No-Poo Update Peace

I have curl again. Mmmm....sorta. 

My hair has been so weighed down with conditioners that my curl was more of a crimp gone bad. Now it's kinda like a crimp gone not so bad. 

(The 80's were made for my kind of hair.) 

After Day 1 of no shampoo, I'm feeling a little more at ease about not using my shampoo.

A few things I like:

1. My hair isn't as weighed down. 

Conditioner keeps my frizzies down a bit, but it keeps the rest if my hair down too.

2. My curl is more defined. Not Shirley Temple curly, more like a weird after surfing, stick your head out the window while driving curl. (I don't surf)

3. I feel better about what's going on my skin and what's going down the drain! 

A few things that will take some getting used to:

1. Obviously, no lather. We often associate lather with clean. I often associate lather with clean. 

2. My wet hair feels "clingy". That's the only way I can describe it. Not static clingy, like, "clean" clingy. Dry hair feels normal though. 

3. I missed a few spots and they still feel greasy. I have a lot of hair. I do everything in layers with my hair and it takes a lot of shampoo to get it all clean. My baking soda application method was super willy nilly. It was so foreign to me that I just stood there looking at the baking soda in a stupor. So for day #2, I put the baking soda in an old spice jar so I can "shake" it on my hair. 

Here's a couple of pictures: 

No grease on the top. You're welcome world. 

 

The last one was my wet hair. Pre frizz stage. (It felt very strange taking a "selfie")

My hair is naturally frizzy and I don't expect that to change. But I am impressed that the no-poo method does not make my hair frizzier. Win.

Shampoo Peace

Shampoo is something I rely on, like I imagine many of you do as well.

I have a mini stroke in my hair follicles if I run out of conditioner. 

After a lot of chemical reduction in our house and food, getting rid of shampoo was OUT OF THE QUESTION!

Not gonna happen. 

Are you kidding me??

Have you SEEN my hair?!

You really don't want to unleash these locks from their shampooed, conditioned, straightened cage! Prepare to get bit.

But, after reading this article:

http://justsarahg.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/ill-never-shampoo-my-hair-again-ever-seriously/

I decided to give it a...try. 

Try!

Not change. 

Chance.

Those no-poo fools have 14 days to change my mind!

For 2 weeks, I'm NOT going to wash my hair with Shampoo. 

(What's WRONG with me?)

Well, I'll tell you: 

1. I've always known about the chemicals in shampoo and try to brush it out of my frizzy mind. This is one label I refuse to read because I know it's not pretty. But I'm addicted.

2. I'm always trying to save money. No shampoo? Lower toiletries budget. Yeah. I'm okay with that. 

3. If this works like I hear it should, my hair will be stronger and shinier by the time I'm done. 

We shall see.

I'm a skeptic. 

Big skeptic. 

This is what I usually use:

See that "clinical strength"? Yea. I have seborrheic dermatitis and extremely dry skin in patches. Including my scalp. This is the only formula that keeps the itching at bay. 

So now I'm going to use this:

The bar of soap is not for my hair. It's a bar of Dr Bronner's Castile soap for washing the rest of me. ;)

The middle container is baking soda. I'm already a believer in the cleaning power of baking soda...for my sink. Evidentially, a little baking soda in the hair is better than shampoo. A few tablespoons per wash should do the trick. 

(Synicism drips from every word I type)

The glass has two tablespoons of raw apple cider vinegar and about a cup of water. This is my conditioner. Eeeeeeeek. 

I've known that ACV is supposedly great for itchy scalps. I'm about to test that out. 

I know a few friends who have done the no-poo thing and loved it, but I'm the kind that has to do it for myself. 

So...

Here goes nothing, friends! 

No Poo Day #1!!

Wishing everyone out there HAIR PEACE! 

Stuff Peace

Stuff. 

We all have it. 

We all want it. 

What is the main reason I have an ungrateful heart?

Stuff. 

Specifically...these two kinds of stuff:

Stuff I don't have. 

Stuff I do have. 

Just can't win, right??

#1: Coveted stuff. 

Wanting what someone else has. 

Not to steal, but to have one of my very own. 

I always seem to like other people's stuff more than my own. 

The grass is always greener it seems. 

After my husband and I took a serious look at our finances, I had to take a serious look at my heart and my intentions for buying things. Was I buying out of need? Or want?

