• Archive for February 2014

    The Kitchen: Spices

    Thursday, February 27, 2014

     
     

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    Since moving into this home I have had an inefficient spice storage system. Tucked away in a basket in the pantry, spices piled on top of each other. It was frustrating to find and utilize half the spices I had. I like to use spices, it is an essential part in making flavorful healthy food. When I moved our 'command center' out of the kitchen and rearranged a few other cupboards which opened up these two drawers in our center island directly across from our stove. I do most food prep on the Island top so this is the most logical spot for my spices. Since organizing the spices I have used all my spices more readily and have enjoyed the easy access I have to them.
    I bought the jars at Dollarama.
    Labeled with my label maker.
    My spice blends are in the drawer on the right, along with my bouillon cubes and baking essence.  
    I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I am enjoying having my spaces at my finger-tips.
     
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    The Kitchen: Medicine Cabinet

    Thursday, February 20, 2014


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    A tool to use, a blessing to welcome, the one place of the home that can provide nutrition and nurture, both of equal importance.

    The Kitchen

    In my home this is the room that has me rooted most day-lit hours, five littles all with mouths ajar. My family's needs keep me stationed for long hours between preparation, feeding and cleanings.  It can become a chore, a job to do. It comes as no surprise then that food and kitchen blogs are the number one read blogging type fallowed online. We as mothers, cooks, keepers-of-home are looking for inspiration. I really have nothing to offer that the 'greats' of the blog world have not already done. I'm not the best cook, or the most healthiest, my kitchen isn't perfect (the pictures can overlook many a flaw) or most organized. And here I am writing again about my kitchen! I have been giving my kitchen much thought these last weeks, as I aim to improve on its function, for me I think it comes down to so much more than that. I long for my kitchen to nurture my family and myself, to reflect my heart and care towards my family and others. I have chosen to allow this space of my home, and time, to become a gracious act of services and love.

    My kitchen is a tool, and the place I most frequently touch the lives of my family members.

    Nutrition and Nurture

    Speaking love through the most mundane tasks of life.
     
    This is not always easy. As God is leading me to see the incredible role I play by being a willing servant in the most humble of life's tasks, I began to change the way I think and operate.

    I have been able to articulate how this work space can help me reflect the heart God is cultivating in me.
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    Beauty.

     Creating a lovely kitchen kindles contentment and brings me joy, I spend countless hours among pots, pans, dishes, tiding and scrubbing. It was about creating a place that personally lifted my heart, immerging the mundane in beauty. Though I have made it beautiful for me, others are also drawn to the aesthetics of order and beauty. My husband and children though most often do not comment when things are in order, they certainly voice it when there is something amiss. Just recently during my long stretch of pregnancy nausea and I was letting things 'go' in order to rest. My three year old boy came to my bed while I was having a mid-afternoon nap, he said ever so sweetly and longingly "mama come make the kitchen pretty" of course using his adorable lisp to enhance the charm of that moment! I would encourage you to make your kitchen space reflect your style and the heart and soul you want to be represented in the kitchen.

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    Nurturing

     Food is the foundation of care for every living soul.  The services of feeding and eating communicates to the deepest levels of who we are. From my kitchen I have seen the power food has to speak love and care, to heal, to nurture. There is much wisdom needed to provide the body with health and nutrition, while also maintaining joy in food. When men (or a man) & young are your main consumers it is prudent to ask God to lead your food choices. There is a ever needed balance to healthfully maintain your family's needs, nutritionally and emotionally. Train your culinary and nutritional abilities, turn a chore into an act of service towards your family.
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    Function

    My work space. I no longer have the time to look for things or spend my precious moments maintain things I don't need. Nothing steals away at my heart like frustration, clutter and mess. My goal is to have an orderly functional work space that can be used efficiently and put back to beauty in  quick time. I need to be able to access my tools and have a place to return them to when I am finished with it. I also find that if I can see it I will use it, out-of-sight-out-of-mind. Recently I have worked to eliminate the problem. By placing kitchen essentials of high importance in the easiest reach spots, not overcrowding and being able to see them. And that is where the next few blog posts come in. I have been thinking and working through trouble areas and loving the result of a carefully thought out and functional 'to us' kitchen.
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    My first area was our Vitamin, Herb, and Medicine cabinet. I had two problems with this space. I could never find what I was looking for, I could never remember what each member was taking and when. I resolved these hang-ups by putting our remedies in family groups, children, adults, viral, lose herbs, oils, and modern meds. Then placed each family in its own tin. For the adult every day supplements I placed on a tiered spice rack (Wal-Mart) now I can see every bottle.
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    When I pulled everything out of the cupboard to clean and organize it I had my computer open and started writing down what each bottle was for, for whom and how much and how often they were to receive it. Each family member has their own box, with the remedy and dosage behind the time of day am, noon, or pm. I laminated the list and hung it on the inside of the cupboard door. At the different meals, I open my cupboard, read my list, gather the easy to find bottles and viola! This has helped considerably in being consistent with our vitamins and nutritional supplements.
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    Above my medicine shelf I have a basket for bibs and baby hand & face cloths, another for bottles. Again everything has to fit into these baskets (a lot of purging here.) On the top shelf is my bulk bottles of essential oils (the blends are down with the other medicinal remedies) and a bin of extras, like my netty pot, tea strainers, and other herbal miscellaneous.
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    Leaning into a God who is guiding me on this journey of motherhood and home-maker, He is teaching me not of the challenges but of the blessings. To even have a kitchen places me in an elite class of the ultimate wealth of our word. To have loved ones to serve tells a story of love, fellowship and family. Having the privilege to nurture littles makes me a Mother and a partner in the eternal role of caring for souls, gifts of Heaven. I am praying that my heart and actions will reflect the abundance of these blessings.
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    'Command' Center

