Just get over it!

Dont cry over split milk? How about the leftover wet spot from spilt water after it's been cleaned up? Mikey was freaking out because thats where he wanted to sit. It was making me angry so I sternly said to him, "Michael, you're just going to have to get over it." He contemplated my statement....and then proceeded to jump over the wet spot.

Santa Delima

I've always wondered, why as parents do we choose to MAKE our kids believe in Santa? We spend all of our time trying to convince them he's real, having them set out cookies and milk for him and then eating them so they think Santa did it. Then as they start getting older, they beging to question if he's real, as parents...we lie faithfully and tell them he's real. WHY! I suppose if I had been a child who found out differently that santa wasnt real I'd feel different about it. But let me explain my story first.

In my childhood years, I was ALWAYS a firm believer in Santa. He had done so much for me growing up. Got me all the cool presents on Christmas, and I wasn't about to stop believing in someone who was so nice, and so obviously real. I remember being to old to believe in santa, but I went on believing anyway. My older siblings made fun of me for telling them that he was real, but I had a plan to make them all realize how real he was.

My room was at the end of the hallway, so I had a clear view down the hall and into the livingroom where Santa would MOST DEFINATLY be that night. I had resolved that I would leave my bedroom door open when I went to bed that night. And I would be perfectly still on my top bunk, until I heard the hooves on the rooftop. I was going to catch santa! My bunk bed was positioned right where I could see out the door of my room and no one would even know I was awake. My plan was FOOL PROOF! or so I thought.

NO I didnt fall asleep, quite the contrary, once the house was quiet, My parents came out of their room, wearing elf hats. Then they told Garry and Sarah (the two oldest) to get the bags of presents out of their closet. What?!?! What presents? No no no! They cant be awake Santa wont come! Then it hit me, he's not comming. I've been lied to all along. I began to cry silently as my brother and sister began bringing the bags of gifts into the livingroom and stacking them under the tree. No santa, no reindeer, no magic. it's all been a pack of lies. My brother and sister finished putting the presents under the tree and my parents turned off the lights. And I sat on my bed, crying myself to sleep.



This is why I have such a delima with what to do with my kids. Do I push them to believe in Santa only to Crush their dreams when they get older? Not to mention let some fat man take the credit for all my hard work in finding the right present for the right kid. Or are my kids going to be the ones to ruin it for everyone else? I dont want them spoiling the surprise for some poor unsuspecting kid. Someday I hope to decided on what to do. Maybe my kids will pick up the Santa thing from someone else. Should I play along, or tell them he's just the spirit of christmas? And I thought christmas was hard when I was a kid.

The Things That Come in My Back Door *SHUDDER*

Yes...my back door needs replacing rather badly. It's VERY drafty...and by drafty I mean there is a huge opening in it when it's closed. Large enough for june bugs in the summer to fly in, and apparently...large enough for slugs. Ick...I'm holding back a gag right now. Now the slugs in MO are like the first slug I saw. The one pictured on the right, still gross, but small. I was rather releaved when I thought it was just this one. But then I look a little further from the back door, and I found "The Big Nasty" pictured on the left. OH yeah...thats what TX slugs look like people... That is what crawled in through my back door. It's the size of my hand. ICK! Time to call management, and GET MY BACK DOOR REPLACED!

Package from Grandpa & Grandma Adams

Grandpa & Grandma Adams Sent us a package! It's supposed to be 1 activity for each of the 12 days of Christmas, but we'll be traveling a lot, so we decided to bust into it yesterday. Mikey was the only one who wanted to do it yesterday, so we made the nativity scene. Once I got all the pieces cut out, Mikey put it together by himself. He was so proud! And now he has it on display in his window. Then today, we talked about Christmas trees, and ALL of them LOVED the activity grandma sent us. Little foam trees with foam sticker ornaments. Gavin epically loved the sticky stickers and loved sticking them on his tree. He clapped his hands and said, "yes" after each ornament he put on his tree. They all had SO much fun. So thank you Grandpa and Grandma.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So to start off, I dont want to brag TOO much, but I think I may have inherited my Fathers gift for sweet making. Isnt my pie pretty! The apples cooked down so it sank, but I'm not quite sure how to fix that. The pie itself was pretty yummy, I used 4 fuji apples, and 3 granny smith. My first slice of pie was a little to tart for me (I think I got a slice full of granny smith apples) But I just ate another one with icecream on it. OH MY HECK! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I thought the crust could use some more sugar in it, but everyone there said it was pretty good as a tart apple pie. What can I say, I'm an Adams...everything needs more sugar.

