Junes warmer of the month

Email me 

or visit 
my Scentsy website 

Happy Mother's day!

Away from Keyboard

I've been gone for a while posting here and there bits and pieces. I wish I could say that these actions are over, but I can't NOT yet at least. We've been busy and I've been busy. I started something new that is taking more of my time than I suspected! 

The only news I have to offer before my grand photo dump is I am now selling Scentsy! Pretty excited here! You can order from me by clicking the Scentsy tab up top! 

Guest post: Michelle from Shelly's HomeBaked Jars

We've got a guest post today! This guest post is pretty cool to me not only is she a fellow military wife, fellow mom, and fellow business owner, she is also my cousin. 

 Here you have it...

Hi everyone, I'm Michelle and I own Shelly's HomeBaked Jars!

I want to tell you a little about my business and why I do what I do but first I want to thank my cousin, Danielle, for letting me be a guest on her blog! I've never written a blog or been a guest so I'm super excited to be doing this!

Anyways, like I said my names Michelle, and my business is baking cakes & cookies in Mason Jars! I started making these jars when my husband, Chad, was deployed to Afghanistan. for me it was an easy way to mail him a piece of home and man, does he like his sweets! The saying "the fastest way to a mans heart is through his stomach" is so true with him.

I know a lot of you are out there saying "but making cakes in a jar is so easy why would I buy them?" I make my cakes from scratch, nothing out of boxes or tubes, seriously, all the frostings and toppings are home-made too. These jars so great for gifts to family and friends who live far away they ship really well and can stay out of refrigeration for about 12 days, And of course you can store these
In the fridge or freezer for a day you feel like having something sweet!

I do so much more then just bake these cakes in a jar, I make lots of other goodies like cookie-wiches (cookies of your choosing sandwiches between buttercream frosting) and cakesters (can be made out of many cake and frosting) nut cluster, oatmeal cream pies, there's so much more on my websites and I'm adding new things weekly so just for you guys I have created a coupon code for my Etsy site that will be good for one month when checking out just enter SWEETPEA01 and get 10% off your entire order! I hope to see you all checking out my websites!

Www.etsy.com/shop/shellyshomebakedjars

Www.shellyshomebakedjars.webs.com

Seriously don't those look yummy? 

Homemade almond milk and flour

We've been off cow milk for almost a year around here. We drink almond. For along time I have been unhappy with the amount of additives in our milk whether cow, soy or almond. 

Then the other day I hopped on Pinterest to browse around and to my surprise one of the people I was following had pinned all sorts of homemade almond milk recipes and ideas.  Then there was a light bulb... 

... I could make almond milk at home without the additives. 

So I tried a few recipes it was all fairly easy but in the end I did it my own way. 

Ingredients

1 cup raw almonds

4-8 cups filtered water

vanilla extract to taste

I went with a simpler recipe without added sugar and just a touch of pure vanilla extract.

Steps:

1. soak raw almonds in water overnight. (just enough water to cover the almonds) This soaking process helps breakdown the almonds. You will dump this water before blending.

2. Place almonds and water 2-3 cups at a time in blender. Blend for about 2 minutes until mixture is white. 

3. Strain into either cheese cloth, nut bag or as I used a pastry cloth. If you are using a pastry cloth I would suggest wetting the cloth first just so it is damp. 

4. Squeeze extra milk from cloth. 

5. You can repeat steps 2-4 with the same almonds just simply put it back in the blender. 

After creating your homemade almond milk place it in the refrigerator for 4-6 days. 

You can make almond flour by taking the left over almond mush placing it on a baking sheet and cooking at 350 until dried about 15 minutes. After the almond mush is dried place in dry blender or food processor and pulse until flour consistency. 

My favorite summer drink

I love watermelon like seriously I could drink/eat it every day! The watermelon guy at the farmers market knows me too well! We get 3 or 4 a week. Yep you read that right we are watermelon FREEKS around here. One of our favorite ways to have it is as a slushy. 

Have you ever made a watermelon shush? It might be the easiest summer drink you can make. 

Cut watermelon into cubes about 1 inch (larger will work you will just have to freeze longer) 

Put cubes in the freezer for around 2 hours. 

Once frozen Blend and done! 

Enjoy your delicious beverage! 

It's okay Thursday

It’s Thursday! I couldn’t be happier to be one day closer to the weekend. I’m not gunna sugar coat it this has been a horrible week! Just a lot going on and a lot to process. 

It’s okay...

to need a break from this crazy life. Anyone who said being a military wife was easy has never done it! 

to admit I may have signed up for a bit more than I can handle.

to want to add more to my over flowing plate.

to be excited to finally be working on getting my kiddos baptized (even if its a few years late)

to be so sad that one of my closest friends is moving away this week. I never thought this little journey of ours would bring such an amazing friend! 

to be looking into boarding school for my 3.5 year old. 

to just want to sit out side and soak in the 85 degree sun! 

to turn up the tunes and just sing it out! Somethings this is the best medicine. (it also masks the screams of the children :))

to be so excited for the 21 day health challenge to be over I just want to post before and after pics!!! 

for life to turn out different than you planned. Remember it’s not our plan that matters!

to wonder where the years have gone... Planning or thinking about my class reunion is making me feel old.