Wordless Wednesday

Friday Fave--White Bean, Sausage and Pasta Soup

Well, I believe our lovely fall weather is leaving us. It will be rainy and cold this next week, and something tells me that our 70+ degree weather from earlier this week will not be returning until next spring.

That can only mean, my friends, that we make ourselves happy with soup. :) I'm prepping to make a pot of our family favorite tonight!

And here's the recipe in case you'd like to warm up with a hearty, kid-friendly pot of soul warming soup!

White Bean and Pasta Soup


1 ½ cups dry great northern beans
¾ lb. bulk sausage
1 med. onion, chopped
1 lg. carrot, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1 tsp. dried basil
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup uncooked small shell pasta
Grated parmesan cheese

Place beans in a dutch oven or soup kettle; add water to cover by 2 in. Bring to a boil; boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid.

In the same pan, cook the sausage, onion, carrot and garlic over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink; drain. Add the broth, water, basil and beans. Bring to a boil, Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until the beans are tender, stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes and pasta; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until pasta is tender. Serve with parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

All You Need is Love

I'm back, peeps.

One of the best parts of my annual scrap weekend is my Sunday morning "church service". Our group generally packs up to head out by lunchtime. But since I don't have a long drive home, I spend a little time with God up in the mountains of Idaho.

Just me and God. No one else. (well, the Palouse Divide resident dogs Max and Noser joined me for a portion of my quiet time yesterday). I hike the hill, find a serene and scenic spot and read scripture or a book (yesterday it was Crazy Love by Francis Chan) and pray. Sometimes I sing, too.

Each year God pulls me a little closer to Him. And He reminds me of His great LOVE for me. Undeserved love. And I'm sure thankful for it.

Taking time to remeber God's love always refuels me to love others beyond what they deserve, too. So, because God gives second (and third... and fourth...) chances I'm working at it again: trying to remove worldly distractions that pull me away from Him and instead focus on sharing the love of Christ.

Since it was a scrapping weekend, I'll share a couple of my favorite layouts where I've shared my faith. I hope to do more of that in the future-- passing on what I believe to my kids and anyone else who runs into my scrapwork. Starting with YOU! :)

(I can't show the entire layout for this one... it's out for publication!)

Thanks for stopping by. May you see God's love today.

Friday Fave--Scrapbooking Retreat

I know. It's not Friday.

But that's because on Friday I will be enjoying one of my faves.

A scrapbooking retreat w/ friends at the Palouse Divide. This year happens to be our little group's 10th Annual Scrap Camp event. I wish you could all join us!

I posted about this place last year, and simply believe it's the best place EVER to host a scrapbooking weekend. Peace. Beauty. Laughter.

Leaving this afternoon. I. Can't. Wait.

See you next week!

Wordless Wednesday

(a day late... I simply forgot to post it!)

Guest Posting on My Daughter's SUPER Golden Birthday

When I was chosen to guest post on Liz Qualman's blog last spring, I was excited to see that I was scheduled to be the primary designer for her sketch on this last weekend.

Why? Because our family has been looking forward to this weekend for 10 years.

Ten years ago yesterday I gave birth to my oldest child. Sweet Sadie was born on 10/10/00. It wasn't long after that time when we realized that Sadie girl would turn 10 on 10/10/10! A perfect 10!

I knew my layout for Liz' sketch would feature this super special birthday. Here's her sketch...

 And here's my take. Of course, it features our PERFECT 10 birthday!

We are so blessed to have such a great Sadie Girl and totally enjoyed our celebration for her. We love you Sadie, you'll always be our Perfect 10!!!

Wordless Wednesday

(I {heart} my hairdresser!)

Friday Fave-- Creative Ways to Make Money

At a ladies craft night I attended awhile back, I got the inside scoop on making money from home.

No. You don't have to sell makeup, kitchen utensils, cleaners or candles.

But you do get to be creative.

Thanks to the internet, there are now many ways to make money from home by doing jobs you may like! A couple web sites I have not yet visited (but you may be interested) are elance.com, demandstudios.com and associatedcontent.com. I think they're mostly writing/editing sites.

But the one I was most intrigued by was Fiverr.com. Have you heard of it?

You can offer to do something for someone (a gig) for $5. The site takes a dollar, and you keep four.

This is where you get creative.

Just what may you be willing to do for $5? There are some crazy gigs listed... deliver a fart sound to your inbox every day for a month...do 20 pushups while wearing random winter clothing and singing "I believe I can Fly"...shave one leg...

Or, they can be really practical and useful ideas...design a logo for your business...star in your movie or film...research or write your college or high school paper... (I'd be skeptical about the quality of these, however.)

So, interested, I came up with a gig. I wanted it to be worth $5 of time (no logo designs from me for that, peeps), but also wanted to use my skills and passion. And I targeted a pet peeve of mine-- bad social networking profile photos.

I like photos that are cropped and colored well and clearly show SOMEONE or SOMETHING on a profile pic. And I'm happy to help people who can't seem to do that on their own.

I created a gig and people are looking. No bites yet, but I'm so curious to see if someone takes me up on my great deal. I even have a widget on my blog to sell my gig. Not sure I'll become a millionare, but I am curious to see if I earn a few bucks with this fun idea!

So, what would you be willing to do for $5?