We all want to do the best we can for our families. We want to provide them with the best life we can. Fresh air, healthy real foods, a safe environment, plenty of activity and adventure.
TODAY is Day One
Sunday, April 30, 2023
The Relaunch
Today IS day one...
That's what this blog has been about from the beginning. Every day is a new day to start over, a new day to try again, to learn from what happened yesterday and start anew.
It's been a while since I posted. It really feels like a lifetime ago. So much, my entire life, has changed in just the past year. Nothing is really as it was.
If you know me, you know that whole story. For those who don't.... we'll keep it brief.
In the past year my household has changed. Princess moved in with her boy just over a year ago. I was widowed suddenly a year ago. Scraps no longer lives here. It's just me and Monkey running the farm. We had disaster after tragedy after disaster this year, from fires to predator attacks to legal matters. I have learned who is family and who is FAMILY. I've gained friends and lost even more. I have learned to do so much on my own yet struggle to ask for help when it comes to things I don't know how to do. I'm trying. I'm learning. I'm trying. I'm doing my best.
In my weight loss journey I had previously posted about, I have reached my target weight and set new goals. I have given myself some leeway from my previous diet plan as I have been working with a health coach to now target other areas besides just the numbers. I'll get to that in a later post.
At the urging of one of my best friends I have decided to relaunch this blog. I'm working hard to stay very self sufficient where possible with foods. A welcome post will follow with the directive for my blog and an introduction for those of you who are new.
Welcome to my journey...
Monday, June 28, 2021
Another Whole30
It's been a little over a year since my surgery.
I went in today for some blood work. It was ok. Not super great, but not bad either. It could be better.
I think I need to do some work on it.
Talked to Princess today. She's been talking about doing Keto, but I know she doesn't have the will power. When she gets home Wednesday we're going to start our meal plan and start a Whole30 round.
Maybe I can get hubby to join us??
I'm going to blog on how we're going to try to do it on a budget, as well as beginning and ending weights and measurements, and our shopping list and menus.
I'll let you know what our starting date it.
Wish us luck!
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
Pantry Challenge Day 16 and 17... I'm SORE!
The white chicken chili on Monday was pretty good!! Princess's boy was over, and he ate 2 bowls, besides the homemade bread we had with it. I couldn't find a recipe that I had all of the ingredients to, so I improvised with what I had!
I had to work Monday night. After work, I also had to meet with Princess's dad because she forgot her laptop there over the weekend. Instead of driving over an hour to get it, he met me on my way home from work, about halfway between our towns. I also got a new friend Monday night! His name is Shadow. He's a Holland.
I had been planning on leftovers for supper on Monday, but we didn't have enough so I threw together some cheesy potato soup. There was only one bowl left after everyone ate! WOW!
Yesterday was Tuesday, so the truck came. I went to see what there was to offer. It was unusual that they had a TON of spices!! I saw some ground cumin, which I'm currently out of, but somehow didn't manage to get one of those. Some of the herbs and spices they had multiples of (big glass jars of ground coriander!!) but some they only had a 6 pack (like the cumin.) I also got a case of plums, 60# of carrots, some red peppers, and part of a produce box (they only had 4 produce boxes this time. I got a bag of potatoes, a bag of carrots, some pears, and a bag of apples in it... I shared the other stuff that had been in it)
Yesterday I worked also. We had leftovers for lunch. Princess requested some potato chips to go with the 2 containers of French onion dip in the fridge. I also ran out of soy sauce a few days ago, so I stopped at the store and picked some up (farmer's market is in the store parking lot.) I had some leftover rice in the fridge, so I made a fried rice for supper. Generally when I make that, I put in mixed veggies, but I didn't know we were out of them. I did have some plain veggies in the freezer though. I added sliced carrots, corn, and green beans and made a pretty hearty meal. I didn't have any meat to put in it but I did add 4 scrambled eggs. It seemed to go over pretty well.
This morning I was pretty sore when I got up to do my workout. It's been a while since I've been doing it, so I'm using muscles I haven't used in a while! I chose just to do 15 minutes with MyFitnessCoach and it was recommended to be a "core" day, so I obliged. I REALLY need to find my yoga mat - doing crunches and ball rolling on the hard wood floor is not comfortable! My lower back has been aching all day. I think it's a combination of the exercise and the canning. I usually end up with some back pain during canning season with all the time on my feet. The back problems go back to a car accident I was in my senior year. But we'll talk about that another day.
Today was my day off, but I think I worked harder today than most normal days. It was a canning day!! I had 3 of my Cornish in my big roaster that had cooked overnight and made a BEAUTIFUL broth, and one cooking in my crockpot. I peeled about half of one of the 30# bags of carrots and probably 10-15 pounds of potatoes, diced up 3 HUGE onions (I probably only needed 1-1 1/2) and blanched some sweet corn I had in the fridge from the last box. (I also got a couple in this box). I have to say.. I LOVE my Pampered Chef veggie peeler! It makes peeling carrots SO EASY!!!
