Fall like morning...raspberry jam...and sauerkraut!

This is the scene I woke up to this AM...is it fall and I really missed summer? Our weather has been more fall like this summer than summer like. My garden has suffered because of it. So frustrating, but I can't change it so I will choose to be thankful for what our garden does provide this year. Potatoes, onions, beets and carrots are doing well in my garden. Tomatoes are going to be scarce, as are green beans I'm afraid. Not one of my cucumber, zucchini or squash came up from the seeds I planted, most of my pepper plants have totally stalled or died since going in the ground and my lettuce is looking more like micro greens than lettuce. The fog is beautiful though...I just wish it were settling over a well producing fall garden, rather than a poorly producing summer garden. :) Oh well...can't have everything.
My raspberries, on the other hand are doing quite well this year! They don't seem to care that the weather has been rather cold and fall like. Sure, we could get more juicy berries if the sun would come out and shine, but we are still getting a good harvesting of berries anyway. Yesterday I spent a bit of time washing berries and making jam. I had a big bowl of berries that the kids had picked on Sunday just right for a batch of jam. Aren't the jars pretty?
When I was in town on Monday, I picked up about 6 heads of cabbage at a local produce stand. I love this place, a 5th or 6th generation, family owned, working farm. Most of the produce that I preserve that I can't grow myself, comes from Bi-Zi Farms. It just feels good to support a local family run farm, plus they are such a neat family to boot! :) Anyway, back to my cabbage....I have been wanting to try my hand at making Sauerkraut and found a wonderful recipe in a cookbook put out by a local lady named Fran Gillette. The kraut ferments in the quart jars that you end up canning it into. What could be easier!! We'll see how it works. I didn't buy the 40 pounds of cabbage the recipe called for, so I tried to salt it accordingly. Hopefully I didn't over do the salt. :) Either way, it will be a fun experiment. If it looks like it's working the way it should, I'll go buy 40 pounds of cabbage and make the whole recipe later. I can't wait to try the kraut....but it will be another month before I'll know how good it is.

Blueberries are here!

My family LOVES blueberries. While this picture is not the best (I took it with my cell phone), you'll have to trust me when I tell you that these berries were so sweet and juicy. Yesterday, in the misty, cool morning...which by the way, felt more like fall than summer...my kids, my niece Devon and I headed down the road to a blueberry farm. I LOVE visiting this place. The gentleman that owns it is such a sweet man and his place is BEAUTIFUL! We found him about two years ago, though last year we went to a different farm because they had a better price...won't be doing that again. These blueberries are so much better and so much closer, plus I just really like supporting a neighbor when I can. :) The blueberries from his farm are huge and so easy to pick. Can you tell I like his farm?

The kids and I picked for nearly an hour and managed to pick just over 25 pounds. By the time we were done, this 5 gallon bucket was just about full. Not bad work for a few teen age kids, a 3 year old and this mamma. I am planning on getting at least that much again, perhaps more. The berries we picked yesterday have found their way into my freezer and into pint jars in the form of jam. I made three batches of blueberry jam yesterday, for a total of 27 pints! That should last us a while. :) I only froze three bags of berries, in four cup portions. We will need much more than that in the freezer for pancakes, muffins and smoothies this next year....did I tell you we LOVE blueberries? :) I also want to try drying some for our baked oatmeal and granola. Perhaps I had better plan on more than just 50 pounds. :) CRAZY, I know, but I told you... :)

Here are my finished jars, ready for the rings to be removed and to find their new home on my pantry shelves. What a job that will be, my pantry is in need of some reorganizing. I should have done that before now, but there is always something else that needs my attention more. This year I plan to be more organized in my pantry and keeping better track of what I can and freeze for the coming year. That way I'll have a better handle on what we actually need and use each year.

Carnival Time and a Great Weekend!

Ever have one of those weekends that you just HATE to see end? That was this past weekend for our family. Such a fun time we had! We started out the weekend with the kids gone to their aunt's house for the night on Friday and the day on Saturday. That left Wade and I with a night and afternoon to ourselves. The best part is that even though we could have found work to do around here, we didn't! After a lazy breakfast on Saturday morning, Wade and I headed into town for a few things, just enjoying looking around and spending time together. We got lunch and just sat and talked. Rare moment! :) After a while, we went home and just enjoyed a lazy afternoon in a quiet house until the kids came home around dinner time.

