Happy Hearts

Hello Folks,

I hope that you are enjoying reading my little blog again.

I read a lot of other blogs and sometimes they lead me to others and sometimes they give me little ideas to use here.  To use and put my own spin on it.  I try to always link that site on here as well.

So this little gem first came from Mix and Match Family , Shay Shull has a wonderful blog and I feel like we could totally be friends except she lives in Texas and doesn't know who I am!! (haha!).  She was asked to do a little post over here on the Hill Collection blog.

So I thought I would give my little version of Happy Hearts.

These three make my heart very happy!

 

Here are 8 things that make my heart happy:

- big thunderstorms, I love the sound of the rain pouring down, the loud crack and rumble of the thunder and seeing the sky light up with the lightning!  This is only the case when I am happily safe and snuggled in my house!
- watching my kids jump and laugh on the trampoline
- a really great bowl of mint chip ice cream
- a night out with my husband competing for the world.  (we tend to be slightly competitive so when there is something to compete at, it's always for the world!)
- when the Kraft what's cooking magazine arrives at my door
- the fall leaves changing colours, the bright reds, oranges and yellows.
- seeing my boys snuggle on the couch watching a movie (and liking each other!)
- having a picnic with my little family (inside or outside!)

aren't they cute!

Have a fabulous weekend!

sunshine

Sunshine and rainbows!!

Doesn't that sound nice!  Although rainbows only come out with the sunshine AFTER the rain.

So maybe we have to have a little rain before the rainbows, it's ok.  The rain is good.  Not always fun but good.  Necessary.

These are lessons I am trying to teach my boys.  That we need the rain to help things grow.  They need rain and sunshine.

Same goes for us as people, we need a little rain and sunshine in order to grow.  So those bad things that sometimes happen, sometimes happen for a reason.  We need them to learn or adapt.  They teach us to be smarter, stronger, braver, all while we are just trying to move on.  Secret lessons are happening and we are made better for it.  Or I guess we have the ability to be made better, the choices are ours.  We can choose the good or the bad.  I want to choose the good!

We also need sunshine, we need those great moments, fun times and wonderful family and friends.  We need this sunshine to keep us going, to make us want to choose the good.  To want to help other people choose the good.

So if today is a particularly bad day, be comforted in the fact that the rainbow comes out after the rain.

This is my sunshine when days aren't so sunny!

BBQ Pulled Pork Spagetti

Oh My Goodness!

So Joel and I have a tendency to watch cooking or home renovation shows when are usual favourites take a break.  This is usually a bad idea.

It's late and then I want a full meal - not good

Or it's late and I want to start painting or tearing something down - also not good!

However, it does give us lots of fun ideas and branches out our cooking!

So we were watching Diners, Drive-In and Dives on the Food Network and Hwy 61 Roadhouse came on and showed us this delicious recipe.

I didn't actually know until right now when searching for a picture (because we were so excited that I forgot to take one!), that you could get the recipes from the shows.  I am both excited and slightly nervous about this wonderful news!

So I just made it with what I thought it should have

BBQ Pulled Pork Spaghetti
picture and recipe adapted from watching this recipe take place!

Ingredients

Pork Roast
whole bottle your favourite BBQ sauce (we used Bull's-eye original), maybe more!
1 cup apple juice
one package of spaghetti
one clove of garlic minced
olive oil
feta

Directions:


1. I used my slow cooker and put the pork roast in the crock pot, pour about 3/4 of your BBQ sauce on top and pour apple juice over it.  Cook on low for 6-7 hrs
2. Once pork is ready, shred it.
3. Cook your spaghetti as directed
4. In a large sauce pan, heat olive oil and garlic for 2-4 mins. Add cooked spaghetti, pulled pork and the remaining of your BBQ sauce.  You might need (or want) to add a more BBQ, I think we probably added another 1/4 of a bottle.
5.  Serve and top with crumbled feta (if you don't like feta, just leave it out!)

This make plenty - like 5-6 servings.  We served ours with salad and bread.

Enjoy!

A little snippet

Since this blogging thing is hard sometimes.  I am going to start with this.  and we will see how we go!

This is a little list I got from following the list of blogs below! 

 It's a little snippet of what's going on around here.

Making : a vegetable garden...we are working hard and hope we have some veggies in the end!
Cooking : A fantastic BBQ pulled pork spaghetti.  Simple simple recipe to follow. here
Drinking :  Water and lots of it.  Once it gets hot, if I forget to drink enough water out come the headaches and feeling yucky.
Reading:  So many wonderful books, my husband organized for everyone to get me books!  Just finished Balancing it All by Candace Cameron Bure and just started reading The One and Only by Emily Giffen
Wanting:  more sunny days and less working
Looking: at my wonderful little boys explore and learn
Playing: rugby on Saturdays and soccer on Mondays
Wasting: time
Sewing: so many projects but so little time...perhaps if I wasted less time, more things would get done!
Wishing: for a little more time home and a little less time at work.
Enjoying:  saying yes to little request from the boys...they enjoy it so much and we all end up having a great time
Waiting: for vacation to start
Liking: the sunshine and the amount of time I can spend outside
Wondering: what life has in store for me
Loving: my husband
Hoping: for more memories made
Marvelling: at the things my children can learn
Needing: extra hugs
Smelling: fresh cut grass....it's my favourite.  I actually used to buy and wear the Gap cut grass perfume!
Wearing: dresses all the time to work and shorts all weekend!
Following: so many fun people on instagram!  Check me out hjdickinson
Noticing: the good in people....so many times it's the bad we see, I need to see the good for awhile
Knowing:  that I am doing the best I can
Thinking:  of so many projects I would like to get done
Feeling: slightly overwhelmed by those projects
Bookmarking: time out for relaxing
Opening:  new books!
Giggling:  at my kids and there love of shaking their booties!
Feeling: happy


