Pineapple cough syrup

Last night, we went to bed feeling grand and peaceful. Ish.
(3 kids, who am I kidding? It's like grand central station through our house).

This morning.

Death.

Sore throat, sore ears, runny nose, coughs from the boys, scratchy voices, cranky and tearful 'tudes.

Ready, go. 

Thankfully, Mom Whirlwind gets activated during these times, so I was able to roll out of bed and start getting my arsenal out to battle sickness and boost our immune systems before I lost my energy. Which happened at three. Thank you God for my husband's vacation time.

My newest addition to our natural living arsenal: Pineapple cough syrup!

Get a pineapple from the store. 

Don't open that canned stuff! Don't do it.

Cut the top, the peel, cut the pineapple off the core and then put the slices in a bowl.

Two cups and feed the leftovers to your sick children.

Voila.

Shred some fresh ginger-I did not have any on hand after 

my last batch of master tonic, so good thing I have

my oils!

Add one drop to the bowl. Just one. 

Cayenne pepper, baby. This is going to hurt. 

Note the Grinch pajamas. 

1/2 teaspoon

note: some people will say to skip this for kids. 

I say why bother making this if I'm going to skip something that's going to help. 

Get a lemon and this amazing contraption and juice the whole thing.

Bonus points if you bought an organic lemon. 

Add a tablespoon (note: just eyeball it because it's honey so yum)

of local honey. 

While you do that, heat up some water, and add dollops of honey and half a juiced lemon to the water for some throat soothing action. An old friend does this, and man am I thankful for it today!

Look at this goodness.

 Pour all of that into a food processor or blender; add some water to the bowl after to get all the honey and pepper. One more reason I love a good spatula. 

Wonder what that mystery pot is on the back of the stove? that's the core of the pineapple, boiling in water to make some thin juice I can then freeze in ice cubes and add to protein shakes and smoothies. If you bought an organic pineapple, you can add the peel to this pot. I didn't this time. 

You could strain it. 

Why? 

Tasty goodness involved; don't bother unless you have a texture issue. 

Store in the fridge. Label to save some poor sap who thinks it's a smoothie.

Take a teaspoon of that potent stuff--I'm going to alternate that with master tonic every hour during this sickness.

Oof. 

Chill out with some soup

See you on the other side! 

Strawberry Candy

At last.

Strawberry season!

It's been two years, and my jam supply is dangerously low for a family of five that depends on a daily dose of PB&J to survive. On the other hand, my jam lasted two years, so go me.

This time, after making all the jam I wanted, it was time to venture into something new. Dehydrating. We are attempting to cut out processed sugars and other nutrient-draining foods, so having dried strawberries sounded like a worthwhile snack that would be inexpensive, delicious, and leave our freezer free for other things. Like the half a steer we're aiming to get next month from our friendly neighborhood farmer. Good stuff. 

No dehydrator as of yet, so:

-a bit of coconut oil wiped onto the baking sheet

-sliced strawberries

-evenly placed on a pan

ish.

  -in the oven at it's lowest setting. 

leave until the slices are beginning to harden, then take a spatula and flip. Pretend you're a professional while you're at it. 

I did several batches over the weekend, as it's yet another food that's easily set up and forgotten about for hours at a time; a favorite cooking technique.

Cook until no longer sticky (and thus won't rot in your pantry)

Place in your handy container and seal.

For me, my love of the mason jar endures, so here we are: 

Yum. 

My new best friend: Bone Broth

It's useful for colds, immune support, 

 milk supply, weight loss, and healthy skin. 

Miracle pill? 

No sir.

 It's back to basics with homemade bone broth!

It seems like we've all had it: that delicious chicken broth that someone makes for us when we're home sick from school. But that's not all it can be used for! I started making this in earnest when my middle guy was ready for solids. Just couldn't swallow the thought of putting him on baby cereal. There had to be something better. 

I asked a friend whose family runs a farm for advice, and started buying some beef bones. 

Look at those babies.

 Grass fed and organic deliciousness. $2.50 a pound, and you can keep making broth with the same bones until they soften, so that's several weeks worth of broth for our family.

Roast them bones for at least an hour around 350.  

Place them into the crock pot so you don't have to worry 

about forgetting it (key for this mama)

Add water and vegetable scraps: onion and carrot peels, celery ends. 

Leave.

Remember two days later. 

Strain and enjoy.

So good. 

When I was pumping for donation, I had a mug of this or water after every nursing or pumping session. Besides helping with supply, I was also able to lose weight at a healthy pace, while getting good stuffs into myself and my babies.  Look into 

Weston A. Price and his research into nutrition. http://www.westonaprice.org/

Good fats, baby. Good fats. 

Cheers!

Refresh and Renew

It's been a while.
Life happened.
Babies
Moving
Family
Growing
Life.
I decided to have another crack at it; maybe one day put this into a book for my kids, but right now I could use something else besides the couch and TV in the evenings after the wookies are asleep. And hey, I'm still sitting, but at least I have brain waves exercising. That's something.

Today is the Fourth of July.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy day of no picnic, no husband home, no kids for supper, no energy.

Happy day of trying again, even if that starts at nine-thirty in the evening with an excited toddler discovering poppers in the driveway while our neighbors set off fireworks.

Happy day of trying something new.

Here's to trying again, and writing again, and engaging again.
I'm so thankful for this country, and our freedom. But I have something more.
This is about our God, giving me independence from the slavery of sin, to be joyfully following as a slave to Christ. Being completely dependent.
It's been good to remember.

Valentine's Day: more to love

I love holidays! 

We grew up changing the color scheme of pillows, towels, accents, pot holders, magnets, candles, and nic-nacs every season. There were crafts, cooking, baking, and other small but wonderful things my mom did to make each holiday special. It might be a fairly impossible reach in the baking department, but I've definitely inherited the love of celebrating. 

Marriage advice: figure out how holidays work between you. I can't get enough, but TJ isn't at all inclined to run around the house screaming 'It's ninety days til Christmas!' or dye the milk green, or do Easter baskets, or have American flag streamers around the house.

However, he married me, so he'll be enthusiastic, watch the movies, eat the food, and when I decorate he comes home and goes to each room to exclaim.

 (Literally. I ask him to go say it so I know he notices and I feel affirmed. It works). 

He enjoys the holidays this way.

However, I also married him, so I don't ask him to decorate, cook, plan or organize; I gladly do it myself and try to keep the glitter and confetti out of his hair. Also literally. Unless I'm feeling vengeful. 

I enjoy the holidays this way.

This year, I have two boys to share this love with! 

Attempted some photos for valentine cards

Not quite.

I ordered other shots, JJ stuck stickers all over Ninja Turtle and Thor valentines, and we mailed out love to the Grandparents. 

Cowabunga! 

(How often is there a valid reason to say that? You can't pass those moments up).

I had grand thoughts of valentine baking, as I was still fresh from multiple victories over the Christmas season. 

Nope. 

Regardless, I was determined to have something for TJ and the boys to do Valentine's day morning. A heart trail seemed a fun way to celebrate with kids (having done a scavenger hunt for TJ our first married Valentines), and armed myself with heart confetti and stickers at the faithful (and cheap) dollar store. 

Did I mention I got up at 5:30 to do this because the little man actually slept?

But that JJ decided to wake up early?

So I unashamedly plopped him in front of a Batman episode to keep him occupied?

cheesy song queued on you-tube. Feelin the love.

Overcoming those obstacles, I sprinkled and stuck a maze of hearts around the house, 

with some small gifts along the way. 

Every holiday they get a Mom Favorite book. This V-day was Ferdinand.

Panera Bread coffee: Happy Daddio, unimpressed son.

Did I also mention we soon realized that the heart stickers wouldn't come off the carpet? 

So we went to Cracker Barrel to recuperate

Cheery Mama who doesn't have to cook
Cheery baby eating pancakes.
Joy comes in all sizes.

My nerds.

We then enjoyed the afternoon with Buppa and Gigi. Wrestling, hugs, and eating Valentine's Day cards. Who could ask for a better day? 

                                                               

Every year we have more to love