Sutherlin RS Links

 Hello Sutherlin Ward Relief Society! 

Here are the files from our Tuesday Night Meeting on Self-Reliance & Provident Living. I will be updating it with all of the links throughout the week, so check back later if the one you are looking for isn't on here yet. Simply click on the ones you want to view, and it will open a new window or tab that has the file available for printing or saving: 

Quick Note: Sister Reber is in need of old jeans for making jeans quilts. If anyone has some to give to her, they would be greatly appreciated!  

Blue Jean Mending Method

Bottled Beans  

Centerpiece Instructions  

Dinner Rolls  

Dry Mix Recipes  

Freezer Cooking  

Homemade Cleaner Recipes 

Peasant Bread Recipe 

Quick Mix Recipes

Taking In Pants with Darts  

Versatile Vinegar

Whole Wheat Dinner Roll Recipe

And here are links to some blog tutorials:

How to Hem Jeans (and keep the original hem) 

Turning a T-Shirt into a Cardigan

 

Challah!

The other day I discovered my favorite grocery store ever; Harmons. They have so many different organic foods, a cheese island, (with samples), and yummy bread made with organic flour. That's where the Challah comes in. They sample out their bread, which is pretty good marketing since the bread is so yummy. And the first time we went there, the super nice lady at the bakery counter was giving pretty good sized samples of Challah. (pronounced "holla!", but maybe without the exclamation mark) It was so delicious that we immediately bought a loaf even though it was $4. Like I said, allowing me to sample yummy bread is pretty good marketing. I can't resist bread.

So, I decided that maybe, just maybe, I can make it at home for cheaper. Granted I don't have organic flour (yet), but I DO have organic sugar. So there you go. I looked it up and found several praises for this recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/best-challah-egg-bread/ And today I dove in and gave it a go.

 

It's pretty cool, this bread only has 6 ingredients, so it's pretty simple.  The main ingredients?  Flour and egg.  This dough has 4 eggs in it, and one egg slathered on top.  PLUS, it calls for 8 1/2 cups of flour.  Sheesh.  But, one thing that I've learned is that here in Utah, at least for me, I should always use 1/2 cup to 1 cup LESS flour than what is called for.  Otherwise my dough is dry and unworkable.  So I used 7 1/2 cups of flour and that was perfect for me.

 

Here's Calvin marveling at our mountain of flour.  I like to measure and put all of my flour in a big bowl, and then I give Calvin a tablespoon to use to help put flour into the mixture.  It's a fun (kinda messy, but not as messy as it could be) way for him to help out.  And he loves helping out :)

After we got everything mixed, we let it rise for 2 1/2 hours.  First I let it rise for an hour, then I punched it down and let it rise for another half an hour.  Then I braided it (which I have to say I was pretty excited with how it turned it.  Though I did have to look it up on YouTube to understand how to do it correctly)  Since this recipe makes two big loaves, I made one a straight braid and one I put into a circle.  The straight loaf I put in the fridge since I read that doing that for one of the risings makes for a better tasting Challah.   

 

But the other one I let rise for another hour, sprinkled some sugar on top, and then stuck it in the oven.  I'm not too patient.  ;)   

 

Isn't it beautiful?  I am so proud of it.  Not too proud that I didn't dig right in, though.  Then I remembered that I should share with Calvin and called him in from the yard so he could enjoy it too.

 

 He loves it! Look at all those crumbs around him.  Though Challah does kind of produce a lot of crumbs because of the crispy, oh so yummy top. 

 

I am really happy with how this bread turned out.  It is very yummy.  Though I do think that next time I will use canola oil instead of olive oil.  You can definitely taste the olive oil, which makes it pretty savory.  But I'm not the biggest fan of olive oil in baked goods.  I think that's because of the fact that before I knew it had such a strong flavor, I substituted it for regular oil in a batch of brownies.  YUCK.  I will never do that again.  So I'm going to be interested to see which way I prefer Challah.

As you can see from the picture above, it didn't take that long for just Calvin and I to eat half of the first loaf.  Maybe, 10 minutes? I don't know. What can I say? This girl likes some Challah! (with or without the exclamation mark)

Dress Refashion

 

A little over a month ago, I found this dress at the D.I. that I just fell in love with.  Well, not necessarily with the whole thing, but the pink striped fabric of the skirt and sleeves.  The top was a little outdated, and ripped in a few places as well.  So I bought it under the pretense that I would refashion it.  But I've been a little intimidated.  Even after I went and found the perfect fabric for the new bodice, I decided to hold off.  In all honesty, I was scared I was going to ruin the whole thing.  Well, today I finally decided to dive in.  And I am so glad I did because I am extremely happy with the end result!  

