Give It a Rest

In typical Montana fashion, we've gone from nice and warm to suddenly cold.  Hello, Winter! For once, the weather guy was actually correct in his predictions. We spent the start of our week outside, enjoying the beautiful fall temps and getting things ready for the coming freeze.

It was a lovely season of growing and harvesting for us.  There isn't anything quite as wonderful as picking your dinner out of your very own gardens!  Here are a few pictures from spring to fall.

Got lots of kale and chard. I will miss going out every morning to pick greens for my smoothies!

New strawberry patch.  It did really well.

Tying up the raspberries

Ready for the compost bin :)

Our tomatoes did well, but I think I will plant cherry tomatoes next year.

Beets!!!  

We had an abundance of lettuce and greens. Daily salads during the summer.  Lovely!

Fresh carrots are the best!

Kyra's radishes. :)

New little plants.  Had to cover them with a net. Birds love berries, too.

My herb garden did so well! I was able to have fresh herbs all summer and still have lots to dry or freeze for winter.

Little carrots

Buttercrunch lettuce.  Sooooo good!!!!

Freezing rosemary in olive oil.  Great way to preserve your herbs for winter!

Putting the gardens to bed...

Got the garlic all planted and mulched

In the process of cleaning out the beds

Straw for mulch and compost bin

And so the gardens are all ready for their long winter sleep. Vegetable beds are cleaned out, garlic is planted.  Our herbs and fruit, in another garden on the side of the house, are looking rather sad and cold.  I admit that I cried a little when it was all done.  Thank you, Father, for blessing our little gardens with such a bountiful harvest. 

Goodnight, Garden.  Until next spring...

Desires of Your Heart

My kids are growing up and are becoming such beautiful, amazing young adults.  They are beginning to discover who they are, what they are passionate about, and what paths they may choose to take as they get older.  It is a lovely thing to watch.  Jay and I are proud of our munchkins, believing that they've turned out wonderfully--in spite of having the two of us for parents!  We are completely imperfect parents, but we have a God who loves our kids even more than we do and for that, we are so very, very grateful.

As I was looking at that cute little Christmas photo, I noticed Kyra holding her doll.  Since Kyra was a tiny, little girl she has loved the people of Africa.  Jay and I know that this is a passion that God has written on her heart since the day He formed her, a desire of her heart that comes from the Father.  Every baby doll she chose was black.  She would draw pictures of our family and she would color her skin black.  :)  We thought it was rather funny, but we could also see that she has a real connection to Africa. The time she spent last year helping in a Filipino orphanage confirmed her longing.  Her heart is beautiful, loving, compassionate...aching for those in poverty, for the orphans, for the homeless.  Her recent decision to become a lay midwife is wrapped up in her passion to love and serve those who have so little. She knows the desires of her heart and is trusting God to be the lamp to light her path. I am humbled, touched, and so proud to be her mama.  

The past couple of years have been a time of rediscovering myself.  Being so young when we started our family, I spent my 20's and 30's raising kids.  My passions and interests are no longer the same as they were before I had kids, so I've had to look inward and figure out what I want my life to be when my kids are moving on in their lives.  It is simultaneously intimidating and exciting.  Many, many times I have prayed this scripture over my own life and the lives of my family. 

         "Delight yourself also in the LORD; and he shall give you the desires of your heart."

My prayer on this and every single day is that the desires of our hearts come from Him.  As He places them there, step out in faith. He will never leave or forsake you.  Trust Him with your heart.  He loves you so.

Fruitful

Our raspberries, so remarkably hardy that they flourish in spite of the cold Montana winters, went crazy this year.  It could possibly have something to do with the fact that we got them cleaned out, fed and faithfully kept them watered (as opposed to last summer's weed filled, overgrown mess).  The point is, however, that they did incredibly well, spread like wildfire and produced lots of yummy berries.  It was a good year for harvest.

A few days ago, we had our first frost. We covered the gardens and hoped that everything survived. That frosty morning, as I was looking out the window while drinking a nice, hot cup of coffee, I noticed a lone raspberry on one of the canes.  Now this particular cane is one of our oldest and is quite the worse for wear.  In fact, we weren't even certain it was alive this spring.  It has many browned leaves and isn't as tall or lush as the others.  What amazes me most about this old, raggedy raspberry cane is it's fruitfulness.  It outproduced all of them with it's sweet, wonderful berries.

