Don't Look!

I like football. My kids like football. We like to watch football together.

Unfortunately, there are also commercials.

As a rule, when the commercials come on, I mute them. If I deem them "safe" for the kids to see, I don't worry about who is watching, or who isn't, but if they are in any way inappropriate for my kids to see, I shout "Don't look!"

And they don't look!

Yesterday I was watching college football by myself, commercials and all, when my 5-year-old daughter came into the room unexpectedly. I had already muted them, but she glanced at the screen as I shouted, "Don't look!" She quickly looked away, and reassured me, "Don't worry, Mommy, I didn't see any bad stuff, only the word murder." (Do CSI tv show previews freak out any other parents out there?)

Today, we watched football again. After I had shouted another warning not to look at a commercial, and they all ducked their heads, someone asked me if they could watch the commercials muted until there was another scary-looking one. I told her no, and explained again how some commercials are not scary, but are definitely inappropriate for them to be watching, listening to, or reading. (Cialis or Viagra, anyone? Or perhaps a nice highly sexualized tv show preview? Sheesh.) I reminded them of what happened yesterday, when my 5-year-old read the words on a commercial without intending to. They remembered, and were again content to stick with the rules as they are already set up.

"It's all right, Mommy," my 5-year-old told me. "I didn't really read the word 'murder'. It's just that when I saw it I recognized how it was spelled."

Whew. What a relief!

Duck, Duck, Goose!

Friday evening, our neighbor Mary taught my kids how to play Duck, Duck, Goose. She started by asking them to sit in a circle. They tried, but it was more like a semi-circle.

They were not off to a good start.

They listened attentively as Mary explained how the game works, and were eager to begin. They promptly declared the person doing the tagging the "Ducker".

The first girl Mary tagged as Goose lunged to her feet, gauged the distance between herself and Mary and ran the shortest distance around the circle...towards Mary instead of chasing her. Mr. Adorable jumped to his feet too, and ran around in a few random circles in the yard before sitting back down in the circle.

Mary patiently explained the rules again, while I joined the circle to play too.

The second time around, the chosen Goose started chasing the "Ducker" in the right direction, but turned around and ran the other way again so she could beat the "Ducker" back to the empty place in the circle. She didn't want to lose her spot! Mr. Adorable jumped up when she did, and ran around the circle too, diving into her lap as soon as she sat down again.

When I could breathe between bouts of laughter, I helped Mary explain the rules again.

The third time around, my second oldest daughter was tagged. She cut right to the chase...right through the middle of the circle to tag the person who had tagged her. Mr. Adorable was close behind her, and dove into my lap.

I fell over, I was laughing so hard, and while Mr. Adorable helped me sit back up, Mary explained the rules. Again.

They finally got it.

Mostly.

My five-year-old circled around two or three times on her turns as the "Ducker", and included our neighbor's beagle in the circle, too. Mr. Adorable still charged around the circle full tilt every time anyone else did, and dove into whatever lap he wanted, but three or four rounds passed smoothly enough.

Until the second to the last round.

Daughter #3 went around the circle three times before she tagged Daughter #2 as the Goose, then ran as fast as she could around the circle to get back to her spot. Daughter #2 caught up with her before she did, however...and brought her down with a flying tackle that would have made Troy Palomalu proud.

The game ended shortly thereafter, called on account of ... ice cream for dessert. :)

It Doesn't Take Long

How to Drive Your Mother Crazy in 24 Hours or Less Without Even Really Trying

by the Children in our family

Start with a boot sticking out from under the kitchen counter,

and the other one in the middle of the living room, next to the pillows that are not allowed off the couches. (A sticker left upside down on the carpet, waiting to be stepped on, also adds a nice touch.)

Try leaving one magazine open and another wedged behind the cushion of the only chair,

and ponytail elastics and headbands on the couch.

Be sure to store a ball next to the couch,

and don't pick up the toilet paper you dropped on the bathroom floor.

(Don't flush, either.)

Leave a toy egg and a lego car by mom's bathroom sink,

a pair of pink flipflops under the table,

books all over the kitchen counters,

and a stuffed manatee on the old dining room table.

That ought to do the trick!

(It works sometimes with our mom, anyway!)

Garden Bounty

This is my garden. It consists of three large pots containing large, unproductive plants. We don't even know for sure what we planted. It's kind of pathetic.

OK, it's very pathetic!

Most of my friends have real gardens, the kind that get planted in the ground, on time, and that actually produce enough vegetables to eat.

Lucky for me, though, sometimes my friends have plants that overproduce, and they start giving fruits and vegetables away.

So far this summer we've been given blackberries, crookneck squash, basil and other herbs, yellow squash, cucumbers, green bell peppers, zucchini, and now cherry tomatoes. A lot of cherry tomatoes! (Thanks, Deborah!)

I kind of like this gardening business! My friends do all the work, and I reap only the benefits. I get to spend time with other moms, my kids get to play with other kids, and oh, yeah, we get to eat lots of yummy things, too!

