new header! (and new colours too)

Hey folks!! You have to come visit me and let me know what you think of my new blog header!! :) I am pretty excited about it. I chose the background picture because it reminded me of the broken glass a baseball through the window would leave...I thought it was fitting, since life isn't always, good, sometimes it is for sure bad and ugly. Anyway...how do you like my new look?

oodles of bungaree music

agua viva

Vino una mujer de Samaria a sacar agua y Jesús le dijo: Dame de beber.
La mujer samaritana le dijo: ¿Como tu, siendo judío, me pides a mi de beber, que soy mujer samaritana? Porque los judíos y samaritanos no se tratan entre si.
Respondió Jesús y le dijo: Si conocieras el don de Dios, y quien es el que te dice: Dame de beber; tu le pedirías, y el te daría agua viva.

La mujer le dijo: Señor, no tiene con que sacarla, y el pozo es hondo. ¿De donde, pues, tienes el agua viva? ¿Acaso eres tu mayor que nuestro padre Jacob, que nos dio este pozo, del cual bebieron el, sus hijos y sus ganados?

Juan 4:7-12

Lo que realmente me habló esta vez de esta lectura es que la mujer samaritana por ella misma habría perdido la bendición, o el regalo de la agua viva porque su mente no lo podía comprender. Ella es como cada uno de nosotros, vamos por la vida sabiendo que Dios tiene algo bueno para nosotros, pero cuando El dice o hace algo que esta fuera de nuestra comprensión, nos cuesta aceptarlo. Ponemos escusas, nos quejamos, y si solo dijéramos: no lo entiendo, ¡pero lo quiero!
Quiero que mientras menos lo entienda mas preparada este para agarrarlo con todas mis fuerzas. Si dejara de tratar de comprender sus planes, y confiar en que El sabe lo que hace: ¿cuanto mas me podría cambiar, moldear y transformar? Mira lo que Jesús tenia, cuando ella solamente pensaba en agua común.

Cualquiera que bebiere de esta agua, volverá a tener sed; mas el que bebiere del agua que yo le daré, no tendrá sed jamas; sino que el agua que yo le daré sera en el una fuente de agua que salte para vida eterna.

Juan 4: 13,14

silhouette

I thought this was a neat picture. B says it looks like I am in the witness protection program! I still like it. I love it when the sky is filled with cumulus clouds and dark blue. I like it even more that fall is here and crispy is what we have for weather. leaves fall. goodness I love the change of seasons.

bibbers of raw milk

We are the bibbers of raw milk. I was warned against it by several, but they must not know what they are talking about. Raw milk has less of a milk taste than store-bought processed stuff!! Seriously I have done the test on many a willing participant. Raw milk you ask?
According to wikipedia:

Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized.

My top reason for loving raw milk (that is when we can get our hands on it!!) is that we have no lactose aversion to it. Yes, you heard me right. The boys and I are all lactose intolerants :)
Wikipedia's definition:

Lactose intolerance is the inability to metabolize lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products, because the required enzyme lactase is absent in the intestinal system or its availability is lowered. Some people also mention pasteurized dairy products as a cause (raw milk contains small amounts of lactase). It is estimated that 75% of adults show some decrease in lactase activity during adulthood worldwide. The frequency of decreased lactase activity ranges from nearly 5% in northern Europe to more than 90% in some Asian and African countries ^[1]

It is bad news let me tell ya. However raw milk (see above if you have forgotten what it is) is fine for us to drink...no problems with the digestive system. I promise you that I would know since I scramble in pain after only a spoonful of cream sauce if I do not take lactase enzyme. anyway, this post is an ode to raw milk, sweet nectar of the cows :)


I was just going to take a pic and post it above, but oliver really wanted to be in the picture, and he is so silly that I'll post them all as proof. I guess this is what raw milk does to ya!!

the simple pleasures: egg, toms, and buttered bread

Here is a food post on simplifying our food. this is what we had today for lunch. tomatoes with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar, bread with butter, and an egg. This could be lunch, it could be dinner, it could be breakfast...take your pick. I just know that it has amazing nutrients and only takes minutes to make. (well, longer if you make your own bread too...but it is fully worth it :)

I am adoring my tomatoes this year, super-sweet, filled with juice and never mushy. Ahhhh....so if you want a veggie side dish, just toms like this: cut them up, add olive oil, a tiny bit of vinegar, pepper and salt to taste. divine. these flavours always bring me back to my days in spain, as this is really the only salad dressing they use. oh, there are a couple more in the bowl, I am off to eat them. I can't get over the salty,sweet, tangy, peppery goodness.

what simple recipes could you eat over and over?

pop, pop (aka music to a canner's ears)

When after two days of processing apples I heard, "pop,pop,pop" it was music to my sighing ears :) So, I peeled and cut and canned 26 quarts of apples! These have now been readied for apple pie filling, apples to put into oatmeal, muffins, eat plain, to eat with granola...and probably some other uses I haven't even thought of. Anyway I am sick of looking at apples, but I put up two pictures for you to see them.

This last week I also canned 11 quarts of pears that I picked at my friends (thanks becky...if you still have time to check this :) I can't wait to enjoy all my canned fruit in the middle of the rainy winter.

What do you do with canned apples or peaches??? Any good tips or hints??

added:
26 quarts apples
11 quarts pears

date (lovely)

We love going on dates, and this one was perfect for sure. We went to get Bubble tea (boba tea- ahhhh I love that stuff!!!) and then grabbed our books and laid on a blanket in central park reading (undisturbed) in the middle of the day, it was so nice out and very nice to be able to focus on just one thing :) Then we walked around downtown, using up time, and working up an appetite for our dinner. And what a dinner it would be!!


This was our first visit to Strega, OH STREGA!! This is a pretty new restaurant in Corvallis, and it is (in my book) a five star. The place is impressive, but that isn't enough to sway us to love...the food is amazing. They serve simple foods, tapas style, even if they are not all actually tapas from Spain, they are amazing. All their meat is from local sources, healthy and additive/steroid free (ie gathering together farms and such) . I keep catching myself thinking about the food that we will order next time we go there....which probably won't be for a while, since it is what I would call expensive (but, full on worth it for sure!) The view is pretty, and it would be better later at night when all the lights from the city are aglow.





ps I will state our stand (on meat) again: I don't make meat at home, we don't eat meat at home, but if we go to someone's home we eat what they serve, if we are out at a restaurant we will order it if we want.

on the trail to the beaver dam

We walked down the trail, to where a big beaver dam was supposed to be... we didn't see it though. I think it was covered up with new blackberry growth or something. We had a great hike anyway!! Here is the evidence of our journey:

my wagon :)

I am so happy to have a wagon again. oh, the stuff I can fit in the back!!!! I love little blue. I just need to get some sort of music player that works installed....believe me, with little kids silly music is MUST on any sort of long trip, if only for my sanity!

all ages addmitted: sweetness!

• puke (1x)

Oh, just in case you were going to let your 2 year old read this blog. No, just kidding. There is a nifty little test you can take to see what your blog is rated. I am rated G, and it even found that I used the word "puke" one time!! However that was my only offense :) For my book blog though, oh wow....I am R rated. Check it out...never knew how they rated things, but now I do! Anyway, just thought it was a fun little thingy.

me, b.

some pics of me. yesah! I hardly ever put pics of me up, well...mostly because I am the one always taking the pictures. And these are some funny ones, just so you know that I don't take myself all thatsoooo seriously :)

did you have any idea that I was strong!? haha!

nope. not so much now.

this is one of my major gifts, it is how i entertain myself while looking in the mirror