I haven't put much in here lately because we have been enjoying spring so much. I just about put in "too busy" but that's not the case at all. We are enjoying spring but not being too busy...priorities have been on trying to spend time with my family and not at the computer.
Peas are blooming in the garden and everything else seems to remain alive. Flowers are planted and blooming around the house - I lost count at the number of different color of iris that have bloomed. The curriculum for home school has been finished. Finals are over for my wonderful husband. I haven't had office hours for the last two weeks. All of it has been really great! One more week and we have to come up with routine again :(
Making ketchup is the next thing brewing in my head. I'll let you know how that goes...As for my list of homemade stuff, I created it but it didn't paste into the blog well and I haven't messed with it more.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Congratulations Big Guy
Today my older son had two really cool things...
He rode his bike without training wheels basically the first time that he tried. (We took the wheels off a couple of weeks ago and the pedals too to get some balance - the pedals got put back on today. One trip with mom and he was off!)
At the AWANA awards ceremony he was given the Outstanding Clubber award from the K'ers! That was a fun surprise. One of his best friends also received the award to from the 1st grade class. It's great to have a good kid.
End of bragging now!
He rode his bike without training wheels basically the first time that he tried. (We took the wheels off a couple of weeks ago and the pedals too to get some balance - the pedals got put back on today. One trip with mom and he was off!)
At the AWANA awards ceremony he was given the Outstanding Clubber award from the K'ers! That was a fun surprise. One of his best friends also received the award to from the 1st grade class. It's great to have a good kid.
End of bragging now!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Quotes of the week
From the budding vegetarian upon mom (the vegetarian) having him try some sloppy joe she just made, "It could use some beans." (Using up all of that venison that we acquired in the fall.)
From the one with the budding hair-do when I commented that he was putting his shoes on the wrong feet, and his response was, "I guess you are good at a logical survey." (Age 4)
From the one with the budding hair-do when I commented that he was putting his shoes on the wrong feet, and his response was, "I guess you are good at a logical survey." (Age 4)
Monday, April 28, 2008
What do people do all day?
I don't know what we would do without books...
This was NOT staged, they are enjoying the book together!
This was NOT staged, they are enjoying the book together!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Homemade vs Convenience
It's been a few weeks of being brave and making much of our food "from scratch" The advent of the raw milk has now put fresh cream at our disposal. Not wanting to be wasteful, we have had to put that cream to good use. Tortillas have been on my list for awhile to attempt and we are in process our second batch of those.
Now we have home made ice cream and packages of beans (black and pinto) in the freezer, fresh butter and buttermilk in the frig with the tortilla balls waiting to be cooked. I'm really evaluating how much "from scratch" should/can I do and when do I buy some of these foods from the grocery store already made, like refried beans. All of the things that we have made from scratch have been quite yummy and nothing is particularly hard either but there's a huge time element that is creeping up on me. I don't feel like I have known where the last three weeks have gone. We've made butter and home made ice cream. We've made tortillas. We've made multiple different kinds of beans from dried beans. So, we've spent a lot of time in the kitchen, that's for sure! But how many times did I tell my family, "Not yet, let me finish [fill in the blank]"
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the rest of the 40 tortillas made and some in the freezer for later. Then I really need to re-think our menus and what I am and am not willing to purchase from the store and where my kitchen time is best spent. I really have loved making all of these things, but I'm at the point of evaluation...is it really worth the time savings, more healthy choices? If I am going to do this from scratch thing which I really believe is much healthier for us, I do need to come up with simpler menus that can reuse a lot of the time consuming elements. I haven't given up or don't plan to give up making our bread...and feel like I need to start getting good a buns now that grilling season is here. Oh, that's just more time! My next post may be more of my notes and thoughts around some specific foods...be forewarned!
Now we have home made ice cream and packages of beans (black and pinto) in the freezer, fresh butter and buttermilk in the frig with the tortilla balls waiting to be cooked. I'm really evaluating how much "from scratch" should/can I do and when do I buy some of these foods from the grocery store already made, like refried beans. All of the things that we have made from scratch have been quite yummy and nothing is particularly hard either but there's a huge time element that is creeping up on me. I don't feel like I have known where the last three weeks have gone. We've made butter and home made ice cream. We've made tortillas. We've made multiple different kinds of beans from dried beans. So, we've spent a lot of time in the kitchen, that's for sure! But how many times did I tell my family, "Not yet, let me finish [fill in the blank]"
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the rest of the 40 tortillas made and some in the freezer for later. Then I really need to re-think our menus and what I am and am not willing to purchase from the store and where my kitchen time is best spent. I really have loved making all of these things, but I'm at the point of evaluation...is it really worth the time savings, more healthy choices? If I am going to do this from scratch thing which I really believe is much healthier for us, I do need to come up with simpler menus that can reuse a lot of the time consuming elements. I haven't given up or don't plan to give up making our bread...and feel like I need to start getting good a buns now that grilling season is here. Oh, that's just more time! My next post may be more of my notes and thoughts around some specific foods...be forewarned!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Spring time find
You know the excitement of finding money in a pocket of a coat the first time you wear it for a season? Well, we had a great spring find at our house yesterday that felt kind of like that. I was clearing off the excess compost from the garden to plant some peas and found our orange peeler! Those peelers that you get from Tupperware that score the oranges so they are easier to peel - one of those. There it was sitting in the mulch. It must have been mulched with the peelings sometime over the winter. We can now peel oranges easier again, yippee.