Sunday, we overslept and missed church...forgot about the new summer schedule....oops. So we had breakfast, got chores done and headed to the carnival in town. We haven't been in years and it was a really good time. Very small, but still fun. The kids were excited, we didn't tell them where we were going. :) The first stop I wanted to make was the "Friends of the Library Book Sale". Such a great event and one that I always seem to miss, until this year. :) You can fill a grocery bag with books and it's just a $1! Pretty cool. I walked away with just a handful of books, maybe 5, but they were still just $1. :) I kind of wish Wade and I had thought to go there on Saturday, I bet there were even more books to choose from then. Oh well...we had a great time!

Alyssa wanted to play one of those silly carnival games...so we let her. LOL No, she didn't win, but every kid has to try...right?
Then the kids picked a couple of rides to go on. There weren't many to choose from...this is a small town carnival, after all. :) Getting them to choose one to go on all together was hard, but we managed. Dylan had never been on a carnival ride...not since he was very little and has no memories of it, really. Yes, it's been THAT long since we took the kids and let them ride on rides. I personally can't stand the rides, they scare me to death, but the kids had fun. :)
This ride, once they were loaded on, they closed the door like a space ship. That made me SUPER nervous, but they said it was fun and they all came out with smiles. Alyssa even went on it a second time later when the boys were doing another ride. Crazy!

The next ride ended up being a bonus...the ride cut short, so they got their tickets back. Pretty cool! :) Alyssa didn't enjoy this one as much, but it was fun watching the boys get her spinning. :)
She was having fun, but had a problem with not being able to control the spinning...the boys enjoyed getting her going. :)
The boys decided to go on a scary ride..at least to this mamma. I'd NEVER go on it, but they had fun. We tried to get Alyssa to join them, but she wanted to go back on the space ship thing. :) I was a bit worried about Dylan, but he wanted to go...and had a blast! Crazy boys.
I couldn't get any clear pictures of them on this ride to post, but here they are getting off. This ride went WAY up in the air, hard to explain, but they stayed level while this huge arm swung them up and around several times. Like I said...CRAZY!
They came off the ride all smiles....guess they had fun!

All in all, it was a fun day. We got to spend some fun time with the kids, tried a deep fried Twinkie....it was actually good! I was VERY surprised. :) Fun time as a family...missed our Marine though. :( Anthony was never far from my mind yesterday, remembering times we took him to this carnival too. It's hard having kids grow up so fast, but we are so very proud of all of our kids and love every moment with them! This season of life is so short....we are enjoying every moment! :)

Kefir!

Earlier this week, a friend of mine sent me some kefir grains in the mail. I have wanted to try this for a long time. In the past, I've used the powdered kefir cultures you can purchase and thought that they were OK, but not wonderful. OH my goodness! This new kefir is amazingly good! I made a smoothie for the kids and I for breakfast this AM, our first with this new kefir. Absolutely AMAZING! The flavor is SO much better and I didn't get the "goatie" flavor I've noticed with our other kefir. YAY! Anyone that knows me knows that I have really struggled with the whole "goat" flavor or hint of flavor in our goats milk products. The milk itself is fine, no after taste, but anything that is left out or heated leaves me with that goat flavor. No one else in the house notices it, I'm the only crazy one. LOL I love my goats and since I am the only one that notices it, we have kept going with them.

If you can get your hands on some kefir grains to make your own kefir, I highly recommend that you take the opportunity! Kefir is SO incredibly good for you. So many benefits from digestive to immune boosting! This will become an every day thing for us. I can't wait to see how it improves our digestive issues and also keeps the nasty bugs away that can make us sick. :)

Thank you Becki for being so generous to send us a kefir grain start...I'll add that to my "Thankful Friday" list! :) See....small blessings that can mean so much more than you think until you really look at them. Love it!

Thankful for Friday!