We went to our friends Corey and Denise's house. They've got a 4 year old boy and a boy the same age as Gavin. We love these people to death, and consider them family. This is Mikey ans Xander and their oldest, Dakota. They rescued this kitty off of the highway, and ALL of the boys LOVED that cat. Gavin loved it the most I think.

I for one and proud of myself today. So much GOOD food, and I didnt overstuff myself. This is whats left of our thanksgving feast. I had 3 child sized plates basically to myself. And then I went back for pie. Everyone was wondering how I was still eating. 1 I'm pregnant, which gives me the excuse to eat as often as I want, 2 I was having kiddy sized portions 3 you cont call it thanksgiving until you've had pie!

Reading Books

Mikey LOVES to read. It's come in handy this week since I've had a sore throat. He doesn't have the books memorized, but he knows a lot of the Rhymes in the Dr. Seuss books. And when he doesn't know, he just tells you whats going on. He reads out loud by himself all the time.

DIY tree

So I know it isn't Christmas yet, but I had to post this cause it's too cool. I was trying to figure out what to do for a tree this year. I dont want to mess with a real one...unless we can get one for $10...yeah right. So I'm thinking it may be less hassel to just hang our chrismtas lights in the shape of a tree on our wall. (idea from Sarah). But then I thought...maybe theres some neat things online about a christmas tree. And I found this! It's a Mt.Dew Christmas tree! And it's PRETTY! I would SSSOO do this if we drank soda on a regular basis...which we dont :( So I dont have the stuff to do it with. But for a recycled tree thats pretty freakin cool!

11 minute biscuits

Or...

Karine's Drop Biscuits

3 cups Quick Mix
3/4 cups milk or water

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet. Combine Quick Mix and milk or water in a medium bowl. Stir until just blended. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Makes 12 large drop biscuits.
Variations
Cheese & Herb Biscuits: Add 1/3 cup grated Cheddar cheese and chopped parsley, chives or herbs to taste while stirring dough.
Buttermilk Biscuits: Substitute 3/4 cup buttermilk for milk or water.
Country Dumplings: Drop dough by tablespoonfuls over top of boiling beef or chicken stew. Boil gently 10minutes, uncovered. Cover and cook over medium-high heat 10 more minutes, until cooked through. Makes 12 dumplings.
Orange Biscuits: Add 1 tablespoon grated orange peel. If desired, substitute 2 tablespoons orange juice for part of milk or water.
Fruit Cobbler: Spoon dough over top of hot, sweetened fruit or berries and bake in an 8 inch square pan about 20-25 minutes until golden brown.


I started laughing as I made this recipe because it was TOO easy. After it was mixed I just used my hands and made dough drops about the same size. Who cares if they're not totally even..in my case I have a buncha boys who just want to eat...not admire.

Quick Mix

This is the most versatile of all the mixes in my cookbook. This is the same mix I got my super quick biscuits from. See last post for a list of everything this mix makes. If you don't regularly buy powdered milk, do so In this case. This mix is delectable...and it makes cooking 10X faster. If you don't have a pastry cutter you can use a butter knife in each hand or mix it by hand till "crumbly."

QUICK MIX
8 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons cream of tarter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups instant nonfat dry milk
2 1/4 cups vegetable shortening

In large bowl sift together all dry ingrediants. Blend well. With pastry blender, cut in shortening until evenly distributed. Mixture will resemble cornmeal in texture. Put in a large airtight container. Label. Store in a cool dry place. Use within 10-12 weeks. Makes about 13cups of Quick Mix.
Variation
Use 4 1/4 cups all purpose flour and 4 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour instead of 8 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. Increase baking powder to 5 tablespoons.

making a mix

I would just like to publicly thank my mom for getting me this book. I hadn't used it too much until now. we're a little tight on cash so I've been cooking more...instead of buying hotpockets. The gist of this book is that you have mixes for everything, bread, meat, sauce. And then when you need to make something you go to the mix and find a recipe you want to use. Since you've made a mix, you don't have to do as much cooking or finding ingredients so it takes less time. And let me tell you, everything that I have tried out of this book so far has be marvelous! And it does make cooking a lot easier. Today I made the "quick mix" and the "hot roll mix" here is what each mix will make.

QUICK MIX
super-duper doughnuts
sunshine coffeecake
madeline's muffins
nevada's pancakes
indian fry bread
golden cornbread
banana-nut bread
crispy breadsticks
drop biscuits
Never-Fail rolled biscuits
Sausage-cheese balls
churried shrimp rounds
tempura
self-crust cheese tart
tuna-cheese swirls
seafood-rice puffs
sugar cookies
molasses cookies
cinnamon thins
crescent butter cookies
millionaire bars
apple-nut cake
carmel-nut pudding cake
hot fudge pudding cake
pineapple upsid-down cake
lazy daisy cake
impossible pie
turnover fried pies
cream puffs supreme
apple-walnut cobbler
sunday shortcake

and most of those have varriations, like one you cam make dumplings, or pizza, or cinnamon rolls

HOT ROLL MIX
swedish cinnamon twists
tatonuts
cinnamon rolls
cream cheese swirls
butterscotch butter balls
pluckit
honey-walnut swirl
Pan rols
orange butterflake rolls
crescent rolls
homemade white bread
hi-light onion bread
good for you bread
big soft pretzels

So far out of these mixes I've only made golden cornbread, homemade white bread, and big soft pretzels. I'm so excited to try some of these other recipes. All the things I have made have been pretty straight forward and easy. And it's saved me A LOT of money/time when it comes to dinner. I give this book 5 stars for its ingenuity, and pure tastiness of it's recipes. I dont think they sell it anymore...mine is pretty old. But you can find it really cheap on Alibris.com or amazon.com check alibris first because they sell only books and movies. But seriously I dont think I could live without this book anymore. It has been a lifesaver. The meat mixes you cook up a whole pot of food and stick it in your freezer for quick meals during the week. And they're so versitile. You can make sloppy joes one day, and then make hawaiian haystacks one day and sweet & sour chicken the next! (both of which I have tried and they are amazing) So really people. if you dont have this book, GET IT. I cant tell you how greatful I am that my wonderful mother got me this book. I keep finding more and more things I like about it every time I open the pages. Seriously if I had the money I'd get it for all my buddies for christmas. But I dont have THAT much money. So merry christmas I tipped you off to one of the greatest cookbooks of all time.

what happens when you're a mother of boys

Well...it was bound to happen sooner or later. Boys will be boys. Anyone know how long it takes a black eye to heal. It's not horrible...but Xander was swinging his foam bat around and decided it would be fun to play karate with mom. (only mommy never uses bats, and we're not suposed to karate chop eachother....espically with a bat) And thats how I got my first black eye. What can I say......I'm a boy mom.

My "bucket list" just got shorter!!

So I can now scratch something off of my bucket list, (the list of stuff you want to do before you kick the bucket) and it's called......FLYING!


This is Mikey and Xander when they first got to see the cool red airplane mommy and daddy were going to fly in. I think Xander was a little shy cause he didnt seam as interested as Gavin and Mikey.


This is Mikey with "his" red airplane. The moment he saw it he started calling it his. In case you cant tell by the look on his face, he really thinks it's his airplane.


If you look at Gavins face you can tell how much he is loving this. The whole time we were there he kept saying "ooohhh!" and "wow!"


Jim (the guy who owns the plane) was nice enough to even let Mr. Mikey sit in it. The seat was kinda far back but you can tell he thinks it's pretty neat.


once we got the seat scooted up, everything became 10X cooler. He was all about "driving" that airplane & he even kept checking the controls. He LOVED it.


The guy in the window wearing the blue shirt is Jim. Really one of the sweetest guys I've met. Him and his wife really loved talking and playing with our kiddos too.


This is the only picture we have of Xander in the Airplane cause he didnt want to stay in for very long. When we got home and started looking at the pictures he kept saying, "where's Xander?" He didt start thinking the airplanes were really cool until he saw some of them take off from the runway.


Jim was really sweet to even let Gavin take a turn. OH boy Gavin had a blast.


Jim and Mike doing airplane checks before the flights. Daddy got to go up first.


Gavin especially loved all the rocks...but he kept trying to pic them out of the pavement and was very confused as to why they were stuck.


taxi out to the runway. Mikey kept saying, "The airplane lives in the number 2 house!"


And there she blows! the boys LOVED watching daddy take off in that airplane.


Then it was finally my turn. And of course I took my camera up. Didnt wanna miss a photo op! Here is us right before we take off.


Rockwall from the sky. I made a coment about how everything looked like toys and Jim said, "yeah some of those toy houses are pretty expensive!" Then I realized how huge a lot of the houses were below us. there were a TON of very LARGE estates.


Since it was my first time flying in a small aircraft Jim said he'd take it easy. But the more the plane moved around, the more he realized exactly how much I was enjoying it. So he offered to show me what a G felt like. WWOO it was AWESOME! so here is proff that I've felt a G.


Pulling a G the other way. Jim also did a "rollercoster" where he went at a downward angle and you came out of your seat. IT WAS SO COOL!



Yeah thats Wal*Mart and Home Depot. Haha who knew they were so tiney! After this I stoped taking pictures for a while. Wanna know what on earth could get me to stop taking pictures? HE LET ME DRIVE! I FLEW AN AIRPLANE!!!!! And I flew for a while too. I'm goning to say anywhere from 4-10min. To me it felt like more cause it was really weird/cool/awesome that I was flying an airplane.



Banking as we come in to land.


Thats the runway in front of us. And Jim said since I enjoyed all the fun moves he'd show me a slide as we came in. Meaning we landed partly sidways. It was totally amazing!


Daddy and the boys sat and watched the planes at the airport coming and going. But Jim had the only Red one. When Mikey saw us coming in to land he said, "It's my red airplane bringing my mom!" This is mikey runing to give mommy one great big hug now that she was on the ground.




The boys were so good. They didnt get cranky once. Gavin is TOTALLY hooked on airplanes. Mike said he kept pointing and saying "WOW" to everything he saw. Everyone was tired when we went home but we didnt have one single cranky boy. All of them had one of the best days ever. And so did I.

Thoughts on Motherhood

It is a rare thing as a mother of 3 and expecting a 4th to find a moment of peace. But in those rare moments…you find yourself. Take your most frustrating day, and find the joy in the little moments. Cleaning my house is a chore, and I get frustrated because my children all want to be around me. Them being toddlers, they get into everything and make more of a mess than when I started. But a thought occurred to me. They keep coming around because the love me, they want my attention, and want me to play with them, and love them back. As my 1 year old, Gavin, walks into my room to show me something. I had to smile. Here I am…cleaning, and sweating the small details, when my son just wants to show his mom he loves her.

It is important to keep your house livable, but it doesn’t need to be spotless. And no matter how many times I told my children to go play today, they always came back to where I was cleaning. Sadly I did get frustrated and yelled a few times, “Why won’t you just go play?!” It is hard to recognize the moment when you are in it. But to them, they were playing. If you can seize that little moment, hold to it tightly. I hope I’ve been able to convey to my children how much they actually mean to me. Each one of them brings me new purpose, and brightens my day. A song from Mikey, a game of Peek-a-Boo from Xander, a kiss from Gavin, each rejuvenating act of love is worth every wet bed, stinky diaper, and temper tantrum.

I have noticed, sometimes it isn’t the child that throws the temper tantrum. A lot of the time, it’s me. But if I sit back, breath, and take in the full situation, I can become the mother I want to be. The kind gentle, understanding, mommy. And usually when you step back, you notice what a child was actually trying to do. Yes they put all their toys in the toilet, but really their toys just needed a bath, ant that was the only thing in the bathroom with water in it. Yes it was permanent marker in your favorite book, but it’s a picture of mommy. Yes there is cereal all over the floor, but he was just trying to be a big boy and poor it himself. Yes there is poo all over the floor, but he was just trying to change his brother stinky diaper. If we as parents can look through a child’s eyes, we will see a kinder world, and be able to understand more fully what our child was doing at that moment. Normally, as small children, they are trying to learn, or do something nice for a loved one. We just have to take a step back and use their eyes to see it. And the more that you do, you will find yourself complementing your children more, and teaching them valuable lessons that may have otherwise gotten lost in the daily grind of life.

