Homemade Pizza Dough

August 24, 2012 / Jeanette / 1 Comment

A few days ago I tried my hand at something I have dying to make. Homemade Pizza Dough. I see it ready made at the stores and have always wondered can I make it at home cheaper. And the answer to that is YES!!!!

I have this wonderful machine called a bread machine. A lot of people have complained about theirs but I love mine. I have had it about 10 years and have never had a problem with it. And it makes homemade yummy bread easy.

I used a recipe for a 2 pound pizza dough. And this was enough for 2 pizzas for my family of 7.

The dough process takes about 1 1/2 hours.

Ingredients:

3/4 tsp salt

4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp active dry yeast

1 3/4 cups water (it called for 1 3/8 and I don’t have a measuring cup with that measurement. LOL so I used 1 3/4 cup and it was fine)

3 Tbs oil, olive or vegetable

I put liquid ingredients in first.

Then comes all the dry ingredients except the yeast.

I then make a little hole in the center of the flour and put the yeast in there.

Put the machine on Dough setting. And go about your life until it beeps.

I then flour my cutting board or countertop.

Knead the dough a little.

Cut in half and roll out half of it until it somewhat resembles a pizza.

Now at this point you can use both halves to make 2 pizzas or you can freeze the other half for another day.

Don’t fret if it’s not perfect it will still taste good.

I spray my pizza pan with cooking spray and sprinkle some cornmeal to keep the crust from sticking.

Not add toppings and bake at 400 degrees for 15- 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Momma Let’s her hair down

August 11, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

Last night I had a rare night out with no kids and no hubby. I went to the Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan concert with my grandma, aunt and cousin.

The night started off with me getting into an argument with a bunch of drunks. And I was really worried that I was going to be miserable because drunk and crazy is not my scene.

But once the music started playing and all of my favorite songs came on. I loosened up and actually felt like a 30 year old. Which is extremely hard when I have a daughter going into high school and I feel like I have to set that example for her. But last night I was with my younger cousin and just acted like a young woman who loves music and dancing and having a good time.

That is me in the teal! Shaking my ass, singing and having a good time. And though I didn’t literally let my hair down (it was HOT), I did let my guard down and relax.

Something I think every mom needs once in a while.

Jeanette

M.ADD~ Mom’s Attention Deficit Disorder

August 8, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

Everyone has heard of Mommy Brain or Pregnancy brain. This is the common excuse for forgetfulness.

But by a certain point you really can’t use that excuse.

Like if you kid is 15, you can blame your forgetfulness on Mommy Brain or Pregnancy Brain because IT”S BEEN 15 YEARS.

But what you can blame it on is M.ADD~ Mom’s Attention Deficit Disorder. This is when we have so much going on and our to do list is as long as The Nile River that we begin to forget things.

Like let’s say your on Facebook and you see it’s your Uncle’s birthday. You think to yourself that Oh I need to wish him a Happy Birthday. BUT then the kids wake up and the phone rings and the dogs need to go out and the kids want breakfast and then there is a dirty diaper to change and your girls are pulling each other’s hair out over the bathroom. And then it is 3am and your in your quiet comfy bed when you sit straight up and realize you never went back to the computer to say Happy birthday.

I would have to say that every Mom suffers from this and it has come a time to put a name on it other than Mommy Brain.

M. ADD just sounds perfect to me.

By the way the story told in this post was not exaggerated or made up by me but happens daily in the chaos of my life with 4 kids, 3 dogs, 2 old ladies (a cat & a Grandma) and 1 hubby (thank god, could you imagine me with 2?!?) SOOOOO…..

Happy Birthday Uncle Gary! LOL

Holidays have begun for us!

August 8, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

We usually start the holidays much earlier than everyone else. We usually start in July. Why? Well let me give you the break down.

July~4th of July party, Cailin’s Birthday and then Dakota’s Birthday

August~ Beginning of school

September~ Homeschool begins and Dad’s Birthday

October~ Alissa’s Birthday and Halloween

November~Thanksgiving and Mom’s Birthday

December~Brianna’s Birthday, Christmas, New Year’s

Beginning of January~ Grandma’s Birthday and finally my birthday

So as you can see in my family most of the birthday’s fall right in the major holiday time. And that is why I say my holiday season starts in July because I have to hit the ground running and keep going until I crash on my birthday.

