Mandy Montage

In With the New but Keeping the Old

2011-06-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking lately about the purpose of this blog. I created this blog to be a place where I could break free of wrong influences I had let into my life, pull down the walls I had carefully built around myself, and follow my journey of self discovery. Lately I've been realizing that the purpose for which I created this blog has been completed! I am no longer following anyone else, I have learned to be honest and accountable for my own words and actions, I have embraced myself as a unique person and come to have a better understanding of myself. I began to wonder where I wanted to go from here.

I thought of changing the name, but then the blog name and URL would be different (which is just one of those little pet peeves of mine). Then I thought of my picking a new name and moving the whole blog to a new URL, but this blog just feels complete to me, the purpose was accomplished. I wanted a new one, but not like it had been in the past. Before I would end up making a big mess and changed blogs to run away from it, deleting the old one and hoping it would all just go away. That's not the case this time, I will be leaving this one up as a permanent public archive, I even link to it from my new one (I moved a handful of posts to that one, but left most of them here.) It's even solved the issue of aesthetic design lol. Since I love both dark gothic themes and light themes, I can allocate them better. Since the purpose of this blog was to explore the aspects of myself that were perhaps not as mainstream, I will keep this beautiful gothic background on it permanently. My main blog I wanted to be more lighthearted, and since I have a private blog for issues I don't want to discuss publicly, I can even have my floral pastel pinks too! Talk about having your cake and eating it too :D.

I wasn't too sure what I wanted to call it, but then while outside one day, A came up and gave me a bouquet of daisies. PERFECT! I ran inside and got the camera and took a picture of her and it became the title of my blog. I even chose the colour scheme from the picture :). So if you're looking for something old, it will be here and if you want to keep following along, you can join me at my new blog at

Bouquets of Daisies

I want to thank every one of you who have been so supportive of me while I made this transition in my life, from being a carbon copy, manpleasing follower to being able to stand on my own feet with my own beliefs and ideas! You have blessed me more than you know! Hope to see you all there!

Why do they always come to MY house?!?!

2011-06-02T10:38:00.000-04:00

I hate spiders. I really REALLY hate spiders. So where do all the real ickky spiders go? Why to MY house of course! Including a real ugly sucker my husband killed while I was away at retreat. He showed me the body, only the abdomen got squished so the cephalothorax was intact. I had never seen a spider like this before. It was a deep burgundy red, with HUGE fangs! Very cringeworthy. So today we decided to find out what it was. Turns out, it was a woodlouse spider! Check this "beauty" out! Those ginormous fangs are for puncturing the hard shell of the woodlouse (we always called them sow bugs or pill bugs) and I bet they would do a dandy job puncturing the not so hard shell of a human being too! Yuck! Glad he had to deal with it and not me! *shiver*

Summer 2011 Squarefoot Garden

2011-05-31T14:42:00.003-04:00

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be building two 4'x4' squarefoot gardening blocks. I'll build two more in a couple months, two next spring and two more next summer to make eight altogether. The plants I put in the big garden seem to be doing well, but I don't plan on using it next year. Our soil is very heavy and does not drain well at all. Our whole yard acts like a big bowl, if it has rained in the last few days even getting to the garden is a chore that will result in soakers and muddy clothes. Having some raised beds near the house will help a lot. Here's what I'll be planting in my first blocks.

{Click on image to enlarge}

Well, I Could Always Grow Rice!

2011-05-30T10:00:00.001-04:00

My poor garden! It has rained so much the ground is SATURATED! You take a step and water bubbles out of the ground! There was a brief break in the rain on Thursday so we took advantage of it to get the garden planted. Of course since we didn't have a chance to properly prepare the ground first, there are tons of weeds (I hope it dries out enough to get out there and weed soon!) and we had to turn the soil as we went just where we planted, but it's in! The holes were filling with water as we dug them so I did not expect many plants to live, but they're actually doing ok, even my stevia which called for dry sandy soil (we have thick heavy clay!) looks great! I was away Friday to Sunday at our Ladies Retreat so it was a pleasant surprise to come home to a garden that was doing well (despite being overrun with weeds!) I also came home to a beautiful HUGE poppy! I cut it and brought it in, look at the SIZE of it!

Isn't it pretty?!

Ok, on to the garden!

Basil and rosemary

Dill and sage

Stevia

The chives are sure doing well!

One of the tomatoes (I have 12 altogether, cherries, romas and beefsteaks)

One of the peppers (I planted sweet orange peppers and jalapenos, 7 in all)

Mostly weeds, but there's sorrel at the top and some of my lettuces at the bottom.

Among the weeds, a strawberry plant! We didn't plant this it was there already!

Here is my zucchini, I arrived just in time to get rid of that evil slug! DIE YOU VILE GARDEN EATING SCUM!!!!

I have a few more herbs, green onions and marigolds planted too. In the next couple of weeks I'm hoping to build some raised beds closer to the house, I'll plant more lettuce, beets, chard, and more there. It rained all night last night, I got two soakers taking these pictures this morning! Miracle of miracles though, it's supposed to be dry and sunny this week! So hopefully I can get those weeds taken care of!

Great Giveaway Batman!

2011-05-25T13:25:00.001-04:00

Susan from Homegrown Simplicity is having a great giveaway right now! If you are interested in fermenting your veggies, go check it out!!!! I've had a similar contraption on my wish list for a while now too!

Some Words of (Hopefully) Wisdom to the Young(er)

2011-05-21T13:13:00.004-04:00

EDITED to add another one I forgot!

Now that I’m an old woman, it’s time to pass on my wealth of knowledge to all the young whippersnappers out there! Ok, I’m kidding, but I HAVE learned a thing or two over the (few) years I’ve been floating around the blogosphere and they were often some difficult lessons to learn! I’ve made a ~~few~~ lot of mistakes, and I’ve noticed other young Christian women making some of those same mistakes! Now if I’ve learned anything, it’s that some lessons you simply need to learn for yourself. Had anyone tried to bring things like this to my attention (and they did) I was very quick to brush it off. So I know my words will be brushed aside by some. That’s ok, we learn when we’re ready to, but here are some lessons I have learned and I think are worth learning sooner rather than later!

1- Do not mistake pride for zeal, or arrogance for insight. Zeal for God is a WONDERFUL thing, the trouble starts when we fall into the trap of “if this is how I think/feel then it’s right. If I’m right then anything different is wrong!” and our zeal ceases to be for God but rather for ourselves and our own views and ideas! Youthful enthusiasm is great, if it’s channeled in God honoring ways, but if pride and arrogance take the wheel, that enthusiasm becomes a force to be reckoned with, and you’ll find out quickly there are plenty who are more than willing to take you to task! We mistake outrage over our arrogance as attacks against God, in our zeal we get all the MORE offensive in our manners thinking we are doing God a service! It’s a vicious circle that destroys much, especially the very Christian witness we are trying to be!

2- You get what you pay for. If you are kind and gracious to others, others will be kind and gracious to you! Likewise if you are harsh and judgmental in your writings of others, you can be sure you will be judged harshly as well. Often people think they are being persecuted for their faith when really they are just reaping what they’ve sown. Jesus told us to “love our neighbors as ourselves” and to “do unto others as you have them do unto you”. As you give so you will receive, so if you want to receive honey then don’t give others vinegar!

3- Don’t write off every rude remark. As above, if you are rude to others, you can expect rudeness in return. You might get the odd rude comment even if you don’t ask for it, but regardless of whether the rudeness was merited or not, the temptation is to dismiss their comment entirely. I would advise rather to honestly evaluate whether there really is a problem with your views or how you express them. Some people seek only to discourage you, but sometimes while the way they say it is uncalled for, there is a grain of truth to the issue they are bringing up. I do not think rudeness is ever the way to go, but sometimes the rudest comment can enlighten you to a real oversight on your part. Evaluate them honestly, and discard them. Rudeness belongs in the trash IMO but if there’s a grain of truth hidden in it, keep that part!

4- Realize God knows what He’s talking about. There is a reason God gives the instruction to teach to OLDER women. Wisdom comes with age and experience, simple as that. That’s not to say that younger people have nothing worth learning to share, or that someone is always right just because they are older than you! I’ve known young people who were wise beyond their years as well as older people who had about as much sense as a third grader, but on the whole, the kind of wisdom we need to learn comes with nothing but years of experience. Youth comes with so much enthusiasm and assurance that we sometimes think that we know everything and it’s our job to teach the world, but God in His wisdom gave the role of teacher to the older women. You wait and see, the older you get the more you realize how little you knew and how unqualified you were to be trying to teach others!

5- Develop a taste for Humble Pie. You will need to eat this regularly, so you may as well learn to like it! Remember God gives grace to the humble! I don’t know about you, but I need all the grace I can get! Don’t let pride tarnish your witness, allow yourself to humbly accept that you can be wrong, that not everyone has to do things your way, that people do not OWE you anything!

6- Be careful little heart who you trust. PLEASE be careful who you put on a pedestal online! Things are not always what they seem! People online can make themselves into anything they want themselves to be! Unless you know them in person, you have no way to verify the truthfulness of their claims. It’s very easy to find someone online you identify with, but remember, what you are identifying with could very well be an act. However, once we click with someone, we tend to resist any implication that something is amiss. There’s nothing wrong with that! No one wants to believe that someone they trust is deceiving them! Unfortunately, this can mean years of trust being destroyed when you’ve finally known them long enough to start catching the discrepancies! There are all kinds of ways to tell if someone isn’t quite being truthful online, but to simplify things, if something seems to good to be true, it usually is. Remember too, there is a reason people get attacked online and persecution for honest faith, while real, is not at the top of the list in my experience. If someone is surrounded with drama, it’s a pretty good indication that something is amiss and it might be best to keep your distance. There are honest, REAL Titus 2 women on the internet (you don’t hear as much about them because they don’t tend to stand on the virtual street corners and draw attention to themselves) but there are a lot of dishonest people out there too. Just, be careful. Not everything that glitters is gold.

7- Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. Remember, people can be rude. Or maybe they just say something you don’t want to hear. Regardless of how tactfully something is said, or how little you want to hear it, listen. REALLY listen. Don’t jump to conclusions or get defensive, really and truly listen to feedback you get, positive AND negative. In fact, I would say ESPECIALLY the negative! Not everything that tickles our ears are good for us! Better the wound of a friend than a kiss from an enemy! Take that feedback, listen to what they are really saying (again, feel free to discard the rudeness but don’t toss the baby out with the bathwater!) and THINK about it! You don’t have to answer right away, in fact you probably shouldn’t! Take some time to really digest it. Pray about it. Don’t jump the gun and get bent out of shape! Sometimes the things that sting the most end up being the most beneficial in the long run.

8- PLEASE learn the definition of hate! Disagreeing with someone is not hate. Voicing concern or giving advice, asked for or not, is not hate. I have seen the most genuinely sincere, gentle and humble words labeled (and I quote) "hate mail". Yes, blessed are those who suffer persecution for their faith, but there is no blessing for being over dramatic! People disagreeing with you is not persecution! I know it makes you feel important, like you really must be on the right track but it's a lie! Honestly evaluate (privately, you don't need to admit this out loud, I know it stings) whether you want to please God or yourself. I would have SAID God, but honestly, it was my own pride I was really serving. The Bible says (and I'll even quote the KJV on this) in James 3:17

"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."

Now this whole verse is a good lesson, but the part I want to focus on is that "easy to be entreated" part. Being easy to entreat basically means being able to be appealed to, to you can handle peer review graciously. If you call any comment that isn't slobbering praise all over you "hate mail", then you are NOT being easy to entreat, you aren't entreatable at ALL! Just something to think about!

These are some of the many lessons I have learned, and the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know! I know this though; that if there is any good in me, any truth, any righteousness, anything worthy of praise it is only God. It is only His reflection in my life, not anything of my own doing. For this I am most thankful, if it were my own goodness then I’d have something to boast about, I would rather boast of the goodness and the greatness of God than of myself! Pride truly is the ugliest thing that can adorn a woman professing godliness! The immature will grow and the weak will increase in strength but the proud will stagnate for they cannot see their own need for growth!

May the Lord bless you in everything you do for His glory

What part of "No man knows the day" don't some people understand?!

2011-05-20T11:02:00.002-04:00

Ok, so is everyone busy getting ready to be raptured tomorrow? Seriously though, I can just see how this is playing out behind the scenes. In face, I've made a detailed illustration about it!

Hmmmm, that one thought bubble is a little hard to read, the reference is Mark 13:32 Yeah, that's how I see it happening :p.

MEXaroni and Cheese!

2011-05-15T10:07:00.000-04:00

I don't know why this moved to the top of my blog, _ just fixed the label on it and it moved it to the top lol.

I threw this together tonight and it turned out DELICIOUS! I'll take my best guess at the measurements as I just added stuff until it looked right!

Mexaroni and Cheese

1 pkg macaroni noodles

1 can ROTEL

1 1/2 tsp taco seasoning

1 tbsp butter (would have used more but I ran out!)

1/2 cup milk

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese (I get hubby to pick this up for me from Wegman's)

Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water. Drain, and stir in the rest of the ingredients until cheese is melted and everything is heated through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Wishing Blessing to All the Mothers out There

2011-05-08T09:20:00.002-04:00

Hope all of you have a wonderful Mother's Day! Amid all the flowers, amid all the cards, and the presents, and the breakfasts in bed, may we never take these precious gifts of our for granted. While some of us enjoy a day of being waited on, other mothers are spending the day mourning the loss of their child(ren). While I think specifically of the loss within our church family, every day, even in this modern world, parents are faced with the painful reality of death. So while I wish a very happy Mother's Day to you all, please don't forget to pray for those who are hurting so deeply on this day.

Helpful, VERY Helpful rolleyes

2011-05-06T15:43:00.003-04:00

EDIT- I FIXED IT!!! Amazingly I was actually successful at Googling an answer ALL BY MYSELF!! :p

Don`t you just LOVE how helpful government agencies can beÉ (ummmm, why did my question mark turn into a big E with an accentÉÉÉ) I have a pressure cooker I bought from a friend of mine. I would like to start using it (I`ve had it for a few years) but I need to have the pressure gauge checked. I Googled the living daylights out of it but could not find where I could take the thing in to be checked! So I go to the home canning section of the Ontario government website. There they tell you it is IMPERATIVE to have the gauge checked once a year. Great! I emailed them to find out where to take it. A couple weeks later I get this response...``I don`t know!` Yup, they say if you want to can an home, you must get your canner checked every year, but they have no idea where to actually have this done! Helpful, REAL helpful! Any Ontario canners out there know where I can get this thing testedÉ (ARG!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY COMPUTERÉ!É!É!)

Coco-Mayo OH NO

2011-05-04T17:54:00.003-04:00

Okay then. Using coconut oil (not the kind that tastes like coconuts, ew!) to make mayo may SOUND like a good idea, hey it should thicken up nice in the fridge right? DON'T DO IT!!!! It thickens up alright, like refrigerated butter thick! No problem if you take it out to soften up before you need it, but if you weren't expecting it....yeah, you'll end up sending hubby out to buy junk mayo when supper is just about ready and you need it NOW *facepalm*

Well, it's Official

2011-05-03T07:58:00.000-04:00

I'm old. Over the hill. Ancient. Ok, I guess being 30 isn't THAT bad, but somehow seeing those 20's slide by forever is reeeeeeally making me feel old :s. Having a 12th wedding anniversary coming up in a few weeks and a son turning 11 in July isn't helping any! Did I mention I've had to pluck TWO white eyebrow hairs so far? TWO! Next my teeth will fall out, I'll start tripping on my boobs and I'll stand out in the street shaking my cane at that annoying paper boy!! Ok ok, I know I'm being dramatic, I probably don't need to mail in my application to the good senior residences QUITE yet. This "growing up" thing isn't nearly as cool as it seemed when I was a kid :p.

This Week's Menu Plan (and I love my grain mill!)

2011-05-02T09:10:00.000-04:00

Well, hubby went on our first grocery run to the States (my paperwork is still in the works so I can go with him eventually!) and even though nearly everything I had him get was organic, it was still so much less than we are used to spending! I had him pick up a couple bags of King Arthur white whole wheat flour to last me until next weekend when hopefully he can go get 100 pounds of white hard wheat for me. Another blessing, no more standing there for 3 hours to grind enough flour for a day or two! My Dad got me a brand new Nutrimill for my birthday! (Yes, today is my last day in my twenty's. I expect you all to observe a moment of silence for my dearly departed youth, le sigh!) I just finished grinding a batch of sprouted wheat with it!

A word of warning on that, you are not supposed to grind sprouted grain in a Nutrimill because any moisture will ruin it, and at $300 few people can just run out and buy another one, but lots of people do it anyway. The key is to make sure the wheat is desert dry! Seriously, after the wheat seems completely dry, I dry it another full 24 hours to be sure there is absolutely no moisture left. I open the feed as wide as it will go (the flour is still much finer than my hand mill got it!) and it grinds beautifully. Do keep in mind too that using the mill for sprouted grain will likely void the warranty, so proceed at your own risk! If you decide to do it, I recommend following any sprouted grains with a cup or two of rice. This will help clear out the mechanics in case anything did stick in there (those dried rootlets seem to stick to everything don't they?). I use white rice so I don't have to worry about phytic acid, then use this little bit of flour for tiny jobs like dusting a pan, dredging meat or substituting for corn starch. Since it's not whole grain I keep it in the cupboard saving freezer space. I love love LOVE my electric mill!

Anyway, on the menu this week...

Monday:

B- Cereal
L- Basmatti rice w/ veggies cooked in broth, water
S- Roast chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn, salad and kim chi, kombucha

Tuesday:

B- French toast, OJ
L- BBQ hot dogs, water

S- Liver and rice casserole, salad, kombucha

Wednesday:

B- Homemade poptarts
L- Herb fried pasta, water

S- Chicken cheddar quesadillas, salad, kombucha

Thursday:

B- BLnoT Sourdough Bagels

L- Chicken nuggets and oven fries, water

S- Bean and bacon soup, garlic sticks, salad, kombucha

Friday:

B- Sourdough Waffles

L-Leftovers, water

S- Cheddar ranch burgers, potato wedges, carrots, salad, kombucha

Saturday:

B- Cream of Wheat

L- Potato soup, water

S- Italian baked pasta, salad, kombucha

A Sad Update to Prayer Request

2011-04-30T20:30:00.002-04:00

Thank you everyone who was praying for the couple in my church whose baby was born suddenly with major complications. We just received news that the baby passed away today. The parents of course are devastated, please keep praying for them in this heartbreaking time :(.

