I heart

my visiting teacher.

I love when people randomly do nice things for you and don't expect anything in return.

My visiting teachers stopped by today and I whined to one of them about how Lil' Sis was awake, playing in her crib until 2 am. WHY? I have no clue. I would finally be dozing off when I would hear more squeals of laughter or shrieks and giggles. So then I would be wide awake wondering if there were ghosts in her room talking to her. Yeah my mind likes to freak me out.

Finally she slept. And I slept. Then Diva comes in at 6 am with wet undies. We fix it. Then Lil' Sis is awake for the day at 7 am. Awesome.

Anyway so I'm telling my friend this and she kindly offers to take Diva off my hands while Lil' Sis takes her nap so that I can nap as well. There was no way I was turning that down!

But now I'm blogging. Hmmm....

Good night.

Pete and Repeat

5 things I wish I never had to say again but know I am doomed to repeat over and over:

"Leave her alone!"

"Do you need to go potty?"

"Just relax!" or "Chill out!"

"Ughhhh!!"

"Why don't you listen?!!!"

If anybody has tips on how to make a 3 year-old listen then by all means....TELL ME!! Sometimes I'm sick of hearing my own voice.

Three

3 months



3 years

"How old are you today?"

C.O.R.E.Y the environmentally friendly squirrel stopped by for a visit.

He was well received.

These pics are for you Bree. She immediately put on the dresses you sent. Note her expression of shock about how amazing she looks. Thank you!

Happy Birthday Diva!

A little immodesty and a tutorial

One on one times with Diva prove to be the funniest times. Lil' Sis napped for a long time today so Diva and I read stories, watched a bit of Lion King, played outside and then just "talked."

So here's a nugget of our afternoon:

Me: Honey, you need to button your shirt. See look...it's not buttoned. *reach forward to button it*
Diva: NO! I wanna show my boobies.

_______________________________________________________

I'm lying on the couch and I pretend to suck my thumb. Diva is a thumb sucker but only if she has her blanket. It's kind of odd. She seriously never sucks her thumb without her blanket. Anyway so I'm kind of making fun of her and pretending that I'm sleeping. She says, "Let me cover you." She gives me her blanket and I'm all set to "sleep."

She then starts coaching me on how to caress the blanket. Apparently it has to be done in a very precise manner. I scrunch it and it's incorrect. I pat it, a no go.

"Like this mommy!" she stands over me while she demonstrates. She takes my left- hand thumb out of my mouth, replaces it with my right- hand thumb and shows me out to "knead" the blanket.

Got it. I'm such a novice.

Lazy Sunday

No, I'm not going to rap about Chronicles of Narnia.

We took a trip to the beach today after church to enjoy the gorgeous weather. A lazy bike ride followed by a lazy picnic at the park and it amounted to a wonderful day. A few highlights:


Riding in the trailer. Boy was it exhausting.


How can anyone resist that squinty-eyed grin? Oh how I love it.


Sizing up the waves.


"Hold my pants Papa."


Cutie patooties.


I'm pretty much always behind the camera so I forced hubby to snap a few. I don't want to go through pictures in 20 years and exclaim, "Where the heck am I?!!"

A successful day!

Youtube

What a fabulous invention. If you're anything like me then you're going to LOVE this video. It rocks.

This happened at a train station in Belgium.

Wishes do come true

I kid you not everytime I found an eyelash or drove over train tracks I made the same wish:

I wish Diva would be potty trained before her third birthday.

She turns three in 9 days and as you could see from my last post, the future was looking bleak.

During the past several days she has been wearing her underwear but still wouldn't "perform" on the potty.  Today she came to me and said, "Mommy I need a diaper!"

me: "Oh but sweetie, the diapers are all gone!" I dashed into her room and stashed away the goods to where she couldn't find them. She sauntered in a few minutes later, looked around to make sure it was true and then exclaimed, "I go pee pee on the potty and then I get chocolate ice-cream!" (I have been telling her this for WEEKS)

me: "Yes honey that's right!"

Diva: "Okay let's go!" *runs over to the potty and pees like she has been doing it for years*

WHAT?!!  Is this for real?  Am I dreaming?  

Of course I freaked out and we danced and clapped and she kept shouting, "I GET CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!"  ha ha.  I held true to my promise.

The rest of the day she has peed on the potty without any hesitation.  HALLELUJAH!

Now you might be saying, "Why didn't you just try hiding the diapers like months ago?"

I did.  Didn't work.  For some reason it did today and I am so grateful.  We are never ever turning back to diapers.  In fact she is asleep, in her bed, in her undies.  

Tomorrow we can hopefully conquer going #2.  And by "we" I mean her. 

And the award goes to...

...Diva!

For what you ask?

"The Most Stubborn Girl in the Universe"

Diva is still not potty trained. It has been an annoying source of frustration for me because I absolutely cannot control her bladder habits. I can push and bribe and nag and demonstrate and cry and scream (no I don't really scream but I want to) all I want but it is completely up to her.

You might be saying, "Oh c'mon she can't be that stubborn."

Oh yes.

Since 9 am this morning she has not had a diaper on. It is now 5 pm and she has held it this entire time. Fortunately that means I haven't had to change her underwear or clean up urine but that also means that she a) has a bladder made of iron and b) is incredibly stubborn.

Not a good combination.

Well of course!

P.S. And I hope she reads this: Everything I learned about bread making I learned from my mom so thank you Mom!! And she learned it from her mom. Isn't that cute?


Now for the highly anticipated bread recipe. A couple things though: We use white wheat. White wheat unlike red wheat offers a lighter texture and flavor. Most store bought wheat will usually be the red wheat variety. I'm sure the bread will still be delicious if you use red wheat flour but know that you are missing out on the deliciousness of white wheat homemade bread!

Edited to add: After a bit of research I found that King Arthur flour is made from white wheat.

You can buy white wheat pails online from emergency preparedness stores. I highly recommend that you do!

Next :If don't have one, invest in a wheat grinder. If you're really set on making homemade bread all the time then you'll absolutely need one. I use my mom's electric wheat mill but if the power goes out she has a hand grinder as well. (I better not ever move away! ha ha) With the electric mill it seriously takes a little over 5 minutes to grind about 12 cups of flour.

So the two keys to delicious bread: white wheat and a wheat grinder.

Without further ado here is my Grandma's Whole Wheat Bread recipe:

4 cups warm water (too hot will kill the yeast, too cold will not activate it)
2/3 c. honey
3 tablespoons liquid lecithin (you can find this at stores like Whole Foods in the vitamin sections)
2 tablespoons yeast
2 teaspoons salt
12 cups of flour

Now my mom has a knock off Bosch. That's what makes making bread so easy for me. You can dump all the ingredients together and then it will do the work and knead it for you. I love it!

But if you don't have $400 to spend on something like a Bosch then use your trusty KitchenAid (assuming you have one). Mix wet ingredients together. Add salt and then yeast. Slowly start adding flour. Secret time: I don't actually MEASURE the flour, I just keep adding scoops until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. That means no dough is sticking to the sides. It's one big lump.

I suppose at this point you would take it out and knead it but I've never actually done that. ha ha. If I had to I would though because it's worth it! So knead that dough! Then let it sit and rise until about double the size.

After it's risen punch it down a bit, form into bread loaves and put in pans; let them rise again. I have no idea what the dimensions of the bread pans I use are but they are on the larger side. This batch of dough makes two large loaves and one smaller loaf. Note: Evenly coat the pans in crisco or else your bread will stick to the pan when you try and take it out.

Once they are done rising for the second time, pop in the oven at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. As SOON as they come out of the oven, shake the pans and slide the loaves out. If you let them sit in the pans they will sweat and the bread will become mushy and saggy. Gross!

Finally, do yourself a favor and cut off the end of one of the loaves, slather on some butter and enjoy. DE-LISH!

*Now this all seems like a lot of work and initially it is but as with anything new, the more you do it, the easier it will become. Recently here at a women's fireside Julie Beck, the Relief Society General President said that making bread was "while work." You can get other things done with the bread rises and bakes. Saving 4 bucks on a loaf of bread is good incentive too.

So go out, buy your wheat and your wheat grinder and you're set! Ha!

Domesticated

Every week I make bread. Store bought bread now tastes like cardboard compared to my slices of heaven.

Grinding the bones to make our bread.

Wheat kernels turn into flour. Magic!



Ingredients! (uh yeah, plus the flour)

Using my mom's handy dandy dough mixer. Round and round we go! (It even kneads it for you!)



A tiny-handed taste test.




It's alive!!

*shhhh...they're sleeping*

Where they reach their highest potential

Awww it's like a little family.
(Lean close, you can almost smell the freshly baked goodness)


Voila! Not perfect but that's just the way I like them.
(Kinda like my kids.)

Kindred Spirits

Thanks to my bosom friend, Rebecca, I have satiated my incredible thirst for the delicious romance that is Anne of Green Gables. (Did I sound like her?)

I so love these movies. I love the wardrobe, the actors and the scenery. Megan Follows was born to play Anne with an E! My sister and I watched these tapes so much when we were younger that we had practically every line memorized. One day I will live on the most beautiful spot on the North Shore! ha ha.

Hubby watched about 5 minutes and stated, "I don't think you're supposed to have testicles while watching this movie."


Thanks Rebecca!!!!!!

Research

Ahhh...kids are asleep. More from me!

You know what I've been researching for the past hour?



Tick bites. Ugh. Why? Because I found one embedded in the head of my one year-old child!

So what did I learn? That there are more than 800 different types of ticks. That the most common in the US carry at least one more diseases such as Lyme Disease or Rocky-Mountain Spotted fever. Uhhh yeah.

Don't worry though I'm not one of those moms who has a coronary over everything. Yes a tick bit is serious but like I said I researched and I called the nurse at the Dr.'s office. We ruled out that it is not fact a deer tick (Lyme disease carrier) that sucked the blood of my baby but probably more of a harmless (yet still gross) tick.

I'm glad I found the nasty thing before I put her to bed last night. Grandma saved the day by getting a pair of tweezers and pulling it out; head attached. It's tiny, no bigger than the letters on my computer keyboard.

Yuck.

25

Yup, I am an April Fool. Today is my 25th birthday!

Started off great, kids slept in until 9 (but were up briefly at 5 am)

Going out to lunch with great friends!

Going out for sushi with awesome hubby!

I can't complain.