Back into the 21st Century?

Maybe into the late 20th century...say 1980s?

No more Ingalls of the twenty-tens.

No more hand wringing out our clothes.

I think Jeff payed 75$ for this washer.

It is old but looks good and still works and spins our clothes.

One thankful mom here.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

And Grant Is Gone!

Grant flew to Florida this morning.

He is spending a few days in Florida before he heads to Ghana on Monday.

It is actually happening!

So far this mom is doing ok.

It will be very different once Grant leaves the US.

But being in a melancholy mood, I decided to post a few picture of Grant.

Most of these, if not all, are somewhere on my blog but for our enjoyment I thought I would post them together so we did not have to search each post spanning the past five years to catch a glimpse of my second oldest,

My dear Grant.

I thought I would save you some work.

Grant,Elena,and I on the set of Jingle All The Way in St. Paul

Grant at three month recovering from his heart surgery and now look at him!

Off to Ghana!

Only the Lord could see his future.

What an awesome young man Grant grew up to be.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

This is a Treat

Thank you Christ Community for your kindness!!!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Improvising Tina Style

I call it 'improvise cooking Tina style' and it is usually how meals are created around here.

We very rarely have all the correct ingredients that a recipe calls for.

I am getting very good at knowing how to fudge with some recipes.

Yesterday it was pancakes frugal style!

Feeds 17 people

6 cups of flour
3 tablespoons of baking powder
1/2 tablespoon of salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup melted butter
6 eggs
6 cups of water
1/3 cup white vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients together then add the water,eggs, and melted butter. Mix well.
add the vinegar and stir well. Let the batter set for a bit before cooking on a hot griddle that has a nice coating of melted shortening on it.

What makes this a frugal pancake recipe?

See no need for any milk. If you actually had milk, which we usually do not,just exchange the milk for the water. Maybe you have powdered milk? Add about 1/3 cup powdered milk with the dry ingredients for every cup of water you add.

If you do not have vinegar just leave it out.

Only 5 eggs? Then just use what you have adding more water or milk to make the batter the thickness you desire.

Only have a half of a cup of butter or none at all? Use melted shortening or a combo of shortening, butter,and oil but probably just not all oil.

Add more or less white sugar or a combo of white sugar and brown sugar. You really can not fail.

We did not even have syrup so we used powdered sugar instead. At times I have made syrup by heating to a boil brown sugar or white sugar with water. I have even boiled jelly and some water for a bit for a treat. We have even used straight corn syrup.

They might not be your Perkins variety or like the ones your mother made,or even 'politacly correct' health wise but they are frugal, tasty, and when cooking for a large family, perfect.

P.S. Our church passed on to us a ton of little cute pre-packed butter dabs which we really appreciate!

They made our pancakes look fancy.

A side note: If,say,we ended up not having any butter to mix up our pancake batter I would have just opened up a lot of the pre-packed butter dabs and used them. See 'improvise cooking Tina style' is not a hard thing once you get used to it.

But then again, company usually does not happen to drop by during meal times...


Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Silver Lining?

"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily.

"If it is a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.

"Why, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it."

"Can't all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose.

"Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush."


I apologize for my blog shut down for a few weeks.

I really could not decide if I should keep my blog up so I disabled it for a bit.

I had had a few very discouraging weeks.

I am not the person I thought I would be at this stage in my life.

I am not the person I want to be.

I am tired.

I am frustrated with myself.

I am frustrated with my life.

I am frustrated with EVERYTHING!

I feel stuck in a rut with no strength to get out.

~Sigh~

This middle age stuff is just so hard.

No matter how hard I fight, stamp my feet and refuse to face it, my life is plowing forward.

Can someone make it stop!

I want a do-over.

I was being very pout-ish and fussy because well...

Sometimes...well...Jeff and I do not get along.

I think we know each other less now than we did 19 years ago.

Sometimes...well...the weaknesses of the kids are too much for me to face

and the conflicts come like a rapid fire machine gun.

Sometimes...well...I can not see beyond my own weaknesses.

I feel sort-of alone.

I am not the most sought after person in the blog world.

Or the Etsy world,either.

Ha ha.

What a discouraging post!

So where is the silver lining, you ask?

How did I turn the corner to realize that the sun was shining this whole time and it was me just walking around with my eyes closed?

You are waiting for the happily ever after part?

Hm...

Well...

Um...

God is not afraid to point out areas in my life that need to change, thought patterns that need to shift, behaviors that need to be abandoned.

God is not afraid to call things for what they are. God has the perfect combination of firm mixed with gentleness.  I like that about God.

God knows that sometimes hope and hard work go hand in hand.

And God knows me!

"Praise the Lord,
for he has shown me his
unfailing love.
He kept me safe when my city (mind) was under attack.
In sudden fear I had cried out,
"I have been cut off from the Lord!"
But you heard my cry for mercy
and answered my call for help.

Psalm  31:21-22


Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

A Treasure Found

Jeff came across this old light switch in a box labeled 'free' somewhere around Waseca.

He snatched it up before anyone else could because he knew I would love it.

I was SO pleased!!

I do LOVE it!!

Now I am sorry My Little Pony, it has been swell saying goodnight to you for all this time but it is time for you to move on.

I know you were put there by sweet little Lily...

Gee, don't look at me with those sad pony eyes.

No, my mommy heart is not made of stone but you need to move on.

OK, you do not have to share your Christmas presents with me.

Yes, I will miss you.

I will think of you often.

I promise.

This is pretty!!

It has the perfect vintage garden look.

Now I wonder how long it will be before one of My Little Pony's sticker friends shows up compliments of my sweet Lily Pie...

and Jeff,

YOU MAJORLY ROCK!!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

The Hunt Continues?

No More!!

Well, I gave up on looking for the printer/copier cord.

~sigh~

Jeff hunted around for a new cord and found one at Radio Shack

but it did not work.

Maybe the printer did not work?

It worked a few weeks ago.

When I had the cord.

~sigh~

It was not in the budget to buy a new printer/copier.

~sigh~

Some helpful person suggested I write the schedules by hand...

~What?~

I could have a few years ago but not anymore.

Um...

Let's see...

Ten children I was to write a weekly schedule for.

Up to eleven subjects (depending on the child) for a five day school week.

Twelve weeks per each child.

PLUS a second Sonlight reading schedule for about half of the ten and some of other more independent school children.

I am not real good at math but I figure it adds up to about a zillion schedules.

Ha.

It was NOT a quiet evening at our house.

That was a night to give the neighbors something to gossip about.

Today, Jeff brought home a copier/printer from Goodwill.

It was only ten dollars!

Yeah!

BUT

It did not work!

Gee whiz!

ARG!!!!!

But guess what!!!????

The cord on the Goodwill printer works on my printer with the lost cord!!!!

WE ARE IN BUSINESS!!!!!

You are my printer hero, Jeff.

I almost forgot about your 'helpful' suggestion the other day.

But I do think the neighbors will gossip about this one for years.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Fish and Corn

What a special treat this meal was!

Thanks once again Barney's!!

Fish, corn, and bread compliments of Barney's.

I seriously could eat this meal every night.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

P.S. The ring suckers and licorice ropes were a hit!!!

Mini Donuts Are The BEST!!

We were gifted a big, big, big, bag of mini donuts compliments of Barney's Drive-in!!

P.S Thank you for all the pretzels, cheese dip, bread and buns as well!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Just a bowl of Soup

with leftover pot roast and pork roast.

This was good!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Thanks Mr. C!!!

Is this hot corn?

One, two, three, four

I declare a thumb war

I declare a corn on the cob party!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Did I Show You?

We received THE BEST extras a few weeks back!

I do not even know who dropped this tasty meal treat off. One of he kids answered the door.

But whoever you were THANK YOU!!!

There was enough for all of us to eat until we were over stuffed as well as at least three of the kids' friends!!

Chicken salad, fruit, dinner rolls...

and cake!!!!!

Lots of everything.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Another Bun of a Day!!

I do really love french toast.

Today I did not pass off my bun french toast as little tea party treats since Elena was gone...

but I did make special strawberry syrup to go along with these tasty bits of goodness.

Ah these look SO good!!!

So good that they needed a special table spread!

and thanks to the Red Falcon Ranch for these beautiful eggs!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

It is a Bun of a Day!!

A very sweet person brought over a ton of brat buns that they will not use.

Thank you !!!!

SO

I am going to spend the next few days being creative with our buns!

Chuckle

That sounds a little funny, doesn't it?

The fun of it is I will try to use just other ingredients I have at home. 

 For lunch yesterday, I started by toasting the buns on the griddle...

SO good!

I could of actually just stopped there and ate many plain fried buns.

(I LOVE FRIED BREAD)

but I did not.

I mixed up a very yummy turkey mixture.

and like magic!

Very yummy Italian turkey sub sandwiches!

For dinner I toasted more buns and mixed up a sort of  black bean Tex/Mex mixture.

This one looks kind of plain but there were kids asking for seconds which is always a good sign!

                         

Tomorrow is a new day and I have a lot more ideas!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy