The big day is almost here!

The big day is almost upon us! We will be moving this weekend, Lord willing.  Please say a prayer for us that all goes smoothly and quickly. I can’t wait to be in our little antique house.

October Happenings

   Where has time gone? We’ve been home from the lease over a week and things have been so busy I haven’t had time for much of anything, much less writing.

   Shipping golf clubs, finishing orders from my Etsy shop, getting local order dresses ready for fittings…..somewhere in the midst of all this I’ve got to start packing to move! I usually schedule wedding sewing months in advance and had no idea we’d be trying to move at the same time ;)

We had family and friends-that-are-like-family with us on this trip. The children in the photos are borrowed from my friend Kristin at In Mother Words.  We had such a good time—drinking coffee and cooking and eating peanut butter cups :)

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

My manly bowhunter. Mmmmm Mmmm Mmmm…

The first deer of the season. Way to go babe!

Ellie and Jacob catching a nap.

The fellas.

Me and Cici coloring in cabin.

The nice 8-point Jacob got on Saturday evening’s hunt. The most fun part was that I got to be with him when he shot it ;)

Venison and Veggie Soup

With the evenings beginning to turn cool, and especially with us being at the deerlease, my husband requested soups and chili for a few of the meals while we are here.

Everyone has their method or recipe for the “ultimate soup” and I thought I’d share mine with you. This recipe is very simple and fast, and is a husband pleaser. It is chocked full of fresh veggies—I used frozen, fresh, or what I have canned. It is a from scratch recipe and most of the ingredients I just throw in ‘til it looks and tastes right. There are a few ingredients that I know how much I use, but for the most part I’ll just give you the ingredients and you can tweak it to your own taste.

1 lb ground venison or lean ground beef

1/2 medium onion, cut into large pieces*

Salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste

Brown meat and onions in a large pot. Add salt , pepper, and garlic powder. Add 2-3 quarts of water (I really have no idea how much I put, I just pour until it looks right) 3 8oz cans of tomato sauce. Stir well, bring to a boil and add the following:

1/4 large head finely chopped cabbage

Carrots, sliced

Potatoes, sliced or cubed

Peas (my favorites to use are purple hull or black-eyed)

Butterbeans

Green beans

Whole kernel corn

Return to a medium boil and boil covered for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (You want the cabbage, carrots, potatoes and peas to be tender.) Reduce heat and let simmer til ready to serve. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. You may need to add more water to the broth, or continue to simmer until the broth has thickened some.

* I put it in large pieces because we love the flavor the onion gives, but we don’t like to eat the actually onions. After the soup is finished cooking I remove the onions. If you like to eat onions, chop them as small as you like ;)

Scenery

Here’s a  little glimpse into our trip this weekend. If time allows, I’ll post more soon ;)

Part of the creek that runs through our deerlease.

Enjoying aforementioned creek. The fellas promptly jumped in for a little swim. Yes, a swim in October, but that is Texas for you.

Heading out…

It is that time of year again. For those of you not married to deer hunters, it’s deer season. The time of year when you can go to Walmart and see people in full camo and it completely acceptable. My husband’s trigger finger has been so itchy, that I am glad we are headed to the deerlease this evening. He packed all of his stuff last night and is loaded for bear (which, hopefully we won’t see, since they are not native to where we are headed!).

I’ve spent the last several days trying to make sure all the laundry is caught up,  and  going over lists multiple times to make sure we don’t forget anything. I wanted to make sure to use up or throw out anything that would go bad while we are gone, hence the double batch of banana bread in the oven right now—it smells great! ;) We can’t go to the deerlease without junk food, so I am trying to combat it and compromise with not-as-bad-for-you-as-Little-Debbie  homemade junk food. Homemade cookies are next on the list to go in the oven this morning.

   My mom and sisters are coming over today before we leave and I’m so glad. It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve seen them and I’ve been missing them pretty bad. Mom said that Faith was crying for me yesterday. We might have to have one of the  banana bread loaves with our coffee ;)

I’ve been very busy and getting a lot accomplished, but I am disappointed that I ran out of time to get my camouflage culottes made.  They’ll be finished in time for the next hunting trip.

In the midst of all this ( and doing things for our new house) I have almost 20 golf clubs on Ebay right now. My husband and father-in-law stumbled upon an unbelievable deal and bought them to re-sell. Since I’m the one with Ebay experience, I’m the one who got to handle all of it. Which is fine, but I know absolutely nothing about  golf, or golf clubs, so I have to wait for Jacob to get home to answer potential buyer’s questions. I know the difference between a driver, fairway wood and sand wedge now ;).  Thankfully we will have internet at the deerlease so I will be able to keep up with what sells, etc.

As soon as we get back, it will be time to start packing to move! We should close on our house by the end of next week. I am so excited I can barely contain myself.

I’d better close here, there are still mountains of things to do to be ready leave. I promise to share pictures of our trip next week ;)