We are trying our hand at more homemade things in an effort to eat healthier and to save money (it's a beautiful thing when those two can be done at the same time!)

Last weekend we tried homemade yogurt using this recipe. This turned out great and we've been enjoying some healthy and delicious yogurt each day. Mixing it with fresh fruit and/or grape nuts is a filling breakfast!

We made 8 homemade pizza crusts to freeze and use throughout the month.


We made bread-machine buttery rolls using this recipe from Money Saving Mom. These were very good fresh with butter or honey drizzled on top. They didn't save well, so it's best to make enough for one meal at a time.


Last weekend we tried our hand at homemade noodles using this recipe from AllRecipes.com These turned out well, though we need to roll them a little thinner next time. Homemade chicken and noodles was a hit with the entire family!

And lastly, we made homemade pop tarts using this recipe from heavenly homemakers! These were surprisingly easy to make and even without using wheat flour, they are healthier than Kellogg's Pop Tarts. We enjoyed them as a dessert with one meal this week.

Have you tried making anything homemade lately?

1/19/2011

Works for Me Wednesday - Cooked Carrots Even My Kids Love!

Every mom knows how hard it is to get your children to eat veggies. Recently I discovered a way to serve carrots that my kids absolutely devour! And just as thrilling, it's super simple!

Cook your carrots (in boiling water until tender). Drain. Put a dollop of butter on the carrots and a small amount of brown sugar. Stir gently. Serve.

Since first trying this, I use a slightly less amount of butter and brown sugar each time (weening off the sugar... until my kids will enjoy the natural sweetness of the carrots alone).

Both my 7-year-old and my 3-year-old love carrots this way. They will ask for seconds and even thirds until every bite is gone. My daughter especially asks if she can finish all the carrots, after everyone has been served their first helping. My kids have never been big on veggies, so this is huge! I am now serving carrots every-other-day, with no end in sight!

It works for me!

The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White. Does that name sound familiar? E. B. White also wrote Charlotte's Web - my absolute favorite children's book of all time! Because of that fact, we picked up The Trumpet of the Swan and read it this week.

We liked it! Was it as good as Charlotte's Web? No, but it was a fun book to read. Entertaining. Laugh-out-loud funny in some spots. Educational as well.

The first few chapters seem very realistic. A boy is camping in Canada and finds some trumpeter swans on a pond. He is fascinated by the swans, as they swim and nest and eventually hatch their young. Then the story turns into fantasy, as one of the young swans takes a liking to the boy. They become friends. The boy helps the swan, who, as it turns out, has no voice and cannot talk, beep, squawk or trumpet as a swan should. The swan ends up learning to read and write, as well as learning to play the trumpet (since he could not do this naturally). In the end, all is well.

This is a great story to teach the "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" philosophy of optimism. Louis, the swan, learns to communicate in other ways since he has no voice. He is able to accomplish much with his life. He eventually fell in love and wooed his lovely Serena and became a father, despite his lack of natural "trumpeting" ability. His life lacked nothing because he chose not to sit on the sidelines and throw a pity party over his misfortune.

The Trumpet of the Swan was a fun read that I would definitely recommend to others.

1/17/2011

It's Monday. I am trying to get back into the routine of having a menu plan for the week before the craziness really kicks in. This week instead of the actual recipes planned out, I'm going with the following basic framework. My hubby's been finding lots of new recipes for us to try out so this week will include some of those.

Monday - pasta or casserole
Tuesday - something with beef (or venison, as we have a lot of ground venison my dad gave us over Christmas that we use instead of beef)
Wednesday - crockpot
Thursday - either tuna something or breakfast for supper
Friday - something with chicken
Saturday - hamburger helper type of dish with beef or venison
Sunday - leftover buffet

As usual, we are working off our pantry/storage stash. We try to stock up when we can get items free or super cheap. This week's meals will come from what we already have on hand. So far this month, we have been able to spend under $150 on food and might just stay within our $250 food budget for this month (this would be a new "low" for us; can't keep it this low every month, but we want to see if we can do it).

Do you have a plan? Meals don't just make themselves... get a plan together based on ingredients you already have on hand. And "bon appetit" this week! :-)

Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson

I found this book while doing some searching on Amazon.com for classic children's literature. The themes of this book revolve around showing kindness to animals and recognizing the importance of all creatures.

