Home Home on the Range...

Where the deer & the antelope play...

This herd lives in the foothills just a few miles from our house. They come out onto the fields to graze & pose for a photo every now & then.

(some day I will have a super duper fabulous near enough to see the flea on a dogs back tele-photo lens but alas not yet. So squint a little...)

Blessings.

Roses are Red Violets are Blue...

Happy Hearts Day!

We had a yummy heart healthy breakfast & enjoyed the beautiful (if unseasonable) weather with some tree climbing & squirrel shooting.

We considered going out for a romantic dinner but being as it's Valentines Day and a Saturday it just sounded...not fun.

So we stayed in, had a nice roast & now we are watching....you ready for it?

Beauty and the Beast.

Yep. That's us. Party animals to. the. core.

Our Valentine table.

Heart bacon. Heart eggs. And heart pancakes. Notice the theme? Hmmmm?

NJ claims that is a smile...

After breakfast we climbed some trees...

And shot some squirrels. DIE! Commie squirrel! DIE!

And one sweet little princess who just needed her daddy...

We also went to the dump but I didn't take any pictures of that...

Remember:

We love Him, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19

Blessings.

An Ode to Coconut Oil

Years ago when I was first introduced to Coconut Oil I was skeptical.

 I am not a fan of coconut.

Not fresh. Not milk. Not shredded. Not nothing. Coconut is ...gross.

Especially the shredded stuff people cook with. It's really chewy. And...gaggy.

<<shudder>>

I digress.

So I first started using coconut oil for non-food uses.

I made GOOT.

 I used it for sun screen. (it is the best sunscreen!)

Used it as a moisturizer.

Then I read about using it for frying.

I was hesitant because what if it made my food taste like ...well, coconut? <<shudder>>

So I was still using the totally gross & unhealthy hydrogenated oils like corn, safflower & canola.

Which I knew were unhealthy & yucky & gross but change is hard!

First we used it to make popcorn. Oh my! So good! (and not coconutty!)

Then I finally worked up the nerve to fry potatoes in coconut oil & guess what?

They came out awesome NOT coconutty at all!

Wow! Who knew? (okay so everybody knew but I'm a little slow sometimes okay?)

So we started frying with it & were pleased ~ although honestly bacon grease is the best for frying :)

But I was still using the evil hydrogenated oils for baking because well...what if my cookies came out tasting like coconut ((gag)).

A few months ago I was making cupcakes & we had no evil hydrogenated oils so I was sort of forced to use coconut oil...

And you know what?

Those were quite possibly the best cupcakes ever. People actually got into physical altercations over those cupcakes. No lie!

So then I tried it in cookies & in cakes & in quick breads & in muffins & you know what?

Coconut oil makes everything delicious!

And moist. Like really moist.

And NOT coconuttty!

Hallelujah!

The moral of this story is that you have absolutely  NO reason to continue to feed your family evil hydrogenated oils.

Use coconut oil in a 1/1 ratio instead of cooking oil or shortening & your recipes will come out delicious, moist, & best of all NOT coconutty!

And so much healthier!

See? Now everybody is happy!

(except the guys who sell the evil hydrogenated oils but eventually they will see the light...)

Blessings!

Six

We had our first birthday of the year & we had lots of exciting plans but our bub had a horrid cold & was feeling his worst so we watched Captain America & called it good.

See how sad he was? with his burning watery eyes...

He perked up a little for presents but not too much.

He wanted pajama pants with puppies on them so I found some flannel & fleece that was right up his alley.

I also crocheted him a scarf & had just enough fleece left over to make him a pair of mittens (the mitten picture was out of focus so you'll just have to use your imagination)

He's not a big cake eater (actually he doesn't eat much of anything...)

so we made chocolate cookies & used a bunch of our super cool cookie cutters... we had bears & dinos & moose & foxes & squirrels & elephants...

Being sick for your birthday is the pits but he muscled thru it :)

Blessings.

Portuguese Heritage Day

Years ago, when my parents first found out that my husband was Portuguese, they asked him if he ate goats.

It was kind of a joke to them & having never considered eating goat meat he was appalled.

The funny thing is, for the last 10 years or so, we have raised & butchered meat goats and we eat them.

And better than that, goat meat is yummy.

And no goat (which technically is called chevon) does not taste anything like lamb. Nothing. 

It's way less greasy than lamb & in fact is most similar to beef.

We use it interchangeably with beef in our cooking.

And because of my parents we always joke that it is part of our Portuguese Heritage so the other day when we hacked up, I mean "professionally cut & wrapped" 2 young goats on our kitchen table we decided it was "Portuguese Heritage Day" ... so of course we took pictures...

Leg o' goat anyone?

The family that butchers together stays together...

 For a hard days hacking & grinding we ended up with 50 lbs of ground meat.

Yummy.

Blessings.

Early Morning Mourning

I woke up too early & couldn't fall back asleep. So I go up & started working on some birthday surprises for my youngest.

My early morning musings led me to these thoughts:

For people who  have 1 or 2 children & have them close together, their years of active parenting of the whole "family" gig are so short.

Of course they are always parents & they always are family. I mean those years with littles, of reading bedtime stories & holding them on your lap & making everything better with a popcicle...

If you have 2 children, bam boom, in 20 years it's all over. They are grown.

Wow.

I have been doing the parenting thing for 26 years now. My youngest will be 6 in 2 weeks (hence the sad reflection) 

And I am in mourning. I am sad that I have no more babies. I am sad that I only have just a few more precious years of bedtime stories & stuffed animals & puppy pants & Lincoln Logs.

I love my big kids & yes it is so nice that they are independent beings but at heart I am a mommy & I love to be needed.

I love being able to make somebodies whole birthday just by sewing them up a pair of fleece pants with puppies on them.

That just doesn't really happen once they hit their 20's...

So I guess maybe the moral of the story is ~ don't let it pass you by.

Don't be so busy or so tired or so distracted that you miss it. Because it's gone so fast.

Yes it's so hard to be a mommy to little ones who need you constantly & all you really want is to go to the bathroom alone...

But in reality you will have a whole lifetime to go to the bathroom alone & those fingers under the door or constant knocking & someone saying 'mom'... it will gone in just a short while.

Love your babies. Hold them .Read to them. Let them wreck the living room with a fort or 6,349 Legos. Your house will be clean & clutter free for years when they are grown.

Put down your phone or your computer or your ipad or whatever box you have & go love on your kids. Do something messy & annoying & time consuming JUST  because they want to.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to climb into bed with one of my kids & poke at them until they wake up & need me...


Blessings.

Guns & Ammo aka Christmas 2014

My inlaws & nephew came up a few days before Christmas for some skeet shooting & present opening.

It was a beautiful day & we had loads of fun.

Yes, all boys wear camo. All the time.

Shooting lessons for little boys.

So, the boys are cute & all but just look at this view

I live in the most beautiful place...

Ooo! Time for presents!

Ammo is a very popular gift around here (go figure).

Merry Christmas blessings!