Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Essential oils

Hello, again! I know that I have moved on from here over to my new blog, Ripples of Grace, but I thought I'd better post here too in case some of you are still hanging out at the Little House.
My mom and I recently started using essential oils from a company called doTERRA. We have been really blessed by the benefits these oils have brought to our home and health. And we would love for you to experience the same!
We'd love to have you join us over at our blog Essential Wellness to learn more about doTERRA essential oils, get healthy living tips, recipes and more!

Blessings!
Amber

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Moving On...

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are now residing in Colorado and it's time to move on from this blog. I am planning on continuing in the blog world though, so this isn't good-bye. 
But I do want to take a moment and say thank you to all who have followed me here on Little House in Hillsboro. Your comments and your presence here have been an encouragement to me and I appreciate you!
My new blog, Ripples of Grace, is up and running and I hope you will join me over there as I continue to share about my family and my faith and anything else that comes to mind. It is my hope for it to be a place to reflect on the abundant grace and blessings that God pours out on us.
Thank you again and I hope to see you soon!!!

Blessings!

"From His abundance we have all received, grace upon grace." John 1:16

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Happy New Year!!!

Family Pic December 2012...on the steps of our new, Colorado home!
Happy New Year, everyone! It has been waaaaaay too long since I have been on here and for that I am sorry! I do hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 
We have had quite the adventure and changes in our life since I last posted on here. The biggest one being that I am no longer writing from our little house in Hillsboro. Yes, we picked up and moved to Colorado the end of October. So, really I do have a good excuse for not writing. *smile* Organizing, packing, moving, unpacking, organizing, holidays and more have taken up most of my time lately.
Moving to Colorado has been something we have wanted to do for a long time and this past Fall the pieces all started coming together. When the timing is right, it's amazing to see how things happen! God is good! No, God is GREAT!!!
Because of the real estate market we could not sell our house in Oregon, but God opened the doors for some friends of ours to be able to rent it. One major thing checked off the list. Then one of my best friends and her husband here in Colorado graciously let us stay with them in their large home until we could find a place to rent out here. Even that didn't take long as the Lord again opened a door to a very nice (and HUGE!) home with a sweet landlady. (No more "little" house...the blog is going to need some revamping...sometimes a fresh start is good though. More on that to come soon!)
I am feeling SO blessed!!! And it is so wonderful to be back in Colorado!!! I was born here in the Denver area. So, yes, I've wanted to come back for a LONG time. Thankfully my hubby has also fallen in love with Colorado over the course of our marriage and the times he has been out here. He might even be more excited than I am to be here!
We drive around the corner in our neighborhood and we can see the mountains. It's only an hour for us to drive to actually be IN the mountains. The sun shines almost every single day. The kids are loving it here and have been making new friends. Life is good!!!
The next step will be to find some property so we can start building our dream of country living. But I know that will come in time! We have already done so much in the past few months! And it is exciting to see where we will go and what we will do in the new year!!!

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future!" Jeremiah 29:11

This is my prayer for my family and for you in this new year...that we will have the faith to seek and trust the Lord's plans for our lives...no matter what that may be!! We serve an awesome God and the things He has in store for us are beyond our comprehension!!

Blessings!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Happy Birthday, Ellie!!!

 On September 1st our baby girl turned 3 years old!!! She's not a baby anymore!
 We had a fun weekend celebrating our youngest. The day of her birthday we went to the farmer's market and painted our nails and just enjoyed some quality time together. And we finished off the day with Ellie's favorite dinner: pineapple pizza. Yum!
Sunday we had a party with family and a few close friends the pretty much are family. We barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs and had cake and ice cream. And of course, presents. Fun times!
 We are so blessed to have little Ellie in our lives! She brings such joy and sunshine to our family and is always overflowing with love for everyone!
 Looking forward to another year of watching her grow and learn and become the beautiful person that God has designed her to be!
 We love you, Ellie!!! xoxoxoxooxo

Monday, August 20, 2012

Zucchini Relish

Zucchini Relish
(from the Colorado Cache Cookbook)
 
12 cups coarsely ground zucchini, unpeeled (I shredded mine)
5 medium onions
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
5 tablespoons salt
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons celery seed
 
Coarsely grind onions and peppers and mix with zucchini and salt. Let stand for 3 hours. Drain and rinse well. Make syrup of remaining ingredients, boiling until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens. Add to vegetables and cook 20 minutes. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars and seal immediately. (After putting the lids on I acutally put the jars in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes as an extra precaution.)
 
I got 10 half pint jars plus a little extra. Can't wait to eat some hot dogs or burgers smothered in it! Or maybe some crackers with cream cheese and some relish on top. Mmmm...yummy! A great way to use up some of the ever abundant zucchini!
 
 
 
(I am hoping to begin writing some more on my blog again...I keep going thru these phases where I completely and utterly just forget or don't want to write even though I would have many things to write about.)

Blessings!
Amber
 

Sunday, May 20, 2012

6 years ago today...

 ...I married the most wonderful man in the whole world!!!
 The past 6 years have been amazing with ups and downs and all kinds of changes and adventures...and I can't imagine having anybody else by my side! God has truly blessed me with the best husband and I am so proud to be his bride. His girl.


Looking forward with anticipation and excitement as to what the Lord has in store for us in the next 6 years and beyond!

May 2012...on our anniversary trip to Colorado.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine..."
Song of Solomon 6:3



Blessings!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Party Time!


The Cake!
 Just had to share a few pictures from Hannah's birthday party 2 weeks ago. She's really been into Angry Birds and plays it on Daddy's iPhone whenever she can, and so decided that this year instead of princesses or tea parties, she wanted to have an Angry Bird party. I came across some neat ideas via Pinterest and I had a blast putting it all together.
 My favorite thing about the whole party was the cake. I am still a bit giddy when I think about it. Not trying to toot my own horn here, but I am quite pleased with how it turned out...especially since it was the first cake I have ever decorated. Oh, I have smeared frosting on cakes before and maybe put on some sprinkles or written something with that gel stuff from the grocery store, but I have never actually seriously decorated a cake. It was so much fun and I can't wait for another opportunity to make a cake!!
Hannah wanted an ice cream cake and our neighbor, who went to pastry school and knows all about cakes, helped us out with making the cake. We just baked up a funfetti boxed cake, sliced it, and layered it with ice cream. Very simple, and can I just say, I think that should be the only way cakes are made! You get the perfect amount of cake and ice cream together and it is just splendid! :)
Then for decorating it I was so tickled to come across this freezer buttercream method here. You can make a fantastic image on a cake and it is as easy as tracing a picture! LOVE it!
 Moving on...I came across Martha Stewart's tutorial for making these adorable tissue paper pompoms for decorating baby showers, wedding showers, and whatever else. I thought they were just so pretty and wanted an excuse to make them so badly. So I was slightly disappointed that Hannah wanted an Angry Bird party because there is nothing frilly and froofrooey about that, and there would be no reason to have puff balls floating around. :( But then the more I thought about it and saw what some people had done to balloons by adding faces to make Angry Birds, I thought why not add faces to pompoms to make Angry Birds!?! So I did! And they turned out great! Hannah still has them hanging up in her room. (I printed out the faces from here. Scroll down to where she talks about her Angry Bird balloon game)

Birthday banner made using my Cricut.
 James decorated our chalkboard door with some of his great bubble letters and Angry Bird drawings. He also helped me out by drawing the angry pig faces on our stress ball party favors. He loves to draw angry pigs, and does a super job of it, so I was glad for his help.

 For activites we had some Angry Bird coloring pages printed out for the kids and then after cake and presents we made pinecone bird feeders. It was nice (and less stressful for me!) to keep it simple and mostly let the kids just play. Everyone had a great time!



 And for our party favors we just filled some red goody bags with some heart stickers in Angry Bird colors (since I couldn't find Angry Bird stickers), an angry pig stress ball (made from balloons and flour), and an Angry Bird cookie (which I made using the frozen buttercream method). We had little circles of paper for tags that Hannah stamped with a cute little "thank-you" stamp.
We had a wonderful time, and Hannah enjoyed every minute of it! It's amazing what you can do with some creativity and a little help from the internet. 
Next year, it's a Little Mermaid party! Yes, Hannah already has her parties planned out for the next few years! Hahahahaha!

Blessings!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Amazing and inspiring

Good Evening! I just had to take a minute to share about a wonderful, new blog that a very sweet, godly young woman that we know has started-- Conversations With God.
She is a much younger woman than I am, but she is wise beyond her years, and has a most amazing relationship with the Lord. Everything about her radiates Christ in such a beautiful way! I have been blown away by her writing after reading her first two posts on her blog
I definitely would encourage you to go check it out for yourself and I hope and pray you will be blessed as I have been from reading her words...God's words. It is truly beautiful and inspiring!
Have a wonderful night!

Blessings!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Hannah is 5!!!

 On May 8th our sweet, energetic Hannah turned 5 years old! Where does the time go??? It seems like just yesterday that she was a tiny baby in our arms. 
We have been so blessed by the joy and happiness she brings to our home each day and look forward to what each new day holds for her as she keeps growing and learning and loving Jesus.

 Happy 5th Birthday, Hannah!!
We love you!
xoxoxoxoxoxo


 "For You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
Psalm 139:13-14
(Hopefully my next post will be about the fun Angry Bird party we had for Hannah!)

Blessings!!!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...it's all dark now, but we had a beautiful sunny day today which was such a blessing after many days of rain! I need my sunshine. :)

I am thinking...about my hubby. Can't wait to see him when he gets home in a couple of days!

I am thankful...for Mr. Sun!

In the kitchen...yogurt is in the crockpot. Well, atleast I hope it will be yogurt by morning. My last two attempts have not worked out so well. I've been making my own yogurt in the crockpot for quite a few months now, but for some reason the last two times it has not worked out. Keeping my fingers crossed that it works again.

I am wearing...my workout clothes...just got done doing a little evening yoga. I need to get back into a routine with some exercise and stuff.

I am creating...working on knitting a shawl/wrap thing. It's kind of a big project. Not hard knitting at least, just takes a looooooong time to make something that big. Need to get caught up on some sewing too. Haven't done any this year and here it is April!

I am going...to get ready for bed when I'm done here and curl up with a book and some tea.

I am wondering...if the sun will come out again tomorrow.

I am reading...just finished reading the Broadmoor Legacy series of books by Tracie Peterson. They were quite good and I could hardly put them down. They were based in the 1890's in and around Rochester, New York.

I am hoping...to finally try out the liquid hand soap recipe I found online.

I am looking forward to...library day tomorrow with my girls. We always have a great time!

Around the house...everyone is sleeping except for me, and I am sitting here listening to some music on Pandora.

A favorite quote for today...Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right. -Max Lucado

One of my favorite things...quiet evenings listening to music, especially if candlelight is involved. :)

A few plans for the rest of the week: library day, hubby coming home, Easter egg hung this weekend, Easter at church and then dinner with Matt's family. Lots of fun!

I'm sorry I don't have a picture this week....
Share your daybook here.
Blessings!