Ten on Tuesday

1. Holy week was so much more poignant for me this year.  It always matters and means something to me and I find that each year I grow in my adulthood Holy week takes on new meanings and speaks to me in different ways.  This year God has been working on me so much through my health trial and suffering that I felt in a SMALL way I could relate to a teeny tiny amount of suffering Jesus went through.  Oswald Chambers once said, "You can't be crucified IN Christ if you haven't walked that path to Calvary." This hit home to me this year.  I feel like in a small way I have walked maybe a couple feet of that path to Calvary through my health trial and suffering the past 7 years (but especially the last year.)

2. We did our usual traditions of Resurrection Eggs along with reading Benjamin's Box The Story of the Resurrection Eggs. We did our Triumphal Entry reenactment, He's Alive Buns and dying Easter eggs along with our Maundy Thursday foot washing ceremony and Good Friday church Service. This year we also started something new. We made a poster all about Holy week.  There were eight squares on the poster and each day resembled something Jesus went through during the week: Palm Sunday, The Cleansing of the Temple, The questioning of Jesus, The anointing of Jesus, Maundy Thursday/Last Supper, The crucifixion/Good Friday, The Tomb and the Resurrection. We read the bible passage each day that pertained and then the boys had to draw something from the scripture on the poster to remember the day.  It was fun at the end of the week to have a memory poster of Jesus' last week - Holy week and see the kid's artwork.. I got the idea from this book: Christ In Easter: a Family Celebration

We had brown eggs this year to dye and they came out jewel colored!  They were my favorite eggs yet.

3. On Easter day we had a first!  In the evening, after our late Easter lunch and annual egg hunt we went out (after dessert too) and had a second dessert.  We roasted marshmallows around my Dad's fire pit.  It was a beautiful sunset and such a nice time.  I felt blessed I got to see the sun rise that day and the sunset that day!  I was bushed the next day though!

4. I made this Pavlova for Easter dessert again this year.  Let me tell you - IT WAS TORTURE NOT BEING ABLE TO EAT IT! Yes, I am screaming that.  Holidays are THE hardest being on these crazy diets.  If I was on the Full GAPS Diet it would be different but I am not.  Being around all the Easter food that day was extremely hard.  I wont lie! I did deal with quite a bit of discouragement throughout the day in regards to food.

Seriously decadent!  Soft yet crunchy pillowy meringue crust filled will lemon curd whipped cream and topped with strawberries.  OH MY GOODNESS! Yum.

5. Thanks to a good friend, I found a source for raw milk. You know the kind that is not ultra-pasteurized and homogenized?  The kind that has good enzymes and building blocks of life still alive in it.  I prayed for a while to find a farmer to supply us with this at a good price.  God answered my prayers.  We now pick up our milk organic, raw milk every Thursday from our farmer friend.  It is so cool too because he is going to supply us with farm fresh organic eggs AND grass fed beef with the fat and bones all for an excellent price.  I am SO thankful!  He is the nicest guy too.  He even said that he would hatch us chickens if we want to start having our own.  Maybe in the near future! I am also looking into beekeeping.  We can't have that here at our house but we can at my parents.  Honey is getting expensive due to the bee shortage.

6. I made raw milk sour cream and raw milk yogurt with some of the milk we got.  I am still trying to perfect it so when I do I will be posting about it.  It did turn out good and the boys loved the fruit sweetened one I made with strawberries and pineapple for them. They have it sometimes in the morning for breakfast.

6. Our annual Homeschool Encouragement night - Curriculum night is coming up and I am so excited. I am a curriculum junkie.  It is so much fun to see them in person and get excited about what I am going to use in the fall for school. 

7. I have been conflicted lately.  There are seriously so many books I want to read.  I keep checking them out from the library and forming stacks all over the place for me to read and I end up playing a tug of war with scrapbooking, computer stuff (like blogging), and reading.  I want to make more time to read though and it WILL happen. I did just read this book about Oswald Chambers though and it was enlightening.  Did you know that he never actually wrote a book?  All of his books were done by his wife after his untimely death at a young age (in his 40's.)  She compiled a lot of his writings and sold them as books. Thanks to her, we have My Utmost for His Highest and many other of his writings compiled to read and learn more about Christ.  His faith was amazing.

8. Friends have told me numerous times that they have tried to comment on my blog and had a problem.  I am curious as to how many people have this problem so if you read this post would you mind commenting on the post in the comments section below so I can try and figure out what the problem is?  Also if you could tell me if your comment came from a mobile device or a home computer it would help.  Thanks!

9. I am itching to update my blog. An entire re-design, probably not on blogger either.  My own actual website.  The problem is finding the time to do it.  I know right now it can't happen because of everything going on but maybe over the summer?  I will be praying about when and wait on the Lord's timing to see if that is something I should be spending my time on.

10. God has answered my prayers in finding some support in regards to my health walk.  I have had to navigate this entire 7 years almost alone.  What I mean by that is that I knew no one who had the same convictions of treating naturally and was going through similar health issues to go through this along side me.  I have certainly had A LOT of support in getting me through (thankfully) but no one that can wholeheartedly relate on the thyroid struggles, diet struggles, emotional struggles, financial struggles, doctor struggles and more.  God answered my prayers and  gave me some friends interested in doing the GAPS diet and dealing with several of the same issues.  We met for the first time last Saturday and I am so excited to have a our little mini support group. It is, and already has been, such a blessing. 

11. (Bonus) Today we were doing a project for History  and we had to paint Clay Pots like they did in ancient Greece.  We went to the store and bought pots and I had paint.  The boys and I got started and I told Cody sit in his chair correctly otherwise you will knock your pot off and break it.  Well what do you think happened?  Yup!  You're right, he broke it when he was almost done.  Oh, the crocodile tears.  I felt so bad for him.  For his disobedience he got the natural consequence - no pot.  Then shortly after Corbin was almost done with his and he got it too close to the edge of the table and dropped and broke his TOO!  AGGGHHH!  Tears everywhere.  Corbin was so sweet though, he said I will buy Cody another pot and himself one too if I would take them.  So sure enough we went back to the store and got more.  They redid them.  The first ones were better because they took more time but at least they got to have something to show for their time and I think they did a good job. What an ordeal.  I had fun painting mine though and didn't break it! :-) Aren't you proud of me?  We are going to plant some herbs in these outside after I clear coat them.

I hope you have a wonderful week and look forward seeing your comments (or not- if it doesn't work) to see if I have blog comment problems.

~Blessings~

Christmas Favorites and Quirks

We all kind of do Christmas our own way don't we?  Some people celebrate on Christmas Eve with a big dinner and family.  Some people celebrate Christmas day.  Some enjoy the tradition of Santa Claus and some fill children's boots on December 6 to remember the goodness of St. Nick. As a family, we celebrate advent throughout the whole month of December and remember the real reason we even have Christmas which is the birth of Jesus Christ. They all certainly make good memories and do get passed on from generation to generation.

We had a lot of traditions around holidays growing up.  I don't know that my parents purposed to make traditions, it just happened.  We did mostly the same things for each holiday and we got used to it, liked it and then counted on it. Then these things became traditions.  Out of those family memories came some of my Christmas favorites and Christmas quirks.

Quirk: LOVE Christmas music but like to save it to start after Thanksgiving.  It is fun to blast it in the house and dance around.

Favorite Song(s): Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant, One Small Child by the Tommy Coomes Band sung by Marsha Skidmore

Quirk: Song I can't stand hearing around Christmas, Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses (there are a few more too.)

Favorite: A big Christmas dinner on Christmas day.

Quirk: In keeping with tradition, dinner isn't the same if we don't have prime rib with horseradish for the meat and twice baked potatoes.

Favorite: Mail is so much more fun during this season.  I love getting Christmas cards, especially the ones with the pictures and letters.

Quirk: I always feel sad when a card we sent out gets returned to us because of wrong address.

Favorite: At dinner (or advent devotional time) each night we pray for each family we get a card from in the mail that day.

Quirk: I don't frequent stores that don't allow or say "Christmas."  After all if it weren't for Christmas they wouldn't be getting the extra business during the season. Being "PC" is SO not my thing.

Favorite childhood tradition: We (my brother and I) used to get one "big" gift each year.  Instead of just giving it to us my parents would plan a gift hunt for us.  Each clue was a Bible verse.  One led us to another and to another until we landed upon the big gift! It was so much fun.

Quirk: I still love to go get a REAL Christmas tree. Making a day of finding the perfect three is a great memory and the pine smell is so nice in the house.

Favorite: I love to give the kids an ornament each year so that when they have their own trees later in life they have some ornaments to start with.  Ones that have special memories.

Favorite: I love to make a big night of decorating the tree with Christmas music, hot buttered apple cider or chocolate and yummy goodies. I always remember as a child someone would inevitably step on one of the Christmas tree lights as we were trying to put them up!

Quirk: We don't (and never will) decorate the tree or house before Thanksgiving. It doesn't feel right.

Favorite: We always got to open one gift on Christmas eve.

Favorite Christmas treats to make (we make them every year): Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies, Gingersnaps, Lemon Bars, Pecan Pie, Chex Muddy Buddies, and frosted sugar cookies which got dropped for a while but have since been reinstated since having children of my own. I can now make all of these Gluten free too!

Quirk: We always give our pets a gift.  I used to love to watch my dog open his present on Christmas.  I remember one time we even got my pet hamster a Christmas gift!

What are your family traditions and quirks? I would love to hear them.  They are so much fun!

I hope you are feasting on joy this Christmas season!

~Merry Christmas~

Happenings this season

This is such a fun time of the year.  I thought I would share a few of the things we have been up too.

I made my first "roll" cake for Thanksgiving. It was a Gluten Free Pumpkin roll that was SO good.  I actually ate some and was tempted to eat the entire thing.  I want to make another one! When I served it, it was on a pretty fall platter and dusted with more powdered sugar.

Cody is in his big boy bed now.  He is very proud.  He has fallen out a few times but we have since remedied that.  Whew!  Such a rude awakening in the middle of the night for all of us.

Every year the kids get an ornament that symbolizes something in their year.  We gave them these the night we decorated the tree.  The festivities were complete with William Sonoma Peppermint Hot Chocolate and this year we had GF pumpkin roll and GF almond cookies along with the Hot Chocolate. I wished I could have all those sweets but did have some hot cocoa made with pure stevia. 

I always look so tired in these photos but that is because I am.  This day we went to church, took family photos, picked out our tree, decorated the house, did the ornaments gifts and decorated the tree. I was pooped!

Spent a day outdoors and time by the river. I got to have my SECOND cup of coffee in 5 months this day. MMMM.... it was so yummy.

We took a road trip and family vacation for one of Steve's long weekends.  It was so much fun and much needed. We enjoyed snow, rain, our hotel room and pool.  We played lots of games and did a lot of exploring and relaxing.  It was a beautiful time.

We did a new thing this year that was so much fun.  After our Sunday family dinner we (all three families and Grammi) decorated gingerbread together!  Each family had something different.  My parents had a gingerbread house.  My Aunt Uncle and Cousins had a gingerbread train and we decorated 4 huge gingerbread people.  We all had dessert and decorated together.  Loved it!

We have also been doing our Advent Devotional which is at the heart of the reason for the season. We look forward to it every night.

I can't wait for our break to be able to do some more of our traditions (like baking) and just do some plain ole' relaxing and playing with the kiddos! 

~Blessings~ 

Ten on Tuesday

1 ** I was making Gluten Free Banana Bread for my family last night, not me I can't have bananas until next year as they are on my severe intolerance list for ALCAT, and I got an egg with two yolks!  We have a neighbor with chickens who has been graciously sharing and the two yolker was one of them! Cool huh? The recipe I was using was from my Blackbird Bakery Gluten Free cookbook that I got at one of my favorite stores - Anthropologie.

2 ** Speaking of ALCAT, by the end of the week I will be on my 75th day of this wonderful (insert sarcastic roll of the eyes) elimination diet. I am more than half way through the first phase.  I have 20 days to go until I can start reintroducing my moderate intolerance foods!  That is a big milestone for me because this has been one of the toughest things I have ever done. I have until next March until I can start reintroducing my severe intolerance foods.

