Food!!

Well, I have been working really hard to make this family healthy!  It has been met with a lot of whining, frustration and resentment, but I am happy to report that I have finally make a few things over the last couple of months that are considered wins!  Really all that I am doing is trying to cut back on the amount of crap and processed stuff I buy. It is difficult to comprehend how much I rely on the pre-packaged and already-made stuff.  What stuff I have been buying I have really been paying attention to the ingredients.  My goal is just to stay clear of artificial sweetners, high sodium, and artificially colored stuff.  That pretty much eliminates most stuff, but we are lucky enough to have a Trader Joes which gives me a few options including their version of Gogurts and cookies.  I have been trying to buy more nuts, fruit and make most of the other stuff they want to snack on.  The only thing I really can't find a good replacement for Goldfish which seems to be its own food group around here.  I suppose there are worse things.  So far, I have managed to also make some pretty yummy gluten-free stuff that the boys actually like.  I have been trying to replace a lot of the bread products around here mostly for me, but I think the boys will benefit too.  I found great muffin recipe that uses gluten-free flour, applesauce and honey to sweeten.  I usually make a couple of batches at a time and put them in the fridge.  I have also been making my own almond butter to replace the peanut butter.  The boys live off of peanut butter, but I think it just sits on my hips, so I wanted to try an  alternative.  Do you know why eating almond butter helps you lose weight? Because it is so freakin' expensive that you can only afford to buy it once a month.  That also goes for gluten-free bread!  Why is this stuff so expensive?  You would think that organic fruit and veggies would be cheaper as they do not have to use pesticides.  I grow stuff in my garden without pesticides and it cost me whatever my coffee cost as I use the used grounds to keep the bugs off of my veggies. And, to make it even better, my neighbor and I have discovered that Starbucks will give you their old coffee grounds!  Brilliant!  So far, it has worked like a charm, and there are no slugs in sight! At any rate, I am doing more and more research and using my family as guinea pigs as I try to make my own everything.  This past week was homemade strawberry jam!

We were pretty excited about our jam!  It could have been a little thicker, but it taste fabulous:-) To be honest, I had to look through several recipes and use the recipe that came in the package of pectin to make this happen.  I would like to give you an exact recipe, but I did a lot of guess work which is probably why it didn't thicken up as it should have.  I basically used about 8 cups of strawberries and pureed them in my food processor.  Then I boiled them adding the pectin (just one box) after the boiling about 5 minutes.  Then I slowly stirred in 5 cups of sugar until it disolved and boiled it for about another minute.  I made sure to heat up my jars in boiling water before I poured the mixture into the jars (slowly, it is very hot).  I then sealed my jars again in boiling water.  The jam will keep for about a year in the pantry.  Once opened, you will need to finish the jam in 7-10 days! 
Happy jam making!

Mother's Day!!

I am a little late posting this, but I wanted to share my Mother's Day gift from the boys!  Lyndon surprised me and set up a photo shoot.  I have been asking for family photos since Luke was born, and I guess I drove him crazy long enough!  I was pretty proud of the results!!

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!!

Just random stuff!!

I am not sure what is going on with Blogger, but it has been really difficult to post pictures along with text lately, so this one may just be a run down of activities we have been up to followed by pics!  Sorry for any typos, or weirdness.  We will just have to deal until I can figure out the problem. 

The boys have had some pretty cool birthday parties this spring!

Logan also had a Poetry Celebration at school and got to read selected poems! He was a bit nervous, but he did a great job!!

We also got to keep "Nibbles" the Chinese Dwarf hamster for a long weekend...it was a LONG weekend trying to keep my other three very curious pets from eating him.  We decided to keep him under house arrest in Logan's room where we could keep the door shut and locked.  I really did not want the class-pet murder on my hands.  On the last night, we finally let these two in the room to check him out. They were more than a little curious.  Needless to say, I could not get Nibbles back to the classroom fast enough Monday morning!  I waited to post these pics AFTER he was safe and sound back in the class.  I assure you that if Nibbles thought he would finally get away from the grubby little first grade hands for the weekend, he changed his tune on Monday.  He was probably pretty excited to be out of our house!
I will also tell you that they have now added cheerlearders to Logan's flag football games!! I took a pic, but I decided not to post as I don't know any of those kiddos and feel a little odd about posting a pic of a group of kids I don't know.  So, they were really cute, and were complete with pom-poms and pyramids.  I asked Logan after the game what he thought of the cheerleaders on the sidelines.  He said, "what cheerlearders?"  I guess I should be happy he didn't get distracted by the cute girls on the sidelines.  He was obviously focused on the game! 
Have a happy day!!

More of Spring!!

Over Spring Break, we took the boys to see a car show at Charlotte Motor Speedway!  They were in heaven.  They found some that they wanted, and so did I! 

 

Luke also had Dad's Night at school this last week!  He was off by a couple of years on the info sheet...

 

...but he was spot on with the hair color:-)

Sorry this post is short and a little weird looking.  Blogger is giving me some issues, but I really have a lot to post, so I will continue on with a new post!!

Happy May!