Life with the Family O

Author: thefamilyo

  • tired = grouchy

    Is this the case for you too? I don’t mean to be an ogre when I am suffering from lack of sleep, but everything irritates me. I am even totally conscious of the grouchiness but I still can’t snap myself out of it. YUCK!

    Ok, so nobody with kids ever told me that you basically go through life exhausted. I never knew all my acquaintances with children were living these “secret night lives”. At night, in our house, there is always 1 kid waking up for whatever reason. Once we get that child back to sleep, we doze off just in time for the next child to wake us. Boom we are snapped out of that nice, syrupy, drowsy sleep, only to have to go and take care of whatever is they need (water, bathroom, Me). Then we doze off again, what will it be next? Another child? Alarm clock? Loud neighbors?

    I am just so tired! I will probably read this post later and remember that I was in a seriously grouchy fog. Enough rambling. I am alone for the next 30 minutes, night night (yes it is 8:41AM) !

  • Braided Egg Bread


    Again being inspired by so many awesome foodie blogs I decided it was time I learned how to make homemade bread. We are a bread loving family. My husband was running to the store and I told him to get flour for some cookies I was going to bake (Lemon Spiral), on a whim I told him to grab some yeast. I thought that at least if I have it in the house I would be able to make it when inspiration struck. He brought home Fleishmanns Rapid Rise yeast. I went straight to the internet to find some recipes that specifically called for it. All of those called for cream, which is something I am finding out most chef and bakers always have on hand. I on the other do not keep cream on hand. So off the allrecipes.com to find the perfect loaf. I searched Bread, Non-Machine, Loaf, Top 20. A recipe came up that looked and sounded delicious… and it was!
    Ingredients:

    3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
    2 tablespoons sugar
    1 package Fleishmanns Rapid Rise dry yeast
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    3/4 cup water
    3 tablespoons vegetable oil
    3 eggs + 1 egg yolks
    TOPPING:
    1 egg
    1 teaspoon water
    Directions:
    1. In a large mixing bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a saucepan, heat water and oil to 120 degrees F-130 degrees F. Add to dry ingredients along with eggs. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
    2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place rest about 10 minutes.
    3. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Set a third of the dough aside. Divide remaining dough into three pieces. Shape each into a 13-in. rope. Place ropes on a greased baking sheet and braid; pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Divide reserved dough into three equal pieces; shape each into a 14-in. rope. Braid ropes. Center 14-in. braid on top of the shorter braid. Pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
    4. Beat egg and water; brush over dough. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cover with foil during the last 15 minutes of baking. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.

    This recipe was adapted from Marlene Jeffreys recipe on Allrecipes.com

  • Lemon Spiral Cookie

    Lemon Spiral Cookie Recipe
    Made with real lemons

    One of my favorite stores is Mardel, I love to shop their bargain books section as well as the clearance shelf in the kids section. Recently I was browsing around and stumbled upon a box of recipes cards for kids. They are from Usborne and looked really cute. The idea is that one side has pretty pictures of all the treats, so the kids look at everything and decide what to make. Then you turn the card over for the recipe. Sounded fun and they were 50% off, who could resist? When we got home I let Oliver spread them out and look at them, he chose Lemon Swirl Cookies, which looked really fun. Oliver said he wanted to bring them to school for his class, so I let him know that we would need a lemon. For two days that is all he talked about, sweet lil guy, something to be said for perseverance. Daddy went and got a lemon, pronto. (I was sick so I was not willing to go walk around the grocery store, that is why I didn’t go the 1st day.)

    On Saturday we baked them. I learned a few lessons on this first “go around”. I would have double the recipe, followed the directions and only refrigerate for 30 minutes. I couldn’t roll the dough out as much as I would have liked, as a result when I rolled the two colors only the ends stayed “spirally” the rest looked as though the were happy faces with no eyes, lol. Also, I should have used a sharper knife when cutting, and finally I DIDN’T TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FINAL PRODUCT (duh)! They turned out yummy, the boys ate them all up on Sunday. All in all, I enjoyed doing this recipe, I will make it again, just make some adjustments, stay tuned…

    LemonOliver and his lemon
    Lemon Butterbutter and lemon yuminess
    Cookie Batterthe recipe card underneath shows a picture of what they are supposed to look like
    Colored Cookie Dough2 separate dough balls
    Cut Cookie DoughSlicing after chilling


    Oliver Lemon

    RETAKE – Lemon Spiral Cookies

  • Okay Nevermind

    It is what it is. Even as much as I don’t like that saying, I have to say. it is what it is.

    Remember the camera I wrote about? Well it turns out the girl that was going to sell it to me can’t find it, she said her husband thinks she sold it last summer. :O(

    I was really, truly bummed as I read the email. My dreams of finally having an awesome camera were dashed. My dreams of taking beautiful pictures of my kids, food, and nature – gone. But, oh well. It is what it is. For now I will keep on keeping on. Also, my husband won a flip from Lloyds Barbershop. I used it for the bread pictures, not bad at all!

  • He is Risen

    Thank you Jesus. Reflecting on what this day is truly all about.

