ARCTIC BLAST EARLY NOVEMBER!!!!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner...this is one of my favorite time of the year.  I love to decorate for Fall - rich, vibrant colors of reds, browns, oranges are a delight to ones senses and there's that feeling of being reminded of God's goodness and faithfulness through the year.  Yes, He is faithful!  "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)  This was my dad's favorite verse and it is mine as well.

And then the Arctic blast whipped through the Midwest plunging the temperatures to freezing...brrrr.  What happened to Fall?  Why are we wearing heavy coats with gloves and winter boots now when we should be wearing light coats or sweaters?  Please Fall, come back, pretty please????  I still need to finish raking the leaves in our yard, oh dear.

Well, since it's cold outside dinner should be easy.  Chili with cornbread, yummy!  I'm sure JJ and Micheal will love it.  You want the recipe?  Here it is:

CHILI CON CARNE (4 servings)

1 lb. ground beef 
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1 tsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. red pepper sauce
1 can (16 oz.) whole tomatoes, undrained
1 can (15.5 oz) kidney beans, undrained

Cook and stir ground beef, onion and garlic in 3-quart saucepan until beef is brown; drain.  Stir in remaining ingredients except beans; break up tomatoes.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.

Stir in beans.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat.  Simmer, uncovered, stirring mixture occasionally, until of desired consistency, about 20 minutes.

Tip:  I like to add a can of whole kernel corn to my chili - just because :)

CORN BREAD

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup shortening or bacon fat
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs

Heat oven to 450* then mix all ingredients; beat vigorously 30 seconds.  Pour into greased round pan, 9x1.5 inches, or square pan, 8x8x2 inches.  Bake until golden brown, 25-30 minutes.  Serve warm.

Another tip:

I normally don't have buttermilk in my pantry so I use regular milk mixed with 2 tbsp. lemon juice for substitute.  Also we like to use our heavy cast iron skillet when baking our cornbread - just because :)

We also love leftover cornbread - we reheat it in the microwave, drizzle it with honey and pour milk over it.

There you have it.  I hope you try these recipes and stay warm y'all.

Thank you for following and God bless!

IT'S FALL Y'ALL!!!

Oh my, time flew by so swiftly didn't it?  I can't believe it's October already.  Didn't September just started yesterday?  Whew!  October means it's time for Fall decor, pumpkins, apple cider and caramel apples.  It's also our wedding anniversary, October 10, to be exact.  This year we will celebrate our 32nd, all praise and thanks be to God.

Last week my son texted me whether I still have the recipe for the pumpkin choco chips muffins I used to make when they were growing up.  Honestly, I took it with me to the Philippines and....I left the recipe there.  But I found one online so this morning I baked them and they are the exact yummy muffins we enjoyed years ago.  I'd like to share the recipe below:

4 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 can 15 oz. pumpkin (packed)
1 1/2 cups canola oil
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 cups semi-sweet choco chips

In a big bowl combine first 4 ingredients, beat until well blended.  In a separate bowl sift together the dry ingredients except the choco chips.  Add the dry ingredients to the first bowl and mix well.  Using a spatula fold in the choco chips.  Divide evenly on the greased muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.  Yields 24 muffins.

Today I decided to use my mini bundt pans and it turned out okay.  I filled it to 3/4.

....and it turned out just the right height.  I didn't have trouble taking it out of the individual pans.

Let it cool in a wire rack....

but of course this muffin is best eaten warm with the choco chips melting like that.  Yummm!

I wish you were here to share this one with me.  One mini bundt is too big for one person so I packed the other half and sent it with JJ's lunch.  When I picked him up this afternoon he wanted to go straight home so he can have muffins for after school snack.  He told me he remembered eating these muffins when he was five years old.  Hmmm, typical JJ, if you know him well enough he seems to remember things when he was 5 years old....always when he was five years old...don't ask me :).


I end up with 6 mini bundt size muffins and 12 regular size muffins with one batch.  I like to freeze some and just pop it in the microwave when I crave for one.  Still good as the day it came out of the oven, trust me.

I hope you try this recipe and let me know how it goes.  Thank you for following and God bless you this Fall season as we teach our hearts to be thankful and grateful for all the blessings that He has lavished on us and our families and friends.

