Autumn Is In The Air~

The smell of spiced apple/pom tea simmering in my crock pot waffled through my very clean house! The lights were dim and the candles were glowing......my house was beaming with touches of warm and cozy!

My friend (and co-host) Elizabeth was over early so we could visit a bit before the party.

My 1st Annual Garden Potluck and Harvest Share....that no one RSVP'd for! Well 2 out of 17 did!

Elizabeth and I toured my garden and looked at a few of my new garden,canning and homestead books! We blessed the food (Jackie lead us in the Johnny Apple Seed song) and began to eat. It was already 6:20!

Then it was time to wait!...Who would come?.... Would anyone come?


I almost didn't care if anyone else came because it was so refreshing to sit in my very clean house, eat and visit with my friend Elizabeth! I was quit relaxed and very content! Listening to soft music....taking in the delightful smells of burning candles and the cinnamon & cloves from the simmering spiced tea was very therapeutic!

But at about 6:30 the door bell rang! I could hardly wait to see who it was! Yes...I did run through the house to answer the door! lol (I knew I wouldn't trip on anything because I had picked up)

The first 2 guests had finally arrived....... and every 30 minutes after another guest would arrive bringing with them food and garden harvests!

Beans,tomatoes,scallions and zucchini were among the harvest shares!

Homemade salsa and taco dip with chips, potato salad and raw green beans with blue cheese dip were among the other eats!

We had a great time! In fact we had an AWESOME time!

The first gal to arrive(brought a friend) has a son in my sons 5th grade class (the co-host's son is in the same class too.) My son went to her son's birthday party last weekend that is how we met.The friend she brought was her pregnant neighbor that needed a break from her toddler.

Another guest was a mom I had invited just hours earlier in the parking lot of my daughter's preschool! Once she was here I found out this mom is homeschooling her 3rd grade daughter this year and her 4 yr old son is in Jackie's class at the preschool. She also has a 4 month old boy!

Another guest was a long time friend and my Tastefully Simple Consultant with her 5th grade son!

We did not just talk about gardening. We talked about birth,nursing (3 of us still are nursing our little ones!) We talked about homeschooling among other things! We all really hit it off!

Elizabeth and I invited our new friends to sign up for MOPS! The first meeting of the year is next week!

So....I now have a homeschooling friend with kids of similar ages of mine! We plan to do a few field trips together....the zoo and wildlife park! I can bring in 3 guest free to both with my membership!

The storm that was supposed to come never did(it came the day before).....so the kiddos played outside and us mom's had a terrific time getting to know each other!

God really knew what he was doing!

The Lord truly blessed my gathering......because I invited HIM to join us!

The Lord is always standing near by.....waiting for an invitation! HIS personal invitation!

HE arrived not only in my attitude but in the hearts of each of my guests......

showing HIS beautiful face!

Blessings,

Georgiann

Where Two Or More Are Gathered......

........in my name their I AM in their midst says the Lord!

Tonight in my home I will be hostessing my 1st Annual Garden Potluck and Harvest Share!

My co-host and friend Elizabeth has a seed recognition game planned!

I know yesterday I my have sound quit discouraged about the fact no one called to RSVP (either way)....but soon after I posted, my friend Ann came by and reminded me that God will bring the people that will enjoy and be blessed by the night! She shared with me a similar story.(you can read in my comments)

Ann was so right! I knew she was....but needed a reminder. (the devil is always at work!)

I think God wanted me to step out of my comfort zone and invite people that I might not have invited other wise. I hand delivered a few invitations last night. Two of them to people that have really neat gardens (we spotted on a family walk last week). They are around the corner practically neighbors!

One of the older ladies from around the corner said, she belongs to a local Garden Club that meet and visit each others gardens thorough out the summer! They also visit local plant nurseries for plant sales! The leader of the group has some sort of learning lesson each time! That is so something I would love to do! I would not have found out about the Garden Club if everyone had RSVP ed! She said she will call me and let me know about the next gathering!

God really knows what HE is doing!.....even if we can't see the whole picture yet!

Thanks Ann for such great encouragement!

I still don't know how many people will come....but I DO know that our gathering will be blest! Where 2 or more are gathered in my name there I Am in their midst says the Lord!

Well...... I have the stew in the crock pot, 2 loaves of bread going in the bread machines.

The bathroom is clean,the weeds are pulled out of the flower pots on the porch,the floors have been vacuumed and the dishes are done! (just don't go upstairs) heehee!

