Doug is in the house...

Dad and Mom Dutcher...

Family in town! Doug, Chad's dad is in town for a job interview or two. It is so much fun having family over. I miss being close to them. God-willing they will move up here, first step find a job, then who knows what doors God will open.  Fortunately, summer is almost here and so we can vacation to california and hopefully host them up here in WA as well. With Doug in town we are going to go to the Seattle Mariners game tonight so that should be fun, but the sun we have had for the past few days has somehow already left us. boo... We will have to pray for a break in the clouds.

Pot Roast was on the menu, I guess today we will be eating ball park food... YUM.

Pictures to come and more updates tomorrow.

Blessings,

Janelle

Reflections on Past Week

This past week has been non-stop! It has been very fun though. I had more hours at work this week than usual. (which is great, answer to prayer) My week has flow by. It went from mentorship meetings, bible studies, youth groups, homework, class, work, got a new bike, yard work, messy house, messy dog, and now family in town. That was a mouth full! here is a photo or two to recap my week:

Seedlings week 4

Brother relaxing with us for the weekend

grocery shopping chad found some new toys, as you can see bentley was anxious to eat it...

Which he did about an hour later... some toys haha...

Proud of his stuffing...

I had a little time to bake... yummy Fisher Fair scones... one turned out like a heart.

They taste amazing a little warm with some of Grammy's strawberry jam

mmm... these saddly did not last long.

A glimpse of the amasing weather we have had lately... saddly it is very wet today...

What a great week it has been.



To cook or not to cook?

I had the urge to cook today. (Maybe it is because I had time since I got out of class early today and we just went shopping yesterday for groceries?)
I debated on what to do with my extra time and it came down to nap or cook. Otherwise expressed, To cook, or not to cook! haha but I'll leave out the drama.
I bought some ricotta cheese yesterday so there was one particular food on the brain, ZITI!

To my surprise, I did not have to debate long what to do with my time.
It was a perfect rainy day to cook!
So I got ambitious and made some baked Ziti. I was intimidated by the stuffing part of the process but it was really simple. 

I enjoyed making ziti and chad was glad I did too!

It has only a few simple ingredients which include; Ziti Pasta, Mozzarella Cheese, Ricotta Cheese, Parmesan Cheese, Parsley, and Your Favorite Sauce. 

SOOO Delicious!

This is how it turned out:

While I waited for the Ziti to bake I put dinner in the crock pot. 

I bought a turkey roast yesterday and couldn't wait to eat it.

mmm... All I added was a little broth, carrots, broccoli, celery, onion, and red potato as well as herbs and spices. This smells delicious and I know it will taste great with a side of couscous. 

I can't wait for dinner... although I am still full from those rich Ziti!

  

This is a picture of My dinner in the crock pot! MMM... 5 hours on Low will make a perfectly juicy turkey and vegetable roast. 

Hope your day is as delicious as mine!

If you want any recipes for anything I post just leave me a comment.

Haven't gotten the urge to bake yet, but look out for pictures from that event too! Ha

Thanks for reading, hope it was inspiring.

Blessings.

Written by Janelle

Seedlings 3 weeks

Three Weeks ago these little plants were seeds! It is so much fun using the greenhouse for the beginning stages of our garden. This weekend we hope to get these in the ground and into our garden. 

I will keep you posted on our organic garden! Can't wait to not have to buy as much from the store... 

Hello baby plants, I cant wait to eat you!

Strawberry Popsicles... yum

 What to do with those strawberries after they have gone mushy, but not rotten? 

This is your answer... It is soooo easy!  

Today at work I made some delicious strawberry pops for the kids!

 These are some amazing fruit pops that you would spend 5 dollars on at the store and it was sooo easy and is 150% better than the sugar pops you can get at the store... give it a try, it is worth the time! 

These are 100% fresh, tasty, NO sugar aka:Healthy and oh so easy. 

It only took me 5 mins! 

 

Directions:

Just take off the stems, wash your berries, add 1 tbs.water per 5 or 6 strawberries and blend, pour your puree into ice cube trays or Popsicle trays.

Add sticks for holding, and freeze.

planting and baking!

Today after class Chad and I went to Lowes and we picked out a few bushes for the porch accents and these beautiful lavender and fiesta impatiens. I love spring flowers! Don't they look great... so much fun!

Since that only took a few minutes and it is raining, I came inside to bake! My dad gave me a really cool recipe that he found on: 

http://www.aimeesadventures.com/RecipeFiles/BakedGoods2/AimeesBreakfastCrunchCookies.html

and I switched the recipe a bit to make it all organic and used real free range organic eggs, and raisins! mmm... they turned out so delicious! and they are going to be great breakfast bars for the mornings. Chad really liked it and took it for his snack before lunch this afternoon. :) 

So far there have been three eaten and hopefully these will last till Thursday... I will have to keep you posted on wether that happens... This is a really great healthy recipe that will keep you full longer and has lots of protein, fiber, whole wheat and a great snack or meal with a bowl of fruit or a fresh cup of juice! If you want to have the recipe it takes all of 20 mins to make including prep and cooking! let me know if you try it and if you like it! Great breakfast bars!

About 'Us' The Dutcher Family

Chad and I are sinners saved by the grace and sovereignty of God. Romans 9:15-18 We are in awe of the Lord and his plan for our life everyday. We are blessed and we are devoted to living a life pleasing to God. We enjoy being apart of the church body and to love on our community, friends, and family. 

We hope this blog gives you a glimpse of our love that we know because of our love we have found in the Lord. Jesus is Lord.

I am looking forward to blogging about my beautiful life. The Lord has blessed me and my family. Our family is still small and consists of my husband, Chad and I and our adorable a dog-baby, Bentley. He is spoiled rotten and we love him! 

Chad and I recently became homeowners and we are having fun nesting. 

We are working on landscaping and adding some character to our home with decorations and paint. 

The fun part for us is working on our garden and making this house a home! 

We are new residents in Orting, WA and we love our area!

(Our home has room for growth! Can't wait till the Lord blesses us with more 

family members whenever that day may be, we are excited.)

Exploring this new town is fun and worth documentation. We have gorgeous views, endless fun with the river around the block, hiking and bike trails, lots of parks and camping right up the road and plenty of organic local grown meat, fruit, and veggies! So much fun!
Chad and I are passionate about eating right and taking care of our bodies, it is a temple after all (1 Corinthians 6:20),  and we are working on bettering our heath in many ways.

I hope to capture our days with photos and journaling.
I pray that this is a place to see God's glory and that this blesses all who visits our blog.
Blessings.