Daughter of a King

For girl's camp this year the stake had the theme, "Daughter of a King."  They asked each ward to have the Young Women learn the song "Daughter of a King" by Jenny Phillips.  The very first time I heard the song it brought tears to my eyes.  I just wished that everyone of those young ladies knew this and believed it.  The lyrics to the song are so true.  This world would be such a different place if everyone heard and believed that they are a Daughter (or Son) of a King, and not only that, but a King that knows them each individually, and loves each of us.  

For a few months we practiced this song, (and I had a hard time staying dry eyed) then when it came time to go to girl's camp we all had it memorized.  I had the opportunity to go up on testimony night and all of the girls in the stake performed this song for us.  Oh what a spirit it brought to the meeting!  We had an opportunity to sing it again this week in Sacrament meeting and my girls did such a WONDERFUL job!  

I wanted to share this with you, and I wish that I had a video of my girls singing it for you, but I don't, just know that they sounded like a choir of angels.  

I hope that as you listen to this song, you will know and remember that you too are a daughter of a King, a Heavenly King, who know and loves you.

~Rachel~

Blackberry Syrup

I always loved to have pancakes for breakfast when I was growing up.  Mom was a great mother, who always seemed to have a hot breakfast before school.  I am still not sure how she did that while trying to get 8 children and 1 husband off to school and work, but she did, I still think she might be Wonder Woman.  After I moved out they planted blackberry bushes.  These bushes are amazing!  They grow so many blackberries each year that my family gives them away by the bucketful.  This also gave my Mom a good excuse to come up with recipes to use all of these blackberry that started taking over their freezer.  One of my favorites is Blackberry Syrup, to go with my favorite breakfast of pancakes.

I am sure that you could also replace the blackberries with raspberries, and sometimes I do half black/half raspberry.  Either way, it is de-lish!

Blackberry Syrup

1 1/2 C. Blackberries (fresh or frozen)

2 C. water

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/2 C. sugar

In a saucepan, add blackberries, 1 1/2 C. water, and sugar.  Take the remaining 1/2 water in a small bowl (I just use the 1 C. measuring cup that I have already used) and add the cornstarch.**  Mix the two together with a fork until nice and smooth.  When the water in the saucepan starts to boil, add the cornstarch mixture to thicken the syrup.  Let it boil for about 1 minute, or until it becomes as think as you like.  

Spoon hot syrup over pancakes and enjoy!  Store extra syrup in a glass mason jar or airtight container in refrigerator.

**Whenever you are mixing water and cornstarch use cold water.  The cornstarch with mix together without any lumps.  If you use warm/hot water you will not be able to get the lumps out very easily. And no one wants to eat a chunk of cornstarch! 

The pancake recipe I got from Heather, and my family loves it.  I make them with half white flour, half fresh ground wheat flour.

Pancakes

2 C. Flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 C. milk

2 eggs

2 Tbsp. oil

2 Tbsp Vinegar

Mix the first four ingredients together.  Add the milk, eggs, oil, and vinegar.  Heat pan to a medium heat.  Pour about 1/2 C. pancake mixture into pan.  Flip pancake when the bubbles have popped.  

Top with blackberry syrup and eat a little bite of heaven!  

P.S. It is okay if you lick the plate clean afterwards, there are people (not naming any names) that do that in my house.  

~Rachel~

BEST Way to Shred Chicken, Beef, Pork, or Really Anything

I absolutely love cooking.  More than that, I love finding things to make it easier.  A couple of nights ago, I went to a Taste of Home cooking show and loved it! She showed us many delicious recipes and cool new gadgets.  What really caught my attention was when she went to shred the pork she had cooked.  Since she was all about time and doing everything quick, she didn't reach for two forks, or knives.  She grabbed something I own myself, but never imagined of using.

She used a KitchenAid, but any blender/mixer will work.  She used the attachment showed in the picture and set the piece of meat in the bowl, turned it on, and vwala (however that is spelled) shredded meat!!! Best moment of my life! Not really, but it was pretty amazing! Try it out, and when you love it, thank Taste of Home.

Melanie

Cheap House Updates

    We are doing some changes in our house I wanted to share.  These are easy things that can be done by anyone, on any budget!  These things can make all the difference in the world too!  The first one I have done is our powder bathroom downstairs.  I was a nice beige color, but it was painted in the builders grade flat paint.  I HATE flat paint! 

