Our Advent Calendar

  Each year around the Holidays I start to think about an advent calendar.  When the kids were younger I just went to Trader Joe's and picked up cheap ones, then a few years ago I started making my own.  One thing always remained the same, they all involved candy and they all involve the kids "getting" something.  Every year I try to keep my kids from the idea that Christmas is all about gifts but man it is seriously hard to compete with the marketing ploys going on right now.

  This year things are going to be different!  It all started with a cool idea that popped up on my Facebook news feed the other day.  I loved this idea of the advent calendar being about actions instead of treats from The Artful Parent, I thought this was so different but I wanted to take it a step further for my older children.  What we decided to come up with was a community service type of advent.  We have some pretty tall orders on ours, plus along with the fact that we are moving over Christmas and I have a new job we had to end our list at 15 but we plan on adding family events in to fill  the 25 day calendar.  Some of these family "events' might include driving boxes to our new place but that is ok.

  There isn't much point in decorating or getting a tree when you are moving so our advent will pretty much be our only decoration.  I thought what we came up with was pretty cool and we are excited to put our list into actions.

  Our list of Christmas doing includes:
          Pick up trash outside
          Make a meal for a family
          Donate coats
          Donate hats to a school
          Hand out homemade Holiday cards to strangers to help spread some cheer
          Visit with someone in a senior center
          Volunteer at a shelter
          Shovel snow for an elderly neighbor (if it snows)
          Make a care package for a soldier over seas
          Leave a small gift at a strangers house
          Raise money for a local charity
          Help a family in need
          Spread love through out the season and everyday (sounds simple, but this might be the most challenging
          Go caroling
          Call as many family members as we can (even the ones we haven't spoken to in years) and wish them a Merry Christmas.


  The list feels a little overwhelming but I know that if our family works together we can pull it off and really grow together in the process.  Happy Holidays!!!!


          

Lessons on forgiveness from child's book.

  Right now we are reading about Egypt in our Story of the World curriculum so last night when we went to the library we gathered up books on Egypt so that we could dive further as the kids are really into reading about the pyramids and writing messages to each other in cuneiform.

  I picked up the book Pyramids! 50 Hands-On Activities to Experience Ancient Egypt by Avery Hart & Paul Mantell,

and this morning I started flipping through it.  Aside from all of the very cool activities and facts, this book also gives some amazing life lessons that I am in need of learning!  Yesterday we read about how after death the heart was weighed against a feather.  The heart was full of the deeds the person had done...bad deeds added weight but good deeds, like forgiveness, kept it light.

    I am sure I am not alone in my struggle to forgive people that I feel have done me wrong.  I also know that I do need to let go of these feelings because the only person that they affect is me.  This page jumped up from the book and smacked me across the face and I feel I must share it for anyone else in need of a good face smacking.

  
  "The people of old Egypt believed deeply in the power of forgiveness.  In their religion, it was not good to hold onto bad feelings like anger or guilt.  If someone did something wrong but felt sorry about it, the ancients believed that the gods instantly forgave the person.  The priests and pharaohs also urged people to forgive each other quickly when things went wrong between them.

  Thinking about having a heart free of anger and hate is a useful and good thing to do.  Do you have feelings you are ready to set free?  Forgiving people who have done wrong to us makes our hearts light and free.
  Test your power of forgiveness by making a list of people who make you angry.  When your list is finished, ask yourself if you have been angry long enough and can now forgive the person.  (If you have a hard time even thinking about forgiving the person, try forgiving yourself for being so angry and upset.  That sometimes works just as well.)
  When you have gone over your list, look at each name, close your eyes, and murmur these magical words:  "(Name), we are even.  I fully forgive you and free myself now."
  Cross out the name on the list and go on to the next one.  When your list is all crossed out, roll it into a ball and throw it away.  Hey!  We can practically see the big smile of relief on your face already!"


  Such a simple exercise but yet so freeing and empowering.  

Bread 101...the teacher has become the student

    Some days I try to figure out what our homeschooling style is.  My oldest two attended a public Montessori for a couple years so I do love to incorporate some of those ideas into our days.  I see benefits from Charlotte Mason and Classical styles of learning and I love the whimsy of Waldorf.  I want to give them the freedom to explore their own interests and to follow their hearts so I do understand the thought behind unschooling.  With all of my thoughts on how I wish to homeschool my children I feel so blessed that in our state I sign a form stating that I will be homeschooling and that is it...I am free to choose how, when, and where and I do not have to answer to anyone.

    The other day as we walked into the library I asked the kids what type of books they would be interested in.  Ajay, said that he was interested in books about Colonial America.  OK, his actual answer was "Mom, I want books about that place that we went and played with the buckets to put out the fire."  I said "Uh, can you tell me more about this place?  I am not quite sure I know what you are talking about."  He rolled his eyes and said "You know, that place where people dressed funny and you complained that they didn't even talk about fermenting."  Ha ha, I knew...he was describing a small historic park in Green Bay called Heritage Hills.  Since I am an east coast girl I always describe it as a tiny Williamsburg.

