Honest! I did try! These beauties have been sitting in the freezer for a good solid month and a half. See, that alone shows I did try. I had such hopes of storing these blueberries away and pulling them out on a cold winter’s night to surprise the kiddos with some yummy breakfast muffins. Did I mention that I tried? A very generous friend delivered these to our house and ever since she dropped them off they have been calling out to me. They are so big and so plump. YUM! I will not lie, I buried them in the freezer…out of sight out of mind, right!? WRONG! I could hear them calling through the freezer door! I kid you not!

Yesterday as I was trying to think up a fun and out of the ordinary treat to celebrate my Mom’s birthday I heard them beckoning again from the freezer but this time I gave in! I totally caved! I really think that they rejoiced to be out of the freezer! Look at those little ice crystals…poor things!

So the blueberry’s were finally free but now I needed the best muffin recipe ever so the search began. I settled on this recipe and I must say that it did not disappoint! I was not so sure about the cinnamon topping for a Blueberry muffin, but my mind was quickly put at ease. Delicious!!! I like to think that the Blueberries went smiling in such a delicious treat. Yum!

One week of school down. The end of this first week found our family with colds so what is a Mama to do in such a situation? Make Mac-N-Cheese of course! Back in the day before we had kiddos hubby and I loved to watch Alton Brown on the Food Network. Keep in mind that this is “back in the day” when we could afford the luxury of satellite T.V. (oh, that beloved dish screwed into our roof, how I miss thee (I don’t think hubby ever thought that I would miss the dish on the roof)) it is good old PBS and local stations for us now. I am happy with that decision now but there have been moments! Okay, back to Alton. I feel after watching his show that we are good friends on first name bases of course, after all, we sat with him in his T.V. Kitchen once a week and cooked with him (maybe it is good we got rid of the satellite). So, Alton makes incredible Mac! How do I know this? Well, I watched him make it of course! Okay, and then I tried it out because he makes cooking look easy, fun and it just all makes sense when he cooks (he has that mad scientist thing going on with food). I should share at this point that I am picky about cheese. I don’t like things that are really cheesy. I know, it is odd! This Mac is not too cheesy though, it is the perfect amount of cheesy goodness and it is even a little fancy (I mean look at those bread crumbs on top). So, if you are up for a new Mac-N-Cheese recipe give this a shot. You could even WOW your kids! I know I did! This is the first time that Sister has been aware of me making “real” Mac so she was kind of blown away when I put the dish in the oven and the cheese didn’t come from a packet. She was telling everyone that I made Mac from scratch. So, go ahead and impress the kiddos and make some not too cheesy Mac-N-Cheese.

We are not really ones for adventure around these parts. We like to play it safe (one to many adventure in my day) and keep it low key around here so you can imagine our surprise a few weeks ago when we found ourselves loading up the car (putting our water bottles in the cup holders) and heading out to find adventure. I should define adventure as a very short jaunt. Some would call it a hike, like our children for instance, but it was really and truly a jaunt up a hill to see little waterfalls. The kids enjoyed being outside and finding some “wildlife” on the path. We saw a millipede, butterflies and of course we were surrounded by the beauty of trees and wildflowers. We all loved seeing the waterfalls at the top. Brother and sister really enjoyed playing in the puddles near the falls. Our adventure was not to big or to small it was just the right size for us. A few days later I even heard sis pretending to go on a hike while she was playing.

I am happy to report that we have all survived the first week of our new schedule (code for school started)…and we need a vacation! Whew, dragging my body out of bed a little earlier than “normal” (normal being summer…oh, how I miss thee…it is about a 30 minute difference but it was a good and lovely 30 minutes of extra sleep) is hard work.

The kiddos are eager, loving school and eating it up. I am having to remind brother to give me a hug and a kiss before he goes running off into his classroom and I have decided to just wait and let the other parents pick up their eager to go home children before I interrupt brother’s time with his beloved teacher which he is a little hesitant to leave. Sis is still getting settled into school but she has come home everyday talking about something fabulous that happened (most recently it was that they shot off a rocket).

On the kiddos days off I am attempting home schooling with them (we are not shooting off rockets so it is not quite as exciting as school). It is a safe way for us to try out home schooling and see how it works for our family. I am happy to share that there have been no casualties as of yet but the jury is still out after just one week. It is definitely an adventure in using our words well and staying present with each other though.

We are thankful for Friday and I must admit that there will be a little extra sleeping going on in the morning! Routine is SO good but new routine is SO hard!

First day of school means we need the necessities. I have the great gift of procrastination as we have discussed before but even with that gift the necessity of a backpack was filled just before (two days to be exact) the first day of school. I used the same pattern from which I had made Sis’s last year (she was devastated that I did not make her a new backpack for this year…a bit of a touchy subject with her).

Brother picked out his fabric from the ever growing stash of fabric and asked daily if I was finished yet with his backpack. The little man was elated when I finally held it up for him to behold. Whew, there was so much anticipation built up in him it could of been really bad if he declared it not wonderful. While I was working on this pattern I was reminded of how fabulous this it is so if you are a sewer, don’t be intimidated! It really is doable! Honest!

There are definitely a lot of loaded topics that you can reach in a conversation. Topics that everyone has a thought or opinion on and generally it is strong for one side or the other. I have launched into one of those topics this summer with our family. The topic of food! Not so scary you say…depends on who you ask I guess.

We have several friends who are strong foodies. Just aware of what they are taking into their bodies and what forms of food they consume. I was okay with them and what they were up to, although, it was not super life changing to our diet. I definitely heard them but I was not in a place where I could fully hear them and take it to heart or maybe I didn’t want to hear them.

So fast forward a bit and a different friend tells me that I should watch Food Inc. I am kind of digging in my heels at this point but as she shares a few things I am starting to think that I need to see this. It was running on PBS at the time (good ole’ PBS). A few minutes into watching the show and I had already started changing the way our family was going to eat from this point on.

I went on this crazy learning journey this summer researching and seeking out truth. There is so much information out there it is really hard to weed through it all. There were points where I was armed with enough info to be dangerous and there were points where I decided that there was no way that we could ever do this.

After a lot of conversations with friends and lots of conversations with my husband, armed with his blessing we started to change the food we consume. There is always a catch though isn’t there! Yes, I had my husbands blessing but he reminded me of our limited financial resources and told me that I could make any changes that I wanted as long as our small grocery budget did not change one bit.

Game on! I did not know the competitiveness that this would bring out in me. I wish that I could tell you that I began cutting coupons and I was saving us so much money a week but if I am super honest about it I am not great at being a coupon girl. I have tried. Honest! I signed up for all those sites but I am just not diligent with it. Sad! So with coupons pretty much out except for the ones that are no fuss to print (that is you don’t have to jump through hoops etc.) I drastically altered the food that we consume.

Over the course of the summer we have slowly gone Organic…fully Organic. This also means that we cleaned out our really tasty ready made snacks and treats (hard!). I think that this is a choice that you have to really research and decide about for your own family. So, how in the world could I do this and keep my small grocery budget??? We cut meat. Gasp and sadness, I know! It was a way to make Organics doable for us. We do have one meat meal a week and we chose to have it for our Sabbath dinner just as a fun way to celebrate as a family. I have started making our bread and a few other things but I have really tried to keep that to a minimal time requirement.

The switch has been pretty crazy! It has been hard to find Vegetarian and or Vegan meals that we really enjoy but we are finding them slowly. I am amazed that I am able to keep the budget down and it is actually a little lower than before. Not sure how that works but it is working. I do have very frustrating weeks sometimes when I can’t get exactly what I want but it is a give and take. Lastly we have been surprised in just the few changes with the weight drop. It really made me stop and think.

It has been fun and frustrating exploring new foods and definitely an adventure. I do have to plug Organic Spices. I did not think that they would make any difference at all and it was actually one of the last things that we switched but they are so very fresh and incredible. Who knew they were so different. They even look pretty to in all their bright colors.

So, I share our adventure into this loaded topic just because so many people say that it cannot be done in a small budget. I just want others to know that it really can be done. It is doable. It is a give and take and it is a really hard journey until you get a little more use to the shopping and seeing what you can and cannot do without but it is exciting. At least it has been for us.

We have really invited our children on this journey with us and shared a lot with them it has been a learning process for us all. The other day sister colored me a picture and when I asked her to tell me about it she responded with, they are organic chicks from organic eggs. It has been hard for the kids to give up some of their favorites along the way but they are gaining new favorites much faster than I ever expected.

It has been a crazy and wild adventure walking through this loaded topic (easier for some than others in our house) but all that any of us can do is try to make the best decisions with the knowledge that we have for our families. I just want you to know that it is doable!!!

Yep, there it went! Like the wind, it tore through our house and left us content and ready to face the fall. Summer was full and had many a swirl but it was sweet. When I last left this blog I wanted to fully catch all of summer and bottle it. I am drinking deep from these last few days trying to remember and store away smells of flowers, wet pool hugs, visits and memories galore. It was a summer full of growing and there is much to remember both hard and sweet. I feel content with the way it has been bottled. We shall pull it off the shelf now and then to remember and tell. We have had enough heat to last for a lifetime but today brought rain. Huge dark clouds rolled in and we knew that it would be a good rain. The first good rain that we have had in many days maybe months. We were all very excited for the clouds and rain! We are refreshed and gearing up for school. I stood at the beginning of summer mourning the loss of the best teacher ever for sister only to find at the end of summer that brother will have a most incredible teacher and dear friend of ours this year. Amazing! So, here we stand. Thankful for the refreshing rain and summer, drinking deep from the puddles that remain. There is a backpack that still needs to be sewn but the first day of school dress is hanging in the closet and ready. We are anticipating Open Houses, making new friends and all the newness and unknown that school brings each year. And here we go!

Yep, it is here. We just said goodbye to possibly the best teacher that we will ever have. Is it possible to have your favorite teacher ever in preschool? She has been INCREDIBLE! I cried! I cried writing a note to her. I was boohooing everywhere! My shirt was wet my eyes were red and don’t you know that the UPS man came right then. He looked very scared when he saw me. I still cry just thinking about it. Yep, we will see her next year in the halls but she is just so AMAZING!
Standing here in May summer feels a little overwhelming…it feels long and empty but I know standing in August it will feel so very short and so very full. I want to capture it and bottle it up. I want to save every ounce of it. I want to be present and not preoccupied. I want to enter into my days with a happy heart and an aware heart of where the kids are and what would make them feel loved and cherished that day. I want to equip them, I want to teach them so much, love them so much and explore so much together. There is a whole summer laying ahead…what will we do with it…capture it!

First off YES I put fake flowers on a cake! I was informed that the Cake Wrecks blog would have a fit but I had to admit that it was totally worth it for the happy heart that it gave our kiddo!
This cake is full of nothing but HAPPY! I first stumbled upon this little cake on a random blog and then later discovered that Martha had a recipe for it. I am not sure why Martha always seems to make things a little more complicated but alas I set out to accomplish it because it was just so darn HAPPY! The fun came when we got to cut into the cake at the party and surprise everyone with the rainbow of colors on the inside. So FUN!!!

Icing the cake was a lot of fun as well! Happy happy colors!!!

So, remember all my big talk about all my “hard work” getting the soil ready for the garden this year. Well, I made the executive decision to put in raised beds the following week! The soil, I guess, is not a total loss as the beds are still sitting on top of it but it is kind of funny to not plant directly in the dirt that was worked. Hubby and I had chatted about the raised beds for a bit and the talk was getting bigger so I decided that we should just go for it. When I say that I decided we should go for it it just means that I said okay lets do it. Don’t be fooled by that either though because by “lets do it” I mean great, go for it.
While Sis and I headed to a brunch and a birthday party last weekend Hubby and his Dad were hard at work gathering materials moving a TON (literally, no kidding ONE TON) of dirt/manure and building boxes for my happy garden. Amazingly hard workers!!! I really did not know what to imagine in my head I just knew that they would be large and that there would be 5 for the actual vegetable garden and 2 smaller ones for flower gardening. I was kind of excited about the whole project. When I came home and actually saw the boxes sitting there in all their glory I was incredibly excited about it!!! I don’t know what it is about those boxes but they made me SO happy!!! I cannot wait to get out there and get planting in a few weeks.
I am SO thankful to Brad and his Dad for ALL their hard work and super sore bodies!!! Thank you guys so much and I promise to share some veggies and flowers.