Rachael Eliker's Blog, page 7

Say Cheese!

Everybody say cheese!Every year, I set goals for myself and our family. Some get done, a lot don't, but one I try to insist does get checked off are family photos.
I take plenty of everyday photos of the kids (yay cell phone cameras!), but there's something extra special about asking someone (thanks, Charley!) to come to the house and coax the best smiles out of the kids using a really, really nice camera. I mean, seriously. Look at that toothless, whole-faced baby smile. It's absolutely priceless...

Floyd and Ren

Dolly is more of the private type. I can respect that.Every time we have a new calf born on our farm, it's the culmination of months of hoping and anticipating. Imagine that excitement when we found out Dolly and Daisy were pregnant at the same time. Huzzah times two! Umm...that's not your calf, Daisy.Back in November, we were anxiously watching the cows. According to my calculations, they were actually due in October, but like me, both of them went well over until they looked like they were lite...

38, Not 37

Careful. My cake might set you on fire.Well, it's happened again. I made another trip around the sun which means, time to celebrate another birthday. Since it's not one of those milestone birthdays (you know...10, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 25, 30, 40, etc), my birthday has had a lot of the same feel as the last few I've celebrated with one exception--apparently, I'd spent at least some of 2021 thinking that I was 36 going on 37. Turns out, my last birthday I'd already turned 37, so I'm actually 38. Hu...

Silly. Goofy. HILARIOUS.

Somebody turned nine!In the blink of an eye, Kate has turned nine. There were so many emotions associated with her birth--for one, she was born as Jack was wrapping up college and interviewing for full-time employment--like, literally the wee hours of the morning before he went to his interviews (talk about bad timing!). As an itty bitty baby, we finished fixing up our first home, sold it and left Iowa, had a brief stay in Nebraska, and made our move to Indiana. Kate has already had a full, adve...

One Adventure After Another

Henry has made another trip around the sun and this time, we celebrated his sixth year. Life with him has been one adventure after another and I have the very distinct feeling this boy is barely getting warmed up. See? He's at home in the forest.As the first boy out of our children, Henry has been an entirely different beast to raise. Though Jack reassures me his behavior is perfectly normal, there are days when I wonder if it would be best if I released him into the wild and checked on him when ...

Easy Onion Gravy

  If I find a recipe I want to try, but it requires any kind of packaged food--powdered soup mixes, canned biscuits, whatever--chances are, I don't have it on hand. So, when I wanted to make a round steak recipe and it called for an onion gravy packet, guess what? I didn't have it. I wish I had Jack's ability to whip up a replacement, but since I don't, I had to do some digging. I found this gem, modified it to what we did have, and it turned out so much better than a powdered mix ever could deli...

Challenging Family Hikes

Over the Labor Day weekend, we had family visiting, and rather than sit around at home, we decided to take a hike...in the rain. The precipitation was not planned or particularly fun for *some* of the kids, so a complaining was expected since it wasn't exactly ideal weather. Rather than end on a sour note, we decided to go hiking that weekend...again! Cue the shouts of elation/ardent complaints. Every kid is different every time we go. We decided to go to Brown County, a large, forested state par...

Sweet Skillet Cornbread

If there's one thing I love, it's a delicious cornbread. It screams comfort food and can swing sweet or spicy. This particular recipe is definitely sweet, so much so that it really doesn't need any toppings. Maybe some butter, but otherwise, it stands all on its own with soup, grilled meats, or as a breakfast treat!
Ingredients:
1 cup flour3/4 cup cornmeal1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon baking soda2 teaspoons baking powder1/2 cup butter1/4 cup oil1 cup granulated sugar1/3 cup honey2 large eggs1 1/4 ...

Woman-Child

I'm not entirely certain how it happened, but we have a twelve-year-old. That's a year away from a teenager. Six from being an adult. Only four from how old Jack was when he met me. 😳 No matter how we divide it, it blows our minds that it seemed like only yesterday we were waiting and praying and hoping we'd be blessed with a baby of our own. Now, she's the oldest of seven, a woman-child who has a foot still rooted in childhood while taking a very confident step into adulthood. Since this is a bi...

Sheet Pan Curry Honey Mustard Chicken & Veggies

Once in a while, my kids surprise me by asking for a dinner that's healthy, easy, and delicious. Take this meal for example--Evelyn had been browsing the internet while waiting for me to pick her up from school and came across this gem of a recipe. It was so easy that she's the one who put it together and it was so good that there were no complaints. Cleaning up the dishes was a breeze and it just so happened to coincide with our potato harvest. Win alllll the way around. Ingredients:
¼ cup honey¼...