I'm Back!

WOW! I didn't mean to be gone from the blog for so long! Our computer is flipping out right now, and since it's the only computer we have, I'm kinda tied to it and I have to basically bow to its whims if I want to do anything at all on the internet.

RRRRR....

You know what I mean.

I dearly, dearly miss my Mac Notebook. 

In other news.....

I want to say hello to all of my Lurkers.  I hope you love the blog and maybe someday, you'll come out and say hi!

I HATE the new look on Blogger.  HATE IT.  My philosophy is, if it isn't broke and looks great, WHY fix it? That's enough of that.

My computer keeps crashing and Internet Explorer stops working right in the middle of this post.....Can I say how much I hate PC's and Vista and the whole package?? Oh, how I miss my Mac!!

STOP THE COMPLAINING!!!!

(I neeeed a coffee drink!!)

I'm getting more sleep! Pennie is sleeping from about 9-9:30 PM to 5:00 AM, on a good day!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!! I feel human again! I just looked at her one day and I just really thought she was trying to tell me she wanted to go to bed earlier, and she was just not happy going to bed at 10:30 or 11 PM....sometimes I'm really, really slow on the uptake, but I figured it out and most nights she does sleep at least 5 hours, and she even sleeps 7 hours a lot too!! Sweet butt nutt!!

Everyone's still sleeping here but me.  See, when I go to bed at 9:30 and get a good night's sleep, I feel as though I'm a new person by 5:30 AM.  I fed Pennie and she fell alseep on my chest, so I put her back to bed and decided to try to go back to sleep, with no results, so I got up and let me tell you, early morning is my favorite time of day! I have a lot of energy (for me) when I can get 6 hours of sleep and I get up at 6:30! I do feel for you out there who are not Morning People.  I have a few people in my house who are NOT Morning People, my husband included, and we do peacefully co-exist.  I do think the day starts winding down at 8 PM, and I'm personally trashed by 9:30 if I can't go to bed. Yeah, I'm a fun partier!! Ha.

I'm hoping for more sunshine today.  We had three day of sunshine last weekend and ohhhhh, it was fabulous.  I LOOOVE sunshine and blue skies!

My husband is fantastic.  He's hilarious.  I adore his dry humor.  He's sexy and good looking and realllllly tall and he protects us and takes such good care of us and I just looked at him this morning in our bed and I thanked God for him.

On another note, I have Large Family Logistics, and I want to sell it.  I believe it retails for around $25.00.  I'll sell it to you for $15.00.  It's a steal! It's just sitting on my bookshelf.  It's hardly been touched so it's in pristine shape.  The thing is, I already DO most, if not all, of the things in the book! I'm so relieved that I'm doing everything "right".  I was looking for new strategies and smoother running plans for our home.  It's a fantastic book and full of tons of practical info.  You out there with larger families need this book! $15.00.  Leave me a comment and I'll email you.

I think that's everything.  I'm going to try to do a recipe too this weekend, but the way this computer is behaving, oy.  Stay tuned.

Oh, one last thing, but really, it's the most important thing: I pray that you, in all your ways, acknowledge the Lord.  He will make your path straight if you do.

TTFN!!!

Recipe

Eh, I'm late on posting my recipe! It's been a busy week here.  How has your week been? Ours isn't going to slow down a bit, going into the last of the week and weekend.  That's okay. 

So, here's the recipe.  It's an odd one! But it's good on so many things.  The story behind this recipe is that we love things like Heinz 57 Sauce and A1 Steak Sauce, but they're sooooo expensive, and our family would use them on everything and that would mean buying at least 3 bottles of the stuff every week, knowing the way we go through stuff!! Oy! One day I just suddenly knew I could make my own sauce, and that's how this recipe came about. My version isn't very expensive to make at all! We call it Gilchrist 68 sauce, in honor of Daddy!!! You can also make huge batches and can it.  You can use a water bath method, since all of the acid you need is there from the vinegar and ketchup and things.  Enjoy!

Gilchrist 68 Sauce

1 C Ketchup
1/3 C plain yellow mustard
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
2 TBSP Frank's Red Hot Sauce (or you can use Tabasco)
1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C worcestershire sauce
3 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp black pepper
1 tiny pinch cumin
1 tiny pinch celery salt
salt, to taste

Okay.  Dump all of the ingredients into a sauce pan on your stove.  Now, you can make this recipe as spicy or mild as you want, so play around with it.  Simmer over medium heat until bubbly, stirring occasionally.  Simmering the sauce really allows all of the elements of flavor to blend well.  Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the sauce looks a bit reduced. Don't allow the sauce to boil too hard.  You don't want a scorched, burnt flavor! Let it cool before you put it in the fridge.  Like I said, it's scrumpalicious on lots of stuff.  If you want to can it, just go by the water bath method of directions.  I'd use small half pint jars.  The End!

