Twas the Saturday Before Christmas....

We've enjoyed a somewhat lazy day today. I read a few chapters from The China Study. The kids have Japanese class on Saturday mornings at 0800.....at 0730 we discovered my computer was on the fritz again. Michael had to reload Windows 8 - again. The kids shared one computer for their class today.

They had their finals in Japanese. Arielle made 100% and is moving on from Katakana to Kanji. Nolan made a 90% and is moving on from Hiragana to Katakana. It's time to order new texts!

We had nothing on the calendar today and our Christmas shopping is finished. Michael hung a few photos for me.

I tried four new recipes I found on the Ultimate Daniel Fast website.  All the sweets around here are beginning to call louder and louder to me. It was time to get intentional and see if I could find something (other than fruit) something chewy that was sweet...a treat.  I made some snacks up that will be something different - but still no chemicals, added sugar, leaven or chocolate.  I made Almond Butter Bites, Date Honey, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, and flatbread.  The Date honey is really sweet....I can see using it when making the Oatmeal cookies will make them sweeter (I used unsweetened applesauce).... I settled for "frosting" a cookie with the date honey. LOL Recipes will follow (so I don't lose them) but I've linked them above if you you'd like to check them out before I post.

The kids had a Skype planned with friends in Japan, but somehow the timing was off.....so....

Michael and I went to Walmart. I discovered the first real downside to my new camera. I've gotten used to carrying a 5 lb camera in my purse. I'm a fairly good quick draw...but today I realized I can't be discreet and snap photos of the hilarity at Walmart. I no longer want to flee for the door in 5 minutes. The hilarious thing is after one particular couple walked by Michael mentioned it would be nice to have my pocket camera. ::snort::

I braved the pressure cooker again for dinner. This time I made a yummy homemade soup in 7 min - tasted like it had simmered for hours. I enjoyed  flatbread with it while the others had garlic bread.

The night is winding down and all are heading to various posts. I think I'll go read another chapter or two of The China Study.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Chaplain with a Heart for Ministry

Arielle cut Michael's hair on Wednesday. Michael is taller than me. Today as we all sat in the living room, I noticed a strange glint.

"Arielle, did you shave a heart on your Dad's head?"

Not wanting to admit to any hair accidents she responded with, "He's the Chaplain with a heart for ministry."

Um....well....not really in regs....and I can't believe none of the guys TOLD Michael to get himself to the base barber. ::snort:: We tried Walmart today but the Linda Walmart doesn't cut hair????

You know his kind reaction, the fact that he's paying her to learn...all show he certainly is a good sport and has a heart for his daughter.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

We've realized several of our new favorite recipes have not been uploaded to the blog....so I'm trying to get recipes caught up.....this is one that floated around Facebook for a week or two. 

Ingredients:
3 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size cubes (note technically those pictures are yams)
2 tsp Olive Oil
1 T Butter (Earth Balance)
1 T Brown Sugar (Rapadura)
1 tsp of Cinnamon
1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg
pinch of ground ginger
sea salt, to take

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350*.

Coat a baking dish with cooking spray - whichever size you need.

Peel and dice the potatoes and place in baking dish.

Melt butter and pour over the potatoes along with the olive oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt.

Add more sugar or cinnamon if desired - I didn't.

Toss to coat evenly.

Bake in the oven for 60 min.

Stir once or twice during roasting.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Christmas Fun in California

There are only 3.5 short weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Add to that our company, trip to OR and graduation trip to TX....and this season is sneaking up on us.  I knew I wanted to give Rachel a gift for Christmas. I thought back to our early years and wondered if a few hours to herself would be a nice gift.  

We got back Tuesday night - I have kids coming in over the weekend.....Wednesday I asked Rachel if I could have the kids for a few hours today. We had a blast. She got some alone time done for shopping.

It's good for our younger two to have little ones around and see what it is like to have younger siblings.

We began by assembling the gingerbread train we didn't assemble on Thanksgiving.  Nolan was our master engineer for this project.

Zach and Zander were very happy to help fill frosting bags. I found the original bag in the bathroom garbage licked clean....Hmmmm....

Nathan holds the sides of a box car together

I wanted to give the train as much time to set up as possible before we began decorating it. We moved to the BIG TABLE and made Christmas ornaments. Stacia is THRILLED she will have THREE on the tree now. I feel  good that I've made great strides in remedying our oversight.

Seth made this charming star

The glue was frustrating  to work with - but we  persevered and made quite a few nice looking ornaments. 

Who can blame Joy for getting bored with all the tiny pieces? She loved bringing books to Arielle, "Good book."

Oops -  they jumped at her

 We turned to decorating sugar cookies.....a plate for both families and a plate for lunch. I decided to put the rest in the freezer to do "later."

Joy loves decorating cookies

Seth was thrilled with the results of Nerds on sugar cookies - surprise exploding cookies

Yummy 

I sent the kids outside to play (run off some frosting energy) while I cleaned up the table and got  lunch ready. I laughed as I cooked. It's been a long time since I've had a houseful of kids who needed me to fix lunch...and it was fun...honestly, I was tired. It was GOOD to remember how tired a young mom of many can feel. I commented to Arielle, "I wasn't sure this was a good gift, but I think Rachel will appreciate the time." ::snort::  And we were having a BLAST...you're like a traffic controller when you have eight kids in the house - even when two of them are more like assistants. Frankly, I don't know that I could handle a houseful of preschoolers day in and day out again without youth helpers. LOL

After lunch we finally decorated and the gingerbread train. Yeah, I have a lot of photos like this.....did I say youth "Helper"?

We enjoyed a quick visit with Rachel when she returned......the older two went to practice for tomorrow's Japanese final.  God is good. It was a fun day and we're blessed we got home in time to make it happen. I sat and stared at the Christmas tree for a bit of time - happy and tired....Yuuki seems to feel the same. She was GREAT with the kids.

I think pizza, hot tub and movies tonight. 

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

"Cheese" Ball - VEGAN

I LOVE cheese balls. Bre requested a cheese ball for Thanksgiving and I made her one. I made this one for Arielle and me.  We liked it. I think next time I will use the same idea but the spices I use on the "regular" one. I typically use real onions and garlic.... Found this in  Happy Herbivore Light and Lean. 

1/2 C cooked chickpeas
1/2 block extra firm tofu (about 5 oz)
5 T nutritional yeast
1 T yellow miso (used Worcestershire as I couldn't find miso)
few drops of liquid smoke
few drops agave nectar (forgot)
1 tsp yellow mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Combine until smooth and paste-like. Spoon into a metal bowl, then use rubber spatula to scrape into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for a few hours. Transfer to serving plate and garnish with smoked paprika and almond slices, if desired.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Pressure Cooker Adventure

Inspired by the Parable of the Pressure Cooker I set out to make a pot roast. 

First I had to FIND a recipe.....Janelle had mentioned 15 minutes but all the ones I found said 45 - 60 min. She has since confirmed her recipe was at 15 lbs of pressure for the longer time. Since my pot doesn't have rings or pressure gauges....I decided to go for it. 

The You Tube videos I watched showed the women poking and prodding the meat - so I did.  This is what two vegans look like when preparing a slab of meat.

Things were going along well. THEN it was time to open it and add veggies. As it was heating back up the pressure rocker (black thing) looked strange. I kept commenting on it. Michael was working in the kitchen on my computer.....and was a bit distracted or I'm SURE he'd have paid more attention to my comments...but Whamo - the black thing blew off.....see it there on the counter?

The other part of it was in the pot somewhere....

He found it! 

When dinner requires a socket and wrench to prepare - you know you're in for a special treat. ::snort::

The veggies were a bit over done and the meat didn't quite get as done as they like...but I'll try again later. 

So.....my additions to Janelle's parable....when you totally blow your top.....our Father digs around for your blown pieces and loving puts them back together with heavenly tools. 

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

First Days Back Are BEARS

Everyone knows FIRST DAYS back can be bears!  We raced  back in time for me to attend PWOC's packing party. We weren't sure the kids would be back for their Christmas party.  I woke up EARLY even for me - TX TIME...and decided maybe I'd just go to PWOC, say hi, drop off the gifts and come home to continue the settling in that needs to happen after a trip.  The younger two woke up and KNEW it was PWOC day.  Off we went.  When it's all said and done, I was glad I stayed as well. I've been traveling pretty much since Thanksgiving and it was nice to connect with some in person. 

Two major happenings will make this PWOC day stand out in my mind for years to come. Zander (known as Alex to all but Mom and Krista) got into a physical altercation over football. This led to our realization we need to download some touch football rules and help him learn the game - just isn't something we've done in our homeschool....and it also led to a discussion on what is socially appropriate now that he is growing older....when pushed, one shouldn't pick up the other player and move him to a new location. This is humiliating. It wasn't really Zander's goal and he could have just as easy moved himself! It also led to him being hit - and to him pushing the other boy.....so...both moms have talked...boys have apologized we're all good.... We hadn't realized with his growing size there are new areas of appropriateness we need teach him. All's well....we just have to REMEMBER that this one needs us to anticipate and train what others of our children have instinctively known. 

The other major happening was prompted by Janelle's devotional, "The Parable of the Pressure Cooker." This was an excellent devotional and I'll not do it justice...the verses spoke peace and challenge. We sometimes get in situations where we look shiny on the outside but burned on the inside. God has to scrub us. His hands are intimately involved with our mess. He has to use a variety of methods to get the stink and gunk off us. It was a great devo. 

During the course of the talk Janelle mentioned she can do soups in 7 minutes and a roast in 15 min. An idea was planted. I use mine mostly for artichokes.

Our outreach this year is to Courage House - which is a house for girls rescued from sex trafficking. April is doing a great job  sharing very practical ways we can bless the house and the girls it houses (mostly the girls you know?).  This month we had leaves with items on it to purchase which would allow us to create baskets for the girls for Christmas.  Today we had fun assembling the boxes...and then they were wrapped in tulle and ribbon.  I indulged myself and snapped a few shots...two new friends....Rachel and Cheryl. 

And Valerie....

I checked in at home after PWOC. Michael was working on my computer - which seems to be working now. The kids and I hit the commissary and filled the van up with gas - wowzer! 

While at the commissary I decided a pressure cooker pot roast would be about right for the day - dinner in 15 min. THAT will deserve a separate post.

I had mentioned to Stacia I thought it would be fun to have Rachel's kids over to make ornaments and decorate cookies. She seemed to think that meant she should make an ornament NOW, TODAY, this very AFTERNOON. We had the pieces to make ONE of these so I let her give it a shot. It turned out to be good I did as we discovered we need glue before Friday....modge podge did work.  It has been in my mind to let Stacia make some ornaments. We realized when we unpacked Christmas stuff the older kids have all made some for the tree - but Stacia hasn't. They made them in Sunday School....and her Sunday School classes haven't. So - though I am NOT crafty - we went with it. 

 I  used the toaster oven to make some yummy squash for Arielle and me; while the pressure cooker worked wonders on the hunk of meat. I need to find a chart to convert standard oven times to convection. 

Dinner FINALLY was served and consumed. We had an abbreviated family circle and Arielle took a whack at Michael's hair. It turned out well.  Love his expression here....I thought I had managed to leave myself out of the shot. LOL 

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...