"Hair Like Mine!"

Until today, my youngest daughter had never seen anyone who looks quite like her. She has oculocutaneous albinism, which means that although she is Chinese, she has very blonde hair, gray eyes, and pale skin. We have known for a few years that a family in the area has a granddaughter with the same condition, but the granddaughter lives in Kansas City. Well, on Friday, I ran into the grandmother in Wal-mart, and we remarked that we still really did need to get the girls together. She said, "Hey, they're coming for the family's Easter celebration- you should come and bring your kids!" So, I did.

It was so cute- as soon as she climbed out of the car, my daughter saw the other little girl and ran across the lawn to her. They hopped up and down, hugged, and one of them squealed, "She has hair LIKE MINE!" And they were instantly friends. That' my little girl on the left. I love it :)

Bits and Bobs

Spring is here, yay!! I decided to take some of my leftover fabric scraps from other projects and turned them into happy, springtime outfits for my younger two daughters. First, I sewed together strips of brightly colored fabric, then cut out the tops from those. I used a matching yellow for the pants, and the green hearts were cut out of little odd shaped pieces left from some pants I made for my older son. I used orange thread to make it extra bright and happy. The girls said they got lots and lots of compliments when they wore their new outfits to church!  The best part for me was the girls' smiles! Their brother decided to dub them "the little neon tetras."

Pray for Japan

The kids and I have been watching in horror as the events unfold around the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We cried with Thailand and the other nations affected by that tsunami, we cried with Haiti when they experienced that devastating earthquake, and we cry with Japan as they go through this one. The world is connected, and when one place is hurt, we should all feel it.

I was very moved by a tweet page a friend of mine, who is currently teaching Japan but not near the more affected areas, sent to me called Pray for Japan. Here is one post that stood out to me:

"Last night when I was tired out waiting for the train at the station, the homeless people gave me one of their cardboards to prevent the cold... even though we usually ignore them in daily life... So warm."


Please keep Japan in your prayers!

JieJie's Magnificently Creamy Tomato Soup

The kids brought home a school cookbook this year and JieJie was very interested in it, so I told her... pick a recipe and we'll make it for dinner! She chose a creamy tomato soup recipe and we modified it by adding extra veggies and some minced garlic... turned out FANTASTIC!! Everybody voted that next time, I need to make a double batch so they can all have seconds.  Here's my version of the recipe, so you can make some and enjoy it, too!

JieJie's Magnificently Creamy Tomato Soup

1 onion, chopped small
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. minced garlic (more if you love garlic)
1 large can tomato soup
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. paprika
2 cups milk
1/2 of a 16 oz. pkg. frozen mixed vegetables
8 oz cream cheese, cubed

In a large pan, saute onion, potatoes, margarine (or butter), basil, and garlic until potatoes and onion are soft. Add tomato soup, tomatoes, sugar, milk, and paprika. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add frozen mixed vegetables and bring to a simmer until vegetables are heated through. Mix in cream cheese until melted. Serve with oyster crackers sprinkled on top.

Out like a lion, in like a lamb, isn't that what they say? If this weather keeps up, March will definitely be in like a lion. My oldest daughter and I caught the hail on video tonight, when it was coming down like gangbusters. I'm just glad it wasn't really big enough to dent my car, so we could just marvel at the wonder of it all. I love the sound of hail on the rooftop!
When my kids and I think of hail, we think of 2006, when we were at their soccer practice, at the furthest possible place from our car, sitting on metal bleachers (which of course, you can't get under due to the possibility of lightning) and golf ball sized hail started raining out of nowhere! I don't think I have ever seen a field full of parents and kids run that fast, ever!!! I was carrying my middle daughter (then, 4) because she still couldn't walk, and I would never have believed I could have covered that much ground so quickly, while cradling a 35 pound child and trying to make sure she didn't get pelted with mega-hail!! What I marvel at, in retrospect, is that the hailstones were fairly far apart and not very many actually hit me. Thank goodness!

Surviving Snowpocalypse

Last night, the weather forecast went something like this:

In other words, cloudy with a 100% chance of snowpocalypse. We live in the far southwest part of the "these people should hit the liquor stores" swath. I already knew before I went to bed that both school and work were cancelled for the day, and so I slept in until the kids woke me up at about 7:30, then went downstairs to check the weather (the upstairs windows always cloud up and I can't see out). There was only about an inch of snow, but I noticed it was really, really COLD. Then one of the kids yelled from the back room, where our pets and downstairs bathroom are, that the lights wouldn't go on. I checked the breaker box and the lights went on. Took another 10 minutes or so for my brain to register that the heater had not also come on. Hmm... I checked the temp on the thermostat and it read that it was 10 degrees colder than it ought to be. And still not kicking on. 

I called the heating and cooling service, and they sent a tech out fairly quickly. He poked through the heater unit, made a call, then gave me both the good and bad news. Good news is that it's only the panel with all the wires that needs replacing, not the whole thing. So it will cost a few hundred, not a few thousand. Whew! Then, the wires had burned and melted, and it tripped the breaker and didn't burn the house down. Also good news. Bad news- the parts I need have to be ordered from out of area (he called all the other local heating service places just to make sure), and no freight is going through, so it'll be at least Friday before I get my heater working again. :( 

So, that was not great news but... there was only about 3" of snow at the time (we have about 10" now) so I was able to run to walmart and get a couple of space heaters so I can keep my pets warm, and the area in the living room where we most often hang out. And, my house has a separate heating/cooling system for upstairs and downstairs,. so my upstairs is toasty warm. So, it may not be the way I'd have had things go if I ran the universe, but we are inconvenienced rather than devastated, and the kids will have a story to tell their grandkids about how we weathered snowpocalypse 2010 with out heater deciding this was its time to crap out.

Funny thing, though. I discovered puppies make great space heaters. My computer is not in an area that's heated, and it's about 58F in here (people who know me well know I am always cold and prefer my house about 72 in winter, 80 in summer... so I am COLD!). I am wearing a long sweater, and rather than curl up in my lap, Dove the puppy crawled  under my sweater and behind me, and he's keeping my back all nice and toasty warm. My oldest daughter said it looks like I have a living bustle. Ah well, that is a WARM living bustle and a very nice thing to have.

Invasion of the toast people...

It's been cold this month, so we've mostly been indoors, trying to find things to do to keep ourselves amused. The kids have been watching old classics on netflix (it was the original Karate Kid movies this weekend), reading, and drawing. Today they requested eggs for dinner, so I did it a little differently... and tada... the toast people invaded...

Magical Christmas

This year, we decided to do something a little different for Christmas. Back in late summer, a friend of ours suggested that we join their family in renting cabins by a lake about 40 minutes drive from here, at one of the state parks, for Christmas weekend. It sounded like fun, so in early October, we made our reservation, and before we knew it, Christmas was here, and we were discovering our weekend getaway...

The cabin sleeps 8 and there are 6 of us, so it was plenty spacious, and our friends even brought us a live tree they cut down on their property, that went all the way to the rafters! Christmas Eve, the two families settled in and we made ornaments for our trees, and enjoyed a great feast of Wham! (vegetarian "ham"; not that 80's band!), sweet potatoes with apples, and tons of other delicious goodies!

Christmas morning, after the boys woke the whole cabin several times clambering downstairs to look for their stockings (Santa hid theirs under my bed; imagine that), we finally got up with the sun and started our day. We read the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew, then opened our presents to each other. Then we had a breakfast of leftovers and opened our presents from grandma and grandpa. Here, the kids peer into the grandma and grandpa box...

We enjoyed playing with our stuff all day, then in the evening, the families got back together after dinner for hot cocoa around the campfire. My 8 year old read us a children's storybook of Christ's birth. What an awesome way to spend Christmas!

Christmas is almost here!

Seems like the last few weeks have been rush, rush, rush! Thankfully, we've had nice weather to make it easier on us, but the kids keep wanting snow. We might get a white Christmas eve; we shall see! Two Sundays ago, the kids had their church Christmas play, and they were sure tickled with that. My oldest is now officially a "big kid" so she got to watch (and man a second camera) with me. The play was simple this year. One group of children took turns reading the story of the nativity from Matthew, and the other children joined the stage as the players in His birth. Then they had the audience join them in singing Christmas songs. Simple, but beautiful.

Cookie Trays, Stockings, and Scarves!

Been busily at work, getting things ready for Christmas! I took a picture of our cookie trays (from the recipes I posted last weekend) before we started taking them to their new homes. We had 12 families to deliver to, and got some humongously wonderful smiles in return! Here is how the cookies looked:

The next project I worked on was a set of 8 Christmas stockings; 5 for my kids and 3 for another family we'll be sharing part of Christmas with. I made 3 green, 3 red, and 2 white stars on white. They turned out super cute, and they'll be so fun to fill with goodies!

My next project, which I finished today, was scarves. I was given a wonderful scarf last year and have absolutely loved it. So, I used it as inspiration for the ones I'm giving as gifts this year. To make two scarves, I started by getting 1/2 yard each of dark pink, light pink, and black fleece (on sale at Hancock Fabrics for $3.99 per yard, usually $8.99- I love a good deal!). I cut each half yard in half lengthwise and stacked them, then sewed a zigzag stitch down the middle to hold it together. Like this:

Next, I cut fringe on both sides of the zigzag stitch, leaving about 1/2" of uncut fabric on each side. Then, I shook them out so they'd be all fringey, and voila, now they are nice, warm fluffy scarves- like this:

Snickerdoodles

The kids loved that this recipe bears the same name as a favorite 3rd grade teacher... LOL. It makes great snickerdoodles! Click here for the original recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

OMG They're So GOOOOD Cheesecake Cookies

Yup. Hard to resist eating all the batter before it even gets in the oven, and the cookies are to die for! If you like cream cheese, you gotta make these! I imagine the pecans could be left out and still turn out ok.

Ingredients

• 2 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups softened butter
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Cream butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add flour, and once it's mixed in, stir in the chopped pecans.
2. Form dough into 1 inch balls, place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet, then dip the bottom of a glass in water and gently press each cookie until it's about 2 inches in diameter.
3. Bake at 375 for 12 to 13 minutes. Cool 2 to 3 minutes on cookie sheets before removing to cooling rack.

They look nothing like the pics on the original recipe page I used (click here to see), but who cares- they're awesome!

Lemonade/Passionfruit Punch Cookies

This is a new recipe we tried this year. I decided that if lemonade is good, other things might be, too. So we made one batch with lemonade and one batch with a frozen passionfruit punch. Both turned out excellent! I followed the original recipe, except I didn't save the extra to brush on top and it was just fine. Made a very soft, cake-like cookie.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 (6 ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and 1 cup sugar. Blend in eggs. In a medium bowl, sift together flour and baking soda; gradually beat into butter mixture, alternating with 1/2 cup lemonade concentrate. Drop mixture by rounded teaspoons onto the prepared cookie sheet.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly brown. 

Click here for the original recipe.

Eggless Pumpkin Cookies

These are soooo good! They are always a hit when I bake them for church- it about makes my head spin to see how fast they disappear! The original recipe (click here) calls for chocolate chips, but they are equally good with raisins instead of the chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 to 2 c. of raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Cream the sugar, shortening, pumpkin and vanilla together. Mix until light and well combined.
3. Mix the flour, baking soda and ground cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Mix until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes or until set. Let cookies cool on a rack.

Apple Raisin Cookies

I made these last year and they turned out delicious, so I made them again this year! :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped apples

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. Cream shortening, sugar and egg. Add half of the dry ingredients.
3. Blend in milk and remaining dry ingredients.
4. Add nuts, raisins, apples and mix.
5. Drop on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

The original recipe (click here) called for walnuts and a vanilla glaze, but I found they were fine without that.

Gingerless Snaps

Got our second type of Christmas cookies done... yum! I didn't have any ginger and didn't feel like braving the crowds at the store, so I made my gingersnaps gingerless. And they turned out just as yum! Here's the recipe I used:
Ingredients

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup white sugar for decoration

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, oil, molasses, and egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; stir into the molasses mixture. Roll dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Roll each ball in white sugar before placing 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, or until center is firm. Cool on wire racks.

You can compare to the original recipe by clicking here!

Black Pepper Cookies

Our Christmas cookie baking is officially underway! The kids bet me that black pepper cookies would be horrible. I bet they would be good. So we made them! I made some modifications on the original recipe we used (click here for the original), as the texture was not working. This is the recipe as we made it:

BLACK PEPPER COOKIES

4 c. flour 1 c. sugar 1/2 c. margarine at room temperature 1/4 tsp. ground cloves 8 oz. milk 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. nutmeg 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. vanilla 2 Tbsp. black pepper Cream margarine, then add all other ingredients. Mix thoroughly and roll into small balls. Place on cookie sheet (they can be fairly close together as they stay in balls) and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Yield about 60 cookies.

Making Dollies & Popovers

I like to give home made presents when I can, and wanted something special for my friend's two daughters. I decided to make them each a snuggly folk-art sort of dolly. I added dresses made from the cherry material I'd used recently for my oldest daughter's skirt/corselet and also made each one a simple nightie so the girls can change their clothes. My oldest daughter liked them so much, she helped to braid their hair! Here's a picture of how they turned out:

The next thing we did today was make yummy popovers for lunch! My mom used to make them when I was little and I loved them, but I don't think I have ever made them myself. I don't have popover tins, but I decided to try using muffin tins. I'm pleased to say that it worked! And, the kids at them all, which is the Locust Seal of Approval. Here's the recipe we used (makes 6... I tripled this to feed us all):
Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Lightly grease a popover pan and refrigerate. Beat together eggs and milk. Mix in flour and salt and stir until moistened. Ignore any lumps in the batter. Pour batter into chilled pan.
2. Place pan into cold oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) and bake for 30 minutes, or until popovers have set.

Grandma Superhero Therapy?!

Yep. It's real. And awesomely amazing. A friend of mine shared this blog post with me and it made me smile (yes, it's kid safe, work safe, all that stuff), so click here to see what makes me smile! I sure hope I am like that when I am 91 years old- she sounds like one amazing woman!!

Bah Humbug?

Today I was waiting in line at the store and I overheard a man talking to a woman. The man said, "I hate this &*#$&^#*&@^& holiday. Like you're only supposed to be nice one #$*@#(* day of the year? What happened to the other 364?"

I felt sad for him. I wondered what would go on in someone's life that they wouldn't notice the good things that happen on the other 364? I firmly believe that what you get in life is what you are looking for. If you look for the bad things, life looks bad. If you look for the good things, life looks good. Not that everything will ever be all bad or all good, but ultimately, we have that choice to realize that even if the glass is half empty, it's still going to help slake our thirst. Even on a bad day, there's little things to smile about if we're open to finding them.

I wanted to tell the man at the store one of my favorite stories. But, I didn't think he would understand or appreciate it much. So I'll tell you because maybe you will (and maybe you've heard it before, but I still love it).

One year, there was a little girl and all she wanted for Christmas was a pony. She talked about ponies every day, she visited every Santa she could find to ask for a pony, she did all her chores just perfectly right to convince her parents that she could take care of a pony, she collected pony toys, wore her hair in a pony tail... and she begged and she begged and she begged... "Mommy... daddy... all I want for Christmas is a pony!" Finally, Christmas morning came and she jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to see her new pony... and discovered the family's living room was piled high to the top in manure!!! Her parents came down behind her and stood in shock at the disaster before them. But, the little girl knew just what to do. She ran to the garage, grabbed a sturdy shovel, and with excitement flashing in her eyes, she threw open the window and began shoveling the pile out the window. Her dad, in shock and horror, shouted, "Honey, WHAT are you doing?!" She stopped for a moment and with wide little girl eyes exclaimed, "Well, daddy... with all this manure, I figure there's got to be a pony in here somewhere!"

Yep, I want to be like that little girl, not the man in the line. I'm a people, and whether other people do or not, I still try to exercise my ability to spread kindness and caring 365 days a year. I hope you do, too.