My Siblings

Though I would share a photo of my siblings. This is my brother and my two sisters, they are 9, 8 and 6 years older than me. Yes, I am the baby. They seem to think I was spoiled, I remember differently. I am second from the right, but I didn't have to tell you that did I? It is so obvious who the youngest one is.

Being a Yes Mom

This summer has been unbearably hot. If you are outside for any amount of time and are not in a pool, then you are sticky, sweaty and cranky. The kids have been begging all summer to go to the local "castle" park. But with the heat, I had no desire to go.

Today however, it was only 80 degrees and zero humidity. Perfect weather. So after we ran a couple of errands, I treated them to McDonalds and we took it to the park for a picnic and then spent the next couple of hours playing on the playsets!

Being a yes mom definately works for me.

Wow, I need to work on my posture! This is right as we were leaving. Little man was getting tired.

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Delicious Egg and Dairy Free Pancakes

I have been searching for a pancake recipe that we would all eat. In the past, I have always made a store bought mix and then a baking mix from the health food store that was egg and dairy free. I kept thinking I needed to find a recipe that I could make for everyone.

Well, I have found it, after a little tweaking with the multiple recipes that I have found. I combined them and came up with one that we all love.

I made 12 pancakes for my 4 kids, thinking I could freeze a few after breakfast. While there wasn't as much left as I expected, I was able to freeze 4 for another time.

Here is the recipe.

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 T butter (melted)

1 1/2 cup water

2 T soy flour and 2 T water

Mix all together in bowl. I cooked on a non stick skillet with some Pam spray. However, they tend to burn easily so make sure you burner is on low-medium.

Enjoy.

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Weight Watchers Update

(okay for the record, my hair did not look that bad that night, I am in a holding pattern of deciding if I should grow my bangs out, get it highlighted, get it cut, not sure but I don't like this look that is for sure)

This is me and my family at a wedding over the weeend. Yes, the photo turned out goofy, but I still love it, it is the only one that my baby was actually looking at the camera. And yes, we are a very tall family. My oldest daughter is only 10 and is 5 ' 2", they my other daughter is 7, the stinker is 5 and the boy who loves giving me morning gifts is 15 months old.

Okay back to the point, I posted this photo for you all to see, I have lost 25 pounds so far! I am super excited and have never felt better. I feel confident that I can lose the remaining 15 with ease considerable work. Considering I just started this the first week of May.

One thing I did notice is that I need to start upping my arm weights, and of course figure out what to do with my hair!

Menu Plan Monday, Week of June 27

So, this week we finally have nothing. Don’t you just love how that sounds?


Nothing.

And I plan on spending that time swimming, crossing off some items on my to-do list, and reading. And I plan on doing every bit of it with the kids. I love days where I can spend time just hanging with my kids.

This is what we have planned this week:

Breakfasts: simply sweet corn muffins, egg-free and dairy-free pancakes (I will share the recipe soon!), cold cereal and fruit

Lunches: leftovers, Spanish rice and watermelon, packed lunch at the zoo!

Dinners: grilled pork loin with roasted potatoes, spaghetti with homemade garlic bread, chicken stir-fry, (the rest will come from the meat I find at the store tonight, I am out of almost all my meat!)

Funny story: do you ever have recipes memorized so that you never actually get out the recipe? Well Sunday morning I made homemade French bread so that I could make garlic bread. However, when I got them out of the oven, they were brown, dried and deflated. I couldn’t figure out what I had done. Later on, I decided to try again, since I let my Kitchen-Aide mixer do all the work, it is no big deal. So I got out my recipe to make sure I made it correctly. I noticed the problem immediately. I was supposed to bake it for 25-30 minutes, not the 60 minutes that I baked it for! So that went in the trash, you could have used them as baseball bats!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Mondays.

Super Saver Saturday

I have discovered Costco! For years we had a Sam's card, but just let it run out last year and expire. I have been reading alot lately that Costco has been rated the number one discount store and alot of their store "Kirkland" brands are very competive with the store brands, if not rated better!

I found some very good deals but two that I had to jump on was this:

See those cans? The Tomato Puree is 5 lb 10 ounces for $2.79 and the Diced tomatoes was 6 lb 6 ounces for $2.85. I used half of each to make Vinnies spaghettis sauce and then I froze the other half of each. What an awesome price, you seriously cannot beat that!

What deals did you find this week?

This post is linked to Super Saver Saturday.

Little Boys

NOTICE: Those of you with sensitive stomachs may not want to read further.

You have to understand that my first three children are girls. And yes, even though I have been raising this little stinker. I still feel ill equipped to deal with this.

Look closely at the photo. No I didn't give him a cupcake with chocolate icing to eat in his crib. That my friends is POOP!

For the last three days he has decided to do unmentionable things in his crib in the morning.

First, on Tuesday, I went in tho him giggling thinking "how cute, he is playing by himself" only to find he had pulled down his diaper so that he could pee on everything and was laughing as it was squirting down his legs and spraying the blankets, pillow, railings and wall.

They yesterday I woke up to him holding his diaper out for me to see. To see the poop that was stuck to it and almost falling out.

This morning's gift got even more creative. Yes, he decided that poop indeed is good for the complexion as he smeared it on his face. It was under his fingernails, all over his hands, the railings, the linens. Every where except amazingly his two stuffed bears that he sleeps with.

So while I dreamed of leisurely waking up to some hot tea and my blog. Instead I had to bath him and remove the poo (of course he started peeing in the water the second his feet hit the bath). Then I had to drain the water, since it was full of, well you know. Then I had to refill it and bath him to make him actually clean. Once that was done, I took him to his port-a-crib that we keep up in the main room, put him in there with his sippy cup while I tackled his bed!

So I am finally drinking my tea and eating breakfast. Who knew that the girl who once almost vomited becuase her nephew sneezed birthday cake out his nose could not be knee deep in poop one minute and eating breakfast the next.

So, moms out there with boys, thanks for the warning! Boys in fact are different than raising girls. I wonder what gifts he has in store for me tomorrow.

And yes, I will be looking for some iron clad pajamas today! And sorry about the graphic detail, but I did indeed give you a warning.

This post is linked to The Finer Things.