Easy Edible Doors!

It's fun to make snacks that are a bit different from the normal.... these are doors. They aren't fancy or hard, but they are a bit unique. I saw the idea elsewhere, but these are the ones we made.  :)

These just started out with a rectangular sugar cookie.... and some frosting and decorations.

      The candy cane pieces on the doors came from another project we were making. On that project, we only needed the U-shape of the little candy cane, so we had pieces left... and they fit on the doors.

These were made very quickly. After doing the other project, we were in a hurry and tired!  You can see pictures and read about the other project here:

Hot Cocoa Cup Cookies


If you had more time, these could be made very elegant, rustic, or in other ways. I love the idea and will probably use it again and make them even cuter. They would work for other holidays or fun times.

Thank you for visiting today... I hope you have a wonderful Christmas as you remember the reason we celebrate this season.... Jesus.   :) 

      

Checking the Flowers and Berries

I like to walk through the garden to see how it has changed since I was last out there. Usually, I go out about every day, but last week, we had a big garage sale and I didn't make it out to the garden for many days.

What a treat to walk through and see various flowers and berries out. There were also squash growing... and we picked cucumbers. Fun. :)

 I was glad to see the Echinacea blooming... what a wonderful plant this is!  I like the way it looks all year long... now, as it is in flower, it is beautiful. Even after the flower dies and the petals fall off, and it becomes quite sharp as the seeds harden, it is still pretty... and I love the look of it against the snow in winter.

All that beauty... and then there are so many health benefits from it also. Such a good plant to have in the garden.

These flowers can look like weeds, but they are also pretty...  

Zinnias are a favorite... as their bright colors open and then they last for a long time in the garden. They are such cheery flowers.

These flowers have been a real treat... these are in a hanging pot, but I planted some pink ones last year in a new bed, and I was so surprised when they came back this year. I didn't realize these could last more than one year.

We really like blueberries...  so do the birds, so we have them all netted over and that is helping, although sometimes the birds still manage to get under the netting. 

The garden phlox are one of those "quiet" garden flowers... they just quietly appear and stay for a long time in the summer. We have these pretty purple ones.. and also whites. They smell quite strong, adding their floral scent to the garden.

So many pretty yellow flowers.. I had to trellis these as they wanted to fall down.

All in all, it was a fun and encouraging walk in the garden.. and I love the colors here and there. 

The flowers are growing so nicely, but so are the weeds... no, I didn't show those pictures to you, but the weeds are certainly there and my neglected garden REALLY needs some attention! 

Thank you for joining me on a walk through the garden to see the flowers and berries that God has blessed us with this year...  actually, there are many more flowers, but this post would be WAY too long if I showed them all. :)  I hope you are enjoying your gardens... or the gardens around you. I also hope you have a wonderful week. 



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The Day the Cake EXPLODED!

There was a day when a cake exploded in our kitchen and it was very scary.... in fact, I never even knew such a thing COULD happen, so I am sharing this to warn others of the possibility.

Supper was about all ready... and the table was set. We were having baked potatoes with butter and cheese sauce, cottage cheese and corn. Yes, there should have been a salad in there too, but things were hectic and I don't think one had been made.

A cake had even been baked and had just been taken out of the oven and set on an unheated burner on the stove to cool (We do this often.. with baked goods fresh from the oven).  Meanwhile, someone put the corn in a pan on the stove and turned the burner on quite high to get it done quickly... we were rushing to get supper on.  The problem was that the wrong burner had been turned on.  :(  

All of a sudden, there was a loud bang and glass flew everywhere.


We all rushed to the kitchen to find the girls crying and scared, but thankfully, unhurt. They said there was a fire... there was a tiny flame in the cake - you can see the charred remains here.  I have no pictures of all of that... things were too busy as we dealt with the emergency.

The large glass cake pan was on the burner, but all of the sides were gone and this little flame was starting. The burner had already been turned off, but how to remove this mess all over the burner?  The whole pan was in pieces... even the bottom. I quickly grabbed a wooden spoon and 2 big cookie sheets with sides, while a son dumped baking soda on the small flame.  I used the wooden spoon to scrape cake and glass off the hot burner onto the pan.. then also on to the next pan.


What a mess! Now that the fire was out, and the mess was off of the burner, we took stock of what else was going on.

Like I said, the girls were unhurt... they were both across the room when it blew... I shudder to think of what could have happened to them if they had still been in front of the stove. I am so thankful for God's care of them. One of them was barefoot and was helped from the kitchen to avoid the glass on the floor.



My son had scrubbed a LOT of potatoes to bake (he likes to eat a lot and leftover baked potatoes make a nice small potato salad). The plates were already dished up on the table and many extra potatoes were on the stove on a cookie sheet.  This is one of the potatoes on the stove... see the glass embedded into it?