I got this from following a line of blogs.    from here , to here ,original here

And we continue

I will recap the rest of the winter much faster!

It snowed!  That pretty much sums it up.  It snowed!

All the time, it snowed, we had 12 storm days and only one or two of those were the extra cautious doesn't really turn out to be bad storm days!  Like 10 were legitimate!  AND that didn't include the storms that happened on the weekends!!

It was crazy!  We had to really enjoy the winter activities because there were no other choices!

Happy New Years!!  Our friends the Lenihan's decided we needed mistletoe pictures!

 

Sometimes the snow was just too much so we had to go to Kingswood!



 

Bouncy castles to enjoy in the middle of winter!

 

 

Everyone loves a tunnel and a snow hill!

 

The boys really learned to ski this year.  I was so fun and such a great family sport!

 

 This little man's first time on the chair lift....big day!

 

Liam was part of the Kings this year and had a great season!  He learned so much.

 

Park structures are still fun in the winter!

Winterfest in Fredericton was very fun!!



 

 Who doesn't love Mexi's nachos!!  The boys love it!

 

Rhys loved doing Gymnastics this year.  He was really good at it!



 

Since we don't have a lot of pink shirts around, I made them pink shirts to wear around their necks for anti-bullying day!!

 

That about sums things up until we went to Florida and I think Florida deserves it's own post!! 

 

Until next time!

 

 

Back in the Saddle

I used to have horses so the title seems appropriate. 

I have been gone awhile and I think I am ready to be back for awhile.  I have some plans and I think they should be fun!  We will see how well they turn out.  Actually I am hoping that at least someone checks out the blog to actually see if it does turn out!

I think I will start with a recap of the past several months.

Christmas was around the last time that I posted, so Christmas came and went, it was a fun time and I love every minute of it!

 We never managed to get organized for family pictures for our Christmas cards (and I love Christmas cards!!)  So I dressed the boys up and put them on the deck in Hartland!

 

thumbs up mom, we are still digging photo taking!

Sometimes they are just too funny



Funny boys, trying to look cool

 

Then we thought (let's face it, I thought) we needed to Christmas it up!  So out came the lights and then came the antics!

These kids!
 



This is how we get the star on the tree!!  I am hoping someday Joel let's me put the star up!! haha!

Christmas concert fun and this guy gives the wink!!!

 

 

The snow arrived and didn't stop!!!  Until May!!

 

I loved this photo - Hartland, NB

Backyard snow fun



 

Christmas Eve with our Christmas PJ's!

 

Love them!

 

Leaving cookies for Santa!



 

I am sure I had photos from Christmas morning but I don't think they were any good!

 

Smile it's Christmas

 

 

We love to build lego and I was so proud of my 6 year old for building this all by himself!!

 

 

Since that was super long, I will continue another day!!

 

I am back!

strawberry jam

 

It's been awhile and perhaps seems strange to come back with a jam recipe, especially since in New Brunswick it's not strawberry season yet.   But it will be soon enough and I want everyone to be prepared!!

 

Homemade strawberry jam is my absolute favourite jam.  This easy easy recipe is my favourite.  When I was 14 my dad was diagnosed with diabetes.  He didn't have the self control to not eat the things he loved so we had to start making the changes in our house.  That helped him and in turn probably made me a much healthier person.

 

So the old jam recipe with 4 cups of sugar had to go out the window!!!!

 

I most often use Garden Fare and it has the recipe on it but I thought I would share it anyways!

 

 

This is no cook freezer jam and uses 40% less sugar than regular packages.

Once you have picked and I am sure eaten a few beautiful strawberries.

Rinse all the bugs and dirt off them.

 

 

Next hull the greens off and cut into smaller pieces.

 

Next stir in 1 cup of sugar (my mother uses 1 cup of spenda)

The package says 1 1/2 cups but I always make mine with 1 and it still takes great.

Allow to stand for 15 minutes

 

 

Then sprinkle in gelling powder a little at a time while stirring for 3 minutes.

 

All to stand for 5 minutes

 



 

Stir for 1 minute

 



 

 

Then since I like it really smooth with no lumps of fruit (if you like your jam like that) then at this point put it in the blender and blend until smooth. (if not skip this step)

 

Then place them in your containers, label and freeze.  Make sure to keep several containers out because you are going to want to eat it with everything!

 

I use mine obviously for toast and bagels but also on top of cheesecake and ice cream too!

 

 

I hope you enjoy this!