A tribute...

Here is a dear lady who touched many lives. She passed away this last week and her funeral was today. Family and friends rejoice because she is heaven with a new body and with her Lord. Lena was baby #499 for her to deliver. We were blessed to have her as our midwife. She was so caring and wise. We knew her for only a few hours but she was like family to us. To Becky: may her memory draw others closer to the Lord!

Here is Becky with Bekah and baby Lena!

Happy Birthday Moriah...

Moriah Clara turned 7 today!
She is a photogenic child!

I think she looks so much like Lena here!

The kids all chipped in and got her the Movie Toy Story 3.

We had a tea party for her birthday meal. We got her a tin tea set and cut out cookies for her presents. Also a tea party game that is adorable. I just fell in love with these things on Amazon.com She had fun with them but Lena had a melt down because she wanted them all to herself. I was thinking they would play together with them but Lena has the mind they are all hers! Cute but it didn't last long and Lena was put straight down for a nap!

Little treats that were 1/2 price after Valentine's Day. Perfect tea time treats.

Jello jigglers. We love this jello made with Welches Grape Juice, gelatin and honey.

Chicken luncheon meat sandwiches. Jordan discovered she could add the heart and butterfly shaped cheese to her sandwich.

Italian pizza dip. MMMM! Big stars here. You mix 8 oz. cream cheese with 1/2 cup pizza sauce and put on bottom of pie pan. Then I layered green peppers, onions, fresh mushrooms, and black olives. I put three cheese blend on it and baked it for 18 minutes at 350 degrees. We served it with Ritz crackers. It was great. I got this recipe from a coupon book at Super Bowl time.

We had peppermint tea, taco dip with tortilla chips, noodle salad with peas, pigs in a blanket, spinach dip and carrots, the Italian dip with crackers, cheese, jello, cupcakes and sandwiches. It was a lot of fun to plan and prepare. We used all our best dishes. My mom and sister-in-law Christine came with her baby (she's due April 13th, so not a real baby to hold but it was nice to see her this far along:) Kevin came home from work to join our party and just now left to go back to work. We are off to AWANA.

Need some new recipes...

I found the best website on cooking with real foods using the Nourishing Traditions book as a guideline. I cannot get enough of copying out recipes. Right now I have her Shepherd's Pie cooking on my stove getting ready for the oven. We have made this before but it inspired me because I have the ingredients! It is also made with home made broth (you can use canned if you must :) It smells wonderful. She is called Kelly the Kitchen Kop. She has great links for all kinds of natural living. I love this site! The post today is from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride who wrote the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome. We followed that diet for almost 2 years. Another website committed to grain free living and also the Nourishing Traditions diet is Health, Home, and Happiness. I have found numerous recipes here too. Even if you don't desire to go grain-free, you can find nutritious information on meal ideas and even more info on healthful living.

On another topic, Emily and I got a new cleaning job. We worked 6 hours today! I love it. I would honestly rather sit around at home watching movies and eating chocolate but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. It works so well with our school schedule. It's a job that will be ongoing and an answer to my prayers. I have wondered about advertising but not sure I want to. This job was word of mouth from another client (Thanks K.). The home school convention is coming up and so it couldn't have come at a better time. Em loves it too as she can get some money for things she wants and even has a savings! I need to start wearing gloves. My hands are pickled :)

Cleanse...

I have come off my cleanse that I was doing the last 18 days. The first of February I was just going to do a water and lemon juice fast for five days and it turned into 18. I ended up following The Master Cleanse for 15 of those days. Today, I am attempting the ease-out routine but I'm not doing so well. I haven't eaten any food for 18 days and my stomach knows it but my senses don't. My senses tell me how good that roast chicken would taste, it tells me to eat some of that soup even though you are only supposed to drink orange juice today. So, I've "cheated a little". I do it very little here and there but now my stomach feels a little full and crampy. I am going to try to go slower but I know I have NO will power. I was hoping to do the diet 10 more days but feeding the children each day is challenging and most challenging is the lemon taste in my mouth day after day. I felt absolutely great, lots of energy, more energy than usual. Food can really slow you down. I was doing it to detox, lose a little weight and hopefully jump start my eating habits back to a better level. I did lose 20 pounds but I know that as soon as you start eating you gain nearly all of that back. I hope to keep some off by trying to add an exercise routine but that has been a challenge for me in the past.

I researched online about all kinds of people who have done the Master Cleanse and found someone who did it 40 days. I really wanted to but I don't think she has any children. If there wasn't the smell of baking bread most days and other tantalizing things cooking in my kitchen I could easily do 40 days. Again, I am amazed at how much energy I had. It was great to make it as long as I did. I hope I can do it again in the future.

Giveaway...

Enter to win this clay package at Keeper of the Home.

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2011/02/giveaway-wee-living-clay-package-from-natures-cleansing-clay.html#comments

Spelling...

We had the annual Spelling Bee tonight. I have always enjoyed spelling. Not all my children share my enthusiasm but we had a few kids participate. It was fun to watch Moriah spell. She is so animated. Her shoulders move with each letter she says or her eyes or something else. I don't have pictures because again I forgot my camera to a major family function, the last time being the Ball last weekend when it was Isaac's first time attending. We had fun anyway but a few pictures and videos would be nice. The spelling bee was fun. It was Jordan's last year. :( I have to train up a new generation of lovers of spelling because the next three didn't participate. Rebekah, Gideon and Moriah were up for the challenge though.

We got home and my darling girls are out milking and giving our 5 goats wormer. Giving them 1/2 tsp of a powder might sound easy?! Right?! Not if the goats refuse to take it in molasses which all goat things tells you they love. Guess our goats didn't get that particular instinct. We tried the molasses since it would be so healthy for them to take a good dollop each day since we are sure three are pregnant. Again, not likely. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get the five to take the wormer. Jordan did finally get them to take it in their mineral and oats. They are so smart though. We have tried that before and they will eat everything but the stuff you added. We have to do this for three days, morning and night. I wish animals came with no extra care required, just feed and water!

Have a good weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day from our family to yours.

Here are the children having their "Valentine" luncheon. They got their school finished early and helped prepare a special meal for our impromptu celebration. Kevin got me some flowers (bulbs) to plant this Spring as our centerpiece (for Valentine's Day). We are using my Grandmother's Fostoria glasses and pitcher (yeah!, we haven't gotten to use the pitcher yet.)

Heart shaped turkey sandwiches surrounded by Hot Buffalo Wings flavored Popcorn Chips.

Pigs in a blanket, chocolate cake and ketchup in a fancy vessel.

Cottage cheese surrounded by bananas and oranges.

Our cute little penguin friends joined our celebration!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa...

We received a package in the mail yesterday and here is what was in it; pajamas for the boys; Isaac and Gideon. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the birthday presents. They sure look nice in them! We know Grandma likes to print off pictures of the kids so this post was for that purpose.

Symphony...

Here is the section of violins that Jordan is sitting in. You cannot see her. Even enlarged more, I cannot find her but I know she is in front of the percussion. They had their Pops concert Jan. 30th and it was wonderful. The songs were enjoyable and memorable. One particular favorite was a medley from Fiddler on the Roof. There was a Saxaphone piece that was incredible. I wish I had this one on tape! We have one more concert in April and the year is over and so is Sr. High and Jr. High Symphony for each of the girls since Jordan is a Senior and Emily will be in high school next year. I will miss the enjoyment it brought our family.

Here you can see Emily 3rd one in looking at the music on the stand. Again, a very enjoyable performance. It has been an amazing experience for Emily. She has grown quite a bit in her playing ability with this experience.

Bread...

Here is the bread I made two weeks ago. I had soaked the wheat for more than 12 hours in yogurt and then added the rest of the ingredients the next day. It rose two times before being put into bread pans to rise again. It turned out great. It tastes good. It is not sour like other soaked bread I have tried. This actually cuts and tastes like "regular" bread. We had tuna sandwiches on it and no-one complained. If someone doesn't like the look, smell or taste unfortunately they let me know. I think you should keep most opinions to yourself about those things but they don't understand me on that point :)

Since making that bread we have soaked wheat with yogurt to make pancakes a few times and now today we had it made into blueberry muffins. We haven't noticed a real taste difference. It takes a little longer to cook and the pancakes aren't as puffy. It sure uses a lot of my precious yogurt. Our goats have noticeably slowed down in milk and I am hard pressed to keep up with making yogurt. I am praying all three goats are having babies here in March or April.

We had a great day Saturday at a late "New Year's Eve" Party. It was cancelled because of the storm we had that weekend of the 31st. The kids played a lot of games and there were a lot of kids. There was great food and great conversations. Kevin and Isaac had to stay home due to a lingering stomach virus. A virus took us out most of last week. Most people were throwing up but it hit Kev and Isaac differently. At the party we found out 3 other families came home from the previous camp weekend with the same thing. Something more than fun and games was being shared at camp!

Now 13...

Isaac turned 13 on Saturday. We were at family camp and it was a perfect way to celebrate his birthday. We got him high-impact daggers to practice fighting with, thus the picture of Isaac with Caleb. I was excited to find Happy Birthday candles because Isaac turned 13 and there are 13 letters in Happy Birthday. I would not recommend purchasing these though. As you can see they melted away. They melted away before I got the cake in front of him and the candles kept going out.