Let's be truly Thankful!

I just wanted to put out there this little thought.

We should be truly thankful. There is a lot of time that I am not. So here you go...

There are a lot of moms out there who work tirelessly for their children.  There are those moms who drive their kids to every sporting event practice so their child will have a chance to learn how to control their mind and body while doing something fun.  There are those mom who sacrifice and work long hours so that their child will not go without physical needs and wants and in turn they learn what they need and what they want.  There are those moms who stay home and show their children a different type of sacrifice and the children learn to sacrifce for the sake fo others.  There are moms who stay up all night next to the bed of a child with a fever, praying for the child's recovery and their children learn to power of pray and love.  There are moms who plant garden's so their child will have good food all the while the children will learn to reward of hard work as a farmer.  There are moms who learn how to do crafts so their children will learn how to express themselves in creative ways.  There are moms who poor every little bit of themselves into their children so that one day those children will be productive members of society because she is a good person.

Moms are the only people who working tirelessly to put themselves out of a job.  We want our kids to be independent, strong, healthy, good, and important members of society.  When we have done our jobs well these children will no longer "need" us.  It is our goal to push our kids to FINISH STRONG in all they do and we teach them all (most) of it.

As we do this day in and day out, we get very few thank you, if any at all.  Our job seems to worthless to those around us.  Our job takes everything we have and everything we are. 

I just want to say to all those mom who are working tirelessly to achieve their goal of being the best mom they can so that their child will know who they are, know that they are loved, and know that they were given every opportunity whether they decided to take it or not. 

THANK YOU. 

I appreciate all the work you do and I appreciate with great love and admiration the work you are putting into your child even if they don't see it yet.

I am thankful for you!  When you are old and your children's children do not thank them that is when they will thank you for all your hard work.  But for now to get you by until that time comes.  Good job and keep up the great work!

Cold out side...time for fun recipes

We have started a few new recipes for the cold weather.  Riley is so excited!

We have recently started buying fruits and veggies that are in season only. Only because I wanted to learn the seasons and to see if they were cheaper, tasted better etc.  This time of year is oranges, pears, squash, and lettuce grows here very well. (I like to order from Nature's Garden.  It is a home delivery box.  I highly recommend it to you if you are looking for organic fruits and veggies.  They deliver it to my door every other week, you can do every week but we are not ready for that yet.)

My kids are not huge pear fans, only because they are picky some times. Ha ha.  So my pears were piling up.  I needed to get them out of the fridge to make room and decided to figure out how to make a pear crisp type dessert.  The kids would have to eat pears if they were in a dessert right?  This is where we ended up.

Pear Crisp

6 peeled pears, cored and sliced
5 TB Lemon juice (you can use less if you don't like tart)
6 TB Rapadura (ground fine, like powdered sugar)
6 TB quinoa flakes (from sprouts)
4 TB Montina blend flour (or flour of your choice this one is gluten free)
1/4 tsp cinnamon (Vietnam cinnamon)
1/8 tsp nutmeg
4 TB melted butter (or ghee if needed)
4 TB chopped pecan nuts (optional)

Place pear slices in a (stone) baking dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice and stir to coat pears.  In a bowl combine sugar, quinoa, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Pour in butter and stir. And nuts and stir.  Spoon mixture over pears evenly.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until desired crispness of pears.  YUM!  This serves our family of 6. (We really like it and Riley always has 2 servings.)

Jada has been home sick on these cold and windy days.  We just had to make homemade hot chocolate!  Here is where we landed on this one.

Jada's Hot Chocolate (not dairy free)

3 1/2 cups raw milk (or not ultra pasteurized whole milk)
1/2 C Rapadura
1 pinch of salt
3/4 tsp vanilla (no sugar added)
1/2 cup raw cream (or not ultra pasteurized cream)
5 drops of vanilla creme stevia (Optional)

Mix first 5 ingredients together in a sauce pan.  Heat over medium heat while stirring to mix.  Heat until steamy, not boiling.  Pour into a coffee mug.  Jada wanted hers sweeter so she added 5 drops of vanilla creme stevia to her cup.  She drank the whole thing!

Enjoy these sweet treats.  Let me know how yours turns out!

Ducks

Ducks are silly little creatures.  I never really thought of them as a pet.  We always went to the neighborhood lakes to feed to ducks on a beautiful afternoon.  Then we found out about and egg allergy.  I was told by the doctor that other eggs might work, quail eggs, duck eggs, turtle eggs...Where do you buy those?

There is a website we were told about duck eggs cost $40 a dozen.  That really wasn't an option for us.  So I found someone who had ducks in her backyard and sold the eggs.  I was so thankful for her!  I started thinking what if something happened to her ducks?  Where does that leave us?  After doing the math and thinking through our time, finances and everything else.  I talked with our community of friends and asked their opinions.  We sifted through all the information and decided for us that we needed to raise ducks.

Our research lead us to the Khaki campbell duck.  This particular breed has been bred for egg laying production.  These Ducks can lay up to 350 eggs per year per duck.  Ducks are not smart at all.  They even need help knowing where they should lay their eggs.  In the picture below is our nesting box.  It has a yellow egg, which is an egg shaped stone.  Where ever we put the yellow they will lay their eggs.

These ducks don't like to fly.  They are really pretty happy hanging out in the backyard.  The ducks love to take baths.  They make a huge mess and spray water everywhere!   I will post a vidoe when google is back up. :)

I wouldn't say that everyone should get ducks!  They can be difficult to care for and they are not anything like taking care of a dog.  I have officially turned into a farmer!  I have to wake up early every morning, even weekends.  I have to have someone watch my farm if I go out of town.  They are smelly, They require constant cleaning and food and water.  So my advise to you if you are thinking about getting ducks DO A LOT OF RESEARCH.  You need to know what it would take to become a duck farmer.

Our little ducks are such a blessing.  Loud and smelly but a real blessing.  We have been considering getting a few more ducks. I will keep you posted. We have ran in to more and more people who need alternative eggs.  It has been great getting know these new families.  For us, having the ducks has been fabulous.  We get tons of eggs, enough to even sell to other families in need and new friends.  (All of those in my community that helped us decide, thanks.  I know we made the correct choice for us)