Wonderful days

After a wonderful visit yesterday with family that I haven't seen in years, I was on cloud nine.  Our boys don't have friends and there aren't any boys around us that are their ages so you can imagine how happy I was to have my aunt and cousin and her family come to visit.  Two of her children are roughly my boys' age and they played so well together!  It wasn't like going to the playground and watching my kids get pushed around by the other kids for being different - it was pure fun... the way kids are supposed to play.  I was able to show my family our farm and do one of my favorite things - cook for them.  I'm sorry, I must pat myself on the back a little here, but I am a pretty good cook.  And I love to do it.  Sure sometimes, usually when I'm cooking for other people, things don't turn out just the way I wanted but every time is a learning experience and I get better with each mistake.  We had roasted chicken (that we raised and butchered ourselves), potato salad (using potatoes, chives, and parsley from our garden and my homemade mayo), a salad (sadly I had to buy the ingredients as we didn't have any in the garden yet - but I bought them at the local farmer's market), homemade apple pie (using apple pie filling that I made from our apples and canned myself.  The crust was made using lard from our pigs.) and homemade ice cream (using raw cow's milk and eggs - from our hens of course).  Everything tasted fabulous!

Then today, Tyler volunteered to get the mail.  He ran back into the house, practically jumping with joy, and exclaimed, "It says 'Tyler Dickson'!"  Sure enough he had received a package.  (My children have inherited my love of the postal service - we all love to get mail/packages.)  To backtrack: I  recently reconnected with an acquaintance from high school on Facebook (it's been 17 years).  After previewing my profile and subsequently seeing my blog, she sent me a message saying how excited her husband was to find someone else who shares a passion for electric poles. (giggle)  She mentioned that her husband was probably somewhere on the spectrum and after reading about Tyler's obsession, he wanted to send him a book.  That was what arrived today.  Upon opening it, he did not react like most children would at the sight of a book, he was intrigued and curious.  I tried to explain it and show him a few pages but after seeing a couple of the pictures, he took the book and set about to reading.  I gave him a couple of minutes before I went looking for  him and I found him like this:

He was actually reading!  He has never shown so much interest in a book!  And here it was, a book about something that he is fascinated with, and he was sounding out words and reading on his own.  This lasted maybe 20-30 minutes but that is infinitely more than he's done before.  I was almost in tears!  Who knew that clicking a simple "Add Friend" button would lead to that?

My soapbox

I've been following a story about a small town that has made it a mission to destroy a family's small vegetable garden.  Add this to the various other articles and headlines that I read about our government's control over what we eat and I've come to the conclusion that our government officials - the same ones that we elected - think that we are naive and stupid.

I don't understand how one person, or a small group of people, can make laws or regulations that effects how millions of people eat.  I understand about safety, I understand about general guidelines, but if a person (or a family) wants to grow and raise their own food - why not?  And if they have an abundance, shouldn't it be their right to decide whether or not to share with their community?  Isn't this how it's been done for the last few hundred years??  Some of these officials believe that it is a woman's choice to have an abortion, yet we can't decide what to eat???

It frustrates me so!  Laws written to protect the many from the few.... ugh!  I know that my animals are healthy and that the milk and eggs and meat that they provide will not make me sick.  I don't know what the chemicals in the processed foods will do to me - especially in the long run.  I do know that I've never felt better or healthier - ever.  I do know that my son, who was diagnosed as Autistic, who was severely violent 2 1/2 years ago, who refused to learn anything from anyone - has shown me that our decision to get processed foods out of our system has been the best thing that I could have ever done for my children.

Wanna sample my homemade soaps??

I've been trying to make soap lately.  It's actually not as difficult as I thought it was going to be, but it requires a LOT of patience.  The soap bars have to cure or air-dry (or else the bar won't last very long) for a few weeks.  In preparation for my soap-making adventures, I read a lot of books, watched YouTube videos, and read blogs about how to make soap.  The process is a little tricky in that it calls for lye, which is a very caustic chemical.  Other than that, it's just a combination of oils that you can get from the grocery store.

Homemade Mayo

I have searched high and low for a mayonnaise recipe that I could make at home using normal, everyday ingredients that I have on hand.  Most of the recipes were the same - an egg, some seasonings, and oil.  The problem turned out not to be the ingredients - it was the method.  Each recipe said to s..l..o..w..l..y drizzle the oil into the egg while it was blending (or mixing or processing - depending on the machine you happen to be using).  Each time I tried this method, I ended up with a messy, separated goop that hardly resembled mayo.  So I tried an old method that my aunt told me about when I was younger.  We have been eating homemade mayonnaise using this recipe and method for over a year.  (Bonus: my kids can't even tell the difference between store-bought and homemade.)  Maybe this will help someone else out there.  **The bonus on this recipe is that it uses the WHOLE EGG - so there's no waste or trying to find something to do with a leftover egg white.