A Cozy House and Ham Soup!

One of the Friday chores in our fireplace room is to clean under the couch cushions and vacuum under the couch. That means flipping the couch on it's side. Today was one of those days that a little chore distraction occurred. The fireplace room chore was Elena's this week.Elena, being the very kind big sister she is did not mind working around the kids newly built house.

Joel, Lily, and Odell in their house section







Anya and Ekie peeking out from their house section.



Some of the cutest feet in the world I just happen to be a mother to.






Ready for a look at the frugal soup I made for dinner this evening?
We have been SO low on groceries but I am getting pretty creative with making do...

This is ham soup with noodles,kidney beans,some rice,and veggies. The thing about this soup is I had to make it all in the oven because out stove top is very temperamental and decided not to work today. I even had to make slow cook oatmeal this morning with hot tap water. Everyone ate it just fine.

Anyway, I had to try to boiled my ham bone I had left over from Christmas dinner in the oven. It worked pretty good but boiling it on the stove would have brought out more flavor. After it was boiled enough I took out the ham bone and tossed in the rest of the ingredients and cooked it a bit longer. I forgot that dry beans need to cook longer than rice and noodles so the beans were not fully done. Nobody seemed to mind,though.In fact many wished we had more.

It was given a thumbs up by everyone! Pretty good!