mission statement

after reading a post on another blog about how a mission statement and defining core values helped define the bloggers purpose and goals, i decided it might be something i should do too. if you know me at all, or have been following the blog for a while, you can probably see a thread of aimlessness and lack of concrete direction in my life. there are so many things i am passionate about and so many things that i would love to do. i feel oppressed by the daily grind and the obligation to hold down a regular job in order to pay bills and such. there will always be bills to pay, and there will always be opportunities to serve others. so how do i find a balance? how do i know which opportunity or obligation i should follow first? how do the demands of everyday life line up with meeting my goals, and what do they look like against the priorities and values i know God has placed in my life?

so far, other than prayer and reading scripture, i haven't had a way to say 'yes, this lines up with my goals and values' or 'no, this doesn't have a place in my life right now because it does not line up with my goals and values' because i hadn't evaluated my goals and values! of course i believe that every decision we make should be bathed in prayer; but there are some times (i believe) when God says 'I have told you what you should be doing, you don't need to be asking me. I have made it clear'. it would be like noah asking God 'so, God, should i go to the lumber store today or should i hang out at starbucks?'. noah should know the answer. God gave him very clear directions. i feel like this is what my vision and mission statements are, as well as defining those core values that really get to the core of the passions God has placed in my heart. the importance of these statements is also why i say 'matter' after each of my core values. to me, it reinforces the notion that these things are big, substantial, meaningful, leading, defining statements. there is no guessing what i value.

please remember that these are things God has laid on MY heart. i am not saying that you should do this very exercise tonight and it should be just like mine. of course i think some of them would be beneficial for all people since they are rooted in scripture, but i am not here to convict you or put words in God's mouth.

without further ado:

vision statement:
to live a simple, intentional, outwardly facing life in order to share God's love, healing, truth and plan with the world.
1 Thess 4:11, 1 Tim 2:2, Micah 6:8, Titus 2:3-5, 11-13

mission statement:
living simply through wise financial stewardship and self sustainability; being intentional in hospitality, giving, and disciplined in time management; giving to people and organizations out of my abundance or sacrifice, that they may have the tools they need to change their life or others'; pursuing education in order to develop skills that will help others, leading them to the saving knowledge of Jesus through his physical and spiritual healing.

core values:

Personal Time Matters (Ps. 23:2; Zeph. 3:17; 1 Peter 3:3-5)

• Must happen every day
• Separate from devotions
• For reflection, relaxation and decompression

Hospitality Matters (Prov. 31:20, Rom 13:8)

• Friends, family, ministry
• Open door philosophy

Home Organization and Routine Matter (Prov. 6:6-8, 21:5, 31:21-22 & 27; 1 Thes 4:11)

• Lessens anxiety by providing a framework for home management
• Creates an inviting environment for hospitality
• Prepares for marriage and family management

Giving and Social Justice Matters (James 1:22; Prov. 31:8-9, 20, Ps 10:17-18, 33:5, 140:12; Micah 6:8, Lev. 19:9-18; Deut. 24:17)

• Giving of finances, time, materials or other support to individuals or organizations
• Supporting those who stand up for justice (voting, prayer)

Health Matters (Gen. 1:26-27; Ps. 139:13-14; Prov. 3:5-7)

• Diet, exercise, sleep
• Honoring God and seeking Him first in medical treatment

Stewardship Matters (Matt. 6:24; Prov. 14:29, 21:20, 22:7, 31:27; 1 Cor. 13:11; Gen. 1:31)

• Financial
• Time
• Earth 

some of the verses, if you looked them up, would seem a little 'odd' to be placed with their particular subjects. that's okay, because i know why i put it there :) that's the benefit of it being mine!

i already feel much more calmed in my spirit, knowing that i have some foundations laid for myself. i feel like i can really establish myself as an individual with a great calling and purpose, not a wanderer.

i am so thankful that God laid this out, and that he guided my thoughts as i worked through this. i hope to revisit this once a year and add, tweek, remove whatever needs changing in order to bring it in line with where God has me at that time. 

experiments in fermentation

thanks to nourishing traditions and wild fermentation, i got up the courage to do my first lacto-fermentation projects! i had extra cabbage and beets from my csa, so i decided to make kimchi (korean sour kraut) and sour beets.

a primer in lacto-fermentation:
lacto-fermentation is a food preservation method that our ancestors used before conventional hot water bath/pressure cooker canning methods came to be. it uses an acid in the form of whey, vinegar, kefir or salt to inhibit the growth of bad bacteria while allowing good bacteria such as lactobacilli to grow and preserve the food. lactobacilli and his gang of bacteria friends are a wonderful bunch. they promote a healthy immune system, improve digestion and help to keep the balance of good/bad bacteria and yeasts in check in our bodies. God designed our bodies to be a certain pH level and have enough good bacteria in our GI tract to fight disease and keep us healthy. a conventional western diet, unfortunately, does not provide the opportunity for good bacteria to gain the advantage and the pH level gets to levels that are unhealthy (side note: we are talking about tenths of a percent difference here. it might not seem like much of a difference to go from 7.45 to 7.55, but a change like this can have huge consequences for the human body. THIS is how intricately God designed our bodies!). add in our frequent use of antibiotics in health care and in food (this article shows the usda and fda have recently conceded that antibiotics used in livestock DOES effect humans upon consumption), we are constantly killing our bodies natural defenses against disease and discomfort.

since increasing the amount of probiotics in my diet through raw milk, raw homemade yogurt and milk kefir, water kefir, kombucha and cultured butter, my former (almost debilitating) GI health issues are gone! i feel so much better and can eat so many more foods than i used to be able to. my former gallbladder issues have vanished. i can consume dairy without the lactose intolerance problems i used to battle. i feel like a freed woman! praise God!

okay, on to the food.

i looked up the kimchi recipe in wild fermentation and went to work getting everything chopped and ready. tell ya what, cooking sometimes calls for getting creative with 'working with what you have'. this pic is my bowl of produce weighing down the kimchi vegetables in their brine so that they could get soft. they have to stay under the brine for a few hours to overnight. mine took about an hour actually.

after the vegetables were soft, they could be packed into jars for fermentation and storage. my batch made exactly two quarts worth of kimchi. here's what one looked like:

                                                  

i didn't get any pics of the beets and carrots that i did, because by that time my kitchen was a mess and my hands looked like i had just committed a felony (i was covered in purple-red beet juice which, to my surprise, did not stain my skin or counter top). i can give you a short recap though. i shredded my beets (yellow and red) along with several carrots. these got mixed with about a tablespoon of salt and then were pounded with a kitchen utensil to get the water out of them. the water mixed with the salt became the brine in which the vegetables would sour/pickle. i added carraway seeds for some flavor then packed it into a small pint sized jelly jar.

                                               

i have been tasting the kimchi every day, and i think i like it at day 4. you can ferment it for a week (some koreans ferment it up to six months. no thank you.). it is slightly sour, very tangy and still a bit crunchy. stinky? yes. it's fermented cabbage and onions and garlic. but it's really good if you have a taste for tangy foods.

i have a feeling that there will be more vegetable fermentation in the future. there are recipes for fermented salsas and chutneys that i'd like to try. and of course there will be plenty of beverage fermentation too!

a fun, easy way to get probiotics in your diet...and try a science experiment at the same time :)

katie's kitchen escapades

where do i begin? i was at work today working very hard of course, (okay, thinking about food) and i got a craving for pf chang's lettuce wraps. have you ever had them? yeah, you know why i got a craving for them! so i went searching (on.my.break.of.course) online for a recipe. i found one at grouprecipes.com that looked pretty good, so i printed it off and took it to whole foods with me to buy missing ingredients. as i was in the asian food section i glanced at the coconut milk and got another craving for my special coconut ice cream. i came up with the recipe a couple of years ago on a whim and it turned out so well. then, i remembered that i needed to get some low sugar pectin for some freezer jam i intended to make. so i headed over to the baking isle and got my pectin and a few other things. a trip that was meant to be a couple of minutes and 3 or 4 items turned into almost a full two weeks shopping trip ( i REALLY try to only shop every two weeks. i don't like grocery stores). with a full evening ahead of me in the kitchen i decided to record my activities so i could have something to show for the evening after all of the food has been consumed :)

pf changs lettuce wraps

here's the recipe. i added about 1 tablespoon of plum sauce and 2 teaspoons of oyster sauce as well. there is a notation on the recipe stating that instead of using chili sauce you could substitute cayenne or chili flakes. i used cayenne since it's what i had, but i used more than the recipe called for. it says to use 1/8 teaspoon, and for me that was not spicy enough so i used about 1/2 teaspoon. i used chicken breast and dark meat instead of the ground chicken, as i had some leftovers in the fridge waiting to be made wonderful :) c'mon it was a free range, natural, organic chicken. n-o-t-h-i-n-g about that chicken goes to waste not even the bones. (see how to use the bones here.)

since my chicken was already cooked, i simply sauteed the onions with some coconut oil in my cast iron pan until they were translucent, then added the chicken and the sauce mixture. waterchestnuts, mushrooms and green onions went in last. smells delicious!!! this was so easy, and really a good summer meal since it doesn't take heating up your entire kitchen.

i had received an adorable, tiny (softball sized) cabbage in my csa delivery last week, so i decided to use it instead of lettuce. good choice, although i think if i did it again i would steam them a minute before using them. the white stringy stuff you see are thin rice noodles. they add a bit of crunch, and the restaurant serves the wraps with them (the recipe did not call for them).

after dinner it was ice cream time!!!

my favorite recipe and flavor of coconut ice cream is the one i made up. i am sure someone else has thought of this too, but i don't know of it so i'll pretend this is all mine :)

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar - beat the two together until thick and cream colored

2 c heavy or whipping cream

1 can regular coconut milk (using lite coconut milk will change the consistency and flavor of the ice cream)

beat these all together with a mixer, then transfer to your ice cream maker. i have a deni electric ice cream maker that was passed down to me a few years ago from my mom. once it is at a 'soft serve' stage, i add toasted coconut flakes.

the toasting makes them crispy and brings out the flavor so much more. yum. then i transfer it to a plastic container to go in the freezer for a while. after a couple of hours, it is set up enough to be scooped and enjoyed :)

now, for my first ever attempt at raw, lightly sweetened, freezer jam!!

yesterday mia and i went to philbrook farms and picked raspberries and blueberries. they were a buck a pound - you can't beat that unless you get them free from your backyard! i knew i wanted to try my hand at making jam this year after seeing a post on another blog using a simple method of preparing the fruit. i am not a fan of standing over a hot, boiling pot of fruit waiting for it to get to the right temperature to process in a hot water bath (yet more standing over pots of boiling liquid). i knew i wanted to try freezer jam, but when i saw lindsay's post i knew i wanted to try it raw too. no cooking? sounds good to me!

i am not going to post the recipe, since lindsay (passionatehomemating.com) did a great job on her site and i don't like duplicating work. visit her site, read her article, get the recipe there. she has an awesome site that i love going to regularly! i will say though that i used 1/2 cup raw honey and 1 cup sugar so that it wasn't too sweet from just one type of sweetener. also, here are some pics so you can see how easy it is.

i love that i could use so little sugar (1 cup!!!) and raw honey in this recipe and not lose the benefits of it being raw. same thing with the fruit. many nutrients and enzymes are lost when food is cooked, so keeping things as natural as possible is best. all in all, i started cooking at about 6:30 pm and finished at about 11. not bad for dinner, desert, and jam!

a new adventure

well, i am embarking on a new adventure this month! 5 days ago i signed up to be an Arbonne Independent Consultant. over the last few months i have really fallen in love with the products Arbonne provides, and a couple of weeks ago, i really fell in love with the business.

if you are a regular reader of my blog (and there hasn't been much lately, i am sorry!) you know that i am pretty discontent with life as it stands right now. i don't like working 40 hours a week. i don't like having debt. i don't like not being in control of when i work or who i work with. i don't like the thought of never being able to adopt because i don't have the money. i don't like not being able to give to causes i believe in for lack of funds. these are just some of my 'why's' for joining the Arbonne team. i am so happy to have HOPE that if i work hard enough i can finally live the life i envision.

a little over a year ago, God placed a vision in my heart for what my life and family would look like. i had such hope for a while, looking at that vision and seeing the joy and freedom in it. after a while though, i got really discouraged because i realised that some of the things i see in this picture could never happen doing what i am doing now. i wondered why God had given me this vision and why he would make me want something so badly and then not show me a way to get it. not to sound cheesy, but i really believe that when i prayed a couple of weeks ago for a way out of this lifestyle, He brought Arbonne to me. the products are great on my skin...i have terribly sensitive skin; the products also fit into my quest to use only natural products and support businesses that have green practices. the potential for income is really appealing, and i see how God will use this opportunity to grow me.

i say all of this not to drum up sales or to get people to join the company and sell (well, unless you want to and feel the Lord leading you the same way He lead me!) but to really share with you why i am excited about this new chapter. i love selling, i love meeting new people, i love being in charge of my schedule and i love having HOPE.

a post of blogs

some of my friends have been asking me lately what blogs i stalk on a regular basis. these questions usually come around because i am quoting yet ANOTHER blog post i read, or raving about a new blog i found in the blogosphere. i am a bit nerdy now about finding interesting blogs and after a while these complete strangers start to become your 'friends'.
i wanted to dedicate a post to introducing my friends to some of the blogs i follow so they too can be nerdy blog stalkers :)

introducing:
lindsay,the passionate homemaker
the mennonite ladies
toni,the happy housewife
kimi,the nourishing gourmet
kristen, the harried homemaker
carrie, at it's frugal being green
laura, the organizing junkie
rachel, at the high chair

at passionate homemaking you will find frugal, delicious meals that are healthy and natural. lindsay has great ideas for organizing, simplifying and maintaining your home; child care; gardening and natural, frugal living. she is a great christian woman whom i have had the pleasure of meeting recently (!) and provides really great insight on the high calling of womanhood.

i have just found mennonitegirlscancook! i love it! the recipes are mouthwatering and very down home. they remind me a lot of church potlucks :) and the kind of food i l-o-v-e to eat. i also really appreciate the occasional devotional post, as they are so encouraging!

toni is the happy housewife. please, before you start in on her posts, read her story! the Lord has transformed her heart, her marriage and subsequently her life and it makes her posts so much more meaningful, i think, knowing that she is so sincere in her striving to serve her family. she has great parenting tips, money management ideas, and as a long-time military wife lots of insight into base living. i really like her recipe posts also!

the nourishing gourmet is a site i found a couple of weeks ago while trolling for blogs that supported nourishing traditions methods. kimi has a great repertoire of healthful recipes and kitchen tips. i don't know about you, but i am ALWAYS looking for a new recipe to try :) she is also a strong christian and approaches her food and family care from a Biblical perspective.

the frugal antics of a harried homemaker is a great site. kristen gives advise and ideas that fall totally in line with the title of her site. dinners are quick and cheap, money and time saving tips, and need i say it again...recipes :)

since i also like to visit sites that aren't food-based..haha..i follow the goings on of carrie at it's frugal being green. many frugal ideas are also green ones, because making your laundry detergent is cheap and earthfriendly for example. if you are new to the green scene i really suggest heading over to the blog site to get acquainted with natural, earthfriendly living.

laura is THE organizing junkie! she has great tips on organizing your house room by room, learning to purge, and doing 'life' organization too. her posts are very motivating, and if you read my post on the urge to purge, you will know where i got my inspiration! :)

last but not least is my friend rachel who maintains the high chair. i akin stalking rachels blog to being a fly on the walls of her house :) she's a gifted and funny writer who's stories will make you laugh hysterically :) rachel posts recipes, home organization tips, gardening ideas and parenting tips like cloth diapering. it helps that i know rachel personally and have met her husband and children, but i think you will connect with her posts as well!

so there you have it, my top blogs!! i hope you will check these ladies out and start stalking too :) if you have any sites you visit regularly, please leave a comment and let us know. i'm always up for more reading material!! :)

summer of fun schedule

the last few summers i have tried to mark down on my calendar what events are taking place in pdx and vanc during the summer months. i check out the city of vancouver website to see what is going on downtown (mainly at the fort and esther short park), clark county fairgrounds website, and the city of portland parks and recreation. the portland website lists all of the parks and major public areas so you can search by area to see what is taking place. i really like the events at pioneer courthouse square and the japanese and chinese gardens. another place to look is the website for the oregon convention center and portland expo center. the types of events held at these two venues are going to be more 'conventiony' than entertainment based, but are still worth looking into.

below are some of the events that i have on my calendar...i may make it to all of them, or none of them but the goal is to at least have no excuse for not having fun :)

JULY
Friday 10th-Flicks on the Bricks (FOTB), Pioneer Courthouse Square (PCS), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Take a blanket, low folding chair or bean bag and watch movies presented on a screen at the Square. Cost:It's free!
Friday 17th-Saturday 18th-Yoshida's Sand in the City, PCS This is a really fun event where they fill up the Square with sand and have sand-sculpture building contests. There are a lot of really interesting sculptures, and its so neat to see the teams working together. Cost: Free
Saturday 18th-1860's Baseball at the Ft. Vancouver Historical Reserve Parade Grounds. I haven't been able to make it to this event in the past couple of years, but I hear it's really neat to watch. The game is played just like it was in 1860 (apparently the rules and regulations were different then). Cost:Free!
Sunday 19th-Southwest Washington Humane Society Open House. The new east county facility is finished! Take a tour, learn about microchipping and spaying/neutering your pets, and get information on the services that the HS offers. Cost: Free
Friday 24th-FOTB at PCS, Dirty Dancing. This is probably gonna be a really fun one to be at! Tell me you don't think there will be sing along!!! :) Cost: Free
Friday 24th-25th-Camas Days in Downtown Camas, Wa. Lots of events for the whole family! Enjoy shopping in the cute boutiques, good food and music and other vendors. Cost: Free (except of course if you buy something)
Friday 31st-Tillamook Celebration at PCS. Tillamook will be sampling cheese and ice cream in celebration of their anniversary. Cost: Free. FREE CHEESE PEOPLE :)

AUGUST
Friday 7th-FOTB at PCS Jurassic Park. A good one to take the older kids to! I remember seeing this movie in the theater as an early teen (that dates me!) and it's just not the same on a TV screen. Might be your only chance to see it again in big projection! Cost: Free
Saturday 15th-Another installment of 1860's Baseball. Same details as above.
Sunday 16th-India Festival at PCS. Go experience Indian music, food and vendors at PCS. This would be a great learning opportunity for kids, and a perfect chance to teach them about different cultures and (if age appropriate) the persecuted church and human rights.Cost: Free
Friday 21st-FOTB at PCS Anchorman! Not one for the kids, but a fun one to take some of your friends to. Cost: Free
Friday 28th-Italian Festival at PCS. Need I say more than Italian food?? Nope. Cost: Free

there are a lot of other activities out there...please let me know if you know of anything interesting that i missed, or if you know of other sites to look at for local entertainment!!

fun times

last saturday we went to the portland international rose test garden in portland, oregon. the occassion (though you definitely don't need an occassion to go!) was my mom's birthday and she had never been up to the garden. mom, dad and i met up with seth and breanne and made our way through the seemingly endless rows of roses. some were so bright, almost neon, while others were so pale you could hardly tell what color they were supposed to be! it was a great day for being outside too. as you may know, our weather around here is a little 'ify' at best this time of year so you never really know what you're going to get. on our day it was warm, overcast (great for pictures) and not a drop of rain!

as we walked around the flowers we found fun places to have our pictures taken, then settled in one of the courtyard for some family photos. i set up my tripod and snapped away. i love photography so it was fun to have some captive subjects :)

after we were done at the garden we drove down to pf changs in the heart of the pearl district. we had quite the wait (because someone, who shall remain nameless...ok, me, didn't make reservations) but it was worth it. my mom highly recommends the shrimp in lobster sauce and the dynamite shrimp! ;)

here are some pics from our day:

seth and me

can you feel the love?

awww...

mom and dad

seth and breanne

the whole family

a wii bit of fun

last night i spent some time at my friend d's house playing wii. if you have never played wii, you need to make fast friends with someone who has one and get to playing. i have been wanting one for a while but didn't want to make the big leap and purchase one until i had a chance to play it and decide if i really couldn't live without it. tennis, bowling, baseball and guitar hero are really fun. i am basically a bowling master already. my roommate n and i really want to get a video game console so that we can sing karaoke american idol style ( after seeing baby mamma, we decided we couldn't live without this game for long ).

i was never a video gamer as a kid or teen. i don't have great hand-eye coordination so when mario brothers came out in the 80's and i couldn't even get past the first level, i gave up on 'vids'. wii, however, is another story and i cannot see myself going longer than a year without purchasing this for myself.

it's a brave new world

yippie for today

i put on my favorite sweatshirt just now. i will compose a poem about it for you all:

hoosier sweatshirt, so red and so soft

you make me feel cozy with your downy loft

not too big, and not too small

i would wear you all day, even to the mall



there you have it. i love fall, i love my sweatshirt, i love today because of them both.

if only it weren't science fiction

with all the buzz about the large hadron collider in europe, the science geek in me has blossomed. luckily, i am surrounded by science geeks at work.

one of the conversations that took place today was regarding loosing gravity and it's relation to black holes and alternate universes. in a theoretical alternate universe we discussed, there was no gravity....there are benefits to this universe, we decided. here are some of them:

-no anti-aging cream needed
-no more pesky 'walking'
-screws and nails would be very valuable, due to having to affix all furniture and fixtures to floors and walls
-the concept of seeing floating people in horror movies is no longer scary. what is scary now is seeing people standing still...'they aren't floating, they must have special gravity powers'
-no shoes required. elbow pads and helmets recommended
-the paralyzed are no longer confined to wheelchairs and rascals
-travel is very cheap, as you don't need an 'aeroplane' to fly

there were no downsides discussed. this universe is without downfall. because in a world without gravity there is no 'down'.

(get it? : ) if you didn't, you need to geek up. )

no paper left behind

just because i left my green blog does not mean i am now a planet hater : ) i fully intend on posting green tips here on my new blog so that we can continue to exchange ideas on eco-friendly topics.

last night i was watching 'wasted' on planet green channel. if you haven't watched this program before i really recommend it. your eyes will be opened to the practical ways you can change your lifestyle and home to be mindful of your waste. one of the struggles that the subject family had was that they consumed almost 1 ton of paper per year in the form of catalogs. CATALOGS!! this made me think about the normal family and how much paper they must consume just with bills, newspapers, junk mail, etc. here are some tips i thought of (some of them i have already been doing out of convenience) and wanted to share:

• have your bank statements and credit card statements emailed to you


• get your bills emailed to you instead of paper copies ( i do this with my cell phone,cable, and N does it for our electric bill)


• sign up for e-coupons instead of getting a newspaper. also, this way you are only printing the ones you will need/use.


• get email alerts for sales at your fave stores instead of getting catalogs and postcards in the mail

there are other paper items that we love and really would be inconvenient to get rid of or do electronically. for these things, use your recycle bin and/or creativity. the age-old usage for newspaper: potty pads for the puppy or bird, wrap a gift with the comics, make paper airplanes or pirate hats to occupy your kiddos. one of my friends is a kindergarten teacher and she loves magazines so that she can do 'scavenger hunts' with the kids on rainy days when recess is not an option - do you know a teacher that you could donate your left over magazines to? also, for the sensitive items that you do continue to get by mail (credit card offers), shred them and put them in your compost pile. they will decompose and there will be no paper trail! : )

congratulations chris and cara!

today my two friends chris and cara were married at vancouver lake. the wedding was beautiful and perfectly captured their personalities and style. i was honored to be asked to make their wedding cake and it was so much fun! i was worried about the weather and how the heat/humidity would effect the frosting, but didn't have too much trouble.





i had fun with the flavors too. the bottom layer was chocolate ( which had been soaked with coffee ) with mocha filling, the middle was chocolate with cream cheese, the top of course was carrot with cream cheese. the two side cakes were vanilla with brown sugar filling and a lemon with blueberry/cream cheese cake. the mocha went FAST! :)
it was a great experience doing my first wedding cake, but i couldn't have done it without the help of my mom : ) thank you marmie!

sugar and flour, butter and eggs

some of you know that i make cakes 'on the side' as a quasi-hobby. last week my friend ronika asked if i would make a cake for her son's pirate themed birthday. i was so excited! i hadn't done a fun cake like that since my friend eric's spongebob squarepants birthday ( what other kind of birthday would you have if you were turning 21? : ). i also used this opportunity to get back in the groove of cakery as i will be doing my friends cara and chris' wedding cake later this week. upon request, here are pics of the pirate fun:


the volcano island was a mound of remnant cake, an inverted ice cream cone and fish tank flora :) i also had some silver and gold edible glitter that i sprinkled on the 'sand' to make it glisten
yep, i had to build that ship from a model kit. the first model i have ever built i think