This soup also looks AMAZING!

I also LOVE the pictures that go with the

recipes here...

Broccoli Soup

6-8 cups broccoli, chopped
4 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunks
1-2 leeks, sliced
1 onion (red), peeled and cut into chunks
1/3 cup heavy cream
water or stock
1 teaspoon salt
ground pepper

Place broccoli, potatoes, leeks, salt and onion in a soup pot. Fill with water (or stock) until everything is just barely covered. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until broccoli is very tender.

Puree until smooth. Add desired amount of cream. Add pepper. Adjust salt, if necessary.

Doesn't this look yummy? I haven't tried it yet, but I have everything but the actual broccoli so it'll be a cheap meal... and oh how I love soup in the Fall, oh how I love FALL:) I might also add some cheese (Matt will like it better that way, too;-) Tell me your favorite Fall soups!

The grill that my husband surprised me with. I just wanted a really simple gas grill. I was so tired of waiting for charcoal. And getting it to stay lit. Ugh. I kept taking him past them and saying, "lets just get one!" And he'd him and haw so we didn't get one. Then the other day he came home with one!!! I am thrilled that you can light it and then 30 seconds later put something on it! He's awesome!

The big Hibiscus bushes, trees... flowers..

Easily as big as your head! Matt loves these. All the City Council members were jealous and wanted us to split it up so that they could have some. They are pretty impressive.

Allium..

the pink version. It's a little bit smaller, but not much!

So big!! The funny thing is that these bloom and then die the same day. One flower that it. It only lasts about a day. The dead ones are laying all over like it was raining them!

I was impressed with my little camera and these next two pictures (click on the picture to enlarge it and you can see what I mean).. it's he pretty!? Some ppl think there isn't a GOD!?!? Are you kidding me!? So, you think this exploded out of a glob of snot? He let me take three pictures (you can see his big eye watching me) and then he was freaked out by me and hopped away (hop, is that what they do!?).

Hollyhock..

Brown Eyed Susan's

The aftermath

of making sauerkraut is a MESS

And it's a lot of hard work... but I am excited and hope that it turns out well:-/

All done and ready to go:)

Hank, my faithful helper is all that I do:)

My plat with a big jar filled with water to weigh it down. I don't know what I'm doing here.. and you may be able to tell..? I just did it to try it and went off of what I read on the internet.

I'll keep you updated.

making salsa!

Matt was sweet enough to peel the tomatos for me:)

cooling, ready to have the peels taken off..

he's such a GOOD helper:)

pretty color.. will miss that this winter

*insert picture of Hank "helping" here*

ready to stew it a little

more pretty color!

Ready to put into jars

first hot water bath I've done and years! My grandma Olson use to can a lot and I got her big canning pot when they were moving. I was thrilled. how many 26 year olds do you know that would be thrilled to get a huge canning pot!?

Waiting to boil... and that takes forever

I forgot to take a picture of the finished jars. they were pretty! There were fourteen of them, two batches. it was fun. made me miss doing it.

This is what my husband (co-coupon shopper, partner in crime) was doing Thursday, Friday and today. He was hauling corn silage at the farm. I love the smell of the fresh cut corn silage. Love it! I love about every aspect of farm life, though.. if you want to see more pictures, you can go here.

He's a natural. After a few jerky rides that is.

It's been busy on the farm this last week. They are obviously chopping, the pit was overflowing, and I bred about 30 cows in four and a half days... and that's just the stuff I know about and have dealt with.. that's not all of it:)

This was our Target trip last night. We got all of this, plus four more boxes of poptarts for about $3!! At Target they'll let you do one of their Target coupons and a manufacture coupon! The only thing we ended up really paying for was the salad dressing.. For buying five Kashi products (we had coupons for all of them) we got a $5 Target gift card The poptarts we have to do a $10 mail in thing and then our total will be about $3! Amazing, ha!?

WalMart trip. This one I don't know exactly what we spent and saved... I do know that those four things of wipes (56 count), I made a $1 by "buying" them:) Pretty sweet, ha?! I went back and got two more today. And same thing, I made $1 on those two things! I also found those pizza's at a different store for about 50¢ cheaper then walmart so used my other two coupons for them at that store instead:) The candles were 97¢ each. w/ a $2/1. Last week I got two of them for FREE cause of $3/1 coupons! It's so much fun!

I also went out today and did some more shopping. I didn't take pictures. It's kind of a lot more work to take pictures of it all before you have to put it all away too:) I got some Bagleful's for 88¢ each... and some more pasta for about 70¢ a box (the good, wheat kind).

If it's something we don't normally eat then I want it to be really cheap or free, if it's something I already eat, I just figure I'm saving myself $1 off of what I'd already be getting. That's my theory for now. However, I've found it pretty hard to spend full price on anything when you know what you could get it for it you just had a good coupon and sale!

I am gutsy. But, I've been taking Matt with me for "back up"... or, you could say I'm still a little chicken. I will get better. I did it all by myself today. The man was farming.

My first real coupon deal. I went to Quillon's to get one of their adds to see what I could find that was on sale that I had coupon(s) for. These were 3/$5. I had four 1/$1 off and one 2/$1.00 I hope I'm doing the coupon lingo right! lol.. I am so new! So, on average they were 83¢ each. I spent $5.02 and saved $15.32!!! I got them for 78% off. I went back and got six more tonight. They weren't as cheap ($1.12 each) but still cheap:) I can't wait to get my LaCrosse Tribune tomorrow and go through the adds. There's no one around here, that I know of, w/ a blog about couponing. Do you know of any? I sure wish I did:) Raychel told me I should be that person.. I told her I have a job. This takes lots of time, but is so much fun knowing your saved so much!

more to come... :)

He know how to relax! The only reason he picked up his head was cause I was taking his picture!

My FREE candles (with coupons!)

Hank....

He helped my make sauerkraut and salsa!

Last days of summer

...and we are stocked! A friend of my dad's planted a huge garden at my parents house. Matt and I went after work on Friday and took a bunch home. With a lot of this stuff.. this is just the tip of the ice berg. It's a huge garden. I didn't even know or think about growing egg plant in this area. It was fun. I had told Matt about two weeks ago that I want to have a big garden next summer.. and this made me want one even more. But, someone else did all this work and all I did was pick it.... so we'll see!

Oliver watching me take pictures. Wants to be out there with me of course.

Onions that have not been cleaned. Anyone know if you can pickle onions? On anything good to do with a lot of them!?!?

purple cabbage..

The egg plan was such a beautiful color!

oops, you get to see the dirty onions twice...

my pretty flox..

Little orange tomato's and green peppers..

More beautiful color..

These are like candy! Green beans...

rutabaga.. haven't had these in years! My dad would like to eat them when we were little..

Matt and I worked on doing stuff with some of it tonight. He's such a great partner! Such a willing and mellow man! Are you enjoying any fresh produce right now? And if so, what??

I have been coupon print happy lately. Do you have any favorite sites for coupons? Or blogs that show you how to save!? I want to hear about them! I have to start somewhere... but I want to get to the point of being able to do what Matt's sister Katie can do and get $100 of groceries for about $7!

Last weekend my mommy and I went to Green Bay to see Beth Moore. My cousin, Tara her husband Lee and their son Isaac live there so we got to stay with them. My aunt Becky met us there to go as well. It was a really good time all the way around. What amazing worship! And Beth Moore is always such a great speaker. I don't sit still well. I can always sit still for her:) She has an amazing heart for the LORD and you just want to soak it all up...

It was a fun weekend spent with family and lots of learning more about our awesome God. When we left I said to mom, "it makes me wish we lived closer to Lee and Tara..." They are very easy going to be around and great hosts. Isaac is about as cute as they come too! I didn't get any pictures of him and should have:( Tara remembers us fighting when we were younger.. I don't remember that so much, I just remember being mad at her cause she thought she was too old to play school with us. Now, she is the cousin I have the most in common with. Living mellow lives all settled down. It was fun to get to see where they lived and to get to know them a little better.

I will leave you with this clip. What beautiful music all weekend. Afterwards I told mom that I'm pretty sure all worship will sound rather dull for a while after this! If you ever get a chance to go to see her, GO.

Living Proof Live - Simulcast - Green Bay WI from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.