Friday, October 26, 2007

Just something to share.

I havent tried this yet but thought I would share it!!


Pumpkin Fruit Roll-ups
Chop pumpkin and cook in saucepan until soft. Use as little water as possible. Puree in blender or food processor until the consistency of thick applesauce. * Add 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice to mixture. Mix well. * Spread puree on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper (tape wax paper down so it won't curl over the pumpkin), leaving a 1-2 inch border around the edge. * Preheat oven to 275 F and bake for 30-35 minutes. Turn off oven and leave door closed, letting the pumpkin dry 8-10 hours. * When cooled to the touch, roll up and cut into 1-inch wide strips. Seal in Ziplock® bags and serve as a yummy, inexpensive alternative to commercial Fruit RollUps®! * OR leave flat and use cookie cutters to cut into fun holiday shapes.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

A Great Visit from my Mom and Grandmother!!

On Monday , my mom and grandmother(and their dogs!) drove up from Florida to visit us for a couple nights. We had a great time. They got to see Braxton play his last session of soccer, Bailey try out for basketball and just the everyday happenings of the Ansbaughs. Yesterday we went shopping for a pumpkin, went out to lunch, went shopping around Macon and of course got a latte (did a country girl just say that??). We ended our fun day with my mom cooking (yee haw!) yummy lasagna. I just loved being able to sit out on my front porch with my mom, grandmother and my daughter and just give thanks to have these amazing girls in my life!! They have each made me who I am today, not to say that my husband ,father, and son have not, but there is something about the mother-daughter thing that is just a different relationship. (Did that make sense?) We had a great time and I was sad to see them go this morning!!!

A Visit from my mom and grandmother!!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

One mother's trash....another child's rose garden!!


Chad and I received a beautiful flower bouquet for our anniversary a couple of weeks ago from his Aunt and Uncle(and their son) in California. It was just gorgeous and lasted quite a while. Well I noticed yesterday morning that it was starting to look a little puny and decided to go ahead and throw it away. Well I was going to take it to the trash can outside and it was raining so I just put in on the porch floor and knew I would get to it later. Well yesterday afternoon it had stopped raining and the kids were playing outside and I happened to remember I needed to go throw those dead flowers away, well to my surprise the kids thought they had done this amazing thing. They took the roses and a few of the other things that were in the arrangement and planted them in my flower beds in front of the house. They were so proud of their plantings. I tried to explain to them that the flowers were dead and I really needed to throw them away. Well we compromised and I told them we could leave them there until Daddy saw them today. I just love how in a child's eye they don't see a pile of dead flowers they see something that it as beautiful as a rose garden. I love my kids so much and thank God for them everyday to give me a fresh and flourishing perspective on life!!! (You can see the roses in the picture that were planted!!!)

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Oh Deer!!!




Living in the country now, we have become quite accustomed to seeing deer out in the front yard and all over the property. We have seen more lately because the big(OK it's actually ginormous) oak tree that is in our front yard is dropping acorns and the deer just eat them like candy. Morning,noon and night you may find at least one deer, and last night Chad saw five deer right out in our front yard eating away. It is just amazing. A couple of the kids soccer balls are out there and I just keep hoping to see the deer playing a little 2 v 2,no luck yet. I have never really been able to see deer this close before. When we lived in Florida we always had to be careful driving on certain desolate roads at night because they may run out in front of the car and can do some damage. Now I get to sit on my front porch and just enjoy God's creation. We realize that come this Sunday, it is open season on deer and our friends in our yard might become a little scarce(although I have been posting signs for the deer warning them of this upcoming event and letting them know that our yard is a safe haven-not quite sure if they understand them or not!!) and we are not against hunting (although we don't partake in it), but we have been blessed to be able to witness these beautiful animals in their natural habitat while we can.
(Kitty-please refrain your husband and son from reading this post as they will be in the car and on their way......although if they bring you and the kids I would be a happy camper! j/k)

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

A Visit to the Fair









Chad has off the rest of this week for Fall Break, and although he does have football obligations and things to do on the house, we thought we would take a little trip to the Georgia National Fair in Perry. Perry is only about 40 minutes away so it really wasnt too bad of a drive. I must say the Georgia National Fair is the biggest fair I have ever seen. Being from Osceola County, a cattle driven county (well it used to be), I thought I had seen a decent size fair. I really believe that you could have fit 4 of those fairs and it might equal the size of this one. It was huge. We took the kids to see some of the animals and we just picked one ride because we would have had to take out a loan to do any more than that!! We chose to do the agri-lift, which is like a ski lift but it goes over the fair. It was pretty cool. The kids really liked it.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Soccer Kids!!




The kids love to do anything outside!! Bailey started playing soccer last year in St. Cloud and it was quite a learning experience. She was more interested in chasing butterflies than the soccer ball. We had heard from other parents that it was a first year thing. Boy was I glad they were right (not that I don't want her chasing butterflies, but if she is out there supposed to be doing something else-it is good to have your eye on the prize ,or ball in this instance) This year I enrolled Bailey and Braxton in the soccer league in Macon. They are both just doing an amazing job. Bailey is so much more focused and is really learning how to play the game. I must say though she does have quite an amazing coach. (her coach is actually a supermodel that is pretending to know the game of soccer!!! HA HA!!!) Well guess what......I am her coach. They have a lot of teams on her age level so they asked the parents to volunteer and help out, so there I was!!! It is fun. It is great that she wants me to coach her!!! Braxton is doing a great job. He practices with Bailey's team as well and is quite competitive with them. He does really well with the other kids in his age group as well. Well.... I just wanted to let you know one of the things that the Ansbaugh kids do in their spare time!!

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Watch out Rachel Ray...............

I used to watch that show "30 minute meals" , hosted by Rachel Ray and thought that it just wasn't possible to pull a good meal ,prep time and all in 30 minutes, but she always did. I was thinking of her tonight as I was trying to find a replacement meal. I started to brown some hamburger meat tonight to make tacos and as I was cooking it , it started to smell like ammonia. I tried tasting it (which I hope I don't regret later) and it tasted fine but I just couldn't shake the smell. So I dumped 2 1/2 pounds of ground meat. So as I was dumping it Chad called and said he was getting ready to leave football practice and was looking forward to dinner with the family. I started to think about what to "whip" up and have ready in 30 minutes or less. I had gone grocery shopping the other day and thankfully I had gotten enough for 2 weeks so the possibilities were endless(which is rarely a phrase used in my kitchen). I already had boil in bag rice cooked in the microwave so I had to do something that involved that. I must say our meal was delicious. I had been wanting to try and make something with chicken breast in a can. So I heated that up with some refried beans (organic-very tasty!) Then I spread those onto a big burrito tortilla and put some rice and cheese on top of that. Then I put another tortilla on it and put them in the toaster oven and VOILA!! we had amazing chicken quesadillas.(had a little sour cream and salsa on the side too!!) They were really very tasty. Now I usually don't share with others what I cook cause it is usually pretty routine (and I will leave that to Jonatha!!). I just had to share that with you. It kind-of, sort-of ,somewhat, (OK it was just a quesadilla) reminded me of Cool Blue Burrito which is a restaurant I love in St. Cloud. So thanks for letting me share my "15-20 minute meal" with you!!!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

A New Arrival........A New Life!!!

My amazing sister-in-law gave birth to her 6th child this morning. Westin Earl arrived this morning!!! I am so excited for their family. He has 4 amazing sisters and one terrific brother waiting to take great care of him!!! Kitty and Casey are amazing parents and I just wanted to share the news!!!