A little trip

This week Ken had an insurance board meeting and conference down in the Twin Cities, so as usual our whole family decided to tag along. Here is what I have been up to for the last few days.

On Tuesday we left a little before noon in the hopes that we could get Ken where he needed to be by 4:30 for Board member pictures. Then I would take the kids to my sisters and drop them off and I would go back to eat at a banquet that they were having for board members and spouses. Unfortunately just as we were getting into the cities at around 3:30 our van decided to die when we were in the far left lane of traffic. Ken had hoped to be able to coast over to the right shoulder but the traffic was far to heavy and we weren't able to so we had to go to the left shoulder. A policeman came soon and kindly called a tow truck for us. He also hung around. We realized that our whole family wasn't going to be able to ride in the tow truck nor be able to stay in the van so the policeman called another one and they offered us rides.

Above is Jonathan and Megan and the policeman that they and I rode with.
Here is the policeman that Mara and Aaron rode with. Aaron wasn't so sure about the ride. I tried to encourage him by telling him that since he wanted to be a policeman someday now he would be able to know what it was like to be in a police car. That didn't help because as he said "I don't want to be the one that rides in the back!". By the end of our ride he seemed to be enjoying it a little more.
We went to a Ford dealership to get the van fixed. It was a very nice place with a beautiful customer lounge which included a separate room (with glass walls) for the children to play in. It had a lot of toys and a kids movie ("Cars") going. They also had Starbucks coffee, bottled water, cappuccino and hot chocolate all for free.
There was also this little popcorn cart with popcorn for free. They also offered to drive us to a nearby mall while they fixed the van.
We had a fun time looking around at the mall. It was very nice with plants and trees all over. There were tons of orchid plants that were all blooming. They were gorgeous. There was an elevator with a glass wall and a waterfall going down the whole side. You also had to walk across a little bridge to get on as there was a "moat" around it.

There were escalators which the kids had a blast getting to go on. (Can you tell we are from the country?) Megan wasn't so sure about them though. Ken had to carry her and then when we got to the bottom she had to carefully check it out. After looking around a bit we had supper at an Applebees that was in the mall. Our evening didn't turn out as we planned but we had a lot of fun anyway.

When we did get to Anna and Travis' around 7:30 we decided to have our little birthday celebration for Megan then. (Her birthday was the next day but Ken was going to have a super long day and we didn't think it would be nice to wake the kids up at 6 am in order to open presents.)

For breakfast on Wed. morning I made coffeecake with Juneberries in it to use as Megan's birthday cake (I decided I would do a regular cake on Sunday when Ken will be around as well as all of my family). Megan had no idea what to do with the candles on the cake. Gregory (her cousin on the right of the picture who is almost 3) quickly helped her out by blowing them out. We decided to give her another chance to try but she still didn't get it so Harrison did the job.

On Wed. morning we went to visit the flower wholesaler where I get flowers for my business (they deliver them to me). I wanted to look for some supplies and I thought the kids might find it interesting. Above is my sister Anna and several of the kids in the plant area.

After that we went to the Bakken, a museum that teaches about electricity. It is in a super cool old mansion in Minneapolis. There were a lot of neat things to see and do to help us to learn more about electricity. Anna had been able to get quite a few free passes from their library so it was a very economical outing.

This is the whole group of us except for me. We loved admiring all the neat architecture and I took tons of pictures but I decided not to bore you with all of them.

Here is Megan playing with some magnets and a tv screen that would turn all different colors when you put the magnets on it.
The day was pretty fun (except for driving through the city traffic, it made me very thankful for living in Bemidji.) It wore us all out. Above is a picture of a worn out Gregory and Megan.
That evening we went to church at Woodbury. We went early and ate at the Wednesday night cafe. (Ladies in the church take turns making a meal to serve before church, everybody pays a fairly minimal amount to pay for the food.) At church I enjoyed the beautiful singing and a class on John chapter 3.

On Thursday we all went on a 5 mile bike ride around a lake not to far from the Edward's house. In the middle of our ride we stopped and let the kids play at a park. Here are Margaret and Mara doing the "spider".

Here is Aaron swinging. I had hoped to take a lot of pictures but my batteries went dead. We saw some beautiful scenery, there were neat bridges going over streams and then we saw a lot of ducks, geese and loons. At one spot I counted 15 loons. It was so fun to hear their cry. I guess they are on their way north. Once they get to their home for the summer they will no longer be in the same lake, each couple has their own lake.

For our biking the 4 big kids each rode a bike (thankfully the Edwards have a lot of bikes) and then Aaron got to ride on a tag-along (a one wheeled bike that attaches to the back of another bike) behind Anna. He was able to pedal and told Ken that he had pushed Aunt Anna all the way to the park (but that he rested on the way home) I don't quite think he was supplying all the man power going there but they did check it out and if she quit pedaling he was able to keep them going. It is quite the cool contraption. Travis pulled a trailer behind his recumbent bike with Bea and Gregory in it and I pulled Megan in another trailer.

On Thursday afternoon my friend Christy(and kids) was able to come over for a little while so that was fun! I always enjoy getting to visit with her. We ended up leaving for home a little after 6 pm.

This weekend is also going to be busy. Ken is headed over to Moorhead for the district Republican convention tomorrow, Anna and kids are on their way up here to stay at our house and my older brother Peter and his family from California are flying in tonight. We are looking forward to lots of good family time as all 6 of us kids will be home!

Cheaper than canned pumpkin

When I was first thinking about doing this post I thought maybe I should wait until harvest time as that is the usual time to be thinking about pumpkins and squash, but then I realized that this is a good time to post about this because this is planting time. The time when we decide what we hope to be harvesting in a couple of months.

I just thought that at this time it might be good to put in a little recommendation for planting winter squash (or pumpkins if you prefer). Winter squash are very good for you! Check out this link. Squash are also great for storing so you can eat them all winter long with no need of canning or freezing. (I believe that would be why they are called winter squash.) They are also I believe pretty easy to grow. I will tell you though, I have never actually had them in my own garden. My parents grow them by the hundreds (perhaps I am exaggerating, but not by much) and they are willing to share so I get mine that way. And even if you don't like eating them plain or with butter and brown sugar (which I don't, they make me want to gag) there are oodles of other ways to use them. Here are some of the ways that I have discovered that I like to use squash:

• "Pumpkin" pie
• Yeast bread
• Quick bread or muffins (not just pumpkin bread or muffins either)
• Pancakes
• "Pumpkin Bars"
• "Pumpkin" desserts
• Small amounts that have been pureed in soups, casseroles, meatloaf,spaghetti sauce, etc.
• Chocolate cake (very moist and yummy!)

You can just get creative and stick it in anything where you think it won't be to obvious (unless perhaps you want it to be obvious. I know many people love to eat it just plain.). I love the idea that I am able to add some extra very good for you (and for us free) food in much of what I make.

Most pumpkin recipes that you find lately will call for a 15 oz. can of pumpkin but It truly doesn't need to come out of a can. You can start with a pumpkin or a squash like above. There are a couple of different ways that I know of to prepare them. You can cut it in half or smaller pieces and put it in a pan with a little water and either cook it slowly on the stove top or in the oven. (Take the seeds out and discard or save to plant next year or clean and roast them for a yummy treat.)

My favorite way however is to just wash the outside, set it in a pan with a little water in the bottom and stick it in the oven during a baking time. (I like to bake a lot at a time and so when I am doing bread, dessert and whatever else the squash can be in there as well.) I bake it until it is nice and soft on the outside.

After it cools I cut it in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon and put them in my compost. Then I scoop out the orange flesh to use in my cooking.

I have discovered that if I want to put squash in many things it is nice to have it very smooth first. So I have been using my hand held blender to make it into a puree. I then will keep a container of squash in the fridge to always have ready to use and the rest I will put in the freezer in containers. It is quite simple, cheap and very good for you.

For more Frugal Friday tips visit Biblical Womanhood.

Decorating for a wedding

I am tired tonight, it has been a busy day. I thought however that it would be fun to show you my project for today. Today I put together my most expensive wedding flower order to date. (It wasn't the most time consuming or complicated but the most expensive as calla lilies are rather spendy.)
This is the Bride with her bouquet of ivory and fuchsia mini calla lilies and Asiatic lilies. The bridesmaids also had arm bouquets but with just ivory mini calla lilies.
The ceremony and reception was held at our local country club. It is a pretty location with one side overlooking Lake Bemidji (which is currently frozen with snow on top) and the other side looks out at the golf course (which is currently snow covered as we got 12 more inches of snow Yesterday). The were going to exchange vows in front of this fire place. We put candles, greenery and a vase of Calla lilies on top of the mantle and then I brought the candelabras for them to use and decorated them.
This is the stairs that you have to go up to get in the main room. Yesterday I made 80 some feet of salal garland which I put on all of the rails. Below is the view looking down. I also made an arrangement to hang in the middle of the big window (It is hard to see very well in this picture).



There was some extra garland so we put that on the head table.

This is the flower girls basket.

We ended up with a little variety with the centerpieces. She had first thought she would have all of the centerpieces like the one above with calla lilies and Asiatic lilies. We did 10 of them. But the she decided she would need more table but wanted something a little less expensive so we did this:

A short vase with just Asiatic lilies (I did 6 if these). And then at the last minute she ended up needing more tables. I had quite a bit of extra greenery so we did this:

Just a line of Salal leaves, some curly fuchsia ribbon and candles. (We did this on 5 or 6 rectangular tables.)

We also decorated with greenery and flowers around the punch bowl and here and there on the dessert table. It was a fun wedding to work on and the bride was happy so that is what matters!

Challenge yourself

Our family lives frugally because it is necessary for living the way we want to live. ( It is important for our family that I be a stay at home, homeshooling mom. We also don't like the idea of being deeply in debt.) Everybody gets to make choices about how they want to live and that is the choice we have made. As a result of that choice I am blessed with having what I think (at least for me) is the greatest job on earth!! (I love the variety and creativity that we can use with the job of homemaking! Also getting the blessing of being with and serving those I love the most is so neat!)

Anyway with our choice to be frugal that could either be done with a feeling of "I'll do this but I wish we could have more..." or it can be done with a cheerful attitude and we can have fun with the challenge. I think most of us enjoy some kinds of challenges. Many people like playing games (cards, board games or athletic sports) all of which present us with a challenge. That is the fun of playing to see if we can meet that challenge and do well.

I have gotten to the point that I really truly enjoy the challenge of living frugally. In fact I love making a game of it to see if I can just go a step farther in living frugally. I sometimes will challenge myself in an area for just a certain amount of time. For instance a year ago in March I was getting frustrated with not having room enough in my dresser and closet for all of my clothes. As I was trying to figure out how to make everything fit I told myself "This is silly, I don't need to buy any clothes (whether new or used) until I wear out some of the ones that I have." So I decided that I would set a goal to not buy any clothes for the whole year. I did have to relent once because last summer when we flew out to Oregon for Ken's sisters weddings our bag of dress shoes got lost at the airport. (We did eventually get it back but not until we were ready to go home). I had only tennis shoes and thought it best that I get something else for the wedding. Other than that I have not bought anything. (I was given a few hand me downs however) One year like that really went quite well and I decided I could do it for a longer period of time so I decided to do it for 2008 as well. As we were getting ready for the new year we realized that the kids drawers were also overflowing so they decided to join the challenge for the year of 2008. (We did buy Jonathan a winter coat for next year when they went on cheap clearance but that is all so far.) It has been very fun to see how creative we can be with what we have. We are trying to take care of the clothes we have, mending them if they need it and carefully treating the stains. We also have worn some clothes out which has made more room in our drawers. The benefits for us has been: Less mess(in our drawers and rooms), less shopping time, less money spent and also the fun of the challenge.

Some of my other challenges that I am working on are:

• Cutting our grocery costs down without sacrificing healthfulness.
• Giving gifts that are homemade, or gotten pretty much free from my Walgreens shopping or ones that I already have in my gifts boxes (as they were overflowing too.)

Some of the ones I am considering are:

• Riding bikes to church or on errands once a week or so. (I am already pretty careful on how often I drive around, this is something that I think would be fun to do to make our gas consumption go lower yet.)
• Trying to eat just(or nearly so) local foods for a month. This would mean mostly eating from our garden and all completely from scratch foods. I think this could be economical but even if it is not I think it would be fun to try for the environmental reasons and health reasons and just because it sounds like a fun challenge. :-)
• Trying to greatly reduce our electricty use for a month or so to see if it would cost much less. (We have already switched pretty much everything to florescent light bulbs.)

Do you ever make up challenges for yourself to make living frugally more fun? I would love to hear your ideas.

For more frugal ideas visit Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood.

April Just Scrapbooking Layouts

Well I have been busy scrapping up a storm again. It is easier to get more Scrapping done when Adrian is away. I tend to do scrapping instead of watching TV and chatting with him. Here are my latest Design Team layouts for Just Scrapbooking. I got a stack of K & Company Patterned Papers, some K & Company large material covered square brads and some Thickeners Glittered Chipboard Sticker Alphas. It was very interesting to work with - and threw me for a little while, the patterned papers have lots of colours and patterns in them and I found the less you use the better. But it all came together nicely.

Enchanted

A LO about Bronte meeting my clay Dragon for the first time. Lucky for me I had the camera with me and managed to snap a few photos of this enchanting meeting.

Wonder

One of my left over photos of Bronte from Christmas time. I photo shopped the photo so that the Christmas Ball was the only thing that had colour left in it. Lucky for me it matched the glitter letters perfectly.

Delight

A photo of Bronte playing with one of her shaker toys - I loved how she was sitting with her dress all spread out so I had to take a photo of it.

1st Smile
Another photo I had of Bronte that I have had printed off for ages now. I have scrapped this photo a few times but each time I do it comes out differently. The Teddy bear in this photo looks so big beside her - it is so tiny beside her now. I should take a photo with her and the Teddy bear so that you all can see how much she has grown.

So Peaceful

A layout of Jordan ..... well I think it is Jordan. I am pretty sure it is. One of the few photos that I have of her as a baby.

Sleeping Beauty

A layout of Bronte sleeping. She looks so innocent and peaceful in this photo. I love the finger near her mouth. For this layout I tried to give it a fairytale book feeling. Do you think it worked??

Sunglasses

I had this photo laying around too. I am trying not to print off anymore new photos until I get all of my other ones done. This is a photo if Bronte in her Sunglasses. I can't get her to wear them anymore, as soon as they are on she rips them off. Oh well.

Princess

A LO of Bronte in her Fairy Costume. Every time I put it on her she carries on like a silly sausage - her personality shines through and she hams it up.