Wordless Wednesday: Got Paint?

Tonight our 4-H club (my mother-in-law and I are leaders together of a club), we painted at our county fairgrounds as our community service project.  Our club has painted at the fairgrounds in anticipation of the fair the last couple of years and it is a great way to give back to our community; plus, it is a lot of fun.

Well Big Sissy, Bubby, and Little Sissy aren't even in 4-H yet (Big Sissy will join next year), but that didn't keep them from joining in on the fun...

Linked to the following Wordless Wednesday parties:

Pinke Post

Project Alicia

Dagmar*s momsense

live and love...outloud

Take me out to the ball game

Well it's time to take someone out with the crowd.  Thanks to Indiana's Family of Farmers and Random.org, lucky #19 and 7 of their friends and family members are headed to Family Night at the Ball Park on July 19th. 
Lucky #19, Denise said:   
Email subscriber

stonemedic76@hotmail.com

June 22, 2011 1:00 PM 

  

Congratulations Denise!  It should be a fun night!  

Thanks to all that entered!

The Indiana Family of Farmers provided the tickets for this giveaway and for my family to attend the event.

If you give a girl a bucket...

If you give a girl a bucket like Red Hill General Store gave this girl, you never know what she might use it for around the home and garden...

At first we used it as a lunch pail to have a picnic in the car on a slightly rainy day in between Vacation Bible School and swimming lessons.

(I don't know if you can see those gogurts in the bucket or not (they are the blue tubes sticking out on the top left hand corner), but those are an amazing lunch treat at this pigpen.  They are specifically designed to be frozen overnight, put in the lunchbox or lunch bucket in the morning, and completely defrosted by lunch time. Big Sissy requests them all the time during the school year and they are a great source of calcium and Vitamin D.)

Then, we used it as a trash can after our picnic in the car. (To keep our trash contained in the bucket, I had everyone put all of their trash, if possible, into their sandwich bag before putting it in my bucket.  As an FYI, we are able to recycle the Kool-Aid drink pouches through Big Sissy and Bubby's school.)

Later we used it as a vase for these beautiful yellow spider mums, but be careful, this particular mum tends to shed.

Big Sissy thought it would make the perfect place to put all of the kids' drinks for our Father's Day family cookout.

And she was right.

(Having kid-friendly, mom-approved drinks accessible to the kids at a height they could reach was highly popular with both the kids, moms and dads at our family party.)

And Little Sissy thought it was fun to carry around the house and play peek-a-boo with it.

It also made a great place to store all of Little Sissy's necessities like lotion, hair bows, and her hair brush... what more could a 2 year old need.

(I do have to tell you the most popular item in Little Sissy's bucket is her diaper rash ointment.  Thanks to a tip from a great friend, we started using Resinol this winter for diaper rash and it is absolutely amazing.  It is a non-prescription product, but you have to ask the pharmacist for it.  I really can't believe I've potty-trained 2 children and was almost ready to start working on potty-training a third child before I knew about this product.)

To Bubby, it was his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Unfortunately, the money wasn't real, but to a 5 year old you can have a lot of fun with play money and a pot or bucket of gold.  

That being said, you, my lucky readers, have the chance to win one of Red Hill General Store's buckets.  You see my good friends over at The Real Farmwives of America and Friends are giving away a galvanized embossed tub to one lucky reader thanks to Red Hill General Store.  So be sure to check it out and enter the contest.


While Red Hill General Store did provide me with a bucket to blog about for this post (thanks Red Hill General Store), the pictures, ideas and opinions shared here are my own.

And the winner is...

Being able to participate in the Gooseberry Patch and The Real Farmwives of America and Friends "In the Kitchen" series was an awesome experience.  I will be forever grateful to Gooseberry Patch for giving me this amazing opportunity to receive one of their cookbooks (Sunday Dinner at Grandma's) for free, cook 10 family approved recipes from it, and then giveaway the same great cookbook to one of my lucky readers.  It's been a lot of fun and I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more Gooseberry Patch recipes from this pig pen.

So with no further ado, the winner is #12 thanks to Random.org.

Congrats to Cristi who follows me on Facebook and has actually been a great friend since college!

Cristi's winning comment was as follows:
Anonymous said...

I follow you through FB..... Cristi ecaulbach@earthlink.net

June 15, 2011 4:27 PM 

Congrats again to Cristi!  I will put your cookbook in the mail this week.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. 

Thanks again Gooseberry Patch and to all that entered!

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit theirstore. If you would like to see other great recipes, check outwww.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .

Farmer Fridays - It's a dirty job

Well farming can be a dirty job, but someone has to do it. 

