Coconut Milk

Have you ever wondered how "they" make coconut milk?
No?
Well I haven't either!! HAHAHAHA. But I did say that I would post this week and looky here! It is Saturday night and I have nothing. So I have gone into our beloved drafts folder where there is an overabundance of pictures and events that need to be documented on this little blog.

Since "going green", green smoothies, eating raw and all that kind of wonderful and fabulous things seem to be the new rage, I thought some of you might find this to be interesting.

So here is how we make coconut milk!

1. Get a coconut...duh.

2. Poke a hole in it with an icepick.

3. Drain all the juice out of it and into a container.

4. Get a machete and get to choppin'!

5. Examine your handy work.

6. Put the coconut meat in the blender with some water and the very coconut milk that came inside it. Blend, blend, blend!

7. Strain it all through a cheese cloth

8. Pour it into a cute container

9. Look upon your beautiful, healthy milk

 

10. Enjoy!

Personally, I do not touch the stuff. I think because I went in expecting it to taste like milk. It is called coconut milk. But it no taste like milk!

Just a warning. 

So there you have it. Coconut milk in 10 easy steps!! (Although #4 is not so easy, but hey. Who said going raw is easy?)

If anyone is actually interested in knowing the exact measurement of water you're supposed to add just leave a comment. I'm confident Nicole would be happy to bestow knowledge upon you.

Bethany

Tangy....but Nasty

Has anyone noticed that the owners of this blog have NOT blogged in about a YEAR!??! I definitely have noticed. Someone needs to get on here and write something funny. The kids are all done with their tests so they are now having some free computer time.
Also...does anyone like the new background? I DO! Nicole says it's too girly...but, hello! We are girls. ..................At least *I* am............

I am currently sitting at Nicole's desk; she is at mine. We are learning about each other's working areas.

Actually what happened is I was sitting at my desk when suddenly I got a whiff of somethin'. It wasn't exactly bad, but it made me cough delicately and make an ugly face. This went on for about an hour. I searched high and low for where the smell was coming from. No food on my desk. No moldy food in the school kitchen. Best I could figure was one of the boys brought an interesting little lunch because their lunch pails are right next to my desk. I begged Nicole to trade desks with me. She agreed, but only if she could take my phone with her. So she is currently discovering what photo stream is and reading my texts...which means she is pretty entertained--Ha!

Anyways, back to the smell...
It was sweet, but nasty. Sugary, but dog-shake inducing.
Nicole sits down in my chair and immediately gets The Whiff. She says it smells familiar.
Suddenly she realizes................it is a science experiment from earlier this week gone bad. It was in the trash, but it was definitely still alive and kicking. So she took care of the dirty little bag of trash.

But we are still at each other's desks. Sometimes you just need to see the world from different eyes. Walk a mile at someone else's desk. She has this wonderful ray of sunlight that comes in over her desk every morning. It probably is frying her laptop, but it sure does feel good on the back of my head.

Great news: Next week is spring break! GLORY TO THE LORD ON HIGH!!!!! The coolest part is that we have been so busy the past few weeks, we did not even realize we had such a wonderful ocassion coming up. No time to pine after it, which is obviously a blessing from the Lord.
We (I am speaking in faith concerning my sister) are planning on getting our act together and having some GREAT posts this next week! And no, I am not exaggerating. I pretty much think I have the coolest blog post ever all written up (in my mind). Need to get it out on the proverbial paper.

So may the world sing in perfect harmony, and the sun continue to shine...........


Yours very very truly, sincerly and from the bottom my heart,

Bethany.

Caramel Apple Pops!

El Pastor has been in the US for the past few weeks. Obviously, Nicole and I have been down here in Mexico. A couple of weeks ago, my parents were in Arizona preaching for Elder Garrett. There is a sweet lady in the church there that reads this blog and leaves us comments every so often. Her and my mom got to talking and Sis. Gardner mentioned something about me liking caramel apples. I'm not sure how it all went, but in the end, Sis. Gardner said she was going to bring a bag of these wonderful caramel apple pops to church for my dad to bring back to Mexico. 

......Little did she know how HARD it would be to find some! According to my mother, Sis. Gardner was texting her friends, searching high and low for a bag of these suckers when after MUCH footwork.....she found one! 

As some of you know from reading this blog, I looooove caramel apples, but they do not have them here! They do not even sell caramel so we could make our own. As you can understand, I walk around constantly with a hole in my heart. ;)

But now.....my heart is full. The caramel apple pops made it all the way down to Puebla, Mexico!

 They are even better than I remembered. I love them! 

I'm going to have maybe one a week; ration them out to last a looong time :D

 Thank you, Sis. Gardner!

Shunts and Bibleing -- An Austin Update

 

Our not so little baby brother had a doctor's appointment day before yesterday! He had not had an MRI of his brain in about 4 years, so it was about time we got a look in there just to make sure he still had something! Hahaha :D

Of course, that is a joke. You guys know he's a little smartie!

 

We were warned that the MRI would take somewhere around half an hour, and that he would have to lie there completely still. Could Austin do that? Nope! Sooo we had to knock him out. :))

(Or one time as one of my nurses informed me when I asked if she was going to "knock me out": "No, you will not be 'knocked out'-- It is against hospital regulation to tell patients that they will be 'knocked out'. You will be 'anaesthetised' and your brain and airways will all be fully functioning.")

My, my she was a dutiful little nurse...

She just couldn't crack a smile. --She probably thought that was against the rules too.

No please, Ms. Politically Correct Nurse, I wanna be knocked out!! ;P

 

Austin prepping for his IV (scary stuff):

Playing a new game on his DS!

^Big lips and all :)^

 

Here he is in recovery after the whole ordeal was over...

He did not want to wake up!

 

Dr. Dad making the doctor's office a fun experience.

Though I was not even there, I know my dad and I'm sure he was being corny and making everyone laugh :D

 

Ever seen a real live brain scan? Well... Now you have!

Well, actually you've only seen a real one now... Not a live one.

 

 

Imagine my shock when I check my gmail and see an email from my mom with the subject line "Austin's shunt", and then open it only to see a COILED UP TUBE!!! 

 There I was thinkin' that he'd gone in for a non-invasive MRI, and they've gone and pulled his shunt out! Seriously that was my first thought. :)) But no-- it was just a tube like the one in Austin.
 

 

This is Austin's shunt:

The tube runs from back behind his ear down into his tummy where its coiled up in there. It extends and uncoils as he grows taller!

It drains the extra fluid in his brain down into his stomach... And the rest is history :))))

 

This is the little valve that sits directly behind his ear. If the tube gets blocked we can just push down on that little raised bubble and it flushes out the tube....

 

Here's the little-big stinker again-- Mr. Longlegs

 

 

 

 

 Here he is at the eye doctor checking the pressure in his eyes.

With him having hydrocephalus (excess of water on the brain), checking the level of pressure in his eyes is very important, and actually has glaucoma because of the high pressure in his eyes...

 

Leg crossed, lookin' like a little man :)

 

And this is the end of your lesson on shunts! Hope you enjoyed! ;P

 

 

What in the world has happened to Austin's Bibleing project?

We haven't done a Bibleing update in quite a while, but Austin hasn't given up on his commitment of reading the New Testament in a year! He's still reading the Bible, and we're still doing everything we can to raise money to get started on building our church school. I'll give a more detailed update here in a few days, hopefully with pictures and maybe a recording!

If you would like to be a part of this project of building our church school, you can find the donate button on the right sidebar. We can't build this school with out money, but your prayers are also very appreciated! We have undertaken a huge responsibility here in Puebla of the education of our church kids and need all the help and prayers that we can get! We can't do this alone!