Funnel Cakes are Hazardous

So I really wanted funnel cakes today. I asked Mike, "doesnt that sound GOOD!" his reply was, "I dunno, I've only had it like once"..and I thought, " ONLY ONCE! It cant be that hard to make." So I looked up a recipe online and did it...only when I wrote down the recipe...I forgot one ingredient....flour. So I get it all mixed (minus the flour) and think, hum...this is a little thin. It looks like crepe batter. interesting.

I load up the funnel and get ready to dump it in the hot oil. And here is where I'm guessing a number of things went wrong. The batter was so thin I couldnt stop it from all pouring into the pan. And the moment it hit the SUPER hot oil it bubbled A LOT and boiled over. We have a gas stove...so the moment the oil hit that open flame....well...yeah kitchen fire. Not a huge deal though it went out pretty quick...but thats why if you look at the picture of the funnel cake cooking, you can see a huge mess underneath the pan...yeah thats funnel cake overflow.

Any time I working with oil I always make the boys stand back because it pops. And boy am I ever glad I had them at a safe distance. To them...it was just cool fireworks. And mikey comented everytime I made a funnel cake afterword, "Is this one make a fire?!?!" He thought it was awesome. I had to explain that mommy made a mistake.

Anyway we got the batter thickened up and the oil at just the right temperature...and they turned out SSOO good. Mike discovered that if you put syrup on them, they taste just like a waffel. I'll stick with the good 'ole powder sugar. this is the boys eating their funnel cake. They kept asking for more. Lemme tell ya, they're good!

Remember When?

So I wanted to decorate our room with pictures of me and mike...but I couldnt find many that I really liked. Then I was looking through my scrapbook and I found our first "fishing trip." I had to scan it right then and hang it up. I think that was the first time I actually held a fish like that...maybe not the first time. But usually I had a dad/brother/cousin, that would take the fish off the hook for me. Hubbys have a way of getting you to do things that you normally wouldnt do. So here's to you Mike. And to 4 1/2 years of stickin together. I love you SSSOO much and cant say it enough.

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

OK so this has to be one of the BEST soups I've made. And it was really easy. Well ok so I guess all soups are easy. But this was pretty good. I wanted to do something thick, but its hard to make chicken noodle soup thick unless you add potatoes...but I didnt want potato chunks....er go....potato pearls. I didnt feel like chopping anything so I used whole baby carrots, and onion powder instead of chopping onions. Then garlic salt, instead of chopping garlic.

HEARTY CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

1/2 bag boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2c. baby carrots
1+ c. potato pearls
2c. uncooked egg noodles
1 bag frozen tortilini
generous handful salt
1 chicken bullion cube
1 chicken ramen packet (just packet, no noodles!!!)
2-3 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp celery seed
2-3 tsp onion powder
2T. mustard (divided)
1 bag frozen brocoli
Milk

Fill your pot 1/2 way with water and start to boil. Cut up chicken brests into chunks and dump in water. Add baby carrots, 1/2c. potato pearls & let simmer for about 5-8min. Add noodles, both tortilini and egg noodles add salt. Then add last half of potato pearls, bullion, ramen packet, garlic salt, pepper, 1/2 mustard, celery seed, and onion powder. When noodles are almost done, add frozen brocoli and last 1/2 of mustard. Simmer for 5-8min depening on the texture of brocoli you want. When you pour out soup add milk to each bowl for a creamy taste and to help cool it off. Then before putting leftovers in fridge add milk to keep the soup creamy.

I am a child of God

Simple is Best

So I've learned to obvously NEVER listen to my cravings. Do you know what I wanted for dinner? Chocolate milk & fluffy scrambeled eggs with cheddar and peperoni. Dont get me wrong...the first few bites were glorius. But now...I dont want the peperoni. I dont even want eggs. I probably could have eaten a little more if they would have just been plane. But I still would have had leftovers cause I made about 7 eggs :S. yeah yeah. I know why the crap would anyone make 7 eggs for themself for dinner. We'll I'm regreting it now cause I've got a large bowl of scrambeled eggs on my hands that I CANT finish. I'm not going to just throw it out. Anyone know any good ways to use up leftover scrambeled eggs?

Releasing Wildlife

This is the cutest wildlife I've found in my house. Ok so none of the other wildlife was cute...unless your a cat person, which I'm not. And...I cant release the cat into the wild. Reguardless, I'm alwasy finding creatures in my house and as I was sweeping up some glass, I found this little dude. Only I swept him up with the glass, and later found his wiggeling tail. ick. poor thing. anyhow. The things I mention in the video that I find, we'll non of them were little. The snail...come to think of it was actually a slug. Was almost the size of my hand. Minus one knuckle joint on my middle finger and you got about how long it was. blech. And it wouldnt let go of the floor. Our backdoor really shouldnt be considered a back door. It's a sliding glass door, and it hardly closes, it doesnt stay on its tracks, and the metal holding the glass is always comming unscrewed so the glass isnt even very stable. At any rate...its rather anoying. In the summer I have to sweep up junebugs every day because they fly in through the cracks in the door at night and then die inbetween the curtain and the door. But this was the first time I found a gecko inside. Usually they hang out on the windows when it gets dark to eat little bugs that flock around the light. I hope this little guy makes it!

Brain-Dead-Butterfingers

I made bread last night. Which means I also had to get out the broom, put the cat in the garage, get out the first aid kit, the mop, and my flip flops. What? yeah thats right, the first aid kit.


I have...had, a beautiful glass jar for flour. And let me tell ya, this think is HUGE. It holds roughly 2-2 1/2 galons. Which is nice cause I'm not constantly having to fill it up. I've had it since our 3rd or 4th month in TX. It looked so pretty up on my shelf. But last night I decided to make bread. And the flour was down to the last 3 or 4 cups. The jar was light because it was almost empty, so I hoisted it down to the floor, so I could refil it from our 5gallon plastic bucket in our pantry. As the dough was rising for my bread I refilled the jar from our bucket. I didnt want any little kid fingers getting into the jar, so I grabed the lid off the counter.

Right as I got the lid over the jar, it fell out of my hand. Seriously, I thought I had a good grip on the blasted thing...guess not. It fell slightly askew on the jar, and broke into a few large pieces. Ugh. So now I dont have a lid. Oh well. Maybe the flour didnt get any glass in it and it could still be salvagable. So I swept up around the jar and get my bread in the oven. I had just swept so I took my flip flops back off and on the way to put the bread in the oven...I step on a rather large piece of glass that I'd missed. Right in the heal of my right foot. Oh yeah, that was a bleeder. I now know why they take blood from baby's feet. It bleeds like crazy.

Ugh...really. So now I'm dripping blood all over my kitchen floor, and I dont want to run to the bathroom cause tile is easyer to clean then carpet. But my stinkin foot wouldnt stop bleeding. Luckily I found a stack of napkins and used that to quell the bleeding a little. I get the oven closed so the bread will cook, and then go get the stinkin first aid kit.

We have Paula's cat here until her and keith get married, and luckily she was in bed for the night. Meaning in her cage. But with all the glass on the floor, I quickly decided to put her food, water, and potty out in the garage, & let her roam free until I knew for sure I had it all cleaned up. Because I obvously missed some of it the first time.

So I get the glass out of my foot, and clean it up and get a bandaid on it. Boy did it hurt for a little while. It almost felt like I still had a piece of glass in it. But I go back in the kitchen, clean up the puddles of blood on the floor, and sweep again. I looked at the big jar of flour and though. "Hum...maybe it's still salvageable." again. The jar didnt looked harmed, and the lid broke into larger pieces, I think all of it landed on the floor. But, I didnt really want to mess with it, cause by the time I got my mess cleaned up, the bread was done. So I left the flour on the floor till this morning.



I had some fresh bread...so I decided on toast and hot chocolate. (the picture is actually french toast, but meah who cares). I slice myself some bread, and put my milk in the microwave so I can make hot chocolate. I stick the bread on the broiler, no we dont have a toaster, and when it's done I butter it. I get my milk out of the microwave and mix the perfect amount of Nesquick in it. I wanted to eat in my comfy bed, so I grab a plate for my toast.

Low and behold, the plate...is glass. I thought I had a good grip on that one too...NOPE. And guess what it hits on the way down. My glass jar that had "survived" my butterfingers the night before. It was like a frisby. It shot straight out of my hands onto the glass jar I left in the floor the night before. The plate totally shattered into a million pieces, and now the jar had a huge chip/crak in the side of it. If I thought the flour was salvagable before, it wasnt now. Now there was definatly plate chips in it. or even parts of the jar.

odly enough. I would have thought I would be screaming. Nope. All I could do was stare. "Are you kidding me?" I thought. I stare at it again, look at my bread and chocolate milk. Look at the broom. Look at the chocolate milk. I decided to leave it. I was still hungry, and all the kids were asleep. So I go to grab another plate.

erm...all of our plates in the cabnet were breakable. Maybe I better just stick with carrying the bread. OH nope, there was 1 plastic plate on top of all the ceramic ones. Beautymus. I come in my room. and enjoy 2 pieces of toast, and hot chocolate. (yeah I had to call my dad and tell him what a clutz I'd been over the last 12 hours) but the mess stayed put, and I ate my food in peace.

Then like the responsible person I am. I blog. Yeah you guessed it. the mess is still in my kitchen. Well, would you want to touch anything after being as brain dead & butterfingery as I have been?

Kick in the pants

Ok ok, so it was a kick in the side. The INSIDE to be precise. I've felt the so called "flutters" already and a few nudges here and there, but today I got my first real THUMP. Oh yeah it's my kid alright, already desperate for my attention. I'm just past the 15 weeks mark. Somedays I forget that I'm pregnant. Yeah so I gag on EVERYTHING, but that's just become a part of life. Hence; sometimes I forget. Mostly it's just a little fact tucked away in my brain. I'll get a little mushy now and then when mike mentions something about holding a newborn, or I see pictures of my boys that little. But for the most part I'm still stuck with the daily grind of...me. I've finnaly gotten my kitchen in order, and Laundry is next. We are getting rid of anything we can do without. Better to lessen the work load instead of trying to keep up with everything that accumulates.

Oh side note. I think we've decided mike is going to try to get into school the semester after the baby comes. Hurray more things for us to do. we've got quite the list. lol.

Powdered Cheese

Yes. I'm talking about powdered cheese, like the kind you get in your mac & cheese boxes. It is so great for soups, cheese sauces, pasta. TONS OF STUFF. So I have looked ALL over to find powdered cheese. Most places that I do find it, it's WAY to expensive. I'm talking like $7 for 1/2 a cup. But I found...you can make it yourself! Yeah doy! you can make your own dried almost everything else. Why not powdered cheese! The process is pretty easy, it just takes some time, and a food dehydrator. Which I have thanks to Michelle (love ya!).

I'm totally stoked about it cause now I can put cheese in my foodstorage too. My father-in-law, makes his own cheese, and I'm planing on telling him about this too. If he's up for giving away some of his cheese, I'll put it to good use! But this is how you do it......

Making Powdered cheese
STEP ONE
Slice hard cheeses into thin pieces. The thinner the slices, the faster the cheese will dehydrate. Try to make each cheese slice the same thickness so that all of the pieces dehydrate at the same speed.

STEP TWO
Place single layers of cheese slices in a food dehydrator. Leave room between the pieces of cheese so that none of the pieces are touching each other. If you want to dehydrate soft cheese, such as cottage cheese or ricotta, line the food dehydrator with a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap. Spread a thin layer of the soft cheese on top of the wax paper or plastic wrap.

STEP THREE
Dry the cheese in the food dehydrator, turning the cheese over every few hours. When you turn the cheese, blot up any grease with a paper towel. Dry the cheese in the dehydrator until it is fully dry. When the cheese is dry it will have a hard texture and a darkened color. Make sure the cheese is completely dry in all spots before taking it out of the dehydrator.

STEP FOUR
Set the dehydrated cheese slices on a plate and allow them to cool to room temperature.

STEP FIVE
Place the dehydrated cheese pieces in a food processor and process into a fine powder.

STEP SIX
Store the powdered cheese in an airtight and watertight package, away from light.


Easy Cheesy!

Blackberry Sauce (edit)

This is a little less than 1/2 of what the recipe yeilded. And it's so good on EVERYTHING. chicken, crepes(I have a pretty good recipe for those too), waffels, fish, ice cream....you name it. The only thing, is that after it cools, it's not much of a sauce anymore. so we've taken to mixing it with butter, cream cheese, milk, or water. Whichever works best with what you're cooking.


I only had this one little wire strainer that would work for getting the seeds out, it took a while.


This is the recipe cooking down. looks like seedy sludge. In the end it was well worth it.

Blackberry Sauce.

2/3 c. butter, melted
1 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 1/4 c. sugar
Dash of salt
1/4 c. orange juice
2 c. fresh or frozen blackberries

Combine butter and cornstarch in saucepan. Add sugar, salt, orange juice and blackberries. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thick. Be sure to remove stems and strain for seeds before servings. Makes 3 cups.

For......

HYRUM

Piano Time

Piano time, for Gavin, is all the time. I'm constantly finding him pounding away and singing. It is rather cute. He loves that piano. Lately though he's wanted to play with his feet. Yeah...not a huge fan of that. But he will usually sit at the bench play a little and "sing" and then turn the page of whatever music I happen to have up. Usually I keep music that is in sheet protectors so he cant rip it. He loves to play, but he's still figuring out how to be soft.

Sitckers

I stuck a sticker on my nose,
And now it won't come off!
The sticky glue won't let it move,
Not even when I cough!

I've tried to pull the sticker hard,
But cannot make it budge!
So now the sticker interferes,
And stops me eating fudge!

The glue that holds it on so tight,
Is tough and mighty strong!
And by mistake just yesterday,
It also snared my tongue!

But now to make my plight complete,
My finger just got stuck!
You know I shouldn't pick my nose,
I really am a schmuck!

"The Stickey Sticker" ©2003 Gareth Lancaster

It's Nice and Warm!

So I was getting Xander ready for a nap, meaning putting on a diaper. As soon as I got him naked...he peed on himself. He didnt say oops, or uh oh, he just smiled real big and said 4 little words.

How Every Mom Feels

Just watch the first minute and 22 seconds of this video. Which is right about where Howie (the Dad), says, "call me crazy Martha but I think you need a break." Unless you really want to watch bobbys world. But I was watching it with my boys the other day and it was like...WOW. Thats totally Me. EVERY DAY. Anyone who's raised a three year old knows what it's like. SO This is for all you Moms out there. Enjoy.

Ever have one of THOSE days?

My New Favorite Comercial

Hahaha!!! I love Mr T.

To Buy or Not to Buy

So mike and I have been talking. We're really sick of having to make HUGE rent payments each month...and now that we know we're going to be here for a while, we've decided it's time to start finding a house. Only...most websites only give you a week trial to see their house listings, then you have to pay so much a month for it. Then I found this beautiful website. Let me tell you. It helped a lot. I looked up the homes in greenville and I got stuff from over 10 different Realtors. the only problem is,there were like 164 pages of homes. But we didnt set a price range.

The Listings were set from Highest price to lowest. Once I was out of the $200,000 homes. I started looking. When I got down to the $20,000 range...I stoped. And I made sure to look at homes that only had over the sq footage of what our rental is right now. there were LOTS of houses. I got all of their addresses, the name of the person selling it, and the rest of the info on the house. I think I'll try looking in Commerce for houses tomorrow.

It's all Gouda!

So a lot of the time when people are talking to me, instead of saying good, or it's all good. I'll replace good with Gouda. Like the cheese. Or I'll say Gouda Cheese. Then the other day I realized. I'd never actually tasted Gouda. I was at walmart and they happened to have a package of already sliced Gouda on sale for 49 cents off. So I grabed it and brought it home with me.

We were having sliced ham and cheddar on wheat ritz crackers (YUM). Then I remembered we had some peperoni in our fridge. And friends, lemme tell ya, sliced peperoni is the PERFECT size for ritz crakers. Then we decided to give our Gouda a try.

WHAMMO!!!

IT WAS SOO GOOD! I've never had a better combonation with Peperoni!!! I seriously am going to have to try it on pizza one of these days. AMAZING! And I gotta say....

IT's ALL GOUDA!