I put up 3 quarts of just carrots, 4 quarts of corn chowder base (onion, garlic, corn, potatoes, carrots, chicken stock), 7 quarts plus 9 pints potato soup base (onion, garlic, potatoes, carrots, and chicken stock), 9 pints of chicken, sliced up enough apples to fill 4 ice cream pails (2 were gallon sized, 2 were "family sized"), cooked down about 20 pounds of apples to make applesauce and eventually apple butter, and had a "family sized" ice cream pail of chicken stock left that went into the fridge. It's getting too late to finish that up.
Chicken waiting to be canned |
Even with all that I did there, I STILL have 45# of carrots and a case of plums left to process. The sliced apples are for future use in apple pies and apple pie cookies (which I need to make tomorrow, along with bread for market and a birthday cake for Hubs!)
I admit, I don't always cook from scratch. Today Princess wanted mac and cheese, and the boys wanted hot dogs. I LOVE mac and cheese - but ONLY the blue box can do it!!
Supper we decided to try a chicken taco soup. I still have a couple BIG bags of preseasoned chicken taco filling. Princess thawed one out, and I improvised to make a really good, filling soup.
2T taco seasoning
1 pint homemade Rotel
1 pint tomato juice
Monday, September 28, 2020
The Weekend Pantry Challenge Days 13-15
As always, the weekend was busy and full of projects. Saturday we went to town to pick up some lumber for the new rabbit pen that Hubs is building. I also wanted to stop at the hardware store because they had canning lids last time I was there. (If you didn't know, there's a canning lid shortage going on right now and no one knows how long it's going to last. And since I sell canned goods at farmer's market, and can a ton for my family, I need to be sure I have enough!!) There were still a lot. I got 15 packages and a new funnel since my backup funnel cracked. As I was standing by the checkout, some old lady came up to me and asked if I was buying ALL the canning lids. No, I told her, there are still plenty on the shelf. Well, she said, where can I find them? I don't see them anywhere. I told her to go look in the canning aisle, where the rest of the supplies are!! The tone of her voice really irked me. I was making small talk with the clerk and told him I can for a living and my family. He said he's noticed a lot of newbies canning this year and noticed the shortage, and was happy he could help me.
We spent some time looking for a new percolator since my decided to die. For spending less than $10 on it, it had lasted about 3 years. I don't drink coffee every day, but I've noticed on days that I do, I get a LOT more done. Maybe I should drink coffee every day..... After checking Home Depot and the hardware store, I hadn't found one yet. I even checked at Walgreens when I picked up pullups (and forgot to pick up prescriptions 🙈). One last hope, we went to Bomgaards. I was in luck!! They had 2 left in the camping section!!
On my hunt several people asked me, why a percolator? I have a few different reasons: 1) I think the coffee tastes a lot better. Maybe because there's no paper filter to run it through?? 2) I don't have to depend on electricity any time I want coffee. I have a gas stove I can light with a lighter, or I could set it on the wood stove in the living room or over a campfire if I needed to. 3) Every time I buy a coffee maker, it breaks in no time at all. 4) My Opa always made his coffee in a percolator, so it's sentimental.
Since we were in town so long we stopped at Perkins for lunch. It's my go-to eat out place if we have time. I prefer to not eat fast food if at all possible. Plus the kids will eat pretty good there! Scraps got half a sandwich, soup, and a piece of pie, and Monkey had "cakecakes" (pancakes) and French fries. Hubs and I got sandwiches and fries. I ended up eating half my sandwich, the meat off the rest, and a few fries.
Once we got home, hubs worked on the barn and I split some more wood. Man that's a workout!! The boys helped haul wood from the back side of the barn to the front, then loaded our gorilla cart with everything I split and put it in the mini storage shed closer to the house. It's a lot easier to walk a few feet to get the wood in the snow than across the yard!!
Since we were so busy, I didn't plan supper, so we ordered steaks and burgers from the legion. Once a month our local legion has a steak fry, and we like to be able to support them.
Sunday was "house" day for me. I worked on cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, washing bedding, and baking. No one ate breakfast until after 1030, so I didn't even bother with lunch. I did put a chicken in the crock pot to cook down, which I'll use today for lunch. Scraps took out some goat ribs to put on the smoker for supper (I'm still learning how to use it) and they came out pretty good considering I didn't do the best job butchering the goat. I served that up with a Knorr cheddar broccoli rice, homemade bread, and some sweet corn I had frozen a month ago.
I baked a TON for farmer's market... 3 mini apple pies, a batch of garlic chive rustic bread, 2 batches of regular rustic white bread, 2 pans of apple pie cookies... and I took a recipe for dinner rolls a friend gave me and tried it out as mini loaves. YUMMY!! I'll have to make some for tomorrow's farmer's market since I won't even be able to take it today (my family already ate a whole loaf at supper!!)
Hubs DEFINITELY enjoyed the cookies. I gave him ONE to sample... the next thing I knew half the pan was gone!!! I made a second batch with one extra for him - and still tried taking more off the pan. I compromised and gave him a mini pie to take for lunch even though I had already packed some cookies. I told him the cookies take a lot more work since I have to cook the filling plus make the lattice, where with the pies I can just add the uncooked apple filling and put a plain crust on the top.
Today I actually got up kind of early and started up on my Miracle Mornings and SAVERS again (If you haven't read The Miracle Morning, I HIGHLY recommend it!! It works if you just DO IT!!) I used to do it all in order because I just HAD to, but now I think I'll change it up again. I started with my E and got the exercise done right off the bat. IT FELT GOOD!! I did 36 minutes on the Wii Fit (don't want to overdo it right out of the gate!!) Played a couple balance games, obstacle course, boxing, rhythm step. My age based on the testing is 36 - works for me!
I followed up with my SAV - set my timer on my phone for 10 minutes and tried to clear my mine. THAT was hard... had a million things running through my mind and just couldn't shut it down. For A and V I decided to take the digital route. I found apps for both - a Daily Affirmation app and a Vision Board app. I set them up and played with them a little. I'm putting off my R a little. I have an audiobook I'm listening to when I go to and from work. But I might read a blog I recently found that I like so far... I'll report back on it. And updating my blog here will work for my final S.
Lars wasn't impressed with being up! |
For today's lunch, I'm planning on a white chicken chili with the chicken I put in the crock pot yesterday... Supper will be leftovers. Working on the plan for the rest of the week (I foresee a lot of soup since it's supposed to be chilly!!) And the Princess has a cold :(
Friday, September 25, 2020
A Homestead Workout, and Pantry Challenge 10-12
And we did!
I had to put one of my bags of cheese in a tortilla bag cuz it had a hole in it. |
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
School - and Day 9 Pantry Challenge
It's Tuesday. Which means it's a school day and, this time of year, a farmer's market day. Some days it's difficult to balance everything. It's even more so when you have 2 children with special needs and a farm. Fortunately, currently, the only real "farm work" that needs to be tended to daily is care for the animals. In a couple weeks the animal situation will change a bit as my meat birds will be ready to process. I'm also looking to get a ram goat so I can breed 3 of my goats. I think I'm going to hold on to one of my dairy goats to give her another chance. But I'd also like to breed my 2 meat goats.
Willow, my Boer (meat) goat breeder |
Different days always look different for the homeschool life. Today while Scrappy was doing animal chores (he even fed them today in addition to his normal chore of watering), I mixed up a double batch of rustic white bread. My kids love this bread so much I think I'm going to have to be constantly making extra for the house!! It is SOOOO good! They will eat a whole loaf in one meal, if not just for snacks.
Today we started the CAT5 test for Scrappy.
In Minnesota once kids reach the age of 7 they must have annual testing. There is a variety of tests to choose from, but I prefer the CAT5 because I can proctor it myself. Sometimes we do it all in one day, sometimes we spread it over a few days. It all depends on our schedule. Scraps started his this morning, he may do a section tonight when we get home, but he'll also work on it tomorrow morning before we go on our field trip. Once he's finished, I send it in and in about 2 weeks I'll get his test results back.
While he's doing this today, Monkey is watching some history with Pipo on Amazon Prime (today we learned about the Aztecs) and some phonics for the letter D.
While both boys are occupied, I've taken advantage and started making a list of meals to work into my plan and researching using Supercook.com. I've found a few new recipes I want to try...
So what's cooking today?
Breakfast I made up the last of my cabbage. My husband is going to be SO HAPPY when we're out of cabbage because of the effect it has 😂
For lunch we had leftovers. Scraps had a leftover burrito from last night, then a few pancakes when I cooked up the last of the leftover batter for Monkey. I had "hot dog soup" (which is full of cabbage 😆😆
Supper tonight will be baked chicken thighs for me, stuffed peppers for Hubs, and a mini meatloaf for the boys. I'm not a big fan of hamburgers or beef meatloaf, and Hubs and Scraps aren't fans of dark meat chicken. I can bake everything together for about the same amount of time (I have the thighs in packages of 2 in the freezer so they're portioned.) I'm also going to roast my butternut squash from yesterday and some carrots that are in the fridge. And probably a loaf of bread on the side!