Venison Stroganoff

Quarantine life is interesting and means you really don't want anything to go to waste. That includes the 16 ounce container of sour cream close to expiration I found in our refrigerator today. What to make with it in a hurry?

Since we have a freezer full of ground deer meat, Venison Stroganoff made sense. What made even more sense was using that fabulous kitchen helper, the pressure cooker. We have an InstantPot, so directions cater to that brand.

Ingredients 

1 lb ground venison/deer/beef

16 oz sour cream

10.5 oz can cream of mushroom soup

1 cup water

4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 beef bouillon cubes

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp salt - We like the flavor Himalayan salt adds to dishes.
1/2 tsp Thyme
Tapioca Starch or flour to thicken as needed

Place water, frozen meat, soup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt in to InstantPot. Close vent, set pressure to high, and set time to 30 minutes. Allow InstantPot to natural pressure release for 10 minutes once done.  Release any remaining pressure carefully. Open lid, set InstantPot to "Saute," add beef bouillon, and break up meat into small pieces. Stir in sour cream and set InstantPot to "Warm." For thicker sauce, add tapioca flour/starch or traditional flour. Serve over noodles, rice, mashed potatoes, or pasta. Many in our family like to add Tony's seasoning salt to their dishes. 

Happy cooking!!

Bouquet of Life

As I drove to my meeting, the bouquet kept catching my eye. It took me a while to realize why.

My mom grew the flowers, and our oldest daughter picked the flowers.  I had the job of arranging the flowers.

It was meant to be a simple bouquet to thank the hostess of my meeting that night, composed of imperfect flowers, twine, a mason jar, and, very possibly, a bug or two. I finally realized it was so much more than the addition of imperfect pieces.  Three generations of hands touched that bouquet; it represented this moment in our lives - my life - so well.

I am blessed to live on the same property with my parents and to have coffee with them every morning, to talk about farm stuff, school, daily moments - to share life with them completely.

I am also blessed at this moment to still have all of my children at home. Our oldest girl is at a tender and capable age, but she is growing quickly, so quickly. She has my heart more than she knows.

That simple bouquet represents one of the sweetest stages of life for me - being sandwiched between two wonderful women - One who has paved the road before me and one who forges new paths behind us.

I don't often treasure these moments like I should, and I am thankful that the simple composition of flowers, a mason jar, and twine made me aware of this special time.  God works like that, using our simple and imperfect vessels to communicate his message and his love.

It Was a Beautiful Day at the Park

It was beautiful at the park today...

I went to the park today, the park I went to often as a kid, the only playground I knew. The weather was crisp and clear with the first hints of fall. My children loved it. But as they ran and played and discovered the new equipment, I found that we had brought extra people with us.



Standing there watching the kids play, I couldn't help but see the old equipment that had been replaced - the slide and merry-go-round and out-dated, metal bucket swings where I spent my childhood. Seeing through eyes of yesterday, I realized lots of people were at the playground, even if no one else could see them.

Wasn't my Pappaw over there on the bench offering me a slice of fresh pear cut with his pocket knife? I'm sure he was ready to sit after pushing me on the swings and watching me run around endlessly. Although the bench has been moved and only a stump remained of the tree that shaded it, I still saw that he had a love for life and me matched by few.

Wasn't my Mammaw waiting for me at the bottom of the slide with a pocket of hard candies including my favorite yellow cellophane-wrapped butterscotch? I bet she was surprised when I announced: "Only SIX more years until I'm a teenager!!" Her fierce love and prayers kept me through those teenage years and well into my early years of motherhood.

I could feel the whispers of my great grandparents in their snug house just down the street. You almost had to press your face to the chain link to see their house on the hill. But they were there, a mystery of old people and old things who didn't make sense to me. I now see so much more than I did then, their love and dedication that brought our family through tough times and good.

And, just over there, at the really basic monkey bars that were repainted for the park updates, I could see myself and two friends just having finished an early morning run the summer before college, soaking up those last few minutes before we transitioned to young adults. Those kids didn't know where life would take them. I see a little more of their stories now, and I'm thankful they had that summer to fellowship and enjoy a friendship that, while true, was eroded by distance and different milestones in life.

Under that oak tree, I can make out the shape of the see-saw in the dusk of a summer night, one that had a sadly short life in the playground and of which nothing remains. I could hear the late teenage couple embarrassingly answering the question posed by other people in the park of whether they were boyfriend and girlfriend... of course, they weren't!  ...if you ignored the fact they had been hanging out together all summer long going on long, meandering walks at night, just like the one that took them to the seesaw at the playground. The four children of that couple were enjoying the park today, even if they can't see that long gone see-saw.

Wiping the sudden and unexpected of onset of tears while pushing my four-year-old in a brand new swing that didn't creak and have peeling paint, I saw all of these people at the park, and I realized that they would be with me every time I came to the park. There love was there surrounding me, those experiences making me who I am. My children didn't see those people, but their lives are touched by them everyday.

It was a beautiful day at the park.

