It's the Simple Things - Minestrone Soup

Aren't they beautiful! Well, maybe they aren't the biggest and best you've ever seen, but they are the first carrots to come out of our garden! YUMMY. They taste delish!

So I washed them up and had them drying on the counter, but before they could be put away in the refrigerator I decided to make them into our dinner! Minestrone Soup. Even in the summer this soup is yummy. It's a water based soup, so it's not heavy, and I don't add meat, so it is full of veggies and a little pasta! The best part of this soup is most of the ingredients are on my cupboard shelf!

In a large pot start with 1 - 28 oz can of tomato puree (I use 2 smaller cans of whole or diced tomatoes whirled in the blender real quick!)
1 quart of water
2 large carrots (sliced)
2 - 8 oz cans of tomato sauce
2 cups beef broth (I pour the tomato sauce in the pot, add bouillon cubes and then use the cans to add two cans of water, rinsing the rest of the tomato sauce into the pot of soup! No waste!)

Add the spices: 1 T. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. ground basil
1 tsp. oregano leaves
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic salt

You could use fresh, ground or leaves if you don't have what the recipe calls for. I substitute all the time!
While that simmers over low heat for 20 minutes I like to open and drain the liquid off:
1 - 15 oz. can garbanzo beans
1 - 15 oz can green beans
1 - 15 oz can kidney beans
Add these drained to the pot and stir in.

Bring the soup to a boil and cook 15 - 20 minutes.

In a separate pot bring to boil some water and add 2 cups of pasta (whatever YOU like!) Cook pasta until almost done - NOT soggy. Drain and add to soup.It's ready to serve! We like to add parmesan cheese and serve with garlic toast! ENJOY!

Easter Blessings

What a beautiful Easter we had!

We did our Easter Baskets on Saturday like usual. We watched General Conference this year, both on Saturday and Sunday.The weather was absolutely B E A U T I F U L !

Then we ended the day at my brothers house with a yummy dinner and Easter egg hunt!


It was a wonderful spirit filled, family filled, fun filled day!

He IS risen! He Lives!

Conference Sunday

OK - raise your hand if you LOVED General Conference this weekend!!! I know I did. It was wonderful. I LOVED the first session. I loved Sister Beck's talk, President Uchtdorf and pretty much everyone's. There were talks in each session that stood out as wonderful.

I felt those gentle nudges of the spirit reminding me of things that I need to work on. I was reminded of the love of my Savior and kind Heavenly Father. I feel Hope, Peace and Courage to face six more months of earth life!
My cup is full and running over.

This time I prepared all week for Saturday and Sunday. I cleaned my room BEFORE conference. We cleaned our house BEFORE conference. I was able to really enjoy and listen to conference each session - doing mini tasks, but really listening.
I feel good. I can't wait until the Ensign comes so I can read and take it all in again!

As per Daughter's request: our traditional Conference feast! YUM!

Computers - friend or foe?

I've been horrible about blogging. This whole computer crash thing has ROCKED my world. I've never spent so much time trying to fix something I know nothing about. And every time I think I've got something figured out something else doesn't work. Apparently, nothing I used to use on my old computer is compatible with our new computer. ARGHHH!

Yesterday the CD player broke. Yes, that is the only thing we hadn't replaced. All I see is $$$ when I look at this computer!

The good news though, is it looks like most of my pictures were recovered. The bad news is Quicken was not and my data base that I kept for Coupon Sense is not compatible on this computer, so I don't know if it was recovered or not.

I am grateful to have my pictures. Now I can learn how to get them organized and keep them that way.

My advise to anyone who owns a computer is to back everything up... off site. Carbonite here we come. I will never feel this helpless again. I will never lose EVERYTHING and wonder if I can recover it again.

If you don't think it will happen you are wrong. It will! It's just a matter of time.

Spring Break 2010

Spring Break STARTED off great! I had high hopes for all the things that I wanted to do/get done. Why does it always seem like there is so much more to do than time! *giggle!*

I did love Spring Break though. I took the week off from work. We gardened, shopped for Easter dresses, shopped for Easter dresses and did I mention we shopped for Easter dresses. After our third attempt we decided we needed to visit a fabric store, 'cause apparently there weren't any Easter dresses for teen age girls to be found. The girls picked out a pattern for a skirt and then the search for fabric began... it was almost as stressful as finding a dress. When did my girls get SO picky?? Finally, the fabric was decided on and purchased. Thanks to my Moms help the skirts were almost finished Friday and completely finished on Saturday! YAY! They turned out so cute! The girls had so much fun sewing and are already planning the next skirt they want to make! Now we get to go get shoes and tops to go with the skirts! I expect that to go much quicker!

Between the shopping I worked on cleaning my house - many of the things that have been ignored since starting work and trying to get my computer up and running again. It's still a work in progress, but it is moving along! YAY!

I also did some Easter crafting and birthday presents. I made a darling Easter Eggs wall hanging for my bff Theresa 's birthday and I finished my 2nd Birthday banner. (shhh don't tell, but I have 5 more to make for my Moore SIL's!). I refurbished several decorations and I decorated my house for Easter. It looks like spring is here now!

We were suppose to go to the cabin, but that didn't happen due to the huge amount of snow falling on the power box and bending the pole and taking out the electricity! :( Oh, well.

The bad news is I didn't get my coupons organized, my laundry ironed or my bedroom cleaned. Looks like I'll have plenty to do this week!

All in all it was a fun week - not as relaxing as I had hoped. But definitely fun!

Spring Break is all about giving us a glimpse at what summer is going to be like! I think it going to be a fun summer!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Hillary

I'll have to post pictures tomorrow, but I wanted to wish Hillary a happy birthday! 25 years ago today our sweet Hillary was born. Seriously, has it really been 25 years? I CAN'T be that old!

It was one of the happiest moments of my life! She completed our family! We were so excited to have her and love her. I took her everywhere with me! I didn't understand why my friends needed to "get away" from their kids. (I did learn later however! LOL) Hillary was such a sweet baby, easy going child, obedient young woman and now Beautiful woman!

I am so grateful for a daughter who has set a positive example for her sisters, who has been such a help and friend to me. I love her so much.

Hillary, I hope you have a beautiful day. You deserve it. You work so hard in your life. You serve the Lord, your employer and your family in such a generous way. I hope you enjoy your day and get some rest!

We are going to have a fun party tonight so rest up! I love you! Happy Birthday sweetie!

Computers = Stress

Update: Computer stress NO MORE! Thanks to my BIL Bob! Everything is running smooth and quick. We still don't know what's been recovered from the old computer and I still haven't redone everything, but it's SO nice to have a healthy computer again! Now it's onward and upward!


Computers should be STRESSED spelled backwards! Our computer has given me nothing but gray hair the past two weeks.

I woke up Sunday, Feb 28th to NO COMPUTER. Yep, it crashed. burned. gone.

It took with it the hard drive, the motherboard and pretty much every thing else. We are still waiting to see if we lost the last 5 years of pictures. (which I THOUGHT were being saved on our external hard drive, but apparently NOT!)

Computers make me feel so helpless. I know just enough to turn it on and use it a little. But maintaining it and keeping it healthy is not my expertise! I feel like a failure some how. OK, I know that's a little dramatic, but it is so frustrating to NOT be able to do what I need to do.

We got our computer back on Wednesday. It really hasn't done me any good to have it back. I am pictureless, programless and now with windows 7 installed I don't know WHAT I am doing. (It took Heidi 20 minutes to find the print button in word... HELLO - did you have to change EVERYTHING Mr. Microsoft???)

I have spent the last 5 hours trying to get outlook to work. (Thank you Bob!) Only to run into problem after problem. It still isn't working. I'm sure SOME DAY it will be up and running. Hopefully, I will still be here. If not, maybe someone will bring my computer to the funny farm to visit!

Thanks for the vent!