Meal Plan Monday Spices/Herbs

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Well a little late here but if you only knew...

of course if you have known me long you'll have a pretty good idea:)

Taxes are done and mailed!

Felt so good to hand print my final copy and send it off.

We got almost everything back.

Itemizing takes a lot of effort and time.

That old saying..." time is money"

So now onto meals

click on any image to enlarge

yes we have hens but we will give them a bit of support here and there:)

A word here on the lost art of "Gleaning". Now Ruth of old she was good at it and took care of loved ones practicing the humility of doing so.

It takes an art of knowing when to hit the stores. Right after holiday's is a real good time. 

See the stores bought too much inventory...see the eggs and the ham.

So menu is set accordingly. There were several other items but I need to get done.

Oh a good early investment in all marriages is a freezer to store such meats for later use. Freezer love beef. Remember that beef also likes to age a bit. So the day of use is even a better choice as long as the store keeps it real cold.

In The west our grocers carry a line of products for our Hispanic citizens.

These spices are VERY GOOD AND INEXPENSIVE!

Same thing as in the bottles or tins.

Yes my friends I really do use many herbs and spices.

Think few pantry stock items cooked many different cultural ways.

Oh the spice of life!

the saying goes with good reason

I have spoken before about buying in bulk at a health food store or at ethnic stores.

Herb of the week...

Basil

Ever-present in most Italian recipes, this herb is an easily grown garden annual. In India it is thought to be sacred to Hindu deities and regarded as the protecting spirit of the family.  The leaves are dried and crumbled for use in a wide variety of dishes that are enhanced by its mild, sweet flavor.  The intensity of the flavor may be judged by the color of the leaves. Purple basil is more flavorful than green.

Cheese and egg dishes lend themselves to the effects of the delicate, unique flavor of basil. For Italian tomato and mushroom dishes , it is a real must!

The Idea behind the use of spices and herbs in cooking is for flavor enhancement- not to overpower the natural flavor of foods. It takes time to get amounts right for your taste.

other uses

Soups, meat pies,stews, peas, and string beans.

Enjoy!

On bar soap for homemade laundry soap

Lisa in Texas wrote...
What kind of bar soap do you use - I don't know if I have seen a pink one before?

Lisa Go to a dollar store. If your able to go to a Hispanic or Asian dollar store the soaps in the side bar image are the ones I use. I get at least 10-12 of them and then I have the bars when I need them one every six weeks or so. Buy them when you see them. They can usually be found inexpensive in lower economic areas. Folks who have to use a dollar more respectfully will tend to use them. They really got something on those who work to the bone and then toss it all to Madison Ave.

I like the white one. It has a low fragrance. We have allergy and asthma in the family. Now remember those who are in hard water areas the soda negates the need to use fabric softener. So there you have another cost saving effect for using it. I LOVE the way the clothing comes out

Tackle it Tuesday

 

 Most every morning you'd find me set to tasks of lunches.

Dove gets stirred and given her Iron then let to rest a few more moments. It has to be given on an empty tummy.

Then its lunches to make of course. Recently after much frustration I asked the kids to give me a list of the things that they would want packet in their lunches. Thus hoping to end the ever stream of wasted prepared lunches.

 

 Likewise each morn I lay out the supplements and medications for the children and I then set them beside the plates at the table. Omega -3 is a very important thing to give kids especially children who have special needs. Even as well as we eat the additions really do help. After much trial and error I have found that if they eat them you win win so thus the sweets aka supplements. The dha the least favored so they take it first.

 

 Laundry has piled up over the holiday weekend being as on Friday I ran out of laundry soap.

So I made another batch. Each batch is over $40. savings. It cost me $2 for all of it.

1/2 cup borax, 1/2 cup washing soda and a bar of laundry soap.

This is a huge yearly savings!

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 Add the grated bar soap to a quart or two of water melt over low heat and then add to a bucket of hot tap water add the powders and stir. Bottle and remember what is liquid now will become congealed in the bottles over two hours or so so leave a bit of head room to shake and or add water at time of use.

No need for fabric softner by the way the soda softens the water. Cool stuff gals!

 

 After first load yesterday the front yard called for the dead heading of the iris and the little bit of weeding while the weeds are small.

I found the neighbors cacti in full bloom again and had to capture the once a year event.

So beautiful and the bees are just a dust with the pollen.

 

 On to the gardens and the watering, folding of cold covers, making a new compost in the garden area.

That is a huge borrage plant and the pollinators just love it.

Tomatoes are on the plants now

 

seed gathering of kale was also added to the french marigold collection I tossed around the tomato plants. After another gathering of seeds to dry the marigold will also get tossed around any root veggie bed to guard from the nematodes that like to eat the root crop.

 

Kale seed.

The night was spent at the allergist for Dash and I. Dash is good just have to add to his allergy care.

I am haveing the 4th bout of what appears to be pneumonia in a row sense January.

So over night Dash needed breathing treatments twice and I slid out of bed so I could sit on the floor outside the lab door in a hospital corridor. First in line for a fasting blood draw for the sleep study to test iron and b's, and the allergist for the immune response factor. Got there at 6:15 for the 7 am door opening. I was first in line. the computer was down so 7 people went ahead of me while they had to manually look up the odd test that the allergist requested. Good thing some folk still know how to use a book. HAHA

I got back to the house 5 minutes before the walk to the bus stop said fair well to my husband walked the kids to the stop and then came in and started on the laundry. 

So my last tackle was to just sit here and hour to rest.

There will be load literally of laundry and other misc tasks to do today as I try to both take it easy and get things done at the same time on very little sleep. 

Dash was better this morning when I got home.

The little kid just had to get bit in the heal so to speak and fell into the temptation of drinking MILK to be like his buddies at school yesterday. So Mom got to stay up all night helping him to breath!

Oh those lessons that must be learned. 

Good thing I had his back.

Marriage Monday, open topic

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  Dreams Longing Hopes Desires
It is said that hope deferred makes the heart sick.Within our hearts are the seeds of our journeyAll on a path.Dreams marking the trails head, mapping the way.Those longings so embedded within the very fibers of our being.Desires wanting and waiting feelings left unfulfilled.
In our marriage we met with a fulfillment of parenthood after 16 years.A son at 20 years marriage.
Before that a life time of wanting...wanting a Man that loved God and a home of my own.
Desires of a wife to share His life with.A forever friendship in love and marriage. The desire to stand aside another to watch them grow.Hoping for them the very best they can become.  Longing for travel within the heart of my man.Thinking at times that if he could just be content...It is that very same discontentment, well it was that waiting then letting go. Painfully accepting that either the desire would be removed or trusting that it might be fulfilled. Knowing that whatever the case I had to trust. Now I wait and trust and hope for my husband as I did for my dreams.When I was longing hoping desiring Dreaming of Motherhood.
Hope deferred can make the heart sick.It can also heal it.Years of waiting then receiving what I had longed for was a real eye opener.If I would of received what I wanted in my timing well wonder the harm of being ill equipped to manage it? One day this life long desire to travel will be fulfilled.My husbands dreams, a reality for it is true that God Gives us the desires of our heart. In a different way than is interpreted by many.
It is the dream, the longing, desiring holding on to that hope...That very act is what causes us to be prepared to receive it in a state of maturity.It is that desire in itself that so beautifully forms us.Then we can truly receive it to our benefit and not to our harm. He sets us on a course that thumps hard in our chest.It is not only that in the state of contentment that the peace is to be found.Contentment never ought mean to let go of the hope that God has placed within us.Being content is to trust in his time and that He has Us in His best interest. Our Dreams ...are best lived in HIS time.
As a wife it is my heart to never remove my husbands dreams, but to support him in the contentment that removes the suffering while the hope is deferred. That support that might help him to never give up but to give over into Gods perfect way and timing.I know then  it will be more than wonderful.As with motherhood, much is required when much is given Never let the fear of disability or being hindered remove the dream.Don't let your dreams just be dreams, let them mark your trail.Then follow it(acting them out within your heart as if...) He is your guide.Mapping your life along it's way. Then if that day come if we have traveled the path well. We might see through HIS eyes what He intended for us all along

Easter was a shakin'

Hello every one, I hope all of you enjoyed your day of resurrection remembrance. That day the earth shook.

We were at the Grandparents today the adults all four of us visiting around the table and felt a funny jolt. Steve was staring at the chandelier and we all looked us to see it rocking and swaying, he said..." I think we just had an earthquake. We all went into the other room and sure enough the other chandelier was ricking and swaying.
A 7.2 hit some 300? miles from here in Mexicali on the boarder. Aftershock hit 10 minutes later of a 5.2 and 20 minutes later of a 4.9? some 200? miles up north, off the coast of California.

Strange thing was the children were with us at a performance and I spoke to them about the moment of the Death of Jesus the Christ the whole earth turned dark, and the earth shook. Now at the performance this fact was made a good representation. I whispered to the kids that the curtain in the Holy of Holy's was torn from top to bottom. That this was an event that marked that day in History as fact. Evidence that has lasted all these years.

Today here on Easter Sunday the South West was hopefully reminded of that FACT.

