Flavorful Friday

Creamy Vegetable Casserole

from Taste of Home

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh baby carrots

2 cups fresh broccoli florets

2 cups fresh cauliflowerets

( I used bags of frozen vegetables for the fresh. Just thaw them.)

1 3/4 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

2 Tbsp. of butter

2 Tbsp. of all-purpose flour

2 cups half-and-half cream

1 tsp. chicken bouillon granules

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. of white pepper

1 cup ( 4 oz. ) shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 cup crushed butter-flavored crackers ( about 15 crackers )

How to make it!

1. Place carrots in a steamer basket; place in a large saucepan over 1 in. of water. Bring to a boil; cover and steam for 3 minutes.

2. Add the broccoli and cauliflower; steam 5 minutes longer or until tender. Transfer vegetables to a greased 2 1/2 quart baking dish.

3. In a large skillet, saute mushrooms in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in the cream, bouillon, onion powder and pepper. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cheese.

4. Pour over vegetables and stir to coat. Sprinkle with cracker crumbs. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.

5. Eat!

This dish was very welcomed at my house! Pie Pie had seconds! If you have kids I highly recommend this side dish. I made it easier for me by using frozen vegetables. You could also substitute a different cheese if your family doesn't like Swiss. Add ham or chicken and make it a meal! I hope your family enjoys this recipe too!

A Leaf of a Different Variety

My family currently does not have a yard, but we make it work. We do outside fun inside! So what if you don't have a tree with leaves! You just have to use your imagination.

All you need is a box of packing peanuts and a sister to dump them on you!

Yes, you do have to clean them up. They are not as dirty as actual leaves!

Pie Pie is the pile! This only works with the little one on top!

Pants figured out the hard way you can't laugh while someone is dumping the "leaves" on you! Packing peanuts are not yummy!

It's the little things that make kids giggle!

Don't worry my kids get to play in actual leaf piles as well as packing peanut ones! We just have to take a trip! Grammy save some leaves for us! We're on our way!

What has Pants been up to?

I feel like Pie Pie gets the lion share of individual posts. Every once in a while Pants needs to be the star! She's always around when we do school, I just don't do any formal schooling with her. She's only 3 going on 4 in November. If she wants to "do learning", as she calls it, we do. I always have something for her to do.
She loves to play and I love to let her!
She likes to build crazy eyeball aliens! What is a crazy eyeball alien? Don't worry I have pictures! Pants made me take them! 

I make marble runs for her. She loves to race the marbles and congratulate the winner! She names them too!

She also likes to cook in her kitchen. Her favorite dish to make is cupcakes! I'm working on teaching her the clean-as-you-go technique. When we work in the real kitchen it's a little neater! Not much, but a little!

Pants is a crazy girl! We call her Jekyll and Hyde. One minute she's hugging and loving you and the next she is throwing a major tantrum on the floor. She can make you laugh with just a few words or a silly face! I wouldn't trade her for the world!
P.S. One of the main reasons I wanted to do this post was to use the random pictures I have of Pants on my camera!

Is It Time To Harvest?!

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

Galatians 6:9

I think this verse is amazing! I read it in the book I talked about recently called Believing God by Beth Moore. This is a great book! If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it! In this part of the book she is talking about living the day to day. I can totally relate. I get so sick of doing the same tasks all of the time. Such as loading and unloading the dishwasher (I know I should be thankful I even have one!), washing laundry ( at least we have clothes), and making another meal for my kids ( I have kids?!). There are many more areas, but I think you get where I am going with this idea.

It is so hard to be thankful for the chores we have to do all the time, but our families benefit from every little thing we do! We save money by washing dishes instead of buying new ones. They wear clean and neat clothes. They grow and are healthy from the meals we prepare.

On that small list my least favorite is making meals. I feel like I am constantly serving someone. Most of the time my girls don't even appreciate it. They come to the table and look at the food like it is going to kill them. Pants usually runs away crying. Pie Pie will choke it down if there is dessert. Don't worry my husband ALWAYS appreciates any meal! That's who I actually cook for. 

Every once in a while I make something Pie Pie loves. It is totally worth the effort to see her happily eating a meal. A meal she would eat even without dessert! Pants is still a mystery to me in the food department.

So whatever your least favorite task of the day is you just have to keep at it. Eventually you will get your own, "Yum, this is ACTUALLY good, Mom!"!

The Writing Process Pie Pie Style

The second chapter in our Language Arts book is learning the steps of writing a story. Writing happens to be Pie Pie's least favorite subject. I told her at least she gets to pick what she writes about for this project. Later in life you will have to write about the topic that you are assigned.
Our first step was to figure out the topic. Pie Pie picked Pet Pet Park.
Then we filled in a word web about her topic. They had different questions to help give her ideas for her story. We numbered our ideas so we could put them in the right order.

Then we wrote out our story in number order.

Our next step was to write out a rough copy. 





Then we made some revisions for our final copy.

It was rough, but we got the job done! Just in case you can't read the final copy I'll type it out for you on here.

 Pet Pet Park

Pet Pet Park is an online game. I saw it on a commercial and wanted to try it out. I played at Grammy's house on a computer. Jonah and Lissa were with me. My Pet Pet's name is Rocky. I like this game because I see other Pet Pets, I get to help other Pet Pets, and I win prizes.

The End

Not bad for a week's work. Chapter two is done!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

Pie Pie's Title

Goodbye Pool, Hello Halloween!

Now, I know the first day of Fall was Friday, but we managed to sneak an extra day of Summer in this weekend. We went to Knoebels!

My cousin and his wife got married on the Phoenix platform in Knoebels about ten years ago. This weekend they decided to have a ten year renewal ceremony. We were some of the lucky guests who were invited. I was so excited to witness this event along with my family. My girls have never been to a wedding, so this was a new experience for them.

The happy couple!

We had a great day of riding the rides. It started off with multiple rides on the Phoenix.

I only rode twice, but my girl Pie Pie rode as many times as she could!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then our group stormed the park!

Just so everyone knows if Pie Pie has to get married she wants to have the same kind of wedding. But she's going for the Twister! I hope the boy she picks loves roller coasters too. Well, seeing as how she said if she has to get married, I guess he's going to pick her!



I want to say a BIG Thank You to my cousin and his wife for inviting us! We also want to say thanks for the tickets, We enjoyed every last one!





God is Love

I am currently reading a Beth Moore book titled Believing God. It has some challenges in the book. One of them is memorizing five statements about God. The first one is:

God is who He says He is!

(I added the exclamation point! I am sure Beth Moore would approve.)

This week Pants is learning the Bible Verse God is Love. 1 John 4:8. Now I know there are many other qualities God is, but I thought this was pretty neat. These two learning experiences matched up so sweetly. I could see a little bow right on top of the present God has given to me. I thought I'd pass it on to whoever happens to be reading this post. By the way my bow is green with pink polka dots, you can pick whatever colors you like!



I also wanted to share some more verses about God's love!

God loved us and sent His Son. 1 John 4:10

For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

The Lord is gracious and compassionate slow to anger and rich in love. Psalm 145:8

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

The earth is filled with your love, O Lord; teach me your decrees. Psalm 119:64



There are many more verses about God's love! What is your favorite?