Harvest

Harvest was good to us this year!

 Theres something about the vibrant orange colors & the anticipation of fall that makes me almost giddy .

Fall...with the cooler temperatures, saturated colors, the beautiful clear skies with white puffy clouds-makes me feel as if anything is possible!

Every new Fall, I feel as if I have a chance at a new beginning. Even more so than when the new year actually begins.

We picked a whole wheel barrow full of pumpkins & butternut squash. First they will brighten our flower beds & home during the fall months, then they will be roasted & canned for some delicious pumpkin pies & desserts...as soon as they were picked, little man with no shirt was begging for pumpkin pie :)

If you're local to Fredericksburg & you love mums, Moreland Fruit Farms has big, beautiful ones! 4 for 15.00!

Our tomatoes were plentiful! This is one of maybe 3-4 wagons full that we picked from our garden.

These became soups, sauces & salsa...I'll be sharing the recipes I used in a future post.

living room redo

FYI: I haven't blogged in awhile except when I felt it was necessary to update on Andy's progress, and when I was doing that here, it just felt weird to blog about other things I guess.

I started a Facebook page(Andy's cancer journey-praying for a miracle) for those of you who want to continue following Andy's progress.

I decided this year, once school starts, I'm going to follow through with some of my Pinterest projects that I've been wanting to do for awhile now...1st on the list was adding some bling to my living room-I am in LOVE with how it all turned out! My sister, owner at Set Apart Design came over yesterday & helped me make it happen...without further ado!

I couldn't find a 4 inch dot stencil so I bought clear plastic sheets of stencil paper & made my own dot stencil. It cost me about 6.00 & took me about 20 minutes to make all the stencils.

The paint was a happy accident! I checked at Lowes for a metallic gold, found the perfect sample, only to be told that it's a 2-step process & the 1st step alone would cost me 50.00! 

So I called said designer sister with my dilemma & she had a simple solution, of course!

Headed to PatCatan's with a new idea, I took a gamble on about 4 different shades of metallic craft paints & went home to mix them up & see what the verdict was...It matched the Lowes paint sample almost perfectly & my total cost for paint & stencils was approximately 15.00!!!

It turned out even better than I had imagined!

The artwork was made from an old canvas that I had already, I spray painted it with white paint that I had as well & used more craft paint for the lettering. 

It's free hand & not perfect, but I love it & all it's imperfection-it was free!

The plate, wall art was another Pinterest idea that I've been collecting  plates for from thrift stores, closeout sales & a piece of our wedding china as well.

It's all very eclectic & husband's deer head even fits in somehow(we threatened to paint the antlers gold...insert evil laugh) but I wanted to sleep in my own bed last night(alive) so we refrained :)

I love my new space & the fact that it cost me next thing to nothing to change it up!

Thank you Nettie for helping me fulfill my vision & for helping me do it for pennies.

*Go on over & check out her site, on Facebook, at Set Apart Design! 

She is known for being able to make something beautiful, of almost nothing, & making it great!

For those who may not understand...

Lately we've been getting a lot of questions as to why Andy isn't taking chemotherapy.

Andy's progress is followed by an oncologist, but he chose to treat the cancer naturally.

The oncologist told us that the type of Lymphoma that Andy has is terminal. Meaning, unless God works a miracle, it cannot be cured.

Andy chose to have his cancer treated naturally cause chemotherapy takes a huge toll on your body & quality of life is rarely the same after treatment. He didn't want to put his body through that if there was no cure in the end anyway. We also felt very clearly that God directed us to natural medicine to control the tumors in his body. The Doctors told him if he takes chemo, they could give him 5-10 years. We also believe that no one but God decides how many years, months weeks or days of life we have left. 

Andy is doing what he believes is right for his body & feels great. hes lost 25lbs., slimmed down, has more energy & feels better overall than he has in years! He hasn't been sick(besides the cancer) in over a year & he used to have problems with his sinuses all the time(3-5 rounds of sinus infections in a years time) that would at times have him flat on his back & off work for several days.

Physically he is feeling great & will continue natural treatment. 

He has physical therapy 2 times a week besides the natural meds that he takes to detox, heal & help his body to be as strong as it can be.

Most people don't understand why we take the most expensive route. Medically(chemo), most of the cost would be covered by insurance. Natural treatment, (no insurance is accepted) & Andy's expenses are 600.00-700.00 a month, not including a natural stem cell treatment that is costing him 98.00 every 4 days. 

Most people don't understand why we made the choices that we've made. But we feel that God is leading us on this journey & will provide for Andy's expenses along the way.

Andy is due for another update with his NMD soon & he has a repeat CT scan in September.

We as a family covet your prayers for physical & emotional healing as Andy continues to live with cancer. Most days you would never guess that anything is amiss, looking from the outside in. But there is an almost daily struggle in our hearts & minds where we fight with the "whys"

Ultimately, God is in control of our lives, He sees the big picture that we don't see & when satan attacks with cancer, with emotional, physical & financial stresses & preys at our weaknesses. We need to trust that God sees & cares & will provide physically & emotionally everything that we need!

I'm hoping this update answers some of the questions we've been getting-thank you for your prayers. I'll update as we know more.

Memorial Day 2014

Our Memorial Day was a little unusual. We usually take the children to see a parade in the morning, then to a park for lunch & hangout poolside the remainder of the day if the weather permits.

This year Andy had to work half a day, so he took our oldest with him & I took the others to see my hometown Memorial Day parade.

We all came home about the same time & I put together a quick lunch that we ate on the front porch & then we set to work!

It's been so wet & rainy that we haven't been able to get into our garden, so that came 1st.

We had planned to downsize some due to the fact that we simply didn't have time to care for it properly, but when we found out Andy has cancer, we ended up making it even larger so we could grow our own organic fruits & veggies to cut down on grocery expenses.

We are also in the process of adding approximately 6 raised beds for blueberries, red & black raspberries, strawberries & root veggies-I'm super excited about the raised beds! I paid 6.75 for a half pint of  organic black raspberries last week & that is insane! I bought a plant today for less than that :)!

Our garden didn't produce well at all last year, so while planting I started to pray,"Lord, please let our fruits & veggies be plentiful this year & the weeds be minimal" & River, who stood beside me holding a paper bag full of of onion seeds, says,"Amen!....& help me be nice to girls" I hadn't even realized that I was praying aloud when he piped in with his portion of the prayer :)

Then it was time to tackle the mulch pile...

This is something we need to do every year cause we live atop a hill & by the end of the summer, half the mulch has usually blown away. We really should look into mulching with river rocks but I think mulch has a softer, more homey feel too it :)

This little man is a constant at our side when working in the gardens or flower beds. If it has anything to do with digging in the dirt or playing with water, he is ALL in!

Clothing is optional at our house in the summer-time. You rarely see a fully dressed child at any given time :)

I don't know if I've ever had a day where I went to bed as tired as I did on this day, but it came with a feeling of accomplishment! Although we didn't do anything really special, we had a day together. ALL of us together for the first time in a REALLY long time & it was so good!

Change...& exploring.

    Change is good. Whether it's my home, my wardrobe, my hair color or my blog...I get the itch to change it up every once in awhile :) I like change. It helps me to grow & learn new things...My blog title changed once again. Along with it came a new blog address. You can access all the posts I've made in the past, you just can't access the blog with mccl4.blogspot.com anymore, the new web address is growingupcountry7.blogspot.com I'm hoping you will continue to visit me here, I love the feedback!

    Today we decided to pack up the kiddos & take them to a place that I loved to visit as a little girl. Hoping to make some of the same memories for our children that I have today.

    "The Wilderness Center"  is a wildlife center with winding trails, beautiful ponds, lookout towers & so much more.

    There were tons of trees uprooted like this one due to all the storms we had last year...

    Feeding the fish & geese is always a highlight! I brought along a nice big loaf of stale bread & we had so much fun watching them scramble for the crumbs...

    

    One of the beautiful ponds...

    Grandma & Grandpa met us there to go hiking...sitting to rest after an all uphill winding trail. Having a snack of pretzels before heading to Grandmas house for supper...

   There is rain in the forecast for the next 3 days so we made the most of every bit of sunshine that we could get today-such a beautiful day! 

                                                 Have a blessed Sunday & a good week!

Preserving Pineapples without processed sugars

    This year I'm starting a new adventure. I've been canning & preserving for as long as I can remember. I learned everything I know by watching & helping my Mother year after year as a little girl, growing up. When my Husband & I got married, almost 12 years ago, I continued doing so for our family. This year I'll be learning a whole new way of canning & preserving. Using only natural, raw & whole sugars & sea salt to preserve my fruits, vegetables & meats. I will try & share each new recipe as I go along.
    I'm super excited to start filling my cellar shelves with delicious, wholesome foods that are good for my family.
    Today I'll be sharing my recipe for canning fresh pineapples. It's super simple.
    I found pineapples on sale at our local Aldi for 1.99 each!

 I bought 10 of them, cut them up in chunks & filled my jars. I then made a simple syrup using 1 1/2 cup raw local honey to 1 gallon hot water. I stirred the honey-water till all the honey had dissolved into the water. I then poured the simple syrup over the pineapple, in the jars till the neck of the jar(leaving about 1inch from the very top of the jar.
    wipe the rims of the jars clean with a hot, wet dishcloth. Place the lids & rings tightly on the jars & place them into your canner. Fill the canner, up to the ring of the jars with water that is the same temperature as the liquid in your jars. I add 1 cup vinegar to the water in my canner, it keeps the jars from getting a chalk-like film over the surface of the jars.
    Cold-pack for 7 minutes once the water reaches a full rolling boil. Remove from the canner & place on a tea towel till the jars are completely cooled.

I saved one pineapple for eating fresh & the remaining 9 pineapples made 2 quart & 21 pint.

Pizza Burrito Casserole

I made these for supper tonight & they were a huge hit! I've made taco versions & breakfast versions so I thought, why not a pizza version. Who says pizza has to be on a crust :)

Pizza Burrito Casserole

1 package whole spelt wraps

2 lb. grass-fed hamburger, browned

1 small package uncured pepperoni

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 small onion, chopped

1 small can mushrooms, chopped

1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1-1 1/2 cup pizza sauce

-brown hamburger & add pepperoni, peppers, onions, mushrooms & 1 cup of shredded mozzarella. You can add as many or as little ingredients as you like. These are just the ingredients that we like. Fill the wraps  & place in a 9x13 greased pan. Cover the wraps evenly with the pizza sauce. Cover the pan with foil & bake at 350' for 30-40 minutes, uncover & top with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese. Return to the oven till the cheese is all melted.

Enjoy!