Adventures in Dehydrating

My mom found me an Excalibur Dehydrator at a garage sale last year for $10. It's an old one and only has five trays but it works.

And this year I am discovering how lovely it really is.

I dehydrated a few trays of apples and pears last year and we really enjoyed them but I wasn't fanatical about it.

I'm afraid I might become fanatical this year.

I have 3 1/2 quarts of dried blueberries.


Apparently you're suppose to blanch blueberries first to break the skins so they dry better, but I didn't know this when I started, so I just threw them on the trays. They turned out just fine. Some of the skins are papery and flake right off, but it hasn't made a huge difference to us in texture or taste.

And this lovely, very little jar is powdered spinach. An entire dehydrator's worth of spinach rubbed through a mesh strainer. I've since dried another 5 trays and so the jar is almost halfway full! : )
I have plans for adding this to smoothies this winter. And the other day we added it to tuna fish, no one really knew it was there but they were all eating their spinach!

Actually, it's not a fight to get my kids to eat fresh spinach we just couldn't get through all of the greens from our CSA so thought I'd dehydrate it so as not to waste. Oh...and there are powdered beet greens in there as well now. We're not huge fans of anything beet, but the dried greens hardly have any taste at all.

Right now the dehydrator is full of zucchini and I have plans of drying many more apples and pears this year.

I think eventually I'll save up for a larger dehydrator.

Memory Lane

Sunday night I shared "The Story of Gomer" at my dad's church. And the night before that I shared it at Machias Community Church in Snohomish, WA.

Both performances were a little surreal but yet really fun.

You see, Machias is where we lived from the time I was 3 until just before my 6th grade year when we moved to Whidbey Island.

We came up to my parent's house on Friday night and then on Saturday my dad and I drove over to Machias so I could perform there. We drove by our old house and then drove to the church, down the road where I could still remember the turns and still recognize so many houses even though so much has changed. We drove to the church where I remember running through the isles, playing on the stage, taking the "secret" stairs behind the baptismal down to the basement. I was baptized there. I remember singing in Steven Curtis Chapman songs in kid's choir. Awana and Sunday School, so many things that just kept flooding back. I remember exactly where I stood one Sunday when I told my dad that I was going to Grace's house after church and then going and getting in trouble later because my dad had assumed that I had already gotten permission from my mom and then was surprised that my mom didn't know where I was when they got home.

And it was odd and neat at the same time to stand in front of this same church, with familiar faces in the audience (faces that if I saw them in a crowd I would probably stare for awhile and think, "I think I know them" but not be able to put a name to a face, though that face is dear) to share the story of God's amazing love, through the story of Gomer.

Someone came up to me later and laughed when I said "Hi" back. He said it was the first time that I'd ever returned his greeting. When I was little I would hide my face in my dad's pant leg or my mom's skirt whenever he said hi.

And then last night, at the Chapel, in front of a few more familiar faces who knew me through my middle and high school days, I got to share the story again.

It was a lot of memories in 2 days and that's not a bad thing. It was really really special.

I feel so blessed to do what I love and hopefully be used of God to share the truth of His redeeming love.

Garden Woes

I am tempted to plow my entire garden under and call it a year.

The slugs are back and have eaten most of my squash, zucchini and pumpkin plants.

And this year I have buttercups.

Apparently according to many Google searches on the subject (I typed in "buttercups mean my soil is..." and got lots of good results, I love Google) my soil is very acidic and not only do the buttercups creep and spread quickly they are not a useful herb and they rob the soil of nutrients.

Oh joy.

So now I am contemplating the direction to head in helping the soil along. I am not a learn-ed gardener by any means, I putter around, so any help in a natural and organic way of balancing my soil and adding some nutrients back in would be helpful.

The only reason I haven't resorted to plowing the whole thing under is that in spite of all my garden's maladies it is producing something, which I've been told is better than nothing at all.

Oh garden bounty, beauty is thy name.

Not exactly bounty, but we'll get there, eventually.

I'm planning on planting tons of carrots next year. I love the surprise of pulling a carrot and seeing how big or small it is.

It's the simple things really.

God's Good Grace

This past weekend I had the amazing opportunity to perform "The Story of Gomer" three times at Hauser Community Church in North Bend, Oregon. I performed it for all three of their services, one on Saturday night and two on Sunday morning. I pray that the story will be used of God to remind or to tell people of His love for them and of his amazing forgiveness.

I have a feeling "someone" didn't want the story told. Friday morning before we left I woke up with a very pink, goopy left eye. After a week of leading games at VBS (where we also had a momentary unidentifiable rash scare), who knows where I caught it. I made up some chaparral/comfrey eye wash and prayed for healing. We left after Erik's doctor's appointment on Friday morning and I put drops in my eyes every two hours (and prayed) the whole way down to North Bend. Saturday I did the same while we were out and about playing tourists (neither Erik nor I had ever been that far south on Hwy 101 before). Saturday night my eyes were clear and I was able to wear my contacts and the performance went well. I even wore an over the ear microphone for the first time! That was actually quite fun and not as scary as I was anticipating.

Sunday morning my eyes stayed clear and the first performance went well. Second performance (technically third of the weekend) about half way through the tiredness suddenly hit me. (This was also my first time performing this story three times in short succession.) I never realize how much energy a performance takes until suddenly I just feel too tired and almost nauseated to go on. It's also amazing to me what can run through my brain while I'm on stage performing. Sunday second service it was this, "Dear God, I can't do this. I can't go on. But I can't just run off stage and not finish the story, Lord this must be in your strength, because I have nothing left to give." And do you know what? He gave the strength. The story was told, and told well. The message of God's redeeming love and amazing forgiveness touched many hearts because God is faithful to equip where he calls.

