Going on a hiatus...

Seasons change, times change and thankfully people do too.  When you're a Mother you wear many hats in life, some mandatory and some that just create excess stress.  When my time is spent on thinking what will I blog about, what recipe will I fix to put on my blog, how can I get my stats up, on and on, it's time for a change....  Instead I should be thinking how can I make my husband's day better, or my children's day happier.  Most importantly, how can I draw closer to the Lord! I haven't read my Bible in the past 4 days, no, instead I've been reading and researching about things that don't really matter in life, in my life.  I make no money from this blog, so it's just a wasteful time drainer that I'm not willing to make anymore. Not that my blog was ever active, but I tried.

What got me thinking about stopping my blog was when I read about a woman getting cyber stalked.  Someone stealing and copying her blog.  It was very creepy to say the least!  If you put yourself out in this cold hard world, that is certainly the possibility!  I for one don't want to risk it anymore.  I'll stay here in the safety of my sweet family, that I know care about me and love me!

I'm not deleting my blog, not as of yet.  Maybe some of the posted recipes could be of help to someone.  Like I said before, times change, so until next time.....

Homemade Applesauce (Pressure Cooker recipe)

-2 bags of apples or 6 lbs, just mix and match varieties (I like it best with 3/4 sweet apples and 1/4 Granny Smith thrown in)
-1/3 cup brown sugar (or more depending on type of apples used)
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 cup water
-1 Tbls lemon juice
-pinch Kosher salt

Peel and core your apples.  Dump all ingredients into your electric pressure cooker and put on VEGGIE setting for 5 minutes.  You can leave it chunky, or if you have kids like mine, you need to puree it till it's smooth!  Enjoy :-)

Strawberry Syrup (and Jam)

This has got to be one of the best, most delicious syrups I have ever tasted-in my life!!  I don't remember where I found this recipe, but it was from the internet.

-2 LBS fresh strawberries, hulled

-4 cups white sugar

-1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh)

1. In large bowl, crush berries in batches till you have 4 cups of mashed berry.  (I use my Pampered Chef Mix 'n Chop).

2. In large saucepan, mix berries, sugar and lemon juice. Stir over low heat till sugar is dissolved.

3. Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a full rolling boil.

4. BOIL, stirring often,  for about 3-4 minutes  *TO FIX JAM* boil till mixture reaches 220 degrees, about 8 minutes.

5. Transfer to hot sterile jars, leave 1/4 - 1/2" headspace, seal.  Process 10 minutes in a hot water bath.

My first attempt at making homemade strawberry jam was an amazing, tasty flop!!  I'm so glad I messed the recipe up :-)

Strawberry Crepes

This makes a very rich breakfast dish, but so delicious! The recipe is from Taste of Home Magazine. I'm not sure of the issue number, I've had it for years and it's put away in my magazine mess :-)
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
FILLING:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
 
TOPPING:
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
2 medium firm bananas, sliced
1/4 cup sugar, optional


Directions: In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, milk and eggs. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. In an 8-in. nonstick skillet, melt 1 teaspoon butter. Stir batter; pour about 2 tablespoons into the center of skillet. Lift and tilt pan to evenly coat bottom. Cook until top appears dry; turn and cook 15-20 seconds longer. Remove to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter, add butter to a skillet as needed. When cool, stack crepes with waxed paper on paper towels in between. In a large bowl, beat the filling ingredients until smooth. Spread 2 rounded tablespoonfuls on each crepe; roll up. In a large bowl, combine topping ingredients; spoon with crepes. Yield: 18 crepes.

 *NOTE* I top these with my homemade strawberry syrup. It's just a batch of homemade jam that didn't thicken all the way :-) I've discovered it makes the most delicious syrup, great for this recipe and great for a topper on ice cream, YUMM!!! I will look and see if I've already posted the recipe for homemade strawberry jam, if not then I will post it!

 Vicky

A Cherished Keeper: Restoring America's Biblical Foundations & Give Aw...

A Cherished Keeper: Restoring America's Biblical Foundations & Give Aw...: I recently attended a seminar by a well-known homeschool speaker .  In this seminar the speaker threw out some startling statistics that or...

REVIEW: Time4Learning.com

My oldest son recently had the opportunity to review this website. He is in the 6th grade. I'll tell you his thoughts on Time4Learning.com first, and then I will give you my thoughts! He said it was awesome! After asking him to elaborate, he said he loved the interactive things. He is a visual learner also, so this worked out great for him! He would eagerly do his schoolwork on his own, without me telling him too! I would often hear him laughing, he thought it was funny and cool! The most important thing about it was many times he covered a topic that wasn't covered in his class at public school. So not only was he getting a review on some subjects, he was learning important new facts!

Now what did I think of it? As a parent that has a very strict guideline of what is important in educational studies, I have to say that I was impressed with Time4Learning.com! Not only did my 6th grader enjoying watching the videos, but so did I! I would sit with him and watch many of the videos, it never seemed like tedious work, just fun! As a parent, I greatly enjoyed that I could sign into the account and make out lesson plans and print off extra assignments that corresponded with the subject matter covered that day! I got to review his quiz scores, work completed and also got to monitor his time spent on the website's virtual playground! The joy of the website is the laid out lessons that you can customize yourself. You can do as many as you want for the day and week.

The only tiny negative I have to say that is if you do use it entirely for Homeschooling, I would supplement some additional things, like handwriting, and of course additional reading. Not much of a negative! I love this website! It's great for Homeschoolers, or even for kids that need that extra reinforcement after school. I highly recommend this. It's one of the easiest, and funnest educational websites that I've found on-line. It has a very affordable, low monthly price that is sure to fit into everyone's budget.

Interested in learning more about Time4Learning.com? Click here and see for yourself what all the buzz is about!


Disclaimer: The opinion expressed is my own personal thoughts. The content was not written by Time4Learning, but I was compensated.

Vicky

Lazy?

I read a blog post that got me thinking. Here's the link to the original post, there's a short clip of Working women calling all SAHM's (stay-at-home-Mom) LAZY! http://www.holyspiritledhomeschooling.net/2012/01/the-value-of-a-stay-at-home-mom/#comment-3264

Am I viewed lazy in the eyes of society, or even worse, in the eyes of the ones I love, my own family and friends? A couple weekends ago my in-laws came to visit us and we got a new fridge (well it was new to us, a used one!) and my MIL helped me switch everything over, actually she did most of the work! The old refrigerator was disgusting, I mean embarrassingly disgusting! I don't get embarrassed about much and boy was I embarrassed! I only clean out my fridge every 2 months, that means a deep cleaning, shelves/drawers. It was past due a cleaning then I had my back issues so that put it WAY overdue! My gracious MIL didn't blink an eye and got to work! No snide comments, no eye rolling, no vomiting, LOL! I'm definitely blessed to have her! You could then look around, piled up laundry (even though I honestly do laundry at least 5 to 6 days a week!) cluttered house. I do wonder if people think I do anything around here!

It's just not possible to have a spotless house when you live in it. By saying that I mean when you live in it, have little people going around making new messes, dirtying up new clothes, dishes, you name it! I don't even want to talk about dirty bathrooms with four boys! Could I do a better job, sure, we all could improve on things! I'm going to try and get more organized, that will help with the clutter! I often wonder how a home does get dirty if there's nobody in it all day long!

If leaving dirty dishes in the sink after feeding your family a home cooked meal and enjoying talking and laughing with them makes me lazy, then I'm lazy! If having dirty clothes piled up in the laundry room while I'm outside playing with my kids makes you lazy, then I'm lazy! If having a cluttered filled house because you're too tired to clean it because you've spent the whole day playing with your little ones, then you guessed it, I'm lazy!

So maybe that is why working Moms view us SAHM's as lazy :-)