I call them "Cake Donut Muffins"

On the weekends I always try to make some kind of special breakfast if we're not needing to rush out the door.
I love to look for recipes online.  Several months ago I found the French Breakfast Muffins at MrBreakfast.com and started making them.  What caught my eye is that the recipe says it tastes like a cake donut and I LOVE cake donuts!!  These have become my "go to" muffin!  Quick, easy and oh so yummy!!
Just recently I got to looking through The Pioneer Woman's blog and found the almost exact same recipe, just called French Breakfast Puffs.  I love reading through her recipe posts because they are filled with such humor and additives!
After looking at both recipes I took suggestions from each.  The one I found from Mr Breakfast just has you dip the tops.  Which, if you are trying to save a few calories (hee hee!!  yeah right!)  then you might want to do just the tops.  But if you want a nice, moist muffin.  I suggest the Pioneer Woman way!!  I reduced the amount of butter she suggested (that you roll the muffins in after baking) to 1 stick and a few more tablespoons and reduced the cinnamon & sugar by half.  So many recipes leave you with a bunch left over that you can do nothing with but throw away.  The reduction was perfect.  I had none left over.
Last Fall when Jerry's parents came to visit they brought Brennan a train muffin/cake pan.  So I decided to do train muffins.  They turned out great!!

And I couldn't have said it any better than The Pioneer Woman:
Oh my. I’m really sorry I’ve introduced you to these. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I realized I’m going to have to answer to my Maker for spreading this corruption around the world.  But the happiness you’ll feel when you take your first bite makes it all worth it to me.
Give them a try!

They keep me in stitches!

We I have made a point of having dinner together as a family.  In the past, due to Jerry working at an office as opposed to now, working at home, the kids often times ate before we did.  Now we can have dinner together and we have some great conversations that way!
This weekend we were having some great convos at dinner and randomly Karis was talking about Brennan being "this big." She was holding her fingers so far apart.....what the size of a seed would be.  Then I proceeded to say that he was once, when he was in my tummy.  Hubby decided to get all technical and said, somewhat under his breath, "Well, actually in your uterus!"  "Do you really want to go there?!" I said!  Ha!
Then they got to talking about growing in mama's tummy.  We've talked to Karis a lot about adoption and growing in someone else's tummy but that God always planned for her to be in our family.
So Karis says "not me."  And Reegan says "No, Karis.  You grew in daddy's tummy."  Oh did we all about roll on the floor from laughter!!
And I just love the fact that I have a daughter that at this age (I hope & pray it stays that way) is very secure in the fact that she is adopted and it's ok that she grew in someone else's tummy!  She is a part of THIS family and she knows it!  Love it!

Zoo Praha

Some homeschooling mom friends decided to take a trip to the zoo and extended the invitation.  That was on our to do list for some vacation time the hubby is taking this next week.  It's fun to go with other people, but also exhausting when you've got so many kids, mine being the littlest, and running in all kinds of directions and hoping praying they are with someone.
When we went through training to come overseas we took a trip with several families one weekend and I was the one to organize the trip.  Everyone kept calling me the "camp counselor."  I like to make sure that everyone is taken care of and not left behind.  I also have everything needed in my purse in case of an accident or a spill.  And that was before my kids came along!!
It has definitely extended to my kiddos.  I like to know where they are at ALL times and I get my "knickers in a twist" (love that British phrase!) if they are out of site for longer than 5 seconds.  But this is one area that I don't mind being overly cautious!
I got a little nostalgic thinking back to the first time we brought them to the zoo.  Look at them!  They were so little!

That was in October of 2007!  Wow!  Right before we headed back to the States for our stateside assignment (furlough).

And here they are now!

There were these crazy monkeys that we were watching.  Jerry was taking all kinds of pics.  And this guy looks right at him and smiles for the camera!

Is that not hilarious?!

All our monkeys kids posing.

Our kids always like looking in the zoo gift shop and try their hardest to talk us into buying something.  We walked away with some lapel pins!  We really didn't want to buy anything unless it had the zoo name on it!  And they didn't have much, not for kids anyway.  But while perusing.  Look at what the hubby found!

A calendar about animal poop!  My hubby has had some hilarious photo ops with pooping animals (and it would take me too long to go digging for them, so just take my word!).  This calendar was so appropriate!  This will probably grace his desk long past 2010!! 

Cookin' Time Tuesday

I'm posting this late, but had to share anyway.
I am having such a great time hosting a twice a month cooking time at my place as an outreach through Bridge Community.  We had 11 this past Tuesday and we learned how to make Tanzanian pilau (pilaf).

 Looking on for instructions

 Our chef for the night

 Oh my!  Was it ever awesome!!  If you like sweet and savory, you would like this recipe!!  The aroma of those spices lingered for a couple of days and I loved it!!  I've got to go on a search for some of the spices because I really want to make it again!

We also celebrated my colleague & friend, Mary Ann's birthday!!  I decided to make my family's traditional birthday cake, a Lizzy Cake.  Not sure where that name came from, but it is what it is.  A note on the recipe says my dad was weaned on this cake!!  Ha!  A nice yummy, fudgy cake where you drizzle an icing over the top and it soaks in, especially the corners and sides!  Yum!!  And I love any reason to make this cake!

Next on the menu will be Borsch!!  I love borsch!!  Even though one of the ingredients is beets (which turns most Americans off) this is not the main ingredient and is really tasty!  I love how cross cultural our recipes have been!  It's so fun!!

