Touches of Pretty

Two charming items have made me smile this week.

The first is this fun pinwheel runner I made from a charm pack that captured my fancy.  I think it turned out so cute!

And the really fun part is that it's three-dimensional -- see how the triangles are free on two sides?  Fun and fancy (at least for me!) and yet super simple.  That's my kind of sewing.

I set a goal of finishing it by Independence Day, since a touch of patriotic flair would be nice to have displayed that day, and I know where I'd like to hang it, but that entire wall need a makeover to accommodate it, so it yet remains to be seen whether it will actually by displayed by Independence Day.

And this fun planter is the second bit of fancy I've been admiring.  The watering can is usually the centerpiece for our picnic table (as posed here), but since the table is in the midst of being resanded, it's been living on the deck where I see it through the glass door every time I pass by.  This may be my favorite group of flowers it's held yet -- just verbena and lysimachia (I think???) but so bright and cheery!

Hope y'all have been able to take in some touches of pretty this spring too!

Homemade

I know, I've been slacking on the blogging lately.  I could make the excuse that with two new foster boys in the house I've been too busy adjusting and juggling to blog... except that I'd been rather delinquent with posting even before they arrived last week.  My apologies.

However, having these guys here has opened my eyes to some of the peculiarities of our family (or maybe just me).  That's homemade yogurt?  And homemade granola?  And homemade laundry detergent? And homemade (okay, home-canned) beans and pickles and salsa and applesauce (though the applesauce wasn't canned in our home, but was canned by Mom H and given to our household).  And you do homeschool?

Yes, we make and do a lot of stuff at home.  Is that strange?  Would it have looked strange two generations ago?  My grandmothers probably would have thought I was strange for all the things I don't make and do at home!  I'm no pioneer woman, but I enjoy (sometimes) and should (often) find frugal ways of making and doing things.  Thus, there have been a few raised eyebrows in the past week as many of our strange homemade ways have come to light.  And that's okay.

I think I'll go make a batch of yogurt now.

Garden Happy

The garden is planted!  The garden is planted!  Today was a fun day.  Corn, beans, tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, gourds, pumpkins, lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, several herbs, broccoli, chamomile and a few flowers ideal for cutting... the peppers are the only veggie not yet in the ground.  Whew!  Good thing I had the boys helping me!

I added several edibles to my list this year but didn't really want to enlarge the garden (or make Wade move the underground irrigation necessary to do so), so this summer finds all sorts of veggies interspersed with perennials around the yard.  A "salad" bed (lettuce, carrots, radishes and spinach) is tucked in near roses and hollyhocks, some of the tomatoes are gathered around a little blue spruce and surrounded by irises and day lilies, and the peppers will fill in some gaps around my still small blueberry bushes.  I think the effect will be a fuller, lusher look, though harvesting may be more of a challenge with the produce scattered all over the yard.

The next three days call for rain, so I'm hoping for soft, gentle sprinkles to soak those babies in.  Praise the Lord that food production and plant propagation are such lovely, fragrant and tasty affairs!

Best smells ever

Intoxicating in lavender...

Heady in white...

Redolent in purple...

Can you smell them yet?  Stick your nose deep inside and inhaaaaaaale...  

Heaven will smell like lilacs, if you were wondering.

Oh, but this smell is such a close second.

He plays outside in the dirt and trees and grass and worms, races in to dinner, then sits on my lap afterward while we read Bible.  And the sweaty, dirty, naturey smell of boy wafts from his hair and draws my nose down into his mop.  He wonders why I sniff a lot while we read Bible.  I'm not crying.  I'm just smelling him.  He smells like boy still young enough to sit on my lap.  It's a fleeting scent, and so I savor it.  Inhaaaaaaaaale....

Homemade Yogurt Recipe

Several weeks ago I started playing around with making my own yogurt.  It's a treat I rarely buy, since our boys can easily polish off a quart in one sitting, and that gets a little pricey to do on a regular basis.  However, I've discovered I can make a quart of yogurt for about $1.  Yup.  For the price of one gallon of milk, I can make a gallon of yogurt!  And I do, almost every week.  Here's the awesomely simple and fantastically economical recipe for yogurt by the gallon (it's just as easy to make by the quart -- just divide the two ingredients).

Homemade Yogurt Recipe

Ingredients
1 gallon of milk (I use 2%)
1 cup of plain yogurt (after your first batch, you can save a cup for starting the next one)

Directions
Let milk and yogurt come to room temperature before using (totally optional, I often forget, but it makes the process go a little faster).  In a large pan, heat the milk to 185 degrees over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Once it reaches 185, keep it at that temperature for 5-10 minutes.

Set the pan of hot milk in a sink of cold water until milk cools to about 120 degrees.  Add yogurt and stir well.  At this point you can add sugar and flavorings if you want (vanilla is good) or keep it all plain.  Remember to keep a little bit plain for starting your next batch!

Pour into jars, lid them and keep warm for five or more hours.  There are several ways to do this: 1) if your crockpot has a "warm" setting, set the jars in it (or you could put the yogurt straight in the crockpot and spoon it into jars after it's finished); 2) put the jars in a cooler with some hot water (about 120 degrees); 3) fill a large pan or crockpot with hot water, put the jars in the pan and set it in a warm oven.  I like option 2 best.

After five (or six or seven or ten) hours (or whenever you remember), put the yogurt in the fridge to cool.  Enjoy with fruit, granola, graham crackers or whatever floats your yogurt boat.

If your yogurt comes out runnier than you like, you can try adding a cup of powdered milk, keeping it at 185 degrees a little longer, or using milk with higher milk fat on your next batch.  Hope this is useful to some yogurt-lover out there!