Sunday Sunshine

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

This week I saw great progress in my garden.  I love seeing new growth and fruit and vegetables forming.  I had a great time at the Bainbridge market on Saturday and am looking forward to my summer craft fairs.

Our weather has been postcard perfect summer weather: cool mornings and warm afternoons. I found some extra money in one of our bank accounts which has gone to a couple of items we'd been saving.

Time with family is always invaluable and such a blessing.

Other highlights of the week: HandyMan made pie with fresh peaches topped with homemade ice cream.  GBaby smiles and giggles. Late night laughter.  Conversations on life. Cool evenings on the back porch. Fresh asparagus and broccoli.


I hope you can look back, and forward, to find the joy dotting your story!  Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Sprouts, Crops and Berries

This has been a very busy week in the garden.  On Monday I planted most of my remaining seeds for my summer crops: green beans, cucumbers, butternut squash, acorn squash.  By today, I could see little sprouts of my green beans and my cucumbers:





My spinach, lettuce and asparagus continue to flourish and my broccoli is shooting off little florets:









Finally, my peas are finally blossoming and my strawberry blossoms are rapidly turning into berries:

We also took some additional measures to protect our crops from critters.  I'll post more on that next week!

Linked Up

This post is linked to:

-5DollarDinners: Square Foot Gardening- Lane's Garden

-An Oregon Cottage: Tuesday Garden Party

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Candle Shop: Craft Fair Warm-Up

For those of you who are relatively new to ThrivingMama, in addition to being the Mama, cooking, gardening and homemaking, I also have my own business: Charity's Candles & Crafts.  I make and sell soy candles through the internet, local craft consignments and craft fairs.  This week I have been getting ready for my "real" craft fair on June 12th and my "warm-up" craft fair this weekend.

The annual General Clinton Canoe Regatta is held every Memorial Day weekend in the nearby town of Bainbridge that draws hundreds of visitors to our little rural area.  While they do have a flea-market/craft area on the Regatta grounds, I've found in the past that the sales do not justify the time of prep and manning the booth.  But, Bainbridge also holds a Saturday morning market open to all to sell anything.  Given the combination of the crowds for the Regatta and the good weather forecast for the weekend - it promises to be a good morning for peddling my soy candles.  If you're in our area, you can find me there from 8:30 to Noon on Saturday!

And wherever you are -have a fun and safe Memorial Day Weekend!

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Pear Teething Cookies/Snack Sticks

I’m working on cleaning out the freezer before our summer produce moves into it’s winter digs.  While sorting through stuff I came across some baby food that I had made for GBaby a while back and never used.  The veggies I’ve hidden neatly in things like the HV Blueberry Bread and the HV Zucchini Bread.  Applesauce is fair game at anytime for anyone so I'm  not so worried about that.  Then I came across some pears.

I have wanted to make the Banana Teething Cookies again.  Although GBaby has cut all her teeth, she really likes this type of cookie best, especially if they’re coming from the freezer.  So I took the same ideas as the banana cookies – lots of fruit, little sugar, whole grain flours and came up this these Pear Snack/Teething Sticks. I have to say, they’re pretty darn good!  I’m thinking about pureeing some frozen peach I have to make another batch and it would probably work very well with applesauce too!

Are they ready yet Mom?

Pear Breadstick Snack/Teething Cookie

1 cups pureed Pear [or whatever type of fruit you want]

2 eggs [substitute 4 egg yolks instead of two eggs for children under 1 year old]

½ cup Brown Sugar

2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour

1 ½ cups Unbleached Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Directions

1.  Beat eggs and brown sugar until smooth.  Add pear and blend thoroughly.

2.  Add flours 1/2 cup at a time until you reach a thick dough – should be similar to a soft play dough.  You may need more or less depending on the type of flour you use

3. Divide dough into 6 pieces and roll out into long ropes about 1/4 inch thick.  Cut into pieces 3-4″ long and flatten slightly.

4. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown for a breadstick type snack.   Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes for a hard teething cookie.

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