Browning, freezing and cleaning!

   Today I have been SUPER busy! My to do list from the week, was way behind! So today is my "catch up" day! I had to brown and season 6 pounds of ground beef..5 pounds of it being rock solid frozen..But I know it will be well worth my time, as it is for our Neighborhood party Ben and I are throwing tomorrow!! I am really excited to see how it turns out! We handed out our invites the other day, and for some reason I was so nervous...I am not really that shy of a person, but going door to door felt awkward at first. Only because at first sight, people think you are either a Jehovah Witness or a sales person....I am neither..haha. The responses we got were very encouraging! One neighbor was so floored, she began to tell us how for the longest time none of her neighbors had put any interest in getting to know each other. Another neighbor, we found out, had just moved to the area herself, and was excited to get to know everyone! Thanks to my Hubby, who is very outgoing, this party is taking place! I have so much to learn, when it comes to opening up my home to those around me that I may not know but may need Jesus! So now that I was able to see such delight in my neighbors faces, I am anticipating tomorrow! The challenge I have given myself this year, is to be more outgoing to those I don't know! It's easy to chat it up for hours, with my friends, but it's obviously a different story with those I don't know. By God's Grace, I will be a blessing tomorrow :) Apart from that, I have been freezing some produce that I bought extras of this week. I have never frozen Avocados...but thought it was worth a try! I pureed it and then added some lemon juice, then stuck it in the freezer! So we will see how it turns out!! Lastly, Ben and I are headed out to South Haven tonight! I think I have been there once before..I think... But I have a high commission secret shop to do out there (and yes it is well worth my time), so Ben and I wanted to make a night out of it while we were out there.  If you think of it, keep us in your prayers tomorrow!!

Sorry it's taken SEW long...

Ok..Yes, the title is cheesy...BUT it has taken quite a while for me to get this post up! Two weeks ago, my Sweet sister Julie, came over for a "sewing" day. I was sosos excited, because the last time I can remember sewing something, was when I was 13!! Ya that was OVER 10 years ago...Yikes, that is weird to say..

Here is the sewing wiz herself! 

So she brought with her my little sister Laura (Thanks Laura) to watch the boys, while we sewed all day! It was a PERFECT day to do so, as it was raining...and I had coffee brewing...coffee makes any occasion perfect!! Julie also, brought her little guy along, to play with Ayden! So, we got started around noon. We both had a pile of fabric that we had purchased at a tent sale. I had no idea where to begin! I am learning (thanks to Julie), to look at fabric, and not see fabric..but to look at it and see..a DRESS...or the perfect pillow in my living room...or a scarf. She is really good at it! So we weeded out a few pieces and came up with ideas! I didn't realize that the longest part was going to be the cutting out of the patterns! But after that long process was done...onto the sewing...

I soon discovered that one of the most difficult things for a beginner to sew, is a zipper! At least for me it was!! Especially since I ended up seem ripping my whole dress TWICE (to get it the right size), and had to redo the zipper as well! I was so happy when I finally finished this dress a day later than expected! But the feeling of getting something accomplished, is AMAZING!! 

So what did I sew??? Well the first thing I did was this dress! It has two layers to it, one being a satin "teal-ish" bottom, and then the top being a vintage lace! I Love the vintage style!! Before I wear my dress out in public, I do need to fix the hem! Other than that, it's almost "wear" ready!! 

Here it is!!! As you can see it is a "tank top" style on top, and the bottom (as you can't see) runs just above the knee. To the left is how I might wear the dress :) Everything is better with a scarf...right??

 Next up is a shirt I created. Not really sure what the name of this "type" of shirt is called...But ya, I made it out of a heavier lacey like material. I made this without a pattern, but copied a shirt I already had, similar to this. The right is a cheesy pose. I dislike taking pictures of myself, but I don't mind others taking them for me...thus the cheesy shot haha :)

o

Thirdly, I made a SCARF!! If you know me, you know I LOVE  a cute scarf!! My favorite outfit in the fall, winter and spring is a cute pair of skinnys, flats (or boots), a cardigan and scarf!! I saw this fabric...and it screamed SCARF to me!!  This was super easy to make! And to my surprise, my Husband LOVES it! He keeps telling me to make more and sell them..lol.

