An unexpected surprise…

Here we are again!

Bun number seven in the oven warming. As if my life wasn’t blessed enough {wink, wink}, we are adding joy to our numbers. Expected to be here mid June of next year, already the kids are spending every evening meal fighting and voting over names.  So far, Rauga (from Bay Blade) is top pick for boys and Dora is top pick for girls. Ummmm….no?

Names aside, the kids are super excited. Our dinner converstion the week before (I am NOT making this up):

Them: “Mommy, when are we going to have another baby?”

Me: “Why?”

Them: “Because Eli isn’t anyone’s big brother and he needs to be a big brother too.”

Me: “We are NOT having another baby just so Eli can be a big brother!”

Guess the jokes on me!

Kitchen Staples for Healing Naturally

Healing is on my mind today as I sit here, stuck on the couch with a throat that burns and a cough that makes my head feel like it’s going to explode. At least the persistent sinus headache is gone. Everything has moved to my chest. Yeah me!

So what’s a girl to do but take a few homeschool teacher in-service days? My littles are playing outside and getting extra dirty in the morning and vegging on cartoons in the afternoon (thank you Diego and Netflix!). My older two are still doing all the schooling that they can do independently without mamma’s help. We are eating simply…cereal and juice, PB & J and fresh fruit, easy no-brainer dinners. One of my dear friends even brought me an already-made pasta bake and some fruit and veggies that we will eat tonight. Love those moments of provision that the Holy Spirit facilitates in our lives! Small, yes…but huge where it counts!

As I’m making concoctions for myself to desperately make this go away and avoid a trip to the doctor that will end in antibiotics, I thought I would share with you some of the awesome natural remedies that I have found over the years that have been essential for us when the yucky’s hit.

The kitchen is my best friend when it comes to healing us. Everyone has heard of chicken noodle soup as a go-to for healing food. But did you know it’s not a myth? I’m not talking canned soup here. The real deal made with homemade chicken stock from bones. That gelatin is magical stuff. Sauteed garlic and onions adds another layer of immune boosting properties. Too tired to make homemade chicken noodle soup? Try making ramen noodles with your own homemade chix broth instead of water. Tastes the same if you season with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder without the damaging MSG of the packets. My kids LOVE this and it is usually a cheap lunch staple in the winter time for our family.

Another kitchen staple we use often in healing is honey usually added to tea. Any tea is good (the heat is what kills germs on your throat and loosens phlegm) so don’t worry if you don’t have those fancy herbal ones. Although I have quite a fondness for Wellness Throat Care and Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Wellness teas! Throw a touch of lemon juice and some honey (both act as antibacterial agents to kill germs and the lemon juice helps cut through mucus) and you have yourself a soothing cup of meds that are gentle on the throat and uplifting to the tired soul.

You can also use honey as a wonderful basis for homemade cough/throat syrups. (Don’t forget – not on infants under one years old!) Kids love the taste of honey and it makes whatever other ingredients you are adding more palatable for them. Most everyone has honey on hand and even if you are still going to give your kids over-the-counter meds, this works well when their throat is still achy and they want something between doses. From the kitchen means no side effects!

My favorite that the kids love is a ginger honey cough/sore throat syrup that tastes good and I don’t have to force anyone to take it. Just grate a piece of ginger and squeeze the juice from pulp into a bowl. Add a touch of lemon juice and some honey and stir. I take mine and put it back into the honey bear and label for fridge. If you have raw honey it’s even better because of the enzyme action in the honey not being heated. Notice I didn’t give amounts. That’s because this recipe is very forgiving. You will get about a teaspoon to tablespoon of gingerish liquid from the pulp. Honey is about 1/2 to 1 cup and lemon juice around same as ginger liquid. I never measure. I use what I have on hand (sometimes that’s more or less honey) and mix. It doesn’t have to be precise.

You can also try this tumeric honey recipe (just as the video says or combine with recipe above) for a more potent syrup. The spiciness of the tumeric (an anti-inflammatory) will most likely make this a more adult-friendly recipe. I must say, though, this has helped my throat the most. It may be spicy at first but soothes it for much longer than my throat drops did. Combine these with the simple power of a salt-water gargle in warm water a few times a day to help kill nasty throat bugs.  I do the salt water gargle first followed by the honey-turmeric and then wait at least 30 minutes before eating or drinking anything to let them do their job in killing bacteria.

And don’t neglect the power of Vitamin C. Most people get their 100% dose of Vitamin C per day via their foods and juices or vitamin supplements. But when your body is worn down and trying to heal from outside attacks of a virus, extra Vitamin C can really help your body repair itself faster. I keep Vitamin C throat drops on hand for my littles. These are better for sore throats than menthol drops because they don’t sting little throats and give a small extra dose of Vitamin C to little bodies. I use the Airborne for myself which is a mega boost with zinc and herbs to boot.

I also try to get extra Vitamin C naturally in our smoothies. We do smoothies at least twice a week. I take whatever fruit is looking a bit wilty and chuck it in the blender with some frozen fruit (usually blueberries or strawberries) and greens (when I have them – spinach is our favorite), some milk or yogurt (plain, full fat), vanilla, and a 1/3 cup of sugar (not to worry, that covers 8 people). My kids LOVE these and I feel it is a great way to add fruits and veggies to their otherwise picky diets!

My fave is a winter Orange Julius smoothie. Throw in a bunch of oranges (4-6), heavy cream, yogurt, vanilla, a couple of raw eggs, 1/3 cup suger (or honey) and a teaspoon of Vitamin C powder (we keep this on hand to use all winter long – and use calcium ascorbate as it allows you to absorb the vitamin C better). Tastes JUST like the malls except extra healthy for you!!!

My last tip…soak the toothbrushes in Hydrogen Peroxide (change morning and night) to kill germs during the length of this sickness. This is also good for anyone who is struggling with gingivitis.  When the cold/flu passes, throw away and buy new brushes.

Now, if I can just learn to make these:

Honey Cough Drop Lollipops @ The Pistachio Project

Or these:

Horehound Lozenges @ Frugally Sustainable

My next winter projects!!!

Red, White, and Blueberry Waffles {and other Fourth of July Pinterest Stuff}

Don’t you just love the festive color combinations of this creative breakfast my hubby came up with? Okay, maybe the breakfast isn’t that creative…we actually have this quite a bit at our house…but my husband is totally proud of his creative name for it.  Although I must say, it is the best waffle recipe we’ve ever had. Adam has tweaked it over the years to get it just right. No crunchy, overfluffed Belgian Waffles for us. We wanted something old-fashioned, classic in flavor. Slightly crisp but just the right softness when our homemade syrup is poured over top! {See Recipes Below!}

And here is a lovely shot of the one beautiful hibiscus that bloomed in our yard. I didn’t even know we were growing hibiscus! (I’ve always wanted them!) So imagine my surprise as Delilah swooped into the bathroom and showed me her treasure find. I laughed as I remembered my post from yesterday and then turned it over to show her how these flowers first inspired making fairy doll skirts out of flowers. Gorgeous! I see a girlie summer project going on. That is, if we can get the flowers to bloom before being plucked forever out of existence.

