"Bacon Cheeseburger Potato Pie"

I just had to share this recipe that I found on Pillsbury.com for Bacon Cheeseburger Pie. Oh my, but it is good!

We still have quite a bit of hamburger from a bulk order from a local butcher. I needed to try something new and this looked great. Plus, I usually will always have all the ingredients on hand.

Plus it makes 8 servings, so it's great for a big family.

Ingredients for meat mixture:

1 1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 c bread crumbs or crushed saltines

1/4 c chopped onion

1/4 c ketchup

2 tsp mustard

Salt & pepper

Mix this together, then press into pie plate and make sure you press it all up the sides. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 deg. F for 20 mins.

Rest of ingredients;

4 medium cooked potatoes

2 tbsp butter

1/2 c milk

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 c cheese

3 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

2 tbsp green onion, chopped

While meat is cooking mix;

Potatoes, butter, milk, garlic power, salt and 1/2 of the cheese.

When meat has cooked 20 mins, remove from oven and pour off any drippings. Then spread potato mixture over it. Bake for 20 mins more.

After 20 mins, remove from oven and sprinkle remaining cheese and bacon. Bake for 10 mins.

Remove and sprinkle with green onions.

Slice and serve with salt and pepper and sour cream. I think it was the sour cream that made this my favorite way to eat hamburger, because I really don't like hamburger. But you can bet I'll eat this again!

Here we are in Ponoka, AB in April and here is a picture of my apple orchardfrom yesterday. One row of trees is under water. It's so funny, because I look at pictures on other peoples blogs and they have pictures of beautiful apple blossoms, with green lush grass in the background, (which I can almost smell in my mind) and the sun is shining wonderfully. Then I look at my little trees, which lost all their blossoms last year due to frost and I pray that God will allow them to grow and produce wonderful, yummy fruit. As I type this, the sun IS shining and has now melt the extra 3 inches of snow we woke up to this morning off the road and our driveway. My husband is watching hockey and the boys are outside in the mud, so I feel like I can take a moment to make this new post. I think God is trying to teach us here in Ponoka, AB to be content in all circumstances and to glorify him all the same. And that's what I'll do, praise God!

Striped T-shirt skirt Part 1

Rebekah did the neatest little project the other day that we got from a website. Here is a link to this craft; kids-sewing-projects.com/t-shirt-skirt. It only took us about 4 hours and it turned out pretty cool. Here are the instructions on how we did it. First we cut 7" bands of t-shirt. To get the t-shirts, we just went to the thrift store for bag sale and got tons for $5.00! So, we cut strips of all the colours we wanted in the skirt. Becky wanted to make it 4 stripes long.

So here is her colour scheme. Light blue, white and black. We cut all the bottom hems off the the bands, except for the strip we were placing on the bottom of the skirt. That way the skirt was already hemmed.

Before we started sewing them together. We measured Becky's widest spot and sewed side seams on all the bands to be that width.

Please see Part 2 for the rest.

Striped T-shirt skirt Part 2

This how we were going to sew the bands together.Rebekah is sewing the first 2 bands together. We over-lapped them with right sides together, making sure we sewed on the opposite side of the hem. Also, we had to make sure we lined up the side seams. (After we had finished this project, I thought it might have been easier to make the bands1" too big, then when we were done, just sew 1/2" seams on both sides. That way it would be a very neat seam along the side.)

Here she is sewing the next band on.

To finish the skirt, we just used an elastic waist band, which Becky is pulling through the area we sewed for it.

And voila! Here is a new skirt made out of recycled t-shirts. It's so cool because you can do any colour combo and any size. Now we are looking forward to offering this as a class for the homeschooling girls next month.

After much research, we have been able to name our friendly owl visitor. It was a Northern Saw-Whet Owl. This owl only weighs between 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 oz and only stands 7-8 inches tall. It can live up to 16 years, although with this long winter, there may not be enough food for the owls. This is part of it's permanent, natural habitat. Our little owl stayed 3 days in our barn, but now it's gone. My husband was able to touch it and stood a few inches from it.

Winter Lapbook - Snowflake Window Clingers

We did a fun, quick project as part of our winter lapbook that we are working on. We learned a little bit about snow, so we made snowflake window clingers.


It was so easy! We printed templates of snowflakes off the internet, or if you are more talented than me, you can draw snowflakes on paper. Then put a clear zip lock bag over the template. Next, using fabric or 3D paint, go over the lines of the snowflake, squeezing as you go.



Now let dry and then peel the snowflakes off. We used white and silver paint.




Stick them on your windows and they really do stick! We might try this for different holidays as well. Like leaves for fall or pretty flowers for spring.

Owl In The Barn

This morning, my wonderful husband came in from the barn to tell us we had a little owl hanging out with the chickens. So we all raced to get our winter stuff on, (it was -27) and went to see it. He is such a cute little guy.

It's so fun when we get to see these unexpected visitors. Like when we had an emu looking at us through our kitchen window. Of course and owl isn't as exotic, but it's fun all the same.