Waiting

Oh how I hate waiting....

This is Bridget, at the moment I don't think she is pregnant, she went into heat a few weeks ago and was jumped by Leo, Well Leo is fixed and that we are sure of.

Sierra, she's due at any moment.

Can ya tell?

This is Max, he is just fat. Well unless he wants to throw a curve ball at me?

Millie, no idea at this point. Either really fat, or we have quads coming.

Becca, I believe she is expecting, She went very skinney after having triples. She kept her slim figure until last month. Now she has bumps on either side.

Bridget, not expecting.

Oh how I hate waiting....

Weekly Update

Well I would say it has been a week. A very long week. We made our van payment this week, not as much as I wanted, but what can one do. We are down to 4569.

Saturday I took the boys to the beach. I went by myself with three boys and one dog. Yes, I'm NUTS. But I did it. My parents were at the beach, and so we meet up with them. Westport was also having their crafts festival. We dragged the boys through that. The boys in turn dragged me through a few local shops. Before we called it a day.

We had lunch, and then we hit the beach. Ethan and Sitka running to the water.

Ethan in the water.

Ethan and Sitka in the water.

My new bowl from the craft festival....Love It. To stay on budget, I paid nothing for it....Mom bought it, I'm surprised she didn't save it for Christmas? Oh well, it's in my kitchen now.

And to end the week, Blackberry picking started today....YEAH. We actually don't have to go far, we have bushes in our front yard, thanks to our neighbor. And we just have to walk up and down the road.



With a Heavy And Sad Heart

Today Dale has passed away. Sadly he has been getting older and feeling his age, sleeping more, and not being able to get up and down like he would like. Eating had become a chore. And we sadly thought we would loose him before winter.

We went out to feed the goats today and I noticed Dale was not getting up. Went over to him and realized he had a hurt leg, sometime between last night and this morning he had hurt his leg pretty badly. I bandaged him up, we gave him grain and we got him up on his feet. I walked him around the yard and then he took a nap. He was able to get up on his own after that. About 4pm he was no longer in my sight so I went out to check on him.

Dale was laying down, so I went to help him up, and he looked at me and said "No Mom" I said, "Yes, lets get up" he looked at me and said "No Mom, I'm tired" Sigh,  I put his head back down, and I held him, I said "Ok". At the same time his brother Chip I kid you not was throwing a fit, he was screaming and yelling and stomping his feet.

Dale took his last breath, Chip stopped his fit and turned his back to me. I realized he was probably telling his brother to fight, fight because you can't leave me, Mom is here she will make it all better. MOM FIX IT!

I know Dale was tired, I know he had no more fight in him. He was pretty old for a goat, and for the years I had him, I say he had a pretty good life. This gently giant will be greatly missed.

Now I'm praying Chip makes it through this. Goats can die of a broken heart, and when your brother of 11-12 years leaves you, it can hurt.

Flop!



Flop!!!!!!

Try number two coming soon!

Pockets

No not those type of pockets, these are pockets you can eat!

First no real recipe here. I used Flying Aprons recipe for pockets, http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Aprons-Gluten-Free-Vegan-Baking/dp/1570616299/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313532680&sr=1-1

I used her recipe ingredient for ingredient so I won't post it here, But this gives you more of an idea and you can use just about any gf recipe that you can roll out. Although I have to say hands down the Flying Apron cookbook is AMAZING!

So I made pockets, I rolled them out about the size of your hand, they are on the smaller end as these are for the boys, school lunches. Each boy got to fill their own, and we baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes. I then put them into the freezer for some up-coming school lunches. Easy Peasy.

For filling we used lunch meat (crap free kind), chicken, left over taco meat, diaya cheeses, carrot slices, all sorts of peppers, pesto (because i only have 125 jars of it in the freezer), we had all the fillings in bowls and the boys went to town.

I will be making this again soon, we ran out of meet and had to stop.

Roll out the dough, now notice my tiny roller? You can pick this up at any cake section of a Joann's or Michael's.

Rolled out.

Being filled.

Done being baked.

Lovely right?

A close up.

Weekly Update 7/12/11

So a very busy week here, baking and cooking, getting ready for the upcoming school year. I have whoopee pies, and bread coming to the blog soon. I have 50 green peppers coming tomorrow. My oldest LOVES green peppers. So I'm slicing them up for the freezer, so he can take them to school for lunches and we can use them in recipes and such.

So van wise, we were able to make our weekly payment, so very painful through. But I can not wait to pay it off. We are currently at 4660.04. And I have redone the math, leaving us some breathing room. Our new pay off date is July 15th of 2012.

And sadly Strawberry season is over, so that means it's full blown canning season will be hitting. Come Sunday I want to get green beans and carrots into the cannier. I have put 24 cups of zucchini into the freezer all ready. Lots more to come.

Ode To Lori Bakes

Oh how I love Lori, as I'm standing here 11pm at night, high on Garth Brooks (CD Player, not in person!) and Diet Coke, with the music up way too loud, cooking away. I have the cookies for whoopie pies, I have marshmallows in the fridge, I have peppers in the freezer, I have jars filled with nummy mixes.

Yes, sadly I'm prepping for school starting. I'm hoping to do better this year with a freezer full of food, jars filled with baking mixes.

So tonight I am expressing my love to Lori Bakes, if you have not bought any of her books, then well what are you waiting for. Oh I'm sure you are sitting there, saying, well we are egg free, or corn free, or this or that free. I am standing here telling you, her recipes are beyond so easy to convert. And I do have to convert just about everything I have had to try. And everything has come out awesome.

So my awesome quick tip for those who are busy with kids in school is to make your own mixes and save ten tons of money. Just make sure you mark your jars properly (I know this one all too well).

Put the dry ingredients in a jar, mark the top, I can get these brownies in the oven in less then 5 minutes. It takes all of two minutes to make up 10 mixes. And for next to nothing I have ten brownie mixes.

http://www.amazon.com/Lori-Bakes-Gluten-Snacks-Sweets/dp/B002PD9CQ8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313129544&sr=8-1

Check out Lori on Amazon, or her website www.loribakes.com

1-2-3-4 Brownies
By Lori Bakes
Converted by Marcie Dingerson

In the jar

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Seal, Mark and store on the shelf. When you are ready for some nummy brownies.

Flax egg
egg replacer egg (yes I use both)(mix both and set aside)
1 cup Sugar
3/4 cup applesauce
2 teaspoon vanilla

Add all wet ingredients into a bowl and mix, add in one jar of brownie mix. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, I use a 8 x 8 pan.

Too Cute!

How cute is this? I made a mock up of a teepee I'm making for the boy's class. Just to see what tweaks I needed to do. No real tweaks needed, need to work a little on the door, but yeah everything looks real good, and it was so easy to do.

I used this pattern http://obsessivelystitching.blogspot.com/2010/02/tent-week-day-four-twin-sheet-teepee.html  and I'm so happy I waited until the kids went to bed. I had the print out and the computer, in front of me as I was working on it. It did go pretty smoothly, and I could probably whip out one in less then an hour.

To flipping cute, the kids are going to have a hoot with these.

Week 3 Update

So my week has been centered around The Rummage Sale. I was putting on a Rummage Sale for the boy's school, and this was the weekend for it. Thursday was spent getting the items to the gym, organizing and pricing. Have to say we did a pretty darn good job. Friday was spent selling, selling and selling. We did great today and hoping Saturday brings a lot more buyers.

On the van front, thrilled to say we were able to catch up from last week, plus this week's payment. Currently at 4759.06

Tenting It

Well to mix things up this summer, we got out the tent for the boys to sleep in. BUT they wanted to sleep in their room. So they cleaned up their room, and we put the tent in their room. Don't they look cozy.