Wordless Wednesday: It's Not Just For Babies

Tasty Tuesday - Oatmeal Molasses Bread

Even though most of my family prefers store bought bread to homemade, I still like trying different varieties to see how they turn out.  This week I tried this oatmeal-molasses one and it was really simple to make, more like a quick bread.  And almost everyone said they liked it!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats
3 tablespoons soft butter
1/2 cup molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1 package yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 egg
2 3/4 cups flour

Directions:
Grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan.  Mix boiling water, oats, butter, molasses, and salt in a large bowl and then cool to lukewarm.  Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to oat mixture along with egg and 1 1/2 cups of the flour.  Beat 2 minutes on medium speed, scraping the bowl frequently.  Stir in the remaining flour.  Spread the batter evenly in the pan and cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Let rise in warm place for 1 1/2 hour.  Bake 50-55 minutes at 375 degrees or until loaf is brown and sounds hollow when tapped.  Remove from pan to wire rack.

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Sunshine Award!

Recently Melanie at Out of the Miry Clay honored me with a Sunshine Award!  Thank you so much, Melanie!

There are 2 rules for accepting this award:

1) Thank the person who gave it to you
2) Pass it on to 8 other blogs that bring a beautiful ray of Sunshine into your day!

So I am going to pass this on to 8 bloggers who make my days a little brighter and I hope you will go visit them too!

• Jodi at Granola Mom 4 God
• Beth at Happily Domestic
• Kim at Home is Where Your Story Begins
• Jamie~Lynn
• Theresa at Loving Life on the Farm
• Conny at The Life of an Ordinary HausFrau
• The McJason's
• Jaime Lynn at Training Up Kaitlyn

A Prayer Request and a Learning Vacation

First of all I have a prayer request for you for a little boy named Cash.  He has been battling cancer and they recently found out the tumor has grown despite all the treatments he's had.  A few weeks ago his parents and little brother sat right in front of us in church and I couldn't help but spend more time praying for them than listening to the sermon.  If you would like to read more at their blog, you can see it at A Cash of Hope.

This week we were able to get away on a little vacation to Seattle for a night.  Lovebug stayed with Grandma and Grandpa so we wouldn't have to worry about nap times and chasing a toddler around and we took the other kids to a few fun museums.  First we went to the Museum of Flight, which our future pilot loved! 

 This is Buddy's favorite plane, a Mustang!

Our vacation was also partly a field trip for some of what we have been learning about in school lately.  Buddy has been learning about the solar system, so some of the space stuff at the Flight Museum was pretty interesting for him to see.



We also spent a few hours at the Pacific Science Center where there is tons of interesting and hands-on stuff for the kids to see.  We found more things to learn about space.

 Sitting in a model of the Gemini space capsule

 Checking out the size comparison of the planets

Finding out how much they would weigh on each of the planets

Sweetie has been learning about dinosaurs for the letter D and there is a large dinosaur exhibit that she found pretty exciting! 

We also found many other fun exhibits and had a great time exploring everything.

Naked mole rats

A periscope to look around the city

 Checking out the beautiful butterflies in the butterfly house

We had a great time and made some great memories.  One of the fun parts of homeschooling is being able to take off when we want to and combining a vacation with a little learning!

Her latest victim...

Wordless Wednesday: Playing dress-up with her "doll"

Tasty Tuesday - Slow Cooker Cowboy Stew

A while back I came across a recipe for Cowboy Stew that sounded really good and looked easy to make.  I changed it a little to fit our family and it turned out delicious!  It is really easy to just throw into the crock pot in the morning and have it ready at dinner time.  It made the whole house smell so good while it was cooking too!

Ingredients:
1-2lbs of stew meat cut into 1" pieces
2 potatoes cut into bite size pieces
2 carrots cut into 1" pieces
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 big cans of baked beans in BBQ sauce

Directions:
Dump all into your crock pot, stir, cover, and let cook 8-10 hours.

Hubby says it would be really good with corn in too, so I might try dumping in some frozen corn next time.  This would go really well with homemade crescent rolls!

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