Beverages

Making Almond Milk~The Art of Surrender

/ admin

“It is the first mild day of March.  Each minute sweeter than before…There is a blessing in the air.     ~William Wordsworth~

Guess what?

As I knock on my wooden desk, I have to tell you that the last three days have been sunny and glorious. The snow is slowly melting and the birds are starting to sing.

 

Dare I say, winter is on the threshold of bidding me goodbye?

This a picture from our deck this past weekend

This past weekend,  I donned my country sweater. The one my step dad Bud used to wear with the brown, wooden buttons and pictures of horses in the knit. It’s too big for me, but I like it. I smell old spice when I wear it and feel him walking next to me. It reminds me of a simpler time, when we lived as a family together in Creston, in our big heritage house up on the hill. In spring, shovel in hand, he used to head out to the garden and double dig the well rotted horse manure he had dumped on it in the fall. I would wave goodbye, leather bridle over my shoulder, heading out to the fields where our horses were boarded. As I rode “Blondie,” my big Palomino horse,  I would sing at the top of my lungs, John Denver’s song, “Country Roads,” and Blondie’s long ears would flicker back and forth and she would step out alert and bright.

 

 

With these memories floating through my brain, and Bud by my side, I headed out to clean the chicken coop. To me, that’s the first rites of spring. Weird, but I like to do it. The very first thing I did was unplugged their heat lamp and their water font. I wrapped up the electric cord and dropped it into my husband’s work bench drawer with a determined plop and went back to the coop, clomping in my black winter boots.

As I started to scoop out the old wood shavings, I laughed watching our four hens tip toe across the frozen, still snow covered tundra of our back yard. They gratefully hopped up onto the exposed dirt of the garden.  The little kids came out to join us and gleefully started bouncing on the trampoline, which was no longer weighed down by a pile of snow. They started taking turns having rolling and crazy jumping contests, while the sun glinted off their shiny heads. As the kid’s laughed, I could hear the chickens happily “pluck, plucking,” while they gleefully scratched in the quickly thawing earth.

In this atmosphere,  the seeds for this post  started to germinate.

You may remember me mentioning in a few of my past posts how over and done I was with winter. It was only after one of our last snow falls that I finally conceded, dug deeper under my winter comforter, allowing the cold season to follow it’s natural course, without further grumbling on my part. It’s not like it was going to leave any faster, and being depressed  was making me miserable.

And so I surrendered.

Surrender is a funny thing. You’d think once you wave your white flag and give up, that what you want most of all moves farther away from you and yet, the reverse is true.

 

William brought home this little snow man on Friday. I’m thinking it’s the last winter craft that will be coming home

I learned this lesson early in my adult life, although I didn’t start putting it into conscious practice until I was over forty. I’ll never forget falling in love in my early twenties with someone who I thought I could easily spend the rest of my life with. Rob and I dated the fall and winter when I turned twenty one. I was enamored with  his intellect, humour, and his kindness. One of my last memories I have with him, was skiing at Lake Louise in the Rockies. It had been a blissful day, gliding down the runs, but by the end, every muscle in my body screamed for a hot bath. As we were driving home though, it started to snow heavily and when we spotted a car pulled over with it’s hood up, instead of passing like everyone else, Rob pulled his truck over, got out and went to help the driver. I don’t remember what he ended up doing; something mechanical. He liked solving mechanical problems. It wasn’t long though, before he jumped back into the truck with a smile on his face.  In that moment I fell deeper in love with him.

A long term relationship was not to be however and we broke up. The next thing I heard, he was dating a classmate back in my old hometown. The year after they were married. I was devastated after we broke up and my heart was hurting. As spring unfolded though, and the beauty of the season with it, I decided to swear off men, letting go of any thoughts that love was in my future. I planned to make a good life for myself. I had a job I loved, a comfortable place to live and friends who were good companions. I didn’t need men in my life.

There is some miracle that flies out into the great Universe when we let go. It’s like a bird, light and peaceful, drifting higher and higher until you can no longer see it in the sky. And when you have forgotten all about it, when you have started to laugh again, that bird gently finds it’s way back to you, settles on your shoulder, and when you glance at it, you notice it’s feathers are dusted with grace and glisten with a golden orb of hope.

After my relationship with Rob was over, my best and dear friend Lynne and I joined the Calgary Ski club. While spring is maybe not the best time to join a ski club, that group organized fun events all year long. The  Friday night socials were a highlight, with something fun being planned every week. Of course, at the club there was great music, the drinks were cheap and the evenings were spent laughing with friends. It was there, when I was decidedly single, and happily proclaiming my status, that I met my future husband, David.

I was not in the least bit interested in getting involved with another man.  He had other plans though and my mom’s words, “you can never have too many friends,” rang in my ears. Slowly we got to know each other. He became a friend and eventually, he wooed me back into the idea that love was worth it. He was the man that I was meant to be with for this lifetime. The rest is history, as they say.

The point of that little story was to illustrate how the law of attraction works in our life. When we want something so bad, no amount of pushing and pulling will ever bring it closer. It’s not until we let go and surrender that a void occurs, allowing what is really meant for us to move into our life.

And as this quote below illustrates, the law of attraction and the wisdom in surrendering, has been recognized for centuries.

“Let your mind be quiet, realizing the beauty of the world, and the immense, the boundless treasures that it holds in store.

All that you have within you, all that your heart desires, all that your nature so specially fits you for–that or the counterpart of it waits embedded in the great Whole, for you. It will surely come to you.

Yet equally surely not one moment before its appointed time will it come. All your crying and fever and reaching out of hands will make no difference.

Therefore do not begin that game at all.”

~English Poet, Edward Carpenter~(1844-1929)

And so, Cheryl married Rob and together they had four children. They were married for 32 years until he sadly died of cancer in 2014.  I will never forget his smile or his kind heart.

In my forties, the art of surrender finally came home to me in a conscious way. David and I had been trying so hard to have our fifth baby, one that I thought would complete our family, not knowing something even bigger was destined for our family.  It took a long time to get pregnant. Then finally, we did and I was jubilant.  All too soon, we discovered that our “soulbaby’s” heart beat had stopped.  I eventually miscarried  at the end of the first trimester. That winter was full of pain and grief. As I let go of the idea of ever having any more children, with it came a moment of grace. The following Spring, as the world was waking up once again to the warming earth, and me with it, I got pregnant again. Our daughter, Grace Elizabeth, was born just after I turned forty three, the following December. I often call her my surrender baby.

Even after her birth though, and the true understanding of the power of letting go washed over me, I sometimes get caught up in the act of pushing life, only to remember that no amount of gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands will bring what I want into my life. All I need to do is open my hands, palm side up and offer myself up to the great good of the Whole.

And once again, the early days of spring are almost here. Was it me finally surrendering to winter that made it appear?

Is there something you desire more than anything right now? Are you working hard to create a life or bring something into your world? Stop and think about how you are trying to manifest your dream and surrender your desire. MOVE INTO THE FLOW OF ALLOWING and watch it whoosh into your life. (often it comes even better than anything you could EVER dream)

A great mantra that I have used many times since Grace’s birth is “Let go and let God.”

When we let go, and live in a state of gratitude and appreciation, good things always flow our way.

And that finally brings me to my final story and a lesson in making almond milk.

On the weekend, as I started working outside, close to Mother Earth, cleaning the coop, picking up crinkled and dry leaves and digging them into the garden, sweeping up the sidewalks and drive way, I started to get frustrated. I have so much I want to do to create a richer, more sustainable life for myself and my family.  At times, it feels like I’m walking a tight rope, holding all the things I want to implement into our lives, while below is a  consumer driven society that beckons us to live a different way than our heart’s calling. I work hard at not falling.

I came inside the kitchen fuming over my thoughts and exhaled them all over my oldest son, who was making a pot of tea. Now Clark, as you may know, has a Science degree. An Earth and Environmental science degree to be exact, so he gets where I’m coming from. He cares about our planet But he’s also been marinaded in the art of surrender and allowing for years.

He’s been exposed to quotes like the following one by Rumi, on our large kitchen chalk board; and of course we have had many great philosophical discussions on the merits of a soul driven life.

Although he comes from a Science base belief system, he understands the art of surrender.  At times, I think he’s even perfected it. A demonstration of such is recently, it was me  not him, who was wringing her hands, wondering if he would get into law school next fall. He sent off his applications and then calmly went about his life, doing things that made him happy.  Spending time with his friends, working out at the gym and making a difference at our local Science Centre. So the other day, I should not have been surprised, when he made an astute observations and brought me up cold. I was talking a mad streak about some of my zero waste ideas,  while pouring a cup of raw almonds into a large canning jar and filling it with water. I set the jar on the counter to soak and continued my frustrated vent with him.  He listened to all my thoughts and when I took a breath and was silent for a moment he finally said…..

“Mom, are you making almond milk?” I glanced over at the canning jar and said, “Yeah?” “Well, mom,”  he said, “maybe you can’t solve the big environmental issues on the earth, but it’s the little things you do each day that make a difference; like making almond milk from scratch.”

“Hmmm, ”  I said and smiled.

I rinsed the soaked almonds this morning and made almond milk. While doing so I remembered something I often tell my oldest daughter but I forget to do so myself;

I remembered to, “breathe, relax, trust and enjoy,” and made a note to myself to talk with David about my idea to cancel our weekly garbage pick up. Stay tuned on how the process of surrendering THAT, goes in our life.

And if you’d like to stop buying almond milk from the store, and take little steps with me towards living a more sustainable life, then come on into my kitchen and let’s make some almond milk. You can make it as creamy as you like, you can even add a  vanilla bean or any flavouring you like. The best part is you don’t have to drive to the store to get your almond milk. You save fuel, and also the packaging that is used for the almond milk. If you are able to buy your almonds in bulk, using your own jar, or reusable bag, all the better.

Ready to surrender?

Let’s go and make some almond milk….it’s ALL GOOD!

