Friday's Fabulous Family Recipe

Last week while the snow was generously falling, I pulled out a couple recipes and the hot chocolate started flowing freely.

I have to be honest.

I ended up using two different recipes.

I just didn't like the way the first batch turned out.

I had forgotten about the silt that forms on the bottom of the pan.

I had forgotten how the powdered milk formed this sort of nasty thick layer that rose to the top and was kind of yucky to sip through.

So I ditched the first recipe and tried another one. We all liked that one much better. I'm going to include the first recipe because I think that foundationally, it is good. I just can't figure out how to solve the "silt on the bottom of the pan" issue. Maybe you can. Let me know if you do.

(I even tried grinding the powdered milk and dry ingredients finer in the blender before adding the water.......still no good.)

Hot Chocolate #1

1 cup nonfat dry milk powder

5 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons baking cocoa

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Dash of salt

3 cups boiling water

In a saucepan, combine the milk powder, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt.

Add boiling water, stir until milk powder is dissolved.

5 servings

(You can see in the above picture that I tried putting everything in the blender first, to make it finer, but I still had problems with it.)

Hot Chocolate #2

(My children's favorite)

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3 cups skim milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium saucepan stir together sugar and cocoa powder. Gradually stir in milk till smooth. Heat over medium heat till warm.

Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

Makes 4 (6 oz.) servings

And then with all the cold weather, my children just DEVOURED the new instant oatmeal recipe that I just found for breakfast. With the host of health issues my children have, I'm on the lookout for healthy new ways to feed them. I found this recipe on the Homemaking Homesteader's blog, and it's WONDERFUL!!! Click here to see the recipe and all her pictures because it's quite well done and easy to follow. It's delicious, healthy, and my children LOVE it!!

Snow ICE CREAM!!!

Growing up in Northwest Ohio, snow was a regular, frequent, and eventually monotonous part of every winter. I enjoyed lots of winter activities from sledding to fort building to ice skating to "snow days" from school. But it wasn't until I was living in New Hampshire as a newly graduated college student that I tried this recipe. I found it in a great cookbook that I will share at a later time.

Since we NEVER have enough snow to make this, I thought that last week's snow event would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to introduce this to my children. They were very intrigued to say the least.

I have to be honest though, and confess that I was not completely enamored by the results this time around. I truly believe that the TYPE of snow we had last week was too heavy and wet and grainy for this recipe to turn out as good as I remember it. Maybe it's just New Hampshire snow, but I think it would have worked better if it had been the finer, more powdery kind of snow that doesn't make great snowmen. Anyway, we had such fun finding clean snow and then tasting something new!!! Yummy!!

Snow Ice Cream

Serves 8 children

Stir together lightly:

2 1/2 quarts clean snow

1/2 cup milk or cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sugar

Eat right away!

Does not freeze and keep well.

I used a 5 quart ice cream pail to gather our snow.

Mix everything together until well blended.

Again, this wasn't the kind of "ice cream" as you think of in the soft serve machines.

Ours turned out more watery and slushy.

I tried several batches with less milk and more snow and vice versa, and came up with

the same result every time.

It was just the texture of the Texas snow!!

But it sure tasted sweet and delicious!!!

Whiter than snow

This last Thursday morning, my oldest daughter awoke before the sun was up. When she peeked out her window and saw all the snow, she immediately woke her 5-year old sister who was sharing the top bunk with her, so she too could see the excitement happening outside. Of course, they had to wake me up at that time too to let me know about this, so after I told them their daddy had already told me at 4:30 am when he was leaving for work, I sent them back to bed. I could hear them whispering on and off for a little while, then silence again.

Later that morning, once we were all up and eating some breakfast, my oldest daughter casually told me about her conversation with her little sister in the wee hours of the morning with the snow softly falling outside.

She said, "Mom, I told her that her sins could be made whiter than the snow. Abby got saved this morning."

Well, that perked my ears up right away. I asked her to tell me again about their conversation, and then knew I needed to follow up with her right away.

See, for several months now we've been talking with Abby about her need for salvation. She knew that she was a sinner as the Scripture tells us we all are in Romans 3:23. She knew that she could not have a home in Heaven because of the sin in her heart, and because that sin separates her from God as we read in Romans 3:23 and John 3:3, 6, 15, 16,17 and 18. She knew that Jesus Christ died in her place and paid the price for her sin by His shed blood as the Bible tells us in Romans 6:23, and I Corinthians 15:3 and4. She understood that she needed to ask Jesus to forgive her of her sins and to come into her heart as we explained to her from Romans 10:9, 10 and 13. But we just weren't convinced that she was completely understanding the entire concept together.

But that morning we were given a magical picture in nature to illustrate what God does with our sin when we ask for forgiveness and cleansing:

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:

though your sins be as scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow....."

Isaiah 1:18

When I read that to her from the Bible and she saw what was blanketing our yard and trees, it became perfectly clear to her. So, in her mommy's bed, tucked under the covers, we prayed and she asked Jesus to forgive her of her sins and to come into her heart. It was a very precious moment, and made that amazing snowfall even more extraordinary to our family!!

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

Psalm 51:7

Whiter Than Snow

Words: James Nicholson, 1872. Music: William Fischer.

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to live in my soul.
Break down every idol, cast out every foe;
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Refrain

Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow.
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Lord Jesus, let nothing unholy remain,
Apply Thine own blood and extract ev’ry stain;
To get this blest cleansing, I all things forego—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Refrain

Lots...of....SNOW!!!

This past Thursday and Friday we received 12.5 inches of snow in less than a 24-hour period.

It was magical.

For north Texas, it was crazy.

Many of my neighbors have lived here their entire lives, and had never seen that much snow at one time. They literally didn't have the experience to know how to deal with all of it.

I took several walks around the neighborhood during that time, and it was really interesting to watch how everyone's attitude evolved during that time.

At first, it was wonder and excitement. It was unusual to see snow AT ALL, much less watch it accumulate on the ground. The children were in and out ALL day making snowmen and having snow ball fights. The hot chocolate was flowing freely!!

This was the tree in our front yard on Thursday morning.

This is our driveway and van on Thursday morning.

This is our neighbor's tree on Thursday morning.

Ashlyn's snowman on Thursday.

By evening time on Thursday night, the excitement turned to concern and even mild fear. Since that morning, we had received probably another 7 inches of snow, with more to come through the night. There was talk about roofs collapsing. The power on our entire street started flashing on and off. As folks were arriving home from work, they were sliding around and getting stuck trying to get into their driveways. Most were trying to shovel with measly GARDEN shovels.

By bedtime, we had no power. We bundled up the children in clothes and let them sleep together on the sofa bed to keep warm.

On Friday morning, the power was back on, miraculously. Nobody could move though. There has never been snow like this before, so the cities don't invest in snow plows or salt for the roads. We are literally snowed in!!

The same tree in our front yard on Friday morning.

Did you notice Ashlyn's snowman there at the bottom of the picture on the left?

Our van in the driveway on Friday morning.

This is our neighbor's tree partially laying in our driveway on Friday morning.

I heard something unusual outside on Friday morning, and when I looked out the window I saw someone trying to help get the roads cleared off. He went up and down one time and I never saw him again. See his dog following behind him?

Trees were down all over the place, and this was at the end of our street.

This tree had fallen from someone's yard over the street sign into the street.

Valentine Fun!!

This past week really was quite magical because we had record breaking snow fall in our area.

Folks who have lived in Texas all their lives told me they had never seen that much snow.....especially in a 24-hour period.

Pictures of that are coming this week!!

But because we were essentially "snowed in", I couldn't get out to the store and pick up

a lot of things for Valentine's Day.

But I was able to pull together some things I had in storage from last year's clearance sales, to have a really fun impromptu Valentine's Party for my family.

My husband took the children out for a few minutes and drove them around to see

some of the snow damage while I put all the decorations out!!

Take a peek.....

Update on Intuniv......week 3

Don't get the impression that my poor son is laying around all day sleeping now that he is taking Intuniv.

But I do notice when he falls asleep involuntarily during the bright daylight hours. This was only the 2nd time in his entire lifetime that he has fallen asleep "accidently."

I snapped a picture of him yesterday afternoon after a fun morning of playing outside in our record breaking snow event here in Texas.

He was like this for maybe a half hour or 45 minutes, and then he was back up and outside for more fun. He even went right to sleep at his normal bedtime too!!

I can tell a difference in how I'm feeling also now that he is getting more regulated on this medication.

He is much calmer and cooperative, and he isn't spending his downtime irritating his siblings.

He seems to be able to just sit down quietly and watch some TV with us, or play quietly with his own little toys. I'm feeling much more relaxed and not as high strung because of his constant

flitting around and conflicts. Whew!!!

Up to this point (and we're up to 3 mg. and our 3rd week of taking it), I have seen no adverse reactions or side effects. The ugly mask of anger and frustration seems to be coming off

and we're seeing a better engaged, happier, less irritating child.

1 year anniversary

One year ago today.

We had no idea what was to come.

We had no idea we would be sent immediately to the emergency room.

We had no idea we would spend the next three days in Children's Hospital.

We had no idea how this would change our lives and hers......forever.

We had no idea how overwhelming her care would now be.

We had no idea how this would change her........and us.

Type 1 Diabetes......

One year ago today.

This picture was taken just about 2 weeks before we received Ashlyn's diagnoses.

(January 2009)

This is Ashlyn one year from the above picture!

(January 2010)