Joyfully Weary

The kiddos and I used a lot of the strawberries we picked to make cobbler. We aren't really pie people and there are a few of us who don't like cake - they claim it is to rich?! - but we are all huge fans of this cobbler. It's a little crazy how many pans we've gone through in the last couple of weeks. Since the fourth is so close I decided to make some with blueberries and strawberries and it was an even  bigger hit.  This recipe is pretty simple, I usually have all the ingredients on hand except for the berries. It's also quite forgiving, which is great for us because it means I can let the kids help without worrying about things being exactly precise.  Ingredients - 3 cups diced strawberries 2 cups blueberries 3/4  cup sugar 2 cups flour  (I'd recommend sticking with all-purpose, I tried wheat and the texture wasn't great) 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract  2 cups milk 2 sticks me...

During my last post  I mentioned that my sister, Angel, had a dessert celebration for her graduation party. So the evening before we headed to Iowa I stayed up, way past my bedtime, to make goodies. The ones my husband was most excited about was definitely the vanilla scones. He even, kindly let me know, that a few of them would not be making it to Iowa. I've spoken about my love for blueberry lemon scones before and they are still probably my favorite, but these are great substitute for when blueberries aren't in season.

I've been wanting to add some art to our "guitar wall" for awhile. I also knew I wanted to use some pages from our hymnals. I like the look of sheet music and have been pleased with how it's turned out in other crafts ( here & here ). I originally thought about trying to recreate these flowers .  Which I still may do someday, but since time if very precious right now I decided to go with windmills instead. They add some fun texture but are easy and quick; all 5 took about an hour to put together.  Supplies: old hymnal, scissors, glue stick, super glue, and coins/buttons Step 1: each windmill requires five hymnal sheets, rip them out and then trim to desired size. For the larger windmills I trimmed about 1/2" off the edges. For the smaller windmills I trimmed about 2" off the edges.  Step 2: accordion fold all of your sheets. My folds were about 1/2" wide. If you end up with extra at the end just trim it off.  Step 3:...

These babies are currently my cookies of choice. Today will be the third time I've made them in less than two weeks - just a bit obsessed. Not only do they combine two of my favorites, dark chocolate and peppermint, but their texture is also amazing. The outside is crunchy while the inside is incredibly light and airy.  Ingredients 1/3 cup soften butter 2/3 cup brown sugar 2/3 cup dark cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 egg whites 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt 1 teaspoon peppermint extract 1 1/2 cup flour 1/4 - 1/2 cup white sugar Directions preheat oven to 350' cream brown sugar and butter add cocoa powder, baking soda, egg whites, yogurt, and peppermint extract, beat until combined add flour and mix until combined pour white sugar in a shallow yet wide bowl, then drop rounded teaspoons of dough in to the sugar, roll dough around in sugar while forming a ball place sugar coated balls on an un-greased cookie sheet bake approximately 9 minutes ...

Several months ago we were lucky enough to stumble upon a free piano on Craigslist; I was posting some of our no longer needed things and couldn't resist checking the free ads. The family who was giving it away were moving, had five kids, and were excited to hear that little fingers would be playing it again.  When Jeremy  (and the students he talked into helping him - perks of being a professor)  carried it into our home I was actually pretty happy to see that the finish had bits of wear and tear - though it plays beautifully. I had seen (and drooled) over several painted pianos on the internets and thought that when we got one it would be fun to paint it. Our home has original wood trim and floors  (which Jeremy would never allow me paint)  so bringing in new wood pieces can be tricky and tends to make our rooms feel smaller.  five kids - it was pretty beat up The painting itself turned out to be a bigger task than I thought - it t...

Our home is pretty old, built in 1903, which is one of the main features that attracted us. We wanted something with history and character. Having an older home though, also means there is almost always something to fix. Lucky for us we've only run into a couple major must do projects, like the bathroom  which we had to gut and rebuild a couple summers back, or the exterior of our home which we're hoping to repair and repaint before the end of next summer. There have been, however, tons of little things and lots of "minor" (stripping wallpaper never feels minor) cosmetic repairs. Therefore, when one of our kids sent a superball through our glass-paned storm door, both Jeremy and I were a little exasperated.  door before the superball incident.  The more we thought about it though, we realized we never really liked the door in the first place. The paneled glass blocked the view of our pretty front door and I was always having to clean nose, lip, and finger p...

When I saw this on Pinterest I knew I wanted to create my own version. It took me over a year to actually do it and when I did I made two (or six?) different ones for our home.  The first was of our family values (read more about them  here ) to hang in our bathroom.

This summer there is one food that we've enjoyed almost every week - a couscous, black bean and corn salad. It started out as me mimicking a corn and avocado salad my sister-in-law, Heather, made for our annual Memorial weekend bash , but over time I've adapted it so much that's it's now quite different from the original.  This has become our go-to party and potluck dish and is always well received, with at least a few people asking for the recipe. My favorite things about this salad is that it's delicious cold or room temperature and it makes for great leftovers.  Ingredients 3 ears of sweet corn 1 cup (dry) couscous 1 can of black beans 1 T cumin 1 lime 1/2 red onion 2 cloves of garlic 3 red sweet  peppers (or 1 red bell pepper) 1 avocado 5oz (1/2 package) queso fresco Directions cook sweet corn (in husks) in oven at 350' for 30 minutes, then set aside to cool cook couscous according to package directions rinse and drain ...