Our Big Passover Dinner

Well, I can hardly believe it, but it's already been two days since our Passover Sedar! It was a lot of work, but it all payed off when we sat down to a beautifully set table and immaculately clean house. :) Of course after all the talking I've been doing about it I've got to share pictures! I credit these to Mother Dear and Active Boy...

There were a good amount of children at the Sedar this year, eleven in all. Of course, we were six of them, but it was nice to have some other little ones there too.

Here is a friend and I who got to sing Kadosh together at dinner. It was a hit. :)

Some more Kodak moments...

At the end we had dishes up to our eyeballs! Every counter in the kitchen was full. Still though, we're enjoying our leftovers. :)

If you'd like to hear more about our Sedar, you can see what Mom had to say about it here and here.

Enjoy your weekend!

A Young Maiden's Daybook... a Little Late!

Today… April 6, 2009. Today we are cleaning the kitchen for Passover and getting ready for the sedar we're having tomorrow.

Outside my window… It's sunny and in the 60's, Praise the Lord! Perfect for sending children outside while we "olders" clean. :)

I am thinking… That I'm sorry this is late! Yesterday was just way too packed to blog. :) But lots of other laides have done it! Go here to see and do it yourself.

I am thankful for… My mom, who keeps this house in order and is so organized!

I am wearing… A dark jean knee-length skirt with a light cotton white paisley designed shirt and pink tank underneath. :)

I am reading… All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor. Very cute! About a family of girls.

I am creating… at the moment, nothing. I really should get some headway done on that quilt, though!

One of my favorite things… A picnic.

For education this week… Nothing!! We've been taking school off the past couple of weeks and will start back up next week after all the Passover hubabaloo is over. :)

A keeper at home skill I am using/learning… Spring cleaning.

A spiritual lesson I'm learning... Submission.

A godly character trait I plan to work on… Hospitality.

Scripture I am memorizing… None at the moment, although I really need to get back on that.

For the rest of the week… Cleaning today, practicing a song tonight with a friend she and I are singing at the sedar, sedar preparations tomorrow, the thirty person sedar tomorrow night and from then till next Thursday night - no leaven!

A picture I’d like to share... Baby MIT and I. Lately she's been really cuddly towards me... especially when she's gotten an owie. :)

Quotes From REAL Ladies

"I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Woman's Rights', with all it's attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were women to 'unsex' themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings, and would surely perish without male protection." -England's Queen Victoria 1870

"Why do women want to dress like men when they're fortunate enough to be women? Why loose femininity, which is one of our greatest charms? We get more accomplished by being charming than we would be flaunting around in pants and smoking. I'm very fond of men. I think they are wonderful creatures. I love them dearly. But I don't want to look like one. When women gave up their long skirts, they made a grave error..." -Tasha Tudor

"Home ought to be our clearing house, the place from which we go forth lessoned and disciplined, and ready for life. " -Kathleen Noris

"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort." -Jane Austen

A Shabbat Outing

Here at our house the day is sunny and warm. Of course we had to take advantage of the nice weather, so we packed up some meat loaf sandwiches and headed off to the park.

Looking at the ducks... there were lots today!

Best friends!

Playing...

Eating...

Last year in April we came to the same park and took this picture:

Here we are now!

Mom and Dad got their picture taken too. To see them, look to the right on my sidebar.

Well, the littles are getting up from their naps, so I'd better go. Shabbat Shalom!

The Screwtape Letters

Right now I am finishing up this wonderful book by C.S. Lewis. It's about a "wise" demon, Screwtape, instructing his nephew Wormwood in tempting and deceiving Wormwood's "patient", a young man, and ultimately keeping him out of the clutches of "The Enemy" (God). It has been so eye-opening to me! The book has definitely helped me think of temptations and That Little Voice in the Back of Your Head in an easier-to-understand way.

Of course, The Screwtape Letters is a human's idea of what it might look like in the Satanic world, so you certainly can't "believe" what you're reading is how it all actually works. But it is definitely a great, imaginative idea of how it might be! For instance, here's Screwtape explaining to Wormwood a way to misguide his young man:

"Another possibility is that of direct attack on his faith. When you have caused him to assume the that trough is permanent, can you not persuade him that 'his religious phase' is just going to die away like all his previous phases? Of course there is no conceivable way of getting by reason, you must rely on. The mere work phase will very likely do the trick. I assume that the creature has been through several of them before - they all have - and that he always feels superior and patronising to the ones he has emerged from, not because he has really criticised them bus simply because they are in the past. (You keep him well fed on hazy ideas of Progress and Development and the Historical Point of View, I trust, and give him lots of modern Biographies to read? The people in them are always emerging from Phases, aren't they?)"

So you see, while this book is all fiction, it can surely be used to the Christian's advantage point by unveiling very real lies of the devil and encouraging in resisting temptation, big or small, in whatever form. A wonderful read!

Delicious and Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Thanks for coming back! Today we're going to use up the rest of that pie crust mix and make some chicken pot pies, just like Mother used to make, only this time it's Sissi. :)

1 16 oz. package frozen peas and carrots

3/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground sage, rounded

1/4 tsp. tarragon

1/8 tsp. pepper, rounded

2 cups water

3/4 cups milk

2 Tbsp. instant chicken bouillon granules

4 cups cooked, cubed chicken

1/4 cup snipped parsley, rounded

Pastry for 2 Double Crust pies

Cook peas and carrots according to package; drain. While you're waiting for them to cook, combine the flour, salt and spices in a small bowl. In another combine water, milk and chicken bouillon granules. When the veggies are done, combine them with the chicken and parsley in a large bowl (all this makes the cooking process easier so that you don't have to yell for someone to stir the flour and onions while you're looking for the sage :).

In a large sauce pan cook onion in butter until tender but not brown. Stir in flour and spice mixture. Add the liquid mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes more. Stir in chicken and veggie mixture. Heat till bubbly.

Dish out into two pastry lined pie plates. Cover with top crust. I didn't have enough mix to do the second top crust, so I covered it with three cups herb-seasoned stuffing mixed with 5 Tbsp. melted butter (just for the record, I didn't bake that! Someone else put it in for lunch :). Flute edges and cut slits in top for escape of steam.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Slice and serve!

Care For A Slice of Pie?

A couple weeks ago we received two free boxes of apples. Even though Active Boy seems to constantly have one in his hand and we've been trying to use them in every snack, they just haven't disappeared yet, much to our dismay since they are going to go bad pretty quick here. Thankfully, I love to make pies, so I whipped up a couple yesterday. They are delish! A bonus? I got to use up most of the pie crust mix that's been sitting in our leaven box waiting to be used up! I've never used one before, and it made the pie process much easier, I must say. :)


Here's my new favorite apple pie recipe, straight from our old, falling apart Better Homes and Gardens cook book with a few variations:

12 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (2 pounds) soaked in watered down lemon juice

2 cups sugar

4 Tbsp. flour

Approximately 1 1/2 tsp. Apple Pie Spice (or 1 tsp. cinnamon and a dash or two of nutmeg)

Pastry for two Double Crust pies

2 Tbsp. butter

Combine sugar, flour and spices. Add sugar mixture to the sliced apples; toss to coat fruit. Fill two pastry-lined 9 inch pie plates with apple mixture; dot with butter. Put on top crust. Seal and flute edge. Brush a light coating of water on crust and sprinkle with sugar to make a nice looking top. Cover edges of the pies with foil. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil; bake for another 15 minutes or more or until crust is golden. Enjoy!

*Come back tomorrow for another pie recipe - this time to be used for dinner!*