Holy baking mix, Muffin M... I mean, Batman.

I purchased a couple of muffin mixes of the "just add water/milk" variety. This morning I happened to be up early enough to whip up a batch for Man before work and as he munched on hot, buttered strawberry muffins asked "isn't there a recipe for muffin mix of some kind, where you just add fruit and milk?"

Well, duh. Why didn't I think of that?

A quick search on Recipezaar reveals that someone is already waaay ahead of us.

Behold, Universal Muffin Mix. There are 57 different flavor suggestions. 57!! (one of the flavors takes up two steps) I think this is the holy grail of muffin mix recipes and Man will be thrilled.

Now, how on earth am I supposed to mix this up? The crazy thing is, I think I have all the ingredients for this on hand. If I sub some wheat flour in, will the shelf life decrease? I could just keep this in the freezer.

It's about that time, again

For the seventh time in my life, I've had the opportunity to celebrate the fact that I'm married to the man I love. We have begun our eighth year of marriage.

Major events? Oh, dear, whose who know us well know that our life together has been a relentlessly bumpy ride, but hey, we have fun. We had 4 children in 6 years, they were born in three different states, 7 moves in 5.5 years, 6 jobs, 4 different couches, 3 different dressers in our bedroom alone, 4 cars, 3 surgeries, at least a couple dozen ER visits between the 5 of us who've gone, 6 semesters of college, at least 150 credit hours just during our marriage, a dozen church callings (many of them concurrent), and 3 lost teeth with a few dozen more to go. I think I've had about 5 different hair styles, 3 different makeup styles (not including a period of not wearing makeup), Man has had 2 different hair styles (with, and without), he has performed in at least 2 talent shows each year, and I've taken the kids to see him sing just one time. We've lived in 4 different wards. We've only experienced the loss of one dear extended family member. We've had 0 pets, and we'd like to keep it that way.

I think I've changed well over 10,000 diapers (ack!! four kids, times 365 days a year, times 3 years (both Things 1 and 2 trained when they were 3 years old plus change) times an overall average of 4 diapers a day = 17520 by the time they potty train... and that's a CONSERVATIVE estimate. I think I'm going to pass out and pray my progeny will forgive me for using disposables.)


Oy. So, yeah, we've been busy. I look forward to another 50 years, and eternities beyond even that.

Rice cereal

After introducing her to rice cereal, Freida is sleeping very well and loves to have her meals with us. We also feel a lot less guilty when these eyes follow our forks and totally bypass her eager mouth.

Was it something I said?

She loves her siblings quite a bit. They can get her to laugh a lot better than I can.

And my little giggler, who loves raspberries:

Graduate

The school year is officially over. She finished happily and well, and with good marks.

It's amazing how much has happened sine I dropped my oldest child off that first day of school so long ago. She's grown out of two sizes of clothing, learned how to read and write many basics, they started addition, subtraction, basic division and multiplication, and even some simple algebra. We've added to the family, had a lot of really neat experiences, and now her signature is on the same piece of paper as a local congressman.

I wonder if each year is going to be like this?

Tag will be going to school next year, which is one of the benefits of having the kids close together.

It's so silly, but when all the kids got their little diplomas and the teacher announced that the class of 2020 has just graduated kindergarten, I got teary-eyed. She'll be graduating high school 20 years after I did. Wow.... that's wild.

Today

I got to visit my aunt and uncle this past week. We encountered this stranger in their driveway:


In my aunt's continuing quest to rid her house of most of her worldly possessions, I was fortunate to receive this gem of a serving set up:


It's a lazy susan. There were several other items I came home with, but this is a quick post and I've already stolen an hour of precious sleep.

"Mom, I was walking, and then the sugar jumped out of my hands. My tummy said "no, don't do that, sugar!" but the sugar di'n't listen. Are the ants going to eat our house now? Bad sugar."

Shakes/Smoothies

Lately I've enjoyed shakes/smoothies quite a bit. The kids adore them, and it's a fairly economical treat to have after dinner.

