Solomon Homestead

Preschool baking

Last Sunday afternoon my dd4 asked if we could bake something. Sure I replied what would you like? How about cupcakes....with all different colors of icing and lots of sprinkles.... LOL. She insists on putting sprinkles on all of her desserts :) She knows how to mix her colors and loves doing so any opportunity she gets. Mom I know how to make orange, purple and green :) 

Elderberry Jelly

This was my first time making elderberry jelly.  I only gathered a small amount of berries as the birds must have gotten to them first. The jelly wasn't as dark as I would have liked it.  Elderberries are very good for you. They help boost the immune system so therefore they are wonderful to eat around flu season. We enjoy our jelly on homemade buttermilk biscuits....YUM!

BE SURE TO WEAR GLOVES WHEN STRAINING AS THE JUICE STAINS!!!!

Seperating the berries off the stems.

After the berries have been cooked down, put into a cheese cloth and strain into bowl. Make sure you wear gloves while squeezing the cloth!!! 

I follow the directions on the freezer jam pectin. I also added a couple of tablespoons of apple juice concentrate for added pectin.

Putting it into my container.

Here it is on a biscuit. 

Mexican Cornbread

We like to spice up our cornbread a little bit. I do not measure everything.

1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix

1 can of creamed corn

Buttermilk

Cheddar cheese (shredded)

Jalepenos (diced)

Prepare the cornbread according to package following the muffin method. Use buttermilk instead of regular milk. Omit egg and use the can of creamed corn. Add about 2 T. of diced Jalepenos or more or less, depending on how spicy you want it. Stir in about a handful or so of shredded cheddar cheese.

I baked mine in a small casserole dish. It is very moist and yummy.

This week's survey

Outside my window: Dark

I am thinking: How faithful and good my God is!

From the kitchen: baked ham, homemade buttermilk biscuits, homemade elderberry jelly, green beans and red potatoes mashed. 

In the garden: squash, green beans, peppers and tomatoes

I am reading: The Leadership Summit

I am hearing: country videos on tv

Around the house: it's time to clean up and get kids to bed

I am looking forward to: God moving mightly over the next month

One of my favorite things: internet

Blessing for the day: Hubby was able to start back to college today.

Weekly Survey

Outside my window: Rain

I am thinking: about finances, moving, deliverance from it all.... how about 100,000.00 would be nice.

From the kitchen: chicken nachos

In the garden: watered from the rain, not burned up thank you Lord :)

I am reading: homeschool blogs for ideas

I am hearing: Rod Parsley on tv

Around the house: school and then laundry mat

I am looking forward to: not being broke anymore

One of my favorite things: my 15-20 min. power naps :)

Bugs around the homestead

Ok I know these aren't bugs....well two are arachnids the other is a Zebra butterfly.

Our two arachnids are southern black widow spiders. Male and female. Notice the red markings on both sides of the female....like the redback in Austrailia. Yes, my oldest came in this morning to inform me my middle son and the neigbor boy had LIVE black widow spiders!!! So I pick up my can of bug spray and go running. Luckily no one was harmed....other than the spiders. I don't normally kill spiders except poisonous ones and today there were too many children involved!!!  UGH! my son doesn't think. He does think every creature, especialy the harmful ones, are the most coolest critters on the earth!  

Back side of female

Underside of female...notice hourglass shape.

Weekly survey

Outside my window: A burned up garden

I am thinking: About the lesson I will be teaching tomorrow in SS.

From the kitchen: Tonight's supper is fried rice and to drink is cherry limeade (the young ones made it today).

In the garden: picked green beans

I am reading: Created to be His Helpmeet and the Power of a Praying Wife

I am hearing: the kiddos are watching tv and the humming of the fans.

Around the house: today was cleaning day, all rooms top to bottom

I am looking forward to: The Leadership Summit at our church Thursday and Friday, it is the first one dh and I have ever attended.

One of my favorite things: air conditioning!!!!! 

Homestead in August

Boy is it hot!!!! Heat indexes are in the 100's and all this humidity...YUCK!

We (me, hubby and children) helped our youth department host VBS at the state park campground all week long in the evenings. It was great fun for the kiddos. Very hot and sticky but the last day was water day...slip n slide and mud pit (filled up the sand pit with water).

My garden, herb garden and flowers are burned up. We haven't had rain in awhile. The sun has pretty much burned everything to a crisp. I pulled the wildflowers and weeds out of my herb bed and then watered the herbs. Have to carry water to the garden everyday as our outside faucet is broken. My poor peppers, green beans, strawberries and squash are soooo wilted come noon.

Been schooling since it is so hot out. Meals have been very light if at all...it's just too hot to eat. We have all been drinking plenty of water and the kiddos have been living on popcicles LOL. Yep it's August.  

Thursday Survey

Thought I would try to start a new thing. Every week I will post this little survey.  

Outside my window: Crepe Myrtle in full bloom swaying in the breeze

I am thinking : about getting a part time job

From the kitchen: just had supper...corndogs and a BIG salad

In the garden: weeded between my rows of corn, brussel sprouts, peppers, tomatoes and green beans

I am reading: "Do Hard Things" by Alex & Brett Harris

I am hearing: my oldest son practicing his guitar

Around the house: need to clean off table and do evening dishes, round up kiddos from outside and give them baths

I am looking forward to: Mon. evening starting VBS down at the state park campground with our youth department...FUN!!

One of my favorite things (blessing for the day) : smiles on my children's dirty, little popcicle stained faces ;) 

Spiderweb

Here is a spider that was hanging in her web out our window yesterday morning. We awoke to fog, it was covering her web. She is in the middle. 

Blackberries

Oh the work that goes into making a delicious cobbler :) Today the little ones and I headed out to our berry patch, well not ours the Lord planted it for us across the fence. Over the fence and through the woods.....to grandmother's house we go LOL....not really. I had clipped a path through the high weeds and wild roses to get to the big juicy berries before the critters get them all.

Through all the thorns, mosquitos and hot and sunny 90 degree weather we managed to pick a basket of them. We brought them back in, washed them off and made a cobbler. I have included the photos below of my little helpers. Their hard work paid off LOL.

Our basket

Cooking the berries with sugar, cornstarch, water and lemon juice

Dropping on the batter

Out of the oven

Into the bowl with a scoop of whip cream melting on it.

Can ya name it?

Hello. I have posted some pics from my garden and yard. Can you guess what they are? Some are very easy others are not. I think you southern gals shouldn't have a problem :) Have fun!

New Orleans mission trip

My oldest ds leaves out Sunday for New Orleans along with his youth group from our church. This is something Missionlab sponsors. You can check out www.missionlab.com to see some videos of previous trips this yeer from other churches. It is called Rebirth 2008.

I am praying my son will have an awesome God experience. I thank the Lord he provided my teen with this opportunity, he was given a full scholarship. They will be building back homes, leading VBS for the inner city kids ages 15-17, witnessing on the streets, visiting nursing homes, having a prayer walk and a block party plus their own evening worship and Bible time back at the seminary.  

I am a bit nervous as this is the farthest he has ever been for me and he will be gone for a whole week!!! If you are reading this, please take the time to pray for this trip, pray for our teens, leaders and for me :) Thank you.

Here is a picture of the Taco Crescent Bake from the Menu4Moms that I have over on the right. It was a very good dish and will be making it again. Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th.

More of our flowers

From the garden to the table. I am enjoying this wildflower mixture so much! Thank you God for your beautiful gifts.

June

What I love about June:

• Sound of Cicadas in the trees 
• BBQs
• Swimming
• Mimosas in full bloom...smell so wonderful
• Digging new potatoes
• Black Eyed Susans and Queen Ann's Lace in the fields
• The smell of fresh cut hay
• Vacation Bible School
• Sound of lawn mowers
• Sun tea
• Floatin the river
• Picking Mullberries
• Catching Lightning bugs
• Crawdads in the creek

Flowers and herbs

Clematis

Flower Box

Herbs

Wildflowers starting to open

Mulberries from our tree

Garden pictures

Here are some pics. of our garden. Dd4 loves picking peas and ds 8 enjoys diggin onions. We are eating lettuce, peas, and strawberries from it. The corn is up. Tomatoes and peppers are blooming. Squash is soon to bloom. Green beans and carrots are up too. Everything is growing well. The cauliflower and brusselsprouts are getting bigger. Had a neighbor's duck and chicken get into them earlier and ate 4 plants. Hopefully potatoes will be blooming in June.

We had a nice Mem. day weekend. A cookout at my folk's with my aunts, uncles and cousins with their wives and babies. We had our own little cookout here yesterday. Grilled burgers and steaks. Lettuce from the garden. Mulberries off the tree for dessert. Baked beans and corn on the cob...YUMMY.  It has been warm. Raining off and on. We have got some fishing in but didn't catch any. Been in the garden and lazin around the yard.  

Rainbow of Spring

 Some colors I found around the yard.

Our first tulip. Ds planted these back in the fall.

New rose leaves

Lettuce growing in my garden

Peas growing in my garden 

been awhile

Ok so here I go...haven't been on here in awhile. We have been very busy. Had ds 8th b-day on the 19. Then there was Easter. I made dinner here and we had our oldest son's youth leader over. He is only 18 but is such a God send for our son. So very strong in the word and on fire for Jesus!!

We are still recieving rain. Had it several days ago and put this area over the flood stage. Several of my friends have either damage or lost homes and businesses. This rain isn't helping any. Please keep them in your prayers.

Made blueberry muffins for breakfast. The recipe is from a dear friend of mine. If you would like it I will share it with you, just ask.

Adding in the berries

Pouring batter into muffin tin 

Here they are all finished...YUM!

More snow

We received snow on Tuesday. We took the kids sledding for the first time. They loved it. All the snow was gone on Wednesday. Oldest ds went to his first guitar tryout for the church youth band. They loved him! He will be playing lead guitar on Wednesday nights for the worship team.

It snowed all night last night. We woke to about 7 inches. It is a very wet snow. The roads are a little slushy but the snow is beautiful. Kids can't wait to get out in it again. I think this may be the last snow for the season. 3 snows is enough for us down here :)

Have a blessed weekend ya'll!