Blueberry Pie:  Mix blueberries, lemon zest and juice, honey, cinnamon, and flour (for thickening).  Fill an unbaked butter pastry shell, top with more pastry.  Bake at 375 for about an hour.

 Because I am a member of the blog ring “Making it Home”, I do try to post a recipe now and then to actually prove that I am making things!    The recipe here is for those peanut butter squares that David and I made together yesterday.  They ended up being VERY GOOD and I hope that you like them as much as we did.

Peanut Butter Squares

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 cup regular oats
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Peanut Butter frosting
3 T. cocoa
1 T. milk

Heat oven to 350.  Mix sugars, butter, peanut butter and egg.  Stir in flour, oats, baking soda and salt.  Spread in greased rectangular pan, 13 by 9 inches.  Bake until golden brown, 17 to 22 minutes; cool.

Prepare Peanut Butter frosting; reserve 1/3 cup.  Stir in cocoa and milk into remaining frosting until smooth.  If necessary, stir in additional milk until of spreading consistency.  Frost with cocoa frosting.  Drop Peanut Butter Frosting by teaspoonfuls onto cocoa frosting; swirl for marbled effect. 

Peanut Butter Frosting:  Mix 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter and 2 T. milk.  Stir in additional milk, 1/2 tsp. at a time, until of spreading consistency.

Yum

“Autumn is the bite of
the first fall apple”
C.Petrowsky

an apple a day keeps the doctor away

Recipes
This first one
is from my g’ma’s
recipe files:

*Homemade Applesauce*
really really yummy, especially right after you make it and it’s still warm

“Here are bowls of oatmeal, with whole pints of cream, large dishes of baked apples, the big blue platter full of sizzling ham, with many eggs disposed upon it; here are hot cakes piled by the tens and dozens, with melting butter and brown sugar between them, and hashed brown potatoes, Graham bread and white bread, fresh butter, honey, jam, milk and the steaming pot of coffee.  Here are doughnuts or gingerbread to accompany the coffee cups’ second filling, and then-for he was a boy in New England-my father likes just one medium-size wedge of apple pie to top off the meal and finish the foundation for a good day’s work.”  Rose Wilder Lane

“‘An apple is a great thing.  There are so many different kinds of apples, Johnny, and so many ways to use them.  You can eat apples right off the tree.  Or you can make them into apple pies and apple cakes, and apple butter and apple sauce-and apple cider!  You can roast apples, bake apples, and boil apples,’ said Mr. Crawford.  He picked an apple off one of the trees and took a bite.  The juice rolled down his chin.”   From Johnny Appleseed

Apples

“Autumn is the bite of
the first fall apple”
C.Petrowsky

an apple a day keeps the doctor away

Recipes
This first one
is from my g’ma’s
recipe files:

*Homemade Applesauce*
really really yummy, especially right after you make it and it’s still warm

“Here are bowls of oatmeal, with whole pints of cream, large dishes of baked apples, the big blue platter full of sizzling ham, with many eggs disposed upon it; here are hot cakes piled by the tens and dozens, with melting butter and brown sugar between them, and hashed brown potatoes, Graham bread and white bread, fresh butter, honey, jam, milk and the steaming pot of coffee.  Here are doughnuts or gingerbread to accompany the coffee cups’ second filling, and then-for he was a boy in New England-my father likes just one medium-size wedge of apple pie to top off the meal and finish the foundation for a good day’s work.”  Rose Wilder Lane

“‘An apple is a great thing.  There are so many different kinds of apples, Johnny, and so many ways to use them.  You can eat apples right off the tree.  Or you can make them into apple pies and apple cakes, and apple butter and apple sauce-and apple cider!  You can roast apples, bake apples, and boil apples,’ said Mr. Crawford.  He picked an apple off one of the trees and took a bite.  The juice rolled down his chin.”   From Johnny Appleseed

Apples

*COOK WITH SOMEONE

This is the time of year to be using recipes calling for Pumpkin. 

I tried this recipe a few years ago, it’s a “keeper”.

