Whole Foods Anyone?

Cha-Cha-Cha-Chia Seeds:
aren't just for a Strange Christmas Gift Anymore!
If you are like me and always seeking affordable, family friendly, whole and raw foods recipes, you may just LOVE chia pudding as much as my family. This can be used as a dessert, or as a breakfast. Chia seeds are FULL of Omega-3, protein, rare antioxidants, and fiber! They are gluten free and keep you feeling satisfied long after you eat them. This recipe does not affect blood sugar, which prevents your body from producing insulin, that triggers the storage of fat in your cells.

Cocoa Chia Pudding (yields 4 HEARTY servings)
3/4 cup chia seeds
2 cups almond milk
Dash salt (I use Himalayan Pink Sea Salt)
Natural (unbulked) stevia to taste (3-5 of the tiny scoops)
2-3 rounded Tbl. natural cocoa powder
optional: vanilla extract (1/4-1/2 tsp.) to taste

Simply mix the ingredients together, and let them rest for a few moments. Stir the mix well with a fork every five minutes or so. At first, it’ll seem far too liquidy, but over the course of thirty minutes the chia seeds will plump up, till the pudding resembles tapioca pudding. I love to throw the entire batch into the blender and process it until it resembles a creamy pudding, but if you like little tapioca-like balls, just don't blend up! If you serve the pudding in the quantity as in my photo, you'll easily serve 8. 

Unblended

Cocoa Chia Pudding

 I'm a real fan of unsweetened vanilla almond milk. We add about 3 tiny scoops of 100% pure stevia to the entire carton and shake it up if we are going to drink it by the glass.

Bringin' Back the Festive Tea Party

Our local mom's group gathered our resources and ideas and threw a throw-back party; a classic, ladies outdoor tea. The women dressed in fanciness from multiple decades, and drank tea and chatted among tables with white lace and triangle sandwiches. Here are a few of the highlights:

 Elise and I before we left

 Elise and her dear little friend, London

 My sweet friend, Shannon Alwine

 Grandma Jean and Chickie came all the way up from Spokane to come to the tea with me!

 Petra was a little out of her regular attire in her dramatically ruffled gown.

 Four lovely, related ladies

 Elise Erickson, Shauna, and Toshelle

 Me and my little-tiny tea attender

Chickie is demonstrating her beautiful deerskin purse.

Speaking of Changes...

I can't believe that I let this problem go on for so many months. I'm often so easily distracted from what I intend to do...There's been a slight import problem with my computer, and I just ignored it since, oh, the tamaracks WERE GOLDEN! Sorry that I've been so inattentive. It's almost comical.

Seems like the kids have probably left for college by now, but we have celebrated a few milestones. There was Silas' b-day, which came with a preschool-age bash that included his favorite food...grilled cheese and tomato soup. His cake this year was shaped like a circle...round...boring...cake, not a monster truck or a dinosaur, sorry Silas, I have come to understand that I'm NOT the mother of the year.

Christmas was cold and snowy, just like the kids had hoped. We played in the snow a lot more this winter, given the twins' ability to stand the cold...and mommy's ability to get them dressed before we meet a fit of some kind (by me, not the twins =).

Our chickens and two dogs made it through the winter, well, all the chickens but one-Hilary Rodham. She was one of the original "Cornelius" chickens and she just didn't have the heart to make it through these harsh winters. That, or she was old. She just curled up in the nest box and breathed her last...tragic.

The snow did finally melt, after I mastered a bread recipe and practiced all the indoor domestics that one, lone, unimaginative female could imagine. Silas began learning to read and if I'd be more consistent, he'd have his lesson book mastered by now! He loves it and has a sharp mind...that may be from his dad.  =)

Elise has begun practicing her feminine charm, from the swinging of her purse to the song and dance performances that she graces us with. Emmitt has taken to swimming, well, more like plunging his body under water and flailing his arms above water. The lifeguards at nearby (indoor) pool watch him like a hawk. He DOES look like he's drowning, but he comes up and victoriously says, "I'm practicing my swimming." Good son.

I'm training for a sprint triathlon...it in August and I am truly enjoying the training. Shauna Alwine taught me how to properly perform the crawl, so now we bike for 10 miles and swim a 1/4 mile when we go to the gym/pool/deli center in Usk, WA. The place is called the Camas Center, and is on the Kalispell Rez. It is classy. No kidding. It's nice. I'm not sure how long I can afford to drive over there to exercise and take the kids swimming. We have to cross the ski hill to get to Usk.

Barry received his Masters in Education from George Fox University in December. We took a family drive down to celebrate the completion of his long, hard, extremely tedious, never-ending grad work.

Barry is currently busily farming our 5 acres. He has plowed about 2 of them and will continue to plow those same two for the next 3 weeks or so, I'd guess. He takes the tractor in circles every chance he gets. He did, unfortunately, take out one 20 foot stretch of my fencing...

My 30th was brought in with a bang. A few of my friends planned a fabulous trip to Spokane, staying in a hotel, going out to fine restaurants, and even a little live piano...until the music took a turn for the worse and we turned in for the night.

The church and the youth at church have been our "down time" events. Teenagers are lovely things, if well fed. It seems like every night there's some kind of meeting, or group, or bonfire. I don't mind bonfires at all, unless they are 30 feet high and in my yard...like last night.

Here are some pictures from the past few months. Some are from events mentioned above and some are just random. Enjoy!