Homemade Wheat Crackers

Another experiment in whole grain cookery! I decided to try my hand at wheat crackers. They were very mediocre. The kids ate them, but they were decidedly bland. Who knew all the food additives were what was making store bought crackers so darn good!? ;) I won't bother posting the recipe. I am not deterred though! I am now determined to search for a recipe until I find one that is fabulous. Don't worry faithful readers, as I am sure that my adventures in cracker making are fascinating to you all, I will make sure to post when I find a winning recipe. Oh- and the little white dots are a handful of Quinoa I threw in.

A lap full of love, or, Dwight's legs go numb

Just thought I would share this great picture. The kids piled on top of Dwight for a hug fest. I wondered which would collapse first- Dwight, or the chair. Fortunately, both survived. The chair has been making a creaky noise ever since though.....

Also please notice the terrified look on Dwights face. Good thing I didnt add Susanna to the pile.

How do you spell C-O-O-L ?

Robert has earned a super duper AMAZING MAGIC TEST TAKING PENCIL!! oooooh!!! aaaaahhh!!
This fabulous pencil was earned by Robert getting 100% on three spelling tests in a row. He has had his eye on the magic pencil all year, so he is quite proud of his victory. Good job Robert!

Whole Grain Pancakes

I have been slowly and steadily changing the way we eat. The All American diet is creating a lot of health problems in this country. With heart disease in the family, Im determined to do all I can to better our chances of escaping it.I'm hoping the kids will embrace healthy eating as well and choose it for themselves as adults. Lately my goal has been to incorporate more whole grains into our everyday diet. I came across a recipe from King Aurthur Flour for a homemade whole grain pancake mix. It was easy and they came out really well. I thought it might be worth sharing-- so here it is.

Homemade Whole Grain Pancake Mix
4 C whole wheat flour ( I recently quit using hard red and went to using hard white wheat-- I will never go back! We love it!)
1 C white flour ( if you use hard white wheat, you can use it in place of the white flour)
3 1/2 C old fashioned oats ( whirl them in the blender until powdered)
3 TB sugar
3 TB baking powder
1 Tb salt
1 Tb Baking soda
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. With a mixer slowly incorporate:
1 C canola oil

When its done the mixture will resemble cornmeal. Store in an airtight container.
To use mix:
combine
1 C mix
1 C buttermilk
1 egg
~ allow to sit for 20 minutes, then bake as usual on a hot griddle.

Joey and Felicity make a fancy schmancy meal!

Joey loves to cook. She found the Felicity American Girl cookbook and announced she wanted to make dinner. (Hey - if someone else is going to cook, I'm not arguing!!!) She perused the pages and decided on something called Chicken Pudding. She did an excellent job, and the dish came out perfectly. It was rather a bland dish, but I think that is authentic to the era. It was kind of like chicken cooked with a cross between yorkshire pudding, and a biscuit. Interesting anyway! To round it out, she served a bowl of fresh strawberries, and a yummy salad.

Joey's new glasses

We recently found out that Joey has a condition called "Convergence Insufficiency". Basically, when she is doing tasks up close her eyes do not work together to focus as they should. They both want to focus on a different point. This causes lots of problems with reading and writing. The words and letters appear blurry, and seem to move in and out of focus. This is likely the cause of her dyslexia. Now she has a new pair of specs that should help a bit. Her vision is still 20/20, so these just have a prism in them to help them work together more efficiently. Here is Joey showing off her new glasses.

Easter Fun

We enjoy dying eggs every Easter. Our normal routine is coloring beautiful designs on the eggs, then dipping them in traditional dye. We colored them a little early this year, since we were planning to travel to Smithfield to spend Easter weekend at my parents house. We had lots of fun for a short time-- until they left suddenly to go to Colorado! Still, we stayed, visited with Ron and Jana, had our usual Easter festivities, and enjoyed General Conference. We are so grateful for the beautiful Easter season to remind us of our risen Savior.

It gets dusty in the desert......

Eagle Mountain is a dry desert area. When the wind picks up, it can get insanely dusty in a hurry! Here is a picture of the usual view- clear air and mountains. Next picture shows just how much dust there was- you cant even see the mountain!