Finding Joy

"Joy" is quite the buzzword here at the beginning of 2019.  Things are either sparking joy or being moved on to File 13 or a donation bin as many people seek to tidy up their lives. 

No doubt, tidying up the external definitely makes us feel a lot better, at least for the short term.  However, where does lasting joy come from?

Two years ago on a wonderful Disney World vacation, I realized that I was seeking joy in the wrong place.  We had experienced two wonderful days at Disney, and I returned to the hotel on Day 2 ready to take on our mid-trip laundry pile.  I grabbed up all of our new clothes for the trip and even a couple of special quilts that had experienced some "trauma" on the trip for one large laundry load.  All was well and good, I was on top of the world and on top of things in general... until I went to pull the load from the dryer. Hark! The boy child had left crayons in his pocket which melted over everything in a spectacular display.  What quickly followed were Google searches, pleas for tips on social media, and my sainted husband making a late night trip to the local Wal-Mart for a bevy of supplies.  I spent a large portion of the night and early morning hours donning rubber gloves and trying a variety of stain busting methods that involved the hotel room bathtub filled multiple times with hot water and LOTS of trips to the hotel laundry room. 

I felt angry, cheated, underappreciated, foolish for not checking pockets, embarrassed, and generally distraught.  I carried those feelings into  Day 3 and unfortunately shared those angry feelings with the ones I love most.

Then it hit me - I had been taking joy in THINGS. 

All things are perishable and destined to become dust. The Bible tells us to take our joy in the Lord. How much easier is it for the Devil to steal our joy when we put it in things, experiences, and people???

Those new clothes were destined for the trash bin at some point.  That point just came a LOT sooner than I expected. 

We can let such things destroy us, or we can take our joy in the imperishable, ETERNAL God. Which do you choose?

"Little" Obedience

Obedience.  Obedience isn’t a word we like to think about, but it is a necessary word.  In our house, “because I said so” is a frequently repeated phrase.  When we ask for our children to obey us, we want them to act immediately.  Delayed obedience is disobedience.  And disobedience puts us outside of the circle of God’s will.  Delayed obedience, likewise, places children outside the protection of their parents. When we tell a child not to run in a street or touch a hot stove, we need them to trust us and act immediately – even when it doesn’t make sense to them. To not do so can mean serious harm for the child.

In the same way, God wants immediate obedience from us… even though WE don’t always understand why.  In fact, we often think of obedience in big terms – leading God’s children out of Israel, building an ark when the world has never seen rain before, or being missionaries in a hostile country.  But we need to be obedient even in the small acts that don’t make sense to us.  Things that are so simple that we feel surely God isn’t asking us to do that.

In 2 Kings Chapter 5, Naaman is a well-known and well-respected army commander.  He leads thousands of men, and the king looks upon him favorably.  However, Naaman suffers from a skin disease.  We don’t know exactly what the disease is, but it is clearly a torment to him.  Naaman’s servant girl tells him of a prophet in Israel who can heal him. With the king’s blessing and under great expectations, Naaman undertakes a big journey with gifts of gold, silver, and clothing in tow.  When he finally reaches Elisha’s home, Elisha sends a messenger out to meet Naaman and tells him to wash seven times in the Jordan River.  “What?!” Naaman is angry.  He is an important man who has traveled many miles and put his life on hold with the expectation that this great prophet would come out and call upon his God over Naaman.  Instead, he is told by the prophet’s servant go wash in the local body of water that Naaman deems well beneath those of his own homeland.  Blessedly, Naaman’s own servant speaks in wisdom, and says, “My father, would you not have done a more difficult thing? How much more so can you do this?”  Naaman did as Elisha commanded, and he was healed.  It was so easy it didn’t make sense.

In one of my social media groups, a woman found out she and her husband were pregnant with their sixth child.  This was an unwanted surprise, and they made plans to visit an abortion clinic.  On their way to the clinic, they stopped at a gas station.  A stranger went out of her way to walk up to the mother, smile at her, wish her a good day, and say “God bless you!” The reluctant mother felt her attitude shift. At the appointment, during the consultation prior to surgery, she just felt they needed to leave.  Crying, she urged her husband to go, and leave they did.  They scheduled a regular maternity appointment with an OB/GYN and are excitedly looking forward to the arrival of baby number six in August.

What do we know about the woman at the gas station?  -  The one who smiled and went out of her way to bless that mother  -  For all we know she had a terrible morning where her kids griped at her about putting on their shoes for school, maybe someone cut her off in traffic, maybe her boss was being unreasonable, maybe she just didn’t feel like smiling at anyone.  What we do know is that she did.  When God told her to walk up to a total stranger and bless that stranger with a kind smile and words, she had no idea the role she was playing.  She just did it because God said so.

These acts of “little” obedience show our big faith and strengthen our relationship with God.  We don’t always need to know how our part in God’s will work out.  We just need to follow and obey.  So the next time, you feel the Holy Spirit telling you to help someone reach something on a high shelf at a grocery store or smile at a homeless person or offer your snack or open your home for a playdate or invite someone for coffee…do it.

