Short Review

In case you wonder what I will do today, I will be celebrating this:

0 = cancer

1 = God

2 = miracles along the way

3 = children in total

4 = doctors that changed my life forever

5 = years of being cancer-free!

Celebrating today with my loved ones! Yeah.

Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream

For my birthday, I got an ice cream maker - a very essential tool for someone that is addicted to ice cream. It's my comfort food, being also refreshing and oh so tasty in so many flavors. With the machine, I ordered a Vegan ice cream recipe book "The Vegan Scoop". Next to having ALOT of ice cream recipes, it also has recipes for baking goods, sauces and such. So it is worth it's money - I think.

My first try was the Vegan peanut butter ice cream, that was good but a bit too peanutty..... I had to make that first, because I needed to find a main ingredient for Vegan ice cream first: arrowroot powder! I finally did and so I tried the basic chocolate ice cream. Very general, but tasty enough... It was made with soy milk and soy creamer, and something was missing.....

Then I remembered that my friend Beth had made it once with coconut milk. Now I needed to find that ingredient, which wasn't easy! I finally did find it in the back of the Asian aisle!!! Yep, not the baking aisle.

So without further ado, I will share HER recipe with you: Double Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream.
With the added chocolate, it makes about 1 1/2 quarts.
 
Ingredients
2/3 c Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder, sifted (or run through a blender or food processor--however you prefer to get the lumps out). You can use regular cocoa powder, but it won't be as rich of a chocolate flavor.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
pinch salt
2 cans of coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounce vegan chocolate (I use 4 squares Baker's semisweet baking chocolate, which is vegan)

Instructions:
1. If you plan ahead far enough, pre-refrigerate the coconut milk.
2. Whisk together the cocoa powder, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and salt.
3. Whisk in the coconut milk and vanilla until the solids are as dissolved as you can get them. Mine wasn't that smooth, but that was okay.
4. Place the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour before freezing/churning it. If you pre-refrigerated the coconut milk, this step is optional.
5. Follow your ice cream maker's instructions to churn/freeze the mixture.
6. While it's churning, cut the chocolate into chunks. Add to the ice cream during the last 3 minutes or so of churning.
6. Eat immediately (soft-serve consistency) or move to another container and freeze. You'll want to remove it from the freezer approximately 15-20 minutes before serving--it gets very hard in the freezer.

This time, I added a bit too much DARK cocoa powder, so it is extra dark..... but still tasty for me to eat it right now while typing this. The little chocolate pieces are a nice extra - at first, I was not sure if I wanted them in there.... The coconut goes so well with the chocolate, I think I will always make it this way rather than with soy milk. I wonder if rice milk would work?

Vegan Potato-Leek Soup

I have been in the mood for real food, lately. What I mean is food that I cook myself that is full of healthy stuff and no preservatives! With a baby, it is so easy, and sometimes necessary, to eat stuff that is made and ready to eat. But I am at the point where I am so done with it.

The last two nights, I put the kids to bed, and started cooking in my kitchen. You know, taking all my time to chop the veggies, not having to be afraid someone burns their fingers on the stove (thankfully, this has never happened, yet!), or listening to music or watching a TV show while cooking.

Tonight, I prepared my ingredients for my ice cream that I am making tomorrow. It's in the fridge and freezer and will be made tomorrow, and consumed on Thursday(wonder why?)!

Then I pulled out my leek and made this delicious potato-leek soup. It took me all together about an hour and a half - not too bad when I was able to watch my favorite show while washing and chopping and mixing and stirring. I tasted the soup and it is super delicious, so I decided I needed to share the recipe. Now if you know me, I have a problem with following recipes, so I used this one, but changed it. Here is what I (!) did:

Ingredients:
3 leeks, all edible parts washed and cut into slices of your choice (it will be blended later, so I felt it didn't matter how big they were)
1 whole yellow onion, chopped
2 big yellow potatoes, peeled, cubed into small pieces
4 cups vegetable stock
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons garlic
hand-full of parsley
hand-full of cilantro

1.) In a pot, heat up the oil.
2.) Add the leeks, onion, and salt; and saute for about five minutes.
3.) Add the garlic and stir well.
4.) Add the potatoes and vegetable stock, cover, and bring to a boil. Then let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
5.) Add the parsley and cilantro right before blending the soup. 
6.) Turn off the stove, and use a blender to blend the soup. I did this directly in the pot (it was big enough). (The recipe described to do it cup by cup in a separate dish - I just didn't see the point, and saved in doing an extra dish.) 

