The Adventures of the Reese's Pieces Gang

One challenge I have found during our transition to a nourishing lifestyle is that of having snacks on hand for the kids to grab quick. Fruit is GREAT! However, my kids go through it faster than I am able to shop. Today I'm sharing a couple recipes that don't necessarily meat the qualifications of the Nourishing Traditions style of cooking but they are a much better snack than what you get buying granola bars from the store. I found this recipe when I was on a quest for a healthy granola bar for my children that did NOT have High Fructose Corn Syrup. I make these 2 times a month and we've taken them to "pot luck" type activities where they have been a huge hit! They are GREAT for camping, hiking, and sack lunches. Enjoy!

Homemade Granola

4 cups oats NOT quick. Use old fashioned, rolled or thick cut oats.
2 cups nuts (I use a combination of raw almond-sliced or chopped, pecan, peanut, cashew, etc.)
1/4 cup sesame
1 c non sweetened coconut flakes
1/4 c wheat germ (I use 1/4 cup of my freshly ground flour)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup Virgin Coconut Oil (you can use sunflower or safflower if you are not yet a convert to Nourishing oils. Do NOT use olive oil, it has too strong of a flavor)
1 cup Honey (you can add a little mor honey if you like it a bit sweeter)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup other dried fruit

Cooks note: In my opinion this recipe needs a little cinnamon. However, my family are not real cinnamon fans so I haven't added it yet. If you enjoy cinnamon and plan to add dried apples, you'd want to add 1 tsp cinnamon to the granola mix before baking.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl until mixed well. Divide the mixture between 2 Large Stoneware Bar Pans or Jelly Roll Pans. Cook in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes. Be sure to stir the granola every 10 minutes in order to allow for even browning. Remove from the oven and pour onto parchment or wax paper. Add raisins and other dry fruit if you want to. Allow to cool completely then break it up and store it in an air tight container. We love sprinkling a tablespoon or 2 onto our yogurt or yogurt/fruit bowls.


Chewy Granola Bars
Recipe courtesy Family Circle Magazine
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar (I use sucanat)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3 cups granola (see recipe above)
1/2 cup coconut (the recipe calls for sweetened, I use unsweetened and works great)
1/2 cup golden or regular raising (I leave these out because my family does not like raisins, instead I'll add another 1/2 cup of raw nuts: pecans, peanuts, or cashews)
3/4 cup chocolate chips or carob chips
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds

1. Combine sugar, honey, vanilla and butter in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 2 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved. Allow mixture to cool for a couple minutes.

2. Meanwhile combine granola, coconut, raisins, 1/2 cup chocolate chips and almonds in a large bowl.

3. Stir brown sugar mixture into the granola mixture. Spread into a 13 X 9 baking pan. Press the remaining chocolate chips into the top. Refrigerate 2 hours or until completely cooled. Allow to sit at room temp for 15 minutes before cutting into bars.

Cooks note: If you double the recipe you can spread it into a Stoneware Bar Pan or Jelly Roll Pan.

Today I want to focus on many blessings that the Lord has been showering upon our family and me personally. I'll start with some general blessings then expound on some spiritual blessings and lessons that the Lord has been teaching me.

On Saturday, I was able to pick up a little over 6 gallons of raw milk and 1 1/2 gallons of cream from pastured cows. My picture today is of the final stages of the butter making process. We allow the cream to sit out for most the day then we take turns shaking it until the butter separates from the buttermilk. In this picture you'll see my almost gallon of buttermilk which will be used for biscuits, pancakes, and bread this week, two 1/2 cup portions of butter, and the blob of butter that needed to be put into 1/2 cup servings. I use my Measure-All cup to pack the butter into while squeezing out as much buttermilk as I can. I then wrap my 1/2 cup blob's in saran wrap, write the date on them with a sharpie marker, then put them into a zipper type freezer bag. These last months in the freezer. I pull them out for fresh use or for baking. This blob of butter ended up giving me 6 cups of organic raw butter. That is equal to about $13-21 dollars since most organic butter sells for $5-$7 per pound. The milk and butter are a huge blessing! Plus I had the opportunity to spend a couple hours visiting with my friend who milks the cows!

