Why I am removing my facebook page

I will leave you with this adorable picture of the husband and I

Boy, where to start......This hasn't been an easy decision by any means.  First I am a conversationalist, I love to visit with people face to face and if I can't do that than a phone call.  Texting is okay, I feel like I can't get everything out that needs to be said sometimes.  :/
Since being someone who likes to be in conversation, if I start something on facebook or comment, I need to make sure I am not being rude and can respond to people if necessary.  So, I have to check it often, which can be time consuming or takes away from how I need to be caring for my family.  I removed the facebook app from my phone, and I felt a sense of freedom, it was awesome!!!  Then one of my teenage boys tells me about a loophole....I kept that in the back burner of my mind for a few days, but I knew I needed to respond to some school curriculum I had up for sale in a facebook group and I caved since one of my boys was doing school on the computer.  I just knew it would be easy, too easy to keep getting on.
  Another reason is very hard to admit and very, very personal.  I noticed I started dealing with fears I had never known before and was having anxiety. With the anxiety my mind would go a million miles an hour, going through the what-ifs.  I now realize some of what I was dealing with is adrenal fatigue.  Even though on the outside you would have never known.  I realized all these years later that the fears started up after making a facebook page and using it daily. I don't really watch news, years and years ago before facebook, as a young mother, when I would watch the news I noticed I would start to feel fear, well I just stopped watching it.  I am a Christian, so with that said I am constantly reminding myself of God's words concerning my situation. I am not saying we need to bury our heads in the sand and ignore all the bad stuff in the world, people need advocates to stand up and step in to help, pray and act. Although every part of me wants to just stay home, play with my kids (legos and blocks with the little boys and dolls with the girls), read Anne of Green Gables to my girls, watch some Little House on the Prairie and I can't leave out Paw Patrol!  I fully intend to go where God leads me, it might not be right away, I might fight it a little bit.
This probably seems a little extreme to some of you, and not everyone needs to remove themselves from facebook.  I do believe that everyone should do a facebook fast.  It really is quite freeing.This is just the season of my life right now.  I just want to love God, love and serve my family, love on those that God places on my path (maybe watch a little 'Little House on the Prairie.')
I have been thinking of doing this for a long time, but we moved to another state, it helped me stay connected with family and friends and help us meet new friends and gain knowledge of the city we live in.  I did over this past lent decide to do a fast and it was amazing!  I thought I won't find out important information, since we homeschool or staying connected with family and friends.  My phone was a piece of poop and was always not working.  I wouldn't receive text at all, no pictures would ever come through and on and on were the issues.  Well, I knew the Lord was calling me to do it, because my phone started working, people kept me informed.  Husband bought me a new phone and now I even have skype, A nice way to see those that I love dearly from so far away.
My hope is this may help someone else, if not it was free counseling for me, even if I couldn't see you reading this on the other side of the screen. :)

Helicopter Mom meet Drone Mom

I hope some of you moms can relate to this.  But, I also hope that we can get something positive out of  it.
  Before I get to the meat of the story and hopefully make some of you all feel better about yourselves and your parenting, let's discuss meditating on God's word. You know how you are studying scripture and maybe a certain verse/s or a word keeps coming to the forefront of your mind?  I find that I start to meditate on it and maybe do a little research on it.  Well, sometimes certain little scriptures keep popping into my head through-out the day.  Lately, mine has been Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.  This little verse, thankfully came to mind, in the nick of time.
  So without further ado, I will commence to humbling myself, with a story about myself.
  You know those days or moments when everything seems to be out of control and everybody "wants" something from you!? I was having said moment the other day. Let me paint you a picture of the scene.  My 2 year old, bless his heart, was trying to take his maple syrup drenched plate to the sink, all the while making a messy maple syrup trail, just in case he got lost, in order to get back to the table. I am not sure which is worse spilled milk or maple syrup.  Each spill takes several floor cleanings before the floor doesn't feel so sticky. Whoever coined the phrase "Don't cry over spilled milk," probably didn't understand how much milk was going to cost to a family of 9. Or how many gallons you go through. Back to the "moment."  Baby is crying. Older children still having school out and all over the table, while they decided they were hungry and needed to cook lunch. Kitchen/dinning room just was a good-ol fashioned mess.  I believe several other children were asking me questions and one was back-talking. Last straw!  That's it, that's when it happened! HULK MOMMY!! Hulk mommy. ANGRY! I quickly went from helicopter mom to drone mom-I will hunt you down!!!  Not sure if drone mom is a thing, if not it should be. I threw my yelling fit, as loud as I could.  In that moment, my verse came to me.  Psalm 118:24.  The words rang loud in my ear, loud enough to get through those green ears. It was the second part that had me stop right in my tracks and cool down. I will rejoice and be glad in it.  My heart was far from rejoicing. God doesn't mess around when He tells us to mediate on His word.  It saves us from possible screw-ups and failures.
As soon as I came to my senses I realized my back door was opened and our back-door neighbor had windows open. I instantly felt shame.  Repented and even apologized to my children. 5 minutes later, one of my older boys came to me and said, "you realize you were yelling very loud with our back-door open?" Yes, I admitted and humbling told him that I was ashamed of my actions.  I am not saying that we can never be angry or feel anger.  There is a proper way to react, and I did no such thing.
  Life is hard, but I find if I am rejoicing, it seems to be a happier place. Some little verses to mediate on.
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord. Psalm 104:34
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Philippians 4:8
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  Joshua 1:8
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.  Psalm 119:11
Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah  Psalm 4:4
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.  Philippians 4:13
Rejoice always; again I will say, rejoice.  Philippians 4:4

Chocolate hazelnut cream cheese spread

   While at my favorite store, I walked past the fancy cheese section and something caught my eye,  Picked it up and looked it over.  It had some kind of expensive name and an equally expensive price tag.  So, I read through the ingredients and thought I could easily replicate this bad boy!  Cream cheese, hazelnuts, and dark chocolate.  Yes, I know hazelnuts can be pricey, although you can add as much as you like, I only used maybe a half cup full. I bought mine from the bulk bin. The other ingredient I used this time was a few ounces of 85% dark chocolate, also from the bulk bin.
 I would show you a picture, but it looks like poopy doo!
 First thing I did was toast the nuts +350 Degrees  for about 10 minutes, although some of the skins weren't coming off, so I put them back in the oven for just a few more minutes.  Once cooled and de-skinned, toss in a food processor with a small handful of chocolate.  Process until chopped or use a hand held food chopper. Then I added the softened cream cheese in and mixed well.
  However, next time, what I think I would do differently is to process the nuts and the chocolate and remove to a storing container (or chop them with the food chopper) then process the cream cheese alone to make it light and fluffy. Lastly fold in the nut/chocolate mix.  So the mixture is white with little flecks of yumminess intertwined. I might also add a touch of stevia.
  I used this handsome spread to blanket over a low-carb tortilla, Trim Healthy Mama brownies, and THM sugar cookies.  Of course, not all at the same time.


    Ingredients:
     Block of cream cheese
     Toasted 1/2 C of hazelnuts
     A small handful of 85% dark chocolate

Waiting with Joy

  I will be happy when.....I will change my attitude when.......Fill in the blank there is always something.  I am so selfish sometimes.  I don't see the good that is right before me.  When I take the time to stop and just praise God for everything, my eyes are opened and I experience joy! I like to thank God for everything.  Well, everything that I can think of.  Once I get going I think of even the stuff that we are use to having on a daily basis and I feel such a gladness in my heart.  As I sat in my room I found myself thanking God for my baby girl's penny bank.  It is the cutest little pink and purple owl. When my children were babies or right before they were born I like to make sure they all have a penny bank.  Evie, didn't have one yet.  While grocery shopping at "the wal-marts" I found a cute penny bank.  Was so pleasantly surprised to see it was marked way down on clearance.  It is those little things.  God is so cool like that.

    We do so much waiting in our life time.  So, why not do it joyfully.  My Aunt recently shared another blog with me about waiting and at the end was the verse Psalm 27:14  Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! I couldn't stop reading that verse. Over and over I rolled it around in my head.  I wrote it on a piece of paper and stuck it on the fridge.  Whenever I was in the kitchen or at the fridge getting water I would just re-read it.  I meditated on it pretty much all day. I still can't get over how cool of a verse it is. I decided to look up what it meant in Hebrew.  Wait = qavah, to bind together (perhaps by twisting) When waiting we are suppose to keep our eyes on God, or from this I feel we are suppose to be so close to God, that we are attached to Him!  Whoa, this was amazing to me!  There is more. Listen to this.  Be of good courage = Chazaq, to fasten upon; to seize, be strong.  I don't know about you, but I think waiting takes a lot of strength, especially when there is uncertainty. When we are so strongly attached to God in those moments they don't seem so heavy.

  I in noway have the gift of always waiting gracefully, but I sure am going keep trying.

Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

Easy caramel sauce~caramel yogurt

To say I love caramel would be an understatement.  I have tried more than a handful of times to make a healthier caramel.  Some turned out okay, some I burned and stunk up the house. Then I came across this recipe and I have yet to mess it up.

True story; when we moved from Kansas to Arizona this summer my younger children actually made caramel in the car.  They took some sugar packs from the hotel room and decided to pour their bottle of water on the sugar packs in the console.  Since we were busy with unpacking and such, I didn't notice it until it caramelized; hard as a rock, sure smelled good though.

Grocery shopping one day, I seen in the yogurt section some greek yogurt with caramel and thought that sounds so yummy.  I looked on the ingredients list, fructose was the number one thing listed. Not good. I thought I can do this, one more try.  I was pleased as punch with the results.

Here's how

5 tsp of xylitol

2 Tbs of butter

3 Tbs of heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp of vanilla

1/8 tsp of sea salt

Combine xylitol and butter in a small pan on low/med heat. Stirring often until a nice brown color

It will smell heavenly, if you burn it you will know. I wasn't very good at keeping track of time, so maybe 4-6 minutes.  Just watch it CLOSELY!

Add cream and stir constantly for one minute. This causes the mixture to bubble.

After a minute remove from heat and add vanilla and salt.

The longer you let it sit the thicker it gets.  If you don't use it all up place in the fridge, may need to reheat in the microwave for a few seconds to loosen it up.

I chopped up some 85% chocolate with my pampered chef  chopper.

Ta-da! It really doesn't take that long to make such a yummy snack.

Here's another look for you to drool over before you go make your own.

If you were wondering, I did get the caramel cleaned out with a lot of elbow grease and mutterings under my breathe.  

Note: I use Fage Greek 0% yogurt

   

Very easy fish tacos

Taco Tuesday meets brain food!

Very simple to make fish tacos

Ingredients:

2 pounds of flounder (thawed)

taco mix (recipe below)

Taco toppings of your desire

coconut oil
Taco seasoning: 1TBS chili powder, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper
or use 6 tsp of the bulk taco seasoning recipe

1. Start by heating a large pan with the bottom covered in coconut oil.
2. I used kitchen scissors to cut the fish into even strips 
3. Place thawed fish in pan and cook on Med heat for about 10 minutes
4. Put taco seasoning on and stir.  Turn temp down to low and simmer for another 10 min.
5. That's it. Place on lettuce "shells"

Here is our favorite salsa recipe from the Pioneer Woman.  I just omit the sugar.

Homemade bulk taco seasoning

Every time I make tacos, I have to make my own seasoning.  I decided it would be better to make a bulk of it to save for future uses.  This recipe yields around 12 servings for 1-2 pounds of meat.  Simply scoop out 6tsp each time

Mix together

3/4 Cups Chili powder

3 tsp garlic powder

3 tsp crushed red pepper

3 tsp oregano

2 TBS paprika

6 TBS cumin

1/4 cup sea salt

2 TBS black pepper