 "GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD.  HIS FAITHFUL LOVE ENDURES FOREVER."  -  Psalms 118:1

Camping at Cross Timbers

The flooding last Spring really affects almost all the lakes in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma.  Water level is still high in some area lakes and that's kind of a bummer.  I have been looking forward to camping again after returning from the Philippines but it looked like there will never be camping happening this year.  But then again, I should say never - because last weekend we camped and had a great time at Cross Timbers Lake in Toronto, KS.  It is an hour and a half away from Topeka going south on Highway 75.

After JJ's soccer game last Saturday, we ate lunch, packed and left for Toronto, KS.  It is practically a ghost town.  The only activity happening in their downtown is the Bait Shop that was open.  I saw three gentlemen standing in front of the shop and by the time we swung back (we didn't know what direction to turn so we have to turn around) they were gone.  I didn't see anybody else anywhere after that.  The only thing that was interesting to me was the church called The Cowboy Church.  It even had a horse pen beside it.  JJ and I wondered if the people come to church in their horses (and buggy I might add).

So on to the lake we go.  While we looked for a site where we can pitch our tent, we noticed timbers everywhere mostly washed up by the high water during the Spring flooding.  We wonder how high the water must have been with these washed up logs.  We pitched our tent in a site that overlooks the water:

.... and I found a perfect spot for the hammock - and there I laid, lulled by the breeze and birds singing nearby for about an hour.  I was imagining I was back in San Pedro Island with the sounds of the waves lapping on the shore....ahhh...how relaxing!

Mike and JJ tried fishing but according to JJ he lost Wormy, Squirmy and some other ...rmy to a turtle.  I don't know if that's the case, but almost all their worms were gone when they came up to our site.

I have started a fire already, thinking I'd start cooking supper, but then they decided to play croquette so we played one round of croquette.

 

While we ate our supper we were treated to a beautiful sunset.  Oh Lord our Lord, how beautiful is your handiwork!  The scene reminded me of Psalm 89:11 "The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours; everything in the world is yours --you created it all!"

Thank you all for following.  Have a blessed week and be a blessing!  We love y'all.

Just My Perspective on Contentment

Several Sundays ago, our Sunday School lesson was about contentment.  When our teacher made a comment that some of us or some people does not know that we/they are poor, I almost jumped off my seat and say "that's me."  I grew up thinking that we were rich and here's why - first, my Dad had a battery operated transistor radio.  I think there were only a couple of homes in our area that had a radio at the time and we were one of them.  Second, we had running water, again, we were one of the handful who had running water connected up to our kitchen sink.

Let me tell you first about our transistor radio.  During lazy afternoons, Daddy loved to listen to songs by Matt Monroe, Patti Page, etc.., and I even heard him and my mom sang along those "dreamy melodies" (can you tell I'm borrowing those words from an old song "Changing Partners")?  Now I, too, love to listen to those great songs of long ago.  And every time I hear the songs I could still see my parents faces singing along.

And then at 5:30 right after supper, Dad would take the radio to the porch and set it at a high volume so our neighbors, who by now have trickled down to our porch, could hear the radio action/drama series that everyone listened and followed (much like the "Ponderosa" TV series here).  It was called "Diego Salvador" which had a lot of action more than anything.  So our porch was always filled with neighbors around that time (5:30PM).  The show was about an hour long and with commercials it would be around 7:00 when it ended.  The kids love it because it means that we can still play and when the moon is out it was even better because we can venture out further than our yard.  There was no electricity available when I was growing up so we either played in the dark when there was no moon or we sat down and listened with our parents to the radio drama.

It was one of those particularly moonless nights that something terrible happened but we didn't even know.  Sometime between 6:00 and 8:00 that night, a robbery was going on down the road just a block and a half from our house.  Apparently, robbers stormed into the Mayor's wife's store and placed the male and female store clerks in the store room while they ransacked the money drawer.

Our house as well as our neighbors' by the way, is located behind other houses that are along the main road.  A little path from the main road to our place became a favorite shortcut route by the locals going to the beach.  Anyway, while we were all huddled to the radio that night, a neighbor came and asked the adults whether they saw or heard a group of people passing by our place and of course because the radio was blaring everyone didn't hear anything.  It was then that we learned of the robbery and that it was believed the robbers took the short cut to the beach.  But since nobody saw or heard anything, they left it at that.

