Boys! Who needs them?

When you have little girls like Meridee it really makes you wonder why we thought we even needed another boy around here. With all the mud and torturing of worms that goes on around here one would think that we already had a house full of boys.
There was so much mud on Meridee and Audrie that Danny decided to just spray them down with the hose before letting them in the house. What a mess!


Really we love that we are getting a boy really soon and we just can't wait to meet him but these girls of ours can definitely keep up with the mayhem.

There isn't a whole lot going on around here right now. Accept that I still have a million and one things on my to do list and zero motivation to do anything about it.

Danny left for St George this morning to visit with some of his family and to finally bring Paige home from her 5 week long trip to California with Grandma Nordstrom. We have really missed her and can't wait to see her on Wednesday.

Do you ever do things that you think are good but then in hindsight wish you never did. Well I do it all the time. Yesterday was fast Sunday and for the first time in years I actually bore my testimony. My family members are shocked I'm sure but ever since mom died I have had a really difficult time wanting to do it. It's not that I don't have a testimony because I do but I think that my emotions run so high that I get way too embarrassed about the crying and between the crying and the fact that everyone is looking at me just makes me nervous and then when it is all over I realize that I didn't really say exactly what I wanted to and then realize after the fact that it must have sounded pretty stupid and the worst part for me is afterwards when people come up to you and thank you for sharing but that only makes things worse for me. I really just don't want to be noticed. I wish there was a better way of sharing testimonies. I would much rather write it down and let others read it. Oh well what can I do. It's over and I'm sure nobody will remember it but it sure makes me think twice about doing it again anytime soon.

Well I don't have much else to say right now other than that I noticed I left out a key ingredient on my syrup recipe from a few posts back. So if you tried it and hated it that would be because there is 1 whole cup of sugar missing from the recipe. I have been trying some other breakfast recipes lately as well but most of them have been flops. If you have any ideas for healthy breakfasts I would really love to hear them. Please share.

Summer So Far

It has been way too long since I blogged last. Food storage was big on my priorities in my last post but since then our summer got kinda busy. We have been playing with friends and swimming. At the end of June we went to Idaho with Grandpa Passey for a Lee Reunion. It was a fast overnight trip to Rexburg but we had 24 hrs of fun(Thanks Dad). The next weekend I went on another scrapbooking retreat with friends and then we were off to Taylor, AZ for the Passey Family Reunion. It too was a lot of fun but I can honestly say I am ready to stay home and relax. My huge pregnant body just doesn't want to do anything else. When I was pregnant with Paige I told Danny to let me know if I ever turn into one of those complaining, whinny pregnant women. Well the last couple of pregnancies I have been one of those ladies. It is way too hot even when the air is on, I'm sick of maternity clothes and envy girls with regular jeans on. My back hurts and I have a herniated belly button. I don't feel very beautiful right now at all but Danny reassures me that I am pretty and the big belly is actually not ugly but beautiful. Isn't he sweet? My hair is too long and in my face and I can't wait for Shanda to get up here so I can do something with it(also excited for your company too by the way not just your hair cutting abilities). Well Paige is in California with Grandma Nordstrom for the whole month and so the house is a little quieter but not with out craziness. Would you believe that Audrie super glued her eye shut yesterday? Anyway the summer is nearly over and yet there are so many things I wanted to do but it is quickly going by and it will be time to send kids back to school. Which I am excited about and then this new little baby will be here soon after that and our lives will be turned upside down once again.

Breakfast Menu #1

Okay so I went out and bought 1 can of powdered butter and 1 can of powdered buttermilk and attempted to make buttermilk syrup this morning. It actually turned out pretty well. Slightly different flavor but still very good and the kids loved it. I think it would be a real treat to be able to make this syrup in an emergency and all the ingredients have a long shelf life for food storage. I grew up calling it Bart's syrup because my brother Bart brought the recipe home from Scout Camp I think and that is what mom always called it but around here my kids call it Grandma's syrup and while we ate breakfast this morning they talked about how much they miss her. This syrup always seems to bring up memories of Grandma.

So here is the recipe for Grandma's Buttermilk Syrup(using food storage items):

In a large sauce pan add:
1/2 cup powdered butter
2 1/2 Tablespoons of powdered buttermilk
1 1/2 cups of water
Bring to a boil until it turns a carmel color
Then add:
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of Baking soda

I calculated that if you wanted to use this recipe once a week for a full year you would need to store approximately: 1 can of Pwd buttermilk, 3 cans of Pwd butter, 1 8 oz. jar of vanilla and1 small box of baking soda

That is for just a single batch but it was just enough for my family this morning. Although I'm sure a double batch would be needed for larger families or if you have bigger kids that eat more than my little ones.

So this morning I used store bought pancake mix for our pancakes but I have a cool recipe for whole wheat pancakes that are really very good and much easier than you would think. In fact when I heard about this recipe it changed my thinking on using wheat. I thought that making pancake batter with my food storage wheat would be too time consuming considering I would have to grind the wheat first but this recipe you don't need to do that. It is all done in the blender. This really is interesting and worth trying. It is a really fast and easy way to make homemade pancakes. I really like the idea of using ingredients that have no preservatives and the whole wheat really makes it extra healthy. Check out this website for the recipe and a complete explanation of the directions.

http://simplylivingsmart.com/food-storage-videos/blender-pancake.html

I have tried this with a slightly different recipe and it turned out really great. I will post that recipe when I find it. I may have to call my neighbor to get it again because I can't seem to find it anywhere right now.

So there is my first successful attempt at making one breakfast completely from food storage. I think it was a complete success.

Breakfast

I'm sure I'm not the only one but sometimes I absolutely dread meal times. I want to make healthy food for my family but I want convenience as well. I really want to start to use my food storage more in my cooking. http://www.simplylivingsmart.com/ has some great ideas for using your food storage in meals, especially breakfast. This website sure makes it seem easy to make meals with food storage easy. I would check out the video on whole wheat pancakes. Its so much easier than you would think. It got me thinking of other things I could make for breakfast like waffles, muffins, homemade cereals and granola. Simply living smart even shows you how to make your own yogurt but all this breakfast talk reminded me of another website called http://www.mrbreakfast.com/. I just printed out a bunch of recipes from that website that I intend to try out. The plan is to try to adapt them using food storage. If I actually wake up early enough in the mornings and do it I'll let you know how they turn out.

Doctor's Appointment

Well I finally had a Dr.'s Appointment today. My official due date is September 19th and everything looks great. We did an ultra-sound and we are having a boy. After my appointment I ran to payless and picked up a pair of boy sneakers. Once I got home I gathered everyone together to show them the shoes. All of the girls were disappointed. They really wanted another sister. Not really sure why. Isn't 4 girls enough? Reed was absolutely thrilled. He was jumping for joy and giving everybody hugs. This just made his day. He doesn't even care that he is going to have to share a room now. Anyway that is our good news. We are so excited. I guess I can finally start some of those projects I've been planning on.

Total Screw up

It's just been one of those days where you feel like you can't please anyone and nothing you do seems to be right. I hate those days and wish it would just be over already. While I was thinking about my screw up day and trying to find something to blog about I realized that I really was a screw up and neglected to post Meridee's Birthday. It was clear back In April and I feel guilty for forgetting her. The kids really like it when I post their Birthday's and say all kinds of nice things about them. Good thing she is only 4 and doesn't even know the difference but I guess now I have something to blog about.

Meridee is just beautiful and so much fun. I can't say much else. She is such a joy and really has quite a good sense of humor. She gets that from her dad. She is also a little bit of a drama queen and we can't help but laugh at all her drama. When she gets in trouble and is sent to her room she always responds by telling me that I am breaking her heart. The last picture of her was taken just before her heart surgery. She was only 9 months old at the time. I think the little hospital gown was adorable but we feel very blessed that modern medicine was able to detect her heart murmur and correct it so easily.

Well I guess I should go back to my blah kind of a day. Besides pizza is on its way. There is no way I was cooking on a day like this. Thank goodness for pizza as long as I don't screw that up too somehow.