The Breadstick recipe

So someone, Carrot, asked for the recipe for bread sticks from my last post and they are super good and so easy, you could make them for dinner every night of the week. So here it is...

3 tsp Yeast
3 tsp Sugar
1 1/2 cups Really warm water

Combine, those stir and let sit for about 5 min.

Then add

4 cups flour
1 tsp Salt

then mix and knead
I usually just let my mixer knead with the dough hook for 5 min

Then I pour
1/4 cup veg. oil over the dough

Then we make it into bread sticks (or anything really, we braid it, make pretzel shapes and even hearts and circles.) the veg. oil makes them easy to mold and shape without flour or stickiness.

Then I turn on the stove and let it heat, 425 ,with the bread sticks on top and let them raise for 20-30 min, but you do not have to, I just find they are more fluffy that way.
bake for 10 min.

The tops don't look brown, in fact in the pictures on this page they are already cooked. When they come out of the oven I rub butter on the tops and sprinkle with garlic salt with parsley in it. So pretty and yummo!!

Officially Finished Deck

So we worked from Sun up to sun down on our deck yesterday. No one came to help, but we as a couple and family did it all by ourselves. And boy was it fun. We were sick, me and Joe with a cold, and Trenton with pneumonia again, but we plowed through thanks to cold medicine and a great desire to get finished.

It is raining today, and I am still sick and in my Pj's, so I took some pictures for you, but did not get out in the rain.

Here is the finished deck.....
And another view from the other side...

And another of the six foot bench we built, to cover the gas meter hole.
We had so much fun designing it and figuring out how to make the legs that are all different lengths due to being in different sections of the hole. But it turned out so cute and sturdy and now there is a great place to sit too.

Since we are sick and can not go to Church we decided to make some bread sticks and let the kids shape them. It is kinda like playing with play dough but we get to eat them after. they had such fun. Here are some pictures of that adventure.

Building our deck

So after much anticipation and begging my husband we have started building a deck.
Thank goodness for tax returns, I say.

So our deck is turning out to be a lot more work than I initially thought it would be. I know I sound naive, but It thought it would be an easy, fast one Saturday project. We have now been working on it for 3 weeks and it is still not done.

First I got online, did research and did deck designs at Lowes.com. I was super excited.

I found a you tube video of a guy that did exactly what I wanted to do, which is extend my concrete patio further out and do it at ground level, so after exhaustive research, I presented my plan to my husband. He liked it and we headed out to get a few supplies and try a couple of things out.

The plan looked like it was going to work out beautifully, so we worked for the next two weeks to get the framing, joists, and pylons in place. It was a heck of a lot of measuring, digging, leveling. So much more work than I thought. Still, I am a fan of hard work so we cruised right along.


As we were cruising along, my hubby started to get into the researching and planning and was questioning me a lot. So we argued, huffed and puffed, I explained in great detail and he would be satisfied that I had everything under control and knew what I was talking about.

Then hubby decided that he wanted to not use plain old ceder decking, he had found some Brazilian hard wood, Tigerwood, that he said would be our best wood for our deck. So he took me out to specialty lumber yards and checked out wood. Now the Tigerwood is twice the cost but it is so pretty and smooth. The wood guy said you can walk on it barefoot for years to come without worry of splinters. I guess a lot of people use this wood for gorgeous indoor flooring. It is also really really hard wood. We would have to drill holes before the screws and he said to plan on breaking some bits.

Well I was not for the Tigerwood, why not go with the cedar wood, it is more cost effective and it is what most people use on their decks. I know you understand where I was coming from. Well Joe and I debated and huffed and puffed and well, eventually he won. Yep, I gave in.

So last Saturday Joe headed over in the early morning to get the wood, our best Friends the Conners headed over to help us the whole day and we all started laying the decking. By the time it was dark there was only ten rows laid. Holy cow, it is so much work. This wood is so hard and having to drill and cut it takes so much longer than normal.

But I do have to say it is so smooth and pretty and truth be told I am glad that Joe won the great wood debate.
So every night, I have dinner on the table as Joe walks in the door, we eat and head out to get about 3 rows of decking in each evening (each row takes 30- min each).

It has been fun though, all the kids are eager to help. This is how it goes down.

Joe and I cut and size the wood, then Joe drills two holes, moves on to the next joist, Jerika brushes off all the chips and dust from drilling, Jacqueline puts screws in the holes, I screw in the screws, then Trenton and Jennedy put in the deck spacers. We form a little assembly line, moving as fast as we can from one joist to the next.

It has been an adventure for sure, we hope to continue our nightly deck fun and hopefully be finished by Saturday. If we don't have it done by then, we have invited our home teacher and best friends over to help. My oh my, I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided to build our own deck. Wish me luck.

Cheap entertainment

Truth be told I am a little entertained hanging out with my kids

Today you get a mom's eye view of what my daily entertainment consists of.



Trenton apparently likes to try and bite my toes, I of course don't let him, and this provides us with hours of entertainment. Next you will see Jennedy trying to get in on the fun foot biting action.

Missing Child

So this morning I was sleeping and my husband came down and woke me up asking if I knew where my six year old Jerika was. He had gone in to get her up from her bed and she was not there. I told him to check the rest of the beds, he said he already did and went upstairs to search more. I got up and looked everywhere downstairs for her. In closets, in rooms, under blankets. But no Jerika.

I got upstairs and my husband is saying he has checked everywhere, even under her bed. So I look at the locks to see if she went outdoors, they are locked and dead bolted.

We are trying to be quiet because the rest of the kids are sleeping, but I am ready to start yelling for her. But we go in each kids room quietly and look for her. We are unable to find her.

So then I am thinking, when should I call the police, probably after I start yelling her name and there is no answer. So I head back downstairs to look again, as I go, I hear Joe talking to Jerika, asking where she was.
She has come out of her sisters room, We looked there?!? We ask where she was and she says that she was under the bunk bed. We asked her why she was there?

"I dont know", she says, "probably sleep walking."

Crazy huh.
This kid sleep walking and hiding is going to drive me crazy too.

I dont want to potty train

So a little while back I decided since my two year old, Trenton, was asking to go to the bathroom, so it was time for me to potty train.

That lasted two days.

Mostly because I don't like cleaning up things that should be in a toilet off the floor.

Plus there was a stomach bug in our family and that made for too messy of a clean up for me.

So I stopped

Well my son did not want to stop.

Every day I put a diaper on that kid who then proceeds to use a toilet. He wont go in the diaper. He wants to go in a potty.

So every day, over and over I to run him to the bathroom, even though I say, you have a diaper on just go in that.

He says "No Potty" over and over until I take him.

His diaper remains clean most days and I keep telling him I would rather potty train him when he is older like say, 2 and a half, or three, even better three and a half.

But no, he is bound and determined, no matter how many times I remind him he has a diaper on he will not do his business in the darn thing.

What is a mother to do.