Homemade Almond Milk

Ingredients
 
1 cup raw almonds, soaked overnight in cool water
5 cups of filtered water, (adjust this according to desired thickness
Pinch of sea salt
Optional: 1 tsp vanilla extract or one vanilla bean, scraped
Optional: Sweeten with 2 pitted dates
 
Instructions
1. Add your soaked raw almonds, water, salt and any additional options into a high speed blender until creamy and smooth. Keep it running and milk the almonds for 1 to 2 minutes.
 
2. Using a strainer or a nut milk bag, or even a thin dish towel, let all the liquid run into a jar, and squeeze or press the remaining nut pulp, until all the liquid is extracted. (you can use the remaining pulp for any baked goods)
 
3. Cover the jar and place in the refrigerator but we like to make smoothies out of it, or drink it fresh, or my personal favourite is to add it to my morning oatmeal, and my Earl Grey tea, making a slight London Fog. Yum!
Note…if you do put it in the fridge, make sure to shake the jar well before using as it does separate.
And that is a simple thing we can do today, while singing our hearts out. Join me in  singing with John Denver, “Country Roads,”

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope

Pumpkin Spice Latte~Simple Pleasures

/ Lee Reynolds

 

A beautiful fall day in my part of the world

Welcome friends and family.

November has arrived.

Even though October is one of our longer months, it flew by for me in a blur. With Thanksgiving celebrations, my husband David’s birthday, getting ready for Halloween (my love affair with my sewing machine making a costume, see previous blog post) and subsequent parties, it’s all over; except the lingering sugar high.

Our son Will as Pikachu and his friend Scream

 

Kathryn the butterfly, making a monster craft

 

Victoria, our garden fairy with her new, rockin cherry pink glasses!

After a week of cold and rainy weather, it was glorious to see blue skies again today. Of course it would be like this though. Yesterday, all the kids came home from school with wet and cold feet. So after ballet class, I took our 4 youngest on a hunt for winter boots of which they all needed. (have you ever shopped for winter boots for 4 kids in one hour?) I felt so happy driving home knowing they all had new felt lined snow boots, along with winter coats we had picked up a few weeks ago. They were all so thrilled to pull on their new boots and coats this morning before heading off to school on this grey, chilly morning, but as I write this, it’s lunch time and the sun is beating in through my kitchen window. (See picture above!) I’m sure they are all wishing they had their hoodies and sneakers on right now. Oh well…..

Murphy’s law!

Who’s going to complain about gorgeous weather though? Not me. I know, even with global warming, our days will turn bitterly cold soon and snow will be flying and those coats and boots will be appreciated.

Before the kids come home from school today, I’m going out to plant the garlic my brother in law B and sister J gave me. It’s such a simple herb to grow and one I use abundantly in all our meals. I cleared and added compost to several spots in my garden on the weekend and am excited to plant another crop of garlic. It’s little things, like planting in my garden that make me happiest.

The downside of having free ranging chickens, is they love to dig and scratch in newly planted areas. I may have to lay some hardware cloth over my garlic to keep them out but oh, I love seeing how joy filled they are digging for bugs and worms. My chickens make me happy.

Here are Sadie, Cocoa, Clara and Annie, helping me in one of my garden areas on the weekend.

The other thing that came with November was a new meditation challenge.

Did you start Oprah and Deepak’s 21 day meditation challenge with me on Monday? If not, here is the link and you can still join me in registering and hear the first 4 days of guided teachings.

I have LOVED this meditation topic. “Creating Peace from the Inside Out~the Power of Connection.”

If you read my previous post, you know I believe we need peace in the world more than ever right now, with only 5 days left until the US election, heated debates, anger and fear is prevalent right now. In so many parts of the world there is unrest as well.

So I was really looking forward to starting a new meditation challenge.

From day one I was hooked when the centering thought was, “Ideal relationships are my intention every day.”

Each interaction we have with each other has a HUGE, or as Donald Trump recently said, a BIGLY, effect on each of us.

How we listen, what we say in response, what we think, how we conduct ourselves, how we treat each other, ALL has an impact on the world.The vibrations either towards dissent or harmony ripple through the world. If we don’t believe it, all you have to do is plug into the social media to feel the energy…negative and positive.

The greatest lesson I’m learning and we are only 4 days into the challenge, is that the most important relationship we have is with OURSELVES.

I always forget that.

When we learn to love and care for our true self, we are then able to extend that love, compassion and peace to others. This has taken me most of my lifetime to understand. I always thought putting others first was more important, but I  understand now that when we neglect our true nature, we are unable to give fully to others BECAUSE we haven’t anything to give. We are empty.

When we learn to ask ourselves, “what do I want?” “what fills me up?” “what brings me unshakeable peace?” and we give ourselves what we need, it is then, when we tune in and learn to become attentive to ourselves that we in turn, can extend that same consideration to others.

When we take time each day to connect and build our relationship from within, give our authentic self what it needs, then we have the ability to really listen to those around us, make eye contact, respond appropriately, care about others and create peace in the world. It’s never been out there…no one else completes us or has the ability to make us happy or feel loved. We need to do it for ourselves.

Have you ever done a kindness to yourself and just felt buoyant? It makes us feel lighter and happier and when we are happier, then we are able to shine that light out into our other relationships and connections with others.

As a mom to 8 children, it’s a struggle to maintain a balance of THEIR needs and mine. There of course is endless work; shopping, meals to prepare, house to clean, yard work, laundry, laundry and LAUNDRY!

I knew having a large family would be hard but years ago, I felt that I wanted to really LIVE FULLY on this earth and not take the path of least resistance. I wanted to go into the areas that scared me and pushed me the most. Deep down, I knew I needed to learn the art of letting go and trusting. As an A type person, it would have been really easy for David and I just to continue to be career people, (two income, have anything material you want kind of lifestyle) and maybe we could have stopped building our family once we had the two token replacement children too, but oh, babies and children brought me such joy. Thinking about having more children was scary and quitting my job to be a Stay at home mom, even SCARIER!

I knew in the process, I could very well lose myself and definitely, what I loved to do (yoga, reading books, playing tennis, skiing, gardening) would take a back seat. Now looking back, I’m glad I lost myself for awhile, as finding myself has been such a joy. If you haven’t experience the depths of struggle, you never know the heights of joy. I now have this large group of people to connect with daily, my family. Little did I know, but our babies, and children would be my greatest teachers on this life’s journey.

The soul knows….

I’m glad I didn’t listen to my mother in law who said, “why would you want more than two children and why in HEAVES, are you quitting your job?” I’m glad I didn’t listen to a friend, who when finding out I wanted more children after 40 said, “Your crazy, you need to get a life.” If I had listened to them, I would have missed the most profound lessons of my life.

If you are a mom, you know what it entails to keep all the balls in the air daily and how easy it is to lose ourselves in the process. But at some point, we need to lay down those balls, take a deep breath and connect from within.

I’m thankful to Deepak and Oprah. They offer this 21 day mediation program for FREE and share wise, life changing lessons. Being inspired to take time, sit, breathe, contemplate my life, and connect from within is AMAZING!

Why don’t more of us do it?

IT’S SO SIMPLE.

Why do they not teach this in school? If we learned early, how to tune in and attend to our authentic self, our life path would be clearer and the world would be a better place. But it starts here. With each of us. And as a mom, I know this week has gone better with me Ommming on my yoga mat.

Blissful!

While I could easily dig deep into my to do list and believe me it’s LONG, instead this week, I’ve taken more time to say yes to me and no to other things. I said no to a Parent Adviser Meeting on Tuesday night and Yes to a meeting with me going to bed early one night with a good book. WOW!

Simple pleasures.

Also, even though our children came home from Trick or Treating with FULL bags of candy, we chose to say No to consuming any sugar during the school week. This, after a crazy, nutsy, bath time and evening on Tuesday, November 1st. They had had 3 pieces of candy after dinner on Tuesday and that was a mistake!!! Hence our new parenting shift, to save it for the weekend, when they can have a few pieces as a treat during family movie night.

I was really happy with that change in our parenting choice and so far, the kids are really okay with it. I think they were happy when we set limits because they consumed enough to know it doesn’t feel good to have a sugar flip out.

It will create simple pleasures for them as it will be a special when they do have a piece of candy and it also teaches them to to care for themselves first….being conscious about what they are putting in their body

Well, that is an update on what has been going on around here. Taking care of our inner selves, segue ways beautifully into the other reason for my blog post today.

And that is sharing something I love and made recently in my kitchen.

Pumpkin spiced lattes.

Yes, those lovely, spicy, nothing says fall better, drinks that only  coffee shops makes deliciously.

I’m not a coffee drinker but a few years ago, when David and I were out shopping, I think on an early Christmas foray, all by ourselves (which hardly EVER happens!), we took a moment to recharge and treat ourselves. I chose a Starbuck’s pumpkin spiced latte. Oh the rich, spicy flavour was delectable. The little kick of caffeine wasn’t a bad thing either. Maybe because I’m not one to entertain such a luxury on a regular basis made it taste even better, but since then, what says, “Welcome November” to me now is a Pumpkin Spiced latte.

As soon as the leaves start to fall,…..

I crave it!

What do I do when I really love something but don’t want to pay someone for it” Well, learn to make it at home of course. It’s a no brainer and part of what this blog is all about. Learning to make things at home, being more self sufficient. Why should I waste fossil fuel traveling down to one of the many Starbucks in our little town (Yes I think we have 4 or so and I live in a small town)

Anyway, making it from scratch is so rewarding.

I love knowing it’s as good, if not better than what I could get from outside the home too.

I enjoy these simple pleasures in life and know they are something I can treat myself to, without it having a huge impact on our family’s pocket book. After all, I have made a choice to have a large family, to stay home to care for our children and things like new boots, coats, gloves, hats for our little ones are needed. My obsession with pumpkin spiced lattes are not in that same need category.

But hey, I figured out how to have it all.

That’s the cool thing about having more time as well, you can be creative.

Also, when you make it at home you can share your love of something with those you love. It’s a win/win right?

So getting back to the theme of my post,  I was able to listen from within and ask myself, “what makes me happy?” “What do I want?”

And the answer was treating myself to simple pleasures, AND sharing that joy with my family.

Hey, and guess what? You don’t need a fancy espresso machine.

Nope!

Just a regular coffee maker that has an option to make a strong brew.

If one of the things you love in life is Pumpkin Spiced lattes too, then you have come to the right blog post today, as I ‘m going to take you step by step through the process. Welcome to my kitchen, let’s start by making a strong cup of coffee. We used Ethical bean, “Lush” from Costco.

While the coffee is brewing make up some pumpkin spice mix, unless you are able to find it already mixed for you in a local shop. We do not have Trader Joe’s in my part of the world. If I did, I think I would ask for a can of it for my birthday.

Here’s the recipe for Pumpkin spice mix

In a small bowl add the following ingredients:

3 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp of ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp all spice
Mix well and using a funnel, pour into a spice jar/label “pumpkin spice mix”

Is your kitchen smelling of coffee and spicy goodness?

Great…we are almost there.

Let’s make our lattes.

Pumpkin Spice Latte~ recipe for 2 but double the recipe if you have big mugs or want seconds, yum!

2 cups milk (dairy or non-dairy)
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 to 3 tablespoons sugar, depending on how sweet you like it
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, plus more for serving
1/2 cup strong hot coffee
Whipped cream, for serving
Sprinkle of cinnamon for topping

Directions

    • Add milk, pumpkin puree, and sugar to a saucepan over medium heat.

Heat until hot, but do not boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and the coffee.

 

 

Divide the mixture between two mugs. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice or just cinnamon.

Note: if you enjoy your coffee black (without sugar or cream), then you don’t need much sugar but since I don’t drink coffee at all, I used 3 tbsp for my recipe. Also, I have used it with Almond milk (vanilla) and it was great.

The older I get the more I realize I just need the simple things in life; a comfy home, good food on the table, (pumpkin spice lattes) and to be surrounded by the people I love.

It was nice sharing my passion with my oldest children, Clark and Alyssa
Our cat Ryuuki came up from his morning nap to say, “hey, where’s my cup?”

The school week ends tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to a weekend making lattes, raking more leaves, and guess what we started? David started working on our latest project…AT LAST…..a room over the garage for our 17 year old son, Harrison. I thought I would add a few pictures now and as we move along the process, I will share more. Maybe it will inspire you to look at your space in a new light.

Often, when we need more space in our homes, we will move to a bigger house but since we love our location, what we have chosen to do, is look at the space we have with new eyes and see if we can create more space or use what we have more efficiently. Here’s a few snaps of the first steps in this process. Using vertical space solves a lot of space issues.

Here are the stairs David built going up to the attic space over our garage. You can also see the new skylight in the roof which we had installed when we had our new roof put on in the summer

 

Here’s the attic space that we are working with. It will make a great room for our teenager. Stay tuned

Well, that’s a wrap. I hope you take a moment and go inward and ask yourself, “What do I want”” and you figure out how to create that for yourself. I think for most of us, it’s the simple things in life that makes us the happiest.

Enjoy the experience, that’s why we are here.

Before you close, check out Bobby McFerrin’s song, “Simple Pleasures,”  

It’s so catchy…the phrase, “I am so happy” is a wonderful mantra as we move around the world.

Until we connect again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Homemade Eggnog and Miracles

/ Lee Reynolds

 

“Allow Miracles to Happen”

Happy New Year dearest friends and family. Today is a new day. Today is the beginning of a new year of endless possibilities. It’s thrilling to contemplate, especially if one is of the mindset of feeling limitless. What is that quote by Goethe? “Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” That is the place I choose to reside and the perspective I choose to take in life.

If you are interested in the Homemade Eggnog portion of my blog, scroll down to the bottom, but if you are interested in reading about receiving miracles in life, read on. Of course, I believe each moment we are on earth is a miracle but we are living a human experience and that often gets in the way of viewing our life as a sacred journey. We get caught up in the world and listen far too much to our ego. Dr. Wayne Dyer used to say our ego is our “earth guide only,” or our way to “edge God out.” Day to day, it’s easy to get sucked into what we think is reality and we forget the expansiveness the Universe provides. We just need to tap in.

Even though I live in a state of gratitude and have observed miracles happening all the time in my life, I still was amazed when another one happened on Christmas Eve. We have been having problems with our stove since our Canadian Thanksgiving in October. This is a big deal for our family, since we rely solely on homemade meals. It is a rarity that we bring in a pizza or go out to eat. So when an error code kept coming up and my oven was shutting down, or over heating whenever I would cook, it was a big concern. David googled the problem and thought he had solved the sensor detection issue and for at least the last 2 months, my oven has been working pretty well. Then I started to do my last minute Christmas baking. 

On the night before Christmas eve, with a fridge full of sugar cookie and gingerbread dough, and right in the middle of baking a batch, my oven started to emit that loud annoying beep, and on the stove top panel, a familiar error code was flashing in red again. I wasn’t so concerned about my cookies, as we could live without them. What was a bigger issue, was early the next morning I would have to decide whether to take the turkey out of the freezer to thaw for our Christmas day dinner. I didn’t want to be in the middle of cooking the bird and have my oven shut down, or worse over heat. 

Throughout the evening of the 23rd, Grace and I put batch after batch of cookies in the oven. Some came out under cooked and then as I continued to bake, the remainder came out well done. At the end, as I opened the oven, a flood of smoke filled the kitchen, setting off our piercing smoke alarm. Then the oven didn’t cool down, even though I had turned it off. Our sweet daughter Grace, who is 13, told me later that she thought our house was going to burn down. She also told me that she was sending forth prayers for all to be well.

Our sweet daughter Grace, who is learning a lot about faith this year

                                                                    Image result for praying hands

David, who had been doing our last bit of grocery shopping, came home to the chaos and said the sensor panel would probably need to be replaced. Who in the world had that part and would be able to install it on Christmas eve? We went to bed with heavy hearts the night before Christmas eve. We had worked so hard getting ready for Christmas. David had gone out of town the month before on two separate occasions, which meant long days and no breaks, as both times he worked 10 day stints. The extra money was making Christmas possible for our family but there wasn’t any extra.

We were almost there. In the last month, I had bought a few gifts and done some baking that would be sent with my sister J, who was going to the U.K. for Christmas and had generously agreed to take them to our oldest daughter in London. We had celebrated 3 of our children’s December birthdays with thoughtful gifts and special dinners for each. The kids had participated in donations to the local food bank after raiding my lazy susan, and had also happily put together shoe boxes for children less fortunate in other countries. We had dropped money into our local Salvation Army kettle at our grocery store for local families. Finally, the children had participated in all the year end Christmas concerts, recitals and parties, of which there were many and of course, something was always brought as a contribution, usually my baking, and a small gift for each teacher.

A few nights before the stove incident, David and I had spent the whole evening wrapping and labeling the gifts we had squirreled away for our children. I had spent a lot of time looking at their wish lists, reading the flyers in the local paper and doing on line comparison shopping. David and I had battled the shopping crowds on several occasions to select  the perfect gift with equal fairness in mind for each child. Then there was the grocery shopping which seemed endless. I was done. But happily done. The only thing left to do was a bit more baking for our family and attend our church’s candlelight service on Christmas eve. But what to do about our oven.

With my venture towards minimalism, a desire to live a more sustainable life, and move in the direction of eating mostly vegetarian meals, I thought it was interesting that a broken stove was in front of me. I felt blessed to have a working microwave, and although I personally try not to use it to heat food, much preferring the slower stove top method, it WAS in our kitchen. Also, if we filled our propane tank, we had a working barbecue, although David didn’t think it would be an effective way to cook a turkey with our plummeting outside temperatures. Still, we had options and I wanted to focus on that. Also, maybe this holiday we could eat a plant based diet. All these thoughts and ideas swirled around as I went to sleep that night but my final thoughts were, I put it in your hands God. 

Now, some of you may have wondered why we didn’t just go and buy a new stove, but with two children in University and others to care for, this isn’t an easy option for us. Also, we haven’t used our one credit card in years…I don’t even have one in my wallet any longer. We save it for life emergencies only and a broken oven doesn’t factor in that category. This is where the miracle comes into play though, because if we had been able to just go to the store and throw down our plastic or even had the cash, God/the Universe/, whatever feels comfortable to your ears, wouldn’t have been able to show his hand.

The next morning, David got up early as he had a number of projects to complete at the office. I awoke to our younger ones, excited for Christmas voices. We had breakfast and then we got dressed. After that I decided to call David to see if he had come up with a solution. He told me to leave it with him a bit longer. A short time later, he called back and asked me to take the turkey out of the freezer and also if I could meet him at Parnell’s Appliance store, which is a small appliance retail outlet in our little town. I hurriedly asked our older children to get up and get dressed so they could watch the little ones and I flew out of the house with expectation.

When I arrived David was already talking ovens with a salesman. He had a big smile on his face and as he greeted me, I sensed a lightness about his shoulders. We talked about the various benefits each stove featured and finally, I settled on the one that really excited me. It had a convection oven, which meant I could cook on all three racks at the same time and there was also a warming tray. Another bonus, was the moveable griddle that could cook pancakes, etc on the stove top. Our old electric griddle was ready to pack it in. Another bonus, was all the stoves were marked down with boxing day special prices. When Brad, the salesman, went to see if this stove was in stock, I whispered to David, “but how are we going to pay for it?” And that is when he smiled, telling me he had been given a bonus at the office that morning. It would cover the cost of the stove.

We weren’t expecting any bonus since the company had just started a program which would reward  staff members with accumulated safety points and various products could be purchased with the redeemed points. Safety, is a big theme right now in all industries but especially the electrical industry where David works. In past Christmases, the company had thoughtfully given gift cards from Walmart, the Super Store, Boston Pizza, the Movie theatre, etc. but with the new safety bonus program, we thought that would be it for Christmas. What makes me believe in miracles is that this bonus was totally unexpected and it couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. 

                                     Miracle!

What is an even bigger miracle, is Brad came out of the back room to say, they not only had the stove I wanted in stock….but they could deliver it a few hours later. Wow! 

                                     Merry Christmas!

We called home to tell the older boys to clear the drive way as we had had another snow fall throughout the night and flakes were still softly falling off and on. When I got home they had cleared the drive way and the steps going down to our house too.

 

The boys have shoveled a lot of snow this holiday season….Christmas eve was a big dump

I came into the house and everyone was so excited. A new stove would be arriving soon and we would be eating our turkey with huge gratitude.

Saying a sad goodbye to my old oven…all the memories of past Christmases, birthday cakes, soups, pizzas travel with it.

A few hours later, two delivery men wearing Santa hats arrived at our door. Nothing was sweeter than seeing our new stove.

The delivery mat was still in place and I had to capture the moment….joy filled

And while this oven is very much of this earth, it represents a tangible miracle this Christmas.

                         

 
I couldn’t have been given a better gift this Christmas. It came first as a miracle wrapped in a much needed stove but continued after that with my eyes wide open. Later, when our family filled a whole church pew and I looked down to see them all singing,”Silent Night,” with candles glowing in their hands, I was over whelmed with the miracle of the season. When the clocked struck midnight on Christmas eve and I was able to connect, via Skype, with our London based daughter, again the feeling flooded through me. Even though we are so far apart, I could wish her a Happy Christmas, see her beautiful face, listen to her voice. Someone had to dream BIG to be able to make it possible for us to connect in such a way.

As my pumpkin pie cooked on Christmas Eve, David read the book I have had since I was small, “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” to our little ones but our big ones were listening too.

It’s not Christmas without my classic pumpkin pie….I use the recipe on the “Libby’s” Pumpkin pie can…and use the Tenderflake pastry recipe for the crust…the star is my personal touch…of HOPE
David with the book, “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”….it was given to me on my 2nd Christmas.
Harrison and our Siamese cat Ryuuki listen to the classic Christmas Eve story…..this after hearing the one about baby Jesus at church an hour before

Then a few hours later, I was up early, preparing the dressing and stuffing the turkey. This year I was in a state of pure gratitude for the turkey and for the oven that would roast him. For everything that fell into place perfectly.

It’s going to be a beautiful Christmas day!

 

Christmas morning….me up early getting the turkey in….I used all my dried baby’s breath on the tree this year…simply beautiful and even though last spring I did a mass declutter in the name of minimalism,  I cut our holiday decorations in half….we really didn’t miss anything….some greenery, some fairy lights, a few memorable tree decorations….oh and a poinsettia…the house was lovely

Then, holding the little ones back no further, they stopped for a picture and rushed to see what Santa had left them in their stockings and under the tree.

After my stove was delivered, everything was just as bonus and it got me thinking about life and how I walk my path. Over the holidays as time allowed, I was able to connect with some of my cyber friends, some whom, are still trying to have their first baby, or to complete their family. One of them said something really impressive to me, considering all she has endured on her path. She said, “One of my mantra’s I hold close is ” my life is none of my business” I try to remember to just show up and let life just take care.”
 
I loved that because I think we get too caught up in what seems like the BIG things in life and we try to control too much. In doing so, we block the flow of miracles into our life. If we just remember to show up, that is all we really need to do…..and if we show up with gratitude, I think that is the key in living a miraculous life.

So we are at the beginning of a new year. A time when dreams are fresh and our heart is strong. If we listen to our heart, and trust it is life’s rudder, we can’t go wrong. I don’t know about you but I have big dreams, and little dreams. My little ones are by becoming more sustainable and also environmentally conscious. I want to use less packaging and rely less on other people to make what I love. One thing I love at Christmas time is eggnog. I have always wanted to learn how and this year my dream came true. I didn’t buy one eggnog latte while out shopping…..instead, I learned to make eggnog from scratch and made my own lattes. 

It was so easy and delicious. I don’t know why I haven’t made it before. I  learned to make eggnog latte’s last year, which accompanied my cranberry bliss bars (inspired from a trip to Starbucks) but this year, I’m happy to say, that I made everything from scratch and while it is more expensive to make the homemade variety…the taste is well worth it. Absolutely no comparison, so if eggnog is your thing….maybe try making a batch.

Chances are you already have everything you need in your home…. all you may need to buy is some “whopped” (our little girl Kathryn calls it that) cream, and some sweetened condensed milk.

So grab a pot, an apron and come join me in the kitchen…….for

                                    Hope’s Homestead Eggnog

“Eggnog may have originated in East Anglia, England; or it may have simply developed from posset, a medieval European beverage made with hot milk; eggs were added to some posset recipes. The “nog” part of its name may stem from the word noggin, a Middle English term for a small, carved wooden mug used to serve alcohol.|”

 

Here’s what you need to make egg nog…behind my cinnamon is the “whopped cream”

 

Non-Alcoholic Eggnog
Ingredients
4 cups of milk
1/2 tsp of cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
 1/2 cup sweetened, condensed milk…I use the light one if I can
8 egg yolks…the fresher the better
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 cups of whipping cream….full strength, the heavy stuff
2  tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of nutmeg…plus more for garnish
 
Opt: 1 can of whipped cream…and a few cinnamon sticks for stirring….kind of old fashioned too

 

Instructions
1. In a large sauce pan heat milk, cloves, cinnamon, and the condensed milk over low heat. Slowly increase heat until mixture is just about to boil….be careful not to boil.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the 8 eggs with the 2 cups of sugar, then using an electric mixer, combine mixture until it’s light and fluff….it will have a lovely soft yellow colour.
3. Slowly add the hot milk mixture, 1 spoonful at a time to the sugar and eggs……(I ladled the last little bit)..once about 1/2 of the hot mixture is introduced and it has tempered, add it all back to the sauce pan and cook over medium heat for about 3 to 5 minutes. When the mixture thickens it is done.
3. At this point, slowly add the 2 cups of whipping cream, nutmeg and vanilla and heat through. do not bring this to a boil. You are getting close now to tasting a delicious, thick, nog…yummy! I really love being able to choose how much spice to add as well.
4. At this point, you can either use the mixture to make eggnog lattes, or you can find a jar with a sealed lid…..I put my eggnog into several mason jars with screwed lids and cool well before serving.

We made lattes when the eggnog was still hot. Use some canned whipping cream and sprinkle some nutmeg on top for a garnish…serve with a cinnamon stick.

 

This batch of eggnog made enough to make four eggnog lattes and 4 cups of plain nog for the kids

 

I don’t mind if I do

  

When I called, “eggnog is ready,” everyone came for a taste test

 

 

I was so engrossed with making my eggnog and then drinking it that I never noticed my Santa apron was inside out….as David said is doesn’t matter, either way, it says, “the holidays are here.”

 

 

 

 

As 2016 unfolds for you and your family, I hope you allow miracles to happen.

 

 

 

 

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope

 

Homemade Maple Syrup~Simply Delicious

/ Lee Reynolds

“The simple things in life hold our best memories.”

We eat a lot of pancakes in our house. Well, truth be told we also eat a lot of waffles and french toast too. My kid’s favourite thing is to have breakfast for dinner, so if my husband is out of town, I try to brighten up their lives and make things a bit easier on me too by making pancakes or waffles for dinner. I remember as a child, when my Dad was not home for dinner, my mom used to make a large pot of blueberries with dumplings and I thought that was the biggest treat in all the world.

When I opened the fridge recently to find an empty syrup bottle, I had to become really creative, fast, which also opens up the opportunity to find satisfaction in the solution. Sadly, to a degree I think our North American culture has lost that art. We live with so much affluence that when the bottle is empty, we just make note to buy one the next time we are out shopping. But, what if there wasn’t a store nearby to purchase maple syrup?

What do we do?

Just a bit of history first, I’m not normally the pancake or waffle cook in our household. Nope. That would be my dear husband. He has been making pancakes since our oldest was just a toddler, over 20 years ago. He makes pancakes, like I make cookies or soup. He just pulls out all the ingredients and starts pouring and mixing like he knows the perfect combination. And he does. He also knows the exact temperature to cook them at…this is an art!

Not me, when I make waffles or pancakes, I have to refer to my favourite recipe. I used to rummage around looking for our family’s pancake recipe, until I blogged about it last year. Now, at least if I can’t find that little loose piece of paper, which has pulled away from the recipe book that David’s mom gave him when he left home, I can at least find it on my blog. Whew. Because I would hate to disappoint my little people…that is, if I am home alone and having to make pancakes.

While I was contemplating what to put on our waffles recently, and yes, fruit and jam are also options around here, I remembered reading a large family blogger writing about making homemade syrup. At the time I thought, why in the heck would I make my own syrup. After all it’s pretty cheap to buy it in the bottle and my own homemade probably would taste terrible anyway. But that was before I had a stack of waffles slowly growing and warming in the oven and I knew the kids would not be impressed if there wasn’t any syrup.

Between batches, I googled homemade syrup and finally found a couple that I thought sounded simple and easy. NOW that is what I’m looking for in my life. The fact that what I came up with when I combined a few recipes and it turned out to be delicious too, made me so happy. I was tickled pink. An expression my mom may have said.

Plus, there is a whole other side benefit that I LOVE!!!

It’s good for the environment. At least to the degree that every 2 weeks we aren’t using a new plastic bottle of syrup which makes me soooo happy. I love when I can cut down on packaging and also learn to make things myself which is the ultimate in being sustainable.

If you are interested in making your own syrup, that is better than anything you will find in a brown bottle from the grocery store, then check out this recipe. It’s simple sustainable, and yummy.

Hope’s Pancake Syrup

Ingredients

2 cups of water
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of white sugar
Dash of salt
2 tsp of maple extract (vanilla if you don’t have maple)

Directions

Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan and slowly add the brown and white sugar. Mix until dissolved.

 

Turn down to low and stir for a few minutes.
Add sprinkle of salt.

 
 
 Take off heat and add the extract. Cool and pour into a jar…..or do what we did….pour the syrup on the waffles/pancakes while it was still warm.

The first time we used the syrup it was quite runny but it thickened overnight in the fridge and was more the consistency of our bottled syrup.

The kids all loved it but I started thinking about the syrup that I would sometimes buy at our local Super Store. It has 15% real maple syrup in it. Would it even be better if I added some real syrup to my homemade mixture?

When we went to Costco recently we purchased a large jug of real Maple Syrup. We added 1/2 cup to the above recipe and now I have homemade maple syrup with almost the same amount that the expensive maple syrup from Super Store has in it…and guess what? It cost WAY LESS. Although, I have to say that I thought the syrup I made without the real maple syrup was GREAT and didn’t taste much different.

When I told my sister J, about my recent discovery she told me that our mom used to make syrup from left over coffee of all things. I guess she learned a thing or two as a child living in the depression.  I can’t recall ever eating mom’s coffee syrup but then I don’t remember her making pancakes ever. When she married my step-dad, Bud, he did all the pancake cooking on Sunday mornings. It was his thing to do, just like it’s now my husbands tradition.

The more things I learn to make from scratch, the happier I am. I like living a simpler life. I like knowing, when we run out of things, like syrup, that I can make something even tastier than what I buy in a plastic bottle full of preservatives and we can be greener along the way.

So while not eating pure maple syrup isn’t maybe the Canadian thing to do, it is the simple thing to do when you have kids who love their pancakes and waffles. So the next time your syrup bottle is empty, know you have the ability to make life sweeter.

 Victoria and Kate with their favourite breakfast or dinner…waffles with syrup and fruit and smoothie loaded with fruit

.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Strawberry Mango Smoothie~Keeping it Simple

/ Lee Reynolds



                                                                                                               
Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always, sings.” ~  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Have you ever noticed that when you are on a certain path all sorts of affirmations meet you at the exact time that you need inspiration.

Well, I have been receiving messages almost daily and not surprisingly, they are ALL directed towards walking a simple path. They are inspiring me to keep going even though some days it feels like I’m moving through mud.

The first one that I received, was during my book club meeting at the end of February. It was early days into starting my path towards a minimalistic life. After a stimulating discussion of Hermann Hesse’s book, “Siddhartha,” I passed around my little green affirmation cards to my sacred sisters. I held mine quietly, not even peeking at the message within, until each of my sisters had had a moment to relay what was on her card and how it spoke to her. When it came my turn to read my card, I was rather stunned at how significant the message was. It read;

“Keep it simple. Simplicity is the key to Brilliance.”

Wow!

Since I had just started the journey, it was like a signal that I was on the right road. I have found in my life, that when I need some direction, the Universe never fails to send me a symbol or sign that I’m on the right road and here it was in a sweet message.

Last week, I was finding it really hard to make time in my day to tackle a specific area to de-clutter. Something always came up or someone needed to be picked up or taken some where, which broke the rhythm in my days. It was difficult enough to get my regular work done, not to mention any de-cluttering projects handled. You know, cleaning the kitchen from breakfast, making the beds, picking up the laundry and throwing loads in the washer, moving it to the dryer and then folding it and putting it back in everyone’s rooms, sigh! seemed to be all that I could manage. Forget, trying to accomplish anything.

Then I remembered the message on my card and I decided that the only way I was going to get anything done was to tackle the smallest projects at a time. And that is what I did. Although, I had basically done most of the kitchen, there was one drawer that I hadn’t touched. It’s the drawer with the most memories for me in the kitchen. It’s the drawer where I keep all of my cookie cutters, my cake decorating items. and my canning accessories.

As I opened the drawer, memories of Christmas’s past flooded my mind, as I recalled making sugar cookies with my mom as a young teen for the first time. She basically gave me the dough and said, “go to town.” That Christmas, I made my first Christmas trees, hearts, candy canes, angels, and oh my, nothing tasted so good as those chewy, soft, sugar cookies with a hint of nutmeg and topped with mint flavoured icing.

As I looked lovingly at the various shaped cutters, I thought of the first Christmas I let my own daughter, Alyssa handle the sugar cookie project. That was a big deal since I had been making them for 30 years without any help. Then there was the time that we invited her friends over for a sugar cookie icing party. Images of those giggling pre-teens with braces and pony tails made me smile. Those same girls would all be turning 25 years old soon. Where had the time gone?

The drawer I had been resisting de-cluttering as it holds so many memories

As I looked at this drawer though, I realized it represented the chaos in my life and if I was ever to create and capture more of these moments, I had to quit holding onto the past and move forward with dreams for the future. I still had Grace, Will, Kathryn and Victoria to make cookie memories with. If I continued to keep the extra clutter in this drawer, it would take precious moments away from me spending time with our younger children. If left alone, this single drawer would suck time from my life, as I dug around looking for the special cookie cutters for any future project. With that thought in mind, I quickly was able to toss more than 50% of the drawers contents.

These are a few things that I got rid of…some I took to the little girl’s preschool for their Playdoh station and their teacher was happy to have a Shamrock cookie cutter to add to this month’s special occasions.

 

Goodbye needless clutter

And here is the drawer now. In the tin to the right are my beloved cookie cutters. Now, it’s a breeze to see exactly what I have and where it is which will enable me more time to gather my sugar cookie cutters and make memories with our kids…and maybe someday, our grandchildren.

Hello new memories

If you are on this minimalism path with me, you may have discovered this already but if not, I’d like to share some de-cluttering wisdom. Start small. If you don’t have a lot of time in your day then break down what you can do in say, 15 minutes. Tackle one drawer at a time, one closet, one counter top. Also, try to start with a spot that doesn’t hold a lot of emotional attachments. Our memories cling to our belongings and the energy lingers heavily which makes it hard to hear the music amongst the mud and scum of things. It’s liberating to clear the space and hear and feel the harmony.

After finishing this last drawer in the kitchen, I moved onto the kid’s craft closet and gee, I wished I had taken a picture of it before I cleared it out. There were games stacked on top of other games. Had our children tried to take something out they would have been seriously hurt if something had fallen on top of them. In addition, when I went to clear out the paint, crayon and felt pen supplies, I realized we had a lot of duplicates and that was wasteful.

Another message that I was walking the right path came when I found a basket of polished rocks hidden in the craft closet. Wrapped around each rock was a little piece of paper. I remembered now taking quotes from the book, “The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coelho and giving a rock to my sacred sisters during the last time I hosted our book club meeting. I decided for fun to unwrap one of the messages and guess what was within?

“It’s the Simple Things in life that are the most extra-ordinary, only wise men are able to understand them.” ~excerpt from Coelho’s book, “The Alchemist.”

I had to sit down after reading this message. I held the rock, rubbing it’s smooth surface and thought about all the guidance I had been receiving with regards to creating a simpler life for myself and our family. I whispered, “thank you God.” I knew that I was on the right path even though little fearful thoughts had been creeping in as I cleared away our stuff. Thankfully, that voice was growing more distant as I grew stronger in my resolve to let go.

So that brings me to another point in this whole process, and that is really the nuts and bolts about clearing out clutter. I really should have addressed it before now but as I was doing this all myself I realized that one needs a place to put all the stuff that you are accumulating. A staging area if you will. Also, it really helps if you pull out everything in your closet, or drawer, whatever you are sorting through, so you can see what you have to work with. It will quickly be apparent what you do or don’t want to keep. Eliminate the easy stuff first.

Then put back only what you use and what you love. The Minimalist guys say that another method is packing up absolutely everything in your home and then pulling only the things you need out of the boxes. After 3 months, or 6 months, whatever you decide is the time frame for you, whatever you haven’t used, you get rid of. That’s too extreme for me and too hard with 6 kids living in our house at the moment. It would be chaos while we were getting ready in the morning for instance.

If you are doing a big de-clutter as I am, (our whole house…all 3000 square feet of it…more if you count our Hobbit’s hollow, aka the crawl space), you probably need a large place to put all the stuff you are parting with. Also, I have read that some minimalists set up boxes labelled, “donate,” “sell,” “not sure,” and “garbage/recycle” but I have found it easiest just to have a garbage bag/recycle bag as I move from place to place. I put all the stuff that doesn’t fit into that category, out to my staging place, which happens to be our garage. It would be most efficient not to have to touch the stuff more than once but in my case, I think whatever we don’t throw out or recycle, will go into a garage sale to be held in April. THE MONTH..of the beginning of garage sales in our little town.

I’ll let our little kids make and sell popcorn and lemonade. I’ll have our older ones help sell our discarded items, and anything left at that point will be donated to our local thrift stores.

In the meantime, I’m (we’re) going to be living amongst this clutter and chaos for at least several more weeks. My husband is out of town this week and I will be trying to make some headway while maintaining our daily family commitments.

I have also enlisted the help of our children. The little ones helped me go through their drawers and the belongings they keep in their bedrooms this weekend. It was very productive and fun as they had a little fashion show and tried on all sorts of clothes. As we made decisions about what fit and what didn’t, what toys were played with and what weren’t beloved any longer, we talked about children all over the world and I reminded them of a saying a very wise man shared with the world,

        “Live Simply So Others May Simply Live,” Gandhi

 

I knew I was planting little seeds of generosity, love and peace as we cleared out their rooms.
Hey, and another wonderful side benefit to this was how fast Will and the little girls were able to pick out their outfit for today. It was easy and pain free. And the best part was that it saved time so we had more time to have some fun.

 

Above are the two drawers the little girls share. Most of their clothes are matching which makes it easier for me to buy and plan their outfits. I stack them one on top of each other so when they pull out one top, they hand their sister the other top. Most of their outfits are the same but they do have some in different colours and they are very definite about who gets what colour. From the time they were really little they had distinct preferences. Kate is the pink girl and Tori is the blue girl. Makes it really simple….and as you know I’m all about that.
I try not to read too much about twin literature and probably dressing them alike will end once they start school but they seem to really enjoy wearing the same style of clothes although Tori really LOVES her leggins and Kate likes the days when she wears jeans. They both love their dresses and skirts. Anyway, like usual, I got sidetracked….the point was that getting the little people involved is helping them to see that less is more in so many ways and by consuming less, we have more resources to help others.
Here’s a picture of Grace helping de-clutter our Playmobile collection. Do we REALLY need 100 pirates and castle people?  Harrison passed by the Den as Grace and I talked about downsizing the people and he remarked that having lots of people was the fun part about playing Playmobile. Hmmmm….do you think he thinks this about our large family too?
It’s these little comments though that makes me pause and wonder what is really fun for our children. Clearly, we have too many toy/people when you have to sort for 5-10 minutes to find your fav pirate/king/queen. The one you really want to play with, that’s too long in my books.
Here’s the quote I wrote on our black board this week. When I got stuck in all the mud and scum, it helped me remember whey I’m doing this.
For the people who are important to me in my life. My children, my husband, my sisters and their families and the friends who I never seem to have even time to have tea with lately, (sorry B…we will get together soon)

And before I close I just wanted to share my Strawberry/Mango Fruit Smoothie Recipe with you. As we de-clutter our lives with our stuff, we need to make sure we are staying energized and remembering that clearing the toxins from our body is just as important. Little steps will take us eventually to the destination of a healthy body and home.

Remembering that while we are on the road to less, we are still living fully. It would be very easy to get caught up in the whole process of de-cluttering, after all who are we kidding, we live on earth and there is all sorts of clutter and chaos here. It’s easy to let even the act of de-cluttering prevent us from living fully.

As long as we don’t lose sight of why we are clearing and reducing the stuff in our life. Let’s continue to consciously clear what isn’t working in our lives and fill the spaces with more beauty, love and peace. That’s my wish for everyone on earth. We are all deserving of this.
Okay, here’s my Smoothie recipe…share a cup with your beloved or take it out in nature and drink it in….. Spring is almost here.
Hope’s Strawberry and Mango Smoothie recipe
 
2 big people servings…or enough for one big person and three little people
 
1/2 grapefruit
1 orange

 

1 banana
10 frozen strawberries
1/2 cup frozen mango or yellow fruit of your choice…pineapples are yummy for instance
1/2 cup of crushed ice cubes
I had mostly fresh fruit but I used frozen mango and pineapple too

 

Here’s the tough part….peel the grapefruit/orange and banana…place in a blender with the other ingredients and blend. Pour into glasses for your beloved and In JOY!
Before I go I wanted to share a book that I have been reading called, “The Simple Living Handbook,” ….discover the joy of a de-cluttered life….by Lorilee Lippincott
It’s a refreshingly simple and delightful book so if you are interesting in moving in this direction, I would highly recommend reading it. It may be the sign or symbol that you are on the right path and she certainly inspired me. Her web site is great too.

Here’s a You tube video interview with Lorilee on the Midway Simplicity show…love this guy. (click on the hyperlink if you can’t see the video below)

As I embark on another week towards minimalism, join me in listening to one of my fav cello pieces. I thought this was an appropriate ending as I started my post with a stunning picture of a woman playing cello amongst the clutter of life.

My son Mitchell plays this piece on his cello, beautifully and EVERY time I hear it, I always think how J.S. Bach was the supreme musical guru in simplicity. Please join me in listening to the “Unaccompanied Bach, prelude in G Major” played my Yo Yo Ma……..love this (click on the hyperlink if you can’t see the video below)

 

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt~

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope 
 

Cranberry Bliss Bars and Eggnog Lattés~Happy Holidays

/ Lee Reynolds

I had many creative ideas and things I wanted to share with all of you over the holidays but once December came, an avalanche of birthday parties, Christmas affairs, concerts and basketball games over took me. There really wasn’t even time for me to do my usual monumental baking fest. All I was able to squeeze in, were a few evenings of baking some sugar and shortbread cookies to take to the various parties, Christmas fundraisers and holiday events.

One morning I had the little girls do a photo shoot..this is Victoria Hope with Mr. Nutcracker
And Kathryn Mira…she was trying on several dresses as you will see

Also, I spent most of December in a shadow of gloom which causes writer’s block for me.  Even if I had time or energy to write, I didn’t have any spirit to do so.

It all started with the things that had been breaking down in our household (zippers, dryers, furnaces…see previous blog) in the fall and then just as December started to unfold, I broke one of my back molars eating popcorn. I was hoping our dentist could repair my tooth but the first words out of his mouth after looking into mine were, “you are going to need a crown.” Which I knew meant, anything we had squirreled away to give the children an awesome Christmas was going to be residing in my mouth. At least I would be  able to eat turkey dinner.

 

I’m so glad that I saved a few of Grace’s fancy dresses as the little girls had fun dressing up on this photo shoot

As upbeat and hopeful as I am, most of the time, I have my moments of sadness and often the holidays trigger my lack of faith in the greater good. This year, I was recalling the dream I held close to my heart last Christmas. We had just toured a beautiful Christmas tree farm for sale and D had said, as soon as the New Year began, we would work really hard to get our house on the market so we could sell it and purchase “my” dream home/acreage. But, things didn’t work out that way. For one reason or another, by the time we did have our house ready for the market, the Christmas tree farm had finally sold.

I was sad that my life wasn’t where I had imagined it to be this holiday season. I really do believe, that when we put our attention and focus on ANYTHING, that is what will manifest in our life. It’s after all, the Universal law of attraction.  And yet, this Christmas my faith was shaken. How could I feel hopeful about the future when  my dream from this past year had not come true? And now, as I write these words, it is so obvious that what continued to show up for me once I started feeling blue, was more feelings of lack. A lack of faith, trust and belief.

All these feelings, despite the fact that this BELIEVE sign sits above me daily in my kitchen…why I didn’t look up a bit more during the holiday, I don’t know. We should all keep our head up!

One night when D and I were on our way to the mall with a bundle of Christmas Wish letters stuffed in my purse from our children, I broke down. I let my sorrow pour out, telling him that I felt so bad about my tooth and wondered aloud how we were going to make everyone’s dreams come true on our budget. (not to mention my lack of faith) He didn’t have a solution but reminded me that  Christmas wasn’t about commercial gifts. (I should have known that!) Around this time, I spoke with a dear friend one day after we had each dropped our little ones off at preschool. We go back quite a ways and have both experienced the sadness of infertility…and now here we are with our daughters in preschool together. (that should have been miracle enough!….hello!)

I was feeling really bad that we may not be able to contribute to the preschool’s fundraiser and their December donation request for contributions as of yet and further to that, Harrison’s band teacher had just made a rude comment about the small poinsettia order we had placed for the jazz band’s fundraiser. I was feeling really stretched and vulnerable.

It was my dear friend, whose own husband has had a precarious work situation all fall, who inspired me to look at the bigger picture. She said, “at least we aren’t sitting helplessly beside our sick child at the Children’s hospital and we certainly weren’t homeless.” As I left her to go to the mall to find stocking items, I pondered her words. She was so right. We had a warm home, food to eat and I was grateful that all our children were  healthy.

We were blessed this Christmas to be able to send a few shoe boxes filled with gifts via Samaritan’s purse…I wish we could have watched the children’s faces as they opened the things Grace and Will carefully selected for them.

 

Amongst the flurry of activities in December, there were moments of pure bliss. And not surprising, they had NOTHING to do with the whole commercialized aspect of the holidays. One moment, was sitting through a basketball tournament where our son Harrison’s team did not win any games. They came close but didn’t win once. They never gave up heart though and played with all they could to the bitter end. When our son accepted the tournament’s all star award for his team, I couldn’t have been prouder than if their team had come first place. It wasn’t about winning or losing, it truly was about how they played the game. That buoyed my spirits.

They were boosted further when Clark got a call from the Science Centre, where he works through the school year, to say that he had won a turkey. Hmmm, we didn’t even know we were in the running.

Then there was the moment I was sitting in the front row of the audience and watching our daughter, Grace perform the lead acting and singing role in her school’s Christmas concert. The play was called, “The Holly and the Ivy,” and she played Holly Day. Holly, wanted to be a deputy Santa, with the hopes of being the REAL Santa one day. In the play, she experienced gender discrimination and fought to teach others to accept differences and recognize everyone’s mutual strengths. Her voice was clear and strong as she sang, “A heart full of love.” In that moment, with tears in my eyes, I thought the Christmas message doesn’t get any clearer than that…it’s about treating others with love and kindness, being accepting and having eternal hope. At moments like this, I wondered if the whole play had been orchestrated and my daughter chosen to play the lead, just so I got the message.

Grace before her piano concert…she was our Christmas baby in 2002..reminding me to believe in dreams

Then D and I shared a magical afternoon as we headed up to the mountains to search for our family’s Christmas tree. We were unable to take the family this year since we don’t have a roof rack on our new van and there was no way to put a tree in the back portion of the van since the little ones have their car seats safely fastened in the rear. We decided to drive our new little Honda Fit  up the mountains one Sunday afternoon before Christmas. The kids were contentedly watching a Christmas movie and besides, I think a “real” tree was more my thing than theirs.  After all, we did have several artificial trees throughout our house, all various sizes and the little ones had helped me decorate a few of the trees earlier in December.

So D and I headed up the valley, and turned onto a road that eventually becomes a forest service road, where it is legal to remove Christmas trees. D was a bit reluctant, since he had traveled to Vancouver and back the day before, picking up our son, Mitchell, from the Vancouver Island ferry as his first University term was finally over. D had traveled 900 kilometres in one day, so being back behind the wheel wasn’t really how he wanted to spend the rest of his weekend. Not to mention, the last time we went tree hunting in the forest he seemed to remember sparse trees so he wasn’t very optimistic that we would find anything. On top of that, was the fact that our little Honda Fit wasn’t exactly the front wheel drive sleigh we were driving during our last visit to the woods. I, on the other hand, was adamant I would not purchase a real Christmas tree since my dream to have a Christmas tree farm had not come true this past year. I wanted to cut my own tree and not spend any money doing it. We worked our way up the mountain with our little car, the air growing colder every mile. In the valley we hadn’t had more than a skiff of snow but as we climbed higher the snow lay deeper and the trees glistened with heavy blankets of white.

It seemed like forever before we came to the forest service sign and snow started to softly fall. Other than a few four wheel drive vehicles, it felt like we were all alone in the forest. Since we had left quite late in the afternoon, the sky was darkening. I had visions of being stuck on the side of the road and I regretted not packing a thermos of hot cocoa, some snacks and a blanket…until we turned a corner in the road and then I saw it. Like that moment in the movie, “Christmas Vacation,” when the Griswold family comes upon their tree for the first time and it’s lit up and angels are singing, I knew our tree had been found.


There wasn’t a break in the clouds and music playing but the tree appeared illuminated nonetheless. Even D saw it. Since it was on the opposite side to where we were driving, D slowly did a U turn further up the road and as we started to move back in the direction of the tree, we jumped as a loud blast broke through the forest silence and we were further shocked to see a sanding truck thundering towards us. It was scary how quickly that truck came upon us.

For a moment I had visions of us on the evening news with the headlines,”Local couple and parents to 8 children, who were up in the mountains looking for a Christmas tree, were killed by a sanding truck.” I know, morbid hey? Thankfully, D’s reactions were quick. He put on his right signal light, and easily pulled over to the edge of the narrow road just as the truck barreled past us, making our little car shake. D put on the hazard lights, grabbed his saw and jumped out of the car. I was still in shock over how close we had come to having an accident. It felt mystical how we were spared. By the time I opened my door, D had climbed up the slight incline, moving through the snow and was already assessing the tree. I joined him still wondering how he could just move on from that close call. I felt like something amazing had just occurred and as I looked around, everything seemed more intense and heightened. The air was crisper, the silence deeper, the forest around us felt sacred.

The tree was enchanting. It was the perfect height for our family room and nicely full. I could just imagine it in our house decorated with the children’s homemade ornaments and popcorn strings. I had saved some dried baby’s breath from my garden and thought that would give it a whimsical look as the white lights twinkled. As I got closer to the tree though and actually felt the branches, I had a moment where I just wanted to turn around and go home, leaving it to grow another year in the forest. I knew that if we cut it down, it would not be a home for birds, or a refuge for little animals on the coldest of days. It’s beauty would be enjoyed only for a few weeks, camouflaged beneath our ornaments. Then D asked me if this was the one and I just nodded and said,  “it’s perfect!”

The next thing I knew, we were lifting it into the back of the little Honda Fit and the top of it was

Our beautiful tree 2014

hanging out of the car at least 4 feet. As we slowly drove down the mountain, the snow glowed white as the skies drew a dark purple curtain over the valley below.  The one benefit of the sanding truck was that he had started to spread dirt as soon as he passed us, so our drive down the mountain wasn’t as precarious as D feared as the road was getting icier. As we drove along the country road in our bright red Honda sleigh, I thought we must be a sight for sore eyes with our tree hanging out the back of the car. Inside, both D who had been chatty on the drive up the hill, were suddenly quiet, immersed in our own thoughts. The smell of fresh fir filled our nostrils and for the first time it felt like Christmas. When the kids heard us come home, they piled out of the house to see our new tree and I was just so happy to see their beautiful faces.

The final magical thing that happened this Christmas was that somehow we were able to give our children everything they had asked for on their wish list. As I was telling my sister J, and brother-in-law B, who popped in this afternoon for a New Year’s Eve visit, Christmas ended up being a bit like Jesus’s loaves and fishes story. There was enough for everyone.  Enough for our children, enough for the places we wanted to donate, and even bigger dreams came true when D came home with a small bonus from his office. Why did I ever doubt? Have I not been blessed, time and time again? There is ALWAYS, always, ENOUGH!!!

Of course the Christmas story is the BIG one this time of year (and Will loved to remind his little sisters that Santa isn’t in the word, Christmas…(I should have been listening to him!)

 

This is the manger, my Dad made over 50 years ago…this Christmas it sat on the dresser in my bedroom…reminding me of what the season is about…..gifts of love.

….but for me this year…the loaves and fishes story was also huge….in case you have forgotten, here’s how it goes, …

 

Matthew 14:13-21New International Version (NIV)

 

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

After setting up our real Christmas tree in the family room that Sunday night before Christmas and decorating it with the kids the following day, (and not even saying anything when they only decorated the top three feet of the tree and often put a dozen ornaments on the same branch) I started seeing clearly all the goodness in my life.

Our fishes and loaves stretched beautifully. Again and again little miracles kept happening. As I looked down the pew, where our family sat enjoying our church’s Christmas Eve candlelight service, I felt an enormous sense of peace and bliss. The season of love and light was upon me and I realized that just like the first Christmas when Jesus was born in a simple stable, it was the smallest things that held the most joy for me this season. Sitting together with all of my family in one place and knowing, Alyssa was also being cared for in the U.K. by a dear, kind cousin J (my Dad’s first cousin) and her generous family, well what more could I ask for than that?  I was filled with peace and bliss

And now I will share a few Christmas moments with you….bliss abounds.

On Christmas morning, to allow the older kids to blissfully sleep in longer, we got the little ones bathed and ready for the day…hence all dressed up…it was hard to drag out the morning as they were so excited to see what was in their stockings

 

Finally, they are in the family room….Harrison and Grace are still in their Christmas Eve  P.J’s
I’m showing this picture as our cats were lingering in the back,looking for their share of the fishes and loaves…yes even miracles stretch for kitties and they received treats too. The little girls had asked for dolls as well as a kitty for Kate, and Victoria had asked for a puppy. When I found these dolls holding a kitty and a puppy, I thought I had struck gold! This is what I mean about everything working out perfectly.
Harrison’s basketball team are called the Lakers…since we live near a lake I guess…he was thrilled when we found this hat for him

 

Grace desperately needed socks this Christmas and she was very blessed because even her Auntie must have mysteriously got a hold of the wish list…she is laughing as she opens a second package with socks…warm feet, warm heart!
Mitchell is just happy to be home from University…there is nothing like moving away from home to make you appreciate the littlest things
Clark’s boots got a hole in them right before Christmas…we were not going to get him new boots but when we found these on a “deal”….like they were meant for him…we bought them and they fit perfectly..he was overjoyed!
Will asked for a telescope, a watch and a yo yo this Christmas….he was thrilled to be looking at the heavens

 

Here’s Clark, our oldest son setting up Will’s telescope late in the day on Christmas and giving the kids some astronomy tips
I stopped between mashing potatoes and making gravy to snap this picture on Christmas day…it was blissful

Another magic moment came when it started to snow after Christmas.  It has been an unseasonably warm fall and early winter and it’s almost unheard of in these parts not to get a good dump of snow by Christmas. Then, it started to fall gently, enveloping our little town with a white, peaceful blanket and a few days after Christmas we had enough for the kids to go sledding and making forts in our yard.Will was thrilled since he received a new sled for Christmas.

Here’s a picture of the kids outside today…on New Year’s Eve 2014
And what’s great about going outside…coming in for hot cocoa and watching the movie, “Frozen”

 

And so those were a few of my Christmas 2014 memories. Last Christmas, when D and I were out doing a marathon holiday shopping fest, I was absolutely exhausted and desperately needed to eat and drink something. Unlike most people, over the holidays I usually lose 5 or so pounds since I’m so busy. I swear that having a bunch of kids is a weight loss program, especially at Christmas, (who knew, maybe more people will have a large family now) so I probably hadn’t eaten much on that day. We were in my favourite store, “Chapters,” where there is also a Starbucks located inside.

I’m not a coffee drinker. Never have been and was planning to steer myself through a lifetime of “not” getting addicted to the brown stuff but that night, I needed something and the deep, rich smell of coffee was enticing. I was going to order a herbal tea but then I was lured by the lovely sounds of an eggnog latte. In addition, since they were about to close up the store, they offered some free cranberry bliss bars on the house. Well, normally I don’t indulge in too many sweets but I was starving and needed a serious sugar boost, so we gratefully accepted the free bars and took our drinks.

Well I should have been more wary of becoming a coffee addict since my mother LOVED it and I know most of the world also enjoys it. I thought I was strong enough to have one cup and then return to my tea habit but nope. It turns out that if there is eggnog AND coffee in the house, I will be drinking it…and lots of it. I still mainly drink tea but at Thanksgiving time, I’m all about pumpkin spice lattes and during the Christmas holiday season, it’s all about eggnog lattes…..

Also, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I’m also an absolute steadfast fan of Cranberry Bliss bars. If you have not tried these….oh for heaven sakes, you haven’t known bliss.

So even though our family has a recipe book full of our Christmas favourites, I want to share my recipe for Cranberry Bliss bars and Eggnog lattes with you. Last year I tried various recipes and this is my favourite……I hope it will become a family favourite for you too.

Now, when I get up in the morning, the first thing I ask D to do, is make a full coffee pot, so I can drink them all day. Yes, I will have to start doing my green drinks and my juicing in the New Year….but for now, I’m going to enjoy what I call, holiday bliss, I hope you will join me.

Oh, Alyssa, I wish you were here this Christmas…you LOVE CRANBERRIES….this is for you dear daughter and for all my blog buddies who haven’t tried these…YET!

Here’s what you need for some bliss….

Cranberry Bliss Bars

 

 

 

 

Ingredients
Cake Base:
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1¼ C brown sugar, packed
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp ground powder ginger
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1½ C flour
  • ¼ C minced dried cranberries
  • ¼ C quality white chocolate. I used a Lindt white chocolate bar, coarsely chopped
  • ¼ C minced candied ginger
Frosting:
  • 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1½ C powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp butter, softened
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp grated orange rind
Drizzle:
  • 2 Tbsp minced dried cranberries
  • ⅓ C white chocolate, melted

 

Instructions

 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 pan
  2. Beat together butter and sugar and then add eggs and vanilla beating until light and fluffy
  3. Add flour, powdered ginger and salt
  4. Beat well
  5. Fold in the cranberries, chocolate chunks and minced candied ginger
  6. Spread batter in pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown
  7. After cake cools, mix all frosting ingredients together and spread over top of cake
  8. Sprinkle with minced cranberries
  9. Use a cake decorating bag of melted chocolate with a small round decorating tip to drizzle the chocolate over the cake
  10. Cut into triangles…or bars…your choice but I like the look of triangles

 

 

I like to cut them into triangles but warning these are really rich…oh I love the ginger in them, yummy!