This has been a long week, full of ups and downs. Looking back over my week, I don't feel like I accomplished much, but I guess that's OK. :) Yesterday I was fairly under the weather, feeling rotten and extremely tired. Thankfully, today I feel a bit better and ready to face the task of getting ready for another weekend. I so look forward to weekends these days, it seems to be the only time that we get to see Wade much. His work schedule these days leaves little time for much in the way of "family time". Trying to make the most of it is hard sometimes, but we are so thankful that he is working. Any time I start to get frustrated with the fact that he is not home, or is so extremely tired I remind myself that it could be worse...he could be laid off again. We know that is something that is not out of the question in the coming weeks, so we will remain thankful he has a job now. :)

Our family has been so blessed, the Lord has provided for our every need. How could we not be thankful? Each Friday, here at Tanglewood Hills, Friday will be our "Thankful" day. I'll post a list of "blessings" we've noticed or received during the week. It is just too easy to loose sight of the blessings the Lord gives us in the midst of hard times. Often we miss the little things that the Lord does just to remind us that He has not left us alone in this life. I'd like to try and focus on the many blessings as I end my week, rather than the stresses and aggravations we might have faced during our week.

This week, I am thankful for:

*Fresh milk from our Tinkerbel
*Home made hamburger buns that turned out beautifully yesterday. :)
*Wade's job and the income it provides
*Amazing kids that took such good care of things yesterday when I was not feeling well
*Chickens that are giving us an abundance of eggs
*Fresh peas from our garden
*Finally receiving the registration paperwork for our Nigerian Dwarf doe, Cookie
*My clothes line
*My job with Gling and my amazingly understanding boss

So much more I could list, but you get the idea. :) We ARE so blessed! Thank you Jesus for all that YOU have provided for our family.

Baking bread....I LOVE this chore!

Baking bread is just one of those things that I have always loved to do. Our years of gluten-free only were hard on this bread baking mamma. Oh sure, I found some amazing bread recipes, developed a few myself by tweaking recipes I found, but there is just something about baking wheat bread. The dough is so amazing to work with. The smell that fills my home is one of the best scents that can come from a country kitchen. My kids were so excited over the bread I made yesterday, the flavor was amazing...a slice of country living! It's funny how a couple of beautiful loaves of bread can make your day a bit better.

So far, our new journey in eating whole wheat products again has gone well. I am extremely hopeful that this is going to work for us....for me. Praying daily that eating more whole grains, organically grown will be a good thing for us. The years of being sick were hard, adjusting to a gluten-free diet and way of life was hard as well, but important too. We appreciate a wide range of good food now, yes, wheat is our flour of choice but there are so many amazing grains out there! I never would have thought of using bean flours in my baked goods and liking them! Gluten-free eating is a part of our life, there are things that will still be enjoyed, but having the option of also eating whole wheat products is also part of our life as well. Everything in balance, is what I'd like. :) Soaking our flour and grains has worked amazingly well and has not been as hard as I expected it to be. Like anything, it's a process of leaning to make it part of your routine. Thankfully, so far for us, it's working well.

The next step on this journey is to try soaking and sprouting my wheat berries before I grind them. This is something that I have wanted to try for a long time, but it seemed so complicated. Well, after years of finding ways to make bean and rice flour come together to make a tasty loaf of bread, I have decided that it can't be THAT hard. :) I love working with food. Love finding ways to make what we eat better for us and also just plain good!

To the river we went

Last week, we had a few really hot days here. Not a normal thing for our area in July, but once in a while we get a nice heat wave going. Last week, the temps were headed up towards 100* several days in a row. By day two, we were really feeling it. The kids wanted to head to the river, so we decided to visit my sister-in-law's house next to the river. Every other inch of water in the county was wall to wall people...EVERYONE wanted a place to cool off. :) Thankfully, we had a nice spot to visit and the kids got to spend a bit of time with their cousins. Sad, we live only a few miles apart, but rarely see each other. Busy lives are to blame, but that really is no excuse. We had a great time, the kids got to cool off and I had a nice visit with my husband's brother and his wife. I didn't get in the water, but enjoyed a shady spot on their deck and watched the kids have a ball. Alyssa's friend Ally was with us, it was a great afternoon!