--you know, syrup, espresso, steamed milk, and foam.

I had three of the four, I needed some syrup. I used my basic vanilla syrup recipe, then I made used a quick infusion method for the pumpkin spice syrup.

     Vanilla Syrup
     3/4 cup Sugar
     3/4 cup Water
     1 tbsp vanilla
     Bring to a boil until sugar dissolves. Add 1 tbsp vanilla.

    Pumpkin Spice Syrup
    1 Batch Vanilla Syrup
    2 tsp ground cinnamon
    1/2 tsp of ground or some whole cloves
    1/2 tsp ground ginger
    1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
    1/2 of pumpkin pie spice (redundant maybe, but I think it adds something)
    Dash of allspice
    Boil together for 5 minutes. Line a funnel or strainer with a coffee filter.  Store out of direct sunlight in a glass jar, or in the fridge.

Use about 2 tbls of syrup (more or less to personal taste). And this is good in just coffee with a little milk too. You can use it as your sweetener. If you want it more Starbucks-y tasting, I'd use more, top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. 

I'm thinking this would be a good substitute in for sugar in our Microwave Hot Chocolate Recipe. Though I haven't tried it yet.

I'm going to take my latte and go get some knitting accomplished. After all-- my dears, this is fall.

*I've edited the recipe for stronger tasting syrup. 

Late Summer Snack

We arrived home late last thrusday night. Covered in dirt, tired but energized.


After working side by side in the garden with sweet friends. We brought in 4 huge boxes of garden glories: cabbage, sunflowers, squash, carrots, potatoes, beans, peas, the first of the tomatoes and cucumbers! I didn't even remember we'd planted cucumbers until a friend said, "Do you want to pick the pickels?" Um. YES! (Thank's Charlene!)


After we bathed the kids and put them down, we cleaned and seeded 14 sunflower heads (which yeilded 2 gallons of seeds). I have a whole photo story, that documented the whole process. Coming soon!


And washed the beans/peas for canning and freezing on Friday, and washed the cabbages for coleslaw (that we made for a friend’s wedding).

It was getting late, the kids were in bed and lucy was down for the night. I took a shower then made my self a little bedtime snack.

My grandma used to make us a summer salad that was just peeled cucumber, ranch dressing and fresh cooked, crumbled bacon. O my. Getting out of her pool, sitting over the hot bricks in the back yard on the heavy, white, wrought iron lounges (which never had cushions on them) eating this cool salad was the epitome of summer.


I felt a tinge of sadness and memory eating this cucumber salad in my night shirt on the front porch in the summer evening air. I figured it was too late for the neighbors to be peeping out anyway (if not well, hello neighbors!).

So whether you dress them in olive oil or in bacon ranch, cucumbers are a nostalgic summer treat.


Summer Bedtime Snack
1 small tomato
1 small cucumber
1 hard boiled egg (I boil a dozen or two at the beginning of each week to have on hand)
Oilve oil
Balsamic Vinager
Lime Juice (or juice of half a lime, I was out so I used the real lime product... I’m not sure if it is ‘real’)
Salt and Pepper

Dice tomatoes, and gently salt. Cut ends of cucumber’s first, as they are quite bitter. Then dice cucumber, you could peel first, but hey I’m lazy and I like some extra crunch. Dice hard boiled egg and then dress with olive oil, a little balsamic vinager (a little goes a long way), squirt of lime (or lemon), salt and pepper.

It is so easy and so delicious. You could double, triple, quadruple if you wanted too! Add some cilantro for some extra summer zing!

Bench Monday

I’ve been trying to carve out some time to participate in Bench Monday Flickr Group— but I haven’t gotten the extra space. So at lunch yesterday, I snapped a few photos of me in the moment. A single leaf, my feet and a baby hat in progress.

See some of my favorite Bench Monday photos.