Mother Daughter Hairdo Night

Normally I go to my Mom’s on Saturday's to curl her hair and when needed, I color it for her too, but now with my arm still in a brace we decided to have a night out and we both got our hair colored and styled. I had mine trimmed up as well.

Sometimes you have to look worse before you can look better

Look how beautiful she looks!  Thanks Cara!!! You did a great job!!

Dale always did want a redheaded wife.  When Julie suggested I try Strawberry Blonde I thought I would be brave and venture out of my comfort zone and give it a shot.  What do you think?

Raspberry Pie Recipe

I received some requests for Mom Waite's Raspberry pie recipe so here it is along with the pie crust recipe.

Single Pie Crust

1-1/2 cup Flour
1 T. Sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Cup Oil
1/4 Cup of milk
Mix this in a bowl and then press into a pie shell. Bake at 375 degree's for 10-15 min



Raspberry Pie Recipe
1 Quart of berries
1 Cup sugar
3 T. cornstarch

Put 1/2 of the berries in a pre baked pie crust.
To the other 1/2 add sugar and cornstarch
COOK until thick
POUR over berries in crust
Cool in refrigerator

Luscious Raspberry Pie

 

In a post a couple of days ago I posted the story about the deer getting all of my grapes.   Well not all bad news, as I picked some nice raspberries from the bushes I have in my garden.  These plants are cuttings or shoots off my Dad’s plants on 32nd Ave.  When the home was sold years after Dad had moved out I went to the owner and he let me get some of Dad’s plants that were still there.  I used Mom Waite’s raspberry pie recipe.  I even made my own crust.  It turned out great and later that evening Christi and I were able to enjoy a piece.

 

 

Harvest Time?

On Thursday of this past week I took this picture of some of the grapes that were ready to harvest which I planned to do Saturday morning and make into grape juice. Friday night I went to Hudsonville's football game and then I had to go lock up church afterwards. On my way home from church I nearly hit three deer standing right along side the road near the sod farm right behind our home. Well imagine my surprise when I went out to harvest the grapes on Saturday morning and all that was left is what you see in this picture.

The deer ate every last concord grape and the only ones they left were a few of the white grapes. So my entire harvest you could fit into a small colander.

They also had started on some of the apples which had some bites out of and some were laying on the ground. So I decided I better pick them all before they disappeared next. I did get about a 5 gallon pail of them which I am going to make into apple pie filling.

Step 2

Today was the day to get my cast off!! YeeHa!! I was so ready for this. After cutting through the three layers of wrap and removing the half-cast I was finally free!

OUCH!!!!

Here I am fitted with my new brace - another two weeks of being careful, but at least I can take it off to take a shower - but no washing dishes!!! In two weeks I start therapy, but I think I am doing really well.

"LABOR" DAY

I thought Labor Day was supposed to be a REST from our labor? And so what if Monday's are my normal day off?

Dishes, Fixing a kitchen cabinet door for Julie, recharging the air conditioning on the van,

Picking Pears from our very own pear trees

Country Pear Cobbler

Filling:

3/4 C firmly packed brown sugar

3 T flour

1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Dash of cloves

2 T lemon juice

6 to 8 medium pears, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced.

Topping:

1 C flour

2 T sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 C buttermilk

3 T margarine or butter, melted

1T sugar if desired
Light cream if desired

Combine all of the filling ingredients, except pears, in a large skillet. Stir in sliced pears. Cook over medium heat for about 5 min, or until hot and bubbly, stirring gently. Remove from heat and set aside.

Make topping... Place flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in mixing bowl. Beat on low speed of electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Add buttermilk and melted margarine. Continue to mix on low speed about 30 seconds, or just until blended.

Pour hot filling into 8" or 9" baking pan. Top evenly with large spoonfuls of topping. Sprinkle with 1 T sugar, if desired. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until pears are tender and bubbly and topping is golden brown. Serve warm with light cream, if desired.

ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!

Jeff came and helped put up a new basketball backboard - So had to clean out my tool box


Jeff and Jess are borrowing the van to take their bikes to Lake Michigan and ride the trails, have a nice picnic and see a beautiful sunset. The weather is perfect for this special day.
Gracie had to get in on the picture. Notice no pants - she has turned into quite the little stripper


Grilling burgers for lunch. Julie and the kids stayed to enjoy it with us

JELLO!

Making KEY LIME PIE! YUMMY!

Key Lime Pie

1 graham cracker crust

Mix:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 T lime juice

6 T lemon juice

1 pkg lemon-lime Kool-Aid (the old fashioned CHEAP envelope kind)

Let this set 5 min.

Using a mixer, mix in an 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip
Put this in the pie shell. and set in refrigerator. Must be kept cool.

OK, so my day wasn't ALL Labor. I took time to read some of Jeff's new book FROM SHEPHERD TO KING. (Check it out on our side bar)

Read the newspaper and snoozed a bit






A nice ride in the convertible, because we aren't sure how many more nice "convertible" days we will have left.

Yes, and a quick stop to Target, Meijer and Hobby Lobby

Hope your Labor Day was just as "restful"
as ours was.

My Wonderful Help

Here I am up at the wee hours of the morning. Sleep comes and goes when it wants so I'm just like a baby and up in the middle of the night. The nerve block wore off yesterday afternoon so now I can really feel the pain associated with surgery. The drugs make me a bit "loopy" Julie says, but all in all we are managing. Dale was so sweet to take Wednesday off work to take care of the kids for me - and he had such a great attitude about all the tasks that were involved. Tyler made a chalk man by tracing around Grampa in the driveway. Gracie put the balloon between her legs and said "look, I'm a bug" She looked just like a little lightening bug flitting about. So not only is Dale taking care of me and the kids, he made a yummy new recipe for our dinner AND look at this delicious bread he made... It is called CREAM CHEESE APRICOT BREAD. It was one of the winners at last years COOPERSVILLE DAYS BAKE-OFF AND CRAFT SALE that I was involved in.

Gracie gets the first taste of Grampa's bread