10 lbs of blueberries

About a year ago, Aaron brought home 5 pounds of blueberries from work. I made blueberry ice cream, a blueberry pie, and several other things. I had to do some recipe searches, but I was able to use the entire 5 pounds before they spoiled.

When the blueberry purchasing time rolled around this year, Aaron decided (without my consent) that we needed 10 pounds of blueberries…Needless to say, I did a little more searching for blueberry recipes. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures along the way. I’ll share some of the recipes here. (If you follow pinterest, you can see some of the recipes with pictures there.)

Double Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze

(adapted a little from cookeatdelicious.com They are amazing!!)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

4 Tbsp sugar

6 Tbsp cold butter

1 cup milk

2 cups fresh blueberris

Glaze:

1/4 cup lemon juice

zest of one lemon

1 cup sugar

1 Tbsp butter

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400. Combine first 4 ingredients. Cut in the cold butter. Fold in the blueberries and milk. On a floured surface, shape dough into a 12x3x1 rectangle. Cut into 4 equal squares. Then, cut each square into 2 triangles. Place on baking sheet and bake for 18 minutes. Allow to cool on baking rack.

To make glaze, heat lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Whisk in zest and butter until smooth. Drizzle over scones just before serving.

Blueberry Pops

(This is a marthastewart.com recipe. These are so easy and so yummy!)

5 cups blueberries

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp lemon juice

In a blender, puree all ingredients until smooth. Strain. Discard solids. Add water, if needed, to make 3 cups liquid. Divide into popsicle molds. Freeze until solid. Enjoy!

Blueberry Ice Cream

(This is a tasteofhome.com recipe. It is so good that we made it both years.)

4 cups blueberries

2 cups sugar

2 Tbsp water

4 cups half-and-half cream

In a large saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sugar is dissolves and berries are soft. Strain; discard solids. Stir in cream. Refrigerate overnight.

Freeze according to ice cream maker’s manufacturer directions. Allow to ripen in freezer 2-4 hours before serving.

 

I also made blueberry pancakes, froze some berries for later use, froze some berries in white cranberry juice for ‘fancy’ ice cubes (as my boys call them) and baked a blueberry orange loaf of bread. Tomorrow I will bake a blueberry pie, and all of the 10 lbs of blueberries will be accounted for…So, the next time you find yourself with a surplus of blueberries just try one of these tried-and-true recipes. Yum!

The Purge, Part 2

Aaron graduates from fellowship tonight, so I shipped the boys to grandparents’ homes. Capitalizing on the morning without the boys, I decided to have a yard sale this morning. The purging continues!

We got up bright and early despite Aaron working until midnight. (Don’t worry. I made sure he had his Dunkin Donuts iced coffee.) Everything was set up and ready to sell by 8am. People came in waves, and we sold a bunch of stuff. The basement is looking emptier with each purging attempt.

Our next attempt occurs June 30 at Emmanuel Assembly of God,  1431 Lehigh Parkway East, Allentown, PA 18103 . Maybe I’ll see you there. 🙂

A Lesson from Huldah

I’ve been reading Her Name is Woman by Gien Karssen. It’s a two volume set of books that covers 48 women of the Bible. I enjoy studying the women of the Bible so much that I’m reading both volumes simultaneously. (They’ll probably make the Book of the Month list at some point…When I actually finish them!) I’m doing Book 1 as a Bible study with 3 wonderful women, and I’m reading Book 2 on my own to fill in the open days.

This morning, I read about Huldah (in book 2), one of the few prophetesses mentioned in the Bible. This quote stood out to me: “When human beings are willing to do what God expects of them, things happen that no one had ever thought possible.” God is that good!

