Do-it-Yourself Snow!

The snow last week was rather disappointing, lasting only half an hour and not actually covering the ground. We can't really count on the weather for more snow, since here in the Pacific NW snow doesn't usually stick around for very long. We are rather crafty, do-it-yourself types around here, so we decided to just make our own.

Game Night!

We were supposed to go to a Christmas party this weekend. Half the house is still sick though, so we decided to have family game night instead. Rod and I finished up making some of Owen's meals and made hot chocolate for everyone else.

We have several very competitive people in our household along with a few perfectionist types who hate to lose. It makes game time very interesting! The Settlers of Catan is one game that very rarely brings out tears and yelling. There can be some interesting alliances though. This time Devon was pitted against Connor and Cameron (who had admitted defeat halfway through the game). While they were trying to trap each other into bad moves no one noticed that Mommy was winning. I ended the game with a huge final play after being convinced only a few turns earlier that there was no possible way for me to win. Rod was handicapped by having several of the little kids taking turns being on his team, since even the expansion set doesn't have enough game pieces for all of us.

 Duncan has a rather unusual strategy, just winning isn't good enough for him. He insists on only using special cards to win with. Morgan is always nice to everyone and gives us whatever trades we want. Connor and Devon will do just about anything to beat each other. Owen only cares about rolling the dice and holding a sheep card while making Baa-ing noises. It's so interesting to watch everyone's personalities come out while we play. (Mommy happens to be one of the perfectionist types who hates to lose, while Daddy tend to give the little ones anything they want).

 I really think we need to work harder at making family game night a more regular activity around here. Especially as the kids are getting older and everyone is going in so many different directions. When everyone was little, it sometimes seemed like we had too much together time. Now it can be days before we are all together.

Dinner Rolls

 I've been trying to find the perfect dinner roll recipe for years now and I think I've finally got it. The base recipe is from Bolivia and has measurements like spoonful and scoop, instead of Teaspoon, Tablespoon and Cup like modern recipes. I decided it's time to write it down how I actually make the recipe and in English, so I thought I'd post it here too.

Sponge ingredients
2T yeast
1/4 C lukewarm water
2 T sugar
Mix these 3 ingredients in a large bowl and let soak for 5 min. Then add
2 C lukewarm water
2 C flour
Mix well, cover with a clean dish towel and let rest in a warm place until doubled.

2 C milk
1 1/2 C butter
While waiting for the sponge to double, scald(bring to just below a boil) the milk in a small saucepan.  Then add the butter and stir until melted. Let this mixture sit and cool to lukewarm temp.

Once the sponge is doubled add
1 1/2 C sugar
2 t. salt
6 eggs, slightly beaten
1 t. vanilla extract
and the cooled milk/ butter mixture.
Then start adding flour mixing well until a very soft, but workable dough is reached. The original recipe calls for 10 cups of flour, but I always end up adding quite a bit more. I honestly don't measure after the initial 10 cups, but probably about 14 total. The dough should be just barely workable. On a well floured board, knead until bubbles burst.  Place dough back into the bowl, cover with the towel and let double in a warm spot again. 
 Once the dough has doubled, divide into rolls and place in a well greased pan. Let rise again and bake at 300F for 45 min to 1 hour depending on the size of your rolls.

 This dough is also wonderful for making cinnamon rolls or cinnamon swirl bread (made just like cinnamon rolls, only place the rolled up log into a bread pan instead of cutting it into rolls). It makes a nice braided Challah type bread too.

 Brenna really enjoyed the cinnamon swirl bread!

 {Devon has actually asked me not to post recipes on the blog. She thinks no one will come to our house anymore if they can make the same food for themselves. I guess people only come here for the food.}

Christmas Wish

 This morning I found THIS on my news page. I often get asked how we handle Christmas presents with so many children. Well, this little girl's Christmas wish list is not how we manage. We have actually had problems with entitlement issues around Christmas time before, not quite to this extent, but unreasonable demands, nonetheless. I remember one year when my stepdaughter looked at our Christmas tree and started whining about how she used to get a whole, huge, pile of presents. This child had already had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa, Great Grandma and Grandpa, and Step Grandma and Grandpa. She had gotten presents at each of those homes, plus had presents waiting at her Mom's house when she got back there. She and her sister had opened brand new toys over the summer from the previous Christmas. That's right, they had so many Christmas presents that some of them didn't even get opened until June! I decided right then that we needed to seriously curb the present giving and focus on other things for the Christmas season.

