Food and Some Other Things

Monday

The yogurt came out awesome! The initial activation batch was only 1 cup, which I then strained overnight to make it greek-style-thick. In the end, I was left with about 1/4 cup thick yogurt and 1/4 cup whey. I mixed my meager helping of yogurt with the granola from last week and it was pretty good. {I saved the whey to use later.}

I already have a second batch of yogurt going. This time with more milk.

Making your own yogurt sure is a commitment. To ensure the culture stays healthy and active, you have to feed it at least once a week. {read: make another batch of yogurt}  

Sheesh. 

It's just like a kid...wanting to eat all the time.

~~~

As usual, Monday was a major work/shipping day. I was able to get these orders sent out:

~~~

For dinner I turned to Pinterest.

And it did not fail me!

I found this beautiful photo of Sauteed Garlic Lemon Pork Chops with Mushrooms and Onions from Savoring the Thyme.

But I don't much care for lemon with meat. 

{except the lemon chicken my step-mom makes...I love her cooking}

While I did have a lemon, I omitted it. 

Same goes for the chopped garlic. I was too lazy to mess with that stinkiness.

What I ended up using was a mismatch of leftovers.

It went-a-somethin-like-this:

splash of olive oil

dollop of homemade butter

4 boneless thin pork chops

liberal sprinklings of salt

less liberal sprinklings of pepper

1 dump of flour

liberal sprinkling of garlic powder

all the shriveled mushrooms from the fridge

leftover onion that was half fine chopped and half rough chopped

whey from the yogurt

&

cream cheese with chopped jalapenos from when we had hamburgers, which was extremely leftover and kind of dried out  {I snub my nose at ketchup and mustard nowadays and only want this on my hamburgers. ...that is, I outwardly snub at home....inwardly snub in public. I don't want to be rude.}

I followed the directions from the original recipe.

Verdict: Seth said it was good and I should make it again, but not make it a lot of the time.

Sounds like a winner to me! 

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Tuesday

Rowan and I made that kefir soda I talked about last week.

It didn't really work, but I had read that it can take a few batches before the carbonation occurs.

So we'll keep trying.

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Wednesday

Mon/Wed/Fri is Rowan's school schedule.

These are the days I tend to run errands and make orders for my shop.

So, I made a 'quick' trip to the grocery store (HEB). Since I was alone....gloriously alone to shop....I took my time and found some sales and read labels and sampled organic deli meat {yum!} and realized that I stupidly bought a 25lb bag of wheat berries when I could have just bought what I need from this store. 

~~~

Although I was able to get a handful of orders shipped out on Monday, by Wednesday night I had that many more to do already! This is a very good thing. God is pretty awesome and He truly deserves the credit for my success. And He knows me so well....I've noticed that when I'm feeling a little burnt out on making flowers, that's when the orders ease back to the point that I have time to breath and catch up. And the times I'm all "Bring it ON!" He obliges and piles on the workload. 

With that said, today was another major workday. 

I finished these, plus some not shown:

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Thursday

The morning brought about an insane amount of toy purging. It felt sooooo good! And no, the kids know nothing about it. Nor do I think they will even notice the absence of those toys. 

~~~

I spent some time outside painting stuff for an order and noticed this sunflower with the start of a bloom on it...later in the afternoon it had been knocked over.

I loath squirrels.

I also noticed that one of the amaryllis our neighbors gave us bloomed.

I need to plant them, but think I'll put one in a pot so we can enjoy it inside.

~~~

Thursday evening I finally got around to some things...like this basil and olive oil butter...which was in no way spreadable when cold like I thought it would be.

~~~

After dinner Breck 'taught' us all how to play four-square in the driveway....with his own made up rules.

Then we came in for our evening snack!

{And Seth went right back to working...he has soooo much going on right now. Poor guy.}

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Friday & The Weekend

{sorry, no pictures}

Forget TGIF....I'm ready for TGISummer.

...just a little over a month to go...

Anywho.

I roasted a whole chicken on Friday night and it was one of my better meals.

{I say this not to be braggy....I'm usually an awful cook, so when I get it right, I like to share that information.}

I shoved all of that basil and olive oil butter under the skin....YUM!

Then I took all the leftover parts {including the gizzards!} as well as juices after roasting, stuck them in the crockpot overnight and the next day I had 6 wonderful pints of chicken stock.

I gave the kefir soda another go with some organic apple juice and much to my delight it worked!

There was carbonation! Hooray!!

The kids hated it.

It smelled like cider beer but tasted like fizzy apple juice.

Maybe I'll try again with grape juice. 

I also sprouted some wheat berries, dehydrated them, and ran them through my blender to make wonderful whole wheat flour.

The kids and I made brownies with it. 

...they were the worst brownies. Ever.

This was not a good weekend for healthy foods.

~~~

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for our neighbor's son who's Breck's age. There was cake and ice cream and fun and delicious brisket. 

And watermelon vodka drinks.

The kids slept great after a few of those!

{I kid, I kid...no minors consumed alcohol.}

Too Much Pinterest Can Be A Good Thing, Right?

I'm a Pinterest junkie.

...not like it was a really big secret or anything...

This week was one of those 'actually-make-what-you've-pinned' weeks.

And everything was super successful.

...well, almost everything...

Monday, however, was a work day...not a pinterest day. 

I got a lot done.

Like this...

And this...

And these...

 

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Tuesday I mostly drooled over things I want to do, like make my own yogurt. 

{source}

And kefir soda

 

{source}

I finally got the guts to order both yogurt and kefir cultures.

They should be here next week.

Yay!

****************************

Wednesday I cleaned our washing machine.

The inside.

The outside too, but the inside is what really needed it.

I followed this step-by-step guide and it worked like a charm:

{source}

Then I re-organized our coat closet.

Ok, this one was kind of a fail.

 Here is my inspiration closet:

{source}

But I decided that since we'll likely not be here for another year, I'm not going to put a lot into this house.

So, I assembled a metal shelf inside the closet and in the process pinched the crap out of my leg while assembling said shelf. 

But I did not cuss!

...so I guess it kind of was a success...

After lunch I was the parent reader for Rowan's preschool class.

We read a Diego and Dora book and Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?

When we got home Rowan and I made some yummy looking granola bars.

...Mmmmm...

I used this recipe:

{source}

They were waaaaay too sweet...which, coming from a woman with a mouthful of sweet teeth, is saying something. Next time I make this I'm gonna swap out the brown sugar for about half the amount in maple syrup.
And maybe add some coconut.
And chocolate.

****************************

Thursday was another work day.
I did a fair amount of prep work to finish some orders.
...like these corsages...



It was also really cold.
Which made for a perfect day to cuddle up on the couch with some coffee and surf Pinterest.

But it was not a good day for cleaning.
So I didn't.


Cold days are also good for mixing plaids, florals, and stripes.

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Friday I realized that not cleaning on Thursday was a bad idea.
So I cleaned.

AND!!!
My yogurt and kefir cultures came early!!!

Rowan was eager to help me make yogurt, which she probably won't eat.
I bought the kind of cultures that are mild, are so easy to make a caveman could do it, and are heirloom {meaning you can forever make yogurt from the previous batch}.

We have another 24 hours for it to do it's thing.
I'll let you know if I'm as smart as a caveman next week.


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Saturday (today) has been a lazy day.
Sort of.

I've been working REALLY hard on making a photo book.
See, I have this grand plan to make one photo book for each year of our kids life...for each of them.
...it's sparked from the guilt of being a horrible scrapbooker/baby book keeper when they were babies.

Here's a page I have done:

Oh, and I found this super cool way to repurpose a crib when your babies are grown...

{it's a chicken coop}

{source}

Let's Catch Up, Shall We?

Hi there!

Fancy meeting you here.

After nearly a year-long hiatus, I thought it might be fun to post an update of our more recent and very exciting events.
...in no particular order...

Both Breck and Rowan are riding their bikes without training wheels!
Whoop, whoop!

Breck is playing the piano and doing exceptionally well at it.
He's a natural.
And that comes straight from the grammy-nominated owner of the music school.

This is an old video from his first recital last Fall. He is playing amazingly better than this now.


He'll have a Spring recital next month.
You may or may not see it here.

Rowan has started reading, which I think is pretty major considering she's just 4 years old.

She also got a pretty major haircut a few months ago, which was desperately needed.

 

...and Breck always seems to need a haircut. But I daresay, he can pull off that shaggy look pretty well.

 And here's Seth and I, ready to go out for a date!

We also had a mini-vaca to Pennsylvania for a friend's wedding. I took a grand total of zero photos. 

It was in Amish country at a rustic-meets-elegance kind of inn.

Very neat, very fun, very kid-free.

Seth has been busy with work.

Bees have nothin' on him.

I've also been busy thanks in large part to my Etsy shop, AnthologyOnMain.

It's become more successful than I ever imagined it would.

Here are some things I make:

  

Recently I've been reading a LOT about real food and sustainable lifestyles, so you may...or may not...see some posts about that kind of thing. 

I make no promises.

Book Review: Heaven is for Real - Conversation Kit

A while ago I read the book Heaven is for Real and loved it!

So when the DVD-based conversation kit became available to review, I jumped on it.

I had originally hoped to be able to review this with our small group at church, but soon after receiving this kit in the mail we learned we'd be moving 700 miles away. 

Then it sat in a box until recently.

I decided I'd rather review it by myself than not at all.

If you're not familiar with this book, it is about a little boy's near-death experience where he met God and visited heaven for a short time. It's a very moving book and I highly recommend it.

(You can read my review of that book HERE.)

Going into this review I had pretty high expectations.

With this kit came a 117 page discussion guide and a 5 session DVD.

Each session within the study guide contains multiple parts: scripture, group discussion questions, and a prayer. I found each scripture passage incredibly relevant to the topic, the questions were deep and though provoking, and the prayers were heartfelt and genuine. 

The DVD sessions were a bit lacking, however. They were set up in an interview-style format with a "reporter" and it felt like a bland, drawn out story with no real focus or direction. Todd Burpo speaks throughout most of the DVD and doesn't concentrate the topics to heaven as much as I would have liked. I found the reporter to be disingenuous in general and especially when asking questions of Colton Burpo and what he saw and experienced in heaven. Other minor things such as the all white background and the way the family sat during the interview were distracting and could have been better directed.

Overall, I think the conversation guide has a lot of value, especially for a small group format. The DVD, however, can be thrown out.

***

I received a complimentary copy of this book for reviewing purposes, all opinions expressed in this review are my own. I was not paid for this review.

Just Today

Today was a busy day.

Rowan woke me up at 6am for a glass of milk...she's definitely not on summer hours yet, but I much prefer the 6am milk-request as opposed to her customary 3am milk-request.

Then at 10am both kids had their first swimming lesson. 

(sorry, no photos)

It went well...I'm looking forward to what they'll be able to do at the end of their classes!

We came home ate lunch, played games, 

built angry bird fortresses,

  

watched cartoons, played the Wii, then late afternoon Breck had two piano lessons...one was a make-up for one he'll miss later. Today he learned how to play a C chord and got a fun new song to learn! 

Right before dinner we went outside to play with the neighbor. 

And now I'm ready for bed!