fluffy white frosting

FLUFFY WHITE ICING

1 c. milk

1/2 c. flour

Pinch of salt

1 c. Crisco

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

Place in small saucepan the milk, flour, and salt. Cook to paste, then cover and refrigerate until cold. Cream together Crisco, sugar, and vanilla. Add cold paste and beat 10 minutes.

The icing was really fluffy and it was easy to make and easy to work with but it tasted gross. Mind you there isn't many icings I find all that yummy. If any of you have a great tasting fluffy icing I'd love to know about it!!

Beautiful Everythings

Ellie LOVES princesses, especially Cinderella. She has been asking for a beautiful, LONG, blue, Cinderella dress but I haven't been able to find one. Well, my mom took Ellie shopping and they found, "the most perfectest dress eber". She loves it. She would eat, sleep, and bathe in it if I let her. She even had to wear it to church to show her friend J.

Ellie and her Gramma also found the most beautiful matching Cinderella necklace and the most beautiful sparkly blue polish for her finnder nails.

It was fun spending a princess day with Ellie. I am sure I can look forward to many more with her!!

These Boots are Made for Walking....

I was doing some spring cleaning (mostly in hope that spring would actually get here) and I was working on Lucy's room (which is the catch-all especially in her closet). While Lucy and I were getting it all cleaning out she came across a pair of pink cowboy boots. She squealed in delight and tried desperately to pull them on. I watched her for a while in her struggle to get them on and it looked like she wasn't going to give it so I stopped cleaning and put the boots on her. She was so proud of them she stomped around the house all day. When Dusty came home from work she greeted him at the top of the stairs with this exuberant squeak and twirl. It was a fight to get them off for bed and first thing this morning she was in her boots eating breakfast.

(Maybe Dusty will get a little cowgirl after all!)

Easy Wood Wall Hanging

This is a REALLY easy and CHEAP craft to do. I made a similar wall-hanging for Christmas using a picture of the three wise men and then I put a scripture underneath it. It looked really cute but I gave it away as a gift so I decided to make another one. I like having art in my bathroom but I'm always worried about it getting damp and moldy so I end up siliconing frames (which is messy and makes it not easy to change out the picture). I thought that this would be a perfect solution. I used Modge Podge (which I love love LOVE) and that acts as a sealer as well as a adhesive. I also had a ton (seriously a ton) of lathe. I also hoard old calendars. why? I'm not so sure but I have them all stacked up in my craft closet just waiting for the day they can reused I should just purge them but every once in a while they come in handy so they just sit and wait. Anyways I grabbed an old Simon Dewey Calendar (which I also love) and took one of my favorite pictures out and cut it into strips to match the width of my lathe. I then took my trusty modge podge and glued it on. I (Dusty) drilled holes in the sides and I put some sisal twine through and wallah a completed craft. I told you it was easy. You could do so many different things with this depending on what you like. You could add numerous embellishments. You could paint the wood black to give it a more modern look. You could use a solid piece of wood and make it more plaque-ish. So easy. You could turn it into a child's puzzle if you cut it into smaller squares. I can keep going but I'm pretty sure you get the idea.

home again home again lickity split

I am home and I had hoped to take oodles of pictures of the girls in the BeaUtiful weather BUT I didn't. We had SO SO much fun shopping. I bought so many cute dresses and the girls both got gorgeous Eater dresses and new shoes. They loved them so much that I couldn't convince them to hold off. I'll post some pictures of the dress and the girls but right now they are sleeping and I haven't taken any YET. Dusty and I also bought a ton of stuff for the house. I have new light fixtures in the dining room and kitchen and hall. I also have doors on my base cabinets (some of them) and they look WONDERFUL!

French Bread

This recipe is SO SO easy. I love it. My kids love it. Dusty loves it. I hope that you guys find it as simple and good as my family does!

French Bread

2 cups of flour

5 teaspoons of yeast

2 teaspoons of salt

combine.

stir in.

