Too good

I'm an avid Avett Brothers fan. Their talent seems endless! Plus, I've discovered the world of Mumford and Sons. Oh my, I just want to bust out the fiddle and jam with people! Talent talent talent....

Here they are at the grammy's. This video is too good to not bring into the blogging world. Enjoy.

What have you read lately?

One of my favorite past times is reading.  I have about thirty blogs in my favorite folder, ranging in categories of homeschooling families, printable worksheets, food (okay, I might have a tiny bit more in my food folder than the rest of them), and even how to manage laundry.
If you were to come take a look at my bookshelf you'd see I wear my heart on my sleeve.  The vast majority of my books are book studies covering the Word of the Lord.  My Bible studies and all things breaking it down into terminology that a second grader could comprehend are on my shelf. Beth Moore, Kay Arthur, many notes from my years in Bible Study Fellowship, and numerous other authors line the shelves.  It's good to keep them around to dust off the perpetually pregnant brain of mine so I'm not walking around saying "Who was that guy in a basket?  In the weeds or grass or whatever?  No.. .it wasn't Jesus... wait, did that happen to Him?"  Oy, yes that'd be me.

Second in line are my parenting/pregnancy books.  Swooooooooon... if I could collect them all!  Currently I'm in a study where we are reading Sheparding A Child's Heart and I walk away with my head churning in excitment of a new mommy-breakthrough.  "Focus on changing your child's heart and the rest will follow" sounds simple enough, but how do I do that?  Well this book has brought the light.  Love love love it.  And my blogs and blogs and blogs about women who have had natural births, who feed their families off the grid, who love on their babies without the constant complaint about them.  Like a breath of fresh air.  Ending the day on a positive note is good for the heart.


Ahhh, loving my quiet moment of blogging and reading.  All I need is a glass of ice water and some Avett Brothers to complete the night.

The Deli Lady told me to

I have become a bit more aware of what I'm feeding myself and my family.  Lately, I'm noticing that what I thought was the purest of foods has been tainted in one form or fashion.  My Great Value brand 'pure vanilla extract' listed 'corn syrup' as it's final ingredient.  What a bummer that it's so hard to find pure food with nothing more than what was grown and harvested without anything made in a lab. 

The kids and I were out and about today, nowhere near home, so I decided to get a nutritious lunch at the grocery store.  Guacamole, cheddar block cheese, 7 grain bread rolls, bananas, watermelon, water, and a deli meat.  I had purchased the Dean's brand of guacamole last month and it was so acidic it felt like I was eating Sprite, the burning feeling in your mouth after guzzling Sprite was just like a bite of Dean's guacamole.  Dad's guacamole never burned my mouth, what is in this stuff?  Let's just say 'avacado' was further down the list than I'd like to ever imagine it could be.  Disappointed and frustrated at wasting four bucks, I threw it away.  Today I purchased a guacamole that was 95% avocado and 5% seasoning.  Bingo!  All three kids ate it, score! 

Then I tried to purchase deli meat.  Ham was on sale for $3.99 a pound!  WOW!  When's the last time any meat was on sale for such a cheap price?  However, I had read that many meats are injected with a salt water solution and flavoring built in a lab, so I asked the lady if there was anything funky in the meat or if it was just 'honey and salt, the way our grandparents cured pork?'  Low and behold she printed off a page worth of sodium byproducts that you can't grow in granny's garden.  In the end, the honest lady said "Even I don't eat this stuff."   Somewhat dumbfounded, I ordered a half a pound of the ham, went down the aisle, had a major case of 'protein vs funky chemical salt stuff' guilt and took the ham back to the counter.  "I changed my mind.  Can I give this back?"  She took it back and smiled at me.

This morning we had plain cereal, milk, and Mandarin oranges.

Last night we had 100% beef hamburger patties, pineapple, and broccoli with some cheese.
Lunch yesterday was beef and rice burritos (except Ernest actually said 'spicy' through a grimace and had a peanut butter sandwich, bless his heart!)
Breakfast yesterday morning was, get this, oatmeal with prunes, cinnamon, honey and molasses, and milk to make it creamy, a trick Aunt Patty taught me.  The kids gobbled this down and asked for more. 

Tonight we had a quick hamburger patty with fruit and pinto bean hummus (yes, it is definitely something to try, I'm starting to believe any bean would work for hummus).  Plus I've been putting curry powder on the hamburgers.  I read somewhere that we should eat more curry because it's good for you, yada yada yada.  One step at a time and God see's I'm trying right?

And, on a side note, I've been doing some easy peasy what-are-you-80-years-old? exercises on my stability ball and Ethan and Ernest do them right alongside me on the floor.  Cute cute cute!  I feel my thighs toning up!  I just might be able to not blind anyone in a bikini next summer!    get into a one piece all black don't-even-look-my-direction bathing suit next summer!