Banana bars

I love this recipe. Especially because it uses up leftover bananas that are over ripe, preventing me from throwing them out. Give it a try and add your own touches.

- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 over ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup softened/melted butter
- pinch salt
- pinch baking soda
- pinch almond extract

Blend all ingredients and bake at 350 for 25 minutes in a bars pan (13x9). Or use a normal pan (11x7) for a more bread/ brownie quality. Bake until it appears done, usually about 35 minutes. Icing once completely cooled.














Icing

- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- pinch almond extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar

Blend and then spread over bars. Enjoy!

Ten things I love about winter

{Ten things I love about winter}

10. A break from outside chores.

9. Having a wood burning fireplace in our living room. I love the hot air it puts out and watching the glow of our fires.

8. Decorating! We pick out a live Christmas tree every year, and I also like to put out wreaths on my doors, Christmas cards to neighbors, and Christmas bed spreads on our mattresses.

7. Snuggling with my kiddos and hubby.

6. Getting snowed in for a couple of days..

5. Catching up on old DVD series. Some of my favorites are: Anne of Green Gables, Avonlea, Mama's Family, Golden Girls, Designing Women, and Lark Rise to Candleford (BBC).

4. Catching up on reading or here lately I have been working on my own book which I hope to post more about later. One book I really enjoyed reading recently was The Hunger Games.

3. Watching birds eat from my bird feeders. I try to keep the feeders filled so the birds will always come back.

2. Comfort foods, especially hot tea or coffee.

1. The holidays and keeping up with extended family.

Goats and kittens

I love our little farm. We recently added three new members to our family, all within the past week actually, and while I was nervous at first it has actually been a lot of fun.

Our new additions include two squirrelly kittens and a sweet tempered goat. The kittens are sisters and have been a huge comfort to my three year old son, Lincoln, who broke his collar bone a week before. He has suffered a lot of hurt from the fracture, but he won’t take medicine so it’s been a painful healing process.

Thankfully he is feeling much better now, but at the time he was acting out with lots of tantrums and a constant attitude. We really had to reign in our parenting, and stayed home a lot so that we could at least give him the comforts of a steady home environment. The doctors said it would take a couple of months for him to be somewhat healed up, and six months for him to be back to a hundred percent. Right now we are about at the two month mark and thank God he is finally back to his spunky self.

Our other new member of the family is a very kind goat that we have named Blue, courtesy of Lincoln. Blue was given to us by my uncle and aunt who own a larger farm where they raise goats on a regular basis. My father-in-law gave us our original goat, Dandy, when we first moved to our farmhouse so the kids would have an animal to play with, but he has always been lonely. I have been on a mission to find him a friend, and finally my aunt was able to get us a friendly wether, who has been a great match-up with our billy. Both of our kids love to help feed the goats and watch them run and play. Having animals is a lot of work, but it definitely helps teach children (and adults for that matter) responsibility and how to care for God's creation.