Lemon Brownies

I just love lemons! So when one of our Bountiful Baskets had several lemons I was so happy! Here's what we ended up doing with them:

Lemon Zest

Juiced lemons

Finished Batter

Finished Lemon Brownies

Here's a link to my recipe for Lemon Brownies.
Let me know what you think after trying them.

Lovingly,
Deb

"...this fruit will be your food."-Genesis 1:29 ERV

March Madness

We've been having of our own March Madness here, (no not basketball), but ours is with our local phone/internet provider. Here's a quick run down:

• Upgrade in service = slower DSL speed not faster.
• Call tech support = no internet service.
• Call tech support again. Repairman came to house.
• Got internet up and going = no phone service. (We do not have cell phones...yes, insert gasp here).
• Drive to town (15 mile round trip). Call tech support. Came home. Still no phone. Next day back to town. Call tech support. 
• 3 days later we have phone service, but internet speed is still too slow to upload & download. Yep, call tech support. Repairman comes again.
• As, of this date the phone is working, but internet is still slower than upgrade suggested, taking a break from the madness, and then...
• ...call tech support.

So what does one do without internet and phone? Well, make laundry soap of course! I've heard from many who have made it, but wasn't quite convinced to jump on the band wagon until my last purchase of commercial laundry soap from the store. $10 for a bottle of 30 loads, on sale! Okay, enough, we are going to make our own. Wow! I'm so surprised at the results and sorry I hadn't tried sooner. Cleans great, easy to do, and only about $3 for 5 gallons of laundry soap. Directions for Laundry Soap.

Borax, Washing Soda, Fels-Naptha Bar Soap can all be found in the cleaning of the grocery store.

Use  an everyday box shredder to shred the soap bar. 

Mix and store in a covered 5 gallon bucket.

While we wait for the phone/internet situation to be resolved, we will have clean clothes, save some money, and think of a way to decorate our eggs for Easter.

Lovingly,

Deb

How to keep your insanity in a crazy world:
 Philippians 4:1-23

En-LIGHT-ment

Loving my new light in my sewing-crafting room/office.

I had an old fluorescent fixture that was so inefficient it been on replace list far to long. My aging MS effected eye sight had enough, after all I'm trying to sew, craft, read & write! This fixture is as close to natural light I could find, 6500 kelvins, 2700 lumens and low energy.

We are 100 miles from the nearest home improvement store, so I found this online and with free shipping. Perfect, right? Well you guessed it, no. The fixture arrived via UPS in 3 days as they promised. We took it out of the box, and yep, the plastic cover was shattered. After several days of phone calls, a week wait for the light to be restocked from the factory, the store decided to deliver it personally. Now just had to wait for the weekend!


We got it installed no problem, worked great, the brightest light I've ever seen! Wow! Sewing is going to be great!
Until two days later....flipped the switch & nothing! No power! In fact three rooms in the house.had no power. A week later we found the problem. Seems as if the only light left in the house to replace may have felt slighted, so it shorted out and it got unexpectedly replaced also.

And loving my new laundry room light!

Finally, nearly a month later, I'm back to free motion quilting my 2011 quilt top. Now that I can see, I think I've spent more time with my seam ripper & tweezers removing my stitches!

The chickens getting a treat from the 50 cent box of produce scraps. Not a bad trade for the 70 eggs laid in February, some of which made the best egg salad sandwiches. Get my recipe Deb's Egg Salad.

Lovingly,

Deb

I'm not Lucky. I'm just Blessed!

The blessings of the Lord brings wealth...Proverbs 10:22 

Easter, Christmas & Valentine's Day

The four chickens have been so good laying, 90 eggs between them last month! Just like an Easter egg hunt, how many eggs will we find today?












So what do you do with all the eggs you ask? (I'm beginning to think the eggs are kinda like zucchinis, when your friends see you coming they run in fear that you are going to give the surplus to them.) I've been trying all kinds of recipes that use lots of eggs.



Deb's Simply Yummy Brownies I think have been by far the favorite. Simple, quick, and oh so yummy!

To balance all the sweets that seem to be all around this month, LOVE our Bountiful Baskets we order every two weeks. So much fun! Reminds me of the excitement and anticipation on Christmas morning. What will we get this time?

I just adore vintage Valentines.

 So sweet.  So cute. So fun. So Happy Valentine's Day.

Lovingly,

Deb

This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.

John 15:12

Thinking of 2013

January is one of my favorite months. No, not because it's my birthday month or a new year, but a month you can just slow down to think & plan for the months ahead. I'm thinking of being outside with:

 The color from my flowers, the fresh veggies from the garden

 The hens: Surely, Goodness, And, Mercy

The dogs: Bo, Beacon, Bella

The Grandsons: Jacob & Isaac

The Granddaughters: Taylor & McKenzie

And I'm thinking of how much I miss  Dad,  who passed away this past November.  And how much we are going miss him at all the family gatherings this year.

But for now the outside is blanketed in snow

and I'm inside working on quilting my 2011 & 2012 quilts, piecing my 2013 quilt, working on some digital scrap booking projects I'll share in later posts.

Lovingly,

Deb