As we headed toward financial security and self-sufficiency, we had to take a few hits to our pride. We didn't need the "new, best, coolest". We had to stop before we bought something and ask "Is it in the budget?" If the answer was "No", then we had to wait and save up.

(Ugh, waiting is the WORST!)

Knowing our true intention saved us from impulse spending. And also brought to light an ungrateful mess in my own attitude. 

Why?? 

Why do I want this thing?

Usually the answer was/is "_______ says it's awesome!"

Or

"I saw _______ use this and it looked like it worked really well!"

Someone else...

They have, I don't...

What I SHOULD be asking is:

"Can I do without this?"

"How can I make my own?"

Financial security and self sufficiency can be a bit humbling. Ok, more than a bit. REALLY humbling.

 Driving cars that aren't shiny or new. Living in homes that aren't modern or chic. Wearing clothes that are handmade or thrift store purchased. All of these things can test a person's character in the merry ol Land of New and Now. 

Okay. 

*deep breath*

#2: Cluttered STUFF

I see clutter in the house and I immediately think "CHAOS". But that's not always the case. And I often forget that, sometimes, clutter has purpose. 

My ungratefulness for my husband's skills rears it's ugly head when I, like a purging tornado, tear through the house grumbling about all of our STUFF! Throwing things away or organizing in a rage.

Ironic, right. 

First I don't have enough, now I have too much. 

It's not the clutter that bothers me as much as how it makes my house look. I used to think I wanted to be a minimalist. But then, I realized minimalists must have everything outsourced or done professionally. 

Collecting things that help establish self sufficiency can cause...clutter. 

 Ugh, clutter. 

 I sometimes watch "Hoarders" so I feel better about certain areas if my house. 

Clutter can make a girl go nutsy, am right?!? I see articles on the World Wide Wonderful about how clutter can increase stress. (And then I see it's right next to a billion other articles about: 19 Ways I'm Failing my Kids, 39 Ways Someone Else is Better, 45 Ways my Cat can Climb a Tree, and other worthless articles, and I feel a little better. The internet can be good but, man, can it be worthless. And make you feel worthless in the process) 

More often than not, the stuff that clutters our house has use and purpose. My eyes only see chaos, and I end up with an ungrateful heart. 

Hunting for our food means having hunting things. 

Tapping our own trees for sap means having buckets, old water jugs, and miscellaneous supplies around. 

Sewing, pottery, cooking, plumbing, electrical work, mechanical work...all of these things have "stuff" attached to them. 

When a minimalist sees our house, I'm pretty sure something inside of them curls up and dies. 

The clutter comes and sticks around. But, I have realized I need to remind myself it's not useless, it's actually helpful. All of the clutter (most of it) helps us maintain our budget and do things ourselves. This keeps the purge urge at bay.  

This road to humility that I'm on is long, bumpy, and cluttered, folks. 

I want to be grateful for the resources we have and use them wisely. Not coveting what others have or overlooking the important things. 

We live a different life than a lot of people and I love the way we live!!!  

The buying of new things, the shell of our house, the shine of our cars, nor the organization of our clutter can establish who I am inside. I need to be reminded of that...often.

I want to greet guests with hot tea on a cold day and not worry about the pile of hunting clothes by the front door ;)

I want to talk with friends on my very mismatched couches and get to know them better. 

I want people to ask, "Why do you have empty two liter bottles with wires on them?", so I can give them a sample of our syrup. 

I want gratefulness to come with ease. 

I guess I want a lot of things in life, but most of all, I want to learn to love others without hesitation. Humbly and graciously. 

Wishing everyone out there Stuff Peace and...HAIR PEACE!!! 

Make Peace

Today was a "make" day. 

I simultaneously ran out of dish soap, hand soap/body soap, and deodorant. 

Don't mind me. Just a stinky dirt ball strolling through town. 

Luckily, I have come across some awesome recipes for all if these!! I can make dish soap, one gallon of hand soap, and two containers of deodorant for a portion of the cost to buy new. 

I repurposed my old deodorant container to make this:

6 T coconut oil

1/4 cup (4 T) baking soda

1/4 cup (4 T) arrowroot 

(Recipe from wellnessmama.com)

Heat over low heat in stainless steel saucepan, whisking until all is incorporated. 

Pour into cleaned deodorant container or glass jam jar. 

Use and abuse! This stuff WORKS. 

