Works-For-Me-Wednesday: Cleaning Out a Diaper Bag

This is what...



Is it just me, or does everyone's diaper bag become a toxic waste dump every couple of weeks? It's most likely just me. Regardless, I am going to share with you how I clean it out. I clean out one side of my kitchen sink, dry it off, make sure the drain is in, then dump the entire contents of the bag into the sink, like so...


Here's why: Usually there are crumbs, small pieces of paper, coins and all manner of small objects that need to be collected. The sink is the perfect place because it will hold the entire contents of my diaper bag and when I am finished reloading all of my belongings, I can just rinse the crumbs down the drain.

I doubt this post has been of use to anyone on the planet, but perhaps you have gotten to know me and my idiosyncrasies just a little bit better. Good luck you to, however you clean your purse or diaper bag!

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe
(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!

Wordless Wednesday: Father's Day 2007

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe
(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!

Fresh (Not!) Berry Crisp

For the next few days as I help my mother get her affairs in order, I may be republishing archived posts. Today's post is an archived recipe in honor of Ed. God be with you, Dad.

While we were at church one Sunday, my dad made us a conglomerate lunch of many of his months-old freezer foods and leftovers. There were mini-quiches, pork chops, teriyaki chicken, applesauce, sweet potatoes, two different kinds of green salad, hash browns, whole-wheat bread, brownies, peach cobbler and a pitcher of ice-cold water. It was wonderful and I was very proud of him for doing some purging of his fridge and freezer. However, there wasn't enough peach cobbler for everyone, so I looked up a recipe at AllRecipes.com, did some tweaking to utilize some of my mom's number ten cans of food storage, and this is what we came up with.

(Disclaimer: My mother and husband vehemently insisted that I make it clear that I used CANNED cherries in this recipe, thus the title of this post. However, you CAN use fresh berries!)

FRESH BERRY CRISP

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix:

4 cups berries or cherries, fresh, frozen or canned
(If you use canned cherries or berries, use all the juice, too.)
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Pour into rectangular casserole dish.

In large mixing bowl, whisk:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

Into this mixture, cut in 1 cup of softened butter until crumbly.

Sprinkle this mixture on top of the berry mixture in the casserole dish and place in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes or until the filling bubbles and crumb topping is golden brown. We love it with vanilla ice cream!

I am pleased to list this post at...

Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
and The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".

Check out these awesome homemaking sites for ALL kinds of great ideas!

Homemaker Mondays: Baby Care

Welcome to...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" was posted by The Apron Queen over at Confessions of an Apron Queen, a popular blog I have come to know and love. Have you ever wanted to eat a shark? The apron queen shows us how to make an amazing shark steak! Click HERE for the recipe!

MINE: Because of the passing of my father on Tuesday, I was not able to write a new post for Homemaker Monday. Instead, I choose to post a popular instruction set from my archives. If I know how to do anything, I know how to do this...

How to Dress a Baby (or Two)

I chose to chronicle the one-piece sleeper. I love sleepers because you only have to find one piece of clothing and never have to worry about socks falling off wiggly feet. Plus, they always stay warm in cool weather or air-conditioned rooms. Our models are four-month-old twins, Joseph (on left) and Hyrum.

Step 1: Believe it or not, it took me many years to learn that if you lay out the sleeper in preparation for laying the baby on top of it, he can't kick it off. See picture below.



Step 2: Lay the baby in the center of the sleeper.



Step 3: Put the baby's feet in the sleeper feet.



Step 4: Button up the legs so the chances of the sleeper feet being kicked off are even more remote.



Step 5: Put the baby's arms in the sleeper sleeves. This is the most tricky part of the whole process because little fingers can be bent. I like to spread open the sleeper wrist openings with the tips of my fingers, then grab their little hands from the outside and pull them through, that way I can control what goes on with their fingers. You can see from the picture that this step was successful, as they are still happily cooperating.



Step 6: Button the top button to make sure an arm won't wiggle out.



Step 7: Button the rest of the buttons. You may start from the bottom or the top. It's your choice!



Step 8: At this point, your baby is considered dressed, but if he is teething, you may want to add a bib to make sure the sleeper won't get soaked or you will have to repeat this entire process in three minutes. Happy dressing!



OURS: Okay, now it's your turn! I hope you enjoy each other's posts and make sure to leave lots of lovely comments!


If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe
(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!

Copper Kitchenware

This post is also listed at Frugal Friday @ http://biblicalwomanhoodblog.blogspot.com/

This is one of my favorite displays in my mother's home...


My father purchased most of these vintage copper pieces for her at his favorite thrift store. My mother has such an eye for balancing size and color and puts together beautiful displays like this throughout her home.

But here's the thing about my father. If four copper pieces are good, then four new bags of copper and BRASS pieces are even better...every week. He saw how much my mother appreciated her gift, and he could never seem to stop. Once a week he would go to the thrift store and purchase one, and sometimes even two or three, bags of copper and brass trinkets. Now, my mother LOVES copper, but she despises brass and he could never work this out in his head somehow. After bringing home the fifteenth bag of copper and brass, my mother gently suggested that perhaps she had enough copper and that certainly, she had enough brass and that it was unnecessary for him to purchase anymore.

This was a concept he could not wrap his mind around. Week by week by week he would continue to bring home bags of copper and brass. There were brass sailboats, brass penguins, brass pencil sharpeners, copper rabbits, brass butterflies, copper scissors. Granted, some of the copper was very vintage, but my mother only has so much space for tasteful, uncluttered displays. When my father saw that she wasn't displaying everything he bought her, he began to feel sad and expressed this to her. Unfortunately, this turned into a dispute and my father vowed to never buy her anything again. My mother was somewhat relieved as she had begun to run out of space in the back yard for the bags of copper and brass.

As weeks passed however, my father forgave my mother and began again to lovingly purchase the bags of brass and copper once more. She knew that there was no way to stop it and simply kept storing them in the bags in which they came in out-of-the-way places throughout their property.

Now that the sad day has come and my father has passed to his eternal rest, perhaps she'll miss the weekly bags of vintage metal that would greet her on her kitchen table upon her return from school. Or maybe not....Copper anyone?

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe
(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!

Good Bye, Ed...

Here's what...


Crying...

Scientific studies show that stress-producing proteins are released through our tears every time we cry. That's why we tend to feel better after a "good cry". Thank goodness God designed our bodies this way as I've been taking full advantage of this biological stress-reliever.

My father, this man...


...(shown here carefully pressing plastic wrap onto his coveted guacamole to keep it from browning) passed away this morning. It feels like the end of an era. I can't imagine my life without him. I can't imagine my mom's life without him. The thing I've noticed about death is that it's so final. There are no more chances to "do things differently", as some people lament when looking back on their lives.

I will write more on my father in a subsequent post, but if you would like to get to know him a little better, click HERE for posts about Ed.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe
(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!

The World's Easiest Chocolate Cake

Talk about tackling a baking activity with eight kids. That's what we did for Family Home Evening, an activity Mormons are encouraged to hold once a week. We usually have some kind of spiritual message where we try to teach our children some of the values we hold dear, accompanied by song and prayer, then we try to close the evening with a fun activity. I say try because it doesn't always work out as planned, but we are trying....very trying...(haha).

For our fun activity, we chose to do some microwave baking. I have to tell you, we had FUN with this cake! I found this recipe at "The Newlyweds" blog and I knew the kids would love it.

Here's what you do...

Set out one mug for each person, then get out THESE ingredients...



For each mug, you will need...

3 Tablespoons flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (we used dark cocoa powder)
A dash of salt
1 egg
3 Tablespoons oil
3 Tablespoons milk
A splash of vanilla
2 Tablespoons chocolate chips

Step 1: Grease the mug.

Step 2: Mix the first four ingredients in the mugs.

Step 3: Mix in the egg, but try not to get it all over your shirt...


Step 4: Mix in the oil, milk, vanilla and chocolate chips until the mixture is smooth.



Step 5: Place in the microwave for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. During the cooking process, the batter will rise up above the rim of the cup. Do not be alarmed. This is a normal process and will not cause any harm.


(By the way, the reason this cake is so much lighter than all the others is because we were doing a spice cake experiement. Try to imagine deep, dark chocolate.)

Step 6: Let the cake sit for a couple of minutes before attempting to turn it upside down on a plate. OR....you could just sprinkle a little sugar on it like this...


...and eat it right out of the mug.

Step 7: Go all out by placing the cake on a plate and decoratively sprinkling sugar on the cake AND the plate. (Don't you love how the sugar on the plate was manipulated by hand to perfection?


(Disclaimer: This recipe would do well to have some frosting added. We just used sugar because we ran out of time. Try allrecipes.com for some great frosting and icing recipes!)

I hope you have as much fun with this recipe as we did! See ya'll tomorrow!

I am pleased to list this post at...

5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
and The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".

Check out these awesome homemaking sites for ALL kinds of great ideas!

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe
(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!

Homemaker Monday: Instant Wall Art!

Welcome to...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" post was written by Trachelle over at High Heels and a Sippy Cup. If you were here for last week's Homemaker Monday, you will remember that I featured another one of Trachelle's posts about how to store jewelry. Now, you may be saying to yourself, "That's not fair. Trachelle was featured last week. Why doesn't she pick someone new this week?" Let me explain. As I was going through last week's posts to pick this week's "YOURS", I remembered how Trachelle's post on positive toddler discipline truly spoke to me. Perhaps it's because I have a toddler at home and I feel like I'm constantly having to correct his behavior. I loved her ideas for making this frequent occurance more loving and positive. As I was preparing this post, I copied and pasted her URL, then looked at the previous week's post and was alarmed to see that I had featured her last week also! I thought about changing this week's "YOURS" and featuring someone else, but then I remembered how I had stated in the "rules and regs" that I would feature my favorite post each week. Well, this was it, whether her's was my favorite last week also or not. Good job, Trachelle!

Anywho, Trachelle's post was so lovingly and and well written and my emotions welled up inside me as I read how she treats her sweet boy. She posted lots of cute pictures, too. Here is one of my favorites...


Look at those lovely locks! Thank you so much, Trachelle, for your inspiration and I hope we can all learn from your loving example as a mother. To read Trachelle's entire post, click HERE.

MINE: Today I chose to post a simple wall decoration tip anyone can do.

I love poppies. The first piece of art I was ever able to afford was a huge 3x5 painting of red poppies in a clear vase. I wanted something else colorful on my other walls to tie the room together, so I came up with this grouping...


If you'll look closely...(you can do that by clicking THIS picture)


...you might be able to see that these are prints done on fabric. Here's how I did it.

Step 1. Find artwork or photos of something you love (but be careful about copyright laws!) and upload it into a file on your computer.

Step 2. Print out the picture in whatever size you choose onto THIS kind of paper...


Step 3. Iron on the picture to a piece of white muslin cloth. You can find it very cheaply at almost any craft store.

Step 4. Mat and frame the fabric and you have instant art! You could also do this with black and white photographs for a vintage look.

So what do you think? Are you ready to try this? If so, please post a picture and let me know. I would LOVE to see what you come up with!

OURS: Okay, now it's your turn. Let's see what great ideas all of you happy homemakers have for us today. Remember to leave a comment, which makes it easier for me to enter you in the prize drawing, and let the other homemakers you visit know what you thought of their posts with lots of considerate comments. Thanks again and have a Happy Homemaker Monday!



If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe
(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!

Virtual Hacienda Home Tour

As most of you know, Our family has been undergoing house construction for the past two years. When we started our venture, friends and family who have done this before here in Mexico told us that this endeavour would take about two to three years. We p-sshhawed them, calling them nay-sayers and cynics and we knew that it would never take that long for us. It couldn't. There were ten of us living a the mother-in-law's quarters which were originally designed for two and to say we were squished like sardines is an understatement.

But...here we are, two years later, and we are finally ready to move in.

Which brings me to the reason for this post. Tip Junkie is having a virtual home tour and I really wanted to participate, but I wasn't sure what I would post, as we haven't finished moving in quite yet. So...what I've decided to do is post some of my favorite structural details of our new hacienda-style home. It's bare and undecorated, but I'm so excited about starting with this blank (or maybe not so much) canvas and searching for new Mexican decor finds on the way. Here, let me show you...

One of the marks of rustic Mexican decorating is lots of wrought iron. Here are some of my favorites...

A "bug's eye" view of the chandelier in the entryway...

The stairwell in the teenage boy's room...


All of the kids have a second-story loft and in most cases, the kids have to share bedrooms. With the lofts, however, each child will feel like they have their own space.

The vessel sink stand in the guest half bath...



This is a tiny bathroom, so I decided that this sink would be perfect...unobtrusive and beautiful.

Here's a close-up of the sink, painted in typical Mexican-style talavera...



One of my favorite things about Mexican decorating is using color. Check out some of these colors...

The family room...


I was terrified I would choose the wrong orange. Go too far one way and you get a sickly pukey color. Go too far the other way and you can't stand to look at it. After my contractor painted seven different orange swatches on the wall, I choose "Chinese Lantern" (above) and have been in love with it ever since!

The living room...


I've always wanted a room this color, but could never bring myself to go through with it. When it comes to Mexican decorating, though, the brighter the color, the better!

Speaking of bright, check out my laundry room...


Is that not the most gorgeous pink you have ever seen? And just wait until the green hickory cabinets are installed. I'm going to have festive folding fiestas every day!

Mexico is famous for it's intricate tile work and our contractor is a master tile worker. Look at some of the gorgeous work he did.

The living room...



The master bath...




The stairs going up into the master loft...


The central courtyard patio...


Around the doorways...


The piano studio...



The slate entryway...


The stove area...



Here are some of my favorite fans. We will be using these a lot during the hot Mexican summers and during the winters to circulate the wood-burning stove's heated air back down from the vaulted ceilings.

In the living room...


In the family room...


In the kitchen...


Even though out property is a major construction site, John couldn't resist planting some bulbs in the center courtyard.

Here are some elephant ears...


...and some lemon-scented geraniums. They are engineered to keep mosquitos away and they smell lemony heavenly!


And last, but not least, just a few random things I love...

The upstairs toddler playroom above the kitchen...


One of our couches...


Our pine doors...


A random rooster (bought for $12 down from $72 in a Pier 1 Import outlet in New Jersey. Yes, I got some funny stares as I sat with it on my lap for four hours on the plane.)


A light fixture we got on sale at Lowe's for 75% off...


...and the wrought iron chairs against our green hickory island...


Even if Mexican decor isn't your style, you've gotta admit...It's not boring!

Thanks for joining me on my home tour. I'll be posting more later as things get unpacked, so see you next time!

This post is listed @
Kelli's "Show and Tell Friday",
The Barefoot Mama's "Feminine Friday",
and...



Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Check them out for other great ideas for you and your home!

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe
(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!