Above Rubies Retreat!

I am so excited! I've shared with you all the work God has done in my heart when it comes to the dinner table and what an opportunity that is for sharing, love, and blessing my family. The Family Meal Table book by Nancy Campbell is what opened my eyes, and I love, love, LOVE the Above Rubies site which puts out these publications with tons of articles too. I can't even say how many times I've started out my day as a grouch vegging at the computer, only to read something so encouraging about my calling at home on that site that it completely changes my outlook on that day.

Above Rubies is based on the verse in Proverbs, "Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies..."

A good friend of mine from church, Jeanette, introduced me to Above Rubies and I am so thankful. She mentioned once that if they ever held a retreat within driving distance then would I like to go with her? Would I!

A couple of months ago I was thrilled to see that Nancy is coming to our area! As in, the city I live in - so no long distance driving, even! I quickly emailed Jeanette and after prayer and consideration with our husbands, we both decided to pay the $100+ and attend. It's a weekend retreat and covers all lodging, food, etc.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the retreat is being held at our very own church's conference retreat center! Ha ha! I had to laugh at that one - we run a very efficient and profitable rental facility 100% by volunteer, of which I have volunteered many times. I've cooked for the rental groups and now I get to be one of the rental groups! So that's going to be fun, being served food and catered to by my own friends. Hee hee! And also really nice, because we'll be meeting in the main room which has a wonderful baby's room. I'll be using that, I'm thinking!

So anyway, it starts tonight! I've been looking forward to it so so so much - I'll be sure to post back and tell you how it went. I am not going to be staying there, since it's easier for me just to come home & get a good night's sleep, and DH is graciously babysitting all 6 kids for the entire weekend so I can go. I'm looking forward to being refreshed and renewed in my spirit concerning my ministry as a homemaker, Mommy, and wife.

A nap is good, but....

...not when used in excess! Or so, this Mommy is finding out. For me personally, I've noticed that naps don't really help the tired factor. At least, when I've gotten a semi-decent amount of sleep. I've found through trial & error, that if I had a "normal" night (normal being whatever I'm currently used to - it's all relevant, right?) and take a nap, I'm even more tired the rest of the day.

This week I've routinely brought the kids to school at 8:45, then came home and put a movie on for the 3 year old, and the 1 year old went back to bed for an hour (he doesn't function well unless he gets his morning nap). The baby sleeps quite soundly in her carseat so doesn't usually wake up on our morning excursions (thankful for this!). So I started hopping back in bed to snuggle in the warm covers and doze/nap with the door open and a listening ear for my 3 year old. She's a good girl and doesn't generally do much she's not supposed to. Give her a cheese stick and put on Caillou and she's a happy camper!

Only problem is, it felt too darn good! It was HARD to get out of that bed! And then, of course, not much gets done around here....to the detriment of the home. I feel lazy and disgruntled and annoyed that I don't have very much time to do anything that day. Well, duh. I wonder why!

Yesterday things actually went quite smoothly. But then, that was yesterday. I got up at 7am to feed the baby, then started making lunches at 7:20. Got DD10 out the door to school by 7:35, then got everyone's clothes ready for the day. Even down to the socks - those are ever so important for the health of a good mood when we're late for school, aren't they?! I got drama queen DD5 up extra early to give her time in case she did the whole stomp-the-feet or slam-the-door thing which happens kind of often in relation to subjects hair, shoes, socks, dress, or snacks and in turn, makes everyone else late for school. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has to deal with this sort of thing, lol! So we actually arrived to school 10 minutes early, imagine that, and it was nice to get a cozy nap in the morning.

But today?? Oh, today. Not today. Definitely not today. I woke up feeling rebellious against my diet and promptly ate two chocolate breakfast cookies (not on my diet). I woke up groggy. I woke up NOT wanting to get the kids up extra early to make their hair fun for crazy hair day. Ugh. No time to get their clothes ready. DD10 is mad that I didn't wake her up....we only have 2 tortillas left for school lunches instead of enough for 3 kids.

We did make it on time, with 2 minutes to spare. Thanks to my sweet DS8 who helped the 7 & 5 year old color their hair with washable markers while I sewed balloons on his raccoon hat for the crazy hair affect. I love that they're getting old enough to help the littler ones now!

But as I was coming home, I decided something. No more naps. Today I'm getting dressed to my shoes so I don't feel so lounge-ish, my hair looks nice and I feel just....better about myself. I'm getting on the computer (after this - blogging is much more important, of course! =) to take care of the Ebay newsletter I publish even though I really, really, REALLY don't feel like it. I'm deciding that...feelings? They are not going to play a part in my life today. Nope. I'm going to stick to my diet and do my chores to bless my home, take care of my online business which provides income for my family and do the laundry with a song in my heart.

Because feelings come and go, they rise like the tide and then disappear completely sometimes. But being happy is a decision that I MAKE and do, despite what I feel like. I'm looking forward to a fulfilling day full of opportunities to put this to good use! =)

Green Smoothie Magic!

A while back I posted about the McDougal diet I was going to do. Since then, I've been quiet about dieting - on purpose. =) Why? Well, for me, raw foods is just the "it" way to eat. I feel the best, lose weight the fastest, and honestly do really love it. It's just so dang hard to stick to! But when I do, it's the way that *my* body loses weight.

So it was really, really hard to wrap my head around eating starches and cooked food and all that, for a diet. So I decided that while I do SO love McDougal *especially* the delicious oatmeal I looked forward to and craved every morning, that is going to most likely have to be my maintenance diet. I love it because it combines eating raw and eating very healthy cooked in a real and practical way. Not hardcore on either ditch. So once I reach my goal weight of 125, I plan to start eating that way.

But ahem, speaking of hardcore. You're going to think I've gone off my rocker, those of you who are not familiar with raw foods and the magic of green smoothies. But those of you who know all about raw are going to nod your heads and say yep, makes total sense.

What am I talking about? Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen smoothies, folks. They're the best invention since sliced bread. Here's a purty picture:


I don't know what got my butt in gear, but something just clicked and I decided enough already with the back & forth junk to raw foods dieting. So....drumroll...19 days ago I embarked on a green smoothies only journey, and I never looked back.

I have to say that this is probably the best, easiest, most wonderful "diet" I have ever been on. What does it consist of? Green smoothies, morning, noon, and night. Green smoothies only. Always. Every time.

Wanna read more? I started another blog all about it, and the accountability has been WONDERFUL!! Definitely a big part of my success. But I was a little too chicken to post on here, my big public blog, so I waited a bit until I had some good time under my belt to post.

I've lost 8 pounds in 19 days - which is so very cool! It's not extreme, it's pretty moderate...about 1 pound every 3 days. Anyway, you can read more about it on my other blog, a day by day account on that. Originally I started out with 14 days as my goal, and as it approached I knew I wanted to do it longer. So 21 days is now my goal, but I plan on turning it into 30 days as soon as I reach 21 days.

I'm loving this soooooooo much!!! =)

I love homemade bread!

I think I'm addicted. But that's a good thing, because it's not the actual bread that I'm addicted to. It's the smell! Soooo good! We go through about 1 loaf per day at our house, basically enough to make sandwiches for all the children (DH usually has hot lunches/supper leftover). So lately I've been making a fresh, new loaf of whole wheat bread in the evenings so it'll be ready for making lunches in the morning.

Today I was craving the smell! There is just something so heartwarming and cozy about the smell of fresh-baked bread wafting through the house. I do have a bread machine, but I just use it to knead the dough because the smell and shape are not the same if cooked that way. It's super easy now that I've put together little packets "premixed" so all I have to do is add in the water, honey, oil, and yeast. It takes me, like, all of about 3 minutes to do it all.

DH is not really a bread lover, and the children - who knows, they seem to like it okay. Although my 7 year old son informed me that he didn't like his sandwiches made out of the bread...and then proceeded to eat an entire slice with nothing on it. LOL!

So Excited!!

Can I just say, that I love my Mother in Law??? Yes, I'm one of those lucky girls who gets a jewel for a new Mom.

A little background.

My mom is awesome. She's raised 11 children - actually, still raising some of them. She has a 17 year old, 14 year old, and 8 year old at home, as well as a 22 year old who is going to college. She also runs a dog breeding business and sometimes has as many as 25 puppies in her care, waiting to be sold to a new home. In her early years, she would have as many as 7 children in her daycare in addition to having so many of her own - we were all born about every 2 years apart (I am second oldest).

When I was 14, Mom quit the daycare and started her own business! Yes, a real live store that was called, "Nice as New Boutique" and featured consignment clothing for the whole family. I worked there most of my teen years (invaluable experience!!!!), but my point is, that she did this while having a large family of so many. I look back and shake my head and ask her, "How did you do it, Mom?" ~ she answers that she seriously does not know. LOL.

So....yeah. She's kind of busy these days. As in, running her kids to three schools and trying to juggle everything (they also now have a huge 3-story house....try cleaning that!) in her own home ~ and at the same time trying to be involved in her grownup kids' lives. She has 18 grandchildren now. She wants to spend time with them, she tells me that often - and she tries to, but is just stretched in so many directions! It is understandably, not very often that we see her.

My Mother in Law, on the other hand, has not had any children in the home for a very long time. She has five children and her youngest is in her late twenties. She is a stay at home Grandma, and fills in where my Mom is not able to. She has the children over often, to spend the night or go garage saleing with her - and recently took my DD10 and her friend to a local amusement park.

You know how it is when just one child is taken out of the mix, sometimes? It can make the world of difference in the dynamics of the home - not that it's bad when they're there, just sometimes there is one child who is in a bad mood or teasing the little ones and it starts wearing Momma a little thin. Nice to have a break once in a while, and hug & kiss/warm refreshed welcome when they come back! =)

So today she called me and we were chatting (that's another thing - who chats on the phone with their MIL like best friends?? So cool!) and she said she has some tomatoes from her community garden to bring over. Then she said if I want, she would love to start coming over on Fridays and watching the kids in the afternoon so I can go garage saleing! Oh my gosh, are you serious??!!! I know that my home is my palace, that I love being here, that there are heavenly jewels on my apron because of my sacrifice for my children, lol, etc etc etc and don't get me wrong - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being home!

But sometimes....it's nice to get a break. Without having to pay someone. Without feeling guilty because I'm leaving DH with the kids and feeling like I need to rush home. Sometimes...that is just what is needed to return home with joy and look forward to my task once again.

I'm super excited. And looking forward to Friday!

Triple Dinner Night!

Tonight I did something I've never done before, surprisingly enough! Actually, it's not that surprising - I wasn't able to do it before now, because we only had our tiny little freezer connected to the fridge to work with.

I've read alot about women who swear by this "once a month cooking" thing - it sounds neat, but alot of work. And besides, who in the world has THAT much room in their freezer, to enable them to actually cook *all* their month's meals and freeze them? Maybe those ladies didn't have such a big family as I do, though.

Anyway, I do like the concept, but not so extreme because I LOVE to cook and really enjoy the hunt for the perfect meal that fits the criteria of our family's preferences. That's probably why meal planning hasn't worked that well for me because I tend to deviate from it too much. I don't feel like making meatloaf tonight, so instead I make something else. LOL.

We were recently given a nice full-size upright freezer that now sits in our garage and houses lots of fun things like Zip-Lock baggies full of shredded/cooked chicken, ground beef, homemade broths. I've been having fun. =0

Today I wasn't sure what I was going to make, but Lasagna sounded yummy to me, along with this new french bread recipe I've been wanting to try. A salad? Yep, we had everything I needed, so Lasagna it was. Except that I rarely buy actual Lasagna noodles just because the other noodles (usually macaroni & spaghetti) are cheaper. So I made sort of an improvised Lasagna with macaroni noodles instead - kids like those, anyway.

I looked in the freezer and hmmmm there was plenty of ground beef, but it was all frozen in the big family sized 3.5 pound blocks. That's okay, I'll just thaw it out and cook it and then put them in 1 lb Zip-Lock baggies for later use. But then I thought hey! I have these disposable foil cake pans with lids that I bought a long time ago when alot of moms in our church were having babies - we like to bring meals to them. So instead of putting that ground beef in baggies, I proceeded to make not one, not two, but THREE 9x13 pans of the Lasagna dinners!

It really was very simple to just triple the recipe and line them up, doing them all at the same time. Might as well do 3 scoops of cottage cheese if I've already got it out and am already scooping anyway. LOL. So now I'm feeling quite domestic and happy that I have two already made dinners in my freezer for whenever they're needed. The french bread is easy enough to just pop in the bread machine, and I usually have lettuce/tomatoes/cheese/carrots on hand for a nice salad.

Kewl. I think I might just do this a bit more often!

I thought about my favorite whole wheat bread recipe too, the one that calls for ground flax (I grind my own) and wheat bran (I've got a big box of Bran Flakes I've been grinding). It's a bit of a pain to haul out all the ingredients - even though it's pretty easy to actually make, mostly done in the bread machine. Hmmmm. Wheels turning again. Why not, when I've already got all the ingredients out, make up 2-3 Zip-Lock baggies with the dry ingredients, so I can just add the liquid real quick in the bread machine? That'd make an 8-minute procedure into like, a 2 minute procedure.

I also found this site that talks about "Dump Chicken". Kind of interesting! Here's what they have to say about it:

What is Dump Chicken?

Dump chicken is one of the easiest forms of Freezer cooking! The idea is VERY simple, do NOT over think it. You take raw (never frozen) OR Frozen chicken pieces, toss them into a One Gallon Freezer Bag, then toss in the sauce and freeze flat. The key is never RE-FREEZE Raw chicken. Then thaw the chicken and cook! You can bake it, roast it, crock pot it, grill... and maybe microwave it? I have never gotten a bad review on my dump chicken (just on my website! HA!)

All the recipies can be made with 4-8 pieces of chicken (any pieces will do... wings, thighs, drumsticks, bone-in, skin-on, bonelss, skinless, maybe even whole chicken), we use 5 boneless/skinless chicken breasts to keep it healthier. To cook the chicken, thaw completely in the fridge, dump into 9x12" pan, bake at 350 until done. For BL/SL breasts it is about 25-35 minutes. For chicken pieces, it runs closer to an hour. Enjoy!

I never really paid attention to this type of thing because of our limited freezer space. But oooo now it opens up a whole new world! Have you ever tried it?

P.S. The kids loved the lasagna, and after setting aside one serving for DH's lunch tomorrow, there was only one piece of the 9x13 pan left! And that's without me eating any. Yay!

The Family Meal Table

I'm excited to be starting a new blog soon, featuring the recipes that our family loves and uses often. Right now the only thing I have holding my recipes together is this flimsy little photo album given to me when I got married 12 years ago by my Grandma who died last summer. She was always considered the best cook in our family, and my Dad grew up with lots of yummy snacks ready when he got home from school. She used to tell me that she'd lie awake at night dreaming of the things she wanted to make the next day.

When I was newly married and even into years 6-9, I would think she was a bit overboard. Cooking and baking for me was more of a chore and I sort of dreaded it. Dreaded the time, dreaded the dinners without DH when he had to work late, dreaded the complaints, dreaded not knowing what to cook at 5pm and knowing DH was coming home soon, dreaded the mess! Yes, I was one big dread, lol.

Then I read "The Family Meal Table and Hospitality".

This book totally, and I mean TOTALLY changed my outlook on things.

Suddenly, the dinner table became a place where I could show my love to my family. It became a place not only of nourishment, but where we come together to share about our day and to enjoy one another's company. I shared this vision with my husband a little bit, but mostly prayed about it and asked God to change my heart. Wow, did He ever! And not only that, He also worked in my husband's heart and he without my saying anything has started to really work with them about issues of life as well as talking about God's Word. My eyes were opened to the huge potential there is to teach them in a very natural and fun way, when they are all sitting there with their eyes & ears willing and open to hearing whatever we have to say.

Now my entire day is centered around our family meal each evening. I try to start dinner earlier in the morning so that it can be finished and warming by the time dinner rolls around. Especially now that it's dark shortly after dinner time, it's getting more & more cozy and a special time for us. Um....yeah, well, even if the children don't always think so, lol. In the past they've always chowed down on their food and bolted from the table to go do whatever it is they were doing before dinner. Our new rule is that they share something about their day that was special, and everyone has to listen. This gives them 100% attention from both Mom & Dad, and also teaches the siblings how to listen. They also have to sit at the table until Dad is finished eating and/or telling his story or whatever he's talking about.

Dinner is now my favorite time of day! I am looking forward to making dinners more healthy and even more delicious - substituting applesauce for butter and honey for sugar in alot of the baking recipes. I'm not a total health nut (er...well, besides my own crazy raw vegan thing!), but I am definitely much more conscious of the ingredients I use and try to make at least 2 meals per week that are meat-free. That kind of thing.

I take careful note of their reactions to the meals. If there are lots of complaints and "I hate this dinner, this is THE yuckiest dinner I've ever had!" sort of thing (and yes, what a wonderful opportunity to also teach them about thankfulness for the person who worked hard to make the meal and good manners!), then I throw the recipe away and never use it again UNLESS DH loves it. Then I'll make it again and the children can just learn to like it. He is the King of our home and his opinion matters the most.

If they love it, or at least the majority like it, then into the "keep" photo album from my Grandma it goes. I now realize that she also carried that same vision in her heart, to make the family meal table one of fond memories the children carry with them for the rest of their lives.

So my new blog will be my new recipe box! I'm going to type up all our favorite recipes and store them by index so that I can have a collection to refer to when I'm wondering what to make for dinner instead of a hodge-podge of stained papers that are all wrinkled and hard to find. Fun!