Christmas in august

Oh boy do I have some stuff coming your way.
 I have been up to my eyeballs canning...lots of canning past weekend...
 But while I was chained to my kitchen I heard some noises outside and some hysterical laughing too. So I grabbed my camera and went to investigate the noise. I mean I always try to grab my camera when I hear laughter like that. You never know what you may find...and this is what I saw to my delight and surprise...

no snow, no water? No problem. This is how we do it in the country!
Have a great Monday all!

my weekend

Me driving the tractor in front, towing the one behind!

Pretty sweet I think!
We had to move some of our equipment out of a barn. We have a John Deere tractor we bought last fall, that we had to move. Well, it didn't want to start. So I got to drive the big tractor and tow my husband down the road! Yup I told my man "I'll tow you any day baby!!" He smiled and winked at me, and I returned it! We did get it started, but I had fun driving the big tractor! I mean it's a diesel after all. I did forget to wear ear plugs and it's really loud. The previous owner put glass packs on it. It was ssssssssooooooooo cold. I was wishing I had put on my Carharts. I had some layers on, but was still cold. But once we were done moving things around we had a fire in the stove and I had a glass of iced coffee. I know I should have had hot cocoa, but I wanted coffee! That's just me though.

We had a nice Easter. Morning chores, church, home to check on the animals, to my in-laws for a late lunch. Mmmm yummy ham, Easter egg hunt for all the kiddos, well the younger ones. There were 16 of the 17 grand children at my in laws yesterday! Yup you read that right. What a family heritage my in laws have! One was home with his parents because he was sick, poor little guy. Home for evening chores, jelly bean hunt, kiddos to bed, my man and I had a glass of wine and chilled on the couch together, by the fire place! Phew! Busy, but good!

My beautiful kiddos. They each had a new outfit for Easter Sunday! They are getting so big. Wwwwaaaahhhhhh. Love them so much it hurts. I love to see the amazing young people they are becoming. What a blessing they are to us.
Have a great day all!

winter clean up

Yesterday was 50 degrees! Not very seasonal for us. Usually a lot colder then that! I'll take it though! We got a Christmas snow storm and got a inch or two, then we got heavy rain and away went the snow! Along with some wind! Yikes! We got some wind. Then the nice day, it cooled off quick in the evening though down to about 9 degrees. I was able to get the horses stall cleaned out. There was some frozen poo in there and I was able to get it all cleaned out. I know if I had been on the ball and not procrastinated and just cleaned it out I never would have had that problem. But I didn't want to go outside and do it, and I was busy cooking stuff for Christmas, yeah that's it!! Farm life is slower. Just daily chores and lugging water. Don't get me wrong that all takes time too! I'm glad for the change of pace in farming right now. A nice break from the faster pace of spring, summer and fall!
Today I started cleaning up my house and trying to "catch" up on some of the house work that I get behind on during home school. We have a wood stove and it's very easy to get behind on the dusting. Everything gets a nice coat of "fire dust" on it in no time. I had the kiddos help with "winter cleaning" instead of "spring cleaning." Actually I have 4 seasonal cleaning sprees. Plus all the regular stuff. Then you add all the Christmas stuff... things just need a good clean up. Tomorrow all the Christmas stuff will be exiting the house after the kiddos get back from their eye doctor appointment. I like to put the tree up, but once Christmas is over I like it out! We've left it up a little longer for Little Matt's sake. He was hoping his Christmas gift would arrive and he could have it under the tree, but it hasn't come yet. I checked and the company said the estimated arrival date would be Jan 3. Not leaving the tree up that long.
I'm looking forward to the new year that is coming up in just a few days! We have had a good year overall and am thankful for that! Next year will prove to be interesting with our land situation hanging in the balance, but I'm sure something good will come out of all this!
As for bringing in the new year we don't have any big plans. Never do really. How about you? Any plans?

what's cooking in my kitchen

Alright so I'm probably thinking this is not the best thing to post after Christmas when everyone is on chocolate over load and coming off their Christmas highs. And people seem to always think weight loss is a good idea after the holidays and a new years resolution. But oh well. Let me indulge your love of chocolate! And if you don't have a love of chocolate you can skip this post. I will not be typing out the recipe, because it would take me forever as I said before and I don't want to leave something out. Just too many details. But I did snap a few pictures of the recipe for you! Now you can write it out! How nice of me right! I don't know if you can read it all, but I will tell you that it is a Pampered Chef recipe. I found it in their new "Chocolate" recipe cookbook. My sister in law got one, and I just thought it was great, then one of my sisters, who LOVES Christmas bought me one. How nice of her! I actually love it because I love chocolate. My poor husband. Can't wait until I can make some more recipes! And I will post pictures of them too! But that won't happen until next year! A big sigh of relief! Now here is the Fudge Tort with White Chocolate Mousse!

 Oh my look at that!! I didn't take a picture of the whole thing because I didn't like how it looked. It kinda fell apart a bit during transportation to my parents. It tasted good though. I think it tastes a little bit like the Chocolate Lasagna at the Olive Garden, that they used to have, but no longer do, at least here in Maine.  Just to give you a guess of what it tastes like. If you've ever had that dessert there. Oh so good!

