One of 'those' recipes

Have you ever had a hankerin' for a certain food/snack (in my case today, muffins) and didn't have all the right ingredients for the recipe you wanted to make?  Maybe it's just me?  I wasn't running to the store for the ingredients I didn't have, so I just made it up as I went along!  This is a culmination of about 2 muffin recipes and some stuff I just threw in 'cause it's all I had.  I didn't even have any muffin papers!!

I call it:  Your Favorite Jam Muffins

1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C applesauce
4 T  plain yogurt (or whatever you have)
2 eggs, room temperature
2 C white whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 C milk
1/2 C Your Favorite Jam (I used homemade blackberry freezer jam)

In a large mixing bowl, mix the vanilla and the sugar together well.  Add applesauce and yogurt, mix.  Add eggs and beat into the batter until well combined.  Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium sized bowl.  Add flour mixture and milk alternately to the batter.  Mix until well combined.  Fold in Your Favorite Jam.

Fill (preferable paper lined) muffin tins to 1/2 full.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Top with butter and/or Your Favorite Jam of course!

YUM!!!  Enjoy!

Soap Nuts

Yeah, that's not a typo in the title.  I am going to try these little berries called Soap Nuts.  Soap nuts are the dried fruit of the Chinese Soapberry tree. They contain saponin, a natural cleaner. They are simply harvested, de-seeded, and then dried in the sun.  When you are done with them, just throw them in your compost pile!

I read a blog about a lady with 3 children and a husband who uses these regularly for her clothing (not cloth diapers, she said after extended use with the diapers they started to repel).  It's naturally a color brightener, cleaner and helps reduce the need for fabric softener.

I just bought enough for 160+ loads at $15.60 + $6.20 for shipping.  This is a cost (if I only get 160 loads out of them) of $0.14 per load!  Pretty cool!  If you'd like to take a gander, go to NaturOli for more info.

I will let you know how it goes in a later post.  I should get them in the next couple days.

Wish me luck!

What are YOU good at?

It seems as though we Moms LOVE to compare ourselves to one another.  We think how well so-and-so does such-and-such and how poorly we do it.  We think how so-and-so always looks so put together and has such nice clothing and we haven't combed our hair in a week and buy our clothes at the thrift shop down the street.  We are excellent at making ourselves feel miserable about who we are, what we do and how we look.  Can we just get real for a moment?  There ARE some things we are good at.  We just need to remember what those things are.

Here is a list of the things I do well and the things I do not-so-well and the things I just cannot do with any grace or effectiveness whatsoever:

Things I do well:
- I recently have learned the secret to keeping a clean house.
- I LOVE to can my own food and jams/jellies.
- I really enjoy using cloth diapers, they save me a TON of money.
- I like to make my own, well, everything:  bread, toothpaste, deodorant, dinner, dessert, snacks, laundry detergent, play-doh, the list goes on and on.
- I like having chickens in my backyard for eggs and a garden for vegetables to eat fresh and can.
- I really enjoy reading, probably too much.  If I could, I would read multiple books a week.  I just don't have the time or the money.
- I can speak or sing in front of large crowds and not lose any sleep over it.  (Smaller crowds are much more intimidating to me.  Go figure...)


Things I do not-so-well (but I'm working on):
- Homeschool organization.  I am still trying to find my groove.
- Hospitality.  I am working at it but it does not come natural to me.
- I am not a good friend by nature.  I REALLY have to work at it, and even then I am not so great.
- Cooking multiple items at a time.  SOMETHING is going to boil over, get burned in the toaster oven or be forgotten in the oven.  I am better than I used to be...but it's far from great.


This I just cannot do with grace or effectiveness:
- Dress myself.  I know this sounds funny, but I really don't have a good sense of style.  My husband is far better at it than I am an I constantly defer to him in this realm.  (However, he is not to be blamed for the mess I frequently find myself in.)
- My own hair.  I have long struggled with how to style my long hair.  I really enjoy having long hair, but I don't want to look like a ragamuffin.  I am working on it...thank you YouTube!!
- Talking on the phone.  I don't enjoy it.  I avoid it anytime I can.  I would much rather email or text.  Sad huh?
- Plan my weekly menu.  I make one every week, but there is nothing graceful about the process.  It's painful, long and treacherous.  One of the things I truly DREAD every week.
- Stay away from sweets.  I am truly addicted to sugar.  This is a HUGE area of weakness for me.

There, I said it.  I AM good at some things.  I am not-so-good at some things and I truly STINK at others.  We are all different, and thank heaven we are!!

Rose

So I have the honor of watching a 4 year old little girl named Rose when her mother and father are both working.  Today will be our first day.  I am excited and nervous.  Preschoolers are precocious, little girl preschoolers are even more-so.  LOLl!  It'll be interesting.  I am up for the challenge.  It'll be fun to get to know this little girl, her likes, dislikes, personality, learning style, sense of humor.  Wish us luck!

Another Health Update

It was July the last time I updated you on my health.  As you may or may not recall, back in July I was taking 1200 mg/day of Labetalol and 500 mg/day of Aldomet just to control my high blood pressure (post partum pre eclampsia).

Well at the beginning of December my family got back on the health bandwagon and got serious (again) about the Levitican diet we have been on for the better part of 4 years.  Click here to read more about the diet specifics.  In a mere month and a half on our biblical diet, I am completely off the Aldomet and am down to 200 mg/day of Labetalol!!  Not to mention I am down 10 pounds.  What a blessing!  I am so excited!

I am hoping to be off all my medication by the end of February.  Wish me luck!

Daniel Alexander Didreckson

Daniel Alexander Didreckson
January 10, 2010

"An angel wrote in the Book of Life
our baby's date of birth.
Then whispered as she closed the book,
"Too beautiful for earth."."

Stuck

I'm in that spot again.  The one where I know I should be more organized about my weekly menu planning but just too lazy to do it.  Oh, I have ALL KINDS of justifications for it:  "It takes too much time away from my children." (that's my favorite one), "I never know what vegetables will be available at the grocery store.", "I don't have enough space in my new planner to write EVERYTHING."  LOL!

I am pretty good at at least doing a dinner menu.  I don't follow it day by day, meaning, the meal I had slotted for Wednesday I may make on Monday, etc.  I DO however, ensure that the menu I made for this week is used this week.  Planning a menu has saved us LOTS of money at the grocery store.  I don't wander around aimlessly, wondering what will sound good this time next week.  Doing that will put me in a bad spot.  I know EXACTLY what will sound good to me this time next week, cookies, crackers, chips, candy...I could go on and on.  If I have a list of things I need to make all the dinners for the week, I can just buy what I need and it helps me ignore the rest of the yummy stuff calling to me from down the baking isle.

I don't regularly plan breakfast.  I probably should.  It's become quite hum drum.  Most mornings my family eats sweet potato and eggs.  My son Luke also eats a cacophony of other things as he is working diligently on eating us out of house and home.  He is only 4.  I am in fear of what he will be able to consume when he hits puberty.  I shudder at the thought, and so does my checking account.  GEESH!

Lunch is usually ok because we just eat leftovers from the night before.  I am careful to make sure I make enough dinner to have lunch the next day.  It saves time, money and my sanity.

So back to planning breakfast (and probably snacks too).  My son is sensitive to wheat (gluten) and my husband has gone dairy free.  So the waffles, pancakes, egg and cheese omelettes and doughnuts are out of the question.  We don't eat cold cereal as the stuff is SO BAD for you, don't get me started...

What's a girl to do?!?!?  One can only do so many things with oatmeal before her family will surely start a mutiny.  **sigh** I am at a loss...bleck!