Maahvelous Marinade

       This sweet, tangy marinade I made special for a top round roast I cut up for grilling a few weeks ago.  I normally don't do steaks, let alone grilling them, but since making this recipe the first time, I have made it a few more times and decided I need to try to save it before I forget it. That's the hard part. When you're just throwing everything together, its much easier than measuring it all out. Therefore, as I go along, this recipe will probably have adjustments made, but at least I have the basic here for now. I hope you enjoy it. We sure do!!

Maahvelous Steak Marinade

2-3 lbs steak or sliced roast of your choice

1 large onion

1 1/2 c tomato ketchup
1 c Soy sauce

1/4 c balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp roasted sesame oil

1/2 Tbsp white vinegar

1/2 c honey

3 cloves pressed and chopped fresh garlic

1/2 c sugar

 Chop onion. In large bowl or container, layer steaks and onions. Set aside.

In small  sauce pan, combine rest of ingredients and cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour over steaks, carefully lifting steaks with fork to run marinade throughout between the pieces and under the bottom ones placed in bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or for desired length of time. Grill as usual. Enjoy!!!!!

Ten-Point Trivet Pattern

Well, hello!!!!

Yup, I'm at it again: It is late, everyone is asleep, and I am up on this thing I call my mock newborn-my newest sleep deprivation instrument in my life. Can you relate?

 I really don't know why I am up doing this, other than I really really really want to share this striking pattern a dear woman I met on Facebook has posted in her blog.

Up till 4 am last night with my youngest daughter throwing up for five hours strait, I woke up late this morning, groggy, tired, and disoriented for most of the day. Then I ended up missing church and spending the entire night de-cluttering and re-organizing my homeschool/craft room-something which I had begun the day before and planned on doing earlier in the day, but couldn't due to brain malfunction. I needed to finish it up before it drove me absolutely crazy.

So, It's now 2 am.
 Why am I up still???

 One of my lovely sons, (no really, he is-they all are) having been out all day with his brother working on our "new" work/plow truck, came home from working, showered, went to church, hung out there for two hours working on a sermon with the youth pastor, went out for D&D coffee, came home, took his girlfriend home a while later, came home again, and then decided he needed to do a load of wash so he would have clean clothes for the morning when he goes out painting which he just found out about he was doing.
Really???

 (Calgon, take me away!!)

 Seeing he had been up for 21 hours already, and had to get up early tomorrow morning, I sent him to bed and told him I would wait out the dryer to finish before I went to sleep. 

Never trust those dryers-they just can't be trusted, you know.

 Well, the dryer has finished, and just as it does, I find the pattern for this beautiful thing I've been eyeballing for a while.

So, what do I do?
Certainly NOT go to sleep.

No, I get on my FB page, post this pattern, and then continue to go to my blog here, and do the same.

And of course, being half delusional as I am right now, what do I do? Just what I'm doing-chatting nonesense in the midst of this blog making you wonder why you are even reading this in the first place.
 (I promise you, I wont do this again -writters block certainly has no hold on me tonight!)

So, with no further a-do (Yay!!!!!) and so I can get some sleep finally, (double yay!!!) here it is:

Wasn't it worth the wait reading all that nothingness???? 

 (This is where you are supposed to say "yes!")

This Ten-Point Trivet pattern comes with a few variations, and is simply a stunning piece.

Wouldn't you agree?
(Again, this is where you are supposed to say "Yes!")

A wonderful pattern to make in festive colors to compliment all your holiday and special entertaining!

Well, enough said! I am off to dreamland for a few hours!
YAY! YAY! YAY!
 

 Have a LOVEly day!

Love all you do, and those you have, with all your heart!

Flowers for a Day

 In celebration of changing the look on my blog, I decided to post a few pictures that would brighten my already bright new color scheme:

Crisp, clean, and fresh.

The beauty and wisdom of God's handiwork never ceases to amaze me!

