Easter in our part of the world

Even though Easter falls into our Fall season, we can still enjoy new flowers blooming. These are the first flowers from some bulbs I got from a friend. Everyone who knows me, also knows that I do not have a green thumb, so I really don't even know the name of these beauties:)

The girls are home for almost a week for Easter holidays, so we enjoyed some good Terere-times.
Tip: how you know you have a teenager in the house?
You have to look for your manicure supplies and your daughter's nails look more awesome than your own:)

I did some traditional baking before the holidays. I started with Easter Paska. It's a sweet bread loaf that just tastes like something my Mennonite Oma would make:) Find the recipe here.

 I also tried out Taste of Home's Orange Easter Bunny rolls. They turned out delish!

Sunday morning I hid some goodies and the girls and Marv had to look for them! (I hate looking for stuff, keys, lost library books, eggs, etc) So I'm glad that I'm the official hider, and my husband has to look for the baskets with the girls:)

I'm really not showing off with a quilt in the background, but Cindy's basket really was in the old washing machine on the porch and my quilt was hanging there to dry:)'

They all found their baskets and posed for the camera:)

We had a nice family gathering at my parents house in the afternoon.

Even though my family ganged up on me and tried to tell the grossest stories they knew so that I would gag, etc. But that's what families are for, right?

I hope you all had a great holiday and God bless you and your families!

Love, Brenda (a.k.a. theChacogirl)

Keeping busy

I'm trying to get back in the groove or blogging reguarly, but it's not easy. We're keeping busy with harvest and are very grateful for that.

I made my very first batch of relish last week. You can't buy it anywhere in Paraguay and I remembered it tasting very good from when I was a child in Canada:)

This picture looks kind of wierd:) This is actually a big bowl and not a pail. I grated the cucumbers and the onions (I borrowed Cindy's swim goggles for the onions) and cut up red and green peppers and cut up some frozen cauliflower. Then I cooked it with spices and stuff and canned it.

The jars on the right hand side are full of relish, the others are pickles. I got the recipe for the relish at Mennonite Girls can cook. I left out the mustard seeds and the curry powder as I don't like the taste of that. And I borrowed the Turmeric Powder from my Mom (you cna't get it here).

Here's another new recipe I tried. Everything Bread from Taste of Home. Brianna said it tasted better than cake.
With this recipe I omitted the onion powder. I wanted to be able to put jam on my sandwich!:)
I agree!

I'm sewing new curtains for our old house. We built the house we are in now about 7 years ago, and kept the old homestead house to use as a guesthouse. My husband's cousin is coming from Germany during Easter, so I'm deep-cleaning it and making new curtains and sheets for it.

Before:

I won't say "After" because I need to do some more to the room. So this is the "During" photo.

I also sewed a new cover for our blanket. I didn't really want to go with these colors, but I loved the mix of flowers and stripes. And Marv likes it too:)

So, keep checking out my blog for new updates on the B's B&B (Brenda's Bed and Breakfast) and I'll be showing some things I've been crafting and sewing soon.

Have a great weekend! Hugs, Brenda

 

Excuses not to blog

Hello all of my dear friends and family, or who ever is reading this blog. I would like to list some excuses reasons I have, why I haven't been blogging very regularly lately.

1. I had to go out for supper with Cindy and her friends for her birthday. The Hotel Florida serves the best pizzas, btw.

 2. I have to take cool pictures of my crazy cat.  Why would he want to sleep in a bowl? I don't know:)

 3. I have to watch things grow. We have been blessed this summer's end with good rainfall, and everything is growing at once.

 3 1/2. I have to watch these beautiful cucumbers grow as well.

4. I have 2 new bunnies to take care of. In the picture you can see the new female rabbit on this side of the pen. Skip-bo is looking over the middle part to see what's happening.

5. I have to help Brianna with her homework. She has a lot of trouble with her math, so that takes a good chunk of my afternoons. She's forth grade now.

  6. I have to can the cucumbers too. We're harvesting about 3 kg every second day.

7. I was sewing some things for a friend of mine. I didn't take any pictures of the clothes I made, because I didn't know how she thought of me posting it. There were two dark blue satin dresses for her little girls, one white/gray lacey top and a dark blue skirt with lace inserts for her. Her sister is getting married next week, and I think they will all look very spiffy, if I may say so myself. I'm just getting used to sewing that much again, and it has caused me some neck and back pain already. But I love sewing anyway!!!

So, there are some of the things going on in my life right now. What I want to do in the next few weeks is, get our guesthouse ready for my husband's cousin. He's coming here for Easter from Germany and always stays at our house. I'd like to sew new curtains for a few rooms, new sheets and maybe a simple quilt. Lets see how far I get.

Thanks for being patient with me, glad you could drop in and see me. If you need me, I'll be in my sewing room...

or chasing my cat with the camera:)

February photos

Hello my friends! I'm finally finding some time to share some pictures and info from me and my family.

These are just some random images from this month. Hope you enjoy them!

Brianna loves playing with our German Shepherd, but because he is aggresive towards strangers, we keep him on the chain during the day. This was taken in the morning, before Chester was tied up for the day.

Marv thinks we need more pets, so he found this dove (chick, baby?) and brought it home. In the beginning Cindy was its prime caretaker, feeding her 4 times a day and cleaning out her box. But now Cindy is in the dorm and Brianna in school, so guess who gets to feed this ugly duckling? And enjoying it:)

This is my wonderful, beautiful, hardworking, Pfaff in action. I sewed sheets and pillowcases for the girls to use in the dorm. At least no one will have the same ones:)

I can't wait to embellish a baby blanket or something with these cute turtles!

My nephews came over to play. They are NOT  playing with dolls, but playing with TOYS.:)

Nicole and Brianna however are playing with Barbies. Brianna has half of the living room for a barbie city!

My cats taking a siesta together. Finally they started to accept the other one, and only fight when one gets his food before the other.

This is the baby dove, a few days later. The girls named her Peepsi. Her feathers are starting to grow out here.

Sunday school graduation last sunday. Our village and a neighboring village preformed a skit and a song. So funny: the youngest Sundayschool student was singing with half closed eyes and dancing to the music:) Amy was accompaning the group on the guitar, and Cindy and Brianna were also singing.

Brianna on her second day of school. (We did take pictures on the first day, but you could see the stress shining through, so I decided to take some on the next day)

This is how big Peepsi is this morning, I have my second cup of coffee while feeding her and watching the news on TV, which I never do otherwise!

Thanks for dropping in to see my blog. I need to prepare some stuff for supper now, my parents are coming for a simple bbq:)

Take care and come again!

My Christmas present!

My present finally arrived!

It's a Pfaff expression 2.0. (sewing machine, for all of you still wondering what that is:)

Thanks, Mom and Dad, and Uncle Herb for buying and sending it from Canada!!!

Can't wait for Monday:)