Good Things

Proverbs 31:27:  She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

I've been a wife and mom for a long time, more than twice the number of years that I was just a girl in my parents home.  Hopefully, I have evolved over those years and learned a few things.  Well, I HAVE in fact learned lots of things, but I do tend to get lazy and let it slide, especially if I have a good book to read...
And lately, it seems like I've found a lot of good books...

Okay, I can't blame it all on that.  But I now have a barometer who lets me know if I am slipping on watching over the affairs of my household - a little guy named Tommy.  Tommy had a rough time in the womb of his birthmom and was exposed to many harmful substances, and the result of that is that he sometimes has trouble.  I've found over the four years of his little life that I can help him, and one way is to make sure he has a clean diet: a diet free of corn syrup, artificial colors and sweetners and any other kind of processed food.  This diet has been good for the entire family, and we are clean enough now that we can cheat a little bit without bad results.
The key here is to only cheat a little bit.  If we cheat a whole lot, like we've done recently, then Tommy suffers.  Little things like a runny nose will send him into fits that he has a hard time coming out of.  Since mommy knows how to help him, it's not fair for mommy NOT to help him.

So we are back on track again lately.  One thing I have learned is that I am a morning person, so if I want healthy things for my family, I had better get going before noon, because after that, I SLOOOOWWWWW down...

So this morning, I was up at 6:15.  Did my Bible reading and had a bath,and then I was up and after some of our food for the day.

I have been making tea lately for us to drink instead of calorie laden other things.  I use green tea because it is so good for us, and I add another tea bag of anything I think we need.  The last couple of days, I've used a "joint comfort" tea bag because Mary Susannah has had an achy neck and I ache everywhere most of the time (old age, I guess).  Then I go out to my garden and pick spearmint or peppermint and a sprig of stevia.  Stevia is also called "sweetleaf".  If you chew it, you will be amazed at how sweet it is!  I bought my plant at Central Market, and I want to get more.  I could devote a whole bed to this herb!
I put all that in a pot of hot water, and brew it like you would any other tea:

It is delicious.  I usually have to make two or three pots before breakfast, because Beau likes to take it to work with him.  Once I finally have enough, I pour it into a pitcher, and sit it beside the filtered water:

I have been very pleased that all the kids are drinking it all day long.

My daughter brought over a bunch of those little oatmeal packs recently, and my boys loved it.  They've always liked oatmeal, but they seem to go on kicks of it, and recently, they've wanted cereal for breakfast - until they tasted this oatmeal.  They begged me to buy more, but I told them I could make it just as easily, and it wouldn't have the ingredients that make Tommy feel bad inside.  They were skeptical, until they tasted it.  I made a pot of oatmeal and put real maple syrup in it, along with a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon.  They LOVE it!

That's Tommy on his second bowl, and he was doing good until Dad came in from his bike ride with doughnuts...Sigh...

Even I know that oatmeal doesn't hold a candle to fresh doughnuts from the doughnut shop in Grandview...

I also put on a crockpot of chicken to cut up and freeze for Beau's lunches.  I used the chickens we butchered a few weeks ago, and added rosemary and garlic from my garden, and onions and green peppers from the store.  I really need to garden more - this could have been something completely from my house!

I feel so much better about EVERYTHING when I know my family is eating the best I can give them.  Lately, it's been on my mind a lot, and I have been looking through some blogs to find new ideas and recipes.  I have found two sites I especially like.  This one has given me some recipe ideas:

http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/

 She also has a facebook page that I "liked". 

Another really good place I have enjoyed is here:

http://frugallysustainable.com/

This one if full of wonderful tips, and I look at it a lot.  It also has a facebook page, so check it out!

So that's my morning so far.  It's only 9:45.  I better get off the computer and get back to work.  Afternoon comes quickly, and I still have a lot of things I want to do before I run out of energy!