Fall Wreath

I made a wreath! I'm pretty proud of myself for wanting a wreath, gathering the materials, and actually making it! :) Here it is in all its glory:

It was pretty easy once I got started. I just wrapped a straw wreath in strips of burlap and glued it in place with my hot glue gun, and then accented it with flowers.

I made the flowers out of strips of fabric, which was surprisingly easy, once I got the hang of it. There are tutorials all over the internet, but basically I just cut strips about 1 inch wide and 12 inches long. Starting at one end, I wrapped each one around and around itself, gluing every inch or so, and then when I got to the end, I glued the last half an inch across the bottom of the flower to kind of seal it. I don't have any pictures of the process- sorry!- but it's really pretty simple.

I'm thinking about making a similar wreath for Christmas, but haven't decided for sure yet. I'll keep you posted!

Do you have a pretty Fall wreath? What kind of wreath are you envisioning for Christmas?

Living Words

Over the past few weeks, my kids have been memorizing Bible verses. They can easily recite 4 of them now, and they love to do it. It has been good for them in so many ways! I think it has made them more confident (they are always bursting to share the verses with everyone who enters our house!) and helped them with memorizing and reading skills. We have talked at length about the meanings of the verses and many important words in them (sin, trust, kindness, etc) and they have learned a lot. I've also been able to refer back to the verses at opportune moments (I feel much more purposeful when quoting, "Be kind to one another!" than saying, "Stop licking your brother and leave him alone already!!"), which helps to give them a better understanding of the verses, too.

But can I just say how much of a blessing it has been to me?? When my son runs up to me and says "The Lord is with me; He is my helper!" in his cute little 2-year-old way, my heart overflows with love- and thankfulness. When my daughter offers to set the table for dinner and says, "Mommy, I'm going to be your helper like Jesus is my helper!" I am humbled by the awesome work that His word is doing in the hearts of my kids- and in mine.

Don't get my wrong: memorizing verses has not turned my kids into perfect children. There is still a whole lot of disobedience and disrespect, along with the typical hitting, tattling, whining (oh, and licking!), and a host of other toddler behavior. But as we travel this road of motherhood and childhood together, I am so grateful for the gift of God's Word and the way He is weaving it into our daily lives.

Thank you, Lord, for Your living, powerful, awesome Word. Please help me to be faithful to share it with my children as my husband and I humbly and prayerfully attempt to raise them to know and love You!

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." -Hebrews 4:12

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Easy Black Bean Salsa

One of our favorite summertime snacks is salsa- mmmmm! On a hot day, a cold bowl of salsa and some tortilla chips make a perfect treat. We used to buy different varieties of salsa from the grocery store, which were enjoyable but always slightly lacking, and who knows what's in some of the popular brands (some of them have fairly basic ingredients, but personally I'd rather know exactly what the "Natural Flavor" is in my salsa rather than just hoping it's something good, ya know what I mean?). Plus, you can easily pay $4 (or more) for a jar of salsa, especially if you're buying organic. So I decided to attempt to come up with my own easy, fresh, healthy recipe and we ended up loving it!

The Black Bean Salsa Caper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 tsp capers with liquid
dash red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Add diced green pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add onion and cook until both peppers and onion are slightly browned, about 3 minutes more. Meanwhile, pour tomatoes with liquid into a bowl. Add capers, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add cooked peppers and onion. Add black beans. Stir just until combined.

Serve with tortilla chips or mix with cheese in a tortilla and heat in a skillet for fresh, easy, delicious quesadillas!

You Say Tomato...

This is our third full summer living in this house. The first year, our garden consisted of 2 lettuce plants that produced for a few weeks, then grew tall, skinny, and spindly, and dried up. Boo.

The second year, we planted seeds in a muffin tin indoors, hoping for about 24 plants in 6 different varieties of vegetables. About 10 of them actually turned into seedlings and got put into the ground... and all of them dried up and died before they turned into anything we could actually eat or even show off to anyone. More boo. I was very pregnant last spring (our little guy was born July 12th), so that's my excuse!

This year, I planted our garden in May. I bought 16 small plants (4 zucchini, 4 red peppers, 4 eggplant, and 4 tomatoes), stuck them in the ground, and have been watering them daily ever since with as much love and attention as I can muster up while also taking care of three small children. There have been a lot of hot days but also a lot of rain, so all of them are still alive, and some of them are even flourishing! (I'm so proud, can ya tell?)

Yesterday, I went outside to do some more watering, and lo and behold... tomatoes!!! 2 little green guys were peeking out at me from their leafy hiding places.

I can't even remember what kind of tomatoes I planted, and I have no definite ideas for what to do with them yet (other than slicing them up with some fresh mozzarella and fresh-picked basil, making some yummy bruschetta, and baking them stuffed with gorgonzola and bread crumbs- mmmmm!) but I am still so happy! There is something so gratifying about finally seeing the fruit of your labor. And I am so excited to have the opportunity to provide for my family in this way: frugally, organically, and deliciously! Now, if I can only narrow down my list of what I'm going to make with this impending deluge (I'm an optimist, I know!) of juicy, delicious Jersey tomatoes...

What's your favorite thing to do with fresh, ripe summer tomatoes?

Papertowel Confession

Okay, I have a confession to make. I'm addicted to papertowels. Or rather, I was addicted to papertowels. For as far back as I can remember, papertowels have been my friend. For any and every mess, my papertowels (I'm partial to Bounty Select-a-Size) were always there to comfort and help me. My kids spilled their juice: 5 papertowels. I splashed some water on the floor: 2 papertowels. Messy table after dinner: 3 papertowels. Hands wet after washing: 1 papertowel. Etc, etc, etc. My goodness! I can hardly image what my daily total was, no less my weekly or monthly grand total!

I'm not sure what made me re-think my papertowel usage. Perhaps a magazine article or blog posting or conversation with a friend. Whatever it was, a few weeks ago, I decided to attempt to cut back. And I did- drastically (or so I thought)! I cut our usage down to about a roll a week (I'm not sure exactly how many that is, but I know it was a lot less than we had been using.) I was so excited at our progress!

So how did I do it? Well, I just stopped reaching for a papertowel every single time anything spilled. I started using cleaning cloths more often and even leaving a drop or two of water on the counter or on my hands from time to time (gasp!) But after two weeks or so, I thought maybe we could do better. So I made a huge, monumental change. What was this gigantic change, you ask? I moved the papertowel holder from the countertop to under the sink. Yes, that's it.

It's been two weeks since I made the big change, and it's made a very noticeable difference. I would say that I have now been using about three papertowels a week, and even those are probably unnecessary. I used one to blot the oil off some fried eggplant cutlets. I can't remember what I used the others for, but I'm pretty sure I could have used a towel instead. For everything else, I've been using cleaning cloths (towels, dishrags, washcloths for cleaning up the kids after meals, etc.), and I think they almost always do a better job! I'm still adjusting slightly, but I can honestly say that I'm not in papertowel withdrawal!

I am proud to say that I have been (almost) papertowel-free for one month! Better for the environment and better for our budget... what's better than that?

Has anyone else taken on this challenge? Any advice to share?

Organic Anniversary

We have been on (almost) all organic meats and dairy for almost 10 months now! I also mix in as much other organic stuff as I can, depending on our budget and access to organic products. It seemed like such a daunting task when we started in February, but we've been doing great! All 4 of us have been eating more fruits and veggies and whole grains, too (and baby will be joining us soon- he's almost 5 months old already!).We're still working on it, but so far so good! I love feeding my family. :)

Food, Inc.

My husband and I watched the documentary Food, Inc. last night. WOW. What an interesting program, eye-opening... and rather depressing. It definitely did motivate me, however, to put some thought and effort into trying to improve my family's diet.

We already eat fairly well, I think, but could definitely stand to do better, and to consume more veggies. I've really made an effort to make sure my kids are eating well, but it's been getting harder the older they get. At 3, M has become a much pickier eater and would probably happily eat a diet of only pasta and peanut butter and jelly, but she does love fruit and she will eat beans, lentils, and vegetables if you "encourage" her too, so... she's a work-in-progress. So far, E will eat anything you put in front of him, so I'm trying not to rely on pasta and the like too much for him so that he'll continue to desire and enjoy a well-rounded diet.

Since last night, I've started to do a little research, and our plan is to attempt to switch to organic produce and meat, and to switch many of our other products over to products that don't contain high fructose corn syrup and are healthier in other ways, too. It's a big task, but I just have to think that the results will far outweigh the difficulty of the task. We'd like to do it by the summertime, and hopefully by then we'll have some produce growing in our own garden, too. We'll see how it goes!