3 ** I purchased a new Bone China Tea set with inlaid real gold at Teavana.  I had some gifts cards and I love that store.  Their teas taste SO good and are all made from REAL fruit with no natural or artificial flavors.  They also tell you what teas are good for certain ailments like allergies, digestion, colds, etc.  There are even several teas that my kids love there.

4 **  I have been teaching preschool in our homeschool co-op since September.  It has been such a blessing.  To be able to see the Lord answer my prayers each and every Monday in giving me enough energy to serve and to get to know each of my 11 preschoolers.  They say the funniest things.  Cody even calls me "teacher."  I love to see their little personalities shine through in the projects that they do each week.  I can tell who the rule followers are, the rebels are, the detail oriented students and the free flowing. I just love them.

5 ** Organizing makes me feel so good.  In fact, I have to be careful not to make it an idol in my life.  It is easy for me to want everything to be just perfect when in reality it never will be.  That being said though I spent a whole day the other weekend going through Cody's room and some of Corbin's. When we first moved in I just kind of put stuff in places.  No rhyme or reason (well there was a system - sort of.)  Now though, everything has it's place, it mostly stays neat and tidy and Cody is able to find all of his things.  I also made a few bucks selling some stuff at the local consignment store.  SHHHH! Don't tell the boys.

6 ** Have you ever refilled inks for your printer?  Well I did recently. I was so excited because I was saving about $70-80 not having to buy new ink cartridges.  Bummer thing is that my printer gets errors now all the time because the code on the old cartridge is read by my printer saying it is low.  It keeps saying it is installed incorrectly and all kinds of stuff.  I am not sure my saving the money was worth all the hassle it has created.  The verdict is still out.

7 ** I have lost about 22 pounds in the last two months thanks to my wonderful (insert sarcastic roll of the eyes) ALCAT diet. I never thought I would complain about something like this because I could have always lost maybe a few pounds (about 10.)  Well now most of my wardrobe doesn't fit me and I am nearing the 100 lb mark.  NOT good!  I refuse to buy more clothes.  Maybe I will just have to be the saggy baggy elephant for a while until (hopefully) I gain my weight back or at least some of it. If I start feeling better maybe I can gain some muscle too with some exercise.

8 ** We have been doing our usual fall traditions around here: corn maze, pumpkin patch, hay rides, and apple picking (since we only ended up with ONE apple on our tree this year thanks to coddling moths.) It has been lots of fun.  Of course, I really enjoy the REAL fall weather where we can actually bundle up too.

Poor Cody had to be the "girl" in the photo op above.  Good thing he didn't know. Steve caught a frog while were apple picking.  I may be weird but I have always loved frogs.  I think they are so cool.

9 ** I got to do some canning over the weekend.  I made Apple Wedges with Cinnamon Red Hot syrup.  I can't have apples until next year but Corbin said they were yummy.  I can't wait to taste them.  Next up for canning this week: Curried Apple Chutney and Crock Pot apple butter.

10 ** I have been going through a fiery trial on patience lately.  Patience with my kids, my health, test results, solutions to test results, healing for my body, preparing food.  You name it - usually patience is written all over it. It is tough and I fail miserably most times.  I know I will continue to be tested until I pass and that is the hard part.  I can not do it on my own.  I can only do it through Christ who strengthens me.  His Strength is made perfect in my weakness.

11 *Bonus ** The thing I hear most often lately is "You look tired."  It is true I do look tired. My body is a mess but on the road to healing and recovery.  I really don't mind hearing it because it is true but I look forward to the day that I have that healthy glow again and look refreshed.  Lord willing.

~Blessings~



Harvest Fun

I must blog today.  The past four days has been full and fun and now it is all winding down.  I am very ready for a day just at home tomorrow. Today was "one of those days." I need to go back to a peaceful place!  That is why I am going to tell you about our "first day of fall festivities!"  It was such a peaceful day.  We had so much fun and it truly felt like fall to me.

Here we go....

First we made fall breakfast cookies and I found the recipe here.

The boys were very excited about these and so was I!  They made the house smell spicy and warm. MMMM....

They were healthy too!  Organic raw coconut, raw local honey, gluten free oats, and raisins just to name a few of the ingredients.

The boys devoured these.

After breakfast we got down to our crafting.  I chose to have them make Craft -Stick Scarecrows from Little Family Fun

Here is Cody staring his scarecrow.

