A Delightful Tea Party

 A homeschooling friend of ours invited us to attend a tea party. The boys were ever so excited! Joshua asked if he may wear a tie. We picked a bouquet of fresh mums from our flower beds and tied them with a cheerful ribbon, and pulled a jar of peach preserves we had canned as hostess gifts.

 The table setting was lovely. The boys really liked the crustless sandwiches. Joshua especially liked the cucumber sandwiches, and Joseph favored the sunbutter and jelly.

 It was just precious to listen to the polite manners from all six children. They each enjoyed having milk and sugar in their tea.

 Everyone enjoyed getting dressed up in their tea party outfits, but most of all we enjoyed the fellowship of good friends!

Our hostess had made pinwheel favors for each guest. These might have been the icing on the cake!

We shall have to do this again soon!

Blessings,

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Crock-pot Freezer Cooking with a Friend

 My friend Christephi and I got together this Saturday to put together crock-pot freezer meals for our families. I hadn't heard of this concept until recently, and I was quite eager to give it a try! I've found myself getting busier and busier as the children are getting older, and as schooling takes up more and more of my time. I knew that the crock-pot was about to become my new best friend- but this idea makes it even more efficient!

The idea is rather simple. You assemble all of the ingredients for the recipe into a freezer bag. That's it. For the recipes Christephi had chosen there was no precooking involved. We simply chopped and diced all of the vegetables, and then placed all of the ingredients into a labeled freezer bag.

Here's what we made:

Healthy BBQ Chicken
Goulash
Chicken Curry
Teriyaki Chicken
Savory Chicken
Busy Day Stew
Sweet & Tangy Meatballs
Savory Vegetable Beef Soup
Cilantro Lime Chicken with black beans and corn

Shopping by the ingredient list for the recipes, the total cost was right at $200, or about $10 a meal. This is more than I'd typical spend for something like this, but now that I've seen how the recipes go together, I think I could do it again for much less.

Now that I've learned all about this idea, I'm excited to see what else I can do with it. This is something I'll definitely be doing more of in the future! 

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Bulk cooking is definitely more fun with a friend! It was such a blessing to be able to put away so many meals for our families. Be sure to check out my friend's blog where she will be sharing links to the recipes that we used!

Pax Christi,

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Friends and Family

Enjoying a visit from a treasured high school best friend!

With Love,

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