And to accompany the perfect Christmas treat….an eggnog latte

Holiday Eggnog Latte

 

Ingredients
  • 2 shots espresso OR ½ cup of double/triple concentrated coffee
  • ⅔ cup eggnog
  • ⅓ cup milk
  • sugar…to taste
  • optional whipped cream and nutmeg
  • Variation: If you want to make this as an evening cocktail, add a shot of rum.

 

Instructions

 

  1. Pour espresso/concentrated coffee into a mug and add steamed eggnog/milk mixture.
  2. If you prefer your eggnog latte sweeter, add a little sugar.
  3. Top off with whipped cream and a pinch of nutmeg.
  4. *If you don’t have an espresso machine, do what I do most often. Just warm your eggnog/milk mixture in the microwave. Cook times may vary but I prefer heating mine for 2 minutes.
I love Starbucks Christmas blend…but any medium roast coffee is great for your latte

 

This is bliss in my house….happy holidays!

Another special moment…once Mitchell came home for Christmas we had our annual photo shoot at our local Super Store….this year we got out in record time and everyone was smiling…gotta love that!
Here is a picture of the twins, “they always have each other’s back” wearing their beautiful plaid dresses
Although this picture didn’t turn out..I had to show it to you…this was the holiday cards we sent out..note the Christmas tree on the card…very meaningful this year

So that is a wrap dear blog friends and family. If I have learned ANYTHING at all this year…it is to believe in magic and miracles…because again and again they keep appearing in my life. I hope your upcoming year is full of what your heart desires.

Bliss at the very least.

 

Here’s an appropriate song for the occasion, “The Last Goodbye” sung by Billy Boyd, from the third Hobbit movie, (we went last night and I thought it was the perfect song as we say goodbye to 2014)

Good bye 2014

And…..

May all your wishes and dreams come true.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessing from Hope

 

Green Energy Drink~Elixir to Radiant Health

/ Lee Reynolds

 

Yummy kale in our garden

As you know from my last couple of posts, I’m a homeschooling mama now and since I know many of my friends are also in the same boat, I thought I would do a post on the energy elixir I discovered a number of years ago.

I started thinking about this being the perfect blog post last night as I was plugging in my cell phone to charge it for the evening and I was thinking, “wouldn’t it be cool if we mamas could re-charge our batteries so easily.” Cell phones are a crucial way of staying connected in our fast paced lives but when they run out of charge they are useless.

Mothers are useless as well when they run out of steam. They are the back bone of society and are true warriors as caring for children and the family is a 24/7 job. Being a mother is daunting and overwhelming at times and often all that keeps us going is coffee and sticky kisses. Personally, I don’t partake in coffee, so the kisses have to be REALLY good. At the very least we need respite care to re-charge our drained batteries.

Yes, sleep is one way to rejuvenate and restore ourselves but I only get a really deep sleep every now and then these days as there is always someone up and about in the evenings. If it isn’t an older child waking me as they come home late, (I sleep with one eye open until all my chicks are in the nest) or a little one with a night terror, it’s me, getting up to attend to my urgent bladder of which has never been the same since the twins birth. So, yeah, me and sleep, let’s just say we are passing strangers in the night.

Then there is something to be said for meditating.


The practice of which helps us reconnect with our soul, which is eternal and when we connect with the deepest part of ourselves, which is creative energy at it’s core, we can fill the tanks nicely. You have to get in the groove though and seated meditation isn’t the easiest thing to do when you are a mama as it requires sitting STILL, and you either have to get up earlier than your kids (in my house that means I’m up before the birds) or stay up late at night which I do, do…but often I’m writing or reading. Still, this is a great way to re-charge at the soul level and I think people who meditate a lot look ageless.

Then there is always doing something outside your comfort zone which stimulates and excites you. Have you ever taken a course even though you didn’t think you could find the energy and somehow you  are walking on air and looking at your life through new lenses?

Well those are all great ways to energize yourself but what I’m proposing is giving your body some juice (literally and figuratively) to boost your energy.

I don’t know about you but we ate really healthy this summer. LOTS of different salads and various veggies from our garden. Most days our treats were all the summer fruits available in our area of the world. We did however eat our fair share of ice cream and baked treats. I knew Alyssa and Mitchell would be leaving home in August and I wanted to give them all their fav desserts. We had carrot cake, brownies, lemon pound cake, date squares, oh the list goes on and on. I know as I was waving goodbye to our beautiful children I was feeling sluggish and it wasn’t solely a deep sadness but was my body saying I had to let go of a few pounds and find balance again.

Now we are all different but what I discovered 10 years ago was when I indulge in any dairy products, anything processed and definitely sugary type foods, my body reacts strongly and I feel exhausted. When I was trying to conceive in my early 40’s, I had read when we assist our liver by clearing toxins out of our diet, our hormones balance and work more efficiently. A side benefit was having great skin, glossy hair, beautiful nails and hey, I looked younger too. I think I have found the green elixir to ageing gracefully.

So if you are in need of an energy boost, want to lose a few pounds or even look younger, head out into your garden (or check out your local farmer’s market) and gather as many colourful vegetables as you can find and join me back in my kitchen.

When you start your homestead, plant your fruit first because it takes a number of years for them to produce. This is the first year that we allowed apples to grow on our three year old trees…This is our Spartan apple tree.

 

A bowl full of energy, carrots, parsley, kale, swiss chard, and apples.

Now if you know me or have read my blog at all, you will know that I’m not a high maintenance type of gal. Last fall when D gave me a new compost bin, you would think he had given me a diamond ring for how ecstatic I was, so when he gave me a Champion juicer for my birthday a number of years ago, I WAS BEYOND thrilled. Plus, our family has benefited with greater health.

If you don’t have a juicer (yet…I hope my post convinces you to buy one) you can certainly buy some green powder, or go and become a wheat grass junkie at your local health food store (like I used to be) …that is the next thing I dream of…a wheat grass extractor with a fridge in the garage to store my wheat grass trays….it will come.

I found a great powder by Webber Naturals at Costco for a great price ($25.00) and often this is what I start my day with. I shake up a cupful and drink it about 1/2 hour before I eat my oatmeal which aids in the digestion and jump starts my day. Below my breakfast of choice.

When I make my oatmeal, I also add a scoop of 8 grain cereal to the cooked oatmeal, along with some ground flax seed. Then I go crazy with walnuts, almonds, cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or frozen fruit I keep for my smoothies. I find that when we are in a rush and if I’m wanting the little kids to eat their oatmeal fast, then I add the frozen fruit and it cools off the oatmeal quickly…although I like to savour my oatmeal before I start my day.

Oh I like adding all sorts of things to my oatmeal…today there was soy yogurt, walnuts and bananas

So if you don’t have a juicer, check out all the powder greens to give your liver a boost and help with your digestion. This one addition will give you a big boost.

If you want to see what you are eating however, gather your vegetables, the skies the limit.

Today, I gathered kale, apples fresh off our tree, parsley, swiss chard, cucumbers, carrots, and ginger. What I forgot, but I usually put in all my juices is some celery…but this is what I love about juicing, each time it’s a bit different. The ginger is a warming herb and great for digestion, plus gives it a zing.

 

 

Parsley is a diuretic and great for your liver

Here is my Champion juicer in action….you can put the pulp in your carrot muffins, yum!

Oh look at that beautiful green colour!

  Cheers!
To make silly cracker people, spread some hummus, add a cucumber slices, 1/2 a cherry tomato for eyes and a slice of apple for the mouth…the kids were moving the tomatoes around and laughing like crazy…food is fun!

And voila! my afternoon snack with the kiddos. I drank the green juice but we all ate the crazy WASA cracker/hummus people. Our kids will drink a carrot, heavy to the apple and a tiny bit of ginger juice (apple/carrot zinger) but when I add too much of the green stuff they scrunch up their little noses. That’s okay. They eat their greens by way of broccoli, beans, cucumbers, etc. Their little bodies regenerate so fast and they haven’t the toxins built up from years of damage yet so they don’t have to eat pounds of organic vegetables to re-charge. We are certainly mentors when they see us chug our green drinks and chase them for a messy kiss with our green moustaches afterwards.

I wish you could come over for a juice.  Although I think my friends Tamara, Jane, and Laura have partaken and certainly my sisters B and J have caught me juicing. They all know I have to stay young and energized to keep up with Will and the twins. Hey, and if you think that this may be too much, just try each day cutting up a bunch of veggies and over the course of the day munching on all that raw power. You will feel GREAT!

Life is so good and needs all our enthusiasm and gusto to enjoy it.

Here is a YouTube clip I found on juicing…if you are wanting to learn more check it out.

(If you are using an Apple product, you may not be able to watch this video below, if so I hope this link works for you, “The Benefits of Juicing.“)

 

 

Wishing you a radiant, energetic, life.

Until, I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Sun Ice tea

/ Lee Reynolds

Hello, how nice to see you, please come in as I was just making some refreshing Sun Ice Tea.

Here is everything I need to make my tea:

I have this large old pickle jar that I fill with boiling water. I then add whatever tea that I’m craving. I’m showing David’s tea summer sampler pack but today I decided to go with 3 big scoops of dried Earl Grey tea. I normally let it steep in the sun out on the deck for a few hours but you can let it steep until it’s as strong as you want it….more for a stronger taste….today I just let it steep as I was cutting up zucchini bread and puttering in the kitchen. I also love to throw a bunch of peppermint from my garden to give it a refreshing taste. Just before you serve, add honey to the jar and stir, really well. Then pour it into glasses that are filled to the top with ice because they will melt really quickly…then add more ice before you serve….a slice of lemon, a leaf of peppermint and you have a refreshing and healthy ice tea for your guests……or for your favourite daughter….at least one of them.

Let’s take our tea and zucchini bread (check out my Summer’s bounty post for the zucchini bread recipe)….out to our front yard and have a nice visit. What have you been up to?

This my favourite place to sit in the morning….please join me?

 

                      There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart. ~Celia Thaxter

Thanks for coming to visit, let’s do it again soon.

Until then may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope