Click Through

Hey, you feed readin' folks-click on over and check out the updated playlist. I just totally stole some from Vicki's list...and added more. Enjoy!

Being Real

Shane's cousin and his girlfriend brought their newborn baby over to see us a week or so ago. As we were talking, the girlfriend mentioned as an aside, "Yeah, they all say 'What a perfect family' but I knew that wasn't exactly right." I was a little baffled-not sure who sees us as perfect nor exactly what impression she has of us...

However, we are very real. Today was just one of those days. Nothing is really wrong, but the frustrations of life kinda piled up today. You know, just the junk. And it's hot. One of those digital thermometers in town said it was 109 degrees at 1:30 this afternoon.

So, being on the edge of tears all day, and for no real good reason, this play list was very soothing to my soul. Thanks Vicki :)

Hi y'all. Have you missed me?

I love this new shift. Shane works Monday 6:30-4:30, then he's gone all day (6:00am-11:30pm) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These two days he works at the Sheriff's Office, then when his shift is over, he changes clothes and goes to the security guard job, so it's a LONG couple of days for him. However, he then only works from 6:30-4:30 again on Thursday and he's done for the week. Before, Shane had to sleep a bit on Saturday to recover from his Friday night shift, we'd go to church on Sunday and then Monday evening he'd go back to bed to prepare for his 12am shift. Now we have three full days with him-it's so nice. Here's a random summing up of our lives the last few weeks.

~Shane and Ashlyn played a 10 hour game of Horseopoly (off and on through a weekend).
~My internet time used to be after I got up but before Shane got home around 9am each day. Now I get up and feel I need to get busy, work all day around the house, then be with Shane in the evenings. I've not found a new slot in my day for regular blogging time. But I'll get there.
~I took four of the girls and myself to two different dentists in two different towns (different insurance). Then a well baby checkup and we stopped in several times to check in on a good friend giving birth to her first son yesterday. Welcome to the world Judah!
~This running left me so tired I left Shane and some of the girls up and went to bed early.
~Our van has been in the shop twice-once for a cracked flywheel and then for a repair the mechanic accidentally made (broke off something important that left a hole in the radiator, which made the engine overheat). God totally poured out grace on us as we drove the car for several days, even many miles on Sunday without any problem.
~The mechanic was great-it was ready in less time than he estimated and cost less than he originally said. Once we told him about the overheating yesterday morning, it was fixed for free by noon.
~In the meantime, my mom loaned me her nice new Yukon. The girls wanted the mecanic to break something else.
~Shane loves his job. Said it's too good to be true. There's no room to move up, but he's basically his own boss, gets to be outside, travels to all parts of the county he works in, seeing some pretty countyside, and he's losing weight (13lbs in 3 weeks).
~Even though the girls are home just as much as before school was "out" the house is harder to keep up with. Not sure why...maybe it's Jaika's new hobby of dumping out toy boxes in record time, lol.
~Audrey is a whopping 15 lbs at almost 8 months old. She's a total flirt and is racing to be just as big as her sisters. She's crawling, pulling up, and sometimes cruising and even letting go. She even got mad at me yesterday and chewed me out saying, "ga gi ga gi!" with some anger!
~She's still our favorite baby-the girls even say it. She's so easy!
~The big girls just decided they would go to a birthday party after all-one that starts in less than 2 hours. Originally they were tired of going and wanted to just be home. Guess they're re-energized...or they don't want to clean. Regardless I gotta run to get them there-I'll be back here soon!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I thrive on systems at my house. My kids, on the other hand, don't so my systems often try to crash & burn. Even if I don't have systems, I do have rhythm. Not real rhythm, no, I can't clap in time at church one bit. But I love to make it through the week coasting on the unique cycle of our family.

This week our unique cycle became somewhat normal and I just about fell apart.

Not really, I love the idea of Shane being on day shift and really, really love the idea of four ten hour days with long weekends. But this week has been a challenge since our rhythm is about as "on" as mine is every Sunday about 10:30.