Loneliness:

I read this in a book recently and was able to apply the author’s thoughts to myself because as a stay-at-home mom who prefers to be home all the time, I tend to start losing myself in my SELF.  Does that make sense?  Sometimes when I go to church, I’m around all these people, and I almost want to cry because I don’t know how to deal with people anymore.  When I read this quote, I realized why.  (It’s not healthy to be isolated from people).  I think some stay-at-home moms need to make more of an effort to get out into the community and be with other people.

“I am something of a recluse by nature.  When you live on your own for a long time, however, your personality changes because you go too much into yourself and you lose the ability to be social, to understand what is and isn’t normal behavior.  There is an entire world inside youself, and if you let yourself, you can get so deep inside it you will forget the way to the surface.  Other people help keep our souls alive, just like food and water does with our body.”

“I know that feeling, that feeling of walking out into the darkness.  When I lived alone it was very hard for me to be around people.  I would leave parties early.  I would leave church before worship was over so I didn’t have to stand around and talk.  The presence of people would agitate me.  I was so used to being able to daydream and keep myself company that other people were an intrusion.  It was terribly unhealthy.”

“Lonliness is something that happens to us, but I think it is something that we can move ourselves out of.  I think a person who is lonely should dig into a community, give himself to a community, humble himself before his friends, initiate community, teach other people to care for each other, love each other.  Jesus does not want us floating through space or sitting in front of our televisions.  Jesus wants us interacting, eating together, laughing together, praying together. “

*LOOK AT OLD PICTURES WITH SOMEONE:

A old Picture of my Dad:

(Boys will be Boys. . . . .)

*PLAY A GAME WITH SOMEONE:

I heard someone say on tv that they perferred board games over the now ultra-cool  video games.  He said that he thinks board games are more of a social game.  I suppose that is true, considering the fact that it’s impossible to play a board game all by myself.  When was the last time I played a game with someone?  I think I played UNO with the kids a few weeks ago.   When I was pregnant w/our first baby, Rich and I  played UNO and ate oranges and almonds every night.  We kept a running score and I still have that paper with our scores on it somewhere.  Some of my favorite memories of growing up in my family was when we used to all sit around the table and play PIT.  Boy, was that fun! 

Baby Amanda, Shanda, David. . . .I love this picture because I am SO HAPPY.  My mom made the nightgown I am wearing and she put my hair up in “rags”, to make curls.

*STAY IN TOUCH WITH SOMEONE WITH PHONE CALLS, EMAILS, LETTERS, VISITS:

IS SPENDING 45 MINUTES ON THE PHONE WITH A FRIEND A WASTE OF TIME?  No, I don’t think so.  We need each other. . . .I just talked to Kathy and we had a great conversation, we laughed and talked and when I hung up I was smiling. 

I love to send emails back and forth with my friends and my family. . . . .these relationships are so important to me and it’s a bright spot in my day to hear from them.  I also have some pen-pals. . . . .including a elderly woman who is a shut-in. 

When you give of yourself in maintaining the relationships in your life, it makes you feel so good.  Whenever I get lonely I try to do something for someone else.

 
letters from Jo

Be Social

Wow.  I just got the computer running for the first time since last week and I eagerly came to xanga.  I was not expecting to read such beautiful things from my friends ~ both my old friends, and my new xanga friends.  I have tears in my eyes from the encouraging words left for me, and  I cannot begin to tell how much it means to me!

The children are having fun, too.  They spend the majority of their time at the ponds catching tadpoles, minnows, and even a little turtle.  They swim in the pond (with life-jackets. . .don’t worry!)  They ride their bikes down the banks, bumping and laughing as they go.  I can hear their voices echoeing back to me and Rich and I had one of those moments the first day we were here.  Someday we won’t hear their voices, or feel the super energy that they give off all day every day.  The realization hit us hard in the midst of busily unpacking.  But, that’s the way it goes.  Stage of life after stage of life. 

The best way to prepare for the next stage of life is
To enjoy the one you’re in.
No regrets.