Alright, my last project was pillows for the boys room! I wanted to have a "reading" corner in their bedroom! I want lots of pillows that are all shapes and sizes! So I took these ugly ones...and covered them up :)

After..

I still want to add quite a few more pillows! 

Then I need to rearrange the letters that spell "READ".

This was the most amazing salad EvEr!!
A White Bean And Goat cheese Salad,
 with a Tuscan Vinaigrette! 

Then...as if I didn't have enough fun that day...My other sweet sister Hannah (I have 9 of them to be exact..haha), told me she wanted to come over and watch the boys that evening, so that Ben and I could go out on a date! Of course, I wasn't going to say NO!! So, we headed out to a new place near by called "Houlihans", and it was AMAZING! They we browsed Anthropology...how I appreciate that store! At least their sales racks..haha..Then we headed off to the only coffee shop open past 10pm, Starbucks inside of Barnes and Nobles! We had a refreshing night! To top it all off, Hannah had cleaned the house, did the dishes and I came home to this!!

Auntie Hannah, putting Little Ayden to bed...too sweet!

 

My Irish Twins

Yes, I have twins!!! Well...Irish twins. What are Irish twins??? I didn't know, until I had them haha.
I guess if you have two kiddos that are less than 12 months apart, they are called "Irish Twins". I Love my baby boys :) This week is another special week, because they both turned a month older! Ayden is now 18 months, and Zachariah is 5 months!!
   Ayden's vocabulary is growing so fast! He can speak 2 to 3 word sentences, and just this past week he learned to shake his head no, as well as say "no", when he doesn't want something. I'm blessed that so far if Mommy or Daddy replies back with a "yes", he does not persist with his "no". He still LOVES reading, and enjoys our one-on-one reading times each day! He now asks you to read the same book at least ten times over! And he will sit through each time :) I Love it!! He also, Loves baby Zachary and would do anything for him :) Every morning, as soon as he wakes up, he asks "baby???baby??" and as soon as he see's him, filled with delight, he runs to him to shower him with kisses!! Slowly he is learning the hard lesson of "sharing". Zachary loves playing on the floor with his big brother, but as soon as he has the cool toy...Aydens "needs" it. I Love watching them both grow and learn right from wrong! It is such a blessing to stand on this side "the mommy side" and watch these beautiful boys explore.

I would have to say that Ayden's Favorite part of the day, would be when Daddy comes home. As soon as Ben sends me a txt that he is "on his way home", I tell Ayden to go see if Daddy's home. So he runs to the front door, and stands there until he's home. Then (usually from the kitchen) I hear, "Datty, datty, datty"...That means, he's home! His second favorite time of the day is....BREAKFAST!!! Haha...of course..he is a lil guy..and that's what they do...Eat, eat and eat some more ;)

 The following is a lesson learned in brotherhood! Don't be too quick to laugh..BECAUSE......

 It could be you...

Just another fun picture my sister Leslie took!

   Zachariah...a.k.a...Our Stud...He never ceases to amaze us!! From the day he was born (seriously) he would ride in his car seat in the form of a crunch (or sit up). I would force his head to lie down, only for him to pop it right back up. So it didn't surprise me to have him sitting up at 4 months! He turned 5 months this week! He Loves chatting and trying to follow his big brother around! Zachary can army crawl, and get into a crawling position to rock back and forth. Like Ayden, he has stolen a piece of my heart! Ayden adores his Daddy, Zachariah adores his mommy!! He LOVES snuggling, kisses, mauling, cheek squishes and more. I adore him! I couldn't imagine life without my boys (including my hubby).

