December via InstaFriday

Most of my Instagram photos I’ve shared in recent posts, but here is the month December via Instagram. Merry Christmas!

Doggy playdate in the snow with neighbor, Avery.

Grandma Bailey’s Sausage Soup, perfect for a cold day. Recipe here.

Cookie weekend with friends.

Our brand.

Gotta love Baxter Black!

We met Rudolph at the Red Nose Run in Seward.

Sporting purple in the NE Corn office for K-State game day!

Hank loves is doggy vest!

Merry Christmas!

Sausage Soup recipe for a snowy day

As with most of the Midwest – we finally got snow! My neighbor, Kim and I who carpool to Lincoln left early in the afternoon and we’re glad that we did.

When I got home soup just sounded like the most logical thing to make to warm me and the kitchen up. So I made Grandma Bailey’s amazing Sausage Soup. Sounds simple – and it is – but it is SO good! The secret ingredient is….shhh…liquid smoke. :)


Since it’s not a secret family recipe, I’ll share. Try it. You’ll thank me later.

Sausage Soup 
Ingredients 
1 lb bulk sausage
1 cup water
1 medium potato, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. liquid smoke
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. summer savory
1 – 10 oz pkg frozen mixed veggies
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. sugar
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 soup can milk
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup Velveeta cheese, grated or diced

Directions Crumble sausage in frying pan and cook until done. Drain fat. In a large saucepan mix sausage, water, potato, onion, bay leaf, liquid smoke, popper and summer savory. In a small saucepan, cook the frozen vegetables, water and sugar until they are tender. Pour mixed vegetables into large saucepan, then add remaining ingredients. Stir until well blended and simmer until the potatoes are tender and flavors blended, about 30 minutes.

Christmas cookie weekend

I had such a great weekend with some of the best friends I could ask for. On Friday night, I met up with two of my Theta college friends, Patricia and Melissa in Lincoln. Pat lives here now in a beautiful new home and Melissa came up from her home in Dearborn, Missouri.

We enjoyed the evening with dinner at Tico’s, then talked the night away – it was a like we lived in Theta again chatting in the dining room! One of the best parts was falling asleep listening to the rain.

We started good time the next morning making over ten types of Christmas cookies and candies. Here is Melissa with her cookies.

Mel made:

Paula Deen's Monster Cookies
Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies
Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods
White Chocolate Rice Krispie Balls

Here is Pat with her cookies:

Pat made:

Stained glass cookies (fam recipe)
Peanut butter blossoms
Andes cookies she found on Pinterest

I made:

English Toffee
Christmas Hug Thumbprints
Pepparkakor (Swedish cookies that my Grams always made)

It was fun to use new technology – who needs cookbooks when you can use your tablets?!

The kitchen sure was bustlin’, but we had a great time and shared lots of laughs! Thanks gals for the get-together! This should definitely be an annual thing!

Read Melissa’s recap of the weekend on her blog.

bulls and blessings.

This Monday was our first bull sale. It’s been a project we’ve been working on for a couple of years and it was awesome to see our hard work rewarded with some high quality Red Angus bulls….and WOW. Were we totally blessed by the support of our customers.

We sold 15 bulls in the sale in which we consigned with Cross Diamond Cattle. You can read about the sale here. The Ford’s and all families involved with this sale are incredible. They are great people who were willing to show us the ropes and get us started in our first sale as Solid Rock Red Angus.

We are excited for this new adventure in our cattle business, although it was kind of hard to see the bulls go. Made me feel better that none of them were going alone – they were going with a “friend” to their new homes.

Mostly, we give thanks to God for this opportunity and adventure. On CHRIST the SOLID ROCK I stand!

Home office | my favorite things

I wanted to highlight my favorite things of my new room.

First, I obviously LOVE my chair. It is a Flexsteel swivel/glider and so comfy to sit and read/write. I’m also a fan of paisleys – which is why I chose the print.

All of the pieces on the wall are special to me. This first one was a 4-H project I did with paper and string when I was little. I found this digging through some things at home. I found a frame that is double glass with an easy edge that slides on to display the piece.

The “mola” above my desk is a quilted piece of art that Mom found for me when we were in Panama. Since it is turquoise and I love quilting, this one is special.

The pallet shelf is rustic and fun that it came from the ranch. I also love it that Ronny and I made this together. Other favorites about this is that it has our brand, and star, and a picture of Hank.

The chest is Ronny’s show box made in High School. His mom refinished it last year and I love the dark brown accent it adds to the room. It also stores extra quilts and blankets.

Our picture stand. I used to have this in the living room, but since redecorating, I brought it in here. This was a hand-me-down shelf from the Pope’s, but I love that we have all of our family pictures in one place.

On that shelf is also one of my other favorite pieces of art. This was made by Aunt Sue, in which she took our wedding invitation and added beautiful paper flowers. She knew I loved turquoise (probably from our turquoise wedding invitations!) and the flowers match perfect to my room.

Home office redo | final product!

My home office/reading room has taken a little longer to get finished up than I wanted, but it wasn’t a priority over other projects – so I’ve had time to make it just like I want it.

First, my mom helped me paint the room from boring beige to totally turquoise back in March. This room used to be Ronny’s office, but we moved his downstairs for some more space and easier access to the garage door with his work.

The biggest piece of furniture that I’ve been waiting for is my chair. I found it at a great furniture store over Labor Day weekend, but it just came in, in November. Meanwhile, I’ve been using this room to store a few things and as a yoga/stretching room (which I will still be using it for, but won’t be leaving my mat out).

Now, for the finished product…let’s walk in:

All of the pieces on the wall are special to me. This first one was a 4-H project I did with paper and string when I was little. I found this digging through some things at home and since it was turquoise, I had to put it in the room.

The “mola” above my desk is a quilted piece of art that Mom found for me when we were in Panama.

These lovely pieces were from my friend, Georgia, as a house warming present when we moved in.

The pallet shelf. This was a fun Pinterest project that Ronny helped me with last year. I made three of them, but I think it just looked too bulky with all three – so one for now. On the shelf are a picture of Hank, Ronny & I, our brand, and star, also from Georgia.

The chest is Ronny’s show box that he made in High School to keep all of his cattle show supplies, halters and more. Hi mom refinished it last year and I love the dark brown accent it adds to the room.

I’m so excited that my room is finished and I can enjoy reading in my chair, having my own little space to write and blog, and display some of my favorite things.

Before & After