Please lift this family up in your prayers!!!!!!!!

While reading one of my favorite blogs moments ago... I clicked on a link that would open the flood gates of tears! Please, just head HERE, and read their recent tragedy! And then lift the family up in your prayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing makes that heart more heavy and sad than what happened to them just 2 weeks ago!

What's New Wednesday??!! ON FRIDAY!!!!!

So it has been a long time since I did WHATS NEW????
here goes!
1- Our garden is on a roll..... producing more peas than I can freeze fast enough! I am heading out to pick yet again soon!!!!! (I will post pictures soon!) The green beans are flowering and the tomatoes have lots of green balls waiting to grow bigger and turn red!!!!! AND, the strawberries are ALMOST done... so sad!
2- The kids are enjoying their summer! Trev just got done with swim lessons and passed to go on to the next level! WAY TO GO BOY! Luke and Shayla are loving Gymnastics!!! Only downfall I see is they don't have the GUY things there, like the rings and the parallel bars!!!! :-(
3- We are going to see Go Fish Guys tonight and are sooo excited!!!!!! The kids love jamming out to them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I don't think they are half bad myself!
4- We are heading to a wedding in 2 weeks and are super excited about seeing family we haven't see for awhile! Too bad the drive is 4 hours and we have to stay in a hotel....LOL!!!!
5- My husbands Co-workers are in love with me... I don't know if that is a good thing....LOL! See, I send a homemade item each week for their treat! My husband has been their since mid November and I have only made the same things twice (that was brownies....) They think I am amazing... I think I will let them keep believing that!
6- There have only been 4-5 HOT HOT days so far this summer so that is super good... unfortunatly there has only been 4-5 days with lots of rain too... that is a super bad thing!!!!!
7- My boys head to Church Bible Camp at the end of this month.... 5 days, 5 1/2 hours a day! YAHOOOOO!!!!!
8- My good friend from Wyoming might fly out here with her 3 kids at the beginning of August! I am so excited... we vacationed with them 2 yrs ago in South Dakota and I miss them dearly! Now to look into renting a passanger van.... !!!!!
9-Summer break is almost 1/2 way done..... AND my baby girl (ok she isn't the baby, but aren't they all the baby???) is almost 6! WOW, 6 and ready to start all day kindergarden!!!!!
10- I have missed blogging due to the busy summer we are having.... soon very soon my days will change again and I will be home with just one baby... (OK again, not a baby, but she is the BABY!!!!)

It Pays To Complain....

I just wanted to let you all know that when you are happy with a product that you purchased, it really does pay to compliment the company! AND on the flip side, if you are unhappy, it pays to COMPLAIN about the product!
Here is a few examples….
When my husband wanted some thousand island dressing awhile back, I bought the kraft like I used to… only this time they had changed the recipe…kraft began making their dressings more natural without STUFF added in… KUDOS to them… right….????? Of course! BUT my husband hated it… he said it was horrible and didn’t want to eat it! SOOO I wrote kraft, thanked them for being ahead of the times, changing their recipes, but that their thousand island was no longer what it had been…. They sent me a coupon for a FREE bottle of any of their dressing!!!!
I also bought Hidden Valley Ranch ORGANIC (we love their orig. stuff, but wanting to find dressing without MSG, I went for this!) IT WAS SO GROSS! It tasted just like mayo… only worse! I wrote, letting them know that we loved their dressing, but the organic was NOT what I expected from them! I got a coupon for a FREE bottle (any size!) of their dressing!
I learned that DANNON Kids yogurt is NOW being made HFCS free and DYE free… OH I was sooo happy, I ran out and bought some just so the kids could try it… THEY loved it…. SO I wrote the company complimenting them on how it was great that they were the first to pull those things from the KIDS line of yogurt and how appreciative I and I am sure lots of others were! I was sent 2 free dannon kids drink pack coupons!
AND my latest was a box of truvia that I purchased for myself… It is a great product, I like to use it in my smoothies, but I pulled out 4 empty packets from a box of 40…. HELLO, these things run about .08 a packet! SOOOO I jumped online and sent them a message, stating that I loved thier product, but was disapointed in finding empty packets in my box (they were part of the 40!) I received a FREE product coupon in the mail…
I also wrote to Thomas’ about their bagels (a COMPLIMENT on having a product with out Hydr. oils and with out HFCS!!!!) I received 2 $1.00 of coupons in the mail as a thankyou for the compliment!!!!
NOW I don’t do this to get FREE things!!!! I think as comsumers, we have loud voices that we should use more often, either to complain or to compliment!!!!!! Things will not change unless the companies know about them!!!!!!!

Bread you will LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With my new bread recipe!!! Thanks to my GREAT blog friend DONNA, I was turned onto the urban homemaker and her yummy recipe for BREAD!
Here is a secret! I use WHEY POWDER for the dough enhancer (1 T. for the 2 loaves, which actually makes 3 loaves! The picture shows 2 loaves from the recipe, but they were HUGE and next time I will make 3!!!!!!!) I also use 1 t. Vitamin C powder. The canister will last a LONG TIME!!!!!!!! I do use Coconut Oil for the oil also!!!!!!!! OH, and I added 1/4 C. gluten flour too!
I did figure out that the most costly thing in this is the honey, but a LARGE loaf only cost just under $1!!!!! NOT BAD AT ALL! considering I am using fresh milled Hard White Wheat Berries & Coconut oil. One could do this for much cheaper using cheaper flour and canola or vegtable oil!
I used this recipe for Hamburger buns the other day, and even my picky hubby was super impressed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gratituesday: A Broken Window....

SO, how can one be GRATEFUL for a broken window you might ask yourself?????
WELL-------- Because I didn't do it!!!!!!!! LOL! Ok, just kidding, but really, I didn't break it, my hubby did! and it wasn't our window, it was our NEIGHBORS WINDOW... and they are not home, they are GONE on a 2 week vacation.... SOOOO what is the story you might be asking yourself????
Well, my neighbors, this family with 8 children 1-15 yrs old.... and a mom and a dad all under one roof.... are on a 2 week vacation... and they trusted me so much to let me take care of their yard and garden (ok, really their garden is amazing, on its own water timer, I just got to cut the lettuce and share it with the other neighbors!) AND I didn't really even have to do anything else yet, besides water the PORCH flowers because we have had rain alot since they left....
SOOOO yesterday all of us headed over there with hubby on the tractor to mow their yard because it was getting soooo high and they aren't back until friday this week.... you know, doing a kind deed!!!!!!!!!!!! Right near the end of mowing, somehow a rock flew out of the mower (the opposite sides of where the grass comes out) and breaks the first pain of glass of their lower window......
My hubby was sooo upset, he was mad for hours.... I wanted to be mad, but for some reason couldn't do it.... I was like "WELL, accidents happen, and we will just replace their glass....!"
SOOOO Why am I grateful you might ask......
because this gives up the opportunity to show them how great of people we are... that we are the ones that borrow things and return them in better condition than when we took them... that we always replace when we break or lose, and that they can trust us....
I only say this all because sometimes I am unsure of what they think of us... I know this shouldn't matter... but these folks are very down to earth.... the girls all wear skirts and long hair and she is so patient that she homes schools all of them....
I wear my hair at shoulder length (I have THICK THICK Hair and long hair gives me headaches), I wear speg. strap tanks daily in the summer (I truly could DIE if I wore any kind of sleeve.... I am a sweat box!!!!) and I send my kids to public school..... So I guess sometimes I just don't know how they feel about us.... KWIM???!!!!
Anyways, I am grateful for the chance to see how they handle this when we tell them.... and see if I can READ in their faces what they really think of us, if that makes sense at all!!!!!!!!!!!

Read more gratituesdays at heavenly homemakers

Gods Great Power

My husband LOVES looking at the stars at night, but even more than that, HE LOVES watching thunder storms move in!!!!!!!!!!! Lastnight we were sitting on the deck together, enjoying the silence of the children sleeping in their beds and enjoying Gods Great Glory here on earth!!!!!

There is NOTHING more beautiful than this......

(apparently I need to pull clover again!!! LOL!)