Author: Mothersense

I am a mother to wonderfully challenging children. I married my best friend. Eternal Student. Amateur Photographer. Friend. Caregiver. I taught English in public schools for 2 years and am now working at home proofreading and copywriting and working in financial services. I write about my experiences in life and those of loved ones.

What I am reading 12/30/10

by Mothersense, posted in This Life

I am currently reading a wonderful book that was part of my most awesome Christmas gift at the family “Chinese Gift Exchange”  the title is God Always Has a Plan B.    It is part of my current plan to read more and write more.  I have also been perusing various blogs that are of interest to me.  Many of these blogs are about cooking for a large family, organizing for small spaces, or spiritual things, but they have all helped lead me to other resources and get my creative juices flowing.  That is a huge step for me because I will take all of the help I can get to help me keep my new year’s resolutions!

So for those that need help getting organized I suggest you check out  The Simple Mom blog. She has tips for frugal living, organizing, and much much more!

I also found an appropriately titled blog to let me know I am not the only one “Stumbling Impatiently Along” !

The internet has opened so many avenues for “at your fingertips” knowledge and while I am grateful for the convenience I hope it does not signal the demise of the printed word.  I long to “publish” something more than a simple blog, something tangible, something I can autograph! : )

That is all for now, as I continue on my way through the scores of  blogs out there and find even more helpful ideas, some new and some familiar with a twist!

Monkey bread or Pull Apart bread

by Mothersense, posted in Food Stuffs - Recipes
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cans (16.3 oz each) Pillsbury® Grands!® Homestyle refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
  • Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 12-cup fluted tube cake pan.
  • 2In large plastic food-storage bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon. Separate dough into a total of 16 biscuits; cut each into quarters. Shake in bag to coat. Arrange in pan. Mix brown sugar and butter; pour over biscuit pieces.
  • 3Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.
For the best results, keep the biscuit dough in the refrigerator until just before you use it. Warm dough might get sticky and be hard to handle.
found this at http://www.pillsbury.com and it was so oooey gooey and delicious and we plan to add walnuts the next time!!, I suggest using a sheet pan instead of the traditional bundt and turn it out like a pineapple upside down cake

Mississippi Mud cake

by Mothersense, posted in Food Stuffs - Recipes

2 c. sugar

1 c. oil

4 eggs

1 1/4 c. flour

1/3 c. cocoa (Hershey’s, not the kind that you make choc milk, the baking kind)

1 c. pecans

1/4 tsp. salt

3 T vanilla

Cream sugar, oil and eggs together by hand. Add flour, cocoa, salt. Add vanilla and nuts. Mix well by hand. Spray 9 x13 pour in mixture. Bake @ 350 for about 30 mins . Cool 10 mins then spread a jar of marshmellow cream on top. I let this set up for awhile.

ICING

1 stick butter

1 bag of powder sugar

1 c. pecans

1/2 can evaporated milk

1/2 c. cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter, milk and vanilla. I just heat in small saucepan until melted and heated thru. Pour over cocoa. Start out with maybe 1/2 bag of powder sugar and you can always add more if needed. Should be somewhat of a thick icing. Spread over marshmellow cream.

Holidays

by Mothersense, posted in This Life

From December 18th:

 

Christmas has kinda snuck up on us here in the Roeber home.  We have been reading about the coming of our Lord and Savior, discovering why there is a holiday season to begin with and now it is only a week until Christmas is upon us.  We have not rushed out to buy presents, but I suppose we will need to go shopping at some point.  Mostly this year the kids want practical things, which is great because its easy to buy practical instead of the “gotta have” items that lots of kids ask for and then leave their parents to scramble to find it.  I love that so many times my kids are practical with their choices, knowing that it makes more sense to ask for things they will actually use instead of something that the “new” will wear off of and then it will be set to collect dust or worse.  And by practical I don’t just mean clothes or shoes, but things like an MP3 player so they can listen to their tunes, or a Wii for the whole family, movies to add to our collection, not too bad overall.  I actually look forward to the last minute shopping, call me crazy, but it makes for some very interesting people watching.  I don’t do the “Black Friday” sales because I believe they are just asinine and I do not like mob scenes.   I have experienced one “Black Friday” and vowed then and there it was not worth the hassle and the crowds to arrange a babysitter for the kids so we could save a few bucks, and actually when you break it down, that is all it is.  We don’t really shop for the big ticket items at Christmas, it isn’t the time for new computers or a new tv or blu ray player, those items are usually spring or summer buys and I find that we pay about the same, without the hassle of the mob.

Other than Christmas slowly sneaking up on us, my dear husband has finished his first semester of college with A’s and B’s!! Kudos to you honey! My youngest son has begun confidently walking about the house.  So now I will be chasing him a bit now.  We will be taking family pictures this week-end and then I will be on cloud nine as I sort through the shots and edit them and ready them to be printed for our loved ones.

I think I might post some of them as I get through, but for now I am going to head to bed and hope that sleep finds me, and if not I will catch up on my reading.

Happy Holidays!!!

Sugarplums and such

by Mothersense, posted in Always my babies

My husband and I finally got to do some Christmas shopping!! It has been a tough year financially however boy we sure have been blessed.  Despite Jarrett’s illness, and all of the hoopla we have had to go through, he made good grades this semester at college!  Lots of hard work and I believe my oldest has successfully completed his first semester of high school.  But back to sugarplums and shopping….

We go shopping and when I drop the kids off at my mothers my oldest daughter has secretly brought my ready-made gingerbread dough with her in the hopes that they can make cookies.  Well initially she is disappointed because my mother had given me her cookie cutters to use with the dough at my house, and I have the rolling pin as well….this did not stop my children.  As their mother and to prevent a fuss for my mother to have to deal with I tell them to get creative, use a butter knife, or a plastic knife to cut out the desired shapes.  Ok, so this does leave my mother in a bit of a pickle, but hey she’s had to deal with worse, she raised 5 kids.  So we get the kids settled at my parent’s house and go about our business.

We don’t know where to start.  We have five kids of our own and the money is kinda slim….but we are used to that so we start thinking of a blend between Santa and practical.  I won’t go into details but I think we did quite well and I don’t think the kids will be disappointed one bit.  Well maybe the oldest, because he thinks he HAS to have an ipod or he’s gonna die.  But I am on the fence about that because he has nooooo idea what is in store for him and NO it’s not an ipod, because Santa is on a budget, but it is hopefully gonna blow his socks off.  We did good, I am convinced of that.  I am also convinced that in the end, the kids appreciate the gifts but know the real reason we celebrate Christmas.