   Ben and I were just talking about if we would rather be married with no kids, or take the life we have. And we both agreed, we wouldn't want our lives any other way! The "no kids" life would be boring! We also agreed that we were blessed with two WONDERFUL boys!!

What's for Breakfast??

We have pretty much cut all cold cereals out of our breakfast routine. Let's be honest, there is rarely anything good in them anyways! I just recently discovered that Kashi Cereal uses GMO products!! So much for it being a healthier choice. I liked Kashi, it made me think I was doing something good for myself in the morning! I guess not! The problem is, that all these healthy little products come out, then once a bunch of consumers start grabbing on, the Big Wigs step in....offer the little healthy man lots of money, then junkify the "use to be healthy" foods so they can make it cheaper! I am in the middle of reading a book called "The Pure Cure"..and WOW is it an eye opener! Greed sure has taken over! It saddens me that man thinks they can take what God created and somehow make it better, bigger and produce more than it was created to do!
   All this has sent our family off on a journey to remake our diet by going back to how things were meant to be...raw milk, no GMO's, no artificial and what not! But, I can only make it happen one baby step at a time! otherwise I get overwhelmed and discouraged!
   I am starting with what we eat for breakfast!! Yay! I personally am not a huge motivated eater! So it's easy for me to skip meals or just snack...but that's not healthy either..and my Hubby Loves me enough to make sure I get the nutrients I need lol! I was inspired by a couple people around me, to start making my own smoothies in the morning! It has actually been so much fun! My Main smoothie consisted of the following:
                                  Kale-Couple Leaves/Stems
                                  Spinach-A Handful
                                 Around 10 Strawberries
                                 A cup of Organic Frozen Blueberries
                                 1/4 Cup of Ground Flax Seed
                                 2 Tbls- Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
                                 1/2 cup of Almond Milk
                                 (Sometimes) 1 cup of Plain Yogurt.
                                   1 Mango or Peach
                                   1 Banana
Being that my little Ayden is now on a "no dairy" diet, I often opt out the Yogurt and add extra Almond milk. Also, After recent research I have done, I discovered that "green smoothies" can be more damaging than they are good for you. As long as you use things like Spinach and Kale in moderation, you are fine. But, due to the high levels of "Oxalates" in the Spinach, there is some research that show an increase in Kidney Stones due to high Oxalate diets! People who had suffered from kidney stones, were told by their Doctors to cut out the green smoothies, but mainly the Spinach! I still want to do some more reading up on this, but I sure found it intriguing!  Anyways, I love the smoothie idea (minus some of the Spinach now), it's fast..yummy and I feel great in the morning! I make enough for 2 1/2, bottle one up for Ben (for the next morning), then Ayden and I polish off the rest!


Now onto getting rid of the the Multi Vitamins, and replacing them with a Whole foods supplement, and maybe some Cod live oil along with Butter oil!!

SURPRISE!

Ben and I have been enjoying having company over often! We like hosting our couples Bible Study (which is this Saturday for those who attend or want to attend!) having parties and what not! All of my life I had an amazing example of what it looked like to be hospitable! I just hope I can live up to it. My Mom had, and still has, a way of making guests feel welcomed! She would have batches of homemade cookies stored in the freezer, so that when we had last minute guests, she would have something to serve them and make them feel at home! If someone called and said they were in town and wanted to stop by, My Mom would make sure the house was spotless, candles were lit, and snacks were on the table. That way when they showed up, it appeared we were expecting them all along! I know the scripture says that some have the gift of hospitality, and my Mom is one of those! Also, whenever us kids were headed out to hang out with friends, or goto a party, she would say, "Make sure you bring a blessing with you." We knew what that meant! That meant we were to find either some snacks, or even make a batch of cookies ahead of time to bring with us. And it sure did bless many people! Thanks to my Mom's example, I felt very prepared when I moved out to have company! My prayer is that when we have guests at our home, they feel welcomed always! I have a lot to learn still, but practice makes perfect...or better...haha, because we all know that no one is perfect but Christ ;)
Yesterday we threw a Surprise Birthday Party for my 2 brothers who were born on the same day 12 years apart! Buddy and Gabe!! It was a great turn out and so much fun to see some people that I haven't seen for years! Around 5 it started to down pour, which had me worried for a bit because I was planning on Volleyball and a fire! Thankfully around 6:30 it all stopped, and the Sun popped out! Gabe was surprised for sure, and seemed to enjoy himself a lot! Buddy, on the other hand, I had to tell last week because I received news he was planning on heading to a friends that weekend! He was still surprised to see his friends he hadn't seen for years! Happy Birthday Guys!! 

