loving

A winter work out playlist to keep me moving while I walk the dog in the cold; music

A winter cowl that knits up fast and is so pretty; cowl

A delicious way to eat up the pumpkin my sister brought to my house; roasted squash

A poem and thoughts on honesty; zen poem

A funny holiday video from a funny family; video

A beautiful wooden wreath I would like to make; Bead wreath

A Christmas CD I love to put on and play all day; Mindy Smith

What I want to make with Atticus, Dash, and Elias; Snow globes

Dreaming of planting; tulips

Friday Foto 12-2-11

December 1 2011

Here we are, in December.  

no snow on the ground yet

We visited Walney state park

We crafted

We cut old clothes into banners to hang in our "new" house when we get there.

Peace in this last month of 2011.

Monday, planing ahead tips

Today, I have a lot of hopes.
Making crafts with Atticus is a big one.  I would also love to swim with the kids at the health-club, and do some yoga.  Atticus wants to do some baking.

And, I want to head back to Walney park with the kids,  to gather myself in the quiet woods.  I feel so so so so so peaceful when I am there, and for a long time after I leave.   I would like to take stock of the pantry items we can use up before the move.  I would also like to read the books I got from the library, and get the house in order.  That is a lot of fun stuff I want to do, and there is no mention of the yucky stuff, like make dentist appointments, fill out papers for the "new" school,  oil changes and packing.  I would rather not think about the yucky stuff.  Not just yet.

I am working on developing some tricks to squeeze more into a day.  A lot of my time is spent in the kitchen preparing food, because I believe in making healthy food for my family.  And, because I love to bake and cook.  I am focusing now on making sure I don't spend our grocery money on snack foods, but  on whole foods, which means I have little to eat that is "grab and go".   I have to plan ahead, and have food cooked and ready for that moment when the children all come in to the kitchen and are starving and roaming around like monsters.  I have to have something I can pull out and whip up when I haven't planned dinner, but it is dinner time.  One new trick I love is homemade biscuit mix.

home-made sweet potato biscuit mix

home made biscuit mix

And, even though there are still steps to complete the biscuits when making them from the mix, it is easier than making them completely from scratch.  I have also heard you can freeze biscuits before you bake them, and just pull them out and bake them when you are ready.  That is next in the process of learning short-cuts.  

Hot biscuits, ready in less than 20 minutes, waiting for gravy, jelly, or honey.  These always get me extra hugs from the boys.  Especially when I make them for dinner (not just breakfast!)

Biscuit recipe taken from "How to cook the Perfect Day" by Nikki McClure.

Brothers

"Dear one, there is a way from your heart to my heart,
and there is an awareness in my heart because of seeking it,
because my heart is like pure sweet water,
and pure water holds the mirror of the moon."

(Rumi)

The connection between these brothers is strong.  They are so close, they sometimes don't even need to talk and they know what each other is thinking.  They are excited to see each other at the end of school, and tell each other about their days.  I walk close as I can, hoping to hear some of the information they share with each other, and no one else.

Left overs

We had delicious left overs hanging around our kitchen.  The perfect way to use most of them is to just re-create the dinner from the day before.  Warm up the turkey, mash potatoes, and stuffing, and enjoy.  But, there are also a ton of things one could  do, and here are some of what we did...

For breakfast, we put the cranberry sauce in our oatmeal for a delicious and healthy change to our normal oatmeal.

                                        Atticus makes it "snow" on the oatmeal...powdered sugar

yum!

I boiled the turkey carcass in water to make the stock and get all the meat off the bones.  Especially when we buy a free-range turkey or chicken, I feel the need to use everything we can.  In this case, a delicious bone broth was made.  After I boiled the bones for about 12 hours, I drained the broth and added the meat and veggies.  Some bones were soft enough for the dog, and he was so happy!  He also got a lot of skin and a few scraps of meat.  In the end, we had very little waste from the turkey dinner.   

We added a dollop of sour cream to our soup and had some home-made sour-dough bread to dip in the broth.  

Can I just say what a compliment it is when I see someone drinking the very last drop of the soup this way?  All the bowls were empty.  This is a most satisfying and healthy soup.  If you don't make bone broth, I suggest you start.  I also use the broth for cooking our rice, which adds so much goodness to the rice.  I love having a jar of homemade broth in my fridge.  It makes me feel like I am taking good care of my family.  Warm fuzzies...