Being loved

~Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.~

psalm 31:28                          

I am so blessed to be the mother of 5 little boys, and the wife of an amazing, hard working, selfless man.  I often forget this, and let little things bother me.  Like the LEGOs that are all over my living room, all over the playroom, all over my horizontal surfaces, and always under my feet.  This is a quick stealer of my meek & quiet spirt.  Thankfully, the Lord will often remind me of the love that my family has for me (and the seemingly endless and monotonous day to day chores). 

This morning, beside my computer, my oldest son placed this:

A symbol of his love, and a symbol of hope.  Weariness will not overtake me.  I am walking with the Lord.  

After all, Philippian 4:13 reminds us that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Homemade Frugal Pancake Syrup

Please note: this is soooo not healthy!  LOL.  But I am going to start a series on Frugal cooking, and thought this was the perfect start!

I wanted to make waffles today - with this!

So I was half done making waffles (will post an awesome frugal waffle recipe later!) when I realized we had no syrup.  I need syrup. 

So.  On to creation!

Here is an awesome syrup recipe!  If I knew that syrup was so easy to make at home, I would NEVER buy it for the $4 a bottle they sell it for - and it tastes soooo yummy!

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup very hot water
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 capful of maple flavoring
1 capful of pure vanilla extract

Mix it all up in a saucepan and then pop on to boil.  Once boiled, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Let cool.  I did this by putting the saucepan in a sink of cold water (about two inches) and it cooled super fast! 

I honestly think this would be amazing with a butter flavoured extract, but I need to hunt where I could find it from.  I think if you were to double this recipe, it would fill a syrup container! 

Enjoy!

Smart Ice Cubes - Frozen Spinach Juice!

Okay, so remember we made spinach juice and froze them into ice cubes?   Just in case you forgot check it out here:

How to make spinach juice:
- 3 cups washed baby spinach fresh
- 1 cup water.

Bring spinach and water to boil, and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes pour through a fine strainer and squish the pulp of the spinach with a spoon or spatula to get all juices released. Freeze your spinach juice in ice cube containers, then once frozen move into a heavy freezer bag.

This is extremely healthy and just a single tablespoon is the same as eating 1/4 cup of raw spinach leaves. This has iron, calcium and digestive enzymes. Super awesome!  Each cube is 2 tablespoons, which is equal to eating 1/2 cup of spinach leaves! 

Anyway!  You can use these ice cubes in your kids soup, this gives a super veggie boost with no change in flavour or color and it cools the soup off perfectly!

OR

You can throw these funky green cubes into apple juice, etc... and the kids will think they are so lucky!  Score one for mama!