A New Beginning...

This year is starting so much different than last year. Last year I had very fine tuned plans by this date and was very ready to begin a new school year. This year I am digging through the mess to find the books and things I need for a lesson, and I do not "feel" ready to begin another year. I do have a plan (yeah!) it is just not spelled out in too much detail and I have so many other things I am doing this fall aside from beginning school that school is getting a bot lost in the shuffle. For one I am learning to eat gluten free. I am already dairy free, egg free and meat free so adding or not adding gluten makes my meal planning a real challenge. I am also freed up to work on some creative projects for a change this fall and I am soooo excited about it! So in addition to the new meals and the homeschooling my mind is working on ideas I long to execute. Getting to work on new ideas also means setting up a new room in the house for a place to create, thank you to my DH that is well on it's way. SO on top of that I bought a mac this summer and am setting it up to run with my scanner and printers and not having a whole lot of luck. SO many of my ideas for school are having to simply wait as these things are put into place. We are going backwards in terms of technology and using paper and pencil more. I kind of like it. :) All these details, this messiness, and the setbacks would have made me crazy in the past but I have been enjoying the idea of living more like my kids, just one moment at a time talking little and big things over with my Father in Heaven. It dawned on my today that being overwhelmed with good things doesn't make life easier just richer and more challenging.

I'll be back soon with more updates on our schooling which has begin this week amongst the mess, after I get a little more of it under control.

In the meantime check out ideas I am thinking about on my pinterest page.

Click here

More Summer Fun!!

Wilderness trekking with friends...

Tide pool investigating...

Zak trick riding...

blueberry picking...

The fabulous four...

Max is boogie boarding...

Zak is boogie boarding...

Rock scrambling...

Digging in the sand...

Hangin' with grandpa...

Hope you are having a fun summer too! 

Cool No-Bake Cookie Treat

The summer is no time to be in the hot kitchen cooking cookies, so when I found a great no-bake cookie recipe in my new cookbook A Healthy Gluten Free Life I was intrigued. It is not only no-bake, but it is also has no-gluten, no-grain, no-egg, no-milk or dairy, but full on taste and even my sweet refusing hubby nibbles on these. Since the mixture which holds all the yummy healthy bits together is very simple I went creative with the bits and made up a super antioxidant no-bake cookies.

So what is in this yummy cool treat? Glad you asked...

The stick it all together part:

(Place these into a bowl and microwave or heat on your stove until the coconut oil and almond butter mix well together. It is about 30 sec.  in the microwave)

1/2 cup of Almond butter (I like to use Justin's Maple Almond butter because it has such a good taste. use whatever is your favorite nut butter.)

1 t. vanilla

1/3 cup coconut oil

3 T honey

The healthy tasty bits:

(Place these into a bowl and mix well. Then add the above wet mixture and mix again. Once it is well mixed spread onto a flat sheet and freeze in the freezer for  few hours or over night. Remove them from the freezer once they have completely hardened and cut into squares. You can also drop round drops of the mixture onto the sheet and freeze them that way.)

1/2 c coconut flakes

1/2 c chopped nuts (tamari almonds)

1/2 c chopped GF pretzels

1/4 c of your favorite dark chocolate chopped up into bits

1/4 c dried blueberries

1/4 c dried apricots chopped into bits
1/8 c of spicy pumpkin seeds
1/8 c sunflower seeds

You can keep them in a ziplock in the freezer until you need them.  

Serve them cold on a hot day.

Enjoy!