Official Contest

Lord, let me not go crazy.  Mary Claire had a sleepover last night, and I've been kinda crazy.  I was so worried last night because the last time I'd talked to her, her blood sugar was 64.  She had pizza and cake after that, but I wanted to talk to her before bed!  This morning I had to sit on my hands not to call her!  She called a little after 8, but I was up before 7!  I wanted to know how she did through the night!  I always want to know that she made it okay.  Ahh-it's hard!  She was finally up to 318 last night (horrible), but I was a teensy bit comforted that she'd make it through the night fine.  She's been running soo low lately!  She woke up at 136, so I'm very happy that she's doing alright.

She was having pancakes with all the other girls, and I told her to make her plate, measure her syrup, and call me back for her bolus.  Well.  You cannot allow a child with diabetes away from home, to make their own plate!  I just got a lesson.  She used 1/2 cup of syrup!  We are talking 106 grams of carbs just in syrup!  That's without the pancakes (which are much lower in carbs-maybe only 10-15 grams each).  I (kinda) freaked out, and asked to talk to Sandra!  Bless her heart, she's busy making pancakes!  Mary Claire had done it herself, and while I was talking to Sandra, she was shoveling pancakes since she knew I was going to ask Sandra to mop up some of that syrup!  Hahahahaha-all I could do was laugh.  And give her tons of insulin.

I talked her through her bolus, but we've never had one that big!  It was 146 grams all together, and her pump suggested 8.5 units (we deal in .6 to 1.5 units normally!).  I know I've set her bolus ratios to change at 9am, and it was 8:30, so just a unit too much would kill her.  (In the day, her blood sugar drops about 25 points for every .1 I give her.)  Her ratio from 5am to 9 am is one unit of insulin to 17 grams, and after 9am it's one unit to 33 grams.  Big Difference.  Since we were on the verge (8:30), I figured it at one unit to 25 grams-six units, and prayed.

I told her to check herself in an hour and call me.  Hopefully she'll either be perfect (85-124), or high.  It's so much easier to correct a high.

I always hear Marlin, Nemo's dad in these instances, and I try not to be him.

"You think you can do these things, but you just can't, Nemo."

I don't want to tell her she can't do things.  She doesn't know she can't-she thinks the world is her oyster!  If she thinks she can spend the night, check herself, eat a stack of pancakes with half a cup of syrup, then by golly, I hope she enjoys herself!  Whatever it is, we'll manage just fine.


Clay has to:
a. pick up the popcorn that he sold. (and deliver it this week)
b. go to Samaritan House and receive food that's being picked up today (earning a Webelos badge)
c. go to basketball practice
d. be ready to go to Missouri at 2:30pm.
e. all of the above.


Yes, you guessed it: E!  He's wearing his basketball clothes under his uniform, since he's going to be the main character in a busy play today!  I need to pick Mary Claire up from her sleepover at 11am, and I'm working on making stuff for our Women's Bazaar after church tomorrow, and since we'll be gone from 2:30 till about 10:45 tonight, I have to get it done now!
I bought some cookie (yes, break-n-bake) dough to make cookies, then I'm embroidering the kitchen towels I got last night.  I'm thinking maybe Go Hogs Go, Mom's Kitchen, Wipe Your Hands, and Bless this kitchen.  I used to make recipe cards, and one of them said, "..blessed and broke the loaves.  Mark 6:41"  but it was really too much to put on a kitchen towel.  Can you think of a shorter one?  We used to have all sorts of Bible verses on them.  How about we have a contest?

Official Contest:
You give me a pretty short verse or phrase (I have to be able to embroider it in about three lines or less), and the scripture reference, and I'll make you a towel and send it to you!  You can leave the ideas in comments, and I'll post the winner on Wednesday, November 17, so you'll have your new towel by Thanksgiving! : )
Rules:
1.  It's really subjective, since I'm the judge.  If I have a few great ideas (like more than one!), I promise to put the ideas on folded paper, in a hat, and draw!  That makes it more fair. : )
2.  You can tell me your kitchen colors, and I'll match it.
3. Aren't little numbers down the side fun?
4. That's all.  Just enter to win.  Small print, read the small print.  There are no gimmicks, no guarantees, I'll post a picture of the winning towel.  Is it coming to your house?  You'll have to email me your address so I can send it to you!  Here's my email: busymom3370@yahoo.com.  I'll keep posting the contest every day till I get a winner on Wednesday, November 17th.  Don't sue me over this.  Don't be a sore loser.  If you win, you can send me a picture of the towel in your house!  If you are the winner, you have to send me your address, or I can't mail you your towel.  Please follow the rules, or the winner will have to be someone else.  I'll wrap your towel all cute so you'll feel extra special.  It's a late (ore early) birthday present!

