smells like roast beef

as i type the house smells like roast beef. it smells like roast because yesterday as i was getting fish out of my freezer to make for dinner {yes, fish! eaten 6x since jan 1.},  i discovered a roast and a ham that my sister," toni bologna full of macaroni," brought us in january. discovering food you didn't know you had in march when gas prices are astronomical is AWESOME.
{thank you, t.b.f.o.m}.

while i am typing, my husband and daughter are hanging this chandelier.

as a gift for my birthday i asked my creative m.i.l., cindy {who the kids use to call "cinderella," because we told them that was her real name}, if she would make me a chandelier for our new entryway.

i didn't give her any suggestions. cindy is very creative and really good at making things.  she made my husband.  'nuf said.

i like the simplicity of the chandy with the burlap shades.  thank you cindy!

 

sometimes i am good at making things too.  i  made her.  

emilie is wearing an apron because before she and michael were hanging my new chandelier they were making foccacia bread to eat with our roast for dinner.

{good thing i walked 4 hilly miles earlier}.  

as you can see, while michael and emilie hung my chandelier, i was being annoying helpful by taking  photos of them.

i snapped this shot immediately after fulfilling my one job of turning on the light.

upon seeing michael's expression on my canon power-shot screen i announced, "i am going to blog that picture!"
to which michael responded,  "no you're not."

as i post the photo, unaware michael, is done hanging my new fancy chandy and is immersed in a game of wii with noah. 

noah had his mop hair cut this week.
against his will.

thankfully, after his locks were abducted a few girls swooned over him and his new do {the girls may or may not be limited to his mother and sisters}.

 

16 weeks of puking, and i made him too.

i made her last.  

josie is pictured with my "grandaughter, elise denise." someday she will make me real grandchildren. hopefully she does not name them "elise denise." 

although i am not as inventive as my m.i.l.,  last week i attempted a bit of creativity and whipped up this pillow.  it took 30 minutes and no puking to make {unlike another pillow which claimed to take 30 minutes, but consumed an entire day}.

 it was so easy to make that another 30 minutes later i had an identical pillow for the other couch.

the striped couches like the pop of red color.

my walls on the other hand are undecided on the pops of color that they would like to have permanently reside on them.

none of these colors is a contender.  they were slathered on two weeks ago and will likely remain here, driving o.c.d.-me crazy, until gas prices go down.

gas prices have made paint purchasing impossible.

gas prices have also made pot-roast purchasing impossible,
which is why i am really thankful for the roast my sister gave us months ago.

which happens to be ready now. 

as well as the homemade foccacia bread. 

while i inhale dinner i'm going to think about how very good my life is, despite unpainted walls and sky rocketing gas prices.  i'm going to think about free roasts, a gifted chandy, a handsome man, and 3 amazing children, which God generously provided for me long before i asked. 

what has God recently provided you with before your asking?

bringing out the big gun!

i'm linking up today with jessica for some pintertest kitchen.

last week the kids and i had the week off from school. yeah!!!  for winter break. we actually had to go away to get any resemblance of winter {more on that in the next post}, as the temps here were in the high 60's to mid 70's. warm weather makes me happy so i'm not complaining.

okay enough rambling, now on to the pinter-testing.

because we had the week off i'd hoped to get my craft on and attempt a few things i've had pinned over at pinterest.

the first  AND ONLY thing i attempted was this pillow. 

the instructions said it would take 30 minutes.  it did take 30 minutes... plus another 330 minutes (6 hrs total). either i am craft-challenged or the gal who created this pillow is a crafting-prodigy.  i think it is a combination of the two.

when i finally got to the center {at minute 240!} i was having a difficult time sewing the petals on because of the already-stitched in petals were thick. my sewing machine-which is already out to get me- was causing me grief.  so i did what any wise crafter would do- i kicked the Singer to the curve and got out the only crafting resource that can be trusted...

my glue gun.  i'm not ashamed.  think of how many more hours of my life would have been dominated had i not pulled out my heavy artillery!?

2 sticks of glue and 20 minutes later i had this  

here it is complete and in a happy place on my couch, where it looks awful because 'what was i thinking using yellow & white ticking on striped couches!?!'

whatever.  i'm sure it will find a home somewhere around here, and who knows maybe i'll get my trusty glue gun out and whip up another one... over easter break.

here's a quick overview of a few other pinteresting things that have been whipped-up sans the glue gun-this past month.

rainbow cake-jars  for josie's 10th birthday celebration. 

eeeaassy. 

