Homemade Syrup and Peanut Butter Topped Pancakes

We have a peanut butter addiction in our home. We don’t just like peanut butter. We really, really love peanut butter. We like it so much we buy the huge cans of it. We go through a 6 lbs. can about every three weeks.  So, yeah, we like it. We especially like it for breakfast
 

Do you know one thing peanut butter is really good on? Pancakes! My brother introduced us to it, several years ago. It is addicting. It is also incredibly delicious. I like to put about a teaspoon on each pancake, and then drizzle homemade maple syrup over it. Sooooooooooo good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t start freaking out about the added calories to your breakfast. The peanut butter makes it much more filling. Eating just two to three 4” pancakes with peanut butter is very filling and helps us stay satisfied till lunch. And have I mentioned, that it is oh so good? Yes, you need to try it. Just trust me.

But to make it taste even better, consider making some homemade syrup to go with it. No, my homemade syrup is not the sugar water with maple flavoring that my mom used to make. Ewwww. Sorry mom. I just always preferred the slightly thicker store bought stuff compared to the liquid kind that immediately soaks through the pancakes. And then I found the perfect homemade syrup recipe, with the perfect consistency and taste. It is so much better than the store bought kind. And it is incredibly easy to make and it’s cheap.  Don’t worry I will share.

 

Maple Syrup

2 cups white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

¼ cups corn syrup

½ tsp vanilla

1 tsp maple extract

½ cup butter (If you want to save calories, use ¼ cup)

 

Combine sugars, water, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and boil for two minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla, maple flavoring and butter. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. It is that easy and yummy!

The Threat That Became Our Reality-Part 2

I was lucky when I decided to start homeschooling. I had a few friends, neighbors, and a sister-in-law who already homeschooled their children.  But before I asked for information from my “experts”, I decided to research curriculum on my own first.  As I started researching, I realized there was way more curriculum out there than I ever dreamed of, and it quickly became overwhelming and stressful. There was so much to choose from; how do I pick the correct one for my kids?

I already had some experience with Saxon Math and I knew that was the route I wanted to go. I used it once before and I loved how comprehensive it was, so math was easily taken care of.  But what about the other subjects? Science, History, Language Arts, Writing, Art, etc.; how was I going to find something that worked for my family? Coming up with these subjects on my own was terrifying, so I turned to my “experts”. They each had their own ideas of how it should be done. I had one friend who was a big fan of the Thomas Jefferson Style mingled with Charlotte Mason. I had one friend who was big into Kimber Academy. And then I had a sister in law who was very eclectic.  Some of them would give me books to read: Charlotte Mason, Thomas Jefferson, Well-Trained Mind, etc. They would tell me I needed to pick a style of learning/teaching; something I didn’t understand. I was pretty one track minded, I just need a curriculum.  How could I even think about a style? I didn’t even understand what that meant.  I just wanted to know what to teach.

I was very blessed to have a friend with some resources, who was able to through together a homeschooling conference for me (and other newly starting out HSers).  She gathered a bunch of different speakers who talked about the different styles of homeschooling. There was one for Thomas Jefferson, one for Charlotte Mason, one for Unit Studies, and Kimber Academy, and some others I don’t remember too well.  She also had a speaker, Glen Kimber, who spoke on homeschooling in general; he was by far my favorite.

I loved how each speaker explained the main points of “their” style and then how they implicate it in their homes. Then afterwards, I was able to thumb through some of the curriculum to get a feel for what the curriculum was like. I learned that although I liked unit studies for some things, maybe not as a complete way of learning. I learned that although Kimber Academy was nice for some, it didn’t really click with my personality.  I learned that there were parts of Thomas Jefferson (TJ ed) and Charlotte Mason style that I loved, but I really couldn’t commit to either one. I realized that I am just an eclectic type person, and chose to pick and choose to do some TJed, some CM, and some Well-Trained Mind.

My favorite piece of information that I gathered from the Conference came from Dr. Kimber. He said many wonderful things that I still ponder upon today, but the thing that stood out most was “It takes a good three years to get your groove in homeschooling”. I don’t know if those were his exact words, but it is close.  This helped me so much the first couple of years, because I realized that it didn’t have to be perfect to start out. I might try something and it may not work out, but each year is a growing process.  Each year you get a little closer to finding your niche in how to go about it for your family and what curriculum to use.  This knowledge took a lot of pressure off of my shoulders and helped me relax.  We took it slow and HAVE found what works for us.

In the end, I chose curriculum most similar to my sweet sister-in-law. After my careful research and her tips on what she used and what she wished she used, I chose curriculum that was very close to hers. Hey we are family for a reason, similar personalities in certain aspects.  That first year I chose Saxon for Math, Apologia for Science, I Love America and Rainbow Book of American History for history, Abeka Language for Language Arts, Spelling Power for spelling, some random penmanship books, etc.  There were things I liked, some things I didn’t, some things the kids didn’t like, and some things I thought we could improve on.  

The thing I love about homeschooling is knowing where my kids are in their learning, knowing their strengths, and knowing their weaknesses. I like that if something isn’t working I can change to something that will work. I like that there is so much to choose from and that there is something out there for every personality and every type of learner. I like that I don’t have to settle for mediocre, and that I GET TO CHOOSE what is right for my children. I like living on MY schedule and that I can choose our days off and not rely on someone else’s schedule. I found that life is easier for my family, we are happier, and we spend more time together quantity wise and quality wise. We have had so much fun with our field trips and learning so far. We have grown through the years and we have found our groove. We have tried different types of curriculums, we have come back to some of our originals, and we have found some that work better for us.  We have thrived!

We are still growing and changing and improving each year. It has been a wonderful journey for us. The number one thing I have found was to include God.  I have learned to pray before buying any curriculum, and it has saved us tons of money. Through prayer, I have been guided to buy curriculum that I originally had no interest in, and it has become some of my favorites.  Through prayer, I have also been guided to not buy certain curriculum that I thought I would like, which I am sure has saved me a ton of money because I know God knows my personality and he knows what will and won’t work for us. There have been three times only that I didn’t pray about certain curriculum, because I was overly confident thinking I knew I would love it. Each time I have bought without praying for direction first, I have HATED what I bought.  They were expensive mistakes, even if I can resale them in the end. I don’t have a lot of money to spend, and most of what I buy needs to be an investment.  When I waste money on curriculum that doesn’t work for us it annoys me to no end. So my greatest advice I could give anyone starting out is this: Pray, Pray, Pray. Pray for guidance for your family’s needs. Pray about your curriculum. Pray for help to know how to get started. And pray to know His will. God knows you better than anyone else, even better than you know yourself, and he can guide you to know how to teach your family in the best way that will bring you the most success and joy.

Good Luck in your personal adventures.

The Threat That Became Our Reality-Part 1

I have recently joined a couple of home school Facebook pages and I have been watching as many new people are taking the leap to home school.  I know how scary it is. They have so many questions and they are looking for any help they can get. I've been there and it is quite overwhelming to know where to start. After seeing so many people searching for some direction, I felt like it was time to share my journey in hopes that it can help even one other person.

Four years ago, my oldest daughter was being quite grouchy with me as she was getting ready for school one day and I turned to her and said, “If you don’t start changing your attitude, I am going to pull you out of school and home school you next year.” Now I had no desire to home school at that point and had no way of knowing what her response would be.  But alas, she turned to me and said, “Good. I want to be homeschooled.” I stood there dumb founded. I could not even say anything. I just stood there in shock, wondering what had just happened. Wow, that didn’t go how I planned.  I took my three kids to school (K, 3^rd, and 4^th grade) and couldn’t even bring myself to say anything about our conversation at that time. But I sat wondering, WHY? Was she being bullied at school? What would make her WANT to be homeschooled?

When I picked up my children from school that day, I finally asked her about it. “Were you serious about wanting to home school next year?” She answered, much calmer than that morning, “Yes.” And at that time my 3^rd grader pipes in excitedly, “I want to be homeschooled too.”

“But, why?” was my reply.

The answer that came was most unexpected. She told me how bored she was in school.  How she finishes her work super fast and then is required to sit doing nothing for an hour as she waits for her class mates to finish their work.  And how she isn’t even allowed to read a book or draw, she just gets to sit and wait. How often times she was asked to help the other kids understand their work. How school is just too easy and she wants to be challenged and move at her own pace. And how the kids who didn’t do their homework at home the night before, are given time at school to do it, while those that did are given other stuff to do while the others catch up. How she felt that was a waste of time, and she would rather be learning other things. And her list went on and on, and all the while my 3^rd grader is chiming in his agreeance to everything she was saying.

I had no idea that was how school was for them. I knew they were smart and at the top of their classes, but I didn’t realize they were sitting around most of the time and bored. They never thought to tell me this before. And I never thought to ask questions that would bring these responses out. I was shocked at what good reasons she had for wanting to be home schooled.  I was also relieved that it wasn’t because of bullying or anything more serious.

I told my husband about the whole discussion that evening and his response was an automatic, “You’re not home schooling”. I got a little defensive and said, “I know. I’m just telling you what happened.” To be honest, homeschooling was far from my mind and I could understand his misgivings out it. You see, that year was the craziest year of our lives. My fifth child was about 10 months old at the time, he was born with seizures. We had been in and out of the hospital with him, and were having to see multiple doctors who were so hard to get into you had to accept any appointment time given to you (which were often very inconvenient). Plus we had Early Intervention coming into our home 2-3 times a week. He was on medication that slowed him down developmentally, caused numerous other problems, and caused sleeping problems.  I was not sleeping through the night and was extremely exhausted and stressed with his situation. To add to it, my 5 year old went to half day Kindergarten, which meant I was constantly at the school dropping kids off and picking them up from school. To say the least, I was a MESS!

Life was CRAZY for me, I could barely pull myself together (just ask my neighbors). And then the kids drop the bomb on me that they want to be homeschooled. “Are you CRAZY?” I thought, “I’m going to explode any minute and you want me to go even crazier.” I thought it would soon pass, so I didn’t ask again for another week. And then I waited another week and asked again. Each time it was the same answer, only they were more excited each time I asked. So the only thing I could do was to go pray about it.  And the answer came.  Yes, I was supposed to home school and I was told through prayer that my life would be much easier if I did. I didn’t know how that would be possible, but I trusted in the Lord and made the decision to home school. Though my husband wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea at first, he also received a confirmation that it was what we were supposed to do.

I had only a few short months to prepare as it was coming closer to the end of that school year. At first, I thought we would just go with K12 because it was free. As I thought more about it, I thought, I will do all K12 except I want to pick my own history books because I don’t like how the public school teaches history. And then I thought, well and I also want to pick my own math for my kids. So I will do all K12 except history and math.  But it would be fun if . . . (and that was the end of my considering K12). If I was going to home school I wanted to pick my own curriculum and do it how I wanted, not how I was told.  So I set to work, discovering all I could find out about home schooling and different curriculums.

Cultural Studies-Vietnam and Salsa

I have not been the best at blogging, but I am still going strong on not eating what I call fake foods. It would be a lie if I were to say that I have been perfect with it, because I haven't. It is a journey.

 

Confession time: Instead of making homemade tortillas one day, I used store bought. The week before I made fresh ones, I just ran out of time this week one day. And another day we took a .trip to the Kansas City LDS temple, which is two and half hours away. We ended up making a day out of the trip and were unprepared for dinner, so we were forced to stop for fast food. I even ordered fries to share, we rarely order fries. To be honest, it was gross, especially the fries. Ick. My body does not crave that stuff anymore. I half wonder how I ever liked that stuff.

 

Now for the good stuff. I canned a large batch of salsa. We live near an Amish community and I was able to get boxes of tomatoes, and cartons of jalapeno peepers and some bell peppers for dirt cheap. I was so thrilled I was able to can 36 jars (1/2 pints and half quart size). It took a whole day but was totally worth it. YUM!

 

For homeschool this year, we are learning World Geography and loving it. I found an absolutely awesome curriculum that the kids are learning from: Trail Guide to World Geography. We have been having so much fun with it. To add to our studies, I thought it would be fun to try out some dishes from different countries each week. This week, I chose to make a dish from Vietnam: Vietnamese chicken noodle salad (from: http://mediterrasian.com/delicious_recipes_vietnamese_chicken_noodle_salad.htm) This just looked so fresh to me and that is why I chose it.

 

Things I did different, I used bean noodles instead of rice. Though my son and I liked the noodles, my husband and other children didn't love them. So next time I'd just stick with the rice noodles. I also had trouble finding bean sprouts, so I used snap peas instead and through in some cherry tomatoes. This had a very unique flavor that we loved and I would definitely make it again.

Day 2-7 Preservative Free/Over Processed Free Diet

What a crazy week. I have been loving this new way of eating. I have made some homemade bread, hamburger buns, gluten free tortillas and pancakes (for a son), avocado cilantro hummus, granola bars (regular and gluten free), and so much more. I have been having so much fun with it.

The things I have noticed with this change in diet are: First, I get fuller faster and am not as hungry. Second, I have tons less cravings, especially sugar cravings. Before, I wanted treats all day long and one treat a day did not satisfy my cravings. I always wanted more and more. Now, I don't crave the sweets and when I have eaten some this week, one cookie or treat was enough. I even walked past a table of chocolate without any desire to stop. Sooooo cool and so freeing.

In all honesty,  I did experience some stomach cramping, bloating and gastrointestinal issues the first few days.  It has since passed, thank heavens. It was due to such a sudden change in eating I'm sure. Going from eating highly processed foods, tons of sugar, foods made with white flour and very little fruits and veggies to eating loads of fruit and veggies and all whole grains can do that to you. And as my body is cleansing from my old ways and adjusting to the new, I am feeling better and better each day. I don't know if I can go back.

Though it does take a little more time and effort and thought, the way my body is feeling is so worth it. But it doesn't take that much extra time and effort. I have been eating quite simply, with a green smoothie every morning and eating tons of fruit and veggies and hummus. I had originally planned to make all kids of crackers and other stuff, but am realizing that I don't really need them. I am much more choosy what goes into my body and the simple things seem to be enough, thus far. I feel like I am off to a great start.

Day 1 of My Process Free Month

Today I started my first day of processed foods free month. I should note as I get started that I don't plan to make everything from scratch, like condiments, etc. I just don't have that kind of time on my hands.  I mean, I am going to try and eat as little overly processed foods as possible. I am going to make all of my own bread, including hamburger buns, etc. Even though I'm not a huge cracker fan, my kids are. I plan to try and make a few cracker recipes I have pinned on Pinterest . I even plan to make my own corn tortillas and I may even attempt to turn them into tortilla chips, if I get ambitious. I have oh so many plans, but we will have to see what my time allows.

I started my day with a green smoothie sweetened with some agave and a scrambled egg. I must admit it was absolutely delicious. I should have taken pictures, but didn't. My secret to the most delicious eggs in the world is to cook them in a skillet with a little virgin coconut oil and I add a little milk to make them fluffy. I then spice it with some seasoning salt and a few drops of hot sauce and finally cook it to perfection. So good.

For lunch I made some homemade hummus, that was absolutely divine. My husband and I have always loved Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus and this recipe did not disappoint. I found it here: http://sweettreatsmore.com/2013/04/copy-cat-trader-joes-cilantro-jalapeno-hummus-a-giveaway/ . It was ridiculously easy and tasted even better than the stuff you buy. I love to eat it with veggies like petite bell peppers, carrots, snap peas, cucumber slices, and zucchini sticsk. I finished off my lunch with an apple.

For dinner I made a Chicken and Bacon Chopped Salad and Cornbread. I got the recipe for the salad here:  http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/11/chicken-and-bacon-autumn-chopped-salad.html .  Some changes I made: I made my own Balsamic Dressing and Poppy Seed Dressing. I also used some chicken I had canned a year ago. The cornbread recipe is my favorite go to recipe that I have used for years. It is on the sweet side, because that is the kind I like. I will have to share that recipe at another time.

Pretty simple, but quite delicious.

I'm Back

It may have seemed that I have dropped off the planet or something, but I am finally back. It has been several crazy months.  From long summer vacation to moving to a home better suited for my family to family drama that has been bringing me down. But now that life has settled down I'm thinking it is also time for a change in some eating habits. For a while I have been having issues focusing and I know it has to do with two things; going to bed too late and not eating as well as I should.

After much deliberation, I have decided to take a challenge of going processed foods free for one month to see if things improve. That means no store bought bread, processed breakfast cereals or crackers or chips, etc. I will be making as much from scratch as possible to see if I can improve my health with food alone. Well and I have started running too =)

Tomorrow, I  start my NO Processed Foods Challenge and I hope you will join me on my journey.