All Things Hold Together

We went to visit my parents-in-law for the weekend. I meant to post before I left, but things were pretty hectic.

Bob took Friday off, so we could have a long weekend.

It was great.

My father-in-law brought me to a local apiary to get some raw honey. The place is called Warm Colors Apiary.

I already have a jar of their Deerfield Wildflower honey, which I got for Christmas. This time, I got some of their Raspberry Blossom honey. It is so good!

I also bought a 1 oz. brick of beeswax to make my own lip balm.

I found many recipes for beeswax lip balm on the internet, but I wanted to use things I had on hand. And I wanted one that contained honey.

I ended up using a variation of this lip balm recipe from Martha Stewart.

I used equal parts olive oil and bees wax, not the ratio in the recipe. Also, I omitted the essential oil because I liked the delicious honey flavor!

I did add a few drops of orange oil before pouring the final container of balm. That was yummy, too!

I had these empty lip balm containers from some Strawberry Shortcake lip gloss that my mom gave me at Christmas. I didn’t like it because it was too chemically, so I washed the gloss out and used the containers for my own lip balm.

I made this one for my sister, who visited us yesterday.

I had an old skein of white Caron Simply Soft yarn in my yarn box and I couldn’t remember what I bought it for. So, I decided to make a hat.

I used this pattern from the Caron website. (I think you need to register to see it.)

The pattern uses a yarn that is discontinued. I substituted the yarn I had, using the hook size in the pattern. Since it is a more delicate yarn, it is more open than the picture in the pattern, but I like it.

It did come out a little short, so I had to repeat the last two rows twice each (rnd 10, rnd 9, rnd 10, rnd 9 - the pattern ends with repeating rnd 9.)

Here is out it turned out.

This week, Works-for-Me Wednesday is going backwards! Bloggers ask for help, instead of offering a tip.

Here is what I need help with.

I am looking for jar mixes. You know, when you take a jar and layer ingredients in it to make it look really pretty, then give it as a gift?

I make these for my relatives at Christmas.

I have lots of sweet recipes, but I need some soup recipes.

There is a catch, though. I want ones that you have personally tasted the results of.

I made a bean soup jar for my parents for Christmas and I decided to cook it and taste it first. I am glad I did because it tasted like beans and water!

I added a second bouillon cube and it was great!

I am so glad I tried it first!

So, what I need from you all is your best soup (or other non dessert) jar mixes that you know taste good.

Thank you so much!

Be sure to head on over to Rocks in My Dryer and help out other bloggers with the dilemmas in their lives.

I finally got around to posting my menu plan again! I mean to do this every week, but there is just something about Mondays!

This week, we are going to visit my parents-in-law on Friday, so I have a short week of cooking.

Sunday:Chicken Fajitas* and Spanish Rice

Monday: Pizza topped with left over fajita meat

Tuesday: Baked ziti with sausage

Wednesday: Baked chicken breast, roasted potatoes, and a veggie

Thursday:Chicken Pot Pie (made with leftover chicken breast)

* I make my fajitas using a spice blend of 2 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. onion powder, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. sugar, and 1/2 tsp. salt.

Brown meat (~1 1/2 ponds chicken cut into strips); add spice blend and mix; throw in the pepper and onion (one of each, cut into strips) and a little water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are tender crisp.

Be sure and stop by OrgJunkie and check out the rest of Menu Plan Monday.

I mentioned last week that the boys were in trouble for going out past their boundaries.

Originally, their boundaries were much closer to home.

We live in an apartment complex with privately-owned streets, accessible to the city streets only on 2 sides of the property. We live at the corner of the two sides of the property that are not accessible to city streets, in a cul-de-sac that is bordered on one side by a brook.

They were always made to stay in the cul-de-sac, unless an adult was with them.

This always worked out fine because they were best friends with the girls next door and never had any reason to want to leave.

Then the girls moved.

After a long period of mourning, they were ready to find new friends.

They did, but their new friends lived outside of where the boys were allowed to go.

One friend lives outside our neighborhood, but just across the street from where one of our streets outlets to the city street.

The others (two brothers) live in our neighborhood, but up the street, out of my sight.

I had been letting the boys go up to the park, which is at the center of our neighborhood. There, they were able to play with lots of kids.

But I was always conflicted about it.

Was I giving them too much freedom?

When I found out that they were going out of the neighborhood and a few blocks away to the store, I knew that they were not ready for that freedom.

We grounded them for a week and intended to slowly give them back their freedom.

Then last night, Big E said he wished the girls never left.

I thought he was just missing them because we were looking at some photos on their mother’s MySpace page.

When I asked him why, he said, “Then we never would have left the circle. I don’t think I was ready for that much freedom.”

Wow!

I am so amazed at that level of self realization.

I don’t know that I have ever been more proud.

But I do know that they will not be having their freedom back for a while longer.