Beach day

We have been going to the beach many times this summer. One, living in the PNW you never know how many days qill be good ones. So you take all you can get.
Summer is coming close to it's end...I will miss it!

Vegetable Wheat Berry Soup

I created this when I found a recipe for one like this but more middle east. This one is more Italian.
1 butternut squash, cut
12 carrots, cut
5 potatoes, cut
1 parsnip, cut
24 oz diced tomatoes
1 onion
1 Tbsp. Garlic, minced
1 can kidney beans
1 cup wheat berries, soaked overnight
64oz vegetable broth
A bunch of fresh Basil and parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
Throw it all together, cook until all is tender.
Serves 12

Watch "Rise Against - Help Is On The Way" on YouTube

Bella gets a new friend

Today we took Bella to the American Girl store at Alderwood mall to get a new doll. She picked Saige, girl of the year. We are so blessed to be able to this! Just to see that Smile!

Technology and life

In today's world you have so many resources at your literal finger tips. It is quite amazing when you think about.  I remember when a fax machine was like some object of voodoo!
Now every thing is mobile and easy. I just wonder how this will impact out children?
If everything is so simple in life will they even vaule it?

Chloe

Hearty Chicken stew

Tonight I made a chicken stew that was amazing! Low in fat, low in sodium, and just so good! Chicken Stew Makes about 12 servings 3 lbs boneless chicken breast 1 large onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp olive oil Celery, cut up 1 tbsp oregano 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 1 1/2 pounds of butternut squash,peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces 5-6 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces 5-6 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces 1 32oz low sodium chicken broth 1 cup quinoa(optional) 2 cups chicken broth Add onions, garlic and celery to olive oil in pan, cook until all are soft. Add chicken, cook until no longer pink. Add all spices. Stir. All all veggies, cook for about 20 minutes. Add broth, bring to boil, and turn to low and cook until all in tender and done. I cooked the quinoa on the side in 2 cups chicken broth, following directions. I just put the quinoa ontop of the stew, after placed in the bowls...as it will absorb the liquid. Very good, and I really enjoyed it!

Summer in the Pacific Northwest

Summer has come to the Pacific Northwest! It is not like summer anywhere else. Most days we are lucky to get to 75 degrees. The past few days it has been hitting the 90's, which for many here is way to hot! I need to say that I do not like hot weather. Just a statement of facts. The good thing with the heat has been that it has boosted the garden, everything is doing wonderfully. So that means that canning season is comming soon! Everyone in this household is looking for to Autumn, and all that it means for us: canning, baking, crafting, and just the events that start happening for us! We are moving forward with changing our diet and general lifestyle. I decided that I need to do what is needed for my family, and I am sorry if that is not what others think I should be doing...this is not their family. I hoping to be able to make more tinctures over the next few days, and I know that need more Womens cloths made, as Chloe likes them better than the pads you buy in the store, so do I. They are far more comfortable, and I like the fact that we are not throwing anything away. I used old receiving blankets for ours, they work well, and are soft.

Life

Life has been keeping me busy these days. I had another hernia repair surgery less than a month ago. We shall see if this one holds. I have been making herbal balms, and remedies for my family. I have been inspired by friend Laura P. Who for me is one of the most gifted and magical people I know, I am proud to call her a friend. The first one I made was an Arnica and lavender one, it works wonderful for pain, I am now making another Anica based one, but with ginger and cayenne. I feel that it will work better for muscle pains. I have been using Laura's balm that she made with the kids in NOLA for my incision, the doctors believe that it made it heal better and faster, so do I. Life has been hard for us, money is a major daily problem in our lives, moving back to Tacoma has not been the best thing financially, this is becoming worrisome. Hopefully I will find work soon. I have been told recently that I need to do more to make money, and I agree with that, but this person feels that I am wasting my time homeschooling(well, un-schooling), making balms, laundry soap, hand soaps, etc. I am not sure what to say to that, I feel that me doing all those things are making life better than before I did them, the cough syrup I made recently saved the day, Chloe had a horrible cough, and it, the elderberry honey syrup was the only thing that helped! We have cut expenses by me making our laundry soap, making medicines, and just the whole overall diet. We eat red meat, maybe 4 times a month, our health is improving, it is slow, but it is getting better everyday. We are eating and living better than ever before. The children are more aware of where their food comes from, and why you should eat this, but not that. I feel that is amazing and important. So we will continue to go day by day, and change what we can on that day.

Changing our lives

I have not been updating because so many things have been happening here. Aidan, my husband had a stroke in early March. He is fine, this was a major life changing event, and so my focus has been on my whole family...our health, and how to improve it. Our whole life style has taken a drastic change. We are eatting a more plant based diet, and as close to organic as possible. We are now exercising in a way we have never done before, and making this part of our daily life. We became members of the co-op, go to whole foods, and farmers markets for our main food. You would think that our food budget would have increased a lot, but the funny thing is that it did not. It is more balanced now, and we are eatting less, because the quality is greater. We are more aware of what we eat, GMO and Monsanto has because daily words that we use to figure out if it is something we are willing to eat. The kids are now refusing to eat Mc Donald's, Burger King, and any other similar to those! The funny thing is that I am finding great enjoyment out of the fact that I know every thing that is going into our bodies, and that I am proud that I know these things are healthy.

One step forward, two steps back....

Things here have been emotional, and crazy.
Our landlord, decided that we can not have chickens any longer, so we had to find new owners for them, quickly. This has been horrible for all here, as we raised them from chickens, they all had names, and they were giving us good quality eggs, that I knew where they came from.
We only started getting eggs in the past 2 months, it has been wonderful.
I am now looking into maybe buying a house somewhere, I do not like that we are living at the whims of others.
We are still waiting to get a car, so that we can do more.
The great news is that my little ones are all doing well. That is the most important thing in life for me.
We have all missed New Orleans, and at times we have all thought of going back, but I am not convinced that would be the best thing for this family. It is at times, seems like it would be easier, but then I think about if it was perfect there we would not have left. Life is not perfect, and it is what we all make of it...that is the goal now, to make things better for this family of mine.

Catching up!

The past month has been a busier than normal month for us, thus the reason I have not been posting!
Keeping Evan on track with his lesson's has been a major issue for us all here, but we all started thinking that this is WAY to much like school...that we homeschool/unschool for a reason, and this is one of them! Stress! Making sure that he has ALL assignments done by a certain deadline. This is stressful. He also does not like that fact that he has do to work that is something he completed 3 years ago! Math they make him show them his work, that has never worked for Evan, he does not use paper to figure out problems...more stress. So we have pulled him from the online k-12.
We had a snowstorm here, last 3 days, and in the Pacific Northwest that is a long one! In one day we had 9 inches fall!





It was a lot of fun for us all! We also made snow ice cream, built a snowman, and snow angels. A blast!
I have a new sewing machine coming in a few days, and I hope within the week we will have a mini-van or car.
We signed another years least on this house, so that is good! Just can not believe it has been almost a year since we left New Orleans! I miss it, but I know that this was right for us at this moment in time.

My Laundry Soap Recipe

Homemade Laundry Detergent
(makes 10 gallons: 640 loads for a front load HE washer, 220 loads for a top load washer)
4 C hot water
1 bar Dr. Bronner soap, grated
1 C Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 C Borax
1 C Arm & Hammer Baking soda
1. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt together the grated soap and water until the soap is completely dissolved.
2. Fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of hot water. Add the washing soda, Borax, baking soda and melted soap mixture. Stir well until dissolved (I used a broom handle).
3. Fill the bucket to the top with more hot water and stir well. Cover and let sit overnight. The finished mixture will resemble a loose, liquid form of Jello. At this point, you can add 50 drops of the essential oil of your liking to the soap. (I don't add any to mine)
4. Fill your soap dispenser (I use a rubbermaid container with a pour spout) 1/2 with water and half with soap. Shake well before each use. For front load washers, use 1/4 C - 1/3 C per load. For top load washers, use 1/2-5/8 C per load.

Passages

Today has been an emotional day for me. I learned that a friend of mine lost her husband, he was in his late 30's, they just moved into a new home, they have 3 children, and another on the way.
How is that life can change that fast for someone? How can it be that one moment so many wonderful things are happening, and the very next you have lost your best friend?
I do not even know what to say to comfort her, "sorry" sounds so wrong, because "sorry" is for when you break something, or make a mistake...but when your best friend, the person you loved, and shared your life with is taken suddenly from you, and your children, sorry does not even come close!
I can not even imagine what she is going through right now, I know it must be like a nightmare that you can not wake from, that everything you knew id gone just like that!
This has made me stop and think about everything...presents for Christmas are now not so important...if I have the people I love with me, that is all that really matter, and what I want my children to learn from this.
It is getting to me even more because of the fact that he died on the 6th year anniversary of the passing of my Mom, December 11th. Her death was not a surprise, but a death just the same.
Rest in peace Ed, you will be missed, and we are sending so much love to your family!

Tis the season

It is that time again when parents all over the world hear their children talking about what they want for Christmas, or in our home Yule.
This is when many parents start to stress, and worry about if they can afford these things that their children so want.
I am one of those people, we are a single income family, not totally by choice, but it is there. We really do not have a 'full-time' income.
Why do we do this, and why do we allow ourselves to be stressed year after year?
I know that many will stay that it is because we love our children, but I must ask, Do we really think that our children only feel that we love them if we buy that IPod touch?
I know better, but I also know that I love it when they open that special birthday, and you see it, that wonderful, magical look in their eyes, the look of "I really got it" The happiness you know that they feel at that second.
So I ask, how do you do that when you don not have the money to obtain the "it" present?
This is my quest this year to find a way to give them the happiness, but without needing that much money!

Collecting leaves

When to roar

At the start of this new school year we decided to place Evan in the online k-12 program called WAVA, this was done with much thought and mixed feelings.
At first he was doing well, doing his work, and then it was like a wall came up, and it all just stopped. Evan stopped logging on, and stopped completing assignments. Emails, and call ensured, and then came the threats that they would remove him from the program.
This is not a happy Mommy. I am not a tough Mama, my kids are not ever forced to do anything, but when it comes to this, we have to do something. Evan is 16, he needs to understand that the choices he makes now will impact him for the rest of his life.



But...how do you do that? How do you convince someone that is of the age where they know everything?
So, I roared, and I will keep roaring until he gets it. I have no choice in the matter. I want so much for him, and I know that he also wants a lot for himself, so if I have to be the mean mama right now, so be it!
I do unschool/homeschool for a reason, but we feel that this is the best option for him at this point. He would like to become an attorney, that is a lot of work, and this is the work he needs to do now, so that way he can become what he wants.
So the roar will go on, and the battle has just began...and I hate having battles with my kids!

Garden endings....

Today I went out and started gathering much of what was left to gather from the garden. A few more pumpkin's, a huge amount of tomatoes, some really tiny carrots, and lettuce. We had a nice salad with our lasagna tonight!


Chloe helped her Aunt make the lasagna...we had a friend over for dinner, and had a great dinner with amazing company!
The girls are doing well on the reading program that I started with them, it may get boring for them after awhile, nut they will learn more, and retain more of the information. We read the same story everyday, with certain "power" words that we use in so many ways. I think that it is helping them.

Today I made a pillow

I spent a large portion of the day making a pillow, it just took longer than I thought it would!

But when I finally finshed, with mutiple wounds to my fingers, almost throwing my machine through the window, I received the best thing of all, a very happy little girl!



It was worth every little thing!

Simply ten good things!

Inspired by Amanda Soule, this is my list of simply ten good things!

Window sills full of riping tomatoes from the garden.

An unexpected kiss.

A wonderful magical creation out of salt dough.

The warmth of a hug.

Laying on bed with your daughters, just giggling about nothing.

The sound of rain, when you have nowhere to go.

Fresh eggs.

Fresh raw milk.

The smell of clean laundry, off the line.

The woodsy smell of my daughter.

Now it is your turn!