i was a kaleidoscope

Homemade Elderberry Syrup

2011-09-21T11:38:00.003-05:00

I mentioned yesterday that Phil had gathered a bunch of elderberry, which grows everywhere around here. I finally got the syrup made this morning and I am so excited. Usually when fall starts I begin ordering immune supplements for the upcoming winter. This usually includes elderberry syrup, vitamin c, some immune boosting herbs and maybe a few homeopathic combinations. It gets expensive and when you are sick a bottle of elderberry syrup doesn't last long.

Thank goodness my husband loves to point out various plants while we are driving or walking around. Recently he showed me that all along the roads and throughout the woods there are elderberry bushes.

credit

I had about a cup and a half of berries once all the leaves and stems were removed.

I followed a recipe I found on a blog. Basically, I boiled the berries with about 4 1/2 cups of water

and then let them simmer for about 40 minutes.

I then mashed the berries in the water and strained them through a fine mesh sieve. I then mixed it with a little more than a cup of local honey (which contains many health benefits).

Then I put it into a few mason jars and will keep it in the fridge. Should last 2-3 months. It is recommended that you take a tablespoon once a day for preventative measures.

It tastes great and saves a lot of money!!

~I love Fall~

2011-09-20T12:58:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't? Fall is my favorite time of year! I am excited for tights, cardigans, hot drinks, the flavors of ginger, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and crockpot meals! The only thing missing is friends to have late night fires with...oh how i miss that!

Today I came back from a walk with Elias by the river and made pumpkin pancakes. I also made a pumpkin spice latte using this recipe. Though I can no longer call myself a vegan, I do prefer vegan recipes where I can find them. It's no starbucks, but it hit the spot.

Liberty Lake is beautiful and I am so glad we are here, for however long. Besides the amazing summer weather and the mountain views from our doorstep, there are so many wonderful finds out in nature. Phil is big into foraging. The other day he brought home a bunch of wild elderberry.

It grows like crazy around here. I found this site and am going to make some elderberry syrup tonight. Elderberry is great for immune health and a life saver in winter to ward off colds and flus.

You got the power!

2011-08-18T13:38:00.002-05:00

Elias thinks that this is the coolest thing ever and has been singing this song ALL DAY LONG....

I think this kid is amazing!! He has phil sit on the floor of his room playing guitar and then he acts out scenes from transformers on his bed. It's pretty creative with high levels of mellow drama:)

Favorite Homemade Recipes

2011-08-18T13:19:00.004-05:00

Tub Scrub:
I love this stuff! I have never used anything natural, homemade or store-bought that works as well as this stuff.
It is amazing and smells wonderful~

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup liquid castile soap (Dr. Bronner's is what I use)
5-10 drops of essential oil of choice

Mix really well (need to use some muscle for this part) and store in a glass jar.
*can't remember where I found this recipe

Toothpaste:
5 parts calcium powder
2 parts baking soda
3 parts xylitol
1 part liquid castile soap
3-5 parts coconut oil
(optional ingredients): essential oils, grapefruit seed extract, trace minerals.

I make this using a tablespoon and store it in a pint size mason jar. It fits into the counter drawer in the bathroom. It cleans and strengthens teeth and freshens breath. The xylitol is great for remineralizing teeth and reduces plaque among a whole list of other dental benefits.
*I got this recipe from Wellness Mama

Deodorant:
I will never go back to regular deodorant again. I have been using this for over a year and love it.
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 c arrowroot powder
4 T coconut oil
10 drops essential oil ( lavender, clary sage and tea tree are all antibacterial. I also love to add patchouli)
Mix dry ingredients, then add oils gradually. Mix with a fork. You can store this in a shallow glass container and store in your bathroom. You can also pack it into an empty deodorant container and keep in the fridge. Keep in mind that storing this deodorant in too warm of an environment will cause the ingredients to separate or if it's too cold you will have a hard time using your fingers to apply it.
*you can find this or many other similar deodorant recipes all over the internet

huckleberry patch

2011-08-08T01:20:00.002-05:00

Saturday we decided to head to Idaho to spend time in the woods, have a picnic and enjoy the weather.

Phil had an idea of where we were heading but in general we were driving up a mountain looking for a place to stop. This of course always makes me a bit nervous. I am usually the one in the family who is extremely spontaneous, needs no plans, can pack up and "go" at a moment's notice, but not knowing exactly where we were heading, with toddler in tow and a great fear of happening upon a wild animal (and the fact that I am not the most outdoorsy person), I was nervous. Add this to the fact that Phil decides to pull off on a very bumpy, rocky and narrow road with an impressive drop off. I was stressed.

So eventually we park, unload the dog, Elias, food and some chairs and walk up a ways til we reach this small clearing smack dab in the middle of a huckleberry patch. Phil had been huckleberry and thimble berry picking several times since summer started, always bringing back a bunch to make homemade jam with (and it is amazing:). We must have eaten every berry within 30-40 feet. We were all had cuts and scratches, but man were we happy. We picked straight for a couple hours, stopping every once in awhile to sit and enjoy our beautiful surroundings.

We were stained. Especially Elias. He had so much fun playing in the woods and picking berries. His face was filthy, his hands were purple, he was pretending and playing and eating and having such an adventure. It was a joy to watch. He even peed for the first time on a tree...a must for a little boy. He thought it was hilarious. We realized as we were packing up to head back to the car that he had dried blood on the back of his ear, he had fallen while playing and had just kept on going. He said it was the best day ever:)

It was a beautiful drive there into (and out of) the Coeur D'Alene National Forest.

2011-08-05T16:20:00.003-05:00

Been busy thrifting and scavenging to add new items to my Etsy shop, A Hundred Sparrows. There are so many thrift stores here in Spokane and Idaho and I have found some fantastic things, many that I actually kept for myself. Having sold almost everything we owned to move out here, we were in desperate need of basic household items. At least 1-2 times per week we head out and see what we can find, often times getting fabulous deals!

Easter Weekend

2011-04-25T09:15:00.001-05:00

Free eating chocolate

The Easter Egg hunt at our apartment complex

After the Easter egg hunt we drove a couple miles down the road and enjoyed the beautiful weather!

This is the "beach." Excited to spend warm summer days here!

Liberty Lake

Phil and I made an apple pie from scratch for after our Easter dinner...YUM~

Out and about - Liberty Lake and Spokane!!

2011-04-15T14:57:00.001-05:00

First Liberty Lake sign!

The view from the main road next to our apartments...notice the snow on the mountains

Our apartments

Liberty Lake - about 2 miles from our house

The walking/hiking trail around the lake

A beaver dam

If you look closely at the brown spots on this tree...

ladybugs and tons of them

In about 5 seconds he flips out, cries and gets off the carousel..then 10 minutes later is begging to ride it again

Riverfront Park

#3 on my 2011 list of things to do

2011-04-14T18:07:00.000-05:00

Increase my intake of raw foods.

I have been juicing daily for the last several months (minus a few weeks when we were packing up the house and moving to Washington). I bought myself Ani Phyo's book "Raw Food." It is one of the few raw food books I have seen that contains recipes that I felt I could make, that didn't take days or weeks of pre-planning with ingredients I couldn't find. I have made several of her recipes and have found them to be easy and delicious.

I took a couple of her recipes and tweaked them a bit to make this:

It was a base of pecans and almond and hemp powder ground together in my blendtec. I added dried dates and a bit of agave and then pressed it onto this loaf pan. The I added chopped oranges on top. I also made a chocolate sauce using the recipe in the book but i substituted some of the agave with brown rice syrup and added orange juice. I covered the base and chopped oranges with the chocolate sauce. I then added sliced oranges on top and sprinkled unsweetened coconut on that. It was so good!

For breakfast, I have been making smoothies or raw cereal. This morning I ate crushed pecans mixed with unsweetened coconut, raisins, diced apples, flax seed, chia seed and almond milk. Yum Yum!!

Lunch depends on what we have around but more often than not it's a mega salad with everything from wheat grass, a bunch of chopped vegetables, amino acids, salt. pepper, nuts, seeds, etc!

~Last day of our adventure~

2011-04-14T13:53:00.000-05:00

Our last day was an exciting one. We only had a 6 hour drive ahead of us..by far our shortest day. We drove from Bozeman into Idaho and then Spokane, Washington.

We were awed by the wide openness of Montana. Big beautiful sky and you could see forever. But both of us growing up near the Smokies, it wasn't long before we felt a bit overwhelmed by it (and a bit vulnerable...it's not until we cross over into Idaho that we feel "at home").

We decided we like being hedged in by trees and mountains.

Our first glimses of the lake in Coeur D'alene, Idaho

3rd...but really 4th day

2011-04-13T16:09:00.001-05:00

Because of snow our third day travel was spent in Rapid City. We decided to wait out the snow and relax and enjoy ourselves. Traveling all day long is fatiguing and it was nice to hang out. We ran over to wal mart and bought elias some swim trunks so that he could play in the indoor heated pool. We mailed postcards to friend and family, enjoyed talking with people we met at the hotel and vegged. We also walked to a Mongolian Grill for lunch, where I got this fabulous fortune in my fortune cookie...

Anywho...we felt really recharged as we started our 4th day...heading out of South Dakota, through Wyoming and into Montana, where we stopped in Bozeman for the evening.

Wyoming

2011-04-11T10:51:00.000-05:00

Wyoming gets its own post because, although we weren't in it for very long, I immediately loved it. It was beautiful. The sky was blue blue and there was snow everywhere and beautiful mountains. It was lovely!

a little willie nelson in the background

He's not much of a car sleeper usually

Iowa and South Dakota

2011-04-10T10:07:00.001-05:00

We left St Joseph the second day headed towards Iowa (which i don't think I took a single picture or video of). Most of the day was South Dakota. I had been there several times in my life since my great Aunt lived there until she passed away several years ago. I have very fond memories of visiting Rapid City, seeing Rushmore and the Black Hills, the buffalo, etc. I love that area...I do not, however love the drive on I-90 from eastern to western South Dakota. I told Phil that it felt like groundhogs day....it seemed that we kept passing under the same overpass and the same field of dead grass over and over...

Inside heated pool

Nice

My fortune cookie at the Mongolian Grill across the street from our hotel

A Breakdown: Tennessee to Missouri

2011-04-10T09:38:00.001-05:00

On our first day we made it from Tennessee to Missouri. We stopped for lunch outside St. Louis and nearly froze to death. We were not prepared for all the snow we encountered that week. I had wet shoes much of the time but loved seeing all the snow and was too excited by what we were doing to mind all that much.

#13

2011-04-08T17:24:00.000-05:00

#13 on my 2011 list: begin hooping....i love it!

Across Country

2011-04-08T17:21:00.000-05:00

It seems strange to think about but we did it. We packed up the family...including the dog and cat and moved across country. We sold almost everything we owned, fit the rest in a 5x9 U-haul and said goodbye to our dearest friends. It was extremely hard to leave them behind but we were so excited about what we were about to do. For us there was no fail. We told ourselves were were embarking on an adventure and whether we stayed a year or ten we were to see something new.

We couldn't have asked for a better trip. With there being so many variables and so many factors out of our control, it was more than we could ask for. Elias was a gem. Kept himself occupied, played with his toys, napped a bit, snacked, looked out the window and listened to music....I was so proud of him. His "present" for doing so well on our trip was we bought him the Star Wars trilogy, which he loved!! Clementine was easy. Agnes was shockingly good. We had kitty meds for her, which wiped her out the first day but had little to no affect on her the following days. But she would mainly sleep and mew a little and occasionally crawl into my lap to sleep.

We saw such a beautiful part of the country that I had previously not been very familiar with...apart from South Dakota. It was breathtaking to see the vast openness of Montana...the towering trees and lush green as we entered Idaho. I felt so blessed and lucky to witness it all. I didn't take it for granted...however I will say if i never drive across South Dakota again I will be ok with that. The many hours it took to make it across that state about did me in. We had the crazies by the end of it~

We had kept a close eye on the weather the weeks leading up to leaving but somehow the 50+ degree weather we had been seeing was quickly replaced by snow....everywhere. Somehow I failed to get the memo about this and soon regretted the cloth slip on Sanuks that I had with me on the car trip. I was, however, kept warm by the scarf my mom had knit me and I did have a winter coat for everyone.

Montana

Wyoming

Bozeman, Montana

Arrived in Spokane and immediately went and ate sushi!

Two more things to mark off my 2011 to do list:

1. Move to Spokane

9. Family road trip!!

10 days

2011-03-15T08:46:00.000-05:00

10 days to pack up the rest of our things. it's getting pretty empty in here.

Cross Country Eats

2011-03-07T14:05:00.000-06:00

While selling off 85% of the things I own and finding time to see and visit with all my dear friends and family, I am also thinking long and hard about how and what we will be eating while driving for 4 days. I am starting to stockpile a few items here and there and make grocery lists to ensure that I am not at the mercy of convenience stores and fast food while making our way to Washington.

So far my list consists of:
-individually packaged rice milk (for elias to sip on, for cereal or oatmeal offered at the hotels we stay at)
-raw almonds
-a bag of apples
-some larabars
-bag of carrots
-hummus
-homemade trail mix
-my friend Kathrine who own/runs Wild Flours is making me some homemade organic vegan bread and muffins!!!
-Oskri organic coconut bars - these are elias' new favorite snack, which he refers to as "cheesy bars"
-a few containers of applesauce from Materne
-a couple bags of ginger slices - for any car sickness

I am thinking maybe some peanut butter, veg sandwich slices, lots of water, rice cakes.....
any ideas are welcome!

I also have downloaded several apps to locate healthy restaurants or the random Whole foods or Trader Joes.

Been listening to:

2011-03-02T07:40:00.002-06:00

and this one is for Elias

26 days to go

2011-02-28T19:25:00.000-06:00

We are trying to find a place to live when we move and in the process of trying to worm our way around the 80lb dog limit at all the local apartments. We are hoping to convince them that despite her being "a big girl," she is sweet as a peach and truly sleeps 12-20 hours a day.

Rainy Days Surprises

2011-02-24T15:26:00.001-06:00

It has been overcast and rainy all day! My kind of day and to top it off I got several "surprises" today that made it even better.

I gave away a bunch of stuff on craigslist today and the lady who came and picked them up brought me a gift bag of Belgium Chocolates. She and I talked for about 15 minutes and it was just a really good reminder that there are kind people still out there

Secondly, I was excited to get the mail today because I knew that a skirt I ordered from Gaia Conceptions was coming today. This was my Valentine's gift from Phil and I am really in love with it. They also threw in a free organic scarf...bonus!! It is my favorite Etsy store.

Don't mind the spots all over the mirror or the comatose dog in the background (we think there may be a gas leak:)

I also received a suprise package from my mom. She knit me a hat and scarf for the coldness of the NorthWest!

Treasury Love

2011-02-24T12:09:00.000-06:00

Sweet...more love for A Hundred Sparrows.

Update

2011-02-23T07:17:00.001-06:00

One of my Etsy items was featured in the great Elephant treasury on Etsy. I just love this site. I made another sale this week and I am loving it, can't wait to really get it set up and filled with great finds and more homemade pieces.

Things are a bit of a whirlwind right now, pretty much selling off the majority of our possessions (or giving them away). We are taking a small trailer with us but that means no furniture and paring down the essentials. We have a little over a month to go and A LOT to do.

February Family Pic

2011-02-17T07:11:00.000-06:00

Phil and I got to enjoy a night out last night...sushi! We had a a lot of fun and were grateful to our friends Matt and Salena for keeping Elias for us.

Here's our family photo for the month.

On a different note: I have my Etsy shop up and running. For now it's pretty basic (and bare)...mostly vintage, a few handmade things. I wanted to get it set up and then when things settle down* in a few months I plan on developing it more and really putting a good amount of time and energy into.

*we got an offer on our house and are waiting to see if the potential buyers can get the financing they need..looks like we may be in the great North West in a few months time...we'll see!!

and for my next trick...

2011-01-26T16:34:00.000-06:00