After about an hour of seam ripping, and then using this great tutorial from Shwin & Shwin (one of my favorite blogs) to make a new bodice for the dress, I ended up with this beauty:

I absolutely LOVE it!  As soon as I put her in it I knew it was exactly what I was wanting. 

As a side note, the bodice pattern was actually pretty easy to make.  I measured Emma and then drew out the pattern on some paper.  For anyone interested, her pattern was 5" on the bottom (this is after measuring her bust at 20", halving it for the front, which is 10", and then halving it again for the pattern piece), 6" long, the armpit hole was 5" down, and the neckline was 1" down from the top, and about 1" over from the armpit hole.  Then when I actually cut it, I put the pattern down but left a 1/2" seam allowance of fabric around the pattern.  I would guess this would be a pretty good 12 month size for your pattern if you don't have a baby to measure off of.

 

Just look at the cuteness.  And the best part?  The back, check it out....

 

It's funny, I didn't know how I would feel about the back at first, but when I saw it on her I fell in love.  This is actually the second time I have used this tutorial for making a dress for Emma (the first time was when I made her Tinkerbell dress), and that time I did a full back.  This time, though, I decided to go for it.

 

And I'm glad I did.  It gives this extra little feminine touch to the dress. And a kind of 'Alice in Wonderland' feel.  Each time I used this tutorial I have only used it for the part that teaches you how to make a bodice.  Maybe next time I'll actually make the full shirt.  :)

 

So there it is, Emma's new dress!  And the total cost is somewhere around $5.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Calvin wanted a picture with him in it, how could I resist? :)

Banana Bread & a Dress

So, Emma is now at the stage of blowing out a couple times a day. To the point where sometimes I just throw the onesies away, especially if it's a HUGE blowout. (TMI? lol) Well, one of those particular times, a thought occured to me. I don't need to throw it away, I can cut it in half and make a dress with the non-soiled part of the onesie. So, I cut it an inch or so above the blowout spot, and sat down and made a dress for Emma. What do you think?

I love it! It's a longer dress, which I've been needing since it's so cold here in Utah. Which also means she'll be able to wear it for awhile. And it's knit, so it's super comfy for Emma. I did kind of rush through it because I had a bunch of other things to do. Next time I will take a little more time on it, get my stitches to look more professional and whatnot. But for the time it took (like, half an hour), I'm pretty happy with it. And Emma looks amazing in it! But she looks amazing in everything :)

And today we had some bananas that needed to be used up before they got too mushy, so we made banana bread! Calvin is such a good helper in the kitchen.

Here he is helping stir the dry ingredients. Don't ask why his eyes look all milky, if you couldn't tell by some of the pics with Emma, my camera is being off today.

Calvin mixing, and Emma with a crazy look in her eye while she chews on Calvin's saw, lol. It's kinda scaring me.....

Ready to go in the oven! I don't know what happened to my bread pan, so muffins it was!

And here is the finished product, yum! The sides look a little darker in this pic than they are, mainly because I drizzled honey over the top of the muffins so they were wet. So so good! I have to tell myself not to eat them all. I can make a meal out of banana bread!

I'm sorry I haven't posted on here in awhile, but I just found my camera last night. And I like to have pics in my posts. But now that I have found it I can start posting again! Yay!

So I am really liking Aaron's new schedule. The most he works is 3 days in a row every other week. Then it's two days in a row for all of his other work days with at least 2 days off in between. It goes like this, whatever days he works one week, he won't work them the next week. So if he works Monday and Tuesday one week, he has it off the next. Last weekend was his 3 day work schedule, so this weekend he has 3 days off. Yay! But he does work tomorrow, and since we only have one vehicle, me and the kiddos have to stay at home. We were going to go down to the Sorensens.

But my mom is coming next week and she had a great suggestion to do a Thanksgiving dinner when she comes! I think I might have to take her up on it :)

In other news, Emma loves peas. She also loves to scream - happy or mad, or sad. That's how she gets her point across, lol. Silly girl. And she also really REALLY wants to crawl, and we've been working on it. She gets frusterated but keeps on trying. I don't think it will take too long for her to figure it out. Right now she gets around by rolling from her back to her stomach. It's pretty funny when she all of the sudden rolls on to her tummy and there's something there she wasn't expecting. Her head moves back and she gets this shocked look on her face. Love it!

Calvin is as rambunctious as ever. Running, building, destroying, flying, he does it all! Where he gets his energy, I don't know. But I need some. :)

Glad to be posting on here again, and I promise I will post again much sooner this time!

Emma's First Taste of Food

On Emma's 5 month birthday (which was the 7th of November), we decided she could try some food. She's been watching us eat so attentively for a couple of months now, and showing signs that she's been wanting to eat. So we figured it would be okay to give her some food. I cooked some carrots and then pureed them in the blender with some water to make it really runny.

Here she is right before. Unsuspecting, muahahahahaha....

Very first bite!

That made her happy!

Here she is eager for more. She couldn't get her food fast enough, she kept on attacking the spoon. It was so cute!

Needless to say she LOVED it! There's a video below just so you can see the cuteness :)

P.S. I don't know if Jon reads this, but if he does, I hope he appreciates the star swipe in the video, lol

Calvin's New Hat

I got to make Calvin's hat the other day and I have to say I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Especially since I didn't have a pattern or instructions on this one. I just kind of looked at other hats and figured it out. Granted, this is the second one I made, the first one was a little too small. And Calvin also informed me that he didn't want curved horns like on the first, but straight ones. I was also going to put eyes and a mouth on it, but Calvin said he just wanted horns. I think that way he feels like he's the monster instead of having the monster on his head.

When Aaron came home from work the night I made it, Calvin started using his horns to "attack" Aaron. Then he decided to use his horns like some dinosaurs do (for protection against the carnivores), and told Aaron to try to eat him. Then when Aaron tried, Calvin jabbed him with his horns. I love that little guy.

So yesterday we went to the park and got some pics of him in his new hat. There are quite a few pics because this little guy is super photogenic. :) I'm going to say he gets that from me, haha.

Throwing some snow at me, that sly boy

I think he's planning on throwing some more, that hand looks a little suspicious.....

Running from Mama, he's so proud of himself!

Playing in the sand at our playground

Slide!

He was so excited that he found a tree he can climb!

And he's off!

In other news, Aaron is on flight now so he is done training (for now......bum bum bum!). And I am loving his new schedule! Right now we are on day 1 of our 3 day weekend! So nice :) Every other week he gets 3 days off, and then the other weeks he gets 4 days off. Pretty sweet if I do say so myself. Granted, when he works he's gone all day. But I think it evens out quite nicely.

Also, we have made some friends here, which has been sooo nice. We met them at the park a few weeks ago. Kelsie and her son Micah, who is 2 1/2, and her daughter Sydney who is almost 1. I think I got the ages right :) (Kelsie, let me know if I'm wrong!) But how awesome is that that we all have someone around our age to hang out with? And Calvin is loving having a play buddy. After we met Micah, no joke, Calvin decided he liked Utah. Because now he has someone to play with. He was talking about Micah one day and then told me that he likes Utah now, and that we can stay here. I asked him if it's because he has a buddy and he told me yes. How sweet is that? Love it!

Yesterday they were over for a playdate and Calvin and Micah were having a snack and Micah was eating with his mouth open. Which Calvin absolutely hates. Seriously. He gets mad. We have to be incredibly careful around him. And he was getting upset at Micah and then, get this, he actually started gagging! I couldn't help it, I started laughing. It was pretty funny. Man, that boy....

Tomorrow I will update with Emma's new love! Goodnight!

Emma's New Hat

I need to remember to post on here more often! It's hard when there is so much to do and so little time in the day, you know? Between the kids, cleaning, cooking, and trying to find a moment to sew or sing or whatever, there ends up not being a lot of extra time. I find myself not minding though. Once I thought to myself, "What would it be like if I was only taking care of myself, only cleaning up after myself?" The answer that instantly went through my head was "Lonely".

So I am grateful for every second that I have with my family; even if it's spent cleaning up after them, or cooking or whatever. Because having all of that to do really means that I have this amazing family to care for. And I want to always recognize what a blessing they are.

Yesterday I headed over to Joann's to get some fabric for everything I want to make. And using this super easy tutorial (http://www.made-by-rae.com/2010/11/snowblossom-hat-tutorial-by-rae/) I made Emma a snow hat!

Isn't it so cute? I love it! And it completely cracks me up everytime I look at her in it.

I love being able to create cool things for my kids. Plus, I'm saving money doing it; this hat cost me less than $1 to make! It doesn't get much better than that!

And here are the before and after shots of my shrunken heads I made at the Sorensens. On the cookie sheet, mine are the second from the left, and the one on the very right. Below is them finished:

Meet Carl & Mary! I think these turned out really cool, and I think I'd like to make some every Halloween.

I'm going to be posting again really soon - Emma reached a milestone yesterday! Lots of pics to come!

Halloween!

Warning: there are a lot of pics in this post! But I had to capture Halloween, and I think I actually did a good job of narrowing it down. So last Saturday we drove down to the Sorensens and the kids and I spent the day playing and doing Halloween type things. Emma, Shannon, Ingrid and I all made some shrunken heads using apples. I will do a post in a couple of days showing you the progression of mine. I still have to put the hair on them though. And cookies were made, plus Ingrid made this super yummy potato soup. It has been way too long since I've had potato soup. So now I have to make some this week! haha :)

So here's a pic of Calvin and Emma in their finished costumes. I have to say, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. And very excited that I could do them. I have always wanted to sew. I see fabric and just dream about what I can make. Now I know I can actually make it! I have a super secret project I'm doing with my sewing for all the pregnant ladies in my family. I would tell you about it, but then it wouldn't be a surprise! How many preggies are there out there in my fam, you ask? Erica, Patti, Becca, Carly, Kim, Ingrid, and Jessica. That's 7, but I've also got to make whatever it is I'm making for Heather's little guy, Desmond, too. He is the first born of this baby boom! So that's 8 thing-a-ma-bobs I've got to make. I'm so excited! Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be talking about Halloween. Okay, here is my Peter Pan & Tinkerbell:

Yeah, they look ecstatic, I know. :)

This one was taken at the Ward party down with the Sorensens. I absolutely LOVE it. Have I mentioned how much this little girl adores her Dada? She gets so excited when he gets home from work. Her little legs start kicking, her arms start moving, and she stares at him and make noises at him until he picks her up. It makes my so happy to see this bond between them.

So I made Calvin a big pumpkin-shaped pancake (not too different from a normal pancake, except for the stem of course). I tried putting a pumpkin face on it, but I don't think that turned out too well. Though Calvin loved it and that's all that matters.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.......................Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh

Chooo!!!!!!!

For lunch: mac n cheese (because it's orange!!! haha, I'm very original) with Johnny's Seasoning Salt, and pepper on it.

Making another pumpkin craft

All done!

Had to get a pic by this one that we did awhile ago too

Pumpkin-shaped pizza for dinner. (And again, the only real difference in shape on this is the stem...)

See this stem? It was yummy. I used whole wheat flour for the crust, it was amazing!

Getting ready to Trick or Treat! Showing me his bat bag that he says will scare real bats away

"Spooky Halloween!" (for those of you who don't know; Calvin said Halloween isn't supposed to be 'Happy', it's supposed to be bad, creepy, and spooky. So 'Spooky Halloween' and 'Bad, Creepy Halloween' were what he said to everyone)

Me and Tinkerbell :) She had a lot of fun being outside, watching everyone. She just sat there making all kinds of happy noises.

Checking out his haul

Emma trying to steal Calvin's candy

I gave her a spoon to play with instead Aren't those cute jammies? I got them at Wal Mart last year for a couple of bucks when they clearanced all the Halloween stuff.

And Calvin and Dada enjoying some lollipops! Aaron had to patrol, we got to walk with him during the trick or treating for a little bit. Then a lost little boy needed help finding his mom, so we parted ways after that. All part of being a cop though. And I'm so glad that they were able to help that little guy. If he was my son, I would have been worried sick. I love that the Air Force provides that service. There were a ton of cops walking around last night ready to help anyone that needed it.

I noticed in this post that while we did a lot of pumpkin themed crafts and food this year, we forgot to do anything with Calvin's pumpkin! Maybe we'll do some late pumpkin carving this week ;)

When we got home from Trick or Treating, we put Cinderella on. And Calvin helped hand out candy to the trick or treaters that came to our door. He loved it. Watching him, ahh, my boy is just so cute. I have been blessed with two amazing children and one awesome husband. I am so glad that we are with Aaron this year. Just wish I could be with the rest of my family too. I love and miss you guys!