And the story of God's provision and protection on this journey does not end there. On our way home yesterday as we were coming into Tillamook, Erik asked if we could stop and get the tires on our van rotated at Les Schwab. I said, "Oh sure, I guess." They took one look at our almost completely tread-bare front tire and wondered that we didn't have a blow out or a flat. So even though we are now in the market for at least two new tires and we need an alignment done on the van, WE MADE IT SAFELY HOME. By God's good grace we made it safely home.

Projects, Projects and More Projects

Two Sundays ago Erik hurt his back during a water rescue drill with the fire dept. Thankfully it wasn't a bad injury and he got to spend a week at home with us.
Can I tell you how amazing this was?
It was so much fun to have him home, not only did we get to hang out with him (which was the best part) but I've gotten to finish some of my really long project list.
I "built" a screen out of PVC pipe and then sewed and painted curtains for it. It's to take with me when I travel with "The Story of Gomer". I needed something light and fairly easy to take apart and put together. I used a painter's canvas drop cloth for the curtains; very inexpensive and easy to paint. I think I like how it turned out.


Don't mind the messy house surrounding the screen, I hadn't gotten to that yet...

I also got our bedroom deep cleaned and re-arranged.

Put a new zipper in a dress who's zipper has been broken for 4 years. Finished another dress. Finished an apron.

Moved the bookshelf from my closet to the girls' room.

Cleaned out 5 boxes of stuff from the boys closet, making room for some and adding some to the Goodwill pile.

Hung a few shelves and pictures that have been languishing in my craft closet.

And...

...cleaned out my craft closet!

And yes, amidst the many things I've gotten done we did actually get to hang out with Erik.

The things on my list, individually don't take very much time but the nature of them distract from keeping an eye on certain children that know how to open doors and escape. It's been nice to have an extra pair of eyes and hands around.

It feels good to get things done!

And Erik headed back to work today.

We missed him!

I Might Be Crazy

I just might be crazy.

And I'm just going to come right out and tell you why:

I'm not going to buy any clothing for myself for one whole year.

This might not seem crazy to some, and some will think I'm off my rocker completely, no doubt about it. But it's something I need to do.

I have a closet full of clothing. I have a dresser full of clothing and I simply do not need anymore. I love goodwill and I love thrift stores, I love finding deals. I have a weakness for wool skirts, sweaters and dresses. But too many deals can really drain the wallet quickly and so I'm quitting for one year.

Starting today.

Now this does not mean that I will not make myself clothing. But the rule is I cannot buy fabric or patterns for that purpose, I must use what I already have. I may buy thread or zippers to make said clothing but that is it. This doesn't mean I can't accept hand-me-downs or gifts. I'll still gladly take those; it means no cash will exchange hands for my clothing until July 9, 2012.

I will make do or do without.

I could have said a month. Or 4 months or 6 months. But no...I'm going cold turkey and I'm going extreme.

And I need to tell you. Because if this was just a goal in my head I could change the starting date, I could justify. I could ...gasp....lie to myself.

I'll update you on how this goes. I'm a little scared.

Wish me luck!

Little Bit of This and That

In the process of moving dirt (yep, still doing that), and playing outdoors and enjoying the summer that has finally started, I have missed sharing with you some very important dates.

June 21:

Erik and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary. Sorry, I have no pictures. Our "celebration" consisted of saying "Happy Anniversary" and me leaving a great card I found at Fred Meyer the day before on Erik's pillow.

June 25: My 10 - year high school reunion up on Whidbey Island. Alas, I did not take pictures. I could probably go steal some from FB but I"m not going to. Suffice to say it was really fun and I enjoyed seeing people I haven't seen in 10 years.

June 28:

Hannah turned 7!
My little girl is getting bigger, oh me, oh my. This year she wanted cupcakes (yay!) which made it super easy on me. And luckily Aunt Mindy came down to celebrate so there where seven of us, which made one candle per cupcake. I like when things work out like that.



July 1-2
Erik's parents and sister came to visit. The girls garage-saled in the morning and then Erik and his dad worked on attaching a $5 garage sale slide to our porch.


The kids love it! (And don't worry, we've built up the dirt around the bottom a little more). Mostly we used the dirt that I dug out of our new fire pit:


I dug a big hole, put down a layer of rock, lined it with cinder blocks and then at ground level surrounded it with really cool river rocks that all came out of the free fill dirt we got.

July 3-4

We broke in our new fire pit by roasting hotdogs over a fire and then after the kids were in bed we invited our neighbors over for s'mores.


We did get to ride in the fire truck for the parade, but I didn't get pictures. And then the kids all went to bed and missed all the fireworks. Our really great babysitters came over and "watched" the kids (sat at the house while they slept) and my sister Mindy and I were able to go sit on the fire truck with Erik and watch the fireworks. The firetruck is right behind where they light them off from, it's probably the best seat "in the house". Maybe next year I'll work up the courage to wrangle all four kids in the crowd by myself so the kids can see the big fireworks but this year they enjoyed 3 days of little fireworks. Once with Grammy and Grandpa, once with the neighbor girls across the street and once with the boy next door; I don't think they felt deprived.

Tonight T-ball starts.

Whew...I think that's all.