Some photos of a spinning wheel I'm looking at.....to buy or not to buy?

One of the supports for the flyer broke off, but could be an easy fix. It's a 3 hour drive to look at in person, though.

Amazing Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

Well, the kids and I have picked about 6 or 7 quarts of strawberries off of our little strawberry 'pyramid' in the yard in the last week. I love strawberry season!

This is a recipe my husband came up with while modifying our go-to vanilla ice cream during last year's strawberry harvest. It's chock-full of strawberries (yes, that's 2 *pounds* of strawberries in there!), so if you don't like your ice cream with more fruit than cream, you can certainly decrease the amount you use. But if you're trying to use up every last one of the berries from your garden, this is a great way to do it!

Amazing Strawberry Ice Cream

2 large eggs
3/4 C. sugar
2 1/2 C. Heavy Cream
2 1/2 C. Milk
2 t. Vanilla
2 lbs. Strawberries, diced

Whisk eggs in mixing bowl until well blended and slightly fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Whisk in sugar a little at a time, continue mixing about 2 minutes. Add in cream, milk, and vanilla and whisk together well. Mix in strawberries and freeze according to your ice cream freezer directions.
*Our freezer makes 2 qts. and this recipe makes more like 3 qts.

Print Grocery List

This recipe is linking up to Tasty Tuesday at Beauty and Bedlam and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace.

Things I Love Thursday--Pioneer Woman!

Have you heard of the Pioneer Woman? Go ahead, check out her blog for a few minutes. I'll wait.

Did you see this section?

Or this one?

What about this?

Yeah, there's even more than all that. I don't know how the woman does it all and manages not to be pronounced insane. But if she's not sane, she at least distracts you with tons of inspiring and motivating articles.

She drove me to make these the other night. And split a whole batch with my husband. We ate them all. Maybe I should do some sit-ups or something now.

She's got a book, too. I bought it for my good buddy for her birthday. Now my good buddy loves the Pioneer Woman, too. I'm just sharing the love, here.

Find more Things I Love Thursday over at the Diaper Diaries!

Works for Me Wednesday: Large-Scale Laundry

With a growing family, comes a growing mountain of laundry! One tool that helps me so much in the War of the Wash is my laundry sorter. Our old one recently bit the dust (i.e. succombed to the terror of the three year old), so I decided to see how we could get along without it for a little while. You know, in the name of saving money.

That didn't last long.

Without my trusty sorter, there were constantly piles of laundry all over the floor. I'd get one day's laundry all sorted, but maybe wouldn't get it finished that day. Then the next day, the kids would come and dump all their mixed-up dirty clothes on top of my 'piles' and......well. It drove me crazy.

My kids all have chores, and one of the kids brings down the dirty laundry from upstairs (The Kid Zone) each morning. Another kid has the chore of sorting the clothes into the 3-slot hamper. Then when I'm ready to start a load, I only need 2 minutes to turn on the washer and grab the duds from the fullest compartment.

It works for me!

For my information....

I know I haven't posted in ages. No excuse but the usual busy-ness with some writer's block thrown in. Anyway, I came across a few websites that I'm going to 'bookmark' here for my own reference, while sharing them with you. Even if you don't have a large family, I'm sure you'll find some interesting and practical information. :)

In A Shoe (I heart the name of this one!)

Larger Families

Large Family Logistics (a recently rediscovered, old favorite)

Mommy Life

Happy Reading, everyone!

Non-Casserole Freezer Cooking Ideas

I just found a great post by Crystal over at Money Saving Mom. She's got ideas for freezer cooking if you and your family don't like casseroles.

I personally really like casseroles, but I've had friends ask me what they can cook ahead if their family doesn't like them. I've really been at a loss as to what to tell them!

Well, now I've got some ideas up my sleeve, and you can too--check out the info HERE.

Thanks, Crystal!

Coupon Preview

If you'd like a preview of what coupons will be included in this week's Sunday papers, check out THIS site. They update in the middle of each week, so it's worth a bookmark.

I buy my papers each week, so if I know there will be some really good ones, I'll buy extra. If the pickings look slim, then I'll just get 2 (always buy an even number so you can take full advantage of buy-one-get-one-free sales).

Happy Couponing!

Homemade Onion Soup Mix--Great Site!

I love this website--I found it a few years back. Her advice is so helpful, and she has a lot of practical ideas for cutting costs and living frugally.

Hillbilly Housewife

Specifically, I wanted to keep track of her recipe to make your own Onion Soup mix--you know, the kind that costs a ridiculous amount of money at the store, considering it's basically beef bullion and dried onions.

Prepare to spend a little time looking around over there, it's a great site.