What a difference a week makes

I took the girls swimming at a friend’s community pool last Wednesday. I didn’t put sun screen on my legs thinking it wouldn’t be necessary. That was my first mistake. Haha Once I felt the burn, I quickly put sun screen on, but it was too late. I got a severe burn on my ankles, legs and feet. OUCH! The girls were fine. They had a blast and it wasn’t until later that evening when I couldn’t walk right that Elaina noticed she was “burnt really bad too”. Have I mentioned that she is very talented at developing illnesses I have? I have to make sure if I get sick, not to mention it around her or she will develop the same symptoms. Haha These pictures don't really do justice to the redness of my poor defenseless feet.  I can tell you they made/make the coolest purple color when I put on the blue aloe vera gel!  haha

This is how they looked after going to the pool. Not so bad, eh? I didn’t think so. I just knew I was on fire and couldn’t walk right. 

This is Saturday evening. My ankles had swollen to where there wasn’t much difference between them and my calves. Do I even have to mention how bad it hurt? :) I was banished to my room and had to prop my legs up. Jake stayed with me during most of my banishment. We had a friend come over and give me a blessing. That was a very helpful. :)

This is how they looked today – a week later. They look MUCH better! I’m so excited. I have been able to sleep thru most of the night for a couple nights now! I’m so excited. I think I may even be able to wear pants again soon. Who knew wearing pants could be so exciting! haha

Mozzarella Sticks

I was looking at some older recipes of Pioneer Woman because I haven’t read her blog in a while. I know. I’m a very sad person! Haha Anyway, She had a recipe for homemade mozzarella sticks (Click on the link for the recipe, and YES, this is her picture above. haha). She went on and on about how much better the homemade ones are than the store bought ones. I LOVE mozzarella sticks. I had a little chat with myself and decided that since I LOVE the store bought stuff SO much, I owed it to myself to try the homemade kind. They would either turn out super yummy or not worth the effort, if you know what I mean. :) Well, Pioneer Woman was right, as usual. They are to DIE for! OK. Maybe DIE is a strong word. But these things make your knees bend and your mouth cry with excitement! They aren’t too difficult to make either.

First, you need Panko crumbs. I had never heard of them until this recipe. I am thoroughly impressed with these bread crumbs. I found mine in my local Kroger store beside the regular bread crumbs. They had some pre-seasoned ones ($3.49), but I opted for the regular ones ($1.49). Was there ever a doubt which ones I bought? Haha I just added Italian seasoning and some extra parsley to mine. :)

Then you take the cheese sticks and cut them in half. The hardest part is getting the cheese sticks out of their packaging. ;)

Then you dip them in flour. Just make sure they are covered well. This is what helps the egg/crumb mixture stay on the sticks.

Then dip in the egg. I found it easier to use a fork to help with this. It helped all the egg “drippings” to “drip” off. Haha

Then throw it in the panko crumbs. I just pushed the crumbs around the stick while gently pressing them into the egg mixture.

Then place on a pan or plate. Once they are all finished, put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This apparently helps them to stay together a little better when you fry them. :)

Once they have waited their 30 mins, drop them in oil and fry until golden brown. We had enough to let cool completely then place in a freezer bag so we can use and enjoy just like ones you get from the store. YEAH!

Got Marbles?

I was reading the magazine Family Fun while waiting in a doctor’s office one day and came across a very interesting article. It mentioned a family that used marbles to get their kids to help with chores and things and that it worked really well for their family. I thought to myself, I have a ton of kids that don’t like helping with chores. I should try something like that. That’s when the wheels started churning and my brain hurt ~bad!

I sat down and wrote out a bunch of different chores (job list, if you will). It’s nothing fancy like my talented sisters would spin out, but it will do.  :)  Just a simple table with 3 columns. I then proceeded to put a marble amount on everything. Apparently, I am a bit too giving because Mike had me to re-adjust my marble amounts. I’m a bit too free with my marbles. Maybe that’s where they are all going. Haha

Then I wrote out some “Rewards” to “buy” with the marbles. I had the kids help me with these so they would actually want to use their marbles. Don’t worry. I was a bit too “proud” of my rewards and had to re-adjust them as well. I wouldn’t want this list to think it was any better than the Job list! Haha

Then I took the kids to Goodwill. I let them pick out a container to put their marbles in. Can you guess which one belongs to whom? I was surprised at the choices, but after they were picked, the universe made sense once more. The girls picked plain glasses (Emma's has a blue tint and Elaina's has a pink tint) to decorate with different jewels and trinkets. Josh picked a fish. He was sure to put overly large jiggly eyes on it and paint it to accent the many colors (or something like that). Jake was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him get a solid piece of ceramic. Then he found a Lord of the Rings glass and he was happy. Oh the joys of picking out your own marble container! Haha

Then we went to Dollar Tree and got the marbles. I had some, but needed a few more. Plus, we needed to look at what jewels and trinkets they had we could glue on the glasses. :) We found some colorful ones and some star shaped ones. Everyone wanted a star, so I made them worth 5 marbles and only given out for special things. Haha Way to trick those kids into thinking they were getting something special. :)

Emma wants it known that she is leading the pack. She finally saved over 100 marbles and just traded them in for $10 CASH! Josh wanted to make sure I mentioned that he would have over 100 marbles, but he spent 40 on extra computer minutes. Poor thing. Haha Yesterday, Elaina told me that she doesn’t like this new game (yep, that’s what she called it). But since Emma turned hers in for cold hard cash, I think she has changed her mind a bit. Now she is asking what she can do tomorrow for more marbles. Yeah. I think we will keep this system for a while!