Sometimes it is the little things that make me so happy! My yogurt came out just like yogurt!! I dripped some of the whey, but I let it drip too long and the yogurt was pasty - still yogurt though! :) I am so excited!!!
I have come to a final decision (I think). I have gone back and forth about having everyone on the GAPS diet verses just me. Initially I thought it would be best if everyone did it as long as hubby was on board. We talked a bit and he is willing to read the book and do the proper cooking. But looking at my freezer and visualizing how much I think I will need for the whole family on a daily basis - well it means I might have 3-4 days worth of food prepared. If it was me alone, I would have 2 weeks worth minimum. The problem here is that I am working full-time. The thought of trying to figure out my own side effects, let alone everyone else's and work and plan what to eat seems like I might be setting myself up for failure - and here is why - I detox very severely. I seem to feel every little thing my body goes through. Plus I am very afraid of the mental and emotional side effects - when I get over whelmed I tend to want to throw the towel in - and I have the feeling I will get over whelmed with this diet while working. If I throw in the towel, I personally would suck up the side effects of breaking the diet, but I do not want to make my kids suffer. Plus I want to be a good role model for them. I know this is a huge prayer thing. And I am feeling strongly that I need to go this alone right now - by doing so I will come out stronger and more able to help my hubby and kids through the beginning parts after having gone through it myself. I am sure a lot of this does not make much sense - I am rambling as my emotions are pretty strong right now. :)
As for other news - hubby and are having big discussions on what to do next. Our contract ends here in March - we have been wanting to just go to our land but are trying to be reasonable about the money factor. Taking local full time jobs in the area would mean a big pay cut. We need to factor in expenses for building a new house and such. But we have both been feeling an urgency to just go. We have seeds for planting - we want to be able to start planting this spring - we can't do that if we are not there. :) We have been praying about this for so long now - 9 months. I think it will take a minor miracle to make it work in the next 10 weeks, but lately I have been feeling like we are meant to go there soon.
Well enough rambling - time to go get some groceries. :)
Yogurt Errors and Starting School!
OK, so I attempted to make my first ever batch of yogurt and POOF it did not work! :( It was just really sour milk! I was using raw milk, a thermos, and store bought yogurt. So today I decided to try again, this time heating up the milk to 180 as recommended and then allowing to cool to about 115. I only heated it up to 120 the first time because I read somewhere that you didn't have to heat up raw milk to the 180 temperature. It is still "brewing" so I will have to blog about the results later!
Yesterday I also tried my hand in making saurkraut. I won't know for another 5-7 days how THAT turns out. All I know is I stunk up the whole place with kneading the cabbage - everyone said they wanted to puke from the smell! Hubby couldn't get out the door fast enough for work!! Thankfully this morning the only smell was the chicken broth slowly cooking in the crockpot!
Tonight we have MORE chicken and I will cook more broth overnight. It has been crazy trying to prepare for the GAPS diet. Hopefully we can start in about 12 or so days. A lot will depend on the yogurt tonight. If I fail making yogurt I may be too upset to move on! :)
As for school - we started off with a bang yesterday starting the Charlotte Mason method using Ambleside Online. All I can say is I have studied this for the last 4-5 weeks and still feel so unprepared!! We are starting off slowly as I am waiting for quite a few books in the mail. I have many downloaded to my Nook, but there were quite a few not available. I am very thankful for Amazon!!
Yesterday we did a nature walk and gave the kids 15 minutes to draw something from nature. Then we did some copywork. That was our first day! Oh how exciting! Today we took a plunge and did 2 of the weekly readings!! We also did copywork but no nature walk as it was pouring rain the whole day! The narration part was pathetic from all 3 kids, but it was their first day of it! The funny thing is they all ask questions during the reading so I KNOW they are paying attention, but telling what was read seemed beyond their ability! Now I know why Charlotte Mason was so big on narration!!! It requires the children to actually think! And now I completely understand why so many kids come out of school not being able to think too much on their own. Me included! And I graduated with honors - but it took me until I was near my 30's to truly start thinking on my own!
OK, enough of the soap box - I have to go check on that chicken! :)
Yesterday I also tried my hand in making saurkraut. I won't know for another 5-7 days how THAT turns out. All I know is I stunk up the whole place with kneading the cabbage - everyone said they wanted to puke from the smell! Hubby couldn't get out the door fast enough for work!! Thankfully this morning the only smell was the chicken broth slowly cooking in the crockpot!
Tonight we have MORE chicken and I will cook more broth overnight. It has been crazy trying to prepare for the GAPS diet. Hopefully we can start in about 12 or so days. A lot will depend on the yogurt tonight. If I fail making yogurt I may be too upset to move on! :)
As for school - we started off with a bang yesterday starting the Charlotte Mason method using Ambleside Online. All I can say is I have studied this for the last 4-5 weeks and still feel so unprepared!! We are starting off slowly as I am waiting for quite a few books in the mail. I have many downloaded to my Nook, but there were quite a few not available. I am very thankful for Amazon!!
Yesterday we did a nature walk and gave the kids 15 minutes to draw something from nature. Then we did some copywork. That was our first day! Oh how exciting! Today we took a plunge and did 2 of the weekly readings!! We also did copywork but no nature walk as it was pouring rain the whole day! The narration part was pathetic from all 3 kids, but it was their first day of it! The funny thing is they all ask questions during the reading so I KNOW they are paying attention, but telling what was read seemed beyond their ability! Now I know why Charlotte Mason was so big on narration!!! It requires the children to actually think! And now I completely understand why so many kids come out of school not being able to think too much on their own. Me included! And I graduated with honors - but it took me until I was near my 30's to truly start thinking on my own!
OK, enough of the soap box - I have to go check on that chicken! :)
Christmas and Getting Ready For GAPS
We made it safely to PA 2 weeks ago and it has been a whirlwind since. I can now take the time to sit and edit pictures and blog a bit! It has been a very busy past 2 weeks!!! And I mean BUSY! Not only has it been busy from Christmas, but hubby and I had to go back to working nights on this assignment. That has really messed up my system! We both have basically been walking around like zombies! :)
We did however have a very wonderful Christmas and past 2 weeks. Last week we went to Christmas Village and met up with hubby's cousin for dinner. We also made a ton of Christmas cookies which I will be mailing out today - did not want to mail them out just before the weekend and have them sit longer than normal in some PO truck. I couldn't make them any sooner because of the move. Better late than never! :)
As for GAPS- it is something I have decided to just do. But I needed to prepare some broth and chicken ahead of time. I will also be making yogurt and yogurt whey so I can make saurkraut and fermented vegetables. I would not recommend starting GAPS without preparing food before hand. I personally tend to detox pretty severely and cannot imagine trying to cook while feeling so awful. I would love to start right after New Year's but will have to see how much I get prepared first. I will also have to decide whether or not the rest of the family goes on GAPS as well or whether I will do it by myself. It will come down to how much hubby is on board - I would be able to go this alone with the kids if I was not working FT, but I am still working so I KNOW trying to help the kids through detox will not be possible without huuby's complete full participation! We just have not had time to sit and talk all this through - hopefully we can come up with a plan this Wed when we both have off.
The other thing about GAPS - if any one is reading this that is thinking about going on GAPS - I would highly recommend reading the book and taking many notes - bulleting the stages and writing down what you need to prepare ahead of time. It can be overwhelming when you first read the book and think "No Way can I do all this". But now that I have re-read the book many times and written down the main points of the diet, it does not seem so impossible. The other thing I have begun to do is visualize what a typical day of eating will be like. It comes down to meat, stock, and soup the first few days (or weeks) for ALL meals. We as a nation are so fixated on preconceived ideas of what breakfast, lunch, and dinner should be. That line of thinking needs to be thrown out the window and I admit it is hard to just think about having soup for breakfast, but I am praying the visualizing will help when it comes down to starting the diet!
Now I will leave off with some pictures:
We did however have a very wonderful Christmas and past 2 weeks. Last week we went to Christmas Village and met up with hubby's cousin for dinner. We also made a ton of Christmas cookies which I will be mailing out today - did not want to mail them out just before the weekend and have them sit longer than normal in some PO truck. I couldn't make them any sooner because of the move. Better late than never! :)
As for GAPS- it is something I have decided to just do. But I needed to prepare some broth and chicken ahead of time. I will also be making yogurt and yogurt whey so I can make saurkraut and fermented vegetables. I would not recommend starting GAPS without preparing food before hand. I personally tend to detox pretty severely and cannot imagine trying to cook while feeling so awful. I would love to start right after New Year's but will have to see how much I get prepared first. I will also have to decide whether or not the rest of the family goes on GAPS as well or whether I will do it by myself. It will come down to how much hubby is on board - I would be able to go this alone with the kids if I was not working FT, but I am still working so I KNOW trying to help the kids through detox will not be possible without huuby's complete full participation! We just have not had time to sit and talk all this through - hopefully we can come up with a plan this Wed when we both have off.
The other thing about GAPS - if any one is reading this that is thinking about going on GAPS - I would highly recommend reading the book and taking many notes - bulleting the stages and writing down what you need to prepare ahead of time. It can be overwhelming when you first read the book and think "No Way can I do all this". But now that I have re-read the book many times and written down the main points of the diet, it does not seem so impossible. The other thing I have begun to do is visualize what a typical day of eating will be like. It comes down to meat, stock, and soup the first few days (or weeks) for ALL meals. We as a nation are so fixated on preconceived ideas of what breakfast, lunch, and dinner should be. That line of thinking needs to be thrown out the window and I admit it is hard to just think about having soup for breakfast, but I am praying the visualizing will help when it comes down to starting the diet!
Now I will leave off with some pictures:
Making the cookies!!
R and E playing at Christmas Village
G enjoying her hot chocolate!
Everyone enjoying their hot chocolate!
Chicken stock in my freezer!
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