Tasting Life Abundant

We LOVE soft boiled eggs in our house.  And after much trial and error, trying all the tips you can find on the internet, I found the perfect way to make easy to peel, jammy-yolked eggs every time: I steam them. Yep, they're not actually boiled at all. No hard, chalky, green yolks or rubbery white here! The steam cooks them more gently, and I have noticed the eggs are far less likely to crack during cooking as well. I have a large stockpot that has a steamer basket I can put in, which sits a quite a bit over the water. It fits 17-18 eggs at once. I steam them for exactly 9 minutes and then plunge the eggs into cold water. Ideally you would have ice water but I never think ahead that much... but they turn out great anyway. I let them cool on a large bowl of water for a minute and then drain that water (which has warmed alot already) and refill the bowl with fresh cold water. After five minutes I drain and refill and swish the eggs around a bit just to evenly cool them. You

I feel like I've been posting about how hard and sad my life is alot, and while we have been going through some especially difficult times recently, it's not all there is to our family life, or my life personally, either. Thanksgiving is coming up in the next few days, and I am going to be intentional about gratitude this week. I am amazed every day by God's beautiful world and by how He upholds and sustains it and us, and by all the blessings we are surrounded with. It is truly humbling to think this is where He placed us...we could have been born anywhere, in any circumstances, but we really hold such a privileged place in this world, not only materially, but spiritually too; the fact that He has called us His children and given us His Holy Spirit to revive our cold hearts is an astounding and awesome gift. I want to focus on praising Him for all His goodness and faithfulness this week. An upward, outward spiral of joy is glorifying to God and healing to our mind an

*Deep breath* Ok. These last few months have been pretty hard. Hard to stay on top of it all. So many changes. So many emotions. I feel such a strong desire for a fresh start...like I want to "clean house"; mentally, emotionally, physically, and my actual house. I want to purge...detox...just take a deep breath and let it all go. Take a long walk and clear my head. It hasn't all been bad. God is faithful and we have felt that as a family and a couple,  and I feel it personally. When everything else seems to be "going wrong" or turning out different than we want or plan, it is such a comfort to know that God is the same, His promises are the same. Health comes and goes, sleep comes and goes, friends come and go...nothing is constant, except God and His everlasting love and kindness. Sometimes we make choices and things turn out way different than we expected. Like with Millie our dachshund puppy. We had to say goodbye to her. It was just too much for

I have been eating more naan lately...I think the change in seasons is making me want more carbs. But I do not gain weight or feel bloated when I eat this paleo naan and I often eat them cold which increases the resistant starch (good for your tummy bugs and less impact on blood sugar), and I try to save carbs for after breakfast. But sometimes I have them warm with and egg in between, along with some greens and maybe onion or herbs, and it is a delicious, healthy start to the day for me . Cauliflower puree with leftover roasted sweet potatoes and chicken is a tasty, fast meal when you batch cook the puree and meat. Drizzled with some avocado oil and seasoned with Himalayan pink salt and maybe a dash of nutmeg it is nourishing and satisfying. I love big salads! My homemade mustard mayo poppy seed dressing with some wild tuna mixed with avocado mayonnaise over some butter lettuce and fresh spinach is a regular on my menu. I bought some paleo ranch dressing from the store bec

Here she is, our new adventure, Millie the dachshund. She is a red dapple mini dachshund.  We got her when she was 7.5 weeks old, she is now 10 weeks. She is a very smart little girl; even the vet said so yesterday at her first appointment. Which us good for training because she catches on quick but can be hard because when she has negative experiences she remembers them. We noticed this already a few days after brought her home.  We were playing fetch with her with a ball, which she was loving, but then she accidentally overextended her jaw a bit and got the ball stuck in her mouth. She refused to touch the ball for over a week afterward. She loves to play fetch and tug of war and have her tummy rubbed. She is a big snuggler. She also loves exploring our yard, especially to find the places where our cats have left parts of dead mice...yuck.  This is the first picture we saw of Millie. We had to drive three hours to go meet her. We left the kids with my parents in case w

Well, we got a couple good weeks of homeschooling in, I was feeling good, and then, for some reason, we decided to totally turn our lives upside down. We got a puppy.🐕 A dachshund puppy. Our first ever indoor dog; actually, first indoor pet of any kind since we got married. 👫 I have mixed emotions about it. I did it for the kids.👧👦 The last few months have been hard for them; they've really been feeling the loss of their Grandma. Plus Sophie has still been very sad about losing her special cat Milo, who just didn't come home one day, and she didn't get to say goodbye. And before that, Milo's brother Otis, Nathaniel's special cat, got sick and we had to out him down, which was heartbreaking for them. I wanted to give them something that will hopefully be a little more permanent than a "free range" outdoor pet. I wanted to bring some joy into our family's life, especially to Sophie and Nathaniel, and have an adventure together.👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 B

This is what homeschooling looks like for us right now: Sometimes we learn about animals. Pet stores are a great place to take the kids for that, especially if they will let you pet or even hold the animals. Sophie loves the bunnies. And hamsters. And rats. And guinea pigs.  Picking berries is a good lesson in nature and teaches good work ethic. We want to train our children to be responsible, conscientious adults, so we look for ways to prepare them to be good disciplined workers.  There is a river beach nearby that is home to tons of frogs. You have to watch where you step! Of course, the kids love to go there. So fun to see the little creatures God has made. There's also some good river clay along the bank that makes an excellent slide. Brian and I spent many childhood days playing this way. Figuring out the best combination of clay plus water to make the most slippery slide is good hands on learning. Plus it's good for their immune systems.