Do you need some encouragement?

I have found that if I need an extra boost in the 'Encouragement Dept', I will head over to Laine's Letters and read a couple of her letters. My, the strength and encouragement I glean! Do you need encouragement to begin your week off right (after all it IS the beloved Monday)? I suggest you read this: http://lainesletters.com/letters/truth.html. It was just what I needed to hear to get my I-got-up-early-but-didn't-feel-like-it day going. God is so good. I need Him every day. Every. single. day. PS. I hope, really hope to get my Gravy Tutorial up sometimes soon. It will take a while and the morning has just whisked on by. I really want to get a head start on my cleaning before my dear ones have awakened.

Biscuits and Gravy Tutorial

Here is a tutorial for a good ole Southern breakfast! I’ll bet you have all you need in your cupboard and refrigerator! I’ll give options on some of the ingredients, so if you haven’t had breakfast, now you know what to make!

I am no cooking expert and my husband can say 'Amen' (if he wasn’t so nice, but thankfully, he is), but I do enjoy cooking most of the time and especially enjoy cooking foods I love and I LOVE biscuits and gravy! :)

First, you will need All Purpose Flour or Self Rising Flour (you can use unbleached, organic, store brand, whatever you have on hand). If using AP flour, get out your baking powder (not soda) and salt.

Get out a medium-sized mixing bowl and also a sifter, if you have one. Now would be a great time to preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Get out a cast iron skillet (for best results) and spray it lightly with non stick spray, or use a small bit of the fat you are using in your biscuits to grease it. Do your skillet NOW, because your hands will be too gooked to do it later. Also put a handful of flour in a small bowl nearby your station.

If using AP Flour, measure out 2 cups and place in your sifter, which you have sitting inside your bowl. Add 1 tablespoonful of baking powder to your sifter and 1 teaspoonful of salt. Sift 3 ingredients together into the bowl.

Please excuse the PMS tea which seems to be in every picture. :)

Remove the sifter, and now you have this:

Let me interject to say if you are using Self Rising Flour (which I don’t because I can’t find any that is unbleached), then all you have to do is put 2 cups of SR flour into a bowl. If you do, please don’t use the Baking Powder or Salt. You will thank me.

Next, measure out 1/4 cup of fat. This can be coconut oil, olive oil, or for best results (now, not later…:), shortening. I have even used mayonnaise, in a crisis.

You can do one of two things here. You can put in your fat in solid form, which will cause you more work, or you can melt it and save some time. If you put it in in solid form, you will have to work it into your flour mixture until your flour mixture looks like it is little balls of flour ‘peas’. The second thing you can do, which is what I have discovered that works best for me, is to melt the fat, but do not burn it, add it and immediately add your milk (getting ahead of myself), and you will save time.

So, add your fat to your flour mixture.

I used olive oil because I was in a pinch, but for best results, use coconut oil or shortening.

Do not stir! This is very important if you have liquid fat that you do not stir yet.

Okay, now you can get out your buttermilk out of the fridge. Don’t even think about using sweet milk. If you have regular ole milk, the least you can do is add a tp of vinegar or lemon juice to make fake buttermilk, but still, you will not get good results like you do with buttermilk. While you are there at the fridge, get some sour cream. It is very important for the taste of your biscuits. May as well get the butter, too.

Add a little over 1 cup of buttermilk to your mixture. I usually just pour a tiny bit extra after pouring in my cup of buttermilk. *Edited to Add...I made them this morning and it's about 1 & 1/4 cup of buttermilk. Add your 1 tablespoonful of sour cream.

Now here comes the fun part!

Using a fork, sort of mash the milk/fat mixture in with the flour until it is sort of worked in. You do NOT stir it in. Your biscuits will be tough tasting if you do.

Once you have the liquid sort of mixed with the flour, you get to dive in, hand first. You will probably want to take a moment to get your hands clean at this point. Even if, only for a second.

With your hands (if you’re squeamish about using your hands, get over it), squish the mixture together a few times to blend it all together. If you use a spoon or a fork, it is too ‘rough’ for the mixture—it will be tough.