 The next year we explained to all the children that Santa had a really big job to do delivering presents to all of the children in the whole wide world and that from now on we would only be getting ONE Santa present apiece since we didn't want to be selfish. Each child is allowed to ask for two or three different things with the knowledge that they will only receive one present (plus some small stocking stuffers). We spent that holiday season learning about other cultures and children in other parts of the world who don't have nearly the material goods we have here in the U.S.. We also focused on doing charity activities. In addition to the Santa present, our children usually get at least one present from Rod and I. The presents from us might be something they need or a fun event for the family (last year we went to Great Wolf Lodge), or we might get them something else off of their wish list. The kids know that this is dependent on our budget each year. We also have a family tradition of getting each child their own Christmas ornament each year.

 Reducing the amount of stuff  both given and expected has made our holidays much more fun and relaxed. The kids still get presents from family and we do fun things with friends this time of year. The kids don't feel deprived at all. They seem to have a lot more compassion for others when they aren't just focused on getting stuff for themselves. With seven kids, there is still a pretty hefty influx of new things in the house even with each child only getting a few presents.

 The kids decided to do a drawing for each other a couple of years ago, they put all of their names in a hat and each draw one sibling. We then go to the dollar store and pick out a present or two for whichever sibling they drew. I honestly think the buying is more important than the receiving for them. They came up with this idea all by themselves and then asked me to take them to the store. I really like that they are focusing on someone other than themselves.
 Duncan just told me that what he wants most for Christmas is a universal fixer that fixes everything. Then he will give it to Owen so he doesn't have any more seizures. I was expecting him to ask for Skylanders swap Force.

Kefir

 Several years ago, I read about the health benefits of fermented foods. I decided to start adding more of them to our diet. Then, I realized we had a problem. We're pretty picky eaters around here and it turns out we didn't really like fermented foods much. We tried sauerkraut (couldn't get past the smell) and kimchi (ouch!). Then we tried kombucha which wasn't bad, but wasn't really something we enjoyed either. Finally, I was given some kefir grains. YAY! A fermented food we liked! Kefir tastes pretty much like yogurt only it's more of a liquid. We mostly use it as a base for smoothies. I also use it in place of yogurt and buttermilk in cooking. Last night I made biscuits replacing 1 cup of the milk with 1 cup of kefir and they turned out amazing!  WebMD seems to consider it a medical treatment and has a whole list of precautions for using it, but we treat it as a food and haven't ever had any problems.

 

 It starts out as little "grains" that look sort of like cauliflower tops. You pour milk over them, cover with a cloth (nothing air tight) and leave them alone for a day or two. Then you pour the whole thing in a colander and let the kefir strain out (sometimes I have to stir it a bit with a spatula). Refrigerate the finished product (or let it ferment a little longer at room temp., but we don't like it that strong) and pour more milk over the grains for a new batch. The whole thing works sort of like a sourdough starter. We enjoyed kefir for several years, then Owen was born. During the three weeks in the hospital and the first incredibly busy weeks home with a very high need baby, I managed to kill my kefir start. I considered getting more several times, but it seems as soon as I thought about it Owen's condition would change and require more work for a while.

   A couple of months ago I answered an ad on Craig'slist for a couple of barn kittens. When the kittens' owner called to arrange a time for delivery, we got talking (she's a homeschool mom too) and she offered me another kefir start. So, I ended up with two gorgeous kitties (who are already hunting at only 4 months old) AND a brand new kefir starter.

I now have enough grains to split off, so if anyone local to me would like some just let me know.

Sick Day and Snow Day!

 Yesterday afternoon, we had snow for about 30 minutes. The kids were so excited! We had to get coats and boots and gloves and hats and heavy socks and sweaters.  Then take it all off again less than half an hour later when the wind came in and blew the snow away. Then the wind picked up even more and the internet went out (no cyber Monday shopping after the kids went to bed for me), then the phone went out. Then the power flickered several times, but thankfully stayed on. The wind blew and blew. The phone finally started working just before bedtime, but the internet remained offline until this afternoon.

 The 5 youngest kids are sick. Duncan, Cameron, and Connor stayed over at my nephew's house after Thanksgiving and came home coughing. Connor seems to be better today but everyone younger than him is running a fever. So, all of the kids have temperatures between 99 and 100.5F, except for Owen who woke up with a fever of 102F. Fever has been a seizure trigger for Owen in the past, so he has a 99.5 threshold set for him by the neurologist. That means we treat any fever over 99.5 and go to the hospital if it doesn't come down below that in a reasonable amount of time. So, this morning, Rod went to give him some ibuprofen. Children's ibuprofen. The sugary stuff that kids love to have. The stuff he CAN NOT have on the keto diet. I realized what he was doing in time to stop him so Owen didn't get the "wrong" medicine. These are the things that are so hard about the keto diet. It has been so important for us to treat fevers immediately the last two years that we panic when he runs one. This leads to things like giving him the wrong medicine when we're half asleep (no one slept well last night with all the coughing). Poor Rod feels horrible (and here I am telling everyone on the internet), but it's just so easy to do. It's like using the wrong soap, you just don't think about everything all the time. Instead of childrens' liquid medication that tastes good, Owen gets part of a crushed adult tablet mixed into something or a suppository. We let him choose and so far, not surprisingly, he has always chosen to eat the nasty tasting stuff.  The good news is that his fever is down and he didn't get the medication that would bring him out of ketosis. Hopefully the illness will blow over quickly!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Poor Duncan was running a fever.

 Now that Thanksgiving is over it's time to prepare for Christmas! We have a tradition in our family of buying each child a  new Christmas ornament each year. That way we have memories of their likes and interests each year while they are growing up and they have a good start for their own trees when they move out. We give each child their own box to store the ornaments in out of season (which also helps us remember whose is whose). The kids love to go through their ornaments each year when they put them on the tree. We also buy a dated family ornament each year. The kids get to put their own birth years on the tree and Rod and I place the rest of them. This year was funny, as I was unwrapping the year ornaments, Morgan  kept asking who was born that year for each ornament. I had to explain that we don't have quite that many children. We've only had two children born in consecutive years and some of the kids have three year spacing.

The kids' bins

  This ornament is from my Grandparent's tree. I always put it on our tree when I was growing up and I took it with me when I moved out. Unfortunately the other one broke, so I'm extremely careful with this one!

  Back when Cameron was a baby, I made embroidered crazy quilt Christmas stockings for everyone. I had a lot of leftover fabric, so I've been able to make matching ones for the younger kids too. Hopefully Brenna's will be finished by Christmas eve this year, for now she gets to use the "baby girl" generic stocking.

 We also put up our Advent calendars. I bought the tree one when Rod and I were first married. We put it up every year until we moved here four years ago. Somehow it got lost in the move and we couldn't find it ANYWHERE! This year I was looking for something else and opened EVERY box in the garage and dug all the way to the bottom. I finally found this in the bottom of a box of old Christmas lights that we haven't used since we moved, so it is finally in use again. The other Advent calendar Rod's parents got us a few years ago. It has little houses with boxes that need to be filled. I didn't think ahead enough to have stuffers on hand, so we filled it with leftover Halloween candy. Does that make me a horrible mom or a really smart one? I can't decide, but the kids seem fine with it.

 The stockings behind the Advent houses were made by Rod's grandma Virginia. She, unfortunately, passed away just after Morgan was born ( the day after Morgan was born, but that's a whole different story remind me to tell it some time), so only the four older kids have the huge knit stockings. We don't actually fill those, we just use them for decoration. I keep thinking I'll figure out a pattern for them and make some for the younger kids, but it hasn't happened yet. They are such a wonderful reminder of Rod's Grandma for us.
 I still haven't put up my nativity set. I prefer to do that while the little kids are asleep since it is breakable and everyone always wants to "help". We let the kids stay up late for a movie marathon so I might not get that put up for a few days. then we'll be all decorated!