   I'm pretty excited about this coming weekend! Ben and I (mostly "I") have decided to step out of our (my) comfort zone, and throw a neighborhood party! I am not sure what to expect, but I want to get to know our neighbors and hopefully impact their lives for Christ, while He has us here! It is very easy for me to have familiar faces over often, but to have random people who I don't know...ya defiantly harder! But, we may be the only "Jesus" they ever get to see! So for me, it's time I get serious about living out my faith! Jesus didn't live a comfortable lifestyle...and No...He wasn't silent about His Faith. In fact He was so honest and stern with people, it often turned them away. Not from His sternness, but the requirements to following Him! For myself, it is sosos easy to make excuses on why I don't need to be "too" serious about reaching others, dying to flesh, being intentional... and so on, but I believe Jesus' words when He said in Matthew 7, "²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Now I need to start living it!! 


Here are the pictures from the party! I'm excited for my next post, where I will show you my recent sewing creations!! Be Blessed! 

My family is VERY sarcastic at times, so as Gabe entered, I think he thought it was a  joke! 

Gabe and Betsy

My sweet nephew Isaiah

The cheapest (not money wise but work wise)
Cupcakes I have ever made, due to lack of extra time haha

 So of course we played V-Ball, but these pictures I find funny.

To much squash from the garden???

Summer Squash!! (Make-Over)

I LOVE summer Squash!! I know that my whole family does as well! Before I had only had it sauteed in a pan with a little bit of butter and salt & Pepper, or I would use it in a veggie stir fry! BUT I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com, and it has quickly become, yet another, staple in our kitchen! Ben and I LOVED these. The flavor was outstanding, and these boats served as an excellent appetizer for our dinner last night! Of course, I made a few changes to the recipe. So here it is!! I would HIGHLY encourage you (even if you aren't a summer squash fan) To make these ASAP!! The following recipe is off Allrecipes.com, but I added into it my changes!!

INGREDIENTS:

2 medium zucchini 1 slice WW Bread, torn into small pieces 1/4 cup Turkey Bacon cut in small pieces (I didn't cook it ahead of time, just to save me some time) 1 tablespoon minced black olives (I didn't have on hand so avoided) 1 jalapeno pepper, minced (Didn't have this, so avoided)  3 tablespoons diced green chile peppers

1/4 cup minced onion 1/4 cup chopped tomato 6 tablespoons shredded sharp Cheddar cheese 1 pinch dried basil seasoned salt to taste ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Prepare the grill for indirect heat. Or turn oven to broil.
2.	Place the zucchini in a pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook 7 minutes. Drain, cool, and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the pulp to about 1/4 inch from the skin. Chop pulp. Take the zucchini shells, and absorb as much of the water in them as possible, by using paper towel. (this helps in avoiding super soggy squash)
3.	In a bowl, mix the zucchini pulp, bread pieces, bacon bits, olives, jalapeno, green chile peppers, onion, tomato, and Cheddar cheese. Season with basil, seasoned salt, and pepper.
4.	Stuff the zucchini halves with the pulp mixture. Seal each stuffed half in aluminum foil.
5.	Place foil packets on the prepared grill over indirect heat. Cook 15 to 20 minutes, until tender. I did these in my oven on BROIL for 20 min! Worked great! Uncover the foil for the last 5 minutes, for a crunch!!

