Day 7- Soul Soup...I promise you want this recipe!

My mom is simply the best cook.

She just has the ability to make the taste buds happy...
 the soul healthy...
 she is as authentic and real as her food...
..I simply love her!

I am sooo sick with this nasty cold...

and here is how I am getting to better...

My moms award winning...

  minestrone soup.

I know you are thinking I am bias...shes my mom...but if you ask her she will tell you...

I am my mothers daughter and will tell her when a recipe stinks.

This is the best soup I have had and it is her own recipe.

There is nothing that makes a girl with a cold feel better than mommas love and soup...

add them together and I am sure I will be up and about soon!

She wrote out this recipe for all of you so you could have the secret!
Consider yourself special!

Brown 1 lb. lean ground beef with one cup chopped carrots and 1/2 cup chopped onion (add salt and pepper to taste). Next add that mixture to a crock pot then add the following:
2 - 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano already included
3  14 ounce cans of beef broth
1  15 ounce can of cannellini beans (rinsed and drained)
1  15 ounce can of kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
1 medium yellow squash sliced and cut in quarters
1 medium zucchini sliced and cut in quarters
1 cup fresh green beans cut into bite size pieces

Cook on low for 8-9 hours or high 4-5
Add bow tie pasta cover and cook another 30-35 minutes.
Top with Parmesan cheese.

Be the hero of your own household!
My kiddos even eat this up!

Thanks Mom you are the best! Thanks for all your love and for making me my favorite soup...ahhhchooo!

Love and warmth,
Tracey

Day 6- A ball jar and a wild boar.

Today I woke up with a nasty cold!

The kind where you have to stick a tissue up your nose to stop the running....

and keep it there.

(I know beautiful image.)

The kind where you have to keep your mouth open to breath.

The kind where you sound like a wild boar breathing.

The kind where you wish you had washed your hands just a few more times this season.

This is an awful picture...and I don't even care cause I feel like it looks!

We made this from an antique jar, drilled a hole in the top, added a push handle thingy, added soap and

 tah-dah.

It holds antibacterial soap.

I wish that I had taken the time to sing the Happy Birthday song while washing...

my kids do that...it is so sweet to hear my M singing in the bathroom...while washing!

So I am back to my tissues.

(calling for blogger pity any and all accepted)

You can't catch a cold through a blog can you?

Praying you all wash and sing and stay healthy.

Love and Tissues,

Tracey



Day 5-Lingering sweetness, a project and a menu....

You will notice a hint of Christmas still left in this 2011 home.

My M and I made this pink candy cottage...

(the boys made a tootsie roll cabin...with brown bear included).

Every time I go to throw it out I just can't.

We giggled and whispered and had the very best time.

She is as sweet as all of the candy on that gingerbread house!

Letting the memory of Christmas and the birth of Jesus linger.

He has come to bring GREAT news!

Not gonna pack him away with the ornaments!

Going to share his good news every chance I get.

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On to house holdish like things...

The cork board above I made..real easy...I bought the frame already done at Hobby Lobby (LOVE),

and I added burlap to the cork board (found one to fit right inside the frame).

Really that easy!

It just keeps hold of recipes and reminders!

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I know I told you I would share my recipes from our dinner with blog friends last night...

I was having so much fun I forgot to take a picture...can you believe it!

Anyway the menu was...

Shrimp cocktail

(btw the sauce for shrimp cocktail is ketchup and horseradish...that's it...really yummy)

Grilled romaine lettuce

(Olive oil, salt pepper...grill lightly...then reduce balsamic vinegar till syrup like, drizzle add blue cheese dressing...and tiny chopped tomatoes...yum!)

Roasted pork

(marinated in honey and teriyaki)

 Roasted veggies

(zucchini, onion, orange pepper, and carrots)

Roasted chive potatoes...with roasted garlic and chives...and of course butter!

It was great fun and great company...very blessed!

Love and a few random thoughts,

Tracey

Day 4-Let the DINNER bell ring!

So...for at least 4 years my husband has asked for a dinner bell.

He grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York and was called to dinner by a bell!

See...we have dreams of living on a farm (overlooking the ocean of course)...

so we try our best in our suburbia to make it feel like a.... cottage by the sea on a farm!

He put the bell he got for Christmas in a perfect spot.

I hope that when it rings it brings back all of those great farm memories for him.

Oh to work the land, go to bed at sunset and rise at sunrise...to sit on the porch with lemonade and read C.S. Lewis while rocking in a white worn rocking chair...

I can reach for the new bell and call the kids in from the backyard...and it is so loud that maybe all of the neighborhood kids might join us for dinner!

Tonight I am having 2 families (blogging families) for dinner.

I can't wait to use the dinner bell for the very first time!

No other way I would rather break it in than with friends.

Here is to ringing in the new year, with friends, yummy food...and a bell.

Tomorrow I will share the recipes I am using tonight!

Love and Ding ah ling,

Tracey

Day 3 - On a wreath and a prayer...

Today I put up a gift I got for Christmas!

It is one of my new favorite things in our home.

I hung it on our dinning room mirror with one of those handy 3M hangers.

It looks like it is floating on the mirror.

It is a tea stained coffee filter wreath,

my ever so talented and dear friend Tara made me.

I know you all want one...I am sure she has grown back her fingerprints since all of the hot glue took them as she made them.

Do you ever look at a room wondering what is missing...I always looked at that mirror with that feeling and now it is for sure complete!

That is my prayer this year, as I mentioned yesterday...the promise that God is CERTAIN to complete everything in me that he needs to.
This promise for each of us is exciting as we can watch and see him working so uniquely in each of us!

I love that he is so personal and attentive to detail...we decorator wanna B's...love that!

Love and Details,

Tracey

Day 2- A sweet reminder.

This is our ruby red grapefruit tree...affectionately named Ruby (I know brilliant and creative). Today this sweet tree was the perfect place for our sweet daughter M. to relax and read. This moment was so refreshing to me. As we head into this New Year I am so excited to relax in the trusting arms of Jesus and allow His fruit to grow out of me! In church this morning I was reminded of that truth as we took communion...I can relax because He has told me to, because He will finish all that He set out to do in me...in His time in His way...so relaxing!

My favorite part of this moment...happened right after this shot when M peered through the tree..."Oh mommy take one like this...and she struck a pose."...Love my girl!

"I am CERTAIN that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns."
                                                                                            Philippians 1:6

Have a sweet day!
Love and Relax,
Tracey

Blog Challenge Day 1...This Present Eternity

2 of our favorite Christmas presents...an hour glass and The Quotable C.S. Lewis.

"Humans live in time...therefore...attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself and to...the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity...in it alone freedom and actuality are offered." C.S. Lewis

This sand hour glass was a Christmas gift to me from a dear friend. This was the toughest year of her life. She lost the love of her life and he left 3 beautiful boys in her care.

As we (the 4 of us) prayed together as a family last night, praising and reflecting on 2010, my son offered a prayer...that went something like this...

"Jesus, we thank you for all of 2010... even the hard parts. I am sad but thankful that Mr.Chad is with you...it is hard for his family but I know you are with them and in time they will all be back together...I am so glad Mr. Chad also got to ride with Santa and see the world..."

I am always so blown away by the sweet hearts that are forming right around me each day.

Eternity is always in the Present...

here is to a NEW year...one where we thank Jesus even for "the hard parts"....and one where we will do our best to live in the freedom of the Present being fully aware of Eternity.