Summer Love...

Summer reminds me of fresh cut flowers from the yard, homemade Popsicles, the smell of a freshly mowed lawn, banana bread, afternoon thunderstorms, front porch sitting and backyard swimming pools.





Loving life right now and it's fun. Embracing the life, family, children, husband, house and weather God has given me.





I know I will miss the day when little fingers have rearranged my silverware drawer.





Awww... the joy of homemade grape juice popsicles!

Yummy

These cupcakes are so yummy and Lucy can have them. I think these will be on the menu for her birthday. I think you could make a banana bread with the recipe too. I'll be trying that sometime soon.

I made a different frosting that very good. Here is a rough estimate of the amounts and ingrediants.

1/2 cup yogurt cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 drops of liquid stevia
1 tsp of honey

You just have to taste it and sweeten to your liking.

What we are eating this week...

I make all our meals Gaps diet friendly for our daughter. We usually have a simple salad with every meal to get our greens and if I have time I like to make some kind of dessert or grain free bread to enjoy. I'll try to post a recipe that is gaps modified sometime. To check out more menus go here.


Chicken, lemon and leek pot pies with salads and Sue Gregg's yogurt pie without the crust made with homemade raw milk yogurt and fresh pineapple

Salmon fillets with whatever veggies I have and coconut muffins

Liver and bacon stir fry (from Eat fat, Lose fat) with a green salad

Veggie quiche with a salad

Ground beef gyros with fruit salad

What we've been doing...

Eating clam chowder on rainy days.




Loving strawberry salads.







Playing outside.




Achieving new milestones.




Trying new yummy recipes.






Taking lots of pictures.




Hammock love.




Took a quick trip to Nebraska.




Enjoying all the rain.

God will take care of you

The words from this old hymn blessed me today. I hope they do the same for you.

Be not dismayed whate'er betide,
God will take care of you;
beneath his wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.


God will take care of you,
through every day, o'er all the way;
he will take care of you,
God will take care of you.

Through days of toil when heart doth fail,
God will take care of you;
when dangers fierce your path assail,
God will take care of you.


All you may need he will provide,
God will take care of you;
nothing you ask will be denied,
God will take care of you.


No matter what may be the test,
God will take care of you;
lean, weary one, upon his breast,
God will take care of you.

For today May 18, 2009

Outside my window is the last of our lilacs and a squirrel trying to climb a crab apple branch.

I am thinking what a great weekend we had and I can't believe Abby is still sleeping this morning.

I am thankful for my husband who takes such good care of his family.

From the kitchen I'm hoping to get some sauerkraut made today. There will be a chicken roasting in the oven later for dinner tonight.

I am wearing my pjs still! I don't want to go into our room and wake Abby up.

I am creating a peaceful, organized, Christ centered home for my family.

I am going grocery shopping later today. Probably stop at Vitamin Cottage and maybe Sunflower market.

I am reading Created to be his Helpmeet, The Creative Family and James.

I am hoping we can sell all the furniture we bought this weekend for a good price!

I am hearing Abby who is now awake makeing happy sounds and Lucy looking through the pages of one of her books.

Around the house everything is out of order. Out with the old in with the new. I'm hoping everything will be organized by the end of the week. I need to paint and distress a new shelf for Lucy's room Todd bought for a $1 at a garage sale. I need to catch up on the girls laundry. I want to put up a picture wall in our bedroom. I need to water our garden and the flowers I potted last week.

One of my favorite things is spending a peaceful morning with the girls after a busy weekend.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

This was the cutie sitting beside me while I wrote this.

I love...

My new garage sale finds.







Freshly made biscuits in the morning.



The view from my kitchen window.



My sweet girls.
Have a beautiful spring day!

pretty

Giveaway!!

Cheeseslave is generously offering one of her readers the opportunity to own "Cooking with Coconut Flour". Anyone wanting to bake with an extremely nutritious flour that is gluten free and doesn't require soaking this would be an awesome cookbook. My daughter is on the Gaps diet and this is almost a must for yummy foods she can have. It's just not in my budget at the moment, so I'm very excited about this!
Head on over to Cheeseslave and check out her blog and sign up for the giveaway.

Enzymes

Last night we started Lucy on food enzymes. I'm excited to see what happens with these. I've read about a lot of autistic kids improving when these are added. We've tried so many things to no avail, but I am very hopeful this time. Last night after we ate Lucy babbled a lot more. We were looking for any improvement, but I don't know if the two were related or not.

Currently Lucy is taking EFA's, high vitamin cod liver oil, biokult and now food enzymes. We have to go pretty slow with the biokult, but everything else she handles very well.

Homemade creme fraiche

I'm so excited to share a post for Real Food Wednesday. Cheeseslave is hosting it this week. I was able to make a little more than 2 cups of creme fraiche for around $3, using vat pasturized, grass fed cream.

I needed creme fraiche for a recipe this week and thought I would post a tutorial for making it. I am making chicken supreme from Nourishing Traditions if you're interested. Todd and I will eat it on rice and Lucy will have it on steamed broccoli so it's Gaps friendly.
I'm using the recipe from the Gaps book and I didn't have access to creme fraiche starter so I'm using yogurt instead. That's the option she gives in the book.

You'll need the following,
1/2 liter of cream
1/2 cup starter or yogurt
mason jar for fermenting



Add the cream to a small saucepan and cook it until it almost boils while stirring frequently, but don't let it boil.



Now let it cool to 104 degrees, then stir in your starter, and pour into a mason jar. Cover with a lid, and put it in a warm place for at least 24 hours.



While I was waiting for the cream to boil I went and got these from our backyard chickens. I love having chickens!



Now you have yummy homemade creme fraiche and leftover cream for a warm drink.