Six Hours Later...

Today was our designated commissary shopping trip for the month, but we never just go to the commissary. If we're going to be out and about, I want to get it all done, so we don't have to go out again. So, we went to the PX mall, the commissary, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Kroger, and we did it all in almost exactly six hours. We got groceries, produce, cleaning supplies, diapers, and a new office chair, and while we were at Sam's Club, we also got a pair of glasses tightened.

The chair was in a huge box, and it wouldn't fit anywhere except for behind the passenger seat in the van, in front of the toddler's carseat. He liked his temporary footrest, though. My youngest daughter had two packages of toilet paper and a box of pears for her footrest, and the oldest two girls shared the back

row of the van with a huge insulated bag full of cold food.

It took me an hour to unload the van.

It took another half an hour to get all the cold food put away in the fridge and freezer, and all the rest of our purchases unpacked and set on the counter. They will live there temporarily in relative safety from my littlest helper until I have a chance to put them away.

I don't even want to talk about the state of my fridge.

Let's just say that we'll need to eat a lot of food before I can even begin to think about buying more milk or making yogurt.

I spent a lot of money. I am very, very tired.

I don't have to go back to the commissary until October (or so).

I'm not complaining! :)

Ah, Summer!

The summers of my childhood were idyllic. Long, quiet summers, with no commitments, nowhere I had to be, nothing I had to do, and by the end of each one, I was really, really looking forward to school starting again.

Some things never change.

This summer was anything but idyllic. It flew past, loudly, with all kinds of commitments attached; we had to be everywhere, we had to do everything, and I find myself once again really, really looking forward to school starting again!

I've neglected my poor blogs (but I think they survived...), my house and yard are not quite as neat as usual, we've eaten out more often than I would like to admit, and I've not gotten anything really out of the ordinary accomplished around the house.

On the other hand, my children are happy, healthy, fed, and clean, and we've had some wonderful adventures lately.

It's been a wonderful summer!

(But I'm glad to be back!) :)

Beauty in Bubbles

When the laundry, dishes, food prep, and housework are seem to be never-ending, I find joy in the simple things.

The very simple things.

Like soap bubbles in my skillet.

Unintentional Air Freshener

I got some fresh herbs from a friend this week, and decided to dry some of them.  I couldn't think of very many places that were high enough to be safely out of a toddler's reach, so I hung them from the knobs of my higher kitchen cabinets.

I don't imagine that I will ever combine these two herbs in a recipe, but as they dry we can smell them throughout the entire kitchen, and they smell SO good together!  We've got a couple bunches of mint, and one bunch of oregano.

It's organic, chemical-free air freshener 

that will end up re-purposed as tea and 

seasonings!  Two for the price of one, 

except that it was free!  (Thanks Amy!)

Head over to Tammy's Recipes for 

more useful kitchen tips!

Of Vegetables and Kids

Our commissary has two sizes of bags in the produce section.  There are the normal, kinda flimsy bags that most grocery stores have, and there are some really big, strong bags that can be used for the bigger vegetables, like heads of lettuce, piles of spinach, bundles of kale or chard...even stalks of rhubarb can stand up in those bags!  For most of our produce, we use the little, flimsy bags, but I like the big ones for things like bananas, corn, and broccoli.  

Today, while I was picking through the asparagus, I let my two oldest daughters fill one of those small bags half-way full of green beans.  They did a good job, so when they asked if they could get some broccoli too, I said yes.  While I waited, I busied myself with checking my list, making sure Mr. Adorable was sitting down, and preventing my 5-year-old from squishing the grapes.  

Until I heard the older couple next to me chuckling.  "You don't see that every day!", the man said to his wife.

THAT would be my two very busy 7-year-old daughters, filling one of those really, big, strong plastic produce bags to the very top with broccoli.  I made them put half of it back.  "But, Mom!", they protested loudly, "We LIKE broccoli!"

The older couple laughed out loud.  

I guess they couldn't help it.  :)

Tips for Preparing to Go Grocery Shopping

Today's tips are brought to you by the need to go buy some groceries.

Before backing the van out of the garage, you should:

*Make sure daughter #1 has a right shoe and a left shoe, not two matching right shoes.

*Make sure daughters #1 and #2 are in their assigned seats so there is no fighting.

*Make sure son is in his own carseat, not sitting, grinning, in daughter #2's seat.

*Go back inside and grab the diaper bag.  

*Check to be sure you have your wallet and military ID.

*Go back inside to fill and hand out water bottles to all four kids...it's gonna be a hot day.

*Go back inside and get one for yourself, too.

*Go back inside again to get the cold bags, re-usable grocery bags, and milk crate full of empty bottles.

*Make sure daughter#3 has her seatbelt on properly, and while you're at it,

*please be sure to notice that she is also wearing two right shoes, and

*go back inside to find the matching left shoe.

