2012.... Already?

Remember those UFOs from October?  Well, all were finished except one.  The children's bathroom is still a work-in-progress ;)
Tony painted the exterior doors, here's the back door, they are all the same color.

He also repainted the hallway.  This color looks like a Wendy's Frosty... yum!  This color will eventually cover all the living room walls also.  It's hard to take hallway pictures!  We have some neat plans for hanging photos, etc.. in the hallway.  Stay tuned.

Here you can see the original color (which is still in the living room).  A medium gold on the walls and a deeper gold trim.  I am so sick of this color... lol.  All of the trim and doors are white/will be white also.  The white trim just makes the Frosty color just POP!

The dining room also had the same golden paint with this green accent wall.  We kept the green but the other three walls are Frosty.

 These are the window treatments from our bedroom.  They just matched so nicely in here that we moved them.  We also removed our bed cover (duvet) and put a cream-based quilt on our bed.  Along with cream curtains our room now looks bright and airy.  What?  You want a picture of that?  lol

I want to do a photo collage on this wall along with a scripture verse.

This photo, unhung as of today, has an open Bible out in the field with the verse "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet..."  I'll hang it today and post a new pic.

BACK WITH NEW PICS... what do you think?  Is the frame too high?

The children's bathroom, previously a 'Rubber Ducky' yellow and blue themed room, is now orange with a fun elephant print shower curtain.  The walls need a second coat, I need fabric for a curtain for the window and we need to overhaul the vanity... that may be a while.  Just use your imagination.  LOL

BACK WITH PICS:   Here's the shower curtain that we are designing around.  Nehemiah LOVES Elephants, as did Joseph when he was a wee lad.

 This blue is the shower/tub.  Pretty... lol  Can you say "70s house" with me?

 Friends gave us this CUTE corner cabinet!  Don't you just Love it?! 

 This... this is the vanity that needs help.  LOL  We'd love to replace it but it's not a standard size.  We'd love to have two sinks there... So the long-range plan is to refinish the base and build a new top with two sinks.  The short-range plan is just to paint it brown and wait for the time and money to redo the top of it.  The missing drawer was destroyed by visitors years ago.  We've tried and tried to repair the drawer to no avail.  We are going to just remove all the drawers and leave a large opening.  Into that will slice a wicker laundry basket for towel laundry. 

Above the vanity/below the mirror you can see the previous wall color of yellow.  (What was I thinking with all the yellow?  I've never even LIKED yellow!  LOL)  Goodbye Yellow!  woohoo!!!

October is officially "Finish Unfinished Projects" Month

here at the Lewis home.  Tony painted and repainted our exterior doors -- at least the back porch and front porch doors.  The downstairs doors were today's project but the rain put a stop to that.  So instead he is painting trim and doors in the hallway :) 

I have a "Honey Do" list for him!  :)

I'm so glad to get these things finished up and will post pictures as we go! 

What a Fabulous and Blessed Vacation!

Our Fall vacation was just amazing!  God is so good to us!

We left here Sept 2 and drove to Brownsville TN (my hometown).  We 'camped out' at Daddy's house and visited with Daddy and my sister and nephew.  The next day we drove up to Daddy's Family Reunion.  It is always a blessing to see these aunts and  uncles and cousins and we only see once a year.  I have a sweet extended family :)  We spent the next day visiting with my mother.  I wish my parents weren't divorced but I am glad they live in the same town as it makes visiting a little easier. 

The morning of the fourth we left to drive north.  We visited our dear friends in MO for several days.  The children had such a blast swinging through the trees!  LOL  We also were able to meet my friend Katie and her dozen children at a park in MO and enjoyed our afternoon with them.

On the eighth we left MO and drove north to Iowa.  There we stayed with my friend Jennifer and her family.  I have *known* Jennifer for many years via an online message board for Christian women.  Meeting her in real life was a real blessing and she's exactly as I thought she would be.  The children enjoyed the big back yard and then came in and played Spoons.  It was just such a nice visit!

The next morning we were WI bound!  I have a dear, dear friend in WI, Cathy.  We have been friends for seven or eight years but never met in person.  We met on a message board and have been email pals and phone pals for many years.  Our daughters (both sets) have been penpals for three or four years.  Meeting their family was almost unexplainable.  Our hearts are now so firmly knit with theirs.  God is so good to us!  We had much fun at their house -- we visited with Tami who is a wildlife rehabilitator and we saw many different animals at her place.  Duane is a woodworker and Caleb has enjoyed learning about woodworking for the past few years.  Duane really took Caleb under his wing and taught him to use a lathe.  Caleb made a bowl.  :)  It is very pretty.  Our children all had so much fun playing together, they made a movie of an original play, they rode horses, we roasted hot dogs and had s'mores... many wonderful memories were made.

The morning of the thirteenth we sadly left their house with many promises of visits to come and drove to southern WI.  We spent the night here with another 'previously unmet' friend of mine, Cathe.  She, also, is a friend from the message board.  Cathe arranged a picnic for the other ladies on the board who live locally.  It was so nice to see Mary again and to meet Angela and Amy.  Cathe's daughter in law to be even came by for a few minutes.  Cathe and her husband Pat were amazingly gracious hosts.  Our family much enjoyed our time at their home!

We left there on the fourteenth heading toward Chicago.  We hadn't been on the road very long when someone pulled up beside us pointing frantically at our front drivers-side tire.  Tony pulled over immediately and saw that his tire was dangerously low.  We saw the Lord's protecting hand so clearly in the hour that followed.  We were very close to an exit so Tony slowly drove to the exit and to the first gas station, which *just happened* to have air :)  Here he noticed that the valve stem was very loose and whenever he touched it it leaked air badly.  I asked the store attendant for a tire store and it *just happened* that there was a Sears only two lights down.  We made it safely there and the attendant who *just happened* to not be busy checked and said he could fix it.  An hour and less than $20 later we were on our way.  As soon as we headed back toward Chicago it started to rain.  It was dreary and drizzly all day long.  We are so thankful we did not have tire trouble in noon time Chicago traffic.  Can you even imagine?...

It was after supper time when we arrive in TN at Tony's brother's house.  We crashed.  LOL.  The following day we slept in and rested some.  Later the family all started trickling in.  We were able to see everyone except Tony's stepsister Andrea and her family and Derek.  It was a good visit with everyone.  We are blessed with family who loves us :)

The sixteenth we drove home.  It was a lovely drive.  We were all glad to be home.  Two weeks away from home is a long time!

And our wonderful vacation was made possible in large part by Traci and AT.  Their family took care of all our animals and did our outside chores daily.  They are very dear to us... and not just because they keep our animals well! 
It was a really wonderful trip and I will try to get some photos up as soon as possible (Molly is still editing and resizing them). 

And that, dear ones, is a condensed version of the story of our trip.  I could go on and on and on about each family we visited and spent time with.  I am so blessed with all these wonderful people in my life.  :)

Joey's First Time Sewing *all by himself*

He was so excited... :) 

And the finished product... an I Spy Bag for his friend Nathan <3  He's so precious! 

 I love sewing with my children!

Beck's Chimichangas - A Family Favorite

Caleb makes these almost every Saturday night for supper.  They are a real family favorite and I wanted to share the recipe with you... cause I'm just nice like that!

3-ish pound beef roast (cheapest cut with as little marbling as you can get...it will shrink)
an onion, quartered
about 2 cups beef broth (or 2 c water + 2 t bouillion)
Cook above in crock pot for about 6 hours on high. You really want this to fall apart.

Gather:
8-10 10-inch flour tortillas (burrito size)
1 small can plain tomato sauce
chili powder/taco seasoning
shredded colby jack or cheddar cheese (about 10 oz?)
about 1/3-1/2 cup oil and a pastry brush

When roast is done, take out of broth (save for another use...great for the beginning of french onion soup!), and let cool enough to handle. In a large bowl, shred beef well with two forks. Pour on tomato sauce, however much is needed (this keeps it moist...you WANT this. My tomato-hating children hate these without it!) and sprinkle on a good amount of chili powder/taco seasoning. Blend well.

Heat tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds, IN THEIR BAG to make them pliable and moist. I work one tortilla at a time, keeping the others in the bag.

Lightly grease a baking sheet, either with PAM or oil, or whatever you use.

Lay out tortilla, sprinkle some cheese on the center, where you're going to lay your meat. Maybe 1/4 cup or less? Lay the meat on top of the cheese. Picture this as if it's divided vertically into thirds. You want to fill the center third, and leave about 2 1/2 inches at either end. You are making the size of your chimi here. Fold in the ends, and then one side. Tightly roll the chimi into the final side, and lay onto baking sheet, seam side down. The weight of the chimi will hold itself together, and the cheese is now on "top" of the meat, to ooze down into it, yummy-like.

Keep rollin'. When you're out of meat, you're done. I find that a 3 lb roast gives me a good 8-10 chimis (but I often make more roast and freeze some for omelets later! )

Brush the chimis with oil, and bake 10-15 minutes or until golden in a 375 degree oven. We serve with sour cream, black olives and sprinkling more of cheese.
 
Holler if you give these a try.  We really love them :)

Our Children

from 2004

from 2006



2007



The Pool Yard Fence

Another project finished!!

A Quilt for Ivy Jewel

oops... can't show a picture of this one...

Oh, Mandy... I need your address please!!

Joey's Birthday Quilt: Brown Bear, Brown Bear...

Joseph loved this book when he was younger (and he still likes it now).  I bought this fabric, I think, two year ago.  I scrambled and scrambled trying to think of ways to use it.  Finally I had an idea!

And the finished product.  Oh, I need to take a picture of the back too!  It's so cute!

UFO: Baby Quilt

This is a quilt I started a few years ago.  I was trying a new technique.  It was all done except for the sashing.  Now it just needs to be sandwiched and quilted :)

Finishing UFOs: Quilting

So making Avery's quilt inspired me to finish some UnFinishedObjects :)

This is a quilt top I started making for my Great Aunt Louise.  I hadn't finished it yet when Aunt Louise's health started rapidly failing.  I just put it aside knowing that I would know when I was ready to finish it. 

She was so very special to me and I loved her a lot.  I will finish this quilt and always think of her -- especially when I use it.

A "My Favorite Things" quilt for my nephew...

The last time we were visiting with Tony's sister Anitra and her son she was telling me some of Avery's favorite things.  I made a mental note and then had this smashing idea:  I would make him a fun quilt using fabrics of his "favorite things"!

Most of the fabrics are self-explanatory except maybe the gold and black border.  You see, Avery is a Vandy fan!  LOL

...and the back:

I can't wait to see his face -- I hope he loves it!!

Click each photo to enlarge. 

This was all machine pieced and quilted.  I used two layers of Killington flannel instead of traditional batting.

Summertime Updates

So we decided to put up a pool this year.  But you know us... nothing is ever simple or easy, right?  LOL  The children have been saving for the past year and bought this pool with their very own money <3.  The pool is up and we are enjoying it.  We are also fencing in the pool area -- that is still a 'work in progress'.  I will get some photos up soon to share with you.

The spot where we decided to put the pool was off level by 11 inches.  That may not seem like a lot but if you've never leveled a 17 foot diameter circle that is 11 inches off in 100+ degree weather in clay-y ground that hasn't seen much rain all summer... well, let me tell you... it's a tough job.  I'm proud of my guys!

The "Pool Yard" not only houses the big pool (15 foot x 4 foot) but the kiddie pool also.  There's room for Sam's new aviary and a deck around part of the big pool.  Tony ran electricity and water out there so we have lights too!  We have big plans for the pool yard and I'm excited to see it all coming together.

I am also happy to report that swimming lessons are coming along great!  The Lord is so good to us. 

Have a blessed Summer!

Children singing

Our New Roof

AND AFTER!

Isn't it pretty?!  Now I can't wait for the fascia and soffets to be all pretty and white!  I still can't decide on a door color.  Any ideas?

A few photos of the kids...

Duke & Duchess

Introducing.... We have new kids!!!

It was Tuesday afternoon...Imagine our surprise! We had friends over and one of their children said to one of our children "So, how many goats do y'all have?" To which our child began pointing and naming goats only to realize...

THERE ARE TWO BABIES IN THERE!

Lady and the kids

Appropriately named Duke and Duchess

Duchess!  Isn't she beautiful?!

Duke, he looks like his mother :)

By now we had figured out that our attempts to neuter Bucky must have failed (LOL) and that must mean that Lucy is pregnant too.  It's so hard to tell with goats, they are very round anyway.  Sure enough, Wednesday morning we awoke to:

Lucy and her new kids!

Now we need names for these, a boy and a girl.  :)

Life on the Lewis Farmette... never a dull moment!