My Frank Sinatra Kick

I love Frank Sinatra. His early movies from the 40's and 50's and his singing. I don't support or like his lifestyle he led, nor the choices he made, but golly do I love his voice! :) I have exactly 84 songs sung by Frank Sinatra on my computer. :) Including Christmas hits! :) But I mainly listen to the songs from his movies. Such as, "The Right Girl for Me" from Take me Out to the Ball Game.........that song leaves no room for wondering why bobbysoxers swooned over him. :)

Ol' Blue Eyes singing "La Ci Darem La Mano" from Mozart's Don Giovanni

From the movie It Happened in Brooklyn

Frankie crooning "It's the Same Old Dream" from It Happened in Brooklyn

Can anybody tell which movie of his I like best? :) It Happened in Brooklyn is my absolute favorite Frank Sinatra movie! Other than the fantastic music, I love, love LOVE who stars in it. Frank Sinatra as Danny Miller; Kathryn Grayson as Anne Fielding and the dashing Peter Lawford as Jamie Shellgrove-a shy, piano-playing guy from England. Can it seriously get any better?! Especially Peter Lawford's role. I didn't know who to look at in the scenes with both Peter Lawford AND Frank Sinatra. I kept thinking, "Well Frank Sinatra can sing......but Peter Lawford is just so sweet and sincere......how to choose!!??"

His 'puppy-dog' look. :) He seems to think he likes her a lot. :)

*Sigh* And he knows he's in love with her.

The most important question is.......how does Kathryn Grayson choose!?

Personally, I would've agonized over both of them for weeks and then chose Peter Lawford. What? I'm a sucker for shy, music/piano loving, sweet, sincere and not to mention handsome characters. :) But I still 'melt' every time I hear Frankie's voice. :)


When I first heard Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson sing "La ci Darem la Mano" while dancing around a little Italian bistro, I immediately loved that song. It's an opera, so my family isn't so thrilled about hearing it, but that's why I have my Mp3 player. :) And self-restraint from attempting to hit a high note. :)

"La ci darem la mano...."

And Peter Lawford's character Jamie played the piano the whole time!

Thank you, to Ella who kindly lent me this movie.....I'm hooked. :) And I'll return it to you soon.

I was literally hopping up and down when I picked up from the library, Frank Sinatra in Hollywood 6 CD set collection. The second and third discs were my favorite. :) They had all the songs he sang from Anchors Aweigh and It Happened in Brooklyn. The third disc had all the songs from Take Me Out to the Ball Game and On the Town-two of Ronnie's favorites. :) They're so cool! Some of them had outtakes, extended versions and beautifully remastered versions of all his songs. I was in heaven! :) Now I'm just waiting to get the sheet music for La ci Darem la Mano out of the library. :)

So in closing and with chores awaiting, I will leave you with a lyric to one of his later hit songs.......

I'm going my way. :)

Another hockey night in Pittsburgh!

It was another hockey night in Pittsburgh...or at least in Bethel Park! I went to watch Ronnie tonight at hockey. Every other week, they scrimmage and the opposite weeks they do drills...I don't feel to badly if I miss drills, but I try not to miss a scrimmage game. My dad went with me tonight and Ronnie was excited to have his grandfather there. (out on the ice, a lot of the little boys look the same and it can be hard to find yours in the crowd...we learned a long time ago, to put different colored hockey stockings on him, and he has his name and a flag on his helmet....Here he is in the center starting after the puck
I swear that Ron has just as much if not more fun than Ronnie!


Ronnie 'digging' for the puck

it's hard getting pictures thru the plexiglass...I finally learned to turn off the flash

Here is Ronnie with my dad, his Zedoh...one of Ronnie's biggest fans!

Look at these smiles...anything these two do together is always special!


~Now my little ones are off to bed, and so am I! I think I'm still cold from the skating rink...those places are cold! It's such fun watching my children do their activities...maybe next year Anna will find her special activity, too.

Goodnight! ~Sue~

Mulligan...a family tradition!

Quick post...many people had asked "What is mulligan?!" Well...for any of my cousins or sisters reading this, they'll know right away. My grandmother used to make it for my mother and her three sisters...and I know my mom and aunts have made it over the years...for us...it is comfort food....memories of childhood. It is also a thrifty meal that can stretch to feed many people. It's very simple, and here it is!

Mulligan

brown 1 pound ground meat, drain and cook 1 chopped onion with it.

cook elbow macaroni until al denti, drain and rinse. (rinsing is very important)

add 1 large can tomato sauce, 1 can tomato soup and some water (or tomato juice) , salt and pepper

Mix it all together...and only add as much water or tomato juice so that it is nice and juicy as the pasta will absorb some liquid. That's it! (it's really good with a little parmesean cheese) We usually have salad or green beans with it...or even just cut up some cucumbers.

We use gf macaroni, and organic sauce and soup when we can afford it...if not, it still beats the ingredients in hamburger helper! Enjoy! ~Sue~

Menu plan Monday!

It's here again! Every week, I am more and more challenged to plan healthy menus for our family as inexpensively as possible...and to do it gluten free, soy free and healthy. I'm getting excited about it, actually. Here is this weeks menu:

Monday
Hot brown rice cereal with apples & raisins
leftovers ( we have so many leftovers in the fridge!)
homemade baked beans, cornbread, salad

Tuesday
GF lemon blueberry scones, yogart
GF pizza, veggies
chicken veg't stir fry with brown rice

Wednesday
oatmeal with apples/raisins
leftover beans/cornbread/veggies

Thursday
eggs, turkey sausage, potatoes, fruit
grilled ham/cheese sandwiches, veggies
venison steaks, mushrooms, peppers, sweet potatoes, green beans

Friday
GF blueberry pancakes
broccoli cheese quiche, beets, cucumbers
white beans with bacon and sage, mushroom polenta, salad

Saturday
oatmeal, w/apples & raisins
brown rice, lentil casserole, salad
turkey soup, GF biscuits

Sunday
cereal, bananas
GF pizza, salad
mulligan, veggies

~Sue~

Busy week...and God's goodness!

My goodness....this has been an unusually busy week around here. (right now, I have a little calico cat curled up on my hands and wrists...it's a little hard to type right now) LOL (late Saturday evening....)

At the end of a particularly busy time in our lives, I've found that when it is over and life settles down again, I see God's hand helping me thru...and the blessings that were the results.

We had a nice 2 day visit with my Mom, who we hadn't seen since December. She had been in Alabama helping my aunt after surgery. We enjoyed watching Ty 2 days this week....a wonderful day-long visit with dear friends, a couple cubscout events , a visit with our old friends and neighbors and our churches progressive dinner.

Now...Ron and I had never been to a progressive dinner and had no idea what to expect. We had so much fun! First, we were directed to have appetizers at the home of our good friends, the Skiles home. There, we were able to fellowship people from our church for a little while, and were able to meet some people that we hadn't had the opportunity to get to know before. We were then handed our itinerary for the evening. We then traveled to another home for soup/salad...and again, wonderful fellowship. One of the things that was nice, was that in between, Ron and I felt like we were on a 'date'....we laughed, and were able to talk uninterrupted by little ones. After our soup/salad, we headed to the church office to co-host one of the main courses. For our final destination, we headed to a home of friends from our caregroup for dessert. What a sweet spread! We laughed and had a lot of fun....and are looking forward to it next year. Now....it is time to REST after church...no one is going anywhere, no one is coming over....we're all going to rest, enjoy each other's company and have a relaxing dinner....with no one rushing out the door.

One thing that this week has taught me, is that our family does not do very well, with lots of activities. We are really praying about guarding our family time....and down time. Not sure how that will look in the future, but I know God has a plan and for our family, it is NOT to be running out the door every evening. Many women get a 'nesting' instinct before a child is born...well, I think I get that instinct everyday...I love the warm, homey, old-fashioned, slower pace of life....at home. I'm definitely a homebody! Oh, I am definitely happiest when home...and I love having guests here with us as well. Tonight after a simple dinner of potato pancakes, applesauce and sweet/sour red cabbage, we'll light a fire, have a little family devotion time, crochet and just hang out together around the fire....maybe add a little popcorn and an old movie to finish the evening.

I wanted to share a portion of some lyrics that we sang at church this morning , they really blessed me.

'Blessed be Your name, when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's all as it should be, blessed be Your name.

Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering, blessed be Your name.

Ev'ry blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say...Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your name! Blessed be Your glorious name!

You give and take away...you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name.'

May you all have a peaceful day and a blessed, restful Sabbath! ~Sue~

Nature Pictures

Today it was beautiful outside, so I took advantage of the weather to snap some shots of Ronnie and Anna. Here are some of the best:Anna and I had just finished 'dance class' and I had to take some pictures of her in her leotard! HOW CUTE! She has on her angelic smile, adorable!