 

If you haven't already heard of the church school building project, or about Austin reading the New Testament in a year to raise money for the project, take a few minutes to read about it by clicking here:  Bibleing: Building a School-- One Chapter at a Time!

 

 

Please keep the Wakefield family in your prayers!

 

 

*Nicole*

Let Me Introduce You to Our Boys

I thought I'd introduce you all to our kids here at school and tell you a little about each one. We have six students...all of them are boys. They each have a nickname that Nicole and I have given them. I'll put those in the caption of each picture!

Arturo (the one pushing the cart) is 11 years old and in 6th grade. He is the only one of our boys that have the Holy Ghost! According to his mother, Arturo is the smartest one in his family. *Ahem* At the beginning of the year, he really struggled with his subjects, but just last week, he made all 100's on his tests! Progress!! We were very proud.
He has the best handwriting out of all the kids, and is a kinesthetic learner, meaning he loves to work with his hands. If anyone can think of a way to incorporate Legos into school work, I'm sure this guy would be eternally grateful.

Goes by the nickname "Trejo"

Alejandro is Arturo's brother. He is 9. He is in third grade and is one of my favorite kids to work with. He is not lazy; he always comes to school ready to get to work. However, he does have some pretty bad handwriting LOL! We are working on that! He is very good at math, usually is very quick to grasp new concepts.

A-l-e...creative, I know!

This is Bryan. He is 10 and is in 5th grade. I would say he is the smartest of all our boys. He is good at working independently, which takes a load off of Nicole and I. He also has pretty good reading comprehension which is something the majority of the other boys struggle with.
Sometimes he comes to school and right away I can see it's going to be "one of those days". He can be one of the hardest worker and other days....It's obvious he left his drive at home! Bryan is our #1 Bible verse memorizer. He does such a great job!

B.R.

Fabian...oh, Fabian! Some of you will remember Fabian's first appearance on this blog. He is our little sweetheart! He is 9 years old and in 3rd grade. I think he is the one we have the hardest time disciplining because he's so sweet! He is also known as our little daydreamer. I don't know what all he has to think about, but mannn! He could sit in his spinning desk chair all day with his eyes wandering all around, deep in thought. Everyday we are telling him, "Fabian, look at your lesson...Fabian, get busy! Get your mind on your work and out of the clouds!" Hehe! He is probably the church's most-beloved little boy, most likely because his parents are not in church. We are all rooting for him!
He is a little smarty pants. He does great memorizing the weekly verses and knows ALL of his multiplication tables!

Fabz or Stinky...lol!

And here's Eddy!! He my little student. He is sooo smart and a JOY to work with! He is so adorable, sometimes while trying to teach him a new concept his eyes just get all big and he makes me smiiiiiile! He is 8 years old and in 2nd grade. He can also be a bit of a daydreamer; Nicole and I catch him playing airplanes and cars with his pencils all.the.time. Haha! Sometimes we'll just sit back and watch him for a bit before telling him to get to work. He's too cute!

Terk

And last, but of course, not least...Nan! He has so many names. Caleb, Nan, Namaan, Josue...
Here at school he goes by Nan. He is 7 and is in kindergarten. Nicole works exclusively with him. He's been our most challenging student. He came into this not knowing how to read, write, count, etc. Nicole has worked with him and showed infinite patience. He has now started to read small words, write, and can count to 60! For a while it seemed we took one step forward, and two steps back. He struggled to even talk in full sentences. He's growing little by little. He's a bit of a slow learner, but is making progress.
And ooooh buddy, can he play soccer! He gets pretty intense out on the field.

Referred to as "Little Guy"

I probably should have done this post at the beginning of the school year, but I just barely got the idea a couple weeks ago! I'm a little slow :)

I hope you all have enjoyed getting to "meet" our little men! 

~Bethany~

Healing Update: Junk Food Overdose

Warning:

This whole post is basically about what gluten I've been pigging out on... If you no like, there's a disclaimer all the way at the bottom just for you! :D Make sure and scroll real fast so that you don't hurt your eyes with all the good food I've been eating...

Continuing...



 Gluten is pure junk.

No, that's not really a new revelation for me...

But my goodness, I've been getting a whole new lesson on how many doors of junk food have been opened up to me now that I am no longer allergic to gluten!

In fact, its actually kinda scary.

Like "I'm going to turn into a snowball if I don't control my eating habits" kind of scary. :))

Ever since God healed me, eating gluten has been a kind of personal challenge for me. Not a challenge as in something hard for me to do, but a challenge as in,

I have to eat this just because I can!

Want to see some of what I've been eating in the past few weeks? :))

This was one of the very first things made of gluten that I ate in the days after being healed...

Auntie Anne's ain't got nothin' on our new "Mr. Pretzels" at the mall!

 I had a Oreo McFlurry for the first time in my life...

My birthday cake: A waste of caloric consumption, but nonetheless, gluten. Therefore, although tasteless, it is in the documentary. :))

 Valentine Krispy Kreme donuts for Beth and I from our wonderful Dad!

^Well worth the calories! Wow. :))^

My first piece of pizza in a long time...

Last time I stupidly broke the rules and indulged in pizza, I also got to "indulge" in my body sending it right back up almost as soon as it settled in my stomach... Not a pretty picture. Haha.

Cinnamon monkey bread...

Thankfully our church people enjoy baked goods 'cause there was no way Beth and I could eat this by ourselves!

Chickfila chicken nuggets on the right and pizza on the left... Both homemade! We can only dream of having a Chick-fil-a down here...

(You can see from the above pictures that I speak truth when I say that gluten is pure junk food... LOL.)

Last but not least:

Coffee!

No, coffee does not inherently contain gluten-- But I thought it was playing a part in my health problems so although it was a HUGE sacrifice, :)) I slowly gave it up. In the past couple years I went from 2-4 cups of coffee a day, down to barely 1 cup every other week...

(The very few times I would drink coffee was because I was in Starbucks....

I can never resist Starbucks.... :)))

But ever since God healed me, I feel awesome in every way and somehow without any intention, I have gone back to drinking my beloved coffee with a vengeance... I'm talking 3-4 cups a day guys. (A few days ago I somehow managed to rack up a total of 6 coffees through out my day. I was sooo sure it was all going to catch up to me, but I felt great! :))

Conclusion:

Ever since God healed me, I feel like a completely different person!

--And its not just the coffee consumption folks! LOL

...

I'm happier, I feel lighter... I don't know how to explain it...

Carrying the disease of Celiac, was so heavy emotionally and physically, even though at the time, I did not realize just how heavy and how much of an effect it was having on my spirit.

God is good.

Your very own reformed Celiac,

*Nicole*

*Disclaimer! I realize to some people out there, mainly others with Celiac or that suffer from any form of gluten intolerance, may take this post the wrong way. Celiac is often not taken seriously by those who don't understand it, and you may think I'm exacerbating the problem. I didn't write this post to make people think that all Celiac is is the inability to eat bread. There are mental, emotional, and physical effects that run deep in those suffering with Celiac. Not being able to eat gluten (wheat, rye, barley) is just one facet of the disease. Celiac disease is not just a trendy diet-- It is real disease that should be taken seriously.

This is just a lighthearted post written to give an update to all of my friends and family across the pond on my health, which is doing great by the way. :) I can eat what I like, when I like, and not have to worry about whether gluten is hidden in it somewhere. Others may be thinking, "What is this stupid girl thinking?? Why would she risk her health by eating all of this poison, just on a whim that God might have healed her?? Celiac is incurable."

We serve an awesome God that has all power to do what He wants! He's not limited by our incredulity and so-called impossibilities. It's been 5 weeks since God healed me and I've not had one ache or pain... And as you've seen, my body has been given many chances to revolt. :)

I'd say that my "whim" has paid off...

Just be happy... You can now say that you know of a Celiac that was cured!