Kaake Family Blog

Enjoy the pictures and birth story.  I have not had time to proof-read so I apologize for any mistake.   My friend Angela took this picture along with the next 4 pictures.  She did such a great job!  My daughter Allysha singing to her baby brother.  Daddy with all his boys!   The first time the kids saw baby. Daddy is in love. Because of my elevated blood pressure, my induction date for our dear Daniel was on Thursday, November 8th.  I was so ready to have him and so excited we had a date that we would have him for sure. Daniel…well, he decided he didn't want to wait till 6am the morning of his induction.  No way!  He decided he wanted to start the process at midnight.  This is when I started having intense contractions right away 5-7 minutes apart.  By 2pm I went to the bathroom, wiped and saw "boody show".  I knew then it was on.  Contractions at this point were clos...

I thought I'd post this for anyone interested.  We try to purchase as much local/organic as possible.  Most of our meats are free range meats.  I don't want to have to label everything "organic", "free range", etc...  We don't have an actual pantry but we do have some cupboards.  The picture above is of a dream pantry.  The picture was borrowed from here .  Oh and hubby makes most of our condiments which is cool! Hubby does love to bake and has his own baking supplies that I don't use.  Things like flour, sugars, etc...  Here's what I personally keep on hand.  Happy cooking! Canned food: diced tomatoes diced tomatoes and chilis tomato sauce tomato paste salsa beans - mostly black beans but sometimes pinto and great northern veggies - green beans, peas, corn nut butters - Usually peanut butter or sunbutter.  Occasionally almond butter pasta sauce tuna fish Dry goods: basmati rice beans - pinto, black, great no...

I was reminded by my sister-in-law that we needed to start making these burritos again to make life a bit easier.  In the past we'd layer the ingredients.  I saw a video on youtube where a mom mixed all the ingredients together, then filled the burritos.  That's what we did with these.  We made 24 freezer burritos (large and stuffed) for only $15.29 which comes out to about $.64 each.  If you do not use meat and make your own beans, it would be even cheaper.  Also, if you use cheaper rice you'll save money. We're very particular to using basmati or jasmine rice.  These are so packed that they will feed one adult or two younger children per burrito.  Add a nice salad and you've got a pretty healthy meal! Ingredient Cost: 1 can tomatoes and chilies $.69 1/2 large package frozen chicken breasts $4 2 cans black beans $1.38 1 1/2 cups uncooked basmati rice $.75 chicken bullion and spices were all under $1.00 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese...

My 13 year daughter took these today for me at the Nature Preserve.  I was very excited.  Enjoy!

Picture borrowed from http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/09/get-a-jump-start-on-holiday-shopping.html/christmas-presents I love to plan my Christmas gifts starting in January.  This helps me not only save money but save sanity.  I save money because I have all year to look for those specific items and it saves my sanity because my family is not stressed about what to get someone.  We're prepared. Here's a few steps that have helped me. 1. First decide if you want to make all/some of your gifts.  If you want to make them, try to find neat and unique ideas online.  I LOVE pinterest.com for getting great ideas. 2. Is there someone in your family that has a lot of stuff?  For those people I get the same thing every year.  For our grandparents we do pictures in some form and homemade goodies.  For my mom and dad, I always get them a gift certificate to a Bed and Breakfast and add in something small for each one. 3. Make a list of everyone...

Here's a 17 week picture of baby November.  We will find out in less than 2 weeks if  we're having a boy or a girl :) 3 batches of strawberry freezer jam with the help of Jon and Allysha Lyshie made my favorite homemade ranch dressing today. Here Lyshie made some banana bread.  She's on a roll today in the kitchen!  So what's been happening?  Well, we went on a mini family vacation to Frankenmuth last week which was wonderful!  We celebrated my daughter's 13th birthday last weekend which was a blast!  She had a party with her friends and then that merged into a party with family members.  Everyone had a great time as did my baby.  We're so thankful!  I hope to get a blog post up on that soon. Baby November has been moving around so much it's crazy!  So glad to have the reassurance of the movement.   Jon not only hardended off all my plants, but planted most of them as well.  He's tur...

I made this up quick today and we love it.  This makes about 10 golf ball sized snack balls.  Pictures will come as soon as I can find my camera. :) Ingredients: 1 cup oats 1/2 cup almonds 1/2 cup peanut butter scant 1/3 cup honey dried coconut Directions: 1. Place nuts and oats in food processor and process till fine. 2. Add in peanut butter and honey and pulse just till ingredients come together. 3. If you want to be naughty, add about 1 tablespoon or so of chocolate chips in and knead in. 4. Form into golf ball sized balls (or whatever size you choose) and then roll in coconut.  Keep refrigerated.

I first want to apologize for not blogging in quite awhile. Life has gotten crazy and I had to take time for my family.  In the midst of all this crazy, I have even more so found out that God's ways are not my own.  Funny eigh? For years Matthew and I wanted babies, babies, babies.  With 3 living children and 4 (maybe 5) miscarriages, then moving into adrenal problems we decided we were done.  Did you notice I said "we"?  Funny that. Just a couple weeks ago (has it been that long already), my children left with my mother-in-law to go be with her for a whole week so my body could have a chance to rest.  At least that was MY plan. You seeing where this is going? The very first whole day the kids were gone, I went to the store to pick up a pregnancy test.  Not to see if I was pregnant but to confirm that the reason I was late was because I had been stressed.  This in my mind was to confirm I was indeed not pregnant so I could move on with my ...

I tweaked things a bit (are you surprised) and made these muffins.  Next time I'd definitely add in probably a tablespoon of lemon zest.  These are not super sweet muffins.  They are nice and hearty as well as tasty.  I think I will also do cranberry, orange peel and nut muffins next time. Ingredients: 2 cups oat flour (I make my own) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons honey 2/3 cup buttermilk 2 tablespoons melted butter 2 eggs, beaten 1 cup frozen blueberries 1 tablespoon finely chopped pecans Directions: 1. Mix together oat flour and buttermilk and let sit for 10 minutes or so. 2. Mix in eggs, butter and honey. 3. Add in dry ingredients and mix just till combined. 4. Fold in blueberries and nuts and put into 12 muffin liners.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

This is something my family knows all too well.  Over the past 2 years things have really been hard in some aspects.  In others, it's been better.  I've recently talked to 3 different women who are also at times bed ridden with children at home.  It's a very difficult road to walk.  While this may not help everyone since we're all different, I know it would be very helpful for me and some of my friends.  Read on if you know someone who has on-going health issues and you want to help them.  It can be very lonely and isolating. 1. Don't forget us.  When testing is being done or we're getting on a new regimen, people pray for us and we get calls and/or letters to see how we're doing.  Once the testing is done, we're forgotten about again (or that's how it seems).  Let us know you're still praying for us, pop on over for a short amount of time (because we usually can't do that long), and just sit with us and talk.  We miss getting...

Here goes.  Here is a list of some of my favorite things of 2011.  If I had the money, I'd totally buy 1 of each for all of you ;)  The list is short but these items rock!  Def. not a necessity but they've been nice to have. Contigo Mugs - these are amazing!  They hold hot beverages for hours.   Heavenly Organics Chocolates - My favorite is the mint flavored.  This is just dark chocolate, honey and mint flavoring.  Now I can indulge from time to time. Avalon Organics Biotin B Shampoo (Thickening) - I love, love, love this shampoo.  I get it at a discount on vitacost.com IngenuiTEA - This has to be the best tea invention to date!  I use lots of bulk, loose, organic herbs for my tea.  This is the perfect way to brew it.  Super simple and easy clean-up. Zevia Soda - My current favorite flavor is Ginger.  Mmmm!  It's nice to have a soda from time to time that does not con...

(Above - Chocolate testing I had with hubby 2 years ago) It's just over 1 month away and I'm excitedly making plans for this year.  Now if you're one of those "Valentine's Day is one of those stupid Hallmark holidays we don't celebrate", or "I can pick any day of the year to love and celebrate my family", move on please.  I always have and always will love  Valentine's Day.   Growing up my mom always did something very special for us on Valentine's Day.  It was always fun seeing what she had planned.  It was especially fun when it fell on a school day and I'd anticipate all day long what she was doing.  She'd always make a fantastic meal and incorporate hearts into it any way she could.  We would also always get a special card from her and special treats.   Now that I have my own family, I try to follow the same theme as my mother.  It's always been a special time for our family too.  No matter what our budget, we've al...