Sometimes we Need a Good Kick in the Pants!

2011-04-29T09:06:00.000-04:00

Our adventures yesterday really made me realize how unprepared we were! When we had to hit the basement I realized three things; I couldn’t find the flashlight, I don’t know how to turn off the gas, and that when there is danger of trees blowing into your house is NOT the time you want to be kicking boxes around trying to clear a place to take shelter! Not to mention most of the city was without power yesterday and for all I know it’s still out! I need to get on top of things and get our kits back together! After checking our kits months back all the food items had expired and I still had not gathered together all the equipment I wanted. With all the moving last year I just never got around to updating them! With yesterday's experience, prepping was foremost in my mind last night. In my Bible reading I ran across a verse that really spoke to me...

"But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine." -Psalm 33:18,19-

While I believe preparing for times of disaster are important, I think it's even MORE important to remember that if our hopes are in our own preparations, in our own abilities, we're going to come up lacking. It is not going to be a few canned foods that will see us through times of trouble, it is the Lord who preserves us! With that in mind there IS biblical wisdom in preparing for future calamity, after all, is that not the reason God sent Joseph into Egypt? By using the seven years of plenty to prepare for the seven years of famine, God's people were preserved.

Like most areas of life, if I try to focus on the whole prepping picture I get overwhelmed and end up doing nothing at all. So to get back on track, I'm going to keep my focus on the small scale. Starting with the areas I found lacking yesterday.

1) Put together an area of the basement as a safe shelter area.

2) In this area keep a box of emergency supplies; flashlight, extra pair of running shoes, bottles of water and simple snacks (granola bars are cheaper, LARA bars are healthier, whatever you want), something to keep kids happily distracted (those tiny versions of games they sell for using in the car would be perfect!).

3)A three day supply of easy to prepare food, a non-electric means to cook, and bottled water. This can be kept in a rubbermaid container or two, or in individual back packs in case evacuation of foot would be needed.

These are my current short term goals. For long term prep I have two current goals; save for a Big Berky and when we start grocery shopping in the States, even if we eat the more costly organic meats everyday, I'll still buy some of the cheap meat to can, as well as start dehydrating fruits and vegetables for long term storage. Here a little, there a little. Instead of fretting about all that I DON'T have prepared, I'll be content to do what I can and remember that I already have the single most important preparation I could ever possible have, faith and trust in the Lord. Everything else is just gravy!

URGENT PRAYER NEEDED

2011-04-28T10:26:00.004-04:00

UPDATED BELOW!

Ok, this wind has gone from a little freaky to terrifying. My husband called to see if we were ok and said it was really scary where he's working a few towns over. He said he was going to come home. He called a few minutes later to say he was just about to get on the highway when a row of hydrotowers blew over onto the highway, hitting a bunch of cars and electricity arching all over the place!! He tried to leave the town from the other side but the towers on that side looked like they could go any minute. He found a big brick building to park beside to try and block some of the debris from hitting the van but he's pretty much stranded there. Please pray for his safety, that he can get home. And for all those people who got hit by the hydro towers and wires. From the sounds of it, people could have been killed. The kids and I are in the basement now as the house is constantly being battered with debris and it just does not feel safe to be up there! The sound of the wind even down here is scary! The kids are distracting themselves with ds's game boy and I wanted to get on here and ask for prayer, oh please Lord let my husband get home safely! Ok, the power's flickering now, I'll update later.

UPDATE: The winds seems to have calmed down a little bit. The lights stayed on and hubby got home safely. He moved the van to another building that didn't have any trees as he said big trees were getting blown down around him. He was finally able to get home taking backroads. Our house has sustained some damage, the full extent probably won't be known until it stops blowing, but for now the sign from the restaurant nextdoor is in our back yard, along with some of the neighbour's siding. Their shingles were pelting our house so we probably have a few of those lying around too. The fascia from our mudroom roof is now ON the roof. Our compost bin is now on the other side of the yard and some large outdoor furniture has moved a bit. But everyone's accounted for and ok. Hopefully the worst is over! *sigh* my beautiful tulips were finally open and now they are trashed :(.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/04/28/wind-toronto.html

Update 2: Well hubby is now home safe and sound and the windstorm is over. Everyone is out taking pics for their insurance :p. Going to take a drive with hubby and look at the damage! Power is out in 2/3 or the city but we still have power thankfully!

Update 3: WOW! There are trees down, and downed power cables all over over town! It's CRAZY out there! One correction to my account is that they were the wooden poles that came down on the highway not the big metal electricity towers. From the way he described it I just pictured those. Still, scary stuff!

Howling Wind and Car Alarms!

2011-04-28T09:33:00.000-04:00

That's what I'm hearing right now! We're under a wind warning right now, 90km/h winds with gusts up to 100km/h! Wowzers, it's blustery! Hopefully this will dry out the yard a bit. Our yard seems to act like a big bowl, and with all the rain we've gotten this year already, it's a big bowl of MUD! Ask L who fell while playing out there the other day!

She was NOT amused! Oh well, nothing a bath wasn't able to handle. About two thirds of the yard is just unusable for all the mud! I should have gotten several things started in the garden by now but the weather has refused to cooperate even long enough to clean it up from last year's stuff! Hopefully things will dry up soon! All this wind should help with that, so long as it doesn't start raining again! From the look of the sky though, there's more coming. Doesn't that just figure? I have a big beautiful garden to plant this year and we're getting rained out!

Oh well, I've got too much to be thankful for to feel too sorry for myself! Food prices have been rising so much here it's getting discouraging. It was already too expensive to get the kind of quality I want to, especially in meat and dairy, where I REALLY wish I could afford to get organic. I can wash chemical residues from the surface of vegetables, but I not from the flesh, fat and milk of animals! There's really no way to buy organic meat here on our income so I just buy the factory farmed stuff and hope for the best. Well since we were going to start getting groceries and gas from the States soon, I've been trying to see what's available. I discovered that Wegman's website lets you see all the products they sell and the prices at whatever location you want. Turns out that 20 minutes from here I can buy free range chicken and grassfed beef, organic mlk, etc. I can actually AFFORD! The organic stuff there is the same price the regular stuff is HERE! And if we're having a hard week and I need to cut back on the grocery budget, I can get the same quality stuff I get now for MUCH less!

For example, the CHEAPEST whole milk here is just under $5 a gallon, I can get it for $1.80 across the border!!! The CHEAPEST cuts of meat are usually around $4 and up a pound here, I found whole chickens for 88 cents a pound!!! And CHEESE! Oh my goodness!! When I look up frugal recipes I keep seeing a lot of cheese. I always wondered why on Earth so-called frugal recipes would use so much of such an EXPENSIVE ingredient. Turns out cheese IS an affordable ingredient down there!! It's HALF the price there as it is here! And if I want to get REAL convenient, the pre-shredded cheese is the same price per pound as whole! Unlike here where it's much more expensive. I know it sounds sappy but I don't care, when I saw those food prices I wanted to cry! I can give my family so much better quality now without spending more money, and if we need to, it's actually POSSIBLE to lower the grocery budget! Most people probably don't get so excited about groceries, but I can't tell you what an answer to prayer this is!

Speaking of prayer, thank you everyone who is praying for the requests I made in my last post. To update they found the reason the baby (E) wasn't breathing was that his chest was full of fluid that prevented his lungs from opening. They were able to drain the fluid, but he still can't breath on his own yet as his lungs were damaged from the force of the CPR needed to keep him alive at first. He's being kept sedated to allow his body to heal. They don't know at this point the state of any mental issues until he's stable enough for an MRI. Please keep this little boy in your prayers, as well as his parents, his mother isn't doing very well either and doctors have put her on bedrest. My heart just breaks for them :(.

Oh wow! I just looked outside to see what this odd sound was, the siding is getting torn off the house next door by this wind!! It's a blue sky but it looks like a tornado out there! Crazy! Well y'all I think we're going to find a windowless room to hang out in for a while, I'm afraid a tree is going to blow down into the house or something! Take care!

A Couple of Prayer Requests

2011-04-24T15:16:00.000-04:00

Our in laws just left, we had a very nice Easter meal together. I ended up missing church today because for some reason I thought we were having them for lunch instead of dinner, so I needed to get it all prepared but it turned out we HAD planned for supper (which totally makes more sense!) so I could have gone after all! Oh well, my older kids went with hubby to church so 4yo A helped me get the meal ready while we sang hymns and talked about why we celebrate Easter. So we had a great morning anyway! My house is quite a sight right now, but I'm letting my achy feet rest a bit before I clean it all up! So I thought I'd pop on here and ask for prayer for a few things.

A couple in our church was anxiously expecting their first child and last night she went into labor but it happened so fast they didn’t even have time to get out the door! The baby was born with the cord tight around the neck and not breathing. They were sent to the hospital in Hamilton. Please pray for them, this is not the Easter they were looking forward to for sure .

Also our pastor has been completely incapacitated by horrible back pain (I can’t recall what it’s called but it involves his back and his legs). He’s been in just horrendous pain for the last few weeks and he is still waiting for them to operate. Please pray for him too.

HE IS RISEN!

2011-04-24T08:23:00.002-04:00

"After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” -Matthew 28-

He has risen indeed!

It is a Good Friday Indeed!

2011-04-22T09:09:00.002-04:00

"They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

-Matthew 27:33-54- NIV

Thank you Lord, for giving Yourself as the sacrifice for my sins! May we remember the death of our Lord and look forward to the celebration of His glorious resurrection!

Next Week's Menu Plan

2011-04-22T08:48:00.000-04:00

I kind of go back and forth between planning meals for a whole week or just for a day or two, but this this week I planned the whole week. Just to note, all breakfasts are served with a kefir/fruit smoothy, lunches are served with veggie sticks and water, and suppers are served with at least one fermented condiment and kombucha to drink. All soups are homemade using homemade chicken stock, crackers and bagels are homemade sourdough, etc. The cream cheese isn't homemade though, I found a few tubs in the freezer!

Sunday 24
Breakfast: Breakfast casserole
Lunch: Salmon sandwiches
Supper: Grilled chicken breasts w/ mango chutney, glazed carrots, rice pilaf, salad, sesame breadsticks and Easter bread (paska)

Monday 25
Breakfast: Tapioca pudding (made with natural sweetener)
Lunch: Fried rice
Supper: Roast chicken, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, corn, and salad

Tuesday 26
Breakfast: Hot sprouted wheat cereal
Lunch: Cream of mushroom soup
Supper: Chicken liver pate w/ crackers, sweet potatoes, broccoli, kimchi

Wednesday 27
Breakfast: Carrot muffins
Lunch: Brown rice macaroni and cheese
Supper: Chicken nuggets, rice cooked in stock with garlic and celery, salad and cultured plum sauce

Thursday 28
Breakfast: Bagels w/ cream cheese
Lunch: Potato soup
Supper: Frittata & salad

Friday 29
Breakfast: Waffles w/ berry syrup
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Beef, eggplant & bok choy stirfry, kimchi

Saturday 30
Breakfast: Soaked granola
We'll be away visiting family all afternoon.

Hitting for the Wrong Team?

2011-04-20T17:14:00.001-04:00

This is going to be a rather wordy post today. The other day I heard the Devil referred to as "the accuser of the brethren" and it started me thinking about how WE can sometimes be accusers of the brethren as well! As Christians, we're on God's team aren't we? How are people supposed to know we're "Team Jesus"?

"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35

This verse was taken from the NIV, but it says the same thing in the KJV and probably every other translation too, in case there was any doubt ;). So a key indication of the authenticity of a person's faith is that they have love for their fellow Christians. Our team colours are LOVE! What about the other team? Well the Bible has this to say about the captain of the other team...

"For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down." Revelation 12:10

Yes Satan, the "accuser of our brethren". So are we lovers or accusers? 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a list of characteristics that describe love. According to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 love... (Bold is scripture, what follows are just my own thoughts.)

Is patient: Are we patient with others and their weaknesses, or do we try and hurry them along and push them to where we think they ought to be?

Is kind: Are we kind to others? We may think we are helping someone in love, but if we do not treat them kindly in the process, it's NOT love!

Does not envy: It's hard to feel loving towards someone when you're jealous of them. Don't let yourself be envious of the gifts, strengths, talents or blessing of others. Rejoice with them, but don't let yourself become bitter with envy!

Does not boast: On the other hand, neither is is loving to rub those blessings in the face of others! We all like to share the blessings and praise reports, but be careful not to let your blessings make your head swell! The Bible tells us God is no respecter of persons, we get those blessings because it was GOD'S will, not because we're just so darn special that God owes us special blessings! It's because HE is so kind that He blesses us BEYOND what we deserve! Do not brag so that others feel they must not be as good as you since they did not receive the same blessing.

Is not proud: This is an area I feel I can talk the most in because it's an area I have really struggled with! So if I sound a little harsh with this one, it's because I have to be really hard on myself here! The Bible mentions pride nearly a hundred times in the Bible and very few of those times says anything positive! We're told in James 4:6 that God resists the proud! Grace is given to those who are humble. I heard someone say once, and I think it's right on the money, 'When someone tries to hide their sin, others will come behind them and try to uncover them. If someone is open with their sin, others will come behind them and try to cover them up.' I've seen people try desperately to keep their 'sins' covered and not let anyone see them. The harder they try to deny and cover them, the harder other people try to uncover and expose them. Pride is the real issue here! Why do we try so hard to cover our sins? Is it not because they tarnish the pristine image we are trying to portray? They are the dead men's bones hiding inside our white washed tombs! You want to be shown grace? Lay down your pride and humble yourself! If you insist on holding on to that pride, you will never find peace! You will remain in a constant struggle to keep up appearances so you can convince people that you are as perfect as you think you are. I have been there and I can tell you, it is EXHAUSTING! The more you try to get rid of the evidence of your imperfection, the more noticeable it is to everyone! Humble Pie may taste a little bitter at first, but the grace that results is sweet indeed!

Does not dishonor others: This is another area I can struggle with if I am not very careful. There is a very fine line between "examining the spirits" and dishonoring others. Focusing on the failings of another person, or in groups you disagree with can easily start bitterness stewing in the heart. As in most things in life, we reap what we sow! If we are unloving to others, you can bet your bunions people are going to be unloving to us! I have run across people who had some very good, intelligent points to make yet because they choose to make them by insulting people and calling them names, few will listen to anything they say! It simply is not showing love.

Is not self seeking: Genuine love acts for the good of OTHERS, it is not doing something that may at first give the appearance of thinking of others but really is just a mask for ones own agenda.

Is not easily angered: Yet another area the Spirit has to work on in me, when I am wronged, I get MAD! Getting angry is not necessarily a bad thing, the scriptures give us examples of when we are SUPPOSED to be angry, but getting all flustered and going into attack mode the second says something to us we don't like is not a very loving attitude to have. "Be angry and sin not" as the Bible says. It is natural to be angry when someone sins against us, but that does not mean we should in turn sin against them. At least give yourself time to cool off before you do anything, but learning not to get angry in the first place is the real kicker. Love is patient, remember? I don't for one second claim to have attained to that by the way ;) !

It keeps no record of wrongs: This one is hard isn't it? No matter how forgetful we may otherwise be, we tend to really hang on to those times someone mistreated us! Remember when Peter asked Jesus how often we should forgive those who sin against us? He thought seven times was pretty generous. However Jesus said that seventy TIMES seven was more like it (Matthew 18:22)! That's a lot of forgiving! The Bible doesn't really give us an option though, does it? Doesn't it say in the Lord's Prayer "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"? If we want God to overlook our record of sins then we must be willing to do the same for others, no? NOT an easy task in any means! If you are able to effortlessly forgive others when they sin against you time and time again, I tip my hat to you!

Does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth: You know what I find odd? People who claim to be filled with Christian love yet it seems all they want to talk about is the evil of others. I don't know about you but I'd much rather read about they joy they are having walking in truth than about how evil they think everyone else is!

It always protects: The word used here denotes "covering with silence". Like in some of the previous points, the dignity of others is protected by silence. Love protects other people, it does not tear them down.

It always trusts: An amazing thing happens when you show others love instead of accusing them, it builds trust. When people learn they can trust you not to attack them, you can usually trust them to do the same. If our loves causes distrust, something isn't working!

It always hopes: When you love someone, you have hope in them. You believe the best in them. People may, and likely will, keep disappointing you. We're all human and can't live up to our own expectations sometimes, let alone the expectations of others, but we should try to have high hopes for others, not set them up to fail.

It always perseveres: Love stays the course. It doesn't give up on a person when they don't immediately measure up to our expectations of them. Love is "never leaving nor forsaking". It's always there even if, especially if, it is undeserved. Some of the most memorable examples of Christian love were shown to me when I least deserved it. People showed me love when I was very unlovable. The love and encouragement shown to me when I did nothing to earn it did more to move me to repentance than any criticism or accusation ever could.

That's a whole lot of meaning crammed into one little four letter word! Contrast someone who shows love with an accuser...

"You call yourself a Christian?"

"A REAL Christian wouldn't do THAT!"

"You know, if you were a GOOD Christian you wouldn't have that struggle!"

"You are a terrible witness, how could you possibly be saved?"

"You just aren't good enough!"

The "accuser of the brethren" loves to throw things like this at us doesn't he? Unfortunately he's not the only one! Have you noticed that there are some Christians out there who sound very much like that? All they seem to do is tell everyone else how wrong they are, how they aren't making the cut, how they are falling short! What a far cry from the Lord, who "A bruised reed shall he not break"(Matthew 12:20)! The Lord's love lifts up and encourages others, the enemy's accusations tear down and discourage them. The question is,

Whose team do YOU want to be on?

(PS- I hope this post didn't come off as condescending. I was trying to be encouraging but I'm a little unsure if some of my points came across that way or if they sounded too 'preachy'. My apologies if got a little too passionate!)

My First Glass!

