Monthly Archives: December 2014

We enjoy doing lots of baking around here.  I have many little hands that like to mix things up and eat them too:)  We had some guests for Thanksgiving weekend and we needed to plan for some easy breakfast meals.  These quick breads were easy and quick to mix up and tasted great for a breakfast meal.  Pumpkin bread, how can you go wrong with that?  We enjoy making chocolate pumpkin muffins on a regular basis but I have some that enjoy the taste of bread with butter.  Jadyn enjoyed mixing up this treat.

You can click here to view the recipe.  We made these and then wrapped them in tin foil.  They tasted moist still after sitting out for 5 days on the counter.

Brooklyn with the help of Jentzen helped mix up the cinnamon quick bread. 

This was easy to mix up and tasted very good.  We wrapped it in foil like the pumpkin and it tasted very moist still after 5 days on the counter.  We will be making both of these breads again for special morning meals.

We also mixed up some apple dapple cake to go along with our breads–this cake gets more moist as the days go on.  If you have never tried making this before, you should, it tastes delicious.

We set out some fresh fruit to go along with our breads.  Oranges, grapefruits, and bananas were the choice.  I also had our homemade yogurt with strawberry sauce for anyone that would like that.Here was Brooklyn’s sample plate

Clean up was easy, just wrap up the remainder breads, put away cold foods and wash a few plates.  No scrubbing of pans or big washing jobs—something I do not enjoy early in the morning hours.  Here is a snapshot of how our serving bar looked after the destruction. 

An easy meal and tastes wonderful.  We will be making these again when I need a quick breakfast to feed many people.

Moving to a new area with new people can be exciting and it can be frustrating. There are so many things that you have to learn how to do all over again. Finding all the right places to shop and visit can take time.  Every weekend, we enjoy exploring and finding new areas to play at. But just finding the grocery store to shop at can be a chore.  Thank goodness for chains like Aldis’ and Walmart.  The hardest task, which should be the easiest is finding a church.

We moved to the bible belt area of the south.  There are churches EVERYWHERE.  Literally driving a 1 mile stretch will produce 10-15 churches all of different denomination, its crazy.  There are so many different kinds of churches trying to seek God.  I say crazy in a good way:)

We attended many different styles of churches  throughout my life.  We have been to the traditional non denominational all the way to the more reverent Mennonite church back to a pentecostal church.  Extreme opposites!!  But the good thing is that God has us ALL doing different things to reach different types of people and that is good.  We are not all cookie cutter type people, we each are made in the image of God and just as our children are made of us, they take different personality types from us and act differently among the family but they are still one.  The churches are the same way, each are many members of different types but still ALL are seeking  to worship God.

How do you choose?  Do you listen to the pastor that “explains” that they keep a more reverent service in honor of the Lord and keep to traditional hymns as to not be like the world??? Or do you listen to the pastor who is up there shouting for joy “stating” that if he can’t get excited about God and what He is doing that isn’t right and that they try and show the “world” that you can worship God with their types of music but focus it on God?

It can be confusing.  So you may start looking at the congregation and what it has to offer to help persuade you or some may look at the growth and the size of the church.  I think some might like an “established” church while others prefer one that needs growth.   Lots of different facets  to  consider.

But what I believe is that if Satan can keep you looking down and searching around “trying” to look for the “right” church—like those bottom feeders, I talked about last week, then he can keep you from reading the word and listening to God’s voice.

Church isn’t about a feeling god.  It is a place to worship God.  Every service is a spiritual thing.  Some people like church because they like the choir, or the preaching.  But it has to be where you are going to be GROWING spiritually.

Take a baby, they are the greatest thing in the world, so cute and cuddly, but some of the greatest joys about their life is when they start growing.  You don’t want them to be babies forever you have to let them grow.  The same is true of church.  You have to find a church where you will GROW spiritually.

If the music is long and “emotional” and you are “feeling” the spirit that is okay BUT if the message is 15 minutes, you aren’t going to get much “meat” to take with you for the week to help your spiritual growth.

You should be looking at your life.  Every year you should be better physically, spiritually, and financially.   God is not a god who wants you to go backwards you should be moving forward!!

Large churches are great don’t get me wrong, they are established and sometimes have it figured out.  But what you want to look at is the “core.”  What is the core like?  Churches are going to be full of those bottom feeders—the ones searching for their places—but look at the core—is it growing strong and getting larger?  We need to be growing in the body of Christ and becoming more like Him.

Some preachers want to be politically correct—-what is that??  When has God EVER become politically correct???  Is it wrong to say things that are the word of God?  Your church should be preaching  the word of God.  When you preach God’s word and  it isn’t a threat, the devil cant do anything about it.

Some preachers stay away from commitment to people.  If you start talking about commitment some people will leave—no one likes commitment.  But commitment is what makes an army.  I am not much into United States and the army but something I have learned about through watching some documentaries is that the army here is very committed.  They try and bring back every soldier that is in war.  They will even go out into the battlefield after they have fought and get the remnants and remains of dead people.  Can you image if the “church” and its army went out and was committed to getting the remnants of it’s dead people?

You have to find a church that stands for something.  If you don’t stand for something than you will fall for anything.  Jesus stood for things.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
 Ephesians 6:13

He reminds us to take and put on things in these verses.  God wants us to wrap around our minds and our bodies His words so that you remember who you are all the time, everyday!!

When you leave church, you should take something with you.  The pastor is ordained by God to “pass on” a message to you.  You should be taking it with you to help you grow in your walk with Him.  We shouldn’t be looking at “getting stuff” from God.  When we go to church—it isn’t about our emotions and how we feel, it is about worshiping God and getting closer to Him.  As we get closer to the Lord, we don’t have to worry about things because He will give them to us.

Just as a parent takes care of his child—physically, emotionally,and financially—God does the SAME thing.  It is about a relationship with Him.

Romans 12:2

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Being a Christian is what God wants us to be, but He also calls us to be a DISCIPLE of Him.  He wants us to be His word and do His works.  That is what we should be seeking after when looking for a church.

I have to apologize, on one of our family videos that we recorded and posted on here, my husband and I were talking about a church we attended and they had given our children money and candy when we first visited.  We used the term “reach the children so you can reach the parents” and we laughed about it—not realizing how hurtful to some it may have been.  We have attended a church in the past that used this phrase and this church DOES have a wonderful outreach to children.  We weren’t “mocking” that church by any means, we were referring to something else that we had discussed with someone earlier.  This church member was all about reeling people in for more tithe money and bigger numbers to build bigger buildings.  It was not about shepherding and disciplining people.  It was more of a heart issue when we were stating that.  But I do realize now how it was taken harshly.  I have already apologized personally but want to make it publicly as some readers might also take offense, especially if their church does outreach to children in the community.

Sometimes we NEED to reach the children first because as parents and adults we DON”T listen as well.  But if the children enjoy going to church sometimes the parents may follow.  I will be more careful in using terms loosely as we did in the video.

So where do we go?  I don’t know, we pray and seek God and listen for His word and direction as far as where to be planted.  It is all part of this journey we call life.

Be blessed

Do you ever have days where your children are bored and quarrelsome?  I know I have had my times of letting the little ones just free range doing whatever it is they want to do and it results in arguments, too much tv, and boredom.  So what should we do?

I think back to when I had my first few children, I never had them do many chores at a young age.  Actually, I think they MAYBE had to pick up their rooms with the help of me of course when they were school aged.  Not a whole lot of expectations coming from my side.

Well, I got smarter over the years….I realized that children NEED work for a sense of accomplishment especially at a young age.  That is why, I have even the youngest of our children, help with tasks around the house.

Do I require them? No, not with the littlest ones, but my school aged children know what is expected of them and if they don’t they look at their charts.  They are pretty good to follow what it is they need to do and then they know that once they complete their tasks they are free to do as they please.   This has helped with attitudes and whines.  They know that they have a set thing to do before it is free time.  This allows them to set the bar for happiness for themselves.  “If you want to have free time, then you had better get working, otherwise you will still be doing this all day.”

Sometimes, I have days where there is A LOT Of things to get done. I will then write them on our marker board, under the appropriate child names and  they know what else needs to be done.  I usually save these miscellaneous tasks for after school.  That way we can get our school done without having to wait for the other children to complete extra work.

Having a list let’s them see what it is they need to do and they know what they have to do to get it done.  The other approach is basically giving them jobs to do when they come to my mind. That never goes over well.   Can you imagine having to wait for your boss to decide what else he would want you to do each day?  It might be fine for a day or so, but for regular work, wouldn’t you be better off if he gave you a list and you knew what you had to complete.  It takes off the stress and the strain of wondering when they will be done.

If I notice that my children are squabbling, I take note and see what they are up to.  Does someone need a break, maybe some food, or maybe they just need something to do.  I take care of important needs like food and comfort and then if they are still squabbling, I give them a time away.

Sometimes that might mean that they are overwhelmed with life, as I get too and just need a hug and a short talk.  Sometimes it is just complete rebellion and then they  need a discipline.  Currently in our home, copying works well for that.  We are doing a book called Wisdom and the Millers and it has a short chapter read that we do each day with a lesson connected with the book of Proverbs. 

We relate it, as the book does, to our life and how we can do better.  We make a simple drawing and put it on the wall with the corresponding bible verse.  If anyone needs “correction” it has been helpful to direct them to the lesson we talked about and then have them copy the verse  one piece of paper full.

I used to have a discipline chart on the wall, when I had the older children.  It had the offense on one side and the bible verse as to why they should not do it and then the punishment on the right.  That was good as a “quick reference” but for now, it helps to use the lessons we are currently learning for school.

For the toddler, he has been ‘testing” his boundaries and learning to cope with life without a pacifier.  When he begins to scream in defiance , we tell him “no” and then if he continues we take him to his room and let him sit on his bed.  He doesn’t come out until he is ready to calm down.  This works much better than letting him lay on the floor in a fit.  Which I have done in the past by the way.  There have been MANY times, I have been lapsed in my disciplining, just didn’t put it as a priority, but you do what you can do.

I don’t have a cookie cutter approach to disciplining my children.  My children are not of the cookie cutter kind. Each one has been different and we have dealt with them differently.  There have been times, when I had many little ones that I let them do whatever, then as it wore on me and got me frazzled, I knew I needed to change.  I started training them and correcting them as best as I could.  Now I don’t have as many little ones that take up all of my time and I can focus more on training and correcting them.

Did my older children grow up all bad?  No, not horrible, but I can see where I never “nipped in the bud” some of the attitudes that they have carried into their older years.  Not impossible to fix, just more of a heart issue and growing up issue to correct.  So what does that motivate me to do?  To help correct and train heart issues at a young age with the other children.  When I see them get angry with each other or snippy, I realize most of the time they just need something to do.  As a Mom, I like to do most things myself, but I realize that they need something to do as well.  Start rationing out the work, let them feel a sense of worth as they go about their day.  You will benefit from their help, their hearts will be molded, and you have just helped them deal with and correct an issue in their life.  You did kingdom work—and that is the best out there.

Along with our healthy eating challenge this year to switch over to a more whole foods approach to our diet, we have discovered the benefits of making our own yogurt, drinking and making kombucha, recently started making kefir, and have been making our own bone broth.

I have always used chicken bouillon base to make our soups and to flavor our dishes.  I never really thought that I was feeding my children a chemical, sodium filled ingredient until I stopped.  I found an alternative to make my own chicken bouillon with nutritional yeast.  That was our first step to flavoring our soups.  We stopped buying  store chicken bouillon and then added this homemade version to flavor our soups.  It definitely had less of a salty flavor but we were “training” our tastebuds to a different way of eating.  I added more spices and we learned to enjoy this method.

My next step was to make my own broth.  People all over the world make this mineral rich nourishing broth, why would I not have done this in the first place??    I started looking at the benefits from it:

• Helps aid in digestion.  The gelatin extracted from the bones can help heal and protect the lining of the digestive tract, which means you absorb more nutrients from foods.
• Good for your bones. Calcium and other minerals in bone broth help repair bones.
• Can help joint pain.  Glucosamine, found in the fluid that lubricates our joints, is also in bone broth.
• Helps boost growth in nails and hair as it contains collagen and gelatin.

Then to look up the benefits of chicken flavored bouillon, I found one:

• convenient to use

That wasn’t enough for me to continue using it.  Convenience over health has taken a back seat for me.

I took whole chickens that I had bought from Aldis and put them in my roaster with water to fill it to the top.

I added some carrots, onions, celery, and garlic to help infuse the flavors.  I then set it on low and let it cook for hours, overnight was best.  The longer you let the  meat cook, the more tender your meat will be.

It just fell off the bones and then I separated the meat from the carcass and gave that part to the animals.  I then strained off the liquid from the vegetables and put it into containers for the freezer for a later time.

I use this to make as a base for any soup for our family.

At Thanksgiving time, after removing all the meat from our turkey, I put the carcass into the crockpot with water, onion, garlic, carrot, and celery and let it simmer on low for 8 hours.  I strained off the carcass and vegetables and used the broth for turkey stew later that week.

I don’t have to use any more spices to our soups.  Just some pepper for spiciness and we are good.  It takes getting used to because we are used to a salt laden broth, but as we continued to make it, we were able to use less and less salt in our soups.

Try it, it is inexpensive and good for you.  Why waste things that are free.  You can buy a whole chicken and use it for a few meals and then make some soup with the carcass.  Use up your resources.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net by Praisaeng

Need a great cold and cough remedy that is homemade??  Then look no further.  This is probably one of the most potent and strong tasting –cough suppressing–and throat healing natural remedies I have EVER taken.  Notice all the little pieces floating around inside??  That would be garlic and onion and some fiery hot cayenne pepper!!!  That is what you want to be taking when you are trying to ward off a sore throat or cough.

This is how you make it….

You will need 1 cup each of the following:

gingerroot, horseradish, onion, garlic, cayenne pepper

Here is a piece of gingerroot.  You can buy it at your local grocery store, look in Chinese stir fry fresh food area.  How to prepare it?  Use a vegetable peeler to peel off the outside of it.  Then chop into a few chunks.   Here is horseradish.  I got this from my close friend who grows it in her herb garden.  It is a root therefore grows underground. 

You prepare it the same way, by using a vegetable peeler and cut into chunks.Here is my garlic all minced and ready to throw into the food processor.

I peeled and chopped my onion into chunks and put into the food processor along with the rest of the ingredients minus the cayenne pepper.

Puree it until it is completely chopped up.

Divide it up evenly into 4 quart sized jars. 

Pour unpasteurized apple cider vinegar into the jars.

Yes, it will smell horrible.  Even when chopping those ingredients you can just FEEL it burning your nostrils:)

Here it is sitting in my jars.  I then looked over on my counter top and realized that I had forgotten to add the cayenne pepper!!!!  This stuff is still pretty strong and just knowing how strong it already without the cayenne pepper, it was just going to get stronger.

What I did, was to pour them out again into a large mixing bowl and added the 1 cup of cayenne pepper.  I was sure to buy the hot kind, no whimping out!!  I mixed it up and poured it back into the jars and closed them tight with a lid.  Put them in your pantry for about 3 weeks to sit.  About every 3 days, I picked up the jars and gave them a shake and swirl to activate all of the ingredients.

After the 3 weeks, I then used a mesh strainer and strained out all of the little particles.  I then poured the remaining mixture back into the jars and recapped them.  I keep them on my pantry shelf for storage.

While we moved down here, my children all came down with a hacking cough sickness.  A few of the children were brave enough to try the tincture.  It is extremely spicy and burning, I would not recommend it for young children.  My older ones, who took a tablespoon and drank it at the back of their throats could feel the effects immediately.  It literally burns going down your throat.  You can feel it working in your sinuses immediately.  Sure it tastes horrible, but if you think of cough medicine, it isn’t that tasty either.  Do it quick and it will work wonders.

I woke up a few days ago and was thinking that I might have become the last victim falling prey to the sickness. I immediately took 2 tablespoons and let it glide down my throat.  It burned for a little bit and I took another dose later in the afternoon but I did not get any more sick.

Before learning about natural remedies in my life, I would have never blinked at the thought of NOT buying cough medicine when I or the children were sick.  Then as I realized that the medicine did not “cure” the sickness I stopped getting it.  Colds and sickness are a natural part of life, we are going to be exposed to germs and the more we are the more our bodies will build up immunities to them.  We do our best to try and train the children to wash their hands before eating, being careful to use hand cleaner after getting into the van from shopping, and trying to just keep their fingers away from their eyes, nose, and mouths–sometimes that is impossible for little ones!!!

That has been the natural “cure” in our life.  But we are living in a germ filled world and we ARE going to be occasionally exposed to sickness.  The best way for  help is prevention.  We try to eat a healthy diet, get exercise, fresh air, and drink lots of water to help flush away bad bacteria.  But for the occasionally sickness I would almost always turn to some natural healing remedy.  This is FULL of everything natural and “normal”  just by taking a spoonful can help you feel the effects instantly.  I recommend making it and having it on hand for the coming “sickness” months.