My day is pretty mellow today. I’m deciding NOT to clean the house (against all my mom instincts). Who really is going to notice my dirty floor? Besides, little kids running in and out all night with smoke powder on their fingers and feet…who am I kidding? I’d just have to re-do tomorrow! So today is a lazy day. Kids are heading out swimming and I get to sit here and right this post. Later this afternoon we will be watching Independence Day (a no-brainer!) and staying cool in the air-conditioning. Then it’s brats and dogs and smores and yumminess mingled with explosives and lots of little kids. Good combo, right?

One fun project we’re going to try tonight is glow-in-the-dark bubbles. Saw this on Jolanthe’s Homeschool Creations Blog last week and fell in love with the idea! Hopefully I’ll have some fun pictures to show you tomorrow.

Glowing bubbles courtesy of Homeschool Creations.

Speaking of Pinterest, thought I’d throw out some of the fun Fourth things to try. Check out my Fourth of July Pinterest Board. Killer stuff here! I only listed a few so, please, go see for yourself…there’s MUCH, MUCH more!

{ 1 } Sparkler Shield

{ 2 } Fourth of July Punch

{ 3 } Tin Can Windsocks

{ 4 } Cup Cake Liner Bug Protectors

{ 5 } Independence Day Paper Plate Hats

And now, for the waffle recipe (adapted from James McNair Cookbook). We double this recipe for our family of 8 as well as doubling the syrup recipe.

Butter Rich Waffles

• Melted butter for greasing
• 2 Eggs, room temp, separated
• 1 1/2 Cups Milk, room temp
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Cup Flour
• 1 Stick Butter (1/2 cup), melted

1. Preheat waffle iron.  Grease grids with melted butter.
2. Beat egg whites to form stiff (but not dry) peaks. Set aside.
3. Combine egg yolks, milk, baking powder, flour, and melted butter till smooth.
4. Fold in egg whites.

Homemade Syrup (cheap and easy!)

• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1 Cup Water

~ Boil 10 minutes, turn to low and stir in:

• 1 pad butter
• splash of vanilla

Have a wonderful, safe, and happy Fourth everybody!!!

Letting Go.

I had this vision when we bought this house and I learned it already had a garden going in the back…that it was already landscaped out front and around the sides. A vision of beautiful flowers crowning the privilege of owning our own home. I daydreamed of picking these most gorgeous flowers and adorning my tables and Victorian rooms with their beauty. Spring came and plants came to life. The excitement grew as I learned what was planted where. I pictured in my head these Monet-ish bursts of pastel color clouds beckoning me from a long drive home of grocery shopping.

Then reality set in.

I have three boys who like to bash things, two dogs who like to trample things, and three girls who like to pick things. I mean they really like to pick things. And soon my poor, defenseless flowers started looking bare and sparse. There were vases adorning the table but only in a poor attempt to save some of the almost petal-less flowers from their oh-so-shortened lifespan. And we had to get creative on arrangement style as stems were a rare oddity!

At first I seethed inside. I tried reasonable explanations.

You know, if we pick the buds before they bloom then we will never see the pretty flowers they were to create.”

I tried cajoling.

Baby girl, how ’bout we wait till everything blooms and then we can pick some together…just you and me. 

Finally I resorted to sharp, not-very-loving, mamma-commands.

DON’T PICK THE FLOWERS if you want to live!”

Nothing worked. I fretted and worried and my garden just became more naked. I fumed and tried to ignore the smashed down Lily patches with buds that never came to fruition. And then the Lord started speaking to my heart.

Let go.”

NO! I can’t. It’s not fair. These are MY flowers. I’ve waited 37 years to finally have this house and this garden and MY flowers. It’s not fair. Did I mention their mine? I selfishly pouted.

Let go.”

He nudged gently as He reminded me:

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.” ~ Matthew 6:19-20

AND

The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements. ~ James 1:11

AND

As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades.” ~ 1 Peter 1:24

Is this what I was doing? Was I holding on to this temporary treasure here on earth, desperately trying to make something so fleeting last longer than it was ever intended?  Was I robbing joy from my girls who already knew the secret of living in the moment? This feeling I had in my heart…it felt very familiar, like my old friend jealousy. When you try and control your hand squeezes until the love is squeezed out with it. It was not until I learned to open up that hand, let go of that control that the jealousy left and allowed love to grow in it’s place. I needed to let this go too. Stop squeezing my possessions. It is all temporal. He made this for us to enjoy in the moment. It was never intended to last beyond that.

I heard Him whispering to me how it was Him who made little girls to love flowers so dearly. He put that desire in them to collect these momentary bursts of beauty. “If that is so, Lord,” I prayed, “How do I let go?” 

And the answer was so simple. I have a gift of the lens. A photograph that can capture that first perfect bloom before the physical realm fades. So here are my beauties. A perfect shot of loveliness captured in a singular moment of beauty.

I’ve let my garden go.

Now I snap a picture when I first notice blooming (if they get to that stage) and inhale deeply of any fleeting perfume aroma. And when I drive home from grocery shopping to my balding backyard, I am no longer tense with anxiety. I even left a few weeds to grow around the poor, barren flowers adding some beautiful, unexpected wild flowers into the white space of our lives! Slowly this momma is learning.

 

Breaking Words

I need to break.

This blogging has got my mind tied up. I think about it too much. It seems like such a good thing…these words I write here. And they are…good words. But He is only concerned with heart motivations. What motivates me?

Audience.

No, I don’t need a huge audience. I’m not trying to “grow” my blog. But I noticed a subtle change of shifting thoughts. As my posts ruminate in mind words I’m thinking of others reactions. This space has gone from a sweet capturing of my littles to a me space. A space where I promote my own thinking.

This has been a place I’ve been running from for a while now. For almost nine months I’ve heard His voice quietly beckoning me away…away from here and back to my littles…back to my household…back to life. My first gut reaction was to delete. Delete the blog. Delete the internet from our life. But that is not dealing with my heart any more than staying is. Blogging is not wrong. Yes, it may be a bit narcissistic but there is good here in this world. There are lives touched and information shared and it is a good thing. Technology is not bad.

I think of the verse ~

Everything is permissible ~ but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible ~ but not everything is constructive.” ~ I Corinthians 10:23

I think on Jenny’s very poignant post and the listening she did. She heard:

It’s not the blogging…It’s the browsing

It’s not the writing…It’s the wandering

It’s not the time spent…It’s the time wasted

She listened and her blog A Minute Captured is a beautiful thing because of it. So then I thought maybe I could blog just a little bit…put up some boundaries. So I scaled back. My posts were fewer. And that time back did help. Things started coming together around the house. I was thinking again. Not about what others think but about what I should be doing for my household.

