Category Archives: The Boys

Processing peppers

Figured I’d finally get some harvesting posts up since I couldn’t find the time to do it “live”. As we get loads of green peppers, what I don’t eat raw (my favorite), we chop and freeze. When we have large batches at once, after washing & removing the stem/seeds, we send chunks through the chopper blade of our food processor. We freeze them in 2 cup and 4 cup freezer bags.

We have a stuffed pepper soup recipe that calls for 4 cups of chopped peppers, and we use 2 cups in our chili recipe – hence storing those sizes. I think last year we froze enough that we could make 8 batches of our soup and another 8 batches of our chili. We also like to make a bunch of barley-stuffed peppers which we freeze individually so we can just take out what we want. I place them side-by-side in a covered container until fully frozen, and then stack them in gallon sized freezer bags.

That’s pretty much how we calculate what we need for a year… When it’s time to cook, I like to grab what I need in the size that I need – kinda like our very own grocery store, lol! It really works great for the type of lifestyle we live. Ideally, someday we’d like to use less plastic, but we are not there yet. For now, being able to create a filling meal in a shorter amount of time is a higher priority. 🙂

Many of our hot peppers, we just wash & freeze whole. We like to throw a couple whole peppers into pots of “whatever”, just for flavor. We’ve learned to taste test while recipes simmer – because it doesn’t take too long for the “heat” to take over, lol…

Every year, my 3 boys try to make their own hot sauce. Found a recipe for a lacto-fermented hot sauce online, so they tried it last season. They sorted their peppers by “hotness” and made 3 different batches. They are still undecided if they really like it or not…(which in my opinion, means they must not like it, lol)

We froze the hot sauce in half pint jars, but didn’t have enough lids for them. Used foil & set them into sandwhich ziplock baggies in an effort to NOT stink up our freezer, but that didn’t work. Next season, we will have metal lids, lol. 🙂

Whey soup recipe

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I mentioned last year in my ricotta cheese post, that I’d post our recipe for “whey soup” sometime. Guess today’s the day! 🙂

1 quart of homemade chicken or beef bone broth
1/4 cup of noodles of choice (optional)
1t sea salt

[I’m adding these pics a day later than the original post was written. Michael just made a half recipe today, if you are noticing the smaller portion – fyi]

Heat to simmer and until noodles are fully cooked. Add 1 cup of whey – but don’t boil.

Since we normally use frozen whey “ice-cubes”, I turn my burner off, but keep my pan on the burner… Keep stirring until the whey has dissolved. (If necessary, heat it a bit until it’s to your desired eating temp.) That’s it! 🙂

This serves a generous 2 bowls of soup… Or 1 huge bowl for Michael, lol. He’d eat it everyday if we let him. I gotta ration some things around here or I’d never have time to leave my kitchen! 🙂

Such a great soup if you are feeling under-the-weather! A great immunity booster and wonderful healing food… 🙂

a couple bird-themed ornaments

Michael’s woodwork…

Michael – 14 today!

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Had Michael pick out four favorite pictures from when he was younger…

This morning – boys “killing time” while we wait for a table at an Amish country breakfast buffet…

Post breakfast – pleasantly full! 🙂

Just us with our first-born…

And couldn’t resist – one with his “blogger mom”, lol! 🙂

A podcast – oh my…

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Last week, the boys & I had fun recording a podcast with Brian & Susy for “Cultivate Simple”. Enjoyed talking with them about our dairying journey, for Episode 18: The Family Cow. It has been a blessing to get to know them over the past 6 years, and sure do appreciate being able to glean from the research they do & so willingly share.

Must say, it’s WEIRD hearing your own voice over the airwaves, lol.

Click here to go to their site & download the podcast from there.

Or you can click here to find Cultivate Simple on iTunes & download it from there. (Hopefully this link will work – I’m not 100% sure I did it correctly…)

Home again, home again…

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Well, I’ve been home for a week now. I enjoyed helping Kristin, and seeing Nebraska, but it’s nice to be back, too. I love how a trip away can remind me of the joys of experiencing family life together here, and puts a fresh perspective on my daily chores… Kinda like a “new spring in my step” this week, lol! 🙂

Made many memories while I was out there…laughing with my nieces as I taught them the “chicken dance” [Um, I won’t go into detail about WHY I have that song on my phone…but I am 75% Polish, lol!] 🙂

…survived a fall down some steps without any broken bones, praise the Lord! Simply made an unwise decision about not using the railing – sure made me thankful for every successful step after that!

...and my arm muscles are much stronger now after so much Sawyer-cuddle-time… 🙂

But the trip home was a bit taxing.

My flight out of Lincoln was postponed by 5 hours due to mechanical issues. Because of this, I would miss my connecting flight in Chicago. I didn’t mind the extra time waiting, because I THOUGHT I could use the time to blog & make use of free airport wifi. BUT, when they made the announcement that there were only 4 seats left on the same flight the next day (for those who wanted to try again tomorrow), and I saw how many other travelers were in the same boat as me… When the spokesperson said it could be a WEEK before we’d all have a flight out, my hopes of a leisurely 5 hours began to be dashed. A note about me: I am not a big fan of rushing or making quick decisions. I’d much prefer time to think, pray, and ask questions…

Instead, I was completely consumed with investigating other flight scenarios, updating family, & requesting prayer… All while keeping the corner of my eye peeled for the rep to come back to the podium so I could ask some questions. She finally did appear, and I joined the rest of the room in line, waiting for her time. My main prayer now was to be able to exude Hope in this circumstance… I was surrounded by soooo many upset people! That prayer was answered with a wonderful conversation with the German man in front of me. Because of this delay, he & his family were going to be severely inconvenienced in their travel to Germany. As my “minor” plan-change dimmed in comparison to his, it was a joy to shift my prayers to him, and as we spoke about it, it led to over an hour conversation about his walk with the Lord. It was beautiful, and I hardly noticed how long I waited for my turn. 🙂

It was decided that I would get to Chicago, accept a voucher for a hotel, and be aboard an early morning flight home. I was fine with this & ready for the next leg of my adventure to begin… Until I began to board the plane…

Upon boarding, I was informed by another passenger that there was a flight that had been delayed in Chicago that we might be able to get on & still make it to Ohio THAT NIGHT. Of course, my calmness was now disturbed & since I had to turn my phone off on the plane, my final txt to Mike was that he needed to pray as the Spirit led him, because I was too overwhelmed to even know how to pray…

Got off our plane in Chicago, raced to the gate for the other one, and missed it by 5 minutes… Ug. Such a sickening feeling! 😦

Went to customer service, and what do ya know? ANOTHER detained flight headed to Ohio – leaving in 30 minutes!! More rushing & sweating, but it was a successful effort to board the plane… Only problem was now I was flying to the Cleveland Airport instead of Akron/Canton, lol. My poor boys had to leave our house at 11pm for the 1.5 hour drive to the airport… Yeah. Felt like a re-run of our Christmas night, lol… Thankfully, all went well & by 3am, the 4 of us were home & in our beds. Geesh. What a day! 🙂

Lord, as I recount last week’s trip, I see so much evidence of You around me. Thank You for the opportunity to help Kristin & more bonding time with my nieces & nephew… For teaching me to s-l-o-w down and watch my steps… For protecting me, when I forgot to do that… For the sounds of laughter as fun was had… For conversations about You with family & beyond… For modern transportation, and plan b’s, and plan c’s… For knowing what’s best for me when I have no idea… And for pushing my “comfort level” to where I never would… Continue to shape me into who You want me to be. Amen

And I love this pic that was floating around on FB… 🙂

Missin’ my boys…

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Kristin brought out some old pics of Mike & the boys… Makin’ this lady a little homesick!

Thank You, Lord, for film that captures moments in time and helps us remember seasons of the past. What a blessing to watch this family grow. As we worship separately today, it is such a comfort to know that though many miles are between us, we are united through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Christmas reflections 2012

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What a whirlwind of a season! Started preparing this post weeks ago – and am thankful I’m finally getting it posted! 🙂

Enjoyed a wonderful time of preparation for Christmas, and despite some challenges during the actual week of Christmas, had a great time visiting with family and cherishing T-I-M-E. That would be “time” for building relationships, “time” for leaning on the Lord for strength, “time” for creating memories, “time” for resting, “time” for practicing thanksgiving, and “time” for adoration of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ – the REAL reason for this season. 🙂

I took a lot of pictures as our homemade gifts came into fruition, and hopefully I can get them posted before January is over…

Christmas Eve began with our tiny service in the barn next door. This year we read through the familiar passages in Luke & Matthew, plus some from Genesis & Hebrews. We chose “The Message” translation to read from, and I so loved the sentence from Hebrews 10:14… (regarding Jesus Christ’s SINGLE sacrifice for sins) “It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people.” 🙂 We sang Christmas hymns as the cats harmonized with their purring, lol… It was a simple, but beautiful time of worship. 🙂

A funny story about Christmas morning… one of my gifts to the boys was for them to wake up to the smell of “fresh bread”. Since all our bread is sourdough, and requires a 2-day process to complete it, that meant I had to begin the “end phase” before bed, get up at 3am to separate the dough into loaves, and bake it around 5:30am. Not too big of a deal for the 5:30 part, because that’s about when Mike & I roll out of bed anyway… All worked without a hitch – UNTIL I REMEMBERED I HAD TOLD MIKE’S DAD I WOULD COOK THE SHRIMP HE PURCHASED for the “appetizer brunch” planned at his house for Christmas Day… LESSON LEARNED: the smell of shrimp boiling TRUMPS any fresh-bread smell, lol! Fortunately some friends had made us a lovely scented candle for a gift – it worked well to at least get rid of the “fishy” smell! (Thanks Ben & Brittany!) 🙂

After enjoying Christmas morning here, mid-day next door and then the afternoon/evening up in Cleveland with my side of the family, we looked forward to picking up Mike’s brother & his wife, our 2 nieces + new nephew at the Cleveland Airport at 10:19pm. Well 10:19pm actually turned into 3 something am… It was a very stressful night as we watched a terrible winter storm creeping up from the south & our Nebraska family was stuck in Chicago! Thankfully, they all landed in Cleveland ok and made it back down here around 5am – about four hours before the storm hit!! Praise the Lord… 🙂

So after TWO NIGHTS of sleep deprivation for me, it was quite the challenge to complete the last minute gift wrapping/assembling. Emotions for me were very quick to surface – be it a snappy tongue or tears… Not exactly how I had envisioned that day to be. 😦

My morning devotions were such a blessing during this time – led to lots of journalling that I am slowly adding to my “raw ramble page”… 🙂 It was so wonderful to finally get to meet our nephew, Sawyer! And bless his heart – he was so patient with his Aunt Dawn…after MONTHS of waiting (& whining) about being able to hold him, I didn’t do a thing but PASS OUT when we sat down together, lol…

Fortunately, I caught up on my sleep after that, so I had other opportunities to make up for my heavy eyes… 🙂

It was great to spend time with our nieces, too – always fun watching the boys entertaining their cousins!

Played “bring-every-stuffed-animal-we-have-to-see-Baby-Jesus-in-the manger” over here, at our house…

The winter storm brought over 6 inches of snow, so sled-riding made the agenda…

With some snowballs being thrown, of course! Paul got Uncle Ben pretty good, lol… (Fortunately, his glasses were not broken!) 🙂

Got up to the “big hill”, and Michael & Paul had fun blazing trails.

And this pic hurts my knees just looking at it! Here’s Paul getting a running/jumping start…

And of course, a time outside wouldn’t be complete without Michael on the ground… At his request, he got buried in the snow, lol… 🙂

Another day, more family made the couple hour drive up, so our crew had fun playing with more cousins!

The “younger” ones went sled-riding between our two houses. I took these pics from the comfort of a nice, warm kitchen, lol… 🙂

Funny how little boys naturally gravitate toward a snowball fight! If you squint, you’ll see cousin Joe aiming for Ben… 🙂

Alyssa found time to work on a craft she got as a gift…

Uncle Mike with Sawyer…

Addi & Sawyer both got some cuddle time with Grandma…

Aunt Jenny with Sawyer…

And Michael with Sawyer…

And then the poor guy had to put up with his crazy aunts dressing him up…

Thought this pic was hilarious with his fist up – boys think he looks like Thor, lol! 🙂

Sadly, we were not immune to sickness during the week. It hit Grandma first, then Paul, then Mike… Nothing major, just annoying. They were all pretty tired for a good 4-5 days, and Mike’s seemed to end up as soreness in his back. Again, for us it was more spiritual warfare – an open door for the devil to attempt to steal some joy, and it led me to more “<a href="http://“>journal rambles“…

On January 4th, I was led to 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 from one of my devotions. It went along perfectly with my reflections of Christmas – where we battled exhaustion, prolonged sickness, irritations, hurting bodies, and even boredom in recovery. It’s fascinating to witness how evil can work on our physical bodies to affect (attempt to affect) our Light! Father, strengthen us to battle these circumstances today – each our own hurdle… As these bodies heal, keep the memories fresh in our minds so we can’t help but to overflow with thanksgiving as we speak of Your amazing love and provisions. Thank You for fresh perspectives and encouraging passages from Your Living Word! Amen.