Almond Poppyseed Muffins

I think it is high time that I started sharing some recipes around here! Especially since cooking is something that I really enjoy.

     This recipe is one we make often. Muffins are a huge favorite around my house, because they are a perfect size snack for everyone, including the little ones, plus there are so many different delicious recipes to choose from, and they are so easy.

     And so, without further ado, I present,

Almond Poppy seed Muffins

 

 

The cast of characters: Honey, butter (or olive oil. That’s what I used.), eggs, milk, vanilla, almond extract, flour (which I cleverly forgot to include in this photo. Aren’t I just wonderful?!) baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds.

Combine all wet ingredients:

1 ½ cup honey

1 cup melted butter (or equal amount of oil)

3 eggs

1 ¾ cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla

2 ½ tsp. Almond extract 

 

Mix these ^together, and then add dry ingredients:

4½ cups flour

2 Tbs. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ cup poppy seeds.

Pour the batter into greased muffin pans, (or use paper cups. It’s easier, people!)

Bake at: 350 degrees for 22-25 minuets

Makes about 1 ½-2 dozen muffins.

          Enjoy!
          These are simply delicious! My family’s always a little disappointed when they find we are out of poppy seeds, ‘cause they’re just not the same without them.

     You can replace the Almond extract with lemon if you prefer lemon favoring. We do that in a pinch (i.e. when we start making these muffins without checking to be sure that we have all the ingredients. :) but we defiantly prefer the almond.

 

Have a lovely saturday!

xo,

Becca

 

 

this is adorable -- and amazing!

Gotta watch this. I guarintee it will make you smile. These kiddos are so adorable, each with their huge guitar, and they have talent!!

 

~ Becca Anne

in which i cannot think of a title

         I love random posts. Where you just mention everything that you’ve thought of during the last few weeks, but didn’t take the time then to do a post.

          So that’s what this post is. Photos and words I really meant to say but never got around to.  Besides, it’s nice to have posts available occasionally, that don’t require tons of planning. It’s makes blogging just that much funner. (Funner. Apparently, according to Microsoft Word, that is not a word. But I’m a homeschooler, and homeschoolers make up words when they can’t find the perfect one. :)          

       First of all, I’d like to introduce a new blogger. One of my good friends just started a book review blog, (after debating about it for a while.) So take a few minutes to check out Hannah’s blog. J

 

This ^ is my life lately. tea and music; two of the very best things on earth.

 



Julia, and her sweet smile. See those teeth missing? I love toothless grins. :)

mom had to be somewhere during school time one day last week, so i brought all my essential schoolwork out into the dining room, in order to help all my siblings with theirs, and maybe do a little myself. I was amazed at how much I thought was essential!

 This is not a photo of the lawn, I promise. This is the field, between the horse pen and the lawn. Isn't it pretty?! Amazing how much green grass can excite this country girlie.

Just as the sun was setting a few nights ago. Everything was cloudy, except the strip on the western horizon. 

 

 

Mom and I found this video last week, during one of our late night youtube experiences. J I laughed hysterically the first time I watched it. So watch it and laugh, people. Gotta wonder what these guy's girls were thinking as they watched their husbands/boyfreinds preform.

And, I’m sure you noticed the new bog design. Isn’t it beautiful! Britt from, Encouragement for Everyday Struggles, designed it for me, and I am in love with it. I was considering having her do it, but just wasn’t sure about asking her, and I finally went to my mom and asked her what she thought about me contacting Britt. Mom’s response was “do it, your blog is SOO boring." :) Anyway, I did, and am so glad I did. Check out her blog and be blessed.

 

And, I have several posts coming up, so hopefully no more long invervels between posts for a little while. :)

 

Do me a favor and go eat some chocolate, 'kay. There's none in the house, and it's about to drive me crazy. So be sure to comment about how wonderful it is, and what kind it happens to be. :)

 

xo :)

Dear October

 

 

Dear October,

     You were lovely this year, and I’m gonna miss you. The highlight of your visit was definitely saving enough to buy my Rebel T2i, although it won’t arrive for a couple more weeks. The day night Thomas picked that up was so excited. I could have screamed, and I did run around the house like crazy absolutely in shock that it had really happened.  I love that Korean guy that sold it to “me” for a hundred bucks less than I could get it over here in the states. I could have given him a hug, and probably would have if I’d been there, so I guess it was a good thing I wasn’t, ‘cause that woulda creeped him out, and I wouldn’t want to do that!

     And you brought the rain with you. That made me happy. I love the rain, so anything that brings rain makes me happy. Thanks, October.

     Anyway, thanks for visiting, (not that you had a choice in the matter!)  and be sure to come again next year! Can’t wait to see you then.

Love,

The girl in the orange socks.

cute boy named Caleb

 

 

This is Caleb, and he’s three. He’s sweet, adorable, and oh so busy! He’s always making some craft or another, or leaving a trail of tiny pieces of paper all over the living room, left over from a paper cutting session. He smiles the cutest, he just can't help scrunching his face up all funny when I tell him to smile in front of a camera. I was out milking my goats a couple mornings ago, and felt the urge to take portraits, so I grabbed the nearest kid, (Caleb. :) and perched him on the fence. So I could get the sky in the photo, ya see… He was too short to get the sky in the photo any other way!! :)

     And then we got the classic “boy and dog look into the distance,” photo. That’s such a classic, and it happens almost every time I pose one of the kids with the dog. I think it’s cute!!  

