You can pick your friends…

Here we are about 5 seconds before going out for some girl time.  This is Rachel, isn’t she adorable?  (The worst picture of me of the 7 we took but she looked like a million bucks so…I mean, what are friends for?)

And then, here’s one with my mom and me.  It’s funny how I look 12 all of a sudden.  Like I reverted to my child self for this photo.  Weird.  It didn’t feel like that, but, who knows!  Maybe it’s because my 50 year old Mom looks 30!  Could that be? :o)  Just had to share.

All this said to say that I really have great friends and great family!  I think my family hangs out together because we all get each other’s weirdness.  Well, come to think of it, some of my friends are weird, too.  Birds of a feather, I guess…. :o)

*********

Ok, and now for some FREE STUFF!!

First up.  Click here for a free audio book!  Desiring God by John Piper.  Add it to your shopping cart and when you check out the code is:  Nov2009

The price will change to FREE from $16.95 and immediately ready to download.  I haven’t read/listened it yet but it’s goin’ on my iPod soon.

Next.  FREE online digital scrapbooking class.  What is this, exactly?  I’m not certain, but I signed up and I’ll find out soon enough.  Spend some time on her blog/website and you’ll be in the know!

Don’t just thank me, I found out about this here!  Her blog is great!  Gotta love blog hoppin’.

–Jen

Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot!

I’m not really inspired to write anything of value today but, I do have some fun kitchen adventures up my sleeve!  Here I’m going to show you how it is so simple (and fun!) to prepare your own beans!  It’s not scary.

VS.

It costs nearly $1 for the canned beans and I got this 4 lb. bag for under $4.  It made the equivalent of  14 cans.  Now that is good math!

First of all, don’t fret, the instructions are normally right on the back of the bag, see:

Ok, next, follow the instructions!  For 1/2 the bag (2 lb.) I need about 12 cups of water.  Pour it over the beans and swirl it around looking for odd things to float to the surface to remove.   Oh, and don’t forget to generously salt at this point, it will make your beans taste great!

Here’s where you decide how much time you have.  You can soak all night then simmer for 1-2 hours but I wanted this project checked off my list quickly.  Alas, there was an option for me!  Boil for 2 minutes, Soak for 1 hour, Simmer for 1 hour. (All right from the back of the bag–no magic formula to remember.) Perfect.

You know they’re done when they are soft enough.  Pretty easy.  Then drain them in a colander and portion them into freezer bags.

Boy, I really bagged it! :o)  I measured 2 cups of cooked beans into each bag (which is more than a can contains), labeled and froze.  Easy peezy.

What on earth would you do with all these beans?  Chili.  Black Bean Quesadillas. Black Bean and Corn Salsa.  Meatless tacos.  Refried beans. Variety of soups. Use your imagination.  I do the same for pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, and chick peas (can you say hummus? :o)

As always, thanks for reading my blog.  I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE if you’d comment back on your own opinions or experience on the topic.  Or, just say Hi!  Oh, and SUBSCRIBE to my blog; that way, you can receive a notice when I update this blog.  See you!  –Jen

Recipe: Caramel Popcorn

Probably one of the best gifts I ever received was this recipe for caramel popcorn from my friend, Elaine.

My family LOVES this!  In fact, my grandpa gets a re-stocking of it every time he comes to visit and my dad will eat a whole batch in one sitting.  Then there’s my kiddos and husband–I have hidden today’s batch in the laundry room and it still managed to be half eaten by the time I wrote this tonight!  It makes a great gift for all sorts of occasions, including Christmas.  I hope your family delights in this as much as mine.  And it is pretty simple.  Takes about 15 minutes to oven.

Elaine is the super creative, artsy, musician type.  I had to show you the original recipe card.  It makes me smile every time.

Ok, now for my recipe commentary (I always change recipes to make them my own) and photo gallery :o)

I had a few helpers today…

The popcorn:  (I use air popped to save on fat–never mind the 2 sticks of butter going in! :o)

At the point where you boil without stirring for 5 minutes is where I diverge.  I found that if you boil for 4 minutes, the end result is more of a toffee crunch coating rather than a smooth candy-like caramel coating.  That is my family’s preference.  The boiling process:

I have messed up this recipe a few times by forgetting to add the baking soda and vanilla when I take it off of the heat.  TIP ALERT:  In order to remember, I nestle those ingredients right in the popcorn (wish I had a pic of that). Here it is! (I made this recipe again today!)

And now for the magical pairing of caramel and popcorn!

Stir, then in the oven.

See that toffee crunch finish? Mmmm!

More recipes forthcoming….

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below; I’d love to hear from you!  Then, subscribe to this blog! –Jen

Snapshot

Here’s a snapshot of my life–right this second.

My big girls (Macy and Ella) are cleaning their room.

We have been in limbo between summer clothes and winter clothes for over a week and clothes are everywhere.  They don’t know this but once they get the clothes cleaned up they are going to make the bed and vacuum.  I’ll handle the detail work later….it’s almost too much trouble to coach them through it all.  Pulling teeth comes to mind.

Laynee and the Bubbas (as we call Solomon and Samson who are twins) are playing outside.

I just got them all bundled up for a mild fall day.  Three pairs of socks and shoes, a whole round of coats and hats, a round of potty-ing , (and I just paused this posting to take them all potty again…)  They will be out there for awhile! :o)  Ha!

And me…I am expecting a friend to come over.  She actually just showed up so I’m out!

Wifey Stuff (read if you’re single)

I figured out how to get my husband to do what I want him to do. I know…you should be paying me a million bucks to read this post. But, because I like you, we’ll settle on $free-ninety-free.

To make translation from my house to yours easier, I’ll just write these as imperatives (it’s totally up to you whether you do them :o)

1.  Treat him as though he is the king of the earth.  Likely, he doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.  Do it anyway.  Likely you don’t deserve to be cherished and loved but you expect him to do it anyway.  See the connection?

2.  Look hot.

3.  Act Be interested in his day, his likes, his hobbies, his thoughts, his heart.

4.  Make time to hang out with him but don’t let it seem that you had to etch the time out.  This will make him feel that he is important to you.

5.  Pray for him.  And, at least tell him that you are doing so.  Otherwise, do it with him in your arms.  If you are doing #3 you’ll have better insight into what to pray for.

6. You start.  Yup.  Don’t sit around waiting for him to start the change and then be all mad when he doesn’t.  You start.

7. Take care of his children and his home WELL so he doesn’t feel bogged down by adding this to his plate (regardless of whether or not he then does either of those things, it still feels like burden to him and can clog him up).

8.  Initiate physical intimacy….that is:  Sex.  (Refer to #2 for advice.)

———————————————————————

Recommended Reading…just to get started:

Created to be His Help Meet by Debbie and Michael Pearl

The Holy Bible, Proverbs by God

The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger

*Now, if you’re single, you’ll notice that the above imperatives include a lot of selflessness.  You’ll want to develop that character trait well before marriage.  It is in error to think that you’ll ride the “magic love wave” all throughout marriage and your selfishness will magically disappear.  Take it from me.  I am an expert on that line of thinking.

I knew none of these things on this day…

So happy to be 5 sizes smaller today! Yay for dealing with heart issues!

Disclaimer:  I am not an expert on wifey-ness. Some assembly required. Member WWJD.

Let’s add a few more to the list!!  Comment away on your suggestions on marriage.  That will make this more fun for me :o)  –Jen

Monday Funday!

For pure entertainment:  Improv Everywhere Pure enjoyment for three minutes or for an hour!

For Christmas shopping:  Red Letter Words

For learning:   of course, something “fall-ish” to cook, and a blog to follow:  101 Cookbooks

For Photography:

(hers) StacyIdeusPhotography

(yours) Google’s Picasa

Besides that it’s totally free, my fav feature is that it can identify faces and group photos by who is in them.  So  cool.   While it’s still learning the faces of your family it lists those who look most like that person.  I loved this  because I never think I look like my kids–but Picasa did!  Yay!  Plus, you can make photo collages, it organizes beautifully, and dumbs down some common Photoshop features for people like me to use!  Check out these  screen grabs of my people albums:

For sharing my joy:

Ella (6) hosted a tea party for her little sister, Laynee (3) this morning.  It blessed my heart.

Guess what?  Subscribe to this blog! It’s easy.  Don’t miss out on upcoming stuff because you forgot to stop by.  And, comment…let me know you were here, it makes my day!

Just download a blog reader and enter http://www.momjuice.wordpress.com as a subscription.  Soon, I may even have those handy buttons to click (if I figure it out, that is…)

Make-your-own (homeschool) Adventure

We homeschool.  We choose it.  We love it.  We are grateful for our right to do so.

In the coming months, I’ll write more about how we homeschool and what our days look like.   For now, I thought I’d just give you a glimpse of the freedom in homeschooling.  I highly recommend it.  Our family is strong, our kiddos are explorers, and our focus is character development (before the wrong character develops).

This is Macy.  She learned how to roast a 22 lb. turkey last week.  She’s 8!  By the time this holiday season is over she should have bit of experience under her belt!  Why is this important?  Well, I don’t know, exactly, but it resulted in lots of quality time and influence in her young malleable life and I bet she learned a thing or two.  By the way, this was 11 am.  At the school up the street the other 3rd graders were grading each other’s papers and standing in line at the drinking fountain.

Ella is 6.  She just lost her front tooth.  And the bonus…it didn’t come home from school  in a envelope for me to hear all about.  This is a picture of her just before table time.  She gets one-on-one time with her mama teaching her how to read and write.  It’s not scary for me because I ultimately trust God to lead me in her education–there’s no pressure.  What’s important to me is that we are her main influence.  See how excited she is?  She begs to start table time while I’m still cleaning up from breakfast!

And here is lunch.  I’m the lunch lady (holding the camera)!  Who says my kids aren’t socialized???  They spend time with people of all ages all day long.  Now that is more of a practice for real life than learning how to engage with 20 other kids the same age, right?!  The toddlers go shirtless for pancake day.  Then, we work together as a group and clean up after ourselves.  No janitors here.  Although, that is one thing I may appreciate from time to time.  Btw, this photo has an extra kid in it!  I have five kiddos!

Lastly, this post is about me expressing my thankfulness to have the choice to teach my kids at home; and share with you our experience.  Please understand my intention is not to make you feel badly for your choice to utilize our public or private schools. I believe  homeschooling is a calling.  I know for a fact I’m not called to be a computer programmer or police officer, or daycare worker (that I know from working in the nursery at my church!)  I am called to raise my children and to train them in the way they should go. (Proverbs 22:6; my paraphrase) This is how my husband and I have decided to walk this out.  If you wonder if you are called to this…take it in prayer before the Lord.

PS…subscribe to my blog.  It’s easy.  I use Google Reader for my blog subscriptions.  There are numerous options out there, just ask around.  While you’re subscribing to my blog, here’s another blog you should check out (there’s a free giveaway on it today!)

Rainy night and brilliant lights.

Last night, while driving to meet my friend for dessert, it was drizzling rain as it had been all day.  So, while driving, I specifically asked God to give me a a prophetic word from Him for our time together.  (Isn’t that great?!  He wants to participate in our lives in this way, and he WILL.  Just ask!)

As I was just being in his presence on the drive to the restaurant I was struck by the brilliance and beauty of the red and green traffic lights reflecting on the street.  There were street lights, too, in various hues of yellow and white.  The lights looked so long and bright and brilliant in the puddly places on the street.  The colors were extraordinary.  The whole thing was in high def, it seemed!  Glistening and beautiful.  This photo is not my actual view, but this picture illustrates the essence what I saw.

Do you notice the places on the street (in the foreground) where the concrete is wet but not reflecting?  It is dull and rough looking.  If all of the street is wet, then why are these parts textured and rough?   More specifically, why does the street reflect at some places and not others?  I studied the street and realized that the light reflected so well where there was actually standing water, like a sheet of water over the concrete.  Then I got it.

We reflect the brilliant light of Jesus Christ when we are immersed in the Living Water. Just as the street was beautifully reflecting the colors from the traffic lights only where the street was immersed in water.  Immersed.

im·merse \i-ˈmərs\ to plunge into something that surrounds or covers; especially : to plunge or dip into a fluid

Wet isn’t doing the job.  One is immersed, one is just wet.  Whoa!  I know!  There it was. Exactly what I asked for and I didn’t even have to try (read: do something) for this to happen to little ‘ol me!

Is it a word for you today?

Homeschool Dance Night

So, in keeping with the rules and regulations of educating our children at home according to the state of Nebraska, coupled with the where-with-all we have to introduce “culture” to our kiddos, we have instituted Homeschool Dance Night at our house from time to time.  (It just sounds better when I say it this way!) The most recent installation included Daddy’s example of “Gettin’ Down!”  The video’s caption tells the rest of the details.  Following is the internet debut of EDB, the Great:

Video Caption:  It was family dance night and Daddy decided show up all of the kids! He was washing dishes when he surprised us all with qued music, shades, moves and all! You’ll notice the “dad” sweatpants do take some of the precision out of the movements.  It may be time to do away with those!  Enjoy!

PS–I like Vimeo way better than YouTube.

Please hang out at my blog for bit.  Subscribe, even!  Oh, and I’d love if you leave your commmmmmmments! :)

WalMart in 13 minutes!

Last night, our family went for a drive to get some fresh air–well, also to strap the kiddos into car seats with lap toys and music so we could have some talking time.  Going to WalMart was an afterthought we decided to act upon since I knew I probably wouldn’t put the kids to bed and then head back out.  I had to go.  I was running out of alternatives for milk and bread.  Any mom knows what I’m talkin’ about.

So, to sweeten the pot, I announced that I would be gone only 12 minutes.  The timing commenced as soon as they dropped me off at the entrance.  Having spent $900 a month at WalMart for over a year now, I pretty much know my restock-the-kitchen route.  This was the first time I did it as a race car driver, though.

When I got to the check out stand, I told the checker I was being timed by my family in the car, and that I had collected all of this in 13 minutes. Her face lit up!  Weirdest thing.  Actually, I was probably the weirdest thing, come to think of it!  Nonetheless, she started scanning groceries and loading plastic sacks faster than I’ve ever seen at WalMart!  We laughed together and hurried our normal checkout procedures including six price matches!  It was a ball! (If you’re wondering, there was no one behind me because I was the last customer of her shift.  We would have had to involve the whole line had that not been the case!)

Later on, I (flirtingly) mentioned to EDB, the Great that I must have looked super cute at WalMart because I garnered some attention from the other customers.  He swiftly reminded me that it may have been the fact that I was dressed in my mom get-up (complete with wacky hair do) racing through the aisles with a shopping cart.  Oh….that.