A Vitamix Recipe: "Really Easy Grape Juice With Chia Seeds" {...like, really, really, really easy...}

{brief caveat:  I made this juice using a Vitamix.  I think it would turn out just fine, no matter what kind of blender you use, but I did get great results with our trusty Vitamix.}

Take a bunch of red seedless grapes...well, if you have a Vitamix, they don't even have to be seedless, but the seeds do tend to be bitter.  Toss a couple of clusters in your blender along with 8 ounces of water.

Press play.

I mean, blend it.  Put about a tablespoon of chia seeds in your glass, and pour the blended grapes over that.  Let it sit for just a few minutes, to incorporate those seeds.

Here is what you end up with...and it is so, so good and good for you:

Still juicing my way through this gorgeous book, and each recipe is pretty much more awesome than the last.  One of my best buys this year!

As The Next Generation is Home Educated {...another slice of life...a regular Thursday in this 'hood...}

Remember this?

Beauty really does spring from broken places.

There were some dark days in my 22+ year home educating career.  There were some dark years.  But we also had so, so many days like this:

My iPhone buzzed about ten minutes ago.  This is going on, next door, even as I type.  My daughter Hannah sent me the above little video clip of her going over Timothy's memorization assignment for this week - today, she happens to be including Timothy's cousin (and my very enthusiastic grand-girl) Aidyn Esther.

I die.  I die from pure delight, I resurrect, then I die again.

These moments are what makes having a career in teaching your own children at home so, so worth the cost.

My #UnstyledLifestyle House REALLY DID Get Featured on a Design Blog {...a major design blog...}

 I promised I'd tell you which design blog was going to feature our home.

Then, I forgot to tell it here.  I announced it on Facebook and Instagram, but forgot to announce it right here, where it all began.

{hint:  please consider this your invitation to join me on one or all of my other social media channels.  I would love to see you there!}

So.  Remember this post?  My "Unstyled Lifestyle House Tour For No Real Reason"?

In that blog post, I practically bragged on the fact that I have never-no-never been invited to participate in one of those "Holiday House" virtual house tours at Christmas time...you know...

...the blog hops.

Not once.

And I really didn't {and don't} care.

But as fate would have it, Gabrielle Blair over at Design Mom actually invited me to submit photos of our home for her weekly design feature "Living With Kids - Home Tours".

Apparently the sort of lifestyle we have, living with one of our grandbabies for two years, followed by living right next door to the same grandchild {and we will quite possibly be living two doors down from two of our other grandbabies by the end of this summer!} is fascinating to many folks...

...and I do have to say - I am living a dream I have not earned and do not deserve.  Hashtag blessedforsure.

Back to being invited to share our home on a real, true design blog.  I gotta tell you, the #unstyledlifestyle of that initial, silly blog post, became a "work-my-behind-off-to-style-my-unstyled-lifestyle" project.  A flurry of house cleaning and fresh-flower buying ensued upon learning that our home would actually be featured on - of all places, Design Mom.

Only THE website I have been "fan-girling" for at least two years!

I was over the moon, and still am.

You can find the shots of our home, and my interview here.

Meanwhile, please enjoy the "outtakes"...the shots that didn't make the cut for the feature piece: