Speaking of shopping trips...found these at a certain super store in the States for ONE DOLLAR each. They may only get the girls through the first few months of school--but will still have been worth it!

Between 2003 and now I have been pregnant for a full 3 years combined and have been nursing for 4.4 years combined. (trust me I did the math many times to make sure this was right. I was often preg and nursing at the same time if that helps in case you're trying to figure out how those numbers work ) Of course there were a few small breaks in there I am taking full advantage of this time when I'm not pregnant or nursing to get my own body healthy. I ordered this tea from Mountain Rose Herbs to aid in some hormone balancing. It is also amazingly delicious!!

Such an amzing list of good healing herbs in this tea!

I had been struggling with eczema for almost a year which was so strange because I have never had ANY kind of allergies of any form. I got some prayer and really felt like I needed to look at my diet. Mostly--stop eating so much junk. The more reading I did the more I kept coming across the connection between eczema and an unhealthy liver. So I decided that I would start by getting the sugar out and taking some liver cleansing herbs and see what happened. WELL--eczema is gone. It still returns just slightly if my diet gets really bad. But the eczema is still nowhere near as severe as it was. I took this for about 3 weeks and still take it for a few days every now and then! Pretty amazing, huh!

I've been making huge batches of granola bars and muffins for the girls to take to school for their snack time. I've found two recipes that are great and this one is the protien bar from Passionate Homemaking and it's full of nuts and fruit and a little honey. This is my other favorite granola bar recipe.

I've been bothered with the thought of all the nasty chemicals in our laundry detergent that stay on the clothes and end up sitting on our skin all day and night for our entire lives. Our skin absorbs things and I just cringe at the thought of my babys' bodies absorbing cancer-causing, infertility-causing and who knows what else all day and all night. When we were home I ordered some Charlie's Soap. It is totally non-toxic AND it ends up being cheaper than what we were paying before for toxic laundry detergent. It doesn't smell like anything but the package reads "Leaves nothing but the good old-fashioned sweet smell of clean. If you want flowers, go pick some." Pretty funny. Anyway, it gives me a good feeling knowing that there are a few less chemicals roaming around in my family's bodies

Another bonus is that it only takes one Tablespoon so I can bring back lots from the States without it taking up too much space in the car!

My husband's slippers. It's kind of hard to explain. He works hard in everything he does so there's just something so wonderful about him getting home and getting into relaxation mode. He's the type that rolls out of bed and immediately gets dressed--shoes and all. You'll never see him in pajamas past 7am. I guess it's satisfying to me as a wife to see my husband be at peace and rest in our home and I see that when he gets comfortable and puts his slippers on. Am I crazy for loving his slippers?

The dough is made from 2 cups flour with 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks, beaten. Roll it out as thin as possible. This is the time consuming part

My big helper.

I've done different things for the filling. This is carrots, onions and zucchini that I processed in the food processor then cooked in a little butter until tender. Then I added a bunch of grated mozzerella cheese. Cut the rolled out dough in small squares and add a TINY bit of filling right in the center.

For tortellini, fold and match two corners...

Then roll and stick a finger there to wrap the other corners around to form a ring.

There it is. Not perfect but it will work

After I did a few, I let the girls have at it. They made a lot of different shapes The key is just to make sure there isn't too much filling. I went behind them and pinched and sealed off all the gaps so the filling wouldn't fall out

I had a big pot of boiling water ready and dropped them in one batch of 8 or so at a time for about 3 minutes. Then I dumped them in this bowl with butter so they wouldn't stick together.

After we made a variety of shapes, I think we decided that these ravioli shaped ones were the yummiest. And by far, the easiest to make! Just use two squares and pinch them together to seal.

Goofy girls. One important suggestion---use white flour. These were quite heavy because I used whole wheat. We ate them but they would have been so much better with white flour

Here's the finished product with some tomato cream sauce. Yum.

For an easy and delicious pasta sauce chop an onion and a few garlic cloves super fine and saute in butter for a few minutes. Add some tomato sauce and salt. Let cook for a minute or two then add some cream then let it heat up and serve. So easy and so delicious!! We do this often for a quick meal. The sauce---not the ravioli!!

This friend has been such a blessing. He also has a well drilling business in another town and has been a HUGE help to the guys while they learn more about the whole process and the machine.

I'll need to get some more interesting photos. This is the easy part when the machine is doing the work!

This well that they're working on happens to be at the mission base where we used to live!

It was fun for the kids to run around and play!

Gloria on the deadly teeter totter.

Junior, the dog. What a good boy he is. He was always so protective of our kids when we lived there.

I think he was happy to see us

Now say out loud "Don't work it." with a deep voice and a Mexican accent. There ya go. OH---you're making me laugh!! Stop!! Please.

And here we are.

Here's the before. (realistically)

Okay, this is the before pic using whatever blankets we had to keep us warm. Not terrible just not LOVELY

And here it is now! Oh so lovely.

It's amazing how much of a difference a simple bedspread, a throw and a pillow makes! Oh and that is our mosquito net. It actually looks kind of nice though!

We found the bedspread at Ross for super cheap then my mom got me the fuzzy rug as an extra treat for my feet Chris calls it the dead animal. I think he's just jealous that he doesn't have one for HIS feet

Here you can see the size better. A friend brought this to me and I was honestly a little scared of it! I had no idea how to eat it so I just sliced it down the middle and...

OH GOOD GRACIOUS---what the heck is this thing!!!!!

It kind of matched Lauryn's shirt.

It is actually VERY yummy! It reminds me of a kiwi. Please ignore the hideous half painted nails. Thank you. For some reason I can't link anything on here right now but if you're interested in any information about this besides my opinion you can just google "dragon fruit" or "pitaya". I guess you knew that though...

Here are my two littlest girls.

Playing around on the floor in jammies...

Here are my two oldest girls back in '06.

Playing around on the floor in their jammies.

Yep--I even have one of these angles!!

This was Molly's turn.

She's all prettied up and so happy!

There they go---up to the center of town to get an icecream!

Depending on how tough your hands are--they are almost impossible to hold. Ouch!

Here is one all cooked.

Once they're boiled, they split open easily and then we usually just scoop them our or CAREFULLY peel the prickly skin off and cut it in chunks. One place I read suggested scooping the flesh out and mashing it with butter and salt just like you might do with squash. Maybe we'll try that next time. We actually really enjoy them plain just like this though!

All my BIG girls in their uniforms, ready for school! Jenna is in preschool, Molly in kindergarten and Lauryn in first grade!

Gloria is SUCH a good little mommy.

Jenna too!

This house is FULL of little mommies!!

Our little neighbor girl visits everyday. Molly is so sweet with her--I think she just fell down.

First grade is no joke around here! These are all her text books and notebooks and supplies...that we spent hours covering with paper and then plastic...that was SO much FUN I almost couldn't STAND IT!!!

This girl is learning how to read and write and is doing such an awesome job. We are so proud of her! (this pic is from her first week)

And here they all are---true to each individual personality. Lauryn--being goofy, Molly--being huggy, Jenna--with no clothes on, and Gloria--grumpy I love these girls!