Resurrection Rolls: An Easter Recipe

By Angela on April 12, 2017

While I was working on next week’s meal plan, I came across a video I made 5 years ago that was never published. Brandon who is now 9, was just 4 years old and while I was watching the video today, Grant (5) walked over and said, “Hey, is that me?” I’m a little envious over my hair and smaller waistline (which is coming back thanks to Fit Mama.) This video was taken a few months after we moved into our fixer upper and about a year before the illness that would leave me bed bound for months and never quite the same physically or emotionally. It’s a little nostalgic and surreal to watch it. I’m excited to get back to that healthy place again and each day is closer than the last.

Traditionally this recipe is made with canned crescent dough, and if you are a busy mama and the thought of making homemade dough puts you over the edge, just buy it. Really….it’s ok. Making your own isn’t too hard though and the dough can be made in a stand mixer or bread machine on the dough cycle.

In my meal plans, I automatically break the recipes into 4 different sizes. It’s not that my subscribers couldn’t do the math. but I don’t want them to have to think about that. Then they can use their energy interacting with family around a table full of good food.

Crescent Rolls
Ingredients	Servings
	2	4	8	12
Butter or coconut oil, melted	2 Tbs	4 Tbs	1/2 cup	3/4 cup
Yogurt or applesauce	2 Tbs	4 Tbs	1/2 cup	3/4 cup
Eggs	1	1	2	3
Milk or water	4 Tbs	1/2 cup	1 cup	1 1/2 cups
Sugar	2 Tbs	1/4 cup	1/2 cup	3/4 cup
Salt	pinch	1/2 tsp	1 tsp	1 1/2 tsp
Yeast	1 tsp	2 tsp	1 Tbs	4 tsp
Hard White Whole Wheat Flour	1 cup	2 cups	4-5 cups	7-8 cups

Cinnamon Sugar
Ingredients	Servings
	2	4	8	12
Cinnamon	1/2 tsp	1 tsp	2 tsp	3 tsp
Sugar or Stevia	2 Tbs	¼ cup	1/2 cup	3/4 cup

If you are gluten free, you can try an all-purpose gluten free flour with xanthan gum in place of the wheat. I haven’t tried it personally but the butter and egg content will help this dough stick together and it should work well.

Place the ingredients for your crescent rolls in the bread machine overnight (in the order listed, except add the flour before the yeast.) Set a time delay dough cycle so that they will be ready in the morning about 1 hour before breakfast.

2. Turn your oven on to warm (between 100 and 120 degrees)

3. Roll the dough ¼ inch thick and cut with a 3 inch biscuit cutter. OR break off a ping pong ball sized piece and flatten it into a circle with your fingers. Place a marshmallow in the middle of the dough and wrap it completely sealing the edges. The marshmallows are perfectly white, showing Christ’s purity as he was placed in the tomb. Some recipes I’ve seen have the children roll the marshmallow in butter and cinnamon-sugar showing the embalming of Christ and his anointing with spices. We skip this step–but you can do it if you like.

4. Spritz the rolls with cooking spray or brush with butter. Roll the balls of dough in cinnamon sugar and place on a greased baking sheet. Sit the rolls in the slightly warm oven for 20-30 minutes or until they have risen slightly.

5. Remove the rising dough and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for about 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Before eating, instruct the children to break open their rolls. They will find tomb is empty!

Our Grocery Shrink Plus meal plans empower you to efficiently cook nutritious and cost affective food for your family. Become a member and download your first plan today.

What if we just did it? The story of our Outdoor Fire Pit

By Angela on April 10, 2017

Last fall, I decided I wanted an outdoor fire pit to help burn up the yard waste and give us a place to gather in the evenings and rest. I pinned pictures of fire pits.

I scanned craigslist for building materials, studied the yard to find the best spot, and researched how to make a level seating area. To do it right was a little more work than I could invest and required me doing some other projects first, like cleaning up the storage area under the deck, jack-hammering out some excess concrete, digging out some established bushes, hauling in gravel and redoing part of the deck supports. So the season came and went and we still didn’t have a fire pit.

Then this weekend, I looked at our yard and all the fallen sticks from the spring storms and the passion for a DIY fire pit hit me again. What if it wasn’t perfect? What if it wasn’t in the right spot? What if it didn’t have a pebble sitting area? We’d still have fires. We could still make s’mores and sing songs and be together.

So last Saturday, after our 4th soccer game and a wedding shower, we went to Aldi and bought marshmallows, chocolate bars and hot dogs. Then we went to Menards and bought 30 of these stones.

It took me 15 minutes to unload the stones from the car and stack them into a fire ring. We chose a spot at the corner of our driveway where we have been splitting wood for the last 3 years. It has a nice base of wood chips that really should be cleaned up, but we sat our lawn chairs on it instead. The beauty of this is the stones can be moved at any time. There’s no mortar or concrete involved. It doesn’t matter that nothing about the project was “right” because it can be as permanent or as temporary as we want it to be.

It didn’t even matter that we made our fire wrong. We eventually got it to light, though the wind made that a challenge.

The s’mores on our imperfect fire tasted just as good.

This one was made from an orange marshmallow from Aldi’s Easter line. It tasted just like a wack an orange.

The kids rode their bikes on the driveway, played a game of basketball, and jumped on the trampoline. It was so much fun that we did it again the next night.

It made me stop and think. What if I didn’t worry about perfect and just did more things?

What I’m Into this Week

By Angela on January 11, 2017

Ashley Black Fascia Blasting. The tools aren’t cheap (and I haven’t purchased yet) but I joined the facebook group and have been lurking for awhile. The success stories and before and after pictures are inspiring. I’m interested in the process to gain more range of motion and reduce body pain, especially in my jaw, neck and shoulders. When my husband heard the testimonies, he said, “Will you buy me one for my back?” He had a painful back injury 3 years ago that hasn’t healed even after months of physical therapy. We can totally share one. I also plan to convince my mom to try it on her knee. She has had horrible pain for more than 6 months that even surgery and steroid shots haven’t helped. I think this could be really helpful to her. If you decide to lurk in the group, search #storytimewithjoanna to hear how the business began. It’s inspirational. (PS side affects include loss of cellulite, increased hair growth, increased collagen production, and some temporary bruising.) If you are a physical therapist, chiropractor, or massage therapist–this isn’t optional. You should at least look it over.

Irlen Syndrome. I alluded to this briefly in this post, but we have had even more experience with it since. My daughters have struggled with learning disabilities from a very young age and I’ve spent a lot of hours and money researching and trying different things to help them reach their potential. Both girls are extremely bright, but process slowly and have visual misperceptions. The younger one was diagnosed with Irlen syndrome in August. Since then we have discovered 2 more members of the family who also have it, and are screening the rest to rule it out. This is a fascinating subject for parents of special needs kids, educators, and optometrists. If you’d like to hear more about our experience with it, I can write more–just let me know in the comments. I don’t want to bore you with the details if you aren’t really interested. (This is likely the main trigger for my adrenal issues and I’m hoping with proper treatment, I will finally be able to heal.)

The Young House Love podcast. I’ve loved this blogging duo for years now. Their topic of expertise is home decor and I couldn’t figure out how that would translate to a radio show, but it totally does. I look forward to listening weekly as I do my kitchen chores. I love the way the couple interacts with a big dose of humor.

Do you listen to podcasts? Leave your favorites in the comments below. (Also…let me know about the Irlen thing.)

How to Know if It’s an Ear Infection

By Angela on December 15, 2016

She’s crying…again. She seemed fine during the day, but now that it’s time for bed, she’s screaming. Is she just overtired? Being naughty about bedtime? Or is there something seriously wrong?

As a new mom, I felt a lot of stress over knowing when to call the doctor or run to the emergency room. It was even harder when they were too young to really tell me what was wrong. Is it just a cold? Or a bacterial infection that needs antibiotics?

One of my babies was a real screamer. At his 6 week checkup, he screamed royally for the doctor. The doctor looked at me and said, “Does he do this often?”