My daughter enjoyed this story. As with many books, the animals are talking and carrying on like people do. In this story, there are at least a dozen animals who live near the old house on "the hill." And new people are moving into the old deserted house. The animals are beside themselves with curiosity about the new folks. They turn out to be wonderful people, who share bountiful trash with the skunk and raccoon, leave plenty of veggies in the garden available to the little critters, have no issue with the mole tearing up their yard and will lend their aid to nurse an injured rabbit back to health. In the rather anti-climactic ending, St. Francis of Assisi is lifted up as the patron saint of animals and everyone lives happily ever after.

I found this book to be entertaining (and even suspenseful at times) but the ending to be a let down. And although I am all for treating animals fairly, I'm not all for thinking that animals have humanly thoughts about life or that we humans should treat animals necessarily as we treat humans. This book seemed to elevate the animals a bit higher than I do.

Another ok book - not great, but not terrible.

3 stars out of 5 from our family.

The Cricket in Times Square is another classic book that slipped past me until recently. I'd only ever heard the name before... until my daughter and I read it one chapter at a time in December.

The book is basically the Country Mouse, City Mouse tale. The cricket is from the country and lands in the subways of New York City, not knowing how he got there or what to do now that he's there. He's befriended by a cat and a mouse and a young boy who keeps him for a pet. In the end, though, the cricket is unhappy with the busyness of the city and leaves to return to quiet country living.

As a Wisconsin farm gal who has turned city gal to live in Milwaukee and Chicago and now suburban gal to live in the South Bend, Indiana area - I can relate to the cricket. For my daughter, I think some of these themes were lost as she was simply entertained by the story of the musical cricket with his odd friends.

A good story. Not a favorite, but a good story nonetheless.

3 out of 5 stars from our family for The Cricket in Times Square.

I recently read the article here.

I loved this because Paul Tripp put into words what I've thought for a long time. I'm all about setting goals and have no problem with New Year's Resolutions. The new year is a great time to evaluate where we're at and where we want to be. But making a statement in January doesn't get you any closer to that goal. It's the daily carrying out of baby steps that gets us there - not one big dramatic statement of resolution.

It is 10,000 moments of me holding my tongue when I want to speak a harsh word.
It is 10,000 times of speaking in a soft tone and not yelling at my kids when their toys are left out on the floor again.
It is 10,000 steps of obedience and faith.

It is how we live our lives each day that matters. What baby steps will you take today to achieve your big goals?

Me?

I am seeing my doctor today to discuss my high cholesterol to brainstorm ways to lower it... one of my physical goals for 2011.

I am reading a few chapters of the Bible each day to accomplish my goal of reading through the Bible in 2011... one of my spiritual goals for this year.

I am working on exercising self-control throughout the day, keeping my tongue and frustration in check. I hope to see improvement in this area of personal growth in 2011.

I challenge you to not just set goals, but to find baby steps that can be incorporated into your daily life to achieve those goals over time. 10,000 moments will get you there!

Christmas is over. Sniff. Sniff.

I hate taking down the decorations. I hate throwing out the Christmas cards, pictures and letters. And so began our annual tradition of praying through our Christmas Card list.


Whenever we're ready to start taking down the decorations, we start praying. We take one card/picture down each day and pray specifically for that person or family. [Yes, we hang up all of our cards on a wall, but whatever you do to save your cards will work just fine].

If they took the time to pick out, write in, address, stamp and mail a card to us, is taking a minute or two to pray for them really too much to ask?

This year I've added another layer to it. In addition to praying for the folks, I'm also trying to write a small note (or email) to each one on the day we're praying for them. This will encourage them and let them know that at least today someone was lifting them up in prayer.

This tradition does a few things that I love:

• I can help model the importance of prayer for others to my children
• We have a physical reminder of folks to pray for
• The holidays seem to last well into January by keeping our cards up longer
• People are lifted up in prayer to the Lord and encouraged to know that we care
  

In all the craziness of Christmas, remember this. I call it 1st Corinthians 13 - Christmas Style. Merry Christmas!


If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime: but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at a soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity; but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the spouse.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love does not envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love does not yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love does not give only to those who are able to give in return; but rejoices in giving to those who cannot.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust; but giving the gift of love will endure.

By Sharon Jaynes, Celebrating a Christ Centered Christmas

This book - One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham - is new to me. It came highly recommended from a homeschooling friend so I purchased it a week ago and started reading a chapter to my daughter each night. What a delight is has been!

The color illustrations are by Richard Jesse Watson and are superb! Each one is very detailed and so life-like. They draw you deeper and deeper into the story.

