Our family's website, PeacefulHome.net, is in the process of changing hosting companies and is currently inactive. Our plan is to move this blog over once construction is complete. Please stay tuned for updates!
We're still wrapping up the last details of our Mudroom Makeover. This past weekend we even managed to paint a couple walls in the kitchen. Nesting or just bored of white? You decide.
I realized that I never posted a finished photo of the bunk beds Bryan made for the girls' room. They are amazing and the girls love them!
The beds are attached to the wall and are super sturdy. We joke that a tornado could blow away our house, but the beds will still be standing!
My favorite feature is there's a kick-plate under the bottom bed (like a hotel bed) so nothing can get shoved under the bed! Genius!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We had 25 around our table including 18 children. It was a fun time!
The older girls have already started to fill the freezer with treats for our Christmas "goodie table," a few presents have been wrapped, and I'm starting a list of things that need to be done. 'Tis the season. But I dearly love Christmas, and wouldn't change this brand of crazy for anything!
Here's a satisfying skillet meal that won't break your budget:
Brat Potato Skillet
3 medium red potatoes, cubed
1 cup beef broth
5 fully cooked bratwurst links, cut into 1/2-inch slices
2 medium tart apples, peeled and cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butterThis week we will be enjoying:
In a skillet, bring potatoes and broth to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add bratwurst, apples, onion and salt; cook for 5-10 minutes or until potatoes are tender and broth has evaporated.
Push bratwurst mixture to the sides of pan. Place sugar in the center of pan; cook until sugar is melted and golden brown. Add butter; cook and stir until butter is melted. Toss with the bratwurst mixture; serve immediately. Yield: 6-8 servings.
Stumpf Notes: We use smoked sausage instead of brats because they are so much more economical. Lately, the children prefer this without the apples cooked with, so I serve unsweetened applesauce on the side. We usually make about triple the amount of everything except the sausage, butter, and sugar.
Monday - Pinto Bean Casserole
Tuesday (Shalom House) - Brat Potato Skillet, Lemon Garlic Broccoli, Applesauce
Wednesday (AWANA) - Corn Dogs, Chips
Thursday (Karate) - Black Beans & Smoked Sausage over Rice
Friday - Sausage Stroganoff Soup, Fresh Veggies
Saturday - French Roast Beef Sandwiches, Salad
Our menus for past years can be found at our website. Breakfast menu is here; lunch menu is here.
Every year CurrClick has a great Thanksgiving Sale with many items free to download. Plus many things are on sale. Right now I have a Christmas Fun Pack in my cart that is only going to set me back $0.50.
The sale starts at 8am EST Monday. You can head over now and start nosing around. I just downloaded a cute little Christmas-themed set for pre-schoolers that was FREE! Love it! Happy shopping!
Here's what we had when we went to bed Saturday night. We're even further along tonight, but no more pictures until we're all done.
As it always is, there were bumps along the way. Shelves too long, storage bins too big, and a hard time finding fabric I liked at Joann's. However, my husband is amazingly resourceful, and he's worked like a dog on my latest pet project. Not what he had in mind for the weekend, but he never complained!
We put the first coat of paint on the mudroom walls by bedtime Friday. The white spots were huge spackle repairs from the coat hooks. Those needed to dry overnight.
I love color on my walls! With every room I paint, I wonder why I waited so long to get around to it!
After pulling everything out of the mudroom, it looked amazingly bigger! The children loved the echo of the empty room.
This is the nook off the kitchen where everything went - expect for that huge coat pile in my bedroom. Proving that things have to get worse before they get better. This is motivation to finish the project!
You know I'm feeling better when.... I get all fired up about a home improvement project!
This weekend we're tackling the mudroom. It needs help! Trying to get it done for around $100 (not including gas to drive to IKEA).
My first Menu Plan Monday in two months! We had a baby check-up this afternoon. I'm about 14 weeks along and heard the little punkin's heartbeat. Never gets old!
I'm glad I'm getting some energy back because this is a pretty busy week. And I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving! Excited but, phew, I can't figure out how this year has flown by!
Meghan is the chef this week, and the recipe below is one of her favorites. I grew up eating this easy skillet meal. My father called it by its unpoetic sailor’s name. This comfort food sends my children into shrieks of glee. It’s very rich, so we don’t have it very often, but with eggs and a loaf of whole wheat toast, it makes for an easy, frugal meal.
You can try stretching the gravy by adding a can of mixed veggies, but my children call that heresy. They would prefer that veggies were on the side.
Creamed Beef on Toast
3 Tbl Butter
3 Tbl Oil
1/2 C Flour
4 C Milk
1 tsp Salt
2 packs roast beef (those thin lunchmeat packs that are less than $1)
1/4 tsp pepper
Melt butter and oil in a large saucepan. Stir in flour. Add milk and keep stirring. Add salt & pepper. Cut beef into strips and stir in. If too thick, add a little more milk. Heat to boil and remove. Serve over warm toast.
This week we will be enjoying:
Monday (Bryan works late) - Beef Gravy, Toast, Scrambled Eggs
Tuesday (Homeschool Mom's Meeting) - Mexican Dinner, Sweet Potatoes
Wednesday (4-H Council Meeting, AWANA) - Cold Cuts, Chips
Thursday (Karate) - Teriyaki Chicken, Rice, Edamame
Friday - Baked French Toast, Fruit, Sausage
Saturday - Swedish Meatballs, Rice, Noodles, Steamed Broccoli
Our menus for past years can be found at our website. Breakfast menu is here; lunch menu is here.
Bryan forwarded me this article. So amazing! So sweet! So what I want for us!
Grab some tissues, and then hug your man extra tight tonight!
My new glasses came today! Doing a happy dance! If you haven't heard about Zenni Optical, check out their website for the best prices on glasses.
My girls each got 2 pairs earlier this year. The total for 4 pairs was around $100. One of Emelie's is titanium steel (somehow a girl falling off horses tends to break glasses?!).
I just bought a pair of glasses with photochromatic lenses (like Transitions, but cheaper) and a pair of prescription sunglasses. My total, including shipping, was about $64. The frames for my sunglasses were only $6.95!
Just take the numbers provided from your eye exam and enter them in on the website. You can even upload a photo of yourself to "try-on" different frames.
With 5 glasses wearers in the family (and likely more in the future) we were delighted to find an economical way to see better!
Note: I'm not affiliated with Zenni in any way - just a satisfied customer.
I have been a bad, bad blogger. Almost two months and not a single post. Would you forgive me if I have a good excuse?
I've spent my prime blogging hours over the past several weeks alternately curled up in the fetal position feeling disgusting and fantasizing about hamburgers (preferably loaded with jalapenos). Par for the course for me during the first trimester of pregnancy.
Our "baby," Hunter, was about to turn three when Bryan and I were delighted to find out that we were going to have another blessing. God willing, our ninth child will arrive mid-May 2012!
 |
| I think this one looks like Bryan |
It's a little surreal to us to be working on driver's ed and college with our oldest two, while getting ready to start the journey over again. Hunter is almost potty trained so we might be a zero diaper home for a couple months. That hasn't happened in almost 16 years! Nevertheless, we are over the moon that God has blessed us again - even at our "mature' age.
I'm starting to feel better, so hopefully I can remember all the post ideas that have floated through my head in the past few weeks. As I always say, it's never dull around here!
Posts
