Pizza Biscuits

Tonight for dinner my daughters and I made pizza biscuits. They were delicious!














Here's the recipe:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
For the biscuits:

In a mixing bowl combine

      3 cups flour
      1/2 tbsp baking powder
      1 tbsp sugar
      1 tsp salt
      1 tsp garlic powder*
      1 tsp onion powder*
      1 tbsp basil*
      1 tbsp oregano*
      2 tsp Clubhouse Roasted Garlic and Pepper seasoning*

Cut in (we mixed with our hands)

   3/4 cup of margarine

Mix in

   1 cup milk

Form small handfuls into circles (mine were about 4" diameters) & place on baking sheet

Pizza Sauce

1/2 cup of PC quatrro formaggi tomato sauce
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder

Spread sauce on biscuits. Put ham and other deli meats on top. Grate cheddar cheese over them then sprinkle with chopped bell peppers

Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

Enjoy

The Stories (we don't know)

Have you ever met someone who thinks you must have had an easy life just because you are always joyful and seem somewhat happy-go-lucky or so untroubled? Have you ever met someone who you have just assumed or never considered that they have gone through tough things?
Once someone told me that I had nothing I could say into a matter because I had a perfect life so what would I know. Ok, that wasn't exactly her phrasing but it is the gist of what she said.
Am I a happy, joyful, blessed person? Yes. Do I have a good life? Yes. Have I experienced sorrow? Yes. Have I had a hard life? Well, let's take a look.

I'll start with some blessings. I was born in Canada. I was born to parents who wanted me and loved me. My parents brought me to church, they read to me, they taught me about God's love, they fed me and clothed me. Now, having said that I was fed and clothed, I should mention that for the majority of my childhood (including my teen years) my parents' income was considered below the poverty line. However, that is not my story; maybe I will tell that another day.

Here are some things that some would say are part of a hard life:
I lived in the middle of nowhere without electricity and running hot water.
My honorary grandparents were killed by a train.
When I was 12 my big sister got cancer.
I basically had no mom for a year while she took care of my sister in the hospital.
My first baby was born with gastroschisis.

Now, to me, living in the boonies with only a generator for power and no hot water was a blesssing. I had the best time living there. I'll tell stories of that another time too. So let's move on to my sister. I know that most people know someone who has had cancer. In fact, the year before my sister got leukemia, my little brother's close friend lost his battle with leukemia. They were 7 years old. My sister lived. Does that make it easier? Yes. Does it mean it wasn't a hardship? No.  I'm not telling that story right now either though. Moving on. My husband and I had been married 5 months before our first pregnancy. At my routine, 18 week ultrasound it was discovered that our baby's abdomen hadn't closed and her guts were hanging out. 18 weeks later we moved into a trailer in the parking lot of the hospital. One week later(full term) our baby girl was born. 6 weeks in the NICU. Anyone who has ever had a child in the NICU knows what that is like, whether your baby was/is in NICU for a few days or a couple years. I'll tell that story later too.

So just remember, everyone has a story.

Cloth diapering

When my second baby was almost one we moved to a place that had an in-unit washer (and dryer but that has nothing to do with this). I had never really considered doing cloth for my first baby but when my second came I decided I would use cloth if we had laundry in our home. Well, we moved and I bought diapers. I paid more than I should have for every single diaper I bought; I was not as well informed as I should have been before starting. At least I only bought 11 diapers, though. I cloth diapered for 3ish months and guess what? I hated it! Then I got pregnat and the smell of the dirty diapers was more than I could bear. So I switched back to Pampers, which I love. When baby #3 came, I used Pampers because I was scared to try cloth again and because I love Swaddlers. I love their smell, their feel and the little yellow line that turns blue when they need a change. About half way through the box I just finished I decided I wouldn't be buying another box. So we have been doing cloth diapers for 3 or 4 days now and guess what? I still hate it! There are all those moms out there who say they love cloth diapering and I believe they do but I don't get it! What is so lovable about cloth diapering? Is it saving 30-35 dollars a month (once your baby has worn the cloth enough to pay them off, which is about 5wears/$ spent)? Is it the 'green' thing? (Which, honestly, unless you use organic cotton, hemp, or bamboo, I'm not so sure how much 'greener' it is. I've read studies etc.) 

We will stick with cloth diapering at least until the new year and hopefully longer since I already own the diapers but I doubt I will ever love it!

Wee Bit Wednesday

{one} what's your guilty pleasure tv show?

I watched 5 episodes of the Bachlorette this year. 

{two} ear piercings on men: yes or no?

not really a fan but don't really care

 

{three} do you have dish or comcast?

neither.