 
 Here you can see the glass IN the potato and more beside it.

There was glass ON the table, all over the floor, on counters, a little in the two adjoining rooms... it was a very sobering mess.

We threw out all of the potatoes (about a 10 pound bag's worth), the cottage cheese, the nacho cheese, the corn, the cake, all 6 sticks of butter sitting on the counter softening for baking, and more.   No, there was no glass on the butter that we could see, BUT this was not a time to take any chances at all... and there WAS glass on the counter, so we threw it all out. My husband swept glass, a son hunted for a box for all of the glass... and we all worked to clean up, all the while giving many thanks to God for protecting the girls. What a blessing that no one was hurt!!!!  NO ONE WAS HURT!  Wow!   We are still giving thanks for that.


I use many glass pan... Pyrex and other brands and I love them. I have glass bread pans, casserole dishes and more. They take more room to store, but I like them and they work well for us.

I had no idea such a thing like this could happen... and by the way, it is rare that a wrong burner gets turned on, and this should NOT have happened.  We had a new stove and the controls are a bit different from the old one. Plus all of the rushing around... plus, my adrenal fatigue and extra tiredness the last week have combined to leave me not making many of the meals at all... and the girls are very capable... this was just one of those accidents. Very frightening... and a wake up call to be much more careful, but everyone is fine... it is all taken care of... and I am so thankful. 

Will I still use Pyrex and such glass pans? Yes, absolutely... I love using them and will continue. We have been careful with them in the past, but will be even more careful of them now.  The kids told some friends what had happened... and at some point, they had the same thing happen to them!  I had never heard that story, so it seemed like a good idea to do this post as a testimony to God's protection of us in this emergency... and also as a warning to be aware that such a thing CAN happen, though it must be rather rare.  

Why did it blow?  I don't know... we figure the concentrated heat on the bottom of the already hot pan must have done something...  these are not meant to use on a burner. So, this is just a warning from our mistake... and I hope you never experience a similar one.... this is a "heads up" to be extra careful.

By the way, my husband went to buy take-out pizza that night and we enjoyed it...  and we were extra thankful for God's blessings.  My sons mourned the loss of the apricot cake also, but there will be other cakes. For now, I am so utterly thankful for God's mercies in this situation.  Have you ever had this happen?  Have you heard of it happening?  I would love to hear about it in the comments.

Thank you for visiting my blog today... I hope you have a good week. 

 












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Saving Money-Part 2-Grocery Shopping

In this series on saving money, I will be addressing a variety of subjects. Today, we are going to address grocery shopping. This is just a collection of ideas that have worked for me... I am not saying this is the way everyone should do things. :)

The price of groceries has been increasing and yet, we all need to buy groceries. I have a large family and we use a lot of groceries each week... what should we do?

Over the years, I have adjusted my systems to work with what is available to me, and I think that is something we all have to be aware of. Years ago, I kept a big coupon file... in a plastic shoebox... and it went to the store with me. I saved lots of money that way because a store in my area had buy-one-get-one free sales AND double coupons on coupons up to 99c. Wow! When that store chain pulled out of our area, coupons weren't that much help to me, so now I rarely use coupons.

I also used to do lots of rebates and I kept good records on it... I saved a lot, especially when coupling rebates with coupons and buy-one-get-one-free deals. That worked great and my husband was really impressed, which is always fun! :)  Now, I rarely use rebates anymore... and that is okay.

 I live in the city and within about a 7 mile radius, there are 5 grocery stores and I get their ads each week. There is also a Walmart, but I think their prices are too high, so I rarely go there.

I peruse the 5 ads and make a grocery list... that list consists of what is ON SALE and what I might be interested in buying.  I will not actually buy all that is on the list... this is just to give me an idea of what is on sale that week.


 You will notice that I list ground beef on the list under more than one store.... I really wanted to buy some ground beef this week, if on sale, so I was watching for it. It has been so high in price and we haven't bought much lately, so I was hoping to get some. It was on sale at a few stores, but which one is cheapest? That's where the list really helps.


 I also do not just reproduce each grocery ad on my list...  I am only watching for things I might be interested in buying. Most things on the list will not actually be purchased by me. What does the list mean? On the list, I write the sale item, the size, the price and the limit, if there is one. I also write down if it takes a store coupon.. and what page of the ad has that store coupon.

So, how do I decide what to buy and what store to visit? It depends on several things: 

-Will I be near a certain store?

-Are there several items I could use at that store?

-Is there something I really need at one of the stores?

-Will there be a special sale that makes it worth going... and I can buy other things there also?

I do not go to 5 stores in a week... in fact, I usually only go to one store a week, and some weeks, I don't go to the store at all.

This week's list showed cheese on sale.. we have been wanting cheese... for homemade pizza. The prices were similar and knowing we were having unexpected company and homemade pizza was what I planned for supper, I had my husband and son do a run to store #3 to get cheese. I also had them buy bananas, which were not on sale, but we use them in kefir smoothies. 

On that same trip, they also went to store #1, which wasn't far from the other store... and I had them get hamburger. The price is not as good as some of the other stores, but those stores would be having sales on it only on the weekend. We were having company the next day and while my cupboards weren't bare, I was out of many things needed for various meals, so I just needed enough for this time with unexpected company and I had my husband just get the little one pound package. One nice thing about going to store #1 was that they had strawberries on sale and I was able to create a dessert for our company, with what I had on hand, because they bought the strawberries for me.  Luscious Strawberry Layered Dessert
 

 By the way, that trip was a rarity for us... we do not usually "run to the store" for something... that can wreck a budget very quickly. In an upcoming post, I will share where I got the money for that impromptu grocery trip... it is funny... and a blessing from the Lord. :)  

On this list for Aldis, you can see that the Roma Tomatoes and Peppers have a note (Mexico?). What that means is that we need to check to see if it is a product from Mexico. I do not buy products from Mexico because of pesticides and more. The sad thing is that MUCH of Aldis produce, at our store, is now from Mexico. I do a bulk of my shopping at Aldis, usually, but may have to re-think that at some point. I realize items from Mexico may be cheaper, but it is not worth it to me, to ingest more toxins in doing so and sabotage my family's health.

I tend to plan my meals based on what is on sale... instead of buying what I need to make a meal. It actually saves quite a bit of money to do this.

We've all heard the tips on grocery shopping: don't go when you are hungry as you buy too much, take a list, and more. 

I would add:
-Watch the expiration dates... 

-Take a calculator and figure the  price. Don't trust the pre-figured unit pricing listed on the sign at the store... I have found some of them to be wrong. It helps to do your own figuring.

-Bulk buying is NOT always cheaper... use the calculator. I have found this to be true at Cosco and Sam's Club also. I do not have a membership at either and I would not spend the money for such. I did get a free pass a couple of times and so I checked it out, but I was quite disappointed. What I found was that if I watch the sales in the regular grocery stores, I could beat the price on about everything I checked. I concluded that buying a membership and buying foods there would actually COST me money, not save it. 

-Check the clearance meats, if they have them. Those $1 and $2 off stickers on a package can help much... If it isn't that great of a cut of meat, maybe cooking it in the crockpot will make it better... and you save money.

-After holiday sales are a good place to stock up on candy, if you use that. I have bought such and used it to make cookies... or to save for later in the year. This will NOT work if you are tempted by it. I have a big old popcorn tin where we keep such items...  they last for a long time. What a blessing to pull out a fun treat for the family a few months later... a treat that was bought for a very small amount. 

-Avoiding the packaged items will help save money. Packaged dinners and mixes usually cost more. 

-Building a pantry is a good idea... when canned goods are on sale, buy a few and tuck them away. The same is true for other things that will last. I also do this with butter... butter is so expensive again... when on sale, I stock up. It helps to get to the point that the pantry has a supply of foods... just remember to regularly add to it as you use them. 

-Watch the prices as the cashier rings things up... be sure you are charged the sale price and not the regular price. Also be sure the prices you are charged are accurate. I have seen stores who do not have the shelf price and the cash register price coordinated.

-If you buy clearance items that are marked down, be sure they are charged that way. Especially when the item will have to be scanned twice to do the discount... 

-Buy things your family will eat... something that will go to waste, won't be a good deal.

-Maybe try to introduce some new food or recipe that saves money, once in a while. If it is accepted, keep using it... if not, don't use it anymore. You may find some winners, though. 

-When something is on sale at a good price, I stock up. I will budget money to do this so that I can spend extra on the weeks where there is an especially good sale... other weeks, I underspend, so that I can save that money for when I need it.

-When there is a limit on a sale item... like a limit of 2 per customer... I know of many people who give their kids money and put them in a line... or go through a different line to get lots of items that way. I choose not to do that... because to me it seems dishonest, so I abide by the limits and trust the Lord to provide for us. I don't say that to heap a guilt trip...that is just what I feel convicted of the Lord to do... you will have to decide for yourself. The reason I bring this up, is that I have heard people push others to bypass the limits... and say that is the way to save money. Please don't allow yourself to feel pushed into doing something that goes against your conscience. God is our provider... and He will provide...

-Group trips together to save on gas... I try to go to the library and grocery store or do other errands, all on the same trip. It saves gas money...and it also saves time. 

-Taking a snack and a bottle of water can keep the blood sugar stable and allow you to have energy to shop for a longer period of time. If I don't do this, it is easy to feel I just HAVE TO BUY A SNACK NOW...... my energy fails and I can tell I NEED a boost. Even if I do buy something, it doesn't help a lot and my productivity is done for that trip. Plus, I have just wasted money on a short term snack that I would not have chosen to buy if I wasn't desperate for some nutrition. Thinking ahead really helps this problem. I like to carry some raw almonds and raisins in a baggie as that can help stave off the fatigue.

So... grocery shopping is something we all have to do... It is important to figure out what works for you. Most of you probably don't have access to 5 stores, like I do... and that is okay. I rarely shop at 2 of these stores, but include them because once in a while they have some good  deals.

If you only have one store to choose from, you can still watch for sales or clearance items... and maybe it would be helpful to buy some items on line and have them shipped to your home.  Maybe a once or twice a year trip to a larger area to buy staples would be helpful. We tend to do this for trips to the Amish store which is 100 miles away from us... when I go, I buy 50 pound bags of flour and oats, I stock up on spices and bulk items. I combine such trips with a trip to see family... or a day trip.

I have been learning to save money for several years.. and I didn't learn it all at once... and not everything I learned still works. Being flexible is a good idea....  and if you can implement one idea to save money, that is great... use what works for you and don't compare yourself to others. I like to remember that God is the One who meets our needs.. He gives us all we need and I am thankful. I hope you are too.  Thank you for visiting and if you have additional ways of saving money on groceries, I would love to hear about it in the comments.


Saving Money Series:

The Number One Way I Save Money!

Saving Money-Part 2-Grocery Shopping

Saving Money-Part 3-Buying Used


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Gentle Joy Photography-Top 10 Posts for 2014

This is the end of the first year of the Gentle Joy Photography blog. As we end one year and begin a new year, it has been fun to look back over the 88 posts for the last year and see which ones were the most viewed. So, here are the top 10 posts of 2014 for Gentle Joy Photography......









The most popular post was A Quick and Easy Breakfast. :)

A Quick Easy Breakfast

Hope

Are Your Kids A Blessing?

A Fun Surprise From God

There's A Storm Coming

Searching For Happiness.....

Has The World Gone Crazy?

Am I Worth More On Productive Days?

Guy China

Candy Bar In A Bowl


Thank you for joining me in looking back at these fun posts. I hope you will continue to visit throughout this next year. 

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Family New Year's Eve Party

We usually have a family New Year's Eve party... not a big deal, not an up till midnight or later deal, not anything official, BUT it is our family's party... and we love it. :) We have been doing it for years... and it has grown to include more and more favorites.

We tend to make things that everyone likes.... a snack type of meal. It is all dressed up with candles, pretty glasses and dishes and more.

Some of our favorites tend to appear every year... like this salad pizza. We love it.....  the recipe is here....
Salad Pizza As A Meal  

  Silly cauliflower sheep are also a favorite, but we don't have them every year... sometimes we have olive penguins or other fun foods.

Fun Foods We Have Made

 We rarely drink soda, but years ago we started to have ginger ale or 7up on New Year's Eve... in stemware glasses. Sometimes we put a little apple juice in also, sometimes not... either way, the kids loved it.

We have the veggies also... and sometimes a dip for them. The veggie tray has to include black olives, pickles and pineapple. By the way, you can tell that someone had already been into the black olives... only one is just barely visible. :)

Pigs in a blanket is a favorite... and "wagon wheels"... which are tortillas with a layer of cream cheese, deli meat, pickles and cheese.... then they are rolled up and cut into "wheels". I don't really care for these, but my kids LOVE them. :) 

Candles make things extra fun. 


Nachos and cheese, Sunshine Eggs (years ago, I started calling them sunshine eggs because I just couldn't give my precious little ones a "deviled" egg and the name has stuck.) We also usually have a little bowl - WITH A LITTLE SPOON! :) of candy... like red hots or M and Ms - fun but we still limit some of the sugar. :)

This is from a different year... when we had company over for our party... some additions were chips and salsa,  Buttery Crescent Rolls  , plate of cheese.....  cheese ball and crackers....

.... peanut butter and chocolate bars, cookies, shortbread
Simple Shortbread Bars
"Daddy's Dessert".. a family favorite.... and more.


Sometimes after we eat, we watch a family movie... or play games. Whatever we do, it is a family night.

It hasn't seemed to matter as much WHAT we have... these meals have always been special, even when we only had 2 or 3 items...  the tradition has grown, but it has been special. This is usually not something done for or with others, but just a family get together... a special time... and it leads to special memories.

This was another year.... even just the table setting and candles make things look special.

This year, we probably won't have as many treats as the three years represented in this post... after all, things have been quite busy this year, but I do know that we will have fun.... and we will have some of these favorites... and I am so glad to have children old enough to help make things. :)

I hope that you have a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year. It is nice to start a new year. We don't know what the new year will hold for us, but we DO know that God has brought us through the year and we are thankful and we will trust Him in the New Year as well. :)

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