A Berry Fine Day

Last week, my mother-in-law took our two oldest girls out blueberry picking.  After being gone for a few hours, they come home with bellies full of berries and a yummy lunch from Culvers with their Grandma and cousins and 6 pounds of berries to share.  It was a WIN for us all, I'd say.  Our girls love this annual tradition of berry picking!

++Thank you God for time spent with Grandmas and cousins and for all the yummy fresh  blueberries!!++

May Day 2017

This year's May Day was a "grin and bear it" kind, as I was in between surgery #1 and surgery #2 and had the 24/7 uncomfortableness of the stent.  Oy!  The things you do for those you love, even when you are not feeling 100%.  Thank God for His grace and strength.  The kids did 99% of the prep!  They needed a little help with set up  and the idea, but they carried it all out after that.  Ariel rocked the prep this year, since Melody and Fone were busy with their play.  And, for the actual carrying it out, I got to play chauffeur, which was doable for me too.  

(You probably wonder HOW DO YOU DO May Day with a crew of kids and the busyness of a large family living and homeschooling PLUS dealing with health issues.  Come check out my write up over at Cuppa Catholic....  it's "Easy as 1, 2, 3"!)

**the prep**

**ding and dash day**

++Thank you, Lord, for your grace and strength and traditions like this that bond our family together in love and generosity!++

Celebrating A Special Birthday

March 4th

"March Forth!  
It's a command, you see!"  

These are words my Grandma Morris would share often regarding her birthday.  What a cool day to have your birthday - the date forming a "command".  I can almost see and hear her say that now, with her sweet smile and smiling eyes.  How I love and miss those times.  But, I am thankful for our memories and so blessed to be able to carry them on.  She would drop off yummy treats and baked goods every year on our birthdays and make sure to call and sing "Happy Birthday" too.  These small acts given were HUGE acts of love received.  Ones that I hope to carry on and bless us others with as well.  We've definitely taken over the singing of the "Happy Birthday" song and are known to even play the piano while we sing it.  She was my only grandparent who was musically inclined (piano and mandolin), and I know it brought so much JOY that my own children were in music/piano lessons.

One of her signature treats were Rice Krispie Treats - cut into squared, wrapped in wax paper (like a little present) and topped with a sticker.  It was so special to get them every year!  We looked forward to them on our birthdays and holidays.  She would never forget.  And who remembered them this year?  Not I, I must say.  My awesome husband!!!  He was the one who remembered and said we need to make them.  So it became a family project!  We used the standard Rice Krispie treat recipe and made up three batches and them shared them at a family get-together that same night.

I never had a write up on my Grandma Morris as she passed away in December of 2010, which was before I started blogging.  So this is my first sharing about her.  What a blessing she was to me!!  Here are some pictures I could find of her....

(A family birthday we had at our house - whose birthday - dunno!  But you can tell these kids have changed a TON since then!  Love the smiles from Grandma in the background.  She sure loved all the kids!!)

 (Grandma and Grandpa Morris with baby Melody)

(Grandma Morris, my mom, Grandma Hamerlinck)

 (Grandma and Grandpa Morris with Ariel, 7 months old)

 (Grandma and Grandpa always made it in to visit our new babies in the hospital, but little Max was born on a nasty snowstorm so we had NO visitors in the hospital for him.  They did make it over when he was a couple weeks old though - in this picture!)

(My dad with his parents - again another family birthday party at our house - for our August birthday kids, Fone and Melody) 

(Fone's 7th birthday party) 

(Grandma and Grandpa with Max, who was just a little over a year old here)

++Thank you, God, for the life and love of my Grandma Morris.  I pray she is already in her Heavenly Home, smiling down upon us.  May her love and intercession be with us daily!++

A Fun/Yucky/Yummy Tradition ~~ Potato Bologna in 5 Easy Steps

I remember as a kid eating this food and the family getting together every year to make it with the Hamerlinck side of the family.  What a big production it was!!  And a production/tradition that we started this year with my parents and sisters and our immediate families.  It was a fun day, for sure!!!  And, we all have our freezers stocked with one of our favorite meals from growing up.

#1 - Peel all the potatoes and onions.

#2:  Wash out the casings (pig intestines!!!) under cold water and untangle them.

#3:  Grind the onions and potatoes.

#4:  Mix the onions and potatoes with the pork.  It's a pretty easy recipe....

10 pounds of pork

10 pounds of potatoes

3 big handfuls of onions

salt and pepper to taste

#5:  Stuff the casings (pig intestines!!) with the potato sausage mixture.  (this is the FUN part!  The kids all loved taking their turn!)

And, VIOLA, there ya have it ~ THE best potato bologna you have ever tasted!!!!!!!!!!  

Then you can freeze it or cook it....   

To cook, place in water and boil for 30 minutes.  

Cut open the casings and butter/salt/pepper to your liking.  

Serve with apples and rye bread.  

++Thank you, God, for this fun tradition and for carrying it on with my immediate family!!++

A Visit to the Corn Palace

The Corn Palace

This was one of those "short but sweet" visits on our vacation.  We went here on day one of our driving and spent a little over an hour here before heading back to the hotel to swim.  We were warned already by my sister (who had been there before) that it was cheesy, and I can 100% agree that it is.  But, I'm still glad we went.  Sometimes those cheesy things are the things kid remember and love.

All the kids ran through the corn maze...

Playing in the corn was loads of fun...

The art, made from ears of corn, was SO cool.  The front of the building (first picture) was decorated in a ROCK theme this year....

Be prepared for the attractions out west - you will visit a museum/rock/statue/building/monument and then there's the infamous trip to the gift shop!  We were prepared and didn't let the kids buy buy buy and burn a hole in our wallets.  One thing our kids always look forward to, and we've been doing this for quite some time now, is buying a magnet from every place we visit/vacation.  So, it's always known we WILL go through the gift shop, find and buy a magnet, and that very well may be the only thing we buy.  And, that's ok.  And, what's really neat is to see all our magnets together on our fridge downstairs and all the places we have visited throughout the years!!  A great tradition to start and something small/simple to buy in those zillions of giftshops you'll be going through anyways!

The Corn Palace was a bit CORNY but a memory we won't forget.

And, then ending our night with cousins splashing and enjoying the pool couldn't have been more perfect!!

Have you ever been to the Corn Palace?
What did you think?
Pretty CORNY, eh?

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Click the image below to see all our destinations with details 

and pictures from our trip Way Out West....