Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Food Prep

We canned some of the  50 lbs of carrots/celery/potato mix to be used in chicken noodle soup.




In years past (prior to a having so many kiddoes) I would cook chicken and add it to my mix. I simply did not think I could manage all of that at this time. 


However, I had a large turkey in my freezer! I cooked that turkey, served some for dinner and bagged the rest for the freezer! 


Now when I want chicken noodle soup, I just dump a can of my veggie mix, a bag of my frozen turkey and some broth into my crockpot! Simple, delicious meal in minutes! We add rice or rice past in the last hour before serving it! 

50 lb of Carrots!

What do you do with with 50 lbs of carrots and a case of celery?


First we diced and and sliced a bunch of each along with some potatoes. 

It is amazing how fast we can work when everyone helps. 


We ended up with approx 20 quarts of canned veggies which are perfect for soups and casseroles. 



Then we sliced and diced some more and made fermented carrots. They were actually really yummy!! 

It takes an alot of creativity to figure out how to best use free bulk items. But oh the blessings! It makes my life so much easier to have canned/frozen prepped items! 


Sunday, December 28, 2014

Life...

Just when I thought we were at the end, the craziness increased. Just in time for Christmas! I have had some pretty amazing moments in the past week. For the moment they are still unbloggable.

But in the meantime.. until I find time to post the 200 some pictures I took for Christmas..

A story from my 10 yr olds.

Setting the scene.. Several weeks ago I found a set of really good walkie talkies on an online yardsale for only $6. My boys love these things, especially when they are on one of their adventures. Certain little fingers like to push buttons and mess things up..


So today the boys left the walkie talkies where little fingers could push buttons. It was switched to a different channel. Suddenly to my boys absolute shock, they were listening in on a conversation.

I explained how it all works and that they must NEVER, EVER speak to someone they don't know.

Later:

Son #1 Mom, what if we could use these walkie talkies and listen to Japan. We could find out all the war secrets and tell the army. We would be hero's!


Son #2 What are the Japans?

Me: I think maybe the Japanese would come after you if you listened in on their conversations and shared their war secrets.

Son#1 We would be rich! We could be millionaires. I would buy a house and a car. Mom I would even be rich enough to give you an allowance.

Me: Gee thanks! That is so thoughtful of you

Son #2 What are the Japans?

Son #1 They would never expect a 10 yr old boy to figure out all their secrets. I would listen quietly on my walkie talkies..

Me: (eyes rolling)  explained to #2 what Japan and Japanese is...


The conversation continued for some time.. This is only one of many such conversations my children have. I hope someday they will be able to use this active imagination for some God given purpose!