Recipe - HUMMUS

Well I thought I would give Hummus a try. Not an easy one to try with kids.

4 STARS
( out of 5 stars my kids all gave this a 5)

                                      HUMMUS

I used  a few different ingredients

Chis peas

Lemon

Cilantro

Salt and pepper

Vegtable oil

Sky was getting the juicer ready and having fun doing it!

I used Chic peas, because that is what I had.

 Sky poured it into the juicer

I added cilantro. 

I Aways try and slip in new things  when I can.

It was yummy, we put it in a whole wheat pita with lettuce, it felt like it needed tomatoes though.

We had thumbs up and down and sideways. My girls didn't mind it , but also didn't love it.  We used it as a spread like butter and that they liked.  Just not too much of it.

We had a blast doing this together, and my 10 year old Kaylani is starting to make up her own recipes which i love to see. I love her creativity coming out and that she is trying new foods. I never tried anything new when i was a kid. I think a big part of it was because i was forced. I honestly believe the way we teach and the way we present new foods matters.

Make it FUN!

Do it with your children!

Use every moment to teach!

DEATH and listening to GOD

I was praying today as I do every day that God would show me who needed love today, who needed an ear to listen, I was praying today as I do every day that he would use me. As I was walking in church during my 40 minute break from teaching Selah kids fitness, I felt a tugging at my heart, like someone needed my encouragement.
I looked down the hall and saw  Nicole, the beautiful Nicole. She didn't look like her normal happy self. This is a girl I have rarely ever seen NOT smiling. I thought to myself " how strange" Gave her a hug and was interrupted and kept right on walking.
Her face came to me several times today, but I brushed it off.
 Her sadness just seemed so unlike her, I thought " maybe she is upset with me, maybe I offended her"

I was getting ready for bed and I checked my facebook and there were the words...
"MICHELLE LABELLE has 2 weeks to live!!"
WHAT?
NO!!!
This can't be true!

Sad, how I had seen her sister today and instead of being there for her, which ironically I  was praying I would do. I  made it all about me. I let me insecurities get the better of me. Instead of seeing a hurting women, I thought it must be something I did. What the heck? Talk about selfish!

Will I miss Michelle on a daily basis?
No, I won't.
Have I even talked to the girl more than a handful of times?
No, I haven't.
But this girl was so FULL OF LIFE, anyone who has ever had the pleasure of meeting her remembers her. Her smile was contagious and real. She asked questions each time she saw me, and knew about what was going on in my life. She made me feel special and that I mattered. Jesus oozed out of this women.
 I wanted to sit down and read tonight, but instead I sit here and cry out to God to spare her life. All I can do is think about what this family is going through and the road they are about to travel. It is a long lonely road.
I imagine that she will soon be with my precious brother and my sister. I wonder what they will talk about. I wonder how Heaven looks and I picture Jesus's kind loving face welcoming her home.
When I picture him it is often like we see in this picture. A loving kind Father who cares about each one of us in the deepest way we could ever know.  I see him smiling with open arms as Michelle runs into his arms of love laughing and dancing with joy...

I think about Nicole's (her sister's) Marriage, her grief and how it will affect her children and how grief will infect every area of her life, every ounce of who she is.  I cry for Michell's parents and how the loss of a child with change them in ways they could never imagine. I think of her husband's dreams being shattered, his hope gone. I think how they will feel so loved right now and in a year how they will wonder where all the support has gone, because the hurt will just be starting to sink in at that point. The days ahead will seem long and they will forget what it feels like to feel full and happy and wonder if they can ever fully live again. Everything they see will be tainted by death. Conversations will seem pointless and empty.
I cry because I know the road they are to travel, the journey ahead will be long and so lonely and filled with questions. It is a road I have walked, sometimes crawled along on my hands and knees, a road filled with much hurt, a road that will change them in more ways than they can ever know.
And I cry out to our Creator and I ask WHY?

Juicing recipee 5 stars!

5 STARS
( out of 5 stars my kids all gave this a 5)

Red Explosion

I have had a lot of people ask me about juicing.

I LOVE it!

I have never felt better in all my life. I have a ton of energy and feel healthy!

At 40 I think that is pretty amazing to say.

I thought I would test out some new recipes on my kids.  And get them to rate them 1 being yucky and 5 being the yummiest ever!

2 apples
1 small beet
1 pear
1 carrot

 

Sky always helps me juice, she loves it.

Can you tell?

 

So I put the juice in pretty glasses to make it a party and  we cheered and drank up!

Kaylani loved it and she is my pickiest eater.

 

Nevaeh gave it a thumbs up!

Sky couldn't even speak
YUMMY!

Juicing has so many benefits, so I figure I better start off young.

Home Schooling - Learning to cook

Cooking is an important thing to learn. I want my children to be able to make a home for their husbands when they are older. It surprises me how many adults don't know how to cook.
So today Kaylani was in charge of lunch and Nevaeh was in charge of dessert.

With 3 kids it is not easy to get everyone to help. If i did it myself it would go much smoother and be done so much quicker. So I need to ask myself what is my goal here? My goal is to create family time and unity, my goal is to teach my children responsibility and I do want them to love cooking and know how to do it. Having a 2 year old doesn't make things easier, but this little girls know show to juice and she is actually really good at it and can do it almost all by herself.
TO FUNNY!

All the food in this soup came from our garden. I wanted to teach Kaylani how to follow a recipe but yet be able to improvise. This girl is a rule follower so this does not come easy for her. But she did really well.

As she was cooking and cutting up all the vegetables , we taste tested and added in extra spices. We also talked about what each food gives our bodies health wise and how we are so lucky to be able to eat healthy and give out bodies what it needs to be strong.

YUMMY! 

The soup was the best I have ever tasted fro sure!

Kaylani was so proud of her accomplishments 

For dessert Nevaeh basically put chocolate chips and spindles together in cups for us.

LOL, not the healthiest, but it was sure yummy!

Gotta LOVE being a mommy!

Prayers matter

I woke up in the middle of the night to my eldest crying" mama, I need you"
I ran as quickly as I could and she said it was her tummy.  She crawled into bed with me but her tummy was hurting so badly she couldn't sleep. I knew right away it wasn't a flu like tummy ache.

I actually felt what she was feeling, it was a pain around the belly button and it just felt different. God has often shown me how someone is feeling so I can relate better.  He especially does it with my children's, or my little sisters pain.  When he does this it really helps me to not get so stressed out and it helps me to know how to pray better.

 I rubbed her back because that seemed to give her relief. I stayed up and rubbed her for about 4 hours and then she finally fell asleep at 5 am and then my little sky woke up crying from terrible scary dreams.

As the clock hit 6 am, and I still hadn't gotten more than 2 hours of sleep, I remembered my commitment to wake up an hour earlier in the morning. My brain felt like mush, I could barely think and sky was being extremely demanding. 
Lately I was not having enough alone time in the mornings. I only had 1 hour in the morning before the kids and chaos started and it wasn't enough. I need one hour for God and one for my business to get the day started right. I am not going to lie, I can fall into law like living very easily and it was tempting. But God whispered to me a gentle reminder, it is not about the LAW!  
And I remembered it is about GOD, not what people think, not about checking off all the boxes. 
It is about my heart! And he sees my heart.

We went to Selah, even though Kaylani was feeling horrible. This girl is a trooper and HATES missing anything where she can learn, or socialize. After Selah she was done. I carried her in from the car and she lay down crying in pain. The pain changed and now was a sharp pain in her lower right side.
The phone rang and her friend Simea was calling telling her she thought it sounded like an appendix. So thankful for friends like this.  I did a little research and it sure did look like it was appendix and her pain was getting really bad at this point.  So  carried her to the car and off we went to emergency. 

They agreed it was her appendix, and wanted to operate, but the generator was down because of the storm so they couldn't risk the hydro going out. What were the chances , a storm in early Oct?
They quickly made arrangements for an ambulance to take her to children's. This little girl was in so much pain, and I was crying. I was trying so hard to be brave, but I felt so scared and thoughts of my brother and sister dieing just kept coming back. I was griped in fear.   I started to shake and I couldn't think straight as I was calling Charles and trying to figure out who could teach our bootcamp and who could watch the kids and hwo he was going to get to the hospital.  ( thanks Analisa, and Dana and Maddie, Mom and Dad and everyone else who offered to help)

As I looked at my little girl, the little girl that gave me a reason to live again after I had given up 10 years before  all I could do was picture her in a casket. 
I know this might sound crazy to a few of you, but after so many close people have gone to be with our king, it is very real to me.
Her face was pale and she had dark circles under her eyes and she was crying " MAMA, it hurts" As a mom you want to make it all better and I couldn't. We kept praying and I sang made up songs about Jesus and his love and how he is our healer I sang verses I knew that came to my head all about the power of our King.  I felt God saying to me " she is mine"  I cried out to God, " but God I need her longer" God has often talked to me about this, about really giving my children to him, whatever that means. That is scary stuff! As I sat there shaking in fear I started to really truly let go, to release my child to him, whatever that meant.

Last week we had the wonderful Maddie watch our children as we went to the marriage retreat. This was a HUGE deal, you see I haven't left my children EVER.  For a couple of reasons, The fear of death being the number one. Last week I realized that fear was not gripping me anymore when it came to my children dieing. Well, as I sat there with my limp little girl, doubled over and crying in pain I felt that all to familiar fear grip me, and it was strong. I felt weak and out of control and scared. Every story of people going under that ever went wrong was brought to my memory.

As I was shaking and crying I posted a note on facebook for prayer.

FINALLY the ambulance driver came in.  "YES," I was thinking, "LETS GO!" I knew that if it ruptured it would be a much longer recovery. Then his phone rang and they said they had to go to another call.WHAT? We had no idea how long this could take, I was not going to sit there and wait for who knew how long. I asked if we could drive her. They agreed with my decision, they also thought that time mattered. My parents had come and they offered to take us, so we went with them. 

On the way as I was singing to this little child imagining how I could ever live without her, the fear was getting stronger, and the picture of her dead was clear in my mind. I had a flashback of my brother in the casket and it was real and frightening. I thought, we have no control, NO CONTROL!
But I kept singing God's truth and his promises and then like a wave coming over me I felt peace, a strong peace that was undeniable. I felt God's  strong arms wrapping around us and it was real. 

The fear was completely GONE! 
It was GONE! 
I knew everything was ok and I really believed it. 

Kaylani started to improve from that moment on. 
They were planning to rush her into surgery when we arrived at Children's , but by the time we got there she was doing so much better they didn't. We still stayed until 11 for tests .
 As we sat they I asked God who needs your love here, who needs encouragement. So I walked around the room making eye contact and encouraging others. I wondered if that is why God sent us there, maybe someone here needed a hug or a little love. 

This experience reminded  me so many things...
GOD is in control and HE IS GOOD!
Our friends are INCREDIBLE!
PRAYER makes a difference!

I wish you could feel what I felt, how God's wave of protection covered us in this storm.  
I could never tell it with enough feeling to explain how it felt, all I know is Prayer changes things...so THANKYOU to all of you who prayed. 
Your prayers made a difference today.
LOVE and thankfulness
Tami

We have more testing today and her tummy does still hurt , but not nearly as intense. 
Not sure what will happen, but I have a peace about it all that is a peace that only God can bring. 

Homeschooling - Have you had your greens today?

It is extremely important to me that my children learn the value of food.
I want them to want to eat healthy food because I want them to take care of their bodies.
I think part of this is talking about food every single day.
Why we eat it, what it is good for, why we need to eat it.

I know some people think I am nuts, over the top when it comes to the way I feed my children.

I  think it is crazy to go under the knife for bi pass surgery at 50 or 60 just because you didn't watch what you ate.We  have the knowledge, so why not use it?

I personally would rather watch what I eat now then be in a hospital bed at 50 or lack in energy the way I see so many 30 year old's do. I only get this one body and I take that responsibility seriously. It is my job to teach my children about healthy eating. Lord knows the media or the food industry does not have my children's best interests at heart.

So we started Juicing! My girls absolutely love it. 

I get them to go and pick apples, beets and carrots 

from the garden and I let them use the sharp knife.

 This is pretty special in our house, not sure about yours?

 It's so easy , just cut up your veggies and put them in the juicer and you have pure fruit juice!

I have often wanted to start, but just didn't really understand why juicing is so good for you. But look at all these veggies !!! Plus I added 4 big apples and one more carrot. Now that is a lot of veggies in one sitting. And the way I feel is worth it all.

I think a lot of moms will be saying? but my kids will never drink that"
I have a couple tips that might help.

First of all really explain to them what these food do to their body. They heal us, they give us energy and make us strong and help us fight sickness.
If you get your kids to plant, then water and weed and then pick the food they will be much more likely to want to eat it. 
And juicing is fun, they get to pick exactly what they want in their juice.
After we make it we look online to find out what it does for our body. Or if you have an extra kid get them to look it up while you are juicing and read it aloud to you.

Our juicer costs around $300. It works great!
We have to cut up the veggies before putting them in, but we don't have to core the apples or anything. And to wash the thing is pretty easy.













It is  worth giving juicing a try. I know it's not for everyone, but the health benefits are worth it.
I am so passionate about living a healthy life. And every time we juice I feel like I am giving a gift to my children. I feel so fortunate to be able to give them healthy food. We have so much knowledge at our finger tips. But all that knowledge doesn't help anyone unless we use it.

How to find time for it all?

I found this amazing site I wanted to share with those of you who homeschool.

http://www.k5learning.com

I LOVE it and so do my kids.

The lessons are fun and they cover reading comprehension and math and for those of you who are teaching a child to read, this is amazing.I like how it grades your child and when they do well at one level it pushes them up to the next level.

I like to use lots of different ways to teach and learn. One of my main objectives is to make learning fun, something my children ask to do, and want to do.I like to keep my lessons short. And as my children grow older I give them less instruction. For example for my 5 year old I tell her when we will be learning what and how long. For my 9 year old I tell her what i expect by Christmas. I offer her rewards if she completes certain things. For example I told her if she finishes Grade 5 math before Christmas I will buy her piano and Guitar lessons. I also figured out exactly how many lessons she would have to do each week in order to complete this by Christmas.
Then I leave it up to her to make the goals and the time to finish her studies in Math.

 I want them to know I value learning. Being able to take lesson like Piano and Guitar is a gift. So I think it is the perfect gift, The more she learns the more she can learn.

Some days I just don't have the time to sit and read for hours to my girls. Never mind  to go over site words and addition and substation again and again and again as you have to do with a 5 year old. I find online learning programs like this one are perfect for those days.

One of my objectives in Homeschooling is to teach my children to be self starters, to learn on their own and this is a perfect program to teach that. It is nice to offer working on this program as a reward for finishing work early. Or being a good listener that day. Or not fighting with their sisters for a whole day. (this one hasn't happened)

I love charts!
I made a chart and every day they need to do one reading assignment and one math assignment and one spelling assignment using this program. I find kids love charts too. There is something about seeing all those checks or stickers that is so satisfying.

So many different ways and things you can do with homeschooling.
I am having a blast and feeling blessed to be able to do this with them.
What a blessing!


It is really amazing what these little minds can learn.We have been slowly starting to add more and more schooling in each day for 2 weeks now. It is incredible how much these girls have learned already. Kaylani's reading comprehension has gone up significantly and her math skills are improving rapidly. What a gift to have a brain that can learn, to be healthy so that we can focus on this.
God is full of blessings and he is good
Loving every minute of teaching my children...what a gift !