Beautiful Song

At the graduation ceremony for our homeschool group this year, this song was played while the parents were seated. It brings me to tears, but it is such a blessing.

Tatertots & Jello Hosted Give-A-Way

Jen over at Tatertots and Jello is hosting a Word Whipped Give-Away.

My personal favorite is the Custom Family Rules signs.

Check it out and sign up!

Happiness is . . .

hearing your children say how happy they are to have clean rooms. Especially when they are the ones who did the cleaning. We had our carpets cleaned today. In preparation, I had the children pull everything moveable out of their rooms and dust. We cleaned baseboards. After the carpets were cleaned, (CLEAN CARPETS, YEAH, BABY!) they put everything back into its place. We are happy, clean campers here.

*P.S. Bubbie Boy wants to make sure that everyone knows that he moved his dresser out of his room all on his own. And he is 8.

A List of Blessings

Several weeks ago I received a weekly sales email from CBD in which was advertised a book called One Thousand Gifts. I looked at it and even visited the author's website. For some reason, I decided that it is not a book that I wish to read. This morning, I received my daily email from Heart of the Matter Online and it contained a giveaway for this book. I read through the post, entered the giveaway and decided to join the blessings link-up. You see, the reflection on what I am thankful for calmed my spirit and made me even feel like my body temperature dropped a couple of degrees. In no particular order . . .

1. A little boy who LOVES, LOVES, LOVES me
2. A beautiful daughter growing into a lovely young lady
3. A son growing strong and tall much sooner than I thought possible
4. A husband who provides and protects
5. Juicy, ripe, sweet strawberries
6. HEALTH
7. Music
8. Encouragement from others
9. Croaking frogs
10. Singing birds
11. The sound of water

Hmmm, I could get carried away and that would be a good thing. Maybe I will come back and add later. Probably I should.

Bathmats & Veggie Treasure Box

Please do not measure the accomplishments in my daily life by my blog posts. I have been keeping myself occupied during the last two weeks, I just haven't said much about what has been going on. But now . . . I have a couple of bloggy minutes.

So, I have this weird thing about bathmats. I do not like the cute rug type mats that have that strange rubber stuff on the back. When you wash those, you have to lay them out to dry. Then, if you are me, you forget about the mats and they end up decorating your back yard and disintegrating into nothing in the hot sun. In the mean time, you end up using bath towels to stand on when you are dripping wet.

Now, I do like the bath mats they have in hotels. Low pile, thick towel-like mats. Alas, those are too pricey for frugal little me.

What's a girl to do? I really do not like using out bath towels as mats on the floor. They are, after all, going to be used once again on our freshly showered bodies. Yes, they will be washed, but it is the idea of it all.

I thought I had come up with a solution. I was at Target and found these wonderfully colorful 100% cotton rugs that I thought would fit the bill. I brought them home and discovered they were very slippery on our tile. No problem. I am resourceful. I simply cut a piece of drawer liner to put under them. Problem solved. However . . . new problem—they were approved for spot clean only. Who, in their right mind will just spot clean a bath mat.

So, back to the drawing board. And am I ever so happy now! I bought an inexpensive towel from Wal-Mart, cut off the decorative edges, then cut two 18” wide pieces. The ends are already finished. On the cut ends, I added colorful bias tape. These work great! They add a splash of color. And the cost? Wait for it . . . $2.50 to $3.50 each. I have already sewn four, pinned bias tape on two more and will probably make at least two more. (We have three bathtubs/showers, and doing laundry . . . well that should be a post in and of itself.)

O.K., so one problem solved. Moving on to the next thing. Remember my Vitamix? I still love it, but I didn't love having to wash veggies every time I wanted to blend something. So I scrubbed and peeled, allowed the freshly-washed veggies to drain dry, then loaded the whole kit and caboodle into a large plastic container with a lid. Boy this little guy makes me so happy every time I pull him out of the fridge. I can whip up a soup or a salad in no time. Then I just pop the lid back on and put the whole thing away. Hey, I just realized that I am also saving myself the aggravation of digging through the fridge for all the bags of produce, then stuffing them all back in each and every time I need veg. Yea, me!!!

New Toy

"I got a new toy-oy! I got a new toy-oy!" (Imagine sing-songy voice.)

Last Monday, the boys and I went on an innocent little trip to Costco. Innocent--yeah, right!

Guess who was there? The Vita-Mix Lady, that's who. The Vita-Mix Lady and her Vita-Mix machine and her baskets full and ice chest full of goodies. We got to sample juice blended COMPLETELY smooth from whole fruits, ICE CREAM made in this miracle machine, tortilla soup to die for and whole fruit smoothies*. "Hmmm," said I, "I want one of these. However, I do not have the necessary dinero." So sad.

That was Monday. On Thursday, St. Patrick's Day, I made mint chocolate chip milkshakes. And guess what? My blender didn't like mixing that guy up, that's what! What visions started drifting through my head? Oh, yeah, Vita-Mix, baby. So on Friday, I concocted a plan. After punching a few numbers in on my phone--"Hi, Babe! Can I borrow some money?" That wonderful man of mine? He said, "Yes."

"Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Costco we go!" (Imagine sing-songy voice again.) And the nice Vita-Mix Lady? She mixed up more wonderful goodies for us as I picked up Mr. Vita-Mix box and put him in my cart.

That night, I made that wonderful man of mine chocolate hazelnut banana ice cream. I used chocolate hazelnut milk, frozen bananas and ice. That was it. He was amazed. But, My Lovin' Man being who he is, he had to give me a hard time yesterday. "You know, every time you turn that machine on, the lights flicker." (Imagine deep manly voice.) So I whisked him off to Costco, because yesterday (Sunday) was the last day that Vita-Mix Lady would be at Costco. She made us more tortilla soup, more ice cream and a GREEN smoothie. He was convinced.

Today, I made the kids a green smoothie. The ingredients?

• white grape juice
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 apple (don't remove the core)
• thin slice of lime (with the peel)
• 1/2 cup pineapple chunks
• couple spoonfuls of the pineapple juice the pineapple was packed in
• 2 handfuls spinach
• about 1 cup ice

And, Mikey, THEY LIKED IT! You CANNOT taste the spinach! Honest to Betsy.

Another great thing about this machine? It is just about self cleaning. You put some warm water in it with a drop of dish soap, turn it on, and presto-cleano!

We're having some delicious fun over here! Yeah, I will be broke for the next few months (I did mean borrow when I asked DH if I could "borrow" some money), but it's worth it. We are loving us some yummy treats. Hey, I didn't even add peas to the kids mac & cheese at lunch today--they drank spinach and fruit!



*Video demos are available at Vitamix.com.

Homemade Yogurt Tutorial

O.K., I haven't done a tutorial before, so bear with me.

I blogged about homemade yogurt here, and decided I would post about how I make yogurt. There are instructions all over the web, but I have my own little way of doing it. Here we go!!!

You will need:

• 1/2 gallon of milk--I use 2% simply because I need a little fat to help me feel full for longer. You can use whatever percent you choose. Just know that the further away you get from whole milk, your yogurt will not be as firm.
• Powdered milk--I use non-instant that I get from Azure Standard. I used 1/4 cup the first time I added this and 1/2 cup the second time. I didn't see any difference in texture between the two. An added benefit of incorporating the powdered milk is that it adds protein to your yogurt.
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt with live and active cultures. I prefer to use Mountain High, Cascade, Brown Cow or Trader Joe's.
• Whisk or fork and a spoon
• Measuring cup
  
• Thermometer--a candy thermometer will work well. I have a digital meat thermometer that I attach to the side of my pan with a clothespin. I like that because it beeps when it reaches the right temperature--allows me to do a little less babysitting.
• Jars with lids or a glass or ceramic bowl with a lid. I used a casserole dish for a couple of years. Now I use quart sized Mason jars with plastic lids. They take up less space in the fridge. (My picture has metal lids because all my plastic lids are currently in use.)
  
• Playmate cooler with hot water (about 118º to 120º) OR large heavy bath towel

Pour your milk into a large pan. Slowly whisk in the powdered milk with your whisk or fork. Set your burner to medium heat. Put your thermometer into the milk. Allow the milk to come up to 180º. When it does, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool down to 118º. I found that placing the pan on a wire cake rack allows the milk to cool faster than leaving it on a solid surface.

If you are using a cooler to incubate your yogurt, go ahead and get this ready. You will want enough water in the cooler to come up to at least the mid-line level of your jars. Make sure that water is not over 120º. For several years, I simply used a heavy bath towel folded in half to incubate my yogurt. I just made sure I placed the jars in a relatively warm place. This using the cooler and hot water is new to me, but it feels like I am doing more to make the yogurt. I always worried that the temp was not good enough just leaving it covered on the counter.

While the milk is cooling, place your yogurt into a bowl. When the milk reaches 118º, spoon some of the warm milk into the yogurt and whisk it up. This is similar to tempering eggs. Pour your yogurt into your pan of milk and mix well. I really like using a whisk as this will break up any "lumps" of yogurt. Pour your mixture into the jars or bowl. Wipe the lip clean with a damp paper towel and put the lids in place.



Put the jars into the cooler or in a warm spot in your kitchen. Close the lid to the cooler or cover with the towel. You want to leave this undisturbed for 6 to 8 hours.

When the time is up, carefully look to see if the yogurt has solidified. If there is a yellowish liquid on top, don't worry. It is just the whey. You will see more of it as you begin to use the yogurt. You can dump it out or stir it back into the yogurt. If you decide to dump it out, I recommend saving it in another jar in your fridge. The whey can be used in any recipe that uses buttermilk. Let me tell you, it makes wonderful pancakes! You can also line a strainer with cheesecloth, dump your yogurt in, put the strainer over a bowl and place it in the fridge. This will give you a thick Greek yogurt-like consistency. You can also use this in the place of cream cheese.

Oops, I digressed. Once your yogurt has cultured, place it in the fridge to cool completely. You do not want to dig in until it cools off--it will be a runny mess if you do, and really, who likes warm yogurt.

There you go. Save some for your next batch. After a while, it may lose it's potency and you will need to buy more plain yogurt to use as a starter.

Happy yogurt making and eating!