The soup is ready and waiting for me to be eaten at lunch time! I tasted it and I can't wait.

And tomorrow, I will make my ice cream - and I will share the recipe then. 

Something to celebrate

I started this blog in order to spread the good news of 

.

And next week, I get to celebrate that hope big time. (and no, it's not my birthday!)

What is hope? I am talking about that feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

I expected God to fight my fight for me because I knew I was too weak to fight it myself. I expected Him to be there for me. I expected Him to guide me by His hand to a better tomorrow. And that totally happened. I have been blessed with life, love, hope, and faith. I have been blessed with family, friends, and children that I thought I could not have. (If you need to catch up on How we got here!, please go back and read it.)

So what am I so excited about that it drives tears into my eyes every time I think about it? 

It's been five years since those dreadful words changed my life: "It's the big C!"

It took a long time to accept that fact and it's consequences. It took me five years to heal from it. So today, I can proudly say that I am five years cancer-free, and that is something to celebrate!

I want to celebrate that Life and that Hope, that Love I received and those children I got, the special people that supported me on my journey and my relationship with my heavenly Father that got so strong through this experience.  I am praising God for all of it. He not only never left my side in those dark times but blessed me so abundantly in giving me the strength to go through this and come out on the other end as a renewed person. Hey, maybe one day, I will even become an optimist....

The walk to Beat the Clock in NYC 2010

Five years can be short but I feel that ALOT of things happened in those five years. The first year was full of anger and frustration, healing physically and emotionally, until that Hope would sink in and make life look a little bit better every day. It was a tough year of little social interactions, withdrawal, and loneliness. Once that anger turned into hope, I felt I can do things again. Life seemed manageable again.

My biggest supporter and me

And then we got blessed with New Hope through a family member that would carry our own baby (if you need to know how it works medically, here is a link) for us. That year was not always easy but oh so worth it. At the end, we recived a beautiful baby girl into our family.
During all this time, I had to have quarterly check-ups, which are always so nerve-wrecking. Even though I knew I was in good hands, that waiting with the uncertainty of hearing good or bad news was tough, and is to this day.

I did celebrate the half-time between that day one and now here. I love my team over there and was always worried that at five years, they would send me back to an regular OB-Gyn. Well, they don't and I really appreciate that. I mean, eventually, they might, and then I 'might' be ready for that, but for now, I am not. I am also part of a support group that I have attended now for those five years. I love the ladies there and I am so happy that I can share some of my hope with them. It has been a big part of my healing, too.
Of course, I have walked a few cancer walks, for my own cancer or others. It's an awful, creepy disease and I wish this on Nobody! So supporting researches makes me feel good, and I can show my support to my friends that are affected by it. 

Another Blessing

Fast forward four years, I find myself blessed again with another carrier to carry our third child. Wow. God has been so good to us! During that time, Beth and I did the Relay for Life for the second time and it was so meaningful for me - it goes with this post as well. At the end, I can only give glory to God for where I am today! (I wrote a post back in May that says it all.)

So five years have gone by, I was able to heal in so many ways. My family grew from three to five with the help of two very special ladies. And I have learned to be a fighter. Life is worth fighting for! It's worth living it every minute, and it's so beneficial to enjoy what we have, even if it is not always our plan, but God's. I am happy where I am today. So that is what I am celebrating my life changed forever due to God's plan.

I am not sure how my day will look like, but I want it to be special. 

I might not do school that day, or do a special session on 'counting our blessings'.

I want to celebrate with a birthday cake, and a candle on it... (it will be nice to see a one digit-number on MY cake once again - haha) 

I want champagne.... (this one might not happen though....)

And I want my family and friends around me!

And I want to thank God all day - whenever I think about it - for how blessed I am!

Thank you for being here and reading, thank you for praying and thank you for encouraging me when I felt I couldn't handle this anymore. Please stay and keep reading - I am certain that God is not done with me yet.

Field Trip: Here's How!

We had a hog-killin' time today at our local outdoor pioneer museum!

But let me go back to the beginning. When this field trip was announced, Beth and I decided to make the week prior to the trip a themed week all about Pioneering.
Because I have an entire curriculum to finish by the end of this school year, I knew a lapbook was too much, but I wanted to do all the fun activities we had found online.

So on Monday, I introduced the theme to the kids, we learned what a pioneer is, where they came from, why they left their own countries and then the Old States, what they wanted to find here in America and out west. We took the world map and the USA map to follow their routes. Coqui liked to learn about the way they traveled (covered wagons) and what they could take with them (their packing list looked quite a bit different than today's list would look like!). Then we talked about life on the trail, especially the life of the children, and compared to the wonderful carefree life of my own kiddos!

On Tuesday, we made our own butter with this recipe. It totally worked. The kids took turns shaking the substance in a baby food jar. And when it was time to try it, Peanut agreed and Coqui ran the other way. We smeared it onto a slice of bread and Peanut ate almost all of it. I guess she really liked it.
For lunch, I made rice and beans (after our own recipe ressembling the Spanish rice) - talking about all the dry rice and beans those pioneers put in their covered wagons. 

Wednesday, we made this shadow clock, to demonstrate that pioneers had no Swatch watches, but read (or guessed) time by the stand of the sun and the shadows it throws on the ground. We started at 8 am with the longest shadow if the day. Coqui's head is somewhere in the grass - you can see a white dot, that's the chalk I left as a marker there. We came back every two hours. The last one was at 4 pm, it's in dark purple and not very visible, but it's there. We forgot to draw another one at 6 pm because the Hubby had come home earlier and parked his car over our clock.....

That same day, we also made home made apple sauce in the crock pot. I followed this recipe. Sadly, the kids did not want to even taste it, but lucky for me, because it was delicious! I am not sure what it is, maybe it's the texture as this is not looking like store-bought, and a little chunkier, too.
Next time, I will use a blender and maybe they'll like it better.

We also worked on a Math puzzle and some other things that had to do with pioneers, like counting tools and flour bags, or measuring things, especially weights.

On Thursday, we met with Beth's kids to do our fun games. If you didn't know (or just have a hard time believing it), but pioneers had no TV, no video games or iphones. They had to come up with stuff to entertain themselves, and others. Children's toys back then were much simpler and made out of wood or other materials like rocks or ropes. Nope, no trip to the local Toys'R'us for the poor children back then! So we played Rolling the hoop and a marble game. At first, they had trouble figuring it out, but eventually, the two big kids got the idea of it.

During the summer, Coqui had found popsicle sticks and we build a log cabin - not knowing that it would come handy later in the school year. So we skipped that activity, but we did talk about it, regarding the difference in heating and cooling compared to today's conveniences, and we talked potty business (which is oh so interesting to our children!).
Here is a picture of our creation: with a removable roof.

It was a fun week for all of us.
Yesterday, we wanted to remind the kids what we had learned, so Beth read a book about the Oregon Trail to the kids. They loved it and sat through the entire story.

Finally today, we went to the local outdoor museum that is about those fun pioneer times. Their exhibitions are mostly originals from around the state, like farm houses and barns, and even some tipis from the tribe that used to live here in this region. The originals were taken apart and put back together piece by piece.

This is a big place - at least when you are walking with a big group of nearly 30 people and children mostly under nine. They have a general store, of course, where you pay the entrance and can buy little nicknacks - we passed very quickly! And moved onto a town building with a smokehouse, an outdoor kitchen, and an outdoor toilet.
We had a lovely elderly man walking us through the house and explaining all the different rooms and tools. People definitely had much LESS during that time, than all the stuff that we fill our house with today!
Here is Coqui trying out an old-fashioned hearing aid.
Also, I think they liked the idea that back then, everyone was home schooled. 

They had a blacksmith there who was actually making a knife - the kids were mesmerized that someone was allowed to 'play with fire' and 'bang' on something!

Next things were the tipis. I was just a bit disappointed with it. I am not sure what I had expected, but more than what was there. I know, I know, I am European and fascinated with Indians....
But the kids had a blast as they were allowed to go inside the tents and explore with touching and playing.

