You know I had to have it:

My family has a total love affair with muffins. I've blogged about it here, here, here, and here. They are so easy to make and have on hand for breakfast and snacking. So, when I saw this cookbook, there was no question as to whether it was coming home with me.

I am also a sucker for cookbooks. As far as cookbooks go, this one is a winner. A full color photo accompanies each and every recipe. (sigh)

It truly was love at first sight.

The recipes are laid out clearly and and steps are numbered.

And there are many creative variations of muffins. Each one is delicious-sounding in it's own right.

My mouth is absolutely watering! I can hardly wait to give this pumpkin muffin a try. I'll share the goodness of these recipes with you as I try them. After all, good things were meant to be shared.

I saw a rainbow today...

I had to stop at Target on my way home from work today. Honestly, I was tired, cranky, and ready to be at home in my pajamas. It had been one of those days, you know?

I couldn't help but smile when I saw this rainbow overhead.

A simple reminder of God's goodness.

Genesis 9 (New International Version)

12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

Meet the Girls

We're finally getting fresh, organic eggs everyday from the girls! We have 6 hens, and each hen lays an egg approximately every other day. So, we get about 3 eggs per day. Raising chickens has been one of the most fulfilling and fun experiences we have shared as a family.

They are much easier to keep than I imagined. Really, they require very little care. We change their bedding (pine shavings) a couple times a month and feed them leftovers and garden rejects in addition to their feed. They love tomatoes, grapes, and watermelon! We did invest in an automatic waterer/feeder to simplify our daily routine. But that's about it.

We raised these beautiful girls from day-old chicks we purchased at our local farmer's cooperative. All you really need is a large cardboard box, a heat lamp, pine shavings, and chick starter feed. We were able to purchase all of the supplies at the coop as well. If your interested, go to www.backyardchickens.com

The result: beautiful, delicious, organic eggs.

Afternoon Harvest

I'm already planning my weekend menus after bringing in these goodies from my garden. I gathered a few Mountain Pride heirloom tomatoes, some cherry tomatoes, as well as some okra, an eggplant, and a cucumber. My green beans have been producing furiously over the last couple of weeks. And they are sooo delicious!

I had to show you Sara Lynn's plate - it's a favorite. I found it at Thanksgiving a couple years ago, but we use it all the time. The compartments are great and the farm scene is irresistable. I believe she eats a little better when she uses this plate because she's trying to see the turkeys, pumpkins, and that cute red barn.

I have an amazing recipe for Eggplant casserole that I'll share soon. It's one my grandmother would make when I was young, and we all ate it up not knowing it had eggplant in it. Kid's can be so funny about trying new vegetables!

Kentucky Wonder Goodness

Green beans are a staple at our kitchen table. It's a vegetable that we all love to eat, which I'm sad to say, isn't a common occurrence in our household. My husband and daughter are somewhat (okay, very!) picky eaters. But we can all agree on green beans.

It's bean a difficult year for growing vegetables around here. We had torrential downpours throughout the spring. I wasn't able to plant my summer veggies until the first week in June. And then, June was hot and dry. But fortunately, we had a cool snap (which was the first I can ever remember in my whole life of living in Alabama) in July, and my garden was rejuvenated. The Kentucky Wonder pole beans are thriving.

I planted butternut and Hubbard squashes, as well as pumpkins. They require a long growing season and should be ready to harvest in October. And I also planted yellow squash and zucchini. I've only harvested one yellow squash out of the 8 (that's right, e-i-g-h-t) plants I'm growing. My watermelons, cantaloupe, and cucumbers aren't doing so hot either. I'm not sure what's going on, but several of my neighbors are struggling as well. Strangely enough, my okra and eggplants are doing great.

I am thankful for what we are able to harvest, knowing that it is good and wholesome food for my family. Some how, vegetables that we have planted, watered, nurtured and picked just taste better to us. And I find that my children are much more willing to try new vegetables when they have been a part of that process.

