Room fix up!

It pays for your husband to look on Pinterest sometimes....We saw an unusual kind of bunk bed on Pinterest and John took the idea and turned into his own.  Instead of just a hanging bed, John built a loft for John Daniel's room.  It is a smaller room so the space underneath on the floor is much needed.  Now his bed as well as a "reading nook" are in the loft.  It is so cute and just what a little boy needs!  His room is also now painted blue and beige...better than the two toned purple!

The girl's room also got a paint job to match their bedspreads...John also made shutters that look like horse stable doors...we decorated "horse like."...Emily has a huge puzzle from her Aunt Edi that John mounted on pallet wood and Emily has all of her horse figurines displayed on a shelf...it's like a funky horse stable motif...cute!

Cooking week 4 and Mom's Birthday

I decided to let the recipes from Week 4 be a treat for Mom's birthday.  So after church last Sunday I fed the whole family!  I have to say, this was probably our favorite recipe thus far...The Best Grilled Cheese!

Recipe from the Original Pioneer Woman...my grandmother Ruth Revell!  This is her sour cream pound cake.

I love cooking with my grandmother's tools and bowls...I have many of them.  This is her flour sifter!  I love it and it reminds me of her so much:)

The grilled cheese called for Green chiles, either canned (whole), which I couldn't find, or whole pablano peppers.  I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and bought the whole pablano peppers...it was fun to roast them in the over and then cut them open, take out the seeds and slice them for the sandwiches.

Seriously, the best grilled cheese ever!  The side was spicy ceasar salad with homemade ceasar dressing and cornbread croutons...I kept saying, "Hopkins Eatery doesn't have nothin' on me!"

All the adults gave this recipe a "5"...the kids...a "3"!

Children of the World forever in our hearts...

 Our church hosted the Children of the World Choir for three days.  They asked members of the church to volunteer to be host homes for two children.  We volunteered and I am so glad we did.  This post is hard for me to even type because I cannot quite express the emotion we all had during their stay...We kept two little girls.  Sushma, from Nepal, was 8.  Manjeri, from Uganda, was 10.  We picked them up at the church at 4 pm on Tuesday....we hosted them in our home for less than 48 hours but they have had a huge effect on our family. Quickly, we learned that Sushma was a firecracker...lots of energy, funny personality, liked to joke around, and was a wild woman!  Manjeri was quite the opposite...she was like looking into a deep blue ocean.  She had a beautiful smile, very quiet and reserved, loved to read and do puzzles and was super organized and very deliberate in her actions.  We loved them even before we saw them in concert the next night...in which I cried the entire way through...so did John.  They are orphans which have been a part of World Help's children's choir since August.  They will return to their native country over the summer and enter some type of foster care.  The Children's Choir travels the country to bring attention to the needs in 3rd world countries ... the poverty, the need for clean water, the need for safe homes for children without abuse, and the need for prayer and the saving Grace of Jesus.  Their songs were all full of Praise to God...the one true God.  They danced until I just knew they wouldn't have any energy left (But Sushma did).  I can't tell you in words how their concert, praise and worship, stories of their hardships, and their knowledge of the Bible affected me.  One of their songs was all about wanting to be the hands and feet of Jesus and do mission work....these 14 orphaned children singing about wanting to be the hands and feet of Jesus!  It was one of the greatest experiences we have had in a very long time....so rewarding for us and such a blessing to us.  We will never ever forget these sweet sweet girls, their smiles and their hugs!  One of the things I loved about hosting them were seeing the experience through the eyes of my children...they were so excited to meet new friends.  They spent the whole day before they came cleaning the house with me, changing sheets, putting out clean towels, cleaning the tub, buying groceries...it was a special time for us to learn and serve and be hospitable as a family.  I'm glad my kids got to come alongside John and I and serve together.

 Molly was thrilled that they wanted to play dress up with her!

 I think Manjeri did every puzzle we had in the house.

 Sushma loved Uncle John (They called John and I Uncle and Auntie)

That's all I've got to say about that....

No caffeine in 14 days!....that's all I've got to say about this 7 experiment right now....

Adventures in cooking:)

We are on week three I think of Pioneer Woman cooking.  We hit some snags in week two and three I must say...YEAST, I don't get it.  I tried twice to get dough to work for orange rolls and it was just too dense.  It didn't rise like she said it would..all and all fairly tasty but not that light and fluffy orange roll dough that you get when you get a roll from the Cinnabon place in the mall.  I did feel very "chef-like" making these though...rolling out my own dough and all.  Putting ingredients inside.  It was fun!

Dough log with goody inside.

 My kitchen war zone after completing chicken enchiladas and homemade salsa!  Literally a disaster!  I spent hours on Sunday in the kitchen.

 The enchiladas were really tasty and the grilled chopped peppers inside were amazing...but there was no definition to the actual enchiladas...by the time it all cooked under the yummy cheese sauce, you couldn't really tell where one enchilada started and one stopped.

The homemade salsa was to die for though...an every ingredient except the 1/4 tsp of sugar was very very healthy...The cilantro in it was so tasty!  And no vinegar...Pioneer Woman says most all store bought salsas have a heavy content of vinegar and she says that's silly when you can fill it full of tasty vegetables and spices.