Much needed weekend - and a yummy recipe

Wow.  My weekend was nothing short of amazing.  Bry's t-ball team beat one of the toughest teams in the league and enjoyed a pizza party afterwards.  Then his friend Nick came home with him to hang out for a little while.

They had fun playing with the sprinkler.

Then Mike and I got ready for our night in Orlando.  Aunt Laura came to take care of the kids, and we were off!  We went to the House of Blues for a concert Saturday night and had a great time walking around Downtown Disney.  Then Sunday morning we slept in until 9:30 and went to my favorite Disney breakfast spot. Olivia's has the best grits I've ever had.  Even Mike admitted they were amazing.  Mike NEVER admits that a food he has is the "best thing ever," but he admitted it with the grits.  I'm so glad he liked breakfast! 

After breakfast we walked around Disney's Old Key West resort for a little while and half dreamed, half planned a vacation there.  I hope it will happen!

We decided to head home.  I had been to a state park and gardens a couple of years ago, but I couldn't remember the name of the park.  I just knew it was just south of Marineland.  We decided to take a scenic route home and took Old Dixie Highway to A1A.  I mean, WOW.  Anyone who looks at nature that beautiful and denies the existence of God is just crazy.

It was so nice to just enjoy the drive.  We rolled our windows down and enjoyed the breeze and the scenery.  We never would have been able to do that with the kids in tow.  Lynnie tolerates her car seat until she doesn't, and we have no choice but to take her out.  She's just not the best traveler.  We had great conversation (the few minutes Mike was awake anyway - hehe) and loved seeing all the sights on A1A.

I started seeing signs for Washington Oaks state park and gardens, and that was it!!!  We stopped in and spent a couple of hours walking around.  It was a beautiful day, and there was a refreshing breeze off the river.  I couldn't have asked for more beautiful surroundings.  We also realized that because of the fishing, picnic areas, nature trails, open fields, and huge play area, that it would be a great place to take the kids for a day.  We will definitely go back!  

Mike took a bunch of great pictures.   

This little guy was happily chomping on some grass

The grass really WAS greener on the other side, so this gopher tortoise crossed the road to eat it.  :-)

 It was a great weekend, but it ended too soon.  We had to relieve poor Laura!  Apparently Lynnie proved that she was a total diva.  Well, at least Laura knows I'm not crazy or making stuff up when I talk about how rotten she can be!  haha!


Tonight we had our young adult Bible study group over.  That is always a great time.  I love our group so much, and it really helps me stay encouraged.  I make dinner every week.  Tonight I made Shepherd's Pie.  I have my own recipe that I made up.  It's really, really, really delicious.  So much so that I debated being selfish and keeping for my own, but I think I'll share it with you just because I'm nice.  :-)  So here ya go:


Shepherd's Pie
2 lbs ground beef
1 chopped onion
minced garlic, to taste
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce 
salt and pepper to taste
Mashed potatoes (prepared instant or fresh - enough to cover top of dish)
1 can peas (or equivalent fresh or frozen)
1 can corn (or equivalent fresh or frozen)
1 can carrots (or equivalent fresh or frozen) 
8 ozs cheddar cheese


Brown ground beef, onion, and garlic.  Drain fat.  Add cream of mushroom soup and Worcestershire sauce.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add this mixture to the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  Top with peas, corn, and carrots.  (I almost always use fresh.  If I don't have peas I'll use green beans, and it's delicious.)  Spread it out evenly.  Top with prepared mashed potatoes (again, I almost always make my own).  Spread it out evenly.  Finally, top with all of the cheese.  Bake in 375 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and dish is bubbly.


I can't even begin to tell you how yummy this is.  I had people ask to take it home tonight.  Nearly everyone went back for seconds and thirds.  :-)  Luckily I had made 2 batches!!!


So, for my day, the only frustrating thing that really happened is that I didn't get dinner started on time and was nearly 15 minutes late serving it.  I HATE being late serving dinner!!!  But that also means that ALL of my nasty dishes from cooking were left in the sink.  I'm lucky that my friends are all very understanding and love me despite my nasty house!


A bunch of awesome things happened today, though. Three of my friends ordered from the produce co-op today.  I'm really glad to be making some sort of a difference in the business.  I hope to help it grow!  I also took Bry to visit the place I used to work, and it was really nice catching up with everyone.  My amazing babysitter spent the afternoon with me so I could take a shower and get stuff cleaned up a little bit before I started cooking.  She's so awesome!  And, of course, I LOVED our Bible study group tonight.  It's so refreshing to have a group of friends to come over and study the Word.  We can be open and honest and ask questions and get great answers and just study together.  It's great!


How was your weekend?

So glad Mike was off work today!