    Thursday, February 13, 2014


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    It's the weekend... you see Roger has tomorrow off which means I am starting weekend time a day early!
     Right now I am enjoying a few precious afternoon moments with the sun streaming through the windows, babies napping, laundry is done, house is cleaned and dinner is slow cooking.
     There is something about this time of year or could it be this stage of pregnancy that fills me with new vision and desires for my home. I am blessed to be living in my
    House of Dreams,

    yet there seems to always be spaces, corners and cupboards that can use a clean or overhaul. One such area that I am constantly trying to figure out is my kitchen, as our family grows and the needs change I am altering things to make life smother and more efficient.
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    Recently I have moved our 'command cupboard', you may remember it from This Post. I loved this space, which was located in the kitchen and just above the phone, yet I needed more kitchen cupboard space, for kitchen things.
    We have this narrow hallway leading from the kitchen up to our 'gabled schoolroom' (open doorway on the left in the above photo). The hallway has a wall of build-in cabinets and a small utility sink. I have always been a bit at loss of how to utilize and decorate this narrow space, until I saw this bookshelf with doors at Ikea. I knew instantly what to do with the shelf and the hallway!
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    I moved our family command center to the hallway, I like how it looks and it's functionality along with how it bridges the space between kitchen and school room. It provided more room to organize our mail, calendars, phones, keys, cameras, general daily paper and schedules. On the wall space left of the shelf I framed our family rules, then a cheap plastic frame from Ikea inside I placed brown paper and wrote the days of the week. On the outside of the frame I write the day's most important requirements with a chalk pen, I can easily wipe it off and reuse the fallowing week. Putting the shelf and using it as our command center in the hallway opened up a large cupboard and two small drawers in the kitchen which was very much needed.
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    There are three sections in the cabinets that were all ready in the hallway. In the first section right beside the utility sink I have our cleaning supplies. I mostly clean with Norwex cloths and hot water. I have a place to hang our daily 'cleaning cloth' on hooks inside the cabinet, this way we can reuse it (other than bathroom or germy jobs) throughout the day, also my kids can get at the cloths (that is why the hooks are hung low). Because we do not clean with chemicals most wiping, dusting, walls and windows can be done by my kids, I also help, but I love to delegate!
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    The next section over is our household utility shelf, it holds everything from light bulbs to toilet paper, cloth bags and our going to town bins are at the bottom.
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     Next section I have my vases, extra decorations, and our baby swing that can be hung in the kitchen, for those wild moments when only a swing will sooth a toddler!
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    There are three smaller cupboards above the cabinets, I use this space for baskets to hold any returns.
     
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    I am enjoying having a utility command/center space in our home. I like having everything in one place as opposed to scattered in different spots throughout the home.
    I love that it looks lovely!
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    Miraculous Expectancy

    Thursday, February 6, 2014

     
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    Another little one has made its way into our lives and heart. One more heavenly touch gifted to my Mothering journey. We found out this little one will tie up the gender balance,

    A Boy,


    making our family perfectly even, three girls, three boys.

    I am 23 weeks along,

    Sick for 16 of them.

    Tired for all 23 weeks.

    Expected to make his arrival the first week of June (a lovely month for new life)

    No names... really at six we are lost...

    I am staying somewhat on the smaller side, thankful for that, it must have to do with running after all my other littles and that I have been sugar free this whole pregnancy.

    For those wondering, this one will be born a few weeks after Lachlan turns 4, the ages of our bebes will run as fallowed

    Marion 10,

    Davina 7,

    Lachlan just 4,

    Jeriah 2.5,

    Amaris almost 2,

    Newborn!

    On one of Roger and I's first date I mentioned (quite seriously) that I wanted a large family, around six kids, and that adoption had always been on my heart. He was the first guy to stay seated and maintain composer, not only did he finish the date, he paid the bill and asked me for another date. I took that as a sign! Later that evening he said he had always wanted half a dozen kids, three girls, three boys. Needless to say I married that handsome young man, and we have been blessed to see the dream of babies fulfilled.

    And this little one, well he is just something precious, he is not just another in the lot of Milner babies, actually the more I have the rarer and more sacred my pregnancies become. I understand this experience of bringing life into the world will only happen very few times for me personally. I am host to the Holy working within, creating a life like no other, and in return being filled with

    Miraculous Expectancy.

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