More importantly I have a HAPPY HEART and am resting in GOD's LOVE!

Blessings,

Georgiann

Places To Go~

I wanted to participate in Happy Homemaker Monday but I have some places to go today!

I will try to put my post together tonight or just have to wait til next week?

This Tuesday (tomorrow)I'm hostessing my 1st Annual

Harvest Potluck and Garden Share party in my backyard! I will make a crock pot of my Garden Beef Stew and a basket of bread!

I will have another crock pot of hot apple spice tea!

My friend is co-hosting!

I mailed out 17 invites and only one person called to say they can not make it!

Your probably thinking great......right??? Well...

the rest of the people never called one way or the other!

The people that were invited asked to be on my list....it was a sign up at MOPS last spring.

I also had a sign up at a church mom's group I went to on and off last year....so today I will stop by and see if anyone is coming!

I called a few of the mom's to see if they were coming and one said YES! and the rest I got their answering machine.

One of the gals called me back and said that the local christian school was having their parent night on Tuesday! So I read off my guest list and 4 of those will be at the parent night!

So how many will be at the party?

Who really knows..but it will be fun and and how many people are there doesn't really matter!

I like small groups!

It would have been polite for the ladies to reply!

So far there will be 3 of us!

My house is clean and we will have fun,food and fellowship!

Well I'm off to run some errons and I will be back to blogging tomorrow or Wednesday!

I will post pictures of my party!

Blessings,

Georgiann

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Post edit.

I found out many people I invited to the party are very sick....hence no call.

The weather tomorrow will be cold but sunny most of the day with a storm due to roll in at about the time of my party...6pm-8pm!

So tonight hubby and I will bring in my large dining table (it has been outside since my sisters bridal shower)! We will be eatting inside! The Pacific Northwest autumn storms have officially arrived! Buurrr!

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Oh and Mirage...I got my baby bonnet in the mail today! Thank you! Thank you! Thankyou!

Its just beautiful! I love the flowers on the inside.....so cute!

Oh and did you here...I won the Edwardian Apron over at the Seven Sister blog!

Look Who's Cookin'!

Little Miss Olivia loves to cook (as do all my kiddos)! The other day it was her turn to help me in the kitchen! We loaded both bread makers, made banana bread and some homemade granola bars!

I found a really neat recipe for the granola bars using coconut oil instead of butter or veggie oil!

You can go here, here and here to read more about the health benefits of coconut oil!

Granola Bar Recipe:

* 2 cups rolled oats

* 1/2 cup wheat germ

* 1/4 cup ground flax seed

* 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

* 3/4 teaspoon sea salt

* 1 teaspoon cinnamon

* 1/4 fresh ground nutmeg

* 1/2 cup honey

* 1 Lg egg beaten

* 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil (you could use peanut butter for a change)

* 3/4 cup dried fruit ie: raisins,currants,chopped apricots,cherries!(optional)

* 1/4 cup nuts ie: almonds,walnuts,pecans,peanuts or sunflower seeds! (optional)

* 1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350

Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Mix dry ingredients together then make a well in the bowl and add the wet stuff!

Mix well!

Press mixture into baking dish.

Bake for 3o-35 minutes until the edges are golden brown!

Cool for about 5 minutes then cut! The bars will harden as they cool so cut while still warm!

Enjoy!

You can check out more of our family recipes over at my other blog:

The Rustic Kitchen!

Blessings,

Georgiann

Look What I Got For $5.00!

I got a Marcato pasta press! I looked on line to price them and it sells for $150.00!!!

Just 2 cups flour, 3 eggs(from our chickens)a pinch of salt, 2 Tsp milk! In just 2 minutes you have pasta dough! Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and add pasta. Cook for 5-7 minutes and enjoy!

Top with your favorite sauce! Noah(my 7yr old) made a homemade tomato sauce from our garden tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs! It was delicious!

My pasta roller can roll out sheets for lasagna or homemade ravioli. It does spaghetti and fettuccine too!

I had never made my own pasta before but always wanted to! So when I went to go blackberry picking at our favorite spot....and saw that the berries had been sprayed and mowed down, I decided to take the kiddos to the park instead! That's when I spotted a garage sale! They had a food dehydrator but another lady beat me to it! I was hoping there would be a flour mill!
They had 4 juicers but I already have 2! There was a kids sewing machine I wished I would have gotten! I might drive back out to see if its still there, even though its been a week!?

Blessings,
Georgiann