Mmmm Mmmm Good!

I figured it's been a while since I've shared some of my culinary ventures, so here's a few of the latest. Tonight was my all-time favorite: veggie burgers. I used to make these even before we cut out meat and I get a serious craving for them every couple weeks or so. To be honest, they're a lot of work, but it's definitely worth it. Pete and Vince really like these burgers now, but they put theirs on a bun. Since these are breaded, I eat mine without a bun. It's just lots of veggies, like broccoli, carrots, leek, onion, corn, potatoes, and mushrooms all ground up together into a patty. The veggies are sauteed first and the potatoes act as the thing that holds it all together. Vince doesn't like leek, Dylan doesn't like mushrooms and carrots, but the kids like these burgers! To go with it, I made quinoa and wild rice pilaf and some good ol'fashioned canned baked beans (organic, of course, so there's no high-fructose corn syrup, caramel color, or anything else that's made in a lab). I have a recipe for homemade baked beans, but tonight wasn't the night to try that with the work the other dishes were.

A while back, I wanted to try a recipe like the old S.O.S. (can I say that?) that we had growing up. So we had a healthy mushroom gravy recipe with tempeh strips (a meat alternative product made from fermented soybeans and brown rice). I used shitake mushrooms because a lady sells them for a really good price at the farmers' market now. We just had it over organic farmhouse bread with smashed potatoes (mashed potatoes with corn and carrots) and a salad on the side. The tempeh is my favorite meat alternative; it tastes nothing like tofu and even smells good when it comes out of the package! The kids kept calling it "chicken!" I'll have to try other things with it, like tacos and stuff. My Dad and my brother Derek just arrived here tonight, so we'll see how they like this week's culinary menu! It includes my spinach alfredo pizza of course on Friday, which Derek is excited for, and seitan (another meat alternative) and veggie burritos. Watch for their responses on another post!

Woolly Weekend Field Trip

(Sorry, I don't know what got on the lens!)

Today we ventured out on a field trip that we have been waiting MONTHS for! When we first got down here, I heard about this farm called Shepherd's Cross. I liked the name, because our school name is an acronoym for it: S.H.E.P.H.E.R.D. (For those who want to know, it stands for School of Home Education Preparing Hearts for Eternally-Rewarded Devotion. Pete and I stayed up late one night five years or more ago brainstorming a name for our home school.) Anyway, this farm is just past the dairy farm where we get our milk every week and we heard that in the spring, they open their barn for visitors to learn about the sheep-shearing process. We have been counting down the months/weeks/days to it and were so happy it was finally here.

A few weeks ago, we had taken a pre-visit to the farm to make sure we knew where it was and check it out without the crowd. The kids fell in love with the big sheep dogs, named Titus and Esther. They kept asking when we would get to go back and see the dogs, so naturally, that was the first thing they wanted to do when we arrived today. Unfortunately, these are working dogs and we only got to see them for a minute before they noticed a potential danger to their flock (it was just some cows crossing the field across the street in another field!).

To start out the demonstration, the owners showed us a wooden shepherd's crook and how they use it. The sheep shearing was quite a sight. The most interesting thing was that when they put the sheep in the position shown in the picture below, they immediately stop fighting. They said this is what is meant in Isaiah 53:7 where it says "he was led like a like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." They explained how Jesus willingly and obediently went to his death silently so we could have the gift of eternal life. The thing I like most about this verse is that it was written 500 years before Jesus was even born, but the prophet Isaiah was given this prophecy to tell of our coming salvation.

The shearing looked like difficult work, especially with the sheep that were having it done for the first time. One of those, a one-year-old ewe, also had her first baby recently. Her lamb had a broken leg and so they splintered her leg at the same time as her mom was being sheared. They couldn't keep them apart and the ewe had to see her lamb the whole time the shearing was happening or she would protest. Afterwards, we all got to pet the soft, black, little lamb. It was soooo cute. We decided that if we ever got to start our own farm, we would definitely have sheep. The owners said they are wonderful and easy farm animals to start out with.
The owners, pictured below, use this farm as their ministry to reach out and share the message of the Great Shepherd with people. Their youngest daughter, whom is still homeschooled (yeah!), is pictured on the right. She had her grubby work boots and her big belt buckle on and wasn't afraid to get in there and help. That's my kind of teenage girl!

So before shearing:

And after:

It was so nice to be out there with the acres of rolling pasture, old oak trees, and nothing but the sounds of nature. We just pray that this would be God's plan for us someday!

More Pets!

More pets have found their way into our home, but we just consider it science! During the heavy rains last week, the red-eared slider turtles abounded the sides of ponds and streets by our house, and we happen to come across a little one on the way to Walmart. Since these have always been Vince's favorite and he's never got to have one, we brought it home and put our Walmart trip off until later! Fortunately, this one's living outside at our house!

Gabie got a Walmart gift card in the mail from Grandma Hanson, so we immediately knew we'd get him the thing that he keeps wanting: a "bish" (fish)! He loves fish and we've been wanting to get him one, so we went to Walmart (after the turtle was set up at home), and bought him his first "bish." He loves seeing it first thing in the morning.

Grandma also sent Gabie a coloring book (with pictures of "bish" to color), and some BIG crayons. He absolutely loves coloring with the crayons and it's been a nice way to entertain him during school hours! Thanks so much Grandma!

By the way, we are happy to report that the nuk has recently been making it's appearance A LOT less at our house! Gabie is deciding to give it up on his own! Thank you, God, because You knew I didn't have the energy for that little battle!

An Oklahoma Spring

As I'm typing this, the thunder is banging outside and even though it only started raining an hour ago, the air smelled of rain the entire day. The thunderstorms during the past few weeks have colored the landscape beautifully. The former owner of our home was an avid gardener and, to my benefit, liked perennials. We were playing in the back yesterday and Vince said, "Whoa, where'd those flowers come from?" He thought I had been doing some gardening, but they just seem to have showed up out of nowhere. Here are some of the things the rain has brought up in our yard:


Faith took this picture:


She liked the idea of checking out the landscape through the camera lens, so here's some more of her work:

The lilac trees are in full bloom and they are definitely my favorite. Another one of her pictures:

Then I turned the camera on her! (These are taken in front of our front door.)

I don't know what it is, but there's always been something about Faith that makes me want to take her picture by flowers!

Gabie wasn't about to miss out either. (I know, that dang NUK again!! We're working on it!)

Gabie pointed to the flowers and asked his new favorite question, "Whaz dat?" He asks that about everything, and he usually doesn't stick around long enough to hear the answer. Through that question, though, he has learned "frog," "bish" (fish), "bird," "turtle," and a few other things. He especially likes to ask it when he sees someone in the bathroom or undressing! Yeah, that's enough. Good night!

Bible Truths with Playdough

This past week for school, we discussed Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, yes, the same guys that demanded Jesus be crucified. This Pharisee, however, was very intrigued by Jesus' wisdom and teachings. So one night, he sought Jesus out away from the sight of the other Pharisees. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3 "no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again [born from above]." This puzzled Nicodemus because it doesn't make sense for a grown man to be born from his mother again. Jesus told him, though, that this is a new kind of birth, one from the Spirit. Just a few sentences later, Jesus says the ever-popular "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

Our kids have each celebrated at least one rebirthday (with the exception of Gabie, of course), so we thought post-Easter was a good time to discuss and review this on a deeper level. This is where the playdough came in!

For our "reborn" culmination project, I did a demonstration with red and blue playdough. The blue playdough represents us, with the spirit we are born with, full of sin already. The red represents the Holy Spirit, given to us through Christ's blood on the cross. When you believe Jesus died for you and ask Him into your life, you also accept the Spirit and the two spirits are molded together within us. At first, you can still see the different colors, slightly mixed together but all in one clump. As you mold them together more, the playdough starts to turn: PURPLE! Finally, we have God's Spirit to live a new life as children of the King, hence the color of royalty. As we were molding the colors together, we discussed some of the ways we let God's Spirit show us how to live and not live by our old spirit, such as praying, reading the Bible, seeking God's plan for our lives, and reaching out to others with the Good News. The kids all really got into it, and then of course just had lots of playdough fun!

Since the boys have really been into frogs lately, it was a given that they would choose to make one out of Playdough. This is Vince's masterpiece.


Vince also started making fraction pies with it, so we made it into a math lesson for Dylan since he hasn't started fractions yet. Vince could be a really good teacher someday! (Well, I suppose he already should be considered one! He's taught Dylan and Faith each how to do addition upon turning age 3, and I suspect he'll do the same with Gabie!) We all had a blast and it was so much fun for me to be a part of this instead of leaving it up to a sunday school teacher!PS: Don't blame Vince for the hair! We keep meaning to take him in for a haircut, so it's really not his fault!!!!!! (Truth be told, he's also really nervous about having someone other than Stacy from Total Image in Zimmerman cut his hair!)

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Tonight's dinner was a strange-sounding recipe I found in my favorite vegetarian cookbook, The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook: Black bean, sweet potato, and greens enchiladas. We like sweet potato quesadillas, so I thought I'd try this. We also eat a lot of beans (which we've done even before cutting out meat altogether) and black beans are our favorite. It's one of the quicker recipes I've made lately, taking only about an hour start to finish including baking time. You sautee onions, then add the cubed pieces of sweet potatoes, then add some chopped greens (I used spinach and kale). The recipe didn't call for corn, but I threw it in anyway to give us a good assortment of veggies. That was the filling. I made a homemade enchilada sauce with raw heavy cream from the dairy farm and pico de gallo. I used raw fresh colby cheese inside the enchiladas and over the top. (In fact, our dairy farm wins awards every year at the Illinois State Fair for its cheeses, and their colby is my favorite! The cheese we get from them is never any more than a couple of days old because of the demand it has!)

Complemented by a bed of homemade brown spanish rice, it was DELICIOUS. Pete wasn't home from work for dinner (working in 83-degree weather-ugh!), but the kids absolutely loved this. They ate more than I thought and I had to stop them to make sure we had enough left over for Pete!



In case some of you are noticing, we are enjoying the benefits of raw milk and cheeses from our local dairy farm. This is something friends of ours in Minnesota told us about. They had to go to Otsego every Tuesday morning to enjoy this. Why, some of you may ask, would you do that? Here's a good link:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/03/26/pasteurized-milk-part-one.aspx

Before we moved here, we were buying organic milk, which got really expensive. Even with that, Vince was still having daily lactose problems. Now I've learned that pasteurization of milk, whether organic or conventional, alters the lactose properties of milk. Since we've started drinking raw milk and eating raw cheeses, Vince has had complete elimination of lactose symptoms! We're also getting the good bacteria that comes with raw milk which is so important to healthy digestive function. In case you're interested, this link has some good links about how to find raw milk. Got (raw) milk?!

Easter Reflections

As I looked back on our 2008 Easter, I found myself at first longing for that big extended family easter dinner. Admittedly, I had feelings of loneliness creeping up on Sunday without our extended family and friends around us. But as I reflect on it, I have learned something very important.

Before I go into that, here's a picture of us that morning. We taught the kids that this is the most special day ever and so out of respect for God and in celebration of such a special day, we all try to look our best.


After a WONDERFUL church service, we came home and worked on making sticky buns together. We rolled out the dough, and the kids helped spread butter on it, brown sugar, cinnamon, and here's Vince putting on the pecans. It was so much fun that the kids asked if we could make them every Sunday. (I think it had something to do with the taste, too.)


They turned out great. I was most pleased with the bread dough considering it was my first successful homemade whole wheat bread dough. For my mom, sisters, and brothers, it tasted like a healthy version of monkey bread! (Still a little too sweet for me though.)

Here's our dinner. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of the "meatloaf". I loved the mushroom gravy though. Pete (of course) said he really liked it and brought the leftovers with him to work today. Gabie loved the kale and olive oil mashed potatoes (that must be a trait that runs in my side of the family!) But everything turned out just as it was supposed to, including. . .


The upside-down caramelized apple cake. Topped off with a scoop of ice cream, it was moist in the middle and caramelly on the top. Pete didn't save enough room for it after the "meatloaf," but he tried it later and loved it. I cut the amount of sugar in half that the recipe called for in the cake batter and you would never know the difference! Our day still included a lot of sweets, which we told the kids that it's okay on that day because it's the sweetest day of the year!



Now, for my easter reflections. This year, spiritually, proved to be the best easter ever. Without the buzz and chaos of family get-togethers, I was able to focus solely on Christ and what he did for us. I spent all my time in the kitchen reflecting on the magnitude of what He did and turned to Him in my loneliness. Even though in prior years we went to church before going to an easter get-together, that hour or two wasn't enough time to reflect on these things. I think it was a matter of having the whole day to cut out the chaos and try to wrap my brain around the supernatural things that took place solely out of God's love for us that resurrection day. From this, I can see why maintaing the Sabbath isn't just about going to church on Sundays and then going about the rest of our day as usual. Those days, in their entirety, should be used as a day of reflection without chaos or obligations to other things like sports. Just thought I'd share a little bit about what God revealed to me while my mind wasn't occupied with other things! Hope this Easter revealed some of God's wisdom to "y'all"! (I'm not really saying that word yet.)