*Grab your car keys on the way back out, and since you are going grocery shopping, you should also

*go back inside and get your grocery list off the fridge.

*Get in the van.  Do not look at the clock to see how long that took you!

Have fun grocery shopping!

My Pet Cobweb

I keep a cobweb in the corner of my shower.  It's been there for months, and I have no immediate plans to get rid of it.  It's my pet cobweb.

I like looking at it.

It reminds me that no matter how clean the rest of my house looks, there is always something that needs cleaned.  There will always be a small pile of dust in a corner somewhere, the carpet will always need to be vacuumed around the edges in one room or another, and the baseboards and walls will always need to have the scuff marks wiped off.  Again.  

The cobweb in my shower gives me permission to NOT have a perfectly clean house.  You can expect to have clean towels and mostly-clean floors if you come to visit, but I would fail a white glove test.  My cobweb helps me to be okay with that.

The cobweb I keep in my shower also reminds me that there are cobwebs of another kind hidden in the shadowy corners of my soul.  No matter how clean my life looks from the human perspective, God and I both know about those spiritual cobwebs.  Sometimes those cobwebs are small, fairly simple to dust away, and their removal doesn't bother me much.  Other times I find that they are much larger and stickier than I thought they were, and they grow faster than regular cobwebs, too.

Sometimes simply naming those spiritual cobwebs helps to clear them out:  fear, gossip, laziness, selfishness, pride.  Once I am aware that they are back, they are easier to dust away while they are small, but I don't always see them return.  That's why I keep my pet cobweb in the corner of my shower, a visual reminder that I need to check the corners of my heart for spiritual cobwebs.  Because nobody likes those kinds of cobwebs.  

Not even me.

Country Pantry Goodies

The Country Pantry is the little Mennonite store that we went to on Monday, and I think it's my new favorite store.  Not only does it remind me of the little store we had when I was growing up, but it is just crammed full of good things, and good deals!  I went specifically to get the wheat I need (to grind in my new grain mill), and I came home with a load of hard-to-find goodies.

In addition to the 50 pound bag of wheat, I got a jar of local raw honey, wheat gluten, Real Salt, alphabet noodles, arrowroot powder, unsweetened carob chips, roasted peas, and whole, hormone/antibiotic free, non-homogenized milk.  When I got home and did a little research, I discovered that they also have grass-fed beef, which is hard enough for me to find that it would be worth going back just for that!  (They also have farm fresh eggs, but I'm getting those for free from a friend.)  After a little more research, I figured out that buying milk from them, I will save $3/gallon over buying from Walmart, and save $4/gallon over buying from the commissary (factoring in the $2 glass milk bottle deposit, of course).  That's a huge savings, AND the best milk I can find!  What a deal!

Are you wondering why all these things have me so excited?  It's partly because of what I've learned lately about food (Have you read that book I recommended yet?), and it's partly because, well, this is my life!  I am a wife and a mom.  I have two adults (usually) and four growing kids to feed.  A large portion of my time is spent in the kitchen cooking the healthiest food I know how.  When I'm not in the kitchen I'm probably thinking about making tasty, healthy food, and sometimes (because there are four of these growing kids!) my time is spent finding the absolute best deal I can find on good, healthy food.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by my new choices, I have decided to enjoy the adventure and tackle the challenges.  Mary Poppins sums it up well, I think;  "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun!"  

Yes, I did just quote Mary Poppins.  (What is wrong with me?!?)  And yes, I am having fun!  :)

An Introduction

I'd like you to meet the newest addition to my kitchen.  Isn't it beautiful?  I haven't actually used it yet, but even so, I love that it came with a motorized base AND a free hand crank base too.

This is going to be fun!  :)

P.S.  It's a grain mill!

The Things I Read

Let me introduce you to my new word of the week:

Orthorexia, from the Greek "ortho-" (right and correct) + "exia" (appetite) = right appetite

It sounds innocent enough, doesn't it?  Eating right is a good thing, but orthorexic is a term that is being used in America to describe people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.  I am spending quite a bit of time and energy on the subject lately, but I am doing my best to avoid becoming one of them.  :)

On the other hand, when I began to avoid foods that contain "high frucsish corn syrup" (as my 5-year-old calls it), I began to wonder about all those other ingredients and chemicals (listed and unlisted) we were consuming mindlessly.  Diabetes runs in our family, and I was (and am!) determined to begin preventing it now, for both myself and for my children, but there are so many theories and diets out there that it seemed almost impossible to know which one is "right".  I've been reading blogs written by nutritionally minded Christian women, and there were a few books on the subject that were repeatedly mentioned.  However, since I refuse to take advice from random people that I don't even know, I decided to read some books for myself and draw my own conclusions.  First I did a bunch of research online and came up with a list of books I wanted to read, and then we made a trip to the library.  I came home with titles like Real Food by Nina Planck, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, and The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

First I read Real Food; What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck, and I learned about things like cholesterol (which I have never understood until now!), why eggs and milk are good for us, and how "they" raise and feed the meat we eat.  It was an interesting book, but as one critic pointed out, the author's sole qualifications are that "she grew up on a farm and her parents served good food, she is healthy and she has managed/owned greenmarket stores".  I also hesitate to take everything she wrote at face value for the simple reason that she accepts as fact the theory of evolution.  If she ignores even the existence of our Creator, how can I possibly trust her to guide me in my quest to eat right? 

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, was also very interesting (although also written from an evolutionist viewpoint), and better written (and researched) than Real Food.  It seemed to cover the same ground as Real Food did, but the last third of the book delved into more of howwe Americans eat instead of what we eat.  The author gives advice such as "Eat meals."  "Eat at a table.  No, a desk is not a table."  "Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does."  "Try not to eat alone."  "Eat slowly."  I really enjoyed that book, but the same principle applied; the author ignored even the existence of our Creator.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway has nothing to do with food. But it was really, really good!  I had a hard time putting it down.  (But that has nothing to do with orthorexia or the subjects of food and nutrition.)

During my research I had come across another book called The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin, so I decided to look into it.  (Literally!  Amazon has that neat feature where you can actually read parts of books.)  It looked like too much of one man's experience and not enough of what I wanted, so I kept looking.  I got side-tracked in my search by the title of a book by the same author, The Maker's Diet for Weight-Loss.  (What mother of four with some weight to losewouldn't get side-tracked by a title like that?!?)  I used the same neat "pre-read" feature, and found almost instantly that that book wasn't for me either.  However, the time I spent researching Jordan Rubin's books was not wasted, because on one of the pages in The Maker's Diet for Weight Loss, he quoted from a book called What the Bible Says About Healthy Livingby Rex Russell, MD.

Ah.  How refreshing!  A book about healthy living (not just eating), based on Biblical truths, written by a man who not only is a Christian, but who has his MD and is diabetic.  All of the qualifications I was looking for, all wrapped up in one author!  I bought this book, and as soon as it came in the mail, I started reading.  It was fascinating!  The text is easy to read, liberally sprinkled with Bible verses and references (as a book entitled "What the Bible Says About..."  should be!), and equal parts "ewwww factor" and funny.  When I finished the book, I immediately wanted to share everything I'd learned from it with everyone I know.  The only problem is that while I was immersed in this book, I was also finishing reading through Romans, (both books cover the subject of "the law").  While I would actually highly recommend reading through both concurrently (Romans shone more light on what I was reading in Russell's book and made it easier to understand, and vice versa), I came across a passage in Romans 14 (specifically verse 22!) that struck a nerve:

²⁰Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

 ²²So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

So, while I would love to tell you what you should and should not be eating, I will refrain, and instead I will just highly recommend that you read for yourself What The Bible Says About Healthy Living by Rex Russell, MD, and form your own conclusions.  

Oh, and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan?  I decided not to read it at all.  It seems to me that only an orthorexic would read four thick books on the subject of food in one week, so I'm going to keep it to three, and go back and read What The Bible Says About Healthy Living again instead.  :)

Thoughts on Mowing

Our back yard has a definite slope to it, and our lot is not square.  I know these things about our yard, and I appreciate them for different reasons, but when it comes to mowing the back yard, the odd shape of the lot drives me crazy!  I like the nice neat lines the lawn mower creates, but it takes some creativity to get them to line up neatly from any angle...not that I have too much energy to waste working on that!  

I like those nice neat lines for two reasons.  They look neat when I'm done, and when I'm in the process of mowing, they give me guidelines to follow; I can see where I've already been.  This morning, as the lawn mower was bouncing crazily over the roughest spots, and I tried to keep my lines straight, it struck me how much mowing my back yard has in common with my walk with God.  

We have trees in the back of our lot.  They are not evenly spaced by any stretch of the imagination, but they make excellent focal points nonetheless.  When I mowed uphill toward the back of the lot, I could fix my eyes on a tree, and no matter how crazily the mower was bouncing around, I could easily keep my lines straight.  Going downhill towards the house was easy going.  The mower still bounced over the rough spots, but it was downhill, and I felt like I could relax a little, at least enough to check on the kids playing on the back deck.  The problem came when I reached the bottom and turned around to go back up again.  The lines going up were as perfectly straight as I could make them, but the lines coming down were completely uneven and crooked, because I didn't have a focal point.

So I tried a new strategy.  Going uphill, I picked a tree to keep my eyes on, and going downhill I found something on the house or deck to focus on.  That worked pretty well, but looking back up from the bottom of the hill, again I could see crooked lines.  This time, the crooked lines were caused not by not having a focal point, but by taking my eyes off of the focal point to check on the kids or to throw a stick or rock out of my way.

I was reminded of Philippians 3:12-14.  "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Now don't get me wrong!  When mowing the lawn, it is important to throw sticks and rocks out of the way, and to check on the kids every now and then.  It's even okay to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, and to relax a little on those downhill slopes.  Those actions, on the other hand, made me realize how often I focus too much on the things of this world and neglect "pressing on toward the goal."  

I spend a lot of time thinking about things like how to raise my children properly, how to teach them, what we are eating, and what needs done around the house, which are all good and necessary things to consider.  However, I should not be focusing on those issues to the point where I no longer have time or energy to read my Bible, pray, and "strain toward what is ahead".

It is hard work mowing uphill, and it is hard work following God's ways, but they are both made easier by keeping my focus in the proper place and on the right thing.  Often my walk with God is comfortable and easy, as is mowing downhill, but when I look back, I find that I have neglected something, or become complacent about something I shouldn't have. 

I need to apply these lessons I've learned today about mowing my back yard to my daily life, and do as Hebrews 12:2 says:  "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  

When my eyes are fixed on Him, it doesn't matter how rough the ground is beneath my feet.  When my eyes are fixed on Him, the lines of my life will be as perfectly straight as I can make them.

Just like my back yard.

Not My Mother's Yogurt

I have never really liked yogurt.  Especially the homemade plain yogurt my mom used to make in the hotbox when we lived in Peru, South America (Sorry, Mom!).  So I simply avoided eating it.

When my two oldest girls were little, I used to buy them those special baby yogurts.  I figured that I should at least taste what I was feeding my kids, and what do you know?!?  They were pretty good!  I started buying yogurt for me, too, in all the fancy flavors I could find.  After a while, the girls were both eating yogurt at least once a day, too, and it was cheaper to buy them the same kinds I was buying for my husband and I.  When my youngest daughter graduated to eating "big people yogurt" too, it got to be a little bit expensive.  We were going through at least 25 yogurts a week, usually more, and the commissary doesn't carry any (cheaper) generic brands.

When I was pregnant with my son, I had gestational diabetes, and I had to pay attention to how many carbohydrates were in each thing I ate.  Just one of my favorite yogurts filled my entire quota of carbs for a snack, (and it was too many carbs for my breakfast), and I began to examine the label a little closer.  Sugar. Lots of sugar.

So I borrowed a little trick from a friend who is a registered dietitian and mother of four, and began mixing the sugared, flavored yogurts with plain yogurt for the kids' snacks.  Three scoops of plain yogurt for each kid, and one scoop of flavored came out perfectly.  We used only one yogurt a day (for the kids, anyway) and they no longer complained that their yogurt was too sweet.

When my husband deployed again, and I quit buying yogurt for his lunches, the kids and I started mixing other things into our plain yogurt for snacks.  We've had it with raisins, frozen fruit, honey, jam, brown sugar, and granola.  Most recently, our favorite way to eat yogurt is plain...and warm.  (I can hear you now..."Eww!  Warm yogurt?!?  That's disgusting!"  Bear with me...)

I was now buying plain yogurt in those two pound containers, and we were eating so much of it  that I was beginning (again) to question the cost, not to mention the fact that two times out of three the commissary was out of it when we needed it.  So I looked online and found a recipe for making yogurt in the crockpot.  And it actually works!  The first time I tried it, it was ready right at breakfast time, and all four kids practically inhaled their huge servings of warm yogurt, and then they asked for more.  Well, except for Mr. Adorable.  The only words he said the entire time were, "Mmmm.  Mmmm.  Mmmm.", and then finally he asked for more too.  "Mo, Mama!"

Yesterday I made it again in my new crockpot, but a double batch this time.  I had also found a recipe for vanilla yogurt, but it called for almost as much sugar as it did milk, so I decided to just try adding vanilla to the milk and see what happened.  I made the vanilla yogurt in my old, smaller crockpot.  I started both batches yesterday morning, and by 9:00 last night they were done.  I waited until 11:00 to put all the yogurt in jars, and I ran out of jars before I had emptied the crockpot of vanilla yogurt.  There was about 3/4 of a glass left over of the most liquid-y of the still-warm yogurt.

So I drank it.  It was so good that I mixed a little milk into another glassful of yogurt this morning for breakfast.

It is definitely not my mother's yogurt.

Tired of Broken Jars

I make vegetable stock to use in our soups, and then I freeze it until I'm ready to use it.  I don't like to use Ziploc bags to freeze it in, because I always make a mess, so I experimented with quart jars.  I made sure it had cooled completely before I filled the jars, left the lids off until it was frozen solid, and I left plenty of space for the stock to expand, and still the jars kept breaking in the freezer!  I did a little research and discovered that I was not the only one to have this problem, so I thought a little harder and came up with a new solution.

I freeze the stock in a muffin pan.  I can control how much goes in each cup before I freeze it, and my quart jars don't break any more!  It's also a lot easier to get the stock out of the jar, and I don't have to use all of it if I don't need it.  This method also works well for my chicken and turkey soup bases and for the beef stock I make out of the leftover roast juices.

I think this would also work well for freezing leftover soups!  It would be frozen in nice little portions, simple and easy to warm up for one, two, or more people, and the smaller portions melt faster, too.  A good thing when it's lunchtime and your children are starving!

I only wish I'd thought of this sooner!

There are always lots of great ideas and recipes on Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammysrecipes.com!

Vah Humvug!

Thump thumpity thump thump thump!  The sound of my four-year-old's feet skipping across the floor woke me up.  I knew instantly who it was, and dragged myself out of bed to go find out why she was up...at 4:48 a.m.  And that other sound I was hearing...yes, it was definitely whispering.  When I got upstairs, she was just climbing back into her bed, my seven-year-old daughters were together in one bed, and all three of them were whispering excitedly about the valentines I'd left at the ends of their beds.

Vah Humvug.

I am a Valentine's Day Scrooge, but thanks to their grandmas, the girls have been counting down the days until Valentine's Day.  They've planned out what they were going to wear today, and they've been working all week on envelopes for each other that are overflowing with notes and drawings.  My oldest daughter gave me a Valentine's note a few days ago, and when I went to bed last night, I found an envelope from the other 7-year-old daughter on my bedside table:

So I dug out some valentines and put one at the end of each girls bed, and one by Mr Adorable's door.

And now, the girls and I have all been up since 4:48.

Hmph.  Vah Humvug.

Opportunities

Remember the chaotic lunch preparations I wrote about the other day?  I got an email yesterday morning that made me look at our time spent together in the kitchen in a whole new way.  

Someone older and wiser than I shared with me her own experiences with her young children helping in the kitchen and commented, "what fun, and what an opportunity for teaching and patience."

Before yesterday, I was looking at my kitchen-ful of kids and seeing messes, enthusiasm, inexperience, the learning process, spills, helpfulness, waste, wonder, and excitement.  I saw the potential for fun, and the opportunity for me to teach, but I missed seeing the lessons that are there for me to learn.

My dictionary defines opportunity as: "a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something".  I just went back and counted, and in that description of our lunch-making process, there were 17 opportunities for patience.  And for the record, since I'm being honest here, I only took 7 of them.  I missed 10 opportunities to be patient...but at least now I know what they look like.

I'm excited now to learn to recognize all my opportunities for patience!  I'm sure that I can find them all day long, and not just when we're working in the kitchen.  The challenge will be in reminding myself that they ARE opportunities for patience, not just another mess to clean up or problem to solve!

Group Cooking 101

I'll admit it.  I have not been very excited about the prospect of having the kids help me in the kitchen.  They're 7, 7, 4, and 21 months, and they're messy, they're slow, and they tend to enjoy the strangest things at the most inopportune moments.  It is SO much easier and faster to do it myself.

On the other hand, I want to teach them how to cook, and they're eager to learn, so I decided (and yes, it took a conscious decision) to start teaching them now, before they decide it's not fun anymore.  I just make sure we're making something that is easily salvageable in case of accidents, and that we have plenty of time to get it put together.  And I'm teaching them to start with a clean work area and to clean up after themselves as we go.  :)

So, the other day for lunch, we made Creamed Tuna on toast because our bread was going stale.  (You wanted the truth, right?)  :)  My part of the process sounded something like this (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

"Everyone washed their hands with soap?  OK, Addie, you can unwrap this butter and put it in the pan.  No, if you want to unwrap the butter you can do it now and get a drink after you're done.  Molly, please get the flour.  Julia, find a tablespoon.  That's a cup.  You need one of the spoons that says 1 TBS on it.  Molly, if you keep whining at me you won't get to do anything else.  You'll get a turn doing something.  I know, you can get the toaster out and put the bread in it.  Addie, are you about done opening the butter?  Julia, while we're waiting for the butter you can measure one tablespoon of flour, but don't dump it in yet.  Isaiah, take the ball out of the kitchen.  No, I'll pour the milk into the measuring cup because I just opened this gallon and it's too heavy for you, Molly.  Addie, is that butter unwrapped yet?  Put it in the pan and throw the paper away, then wash your hands again.  Molly, stir this butter until it melts, but be careful not to touch the pan.  It's hot.  Julia, you can put the flour in and then get one more spoonful.  Molly, keep stirring all over the pan so that the flour doesn't stick and burn.  No, thank you Julia, I'll put the milk in.  Keep stirring, Molly.  Julia, you can put the flour away.  Yes, Addie, you can get out the ketchup.  Hold on a minute, Julia.  I don't know yet what you can do next.  Addie, why are you getting the stool?  No, the ketchup is in the fridge!  Isaiah, please shut the drawer.  Here, Molly, let me stir for a minute to make sure it's mixed up good before we put more in.  Julia, it's your turn to stir.  Molly, fill this tablespoon two times with ketchup and dump it in.  Isaiah, get out of the cupboard!  Yes, Addie, you can put the ketchup away.  No, please put it in right side up, it's too full to put upside down yet.  It keeps falling over.  Would you like to help open the tuna fish?  These are neat packages Daddy bought, aren't they?  Keep stirring Julia.  What?!?  They even put corn syrup in Worcestershire sauce!  OK, dump the tuna in, Addie, but be careful of the hot pan.  Just one, Molly, and let Addie open the other two.  You can push down the thing on the toaster now, Molly.  Let me break up those chunks, Julia, I don't want you to get splashed.  Molly get plates, Julia get forks, Isaiah get in your highchair.  Everyone helped, Molly, not just you and Julia.  Quit trying to upset your sister.  Who wants milk?"

In spite of the chaos, it was kind of fun!  So, after snack, when no one wanted to help me work in the kitchen, I wondered aloud if I had enough energy to make the cookies I had planned to make.  Julia immediately changed her mind and volunteered to help me.

So, Julia and I made cookies Thursday afternoon, just the two of us.

And since Addie was the only one still at the table after lunch when I discovered that my new crock pot had been delivered, she helped me create "Stoneless Stone Soup".

Molly, not to be left out, helped make bread later in the afternoon to go with our soup.

And we all survived the experience!  :)

Soup's On!

My new Crock Pot came on Thursday!

When I tried to make a double batch of Crock Pot Granola and barely had room to stir, and when our favorite recipe of Crock Pot Ajiaco came close to overflowing the pot, I decided it was time to research and buy a bigger Crock Pot.

I had a hard time finding what I wanted.  I knew I wanted an oval one, 6 quart capacity or larger, with white stoneware, and after doing some research, I also knew that I didn't want a "smart" one with pre-set hour selections.  My initial shopping ventures made me think that the Crock Pot I was hoping to find did not exist.  But I persevered, and finally found what I had in mind, and it was exactly what I wanted!

What I want to know is, when did I become this person...this person that got so excited about the delivery of her new Crock Pot that she immediately washed it and began to make soup?

Not My Mother's Casserole

When we were first married, my husband and I had a deal.  He cooked, I cleaned up after him.  That system worked for a few years, but when I started working only part-time and eventually not at all, I took over the cooking.  I will freely admit how much I really enjoyed that first phase of our marriage, because I have never liked to cook.  I knew HOW, (Mom made sure of that!), but I didn't have to like it.

I came into our marriage with a boatload of family recipes and familiar cookbooks, and collected more along the way.  I discovered Cooking Light magazine in 2003, and suddenly, cooking was fun!  I was trying new, sometimes exotic recipes that were actually good for us!  I tried something new almost every night, and I spent a lot of my spare time reading through other people's published recipes.

That phase didn't last long, though.  Maybe remodeling a townhouse with three little girls ages three and under had something to do with it...or maybe it was the cross-country move to our new home that killed it, but whatever it was, by the time my husband deployed to Iraq, I was back to basic, boring meals.  Whatever was quick, relatively balanced, and easy to make, that's what was for dinner.  Eat-it-anyway food.

When my husband returned home from Iraq, I started cooking again.  Nothing fancy, but things that actually took prep time.  Things I had to plan ahead for.  There-are-no-leftovers food.

That didn't last long either.  I got pregnant with Mr. Adorable, and I.  Was.  Exhausted.  All the time.  I was doing good to get something -- anything -- on the table.  And then I had 3 kids and an infant.  And I started homeschooling.  And for 11 weeks I had to cook in a kitchen the size of a postage stamp, that had a teeny tiny fridge and no oven.  With three pots and a skillet.  At-least-we're-eating food.

The one thing that was consistent through all of those phases was my attitude.  I was selfish.  I still am, but I'm admitting it now.  :)  I didn't want to spend time cooking, because that took away even more time from the little "me" time I had left in my day.  

I've spent quite a bit of time in the past year or so with three women, Elisabeth, Charlotte, and Tammy, who have greatly influenced my thinking, and my attitude.  Elisabeth Elliot started the changing process for me when a friend re-introduced me to her books.  Her words, some gentle reminders, some not-so-gentle statements, addressed my root issue of selfishness and challenged me to aim higher.  I am a wife and mother -- THIS is my calling, my portion.  (Including the cooking part, which has slowly BECOME my "me" time, even when I share it.)  Charlotte Mason, while addressing the issue of the Will in teaching children, showed me that when I change my thoughts, my attitude will change along with them.  And then Lindafay, who led me to Charlotte, "introduced" me to Tammy's Recipes through a link in her side-bar.

Oh my.  A recipe blog.  Filled with common sense, a good attitude, good recipes, and links every Tuesday to OTHER blogs full of recipes, ideas, and thoughts.  As I read through Tammy's blog, and others I found through hers, I started thinking about not just WHAT to cook for dinner, but about things like WHAT is IN what I'm cooking for dinner, and how high our grocery bill really WAS every week.

It didn't take long for me to get excited about cooking again.  I was already enjoying the challenge of cooking more from scratch, trying new recipes (although recipe blogs can be addicting!), tweaking old ones to suit our tastes, and seeing just how low I could get the grocery bill ... and then I started reading the labels on everything I buy.

I've always tried to pay attention to the labels on the foods I give my family, doing the "good mommy" thing by avoiding the "bad fats" and making sure sugar wasn't TOO high on the ingredients list.  BUT.  I started reading the labels on my favorite "staple" items too.  High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, and Sugar as the first or second ingredients in "healthy" foods.  MSG, and Polymonuglutasucramites, and glurocamodirides, (yes, I made those two words up), and more unpronounceable chemical additives.  I quit buying them.

Yeah, I've made some big changes lately.  Mostly it's my attitude that has changed, but the way I shop and the way I cook have changed, too.  And I'm making some little changes as well.  

Take tonight, for instance.  I made one of my mom's recipes, Hamburger Green Bean Casserole, but I made a few changes.  I made my own Cream of Mushroom soup instead of using a can, and I used plain yogurt instead of sour cream.  Mom's recipe is very good the way it is, and those were the only two things I changed, but it was Not My Mother's Casserole anymore.

It was mine.  :)

Baking Shortcut

I have a new favorite whole wheat bread recipe (Thanks, Angel!) that calls for orange juice.  The kids and I don't drink a lot of orange juice, and if I mix up a batch it tends to just sit in the fridge...forever!  So I saved myself some time and money, and froze the orange juice in ice cube trays.  I measured before I froze them, and the 1/4 cup I need for the recipe equals three cubes.  Now, when I make bread, I just thaw out three orange juice cubes and I'm ready to bake!

Tammy has some bread slicing tips on today's Kitchen Tips!

Closet Space

After Mr. Adorable dumped the contents of my shoe rack onto the floor, I decided that maybe it was time to clean out my closet.  I've spent the last year sorting, consolidating and re-organizing every closet and every room in the house, and I never even thought about tackling MY closet.

But last month, tackle it I did!  I made myself some mental guidelines and dove into the project.  I got rid of:

*anything that was stained, stretched out, or worn out

*styles that were too young 

*shirts that were low-necked, sheer, or not long enough

*things that just "weren't ME" (even if they WERE cashmere!)

*shoes that were uncomfortably tight (even if they WERE Clarks!)

I sorted through my bookshelves recently too, and got rid of a small pile of beloved books, the premise being that if I wouldn't allow my children to read them when they get older, then they have no business being on my shelves.  As a parent, I should lead by example!  That same idea contributed to my clothes-sorting guidelines.  

To begin with, we humans (especially we Americans) could get by with a lot less stuff.  (Time to clean OUT the closet, not just straighten it!)  We (our family) live on a comfortable income, and can afford to buy new clothes IF and when we really need them.  (Good-bye, stained, stretched out, worn out old t-shirts -- I can always wear one of my husband's t-shirts when I mow the lawn!)  I am 32 years old, and a mother of four.  (Isn't it time to dress my age?  Well, at least not wear clothes meant for teenagers...)  I am trying to teach my girls what is and what isn't modest, and good examples are hard to find.  (I shouldn't be able to point to my OWN closet for the bad examples!)  And yes, I am addicted to cashmere (anything cashmere!) and Clarks brand shoes, and I will freely admit it.  (But that doesn't mean I should wear unflattering colors or styles and walk around in too-tight shoes!)

It is a lot easier to keep my closet neatly organized now that there are less clothes in it!  Now, if I could just convince Mr. Adorable that my shoes and shoe rack are not toys...

On the 16th Day of January

4 gallon bags of frozen, crushed tomatoes and juice - thawed and cooked

8 1/4 quarts of spaghetti sauce - cooked and canned

5 quarts of concentrated tomato soup stock - canned

5 pints of tomato juice - canned

3 pints of tomato juice - frozen

12 cookies baked for snack-time - and eaten!

12 slices of ham for lunch tomorrow

5 pints of diced ham - diced and frozen

1 ham bone and 2 cups of chopped ham scraps - frozen

1 ice cube tray of ham drippings - frozen

1 chuck roast with new potatoes, gravy and green beans for dinner

2 pints of beef soup stock - frozen

1 pint leftover roast - shredded and frozen

1 chest freezer - sorted and organized

1 fridge/freezer - sorted and organized

3 dishwasher loads - washed and put away

2 loads of hand washing - drip drying

1 stove-top with burned-on tomato juice - cleaned

6 phone calls

1 visitor

1st grade schoolwork - done in the kitchen

Kindergarten schoolwork - done in the kitchen

1 cranky toddler - cuddled

1 lost tooth

1 exhausted mommy

Hm.  I count more than 12 hours spent in the kitchen today.  I think I'll wait until tomorrow to bake my bread.  :)