{take my word for it, if i say it's "easy"  it is!} 

for valentine's day~
peanut butter cookies with chocolate hearts

so simple a 10 yr old in a homemade tutu can make them with minimal supervision.

and last but definitely not least,
{because i love me some vegetables
as much as i love chocolate. no joke}.
portobello mushroom pizza.

 i cheated a bit and used mozzarella cheese instead of parmigiano.

oh! this was tasty.

if you are a veggie addict too, another delish dish i made from pinterest was

the zucchini & sweet potato frittata.

yuuu...umm!

are you on pinterest?
find me at

http://pinterest.com/denisevictoryrd


what pinteresty things are you planning on tackling in the near future?

sometimes i do stuff...

like cook, 

and craft, 

and pay attention to my children.

one time this week i managed to do all three at the same time.

lucky for you i lived to blog about it.

while i was crafting and not ignoring my kids i made soup. 

pasta figiole.

ingredients: ground turkey, chopped carrots, garlic, 1 can kidney beans,
 1 can white beans, 1cn diced tomatoes, 2 boxes veggie broth, ditalini noodles,
oregano, garlic salt, pepper (seasonings to taste). 

first, brown ground turkey in pot. next, add garlic (to taste), broth, carrots, tomatoes, beans (drained & rinsed), seasonings. then, heat on medium for 30 min. finally, add in 1/2 box of ditalini noodles, and continue to cook for 20 minutes.

serve. 

mmm, soup!

while the soup was simmering

the girls and i made this crafty valentiney banner thingy.

what you need to make a snazzy banner like mine:

7 sheets of scrapbook paper, heart-shaped cookie cutters for templates, scissors, glue-stick, sewing machine, and computer/printer.
we chose the words "Be Mine & XO" (freehand 521bt was our font choice). 

we cut out the hearts and words, 

laid out our banner pieces and selected the layout,

then stitched it together on the ol' sewing machine. 

too easy.

after finishing the banner we had enough left-over paper to whip up a 

little love for the entry way window/mirror.

AND then emilie had a brilliant idea for the scraps...
a little valentine's day love for her doll house! 

after helping emilie add her valentine's day banners to her doll house i snapped a few pix of what was happening around her dollhouse.

notice that dollhouse-dad is in the kitchen cooking, while dollhouse-mom is watching t.v..
yeah, my kid knows me well.
notice dollhouse-emilie playing with her dollhouse as dollhouse-josie looks on.
i can tell you what is going to happen...
as soon as dollhouse-emilie steps away, dollhouse-josie is going to do some rearranging.
dollhouse arguing will erupt, and dollhouse-me will have to get up from
my gilmore girls rerun and go referee the girls' dollhouse argument.
ah, life in dollhouse-ville.

have you done any valentine's day decorating?
what's your favorite winter soup?


 

we're coming to america {part 3}

50th anniversary party!

the decorations

hydrangeas are the flower of the azores islands.

our island, flores {flowers in english} is breathtakingly covered in hydrangeas.

red, white & blue to honor america.

each table's centerpiece shared memories from my family's journey as well as historical facts from 1961.

{btw- we discovered at the party that it was not corn husks that were used in place of t.p., it was the corn cob! ewww}

photos from the 50 years in america were printed in sepia, and hung on twine by clothespins, to create  banners throughout the house.

what a blessing to see our family that began as 8 now be a whopping 53!

more stories were shared as we poured over the family photo albums together.

the food.

with the portuguese it is ALL about the food.

feeding someone well, and their enjoyment of their meal, is an expression of love.

when speaking of my grandmother i often say, "the way to HER heart is through YOUR stomach."

this was the first time the second generation got to feed {love} the first generation. 

i think we fed {loved} them well!

f.y.i. the "portuguese dip" sandwich could easily be mistaken for the french dip sandwich.

the familia {family}.

thank you God for these 50 years!
may You be glorified in the next 50.

do you come from a large family or a small family?

are there any traditions your family has 

when you gather together?

{thank you mel, from the larson lingo, for inspiring the r,w&b  decorations}.

hit the ground running

why i've been m.i.a. since returning from maui:

the warning light for our brakes greeted us when we arrived in cali. 

$217.00 later the brakes are fixed!

{thankfully this was relatively cheap}.

while we were in maui we signed and overnighted papers to close escrow on our house

{more news on that later, but what a blessing!}

when we arrived home the papers needed to be redrawn and resigned.

it's official we're no longer home owners!

the kids came home from 12 days at camp,

bringing with them 12 days x 3 kids of laundry. 

even mable {emilie's cow}

had to take a trip though the whirlpool. 

needless to say, the kids have had so much to tell me about their adventures at camp;

josie wore here pink tutu every day, 

noah climbed the high-ropes-course, 

and emilie hiked half-dome {20 mile round trip}! 

i've been a bit consumed by them... and that's a good thing. 

 finally, i was wrapping up the details for

a 50th "we're coming to america" anniversary party.

a party thrown by my cousins and i for  

our grandmother and 5 aunts.

it took place this past sunday.

it's been 50 years since they

{along with my dad and grandfather}

arrived from flores, azores.

the party was THE BEST!

{more on that later, too}

 this week it's more back-to-life-back-to-reality

with work to do for my little job, 

curriculum to plan and order for the new home-school year,
and boxes to pack, 

oh, and just the small detail of finding a home {ahhhh!!!}

oh, how i miss vacation.

view directly outside our room in kahana, maui.  

{lots more on maui still to come}.

what's is your plate full with this week?