♥ The Big 5.0. ♥

It's hard for me to believe that this is my 50th birthday!

I mean I remember when I thought 50 was old!  What was I thinking?  :)

Truly, it's all about perspective.  When you get there, it just doesn't seem as old, does it?

I'm so thankful to God to have been given another birthday!  And I'm thankful for the life He has given me as well as a wonderful family and good health!  I know I'm blessed and I'm so thankful for these 50 years!

I'm embracing it!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

Pinned it, Made it! Monday ~ Week 54 ~

Gosh, has it been a week since I posted?  Sure doesn't seem like it.  I'll try to do better this week!  Here it is time already again for Pinned it Made it Monday!


Most of the time on my Pinterest pins, I just happen to run across something online or something someone else has pinned that looks good and I'll pin it.  But this time, I actually went looking for something in particular to pin.  I was looking for a good old-fashioned fried apple pie recipe.  And I found one!  :)

We worked this past week gathering apples from our apple tree, peeling, coring, cutting them up, and drying them in our deyhdrator.  After all that work, we wanted to reap the yummy benefits, so we set aside some time Saturday afternoon to make these old-fashioned fried apple pies from our dried apples.

I pinned Granny's Fried Apple Pies.  These looked like the real deal.  :)

Source

Granny’s Fried Apple Pies

Print

Prep time

1 hour 30 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

2 hours

Delicious, old-fashioned fried apple pies, made the way Granny used to make them.

Serves: About 30 pies

Ingredients

• 4 bags (6 oz) dried apples
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 heaping cups self-rising flour
• ¾ cup Crisco shortening
• 1½ – 2 cups ice water
• Additional flour for mixing dough
• 2 cups Crisco shortening

Instructions

For apples:

1. Put apples in a large pot or Dutch oven and add enough water to almost cover.
2. Stir in two cups sugar.
3. Turn heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
4. Turn heat down just a little so apples continue to simmer.
5. Break up apples with spoon as they cook.
6. Cook until apples are tender and juicy, stirring frequently. You may need to add more water as they cook. Do not allow the apples to get dry.
7. Remove apples from heat and allow to cool.

For dough:

1. Start with 4 heaping cups of self-rising flour and cut in ¾ cup Crisco shortening with a fork or your fingers. Mix well until shortening is fully incorporated into the flour.
2. Add 1½ cups of ice water to flour, and add additional ice water as needed to get all the dry flour mixed in. Mix with a fork until dough is sticky.
3. Dip hands in flour and sprinkle additional flour onto dough so that you can knead it. Use additional flour as needed to be able to knead the dough until smooth and non-sticky.
4. Pinch off pieces of dough to make balls slightly smaller than ping pong balls.
5. Roll each ball out until thin.
6. Add a heaping spoonful or two of apples to one side of rolled dough. After the first couple, you will learn exactly how much apples to place on the dough. If you put too much, the dough will not cover without tearing.
7. Dip your finger in water and rub around the edges of the dough where the apples are.
8. Carefully fold the dough over and press the edges together lightly to seal.
9. Using a fork, crimp the edges to fully seal.
10. Once all the pies are ready, add about ½ cup Crisco shortening to a large skillet and heat on medium-high.
11. Once the grease is hot enough to sizzle from a drop of water, carefully lay two or three pies in the skillet.
12. Cook about a minute to a minute and half on each side until they are golden brown.
13. Lay pies on a large platter lined with paper towels and serve immediately.
14. Pies will keep for a few days but are best eaten within two days.

And so we dove in.....Jason, Joy, Luke and me.  And we made a mess!  Working with flour and shortening and then frying in grease is never tidy, right?  And from start to finish, we worked almost 4 hours.  But then again, we didn't realize our recipe would make so many....we made 50 fried apple pies!  Next time, we'll cut that recipe, make less at a time, and cut our preparation/cooking time.

But was it worth it?  You bet!  They are D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.!

We started with 3 qt. bags of dried apples and followed this recipe.  Almost exactly.  First of all, we put too much water, so had to wait for them to cook down, which made ours really more like a thicker applesauce consistency rather than a little chunky.  Next time we'll make sure we barely cover the apples.  And then, of course, you need to keep tasting to make sure you get enough sugar.  We also added cinnamon to our liking as well as brown sugar.  Yummy!

Your turn! :) You can link your Pinterest project below! We'd love to see!

 Have a wonderful week!

 ♥ Tammy ♥

Pinned it, Made it! Monday ~ Week 53 ~

My long time friend, Betty, sent a link to a "fun with food" craft she thought Luke would enjoy making, and the minute I saw it, I knew he would.  They call them Halloween teeth, but they actually remind me more of "Bubba teeth".

Source

This one was a daddy/son project.  They worked on it while I was cleaning up in the kitchen after supper on evening last week.

First they sliced the two red apples into eighths, but Jason decided that sixteenths worked better.  The teeth stood better alone that way.

Then spread on the peanut butter.

Add the marshmallows.....

And you have "Bubba teeth".  :)  Cute and fun!

And they tasted pretty good too!

Your turn!  Link your Pinterest project below!  Thank you for stopping by whether it was to see what we've been up to and/or to link your own project!

Have a great week!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ Box Day! ♥

It's a happy day around here when the mail lady arrives with a package, but it's a really happy day around here when the Fed-Ex guy pulls up with our Sonlight books!

It's so exciting to see what reading adventures await us for the year!  For those of you not familiar with Sonlight, it is very literature rich.  We spend a great deal of our school time independently reading and me reading aloud, which is my favorite part of homeschooling by the way.  :)

And this year, there was even more excitement.  Gleaning from the years of excitement watching his sister get a box of books and have a love of reading, Luke was thrilled to get his own box of Sonlight books - his very own Core!

And then today, Luke got another box of  extra goodies....educational games and puzzles to supplement our Sonlight through Timberdoodle, which I also love by the way!  This adds lots of hands-on elements to the reading and writing!  :)

Now we've got all our books......we're ready to get this thing started.  Although we just "eased" into school with a subject or two, our first official day of school will be this Monday!  I think I'm ready......yes, I'm ready!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

Faithful Friday - "Walk in My Confidence"

I don't know why I'm ever surprised, but God always gives me just what I need, just when I need it.  I know we all wish we had more at times, or wish we could change something about ourselves at some point, but the truth is God made us the way he wanted us.  And he gives us what we need (and sometimes even our wants) .  And our worth is not in things or our image, but in Him.

This is another little devotional from His Princess (Love Letters from Your King) by Sheri Rose Shepherd.  I hope it blesses you today too!

My Princess....Walk in My Confidence

I know the world whispers in your ear that what you possess defines who you are, and what you look like determines your worth.  This is a lie, My love.  The generations to come will never remember you for the things you accumulate or the efforts you placed in your appearance.  In fact, the harder you strive to collect more things and to perfect your image, the more insecure you will be about who you are and why you are here.  I am in you and you are in Me.  I will give you all that you need.  Now go and walk through your world in the confidence that I've uniquely equipped you with all you need to impact the lives of those around you forever!

Love,
Your King and your Confidence

For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.

Proverbs 3:26

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To link up your own Faithful Friday post, click on the Faithful Friday button above.  Be sure and stop by Joy's blog anyway and check out all the other Faithful Friday posts!  And thank you Joy, for hosting this wonderful way to share our faith with the blogging community!  :)

Have a great weekend!

Be Blessed,

♥ Tammy ♥

Pinned it, Made it! Monday ~ Week 52 ~

Good morning!  Another Monday is here!  I have to admit that I've been more in school planning mode than I have in Pinterest mode these past few weeks.  But I do have something to share that fits into both of those categories!  It's a...... fun for kids....love to learn....science experiment....... kind of pin!  It's called Color Changing Milk Experiment.  :)

Here's the pin:

Source

Luke loves doing.  So he's all about science experiments and crafts and fun hands-on activities.  He doesn't get the entire chemistry of soap concept behind this right now, but we'll build on that later. We just briefly talked about it at his level.  For right now, he was more about the miracle of it the explosion of color!

Here's what you'll need:

A dinner plate
Milk (Can use 2% or Whole - we used Whole).
Dishwashing soap (We used Dawn)
Q-tip
Food coloring

EXPERIMENT

1. Pour enough milk in the dinner plate to completely cover the bottom to the depth of about 1/4 inch. Allow the milk to settle.
2. 
   
3. Add one drop of each of the four colors of food coloring - red, yellow, blue, and green - to the milk. Keep the drops close together in the center of the plate of milk.
4. 
   
5. Find a clean cotton swab for the next part of the experiment. Predict what will happen when you touch the tip of the cotton swab to the center of the milk. It's important not to stir the mix. Just touch it with the tip of the cotton swab. Go ahead and try it. Did anything happen?
6. 
   
7. Now place a drop of liquid dish soap on the other end of the cotton swab. Place the soapy end of the cotton swab back in the middle of the milk and hold it there for 10 to 15 seconds. Look at that burst of color! It's like the 4th of July in a bowl of milk!
8. 
   
9. Add another drop of soap to the tip of the cotton swab and try it again. Experiment with placing the cotton swab at different places in the milk. Notice that the colors in the milk continue to move even when the cotton swab is removed. What makes the food coloring in the milk move?
10. 
    

To read more about the why behind the experiment click on the source link below the original pin picture above.

Here's ours:

Your turn!  Link up your Pinterest project below that you've tried out!  Thanks in advance to those that link up and to those that link up weekly and a thanks to all that stop by and join us too!  :)

Have a great week!

♥ Tammy ♥

Faithful Friday - "Help Me Find It"

So sorry......I'm running a little behind with my post for Faithful Friday today.  But I've known since mid-week what I wanted to share!


I know I've said this before and discussed following God's Will, but sometimes that is SO hard for me.  I tend to like to have a little control over my life.  Big surprise to those that know me!  :)  Or I like to help God along with it.  :)  One of the hardest things for me is knowing when to take a step in a certain direction and just trust God with it and when to just stand still and wait for God to show me in a big no-fail way for me to understand what His Will is for that moment.  This is something I struggle with, almost on a daily basis.

There are things in my life that I have been praying for quite awhile now and I feel like I still have no direction from the Lord to take a step in that direction.  And sometimes being still feels like I'm being stagnant.  But there's a big difference between being still and stagnant. And I've learned that I can't trust my feelings.  I must rely on God.

God knows.  And that's where I find my comfort.  There are many things that I have prayed and am still praying for now that I just have to say, "God you know more than me what's going to happen with this situation or circumstance in my life, even though I think I know what I need for you to do, so would you just please help me know.  Help me find your Will and make sure I know it because I WILL follow it if I know it's definitely what You want for me.  It's the knowing what His Will is that is hard sometimes.  I mean I know about alot of the BIG things because He shows me in His Word.  But then there are those little things....things that really have no real moral right or wrong answer, but the real direction lies in what path God would have me take.  And THAT makes all the difference.

As you know I love this verse......one of my very favorites!  It says alot and I try to live my life according to it, even when it's not easy.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.  

Proverbs 3:5-6

But this song really strummed a chord with me and I listened to every word and said, "that's me Lord...that's what I want".  It could be my lifesong!  It's called Help Me Find It by Sidewalk Prophets.  Just listen to the words.  (They really bring tears to my eyes.)  It's about complete surrender.....we give him fear and He gives faith.  We give him doubt and He gives grace.  It's about trusting Him in valleys!  He never fails us!

For some reason, it won't upload the video for this from you tube, but click here to listen.

"Help Me Find It"

I don’t know where to go from here
It all used to seem so clear
I’m finding I can’t do this on my own

I don’t know where to go from here
As long as I know that You are near
I’m done fighting
I’m finally letting go

I will trust in You
You’ve never failed before
I will trust in You

[Chorus:]
If there’s a road I should walk
Help me find it
If I need to be still
Give me peace for the moment
Whatever Your will
Whatever Your will
Can you help me find it
Can you help me find it

I’m giving You fear and You give faith
I giving you doubt
You give me grace
For every step I’ve never been alone

Even when it hurts, You’ll have Your way
Even in the valley I will say
With every breath
You’ve never let me go

I will wait for You
You’ve never failed before
I will wait for You

[Chorus]

I lift my empty hands (come fill me up again)
Have Your way my King (I give my all to You)
I lift my eyes again (Was blind but now I see)
‘Cause You are all I need

[Chorus]

One day I know that I will know the why behind I wait or the why behind the heartache or trouble, but in the meanwhile, all I know is that I choose to trust God because He is greater than any fear I have and He knows me better than anyone.  He has never failed me before and He won't fail me now.

God won't fail YOU either.  So just know that whatever it is that you feel like you're waiting on direction from the Lord in.......just hang on, trust Him, no matter if that means taking another path, or just being still for the moment.  As hard as that is sometimes, it IS possible to have that peace in the middle of the circumstances because God is there with us and He will help us find His Will when we ask and trust Him.  In a way, it's liberating really because we know we can't possible do anything about it, so all we can do is to sit back and watch what He's going to show up and do.  We just ask for help in finding His Will and then see what God will do.

I just had to share this song and these words today.  This is NOT easy for me.....not knowing....waiting or being still for the moment.  But I believe it!

I hope you are blessed by these words and scripture and the words of this song too. For more Faithful Friday posts, click on the button above to visit Joy's blog!  Or even better, link up your own post!  :)

Thanks for stopping by today!  God bless you.....and have a great weekend!

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ Simple and Rustic ♥

Sometimes I think my brain is in overload.  I have plans, ideas, and just everything else that's there waiting to be addressed or brought to life and it really bugs me when I can't get to them.  One of those things has been getting the bedroom we remodeled decorated.  I've collected a few things but being somewhat of a perfectionist about stuff like that and thinking I'd rather wait and do nothing until I have what I want or need, I tend to procrastinate on getting what I do have up or out.

But......I did go ahead and hang the twiggy star wreath over the bed and I have to say that I just love that simple rustic look!  Things are definitely coming together.  Jason made me a pegboard and that old ladder has been painted and we're going to distress it.  So there will be more to come later, but for now........here's how the wreath looks above the bed.....

And I made another stop by the Antique Gallery the other day and came home with these goodies.  I can't wait for Luke to be able to read that book..........I just love old books!  Not sure yet where the jar with the red lid will go.  I have so much red everywhere that it could fit in so many places, so we'll have to see about that.  The basket is going to go in the bedroom most likely.

Anywhere I just had to share a little bit.  :)  Thanks so much for stopping by!  And if I haven't been by to visit much lately, please don't give up on me......I will!

Have a great day!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥ 

Pinned it, Made it! Monday ~ Week 51 ~

Okay....I say it every week, but this time, Monday really rolled around quickly!  Last week was just a crazy weird kind of week for us, I guess because we spent half of it at the hospital, and then the other half just trying to catch up and get back in some type of routine again.  And unfortunately, because of that, I didn't get a chance this week to try out any of my Pinterest pins. And I'm on my way out the door for another doctor appointment this morning.

However, I wanted YOU to be able to share.  So this week, I'm going to revisit an old Pinned it Made it project that was linked up by Karen of Homespun Simplicity....how to cover your own lampshade.  We all know how expensive those little shades can be.  I really want to try this because her project turned out great!

Click here to read Karen's post

I'm still looking forward to seeing what YOU'VE been pinning and making....so link away!  :)  And let me just say, I really appreciate those that participate weekly, and also those of you that stop by every week to see what's going on in Pinterest Project World.  :)

Have a great week!  :)

Faithful Friday - "Overcomer"

I love Faithful Fridays!  Friday is just a good day anyway and every day is a good day to share our faith!  :) My daughter, Joy, started Faithful Fridays several years ago as a way for us to do just that...... by setting aside one day a week to share something from our Christian walk so we can encourage and bless one another!

This week I've had a song on my mind a great deal.  Maybe it's because Jason had it on replay and I heard it a zillion times while we were working on repainting our hallway.  And then it seems every time I got in the vehicle to go somewhere, it would play on the KLove.  That's a good thing though.  You know the first time I hear a song, the tune and beat get my attention.  And THEN I focus on the words.  And this song has great lyrics!  It speaks volumes!  And it's yet another one by Mandisa.



In this world, we get down.  We go through stuff.  We tend to let circumstances pull us down.  It's human nature.

But thanks to Jesus, we don't have to stay there!  We don't have to stay at the bottom or go under.  God is there to pull us up and He tells us that we are overcomers because of Him.  He has overcome the world and because of that we can rise above any of our circumstances, trials, or tribulations.  We can have peace and even joy because WE are overcomers through Jesus!

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world."

John 16:33

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith.

1 John 5:4

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Romans 8:37

Just know you're not alone!  We've all been there.  I've been there many times.  We had some low times this past week.  You might be there today!  It's not hopeless!  You ARE an overcomer!  Don't quit.  Don't give up!  Hang on to His promises!  He is faithful!

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**Note**  This must be something God really wanted to be shared because without knowing it, Joy and I posted on the exact same subject.   And then again, this song and these scriptures have blessed us this week and strengthened us!  :)  I love when God works like this!

God bless you!

♥ Tammy ♥