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2012 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 8/15/2012

Family Bike Ride

Last night Ben came home and wanted to go for a bike ride. I had already had the night planned for us...Ben had mentioned the day before, that he needed to mow the lawn. So I had planned as he mowed the lawn, I would go to some stores I needed to hit that night. But he really wanted to relax, so after dinner we packed up the bikes and headed to the Kent Trails! We really enjoy those trails! We ended at the Ice cream shop in Byron Center, and the past couple times we go there, we bump into friends. This time we chatted with a couple from our church, and it began to get a little dark...So we said our good byes, and headed back. Boy does it get dark through those trails, and quite fast! There were points I could only see a foot in front of me! But, we plugged through and made it out alive :)

Our sweet little boys!! 

It was funny how throughout the ride Ayden would start crying, only because his sweet little brother was admiring him and trying to hug him. Ayden is the oldest, but so far he is the more sensitive one. He won't hit, tackle or hurt his little brother...even when Zachary is mulling him. He'll call out, "Help....help" When Zachary touches him..haha. I love them!! 

Blueberry Jamin!!!

A couple weeks ago, our friends joined us for some Blueberry picking at a near by farm! They couldn't call themselves an 'Organic' Farm, but they claimed to use natural practices. We were pretty excited to find this place, because quite a few of the 'Organic' Farms had their season end already :( To say the least, I was pretty excited about making Jam again, and this time on my own! I LOVE Blueberry jam! I put it in our yogurt, smoothies..on toast..in my Goat cheese!! It's Awesome! I was even MORE excited when my friend showed me a recipe that was sugar FREE!! Instead it used a little honey! Ya...I was stoked! But hey, a stay at home mom has to get excited about little things like these...lol.

This was my pot of Jam.

   When it comes to food, I am finding more joy in eating things as close to the way God made it, as possible. The less processing the better! So...my jammin buddy Jonna, came over to make it with me! We had such a blast, and I was surprised at how easy it was! We discovered a secret!! We picked on a Saturday, but we didn't can till that following Wednesday. I stored my blueberries in a paper bag, in the basement, Jonna stored hers in the fridge. We noticed a difference in the color of our smashed blueberries. Mine had a rich deep blue color, but hers were a little off (still tasting fine). So we came to the conclusion that storing them in the paper bag made for a ripe and plumpy berry :) You may have already found that out...but to us new mommies, it was quite the discovery teehee! Making this jam was VERY similiar to how we made the Strawberry jam earlier this year (Minus the 7 cups of sugar lol). My Mom shared some of her wisdom with me ;) and told me to boil mine longer than called for, that way I wouldn't need to use the pectin (which gives the jam that Jammy Jello-ey Texture). And it worked GREAT! I am already half way through my second jar!!
   To celebrate being moms....we had a "domestic mom's" photo shoot haha. Enjoy the pictures!!!

I Love Aydens head in this picture..
He was like, "really mom...really, this is kindof embarrassing"

So we are back...
My family (the Clark side) spent almost a week out in Ludington Michigan! We have done it every year so far, and for the past 8 or 9 years. A friend of the family has allowed our family the privilege of using their Victorian style vacation (a.k.a the cross house) home in Ludington. It is a gorgeous home that was built in the 1800 and can sleep over 20 people. So PERFECT for our family. It has been such an incredible blessing to have this to look forwards to each year. Sadly, this was our last year there. But, we have already spent time talking about how we are going to keep on making this "yearly family outing" happen! So what do you do in Ludington??? RELAX!! Hah! It is so peaceful there, and such a beautiful place!
There were a lot of highlights, but to name a few...
1. Having others there to "want" to watch the boys whenever needed.
2. The beach is a short walk away.
3. Family bonding time.
4. I get to have my sweet husband home ALL day..for a couple of days.
5. PRIVATE Beaches!! I LOVE them!!
6. Memories..memories and MORE memories!!

