Author: Wendy

Picture of the Week: The Lion Kids

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I walk to the store with the kids nearly every day. It’s not the most efficient use of time (or money) as opposed to buying big and freezing, but I don’t like not leaving the house at all on a day, especially as the weather gets nicer. I also don’t like walking without a destination in mind, so this is the system that works for us.

On the edge of the store property, there are two rocks that look just like those in The Lion King, and every time we walk by, the boys ask if they can climb on them. About every third time, I let them. Last night was one such time.

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I hope your weekend is full of God’s wonder.

–Wendy

Ups and Downs

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Nursing Small Fry hasn’t been as easy as it was with his brothers. I didn’t gain any weight when I was pregnant (none!), and my doctor said that when women don’t gain, it can take longer for their milk to come in. That was the case for me. We had to supplement with formula for the first two months, which was hard for me. I felt like I wasn’t providing properly for him. I know that’s ridiculous because formula is a perfectly acceptable form of infant nutrition. But it wasn’t acceptable to me. Feeding him formula felt like giving up on some level.

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I write about that today because he and I experienced something similar yesterday. He was sick.

But not really.

He’s 10 1/2 months now, and still nursing several times a day. I love spending that time with him, especially at naptime or at the end of the day when his eyes are droopy and he’s still. Yesterday, he would throw up violently every time he nursed. He was able to keep solids down and was happy as a clam all day. But there was that pesky vomiting that lasted about 20 hours.

I know in my head that it wasn’t my fault; he probably just had a tummy bug. But having him be unable to stomach the milk felt like a throwback to his early weeks when “I couldn’t provide fully” for him.

Fortunately, he was fine this morning and didn’t lose his morning “meal.” Mama feels better that way too.

–Wendy

Homemade Ketchup

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We ran out of ketchup last week, and as I was writing the word on my grocery list, I thought, “I bet I could make that.” So I looked online and found a recipe that took two hours instead of two days and bought the ingredients instead of a bottle of premade. It was a bit more expensive this time because I only had about half the necessary spices, but next time it will be super cheap :).

So here we go. Recipe courtesy of JS Online.

Ingredients:
2 cans (28 oz each) whole tomatoes OR 3 pounds roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 yellow onion, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar (more or less to taste)
1 stick cinnamon
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole cloves
1/2 tsp celery seeds
6 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne (more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp salt

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Blend the tomatoes, with their juices, along with the onion and garlic (half at a time so as not to overload your blender) until smooth. Pass the liquid through a mesh strainer, pressing with the back of a spoon as necessary. Discard solids.

*I don’t have a mesh strainer, so I skipped this step, and my ketchup is still delicious. It’s just not as smooth as factory ketchup. So know that if you opt out of this step, your ketchup won’t be ruined.

Pour tomato mixture into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

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Continue simmering until it’s reduced by half. This will take 1-2 hours.

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Meanwhile, combine all other ingredients in a second saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar and turn off the heat. Let it sit while the tomatoes continue to reduce.

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When the tomatoes have reduced by half, strain the spices out of the the vinegar; discard the whole spices. Stir the vinegar into the tomatoes.

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See that black line in the middle? That’s my vinegar mixture :).

Continue to simmer the ketchup, stirring occasionally (but be careful not to let it burn!), until it is thick. This will take about 20-40 more minutes.

Taste for salt and spice, adjusting to your liking.

Let cool, then transfer to jars. The ketchup will keep in the fridge for 2-3 months.

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I got 2-16 oz jars (a repurposed Alfredo sauce jar and a new jar). And let me tell you, this stuff is delicious! And the best part is that you can adjust it to your family’s liking. For example, I left the cayenne out altogether, but if you like spice, you can totally use more. It’s a wonderful recipe. It does take some time, but it’s not all hands-on time. Pay enough attention to keep it from burning, but other than that, it practically cooks itself.

I hope you “take the plunge” and try your hand at homemade ketchup once you run out of the commercial stuff :).

–Wendy

This Moment: Walking

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Inspired by Soule Mama

A Friday ritual. A single photograph – no words – that a capture a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, remember, savor.

“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.” ~Maria Edgeworth

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a comment with the link for all to find.

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Wishing you blessings this weekend.

–Wendy

Sourdough Bread

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I bet you thought I was gonna forget, huh? Lol. Since I make all posts from my phone, I don’t have them saved & scheduled; that’s why they’re not at the same time every day (in case you ever wondered).

Anyway, so sourdough bread… I love the stuff and have tried many times to make it at home, never with very good results. It’s always edible just never sour, no matter how long I leave my homemade starter out to ferment. I was reading a blog a couple months ago (I don’t remember which one unfortunately) and someone commented about Oregon Trail Sourdough. They have sourdough starter that they give (yes, GIVE) you for just the cost of a self-addressed, stamped envelope. So I sent off for a starter. I activated it as soon as I got it, and then just let it sit for a good long time. The trick with sourdough is that it takes way more planning than regular bread. Regular bread goes from raw ingredients to completely done in less than 4 hours; sourdough requires prepping the night before – sometimes 2 nights depending on whether you’ve had your starter in the fridge. Because of that, it took me probably a month between getting the starter and getting around to using it.

Here’s what my first step looked like. This is the starter, some flour, and water, which had to sit overnight before continuing to finish the dough:

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The other thing about sourdough is that you have to use glass or plastic, no metal. Well, I only have stainless steel mixing bowls, so it took me a while to figure out how I was going to make bread without buying a special bowl for the task. Then it dawned on me: the ceramic insert for my crock pot!

When you get to the dough stage, it looks just like any other white bread dough, so I don’t have a picture of that.

We’ve been dealing with plumbing issues in the kitchen (I haven’t had a sink since Tuesday…), and one of my loaf pans didn’t get washed before the sink fiasco, so I had to make half my dough into a loaf and the other half into rolls. Here’s the dough:

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And the finished product:

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The verdict? It’s a little bit more sour than regular homemade bread, but far less so than what’s at the store. I think I’ll leave my starter (it continues to grow, so unless I choose to get rid of it, I’ll never need another one) out of the fridge for a good week before I bake next time to see if I can a better flavor.

–Wendy

Summer Wardrobe

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We went shopping for new clothes yesterday. I’ve gotten a new item here and there, but never a completely revamped wardrobe before, so that was nice :). The kids’ clothes are fine – and we’d shop for them at Goodwill anyway, not Old Navy (since they wear out their clothes so fast, it’s too expensive to buy new for them) – so it was a day for hubby and me.

One slight disclaimer before I post the picture… we are striving toward a minimalist lifestyle. We’re not there yet, but we’ve made huge strides the past 18 or so months. Yesterday was a huge step in the “right” direction.

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I have these two dresses, which are the only items from my old wardrobe I’m keeping. They’re only about 2 years old, and I haven’t been able to wear them the past 10 months because in order to breastfeed Small Fry, I had to switch to skirt/top combos.

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These are the new clothes. I got those two skirts (which replace 4 old skirts), 2 black camis, and one white cami. The tops replace 2 white ones and a brown one from before. But the Old Navy ones feel much better than their WalMart counterparts.

I also got a Coobie Bra. No picture of that ;). But seriously, if you’re in the market for new bras, I highly recommend them. This is my first one, and I love it. It’s seriously the most comfortable bra I’ve ever worn, and with a price tag of only $22, they’re comparably priced to a traditional bra. I definitely plan to replace all of my bras with Coobies, one at a time over the next couple of weeks.

You may notice something “missing” from my wardrobe: jeans. Outside of my pajamas, I haven’t worn a pair of pants in years. I don’t even think about it anymore. To keep warm in the winter, I just wear tights.

So that’s it :). And if you’re curious, hubby’s gone minimalist, too. I don’t have pictures of his clothes because he left before I could snap them this morning, but he now has 2 pairs of (identical) pants, 1 dress shirt, and 2 t-shirts. His goal is to get another dress shirt and maybe some better casual shirts. He’s a pretty semi-formal kind of guy, though, so it still remains to be seen what his final shirt selection will be. As for shoes, he has 2 pairs (shoes and sandals), and I have 3 (shoes, sandals, and rain boots).

On the agenda for tomorrow: sourdough bread 🙂

–Wendy

This is What Happens…

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when Mommy gets distracted:

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Doesn’t he look guilty?

I was sweeping the living room yesterday and forgot that Small Fry is officially a crawler now. Munchkin had left his ink pad out on the floor of the dining room (adjacent to the living room), which I didn’t notice in time. Loose ink pad + crawling baby + distracted mom = disaster waiting to happen!

Fortunately the ink came off the floor and the baby with just water and a rag. It’s still underneath his fingernails a little, but it’ll eventually wear off. I hope.

Off to the Zoo

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For Christmas last year, we promised our kids trips instead of buying them toys that would get played with for a week and then forgotten. It’s something we’d always talked about doing but never actually done; in our “poorer” years, it was easier to have a Dollar Store holiday than to make promises we couldn’t keep. We gifted them three trips: roller skating (which we did in January), a trip to the lava caves of Mount St. Helens (still to come – we’ve been told that’s a summertime activity), and a trip to the zoo. We did the zoo last Monday with my in-laws.

There were the “normal” animals…

Bears…

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Monkeys…

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Cougars…

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And my personal favorite, elephants.

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The baby, “Lily,” was born just last year. This was our first time seeing her. Even though she’s an elephant, she definitely had “baby” qualities. So adorable!

The African exhibit (which is my favorite, outside of the elephants – our zoo has Asian elephants) had giraffes:

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There was a body of water (lake? pond? puddle? I’m not sure…) in the giraffe enclosure that, as Seahawk pointed out looked a lot like a giraffe head and neck, so I snapped a picture of that too.

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There were also the obligatory sleeping hippos:

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And flamingos. Yes, flamingos! I’d never seen them before; they were absolutely gorgeous birds. They even stood on one of their spindly legs like their stereotype. I suppose they’re stereotyped that way for a reason.

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When they opened their wings, I was surprised to see that the tips were black. The black wingtips on the pink birds was absolutely gorgeous.

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In the mongoose exhibit, they had a tunnel that kids could crawl through and be part of the exhibit.

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There was a model of a bald eagle’s nest you could climb in. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t life size, though.

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The zoo also boasts several statues for kids to climb on throughout.

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I remember playing on some of them when I was a kid!

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A lunch in the zoo cafe let me know why my mom always packed a picnic when I was a kid. Whew, that was overpriced! Lol!

That’s a pretty good overview of our trip :).

What’s your favorite zoo animal?

–Wendy

This Moment: Tired

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Inspired by Soule Mama.

A Friday ritual. A single photograph – no words – that capture a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, remember.

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find.

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Have an amazing weekend!

–Wendy

Eight Down, Four to Go…

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It’s amazing how much faster sewing projects go when you have a working sewing machine! Here are the next four Sunbonnet Sue All Year blocks for my quilt.

January:

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July:

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September:

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November:

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The marshmallow in the July block is actually a hot dog in the book, but I didn’t have any fabrics that would make a convincing looking frank. When I asked the kids for thoughts, Seahawk had the brilliant idea of making it a marshmallow instead. I’m raising geniuses! Lol!

–Wendy