Here are the ones I just finished for the Bazaar:

The khaki one says, "Mom's Kitchen"-it's in lime and hard to read!

 Don't you need one?!

Blizzard ®

Mary Claire called from school again, and guess what...?  Her tummy hurt.  She forgot her Zantac this morning, so she was asking for it.  I hate when she calls before I'm showered and um.."presentable".  I like to do all my work before I take a shower, so I can be comfy-and sweat!  But, it doesn't always work out.  I pulled my hair up, and headed out.  She was okay, and took her medicine (the horrible, nasty medicine.  I can vouch for her-I tried it!)
I also did something fun today!  I keep seeing these commercials on tv about buying old gold.  I was cleaning today, and looked through my old jewelry boxes, and had forgotten about all that old stuff!  I mean, I haven't worn gold since like..1999! (or 2003 maybe?)  I had bracelets, old necklaces (do you remember the gold ball necklaces-the ones that were hollow gold, and you got a new ball every year on your birthday? and if you sucked on them during tests, you'd accidentally bite/dent them?), and old rings, gold w-i-d-e earring hoops, and so much more.  I took it to my kitchen scale (*love* that thing!), and guess what it weighed?  7/8 of an ounce!  (They are currently paying a whopping $1390 an ounce!  Well..it says here it's at $1409!)  I thought I'd check into it!  I knew it was up to $850 a while back, but 1390 caught my attention.  Here's the Lowdown:

I took all my cute gift boxes (some original!) to a local jeweler that's been advertising on television, and thought I'd see what it was worth.  I had one ring with some platinum at the top, and a few things with stones & pearls in them.  The guy (seemed kinda nervous) read all the labels to check for karat weight-all 14 karat.  Then he weighed it all, subtracted for the platinum, and I got a little more for that.  He told me he thought I had enough for a small vacation, so I got excited!  Then he told me my grand total: an ounce, and it was worth $582.  (I wanna know-a vacation to where!!?)  I looked at him, and said they'd told me earlier that today's price was $1390 an ounce-and he said that's for pure 24 karat gold (of which I had none-it's so bend-y!)  So.  I debated on the pile he'd just mangled (after I'd kept the chains so perfect for so many years).  I decided to take it-I wasn't even using that stuff!  I love silver soo much more!  This other guy comes out, and starts laying out hundred dollar bills, then twenties, and then ones.  That was it.  No paperwork, no signing, just cash.  Huh.  So, there went my old eighties necklaces, and I was done.  I guess it was a teensy bit thrilling to walk out with hundred dollar bills and wonder what on Earth I was going to use it for! : )  Hahahaha-that was a fun trip-I totally suggest you try it-especially since it's at an all-time high!

So, then back to my life.  I cleaned, washed sheets, made beds, and started chopping broccoli (do you remember this song from Saturday Night Live? Love it!) for dinner (we were going to have the Sesame Broccoli Beef from Double Delicious with carrot puree).  I got Ethan, and ran by the bank to make a deposit (heeheehee) since it should not sit in my purse-it'll burn a hole!  Then we came home to play ZhuZhu hamsters and cars and firetrucks while we waited for the big kids to come home!  Did you know Batman hangs out with hamsters and firetrucks in our world?  Yeah, only at our house.  Baby Jesus also gets to ride the ferris wheel at Christmas! thanks to Fisher Price : )  We're cool like that.


Anyway, we had to get dinner on fast, since my van was ready!! : )  I was so excited, I've missed that big hunk of metal.  We had to barter, since the beef broccoli wasn't as tasty as the kids might have imagined (although Ches and I really did like it-with more salt-and Ethan ate all his "trees"!).  The kids had gotten free Blizzards as trick-or-treat Treats on Halloween, so we decided it was a good incentive, although we forgot we'd have two vehicles!  Ethan cried to go with me, then when we got back on the highway to come home, he cried to go with his daddy.  We took an exit, and traded him out.  Then back home to drop a van, and on to Dairy Queen!  When we were almost there, we realized we'd forgotten our coupons. : (  Well, we just got them anyway.  We'll have a treat another day-for free!  Have you ever gotten a Blizzard there-seriously?  We get those McFlurries at McDonald's all them time, but never There.  They have like a million, check out these pictures!:

For Cookie Lovers:

Cookie Dough
Mint Oreo
Oreo CheeseQuake
Cookie Jar
Double Fudge Cookie Dough

For Candy Cravers:

Reese Peanut Butter Cups
Butterfinger
Heath
M&Ms
Cappucino Heath

For Fruit Fans:

Banana Cream Pie
Strawberry CheeseQuake
Banana Split
Choco Cherry Love
Hawaiian
Chocolate Covered Strawberry
Rasberry Truffle

For Chocoholics:

Chocolate Xtreme
French Silk Pie
Turtle Pecan Cluster
Georgia Mud Fudge
Mocha Chip
Midnight Truffle

Let's see..we ordered Butterfinger, M&M, Cookie Dough, and Reese's (and Ches ordered tea-Wild Man.).  Don't give us those silly fruits-we dessert seriously!  I mean-we ate our broccoli!

Then, home and back to it.  Mary Claire's sweet friend, Jane, is loaning her some books since the school library never has them available for check out!  The first one, The Doll People, which I totally brought home for her this summer-and she didn't read-is so popular!  Anyway, we made Jane a Thank You/Bookmark!  Here is the front (oh, and Mary Claire had to have one too):

I just wrote, "Jane's Favorite Books", then some lines, then I was looking for clip art fonts, and Mary Claire liked lots of the pictures, so we put them all on there!  Maybe they can color them?

Mary Claire first picked a scrapbook zebra paper instead of cardstock, but it wasn't stiff enough, but she wanted to use it anyway.

Then it was time for Clay to get back to work on his thank you notes.  He had a lot of them, and he only started today!  It's probably half my fault.  I couldn't decide what to put on them, or whether to get picture thank you notes again.  Decisions.  And I really felt he was old enough (and fast enough) to write his own thank you notes.  Isn't 10 old enough?  (correct answer: yes)  So, I printed some cards and added little pop-ups of cardstock with movie pictures-like I used for the cupcake flags:

All the cards have different pictures on the fronts

And I have to show you one of the cards.  He makes me laugh!  (to myself, of course)  Whenever he used a brand name, he put the tiny R with a circle for Restricted (®) next to the words:

Can you see the tiny ® next to Monopoly?  (Totally ignore the mistakes-he did it himself, and I was thankful)  So cute!

I'm so thankful he can write his own thank you notes.  Even with the mistakes-it makes them real.  He's just so big now-they really do just grow up right in front of you. : )

Hidden Food

I have to learn code so I can use my own fonts.  I have SO many!  I like this plain one okay, but I'd love to dress it up.  Alas, not possible right now. : (

Mary Claire came home sick again today!  She's had that tummy ache since Saturday, and hasn't been able to eat.  She has no fever, no throwing up, and no weird poop.  I took her to the doctor, thinking it really could be something.  At our house, nothing is impossible!  The doctor told us to try Zantac (he says maybe acid reflux?) liquid 2x a day, and come back Monday if it's not better.  He also gave us a prescription for dissolving Zofran for when she's so sick and she can't eat or drink (especially when she's high or low!).

She was asking for a Zinger this afternoon, so I'd say she's at least 50% better!

I have been working on some items to donate for Springdale High's choir.  My friend is the choir director, and she's having a silent auction to raise money.  I made two monogrammed cups:

And I was working on making a white bath towel with an appliqued SHS, but I'm having trouble.  I don't know why the design on my jumpdrive won't show up on my sewing machine...  I'll keep working on it.  I've never done appliques with my embroidery machine, but I'm always up for learning something new!  I've heard that you just put the fabric on top of the item you are monogramming, then cut the fabric from around the stitches.  I know, it can't be that easy, but I'll let you know if I ever get it to work!

And while I'm laboring away on my computer/sewing machine, here's Ethan.

Just "working" away!  He tells me he's writing Happy Birthday and Congratulation notes for Mommy and Daddy and Everyone, and that he needs to mail them away to people.  He used most of a post-it pad, but I was glad to see him stay so focused for so long.  He's not crazy about writing (or coloring or drawing..), and I can't help him.  He's left-handed, and it's hard to teach when you are right-handed.  We colored lots last night, and he's trying to learn to stay in the lines.  We also worked on drawing people, since he's not-so-good at that (well, he just scribbles for people), but we'll keep at it.

You can't really see it, but his shirt says, "Bad Hair Day" with a spinosaurus, and I thought it fit him well today.

Alrighty, folks!  I have now made the Chicken Rice Soup from Double Delicious.  It took me two days, but All in the Name of Healthy. (I would totally suggest you take two days, since my entire family walked in our house yesterday-at different times-and told me how sTiNkY it was!  (It was the day I made the purees to go in the soup: Hidden Food.  I made cauliflower and carrot, and bagged them.  Apparently the cauliflower smelled super-gassy!)

This is the big head of cauliflower-it took forever to get into it-the green at the bottom was so stiff, and then they were packed tightly!  I had to just cut into a :stalk: to get into the thing!

Albino Broccoli

My first strainer-works in any size pot!  You have to keep the water level below the bottom of the strainer, or it'll leach out your vitamins!

My slightly fancier steamer!

All those carrots made just one cup of mush puree.

Obviously, cauliflower is full of hot air.  Remember the really full blender before?  It cooked down to this.

And here are my finished purees!

So..I finished the soup today, but I didn't take a picture.  All the chunky chicken, rice, and veggies were at the bottom, so it looked like orange-y water.  It tasted okay, not great.  I don't think I'd make it again.  I also made her cheese bread (I'm sure she called it something fancier) with bean paste (kinda like hummus: white beans, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper) and mozzarella on bread.  It was pretty good, but I'd toast the bread first next time, so it's crunchier.  I broiled it in the oven on a cookie sheet, so the bottom was just bread.  It was all just okay, nothing to write home about.  Sometimes all the work is for naught.  Yes, I still learned (that my sweet husband will eat anything I make, and that sometimes Clay will, and rarely Mary Claire.  Ethan gobbled up his cheese bread, but didn't like the soup.  Mary Claire was skeptical-she kept picking off the cheese asking what was under it.  I don't know why Mrs. Seinfeld hides beans-my kids love them!  I think they'd prefer to just eat them.)

Caramel Pecan Pumpkin Bread Pudding

I promised: Caramel Pecan Pumpkin Bread Pudding!

I'll give you the link for the recipe, you have to make it-it's AMaZiNg!  You really have to make this at least once this fall season.  I made it once to practice last year-ahh..wonderful!-then made it for Bunko and again for my family.  I haven't made it since last year, but I've already been thinking about it for two weeks..I just can't forget that amazing flavor.  (and it uses two cans of pumpkin-which is so healthy!) (extremely good source of vitamins A and C, essential for maintaining good eyesight and a healthy immune system, among other functions. It is also high in potassium, manganese, copper and one of the B vitamins, riboflavin. Not enough for you?  Then consider the fact that pumpkin contains considerable amounts of magnesium, phosphorus, iron, folate, vitamins E and B6, niacin, thiamin and pantothenic acid — and is low in salt, cholesterol and saturated fat. Phew!  from here)  So you really need some pumpkin bread pudding! : )

Ok, here's how you start (I did this part last night):

Ingredients:

• 4  large eggs
• 2  (15-oz.) cans pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1  cup half-and-half   (I use fat free)
• 1  cup granulated sugar
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 1/2  teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1  (12-oz.) French bread loaf, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 10 cups)  (if you get a big loaf at Wal-Mart, you only need 3/4 of it, they are 16 oz. loaves)

• CARAMEL-PECAN SAUCE:
• 1  cup pecans, chopped
• 1  cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2  cup butter
• 1  tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract

Start by whisking the eggs with the pumpkin, then add the next seven ingredients and mix well.  Then, add the bread pieces (I just let the kids tear up the bread!), cover with plastic wrap, and let sit over night (8-24 hours).

This is the torn-up bread (it was recommended that you use stale bread so the mixture would absorb better, but I had just bought it-so it may be more soupy, less firm.  We'll see!)

Here is the pumpkin mixture.

She's adding the bread! (so easy!)

I promise it gets better!  (It doesn't look so amazing right now.)

Then, the next day (maybe right before you sit down to dinner? Perfect for Thanksgiving!), you take out the mixture, and put it into lightly greased 9x13 dish (or you can use 12 ramekins, or two 8x8 dishes if you want to share your dessert-your choice!).  Cover with foil and bake covered at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, then uncovered for 15 minutes.

While the bread pudding is baking for the last 15 minutes, make your sauce (after dinner).  Heat the pecans over medium-low heat for about 4 minutes-keep stirring!  Then, I put them back in their measuring cup, and use the same pan for heating the brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup 3-4 minutes until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla and pecans.
Remove the bread pudding from the oven, drizzle the sauce over it (or them-if you made more than one!), and bake again for five minutes.

Here is the sauce, all lumpy:

Ethan grabbed my camera (I'll spare you all the pictures of my counter, bar stool, ceiling, floors...)

This is the latest, greatest thing, if you are wanting to get the "it" thing for your child for Christmas!  Hex bug nanos!  They are tiny vibrating things on rubber legs, and they vibrate around their "paths".  Ethan loves his (yes, he took the picture!):

Here is the sauce done:

And...Ready to Eat! : )

Here is a close-up of the yummy goodness:

We still have about 1/3 of our half. (1/6 of the whole-hahaha-I love math!)  It'll be gone tomorrow...now who to gift with the other half?? : )


Tomorrow: Double Delicious and purees and Chicken Rice Soup!