Greek yogurt...

  I love yogurt, but I've especially fallen in love with GREEK YOGURT in the last few months.  I had it first over at my 2nd family's house (where I work) and it is pure yumminess!   I did some research on-line recently to learn how to make greek yogurt at home and found that it is really quite simple.  All that you do is add one more step to the process, straining the yogurt for a couple of hours once it's set up.  Here is some of what I read:



"Greek yogurt is strained extensively to remove much of the liquid whey, lactose, and sugar, giving it its thick consistency. In roughly the same amount of calories as regular yogurt, it can pack up to double the protein, while cutting sugar content by half.

Protein. Greek yogurt is high in protein, which helps promote fullness. A typical 6-ounce serving contains 15 to 20 grams, the amount in 2 to 3 ounces of lean meat. That makes it particularly appealing to vegetarians, who sometimes struggle to get enough of the nutrient. An identical serving of regular yogurt, on the other hand, provides just 9 grams, meaning you may feel hunger pangs sooner.
Carbohydrates. Going Greek is a smart choice for low-carb dieters. It contains roughly half the carbs as the regular kind—5 to 8 grams per serving compared with 13 to 17. Plus, the straining process removes some of the milk sugar, lactose, making Greek yogurt less likely to upset the lactose-intolerant. Remember, however, that "both types of yogurt can contain high amounts of carbs if they're sweetened with sugar or another sweetening agent," says Kari Hartel, a Missouri-based registered dietitian. "No matter which type you choose, opt for yogurt with less added sugar."  "

I made a gallons worth of yogurt today (in the crock pot--which works well!), and I'm going to go get it straining now....

Oh, one of the highlights of today was taking the pieces of my quilt over to our neighbor, Tamera, to have her do the machine-quilting.   She guessed it will take 2 weeks to finish, as it's so large!  Then, all that will be left for me to do is put the binding on.  That will take a while, as it needs to be slip-stitched all the way around (by hand).  :)

I scream, you scream,

...we all scream for ice cream....  So the saying goes, although I haven't heard anyone screaming for ice cream lately.  We did, however, all enjoy the 3 kinds of ice cream Jacob and I whipped up this afternoon!

My dad and the boys loaded up a load of wheat when the truck arrived from MN.  Another one is coming in the morning.  Hooray!

I spent part of the morning (after we separated cream/milk again) caring for Johanna and Tracy so their mama could get some paperwork done.  When I got home, after making ice cream, I made a special kind of cinnamon muffins using coconut flour.  They disappeared rapidly, so I'm thinking they were enjoyed. 

Andrew has my car in the shop now.  :)  The belt/pulley for the power steering has been squealing and smoking for a couple months already and Andrew bought the replacement parts a while back, but didn't have time to fix it, so I'm happy that it's in the shop tonight----in pieces.

Bismarck day...

It was a long day, mostly spent in Bismarck for all of us but my dad.  My mom saw clients most of the day.  The 3 of the rest of us went to the library and bumped into friends there, so visited for some time.   I had to renew my drivers' license (my birthday's coming up) and wanted to go skirt shopping at the 2nd-hand stores, plus I bought some new fish for my aquarium and we went to the Hobby Lobby so I could replace the feathers-on-a-wire that I'd ruined while trying to break into my own car one day up there (a LONG story).  The boys had things to do too (Andrew had a vehicle looked at and Jacob took his snowmobile in to have something checked).  We stopped at a dollar store.  So, yes, it was just a run-around day....

A good snowball making day!

After naptime this afternoon, I bundled the girls up and we went out to play in the snow.  It was melting outside a bit, so we made some great snowballs.    Tracy kept eating the snow and loosing her boot.  We had a fun day.  :) 

Pictures!

 

It was a busy day today, working on odd projects...  The guys worked in the shop mostly and mom and I worked in the kitchen; folded a lot of laundry; read for a while; looked at seed catalogs; tried on some clothes my mom recently bought; etc....

 

I have several pictures to share tonight, as I took the time to transfer them from my camera to my computer finally.  Enjoy~

 

Our 3 goats (the black one is a young buck that we got from a friend this fall).

 This is my doe, Opal.  She is a very easy milker!

Millie and Lady, enjoying the sunshine...

 The calves we saved back (some replacement heifers, 4 young bulls, and a few smaller calves).

 This was a couple days back, the day when Andrew dug out the skis he'd bought at an auction this summer and gave them a go...    Now he just needs to find some poles (he was using some plastic sticks).

 The next few pictures are from Friday, when Paula dropped the girls off here.  I loved how the girls' feet were swinging as they made a joyful noise!

 Sisters~

 Cute faces!

 Johanna and I playing a duet...  ;)

 So cute!

 Tracy, almost lost in the plant jungle...

 She loved painting...

 This is a fun picture, as Andrew was taking a picture of me and I happened to snap this photo right at the same moment he was taking one...

 This was today, when Mom was taking a break and reading in her latest health/fitness book...

 This is one of the dresses my mom got for me in Bismarck on Friday.  I had to laugh as the top design of the dress looks very much like the Cornelli lace design that I do with icing on cakes!!!

That's all folks, for now. 

Good night~

A day off...

It is such a blessed thing to have a day of rest!  I thank God for it.  :)  It was nice and sunny out too.



Oh, my 2nd cousin, Hristiyan is doing a short quiz over on his blog:  http://manofcamo.blogspot.com .  The question is:  

"Why do officers of the law, when they pull you over, place their hand on the back of your car?"

Do you know?  You can leave a guess as a comment and he'll be posting the answer later.

Also, I found this website interesting when a friend shared it:  http://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/make-your-own-seasoning-mixes .   It links to recipes for making your own seasoning mixes from the spices in your cupboard.

It was nice outside!

My parents went to Bismarck for most of the day to take care of business and get some groceries.

Meanwhile, Paula brought the girls over (Johanna and Tracy Jo) while she made a quick trip to town, so it was fun having them at my house for a change.  I have some pictures to share too, one of these days... 

After lunch, the boys helped me clean the house in record time and we made some supper, then headed out of doors to enjoy the day.  Andrew dug out his skis and the boys had fun with those for a while.  I took some pictures of the goats and cows...  Then, we worked on some odd projects out of doors, followed by some ping-pong before chores.  After supper, we watched an old movie which ended up not being very good, and then it was prayer time and now it's bed time. 

Have a great weekend everybody.~ 

Sale day!

Just as we were getting ready to head to town to sit at the sale for possibly hours and hours, one of the owners of the salesbarn called and told us our calves were coming up shortly.  SO, we turned on the auction on-line and watched our calves sell from our dining room.  Then, everyone but Mom went into town to figure out the calf check (who got what) and then to pay off some loans and the like.  One of the other salesbarn owners saw us there and told us to eat something "on the house", so we went into the Cafe and had malts.  :)  We also bought some ice cream at the store to celebrate the special day, so my mom had some of that with us later at supper.   My dad said the price of cattle has been dropping the past 2 weeks, but the price was still very good and we're very thankful!

Now we are all ready to start up the next calving season (in about a months time, that is).

Kicked...

The rest of my family got all of the calves sorted (we're keeping some heifers back and 4 bulls, plus some smaller steers) and hauled them into the Napoleon salesbarn. They had their share of troubles, from the sounds of it, and both my dad and Andrew got kicked/grazed, but they got the job done. Tomorrow will be an exciting day--watching the sale. :) A years worth of work being sold is a special occasion....

The girls and I spent the day indoors as it was so cold out. During our 10 hours together, we did lots of different things (finger painting, book reading, play car driving, a little laundry folding, and baths), but the cutest thing of the day was when the 2 of them were sitting side by side on their pink chairs while holding their sippy cups. They then touched the cups together and said "Cheers" (Johanna) and "ceee" (Tracy). They did that several times and giggled. It was so cute!!!

Potted plants...

 

It was a busy day around here once again.  Andrew sold his snowmobile and delivered it as far as Steele.  He also had someone come here and buy a transformer(?) box he had listed on BisManOnline. 

 

My mom did a session for a client and she and Jacob worked on his schoolwork. 

 

My dad did a lot of extra things for the animals this morning, spreading out lots of bedding; feeding them their mineral/salt; thawing out the water fountain; etc....   He spent some of the afternoon listening to a conference by Arden Anderson (farming).

 

I made my first attempt at making yogurt in a slow-cooker.  I won't know until morning if it set up right or not.  I also made a batch of milk kefir to give it another try (maybe our taste-buds aren't as particular as before?).  My mom made more water kefir.

 

Andrew also went to town this afternoon.  He took my car as I needed gas in it again....  He picked up some potting soil for me at the hardware store, so when he got home with that, I made a mess.  We had several plants that needed transplanting, so I spent a couple of hours doing that.  The area in front of the South-facing patio door is pretty full of green things....  Two of my dwarf fruit trees are now blooming!

 As you can see by this dresser in my room, I like growing things.  ;)
  (left to right:  Spider plant, Walking blue iris houseplant, Sub-zero ivy, a green vine that I forget the name of, Aloe vera, a dwarf banana, and a non-prickly cactus that my grandma gave me off of her plant.)

 Over on my large trunk, I have a rubber plant (a baby from our other one) and the new addition--that tall plant that I also can't remember the name of? 

 

  This is a picture I took a few weeks back of all the puffed-up sparrows that were resting on the tree outside our house:

 

Please join me in praying for safety for my family tomorrow as they sort calves and load most of them up, then haul them into Napoleon to sell the following day.  I'll be babysitting, so hopefully the calves will all cooperate nicely without my help.

I'm still alive!

I've learned SOOOOOO much since I posted here last.... 

I'm still very tired and sore from the Impact (hands-on self-defense) class that I took Friday night through Sunday, but it is a good weariness and I'd do it all over again if I had the last weekend to relive!   The class was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be (both physically and emotionally), but it was just so good to work through those fears and I now have the confidence that I could get through a terrible situation with the skills that I learned and with the Lord's helping me to remember them. 

 We didn't get much sleep Friday or Saturday night, Lauretta and I, as we talked and talked about the skills we were learning and kept going over things in our minds.  We put out a lot of energy during our waking hours---fighting those giants, so it was such a good feeling to at last graduate yesterday afternoon and to know we could sit down and rest.  :) 

Here is a link to the video/article that was on the news last night about the class:  http://www.kxnet.com/story/21230016/womens-self-defense-class-makes-an-impact#.USMCFeGhw4g.facebook  .  The short video shows just a few of the skills we learned and is just a sampling of one of the many scenarios that each of we 12 women worked through.   The video was taken during our graduation, which was a time when we could invite our loved ones to come and watch what we'd learned.  Quite a few people showed up, plus the TV camera lady of course. 

 There was a special time yesterday when each woman could set up a scenario just as realistically as possible to be like what they most fear in life regarding an attack.   I don't think there was a dry eye in the room during those, especially when the woman whose turn it was asked for the rest of us to be quiet, so we couldn't cheer her on and just sat and watched her fight her most feared battle.   I set up my scenario to be when I was still working at the nursing home and got off of work at night and had to walk out to my car where it was pretty dark.  I put my coat on to make it more realistic and to see how much harder it would be to fight with the added bulk.  They turned all the lights off and just had a small door open a crack with a little light coming through.  I went in a side room that was "the nursing home".  I walked out and headed for my "car" ( a chair).  Suddenly, one of the guys came from behind me and grabbed me, pulling me to the ground.  I screamed for help, prayed for strength (I was already pretty sore at that point), then don't even remember everything that I did, but I eventually won the battle and called 911.  When the lights came back on, I had one shoe off and some of the contents of my coat pockets were scattered across the padded floor, but I'd faced my fear of being tackled in the dark---and won.        

It was a special time at the end of class when the 4 guys (who were our attackers) were in their every day clothes and shared with us how hard it is for them to do this too, to see us crying and still continue playing the part of the bad guy, but they know that they're helping us face our fears in a safe environment and so they volunteer their time and energy for our good. 

It was AMAZING to watch the confidence that these skills gave to each woman!  I believe every woman should know these skills as she has the right to protect herself and her loved ones....  And now, I'm ready for a good nights rest!!!

Taxi driver...

A preacher dies, and when he gets to heaven, he sees a New
York cab driver who has more crowns. He says to an angel, "I
don't get it. I devoted my whole life to my congregation."

The angel says, "We reward results. Did your congregation
always pay attention when you gave a sermon?"

The preacher says, "Once in a while someone fell asleep."

The angel says, "Right. And when people rode in this guy's
taxi, they not only stayed awake, but they usually prayed!"

   ~compliments of G.C.F.L.~

Impact...

It seems like ages ago that my mom and I signed up for the Impact (self-defense) class and it is hard to believe that the class in now nearly here!  My blog will be silent for a few days consequently.  If you'd like to know more about what we'll be learning, you can read about it here: http://ndimpact.org/AboutUs.aspx .   My friend, Lauretta will be going with us, so it will be extra fun to take the class with a friend and then we can practice throwing each other later.  Ha ha! 

This day was spent (for mom and I anyway) in getting ready for being gone for 3 days, and in making sure there was food prepared so our guys don't starve in the meantime.  ;) 

So, God be with you 'til we meet again!  Oh, and I hope you all had a wonderful time with your loved ones today. 

Happy day at work!

It was a very good day for the M. family as Paula ("my" little girl's mother) passed her final test and is now a real, genuine, very happy Nurse Practitioner!!!   The girls and I baked cookies to celebrate and Paula brought home donuts, so there won't be a lack of sweet treats for a little while.  :)   I'm so happy for you, Paula, to have completed your goal!!!!!!  I'm sure you'll sleep well tonight.

When I got home, Andrew was just putting pancakes on the griddle, so I set the table and we ate shortly thereafter. 

My dad finished up with that grain-hauling job today.  My mom had a client here at the farm again.  I'm sure my brothers kept busy too. 

'Twas a good day!

The Tate family~

Something to make your morning a smidgen more interesting....  I've never thought about how many "Tates" there are!


"Do you know how many members of the TATE family belong to
our organization?

There is old man DICK TATE who wants to run everything,
while Uncle RO TATE tries to change everything.

Their sister, AGI TATE, stirs up plenty of trouble with help
from her husband, IRRI TATE.

Whenever new projects are suggested, HESI TATE and his wife,
VEGI TATE, want to wait until next year.

Brother FACILI TATE is quite helpful in group matters.

And a happy member is Ms. FELICI TATE.

Cousins COGI TATE and MEDI TATE always think things over and
lend a helpful steady hand.

And, of course, there is the bad seed in the family, AMPU
TATE, who has cut himself off completely from the rest of
the organization."

from G.C.F.L.

The doings of the day...

Let me think, what did we all do today?  Well, my dad fed cows this morning then hauled grain again all day at got home right at supper time.  My mom and Andrew went to Bismarck.  Andrew sat in a committee meeting about a homeschooling bill, and later he picked up his brown pickup that finally had all of the bodywork finished (that's the one that jack-knifed and Jacob went in the ditch with) and brought it home.  Jacob stayed home.  I went babysitting "my" 2 ever-changing little girls.  Their mama (and papa?) blew up a ton of balloons and filled a HUGE box with them, so we played with those for a long time downstairs.  Later, Tracy Jo found some balloons upstairs and quickly picked them up one by one and tossed them over the little gate so they floated down the stairs.  We played "Horsey" for a while too....and castles and princesses.  :) 

When I got home, I made some supper and practiced my violin (I've been neglecting that somewhat here lately).  Do any of you reading this play violin?  If so, did you take lessons or learn from a book/by ear?  Just curious.

Being thrifty...

THRIFTY:

 

1: thriving by industry and frugality (prosperous)

2: growing vigorously

3: given to or marked by economy and good management

 

One of the areas we can be thrifty is in the buying of our clothing....  I had to make a trip into Napoleon to fill my car with gas and to put money in the bank, then stopped at Nita's Attic, our local thrift-store and found 3 bags of bargains (mostly blouses for myself, but also a few things for my brothers).   It's amazing to be able to buy 30+ articles of clothing that are in great shape for the price you'd pay for 1 or 2 items that are brand new!  When you buy something that's never been worn, it's only brand new for a little while anyway, so why pay all that extra money?  You wear it and then it's not new anymore.  ;) 

 

My dad hauled grain again.  The boys worked on various projects.  I cleaned out and organized our "Junk drawer", as we couldn't find the little tool that the guys needed to get the air out of the heating system (it was getting very loud).  I did find it, eventually.   My mom got a new health book in the mail from Dr. Mercola, so she was reading in that quite a bit.  It was a good, busy day.

 

 

The twins...

I spent most of the day over babysitting the neighbor boys (the twins--age 3).  Their big sister was at their grandma's house all day, so instead of coloring and playing with dolls, we spent the day driving trucks and building things.  :)  When one of the twins was going to say a prayer before we ate lunch, it was so cute because he got mixed up and I think he started saying the pledge of allegiance. 

Our guys were busy beavers today, cleaning out the corn-bin (they loaded the rest of the corn onto the semi so dad can haul it to town tomorrow) and they finished insulating the shop door, so it will be interesting to see how much warmer they can get the shop now!   My mom now caught the cold that the rest of us had for the last couple of weeks, so she's been taking it easy. 

We're praying for anyone who's out driving/stranded in the winter storm tonight.... 

"I Love"...

A friend just posted this video on YouTube and I thought it was so cute...  Outside of the coffee and tomatoes on the vine, I love these things too! :)

Chocolate pudding pie...

Think it sounds good?  It was!

It was a typical Friday here, meaning that we did our house cleaning, laundry, and cooked up a storm in the kitchen.  My dad hauled grain all day again.  Mom and I worked together to get some things ready to go out in the mail (books to return to people; a baby-congratulation card; a "Just because" gift; special letters to friends....).  Andrew worked on his Ford pickup.  I got my full 10,000+ steps in. :) 


 Oh, and Jacob changed the lightbulb in the laundry room so we can see again.  ;)

A B C D E F G....

After doing the morning milking (cow and goats), as Andrew was doing Dad's chores, I went over to babysit "my" little girls and spent most of the day there.  I was very impressed when Johanna sang her ABCs for me!  She needed just a little help in a couple places.  She's one smart little cookie.  Tracy Jo was having so much fun going down the little slide they have in the living room.  They are both so fun!  I am blessed to be a part of their lives.

I got home just in time to help Jacob finish the supper dishes (the others were doing the barn chores), so he was glad I think.  The guys loaded out a 3rd load of our corn today when the trucker arrived.  My dad hauled grain all day again for a farmer. 

Have a good Friday.~

Bye bye corn...

The guys loaded up the 2 trucks that came today to haul our organic corn to MN.  The hard, faith-building part of selling organic crops is that it seems you end up waiting at least 30 days after they have your grain to get paid.  So, we wait (and pray that the check comes)!

I went over and babysat the 3 neighbor children that live just a mile away.  This morning, we played inside, but after nap-time this afternoon, we played outside for a couple of hours.  It was just lovely out!  I pulled the 3 kiddos in their sled for a while and pushed them on their swingset.  Then, I made mazes in the snow for them to follow.  :)

My mom got some writing done today that she'd been wanting to do.  She also made reservations at a hotel in Grand Forks for when we go to the home-school convention in March (Lord willing, and all). 

The boys worked in the shop.  Andrew finished with the neighbors' pickup and drove it over to them.  :)  Jacob worked on his snowmobile some more....

Another kid...

A couple days ago my mom's goat, Bridget had 1 huge buckling.  We had him in the house for 2 days, trying to get him up and going, but he died overnight.  :(  Now tonight, after milking Sally, I went down to milk Bridget and discovered 2 kids in the milking stall, 1 dead and the other nearly so.  My goat, Opal had kidded today sometime and apparently the kids just didn't get up and nurse as they were cuddled together, as I said, dead and nearly so.  I brought the live kid inside and now it's my turn to try and doctor it back to health/life.  Both kids were bucklings.  We were not expecting kids at this time of year, so weren't really looking for them.  Sad. 

Outside of that, this day was pleasant.  I got the bread baked; a new batch of vanilla started; filled the color-ink cartridge on the printer again; did dishes; made chicken and sage stuffing for supper; baked some granola bars; and dug out the big exercise ball I used to use when I had back problems, as I want to do some exercises on it again (not that I'm having back problems, but just for the sake of staying strong). 

Mom and Andrew went to Bismarck.  My dad hauled grain all day long, then came home and pushed snow away from the grain-bins, as 2 trucks are coming for corn tomorrow.  Jacob is still sick, so took it easy and folded some laundry for me. 

Please be in prayer for an American pastor who has been put in prison in another country....  Read more at my friend, Hannah's blog:  http://gloryandgrace-hannah.blogspot.com/2013/02/american-pastor-sentenced-to-prison.html .

An apple a day...

...keeps the doctor away, so the old saying goes.  SO, when I got home from work today (after sharing an apple with Johanna and Tracy Jo), I baked an apple pie.  :) 

The others kept busy here at home, outside of my dad who hauled grain all day again.  Andrew is taking over the morning cow-feedings for him so he can get an earlier start (that part of chores takes over an hour to accomplish). 

It looks like I need to bake bread again tomorrow.  The cupboard is bare---of bread, that is.

A surprise in the barn...

This morning, I milked Sally for Andrew, as he was heading up to Harvey early to get a 4-wheeler.  As long as I was outside, I decided to do the rest of the small animal chores and was I ever surprised when I went in the goat barn and found a new kid!  We knew the bucks had been with the does about 5 months ago, but weren't sure if they were bred, as our 2 does haven't really bagged up very much.  I held the mama and fought with the kid for a while to get it to nurse.  When the others got up, I asked them to keep an eye on the kid and when I got home from work this afternoon, the kid was in the house in a laundry basket.  He isn't doing the best right now.  My mom's been tube-feeding him, so hopefully he gets going here soon.  He was trying to stand at supper time.  I guess we'll have to keep an eye on my doe, Opal!

God Leads His Dear Children Along...

During our hymn-sing today (which was pretty quiet, due to people still not having their singing voices recovered from this cold), I chose this favorite hymn:



The first time I heard this song was at one of the first Prairie Days we attended.  A little red-headed girl of maybe 5 or 6 was singing it and it stuck in my head as a very wonderful song.  :)

We spent the day resting, reading, and watching the Waltons this evening.  I looked through the 14 seed catalogs we've received this year so far and dreamed of what I'll try to grow this year...

I forgot to mention yesterday that the boys had Jacob's snowmobile running for a while and drove it around in the snow a bit!  It's still not idling as it should, they say, but at least it goes...

Beef enchiladas are good too!

I don't know why, but when we make enchiladas, we make them with chicken.  Well, today, we didn't have chicken but had beef on hand so, yes, we made beef enchiladas instead.  Everyone seemed to enjoy them just as well.  I've come to the conclusion (in my family anyway) that if you smother anything in white sauce, it will be declared delicious.  ;)

I babysat "my" girls for the first part of the day, then came home and helped my mom with cooking and washed a ton of kettles (well, not quite that many).   We played a little ping-pong again before chores, then played Rook and Rummy after supper.  Fun times!