DIY Homemade Fruit Strips

I love fruit gummy snacks. They were my favorite dessert in my lunchbox when I was a kid, and I still pack them in my lunch on days when I go to work as a substitute. In an effort to start cutting out processed foods, I have been looking for recipes of my favorite go-to snacks (fruit snacks, yogurt, popcorn, and granola bars). This past weekend I tried out a recipe for home made fruit strips (similar to fruit roll-ups.)

The ingredients are simple:

• 2 cups berries (fresh or if frozen, then thawed)


• 2 Tbsp honey

Berries are one of the fruits that I will only by organic, since the conventional grown berries are heavily sprayed. This time of year the fresh organic berries are VERY expensive, and hard to to find. So I buy frozen organic berries, you can get a lot for your money!

Mix the berries and honey in the blender until pureed. I should have done a few more seconds because I had three random whole berries when I poured the mixture out.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper, and pour the mixture onto the pan. Make sure to evenly spread the berry mixture to fill the pan.

Place the pan in the oven and cook on 200 degrees F for 3 to 4 hours. Check often, you want the mixture to feel dry and no longer sticky.

Cool the pan on a wire rack, the longer you allow it to cool the better.

Cut into strips. I found it easier to to just peel off the pan and tear into pieces as my fruit strips didn't easily cut with a pizza cutter.

The end results look more like beef jerky then fruit roll-ups, but they tasted delicious. I would suggest not using strawberries because the seeds got stuck in my teeth. I will be definitely be making these again!

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A Month of Thanksgiving

November brings my absolute favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. What makes this special day such a treasured holiday celebration for me, is it is the one holiday where you simply gather with family and friends and are reminded just how blessed you are. No consumerism or materialistic expectations, just good food!

I must admit that I do get frustrated when Thanksgiving is overshadowed by the Christmas rush. It seems that Christmas begins the day after Halloween. I'm one of those people who refuses to put up Christmas decorations, or look at Christmas items in the store, until the day after Thanksgiving. My fall decorations stay proudly out in display throughout November.

I love the meaning behind Thanksgiving, giving thanks to God for all the good gifts that He has blessed us with. That is the message of my blog. This year I am especially thankful that we have a new addition to the family to be thankful for. Everyday with Silas is truly a good gift!

I have been pinning Thanksgiving ideas on my Pinterest page to hopefully one day use with Silas, and if we are blessed with our future children. I want to instill in them a spirit of thanksgiving as well. To be reminded of all God's blessings and to always remember to give thanks to God.

I also love to host the Thanksgiving dinner at my house, to cook and to bake for the festive meal. After all, this is one of the best food days of the year! I am already beginning planning for the meal that I will cook and serve to my family.

In the spirit of a thankful heart, what could be cutter than my little Silas Scarecrow!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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10 Reasons to Love a Daily Walk

Of all my goals for last week, the one thing that I actually did everyday was take a daily walk with Silas. Even when it was cold, I bundled Silas up and off we went. Here are 10 reasons why I love our daily walks and why they are so important to me.

1. It gets us outside, breathing in fresh air, allowing for some natural vitamin D exposure, and enjoying this beautiful weather before the harsh winter weather sets in.




2. It gets us out of the house for FREE! It's free to take a walk and enjoy nature. Maybe it is still an adjustment to being at home, but I get cabin fever very easily, so a daily walk outside is a free cure then going somewhere that I am sure I would spend money.




3. It allows for easy exercise with the baby. Try as I might, working out at home during nap time, or early in the morning before Silas gets up, doesn't always work out. Silas loves getting into his stroller for a walk, and I love that I am at least doing something to lose the baby weight!




4. We get to enjoy the changing seasons and decorations in the neighborhood. Silas loves to look at the large inflatable pumpkin that we pass everyday on our walk. I love to see how my neighbors decorate for fall and other seasons. I love pumpkins and mums on porches this time of year. In a few weeks they will be replaced with Christmas decorations. In the spring fresh flowers are abound.




5. Walking through my neighborhood makes me realize how blessed we are as a family to live in a beautiful, mature community with big trees, old homes, and familiar faces as well as dogs barking.




6. The nearby park allows for a change up. Just a 5 minutes drive away is a beautiful community park that has a wonderful walking trail when Silas and I need a change of view.




7. As much as I love mine and Silas' walk together, I also cherish the times that my husband and dog Rocco joins us on the weekends. It is such a sweet time as a family.




8. When the weather turns snowy, or rainy, I am also blessed to live only a few minutes away from an indoor mall so we can continue to walk despite the weather's conditions.




9. I love how Silas pulls himself up in the stroller to get a better view, and how he sits back contently taking in the world. He loves the walks just as much as I do!




10. Walks help to restore my sanity! As I am walking it gives me the opportunity to think, and pray without the interruptions or distractions from home.

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Creating Weekly and Daily Goals

As I have been adjusting into my new role as a Stay-At-Home Mom, I have been really struggling with creating a schedule and a routine that my 8 month old son and I could stick to on a daily basis. I like structure, I like routines, but wouldn't you know that Silas likes to just go with the flow? Try as I might to create any sort of routine, Silas has other plans. So the frustration and the sense of failure was beginning to creep in.

Instead of focusing on a set schedule and routine, I been thinking about goals~ things I would like to accomplish. So I sat down and thought through all the chores that I do to keep the house clean. I made a list of what I do daily, and what I do weekly. The weekly chores I assigned a day, and I would plan them according to when my mom or mother-in-law was coming over. It is a lot easier to clean the bathroom if I know that Silas is being entertained elsewhere.

Next I started to think about about exercise, personal, devotional and reading goals that I wanted to create. So I wrote those out as well. I typed up my list and it is now posted on my refrigerator as a reminder of all the things that I would like to get down, and really make a priority.

As well as having set weekly goals, I also wanted to create an easy "Week At A Glance" that I could post on the refrigerator as well. So I created another document with a weekly calendar, dinner plans, and specific To-Dos. Both now hang in the kitchen where I see them on a constant basis. My days are still crazy and unpredictable, and to be honest I have yet to have a day where I do everything I plan to do, but just having a plan, having goals, and having a visual reminder have really helped me to feel productive. At the end of the week when I see how much I have crossed off my list I realize just how much I have actually accomplished.

This week's goals are...

Devotional

1. 
   
   Have a daily Bible study and prayer time


2. 
   
   Read a Bible story and pray with Silas


3. 
   
   Nightly prayer and Bible reading with Brett

Exercise- still trying to lose that last (pesky) 10 pounds of pregnancy weight that has permanently taken up residence in my mid-section.

1. 
   
   Daily walk with Silas


2. 
   
   Work out at the gym Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday afternoon


3. 
   
   Work out at home Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

Reading-

1. 
   
   Read assigned chapter from A Confident Heart for ladies book study


2. 
   
   Finish The Mission of Motherhood


3. 
   
   Finish Organized Simplicity


4. 
   
   Read aloud daily to Silas

Personal-

1. 
   
   Clean out and organize closet- still need to pack up maternity clothes


2. 
   
   Bake chocolate chip cookies


3. 
   
   Try 2 new recipes for dinner

So these are my goals for this week, we will see what I actually am able to accomplish.

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