This, That, And The Other Thing

My youngest nephew came over, spent the night on Saturday and got to spend the entire day with us on Sunday. It was nice to have him here. He didn't cause a bit of trouble and really did a good job at lending a hand to my #2 teenage son, who spent several hours spreading stone in our lane. It's been so unusually rainy this winter and due to the large amounts we've received, our property is totally saturated. Some areas of our property look like ponds. We've even have geese fly down and spend the night here.

Since moving into this old farmhouse about six years ago, we haven't been able to lay a proper drive. Oh, we've had good intentions to do so, but one thing or another kept getting in the way. However, it's gotten to the point where we just couldn't ignore it any longer. Thanks be to God that we had enough in tax returns to cover at least part of the stone purchase. We weren't able to get all the stone that is needed to finish it completely, but it's enough to get us by, at least for a little while.

While the boys were out working and later, bike riding, I was busy inside trying to get my grocery list and meal plans for this week prepared. I was also able to get four loads of laundry done and managed to make two batches of wheat gluten steaks. I sent some home with my sister. She's never had them before and I'm hoping that her family will all like them.

During our dinner yesterday, my nephew wanted to watch "Honey I Blew Up the Kid". (He borrowed it from my MIL who happens to live next door to us). I didn't have any plans to sit and watch the entire movie as I had already seen it many years ago and didn't recall it to be very good. However, the longer I sat, the more I got sucked in... it was much funnier than I remembered. It was fun cause we sat there together just engrossed and then all of a sudden, something funny would happen and we would all burst out laughing at the same time.

It's the little things that we'll remember the longest!

Herbs For Your Health

Well, Spring is inching ever closer and with that comes planting season. I have already ordered my vegetable seeds and thanks to my generous neighbor, I have two flats of heirloom tomato plants sitting on my dining room table that have started. I will soon be ordering some fruit plants too. Thanks to Amy, I have learned about this family home industry, and am planning to get a few fruit plants from them. After that, I am seriously going to take a look at purchasing some herb seeds. Not only will this be an asset to my meal preparations, but what I'm mostly interested in, is using them to create healing medicines for my family. My husband and I have been talking about how important we feel it is to be as self-sufficient as possible. Particularly as we see the world becoming more and more unstable all the time.

In our family, we try avoid pharmaceutical drugs as far as possible, as we believe that God gave us every herb bearing seed, not only for our food, but for our healing as well. My thoughts are: Why use synthetic drugs that can cause life-threatening side effects when God has provided plants that are perfectly healthful and natural? ... drugs are extremely costly and they don't work for the cure, but rather to mask symptoms instead.

So that said, this year we are on a quest to learn all that we can about herbs and their medicinal properties. I found a small Herb course on-line, offered by Cheri at Sweet Hollow Farm. Part of Cheri's testimony is that they were a homeschooling, Christian family, dwelling in the City. One day the Lord spoke to her heart and showed her that they were too reliant on others for everything in their life. She saw that she needed to rely more on God for their sustenance and so, they left the city behind for country life and have been there for nine years now. Through her journey, she has learned much and is now offering to pass on that knowledge to others. I plan on taking advantage of it. :)

I would love to hear from any of you who have made this a way of life. I would really like to learn how to make tinctures, salves, balms and any other type of natural healing methods, using herbs.

I found a website some time back that sells herbs in bulk. Many of you may know it. It's called: Bulk Herb Store It's owned and operated by Shoshanna Pearl, the daughter of Michael & Debi Pearl. While at the Bulk Herb Store, I saw several books that can be purchased to help us on our quest for Herbal knowledge. I was particularly interested in the book: "The How-to Herb Book". I didn't really want to pay what the Bulk Herb Store was asking, so hunted around the web for a lower price. I found one. It's at: More Than Alive. I often will purchase books used, from Amazon, but even there, the price was higher.

Please let me know if you have this book. I'm interested to know how you like it and if it's been useful in your home.

Soy Great! Patties (Burgers)

In anticipation of warmer weather, I've had a hankerin for a vegan burger. I grabbed my Guilt Free Gourmet cook book off the shelf and started flipping through it's pages. My eyes landed on the Soy Great! Patties and since I already had some soaked soybeans on hand I decided that these were the burgers that I would make.

Aside from a little planning, as you will need to soak your soybeans ahead of time, these are very easy to prepare. Perhaps you may think they don't look all that appealing, but remember, you can't always judge a burger by it's color. If I'd had a garden fresh tomato, a few sprouts and a nice round dill pickle, it would have been perfect! Even without them though, the flavor was surprisingly, quite yummy.

INGREDIENTS:
1 c. *Soaked soy beans
2 T. Nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 t. Salt
1/2 t. Onion powder
1/4 t. Garlic powder
1/2 c. Water
1 T. **Chicken-Style Seasoning
3/4 c. Rolled Oats
1 t. Italian seasoning

* Soak 1 C. Soy beans in 4 C. water overnight. Drain and use 1 C. for recipe and freeze remainder for future use.

**See recipe below or you can use any type of vegetarian chicken-like seasoning you have on hand. Bill's Best Chick' nish is popular.

