Tim's Graduation

Tim has graduated with his Masters in Business (MBA)! After two years of studying hard at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) he is finished.
Here he is after having recieved a special award for having the second highest GPA of his graduating class (4.1 GPA)! Way to go Babe!!!

Samuel and I, my mother and Tim's parents were on hand to see Tim graduate.

Here is everyone in the auditorium. All the people in the middle were graduating either with B.A.s or Masters. This was one of three graduating ceremonies. Altogether the ceremony was several hours long. Tim is one the other side.

Tim waiting to go onto to the stage to get his diploma. He was very stoked! (It was not this dark at all- my flash was just having issues).

Tim recieving his diploma and being "hooded" (lol, is that what it is called?) by the Dean of UNB.

Samuel with Grandma! This is my mom who was over from BC for a wonderful three week visit.

After the ceremony out in the sunshine.

I am so proud my husband! He worked very hard for all this. He is very smart and good-looking too :)

Birthday!

Happy Birthday Tim! My wonderful husband is now a year older. I made him a chocolate cheesecake and here is Josiah helping him blow out the candles.

Blessings.

The Bible states that children are a blessing from God.
"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" (Psalm 127:3-5)
Well Tim and I have been very blessed indeed!!

The handsome five-year-old son!


This beatiful daughter!


This ever-so-cute baby boy!


AND....
We are excited to be recieving ANOTHER blessing sometime in Dec/Jan!! :)

Thank-you God :)

Rain...

It has been raining and cold here the last few days. I really want the sun to come out so I can start gardening and just so we can be outside after a long winter. But I know the rain is good for the ground. Thankfully, the children are always full of life and ideas and energy so even if we are stuck inside it is not boring. I find it hilarious to play hide and seek with them. "Count Mommy!" they say as they run off laughing. I can hear a mile away where they are hiding, and always one of the same places too. For awhile I was not sure why I was making my bed everyday as they would always hide under the covers. As I look, pretending to not know where they are hiding, they giggle and if I take to long theypop out and shout "Here I am!". The other day I bought a used typewritter for $1 that they have been using to "write" letter. Yes, it actually works. Still we are feeling housebound and are ready for the sun to come out!!!

First Greens of the Year

I love spring when everything is green. As soon as the first flowers come up which is usually dandelions here, the children love to bring me beautiful boquets of flowers.

With all the sun and new greeness everywhere outside I was eager to eat some tender spring plants. But nothing is growing in my gardens yet. But the lawn if full of greeness so I thought we would gather and eat dandelion greens. So for supper last night, Josiah and I picked some dandelion greens to eat. The early spring ones are very tasty and nutricious.

My mother and sister, Sarah, are out here on a visit from BC. It is lovely to have them here for a visit. They enjoyed the meal with us which included: chili, salad and cornbread.

And here is the dandelion salad which was delicious.. It was full of dandelion greens, lettuce, avocado, tomato, cheese, tortilla chips and homemade dressing. Next I want to try frying up some dandelion greens in a bit of olive oil with garlic and sea salt. See, lawn weeds are very useful :)

Cheesemaking

I started making cheese about three months ago. I have really been enjoying it. Thus far I have made a lot of fresh cheese curds, cream cheese and cheese spreads since these can be eaten and enjoyed right away. I have also made some hard cheese like guoda, chedder and parmesan but those are still aging so no tastes yet. Today I wanted to make some Feda cheese and I thought I would share the process with you all. Making cheese is very easy but takes a lot of time. It is the perfect activity for a rainy day when you will be in most the day anyway.

So I started by putting two quarts of whole milk in a stainless steel pot with a thick bottem. You an use any milk but for best results skim milk is not recommanded (also please note that many store bought organic milk is ultra-pasteurized and this milk will not work as the higher heat from the process of ultra-pastuerization (up) effetively renders the milk "dead" and it will not culture). I added four drops of calcium chloride- this gives it a firmer consistency.


Here are the other supplies you need: calcium chloride, culture starter, rennet, stainless steel spoon, cheese strainer mold, thermometer, salt. I got my culture starter and rennet on-line for fairly cheap.


Slowly heat the milk up to 86 degrees F. I do this in a sink of hot water as it is easier to control lower tempetures then the stove top. Sprinle starter culture on top and then gently stir in. Let sit at 86 degrees f for one hour. Then gently stir in rennet diluted in a cup of water. Let sit at 86 undisturbed for half an hour.


My little helper testing a blueberry muffin I made while waiting.


Then I tested the curd and sure enough it made a clean break. See the crack in the curd? It means it is set enough and ready for the next step.


So I cut the curd into small cubes. See the liquid? That is the whey starting to seperate from the curd.


I slowly heated the curds up to 95 degrees F over the next hour giving it a very gentle stir every few minutes. The trick is to heat it up very slowly to allow more whey to come out.


Then I dumped the curds into my fine holed strainer and this is what I had.


Next I left then to sit for an hour then turned the curds over. You a see it shrunk as more whey escaped from the curds. I save the whey to use in baking.


After allowing it to set for several hours I cut the curd into small cubes. This is the cheese!


I then placed the the cheese cubes into a salt brine to cure. I put it in the fridge and in a few weeks it should be ready. MMM, Greek salad sounds so good right now. And that is how I made Feta cheese today.

Step:

Tired

I was goig to do a long post about something but I am too tired. However, I wanted to share this photo with you all. I left Samuel with his dad while I want out to do some stuff and I came back to find this :)

Josiah's Fifth Birthday!

My oldest son is now 5! Wow!
We had a birthday party for him. Here is a short clip of the cake coming and everyone singing Happy Birthday. He had been asking for almost a year for an ice cream cake, so that is what we got him.
Now Annah is asking mulitiple times a day when her birthday is :) (not till Nov).
OK so I cannot get the link to work so just copy and paste it here. I will fix it later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkn7Kji_gv4