The Doughnut Conundrum

The doughnut conundrum stemmed from our decision to hold Family Home Evening on Sunday nights instead of Monday nights. Between t-ball games and baseball practices we could no longer even pretend that FHE was going to happen on Mondays. All was going well until Spencer wanted doughnuts for the treat last week. We don't shop on Sundays, nobody wanted day old doughnuts, and I am afraid of yeast - hence the conundrum. As I pondered the situation, I recalled a friend mentioning that they made "doughnuts" with refrigerated biscuit dough. So I got a couple of cans and last night we gave it a shot. I must say it was awesome. They were fun, easy, yummy, the perfect size, and there's not much cuter than miniature doughnut holes. The only part that added a little extra effort and clean up was the request for glazed and chocolate donuts as well as powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar donut holes. But since the rest was so simple, I felt I could oblige.

Here are a few pictures of the process and the results. (It wasn't my best work aesthetically, but I am getting over strep throat so I was just thrilled that it happened and that everybody loved them.)

A couple of tips if you try this: make sure the oil is very hot so they don't get greasy - ours ended up being around 400 degrees; watch them closely - they took only 15-20 seconds to cook; using the spoon-like spatula really helped with the holes since they had to be put in separately and gathered up within about about 10 seconds.

Not Just Cheap Magazines - A Free One!

I follow a couple of "cheap/free stuff" blogs and there are tons of deals to be had. Here is a free 2 year subscription to Parents magazine. I always like browsing through them in the pediatrician's office but wouldn't spend the money for a subscription - and now I don't have to. You can even check a box so that they don't send any other offers. Hopefully that part works.

Father's Day Cupcakes

The boys and I made these cupcakes today while Bruce was taking his 3 hour Father's Day nap (probably his best gift of all). I found the idea here. The nap may have extended to 4 hours had the boys not been so excited for him to come up and see the cupcakes and his cards and gift. After we all had a cupcake, Bruce proved that he was in fact "World's Best Dad" by cleaning all the crumbs and frosting smears left by Emmarsyn - not to mention the boys.

Happy Father's Day Bruce!

Spencer's First Recital

Spencer had his first recital a couple of weeks ago. He got to play his favorite song, Beethoven's Ode to Joy and a little piece from one of his lesson books. He did a great job and we were definitely the stereotypical proud parents.

Matthew's New Room

We are kind of playing musical rooms in our house. The first big change is that Matthew has moved downstairs into what used to be the guest room (which has moved down the hall). It was one of the last vestiges of wallpaper in our house so we took that down and got a little crazy with the paint. The blue and orange combo was a bold move for us but we absolutely love how it turned out.

Besides the paint, we all really like the "desk". It is actually a small fold-away dining table from Ikea. The metal bar and hanging cups for his supplies are also from Ikea (not to mention the stool, garbage can and light by his bed). I love that place! You can do quite a bit there on a small budget. Plus the rooms in our house are not exactly huge and the space saving products at Ikea really come in handy. (And of course there are the cinnamon rolls.) I still want to get a magazine rack to hold his paper and a magnet strip so he can display some of his masterpieces, but this is a good start.

The best part is that Matthew likes the room so much that moving to the basement was not traumatic at all. It helps to have Spencer right across the hall. Spencer, by the way, is pretty put out that his room make-over has to wait for our new dining room (Matthew's old room) to be finished. But since we already sold our table and chairs and now are working with only a small pub style table with 4 stools, we really need to get the dining room done. Hopefully, I will be able to post pictures of that in the relatively near future.

Custom Chore Charts

I wanted to give the boys some extra jobs during the summer (although they will most likely continue with the new responsibilities even after school starts) so I did a quick search and found this really cool site. I created custom chore charts for each of them in about five minutes. You can even pick a fun character - I went with Scooby Doo and Spongebob.

Garden Wars Episode I: A Time of Peace

We were feeling rather ambitious this year...not sure why...but nevertheless we were. So we decided to plant a rather sizable (at least for us) garden. The size really was dictated by the large dead spot in the backyard where Bruce just hadn't gotten the sprinklers quite right last year. So we thought "Hey, why not just dig it up and plant a garden there." So we did. And here is our lovely little plot.
Turns out that gardening is one of the things Bruce gets a bit passionate about. Except maybe the weeding part - that is left mostly for me. And since we dug up our weed-ridden lawn to plant the garden, it is not a small job. Of course he did most of the tilling and planting so all is fair in love and war.

But even with the weeding, it has been fun. The "spring mix" lettuce that we planted has been great. The boys are especially excited for the corn - although we have been trying to lower their expectations since many of our neighbors say it doesn't do so well around here. Personally, I will be happy with some tomatoes in the summer and some pumpkins and gourds in the fall. And the fact that the scarecrow really freaks out our neighbor at night has brought endless wholesome family fun.

So far it has been a relatively peaceful time in the history of our garden. But not for long...

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You -
Garden Wars Episode II: Attack of the Moles

Emmarsyn and My Dad

Just a picture that I took of Emmarsyn with my dad last summer. I finally got around to doing something with it. One down...about a million to go. Digital cameras are one of the best and worst inventions known to woman. So many pictures - so little time.