I went grocery shopping yesterday for the first time since December 17th!!! Thats crazy! I made it almost a whole month without grocery shopping and could have lasted longer however we are started a detox diet thing where we only eat fresh produce and such and well after almost a month of not grocery shopping well you don'y really have anything fresh! So I went and bought lot and lots of fresh food for the next week or two!
I do believe we could have eaten off of what is in our pantry and freezer for at least another month or two! It just shows how much excess we have! I have more food than necessary and yet I continually go grocery shopping every week! It's kind of insane! I need to become more organized and create meal plans for the week and only buy the absolute necessities and I feel like then when I go to the grocery store maybe I won't buy everything I see on the shelves!
Think I'll go Pinteresting to see if I can come up with a creative solution for my meal plan delima!
Happy Sunday!!!
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Its been a while
Its been a while since I frequented my blog...I do however frequently write lovely eloquent and amusing blog posts whilst trying to fall asleep however they never do seem to make it into the blogosphere. However tonight I've made time and this post will be neither lovely, eloquent or amusing...it will be more of a rant I suppose so if your not into ranting today don't read it! :)
I read a post on Natural News that was...interesting...a bit conspiratorial...but I wasn't really interested in the conspirasy theories this man had I was however interested in the list of school shootings that are tied to psychotropic drugs that was on there. Since I worked in the counseling field and saw some of the very negative effects of these psychotropic drugs (I did however see some positive effects of them as well). I do not think that I would EVER put my child on these medications due to the negative effects that I've seen. The reason this list is so intriguing to me is I'd love to see what kind of background these adolescents had. I'd love love love to do one of my 2-3 hour long intakes on these kids and their families to find out all about their lives...what kind of parents did they have, did they come from split homes, were they involved in church? What kind of toddler were they? How did they act as a child? When did problems start arrising? What were the parents first steps in dealing with the problems...my list of questions would go on and on and on...(I am a questioner by nature if you havent figured that out already)
I feel like we have a lot to learn from the Amish and Menonites you don't see any of them going out on shooting sprees, using psychotropic medications (or even having the need to use psychotropic medications), and their children grow up to be respectable people. What is it that they are doing?
I also feel like parents have a lot to do with the way their children are behaving these days. The television and video games have become the babysitter. Church and God have completely been taken out of the picture. They expect society to raise them instead of stepping up and raising their own children. It is just scary to me how some parents choose to parent their children and then our societ is dealing with the product of their poor parenting skills. I am not saying that all the parents of those adolesents were terrible parents but it just makes me wonder would it have turned out differently if they had different parents, hadnt been on psychotropic medications or had been heavily involved in church and learning about God? I would like think yes especially to the last one!
When I was working in the counseling field I had one specific family that I worked with where the poor parenting was just passed down from generation to generation. The mother was raised by abusive druggies, and she became a non-caring druggie and raised a rapist, a gang member/drugie. How can a cycle like that be broken? After I started working with them the mother became clean and started to turn her life around but her children were older adolesents and didn't care or ever try to change their behaviors. It infurated me working with them because it seemed like an endless cycle that cannot be broken and it was part of what started to burn me out, working with families that are not willing to change. I did work with a few awesome kids that I feel like will make something of themselves but the majority of the kids I worked with I felt like would just create another generation of beligerent, non-caring, defiant children.
I know that this blog post is not making the most sense and I'm beginning to ramble and become more and more blah....some day maybe I will collect my thoughts and post things that make more sense....or that are nice and fun to read but I've been in a funk and this is what I'm choosing to say I just need to get it off my chest! I know that I need to focus on me and my family and how my husband and I are going to raise our children so that they will not be a menace to society and I know we need to do that through Christ as the center of our lives! There's no other way to do it!
I read a post on Natural News that was...interesting...a bit conspiratorial...but I wasn't really interested in the conspirasy theories this man had I was however interested in the list of school shootings that are tied to psychotropic drugs that was on there. Since I worked in the counseling field and saw some of the very negative effects of these psychotropic drugs (I did however see some positive effects of them as well). I do not think that I would EVER put my child on these medications due to the negative effects that I've seen. The reason this list is so intriguing to me is I'd love to see what kind of background these adolescents had. I'd love love love to do one of my 2-3 hour long intakes on these kids and their families to find out all about their lives...what kind of parents did they have, did they come from split homes, were they involved in church? What kind of toddler were they? How did they act as a child? When did problems start arrising? What were the parents first steps in dealing with the problems...my list of questions would go on and on and on...(I am a questioner by nature if you havent figured that out already)
I feel like we have a lot to learn from the Amish and Menonites you don't see any of them going out on shooting sprees, using psychotropic medications (or even having the need to use psychotropic medications), and their children grow up to be respectable people. What is it that they are doing?
I also feel like parents have a lot to do with the way their children are behaving these days. The television and video games have become the babysitter. Church and God have completely been taken out of the picture. They expect society to raise them instead of stepping up and raising their own children. It is just scary to me how some parents choose to parent their children and then our societ is dealing with the product of their poor parenting skills. I am not saying that all the parents of those adolesents were terrible parents but it just makes me wonder would it have turned out differently if they had different parents, hadnt been on psychotropic medications or had been heavily involved in church and learning about God? I would like think yes especially to the last one!
When I was working in the counseling field I had one specific family that I worked with where the poor parenting was just passed down from generation to generation. The mother was raised by abusive druggies, and she became a non-caring druggie and raised a rapist, a gang member/drugie. How can a cycle like that be broken? After I started working with them the mother became clean and started to turn her life around but her children were older adolesents and didn't care or ever try to change their behaviors. It infurated me working with them because it seemed like an endless cycle that cannot be broken and it was part of what started to burn me out, working with families that are not willing to change. I did work with a few awesome kids that I feel like will make something of themselves but the majority of the kids I worked with I felt like would just create another generation of beligerent, non-caring, defiant children.
I know that this blog post is not making the most sense and I'm beginning to ramble and become more and more blah....some day maybe I will collect my thoughts and post things that make more sense....or that are nice and fun to read but I've been in a funk and this is what I'm choosing to say I just need to get it off my chest! I know that I need to focus on me and my family and how my husband and I are going to raise our children so that they will not be a menace to society and I know we need to do that through Christ as the center of our lives! There's no other way to do it!
Friday, October 19, 2012
:)
I just love those big blue eyes!!! :) and I could literally eat those cheeks!!! Love love love this child!!!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Clutch it...
I've been in quite the sewing mood as of late! I've made six fleece toddler hats, two taggie blankets, two medium tote bags, one large tote bag, one bucket purse, and three clutches! I have to say that I'm most proud of the little clutches and the tote bags! They are super cute and really easy to make! Maybe I'll post a tutorial on how to make the clutches! There's a really great tutorial for the tote bags found here so there no need to make a tutorial for that! :-) AND they might not actually be used as clutches but they would make perfect make up bags, pen holders its just a good all purpose holder of stuff...I've posted a couple of pictures of the clutch/bag things so hope you enjoy!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Homemade Chocolate Beetroot Cake
This post was originally started way back in July or August and I am just now completing it! I guess that tells you how crazy life has been around here! The little one is on the move crawling all around getting into everything! I've been canning a bunch, cooking a lot, spending lots of quality time with friends, going on dates with the hubby, squeezing those sweet baby cheeks, practicing the piano and many other things! It's been fun but busy! So here goes to hoping I'll be blogging more in the near future!
Back in July or August I had a surplus of beets...what do you do with a ton of beets you ask? Well you pickle them, you roast them, you make baby food and then when there is nothing else left to make you research things to make and you find odd recipes one of which was homemade Chocolate Beetroot Cake! Insane I know veggies inside of a chocolate cake? Does the cake actually taste good? Is the texture that of a normal cake? Does it have a rich chocolate flavor like it should? ...Is it even edible??? Well yes...yes...yes...and yes... it is all of those things it taste great, it is the texture of normal cake, it has a rich chocolate flavor and it is most definitely edible! I would go so much as to say that it was very very good! My father-in-law brags about it to all of his friends and relatives and asks if anyone has ever heard of a beet cake...its quite comical! So if you ever have a large quantity of beets or just want to add in some extra nutrition to chocolate cake give this cake a whirl!
I used the recipe below as the base for mine and I made a few adaptations to it! Next time I might not do the cream cheese icing and do a sprinkling of confectioners sugar instead as the cake was so good by itself. Everyone seemed to like the icing but I'm still thinking just confectioners sugar would be great!
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened, divided
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar or regular brown sugar which is what I think I used
3 eggs at room temperature
2-3 oz. dark chocolate
5 medium beets (2 cups pureed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Icing
8 oz. cream cheese softened
2 cups of confectioners sugar or less if desired
2 Tablespoons of beet puree
Directions
Make the beet puree by trimming the beets and simmering them for about 50 minutes, until tender. Drain the liquid and cool the beets (you can run water over them to cool them off.) Slide the skins off, then place them in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Let the puree cool slightly before using it in the cake.
Cream 3/4 cup of the butter with the dark brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Melt the remaining butter together with the chocolate, either in the microwave or in a double boiler over simmering water. Cool slightly, then add the chocolate mixture, beet puree, and vanilla into the butter/sugar mixture (it may look separated at this point.)
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix well. Pour the batter into two greased 9 inch cake pans; bake at 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (I started checking around 25 minutes.) Cool the cake in the pan 15 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
Mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth add in beet puree to create that lovely purplish color!
Back in July or August I had a surplus of beets...what do you do with a ton of beets you ask? Well you pickle them, you roast them, you make baby food and then when there is nothing else left to make you research things to make and you find odd recipes one of which was homemade Chocolate Beetroot Cake! Insane I know veggies inside of a chocolate cake? Does the cake actually taste good? Is the texture that of a normal cake? Does it have a rich chocolate flavor like it should? ...Is it even edible??? Well yes...yes...yes...and yes... it is all of those things it taste great, it is the texture of normal cake, it has a rich chocolate flavor and it is most definitely edible! I would go so much as to say that it was very very good! My father-in-law brags about it to all of his friends and relatives and asks if anyone has ever heard of a beet cake...its quite comical! So if you ever have a large quantity of beets or just want to add in some extra nutrition to chocolate cake give this cake a whirl!
I used the recipe below as the base for mine and I made a few adaptations to it! Next time I might not do the cream cheese icing and do a sprinkling of confectioners sugar instead as the cake was so good by itself. Everyone seemed to like the icing but I'm still thinking just confectioners sugar would be great!
Chocolate Beet Cake
From Straight From the FarmIngredients
1 cup butter, softened, divided
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar or regular brown sugar which is what I think I used
3 eggs at room temperature
2-3 oz. dark chocolate
5 medium beets (2 cups pureed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Icing
8 oz. cream cheese softened
2 cups of confectioners sugar or less if desired
2 Tablespoons of beet puree
Directions
Make the beet puree by trimming the beets and simmering them for about 50 minutes, until tender. Drain the liquid and cool the beets (you can run water over them to cool them off.) Slide the skins off, then place them in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Let the puree cool slightly before using it in the cake.
Cream 3/4 cup of the butter with the dark brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Melt the remaining butter together with the chocolate, either in the microwave or in a double boiler over simmering water. Cool slightly, then add the chocolate mixture, beet puree, and vanilla into the butter/sugar mixture (it may look separated at this point.)
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix well. Pour the batter into two greased 9 inch cake pans; bake at 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (I started checking around 25 minutes.) Cool the cake in the pan 15 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
Mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth add in beet puree to create that lovely purplish color!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
What I've Been Doing...
I've been outrageously busy as of late! In my last post you saw that we started swimming lessons and that consumed my life for four weeks! We had two weddings (both outside in the 100 degree weather) and I've been doing lots of gardening/canning! We've spent time visiting friends and family, the little one got to meet his great, great, great aunts, and we've had many a play dates with lots of little people!
My father-in-law has a beautiful huge garden! He said that he wasn't going to plant a garden and well he did and its massive! It could easily feed 5-6 families instead of the three people that live in his house! Well after his garden was planted he had to go in for surgery! He had knee replacement surgery a few years ago and one of his artificial knees got infected and he had to have it removed and then had to undergo 6-8 weeks of IV antibiotics and then will have his knee put back in! So that means that his garden needs tending to! He has some good friends that care for the garden and then he sends me down to pick veggies for him and usually whatever I pick I can keep! I take it to him to see what he wants first since he's done the hard part but I get to keep tons of stuff! So he has 4 rows of green beans and each row was producing 2.5 five gallon buckets FULL of green beans! So one lady picked one row, two of his friends picked the other rows and I picked the fourth row! The two friends gave me most of their beans and I ended up having an entire trash bag full of beans, a five gallon bucket, a mop bucket, and multiple food lion bags! I also had an entire milk crate of beets and I've had 3 heads of cabbage that were probably 12-15 inches in diameter! I also had tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, squash, bell peppers, broccoli and potatoes! EEK the veggies are coming out my ears!!!
So I've been canning like a crazy woman! I've canned 18 quarts of beans, 17 pints of beans, and I've frozen 10 quarts of beans! I also canned 6 quarts of pickled beets, 4 pints of beets and 4 jelly jars of beets! The week before that I had 7 food lion bags full of yellow plums from my grandmothers plum trees and I made plum freezer jam, plum baby food, and homemade plum ice cream!
My father-in-law has a beautiful huge garden! He said that he wasn't going to plant a garden and well he did and its massive! It could easily feed 5-6 families instead of the three people that live in his house! Well after his garden was planted he had to go in for surgery! He had knee replacement surgery a few years ago and one of his artificial knees got infected and he had to have it removed and then had to undergo 6-8 weeks of IV antibiotics and then will have his knee put back in! So that means that his garden needs tending to! He has some good friends that care for the garden and then he sends me down to pick veggies for him and usually whatever I pick I can keep! I take it to him to see what he wants first since he's done the hard part but I get to keep tons of stuff! So he has 4 rows of green beans and each row was producing 2.5 five gallon buckets FULL of green beans! So one lady picked one row, two of his friends picked the other rows and I picked the fourth row! The two friends gave me most of their beans and I ended up having an entire trash bag full of beans, a five gallon bucket, a mop bucket, and multiple food lion bags! I also had an entire milk crate of beets and I've had 3 heads of cabbage that were probably 12-15 inches in diameter! I also had tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, squash, bell peppers, broccoli and potatoes! EEK the veggies are coming out my ears!!!
So I've been canning like a crazy woman! I've canned 18 quarts of beans, 17 pints of beans, and I've frozen 10 quarts of beans! I also canned 6 quarts of pickled beets, 4 pints of beets and 4 jelly jars of beets! The week before that I had 7 food lion bags full of yellow plums from my grandmothers plum trees and I made plum freezer jam, plum baby food, and homemade plum ice cream!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Swimming = So Much Fun!
We started the sweet boy on swimming lesson for the month of June! We had 4 weeks of lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 30 minutes! It was a blast! He loved every minute of being in the water and is on his way to becoming the next Olympic Swimmer! I figured I'd do the first round of lessons at the local pool and then use the skills we learned the rest of the summer by bumming off of other people's pools! Swimming is one of my favorite activities and I want the little man to be as comfortable in the water as he is on land! He was so cute throughout the lessons and we quite a hit with the older ladies that take swim aerobics on the other side of the pool! There were three other children in the class and two of them were two years old! The two year olds were phenomenal! They could swim to the bottom of the pool and pick up diving sticks and diving rings! They could also swim a short distance to another person AND they could float on their backs for up to 30ish seconds! It was amazing!
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| Going Under!!! |
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| Practicing reaching for toys! |
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| Kicking!!! |
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| Playing with the watering can! |
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| The lovely instructor! |
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