Truthfully though, The Farmer hates getting dirty, but he knows it is all in a day's work and he wouldn't trade it for anything and neither would our family.  (Although I do make him keep his dirty work clothes separate from the rest of our dirty laundry and we wash his work clothes separate from everything else.)

Let's face it when you work outside most days with the land, dirt is just a reality especially when water is involved and it turns to mud.

And really to a 5 year old boy how much more fun could it be even if Dad isn't smiling...

and there is a hole in your boot. 

That is Bubby's toe sticking out of his boot.  

In fact, Bubby always finds a way to show that farming can be a dirty job.

In all honesty though, the job that many people might think is the dirtiest job on our farm is in fact a job that doesn't get you dirty at all, most of the time.  I've talked about it before, but we actually recycle our pig's manure so even though it deals with poop, it's really not too bad of job.  And it is just one of the ways we are green on our family farm.

If you want to hear more about the dirty jobs on our family farms, be sure to check out The Real Farmwives of America and Friends as today is a special Farmer Fridays with themed posts from all of my fellow farmwives and friends.

Wordless Wednesday- CHEESE

I have really enjoyed each stage of life with each of our children, but I must admit Little Sissy is at that fun age.  Now don't get me wrong, she has her share of "Terrible Two" tantrums, but most of the time she is trying to do everything and anything Big Sissy and Bubby do and learning new words each and every day.

One of her favorite things to do is say "Cheese" whenever the camera is anywhere near her so I just thought I'd share her most recent "Cheese" moments...

Linked to the following Wednesday parties:

Project Alicia

Pinke Post

Dagmar*s Momsense

live and love...outloud

Father's Day Desserts

For our family's Father's Day celebration this past Saturday night we had some really yummy food as I'm blessed to have a mother-in-law that is an amazing cook and baker.  She really could have her own restaurant.  Additionally, my sister-in-law and future sister-in-law are pretty talented themselves.  So if you go hungry at one of our family celebrations, it is definitely your own fault.

In addition to some great appetizers and sides, we had quite the assortment for dessert.  I made my father-in-law's favorite Robert Redford, tried out a new Gooseberry Patch recipe, and then my sister-in-law, Auntie E, tested all of our taste buds with her new creation... bacon ice cream.  (You might want to check out her blog as I'm pretty sure it will be making an appearance in the near future.)  I can't say I would want to have bacon ice cream every night, but it was definitely interesting and added a good combination of sweet and salty all at the same time.

The new recipe I tried came from Gooseberry Patch's Quick & Easy family favorites and from the 5 ingredients or less section, which is becoming my favorite.

Magic Bars
Ingredients
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 1/3c. graham cracker crumbs
14oz. can sweetened condensed milk (I used fat free)
1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate as I didn't have enough semi-sweet on hand.)
1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Stir together melted butter and graham cracker crumbs.

Press into a 9x13 baking dish.

Pour milk over crumb mixture.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips and walnuts.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until edges are browned and bubbly.

These didn't make it past last night so perhaps they really are magic.

Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day with a baseball giveaway

Happy Father's Day!!!


As I said in my Farmer Fridays post for The Real Farmwives of America and Friends, there isn't much more then baseball besides agriculture and farming that makes me think of my dad and Papa.  


Baseball is a big deal in my hometown and I have great memories of watching the Cubs on TV with my Papa.    This is why I'm so excited to tell you about an awesome event my friends over at Indiana's Family of Farmers (IFOF) are having on July 19th at an Indianapolis Indians Game.  And not only do I get to tell you about the event, they also gave me 8 tickets to giveaway to one of my lucky readers!














The winner will receive 8 tickets to the event for their family and friends to join IFOF at the July 19th Indians Game at 7 PM. Winners will also get a wristband to join IFOF in the picnic area for a special picnic at the park that will include a choice of hot dog, hamburger or pulled chicken BBQ in addition to baked beans, pasta salad, fruit salad, cookies and drinks! What more could you ask for?  

Well if that isn't enough for you, I think some of the The Real Farmwives of America and Friends might just be there too along with a lot of other Indiana bloggers so it's bound to be lots of fun.  (Unfortunately, work will keep me away; however, The Farmer just might be there with our kids.)

If you would like to enter to win this giveaway full of free fun and food for the family, there are LOTS of ways to enter and you don't have to use them all, just do the ones you want and be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry and why you are at be sure to check out my awesome Gooseberry Patch cookbook giveaway.  

