Land Beneath the Trees

What a wonderful vacation we had to Northern Michigan and South Bend, Indiana.  Many, many hours spent in the car.  We are refreshed and oh so blessed to have had the opportunity to go visit my sister and her family, my ancestral roots where I was born and then to knock off my bucket list a long time dream of touring the Notre Dame Football Stadium.

My siblings and I as well as our children belong to a Native American Indian tribe in Northern Michigan.  Hubby and I stayed at the resort belonging to our tribe and what a blessing it was.  The facilities were top notch although our only complaint was that since it's connected to the casino, cigarette smoke infiltrated the first floor resort section, blechhh!

Picture on the right in the above collage picture is from the resort courtyard.  Beautiful gardens and serene atmosphere. 

Top right picture is the courtyard once again where I spent time having my devotions.

Bottom right is a picture of my sister and I at a popular bistro/restaurant in Interlochen, MI.  Visit their website here at www.budsisback.com.  It's was a really cute fun place to stop for a potty break, coffee and gift-souvenir shopping on our way to Mackinaw, MI.

We took a tour of the historical, Victorian town of Manistee, MI.  This is the area where our Native American Indian tribe settled back in the 1800's.

Left picture is of me in the trolley just before our tour around Manistee.  I had that song in my head the whole time from Judy Garland in Easter Parade - "Clang, clang, clang goes the trolley".....

Top right picture is of my sister's home on a modern day Native American Indian reservation.  She has it decorated so clean and so cute and so homey :)

Bottom right picture is of a nearby lake.  Crystal blue fresh water, with a flock of swans.  That's right, swans.  Not geese, not ducks but swans :)

I had my hubby take a pic of me on our last day at the resort by the indoor water garden.  Such a beautiful place.

Left picture is of my hubby and I being silly as we wait for the ferry to take us across the bay to Mackinac Island, MI.  

Top right picture of "BUDS" in Interlochen, MI.  

Bottom right is my sister, myself and my hubby.  My sister was being silly and making me laugh, poor hubby just had to bear with us "giggly school girls".

Here we are in Mackinac Island.  

Picture on the left is of my hubby being silly.  He took that Liberty flag everywhere we went.

Top right pic is one of many pictures I took of the front lawn floral gardens. These people must be able to have a green thumb in order to have a home here on the island.  These gardens were heavenly!

Bottom right picture is of the Grand Hotel, the closest we got to it from our horse wagon.  

If you want to learn more about Mackinac Island, visit a bloggie friend of mine, Sweet Pea at:  http://www.virginiasweetpea.com/2013/07/mackinac-island-vacation-part-one.html

She did a fantastic job with her post on Mackinac Island.  Lots of pictures and stories, you'll love it!

A long time dream of mine has been to visit Notre Dame, preferably on a gameday but I am not complaining.  Since we were kinda sorta in the vicinity of South Bend, Indiana home of the Fighting Irish, hubby decided to surprise me and made plans for us to take a guided tour of the ND Football Stadium on our way back home.

Left picture is my hubby walking down through THEE tunnel.

Top right is the Notre Dame football locker room.

Bottom picture is one of the gates around the stadium with a football design in it.  Can you see it?

Lake Michigan - just a couple miles from my sisters home.

Some of you may know, but I am not a "beach" person. The  last place I ever want to go on vacation is to a beach. We went to Myrtle Beach one summer and it left much to be desired. Too touristy, dirty and way too hot and muggy for me. Give me the mountains, cabins, lakes anytime was my motto. Coming up to Michigan was a dream come true. It gave me my mountains, cabin living and lakes but it also opened my eyes to a different kind of beach. The beaches up in Michigan are clean, sugar sand (meaning it's so fine like sugar) and the water is fresh, not salty, a well kept secret off the shore of Lake Michigan. I fell in love with it immediately. I am only converted to these kind of beaches.

and finally, the last few pics of the end of our tour at Notre Dame.

Left picture is of me touching the sign all the football players touch just before they head out through THEE  tunnel and out to the stadium

Top right is of hubby and I outside THEE tunnel

Bottom right is a picture of me with the Knute Rockne statue, just outside the stadium.  There's a gate and statue dedicated to each head football coach who won a national title while at ND. I had to take a pic of myself with Knute Rockne, it feeds my passion for vintage football.

As many places we visited and enjoyed every minute the best memories I will cherish forever will be spending time with my sister and her family.  It was so hard leaving her, we don't see each other often enough and we both needed this mini reunion in many ways.  I am so proud of her and I want to give her a BIG SALUTE.  She is studying for her Master's in Social Work, she's on one of the committees for our tribe and doing some good things up there.  I'm so proud of you SIS!!!

Life has brought many, many changes these past two years in my life.  Some I've welcomed and some not.  I've come to depend and rely on my only source of encouragement, comfort and strength and that would be my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  He has blessed my life and my family in so many ways. He is also showing me how much I need to depend on Him to make it through these trying times.  His love and care for me never fails.  I visit daily and do my devotions with the Proverbs 31 website led my Lisas Tyrkeurst at  www.proverbs31.org.  A great source of encouragement for me these past few years.  

Visiting my sister and learning so much about our Native American ancestors has refreshed my purpose in life.  I'm learning they were a tenacious people and never ever gave up in wanting to repossess the land they lost to the Americans and because of them we are enjoying the fruits of their labor.  I hope we do them proud!

