Juicing Junkies...

 Jacob and I have started to juice! We went grocery shopping today and here's what we got! I always wash my fruits and veggies by soaking them in water with about 1/2 cup of vinegar for maybe 10 minutes or so. This gets off all of the chemicals, bacteria, wax, and other nasty stuff that is often found on produce. 

We have come up with some great recipes, and below, I have made links to nutritional facts on each of the fruits and veggies that we bought today! 

Recipes coming soon! 

Jake has already noticed that his hearing (tinnitus) is getting better, his energy levels are up, and he's dropping that stubborn "belly fat" that he's been trying to get rid of. It's been great for me as well! 

 The pastor's family is having us over on Sunday, so I thought I'd make the Mrs. a pretty apron! I hope she likes it! Don't mind the "I'm in pain, don't want to smile" grin. I just had my wisdom tooth out yesterday. It hurts to smile! 

Apples
Kiwi
Beets
Pineapple
Watermelon
Ginger
Oranges
Strawberries
Celery
Carrots
Cucumber
Avacado (Can't Juice - Add to Blender with Juice)
Banana (Can't Juice - Add to Blender with Juice)

J&B's Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups sliced almonds
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

 Preheat oven to  300*F.

1. In a bowl, mix the oats, almonds, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. 

2. In a saucepan, warm the oil and honey. Whisk in vanilla.

3. Carefully pour the liquid over the oat mixture. Stir gently with a wooden spoon. Spread granola in a 10x15" baking pan. Bake 30-40 minutes, stirring carefully every 10 minutes. The granola will be dried, but not "crispy" when it's done. We baked ours for only 30 minutes, because our oven cooks a little hot. Just use your discretion!

 4. Transfer to another cool sheet and let the granola cool completely. Stir in raisins or cranberries (we left these out completely). Seal granola in an airtight container. Store at room temperature for 1 week, or in the freezer for 3 months. 

 We love putting ours in Chobani Greek yogurt! It makes it even BETTER!

Lamp Re-vamp...

This is one of our newest projects! I wish I would have taken a picture of the FULL lamps, but this is the color of the lamps before we painted them! I didn't mind them being brown... but they didn't match the bedroom... so I thought, "It's time for a new color!"

We first sanded them down, to get ready for the new color!

  Here's Jake painting the knob!

 The lamp in progress... we had to paint it twice to cover the brown.

 After the paint dried, we sanded them lightly in different places to give them that "worn" look.

Another close up...

The finished product! They look SOOOOO much better!

All for now! Look for new posts soon!

Brrrberry and Birds...

Jake and I have found a new favorite date place called Brrrberry, and because it's SOOOOO cool and awesome, we wanted to share it with you guys!

This is a blurry pic, but it sorta shows the 1-2-3 steps for having the best Brrrberry experience ever!

1. Grab a Bowl!
2. Get  Yogurt!
3. Top It. Top It. Top It.

There are 6 different flavors of frozen yogurt to choose from! And you also have the totally awesome choice of swirling two flavors together!

Then... comes the toppings. They have EVERYTHING! It's awesome!

Here's my amazing husband, building his creation! 

And here's me! And a bunch of other people coming in to enjoy the frozen yogurt as well!

My ice cream always last longer than Jake's!

See?

Oh, Jake ALWAYS puts a brownie in the bottom of his too! 

The colors are so fun and exciting! 

And they even sell cool t-shirts for only $15.00! I WILL get one someday!

Truth! 

And now on to other things! There was an ugly, blank place above my fridge and stove that has driven me NUTS since moving into this house. I have racked my brain for MONTHS trying to figure out what to put there. Finally... I had this idea.

Jake and I quickly got to work, using some old boards that had been used for a flower bed in the back yard.   I didn't like the flower bed where it was, so I tore it apart and thought, "Hmmm.... I could use these boards for SOMETHING! Well, I'm glad that I kept them!

Here's a sneak peak! We wanted to put a Scripture verse on it... something that would inspire us each day. So we picked out Psalm 51:10, which says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."

  I printed out the letters on paper, and pasted them together. We taped the letters onto the board, and used a pen to push down and dent the wood, to give us a guide for when we painted on the letters. 

 Here's how they turned out!

I think the birds added a LOT of character! Jake did this side.

Here's the other half! I did this one!

And the other bird!

Here they are! They fill in that empty space wonderfully!

I am lovin' it!

Here they are together...

Just a different angle. 

And that's all, Folks! Hope you've enjoyed the blog post!!!

The first day of Christmas break required something special for breakfast, Jacob mentioned French Toast, and I thought it was a splendid idea! However, I had never made French Toast (much to his dismay) so I boldly (sort of) told him that I was, "...going to do it!" He said okay, wished me good luck, and went into the living room to kill people (via X-Box Call of Duty - Modern Warfare). 

I hastened to the computer to find a good recipe... one "not so ordinary", and I stumbled across one that had both *Vanilla* and *Honey* in the title. El-yummo! It sounded great!

After adding some different twists here and there, which the recipe below includes (aka Yankee Ingenuity), the French Toast turned out splendid! I also added some sausage and eggs (as you can see in the picture above), and called the husband to the table for breakfast.

Shazam! It was a HIT! 

One more "SCORE" mark on the imaginary "MY WIFE IS AWESOME" board that I *believe* my husband keeps somewhere in his head. Oooooh ya! 

Vanilla Honey French Toast
Serves 4

8 slices of bread (thick bread is better, but you can use regular bread as well. Just don't soak it as long)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup French Vanilla Coffee Creamer (or any other creamer of your choice)
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Beat the eggs together with the milk and cream. Add the vanilla, honey and cinnamon and whisk to combine thoroughly.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and melt half of the butter on the skillet. Meanwhile, soak each piece of bread in the egg mixture for 5-10 seconds (depending on thickness of bread). When the butter begins to shimmer, add the bread to the skillet, leaving space between each piece. Cook for 2-3 minutes, each side, until the toast is golden brown.

3. Place the cooked pieces of toast on a cookie sheet in the oven to stay warm while cooking the remaining pieces. Serve warm with butter, maple syrup or jam, and fresh berries.

Wow! So I finally am taking time to write a long, overdue post!!!

WARNING! Most of these items below were given to me, found on the road, or bought at yard sales!!! GOD IS SOOOO GOOD TO US!!!!

Krystal came to visit us a few weeks back, so I made her up these pillow cases from a nice fabric shower curtain that I found on the side of the road. FREE! And very pretty, I might add!

Yes, Cracker Barrel sells these for over $30.00. The Lord blessed me with this one for $1.75!

Remember one of my first blog posts about making a tree? Ya... I finally STARTED it, at least!

It's coming along!

I think it's gunna be super cute when it's finished!

So, Jake and I were out throwing the Frisbee and found these doors to an entertainment stand. I knew right away that they could be used for picture frames, so I snagged them! I haven't finished them yet, but I will post pics when I do!

This stand was originally orange, but I sanded it, spray painted it white, then took wood stain and poly and painted it on. I really like the new look. It looks a lot better than bright orange!!!

Ahhh, yes! One of Jake's fondest memories! I downloaded a trial version and made the famous, "Jake Poo's Kiddy Ride". We made one of these YEARS ago when we were kids. He wasn't too thrilled, but Krystal and I got a kick out of it! Lol...

I babysat a little girl named Lily for a few days last month. It was fun, and she's quite a little trooper! 

This is a sign that Lily and I made for her mom!!!

The Ingersons sent me these awesome Pampered Chef spatulas and spoons!!! I was thrilled! And the little country doll in the background :) And this is the start to my chicken pot pie... which Jake LOVED!!!

Krystal sent Jake a pop gun for his bday last year, and this year, she sent me one too!!! We cut off the strings and chase each other around the house with them. And let me tell you!!! Those things can leave welts!!!

For Jake's birthday, I bought him vanilla ice cream and I made him a homemade apple pie! This is before it was cooked. It was good!! But I should have cooked it a little more... but it still tasted YUMMY!

I was given these picture frames at a yard sale, and the signs I got for $.25 each!!!

I got this ivy plant free on the side of the road as well!

I got this sign at a yard sale for a dollar.

Closer view...

The Lord blessed me with a BEAUTIFUL new keyboard! Some of our very good friends knew that I desired a piano, and blessed me with this one!!! It's incredible too!!! 

I wanted to do something with these lemonade bottles, so I used some paint that I found by the road to coat the inside. I'll show you below what I think I might do with them...

I got this apple at Ross for $1.00! I like it!

I got this for a dollar or two at a yard sale...

This was a dollar...

FREE frame!

I was given these candle sticks for my wedding, but I painted them black. I also bought this cute tea kettle for $1.00.

FREE!

Vase was $1.00 and the leafs were given to me by the Ingersons!

This was $1.00!

A closer look at my spoons and spatulas!

Picture frame -  FREE!! Stand - FREE!! Table Cloth - FREE!!! I used the same fabric for the covering that I did for the pillow cases!

Here's a different view of the tree that I'm making!

I needed something to store some of my craft stuff in, so I painted a shoe box, tore up pieces of scrapbook paper, and used Mod Podge to paste them on!

Here's Lily and Krystal bowling!

Krystal bought this for Jake at Ross! SOOO perfect! And Jake bought me the rolling pin! I was using a water bottle to roll out my crusts, so this is MUCH better!!!

Miss Brittany Brown, a lady from church, gave me a TON of decorations! Some of these are mine.... and some are the ones that she gave me. So when Krystal was here, we decided to place them all in the living room and find places for them! Unfortunately, my creative juices weren't flowing that day, so Krystal did most of the work, lol! Sorry Krystal! 

Closer look.

I decided to put this in our living room since it matched our colors. I'll have to take a picture further back to give you an idea of what it looks like!

My gramma gave me a gift card for my birthday, so I bought a puzzle for Jake and I to work on gradually, when we had time. Well....... we took 5 hours and got it all done at once, lol! It was a blast too! We listened to preaching messages while putting it together!

The puzzle box...

So, this was a project that Jake and I did together! Here it's not complete, but I will take a picture of the completed project for you all to see! We had SOOO much fun putting it together, the old window frame was perfect for the style of this wedding photo!

I needed a stool for my new keyboard, so I found this on clearance at Ross. It WAS leopard print, but I used some of my free paint, and fixed it up!

 I think this is what I might do with the bottles... I am going to put the words THANKFUL across, and somehow decorate the inside of the box and make it country-ish! I can't wait to see how it turns out!

 These are some things that I found free in someone's trash pile. They were moving and decided they didn't want these perfectly good tools!!! Jake and I have been praying for tools, too!

This is a chair that I'm hoping to use for the computer desk chair, once we get a desk, lol! I found it free as well, and decided to take it apart and put some new fabric on it!

See... it was kinda yucky!

I think I'll just do black, but I haven't totally decided yet...

There were 50 million staples to be taken out, but I got them all!

This I made from a wall sticker from Amazon, the remnant of the photo we put in the window pane, and some cork board we used as backing for the picture. I'm going to hang it up by the window picture once I put a hanger on it! 

I have more pics to share... but these will do for now!!! Hope you enjoyed seeing the blessings that God has blessed us with!!!

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE COMMENTS!!!!!