Gabriel 3 1/2 months old

I still can't believe that Gabriel is big enough to play in the exersaucer already! It's not even on the shortest setting - he's that tall. He loves to stand up and so this is perfect for him. This is the second time that I've put him in it and he's already figured out how to turn around in it. I'm guessing this is good bye bouncer, hello exersaucer !

Psalm 23:1-2

We have been reading Psalm 23 at breakfast in the mornings and working on memorizing it. Here is what we know so far! I am very proud of her.

Happy 4th of July!

4th of July - A busy weekend

Friday:

Our weekend started on Friday with James being off. Hannah spent Thursday night at her Nonna and Poppy's house. My little sis, Esther, and her fiance, Jason, came over to hang out at the pool, play "Settlers of Catan", and then dinner in Tulsa at Famous Dave's - yummy bbq! We had a wonderful time and Gabriel was quite content to hang out with us.

Saturday:

We started off Saturday by driving in to OKC with Gabriel and met Nonna, Poppy, and Hannah down by the bank where Poppy works to watch the 4th of July Parade. They saved spots for us and James and I parked and 'hiked' to them. But lawn chairs, sno-cones, and mini battery operated fans made for a fun time! Hannah's said her favorite were the horses and the clowns.

Here is Hannah all decked out in the patriotic dress that Aunt Karen sent her last yeat (thanks to Aunt Karen - Hannah loves this dress.) Complete with her red/white/blue hair ribbons and pinwheel.

Gabriel did not appreciate the sirens or honks but was ok with everything else. The weather was wonderful that day. It was overcast with a slight breeze to overcome the humidity.

After the parade we went back to Nonna and Poppy's house where we all changed and jumped the water right away hoping to get some swim time in before it rained. The water felt SO good and the sprinkles held off for a while. Hannah can now swim across the whole pool by herself. She is getting to be a very good swimmer and would live in the water if we let her. :-)

Hannah and Papa played with all the water toys while I had Gabriel in the other end. He seems to really like the water and would kick his legs and stare down and the ripples when we moved. Here Hannah is playing 'ring toss onto Papa's nose'!

James' parents grilled some wonderful burgers, sausage, hotdogs, and porkchops for us. His mom also had potato salad, chips and dip, kidney bean, salad, lemonade, and iced tea in addition to all the burger and dog condiments. Cupcakes with flags, cookies, and ice cream topped it all off..... Was in need of a nap after that!

After we all took naps - we got out the firecrackers and sparklers for Hannah. She loved the "snakes" and the "sparklers". We haven't done it yet in the dark for her since it doesn't get dark until 9 but we did save some sparklers for another time.

We had to get home to feed the animals and when we were finished and got inside I looked out my dining room window and saw the most beautiful sunset. What a wonderful way to end a great day - thank you Lord for special gifts.

On Sunday morning we got up, fed the animals, went to church and came home to find that the goats had 'lovingly' let one of our chickens out of the coop - so James and Hannah went to return Cordelia to her friends and fix the side of the coop. After lunch and nap we headed back to church for a "Toaster" - our monthly social get together with church friends. On the the way home we stopped by a neighbors house to pick out two kitties! One is for Esther - she thinks her cat, Swazie, needs a friend, and one for us. So here is Hannah holding Willow our new little girl who will keep our other kitten, Oz, company.

This is Esther's new kitten, Etch. She is coming over tonight to pick him up and take him to her place. I put all three kitties together this morning to see how they would do and Oz was SO happy to have friends. He pounced on both of them and all three of them rolled and played in the hay out in the barn. I'm so glad we found someone to be with Oz - I think he gets lonely when we aren't out there.

Here are Etch and Willow after getting bathed to remove a million fleas before getting to be snuggled.

Close up of Willow

Our Garden in June

We tripled the size of our garden this year and we are just now starting to get some produce from it.

Tomatoes

Summer squash

Cucumbers

Corn

The whole garden view

Selah

Introducing the newest member of Circle G Farms - Selah!

An Alpine/Saanen baby girl, born early this morning to Zeva our Alpine goat.

Oatmeal Bread Recipe

Oatmeal Bread

From my mom

Makes 2 loaves (I double the recipe to make 4 loaves and freeze the extra so I don't have to make it as often)

Combine in large bowl:
1 c quick oats
1/2 c whole wheat flour (I use 1 cup)
1/2 c brown sugar (or honey)
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
(At this point I add 2 tbsp of milled flax seed)

Pour over:
2 c boiling water
Mix and let cool.

