Georgia Peaches and Tennessee Blackberries

Early Summer is HERE!  Today we went to Hendersonville Produce and stocked up on Organic Georgia peaches for only $1.59 pound and local organic Blackberries--$5.00/quart. 

We sat on the deck and roasted our Avalon Acres sausage over the fire pit and ate a full quart of Blackberries to go along with it.  The dogs had a full day of play (though Susie is way too over-wound up, and having a hard time settling down tonight). 

For our relaxation, we sat out by the pond and threw a line in.  We have several enormous bass in the pond, and we know we have to catch some to keep the eco-system in the pond balanced.  After about 30 minutes we caught this big guy, who we named "One-Eyed Jack" on account of him only having one eye.  We were fully prepared.  Joel had brought out a flat stone and his hatchet.  I had a scaler and filet knife.  I found a good recipe for a gluten free fish fry.  However, with 'ole Jack in front of us we just couldn't do it.  We put Jack in a bucket of water to try to emotionally prepare ourselves to give him a swift end, but after much deliberation, we returned him to the waters from whence he came more or less unharmed.

So, with Jack safe, Susie finally resting, and lots of good fruit in the kitchen, I picked out some recipes for some baking tomorrow.

First, I am going to make a grain free peach cobbler trying out this recipe which I modified just a little bit from the original:

Ingredients:

Filling:
8 peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced thin
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Crust:
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp honey
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 1/2 tsp coconut oil
6 egg whites

Prepare filling and put in baking dish.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare crust by mixing together flours and coconut oil and put in freezer.  Whip egg whites until frothy.  Add egg whites to flour mix, and mix in remaining ingredients.  Crumble crust over filling.  Return baking dish to oven and bake for 20 minutes.  Serve alone or with Vanilla Ice Cream or So Delicious Coconut Milk Ice Cream.

Also, a Blackberry pie with this recipe:

For the crust:

• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup Earth balance buttery sticks or coconut oil
• 6 tablespoons cold water

For the filling:

• 5 cups fresh blackberries 
• 3/4 to 1 cup coconut sugar
• 1/3 cup sorghum flour
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel/zest or lemon juice

The hands-down, easiest way to make a gluten-free crust is in a food processor. Begin by mixing together flour and salt. (You can add a tablespoon or two of sugar if you like a sweeter crust.) Add in Earth Balance, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, and sticks together when squeezed.

While processor is running, add 6 tablespoons cold water quickly into the feed tube. Pulse two more times and work dough into a ball; divide in two.

Roll dough out into a circle; keep it between two sheets of parchment paper so you don’t have to add any extra flour or worry about sticking. Since the traditional method of rolling the dough onto the rolling pin doesn’t work well with GF dough, you can transfer the crust  into the pan with one layer of parchment paper still on.

In a separate bowl, mix berries with sugar, flour, and lemon peel. Mix gently until flour is absorbed. Pour into prepared crust.

Roll out top crust between parchment paper and cover pie, tuck in and crimp edges. Add several slits on top for venting.

For extra browning, brush on almond milk and sprinkle with sugar. Cover edges with foil, or a handy edge cover as shown below. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes; remove foil. If you’re using a edge cover, you can leave it on as desired.

Bake for another 25-30 minutes, until filling starts to bubble through the crust, and done!    

Cool for at least 2 hours on a wire rack. If you cut this pie warm, the filling will ooze out.
Let it set until the bottom of the pan is cool, and if you have the patience, let it cool overnight in the fridge.

Memorializing

The three day weekend for Memorial Day could not have come too soon.  I met with Lori Elam of Noah's Ark Society on Friday to talk to her about a horse rescue partnership.  We are meeting in person in a couple of weeks to talk about it with our group, and get all the details ironed out.  In the process, Joel and I brought home a foster dog.  Her name is Susie Q and she is a Golden/Border Collie mix who has endless oodles of go go go.

This is little Susie Q:

Unfortunately, Susie is not entirely cat safe, so her stay with us will be a little truncated.  We are keeping her and Sebastian separated for now, but Wednesday Susie will probably go in for her spay, and she will finish up her foster time with a different family.

We didn't take any photos, but we also spent a little while fishing in our pond.  I caught two bass, but both were too small to keep so we threw them back in.  We keep seeing one that is about 18 inches long, but so far, he has evaded the hook.

Today, Joel and I went to the Memorial Day picnic with our church.  Joel pondered the state of the environment:

I made gluten free brownies that were so far beyond delicious that the entire tray disappeared in a matter of seconds---and I think I was the only gluten free person there!  We then took a moment to pose together, but separately beside the lake:

On the adoption front, we have our home study currently submitted for two children.  Tegan is 7 and in Colorado and Hunter is 6 and in Michigan.

Tegan

This is Tegan's biography that was posted online:

Get ready for Miss Tegan! This loveable and bright schoolgirl is hoping to find her way to a family who is committed to helping her thrive and grow. Tegan is full of energy, and enjoys doing karate, playing golf, going to church and dressing up! This highly sensitive and perceptive little girl absolutely loves being the center of attention. Her imagination is vast and she is happy playing with her dolls by herself during quiet time.

Tegan is excited about first grade, where she hopes to make new friends and show off her reading skills. She benefits from counseling, which will need to continue after placement.

The caseworker prefers a two-parent home. Tegan is at her best when she is the youngest or only child in the family; however, all family types will be considered. This youngster needs consistent structure, patience and repetition, combined with love, laughter and acceptance.

Hunter

This is Hunter's biography:

Hunter is a very active young boy. He is a ball of energy that needs to be moving all the time. Hunter describes himself as “a happy kid.” His favorite meal is pizza with chocolate milk. Hunter likes to play sports like soccer and t-ball. When he grows up he says he would like to be a farmer.

The ideal family for Hunter would be a family that is very active and likes to be on the go. The family will need to provide Hunter with a loving and consistent home in which he can have reliable rules and structure. The adoptive family must be willing to seek out any additional support services that would be beneficial to Hunter’s needs. Hunter would do okay with other siblings, however, he would benefit from being either the youngest or only child in the adoptive home. The family must provide Hunter with guidance, encouragement and consistency to help him achieve his goals.

 

Fun For All

It is amazing how busy we have been.  The guest room is really coming together to be ready for the child we will hopefully one day adopt.    The bathroom in the hall is done.  Our bathroom is done and we have moved upstairs.  We have spent hours working on homework, horse chores, and even found plenty of time for play.  So, to put some of it in photos:

We are loving Molly and Lady and making sure that they get more attention, not less with all of our hustle and bustle. 

We adopted Checkers, who has become Joel's favorite cookie monster, and a reliable riding companion for me:

We took in our first, born in the wild, Mustang foster horse, Addie: 

......who promptly became best friend's with Checkers (they are practically twins!):

Unfortunately, Jewel lost her baby, but she is much healthier and happy now, so we feel that it was for the best.  We still get to enjoy a little filly, since Evangeline and her baby, Aurora are fostering with us.  Little Aurora's antics keep us smiling, and her panelled paddock keep her safe and out of trouble:

Sebastian hasn't been overlooked either.  We gave him a bath over the weekend, so he is not quite ready for his close up right now.  Baths are not his favorite thing.

Saturday morning Douglas came over ride a horse for the first time.  His nerves let up after awhile, and he loosened his grip to wave at his Uncle Joel.  After dinner that night we went to his house and played Rock Band together as a family.  Lots of laughs all around.  

Gains and Losses

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks which has slowed the blog posts.  For those that follow my Facebook you will see that I have been vocal about some pending legislation in the state.  H.B.3619 would have legalized horse slaughter in TN. The thought mortifies me.  When I found that the rescue that I was involved in would not take a position statement on the legislation, and in fact some members were in favor of slaughter, I resigned from all involvement in the rescue.  This weekend will be my last in assisting.  I will sidebar that there were additional issues for my departure---individuals in the organization were extremely rude to others in the animal welfare movement in our area, and I firmly believe that in these types of matters we all have to work together....the adage of divided we fall could not be more true.  My departure spurred the departure of others, and one member preceeded me. 

This leads to an exciting gain---we are forming a new rescue.  Middle Tennessee Horse Rescue will be formed by our little group of like-minded, hard working people, and we will be taking a firm and direct stance on animal welfare issues---slaughter, soring, Premarin and the other issues in Equine well-being.  We are very excited to be starting the new organization from the ground up.  We are, of course, seeking volunteers, so if you read this and want to be involved, just let me know.

We did however, have a big loss this week.  Jewel, our adopted mare, was pregnant at her time of seizure in October.  She was due to deliver at the end of July, but miscarried Wednesday night.  The foal was stillborn.  Jewel seems to be fine.  We are still sad for the loss of the baby who we were making final preparations for.  Just this week we had designed her foaling stall and paddock and purchased rubber mats to make it as comfortable as possible.  As I write this, I am very sad for Jewel's loss, and the loss of the first foal that we would have had.

In the midst of everything at home and in the periphery, work has been rigorous.  I have been extremely busy with the Philippines project and am almost wrapped up on it.  I have a meeting in an hour to discuss my next chapter here, and have been told that I will be asked to take a bigger role.  Yeah!  I love when hard work pays off. 

I am hoping for a happy weekend, and even though it will be busy, I am looking for some emotional calming.  With so much on my plate, I have been losing sleep at night and not able to let my brain quiet down.

Happiness Flows In A Circular Motion

In our home we always adopt.  Of course, we anticipated that statement to apply to our pets, but it will hopefully apply to our one-day child as well.  We first adopted Sebastian (if you ask him, he likely believes he is our biological child).  We then adopted Nugget who introduced us to Golden Retrievers and what gems they are.  After lost Nugget, Charlie followed (my heart is still broken at his loss), and while we had Charlie we brought in his sisters, Lady and Molly.  Once we bought our new house, we started fostering horses, and that brings us to Checkers.  He has a therapy horse temperment.

Reflecting On Learning Of Christ

Some of my hardest earliest learning experiences were of what it means to be reverent.  As a child, it was so hard to sit still in church, and to not wiggle constantly.  When very young my mom offered distractions during our church service to make it easier---a bag of cheerios, a coloring book picture of Jesus.  Something to help me learn to sit quietly for the little over an hour each Sunday.  As I got older it went without saying that I would sit up and pay attention to the message given each Sunday.  In all honesty, I had a strong academic knowledge of the gospel during my teen years, but not a lot of testimony.  I was going through the motions, without a lot of effort or faith.  My sister was the opposite---her testimony of our savior's love was always strong, and she did and does believe that our Heavenly Father is always watching over her, leading her, and guiding her.  I wish I had been gifted with her seemingly effortless faith.  I know I would have made many different life decisions.   However, the choices I did make led me to my husband who I love with all my heart and soul.  15 years later, I still know we were meant for each other.

I can't say what the catalyst was...there was no groundbreaking changing moment in my life, but as I have grown as an adult, the testimony has slowly come.  Now, we are on the precipice of having a child come live with us, and we want to raise her to be a righteous daughter of God.  Unlike my childhood, raised in the church; our child's background will be very different.  We are looking at children up to 9 years old, and they may or may not have even had any biblical teaching. 

Obviously a lot will change when we adopt.  I only hope he or she can enjoy the changes, and that they will understand that in the quiet and reflection they will have at church that they can hopefully start to truly feel and understand God's love for her.  Even if we only spend 10 minutes a day on it, we will start with daily scripture study at home--starting with the New Testament because it will be the easiest starting place for her (especially since we use the King James version of the Bible).  Please pray for us.  This, among other things, will not be an easy transition for us when we adopt.

Our Gentle Giant

We were asked to foster a senior mare for VEA.  She is 25 years old, and is a very large appendix bred Quarter Horse.  Her name is Joy.  We figured we would be her convalescent home where she could spend as much time as she had left whether it be one year, 5 years or 10....horses can have a pretty long lifespan with proper care. 

Joy decided to surprise us.  She has a lot of spunk and tenacity for a 25 year old, though she lets herself get pushed around by the other horses.  She has a been there done that attitude, and the other horses tend to copycat her.  It is precious watching her splash herself in the creek and then go take a roll in the grass....and even funnier to see Jordin watching and mimicking. 

When she has a saddle on though, she is all business.  She will happily stay in a trot, but she listens to what she is told.  As a result of her amazing-ness her stay with us went from what we anticipated to be a retirement home to our shortest foster arrangement yet.  Joy has already left with an amazing adopter who has another senior gelding.  We will miss our gentle giant.

Pressing Onward

I'll have a video to post later (I just haven't uploaded it to youtube yet), so this will be a mostly photo-less and video-less post.  The bathroom remodel has slowed down.  We are in a waiting mode now, but I should have some tile updates to post tonight.  The granite is in production, the shower door has been measured and ordered, and the fixtures have been powder-coated to go back in.  We have also ordered everything but the tub and tile for our adoptive child's bathroom. 

In the midst of everything we decided that we needed to sell my Pilot.  I know that seems random.  We bought it with an adoptive child in mind, for the extra room, rear DVD system, etc.....of course, at that time I was working from home more often than not, and when I did drive downtown it was not as far.  I now drive from Gallatin to Brentwood 5 days a week, and with gas prices on the rise my 16 mpg SUV is costing me a FORTUNE!  So, after much research, we decided on the Hyundai Elantra Limited with Technology Package that gets 40 mpg.  I'll have the same car payment, but my gas expenses will be cut by more than half.  The local dealer here was not helpful, so we went through Bowling Green Hyundai, and they are having the car transported here from Indianapolis.  It will get here Friday, and I will find out then whether I am getting a 2012 or an early release 2013 model.  It's the same car either way, so I don't care.

Here are manufacturers photos:

A Sad Goodbye

Tomorrow we will sadly say goodbye to Max, as we let him go back to MTGRR to get the therapeutic rehabilitation he needs.  We found out that Brandi is not available, so we will be a two Golden family again.  We'll miss Max....he is a good boy, he just needs training to boost his confidence, and we don't know how to give that.  The video below will be one of our fondest memories of our time with him:

Six

Well, the crown molding in the bedroom is finished (yeah!), and we still had time to enjoy our anniversary.  This will be our last anniversary that we are without a human child, so it is a little bit of a landmark.   This upcoming year will be a lot different, with changing responsibilities. 

We had a lovely day for this anniversary.  We went to Hendersonville Produce, hoping to make it to the Farm Fresh Food Fest, but got there too late---still I picked up goodies for the week ahead.  We did make it to the grand opening of Butterbean Bistro.  This was their official ribbon cutting, they have been open for over a month, and we've been there several times.  Their entire menu is gluten free, and they have lots of dairy free options as well.  We saw my friend Loretta when we got there.  I love living in a community where I randomly run into friends.  It really makes it home for us, which is something I don't think Joel and I had when we were in Michigan, or even when we lived in Joelton.  We picked up a couple desserts---a date bar for me, and a pineapple right sight up cupcake for Joel that we will be enjoying in a little while.

Once we got back home we decided to spend our afternoon enjoying the things we love best around the house.  We put on our boots and walked our whole property, spending time sitting by one of the wide bends in our creek and just enjoying the beauty around us.  We are thrilled that the grass is getting green again and Spring is about to re-bloom.  We had our first scheduled phone call with Makallia, and got to chat for 30 minutes, which was a great re-connection after our visit a week ago.  Tomorrow she will turn 13, and we are just sad that we can't be there for her birthday.  She is extremely excited to come to the house next week, so we at least know she is happy.

We opted for a night in instead of a night out tonight, so I am about to take a whole roast chicken and honey carrots out of the oven, and we'll snuggle on the couch for a movie (Water for Elephants).  All in all a very lovely day, and a great celebration of the start of our next year together. 

New Beginnings

A week ago yesterday I left my job with Debut Broadcasting, and today I accepted a position that will be a next chapter, and new beginning.  I will be joining the team at W-Squared as a Corporate Controller in charge of their new outsource division.  It's an exciting position, organizing a new branch withing the company.  I'll have a little bit of travel (not much), going to the Philippines.  I'm very excited, and very very relieved to have found such a great opportunity so quickly.

The Well Engineered Lunch

Lunch is one of my hardest meals of the day.  It's easy to deal with food allergies eating in, but lunch requires planning since it is the one meal of the day that almost always has to be eaten out of the house.  I'm also now starting to try to plan for integrating Makallia into our home, and planning for her needs.  We don't really want to do a cafeteria meal plan.  We eat all organic at home, and it just seems counterproductive to go from all organic at home to mass produced, chemically grown, genetically modified foods loaded with things we don't allow in our home---like artificial food colors, refined sugar, and high fructose corn syrup.

I'm not living in a fantasy though.  I know Makallia is going to have a tough adjustment going from eating how she does now to how we do, and she is not always going to like it---I've gone through sugar withdrawal when we stopped eating sugar, and it wasn't fun.  Sugar is truly addictive.

I turned to the blogs that I follow for some suggestions.  Now, with the bloggers I follow their kids have pretty much eaten gluten and dairy free from birth so they have a much different palate than Makallia will, and probably even more so than we will.  However, I was able to get a really good idea.  One suggested that if kids build their own lunch box they will be much more apt to be happy with their meal choices and eat what is provided to them.  They even provided a sample lunch box planner.  I used their lunch box planner as an inspiration (which included things like Quinoa, Nori Rolls, and other things that I know won't fly in our household), and came up with my own.   The idea of the lunch box builder is that you choose one item from each column, and that is your lunch.  The columns are Fruit, Vegetable, Protein, Treat, and Drink.    Though the treat column has things on it like snack bars, cookies, pudding, etc...those would all be homemade items that are much healthier---I have so many recipes now that are sugar free for desserts.  They don't use synthetic alternatives, either.  They are generally sweetened with dates or honey, and taste delicious.

I am going to start using this now with Joel and myself so we can tweak it as we go along, and be totally ready for when we need to add in lunch box #3.  I gave it to Joel for him to review, and he already chose for his Monday lunch raspberries, green salad, ham, kefir and water.  I chose strawberries, baby carrots, hummus, dark chocolate and grape juice.

A Book For The Future

I've never scrap-booked.  Going to the craft store and finding the row upon row of scrapbooking materials can be rather overwhelming.  I had no idea there was that much stuff out there for the purpose of archiving your life on paper.

We decided to put together an album for the child we will one day adopt with family, pets, and home so they can have something to keep with them to help them get to know their potential future family through photos.  I took advantage of the plethora of scrapbooking materials available, and put together a cute album.  I hope it does not overwhelm our adoptive child when we give it to him/her.  I used a family theme for the whole album, since that is really what everything is all about.

I can't imagine meeting my potential mom and dad for the first time, but having a physical leave behind will hopefully be a good thing.

The album cover---baby blue will work for either a girl or a boy:

This photo of Joel and I with Nugget is one of our favorites.  We took it ourselves using the timer on the camera, and it came out great:

A single photo of Joel on the "Dad" page:

A single photo of me on the "Mom" page:

My brother saw the scrapbook, and made a comment about the dogs coming before the rest of the people in the family.  We decided to put the pages in order of everyone who lives in our house and then the rest of the family.  We put the dogs in order oldest to youngest, so Lady gets the first Retriever page:

Molly's Page...she is a very girly girl dog, so pink polka dots seemed fitting:

Sebastian--I'm not totally thrilled with this page, but we have so many cute photos of the little bug, and couldn't choose which ones to leave off.  It was hard to limit it to just these 6:

This page is all photos of the house, barn and arena so they can see where they will live:

I think this will be a favorite page.  I'm pretty sure almost all children love horses, and this shows the horses out on the pasture that will be right in her/his backyard:

This page is my mom, and says "Grandma" at the top and "Always There For Each Other" at the bottom:

This photo is me and my Grandfather, and says "Great-Grandpa".  On all the pages that had lines for writing we left blank so our adoptive child could journal whatever he/she wanted there.  This is their album, after all:

This page says Uncle & Aunt and showcases Benjamin and Allison:

Continuing the Aunt and Uncle theme, here is a Aunt Josie:

We don't have any photos of Joel's half-brother Rex and his wife Theresa, so I wasn't able to include them.  Instead we went into the cousins.  We put them in oldest to youngest which also inadvertently sorted them by family.  These are the cousins on Joel's side, from oldest to youngest, Kayla, R.J. and Katie:

Here's Josie's boys, Ammon and Dallin:

Last but not least, Benjamin and Alie's boys, Douglas and David.  We must like Halloween, since we chose lots of photos with Halloween costumes.

The last page I put in just has some candid family photos.  Some are just simple reading a book together, or being out and about.  I was hoping to show her that we do have fun together even if it is just with simple things.

A Long Time Coming

Today I did something that I should have done 18 months ago.  It was still hard to do, but I feel relieved.  I resigned from my position as Chief Financial Officer of Debut Broadcasting.  It's a crazy time to be in the job market, but it was the right choice.  I'm focused now on getting interviews and into a new position that will bring a lot of stability.  As we move forward and look towards bringing our adoptive child home it became even more essential for me to make this choice.  I am so grateful to Joel for all his love and support---not only over the past year + that things have been far from ideal at work, but also in my decision to finally leave.    I'm excited to find out what the next chapter is.

My Deepest Sorrow

New Years 2012 is the saddest day I have known in such a long time.  It is hard to write this post, but also one of the reasons that I needed to start updating our blog again.

The day started out great.  We got up, and I cooked bacon for the retrievers as a special New Years Day treat.   We went out in the yard to play, and then loaded the pups up in the car for a long car ride.

Early in the evening, Joel went out to the arena with me, and I saddled up Demi and went for a ride.  When we got back to the house, Charlie was laying in the laundry room.   We knew immediately that something was wrong---Charles never goes in the laundry room.  He was lethargic, and wouldn't get up. I contacted Dr. Sammons and told her we needed to bring him to her--it was an emergency.  She left Church to meet us at the clinic, but our Charles left us on the drive there.

His heart was healthy, but apparently had a weak spot, and he died of a massive heart attack.  It was not preventable, and there was nothing we could do, but it does not lesson the pain we feel.  Charles will always be my baby.  There won't be a day that I don't miss him.  He was only 9, and I expected so many more years of him by my side.

I know if he had to choose his last day that we gave him his most perfect last day ever--I just wish we could give him 8 dozen more just like it.