Here are a few of my favs so far:

The Mormon Mocha

1 hefty scoop of vanilla ice cream
1 heaping teaspoon of postum (or equivalent, I've found the barley kind called pero)
2 heaping teaspoons hot cocoa powder
Milk to cover top of ice cream

Mix all in a large cup. Quantity sufficient for 3-4 persons.


Egg Nog Shake

One heaping scoop vanilla ice cream (or egg nog ice cream, if you can find it about Decemberish)
Cover ice cream with eggnog

Mix well. Grate fresh nutmeg over the top. Marvelously delicious.


Chocolate Cherry Stuff

1 cup vanilla ice cream
generous handful or two of frozen bing cherries
a bunch of chocolate syrup (dark chocolate, if you can find it)
Milk to cover the lot of it

Blend until smooth. You can add maraschino cherries for a stronger cherry flavor if desired (just remember to remove the stems first). Adjust chocolate as desired. Garnish with an extra cherry or drizzle extra syrup over the top.


Diet Mormon Mocha

Vanilla Soda
Ice cubes
Teaspoon of fake coffee
2 heaving tablespoons of sugar-free cocoa powder
1 cup of skim milk


Another thing we've done in the past is add Hansen's soda to fruit. The same could be done with diet gingerale and plain fruit if you're looking to avoid fat and sugar.

I must be getting old

Checkout line at Costco:

Me: Did you get the items in the cart?
Cashier: Yes, of course.
Me: Good, because one time the lady forgot to scan my toilet paper. And you know I couldn't go home without that.
Cashier: Nice. Free toilet paper.
Me: -laugh- Well, I don't want to go to [heck]. Especially because of toilet paper. [sorry guys, I actually said the real word.]

The two guys manning the checkout line were young and laughed at the mom who thought that walking away with $15 worth of toilet paper would keep me out of heaven. So I laughed, too, sighing inside. It's the thought that counts, right?

His parting comment surprised me though.

Cashier: I think Costco will go to [heck] before you do, ma'am.




When did people start calling me ma'am? Gosh.

Come watch the sunset with me

As I tucked Pebbles in for the second time tonight I saw an odd shade of orange light coming through her window. I grabbed the camera and ran outside. I don't normally like this eucalyptus tree at all, but tonight it looked nice in this rare beauty of a sunset.

I paused at the entrance of the cul-de-sac across the street to take it in.

Further on toward the beach.

By now I had waded through tons of ice plant and across an old trail to get the cleanest shot of this light I could.

I had been taking so many pictures and staring at it that I closed my eyes to see a sea of orange and green half-circles of various sizes. When my vision finally cleared enough to appreciate what was before me, it was almost gone.

I love a great sunset.

How did that happen?

So, do you guys remember the last Army Family Covenant signing we went to? They needed a family for one they had just recently and, since we worked out nicely the last time (and the Garrison Commander happened to remember me as an AFTB instructor which is one of her pet projects) they called us and asked if we wanted to do another covenant signing ceremony.

Sure, we said. After all, this time we would get to throw water balloons at the old, nasty, boarded houses a mere one block away from our own home. Following the balloons, a backhoe would tear down the house before our eyes and there would be cake afterward. Sounded like fun.

A couple of days before the actual ceremony we found out that a congressman would be there. Then we found out that some high ranking officials from the Pentagon would be there. Then we found out that we were to be the ONLY family in the photo op signing the covenant. Oy. And I didn't have a thing to wear.

A frantic call from the commander's aide confirmed the dress code as business casual and could we please be 20... no, 30 minutes early? My khaki's are too short (by an inch or so) and my nicer 3/4 sleeve shirts are all a little tight while I'm lactating and the only semi nice shoes I have are heavy sketchers which I couldn't possibly wearing with a skirt... do you see where this is going?

I don't know why I waited until the very morning of the ceremony to rush out to Target, especially since I slept in until 7. I spent an hour getting all the kids dressed then ran out the door thanking heaven that Target opens at 8 am. This is a newer Target so those carts that can fit three kids fit into the family sized dressing rooms. However, no dressing room could contain a Tag, as evidenced by his magnetic pull to the door which, of course, must be messed with when he is proximal to it which, of course, means I had to yell at him to close the %*$@ door after I started to undress. -sigh- (no, I didn't curse, but I sure thought about it)

Anyway, I tried on a bunch of khaki's, picked one, found two shirts (which are now my favs, I love these shirts) and went to check out. The whole time I bought 5 items I had to tell the kids to put away the candy 7 times, tell Pebbles to come back here 4 times, tell Tag to leave his sister alone 8 times, put a pacifier back in place 3 times, tell the kids to put candy away 10 more times, have my stomach fall through the floor when the cashier told me there was a slight stain on the pants, feel better about my impulsive clothing purchase after getting a 10% discount on stained clothes, tell Pebbles to quit trying to bite her brother 3 times, gather the three olders 4 times when they found out that there was even better candy in the next isle, and finally complete my transaction. Every time I take all four to the store, I swear within me that it will never happen again. Ha!

So I got home to get myself ready, put the khaki's on, check myself out in the mirror, and just for kicks hold up my old ones to see how much longer the new ones were. Haha. Hahahaaaa. Oh crud. You guessed it.

I meekly put the old ones on but used my new shirt and felt like a million bucks. Then I hid the new khaki's and hoped that Man wouldn't ask about them.

So Man came home, we piled into the van, and got there 30 mins early on the dot. We were shown the table where the signing would take place where we had our family name on a paper, standing next to and in front of 4 mayors , the congressman, the garrison commander, the battalion commander, 3 different commandants, and some other state official whose title I forget. Wow.

In the mean time we sat in the third row to await the ceremony. That's when I took a good look at the program, which outlined 2 hours worth of events. What?? Last time it was only 45 mins long and the kids were fine. I thought longingly of magnadoodles, coloring and sketch books, or even a stinking ball of string. My diaper bag always has a few odds and ends in it so we made due with one matchbox car, a single small baby toy, Man's mechanical pencil and one of the programs, and a roll of that stretchy, sticky stuff they use on your arm after they draw blood. We managed to get through with only one major meltdown from Pebbles (someone dared to steal her mechanical pencil) and just two glares from someone in the front row. I noticed that none of the military people glared at all. They were the most understanding.

It was fun to be sitting just a few yards from an old house while the congressman and the command sergeant major took turns operating the back hoe to initiate the tear down of one of those heinous eyesores. There was much applause especially from all the little boys as the house was reduced to a pile of splinters and pink insulation.

Man and I kept looking at each other in wonder, asking "how on earth did we become part of this?" Princess got to sign the community covenant now that she knows how to spell her name. When my turn came my pen didn't work at all so, just as I was thinking that I should try to juice it up on the corner of the covenant, the congressman whips his out and says "those government pens never work. Try mine." Afterward we got to mingle in an indoor reception, eating fine fruit and cheese, sipping Sprite out of stemware. We met the fire chief who I made the mistake of calling "sir." He looked pained and said "oh no. Scott. Just Scott."

We took Man home so he could rush back to work and I headed over to the PX where I planned to spend my painstakingly budgeted pennies on an entertainment center I've had my eye on, only to find that it had been knocked down in price from $268 to $62. I suddenly felt better about the stupid pants. And now I need to go buy a newspaper. Ha!

How did we end up there? How? I sure don't know. I'm still thinking about it with wonder and a slight degree of intimidation.

There was a pan of brownies on my clothes washer

There was a pan of brownies on my clothes washer, which happens to reside in my kitchen.

When I started a load of laundry, I snuck a corner.

When I unloaded the dishwasher, I snuck an edge.

When I swept, I snuck just a slice.

After lunch, I had merely a small piece.

When I put the clothes in the drier, I evened up the pan.

When I loaded the dishwasher, I tried a sample.

When I washed the floor, I had some crumbs.

When I took out the trash, I had but a small bit.



Which leads me to conclude: Brownies don't make me fat. Housework makes me fat.