Open House

It hit me this morning that I've never given you a tour of my home. How rude of me! Let's get to it...

This is my kitchen, which I'm really going to miss. We had granite installed this summer, and I love the durability and aesthetic it provides.

Stained glass cabinetry... it doesn't get much better in my humble opinion.

The dining room and foyer have awesome natural light. There's a skylight at the top of the stairs.

The living room, which is never this neat. (There are toys strewn about at this very moment!)

The master bedroom...

...and master bath. I'm seriously going to miss that tub.

And the shower, which has dual shower heads. Have I mentioned how handy my honey is around the house?

This is the upstairs bathroom which belongs to the kiddos.

Daniel's room.

And Sara Lynn's room. We have a forth bedroom, which we use as a playroom, but I didn't take a picture of it because the little ones utilized every single toy that day! I hope you enjoyed the tour.

I could wash dishes here...

Every time we visit the new house, we fall more in love with it. I thought I'd share it with you today.

This is the living room. You can see the water from almost every window in the house.


And the kitchen, which is open to the dining room and living room.


The stairs seperate the living room from the dining room, which is pictured above.

The master suite is upstairs, and also has amazing views. I'm planning to park my sewing machine right in front of that picture window.

I had to snap this precious shot of Sara Lynn standing on the stairs. She's wearing this dress I made for her last spring.

And it has a fireplace, which I seriously do not believe I could do without. The house needs a little TLC, but I know we are just the family to give it some love.

Finally, a mini-farm!

I've been a bad blogger lately. I really have missed you all this summer. It's been crazy busy in our household the past few months. There have been birthday parties, potty training, gardening (the tomatoes have been fabulous), insane work schedules, plus having to prep our house to sell. Would you please forgive me for my absence?


It seems we'll be enjoying the farm-life really soon. We close on our new home on August 14th. Woo-hoo! I am seriously happy.

This amazing house sits on a beautiful pond and comes with 9.3 acres. Yes, I can imagine it will be my own personal piece of heaven on Earth. I'm already scheming about how we can afford for me to quit my corporate job and spend my days tending the homestead.

I keep pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.

If I am, I'll cry when I wake up!

Links to Love

I've stumbled across some great links lately that I thought you might enjoy, too.

A cooperative blog with valuable gardening tips, recipes, and ideas for living a sustainable life:

Simple, Green, Frugal Coop

AMAZING food blog which includes a section for budget meals (I'm planning to make the soft pretzels soon):

Smitten Kitchen

Tutorial on making a toddler's dress out of a men's button down shirt:

button shirt to toddler dress recon *NEW MINTY FRESH TUTORIAL*

A very detailed tutorial with LOTS of pictures on how to machine quilt:

Anyone Can Quilt: Machine Quilting 101

A fabric outlet on etsy (Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Heather Ross, Alexander Henry - I'm loving the roosters):

A Fabric Outlet

I hope you enjoy these links as much as I did!

We'll be going on vacation tomorrow, so please excuse my absence over the next week. I'll do my best to post some beach pics next week... sorry to make you jealous. :) I'm so excited! It's been over 2 years since I've last seen the ocean. Too long indeed...

Uh-oh, Cocoa

Our dear, sweet Cocoa had to have eye surgery this week. He was born with a condition that often affects Labrador and Golden Retrievers, where the eye lashes on the bottom eye lids fold into the eye. Painful, I'm sure. We had to wait until he was a little older to have the surgery, and since he's now 3-months-old, our vet said that we should go ahead with the procedure.

Poor, Cocoa! He's miserable with that lampshade on his cute little head. Every time he comes near one of us, he almost knocks us down trying to rub his eyes on our legs. We really have to watch Sara Lynn around him. He doesn't mean to do it, he just can't help himself!

We are scheduled to take him for a check-up next Tuesday. I hope they give us the okay to take that thing off of him. I'm unclear on how long he needs to wear it (my husband was the one who took him for the procedure.)