    So we set off to look for some books on the subject and we found some pretty great ones.  Our favorite out of the stack was Colonial Days by David C. King, it is from the American Kids in History series and it is pretty great as it follows a fictional family of 6 (like us) through all of the seasons and the book includes recipes, games and projects.

     As we were reading we found a bread recipe that the kids really wanted to make.  I have enough problems with my sourdough so it is rare that I let the little hands in there.  Just two days ago I decided to try a different flour for my bread and I wound up with another bread brick that was sliced up and handed to the kids so that they could feed all of the birds and squirrels in the yard.  Anyway, I opened the book and said "Go to it, I am here if you need me".  I watched as Zola read the ingredients, Ajay and Taj gathered, and Peylyn yelled orders at all of them.  I stood in the kitchen pretending to be playing on my phone but I was secretly watching in amazement as they dove into their first baking experience with mom on the side lines.

Peylyn stole some of our dough so she could play and nibble.

    I was impressed as there was only 1 little mistake, they forgot to add the sugar to the water and yeast but I had them add it later and everything seemed to be fine.  They did such a great job working together and guess what...there two loaves were so much better than all of the loaves that I have made over the past 2 years.  Seriously, I quit!  I am going to increase their small allowance and make them the official bread bakers of the house.

    This is our favorite part about homeschooling...it doesn't matter what time period or culture we are studying, we love to take what we learn into the kitchen and really connect to our lessons.  The home used to be completely centered around the kitchen and this family is thrilled to be getting back to that.

Why Fermenting Wins in My Book!

  Perhaps it is a little backwards that when it comes to food preservation, beyond freezing everything, I jumped into fermenting before canning.  While they both have their benefits I will ALWAYS choose to ferment and freeze before I can and here is why:

  #1  You have a nutritious food that you can pack even more nutrition into and make all of the nutrients more readily available for your body.

  #2  The food is alive!!!!  Not only is it alive, it is filled with wonderful colonies of bacteria that will do wonders for your health.

  #3  You know if it has gone bad.  This is a really important factor for me!  When you ferment and it goes bad, man I think everyone on your block knows that it has gone bad!  There is no mistaking it, I have never thought "Wow, that smells terrible perhaps I should take a taste just to make sure."  When I first started to look up canning online of course the first thing that came up was botulism...guess what the water bath canner that I had just purchased went into storage for that entire first summer.  No way was I going to dive into something that could result in a deadly bacteria that I can't even smell.  Ask my family about how I cooked my first few chickens after I gave up my vegetarian ways.  I hadn't cooked meat in about 10 years and I was sure they would all fall over ill from salmonella so I cooked those first few birds until they were bone dry.

 I think we all remember this image from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...

this is what my first chicken looked like.

  Anyway, I have gotten over my fears of cooking meat with the help of a great meat thermometer, but my fear of canning still sticks with me.  This summer, for example, I received in a trade from a member of our community garden about 10lbs of pickling cucumbers.  I came home with this beautiful box of cucumbers and my husband started drooling.  He begged me not to "ruin them with fermentation" and asked that I save a portion to be pickled and canned the way his mom used to do.  While I was quite insulted, I did agree.  Even though I know in my head that these pickles have been processed properly and come on, they are sitting in so much vinegar that nothing could possibly live in that jar, they still make me nervous!  Each new can of pickles that we open I insist on eating one and not allowing the kids to have any until 24 hours later.  I am not even sure if botulism would make me sick within that time frame but some how in my head it makes sense.  My husband said that I just might be crazy enough to take on a job as a food tester for royalty to make sure that their food has not been poisoned...do they still hire for that position?  I bet it pays more than Kohl's!

This is the most recently opened jar.  I tried a pickle before dinner (it was insanely yummy and crunchy), so if I haven't fallen ill in the next 17 hours I will allow the kids to enjoy them as well.  Yes, don't judge me, I already know that I have issues.

My Vaccine Rant!

  This post has been sitting in my head for quite some time and it finally has to come out.  Being that we are now living in the age of social networking and people can hide behind a computer to say nasty things to someone that they don't even know...I have been seeing a comment quite often lately on Facebook debates over vaccinations.  The comment being that "non vaccinating parents should be labeled as child abusers."  Wow.  I would never even think of saying that to a vaccinating parent!  Because I know that deep down I respect the fact that they are doing what is best for their child, just as I know that I am doing what is best for mine.

  In fact, let me go on to tell you why nothing could be further from the truth.  My husband and I did not go into this decision lightly, our oldest 2 children are almost completely up to date but while I was pregnant with our 3rd I started hearing some things about why we should do more research.  We read, we researched, we spoke with our Dr. and our Chiropractor and we came to the conclusion that this is not want we want for our children.  We were done.  Yet, the journey had just begun...we don't decline vaccinations and sit back and rely on herd immunity (basically that theory is crap anyway), no, we choose to give our bodies the best we can to aid its natural immune system.  I limit sugar, make as much as I can from scratch, I am diligent about tending to my families gut health, when we do come down with something we give herbs, oils, homeopathic remedies, broth, probiotic foods, and lots of rest so that our bodies can do the job it was designed to do.  Our bodies are amazing healing machines and when given the right fuel, it can do some astounding things.

  I once saw somebody post that they would rather risk their child get autism than risk getting one of the diseases that the vaccinations protect against.  REALY?!?!?!  I dare you to say that to someone that has a child that has been damaged from vaccines.  My children and I fully recovered from the chicken pox in about a week...autism, in most cases, is for life.

  I am trying to figure out how on earth the fact that I choose not to inject my children with toxins (here is a list on the CDC's site and this is just the tip of the iceberg, the list goes on to include things from MSG to aborted fetal cells) that will produce a false immune response and may not even protect them anyway, gives someone the right to call me a child abuser. By the way, if your vaccines work so well then what do you have to fear from my unvaccinated children that are hardly ever ill, and when they are we give healing foods to help build their immune system, not antibiotics that destroy all of the good gut flora along with the bad.  By doing so we are strengthening their immune system even further making it stronger and stronger all the time.  When you look at it this way, I think this makes me mom of the year!

A Day to Remember

  For months I have been planning my trip to Fermentation Fest in Reedsburg, WI because I knew that Sandor Katz was going to be there.  If you are not familiar with the work of Sandor Katz, I highly suggest that at the very least you check out his website at www.wildfermentation.com and then go and borrow a few of his books from your local library.  What truly inspires me about this man is that not only does he have so much knowledge on the subject of fermentation but he is so humble in his delivery.  When listening to him speak all you feel is his passion for the subject that is driving him to share his knowledge with everyone that is wanting to listen.

  Today was finally the day that I got to make the 2 hour drive for the Fest and most importantly, to meet Sandor Katz.  Today was a day that I will never forget...First, it was a great road trip that I got to share with my daughter.  Some days it can be hard to split your attention amongst 4 kids and one on one time with them is so special.  Second, I got to meet my fermenting idol...seriously, I rank him up there higher than most celebrities that I would like to meet.  Sadly, my list of "celebrities" pretty much only includes big names in traditional foods.  Next on my list are Sally Fallon and Wardeh Harmon, and yes I realize what a nerd I am.

  Anyway, Zola and I headed out of town this morning and after registering we made our way around the Art DTour.  There were art exhibits, stands of homemade goods, and farms to tour, we had so much fun.  We also stopped in at the Fermentation Gift Shop and did a little shopping.

I purchased this glass that will now be known as "Mom's glass, so keep your hands off!"

 One of the many great art exhibits.

We got to tour a sunflower farm.

I want to have a sign like this for the front of my house!

  Now, for my favorite part of the day...after our fun on the Art DTour we had dinner at the pub where the book signing was to be held.  When Sandor came in Zola and I gathered our things and got in line.  We had to preregister for a spot at the book signing, at first I thought this was odd but then I realized that it was because he was kind enough to spend quite a bit time with each person that had registered.  I had ample time to give my praise, ask questions, and to give more praise...oh and to have my daughter take a picture of the two of us.  He asked Zola if she like sauerkraut and she truthfully answered "I think it is gross but I love kombucha and fermented fruits."

  I am so happy that I was not the only person there that was beside themselves with excitement...I turned to the lady behind me to chat while in line and I made a comment about being so nervous and meeting a fermenting rock star.  She commented that she had met Eric Clapton and how she was 10 times more excited to meet Sandor Katz.  I guess it is a "culture" thing that some people will never understand.

Nourishing cereal??? It does exist!

  The other day I was browsing around on The Healthy Home Economist's site as I often do, and I was looking at her list of popular posts.  One caught my eye and that was a video on  how to make healthy cold cereal.  The convenience of cold cereal is something that I really do miss now that we have gone to traditional foods and I know that my kids miss it.  How could they not?  They are bombarded with cereal commercials every day.  The moment that the 2 part video ended I knew that we had to try this.  It seemed like a lot of steps but not too overwhelming.  I really suggest checking it out, part 1 shows the steps before you bake and part 2 is what to do after to make it crunchy along with the written out recipe.

  So, the next day I pulled out the flour and yogurt and mixed it up, do to my work schedule and my poor timing this mixture actually sat on my counter for a day and a half.  After that I finished it up in just a few steps and it really didn't interfere with our day.

 

Mixing in all ingredients after soaking for a day.

Bake

Crumble and dehydrate (recipe calls for baking but I set my dehydrator to the highest temp of 160 degrees and it was done in about 8 hours)

 Store in the fridge

  This recipe is great for so many reasons #1 It is pretty easy and doesn't take a lot of thought.  #2  There are so many ways that you could flavor this to your families liking that you would not get bored.  #3  Did I mention how much more nourishing this is for your children than any item purchased in a box.  Seriously, make this cereal!  Everyone here gave it a big thumbs up, my oldest son even said it tasted like ice cream.