2011-04-14T13:07:00.001-04:00

The first glass of my first brew with my new kombucha SCOBY I grew from a bottle of store bought kombucha. I hoped to get a good picture of the GORGEOUS colour of this batch but the camera just doesn't do justice to the brilliant ruby tone of this grape flavoured brew! It was so cold and refreshing and quite effervescent despite keeping it in plain old mason jars (I'll be getting some proper bottling equipment eventually). Such a treat!

ATTENTION NEW YORKERS

2011-04-13T16:35:00.001-04:00

I am trying to find a good healthfood store in Northwestern New York state as we are in the process of getting all documentation needed to cross the border so we can start getting our groceries in the States (seriously guys, you think your prices are high these days, come up HERE LOL). I'm not having much luck finding one. Of course there's a Trader Joe's just across the border on the OTHER side of Southern Ontario, but that's too far to drive from here. If anyone knows of a good place within these borders

could you please leave me a comment with some info? I would appreciate it SO much! Thanks!

7yo's New 'Do

2011-04-11T08:56:00.001-04:00

The agreement was she could grow her hair as long as she wanted IF she took good care of it. Well that didn't work. As long as she wants to roll around playing on the floor, not wear it braided so it wont tangle and "forget" to do some extra brushing throughout the day (to keep it from becoming a tangled mess that guaranteed tears at comb out time) then we've agreed that it will stay short. She's welcome to grow it out again when she'd old enough to take care of it properly so last night she got a hair cut. When she looked in the mirror she simply squealed in delight LOL, she LOVES it (and so do I, much easier to care for and cute as a button)! She asked me to take some pics and show off her new style!

I learned a couple things from taking these pics. One, I missed a spot there on the one side, so I fixed that. Two, I really should get down level with her to take a pic, taking one from my height makes her look kinda wonky LOL. It's funny, she loves shaking her head around feeling how light her hair is now, so cute!

Sourdough Impossible Pie!

2011-04-10T18:13:00.002-04:00

After reading on GNOWFGLINS about using sourdough starter as a base for making healthy "Impossible Pies", and not being able to afford the eBook that contained the recipe, I decided to experiment and see if I couldn't figure out how to do it myself. I used to love making impossible pies but since trying to eat healthier I stopped making them. Now it would be pretty easy to make a healthy homemade bisquick (using a recipe like this one and using sprouted flour and butter), but since I already have a sourdough starter going then it would be so easy to just use that! The post that gave me the idea mentioned using 1 1/2 cups of starter so I started there, and consulting mainstream impossible pie recipes came up with the following formula.

I do hope to be able to get the eBook someday, but I wanted to share my version of this recipe for the sake of those like myself who could really use a healthy version of an impossible pie but can't afford to pay for more cookbooks! And if you CAN afford it, go buy it! It looks FANTASTIC!!!!

My Version of a Sourdough Impossible Pie

1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
3 eggs
1 tsp sea salt
any herbs that would go well with your desired filling
2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
2 or 3 Tbsp melted butter or coconut oil
if needed, enough water or milk to make a thick cream like consistency

Beat together.

Grease a deep pie dish or an 9x9 baking dish and put in around 3 cups of your desired filling, some ideas below. Top with the sourdough mixture.

1 cup grated cheese

Sprinkle over the top and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 40 minutes or until set. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

I like to serve an impossible pie with a nice big salad to complete the meal.

Some of my favourite filling combination (including herb and cheese ideas):

Cubed cooked chicken, pre-cooked (or thawed frozen) broccoli and cheddar
Canned tuna, diced tomatoes, oregano, mozzarella
Diced ham, peas, mustard powder, swiss cheese
Browned ground beef, salsa, cheddar cheese
Cooked (or thawed frozen) cauliflower, curry powder, mozzarella
Cooked sausage meat, fried onions and celery, cheddar
Diced chicken, fine diced sundried tomatoes, oregano, feta

What are some of your favourite impossible pie fillings?

Frozen Snickers Bites

2011-04-07T16:08:00.002-04:00

I'm not going to share a picture of this one because if you saw a picture you probably wouldn't make them ! While not the most aesthetically pleasing little snacks, they sure are tasty! I got this recipe from a raw food forum I was on a while back. I Googled it but it looks like the recipe was removed from the post! So the thread is here, and here's the recipe!

Frozen Snickers Bites

1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
dash of sea salt
medjool dates

Mix all ingredients but dates together until smooth.
Slice down the side of each date and remove pit.
Using a butterknife, fill each date with almond/cocoa mixture.
Gently press edges back together and place on a plate.
Freeze dates and transfer to a freezer bag.

Tis Better to have Blogged and Lost than never to have Blogged at all!

2011-04-05T15:39:00.001-04:00

Or something like that :p. I had typed out a post and accidentally deleted it before posting! Oh well, I don't feel like typing it all out again, so I'll save the idea for another day. So what else can I talk about...well, I was pretty excited to find chicken livers the last time I went shopping! I LOVE NT's chicken liver pate recipe but chicken livers are oddly hard to come by for some reason! So when I saw them I grabbed 4 packages! I'll pick up the few other ingredients this weekend, yum! I sneak liver into ground meat recipes too but pate is by far my favourite way to eat liver. You know, when I was a kid I loved liver just boiled plain! Now you couldn't pay me enough to eat it like that! I wonder why that is! I also remember my favourite part of Christmas dinner (besides the pumpkin pie of course) was getting the turkey heart! I looked forward to it all year! Now the idea icks me out. Which is too bad really as I see whole packages of chicken hearts at the store quite often. Maybe I'll get the nerve up to try this recipe some day.

I'm not sure if I'll keep my sourdough starter at room temperature or if I'll go back to keeping it in the fridge. On one hand I LOVE having it fresh and ready anytime I want it, but on the other hand having to feed it twice a day is getting to be a bit much. Right now I have a running list of what to use the starter for every morning and evening and this helps a lot, but it does mean a lot of bread products being produced every single day. I could just discard the excess when I feed it, but it's such a waste! Maybe I'll try a single feed a day, since I like to make the starter so thick, maybe that amount of flour will keep it happy for 24 hours. We'll see, if not I' might just go back to keeping it in the fridge. Well, I just finished putting up some ketchup and BBQ sauce to ferment so now it's time to clean the kitchen again. Bye for now.

The G.O.S.P.E.L

2011-04-04T07:51:00.001-04:00

G.O.S.P.E.L. from Humble Beast Records on Vimeo.

Giveaways!

2011-04-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

GNOWFLINS and Kitchen Stewardship are giving away a copy of GNOWFLINS sourdough ebook! If you are interested in entering the contest visit here!

Aaaaaaaand...

H

You know, an interesting thing happens when you don't delete your archives :p

2011-03-31T22:55:00.001-04:00

You can actually go BACK through them and see some amazing things! Here I sit waiting for the dishwasher to be done so I can unload it and just started reading back through my blog. As the days, weeks and months turned back it was really interesting to watch! I was able to see how God answered prayer in amazing ways, I got to see things that I once enjoyed but felt God putting his finger on and asking me to lay it down. There was a TV show my husband and I watched and enjoyed a LOT, well I began to feel convicted (and I love how it feels when GOD convicts you of something! He is so gentle, none of the horrible condemnation one feels when being accused by the enemy or judged by man!) about it. I really reeeeeeally didn't want to give it up but eventually God's persistent but loving nudging on the matter won out and now I not only don't miss it, I wonder why I liked it so much! And yet I don't feel the least bit "superior" for giving it up! As someone who has struggled with religious pride many times this is a victory I praise God for! (And in case anyone was wondering, I am STILL into gothic stuff and metal music :p. I'm in more of a flowery pink mood lately and while I'm fasting from most music actually right now, I don't feel any need to give it up either. Just have not felt the desire to listen to it lately.)

I've watched trusting God when we were forced to find another home in a short amount of time with the odds against us followed by moving in to the house of my dreams! I've watched God answer prayer time and time again! And small things too! I was reminded of a great outfit I still want to put together, I've even watched myself say I wouldn't bother with kefir grains again because I was never able to get a creamy kefir with grains and now here I am making smooth creamy kefir with grains LOL. I've watched me trying new things that while maybe did not stick around long, I am glad I tried! I'm also glad that for the first time EVER, I have been able to blog at one place, without giving up, and without feeling the need to hide anything (except for a few deleted posts back near the beginning of the blog which I regretted and reinstated as many as I could find back ups for) my past is here, preserved and transparent. This is who I am, I am not ashamed of who I am and do not have to hide! Yes, I make mistakes. Yes, I can look back and think "why of why did I ever write THAT?!" But that is life! Yes I change, it's called growth! I would rather admit that I can be wrong and change my mind than pretend I'm always right and have no need for personal growth!

I've always freaked out before this point and either changed my blog or at least whiped out the archives, but I'm finally at a place where I feel secure enough to stay put! What an awesome feeling of freedom! Well, the dishwasher's done so I best be getting the dishes put away and get myself to bed. Good night everyone, and thank you everyone who has been there with me through the many seasons of my online life :D

Kitchen Duties

2011-03-30T08:55:00.003-04:00

My body gets up at 7 but my brain refuses to function until at least 8:30. Even after I'm fully conscious I'm terribly absent minded, so I find it handy to have my regular kitchen chores printed out and on the fridge. As with most things, I've tried different variations of the theme but so far this is working the best. I have a page for daily chores as well as a page for weekly chores. I also have a page I laminated to use with a dry erase marker where I plan the day's meals and any meal prep specific to those meals and the meals tomorrow. I have all these posted on my fridge so I can run more or less on auto pilot and I don't end up forgetting to do something which throws a monkey wrench in my plans later on!

Daily Kitchen Duties

First Thing:

Punch down bread* dough, knead, shape, slash and rise
Feed sourdough starter
Strain milk kefir, start second fermentation and a new batch
Rinse anything sprouting

After Breakfast:

Check lunch and supper ingredients and take things out of the freezer to thaw if haven't already
Bake bread*
Check sprouts/ ferments
Clean kitchen

After Lunch:

Soak tomorrow's grains, flour, beans, etc
Make a snack or goodies for the kids
Clean kitchen
Plan tomorrow's meals

After Supper:

Do any food prep needed for the next few days (ingredients to be made before hand, condiments running low, etc.)
Take out meat to thaw for tomorrow
Rinse sprouts
Feed sourdough starter

Before Bed:

Reboot water kefir
Make bread dough
Clean kitchen

Weekly Kitchen Duties

Saturday:

Grocery shop
Wash fruit and vegetables
Chop/ slice veggies and store or ferment

Sunday:

Make broth
Grind flour

Monday:

Reboot kombucha
Strain, chill, defat and jar broth

Tuesday:

Grind flour
Soak nuts for drying and grains for sprouting

Wednesday:

Baking day- do some baking/ cooking for the freezer
Dry nuts

Thursday:

Grind flour
Clean and inventory freezers

Friday:

Clean fridge
Make grocery list

*Bread isn't always "bread". Sometimes I make loaf bread but sometimes I make flatbreads or english muffins instead.

My Favourite Cookbooks

2011-03-29T16:21:00.002-04:00

*When I talk of how one "should" eat, please keep in mind this is only my opinion. You need to do your own research and make up your own mind about nutrition!

I love to cook healthy meals for my family. More often than not I have an idea in my head of what I want to create and go from there, but I also love cookbooks! Today I'm going to share some of my favourites with you!

Cream of the Crop: These are my most loved "go to" cookbooks that I use the most.

Nourishing Traditions- Had to get a picture from the net as my well ~~worn~~ loved copy is on loan to my MIL right now. Actually, I don't use to many recipes from NT at this point, but the few I do I love! This book has been invaluable for me!

Living on Live Food- Raw and/or enzyme enhanced foods should, ideally, make up a good portion of the diet! While I believe this should include animal products like milk, cheese, eggs and even properly prepared meats (carpaccio anyone?) and probably should NOT include grains (these should* be soaked and well cooked) this raw vegan "cook" book is one of my favourites. I'll subsitute whole wheat sourdough crepes for dehydrated raw grain ones and real chicken in place of chick-un, but I really should be using more raw foods than I do currently so this one will see even more use from now on!

This is a binder I store all the recipes I print off the internet. I use this most of all.

Way up There: They don't get as much use as those above, but I do consult these often as well.

Food $$$ Food- I don't know where I got this little booklet but it's a old publication of the Ontario Department of Agriculture. It's about how to get the most food value for your money. The recipes leave a little something to be desired but it does have a lot of interesting information about frugal food choices.

Eat Fat, Lose Fat- From the same authors of Nourishing Traditions it focuses more on using coconut products and other healthy foods from a weight loss and/or restoring health perspective.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living: While there are some great recipes in here, my main interest in the book is more of the homestreading how-tos.

Naturally Delicious Desserts And Snacks- We don't have desserts all that often or this would be in the "most used" catagory. While some things still need to be substituted (sprouted wheat flour instead of plain whole wheat, full fat yogurt in place of low fat, etc) it's a great book!

Good: I don't use these often, more when I hot a rut and feel like something a little more unusual. They often need to have healthier ingredients subbed in there.

A few more Raw cookbooks- I got these at a local discount book store!

Regional Cookbooks- I think I got these from someone for a birthday. I love cooking from other countries so it's fun!

Honorable Mentions: I rarely use these ones, but occasionally I get the notion to try something out of them

Church cookbooks- From our previous and current churches. Very few of the recipes are geared towards being overly healthy, but some are tweakable and many are nostalgic.

Old Fashioned Cookies- I believe I got this book as part of an internet swap on a message board I am/was on. Even tweaking can't usually make these recipes healthy, but sometimes you just need a good cookie!

Woodstove Cookery- Like The Encyclopedia of Country Living, recipes were not the reason I got this book. I am still dreaming of having a wood cookstove someday and got this book so I would have a general idea how to use it! There are some nice recipes in it though.

Strawberry Banana Crepes

2011-03-28T09:55:00.001-04:00

We just had "the best breakfast EVER" according to my son! I would have to disagree, a dollop of whipped cream would have been better . I started by making a batch of GNOWFGLINS' sourdough crepes, then I took some caspian sea yogurt, sweetened it with honey and added a bit of vanilla. Then I sliced three bananas and mixed with the yogurt. I filled the crepes with the banana yogurt mixture then made the strawberry sauce. I put a handful of thawed frozen strawberries in the food processor with a spoon of honey and pureed it. I drizzled this over the crepes and we chowed down . Oh WOW it was good!

Preserving Produce with Lacto-Fermentation

2011-03-26T13:45:00.003-04:00

I have a problem with celery going all wilty on me before I have a chance to use it all. Also, I hate peeling and chopping carrots to have with lunch everyday so I like to peel and chop a bunch at a time and keep them in the fridge in water, but then I'm always wondering how much nutrition is being leached out by the water! The answer to both of these problems was the same. Pickle them! I got out of the peel and chop issue this week as I found a huge bag of organic baby carrots at Costco, as well as a big bag of celery sticks. Costco, how I love thee ! Anyway, when I got home I put some carrots and celery in a bag in the freezer to use when making stock. I set aside some of each to use fresh in the next couple of days and the rest I packed into jars with a brine of water, sea salt and whey. Now when pickling veggies it's best to use yogurt or buttermilk whey, kefir whey has yeast as well as bacteria which make things bubbly. That makes for great lacto-fermented sodas, but not so much for veggies! But since that's what I had on hand I used kefir whey, I just need to remember to burp the jars periodically so they don't go kablooie ! As you can see I also have a big container of ginger carrot sauerkraut fermenting too, though no kefir whey in that one, just the juice from the previous batch added to the brine.

So in a few days I'll move them all into the fridge. The carrots and celery will be used right away but the sauerkraut will be left to age a few months, I have to be more careful not not let us run out again, it's our favourite flavor and when it takes at LEAST a couple months to make, if I don't make some on a regular basis we end up buying it or doing without. When this batch it ready to eat it will be time to start a new batch so it can ferment while we eat this batch. Mmmm, it's so tangy and yummy it's going to be hard to wait! I did find large jars of fermented pickles at Costco, and I have a pint of kim chee in the fridge too, so at least we have some pickles to tide us over.

In other news I've changed the way I plan my menus. Too often something comes up and interferes with my plans so now instead of planning a week's worth of meals and shopping, I'll shop based on what's on sale and what basic ingredients we are needing and plan meals only a day or two in advance, enough time to do any prepwork necessary but with much more flexibility! It also allows me to use leftovers quickly instead of trying to save them for later in the week. Today we had the sourdough muffins I made last night and mango kefir smoothies for breakfast, baby carrots and raw almond butter on toasted whole wheat sourdough english muffins for lunch and for supper I have some leftover meatloaf and leftover spaghetti sauce. I'm going to cut the meatloaf up for meatballs and make spaghetti. I'm also going to have to plan a lot of soft meals for L (7yo) as she has not one, not two but FIVE loose teeth! Three on top and two on the bottom! Makes it hard for her to eat a lot of things, but I guess at least she's getting it out of the way! 10yo Z just lost a tooth this past week and has another one on it's way out, if we did the toothfairy thing I think she'd be going bankrupt LOL. Z is saving all his teeth but L just tossed them out up until now, but now she wants to start keeping them too. I suggested when they were done losing teeth they use clay to make jaws and put all their teeth in it, but they think that's gross. I thought it would be neat! Oh well, time to clean up after all that veggie prep! See you all later!

INSTANT Soaked Muffins

2011-03-25T23:22:00.002-04:00

I have started keeping my sourdough starter at room temperature and feeding it twice daily instead of in the fridge feeding once weekly. I find this convenient as I always have fresh active starter at my fingertips whenever the urge to bake strikes me, but then I have to find ways to use the discarded starter if I don't need to bake break at the moment. I wanted to have some sourdough based muffins for breakfast tomorrow, but since hubby likes to leave for grocery shopping at the crack of dawn (then we end up having to wait for the stores to open LOL. I love that man of mine but sometimes he is one odd duck!) I knew I wouldn't have time to mix them up in the morning, I would need to make them tonight. Then the question was should I use whole wheat flour to make them even though it wouldn't have time to soak or unbleached flour to not have the phytic acid problem. Then I wondered if I couldn't just use the sourdough starter as all the flour in the recipe! When I fed it this morning, I added 1 cup of water and 2 cups of whole wheat flour to about 1/4 cup starter, so it was rather on the thick side! I decided to give it a try!