But still I heard His voice. Scaling back is not what He is calling me to. And isn’t that what it’s about? Listening to Him? For Jenny it was about writing and ridding of unnecessary distractions. For Elizabeth it was about her gift and not burying that talent. But for me? My season of life has me raising six littles who have very tender receptive hearts that need lots of mommy. I have a household full of toddlers who are right in the midst of training and need structure and routine. I have a house that is in utter chaos and needs habits laid down. I have work to do right here.

I love this space and all the information that is here for the having. I really don’t want to give it up. There are some who are called to share and help others learn. There are some who are called to take up the fight and politically or socially start grassroots uprisings. But it is not for me to share. It is not for me to uprise. This is not my season. My place is here…now…as mother.

This blog has been such a beautiful outlet for me to share my favorite hobby of photography and it is not a door forever shut. I will be back. There will be a season where it will be my turn to share. But I need to turn my camera inward. My babies are looking at their scrapbooks I’ve done for them. And I realize my art is there. It is art with meaning by the only audience who matters. My kids care that I scrapbook. They care that I take pictures of things that are important to them and me. They want to see them finished. They want to see their life chronicled in a way that will matter when they are older and start forgetting. I can always reread a blog and remember. But for them, they need the heft of that real book in their  hand to turn pages and smile as they remember and ask questions about what they don’t. And those are the stories I need to tell. The real that needs to be passed down.

My blog will stay put for now. I will be utilizing my Homeschool Free Resources page often as I continue this homeschooling journey. I will continue to answer any comments that happen to come my way. I will be visiting other blogs during scheduled free time to read of other wise words who should be here right now. I will continue to learn and grow. I will be back one day as a seasoned homeschool momma with loads to share.

But for now I am going home to my babies. For now it is simply necessary to let this blog go in order to focus on my necessaries.

The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.  ~Proverbs 14:1

~ MY STORIES ~

Many people have said to me ‘What a pity you had such a big family to raise. Think of the novels and the short stories and the poems you never had time to write because of that.’ And I looked at my children and I said, “These are my poems. These are my short stories.” ~ Olga Masters

~ Cookie Comfort ~

How do you bake cookies while simoultaneously holding a whining infant who may have RSV and has been clinging to you desperately all week day?

One hip…baby. Other hand…cookie scoop. Wasn’t this such a clever invention? I used to see it as a needless tool (my hubby wanted it) that I avoided just on principle. But, I’ll admit, today it has greatly come in handy.

We should be dosing up on meds and trying to clear out this sickness pervading our house. I should be packing the last little bits of our house. But there is something ultra comforting about home baked chocolate chip cookies in the middle of the afternoon! I mean, seriously, look at all that sweet, warm, fresh gooey goodness!

I’ve adapted our recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. The only change being that I use all butter. No shortening or margarine in this house! And Adam has taught me to add the flour slowly at the end testing for that just-right-consistency. That has made all the difference in cooking the perfect cookie!

I cook mine at 350 degrees for exactly 9 minutes. No more, no less. Always pull even if you don’t think they look done! Everyone’s oven is different so that part may take some experimenting.

Scratch Real-Butter Ultra-Comfort Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 Cup White Sugar
• 3/4 Cup packed Brown Sugar
• 1 Cup Butter (slightly softened)

~ Mix with beater.

• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp real Vanilla
• 2 Eggs

~ Mix again with beater.

• 1 3/4 Cups – 2 1/2 Cups Flour 

~ Mix in 1 3/4 Cups flour with beater. Slowly add 1/4 – 1/2 cup more at a time till dough is still sticky but can be squished together in hand and keep shape.

• 1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

~ Stir in chocolate chips.

Cook, eat and enjoy!

And, by the way, the other cool secret about this recipe? You can use it for any type of cookie! Making peanut butter cookies? Add peanut butter and adjust flour accordingly. Making oatmeal cookies? Add a handful of oats and adjust the flour accordingly. As long as the dough has that same consistency then you’re good to go! This helped me in memorizing just on recipe and ditching the rest. Ultra simple for this overly busy mom!

Slow Reading ~ The Gentle Art of Domesticity

As sometimes happens, I am walking along the bargain aisles at Barnes and Nobles hoping to catch that great homeschooling find when out of the corner of my eye I spy this cover.

I know you are not suppose to judge a book by it’s cover but I am a visual person by nature and, unfortunately, this is too often the case with me…at least with books! And this one didn’t disappoint! It’s all in the title: The Gentle Art of Domesticity {Stitching, Baking, Nature, Art & The Comforts of Home} by Jane Brocket. What’s not to love? For $10 I found a homey book that I can curl up with at night or on the weekends and enjoy in my new home!

Sometimes in this bloggy world we adults develop a bad case of attention deficit disorder. We get so used to perusing and looking and envying that we never take the time to stop and read and do the things we are looking at. Or is that just me?  I often need to force myself out of this destructive pattern. This book is a breath of fresh air in that department. It’s like reading a blog (beautiful pictures married with wonderful content) but in long form. Instead of sneaking a 5 minute reading blog break, you can take an hour and read on the comfort of your couch.

This isn’t a how-to book so much as a how-I-got-here book. It is all those homey ideas I want to ruminate in for a while. And her take on our culture is spot on. Take this excerpt for example.

For the gentle arts are just that: gentle. They do not demand to be practiced. No one is obliged to pursue them. They have not been taken up by any government department and regulated and repackaged with health and safety messages and warnings. They are a matter of individual and personal choice. They can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest and the ability to thread a needle, break an egg, choose a color or wield a pair of scissors. They don’t require complicated skills, qualifications, training or equipment…What they do require, though, is a consicious choice to do something ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘quaint,’ to choose not to buy and consume endlessly, but to make and create for a change…It’s the awareness of the worth of the gentle arts that counts, the ability to see that the feminists of the 1970s were misguided when they thought that teaching young girls to devalue domesticity constituted progress.” {emphasis mine}

Wow! And this from an author who was, herself, a proclaimed feminist! It was her journey through that process of attaining a family and struggling with careers that landed her in this ever-so domestic world. I love this for two reasons. One, the book reads like a blog journal ~ interactive with you while at the same time maintaining that personal awareness and growth that only comes with writing things down. And two, you don’t have to be that traditional Martha Stewart-y crafty girl to enjoy this book. You can be that career momma or retired grandma with time on her hands or even the mom who longs to do crafts but is up to her elbows in a dirt-colored-snotty-nose season of life and still resonate with Jane’s writings on domesticity. It is that inherent domesticity in all of us women, designed by God himself, that connects us as a collective whole despite our individualistic bents.

I long to recapture my own domesticity amid the potty training, homeschooling, disciplining, and laundry pile ups.  I know this art will take intentional slowing down on my part, as well as intentional thought about how I want our home atmosphere to look and feel. It’s not about the keeping up with the Jone’s I’m interested in, it’s the comforting feeling of hospitality I long for my family and guests to feel when they step through my door. I’m excited to glean some valuable nuggets of truth in this area from Jane’s book. I hope this one stays on my shelf for years to come!

{Update :: The wonderful reason this book feels like a blog in print is because Jane actually has the most wonderful, beautiful blog right here in this cyber world. It is called yarnstorm and is just lovely. Please, go check it out!!! Plus, the book is turning out fabulous. The perfect read to take slowly in bits over sips of coffee during those rare free moments.}

Orange Clove Winter Stove Top Potpourri

 

One of my favorite smells in the world is that classic cinnamon spice aroma that permeates the winter season. Most of us modern day Americans run to the store and purchase our Fabreeze or Glade cinnamon plug-ins. Some of us might even splurge on more pricey Scentsy warmers. But my favorite classic is the simple orange clove stove top winter potpourri.

This works especially well in a synergistic no-waste seasonal way as part of your kitchen clean-up. Winter is the traditional time for citrus to be in season and on sale. With a 4 pound bag of oranges at $1.49 a bag, who isn’t going to eat as many as will drip down their chin? So you are in your kitchen cutting up oranges for the kids lunch. What to do with the orange peels?

There is always the classic churn them in your disposal method. A wonderful natural cleaner for your disposal and sink pipes. But a better, more wintery way, is to simmer them on the stove top with some water, whole cloves and cinnamon sticks. (Stock up on them when they are half price in after Christmas sales…trust me, they will still be good when the next Christmas comes around!)

Ohhhh…the aroma! Just do as I say, not as I do. Use a bigger pot. There is nothing worse then your husband coming to you wanting to know what that burning smell is only to find your water simmered out and your cinnamon sticks are burning! Big pot + lots of water = lots of yummy smelling, house warming goodness! Enjoy.

Large Family Chores: Mopping

I’ve been reading a wonderful resource lately…

Kim Brennenam’s Large Family Logistics (visit her blog here).

The book is good for me. Most is common sense and stuff I’ve heard or already knew but the key to this book is how she takes all that knowledge and brings it together into a workable solution for your family. Kim has 9 kids, homeschools, and lives on a working farm. Her similar interests means she is a woman I can glean from…especially being a woman of God who puts that above all else and wonderfully shows how to put it above all else in your own life in spite of a large family that produces daily chaos and mess. This has been sobering and refreshing for me all at the same time.

Today we are practicing one of her tips: Listening to audio books while mopping.

With six little kids 9 and under, our floors are filthy no matter how many times a day we sweep. I even try to spot mop after every meal to keep things manageable. Six little feet drag dirt, sand and grass onto the floor daily. Six little mouths miss food as it falls into puddles of stuck-on gunk on our floor.

So today we put on a story, got out six rags, made our own floor cleaner, put the baby in the play pen and set to work. The kitchen smells lemony and wonderful. While they have not perfected the art of mopping, it is MUCH cleaner than it was before and there was no complaining or grumbling…just giggling while they worked on their chore. I think I will use this tactic for other once-a-week chores!

What are we listening to today?

Ivy and Bean

 

A good story for Halloween and one of my children’s favorites!

How are we cleaning our floor?

• scoop of baking soda
• splash of vinegar
• squirt of dish soap
• sprinkle of essential oils: lemon and rosemary

Mix in a bowl with warm/hot water and deep clean, disinfect your floor.

Happy Mopping!

Canning No-Chunks, Kid-Friendly Strawberry Jam

Mmmmm…..

I’m sitting here smelling strawberries simmering down on the stove top. There is no other smell like it in the world. I can only describe it as scrumptiously heavenly. The childhood memories it evokes…grandma’s house, strawberry shortcake dolls, summer playtime, childhood foraging…is probably as strong as the deliciousness of the smell. And today it reminded me that I had taken some previous pictures of canning strawberries and forgot to post about them.

My strawberry jam is kid-friendly…by that I mean no chunks!!! You know how texture-oriented kids can be. But the best part about this jam is its versatility in my kitchen. Not only is it good on PB & J sandwiches, biscuits, or morning toast, we also use it on pancakes, in crepes, and as our natural sweetener for homemade yogurt and ice cream. The no chunks translates well to all other applications making them kid-friendly as well. So I’ve tweaked the original recipe which I swiped from the book Jams and Preserves under Classic Strawberry Jam (lovingly given to me as a gift from my mother in law) and have made it my own.

I’m not going to go into all the canning process…you can read about that in any good canning book or visit Freshpreserving.com. I’m just going to share the process of my recipe. And, I must note, this jam is ideally made with strawberries that are locally in season where you live…not the grocery store chain variety. But, I will sheepishly admit, mine are made with the grocery store variety due to price prohibitions. I am taking baby steps to that local, food-sustainable living thing but that is not the baby step I am on. I buy my strawberries when they are in season and go on sale for 99 cents per pound. That makes canning them economically work for me. Canning is cheaper than store bought jam and avoids that nasty high fructose corn syrup…the greater of two evils at the moment. (My cost is about $2 per pint jar. I try to buy my sugar on sale too.) And yes, I know strawberries is one of the dirty dozen yet I also can’t afford grocery store organic variety. So you work with what you have. This I will garauntee  you…it will still be the best tasting strawberry jam you’ve ever eaten! My kids won’t eat any other variety.

Now…on to making jam!

Step 1 ~ Get all your equipment ready to go.

Step 2 ~ Wash your fruit thoroughly. I use about 4-6 one pound containers.

Step 3 ~ Cut the tops off your strawberries (a steak knife works great for this), cut away any bruises, and halve or quarter. I know, I know…what a waste…use a strawberry huller! A) I don’t have one. B) I’m lazy. I put my diced strawberries straight into the pot I’m going to cook them in. One less bowl to wash. Did I mention I’m lazy?

Step 4 ~ Compost your strawberry tops (or let your little ones play garden with them!) and rinse and recycle your containers. (See…those tops didn’t go to waste. They are soil builders…yeah, soil builders!)

Step 5 ~ Dice up (with skin on) into 1/4 inch pieces 2 granny smith apples. This creates natural pectin. Have you seen the price of pectin? Outrageous. With kids we always have apples on hand. You can make your own pectin which I’d like to try some year…not this year. You can also use rhubarb if you have it available. It is the in-season fruit to use but I never have it on hand.

Step 6 ~ Add a splash or two of lemon juice (acidity helps with preservation) and simmer the whole thing over medium heat for about 20 minutes…or until berries collapse. Take the opportunity to clean your kitchen while inhaling this oh so yummy aroma. Or blog like I am. You know…whatever.

Step 7 ~ Blend your berries in a blender, food processor or with an immersion wand. Just a quick blend will do. This helps further mix that apple in with the berries and obliterates the chunks making it kid-friendly.

Step 8 ~ As you add it back to your pot, measure it. Then add 1 and 2/3 cup sugar for ever 2  cups of strawberry liquid gold. You don’t have to be super precise with this part. Ball park it.

Step 9 ~ Simmer again for 15-20 minutes. Skim off the scum. This helps the jelly to be clear, not cloudy. I don’t know if this is kosher or not but, yes, it is okay to lick the scum spoon. It tastes heavenly and why let a good thing go to waste?

Step 10~ After about 15 minutes check temperature with a thermometer. If it is just at 220 (setting point) then you are ready to can. You can do the gel method test but I’ve never been good at this and ended up way over-cooking my jam so I just stick with a concrete temp. Allow to cool on stove top about 10 minutes and skim again.

Step 11 ~ Ladle into jars with a canning funnel. Make sure to wipe rims clean and check for air bubbles. Lid jars with new lids…learned this the hard way! Although, I’ll be checking out these new reusable canning lids soon! If you have a jar that is only half full then allow that one to cool instead of canning and use first (refrigerate).

Step 12 ~ Water bath can in boiling water for 10-15 minutes (start timer after your water comes back to boil when putting jars into the water).

Step 13 ~ Turn off heat and allow to sit for 10 minutes or so. Take out with canning tongs and move to cooling rack. Allow to completely cool before putting away. Remember to check for proper sealing. If one didn’t seal right, just stick that one in the fridge and use first.

This makes between 2-4 pints.

Step 14 ~ Enjoy for lunch on fresh homemade bread and stirred into plain yogurt. Use again on biscuits at dinner because it was so good that you thought that making breakfast for dinner was a good idea. Plus, you were too tired after canning to think of a clever dinner.

Homemade Baby Food

It’s that time again. Little guy is getting bigger and his appetite is increasing. Time to start  putting aside some baby food.

Sure, I could go to the store and pick up some food. Seems pretty cheap in a jar. Seems to be nutritionally sound…just some fruits and veggies, water, and ascorbic acid. They even carry the organic stuff so why not?

I’ve done both ways, to be honest. And, yes, it’s easy and convenient to go to the store. But it’s also easy and OH SO MUCH CHEAPER and nutritionally fresh to do it yourself at home. The easiest way…work it into what you’re already doing in the kitchen.

Making supper for the family? Throw on a pot of extra veggies for the baby.

Doing dishes at lunch? Simmer down some fruit for the baby.

Passing out bananas at breakfast? Mash down a half for the baby.

Easy as pie.

• Cook your veggies or fruit how you would normally. (They say steam is the best but I don’t have a steamer so boil, simmer or roast it is.)
• Season with just a touch of salt or cinnamon…not too much. (They say no seasoning…baby doesn’t know anyway. But you DO want him to like it right? Have you ever tasted green beans without salt? Yuck. Just no butter or fats yet.)
• Strain.
• Puree in a blender or food processor with just a touch of the cooking liquid. Really pureed for 6-9 months. Still a bit chunky for 9-12 months.
• Cool for about 15 minutes.
• Freeze in ice cube trays.
• Store in labeled freezer bag.
• Thaw in fridge or reheat in microwave.

I also add a bit of baby cereal to my recipes after it has cooled. This adds that little extra carbohydrate and saves me from having to feed him two things.

And for you newbies out there…

Here is a fabulous site called Nurture Baby with everything you’ll ever need to know.

Homemade Green Beans for Baby ~ 

• 1 16oz bag frozen green beans = $.87
• Makes 7-14 portions = .12 cents for 7 portions

Store-bought Baby Green Beans ~

• .59 per jar = $4.13 for 7 portions

Now just think of the savings when you upgrade to the number 3 jars!

Garage Sale Blessings

I have continually found that when you pray before embarking on a shopping trip of any nature, the Lord will tend to bless you in ways you couldn’t have imagined before starting. As weekly blessings tend to go, this past week was a biggie! With the garage sale behind me I am finding places for our new things and realizing how amazingly God provides in one day.

Birthday Money = $125 – $11.00 kids allowance = $114

135 Blessings 

Blessings #422 ~ 557

Most Lucrative Find ~

• 8 brand new Chinese prefolds for a quarter each!!!!!
• 2 brand new Lands End dresses, one for Ivy and one for Delilah (these are our favorite dresses for the girls…high quality soft cotton that have endured all kinds of stains, washings, and being passed down through 3 girls)

Baby Gear ~

• 1 Bouncer for baby
• 2 extra teethers for a baby who bites more than all our other children combined!

~ Clothes ~

 

For Baby Eli ~

• 2 summer onesies
• 2 T-shirts
• 3 pair of winter pants
• 4 winter pajama sleepers
• 1 long sleeve onesie (yes, it does say “I’m woolly cute”!)
• 1 pair beginning walking shoes
• 1 medium cloth diaper cover

For Ivy ~

• 2 pair of super cute polka dot shorts
• 5 pair soft cotton summer shorts (great for potty training or pajamas)
• 1 cotton nightgown
• 1 winter hoodie sweater
• 2 overnight training pants

 

For Delilah ~

• 1 soft cotton summer shorts
• 1 pair mary jane shoes for next winter
• 1 pair summer sandals for next summer

For Luc ~

• 3 soft cotton summer shorts (for day or night wear)

For Lily ~

• 1 winter pajama pants
• 6 soft cotton summer shorts (for day or night wear)
• 1 winter sweater

For Gabe ~

• 1 athletic sport pants
• 2 soft cotton summer shorts (for day or night wear)
• 3 T-shirts
• 1 short-sleeve church shirt

For Mom ~

• 2 summer T-shirts
• 6 new cardio-strength training DVD’s (one with the promise of defying gravity of which my now-over-35-metobolic body is defying!)
• 1 new diaper bag/purse

And the surprise we found in that new bag ~

To which Lily confiscated the Hello Kitty Lipgloss, Vanilla perfume, and notepad and Lilah took the mittens and necklace.

In the Home ~

• A single shabby chic frame
• 1 Full size flannel florel bed set for the girls bed this winter (we only had boy colors last year from switching around beds)
• 1 4-set napkins (eventually I’d like enough to replace paper towels)

In the Kitchen ~

• 12 glass ramekins of which we will use for child-size soup, fruit, or ice cream servings and which fit perfectly on our child-size plates.
• 1 bread guide w/electronic slicer (The slicer is a bonus. I already have a great bread knife but have had my eye out for a guide for over a year to make our homemade bread more kid-friendly.)
• 2 Easter cookie cutters, 2 Christmas cookie cutters
• 1 Bacon Press (I’ve always wanted one of these! They are very farm-girlish…now I just need that side of pork!)
• 1 bread pan (because I do my bread in 2 week batches)
• 2 cookbooks with recipes for scratch cooking and using seasonal veggies:

 

~ The Home Book of French Cookery

 ~ The Farmers’ Almanac Cook Book

 

Indulgences ~

• 1 My Little Pony House with ponies and accessories (Ours broke this past winter and is now discontinued. Our girls play with these ponies daily!)
• 1 Wooden Tool Set (for Luc who has been asking for one since his birthday in January)
• 1 fairy ballet costume (because you can never have enough!)
• Zoe Girl CD for my Lily-bear who loves to dance
• Veggie Tales: The Wonderful Wizard of Ha’s DVD

~ Homeschool ~

 ~ $5 Bookshelf ~

Manipulatives ~

• 1 Gear Puzzle
• 1 Counting Puzzle (with 3 possible ways to solve the puzzle!)

Phonics & Writing ~

• A set of Phonics Readers (will go great with our Bob books)
• 2 Dry Erase Tracing Alphabet Pads (one for Luc and Lilah)
• A Dry Erase Animal/Alphabet Tracing book

History ~

• 1 Discover Ancient Egypt Activity Book
• Smelly Old History Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Your Way Through The Past: Roman Aromas (this one should be super fun!)
• 3 United States History Time Traveler Series ~ Early Explorers, Puritans and Pilgrims, Westward Movement (super excited about these!)
• The Farm: Life in Colonial Pennsylvania
• George Washington’s Breakfast by Jean Fritz
• Magic Tree House: Tonight on the Titanic
• What to Do About Alice: How Alice Roosevelt broke The Rules, charmed The World, and drove her Father Teddy CRAZY! (my favorite living book I found)

Geography ~

• Rehema’s Journey: A Visit to Tanzania
• A Country Far Away

 

Social Studies ~

• Tonka: Building the Skyscraper
• Tonka: At the Auto Repair Center
• All Aboard Fire Trucks

Nature Study ~

• A flower press (of which I will be replacing the homemade one that I made for myself in high school…finally one with clamps and a guidebook for the kids!)
• 1 extra clipboard (we use these for sketching outside)

Science ~

• Eyewitness Rocks & Minerals (a field guide that will see a lot of use this summer!)
• Birds to Color (Reproducibles opposite a page of startling realistic paintings)
• Sugaring by Jessie Haas
• Animals in Action
• I Am a Leaf
• You Can be a Woman Zoologist
• I See Animals Hiding by Jim Arnosky
• Animal Trackers: In Woods & Forests
• An Educational Read & Color Book of Planets
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• Stranger in the Woods
• Actual Size by Steve Jenkins (fun facts of animal science dealing witj size – great book!)

The Classics ~

• The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
• Chanticleer and the Fox (based on Chaucer’s Caterbury Tales)
• Tomie dePaola’s Strega Nona’s Harvest
• The original The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (started this book from the library and lost it…then found it and was maxed on my time out…can’t wait to finish…is full of note-worthy quotable quotes that deserve their very own post!)

The Bible ~

• Memory Bible: The Sure-Fire, Fun Way to Learn 52 Bible Verses (narrated by Kirk Cameron and filled with all the bible songs I learned as a kid)
• Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (filled with all the liturgical season songs…great to go along with our lent and advent studies)

Crafts ~

• 1 huge bundle of craft paper (construction and cardstock) for $1
• Shapes To Cut Out, Color and Make (Reproducible shape templates great for a rainy day or a geometry math lesson!)

 

For Fun Books ~

• I Spy Lightning in the Sky

• Roald Dahl’s Even More Revolting Recipes (fun kid-friendly recipes from all his books…Gabe checked this one out at the library before and loved it.)
• My Little Pony book with audio CD
• Dora and Blues Clues, a few board books, and a new (not-tattered) Goodnight Moon (Ivy is in heaven!)
• The Biggest Book of Knock Knock Jokes Ever (in hopes that my 3 and 5 year old start telling jokes that make sense!)

Pretty good haul, don’tcha think?

Joining Multitude Mondays at A Holy Experience

My Favorite Birthday Tradition {a.k.a. The Top 10 Things a Homeschool Mom Looks for in a Garage Sale}

HAPPY 36th BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!

My life is full and sweet and filled with my favorite people. My Lord Jesus Christ woes me daily. There is no other gift that I need or want.

But there is one tradition that is a sweet spot for me every year ~ attending that once-a-year neighborhood garage sale in my in-laws subdivision. Every year it falls on that first week of June. With my birthday being June 2nd, I get that wonderful grown-up gift of cash in the mail…the perfect currency for taking to a garage sale.

I used to garage sale all the time when I was little. I grew up with a thrifty mom and she passed that love down to me. Now with my own six kids, attending garage sales is a lot harder yet it benefits us as a family more then ever.  I love the hunt. It’s like following a treasure map. You’ll never know what the new year will bring but you do know that you will walk away with something just right for your family needs.

So what does a homeschool mom of six children look for in a garage sale?

1. Clothes ~ All shapes in sizes…this is my main one-stop shop per year for new clothes.
2. Shoes ~ We wear them out fast here playing daily outside and growing like weeds.
3. Books ~ You knew this one was going to be on the list right? You would be surprised at how much of our homeschool library of living books has come from this yearly garage sale. I write down which series I’m looking for and which books I already have and keep that list with me in my purse. I am very intentional about what books I’m looking for each year.
4. Manipulatives ~ People are always getting rid of puzzles and games that their kids no longer play with. One year I got a Snap Circuits kit for $1.50! Have you seen what that game retails for? We have been using that set for 4 years and it is still going!
5. Baby Gear ~ This year I’m looking particularly for a stationary play bouncer. Eli is 6 months and wants to be with me while cooking dinner. He is too big to sit on the counter now. My old bouncer broke in the move and the goodwill isn’t allowed to sell them anymore. This will be my big purchase this year.
6. Toys ~ Not just any toys. I am very specific about this too. While the kids are allowed to take along their own money and buy that one toy they just can’t live without (i.e. the toy that will be broken within  a day), I look for toys to compliment the toy classics that we will have around for years ~ wooden blocks, Fisher Price Little People, Legos, Pretty Ponies, stuffed animals of favorite cartoon characters, etc. ~ or those toys that now have missing and broken pieces that your kids still love.
7. Picture Frames ~ Shabby chic mainly. My walls are  my only space where I can still decorate in my personal taste without little kids breaking things. And they are a perfect canvas for my true love of photography.
8. Furniture ~ mainly bookshelves or end tables that will replace non-stable ones that have worn their welcome.
9. Antique Surprises ~ Garage sales are full of these. Last year I walked away from a sale with 6 hand-embroidered lace pillow cases and one dresser runner for 10 cents a piece. I love them every time I wash and put a fresh one on the bed.
10. Alone Time ~ the gift that money can’t buy! This is my husband’s gift to me. He will be watching the kiddos at grandma’s house. Close enough for me to stop by and nurse the baby but far enough away for me to get one blessed day of being by myself. I’m really glad we don’t own a cell phone!

I’ll be back early next week to show you the stash of goodies! For now, I’m off to the library and park with my kiddos. And later my hubby is going to make me a red velvet birthday cake with cream cheese frosting and homemade ice cream in our new old-fashioned ice cream maker and a to-die-for Italian lasagna dinner. Happy Birthday to me!

Things Unseen…

Note ~ I wrote this post back in August of 2010. I think I meant to publish it or add a photo first before publishing. I’m not sure. But somehow it escaped posting and ended up sitting in my dashboard. While cleaning up I found it, reread and thought this is still just as important to me this day! Enjoy!

BLESSING # 421 ~ That He sees and that is enough

Wow…I am speechless as I read Ann’s lovely words, words that soothed my soul today. Our day was full and there is still more to do. I think about this blog often and have words in my head, sometimes even pictures on my camera. But time slips as my family priority intrudes and takes over. So, for now, I will give a glimpse of Ann’s insightfulness (PLEASE visit her site and read the rest…a balm for your day!) as I ponder my own priorities and the dark recesses of my heart.

Ann’s wise words:

Who can see the spelling lessons? The breakfast made this morning? The next chapter of The Yearling read, the last child rocked early in the morning, the prayers whispered in the middle of the morning? I try in a week and a lot may get done, but the right things?

I think how I want a crumbless, smudgeless, spotless house, a house with empty laundry baskets, empty sinks, empty garbage cans, with floors like mirrors and mirrors like water, and a pantry lined neat like books in the study and pies lining the counter like sweet children all in a row…

I want things seen.

The seen things can be idols…

Too often, sadly, I want product, others to see product, so they can see: I have worth. Stinking idols…

Again, today, I must: Slay the idol of the seen…

I’ll whisper the mantra that orders all priorities:

“Unseen. Things Unseen. Invest in Things Unseen.”

~ 2 Cor. 4:18

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

READ THE WHOLE THING HERE ~Thank you, Ann!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal ~ Fortified Goodness!

How to get a nine-year-old, always super hungry, growing boy who hates oatmeal to eat his oatmeal?

Why with chocolate, of course!

The thought came to me serendipitously while making No-bake Cookies. I had already been thinking about and experimenting with using more blackstrap molasses as a natural iron supplement in my baking. So oatmeal was already on my mind as I had made it using this potent old-fashioned goodie. But as I was baking cookies I thought, “If you added cocoa powder and peanut butter to your morning oatmeal, wouldn’t that taste similar to no-bake cookies?” Hmmm…

And, woila, it does! Even better, he loves it and asked for seconds (this coming from a boy who would rather starve then touch oatmeal).

But the best part is this ~

By making it with cocoa powder, blackstrap molasses, and peanut butter, I actually fortified it with all kinds of goodies!

Now most everyone knows the good-for-you properties of peanut butter but have you ever looked at the label of cocoa powder? ONE TABLESPOON yields 2 grams of fiber, 1 gram of protein and no sugar! Now combine that with the 15–20% of your daily iron, calcium and vitamin A, magnesium, copper, and potassium from ONE TABLESPOON of blackstrap molasses and you’ve got yourself a heaping bowl of nutritional brain food for the school day! And the peanut butter with a touch of cream (or whole milk) adds just enough fat to satisfy until lunchtime.

Here is my recipe which fed me and five children with a bit to spare.

• 2 1/2 cups oats
• twice the amount of water

Cook to desired consistency. Then add ~

• 2 T cocoa powder
• 2 T blackstrap molasses
• 2 T peanut butter
• a touch of cream or milk
• sugar to taste

Simply Doing It

Small steps towards simplicity…this is the challenge of the week from Elizabeth Foss. Small is the key word for me this week. Last week I mentioned how easy it is for me, the lover of plans, to get caught up in the planning and never in the doing. So this week I just spent the week doing.

This, for me, was no small feat. It required lots of praying and lots of nudging from the Holy Spirit. In the past I’ve always felt simplicity calling me to get rid of, strip bare as Elizabeth says. And that kind of simplicity definitely has its place especially if you are feeling suffocated by the clutter of your life, material and emotional. But this week was a new kind of simplistic discipline, if you will. Whenever I thought about doing something, if it was at all feasible in the moment, I just did it…right then. No planning. No procrastinating. No excusing.

This is how my week went…

• I simply changed one small chore around. Instead of redoing the chore wall chart, instead of fretting about planning on how to go about the change, I just made it. Right then that very day.
• I simply laid the baby down when he fell asleep from nursing. Then I went right to task doing one thing, anything that came to mind (usually dinner prep or a household chore), that I couldn’t do while nursing him.
• If there was a task that came to my mind that only took one minute (like as in a literal timed minute, i.e. bagging up the trash or sweeping up a bit of crumbs or wiping down a counter) I just stopped right then and simply did it.
• I simply expected the interruptions and disappointments to come my way. And when they inevitably did I remembered that I had the Holy Spirit living inside of me and, therefore, could choose to accept and walk through instead of react.
• I simply read to the little ones without planning a reading list or making it match any sort of unit study. I just read when I thought about it or at lunch or in the morning or in the evening. Even if it was just one book. I simply read.
• I simply did one computer task (answer an email or send an encouraging note, quickly organize a few homeschooling files, update the checkbook, etc.) before playing on the computer (see blogging!).
• I simply kept my promises. If I promised to make hot tea when we got home and then was reminded later by little ones after I had already forgotten, I simply stopped what I was doing and went to keep that promise weather I felt like it or not.

…and my house was cleaner then it ever has been. Dinner arrived on the table every night on time without the melodrama of 5 p.m. meltdowns. Kids got one on one time. Buried school issues got dealt with. I did not linger too long on the computer. I felt peace, calm. And, at the end of the day, isn’t that really what it’s about?

Linking up with Elizabeth Foss at In the Heart of My Home with Small Steps Together

I’m taking back my house…

After running my hand over a sticky, grubby table for the millionth time…

After having little random who-knows-what-it-is-but-it-feels-gross-stuck-on-the-bottom-of-my-sock experiences walking through the kitchen…

After sitting on chairs that have a layer of goo perpetually coating them…

After finding too many dirty cups or silverware hiding under table legs…

After getting so tired of nagging and nagging and disciplining and nagging and more disciplining to stay on task…

I am officially taking back the clean-up-the-table-and-chairs-and-sweep-the-floor-after-meals chore from my seven year old daughter!

She has now been reassigned to folding and putting away the laundry after every meal. (And if you don’t think there won’t be a basket to fold after every meal, you are sadly mistaken my dear friend!!!) 

Our house is once again blessed. My kitchen is blessedly clean and I am not having anxiousness about the summer coming and dealing with bugs in the country. My tone is blessedly more gentler as it is much easier to have seven year old expectations with laundry folding (don’t care if they’re put away a bit wrinkled as long as they make it to the right drawer and our laundry isn’t stacking up by the hamperfuls) rather then kitchen clean-up. Her time is blessed because she has more of it. A win win for everyone!

Mary and Martha, grace and smores cookies…

It’s been one of those days where just the basic necessities of life get done…laundry, dishes, cooking, baths, haircuts. I did get through two bins of clothes but really this is all I had the energy for. I was up from 4:30 – 6:30 AM with the little one so my movements were slow and I made them count.

I threw porkchops in the crockpot while making up some more granola for breakfast. It was nice to not even have to think about supper as that’s when I feel most worn down these days.