 

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 Have a LOVEly day!

Love all you do, and those you have, with all your heart!

A Favorite Christmas Treat

Here is a post  on a favorite Christmas treat that just may not be for Christmas only!!

 

They may go by many names, but one thing is clear-they are fun to make and fun to eat!

Here  is the link so you can learn how to make these yummy treats for yourself or others!

Remember-sharing is caring! ;)

Enjoy!

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Have a LOVEly day!

Love all you do, and those you have, with all your heart!

It's Finished!

These past few weeks I have been working on a blanket inspired by this photo I saw posted on Facebook:

 

 

The same day I saw it, my son's friend had posted as his status, "I like M&M's". Very random, but nonetheless, I reposted the picture, letting him know I was "thinking of him". His response? "Can you make me one?"

OF Course I can!!!!!

 And this is it!

What do ya think?

I love it!

 This was a fun project to complete, and I learned more about working this type of project.

Some people run the colors between eachother as they stitch, ie-If the white is the outside color, they stitch over the brown, carrying it along as they stitch, and vice versa.

I have tried this method before, and beside the fact that it uses twice as much yarn as necessary to complete the project, I found the color underneath to still be slightly visible when stitching over it, especially if one is dark and the other light, as in this project. Its kinda like weaving in a black piece of yarn in a section of white. 

Now I know that method does have its place for certain projects and probably certain types of yarns, but I decided not to leave this order to chance.

I chose to make this blanket another way, changing colors on the hook as I went and crocheting normally, without trying to be hiding the other strand as I went.

On the last stitch before a color change, I add in the new color and drop the old color for the last "yarn over, pull through the loops". (Similar to the way you would at the end of a row and changing color).  On the next row when I get to a color change again, I just grab the color I need to switch to from the row beneath that has that same color, and work it till the next color change.
From the first row of white up to the top of the M where all three segments of white join together, I was working seven balls of yarn: brown, white, brown, white, brown, white, brown for each section of color in the blanket at that point. The yarn in the back never went further than one row up from where it was before. 

This picture here shows the back of the afghan.
You can see easily where the white was carried up from row to row.

 So, how did I get the pattern you may wonder? Basically, I copied and pasted a photo from off the internet, printed it onto a piece of graph paper, and then further tweaked the printed picture a bit to make sure every line was where it should be, every angle coinciding with the other angles on the graph.

 

For something more intricate, you may even go as far as hand copying the pattern over again onto another piece of graph paper. I had to do that for my first project I ever made.

(This was stitched with sc, one square for each sc, simply because of the small size of the project.)

The M&M blanket was stitched in half double crochet, rather than most I've seen like this that have been done in double crochet. I just like the final fabric of it better.

Each square used on the graph paper represented two rows, and two stitches in each of those rows.

The only downfall to using the half double crochet rather than the double crochet is that the 2X2 stitches are not as perfectly square as they are when worked on double crochet, but for a project such as this, it was easy to add in a few extra rows on top to compensate for this.

 Pretty nifty, huh?

I will definitely be making more projects like this. The final result is a pretty impressive looking piece to be proud of.

Well, that is all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

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Have a LOVEly day!

Love all you do, and those you have, with all your heart!

 

 Once upon a time I remember thinking it seemed I would never see the day I got to sleep through the night, sleep in late on a Saturday, or have a quiet house other than when the kids were sleeping! And as exhausting as the kid's early years were, through pictures, I can look back and relive those precious days and see them grow all over again-without sleep deprivation! I can savor their smiles, hear their laughter, and feel their love and hugs once again as I view the photos, simply because of the love I have stored away forever in my heart for each of them.

Bethy and Rachael three or so years ago

Yes, some of them are still at home, but their early years are embedded in my heart, and pictures easily bring fond memories back to life again for me.

Timothy and Sean with Daddy many moons ago!