 

 

This only took me about 4 hours total and 2 coats of paint.  I used a semi-gloss paint in here because it is the main bathroom my little boys use (enough said I hope) and our friends use when they come to play.  This will make it easy to wipe walls and keep clean.  I did use Benjamin Moore paint at Ace Hardware for about $30.00, but I also really like the Walmart brand paint which is only about $17.00!  I guess I should probably tell  you all the color of the paint too, just in case you love it too!  It is "Bourbon" from Lowe's 'Autumn Harvests of the Appalachians' collection.  Now, I can't guarantee it is still there.  I have honestly had this swatch taped to my bathroom wall for almost 4 years.  I don't know what I was waiting for!!!!

 

 

 

Another one I am currently working on is re-staining our fence.  We have one of those cedar fences that most of the people I have seen in the south just let weather and turn gray.  I am not a fan of that.  I feel if you are going to spend the $2-4,000 on the fence, you should keep it maintained by staining it.  For around $90.00 and about a days work of labor, you can do that.  I have always used the McCloskey brand of stain before and used a $15.00 sprayer, but this time around I was not able to find that brand of stain ANYWHERE!  I ended up having to use the 'Flood' brand.  It looks like paint so don't be alarmed like I was when I opened it up.  I am using a small roller because it would not work in the sprayer, but the roller is working very well!  The stain is going on beautiful too. 

 

                          

The section in the middle is what the fence looked like before I started staining!  Down the side and to the right are the color after.  What a difference, huh!  (Can you see the neighbors grey fence?  They have not ever stained their fence and they had theirs put in several months after ours.  I stained ours originally about 3 months after we were in the house and this is only the second time I will have done it, so you can see how well it has been protected).

 

So, I finally finished staining the fence today!  It has taken me a little longer than a day!  but, can you see the difference between my fence and the neighbors?  Do you see why I say spending $90.00 is worth it to keep your fence looking nice?  Fences like this will cost anywhere from $2,000-$4,000 depending on the size of it, so why would you want to let it just weather and turn grey?    Anyhow, I will get a better and closer picture once my husband has mowed the lawn!  Ha, ha!



 

    Do you have any walls that look like this behind the door?

 



What about even worse, like this?

 

We do have doorstops on all of our doors, however, the doorknobs are still banging into the walls creating lovely little, or large dings and holes in the wall.  So here is what you do:

 

For a small one, you can get soft doorstops.  Walmart has packs of 2 for just $2.97.  Get a small container of putty, which will probably be enough to fill all of the dings in your home.  Again, you can get one for about $3.97.  Fill in the hole with the putty and let it dry.  Repaint over it so the soft doorstop will stick.  Once it is all dry, hold the soft doorstop equal to the doorknob and slowly push it to the wall until you get it pushed on tight.

Here is the final product.  Works like a charm and you shouldn't end up with a giant hole!

 

The larger hole will take a little more effort.  You will need to get a wall hole repair kit.  You can purchase this from anywhere that sells home supplies- Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, Walmart, etc.  It costs about $10.00.  Here is what you'll do from there:

 

1.  Once you have your kit, sand down any rough edges around the hole.  Then attach the repair metal square, sticky side to the wall, over the hole as centered as you can.

2.  Apply a generous helping of plaster/putty over the top of the metal sheet.  You may have to let it dry as I did and do a second coat of it.

3.  After your 1st or 2nd coat is dried and you do not see the mesh plate or any sign it was there anymore, sand down the putty until it is smooth.  Wipe off the area and the wall area around it and paint over it.  Then you are able to follow the same steps as the smaller hole to apply the soft doorstop.



 

~Stacy~

"Judge Not"

I had a eye opening experience a while back. It's funny my whole life I've been taught not to judge others...and yet I find myself succumbing to that a lot...sadly to admit. The blog that I LOVE, Maskcara, wrote a great post on it here, I think she puts it perfectly that women are amazing! The reason we can be a little mean or in this instance -judge- is because the ugly green monster comes out and we are a little jealous of what other have or what they do...so we tend to pick at people's faults, I guess you could say, or at least try to find some because it'll make us feel better about ourselves.  There are a few quotes that have stuck out to me lately as I've been thinking about all this:

For a while there I would compare myself with a certain someone. I would just think how easy life is for them! It seemed like EVERYTHING was handed to them on a silver patter, good looks, cute clothes, nice car, amazing house.... I would a lot of times feel bad for myself for silly reasons, like "we work so hard and try so hard, why can't we have that...or do things like." And then I found out the "behind the scenes" and realized I am extremely blessed! I couldn't believe what this person has gone through, and it made me feel like the worst person in the whole world to ever think a negative thought towards this person. At the snap of the fingers I was extremely happy for them...for what they have and what they get to do. It has made me feel even more blessed for the things I have, an extremely loving husband who works hard to support us, a healthy little girl, roof over our head, food, clothes, a loving family that I am so close with, good friends...and the list goes on. It has certainly been an eye opener for me, and I hope to be better...and more kind.

The day after I had this realization I found this talk by President Monson that is just amazing so I thought I'd share it with you. This part of the talk was just what I needed to hear. (I included the rest of the talk also, if you wanted to hear it.)

"None of us is perfect. I know of no one who would profess to be so. And yet for some reason, despite our own imperfections, we have a tendency to point out those of others. We make judgments concerning their actions or inactions.

There is 

really no way we can know the heart, the intentions, or the circumstances of someone who might say or do something we find reason to criticize. Thus the commandment: "Judge not."

I consider charity—or "the pure love of Christ"—to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not at this moment have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper. Tonight, however, I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient."

--Michelle--

Young Women- Personal Progress Tracking

    I was put into my wards Young Woman's program about 3 1/2 years ago as the secretary.  At the time, they were not really keeping track or having a lot of progression with their personal progress.  I thought maybe if there was a visual reminder and reward system (in a way) that might encourage them to work on it.  I thought I would try a sticker system and every time they would pass off one of the experiences and/or projects we would place a sticker on the chart.  I go a couple of poster boards and started working.  So the specs of the poster are this:
  Top area and bottom area are 7 1/2 cm
  Name slots 2.2 cm in length by 9 cm wide
  Each experience and project slot is 1 cm wide- you will need 54 of them.



To make all of this fit, you will want to turn the poster with it turned wide, not long for all of them to fit.  I used a sharpie between each name slot and in between each each value.  I also used a sharpie on the slot for the projects.  The rest of the slots, I just used a black pen.  This way, I could tell the difference between the values to place the stickers on.  The first version, this is as far as I went, but I think I have perfected it in the past 3 years.  Here are the other suggestions I would suggest to add.
       At the beginning of each value, at the top of the slot, add a small letter to indicate the value in that section.  I used the color of the value too.  Faith- F (Black since it's a white board!), Divine Nature- DN (Blue), Individual Worth- IW (Pink or Red), Knowledge- K (Green), Choice and Accountability- CA (Orange), Good Works- GW (Yellow), Integrity- I (Purple), and Virtue- V (Gray-also because most marker sets don't have gold!).  I learned this one because when one of our girls graduated or moved out, we would cut their name out and send it with them to remember.
     When I originally wrote everyone in, I left a couple of blank spots in between each group just in case we had any move-in's.  I also did put all of the leaders on the chart too because we really do encourage the leaders in our ward to work on Personal Progress with our girls.  I have learned that we need to have blank name inserts we can just put over a previous leaders name if they are released before they complete any of their things.  I have had to do this a few times now.
     The latest idea we have had is to cut each strip separately, laminate them, put a magnet on the back, and place it on a galvanized steel sheet.  You can buy the galvanized metal sheet at Home Deopt for $9.34.  We have recently had one girl graduate, two girls move out, one girl baptized, two girls move up from primary, and two new leaders brought in.  Needless to say, they were not all right in a row.  This would mean a lot of chopping and taping of the poster, thus evolved the magnet board.  This way, when someone from the middle group moves in or out, you will not have to cut up and repair the poster.  You can make several extra so when you get new beehives, you can just add them to the bottom!



   So here is our final poster with all of the stickers attached (minus the names for security purposes!).  This worked so well for our group of girls.  You will be surprised how inspiring a few stickers can be towards reaching a goal!  We have had 5 girls completely finish in just 3 years with 3 more within a few more experiences or projects of it! 

I finally finished the magnet board part of the poster!  Doesn't it look awesome?  It did cost a little more than I had planned on.  The sheet metal at the actual store of Home Depot was $19.97, not the $9.34 as advertised online.  We needed an extra 4" and a 12X8" piece was $7.97.  I used a white picture frame molding that was about $0.71/ foot for the front. 



The back side, I used 1/4" pine plain trim and attached it with screws and finishing nails.  I attached the wire hanging brackets to be able to hang the entire display on one of the doors in the Young Women's room.

 

Hope this can help your group too!

~Stacy~



Homemade Salsa

There are some things that I just love about going home to visit.  One of my favorite things is my Mom's cooking.  She is seriously my inspiration in cooking.  Everything she makes is WONDERFUL!!  I love to eat at her house.  I hope that one day my kids will feel the same way about my cooking, because I sure do try to be like my Mom.

My Mom cans the greatest salsa every year, and I LOVE IT!  So do my husband and kids.  So a few years ago I decided that I needed to plant my garden according to what I needed for the salsa.  And that is exactly what I did, and still do (plus a lot more).

My garden is finally getting to the point where I can harvest enough tomatoes and peppers to make salsa.

Terry's Salsa  :)

7-8 qts tomatoes                                                            1 1/2 C. lemon juice or vinegar
5 C. chopped onions                                                      1 1/2 T. ground oregano
1 C. chopped green bell peppers                                    2 T.  ground cumin
1 C. Anaheim peppers                                                    2 1/2 T. onion salt
1/4-1/2 C. Jalapenos                                                      2 T. garlic salt
1/4 C. Cayenne peppers                                                 1 bunch fresh cilantro
2 cloves fresh garlic                                                         1 C. sugar

Blanch and skin tomatoes.  Puree the tomatoes.  Simmer onions, peppers, garlic, and tomatoes for several hours.  You want to cook off a lot of the watery-ness that comes from the tomatoes.  When it gets to the consistancy that you like add the rest of the ingredients.  Put in clean, hot jars.  Give them a hot bath for 22 minutes after the water starts boiling.

I had a hard time finding Anaheim and Cayenne peppers this spring when I was planting my garden, so I just planted 4 different kinds of peppers, including green and jalapenos, and used what I planted.  I think that it turned out really good, even though it was not exactly the right peppers.  I always leave out enough salsa for us to eat over the next few days.  This time, as the hubby was eating his chips and salsa (almost finished half the bowl by himself) he commented that this was the best salsa I have ever made.  So really, add peppers that you like.

I decided that I would get as many canned as I could and give them as neighbor gifts this year.  Otherwise, with baby #4 coming just a little before Christmas season, my neighbors would not get anything.  So I hope I can get enough tomatoes before the freeze hits!

Family Calendar

    Anyone and everyone's life can be busy, and may need visual reminders, but I know my life started to need the visual reminders once my oldest started school and sports.  This just got busy and I was afraid I was going to start missing things.  I had the idea to get the big Calendars I have seen the teachers have in their classrooms and laminate it so I could redo it each month with our family events.  I drew a little square in the top right hand corner of each day with a sharpie marker before I laminated it to act as the "Date" box.  I have assigned each family member a color so at a glance, we can tell who has what going on.  I personally got 2 of them so we can always stay a month ahead.  I have the current one on the front of my pantry door and the next month on the inside part of the door, that way, if something comes up for the next month, we can just pull out our marker and add it in.  We have been doing it for about 2 years now, and it has worked wonderfully!

~Stacy~



Blackberry Peach Freezer Jam

This weekend, I was at my in-laws house, where there were 6 ladies.  What usually happens when you get that many together? Well in my case, it is usually cooking! Which I love, so it is always bound to be a good time.  When I got there, there was fruit everywhere the eye could see and some major plans for jam.  Jams of every kind! It seemed like the more time we spent in the kitchen, the more creative our minds became.  Someone came up with the brilliant idea of making blackberry peach jam.  Delicious? I'd say so! Of course we didn't have blackberries, so we couldn't go through with the plan.  I'm pretty sure I lucked out though because when I went to my parent's house to visit them, I was just in time to help them pick blackberries.  4 gallons later, I was counting down the minutes to when I could get home to make my own blackberry peach jam.  As life usually happens, when we got home, there were more important things to do than making jam.  But this morning I woke up early so I could make it before anything else took priority, and now I have to admit, I am in love.  Wow! This stuff is amazing!! Not only is it delicious, but it is super easy too!! I am so glad for those creative minds, who come up with ideas like this. 

Blackberry Peach Freezer Jam
1 package of Sure Jell premium fruit pectin
1 1/2 pt blackberries, which is 2 cups crushed
1 1/4 lb peaches, which is 1 1/2 cups finely chopped peaches
7 cups sugar

Wash and rinse the containers, which I used Ball 8 oz plastic freezer jars.
Prepare the fruit and mash it 1 cup at a time, with a potato masher or pulse setting on a blender.
Put measured amount of fruit in a large bowl.
Pour exact amount of sugar in the fruit and stir well.  Let stand for 10 minutes.
Stir 1 box of Sure Jell and 3/4 cup water in small saucepan.  Bring to boil and stir for 1 minute.
Add pectin mixture to the fruit mixture and stir until the sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy.
Pour into containers.  Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours, then freeze.
(These directions are out of the Sure Jell box).
Enjoy!
Melanie

Kids Chore Chart

   About 3 years ago, I came up with this chore chart for my oldest son, Evan.  He was only 5 at the time, so we started small with little things like getting dressed, brushing teeth morning and night, picking up his toys, minding, setting the table, unloading the dishwasher (only like the top or the bottom).  I drew fun pictures and added stickers on each of the chores so he could remember what they each were.  For minding Mom and Dad, I put pictures of mine and my husbands heads.  I also put a picture of him on his brother's chart for sharing. 

     When Preston turned 3, I made a chart for him also.  Since Evan was older, we needed to add a few more chores to his list, plus we got a dog who needed feeding.  I laminated the charts and put magnets on the back of the charts.  They stay on our fridges and I let the kids mark them with a dry erase marker.  Each of them has an "Extra Helping" slot at the bottom.  This can be anything from putting away their clothes, dumping garages, washing doorhandles and lights, helping weed, or anything else you might have for them.  They mark the chart with check marks, smiley faces, X's, circles, or any other shape they think is fun.  We pay them $0.01 penny per year that they are, per check.  So, for Evan, when we started, he got $0.05 per every check mark on the board.  I also give them $0.50 for each "Extra Helping" job they do since they are a little more difficult jobs than the others.    They really love this.  They get paid every Sunday night.  I make them put 50% of their income into savings, 10% into tithing, and 40% is left for them to spend on whatever they want to.

       Each year on their birthday, they get a raise, another penny.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but it does add up.  You can change their chores and the amounts they make as they get older.

 

 

~Stacy~

 

Amazing Banana Pudding

This always reminds me of Easter growing up. We would get together with our cousins and this was our Easter dessert. It's very easy to make, if you put it in a trifle bowl it looks really pretty, and it's a big hit! Everybody always loves it! This is the dessert I always bring to a dinner if we are in charge of dessert. Here's what you need:

1 Large box vanilla wafers
9 Large well ripened bananas
3 Small boxes banana cream pudding (cooked or instant)
5 Cups milk
1 Medium container coop whip

Cook pudding according to it's instructions. Crumble a third of the wafers in the bottom of the bowl, slice 3 bananas over the crumbs, top with a third of the pudding, and add a layer of cool whip. Layer twice more and finish with cool whip on top, forming peeks and swirls. To add a little bit more I added a few wafers on tops and crushed some and sprinkled over the top.

--Michelle--

You can now follow us on Pinterest! http://pinterest.com/moresisterstuff/

CTR towel

My nephew is being baptised this upcoming weekend.  I found this darling CTR towel tutorial and thought I would give it a try.  I LOVED it!  It is one of those wonderful projects that you can start and finish in 30 minutes.  I was completely nervous about making this, because it is something I have never tried before, working with wonder under, but it was easy!  I actually think that I am going to make up a whole slew of them, just to have on hand.  

Anywho, I just thought I would share a quick, cute gift idea.

~Rachel~

Framing kids artwork

I have a little girl who loves to draw and a little boy who loves to color, both of which also like to have all their artwork displayed where we can see it.  I am not a huge fan of having my refrigerator covered, so I don't put it there.  So where am I suppose to display their beautiful works of art?  for the last 2 years I chose to tape it up on the wall next to my sewing machine, since I spend so much time there.  But honestly, it just made the wall look tacky and the room even more cluttered than it already was, and well, I didn't need help with that.  Then one day while on Pinterest I came across this playroom gallery.  I loved it.  I have a big blank wall in my laundry/sewing room that I knew would work perfect.

My sewing room wall.

Old picture frames I gathered from around the house.  I didn't have nearly as many as I wanted so I took a little trip to the local DI (goodwill) and bought 4 more for .50 each.  Not bad.

One blessed day when my children were fighting constantly  (because they wanted to return to school so bad, you know that time of the year, right?) I sent them out to the garage with paint and brushes, clothed in paint shirts.  They were very excited to have a project that was not house work.  

After they finished as much as many they wanted and were playing together happily, I brought out the spray paint and finished.  Much easier, but they needed something to do.  My little artist came up to me and said, "Mom, why did you make us paint if you could have just sprayed all of them."  I just smiled at her and said, "Would you have rather painted or cleaned a toilet?" She ran off real quick.

After all the frames and clothespins were painted, 2 clothespins per frame, (I got mine at Walmart for under $2) I went inside and traced and cut out each from on Kraft paper.  

I laid my frames out on the floor to make sure I had them just right, then measured and hung the paper on the wall.  I started out trying painters tape, don't, it doesn't work.  I ended up using push pins.

After I had it just the way I wanted I got our my laser level, hammer, and nails.  

This is the wall now that all the frames are hung up.  I LOVE the way it turned out.  

I hung up the pictures taped to my wall.  Now I just have to wait for a little more art to come my way!  I am sure my daughter will be drawing up a storm over the next few days.

~Rachel~

Peaches!!

Peach season is right around the corner! Seriously one of my favorite times of the year...which makes me really sad that I am not in Idaho to enjoy that this year...and many to come. Luckily, a couple of the stores here have had great deals on peaches and I have loaded up! So I thought I'd share of few of the deliciousness of peaches, and things you can do with them.

 I made this peach bake for breakfast one morning, it was super healthy and really yummy! 

• 2 1/2 cups sliced peaches
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup shredded wheat, crushed 
• 2 tbsp brown sugar plus, and I used 2 little packets of Truvia sugar, which is a natural sweetener
• 2 tbsp applesauce
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• A couple spoonfuls of yogurt of your choice

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the peaches, lemon, cornstarch, cinnamon, 1/2 the salt, and 1/2 the sweetener in a bowl. Let sit for ten minutes. Meanwhile, stir the crushed cereal, remaining sweetener, remaining salt, and applesauce in a bowl until well-blended. Spread the peach mixture in a small baking pan, top with cereal mixture and cook for 45 minutes.

When it's done top off with yogurt and enjoy! **This made 2 servings

My very favorite way to eat peaches is peaches and cream, we usually have this daily when we have peaches. First you boil the peaches for like 30 seconds, and peel the skin off, take out the seed and slice up. And then you can either pour in real cream or I usually don't have real cream so I just put in milk and a couple spoonfuls of sugar and enjoy! It's so good because the peaches are still warm from being boiled, so it's the perfect combo!

**I've heard a trick that if you cut a peach down the middle opposite of the line that is already on the peach, then it's a lot easier to take the seed out. If you do it the other way, a lot of times the seed will split in half.

Another thing I do is boil them, take the skin off, slice them up and freeze them for shakes or whatever else in the future. One thing that came in handy lately, my daughter has been teething HORRIBLY, so I would cut up the frozen peaches into little pieces and she would chew on them, I'd like to think that helped with the pain a little bit.

Here's a few other things I've seen...but haven't tried yet...but will try because they look delicious!

Brown sugar baked peaches found here

Peach and blueberry crumble found here

                                     
Peach Dessert found here

I don't have a picture, throw in a half a peach with a couple scoops of ice cream and make a peach shake! YUMMO!

--Michelle--

 

 

 

I am going to add to Michelle's because I was going to do a "Peaches" post also!  I just finished making a bunch of my favorite peach treats this past week too!  Since I live right by the famous, "Georgia Peaches," I also LOVE this time of year.  They are DELICIOUS!  So my favorite treats are dried peaches and dried peach roll-ups.  So I will give you a quick intro to how to make them, if you have a dehydrator.  .  They are easy and yummy so your kids will love them.  My son would take a peach roll-up almost every day last year for his school lunch.

 

 

First, you have to blanch them (place in boiling water) for about 5 min.  This will help the skin to come of quickly and easily.

Next, cut them in half, remove the pit, then remove the skin.  Slice the peaches into thin slices.  Try to get them about 1/4" or less.  This will help them to dry faster.

Lay them out in a circular pattern around the tray taking up as much space as you can.  They will shrink a little as they dry.  Make sure to use the mesh liner to put the fruit on.  Once you have all of the trays filled, start the drier on 155° for 2 hours, then drop it to 135° for the remainder of time.  I will generally rotate the trays every 2 hours putting the bottom 2 on top each time.

This is what they look like after they are dried.  Go ahead and take them off the tray and put them in a ziplock bag.  I also then put that in like a plastic shoe box container so they don't dry out before they can be eaten. 

For the fruit roll-up, you will do the same initial process of removing the pit and skin.  Place the halves in a blender and puree.  I never add sugar or anything else.

Pour out evenly on the tray thickly.  Make sure to use the solid, plastic liner for these.  You do not want to see any of the tray through it.  Use the same settings for the drying times too (155° for 2 hours, 135° until dry).

This is what they roll-ups look like dry.  The trick with them is that once there is no more wet areas, you start getting out approximately 6" pieces of plastic wrap set on the counter.  Do not turn the drier off!  Only take one tray off at a time or your roll-ups will become brittle.

Tear them into half, and then tear each half into half.  Place 1/4 of the fruit on each tray at a time quickly rolling up onto the plastic wrap after.  I store this again, in one of the closed top shoe box size, plastic containers and they stay fresh for at least a year.  They are usually gone by then so I can't guarantee any longer!

~Stacy~





Health Corner

   I want to introduce an idea that we, the sisters, have discussed doing for a little bit.  We are going to call it "The Health Corner".  I am a nurse and have been now for almost 10 years!  I work in a NICU and have been a NICU nurse for 6 of those years, working post-pardum and nursery 3 before that and about 8 months in a Surgical Unit just after graduation.  I did take a year off to be with my boys after we moved to Alabama. just in case you are wondering why the numbers don't add up!  I have also been the sickest of the sisters and have had many weird aliments the others haven't experienced, some they have, and some I hope the others and other people can avoid or get help for if they knew where to look for it.  So, this is where this idea has sprung up from!

  I guess I will start by saying some of the ideas I have to share and then any feedback or questions from you all would be awesome.  Now please remember, I am no doctor and this is not your personal professional advice.  This is just things I have learned through my experiences and if you do have any of these problems/symptoms, you DO need to talk to your own physician.

  1.  That being said, here are my thoughts on where to start.  For the past 12, almost 13 years I have been developing more and more allergies and not just to things like ragweed and pollen.  Yes, I do have those too, but it is things like all fruits (minus berries), nuts, and vegetables.  This all started in college with Ibuprofen.  I had taken it many times and never had a problem and then one night at work I took it for a headache and all the sudden, my face was so swollen, I looked like Quasimodo.  Next, it was any time I ate Mexican food, my bottom lip would swell and my tongue would itch.  This went on for months before I finally figured it was because of the avocados in the guacamole dips.  Next was fresh bell peppers; then bananas; then tomatoes and just kept getting worse and worse until I could not longer eat any veggies unless they were cooked or processed somehow.  I guess that changed the proteins in them enough that my body didn't recognize them as foreign.

   This has been VERY frustrating because I love fresh fruits and vegetables.  I also love nuts.  This makes for a very limited diet and variety!  The last food I had to give up was lettuces.  Good bye salads!

    2.  I also started having migraines like crazy a few months after my first child was born.  I was having 4-5 a week.  I went to a doctor and they put me on Allegra and an antidepressant.  This helped for a few months and then they started coming back.  They have come on and off like this for 6 or so years now. 

    3.  I have also had periods where I am so tired I either take a nap every single day or I wake up so tired I just want to go right back to bed.

    4.  I have had a c-section, as well as one of my sisters.

    5.  I have had thyroid problems even though my thyroid tests have all been normal.  (Dry skin, black eyes, hair falling out, high cholesterol, fatigue)

Now I know you do not just want to know about me.  I will start with these 5 areas and share the things I have learned or learned how to deal with them and then either answer questions or move on to things that plague my SISTERS!  I also want to throw a disclaimer in there that this may be only as much as once a month.  I am not faithful as Rachel and Michelle with posting but I will try to be!

~Stacy~