Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving Popcorn


Happy Thanksgiving! Today with all the cooking that I have to do, I am trying to keep the kids occupied so that they don't totally destroy the house! So, projects it is!! Two months ago we were given from our CSA share, three ears of corn that needed to dry, so eventually it could become popcorn. If you would like to learn more about the growing and harvesting of the corn, visit here From Seed to Snack.

What you will need:
  • Dried corn, specifically for popcorn
  • Bowl
  • Paper towels
  • Lots of strong hands
Since it's just Caleb, Savannah and I, we only really needed one big bowl to share. We each had an ear of corn and just started peeling the corn back against the grain and it really just falls off.

 It took us maybe 15 minutes to get it all done. 


After removing all the seeds removed, all you have left to do is to transfer to a jar or container to store until use!

The kids really had a great time and it was just enough time between basting the turkey!


I hope you all enjoy your popcorn as much as we did!

Happy Thanksgiving,
The Websters



Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Whittle and Wool Collective

So, it's been a few months since we have started a collective, but we really haven't publicized it very much, mainly due to lack of time... and maybe a little fear. We have had two craft shows where we had the opportunity to sell and promote our products. One was a total bust, it was outside and it was cold and rainy and windy...just yuck! The second, we did amazing! We almost sold out on all our products!!! I have to say, we are super excited to finally have a little seed money and expand on our products.
We will have another show on December 7th and I honestly cannot wait!
Here is the link to our Collective page, just in case you want to stop by and take a look at what we offer. Also, add our collective page to your list of regular blogs you follow and check back often to see whats new!

Whittle and Wool Collective

Monday, November 25, 2013

First Colds of the Season

Well, it was inevitable, the temperature has dropped here in New York, and winter is in full swing it seems! Which in a household of kids, and a husband who goes to college, germs are everywhere! We regularly do not do the flu shot, as will be the same this year, for a number of reasons which I will not get into today. 
Yesterday was a not so busy day, but we did run a few errands. As soon as we got home savannah cuddled up on daddies lap and fell asleep, that was around 7pm, so we figured she would be out for the night.... NOPE! She woke up around 830 and with a fever of 101.5. Not super high, but high enough for me to have to take some extra precautions. She drank water constantly, and I rubbed peppermint oil on her feet. I didn't want to break the fever, I just wanted to control it. She slept with me and around 4 am she was up and happy as could be, didn't feel hot anymore at all. We ran a few errands throughout the next day, not a lot but we were gone a few hours, and when we got home she felt hot again, but it now also followed with a horrible cough and congestion. It was my fault really, I should have kept her in bed and called it quits with running anywhere. So, when we got home it was hot tea, spoonfuls of honey, and homemade honey and ginger lemon drops which are to help suppress cough and heal any soreness in her throat... Plus they taste great! I tried plugging in her humidifier but long story short... It's broken. So I rubbed eucalyptus oil on her chest and feet, and Vicks on her chest as well. Let's see what tomorrow brings! Just praying over her, and believing that god can heal even if it's just a cold!

Monday, November 18, 2013

Time In the Kitchen

Lately, I have spent a lot, and I mean a lot of time in the kitchen. 
It may be an area where I can cook; it has a sink, a fridge, a stove and an oven.....sure, but it's more than that. It's a space where I can create, not only food for my family, but memories WITH my family.  
 We have a table in our kitchen where Caleb can do his school work, and savannah can create new projects or color. Today her project of choice was salt dough with cookie cutters!
 For me, it isn't a chore to cook, or to create projects to keep the kids busy, or to even homeschool. I find joy in taking the time out for my family to make sure their needs are met. My kitchen really gives me the opportunity to be able to watch my children, help them to learn and to expand their creativity, all while I make delicious meals!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Our First Craft Show

Well, we did it! We did our first craft show, and it was awful and rainy and cold! Next time we will partake in an indoor craft show! We were successful however, in becoming better friends, talking about things in our lives that are important, and most of all, sharing cake! We each made around $5-$10 dollars, but gained so much more respect for each other, which is worth so much more than money! We will be entering into another craft fair and will hopefully be more successful financially. The time between now and the next show will give me more time to prepare, and become a little more organized behind the table!
I do love our products and even though we have so much more to expand on, I really do think that others will love our products just as much, and I cannot wait to get to that point where we are actually making money.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Venturing Into Unfamiliar Territory

Do you ever feel like you should do something, but doing it seems impossible? Almost as if your feet were stuck in a block of cement? Yeah, thats how I feel. For almost a year, I have been making my own lye soap. I have really been impressed with the quality of the soap. It lasts, it gives great suds, I don't feel dry, and ... wait for it.... no skin reaction when Savannah uses it!!!!! Which is a huge blessing. I can't use cheap store bought stuff with her or she has a reaction to it, especially in the winter. I actually feel very clean, and my skin feels quite refreshed! Even my husband who is very much reluctant to anything "hippie", loves it! I have made several different scents, sizes, and even formulas (give or take a few different oils).
 So here is where my feet seemed to be glued to the floor... A few amazing friends, almost sisters, and I are going to be doing our first craft show, selling a variety of different things from soaps to hand dyed/hand spun yarn! Needless to say we are all very excited. But for me excited can also mean nervous and scared. What if I fail? What if we waste all our money on buying supplies, make it all, and it doesn't turn out to be what we expected? What if we get stuck with a bus load of product and no one wants to buy it?! What I have yet to mention is that, Janice and I, who are going to be making the soaps, are not only selling our soaps, but we are going to be venturing out to shampoo bars, and body wash!
Here is our idea: We will create all these different types of soaps, shampoos, and washes, along with hand crocheted washcloths. We are going to have a basket available, and YOU pick your scents and color of washcloth. You build your own basket, creating your own personalized gift for yourself or someone you love! I wish I could take credit for the idea, because it is just so simply amazing and brilliant, but its not! Janice over at 5 and a Viking actually gets the credit, but since we are starting a, dare I say... *business*... together we both get the rewards from her brilliant ideas!
I guess if worse comes to worse, our families will get a gift basket filled with soaps for Christmas!

Saturday, July 27, 2013

News

Well, I did it again!! I said I would keep up with the blog, and I let it slack off! But, I will have to say this summer has been insane. With weddings, family reunions, play groups, family issues, lots of things that were planned but fell through at the last minute, yeah I have been busy. OH, and one very important detail....... we are pregnant again!!!!!! We are expecting baby Webster #3, due March 30th! And with that news said, it is most likely the reason why I am just so darn tired! But, I am totally happy, we both are!

So,  a few weeks ago Jordan lost his job, but I have to say I think it was God's work and not a total bummer! He was getting paid barely enough to pay the mortgage and the car and nothing else. We were taking out of savings and that really sucks to have to do, just to pay bills. So, he lost his job but because it wasn't a firing, it was being laid off, his boss ( or former) felt really terrible that happened to him. So he made a call and got Jordan an interview with another landscaper. On Jordan's birthday, he went in for the interview and landed the job, the only downfall was it was a .50/hour pay cut... BUT.. in 30 days its a 2.50 pay RAISE! Which is huge! Plus he also now has a side job that he could do after he gets done working or even on Saturday or Sunday taking down party tents and such. So when we were barely making it by, God provided us with an out and a better income. Coincidentally, it was the same week he tithed...hmm.
He also starts school here in a few weeks, which stinks because we wont see him two days out of the week, but its a sacrifice we all have to make.

So, even when things look terrible and you want to freak out because you don't know whats going to happen, you just have to imagine God saying... "I got this."

Thursday, June 20, 2013

New Day, New Adventures

Well, today marks the last day of Caleb in public school! He officially graduated from kindergarten today! He ran off the bus and I about cried! My heart is so full to know he accomplished so much this year! He was marked down, by his teacher, that he was above grade level for reading! He is such a talented and wonderful little boy and I am happy he is home now!
Now, tomorrow I have to get a paper written out stating that we have the intent to homeschool him this following school year. I have all his curriculum ready, and although we aren't technically unschooling him, we are going to fill In with learning from hands on experiences with some subjects.
With all this said, I am so proud of Caleb and all that he has accomplished, I can't wait to get started on 1st grade!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Spring and summer gardening

Over the past several weeks, I have been going non stop. Really, there isn't a moment where I have time to sit down for more than a second. Jordan finished this semester a few days ago and started a job today! He has really great hours as well. I am really looking forward to having him home before 4!
Also, my chickens have become sort of a puzzle to me. After the winter broke, they started laying eggs. I was getting around 3-5 a day, which is great for us. But for the past couple weeks, I haven't gotten anything. It has been a total stand still. I have been adding whey to their water for extra protein, giving them soured milk curds for a healthy snack, they get their layer feed, and also free range time in an enclosed moveable tractor. I don't get it!
Anyways, I have at least gotten ahead on our garden. Since we are taking part at the Mccracken Farms CSA this year, I am only going to do a small farm that we get the real expensive groceries from. I am mainly sticking to tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, strawberries, peas, garlic, watermelon, and a few other things like zucchini and yellow squash that aren't really expensive but we use so much of it that it's worth planting. I also have raspberries that are wild that grow huge berries and there have always been an abundance of them as well, usually about 3 gallons worth. I am thinking about going and getting some pepper plants, those are the only thing I didn't do this year, I'm just running out of room!
I have also been "thrift" shopping for flowers this spring and have had some huge scores with that! I went to lowes and went back on the clearance rack and found salvia plants $1, dianthus for $1, lobelia $1, lavendar $1, and a hanging
basket of strawberries for $5. I was thinking about going to the garden factory and pricing out how much some more flowers would be for the front! We are also waiting on someone to come with a stump grinder and grind down our stumps so I can finally put in dirt and mulch and a dwarf evergreen tree!
Well, it's 830 and savannah is still sleeping, the house needs a good cleanup and the chickens need feeding, so that is my que to leave! Have a nice day!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Almond Peanut butter bites

Well, this recipe is a variation of the recipe I have linked to my meal planning post this week. I really love these little snacks, they are super tasty and healthy!! Right now, almond butter is out of our price range but all natural peanut butter is not, and thank you Trader Joes for making it affordable!
Almond Peanut Butter Bites
I use the same quantity of ingredients as the almond butter bites in the other recipe, I just sub the almond butter for peanut butter. I realize that peanut butter isn't paleo, but hey, we all can't be perfect.

1 cup almond meal or flour (i used almond meal)
1/2 cup peanut butter, warmed
1/3 cup honey
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup flax seed meal
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips, cranberries, or raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

In a saucepan, or microwave, combine all of the coconut oil, honey and peanut butter. Warm those ingredients until melted and smooth. Add in vanilla. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the almond meal, coconut flakes, flax, and chocolate chips, and mix. Add in wet ingredients into dry and mix until all incorporated.
Refrigerate for 1 hour or until well chilled. Roll into balls and serve. I put mine in wax paper and into a container and put back into the fridge for the night and we had them the next afternoon for a snack. This recipe made about 20 balls and all were gone in a few hours. Enjoy!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Orange and vinegar all purpose cleaner

I love my all purpose cleaner.....BUT, sometimes the smell of tea tree gets a but redundant and I just need something new and fresh! I have done some research and found a new recipe for an all purpose cleaner! Well we all know just how great vinegar is for cleaning, but yuck.. I hate the smell of vinegar!!! So, to get the same cleaning effect without the smell of vinegar, add orange peels! In a large mason jar, add your orange peels, I usually use the peels from between 5-8 oranges. Depends on the size of the oranges, just use what you think works for you. Completely cover the orange peels with good ol' white vinegar and close the jar. Every couple days, you should shake the jar just to make sure that you incorporate all the oils that come out of the peels. In about two weeks time you will have a very citrusy-yummy-sweet all purpose cleaner! Just strain the peels out of the jar and the vinegar into a spray bottle, then enjoy!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Meal Planning

    Hey everyone! It has been a few weeks since I have posted anything, and if I have any followers at all, sorry about that! It has been a very hectic house lately! And on top of double duty of chores and potty training x2, one of our chickens isnt doing so well the last few days and I have been closely monitoring her condition and trying to figure out what is going on. Today she was doing much better but still not 100%.
    Well, with all that said, last week was my first week of meal planning and meal budgeting. So far it has gone really well. We are day 5 into week 1 and only have gotten off track one day. I just finished working on week two and I thought I should share with you what our meal plan was. Now, we have been on the Paleo diet, the first two months was pretty strict, then we slowly started to introduce some carbs back in due to finances. I hate saying that we had to because of money, but seriously coconut flour , coconut flakes, and almond meal adds up!! You can tell that most of our meals are Paleo and we only are diverting from the diet only a few meals in the week. I will attach the recipes I have found from other blogs to my post so that you can get some of the awesome healthy goodness as well! 

Sunday

Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal with raisins Baked Oatmeal (but replace sugar with honey or maple syrup)
Snack: Hard Boiled eggs and carrot sticks
Lunch: Garden salad with avocado and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing
Snack: Almond Snack Bites  Almond Snack Bites
Dinner: Grilled chicken with sautéed peppers, mushrooms and onions

Monday

Breakfast: Fried eggs with a fruit salad
Snack: almond snack bites
Lunch: Sliced apple and cheddar cheese with a hard boiled egg
Snack: greek yogurt with maple syrup and paleo granola Paleo Granola
Dinner: Paleo Orange Chicken over quinoa Paleo Orange Chicken

Tuesday


Breakfast: overnight oatmeal in a jar with fruit and chia seeds Overnight Oats Mason Jars
Lunch: Quiche and fresh fruit Paleo Quiche
Snack: hummus and veggies
Dinner: Omelette burger with homemade fries Omelette Burger

Wednesday

Breakfast: Quiche (again I will post the link) Paleo Quiche
Snack: dried fruit (apples, bananas, and pineapple) and almonds
Lunch: Quinoa mac and cheese’ Quinoa Mac and Cheese
Snack: avocado with almonds and goat cheese
Dinner: Chicken Kabobs with garden salad

Thursday 

Breakfast: greek yogurt with granola
Snack: fruit smoothie
Lunch: Spicy buffalo meatballs made with ground chicken and celery Buffalo Meatballs
snack: left over kabobs
Dinner: Pulled pork bbq on sourdough rolls with baked beans Overnight Crockpot Pulled Pork

Friday


Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal
Snack: Peanut butter and Chocolate smoothie (1 avocado, 1 banana, 1/2 cup PB, 2 cups chocolate      almond milk, 1 cup ice cubes, 2 tbls honey, 1 handful of fresh kale or spinach)
Lunch: Apple with cheddar cheese slices and hard boiled eggs
Snack: almond bites
Dinner: Meatloaf and veggies

Saturday

Breakfast: Fresh fruit salad and hard boiled eggs
Snack: Carrot, celery and pepper sticks with hummus
Lunch: Left over meatloaf
Snack: Apple and cheese
Dinner: Chicken and quinoa soup Chicken Soup

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Salt dough/play dough

Tomorrow is playgroup, and I was asked to bring a project for the younger kids to do while the older kids did something different. Immediately, salt dough came to mind. Salt dough is cheap, it's easy, it's non toxic, and it doesn't limit their imagination! So here is my recipe for making salt dough!

1 cup salt
1 cup water
2 cups all purpose flour
Food coloring (optional)

Place salt, water, and flour in a bowl and stir until well incorporated. Should be a thick dough like consistency, but who hasn't played with play dough at some point in their life and knows what it looks and feels like, am I right?!
 I separated the dough into several small balls and places in ziploc bags, then added food coloring to bags. I was really trying to keep my hands as clean as possible, and quickly found out that the kneading color into the dough inside the bags won't work. So, with your hands, work in all the coloring to your hearts desire!
 I then added it back into the ziplocs for storage. Hope the kids have fun with it tomorrow, or I might if they don't!





Tuesday, February 19, 2013

New Additions

Well, after a long discussion as a family, we decided to add a puppy to our family! We knew we wanted a smaller size dog and something that wasn't such high energy like our last dog, so we began our search on Craigslist. We actually already knew we were going to be getting a puppy, and we told the kids such a long time ago, they have been bugging me about when they were going to get one. The dog we were planning on getting has not yet been conceived, so we got one in the mean time to keep the kids busy and eventually serve as a playmate for the puppy we will be adding in a year or so. We are still very much looking forward to getting that puppy too!! But, we started our search on Craigslist and found a lady who had a litter of a bichon/ Boston terrier mix. We drove about an hour and a half away and picked her up the next morning! She is the sweetest little puppy and such a good listener! We named her Denali, after the park in Alaska! She is white and brindle coloring and very very tiny! She is super gentle and somewhat playful! She has also been doing really well potty training! The kids absolutely adore her and will not leave her alone! They want to hug and kiss her all day! We will be taking her in for shots in a few weeks, and will start her obedience training shortly too!



Thursday, January 31, 2013

Winter Colds

Well, at some point during the winter, everyone gets sick. We woke up today at 3 am to a little boy hurling his guts out in the toilet, and on the floor. So after I nursed him back to health, got him situated in his room with his blankets, water, stuffed animals, and a movie, I felt that it was a good opportunity to clean the entire house. I went downstairs, got ready to clean only to find out that I am out of my all purpose cleaner that I make. So I am taking this opportunity to post my first serious blog post. So here is how I make my all purpose cleaner.

What you need:
One large spray bottle
Water
3 Tablespoon of dish soap
3 Tablespoon of rubbing alcohol
20-30 drops of essential oil (I use tea tree or lemon eucalyptus)




First I fill my bottle about 3/4 of the way full.
Then I add the three tablespoons of dish soap. I find that dawn is really concentrated and makes lots of bubbles so if I use dawn, I use 2 1/2 tablespoons.
Next, I add 3 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol.
 After the soap and the alcohol have been added to my water, then I add the essential oil. Honestly, you could use whatever scent you want. Typically, I use tea tree oil because it also has a antibacterial property to it. Sometimes I use the lemon eucalyptus because I just love the smell, but you could use whatever you want, Pine also smells really nice.
So there, that should be just about it! Sometimes I split the water and replace that half with vinegar, which is what I will be doing since Caleb got sick, but normally I omit the vinegar because I just hate the smell of vinegar all over my house!

I hope that you all enjoy this cleaning concoction and it works for you like its worked for me! Now off I go to scrub down the whole entire house... wish me luck and pray for my sanity!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Hello blog world.. again

Hi everyone, well this attempt number two at starting a blog! I am very lazy when it comes to actually committing to something that I have to keep up.. thats a long story. Well, lets see how long it takes for me to forget about this blog!