Getting fit again

Happy New Year! I had a great Christmas and I hope you did too! With the new year here, its a perfect time to take a look at your personal health and fitness routine. With the holidays comes great food, yummy sweets and a busier schedule which doesn't leave as much time for exercise,which results in eating to much food and because of the cold weather I've become rather lazy, so with not exercising and eating more food than normal. I've noticed I've gotten weaker and have lost muscle. Now its the middle of January and I'm trying to move in the direction of becoming more fit, toned, and building more muscle(and hopefully losing the couple of pounds that I gained from Christmas!) But honestly who really wants to get up and move when it cold and wet outside?And I find it can be hard to motivate myself. My mom and I are both" all-or- none" girls,so we have a hard time just doing a couple of push ups and being satisfied but having that mind set isn't always good because I'm tending to do nothing as of right now instead of something. For the past two days I've started running again, doing different types of push ups, Plank, Lifting light weights,jumping on my moms mini trampoline and playing the Wii. Today my mom decided she wanted us to clean up the garage and finish putting together the weight bench that is out in our garage, so for about a hour, my brothers and I cleaned weights, vacuumed the garage, and put together our weight bench,

 now that its all done it'll be nice to be able to use clean equipment thats all put together. I know how hard it is to get back to exercising and also eating better but it does pay off. Make sure your drinking lots of water, it will help you achieve your goal, April, a personal trainer that we know said " Take your weight and divide it by 2, thats how many ounces of water you should be drinking. Drinking  water can speed up your metabolism by 30%." We put the amount of water we need to drink into a separate pitcher in the fridge that way we know for sure that we are drinking the right amount of water, its also nice to add some freshly sliced fruit to it.We add a few lemon slices or orange slices or squeeze a lime into the water.

 Along with drinking water it is important to keep moving, even if its only to chase after a younger sibling(which is a great way to get moving by the way) Another great exercise that I made into a game with my four younger brothers and one younger sister is to chase each other up and down the stairs as fast as you can until you drop down tired, Its a awesome cardio workout and it gets your heart rate up very fast and you get to have a little fun with someone. Another tip to keep in mind is adding a new activity or exercise to your schedule every week and sticking to it for at least a week,as I was mentioning above, it can be hard to get back into a routine, look at your exercise routine and see where you can switch things around or add something new so you don't get bored, I've had better success with achieving a goal by sticking with an exercise for a week and then switching it.

Go for it!
Cameron Ashleigh

visiting widows and learning from them.

My Dad being a mailman knows most of the people that are in our area which include alot of elderly widows. So from before I can remember my parents have made it a point in life to care for widows,visiting them, reading the bible, talking,praying and celebrating birthdays with them, bringing  them cookies and getting cookies and treats from them, listening to stories from the Great Depression, breaking into some of their houses because they had fallen and broken a leg and couldn't get to the door and then running then to the hospital and sometimes even staying by their bedside as they're dying and saying goodbye. I have been blessed so many times from doing this I can't begin to count! but sadly so many people neglect older people because honestly it can take a little more patience be around them, thats still no excuse to neglect widows, God tells us many times of how much He loves and cares for the widows and the orphans.James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."Psalm 68:5 "Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation." God loves the widows and He tells us to care for them, visit them, and love them. So my younger sisters Mallory, Samantha and me have been visiting a widow named Mrs. Kimbel who we've known for a few years now, we were over at her house visiting with her and somehow we got on to the subject of pies and she found out that we had never made a pie before, so she offered to teach us how and said she'd make plans for us to come over in a few weeks and two weeks later my sister Samantha and I arrived at her house at about 10:00 she then whisked us into her kitchen where she taught us how to make pumpkin and apple pie.

How to prepare a basic pie crust:
2 cups white flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of shorting (or butter)



Preheat oven to about 400-450. Grease a pie pan and set aside ( Mrs Kimbel prefers to use a tin pie pan but we used a glass for the apple and it turned out fine)

 Add the flour and salt together and mix lightly,Cut in shorting/butter, use a fork to bring together until  it becomes a crumbly mixture ( Do Not Over Mix!) Meanwhile prepare a kitchen towel bigger then your pie glass that you are using and sprinkle a good amount of flour over it.  Dip your hands in to a little bit of flour so that the dough does not stick, grab the dough and roll it into a neat ball and set on top of the towel.

                    Set a sheet of wax paper on top of the dough and with a rolling pin begin to
                     Gently roll it out. Don't over work the dough! It will taste horrible!

                              Make sure you use even strokes for each side, don't over roll one side
           You want the crust to be somewhat thin, not so thin you can't work with it but not to thick
                         also. How unpleasant it would be to bit into a piece of pie that was mostly crust!

                                          When the dough is a little bit bigger then the pie pan then its done
                                             Its ok if there is a bit of crust hanging over the pan

        
                                 Remove wax paper and use the towel to help get the crust into the pan,
                                Be very careful! It will rip very easily.

    Take a knife and begin to cut the extra dough that is hanging over off but not to short.
  Use your fingers to push the dough's edges down. Now to the filling!

 If you are making apple pie (or any pie that has a top) You'll want to make another batch of dough to cover the top with. After mixing all the ingredients together and gathering the dough into a ball roll it out with wax paper on top after getting it to be just a little bit bigger then the pie pan, decorate the top of it using a straw and knife ( Just be sure not to cut all the way though!)

Filling:
4 big Grannie Smith apples peeled, and thinly sliced 
1 heaping teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
5 Tablespoons floor
1/2 cup brown sugar

                       I just took a knife and started at the top of the apple and worked my way down to the bottom

                                         After peeling the apples put them in a bowl of salt water.

                                            Cut them into quarters and core them.
                                   

                                    You can use a knife to cut them, but make sure they are thin!

               After your done with the apples, add all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and mix.
 

                                           Add the dry ingredients to the apples.

                                         Stir until the apples are evenly coated.

                            Place the mixture in to the pie and spread evenly.

              Its ok if there seems to be to much apples, they will cook down.

Next take the top of the pie which you've decorated and carefully put it on top of the pie, (its pie dough so it will rip very easily!) Take your fingers and pinch the top edges together very tightly so that the juices won't run out . In a little bowl  mix a little bit of sugar and cinnamon together, sprinkle on top of the pie and place in the oven, cook for about 45-55 minutes. 

                                

                         Enjoy with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream.

For Pumpkin Pie:
 use the dough recipe from above just only make one batch

 1 can pumpkin (1lb 14oz)
 4 Eggs
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 can Evaporated milk
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

 Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and after its well mixed, add it all directly into the pie and bake for 45-55 minutes 
 

                If you have left over dough you can roll it out and sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon on it                                      to make something kinda like a cinnamon roll.

                   Roll up and cut into little bits but on a greased pan and bake for 15-20 minutes
                             Keep a close eye on them, they burn easily!

                              They turned out pretty good, my whole family enjoyed eating them!:)
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