Kristens.page – Page 2 – This Kind of Love

One year in our home!

The saying “Time flies when you’re having fun” really applies to us here at our “new” house. It’s not so new anymore, we’ve just celebrated our first year anniversary here! Can you believe it has been an entire year since we closed on our forever home! I can’t! Our first home on Roseberry Street almost seems like a distant memory yet it feels like we just got here yesterday- Crazy how that works-

We were truly blessed with this home and how well the previous owners took care of it, so there wasn’t a bunch of repairs needed. We really just did a few cosmetic changes. Removed popcorn ceilings (thank God we paid someone to do that chore! LOL Looked rough), painted all the living spaces and master bedroom, laid new carpet upstairs, installed a new AC unit, Jason ran electric from the cabin to the barn and its awesome! When we have parties we can now have the, well for one the big light pole on but we can now have the projection screen up and watch movies on the lawn!! We did plenty of yard work – and still more to go- but we cleared out a space for a container gardens and picnic tables! I will post a separate blog on that- it’s a lot on its own. Picked a ton of blueberries and made tons of blueberry cobblers. Fresh picked flowers from my yard are definitely my favorite kind now- For mother’s day, Jason and the goobers bought me a Blackstone grill and with the picnic table for Santa brought me, I’ll be “the hostess with the mostest??” LOL Can we say Hibachi Sundays please!!

We still don’t have everything exactly the way it will end up but that’s the perk of it being a forever home right… we have awhile to get it just the way we want it! I’ve already shared a few things we’ve done in other posts, but this round I’m going to share pictures.

It’s Muscadine Jelly time!

I had so much fun making this! This is the first time we’ve experienced picking muscadines and I am so glad we have them! As soon as I saw we had muscadines on the property I wanted to make jelly and wine. I haven’t started on the wine yet, but I did make jelly! After picking well over 5 gals I knew I would have plenty to experiment on.

Below you will find my first attempt to making jelly. It was super simple but tasted great! All I needed was some fresh bread or biscuits and boy oh boy we would have been set!!

Ingredients:

4 lbs of Muscadine Grapes (I used about 12 cups)
1 1.75 oz pk of Sure Jell Pectin
6 cups of Sugar
1/2 tsp of butter
pinch of salt
canning jars (I used 12 4oz jars and 1 pint jar it’s just what I had on hand)

potato masher
large pot to boil
wire mesh strainer

Directions:

First I sanitized the jars. I cheated- I was a bit intimidated by sterilizing jars; something about boiling hot water, hot sugary liquid, and glass make me nervous. So I googled an alternative sterilization method and found you can sterilized them in the oven. The proper way is obviously to boil them and if you’re brave enough, go for it! If you’re a wimp like me, heat the jars in the oven at 225 Fahrenheit for at least 15 minutes and leave them in there until you are filling them with your jelly. They will be pretty hot so use a dish towel to handle them when filling.
Put the grapes and about 2 cups of water into a large pot, 5 quarts or larger, on the stove over high heat. Bring to a boil and continue for 10 minutes, stirring often.
After the 10 mins comes the fun part, mash them grapes! I used the potato masher on the grapes for 10 mins and stirred frequently. This step is SO important. You’ll want to make sure the Muscadines are crushed very well. This will make the rest of the process so much easier. After you’ve brought the fruit to a rolling boil, simmer on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally and I smashed again (a total of 10-20mins boiling)
Empty the pot through a coarse-mesh strainer into a large bowl, then use a spoon to force the grapes through the sieve. Discard any remaining solids. Pour the reserved liquid through a fine-mesh strainer into another bowl, again discarding the solids.
Once the dripping stopped I gently pushed on the fruit until I had 5 cups of juice and poured the juice back into the large pot.
Stir 1 pack of Sure Jell fruit pectin into the prepared juice. If desired, add 1/2 tsp of butter to reduce foaming. I did this and I think it helped.
Bring mixture to a full rolling boil on high heat stirring constantly (a rolling boil is one that doesn’t stop when you stir it).
Once mixture comes to a full rolling boil, add sugar and a pinch of salt, return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute. This is where your Muscadine Jelly will start looking like jelly.
Remove pot from heat and skim off any foam with a metal spoon.
Immediately ladle juice into jars filling them nearly full (you’ll want to leave about 1/4″ space). Wipe the rims and sides of jars. Cover with lids and rings and tighten. All that’s left is letting the jars of jelly cool and then enjoy! You should refrigerate the jelly and use it within three months.

I am a child of God

Dear Heavenly Father,

You are mighty beyond words. How great Thou art! You alone are holy. You alone make us new and make us Yours.

I lift up my child to you O Lord, and I surrender my heart. May the blood of Christ wash over her, may her sins be thrown into the depths of sea (Micah 7:19). May she welcome her Savior into her soul. May she see His compassion, His grace and truth, and treasure them more than anything else! (Matthew 6:21)

May she delight in Her Creator and King, and desire to serve You all the days of her life. May Your song be upon her spirit (Psalm 118:14), may Your Word be an anchor in her mind. May her peace come from Your salvation, may her joy come from Your praise.

May You protect her purity and guard her heart from temptation. May she work humbly and walk boldly in faith!

When triumph comes may she worship You, when trouble comes may she still worship You. When she lacks knowledge, when she lacks wisdom, increase her fear of You and lead her to You in full faith (James 1:5). When she is downtrodden, draw near to her in comfort. When she wanders, may You find her (Luke 15).

Lord, empower me to care for her and love her as You do, to point her to You every step of the way. Lord, remind me continually that she is Yours. Yours to mold, Yours to use for your glory.

May I commit her to You, every day. Forgive me when my heart insists its own way, instead of listening to Your perfect plan. Her life is in Your hands, may this I always understand. Amen.

Brayklee and JayceeRae gave me the best early birthday gift a child could give a parent! After much thought, prayer and learning what it truly meant; they decided after VBS this year that they were ready to be baptized! On Sunday August 22, 2021 my girls were baptized at New Covenant Church of God by our Pastor Marc Campbell and their youth Pastor Tricia Mayer. They are such a blessing and I cannot wait to watch their relationship with Christ grow.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it
Proverbs 22:6

School’s out for the Summer!

Happy last day of school! Even though we are SO READY for Summer, we are SUPER sad to be leaving JPES. They have not only been amazing with the kiddos but to the family as well. We have been so blessed with such great teachers at JPES. Yes, I say “we” because they have also been amazing to Jason and I. They get to see and spend more time with my babies during the day than I do so knowing that they are being taken care of and loved means the world to me. Almost everyone of them has sent pictures or texts to me during the day- and they deal with me being “extra” and even with my “Helicopter Mom” ways-I appreciate that. They have shown up to birthday parties, sporting events; they don’t just stop at the classroom. The girls passed with A Honor Roll and Jax with S+.

Making memories at Gardening with Grandma, muffins w/mom, donuts w/dad, father daughter dances, Veteran’s Day celebrations allowing my grandparents to come have breakfast at school with their great grands just some of the things experienced at JPES that will be special to us. Brayklee will be moving up to middle school, I’m terrified. JayceeRae will be a 4th grader and Jaxon a big 1st grader! I know they will do well, they’re good smart kids but still terrified. AND next year will start the time where each of them will be in a different school. Elementary, Intermediate and Middle- Lord be with me with drop offs…

Monkey Grass Kicked my… tush!

Who’s idea was it to relocate the Liriope again??? ME, it was me… I was the smart one who decided to relocate over a hundred “sprigs” of monkey grass from one section to another in the nice, hot, dry, SC dirt! It took a bit, but I finished the front walkway area this weekend, and actually this weekend was the easiest section. Not sure if it was the really awesome tool I found at Marvins or the fact it wasn’t 90+ degrees outside and it had rained the day before. I sure hope it sticks and grows in as full as it is in other spots throughout the yard. I am happy with it though. I just don’t like playing the waiting game –

Jason and I also went galivanting this Saturday and found a really cute “She Shed” sign for the cabin aka my she shed lol and the to my surprise Rhanda made me the doormat I told her about! She did awesome-It looks great!

We got a lot done this weekend, it was nice too- just quality down time with the hubby tinkering around the house. Oh! and beside hanging things Jason took down the chandelier and I painted it a Rubbed Oil Bronze! It turned out sooo good- I love it! And he installed a new fan in the frog …We still have tons to do but it’s coming around!

We’re “planting” the roses…

Coral…. and pink! HAHA- This past weekend I planted some coral drift roses and pink double knock-out roses. I hope they take, dang roses are expensive! Now we just need to get a few truck loads of mulch and lay it down.

I also planted two Brown Turkey Fig trees. We named them “Fig” and “Ro”) like… Figaro, the cat off Pinocchio. We got them from the BEC “Energy Saving” Arbor Day foundation sale, did you know BEC does that? They offer you two trees at half price when you order through them around Arbor Day.

I chose Lavender as one of my potted plants on the front porch, it smells so good and even better…keeps the mosquitos away! I haven’t been able to get a good picture of our new patio furniture, but I love it! The ferns I bought the other day have already doubled in size, they really pretty!

Jason had to climb up on the roof and repair some soffit- We had a squirrel die somewhere in the walls- MAN talk about Stiiinnkkky!! I think Jason is having fun taking care of the yard, I know I am! There’s something new I find each time I go out there- The purple petunias that are EVERYWHERE, I potted one and gifted to Rhanda and Brynleigh this weekend. The previous owner called them “Aunt Jackie’s” I name my potted plant “Aunt K’s ! oh! and I finally found the blueberries… I added some flowers up by the front gate and mailbox too, i hope they do ok too- I forget to water those and there’s no water hose near by…. oops … We still have a TON to do but it’s been fun

Our Forever Home…

So you know how we said last May how we started the process on our new home and how excited we were… Well come to find out, the Lord had other plans and boy were the pretty awesome. I’m not going to lie, the building process was fun, exciting and we couldn’t have been more thrilled, but things didn’t go the way we planned. I was grumpy one day because things weren’t moving how I wanted them and started looking at already built listings. I was getting my hair colored by my girl Josie at Salon Fringe and she sent the listing (while I was processing of course), drove by right afterwards and gushed.

The moment I saw the listing, I instantly fell in love. I felt like a complete stalker as when you drive down the lane the house is the only one on it and I wasn’t aware. That didn’t stop me though haha, I started taking pictures and video to show Jason, who was in Hawaii on tdy at the time, and right then I wanted to schedule a tour. It was everything we could imagine and more, y’all it’s so beautiful! The Oak trees alone had me smitten. I didn’t care what the house looked like inside I knew this was our forever home and we neeeeeded it.

There is a barn, cabin, stables, a gazebo even a POND! 10 acers of pure bliss. I started seeing us there- Thanksgiving family football games, fishing in the backyard, playing outside, gardening, hayrides for Halloween Parties, plenty of space for Mags to run, birthday parties you name it. When Jason saw it, he too fell in love at first sight. We prayed long and hard, and the lord saw fit. On January 14, 2021 we closed on our forever home, my sister’s 26th birthday! We shared cake with her at the house that day- The house too is just as amazing, there’s a huge fire place in the living room – when I saw it, “Prom Pics” were the first thing to come to mind. Then upstairs, there’s space between the walls like secret hideaways – That’s something to see in person too unique to explain. But y’all can imagine it was a huge hit with the kids. One of my favorite things are the huge windows – especially the window over the kitchen sink looking into the back yard, where I envision the kiddos getting dirty and playing while I cook dinner and maybe a wedding or two as the children grow?

I cannot wait to completely make this house our home. I will post more as updates happen.

Mama’s Sweet Potato Crunch

This time of year everyone is passing around their favorite recipes. The Mac and Cheese that was so cheesy and creamy… the Greenbean Casserole that was oh so delicious… and the pecan pie that was to die for on thanksgiving day. Well I just participated in one of these recipe exchanges and when trying to think of my favorite recipe to make this time of year, I thought of my Mama’s Sweet Potato Crunch! The story behind this recipe-

I was 22 years old and visiting my boyfriend’s (now husband) family for the first time in Florida for Thanksgiving. I got there and his mom said “ok Kristen what will you be making for the dinner party?” I was so nervous… I mean I baked and cooked with mom all the time at home, but this was a family (a LARGE Cuban family at that lol- she has 7 sisters!) that I have never met and definitely didn’t know what they liked and didn’t like to eat! Plus, I know it’s silly, but I was totally intimidated… they call “dressing” STUFFING! LOL y’all southerners will understand. Haha- I called mom and she told me I couldn’t go wrong with Sweet Potato Crunch. I took her word and she was absolutely correct! They raved over it! The dish was completely empty when cleaning up. It has been a go to ever since. One of my husband’s cousins has even called to get the recipe for their Christmas dinners since. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Serves- 6-8

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup white granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 12oz can evaporated milk

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1 tsp pure vanilla

Topping:

1/2 regular-size Yellow cake mix (dry)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup pecan chopped

Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Pour sweet potato mixture into greased 9″ x 13″ cake pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix on top. Cover with chopped pecans. Drizzle melted butter or margarine on top of pecans. Bake for approximately 1 hour. Cool. Cut into squares. Serve with whipped topping (optional, I like it just as is).

FL vs KY at The Swamp 2020 Go Gators!

Florida Gator did not disappoint this past Saturday in Gainesville, FL!!

Jason took us to see his UF Gators kick some KY Wildcat bootie! It was definitely different with Covid stipulations, but it was still a great game! The atmosphere was still “Chompin'”, the weather was beautiful and the kiddos thoroughly enjoyed their first college football game!

Saturday we explored the campus, enjoyed the game and watched the bats go out at night.- a pretty neat experience if you ever get the chance!- Brayklee is set on becoming a FL Gator herself. She was over the moon. Both girls made a “Vlog” while out and about and Jaxon ogled over all the Go Gator photo ops!

Brycen Chandler

AKA my Bacon Cheese Burger (B.C.B.) Brycen, the one who made me Auntie KK! This spunky dude has a very special place in my heart and always will! He is the sweetest lil guy who protects his Momma and Brynleigh Mae, is his daddy’s sidekick and adores the mess out of my Jax! The BIG 3 this year! He loves playing pretend play, making “potions” and riding his tractor in the back yard. Even though some days it’s a hit or miss if I’m getting a hug or selfie with you I know you love me just as much as I do you! Well…. maybe not as much I love you more so ha! I can’t wait to watch you and the other goobs grow into amazing little people! “You are a delight to watch, pure bliss to experience and joy to behold!” Happy Birthday big boy!