My sister and I always talk about how having babies is stinky. Your hormones make you sweat like crazy while pregs and nursing. Using commercial deodorants with fragrances and aluminum can make a preggo woman chuck up her eggs and/or a nursing baby turn up their nose. So it's either use these deodorants....or smell like BBQ Fritos. Ooooooor....

Mix a few ingreds together and Voila! 

I chose to give this deodorant a try and love it. It works on Nursing mom BBQ Fritos stench.  Also, love that I keep all these ingredients in my pantry already. 

On to the hand soap. 

One gallon of hand soap from a bar of soap. 

Wait, what?!?

Yep ONE GALLON

From what?!

ONE bar of soap. 

Love it. 

This is the recipe I used: 

One 8oz bar of soap, (I used dr bronner's unscented soap)

1 gallon of water

2 T Liquid Glycerin (found in the band aid section or beauty aisle at any drugstore or grocery store)

Grate soap. 

Boil water.

Melt soap in boiling water. 

Add glycerin. 

Stir it up....

Pour into containers (I don't recommend plastic if it's hot). Leave overnight to set up. Full your hand soap dispensers. 

Diiiiiissssssh Soooooaaap

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups boiling water

1/4 cup castile bar soap, grated

1 tablespoon washing soda

1/4 cup liquid castile soap

Add everything to boiling water. Let cool. Reuse old dish soap container.

I doubled this recipe. I could have filled mine to the top, but I put some in another container and shared a little with a friend. 

There you have it folks. 

Just one more way I keep our budget down! 

Make, make, make! 

Wishing everyone out there Make peace and...Hair Peace!

Laundry Peace

Kids bring so much laundry. 

I remember folding my daughter's tiny clothes before she was born and thinking, "I'll just wash her little clothes with our things. It won't take up much room."

Then the spit up came. 

And the drooling. 

And the exploded diapers. 

All of the sudden, my daughter had more laundry than my husband and I combined. Something so tiny made such a big mess. 

Because one huge pile if laundry wasn't enough, we went and had ourselves another kid.

When I thought the laundry would just double, it seemed to quadruple.

 

I see moms with large families and large houses and think, "Now, where are they hiding all of their laundry?"

I needed a system. Not a cleaning system, but an "already clean" system. I had baskets of clean clothes and no motivation to put them away because they were just going straight back to the dirty clothes hamper. 

So, I decided to try setting the kids clothes out, for the whole week, one day. 

It's UH-mazing. 

Genius idea, right? 

Thank you, thank you. Yes, I'm a genius.

Okay, okay, the idea was not mine. 

I'm so thankful for the group of moms I have around me who are willing to share genius ideas such as this one. This mom in particular, does this system with 6, count em, 6 kids. So folks, it can be done! 

Once a week, I fill these baskets with one outfit, socks, undergarments, and one set of PJ's. (The baskets were 25 cents a piece) 

Who knew that a few plastic baskets and a little organization could do so much for my kids laundry?!

And, I must disclaim, there is a little bit of work (work it, work it). Once a week, I have to actually do the basket filling, but after it's done... Ahhhhhhh.

The work I do once a week drops the work I do in the morning and evening down significantly. 

Busy mornings, I just pull the ol' snatch n' grab, and my kids practically dress themselves. 

Practically. *wink*

At night, there's no searching for matching jammies with tired kiddos. 

7 baskets, 7 days, 2 kids, less stress. 

I'm sorry what??

Less. Stress. 

*HALLELUJAH CHORUS*

Damage control. 

That's all parenting is sometimes: damage control. 

I love trying new things to see if they work for our family. This was one thing I found so helpful. 

I encourage you all to try new things! 

Wishing everyone out there laundry peace and...HAIR PEACE!

Maple Syrple Update Peace

Can I get a "OOOOH YEEEAAAH"??

What you see in the picture is 4 gallons of sap, reduced by half. What does that mean?? We're close to our first pint(ish) of MAPLE SYRUP. 

After tapping some trees 6 days ago, we were able to collect 5+ gallons of sap. And the sap will continue to fill buckets as time goes on. Ideal temperatures for the sap to flow is: freezing at night, above freezing during the day. We've only had a couple if those days this week so we're excited to have as much as we do. 

After about 7-8 hours of boiling, we have 11oz of maple syrup!

We boiled a little long, so it's very sweet. But, now we know. 

I encourage everyone out there to try out a new skill. The reward can be oh so sweet!

Wishing everyone out there maple syrup peace and... Hair Peace! 

Kitchen Peace

I see a lot of people ask about grocery budgets. What is a standard budget for a family of 4? 2? 29?

I love reading the different answers and getting advice on how to trim my own budget down.

I go over budget, I stay under budget, I spend everything down to the last penny, but I always try to follow a few basic guidelines. What's our budget? $300/mo. I can usually keep it at $250 and we use the rest for eating out. (Yes we eat out, but only if it's in the budget)

When trying to save money in the grocery budget, I start in the kitchen!

1. Making your food go further: combine a low price item with a high priced item to streeeeeeetch it. Beans, beans, good for your heart. The more you eat em.....the more bang you get for your buck. Tacos are a prime example for using beans with meat. Instead of using 1 pound of ground beef, use 1/2 pound and add a 1/2 can of beans. Or make the whole pound, add a whole can, and freeze half. Or add veggies (green peppers, corn, onion, etc), divide into thirds and eat 1/3 freezing the rest. Not only have you stretched your 1 lb of ground beef, but you've also made food for another busy night and added a variety of flavors to your tacos. Win-win-win.

2. Go without: Recipes are a trap. Let me clarify... Pinterest is a trap. It baits you (me) in with "These are soooo easy" and "The most delicious things in the whole world". More often than not, you (I) don't actually need to make the 78 recipes that you (I) have pinned to the (my) "MAKE IT NOW" board. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE recipes. but recipes C-O-S-T money. I try to tell myself,"Buy your staples. Feed your family." If I have cash left in the budget, I'll buy a few ingredients to make a couple of recipes on the "DIVINE DESSERTS" board. Special trips to the grocery store to buy ingredients for those amazing, "too-good-to-be-true-because-they-are" recipes will end up draining the budget fast. If you can't afford it, go without. Rice over brownies, people. Even if they are Super triple fudge chocolate covered chocolate with caramel...

Oh man....

Now I just want a brownie. 

3. Staples: Not the metal kind you shoot from the stapler. The ingredients that hold your meals together. For us its: canned tomatoes (from the summer garden when possible), beans, rice, frozen veggies (again from summer garden if possible), typically a meat of some sort, pasta, and fat. Mmmmmm, fat. Lard, coconut oil, EVOO, buuuuutttttteeeeeer. Oooooh yea. A friend of mine and I confessed to one another that we had, in fact, both eaten butter by itself. Solo. (wo)Man vs. butter. With these ingredients, I can make a wide variety of foods. Sometimes, the meals are not elaborate, but they are tasty, healthy, and filling.

4. Whole food- Limiting the number of processed foods in our kitchen really helps keep our budget at bay. Chips Ahoy call my name in the cookie aisle and I just wanna grab a package and scream, "AYE MATEY!". But then my wallet looks at me in a malnourished way and reminds me how Chips Ahoy cookies (...aye matey...) are not in the budget. Bulk buying whole food is wonderful. Sometimes, buying organic things in bulk is just as inexpensive as buying the commercial equivalent in smaller packaging. Buying things without a package can also help keep the budget toned and trim. I have found a new love...the Amish produce auction. My dear friend and I busted out our Ergo backpack carriers, tossed the toddlers on our backs, and took the Amish auction by storm. Well, not quite. we got a lot of stares and were amateur auction customers compared to the others there. But I had so much fun and got really great prices on huge amounts of produce to freeze and can.

5. Work for it- Work it, work it. We have started to work work work for our meat. Hunting has been something my husband enjoys for a while, but recently, I joined him. We skin and butcher ourselves to save money on processing. Recently, we traveled to the home of an Amish family who help us butcher hogs. We rendered lard, ground sausage, made liverwurst, boiled bones for stock, chopped, sliced, and packaged. We love to learn new skills, especially those that help us maintain our budget.  (I also really like knowing where our meat came from and how it was handled)

These are my 5 steps to keep peace in the Kitchen budget.

I hope they benefit you as much as they do me.

Wishing all of you out there Kitchen Peace and ...HAIR PEACE!

Financial Peace

I am a free spirit.

umm...well, I'm a flexible spirit.

ok, ok... I'M A LAZY SPIRIT!!

Shew. I said it.

Up until last February, my money management skills were nonexistent. They left a lot to be desired and we suffered because of it.  My husband and I were given a chance to sit in the comfort of our home and watch the 13 disc Financial Peace University series from Dave Ramsey. I know a lot of people have heard of him, read his books, maybe even taken a course in FPU. I am so grateful we took the time out, 1 hour every evening, to watch these DVD's. And, we didn't even have to find a sitter. BONUS!