  Her recipe is just a starting point, I did not have some of those ingredients so I just went on what I had.  I had very little maple syrup left so I used honey and doubled the vanilla because maple flavoring is not something I keep in the pantry (um never even heard of it).  Also, instead of cinnamon I went with our family favorite and used Chinese 5 spice.  The pictures above are of the recipe cut in half, I figured I would start with less to see if they would even eat it.  Now I need to go and soak more flour as this is going to be a major staple in our home.

Pumpkin Butter for the Pumpkin Hater (like me)

 Fall is absolutely my favorite time of the year.  I love the smell, the colors, the food.  One thing that always comes to mind when we think fall is pumpkins, and everyone loves pumpkin pie right?  WRONG!!!!  Now it has been decades since I have had a slice but I am just going to keep on passing, the taste and the texture have always made me gag even at the thought.   One time I stopped at Starbucks drive thru on my way to an appointment, as I drove off I took a sip and nearly spit it out.  I wasn't exactly sure what this disgusting beverage was but I knew it was not the mocha that I had ordered.  I was running late so I did not have time   to go back and complain but still being coffeeless I decided to stop after the appointment.  When I went back I took in the coffee and the lady turned it around and told me that the P.S.L. stood for pumpkin spice latte.  I told her that I was sure it stood for "Pretty Shitty Latte."  She did not find that very amusing...

  Anyway, a friend of mine that I met this summer at our community garden gifted us with some seriously beautiful pumpkins.  He put so much love into the food he grew that I felt it would just be wrong to carve up the pumpkins and waste all of that good food.  I have been searching the internet for pumpkin recipes and one thing that kept coming up was Pumpkin Butter.  Being from a town in PA with a large Amish community I have very fond memories of their apple butter and basically all of their baked goods...the thought is making me crave a half moon pie.  So, I thought I would give the pumpkin butter a try.  I got the basics from looking at some recipes but put my own twist on this one based on the spices and flavors that I love.

1 small Pumpkin mine was probably about 2 pounds
1/2  C Sucanat
1/2 C Sugar (I mixed because I don't care for the overwhelming molasses flavor)
1/2 C Water
2 Tbs Chinese 5 Spice Blend
10 Drops of Wild Orange essential oil (I used doTERRA EO but I would think that an orange flavoring would work or even orange zest)

To begin I cut my pumpkin in half, took out the seeds, and roasted it at 350 degrees until tender.  Then I pulled out from the skin and put in the food processor with about a half cup of water to make a puree.  I put the puree in the pan along with all of the ingredients listed above, except the essential oil.

Stir all of the ingredients together and allow mixture to simmer for an hour or more, until it has reached a think consistency and it will not roll off of a spoon.  When desired consistency has been reach remove from heat and allow to cool for a bit before adding your essential oil.  Stir in EO and then bottle.  I froze most of mine as I have read that it will only keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge.


 

Kraut Cake...You Bet!!!

  So, just yesterday I was writing about a little kraut cookbook I picked up at a rummage sale.  My curiosity got the best of me and I had to try the recipe for the chocolate sauerkraut cake. Guess what...It is delicious!!!

  Here are some pics just in case you are reading this thinking "You are full of it, there is no way that there is kraut in a cake!"

  I wish that I had a nicer picture of the finished cake but the kids would not wait one more minute before diving into the cake.  Cake is very rare in this house.

Kraut Conquers All...Chocolate Cake
2/3 C butter
1 1/2 C sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa
2 1/4 C sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp each: baking soda and baking powder (oops I just noticed it was both, I only used baking soda and it turned out just fine)
1/4 tsp salt
1 C water
2/3 C rinsed, drained, and chopped sauerkraut

Thoroughly cream butter with sugar.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Sift together dry ingredients; add alternately with water to egg mixture (I never read ahead and I just dumped it all into my KitchenAid and it is fine).  Stir in kraut.  Turn into 2 greased and floured 8 inch square or round baking pans. Bake in 350 degree oven 30 minutes, or until cake tests done.

*I do not own two 8 inch baking pans so I baked mine in a larger dish and it took about 50 minutes.  Also, recipe calls for a mocha whipped cream frosting, but when I lifted the cream off of my raw milk and tried to make the frosting I ended up making chocolate butter.  So, my cake in the picture was frosted with a simple frosting made from milk, powdered sugar and vanilla.  Seriously, the kids were chanting "cake, cake, cake" at the table so I had to whip up something quick after the original frosting failure.

The recipe goes on to say:
Fill and frost with Mocha Whipped Cream
Whip 1 1/2 C heavy cream with 3 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp instant coffee (I had left this out as it is something I do not have on hand...EVER), 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa until stiff peaks form.

After they all started to devour the cake I did let them in on my little secret, the cake was so good that no one cared! 

Kraut Conquers All

  One thing we really try to do in this family is to buy "used" whenever possible.  I hate how everything these days is made to be thrown away.  You buy a toaster today and you are lucky if the thing lasts a couple of years, I remember as a kid we had the same toaster for my entire time living at home and I am pretty sure my parents had it for a while before I came along.

  Because of my love for all things reused and upcycled I am always checking out local thrift stores and rummage sales.  I always head straight for the kitchen items and cookbooks.  I love to look for old   cookbooks that people now toss aside because they think the nourishing recipes are unhealthy.  Also, these days I have been doing most of my fermenting in fido jars so I am always on the look out for more.

  This week was the annual rummage sale for a very large Catholic church in the area.  I discovered this gem a few years ago and I look forward to it each July.  So of course the kids and I headed over the other day to see what we could find.  When we entered we went right into the kitchen section, sadly it was mostly picked over but I did come out with a 1.5 L fido jar and a few various sized stainless steel mixing bowls.  After we hit the toy section we went into the books.  My brain could hardly take it there were so many book.  The kids were looking through some boxes so I took a minute to browse the cookbooks.  Most of them made me want to gag!  I believe the one title was Microwave Gourmet, ok those two words do not even belong in the same room together.  There were literally shelves upon shelves of low fat, non fat, aspartame filled recipes so I gave up.  I turned to some boxes sitting by the windows and right in front was a small little book screaming my name!

  Put Some Kraut in Your Life published by The National Kraut Packers Association and I am guessing circa 1970's.  It is a great little 29 paged book with the history of kraut, nutritional value, and many recipes on how to add kraut into your diet.  This book has it all!  There are recipes for kraut sandwhiches,roast duck, kraut barbecue sauce, and all the way to kraut chocolate cake and Lemony Kraut Ice Cream.

Here is a photo because I know you are thinking that I am lying!  The recipe says "This rich fudge cake has a coconut-like texture and the kraut keeps it wonderfully moist and fresh for several days."

  The only thing I do not have on the Kraut Conquers All...Chocolate Cake list of ingredients is the unsweetened cocoa.  I think the kids and I will be heading to the store in the morning and tomorrow we will indulge in kraut cake!!

Little Moments

  The kids were playing on the back porch while I was sitting at the kitchen table finishing my coffee and checking emails.  Something caught my eye and when I turned to see what they were doing I was completely impressed.  Zola was making balloon animals for all of them from a kit she just bought last night!  The funny thing about the kit is we were over by a Dollar Tree and they each had a dollar and begged me to stop, so she picked up this balloon kit with a pump and of course the pump did not work.  We had a talk about how you get what you pay for and then I helped her hook up the balloons to the bicycle pump and it worked great.

Dogs and swords are her specialty.

Community Garden

  This year after planting our garden at our home, the kids kept talking about all of the things they still wanted to grow but we just did not have room for.  I decided to call about a community garden that we pass every time we drive out to my husband's work.  That one was already full for the season but the kind lady told me about a brand new one that was just starting this year.  The icing on the cake was that it was even closer as it was just up the street from our house.  The next morning we met her to look for a spot and we ended up with 2 raised boxes.

  The next day the kids and I went and bought 3 heirloom cabbage plants, 1 squash, and 1 zucchini.  After we paid for the plants the lady at the register told us that she received too many marigold plants and that each child could pick one for free.  They were tickled pink picking out their own color of flower.  We headed over to plant and when we got there we were offered up 6 chives plants if we had room to give them a home, so we gladly took them in.

At first we laughed at how pathetic our boxes looked compared to everything around us, but all it takes is a little patience! 

  While I went into this thinking it was mainly going to be the kids garden, since it is so much easier for them to work in than our garden at home, it has become so much more!  I can't believe the amazing sense of community that we have found at this garden, I never would have imagined.  I have made some great connections with people that are just as passionate about food as I am.  They have been helping us with our gardening questions, sharing food with us, and in turn I have been teaching them to ferment.  This is what I love for my kids to be seeing!!!  I hope that this childhood memory of "you share with me and I will share with you" will stay with them. 

 

Fat, Sick, and Really Depressed

My mom came out to visit us in May and a few weeks after she left she called to talk and went into a big speech about how she thinks I am depressed.  I took immediate offense to it, snapped at her, and didn't speak to her for a few days.  Then when I cooled down I wondered to myself why I was so upset by this...because she was right.

I have been in a downward spiral for many years, more specifically the last 4 years.  Four years ago my husband lost his job, I almost lost my dad, we had to move to WI from VA for a new job, and there have been many more losses since we moved to WI.  Shortly after moving here we lost the renters in the house that we still owned in VA and so we lost the house completely, my grandmother died and I was not able to get back to PA for the funeral, and I haven't been able to maintain a single friendship since I moved here.

