A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

Nothing is much better than real lemonade during the hot summer months. I've always liked lemonade. My first memory of lemonade is with my grandpa. He liked the powdered mix,  Country Time Lemonade. I remember buying it with him and mixing it up and having a nice cold glass to drink. That was all I used to drink, because I didn't know any different. Then, I discovered making my own. From scratch. Some lemon juice. Some simple syrup. And just a bit of water to make it right. My girl cherub has always been a lemon fan. I think that's my fault. When I was pregnant with her, I craved lemons. The Mr. would buy a bag of lemons to keep in the refrigerator for me. I'd cut them into wedges and sprinkle a little salt on them and indulge. My entire pregnancy! She can do the very same thing, even now. Matter of fact, the Mr. has to tell her to stop eating lemons! I'm to blame. Put her love of lemons together with her love of cooking a

We love Mexican food. Admittedly. We have a terrible crush on chips, salsa, pulled chicken tacos, and most other Mexican-style food. One thing, though, that nobody in our family really cares for is the red chili enchilada sauce. Give us green. Or sour cream. Or even cheese. But not red. So think me crazy when I thought that I'd make enchiladas for dinner using . . .RED enchilada sauce. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was having pregnancy cravings. Because that's what was happening! I was honestly CRAVING red enchilada sauce. Of course, though, I didn't have any of the canned stuff. I don't buy it. But even if I did buy it, I wouldn't have it anyways. Because that's the law of returning home from being out of town. Whatever you need or want when you return from being out of town, you don't have. Period. You have to go to the store. But I wasn't going to the store, because I didn't want to. Plus

I'm really not sure why . . . but I love chex mix. I like different kinds of chex mix. Sure, the standard savory recipe is fine, but I'm talking all the new-fandangled choices! It's kind of crazy what flavor concoctions can be created! Several weeks ago, I whipped this chex mix up and in a matter of hours we had devoured it. But if you do the math, you would realize that's not too hard to do! 6 cups of cereal. 4 people. That equals 1 and 1/2 cups of cereal per person. Over the course of the day, it's easy to consume that little of cereal. Especially when it's covered with white chocolate. And sugar. Here, try it for yourself and see how long it lasts at your house! Vanilla Sugar Cookie Chex Mix (Recipe is from Chex.com) 6 cups Rice Chex™ cereal 1/4 cup butter or margarine 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 TBSP corn syrup 2 tsp. vanilla 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1 oz white baking chocolate or 1/4 cup vanilla milk chips

I've been making almond butter for the Mr. some time now. I used to make it in my (very) old food processor. Matter of fact, my dad bought the food processor for me before I ever got married . . . from a garage sale! So I know it's at least 20 years old, but probably older! I bet when my dad did that he had no idea I'd still be using it! That's money well spent, huh? Recently, thought, the Mr. saw a "suggestion" to make mixed nut butter. There you go; enough said! I've already made him two different kinds recently. Regardless of your preference, I don't think you can go wrong! The first I made was a combination of walnut and pecan Now, I've made a mix of cashew and walnut Next will be pecan and almond I think. It's so easy. Follow the general directions from the post about making almond butter: http://karen-proverbs31.blogspot.com/2012/01/almond-butter.html There's a bit of difference, but on

It's been a journey this year for my boy cherub. He has handled it well, but together, as a family, we are figuring things out. It all started with his 15 year check up. I received a small reprimand from his pediatrician that the previous year I didn't take him for blood work . . . you know, just to get the base-line established and make sure things were well. Here's the deal -- I need one-stop-shop when it comes to doctors! If there's nothing wrong, then the "go get this done" thing doesn't usually get done. It's not that I try to forget . . . there's just nothing wrong to make me remember to get it done! But this year, when an in-office test came back with out of whack result, I was quick to obey the doctor's request to follow up with blood work. The short version, which included many blood draws and several months; my boy cherub was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. The blessing:  h