Yogurt Covered Strawberries

I have a great use for those Individually Frozen Strawberries that I showed to you the other day.
My family really liked these so much.  Again, they were gone before I could take a picture.  But I have the picture below from the blog that I found them on.

This recipe comes from This Chick Cooks.Net .  I did tweak mine a bit.  The original recipes is simply Fresh Strawberries and Vanilla Yogurt.  I wanted them to have a sweeter harder consistency so I melted White Chocolate Chips and blended it with the yogurt before I dipped the berries.  I also really liked starting with already frozen strawberries.  They seem to set up faster. 
Yogurt Covered Strawberries

Ingredients

• strawberries
• yogurt
• vanilla to taste

Instructions

1. Cut tops off of berries. Dip the berries into yogurt and place on cookie tray in the freezer until firm. Repeat process until the berries have your desired amount of yogurt shell. I dipped mine twice.
2. Store in the freezer.
3. These are best served after sitting out for a few minutes.

Once mine were frozen on the cookie sheet, I again transferred them to a zip lock bag to keep them fresh.  I hope you all enjoy these.

Jeannie

Book Club

I would like to see if some of you would like to join me in reading a book together.  I think if we break it down we can comfortably get it done by the end of summer.  Some of you might say well I can read much quicker than that,  that is great I will have a fast track set up for you.

The name of the book is The Bible.  To be specific the New Testament.  What happened to some of your enthusiasm?  A few of you dropped the thought right as I mentioned the book.  That is why this is a challenge.  I really want to challenge all of you to try to get through the entire New Testament in the months of July and August.  It has no more pages than a great Novel.

I know that we can do this.  Over at Women's Fellowship House my Mom’s blog she actually challenged her readers to read it all in July.  I know my schedule and I know that yours is similar, so I decided that we would need the remainder of the Summer.  In addition for those of you seeking more, I am going to have a verse to memorize each week.  Nothing hard.

God’s Holy word is our connection to Him.  He is our creator and His only thought is Us.  Why is it so hard for us?  We need to pray before we begin that God will open the eyes of our heart so that we are able to understand His truth.

Lord,
Collectively we come to you and pray that you will open the eyes of our hearts that we may see all that you have for us in your precious and Holy word.  We pray that we will be blessed because of our willing hearts, even if we don’t understand a word we are reading at first.  Please bring us clarity and understanding over the remainder of this Summer while we are in your word daily.  We pray that you will also make memorizing your word easy for us and pray that it would become hidden in our hearts.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Starting July 1st I will post the verses to be read for the week and the memory verse as well.  I will be doing this right on alongside you.  If anything comes to you during your reading that you would like to share we can use either the comments section or click on my Community Button(Blog Frog) at the top of the page and click “see all” and then on the next page click “New Conversation”.  That will get you started once you are a member. 

Jeannie

Freezing Strawberries

We were blessed with beautiful strawberries.  My friend Melissa let us come and pick with her at her Mother-in-law’s giant strawberry patch.  Thank you Melissa and Wendy.

She gave me a great tip on Freezing them, that is so simple, but I had never thought of it, so I thought I would pass it on to you.  She told me to put them on a cookie sheet and freeze them individually, once frozen you can throw them into a ziplock bag.  I love this it is so great for smoothies and all sorts of things.  You can just pull out a handful instead of thawing the whole big clump.


Here they are in the ziplock in the freezer.  We froze 3 gallons sized bags that way and we are already down to two. 
Enjoy!!
Jeannie

Linky Thank You!!!

I want to send out a BIG Thank you to the sites that have sent me readers.  I always appreciate when I get an email that says “I came over here from so and so’s blog” or anything that lets me know that someone was referred by another site.


From this month on I am going to recognize the top three Linkys. 
The top three from the past month are:

Comfy in the Kitchen Featured our Peanut Butter Cake from a few weeks ago.  Thank you Comfy in the Kitchen.


I have always liked this blog.  I love the idea of it and all that I find there.


I join in weekly in their Homestead Barn Hop.  I don't have a big piece of land to completely homestead on, but I do all that I can with the yard that we do have.

Here are a few of the others:

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/

http://moneysavingmom.com/

womenlivingwell.org

http://womensfellowshiphouse.blogspot.com/

http://myturn-evelyn.blogspot.com/

newlifeonahomestead.com

 

Thank You

 

Jeannie

Making Those Moments

This year being our first year with one income, we don’t have extra cash for vacations, yet our big kids are growing and growing and we don’t have many years left with them under our roof. 

So, we decided to frequently have camp fires in our backyard to just sit around with each other and talk and goof off.

Here are a few of the highlights from one of our fires.  Picture all of this with a stereo playing (at a respectful volume) Christian pop and alternative.  My big kids find some of the coolest Christian music.



Bella and Jacob roasting their marshmellows


My beautiful Allie making faces.  She was preparing the fixins for the S’mores.


Were wanting for the fire Dad.



Big Man make Little fire!


My little man, such a goof.  In the back ground you can see our old fire pit.  I like the new one that Mike made.



The Fire.


Our good boy Max.



We really did have fun.  They were just concentrating on finally getting that fire going.  Mike just cut down two trees a few weeks ago and the wood is still a little wet.  So, once the fire got going so did our fun. 
Time with our kids is so important.  It makes them feel like they are important to us and allows them to feel free to open up and talk.  But we have to make the effort to make those moments and the memories.

Jeannie

Raspberry Leaf Tea

The other day I was looking around on other blogs and came across a post on Raspberry Leaf Tea.  I have Raspberry bushes in our yard, so my ears(o.k. my eyes) perked up. 



You can’t see the bushes very well in this picture above, but aren’t those dogs so cute, that is Max, our dog and our neighbor’s dog Winston.  The bushes are to the right of the dogs.   Also, above is a plate of dried leaves.

It really has many health benefits.  Especially for women.  Here are the benefits that Jacquiline over at DeepRootatHome.com listed:

Benefits of Red Raspberry Leaf taken internally:

~It strengthening the wall of the uterus and the entire female reproductive tract.

~Regulates a menstrual period and decreases heavy periods (Drink 2-3 cups per day. After 2-3 months you should obtain a regular cycle.)

~It works during all stages of pregnancy. Relieves morning sickness and nausea.

~Is used as a preventative for hemorrhage during labor. It assists labor, making for an easier delivery.

 Tones uterine muscle before, during, and after childbirth.

~It increases and builds milk for nursing your baby.

~It is good for stomach aches and bowel problems in children and diarrhea in babies.

~It is good for digestion, as an antacid, and for those with bloating and gas.

~Treating Acne: It can act as an astringent on irritated skin by tightening the top layers of skin which effectively reduces secretions, relieves irritation and improves tissue firmness.

~Can be used as a mouth wash to soothe canker sores, swollen gums, and throat irritations.

~It is effective in urinary tract infections.
I do have one disclaimer:  I don't remember the details but I do remember something about this tea possibly causing early labor for pregnant women.  To be safe just check in with your Doctor or Midwife before drinking it in pregnancy, especially before 36 weeks.

So, of course I went right out and picked some of the leaves from my bushes.  I first made a cup of tea with fresh leaves and then later with dried leaves.  Not to much difference,  I think I did like the fresh better but, you can’t have that all year long. 

 

I dried them in our dehydrator,  it only took about 15 minutes.  laying each leaf on the tray took long enough, I didn’t want to have to do it all again the next day, if I had air dried them. 

Now, each night I have a cup of Red raspberry leaf tea.  Hope you can find some.  They are growing wild in many places right now. Or you can find it at Mountainroseherbs.com  Happy hunting.
Jeannie

Going it alone

About a year ago my friend Melissa and I started thinking about this blog and what it would look like and be about.  Over this last year things have changed for both of us.  She went back to work and I stopped running my daycare of 10 years. 


It has always been my dream to write and blog and Melissa was interested in the blog world.  So, we got started.  Just about the time we started is when both of our lives changed course. 

As, I’m sure you have noticed, Melissa has not posted very much.  This is because of the path that God has set before her.  So, Melissa has asked that I make this blog a one woman show and go it alone.

I have to tell you that even though you all have not heard much from her, she has been a constant inspiration to me and to this blog.  I could not have started or continued if it weren’t for her.  I love her heart and her encouragement and I know that she will continue to give that as she always has.
 
Thank you to my Best Friend Melissa for all that you have done to lift me up and help me to fly.
Jeannie