 

{four} what's your favorite current fashion trend?

THe classic Jeans and Tank look...always a favorite, always in style ;p

 

{five} if you could learn to do anything, money not being an issue, what would it be?

Fashion design 

{six} red or white wine?

White.

 

{seven} what type of food is your favorite (ex. italian, mexican, etc.)

Umm, Thai 

{eight} hp or mac?

Mac 

{nine} what color is your bedroom?

Brown and light blue 

{ten} what's your favorite form of exercise?

swimming.

All Night

Jocelyn has a sleep-deprived EEG tomorrow. In an hour (10pm) I will wake her up and then keep her awake until 2:45pm tomorrow. Yay!! How exactly does one keep a one year-old awake that long? I don't know yet but I have some ideas to try. Baths, books, high energy snacks, walks outside. We'll see how it goes. Then we get to drive into Vancouver for the test...and keep her (and us) awake for the whole drive! Here goes....

Crazy, Busy July

 Last week was VBS (Vacation Bible School). My husband is part of the music team and I ran games this year and our oldest daughter goes to the preschool class. Each morning of last week we were up between 6:40 and 7:45 and at VBS by 8:30 (ish). Devotions at 9:15 (ish) and then the kids would come at 9:30 and it would all begin. It was so much fun and runnning games was the easiest VBS job I've done yet. (Although I did use a louder voice than normal so the kids could all hear me and my voice was a bit hoarse for the weekend.) We got home around noon each day and the my husband would leave for work. Monday I picked (and cleaned and boiled) elderberries in the afternoon with my daughters, Mama and sister. Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon we made jam. Thursday afternoon I caught up on housework. Friday after VBS my cousin from Australia stopped by and then I went to a Discovery Toy party (where I discovered that they make 3 fun and educational games that I had as a kid!). By 4 on Friday my whole family was wiped but we had a party to go to that evening. My adorable, sweet niece was having her first birthday party. We went, we enjoyed it but it felt like we were on auto-pilot. We kept finding ourselves sitting on a couch in the corner away from all the action, just kind of watching everything, not really engaging in conversation. So then we'd make ourselves get in there again. We ended up going to bed as soon as we got home. It was only 9pm! Saturday my husband had to work again so I spent the day cleaning and playing with my daughters. Then in the evening we had our youth BBQ. Sunday morning, Daniel led worship at our church, then we were on clean-up. Daniel finally got a break and spent the afternoon relaxing at home (with his guitar of course!) while the girls and I went hiking and swimming in Hope (Devil Mountain and Devil Lake) with my parents, Aussie cousin and another guy. It was a great afternoon. We came home tired but happy. After dinner, Daniel and I took the girls to Castle Fun Park for their first mini-golfing experience. Home again by 9 ish. End of crazy week.

This week is Creation Fest....

At Rest

Yesterday was an amazing day. i'm not going to start with yesterday though. I'm going to start with Monday.
Monday was not a good day. I woke up later than I was planning to so when I looked at all the work I  had to get done I felt a little overwhelmed. The whole day I felt like I was fighting a losing battle. By 4 pm I was exhausted, discouraged, cranky and snappy. I felt like the day had won the battle and looking around my house and in the mirror seemed evidence of that.
That night before bed I made a decision. Even though there was still a lot of housework to do, I decided that Tuesday was going to be a good day. Then I remembered that on Sunday night I had decided that Monday was going to be a good day; full of accomplishments, so I put a clarifier on my 'good' for Tuesday. I said to myself, "Tomorrow will be a good day. I'll just spend it relaxing and being with my kids."
And you know, it was a good day. Even better than expected.

I woke up early (well I woke up early on Monday too so I could make Daniel lunch but then I went back to bed!) and did a workout. Jocelyn woke up just as I was ending it. We had some quality one-on-one time before Shaelynn woke up and then the three of us took my sister out for a birthday breakfast. We spent over an hour at the restaurant and then took our time coming home. We checked the mail and mailed some letters (Holly...). Once back home I layed Jocelyn down for a nap and turned on Diego for Shaelynn and did some dishes. Then we went to a magic show (followed by some reading time while we waited for the facepainter to arrive) at the library. We stayed at the library for 2 hours. And somehow after that, while Jocelyn napped again, I managed to clean the whole house and do laundry while playing with Shaelynn. My husband came home to a clean house and dinner on the table. I love it when that happens. Then I headed for the pool with a friend and had a great workout. When I came home, Daniel and I got the kids in bed and then spent some (much needed) time together.
Today is story time in the park and grocery shopping. Sounds like another good day!