Weekend

Friday Hallie had her first cavity fixing experience at the dentist.  I can't believe she is 14 1/2 and never had a cavity.  She was a bit nervous but did great.  She didn't love the numbing feeling and especially when it was waking up.  We ended up staying in town after her appointment and grabbed groceries.  Where we live 25 miles from the main stores, we try and utilize our trips to town.  We do have a little store here in Oakley about a mile away, but I try to only use it when I have to.  They are great but they are expensive and I can't afford to do all my shopping there.
Hallie's appointment wasn't until 3 pm and Macey was having a birthday party at 7 so Hallie and I stayed in town and Savanna drove the other kids in to go to the party.  My kids love to go play at cousins houses.  Saturday, Hallie had to dance in Twin Falls.  She performed in the 2 pm show and the 7 pm show.  It makes for a long day.  Savanna and Tallon decided to come at the last minute.  They walked the mall and then went to Skateland later.  We hung out at Kaydee's for a minute in between the shows.  Somewhere to just chill.  We hit Taco Bell on our way out of town and got home around 10:30.  Brad stayed home with the other 3.  They get super bored at those things.  Hallie did great.  Her Drill Team and her Main Motion group danced so she had a total of 6 dances.  It is a fund raising performance at CSI and all the money goes back to the studios for scholarships to kids who want to attend the CSI summer dance camp.  Maybe I can talk Hallie into going.  I think she would enjoy it.  It is just a scary thing to do.
This morning has just been a chilled Sunday morning.  I kind of like the 1 pm church time because we can just be lazy, but it makes it harder after.  I was on my phone this morning and ran across this facebook blog of a lady who talks about how her and her family are dealing with the death of their 3 year old son.  He drowned this last summer. Her blog is "Living for Garrett". I just have never experienced anything as traumatic as that and can only hope I don't, but I know our lives can change in a blink of an eye.  Just reading it has really left me very emotional this morning. She is such a strong person.  Her testimony is so strong and even though they are hurting they are still inspiring to those around them.   She really talks about how she misses the little things, like the spilled milk, and the toy messes, and the laundry that kids make.  All the things that moms are constantly complaining about.  I am guilty.  Reading this has given me a desire to be a better mom.  To take those daily challenges and try to enjoy them and appreciate them a bit more.
Here is to a family filled Sabbath Day.

Pancakes

We have pancakes quite regularly at our house.  I might have already posted this one but can't remember.


This batch makes about 6 pancakes, so double according to how many you need.


1 cup flour
1 TBS bking powder
1 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 TBS oil canola or vegetable
3/4-1 cup milk



Mix flour, B Powder, sugar and salt in a bowl.  Mix together with a fork.  In another bowl, mix egg, oil and milk.  I like to save a little of the milk and see how thick it is before adding a bit more if needed.

Add wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients.  Mix with a fork.  The key to fluffy pancakes is to not over mix them.  You want the batter to be a bit lumpy.  Not quite as lumpy as cottage cheese, but lumpy.
I like to cook mine on an electric griddle.  I set it around 400.  I like to use real butter on my grill instead of spray.  It just adds to the all around yummy flavor in the end.  I use 1/3 cup measuring cup to pour onto grill.  Let them cook on one side til you see little bubbles start to form or the bottom is getting lightly browned.  Flip and repeat.

If you would like to make these into a buttermilk pancake, then you can substitute 3/4 cup buttermilk and 1/4 regular milk.  The buttermilk is really thick so will need a bit thinning with regular milk.
If you don't have any real buttermilk there is a little old fashioned trick.  Take your cup of milk and add 1 TBS of vinegar to it and let it sit for a couple minutes before adding it to your recipe.  I know it sounds crazy, but it works and I can't taste the difference from real buttermilk.

You could also use half wheat and half white flour if you want to give them the whole wheat taste, which I like but my kids don't.  I don't like to use all wheat just because it changes the science behind it.  they are less fluffy.  So if you are needing them to be healthy, you may have to just eat a bowl of oatmeal:)

Some ways we love our pancakes:

peanut butter and syrup
butter and powder sugar
butter and brown sugar (my favorite-it tastes a bit caramely)
butter and homemade raspberry jelly
butter and almond syrup

I grew up on homemade syrup

2 cups sugar
1 cup water

bring to a boil.  Take off heat and add maple flavor or you could do almond flavoring.