Banana Pudding

Sometimes when you're on a roll in the kitchen, taking time to put on an apron just seems like too much.  At least that's what I keep trying to tell my daughter, Lydia.  Lydia is my dress-up girl, so the apron-thing is an absolute must when working in the kitchen for her.  I obviously would much rather end up with grease splatters and flour all over my front.  :-)But we have been having fun in the kitchen. 

Kind of on that note, Darin and everyone else in his company received a  6% paycut at the beginning of the year.  It hurt!  6% doesn't sound like a lot until it's broken down into $$ signs.  For us, it is basically what our food budget was.  So we have had to really roll up our sleeves and find a cheaper way to cook around here.  I've never been a big processed foods fan, and now I'm even less of a fan.  I've vowed to completely cut out of our grocery trips anything that comes in a box.  We have been making EVERYTHING from scratch.  Over the weekend, we made banana pudding completely from scratch - even the Nilla Wafers.  Of course I don't have time to stand in the kitchen cooking everything from scratch, so our pudding was a family affair.  Darin and Jack made the vanilla wafers while Lydia and I were grocery shopping.  I made some vanilla pudding that same day after dinner.  The next morning, Jack lined the dish with the vanilla wafers, Lydia mixed in a few bananas into the pudding then dumped it into the dish, Jack finished off with his very special "battle formation" with the cookies on top, and then all of us (Darin, me, Ben, Lydia, Jack, Henry & Sophia) gathered round to finish off the leftover cookies.  YUM!

It was so easy, and a lot of fun to do as a family.  Here's our recipes:

Vanilla Wafers

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 c. milk

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture and mix well. 
Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: about 3-1/2 dozen.
NOTE: Let these cookies sit overnght. If you try them when they first come out of the oven, or anytime on the first day, they won't taste like "real" nilla wafers.  But the next day....oh yeah, baby.

Vanilla Pudding
2 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
5 T. flour
1 T. butter
pinch of salt
1 T. vanilla

Directions:
In a bowl, mix eggs, sugar and flour.  On the stove, heat milk and then pour in the sugar mixture.  Stir until thick, then take off stove and add butter, salt and vanilla. (I tripled this recipe for our pudding)

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window...Chilly and cloudy.  I love cloudy days.  There’s so much sun here in TX, it’s nice to get a break from it every now and then.

I am thinking...in a million different directions.  Garden plans, school plans, dieting plans (now that Valentine's Day is past ;-), exercising plans…..

I am thankful for...my husband.  I don’t think God could have sent a better guy my way.  He is so gentle and forgiving and I feel as if I need his forgiveness a lot!

From the learning rooms...Egypt and Sea Creatures with Jack and Lydia.  American History with Ben.  Darin and I have been talking about what to do with Ben for high school next year!  eeeeeeeeeek!  We’ve decided to use Cornerstone Curriculum’s World Views of the Western World I with him next year.  We have a very generous friend who went through it with her two boys, and now teaches it at our local homeschool store.  She has volunteered to meet with us and give us suggestions and tips.  What a blessing!

From the kitchen...Stamp of Approval Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef


• 3/4 pound bulk Italian sausage


• 4 medium onions, finely chopped


• 8 garlic cloves, minced


• 4 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained


• 4 cans (6 ounces each) tomato paste


• 1/2 cup water


• 1/4 cup sugar


• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce


• 1 tablespoon canola oil


• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley


• 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried basil


• 1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano


• 4 bay leaves


• 1 teaspoon rubbed sage


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram


• 1/2 teaspoon pepper


• Hot cooked spaghetti

Directions:
In a Dutch oven, cook the beef, sausage, onions and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.
    Transfer to a 5-qt. slow cooker. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, oil and seasonings. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Discard bay leaves. Serve with spaghetti. Yield: 12 servings (3 quarts).

I am creating: Garden plans.  We are going to build some raised beds this year.  Our soil is so poor here.  The last time we tried vegetable gardening, we didn’t produce much.  We’re hoping raised beds will do the trick.  We’re going to do some vertical and container gardening as well.  Can’t wait to get started.

I am going...to go somewhere for dinner alone this week.  I started doing this back in December and I love it.  I take a book with me and eat a big salad in the corner of a restaurant and totally dig it.

