Happy Birthday Aaron!

not very good photos, but birthday pics of Aaron's 22nd bd and first InstaPot cheesecake.

cheesecake recipe (I used peanut butter oreos)

Benjamin's Birthday Cheesecake

My oldest is 24!!It's so crazy how 24 years can fly like that. We celebrated a few days after his bd (8/23) as this was when he and Kassy could come.

Here is the German Chocolate Cake Cheesecake I made and Benjamin being Benjamin...

German Chocolate Cake Cheesecake recipe

A Golden Birthday

Kinda scary that I've posted 3 days in a row. LOL! This summer has been super busy, so blogging got put on the back burner. But things are slowing down some, so hopefully, this blog won't be so neglected.

Sunday, my oldest (Benjamin) celebrated his "golden" birthday. He was 23 on the 23rd. I didn't get a picture taken of his gift, but everything in the box had gold wrapping or the word "gold/golden" on it. It was fun to go shopping for all things "gold". If you need any ideas, just let me know as I looked at pretty much EVERY single item in Dollar General going up and down every aisle and several aisles at the grocery store. Ü

In the box were 23 gold dollars, gold wrapped candies (brachs, resees, twix, ghiradelli, lindt, and ferrero rocher, golden round crackers, golden oreos (2 pkgs as I got one pkg at Dollar General and then went to the grocery store and they had golden birthday party flavored ones and he really likes those, so had to get those too), gold fish crackers, gold dial soap, and I'm sure there is more I'm forgetting. I could have gotten him glittery gold duck tape and gold bond lotion, but that seemed a little girly. LOL I also thought to get him golden french fries, but didn't have a way to keep them cold before I needed to come home the day I went shopping.

He likes cheesecake, so I made a new one called Rocky Road that I found on Pinterest. The only thing I changed in the recipe is I topped it with toasted pecans instead of almonds as he doesn't like almonds. Oh and I added a little cream to the chocolate topping to make it more of a ganache.

and here is the goofy bd boy...not looking at camera...

 

pushing cheesecake away so it's not in photo...

 and fake smiling...LOL

recipe:

Rocky Road Cheesecake

Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degree F.

Ingredients:

Crust

·         14 Oreos, crushed

·         3 tablespoons butter, melted

Cheesecake

·         10 oz. dark chocolate

·         4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

·         16 oz. cream cheese, softened

·         1 ¼ cup sugar

·         ¾ cups sour cream

·         3 eggs

Topping

·         4oz. chocolate, melted

·         ¾ cup mini marshmallow

·         ½ cup Blue Diamond Salted and Roasted Almonds, coarsely chopped

·          

Instructions:

To make crust:

1.    Crush Oreos to a fine crumb in a food processor or place Oreos in a Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to roll over and crush. Combine crushed Oreos and melted butter and mix to combine.

2.    Press Oreo mixture into bottom of pan. Place pan in oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

To make cheesecake:

1.    Place both chocolates in a heat proof bowl over simmering water and stir constantly until chocolate is melted; set aside.

2.    Place cream cheese and sugar in a stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment and cream on medium speed. Add in sour cream and beat to combine. Add in eggs and beat until combined. Turn mixer to low and gradually add in chocolate beat until combined.

3.    Pour cheesecake mixture over Oreo crust and bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes (25-30 minutes for an 8 inch pan). Center should slightly jiggle when pan is tapped. Allow cheesecake to cool for completely. Cheesecake will slightly fall once cooled.

To finish with topping:

1.    Pour melted chocolate on top then sprinkle almonds and marshmallows on top of chocolate.

This and That

I've had many comments from friends and family that my blog has been especially quiet lately. If any of you have been following me on here or FB you will know how I've been struggling with the whole empty-nesting. If you are especially close to me, you know I've been trying to figure out my "place in this world" ...title from Michael W. Smith's Place in This World song which captures what I have been feeling and it still brings tears to my eyes as I listen to the words again.

Also, if you've been following me, you know I chose the word "slow" for my 2015 word. Well, it sure started out slow! I ended up with pneumonia in both lungs, which spread to pleurisy and then spread again to my bronchial tubes. I'm still not at 100%, but doing so much better. I finished breathing treatments last month and still tire easily, but I'm doing so much better.

Now as to what has been going on...I am not a person that likes to sit still and do nothing, but I had to do a lot of that at the beginning of the year and felt that God just wanted me to be still and wait for Him. I have done that and He has brought so much to me! Last year I hosted a couple of wedding showers, plus was blessed to help my son and DIL a lot with their wedding. It is something that I love doing. Then it happened...

This year a classmate of my son's got engaged, then another young gal announced she and her husband were expecting their first child and I told them I would give them a shower...then another engaged....and another expecting...and another....

Now I have 14 showers I am hosting with "rumors" of a couple more that may soon be added to my list. After about the 5th one, my husband said "well, you wondered what you were going to do with your life...now you know". He keeps saying that every time we learn of another engagement or birth to be.

I also made some biscuits for a friend for a shower she hosted for her sister's bridal shower and they have now ordered 300 of them for the wedding as they are serving biscuits and gravy at the wedding (how fun is that!)....again husband says..."well, you wondered what you were going to do....guess it's baking for others".

I am so excited that I get to do things that I absolutely ♥ doing! I have been having a blast and hosted my first shower last Saturday (by the way, I find ladies to help me out with the food and am so thankful for all their help!) and have another shower this Saturday.

I have some friends who asked if I would share those showers here on my blog, so I will be doing that just about each week. I forgot to mention that all those showers mentioned above (and the 300 biscuit order) are all BEFORE August 1st. LOL!!

I was going to share the first shower here, but because my post was so long, I will just post this and then the next post will just be all about the shower.

It. Is. Finished!

When my grandma and grandpa moved from their home to Independent living a few years ago, g'ma gave me a large box filled with yarn. Lots of it, balls left over from afghans that she had made for her kids, grandkids and great grandkids.

At the time, Aaron says "you should make me a blanket with that" and I decided that I would. I used 2 different yarns at a time and knitted until I ran out of yarn. I had just started it a few weeks before g'ma died and told her what I was doing. I was calling it the "ugly blanket" at the time, because it was going to be so wild, but she said she knew it would not be ugly.

That was back in August of 2007 when I started. I would take it out in the winter and do a few rows (it is BIG!) and then put it away. After doing some rearranging a few weeks ago when we bought our new couch and chair, I pulled it out again and decided it WAS getting done and made it one of my "50 things I want to do before I turn 50" projects.

Well, on Wed, I finished it. My goal was to try and get done before Valentines's Day to give it to Aaron and it worked out that he was coming home this weekend and I wanted to see if I could get it done by then and surprise him. He even slept with it last nite (it gets very cold in our house as there is NO insulation).

It's kinda bittersweet that it is done. The whole time I was working on it, I had so many memories of g'ma and I treasure them all. She was one very special lady that I learned so much from and I pray that I can be as wonderful a g'ma as her some day. I wish in more ways than one, that she could have seen this finished.

It's not really that "wavy", I just through it on the floor and tried to get an angle to take pics and then saw later how uneven it looks. Ü

Pinned It Made It Monday

This pin is courtesy of my 21 year old son. He sent me a link to a birthday cake he wanted me to make for him... Chocolate Turtle Cake. He refuses to go to Pinterest, but I pinned the link he sent me, so now it IS on Pinterest. Ü The recipe calls for a cake mix, but he wondered if it would be "too hard" to make a German chocolate cake from scratch. So I headed to Pinterest and found THIS one.

We had to celebrate his birthday a week early on the 16th (his bd is the 23rd) as he was headed back to college the next day. Hard to believe he is going to be a senior! But he is far from being done with school, since med school will be next. I sent all that was left over with him.

Just a personal note: As of Friday we are now empty nesters...we do NOT like it! I cried on the way home, most of Saturday (sobbing really as I was walking, the people I met probably thought I was loony). It is not fun. I KNOW that this is what we raised them for, it is not natural to not leave home, but 21 years of our lives has been wrapped around our boys. We love having our kids close. We are so very proud of the young men they have become and love them very much. We are just very lonely right now.

On a happier note...Benjamin is engaged! We could not be happier. Kassy is a sweetheart and we are so excited and blessed to have her join our family. She asked if I would help with some of their wedding plans, so I will be busy doing that...which is a VERY good thing!

One more note...I did not go back to school. Lots of factors played into that decision. It was very hard, but after making it, a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders, so I know I did the right thing. Where do I go from here? Not sure. Right now I am delivering meals on wheels part time and we will see where God leads next.

I am linking this up to Country Girl at Home for her Pinned It Made It Monday challenge.

Storm!

Friday nite we had strong winds. I'm thinking due to some of the damage it was more like tornadic winds.

 

Busted out window...Aaron's room

 

This is the other window busted out of Aaron's room. Glass everywhere inside and found glass clear over by the barn.

 

Trees down and large limbs on the garden

 

All of these pictures are just from our yard. We do have a large yard and the damage was great from all the trees.

 

This is the fence by the barn front, I didn't get a picture from the back...it is down.

 

Piece of tree broke off from just a few feet away and went thru the garage roof.

 

this is only a small part of the damage to the siding. We keep seeing more with bigger holes than this.

 

I snuck this picture in as I had taken this Thursday nite around 7 pm...

 

After the storm hit around 10:30 pm, this is what it looks like now...

 

We also had 5 whole trees uprooted on the east side of the barn in our little pasture as well as lots of trees busted up, fences down and damage we may not have even seen yet.

Change

Hello! As I'm sure you've noticed I've been kinda quiet here on the blog. There is a lot going on in our lives as a family and personally and I will be sharing a little bit of that when I can. There will also be some changes to my blog, my creativity and personally. I don't really like change, but sometimes change can be good and when it seems that it is not so good, God has a plan and He knows what is best and in the end, it really is good.
I have been doing a lot of reading the past few months. One book I had been hearing a lot about is Ann Voskamp's book 1000 Gifts. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to! I am still reading it, but am going to be incorporating her idea of being thankful for everything here on the blog and in some projects for the new year (yes I know it is only August, but I want to be ready to start in on Jan 1st with a project  I have in mind). One thing I decided to start in on now is joining in on her monthly Joy Dare's. If you would like to join with me, you can find her calendar and dares here.

Another thing I have been seeing and reading about is living on a low budget. We have been doing this for years! LOL! The Peaceful Mom blog is about living on a low income and this one about a food budget of $200 a month! Yes you read that right. I don't like sharing what we live on, but since this gal shared and we have been doing this for quite some time now, I thought that maybe I could be a help to others who live on a budget and share how we live on $40/week grocery budget. So for the month of August, I am going to be sharing my food bills and menus with you to show you that you CAN do this. We are a family of 3-4. (4 when my oldest from college is home).
I "plan" to post each Sunday what we had for that past week along with my grocery costs. I will also share recipes & at times pictures with you as I know there are some of you out there that have been asking me to share more recipes with you. Ü

So stay tuned as I share changes going on in the upcoming weeks/months when I am able to share them and for Sunday as I start to share our monthly food/recipe budget.

Summer Pics

I have been very busy with getting ready for CHA (Craft & Hobby Assoc), cutting LOTS of paper, kitting everything for make & takes, having company for the 4th, turning a year older and every day life. Ü

Here are a few pictures of things that have happened around here.

first I will start with this yummy yummy mulberry pie that Benjamin made

decor around the house

pics from the 4th

at our house after parade

I meant to take pics of all the food before everyone went thru the line, but it got crazy. This doesn't show the ones who braved the 100 degree weather and sat outside at the picnic table to eat!

Flowers for my birthday. Thank you Kassy and Benjamin! I also got my favorite chocolates, a book from Kassy (Resolutions for Women) and taken to my favorite pizza place-Pizza Palace in Burwell. Homemade pizza and the best around. Wish I would have thought to have taken my camera there. Was sad to see that the place is for sale. I sure hope someone buys it and carries on the tradition.

and last here are the boxes ready to be shipped out tomorrow to CHA. This doesn't count the things I will be taking with me as well!