Play Dough Sculpture

 Valerie dreams of being a sculptor.  Her Art during school time today consisted of lovingly crafting this mermaid and hair bow. 

She said the hair bow was big enough to fit in Jenny's hair. But then she quickly added "Of course not REALLY, Mom, but it's the right size."

Security

What makes you feel secure?  To know that your house has good locks on the doors and windows?  To know that when you put the key in the ignition, your car will start?  To know who loves you?
I think my children feel secure when I get cozy with them.  When I hug them and tell them not only that I love them, but I like them.

 Some days and weeks are hard.  Sometimes the mornings feel like a battleground, especially if any one of the children is short on sleep.  I admit that sometimes I do not enjoy my children.  When I am tired, I feel like I am tolerating them til I can put them in bed at night.  But if I keep my distance when my child throws a screaming tantrum, what does that say about my love for them? It says, "I'll love you when you behave like I want you to."   If I am most carefree when they're in bed, and they do not see me laugh and smile at them, I am withholding some of myself from them.

For one of my children, she feels secure when she knows what is going to happen.  She likes to know what we are going to eat and when. She likes to have her outfit picked out well before she actually needs to be dressed.  I think part of her desire to feel secure plays out in her desire to have control. Ever since she was tiny, I spent every waking moment making sure I knew where she was, what she was doing, and how she was feeling (if I could figure that out!). Now I realize I gradually have to loosen my control and teach her how to be okay with things not going as planned. Trouble is, I'm not even sure I've learned how to be that way! 

For the boys, they feel secure when they know they have food and lots of hugs . They don't like to be rushed and feel secure when I am calm and cheerful. 

For my toddler, security means I carry her as often as possible, and I lie down next to her for a few minutes before she goes to sleep.

 I'm glad growing up doesn't happen overnight. And I'm even more glad that there is Grace.

Renewed Vision

A few weeks ago, Mat and I were able to attend the Reliv Europe conference at Disneyland Paris. No, we did not see Mickey! I was asked to share my story with 1,000 very enthusiastic people from the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France and the UK. 

My husband stood beside me as I told how 10 years ago I was too tired to contemplate climbing a mountain with him. Every day was a mountain, with migraine headaches, constant allergy symptoms, and a list of 15 foods I had to avoid. Within three months of drinking Reliv shakes, my health was totally transformed. I was able to climb a 12,000 foot snow pass with Mat, and I got choked up remem-bering what a big deal that was.  

Another highlight of the conference was the launch of a new product: Lunasin capsules. Reliv has always had powdered nutrition that feeds the body at the cell level, and now it has capsules containing Lunasin, the concentrated soy peptide that has now been proven to lower cholesterol, improve immunity, and reduce inflammation. Both of our dads struggle with their high cholesterol and had fathers who died of heart attacks. It is so encouraging to have something which offers hope of breaking this cycle.

I decided to start taking some capsules at the conference and was amazed to see my back pain, which started up during the past few months of stress and strain, disappear in just two days. I had been limping for weeks before, and even the chiropractor had not  been able to alleviate my discomfort.

Since the conference, I've been encouraged to start working consistently again, which means putting in an hour a day on the phone, sharing the company and products that have changed our lives so much. It's fun to see the kids take ownership too, as we paint a vision of where this business will take our family. While at Disneyland my husband was "drawn" into the Lego shop, and we invested in a set of "Reliv Legos," which the children play with while I work to make others aware of these life-changing products.

Chilly Weather Soup and Cornbread

Sometimes you just want a comforting soup and cornbread, and autumn in England certainly creates the need! This soup recipe was amazing and the only changes I made were using dairy-free margarine and coconut oil instead of butter. It was beautifully creamy. And everyone except our texture-phobic Jimmy loved it. 

This cornbread recipe is adapted from an old Mennonite cookbook called "More with Less"

Basic Cornbread
Combine the following dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl:

1 C. gluten-free flour
1 C. cornmeal
4 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3T. brown sugar
1/2 t. xanthan gum

Make a well and add:

1 C. soy milk or coconut milk

1/4 C. oil

2 eggs (flax eggs work well here)

Spread (mix will be thick) into 8x8 pan, and bake at 375 degrees for 25 min.

Best eaten warm!

Moving...again!

This will be our seventh move in six years and although I am reeling a bit, I thought it might be good to share a system we are using that is helping everybody stay sane (at least where the packing is concerned!).

Mat, my husband, has named it the Jenga shelf system. 2"x28" wood pieces support sheets of plywood and the boxes slide into the temporary shelves. The shelving packs compactly and assembles quickly as boxes are unloaded from the moving truck. In the new house, this whole system is reused until gradually we have everything unpacked. While at our house here in Manchester, some boxes were never unpacked, so the shelves served as storage support.

All the boxes are numbered and coordinate with a master spreadsheet that is categorised. For instance, 2-K1 is Move number 2, kitchen box 1. Move number 1 was from Newcastle to Manchester just nine months ago.

Above is a screen shot of one page of the master spreadsheet.  This is such a help when you really need something, but don't want to unpack all the kitchen boxes to find it! This is also a great system for loft or garage storage when you want to keep things packed for a while.

I won't be doing much blogging for the next several weeks as our move is early next month and homeschooling and life must continue regardless of packing and unpacking. Stay tuned for pictures from our new location! You wouldn't waste a prayer on us if we come to mind in the next few weeks.

Roasted Garlic Dressing

This recipe is another adapted from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook.

Take one whole bulb garlic, wrap in tin foil, put in a 350 degree oven for 1 hr. Let cool.
Unwrap and squeeze out the softened cloves.

Place the following ingredients in a food processor:
roasted garlic cloves
1 C. olive oil
1/3 C. balsamic vinegar
1/3 C. water
1 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1 T. Dijon mustard

Process until smooth!

Use as salad dressing, a condiment for baked potatoes, or as a marinade for meat.

Birthday Time Again!

I love making birthday cakes in this house, because they are safe for everyone to devour.

I also struggle to find a good cake recipe that will turn out not completely hard and flat!

Valerie wanted a Frozen party. (If you have not seen the movie, then you will not understand the novel idea of having a snowman made out of popcorn and marshmallows, and a truly frozen cake!)

 I had wanted to do a proper ice cream cake for Val, but after I made the cake, I realised that my cake pans were inches wider than the recipe, even though I doubled it (!)-- hence a flat cake. So Val was quite happy to have a crescent moon shaped cake which meant 4 layers, and more sorbet. The reason it was sorbet was partly because I could not get to the right store that sells soy ice cream, and partly because Val loves rainbows, and inside the cake it looked a bit rainbow-ish. We had a layer of cake, then a layer of raspberry jam, then a layer of mango sorbet, then the next layer of cake, and so on. Followed by white coconut butter cream frosting (which tastes really yummy with coconut oil and dairy free margarine), and detail blue icing from a tube, and spray silver for a great shimmer. 

For anyone who wants an easy gluten free treat for children, here is the link to popcorn balls

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/mallow-popcorn-balls-56900.aspx

And here is the link to the cake recipe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/eggless_sponge_cake_70634

And the frosting: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/buttercream-coconut-cake-icing/

Isn't he cute?