sustainable living!!!

Sustainable living has been the chant around here the last few weeks. Today as I spread my mulch/ compost over my rows of crops I said a prayer and felt pride in all that God has provided for us through this little garden. The first  little steps to independence from debt, independence on markets, teaching the next generation to be able to feed themselves.

  

Almost there

I'm now 36 weeks along and in a little more than one week the twins will be healthy enough to be born. I get contractions about every day but they aren't too intense.
After over thinking everything ( do I need 2 baby swings, which double baby stroller is the best, do I really need a breast feeding pillow this big?) I have finally calmed down a little. I have been working on quilts for the twins that will hopefully be done in time.
The midwife vs. Doctor argument took me a long time to get over but after a trip to the hospital where I will be delivering I relaxed some on that too. The staff as pleasant and the doctor was very kind and accommodating to the way I wanted to do things. There a lot of midwives in the area that will deliver me at home but the distance I am away from a hospital makes uncomfortable with that option.
Now I all I have to do is get past the 25th and I will have made it, praying and waiting.

Back to Where I Began

I feel like I have made a full circle since I have posted last. Though there has been so much that has taken place in the past 3 years....... the birth of our first son, the crazy birth of our second son, the rise and fall of our first business, and now pregnant with twins, we seem to be back to where I was 3 years ago.

I am really updating my blog to keep an account of the twins pregnancy and birth. I am frustrated at the lack of information on the web on the birthing process of twins. Both of my pregnancies were natural with a midwife in a birth center, which was a great experance, but now with the twins I am labeled a high risk pregnancy and have to birth in a hospital. I am working with the system to get the birth I want and still have a save birth for my babies.

Changes

Baking and Creating has been put on hold for now. It is beginning to feel like Fall, my favorite season, and once the apples are ripe in my families orchard I'll start posting apple recipes.

Only 4 weeks to go before the baby ETA as if that wasn't exciting enough the hubby and I are starting a new business. Things are a little crazy but it is all coming together. We have been living in the mountains near Idyllwild for about a month and a half now and are enjoying our time here. Some time in the future we will be moving into our home down at the beach but for the time being I'm a mountain girl, picking apples, chasing chickens, and counting down the days.

Luscious Lemon Layer Cake

AHH!! I've been trying to load pictures onto a PC for the last 2 hours and now I give up. I made a great lemon cake and fried chicken from my mom's 1950's Better Homes Cook Book. The illustrations throughout the book are great, all of this great family unit, a house wife, a little boy and girl, the father and a dog. There is the really great section in it on menu's for meals instead of just individual dishes. Well here is the recipe, remember words like saturated fat and heart attack hadn't yet appeared in the America vocabulary when this recipe was written.

Luscious Lemon Layer Cake 350* for 30 min

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract (i used 2 tbs lemon juice)
2 eggs
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 salt
1 cup butter milk

cream together shortening and sugar.
add eggs 1 at a time
add vanilla and lemon
mix dry ingredients together then slowly mix in with shorting mixture
Cut out wax paper and fit at bottom of pan then place batter in pan.

Lemon Filling (this is what makes this recipe)
Mix
1/2 cup sugar
2 TBS. Cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
together . Add
2 tsp. grated lemon peel
and cook on low heat till thick and clear. Add
1 beat egg yolk
3 TBS lemon juice
1 TBS butter
Mix for 2 minutes then cool.

I then used a butter frosting over the whole thing and cooked it in 2 square 6 x 6 pans. I looked cute and tasted soo rich.

I'm Home

After driving 2032 miles I am happy to say we have arrived. It took us 4 days and 3 nights to make it but we have now landed in Redondo Beach. I will be resuming my regular post as soon as I find a new card reader or USB cable, mine got left somewhere between Denver and Utah.

Summer Tart

With only 3 days left until the move I have given away almost all of my kitchen stuff but for some reason I couldn't part with my tart pan. I made this Apricot Blueberry Cream Tart as the last thing I bake before we move.