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.