hurrayic

{this moment}**

"Cool, Mom!  I can see the cut on my hand under the microscope!"
"That's nice, sweetie (pause) Wait a minute, what cut?"

 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~ Soule Mama

{this moment}** a single photo with a few accompanying words ~ hurrayic

Enjoy your weekend!

White Beans with Collards and Sausage

Thanks for all the Clara Cowl love yesterday!  And yes, I really need to stop pointing out my flaws.  Old habits die hard, I guess...

This past Saturday was a very busy day for some reason and not enough hours in the day to do all as we had hoped.  Before I realized it, the dinner hour was nearing and nothing had been simmering on the stove or baking in the oven, and I certainly did not want to call for take-out.  I also had a bunch of collard greens in the fridge (which I had originally intended to use for making this recipe again) that needed to be used up, and I remembered that there was some sweet Italian sausage in the freezer...

So I threw some stuff together in the dutch oven...yum!  This is something that we will be doing again.  I wish I had made a double batch of it.

White Beans with Collards and Sausage

6 links sweet Italian sausage, cut into about 1" pieces
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups sliced celery
4 cans white beans, drained (I used great northern)
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes (with juice)
1 (32 oz.) carton low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup white wine
salt & pepper
1 tsp chipotle or red pepper flakes (opt)
1 big bunch collards, ribs removed, rolled & cut into ribbons then chopped (kale or spinach would be a good substitute)

In large Dutch oven (or soup pot), brown the sausage in a wee bit of olive oil.  Add onion, garlic, celery and cook a tad more.  Add in everything else except collards.  Stir well to combine and let simmer for about 20 min or so.  Add the collards, stir well to make the collards dip under the liquid.  Cover and let simmer for another 20 min. or until the collards are tender but not mushy.

I served this with whole grain rolls.

We watched  Great Expectations while slurping it up!

 

Yarn Along: Clara Cowl

Joining in again for Ginny's Yarn Along!

I finally finished the Clara Cowl that I had begun before Christmas.  Knitting a very large cable was quite the feat for me; my fingers wrestled with the stitches each time I had to change the cable direction.  But, it's done, and I learned a new stitch/technique, so that's good.

Overall, I like the pattern and the color.  Unfortunately, this will probably get little use this season since it's been unseasonably warm.  But who knows...perhaps we shall see a dip in the temperatures and a bit of snow before springtime? 

Please excuse the bad hair, blotchy-skin day - I seem to be having many of those of late.  And of course, I really dislike having my photo taken...

Reading this week is no different than last week I'm afraid.  Reading aloud lots of books for school, studying cookbooks and glancing at the one craft book I mentioned on Monday. 

What are you knitting and reading? 

Ravelry info here.

Sewing: Ironing Board Cover

Last week, Randi introduced her 2nd Fresh Squeezed Sew Along for 2012: an ironing board cover. This was definitely something that could stand to be redone in my house.  Mine was stained, and when I took off the cover, it tore around the edges of the ironing board.  After finally deciding on fabrics (the hardest part of it all), I sewed it up in a few hours.   I made a new cotton padding (the existing one was pitifully thin) also following Randi's advice.  I think, however, I will make a new cotton padding with thicker cotton so it's a bit more cushiony.  Now...if only I would use the iron more often...

In fact, my 2nd son even asked me once in all seriousness and with such incredulity when he spotted me ironing, "You know how to use that thing?"  

(fyi - my husband irons in our house unless it's sewing related or he's pressed for time)

Who irons in your house?

Enjoying

Happy Monday! 
I'm enjoying...

giggling at my youngest's artistic rendering of my husband...a pretty good likeness I think except my husband does not own a pair of pink pants...

watching new bathroom tile being laid down (did I use lay/lie correctly?  hmm...)

baking a triple batch of banana chocolate bread (and ending up with 4 loaves instead of 3 - good thing!)...

finding it amazing how grown-up my two older ones are...

enjoying my daughter's new haircut and enjoying that's she's liking it now (no more tears)...

squeezing in a little bit of practical sewing...

wishing the bouquet of white tulips and hydrangea lasted a little while longer (leftovers from Valentine's day)...

loving how my two younger boys work well together...mostly...

happy for a new book in the mail and hoping to make more sewing time soon...

thankful to God for a new week ahead...

 

What are you enjoying?

{this moment}** ~ from the archives

From the archives:  "I can do that!"

 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~ Soule Mama

{this moment}** a single photo with a few accompanying words ~ hurrayic

Have a good weekend!

A little felt comes in handy...

You never know when one of those many thrift store felted sweaters (which have been sitting in bins unused for some time now) will come in handy...

like yesterday, in fact...great for our static electricity experiment.

Didn't exactly get the 'wow' results I had hoped (my guess is that the air wasn't as dry?), but the spot of color from the wool sweaters was awfully nice. :)

Yarn Along: A Puppy for My Baby

For Ginny's yarn along this week, I was really getting antsy.  I've either been knitting several long projects these past few weeks or need to get back to knitting long projects (that l-o-n-g scarf which we won't mention, the black Annabel, the charcoal sweater to name a few) and quite frankly, I was getting restless.  I needed a quick knit.  Something small with fast results. I love the toys in Susan Anderson's Itty Bitty Toys so I chose her Wrap Me Up Puppies pattern.  I'm using a worsted wool (Cascade 220) leftover from my son's duffers and upped the size of the needle since the pattern calls for a thinner cotton yarn.  I'm not going to make the blanket since this is for my 'baby' who is 11.  He still appreciates funny little handmade creatures (actually he wants me to make some knitted monsters and monkey for him) and a cute puppy will suffice. 

Reading?  Lots of books on energy and electricity (certainly interesting, yes, but not enough to blog about!) and of course the Itty Bitty book from above. 

Stop by Small Things for lots of other great yarn and book projects.

Addressing Others: Address Book

I don't know about you, but I always find it hard to throw out old address books for fear that I might actually need that particular address or phone number.  So I keep them.  When I was cleaning out my kitchen drawer (which by the way is still in great order!), I pulled out these rather sorry-looking address books. I've had them for years.  The covers were torn; many of the addresses inside were ancient and obsolete.  In some cases, a family member or friend had moved so many times, that their name and new address appeared multiple times and without the former address being crossed out. Little slips of paper with unassigned phone numbers jotted down spilled from their pages...what a mess. I started looking for a new address book.  I wanted something pretty but also very simple.  User friendly.  Something I could add to or delete from with ease.  Something that was very portable. 



Enter my new address book. 
Sort of like a rolodex.
It fits all those categories I mentioned. 
Simple.  Pretty.  Portable.

And if I need to make a change, I rip out the page and insert a new one.

I decided to print out the names and addresses onto mailing labels then affixed each one to a page.  Now I just need to handwrite the phone # and email for each.  Hopefully this will help me with my new project (yes yes, I mentioned doing this 'lifelong project' about 1 month ago, but got side-tracked...)

I purchased it from Beth Bee Books. 

Enjoying

Happy Monday Morning, I think...
Not exactly my typical Enjoying post...hmmm...posting a little later this morning because I already am having to correct some bickering and complaining children, doing some last-minute cleaning before the appraiser arrives...

...realizing that I'm a bit behind on homeschool plans for this week, realizing too, that I haven't even made Valentine cards yet and tomorrow's the day, still recovering from a rather blah week and weekend with gray and cold weather and not feeling the best...

But then I pass this simple vase of daffodils.  Daffodils that were nothing more than stems with practically no yellow showing at all when I bought them a few days ago.  And yet, with a little water and warmth, they're blooming...which makes me smile.  And I remember how good God is and how much I've been blessed. 

What have you been enjoying?