"Naaminitigong ndojeb"

=

"I am from the land beneath the trees"

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The Tablescaper: Oh, the Places I've Been

Curbside Table Makeover

On our way home from church, on our street, once again I couldn't believe this sweet piece of furniture was set out by the curb.  I yelled for hubby to stop!  I'm amazed by the pieces of furniture that I find on our street.  Here are the others:
Bench
TV HUTCH

All the pieces we have found are solid wood finds.  No pressed wood, no plastic but solid wood.  I painted it an expresso brown using Rustoleum's Spray Paint, Satin Walnut.  Annie Sloan does not make an expresso brown color otherwise I would have used it.

Much to our surprise, this table opened up into what seemed to have been at one time, a sewing machine table

It seemed that at one point, the inner platform was poorly replaced by this pressed wood platform.  Overall the rest of the table was in great shape.  All I wanted was a table this size for my special spot.

The hardware only included two handles.  I painted them using this fast drying gilders paste

I wasn't sure exactly what I needed to do with these except just wipe them down with a clean cloth and set them aside to dry before I painted them

This is what they looked like the next morning after I painted them the evening before

and here they are, back on the newly painted table door

and here she is in all her glory

I had a round table (you know, the ones that we're big in the 80's, 90's?) before in this spot and I was never crazy about it.  The past two years I looked and looked  for the right table, I almost purchased a half moon table at IKEA but I decided against it only because I still wasn't ready to pay the $60-70 for it

I firmly believe that good things come to those who wait . . . . and it was FREE!!!

I love my street :)

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Moroccan Chicken Tajine

by Barefoot Contessa

*Days before you actually make the Moroccan Chicken Tajine, you'll need to make some preserved lemons if you don't already have some ready to go.  Here's how to make them:

Slice in quarters 2 large lemons or 3 medium size lemons

Place lemons in an oven proof bowl.  Add a tablespoon of kosher salt.  

Pour enough water to cover the lemons.  Place uncovered in a 250F degree oven for 3 hours.  Remove from oven when done and let cool.

Cover and place in refrigerator until ready to use.  If you plan to have it in your refrigerator for several months which is fine, go ahead and keep them in a canning jar with a tight lid.

So, now onto the Moroccan Chicken Tajine recipe.

In a large bowl, mix the garlic, cumin, ginger, paprika, salt and pepper, 1/2 cup grated onion, and the oil (I added the oil after I took this picture)

Add the chicken to the spice mixture.  Rinse the preserved lemons, remove the pulp and add it to the chicken.  Reserve the lemon peels!

With your hands, combine the chicken, spices and the lemon pulp.  (Always make sure to wash your hands after you touch the chicken).  Its smells so good already!!  Marinate for an hour or overnight.

Place chicken and marinade in a dutch oven.

Add the stems of the parsley and cilantro, the rest of the grated onion, the turmeric and saffron strands (I didn't have powdered saffron) and 1 1/2 cups water.

Bring to a boil over high heat, turn down to a simmer and cook partially covered for 30 minutes.

Remove lid and simmer for another 15 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Transfer chicken to a serving platter and cover with foil.  Keep sauce in pot and keep on simmering until the rest of the ingredients get added.

Thinly slice the preserved lemon peels and add them to the simmering sauce.

Add the parsley, cilantro and the olives to the simmering sauce.  Reduce the sauce until it becomes a little thick, about 10 minutes.

Uncover the chicken and remove the skin.  I was surprised how easily they peeled off

Pour the thickened, reduced sauce over the chicken.  Serve with Quinoa, Cous-cous or rice.

Enjoy every bite

It practically melts in your mouth!  So yummy and really not that hard to make.

I don't know how many times I've seen Ina Garten from the Barefoot Contessa make this dish and thought to myself how delicious it looked, I just had to try it!  I finally got the opportunity today.

I was a little nervous about adding the lemon rinds as I've never cooked with preserved lemon rinds before but surprisingly, they practically dissolved.

As much as I love black olives, green olives are okay but I never had the Grecian type olives and oooooh, are they ever salty.

This dish was fun to make, we enjoyed the aromas throughout the house and to finally sit down and dig in, we couldn't wait any longer.  I served it with white rice and wish I had bought an Artisan loaf of bread to cut up and dip into the sauce but I'll remember that for next time, which I'm sure there will be plenty.  My family loved it!!

Train Themed Birthday Party

When asked how old he is, he'll tell you "twee" with a smile.

Can't believe how quick my grandson is growing.  I keep saying next thing we know, he'll be asking for the car keys!  Ugh!  Time, slow down!

With his party held at our house, I gladly volunteered to do the decorations, in a Vintage Train theme :)  The above pictures show the progress of some of my homemade crafts and decorations.

I also had some Glenn Miller music playing in the background :)

He was so thrilled to see the train tracks we taped to the sidewalk and porch.  He pretended to be a train shouting "Choo-choo!"  He loves trains.

The bottom picture shows the train conductor accepting a train pass from one of the adorable passengers, birthday boys' baby sister

The sun was out long enough for everyone to take a swim, except me.  I was busy taking pictures :)

Soon after swimming it was time to eat.  We had pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, corn on the cob, train cookies and ice cream cake

By the time he opened all his presents, and blew out the candles on his cake, he was one tired kiddo.  As tired as he was, he still played the whole time with his new toys.  He got lots of trains, planes and automobiles, a coffee cup and some clothes.

Dearest Max, we are all the more blessed because of you and we are so proud of you.  Grandpa and Grandma love you very much!!