Corbin gluing on hair.

Cody and his finished scarecrow.

Agggh! Scary!

Corbin wanted to make a mean scarecrow.

AGGGH! Scary!  Cody and I were being silly.

After craft time I had an abundance of Roma tomatoes I had to deal with.  I have been reading an awesome cookbook: The Homeade Pantry - 101 items you can stop buying and start making by Alana Chernila.  She had a great idea for roasting tomatoes with garlic and Italian herbs and then freezing them.  You have a ready made base for your sauce for when you want savory marinara in the winter time!  I love the idea so that is what I did with our tomatoes.

Yummy! This is perfect because since I can't eat our tomatoes now I can still enjoy them later when they are allowed (after my ALCAT diet is done).

Once the tomatoes were roasted then I got back to work with the kids. 

Next we were making edible harvest spiders! I got the idea from Sprinkled with Flour. It was hard to abstain from these too but of course the kids enjoyed them.

Cody loved dipping his "spider legs" pretzels in chocolate.

Peanut butter on the Ritz crackers holding the "legs" on.

He always wants to make a silly face now.

Sweet Corbin.  He wanted more M & M's so he gave his spider compound eyes.  He said "Mom they really have that you know."

I can't stand spiders but I do love peanut butter and chocolate.  They each made more than one spider of course!

In heaven.  He enjoyed the taste of his spider with compound eyes......heheheheheh.

The rest of the day I spent doing a little last minute cleaning and some fall decorating.  My favorite!  We ended our day with a candlelit dinner of Beef Stew.  Hearty and full of fall!

I could actually eat this.  It was from my ALCAT diet. I personally like our family favorite crock pot version of stew better but I was certainly thankful to end the day with a hearty stew like this.

Happy Fall Friends!

~Blessings~

Cherry Season

One of the reasons I love living where I do is that any time a fruit is in season I can go and pick it fresh from an orchard that is growing it.  Fresh and Local is what it is all about these days right?  I love supporting our local farmers and orchards.

Around this time of the year the cherries are in season and growing in abundance on the trees! This is the first time I have ever gotten to go to a cherry orchard that literally has hundreds of trees and pick fresh cherries off the trees.  Each tree was either loaded with sweet red cherries, Bing cherries or pie cherries.  Before now I didn't even know there were pie cherries!

I love picking fresh produce right from the plant because it helps my kiddos to know that food actually grows and doesn't just appear in a store!  It also helps them to understand that there is a lot of hard work and time that goes into harvesting fruits and vegetables.

We went with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins and they brought one of their college friends too. Cody really enjoyed picking cherries with Johnny.

Corbin has a cherry in his mouth here.  They were so good looking it was hard to not taste a few!

Brother "love" time or wrestle time.

Our first bounty.

The whole crew.  Steve had to work that day as well as the second time we went :-(  He was missed. My parents were out of town the first time too. We took them when they got back into town though.  The pie cherries were more ripe then too.

The first time we went I picked 5 pounds of cherries and the second time I picked 7 pounds of cherries.  Another thing about local and fresh is the price!  They were only $1.00 a pound. 

I have had so much fun with these.  I bought a cherry pitter and pitted all of them.  I froze some for smoothies and to use later for cherry crisp and cobbler (Gluten free of course).  We also ate some of them for lunches. Then I made some Vanilla Dark Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream.  Oh my goodness was it good.  Click here for the recipe.  I didn't use alcohol or bittersweet chocolate. I used dark chocolate. I also added some vanilla.

This was divine.

With the second batch of cherries I made these Cherry Almond Muffins.  I used agave instead of honey and coconut oil instead of olive or grapeseed.  They turned out great.  I couldn't have a bunch of cherries and not make some cherry pie filling.  I made multiple batches of the filling.  The pie cherries really do make a difference.  They give the pie filling that little bit of tartness, that zing. Up next for the cherries, canning with my Mom and Aunt this week making Cherry Jam.  Yummers!

The next fruit in season that I can't wait for is peaches.  These are my all time favorite fruit.  I will be picking a lot of these!

Do you have any cherry recipes that you make every year?  How about family traditions with cherries or fruits that are in season?  I would love to hear about it.

~Blessings~