December Quarterly. 2011

Us girls after Church on Sunday. (Right to Left: Anna Bailey, Molly Malcein, Paula Malcein, Me, and Raili Ranta)


The Ranta Family.
My family!
Us kids that stayed at the Malcein's house. (Right to Left: Leif, Brandon Ranta, Douglas Ranta, Kyle Ranta, Paula Malcein, Paige, Raili Ranta, Corryanna Ranta, Seth, me, Cassedy Ranta, and Molly Malcein)
Haha! Raili, Molly and I were being goofy. Funny picture... (Midnight)
Paula making some delicious chocolate goodies! Yummm.....




This past weekend my family and I went to the Quarterly in Glenwood City WI. For those of you who do not know what the Quarterly is: It's two non denomination churches (One from Glenwood, and one from Thunder Bay Canada) that get together four times a year--hence the name-- for a weekend of preaching, fellowship, and a whole lot more! Some friends of ours, who go one of the churches, invited us about a year ago, and ever since then we have been attending them. It truly has been a blessing! Praise the Lord! He shows His goodness in so many ways! I could go into more details about it... and if anyone has questions, feel free to ask. But, I thought I would just share some pictures from it. :)

HJH

Helpful Hints for December!

Hey hey hey! Guess what time it is today?!? Time for another Helpful Hints! :D I know it's a couple days early, but with all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season starting, I figured it's a good time to do it now.

Ingrid Anderson (my wonderful Cousin!) from Michigan asked: "What's your favorite desert, and how do you make it?"

I have many favorite deserts, but this one is probably one of my MOST favorites! It's called "Xtra-Special" Celebration Cake. I love this recipe because it's simple, and amazingly delicious (and moist!) for a scratch cake!

Ingredients:
3 cups of flour
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vinegar (white vinegar)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 cups of cold water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients (Flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt) in a large bowl.
3. Mix in oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Stir until fully combined.
4. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minuets. Let cool 10 minutes.
Remove from pan.

You can make this cake with many different kinds of pans. I usually use a bunt pan or two round pans (for a layer cake). If you are using a bunt pan, two toppings/ decoration ideas would be:

A "dusting" of powdered sugar on the top of the cake.
(Chocolate Drizzle recipe. with raspberries on top):
3 tablespoons framboise or other flavored raspberry liqueur.
4 (1-ounce) squares of semisweet chocolate
2 teaspoons of hot water.

Combine chocolate, framboise and water over a double boiler, until brought to a boil, remove from heat and stir until chocoalte is fully melted. Drizzle over sifted sugar on cake. Drizzle raspberries over chocolate.

That Ingrid, is my favorite dessert. :)


HJH

Giving Thanks

"Come, ye thankful people, come, Raise the song of harvest-home: All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storms begin; God, our Maker, doth provide, For our wants to be supplied: Come to God's own temple, come, Raise the song of harvest-home." (Come, Ye Thankful People, Come)

When I first heard this hymn on the radio, it really impacted me. It really made me think "Do I thank the Lord every day for all that I have?"
Thanksgiving day: Getting up, going out early to do some hunting with the boys. Come home, enjoy a brunch, watch the parade, football, and have thanksgiving dinner. Before Papa asked for the Lord's blessing on the food, tradition is that we all say what we're thankful for. I sat there thinking, "There are so many things that I am thankful for, it's hard to name just one" :) Later I was thinking again, you know, we shouldn't just be telling the Lord what we're thankful for once a year, but we should be thanking him daily for His blessings on us! I do try very hard to thank Him as often as I can, but with all the hustle and bustle of life, and the beginning of the holiday season, often times, I forget where my thankfulness really lies. He truly has blessed me in so many ways!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And remember where our thankfulness lies.


HJH

Helpful Hints!

Today is the first issue of my once a month "Hannah's Helpful Hints"!

Rebecca Janisch, Northern WI asked: "What is your best recipe for Homemade Mac-and cheese?"

