Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture

I love to look back at old pics.  I was just browsing through my computer pics today.  There are so many I would like to share.  Here are just a few...

 

Kim, Dr. Tom Cocklereece & I the day Kim accepted Christ.  That's in a Baptist Church, so I really can't explain the background!

 

Random pic that came with the computer...pretty, huh?

 

Kim being baptized by Pastor Tom.  Same church as the first pic.  Looks like a Baptist church here!

 

IDK what to say...Just Kim.

Wedding day immediately after the ceremony.  I think that is relief on their faces.  What you can't see is that it is miserably cold in this room...like 50 degrees!

 

Revised caveman?

My two beautiful girls.  Makes me so happy!

RJ enjoying the reception food he worked hard to pay for.  He actually wore a tux during the wedding.  Boy, did he shed that quick.

 

Leah posing on Vacay in TN.  She poses a lot...you'll see...

Dollywood Vacation.  Kim wasn't behaving.

Leah posing at the fountain in Dollywood

IDK where we were, but this tells our whole sibling story!

Cherokee National Forest between Gatlinburg, TN and Cherokee, NC several years ago.  I can tell bc RJ has on that dreaded Stihl hat.  blah!

Me and the girls, same spot as above.

Camping.  That's all I've got!

Me and Dad, the Christmas before he passed.  Love this pic!

Kim, kissing on her first love!

Leah posing...what you can't see is that she is standing ON the seat of her four wheeler.

Leah and Nala (RIP) in the Georgia snow.

 

That's all for now.  I have work to do...see y'all later.  LYMI!

Sewers & Straight Jackets

We all have some things in our lives we just don't need and we need some things we just don't have.  Ever feel that way?

 

So, here's the thing.  We have this big ole hill of stinky stank going on in our lives right now.  I have been trying to make sense of it.  What I have found is that there just ain't no sense to be made.  So, I rely on my faith, read scripture and try to surround myself with good, God-loving people instead.  Mostly because that's what makes sense to me.

 

The Bible says the righteous should not sue one another.  It does, I promise...look it up.  It also says not to have dealings with the wicked.  (yep, look that one up too!)  Yet, sometimes we deal with the wicked and sometimes law suits are inevitable.  Sometimes, we find out the sheep was actually a wolf.  Sad, sad thang!

 

 

Y'all know I'm not a suer!  In fact, saying you're gonna sue me is akin to saying something ugly about my momma.  Don't go there, I promise!

 

So, here we are, right smack dab in the middle of a legal snaffu.  It ain't too much fun either, y'all.  In fact, sometimes it is down right overwhelming.

 

Here's where the word of God comes in again...God tells us that He will never give us too much to handle and He will always provide us with strength to get through whatever He gives us.  I believe that too, y'all.  Mostly because I know I wouldn't have made it this far into this suit without being placed in a straight jacket if it weren't for God's strength.

 

 

How far in are we, you ask?  Three years.  Yep, that's a mighty long time.  It has cost us a lot, financially, emotionally and mentally.  (I may need that straight jacket before it is done.)  At times, it has taken us to depths of despair I could never have imagined. 

 

Today, I read a facebook post on Joel Osteen's page that said "Don't dwell on the negative.  Program your mind with what God says about you and a transformation will take place."  I believe that too.

Our day in court is coming...soon.  I know in my heart of hearts (the blessed one, for you southern gals), that we are good, good, good people who got caught up in a mess with some other kind of people.  God promises to raise us above our enemies and to restore us.  I believe that too, y'all.  I am surely waiting, watching it and expecting. 

 

Turns out, I won't be needing the straight jacket after all.  I've got Jesus.  So, say whatever you want about me.  It don't mean a thang.  You can lie, call me names, defame my reputation, steal from me and try to ruin all that I have worked so hard for.  But you can't change the most important thing about me...I am who God says I am.  His.  Whom shall I fear?

Where You Been Girl?

My follower (don't laugh, I have ONE!), is requesting an update on the happenings in Juice Land and Pitty Patty's Pumpkin Patch.  Well, there just ain't much to report.  I just figure, since Barbie's world is all made up, surely Reality Barbie can make something up to pacify her.

RJ is a picky eater.  Why would I think juicing would be any different?  But what he doesn't know....well, it is gonna help him.  Asparagus, Beets, Carrots, Kale and such are big no-no's for him.  I don't care if you added two sticks of butter or battered those suckers up and deep fired them, he will smell them out and refuse to eat them like a two year old being fed peas.  However, if you are a sneaky thing like my kids have taught me to be, you can disguise asparagus, beet, carrot and kale juice to taste like apples and oranges.  The trick...yep, I'm gonna share my secret or confess my sin, whichever you prefer...is to add seven, count them, SEVEN drops of Stevia to 32oz of juice.  That boy drinks that juice, smacks his lips and asks for more.  MORE!!!  More Asparagus.  I never thought I'd hear that outta his mouth.  Actually, he doesn't know he's asking for Asparagus...that's what makes it so fun.

Our typical shake (though it varies with what groceries are in the house) consists of apples, beets, asparagus, carrots, sweet potato, grapes, spinach and if it needs it, oranges or grapefruits for disguising all of the above.  Oh, and stevia.  My sister-in-law said "You have to use greens of some kind in every shake.  Greens are important.  I mean, greens are what you need to juice.  You have to have greens.  I mean, greens are what you need to juice.  You have to add GREENS to your juice."  I think I got what she was trying to say.  Spinach anyone?  I sometimes use one or two leaves of kale (bc that's all I can stand), or swiss chard.  Is that the same thing as the greens growing out of the top of the beets?  Looks the same.  If not, I use that too...whatever it is.  Now you understand why the Stevia is such an important ingredient.  I hope RJ doesn't decide to see what I've been blogging about. :-0

Now, the garden on the other hand...it is a work not in progress.  I planted a slew of cooler weather seeds: kale, turnip greens, collards, turnips, lettuces, etc... Nothing germinated. NOTHING!  I'm guessing we didn't do something right.   It has been too wet to till it, but RJ finally got out there the other day to remove all of our rocks marking what we had planted and till.  So, I walked out there a few minutes ago and guess what I saw.  Yep, collard greens decided to come up.  Not where we planted them and only two plants.  But there they were, all perked up like they were reaching for the Heavens.  I'm guessing we will have them throughout the garden now.

Hopefully, this coming weekend will be a good one for us to finally get everything planted.  I have a plan.  Don't tell anybody.  Well, only one person follows this, so I'm pretty sure my blogged secret will be safe here.  My BFF is coming over to go to the Farmer's Market with me.  She is innocently unsuspecting of my devious plan.  But, a girl could always use some help in the garden.  So, I will cunningly rope her into helping us.  She probably won't mind because she enjoys the veggies we share with her.  But I am going to spring it on her so she doesn't have the opportunity to have "other plans."  Hey, what are BFF's for?

In closing, to my ONE follower, I use juicing to trick my husband like you trick your almost 2 year old to eat.  The garden is just a huge patch of dirt clods at the moment.  My cool weather green thumb must not have been fertilized.  AND, I am a sneaky little booger...get it from my dad, Elmer Fudd.

ba deep, ba deep, ba deep....That's All Folks!

Barbie's Juice Party with RJ

Since we took our juicer for a test run, we have had lots of discussion.  The WHOLE bunch of kale was too much.  It made us have nasty burps and well...  Let's just say RJ almost got kicked out of bed.  Shoo!  We all felt full and had energy all afternoon, but just felt like there is a way to make the juice taste and digest better.  RJ has told me serveral times that he thinks he is more of a fruit drinker.  This man doesn't eat fruit.  Then again, he doesn't eat kale or tomatoes either.  So, I started reading recipes to figure out how I was going to get him to drink the veggies as well as the fruit. 

I decided I was going to have to make 2 juices, mine and his. 

His:
1/2 C Spinach
3/4 Medium Grapefruit
2 Carrots
7 Strawberries
7 Blackberries
Paused for taste test:
Well, it was very tart from the grapefruit.  I shouldn't have used so much.  I will adjust that next time.  Plus, this made a huge amount of juice, enough for both of us.  I had to make this sweeter for him.
Added:
3 Yellow Apples

After tasting it again, I decided it was pretty good and poured his serving over ice.  He tasted it, really liked it and drank the whole cup!

Hers: (Not what I had planned, but considering all of the juice left from his, I had to adjust)
I took 8oz of His and added
2 Celery Stalks w/ Leaves
1/2 Cup Spinach
1 Carrot
7 Blackberries
7 Strawberries
1 Apple

Again, I had a massive amount of juice.

 

   

It was delicious too!  I drank a full glass and was so full.  I stored the rest in a glass for LML's snack.  We will let her be the final taste test judge.

This is the juice in front compared to the pulp on the left.  This thing extracts all the moisture!

 

 

This particular juicer works great and is very quite.  It does take a bit of clean-up though.  I think it takes about 10 minutes to break it all down, get the extra pulp out and clean all the pieces.  It is worth it though.

 

We officially start the juice fast tomorrow.  So, I gotta go...there's a donut in the kitchen calling my name. 

 

Enjoy the Juice!

LYMI!



 

 



 



Reality Barbie is on the Juice

Watch the movie "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and you'll be on a Juice too.  We watched, we researched juicers, we ordered ours, made a trip to the grocery store and here we are, planning our 7 day juice fast...

But wait, shouldn't we take this thing for a test spin to make sure...well, you know...that we can stand to drink it.  Better yet, that we know how to use this contraption.  Why, yes, we should.

Read the directions first...skipped this step.

Use a recipe...skipped this step too.

We learned a lot from just one juicing.

Bella Juicer Pro

 

In my excitement, I grabbed what I thought we needed for the juice.  KP and I assembled the juicer, turned that sucker on and became juice pros (not so much).  We decided we should juice for all three of us at once.  When doing so, you must make sure you have sufficient tools to catch all of that juice.   We learn quick.

 

Pulp

 

 

We have heard that Kale is a great base for a really healthy juice, so I put in a bunch of it...a WHOLE bunch.  I thought it was a small bunch at the grocery store.  I almost bought two just in case.  Then we added 4 tomatoes.  We stopped briefly to unstop the pulp output.  Then we continued with apples, juicing a little bit on the counter because we had moved our juice catcher...ok, it was a lot.  Next was the oranges.  We poured all of this into a huge bowl as we went because the juice  catcher wasn't big enough for all of the stuff we put through it.  Then we stirred it up, added a small amount of kosher salt and divided it into three  cups.

 

Ok, I'm gonna be honest.  It wasn't delicious.  But it wasn't terrible either.  Having read some of the recipes on www.juicingwithjoe.com, I realize that I went just a smidge overboard with the kale.  That small bunch we bought is now looking like a lot of kale. 

 

Big Green Bowl

 

My empty cup...forgot to take a pic of the juice

 

RJ "enjoying" his juice

 

KP and RJ both drank all of theirs and said it tasted like a salad turned into juice.  I guess that's not too bad.  I think he may have added a few grays to that beard just trying it.  I was proud of him.

 

This is the list of items the newbies used for the first juice...we will be more efficient from now on:

 

Kale

4 Tomatoes

2 Oranges

4 Apples

Sea Salt

Water

2 Qt jars

Colander

Big Green Bowl

Funnel

Scraper

3 Cups

Juicer and all of it's parts

 

Whew!

 

So, there is a learning curve to juicing.  I think we made most of our mistakes in the first try.  Despite that, we have decided we are starting a 7 day juice fast tomorrow.  I am looking forward to it.  I hope we do so well on it that we continue well past the 7 days.

 

Here's to the Juice!

 

LYMI!

 

 

 

Just One More Bite...

That's a cute kitchen, right? I didn't play with Barbies as a child, but I am sure many children have had a great time playing with Barbie and her plastic, tasteless sticker food. I, on the other hand, have a blast with REAL food. I am quite comfortable in the kitchen. I am confident that my abilities in the kitchen have added more reality to this Barbie. What? I ain't ashamed! Check it out...you won't be either.

 

 

Salmon (no silent "L") Hush puppies I cooked last night.  Yummy!

 

The finished meal... Salmon Hush puppies, Sauteed Spinach and Smashed Butternut Squash.

 

 

Homemade Biscuits just like Momma used to make!

 

Buttered and topped with Homemade ORGANIC Apple Butter.

 

 

Beef Stew I made from left over Rump Roast, Rice, Gravy, Stock and a bunch of veggies.  Best I ever made too.

 

One of my healthier meals...Fried Basmati Rice w/ Organic Eggs, Spinach and Stewed Cabbage.

 

I can see this is going to take more than one blog...

 

One of my family's favorites!  Meatloaf (without any gross chunks or whole boiled eggs...that is nasty) atop buttery smashed taters and stewed cabbage.  Mmmm Mmmm Good!

 

Fried Pork Chops with Creamed Spinach and Lima Beans.  All southern cooks must know how to cook some variation of this meal before saying the can cook!

 

Other Southern Staples:

Potato Salad

Potato Candy

Coconut Pies

Spaghetti...yes, southern women know how to throw down some spaghetti.

 

 

I love to cook healthy meals too.  In fact, the healthier, the better.  Cooking with all Organic ingredients is fun and makes me feel like I have done well for myself and my family when I serve it up.  I haven't had any of these healthy meals thrown back at me, so I'm thinking the family has enjoyed them...or they endured them,which I can't believe.  They are quite vocal about what they like and what they don't.  If you sat through one meal, home cooked or at a restaurant, you would think I have a family of food critics taking notes for their next column in the newspaper.  It does challenge me!

 

Here's to the healthy stuffs...Three variations of the Stir Fry Vegies I make.  I start with coconut oil, onions, garlic, grape tomatoes and basmati rice.  From there, I use a plethora of veggies...whatever I have a hankering to cook, or what is in the fridge.  I use it all.  It always turns out balish...I use sea salt, black pepper and vary my spices.

 

Did I mention that I often eat this for breakfast as well.  I crave it and could eat it for all three meals.

 

That is all for now...I will post more food pics later as this blog has gotten quite long.  I do have recipes for all of these dishes...and I don't mind sharing.

 

BTW, did I mention that these:

Were fried in COCONUT OIL!  SOOOO good for you.  If you don't know about it's benefits yet, please google it.  You will love it!

 

 

 

BARBIE, EAT YOUR HEART OUT...NONE OF MY FOOD IS PLASTIC, FAKE OR STICKERS.  :-)

 

 God bless you with fantastic meals on the table and awesome, sexy cooks in the kitchen.  Don't forget to tell RJ just how blessed he is!!!!

 

LYMI!  K, Bye...