Happy Easter!

It was a great day, we went to church and had a fabulous Easter program, ate a bunch of chocolate (a splurge on Easter candy, its my favorite candy), enjoyed the Easter baskets, and even read the Easter story together as a family.

Feeling happy

for the moment at least. Why?

- The RSP is back!

- Luke doesn't have any trips planned (no constant packing/unpacking/washing/ironing like I've been doing back to back to back this past month)!

- My garden is growing!

- The weather is nice (for what a few weeks?)!

- The kids are having fun playing outside!

- Luke and I assembled a portable basketball goal by ourselves and still want to be married!

- We are taking the kids to the Atlanta temple open house next week!

Whew, you don't realize how easy life is normally until you go through an

extra crazy month! Maybe I'll share some pictures soon. I'll leave you with this one since this is what I should be getting ready to do.

On the way back from Mimi & Poppa's (a couple months ago?)

A new favorite blog

Perhaps most interesting for the LDS folks out there, but really this guy isn't preachy, its just a good nutrition blog. Maybe it will inspire you to eat a little better!

http://www.wordofwisdomliving.com/

Kettle Corn

Nothing like a little kettle corn to make life better, right? We're enjoying a movie (a little LDS flic called Turn Around) and I thought I'd throw some of our new favorite popcorn recipe together. Its super good. As Luke says, he doesn't even like popcorn, but he likes this.

.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup oil (I use coconut oil - the good extra virgin $$ kind, but any kind of veggie oil will work)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

Throw the oil in a big stock pot over medium high heat. Put in three corn kernels and wait till they all pop. Then sprinkle in the sugar and popcorn kernels and put on the lid. Alternate shaking and keeping the pot still every 3 seconds until most of the kernels have popped (you will notice it all of sudden stop popping as frequently). Take it off the heat and transfer it to a big bowl and sprinkle with a little salt. Next come tell me how much you love me for sharing this recipe with you!

Thanks for all the thoughts yesterday. We had a somewhat better day today until after nap time. Any thoughts on how to snap him out of a post nap funk?

Screaming

It seems to go in stages, but Paul (almost 2 now right?), still screams all the time. Gotta get in the carseat - scream, out of the carseat - scream, change diaper - scream, get dressed - scream, eat - scream, been screaming for over an hour now after his nap, despite holding him, etc. I still don't feel human. He does sleep through the night and the past week has been taking naps (count my blessings, right?). I'm just at my wits end. I'm tired of reading blogs where everything is hunky dorey. I want my life to feel that way, I want to be that way. I'm tired of listening to my child scream endlessly and cling to my legs screaming when I do ANYTHING. I don't like putting him in the playpen when I just can't handle the screaming any more, but I just don't know whats wrong. Anyone have any ideas, because I don't.

I'll probably take this post down shortly, but I think it will make me feel better to put it out there at least temporarily. Who knows, maybe it will make me feel worse.

Soooo Proud!

Ruthanne had her first piano festival yesterday.  She did so well!  She had to memorize two piano pieces to play in front of a judge, take a written test, and do an ear training test.  She got a superior on her playing (the best ranking), a 90 on the theory test, and did pretty good on the ear training (she was mostly doing this for experience).  So proud of my big girl!  She insisted on wearing a skirt to church today and I thought she looked very grown up.  We also worked on crocheting today.  I almost gave up (and so did she) but she persisted and can now chain away!  Tomorrow we move onto the single crochet!

Yummy Garlic Bread

Buttery Garlic Bread Ring:
Bren’s Recipe

1 Loaf frozen bread dough thawed & allowed to rise (or make your own)
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. parsley flakes
1 stick butter, melted (I use ½ stick)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In small bowl, beat egg and add parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt & parsley flakes, and mix to combine. Spray bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pull golf ball size pieces of dough off the risen bread dough. Roll in egg mixture and set them around the bottom of the bundt pan. Allow resting for 1/2 hour and it will rise again slightly. Bake in oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown on top. Meanwhile, in small saucepan, melt 1 stick of butter. When bread comes out of the oven, immediately drizzle or brush butter on the bread, covering it evenly. It will sizzle or bubble and look like the bread is drowning in butter but, don't worry, in about 1 minute, it will soak into the bread.

Notes: This removes easily out of the pan and you can either butter the cut bread slices or place melted butter in the center of the bread & use to dip the bread.
*This can also be made in a loaf pan (But, I think the bundt pan is better). Set balls of dough in lines of three going down the bottom of the pan. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until golden brown on top. Drizzle or brush the top with the butter. Serve warm right out of the oven. Slice to serve.

Why didn't anyone tell me...

that there was a new America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook out? Its the Healthy addition! Green, perfect!

Have you noticed the new addition...

there on the right of my sidebar? That is where you can see items I've "shared" from my google reader feed. So, you might find coupons, fun kids crafts, recipes, etc. Check it out!

I love glass mason jars!

It makes storing soups, homemade broths, homemade beans, etc so much easier than in ziploc bags, plus I don't have to buy as many bags! Have you ever tried to defrost broth quickly that has been stored in a ziploc baggie? Yeah, it starts getting too hot in the corners, melts the bag and then you have liquid all over your microwave! Not a problem with the glass jars, just take off the metal lids and pop it in the microwave!