METHOD:
Combine all ingredients EXCEPT oats in blender and grind to fine consistency. Pour over oats, stir, and let stand for 10 minutes. form into patties. Brown on both sides on a lightly sprayed non-stick griddle. Cover while browning. Transfer to sprayed cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes on each side.

YIELDS: 8 medium size burgers

• These patties are even good cold in sandwiches with a bit of Vegenaise
• Serve them over rice with gravy or spaghetti sauce.
• Try breaking them up over a baked potato topped with a dollup of soy sour cream.
• Make up a double recipe of these, and freeze all the extra patties for future use.
• You can eat them plain. They're great as an entree with vegetables.
  

As for the Chicken Seasoning, I like to make a double batch and keep it on hand for many of the dishes I cook. It's very versatile and can be used in anything you want to take on a chicken flavor.

**CHICKEN-STYLE SEASONING
1 1/3 c. nutritional yeast flakes
1 T. onion powder
1/2 t. celery seed
2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. turmeric
2 T. barley malt powder (opt.)
3 T. sea salt
1 t. dried parsley
1 T. paprika

Combine all ingredients and bled until powdery.

What's For Dinner

I had to make a last minute change to our menu tonight. I was planning to make cream of broccoli soup, but I forgot to soak my soybeans last night so that I could make soy milk with our SoyaPower soy milk maker. Therefore, I had to change things up a bit.

I decided I'd make tomorrow's dinner instead. Along with our baked potatoes, I made curried lentils over rice. Lentils aren't normally something that #2 son enjoys eating and when he saw them cooking on the stove he wasn't very thrilled. I told him to hold off on sharing his opinion until he tried them.

I got this recipe some time ago from The Urban Homemaker. I went back to her website tonight to see if I could find it, but couldn't. Here it is:

CURRIED LENTILS
1 T. oil
1-1 1/2 c. chopped onions
2 cloves minced garlic or 1 t. powder
1-1 1/2 c. rinsed lentils
5 c. water
1/4 c. tomato powder or 1 - 14oz. can tomatoes
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. turmeric
1/2 t. curry powder
dash cayenne pepper to taste

Sauté onions in oil in a large pot for two minutes. Add garlic and sauté briefly. Add all remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer until lentils are soft, yet firm. (In other words, when you remove them from the pot they should still have a nice round shape and not be mushy like mashed potatoes.) Serve hot over rice.

*************************************

To make the rice, put 1 tablespoon of Soy Garden Spread (or whatever kind of butter/margarine you like) in a 2 quart sauce pot and heat just until melted. Then add 2 cups of long grain white rice (not instant) to the pot, stirring until the rice is well coated. Heat rice until lightly browned, watching it carefully so that it doesn't burn. Once rice is browned to your liking, pour in four cups of water. Lastly, add 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast flakes and 2 Tablespoons of your favorite seasoning. (I use Herbamare Original) Stir well and place a tight fitting lid on the pot.

Next, bring your water to a rolling boil, then turn the heat down to simmer and let rice cook until all the water has evaporated. This takes about 20 minutes. Avoid lifting the lid during cooking time as this will let too much steam escape and your rice won't cook properly. Also, it isn't necessary to stir the rice while it's cooking. Rice is better left alone and only stirred just before serving.

Well, I got a resounding A+ from everyone for tonight's dinner. In fact #2 son said, "These are the only lentils I'll ever eat mom." Overall, it was a simple meal to prepare and because it was delicious, it made it on the kids list for "make that again" and on mom's list of "health food". Next time, I'll try to make it with brown rice instead. This will boost the nutritional value, but because of time restraints tonight, I opted for the white rice. Happy eating!

Staying The Course

Have you ever punished a child only to forget a day or two later that you did it? It seems like this has been happening to me more and more lately. Unfortunately, I have a couple teenagers who, once in a while, will take advantage of the fact that I forget. Sometimes on purpose, but other times because they've forgotten too.

Last week I grounded my #2 son from the computer for a week. A couple of days later he comes up to me and says, "Mom can I get on the computer? I have all my chores done." I give my permission and go on about my business. A good deal of time passes and I notice that he's still sitting at the computer doing his thing. I politely tell him he needs to shut it down and get busy with other things. He says, "OK." Again, I walk away to continue my business. Several minutes go by, and just as I suspect, there he is still planted firmly in front of the PC. All of a sudden the light bulb goes off in my head and I remember that I had grounded him two days before precisely because he wouldn't get off the computer when I asked him to.

At this point I'm clearly upset. Firstly, at myself, for not remembering that I punished him. Secondly, because he asked my permission. And thirdly, because this seems to be a repeated offense with him. (Not doing what he's asked when he's asked). It was then that I decided that I needed to write his punishment on the calendar so that I wouldn't forget.

This boy has not given up trying to get me to shorten his punishment though. Every once in a while he will approach me to see if he can use the computer to work on this project or that project, but so far, I've stood firm and have even had to go so far as to include an addendum. I told him that for every time he asks to use the PC, an extra day will be tacked on to his sentence. So far, so good.

On Again - Off Again

Last week I went in to my chiropractor's office for my weekly adjustment. I mentioned to him that I started walking on my treadmill again. It was here that I thought he would say something like, "Good for you!" or "That's great!", but instead he gave me a line something like this: "Running and walking won't do much, if anything, to help you lose weight. What you need to start doing is lifting weights." With that, he left the room and left me feeling discouraged and a bit angry! After all, it took quite a bit of getting myself psyched up enough to start walking again-- he really knocked the wind out of my sails and I haven't been back on the treadmill since.

However, I am even more discouraged about this weight that I've gained and I know that I've got to do SOMETHING. So, with his "words of wisdom" still ringing in my ears, I've decided to do a bit of research to find out what I can do to make a change. Going to a gym is entirely out of our budget, so my goal was to find something I could successfully do here at home.

I am learning that it's best to combine Cardio exercise with strength training to get the best results. Strength training, in particular, is important to keep my bones from thinning and becoming weak as I get older. Also, it will help with balance control and reduce or eliminate falls in older years. In the past, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the balance aspect, but as I'm in the caregiving practice now, I see balance issues with older people all the time.

I'm also reading that strength training is crucial to weight control, because individuals who have more muscle mass have a higher metabolic rate. Here's a quote from WebMD.

"Muscle is active tissue that consumes calories while stored fat uses very little energy. Strength training can provide up to a 15% increase in metabolic rate, which is enormously helpful for weight loss and long-term weight control."

During my research, I think I've found a product that can help me obtain much of the ideal strength training I need, while helping me to target my core muscles at the same time. It's called the BOSU Balance Trainer. If you'd like to know more the BOSU, this website briefly talks about it.

I won't be able to get one right away. It will take a bit of time before I can save that much. We are are on very tight budget and what little I've been able to set aside is going into buying seeds for this summer's vegetable garden. This by no means is a bad thing. After all, part of getting fit, is eating properly. You can't have one without the other, right?

In the meantime, I will continue to read and yes, I will get back on the treadmill. I probably won't get back to it until this Sunday. For me, starting at the beginning of the week rather than the middle or the end of the week makes much more sense.

New Links

I've added several new links to my blog I thought you might like to take a look at. You'll find them on the right-hand side of my sidebar. Under Homeschool Circle I added "The HomeScholar" I've also added an entirely new category called Love and Marriage. All the links there are new. Lastly, under the heading Special Links are two new sites: "Christian Homemaker" and "Christian Homesteaders".

I seem to have several people coming to my blog, interested in the links I list. I place them here because they have, in some way, edified me and I want to share them with others in hopes that they'll be helpful to you too. Please don't mistake they're being listed here for the idea that I agree with everything they teach or promote. However, there was enough there that I believed they would be a positive benefit to those who may visit them. As with anything, we are to search it out, comparing them with the word of God. As often happens, links change, get replaced or go off-line. If you ever find a link that is dead or inappropriate, please email me right away and it will be removed promptly. Thanks!

Calling All Homeschooling Bird Enthusiasts

Hands-On Science Helps Homeschoolers (and Scientists) Learn More About Birds
The new Homeschooler's Guide to Project FeederWatch is available online:

Ithaca, New York— Homeschool students across North America can learn about science and have fun while they count birds and record information that scientists need to understand the movements and abundance of feeder birds. Project FeederWatch, a citizen-science project from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada, is a perfect fit for the homeschool curriculum. The Homeschooler's Guide to Project FeederWatch is now available online at www.feederwatch.org. This guide highlights specific ways Project FeederWatch can foster inquiry-based learning in math, science, art, and other disciplines.

Project FeederWatch focuses on something children are naturally interested in: birds. "Birds move, they come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, and they are easy to watch," says project leader David Bonter.

For 20 years FeederWatch participants from all across North America have tallied the number and kinds of birds that visit their feeders between November and April. Scientists use the data to track where the birds are across the continent and how their numbers change through time. Some of the most dramatic changes revealed by data collected over the last two decades may be related to changes in climate.

"We're seeing hummingbirds much farther north than usual during the winter," says Bonter. "Warblers, wrens, woodpeckers, and other insect-eaters are also lingering longer into the northern winter, possibly because of warmer temperatures. Bird-count data gathered in the coming years will really help us focus on these trends and what might be causing them."

The curriculum is available to download for free at the Project FeederWatch web site. An annual participation fee of $15 ($12 for Lab of Ornithology members, $35 Canadian) covers the cost of the Project FeederWatch research kit, with useful materials for a homeschooling program, including instructions and a calendar that features bird photos taken by project participants. The fee also helps support web site development, participant support and education, and data analysis.

First-time participants receive a colorful poster to help them identify birds, and the FeederWatch Handbook, filled with information about bird feeding and the value of FeederWatch data. Participants also receive Winter Bird Highlights, featuring results from the project, and a subscription to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's newsletter, BirdScope. Canadian participants receive BirdWatch Canada from Bird Studies Canada.

U.S. residents can sign up by calling (800) 843-2473 or by visiting www.feederwatch.org.