2 cups of warm water

beat until well blended

stir in

4 cups of flour

with wooden spoon

place on lightly floured surface and kneed in the remaining flour

make a smooth elastic stiff dough

place in greased bowl and turn once

cover and let rise till doubled (30 minutes)

punch down and divide into two

turn out on to lightly floured surface

cover and let rise till doubled (30 minutes)

roll out into triangle

roll up long side

seal edge with water

taper ends

greased baking sheet and sprinkle with

1 Tablespoon of cornmeal

place loaves seam side down

wash with

1 egg white

1 Tablespoon of water

cover and let rise till doubled (30 minutes)

with a sharp knife make 3 diagonal slits on top

Bake 20 minutes at 375

brush with egg mixture

turn pan in oven

bake 20 minutes.

A wee bit of excitement

I am so excited to get OUT OF MY HOUSE. Tomorrow I get to go to town and go SHOPPING. I am dying to go. I'm excited to look at all the potentially great things to go into my closet or on my walls or in my craft room. I REALLY wanted to go to the states to do some browsing BUT alas the mountain passages in the winter- almost spring- are unpredictable so to the prairie I come. It won't be all bad though cause at least I'll get to see some dirt! I want to leave now. I am also going to go get my hair done. I don't really know what I'm doing with it yet but it will be fabulous!

I have a ton of pictures to post of the lovely things I've been doing and of course of the children but my sewing machine is occupying the desk at the moment so I'm on the "other" computer.

Dusty's pouting that I'm going shopping tomorrow and I keep encouraging him to go do something "boyish" but I think he's coming to monitor how much money I spend! LOL good luck with that!

Anyways I hope you all get to do something great and exciting this weekend because I am!!!

a side note

I realize two posts in one day is a bit excessive BUT I am avoiding the laundry! I was/am searching for someone to do family pictures for us so I was cruising through other peoples blogs looking for someone to do such a job for us. As I kept meandering through I found three blogs.

1. http://rideagoodhorse.blogspot.com
2. http://prairierunner.wordpress.com
3. http://prairie-ridge.blogspot.com/

I just gotta say looking through their blogs I had an over-whelming sense of loss. I miss my life on the farm. I miss my horses and the long rides. I miss the horse shows. I miss the openness of the prairie. I miss the wind and the dirt. I miss the smell of a storm coming in. I miss the foals in the spring. I miss needed to wear my leather gloves. I miss the smell of hay. I miss the bonfires and burning barrels. I can keep going but it's only making me more homesick.

What to do, OH what to do?!?

I FINALLY have my voice back!! Horah! Seriously I haven't felt well for TWO weeks. It's been crazy around here! My voice arrived right on time. Ellie's had a really rough couple of days. I don't know if it's a "stage" or if she's just growing BUT my nice little girl has been transformed into a tantrum throwing, hit my sister, yell at everyone every minute of the day kid! I can't quite figure it out. She's always been a kids who has needed sleep and she stopped taking a nap a couple of months ago so maybe I'll just have to start putting her back down for an hour in the afternoon. Well, hopefully I figure something out because if I don't her nose is going to be flat from all the time-outs!

It's saint Patty's day today (which I'm sure most of you are aware of). This St. Patty's has special meaning for me...... it means I'm one holiday closer to nice weather. It's been snowing here the last week. We've gotten A LOT of snow. It is lovely and white and clean but defiantly not green and lush and warm. Dusty, as I mentioned in a previous post, has a 6 days off in a row and we (I) was really hoping to go somewhere (ANYWHERE...preferably warm) BUT I've been checking the weather reports south of the border and it doesn't look like optimal driving conditions so I guess we'll be renovating for the time off. It'll be nice too. We'll be able to finish our kitchen cabinets (Dusty is building them from scratch.... they are so nice and SO SO SO much more cost effective a.k.a. cheap). We'll also be able to get our entrance tiled. We've had the slate sitting in our basement since November just waiting to get enough time (and motivation) to do it. All this work will mean that we are that much closer to starting our master bath. HIP HIP Horay!

We've also been pricing out play yards and fencing for our yard. IF we don't end up going on a holiday it means that we'll also have the money to be able to put those two things up this spring. And we kinda need the fence so the bears don't eat my dog or kids or me!

All these things to do, plan, and dream about.... (at least I won't be bord!)

Soft Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay, I didn't take a picture of the delectable, soft, and chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies but they were good. So good in fact, that I am glad they were huge so there weren't so many to eat because I could of eaten them all. I got this recipe off of all recipes and I changed it a bit and by a bit, I mean not much and by not much, I mean I added chocolate chips to the recipe.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 1/4 cup of white sugar

1 cup of soft butter

{CREAM}

3 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter

{beat}

2 1/4 cup of flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of salt

{mix}

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

{stir}

Drop by heaping tablespoon on lightly greased pan.

Bake at 300 for 18- 22 minutes {until just setting up}

I have a convection oven and I baked 3 pans for 27 minutes.

Plans

Dusty has about 6 days off in a row next week because of shut-downs. It's so awesome and I'm so excited. Every month at the mine there have been "shut-downs" because of the "economic" situation which plagues our nation. Well, Dusty hasn't actually received any time off because of this (which I'm thankful about for our "economic" situation but while everyone has been able to go off and do all these wonderful things, we've been at home). So 6 days in a row. I don't know where we're going but we're going somewhere. I, of course, jumped at the idea of the biggest road trip. Dusty however, would like to do small trips lots of places. We'll see if we go somewhere awesomely exciting (fingers crossed for my plan).

Long winded

As everyone knows i've been under the weather the last week and that has given me A LOT of time to just be still. My mind is never a quiet place it's constantly wondering places. Places I've been and places I dream to go. Has anyone ever read Dr. Suess', "Oh the places You'll go"? I love that book. I've been thinking a lot about my kids and how I end up missing some of the funniest things they say and do because I'm distracted by far less important things or I'll be easily irritated with them because "they're in the way". Almost every blog I happen to encounter has a post similar to this one. A post expressing the desire to slow down and enjoy the moment and yet as much as I try, we all try, things still have to be done. I made a mental list of all the things that I do during a day that makes me "busy". I found that I was spending an average of 8- 10 hours a week obsessing about sunbeams. Crazy. I honestly don't know why. I'm not having a poor me moment but the kids in sunbeams miss nursery. They miss toys and playing and instead I'm forcing (yes forcing) them to be there. I think I've gone about this the whole wrong way. I'm not good with kids. I've NEVER been good with kids. I'm okay at assisting people with kids but to actually be in charge it's NEVER EVER turned out positively. I'm better than I was at getting kids to focus because of actually having kids but seriously people my children make me look good. I know it, there is no denying it. My kids listen and are polite and are very VERY well behaved.... and i didn't have much to do with it. it's just how they are. I'm rambling I know but the point of all this is my going about things the wrong way. I was trying too hard. These kids are three and still need to have fun. I'm done making them do things. IT's not fun for me OR them. Ellie came back last week from sunbeams and she had a blast. They learned about water and they got to play. She was clearly pumped about the playing part most but she still learned her lesson. The sub didn't just let them go and have free time but she certainly didn't spend 8 hours a week planning and cutting and searching for things that will get thrown out at home. I know this sounds like whining or complaining but that's not what I'm intending to do. I just realized that the kids are three not 13. anyways. I am feeling better. The kids are still feeling great. Dusty however, says that he's dying! LOL

A Good spot is Hard to find

I've been laying on my couch. I've been ill, too sick to clean, too sick to move, too sick to do anything but lay on my couch. I live in an open living space (I wish I could reach my camera... I'd show you) and in my open space is my desk. It's a small desk but that's my spot. The other day Ellie pulled the chair out and climbed into my spot. She looked around satisfied and declared it's a good spot... a perfect spot for her coloring! She's been parked there every afternoon while her little sister naps. She colors away the afternoon humming songs to herself. I suppose she can borrow my spot for now...

Life

It's been a noisy and crazy couple of days in my house! My voice is GONE. I've lost my voice before but you can kinda get it to work.... this time no such luck. The kids are loving this. Liberated children make a LOT of noise. At least they are so exhausted by 8:00 that they fall into their beds and don't make a peep until 8:30.
I've slowly begun cleaning the house. Dusty tried. I can finally see the kitchen sink again this morning (horah).IT's only taken me 2 hours.

Hello world

I must be getting better because:

1. my nose is running like crazy
2. my children are talking not just making noise
3. my stomach is grumbling
4. I'm not mumbling about being cold
5. and I realize the actual state of my house

rambling about nothing

This blog may or may not make any sense. I have a high fever and am laying here as my body tries to sweat out whatever is wrong with me (I know gross). I have never been more thankful for dusty being home. I was and am having trouble breathing and it is so relieving to know he's home to take care of me and the girls. He's being a trooper. I know he didn't get much sleep last night as I was up most of the night but he was up bright and early to take the girls.

It's snowing here again. I know I've have a few posts about wishing for summer but I do love snow. I love the white. I love how clean everything looks. I love knowing that I don't have to go outside so I can just lay here and be thankful for my warm house and my lovely family.

I am missing bun making class today. I was so looking forward to going. A lady in town was teaching a bunch of ladies to make whole wheat buns. She was even going to ground the wheat. Totally old school. Such a good skill and so healthy. I'm totally bummed that I'm not going but I am fairly certain that they wouldn't want me to contaminate them all.

We were supposed to go to town this weekend to celebrate Dusty's sisters birthday and to do some shopping so I hope I feel better and that my little family keeps on being healthy.

An afternoon Whine

CRIMINEY what is going on this winter!!!! I am SICK AGAIN and I don't even know if again is the right word because I don't think I've ever recuperated. Granted I could be suffering from worse illnesses so I'm grateful I'm not BUT CRIPES. The silver lining is Dusty hasn't been sick. Thank goodness!

Minute Steaks from Ground Beef

Dusty LOVES steak. Lucy LOVES steak. IT is winter and there is no way I am standing outside to BBQ. So in the summer we BBQ good ol' ALBERTA beef but in the winter every once in a while I'll make southern fried steak or Salisbury steak. I didn't have any minute steaks in the freezer BUT it was clearly a day that called for a good down home meal so I grabbed some hamburger out of the freezer and just went to town.

Minute Steaks from Ground Beef

2lbs of hamburger.

Thawed it out.

One teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

Seasoning salt

Coarse ground Pepper

One egg

Mix it thoroughly.

Put in on some wax paper (at least 9X13)

Put some wax paper on top (the same size as the bottom)

Take your rolling pin and roll it out.

Keeping rolling until it's a 1/2 inch.

Put it in your freezer.

Freeze for at least an hour.

Take it out.

Cut it into steaks.

dip it in eggs

Dip into seasoned flour.

place in a pan with hot oil.

cook one minute on each side

remove.

drain oil after cooking (try to leave it all the little tidbits)

throw some onions and mushrooms in pan

cook

make a gravy

put steaks back in.

serve with roasted potatoes or mashed or really whatever your heart desires.

It was delicious.

It's only 11:30

I got to the farm on Sunday afternoon. I have all this free time sitting here. I don't have to clean or cook or do anything. My mom is a minimalist so there really isn't too much for the kids to get into (thanks goodness) so I'm just sitting here. I'm getting kind of restless. I already tried to convince the girls that we should go and do something (ANYTHING) but I was told they wanted to watch cartoons, have a bath (my parents have a really really big tub), and go for a walk. I have such adventurous kids! I was checking out the weather and it looks like it won't be that great back home so it looks like I'm here for the next 2 days! Hopefully tomorrow we can have an adventure in beautiful warm and dry southern Alberta!