Crepes are a big, long time favorite, starting from when my Dad would make them as a special treat for us when I was growing up, to now when I make them for my own kidlets.

They are so easy to make, using simple ingredients that are kitchen staples- milk, eggs, flour salt and butter. I have tried many different recipes with great results each time, but discovered that no matter which recipe I made, I need to chill the batter for at least 1 hour before using it, ensuring the best results.

 The most recent recipe I used with great results was ‘this one’, which makes a large batch. I tripled the recipe and filled this jug…

Um, yeah, I know, that’s a lot of batter.

but I used it to make lots and lots of these…

We had them for a special treat on Monday for the first day of school.

Our favorite toppings for crepes are the ever simple and classic butter and sugar, (sometimes with lemon juice brushed on after the butter and before the sugar is sprinkled over top), and sometimes if we’re really feeling decadent, we throw caution (and our scale) to the wind and go for the Nutella, with or without sliced bananas. It’s too good.

Just a quick note to let you know that I will be moving my family posts to a private blog in the coming weeks, but I will leave this blog up for my posts on sewing, cooking, crafty stuff, and generalizations of my family. So this blog will remain the same with no changes, except for the absence of the overly informative family blurbs. This way I will feel less weird about posting my kids names and personal info about our fam on the world wide web for all to see (yeah, you know I’m paranoid). So, if you would like to continue reading about our family stuff, please either email me or let me know in the comments or otherwise, and I will get the necessary info to you as soon as I change it all over (unless you’re sick of me, then this could be the perfect opportunity to be rid of me once and for all!). This blog will remain up, and accessible to anyone though, and will hopefully be updated more often now that school is starting next week. This year I will have 5 of my 7 in school. Now that’s just going to be weird.

The ‘Crafty Crow‘ featured yet another fun idea on their blog, and I thought it was a great idea for a memory matching game, that is, if you have easy access to lots of seashells.

Although I have seen them sold by the bag in several different stores around here, so I am willing to bet I could get everything without much of a hassle so my kidlets could make a set of their own too.

I also saw ‘this‘ on the ‘Toby Show blog‘ and wanted to pass it on too, I love it!

She printed off a set of her own cards to make an ‘animal matching game’ from the ‘Jan Brett’ website, laminating them and everything. I am loving the hedgehog and the billy goat, seriously, I mean how cute are these!

The ‘Jan Brett’ website has a bunch of different activities and stuff that are free and ready for you to print off yourself. With so many of her books being heavy favorites at our house, I knew my kids would really enjoy games and pictures featuring familiar characters and such from her stories. I’m already looking through my stash to see if I might possibly have some cardstock squirreled away somewhere, and with honor copy open 24/7, I could even have these done by tonight. Although frankly, it wouldn’t be much fun making a midnight run to the copy store without Heidi. I’m not even sure I could work the laminating machine without her. She’s a genius that way you know.

We had a lovely weekend with incredibly cool summer temps, not too hot, and with light breezes throughout the day. Loved it! I could live year round in this kind of mild weather. But eventually I would miss the other 3 seasons, so I am happy to enjoy this while it lasts.

I recently bought my very first pair of pinking shears.

And no, I haven’t the faintest idea why I waited this long to finally buy myself a pair, they’re so handy to have, and fun to use. Nerd.

I bought them so I could make these from the ‘Crafty Crow’ blog…

These are so simple. I bought two boxes of Kleenex brand tissues in the upright box (which we emptied of tissues in record time due to allergies and a random summer cold that hit hard recently), took 1/4 of a yard from 6 different brightly colored cotton prints, washed and dried them, cut them into approximate tissue sized shapes (I ended up with 4 squares from each 1/4 yard), pinked the edges to prevent fraying, divided them up between the two empty tissue boxes, and voila! This was such a great idea, and Finn totally loves it! (many thanks to ‘The Toby Show’ for sharing this cool idea!)