I got up there with my sister on Thursday. I was plenty due for this vacation, seeings how that Tuesday I was brought (via ambulance) to the E.R for what I thought was a seizure, but ended up being a panic attack. It was Doctors orders to take it easy...so Ludington was the perfect answer (as well as telling that spirit of fear to leave!). It was SUCH a blessing to have all my siblings and mom there to help with the kids...and so willingly for that matter! Friday was our famous pizza night! Not sure what it is about "Family pizza night", but it sure is something I look forwards to and find to be so relaxing ;) My Lovely Husband came up Friday night (and not soon enough, seeings how I was missing him a ton after our second night EVER away from eachother since we have been married!!)...Saturday everyone was up and the guys did their "morning golf" and the rest did "breakfast out". Ben and I left the kiddos for some "we" time, and headed off on our bike to a near by coffee shop! Then we hit the beach for a couple hours and ended our night with a grill out :)

Ben and I headed to our "we" time lol. 

Sunday we had a Family devotion, then hit the beach again for some 7 to 9 foot waves! Talk about awesome and scary at the same time!! Eeek! Monday my Love had to leave for work in the morning, so I stayed all day. My brother Jeff and Ben (my Love) Flew a little plane back to Ludington, then we headed home...
How did my little home say, "home sweet home Becky..." With almost TEN Loads of Laundry!!! That's how...At least it's Friday...right?? Anywho...it was an awesome time!
OHHHH I do have to tell you this one story though!! So do you remember my post on the 4th of July.. I wrote about how the kids HATED the firetrucks that came down and ya...Well...we were at the beach Saturday night, getting ready to head back home...all the sudden we hear an eruption of all sorts of sirens in the distant...We all looked at eachother and wondered what could possibly be going on that would need all those emergency vehicles! Then they seemed to be getting closer...and closer. So we all stood there waiting for them to fly pass...BUT instead they head right through the beach...RIGHT where we are standing!!! A whole slue of Firetrucks..Ambulances...Police Cars...you name it they were ALL there..ALL with their sirens BLARING...From all the townships in a 100 mile radius of Ludington...at least that is what it seemed! But seriously they decided to all get together and simply blare their sirens down the streets of Ludington, all while driving 2 miles an hour....Worse part, they thought they were funny! My Kids were beyond panicked!! They were in tears Screaming!!! To say the least I was furious! I totally appreciate all they do, but I thought they went to far! They literally were laughing....
On a happier note:

There were quite a few times when each of us started recalling past memories made up in Ludington, and we didn't even have to finish the story before we erupted in giggles ;) Like the time Ben and I broke out into a live Musical Improv while in line for icecream at the popular "House of flavors"... My sister was in charge of recording it but hit the start and then end button right when we started. Oh well, at least we have our memory ...Thinking back on our first mini Vacation spent in Ludington, I would have never imagined that 9 years from then I would be bringing up my Sweet husband and two beautiful boys! I even found some photos from a couple years ago that were taken in Ludington. This first "sisters" shot, was taken before I had even met Ben.

 Here are a few "now and then" shots...

 This is for my sister Sarah who, sadly, was un able to attend our last year at the "Cross House" in Ludington. We greatly missed Paul and Sarah, along with their latest addition Wesley! This picture was taken I believe in 09 when they were engaged ;)

Another Group shot from 09...

Here are the photos from this years trip! Enjoy!!

Yes, this is called RELAXING!!! To me this screams Ludington :)

Nana's Touch :)

Isaiahs First time away from home for a sleepover!!

So, if you have ANYTHING Edible, expect to have my little Ayden at your feet in seconds!

Headed to the beach!!

Our walk to the private beach :)

Me and my sweet sisters Leanna and Betsy!

Standing in line for Icecream!!!

Just a fun shot Ben and I did!

My Sweet Love!