The exciting thing about it though is that the robbers did take the "short cut route" because the following morning some people found some coins along the path just a little ways from our yard that lead to the beach.  There were lots of coins found on the sand probably where their escape boat was waiting.  I don't know if these coins were turned over but anyway, nobody was hurt.  The men and women who worked for the Mayor's house and the Mayor's family were unharmed during the robbery.

And that's my story about our transistor radio that my Daddy loved to share with the whole neighborhood.  That's why in my young mind I thought we were rich.

And then there's the running water.  We had running water connected all the way up to our kitchen sink when I was growing up.  Our neighbors came to our place to get their drinking water,  did their laundry on Saturdays, and even took their baths.  Dad made sure that water was available to them by using a long bamboo, fashioning it as a tube so when you connect it to the faucet water would drip down to our "bath area" behind the house.  Even when I was in high school, I remember us with neighbor boys and girls took turns to take our baths in the morning.

My parents are the most giving people I ever knew.  They love to share what they have with anyone who has a need and it has always been that way growing up.  If you happen to pass by our house in the morning, expect Daddy to greet you with "have you had your coffee yet?" and if you say no he'll make sure you stop and have coffee.  Sometimes I wonder if most people purposely "pass" by the house because they know they'll get a cup of hot coffee if they do.  Sometimes too, Mom grumbled at Dad because it would mean she will have to start the fire again to make some more hot water or sometimes there isn't just enough coffee to pass around.  I chuckle even now at the thought of them bickering about that.  We always had people having coffee or eating meal with us almost everyday.  So you see, in my young mind we were rich, how else would we have food to share with other people?  How could Dad afford to buy a radio when others cannot?  Or how could Dad afford to buy water tubing so mom could have running water in her kitchen when others cannot?  This was my mindset growing up, we must be rich!

And then I came to consumer-driven America, boy oh boy!  As the years passed by I realized that my family didn't have a whole lot when I was growing up.   We weren't rich - we were dirt poor by American standard.   I told my sons when they were little what life was like when I was their age....we didn't have electricity, no TV, nothing except a radio.  I never played with a Barbie doll.  When I told them that,  Zach's eyes popped out in amazement.  "You never had a Barbie doll, mommy?"  When Christmas came, guess what Zach gave me -- yup, he gave me my first Barbie doll!  I was 39 years old when I got my first Barbie doll.  That was 20 years ago!!!  I kept my Barbie doll in our curio cabinet and loved her so much that I even brought her with me when we moved back to the Philippines 3 or 4 years ago.  But of course when it was time to come back to America I gave her to one of our neighbor's little girl so she could enjoy her.

So before I finish this blog, let me ask you, my dear followers, considering that we didn't have a whole lot when I was growing up, was I rich or was I poor?  Does being rich means having material things or does it mean something else?  I'd love to hear your comments.

Love you all, thanks for following!  God bless.

COME SIT AT THE BACK PORCH WITH ME

The rain has finally stopped and it's getting warmer everyday.  I don't know about you but this year it's unusually cooler to me, don't you think?  We haven't used our air conditioner that much and most nights we leave our windows open which makes for nice sleeping under covers.  This means lower electric bill for me, plus in the morning you awake to the chirping of the birds nearby - a big bonus for me.


Warmer weather means a lot of time spent in the yard and on the porch.  We have a covered back porch that Michael and I love.  Right now we have noisy baby birds all the time especially when it's feeding time.  There are three nests in our back porch rafters and one particularly sits right where our picnic table sits.  Most days I see twigs or dried grasses or soft feathers on the table.  Another built their nest right above the ceiling fan.

We love spending outside whenever we can so we worked on making our back porch a welcoming place.  Michael's sister gave us their teak patio table and chairs.  After a few days of stripping and staining we have an almost new patio set.  I bought some cushions from Big Lots for the chairs:

The hanging lamp over the round table is recycled from an old lamp shade, spray painted it in blue as that was what I had on hand.  I bought a 100 string light and wound it around the frame:

Most of the pots are bought from garage sales and spray painted as well.  I don't have any luck with my annuals this year.  They don't look healthy, except for the begonia and the mosquito repellent plant.

I have pineapple starters but for some reason our dog, Ike, always tries to play with them.  He succeeded uprooting one of them one day I was gone for a while.  When I came home, pineapple leaves were all over the yard and Ike knew once I turned my gaze toward him that he was in BIG trouble.

Maybe next year I will have a good array of flowering plants in the back.  Even the pansies and petunias that I planted on hanging baskets aren't doing well either.

Michael bought a portable 2-burner stove for use when he cans.  He had been making jams and jellies in the back porch which helps with our electric bill as he doesn't heat up the house when he work on a batch of jellies or jams.

When you get a chance, come by and we'll sit on the porch swing and visit while enjoying some crackers with home made jam or marmalade.  You might end up with a couple of jars to take home with you.

Thank you all for following and have a blessed day.  We love y'all!

Biyahe ni Drew: Heartwarming trip in Southern Leyte | Full Episode

We have been missing our place in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte.  Thanks to this YouTube episode of "Biyahe ni Drew" we are able to revisit the places we've enjoyed very much.  We've been to all but one of the places featured here.  Take a look and tell me why I miss the Philippines so much.  And if after watching you decide to go check it out yourself, we can arrange that.  Just shoot me a comment below.






Thanks for following.  We love you all.

JUNE IS HALFWAY GONE!!! WHERE'D TIME GO???

It's the middle of June already!  Half of 2019 is already gone - time flies so fast you wonder what have you done all those months?  At least that's how I felt.  So we've been in this house half a year already.  We have done little work here and there, have done un-tangling the poor rose bushes in the front from a lot of invasive choke weeds, uncovered some hostas from under that jungle.  I did a little landscaping in the front and with the rain constantly pouring on the poor annuals I planted, I didn't think I'd see the fruits of my labor but lo and behold, they survived.  I'm glad the sun finally is here to stay (crossing my fingers here).  Little by little we managed to add our personal touches to the front of the house making it feel like our home now.  I'm painting the window trim white and I hope I'll get it done this week.

The poor white rose bushes were under the choke weeds I am so happy to see them bloom.  The hostas are the same, I know they're glad to be rid of those nasty weeds all over them.  They, too, are starting to bloom.

Then we have a bedroom that needs furnishings.  We have the headboard and foot board that we used at the apartment as well as the bed frame.  I started scouting for a box spring and mattress once garage sale season started.  I found one that's almost new and although I only need the bed, I end up buying the whole ensemble: headboard/foot board, box spring and mattress, dresser with mirror and night stand.  Mike wanted to take the headboard and foot board that was already in the spare room to the curb for anyone who might need one, but I want sell it at our garage sale and maybe get a couple of bucks.  This was the one I bought through the Marketplace that we used at the apartment for our bed.

I took it outside to the back porch and one day while I was looking at it, I thought why not make it into a day bed for the back porch or even a swing.  And of course we have been wanting a swing in the back and had been scouting for one since the start of the garage sale season.  So I told Michael rather than selling the headboard/foot board at our garage sale, I'd like to make it into a nice comfy daybed with cushions and pillows.  And he went to work, cutting the foot board into two for the sides and he also cut the metal frame to size as the base for the wood slats.  He bore holes on the wood and the metal frame and assembled it using screws.

Here is our finished daybed/swing:

Michael used heavy duty chains to secure and hung it up.  For now it is a swing, if we get tired of it as a swing it can easily be converted into a daybed just by unhooking the chains.

I asked Michael not to chop the legs off so that it can also be converted into a patio daybed.  The "S" links on the sides are pretty easy to slip off in case we want to use it as a daybed

.

To reinforce the ceiling Michael added a 2x6 piece of wood on the rafters and attached the chain that hold the swing to spread the weight around:

Well, I'll park for now.  JJ is going to church camp today and I need to take him to church or he'll miss the bus :).  This will be his first being away from us for a longer time.

I hope this article gave you an inspiration for your front or back porch.  Maybe you have a headboard and foot board collecting dust in your storage, this will be a good project to do.  We used a full size headboard, by the way.   A twin size bed will be a smaller version and the queen/king will be a longer version.

Thank you all for following.  Love you all and God bless!