...the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy; self-determination

Celebrating our country's birthday.....

Learning to throw knives in our backyard....

Enjoying the evening... 

The little Prince turned 6 today... and while the cake is definitely homemade, he thought it was the best cake ever....

I actually saw the cake done well here, and found the instructions here....

Watching for Dad to get home...

I planted 24 cucumber plants in our garden, and they are all doing really well...  The lack of rain has affected most everything else, but the cucumbers are doing great.

Today I canned 7 quarts and 12 pints of cucumber-pickles..... This is alot.  I think we have enough right now canned to feed us for the next 20 years or so....

The irony is... I don't even like pickles.....

I personally don't like alot of variety when it comes to breakfast.... eggs and bacon or a kefir smoothie if I'm trying to cut back....

When I'm feeling really decadent we have waffles.... and they are worth every calorie as good as they are....

I use the Breadbecker's recipe for the waffles, and used a combo of soft white wheat and spelt.  Usually we just do maple syrup and some whipped cream, but today I decided to take advantage of the blueberries and make a syrup from them....  THis too came from the Breadbecker's cookbook, and turned out very well (as pretty much everything from it does....)

I've been working the past few days, and need to rebuild my gardening and canning momentum now that I'll be off (hopefully) for the next few days.  I've really been trying to take advantage of being off school and having Granny available to watch the Prince and Princess for me after Mr. B goes to work. 

Today I'm at work when this sweet girl I work with is lamenting over the state of her unpicked plum trees and blueberry bushes.... She is sad that they are going to waste and she just can't use them all....

So.... immediately after work I head over to her place when it starts to rain.  And not just rain, but pour.  I wait a few minutes, but it doesn't let up, and I really need to get home to my babies.  So I get out of the car and pick plums and berries in the pouring rain wearing my work clothes (scrubs). 

It was actually really amazingly beautiful and surreal... and on the way home there was a giant rainbow....  I hated that I didn't have my camera, but I think that sometimes it is better to have a beautiful memory than to have a beautiful picture.....

I've always been somewhat of a loner, but over the past few years I don't think I've had many adventures on my own. 
Today I went on a nature hike alone as the Prince and Princess were both a little tired of the brambles and bugs we usually experience on these walks.

I went in search of a few more blackberries to add to my stash from yesterday.  Later this afternoon I made jam and canned 6 half-pints... and it actually turned out, unlike last year when I really screwed it up.

I was also in search of some butterfly weed I wanted to dig up to transplant; Mr. B had found the last time he was with us.

I was surprised at how much I usually miss during these walks..... I never noticed the mullein before, or the trumpet flowers...  even a couple of dew-y spider webs.....

Well when all was done I came home and got to work..... I made the jam... and did I already mention that it turned out really good!  I also canned a couple of pints of hot peppers, made bread,  muffins and some soup....

This is one of our most favorite soups, from my vegan days....  long before the time where I was hitting up strangers for deer meat or trying to figure out if I could get rabbits past the HOA (home owners association)...

It is basically a variation of Catalina Soup from The New Laurel's Kitchen.  I've been making it for almost 15 years and we still love it, even with the non-vegan ingredients....

I was able to use mostly ingredients from our garden right now, but I did have to fudge it a bit....

Kimi's Catalina Soup....

1 onion chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped (I used a clove of elephant garlic that a wonderful lady sent me)

Olive oil or butter

a bunch of chopped tomatoes

1 can of tomato sauce (regular sized can)

2-4 large potatoes, chopped into cubes

2-4 cups of water

oregano, salt and pepper

4 oz monterey jack cheese, chopped into cubes or shredded. 

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Saute the onion and garlic in the oil/butter until translucent.

Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, and water.  Bring to a boil, and add the potatoes.

Cook until potatoes are as soft as you want.  Add seasonings and cheese.  Stir until cheese melts for about 5 minutes.

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You may use canned diced tomatoes instead of the tomato sauce and fresh ones.  I have used vegan cheese for the jack also.... SoyaKrass (?) melts well, but that was back in the days when soy was supposed to be good for you....

We've had an especially busy week as I have worked more at the hospital, and I haven't felt like we've had alot of family time together unfortunately.  Today was more of the same, but with a different bent....

We left the Prince and Princess with Granny and Papa while Mr. B and I went to the big city also known as The ATL...   It's been a while since I was down there, and though we used to live right smack in the middle of the urban jungle, Mr. B hasn't been there in many years. 