Last but not least, there was a farm house of a poor immigrant family that lived in ONE room with 13 children! Wow. Peeking through the front door, it looked just a tidbit tight in there, trying to imagine to sleep in there with all the kids (not to talk about making those children ;-)). It also had some animals there, and an outdoor cooking station with hands-on stuff for the kids. They got to play there for a while. It was in the shade, so we adults didn't mind.

To say the least, my kids had a blast running around and learning. We were all dusty, so when we came home we not only enjoyed modern-day's air conditioning but a bath tub with look warm water to rinse of! After a well-earned meal, I needed a break, because I was as I was all dragged out from all that walking and carrying. Because I was walking with a baby strapped to my front, and to top that, I had a backpack on my back. So round about, I had 15 extra pounds on me, and it was just close to 90 degrees again today. Yep, I needed that shower!

My favorite color is still GREEN

...and I am trying very hard to BE more green in my every-day life.

Two years ago, I wrote a post about Recycling and what I am doing in my own house to help decrease the amount of trash on our landfills. Looking back, I can say that I am doing great AND that I have found new ways to reduce.....

• Yes, I am still a fanatic when it comes to recycling. I even go to birthday parties and bring home the empty water bottles because I hate them being thrown in the regular garbage. (I know I am weird.)
• Yes, I am reusing bought containers, especially glass jars from pickles or olives.
  But my favorites are the glass containers that I invested in a while ago. They are awesome. Not only do they not stain from the stuff that I am storing in them, they also don't smell like last week's spaghetti sauce, and I don't feel like I have to throw them out after a month's worth of usage. To top all that: I can put them in the oven (can't do that with plastic!), and I prefer to use glass in my microwave. I am really not sure what happens when one sticks plastic in it, but I prefer not to....
• Yes, I am using cloth diapers on baby number three... most of the time. I bought  and got a bunch of fuzzies, and I got my neighbors old prefolds that I just started using today.
• And yes, I am still hanging up my clothes in the laundry room - my dryer is being used for sheets and towels only. I would so love to be able to have a spider outside in the backyard - because I really love the smell of clean clothes dried in fresh air! ... dreaming of a better future.
• I did start a new thing last year: a compost pile in the backyard. Then came the pregnancy and a new baby and I got a little lazy with that..... but I am proud that I tried it and I will restart it again, I am certain of that. 

Okay, now comes all the stuff for which people will declare me insane, or at least that I have completely lost my mind.... or maybe they will be encouraged. I hope so because I really am proud for sticking with it. About four months ago, I bought a bunch of rags, well really they are suppose to be wash gloves, from Walmart for super cheap! They are colorful and very handy. Now you are wondering what I am doing with it. A long time ago, I got rid of paper towels in our house! Yep. I just hated to see it being used for every little thing, spills and tissues and what-not. I just had enough and stopped buying them, then I hid the rest of it in the pantry (I guess for emergencies) and told everyone that we are using those rags from now on. You would think that I encountered resistance.... Nope, the kids loved the idea. Whenever they spill, they automatically grab one of the rags and clean their own mess. Colorful ones for the floor, white ones for the table or counters. They know it and it works. I love it.

Because this was so successful, my wheels kept spinning some more and I found another area where we used too much paper (besides in the bathroom!). Napkins at the table. I mean it got so bad that they wiped once and threw them out, just to get a new one. I had enough and thought and thought and thought..... and came up with: cloth napkins. I mean, duh.... why did I not think of this before?
I could have sewn my own, I do have enough fabric in this house, but I also have a little one and sewing is just not my priority right now next to homeschooling and other things going on. So I thought of bandanas! They come in soooo many cool colors and prints, and when I told the kids, they were all for it.
Here is our colorful wheel of choices. We went to two different places to pick them up. I had initially only bought five, but when they were dirty, we had to go back to paper and I did not like that. So we went out again and bought more. They are not that cheap but right now, cheap enough not to sew them myself. Some of them are a specific person, like Spiderman is for Coqui and Dora is for Peanut. But the rest is for everyone to use..... The kids are so excited about this and love it. Which makes me a happy Mama.
My best friend Beth loved my idea and has blogged about it already (yes, she does not have a newborn to take care of, so I am lacking behind on my blogging!). I hope I can inspire more people with this fun idea.....


And because the Hubby was using bandanas as handkerchiefs (yes, he has done so for years! and I am very proud of him for that!), we had to come up with a plan.

He was using those old-fashioned bandanas with the Paisley design, so we decided to make those for our noses only! The fun ones are for our mouthes!

Everyone has those Paisley ones now, Coqui has orange ones, Peanut chose pink, and the Hubby got red (I have regular handkerchiefs for women with flowers on). So yes, we are also using cloth tissues!

Being green means alot to me and it makes me happy when I find new ways to help the environment (and my conscience!).

Lifelist Accomplishment #10

Lifelist # 10 - "Visited Ground Zero"

Last year, I wrote a post about the Hurtful Memory of September 11th, for the ten year anniversary. I wrote about where I was and what I did. Well, I was traveling on that very impressive tour around the US. As awesome as this was, I did want to go home. After that fateful morning, it was hard to return 'home' - what was then New Jersey. But nonetheless, we had to take the car and just go, go see how it would look....

And sure enough, we got to see.... not without tears in our eyes, not without dust taste in our mouth, not without the many fliers around the city that were a constant reminder that people had died and loved ones were still looking for them. It was awful.

So yes, I have seen Ground Zero. I have seen it a week after it happened.. I have seen it six months later when the light towers were celebrating the six months anniversary. I have seen it many times, over and over. I went to the FDNY Memorial Wall. 

I went to the St. Paul's Chapel that has become a museum today.

And here is one more picture from the new World Trade Center, now called Freedom Towers.

All About Me Lapbook

Better late than never, right? So today, I want to show you what we were working on all of last week. It was a lapbook that got all of Coqui's attention - he had so much fun in making a book ALL ABOUT HIM(self)!
It's the perfect timing with it being the beginning of the year. And of course, we as parents get a bunch of keepsakes with this book, like their hand prints and finger prints, pictures, and funny things they say at this age.

Enjoy the pictures.

The cover of the book. When I took the picture, it was not done - but you get the idea.

Open the cover and Coqui is greeting you with a picture of himself, his birthday cake, his hand outlines, and a puppet that he dressed in real fabric. The little flaps reveal things about him like hair and eye color, his age and birthday, his finger prints, and other personal things.

When you open the top part, it talks about where we live, how our house looks like, and such. And on the bottom, we outlined his profile and what he wants to be when he grows up. In case you can't read it, he wants to be a police officer.

When the last flap is opened, the middle reveals all about his family with a family portrait and a picture of his siblings. We worked on a time line as well, from birth all the way up to now, with all his birthdays, his siblings birth, when he first rode a bike, when he started school, and so on....
The bottom part has the following cute things on it, including an interview with him, done by me. It was very interesting to learn that Daddy has a very fascinating job, and that Mommy is doing only 'boring stuff like cleaning and cooking, doing laundry and school' - thanks Buddy!

So here, the kids were asked to say what they would buy for each dollar amount. I was impressed that Coqui really knows the value of money. He was pretty good with his suggestions. In case, it's hard to unscramble his spelling, he buys candy with $1, legos with $5, a new DS game with $20, and he'll go on a flight with $100. I thought, these were very good things to save up HIS money for....

Next, he was asked to name three things that he thought people should know about him..... when he was done, the right side says it all: Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars.... I guess he is a real fan!?! It's a phase and I am praying that it is over soon, because I do NOT want any more new lego star wars sets in my house...

And the last one is so typical for my buy: his heart belongs to GOD! Yeah.

This took us four days to complete, and then we went over to our friends house to present our books to each other. My best friend Beth is homeschooling this year, so we decided to do some themed weeks at the same time. This week was one of them. Presenting their books to us and each other practices public speaking at an early age, and also it makes it more fun.

Chickie presenting her science lesson about her human body.

Coqui presenting his book......

You wonder where Peanut was all this week? Well, she didn't want to participate..... I AM looking forward to making one with her next year, or the year after. The only thing she did was letting me trace her hands and feet....

Number Lapbook

I love lapbooks. When I found out about them, I didn't grasping how important they could be for homeschoolers. I mean, I am not Miss Crafty.... (well, I guess only for certain things). But definitely, I am a book learner. Definitions, I have to learn them by heart; and I am logic thinker. So my creative side is not very well developed. So that's how I would teach - with LOTS of books. Which can be boring to a six-year old little person..... I knew I had to change something.

Our themed weeks, combined with lapbooks were a huge hit last year. And I have to admit, not only for my son, but for me as well. I learned so much alongside him. It's interesting, creative, and they learn a few skills as well, like cutting along edges. Also I am convinced that this is the first step in learning HOW to gather information. I mean, today, we use the internet alot. But I want my kids to know about libraries and their resources. And that anything in a house can be used as well.


So I came up with an entire list of themed weeks, or simple a week with a lapbook, all the way up until Christmas. Last week, it was all about Numbers and how they are found in our daily life! Coqui is not bad in Math but he doesn't like big work sheets with a bunch of problems (even though he has no problem solving them!). So it was interesting for him to see that we use numbers everywhere.

It started with a presentation of my very own portfolio. I used to study photography, and one class that I took was a Portfolio Class. So mine was about 'Numbers in Everyday Life'. (I kind of figured that there would be too many portfolios with portraits and such, so I wanted to do something less along the norm.)

Then we discovered that numbers are found in his own age, and his height and his weight. That was fun.
We need numbers to measure things, to count, and to tell time. We need it to add and subtract, to multiply and divide. And of course, Money is a huge part of numbers in our life. He liked to count his money in his piggy bank. And after two years, he finally learned to distinguish all the coins.

We went over fractions as well, and it seemed, he understood the general idea of it (if not even more). We use apples to explain and visualize, but pizzas work just as well.

The hand-prints are a cute exercise - I mean which parent does not like its kid's hand outline at any age. We need our hands to help us learn how to count, they are great for adding and subtracting. They also work great for counting by 5s and 10s.

Geometry is just another part of Math, but we did not spend much time on it. Obviously, he knows all his shapes, and anything else at this point would overwhelm him.


To say the least - he enjoyed this lapbook very much and I think it changed his attitude towards numbers.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Back To Weirdness

Okay, I have a confession to make. Someone who just visits my blog today or tomorrow might get the idea that I am a 'hardcore' Vegan. And I was.... for a while.

But I have to confess that since the baby was born... not so much anymore.

And here is why: 

I became a Vegan about five years ago, after going through cancer. It was for health reasons only. Nothing more deep than that. Just for my body which had to fight one of the most terrible diseases here on earth. I wanted to treat this vessel of mine a little nicer than I had in the past. And I loved it.

So why change something that worked so well?

Over the time, I missed certain things. Things that I loved from my childhood or that I was simply craving. So when I was facing having a newborn again, I thought it would be a good time to make a few changes - for a short period of time. I felt I needed more energy, hence my intake of protein had to go waayyy up.

I became a Vegetarian again, something that I had been for a very looong time before cancer and Veganism entered my brain. So I enjoyed come cheese! On a cheese pizza, some cheese sandwiches, and grilled cheese. Yummy. I also dove into real ice cream. Yeah. It was so good. I enjoyed a nice Carvel ice cream cake for my birthday. And I am looking forward to eat some regular cupcakes for my birthday party. I ate raviolis and tortellinis. Okay, okay, before you get too hungry while reading, I'll stop - I am sure you get the idea....

And now that I have done so for the over three months, I am ready to go back to my more healthy eating habits again. I got an ice cream maker for my birthday, and a book for Vegan ice creams, so I am very much looking forward to make lots of those!!! This will be MUCH cheaper than buying Vegan ice cream in the store. And it's less limited. Around 200 delicious recipes for all kinds of ice creams. The peanut butter kind is chillin' while I am typing this - and I will share it tomorrow with friends.

Also before the holidays start, I would like to slim my waist line again (much needed!). I have not set a particular date, but I know I want to start with the Daniel's diet.
As a matter of fact, that is how I started five years ago. It felt so good. If you would like to know more about it, please click the following link: Daniel's Diet. It is so cleansing. And when I did this for the first time, I figured Veganism is not that bad.....

And yes, this also means that I will start running again. Baby is sleeping through the night and it will get cooler again in the morning. I am ready....

Cheers to a new start of being UN-normal once again!