Church Meetings

Tonight we went to a church meeting/family meeting.  It started out with a traditional German Mennonite snack-New Year's Cookies.  They are a donut type things with either apples or raisins in them and glaze on the outside.  They are yummy! 

I won't tell you how many we ate!! 

But anyway, at this meeting we were deciding a few things like what to do with the overage of money from last year.  Yes, you read that right.  Our church had extra money from the budgeted items.  That included over and above giving and moneys saved from not spending as much as was budgeted. 

I won't tell you the amount but let me say that it is six figures.  I know, right?  We belong to a very generous church that is very much willing to give more than required.  We decided to give a chunk of the extra money away to fund many missions projects we support as well as multiple other things our church supports through out the year.

I am floored by the amount of money our church didn't spend last year.  They are conservative with their spending-really seeking God how to wisely use their money.  I also appreciated the fact that the recommendations were put to the church body and we got to help decide how to spend the money.  Our thoughts were listened to and discussion was encouraged to work through the decisions.

I really felt like I had a hand in making the decisions in our church.  

Have I mentioned that I really love our church? 

Our Pantry Door

A while ago I painted the inside and outside of our pantry door with chalkboard paint. It was a spur of the moment decision and usually I regret those after about 10 minutes! I'm thinking about a certain green paint I found, bought, and used in our bedroom years ago. When Steven saw it he said it looked like someone threw up on the wall. Yeah, not a good impulsive decision maker here.

But, this time I have not regretted it one bit. I have loved it so much. So has the rest of the family.

We use the inside of the door for our menus for the upcoming two week pay period and the outside we use for notes to each other, medicine schedules, phone numbers, etc. It is super handy and oh so fun.

Here is the latest drawings/notes left by one of the kiddos:

And here is the inside of the door:

Pretty cool, huh? Well, we love it anyway!

 

Renita

Homemade Pretzel Yumminess

Tonight Steven got together with his brothers to celebrate one of their birthdays so it was just the girlies at home. 

Party anyone?!

We got some snack food but decided to make our own pretzels too.  It is super easy and oh so stinkin' yummy we have a hard time eating just one.  Or two...

Here is the recipe so you can make them yourself.

Easy Pretzel Recipe

1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 t.)
1/8 cup warm water (105 degrees)
1 & 1/3 cups warm water
1/3 cup brown sugar
5 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in 1/8 cup warm water.  Stir in 1 & 1/3 cups warm water, 1/3 cup brown sugar and flour.

Beat until smooth.  Knead dough until smooth and elastic.  Heat oven to 475 degrees.

In a saucepan, measure 2 T baking soda to each cup of water.  Place enough to fill saucepan.  Boil soda and water.

Tear off some dough and roll a pencil shape with hands.  Form into pretzel shape.

Place twisted pretzel in water for 15 seconds until dough is golden or yellow in color.  (ours never turn yellow or golden and if you leave them too long they ruin.)  Remove from boiling water and place onto SALTED cookie sheet.  **very important or they will stick**

Salt top of pretzel with coarse salt.  Place cookie sheet with pretzels into oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes until pretzel is golden brown.  (ours did not take more than 6 minutes)



That's all there is.  Easy, huh?  Here's what they look like:

I think I might have to have another one if I can get there before the kids!

Home Improvements and Vomit

Yeah, I know those two things should have nothing in common but alas in my house they do.

Remember when I said that Steven mounted our t.v. on the wall? Well, he and our oldest dd worked on it most of the day before I came down to watch. Just watch, mind you. I was enjoying some time off to just sit and read my book. Plus, I was enjoying watching the interaction of thse two as they read directions and tried to figure things out. heehee

As I was sitting there watching them and listening to the choruses of "It says..." "What did that say?" and "Now, how did I do that again?" I had to giggle to myself. I am usually the one to read the directions and direct Steven but this time he was trying to teach Sunshine as he went. This was their second project of the week and I'm pretty sure it won't be their last. ;-)

Anyway, I was reading my book when I happened to look up and saw the dog strolling over to Steven and Sunshine. She was looking around like she wanted to sit somewhere but she just stood in front of the sub-woofer in between Steven and Sunshine. Maggie, the dog, looked at me then at Sunshine and proceeded to throw up right in front of Sunshine.

I take that back. Maggie threw up all over Sunshine's foot!!! Oh yeah, you read that right. It was warm, chunky, and oozing between her toes. bwahahahaha! It was soo disgusting. We immediately started getting towels, oxyclean, bags, and a spatula. The spatula is for scouping up the chunks, btw. TMI? Probably so but hey, if I was gagging smelling it and scouping it up I'm gonna share with you!

We got Sunshine's foot out from under the um, vomit pile she cleaned up while gagging the whole time. I asked for help from the girls but Sweet Pea ran the other way dry heaving. heehee The two youngers got towels and took the trash bag outside for me.

Steven and I cleaned up the carpet, sent the dog outside, and laughed until we couldn't talk. Sunshine moaned for quite a while afterwards complaining that she coudl still feel it between her toes! EEwww!

Home improvement projects never cease to be spectacular in our house! Kinda makes me scared for the next one...

Renita

I did it! I got in!

I am going to be part of another review team!  I am so excited because Homeschool Mosaics is starting a review team and I am on it!!  Mosaics Review will be starting soon and they will have not only homeschool reviews, but products for you home and all kinds of other great products.  Be on the lookout for these awesome reviews and the fantastic group of reviewers coming up.

Catching up and Cmas vacation

The month of December has been a bit of a roller coaster. We had school the first two weeks and then took the third week as Sabbath Week. It has been glorious!

Kind of.

I decided to do some deep cleaning during our time off. It has been interesting to say the least. In Bean's and Peanut's room we took out 10 bags of trash and 8 bags of give away. I was pretty brutal with what they were required to give up. I am done with the clutter.

The next day we moved on to the next bedroom. We covered all the bedrooms the first week. Three trips to Goodwill later and the bedrooms were done. The trash was overflowing so we had to store it in the garage until trash day. Hubby wasn't completely thrilled with that!

The next week we moved on to the rest of the upstairs. The reading room, the kitchen, the dining room/living room, the main bathroom...they were all deep cleaned. More trash and more give bags away were accumulated. The garage was overflowing but the house looked great!

It has been a busy break but a good one. Steven took vacation from the 22nd through Jan 6th so we have been tackling some home improvement projects together. I really love doing projects with him. We work really well together and can get a lot done in a short amount of time.

This time he chosee to take out the sink in the laundry room. I have been wanting it gone for a while because we don't use it and it's just in the way. the room is small enough anyway and the sink just sucked up more space than I wanted to give it. Steven got our oldest involved and they took the sink out with out any problems.

Until...

Sunshine ran through the living room calling out, "We need help!" I got up and hustled into the laundry room to see water gushing, and I mean gushing, out of a pipe and my wonderful husband shouting, "It's bad, shut the water off."

Yeah, not the words you want to hear! So, I ran through the house, down the stairs, and when I was about four steps from the bottom I thought I was two steps from the bottom and fell the rest of the way down. Yeah, it was awesome. I rolled my ankle but thankfully didn't hurt any small children or animals in the process. I hobbled up and made it to the water shut off vavle despite the messy room I had to run through to get to it. (the children belongingg to that room got into some trouble being that I had just spent several hours cleaning it the week before.)

Anyway, we put up some fans to dry the carpet and Steven headed out to get new hardware to fix the pipes that had broken, thus allowing water to gush out onto our carpet. They were fixed, we went to bed, we woke up, the carpet was still wet.

Since the carpet was still wet we decided to just pull it and replace it. We chose some peel and stick tile as a way to 'fix it' until we can save up enough for hardwood in the kitchen, laundry room, and reading room.

It took all of one day and a little of another to get the flooring laid down and the washer and dryer hooked back up but we did it. And it looks great.

We have also put the t.v. up on the wall(which is a story in and of itself), fixed a bathroom light fixture, and have another light fixture and shower fixture to fix before the vacation is over.

During all of this we have been making Christmas presents getting ready for our home-made Christmas with my family. It has been a full few weeks but they have been great. We love having Steven home; we don't want him to go back to work!

 

Renita