Hands On~

The first Friday of the month is FREE Friday @ the hands on children's museum in the big city!
Jackie loves to paint in the art studio! She is really good at it! I love her work~

There was much to do and see! The kiddos liked tracing story characters at these cool light-up desks!

Noah liked to fish for salmon.......and Olivia liked playing the drum! The Indian exhibit was very fitting for the Pacific Northwest! The whole thing put me in the mood for grilled cedar plank salmon! (so guess what we had for dinner?)

We like to grill out all year long....even in the snow or rain!

We had a fun and fruitful Friday last week and the salmon was yummo~

I love living here in the Pacific Northwest!

What do you love about where you live?

Do certain activities make you crave a certain food?

Have a blessed day!

Georgiann

A Few Hidden Treasures~

Beneath the weeds of our over grown garden lays some hidden treasures......green beans,cabbage and a few tomatoes! I still need to over turn my potato buckets and see what we have!


I managed to retrieve this large bowl FULL of beans!
Over the next week I will be giving the garden the weeding it long deserves and getting some of the ground ready for next years planting. (In just a few short weeks we will be getting frost and the ground will be unworkable for the long winter here!)

What treasures do you have in your life waiting to be unearthed?

Blessings,

Georgiann

Look Who's Two~Today!

I don't normally like to post on Sundays....but today is SPECIAL!

Olivia is two today.....and there is much to do! A few years ago I would have said, "I have a busy day".....but the way I view my life and family today I now say....I have a very fruitful day!
The kiddos and I will be making a carrot cake....and doing other fun things together!
Sowing the seeds of love!

It would be great to put together a really cool post of her birth story or a bunch of pictures of her when she was a baby.....but today I will spend living life......embracing the day and my children!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl~

Blessings,
Georgiann

What? A Pumpkin Shortage?

Yes, you heard me right! There is a canned pumpkin shortage in the stores up here!

This past week I sent my hubby to the store for some canned pumpkin.(my garden only gave me 2 small ones so far and I can't remember what one was the sugar pumpkin?) My hubby even got the store manager and was told there was a shortage at all the store chains!

Tis the season for pumpkins right? So why the shortage?

Last week I bought a cute dish towel with a
Pumpkin Scone Recipe on it.
(I will be giving one away soon! So keep checking back)

I wanted to make the scone recipe that was on my new towel!

A several days later I was at the store to pick up a few things and tried to find some canned pumpkin to no avail! Hubby was not joking when he said canned pumpkin shortage!
So I made a decision.....I would roast and can my own pumpkin!

I was going to take back my FREEDOM!

There were boat loads of small sugar pumpkins over in the produce section meant for baking pies and such! They were grown locally a few towns over!

The guy working in the produce section said, the stores might have sold out of last years stock and the factories have not processed this years crops? But who know? Do you?

The bottom of the pumpkin had a sticker with the "how to" instructions for roasting them up!

Pumpkin Puree Tutorial:

1.Cut pumpkins in 1/2 and seed.

2. Place cut side down on a lined cookie sheet and bake @350 for about 1 1/2 hrs! Its done when its fork tender!
3. Let cool for about 20 min. or so! Then scrape the pumpkin meat out of the skins in to a bowl! If your pumpkin flesh is wet or soupy it will need to be strained or run through a mill. (I just pored the liquid off mine)

5. Put pumpkin in freezer safe containers....I just used my wide mouth jars! I ended up with 4 pint jars plus 2 cups I left aside to make a double batch of pumpkin scones!


My scones turned out a bit heavy.....but I think it was because my towel recipe did not say to add baking soda and/or powder! I think next time I will go ahead and add some.....that should make them lighter and rise a bit!
Also I added some ingredients to the pumpkin puree that I used for the scones....pie spice,cinnamon,salt and 3 teaspoons brown sugar. (store bought canned pumpkin has similar things in it)

Happy pumpkin season to all~

There is no shortage @ my house!

Blessings,

Georgiann

Just Beyond The Cosmos~

Just beyond the cosmos (the tall purple flowers).....we made a fort!

Yes, we did! We laid out a blanket on the garden floor and made our "classroom" for our daily home school lessons!

Our beloved garden has fed our family for the past 6 months and has be a source of great JOY for us!

As the days get shorter and air gets colder, I am reminded that we will soon be staying indoors most of the time!

I wanted to spend one of the last few remaining halfway decent days out in the garden!

So I came up with my idea for perfect place to do our afternoon lessons!

I just had Olivia (2 on Oct.4) and Noah (7) home yesterday afternoon. So I grabbed a blanket,science workbook,a toy clock and a box of rhyming tiles! I then told the kiddos to follow me!

My kiddos were thrilled......to help set out the blanket on the garden floor!
Noah was eager to flip though his book and pick what he wanted to study! He chose spiders and sharks! We read and talked about the work.....no pencil needed! We then practiced telling time with the toy clock and played a bit with the rhyming tiles! Olivia loved to play with them too!

We spent about an hour out there in our garden fort nestled under our towering sunflowers and cosmos! The sun began to fade a bit and it started to get a tad chilly. We decided to go inside to grab some hot cider and a quick snack. We then piled onto the recliner for our read a loud (bible story) and sat on the floor to play a board game (5 Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed)!

Time flew by and it was soon time to pick up Jackie from preschool! She goes 3 afternoons a week for 2hrs. During the time she is gone, I use to give Noah extra attention and to do special projects with him. Noah loves to use my camera and took some wonderful pictures of Olivia and I in the garden!
Noah could hardly wait to share our garden classroom with his sister Jackie!

Blessings,
Georgiann