Elements of Time explains the steps they have taken to reduce their consumption by 90%. 90% That’s a whoooooole lot. I am fascinated by the prospect however since that would free up a bunch of resources to tackle debt. Check it out.
Monthly Archives: December 2007
Christmas Symbols
My second Christmas confession – I have yet to finish a Jesse Tree devotion with the kids. We have made it to day 4 or 5 many years but can’t seem to get the thing done. It was never lack of motivation but rather life intervening. I have more or less abandoned the idea of ‘getting it done’, not in this season of life anyway. That’s ok. This isn’t a race and our preparations are for our own hearts only. We will continue to add to the tree as our decorations are finished. (the gingerbread clay will take another day or so to completely dry)
We will also talk about what all the Christmas trappings symbolize. This unit study has tons of explanation and links. Maybe it will be a banner year and we will get to all 24. More likely we will hit them as we can and be happy to cover several. That’s ok, too. No one is keeping track. Hopefully the conversations we have will remind us to think a bit harder about what this season means for our family. Then it will have been a success.
Wishing you a peaceful, prayer-filled first Sunday of Advent.
Cornmeal Flapjacks and other Saturday treats
Started the morning with Cornmeal flapjacks. We adapted the recipe from Marilu Henner’s Healthy Life Kitchen cookbook:
I cup flour (we used barley)
1/2 cup cornmeal (I often replace with millet flour)
3 T sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup yogurt
2 eggs
1/2 stick soy margarine (wouldn’t touch it if you paid me – we used full fat goat milk yogurt with no extra oil)
You no doubt figured out we tripled the recipe. : ) Serve with maple or blueberry syrup. These were exceptionally light.
While we were in the mood we mixed some coconut milk with goats milk, sweetened it and froze it in popsicle molds for dessert later. Then, put some vegetable barley soup in the crock pot:
1/2 cup pearled barley
1/2 lb ground meat (we used half beef/half venison)
14oz diced tomatoes
clove garlic
7 cups water
1/2 cup ea: celery, carrot, onion
2 beef bouillon cubes (we skipped since I am allergic)
bay leaf
frozen vegs (had leftovers from last night)
the meat was leftover so already browned. We tossed it all into the roaster oven on low and it’s quite good already. The original recipe called for basil and I would have been much happier without it. I really only like to visit basil in spaghetti sauce and never any other time however.
We are kneading some whole wheat bread dough for dinner to accompany the soup and chilling some yogurt that set through the night. Pretty typical weekend food prep around here. What’s on your menu?