Someone once said to me...

Someone once said to me, as they were angrily trying to find a pair of matched socks, yesterday, "do you ever do laundry?"

"Well, the long answer is yes, but the short answer and probably the one you are looking for is no"

Best ever Vegan Mac and No Cheese

This recipe came from my mom who got it from a Native American storyteller named Morningstar. Where she got it I have no idea!!! Now my family LOVES Mac and Cheese and I make  a pretty mean full dairy mac and we have tried NUMEROUS vegan recipes but I have to be honest shhhh I don't like cashew based cream sauces very much.

Gasp* I know. No aspiring vegan should be admit something like that.

So this recipe is AMAZING!!!!

First I gathered the ingredients*!!! Looks simple enough.

 
Start cooking the noodles and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Blend the rest of the "no cheese" ingredients.

Pour in liquid "no cheese"

 
Put it in the oven

 and 45 minutes later warm, creamy goodness.

Mac & (no) cheese
1# box of pasta- cook as directed
Blend: (while the pasta is cooking)
4 tsp onion powder
4 tsp salt
4 tsp tomato paste
½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
2/3 cup flour
2 Tbsp lemon juice (3 Tbsp if you prefer a cheddar taste)
6 tsp oil
4 cups water
Optional: minced garlic or sautéed onion

Place cooked pasta and above blended ingredients in a large bowl and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

That is WAY too easy and WAY too yummy!!!  Thank you Mommy and Morningstar.

*I recently ran out of tomato paste and since is it late summer I just used fresh tomatoes and cut back on the water.

Please join me in: "I will pray for him - 30 Days of Praying for Our Husbands"

For the month of September I would like to take a few minutes of every day and pray for a specific aspect of my husbands life.

If you are interested in participating I will be sending out daily emails with that day's topic, scripture and praise and answered prayers from others praying with us. I have also started a Facebook group so we can share with other "I will pray for him" participants.

You can join by entering your email here 

Don't forget to confirm by going into your email and clicking on the URL to verify that you would like to be on the "I will pray for him" mailing list. You can unsubscribe at anytime.

and if you have a Facebook account join us at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Iwillprayforhim/

I have a few women prayer warriors who have volunteered to pray for your prayer requests if you would like to email a specific burden you or your husband are carrying. These will be kept private and first name and last initial will be all that is used for identification. You can email prayer requests to iwillprayforhim@gmail.com.

I know we will be richly blessed

Getting ready for the school year

I haven't posted in a while, but we are having an great summer. In July we surprised my daddy for his birthday and had a fabulous weekend at Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio.

Most recently I have been scrambling to get the house organized and decorated before we start school, because everyone knows that if everything is organized and cute you'll have a great school year.

Our dining room also doubles as the school area so this was obviously first priority. So I went on a delightful, child free shopping spree to Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Dollar Tree and Walmart. I used a high quality, washable paint, purchased picture frames (50% off of course), several sets of foldable canvase totes, numerous baskets, bins and buckets and set to work. Our dining room table was unusable for almost 2 weeks as I gutted our homeschool closet, organize the bookshelves, painted and decorated.

Notice there is a missing picture on the photo wall below. I was given an beautiful photo from our trip to Ohio and immediately knew just what to do with it. I spent HOURS arranging and rearraning these frames to make it just right. I measure, hung, rehung and leveled everything. I got to the last photo in the middle and realize that this beautiful picture is designed to sit on a shelf and not hang on a wall. It has no hardware to hang it. Mr. Fixit assured me that we could purchase the hanging hardware next time we go to town and over that last three weeks we have both forgotten each and every time we leave the valley.

This is my very first artificial flower arrangement. 

 And finally a peek into my homeschool closet. This is a work in progress, but I feel like I have everything consolidated and organized for the first time since the move. The goal was to get the house done this week, lesson plans next week and we will start school on Sept 3 since the co-op we are participating in this year starts on the 5th. Then this morning both kids were begging to do school, so life stopped while Blue read us a book and Pink practiced writing her numbers. I think this is going to be a good year.

Happy Birthday Blue!!!

What do you get when you put two newlywed 20 year olds in their first apartment away from their parents with lots of friends over the legal drinking age?

A baby boy!!!!

7 years ago you made us into a family at 6:05am. It was a hot Sabbath day and I had a wedding and a birthday party to attend and a babyshower scheduled for you the next day (because everyone knows first babies are usually late, you were two weeks early). Instead I just stayed in the air conditioned hospital and stared into your sweet baby face. You had LOTS of dark hair and were well worth the effort I put in to get you here.

We may not have planned you, but you were in God's plan and I thank him every day for you. You made me a mom. You taught me selflessness. You have made me laugh and kept our little family together during the rough times.You are a caring big brother (when you feel like it) and a wonderful helper.

At 7 years old Blue LOVES chess and numbers. He's one of those kids who just knows the answer to math problems without having to figure it out. He loves drawing, jokes and puzzles. He would spend all day on the computer if I would let him.

Happy Birthday Blue!! Love ya little man.

Humor is like strawberry shortcake...

every family does it a little differently. It's never bad, but the best is what you grew up with.

After spending a few days laughing uproariously with my sister and parents I realized how much I missed the humor and jokes of my youth. Mr. Fixit and I laugh all the time, but it's different than the giggles my sister, brother and parents bring out. The shared experiences and the genetic ties bring it to a whole new level of hilarity.

Happy 8th anniversary my love

Mr. Fixit and I are high school sweethearts. We were juniors when he came to our school for the second semester. I thought he was cute and made it a point to introduce myself on the first day of class. Mr. Fixit's roomate was a good friend so he just started hanging out in our group. Graduation weekend we spent some time together and he said he'd call me over the summer. Guess what....he did  :)

We officially started dating alumni weekend our senior year Oct 13, 2001. He proposed the summer of 2002 and we were married June 20, 2004 on my grandparents and great grandparents wedding anniversary, in the church my grandfather helped build and where my parents were married.

We were young, and everyone said it was too young to get married. We still had a lot of growing up to do. That we didn't know who we were or what we wanted out of life, and do you know what? They were right! Imagine that. I just figured we'd grow up together and it would only bring us closer and we agreed divorce wasn't an option. Ah youth!!!! We've had some ups and a lot of downs. We've both wanted out but luckily never at the same time.

Today, on our 8th wedding anniversary we are more in love than we've ever been. Young love is fun, it's exciting, it sizzles. Mature love is even better. It's constant and smooth.

We are SO blessed to have added three beautiful children to our family and one we'll hold when we finally go Home! We have a long ways to go in many aspects of our lives but on this day it's smooth sailing. I have confidence that we can weather more storms that are sure to come.

I love you Mr Fixit. Thank you for being my partner, my best friend, the father of my children and the person who can make me mad faster than anyone else on earth. Thanks for the laughs, fixing anything and everything, tag teaming carseats and pjs and taking the kids to swim class today. I can't wait for our hot date tonight.

Happy 1st Birthday GREEN!!!!

Today at 7:52pm my red headed baby turns 1.

The day of his birth, I woke up feeling a little weird. We went to story hour at 10 am and by the time it was over at 11 I knew I was in early labor. We went to a homeschool potluck from 12-2 to meet a new group we wanted to be part of. The mom/nurse/hostess mentioned that I looked pretty uncomfortable. We joked about my water breaking on her kitchen floor and we have been dear friends ever since!!! Happy one year of knowing you, Erin!

  By 2pm I was ready to be home. I ran a few errands, dropped off another family, stopped by my moms and headed home. The kids were picked up by Great-Grandma by 4:45 and I labored alone for a few hours. Mike and the midwives showed up at 7:20 and 7:30 and my little man was born at 7:52 weighing 8lbs 13 ozs beating his sister by one ounce. 

His life has been probably one of a typical third child. He just fits in with what we are doing as a family. He is a very chill little man. He went to his Aunt and Uncles wedding at 1 1/2 days old, campmeeting at two weeks, several camping trips in his first 4 months and multiple

 road trips from MI to PA.

I can't imagine life without our sweet little boy. He is such a joy. He's walking, has two bottom teeth, loves the sand box and his brother and sister. He says words like Mama, Dada, and waves and say's "Hi" to people while we're walking through the store.

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Thank you for the blessing of our little boy. Plese guide us in raising him to love and worship you. Amen

This message is brought to you by Green:
.,,,,,,sda

/

Then he deleted my whole post in one simple key stroke.

And the award goes to.....

ME!!!!

Seriously, I deserve the Super Awesome Mommy award today.

Why you ask?

Because I changed a diaper in a restroom without a changing table. It didn't have a counter near the sinks, a tank on the back of the toilet. Nothing!!!! So how did I do it? By standing on one leg while balancing the baby on the other leg.

I would like to thank Shaun T for a months worth of "high knees". My two older children for providing numerous diaper changes that have all lead up to this moment. Pink for being a witness and finally Green. Without you I never would have found myself in a situation where there was a diaper that urgently needed changing and it was pouring rain outside so there was no way I was going to do it outside on the cars front seat. Thank you all and goodnight!

Me and Nessy vs. Big Box Store Employee

Mr. Fixit recently sent me to town to purchase some bags of cement for a retaining wall we are building. At first I was a little peeved because running to town is an hour and a half round trip. Just driving! Then I cheerily said I'd go if I could only take the baby and leave the older two at home. YIPEE!!!!!

So away I went in Nessy. Nessy is our extended cab, long box, swamp green, GMC diesel. Haha get it? Nessy.
 
I had a quiet trip over the mountain, silence, except for the radio, up the highway and peace, all the way to the nearest big box home improvement store. I park WAY out because, as you can imagine, parking a beast like that can be a little tricky. I then grab Green and head into the store. I place him in the cart, strap him in and go directly to the cement isle. I compare prices, bag sizes and make my decision. I glance around for help since the 80lb bags are the cheapest and see no one. So I grab one of those heavy duty cart things and load it with 8 -80 lb bags. I push the regular cart with Green and pull the now 640lb* heavy duty cart and head to the check out. After I finish the transaction the cashier kindly asks if I need loading assistance. "Sure, I probably better" I chuckle. After all placing cement onto a cart is a bit different than lifting it from said cart into the back of the truck.

I get out to the loading area and the gentlemen that will be assisting me, one 40-50 something and the other late teens, ask me to go get my car and they will load from here. So I strap in the baby and drive Nessy under the awning. I hop out of the truck and the older employee asks, "Your husband lets you drive this truck?" I'm a bit shocked and respond, "Yes Sir! Yes, he does." Of coarse if I was quick on my feet I would have said, "Excuse me, this is MY truck!!!!" Alas, I am not, so I let it go. I was a little offended, however, because I'm a good driver, I work hard around the yard/wannabe farm and although we joke, we share everything, not his and hers. Ok, we do have His and Hers toothbrushes, but I digress.

So I open the tailgate and step back so they can load my purchase. The older employee stops, looks at me and asks "Did you load all this onto the cart by yourself?"
"Yes, I did. I could probably load it in the truck too," ("but that is what YOU are being paid to do" I should have said).
The teenager chuckles and says, "She's not messing around."

How bizarre, but at least the young man had a healthy respect for a strong, capable woman. I know when to step back and let my man be my man. I know how to ask for help to make him feel needed, but I also know that if and when he isn't there... I can manage. I can get the job done and I love that he knows that too and "lets me drive his truck" ;)

*I suspect that 80lb bags of cement don't ACTUALLY weigh 80lbs until mixed but after several search engine queries to get my facts straight, no one knows how much a dry bag of 80 cement actually weighs. So 640 it is for the sake of story telling.

Kings, Pawns and Skunks! Oh MY!

 
We are waiting for Blue at chess club in a local Burger King when Pink says- "Mom!!!! There's a skunk!!!!!"
"Where? I don't see it."
"Over there, it's invisible"
"Oh dear, that's the worst kind"
"It'll be ok, we're old friends"
"Really? How long have you been friends?"
"18 hours" : )
 

Pig du Soleil

 

Pig-tastophy

Me, "Do you see the 15? Point to it please.... What comes after 15?"
Pink, "4?"








Things I love about my three year old....
~Her crazy sense of humor
~Her wild imagination
~Her extensive vocabulary in such a petite little body
~How tough she is dealing with her older brother
~I am biased, but she is a smart whipper snapper and I have to watch that I don't forget she is still a little girl!

Remember when...

Remember those peaceful years of parenting, you know, the ones before kids?

Where you knew exactly what your days would look like. Homemade play dough and finger paints in the sunshine.  Sweet little bubble baths in the evening. Hand crafted gifts for the grandparents. You knew how everyone would sleep and how you would start your kids off with chores at 6 months of age so they would never question that they had to help out or pick up after themselves. You would NEVER allow your 3 year old daughter to go through 17 wardrobe changes in one day. You would NEVER allow television before the recommended two years of age and even then it would be only 2 hours a week. Guns or any other weapons were an OBVIOUS no no. In fact, your son would not be introduced to the knowledge of a fire arm until age 14.

If your children EVER behaved poorly in a store you would leave that full shopping cart in the middle of the isle and walk right out the door, because everyone knows it's just rude to have tantruming children in public. Your children would delight in fruit for dessert and claim that refined sugar was to sweet for their delicate palettes. You would get frequent compliments about how well behaved your children are because you know how to do it.

These days motherhood isn't quite what I thought it would be, but it's giggles and finger smudges on walls. It's bickering and snuggling. It's reading books and picking up toys. It's clutter and first steps. It's questions and more questions. It's incessant talking and animals in the clouds.

I am blessed. I may have been a better mother 10 years ago, but I didn't get muddy hugs and sloppy kisses. I didn't change diapers or nurse a baby to sleep 6 times a night. I didn't yell and be forgiven by a sweet, beautiful child. So while these aren't the peaceful years of parenting, I wouldn't give up this chaos for anything.

After extensive research.....

After an extensive case study that may or may not include people that you know I have come to the conclusion that men and women have vastly different definitions of “doing nothing all day”.

 A woman’s day of ‘nothing’ may include:
* getting up after all the children are bouncing on the bed and/or crying that they’re STARVING
* going to the kitchen and pouring bowls of cereal
* changing a diaper, turning on a movie for the kids while she tosses the bowls into the sink, brushes hair, teeth and puts on yoga pants and a loose T-shirt.
* spends some time checking email, Facebook and favorite blogs (such as this one).
* She then starts to feel guilty about actively rotting her children’s brains so she shuts off the TV and they head outside. She puts the baby in the swing, set up her lounge chair so she can push him and reads a magazine she got three months ago
* the kids start to say their hungry so she goes in to make pb&j’s and serves them with baby carrots, apples and each kid gets a cookie and milk.
*She then rinses the breakfast and lunch dishes, wipes the table and counters, nurses and puts the baby to bed and sits on the couch to read, or crochet or look through curriculum catalogs until the awake children bring her a huge stack of books, so they all snuggle in and read 30,000 books.
*Baby wakes up so she puts away anything he can wreck, such as yarn or books and gets on the computer or reads while the children bicker and play with legos or play dough.
* she starts a load of laundry but forgets to either A. put it in the dryer or B. fold and put it away
*then it’s time to pick up toys, books and clothing scattered around the house and think about supper
* A previously prepared and frozen meal goes in the oven, a salad is prepared and a veggie will be steamed *She then gets on Facebook and checks emails
*They eat supper, she cleans kitchen while the kids are outside with Daddy, picks up the house, does baths, vacuums, bedtime stories, hugs and snuggles, bed for kids, cleans the bathroom from bath time, puts away books, turns on her favorite TV show and crochets with facebook open next to her and thinks “My what a lazy, relaxing day”

A man’s day of ‘nothing’ may include:
*Moving from bed to the couch to watch TV
*Only getting up to use the bathroom and bring food to the couch
* The kids run around like wild people, eating whatever and making a mess.

Say WHAT!!!!

If you say to your wife "Honey, I've been thinking. Instead of getting you a new car, let's get a camper" don't be surprised if she isn't nearly as enthusiastic about your well thought out plan as you thought she would be. *This may or may not be based on a real life conversation that happened this morning around 11:45 am in our driveway.

Governor, please declare natural disaster. It’s raining

My children are mainly outdoor children, even more so now that we have a swing set, sandbox, trees and a “secret” hiding place. They get up in the morning, watch a show or two on PBS while Mommy adjusts to the land of the living; they eat, and go outside. Often they take their meals out on the picnic table and as the sun starts going down, they shower and go to bed.

We all agree that this is a good way to spend the day. It is however, not without fault. Extreme outdoorsyness can lead to increased stamina, becoming accustomed to wide open spaces and an apparent volume control malfunction. It can also lead to acceptable restroom facility memory loss, but I’ll save that exciting story for another day. *Hint, it involves law enforcement officers, several of them.

Today was cold and rainy. My children stuck inside is reminiscent to a chipmunk trapped in a living room. The sheer amount of energy enclosed in such a small space has damage and chaos written all over it. Add to the mix Mr. Fixit trying to sleep in preparation for his weekly trip to Boston, and this mommy is feeling some anxiety.

Mr. Fixit offered to let me go grocery shopping alone when he gets back, but honestly, I’m thinking a trip to Hobby Lobby has been earned.

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you! Mommy's mowing."

Today Mr. Fixit granted me the sacred privileged of mowing the lawn. His lawn. It isn't really that he has never allowed it before; I just never had an interest. We had a deal, I did the inside stuff and gardens and he did the outside stuff and building projects. There was an incident in my youth that vividly sticks out in my mind as the last time I mowed. I was 12 years old mowing the lawn on my dad's rider and somehow, with my stellar tween driving skills; I lost control and backed into a pine tree. This hurt my pride more than anything, but I've never mowed again. Traumas like this, whilst trying to gain independence and act grown up, are not easy to overcome.

Today was the day. I wisely thought that I would mow while Mr. Fixit could make better use of his time doing things that I couldn't, such as lift heavy objects and do things with motor oil. You know, manly stuff. As I was mowing it occurred to me how AMAZING it is. It's exercise. I'm walking around breaking a little sweat and getting stuff done. Awesome! Then the most wonderful thing happened, Blue came up and tried to ask me a question and I yelled I couldn't hear him, so he ran off to play. Shortly after, Pink did the same thing. I then realized that this.... this simple act of exercising and beautifying our outdoor living space was a glorious vacation from whining, fighting, bickering and incessant talking. The kids could see that I was obviously busy and could not be talked to, unlike using the potty, talking on the phone and nursing Green to sleep. I could see them, but not hear them and really what more can a mom ask for? Needless to say, we are going to have a very well manicured lawn this summer.

Look at us now!

Two years later, my, things have changed. We added a baby. A sweet red-headed little boy who we will call Green. Blue, our eldest son is 6 and Pink, our little girl, is 3. We recently moved two states away to the border of New England. We live in a rural (seriously, I mean RURAL) agricultural valley 30 minutes over two mountains from town. Our house is much larger, our budget is much larger, our dreams have evolved.

I understand that "Journey to My Yurt" is more of a story of our journey rather than reaching the end goal. Today, as Mr Fixit and I were talking on the phone about all the projects we have going on at the new house he said "Your idea of a yurt is starting to sound better and better" GASP* So then I rambled on and on about the savings, yurt options, locations, composting toilets, alternative energy until his eyes glazed over and he mumbled he needed to finish shopping.