Beans, pitas, and kids clothes.

It's that time of year again. Summer is gone....a little early this year it seems. The crops are still lying in the fields while the cold rain continues and temperatures drop below freezing.

My kids have been fortunate enough to have been able to keep out their "summer clothes" for the last year and a half. When we packed up for Mexico this time last year we took hot weather clothes as well as their cool weather clothes. The temperature changes drastically in the deserts of Baja Mexico.

Now that we are once again facing (dreading) a Canadian winter it is time to put away the shorts and t-shirts. What spurred me on, other than the freezing yucky weather, is the fact that my boys haven't figured out that clothing is essential for warmth. As long as there are shorts, swim trunks, and sleeveless shirts in their drawers the sweaters and jeans will be neglected. They are not at all impressed by my sudden insistence on wearing confining things like socks and jackets. They have all requested that we move to Mexico. (Right about now I feel the same way!)

Once I started clearing out and sorting through the boys dressers, I moved onto Aili's dresser...then Cece's....then all the foster baby/ toddler clothes I have stashed everywhere. I compiled and sorted the mounds of clothing into this (a couple boxes were still on the floor.)

ahhh. Feels good to pretend I'm an organized person.

In contrast....this is what one bedroom looked like while I sorted. We have hand me downs, clothes waiting to be grown into, clothes that are too small, clothes of most every gender and size. I purged many of our clothes over the years but I have a supply of "foster baby" clothes now that I hold on to. This all takes space...and some sense of organization...which I often lack.

While the guys are away on a fishing trip up north (no harvest work to do again this week)...I've been on a big time cooking slump...or break. So, yesterday I decided that we needed some real food and I got creative.

I frequently cook with beans and legumes. They are both very cheap and very healthy (once your gut gets used to digesting them) which are both things I value when deciding what to feed my family. I usually buy them in bulk dry form which is a lot cheaper than the canned variety. It is also healthier because the canned variety has a lot more sodium and even some chemicals leached from the can. Canned beans are quick and convenient though so I often have some of them in the pantry too.

I bought a large bag of chick peas (garbanzo beans) a while back but have never used them. I had the idea that I really didn't like them that much but wanted to try making hummus from scratch. I realized that it wasn't the chick peas I didn't like but the tinny taste and odd texture that comes from the canned variety. The home cooked version is a lot nicer.

I put some in a pot of water to soak over night and then cook them for an hour or so the next day. I used some of the chick peas for making hummus so save for later and I used what was left for making a chick pea curry rice dish for supper. ( I threw together onions, garlic, chick peas, olive oil, carrots, chopped greens, fresh ground coriander seed, turmeric, cumin, salt, and pepper (I would have added hot red chilis but wanted to keep it mild for the food phobic three year old).

I am new to trying to make curry dishes. I couldn't use garam masala or cinnamon because of my freaky allergy boy. I think he reacted to something a bit anyhow...maybe it was the tahini paste in the hummus.

To go with it I made fresh pitas. They were hot from the oven, and a lot softer and tastier (and cheaper) than the store bought variety.

Pita Bread:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2.5 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 scant tbsp instant rapid rise yeast

1 c. warm water

1 tbsp brown sugar

1. mix yeast with the dry ingredients (if you are using old fashioned yeast mix it with the water and sugar first and let sit for 5 min.). Mix in the water and knead together to make a stiff dough. Add more flour or water if needed. Place in a greased bowl and let rise until double (about 20 minutes).

2. pre-heat oven to 475

3. punch down and divide into 6 equal portions.

4. Heat the cookie sheet by placing it upside down in oven (it is important to place dough on hot cookie sheet.)

5. Roll three balls of dough into circles about 1/8 inch thick. Take care not to stretch, puncture of crease dough. (This will not be as thin as tortillas )

6. Place 3 rounds on hot cookie sheet. Bake for 5-6 minutes until puffed.

7. Place the cookie sheet back in the oven to stay hot while you roll the next three pitas. Bake one batch before rolling the next.

Remove from cookie sheet and place inside a terry cloth dish towel. Stack the pitas together and keep covered until cool. This keeps them soft.

They are best eaten fresh but will keep in a sealed plastic bag for up to one month in the fridge.

The kids love to help with these. It is fun to watch them "poof" up in the oven. They blow up like a balloon which creates the pocket.

Have fun trying something new!

Who says that cooking healthy is more expensive than eating junk? It is true that fresh organic out of season produce is much more expensive than cases of nasty Ichiban noodles but with a little creativity you can skip the processed stuff and fill your kitchen with better options.

We are ALWAYS tight for money which means I can't load up my cart with every fresh healthy food that I want.

Here are some of my tips for buying cheap and nutritious.

1. Junk food is a splurge...a treat...not a grocery necessity. Skip the cookie, pop and chip isle. Waste of money and not healthy.

2. Stick to foods as close to their natural form as possible. This rarely includes watermelon blast flavoring, neon coloring, and cartoon characters on the packaging. When fresh imported produce isn't economically reasonable (we live in the frozen Canadian prairie for most of the year!) buy frozen vegis and add them to dishes in lots of creative ways.

3. Buy dried bulk beans. They are a very cheap and very healthy source of protein, minerals, fibre and vitamins. Look up recipes on the internet. Try something new. If you cook a big pot of pinto beans you've got lots of options for using them. Make refried beans (freeze containers of it), make chili, or make a salad out of it. Use legumes to stretch the meat in any recipes. Think outside the taco....although I do love tacos.

4. Eggs. Inexpensive (I buy them from a farm friend), lots of protein and other nutrition. I usually keep some hard boiled eggs in the fridge for the kids to eat with breakfast or for a high protein snack. (think outside the cracker box!)

5. Buy fruit and vegetables in season and on sale. Period. I plan my meals and fruit consumption around sales. (Not that I actually plan ahead...I prepare my meals with what I have).

6. Limit trips to the grocery store. Shop the sales once a week and cook with whats already in the pantry. That limits running back to the store to buy full priced items for specific meals you want to prepare...inevitably you go into the store for artichoke hearts and come out with snacks for the kids, a new set of BBQ tools, and a Latte for the trip home.

7. Grow what you can. It's fresh, organic, and basically free. Less packaging, less transporting, good for the environment, good for your health, and good for your budget. Dig up some of the grass in your yard, add some compost or other fertilizer and plant some seeds. Of course, you may have to wait until spring to try it.

Even a small city garden can provide a good supply of fresh salad makings. Get creative try planting in a raised bed or in flower pots. If you have lots of space your garden can provide produce for months past summer.

8. Make what you can from scratch. This is both cheaper and usually healthier. This does ,admittedly, take more time and in our rat race culture it has become a lost art. Once you start to think outside the cellophane you will find that it's not that hard to do. I try to add an element of convenience by making large batches of cookies, muffins, bread, soups and chili. That way I have a good supply in my freezer for when I don't have time to cook. It also helps with kids school lunches to not have to buy so much prepackaged lunch box fillers.

9. Don't get sucked into expensive health food schemes. Marketers will prey on your desire to feed your family healthy food. A good rule of thumb is the more "marketing" on a package...the more unreasonable it is to buy. Skip it and spend your money in the produce isle.

10. Try vegetables you haven't tried before. Be creative. If acorn squash are on really cheap look up ways to cook it and try something new. If yams are super cheap buy a bag full of them. Try making them into baked french fries, puree and freeze them into baby food or to add to sauces in the winter.

11. Check out the international foods isle. You can often find big bags of rice (I splurge for whole grain brown rice), beans, lentils, and spices that can be the base of many meals.

12. To keep baking inexpensive: I buy bulk bags (20kg) of rolled oats, and whole wheat flour (Although I don't pay membership fees to any bulk store. ) I grind (with a coffee grinder) my own flax seed to add to breads. I buy large jugs of Canola oil and limit use of butter or margarine in my baking. When Margarine is needed (for cookies) I buy non -hydrogenated which is more expensive but worth the extra pennies.

13. Buy less expensive cuts of meat and find better ways to cook them (note: this does not include spam or any product that masquerades as meat). Buy larger quantities and freeze what you don't use. Pull out your slow cooker. Cook and marinate with an acidic sauce (tomatoes or vinegar based). You can turn just about any meat into something you can pull apart with your fork. Stretch your meat by adding lots of vegetables (ground, chopped, pureed) and even some legumes. Look into buying locally raised farm meat in bulk.

These tips are nothing profound or enlightening just some easy ways I lower the cost of feeding my brood while not sacrificing quality, flavor or nutrition.

Celebrating 6 months of Cece

Next week this sweet girlie will be 6 months old.

She is changing and growing so fast!

It has been such a joy to watch her grow from a tiny scrunched up newborn whose body was wracked with the misery of drug withdrawal into a beautiful, happy, playful baby. Loving her has been so rewarding. I hear quite often that it is so good of us to "do this" for her but in all honesty I feel so blessed and privileged to be a part of her life...to be her mommy. It hasn't been all butterflies and rainbows but neither is raising my own children :)

Despite a rocky start she is developing within the range of "normal" and I am continually amazed at how quickly she is now changing and catching up. At 4 months she was still struggling to hold up her head and wasn't yet reaching for objects. Less that two months later she is now able to sit for several seconds, play with her toys, show off in the jolly jumper and roll around the living room. She is very interactive (to the point of being a shameless flirt), is very ticklish, and loves to play "pat-a cake". She loves getting mauled by her doting foster siblings and giggles happily at their antics. She has become a content, happy, delightful little girl ( more so when she's not constipated or teething...which she is struggling with this past couple weeks. )

She has a heart melting smile with two adorable bottom teeth. I love the way she smiles from her eyes all the way down to her toes.

In the time we've had her she has grown 5 inches and 10 lbs!! I kind of hope that her growth curve slows down a little in the second half of her first year or she'll be wearing toddler size 3 on her first birthday! ;)

On a less cheerful note. We found out this past week that her second round of blood testing confirmed a pos. Hep C result. I don't know if I should be making that public or not. I've been scouring the internet for information, prognosis, statistics, and hints for keeping her as healthy as possible but since this virus is pretty rare in infants and children there isn't much out there.

We knew that she had been born to a Hep C pos. mother but the likelihood of her having contracted it were very low 1-4%. We were surprised when the first test came back positive. She was re tested months later because there was still a good chance the newborn test produced a false positive result. No such luck.

I did find one decent website directed at adults living with HCV that had lots of helpful hints for keeping her liver as healthy as possible...nothing for children though. There are so many variables, so many possible complications, so many individual progressions of the disease. She could fight off the virus completely, she could remain asymptomatic for most of her life, she could develop serious chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and complete liver failure within anywhere from the next 2-30 years. Thats such a wide range of possibility. She could struggle with a whole host of chronic symptoms, complications, and uphill health battles or she could have absolutely none of them. There is really no way of knowing what lies ahead for her. No one knows.

God knows. He brought her to us knowing exactly what she will face...what we will face together.

What I have been told is that the longer someone has it the more chance of serious liver damage...2/3 of the people with in 20-30 years of contracting the virus. Which may not be that big of a deal when you contract the virus when your 50 but what happens when you are born with it? What does 30 years down the road look like for her? A transplant? I have read that lifestyle seems to make a difference statistically speaking.

I'm trying not to worry about the future possibilities. From what I've read the best things we can do for her is to keep the toxic load on her liver to a minimum and keep her nutrition level high. I've been reading up on liver supporting nutrition, juicing (which is recommended on the Hep C web sites I've found), and the things she needs to avoid. Whatever lies ahead we'll give her the best shot we possibly can.

If any one out there in blog world is raising a child that has Hep. C I would love to hear from you. Information and experienced support is hard to come by.

As of now the specialist has given us a few things to watch for that would suggest liver failure..such as her turning yellow. There is no plan for treatment at this point but they will monitor her liver function every 6 months or so. It may make me a little more nervous every time she gets sick....is this just a flu or is it a sign of something more serious happening in her body? Her first six months have been filled with colds, fevers and digestive issues already. I don't know how I'll be able to balance staying alert to problems without being a nut in the process. A lot of prayer I think.

You may be wondering by now how the adoption process for her is going. I don't have much to update other than we are in the waiting game right now. She was made legally adoptable in July, both bio parents willingly signed away their rights (which wasn't a battle at all) and it went to court in record time. That is a huge victory for her. She has had wonderful case workers. She will no longer be a foster child bounced around the system. At the moment she is more of a legal orphan. We are now waiting for our application process to begin. Certain files have to be moved to certain desks before we begin to muck through that process. I am so grateful that during this time of waiting and uncertainty we are not missing out on her life. We are not wondering if she is alone, hungry, neglected or cold. We know that the little girl we consider our daughter is nestled snuggly in her crib, or in our arms. We just need the paperwork that makes legal what is already in our hearts. Thats one advantage of foster adopting. We get her now...and the legal stuff comes later. I guess the uncertainty involved in foster adopting is the down side...although no adoption comes without a whole bag of uncertainty.

My hope is within the next year I will be able to officially introduce her as our 2nd daughter.

Harvest time and Homeschooling

We have completed our first week of school work at home. It will be a little hit and miss with me taking a turns on the combine but we are off to a good start.

We are getting the hang of things and I haven't lost my marbles yet.....

We have all winter for that.

Picking up Canola swaths

Canola seed ready to go.

Now you know where your Canola oil comes from.

Moving the combines to a different field...through a rather treacherous (and muddy at the bottom ravine).
I always enjoy being involved with harvest. It is a little trickier this year with homeschooling and a 4th child. I find the change of pace and scenery peaceful (most of the time...unless I get stuck in mud or break something).

my girl is 9!!!

Aili decorating her cupcakes. It was very important to her that she decorate her own this year.

I bought her a real scrap book this year for her birthday, complete with fancy paper and 3-D stickers. She has been begging for one for months now. She is a crafty girl who is also very sentimental. I might add that she is much better with those goofy jagged scissors than I am.

This girl is not capable of not being a goon during picture time.

I can't believe my silly, creative, unique, independant girl turned 9 years old today. Where do the years go?! I keep getting flashbacks to the ridiculously alert bug eyed newborn we brought home from the hospital with us and countless nights I tried unsuccessfully to convince her we both needed to sleep. Where did that pig tailed little pixie with the impish grin and adorable speech impediment go? I swear she was here a minute ago.

She had a sleep over party planned with a few friends last weekend but unfortunately a sudden 2 day fever caused us to cancel her early party. She handled it with surprising dignity and maturity despite her devastation. Parties are EVERYTHING to this girl. She spent weeks writing down, planning, and dreaming about every detail of her sleep-over schedule. She was feeling great today though.

Her scaled down mid-week party still consisted of all the essentials,....daddy home from the field, grandma and grandpa, a friend and of course cupcakes.

I've heard the saying that with motherhood the days are long but the years are short. So true.

It's strange to think that I already have a child that is nine years old. I vividly remember being that age. I remember being in grade four and moving to the "room 2" the big kid classroom at our 2 room elementary school. I remember feeling so grown up.

I am enjoying my big grown up girl. She has morphed from the "helping" stage (making them do chores because it's good training but you could do it in half the time and make half the mess!)to the really being an asset and a contributing member of our family. It's still feeling like a bit of a novelty to have someone else in the house who is capable of folding laundry and pushing a vacuum (although sometimes...very....slowly....). I don't know how I would keep this show on the road without her. She is my trusty side kick, my little mother in training.

Aili is still a girl who is gifted at consuming my last morsel of patience. She has a wide range of slightly irritating quirks and idiosyncrasies. Those are the things that make her Aili though. She is one of a kind. Beneath my nail biting, disorganized, day dreamer lies a heart of gold.

I'm so proud of my girl!

We have begun our first week of home education and I am enjoying our new routine and structure. There have been moments in the past week when I have severely doubted my wisdom and sanity in choosing this path. The night before the "first day of school" I nearly gave myself a panic attack. I fear that my kids will resent me. I fear they will be missing out on some essential childhood memories. I fear they will end up holding up a cardboard sign on an intersection somewhere that reads "Will work for food...my mom pulled me out of school and now I'm too dumb to get a real job" Self doubt was beginning to cripple me before I had even opened a phonics book.

Our memory verse this week is "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" Proverbs 3:5

I needed that reminder. I need to be reminded where to lean when the responsibilities I am carrying seem too heavy.

I know this is an investment that will have incalculable benefits in the years to come even if the start of the road is a little daunting.

I admit, within the first five minutes of trying to shake the rust off my kids summer time brains, I was ready to call up their old school and make two last minute enrollments. I'm glad to say that we made it though and are slowly getting the feel of things.

We have started doing only morning schooling because of this crazy busy time of year. We're easing our way into it. It will be a long, cold, dark winter with nothing better to do than spend many hours reading and working ahead in workbooks. I think harvest is going to cause us to postpone schooling for a little while now anyway.

Tomorrow I will be sitting in a combine picking up Canola swaths. The kids will be with my mom while I'm working on their farm (the same family farm my hubby works for). It will be a nice change of pace for a few days.

Harvest time begins

This is a busy time of year.

Hubby is out cutting Canola until late every evening.

Harvesting the food in my yard and garden before frost is becoming a full time job.

The maintaining of my household has not become any less demanding.

There are more apples to pick,

mountains of laundry waiting to be folded and put away,

meals to make,

dishes to wash,

jars to fill

more canning to do,

more berries to pick,

BUT, it can wait for a few hours...

because...

Childhood is short

......and our Canadian summer is even shorter!

Children of the corn

We found this little guy on the "Island of Grumpy" and against our better judgement decided to bring him home with us. He is a gifted grump...he could put Oscar out of business.
That is unless he decides the fun, silly, happy boy should come out to play.
I like the happy boy...the grumpy one can go back to Grumpy Island.

This little girl is about as sweet as strawberry sherbet. She is so easy to love.
At five months old Miss Cece is full of giggles and smiles. She is a relentless flirt and melt hearts where ever she goes. I love how she smiles with her whole face. I wish I could show you a picture of how adorable she really is. She now has two teeth and a bunch more on the way.

Cece has come so far this past month. She is rolling all over the place, picking up and playing with toys and discovering the world around her. I really do love this age.

I forgot ,after a string of newborn foster babes, how much I love the big baby stage....until they get to the toddler years and it all goes down hill for a bit. Generally.

I've started pureeing some fruit and vegis and she is now getting her first tastes of real food. Its still a time consuming and messy endeavor to get food from the spoon into her belly but she's slowly figuring out how to eat without sucking.

At 5 months old she is very much bonded with us and has a strong sense of who her peeps are. She is crazy happy when Daddy gets home from work and she just about turns herself inside out to get to him. She is just as impressed with her foster siblings. Aili was away at camp for a week. Cece smiled so big when we went to pick up big sister that her eyes nearly disappeared. Big sister was just as happy.

She has a very healthy natural attachment and bond to me, her mama. Being that there is no bio mom that has been involved in her life at all....I'm it. Both bio parents have voluntarily signed their parenting rights away....which is the best thing they could have done for their child. Sad but true.

I hope to be her mommy for ever. At this point she will always be my daughter, regardless. It's easier to not put myself emotionally in the role of "mom" when there is another mommy who loves them and makes an effort to visit or to be reunited. In that case I am the loving "auntie", support person and caregiver....foster mom. This precious girl deserves a mommy...not a caregiver while she is in my home.

Should she go to another adoptive family , that foundation of healthy bonding and stimulation will be essential. She has learned to attach, to bond, and to love. She has learned security. Some babies/ children are denied that. Babes who are institutionalized , neglected, or bounced from care give to care giver develop "attachment disorder"...which can cause a whole LOT of problems throughout their lives.

As you can probably tell by the matter of fact way I'm describing her being placed with another family ...I am emotionally disassociating myself from that possibility. The "system" is so uncertain. I think it will nearly put me in my grave if that day comes. The time we've been blessed with her will still be worth it though.

Change of topic....

My boys helping harvest the garden.

My freezer is filling up more and more each week. I'm a freezing machine! Corn, peas, beans, herbs, diced onions, ground zucchini , jam.....baby food.

I like to freeze stuff. It's fast and easy and it feels great to know I'm saving lots of money in our grocery bill this winter.

What does a Christian look like?

I was browsing through some new-to-me blogs today and came across one that I fell in blog love with.

They are a very non typical large family.

You must pop over and check out this rockstar tribe! Storing up Treasures.

I came across a recent post written by Courtney called "What does it look like"

I appreciated her fresh and very honest perspective on what it really means to be a Christian.

So often we are more concerned with making up rules to follow than we are about following Christ. We are more concerned with judging appearances than we are with looking at the heart of someone. We go about in our masks of hypocrisy confident that because we never drink alcohol, live in a nice neighborhood with nice friends, attend church every Sunday and dress conservatively that we are somehow made more holy because of those things.

A man covered head to toe in scars and tattoos may be a passionate disciple of Christ. He may be visiting the outcasts in prison and sharing a message of hope and forgiveness.

The man with the beer can in his hand may be the most Christ -like person you'll ever meet. He may be planting vibrant new churches in areas where darkness reigned. Maybe he is opening his home and fathering the fatherless. That same man may be spending hours a day in intimate prayer. Does that concept throw you for a loop?

We may turn up our noses, cluck our tongues and look the other way...but in reality that persons heart may be a lot more pure and filled with God's Spirit than ours.

In the church we like to rate sin. We like to make things into sin that are not. Things like smoking, tucked in shirts and base ball caps on backwards. When we make social taboos or expectations into sin ..that is legalism. The pharisees where legalists.

In our Christian circles certain addictions are considered sin...but some , like food addictions, are totally acceptable.

We gasp if someone uses a word that is crass or crude...but we use our tongues to lie, gossip and slander.

We cluck our tongues at the woman that enjoys a glass of wine because " too much alcohol is unwise and she is clearly defiling her temple". We shake our heads and cast our judgments while we sit and eat our third apple fritter.

Christians enjoy drawing lines and casting judgment on one another.

I'm not talking about living in and glossing over un-repented or habitual sin. On the contrary.....

The man who keeps his shoes freshly polished and his collar neatly starched may be addicted to porn. He may be committing fraud in his business activities. He may be going home to molest his daughter or beat his wife. Under the image of "Christian" perfection may lie a lot of sin. Things are not always what they appear.

Behind the quick judgement lies the truth of our condition. We are ALL sinners who are only saved by God's grace.

Check on the blog I linked above. She has an interesting check list of what we may think Christians are and aren't. There is also a pretty interesting discussion going on in the comments underneath.

Am I more concerned with looking like a "Christian" than I am with being like Christ?

Keep it real.

Is there fruit or just pretty flowers? The Spirit of God alive and and working in our hearts produces fruit. Fruit that nourishes those around us. The tree might be scruffy, unsightly or small but the fruit produced is what counts.