I have a 'thing' for pictures with trees :o) Ronnie with his Blue Bear... he was leaning on a car by the way :) Without even trying, I made Ronnie blurry, but the background more focused... hmmm A hunk of log fell down into our yard a week or two ago and provided us with great picture seats!I love the brick! I needed a change of scenery (so to speak) from trees and leaves.

Well, those are the best; email me if you want to see the others... more pictures soon!

Tagged & Awarded!

WE HAVE BEEN AWARDED! Not just a, "Whoever wants this, take it" kind of thing, but we were specifically awarded the excellence in blogging award!

I AWARD:

Ella

Lydia

Bekah

Rose

Southern Maiden

I was also tagged to do this...here are the instructions:

1. the rules: erase my answers and put yours in. Use the first letter of your name to answer ALL of the following questions. If the person before you has the same 1st letter pick a new one. You CAN NOT use anything twice, and you CAN NOT use your own name for the boy/girl question. After you are done, tag 5 people...

Here is my tag:

. What is your name? Sara
2. A 4 letter word: Star
3. A boy's name: Samuel
4. A girl's name: Samantha
5. An occupation: Singer
6. A color: sienna
7. Something you wear: shirt
8. A Food: steak
9. Something found in the bathroom: soap
10. A place: South Park

11. A reason for being late: stomach ache
12. Something you shout: SUPER!

13. A movie title: Sense and Sensibility!!!!!!! Woohoo!
14. Something you drink: SODA

15. An animal: snake
16. A song title: Savior Song (rachael lampa)
17. A verb: swings

I tag Dani, Lydia, Bekah, and Ella!

Eternal perspective.....

Tonight was our monthly homeschooling support meeting. You know there are times when you feel that you need to be somewhere, and the enemy tries every which way he can to thwart God's plan? Well...today was one of those days. But...again, the enemy was defeated.

We had a speaker tonight who's topic was eternal perspective...eternal focus in our homes...with our children. This is her last year of homeschooling...I think it's her 20th year. She, her husband and children are in full time missionary ministry thru Heaven's family. http://www.heavensfamily.org/ The most important thing that she spoke on, and the reminder for me was so timely, was keeping our focus on things/activities/homeschooling that have eternal value. Not that academics are not important, but that teaching about who God is, and what His word says and helping them have a personal relationship with Jesus has so much more importance than any 'schooling' that we do.

We all spoke a lot about things of eternal value and eternal perspective. Becky shared all about the different missionary ministries that they have, particularly about the orphanages that they support and help run. Three weeks ago, she just got back from Myanmar. (formerly Burma...which I didn't know) Myanmar is a 3rd world country in Asia. As she described her trip and her journey to one particular orphanage, my thoughts listening to her ran the gamut from "oh, those poor children! And, how do people live like that?!" to...".oh, my goodness how can we (meaning our country) be so very focused on money and the economic climate, recession, depression that we are experiencing now, when we are and will continue to be the richest country in the world?! Wow...does our family have so very much of everything we need...and we have it in abundance! As simply as we live, we could live so much simpler...and we could live everyday with gratitude and contentment. Money has no eternal value. People have eternal value. Caring for each other, our brothers and sisters in Christ has eternal value...whether the caring is done here or overseas. But these children! They have so little, especially compared with my children...they don't even have parents...and yet, they know the Lord, they are joyful and grateful....she told a story that thanks to this ministry, one particular orphanage was able to have rice and vegetables everyday and they were especially grateful to now have chicken once a week. They were GRATEFUL to have chicken once a week!

I wanted to post all of this while it was fresh in my mind. I wanted to write it down to talk about with my children tomorrow...and to remember as we're doing our schoolwork, that the time I spend with my children reading and discussing God's word, the time that we sing worship together, the time we spend praying together has much, much more eternal value than any books or knowledge we get from academic studies.

We will be looking into ways that we can help these people and orphans...even in our uncertain economic climate. Because...I know that our God provides...and if He is leading us to provide for the 'least of these'...then I know He will provide for us as well. And, oh, Dear Father...forgive me for my times of ungratefulness and discontent! Help me to avoid worldly distractions and spend as much time as I can with my children praising You and reading your word as we study your world....raising these children to know you and love you is our greatest ministry as parents. May you all have a blessed day! ~Sue~