This is not a big sob story...just me finally getting it all out instead of cramming it all deep down inside.  While I whine about the little things to people that bother me through my daily life, it is not often that I speak up about the big things.  No, I choose to go the lovely unhealthy route...I stay up late at night and gorge myself with the crappiest food I can find.  I secretly purchase chips and stuff so that my husband doesn't see the amount that I really consume.  There are other terrible habits as well but this is all I am comfortable sharing at this point.  I often laugh at myself because for how healthy I eat through the day with the kids, I do a complete 180 degree turn as soon as everyone is in bed.  My weight over the last year has really gone up, I have lost all motivation, and lately I have been having some health issues.  I cried the other night when my husband asked me what my current weight is for our new insurance.  I have never been this heavy, not even when I was pregnant.

So, here it is, I am just putting this out there because I feel like it will hold me accountable.  I am so tired of being ashamed of myself and feeling like I am such a fraud when I talk to people about traditional foods.  I know that it will not be that hard to see results because cutting out the calories I consume at night is more than I consume in 3 meals with the kids.

So here it is 11:00, usually when my terrible habits are just beginning, but I have had my glass of cherry flavored kombucha and I am tired and ready for bed.  Tomorrow I am getting back into the workout routine I had before I had the chickenpox in March.  I am ready for this...I can't continue down the path I am on.

I hope you don't judge me too harshly, but hell nothing you think could be half as bad as the things I think about myself some days.  Just looking for a little support.

Starting weight is 190, I would like to lose 50lbs...let's see where this journey takes me.

I hate to admit when my husband is right!

What does a sticker really guarantee?  Well, this evening I totally let a sticker win me over...that and the price tag.  In my home $2 does mean something.  $2 can be a little extra fruit, or a better cheese...

This evening I went to the grocery store for coffee and there I was trying to choose between my regular (non organic because I just can't always justify the price for something only I drink) and an organic 2lb. bag of coffee that was on sale for just $2 more.  I noticed a sticker on my regular brand that read "Rainforest Blend".  It said that it was blended with organic beans and that it was sustainable, plus it was only $12.99 for 2 lb., the same price as the regular Hills Bros. that I usually buy.

My husband was in the kitchen when I got home and I showed him the bag.  I told him that for now on when he goes to the store he was to only buy this bag with the rainforest blend sticker.  He rolled his eyes and I realized that I had been duped by a sticker.  No where did it say that it was certified organic or that it was fair trade.  Nothing was actually certifiable on the bag and when I got home I noticed that it was my normal bag of coffee with an added sticker.  He said "If you see 2 hookers and one as a sticker on her shirt that says 'STD FREE' and the other does not which would you choose?"  I said I would pick the one with the sticker.  He said "Why, they are both hookers?  At the end of the day both are going to f*@k you.

I totally get where he is going...Lately, it seems like no matter what you purchase in the grocery store, you are getting a terrible product!  Take Kashi for example, they are using GM products in their cereal just like General Mills!  It is getting to the point that we can not trust anything unless we have grown/raised it ourselves or we know the local farmers raising/growing our food.

Point and case...normally I would be skeptical about buying 6 chickens from a farmer trying to sell me "organic" pastured chickens for just $2.10 per lb., but I have been to the farm and my husband sold her the organic feed through the winter.  When I picked up our 6 chickens this afternoon that had just been butchered hours before I knew that I had a great, natural product in my hands.  When I go to our friends farm each week to get our milk, I speak to the farmer and ask questions and I see the cows and how they are living.

The lesson that I am trying to teach my kids and that I am still working on is to eat as locally as possible and to always know where your food is coming from.

Let's stop choosing between crappy and crappier!

Strawberries - Frozen, Fermented, Dehydrated, and Enjoyed

I am taking a little break from cleaning strawberries to write about our new experience of picking strawberries.  Since my husband works 10 hour days Monday through Friday and 5 hours every Saturday morning, when I want to do something with the kids it is pretty much all on me.  Me, myself, and I plus four kids.  Taking the kids to pick berries has always been something on my to do list but just the thought of it made me so nervous.  Finally, this year with everyone being a little bit older I thought I would give it a try.  After all, we did manage to survive picking our own apples last fall and they have become great egg hunters when we go to our friends farm to get eggs every few weeks.

Not only did we survive but we managed to have a fantastic time!  Everyone had a great time picking, even Peylyn and Taj.  I told them that we had to try really hard to not step on any plants and that we were looking for the really red berries.  As I started cleaning the berries I was impressed at how well they did.

So now what do we do with all of these strawberries????  I froze a bunch because we LOVE strawberry smoothies, as soon as I type this up I am going to sit down and slice a bunch to dehydrate.  I thought that would be a yummy change to our granola and oatmeal and also just to have on hand for a quick little snack.  After cleaning a bunch to put in the fridge and enjoy just as they are I have a small batch left that I want to ferment.  I have been searching the internet but I can't find what I am looking for, I may just have to ferment these as I have fermented fruit in the past and see how it goes.  At $1.25 per pound I think I can spare a few for an experiment that could turn out to be really delicious.  I did dump about a pint into my very first batch of mead.  I am super excited about this!  I keep looking at the recipe in Wild Fermentation thinking that I need to make this...honey and water, nothing could be more simple!!!  I will let you know how the mead turns out.