“All the time,” I responded, exhausted. I couldn’t just stay up with him at night holding him. We would have to leave the house, because his screaming would keep everyone awake. There was nothing I could do, except put him in the jogger and run. If the breeze stopped cooling his face, he would scream. 2am. 3am. I ran, so the family could sleep. (You would think I would lose weight quickly that way…but nope. Not a pound.)

“Take him to Children’s Mercy, Now.” He said. “I’m calling ahead, so they will expect you.”

I called my husband enroute to the hospital, who left work and met me there. They asked me his symptoms. “He screams,” I said. They looked confused. They ran a huge battery of tests. They found NOTHING wrong. We received a hefty bill to have our child diagnosed as “fussy.”

It made me cautious. When do I call? When is it just nothing? I don’t have all the answers to that and it’s good to err on the side of being cautious. But you can get a tool that will help you with your decision making.

There are more expensive versions for sure, but we have this one and for $15 it does the job well. It comes with a little card showing what a healthy ear drum looks like and an infected one. I don’t exactly self-diagnose with this, but If I look in there and see the angry red ear drum, we call the doctor.

As a novice, I would call the doctor and say, “He has an ear infection.” They don’t like that. Doctors went to school for 8 years to have the right to say, “he has an ear infection.” I did not. So now I call up and say, “He has an earache, a fever of 101, and when I looked inside with my otoscope I saw a red inflamed ear drum.” Just facts, no diagnosis. That goes a lot better.

P.S. The links are not affiliate links. Just a product I personally have and hope will make your life easier.

P.P.S. I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. This post is not meant to diagnose or treat any disease.

How to Make Something not a Big Deal

By Angela on November 17, 2016

When I was growing up, my mama did a lot of things around the house. She used power tools, repaired furniture, skim coated drywall, decorated cakes, sewed clothes, baked fresh bread, gardened and preserved the harvest, had a family dinner every night, and taught Sunday School.

As I grew up, all these activities were normal to me. It wasn’t a big deal for me to bake bread or sew clothes, it was just something that mamas do. Having a nightly family dinner was just something you DO, it never occurred to me to skip it. When we were done, we cleared the table, washed the dishes and wiped down the counters. We didn’t even think about it, we just did it.

We walked away from stuff when it cost too much even though my dad made good money. Mom’s willingness to walk away and do without, or wait for the right deal made sure they had savings. They paid off their house when I was 9 and never borrowed another dime after that. It built character in me to not have the latest trends and to wait for things. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but the skill of waiting has served me well as an adult.

We went to church. Every time the doors were open. I never had to ask if we were going. We just did.

My babies came so soon after I married and so close together that I lost some of my good habits—like going to bed early, getting up early, working out consistently, and daily Bible study. Now that life has settled down a little (knock on wood) I’m figuring out how to build these habits back into my day. My first thought was to get up early and do them before my kids are up. That way I can have uninterrupted quiet time (sounds so good!) If I did that, they would never see me do them. And those are the important things that I want them to think are just part of being a mama. Mamas read their Bibles. Mama’s take care of their bodies. Mamas pray.

The habits that I want to be second nature for my kids, the ones I don’t want to be a big deal, just something they DO, those are the things I need to model for them now. They need to see it consistently, day in and day out. Not stressful, not a big deal, just accomplished.

I wonder what my kids will just do and not think about, because it was a normal part of their childhood. I hope using cash is one of them, along with saving up to pay for stuff, being ok with roughing it to pave the way for a bigger goal, and giving to people who are in need.

What do you do all day?

By Angela on October 19, 2016

Say the word “homemaker,” and this is the most frequent response:

“What do you do all day?”

This question is offensive to a lot of at homemakers because it implies that there’s not enough to do to keep an at home spouse off the couch watching Netflix and eating raw cookie dough. (Not that that NEVER happens. Overwhelm can drive anyone to a Netflix cookie dough binge. And if there’s any job that’s overwhelming, it’s homemaking.)

I thought about it a lot and I think I can put my job description into one tidy sentence.