Once I realized the possibility that my husband may be very sick, I made an account with Animoto, and I plan on scanning every picture I have ever loved of my children, my husband, and me, and make video after video of all our special memories, in case some day that is all we have left.

Here are a few 30 second clips of what I have made in the past before I purchased the subscription for full length videos.

 I think you'll agree with me that my children are beautiful.

But then again, I may just be a bit partial to them.

Click here to view 

 

Me and my oldest, Aaron, a few years back.

 Click here to view another short video

 I hope you enjoy these few short clips.
Hopefully soon there will be more!



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Have a LOVEly day everyone!

Love all you do, and those you have, with all your heart!

No explanation is needed for the beautiful truths we can take hold of in God's word.

 However, the responses from the heart is only that of continual praise.

"No Hole" Beginning Row

 
I am going to show you how to begin a half double crochet or double crochet row WITHOUT leaving a gaping hole at the beginning of the row!

 

 


Do these first two photos look familiar to you? If you have ever worked a double crochet or half double crochet creating  a flat piece of fabric, then they must.  Between the beginning chains and the first stitch you see that all-too familiar ugly "hole".

I had decided I definitely did not like that amateurish look on my otherwise neat looking items I made. 

So, what did I do?

I realized to fill in that gap area, all I needed to do was dc or hdc 2 together at the beginning of the row, and that ugly gaping hole would be gone! 

No extra stitches on each row to contend with, no ugliness, and no flimspy edges!  

Don't know how to work a crochet 2 together? Have no fear-I will show you how to here!

We will work on a half-double crochet 2 together first:

 

 Chain 2.

See that first "hole" to the left of the chain? THAT is the hole you will begin your stitch in. The rules of crochet is that normally it is the next hole over that you begin stitching your HDC in, but not this time!

 Yarn over.

 Insert hook into that first space, grab the yarn, and pull it back through the space.

You should now have three loops on your hook.

 Now insert your hook into the next space, grab the yarn with the hook, and pull through the space.

 You should now have four loops on your hook.

 Yarn over, and pull through all four loops at once.

 This is what your hdc2together should look like.

              This photo shows the hdc2 together beginning a row.                       

This photo shows the traditional way of starting a new row with hdc.

  Can you notice the difference?

Its not that much of a difference with the half double crochet, but wait till you see it worked with a double crochet!

So, lets work on the double crochet 2 together now!

So, as with a double crochet, we begin by chaining 3.

 Yarn over.

 And just as we did with the hdc, insert the hook into the FIRST space, unlike traditional crochet methods.

 Grab the yarn, and pull it through the space.

 You should now have three loops on your hook.

 Just as working a double crochet, yarn over, and pull through the FIRST TWO loops.

 You should now have two loops remaining on your hook.

 Yarn over, insert hook into the NEXT space, yarn over again, and pull yarn through.

 You should now have four loops on your hook.

 Yarn over, and pull through two loops.

 You now have three loops on your hook.

Yarn over, and pull through all three loops on your hook.

 Your work should now look like this.

This photo shows the dc2 together beginning a row.

 This photo shows the traditional way of starting a new row with double crochet.

BIG DIFFERENCE!!!!

 So there you have it!

 A new and improved way to start your rows on most of your basic, flat pieced projects! Perfect! 

 

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Have a LOVEly day everyone!

Love all you do, and those you have, with all your heart!

Pray with me

    What a blessed thought to know our Lord has our lives safely in His hands, and that He knows what tomorrow holds, and has all the answers ahead of time. Never are we left to ourselves or our own devises, never to our own feeble, limited ability, or our limited, blinded thoughts and reasonings. Step by step He leads, directs, comforts, and guides.

  The end of this month my husband will be going in for a liver biopsy. Two weeks later we will know the results. I pray for peace for my five young children, and strength for myself and husband as we await the procedure, the results, and the year long treatments he will be having for his condition. No matter how "dark" a situation may seem, my Lord is always with me through each valley and trial, lighting the way one step at a time.

