Casner Family Blog

Eleven-wow-it amazes me. Yesterday as we were getting ready for school I was telling the kids the story of the day Hannah was born. I was working at our church at the time and trying to get the October newsletter finished and printed in between contractions, dropping off the dog on the way to the hospital-asking them to keep him because he had a cough and by the time we were out of the parking lot my water had broke, and then 3 hours later, celebrating her arrival with pizza delivered to the hospital.

I ate lunch with her at school this week and about started to cry after hugging her as I was leaving. She is eleven. She still doesn’t like to clean her room, but within moments notice that she needs to, some new art project is underway. (Frustrating at times, but so glad she loves to create.) Always making gifts for others, she has a job walking a dog to earn money, can play the piano beautifully and is now learning the flute. She loves God and when she makes wrong choices and stops to think about what she has done, her attitude changes and her level of compassion increases and she intentionally strives to be more like Christ would have been while on earth.

She loves to read and write and writes little notes like this on the computer for me to find.
Dear Mom and Dad,

Sincerley with love Hannah

She is beautiful.

It is also my favorite color.

Some other favorites right now?

-Getting our home reorganized a bit for Autumn. The work – I dread it. However having clean and more functional spaces- much needed and appreciated.

-Her jewelry.

-dresses from the Tumbleweed Boutique. (I wish I lived closer to visit.)

And my favorite book right now is this one.

-the last from our garden

-Sweet Rose Farm’s booth at the Fort Scott Farmer’s Market.

-Luke, Alli and Lizzie’s work

Another round of five senses friday (hosted by Abby)

taste: coffee with cream and raw sugar

smell: coffee, chocolate and peanut butter (I’m thinking too much coffee.)

sight: legos, laundry, new bowls, the same quilt blocks waiting to be sewn together, new library books, another loose tooth

hear: lots of memory cards being turned over and “it’s not fair”, “my G5 is going to the Genius Dr. today-for free!” (very good thing), counting by 7’s and 8’s…., “do you want to see my play?”

feel: yarn picked up and put down again, sweet potatoes (from our garden) and artichokes (from Sweet Rose Farm), school books

another recipe that is pretty painless and simple to make.

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 chopped carrots
2 chopped celery stalks
salt and black pepper
2 cans chicken broth
2 chicken breasts, cooked and and shredded or chopped up
1/3 c. wild rice blend (do not use the seasoning packet)
1/4 c. cooking wine (white or red works fine)

In a large saucepan, heat oil over med-high heat, add onion and saute for a couple of minutes. Add garlic and stir. After about a minute, add the carrots and celery, stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the chicken broth, chicken, rice, 1 1/4 c. water, and the cooking whine to the pan. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and cover. After about 10 minutes, remove lid and continue to simmer until the rice is tender. (6 – 8 minutes).

Enjoy.

Couple of tips I use when preparing. I try to prepare a meal plan each week. (Some weeks are better then others). When I know this one is coming, I usually cut up vegetable the night before to make prep the next day even easier. This feeds 2-4, depending on if this is the main course or a side.

Now just to find some time to sit on the front porch with a quilt, a book and some soup…

We had Fall FCA State Conference this past weekend and I’m busy catching up from a super weekend with new and old friends at Rock Springs, but a couple photos to show Autumn really does arrive tomorrow…

42 oreos (30 left whole, 12 coarsely chopped)
2 pounds cream cheese, room temp.
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temp. lightly beaten
1 c. sour cream
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 275 F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

With an electric mixer on med-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar and beat until combined. Add vanilla.

Drizzle eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

Divide batter evenly (filling each almost to the top). Bake – rotating cups halfway through – until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours or up to overnight. Remove from tins just before serving.

Found in Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes. Some books are great check-out from the library kind of books, some are worth owning. This one is a keeper.

Yesterday was Alli’s birthday. For some reason putting seven candles on her cake (and cupcakes) was harder then putting six. Some how it seemed different. Maybe because of how much she has grown in the last year. She has grown taller and lost a total of six teeth- she could hardly blow out her candles because so many are missing. However she has also become more outspoken, not as content with being caught in the sometimes shuffle of having four children. She is compassionate and pays attention to how people are feeling. She has been praying for some of the same people every night now for months and months-never forgetting them. She absolutely needs lots of hugs and kisses and is quick to share them. So often I watch her make choices to help keep the peace or make someone else happy, and it takes her FOREVER to make a decision, and then she still may change her mind. Except for one thing. Her new favorite color is orange, yellow coming in second, and her old favorite color pink-well excepting for her new beautiful pillowcase made by her Great Grandma and Grandma-she hates it.

Saturday was a wonderful day to celebrate three sweet girls birthdays. We had lots of family and cupcakes -oreo cheesecake, brown sugar pound cakes and chocolate with swiss meringue frosting. None of those recipes today, however, I am going to give you a different recipe that we really love.

Lemon sandwich cake (from Apples for Jam)

1/2 lb. plus 2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2/4 c. heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

filling:
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
2 tsp. confectioners sugar
1/2 c. greek style yogurt

1 c. fresh raspberries, blackberries or strawberries

Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter and flour 12 X 4 in. loaf pan.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then add the lemon zest and juice, cream and vanilla. Whisk well until the batter is smooth.

Spoon into loaf pan, bake for 1 hour and 10 min., or until a skewer poked into the center comes out clean. If the top looks like it is getting too dark, cover with aluminum foil. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely in the pan.

For the filling whip together the cream and sugar until there are peaks, fold the yogurt through. Cut the cake in 1/4 in. slices and make sandwiches with the 2 slices of cake, the filling and the fruit.

Enjoy!

(Randomness) And the butterfly-well, they love the zinnias and cosmos and we have had lots of fun watching them and checking out what their names are the last few weeks.

Tomorrow is the girls birthday party. Besides the birthday party, there are a lot of to-do’s on my plate, but Abby reminded me what day it was. It is also September 11, as I was driving to the building this morning I was thinking and praying for all the families that 9/11 have impacted. 9/11 is something they think about everyday, they do not need the news to remind them.

tasting- coffee with cream and sugar (I need to make another cup.)

hearing- Lizzie playing with Rescue Heros, Luke cleaning in his room, Jars of Clay

feeling- stressed – opps, I mean cupcake liners, tissue paper and heat from the oven

smelling-cupcakes baking, more cupcakes baking, and more cupcakes baking

seeing- this quilt waiting for me to stitch some more rows together-not going to be ready for tomorrow’s birthday party

There are certain homes and families I love to visit. While I’m there I feel like I would stay the entire day there if I could and I hate rounding up my kiddos to go home. I finally realized this morning that the reason why is they don’t allow their families to get overwhelmed with everyone else’s agendas and expectations. That is something I long for but there are always interruptions from the rest of the world. There is always too much guilt that follows the words “I can’t right now” or “I need a break.”

I used to think that was God requiring more of me, which is why I have such a hard time with it. Well, I don’t think so anymore. He requires much of ME, not of all of my works, and right now I have nothing left to give. So I’ve made a decision, I am going to be taking a break from serving for the sake of serving and spend more time in obedience with the Creator.

2 Corinthians 10:5 -total randomness with the photo…just liked it.