Saturday I attended the American Sewers Guild Meeting  (Let Me know if your interested) and learned a wonderful technique to make a collar for a garment in one piece , cool stuff. After I enjoyed a few hours with my sister at a fabric store. Beading supplies were 30% off and the Guild membership gives us another 10% off. Big smile! So I got some crimps and findings and storage containers and a long lay out board. More importantly I enjoyed my sister.
We went over to her house for a little while and had a little visit at her table while playing with her beautiful collection of cut stone critters or fetishes (a Native American art form). She told me how she had always desired a necklace of one so for many many years she collected them one by one. The necklace in traditional style are all critters stacked one upon another with a bear usually the center.

Then she showed me a magnificent gift she had received from a dear friend who passed on a couple years ago. She showed me one of all different stones. Then two others of pure turquoise. Each animal only 1/2 inch high and the whole of a 30 in necklace. Just amazing craftsmanship!
To think of her desire of so many years collecting and treasuring the few (barely enough to create half a necklace) here she was gifted with three. It was wonderful to see the admiration and treasure these are to her. For her to share them with me was special.

They have many of their floors torn up to be replaced with new floors. It is my guess that it was the reason for the issues of the last 24 hours. My breathing is real bad. Real bad. Only four breaths to a cough up of moisture. Oh mercy mercy I do hope that this is not the third repeat of the year. It has been less than two weeks from the last time. I sat in church this morning and just prayed along with the actor as he, the blind man, sang "heal me"...

I remembered how when I first was a fire for the emote so strong when my new days came to be after asking Jesus within my heart. It took me back making that moment almost 30 years ago fresh as the very moment...

My daughter and I spoke candidly last night. I shared with her that I had feared I had failed her in my anger and poor behaviors dealing with my PTSD stuff. That I was so very concerned for her. She had recently told me that she did not want to pray because God does not hear our prayers anyway.  I told her I knew her brother knew God and loved him, that he had asked Jesus within his heart. However I told her I was unsure of her. I shared a lesson of how just because a prayer is prayed and God does not answer it the way or in the time you desire that it in no way means he did not hear you. I told her the story of becoming her Mother. 16 years I prayed and let go in desperation to be freed from the torment of longing. It was then Steve came to me and we began the adoption process. God did say yes to me but it was in His time. God does say no too. He knows that we need Him to say no sometimes to keep us a right and along the path he sets before us.

During the play...My daughter...leaned into me...and said..."mom I do accept Jesus, I do believe in God"...

Oh
OH
Happy Easter, from the depths of my heart to yours.

Easter has been a shakin' here in my day.

Happy Easter

receiving...on this GOOD FRIDAY

On gifts and giving
It was the hardest gift to give I think that was ever given.
Yet it seems what is even harder for some is humbling themselves to receive it. I know it was for me for I was lead to believe that if I received thus I was then a servant to it.

"Oh why would anyone want to give me such a gift"...they murmured in the lowliness of self perception. "what could I ever do to deserve such a thing" they ponder and then neglect to extend a hand to receive it.
Then others they try to show us how very much they believe that they have earned such a gift. They perform with great pride knowing that then and only then would any one ever deserve it.

I like what I tell my children. Life is not fair. Gift givers do not HAVE TO be fair in what they give.  When a gift, a true gift is given it has NO strings attached. It is a offering that once out of the givers hand no longer belongs to him any longer. Now in so many folks estimation I suppose they are owed when they give to another. Whether it be allegiance, duty or debt, it is believed that they are owed something for giving. Well that is not a gift it is a payment for service. It can be owed to another without even agreeing to the terms, or even knowing they exist.

There is a greater giving. It has no expectation, it is given freely. Is can be received freely and enjoyed with a humble and grateful heart. Now this gift has no binds to it either and can be passed on without offending the giver. This is the kind of giving that I love most. Over my lifetime it has become my practice to follow this example in giving. Once out of my hand it is no longer mine but belongs to the recipient. Now the gift may have been some great investment of money heart or time this matters little for the gift is a gift.

On this Good Friday the thought of the greatest gift ever given to me is flush upon my face as I pour out a humility to receive without allowing the temptations of servitude by avoiding even the thought that this was given with "expectation upon me". By living and receiving and giving in this example there is a freedom. As the recipient in this manner I am internally compelled through a sense of appreciation to not only delight in this great token of love but open handed pass it on to others.

Not a servant to the giver of gifts but loved enough to be called a friend. For when a gift is given to you with such freedom as to whether to receive it or not. That is a gift truly given by no less than a friend.

This Good Friday enjoy most the friendship of a gift given under the most respected friendship ever exampled. Remember no white knuckles needed open handed pass it on. The gift keeps on giving.