As I was doing my daily walk through our pastures and gardens today, it occurred to me that we are already at the end of May. We are feeling a little pressure to get a few projects done in time, but I have to remind myself that everything gets done and worrying won’t do any good. The days fly so quickly that I’m convinced that it is only by God’s grace that everything is getting done (sometimes just in time).

I was reminded recently of how precious life is after my husband cut up his knee while he was removing branches from cedar trees and the chain saw slipped. After hearing the story, I was so thankful he was okay and realized it could have been much worse. It was very sore, but nothing too serious. Praise the Lord! It was a good reminder that things can happen fast, to always think safety, and to cherish every day because there are no guarantees. My husband told me that he will be buying some chaps for future cutting. I didn’t even know anything like that existed.

Continue reading “Week 10 Get Your Pumpkin Spices Right” →

If someone is being censored for what they speak, and their information stands in the way of someone’s profits, we ought to at the least investigate what they are saying, because foolish people usually get ignored.

“Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.” Ecclesiastes 4:13

Our family loves tacos! This is an easy meal when I forget to take something out. The masa is already soaked in lime which makes it highly digestible and adds nutrients to the end product so it’s ready to prepare. If I forget to take out meat (other than chicken), I simply add it to a pot with some water in the bottom and cook it on low. While the meat is cooking, I start making tortillas, and get the lettuce and guacamole ready while I’m flipping tortillas. I store all of my spices in pints and 1/2 pint glass jars so I can quickly and easily measure up these spices. I order all of my organic spices through Azure Standard here. We LOVE the flavor of all their spices! After the meat is cooked, we simply throw all the spices in and give it a good stir.

• Taco seasoning
• 1 Tbs. paprika
• 1 Tbs. chili powder
• 1 Tbs. cumin
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. dried onion
• 1 tsp. garlic
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika (optional)
• 2 pounds hamburger, ground lamb, or ground pork

“Show me your friends and I will show you your future.”

Be encouraged my friend. When I start feeling overwhelmed with all the work to accomplish in a day, I think back to our ancestors and all the work they had to do simply to survive. When I reminisce about the past, I feel so grateful. I’m thankful for the technology like electricity, washing machines, crock pots, blenders, wheat grinders, etc. that have made our lives so much easier. My kitchen is full of appliances that help us to get a nutrient dense, healthy meal on the table, three times a day, quickly and efficiently. I don’t even have to run outside to collect water from the old hand pump. I will confess that I’m tempted often to say yes to too many things in this modern world filled with so many opportunities, but I have prioritized my values, and one of those priorities is providing health food to my family. While I don’t like saying no to myself or others, there are times when I must. I will admit that it’s taken a lot of failures and health issues to get where we are today. I have witnessed and experienced the difference that this makes! Do you have a modern technology that you can’t imagine not having? We would love to hear from you!

I shared eight things I wish people would have told me when I was in high school in a recent presentation. Here’s another one I probably heard several times. I just wished I would have listened sooner! I will be sharing number eight today.

• Do a lot of planning and counting the cost. Make a list every day of daily, weekly, and yearly goals. Things may really start to happen!

There has been a lot of work to do on our new farm since we moved here about 5 ½ years ago. Before we moved here, I was a fly by the seat of my pants sort of girl. Living in a camper the first 18 months (which was way longer than I had anticipated) while we completely gutted and remodeled the house, cleaned up the farm, grew the size of all of our animals, planted gardens, orchards, and fields, expanded our 3 businesses, homeschooled our kids, grew, raised, and traditionally prepared most of our food, helped others, had numerous people out to the farm (even though things were a mess), and later had two more babies at home changed that. We did this all while my husband worked a full-time job about 45 minutes away from the farm.

We love making homemade tortillas! Once you get the hang of it, they become so easy. If you think you can’t, be encouraged, our seven year old has mastered the art of making them. You can do this! WARNING: Once you make these tortillas, you will never want to buy processed tortillas again! I use masa (corn soaked in lime water) so they are highly digestible and more nutrient dense. This gets combined with water and a little salt. You can find the organic masa that we use here, and the great thing about buying this masa is that the soaking has already been done for you. I have soaked my own corn if anyone is interested. You can watch the whole process of making tortillas here. We don’t have a “Martha Stewart” set up, and Kailey did some of this on our screened in porch (summer kitchen) so take us as we are. We just want to get the information out there! I really don’t enjoy getting in front of a camera so a big thanks to Kailey for creating this fun video! Please help her out by giving her a thumbs up or comment! It would make her day and encourage her to maybe do a few more cooking videos!