Hello, weekend. Good to see you again.

Tomorrow we are celebrating surviving our third round of “baby’s first year”. One year ago I was super-duper extra preggo. He was born on the 20th. Twelve days overdue, oh yes.

We are also celebrating father’s day with our usual special breakfast + Dad sleeps in, followed by a round of adorable preschooler artwork.

Happy weekend, everyone!

My Notes to Two Strangers @ The Orange Rhino

What All Mamas {And Us} Need to Thrive This Summer @ A Holy Experience

My Experience With Childhood Vaccines, Part 1 @ Heavy on Wholesome

Baby Didn’t Get the Naptime Memo @ HuffPo

When Only Chocolate Will Do: Chocolate-y Chocolate Chunk Cookies @ GNOWFGLINS

Experience Everest With This Ethereal Time Lapse @ Mashable

“Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language” -Henry James

image by Frederic Revollier via flickr

This is a guest post from Kelly of The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. Kelly is a real-life friend of mine who also happens to be a total rockstar blogger. She has six kids and embraces a life of motherhood with passion, knows how to cook up a storm, crafts like Martha Stewart, and does things like fold her fitted sheets into neat little packages on the shelf. I kinda want to be like her when I grow up (Except for the sheet thing: My current Ball It Up and Throw It In The Linen Closet thing is really working for me).

I don’t find it easy to write about these sorts of things.  I blog about organizing closets and painting things teal, not pain and brokenness and struggle.  But I truly believe that creating dialogue in the church about our own brokenness is powerful and beautiful and freeing.  I believe that when we tell our stories, we set other people free to experience their own stories with more peace and self acceptance.  I believe that when we are real with one another we see God move more clearly among us.

1. My clean time and my conversion date are not the same thing. I’ve been clean for 8 years, and a Christian for 13. I was a saved-by-grace, Bible believing Christian who was using drugs. If I relapse tomorrow I will still be a Christian, redeemed and forgiven.

2. I am alive because Christians showed me grace. Sure, I can pull off the soccer mom act now, if I want to. But there was a time when I was literally stumbling into church on Sunday mornings,looking to find God again after a particularly rough week or month or year. There were Christians who told me to smarten up and Christians who asked me to leave. But there were also Christians who welcomed me, bought me a cup of coffee after church, listened to me, mentored me, prayed for me, and bared their own souls and struggles when I felt alone.

3. When people tell me that they would love to hear my story, sometimes I feel more like a two-headed alien than a friend. Please don’t pry for the gory details of some of my most tragic moments. Someday I might tell you about the dark places I’ve been, but only when I know I can trust you — and that I can trust myself to tell the story for God’s glory and not my own wistful, dangerous reminiscence.

4. Please don’t tell me that you know what I’ve been through. I am thrilled to hear that you have found freedom over your own life controlling issues, but please don’t tell me that you know exactly what I’ve gone through. Let’s show one another more respect for our unique situations than to presume we know what each other has been through.

5. Addiction doesn’t always look like it does in tragic made-for-tv movies. Yes, I had a time in my life when I was the homeless punk kid passed out on the sidewalk. I also achieved a 4-point-0 at bible college while smoking crack. People rarely fit into their stereotypes.

6. Addiction is both a sin issue and a disease. Please Please Please hear what I’m saying on this one. Any treatment plan or advice that only tackles one side of the equation is more hurtful than helpful. Encourage addicts to get treatment for their disease; even if it is not faith based treatment. You wouldn’t tell someone with cancer not to visit a secular oncologist, or someone with diabetes to just try harder and read their bible more. In my experience, Christians who are struggling with addiction are well aware of their sin. They need hope, help and support, not condemnation.

7. Please stop using the word addiction to mean “affinity for”. You aren’t “addicted” to reality tv or strawberry frappucinos. Please don’t trivialize the pain that people struggle with every single day by referring to your hobbies and preferences as addictions.

8. I’m still an addict. 8 years clean and I still have to be damn careful where I go, what I watch, and where I let my mind wander to. If I breathe in too slow sometimes I can almost for a moment taste and feel the drugs. Sometimes when that happens I pray that sin would not have dominion over me; other times I take another slow breath to try sadly and desperately to feel it again. The temptation doesn’t disappear just because I’ve been clean for years, which brings me to the next point…

9. Sometimes I just really want to get high. And for the most part I can’t tell people this because they think it means I’m about to relapse. If I do tell you I’m struggling, please don’t freak out.

10. And I am so much more than an addict. I am passionate and creative and opinionated. God is daily showing me bigger, better glimpses of who I am in Him.

11. Sometimes, deliverance is white knuckled work. I used to ask why God wasn’t setting me free from this in the powerful, miraculous ways he sometimes does. What I’ve come to see is that freedom is not the lack of temptation, it is the ability to stand against it. Everyday my weakness is made strong in Him.

12. My old life was full of lies. It was how I protected my addiction. So sometimes now I say things that are uncomfortably and painfully true. I have to. The whole “I’m okay, your okay” game we like so much to play in the church can mean certain death for an addict. Ultimately, it isn’t really good for anyone. I’m not okay, you’re not okay, we all have issues we are working through.

Let’s be real about that.

Welcome back to the Raising Healthy Family Series! This is the last post in the series! I can hardly believe we started this back in the winter, and now we’re finishing up at the beginning of a glorious summer season. This is the perfect post to end with, and I hope you click over to Kelly’s blog and enjoy!

Today, Kelly at The Nourishing Home is sharing a healthy way to beat the heat of summer without compromising good nutrition.  Making your own homemade ice pops and frozen treats is so easy and it’s fun too! And best of all, you’ll feel good knowing that your family is enjoying a healthy boost of wholesome nutrients in each and every yummy bite!

Be sure to join Kelly at The Nourishing Home as she helps us celebrate summer with some delicious and nutritious real food frozen treats certain to bring a smile to your kids faces, while keeping the ice cream man at bay!

Post & all images by contributing writer, Dea Daniels

Green grass! Warm rain! Sunshine!

After a winter which seemed endless, there is sweet relief in the mild beauty of June.

With the sunshine and gardens, however, come the dreaded and maddeningly tenacious dandelions! Popping up as fast as one can dig them, and spreading quickly germinating seeds as fast as a toddler’s puckered wish, the sunny-headed flowers have become the bane of urban sod.

What’s a grass-dweller to do when confronted with such a hardy adversary? How can one cultivate nourishing and vitamin-rich home greens when there are vermin in the soil?

How can one succeed in bringing fresh produce to the table when there the hungry children might chance upon…a weed?!

Well…if you can’t beat ‘em….

The Medicinal & Nutritional Value of Dandelions?

It turns out that the dandelion (taraxacum officinale) didn’t begin in North America as a weed at all! In fact, it was lovingly brought across the sea as a valued medicinal plant to be cultivated and administered for liver and kidney care, while enjoyed on the table as an early-spring salad green.

With as much iron as spinach, the highest levels of vitamin A out of all the cultivated greens, and high levels of Vitamin C, early gardeners weeded out their grass to make room for the dandelions!

Think about it:

• A vegetable hardy enough to withstand the harsh climate of the new world (and today’s constantly changing urban landscape).
• A cultivar with almost no waste products: the heads are brimming with choline and lecithin for liver and kidney health and can be enjoyed fresh, fried, or fermented; the iron-rich leaves are a zippy addition to salads and stir-frys; and the roots can be harvested (dug, dried, ground) as a nourishing substitute to coffee.
• A plant which supports the soil through aeration, prevents erosion, and draws up calcium from deep within the earth for use by the rest of the garden.
• A flower which provides exceptional support to bees. As one of the earliest flowers in the spring and late blooming into the fall, the bees of the nation rely on {spray free!!} dandelions to create your honey and to support your community crops.

How to Make Dandelion Fritters

With this inspiring knowledge and with a spring yard simply brimming with cheery yellow flowers, I gathered my younglings and a bowl and set to work. We started with dandelion smoothies, played with dandelion frittatas, and soon had our minds set on dandelion fritters (or as my eldest calls them, Dandelion Doughnuts). So fun! So healthy! So tasty!

When Doughnut Day finally arrived, gathering the flower heads kept little hands (and mamas!) busy while chatting in the sun. Next, the big boys were invited to mix the batter {I had prepped the dry ingredients beforehand} and to dip the heads {I made two batters, one savory and one sweet}. Then, I tackled pan-frying the battered balls in the waiting coconut oil. Crispy and hot, we loaded the morsels onto a tray with tiny jars of kombucha and feasted under the apple tree. How lovely to say, “Sure sweetie, you can have some more!”

The fritters were a huge hit and my boys have been asking for them every day! I highly recommend trying them out. They’re not only tasty and nutritious but there is just something fun about dining on dandies! Make it an event with friends and enjoy the summer sun while you’re at it! Just be sure you know that you’re picking in a spray-free area and that they are indeed true dandelions (one flower per stalk, no coarse hair on the leaves).

Dandelion Fritters

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Ingredients

• 1 cup Flour (Whatever flour you like! We used fresh organic wheat, but many have had success with rice or a blend with half cornmeal for a bit more crispiness)
• 1 cup Milk (Any kind)
• 1 Egg
• 1 teaspoon Baking powder
• Lots of heat-tolerant oil for frying (Our favourite is cold-pressed coconut oil)
• 1 cup Freshly washed and picked dandelion flower heads (If you pick them and store them in the fridge the flowers will close up. Also, my first attempt was a bit bitter. If you’re new to wild crafting take time to remove the bracts [the little downward leaf-looking things at the base of the flower head, where it joins the stem]. My boys are fine with them, but we found that the fritters are tastier without)

Directions

Step 1	Whisk all ingredients together, except for the dandelion heads, including flavour option add-in (see below)
Step 2	Dip the dandelions
Step 3	Fry in hot oil, flower side down (be careful!)
Step 4	Flip and fry some more
Step 5	Drain on a towel and serve hot

Note

Flavour add-ins:

Savory: (salt, 1 tsp herb blend such as Italian, rosemary, or a masala mix. Dipping sauce if you like such as sweet chili or guacamole)

Sweet: (2 tbsp sugar/honey, 1 tsp vanilla, ½ tsp cinnamon. Granulated sugar to roll hot fritters in).

I’d LOVE to hear if you try these out! What other flavor combinations could you try? What about serving them with a side salad of fresh baby dandelion leaves? Finish the meal with dandelion tea or wine? The opportunities are endless!

Have you ever used dandelions for medicinal or food purposes?

Guess what I did today! 

I’ll give you a hint. It involved poop but for once I was actually excited about it! Cow manure, that is. Yup, I planted my garden! Woohoo! My mom has had a vegetable garden every year of my life, but this was my first time. I’ll be 30 in a month, so obviously it was due, right?

I planted green and yellow beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas, carrots, swiss chard, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and basil. I also have some mint to plant but I’m going to do it in a container because it’s pretty invasive. The envelope says to start the mint seeds indoors for 10 weeks, but that sounds silly to me, if it’s so hardy and invasive – why baby it? Anyone got an opinion for me?

I’m salivating at the thought of carrots with dirt still on ‘em, beans from the plant right into my mouth, and freshly steamed swiss chard on my plate. Oh, lawdamercy. I (big puffy heart) LOVE food. ‘Specially organic, homegrown, dirt-under-my-fingernails kind of food.

I haven’t even successfully sprouted a single thing yet, and I think I’ve been bitten by the gardening bug.

In other news: summer is awesome, discipling (almost) 3 & 5-year-olds is HARD. Holy guacamole, it’s hard. And? I love food.

Oh wait, I already said that.

Moving on. I know it’s Sunday night, and that’s not proper Weekend Links form, but what can I say? I’m a rebel. And also, I spent the day at Ikea buying night tables (First ones in our married life, and we bought the cheapo ones. I’m excited anyway!), then planting a garden. I smell like dirt and sunscreen, and a lady-like glow (<– Snort, haha! Yeah. Right.)

Now, some link love:

Lincoln High School in Walla Walla Tries New Approach to School Dicipline

16 Ways I Blew My Marriage @ Single Dad Laughing

Geo-Caching (Something I want to try this summer, especially with my five-year-old son. Any of you ever tried it?)

Your Honey Isn’t Honey @ Food Renegade

One Good Phrase @ Sarah Bessey at Micha Boyett’s place

Tell me: Any big summer plans?

(Anyone planning to go camping with a 1, 3, and 5 year-old in a tent? Besides us, I mean? )

Hop on over to Jill’s Home Remedies for fun and practical tips on teaching your own kids to eat more vegetables!

I have a sweet tooth just as much as the next person, but I also know that too much sugar makes my body function like a geriatric patient. I try to avoid it in my everyday diet, but I don’t freak out at the occasional indulgence.

That being said – this lemonade is not an occasional indulgence kind of thing – it’s a twice-weekly-in-the-summer kind of thing! It’s delish. The perfect mixture of sweet and tart, and beautifully refreshing as a break from water (we typically just drink water around here).

To be honest, homemade lemonade is ridiculously easy. Water + lemon juice + sweetener. Most recipes floating around the web use white sugar, and plenty of it, but I’m really a fan of natural sweeteners wherever possible. My recipe uses honey instead of white sugar*.

*I added a few tablespoons of organic sugar to my latest batch because I don’t love the taste of grocery-store honey. I was spoiled back in Tiny Town with the most amazing local, creamed, organic honey that tasted like heaven. If I had that I’d use all honey, so that’s how I am writing the recipe. 

Make a big pitcher and keep it in the fridge (big canning jars work great too!), and enjoy! Lasts probably a week or so, but I’ve never had the chance to really test that because it always disappears so quickly!

Homemade Honey-Sweetened Lemonade

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Serves	6
Prep time	5 minutes
Cook time	2 minutes
Total time	7 minutes

Ingredients

• 8 cups Water
• 6 Lemons, juiced
• 1/2 cup Honey
• Ice (optional)

Directions

Step 1	Warm water on stovetop and add honey
Step 2	Once honey is dissolved in warm water, remove from heat
Step 3	Add juice from 6 lemons (use a strainer when pouring to keep out seeds)
Step 4	Pour into pitcher and chill
Step 5	Serve and enjoy!

Note

I like my lemonade sorta on the tart side. Feel free to adjust the amount of honey/sugar to taste!

Also - try adding other frozen fruit (like raspberries) to fancy it up and vary the flavour!

Linked up to Wellness Wednesday!

Written by Emily McClements of Live Renewed

As you push your child in a cart down the aisles of the grocery store, they are bombarded by brightly colored packages and more choices then they would ever know what to do with. The produce department is a full rainbow of fruits and veggies from around in the world, all looking like they’re at the peak of ripeness. And the cereal aisle is a rainbow full of sugar, artificial vitamins and minerals, and toxic dyes that are meant to attract your child’s attention.

So how do we teach our kids what real, seasonal, and local food actually is? Emily McClements of Live Renewed gives us easy ideas to help us teach our kids what’s on their plates, and where their food really comes from.

When Alice Rumphius was a little girl, she vowed that when she grew up she would travel the world and live in a house by the sea. “ There is a third thing you must do,” her grandfather told her. “ You must do something to make the world more beautiful.” Miss Rumphius fulfilled her dreams. She saw the world and returned home to live by the sea in Maine. But she wondered what she could that would make the world more beautiful.

We gave the book, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, to our daughter Aneliese for her fifth birthday and she was delighted. Birthday gifts in our home are often quite simple but we try to make it special towards a current interest and development of the birthday child. We love seeing how they respond and interact with their gifts and although we have definitely had a flop or two, this Miss Rumphius was most certainly not one.

You see, Miss Rumphius makes the world more beautiful by planting lupines in the rocky ground of her garden.

Those lupines spread their seed to bloom all over the hills and headways around her seaside home. Miss Rumphius planted beauty and it multiplied immeasurably.  Aneliese had heard the audio of Miss Rumphius and had expressed the desire to scatter seeds as she had, thus birthed the Miss Rumphius garden birthday gift.

Unfortunately, Lupines, though beautiful, are technically considered a weed and are  actually toxic to horses and cattle (of which we have both) so our Miss Rumphius garden will be Lupine free.

How to Plant Your Miss Rumphius Garden:

What you will need:

• A Copy of Miss Rumphius; bought or library borrowed. (To see some of the lovely art from the pages go here)
• Packets of Flower seeds; wildflower, butterfly, or cottage garden mixes are an excellent and easy option as they give a variety of types and colors, have perenniels and reseed, and grow in varied soils, including poor, rocky soil. They are also easy for even a small child to spread.

Other ideas for additions if this is a gift;

• - A hand trowel or rake
• - A child’s garden trug or basket (then you can arrange everything inside that)
• - Gloves
• - Small watering can

Planting your Miss Rumphius Garden:

•     Prepare the spot for your garden by turning the soil and lightly breaking it up. For the apartment dweller or those without a garden spot, simply fill a pot, bucket, or any tub with some potting soil. Make sure there are some drainage holes.
•      Follow the seed packet instructions for planting and growing. Usually planting instruction for these types of seeds is to scatter the seeds (like Miss Rumphius) and then lightly cover or rake the soil. Keep the soil lightly watered and try to maintain dampness until the seeds begin to sprout.
•     Another variation could be to simply scatter the seeds in an area where this would be acceptable (if need be, ask first!)

Remember together that an act of beauty, whether a flower garden or a kindness shown, can spread far beyond what our eyes can see.

A Miss Rumphius garden is just one opportunity to show love to others and thankfulness to the Creator who has so richly blessed us with the ability to create and enjoy beauty.

How do you draw your children into the process and journey of adding something beautiful to the earth? How has that brought you and they to a deeper understanding of God the Creator and our role in creation?

As you and your children tend your Miss Rumphius Garden take opportunity to remind them (and yourself) of the great responsibility that we have been given as stewards of this beautiful world.

Happy weekend, lovely people. I am just going to tell you right now, before I start rambling and getting all sappy and emotional and stuff, that I am just flat-out blown away by the response on my tenth anniversary post, New Kind of Sexy.

I’ve often heard it said that good writing takes risks and that if you are afraid to hit publish, it’s probably a good one. Well, I was literally holding my breath when I finally hit that publish button. My nerves were frayed and my heart was poured out into this keyboard, and I am just. so. grateful. for the amazing response that I received to that post.

Comment after comment here on the blog, lots on facebook and twitter as well, lots of sharing in social media, too. I am just humbled. I know, it’s probably not cool to gush like this about your own popular post. I should play it cool. But I think we are all more than well aware that playing it cool is nowhere near my strong suit. My spiritual gift is Way Too Honest For Her Own Good and I am seriously lacking in the Cool Factor, I think we can all agree.

Moving on! I have some great stuff to share today. Enjoy!

The Important Thing About Yelling @ Hands Free Mama (Made me tear up in Starbucks, darnit.)

On School Shooters: The Huffington Post Doesn’t Want You to Read This @ Peter Brown Hoffmeister (Big fat amen here.)

Danish Students Attract International Attention With Cress and Wifi Experiment @ Citizens for Safe Technology (Fascinating!)

The Abusive Theology of “Deserved” Tragedy @ Rachel Held Evans (Controversial. Thought-provoking.)

Is Breastfeeding a Modesty Issue? @ Slightly Steady (LOVE this.)

On Being a Mother and a Time Traveler @ Five Kids is a Lot of Kids (Breathtaking. Simply stunning.)

10+ Homemade, All-Natural Stain Removers – Including the Best Stain Remover EVER! (Stains are my evil nemesis. This post rocks my socks.)

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends! Summer is coming, the birds are singing (even at 6am when I want to shoot them all) and life is sunny. Tomorrow I’m going garage saling and I am SO excited.

What are your weekend plans?

Over the last 50 years, we’ve had a major shift in the American diet. We’re now consuming more of our calories by drinking them. In fact, the average American is now drinking approximately 400 calories per day!

Soda, fruit juice, energy drinks and sports drinks. My kids ask for them, do yours?

Reach for a healthier alternative: tea. Full of potent antioxidants, studies have proven tea is good for your health. Can any soda say that? Plus, with so many flavorful recipes, you’ll have no problem convincing your family to drink more healthy tea.

Today, in this installment of our Raising Healthy Families Series, Andrea Green from The Greenbacks Gal shares her Homemade Tea Recipes that are sure to become family favorites.

Click on over to check it out!

Dearest One,

Today we mark ten years of marriage. Happily, even. With a touch of pride and a cautious joy. Given that a few short months ago I didn’t think I wanted to stay married I’d say we’re doing pretty well.

Ten years ago when I married you under the muggy late-spring sun on that post-thunderstorm day in May, I thought you were so sexy. You were standing up there in your rental tux, all dapper and grown-up and ready to whisk me away into a world of which we clearly knew absolutely nothing.

Let’s be honest, we were just kids playing a grown-up’s game, me still a teenager and you barely finished being one. We were in love though. I’ll swear it to my grave that we were. You know, of course, that at that point it was the kind of hormonal, romantic-notion love that is positively bursting pregnant with hope and naivete. The sort that’s certain the world has bestowed a never-ending burning love upon them. Love that aches when physically apart and smolders when together. Sexy back then was breathlessness and wide-eyed lash-flutters, heart palpitations and passionately united bodies unmarked by child-rearing and age.

Let’s be honest though, we were truly in love.  We spoke each other’s names softly when we held hands at the downtown jazz club, ordering things that made us feel grown-up like escargots and wine. We laughed and gazed in one another’s eyes, and we strolled along the boardwalk as lovers, doing all those things young love is wont to do. We dreamt of the love-saturated life in technicolor that we’d lead, bright future indeed, then went home to our tiny apartment to make love without worrying about babies waking up to nurse or toddlers wetting the bed.

Four months ago I had the worst Christmas of my life.

We were either fighting or simmering below-the-surface the entire day because we just couldn’t for the life of us meet in the middle. The middle of what? I don’t know exactly but it felt like a desert. Vast and expansive and completely parched, populated by bills and piles of laundry and peed on sheets and harsh words, in the company of a whole herd of tiny dictators that apparently we were qualified to birth and raise. We couldn’t even be happy together on Christmas. It was wretched. It had been that way more-days-than-not for a long while.

The day after Christmas I emailed a marriage counselor and asked if you’d come with me.

You did.

I had no idea how we got there, to that horribly unhappy place, but there we were. I guess it has to do with having a bunch of beautiful babies in a relatively short time, moving across the country, getting little sleep and even less alone-time, and watching your dreams and plans crumble. They say we humans tend to take out our stress on those we trust and love the most, and I’d wager that after several straight years of this we each just grew tired of it.

We grew tired of each other. I didn’t know you anymore, and the leftover tired bits were not altogether amiable, nor mine for you, if I’m being truthful.

We talked about it. Actually mostly we fought about it, but when we managed to talk civilly it was pointless. We had no magic solutions. We didn’t want to divorce, but we tossed the word around, wondering if it was a looming inevitability.

If something drastic doesn’t change, we said, there’s no way we’ll be together in a year’s time. I just… (deflated and hopeless). I just don’t know anymore. I don’t.

Trapped. Wounded. Our aching and bleeding frail hearts had grown paper-thin. The old tired wounds kept piling on hurt and anguish and brick-by-brick it continued until there was a mammoth wall looming in between us that we did not know how to dismantle.

It was wearying to keep our secret as we played married bliss to the world.

So, finally, hanging on by a bare thread, we dragged our marriage into a therapist’s office, cracked and bleeding, plopped down into the chairs where the air crackled with awkward tension. It was the sexiest thing I think you’ve ever done for me. For us.

You know, to be honest – I think we’ve come to a new kind of sexy now.

Today you showed up at the zoo to surprise me and the kids. You finished work early and ran to us. Kids that were whiny and tired, a hot and sunburnt wife who handed the deliciously chubby baby over for you to hold. And you came to us, your smile twinkled the corners of your eyes and you walked with us. You just came to be with us because you didn’t want to be elsewhere.

We stopped for ice cream on the way home and then you started teaching our oldest to ride a two-wheeler in the driveway while twilight set on and the baby chattered and crawled and ate dandilions. Our daughter rode her tricycle around and we all basked in this glorious life of sunshine and bare filthy feet and toddler drama, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything sexier.

Today sexy means fathering our children and making them feel loved. Making my coffee at night so it’s ready to go in the morning when you leave early for work? That’s sexy. Doing the hard things and swallowing pride down deep when conflicts arise and saying sorry and being sorry and loving me more than your own pride is sexy. That’s what sexy is. Damn straight that’s sexy. It’s sexy when you hold my hand tenderly across the space between our chairs in marriage counseling and when you look at me like that. Like you know we can make it, even if we can’t figure out how. Like you just desperately want to like/love me but can’t and so we ask for help and you are willing. Willing to do the hard things. Talk the hard talks and live the hard ways.

It’s not easy being married almost a decade and realizing you really kind of hate the person beside you in the bed. When the empty space in the sheets between you may as well be a chasm for all the touching we’d done lately. Our feet used to find each other in bed as our dog-tired eyes drooped shut and we were in between awake and snoring. Then somehow they stopped and the space in the sheets grew cold and our hearts got all bent outta shape and frail.

So we fought for it. We stumbled on redemption in the unlikely sexy acts of taking out the smelly-diaper trash, going to marriage counseling, and texting each other apologies for misspoken harsh words.

Tonight, while in the driveway, your eye caught mine between helmet tightenings and you gave me the lovey eyes. You haven’t done that in a long time. Your smile crinkled your eyes up and you did that thing with your eyebrow that you do when you’re content. We had an argument the other day and it felt like the exception rather than the rule, and last night our feet found each other again in bed.

The hard work of Every Day Life brings restoration to a crumbling marriage and whispers sexy back into a couple of hip minivan parents with tired circles under their eyes and a spirit bolstered by a hope that simply refuses to die.

There’s none other in the world I’d rather do that hard work with than you.

All of my love forever,

B

Fast Tube by Casper

First, let’s step into the confessional booth, shall we? That photo sucks. Oh, I doctored it up and edited it and slapped some words over (most of) it, but it was late at night and my natural lighting had slipped away and I wanted to hurry up and get this post up, so well… this is what we’ve got. Trust me when I say these burgers are delish, cuz I’m sure the photo isn’t doing much convincing of that fact.

We don’t use buns in our family. (Insert butt jokes here). I keep seeing gluten-free recipes around that I want to try, but meh, that’s too much effort and when you’ve cleaned up all manner of bodily fluids and smashed food bits and mushed banana and paint and crayon-on-your-white-duvet ALL IN ONE DAY and you just can’t stand One More Mess, you tend to go bunless. It’s good. It’s all good, baby. Bunless ain’t never killed no one. <– That sentence did not actually make any sense, grammatically speaking. I lead a wild and crazy life and sometimes I live on the edge by using slang and double negatives in the same sentence. It’s nuts, really.

Anyway, BBQ season started for us Canadians when the snow started to melt a few months ago. If you follow my on instagram you saw my hubby outside BBQ’ing in bare feet and short-sleeves, and it was in the fifties (8 celsius). For most of you in America, BBQ season is kicking into high gear now, so hopefully this is perfect timing all around.

These are a simple burger patty. They are full of flavour, but not too complicated or crazy to make. We tend to make several pounds worth at once into patties, freeze them on a cookie sheet on parchment paper, and then throw them into a ziploc bag once they are frozen. I love being able to just grab a couple and fry/BBQ them for an almost-instant meal.

Easy Homemade Burger Patties

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Prep time	20 minutes
Dietary	Gluten Free
Misc	Freezable
Occasion	Barbecue

Ingredients

• 5-6lb Ground beef
• 4 Eggs
• 4 tablespoons Coconut flour
• 3 teaspoons Garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon Dried minced onion
• 2 teaspoons Chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Red pepper flakes ((less if you prefer non-spicy))
• 2 teaspoons Basil
• 2 teaspoons Oregano
• 2 teaspoons Sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Coriander

Directions

Step 1	Combine all ingredients (with hands, a stand mixer, or a spoon)
Step 2	Form into patties (we have a rad little pattie maker gadget that works great, but you could totally just use your hands).
Step 3	Freeze on parchment paper on a baking sheet.
Step 4	Once frozen, store in a ziploc or freezer-safe container, and use as necessary!

This banana bread was yesterday’s gift to me. I made it in between the usual 4-kids-under-4 emergencies and disasters, cuddling a teething, nap-striking baby, and crock-potting a roast chicken for dinner. (Is crock-potting a word? I’m gonna go ahead and declare it one.)

I had some spotty bananas that were begging me to make them into banana bread. I could hear their little banana cries. They were past their youth, their prime bright yellow youth, and they were begging me to not give up on them yet. “We still have plenty to offer the world”, they cried. “We may be elderly, but we aren’t dead yet!” they exclaimed with passion.

Why yes, now that you mention it, I may have been reading a little too much into the situation, given the rapidly approaching death of my twenties (July 5, in case you care. Or wanna send flowers. Or whatever.)

Regardless – I decided to play around and come up with a recipe for banana bread that is not gonna feel like a rock in my gut (sometimes gluten does that to me) and doesn’t use refined sugar (Ain’t nobody need be eatin’ that on a regular basis. And you can be dang sure this is a Regular Basis Kind of Recipe). It is verrrry loosely based off of this recipe (mainly the flour ratios).

It uses rice flour and tapioca starch as the base. I am currently loving tapioca starch in my baking – it’s magical. I also decided to add ground chia seeds to see if it would give it a nice non-crumbly texture, as so many GF baked goods are prone to. It worked perfectly. The texture is amazing – non-crumbly, moist (but not eggy like with coconut flour), and remarkably “normal” tasting if you’re used to the wheat-based baked goods. The spices and ratios I used gave it a fabulous overall flavour, and well, let’s just say this recipe makes two loaves because loaf #1 disappeared in less than 24 hours.

Here you go. If you don’t have the ingredients on hand then I highly suggest you get your butt out to the store to get them, stat. Like, stop reading, and go now. Your taste buds will thank you later.

Perfect Banana-Pecan Bread

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Prep time	15 minutes
Cook time	45 minutes
Total time	1 hour
Dietary	Gluten Free
Meal type	Bread, Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot

Perfect Banana-Pecan Bread (which just so happens to be gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined-sugar-free while still tasting better than the other stuff. awwww yeah, baby!)

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups Mashed very ripe banana
• 4 Eggs
• 1/3 cup Honey (softened/melted if not already liquid)
• 1/3 cup Coconut oil (melted)
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup Coconut palm sugar
• 2 cups White rice flour
• 1 cup Tapioca starch
• 2 teaspoons Ground chia seeds (I use my Vitamix to grind them. You could also use a food processor or a coffee grinder.)
• 1 teaspoon Baking soda
• 1 teaspoon Sea salt
• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon (ground)
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg (ground)
• 1/2 teaspoon Cloves (ground)
• 1 cup Pecans (chopped)

Directions

Step 1	Preheat oven to 350F and grease two loaf pans with coconut oil.
Step 2	Add first five ingredients to a large bowl (bananas, eggs, coconut oil, honey, vanilla) and mix well (I use an electric hand mixer).
Step 3	Add the rest of the ingredients (minus the pecans) to another bowl, and stir well to combine.
Step 4	Add dry ingredients to wet gradually, mixing well to combine.
Step 5	Stir in the pecans.
Step 6	Pour batter equally into the two prepared loaf pans (I use glass pans, and it works great. I recommend glass or stoneware, but not "non-stick" as it used toxic chemicals).
Step 7	Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Test for doneness by sticking a very sharp knife into the middle. If there's any wetness, bake for another 2 minutes and re-test.
Step 8	Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing, then enjoy with a nice slathering of butter (unless you're dairy-free, in which case I feel sorry for you and suggest perhaps, uh, marmalade? It's delicious on its own too, of course!)

Note

If you really want to make this dessert-like, you could swap out the pecans for chocolate chips. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it would be delish!

Welcome back to the Raising Healthy Families series! Join us each week as we take a look at different ways to keep your family healthy and vibrant in a not-so-healthy world.

I’m really excited about today’s post because I have been really wanting to learn more about natural healing methods for every day kind of issues, especially for kids. Today’s post is the perfect place to start!

Stocking Your Natural First Aid Kit for Summer is written by Krissa Jeldy of More Than Mundane.

Summer is right around the corner and now is the perfect time to start planning and preparing your natural first aid kit for summer. Discover safe and effective ways to heal sunburn, relieve bug bites, and care for cuts and scrapes. Head on over to More Than Mundane to learn how to prepare a natural first aid kit for summer.

Post by contributor, Marissa.

When we moved across the country to a tiny community in rural Nova Scotia, we bought our seven and a half acres with a big old duplex farm house without having seen it other than a video and pictures.

With grand – if slightly vague – dreams of our own cow and chickens, we packed up our girls and our dog Molly and headed off to our farming dream.

It’s been almost two years now and I’d like to say we are wiser and have successfully established our small family farm.

But, my friends, success and/or wisdom are still yet to be discovered in our ten year plan. Alright, so we don’t actually have a ten year plan but if we did that would be written in. We do have our chickens and our milk cow, along with an unexpected pony and we have certainly learned a few things along the way.

Beth has asked me if I could share a little about our “homesteading” life from time to time and so I thought I would start out what has been the most important and at times most challenging dynamic of this new life that we are carving out here; how we do all of this with our children.

We don’t ever plan to make our main living off of farming but we do intend to get to the place where we grow most of our own food with enough extra to trade with those who raise what we don’t. My husband also works full time with his own business and so it is a constant juggling act of using the time that we have in a day well. Our kids are still small (4,3 & 16 months) and need pretty constant attention so we are continually working on ways to make this all work.

Because this lifestyle takes so much time, we are intentional about including our kids in the work.

As most of us with small children know, everything takes a great deal longer when you have one, two, three or more keeping you company.

Sometimes it feels like my day would just go so much faster if I could just run out to care for the animals myself and while that does happen at times, I also know that we all benefit for the time that we spend together caring for our animals.

I hope that our kids will grow up with many memories of the hours they have spent fencing with their daddy or pulling weeds with their mama while sharing their thoughts, dreams and stories.

As the kids are out and about on the farm, it’s been really important to teach them how to interact safely with farm life.

It’s one thing to have a few cute little hens that lay your breakfast eggs; they are pretty harmless. But, once you begin including larger farm animals, it becomes very important that your children have some basic rules of conduct around animals. The point isn’t to instill fear but to ensure a healthy respect for the animals that are much larger than they.

At this point, our girls understand they may not enter any pens unless we are with them. Gradually as we work with our animals, they are learning appropriate handling and the importance of calm voices and movements.

There are also essential details such as always closing the gate, putting tools away (we need to work on this ourselves) and keeping the animal pens neat and the girls are learning as we go.

I love that our little farm offers endless opportunities for learning.

Because we will be homeschooling, I’m becoming more mindful of the education available through our daily activities. Eggs are counted as they are collected and placed in cartons for selling. Grain is measured for feeding (Always supervised at this point as too much can be dangerous). Planting the garden offers an entire Biology unit as we learn the relationship of the seeds to the produce that we eat.

I’ve been realizing too that it’s so important to explain things to your children. While I often tend to forget explanations, I find that it sparks interest if I explain why something is important or how something helps an animal. Also as the girls get older and take more responsibility of animals it will help them in their care of the animals.

Some days, when six a.m. comes far too soon, this little homesteading life that we have chosen seems like way too much work. There are times when the last thing that I feel like doing is trudging out into the rain and muck to milk a cow and I’ve been putting off the big chicken coop clean for a few weeks now.

However, when we actually stop and take a minute to think about our life here, we realize that while it is demanding, it is also a lot of fun.

We can and do have fun while farming together and with our children.

Sometimes we do have step back and make a choice to change our attitudes but truly, there are few things that I could think of that are as pleasure-filled as a beautifully sunny, crisp-aired morning spent feeding animals, collecting eggs, and tending the garden; together, with my family.

I love hearing my children laugh with delight. I love that my hands and feet have a constant stain of soil during the summer. I can honestly say that our decision to start this little farm was a good one and it has given me a deeper appreciation for my family, this world that we live in, and life as whole.

Have you ever dreamed of farming or is it something that you are getting into now? What are some things that you’d like to know or advice that you would share?

We love visitors so if you ever have a desire to have a farming vacation, we’d welcome you for a visit!

Welcome back to the Raising Healthy Families series! Join us each week as we take a look at different ways to keep your family healthy and vibrant in a not-so-healthy world.

This week’s post is by Susan Vinskofski of learningandyearning and she is sharing how the health benefits of dirt. My kiddos have embraced this truth wholeheartedly

Did you realize that our health is intimately connected to soil? It plays a role in our mental health as well. Read learningandyearning’s Go Play in the Dirt! It’s Good for your Health to learn more about a very special bacteria found in soil which boosts serotonin in our brains. The post has lots of ideas for getting dirty, too! As if you needed help with that…

There is a sweet little trick I discovered a few years ago. I don’t remember where I first learned it. Somewhere in internet land, I’m sure. It’s a brilliant idea that carries magical powers to increase the excitement over healthy snacks by at least 74.3 percent. Minimum. It’s true – I’ve tested it. The secret? It’s called a Snack Tray, and here is the complicated magical potion:

Step 1) Get a muffin tin out of your cupboard.

Step 2) Fill it with a variety of healthy snack foods.

Step 3) Present it to your children

Step 4) Go prepare your acceptance speech for your Mother-of-the-Year award.

Sounds tough, eh? Don’t worry, I have confidence in you. I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain. I have confidence that spring will come again! BESIDES WHAT YOU SEE I HAVE CONFIDENCE IN MEEEEEEE! (<—name that movie).

Whew, this idea really inspires me with excitement, can you tell?

Honestly though – I am not exaggerating when I say that my kids *literally* cheer when I mention A Snack Tray. They are 74.3 percent more likely to eat everything in it than if I served it on a regular ol’ plate. I don’t pretend to understand it. Sometimes you just gotta believe in the magic.

I’ve done a ginormous variety of Snack Tray fillers over the years. Here are our usual favourites:

• Banana, apple, orange, kiwi, grapes, melon…
• Nuts (cashews are the fave around here)
• Dried fruit
• Crackers & cheese
• Air-popped popcorn (with butter and sea salt, of course)
• Carrot sticks (my kids actually love raw carrots – they eat them every day)
• Cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas
• Ants on a log (PB & raisins on celery sticks)
• Small hunks of cold cooked meat
• Jerky (we made our own once before and it was amaaaaazing)
• Hummus (beside the crackers)
• Berries, frozen or fresh
• Frozen peas (my weird kids love ‘em!)
• Hard-boiled eggs cut into halves

It can get pretty darn creative, but to be honest our snack trays most often consist of a quarter or a half filled with popcorn, and the rest with fruits and veggies. If I have cold cooked meat (meatballs, chicken breast, deli meat, etc), I’ll throw that in too, since I like to have lots of protein and healthy fats in our diet as much as possible.

PS. A decently filled snack tray TOTALLY can count as lunch. Just sayin’.

What would you put in your snack tray?

If you’re in the thick of running a home and kiddos and all of the craziness that comes along… are you kinda sorta maybe a wee bit busy?

Would it be helpful to have a boatload of mama-tested healthy whole foods recipes at your fingertips instead of random google searching every time you meal plan?

Would you love to pick up a few fashion and beauty tips? (everything from DIY beauty scrubs to how to embrace the beauty of a body that has born a kiddo or two).

How about some cleaning and organizing advice from authors who know exactly what it’s like to be a homemaker in this season of life?

Or how about a book (or 6) on budgeting or time management? Maybe homeschooling? Or camping? What about health and fitness? Or even – if you’re really thinking ahead – Christmas and advent? One of my personal favourite ebook is Truth in the Tinsel – I bought it and used it last year during advent, and my kids LOVED it. It’s included in this bundle – woohoo!

And don’t forget all of the crazy bonuses that are included. The freebies alone are worth more than $140! Check out the amazing list below…

So what all is included? Take a look…

(I’ll be chatting this deal up a bit more this week on Facebook, including my favourite ebooks from this collection that I already own! Be sure to follow Red&Honey on FB to join the conversation.)

What an incredible resource this will be for so many homemakers. I am super excited to dive in and start browsing some of the ones that catch my eye first. Now the real question is: where to begin?

PLUS, You will receive FREE Bonuses from these companies…

A FREE Two-Month Membership to Fit2B Studio, where their wholesome workouts for the whole family are tummy safe and particularly target Diastasis Recti (split abs). ($19.98 value. No shipping restrictions.)

A $15 store credit to TruKid. With products like their aware-winning sun care, they are dedicated to providing all natural skin and hair care for kids, babies, and now pets. ($15.00 value. Standard shipping applies. International shipping available.)

Your choice of incredible natural products like sea salt and clay for FREE. Choose from the Redmond Trading Earthpaste Bundle ($24.90 value) or the Facial Mud Bundle ($26.90 value). (Standard shipping applies. Continental US only.)

Your choice of a FREE heirloom sourdough starter or FREE yogurt starter from Cultures for Health, the leading supplier of starter cultures and supplies for making cultured and fermented foods ($12.95 value. US & CAN addresses only. Standard shipping applies.)

 

Your choice of: a FREE 3-Month Subscription (for new accounts) or 30% off a One Year Subscription. Plan to Eat is an online menu planner that uses your recipes, scheduled for the days you want them. ($15.00 value. No shipping restrictions.)

 

A FREE Culinary Herbs Assorted Seed Pack Check just in time for spring planting from www.wheatgrasskits.com, a living whole foods company. ($11.95 value. Standard shipping applies to all US states and territories- no international shipping for seeds.)

 

Get $10 off Union28′s original “my husband rocks” tee. Their marriage apparel lets you celebrate your spouse in style. ($10.00 value. Standard shipping rates apply. International shipping available, but free shipping only available within USA.)

 

A $10 store credit plus 1 FREE lip balm from Bee All Natural. Their whole body products nourish and heal, and are made using only the highest quality, food grade, organic ingredients. ($13.49 value. Standard shipping applies. International shipping available.)

 

A FREE 2 oz. bottle of your choice of liquid herbal formula from TriLight Health. They specialize in fast acting, great tasting natural herbal remedies. ($12.95 value or more. Standard shipping applies, within the USA only.)

Your choice of 3 FREE ePlanners OR a 3-Month FREE Membership to ListPlanIt, whose mobile lists will help to organize your life. ($15.00 value. No shipping restrictions.)

The fine print:

Bonus Offers

• Each bonus offer can be redeemed once only per eBook Bundle purchase.
• For each bonus offer, transaction numbers or proof of purchase may be required at the time of redemption.
• All bonus offers are free gifts from the bonus sponsors, are their sole responsibility to provide, and are subject to availability.
• All bonus offers expire at midnight on May 19th, 2013 (2 weeks from the last day of this sale).

General

• It is your responsibility to download and back-up your purchase within the 1-month download time-frame. With proof of purchase, we can renew download links up until August 1st, 2013. After this date we will no longer have access to the books and will not be able to provide any new links to download.
• Due to the nature of this sale, there will be no refunds available. However, we would invite you to read our Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about the file types, the download process, how the bonus offers work, etc.

Please note: This collection is only available from 9 a.m. EST on April 29th to 11:59 p.m. EST on May 4th. There will be no late sales offered, so make sure that you get your bundle right away!

Particularly for those wanting to read these ebooks on their mobile devices (iPhones or iPads, Android, Kindle, etc.) you will want to learn more about the file types, how to download them correctly, and how to transfer them to your device.

This post includes affiliate links, and I make a portion of the sale of each ebook bundle. Thanks for your support of this site! I am also committing to donate half of my proceeds to Save the Mothers, a non-profit organization devoted to maternal health in third-world countries. Thanks for your support! xoxo, B.

The Raising Healthy Families Series continues today with this story of healing and avoiding surgery through alternative methods, by Jennifer Lambert.

“Learn about how I massaged my daughter out of a major leg surgery using essential oils and the power of prayer. After visiting several doctors, specialists, and physical therapists, we turned to natural methods – prayer, essential oils, massage, and yoga to heal my daughter’s legs and feet. Read our story at Royal Little Lambs.”

Note: This series is designed as a fun and informative compilation to help you and your family thrive. Each post is the opinion of that particular blogger, not necessarily mine.