Happy birthday to my big 13 year old!

And Happy 3rd Birthday to my lil man!

Lazy Cat Days of Summer

July 26, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

Summer is here and so our the long lazy days. Or at least I had hoped. But as usual life has thrown me a curve ball and I had a slew of unexpected events that hampered everything I wanted to do with my kids.

The only one who got to relax was the cat!

See she is too lazy to even stand to get a drink!

And here…well I’m not sure but I thought it was funny and strange.

But I don’t know if its the weather, but I have felt like doing nothing all summer.

The heat has been unbearable. Or we have very high chances of severe storms.

Everytime I tell myself we are getting back on track something happens:

My dad came to stay for almost a month.

Then I was planning 4th of July, then the kids and I all got sick, then I went into planning birthday parties and throw in another round of unexpected houseguest.

And I am still fighting whatever this is that I got, but also wondering if it’s my body saying SLOW DOWN AND RELAX!

I now am preparing for oldest to start high school. And at the last minute Hubby wants her in braces before school starts. Plus my youngest daughter has started Speech Therapy so that is a standing appointment every week.

Then Hubby decides he wants to go to his class reunion in the middle of all this chaos.

UGH…. This momma needs a vacation!

I can’t wait for school to start so we can have a routine again.

Jeanette

Breathe in ~ Breathe out~ Every mom freaks out (Here’s mine)

July 8, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

It’s 6:30 on a Sunday morning. And I am up already making my way through my first cup of coffee. I enjoy listening to the birds chirp and the frogs croak as my dogs go in and out of the house. I consider this my quiet relaxing time. Except I am not.

I feel immensely overwhelmed. I feel as if I haven’t done anything fun with my kids since “school” has gotten out. I also feel that I haven’t worked with them on completing their science lessons from last year. I feel like my son doesn’t get enough attention. I never read him books and I haven’t even started potty training. I feel like I should be looking towards next year and I need to get braces for the oldest before she goes into High School. But all I want to do is breathe.

We had an unexpected house guest show up and stay for about 3 weeks. And it just threw off everything in the house. Things slipped and slide into the maybe later department. And he is not very sociable guest and was kinda depressing. So I feel like it brought the whole house down.

Hubby has been working his butt off. Which is a blessing but I would love if he could spend a little bit of time with us.

In writing all this down I realize that I need to relax. I let little things in life bother me. I let what people say, do and think into my soul and let it eat away at me.

So what if my almost 3 year old isn’t potty trained! There is no law!

So what if I didn’t get to the last worksheet on birds? They learned a lot just ask them!

So what if my house is a mess and the yard isn’t cut? I live in the country its normal out here!

What I am enjoying is hearing my birds and frogs, the bright sunshine that fills the sky, the loud squeals of delight that fill my house at times and the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the morning.

And I need to live for me, my kids and my husband. These years are so precious. I know that and can’t understand why I am getting depressed about my kids being older instead of savoring every moment.

Maybe its in my DNA. I know that can’t be changed (Lord knows I have tried) but I can change who I am and want to be. And that is what I am going to start doing.

Wrapping up our homeschool year (pun intended)

July 3, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

I wanted to finish this post a month ago but life got in the way. Anyways better late than never, Huh?

My kids have busted their butts these last two months. And they have hit almost every goal I have set for them and I couldn’t be more proud of them. (Beaming Momma moment) Technically they have about 3 weeks left of school and I am trying my hardest to stretch their lessons to last. But I have to say I am having a hard time. So what do you do if you start going a little crazy coming up with ideas. You go crazy and plan a party and a field trip. WHY NOT? The kids have earned it! So that is what we did.

We finished up our project of comparing our Egyptians scrolls and clay tablets. Unfortunately our experiment had opposite results. Our scroll last and our clay tablet just fell apart. Apparently it was the wrong clay and some darn good paper we used. So this was our end result.

Terrible picture, I know.

Next we wrapped up our chicken mummy ( HAHA~get it). It has been 6 weeks and we were ready to wrap it up to ~~gross out~~ show everyone.

We also went on a field trip to our local Science Museum where they had a special exhibit about Mummies around the world.

We really liked this exhibit. It is not for the faint of heart I might add. There were a few moments that I had vision of mummies attacking. But I kept a cool head and the kids never knew.

In the end we manage to “wrap up” our mummies unit and the rest of our lessons early so we took two weeks off instead of just one!

Jeanette

Giving freezer cooking a try?

May 18, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

Recently two of my favorite blogs did a serious of post on freezer cooking. And just from reading a couple of post I become OCD and decided I had to find out everything I could cook and freeze. Freezer cooking is basically where you have ready to go meals in your freezer. Waiting for that day of appointments, errands, school pick-ups, followed by little Jimmy’s baseball game and then precious Patty’s dance recital. This could be my family’s answer to our fast food obsession. I mean the least little thing and I am reaching for a take out menu: late afternoon doctor’s appointment, last minute errands, a day full of cleaning the house top to bottom. It needs to stop but the only way is to have a great back up plan.

So during my “research” I found out that someone has a very similar oatmeal recipe that they freeze. PERFECT! I am making oatmeal this week and I will make up a double (or in my family’s case quadruple) batch and try to freeze it.

You freeze it before cooking it, so all you have to do one morning is thaw and bake.

I have in the past froze leftover Lasagna Casserole. And that was great! Just thaw and I added some extra cheese and little extra sauce, then bake.

Most people assume freezer cooking means taking a day and cooking a ton of food. That can work for some people. But for me making an extra batch or taking an hour a day and whipping something up for the freezer would better fit my life right now. This is the perfect activity during my son’s nap time and my girls independent study time.

The important thing to remember is make things easier on yourself, don’t stress yourself out more. The world will do that for you. Make your home life fun and easy.

I will let you know if this works for us. Who knows in a few months, I may ditch it?

Jeanette

When your words bite you in the butt

May 10, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

This week I have heard my own words come out of my toddler’s mouth and hit me right in the face. The worse part is he is using them in the correct context.

First, Hubby and I were taking advantage of a few spare minutes, while dinner finished up, to cuddle in the recliner. My lil man looked over at me and said “Mommy, you sitting with Daddy?” I said “yup, I’m sitting with Daddy.” He looks my hubby right in the eyes and said “disgusting.”

Then when I was giving my lil man a ton of kisses, he yelled “Stop Mommy, your annoying.”

And then there was the time my youngest daughter was antagonizing her brother, he got so mad that he yelled “I’m tired of this!”

This weekend I thought my aunt was going to die laughing when she was trying to give my baby boy a hug and he looked at her with the look of sarcasm and said “Do you mind?”

These are all things say or have said.

And they have now come to bite me in the butt in the form of my precious two year old.

This is what happens when you wait 10 years between kids. You forget all the things your not suppose to say and do.

Our week in homeschooling~

April 22, 2012April 30, 2012 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

This week has been full of hands on activities. Which my kids have really enjoyed, I think I may continue it for our summer learning camp. We finished up our yearly testing a couple of weeks ago and are now just coasting through the last month of “real” school.

Science~

We are learning about Birds. This has been a very exciting lesson for my girls as we have set up a bird feeder area in our yard. This week we learned about bird wings by doing a dissection of a chicken wing. I just bought a pack of chicken wings from the meat department. The girls got to see all the muscles and tendons. They thought it was interesting to see how the joints worked. This was a favorite in the house. We also learned about the different types of nest and the girls had to try to create their own nest. Needless to say this was a messy activity and required showers afterwards.

History~

We are studying World History and have been learning about the Egyptians. Which we have also tied in with Geography and started learning about the country also. Last week we made a replica of the Nile River. We then filled it until the water overflowed to represent the flooding of the Nile. And this is what we got after a week.

We also learned about the types of writing the Egyptians used. The girls made a paper scroll with hieroglyphics on it and a clay tablet using cuneiform writing.