Hi everyone! I'm ending the day tired... mostly from having a yucky attitude at all the normal parenting pursuits. The boys are fine, but some days my heart isn't. Today, even though I've had the partnership of my wonderful husband and boys' Daddy present all day, I end the day tired of the daily activities of caring for 2 small children. So I thought I'd end the day sharing a few of my favorite things I'm thankful for... to try to end on a good note. Think Oprah's "Favorite Things," except I won't be purchasing things for you.
We had a great family day perusing a local orchard. Sounds fun and beautiful and productive, right? Well, we searched and searched... and after even more searching, we found 4 apples the size of glorified grape tomatoes. Unfortunately, a late spring freeze killed the crop. Wisely of the orchard, their building was nonetheless stocked with apples from nearby local orchards that faired better. We enjoyed the search with our friends and were glad to discover a new favorite kind of apple.
Idared... Doug calls it a mix between a granny smith and a gala... a little tart and sweet... and with a red skin. Notice in the linked picture the apples were on a tree. Again, we did not see this. I originally bought some in the hopes of making apple pies. Doesn't that sound scrumptious? But then I got real... and bought them just to eat. They are amazing.
I did buy a large bag of golden delicious for which to make Nathan's applesauce. It's so yummy that I think I'll save some for us this time. If you were to try it, you'd never guess it had NOTHING added to it. And it's so easy! After 45 minutes, I had ~25 servings of applesauce for Nathan... at the total cost of $4 or $5. Not bad! But the ease of the making leads me to share a couple more of my favorite things:
Williams and Sonoma Apple Peeler/Corer
and
my VitaMix.
The Apple Peeler/Corer makes dealing with apples so much easier/faster... especially when working with a large quantity. I use my VitaMix almost every day and totally recommend it. The website is helpful if you're curious. It's expensive; you might have to take a 2nd mortgage out on your house, but it's been well worth it for us. The ease and high quality of this machine has made making baby food, smoothies, soup with fresh veggies, grinding nuts, and much more... commonplace around our full house. And I wouldn't be able to do these things without its help.
On a snackier note, have you tried the new Fire Roasted Tomato and Olive Oil Triscuits? Yummy. Try with a slice of cheddar cheese and your favorite red wine. Or even snuck out of the pantry when your toddler isn't looking. Either way they are amazing.
So there are a few things for ya. Off to sit on my tail on the couch w/the hubby and wind down this heart with him and the Lord... tomorrow our week begins.
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3 comments:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who has days when my heart just isn't in it. I'm intrigued by this VitaMix contraption. What all do you use it for? And as my own exercise in thankfulness...a few of my favorite things:
Nutella on graham crackers
old episodes of The Wonder Years
real popcorn popped on the stove
Highland Oatmeal Porter
Oxiclean on any stain
my bed
Thanks for the reminder to be thankful!
Love you friend-- those days happen to everybody-- receive the grace of heart-adjustment and begin again tomorrow!
thx ya'll!
2square: you're certainly not the only one!
re: the Vitamix... it's more like, what CAN'T you do w/this thing? it purees fast and completely. it makes bread (grinds wheat and kneads- haven't tried that yet). the motor is so strong and fast that you can leave it running for sev'l moments and it will actually cook the food. there are sev'l recipes for soup like this. you can reserve a few ingredients for to add at end if you want a more chunky soup.
the theory of the Vmix is that we need to be eating more veggies and fruits, and need to eat them in higher quality than we tend to. so you use fresh stuff, and it grinds it more than our body is able, so we get more nutrients. more bang for your veggie/fruit serving buck, so to speak. and it tells you to use the "whole food," meaning, it's not a juicer that simply extracts the water part of the fruit. you put the WHOLE thing in... for instance, w/an apple, you cut in half and tear off the stem, but grind all the rest: the skins, seeds, etc. b/c that's where lots of the nutrients are. it grinds so well that you won't notice.
so: smoothies, juice, purees, soups, bread,grind nuts, and more. look at website for recipes, etc.
what's Highland Oatmeal Porter?
and so that annoying oxiclean guy is really on to something?
oh yes, i love my bed too!
now i'm asking the Lord to give me thankfulness for "real" things today like spending time w/the boys.
have a thankful day everyone!
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