Another milestone...

Do you know what this is??? What could it be??? Anyone....

You are right, it's mayonnaise and yes I made it. The color is a bit richer- I am guessing that is due to the farm fresh nature of the eggs, and let me tell you it is delicious!!!! Oh man, another thing I don't think I will be purchasing at the store anymore.

Here is a quick recount of what went into it :)
3 egg yolks- fresh from the backyard if possible- at room temperature
1 tablespoon brown spicy mustard
place into the bowl of the food processor with the regular blade and start it up-
next, very slowly drizzle in 300ml of canola oil or any other very mild flavored oil- seriously do this one slow or it won't come together right.
Once it's all combined it will have the consistency of mayo, although like mentioned above, mine was seriously yellow :)
Now I started with the juice of 1 fresh lemon, coarse salt and fresh black pepper, add it and pulse to combine. My mayo needed more salt and acid, so I added the juice of another lemon and more salt and pepper- only pulsing to combine.

And voila!! Deliciousness!!!!
It made about 1.5 of those little pint size canning jars :)

Now off to experimenting with some flavors....

Living homemade

What a treat- I am sitting outside with the sun warming my face, listening to the chickens cluck and enjoying the rare moment of silence as the boys are taking their rest.
Along with the serenity I am enjoying my latest accomplishment in the quest for a simpler, more homemade life: my own ricotta cheese drizzled with honey. Yep, I took my first venture into cheese making and thought that ricotta might be the best place to start.
Well, it turned out delicious!!!! It is firm yet incredibly creamy, which after eating ricotta from the store  I did not know was possible :)
I found my recipe here: Homemade Ricotta - this version uses the simplest ingredients, which is what I was after.

I hope you too will give this a try, but be warned I don't think you will ever want to buy the gummy, grainy stuff from the store again.

Oh and as to how to eat it or in what, here are some suggestions: in a bowl with some honey and fresh fruit, drizzled with olive oil and pepper on some good crackers, as cheese blintzes or of course in lasagna or ravioli.

Blessings to you from my little slice of heaven.

Adventures ahead

Here we are in the middle of May, still waiting on the weather to turn friendly and that sense of summer to come along.
In the middle of it all something interesting occurred this last week. I was updating my Facebook status to the following: "Our life will look vastly different come September-exciting!!!"
Most of the responses to this comment were directed at the fact that we are expecting our third baby on September 4th (or sometime around then :), but truth be told that was not at all on my mind when I wrote that simple phrase.

This past week we have set the wheels in motion for a lot of things to change come September- first the decision to move ahead with our homeschooling plans for Zander. He is excited to be a Kindergartner and to start school, but due to his age he is to young for any formal kind of kindergarten. So we moving ahead with a practice year,in a way, to start homeschooling and to learn and grow together. We have many reasons why we desire to school our kids at home, for now at least, but with that comes such responsibility :) and I feel that this upcoming year will reveal a lot of things to us as well as calm my nerves about this decision.

Secondly I have switched bible study groups, which really isn't that big of a deal, but for some reason it is to me. In addition, our family life and planning has also led to the decision that this upcoming (school) year will be my last year with MOPS. This makes me sad, as I have come to enjoy the women and the fellowship, but it is something that needed to happen. I will surely enjoy every last meeting we will have.

An then lastly of course we ARE expecting another baby!!! I am not dismissing that fact at all. I am completely filled with anticipation as waiting to find out the gender is not as easy as I had imagined. In all truth not knowing goes against every grain in my body :) How am I supposed to plan anything??? Which clothes do I prepare (we were blessed with some girl attire ), I don't want to have to deal with clothes and such once the baby is here :), and then there is the task of picking a name. My hubby and I seem to struggle a bit this time around- to my amusement I am preparing myself to have a baby girl or baby boy for a couple of days ;)

I am eagerly anticipating all the adventures and changes that are awaiting us at the end of this summer and I feel a deep sense of blessing over our life. Thank you Lord for all that we have to look forward to.

Heart desires

We have had the desire to move to a homestead, and we are working on fulfilling that dream in every way that we can.
As our home is listed for sale we have been waiting on moving forward with some of the smaller things that make a homestead what it is.

Well a couple of weeks ago we had a change of heart. Waiting just did not seem like fun anymore.
It all started when I connected with a lady who needed a new home for some of her chickens. Eric had enough left over building materials laying around to build them a home and the excitement started to build.

Well, the enthusiasm was dampened a bit, by a hurt back and piles of snow, both of which halted construction. Then the flu decided to take up residence in our home and make the rounds, which halted ALL activities. Finally, the hurdles where overcome and construction on the home for our new family members was complete!!

I was blown away by how beautiful it turned out, and am very grateful for my husbands craftsmanship.

Now that we had a house it was time to bring our 5 girls home. The move-in went without a hitch and it seems that our new family members like it here. 

Our black Wyandottes were quickly claimed by Zander and their names are now Harriet and Phillis. The remaining three Australourps were divided between Ethan, Eric and myself. Ethan named his chicken Lulu, Eric came up with Gloria and mine was named Daisy.

We love watching our chickens and their antics and have even received reward for housing and feeding them- 4 eggs every day- perfect and delicious :) 

Now as we are enjoying our first farm animals, the desires of cats, goats, ducks, pigs and maybe even a dairy cow are starting to swirl around and intensify. 

One day we may sit on our front porch overlooking our homestead and taking it all in- God willing :) but for now we are loving the start of our little homestead and the joy that it brings to everyone. 

Thank you Lord for placing desires into our hearts and for providing opportunities to follow our dreams. 

Early pregnancy and all that it intales

Here I am in the middle of march and look where my keyboard has led me?? You guessed right :)- back to the blog, I know- finally!!
The last couple of months have been exciting and exhausting.
On December 30th 2010, we returned from a wonderful day of skiing at Snoqualmie Pass to get the news we had been waiting for- baby Matthews #3 is on its way!!!!! Excited does not even begin to scratch the surface of the emotions that went around.
The next couple of weeks went by pretty uneventful and then it happened in about mid January- morning sickness, which in my case is all-day sickness, decided to hit full force. It was overwhelming and incredibly humbling. My two guys were more than troopers putting up with such a sick mommy who had the hardest time getting anything accomplished. I was blessed beyond means when friends came together for support and I do not know how to thank them all enough.

Here is a review of some of the remedies that I tried with mixed results:
1: frequent snacks consisting of some type of carb - not effective at all
2: frequent snacks consisting of some type of protein- much better when I could stomach it
3: anti-nausea pressure bracelets- seemed to lessen the effects to make it bearable
4: hard licorice candy- worked unexpectedly well
5: additional B12 vitamins- not sure if it made a difference
6: extra sleep- feeling rested made everything else more bearable
7: holding babies- put how I felt in the moment into perspective :)

Today marks week 16 in this pregnancy, hard to believe it has been 4 months already, but let me take a look down on the belly and oh, I believe it :)
The last 2 weeks have done wonders in the way that I feel, and for the most part I am feeling great, although I seem to wear out just a tad faster running after my active youngens :)

This time we are sticking to our guns and we will not find out the gender of this baby, and I look forward to the moment when my husband tells me wether it's a boy or a girl. :) It will be a priceless moment for both of us. Of course this means that we need to have some name ideas for both possibilities, which seems to be difficult for us. We are not agreeing on many at the moment, see there is a reason it takes 9 months to have a baby :)

We had our last prenatal appointment on the 9th of March and all was well. The "single" heartbeat was easily found and beating at 140bpm.

I will keep you posted on the progress and maybe soon we will sneak in a few photos.

Making your own laundry soap

Something that I have started enjoying immensely is caring for my family and cutting costs by making products where I can from scratch. My family has very sensitive skin and most commercial laundry detergent caused itchy skin and breakouts, in addition I am washing clothes for little ones which again calls for "clean" detergent. I was searching high and low as many soaps for sensitive skin did not get our clothes clean and those that got our clothes clean where astronomical in cost.

I have found a recipe for this liquid laundry detergent and it works wonderful. No more breakouts and itchy skin and our clothes get nice and clean. You can make the detergent scented simply by adding approximately 10 drops of your favorite essential oil.

In addition to working for my family it also works for my budget. One batch of this soap makes about 2 gallons and the cost is around $2 if not less :)

The ingredients are simple-

6 cups of water

1/4 bar Felts Naptha Soap- grated

1/2 bar Dr. Bronners Bar Soap- grated

1/2 cup Borax

3/4 cup Washing Soda

4 cups hot water

3 to 5 gallon bucket

1.5 gallons water

Heat 6 cups of water over medium heat in a large pot. Add the grated soap and let it melt together. Once melted add the borax and washing soda. Stir until it dissolves and starts to thicken. Turn off heat and add 4 cups of hot water and stir together. Pour the contents of the pot into the large bucket filled with 1.5 gallons of water. Stir and let sit over night. Once set up either stir together by hand or mix with an immersion blender. The soap is now ready to use.

This soap works great for HE washers as it is low-suddsing. I use about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of soap for a very full load of laundry.

I hope you give this a try - enjoy!!

Welcome 2011!!!!!!

Here is to another year, another opportunity and so many more memories!

What a year 2010 has been to us. Many things have changed yet stayed the same and many dreams have been placed in my heart. I believe that these passions and desires will only grow in the coming year and I am excited to see what will evolve out of my hearts desires.

2010 will go down in my books as a year of hidden treasures, as I never really felt that the year brought many awe inspiring moments yet managed to bring many blessings and revelations that might have gone amiss in those big moments that we sometimes yearn after.
I am truly grateful for the lessons that have been learned and the growth we have experienced as a family.

As we are looking upon 2011 I am convinced that this will be a wonderful year, filled with God's love and grace and abundant moments of awe inspiring beauty.
So buckle up and let's get ready for the ride!!!!!!!!!!!