Happy Halloween!

We are busy carving pumpkins! This year's pumpkin is Jacklyn, and we are prepping her for our Thanksgiving pie! These little pumpkins (decorated with removable vinyl lettering scraps) will be filled with sweet potato soufflé just before the event. Two events for the work of one!

What does a sugarfree Halloween look like?

Essentially, our is a celebration of family and harvest, like Thanksgiving, but lighter and more playful. Last year we chose our favorite treats, baked and prepared them together, and decorated together. The prep was as fun as the actual event--which was my favorite Halloween yet! Here in the South, we wait until Halloween day to carve the jack-o-lantern, keep him in the fridge when not in use, and steam, purée, and freeze him the next day. My daughter named him Jack, so every soup and sauce he went in was a grateful memorial service. We had our traditional chili and breadsticks dinner and went trick-or-treating! Yes, candy and all! We consider it an open house all our friends and neighbors are giving and go visiting! Later we packed the candy up and donated it. We used to do a "switch witch" or payment option, and that was good for a while, but now we just find a cause. We

are all getting our favorite treats anyway. We usually send it to a foreign country, for some reason that is very satisfying. Some friends had things like chips, stickers, and play dough. Then we returned to our lovely clean and decorated home, light candles, and enjoy our healthy treats to jazz lightly playing in the background.

We always do sesame honey treats. This year we will add chocolate PB Cups and possibly Madi's Brownies. Last year we spent several days experimenting with root beer, seeping dried herbs and infusing sweet elixirs into sparkling water. I was never very satisfied with the results and I finally had to come to grips with the fact that I never liked root beer much even when I did eat sugar, so why would I suddenly love it now? This year I just bought apple cider. Easy! We had apples with date caramels and a veggie tray with homemade ranch dressing. I can't remember what other small items we had. It was so peaceful and fun, though. A great day of family and friends, and the kids didn't even notice they were not eating the candy they were given.

I didn't mention the small accident we had while we were getting our costumes on. I was doing a little princess's hair when I heard a loud noise in the other room. I came into what looked like a murder scene, complete with a pool of blood and bloody handprints, though thankfully no corpse. It looked worse than it was, as head wounds do bleed a lot. I still don't know how he managed it. He has a significant scar on the back of his head, but it didn't slow him down a bit! Our own homemade Halloween scene! After the bleeding slowed down, it could only go uphill from there, right? I was so grateful the evening had a happy ending!

Raspberry Muffins

4 cups whole white wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup mashed banana
1 cup crushed pineapple with juice
1/3 cup honey or other whole food sweetener
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs or flax eggs
2 cups milk (any kind: cashew, rice, soy, raw)
Pint raspberries, fresh or frozen

Mix flour, soda, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, blend the banana, pineapple, honey, lemon juice, vanilla, eggs, and milk. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until just mixed. Stir in the raspberries. Bake in muffins tins at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes.

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Cashew Cream and Skim Milk

We have been using cashew milk for the past couple of months and I really like it, so I thought I would pass the idea along. This recipe here is good if you have a sweet tooth and plan on drinking it, but as I use it to pour on hot cereals or to bake with, I simplified it even further. I soak a cup of cashews for 4-6 hours, blend in a blender it with 5 cups of water for abut 3 minutes till smooth (a Vitamix would need a much shorter time, of course). Pour some of it to fill a quart jar and label it Cashew Cream. Then I add another 2 cups of water to the remaining and blend again, briefly to mix it in. I pour that into another quart jar, maybe add a little water to fill, and label it Cashew Skim Milk. I use the "cream" for my hot cereals or to make dressings or desert toppings and the "skim" to bake with. It separates in the fridge, so I just shake it up slightly before using each time. I don't know why, but the cashew milk makes the yummiest biscuits in the world. My 9 year old is now famous for them!

Cashew Cream and Skim Milk
2 cups cashews, soaked 4-6 hours
5 cups water
2 cups water
Blend cashews and 5 cups water for 3 minutes, set aside one quart, add 2 cups water, blend again. Fill  second batch with additional water to make another quart.

The Power of Positive Parenting

My favorite parenting approach, besides the Book of Mormon, is available free online! It is The Power of Positive Parenting by Glenn Latham. His book, Christlike Parenting, describes the underlying principles through a gospel perspective. Both books are fabulous. American Mothers, Inc. of Utah has used these materials for years. When I was a brand new mom, I met with friends every month and studied these materials, and later as part of the Utah and Alaska state boards. I still feel like they are the best materials available to parents looking for a behavioral description of a spiritual process.

It is awesome that the information is online. I met Latham's wife years ago, inviting me into her home as she offered her husband's books to our chapter of poor college student wives at a discounted rate. He had passed away a few years before, but she was carrying on his work that she felt so strongly and was such a partner in. The book is still for sale here and on amazon. Really, everyone should have this book in their home!

Hand Ground Peanut Butter

Peanut butter! Take peanuts, mash, like a drum, grind, stirring motion, with mortar and pestle. Takes just a minute for a small amount. This amount, about a cup, took about three minutes, but it was coarsely ground, for our oat groats breakfast. When there was just a small amount left, a few quick strokes turned it to fairly creamy goodness. Is this even a recipe? The best foods never are!

Here is our new old fashioned appliance. I told my kids that Adam and Eve probably used this!

What are we reading FOR?

Do we want a reader? Read to your child! A lot! Do we want our child to love reading long term? Mentor them into the love you have for reading: model it, share it. Do we want reading to be an integral part of who they are? Well, you can hardly help it. When we consider how books become part of us, what we read becomes essential, as discussed a couple of weeks ago.

"...to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God." 2 Nephi 9:29

If we read the verse that come just before this one, we will give more careful consideration to the way you teach your child! And yet children are constantly learning, whether we teach them or not--and if we don't teach them, the world certainly will and we will not be happy with the results. Teaching children to hearken to the counsels of God should be the goal of every parent. So, what does this have to do with learning to read? Well, reading, like any tool, can be used for good or for evil.

When my daughter was 2, I started teaching her to read. I taught her mmmmm. I taught her eeeeeeee. I taught her mmmmmeeeeee. ME! It was amazing! She could read! Just a little word, but it was a start. And when she was older, she became a reader. She read first thing in the morning. She read into the night. She read during school time. She read during her free time. But when I found her reading during job time, I put down my foot. Too much reading! Yet, that was just what I had taught her to do! And then we were in the car. I spot a bumper sticker with unsavory words on it. Suddenly realizing that she could read that, I gently press the breaks and change lanes. There was a word I did not want her sounding out. Reading became a burden--not one we were not willing to carry, but a great responsibility, a tool to wield with wisdom. And it starts at day one. Whenever our children are reading, it should be for good, for goodness, to help them become a better person. The years we have when our children are little are so precious, so important, and so short! And excuse me for being blunt, but there are so many books out there written for children that are just not worth reading.

Really good education takes a lot of time, an immensely greater amount of time than the many shortcut versions that pass for teaching, but are really only producing a cheap product in a short amount of time. Any good idea taken out of context is dangerous. Sharing? Good idea! Forcing everyone to share...well, that is another post I will probably never write, but you get the idea. Reading? Good idea IF equal footing is given to what we are reading. The danger is, as the scripture says, that our wisdom is foolishness and we will not profit from it. The blessing, on the other hand, is that our reading can bring us in contact with the greatest minds in history, and even better, the greatest minds in eternity! What an amazing blessing!