Electronics

I have to confess. I have a love/hate relationship with electronics. Yes they make our lives easier, but it also makes it easier for us to disconnect from others. 

All of my kids have their own tablets or Kindles. In the summer I let them use them more, but I do have times that I make them turn them off. Of course if they are sharing and getting along nicely and we are on vacation I might give them some more time. 

I just think that there has to be a balance. There are times that I want to throw them all out, but we live in a digital age and they need to be a part of this world. At the same time I don't want them always staring at a screen and not having human contact. That is why we put the screens down every day and interact with each other and enjoy time together. We try to get outside every day and swim or play. We invite friends and family over and enjoy their company. My teens go to church camps with no electronics and we all participate in vacation bible school. My older ones work and participate in marching band and sports. We try to live life and not be behind a screen. Then when everyone wants to see a screen then it is ok because we live a balanced life. 

Beach Trip

Right now we are at the beach. At least the kids and I are.

I know that this is in black and white but The kids changed the settings on my phone and I couldn't tell in the bright sun. 

These girls are enjoying walking and being together. 

This boy has run and skim boarded all day. We went on a mile and a half walk tonight and he skimmed the whole way. 

They have also played numerous games of clue. 

So far everyone is having fun and relaxing. Steven doesn't come until Friday. We can't wait for him to join us!

Fun on the 3rd of July

We had our fireworks last night on the 3rd of July.  We go out to our recreation department with our church and watch the city's firework's display.  Our church rents a pavilion and everyone comes and brings food and drinks and shares.  Surprisingly the weather cooled off and we had a great time of fellowship.  I didn't take any pictures mostly because all of the kids were hanging out with friends.  I didn't really care.  I am just so happy that my kids have great friends from church!

So what about the forth?  Well Steven has to work and that stinks.  He does get to come home at 3:00 so that is ok.  We are going to a friends house tonight to celebrate the 4th.  The rest of the day I plan to do some laundry and cleaning and just relax.  The kids wanted to go see The Fault in Our Stars today and I said I would take them, but the show times don't match up for when we can go today so we will go tomorrow.  All of the kids have read the book and are really wanting to go!

 

Now I am not making a recommendation of this book.  It is what the teens are reading right no so I read it.  I like to watch and read what they are doing so that I know and can relate.  It is not my favorite because it does have some language that I don't care for but I let them read it.  Hopefully the movie won't be too bad.

 



Making Salsa

When we get an abundant of tomatoes I try to make salsa. We eat a small jar ( about half a quart) every time we eat tacos or mexican food so it makes sence to can it. I chopped all of the tomatoes, onions and peppers in the food processor and put it in two different pot to cook because there was so much.

The girls got in on it and helped.  Ashley and Natalie took turns chopping and pealing tomatoes.

 

 

Natalie sometimes supported by reading.

 

 

 

She wasn't reading about salsa making.  She was just reading in general.

 

 

In the end we made 20 pints of salsa.  I like this size because this is how much we eat in a meal.  That way I don't have some going bad in the fridge.

 



 

 

Yum!

 



Zucchini

Well it is that time of year again.  The time when the zucchini start coming in and I have to figure out what to do with all of it.  I give lots away, but I am telling you that zucchini might be the answer to world hunger.  We do enjoy it in a stir fry and battered and fried, but our favorite way is in zucchini bread.  So when it all starts coming in I start shredding it and putting it in the freezer for bread.

We planted yellow zucchini this year too.  I mixed it with the green because we use it the same way.  I put it into two cup portions and freeze it in freezer bags.  I use a food processor to grate it.  It makes life so much easier.  I can't imagine grating all of that by hand.

This batch gave me thirteen two cup bags for the freezer.  I will use it mostly for bread but I may try putting it into some minestrone soup or spaghetti sauce.  It is not good for much else once it is frozen because it is too watery.  Here is what our zucchini bread looks like:

Yummy!  Both of these loaves will be eaten in a day.  By the way these are my favorite baking pans.

These are USA pans.  They have a thin coating of silicone on them so nothing sticks and you don't have to spray them.  You do have to hand wash them but they are awesome.  

Back After Forever

I am back after forever. I have been really busy and needed a break but I miss posting. Last week was our church's youth camp. We take the kids out in the community and they do service projects. It is so great to see teens serving others!  At night we had a band and praise and worship.

This shows the teens enjoying praise and worship. I just stayed with the girls at night. I love helping kids get closer to god. 

Getting lots done

We had a great Thanksgiving.  We went to my mom's house and ate Turkey.  I did go Black Friday shopping and got most of my shopping done.  I only have a few gift cards left to get and then I am done.

I also did my big monthly grocery shopping on Wednesday.  I went to Aldi my favorite store and then to Sam's my next favorite store.  I rounded out the trip with Wal-Mart for a few odds and ends.  I spend $285 on this trip.  I will go back mid-month for some milk and fresh stuff, but most other things are bought up.

I thought that I would share about how I have time to cook a full meal every night after working all day and do it mostly from scratch.  I used to be a big coupon shopper and got lots of stuff for cheap or free.  Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to using coupons, especially for toiletries.  I started to realize that we were eating junk and that my grocery bill was not really all that low, so I started buying more whole foods and ingredients and making most of our foods. After I went shopping I went ahead and seasoned and cooked two chickens.  After they were cool I pulled all of the meat off and put the bones in a pot and make chicken broth.

 

 

I ended up with four packages of chicken and three packages of chicken broth.  From this I will make chicken broccoli casserole, chicken tortilla soup, chicken garbage bread (an inside out pizza crust with fillings and cheese), and some chicken noodle soup.

 

I also got some ground beef and mixed it with deer meat.  All of the men in our family deer hunt and we always have lots of ground deer meat but it is not the best for hamburgers and meatballs because it is so lean and won't stick together.  I mixed the two together with breadcrumbs and a few eggs.  I rolled out one pan of meat balls and 7 hamburgers.

 

 

I then stuck them into the freezer until they were hard.   I then put them in zip lock bags.  I then had enough meatball for two batches of spaghetti and enough hamburgers for two dinners.  Some kids prefer hot dogs so I will cook them a hot dog when we have hamburgers.

 

I also made a batch of granola and a half gallon of yogurt.  I will tell next time how I make the yogurt and granola.   Both are super easy and saves me tons.  We also make trail mix and what we call garbage bag snack mix.  The snack mix is just a bunch of crunchy snacks mixed together and then we store it in gallon Ziplocs.  The kids love it.

 

Most of this I will put in the crock pot frozen with the other ingredients and it will be ready in the afternoon.  I like having all of the prep work done.  It saves so much time.

 

Next time I will talk about the yogurt and granola and show how we eat it.  Yummy!