Rachael Eliker's Blog, page 29

Robotics

Way back toward the beginning of the year, the girls' school sent home forms for 4H, a kids club where they can dabble in everything from sewing to art to pigs and horses. Having never done 4H myself, I was a bit intimidated by all the prospects. So, I sat down with Evelyn, read through the list of possible options, and when I read over robotics, her eyes lit up. We'd found her match.
To give her an idea of what kind of stuff she'd be doing for her robotics club, Jack took us all to a regional...

Cried a Little, But Would Return

Kate is FINALLY able to go to school with her sisters!Ever since Kate has been aware of school--what it is and that her older sisters got to go and that she didn't--she has been impatiently waiting for her time to join the ranks of school children. On the cusp of starting kindergarten a few months back, we went to school to watch Evelyn in a spelling bee and halfway through, Kate started weeping and didn't stop for about forty-five minutes. Why? Because she wanted to go to school right that i...

Pumpkin Bars

 For Sunday dinner, I decided to roast a turkey we've had in the freezer that was on sale after last year's Thanksgiving. So, we sort of had a dry run of a Thanksgiving meal, with easier sides and pumpkin bars instead of pumpkin pie. Talk about a yummy, easy pumpkin dessert...maybe it'll be making another appearance in November!

Ingredients:
Pumpkin Bars
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 can (15oz) can pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking so...

Summer Smiles

Sums us up pretty well.One of our recurring goals is to have professional family portraits once a year and for the past few years, we've met that goal. Since fall is my favorite time of the year for the weather and fantastic tree colors in Indiana, we've always done them in October or November. But, this year we switched it up and had a summer photo session, in part to enjoy photos while we weren't absolutely freezing and because the twin cousins were visiting.
Smile, Zoey! We were up ear...

Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

Every Sunday, I usually scramble to figure out what to make for dinner. Even though it's a day of rest, for some reason, people still want to eat. Jack will occasionally fill in or we'll have leftovers if there's enough but this past week, Jack was busy and my fridge was rather barren. So, I tossed together this quick pasta salad, paired it with some sliced fruit and leftover rotisserie chicken and we were set! It's as quick as boiling the pasta but can be made ahead of time to ensure it's th...

Braider

We call this the Trifecta Braid.If there's one thing I'm really not good at, it's doing hair. I can't curl or style or fix or braid hardly at all (unless we're talking about braiding Stoney's hair for a show. Then I'm not so terrible). Half the time, if I do try to fix anyone's hair, it looks mediocre at best. Then, the other half of the time, my girls get into a wrestling match and mess up their hair, which reinforces my lack of desire to fix hair in the first place.
That's right...burrs...

Back to Short

Hair, hair, everywhere.There comes a certain point when the length of my hair becomes an annoyance. It gets stuck when I roll up car windows, takes forever to dry, and one long hair in dinner is enough to make anyone lose their appetite. So, it becomes time to cut it all off and donate it to someone else who won't mind long hair.
I should have braided their hair together when they weren't getting along.Since this isn't my first time donating, the girls knew what that meant. I'd go to the...

Black Raspberry Season

One of our favorite times of the year is black raspberry season. We first discovered the tasty treat a few years ago and have enjoyed several seasons of foraging it together. Sometimes, we'd be able to harvest enough to make jam and lemonade and muffins out of the excess, but this year, between the scorching temperatures and little rain, black raspberry season was very brief.
Sunday afternoons, we enjoy taking walks around the property, to see how things are growing, make sure the animals are...

Apple Pie Pancakes

We visited an apple orchard this week and Jack was thoughtful enough to grab a tart little bag of Pristine apples for me. They are delicious on their own but I wanted to make something with them since they had such a distinct taste. These are easy, taste like autumn, and were a nice change from our ordinary go-to pancake recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour (I did half white, half wheat to be a tad healthier)
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nu...

Twin Cousins

A pretty good looking group, eh?When we returned from Portugal (Read here about Porto Part One, Porto Part Two, and Porto The Finale) and taking a road trip to Nebraska, we were on week two and a half of vacation. If we didn't have our fill of fun by then, then those two trips were just a warmup. The day after we arrived back from Nebraska, the twin cousins (my younger sister, her husband, and children--all of whom are the same age and gender as mine) were hot on our...