Don't let the time it takes to make scare you. It's cooling time for the cake, and mousse, and such. I think it's worth it and will be making it again for a family get together!
Until next time!
Have a great day all!

after Christmas confessions

I hope ya'll had a very Merry Christmas! We did.
Today started the after Christmas clean up and put everything away. Our tree is still up for a few more days. After having lots of places to go over the weekend we all just kinda crashed today. We took care of things and threw away all the trash. The boxes and boxes of packaging that everything seems to come in these days along with all the bloody twist ties and tape that are on toys. It's enough to drive any sane person over the top. Not to mention the kiddos.
We have so much food, no not food but junk food and chocolates in the house... makes my head spin. Yes I did make some of it, but we are always given more and we all need to detox afterwards. And need something healthy and yummy to eat for supper instead of filling up on party mix, cheese cake, chocolates, etc etc for the past few days. So we are going to have turkey pot pie. Mmmmmm. And watch a few movies today that we got as gifts. 
So glad to be on school break. All of us need it.
One of the gifts for Little Matt didn't come. We told him ahead of time that it didn't come, and it should be here soon. He asked if I would wrap it up for him, and I said I would. 
I was supposed to bring some of my homemade garlic dill pickles to my parents for Christmas. Forgot them. I was supposed to bring them the next day, told my sister to send me a text in the morning. She did. I still forgot them. All day I was scatter brained. Really bad.
We went to a coming home from boot camp party for one of Matthew's cousins. That was nice. Yummy food too! Not on Christmas, but a couple days before. Our weekend was full of parties and food!
Once the kiddos were in bed snoring loudly and sprawled out in their beds, My Man and I had a quiet evening on the couch.
Now I have to run because I need to get supper out of the oven before I burn it and we have to eat chocolate again for supper.
Have no fear I will be posting the yummy Chocolate Torte I made tomorrow!!
Have a great night all!

Merry Christmas!!

from all of us here at SweetLand Farm. Wishing you and yours a very blessed holiday!

Thanksgiving

From all of us at SweetLand Farm we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope ya'll have a great day!
 Enjoy your day with your family and friends. I know we will be!

Eat too much turkey and watch too much football!

Christmas face????

Well, now that Christmas is over I'm glad. I love Christmas, but at the same time, it's tiring. I feel like I'm in a brain fog, and the past week is kinda a blurrrrr. I'm glad that we are on home school break. The kids are exhausted and have what my family refers to as "Christmas face". I wanted a nice family picture at my parents, but it didn't happen. Are you kidding me?? The kids are all in a daze and I don't know how it would have turned out! Funny thing I guess that is why people have their picture before Christmas, before all the... you fill in the blanks! My living room looks like Santa's work shop gifts everywhere, no furniture to sit on, and well basically a mess! Tomorrow it's time to get things back in order! The kids love all their new stuff, and have been enjoying them today, after church. I don't think they ate very much today, I think they are still full of all the "food" they ate yesterday. Emma and Rachel have the sniffles, and lets hope that it doesn't get any worse. I bought some more of the worlds best orange juice (it's Florida Natural No Pulp, if you were wondering) today and need to stock up on some vitamin c! Every once in a while I'll call my sister (OK, so almost everyday) and say hey, have you ever tried..... and she'll say no and I'll tell her to go get some next time she goes shopping, and then a few days later she'll call me back and say thank you very much for my new obsession. I giggle and say your welcome. But in all fairness she now returns the favor to me!! We enjoy increasing each others grocery budget! Matthew, myself and a brother in law went to Massachusetts last January to see Joel Salatin at a conference (totally worth EVERY penny we spent to go) and on the way back I wanted to stop at the Cracker Barrel, well it was late and I saw they had Florida Natural OJ on the menu. I ordered a glass and as I gulped some down I almost spit it out in my brother in laws face! It was all pulp! In case you haven't guessed I hate the pulp. Oh I was sooooo disappointed. Matthew tried it and he couldn't even drink it. It must have been most pulp. Sigh. Needless to say when I got home I had a big tall glass of it, no pulp and was a happy girl again! I usually always have oj in my fridge! I know that was kinda "ping" on my part, but that is where my brain is tonight.....
My grandmother gave me some nice yarn and some new knitting needles for a gift this year! I was pleased, now I can maybe try my hand at following a pattern, and have some yarn to do it with. Maybe. You know those winter projects I want to do? I'll carve out some time and make myself do it. I'll have to get some face time with my grandmother and have her show me. I think I might stress her out though! We'll see!
I was a little surprised when Matthew came flying in the house and said I needed to milk Maggie tonight, because he was going to help someone get out of the field, (yup some smuck drove their car into the field and got stuck. Big surprise!)  I got all the stuff together and went out, feeling rushed, and when I  sat down on the stool to milk, Maggie sensed I was tense, and she proceeded to step on my foot and flick her tail in my face. She turned her head back and looked at me with her big brown doe eyes and blinked. Then we both sighed. I needed to chill out and Maggie knew it. I guess that is why she stepped on my freezing foot and hit me in the face with her tail. I started milking and got into the rhythm of it and felt my body relax and the tension leave my body. By the time I was done milking I was enjoying the sounds I was hearing in the cold winter night. Matthew and some other neighbors got the person out of the field and all was well, again.
Well, I've put up some pictures and maybe your mouth will water, or not. Maybe you'll be thankful it's at my house instead of yours. Sometimes while I'm in the midst of all this cooking and baking I wonder why do I do this to myself? Lets call it tradition, and I love it!

My second attempt at fudge. It came out smooth and creamy the way fudge is supposed to be! Yay!

These are the donuts I usually make. More of a cake donut.  Love this recipe, they are so good! I got the recipe from my mother in law. Makes my mouth water just looking at them! 

Some of the holiday treats. Cheesecake, pumpkin bread, fudge,  Reese squares, peanut butter balls, and needhams!

New donuts I tried for Christmas breakfast! Gasp! I broke a long time family  tradition of sticky buns and had yeast donuts, with a glaze instead!! They were a big hit!  I'd never made a yeast donut before and found out just how much they rise, all down the side of the bowl and onto the shelf in the fridge! They popped the cover right off the container! Oops, guess I better split the recipe before I put it in the fridge, or get a bigger bowl!! Oh well, chalk it up to a lesson learned, and a laugh!

aahhh some chocolate fun...

DaLaney adding some peanut butter to the mixture. Emma making sure she got it all!

Packing down the Reese squares!

Some silly fun on the floor!

Matthew adding some more peanut butter! Emma peeking again. She tried her hand at getting the peanut butter out of the cup, and decided she didn't like that job!

Emma adding some powdered sugar to the bowl! DaLaney looking on!

DaLaney getting chocolate on the peanut butter balls!

The kiddos mixing!

Rachel getting chocolate on the Needhams!

Every Christmas season we make chocolates. I've let the kids help me too, lets call it a tradition in our family. They love to be in the kitchen with me, helping me cook. It's good practice for them so when they get older they will feel comfortable in the kitchen, and be confident chefs! Sometimes they argue about who gets to help wipe the dishes! Ah to have such a problem! I got these recipes from my Grandmother who still makes chocolates for everyone in the family. That's a lot of chocolate! She does it throughout the though. She always asks me on Christmas if I've made chocolates.Then wonders how I find the time with all the other stuff going on in my life! I have tried to do different ones every year and some of the same, but this year I've only made our favorites. So far we have had a blast making them. I managed to get a large blob of chocolate on my finger and Emma said "Mommy, I would really love to lick your finger right now!" I laughed and let her have the chocolate blob off my finger! She smacked her lips and smiled as she swallowed it, savoring the taste! I'll have some more pictures to share later on and the end result. Can't wait! And the dreaded fudge too. I'm gonna try it, again!  The kids are wanting to finish up and so am I!

Christmas tree o Christmas tree!!

With the lights on. OK so not the best pictures, but you get the idea. See all the Christmas books to the left of the tree? Great books! The craziness of the ornaments, and the carousel horses under the tree. Emma always asks for the carousel, and she sets it up under the tree!

With the lights off... wonder who knocked off the lights on the bottom??

Yesterday Matthew and Little Matt went out in the woods and cut down our  tree! I wish I had a picture of Little Matt's face when he dragged that big 'ol tree through the front door, and the huge grin on his face his blue eyes sparkling with excitement! What a wonderful surprise for the end of the day!  It's big and full and I love it! For a wild tree it really looks nice, and with the lights and decorations the kids put on, it's great! Matthew and I put the lights on it first. Every time we put the lights on I think of that very funny song that I love about the lights on the tree. Not sure what it's called, but the man is trying to get the lights on his house and then he's yelling by the end of it "Oh when one blinks they all blink, if your so smart, do it yourself!" I laugh and holler at Matthew, in a teasing way, every year those lines as we untangle the lights! We both laugh, and the kids think I'm crazy! It's moments like that, that I enjoy being able to be silly with my family, and just enjoy their company. Every year we buy a new ornament for the kids to put on the tree. Then when they have their own trees in their own homes they will have some decorations to put on it, and maybe carry on that family tradition. My parents did that for us girls, and now that we are grown and have kids of our own we all do it for our kids. Actually Mom still gets us a tree ornament.

My Christmas blanket. I'd like to knit this well, someday!

I love the Christmas season! It's such a joy even more so with the kids getting older and really feeling the excitement of the holiday and the true meaning of Christmas. My grandmother made me a Christmas blanket that I put over the couch, and it's so pretty, and festive. It keeps me warm as I sit on the couch curled up with it, hot coco in hand, the fire going in the wood stove, and my favorite Christmas movie on, Irving Berlins White Christmas! Oh I just love that movie! Or with the kids piled on me reading one of our wonderful Christmas books! Just to name a few, Rocking Horse Christmas, The Crippled Lamb, The Legend of the Candy Cane, Stranger in the Woods, I could list more, but I think you get the picture! We all look forward to digging out the holiday movies, books and music, to enjoy all month!