When we left the "farm" with our car loaded with milk & cream we headed to another friends house who had some canning jars for me. As we brought the cases down from her attic I was overwhelmed with excitement to find that she was giving me 14 cases of jars, most of them 2 qt PLUS a box of lids and seals! A brand new case of jars runs for around $15. Once again the Lord showered us with goods that will meet our families needs!

I've also been blessed with fresh farm eggs for FREE the past few weeks which has been wonderful! My friend with the chickens also has ducks, geese & turkey's. She has given us goose eggs on more than one occassion which are Samuels favorite eggs to use for his omelet!

A few days ago I was able to meet my new pastors wife via email. We've been corresponding about the move, the church, and other things. I found out that the week we will be moving to New Holstein is the week of our new churches Vacation Bible School. I'm so excited that the kids will be able to get to know the children from our new church right away! God is so good!!

Yesterday Elizabeth and I went to our churches Mother Daughter Brunch. My heart was blessed by the message which I will write more about at the end of this post. Then we went into "town" for our trip to get the milk, canning jars, groceries, and lumber for another chicken pen. While we were shopping I decided to look at some tops and skirts. I desperately needed some clothes that weren't too tight or too big. I've only lost about 28 pounds so many of my shirts are still snug. I know tight fitting shirts are the "popular" style. However, I do NOT feel that they are modest nor do they honor the Lord or my husband. So as Elizabeth and I were looking at shirts I noticed a clearance rack. I usually NEVER find clothes for myself on a clearance rack. There were some REALLY cute reversible skirts that I decided to try on. Not only did they fit but I was also able to find a top to match each on. Because the skirts are reversible I got 6 new church outfits for just $42. It was so nice to wear something that wasn't horribly baggie and frumpy to church today. PLUS I found new tops to wear with my favorite Capri's. Now I'm all set as far as my wardrobe goes for Camp and the summer in general.

The Lord has been teaching me a lot this week about my attitudes regarding my home, packing, scheduling my days, and discipling the children. Yesterday at the ladies brunch one of my dear friends spoke on the impact studying Mary & Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, has impacted her life over this past year and a half. I found her challenge to be very applicable and convicting to the internal struggles I find myself facing these days. I have a tendency to be very "Martha" with my days, I'm often in a rush going from this to that, praying on a whim, reading scripture rushed, listening to the Christian radio with only a portion of my attention, all of which tends to leave me feeling frustrated and STRESSED! The speaker pointed out that it wasn't what Martha was doing that was wrong but that she was "cumbered about" or consumed with and stressed about so many things that she wasn't willing to listen to or be taught by Christ. That little statement hit me between the eye's like the rock that struck Goliath. I realized that I have been cumbered about rather than casting all my cares upon Him who cares for me. I have been doing the good things rather than seeking to live for the Greatest Master. I had to ask God to forgive me once again for my selfishness and lack of willingness to just trust God with each day and all that it entails.

I can honestly say that after yielding my fears and expectations about these next few weeks to the Lord that I am at peace about everything that needs to be done. I have renewed my commitment to seek to walk faithfully, communing daily with the Lord and teaching my children how to walk in His grace day by day. I pray that our busy weeks will be a time that we will reflect back on and be able to see many things that God taught us and ways in which He was magnified through this time of pressure.

Today it hit me that I have just 19 days left to get this entire house packed up. AHHHH!! We aren't moving until June 16 BUT my last day to pack is June 4th. We leave for the new house on June 5th to paint and work in the garden through the 8th. After going to our new church in Kiel that morning we will head back up here to do laundry and pack for Northland Mission Camp's Family Camp. We register for Camp Monday afternoon and will be there through Saturday morning. Then back to the Pembine house for laundry and the final preparations for the move on Monday the 16th. In all reality I only see about 12 days that I will be able to be busy packing because of various events: school, Thomas's Birthday, Thomas's WEAP appt in Green Bay, and weekends with the Family. This Saturday is the Mother Daughter Banquet at our church, next Saturday it Thomas's birthday for which we have planned on going to a hotel to swim for a few hours then have a picnic party. Yikes, I was stressed when I figured out that I only had 19 days, now after thinking through the schedule I'm REALLY STRESSED!!! Anyone wanna come help?! I know the Lord will give me the strength to get it all done!

Today I packed 10 boxes up from my office , organized & labeled all the boxes I packed this past summer and packed up all the canning jars that have been given to me. Now that I have the garage organized I feel very free to continue packing and just move the boxes out there so we can still have somewhat of an orderly home during the packing process. This picture shows all the boxes that needed to be labeled so they'll make it to the correct room at the new house, plus the 10 boxes I packed today.

I had one VERY gross find for the day. While packing my canning jars into boxes with lids I found a jar that had what I thought was a mouse nest. In the same box there was a jar with some icky smelling water. When I dumped the jar I noticed the partially decomposed body of a little mouse. YUCK!! I quickly covered up then had to explain to Philip why the mouse was dead and why he couldn't touch it. EWWWW!

After working from 9-5 on packing I came in to clean up the "packing" mess in the kitchen. You know the leftover stuff from the sorting, organizing, pitching process. Then finished off my pizza crust and made our pizza for tonight. I used Lindsay's recipe from Passionate Homemaking which was posted on Nourishing Gormet. It is a soaked pizza crust recipe and it smells and looks WONDERFUL! I didn't finish this post before the pizza was done, so we have sampled the crust now and it tastes GREAT!! Much better than my attempt at a soaked crust the past 4 weeks. Here is the link for the recipe: Lindsay's Pizza Crust Recipe

Phil has been working hard this week fencing in the garden and planting the broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, red onions, Brussels sprout and butter crunch lettuce all from plants that we started inside in late March/early April. I'm so thankful that he has been willing to work so hard to get our garden ready and planted. It has been a LOT of work, especially since he is putting in a full day of work then driving 20 minutes to get there so he can work until dark each night. I'll have to see if I can get him to take a camera down next week and take a picture of our garden so I can show it to you. You've probably noticed that I've finally learned how to post pictures! :-) I haven't figured out how to post more than one picture and have it look right but I'm learning!

Well, I'm off to clean up the kitchen, clean up our room and get beautiful because my sweet hubby is coming home tonight! :-)

One of my favorite home school resources are having a SALE until May 20. I purchased their Busy Bible for Nathan for his 3rd birthday. He is only allowed to "read" it during church services. It is absolutely wonderful, handcrafted and worth the expense! I also bought him their alphabet chart that has a stuffed animal for each letter of the alphabet. We'll be using it for the home school room next year. Their proverbs series is VERY good!

Take advantage of this sale and have some fun shopping for the summer or next school year! Below I pasted part of the email I received about the sale.

Visit: https://www.thelearningparent.com/default.asp

Welcome to the Learning Parent
"Create Your Own" Clearance Sale!

Take 25% Off Everything on Our Website!

(Applies to orders of $50 or more – until May 20, 2008. Use Code SALE.)

Exciting things are happening at The Learning Parent!
We're in the process of creating some awesome teaching materials that will make your home schooling much easier and enrich the lives of your children.

In addition, we're discovering more and more wonderful resources for our children and we want to share them with you! In order to make room for these great new products, we simply must clear some shelves!

So ... until May 20th, 2008, we are giving you the chance to create your own clearance sale! That's right, take a whopping 25% off the price of any product or products on our website on your order of $50 or more! Save big on everything! Following are samples of our inventory of hundreds of items.

Thirteen years ago today I walked down the isle nervous yet anxiously anticipating what it would be like to be Mrs. Philip Reese. These past years have exceeded my expectations and have been a dream come true. Phil, thank you for 13 wonderful years! You are still the love of my life and my very best earthly friend. Thank you for loving me so patiently and faithfully. You are a wonderful father. I enjoy watching you play with our children while constantly seeking to point them to Christ and His ability to meet every need they have. Thank you for taking such good care of me and the kids, for not only meeting our physical needs but for consistently guiding our family spiritually. I am so thankful that the Lord has given you to me. Your passion for Christ overflows in the way you daily express your love to me and the children. I'm so thankful that you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind and seek to serve him daily. I look forward to many more years by your side learning how to best meet your needs. I love you!

Since we are not able to be together today I wanted everyone to know how blessed I am to have you for my husband.

Happy Anniversary My Love!

My first try at cheese looks GREAT! Sam is holding it on the cutting board in the picture. He tried some this morning on his Farm Fresh Goose Egg Omelet and said it tasted really good. It is supposed to sit out on the counter for a couple days to dry then be waxed and stored for a month to age. I highly doubt it will make it to that stage since we have been without cheese for a few weeks now and the kids are anxious to try it. Thankfully I have a friend who is able to share about 10-15 gallons of farm fresh milk with me this weekend, as well as more next week. I will plan on making at least 3-4 2 pound rounds of cheese with some of this milk. It takes 2 gallons of milk to make approximately 2 pounds of cheese. Since I know I'm going to be getting extra milk over these next couple weeks I will probably let the kids eat this first block of cheese as a snack and on our soup tomorrow.

I made some whole wheat/spelt bread last night too with over 70% of the grain soaked in Whey for 24 hours. The bread looks and smells WONDERFUL! This is a nice transition bread recipe for the beginner soaker like myself. I hope to get to the point where I am confident soaking almost all the grains for baking. Here is the recipe that I used:

Soaked Grain Whole Wheat/Spelt Bread
7 1/2 - 8 cups Freshly Ground Hard Red Wheat and/or Spelt Flour (I used 4 wheat & 3-4 spelt)
3 tsp Yeast
1/4 cup water
2 cups plus 3 oz Whey or buttermilk
1/2 cup sucanant (I have not tried it with honey yet but I'm sure it would work, you'd just need a bit more flour because of the added moisture)
5 Tbsp butter
2 tsp salt

1. Mix 5 cups flour with whey or buttermilk (buttermilk does add a bit of a bitter flavor, adding more sugar or honey helps) in a bowl with a lid. Mix well and cover. Leave it in a warm spot for 12 - 24 hours. 24 hours is best.
2. When you are ready to bake the bread. Put the water, butter & sugar in a small pot and melt butter.
3. While butter is melting put 1 cup flour, 2 tsp salt and 3 tsp yeast into a bowl.
4. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and mix with a dough hook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add soaked grains and kneed with a dough hook for 6 minutes. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky.
6. Remove dough from bowl, grease bowl with olive oil or coconut oil. Put dough back into bowl turning once to coat with oil. Cover with a wet cheesecloth or clean wet dish rag. Put in a warm place to rise until doubled.
7. When the dough has doubled in size punch down and divide into two globs of dough. Shape into loaves and put into two greased loaf pans (I prefer stoneware). Allow to rise until doubled in size.
8. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until loaf is browned and hollow sounding.

I'm enjoying baking breads & pancakes with soaked grains. The dough of the breads is beautiful and elastic much like a white bread loaf but SOOO much healthier!! The pancakes are so light, fluffy, and loaded with wonderful flavor and fiber!

It really is fun making all these things for our family from farm fresh, organic ingredients! I think some nice grilled cheese sandwiches are on the menu for lunch today!

My cheese tasted very good as salted curds. I put some on our salads at lunch. The rest of it is pressing in the cheese press until tomorrow morning. Then it will have to cure and age. I was quite concerned about my first batch of cheese but I think it turned out quite well.

On Saturday Phil, Sam, Caleb & I went down to New Holstein to spend a day at the new house working in the garden and seeing the house. While the boys were working in the garden raking out the sod the current renters dog trampled several of my plants. Phil had decided NOT to put up a fence and use flowers and other means of keeping out the deer and rabbits However, after the dog killed some of the plants he decided it would be best to fence in the garden. Fencing it in will also allow us to free range our chickens more since they won't be able to get into the garden. This week he will finish the fence THEN plant the onions, leeks, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, and spinach. He is also hoping to start a few small rows of carrots, more lettuce & spinach, as well as get all our potatoes, red onion sets and the raspberry plants in the ground when they come.

I didn't spend much time in the garden but I did get to see the house and find out the phone numbers for the local co-op's, organic raw dairy farm, home schooling groups, and more. I enjoyed my time with the mom of 9 who is currently renting the house. She is a seasoned home schooler and was such a blessing to talk with.

So, are you wondering if I like the house? Yes, I do like the layout. I don't like the flooring nor the fact that there is lead based paint throughout. We will be talking with the landlord about ripping up the carpet and just having the nice hard wood floors (refinished or not they'll be better than the carpet) and giving everything a fresh coat of paint in order to seal the lead based paint. Painting isn't a permanent solution, but it will help it to be much less toxic while we are in the house. There is a nice root cellar with a real old fashioned potato box that I'll be able to divide for my potatoes & onions. There are also many canning jars that the current renter will be leaving for me because she doesn't have enough space in their moving truck. I've been "collecting" canning jars over the past two summers and hope that I won't have to purchase any thanks to so many freebies that I've found. I will only have to purchase lids & seals which are much cheaper than having to get the jars too. She might also be leaving their BEAUTIFUL piano which would be such a huge blessing! I've been wanting to get a new piano or keyboard for Elizabeth and myself. I'm hoping that since we are going to a smaller church when we move that I'll be able to get more heavily involved in the music ministry at the church. The piano is in very good shape and is just in need of tuning. Her husband doesn't want to move the piano to Virginia and they don't think it will fit it on the truck with the rest of their stuff.

Phil and I will have the main floor bedroom which has a door to the bathroom (almost like a Master Bedroom w/ bath). The kitchen is a nice big country kitchen with some nice pantry cupboards in the laundry room. PLUS, in the Laundry room there is space for my upright freezer. It will be nice to have one of my freezers right near the kitchen. The other freezer(s) will be in the garage. The four rooms upstairs will be for the kids. We aren't sure yet if our table will fit in the kitchen or not. If it will then we will put it in the kitchen and make the "dinning room" into a living room and the "living room" will be the school room. There is a very cute porch on the front of the house that is off the living room. For mothers day the kids & Phil got me two hanging potted Impatience plants that will look really pretty on my brass hooks, one on each side of the steps. There is also a little round flour bed in the front that I'm going to plant some colorful flowers in. I'm going to use the flower bed along the south side of the house for my herbs.

I love the fact that I can see the garden from the window right above the sink in the kitchen. I'll be able to see the cows grazing from the other window in the kitchen. The property will work very nicely for a few cows if we rotate their pastures. There are plenty of fence posts in the barn that the landlord said we could use to fence in the property for the animals. We are contemplating getting a couple goats and sheep to get the pastured area around the barn in shape. it is too uneven to mow and it too overgrown for the cow.

So, our little "farm" is in need of some TLC, animals, and the Reese boys running along the creek catching crayfish. :-) We still do not know when we will be able to get into the house but hope that Phil will be able to get in as soon as the current family moves out so he can manage the garden better and get the chicken coop & yard, and the pasture area ready for us to animal shop in Mid-June. We hope to have the kids rooms painted before we move in too so that there will not be as much opportunity for lead exposure.

We have learned that at the auctions here in WI beef and dairy calves are going VERY cheep. So we plan to get a couple beef calves and possibly another one for dairy. The diary cows are also very reasonably priced if you aren't getting an entire herd and if you don't want a cow that is giving 60-90 pounds of milk a day. Plus, the cows that didn't calf in March or April but are calving in June/July are also a very good price. The serious farmers don't want those cows that are off schedule. We will have a new neighbor at the farm that can help us to get a cow that was on a dairy back to good health through natural means. Now we just need to find a cattle or horse trailer to borrow so we can hit an auction after we go to family camp.

So, over all I am very excited about the rental house in New Holstein. I'm even more excited about the opportunity to become part of the natural homestead movement by becoming more and more self sustainable!