We both decided we NEEDED to get our finances in order and stop being such "Free Spirits" about money.

I now have PEACE about money.

I know where every dollar goes every paycheck and we have an emergency fund in place for...emergencies.

I cannot fully express the joy, contentment, and gratitude that comes with not worrying about money.

We don't have a lot of money. Turns out, we don't NEED a lot of money.

WHAT?! Shut the front door.

We do not NEED a lot of money.

We live a lifestyle that doesn't require much from us financially. We have no mortgage, no car payments, no credit card debt, no internet at the house. after all of those are factored out of the equation are aren't left with too much. Insurances costs quite a bit. We have animals and children to feed. Property taxes on our land, etc, etc. But once we changed the way we lived life, our finances balanced out. We seperate necessity from luxury and try for the simple life.

How did we do it?

D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E.

yuck.

gag.

quit it.

We made a concious effort and dug our heels in and did the deed. (not that deed)

I wish I could tell you it was soooo easy and all you had to do was follow these three steps:

1. make a cup of coffee

2. open up your wallet

3. watch in amazement as your finances take car of themselves.

It ain't gonna happen. I tried that. The only I got from that was a caffeine buzz.

These were the main things that helped us out:

1. Zero balance budget: you know where EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR in your account goes and you TAKE IT OUT IN CASH! Leave only in your account what you need for automatic withdraws. We stopped using our card altogether. That plastic has a mind of its own. You go into walmart for toilet paper and walk out with candles, a jacket, gadget #1, gizmo #2 and your card takes itself out of your wallet and shimmies through the card reader like a snake in the grass. Scold your card all you want (I did) but, deep down, you know it's your own fault. Cash. Envelopes. Lifesaver. I have two sets: one stays with me (daily expenses) and one stays at home (monthly expenses). Every dollar has a home. you determine the home, but those precious bucks go to their homes and STAY THERE. Short a $1 in the "groceries" envelope? wanna take it from "vehicles"? NO! Don't do it. That's just not where that dollar lives. How would you like it if you were just uprooted from your home and forced to live in a place like "Vehicles"? (If you take too much out of the house fund you just might end up there.)

2. Emergency Fund: $1000 is the goal. But start off with what you can and build build build. Having an emergency fund is AMAZING. Relaxing. Peaceful.

3. Debt Snowball: You have 7 credit cards. In turn, you have 7 credit card payments. Pay off your smallest debt first. Forget interest rates. Forget principal. Pay off the smallest debt and then put that payment toward the next smallest debt. Example: Lowe's card payment- $50/month. Visa payment- $60/month. Pay off the Lowe's card and use the $50 for your Visa payment and now you are paying $110/month on your Visa. THAT'S ALMOST DOUBLE! you pay off the Visa DOUBLE TIME! HAMMER TIME! Pay off the Visa and add $110 to your Student Loan payment of $70 and you are now paying $180/month on your student loan. But it doesn't stop there... OH NO. you get that student loan paid off and add the $180 to your next debt and it just keeps snowballing. And you become a baller. Genius, Dave Ramsey. Genius. Here's a link to explain more: http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/how-the-debt-snowball-method-works

4. This should be obvious after #3- Stop the debt. No more credit cards. Not even for emergencies (thus the emergency fund). Just stop it. Quit. No. Don't do it. I don't wanna hear it.

All that being said, we still struggled for a few months to make ends meet because our ends were scattered everywhere like spaghetti. But we are starting to feel the peace that comes with not worrying about money.

I have a few friends who have benefited just from a brief discussion about how we do finances and I hope you benefit too. We should not worry about money. We should all have financial peace. I'm not a financial guru (so far from it), but I am very grateful for the small steps we have taken and want to pass those steps along.

Wishing everyone out there financial peace and...HAIR PEACE!



　

Ketchup Peace

This is not your grocery store ketchup. I love homemade ketchup. It's quick and can be much healthier than store bought. You control what goes into your ketchup. You can alter or change according to your own tastes or to complement the meal you are making.