Thinking of compost, God really did create an amazing planet for us. We have been putting our kitchen scraps in the garden all winter. And as I dug through all of the compost on the garden to plant, there really was very little that was identifiable except egg shells. All of the carrot and potato peelings and apple cores were completely unrecognizable and turning themselves back into quality soil for growing more stuff. Really a very cool process. I know it makes "trash" at our house more complicated (trash can, recycle or compost bucket), but composting a great way to reduce the junk that goes to the landfill and we don't have to buy more stuff called fertilizer.
Thinking of compost, God really did create an amazing planet for us. We have been putting our kitchen scraps in the garden all winter. And as I dug through all of the compost on the garden to plant, there really was very little that was identifiable except egg shells. All of the carrot and potato peelings and apple cores were completely unrecognizable and turning themselves back into quality soil for growing more stuff. Really a very cool process. I know it makes "trash" at our house more complicated (trash can, recycle or compost bucket), but composting a great way to reduce the junk that goes to the landfill and we don't have to buy more stuff called fertilizer.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Raw Milk and farm fresh eggs
Have I just moved to the country or am I'm being influenced by all of the chemical additives propaganda?
We are on our first gallon of raw milk this week and about our 4th dozen of brown eggs straight from the farm! Most of our friends around us are doing the raw milk thing, so I thought that we would give it a shot. The milk came in a glass gallon jar with a large layer of cream at the top. I skimmed off the cream and hope to make some ice cream tonight with that or some butter.
It took Todd and me a day to actually try it. We weren't really quite sure what to expect. Drinking it by itself or putting it in something, I really can't tell that much difference. Both of my boys have asked for milk from the grocery store this morning! I think that's just familiarity thing versus not liking the taste. We are used to skim milk at our house and they don't really care for 2% or whole milk when we go somewhere. So when they heard cream, they weren't too keen on it. After they tried it, I think they are good.
So, here's my thought. I'm still not all quite sure about disease kind of stuff in raw milk. I'm also getting less comfortable with all of the "things" that we do to milk that we buy at the store. I know where this milk is coming from. I know lots of people who have been drinking their milk for a long time. I have been contemplating going organic on the milk thing anyway but at twice the price, I wasn't jumping at it. So, here's my jump in for change - the raw milk is a slightly higher price than grocery store milk for a gallon which will end up being less than a gallon of milk and a couple of cups of cream but still not twice the price. The downside is that I have to drive somewhere else to get it which is not the grocery store.
The eggs are a no-brainer...they are a great price and they taste good. Good thing that they are at the same place as the milk so it's only one more stop. (They have free duck eggs right now - we'll see how adventurous I'll get. Boy this is a long way from my previous professional world...)
We are on our first gallon of raw milk this week and about our 4th dozen of brown eggs straight from the farm! Most of our friends around us are doing the raw milk thing, so I thought that we would give it a shot. The milk came in a glass gallon jar with a large layer of cream at the top. I skimmed off the cream and hope to make some ice cream tonight with that or some butter.
It took Todd and me a day to actually try it. We weren't really quite sure what to expect. Drinking it by itself or putting it in something, I really can't tell that much difference. Both of my boys have asked for milk from the grocery store this morning! I think that's just familiarity thing versus not liking the taste. We are used to skim milk at our house and they don't really care for 2% or whole milk when we go somewhere. So when they heard cream, they weren't too keen on it. After they tried it, I think they are good.
So, here's my thought. I'm still not all quite sure about disease kind of stuff in raw milk. I'm also getting less comfortable with all of the "things" that we do to milk that we buy at the store. I know where this milk is coming from. I know lots of people who have been drinking their milk for a long time. I have been contemplating going organic on the milk thing anyway but at twice the price, I wasn't jumping at it. So, here's my jump in for change - the raw milk is a slightly higher price than grocery store milk for a gallon which will end up being less than a gallon of milk and a couple of cups of cream but still not twice the price. The downside is that I have to drive somewhere else to get it which is not the grocery store.
The eggs are a no-brainer...they are a great price and they taste good. Good thing that they are at the same place as the milk so it's only one more stop. (They have free duck eggs right now - we'll see how adventurous I'll get. Boy this is a long way from my previous professional world...)
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