This ugly, sad looking little bush made me think of a scripture in the book of John.
   
              "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit."

God wants to use my past (and even those things that aren't exactly the distant past) for His glory. Every  decision, act or behavior--good and bad-- makes me who I am today.  All of those ugly things inside me that God has redeemed, every scar that remains even after He heals my hurt and my heart, every tear He has wiped away, every victory that I can claim and every joy and blessing that He has given...all of these things are my responsibility to use.

There are days when I feel like that raggedy raspberry cane looks...brown, old, small, worthless, useless.  Tired.  Days when I feel like I have nothing left to give--fruitless.   But then I am reminded of His mercies that are new every morning, of the miracle that is my heart, of His grace that is greater than all of my sin. I remember these things and find myself extending grace and love where I had once been judging and frustrated. All of those things that the enemy tries to use against me, my God uses for His glory.  He sees beauty where I see ugliness.  He tells me to love others as He loves me.  Be Fruitful.

Eat Your Greens!

Gardening in Montana is challenging, but so far this year we are doing quite well.  Lots of yummy greens out there. It's quite satisfying to prepare a meal with veggies grown in your own backyard. Last night we had mustard greens with our dinner and they were absolutely delightful.  I thought I'd share with you the way I prepared them.

Here are the little sprouts, trying hard to survive snow, below freezing temps and hailstorms.

Thankfully, they persevered.

After bringing in the freshly picked greens, I soaked them in a big bowl of water several times.  Just swish them around, drain the bowl and repeat.  Once that was done, I rinsed each leaf and put them in the colander to drain.  Trust me, unless you like your greens gritty, you'll want to rinse them well. 

Being a Texan and all, I decided to cook up some bacon to go in the greens. Applegate Farms has really good nitrate-free bacon and is by far the best bacon we can get at the store.   Anyhoo...I chopped the bacon along with some onions and fried it up in my favorite skillet.

While the bacon and onions were cooking, I chopped up the washed greens.  Once the bacon/onion was browned I added the chopped greens, a few at a time.  Greens pretty much cook down to nothing, so I had that colander stuffed with as many as I could fit.  I let them wilt a bit in the skillet before adding the next handful, until all of the greens would fit in the skillet.

Once the greens had wilted, I added a couple of teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and salt to taste and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

Next came chicken broth.  I think I ended up putting in around 2 cups. I let that simmer for 15-20 minutes, basically until the greens were tender and good.

After simmering and cooking out most of the liquid, the greens just needed a little more salt and a bit of pepper.  You can do that to taste.  Here is a pic of the finished greens...

Honestly, these were sooooooo tasty and good!  I hope you give them a try.

On the Rebound(er)

I have a new favorite thing...rebounding!!! If you've never heard of it, it is basically jumping on a little trampoline. Seem a bit, well, cheesy and 1980's-ish?  Perhaps it is, but I truly love it. During our recent trip to Texas, I stole my mom's rebounder out of her shed and brought it back to Montana with me. ;)

There are lots of health benefits of rebounding, one of which is getting your lymphatic system flowing.  Apparently the lymph in your body has no way to move unless you move it.  Enter the rebounder.  It aids your body in moving around lymph which in turn helps flush out toxins from the body. Add to this the fact that rebounding is fun and it is a win-win!  :-)  This may sound strange, but 20 minutes of bouncing on that thing makes me happy.  Can't really explain why, it just does.  I grab my Ipod, start jumping and I start to feel better.  If I am having one of those afternoons where I am feeling like taking a nap, I rebound for 15-20 minutes and  feel refreshed.

For all of you doubters out there, give it a try and see how sore your calf muscles are in a day or two.  When I first started, I couldn't believe how sore my legs were and I run several days a week!  It has also helped me to have more of a booty...or at least it is lifting the one I have. Never a bad thing.

Here's a pic of a popular rebounder. If you don't have a rebounder or can't afford one, get outside and jump on your kids trampoline!  It's fun, really!!!  Plus, it is good for your kids, too.

*Note for girls only: For those of you who have had children and don't always remember to do your kegels, rebounding can cause a little problem. You know what I am talking about. Keep at it, though, because it also aids in eliminating the problem. It has for me anyway. (Is this oversharing? :-) )  So, grab a good sports bra and start jumping!

A few links to check out, if you are interested...
http://www.energiseforlife.com/rebounding_benefits.php
http://www.evolutionhealth.com/rebounder/rebounding-benefits.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/031739_rebounding_cell_health.html
http://www.urbanrebounding.com/benefits.html

Well, these are tasty!

I've recently discovered this wonderful muffin recipe from Simple Bites Blog. Aren't food blogs the best!?  Anyway, here is a link to this most fabulous of muffin recipes...

http://www.simplebites.net/how-to-make-the-best-muffins/

Of course, the gluten-filled wheat version is fantastic and tasty, but I have been trying to cook with less grains. I decided to try a gluten-free version of this recipe and it has turned out quite well.  I am still experimenting with quantities, etc, but the few gf batches I've made so far have been good enough to share!

Gluten Free Version:

*Substitute 1/4 cup coconut flour for the wheat flour.
Coconut flour may be spendy, but you use a lot less than when using wheat flour.
*Add 1 or 2 extra eggs.  I've yet to decide on the egg thing, though I am leaning toward using 3 eggs total.
*As usual when baking gluten-free, make certain your other ingredients are free of any traces of gluten.
*I use coconut palm sugar rather than cane sugar, but that's just a preference of mine.  I also sprinkled a bit on top before baking.
*Note:  this is a gluten free version, but not grain free.  The oat/buttermilk combination make such a lovely, tasty batch of muffins, though. :-)

Happy Baking!

Thawing Out

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of winter.  I would be happy if winter only hung around for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  There is something about Christmas and snow, we all know that.  Once the holidays are over, however, bring on the sun and spring!  One problem, though...I live in Montana. My solution?  Head on down to South Texas to visit the family.

Last year we went down for my brother's wedding and ended up staying for 5 weeks. It was a wonderful break from the cold and gloom of a Montana winter. I decided that it was a must-do for this winter as well and called up my Aunt Sherrie to see if the little white house on their property was empty.  It was, so the girls and I stayed down there from February to April. We were blessed...lots of sunshine, big Texas thunderstorms and absolutely amazing weather.  It was lovely!

Not only was the weather lovely, but we had a wonderful time with my family.  Beebo and Pappa, aunts, uncles, and cousins...we spent time with them all. I am so thankful to have been able to make the trip.  Here are pics from our time there. (Thanks to Kyra for taking so many beautiful photos of our trip.  I love you, my talented girl! Any not so great pics were taken by me, probably on my phone.)

   My daddy...in his 60's and still  handsome.

My mamma...so pretty inside and out.  We spent almost every single day with her.

My brother, Mike.  Shelby is working with him, learning welding/fabrication.

Maddy and I.  Love my girl. :-)

Jay and Shelby at a riding area called Mud Buddies.

We were lucky to be able to enjoy the amazing Texas wildflowers during our stay.  So, so beautiful!
Rubber boots are a must around there.  Lotsa snakes and other creepy crawlies.

Riding the property with Wayne and Sherrie

Uncle Wayne's milk cow. (Ok, maybe not...)

One of our day trips was to Blessing and Port Lavaca. The pic with that sweet little lady is from the Blessing Hotel where she has cooked and served good ole Southern home cookin' for several decades. We enjoyed seeing the hotel and having lunch. Fun little piece of history.  After leaving Blessing, we went to Port Lavaca to go to a quilt shop and to the beach for a while. 

Another day trip, this one to Galveston where we met Uncle Bill, Aunt Jo and Naomi.  We had a yummy lunch downtown, shopped a while and spent some time at the beach.

Kyra's favorite movie is "Hope Floats" so we took a day to visit Smithville, where the movie was filmed.

Misc pics of the family

A few pictures from our little home-away-from-home.
My mamaw and papaw are buried in this little cemetery on the property.

Jay turned 40 while we were away so we had a party for him when he got down to Texas in April. We had amazing BBQ courtesy of Wayne, complete with all the usual trimmings--potato salad, beans, cornbread and pie. Kyra made Jay a chocolate beet cake, which is our new favorite. We were glad we had a chance to celebrate with him.

We are so blessed to have been able to spend this time with family. Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to make our stay so fantastic, always making us feel so loved and welcome.