Family Unity and an update on winners

The picture above is a puzzle based on a story about a whole family needing to work together to pull a giant turnip out of the ground. ~This is us lately. The original story was an old Russian folk tale. You can find many new and old versions on Amazon. The significance of the story is everlasting for any strong Christian family, or any family for that matter. When you have everyone working and pulling together for the good of the family you can accomplish a lot more. 
My most recent observation was of our family trying to clean house. Working independently the children were scattered and disorganized, and we as parents were frustrated. But when we coordinated our efforts we got the cleaning done in record time because we were all working together and happy to do it, since we weren't doing it alone. It's kind of a funny combination of "share your joy" and "misery loves company". The jobs we have aren't always fun, but the joy shared in our hearts can make it bearable. The best blessing of this unified work habit is that we ALL get to enjoy the relaxation time or play time together. It's really funny how the earthly mind will work. 

         I observed the following scene one day... Daddy was sitting on the couch enjoying his coffee while the children played roughly making chaos and mama begrudgingly prepared and served breakfast alone. Then later in the day mama rested while daddy washed dishes and the children were again in chaos. THEN the children were assigned work while mama and daddy took a brief moment to talk. In the end EVERYONE felt they had been working while everyone else sat around. In the context of timing each person was right, but in the context of work done we were all wrong. Our earthly minds had fooled us into feeling sorry for ourselves while the others "played". 
       Then on another day we all worked together to prepare breakfast and clean up and finish chores, then we all enjoyed a happy time of playing together. All of us walked away from it feeling a sense of accomplishment as well as the joy of our play time. What a joy that day was for us. I find it so funny to think that unity is a Godly idea and yet we hear continuously "we all have our OWN responsibilities". While there is some truth to that in theory, let us put the focus on unity rather than ourselves and OUR OWN tasks. Selfishness is a slippery slope that can often disguise itself in many ways.

¹⁶"From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." Ephesians 4:16 KJV

(BTW- ~ The puzzle pictured above is made of wood, hand painted, and is available at Peace Fleece.)

Blessings from our family to yours!  
Staci

WINNERS Please read: I'm still waiting to hear from Mary and Jessica, I'll give it another week or so for you to get back to me. For the tea winners we have Mary and Jessica! Thanks for playing! Whoever emails me first gets to pick their flavor! So don't wait!

To all our lovely ladies, thanks for playing along and don't worry, family stuff and health emergencies have kept me away from the computer and the post office, but your goodies are on their way!

MYO- "white", brown and powdered sugar!

Yes, you can MYO "white", brown, and powdered sugar!

 I am really excited about the recipes I'm going to share with you today! Why because we need them! In todays world it is very hard to come by truly healthful food. I own and love the book called Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. If you've never heard of it you can have a look here. 

In her book Sally talks about sugar and sweeteners. She talks about their effect on our bodies and reccomends we stick to natural sweeteners in their natural form, used in small amounts. While I haven't exactly mastered the "small amounts" part. I do use natural sweeteners and not processed. For example we use raw honey, raw agave nectar, fruit pulp (home made), and dried fruits. Now for cane sugar, she recommends ONLY using Sucanat or Demerara. Well they both taste fine, but taste isn't always enough. Sucanat is atrociously expensive, and Demerara is too coarse for use in a lot of baking. (I mix it in with the liquid ingredients to dissolve it, for bread and cakes) IE the chocolate chip cookies I was dying for the other night. So like they say, necessity is the mother of invention right. Well, I NEEDED those cookies, but didn't want to resort to white sugar and well demerara doesn't go over well in cookies, they're overly crunchy because of the large crystals which don't dissolve. So I made my own "white" sugar, and then used that sugar and molasses to make some brown sugar too! The cookies turned out great and satisfied the need without loading my body up on white sugar. (Brown sugar is simply white sugar mixed with molasses. Even when you buy it from the store.) So, I know you're all drooling to know how to Make Your Own "white" and brown sugar.

Here you go...

For the "white" sugar:
you need a blender and some demerara sugar. That's it! Take your blender and put about 2 cups of the demerara sugar in. It will hold more than that, but won't grind it well so don't try. (I did try this in my flour mill once, and it hurt the finish on the burrs, not a good idea, stick to the blender)

Now you're going to put the lid on and hit the "grind" setting, which was on the high side, above the middle button for my blender. Only grind for a few seconds. Stop and stir well.

Then grind again. Do this a few times until the granules look smaller and similar to white sugar. The sugar will turn to powder if you're not careful, so take it slow.

Stop and stir, stop and stir until it's relatively uniform. Now Pour it in your sugar canister and make some more until your sugar canister is full of "healthy white sugar". Make sure you tap your pitcher well to get all the fine sugar off the blade and out of the bottom or it will stop up the blender. It only took me about 5 minutes to fill mine.

For "white" powdered sugar:
Use the same process as above, only grinding it longer to a fine powder. Now some recipes for "confectioners" sugar say to add corn starch to it. If you want to that's fine, it won't hurt anyting, but I usually don't bother with it. So that's it, fill your powdered sugar jar with this and next time you want to make frosting you can do it with healthy (er) sugar.

Now for the brown sugar:
All brown sugar, even from the store, is made of white sugar with molasses mixed into it. So take your new "white" sugar and place it in a mixer, I used my kitchenaid, and add a little molasses to it. Let it mix well with the paddle until it's all uniformly brown and there are no more little balls of molasses. The biggest thing I need to point out is that this is a time for patience! I start out with the mixer on 2 then turn it up to 4 ONLY AFTER the sugar and the molasses are blended. Otherwise you will have a mess. Then just let it work the molasses into the sugar and stand back and marvel at yourself! You just saved a ton of money and a trip to the health food store! My approximate measurements were about 5 cups of MY "white" sugar to about 1/4 cup molasses, for a medium brown sugar.
If you'd like to see the actual process of brown sugar, here is a great tutorial my dear friend Jamie made. *But note that her ratios are different,* because she is using true white sugar. We are not. Our sugar already has some molasses in it naturally so we'll have to add less molasses and more sugar to make it light. Notice that she offers ratios for golden, light and dark brown sugar. You can do the same with yours. Just adjust the amount of molasses. More molasses makes a darker brown sugar and less makes a lighter brown sugar.

²⁷"She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." Proverbs 31:27 KJV

I pray this recipe and tutorial has been a blessing to you! Now go Make Your Own "white", brown and powdered sugar for all your healthy, natural baking needs!

Blessings! 

Getting to know you GIVEAWAY!

This is going to be a fun giveaway! I can't think of a more wonderful way to get to know people than to give them gifts! It's a way to put out your hand and say "nice to meet you!" I love to meet new people and I love making smiles too! So what I've decided to do is have a DOUBLE giveaway! Here is what we're going to give away!

First up is a well written book called Peace Within Your Borders, devotions for home school teachers. I like her perspectives in this book, and they can be applied to life in general as well as teaching! Peace, after all is a wonderful place to be. This book will be a blessing to anyone who reads it!

The second gift is the gift of communication! This gift is Signing Time volume 1. It's a great fun way to teach your children to sign, and learn with them. It's amazing how they retain the signs from these videos. If you've never heard of it you're in for a treat!

 "remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35 KJV

I'm going to give this giveaway one a week to complete, it will end Dec. 13 at 5pm PST,  so that the winners can have items shipped out to you by the 14th or 15th, depending on how fast I hear from you. Here is how we're doing it this time...

You do your best to get as many entries as possible and our very own VHannah will draw 2 names at the end. 1st name drawn wins the 1st item, 2nd name wins the 2nd. Now here's how to enter!...

1. You will get one entry for commenting about who you are, that's the most favorable, remember this is a get to know you giveaway. I want to know more about my readers and "meet" new ones! So comment and tell me your name and your interests. What kind of content would you like to see more? Where did you hear of me?

2. You will get an entry if you are a new subscriber! You can also get one if you're already a subscriber and refer someone who becomes a new subscriber! (they can post in their comment that you sent them)

3. You can get an entry for each time you share about this blog or giveaway, or both, on your pages. Share a link on facebook, tweet, or post about it on your blog. You can also get an entry for emailing this blog post to a friend who doesn't use social networking sites.

So there you have it! Plenty of fun ways to get in on this great giveaway and let me get to know you a little better! Post a comment for each of the things you do above for your entries! If you want to know more about me, read my sidebar info and check out my archives, there's lots to read and learn about us. I look forward to getting to know you!

Blessings!

A NEW GIVEAWAY!

This is a wonderful new giveaway by Raising homemakers You can enter to win a homeschooling pack called the prairie primer. This is a great option for unit style studies that involve multiple grades of Little House lovers!




Aren't giveaways fun! It's so neat that all these bloggers love sharing! I think sharing with each other gives us a sense of community that we need.

If you'd like to just read more info about the book, or this giveaway is already closed and you want to know how to purchase one, just wander over to Cadron Creek and they have all the information you need.

Thanks for reading and be blessed!

AND THE WINNER IS...

Well I think you all are awesome, and it was great to get to know new faces and hear from some I didn't know were reading! What a blessing it is to be able to share my thoughts with all of you and know they're a blessing. So without further torture and delay....

The winner of the book, In God's Garden, chosen by our very own V-Hannah (2yrs) is...

Deb!

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy the book! Email me with your address at stcischwrz at aol dot com. and I'll send it off to you right away!

And everyone stay tuned! we'll have another giveaway soon!

God bless and don't forget to stay in the word so that His blessings may be fulfilled in your life!

18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." Deuteronomy 11:18 NKJV

Frugal Food and Gardening AND A BOOK GIVEAWAY!

I stumbled on something this morning, a blog/website called Make It Your Own, she had an article called what do you throw away? Find it here

She reminded me of a bit of knowledge I have previously gleaned but had forgotten to use in recent times. However when I think about the hard economic times we're in, I'm sure it would do us all some good to remind ourselves of a simple truth. "Throwing away useful things is like putting money in the trash." My grandparents lived during the depression era, and one of the things I've heard them say over and over is... there's a use for that. Now I will be the first to admit that this train of thought can lead to pack rat tendencies, but if looked at reasonably can save us some money. Many of the things we throw away can be used as frugal alternatives to things we would otherwise throw away. In her article she listed using bones for soup or broth and I'm sure we've all hear of that, but what about watermelon rind – if you pickle it, you can use it on occasion in place of pickles. Or how about candied citrus peel, don't like to eat them? Use them in instead of raisins in a raisin bread recipe (with or without the cinnamon) for a nice zing! The bonus to that is that they're a source of vitamin C. Beet tops can be used like spinach when fresh. Then you have green tomato relish, a sweet recipe can replace jam or a sour one for pickle relish. Unripe or overripe fruit is great for relish,chutney, or quick-breads. Rose hips and crab apples make beautiful jelly, and rose hips have more vitamin C than oranges. Small amounts of leftover food are often the starting point for most of my homemade soups, a nice alternative to PB and J for lunch. Many flowers are edible too! Try fried zucchini flowers, or dandelion flower lemonade, pansies in your salad or rose petals on a cake, they're tasty and pretty and best of all FREE. If you're worried about loosing the zucchini fruits, pick the male flowers as apposed to the female flowers, they're abundant in the beginning of the season.

Salad greens are expensive, and so is weed killer, many people balk at the idea, but really the best way to get rid of dandelions is to eat them. They can be hidden in any food containing tomatoes (it controls bitterness) and the leaves are great for greens in a salad. The root can be washed cut and roasted and used as a coffee replacement. Dandelions are a bitter herb, so they stimulate the digestive process, and also offer an added benefit, they're high in vitamins and minerals and very good for your liver and kidneys, but they're gentle and safe for everyone. If you find you can't take the bitterness, blanch the greens by placing a flower pot inverted over the whole plant for a week before harvesting. They'll be more tender as well.

Learn to know your edible weeds, there is abundant information out there and it will save you money on your groceries as well as your medical bills by bringing better health to your family.

" 29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food." Genesis 1:29 NKJV

(I am not arguing the idea of eating meat, simply the health benefit of eating the herbs as God made them for. A good book is from Goosefoot Acres, called the Volunteer Vegetable Sampler, by Peter Gail. I studied my yard for a year continuously and noticed one important fact. There was not one 2 week period in the entire year that there was nothing to eat, growing free will in my yard. God provides abundantly for his children, we just have to be willing to accept what he provides.

Another thing that people can save money on is seeds. Many of the foods we buy in the grocery store can give viable seed. Some are better than others. Foods that are picked green may not have usable seed, but many will. Lots of the seeds in the spices section, if fresh, will grow a like plant. Tomatoes and peppers although hybrids will still grow tomatoes and peppers. Carrot ends, the part where the plant grows up, if planted will grow again, not the root, but the plant, and the plant may produce seed, which can be used to plant more carrots. Organic potatoes often have not been treated and will sprout for you. Squash plants will produce squash. The theory behind saving seeds is not to save certain kinds because of possible cross pollination, but if you grow 2 kinds of squash the seed may be a cross between them, but it will still be a squash, and a free one at that. Bean seeds will obviously produce more beans, or green beans if picked green. Did you forget to harvest the last of your winter crops last year? Leave them to flower, they'll give you seed to start for free this year. I once noticed a celery head, that had been thrown in the compost, growing!

If you don't have room to compost or raise your own animals which can be fed the scraps, consider this... Do you know anyone who does? If you know someone who raises the animals, give them your scraps, maybe even make a trade for some of their products. An elderly neighbor told me to come over and salvage the apples from her tree, the bees were going crazy for the rotting apples. We went a step farther. We sorted the apples we could use and cleaned up the apples we couldn't, the totally rotten ones went in the compost, the not so rotten ones went to a friends goats, and the rest we canned up, my compost got fed, the goats got fed, the neighbor got rid of her bees, we got fed and then we also shared some jars with the neighbor. Or the alternative, let the apples lay there and rot, only the bees and bugs get to eat. The bonus, our neighbor wants us to come back this year and harvest the apples while they're fresh!

This isn't a matter of luck, it's called resourcefulness. We can be resourceful and also teach our little ones be resourceful too. They'll be a help to us and have a skill they may come to need in their own lives. Happy Frugaling!

"12 The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow." Deuteronomy 28:12 NKJV"

Now for the giveaway: Leave a comment below, including your name and share what you do with food stuffs that many people throw away. On May 31 we will have a drawing. The winner will receive a book called In God's Garden. If you post about this on your facebook or twitter, or blog about it, you will receive an extra entry for each posting site, just leave a comment here with a link to your post. You get another entry just for telling me you're a follower or becoming a follower (thanks Grace for the idea). Thanks for entering and God Bless!