Preparing for July 3rd

July 3rd is the day I set an appointment at Akemi Salon to get my hair put in dreadlocks. I suppose I could do it on my own, but I prefer neat and manicured locks, which is much more quickly achieved when you have someone do them for you. The great thing about this salon is that they don't use any product in the hair, so it's completely natural. I'm all for that!

I do realize that getting dreadlocks may not be the most popular decision, so I'd like to talk about a few reasons that I have chosen to get them.

First of all, I really embrace who I am as God has made me... with my likes, dislikes, talents, and quirks. As different as dreadlocks might be, I think they will really fit my personality. I've been drawn to them for a long time now and keep coming back to them. When I was in the hospital during my pregnancy with William, I constructed a Dream Board with pictures and words of all the things I wanted to do and be, as well as places I wanted to go. As silly as it sounds, getting dreadlocks was one of the things on that board. My goal is to fulfill as many of those things as I can, and I feel like this will be an important step for me as a person.

Secondly, they will symbolize my walk with Christ. Being a busy wife and mother can be difficult, and faith can fall out of view so easily. Many people who get dreads see them as a picture of their spiritual journey. In keeping with that, I will incorporate a few things I've discovered as I've read about them.
*They will remind me that I am imperfect, but still beautiful in the eyes of God. The first few months of dreadlocks will be challenging as they form. There will be some loose hairs and some bad days, just as I have bad days in my walk with God, but that there is always beauty in spite of the imperfections.
*They will remind me that Christ encountered opposition and hardship, just as I will in this life. People might judge me incorrectly, but God knows my heart. And surely many men judged Jesus incorrectly when He walked this earth. If they hadn't, He would not have been crucified. But how thankful I am that He was... because His resurrection gives me hope and a future.
*They will remind me to pray for others. I love one idea I read about a while back. Putting beads on some dreadlocks can be a reminder to pray for certain people. My first bead will be for my grandma. She's my last living grandparent who is battling with the progression of dementia. It's so difficult for her and my mom. They both need peace. I will also be adding beads for my children so that I remember to pray for them daily.

The third reason would be their simplicity. As I aim to simplify my life, dreadlocks just fit. Although they can take a bit of maintenance as they lock up, in the long run, I'll have to spend very little time on my hair. The care will consist of:
* Washing with residue-free shampoo and towel/air drying them. Contrary to what many people think, you can (and should) wash dreads on a regular basis. Clean hair actually locks up better.
*Using some essential oil as needed (peppermint or tea tree).
*Occasional palm-rolling to keep things under control.
That's it! No more frequent haircuts (mine grows fast), highlights, hair dryers, flat-irons, sprays, conditioners, gels, or pomades.

Last but not least, I think they are pretty :). I love how colorful, unique, and expressive they are. I can't wait to have fun with them as they grow and mature (like I hope to do along with them).

(photo credit)

(photo credit)

You can also see some photos of a couple gorgeous dready mamas here and here. This should be another interesting journey. Thanks for joining me!

A Must Try Cake Recipe

(photo credit)
I was in the market for a good chocolate cake recipe a couple of weeks ago. I looked around online and found this one and it was really good. I've made a few changes to it, but it's still great. One of the changes I made was switching the icing from vanilla to peanut butter. It's amazing. I've made this twice now, and both times the consensus was the same... you can't eat just one! Everyone went back for a second slice.

Best Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe
1 C unbleached flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 C raw sugar
3/4 C cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 C buttermilk (or 1 Tbsp lemon juice w/ 1 C milk. Let sit for 10 min)
1 C coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 C hot brewed coffee

Preheat oven to 300*. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 baking dish. Stir together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake for 1 hour, or until knife comes out clean. Allow to cool.

While it's cooling, you can work on the icing.

Peanut Butter Icing
2 1/4-2 1/2 C powdered sugar
1/4 lb stick of butter, softened
1/4 C creamy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp milk

Cream together all ingredients except sugar. Add powdered sugar a bit at a time on high speed. I used about 2 1/3 C to get to spreading consistency. Spread on cooled cake.

The "Dread"-ed Compromise

I've been wanting some pretty little dreadlocks for a long time now. Really, for years. However, there has always been one thing or another stopping me from getting them. I've played around with my hair quite a bit over the years. I've done cornrows and tiny braids and even small little pigtails all over my head. I admit that the latter didn't work out so well... but, hey! I was 18 and having fun! I did like the braids, though, even though I think it was a little more out there than my conservative social circle was used to, as I always got a lot of comments on my hair. One time in my early 20's, I was even asked not to braid my hair before I sang a solo in church, in order that people would focus on God and not my hair. So I stopped braiding it other than once in a while. After all, I didn't want to be distracting people from worship.

Things have gradually changed for me over the years. One thing I've learned about myself is that I'm a people-pleaser. I don't like saying no and if I'm not careful, I tend to care too much about what people think of me. I can see my own heart, but if someone starts questioning my motives, I've always been likely to re-think what I'm doing. But the simple fact is that I'm an artistic girl. Some things people might see as rebellious, I just think are pretty (such as artful tattoos, belly rings, nose rings, big jewelry, bright hair colors, and cute dreads). I always thought it was something I would "grow out of", but here I am at 30, so I guess that's just who I am. And I'm good with that. I realize this might make me a bit different from a lot of people in the church, but it doesn't mean I love God any less or have a rebellious heart. God loves me! He made me to see beauty in everything and gave me a creative gift. When I express that, it makes Him happy because He loves that about me. He wants me to have fun and enjoy life as long as I'm living for Him the best that I can.

That being said, the hubs doesn't really like the look (or the permanence) of dreadlocks. So, we made a compromise. I'll wear braids, which I can take out easily enough, but still have a similar flair to them. This will also help me to grow my hair out more easily, since the length is driving me batty and tickling my face right now. I think they're fun and cute, and they only took me about 3 hrs to do (not all in one sitting, mind you).

So, here's me in my braids:

I'm still considering the possibility of locking them at some point, but for now, they feel fun and summer-y. That's a word, right? Yeah, I thought so. Happy almost summer!

Homemade Butter

I've always wanted to make butter myself, but never really tried. Well, a friend posted her butter-making adventures on Facebook, so I thought I would finally give it a try. It's actually really easy, and it turned out nice and creamy, too :).

Start with some heavy cream. Organic is nice, but a bit too rich for our frugal blood. I'll be checking into the price of Costco's organic cream really soon.

Put it in your stand mixer (you can add a bit of salt if you like salted butter), then turn that puppy on and just let it mix... and mix... and mix. Let it go until the buttermilk separates out and starts sloshing around in the bowl. Squeeze the remaining liquid out of the butter and place it in the desired container.

You'll have some nice buttermilk left over for pancakes or biscuits, which you can spread your creamy butter on when they're nice and hot.

Here are the final products of my butter-making adventure. I'm quite pleased, and definitely plan on making more! Thanks, Sarah :).

A Peek Into My Kitchen

So, I thought I would show you all a bit of how I organize my kitchen. I always like seeing how other people do things. Now, this is all still a work in progress, as I have a few ideas for how to rearrange our food storage, but this is how I'm doing things right now.

Here is our coffee station. Right below this cabinet is the coffee maker and a large thermos. On the top shelf, I keep the coffee grinder, filters, and a couple extra glass jars. The middle shelf contains the regular and decaf coffee, powdered creamer (which is mostly for guests), and hot cocoa (I fill it with a homemade mix of powdered milk, cocoa powder, and powdered sugar). The teas and sugar shaker are on the bottom shelf.


The next cabinet over is above the stove. I keep mostly hot cereal in there, such as oatmeal, grits, and other host cereals. Sometimes there are crackers, although we don't eat a lot of those. I have a couple of coffee syrups and our wine glasses in there as well, since it's the tallest cabinet, therefore the only place they'll fit.


The corner cabinet is my favorite! I keep most of the baking stuff and all of the spices in this one. I've been slowly switching to glass containers, which has been a slow process, since I'm doing things the frugal way. As we use up foods that come in glass jars (like baby food, pickles, jams, sauerkraut, etc), I wash them out and re-purpose them. All of my spices are in baby food jars. I'm still needing to make official labels for everything, but right now masking tape suffices. Oh, and I'm purchasing all of our spices at Winco in the bulk section, since they're much more affordable that way.


Above the sink is another cabinet that contains the rest of the baking supplies, as well as oils, syrups, molasses, and honey (we're going to be switching to bulk raw honey soon). We use coconut oil and olive oil almost exclusively now.


On the top of the fridge is where I keep our opened cold cereals and chips. The box you see is where I keep all our vitamins, supplements, and daily prescriptions.


And here's the fridge. In the door, I keep our cheese, butter (no more margarine!), opened milk, filtered water, dressings, and condiments.


We almost always have more milk than we need, so we often share our extra. The top drawer there is used for yogurt and other individual items. The bottom two drawers are for fruits and veggies, and the rest of the fridge is normally leftovers and other refrigerated items like sour cream and cottage cheese.
Since we have a small kitchen and no pantry, we've improvised and moved quite a bit of our food in the garage. Here is a bookshelf I'm using right now, which has a bit of everything, mostly canned and dry goods. I'd eventually like to get a couple more bookshelves or some stacked milk crates since they're a bit deeper. Until then, this is what we're working with. My plan is to get some food-grade storage buckets from some local store bakeries for each kind of bean, pasta, rice, etc, so they won't get stale and the pests won't get into them. So far we haven't had any pest, but you never know. I'd also like to get buckets for our powdered milk and grains/flours so they will stay fresh longer. To the right of the bookshelf are some boxes of empty containers I use to freeze or store things. The bag there with the red handles is where I keep all of my reusable grocery bags. In front of that is our recycling box.


Along the wall of the garage is a large shelving unit, which holds a lot of things besides food, but about half of it is used for food/drink storage. The cooler is full of diet and regular soda that we pick up at Gleaner's. We're always ready for a barbecue! Next to that is the bottled water. I've been buying a flat a month to keep in case of emergency. So far I have 3, but I'd love to have quite a bit more just to be on the safe side.

To the right of the water is my favorite part of the shelving unit. This is the left hand side, which has our extra paper towels, napkins, cups, and trash bags. A couple of those cubbies have some small tools, cleaning supplies, and paints. There are also some larger canned goods, extra peanut butter, and bottled drinks.

The right side of the unit is mostly used for baby foods, but there is also some toilet paper and supplies for making laundry soap and stain remover.


Below that is where we keep the rest of the drinks we get from WIC and Gleaner's. On the top is sports drinks, which we use a lot when people are sick. On the bottom shelf is mostly juices, such as vegetable, tomato, grape, apple, etc. There is our jug of extra syrup in the front. We just use that to refill our small bottle inside.

And just to keep it real, here is my pile of dishes ;)

I didn't show you my freezers, but they're full of frozen fruit for smoothies, lots of frozen veggies, frozen apple and orange juice, some meat (both cooked and uncooked), containers of leftovers that have been frozen for lunches, chicken stock, ice cream, and bread sticks. They don't look particularly organized, but I usually know where everything is :).

So, there you have it! I'm always trying to rearrange or make things better, but that's my system for now. What ideas do you use in your kitchen? Do you have a favorite way to organize? Tell me about it!

Project Overload!

The past few days have been ultra-busy with all sorts of projects and outings.

Thursday we headed out for a play-date with a good friend. And Charlotte drew on the table with a sharpie... what an artist!


Friday we went to OMSI (our local science museum) with my dad. We had a picnic on the grass and then the girls enjoyed playing in the children's area. They have a big sand box with lots of toys, a woodland animal dress-up area with logs, trees, tunnels, and costumes, a wooden block play area, buckets with pulleys that are filled with beanbags... and more. They had a blast.

Saturday we did some work around the house, some grocery shopping, and in the evening we fired up our new charcoal grill and made burgers for ourselves, my parents, and David's brother.

Sunday we had church, then Dorothy went to a Mary Kay party and then to Home Depot to scope out some wood for our planter boxes. We had a nice mommy-daughter date :).

Yesterday I made some cookies and took them over to my friend who is about to have a baby. We've been friends for as long as I can remember, and she'll be my first client as a Doula-in-training! My doula bag is all packed and ready to go.

We also made some puppets yesterday morning! Are you ever frustrated with all the kids' stuffed animals and how much space they take up? Well, simply cut a hole in the behind of the animal and pull out the stuffing (the kids LOVE helping with that part).

The animal will look rather flat...

But it will be perfect for little imaginations and some really fun puppet shows. We made about 8 puppets yesterday and the kids were thrilled.

When we got home yesterday, David ran over to Home Depot to get our raised garden bed supplies. We're in a rental, so we didn't drop the money for the cedar, which would have been about 3 times the cost. We just got some untreated 2 x 8's cut up... enough to make 6 beds that are about 3 ft. by 5 ft. Along with the screws, it was maybe $60 tops, which I think is pretty good for 6 large beds! We put them together last night after the kids were asleep. Today I'll be digging out the area where they'll be resting as well as transplanting most of the veggies that are currently in pots. I'll get pics as soon as it's all set up! We're also going to be planting pumpkin, corn, strawberries, basil, and mint in addition to what we've got already.

As for this morning, I'm working on cleaning the house and getting our roast in the crockpot for tonight.

If I'm lucky, I'll sneak in a 5-minute shower. Happy Tuesday!

My Garden is Growing!

As promised, I spent part of the afternoon taking pictures of my garden yesterday. So, here's the scoop on how things are growing.

In the garage I still have one tomato plant, two green peppers, and three jalapenos.

Out front is the bulk of the garden. I've lined everything up along the side of the driveway in various pots, buckets, and boxes.

First I have two tomato plants. Although I am sad to say that shortly after I took this picture, the poor tomatoes wilted! I don't know what happened, as the transplant was so gentle, but I think I may have to re-plant these outside if they don't perk up. A lot of my other veggies took second tries outside, too.

Next is the herb box, which currently has parsley and rosemary (purchased at church). I'm also planning on planting some basil and cilantro in there. Beside that is a green pepper, which was also a starter I bought at church.

After that I have 4 broccoli plants (from church)...

and 4 cauliflower plants (from church).

In pots next to that are spinach and cabbage...

lettuce and kohlrabi...

brussel sprouts and green onions...

and torpedo onions and chard.

I also planted some carrots and cucumbers at the end, but those still need to germinate.

In the back yard I planted pole beans along one portion of the fence...

snap peas in two smaller sections...

and the fava beans are sprouting quite nicely along the fence, too!

Finally, I have planted some things in the corner of the yard where the grass isn't growing. Here are the beets...

and the kale.

To the left of the kale will be my zucchini and winter squash. And here is my little helper!