Back in School

I am on my break during the second day of school. I’m doing the WSU RN-BSN program… wow that’s a lot of letters. Washington State University Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing. It is a program that you can do in stages or in one year. My plan is to bust it out in one year so that I can be done or maybe (probably) continue on to my Masters and Nurse-Midwife Certification.

This program is a really good fit for me because as I work full time as a night shift OB/GYN nurse I can attend classes as I am able or watch archived/live classes as that fits in my schedule. What I hope this means for me, is a steady paycheck coming in and the ability to attend classes without sacrificing TONS of sleep hours.

My goal is to finish this year of school and with the help of really fantastic financial aid plus good paycheck coming in, be able to pay off my student loans and not have to take out any more. Wish me luck.

So for those of you who may start to wonder if I’ve died… nope. I’m either sleeping, working, doing school, or lost in the piles of laundry. (Ali will you please come clean my house again??)

It looks like it will be a lot of work, but not so much that I can’t handle it. Especially with so much support behind me.

Any way, this is my school update… I’ll post again on my kitchen updates soon! :]

Blackberry Season

One of my favorite times of the year is almost over and gone. The blackberries have been amazing this year! It was a very early start to the season and it’s going to be a very early end. My sister has been coming over on Sunday’s to help pick them. We pick until our hands are purple, they sting from the thorns, and our buckets are full. There’s something about the smell of picking blackberries that is so relaxing, it brings back memories of going up to the mountains with my mom, Oma, and Aunt in the summer to pick while wading in the creek.

While we pick we hear Howard (mom’s big black lab) snorting as he eats the blackberries off the lower branches. Silly dog will eat anything. The other dogs laze about in the shade.

After we pick it’s never hard to think up of something to do with all the berries. The options are endless, variations galore, and all of them taste delicious!

We’ve had: blackberry & peach cobbler, blackberry coffee cake, blackberries and angel food cake, blackberry margarita’s, blackberry pie, and blackberry jalapeño jam.

I have enough in the fridge from yesterday to make another batch of jam, so I think that’s what I’ll do today!

cobbler

pie

blackberry jalepeno jam

Ali and the Monster

coffee cake

Do you have a favorite blackberry recipe??

 

 

 

 

Pretzels and Jalepeno Cheese Sauce

Last night my cousin Peter and I got an itch for a hot pretzel and then of course to go with it gooey cheesy sauce. YUM. Here’s what the results were:
They are so good!!
It has been fun to have Peter stay with us the past week (ish) He’s started working on the farm, only he broke down so I get to put him to work at home :] haha. I feed him well in return for all the help.

Cheesy Sauce Recipe:
3 cups grated cheese
2 TBS. cornstarch
1 cup milk
onion
jalapeño
2 cloves garlic
2 TBS. butter
4 oz. cream cheese

Melt the butter, sauté the onion, garlic, and jalapeño until soft. Add milk and cornstarch. Then add cream cheese and cheddar cheese, melt and serve. YUM!!

Pretzels:
5 cups flour
3 cups water
2 TBS yeast
1 tsp salt
2 TBS honey

Mix dough, let rise 15 minutes. Divide into 12 parts and shape into pretzels! Brush with and egg mixed with 1 TBS water, sprinkle with salt and bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!!

Chicken Coop Remodel

A few Saturdays ago we expanded the chicken coop so that they could finally be outside!! Sunshine= happy chickens! And they are getting older and I don’t think they could squeeze between anything anymore!

My wonderful husband did so much work, and we got it done in a day! yay!

The chickens really didn’t like the chain saw being used to cut their hole to the outside world :] but it was the best we had! I decided not to show the picture I took of Matt with his shirt off, working on his tan. He has a bad a$$ farmers tan though :] haha.

Life moves forward. Things are still happening here on the farm.