Saturday morning found us displaced as the buyers needed a few hours with the house to give their parents the grand tour of their future digs. So we headed in to visit with my family and made a day of it. On the way in we stopped off at the little zoo/park and had fun walking around for a bit. Then we spent the entire rest of the day just hanging out at my parents place. The weather was gorgeous, and we ended up outside the majority of the day, watching the kids play as we sprawled out on a large blanket laid out on the grass in the shade. My children played all day with several of their cousins, as well as a few neighbor kids that we have gotten to know very well over these many months of visiting. It was one of the few days we have had where we didn’t have a single thing planned, and no pressing need to rush anywhere. It was so nice to find some time to decompress.

This next week will be busy though, and so ends the relaxation, because as most of you know, we have once again sold our house. And when I say “sold” I mean we are under contract and will sign the final papers in less time than previously thought, as the buyers have just asked for a faster closing date by 10 days. And don’t even ask if we have found a house for ourselves yet, because we haven’t, and I don’t even want to go there right now. Even though I should. But I’m tired of thinking about it over and over again, trying to figure this all out. We will get there eventually.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend, and that the weather is as nice in your neck of the woods as it has been in ours!

I love the Crafty Crow blog, and check it regularly for fun ideas and things to do/make, with/for my kidlets. These are a few of their recently featured projects that are currently on my list of projects that I would love to do…

 As soon as I saw this project, I loved it! (this is the one I was going on and on about yesterday Korby) And now I am dying to try my own hand at making some. Seriously, how cool are these! I love a fun and simple project, and with results like this, my kids could have some original, fun, and funky shirts for back-to-school, and I could have some fun with freezer paper and an exacto knife. Oh the possibilities!

Finley loves pulling baby wipe after baby wipe out of the container, and flinging them all over until he has successfully emptied the container. Oh the naughty. So when I saw this project, I knew it would be just the thing for Finn.

I thought this project looked like a really fun activity that any of my kidlets could do themselves. I love seeing what they come up with as they paint, draw and create, and I also think it would be fun to frame and hang their finished masterpieces as she suggested in her post.

And this project instantly set my mind spinning as I thought of the super fun possibilities. I have tons of artwork from each of my kidlets safely stashed away, the pieces I felt were the most “keepsake”, and I think this would be such a fun way to “save” them, maybe make into a sort of remembrance quilt for each child featuring their own artwork.

And these….

yeah, I don’t think I even need to explain why I want to make these.

My mom used to cook a lot of chicken when we were growing up. Almost all of it was whole, cooked in a large pot of boiling water, then artfully picking through to get to the meat once it had cooled a bit. My mom is very good at getting every last bit of meat, she has done this so many times and really knows her way around a whole chicken. She’s a total pro. I have always meant to do this myself, but for some reason I just never did. Until now. But I wanted to use my crock pot instead as I didn’t want to have to watch a pot on the stove, so I looked it up online and found ‘this recipe’. It was not only easy, but the chicken was delicious and I was able to use some of the meat in a recipe for dinner that night, with enough leftover to freeze for another time. I really loved that the skin is removed before you cook it, lowering the fat content, as well as upping the healthy factor. Gotta love that. And if you prefer an even easier method, you can skip all of the ingredients from the above linked recipe, and just chuck your whole chicken into your crock pot with some chicken broth, or even just water, and let it cook that way too. I like versatility in cooking, it’s nice to have more than one way to get something done.

I love reading the Pioneer Woman’s blog. And I really love her recipes and posts on cooking. In a recent post she talked about making ‘eggs in a hole’ (I had only heard them called ‘toad in the hole’ before this, and I don’t know why I never tried making them before her post),  but she goes on to explain that regardless of the different names this is known by, the end result is the same. So of course after all of her lovely pics and well written post, I was immediately inspired to make them for lunch that afternoon, much to the delight of my kidlets. Dee-lish! And so easy!

 I also love looking for treasures in our local thrift store (Deseret Industries aka the D.I.).  I mean, really, really, really love it. I have come away with some really incredible finds before, and love the thrill of the hunt each time. On a recent trip I found this little gem buried at the back on a bottom shelf, painted a horrid/weird brown color and priced at $1.50. I took it home and primed, painted and sanded it, then painted it some more.

Then, with fabric G picked out herself, I sewed a pillow and a pillowcase, a mattress with a pillowcase style sheet, and a little blanket to match.