1. Follow 3 kids and lots of pigs through Google Friend Connect (GFC) (right sidebar)

2. Join our Facebook Community

3. Follow @proudporkmom on Twitter

4. Subscribe to us via email (right sidebar)

5. Subscribe to our feed (right sidebar)

6. Check out The Real Farmwives of America blog and follow through GFC 

7. "Like"  The Real Farmwives of America and Friends on Facebook

8. Follow @realfarmwives on Twitter

9. "Like" Indiana's Family of Farmers on Facebook

10. Follow @FamilyofFarmers on Twitter

11. Tweet about this contest and include @proudporkmom and @familyoffarmers in your tweet

Contest ends 9PM EDT on June 27th.
 The Indiana Family of Farmers provided the tickets for this giveaway and for my family to attend the event.

It's time for a Sunday Dinner at Grandma's Giveaway

As you know I have spent the last month cooking and baking 10 recipes from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's thanks to Gooseberry Patch and their "In the Kitchen" series with The Real Farmwives of America and Friends.  I can't believe how fast the past month has gone and that my 10 recipes have already come and gone.  We had a lot of fun trying out these new recipes and still have more than a few that we would like to try out soon.


In case you missed one, here are the 10 recipes that I prepared:

Recipe #1:  Easy Mandarin-Spinach Salad

Recipe #2:  Peanut Butter Brownies

Recipe #3:  Cheesy Ham Potatoes

Recipe #4:  Farmstyle Ham & Gravy

Recipe #5:  Granny's Chocolate Cobbler

Recipe #6:  Sour Cream Drop Cookies

Recipe #7:  Banana-Nut Bread

Recipe #8:  Cinnamon Bread

Recipe #9:  Pork Chop Delight

Recipe #10:  Pecan Coffee Cake

And now the best part of all of this is not only did Gooseberry Patch give me one copy to cook and bake from over the last month, but they also gave me an extra copy of Sunday Dinner at Grandma's to giveaway to one of my lucky readers.  Big Thanks to Gooseberry Patch!!!!!


So with no further ado, let's get down to business.

There are LOTS of ways to enter to win. You don't have to use them all, just do the ones you want. Just make sure you leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Follow 3 kids and lots of pigs through Google Friend Connect (GFC) (right sidebar)

2. Join our Facebook Community

3. Follow @proudporkmom on Twitter

4. Subscribe to us via email (right sidebar)

5. Subscribe to our feed (right sidebar)

6. Check out The Real Farmwives of America and Friends and follow through GFC 

7. "Like" The Real Farmwives of America and Friends on Facebook

8. Follow @realfarmwives on Twitter

9. "Like" Gooseberry Patch on Facebook

10. Comment on Gooseberry Patch's Blog or Facebook Page and tell them Heather from 3 kids and lots of pigs sent you.

11. Follow @gooseberrypatch on Twitter

12. Tweet about this contest and include @proudporkmom, @realfarmwives, and @gooseberrypatch in your tweet.

13.  Join the Gooseberry Patch Circle of Friends email club.  

14.  Share this giveaway on your Facebook page and tag 3 kids and lots of pigs, The Real Farmwives of America and Friends, and Gooseberry Patch in your post.  

Contest ends 9PM EDT on June 26th and the winner will be selected at random. The winner must live in the continental U.S.  

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .

Pecan Coffee Cake: Recipe #10 from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

Well I've made all 10 recipes from my Gooseberry Patch cookbook, Sunday Dinner at Grandma's, as part of Gooseberry Patch and The Real Farmwives of America and Friends "In the Kitchen" series.  About a month ago, I started cooking from this cookbook and I'm almost kind of sad that I'm ready to tell you about #10, but don't worry I still have a long list of recipes from this cookbook that I want to try and I'm sure I will share a few of them.

Plus, Little Sissy has just got started helping me in the kitchen.  At age 2, she is already showing she won't be outdone by Big Sissy and Bubby.

Pecan Coffee Cake

Ingredients for coffee cake
1 1/2 cup butter, softened and divided
1c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1t. vanilla extract
3c. all-purpose flour
1T. baking powder
1/2t. salt
1c. milk

Ingredients for Pecan Filling
1 1/2c. brown sugar, packed
2t. cinnamon
1c. broken pecans (I used pecan chips)

Blend one cup butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Stir in eggs and vanilla; set aside.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.

Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture; stir well.

Pour half of batter into a lightly greased and floured 9x13 baking pan.

Mix together Pecan Filling.

Sprinkle half of Pecan Filling over batter.  Top with remaining batter, then remaining filling.

Melt remaining butter.

Drizzle over top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

This was delicious served warm, but Bubby is loving is as a bedtime snack as well.

Now that I've made my 10 recipes,be sure to stay tuned as I will soon be giving away a copy of this amazing cookbook to one of my lucky readers thanks to Gooseberry Patch!

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .