Homemade Butter

I've been pretty curious to try my hand at making butter for awhile.
(Go ahead and picture me wearing my best bonnet & working away at churning butter.)

Except it's SOOOO much easier.

There are 2 ways to do it.
The first is an awesome upper arm work out. Put some room-temp heavy cream in a resealable container (plastic container, glass jar, etc) and shake.
Shake.
Shake some more.
Continuously shake your container for awhile. (I've heard it can take as little as 3-5 minutes, when I did it it took me 15-20 mins. But I also was impatient and didn't allow my cream to reach room-temp.)

You will know it's butter time when you can hear stuff sloshing around in there. (Yes, this is a technical recipe.)

I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of my first attempt, cause, well, my hands were busy. Everyone else in the room was too busy doubting me.

The 2nd time, I got smart:

I know, I know it's not organic cream. The store I was at didn't have organic cream! I figured since this was purely an experiment it would be ok. Shh. Don't tell the organic police.

Pour in your organic cream. Because only people who take the time to actually make their own butter would use organic. And flip that puppy on. (I used the 2nd slowest speed, honestly going up any higher scared the beejizums out of me. Cream trying to escape the bowl.)

It'll start to get frothy.

And this is the point that I walked away because I get bored & distracted easily and only ran back to the mixer when I heard the distinctive sloshing sound.

And I had this...

BUTTER!!!

I would say this took a little less than 10 minutes. But again, I was too impatient to let the cream get up to room temp.

And do you see that liquid stuff in the bowl? That's buttermilk. (The stuff they sell at the stores in cultured buttermilk, this is the real deal!) I already have lists of things to make with buttermilk.

Pour the contents of your bowl or container through a mesh strainer. Remove your butter solids from the strainer and work it with a fork in a bowl. More buttermilk will come out. This is where methods vary, but I worked the butter with the fork, dumped it back into the strainer, then took it back out & worked it again. Probably 2 or 3 times.

Store your butter and buttermilk in the fridge.

The butter is good!! It could just be the simple extra taste of satisfaction, but I like the taste of satisfaction.

If you want salted butter, or want to get creative with flavored butter, add it to the cream before you start mixing or shaking. There's really no tried & true "recipe" that I could find. I think this is a more 'go for your own taste' thing.



Hurry Up and...GO GO GO!!

Just a taste of our last 48 hours.

Wednesday Morning - Tyson's boss lets him go, because his boss is just the type of person who lets go a hard-working employee

Wednesday during my lunch break - Tyson & I sign the lease for our new apartment, hoping we can find a way to make ends meet while he's unemployed. Our move in date is set for Sept 10.

Wednesday afternoon - My boss's boss informs me that my working from home for our 8 months away might not be approved if I'm not willing to work full-time. But we also decide we all have plenty of time until we have to make decisions. (Famous. Last. Words.)

Wednesday night - On my knees, sobbing, I asked God to please help the military proceed with the next steps for Tyson's class to start in November. And to please guide me in how to handle what will happen with my employment. And He said to me "Just trust me".

Thursday morning - Tyson gets a phone call asking him that if all his paperwork is approved, would he be willing to start his class SEPTEMBER 12TH instead of the November 28th date we've been talking about.

Thursday at NOON - All paperwork is approved, and it's a go. Orders will be cut, probably, on Monday.

Thursday at 12:30 - Inform my boss that we no longer have the luxury of time on our side. In return, he informs me that he's already made it clear to his boss that if they don't let me work from home, regardless of how many hours I put in, our department will be.........well a very bad word is what he used, but you get the point.

Thursday at 12:58 - I work on taking deep breaths & stop trying to figure out the why, when, where, what & how. This is exciting!!! Of course it's the military and things could change again...but YAY!!

Mama's Intuition

I love me a good thunderstorm.

This past Sunday I had a rare moment of alone time - everyone was out running errands & G was napping. There was a storm brewing in the distance. The power had flickered a few times, so I decided to make sure all the TVs & computers in the house were off and I settled down in front of our big picture window to watch the storm roll in.

The lightning got closer, the thunder louder. I told myself if I saw another bolt of lighting get much closer in the field across the street that I would move from my perch at the window. The lightning didn't get any closer, but the hail started pelting the window.

I went to our back room (we all call it the no name room) to turn on the weather radio. None of the warning lights were on and it kept giving me weather for Niagara Falls. Um...I don't live near there, so it wasn't much help.

After fussing with the radio for a minute or 2, I looked up and realized the house looked like it was going through a car wash. Horizontal rain was hitting every side of the house.

This is what amazes me about being a Mom...I don't know if it was intuition, a pressure change in the atmosphere or not wanting to be alone...but I didn't wait another second in running upstairs & getting G from her crib.

She must've sensed it too, because she was wide awake and shot her arms up for me to get her out of there.

Heading down the stairs my mind was racing, deciding if we should sit in the shower in the bathroom, should we go to the basement (which gives me heebie jeebies) or should I just stand in the middle of the house, looking out the windows, ready to run to one of the locations if need be.
We hung out in the back room for a few minutes, Miss G just sitting on my lap, starring out the windows, not even trying to wiggle away from my grip. Luckily the storm started to subside before I could give where to go another thought. I was flooded with relief as I could no longer hear thunder and there was only the sound of light rain.

Like I said, I love a good thunderstorm but that was the most intense storm I've ever been in.  And I've been through 2 microbursts - one of which in a RV - and 3 hurricanes.

It turns out, a tornado had touched down not a mile & a half from where we were. Lots of homes, barns & crops have been damaged but luckily there was not one single injury. (To humans, some cows received scratches & bruises.) 

Tornadoes are a part of life in parts of this country, but certainly not this part. As you can imagine our little community is a buzz.

I learned 2 things from that storm: Never second guess a mama's intuition and the weather radio we have is useless.

Peach Muffins

Often at work we decide to have a "snack day" the following work day, about 30 minutes before we call it quits for our current day. I am a planner, and if I hadn't planned a trip to the store on the way home it doesn't happen. (Not to mention I'm not so keen to drop $5-$10 just to participate with snack day.)

I knew we had a sad peach tree at home. Struggling under the weight of its fruit.

Of course, upon arriving home I noticed someone had PICKED the fruit...and it was no longer struggling. But you get the idea.

For about 4 minutes I considered just bringing peaches for snack day, and then realized that's kind of lame. So I scoured the Internet for some kind of peach snack that I had all the fixins for.

And I bring you...

PEACH MUFFINS!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter - softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg

1/2 cup sour cream

1  teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking power

1 cup peach - chopped

1 cup  pecans - chopped (optional) - I didn't use them this time around

Directions:
In a mixing bowl cream the butter & sugar

Add egg, sour cream and vanilla and mix well.

This was the first time during this process I was a little nervous. Sour cream? Really? Ok.

In a separate bowl mix the flour & baking powder together, then stir into creamed mixture until just moist

Fold in the peaches & pecans if using

Fill greased muffin cups three-quarters full. (Or in my case, use leftover liners from G's cupcake themed birthday party!)

This was the second time I was a little nervous. This was extremely thick & doughy. Of course I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've made muffins from scratch and not from one of those mixes (for shame!). So maybe this was a normal consistency? But if you fear that yours is too doughy, just go with it. It'll be okay!

Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes.

Cool in pan 10 minutes.

Remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

I would have never thought of this on my own, and they were oh so good! The recipe explains that this could virtually be a recipe for any type of fruit. The peaches were good, but I may try a berry type fruit next time. The muffin had a cakey taste to it, and I think the berry sweetness might go well with that.

I apologize for the lack of picture of the finished product. It was late, and they were promptly devoured the next morning. They were very yummy, but probably could have baked just a few more minutes. (But our oven is on the fritz, so don't take my word for it on the length of time!)

Munchkin Doodles

***This was cross-posted with Munchkin Doodles***

So why another blog you ask?

Seeing how I want to start focusing on creating a homestead, without an actual homestead, on this here blog of mine...I decided to create a separate space for our adventures with Miss G.

I might cross post here & there....but I am totally a Type A person when it comes to keeping things in their separate & organized spaces.

So the new blog is called Munchkin Doodles - because we call G Munchkin Doodle (or just Doodle, or Doodlebug, or Ham Steak, but that's irrelevant...). And we're hoping that some day we'll have more than one munchkin and they will potentially be creating doodles all over my walls, floors & furniture...I decided to just go with it & make it a blog title.

So there you have it. Another blog for only 3 people to read. Wahoo!

We had our first week of Tot School....and you can read about that post right here.

101 in 1001 Update

Instead of doing separate posts for my progress on my 101 in 1001, I decided to keep the boring stuff stuck together, so if you didn't really care it'd be easier to skip over this way. :)

#4-11
Cheeseburger on the grill with all the fixings  - YUM! (A little secret, I didn't make it, but I watched other people and I did set the table & help cut the tomatoes. So it counts.)

Take G to Children's Museum - We had a wonderful time, and I could probably had made an entire post about this...but my heart stills hurts over accidentally deleting all the pictures from my memory card. The pictures from the children's museum were the ONLY ones not backed up on my computer yet.

Get Rid of Unnecessary Things - Well having 2 1/2 months notice to move, certainly helped put our butts in gear for this one. And of course we had the yard sale, so it's always nice to make a couple dollars on the process too. (Though a yard sale is a lot of work!!) The process is not yet over, but we're about 2/3 done, and it's safe to say that it'll get done this weekend or next. This is one that's a big relief to say it's almost completed.

Donate Items to Some  Place Other than Salvation Army - After our yard sale, all the remaining contents were packed up and <strikethrough>sent to the local rotary for their rummage sale</strikethrough> are waiting to be delivered to the rotary for their rummage sale.

Go on a date night with Tyson - Harry Potter 7 Part 2 - Need I say more?

Take G Swimming for the 1st Time - This was back on July 4th weekend. You can see the pictures here.
She actually swam in a lake and a pool, each for the 1st time, within 48 hours of each other. She is definitely a water baby. Loved it. You could tell she wanted to go on her own, hopefully she learns to swim early.

Eat Some Place New - Three places new,actually, and none that I'll be returning to. (One from the outside it looked like a casual, small town dinner. On the inside it was huge fancy portions and more $$ than we anticipated. Another is a local restaurant I drive by on a weekly basis, and I've always been curious. The food was good, but the prices a little extreme - an extra $1.25 for fries, on top of a 8 dollar burger! And the third place....gave me a belly ache.)

Write a letter to some place that did good - Too often people comment on places, or contact a company when something is bad, or has gone wrong. I have been trying hard to see the good in people, places & things. When writing my 101 list, I figured this would be a good exercise to concentrate on the good. (And I actually was encouraged further from reading Penny Pinchin' Mom - who has her Apple a Day posts.) I sent an email to Plum Organics because I love, love, love their food pouches for G.  Unfortunately, I never even received a reply email that they received my praising email. That was a bit of a disappointment, and actually lowered my opinion of them. I'm not going to lie, getting something in the mail (even a coupon) from them would have been great, but I didn't expect it. But to not even get a "Thanks for being a great customer and sharing your thoughts" email was a bit of a bummer.

Book Wormish

In the 7 weeks since I ranted & raved about how cool Goodreads.com is, I have to say that the site did encourage me to read more. I've read 4 books since then, and let me reassure you this is a record for me. It usually takes me quite some time to get through books, with the exception of reading a Harry Potter or Twilight book for the first time. (Though...I wouldn't suggest reading the 4th Twilight book while suffering with morning sickness...just an FYI.)

Though the most recent book I read left me slightly annoyed - and I'm still not quite sure why - so I dove back into reading Harry Potter from where I left off before my Goodreads discovery. I read during my lunch breaks, and considering my last 2 lunch breaks I've fallen asleep, I think it's time to pick out a book that I haven't already read 3 times and don't know the movie by heart. It's not really keeping my attention. (And I might want to consider going to bed a little earlier too.)

After creating a list of almost 300 books to read online, I told myself I would get a kindle. But now with moving, and potentially paying more for rent than we would really like to, the kindle has been put on the back burner.

While packing I've been putting aside all the books we own that I've yet to read. The majority of our books will be in storage for the next 1-2 years, until we finally own a home. However, the ones that I've been setting aside, will accompany us on our journeys. When this stack has been read, each book cover to cover....THEN it will be time for me to buy my kindle. (Hopefully I will be able to stash a little money here or there to have the funds for this reward.)

Of course there's no telling how long my "To Read" list on Goodreads will be by then.
Perhaps I should put down Harry Potter and getting cracking on this stack of books.
(And yes, Harry will be traveling with us too. I don't think I could go 2 years without reading at least one Harry Potter book.)

Tot School

As I’m learning to let go of the big things in life, I’m also learning that I need to have little projects or events that I can have some control over. One of those things I really want to focus on is introducing G to the world around her.

I started to get the idea to do some "home preschool" while we were in Mississippi for Tyson's training. Really, I believe that this will be more beneficial in the respect that the both of us will need the mental stimulation.  (And something for me to have a little control over and PLAN!)

I came across this wonderful site, Tot School. They have tons of printables & other goodies, but what I like most is that it encourages learning through purposeful play. There's also a weekly link up to share with other mom’s who are working with their little ones at home.

This is a perfect tool for me, because being the planner that I am - my original idea for school with G started out much more grand and structured than should be realistic for a 1 year old. (Complete with curriculum & lesson plans. I guess the 7 year old in me still wants to be a 1st grade teacher.)

Now that I've been brought back down to earth, I think we'll start off with purposeful play focusing on colors and go from there.  (Changing themes, and as she requires different stimulation & challenges we'll evolve from there.)

And now that I realize this is something that doesn’t have to require as much planning as I originally thought, we’ll start before the move. It’ll only be a day or two a week for now (it has to fit in between work & packing & enjoying summer activities), but I’m excited to get something started with Miss G.

One

I receive a daily emailed devotional from Proverbs 31 Ministries. It's often amazing how each devotional will touch what is going on with me, or clear what's clouding my head, today. I wonder how many women God speaks to through this one simple email.

Today's devotional was about how it "just takes one". One person, one word, one kind gesture to change the adversities you're going through. It rang so true to me. Just one thing can send ripple effects to so many others.

All it took was some vision loss for my grandpa, a word said to a friend, and a young Mennonite wanting his own farm to come knock on the door. At this moment it seems like we're all scrambling. My mom to find a storage unit and put her belongings in storage while she continues on her journey to find her "Grandma's" house. For Tyson & I to put the majority of our belongings in storage and rush to find an apartment to move into. My grandparents to now decide if they will own houses in NY & FL, or if they will move to FL full time.....they have more decisions than the rest of us combined. Yet the truth of this...is it is all such a good thing. From the moment I heard about the decision to sell the farm, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was Gods work. His name was written all over this.

It has only taken me venting about our moving situation to one coworker for her to inform me of the apartments she lived in, how they're remodeled and they have a lot available right now. (I hope they're as wonderful as she says, cause from what we could see in the pictures, this will be the biggest kitchen I've ever been able to call my own!)

There are some mornings when I wake up and the fire in me is not as bright & loud as it should be. Still there, still burning. But when the piles of things to pack are piling up and the boxes still sit empty, I get overwhelmed. My heart becomes heavy at the thought how much moving & resettling my daughter will go through in the next 2-3 years....it's a task to remind myself that this is all part of His plan. I can worry if I want, but it's really just wasted energy. And I need that energy to pack.

It just takes one.
It's easy to find comfort knowing we're just waiting for the next ONE to jump start our next season of life. We can enjoy today, because that's really the most important thing of all.

Busy Bee

This past weekend was full of lots of fun with extended family.
Unfortunately, I have a HUGE yard sale to get ready for this coming Saturday & Sunday...and I didn't do what I was supposed to do this weekend.

So that means right now I'm up to my eyeballs in yellow sticky price tags and trying to decide if we really need to keep 3 million stuffed animals. (G is only 16 months, how did she get that many already???)


Hopefully I'll be back to myself soon. :)