Dissolve in a small bowl or cup:
1 pkg (2 1/4 t) dry yeast in
1/2 c warm water

When batter is cooled to lukewarm, add yeast mixture.
Stir in:
up to 5 c white flour

When dough is stiff enough to handle, turn onto floured board and
knead 5-10 mins.  Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise until
doubled.  Punch down, shape into two loaves, place in greased pans,
let rise until doubled.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  Cool
on rack, brushing loaves with butter for a soft crust.

A Healthy Lifestyle

(Warning: this post got longer than I intended!) :-)

As I sit here drinking my (decaf) coffee this morning and the kids are quiet I thought I would share a little bit about some changes that James and I are making in our lives.  We both grew up eating pretty healthy and I've always tried to cook healthy meals.  But since the first of this year we have made some pretty big changes.  James competed in and won "The Biggest Loser" at work losing 36 pounds (and he looks sooooo good!) this spring.  I helped him by looking at the nutritional values and calories of everything that I made for breakfast/lunch/dinner.  What we saw was a lot of carbs, high calorie (although healthy), and large portions.

We now use some software called "CRON-o-meter"  (http://spaz.ca/cronometer/) 

to help us track what we eat each day.  It allows you to put in your stats (i.e. weight, height, activity level, - I even put in that I am nursing, etc.) Then it tells you your requirements of calories, protein, carbs, lipids, vitamins, and minerals. As you put in each food item and amount it tracks it for you.  Towards the end of the day you can see what you need more of.  For example, we are always low on protein so in the evenings James eats several egg whites to increase that.  It is surprisingly easy to use this software - we bought a small scale that lives by the fridge and I keep a post-it note and pen by it.  I weigh everything that goes on our plates and I write it down.  Then later, we enter it into the program.

Seeing what we were missing in our diets, the groceries that go in my basket are so much different that they have been.  We eat a lot of salmon now (Walmart actually has Wild Alaskan Salmon fillets 1# for under $5), tuna, Ezekiel 4:9 tortillas (organic sprouted grains), organic milk, our own farm fresh eggs, spinach and other veggies, etc.  Fresh spinach, as I saw in a quote "...could be sold as a multi-vitamin pill, it is one of the most nutritious foods you will find."  I don't buy lettuce (and haven't for quite a while since I have been growing spinach in the garden) - we use only spinach in our salads.  

Examples of our new nutritional diet is as follows: 

Breakfast consists of 

- Cheerios - 1 cup has almost 25% of your daily vits and mineral, Flax Plus cereal, and organic 2% milk. (And then a cup of decaf coffee for me!)

Lunch: 

- Sprouted grain tortillas with all natural lunch meat, a slice of cheese, and 20 grams of    spinach - a little dijon mustard to top it off.  

- Or a cut up apple, 1 can of tuna, 20 grams of almonds, on a bed of 20 grams of spinach.            Yum!

Some of my favorite dinners that I have been fixing lately (so quick and easy to fix) are 

- Broiled salmon fillets with steak seasoning on a big spinach salad with any other kind of             veggies that I have - onions, cucumber, tomatoes, broccoli, bell peppers, etc.

- Pork roast in the the crockpot with onion soup seasoning, carrots, and onion - makes the house smell amazing all day long.  I also skip making the gravy to keep calories and fat low.   The meat is so tender that it doesn't even need the gravy. I also skip the traditional potatoes that normally would go with a roast.  We have never been big on potatoes anyway and this also keeps the carbs low.

- We grill or broil other cuts of meats (mostly pork since we got 100# of our own organic pork!) Ham steaks, pork steaks, pork chops - then skewer zucchini, squash, and mushrooms and grill them with the same seasoning.

I still make other things with chicken and ground pork but it always includes a ton of veggies, mostly raw. And that's mostly because it's the easiest to fix!

We will soon be getting all our veggies from our garden and we have the organic pork. I only buy the antibiotic free chicken, drink organic milk, and make my own bread.  The homemade bread that I make, although high in calories - it very nutritious with a lot of  vits and minerals plus omega-3s since I add flax to it.  I will post the recipe soon for those who might like to try it. 

I have also changed a lot of other things in the house.  I use Purex fragrance free, dye free laundry detergent (although I'm going to start making my own from goat milk soap), Palm olive Eco dishwasher detergent, Pure and Clear dish soap, Pure and Natural hand soap and body wash, 365 Organic shampoo and conditioner, mineral based make-up, mineral based sunscreen, Natures Source bathroom cleaner and Green Works toilet cleaner - both that use a coconut based cleaner, Baby Oh Baby organic shampoo for the kids.... I even make my own fly spray for the horses out of vinegar, dawn soap, and bath oil.

I know that a lot of you out there are making some of the same changes and kudos to you! I would love to hear what you are doing to live "A Healthy Lifestyle".