MercyMe - Beautiful!

This is an AWESOME song.

It is about how God, the Father

sees us and that He loves us

so much that Jesus was willing

to give His live for us.

I hope you will take the time

to listen to it.

It will really bless you.

Our Cat, Callie

This is our cat:

While I am the Queen ;), she is the Princess

(who thinks she's the Queen).

She takes over all territory and makes it her own

personal sleeping space.  No place is safe or too 

difficult to squeeze into.

She especially likes to be wherever I want to be working

and to thwart my progress by laying right on top 

of the things I need to work on.

What can I say?  She's a cat.

Sewing Projects are well underway:

Last night, I promised you pictures of the sewing progress.  I have completed 1 black vest and have another vest 1/2 done.  I need to have it done by SATURDAY (yikes!); because it is a birthday gift, and Saturday is THE day!  So I stayed up until 11:00pm working on it (said son doesn't go to bed until 9:00pm which doesn't leave much private working time).  Now that may not seem late to some, but for me, uggghhh!  Five o'clock am comes REALLY early when you don't hit the sack by 10:00pm.  Why does 1 extra hour make such a difference???  I want to know!

Here's the 1st success!

 Here's a close-up of the front fabric texture:

The glossy black of the back was hard to capture.

Maybe I'll be able to get a better picture later.

I was SO excited at how well it turned out.

Maybe I'll get better pictures later when I don't

have to hide in the bathroom while taking them.

(No prying eyes in there!  Finally!

When they were younger, I wasn't

even safe in there!)

Now before I show you progress on the 2nd vest,

here's proof that I did actually do this myself!  :)

I have this one together.  I just need to clip the curves

 and turn it.  Sew the side seams together and

sew a finishing edge all the way around

the perimeter of the vest.

I hope to have it done by Wednesday

so I will have time to clean the house

before Saturday for the birthday guests!

In case you forgot what the front looks like:

Stay tuned for this one.

The Cowboy will LOVE it!

(Yes, that is his nickname, given him by his friends.)

Sewing Projects

Yesterday I told you about my day of sewing

and today I have time to post some pictures.

My boys are lovers of all things cowboy.

I already mentioned that I plan to do some

cowboy decor in their rooms.

In addition, I thought it would be fun

to make them some nice vests to wear

to church to help dress up their jeans.

(My oldest son is too tall and thin to

even find slacks for him any more.)

For my eldest's birthday, I am going

to surprise him with a brown suede vest.

Such wonderful material!

See?

And then for Christmas, I plan to make

all my men black vests.  The material

for that almost made them drool when

they saw it!  So I know they are 

anticipating that.  (I wanted to keep

it a surprise but that was too difficult

because I would have only been able

to work on it after they go to bed

which isn't until 9:00pm.  And I am

too tired by then to work on it.)

Here's the black:

Nice!!!  I wish my photo could have caught

more of the color's nuances.  Maybe I will

get better ones in the next stage of progress.

I can hardly wait to get started on the sewing.

More updates coming soon!

A Busy Day

Today we had a big day.  

My husband took boys to soccer games

while I stayed home to start on 

my sewing projects--

vests for gifts for

all my men. 

We went for a walk at mid-day AND

managed to fit in a garage sale en route.

We had 4 great finds for $1 total.

I LOVE THAT!

When we returned, I resumed sewing and

the DH got back to work on the carpentry

project he started last week:  putting

plywood in our attic to create flooring for

STORAGE!

I made good progress today.

I got all the vests I had material for cut out.

When I was done, so was my back.

So...after I made dinner, I decided

to get papers graded and recorded

instead of any more sewing.

I will try to get pictures posted about

the garage sale finds and the vest materials.

Hopefully, tomorrow.

I am so excited about those vests.

I hope they turn out the way I envision.

I will share my future progress with you

as I continue with the sewing projects.

Have a great night!

Fried Okra

It took a 'little' longer to make the fried okra

than I had originally hoped, but now I have

had time to get it done and I

got some good pictures to boot!

Here's the end product:

Mmm.  Mmmm.  Good!!!

For any of you who are not familiar with okra,

I thought you might like to see how I cook it.

So...read on!!!

I cook okra just the way my mother taught me!

You can start with the okra fresh or frozen.
I don't dethaw it when it is frozen.  I just
go straight from the freezer to coating it,
to frying it.  This procedure doesn't
give the okra time to turn slimy.

For this much okra, I use a scant 1/2cup of 

white flour and 1/2 to1tsp of pepper and salt

(adjust to taste, of course!).

Then I find a container with a tight lid

and shake the okra with the 

flour mixture.

After I get the oil heated in the skillet,

 I pop the coated okra into the skillet and

cover it with a screen to prevent 

the oil from splattering.

Lately, my eldest son has been helping me with 

the frying.  He does a better job than I do!

The secret to frying okra is to not turn it too often.

Don't turn it until it starts to smell really good and

you think it might be burning.  This is actually a

GOOD sign with okra.  When the okra is done,

you should have a mixture of green, brown, and black.

The burnt black okra is actually the tastiest to me.

It is crunchy and has a great flavor.

It needs to be offset with the less done

pieces however because it does have

a strong flavor and the other levels

of 'doneness' give the dish a balanced

taste that is OH SO YUMMY!

A cast iron skillet works best.  I find that

a teflon skillet will not fry okra to a crunchy state

and the okra can be slimy.  

I'm not really a fan of slimy okra.

The other main way I use okra is to throw it into a

stew with lots of other veggies to add variety and flavor.

What favorite okra recipes do you use?

I want to know since I now have a freezer full

with more okra coming from the garden 

all the time.  The Lord has blessed with

a BOUNTY!

Okra Explosion!

I have been wanting to get this blog post done since last week, but as I said, life has been jam-packed full.  I just got through my last extra meeting for a little while.  But school and soccer are in full swing this week.  Next week is a break week for our little homeschool which, by the way, we call Wisdom Trackers Academy.  Maybe I will get the time to do so of the finishing work on my crochet projects.  I have completed the butterfly I was working on, but I have to iron and block it before I can do the ta-daa!! moment.  I also need to get some ribbon for those bootie ballet slippers!

My garden has been awesome this year.  As you've seen from other posts, the tomato plant and the okra have been growing into mammoth plants.  The tomato is pretty much toast, but take a look at this okra:

The 1st pictures show the plants in juxtaposition

to other tall things in the backyard.

Like the 6' fence:

And the tree and power line:

a

I have to pull some of the stalks over and down to
where I can reach the pods in order to cut them!!!

Here's what some of the crazy, thick stalks look like:

This, of course, is the flower that results in the fruit of the plant:

And the okra pods themselves:

These grow amazingly quickly and must
be cut with clippers every day to day and a half.

This is an average picking day's worth:

In order to prepare them for eating fresh,
just slice them for your recipe.
If you are wanting to freeze them
for future use like I do, you
slice them, slip them into a zip-lock bag
and seal it, then throw the bag in the freezer.

(Some pods grow a little crooked.)

An average day makes about 1 to
1 1/2 gallon bags of sliced okra.

Some pods get rather large, as you can see.
When they are this big, they get tough and are
very stringy to try to eat.  Okra are best picked
while small and sliced while fresh.

Make sure you pick them frequently!!!
If you have a busy weekend and can't
get to it like I didn't this past weekend,
then the harvest explodes and too many
of the pods grow big, thick, and tough.

Like this!

(This load gave almost 3 gallon bags full
even with all the pods I had to throw
out because they were too tough.)

Coming soon:  ~FRIED OKRA~

YUM!  YUM!!  YUM!!!