The storyline is that of the Christmas story, except that it starts at the beginning of history and explains the need for a Savior. Chapters cover creation, the garden, the fall, the flood, the promise to Abraham and the prophecies of a Messiah, all setting the stage before getting into the traditional Christmas story. There are 11 chapters total.

Even though my daughter has heard all of this before, the strength of this book is how it ties it all together - the importance of Jesus' birth because He is the promised Messiah from long ago, the One who fulfills the prophecies, the One who will take away the sin of the world that began in the garden of Eden. It is the overall story of the Bible told in terms anyone could understand and with such beautiful illustrations to enhance the story.

I highly recommend this book to share with the children in your life!

Our first foster placement has come to an end. Yesterday our foster agency called to say that CJ's grandma has completed the paperwork and background check necessary for her to become his legal guardian. So as of yesterday afternoon, he left our home. We had him with us for just 10 days.

How are we processing all of this?

The bad:
*CJ was a handful and showed us in some ways how unprepared we are to handle a 9-year-old boy. So, I guess you could also call this good: we feel stronger than ever that desire to accept younger children is in line with what we can handle and what our kids can handle right now
*My kids are absolute sponges who soaked up a lot of the misbehavior CJ exhibited. The hardest part of the last 10 days was watching their behavior head downhill more and more as the days passed.

The good:
*We gave it our all and did the best we could with CJ
*Our kids opened up their hearts to love someone new
*We got our feet wet in the foster care system and learned more about how the pieces work together than we could get through the "theory" discussed in our training classes (ex. the role of the state case worker, our agency case worker, our role, the school's role, etc.)
*We provided a safe environment and consistent structure to a boy who needed it. And we made some memories. I am so glad he was able to go sledding almost every day, to help make and decorate sugar cookies, to plunk at the piano and realize he kinda likes music, to pick up some books to just read for fun - I'm fairly certain none of these activities would've happened in his previous home.

So, we have made it through our first foster placement. Who knows when we'll get our next call with a child to consider. In the meantime, we're enjoying reconnecting as a family of 4 and are preparing for a wonderful Christmas together.

It's been 5 days with CJ in our home. Here some initial thoughts about how it's going.

• There is nothing easy about foster parenting! Finding answers to any of our questions requires going through a number of case workers who claim that they'll need "to get back with you on that."
• Kids are basically the same whether they are 3, 7 or 9. Although their issues (like selfishness or anger) might show up in various forms, they are still the same issues. CJ struggles with controlling himself - the same thing we've been working with my 3 year old on ("don't hit; use your hands to be kind") and my 7 year old ("don't throw something when you get mad; use your words to explain how you feel").
• The foster care system is a crazy system. You just don't have many answers at the beginning. CJ could be with us for a few weeks or it could be a few months. We're not sure where he will be going when he leaves our house or who will have custody of him (there is a mom, a dad, and a grandma in the picture), which makes it hard to prepare him for what comes next.
  
• Foster parenting is hard! Adding another child to any home changes the family dynamics and everyone has to adjust to "the new normal." The last 5 days have been days of adjustment for all of us. It feels like all the plates were tossed in the air in our juggling act and we have to learn how to juggle and spin them again - trying to find steps that work for all 5 of us, that meet the needs all of us have and are at least somewhat normal or natural to us. It's been hard... though the days are getting slightly easier as we settle into some routines and learn more about life together.
  
• God is faithful! I truly believe that God has met us at our point of need this week. We have needed added strength for this task. He has faithfully provided. We have needed extra measures of patience and wisdom. We have asked these of Him and He has faithfully provided. Foster parenting has put me in a place of desperation for the Lord... and that's a good place to be!
  

As of yesterday at 5:30 pm, we have our first foster placement!

He's a 9-year-old boy that we'll refer to on this blog as CJ. I can't share much about his story, due to confidentiality.

When I'm able, I'll post more. For now, know that we appreciate your prayers for us and for CJ and his family's situation.

My husband is Mr. Handyman... and I love that fact about him!

Last Saturday he decided to do a little wood project. It involved the following steps:
1) look online at Christmas clip art and pick a simple design that could be cut out of wood.
2) draw design on paper to the scale he wanted it
3) cut design out of plywood with saw
4) sand plywood
5) paint plywood (with green tree color and then white "sprizzles" for the snow)
6) hang 24 mini ball ornaments on the new tree
7) delight the entire family with your new 2-foot Christmas tree decoration!