SOFT PRETZELS

Thursday afternoons is Lissy's speech therapy and that puts us home later than needed to get a good meal on the table. The kids, especially Kian, do best eating early. Easy in the winter. Hard in the summer when we just want to play outside till dark. Anyways, I didn't feel like cooking. I felt like cooking only if it was something fun the kids could get in on. They help me a lot with muffins but I can't really just feed them muffins for dinner. Then I remembered these pretzels my wonderful friends and I used to make back in Jr. High after school.  I called Zac, who was at home, and guided him to where the recipe was buried and ran to the market with the kids for the ingredients. At home they helped me roll out the dough balls into shapes.  Logan liked making "dragons" and letters while Lissy liked making "round rounds" (circles).  We all enjoyed the yummy pretzels for dinner with all the dips we could find in our fridge.  Logan liked them with salsa, Lissy with ranch, Zac saltless (he's crazy) with mustard, Kian plain with cheese on the side, and me, first dipped in mustard and then dabbed in shredded asiago. We ate them with apple slices topped with cheddar cheese. Such a great family dinner/cooking night. Zac and I said we should make it our Sunday ritual. I'm just ashamed it took me 5 years to introduce a childhood favorite to my kids. Better late than never though I guess.  Here's the recipe if you want to give them a try with your kids too.

Soft Pretzels


Ingredients;
Non stick spray
1 1/3 cup warm water
1 pkg (1Tbsp.) active dry yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. table salt
3 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1 Tbsp. water
coarse salt

Directions;
Preheat oven to 425
Spray 2 cookie sheets with non stick spray.
Pour warm water into mixing bowl.
Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let stand for 5 minutes.
Stir with a wooden spoon until blended.
Add the sugar, table salt, and 1 cup flour. Stir until blended.
Add 2 more cups of flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring to blend after each addition.
The dough should be well blended.
Sprinkle a little flour over a clean kitchen surface.
Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Sprinkle with flour if sticky.
Separate dough into 12 equal pieces.
Roll 1 piece into a rope about 15 inches long - then shape.
Mix one egg and 1 Tbsp. water with whisk.
Brush on pretzels and sprinkle coarse salt over them.
Bake 15 - 20 min. They should be golden brown. Cool on a rack.

MY HELPFUL BOY

Logan has a new job title, "Diaper hanger."  He's very good at it and it keeps him busy for a good while.  He wanted to help me one day and I just let him at it and he's been helping me ever since.  With all my kids being under 5, I rarely get help from them that is useful.  I LOVE their help, but most of the time, it means me going back and redoing their "help" later, which of course, I don't mind.  Logan is a very helpful kid and his newest job really IS a big help and he does it so well, I don't have to redo it.  Wow....I wonder what it will be like when they're all big enough to help................................. (daydreaming)

He's so cute.  He set up his little system all by himself.  He pulled the stool out of his bathroom to stand on,  and got his little chair to put the bucket of clothes pins on.  He jumps down, grabs a pin and a diaper, and then jumps back up to hang it.  So, not only is it helpful, its physical activity too.  Who knew hanging diapers could be so good for a 5 year old boy?

Can't wait to sew these!!!

My friend, Ansley, shared the link to this pattern with me.  I have to admit, I HATE sewing with patterns.  Everything I sew is made up as I go and tweaked differently each time.  But I've been wanting to sew more for my boys and I just can't wait to sew Kian a whole bunch of these.  Sewing for Felicity is so easy but I'm excited to finally have something worth putting the time into for Kian.  Next, I need a good sewing project for Logan.  He wants me to sew him something out of Lightning McQueen material we saw at Wal Mart.  I'll have to get over the print.  Maybe some P.J. pants he won't leave the house in will work for that.  HA!
Anyways, these "Big Butt Baby Pants" are specifically made with cloth diapered little ones in mind because there's an extra panel in the back for their "junk in the trunk", as my sister calls it.  If you have a cloth diapered little one, or maybe just a little one with a little extra junk in the trunk, or heck, maybe both, you may want to check out this pattern.   I will post pics when I complete a pair but I can't promise that soon as I have a photo shoot to edit, a house in Summer disaster mode to overhaul (everything's being thrown out.....I really mean it this time), and homeschool starting in two weeks to prepare for.  Here's the link.  Maybe you can get some sewn before me.

http://www.made-by-rae.com/2010/08/big-butt-baby-pants-sewing-pattern.html

From My Archives

August 9, 2005




Logan,

You are the culmination of all my dreams. You have made me the person I’ve wanted to be since I was a child; a mother. On the day you were born, you opened my eyes to God’s grace and blessings He bestows on His people. The day you were born, a covering was lifted from my eyes, and for the first time, I could see just how great, how loving, how selfless, and how mighty God’s sacrifice to us is - His son. For as I held you in my arms, so new to the world, I understood how much God had to give up, not to mention to such brutality. I cry out to God on nights when I have fearful thoughts of outliving you, or of something horrible happening to you. I will protect you with every fiber that is in my body, partly out of love, and partly out of the shame of the knowledge that I....and you...all our blood...so brutally took the life of God’s perfect son, Jesus. I live with a buried fear of something bad happening to you. But God, He lived with the knowledge that something horrible would befall His perfect son’s life. Every day of His life, God looked down on Jesus, His only son, with that horrible knowledge - the knowledge His son would have to die for us, sinners. I did not understand the enormity of His sacrifice, the raw emotion of it, until I had you, my son. You have opened my eyes to the purest form of God’s love I’ve ever received. Out of fear and reverence to my Great Father Lord, I pray you will see His love so purely one day too. Be devoted to God, for as much as I love you, I could never come close to loving you as mightily, and selflessly as your Lord loves you. For I would never be able to sacrifice you, my son, for another - but the Lord your God already has sacrificed His son for you.

I love you,

Mommy



**** written 3 months after becoming a Mommy ****

The Reason We Went To New York

My nephew

Alakai Colby Michael

New York

Post It Reminder

Today, at my mom's, I found my youth Bible.  It made me smile seeing the verses I'd underlined years ago.  On the inside of the back cover I saw something blue sticking out.  It was a post it note that simply said;

Believe - used 272 times in Bible

Pray - used 371      "      "     "

Love - used 714    "       "      "

Give - used 2162   "       "     "



OK, I'm feeling convicted!