We were on a quest to spend less, but as much gas as I burned I'm not sure it was worth it.  I found a Tanturi exercise bike on Craig's list for $25 and we went and picked it up... it is a little older, but very sturdy and seems to be in good shape.  It is actually made in Finland, much to the Princess' surprise... she was convinced that everything came from China.

To continue our Scandinavian theme we went to IKEA and had a lunch of Swedish meatballs and lingonberries....  actually really good as I was starving by this point and it was different from what we usually eat....

This made me realize that I think I've really been in a rut lately... I truly need a bit of chaos in my life to make me happy.... I hate doing the same thing day after day while seeing the same things and people over and over.... I hate routine, and I hate schedule....

So I am going to come up with some new goals and try to push the boundaries of comfort...  I want to try some new things and see how far I can go.....

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We then picked up the Prince and Princess and were surprised by my cousins I never seem to see and their son... Maybe I need to be forming more of a relationship with them... they are about the only family I have who will actually speak to me I feel like most of the time....

We then made a yummy, but untypical dinner for us.....  Thick, boneless pork chops on the grill with sauce made from the blackberries we picked earlier in the week.  We added some sauteed squash we picked today along with some mashed red potatoes....

The kids loved it and even put the blackberries in their potatoes.....

Thanks to all of you who have left comments lately.... for whatever reason, I have not been forwarded any of them by HSB, and was unaware until just now, in my sleep deprived state, that I had even gotten any in the past few weeks!

I've been working the past few days at the hospital and it's really been kicking my butt.... sorry for the bluntness.  In addition I really think that the getting up at 5 am is not so good for me either unless I could get to bed before midnight... but it never happens.

So I'm tired and sore and mentally drained when I read thisblog and see this!

I think I may now know what my next project is going to be!

We went on a nature walk other morning to see how the blackberries were progressing.... To our surprise there were a few ripe ones. 

We took a vote and decided to make some blackberry ice cream and top it with blackberry syrup (kind of)....

I don't do a fancy ice cream, but simply pour the cream off the top of my raw milk (about 2 cups)... I then added in about 2/3 cup of blackberries and processed them in the blender for about 20-30 seconds on low-medium speed...  I then added enough milk to make a total of 4 cups of liquid.  Add 1 cup of sugar and some vanilla then mix it all together.  Pour into your ice cream maker and let it do it's thing....

For the sauce I decided to not make it fresh, but use up the last jar of the blackberry jam from last summer... I basically heated it in the microwave for 30-40 seconds until it was bubbly and then spooned it over the top.....

We have 3 cats... 2 females, Lola and Darla who are 16+ years and 14 years old, and a male, Boo, who is just at 1 year old.  Lola and Boo are both solid black, and Lola transcends catdom at times... I've had her most of my adult life and hate to think of a time without her... 

Now we have BooCat.  Since we found Boo, our older cats have been terrorized to a certain degree... I think it's just the boy thing and he has just maintained alot of his spunky kitten qualities...

Today I decided to make him a catnip toy mouse... I found a pattern that looked pretty simple, and I altered it as this one had a split bottom to put fresh catnip in... I figured that if it had a way to get the catnip out easily there would be stuffing all over the place in no time....

I would like to think I'm a pretty good at sewing, and I went to extra trouble to make this little mouse tough....

Then Boo played for about 5 minutes......

And this is what my poor, little mouse ended up as.... 

A mass of felt with the ears eaten off(!, I couldn't find them) and the tail missing....

This past Sunday my Grandmother let me sit down and go thru her recipe box, and by box I mean a pile of newpaper clippings of recipes from as far back as the 1940's.  It actually looked very similar to the pile of recipes that I just got rid of....

So I came home with a new stash of recipes to start trying.  It isn't strawberry season here, but I had a taste for this today...

Strawberry Bread

3 cups flour... I used 1 part spelt with 2 parts soft white wheat... grind it  and then measure out the 3 cups... or just use all-purpose flour...

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

2 cups of sugar... next time I may use honey

3 eggs, beaten

1 cup of oil

20 oz of frozen, sliced strawberries--thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl combine the dry ingredients.  Add eggs, oil and strawberries together in another bowl.  Add wet into the dry and mix well.  Pour into 2 greased bread pans (9 inches x 5 inches).  Bake for one hour or until a knife comes out clean.

We still haven't quite recovered from working on the Prince's room all last week and Saturday when today rolls around and it's another busy day...

We went to work in the garden and had a ton to do.... it's actually been raining for a change and there was a ton of weeding.  In Georgia it's too hot for many things in the summer...so the potatoes had to all be dug today too.  We had 4 large bags of potatoes to bring home.  Also the tomatoes, cucumbers and beans all started coming in today, and I have a ton of different peppers.

We came home and I am trying to get a plan on what to do with all of this....

I started by breaking up the beans and cooked them in some water with some butter added along with some of the red potatoes.

I had a cabbage we picked last week and made a cabbage casserole that was delicious.  Fresh ground cornmeal muffins rounded out the meal along with some canteloupe.

Also my beautiful Princess is visually stunted and got her first pair of glasses today... She spent most of the day exclaiming that she can actually see!

Cabbage Casserole Recipe... adapted from the Dillard House recipe

1 large cabbage, shredded

water

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter

2 Tablespoons of flour (I used soft white wheat)

3 cups of milk

1-2 cups of cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

salt and pepper

Shred the cabbage and cook it in a pan with some boiling water for 5-8 minutes; it should soften some, but still be crisp.  Drain.

Make a white sauce by melting the butter and adding the flour.  Cook it until it is a thick paste.  Add the milk and stir until thick and smooth.  Add the parmesan cheese.

Put the cabbage in a casserole dish and cover with the cheddar.  Pour the parmesan sauce over top.  Top with the breadcrumbs.

Bake at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

My little Prince will be turning 6 years old in a few weeks, and maybe I've just been watching Extreme Homemaker a little too often... but we decided to totally re-do his room as a surprise...  He knew we were going to redo his room, but he didn't know any of the details until he entered.

I didn't take a before picture as I didn't want to tidy up the room enough before clearing it out, but it consisted of a normal bed, dresser, nightstand and 2 large bookshelves.  He has always wanted a little brother and a bunkbed, and while the little brother thing is most likely not going to happen, the bunkbed was do-able.  We used the mattress from his previous bed on a board base.... the mattress is a double-sized one.

We spent the week doing prep work with cutting, sanding and staining the boards, and then put it all together on Friday and this morning.  I cut up the old curtains from his room to make a valence for the window and the underside of the bed... now he has a secret place to play or read... I made sure to put a little light underneath so that he can have the curtains drawn, but still have light to read or play by.

Up top, the Princess and I painted a mural as he loves all things Alaska...  The little white tree lights up and we put it on a remote switch so that he can turn it off and on from up on the bed, too.

We left the dresser, and the Prince's only request was to include some sunflowers because he loves sunflowers.... he did specify that he wanted fake ones so that he didn't have to water them.We thought that the cats would probably not be interested, but our young, spunky male named Boo (BTW embarrasing Princess info: when we found him last summer, the Princess wanted to name him Snowball)  was curious and spent some time up on top. 

We had the Prince close his eyes and then revealed the room to him...  He has spent all afternoon jumping up and down saying, "I love my room!" 

I just received a large order of grain and dried beans as I figured it best to stock up before prices go any higher than they already are now....

If you are like me, you don't necessarily want to snoop, but I do find it helpful to see how others do things so that maybe I might improve upon how I am doing things.  I always enjoy a little glimpse into the pantry's of others for this reason.... it's more of a, "I do this, and how do you do it?" kind of mindset...

So, this is my upstairs pantry with dried goods....  I have some gallon sized containers for the things I use the most, and quart-sized ones for those that I keep in smaller quantities.  I have very recently started using old milk jugs to store things in... this is probably not the best, but it was cheap and easy...  Then I just go to the basement to refill these when they are empty...

I have shelves in the basement to store the larger 5 and 6 gallon buckets.  I also have one larger container that is from the garden center as I couldn't find anything else at the time that would hold 50 pounds of rolled oats.... again, it was cheap and easy, and I haven't had any issues with bugs or other crawlies.  I'm saving the empty areas for potential items to be canned from the garden along with some more dried beans that I'll pick up later this week....

Yesterday we went to the garden to do some weeding and picking..... as we are also doing a big project at home that involves woodwork (more to come on this) I knew I was going to be nasty most of the day and didn't want to put on my decent pair of normal pants which consists of a pair of capri pants....  So I wore a pair of shorts to the garden.

Wearing shorts is no big deal, but my problem is that bugs love me.... I have a pretty consistent ring of bug bites in various stages of healing around both of my lower calves from where I get bitten every week in the garden....

This morning I fortunately remembered that I had made Vinegar of the 4 Thieves this past winter.  I diluted it and rubbed it over my arms and legs....

While I did stink, Bob said he thought that the garbage needed to be taken out, I did not have ONE BUG bite me... and this included working in the garage at home afterwards....

You can read an article at the above link on the history of this remedy.  I followed the recipe at No Greater Joy by Debi Pearl pretty much as written except I cut it in half and didn't can mine as I plan on using it up this summer....

Vinegar of the 4 Thieves (Half version)

1 quarts of apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoons lavender

1 tablespoons rosemary

1 tablespoons sage

1 tablespoons wormwood

1 tablespoons rue

1 tablespoons mint (I used peppermint)

1 tablespoons fresh, chopped garlic

You basically make it like a tincture adding all the ingredients EXCEPT the garlic in a large glass jar.  Allow it to sit for 2 weeks shaking it a couple of times a day.  Strain out the herbs leaving the vinegar.  Add the garlic and replace the lid letting it soak for another 3 days.  Strain out the garlic and store in a cool, dark place or can using a water bath.  Remember to date and label your final storage jar.....

I don't know if it's good or not, but simple things like good bread really excite me in life.... especially when I'm able to create something that not only is wonderful, but nutritious...

I had posted a french-style bread recipe here a few months ago, but I just changed it around and had great results.  I used primarily freshly ground spelt with some hard, white wheat (maybe 1/2 cup of the total), and added an egg....

1 cup Water

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

2-1/2 teaspoons yeast

3 cups flour (2-1/2 cups spelt, 1/2 cup hard, white wheat)

I kneaded it in my Bosch for about 6 minutes, let it rise for 45 minutes or so, kneaded a  time or two on a floured surface and shaped it.  I put it in the baking pan and let it rise another 30 minutes and then baked it at 350 degrees for 35 minutes....

We've gone ahead and delayed our school starting this year.... this will be my 5th year homeschooling and this is really the longest break we have ever taken.  To encourage my kids to not be brain-dead and unaware of all the things we have previously learned I am subvervisely educating them at this time while they are hopefully unaware.  I am also wanting to pay more attention to character over content, which in my case, has not always been true...

The Princess is still reading, but mostly for fun.  The Prince has put his reading lessons on hold, but we are reading tons out loud. 
One thing that I was doing was letting them watch different kids nature shows from The Discovery Channel... my main issue with these is that the shows we watched seem to have as their main point not the amazing animals, but how the amazing animal is only amazing as it evolved this way.  Darwinian theory and its premises are a significant part of these shows....

While I don't agree with Darwinian principles, I do let my kids watch these shows.  They have been a great catalyst for discussion on these subjects.  We've also been listening to alot of the Michael Pearl sermons on Angel and Demons and alot of it seems to make sense to them, even when I am left confused.

So... I did a search and came up with a few good results that are all available at Netflix

Some have been good, and others only mediocre...some we still have in our queue.

I think one of the best so far is Priviledged Planet..... it was amazing, yet simple in it's message.

There are also Creatures that Defy Evolution, but I personally found them a bit dry even if the Prince and Princess did like them.  The Answers in Genesis people have created a Jurassic Ark Mystery.... I didn't really get into it, and I honestly think is spoke down to kids.

(One of my main issues with kids programs on tv and in society is that they pander to the lowest common denominator... I personally think that if you expect more you will get more...)

Others to come are Unlocking the Mysteries of Life, Icons of Evolution, and the BBC Planet Earth series.

On a lighter side we have also enjoyed the Love Bug series, the 3 Lives of THomasina, and The Sound of Music.

Today peaches are in season, so in light of eating seasonally I decided to make a peach pie.  I do enjoy a regular single or double crust pie, but quite frankly, they are a pain to make.  Anyway, my favorite pies have always been the deep dish variety. 

I couldn't find a recipe so I just kind of made up my own based upon what I remembered as a child.... This should translate to most other fruits, too.  I remember enjoying strawberries cooked this way alot...

Deep Dish Peach Pie

2-3 pounds of peaches, peeled and sliced

1 cup of freshly ground soft white wheat

1 cup of sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup of butter, melted to a liquid

1 cup of buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract (Almond would be good with the peaches, but I was out...also consider what fruit you are using...)

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Take the cut up pieces of fruit and put them in a deep casserole dish.

In a separate bowl mix all of the dry ingredients together (if you are using regular store-bought white flour that is self-rising just use a little more, like 1-1/4 cups and omit the salt and baking powder).

Pour the melted butter, vanilla or almond extract, and buttermilk in with the dry and stir it until you have a batter.

Pour this over the peaches.

You may take pieces of butter and dot the top with a couple of these.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes until it looks browned and done.

You can refrigerate it, but I think that it is best warm with vanilla ice cream on the side....