Family Reunion

While I have many pictures on my phone from our family reunion today, I feel like this is the one that really expresses who we are.  This picture is of my 2 year old that was about to kiss a frog that my 8 year old caught, at the last minute she decided that her bear should kiss it.  We really are the odd balls of the family, not just my husband's side but mine as well.  We are the family whose child has really chapped lips and we walk in with his lips coated in grey because he has bentonite clay all over them to heal the skin.  We are the family that pulls out the squirt bottle of homemade bug spray that is full of essential oils and distilled water.  We are the family bringing their own mason jars full of the reverse osmosis water and pastured deviled eggs.  The family that when I child trips and gets a huge bruise comes running for some arnica.  The family that sits at the park bench nursing an almost 3 year old and secretly hoping that the 4 year old does not start asking to nurse as well.  Yes, we are those people and I couldn't be more pleased!!!!

By the way, I wanted to take a half gallon of saurerkraut but my husband said that no one would eat it (hello, his family is German!!!).  Quite a few people that I mentioned this to were quite upset that I didn't bring my homemade sauerkraut.  Next year I will have a huge batch with us!

Little Moments

What a wonderful way to start my Saturday!  The kids are running around the yard, the sun is shining, and I am sipping a yummy cup of coffee from this gorgeous handmade coffee mug (1 of a set) I received from a trade I made with a local mama. 

*The coffee mug was made by a very talented local artist, Todd M. Richardson.

Probiotic Slushies!

We had a pretty long, hot day today.  We spent quite a bit of our day outside tending to 2 different gardens, waiting around my husbands office for our car to get fixed (it needed a new battery), and just enjoying ourselves in the yard.  After a good hour of all of us running around playing in the afternoon sun, I decided it was time for a nice cold snack so I came in to see what I could find.  My fridge was pretty empty but like usual there was lots of kombucha and water kefir and in the freezer I found some frozen fruit (it was a tropical fruit blend), so I decided to dump them into my Ninja and see what happened.

With what I put in I wound up with about 6 large servings:

4 cups of frozen fruit
2 cups of kombucha (this batch happened to be flavored with orange juice)
2 cups of water kefir (I used plain)

I dumped it all into the blender and ran it on high for a few seconds.
You can add a bit more liquid for a more liquid slushie or use less and have a sorbet.

My kids all went crazy for it and they all came back for seconds!  I couldn't help myself, I had to have seconds as well.

Next time I make this, I think I will sneak in some greens just to give it a little more of a nutrition punch.

Little Moments

I just had to snap a picture of my daughter this evening.  I live for moments like this!  While I secretly wish I did own a swift and that my ball winder hadn't recently been broken beyond repair, I wouldn't trade any of it for the wonderful moment we shared.  While I sat there winding up the wool, we were telling each other made up fairy tales.  She had an awesome one about the princess that made everyone in the village drink kombucha! 

Yes, she really is that awesome!  They all are!!!!

Ferments, the perfect tight budget food!

One of the best things about preserving your food with fermentation is that it can really help to stretch your food budget. One of our biggest expenses in our home, besides meat, is organic apples. My four kids ask for apples all day long. While it is great that they want to snack on apples instead of chips and candy this can get quite pricey. When money gets tight and I see that our apples are not going to last us until the next paycheck I set a few aside so that I can make a fermented apple chutney. This way they can still have their apple fix but just in a smaller portion. Since it has been fermented this smaller portion has increased vitamins and minerals along with the added bonus of being packed with probiotics. Last week was one of those weeks so I decided to try something new. The ingredients together in my head sounded good, so I took a chance and what I came up with was a fermented apple and ginger chutney.

 Ingredients:
3 organic apples, cored and chopped into small pieces
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp sea salt
1/4 C of whey
1/2 C water (more if needed to cover fruit)

 In a large bowl mix all ingredients together. Pack mixture into a glass quart jar, making sure that fruit is under the liquid, add more water if needed. Tighten lid and place in a dark, warm spot for 3 days. Then move to the fridge and enjoy. This will keep in the fridge for about 2 months.

Linking To: Traditional Tuesdays

Accientally Awesome Chocolate Granola

One thing that I am not is a planner!  I sometimes really struggle with traditional foods because it is all about planning.  I have on many occasions been browning ground beef while desperately Googling for some way to use it.  I also like to just spontaneously grab the kids and make something that I saw on one of the many traditional food blogs that I follow.  Today was one of those spontaneous days!

We were all having some quiet time after lunch so I decided to get online for a bit and I immediately saw the yummiest picture so I had to click on it.  The link took me to Coconut Recipes post for No Bake Coconut Chewy Bites.  I quickly looked at the ingredient list and I was pretty sure that I had everything so I went and got Zola and Ajay to help me.

We were melting and mixing and going down the list until we got to the last ingredient, 2 cups of shredded coconut.  I had Ajay go to the fridge and when I saw the sad little amount that was left I panicked.  We poured it into a measuring cup only to come up with a half of a cup.  My first thought was to add oats but the only thing I had in the pantry was steel cut oats.  That would be great if we were looking to knock a few loose teeth out.  A quick look around the kitchen my eyes caught the canister of soaked granola that we made the other day.  So I figured why not, I will try anything before having to dump out the expensive ingredients in my pot.  So we stirred in 1 1/2 cups of granola, let it cool, and man did we enjoy!  We wound up with a crunchy chewy, salty, sweet, chocolatey treat.  I may go back and try the actual recipe as it was meant to be made sometime, but for now I am quite content with our accidental version.

The kids agreed that it was pretty fabulous...really they did.  I asked them to smile but Zola said she didn't want to take a break from eating the snack to smile.

You do what you have to do...

In a perfect world the food in the grocery stores would be just as healthy as the local foods that I seek out each week.  Weekly I drive to a farm, health food stores, and when in season, farmer's markets to purchase local foods, but lately my families growing bodies seem to be consuming more than we can afford right now.  What does all of this mean...I need more money!

While I have had visions of me working in a very natural environment surrounded by like minded people, that just isn't my reality right now.  I was babysitting over the school year for a few days each month.  As soon as I got paid I was off to purchase raw milk, local meat and eggs, and other foods that I know my husband would have a fit over if he saw the price tag, ie fermented cod liver oil from Green Pasture.  Now that summer is here and my babysitting job has ended what's a girl to do?  Well, this girl went out and got herself an office cleaning job where I get to scrub with nasty chemicals a few nights each week.

My options were pretty limited for a few reasons, #1 my husband works 52 hours per week so that right there is a huge problem because for reason #2, if I have to pay for childcare for 4 kids while I work I would need a job that pays about $40,000 to even make it worth my while.  Which brings me to reason #3, I can't imagine going to work through the day and then coming home and trying to homeschool.  I want to work with the kids in the morning when we all feel refreshed and alert.  Reason #4, I wanted something where I could just listen to my ipod, do my work, and get paid.  So, I went onto craigslist to see what I could find that would allow me to work evenings only, preferably no weekends so that we could be together as a family, and I could be alone...office cleaning.

Even before I ever called about any of the jobs I was whining to my husband about the chemicals that I knew they were cleaning with, but he brought up a few good points.  If we ever want to buy a small farm I need to take care of some student loans that are still hanging over my head AND that worrying about the chemicals would probably kill me before the cleaners do.  I am sometimes amazed that we are both Pisces, I am everything that a Pisces is and he is the polar opposite!  Perhaps that is why we strangely work so well, I only see things through emotions, he is all logic.  Anyway, he had a point...sometimes you just need to do what you have to do to get to the place you want to be.  Where I want to be is on a small piece of land so we can raise a few animals and have a huge garden, cut out the grocery store as much as possible and consume mostly local foods, have more money for homeschooling activities, and eventually get a certification in traditional foods (I would love to turn my passion for traditional foods into a career).  All of these things can be more easily attained with a little bit more money added to our monthly budget.

He came home this morning to watch the kids while I went for an interview.  When I came home and told him that I might start training on Friday evening he said that as a celebration gift he would buy me a box of masks and latex gloves.  What a guy!

Probiotic Potato Salad

I have been making this potato salad since I have been making kefir and it is one of my families favorites!  With 6 people it is difficult to come up with something that everyone likes.

3 pounds organic all -purpose potatoes, not peeled
1/2 cup of mayonnaise (I use lacto-fermented when I have it on hand)
1/2 cup of raw milk kefir
2 Tbsp of raw apple cider vinegar
1/2 of a yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of black pepper
2 large stalks of celery, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, shredded

In a large sauce pan cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until tender, about 25 minutes.  Drain.  When cool enough to handle, peel and cut potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes.

In a large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise and milk kefir until blended, then add apple cider vinegar and whisk until smooth.  Stir in the remaining ingredients.  Then add the potatoes and toss to cover with the dressing.  Refrigerate and serve cold.

Play Farm

While I would love to have a small hobby farm to raise a few chickens, a cow, and perhaps a pig or two, that just is not in the cards for us right.  What we do have is my husband's job as a manager at a local feed mill and his great contacts with many local, organic farmers.  We are at a farm at least one day each week to pick up our milk and every few weeks we go with my husband when he goes to visit a few of his customers.  The farmers are always very gracious about letting the kids explore the animals.  They get to feed, ride, gather...it is awesome! 

At home I have noticed that playing farm has been the game of choice over the past few weeks.  Just this morning while sitting out back sipping my coffee I looked over to see Taj and Peylyn at the water table "milking the cow."  I couldn't stop laughing, Taj was letting out a little water from the top while Peylyn was catching it in a bucket from underneath.

The other week our neighbor gifted them a pack of chalk eggs for the first day of spring.  For weeks my kids would not draw with them, they hid them in the grass and would call out that it was time to gather the eggs.  Peylyn would get a bucket and run to find the eggs for us.

Perhaps one day my kids will get to milk their own cow, but for now I feel very blessed with what we do have.