This is my favorite way to eat store bought fish sticks and fries... *wink*

HOMEMADE KETCHUP

12 oz Tomato Paste

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1 t dry mustard

1 t salt, (I like Himalayan salt)

1 t pepper

1/4-1/2 t cinnamon (Our food Co-op has a Vietnamese cinnamon that is UH-mazing)

3 pinches All Spice

1 t minced garlic

2/3 cup water

4 T Vinegar (distilled is fine, White Wine is fine, some use Apple Cider Vinegar but it will have a distinctive taste)

Put everything in your blender and BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ BZZZZ BZZ BZZ BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. 

Store in the fridge overnight for the flavors to marry and have little flavor packed ketchup babies. Or use fresh without the ketchup babies. Either way, it's delicious!

Wishing everyone out there ketchup peace and...Hair Peace

Cracked Black Pepper Conchiglie Alfredo with Peas Peace

Cracked Black Pepper Conchiglie Alfredo with Peas

Sometimes supper transforms from one idea to another with the addition of something as small as garlic.

When I put on my chef hat and cottage apron, I had intended to make an Asian style stir fry. We were out of meat but our chickens had been busy laying lots of eggs. Stir fry is a good way to use up eggs and omit meat. There are a lot of flavors and textures that can "distract" a strict meat eater (like my man). But as I was sauteing the vegetables, I started adding garlic. The smell was i-n-t-o-x-i-c-a-t-i-n-g and I suddenly had visions of pasta, cheese, cream, and other delicious Italian style foods. So, I put the rice away and busted out my multicolored conchiglie pasta. 

This is what my stir fry morphed into:

Cracked Black Pepper Conchiglie Alfredo with Peas

1 lb Conchiglie Pasta (shell type pasta, but use what you have)

1 cup peas, frozen or fresh

1 T cracked black pepper

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

4 T minced garlic

1 medium white onion

3-4 T flour (whole wheat, all-purpose, gluten free, whatever: It's just to thicken the sauce)

1/2 C cream or whole milk

1 cup cheese (Parmesan Reggiano is preferable, but I was out so I used Monterey Jack)

salt

oil for cooking

1/4-1/2 cup white wine

5 T EVOO

3-4 T stock, (vegetable, chicken, beef, venison, veal, turkey, whatever kind of stock you make or have on hand)

Start your pasta according to the instructions. Salt your pasta while it is cooking. This is your one chance to flavor the pasta itself. ONE CHANCE! No pressure. Al dente is desirable.

Heat a heavy bottom pan to LOW/MED with a high heat oil such as lard, coconut oil, ghee, sunflower, or sesame oil. Once the pan is hot, add onion and green pepper. Saute for 10 minutes. Yup. 10. Add peas, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add wine and reduce. (RECYCLE, REDUCE, REUSE!) Add 3-4 T of EVOO, stock, and flour, whisking to incorporate all of the flour. Warm your cream slightly on the stove (I put the cream in a glass measuring cup and set the measuring glass in the middle of the stove while I'm cooking) and add to the sauce, whisking to incorporate. Keep whisking for a little bit. Don't stop yet......OKAY. Now add the cheeeeeeeeeese. Aaaaaaaaaand, whisk again. If sauce is too thick, add more stock or cream. Too thin? Add more flour or cheese. Stir. TASTE! Put the lid on while it cooks on low and you drizzle your pasta with, yup, more EVOO.

Add sauce to pasta. Toss. Top with a little more cheese and cracked pepper.

I feel like I serve the kids empty plates because they suck it down before I even get to sit and eat my portion.

As I put my fork to the meal, I feel their stares and sense them salivating at my plate.

I am very flexible with my measurements and don't take recipes too seriously. But you asked for recipes and I shall give you recipes!

Enjoy!!!!

If you make it and love it, let me know!

Wishing everyone out there, pasta peace and...Hair peace!!

Maple Syrple Peace

"Roses are Red; Violets are a Purple. Sugar is sweet and so's Maple Syrple."

A song by some guy sang sometime in the twentieth century. Maybe. (Roger Miller, "Dang Me")

My life is complete. I now know a word the rhymes with "purple". Syrple!

Ok, it's not a real word. 

It's really supposed to be "Syruuuuup" (or some silly nonsense). 

I love syrup. I love it like Will Ferrell in the movie "Elf". But true maple syrup comes with a hefty price tag. Ever wonder why real maple syrup costs so much?

One reason is because it takes 40-50 GALLONS of tree sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. 

Another reason is because somebody has to boil that sap down. 

Pancake syrup typically has NO maple syrup in it. It's just corn syrup and caramel color. So companies can sell pancake syrup for pennies compared to Maple Syrup. That makes the price of maple syrup seem outrageous. 

When my husband and I see something with a big price tag, we see it as a challenge; a chance to laugh in "the Man"'s face. A chance to do it ourselves. 

( Insert months of pondering and gathering supplies...)

We tapped some maple trees today!!!

When we decided to limit the amount of processed foods in our diet, my husband went into withdrawal. SUGAR withdrawal. Emotional shakes and fever set in as he mourned the loss of sugary greatness in his life. Since then, the search for a substitute was ON!

Honey

Maple Syrup

Agave

Brown Rice syrup

Sucanat

You name it, we tried it. After researching good and bad about them all, we rested on maple syrup and honey as our "go to" sweetners. 

And because we are who we are, we wanna make them both ourselves. 

So today, we started our maple syrplin' adventure. We are very open minded about our results and fully expect to fail in some way. We will learn from our failures and take a step closer to success. Or something like that... 

So remember I said it takes 40-50 gallons of tree sap to make 1 gallon of syrup? 

And remember I said "someone" has to boil that sap down?? 

Hello, my name is Sap Boiler. 

And this is the start of my 40-50 gallons...

See those two little drops? 

Gotta start somewhere!!

Wishing everyone out there Syrup Peace and...Hair Peace!! 

 

Running/Slogging/Walking/Trudging Peace

When I wear my "barefoot" shoes, people often say:

"What are those on your feet?"

"Is it Halloween?"

"Yuppy shoes."

I could go into the "barefoot" philosophy but all I really wanna say is:

"I'm gonna get you with my toes!"

I dusted (thawed) my running (walking) shoes and hit the pavement (treadmill). It was awesome (miserable) and I feel like a million bucks (death)! 

Running has never been enjoyable for me. It hurts. All over. Walking, however. Mmmmm, love me some walking. 

Today I decided to get back on the treadmill and sweat (swear) a little. 

Did I go far?

Nope. 

Did I go fast?

Nope. 

Did I do it? 

YUP!

I ran. I sprinted. I walked. I stood. I did an incline. I took a chocolate chip break. (You don't know what a chocolate chip break is?!? It's like the definition of life itself.)  

With resolutions floating around, I felt like a lazy bum. I know some of you non-resolutioners out there are with me. 

I ramble on about these things for three reasons: 

1. There's no time limit in exercise. Just getting on the treadmill for a few minutes makes me feel better. Don't have a treadmill? (Mine was a generous gift from my mommy dearest) Lift. Or do some Yoga standing balance poses. The "Pencil of a Death" will totally get your heart rate up! "Pencil of a Death" is not the real name. 

2. Exercise is not just for the fit people. Guaranteed you see FB posts about people running at incredible speeds, climbing mountains, running 40 miles on "accident". Forget it. Exercise has so many more benefits. Enhances mood, strengthens heart and lungs, motivates, enhances "mood". *wink, wink* Exercise for you. *wink, wink*

3. Do what you love. Try new things. I love walking and yoga. But I have sorta started to maybe like partly tolerate... jogging.  I hated it for years. Loathed it entirely. Then...I tried it for more than a week and found myself being mostly, sorta, possibly okay with it. You don't need a gym either!! Go help a local farmer put up a fence, dig a trench in the frozen tundra, or do the dishes and do a squat between each dish! 

In honor of JOINuary and the resolution revolution, I encourage you (me) to get out there and move. Even if it's a dance party with your kids. 

Wishing everyone out there exercise peace and...HAIR PEACE! 

Pork Taco Peace

We're no strangers to untraditional food combinations. As the monthly grocery budget dwindles, we search and scour the pantries for food. I use up every bit of the food we have and create unusual combinations. I LOVE creating in the kitchen. Especially when that creation is warming and delicious. 

My very generous in-laws gave us a 

smoked pork butt for Christmas. We have been eating it in various foods for about a week now. It was huge! 

I first roasted it in the oven with Himalayan pink sea salt, Organic dried rosemary from last summer's garden, and garlic (minced). Then, I use portions of it for: sandwiches, breakfast meat with eggs from our chickens, and most recently...TACOS!!!

And these aren't your typical Hispanic style tacos. I serve them with a homemade Honey Mustard dressing and Organic Whole Milk plain yogurt. Top with cheese and spring mix lettuces? YES PLEASE. 

Honey Mustard Dressing:

1/4 cup vinegar (I used distilled white because I was out of white wine vinegar)

2/3 cup EVOO

2-3 T Tahini (ground sesame seeds)

2-3 T lemon juice

1 T minced garlic

1/2 t sea salt

1 t black pepper

2-3 T honey 

2-3 T yellow Mustard

Put all ingredients in a 1 Quart mason jar and SHAKE. Shake it like a Polaroid picture. Shake what your mama gave you. Shake, Shake, Shake. Shake Shake Shake. Shake your dreeessssing. 

I hardly ever measure when I make things. I TASTE. Yum. 

Pork and Black Bean Taco meat:

(I add black beans to the pork to make the meat go further. Stretch it like Stretch Armstrong. Save $$.)

Shredded pork (maybe a cup)

1 can Black beans (drained and rinsed)

1/4-1/2 onion (chopped) 

Garlic 

1 t paprika

1 t salt

1/2 t black pepper 

Sauté onion on med-high in the fat of your choice. (High heat oils like lard, coconut oil, sunflower oil are preferable). 

Add shredded pork and beans. Add spices and garlic. Put the lid on that puppy, turn it down to low, and let it all mellow. 

Meanwhile, organize your vehicle of choice (hard or soft shells, corn or wheat, big or little). Prepare to serve them warm. 

After about 10 minutes (or however long it takes to get your toppings/shells ready), serve pork and black bean mixture with Honey Mustard dressing, yogurt (plain), cheese (I like sharp with this meal), and spring mix lettuce.

The tanginess of the dressing with the savory pork is just wonderful.  

There's a lot of information out there about what foods to eat and how to eat them. In our family, we do what we can. I love feeding my family organic, humanitarian raised, local meats. I love growing my own food and using it in my cooking. I love making things from scratch, grinding my own flour from organic whole wheat berries, and making my own yogurt from fresh milk. But, sometimes, that's just not feasible. And that's okay. We do the best we can, when we can. That's the way...uh-huh, uh-huh...I like it! 

I hope you enjoy these tacos! If you make em and love em, let me know!! 

Wishing everyone out there...HAIR PEACE! 

Crochet Peace.

I'm crocheting a blanket for the first time ever. I started out full force with wonderful intentions. Then, after a series of monotonous stitches, my blanket started to downsize itself in my mind. No longer did I have high hopes of a beautiful blanket to use and display, I had mediocre and practical visions of a...washcloth. The kitchen kind. (You know what I'm talking about) It could have wonky edges, uneven rows of stitches. It wouldn't matter because I was just going to suds the dishes with it.
But I kept going.
My washcloth started to morph into something else. A towel! I could do a towel! Bigger than a washcloth, smaller (LESS WORK) than a blanket. Yes! Perfect.
Then, I started to see more potential from my towel.
A baby blanket!
Now, I'm back on track with a full sized blanket in mind.
Isn't that how life goes?
We get discouraged and downsize our ambitions, diminishing our potential and limiting our outcome.
Crocheting a blanket takes TIME and patience. A serious of monotonous stitches eventually turns into a warm and satisfying cover.
My days often feel like the stitches of a blanket. Especially with little children in the house. Some days blend together and a month passes before my eyes. Some days drag on and it takes everything in me to finish the stitch in the blanket of life.
One thing is certain: I love to look back at the finished product. I love to see the mistakes next to the good stitches.
 A good blanket isn't perfect.
A good blanket is put together with patience and determination.

Perseverance and love.
But most of all...love.


Wishing everyone out there...HAIR PEACE.

Hair Peace.

My two year old daughter was tenderly fixing my hair this morning, pats my back and sweetly tells me, "Mommy, you're hair is just so crazy today."

This is my life in a nutshell: Crazy hair. 
From babies.
From genetics.
From environment.
From lifestyle. 
From discipline (or lack thereof)

I have crazy hair. It is frizzy, thick, not curly, not straight, not beach wavy, just crazy. I've spent the majority if my days trying the maintain the mane. 
Of course, there are people out there with hair that is far crazier than my own. But that's the way life is, huh? There's always something worse, better, saner, crazier, prettier, uglier, more skilled, less disciplined, etc. 

The grass is always greener, straighter, or curlier. 

Most of my life has been spent trying to find "Hair Peace". Trying to find contentment in life with:
My hair
My body
My situation
My location 
My abilities

This is my blog. 
WELCOME! 
I hope you enjoy my random thoughts on the world and my small, but significant place in it. 

Wishing everyone out there...HAIR PEACE!