    Taken from Dayspring.com – Heart to Heart with Holley

    Easter Prayer
    LORD, Thank You for the gift of HOPE You gave us on Easter morning. Because of You we know That no problem is too difficult And even death does not have power over us.

    Thank You for the gift of JOY You gave us when You were resurrected. Because of you we know That no matter how challenging life may be, In the end we will rejoice again.

    Thank you for the gift of LOVE You gave us when You laid down Your life. Because of You we know That there is no sin too great to separate us and we are incredibly valuable to You.

    Thank You for the gift of LIFE, You gave us when You left the tomb. Because of Easter we know this world is just the beginning and we will spend forever in heaven with You. We celebrate You, JESUS, With hearts full of praise and gratitude For who You are and all You’ve done for us! Amen.

    -Holley Gerth
    @Dayspring 2010, http://holley.dayspring.com

  • I’ll Be Honest

    I have always wanted to be a photographer. I always figured I would buy a supernice camera someday and then self-teach. Well that day still has not come, currently I look at the pictures I have posted and they just are not up to par. Especially if you look at what blog pictures should like like. Currently I am using my mother-in-laws camera which is a Kodak Easyshare with no working display. It’s a challenge to say the least.

    So I decided to just put it out there and see what I could come up with. Looking at craigslist the cheapest, nicest setup would be around $300 for a used one. It was then that I decided to hop on over to the WANTED section of craigslist. I offered $100 and received a response within the hour! She is a wedding photographer and has a sweet Canon Powershot that she used before she bought her SLR. She has even offered to give me a quick lesson and some tips when I pick it up! I am so very excited. I can’t wait to learn, to experiment, to bake and take pictures and most of all to capture great pictures of my boys! Thanks Craigslist!

  • Fun with Glitter


    I have always, always loved glitter! Don’t think I am one of those girlie types either, pretty much a tom-boy. However, I have always thought glitter was so pretty. So sparkly and shiny. In the past, whenever I would craft with the boys I pretty much played dictator over the glue and glitter, not wanting any uncontrollable mess. Well let’s just say since I have been “blog walking” I have been super-inspired but several different blogger moms/bakers/photographers. This blog post sparked an interest in me to see glitter all over everything and not freak out about it. I knew my boys would be more than happy to let loose with those 3 big, tempting shakers full of glitter. We gave everyone their own glue, construction paper, and glitter… SUPER FUN! And yes, there is still glitter on my floor and specks keep showing up in the weirdest places – but, like the other blog said- what a great reminder of letting loose, getting dirty and having fun.




  • Grandma Sadie’s Family Recipe Tortillas

    Aunt Josie’s Tortillas

    My Grandma Sadie never wrote down her recipes… Her tortillas were a family staple, I miss them. This recipe is from her Aunt Josie.
    3 cups flour
    3 tsp. baking powder
    2 tsp. salt
    2 tbsp. shortening
    1/2 cup milk
    1/2 cup water
    Put flour in a bowl, add baking powder, salt and mix well. Add shortening and into flour until well mixed. Make a hole in the middle. Add milk and hot water and mix and knead until smooth. More water may be added if necessary. Dough should not stick to hands. Roll dough into balls just larger than golf balls, roll flat with rolling pin and cook on hot griddle. Flip and pick how well you want them done. Smooth on butter and enjoy!

    mix 

    knead 

    form into ball, roll into circle (not like this weird shape I am just now noticing!) 

    the first couple were too puffy and oily more like bunelos –
    we ate these with homemade 3-berry syrup 

    Finally, no oil on griddle, rolled thinner – these were good!

  • Inspiration


    After reading a few different blogs over the years I was finally ready to start one. I have a friend who has a really great blog that I love to read. One of her posts from about 1000 days ago she started a goal list titled 101 in 1001. I googled 101 in 1001 and found this site, I signed up and started my list… so far I only 14 things but I will be adding to it daily. I look forward to this journey of goals and tracking… something I have never really done outside of my daily/weekly to do lists. I look forward to tracking things I have always wanted to do but never acted upon further than a thought or two on the matter. One thing about the site I found, it has a link for inspiration – ideas from other users. So here I go – I look forward to this being a step toward achieving more, stepping outside of my routine, this will be fun!

  • Snow Much Fun

    I have been following a super-cute blog and have been completely inspired, an old flame has been re-light I used to love to do so many creative things but I pushed all that aside at some point… After seeing what this blogger did with a little food coloring and snow – I knew my boys would love it and they completely did!

    My husband bought the spray bottles, he bought 2 each of 2 different kinds (we found that the full action pump sprayer is better than the one finger pump)… the first time out we mixed red and blue to make purple, red and yellow to make orange, then had blue and the last bottle with red.

    Oliver found squares that another child must have made with a snow mold, he filled those in with different colors. We also made footprints and then colored them. Samuel couldn’t manage to get any color out, he would throw the bottle in the snow. I guess he was hoping that would get the color out. When Oliver was finished I took all the tops off and let Samuel pour it on the snow, he really liked doing that – looked like a slushie!

    When Preston came home from school he was thrilled at the idea. He headed just as a fresh layer of fluffy snow fell. Perfect day!