       Haven’t I got the cutest siblings in the world?!

xo,

Becca Anne

Isn't he cute?!

This little guy is probably the cutest baby ever. Or, at least currently. :) I love babies, and I adore this one, so I’ll shut-up and just let you look at the photos. :)

 

Ohh, ok, so I just can’t shut-up for even a moment, but that’s beside the point!! Those are his initials, and we thought it was cute to put the foam letters on his back, and take a picture while he sat there splashing, blissfully unaware of what was going on around him.

 

Cute?!?

Aren’t his eyes absolutely, totally, completely, undeniably… amazing?

Those are his first teeth, he’s now proudly sports five!!

I’m holding him on my lap right now, and one second he’s sucking his thumb like every innocent child does, and the next second he’s decided to take on typing, and win an award for the youngest speed typist. 

  Cfdv yg kbb   bkrbbtbkx              ll moo

N]t y’/ bbhj8v7   56gofvii  uico cio c ugc u x ix xh mkn  fydbx………

…….he says hi… :)  (And yes, he did type that.)

Hope you’re having a wonderful day, lovies,

xo,

Becca Anne

cute things I bought // and didn't need

My dad just got a job up in the Grand Coulee Dam area, driving a delivery  truck for Franz Bread, so we drove up to spend a couple days with him this past week. We found an adorable antique shop in a little town about 20 minutes from the Dam.  I found this little guy, ^ and instantly fell head-over-heels with this necklace. The owl trend is really adorable, I must admit!!

Isn’t it way too cute?!? I don’t wear watches, but I couldn’t resist this one!!!!

 

I  also found this leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre at Michaels in Yakima.  Books are something that I just can’t resist, especially ones I’ve come to love. My mom and I have very different opinions of this book; she thinks it’s creepy, and I love it to death!! :)

And I found this adorable note pad. Music is my thing, so it’s perfect for me.   

And, last but not least, this is a stamp, and I plan to use it on the back of all my envelopes. It is so cute!! Yes, I already tried it. In fact, I wrote a letter to a friend the day we got back, just so I could use it!!! (That and the fact that I owed her a letter. :)

 

How was your week, lovelies, and what's the best thing about fall? i am totally loving this weather. Rain is the best. :)

 

xo,

Becca

 

 

 

us two // in the future

 

One of my very best friends, Sierra,  sent me this photo in an email, and said “ I found this photo, and it reminded me of us…in the future!!”  I loved it!! It will totally be us, up until unearthly hours of the night (which are the best, by the way, for discussing story ideas.) drinking tea, eating chocolate, with Faith, her lovely cat (also the one of the two cats I actually like) hanging around in the shadows. I love friends. Especially when they put up with a lot of weirdness and randomness. And this one does!! 

xo,

Becca

canning // love never fails

          Ya know, I kind of get tired of apologizing between long breaks of posting, ‘cause I’m amazing at not posting, so I guess I won’t apologize, (meaning I won’t say, imsorryiwasbusyanduninspiredandboring. Yah.) but I will say that I’ve been  busy. (Imagine that!!) Mom and I have been canning like it was going out of style, and now have almost 400 quarts of assorted food waiting to be devoured by our hungry family this winter. (random side note. Does anybody out there ever notice a word, and suddenly thinks “that word looks SO weird!” Or is it just me. Hungry is a weird word!!) Anyway, we’ve done tomatoes, cherries, pears, pear sauce, plum jam, grape juice, veggie stew, salsa, PLUS drying a bunch of pears, and making a bunch of freezer pear jam. And we are in the process of making a TON of applesauce. So that’s what I’ve been up to. Plus the normal things like reading and a little school.

 

 

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~

     Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

 

       I love these verses. God’s perfect plan for love looks exactly like that. Think of what life would be like if we all loved each other like that. Unfortunately, I’m so far away from that picture of love it’s not even funny. I physically can't love like that, but God can, and that is the way he loves imperfect me. It doesn't matter what I do, his love never fails. Isn't that beautiful, and completely mind-blowing?

       Brandon Heath captures the flow of these verses perfectly, in his song Love never fails, (below) and I've been singing it a lot since I heard it sung at a wedding in July. i love to think of this as a love song from God to us, and then us singng the chorus back. Listen to this, and be blown away, people!!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

     I’m excited. I’ve been saving this summer for a new camera, as mine is dying really quickly, and I picked out the one I want a few months ago. I started looking at prices, and finally mentioned it to my brother. He told me to wait to buy it until he could look in Seol, to see if he could get it any cheaper. He did last weekend and I was thrilled to learn that I can get it $100 bucks cheaper than if I bought it online here in the states. Needless  to say, I am excited!! So, sometime in the next month I’ll be getting my Canon Rebel T2i. I’m even thinking about naming it, but I’m not sure about that. It seems like fun, but kinda weird at the same time. :) I never did name the Rebel DSLR I have currently… We’ll have to think about this… lol

 

One of those ramdom posts...

...in which you post all the photos that are fun and random, but you can't post anywhere else. :p 

 

 

 

 I'm not sure why sunflare photos are so amazing. I think I'll have to think about that.

And a little preview of our trip to Lost Lake. (why on earth is it lost?!)