Two peas in a pod

Sorry. Thought I was going to keep writing here, but I’m just not going to.

I (Nick) am writing here: Nick’s Journal.

My photography can be seen here: Kansas Photography.

Noel isn’t sure where she’s going to settle down to write yet.

You know, I’m getting the itch to pull this old blog out of the mothballs. What do you think?

I had fun looking at this site today.

Checking on the chickens used to be a chore. That is until they started laying eggs. Now we both jump at the chance to see who can find the eggs first. Nick usually beats me to it. He loves to check for eggs! We raced to the hen house today, but Nick got there first again.

Cracked one open today and a double yoked one this time.

Our hens have started laying eggs. They haven’t quite figured out that they are supposed to lay in the nest boxes yet so we’ve lost quite a few eggs but we have also been able to use a couple of them. Our first egg that was not smashed was quite a jumbo sized egg. In fact, there were three yolks inside!

I want to be saturated with the Word of God.

You know how sometimes you can have a song stuck in your head for hours or even days. Nick was telling me that happened to him the other day at work while listening to his ipod while vacuuming.

I want the Word of God stuck in my head. Can you imagine? Not being able to think about anything else because some scripture verse won’t stop replaying itself in your mind. I think that would be the greatest thing in the world!

A few weeks ago, I dug out a cd I bought years ago called Power Confessions. The reason why is that I have been having problems with depression and just felt so mentally tired.  I knew I couldn’t go on this way and that I needed to get myself under control. I knew I had a choice to make- dwell on what’s making me depressed or  bring my thoughts under control by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The cd is all about confessing the Word. It tells me who I am in Christ, what I can do in Christ, what the scriptures say about me, what God is to me, and promises of God to me. The pastor says the scripture and gives you time to repeat it.  He calls it his spiritual aerobics program. Each morning I listen to it and find myself strengthened and encouraged by the time I am done. I love it!

Lord, help me to saturate myself with your Word. Let it soak into me.

I got some kefir grains last week. What is kefir, you ask? It is a creamy cultured milk product that is loaded with vitamins and minerals. Kefir can be made with cows’, goats’, coconut, rice or soy milk. It is similar to yogurt in that it contains friendly probiotic bacteria but it also  contains beneficial yeast. This naturally occurring bacteria and yeast in kefir combine to provide superior health benefits.

Besides the friendly bacteria and yeast, kefir contains minerals and amino acids. The partially digested, complete proteins in kefir are easier to digest making it good for those who usually can’t handle milk products. Kefir is also rich in calcium and magnesium and has an ample supply of phosphorus. Kefir contributes to a healthy immune system.

To make you simply add the gelatin-like particles called “grains” to the milk. I use a clear canning jar so I can check on its progress. I stir it throughout the day with a wooden chopstick, but you don’t have to do anything to it. Never use metal to stir it with or strain it because the grains will react to the metal. The longer you leave it out, the more sour it will taste. You just decide when you want to use it.

When you’re ready you strain it in a plastic colander and take the part that you strained and use that for smoothies, or in place of milk in pancake batter. There are many things to do with kefir. A simple search on google will tell you. The part in the colander will be put back into a clean jar and you will add milk to it and start over again. It might sound hard but it’s really not!

When I make smoothies with it, I take the strained finished product and add frozen strawberries and a bit of sugar or honey to it and blend it until smooth. I think frozen bananas would be tasty too. We have quite a bit of a sweet tooth, but eventually I hope to not have to add any extra sweetener to it. It reminds me of a strawberry milkshake. We enjoy drinking this every day.

I also ordered a 64 ounce container of plain yogurt from the local buying club. The whole reason I ordered it was to get the whey from it and to do that you make yogurt cheese.  To make the yogurt cheese you put the yogurt in a flour sack towel and knot the ends up and hang to drip. The liquid that drains out is the whey.  I wanted the whey to make homemade mustard and other fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and pickles. I got the idea from my favorite book: Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. I let the yogurt cheese drip for 2 days. But I didn’t hang it the whole time and I think if I had, it would have been done sooner.

The yogurt cheese smells and looks like cream cheese, but it’s more sour to me than store bought cream cheese. I think it would be excellent in a vegetable dip of some sort. I made some “cream cheese” frosting out of it and it was pretty tart, but I think I will end up using it as a “lemon” glaze for poppy seed cake. The yogurt cheese was good spread on crackers with jelly on top. The jelly seemed to make it taste less sour.