“I optimize life for my household.”

Cleaning is part of it, but a tiny part.

I make sure my husband can work, and try to take care of the things that would normally interrupt the working day of a spouse in a two income household. Things like making appointments, a sick child, meeting a service provider, running errands.

I research, research, research, so we get the right products, get appropriate discounts, and stay under budget.

It’s my job to keep food in the house, and prepare meals that are conducive to health, the budget and shared family time.

I learn new skills so we can hire out less. Skills like minor electrical work, carpentry, sewing, painting, interior design, and cooking.

I advocate for our kids, so their health and learning needs are not passed over. This means more research, a lot of research, and sometimes doing interventions myself when there aren’t professionals available to us.

I manage our stuff so we aren’t buried in a pile of it, and can still find what we need when we need it. That includes turning our used stuff into cash through garage sales, Craigslist, Ebay and tax deductible donations.

I make sure everyone has clothing, within budget, that fits, is clean and repaired. Sometimes that means making it myself, shopping online, or visiting several stores. Plus taking care of personal appearances like cutting a boy’s hair or guiding a daughter through makeup and hair for her first date.

I give encouragement and support so everyone can be their best selves. This includes helping with music practice and homework, listening to their joys and sorrows and stories, and reminding them how great God made them.

I am a full time dedicated cheer leader for 7 people. That’s my FAVORITE part of the job.

This doesn’t mean I do everything myself. I’m like a general contractor. I delegate the appropriate jobs. Sometimes I delegate jobs to my kids that would be easier to do myself, just because it’s good for them to work.

I take my job super seriously. I’m constantly researching the best ways to do things and learning new skills. I’m also human and with a job list as long as mine, the big size of our household, and our limited budget, my house isn’t always company ready and the laundry isn’t always folded and put away. Sometimes my time is better spent painting a room than keeping up with daily chores and I’m so thankful my family pitches in and is understanding about that.

It’s true that we sacrifice a little in available cash for me to have this position, but we gain so much more in quality of life in exchange. I know not everyone can make this choice, so trust me that I don’t stand in judgement of work out of the home moms. I was once that mom myself.

What do you think?

Before She Leaves

By Angela on October 3, 2016

I have roughly 21 months left with my oldest daughter living in my home. In that time she will graduate high school and head off to college; marriage and babies soon to follow. I lounged on her bed this weekend just talking about the things that matter to her, that give her hope, that stress her out, that make her excited. Breathing in the time with her, aware more than ever how precious and rare it is. Read more…

How Three Orphaned Kittens Saved My Parenting Fail

By Angela on September 30, 2016

Before school started this fall, we made our kids a terrible, misguided, poorly thought out deal. We told them if they all made straight A’s at semester, we’d get a puppy. They have been begging for a dog for YEARS and finally we thought we’d consider it.

First of all this deal was awful, because everyone wanted a puppy except for me. All of my kids have high IQs and were motivated very much by a puppy. So bad result #1, they get straight As, earn a puppy, and leave me to care for it while they are at school. (Which would be fine for a few weeks, but long term would be very stressful for me.)

Bad result #2. My daughter with learning disabilities is working her tail off for a puppy and earning straight Cs. It’s the best she can do with the mis-wiring she has in her brain, even though her IQ puts her in the gifted range. It is possible that everyone will earn the puppy except for her, and there’s not one thing she can do about it. According to our agreement, she could blow the puppy deal for the whole family and bear the guilt and shame on top of everything else she’s dealing with.

We either get a puppy—bad, or don’t get a puppy—BAD! This is why I should THINK before making stupid deals with my kids. Good Parenting 101: Give your kids choices when either option is a win. There was no possibility of a winner here.

I can’t tell you how many hours I laid awake thinking about this terrible situation and how to fix it and stay consistent with our promises. I knew I had to get an animal in our house some way that would negate the deal and make this ok. To make the situation a little more challenging, my special girl has on-going medical expenses that I need to save an extra $200 a month for. With our new budget, pet food and vet bills aren’t a possibility. Gah! What was I thinking?

I went to the local animal shelter website just to see what foster care was all about. Turns out it’s amazing. Our shelter only fosters infant animals or high medical need animals, and it’s usually a 1-3 week commitment until adoption. They provide all the medical care, food, and accessories. We provide the love. Since we aren’t trained properly for high medical needs, we’re on the infant only list. I filled out my application one night and the next morning, got a call to come pick up a litter of kittens. Kittens!!!!!

Abandoned infant animals are a little challenging. There might be fleas to combat, toilet training, and minor health challenges like loose stools from abrupt diet changes. But oh my! They are so cute and snuggly and fluffy and adorable. It’s so worth it.

These kittens will be available for adoption at some point and prospective parents might meet them at our home. When they are adopted, we’ll be available to foster someone else. It might be more kittens, puppies or even a rabbit. I can handle the care for a few weeks and take a break when necessary. The kids help out when they are home and have a lot of the benefits of pet ownership without the long term commitment. Now that’s a win-win.

My Gratitude Journal

By Angela on September 19, 2016

I’m excited about this easy little crafty post, because it has so much meaning to me. Along the journey of life a few years back, we chose to seek out help from a psychologist who said something very interesting: “The thoughts you think, control the chemicals your body releases. If you are able to change your thoughts, you can change your chemical balance. If you can’t change your thinking, then medication can help make it easier.”

Stress is my enemy. A little spurt of stress can put me in bed for a few days, too weak to even walk unassisted. I can’t control all my stress, like when someone cuts me off in traffic and nearly causes an accident; when a bat gets in my house and flaps around my bedroom; or when someone I love gets sick or dies. But there is a lot I can control.

This past week, a lot of stressful things were going on in my life. Here’s what I wrote in my Fit Yummy Mummy journal: Oh Girls, Life has kicked my tail… My grandma is on hospice and they don’t think she will live through the night. She is 90 and forgot who I was long ago, but I remember who she is. Her daughter, my Auntie, was on death watch for a short time last week, but miraculously recovered for a little while longer and has been moved to a rehab facility. …my mama hurt her leg mysteriously and can’t walk very well…. I tangled with some poison ivy last weekend and am COVERED. Plus the school district has denied to test Heather for learning disabilities even with all the private testing records I sent them and doctor reports. They said they don’t accept any outside of the district assessments and they haven’t observed her long enough to decide what to do about her. I’m so sad realizing that they are waiting for her to fail again before they intervene even though her records transferred from her old school show a clear pattern and need. I’m taking her to another clinic the next state over on Saturday to test her eye/brain connection. It’s so expensive, but if there’s a chance it will help her we’ll find a way to earn the money. I’m trying not to stress about everything, but I’m feeling all the feels anyway and it has zapped my strength. So that’s where I am. Not sure how to pick up the pieces from here while my body has checked out.

That wasn’t even all of it, but it started to feel ridiculous writing so much complaining down. What if instead of that, I had written down all the things that were going RIGHT? I can tell you THIS, I spend way more time thinking about the things going wrong than I do the things I have to be thankful for. I’m sure that has a lot to do with my health struggles.

It’s hard to admit that I am a negative person. Yuck. Just admitting that makes me not like myself very much, so I’m making steps to change. 4o years of consistent negative thinking isn’t going to change easy, but I’m choosing my hard.

I’m starting with this fifty cent notebook. It’s just a composition notebook from Wal-mart. I made a little cover for it by merging this and this. I printed it on regular paper, then trimmed it down slightly to fit the cover.

I placed a piece of wax paper inside the notebook, so I wouldn’t get modge podge all over the pages and stick them together.

Then I put a thin layer of modge podge ($1 in the Target spot bins) over the back of the picture, and stuck it to the cover, starting on one edge and smoothing it over to prevent air bubbles. Then I took my brush and put a thin layer of glossy modge podge over the top for durability.

Here’s the best part, the brush strokes in modge podge are visible after it dries, giving printed art a hand-painted affect. To take full advantage of this, I went back once more and added brush strokes to the water color flowers, following the natural curve so each flower would look hand-painted.

You GUYS! I’m feeling so clever right now. When it dried I trimmed the corners and added a matching cover to the back.

Before I thought of this little project, I looked on Amazon for a gratitude journal I could buy. There were several good ones like this, this, and this. They were each less than $10, but the DIY one was the more affordable option for sure. Karen at A House Full of Sunshine has a different idea for a DIY journal cover that is darling for all you washi tape lovers. She also had some good thoughts about gratefulness that are worth clicking over to read.

Here’s what I’ll write tonight:

Heather’s new Irlen filters that are helping her read better
Family cooperating for Grandma’s Funeral
A chance to sing with my daughter and my sister-in-law
Free flute lessons for Heather that make her so happy
Our cars are both repaired and running well
A supportive church family

I’m all about reducing stress, not adding to it, so I’m not writing in complete sentences, telling stories (unless I want to), or giving myself a quota. If I’m too stressed to think, I might just copy down a scripture verse or hymn that I’m grateful for, or tape in a coloring page. And if I need to skip a day, that’s A-OK, since none of the pages are pre-dated.

P.S. If you want to hear more about gratitude journals, Sherry talks about hers in the “We’re Digging Section” on episode #11 of the Young House Love Podcast.

A Family Friendly Yard on a Budget

By Angela on September 13, 2016

Our house has so many projects! My foyer has been primed but not pained for several months now and I’m still not done with my built in bookcases or trim in the living room. Already my heart is turning outside. We have a couple of gorgeous months ahead of us and I would LOVE to add a firepit and some swings to our yard and just hang out there with my people.

Two weekends ago we piled our driveway full of brush and yard trimmings, revealed our raised beds and split enough wood for two winters. Then last weekend we built 4 more raised garden beds, and mulched around trees and pathways.

Here’s a close up of the bushy area to the right after cleaning up. The yard is looking almost pretty. The two days working together as a family was really fun and bonding, except for the poison ivy that I found. It’s the city’s job to keep the fence clean 😛 We can work on our side, but the other side remains a jungle. I suppose there’s more privacy that way.

Darren is talking out loud about building a seating area under the deck. I’ve been talking about it for years and he would respond with all the reasons why it was a bad idea. Now, it appears it is HIS idea and I’m all for it. Above is what it looks like today, sigh. There’s a LOT of work to be done. But I’m envisioning removing the wall covering on the side facing this, and the side facing the yard to the right. We’d like to leave the covering on the back wall, because that is the north side and blocks the worst weather for us.

Then I’d like a slew of comfy seating and eating areas where our huge family can gather. (Just my husband’s immediate family is 28 people.) Something with the feel Centsational Girl created here:

This will be the most expensive backyard project on our list because we’ll need to jackhammer some extra footings that aren’t being used anymore, and bring in several yards of gravel to create a temporary floor. Concrete would be ideal, but it would be around $10,000 to pour a spot this big.

Here’s another inspiration photo from Redoingit.blogspot.com. They have a fabulous tutorial there on making outdoor curtains from canvas drop cloth and plumbing fittings.

While we save up the cash for the gravel floor, I’d like to build a fire pit like this. I go back and forth on the kind of bottom to put in the pit. The flat stones as shown here would make shoveling out ashes a snap, but we have a couple of bags of sand that the previous homeowners left and it would make a free floor that drains well. The stone blocks are a lot more expensive in my area than described in this tutorial (more than double) but I have seen them on Craigslist recently (I was just too slow to text and they were already sold, sob.) While we do the necessary clean up work, I’m going to keep watching for another good deal.

This simple swingset can be built for less than $100, even after modifying the plans to make it taller and wide enough for 3 swings. We had a hard time figuring out where to put the swings with all the trees and tall back fence. Darren finally had the idea of turning it sideways (we already plan to take out the tree right by the garden beds) so the kids would have more room to swing without hitting the fence. It’s not as aesthetically pleasing to me as one turned the other direction, but I’ll be able to see it from the house which was really important to me.