Mistakes are Delicious!

It must have been the early hour (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it).

Friday night I prepared a sweet dough for Cinnamon Rolls for the fam to enjoy on Saturday morning.

So bright and early on Saturday I made the filling and let them rise one more time and baked them.

"What's the problem Lain?"

Well the problem is, it didn't register that I was baking them in the wrong dish.

They were good but they were very, eh, firm and bread stick like. After I was all done I finally figured out that I had baked them on a cookie sheet instead of a 2 inch deep pan.

All the sticky, gooey goodness typical of cinnamon buns--gone!

What to do, what to do??

Ah, ha!

I tore the cinnamon rolls into pieces and turned it into--

Bread Pudding!

Oh baby! So good! Sometimes mistakes are very delicious :)

Now I promise this isn't turning into a cooking blog but I've been in a baking mood.

So, if you have any cinnamon rolls or other bread just sitting around begging to be made into dessert, have a go at some Bread Pudding. Anyone within smelling distance will not complain!

So here they are in their "before" state:


And now, torn up into pieces with 4 T melted butter drizzled on top:


Some frothy goodness courtesy of 4 eggs, 2 C milk, 3/4 C sugar, vanilla and cinnamon:


Just dump that into your pan 'o bread:


And voila,

Bake at 350˙ for 45-60 minutes. This is for church tonight so I don't have an "After" picture yet. I will try to remember to snap one before we leave.

I would take a picture of the pan I baked last night but that's a little, ya know, gone :)

(burp)

Oh, excuse me! How rude...

Updated:

Okay here it is... I wish you could smell it! Alright, gotta go.

One Down...

After completely flaking out last year, I purposed to get our Christmas cards ready early this year.

Here they all ready for the post office.

Big sigh of relief.

A Little Eager

Yes, I am a little eager for all things Christmas this year :)

I finally figured out why... this is the first Christmas for quite a few years that I haven't been ill, recovering from surgery or in the hospital.

I feel really good and I know that with my particular "tent" feeling good and being healthy is precarious at best. I look forward to my new body in heaven and am just making do with the one I currently have.

But with that said, there are many who are experiencing many different emotions and afflictions this Christmas. I know and am aching with those that are grieving the loss of a loved one (both recently and coming up on the first year anniversary).

I know too many to count that are in financial hardship.

I know a few that are struggling with life in general.

As everyone begins the hustle and bustle that too often define this time of year, I wanted to let you know that I remember and my heart is aching with yours. I am praying and I am here.

For those of you in a good place this Christmas season, I encourage you to slow down and look around. There are many in our midst that need to be seen, need to be encouraged, need to know that they matter.

I hope we take the opportunity to reach out to those around us and remind them, not so much in words but in deed, the love of the Savior whose birth we celebrate.

On that note, I'd like to introduce you to our neighbor. He and his parents could use your prayers right now.



They just found out the tumor is back. He is at St. Jude's Hospital as I type this. His surgery was yesterday. He is the sweetest, cutest little thing in person and he lives on our street.

Please pray for this little guy and his family.

Thank you,

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm taking a quick break from my pie making to wish all of you a very

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful day and leave room for dessert!

Lord bless you,

Lettuce Pray: Thanksgiving

Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.
O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
1 Chronicles 16:8 & 34

In this season of remembrance and Thanksgiving, I thought I would open up prayer time for praise.

How can you give thanks to Lord tonight Beloved of God?

Let us rejoice and praise His name with you.

Lord God Thank you for your mercy that endures forever and thank you for long-suffering.

School?

Yes, we do still home educate. However with Thanksgiving almost here, we are taking Week 10 over two weeks and will resume our "regularly scheduled programming" December 1, 2008.

What have we been doing since I last posted?



We enjoyed the blue skies while they were here.



The kiddos raked leaves and enjoyed the fresh air.



We watched a very hungry visitor to our bird feeder!



We attempted to make rain.

We did three science experiments that seemed unsuccessful. In addition to our rain attempt, we attempted to make a cloud in a bottle and make water boil using vacuum suction.

Although we got the general idea/ concepts, The Captain and kiddos were a tiny bit bummed that the experiments didn't work out very well.

But as I sat back and watched, I realized I was glad that the experiments were hard and a bit disappointing. All the experiments we attempted were duplications of things found in nature.

I pointed out to the kids that what we take for granted (rain, clouds and hot water) God provides for us. Here in Oregon we witness regularly the ease of falling rain.

Being unable to duplicate that rain helped remind us that God is so much bigger than us. We marveled once again at His creation...trees, flowers, bumblebees and squirrels that raid our bird feeder.

He spoke it all into existence.

To quote that deep theologian, Larry the Cucumber, "See all those stars? God just went thruuup (raspberry) and there they were!"

Every day in the littlest of ways, we try to be our own god. We try to control our little speck of the universe. It is good to be reminded we are not God. We can only be the palest of imitation.

I'm glad I don't have the responsibility of keeping the planet rotating, the sun rising and the rain falling. Elohim, our Creator, can and does hold our very existence in the palm of His hand.

Thus saith God the LORD,
He that created the heavens, and stretched them out;
He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it;
He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
Isaiah 42:5

Dog Walking Hat

A very cozy k2,p2 rib hat for my friend Jackie that she can wear while she walks her dog.

I used Mondial Soraya color 0952. I knit two strands together on US 15 circular needles using a pattern by Colinette. I searched and the pattern isn't available online :( but it was a pattern designed to use Colinette's Point 5 yarn.

Good-bye Thomasons'

This is an English muffin. It was part of my breakfast this morning.

"Lainie, your breakfast is unworthy of a blog post. We are busy women. Why would we want to read about your breakfast?"

Well I do understand everyone is very busy and appreciate you hanging in there this long with me.

What makes my breakfast remarkable to me this fine Saturday morning is that I made that English muffin.

From scratch.

Did you know that English muffins aren't baked? I didn't.

They are made on a buttered griddle like this:







I've always liked English muffins. But now? Oh my. We had Nana and Papa over for breakfast this morning and Papa said I shouldn't make them any more.

Surprised, I asked, "Why not?"

He replied,"Because everyone is fighting over them!"

Yup. They are that good. And they were pretty easy to make.

I got the recipe from this wonderful site.

She has lots of pictures and step-by-step instructions. I'm trying her bagels next time.

So, that's what I'm doing this Saturday morning--baking, knitting, and odds and ends around the house. What are you doing?

Peanut Butter and Babies

I've been out of "the trenches" for a few years so I had no idea pediatricians were recommending the introduction of peanuts earlier than age 2 or 3.

My girlfriend Alicen has two older children with no peanut allergies and thought she would try it with her third child who is just over a year old.

She has graciously posted her scary experience on her blog The Emmett Crew.
The pictures of his reaction just made my heart ache!

Go check out the story and while you're there I would consider it a personal favor if you would leave her lots of comment love!

Thanks and hopefully this story can spare another child and mommy a very scary ordeal.

Skin Care--"About Face"

For those of you who know me in real life, you might want to sit down for this.

Especially Mamahollioni and KK who know how I feel about "product."

I've been doing this long enough that I can say it is working for me and I love it.

I've stopped buying expensive lotions and cleansers for my face and body.

I keep my now empty jar of Clarins Moisturizer (since it cost me $64 for that 1.7 oz jar) filled with

(trumpets please)

Organic Coconut Oil



















That's it. I get out of my shower and a little bit of that oil (usually in a solid form in my house) hits my warm skin, liquifies and I use it as an all-over body moisturizer as well as my facial moisturizer.

Since it has no scent and I am known to be quite the "scent junkie", I find that when I apply a fragrance, I don't have to use as much since I no longer have all these competing smells.

My skin is super-duper soft and it doesn't feel heavy or greasy. One jar at Whole Foods is $6-$9 for 14 oz.

I filled my little jar with it in October and it's still half-full. At the most, this is costing us $1.55/oz compared to almost $38/oz of the other stuff. Honestly, my skin looks better with the coconut oil.

For cleansers, I have used everything: Chanel, Biotherm, Shishedo, Clarins and more. They work great for my skin for a little while then I have a break-out problem.

Now?

I throw 1/2 Cup of oatmeal in the food processor so it's really fine. I scoop 1 tablespoon of the ground oatmeal and mix it with 1 tablespoon of organic plain yogurt. I smear it on and if I have time I let it sit for 5 minutes or so and wash off with warm water.

Now, I was really skeptical about this and thought it didn't work for me at first because I had a couple of breakouts. But I had a sneaky suspicion it was actually detoxing my skin so I stuck with it and sure enough the breakouts stopped and my skin looks and feels great.

I keep the ground oatmeal in a container in the kitchen and the yogurt obviously stays in the frig. I just mix a tablespoon of each together in a little dish and head up stairs.

It feels fantastic going on and leaves my skin clean and soft. This recipe and more can be found at Pioneer Thinking.

For Mrs. Bridget G.

My buddy Mrs. Bridget G. at The Lord's Beautiful Things is feeling sick today. She said, "Pass the tissues." So this is for her!

I hope you and your son feel better soon Mrs. G!

{{{Big Hug}}}

If anyone else is feeling poorly please feel free to take a tissue too;)

Dating My Daughters

Just after I had our first daughter, a wise friend told me that when she was around 9 years old her mom would take her out on a weekly date.

They would go to the same restaurant for breakfast on the same day of the week. They just spent that weekly time together talking about ordinary things usually. Sometimes it was deep and serious but usually it was just time together.

She told me how much she looked forward to having mom "all to herself."

So when our eldest was 9 ish, I started taking her out for a weekly (we did miss a few here or there) breakfast. We went to the same place every Saturday morning. I found that even though we didn't usually discuss anything big, it helped her to feel like she had my attention and didn't have to share it with her younger siblings.

I don't remember how we stopped doing the breakfasts. I think it was when I was having health problems. Now we usually have a "date" in my room where we chat about whatever is on her heart and the younger two aren't allowed to interrupt.

Well, our youngest daughter is now 10 and she's in that familiar, quirky, fourth grade age. We have started our breakfast dates. We are a little more adventurous though. We try a different breakfast place each time we go. It hasn't been weekly. It's been more like monthly but even that infrequently it's helped our "middle" child to feel like I see her and have time for her.

We're going out this morning and I thought I would share what works for us. It seemed especially important to do after that Empty Nest post from Shannon's "What I'd Like You To Know" series.

For more things that work or to post your own, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Now if you'd excuse me, I need to go get ready for my date!

Updated: Here is my coloring page from the restaurant! :)

Midnight Chat: When It's November...and it's hard

Well, I did attempt to go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour. But as I was getting ready for bed I felt stronger and stronger that I needed to share with you tonight and not tomorrow when, you know, I was fresh and had regular clothes on!

So here I am in my jammies, in front of the fireplace because it was so cold down stairs and without a stitch of make-up on.

I hope it is a blessing to you...

A Three-Ring Circus

As you can see from the darkened windows and weariness in my face, this was at the end of a long day but we were having too much fun not to do it.

Without further ado, I introduce my children!

First up, "Kurt"



Next is "Brigitta"



And of course last but certainly not least, "Leisl"

Video Intro

Correction

Time Off

Hi all,

We have an incredible case of "Home School House"--

that's "Mashy Talk" for our house is a mess.

I am still really tired and let me tell you the rain, at times torrential today, is not helping one bit.

The two leaks aren't helping either.

It's been a day....But,

I did have a really, really wonderful evening with a few girlfriends. We went out to dinner and laughed and cried and laughed some more. I didn't realize just how much I need that.

(Thank you Kathy, Julie and Heidi! Count the crows ;)

But all this to say, I think I need a little bloggy break and a chance to get my house in order and my energy level up.

I plan on being "back" on Monday November 17th. I know y'all will understand that I need to get my ducks in a row and all that. Y'all are sweet that way :)


Until then I hope the Lord blesses you and your family.

Toodles,

Tuesday Night Prayer

If Jesus' power is perfected in human weakness then I am His girl tonight!

I am no longer sick but now my poor little adrenal glands are so tired.

So our verse tonight comes from 2 Corinthians 12:9

And He has said to me,
"My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is perfected in weakness."
Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

What about you? Are you praising? I'll praise with you. You are mourning? I will grieve.

Somewhere in between? Where or whatever the case may be, "lettuce" pray...

Egyptian Housing

This is homemade playdough that we used to make our Egyptian housing.

We learned tons about their housing but I am soooo tired today. Words are not coming easily so here's a bunch of pictures instead!


















We definitely learned as we went. Each attempt was more successful than the one before.

It was a perfect activity for a rainy, rainy, rainy day.