WHATS FOR SUPPER?

Is this a question you hear at your house 3 times or more a day? At my house I hear it 4 times at every meal, which means I am asked what are we having 12 times some times 15 times in one day! Aghhhhhhhh!!! I have 4 kiddos who ask me every meal and then sometimes the hubs to ask. So by the time I finish one meal within 30 mins someone is asking me again.... I want to scream just writing this out and stressing about what I will do for tom. Well one of our favorite meals is a deer roast, or beef roast which ever you prefer.  We have both because of deer hunting.  I am picky about deer meat. I don't want it to have that wild game taste, and with doing this, it is a simple way to roast in the crock pot with veggies and I don't think you can tell a difference.  The first thing I do is layer carrots in the bottom of my crock pot.  I lay the roast on next.

Next I wash and peel about 10 red potatoes. I like to us the red because I heard somewhere they were better for you... 

I also use one whole sweet onion or yellow onion.  

I layer these on top of the roast. 

Its very easy, just a layering process and then cooking and letting it do its thing!

I then fill the top of the crock pot with water, cover with some salt and pepper.  Around 1 tsp of each.  

I put this on around 8:30 in the am so we can eat right at dinner time.  It needs to cook at least 8 hours to be good and tender and your veggies to be good and cooked through.  My kids love to dip the roast with ketchup, A1 or barbecue sauce.  

Once the meat is done, I use 2 cans of sweet green peas warmed up with a tbs of butter, a can of biscuits and there you are with a awesome warm meal that the kids will be thanking their mama for!

THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES YOU'LL EVER MAKE AT HOME!

Ok, so as a kid(and now a big kid) my favorite all time cookie is the traditional chocolate chip.  My mom made them for us all the time because she knew that we loved them.  Now that I'm grown I do love oatmeal raisin, macadamia nut and probably any other cookie out there but I still lean towards chocolate chip as my favorite.  So now for the heart breaking truth--I love homemade things, all homemade things can be better than most store bought stuff, but when it comes to cookies its something about the ones in the packs(Not the roll) cookie dough that just cooks up great every time! Why ? I don't understand this.

My mom is one of the best cooks in the world.  She makes tons of homemade recipes, her own, and then she can whip up anything Martha Stewart makes or any of those other fancy nancy people.  But cookies, oh cookies....... why must you get hard and brown on the edges?  Why does the chocolate lover brands from which ever company that it is turn out like something from the mall.......You know those places.......they have names like Cookie Jar,  Cookie World,  ect......and just the name draws you in.  I would go to the mall in Greensboro with my mom and beg for the ones filled with creme in the middle..... YES......those cookies..... Ok, so back to what I was saying, I have tried tons of different recipes and decided oh fart, why do I keep trying when the dang things are right in the store for you to buy, no mess, no fuss and BAM they are delicious!?!

So back at Christmas some of my awesome home school gal pals got together for a little brunch and my friend Liz brought these cookies that she said she made from scratch from a recipe from allrecipes.com.  and the heavens sang.... I said What???? These are homemade? not the little package deal?? She said nope and it makes a ton of them.  So of course I had to try them out. You can google them at allrecipes.com under Award Winning Chocolate Chip cookies or you can use mine I'm gonna post here.. I only added a little here and there and didn't change it a lot, but did make a few changes.  So here goes:

Chocolate Chip Cookies
4 1/2 cups of All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons of Baking Soda
4 sticks of butter softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3/4 ounces vanilla instant pudding boxes)
4 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla flavoring
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
I cook min around 12 mins but each oven is different.

So oh by the way, I'm gonna try and start a page called Smack Yo Mama, cause that is Always what my family says when the food taste really ( I mean really) good, Or possibly Great!  That way you can click straight to that page to get the recipe.  

Back to our previously scheduled program:

Preheat the Oven to 325

(the other recipe calls for 350, but cooking them slower I think helps!)

Sift 4 1/2 cups of All- Purpose Flour and 2 teaspoons of baking soda and sit aside

(When I do this I put in 2 cups, then my soda, then the remaining flour that way its all getting mixed together well)

Isn't it so soft and fluffy?!

In a large mixing bowl (I use a kitchen aid) cream together 

4 sticks of butter

1 1/2 cups of packed brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

Let me stop right there to say that I don't use regular white sugar I use a all pure sugar see below. 

I get this at Aldi, but you can also purchase it at Walmart. 

 Ok also something that I do that was different is that the original recipe called for softened butter, so if you know first thing in the am that you are gonna make these jewels take them out and let them get soft on the counter throughout the day, but me I'm usually last min, so I stick mine in the microwave for 1 min

Nice and warm! Ok so I add this and the 2 sugars to the mixer and let them all be friends. 

This is where it gets Crazy! Ok, this recipe calls for 2 boxes of vanilla instant pudding mix! Yes you just dump those right in.

Oh,You won't believe how good this taste, feel free to take some out and add a few chips and eat it raw, there are no eggs in it at this point!!! 

Ok next you have 4 eggs to add.  I also added the 2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla flavoring at this point. 

 See the hint below, but slowly add the flour mixture. 

***Hint, I don't add all my eggs in at once like the recipe calls for because it makes it really hard to get all the ingredients mixed up and your dough is just not as pretty.  Mama always told me to add a egg, then a little flour, then a egg, back and fourth until its all mixed up.  Believe me this mixer is gonna get really really full. Don't panic if it looks really dry, mine did too, but it all works out!

Last but not least the 4 cups of chocolate chips.  

You can do them all 4 the same kind, but this last time I made them I used 3 cups regular size and 1 cup mini chips. You could also add nuts if you like, but I haven't tried them that way.  

I use a olive oil spray to spray my cookie sheets, then spoon them out about the size of a golf ball. 

This recipe makes over 70 cookies!! Which I love cause I have 4 growing kiddos!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of them finished because my nieces came over to a spend the night so between family and cousins they were all eaten up in 2 days and I forgot to take a picture... Hope you enjoy! XOXO

WHITE AS SNOW

Every year when it snows the first thing I think about is what the Lord done for us on the Cross.  Have you ever noticed that when you see a white snow man with a red scarf how absolutely stunning it is?  Or how when the ground has gotten completely white that all the birds eating at the bird feeder are so pretty but there is just something majestic about that red cardinal in the middle of them all and it catches your eye.

I took this picture last year out my front window of a male and female cardinal.  I still can't look at it without first looking at the male.  That red is so beautiful... So every year when I see the red on the white it always reminds of what Christ did for us. He washed us white as snow! So today before I took off on the sledding adventure, I sat down and finished a page in my bible journal that I have been working on.  I originally had only intended to right the word tetelestai in the middle of the crown of thorns with the blood splatter, but then I realized I spelt it wrong.. Yes, I am that goober that loves google! The word tetelestai is the Greek word for "It is finished!" 

But Once I looked over and over it and kept messing with it I realized that I could put a cross in the center, since that Is what he did that washed us white as snow! Thank Goodness for the Cross.  I can't ever hear the story and not cry.  How could anyone hear the story and their hearts not be moved?  I'm going to include my mess ups because I think God wanted me to use the cross and if I had gotten it right the first time I wouldn't have included it.  I used a F where there should have been a L. 

The mess just kept getting worse and worse! Is that not what we do! We get ourselves into this mess sometimes. Stress, Problems, Sin? The more I messed with it the worse it got.  I sat back and said, "Lord I have messed this thing up!" Then he said, The Cross, Hayley!" and I knew that was it! So I worked at it, and worked at it.  Its still a mess, the words don't shine like I would like for it to, but thats me, I'm the hot mess, the stressed out person with a messy life... So this picture means a great deal to me, to know that as messy as I am, God can still cleanse even a sinner like me.  Thank You God for the Cross! 

Most of it is done with water color pencils, micro pens, gel pens and acrylic paint, all of which are my daughter Kylah's arts supplies.  I used acrylic to splatter the red/crimson paint and spray with a water bottle.  I hope someone will read this some where and it will help them to realize the love Christ has shown for us and will see that he can help anyone no matter how messy your life is. 

xoxo

Hayley

SNOW DAYS

Snow! Snow!! I love it! I love snow cream, sledding, hot chocolate, baking, seeing friends while we sled, eating good food, I could go on and on.  We have been sledding for 2 days! My body is sore in places I had forgotten about... This was the first day of sledding.

It started out relatively well. We sled most of the day at my house, but then left and had to go to the monstrous hill at my parents that I slid on as a kid.  I will say I don't have a picture of yesterdays at my parents because once I sled most of the day the last time I went down with 2 of my children on my back I landed in the creek with water up to my neck, needless to say I had to go home and change clothes.  So then to the next day of sledding.  It went much better, thank goodness I only made it close to the creek and not in it.  

This is the hill! There is a nice size creek that runs along the entire bottom including a fence to keep the cows in.  The water in this creek was very cold! At this point we are just getting ourselves warmed up.  

This was after a---lot of sledding and needing something to do that was sitting to rest our legs, since we don't have a chair lift to bring us to the top, which my brother and I said we were gonna have to speak to daddy about. (yeah right) 

Well, after a awesome supper at my moms (so nice and warm) we come home to a absolutely beautiful moon that reminded me of Gods Promises to Thank him once again for a beautiful day, and all my many blessings!

It had a glow of a cross around it, it was so Awesome! 

A LIT SOMETHING SOMETHING FROM HOBBY LOBBY OF COURSE!!

Hey Everyone!!! You would think with all this snowing going on I would be posting like crazy, but I have been working on lovely Taxes...ughhhhh....yes taxes... I despise the things.  With us being self employed we have so much to get together.  But anyhow, I have worked for 2 days on them and now I'm finally finished.. Yay!

I have so many projects that I want to finish or stuff that I've done and need to do a write up or a post on it.  Today I was really excited cause other than finishing my taxes I was able to work on my bathroom. I have wanted to slowly but surly put my on style with in it. When we first moved in I was in such a rush to just get in with 4 children (one which was only 4 months old) that I ended up just sticking old stuff I had in every little spot and not really able to take the room and say, "Hey, how do I want this to look?" 

So that's my mission now.  I'm taking one room at a time and trying to put my own little spin on things, but do it slow so I will really like how it turns out.   I repainted it, did the pallet wall, then made my little shelf out of the old art box(see previous post).  I have wanted a little old house style cabinet to put in there cause lets admit it, a women needs to hide those little personal things cause we don't want our "stuff" laying all over the bathroom.  I have been looking for said cabinet for 2 years cause it had to have a old charm but be small enough to fit on a certain wall.... I finally found it at where?? of course the wonderful Hobby Lobby my go to store!!! I already had a little jar my kids had found out in the woods and then put a neat little floral piece from hobby lobby in it to give it some charm.  The only thing I have left to do is decide what I'm gonna hang on my pallet wall but out of pinterest and many, many trips in lots of stores I haven't found just the right thing yet.  I like to make stuff, so that it doesn't cost very much, but yet for it to look really cool and like something you would see in a old farm house cause that's just the style that's "us."

What do you think?

MORE JOURNAL TIME

So while I watched my ncis episode for the night I doodled in my Bible. That is so weird to say because we were Never instructed to doodle in our bibles as kids. But now it is so meaningful. I was looking through and trying to decide what I wanted to draw. My oldest sons name is Jonah and so I thought about drawing a whale in that chapter. 

The book of Jonah is so short, and I have read it a ton of times. But this time as I sat and read it Jonah 2:2 really spoke to me. I have been struggling here lately with stress.  Sometimes as a Christian we feel like we are automatically close to God just because we go to church or we play the role. I know that I allow myself to stray sometimes because I'm so busy with life that I forget that the Grace that God provides to me is there, but yet I don't get up every day and ask him for it. I start my day with my coffee, breakfast,  shower, ect, that I don't take the time to do my reading or quiet time. When I stop doing this and pull away from God into the business of my day, things start to go down hill. My health, (due to worry that I wouldn't have if I would stay close to him), stress, worry, the issues go on and on because just one day of not setting close with him I allow the distractions of this life get to me more when I feel like I need to handle them instead of him handing them.

So, I say all that to say this verse speaks volumes to me. "I called out to the Lord, out of my distress and he answered me: out of the darkness and he Heard my Voice!!! He does hear our voices!!! Using the drawings and time to mediate over what to draw is really helping me to retain more of the words. I think this is something great for kids to help them retain scripture! This is what I finished lately.

BIBLE JOURNALING

I'm so excited about joining the world of Bible Journaling.  So many people are doing this as a way to bring something new to their study of the word and also for helping them to remember scripture.  I have just gotten started in this because of purchasing a lot of tools and bible journals for my girls at Christmas.  My friend Michelle Tuck was telling me about a lady that I could look at her stuff on Instagram Valerie Winners (probably spelt that wrong) but I took a look at it and right away I knew this was something we had to try.  Especially with Kylah loving art and painting.  We already had lots of the supplies just because Kylah has been into art for a couple of years now.  But if you have a journaling bible, pins, and color pencils you can get started.

I ordered the girls bibles from Amazon (who doesn't love amazon!) and bought some pins at Hobby Lobby.  These were for Christmas, but I was so excited over buying the supplies I told my hubs that I couldn't wait for them to open them so I, I mean them could use them.  I love getting new pencils, pens, arts supplies, I don't know why but I do.   Its like new toys.  So anyways, after she opened them and used them some and I started to see others that had posted them on Instagram I finally sit down last night and decided it was time to give it a try.  I had ordered my bible last week from Amazon and it come in(so so excited!!)

I decided to take a verse from Proverbs to start with.  Its not my best artwork but I was so so nervous about writing in my bible! You know other than highlighting and underlining I hadn't ever doodled or anything in my bible so I was really nervous about this.

I used a regular #2 pencil to sketch it out, water color pencils to color, then a felt tip black pen to cover over.  I only used water on the green.  I thought it turned out ok, but it could be so so much better.  I really want to work on my lettering.  The bottom of it is a mess, it was sloppy but again I was nervous, so I need to work on that part.