Here's our week in a recap:

The Good:
~Having Shane at most ball games, home for dinner, and next to me in bed at night.
~There was a storm one night this week and I slept peacefully knowing I wasn't the only adult in the house. I left the "monitoring" of the storm up to him and it was soooo nice!
~Unlike when he works in the jail, Shane can use his cell as he's working his new job.
~The new job-Shane is a supervisor to the inmate work crew. He has two inmates he takes all over the county to fill in pot holes. Yesterday took him to a rock crusher plant (for asphalt) and to two towns for road repair, then they cleaned the precinct workshop where he's stationed and cleaned out "his" truck. Much more variety than the gray walls of the jail. Bonus: No drunk guys professing their innocence to deal with.
~Audrey is sitting up, pulling up, and crawling! She's 7 months old today.
~Our 14th wedding anniversary was this week. Celebrating Saturday with a trip to "the city" together.

The Bad:
~The allgirlhomeschool-mobile had to go to the shop for repairs. Yours Truly got to handle all that and it's really not my forte. Still more to deal with as we have to find a different mechanic who deals with transmissions.
~Getting up at 5:40am to make Shane's lunch and get him out the door intact. This one may not last too long!
~I have a guilt complex. If Shane is at work, then I need to work hard with no slacking. Main problem with this is that I keep working once he gets home...and I get up at night with Audrey so I am a little tiny bit tired.
~Pot holes aren't glamorous. We need to work on a new job description, lol.

The Ugly:
~Shane's side job as a security guard for a major gas plant still takes up two evenings a week. We're thankful for the job, but it's hard for the girls to not see him from bedtime Monday night until he gets home on Thursday (they're in bed before he gets home on Tues & Wed nights).
~Finally, a shock from the ball park last night. I sat near a little girl still in her uniform. The team name in bold letters: Ball Busters. Nice.

Small Break

I had planned a Food Class post for today, but it'll have to be put on hold. Our world is a little backwards from our usual schedule, so as we adjust I'm not sure how my blogging will all fall into place. The Food Class posts take more work than others, so just be patient with me :)

I'll throw out a few prayer requests though:
~Shane as he adjusts to a new position that's totally opposite his regular job (days instead of nights, working outdoors instead of inside...)
~Audrey's having a tough time teething. She's pretty miserable with a nonstop runny nose & fever.
~Hope's having a killer allergy attack, her eyes look terrible!
~We're still petitioning God daily for our land to sell, and for the right house for us to be available when it sells.

Finally, if you have some ideas on lunch box items that don't have to be heated up, I would really love you forever. Shane always takes a lunch, but he usually has access to a microwave but won't now. I can send items in a thermos if needed...save my man from a summer of endless sandwiches! Come on, send me your best lunch box menus!

Our Daily Bread

Oh, did I say Food Class back on Thursday? Well, ahem...I had some breaking news yesterday at this time. Shane's request to move to the inmate work crew division of the Sheriff's Office was granted. This means for the first time in three years, he'll be on the day shift. As an added bonus, he'll have three day weekends every week (he'll work 4 ten hour days) and holidays off! I'm a little excited. Just a little. Now, let's move on to Food Class.

A few years ago I read an article in a mainstream magazine that said the most nutritious change you can make for your family is to start making your own bread at home. As a wife and mother, I do want the best for my family. As I've learned more about flour, I've finally purchased a grain mill to grind grain at home. It was a purchase I'd contemplated for several years and I'm so glad I took the plunge last month.

There is a great satisfaction from making my family's bread. I don't even do it all the time yet, but when I do present a loaf warm from the oven, it just feels very right. Grinding the grain that made the loaf is even better.

Why would I do this when Wal-Mart sells flour of many sorts for my use?


Read this article to understand why, as well as to learn about enrichment. By the time flour gets to the store shelves, it's at least void of many nutrients if not rancid.


There's a lot of grain out there besides wheat, y'all. Many of you with gluten allergies know this. Right now in my kitchen I have quinoa, barley, spelt, wheat, and a seven grain mix. There are so many more! I've been giving Audrey quinoa as baby cereal and she loves it. I'm about to make a couple of loaves with my seven grain. It's fun to learn about different grains and figure out how to use them in our diet.


I am not a good bread maker, but I play one on TV. My family loves my bread even though I am working on perfecting it (and I have a long way to go!). Don't be afraid, a little butter and honey will cover most of your mistakes. A friend and I ordered the wrong kind of flour for bread making and our bread turned out to be fine bricks. She wisely used hers for bread pudding (while I just dumped more honey on mine until I gave up and tossed it in the trash).

Does making your own bread sound like a huge time investment? To minimize this, I use a recipe that makes 5-6 loaves at once. I have tried to do my baking on Sunday afternoons, then throw some of it in the freezer for later in the week. I've also considered delegating this task to an older child (it's not that hard, and I'd be on hand to help). Once you taste the bread, you'll know it is worth it to make the time for it.


You can find small quantities of grain at health food stores. Large quantities can be bought by a distributor from this company. Health food coops in your area may also be able to help you reduce shipping by ordering together. We have a distributor about an hour and a half away, so those of us who grind our grain put an order together and one of us goes after it.


You might need to research the most cost effective way for you to grind it. I've read that you can do it in a blender or food processor, but I've never tried. If you have a KitchenAid stand mixer, KitchenAid sells a grain mill attachment for about $100-$120 (but they aren't being produced again until Fall). I have a Champion Juicer so I bought a grain mill attachment for it at only $60. If you want to buy an actual mill and not an attachment, go for a Bosch. It's an excellent product (but it's not cheap). Look around, if you keep your eyes open you can find something that will fit your budget. A Google search for grain mills will turn up a lot of options.

In the mean time, if you're local to me, I'll be glad to grind for you. Someone did it for me for a while before I was able to buy my mill (thanks again Jennifer!).

Speaking of bread, I'm going to put Missy Audrey in the Ergo and go try my hand at a new batch! Come on over for a slice-but hurry before it's gone!

Awww, a Blog Award

My friend Raoulysgirl gave me an award for being a passionate blogger. Y'all think I'm passionate? Say it aint so...

In order to accept the award I must agree to do the following...
Put the logo in my blog.
Write 5 things I am passionate about besides my blog.
Tag 5 people on my list and let them know that I tagged them.

~Five passions:

1. Truth

2. The unborn

3. Freedom and those who paid for it for us

4. Memorable childhoods

5. Living in the abudant life God promised us

~Tagging:

1. Summer, who isn't so vocal, but lives a life of conviction

2. Jennifer, who shares a lot of my passions

3. Ashlyn, who is the apple that's not fallen far from the Momma Tree

4. Amber at Babywearing Buzz, because anyone who can blog mostly on this passion is a friend of mine for life!

5. Vicki, because she's got a great thing going on her blog. Real life, lovin' Jesus, lovin' her family kinda girl.

Getting back to Food Class Thursday!

Substitution Solutions

Hope your Memorial Day was wonderful! Let's get back to our topic at hand:

There are two ways to solve the problem of chemically laden bad food: Whole foods or adapted foods. Although whole foods eating is the healthiest, sometimes you just want some good old mac & cheese, so you turn to adapted foods. Depending on your resources, you can really go either way--or both.

Health food stores have many of our old favorites done in a more nutritious way. For instance, Annie's is a popular brand that's made it's way into even our little Wal-Mart. You can buy all sorts of products under Annie's label-even macaroni & cheese. It's whole grain and organic and free of the big bad 3 (MSG, hydrogenated oil & processed sugars). It's processed food still, so it needs to hold only a limited spot in a whole foods diet.

While transitioning into a whole foods diet, altered foods may be the way to go (totally my description by the way, if you walk into Whole Foods asking for altered foods, they're going to look back at you like you have two heads).

Here are some substitutions I use-we'll start with the list of things to rid your house of and go from there:

Margarine-butter, preferably organic.

Most processed lunch meats-look for nitrite/nitrate free varieties. Our WalMart carries one brand (down from two they used to carry). I think Super Target carries some in their deli.

Hot dogs-well, this is a hard one. Again, you don't want nitrites/nitrates (they're cancerous) but really you know what hot dogs are made of, right? I've compromised and bought Oscar Meyer I think, it says no artificial bla bla bla and something indicating it's not lips & tips. If you have access to a larger selection, you could probably find kosher, nitrite/nitrate free varieties.