I am reading...The Deadliest Monster….recommended by a friend.  I’m just in the first chapter.

I am hoping...that Henry will learn to let go of his stinkers (what we call #2 here in our house).  The poor boy holds it in to the point where he’s dancing around and crying.  He just does not want it to come out.

I am hearing...Henry, our 2 year old, taking pictures of me with the digital camera.  Sophia saying, "mama!" from the high chair.  The heat just came on.

Around the house...laundry, school schedule making, desk organizing…

One of my favorite things...planning for the garden.

A few plans for the rest of the week: things are finally getting back to normal after me being sick for almost all of the first 6 weeks of the year, and Darin working lots of hours last week.  I am ready for nothing but the ol’ routine of school, chores, and playing outside with the kids.

Here is picture thought I am sharing…last gardening attempt.

To read other Daybook entries go HERE.

Imperfect Motherhood

The other day I was talking with an acquaintance who has three children.  We both homeschool our kids, so we were talking shop.  She looked around at my five kids and asked, "How do you do it all?" 

My reply was pretty quick.  "I don't do it all."  She literally shook her head and gave me one of those disgusted sounds.  She was not happy with my answer. 

Another day, I was chatting with a new friend at Starbucks about schoolish things.  She was struggling to find the right curriculum combination.  Her oldest is the same age as my oldest.  After she finished her tale, I filled her in on my own quest for Ben.  Poor guy.  I constantly apologize to him for having to be the oldest - the guinea pig.  When I finished, I learned very quickly that she had called the meeting at Starbucks because she thought I was going to give her the equation she needed in her struggle.  When I finished talking she said, "Well.  You're in the same situation I am.  You don't know either!"

It's strange.  There's the crowd out there who thinks I'm completely insane because Darin and I have five kids.  They shake their heads at me and wonder how I could ever have time to love all my kids equally.  Then there's the crowd who thinks that just because I've given birth five times, that I have all the answers to parenting, marriage and homeschooling.  I break these ladies' hearts all the time because just like them, I learn as I go, yet they think that I have some magic formula that will make their days hum. 

Every new baby brings new experiences that I've never dealt with.  Every grade level for my oldest brings new territory to explore and learn from.  Circumstances that surround our school days are never static.  One week we're dealing with our Daddy working long hours.  The next week, I've got a cold, the next week no one wants to do their work, the next week...and so on.  It's all new.  Life constantly changes, and yet we somehow make it through.  Chores and schoolwork get done.  We have fun together.  We make it to church together.  And so how do we do even that? 

The first is that we don't sweat the small stuff.  I was so serious when I told my friend that I don't do everything.  I don't.  I just don't.  Laundry, house cleaning, cooking dinner....that stuff is optional, my friends.  It's a-okay to dig a pair of jeans and a t-shirt out of the dryer for the day.  It's perfectly dandy to forget to dust the mantle for awhile.  No one will have an asthma attack over it.  PB&J on those hectic days is grand. 

The second, and last principle I work extra hard at applying to my days is discipline.  My biggest fault is that I love to get things done on that dang "mental list of things to do."  When we first started this journey, if it seemed we weren't going to be able to cross everything off that list, I could feel myself start to get tense.  But that's when everyone else starts to get tense and tempers flare cause you know what they say - if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! 

So I've disciplined myself to stick to the goal - the vision - the mission statement that Darin and I agreed on when we started homeschooling.  Rather than crumbling into a heap and giving up, I've learned to move on to the next thing, then the next, and the next.  Giving up is not an option.  Freaking out is not an option.  Choosing self-control always gets more done than losing it. 

And that's all.  Once we can all accept imperfection, we'll all be a much happier bunch.  ;-)

  

What a Wonderful World

It's been rough around here for me since 2009 started!  So far, I've had a chest cold, a stomach thingy, and a head cold.  I can finally feel myself coming out of the fog.  Back when I had the stomach thingy, I really did wonder if I was dying.  ;-)

But here I am, wading through a ton of email and trying to get caught up with life agan.  Man, is my house sticky!  Until I can get back here, I thought I would share this YouTube video that The Bluedorns shared in their most recent e-newsletter.