How to Make an IKEA Kura Bed Curtain

Looking for a cute, flexible, and inexpensive option for a child's bed? Look no further than the IKEA Kura.  It is a great transition bed if you are looking to move up from a converted crib or toddler bed. This bed can function as a single bed or a bunk bed.  Top it with a cute IKEA tent top and add one of of the precious, wall-mounted IKEA lights for kids, and you have a winner!

We bought our first Kura bed when our oldest was moving out of his converted crib to make way for the second born's impending arrival. It makes a really cute single bed, and at that time, the panels could switch from royal blue to white; now the panels are white on both sides.  We knew that our house was small and the bunk bed option would possibly come in handy in the future.

Fast forward six years later, and we are now the proud owner of three Kura beds with a fourth in the near future.  We moved to a larger house, and even though we don't have two kiddos per bed like we originally anticipated, we like the ability to give each child their own private space as they share rooms. When a kiddo hits six year's old, we flip the bed into a bunk bed.

In an effort to give even more privacy and pizzazz to each bed space, I created bed curtains for the two older girls for Christmas, which fit conveniently with my desire to give them something homemade by me for Christmas.  I don't have a bunch of time on my hands (who does these days?), so the bed curtains were the ideal quick project.

My time and effort were rewarded with happy girls, a fresh look in their room, and (gasp!) a room that looks cleaner. Joy all around!

STEP ONE - 
I began by taking measurements of their beds and envisioning how I wanted the curtains to function and look.  For our home, one pair of curtains on the one long side of the bed opening into the room made the most sense.  Their beds are bordered by a bookcase and walls, leaving only that side open.

That side not converted as a bunk bed measured 74.75 inches long - the perfect length for a 75" tension rod.  We chose tension rods because 1) there are not holes to drill in the bed, 2) they install quickly, and 3) they will easily shorten when the bed is converted to a bunk bed and that 74.75" opening shrinks accordingly.

That opening is 31 inches high from interior of the top wood bar to the interior of the bottom wood bar.

STEP TWO - 
Pick a fabric - one that you love, one that your child loves, and one that will work for several years, unless you like repeating a project often.

I happened upon some My Little Pony fabric that was nothing like what I had envisioned but absolutely perfect.

If you make curtains to fit one of the 74.75" by 31" openings with a bit of gathering, you will need 102" (2 yards and 30") of fabric IF your fabric bolt is 41" wide.  If you have a pattern where you need or would like to match a pattern, plan to buy more.

When you buy your fabric, buy your tension rods.

STEP THREE - 
Wash, dry, and iron your fabric.  I always use a Shout Color Catcher on the first few washes of anything new.  It catches any bleeds and allows me to wash multiple new items in one load.

STEP FOUR -
Measure, plan your cuts, write down, get your fabric scissors and other supplies together, and measure again.  In any project, always measure at least twice before cutting.  This is the sad voice of experience who mislaid a whole kitchen of 18" (17.75") tiles once.

For the pair of curtain panels, I cut three fabric pieces 34" long from my 41" wide fabric, I split one panel vertically and married a half to each of the full size panels.  I folded and ironed the seams to hide the rough edges and used a decorative flower stitch so it would give the girls something pretty to look at when they were in their beds.

Hem the bottom .5 inches by folding .25" and ironing and then folding that over again .25" to hide the rough cut edge and to only sew that side once.

Fold the top edge of the curtain .25", iron, and fold again 2.5" and iron. Check again that the pocket will fit your tension rod once seamed.  If it does, run your seam over the bottom edge, catching your fold for the full length.

STEP FIVE - 
Iron and hang your curtains.


I hope your family enjoys the curtains as much as we do!

Ballers: How to Clean Ball Pit Balls

Kids love balls.  Ball pits make great gifts. You open them, you love them, everyone has a blast, you take great pictures....


and then the magic wears off, and you decide to put the ball pit up.  When you go to grab a ball, you find that static cling has attracted all sorts of stuff - lint, debris, and things you don't want to think about. What do you do? Wipe each ball down? .... you can see your life draining away at the thought of this task.


Quick answer: Toss those bad boys into the top rack of your dishwasher as deep as you can, and set the wash cycle for light wash and a no heat dry.

When the cycle is done, either towel the balls off lightly as a group or leave your dishwasher door ajar over night.  Make sure to tell other members of your household if you go with the door ajar option. You don't want anyone injured.

Yes, use your normal dish detergent.

No, don't put balls on the bottom where the heating element is.

Store fully dried balls in labeled plastic trash bags or mostly dried balls in mesh bags.

Voila!  Clean balls.  The kids even have fun helping with this task. Use that to your advantage.

Vacuum any remaining debris out of your ball pit and wipe down with a damp cloth if necessary before storing.

This is the ball pit and the balls we received for our one year old's birthday. It was a hit for all ages at her birthday party - eight, six, five, three, and one year olds.

       

Disclaimer: This is just my personal experience. This method has not been tested in a lab or approved by Good Housekeeping.  All recommendations you try at your own risk and at the risk of the dishwasher(s) used.  I accept no responsibility or liability for any negative results.