November 2008 archive

The best and easiest treat I know how to make

Today we had a passel of kids over and I decided to make an easy treat that is a favorite at our house. This treat is called PEANUT BUTTER POPCORN and boy is it delicious. And more importantly, it is super easy to make. And even better, I am not the only one around here who adores it so I don’t eat it all, I get lots of help devouring it from the kiddos.

So here is how to make it:

Prepare one bag of microwave popcorn and dump it into a big bowl.

Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup, and 1/2 cup peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave 1 minute and stir. Repeat the minute in the micro until the mixture is smooth.

Pour over the popcorn and stir to coat with a wooden spoon.

Eat and enjoy!

Posted by Ily on November 25, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Something that should have made me cringe, but didn't.

Natural gas prices went up 21% as of November 1st here in the great Northwest. Since our home is heated by natural gas, I should be crying, but I am not. Funny but our bill is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than it has been in the past. Why? Well, that new thermostat we installed works. I finally am getting used to it being colder in here now because 71 degrees Fahrenheit really does not feel warm. With the old thermostat it did. Ha, ha it felt like 80 degrees. It probably was. The old one didn’t work right.

So November 2007 we used on average 2.6 therms per day and this November we have used 1.6. The average daily temperature outside in Nov 2007 was 49 degrees compared to this year at 52 degrees. So our bill would be a little lower this year due to the general warmer weather by 3 degrees… But not that much lower. So I am so glad we fixed that simple problem by changing the thermostat finally! We may get lucky and keep our heating bills down below $260 (unlike last year).

On the plus side, because our house was always so hot, the boys never wore out the long sleeved t-shirts and sweat pants so Reece has plenty of warm stuff passed down to him. The PJ’s are a different story, those are pretty worn out by the 3rd time around (and 4th too since most of them were hand me downs before!), but at least no one sees those on a regular basis and thinks we are so poor to have to dress our kids in rags.

As for me, I have noticed I have no long sleeve shirts. I unfortunately have to build up my wardrobe in that department now. Bryan has never worn out his warm clothes either so we are pretty good there.

The savings overall are just enough to make me happy on a cold day.

Also on a happy note, I am going out with a friend to see Twilight… I might as well join the throngs of teenage girls, their mothers, and the 30 something crowd who all adore these books at the theaters this weekend. I expect to be disappointed. Hopefully I will be surprised.

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Update. I went to the movie with very low expectations and ended up enjoying it. It was funny that all of us in the audience laughed OUT LOUD A TON at times in the movie that were supposed to be serious… It was fun. And even though I did not expect to see any men in the audience, there were quite a few. It was quite an experience!

Posted by Ily on November 21, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Murdock Coffee Shop

I don’t drink coffee, but I do love how cozy coffee shops are. I decided to transform my house into a coffee shop last night. Only hot chocolate was on the menu though. No espresso, sorry. It was homemade hot chocolate with real milk and dutch cocoa and white chocolate and sugar. And marshmallows. Can’t forget those. And I made biscotti to dip into it and it was delicious. And I made apple crisp from the apples I canned a few weeks ago. MMMMM. It was good.

Last night was my night to host book club and our theme was “Anything Orson Scott Card.” This author has a ton to choose from and writes across many genres. He is very interesting and writes very well. So we all came having read different books and it was fun to see what everyone read, didn’t read, liked and didn’t like. I am excited to read more after hearing what everyone else liked.

We all had fun and most everyone stayed until midnight! Amazingly, I am not too bad off today even though I definitely should have gotten my beauty sleep last night.

They gray skies of today just make me want to curl up with another book and some of my left over hot cocoa and biscotti. I guess that this rainy weather is good for cozy reading.

Here are the recipes I used in case you were wondering. These come to me from Maresa, my friend who happens to be a fabulous cook. She definitely has taught me some addicting recipes.

Best Ever Hot Cocoa Mix

3 cups nonfat dry milk 2 cups confectioners sugar

1 1/2 cups dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

1/4 tsp salt

Combine ingredients in large bowl. Working in two batches, pulse ingredients in food processor until chocolate is finely ground. Store in airtight container for up to 3 months. To make hot cocoa, stir in 1/3 cup of cocoa mix into 1cup of hot milk. Top with whipped cream or marshmallows.

Spiced Biscotti

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp ground white or black pepper 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp salt 1 cup sugar 2 large eggs + 2 large egg yolks 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Whisk dry ingredients (except sugar) in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Whisk the sugar, eggs, and yolks in large bowl to a light lemon color; stir in vanilla extract. Sprinkle dry ingredients over the egg mixture, then fold in until the dough is just combined.

3. Halve the dough and turn each portion onto the prepared baking sheet. Using floured hands, quickly stretch each portion into a rough 13 by 2 inch loaf. Place the loaves about 3 inches apart on the baking sheet; pat each one smooth. Bake until the loaves are golden and just beginning to crack on top, about 35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place it on a wire rack.

4. Cool the loaves for 10 minutes; lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Use a wide metal spatula to transfer loaves to cutting board. With a serrated knife, cut each loaf diagonally into 3/8 inch thick slices. Lay slices about 1/2 inch apart on baking sheet, cut side up, and return to oven. Bake, turning each cookie halfway through baking, until crisp and golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a wire rack and cool completely. (Biscotti can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 month.)

Posted by Ily on November 20, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

Raked Leaves Yesterday

The sun was shining so I raked leaves yesterday. I tried to get the boys involved and this is how it turned out:

Micah mocked his brothers for getting in the “stinky” garbage can and wouldn’t go near it. Two out of three helping out isn’t too bad, right? At one point Reece was having so much fun that he ducked down and said, “Close lid, Daddy.” I started to oblige, but then Mom intervened. I guess it is true that you shouldn’t always give a two-year old everything he asks for.

Posted by Bryan on November 16, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Early Christmas gifts

Bryan and I have been talking about Christmas a bit and with the game cube dying, we thought it might be time to get a new game system. I am not really fond of video games, but I think the Wii is cool. It has active games like boxing and golf and I do like those elements of it. Plus the kids don’t have to hit each other to box. What a bonus. So I decided to go look at Fred Meyer’s to see if they had any Wii’s in stock and what do you know, but they do. Rather than wait until the day after Thanksgiving to stand in a line forever to get one for a screaming price, I decided to save myself some time and just get one. I may be kicking myself later, but it didn’t seem outrageously priced. We have already tucked it away in the closet where the boys can’t find it. I may stand in a line on black Friday for Wii Fit though.

Also, we got another early Christmas present via craigslist today. I went out and bought a Little Tikes play structure that has two slides and a small tunnel and a little house and it is kinda big. It isn’t tall, just kinda sprawling. I have plans to give up my parking spot so it can be in the garage for the kids to play on during these days of endless rain and getting dark around 4 pm. In the summer I will move it to the backyard. So far the kids have been playing in that dark garage all evening! I am not sure how long they will be enthused with this thing, but I am happy so far. This was not a present we could hide in the closet until Christmas morning. The pieces filled up the ENTIRE van when I went to go pick it up. I needed it now anyhow. The natives have been restless lately. My sanity needed saving.

If it is ever sunny again, I will take a picture of it put together in our garage. Right now it is just too dark to take one. Even during the day!

Did I mention I bought a lot of new light bulbs yesterday? We have reached that time of year when I start to freak out about not have central light fixtures and lamps just not cutting it. I think this year we will spend a small fortune on electricity to get it bright enough in here for me! We may be shopping for a shop light for the garage too… It is so dark in there that the kids will definitely be sun depraved if they only play exclusively out there. I hope we make it through another winter here!

Posted by Ily on November 11, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 5 comments

More Canning

Posted by Ily on November 10, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

More Halloween

Posted by Ily on November 7, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

The Master Bedroom

Posted by Ily on November 7, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

One blissful thing admidst a whole lot of drudgery.

Bryan and I have been tackling the 4 boxes of apples plucked from our trees this year. They have been doing nicely in our garage for a now, but if we wait any longer they will be rotten and not fit for consumption. We have been taking the less than prime apples and turning them into juice with our juicer steamer. It is the prettiest cooking device we own. All shiny and elegant actually.

We cut the yucky buggy parts out of the apples, cut the apples up into 1/8ths (to increase surface area from which to steam the juice out from), and let the steam go to work for a few hours.

It takes forever, but it does make some wowie zowie delicious juice. It may be drudgery to sit for hours cutting apples (3 boxes total so far) but that juice can be made into the most delicious apple cider. So after hours of work I actually took a moment to sit… yes I know, I don’t just sit much… and sip some cider and read a book. It was blissful.

4 half gallons canned so far. That is a lot of juice! And there is more juice yet to can. Apple pie filling will be the next project for this weekend.

Posted by Ily on November 7, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Why I have been busy this month

1) Micah’s Dresser: It looks and ACTS brand new. Amazing how different it looks after a lot of sanding, re-gluing, 4 coats of paint, 2 coats of finish, and new handles. Even Bryan doesn’t hate this piece of furniture anymore. It took me a few WEEKS to get this thing done.

2) The Hutch: This piece of furniture was given to us by the some neighbors who didn’t want it anymore. It has been in their family for about 70 to 80 years. It is a nice maple piece that was originally painted a hideous gold color. Bruce and Julie (the neighbors) updated it 15 years ago. Bruce wanted to sand it down to the original wood but got tired of sanding, sanding and more sanding after doing the doors so the doors and drawer fronts are the natural wood and the body of the hutch was just painted the “in” color of the day which was hunter green. The hunter green just did not match my sea foam green carpet (another thing that was in 14 years ago that really should be gone from our house but isn’t) so I painted the green parts black. It looks pretty cool now and really looked festive for Halloween decorating!

3) Canning: Tomatoes, pears, grapes, I still need to do the 4 boxes of apples. It will never end.

4) kids.

5) We got sick with sore throats and coughs. Annoying and miserable for a few days only, but a good excuse to play hooky and rest for a week.

6) Music practice. I prepared two SSA vocal group numbers with 9 other gals to perform at various church functions. We sang Of the Father’s Love Begotten at stake conference and I have to admit it is the coolest song to sing! We also sang My Sister’s Hands which was another nice song at a Stake Relief Society meeting. The sad thing about that song was that I didn’t actually get to sing it with the group due to over-scheduling on my part and the song being moved from at the beginning of the meeting to the rest hymn instead. I got dressed up for the meeting at the church, I came, I waited to sing, I had to leave 10 minutes before the group got up to perform. Whoops. At least I tried.

7) Gymnastics: Reece and Micah are in classes at the local gym. They love it. Unfortunately it has taught Reece how to climb really well and he started using his crib as a home jungle gym. The crib is now gone. Actually really really gone. We sold it. We had no extra room to store it in our garage and I am not convinced I can even handle more kids. I seem to be maxed out with three right now. And if we do get another baby down the road, then we can buy a new one off craigslist or something. I am now contemplating selling all baby stuff at this point. Think of how much less there would be to store without it. My shelves would be free for more food storage instead.

8) Super Saturday: AkA Stupid Saturday (Bryan calls it that). The day when women in your ward get together to do crafts. It lasts all day. And I didn’t even do many of the crafts. I made an FHE chart (hat I realize I am likely not to use now because someone gave me a simpler idea while I was creating that one) and two Easter books that help lead your family in meaningful scripture study the weeks preceding Easter. I plan to give one of them away since I will only need one for us. They also had a home decorating presentation that inspired me to new heights of really wanting to spend money to decorate my house. So what did I get from the day? Not much other than great ideas on how to spend my money that I shouldn’t really be spending. I did have fun going out for half-price appetizers at Applebees afterwards with my friend Bri though.

9) #Q@%&$%^%(&. That one is top secret. It may be revealed later. Nothing monumental though. No babies or anything like that.

10) We visited Kennewick: We haven’t gone to see Bryan’s parents in a really long time. They have always been to see us lately since they can see Melinda and Benj here too now. It was nice to be there. Kennewick is so slow paced compared to here. I love it! They have put in so many nice parks and family friendly things in the last few years. While there we went to a pumpkin patch and had a nice time. The boys loved the trampoline in the backyard at Grandma’s too… And the ducks. And the toys. And Pay-per-view movies. And sleeping in a different place. We really enjoyed the visit. Hotel Grandma’s was a hit.

11) The primary program: I am now a Sunbeam teacher. I had the CTR 5’s the first part of the year and they switched me a few weeks ago. The CTR 5’s were perfect! I loved them! I am a bit more stressed with the Sunbeam’s. They are sweet kids but there are so MANY of them and a few of them are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY active. I have never seen a group of Sunbeams like these. We couldn’t even have them sit on the podium with the rest of the kids for the program. We ended up leaving them in the front 4 pews for most of the program because they were too difficult to get up and down from the diaz. They said their parts and then camped out coloring the rest of the program.

12) I’m sure this could be called “The other Category.” I filled my days with all sorts of other stuff that is too numerous to mention. I have just been busy. I have felt like I was doing the Tarantella. I was not dancing particularly, but I have been a workaholic again! I haven’t died yet, but I realize that I can’t do so much this next month.

Posted by Ily on November 2, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

The Projects

I am actually glad for the rainy season so I can have an excuse to not do anymore furniture. These have turned out well though!

Posted by Ily on November 2, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

October Pics

Posted by Bryan on November 2, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments

Humility is...

Still swimming slower than your friend in the next lane over who had a baby less than three weeks ago.

Posted by Ily on November 1, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Halloween

I do so love dressing up for Halloween. I especially love coming up with the costumes. This year, I wasn’t really coming up with much other than one main idea that the kids did not go for (I wanted us all to be AVATAR Characters) so I was stumped after they shot down my first idea. Then they all wanted Star Wars characters. I thought, ok, well we have a yoda costume for Reece already. We can borrow the Jedi Costume for Isaac again from my friend Vicky. Micah fell in love with the Jango Fett cheapo costume at Party City that you can buy the matching gun for (I think he fell more in love with the gun really). I wasn’t going to pay money for anything for Bryan and I since I am in a “be frugal” stage.

Then I came across this idea on the internet two days ago and was hit by the inspiration bug. That bug happens to be the one that gives me fantastic ideas that are cheap and easy. I love that bug. So I was going to be Leia. Oh yeah! I was able to knit a hat yesterday from brown yarn with my Knifty Knitter that I bought last year (perfect for keeping us busy and awake during conference) and then I rolled up some dark brown knee socks I had so they looked like hair buns and pinned them to the hat. I wore a long sleeved white T-shirt underneath a long white slip that reached the floor. I had a funny belt that looked Leia-ish and I looked quite the part. I think I looked smashing I tell you. I was a perfect accompaniment to my little Star Wars Family.

For Bryan I found this. I went to Goodwill and purchased some curtains for $7 and went to town making a quick inner and outer robe for him out of them. Paired with brown pants, a simple swath of fabric for a belt, and brown fabric leftover’s to make boots, we had another Jedi. I wish I had thought through the theme enough to make him Han Solo so he could be my official leading man (since Leia and Han go together and all).

I admit, props get very annoying when you are walking with kids around the block trick-or-treating. By the time I got home I was carrying a Jango Fett mask, Jango’s gun, a light saber, and Yoda. And we only made it to maybe 12 homes before we turned around and came back.

Overall it was fun. We met with some friends on the street and went around the block together. The biggest boys were off like lightning. I was in the slower crowd with Reece and we only made it to a quarter of the homes that Isaac did before turning back and going home. I am glad we had all those moms with us so we could split up. There was no way I could keep up with them with Reece in tow. We were careful to visit all the elderly on our street who like the kids and one of them told me she was lonely and wants to babysit for me… Nice!

We went to the ward Halloween party after that. I was careful to leave extra props at home.

Posted by Ily on November 1, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments