WOW…..on those days when life’s storms come, and then chaos seems to follow, do you just feel like you want simplicity to come? We had one of those days this week, and I found myself craving for a simple way of life, and to slow things down so that I could think about what the next step would be.
For me, soup is comfort food, and since I work full time….I don’t usually have the time to invest in an all-day prep for soup making. So come and join me for this quick and easy soup recipe. It will not only comfort your stomach, but your soul as I share some ideas of how to get through life when you have days like this. Also, how to turn your soup into comfort for someone else.
Are your plates spinning in life, and are you overwhelmed where you are today? Life, for me, seems to keep getting more and more busy, crazy, and nuts. Some days my plate is so full….that I don’t even know where to start. The thoughts start coming. Where do I start? Work? Home? Kids? Husband? The sound in my head just keeps going in circles. I needed to STOP, and listen for a moment, and pray for wisdom. The verse that says, “a wise woman builds her home”, became my reality. I have learned over time to take four simple steps in life to keep some balance. Balance and simplicity are what you will find today in this message as you listen. I hope you enjoy this special event with me!
Have you ever wondered how to get started with essential oils and what this stuff is all about? Well, I did too and found some simple and effective uses for them. Come join me and learn some basic 101 tips and tricks on how to use them, why to use them, and which ones to use.
Life is definitely a journey and an adventure if you know anything about me. Every day brings new and exciting things and also some overwhelming moments. For the past two weeks my husband has had two major falls from having seizures which led him to be in the chiropractor’s office 2 to 3 times a week plus having to have physical therapy and wear a back brace.
Because of this we decided to take a quick weekend away that we called a Saturday vacation. While on this vacation he had a seizure, his scooter that he uses to get around in large places died in the middle of the museum. This led to us having to push it out of the museum, to loading it in the car manually, and causing me to be completely overwhelmed and having to have a good cry.
If you asked me is it all worth it I’d say 100%. If you asked me what I marry this man again I would tell you absolutely 100%. He is the man of my dreams and if he comes with an extra package called epilepsy …I wouldn’t change a thing. Now having said all that… I have stated over and over it many times that I have found “my new normal and it’s a moving target”. so what does all of this mean, for me there is no normal, normal is only for a moment and that changes again. And I am OK with that. I’ve had to learn to be OK with that… Otherwise I would not have survived life and all that has been part of it.
This is made me in the long run realize how precious life is, it is giving me the desire to encourage other women and their walk and their journey, it is also encouraged me to invest in peoples lives whenever I can.
But having said all that… I have a new journey in life and an adventure and that is my YouTube channel. Come and join me and come and visit me and see what this crazy life entails. I hope you will find encouragement along the way, maybe some new ideas that you’ve never thought of before, maybe a few laughs, but most of all I hope that you leave feeling a little bit better about yourself, a little bit more encouraged than when you first started to visit with me.
Over thirty years ago I learned how to can tomatoes. I did that for a few years but never really ventured out from there. Recently, after watching so many YouTubers who are now getting into canning, I decided that it was time to try this again.
I reached out on Facebook to find someone who would be willing to teach me and get me going. I was blessed with a friend, and the first thing she started me with was Cranberry Chutney. I had never had chutney and really didn’t think I would even like it or use it. To my surprise I am in love with it.
We have used this for roast pork and turkey, but the best is with cream cheese and crackers. This recipe is simple and a keeper for me.
wash cranberries, sterilize jars, cook down cranberry and applesfill your jars, take the air bubbles out, and wipe jars clean for before adding the lidput the jars under the bath for 20 minutes, take out and place on a towel.an empty pot is when you know it was yummy and my favorite part is listening to the sound of the jars popping.
At this point I have made over thirty jars and have given most of them away as Christmas presents. Homemade is always a great way to go for gifts, and my friends and family were so pleased. I will start canning jams and jellies soon, so stay tuned for some more yummy recipes.
25 jars done and ready to give away as giftsoh so good and oh so yummy
Do you can? What have you made? Share some of your favorite recipes with me and let me know what works best for you as a beginner canner.
Lynn A.C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother
Cranberry – Apple Chutney Recipe
Total Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
16 servings
Ingredients:
1 – 1 ¼ cups of sugar
½ cup water
1 package (12 ounces) of fresh or frozen cranberries
2 large tart apples, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium onion or I like to use 1 teaspoon of dried onion instead
½ cup of raisins and I prefer to use homemade raisins
½ brown sugar
½ cider vinegar or white vinegar will also work well
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (I like to add a pinch more)
½ teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of fresh ginger (I used powder)
If you do not have allspice and cloves….I used ½ teaspoon of apple pie spice
Directions:
In a large saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 3 minutes. Carefully stir in the cranberries, apples, onion, raisins, born sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, salt, all spice, ginger and cloves.
Return to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 20-25 minutes until desired thickness and stir occasionally.
Can be served hot or cold and added to Roast Turkey, Roast Pork, use as a side dish and also add to sandwiches or cream cheese on crackers ( a favorite of mine)
I’m sure we have all had a bunch of bananas sitting on our counter and after a week come to realize that no one has eaten any of them… and they’re all getting extremely ripe. So here is a great recipe for you to try….my family just love it! Grab a bunch of ripe bananas about 6 to 8… this is just perfect for this double batch of sour cream banana bread.
Enjoy!
In one bowl beat together…
4 eggs
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract
10 heaping tablespoons of sour cream
2/3 of a cup of vegetable oil
After this is thoroughly mixed add in your 6 to 8 ripe bananas and whisk or I like to use an electric hand mixer to thoroughly mixed it together.
And then in the second bowl mix together…
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
4 cups of flour
Optional items that you can add could could be a half a cup of dried cranberries, dried blueberries, walnuts, or even chocolate chips.
Combine your dry ingredients with your wet ingredients and gently mix together.
Grease to 2 bread loaf pans, place them in a preheated oven on 350° for 45 to 50 minutes
Let stand for 10 minutes and pop out the banana bread from the bread loaf pans… Place on a plate cover until it cools off.
Make sure you lightly cover it even when it is still warm, so that the bread does not dry out.
Add a little butter… peanut butter… or your favorite fruit jam and enjoy this delicious homemade bread.
We are a homeschooled family and love to learn new ways of teaching just about anything. Having someone with special needs and teaching them has been interesting and also challenging at times!!!! One of the uniquenesses that our son has (or as we like to call them) is Autism and ADHD. Now he also has a few other uniqueness….and roll them all together and you never quite know what you will have when you try to teach him.
Trying to teach the simplest things can be a big hurdle and we need to look around and always find new and different ways to approach things.
Our one goal has been as he gets closer to adult age is basic life skills. How can he function the best he can in the “real” world as he get older? When he wants to be with his friends….how can he maintain as “normal” of a life as he can? What can we do to assist him in learning how to feel like he can fit in?
We needed to make a list of areas in life where we needed to help him fit in the best he could. One area we thought of would be when he goes to a restaurant. I think we take things for granted and just maybe assume that reading and understanding a menu is the “norm”. Well in fact I found out that it is not. So in my search around I actually found math workbooks called “menu math” and we just love them!!!
Real life math…..with real life restaurant menus, it doesn’t get better than this. We choose places that we frequent to make this as real and normal as we could. Chick-Fil-A, MacDonald’s etc.…. here a few samples of what we choose below. Stay tuned as to how we apply these in our homeschooling in my next blog.
Here are a few links to some places where I was able to purchase some great “menu math”… Let me know if you find any other great resources in the comments below.
Simple and easy is the way to go for a working mom or any busy person. We just love the smell of bread baking in our home and more importantly we love to eat a warm loaf of homemade bread!!! But how in the world do you find the time to bake it? #breadmachine
Years ago we purchased a bread machine and used it once or twice. I decided to dig it out a few months ago and try it again. We just love it. We are trying all new types of bread and are having so much fun.
Here is a simple and easy sandwich bread recipe for you to try! Whether a peanut butter and jelly or a yummy ham and cheese…..you will certainly enjoy this bread.
So let’s get started!!! What you will need is….
For a Large loaf (1 ½ to 2 pound)
1 cup of lukewarm milk
½ cup lukewarm milk
3 tablespoons of butter
3 ¾ cups of Flour (I use unbleached)
3 tablespoons of sugar ( I usually omit this and use Honey instead)
1 ½ teaspoons of salt
1 ½ teaspoons of active dry yeast or I use instant Yeast
And for a Small Loaf (1 pound)
2/3 cups of lukewarm milk
1/4 cup lukewarm milk
2 tablespoons of butter
2 1/2 cups of Flour (I use unbleached)
5 teaspoons of sugar ( I usually omit this and use Honey instead)
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoons of active dry yeast or I use instant Yeast
How many times have you been left with bananas that you justdidn’t know what to do with, or you saw a good sale and wished you could buy abunch of them… no pun intended, and keep them for future use. I know somepeople like to freeze them for smoothies etc., but here’s another great idea.
Why not dehydrate them? I was blessed with a dehydrator forChristmas… So now I am in my kitchen trying things fast and furious to see howthey turn out.
This was one of my first attempts. I saw a lot of recipes whereyou could dip the banana slice in lemon juice, but I decided to go completelynatural and they are absolutely delicious.
Peel the skinsoff, and I also sliced off a little bit off of each end.
Then slice eachbanana into quarter inch slices.
Lay them on thetrays so that they are not touching each other, otherwise they will end upsticking together.
Depending on yourdehydrator’s instructions… Set your dehydrator to the correct setting forfruit. My dehydrator is just one setting. Or you can place them in the oven ona baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Turn your oven on to the lowestsetting and let it dehydrate that way.
My banana slicestook about 12 hours in the dehydrator and about eight hours in the oven todehydrate completely. From everything I understand they need to be dry, not wetto the touch, and leather like in feel.
They will stick alittle bit to your trays when they are done… but with a little tug they peelright off.
Store in anairtight container, a mason jar, or a storage bag.
A great way to have a healthy snack… Or add to your oatmeal inthe morning.
Comment below if you have ever hydrated bananas and what yourexperience has been. Have you done it with or without lemon juice… addedcinnamon or honey? I’d love to hear from you!
Resume Of A Mother 