When you are able to pull a small amount with your hands without it feeling too ‘liquid-y’, it is ready to roll into biscuits. *Edited to add...you may have some dry flour at the bottom that hasn't meshed into the other ingredients. Don't worry about mixing it in. Just leave it at the bottom of the bowl. It's okay. :)

Dip your hand into the flour (that you put in the extra bowl) to coat your hands. Break off a small ball of dough (about a tennis ball size or less). Roll between your hands a couple of times, place in the skillet and pat down a bit. Do this until you have the biscuits in the skillet like so:

Place a small pat of butter in the middle of each biscuit. You will thank yourself when you take a bite.

Bake for about 17 minutes. At the end of 17 minutes, broil for 1 minute. Do this if you’re like me and just have to have those biscuits brown. Do not over bake. You will hate me if they are too hard.

Don’t bother rolling out the dough and cutting out this biscuit recipe. You are much too busy, mama, for such complication.

Plus your biscuits might make mine look bad.

Don’t forget to butter ‘em again!

*Special thanks to my husband's deceased Great-Aunt Inez for this biscuit recipe.

Leave me a comment if you plan to try these biscuits! You’ll have to come back tomorrow for the gravy part. My day is much too filled and I’ve taken far too long. I will be busy gardening (I Must set out those broccoli, peas, and pepper plants today), laundering, cleaning, decluttering, straightening, homeschooling, and piano teaching.

Oh and take a look at this:

We have sick children. Again.

The two youngest.

I hope it’s not the biscuits.

Resources, a recipe, and a weekend trip!

Don’t you just love it when you receive a mailbox full of goodies?

I really love reading the Above Rubies magazine (if you don’t get it, subscribe for free, here) and wanted to send a small donation since their magazine is free and so helpful to me. I was sent this pack (for my $50) and I can’t wait to dive into it:

Three thick Bible study manuals: The Power of Motherhood, The Family Meal Table and Hospitality, and Gate-Keepers of the Home. Also, I received Nancy’s book, Be Fruitful and Multiply (oh boy…). :)

Now I have something to take with me on my long trip! (details below)

We also have started receiving this magazine, giving to us for Christmas by our very close friends:

I can’t wait to get my hands flipping through the pages! This was the perfect magazine for us!

While I’m sharing resources, I picked up this book the other day at the library and it has some awesome photography in it. This is my style of decorating:

Here are some delicious photographs:

And finally, my favorite:

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Healthy Vegetable Soup (you can make good soup without meat and bouillon cubes!)

1 bag of frozen tomatoes (or 1 quart canned)

1 can of tomato paste (6 oz?)

A couple quarts of water (sorry, I didn’t measure)

1 bag of frozen mixed veggies (green beans, corn, carrots, peas)

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 handful fresh cilantro chopped

2 tbs olive oil

1 small bag of frozen okra (I put tons of okra up this past summer)

1 tbs Mrs. Dash seasoning blend (the one with the yellow top)

Onion powder (a tp or so)

Sea Salt to taste

Simmer for 45 minutes or so, until veggies are tender. Make sure you have enough sea salt to make it tasty!

The cilantro and the seasonings really make this soup yummy. This is my own recipe, thus the inexact proportions.

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I will not be blogging until Tuesday because I am going for a visit with my parents to see my brother and his family! :) He lives in the neatest town in MO (near the Amish) and I have only visited with him once (sooo far away). I am taking my two girls and my dear husband will be keeping the boys. They are all geared up for some men stuff with daddy. :)

I trust that you have a wonderful weekend filled with God’s love and family togetherness.

May this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

God Bless!

Journaling in your homeschool

Having your kids keep a journal everyday is a great way to inventory their writing skills and note improvements. It’s also a great outlet for them to express themselves via paper and pen. Even if your children are not yet writing, you can have them narrate or dictate to you what to write and you can do it for them.

I recently started implementing journal writing with my homeschoolers and it is so much fun to see what they will write/narrate to me. It is way neat to see the different ways they each communicate and to also see the improvements in writing from one age to the next. It’s a great way to evaluate for sentence structure, grammar usage, thought patterns, etc.

I thought I would share with you, my dear readers, excerpts from each of my children’s journals. And, in so doing, I would encourage you to have your children to journal. I don’t give them a topic, it’s just free writing. I suppose you could give them a topic occasionally and teach them to stick to that topic (I’m sure I’ll do this some this year and most definitely next year).

Here’s an excerpt from my 3 year olds journal:

Alligator. A Donkey. Belly of the Whale. Jonah is in the belly of the whale. I like to ride a cow. I mean, I like to ride a little cow. I want to ride a donkey. I want to ride a hee-haw. I like soccer ball. I want a cow.

Isn’t that so much fun?? :) What a silly boy. :)

5 year olds:

I wish I had a kitten. I would sleep with her every night. I won’t let the dogs eat her within and without the light.

I love to ride my bike. If I could, I would ride it in the dark.

I’m gonna get a horse for Christmas and I want it to be a quarter horse.

I used to like pigs, but now I like horses better than that.

I often like to fish, but sometimes play with the kittens at Nana’s. They are so cute. I have one of my own there.

I wish I had a room of my own. I have to sleep with my brothers every night and I don’t like that.

Halloween days are fun and I like candy all the time. I like to paint pumpkins.

Okay, so she’s a little conversational…lol. Free Christmas horses, anyone? Do you think we have a veterinarian in the making??

7 year olds:

The Kittens

I like the little kittens, there cuddly and soft as mittens and there allways very, very good. and there allways in a good mood, and its a very good reason too…Beacause……its the end. (for the kittens?? :oP)

Typed exactly as written. :) I do believe he was trying to rhyme. There are so many differences between the age groups and it is so neat to see the writing/conversation improvements, isn’t it? The 5 year old was more articulate, it seemed, in conversation, but the 7 year old titles his writings, sticks with a topic, and even tries to rhyme.

If you already do journaling with your homeschoolers, I’d love to hear from you.

And now, my Journal writing must come to an end for the day is beginning around me. So far, the birds are the only ones I hear stirring, but it won’t be long and our household will be going full force. What a blessing to be able to keep my children with me and teach them in the ways of the Lord. Isn’t He wonderful?

Why we’ve decided to say No to..

Barbie

Before my little girl was old enough to play with Barbies, I didn’t really give Barbies much thought as to whether or not they would or would not reside in my home. If someone would have asked me, “Are you going to let your daughters play with Barbies?” I would have just sort of looked at them blankly like, “Why wouldn’t I, I did!”

One day, right before my oldest daughter was old enough to play with Barbies, but definitely not interested (remember we did pigs for forever a couple of years), I came across this article in a No Greater Joy magazine (be sure to sign up for their free magazine).  I started out thinking about it some, but this article didn’t really convince me totally. What did convince me is that I started noticing these hoochy mama Barbies were dressed in a way that I would never want my daughter to dress. Need another picture or two?

My daughter has had a few Barbies that were bought for her by other people. We have since trashed all of her Barbies and she has total understanding of why we have done so. We have discussed this with her and she is supportive somewhat. :) I know she will completely understand when she is older.

Maybe I could buy only modest Barbies? (I tried to find a modest Barbie picture, but after 6 Google Image Pages I really couldn’t find one I thought was modest). What happens when the Barbies are undressed? If your little girl is like mine, you will find the dolls without clothes more than with. Have a look…

This is so repulsive to me. I feel like I have posted porn on my blog twice in one month! (Pray Saints :)

If you have sons in your home (as I do), is this the image you want them to see on a daily basis—or even an occasional basis—or even a once a year basis? Please, if you do decided to continue with Barbies in your home, at least make sure they stay covered.

Speaking from experience, Barbies are sources of imaginative play for young girls and this can result in a form of idolatry. I have watched little girls play with Barbie and Ken and immediately that would get still and just sit and hold Barbie and Ken for many moments, somewhat lost in their own play. Young girls can and will pretend they are Barbie and Ken is, well, their boyfriend and then they will act out certain scenes, which will depend upon how ‘educated’ the little girl is. Is. this. Healthy?

Little girls will want to dress like their Barbies (or the correct term is undress like their Barbies). Teenage life will not come soon enough for your precious little girl.

I know you are like me in wanting to preserve your daughter’s girlish years. Her innocence. Her femininity.

Pray about what God would have you do. I would encourage you to make sure that godliness reflects in what your children watch and with what your children play. You will not be alone in your decision. My brother’s wife had on her last 2 year’s Christmas lists, No Barbies! She has 3 precious little girls to preserve. I recently talked with this mother of 10 and she mentioned that she never allowed Barbies to be played with by her daughters. Dolls help young girls learn to be mothers, not Barbies. Barbies teach young girls about having a Ken/Barbie relationship and about how to be a teenager.

I would love to hear your comments yay or nay.

PS If you are looking for great, wholesome toys for your children, check out www.visionforum.com.

F.R.O.G

No, I’m not changing my blog to include the study of animals nor am I going to talk about dissecting Frogs for a Homeschool project. Instead I’m going to talk about Fully Relying on God. You know, F.R.O.G? I know you are relieved that I’m not going to discuss Frogs. :)

My next few posts are probably going to be Spiritual type posts because I’ve had a few things on my mind that I want to share with you. Things I might share in a testimony type service if I indeed, did testify in a testimony service, which I don’t very much.

I don’t know about you, but I do know about me. :) I’m a person who does not ask for help (ok, I will call my Mama and beg for her to come help me, but that’s my Mom, ya know) and feel easily intimidated by others. When I taught school, I always tried to do what I was supposed to do because I did not want to end up in the Principal’s Office (same as when I was actually in school). Those things intimidated me. In fact, a few teachers would go by there and just chat with the Principal, but not me. Those sort of people intimidate me (FWIW, I loved my principals and got along w/them fabulously). In fact, I can be intimidated by lots of people. I can handle it myself.

For the past couple of weeks, the Lord has dealt with me that I don’t rely on Him enough. I don’t go to Him enough for help. Guilty. I guess in my mindset, I thought of God as someone I would go to for healing and to ask for spiritual help. That’s about what I’ve gone to Him for over the years. I have asked Him to help me be a better mother a zillion many times and to give me wisdom, etc., but just for simple things, I have not asked. Things like, Lord, show me how to organize my day more effectively. Lord, how do I respond to this child who has just smarted-off to me? Lord, can you help my dinner turn out well?

I have found that the Lord loves to help us with those things, ladies. Casting ALL your care upon Him, for He careth for you. I Peter 5:7.

A few years ago, I remember snickering at a relative who was asking God to help her while we were playing a board game. I mean she actually bowed her head and prayed. While I have yet to ask for his help over a board game, I have asked him for some pretty simple help lately. :) And, I’ve found Him faithful.

I heard a message about 3 weeks ago from Bro. Dollas Messer in which he was talking about Man being created to be dependent on God. We were made to rely on Him. He created us to need Help! We are guilty of turning to other sources (books, resources, our girlfriends, other blogs, etc) for help, when we can ask Him. The author and Finisher of our Faith. ***I, of course, am not saying the above ‘helps’ are wrong and I believe God can and does use resources to help us. He has used these tools many, many times in my Christian life.***

On a personal note…Sunday, as I was walking for exercise, I was praying (makes a great prayer time) and asking God to forgive me for not depending on Him for help with my frustrations (one of them being my lack of organization, etc.) and my prayer went like this:

“Lord, I know that I can’t do anything without your help. I also know that you are able to help me with the things I get frustrated over. Lord, I know you are able to help me be able to get things done that I can’t do within myself. You are able to anoint me to be superwoman. “ (I really said that). Now, the Lord knows my heart and the fact that I don’t want to be Superwoman for vain reasons such as so I can brag about it. I just want to be to find a healthy balance of things (housework, school, kids, etc.).

Well, yesterday, I sort of forgot about my prayer, but God didn’t. As the day went along, I couldn’t believe all the things I was getting done. Honestly. I did not get up too early (7:40, to be exact) and believe me the weekend was hugely evident in my home. But, I got everything done that I normally need to do including sweeping/straightening the laundry room, spent a few moments decluttering our office room, cleaned the bathroom, matched up some socks, swept and cleaned off the porch, along with my normal things!

Maybe it wasn’t necessarily his making me Superwoman, but perhaps He is just helping me know how to organize my time, get my kid’s involved, etc. But, I’m so thankful for HIS help.

Don’t be afraid to ask Him believing Him to help you with anything from being a better lover to your husband (I have prayed this before and the Lord has answered) to helping you stretch the grocery budget (have seen the Lord move in this area this wk as well). We just can’t imagine how much He loves us and is waiting for us to ask Him for help. His people are His delight.

He’s been good to me!

PS Stay tuned for a Giveaway to be announced later this week. I now have TWENTY followers, so I decided it be nice to have a giveaway! :)

A Great, GREEN Smoothie..