My first music video

A few years ago my son had recorded me playing 3 part harmony to the song "I Then Shall Live". I have always wanted to make a type of photo video to go along with it, and today I was finally able to.

 

So, here it is! I hope you enjoy it!

Click here to view

VBT HOORAY!

   Well, it's almost May, and for me that means preparing for another year of teaching Vacation Bible Time: A busy, crazy, exhausting, fulfilling week as our church ministers for an entire week to 250 kids a day from the Johnston/ Providence Rhode Island area! The days begin at 7:30 a.m. as our 3 buses and 2 vans head out into the Johnston, Providence, and Cranston area to pick up kids that maybe otherwise would never have the opportunity to step foot into our church and hear the gospel of Salvation and the good news of how Jesus loves them and died for them that they may have everlasting life.

  One of my favorite parts of preparing for VBT is the decorating, which probably shouldn't surprise too many of you. This years theme is "The Bug Zone", and it focuses on the transforming power of Christ in our lives. It uses the analogy of butterflies and other bugs that transforms from one form into another. I kinda cringed at the thought of decorating with bugs, but once I saw the clip art and read the ideas for decorating, I began to gain some hope. Some of the clip art is really cute, actually!

  Wednesday I mentioned my trip to the church to begin this process of making the clip art into posters, and here are a sampling of the ones I've made so far.

  A few of my kids and one of their friends stayed up late Wednesday night with me as we watched Veggie Tales and colored. What do ya think so far?

Here my daughter begins coloring the poster she copied from the overhead projector.

   Here are a few more we've got done so far:

So colorful!

This took up a full poster board.

These next few pictures are some posters we made and decorations we put up for my classroom last year.

This was a plastic table cloth used for a birthday. We added the black wording....

As well as this clip art I colored with crayons and markers. (Sorry-it's a small picture, so it's blurry when enlarged)

 *   So, have you never been to VBT before?  *

Here is what a day at VBT looks like in a nut  shell: 

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Here my daughter leads in a group of kids to join her class as the buses begin rolling in chock full of kids.

When everyone's here, we begin the time with songs....

Have a crazy skit....

Indoor games between the girls and the boys....

(I think the girls one this one-let's go girls!!)

Mean while downstairs, some kids are being made into silly clowns and other characters....

Here's my daughter Bethy awaiting the VBT parade to begin....

Here she is with my son, Bobo the clown, getting ready to line up to go in and give more smiles to the kids eagerly awaiting....

                       Let the parade begin!                                                                                    

 Complete with circus music being played loudly through the speakers.


The kids love it!

Here my son Tim helps Snoopy keep his head on....

Here my son Sean, dressing according to the "Polar Extremes" theme that one year, helps Snoopy keep his head about him on another day. It is apparent by the looks of him in this picture that he was starting to get the "VBT flu" that went through just about every kid and worker there by the end of the week. That certainly was not the highlight of anyone's week.

Here's a portion of the kids for one day as they look on and cheer during a race.

Here my son keeps one very busy little Kindergarten girl from running off, giving me a momentary break from watching her.

Now it's time for a puppet show with a spunky little penguin....

And then a short Bible lesson before the kids go downstairs to their classrooms.

Here Sean keeps little Wayne company.

Here is a small portion of the 45 or so kids we had each day in my Kindergarten classroom alone last year. Here the kids learn a Bible verse, hear a Bible Story, work on a fun paper, have a snack, and do a craft.

Next it's time to head outside for some sun, fun, and more games.

The kids then go under the big white tent to get a drink and some ice cream, then back to their buses where these kids here, and many more bus workers, are waiting to greet them and take them home. Happily they sing (scream) songs with them all the way home.

We then get to go home to rest and refuel to come back and do it all over again!

Whoever is was that said church wasn't fun has never been here before!

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Have a LOVEly day everyone!

Love all you do, and those you have, with all your heart!