Today was a crazy day!  My sweet boy has been sick for the past couple of days, and he woke up with a fever again today so I decided it was time to get him in to see a doctor.  I called as soon as the office was open, and we got an appointment for 11:20.  Thank God Mike was off work today so he could take care of Lynnie, which left me able to concentrate on caring for Bry.

Well, we had a few hours to kill, so I decided to make some carrot bread.  It turned out amazing!!!  The recipe calls for grated carrots.  I thought about using my mandolin, and as I was getting it out of my cabinet, I found my mom's VERY old Saladmaster grater thingy.  Yes, that is the technical term.  I had forgotten it was there!  It worked like a charm.

Here's the finished product.  So YUMMY!!!!

Well, looking in the fridge to get my carrots made me remember that I had made apricot jam last night.  I checked it out to see if it had set correctly, and it was perfect!!!  Really super yummy and exactly right!!!  I got the recipe from my friend Erica.  It's ridiculously easy and has exactly 2 ingredients: apricots and sugar.  Her original recipe was for peaches, but I used it for the apricots.  Check out her blog here.  I'll include the recipe and some pics of me making it at the end of this post.

Well, we went to Bry's appointment, and it wasn't great news.  He has a double ear infection and possible strep.  The Quick Strep test came back negative, but his doctor said it looked just like it so she was treating him as if it was strep.  She also tested him for mono, which came back negative.  She put him on an antibiotic that would work for strep and the ear infections and told me to keep him out of school through the end of the week.  She is also concerned that he could possibly have something called Kawasaki disease, too.  He has several of the symptoms, but two of the main symptoms don't show up for awhile, so she asked me to make another appointment for Friday.  If his fever is gone by Friday, we can cancel the appointment.  If it's not gone and she decides that it is definitely this disease, he could need to be hospitalized.  Apparently there is no other diagnostic tests to figure it out earlier than that.  Please be in prayer for my sweet boy.

Since today is Wednesday, Lindsay and I were responsible for cooking dinner for church tonight.  We usually have cooking teams set up, but we were the cooking team tonight.  I had really wanted to get up to the church this morning to start cooking, but that wasn't possible.  Thank goodness Mike was off to keep the kids home with him.  We made Shepherd's Pie, and it was so yummy!

I REALLY appreciated the fact that Mike was off when I got home, though. He had bathed Lynnie and put her in bed.  Bry had fallen asleep on the couch (poor kid!).  And Mike unloaded the dishwasher and got our dining room ready for produce tomorrow.  Whattaguy!

Since you already heard about my day, I'll just kind of recap the frustrating and awesome parts.  The most obvious frustrating thing is Bry being sick.  I HATE it when my kids are sick.  I would do anything to take it away from him.

Awesome:  Mike is such a great daddy.  I love watching him with the kids.  He did not complain once about having to spend his day off catering to my schedule and the kids being home.  And I snapped some cute pics of him playing with Lynnie.  That father/daughter bond is ridiculously strong and precious.  Any boy who tries to date her is going to be in big trouble!

Lynnie playing around

Lynnie and Daddy

Sweet Moments

My poor, pitiful, sick boy

As promised, here is the recipe I used for the apricot jam.  Thank you, Erica, for sharing the recipe and for being available to chat when I thought I had screwed it up!

I had about 12 apricots.  Erica's recipe calls for 8 peaches, but apricots are significantly smaller than peaches.  Several of my apricots were bruised, also, so I knew I'd be cutting off a few bad parts.

First, remove the skin from the apricots.  The easiest way to do this is to blanch them.  You submerge them in boiling water for about 30 seconds.

Then you move them to a ice water bath and submerge them for at least 30 seconds.

The peel slips right off!

Chop them up, and place in a pot.  I like chunky jam, so I didn't chop the apricots teeny tiny.

Add a cup and a quarter of sugar (Erica's recipe calls for just one cup, but apricots are WAY more tart than peaches) and cook over medium heat until it is 225 degrees.  If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can do the "cold plate" test.  Have a plate in the freezer while you're peeling the apricots. "After about 15 minutes, start testing the jam to see if it’s done. Place a tiny amount on the plate that you placed in the freezer earlier. Let it sit for a minute and then run your finger through it. If it immediately comes back together, you need to keep cooking. If you leave a trail, it’s done."  (That was a direct quote from Erica.)  

Carefully spoon the jam into a container and put in the fridge.

Enjoy!!!

I mean, seriously, can it get any easier?!?  I did need to call Erica because I was worried about how runny it was at first, and she explained the cold plate test to me.  I couldn't be happier with my jam, though.  I LOVE apricot jam.  I use it in my glazed meatball recipe, and this jam has a similar taste and consistency of the Publix jam that I usually use.  Maybe I'll share that later on.  :-)  Please let me know if you try it.  :-)