Needless to say, G has been busy putting all of her dolls down for naps and rocking them to sleep ever since, she’s in dolly cradle heaven.

We were lucky enough to have cousin L over to spend the night for a few days of fun, and on her last day here the girls tried their hand at embroidery. After seeing this post and then this one on the Crafty Crow a while back, I was inspired to teach my girls to stitch, so I bought one yard of Monks cloth at Wal-Mart for $6.97 a yard (you can also use burlap @ $1.97 a yard, but burlap makes me feel itchy every time I handle it, so I chose Monks cloth), lots of different colors of embroidery floss (you can also use yarn), several different sizes of embroidery hoops, non-washable markers, masking tape, and a pack of cross stitch needles (they have blunt ends that won’t prick little fingers and draw blood). I cut the Monk’s cloth into squares, taped the edges to stop fraying, and had each of them draw whatever pictures they wanted on their own square with the markers. Then I hooped each piece, got their needles threaded with the colors of their choice, showed them the basics of the running stitch, and off they went.

cousin L’s-

H’s-

and G’s-

H and cousin L both really enjoyed themselves, and I was so thrilled with how fast they both picked it up. Due to a time crunch, both cousin L and H were only able to finish half of their pieces (it’s hard to see the stitching, but trust me, it’s there), so I sent home a needle, floss, and a hoop for cousin L to finish hers at home with her mom’s help (yeah, you need one more thing on your plate now…um, your welcome Heidi?). While I was able to work with both of the older girls at the same time, I realized G will need my undivided attention and help to work on hers as I try to teach her to stitch, so she only got as far as drawing her picture on the fabric. I personally love embroidery and have been doing it for years now, so I hope to be able to pass this on, if not the love part, then at least the ability to stitch.

I’m still hoping to get to the humanitarian projects I have lined up, and finished in time to send with my Dad later this Fall. I’m trying to keep the projects simple to make, and workable for any of the places they might go this year as their destination is still not final yet. So, now you know what I have been doing instead of blogging. I need to stop being such a slacker though since this has been the only way I journal, so I need to be better about writing more before I forget it all.

   I made this for dinner the other night as I was wanting something that was more salady than meaty. It was heavenly, I was loving every single bite and was sad we polished the whole bowl off, there were no leftovers. Dang. I followed the recipe below almost exactly, only subbing pecans for the walnuts, and I used olive oil instead of the canola and decreased it to 2 TBSP. instead of the 1/3 cup. Also, the dressing recipe makes a lot so I will halve the recipe when I make this again, and I will also serve the blue cheese on the side instead since several of my little ones felt the blue cheese was a bit too strong and would have preferred a tiny bit sprinkled on top instead. Overall, this was a delicious salad and perfect as our main dish on a hot summer day, yum!

Cranberry-Pear Tossed Salad

• 1/3 cup apricot nectar
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 12 cups torn mixed salad greens
• 3 medium pears, sliced
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

2. -For dressing, in a bowl, whisk together the first six ingredients; set aside. -In a heavy skillet, melt sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly. Add walnuts; stir to coat. Remove from the heat.
3. -In a large salad bowl, combine greens, pears and cranberries. Drizzle with dressing. Add nuts and blue cheese; toss.

In my efforts to be barefoot as often as possible, my feet are paying the terrible price. It was getting pretty ugly. And painful I might add. After seeing the ad for the ‘Ped Egg’ on TV and then reading tons of rave reviews I thought it might be worth trying, and it wasn’t overly expensive either which is a bonus. So when I was in Wal-Mart a few days ago and saw a stack of Ped Eggs right by the register, I grabbed one, paying only $9.88. I wasted no time, and tried it out that night. I was kind of skeptical at first, it didn’t really seem like it was doing much, but after a few minutes I realized that it was, my feet were getting smoother with each pass. By the time I was done, I was a total Ped Egg convert and confirmed rave reviewer myself. This odd little foot shaver really works! Now, be warned, this little egg thingy really does collect the sicky/gross dead skin that is shaved off of your foot. Lots of it. Kind of shocking actually. And you would be surprised at how many times I had to empty that thing for just one foot. It’s kind of disturbing. But worth it, so if you can get past that part, you will have gorgeous feet in no time. I kid you not. Oh, and if you Ped Egg your feet in front of your kidlets, be warned that they will be grossly fascinated and overly interested, and will want to empty your egg out for you so they can closely examine the gross shavings themselves, all while exclaiming loudly how gross they are, but still examining them closely all the same. No, I don’t get it either. But who cares, my feet are gorgeous!