I dumped it all into a bowl and took out 1/2 cup to feed and set it aside. To what was left in the bowl I beat in an egg, a splash of pure vanilla extract, a scant half cup of sucanat, approximately 1/4 cup melted coconut oil, about 1/2 tsp cinnamon, a pinch of sea salt, 2 tsp baking powder, a handful of flaked almonds and a handful of sweetened coconut (unsweetened would be healthier but I have a big Costco bag of sweetened to use up). Sorry about the measurements,they are approximate as I was just throwing it together by eye. It made 11 muffins, if I had just had a liiiiiiiittle bit more starter in the beginning I'd have had a full dozen. I baked them at 375F for 20 minutes. They smelled AWESOME! I snuck one as soon as they were cool, they taste great too!

I am so glad this worked! Now as long as I have starter I have healthy soaked muffins available INSTANTLY, no waiting for 7-24 hours for the flour to soak! I'm going to start making my starter on the thick side all the time, it's easy to thin it out a bit if I need a thinner starter and whenever I need a thicker batter, it's already all ready (wow, that was redundant!)

How is it Thursday ALREADY?!?!

2011-03-24T10:26:00.001-04:00

Wasn't it just Monday ? Is it just me or is time flying by like Speedy Gonzales?! Anyway, it's been a very enjoyable week! School's been running smoothly and I'm learning new things as well! I hope I never get to the point where I think I have nothing left to learn!

Speaking of learning, I just read the best piece of Titus 2 advice ever! Seriously, I think a lot of women (including me!) should have this printed and stuck on their fridge! Too many of us loose sight of what is really important in our lives, or worse, begin to look down our noses at other women for not measuring up to our own hyper-inflated standards! You know, the longer I'm alive the more I understand why God very specifically mentions the older women in our beloved Titus 2 passage! Not that younger women don't have some great tips and tricks to share as well, but those of us still in the trenches are still in the midst of the battle! The value of being mentored by a godly woman who has already BEEN there and has seen it through is immeasurable! You'd almost think God knew what He was talking about when he instructed the OLDER women to teach the YOUNGER women instead of the younger women looking only among themselves for guidance .

Well, the bread's done baking, the dishwasher's ready to be emptied and reloaded, and there's more school to do, so I'll see you all later!

Good Morning!

2011-03-22T11:46:00.003-04:00

Well the girls got all their schoolwork done and Z's on to his independent work now so that means I'm done school for the day! Well, until later when I have to mark Z's work, but for now anyway I'm free for a while! I have to make a big batch of kefir crackers (dough's been soaking long enough) and I think I have enough sprouted flour left to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies! That will use it all up but I have 2 quarts of dried sprouted wheat I can start grinding today if I get the time. I have to admit, doing all the grinding by hand is maddeningly tedious! I can't wait to have enough saved for an electric mill!!! I only have about $30 saved, but it's a start! Not to mention I can call grinding my grain by hand exercise and feel good that I'm getting a work out :p.

Ug, I slept sitting on the couch last night, propped up with laundry awaiting folding! I was just wrapping up my Bible reading (I'll get to that in a minute) and WHOOSH I was hit with one of my dizzy spells ! I was not a happy camper, the last one lasted several WEEKS (as opposed to the more usual several days) and I was so not looking forward to a repeat of that! I knew it would only get worse if I lay down so sitting up it was! Thankfully it was gone by the mid morning today. I sure would like to know why that happens! I HAVE noticed that the last two occurrences happened just after getting over a cold, so maybe germs think my inner ear is the place to go to die or something?! Whatever it is, I've had this problem for many years and noone's been able to give me a conclusive reason for it, so it's one of those things you just pray for the grace to endure! It may not be the MOST exciting thing about Heaven, but I sure am looking forward to that new body !

Anyway, I'm using a new Bible reading program and I LOVE it! One of the nice things about it is it deals with the problem I have with most Bible reading schedules I've come across. I have some serious perfectionism* issues and if I end up missing a day for whatever reason, it throws off most scheduled readings and I cannot seem to just jump back in and I end up giving up. With this one, if I miss a day or two it's no big deal, I just pick up where I left off! Also reading a chapter a day from 10 different areas of the Bible really helps me in a couple ways. First I am finally able to get motivated to read those really ~~boring~~ descriptive parts, like the genealogies in Genesis! If I sit down with pages and pages of ~~monotonous~~ detailed reading I have a hard time paying attention to it and am tempted to just skip it! Now I read those parts easily because I know it's only one chapter, I can DO one chapter! (Please don't think I dislike the Bible, I love the Word, but let's face it, certain parts sometimes sound like they are being read by your ninth grade history teacher! You know, the one who put the class to sleep daily through his long, detailed lectures given with no voice variation at all !) Also it gives an interesting perspective at how the whole Bible fits together as one unified Book. It's awesome!

Well, time to get lunch on the table and get to that baking! It's our ladies fellowship meeting tonight so I want to get my work done early! See you all later!

*ETA- Ok, I think perfectionism is the wrong word. I just made those cookies and I actually used my kitchen scales to measure out the dough, tomake sure each cookie was the exact same size. I think "retentive" might be a more accurate description )

Not-so-Manic Monday

2011-03-21T16:15:00.001-04:00

I hope you have all had a great weekend! Ours was great! Saturday was L's birthday party. Birthdays have always been mostly family gatherings but this year she wanted to invite her friend E from ballet class.

LOL my dad's as nutty as I am! (I've distorted E and her mom's faces as I don't want to publish them online without permission!)

It was a fun day!

Today L and Z are at their grandparent's. L is going to do some baking with grandma today before ballet and Z wanted to go with her. So it's just A home with me today! I was doing my own kitchen work when she came in hopping on one foot. I asked her what she was doing and she said she couldn't step on the cracks, so I left my work for a game of "grout lines are hot lava" then A watched me while I peeled and sliced up a bag of carrots. I hate peeling and cutting carrots so I like to do a whole bunch to last several days! I keep them in a covered bin with water and a splash of colloidal silver to keep them fresh (you can add a little to leftovers or things you want to keep for a while to keep bacteria from growing in it), and got a chicken in the oven. By then A lost interest and went to watch "The Sound of Music", though from the sounds of it she decided to watch "Transformers" instead lol.

I'm taking advantage of the kid-reduced situation to catch up on some cleaning. Got the kitchen back under control, I even drained some kefir for whey and made a nice garlic dip with the cheese. I'll soak flour for some crackers tonight and I'll serve the garlic dip with crackers and carrot sticks for lunch tomorrow! I got a whole bunch of laundry done and I'll spend the evening folding it. Well I think this break was long enough, time to get back to work! Have a great day!

Meet the Kefirs

2011-03-18T10:02:00.001-04:00

This picture is a little blurry, but it really showed the sheer SIZE of my new kefir grains, I outlined them in red as all the folds and adhering kefir it's hard to see where one grain ends and another begins! They are HUGE! I have enough easily to start a second quart but I'm going to hold off for a day or two. I reconstituted my water kefir grains, but they don't appear to be working! I might have inadvertently killed them when I dried them a while back . I put them in new sugar water and will give it a couple more days to see if they wake up. If not I'll use my extra milk grains to acclimate to sugar water and make water kefir with them! If they do then I'll go ahead and start another jar.

But back to milk kefir. I use the double fermentation method. I ferment the milk for 24 hours with the grains, then I strain out the grains and get a new quart started with them. I pour the first fermentation kefir into a new quart jar, add flavoring such as some citrus zest, cinnamon stick, tea bag, dried fruit, etc. then cap tightly and ferment for another 24 hours then chill overnight. I use the whole quart the next morning in our smoothies.

You might be asking yourself why bother doing a second fermentation, why would it be worth the extra steps. Well I'll tell you why I do it! Here are some benefits to a second fermentation kefir...

increased antibacterial properties[1]
increased vitamin content (folic acid increases over 100%!)[1]
creamier texture

In any case, it really doesn't add all that much extra work so I'd rather do it and get a little more bang for buck!

Our smoothies are quite simple, I just thaw a handful of frozen fruit (my blender tends to leave chunks if the fruit if added frozen) and put it in my blender with a big spoonful of raw, unfiltered honey. I add the quart of kefir and blend well. I strain after as I have issues with certain textures, any pulp in a beverage makes me gag, but there's usually not much to strain out. This is my basic recipe, there's lot's of room to play with it. If I have fresh free range eggs available I'll add a raw egg yolk or two. I like to add those first and blend with some melted coconut oil. I only put coconut oil in my smoothies when I have yolks to emulsify it, otherwise it just makes little hard bits that I have to strain out.

I've had bad luck with dehydrated grains so I much prefer to freeze grains for back up. What I do is rinse the grains in cool filtered water and allow to dry a little on clean paper towel, then I put some dry milk powder in a small glass jar, add the grains and cover completely with more dry milk powder. They are best not stored for more than a few months[2] so it might be a good idea to rotate them (store for a few months, then reactivate and store the other set for a few months and so on). It's a good idea to always keep a back up supply, especially if you are like me and have a hard time keeping things alive :p

Super Creamy Mac 'n' Cheese

2011-03-17T11:54:00.001-04:00

I love macaroni and cheese, especially reeeeeally creamy and cheesy macaroni and cheese. I have tried, and liked many different recipes and the one I made today was so good I just have to share! Heavily influenced by the M&C recipes from Heavenly Homemakers and Mama Says, tweaked a little and everyone is raving about it. My son finished it in record time and thanked me for using WHITE pasta instead of whole wheat (shhh, don't tell him it's still whole grain!)

2 1/2 cups brown rice elbow macaroni
3 1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
a teeny pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
a handful of frozen peas

place in a pot and cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly for 15 minutes until macaroni is soft and sauce is creamy. Remove from heat and add about a cup to a cup and a half of cheese. I like to add several different kinds! Today I used white cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan and some homemade yogurt cheese.

It was so creamy and delicious!

Appletree Bulk Herbs

2011-03-17T10:36:00.003-04:00

When we moved down to this area I was looking for local source of various health products. I found this website for bulk herbs and when I saw the prices I thought there had to be a catch. I figured it simply must be some kind of scam site because I just had never found herbs for those kinds of prices in Canada! So I put it out of my mind.

Fast forward to last week. I was browsing Kijiji (Canada's version of Craigslist) for various things and I decided to look for kefir grains. I found some and noticed that they were from the herb place I has stumbled across months before. I decided to take a chance and see if this place was as "too good to be true" as it seemed. And you know what? It was every bit as good as it seemed! I placed an order for kefir grains and a few herbs and got a very prompt response and my order was delivered, in person! The herbs were great and the lady who owns the business was just delightful to talk to, we ended up chatting for about 2 hours!

The next day, the sniffles I had been dealing with for a few days turned into a full blown sinus infection. I got an email from her this morning with some links for the type of colloidal silver she sells (I was asking about that) and she told me she had a container for me to brew my kombucha in and could drop it off for me maybe on Saturday. I emailed back and asked if I could order some colloidal silver for the same day as I was dealing with a nasty cold. She gave me a call not long after and said she was going to bring me some CS today! And that's just what she did! She brought me a quart (just like the herbs, FANTASTIC pricing on her silver!) and this cool black (as kombucha likes the dark) glass gallon jar, she even gave me a label for it!

SUCH a nice lady! I can tell you right now I'll be a loyal customer! I just want to let people know, she delivers if local but will ship. Anyone around here looking for herbs, SHE'S your gal! And for the record, this is not a "paid advertisement" in any way, I am just super impressed with this business and want to recommend it highly!

Battling the Sickies

2011-03-15T16:43:00.002-04:00

Lucky me finally succumbed to the cold everyone else in the family already had. I'm feeling pretty miserable, my sinuses are full and the pressure make my head hurt! My nose is raw from having to blow it every couple minutes and I feel generally crummy! Thankfully I try to keep my natural first aid kit (or cupboard) well stocked, this is what I reach for when I'm feeling under the weather...

Echinacea: 10 drops of a tincture of the fresh herb, roots and aerial parts, in a glass of water three times a day.
Grapefruit seed extract: I have a bottle of this that also contains oil of oregano, which is a major help as well. I add 10 drops of this to my echinacea water. It tastes horrible but is quite potent ;)
Garlic: lots and lots (and lots more still) of fresh garlic.
Coconut oil: has antimicrobial properties and I like st stir a tablespoon into my favourite tea, Chocolatey Chai.
Cod Liver Oil: a double dose when fighting illness.
Raw sauerkraut: LOTS! It's high in vitamin C!

Colloidal silver is another fabulous remedy but up until now it's just been out of my price range, but the lady I get my herbs from sells high quality micro-particle colloidal silver for $10 a quart so I will be adding some to my next order for sure!

A Collection of This and That

2011-03-14T10:30:00.001-04:00

First of all, continuing to pray for those in Japan. I'm sure most of you have seen the horrific videos of this horrible tragedy and the reports of the damaged nuclear facilities are not comforting. To top it all off now they have a volcanic eruption on top of it all! Please continue to pray for everyone affected.

For Lent our church is participating the Ashes to Fire study. Our first message was just awesome! I love our church so much, it is such a blessed feeling to finally feel HOME! Our pastor is just amazing, and he's just as much a nut as my husband , so they get along great LOL. I had left my grocery list in the van and before we left the parking lot my husband grabs it, writes something on the back, rushes out of the vehicle and comes back snickering. Apparently he wrote "You're special *pastor's name* XOXO Anonymous" and stuck it under his windsheild writer. I tell you it's amazing I have the nerve to show my face around there! Of course now we wait to see what prank is returned! It's never boring around here that's for sure .

Well I had a few other things I wanted to talk about but I'm out of time for now so they'll have to wait until later. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Pray for Japan (and Elsewhere)

2011-03-11T09:20:00.001-05:00

I just heard about the massive earthquake in Japan today. Even here in Canada the west coast is under a tsunami alert! There is a video on this article and it is just devastating! Several nuclear reactors have been damaged, which obviously has the potential for unspeakable danger! I think of all the island nations in the pacific, are we in for a repeat of the 2004 tsunami? Oh please pray for all have been and are still going to be affected by this disaster!

An Unexpected Lesson

2011-03-09T22:35:00.001-05:00

We had our church's ladies meeting last night (we had cheesecake, u jelly? ). We're going through the hymn 'Take my Life' and last night's topic was "take my silver and my gold." As we were going through scripture on the topic, an observation was made about Matthew 5:23-24...

"Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." KJV

The NIV puts it this way...

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift." New International Version, ©2011

It was noticed that this verse does not say 'if you are offended by your brother' it says 'if a brother is offended by YOU'! How often do we forget that we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Christ in the way we behave. We might like to think that we can just put out there anything we want without thought to how it makes others feel, if someone is offended that is their own problem. However this verse indicates otherwise, implying that unrepentantly offending people is going to hinder your offerings to the Lord! We are told that before we give to the Lord to reconcile with those we have offended!

Now I am not saying that we should hold grudges and refuse to forgive if those who offend us DON'T come to use seeking reconciliation (or do so insincerely), I believe harboring those feelings will only serve to harm the one holding them in the long term, but often people focus solely on the responsibilities of the offended party and seem to think that the buck stops there. However in this instance, the Bible places the burden of responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the one who has caused the offense! If God would tell people not to bring a gift to Him until they have reconciled with those they have offended, I think this is a pretty big deal! The point I am rambling around trying to find is that offending a brother or sister in Christ is no less of an issue than refusing to forgive "those who trespass against us".

I found that very interesting! And I have definitely experienced this in life too! For a time I bought into the notion that I should present myself and my ideas in anyway I wanted, and if anyone was hurt by it well that was their own fault. It often seemed to me that my spiritual life was being hindered by something I could not figure out what. Eventually I began to feel convicted about the way I was treating people () and realized how ungodly my attitudes had been. An interesting thing happened to me when I repented from this and sought forgiveness from those I knew I had hurt. That brick wall it felt like I was constantly hitting was gone, and I was able to move forward again! I was honestly trying to bring my life as an offering to God, but until I 'remembered that my brother had aught against me' and sought reconciliation, that offering was quite ineffective. Noticing this scripture last night sure seems to explain it!

I love how not matter how often we may read something, the Bible always has something fresh!

Kefir (take a million LOL)

2011-03-07T22:15:00.000-05:00

Well, since my kefir grains I ordered a while back didn't work very well (made a couple small batches then died ) I didn't know whether to bother trying to have them shipped from anywhere again. However, after reading some interesting looking recipes, I've been getting the itch to try again. So I decided to look around and see if I could find a local source and I DID! Hopefully this weekend I can set a little money aside and get them. Not dried, not tired from shipping but happy and lively and already productive! Maybe these ones will live. I seem to have an uncanny ability to kill plants and kitchen organisms . Just call me the angel of death I guess :p.

Soaked Apple Cake

2011-03-06T09:15:00.001-05:00

Adapted from this recipe, we love this cake either as a dessert or as a Sunday breakfast. the original recipe calls for unpeeled red apples, but I like to use peeled granny smiths (though Northern Spy apples are fantastic when I can find them, and I’ll bet Golden Delicious would be lovely too!)

2 1/2 cup freshly ground white wheat flour (the original recipe called for soft wheat, but hard works too)
1 cup buttermilk (I use my Caspian Sea yogurt made with milk)
1/4 cup melted butter (or coconut oil)

Mix together, cover and let sit in a warm spot for 24 hours.

1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup sucanat
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 eggs

I use my Kitchen Aid to mix this in as I find it rather difficult to blend eggs into a thick soaked dough by hand, but a little elbow grease will get the job done eventually.

2 cups peeled and chopped apples

Fold into batter and scrape into a greased and floured tart pan.

3 tbsp demarara sugar

Sprinkle on top of cake and bake in a preheated 400F oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown and firm.

Let cool and enjoy!

