Sunsational Sunflower Seed Non-Dairy Milk

We've made almond milk and hemp seed milk, have thought about making acorn milk, so when I stumbled upon this post about Sunflower Seed Non-Dairy Milk, I had to check it out. They are hosting a giveaway, which is always a bonus!

Sunsational Sunflower Seed Non-Dairy Milk & Giveaway

Bananagrams & other games we use for UNschooling

(Our game this morning)

One of the Yahoo groups I subscribe to is for homeschooling. I enjoy reading about the different ways that parents are choosing to teach their kids. I definitely enjoy the extremely creative ways that are shared, especially when it comes to boring subjects. This is an area that we've had to embrace because our youngest son (who just turned 16), has a language delay. We started homeschooling/unschooling late (he was a freshman in high school), which is another post because I haven't been ready to talk about it, but it's been one of the best decisions EVER!! It's also been one of the hardest!

This morning, in the daily group email, was a woman talking about her struggle with homeschooling her young son. She missed the free time she had with her husband playing XBOX and she didn't like dealing with a whiny kid. She was asking for opinions on sending her son back to public school so she could be "normal". I have to be honest, this irritated me. It sounded like she didn't want to deal with her kid, but rather have play time with her husband. I responded to the email, being as polite as I could even though I wanted to say more, much more, with suggestions for unschooling. I've noticed that a lot of parents think homeschool has to be public school at home. But if public school wasn't working at school, why would it work at home? If you don't change the way the learning is done, what are you changing? I'm getting off my soap box, because this too is another post waiting in the wings!

One of the games we LOVE is Bananagrams! It's like Words with Friends or Scrabble, but theres not board, no point squares, just building upon the words. If it's a new word for our son, we talk about what it means and then move on to the next turn. We don't follow the directions for the game because it calls for each player to build their own words, we have more fun building off each other. We also have tried picking a subject, like food or animals, and making words.

We use UNO Attack for math. It never fails, every single time the cards get spit out, our son busts out laughing. How awesome to see him laugh and smile and HAVE FUN while we're learning math!! We have him either add, subtract or multiply the number that is on top with the number HE is playing. We also use Yahtzee!, Dominoes and baking. As you can see, our son is very visual =o)

Some of the shows we watch (yes WE, I watch them with him so I can ask him about what we've seen) are Dinosaur Train, Sid the Science Kid, Word World, Legend Quest (Syfy), How the States got their Shapes (History), History's Mysteries (History International), Ancient X-Files (Nat. Geo.), Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Travel), Ace of Cakes (FOOD), Dangerous Encounters w/ Brady Barr (Nat. Geo. Wild), How the Universe Works (SCI), Dirt Girl World (SPRT), America's Great Parks (Green), The Electric Company. We don't watch them everyday, but we do scan the guide to see if whats on is going to be interesting.

Homeschooling/UNschooling is a very personal decision to make, one that has to weigh all of the positives & negatives, because it doesn't just affect the child(ren), it changes everything for the whole family!

Turnips & soup - recipe

Our friend Paul has been bringing us turnips, LOTS of turnips!! He planted some & then his wife planted some, but they didn't tell each other that they'd each done it, so now they have double the harvest! And we, along with everybody they know ;o) are reaping the benefits. They are HUGE, bigger than grapefruits, so we're having to be creative in using them up. So far we've fried them in lard with potatoes & sweet onions, we've boiled them & mashed them up with garlic like mashed potatoes. We've eaten them raw sliced up like an apple, with slices of cheese & chives. We've baked them like baked potatoes too! I even sliced up a couple, along with some butternut squash & gave it to the chickens & turkeys!

I was super happy to stumble upon this recipe for Turnip Soup!

I asked Pauls wife why they grew turnips but not potatoes. She told me that Paul (who will be 72 soon) had to watch his potassium levels. A potato has 1554mg of potassium, while a turnip has 248mg! That's 44% vs 7% of the daily value! A potato has 68.0g of carbs, while a turnip has 8.4g. She's come up with creative ways to use turnips in place of potatoes too, including her amazing Hashed Turnip casserole! I'm still working on getting that recipe ;o)

Our bees are ordered!

They are an Italian/Carniolan blend. We went with this blend because of their winter hardiness (it gets cold & snowy in KY), but also they are very gentle excellent producers that use less propolis than other races of bees.

We'll be using 5 frame nucs (Nucleus Colonies, are small honey bee colonies created from larger colonies. The term refers both to the smaller size box and the colony of honeybees within it. The name is derived from the fact that a nuc hive is centered around a queen - the nucleus of the honey bee colony).

This is part of the bee farm that we ordered from. He has got such an awesome set-up and has been working with bees for over 10 years!

Another honeybee farm shot.

Month 12 - Lotus pose

Back in 2001, when I started Massage Therapy school, I also started learning about yoga. My Acupressure instructor was also a yoga teacher and she peaked my curiousity. One of my favorite books is the yoga year by Celia Toler.

Each month builds upon the previous month with detailed pose descriptions and images. Right now I'm on Month 12 (I know, duh, right!) and I was re-reading the first page of the chapter when this "The poses you have learned have not only stretched the body, in all senses, but still the mind, and so month 12 finally offers the full Lotus Pose, of special significance in yoga for breathing and meditation. The theme of the month is the quietness and stillness needed to allow the lotus to blossom." struck me as being perfect for this crazy time of year.

Lots of my friends and family are rushing around, trying to out-do last years decorations and baking while trying to find yet another "perfect" gift. They seem rushed, frazzled, irritated and stressed. I've shared my love of yoga and the peaceful benefits I've reaped with them (hoping they'll breathe a little) and thought I'd share it here too. =o)

I had to add the link for these awesome yoga (lotus group) cookie cutters, and yoga (down-dog-group)! You're welcome ;o)

Making deer jerky - Recipe

5 lbs of meat
3 cups soy sauce
2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
2-3 Tablespoons Tabasco
2 teaspoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper

Brine 8 hours overnight
Soak wood chips overnight

Smoke 3-5 hours (depending on thickness of meat pieces)

Calendula Balm

I've been making this balm for about 6 years and its become our go-to for cuts, scrapes, rashes, etc.

As the weather is getting colder and the heater kicking on more frequently, I've noticed that my knuckles are starting to get chapped, so I pulled out my last container of this balm (my next-to-last container is up in the barn, we'd used it on our jersey cows teats). I thought I'd share the recipe with you and hope you'll find many uses for it like we have!

I use dry herbs/flowers and have a small crock-pot that is specifically for infusing.

1/8 oz (3.55 grams) St. Johns Wort flower (dried & ground)
1/8 oz (3.55 grams) Comfrey leaf (dried & ground)
1 cup Calendula petals (dried)
1/2 cup Lavender buds (dried)

1 cup Castor Oil
2 cups Aloe Butter
1/3 cup Hemp Seed Oil
2 cups (1.5 bars) organic beeswax

Lavender essential oil (optional)

Place the herbs and oils (excluding the essential oil) in the crock-pot and turn to the lowest heat. Place the lid on and let the mixture steep, usually 3-4 hours. (For larger batches I let it steep up to 6 hours). Check frequently, stirring, to prevent overheating. Turn off heat and let steep for up to 1 week, creating a beautiful dark green oil.

Strain herbs from oil. (I use double layered cheese cloth & strain into a large glass measuring cup).

(If you're not going to finish the balm immediately, store the oil in a glass jar with a tight lid, in a cool dark place. Also, you'll need to warm the oil back up prior to mixing with the beeswax)

Melt the beeswax slowly (I chop the bars up and melt in 20-30 second intervals in the microwave).

Mix the warm oils & beeswax together. (You want the oils to be warm so that the beeswax doesn't start to cool off and harden before you mix and pour).

Add 4-6 drops Lavender essential oil. Mix thoroughly.

Pour into small containers. Let cool. Put lids on.

These make great gifts and excellent additions to the diaper bag or first aid kit.