My best, and most successful homemade mac-and cheese is:

6 cups of water (Or however much you'd like, not picky)
2-3 cups of elbow noodles (You can use other noodles if you'd like...)
1-2 cups of Shredded American cheese (Any kind of cheese is really good in this mac-and cheese recipe. One of my other "top picks" would be Pepperjack cheese)
1/4 - 1/2 cups of Milk
2-4 Tlbs. of Butter
Finely chopped fresh (or dried) Basil
Dash of salt
A "Crank" of pepper
(Optional) cubed hard salami

Bring the water to a boil, add the noodles, and sprinkle some salt into the water to keep the noodles from sticking. Cook noodles until nice and tender, about 4-6 min.
Once the noodles are fully cooked, drain the water from the noodles, add the cheese, milk, and butter, and hard salami (optional). Salt and pepper to your taste...
There is no exact measurment for the cheese, I put in about one cup, taste it, if it needs to be more cheesy, add another cup. Another tip would be if it's too thick because of the cheese, gradually add more milk.
I think the biggest part of homemade mac-and cheese, is that you get it to the right TASTE. Taste it a lot to see if you need to add a little something more. Taste it before you add the salt and pepper to see if you really need it. :)
This is a delicious, quick meal that you can have for lunch. Something on the side that goes well with this is: Fresh fruit (Grapes and such), applesauce, or a salad.
Bon-appetite!!!!!



Hannah Jo

Helpful Hints By Hannah

I am going to start "Helpful Hints" once a month. "Helpful Hints" Will be me, giving tips to those of you, who have questions, or need help with whatever you want! What I need help with right now, is for YOU, my friends, and family, to help me come up with descussions/ questions that I can answer. Of course, I admit, I do not know everything. But when it comes to household, cleaning, organizing, fun ideas, cooking/baking and any other kind of tips, I do my best to help y'all out!
If you can e-mail me topics you want me to descuss, or questions you would like me to answer, that would be great!
"Helpful Hints By Hannah" will be coming soon to my blog!!!!


Hannah Jo

Days go by......

Rebecca, loving her new look! Tehehe....
Wow, Hannah.
Hot coco!!!!

Well, today is 11/11/11! How often do we see this? Once in a lifetime! Can you believe it's already November! I am always amazed at how fast time flies.... Today I had to file bills and recites,(HA! That's always fun, right?)and I was thinking to myself, I know I'm not that old, but it's crazy how old I am! I mean, look at me, I am old enough to handle responsabilities with my dad's company, I can DRIVE! (That's my favorite thing about being older.... Tehehehe), and I am doing things that prepare me for the future! It's crazy. Sometimes I wish I was still that little girl, with braids, running around, and playing on the swing set.... How blessed am I, to grow up in the Lord, with wonderful parents, friends, and family?!? It's amazing. That's all for now folks! Hannah Jo P.S: I found some of these fun pictures on the computer that I thought I might share.... Enjoy!

Shooting day!

Me. Oh yeah, game face!
J.P!!!

Yeah! Mom shot too!!! Whoo! Go MOM! :D
Seth Meister
Brandon
Rebecca
Leif
A couple weekends ago, when Jeremiah was out here visiting Grandma, he decided to stop by for a Sunday afternoon shooting day. Rebecca and Brandon came over and shot too! We shot all kinds of guns. My personal favorite was his 9mm. pistol. :)
Here are some pictures from that day!

Proscessing Season!

Last weekend, the boys and I helped some neighbors butcher, and process their 90 chickens. Yesterday, we (my family) went over to the same neighbor's house, and used their fascilities to process our 30 chickens, my friend Rebecca's 7 chickens, and 15 of the neighbor's old hens. As usual, I was assigned to gutting. Haha! Yes, gutting. :) Both last weekend and yesterday was a day full of work, while socializing as well. I thought I would share some of the pictures from that day.

So long facebook, hello world!

Some of you might know that I recently "suspended" my facebook account. I didn't realize how much time I spent on it until this week. "WOW!" I thought, this afternoon. "Look how much time I have to do other things now!".
Yes, facebook is a good way to keep in contact with family, or friends far away, that is true. On the other hand though, look at how much time we spend on it, time we could be doing more productive things! At first I was sad that I had to suspend my account, but in my heart, I know it's the right thing. Besides, I would rather call up an old friend, write a letter, e-mail, or send a card to someone I haven't seen in awhile! Real life is so much more enjoyable to me. Spending time with family, friends, and learning more about our dear Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ. He is all we need in this world. Facebook, I can live without.

Change of seasons...