Another Busy Day

2011-03-05T18:27:00.000-05:00

Been busy since my feet hit the floor today! I had a lot of school materials to print and organize, I had to catch up on the kitchen and get groceries and stuff put away. Which reminds me, I am SO thankful for everything my husband usually does around here! I had to take over all the physical things around the house back when hubby had a hernia (and while he was recovering from surgery) and now again I am doing all the arm work as he just had minor surgery done on his shoulder! A few years ago he had a small lump removed from it and when it healed it formed a large (gross) keloid! Nasty! He just had THAT removed, so he's out of commission again. I tell you having to do all the manual labour myself is sure building up the ol' biceps . Speaking of muscle building, I was out of both plain whole wheat flour and sprouted whole wheat flour so I had a lot of grinding to do. Wow is that tiring! I am really hoping we'll be able to afford an electric grain mill soon! And hubby just checked the weather and it looks like I'll have snow to shovel tomorrow ! Oh I can't wait until hubby's back to his old strong self!

Well, I still have laundry to do tonight so I'm outta here! See you all later

Next Week's Menu Plan

2011-03-04T10:24:00.000-05:00

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Sat 3/5	Scrambled eggs, Biscuits, Orange slices, Milk	Salmon sandwiches, Carrot & celery sticks, Water	Garlic butter shrimp, Oven fried potatoes, Broccoli, Kraut, Orange juice
Sun 3/6	Unfussy apple cake, Milk	Lasagne casserole, Veggie sticks, Water	Crockpot roast chicken w/ carrots & potatoes, Kraut, Orange juice
Mon 3/7	Blueberry smoothies	Salad w/ ranch dressing, Water	Chicken fattah, Basmatti rice, Kraut, Orange juice
Tue 3/8	Rice pudding, Bananas, Milk	Cheesy beef and rice, Veggie sticks, Water	Chicken soup w/ homemade noodles, Biscuits, Kraut, Orange juice
Wed 3/9	Oatmeal, Grapes, Milk	Plain biscuits w/ jam, Veggie sticks, Water	Liver & apples on rice, Kraut, Orange juice
Thu 3/10	Applesauce bread, Orange slices, Milk	Chicken soup w/ homemade noodles, Veggie sticks, Water	Three cheese pasta, Salad, Kraut, Orange juice
Fri 3/11	Dutch baby pancakes, Apple wedges, Milk	Leftovers, Veggie sticks, Water	Swiss steak, Mashed potatoes, Carrots, Kraut, Orange juice

How I Make Brown Rice

2011-03-02T13:27:00.000-05:00

I've finally found a way to make brown rice that EVERYONE likes! Well, I did make it as described in Nourishing Traditions many times ans when it turned out it was delicious, for some reason there were always crunchy bits! Put off by crunchy rice we all resorted back to white rice. Lately I decided I would tackle brown rice again and the way I make it now turns out perfect each time and it's delicious and easy!

First off when I buy the rice I make sure to buy it in tightly sealed packages as opposed to bulk bins to ensure the rice is fresh and not rancid, as brown rice goes rancid very quickly. Once opened I store my rice in ziploc bags in the freezer. Then I soak my rice the day before I want to use it. Now rice is quite low in phytase, the enzyme needed to break down phytic acid, so soaking in a simple acidic medium wont reduce the amount of phytic acid as much as it would when soaking a higher phytase grain like wheat! To effectively remove most of the phytic acid in brown rice, I soak it using this method, and get it going 24 hours before I need it. So if I'm making rice for lunch on Wednesday, I set the rice to soak while preparing Tuesday's lunch. One and a half cups of rice (before cooking) is the perfect amount to feed my family, and I soak it in 3 3/4 cup filtered water and 1/4 cup reserved rice soaking water.

When I'm ready to cook it, I just drain the rice (being sure to save 1/4 cup of the soaking water) and follow this recipe. I cook mine in a covered casserole dish. It comes out perfect every single time! I use the rice then in any recipe I want. You can really play around with it too! You can use broth in place of water to cook it in, use olive oil in place of butter, add herbs or chopped vegetables or meat to the rice before baking, the sky's the limit!

I hope this helps someone, it certainly has made it easier to get my family to eat brown rice!

February's Gone Already??

2011-02-28T12:08:00.000-05:00

How can it be March tomorrow? Didn't 2011 just START?!? Oh well, life marches on (). I attempted to use my KitchenAid to knead my bread this morning which was not fun . It can only handle a single loaf at at a time, and I STILL have to use my hand to keep the dough from climbing over the guard and into the mechanical parts the whole time! I still dream of getting a Bosch Universal mixer someday but until I figure out how to spin staw into gold, in my dreams it will stay . I popped the loaves into my Excalibur to rise, forgetting that the heat would make them rise FASTER and when I checked on them they were about to spill out of the pans! I'm hoping they wont overflow in the oven , but I put the pans on a large baking sheet just in case.

Got the morning's school done, after our lunch break the kids will go on to their independent studies and after working with L I promised to help her do some baking with her Easy Bake oven. I'd also like to get a batch of chocolate chip cookies made and I have a big pot of turkey broth cooking in my large crock pot that will be ready to strain this evening. With the smell of the bread in the oven, I'm going to short out my keyboard !! Time to get lunch on the table, I hope everyone is have a great day too .

Next Week's Menu Plan

2011-02-25T12:37:00.000-05:00

If you haven't heard of Say Mmm, I suggest you check it out! I am really enjoying using it to make my menu plans. The only thing I find annoying is that they list the meals Dinner, Lunch and Breakfast when it seems to me the reverse would be intuitive but whatever. Here's the plan for next weeks meals courtesy of Say Mmm

Day	Dinner	Lunch	Breakfast	Other
Sat 2/26	Fried fish, Oven fried potatoes, Corn & milk	Egg salad sandwiches, Carrot & celery sticks, & water	Scrambled eggs, Sausage patties, Fried potatoes, Biscuits & orange juice	Creamy salad dressing
Sun 2/27	Turkey, Kraut, Carrots, Mashed potatoes, Orange juice	Spaghetti, Garlic bread, Water	Banana nut coffee cake, Orange slices, Milk
Mon 2/28	Creamy Turkey & rice casserole, Orange juice, Kraut	Salad, Bread, Water	Peach smoothies	Bread (2 loaves), NT Chocolate chip cookies
Tue 3/1	Turkey soup, Orange juice, Kraut	Cheesy rice, Carrot and celery sticks, Water	Tapioca pudding, Orange slices, Milk
Wed 3/2	Pate & crackers, Veggie sticks, Ranch dip, Baked potatoes, Kraut, Orange juice	Biscuits with jam, Water	Cream of wheat, Orange slices, Milk	Apple pie
Thu 3/3	Coyboy beans, Corn bread, Corn, Orange juice	Potato soup, Bread, Water	Applesauce bread, Bananas, Milk
Fri 3/4	Teriyaki beef stir fry, Brown rice, Kraut, Orange juice	Leftovers, Veggie sticks, Water	Apple cinnamon pancakes, Bananas, Milk

Who is Your Favourite Person From the Bible?

2011-02-22T10:26:00.001-05:00

This was asked on a group I'm on and the answers have been pretty interesting!

For me I said Jesus first, obviously. That whole saving my soul thing is a pretty sure way to get on my good side .

Then you have Sarah, "who obeyed Abraham and called him her master."* Ah, a woman after my own heart. (Incidentally, I used to talk a lot about submission. I don't bring it up a lot these days as even if I WANTED to be a 'teacher of the law', which I don't, I'm the last person on Earth who should be teaching about submission! I'm much too biased .)

Seriously, I'm going to have to go with Peter! Now there's a guy I can identify with! Starting out he seems to think he's super special, better than all the other disciples. Even if everyone else fails Him, Peter will be right there beside Jesus, going willingly to jail or death. When the time came, however, he ran away like the rest. He did follow along behind, but denied the Lord repeatedly. I can well imagine the sick feeling of grief when the rooster crowed after his denials and he realized that for all his boasting, he too had failed the Lord.

I don't know about you, but I know I'VE been in that place before! Thinking I was so super spiritual then falling flat on my face! But Peter's story didn't end there! The Lord had been crucified and sealed in a tomb. This seemed to Peter like the end of the line. May as well go back to fishing! Ever been there? You've tried to be "good Christian" but failed miserably, so you feel like you may as well go back to your old life? We all suffer from discouragement from time to time! Back to Peter. Out he goes with his nets and catches NOTHING. Poor Peter might have been feeling pretty miserable at this point. He failed as Christ's disciple and now he can't even catch fish anymore! He might be feeling pretty sorry for himself right now, at least I know I would have been!

Suddenly some guy is there on shore calling out to him asking if he'd caught any fish. Can you imagine how that would feel? 'Gee thanks random dude, just rub my nose in it! I FAIL, ok? I get it!' This "stranger" tells Peter to throw his nets on the other side of the boat. The Bible just says that they did, but can you imagine how that would have felt? Peter and his companions were PROFESSIONAL FISHERMEN and here some guy is telling them how to do their job. That must have been pretty insulting! If there were no fish on one side of the boat why would they all be on the other side? Yet what happened? They caught so many fish they threatened to sink the boat! How did that man on shore know this? Who WAS that guy? Suddenly Peter realizes it was Jesus! Not even stopping to put on his clothes he dives in to swim for shore, overjoyed that his Lord is alive!

We all know what became of Peter! He went on to be major player in establishing Christ's church! Peter! Who after boasting that he was more devoted to Jesus than the other disciples denied even KNOWING Jesus not once but THREE TIMES! God used HIM in BIG ways. I find that incredibly encouraging, don't you? It doesn't matter many times a person falls, or how far they fell from, God can pick them up and use them for His glory. I think that's pretty darn awesome .

So what about you? Who is YOUR favourite person from the Bible and why?

*1 Peter 3:6 NIV (Hey, I knew I liked that guy! )

A Question About Wheats

2011-02-21T18:06:00.003-05:00

ETA- I should have titled this post "Wheat's the difference?"

Ok, I am pondering something and I'd like to bounce it off you, my readers, and see what you think. As I mentioned in a recent post I want us to eat more whole wheat, but no one in my house cares for the strong flavour of whole wheat flour made from red wheat. We like hard WHITE wheat much more but it is VERY hard to get here. After scouring the internet for information, and speaking to people who do sell it (though not nearby) the reason is that it is so expensive to ship it from the west coast (where the only store I was able to find in Canada) that they just DON'T! So I'm left with either paying 4 times the amount of wheat here to have white wheat we'll eat shipped from the States (even with duty it would still be cheaper than getting it from the Canadian source!) or buying local red wheat none of us like. I'd rather pay more and LIKE our food but if I CAN get the price down I would much rather that!

Now, while HARD white wheat is hard to come by here, SOFT white wheat I can get! I know that soft wheat has much less gluten in it and thus is not good for things like bread, however if that is the only difference, then would it not make more sense to instead of buying super expensive HARD white wheat, buy the cheaper SOFT white wheat and just add gluten flour to it when making bread? I mean, then the protein portion won't have the fresh ground health benefits, but at least the bulk of the flour would! I'm thinking this will work but sometimes I just see what I want to see, so can anyone see a flaw in this logic or does this sound like it would be a god plan?

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-21T07:00:00.002-05:00

Saturday 19:
B- Sausage, egg and green pepper scramble, fried potatoes, toast & orange juice
L- Stovetop lasagna casserole & milk
S- Fried cod, boiled cabbage, scalloped potatoes, kraut & water

Sunday 20:
B- Pumpkin coffee cake, orange slices & milk
L- Crockpot honey garlic pork, rice & water
S- Roast chicken w/ stuffing, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, kraut & orange juice

Monday 21:
B- Blueberry matsoni smoothies
L- Chicken ranch salad & water
S- Liver and apples on rice, kraut & orange juice

Tuesday 22:
B- Creamy rice cereal & orange juice
L- Homemade chicken soup, veggie sticks & milk
S- Penne alfredo w/ broccoli, kraut & orange juice

Wednesday 23:
B- Cream of wheat & orange juice
L- Scrambled eggs, biscuits w/ jam, veggie sticks & milk
S- Sloppy Joes, kraut & water

Thursday 24:
B- Banana muffins, apple slices & milk
L- Cheesy broccoli & rice casserole, veggie sticks & water
S- Tamale pie, salad, kraut & orange juice

Friday 25:
B- Pancakes, milk
L- Salmon sandwiches, veggie sticks, water
S- Pizza & wings

Stuff Happens

2011-02-18T19:23:00.000-05:00

Well after investing nearly 24 hours in a couple beautiful loaves of sourdough bread, I checked on them and they were aaaaaaaaaaaalmost done but not quite, so I popped them back in the oven for a few moments. Well, wouldn't you know I forgot to reset the timer! I remembered them about half an hour later, by then my beautiful loaves of bread were reduced to little more than giant croutons . Oh well, I'll get another batch started tonight and turn these poor saps into breadcrumbs. Such is life in the kitchen .

YAY IT'S FRIDAY!!!!

2011-02-18T08:58:00.001-05:00

Another week flown by. I can't believe how time has been flying lately! It's been a good week though, lots of work done. Oh and we sold our car! It was on it's last legs; head gasket was failing, gas tank was rotting out, the transmission started slipping... We put it on kijiji, just to see if we could get more than by giving it to a wrecker and we did! We were very upfront about all it's problems but within 3 hours of having the ad up it was sold! To a guy who rebuilds cars. We also bought a "new" vehicle, a used Plymouth Voyageur minivan! It's going to be SO NICE driving now without all three kids crammed into the back of a small car! We'll get our first ride in it tomorrow when we go grocery shopping! Which reminds me, I have to make a menu plan and grocery list, and clean out the fridge. I have a couple loaves worth of dough for honey whole wheat sourdough bread (I use water instead of milk and half white flour half whole wheat) rising right now, it should be ready to punch down and shape into loaves by early afternoon. I also have to make some BBQ sauce and get some chicken wings marinating. I'm making homemade pizza and BBQ chicken wings for supper tonight. And as if that all wasn't enough to do I have to catch up on laundry again too! So I suppose it's time to get to work, see you all later!

I Don't Know What an Astrologer Would Tell You, but I Say 2011 is...

2011-02-17T12:23:00.000-05:00

Seriously, I don't know what is in the water this year but it seems everywhere I look these days it's Drama Central! Am I the only one seeing this? Don't get me wrong, I find a little drama as entertaining as the next person ,but there's been just so durn MUCH of it this year it's getting a little hard to swallow! And this is coming from a recovering drama queen! I can't begin to imagine how nauseating it must be for those who have no predisposition towards drama at all ! Has anyone else noticed increased drama llama activity this year?

Wassssssssuuuuuuuup?

2011-02-16T09:28:00.002-05:00

Ok, that was corny , but what's up? What's going on around here? Well, the snow is starting to melt, which makes me think of spring. It seems like winter just flew by this year! Fine by me. This spring is particularly exciting for me as out back, still buried in snow is a HUGE garden, just WAITING for me to ~~kneel beside wilty plants imploring them not to die~~ raise all kinds of fresh organic vegetables for my family this year! I'm planning on ordering most if not all of our seeds this year from Greta's Organic Gardens and Salt Spring Seeds. I want to grow only heirloom seeds, no GMOs or hybrids. Growing our own organic produce will mean more of the grocery money can go to the more expensive organic meats and fats. Not to mention I am probably going to have to order our wheat from the States. I would really like us to eat more whole wheat, but noone in the house cares for the strong flavor of whole red wheat. We have tried whole WHITE wheat (and no I don't mean white flour, I mean white wheat, it's a different variety of wheat that is lighter in colour and flavor than the red wheat) and like it much better but I cannot seem to locate a Canadian source to buy from! So even though they grow it in Canada, if I want it I have to get it shipped from the US . I'm hoping to find a source with affordable shipping rates and buy 500 pounds or so. I'd also like to find a source for organic field corn as the grain mill I currently have cannot grind popcorn and since corn is one of the most genetically modified crops, if it's not organic it's almost certainly GMO , which I don't really want. I have found a few places in the country around here where I can buy free range eggs straight from the farm, we have a fantastic farmer's market in my city and I've just discovered some great co-ops in the area too!

In other news, I'm thinking of trying my hand at jewelry making! I think it would be fun and hey, maybe I'll get good enough to sell a few pieces! Who knows. My interest got started when I saw some beautiful hair sticks on Etsy but knew I couldn't afford them. I figured I could probably make something similar myself so I went to Micheal's and fell in LOVE with all the beautiful beads and jewelry making supplies! So I've been reading and watching some online tutorials and want to give it a try! My birthday is coming up, maybe I can get some start up materials then :).

Well, as is usually the case, I've got stuff I should be doing so I'm off for now, have a great day everyone!

I Live, Just Busy.

2011-02-14T13:19:00.000-05:00

I'm not dead, I promise! Just busy and not really feeling much like blogging I guess! We had a wonderful service at church on Sunday there was a baptism and the man's testimony was absolutely amazing! I bawled of course :p. Our son went home with his grandparents for the day so we took the girls out for lunch. When we got home hubby had to contact our new landlord; remember all the nonsense we got from our old landlord? I don't remember if I mentioned this but there were two cheques the old landlord had that we put a stop payment on, one was for the fee he charged to break the lease which the Landlord and Tenant Association told us was illegal and the other was a rent cheque. We had asked for all the uncashed rent checks back and got all but the one dated December 1st. We asked why he didn't return that one and he assured us he had ripped it up. We didn't trust him so we put a stop payment on that one too. Well we knew right away the guy was dishonest because he tried to cash the fee cheque after we had TOLD him it wouldn't go through (remember all the threats we got over that?) well guess what? That other cheque he tore up? Yeah, he tried to cash it a few days ago! He's lucky he ended up with only a bank fee and not a lawsuit! Ok, we'd just eat it if we had a hundred or two stolen, but we would have done something over a thousand! What a character eh? We were concerned that the attempt could have interfered with the new landlord taking out rent (the money was gone from the account for a few hours until the bank sorted it out) but turned out they hadn't cashed our cheque yet so it was all good. Never a dull moment around here lol.

Anyway, I found some organic chicken thighs for a very reasonable price the other day so today for lunch I made fried chicken and gravy and oven fries. I also have a pan of Heavenly Homemaker's butterscotch bars cooling for dessert, wish we had some vanilla ice cream to put on top! Mmmmmm. I also bought a 7 pound package of ground pork at Costco. Using a turkey sausage recipe (also from Heavenly Homemaker) I made a big bulk batch of sausage meat. I'm going to freeze 2 pounds of it as patties but the rest I'm going to cook and freeze for using in recipes like pizza and breakfast casseroles.

Well, I have to clean the kitchen again after making all this good stuff and do some laundry, so I will see you all later (hopefully not as long a later as last time lol)

Adventures in Sourdough Land

2011-02-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

Well, I've gotten back in the hang of sourdough and got myself a pretty good routine going! Once a week, the evening before I want to bake bread, I mix up a big bowl of flour and water to pancake batter consistency (roughly 1:1). I make a big batch, 4 or 5 cups each. I then beat in about a cup of starter, cover with a towel and leave overnight. Then in the morning I dip out a few cups to make pancakes with. I add a few eggs, some milk, salt, baking powder and anything I feel like adding (wheat germ, nuts, spices, dried fruit, applesauce, oats, whatever) and enough extra flour to bring it back to desired consistency. That's it, no recipe, turns out different each time.

After breakfast I put a cup of the starter in a clean jar and put back in the fridge for next time. Then I start to make the bread. Again, no recipe, just whatever sounds good! I always add some salt, some sweetening (sugar, honey, syrup, what have you) and some kind of fat (oil, melted butter, etc). Then I add anything I feel like throwing in! Rolled oats, corn meal, whole grain flours (I can eat 100% whole grain bread on principle, but if I want anyone else to eat bread, the whole grains have to be kept to less than half!), raisins, etc. If I want to make a sweet dough I'll add more sweetening and maybe some milk. I've even tossed in a leftover cup of cold coffee! Anything not nailed down is in danger of finding itself in a loaf of bread around here LOL. After I get all this stirred in I start adding plan white flour until it's kneadable. Then I knead, place in a big oiled bowl, cover and rise until doubled, which usually ends up being 4-6 hours or so depending on the room temperature. When doubled I punch down again, weight out blobs of dough (I like to use about 30 oz for a loaf) and form into loaves (in a greased loaf pan, as a round loaf on a cornmeal sprinkled baking sheet, stretched into baguettes, whatever). I let it rise again for a couple hours then bake until internal temp is around 200F. If I want to make different kinds of bread I'll just divide the starting sponge into separate batched before adding extras, approximately 1 cup of sponge for each loaf desired.

I LOVE baking this way, it's fun and creative! I learned to bake bread this way from Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. I used this method to make conventional yeast bread and was happy to discover I could do the same with sourdough! I have some sponge waiting for me right now. I think I'm going to use a little to make sweet rolls, and the rest to make some multigrain bread! If I ever get a tripod, I'll try making some videos on bread making by sight/feel instead of by recipe! Well, better get going while the sponge is bubbly! See you later!

Miserable Weather!

2011-01-23T10:35:00.000-05:00

Yuck! We thought we left the sub-zero temperatures and feet of snow back in the snow belt but it seems to have followed us here! We we all ready to go to church today took one look outside and decided we weren't going ANYWHERE today! Can barely see across the road and it's -20 degrees CELSIUS!!! Brrrrrrrr. Thankfully this kind of weather doesn't last very long here (unlike where we used to live where this is pretty much everyday weather from November to March :p). I have to admit though, it IS beautiful to look at!

Anyhoo, we're hibernating today! I made a batch of hot flaky biscuits and we had them with butter and jam for breakfast and I've got a big pot of rice pudding in the oven as we speak! Forgot to get the soup started in the crockpot for lunch today so I'll whip something else up. Maybe I'll bake up a pan of cornbread and open a few cans of baked beans. That sounds good. I always have to chuckle when I make up a can of beans, when my son was little, not even three yet he used to call them "peace beans"! I have no idea why called them that but it was cute, so now we all call them that :p. Going to make up a big batch of meatballs today yet too. We'll have some for supper tonight, cooked in tomato soup, with potatoes and carrots for supper tonight and I'll freeze the rest. I have a big head of romaine lettuce that needs to be used up before it spoils so I think a big Caesar salad will accompany supper as well. Mmmmm. Then the rice pudding for dessert!

Well, I have to check on the pudding and may as well get some laundry done since I have the time, I have a bit more of last week's schoolwork to mark too before tomorrow so I best get started!

Bye for now!

Virtual Makeovers!

2011-01-16T21:32:00.000-05:00

Over at Taaz.com you can upload your picture and try different hairstyles, colours and make up. I had a blast today playing with it, and I learned something! I always thought I would not look good in blond, but after seeing this, I almost wish it wouldn't destroy my hair to do it!

Golden Blond 1:

Golden Blond 2:

Platinum 1:

Platinum 2:

Natural: This is very close to my natural colour. It's pretty close to my natural curliness too!

Back to Black: With bangs too!

Cruddy yet productive day

2011-01-03T15:21:00.000-05:00

*cough cough* well I held out for a while but I've gone and come down with Z's cold. Hubby and the girls are starting to feel it too :(. Ug my throat hurts :s. And yet I've managed to remain a useful member of the household :p. One more load of laundry to go and I'll be all caught up with that, everything is tidy, I got a lot of sorting and organizing done in the basement storage and...I even baked a cake :D

It's an apple cake as you can probably tell by the chunks of apple :p. We'll enjoy demolishing it for dessert tonight :D. I think I'll make spaghetti with clam sauce for supper, Z's been asking for it for a while now. Yeah, it sounded gross to me too when my hubby first told me about it, just a can of baby clams added to spaghetti sauce, but if you like shelfish, it's actually very yummy! Though the breaded clam strips we can get at a local fish 'n' chips place is my preferred method of meeting my daily (I wish) clam requirements LOL, but that would get a mite pricey! Anyway, if I had planned a little better I could have made some baguettes and made garlic bread to go with it, but I think a nice big cesar salad will suffice.

I'm really hoping I feel a bit better tomorrow, it's my big cleaning day! Well I think I'm going to go take a Halls and lie down on the couch for a little while. See you later.

Current Hair Care Routine

2010-12-31T18:58:00.004-05:00

Wash Routine:

1- Detangle with wooden comb by The Body Shop.
2- Brush with their wood bristle brush to remove shed hairs.
3- Wash with a 1.5:1 ratio of HE Drama Clean shampoo and melted coconut oil. (See this post.) No conditioner needed.
4- Wrap hair in a towel for a few minutes then remove towel.
5- Comb with the wooden comb and either let dry down or put up in a damp bun.

Notes:

- If hair is down, DON'T TOUCH IT UNTIL DRY and even then don't do more that a gentle comb with the wide tooth wood comb, do NOT brush!

-If hair looks a little foofy when dried (it's most likely because I messed up the curl pattern), dampen with a mist of plain water and scrunch to reform curls.

-If hair seems a little dry, mist as above and apply a tiny scraping of coconut oil to the ends and bun.

-Carefully braid hair for the night and either sleep on a silk/satin pillowcase or use a silky nightcap.

-Wash hair whenever it needs it (at this length, about every other day).

Another New Beauty Trick I've Learned!

2010-12-31T14:47:00.000-05:00

Again, from the Long Hair Community (I love that place!!!) I found a link to the following video. I've heard of threading, but I thought it only removed one hair at a time so I couldn't see why it would be preferable over tweezing! But I saw this vid and HAD to try it! IT WORKS! It's fast, easy, and I find it less painful that tweezing! I have a lot of mostly blond fuzz on my upper lip that looks really silly when I wear foundation and powder but it was a major pain in the buttinski to try and pluck it all out, 30 seconds and my lip is smooooooooth. I just tidied up my unruly eyebrows and what I think I will do (since I fail epically at shaping my own brows) is let them grow in, get them shaped at a salon and then maintain with threading! So quick and easy :D.

Shampoo + Coconut oil = WIN!!!1!

2010-12-30T20:24:00.003-05:00

ETA- In the long run this didn't work for me. While it had AMAZING results at first, the result got worse as time went on and ended up with MAJOR static and split ends. A number of people trying the method found the same thing, I still do this once and a while, but ALWAYS use conditioner after now!

About a week ago I stumbled across a thread on the long hair forum I'm on about how Carole Lombard's stylist cared for her hair by combining coconut oil with her shampoo. Apparently this made her hair gorgeous and needed no further products. People had started to try it and were reporting very good results. I didn't buy it. I already used coconut oil in my hair care routine (mostly as a prewash treatment and as a very light post wash leave in) and I didn't expect this could give me any better results than that. Also my hair is very tangly, especially when wet and I haven't been able to get away from using conditioner since I was quite young. Without using rather copious amounts of conditioner my hair is usually rough and drier than the Sahara desert! I couldn't see how adding coconut oil to a shampoo could POSSIBLY be so miraculous as to negate my need for conditioner, especially since my hair seemed so much better with little to NO shampoo used on it! However the reported results were tempting and I decided to give it a try.

It was reported that this method would not work unless the hair started off completely free from product residue. So I got myself some Neutrogena Anti-Residue Shampoo and clarified my hair. Then I used a mixture of 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil and 2 tablespoons of Herbal Essences Drama Clean Shampoo (the shampoo used must not contain anything that can build up on the hair, this was one of the recommended shampoos so I used it) mixed together (it was quite interesting mixing them! Starts out with clear green gel and colourless oily liquid and it becomes creamy opaque and nearly white!) and washed with that. After using the clarifying shampoo my hair was a tangled mess, I didn't see how I could avoid using conditioner! But as I lathered with the oil shampoo I was amazed at how much slip there was! As I was rinsing it out I couldn't believe it, it felt as though I had just conditioned! I figured it was probably very oily and I would have to wash my hair again just to get the oil all out but I let my hair air dry. Just as was predicted, my hair dried in about half the time it usually took! It was tangle free, super shiny and soft as a kitten! Not a hint of oiliness at all! I was shocked! I never would have believed in a million years my hair could look and feel like that without conditioner! It felt even BETTER than with conditioner! So far I've washed 4 times with the oil shampoo and except for once, when I increased the amount of oil too much, it has not been even slightly greasy!

I am very excited about this! Apparently, with each wash, more lauric acid from the coconut oil is taken up into the hair's cortex. Eventually the cortex becomes saturated and will not absorb any more oil and then you stop adding oil to the shampoo. Without the oil added, each wash will strip out a little of the lauric acid and eventually you start adding the oil back to replace it. I am not doing this explanation justice, I highly recommend reading the very informative thread here for more and better information.

My dream hair is soft, shiny and NOT poofy. So far I've got the first two right off the bat! My hair has never been this soft and the shine is amazing! However it's still quite fluffy. It's not hard to deal with though, a spritz of water and it calms right down. If it's really poofy, I just brush in a teeny bit of coconut oil and damp bun as always, but apparently as I reach saturation, the poofiness should be reduced dramatically. If it does, then as much as I'm going through hair product/routine withdrawal, I will definitely be sticking with this! I guess I'd better get around to updating my hair care routine on here :p

My New Home!!

2010-12-30T15:12:00.000-05:00

About time eh? :D It's not perfect, there are still a few boxes to sort through and put away, I'm not going to show you the basement until we get the storage straightened up and you can forget about pics of the kids' rooms for now! Next week my MIL is giving us a couple bedframes and dressers so then the kids can get their rooms together properly. As we finish getting everything together as we want it, I'll change the pics and add more but here is most of my home as it looked this morning :D Starting with...

The Mudroom:
This is the room we enter first. It's actually at the side door, but we really don't use the front door much.

This is the view when you first come in. That's the back door in front. The door into the main house is on the left.

This is looking out the back door at out HALF AN ACRE yard :D

This is looking back to the door we come in.

Looking directly at the door to the main house. The fridge that came with the house was too small, so we use it out here as a second fridge (which comes in handy!)

The mudroom as seen from the main door.

The Kitchen:

The door on the right of the picture is a small hallway with 3 doors. The one on the right is the one to the mudroom, the one you can see is a closet and the one on the left is Z's room.

The door in the middle of the pic leads to the diningroom.

Door on the right there is to the basement.

The Diningroom:

The diningroom as seen from the kitchen. I keep my pretty serving dishes, candles, table linens and some craft supplies in the china cabinet.

We bought this armoire from our new landlords. I keep our school stuff in it.

The Livingroom:

The livingroom from the hallway. As you can see, we have a few more boxes to unpack :p.

The Downstairs Hall:

The hallway from the kitchen. The door on the right is the livingroom. Straight ahead is the rec room (and the little used front door).

The Rec Room:

A little more reorganization needed :p.

The Stairs:

The Bathroom:

At the very top of the stairs is our GIANT bathroom!

Looking straight in from the hall.

My wall hanging looks cute here :D

Oops, I forgot one view! I'll add that pic soon, I don't want to wait any longer to post this tour!

The Upstairs Hall:

Looking down the hall from outside the bathroom. This armoire stays with this house. I keep our bedding in here. The door in the very front left is L's room, The one at the far right is hubby and I's room, the one on the far right is A's.

A checking out what L is doing :p. This is looking back towards the stairs. The bathroom door is there on the far left.

The Master Bedroom:

From the hall.

I hope you enjoyed my home! I sure do ;).

A QUICK Update

2010-12-28T08:39:00.000-05:00

I have tons of comments I still need to respond to (well, maybe 4 LOL) but I have to get this house back in order first, ahhhhh Christmas, you're wonderful but wow you destroy my house LOL. Just wanted to pop on here and say THANK YOU for the prayers for my infected lip, and thank you MHM for the cloves tip! It kept the pain bearable! I didn't get a chance to see a doctor on the 24th so I was hoping to today but I woke up yesterday and the pain was GONE! It's almost entirely healed now! What a blessing! Anyhoo, gotta run and attack my house :p.See you when it's under control again!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

2010-12-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

I hope you are all having a WONDERFUL Christmas :D!

The Pain is UNSPEAKABLE!

2010-12-23T11:01:00.000-05:00

Bet that got your attention :p. Unfortunately it's true too! About a week ago I cut the inside of my lip, down near where it attached at the base of the gums while eating. It's happened before and it seems that mouth wounds heal VERY quickly so I thought nothing of it, it's usually unnoticeable by the next day. Well not this time! It has gotten worse and worse and looks quite gross too! I have a sinking feeling that when the food (something crunchy, maybe a chip) pierced the lip, a piece might have broken off INSIDE and is now quite infected! I've been soaking it in warm salt water to no avail and at this point it is nearly unbearably painful :(. It hurts to talk, it hurts to smile, it hurts to eat...using my mouth in any way shape or form hurts like the dickens! Unfortunately I've had no way to get to a doctor without taking all the kids alone (so not happening!)until tomorrow so I'm praying the walk in will be open tomorrow despite it being Christmas Eve :(. I'm keeping up with the warm salt soaks as they seem to sooth it a little, but not much :(. I guess this is one way to keep from over eating over the holidays :s.

Christmas Play Pics

2010-12-20T10:59:00.000-05:00

The children in our church put on a skit for the church on Sunday and I wanted to share some pics :). Also, a note on pics. I admit that I really am unsure as to the level of privacy that is prudent to take to protect my children online with regards to pics, names, etc. I think what I will do is share pictures on here if they are dressed in a way I would have no qualms about them being out in public in, however I will blot out the faces of anyone else as I don't to post pictures online of other people without their permission! Also, I still will not use their names on this public blog. So with that said, here are my kids! A was an angel, L was a shepherd and Z was a wiseman (or a wise GUY as we call him XD)

Thank You, and yet another request for prayer

2010-12-07T16:43:00.000-05:00

Thank you everyone who was praying for hubby, he's still hurting of course but he's doing much better now. Unfortunately we are in the middle of another situation that we REALLY need prayer over. I posted more detail in my private blog, but suffice to say our old landlord has been harassing us since before we left and is now making direct threats against our family (our children directly) if we don't pay him off!! We're working with the Landlord and Tenant Association to try and get this resolved peacefully, but prayers for our family's well being would obviously be appreciated!

On a more POSITIVE note, the unpacking is ALMOST done so hopefully I'll have some nice pics for you :D.

Thanks everyone, and I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season :D

Prayer Request for Hubby :(

2010-12-04T14:43:00.000-05:00

I just talked to hubby on the phone and the poor guy is in crazy amounts of pain. He said he would fracture his spine again in a heartbeat before going through THIS :(. Breaks my heart that I can't do anything about it, but I can pray, and ask others to pray for him as well. Thanks.

Quick Update

2010-12-04T12:43:00.000-05:00

Well, we've moved in! Hubby is in the hospital and will be home tomorrow night. The surgery went well but they discovered the other side looks like it will herniate in the next few years :s so we'll be doing this again in the future :s. At least he's going to get better for NOW! Oh my goodness I love our new house!!! I can't wait to show you the pics once we get everything put away!!! A is enjoying having her own room, I like it too but wow do I ever miss those midnight cuddles!!! It is so nice to be in a beautiful home that is big enough for us, has no mold or asbestos to deal with, has functioning hot water AND enough water pressure to fill the tub before it gets cold! It's amazing what you take for granted until you have to live without these things! We still miss our kitties but we've heard from the man who has them (and seen pics!) and they are settling in well. Susie, who never let anyone but us anywhere near her is cuddling with him all the time and asking for belly rubs, so we are very happy that they are happy. Well, I only have umpteen zillion more boxes to unpack so I'll see you all later!

Last Post (for a day or two LOL)

2010-11-29T16:21:00.000-05:00

Well, today we moved the majority of our belongings. Have a little more packing to do tonight then tomorrow everything else goes. The rest of the week and probably the next will be spent unpacking and putting stuff away in their new homes and then I'll have to do a whole new home tour won't I? :)

Internet will be hooked up at the new place on the 1st or 2nd, and do keep us in your prayers, hubby will be going to the hospital on the 2nd for his surgery, praying all will go well :). I will try to get as much as humanly possible put away so he can come home and relax in our beautiful new home :).

So....see you in a couple days :D

I HATE MOVING!!!!!!!!

2010-11-26T12:18:00.000-05:00

UG! I never want to do this again!!!! I hate all this packing and unpacking is still to come, blah! However, it's hard to be too bummed when it means we're moving into my dream home :p. We'll be picking up the keys tonight and will start moving some stuff in tomorrow! I will try try TRY to remember to bring the camera tomorrow to get pictures before everything gets covered in boxes :p.

In other news, I am making yet ANOTHER attempt to lose some weight (for some reason I always get the urge to try just before Christmas, you know, when it's nearly impossible to stick to it, ug!) and this time I'm going to try old fashioned calorie counting. No preaching to the choir please, I KNOW how horrible all this "light" stuff is for you! My son says to me "Oh how the kefir queen has fallen!" LOL. It's unhealthy and I know that, but so is cringing every time you walk past a mirror or wanting to cry when you see a picture someone took of you! I'm still a firm believer that WAPF style eating is healthiest (and yes I DO have their weight loss book, but it's just not feasible for me to follow at this time.) and I fully expect to return to it eventually (paying more attention to portion sizes and activity levels!) but for now, if this works (and I lost 3 pounds this week!) I'll try to stick with it. Again, TRY, I have the weakest self discipline when it comes to food, but hopefully I can stick with it long enough to see some results!

Well, we have to go get some groceries and hubby's getting impatient :p, so see you later :)

Emotional Multitasking

2010-11-20T08:34:00.000-05:00

I heard about this website on another blog and have been literally laughing myself silly over it. I was quite thankful for the distraction as I'm very sad right now. The house we're moving to is perfect in every way but one, and that one is breaking our hearts. They are very adamant about not allowing pets. So we are having to find our two wonderful cats a new home. Anyway, I took a break from the above website to take the muffins out of the oven. While in the kitchen Susie (our little girl kitty) came up and sat behind me and gave an adorable little mew so I would pick her up and cuddle her like she often does when I'm in the kitchen. So I was standing there cuddling her and she's purring like a tractor and I just start bawling. I'm going to miss her so much :*(. After she ran off to play with Shadow I sat back down to read more of the website to cheer up, which only caused me to cry AND laugh at the same time. I am such an emotional mess right now :s. I know making difficult decisions is a part of life, but man it sure stinks :(.

We're Moving....Again

2010-11-17T20:02:00.003-05:00

I wanted to wait until we were sure we were getting it, and it looks like we are so I'll stop trying to keep this under wraps. I told you already how 5 months into a 2 year lease our landlord called and informed us that he wanted to sell the house. He asked if we wanted to rent to own, but with the mold problems this house has (and discovering that we really do need a bigger house than this) we declined so he asked if we'd be willing to break the lease and move early. We weren't planning on moving until February to give hubby a chance to recover from his surgery before the move, but since hubby has lots of time on his hands he started casually looking at rental ads. Last Thursday hubby came into the room and told me about a property he just found. He said it was a big 4 bedroom house on half an acre, he had driven by and noticed that all the windows were new and it looked like it was in fantastic shape. I laughed and told him to put it out of his head right now, if the place was as perfect as it sounded WE'D certainly never get it!

We went out for a date that night and since we were in the area, he decided to drive by and show me. The house was beautiful and I actually wished he HADN'T shown me, because now I felt really disappointed. It looked every bit as nice as he'd said. I couldn't see MUCH as it was dark, but I saw enough to really wish we could have a home like that someday. The next day hubby decided to call and view the place. I told him to go himself and explain our situation (bad credit due to bankruptcy and the situation that caused it) because I was sure that as soon as they heard that, we would be turned away immediately. I told him I didn't want to go and fall in love with it knowing we hadn't a hope in heck of getting it. So he went alone. When he came back he told me that he had explained our situation and they did not reject us outright. There were a LOT of other people interested in this place, but they would consider our application despite the credit issue. That was a shock to me! Another thing...the landlord knew my husband's boss! I thought that was really neat and also beneficial because that connection would hopefully help keep us in mind.

Since we did have a chance, we arranged another viewing so I could view it too. Oh. My. Goodness! There are no words to describe how much I loved that house! The yard was HUGE, a big veggie garden already dug, mature trees, a couple fruit trees (by the looks of them, no leaves this time of year :p). FULLY fenced so even my 4 year old could go out to play with her siblings. On the main floor was a HUGE sunroom, a bedroom, big kitchen, separate livingroom and diningroom, and a big enclosed front porch (that would make an excellent school room!). The basement was unfinished but HUGE and included a ROOT CELLAR!!! Big beautiful staircase to a full second story with three more bedrooms and a bathroom big enough to hold a football team!! It was just such a huge, beautiful house, I couldn't comprehend that we could possibly have a shot of getting a place like this! However, since the landlord knew hubby's boss she had called him and said he had had nothing but good things to say about hubby and I think that is what set us apart from the crowd (there were more people coming to see the place as we were leaving too!).

Long story short, despite multiple hitches and hurdles, it looks like we have it! The landlords were very impressed not just with his reference (which coming from someone she KNEW really helped!) but how honest we were about our situation. So it looks like we'll be moving in a couple weeks! We are released from out current lease January first but they wanted the house rented for December first so we'll have both houses for a month, which is nice as it will allow us to move in gradually. I'm not going to fully accept this is real until our signatures are on a lease, not able to get together with the landlords until the weekend, but when hubby asked when we would know if we were accepted they told him not to worry, they weren't considering anyone else and have taken the place off the market. So unless something goes wrong between then and now (I don't expect it too) you can expect some pics of our amazing new place in the coming weeks :D.

LOL Love It!

2010-11-15T21:20:00.000-05:00

I'm as guilty as they come, but I love it! XD

Prayer Request

2010-11-13T15:20:00.002-05:00

I'll get into more details soon, but I would really appreciate prayers on our housing situation if anyone felt like it :s

New Bibles

2010-11-12T13:01:00.001-05:00

Ok, I have a few new Bibles picked out that I hope to pick up soon. It will have to wait a little while as hubby's off work with a hernia still (3 more weeks until the surgery!!) but I know which ones I want!

I'll be getting my 6yo daughter this one, my 10 year old son this one, and for me either this one or this one, not too sure yet, but I still have time to make up my mind (or just get them both, hubby will probably want one too after all :p). Anyone have any of these? How do you like them?

I'm About to Lose Control and I..........'m Not Sure I Like it

2010-11-10T14:55:00.000-05:00

Not yet anyway. So much in my life is in a state of motion and change...it's overwhelming.

At church on Sunday, I felt God telling me something. Now I have to say, I have to wonder how often we say we hear something from the Lord and it really isn't Him at all but just the product of our own mind. I can only speak for myself, but I'll bet it happens quite often, I know it has to me. But what I felt on Sunday I do not believe was coming from me, as it was something so outside of my comfort zone, it is not something I would chose for myself in a million years. Vulnerability.

I have been alone, spiritually speaking, for many years now. Everytime I thought I found some spiritual companionship it blew up in my face. I've become very untrusting, very removed and independent. If I'm struggling with something, if I'm burdened, if I'm trying to find my way, I'll tell you about it when I'm ready to but that wont be until I'm out of the worst of it. Aside from MAYBE asking for prayer, more often than not I don't, I struggle through it alone. I've trusted too many people who burned me in the end. Too many who did little more than twist Scripture to suit themselves and come alongside me only to further their own end. I've learned it's safer to just try to make it on my own. However, it's hard to try to walk the Christian life alone :(. I chase my tail, I get confused, I lose my way, I get caught up in all kinds of rabbit trails and dead ends. I may be completely dedicated to my Christian walk, but if the last 8 years has been any indication, I make a real lousy tour guide!

I felt God telling me loud and clear that it's time to stop trying to do this on my own. That I need to stop relying on my own abilities and interpretations and start to trust again. I know God led us to this church for a reason, and I believe this is where He wants us. We've held off on becoming official members because there are a few doctrinal issues we disagree with, but you know what? Who says we're the ones who are right all the time! God led us here, we don't doubt that for a second, so it's time to stop flying solo and start REALLY being part of the body of Christ. We're going to speak to our pastor this Sunday about becoming members.

This is not easy for me. It is not easy for me to lay down my walls and allow people REAL people to get up close and personal with my spiritual life. I am scared to death of being vulnerable, and I'm scared to death of being hurt again, but these people have truly showed us the love of God, and it's time to trust. I don't have to be alone anymore. I'm not sure if that thought is comforting or terrifying, probably a mix of both. The first thing I want to do is get a new Bible. I've not been able to take my own Bible to church in months as I find it too distracting trying to follow NIV verses in my KJV. I have my own opinions on the KJV, and they have not changed, but I would like to be able to take my own Bible to church and follow along! I still go to the King James for personal study and if there's ever a conflict, I side with it, but I want to get my own NIV as well. Please no one start on a crusade on this, believe me, I've read all the stuff about the KJV vs NIV issue, I can practically guarantee you wont show me anything new, I'm not getting into it, use what ever version you are comfortable with, be it KJV, NIV or LMNOP :p. I'm mentioning this only to illustrate my seriousness in laying down my own perceived "rightness" in favour of meshing with a body of believers who have thoroughly convinced me of their authenticity in faith.

As huge an issue as this is, it is not the only thing in my life that is evolving. I am getting older. I have to admit it, I can't stay young forever. I always saw 30 as a turning point. Not that you're OLD at 30, but it is definitely the beginning of a new chapter in life. This feels very bittersweet to me. For a while I felt like I missed out on my youth. I spent my childhood and teenage years in a frantic hurry to adulthood. I married and started a family before many of my peers even finished school! By the time I realized that youth was not something to escape but something to enjoy, something that should have been relished, it was nearly too late! I tried too hard to regain at least in part what I lost out on, but I am glad that I took the time to experiment and discover things about myself I had never allowed myself to accept before. My life is richer and more satisfying now and I no longer feel like I'm missing a part of my life.

It is, however, time to accept that my life is moving on, carrying me kicking and screaming to maturity (well, closer to it anyway ;) ). I'm even changing physically! I got my first gray hair, though it was thankfully in my eyebrow and was quickly plucked :p, and even my skin is changing! I've always had oily skin and now it's dry! I've spent my whole life trying to get rid of oil and now I have to find ways top put it BACK! I am at a total loss at how to care for maturing skin! Heck, I never got the hang of caring for teenage skin!! At the very least I've traded my astringent for moisturizer and my oil absorbing masks for night cream promising to smooth fine lines and rehydrate skin at sub-cellular levels :p. Looking through my wardrobe reminded me that while there's always room for personal style, even if it hasn't been in style for a ~~few decades~~ while, there are just some things that I need to let go of. Not trading my spikes in for a granny dress mind you, but like most other aspects of my life, it's time to evolve. While it is mostly a pain free process, there a few things that I hate to part with but simply have to accept that I really am too old to wear them. My son is right, being an adult sucks! LOL

My tastes are changing, looking around me I just feel it's time for some big changes. What will this all mean? I don't have a clue. My life has always been in a state of perpetual motion but this feels....different somehow? Whatever it all means, I guess we all have to grow up sometime :p.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-11-08T07:00:00.009-05:00

Saturday 6:

B- Gingerbread muffins, OJ
L- Beef stew, white grape water kefir
S- Fried cod, herbed potatoes, corn, sauerkraut, tropical fruit water kefir

Sunday 7:

B- Raspberry coffee cake, herb tea
L- Cheese quesadillas, fermented pickles, blueberry water kefir
S- @ the in-laws

Monday 8:

B- Blueberry frozen yogurt (a big batch of blueberry yogurt smoothy put through my ice cream maker)
L- Beet soup w/ cultured cream, apple cider water kefir
S- Brown rice pasta w/ homemade tomato sauce & raw parmesan cheese, fermented pickles, black cherry water kefir

Tuesday 9:

B- Homemade cocoa-crunch cereal, OJ
L- Oven fries w/ fermented ketchup, raspberry peach water kefir
S- Liver & rice casserole, broccoli, water kefir lemonade

Wednesday 10:

B- Oatmeal, OJ
L- Potato salad, veggie sticks, ginger cinnamon water kefir
S-Italian lamb & rice, red grapejuice water kefir

Thursday 11:

B- Carrot muffins, OJ
L- Burritos, cider cinnamon water kefir
S- Date night (kids @ grandparents' place for dinner)

Friday 12:

B- Sourdough pancakes, OJ
L- Steak fajitas, pomegranate water kefir
S- Sourdough pizza, water kefir lemonade

Saturday 13:

B- Rolled oven omelet, OJ
L- Macaroni salad, veggie sticks, water kefir cream soda
S- Salmon patties, broccoli, baked potatoes, sauerkraut, black cherry water kefir

Update on Hubby

2010-11-03T11:14:00.000-04:00

We finally have a surgery date! December 3rd. He'll be in the hospital for 4 nights. Normally that would be hard to deal with but after having him home 24/7 for 2 months.....yeah, party time XD.

Two New Members of the Family

2010-10-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

Almost, sort of :p. Add matsoni (Caspian Sea Yogurt) to the list of cultures that are up and running. I'd almost given up hope but it seems to be ok now. Now I'm just waiting on the kombucha and milk kefir grains to start working and I'll be all set! Who's this other character you might ask? Well my son has been saving up some money for a while and today he announced what he wanted to buy with it. A betta (or Siamese fighting fish). So we took him to PetSmart and he bought a starter kit and a beautiful blue betta which he's named Alpha (Alpha Betta :p). I couldn't find the camera (I need some kind of homing device on that thing!) until after Z went to bed, so I'll post a pic of his new fishy tomorrow. Wow is he ever pretty (the fish not my son, I'd get the frowning of a lifetime if I called HIM pretty LOL).

I Know I'm Hopeless :p

2010-10-29T23:44:00.002-04:00

I've had so many people ask about this one, so I've started up a cooking blog again :p http://mandyskitchen.wordpress.com . Enjoy

God is so GOOD!

2010-10-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

Have I ever told you how thankful I am for our church? I know I have but I'll say it again. It's been so wonderful to get to know people who love the Lord but are HUMAN! I mean, our pastor has Three Stooges posters all over his office, how cool is THAT?

Anyway, I just got back from having lunch with a lady from church and I honestly want to cry with joy! I have many acquaintances and casual friends, but it's very rare to find someone I can deeply connect with. I think I have found one of those rare people! It was just amazing! Somehow I just knew I would love her to pieces and I do! I have been praying for so long for a friend I could really connect with. Someone I could really be myself with, a Christian with similar beliefs but someone REAL. Someone with whom to share struggles without being made to feel like a failure. Someone who could I could feel as comfortable talking about the Bible with as talking about something I watched on TV the night before! Someone who I can have fun with AND have times of serious spiritual fellowship. Someone who wouldn't entice me to compromise my convictions, yet without a spiritual superiority complex. I think I found her! I'm so happy :D

Sourdough Skyscraper :p

2010-10-28T18:40:00.000-04:00

Who says sourdough = brick bread?? This one is half whole wheat half unbleached but look at this rise!!!

First Baking with my New Starter

2010-10-27T13:06:00.000-04:00

And it turned out WONDERFUL! It looks like it didn't rise very high but there's a good reason for that! I made the loaf last night and set it in the oven with the light on to rise overnight. When I went to check on it this morning it has risen like crazy and overflowed the pan! I lost about a third of the dough! Don't believe me? Here's a pic of all the dough I scraped off the oven floor :p

It crossed my mind to just dump it, but I used up the last of my freshly ground spelt flour on this loaf so I wasn't about to let it go to waste! So I just took the dough that was left in the pan, kneaded it a little and put it back. It rose remarkably well, doubled in an hour tops! It was such a light fluffy bread, perfect for sandwiches. The flavour was amazing, the sourdough was very mild none of the vinegary bite you find with some sourdough, just a very subtle pleasant tang. I only made one loaf because I wanted to try the recipe out, next time I'll make 4 loaves!

Sourdough Bread

4 cups sourdough starter
4 cups whole grain flour
4 cups water
2 tbsp sea salt
1 cup melted butter, coconut oil or olive oil
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup

Mix well.

Additional whole grain flour

Add 1/2 cup at a time just until it comes together. Cover with a towel and let sit 10 minutes (to allow the flour to absorb the liquid). Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until springy and firm. Place in a buttered bowl, turning to coat the top. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size (a hole poked with your finger should remain in the dough, if the hole closes it's not done rising). Punch down, knead to get it smooth and elastic again (I use unbleached white flour for this if it needs a little more) and divide into quarters. Shape each into a loaf, placing them in well greased bread pans. Let rise until doubled again and bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes until bread sounds hollow when tapped or a thermometer inserted into the bread reads 195-200F.

It's Amazing What a Little Support Can Do!

2010-10-26T23:21:00.004-04:00

When I first started learning about traditional food preparation**, it was a very "new" phenomenon (ironically). Very few people were doing this (or at least blogging about it) and those that did, well, some of them seemed pretty "out there". It was very difficult finding practical advice and recipes so everything was rather trial and error (mostly error at times) as I tried to figure things out on my own. However I have discovered that is not the case anymore! More and more people (and more and more "normal" people) are becoming more and more aware of these food preparation methods and there are many MANY more resources available for tips, tricks and recipes for those seeking a more traditional diet.

While browsing for tips on meal planing and prep work, I found some great information that I think will help me tremendously. It was very simple, in fact I've used the principles before with "regular" menu planning but somehow just seeing someone else' example made it all click for me! They had a basic plan for the week using the same menu plan each week with minor variations thus allowing a basic weekly plan for food prep. I thought this was brilliant so I tweaked it a little. I am about to share my version, but first I want to give credit where credit is due and send you (if you are interested, I can't make you :p) to my source of inspiration! This is the blog post where I got this format from. There's lots of great info on that blog, so if you are into traditional cooking, it's definitely worth a look around!

Anyhoo, on to my lists!

Breakfast: With fresh fruit & milk

Mondays- Yogurt/ Smoothies
Tuesdays- Cold cereal (made the week before)
Wednesdays- Hot cereal
Thursdays- Muffins
Fridays- Pancakes or waffles
Saturdays- Eggs, toast or biscuits, nitrate free bacon or sausage
Sundays- Coffee cake or breakfast casserole

Lunches: With veggie sticks & kefir soda*

Cycle through- Soup, salad, sandwich (or wrap), baked potato and leftovers

Suppers: With fermented veggie/condiment & kombucha*

Mondays- Meatless
Tuesdays- Organ meat
Wednesdays- Lamb or beef
Thursdays- Hamburgers or meatloaf
Fridays- Pizza
Saturdays- Seafood
Sundays- Roast chicken, duck or turkey

*Optional. There's juice or water available if preferred.

Prep:

Mondays- Make yogurt, strain & chill broth, soak flour for cold cereal

Tuesdays- Defat & jar broth, bake & dry cereal, soak hot cereal

Wednesdays- Soak flour for muffins, bake 4 loaves of bread

Thursdays- Soak flour for pancakes (or waffles), soak pizza dough, make a batch of crackers or tortillas
Fridays- Soak flour for biscuits, plan meals and grocery list, bake a batch of cookies or other snack
Saturdays- Grocery shop, chop veggies, make big bowl of salad, soak coffee cake or casserole, put up a jar of fermented fruit or vegetable, soak nuts and dry

Sundays- Bake casserole or coffee cake, make broth
Daily- Make kefir, take out meat to thaw

So far this system is working very well for me!

** What I mean by traditional cooking methods are things like preparing grains with a long soaking or sprouting process, using natural foods that have nourished humanity for centuries producing good health and vitality not newer man-made products (such as hydrogenated oils, processed cheese, etc). To find out more about these and other methods/examples of this style of food preparation and nutritional information visit the Weston A Price Foundation website or the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig.

One Good, Two Maybes and Two Maybe Nots

2010-10-25T19:11:00.000-04:00

Ok, so what's going on with my new cultures?

Sourdough Starter- It didn't look like it was doing so great then suddenly today it sprang to life. Nice and bubbly and smells great! I'm hoping to start using it this week!

Water Kefir- It's definitely alive, but will likely need at least one more brew before it's making a nice delicious brew.

Matsoni- I think this one is a write off :(. If I can't get it going successfully by tomorrow I'll contact the people I bought it from. I really hope it gets going I was really looking forward to it!

Kombucha- It said it takes 10-20 days for the dried starter to fully awaken, brew and make a fresh baby. It's day 10 and so far no sign of life, not even the thinnest beginning of a new baby. Still has time to do it's thing yet, so no panicking yet :p. Worst case scenario I'm kombuchaless until hubby's up and running for a trip to Hamilton again.

Milk Kefir- It's starting to wake up, but as is the usual case when waking up dormant kefir grains, the yeast and bacteria are out of balance, with the yeast being much more dominant. I have read in a few places (that I have been unable to find again or I'd post the source) that soaking kefir grains in yogurt will bring the yeasts and bacteria back into a proper balance. One even mentioning that they wouldn't even consider reviving dormant grains without a yogurt or buttermilk soak as it gets them back to peak performance so much faster with such a drastically reduced "lag time". Since I'm wanting to get the probiotic goodies into our guts as soon as possible (as opposed to down the drain) I have them soaking in some good quality yogurt diluted in milk right now. Tomorrow they'll be put back into plain milk and I am excited to see how they do then.

So I know the sourdough's fine, the water kefir is almost certainly fine as well (next batch might be ready tomorrow and we'll see how it tastes), kombucha might be fine might not, too soon to tell, kefir is probably fine but my Matsoni seems deader than a doornail. We'll have to see how it goes.

In other news, hubby's doing as well as can be expected. He's in a lot of discomfort and finding it hard to be inactive, we're still waiting on a surgery date and location, hopefully it won't be long. Also, A's doing SO well with the potty training! We had one accident in the last several days but other than that smooth sailing. I can honestly say that I do not miss changing diapers all day one little bit :p.

As for me, my vertigo has really been acting up lately. As soon as all my ID is replaced and I get my new health card I am going to have to go see a doctor about it again. Hopefully now I'll see one who will actually take me seriously! I saw our old doctor about it and he didn't so much as look up from his desk, just told me to go home and take Gravol. I have had it for years and years now, usually there's a few weeks to months between episodes, but this month has been brutal, I've had vertigo more often than I've not it seems. And it's more severe as well. It seems worst when lying down, last night I slept sitting up on the couch and I intent to tonight as well. Going to pick up some extra strength Gravol tomorrow and see if i can't sleep in my own bed then!

Anyway, time to get the kids in bed then I'll chill out with hubby and watch some videos. We have some episodes of "Dexter" to watch and hubby also found a program on parasites which is neat in a disgusting sort of way :p. See you all later.

Update on the Hubster (and Other Stuff)

2010-10-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, the place that specializes in hernia surgery cannot take him right now so he had to go back to the first doctor he saw this morning to arrange for it to be done locally. We also found out that we can get EI for being off work temporarily due to illness or injury, so he's bringing the necessary forms with him to the doctor to get filled out, so that is an answer to prayer. He was so afraid of what would happen with regards to work. His previous boss was unreal! The men were literally not allowed to take sick days! One man got in trouble for taking time off to have surgery to remove CANCER!! He was supposed to be off work for a while after the surgery but was threatened with his job if he didn't return right away! He ended up having major complications because of it! Nice guy huh? It felt very strange for hubby to not have his boss screaming and swearing him all the time for no reason. He was fully expecting to lose his job over this, it's going to take him a while realize that not everyone is so inhuman! Of course he didn't lose his job, they told him to take all the time he needed and even mentioned that they were getting him his own work vehicle and helper in the new year. So he is very happy about that.

Other things are going very well, A's potty training is still going well, even a trip to grandma's didn't result in any accidents! I'll be taking her grocery shopping this afternoon and she'll wear a diaper then, but for short trips and such where we can use the potty anytime easily she's out of them. Once she's consistently dry at night then we can lose them at night too. It's so nice to be almost done with these endless diapers!!!! Cloth didn't work out very well with her and disposables are not only expensive, I don't like having her exposed to the chemicals in them, so it's such a relief to know they will soon be behind her (no pun intended LOL).

My cultures all seem to be doing well. The matsoni is taking a little longer than it should, but I checked the temperature in here and it's 67, which is too cool for it (oh I miss our woodstove!) so I put a little space heater in the kitchen to warm it up a little. My water kefir is ready to start making it's first batch of kefir to drink (you're supposed to toss the first batch you used to reconstitute the grains). Still no obvious bubbles in the sourdough starter, but it smells fine so I'll keep feeding it. I set it on top of my dehydrator which is busy drying some sprouted wheat to help keep it nice and warm. Still waiting for my milk kefir to start working, but it could be a while yet, I did reduce the amount of milk for each feed because I think even one cup is just too much for the amount of grains I have, not to mention it's hard to justify pouring a whole cup of milk down the drain every day on a reduced income! So smaller feedings it is until they are up and running properly. My kombucha won't show me how it's doing for probably another week yet. I'm not as worried about it now that I know I can get a fresh scoby (as opposed to the dried culture I'm using now) over in Hamilton. The time lost would be the only real annoyance.

My veggie cultures are doing wonderfully! I gave them an extra day at room temp since it's so cool in here and they are very happy. It will be nice to have garlic and ginger now whenever I need it not having to worry about it going soft before I can use them all! I wish I could find my camera, the garlic is beautiful! The edges of the garlic get partially cooked after the method NT suggests to peel garlic in bulk (baking at 300 until the head open) and everywhere that was cooked turned a brilliant, almost fluorescent green during pickling! I thought it was wrecked or something so I looked it up and apparently cooked very fresh garlic turns green in the presence of acid so that explains it. It sure is pretty!

Well, that's about everything happening right now :)

Prayers for Hubby Please

2010-10-21T13:44:00.000-04:00

Hi all, could I ask for some prayer for my husband. He went in to the doctor this afternoon because he had a lump he thought might be a hernia. It is and it's a very serious one. The doctor wants him to go to this one specialist because they are the best around for this but if they can't take him immediately then he'll be admitted to the the local hospital because they are afraid the colon will strangulate if they don't act very soon. This is going to be very hard for him, he has to be off work now for several weeks. It will be difficult for him to be inactive that long, not to mention he's still in the probationary period with his new job so we do not have health benefits yet so without health insurance we won't be getting any income for several weeks (so much for date night tonight!). Our food storage supplies are not the greatest after falling back on them when he lost his previous job so it's going to be even tighter this time. Please pray for him, that he'll recover quickly and completely. Thanks.

Another Busy Day Begins

2010-10-21T10:11:00.000-04:00

Here I sit, sipping a banana kefir smoothy (a little too sweet though. I halved the honey called for but it's still too much. I think in the summer it would be nice to put this smoothy through my ice cream maker, who wouldn't like to have ice cream for breakfast?!) and wishing it were warmer! I am not one for excessive heat, but I'm not big on cold either! I think I'm going to have to hit the consignment shops this weekend and pick up a few things. When it's cold, I want pants. Leggings under a dress is ok, but leggings under pants feels better. And two pairs of socks. And warm shoes or slippers. I only have one pair of pants that aren't capris (I love capris!) and they are wearing out so I want to go pick up a few pairs, and maybe some warm sweatshirts too. Fluffy sweaters aren't my thing. I have a few but I find fuzzy things irritate my skin. I used to think the woodstove made the house too hot in winter, but now that heat costs money (In our stove we burned mostly skids. They burn fast, so you need a lot of them, but they're free so we hadn't had to pay for heat the last 5 years!) we have to keep it on the low side. We keep it at 70 but after a woodstove, this feels FREEZING!!! In fact I'm sitting here in my jammies waiting for my only pair of pants to finish drying (bonus, they'll be toasty warm :D).

Anyway, my Caspian sea yogurt activated successfully, I was worried it wouldn't because of how cool it is in here but it did :). So this afternoon I'll use it to make some cultured cream, some yogurt to eat and some to drain for whey and soft cheese. (Ummm, A just walked up and took my smoothy LOL, enjoy hun.) When I'm done on here I have to feed my sourdough starter. Not many bubbles yet, but it sure smells good! The water kefir grains are doing their thing, I was amazed how quickly they reconstituted! They were dried and arrived very tiny, brown granules. I put them in the sugar water and literally in five minutes they were already turning fluffy, white and translucent! I don't know why but I expected it to take longer than that! My milk kefir grains are soft now, but it will probably take at least a week before they're fully in "working" condition. I have some kefir I made with powder in the fridge. I used some for my smoothy and I'll use the rest to soak some cracker dough in a few minutes. Hmmm, I'll bet I could find a good cracker recipe using sourdough starter instead of a dairy culture (Googled it and found one I'll try when my starter's ready! I also found a bread recipe I can't wait to try!)

The kids are going to Grandma's house tonight. Hubby and I have our last meeting with the bankruptcy trustee then we're going on a date since the kid's are already at grandma's! Speaking of hubby, he has to go to the doctor this afternoon, he thinks he has a hernia! So keep him in your thoughts and prayers if you feel like it. It aches, but he says the thought of if is the worst part. My cousin and I were joking about just using some screen and operating on him myself to save a trip to the hospital, I DO have that screen I bough to make sprouting lids :p. All joking aside, he did express concern this morning about how his health has been the last little while, and he said he's just about ready to give this "healthy food thing" a try, so it will be nice to have him on board! He said no scary giant mushrooms though (kombucha) which made me giggle. Poor guy, when I tried kombucha before it wasn't very good (didn't know what I was doing all that well, never experimented with different teas or flavorings to find a combination we liked, etc) and tried to force it on him, which of course made it worse. I have no intentions of even offering him any this time. I know more about culturing and how to make different flavours and what not. So if he ever does get curious about it, I'll actually have something enjoyable for him to try :p.

Well, dryer's done and I've got lots to do today so I'll see you all later!

So Far So Good :D

2010-10-20T16:11:00.000-04:00

So far today there have been absolutely NO potty accidents (though just watch, now that I say that...) and I tried out my new dishwasher and it works GREAT! I thought it was broken at first because it's so QUIET, my last dishwasher was NOISY, but it works just fine! Got school done for the day without a single hitch, and none of my cultures strike me as dead as of yet :D. I'd call this a pretty good day I think :).

So Much Going On!

2010-10-19T21:07:00.000-04:00

Ok, where to start?! So yesterday was A's fourth birthday. My other two kids were potty trained within days of turning three and A showed no signs of even trying anytime soon. I was beginning to think the hardest part of planing her wedding would be to find a diaper that wouldn't show through the dress :p. Well, A was being uncommonly bratty that morning so I put her in her room for a bit of a time out. After about 5 minutes I went in to get her to find her stark naked! About to tell her off for her stripping, she interrupts me with something I think she only said because she knew it would stop me in my tracks. "I WANT TO USE THE POTTY MOMMY!"

Say what? Well, ok honey, if that's what you want that's what you'll do! And you know what...she WENT, eventually :p. I put her in some cloth training pants and reminded her to go every so often. I gave her a small handful of chocolate chips everytime she went. Today was day two, altogether she's had I think 3 accidents and she usually comes and tells me she needs to go (though I do still remind her if it's been a while). Just like the other two, we'll still use diapers at night time and when traveling as long as they are needed but it's awesome to finally be on the road to freedom so to speak :p.

Ok, another thing that happened last night, our landlord called. When we first came to look at this place it was for sale, but he told us if we wanted to rent it he wouldn't sell it. Well surprise surprise after living here less that a quarter of the lease, he changed his mind!! At first I was so angry I could spit nails, but once I got over (for the most part) the sheer underhandedness of it, I am actually quite pleased. We moved in expecting the girls to share a room, but that proved impossible and A can't stay in our room much longer! So we could really use another bedroom. Also, and this is the kicker, when we looked at this house we were in such a rush we didn't look carefully enough and didn't notice it had serious mold issues, and the pipes in the laundry room are insulated with old cracking asbestos!! If I had noticed that when we first looked through we would NOT have rented the place, so if this gets us out of the lease early, I think that it's for the best. We've started to look around and are hoping to go back to a country rental. We found one for less than we are paying now with 12 acres!! That would be nice! Anyway, there are plenty of options. The one thing we are concerned about is our credit rating. As some of you know, we were never able to sell our houses and ended up having to foreclose. The lawyer had us line up a rental place BEFORE filing (as we had impeccable credit then) and we were counting on the two years we would be here to build our rating up enough to apply elsewhere. So it's going to be interesting trying to get approved for a new place, but God knew all this was going to happen. It looked pretty grim when hubby lost the job we moved down here for, but God took care of us and gave him a BETTER job than the one he lost. I have no doubt at all He is going to work this out as well.

Now how about today. Well, I put up a jar of pickled salmon! I'd love to show you a picture, it's sitting with a jar each of pickled garlic, ginger and red pepper, but I cannot find my camera anywhere :s. Best of all, my cultures arrived this afternoon! So now I've got kefir, matsoni (Caspian sea yogurt), water kefir, kombucha and a sourdough starter all happily activating for me so I can resume my mad kitchen science experiments, muahahahaaaaaaaa!!!

Another thing I'm doing cartwheels over, hubby bought me a new (for us) dishwasher off kijiji :). Unfortunately it didn't come with the faucet adapter, but his parents have an extra one and MIL will bring it to me tomorrow. I am SOOOOOOOOO THANKFUL! This will help me out so much!

Well, someone's coming to see the house tomorrow (ok, still struggling with some bitterness on this part, I was SO happy to move here and be done with the walkthroughs >:( ) so I have stuff to do before then. See you all later!

Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie

2010-10-18T08:14:00.000-04:00

My baby is four years old today!! She's growing up so fast! (I'll give a big piece of birthday cake to anyone who can tell me where my camera is :s)

Bye Bye Birdy (Twitter that is)

2010-10-17T09:09:00.000-04:00

Ok, I guess I'm just not into twittering all that much. I rarely remember to update it :p. So I deactivated my account. I'll stick to blogging and FBing.

Mandy Montage

In With the New but Keeping the Old

Why do they always come to MY house?!?!

Summer 2011 Squarefoot Garden

Well, I Could Always Grow Rice!

Great Giveaway Batman!

Some Words of (Hopefully) Wisdom to the Young(er)

What part of "No man knows the day" don't some people understand?!

MEXaroni and Cheese!

Wishing Blessing to All the Mothers out There

Helpful, VERY Helpful *rolleyes*

Coco-Mayo OH NO

Well, it's Official

This Week's Menu Plan (and I love my grain mill!)

A Sad Update to Prayer Request

Sometimes we Need a Good Kick in the Pants!

URGENT PRAYER NEEDED

Update 2: Well hubby is now home safe and sound and the windstorm is over. Everyone is out taking pics for their insurance :p. Going to take a drive with hubby and look at the damage! Power is out in 2/3 or the city but we still have power thankfully!

Howling Wind and Car Alarms!

A Couple of Prayer Requests

HE IS RISEN!

It is a Good Friday Indeed!

Next Week's Menu Plan

Hitting for the Wrong Team?

My First Glass!

ATTENTION NEW YORKERS

7yo's New 'Do

Sourdough Impossible Pie!

Frozen Snickers Bites

Tis Better to have Blogged and Lost than never to have Blogged at all!

The G.O.S.P.E.L

Giveaways!

You know, an interesting thing happens when you don't delete your archives :p

Kitchen Duties

My Favourite Cookbooks

Strawberry Banana Crepes

Preserving Produce with Lacto-Fermentation

INSTANT Soaked Muffins

How is it Thursday ALREADY?!?!

Good Morning!

Not-so-Manic Monday

Meet the Kefirs

Super Creamy Mac 'n' Cheese

Appletree Bulk Herbs

Battling the Sickies

A Collection of This and That

Pray for Japan (and Elsewhere)

An Unexpected Lesson

Kefir (take a million LOL)

Soaked Apple Cake

Another Busy Day

Next Week's Menu Plan

How I Make Brown Rice

February's Gone Already??

Next Week's Menu Plan

Who is Your Favourite Person From the Bible?

A Question About Wheats

Menu Plan Monday

Stuff Happens

YAY IT'S FRIDAY!!!!

I Don't Know What an Astrologer Would Tell You, but I Say 2011 is...

Wassssssssuuuuuuuup?

I Live, Just Busy.

Adventures in Sourdough Land

Miserable Weather!

Virtual Makeovers!

Cruddy yet productive day

Current Hair Care Routine

Another New Beauty Trick I've Learned!

Shampoo + Coconut oil = WIN!!!1!

My New Home!!

A QUICK Update

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

The Pain is UNSPEAKABLE!

Christmas Play Pics

Thank You, and yet another request for prayer

Prayer Request for Hubby :(

Quick Update

Last Post (for a day or two LOL)

I HATE MOVING!!!!!!!!

Helpful, VERY Helpful rolleyes