While I’m working on My Day post (which will take a while), here’s what we had for breakfast this morning, my honey and I (you will definitely want to make this)…

Gather your extremely Healthy ingredients….

A handful of Strawberries, a handful of Peaches, a really heaping tbs (probably about 1/3 cup) of organic plain yogurt, 1/2 cup of organic milk, a handful of Spinach (preferably Organic—I didn’t have organic), and 1/4 cup of Agave Nectar. Oh, and I put in a couple tbsp of Flax Seeds (not pictured). I didn’t measure anything, just a handful and spoonful here and there.

Put this in your blender..

Isn’t it Beyoutiful???

A couple of minutes later….(My couple of minutes were spent holding a plate on top to prevent flyaways—since my cuties threw my lid away. That’s the only thing I can figure happened to it)

Voila! (Or, Voiler, as my husband likes to say…:)

Oh, and the Spinach? You’ll never know it was in there. Well, your body might, but you won’t taste it.

That’s a good thing, right? :)

Happy Tuesday!

Goal Setting for Busy Mamas

What does a busy mama do when she has things she would like to improve upon, but doesn’t see any way to fit them into her already busy schedule? I think I have found the solution. It’s called small-goal-setting. Very small goal setting.
I am a list maker, but I find that often my lists are longer than they need to be. I may have 4 or 5 things marked off by the end of the day. I overestimate my time. Always.
I am a very busy mama. I’m talking super busy. With that said, you may come to my home at any given time of the day (esp. mornings) and think that all I do is lay on the couch and sleep or stay on the computer. My house will not reflect a busy woman. The things I do are behind-the-scenes, I suppose. Most of the time, to be frank, I’m just chasing my tail.
The key to keeping my sanity during this time is for me to keep in mind that these days won’t last forever. I can already see such a difference in the amount of (high) maintenance my 2 year old requires as compared to my 7 year old. I’d say in about 7 or 8 years from now, my load will get a little bit lighter. Hopefully, the smallest baby (assuming we have 1 more in about 1 yr. & ½) will be 4 or so and the older children can be helping with the chores. Also, the training will be established in the older children, for the most part. My 7 year old is finally well behaved and obedient, for the most part. He does his chores cheerfully and knows how to perform small jobs. Things start to decline from the 4 year old down, but we are daily working on this. Hence, the chasing of the tail.
Don’t you feel tired already? I love my life, but things are a bit manic at times.
Back to my blog topic. There are a few things I want to do during my day (other than child training and dishes), but if I don’t write these things down and keep the list short then I won’t stick to them. The key to success for me, is setting small goals. I have found that making a list of three goals is doable. Anyone can stick to three goals.
In the morning when you have your quiet time, provided that you do indeed have a quiet time, (and don’t do like me and sleep until 7 or 8 am because you were up 3 times during the night and went to bed at 1 and etc….) write 3 things down that you want to do that day. This week, I have been focusing on personal goals, but you can focus spiritual goals (which is what I did last week) or housekeeping goals.
Examples of personal goals could be: 1. Exercise for 5 minutes (hey you have to start small), 2. Make healthy eating choices and say no to junk snacks. 3. No computer until my Bible reading is completed. (have you noticed my lack of FBing?)
The key to successful goal setting is to Plan Small, Plan for DAILY maintenance (each day renew your goals..it’s easier to stick with them if you think of them as daily and not weekly), Try again tomorrow if you don’t get to it or stick with it. So many times I’ve been guilty of foregoing my whole strategy because I ate one candy bar, etc.
Lastly, one has to assess where do these goals fit in regards to priorities? It is best to complete your goals first thing in the morning (if it’s something like exercise or Bible reading) or you might not get it done. I like my housework to be done worse than I want to exercise, so prioritizing is something that constantly plagues me.
Do you set goals for yourself? Or, maybe you just try to make it through the day like I do mostly. Start small. Maybe you can start with one goal. Something like, Wash, blowdry, and roll my hair (for once). That was actually a goal of mine a couple weeks ago. And I got comments on my hair. Really.
See, goal setting works!

On Pottytraining a little all along....

When our 7 yr old, Emory, was born, we were sort of clueless about parenting anything other than the 'traditional' methods. Even on disciplining, I really didn't have a clue other than going by what I thought I should do. Thankfully, the Lord rescued me and led us to some wonderful parenting resources and childrearing material. But, that is another post for another time.
When it came time for pottytraining, it was really hard work. Frustrating. Emory was 3 years old, weighed 40 or so pounds and size 6 diapers were getting too tight. Finally, he pottytrained at a month after he turned 3. He would still have occasional accidents on up for months after he trained.
With Erin, 4-year old, she seemed interested in the potty at about 10 months old. She would see her brother use it and the little potty was still in the bathroom at that time. I started sitting her on there before bathtime. She would potty. I think if I had been consistent and hadn't thought she was too young to train, she would've trained at around a yr old. She was trained a couple of months before she turned 2 years old. She even night trained at the same time.
When I was pregnant with Evan (2yr old) I had read articles like this about training babies from birth to go potty. I even bought a book about Elimination Communication (I let a friend borrow the book so I don't remember the title). It was no longer strange to me anymore.
When Evan was 2 weeks old, I put him on the potty. He was so cute sitting on this great big potty, his skin all wrinkled. He went. I just about told everybody. I remember when he was 4 months old, we were sitting at the table eating breakfast. He was in my lap and I heard and felt him starting to grunt. I had just changed his diaper, so I thought, why let him soil this new diaper when I can take him to the potty? So I ran to the bathroom, put him on the potty and he went! I think this was his first poop in the potty. I was stoked. :) It was not his last.
At this time, my mom kept my kids for me while I taught school. She thought the idea absurd and she and my sister concurred that I should just let him be a baby and not try to grow him up so fast. So, I could only take him to the potty during the afternoons and the weekends. This wasn't consistent enough, so I pretty much didn't try any harder than taking him occasionally on the weekends. Even so, he was not scared of the big huge potty when it was time to train. He was comfortable with going on the potty. When it came time to officially train him (I wanted him trained all the way before the new baby came), I put him straight into underwear. He had about 6 accidents the first day (Monday) and from then on that week, he had accidents every day, but they got less and less. By that Saturday, he was telling me when he had to go. He was trained a month shy of 2 yrs old.
Now with Ella, I have stayed home with her from the beginning. I have started out taking her to the potty. Even more so now since she is more agile and has developed muscles in her neck. The first time I put her on the potty, she went. Just like that. It was as if she just knew to go! Amazing. (Sorry, I still have'nt got used to the fact that babies can be potty trained...it still makes me excited). So..even though I haven't totally trained her to NOT go in her diaper, she still goes on the potty every time I take her. She is harder to get on there for poops because she doesn't give me as much of a warning as Evan did. :)
Some books and articles like this one, say to have a special sound you make to train the baby to 'go' when she hears the sound. I haven't been too consistent with that because she just goes as soon as I put her on. :) I have recently started saying 'Shhh' but I think that will be a problem. I need to save 'Shh' for when we are in church and she starts making noise. :)
To sum up, here are some helpful hints for early training (keep in mind, one can be more rigid and it is possible to totally train your child at a very young age, but this is more flexible. My goal is just to get my kids comfortable with the potty and to hopefully develop an early-trained child):
1. From the earliest point possible, take your baby to the potty. You can start off taking the baby with you while you potty. She will learn from your example.
2. Take your baby after each diaper change and before baths. If your baby wakes up and she feels dry, hurry and take her before she pees. Also, you can find success in taking your child about 10 minutes after feeding her.
3. To prevent from having to change so many poopy diapers, take your child at the first sign that she is about to have a bowel movement. Go with the first grunt. :) As weird as it sounds, sometimes I just know when my babies are about to go 'potty'. Go with that intuition.
4. With older training, don't be afraid to go straight to the undies. Pull-ups can be a training child's worst enemy. Don't worry. You won't have to clean up pee and poop more than around 5 or 6 days. :) Then it will be sporatic for awhile. You will be so proud of your little girl or boy. All while the Pull Up wearers will still be peeing and pooping in their Pull Ups! :)
I hope this was helpful. Training doesn't have to be a sudden process. It can be a smooth, easy, and gradual transition.
I mean, how would you feel if all of the sudden, one day, someone place you over this huge hole with the likelihood that you might fall into this big water abyss?
Have a happy, wintry Saturday and Happy Training!