I am sitting here in my room, the scene outside: Overcast, but sunny day. I feel like summer, and fall slipped away.... Like the sand falling through the cracks of your fingers at the beach. It's sad. As much as I look forward to wintertime. It just seems like a memory from long ago, and then I think "Wait, that was this year wasn't it!?!"
As soon as summer was gone, the busy routine of school came back into play... Leaving me barely any time for anything else. :)
Ha! I guess those are my thoughts for today about changing seasons! :D

Don't forget

Last night my mom and I watched a dateline special about the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. 10 years ago from Sunday will be the anaversery of this tragic terrorist attack. As we watched the horrific videos from then, it brought back memories of that awful day......
Mom, Seth, Leif and I were all starting our typical Tuesday morning with some school exersises. A normal day right? It was until we got a call from our dad at work, telling us to turn on the TV. We turned it on, having no clue what to expect. The scene of an airplane crashing into that building will never leave my mind. The sight of the of all the fireman rushing into the building. One man said on dateline last night, "It was amazing, while we were all trying to get OUT of the building, those men and women were running INTO it, to save lives..."
You know how the rest of it ended. Another airplane crashed into the South tower, the trusses gave way and fell down. Killing many of the firefighters and men and women just like you and me. An airplane into the Pentagon, and another attempt at what was believed to be, the Capitol. But thanks to the courage of brave passengers, they attacked the terrorists, trying to take over the airplane, but crashed in a field...
I cried that day. For the loss of innocent people, for their families, for everyone who risked their LIFE to get men and women out of the Twin Towers. There is evil in this world. And I pray that I will never have to face it, the way they did. But I know if I do, God will protect us, if we have faith in Him.
As much as we would like to forget that day, we can't forget it. We MUST remember it. Remember the men and women who rescued all those people, the passengers on Flight 93, who gave their lives to protect more innocent lives.
God Bless all the families of those brave men and women, and God Bless America.


HJH

"Count your blessings, name them one by one; Count your many blessings see what God has done." Count Your Blessings (hymn)
That is one of my most favorite hymns, our lives can get so crazy, and when the tough times do come, we forget to "count our blessings". It's a hard thing to see the blessings, in the times of trial. But we must remember to stay strong, and "count our blessings".

HJH

Cinderella

Some of you might know that our 4-H club recently had a drama production of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella".
All it took was a dream, a lot of hard work, and lots of makeup! ;)
We started music rehearsals last November, and in January we started dancing and acting. Months and months went by, endless practices, sewing, memorizing, and playing pranks on each other. Suddenly we all found our drama"family". For Spring Break, the whole cast and crew went out bowling, and ate pizza. Our memories and friendships blossomed. Then, the Big Day.....
I woke up on Friday morning and thought "Tonight is our big opening night!" The day was amazing right from the start, dad made a delicious breakfast, school flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to go. Makeup, hairspray, all the adrenalin flowing through my vein! This was the night! Our performance was amazing! A success so far! We'll see how the rest of the weekend went.
Saturday: The family came for dinner, then the boys and I took off for the Workshop. The performance had been going great so far, until, Seth forgot part of his costume at home! In the middle of two scenes he darted out the door in his socks, drove home, jumped in the bathroom window (because the door was locked), grabbed his costume, jumped back OUT the WINDOW, and made it in time for his next scene. Everything else went smoothly.....
On Sunday we all had a matinee performance, and after-wards a pot luck lunch. Our final performance was great, but sad, because we all knew it would be our last time doing it together... I am so thankful for all of my new friends that I made, and all the memories that I have. This is something that I will not forget for a very very long time.....

HJH

April Update!

Wow, it has been a looonng time since I last blogged. As Ingrid has said "Life has gotten away from me". It's so true.... The boy's basketball season is over. Our Cinderella play ended last week. And now I just need some time to relax, do some school, and enjoy life and all that it brings. Lately, I have learned to "Count your blessing" and it seems like every day I am thanking the Lord more and more for all that I have. My wonderful parents and brothers, my amazing friends, my cousins, aunts and uncles and all that they are in my life. But #1 of all is that the Lord has showed me more than once that He takes care of me all the time. That He always has his hands on things, and that He has a great plan for my life.

I think I will end it on that note for today. :) I'll try to give 'yall a shout out more often....

God Bless!

Hannah Jo