He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young
. {Isaiah 40:11}

17 September 2013

Family Friendly "Jello"

I don't know about you but our kids love them some jiggly Jello and since actual Jello isn't exactly Paleo approved (corn byproduct, artificial flavoring, good ol' red dye #40, and aspartame, blah, blah, blah...) It's just another box I pick up, browse over the ingredients, and put back on the shelf with a saddened sigh.
But no more!
I found a super simple recipe that I can feel good about and now it's a regular snack in our house!
I'm offering the basic recipe here but what's fantastic is that it's a very flexible recipe.
First things first, gelatin (the stuff that makes Jello and "Jello" alike all jiggly) is, oddly enough, from animal collagen found in its bones, tendons, etc. It's put in many food items (marshmallows, candy, etc.) because of the consistency it creates. It's also known to have many health benefits for your joints, nails, hair, skin, and digestive health and since our family sees good digestive health as the key to good health in general, we try to eat it regularly. The key to consuming gelatin for health purposes has a great deal to do with the source as well and whereas gelatin from grass-fed beef is ideal, conventional gelatin is better than nothing.

So without further ado...
For Tea Gelatin:
You'll Need: 
4 tbsp Great Lakes Beef Gelatin or 4 packets (1 box) Knox unflavored Gelatin
1 cup cold water
1-2 tbsp honey (optional)
3 cups boiling water
4 flavored tea bags

What To Do:
Start by placing gelatin in the 1 cup of cold water, stir to incorporate, let sit for 5 minutes.
Place the 4 tea bags in the hot 3 cups of water and let steep for 10 or so minutes. Remove the tea bags, add in the honey (how much you add is to taste), stir to mix. By now the gelatin mixture will be a solid mass. Add the "blob" of gelatin into the hot water and stir well until gelatin dissolves. (I sometimes pour this mixture back into a saucepan and heat a little if I have let the ingredients cool too much.) Pour entire contents into an ungreased 9x13 pan and cool for 3 or so hours. (It will be edible sooner but it truly firms up after the whole 3 hours.) Enjoy!
For Juice Gelatin:
You'll Need: 
4 tbsp Great Lakes Beef Gelatin or 4 packets (1 box) Knox unflavored Gelatin
1 cup cold water
3 cups juice or other flavored liquid you'd enjoy eating in gelatinous form

What To Do:
Start by placing gelatin in the 1 cup of cold water, stir to incorporate, let sit for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat your juice on the stove top until steaming (it doesn't need to boil). By now the gelatin mixture will be a solid mass. Add the "blob" of gelatin into the hot juice and stir well until gelatin dissolves. (I sometimes pour this mixture back into a saucepan and heat a little if I have let the ingredients cool too much.) Pour entire contents into an ungreased 9x13 pan and cool for 3 or so hours. (It will be edible sooner but it truly firms up after the whole 3 hours.) Enjoy!

11 September 2013

Finally! A Favorite!

So if you look to the right... yup, over there... by my picture... you'll see that I noted that I don't have favorites.
Well... that may not be completely true anymore.
My dad has told me on many occasions that
"You don't change as you get older, you just become more of who you already are."
Well apparently I'm getting old because I have finally been able to weed through the huge variety of design styles that I sincerely appreciate and come to THE one!
The Modern Farmhouse style is for me! 
I've always had a love for all the individual details that make up this down to earth and practical style.
Actually, its practicality and simplicity are what I love most!
I love that it is always so warm and inviting as if to say "Welcome. You're home now".
I love that it's uncomplicated and straight to the point.
This design style appears to put the most important of things first
...conversation and relationship...
the meal and those with whom you love to share it.
It facilitates experience and is not, in itself, an end but a means to it.
To put it simply, if it makes me wish I was slowly sipping a tall, shimmering glass of iced tea or snuggling with a steaming dark roast coffee... I'm home.
The design  and architecture is all meant to enhance life and not distract from it.
Yes, sometimes there's wallpaper and, yes, sometimes that wallpaper is gorgeous!
It never seems to take itself too seriously.
Occasionally it hints at the industrial...
and often reminds me of a 1930's school room.
Natural finishes are EVERY.WHERE.
...such as black steel roofs, stained wood doors, butcher block, galvanized steel, and leather. Oh my!
There is no shortage of beautifully rich wood floors...
and horizontal boards.
The white may seem boring to some but I adore the crisp, unadulterated ambiance.
It is the neutrality of it all that lends itself, as a host, to any moment you wish to celebrate.
It leaves loads of room for personal style!

I believe that beauty can easily be lost in the noise of most other design styles but in Modern Farmhouse Design it is center stage.
I could stare at these for days! 
So now I ask... what do you think?
Do you think it cold and institutional? Boring and lacking personality?
Maybe it's just right for you? Does it make you long for the rolling hills of Pennsylvania? The fertile valleys of Virginia? The unending plains of Oklahoma?
Oh, sweet Virginia, here I come!


house photo : kitchen island : kitchen island 2 : kitchen island 3entry : screen door : fire pit : dining table : "school room" : back porch : three green pictures :  Christmas Tree : door and shelves : green and teal kitchen : cow : black dresser bathroom : industrial kitchen : outdoor night view

05 September 2013

Becoming a Minimalist: Day 6

Today I wanted to fill you in on a little tip I read in Lorilee's book. The first thing that I shared from her that I loved was the recommendation to dream a little dream of what you wanted your life to be like. Your home. Your schedule. The second tip I loved and can't change is this... 
Just say "no" to storage! 
My gut reaction to this little nugget was "um, yeah... how do you expect me to be organized when I don't have anything to store it in?!" None the less, I got to cleaning and organizing and when I was done with round two of my decluttering I had actually emptied about a dozen clear plastic containers. And then it hit me... I have held on to so much of our "stuff" because it had a nice home tucked neatly inside these bins. Had I not had these bins, I would have been forced to decide whether or not I wanted to try and make a home for these things to begin with. So for me, storage containers just became a means to make my clutter easy on the eyes. That is not what I was aiming for. And so the storage bins are slowly disappearing. Hubs actually choked when he saw me shipping out some plastic bins I had hung on to for years and, from deep within his frugal soul, cried"but we could always use more storage!" This gave me the perfect opportunity to explain that if we don't have storage lying around we won't look for things to store and since we are trying to stop storing and start cleaning, this is a perfectly logical step.
He's a smart guy. He gets it. 
Now don't get me wrong... we have and enjoy some storage. We keep only a few toys in the kids rooms and those are gathered into a shallow bin slipped under the kids' beds. We also have Christmas decorations, clothes waiting to be worn by the younger siblings, and toys that aren't quite age appropriate yet. Those things are stored neatly in tubs in the basement. To be honest, I wish they weren't. I wish we could pare down to zero excess but alas, Hubs and I agree that it would be wasteful to put ourselves in a position to have to re-buy in the future so, for now, we wait.
So today is simple... once you empty a lovely, lid-ed storage container, give it away to someone who actually needs it and then... don't buy more! That stuff is not made from particularly environmentally friendly materials and is expensive anyway! 

For more minimizing tips, check this out.

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