Colas-sorry, we drink water or unsweetened tea (well, I only drink it, no one else will touch unsweet tea. Alternatively, you could sweeten you tea with honey or experiment with other healthy sweeteners which I'll talk about later.

Processed Cheese Products (not cheese, just the fake kind, especially Velveeta)-okay, I still make "rotel" once a year or so, but in casseroles calling for Velveeta, I've been replacing it with real cheddar cheese and it's tasted great.

Sugar laden breakfast cereals-due to high milk consumption and the price of cereal for a family our size, I've heavily reduced our cereal intake. I make oatmeal with a variety of toppings including homemade whipped cream (just whip cream, add maple syrup and viola!), strawberries, blueberries when affordable, maple syrup-the real stuff, and nuts. Also, breakfast burritos, eggs, homemade biscuits, homemade muffins, homemade pancakes. The last three can be made ahead for busy mornings.

Mac & cheese (boxed, not home made) There's always Annie's, also my mom's made her own mac & cheese for years...but I do think she uses Velveeta. I recall seeing some homemade recipes on allrecipes.com, so you could probably make your own.

Frozen dinners (prepared foods, not frozen fruits & veggies). We don't really buy these because they taste good do we? No-because they usually don't! We buy them so we don't have to cook. Instead, cook ahead and freeze the meal, double a recipe for dinner then freeze half for next week, use your crock pot instead, or have a list of super simple meals for busy evenings.

Chips Steer clear of most flavored chips, that's where the MSG comes in. Stay basic-there are some corn and tortilla chips that are good, also try the natural Cheetos and other varieties you can probably find in your store. Sunchips are also MSG & hydrogenated oil free. Remember, these are still processed foods, so they shouldn't be a staple, just a treat.

Candy There are "healthy" chocolate coated candies like M&Ms in health food stores, but you could also transition into healthier sweets like fruit. Once your taste buds are not used to super sweet sodas & candy, nothing will taste better than the natural sweetness of a ripe peach or piece of watermelon. I'll include recipes for desserts later, so don't despair!

Most canned soups learn to make your own (I don't make cream of ________ yet, but my basic cookbooks have recipes for them), shop from the health food store or buy Healthy Request from Campbells, which I've found to be MSG free.

Canned meals like Spaghetti-Os Well, there's probably not a good sub, just freeze your own portion sized leftovers. Once you eat whole foods, this stuff starts to taste like the crap it is (sorry, that's the only word that fits).

Fake juices like Sunny Delight, Hawaiian Punch, Gatorade (think colored sugary chemicals). Just don't. If you must do juice (again, it's a heck of a lot of sugar--way more than you'd get actually eating the fruit whole), dilute it, or only drink in a small amount. For some fun, add lemon or lime slices to a pitcher of water (be careful not to squeeze too much juice in though, it'll taste bitter).

Here are more that didn't make the list in the earlier post:

Coffee-I still drink coffee, I just sweeten it with maple syrup and add some milk instead of cream, unless I have raw milk, then I use cream off the top (yum!).

Chocolate Chips-for a small fortune, you can get a bag of grain sweetened chocolate chips or carob (a root that tastes similar to chocolate) chips from the health food store. They cost about double what a bag of Toll House chips cost.

Jelly-Smuckers Spreadable Fruit comes in several flavors and I can't tell the difference between this kind and the regular jellies.

White Sugar-It's not a perfect substitute, but there is a minimally processed sugar cane product called Rapadura from the Rapunzel company. It seems very similar to me to Sucanut. It's not as refined as white sugar, so it retains some of it's nutrients. I'll talk about white sugar later, but this is what I use in recipes like pizza crust and corn bread when they call for white sugar.

Eggs-it's best if you can find local free range eggs, in rural areas anyway, there are often many women selling them. I have a friend who sells them for about $2 a dozen, which is a steal compared to Wal-Marts free range organic eggs. Recently my mom started getting them from a family friend who simply gives them away. Nourishing Traditions states that free range eggs have much more omega 3s and 6s than regular eggs.