Something Different

So today I'm doing something a bit different that caught my eye on my new bloggy friend's blog.  I thought it was a great way for you all to have a tiny glimpse into what's going on over here.  It's called The Simple Woman's Daybook, and it's a series of questions.  Grab a cup of coffee and settle in while you read!

Outside my window: It's a rainy, grayish white day here.

I am thinking: How my girls are so silly and quirky and funny and inventive!

I am thankful for: Wow! So many responses swirl around in my head! But the thought that bubbles up to the top is that I'm thankful that even in hard economic times, we are not destitute and are still able to afford our house.  Praise God that we are not in over our heads with our house!

From the learning room: I'm loving doing History with Sara, Kellie, and Samantha right now, every day.  Hannah is my Atlas Holder Girl.  We have an absolutely HUGE atlas that we look at while we're studying the different regions.

From the kitchen: Rice with Mexican steak.

I am wearing: black and white dress and sweater.

I am going: I just got back from a day of running errands.

I am reading: "An Ancient Strife" by Michael Phillips

I am hearing: before dinner sounds of everyone waiting for dinner! Husband blowing on the flute.  And rain.

One of my favorite things: seeing Pennie's face and rubbing my nose over her soft, sweet smelling head, and thanking God that He was so merciful to grace our lives with her tremendous presence!

Thanks for reading! Why not do a post like this of your own??

YAY!!

Wow.

Will you all permit me to brag for a tiny minute?? I promise not to go on and on and on....and I promise not to be too tiresome.

Thanks.

I DID IT!!!

I actually got the archives to appear on the sidebar! You do have to scroll all the way down, but they're there!!! And I did it all by myself!

Before I go any further, let me just say a tremendous and heartfelt "thank you" to Tesha and Laura, who took pity on me and responded to my call for help and told me just what to do to fix things.

Now, I have to be honest with you: I had to study their comments for awhile before I even attempted such a thing.  I'm a total computer illiterate, so it was exactly like reading Greek for me to hammer out the process of making the archives appear on the sidebar.

I know.

Don't snicker!

I realize it's probably pretty easy for others to do stuff like that by themselves, but I'm a hands-on person.  I have to be tutored in person through the whole process and see it over and over-and-over-again before I understand and attempt things. I'm usually calling on my oldest daughter and letting her do that kind of stuff.

But I did it by myself this time.

Excuse me if I'm glowing a bit with pride.

I'm satisfied now.

Help!

I'm having issues with my blog!

Last month, my oldest daughter and I made a couple of tiny changes to the blog.  Unbeknownst to me, we accidentally erased the archives from the sidebar, where they've been since forever!!!! NO IDEA how that happened. 

I've been trying like the dickens (Sofia thinks that's a cuss word, but that's another post!) to get the archives to appear again in any way, shape, or form.....to no avail!

I'm frustrated now! It's pretty self-explanatory on how to get archives to appear on your blog, either monthly, weekly, or daily, RIGHT???

Then WHY won't my archives appear on my sidebar?? I've set and reset and set and reset it, and they never appear!

So I need someone's help who is computer savvy! Shouldn't it be as simple as just going in to 'settings' and clicking 'archiving' and then picking the frequency of the archives? I've been doing that and it won't work.

I really want visitors who come to my blog to be able to read past posts.  I want them on my sidebar again. 

What am I doing wrong and what do I need to do!!

Thanks for the help in advance!

Mmmmonday

Here's another recipe for this Monday after Easter!

Girls, I have SOOOO many original recipes.  My husband is encouraging me to write a cookbook, which I think would be loads of fun to see if anyone wanted to publish it.  I would just be over the moon if the Food Network discovered me!

So the recipe for today is the main dish we had for Easter on Sunday.  I was kind of stumped for what to make for Easter, and what's more, I didn't get to go to church on Sunday because Sofia was sick during the night! So everyone else went and I stayed home with Sofia and Pennie stayed with me too.....yep, it was a total bummer and my heart was so grieved to not be able to be with my family at church! But that's another post altogether.....suffice it to say that I managed, with the Lord's help, to keep my heart light and somewhat joyful!

This main dish was the result of not knowing what to make for Easter and wanting to be a bit different and also not having the resources to make a huge, fancy dinner.  This Easter was so good because we were just together with each other! So here you go:

Merlot Hamburgers

2 lbs ground beef
1/3 C merlot (this is a type of red wine)
3 TBSP brown sugar
2 TBSP worcestershire sauce
2 TBSP Frank's Red Hot Sauce (or you can use Tabasco)
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp black pepper
1 TBSP salt

Place the ground beef in a huge bowl.  Add all of the ingredients on top of the ground beef.  Being very gentle with the ground beef, mix this together with your hands.  Yes, your hands.  I guess the method I use is more like tossing than squishing, and the reason why is that the less you handle the mixture, the more tender and juicy your burgers will be.  So, GENTLY mix this stuff together thoroughly.   Fry these in a pan on both sides till brown, then put them in the oven to bake for 20 minutes.  But you can grill them or broil them too!  Serve with buns and your favorite burger toppings.  Makes 8 large patties.

With this recipe, I served the patties without the buns and with a gorgeous, thick and rich gravy and sauteed Chardonnay onions.  When the patties were just about done baking, I put a thick slice of cheese over the top of each patty and let them melt and cascade the gooey, cheesy goodness down the sides of each patty! Ohhhh we thought we were in HEAVEN!! This makes fantastic meatloaf too, with the addition of 1 C bread crumbs and two beaten eggs.  I also made a homemade tarter type sauce for those of the family who don't like gravy (imagine not liking gravy!!!!)

This recipe is copyrighted by leeswords 2011.  Please do not reprint this recipe without permission.  Thanks so much!!

Easter

Easter.

Let me be frank here and tell you that actually, I thought Easter was NEXT weekend.  I thought I had lots of time to prepare, because we usually make a big deal out of Easter and all.  I mean, not with bunnies and candy and eggs and all that.....I mean we usually have a really nice dinner and talk a lot about the particular meaning of Easter with our kids....

So Easter snuck up on me this year.

I've felt somber and melancholy this week.  I wasn't sure why.  Last night my husband read the account of the Last Supper from a book he has called "The Life of Christ in Stereo".....it was so strange because I focused on Judas.  I've heard and read this account dozens of times over the years and never gave Judas a second thought.

Until last night.

And I thanked God that I wasn't in Judas' place.....

And I prayed to God that I would never be a Judas.  Or a Peter, who vehemently insisted that he'd NEVER betray or deny Christ....and he went on, not many hours after his passionate avowal, to deny His Lord not once but three times.

It scares me to death to think that I would ever be capable of betraying the very One Who died for me.  I asked God last night to protect my heart from falling away like that.  I felt it was a time to do maintenance on my heart and to shore up my defenses, so to speak.

Oh, I'm not wanting to fall away or betray Christ or stop being a Christian.....but the Bible says our hearts are deceitfully wicked.....that our hearts need constant vigilance.....to guard our hearts above all, for they are the wellspring of life....

And I want to make sure my relationship with my Saviour is current and tight and above reproach.  I want to make sure that my heart is very close to Him and doesn't hide anything from Him.

Maybe it's partly the new Bible study I'm doing, or maybe it's just the season, but I find myself culling the depths of my heart and mind and soul and doing some spirit cleaning.  I haven't liked what I've found, but I feel so much the better for getting it all out in the open, between me and the Lord, Who sees all anyway, and letting Him cleanse me and wash me and fill me with His spirit!

I went to my church this afternoon to participate in the Maundy Thursday-Good Friday prayer vigil and I must not have made note of where in the building to go because I ended up in the sanctuary, and I was the only one in there.  It was dim and peaceful and very reverent, and I sat in the front pew and looked up at the crude and lowly cross on the alter that symbolized His death and what He did for me, complete with nails and crown and humble plaque.....I'd never participated in a prayer vigil.  It was refreshing.  It was renewing.  I didn't particularly get on my face and beseech the Lord, though I could have.  I just sat there and.....soaked up His presence and the quite assurance of my salvation due to the horror and pain of His death on that cross.

Yes, I still feel a bit somber and melancholy and heavily weighted, but I think that's proper for this weekend.

Thank You, Lord, for making it known to me that You died to save me.  Thank You for doing the work so I didn't have to.  Thank You that the work You have started in me will be completed on that glorious day.  And thank You for never giving up on me, no matter what!

Mmmmonday

Here's the recipe I told you to look for!

Loaded Salad with Yogurt Lime Ranch

1 head iceberg lettuce, washed and torn into a bowl
1 small organic tomato, chopped and put on top of lettuce
1 organic avocado, chopped and added to salad
1 organic purple onion, diced and added
4 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled over salad
1 C dried cranberries, added to salad
1/2 C parmesan cheese, sprinkled on top
1 can albacore tune, drained and added to top

Put all of that stuff in a bowl.  Now make salad dressing:

1 C Nancy's Plain Honey Yogurt
1 TBSP organic lime juice (we use Santa Cruz)
1/2 packet organic ranch mix or any other ranch powder.

Mix the dressing ingredients in a bowl.  Serve with the salad. This salad makes a nice main meal for two people.

Recipe created by Leanne Gilchrist and copyrighted to leeswords 2012.  All rights reserved.

Giveaway!

Yes, this is a giveaway. 

Sorry, it's not a giveaway on my blog.....with 7 girls in this house, what do I have to give to you?? Lol.

I'm linking to Erin's blog today.  She's giving away the most scrumptious apron from Anthropologie.  I think you ought to go over and check it out.

I'm entering.  I never enter contests.  EVER.  But I think Erin's safe and I like her!!! Ha.

Stay tuned for a recipe, one day late!