As we’re preparing for our ‘big move’ to Kenya, I am challenged daily to trust that God is that good. We are leaving so much behind, yet we are sacrificing so little when we are giving out of abundance. When I look around our house, we’ve accumulated SO much in the 9 years we’ve been married. (Today is our 9th anniversary!! Love you Aaron Walker Kelley!!) Four kids, 3 moves, and too many birthdays, Christmases and Easters to count in my sleep-deprived state, we have a million times more stuff than we need. I guess that’s why we’re having a yard sale this Saturday…

The American, worldly part of my brain tells me to be bitter and resentful as I’m leaving all my stuff behind. I’m sad to give up my dishwasher, my minivan, my cute clothes, my … and the list goes on. But that’s the problem. I’m too focused on ME. It’s not about me. None of this stuff is mine anyway. We only have what God has blessed us with. It all belongs to Him. Besides, even after purging, we’ll still own much, much more than the average person on this earth. My sacrifice is insufficient. It’s so minimal that I don’t even considerate it a sacrifice when I use the Christian, global part of my brain. All I need to do is trust that God will do mighty things when I obey Him.

Another quote that caught my attention was “Huldah knew that Word. Therefore she could freely exhort and encourage other people with it.” My prayer is that I will know the Word of God so well that I can use it daily to exhort and encourage the people in my life, specifically my children. So much of my time is spent feeding them, cleaning up messes, and doing chores. (Just this morning, I cleaned up half a box of Cheerios, poop in underwear, a spill in the bedroom, and more poop. And that was just one of the four children within the first 2 hours of being awake!! Can you guess which one??) I wonder if I’m modeling righteousness in all my daily to-do lists. I wonder if I’m modeling Christ-like behavior when my to-do list is interrupted a hundred times and I get frustrated that I can’t even blow my nose without someone getting bitten or puking or complaining that someone else isn’t sharing. Sigh. Fortunately, I serve a God who promises to fill in the space between my simple acts of service and true righteousness.

I love my job. While I never thought I’d be the ring leader of a circus, I do love being able to stay home with my 4 little blessings. Just pictured it a little more tidy, considerably quieter, and a lot less blue. 🙂

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Bucket List: The beach!

Another one of the things on our bucket list was to take the boys to the beach for the first time. After a little facebook survey and a little more web-searching, I decided to make Cape May, NJ our beach destination. We booked the rooms and waited for what seemed like forever (according to the boys). They started counting down the days until they could play in the sand and water, and I started the seemingly endless preparations. 🙂

By Friday afternoon, everything was purchased and almost everything was packed. Wanting to support the Salem Christian School’s auction and flea market before we left, we ventured over to Macungie to deliver cookies and buy some treasures and treats. On the way there, we heard something brake in the van and then smelled something hot. No warning lights flashed, so we weren’t too concerned. We enjoyed our time at the fundraiser and then drove back home. On the way, it was obvious that we couldn’t drive the van to Cape May in its broken condition. So, as soon as we got home, I called Firestone to see if they could look at the van first thing in the morning. Praise God! They could. I called a wonderful friend -April Bispeck- to meet me there. She drove me back home in the pouring rain so that the van would be there waiting for the mechanics in the morning.

By 9a.m. on Saturday, the man from Firestone called to inform us that the repair was serious but that it was covered by a recall. We had to arrange to have the van towed from Firestone to Krause Toyota, find a rental and still leave for vacation, all without loosing our minds and managing 4 kids! Praise God again! Enterprise met me at Firestone with a Chevy Suburan. AAA picked up the van to take it to the dealership. And I was home before noon. We threw the carseats and all of our luggage into the truck and we set off for vacation only two hours behind schedule.

 

Once we arrived at the Beach Shack, we finally were able to relax. The next couple of days had their moments of stress and frustration, but those times were way outnumbered by all the smiles, laughter and fun. We ate lots of yummy food. We played miniature golf, splashed in the pool, played in the sand on the beach and went shopping. Our favorite restaurant was the Blue Pig Tavern in Congress Hall. They have the best mac and cheese! My favorite part was SITTING on the beach. I even commented, “I don’t think I have sat this long in 6 years!” The best part of our hotel was that they provided chairs, towels and umbrellas for free. And the Rusty Nail (the hotel’s restaurant) delivered lunch to the beach! Awesomeness!!! 🙂 Thank you to my family for joining us and helping to entertain/manage my kiddos. We had so much fun!

Here are some pictures. (There are a lot more on facebook.)