On Thursday we went in for G-bee’s 2nd birthday party (Happy Birthday G-bee!), and had an incredibly fun time.The kids splashed and played in the wading pool and had a blast in the bounce house, and the adults were able to sit, chat and catch up on all of the new happenings in the middle of all of the kiddie chaos. We had a delicious dinner of grilled burgers and hot dogs, and several different salads for good measure. And may I just say that my burger was the best, ever! James, you have mad burger making skills, and anyone that says differently has never tasted one of your heavenly creations. Amen.

Speaking of food, I had made a lovely fruit salad to bring with me, even doubling my usual recipe to make sure there was enough. As we’re loading up to go, I set the bowl down on the floor in the back of the car so I could help one of the little ones into their seat, and turned around just in time to see G take a mis-step and end up ankle deep in the fruit salad. *sigh* So in the interest of not wanting to serve my family foot salad, I took the bowl of tainted goods into the house and instead grabbed a container of Spaghetti Ranch salad leftover from dinner the night before and hoped it would suffice. It did, but I think Heidi almost dis-invited me anyways, but since I owe her $20 she relented. Just this once.

After all of the eating and playing, we gathered on the side lawn with several other families from neighboring condos for a great show of fireworks put on by Gary and Austin. There was even some risk to life, limb and arm hair. Thankfully, all arm hair is still intact, and Austin will live to start school this Fall. I had a great time and I know my kids did too, so of course I was very unpopular when I finally tried to round up my brood to head for home. Thank you for inviting us Heidi, and I had so much fun with everyone, I can hardly wait to get back together again for more! I love my family, I swear I never laugh so hard as I do when I’m around all of them.

On Saturday, Craig and I loaded up the van with everyone, and headed south to a park about an hours drive from our house. It was the annual family reunion with Craig’s family, with this one being bigger than usual since it included all of his cousins, aunts, and uncles from his mom’s side of the family. We had a great time visiting with and meeting new people (new to me I mean, because of course Craig already knew everyone), and I was especially thrilled to get to catch up with family members that I rarely get to see, and really, really enjoy spending time with, some having made the long trip from out of state even. I really love my husbands family, they are an incredible bunch of people, and so much fun to be around.

One of his sisters is the most incredible artist (she is ‘this close’ to getting her masters degree in fine arts), and she showed me two of her most recent sculptures that she had finished. I was blown away, she is so amazing and beyond talented, and so very humble about her incredible skills. Seriously, she is just so amazing and I can never spend enough time with her, I love her to death. Another sister-in-law has a very successful business involving vinyl lettering, and she had brought a large box of her extras for everyone to go through. She was more than kind enough to give me two pieces that will make a gorgeous plaque, and I can hardly wait to get the wood and get it done.

There was tons more visiting, eating, laughing, water fights, volleyball, family pictures, and lots of catching up. The kids were everywhere playing their hearts out and having a great time, and I’m sure everyone took a car full of sand home with them afterwards, as every child seemed to be covered in it from head to toe by the end of the day. And then all of a sudden it was time to go. We were hot, tired and exhausted, but none of it set in until the drive home, we had been having far too much fun to even notice before. I am so grateful we live close enough to family that we can do this every year, sometimes more even, Craig’s family is so much fun!

And I have no pictures of any of the fun. Because? Well, I have my hands full as it is wrangling my kidlets, making sure they get something to eat, applying sunblock, and keeping them in my line of sight, and I really just want to spend any time outside of child wrangling visiting with everyone anyways, not constantly worrying about capturing every single moment on film as it happens. So now you know just how lazy and un-caring I really am. That, or I talk too much. Either way, there’s still no pictures.