What the Lord has shown me this past week, despite my drive to push and get everything done for this move, is that His grace will sustain me if only I will be a Mary, not a Martha. It took a severe cold to make me stop and sit and stop doing. Instead I finished up Crazy Love and Holiness for Housewives. Fifteen minutes here and there between household duties to just sit until I felt strong enough to get back up and keep going. I felt filled up with His grace and love and mercy and compassion. It didn’t mean I still didn’t have to wash diapers or do dishes or cook for my family or clean the kitchen or give baths or nurse in the middle of the night. My exhaustion did not go away. But my disposition changed to one of allowing Him to mold me to His image…allowing a bit of Jesus living to touch the lives of my family.

And because of this I was able to pray and not only finish the dishes but find grace enough to bake for my family. Adam is now sick on the couch and I am usually too busy with littles to help take care of him much. But my prayer was that even though I was tired that I could push through and show him grace too. Dinner was delicious and so easy that it will be back on my menu rotation again. For sweets I kept thinking smores…googled…came upon this recipe and baked. Oh how heavenly a bit of smores cookie is! (Or, as Gabe calls them, smookies!) And, my tastiest treat, was Adam commenting on how well I was taking care of him as I delivered his cookies alongside a steaming mug of caramel apple cider.

“Are you feeling all right?” he says, “you never take care of me like this when I’m sick!” Immediately I remembered my prayer, smiled and thanked God again for His grace that overfloweth through me to another in such a simple way. How much better this feels then to lose myself in a novel, or television, or the computer, by myself in my own selfish pursuit of tired escapism.

A way in which the wrong sort of escape shows up against the right is in the matter of the effect it produces afterward. This is abundantly obvious in the case of the extremes: self-indulgence leaves a sense of disgust, while perfect correspondence with the grace of the moment brings liberty and confidence in God…If we were to realize that God is our true rest, we would waste far less time running around looking for somewhere peaceful or pleasurable where we could throw off all our cares and enjoy ourselves.   ~Holiness for Housewives

And for any others out there ready to treat their family with a bit of grace today, here is that wonderful recipe brought to you from Baked Perfection. Enjoy! The only changes I made was using shortening for 1/2 the butter (always makes a cookie better!) and skipping the hershey’s bars…didn’t have them and don’t need them, regular chocolate chips work just fine. But, I must say, it’s really the graham crumbs that really make this cookie!

picture courtesy of Baked Perfection

S’mores Cookies – from blog: Baked Perfection
adapted from Make and Bake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 dash of cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups miniature chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

2 Hershey bars, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium bowl combine the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, salt, and dash of cinnamon. In a second larger bowl beat together the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes, and remove from the oven. Push 3 to 4 marshmallows and a few pieces of hershey bar into each cookies. Return to the oven and bake an additional 3-4 minutes until fully cooked. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”  ~Luke 10:38-42

Home Atmosphere

As I am packing up, decluttering, organizing and overall dreaming of how my new house will fit together ~ or how I want it to fit together ~ I am thinking a lot about home atmosphere. And while organizing my favorite blogs bookmarks I found this post that I meant to read on home atmosphere and culture which led to sharing this whole wonderful series with you. I think it a world of progress that is plowing forward we could all stand to step back a moment and remind ourselves that motherhood and family is a blessing…a calling…a ministry, not one more job that is thrust upon us in this hectic world.

So please, click on the button above, scroll down to the bottom for the first in the series, grab a cup of coffee or tea, turn off your mute button and allow the music to soothe you as His words minister to you as a manager of your home. Have a great day everyone!!!

A wise woman builds her home but the foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.

Feeding the Soul

Whenever I am in the middle of making tough life decisions, it is easy to get bogged down in my own thoughts and have no clear direction on where the Lord wants to take me. I find during these moments that I tend to plead in prayer for anything to soothe that anxious spirit I have. That has been my life this week. And the Lord answered faithfully yesterday. Not with a solution to my problem, but with a soothing of my soul…a break… a rest in Him. And oh how I rested and breathed deep and drank Him in.

It came not in a verse from His word, nor from an encouraging word from friend or article, but merely from a change in weather. Hot and humid is the calling card for weather in August for Nebraska. But yesterday a cold front moved through and, even though I knew it was coming, I was not prepared for the overwhelming wash of refreshment it gave me.

Here I was cooking dinner (a rotisserie chicken) and decided to open the windows as the kids were finally done picking up the basement and wanted to go outside to play as promised. As my house opened up this wave of clean air came rolling through. It is a smell I can’t even begin to describe in words because there are none that would do it justice. But as it rolled through the house mingling with the smell of roasting chicken, my anxiousness dissipated. My heart rejoiced and all I could do was mutter, “Thank you, thank you, thank you…” over and over under my breath as I peeled potatoes.

I could hear the children outside playing with their daddy.

Imaginations churning as nature flourished all around.

I looked around to a picked up house with no dishes in the sink.

With a fresh pile of living books from the library just begging to be poured over.

I smelled dinner being prepared for a table where we could break bread together.

I walked outside to look over the garden (sorely underattended due to the hot weather and I not wanting to partake in it) and found broccoli finally sprouting despite this little moth’s  propensity on destroying it.

We found an extra pumpkin hidden among the leaves.

Apples are hanging heavy on the branches beckoning thoughts of apple butter and applesauce to come.

Ivy had discovered the neighbor girl and the first inklings on how to comunicate and make friends.

I felt a kick and looked down to realize that new life is almost here…and that I couldn’t see my feet anymore!

I walked to the house seeing the first real spider web built as an ode to fall coming soon sang out through the sun’s reflection, which also reminded me to feel blessed that we had the money to spray the inside of our house this fall.

And I walked back in the kitchen through a mud-covered patio door knowing the kids would need a quick dunk before dinner and not even minding.

After our delicious meal we were able to walk together to the park and come home to daddy making popcorn balls (oh man, what a treat!) and shakes.

We slept with the windows opened and I fell asleep inspired to wash the sheets the next day.

I awoke to a cool house, littles wanting to snuggle.

We watched the school bus come take the other kids away as we snuggled in P.J.’s, Lily still asleep, me slowly contemplating what to make for breakfast and feeling so blessed to lead the life we do.

We enjoyed hot sweet biscuits with homemade strawberry jam and eggs and leisurely started school at 10 AM with time for a play-outside break for the kids before lunch and a little time to actually write here (precious of late) to spread my joy and enjoy my first cup of coffee for the day.

And enjoyed our first picnic lunch outside in over three months!

And, again, all I could utter was, “thank you, thank you, thank you…” over and over to my Lord and Saviour who knew exactly, to the uttermost detail what the longing of my heart was and, as my loving Father, took care of that need.

So today I urge you all, rest in Him. Let Him find your joy spot.  It may not answer a problem you are going through but it will surely bring you peace and a light yoke for the day!

Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Matthew 7: 9, 11

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Matthew 11: 28-30

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.