"Show Us Your Life" Cleaning Tips

At Kelly's Korner this week we are sharing cleaning tips.  You can go there to see others tips as well.
I'm finding that I cannot use products with a lot of bleach in them.  It makes me feel worn out and just awful.  I then had some online friends mention how they use baking soda & vinegar.

It is SO cheap and works really well.  Vinegar has a strong smell, of course, but the smell doesn't linger long and the results are amazing!  No yucky fumes I have to breath in!  And did you know that vinegar kills a high percentage of bacteria, mold & viruses? Sometimes I just sprinkle on some soda and then spray with vinegar or you can make an all purpose solution by using 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup soda and 1/2 gallon of water.
I''ve also recently learned the cleaning abilities of hydrogen peroxide.  From whitening whites to removing blood from clothing & furniture.  I haven't tried it yet, but I will!!
And my all time favorite cleaning product in Europe is this:

 Cillet Lime & Rust Remover.

Oh. My. Word.  This stuff just gets all that soap scum and gunk off better than anything!  Hardly any scrubbing in those hard to reach areas on shower heads and faucets.  This stuff just makes it sizzle right away!!

If you have a great cleaning tip you have, please share!

Keeping It Real

I am joining in (albeit late) on Kristen's Keeping It Real.  Instead of putting our best on our blog we are showing our true selves!
I've talked about our consistent pj days.  If we're not going anywhere, why dirty clothes?!  We'll just stay in our pjs all day!  Cuts down on laundry and energy, so I'm doing the world some good, right?
Another is my girl's hair. 

Reegan's hair isn't so bad, but she's got long straight hair and hardly looks bad except for a messy ponytail.
Since Karis decided to take the scissors to her hair it is even more of a mess!  But why worry about it when we're not going anywhere.  Of course, sometimes I forget about it when we ARE going somewhere.  Then I am frantically doing what I can to make it lay down.  Here is a day at home!

Isn't that wild?!!  Whoa!!

So, that's how I'm keeping it real!  We don't always look our best and my pictures sometimes reflect that! Ha!

Oh the things they say!

My kids are constantly cracking me up with their vocabulary.  Too many times I forget to write it down and then it's lost forever.  But today, I got a good one from Brennan!

It is finally gorgeous outside after our very LONG winter!  I think we hit 60 degrees today.  The kids, well, a certain two....I won't name names.....it rhymes with Paris & Mennen!!  Ha!
Oh those 2 are constantly at it with each other!  Anyway,  the weather was beautiful and I really wanted to get out, but they would not get a long during the afternoon play time in their room.  All I ask is that they stay in their room and play.  I've given up on it being "quiet time" if mama can just have some down time!  But those 2 kept on coming out constantly.  I told them if they would let me get ready we could go to the park.  Of course they decided not to and thus aggravated their mama to no end and I said "no park!"  I do have to add that things got a little better and Karis then picked up the whole room by herself.  I was impressed.
Later on daddy had the brilliant idea to go out for dinner to the kid's favorite spot, Flora.  Flora is a mall that is 2 bus or tram stops away.  I was ready to say "no" as it was a pj day for 2 of them.  Ha!!  But I knew we needed to get out and they always sleep better anyway, why not?!

Many times we like to walk and being such a gorgeous day we did just that.  On the walk there we sometimes take a little detour......through a cemetery (Hřbitovy).   It may seem strange to some to walk through a cemetery, but take a look at it!

Fallen stone, how sad!

These are mausoleums and behind is the mall.  Showing the old and new!

It is quite gorgeous and it is huge!  From what I've read there are many famous Czechs buried here.  

Ok, got off topic but I HAD to share the beauty of this cemetery!  We were walking along and quite randomly Brennan says "Why'd you buy 3 kids, mom?"  I laughed so hard, he is always making me laugh, and wondered if I heard him right.  Jerry asked me if he said what he thought he said and pipped up with God giving them to us.  Very true but then I started thinking of the validity of his question because actually we DID, in a sense, pay for our kids!!  Between adopting Karis and going through IVF to have twins you could say we paid for them!  Ha!  I didn't go into that with him though!

We had so much fun.  I was so thankful this was a fun night out, because you know, sometimes we've had some doozies where I wonder why we even left the house.  The kids are complaining, food gets all over them, kids being mean to them in the play area, whatever.  But this was an all around great night out!!  And to think, I didn't even want to go!!

Our First Loose Tooth

Last night Karis complained of her tooth hurting.  Honestly, I thought nothing of it.  That girl will do anything to get out of bed and delay going to sleep!  I guess I should have listened on that one.  But she complained again of it this morning and it dawned on me that she could have a loose tooth.  Sure enough!  Not only is one of her bottom front teeth loose but the adult tooth has already broken the skin and about 1/3 of the way out.  I rushed her to Jerry before he went to a meeting (on his computer) and showed him.  He was adamant that this wasn't normal and we should see the dentist.  Sure, I'd never seen it before but really, the dentist??  Little did he realize that he was beginning to scare Karis.  I could tell she was upset and thinking about it and all the sudden burst into tears.  I started talking excitedly about it, that her tooth would come out and she knew what that meant!  A visit from the tooth fairy!

I went ahead and called the dentist and made an appointment.  Then began researching online and found that this is common!  We also went to the park today, so I took the chance to talk to the other moms.  One of their daughters had a top tooth doing the exact same thing.  So, to save us (and the IMB) some money, I think I'll cancel that appointment and see how it progresses over the next few days.  Then we can decide if a trip to the dentist is necessary.  I think that eased her worry some. 
The tooth is hurting a bit and she is not wanting to chew in that area, so we'll give it a couple of days.
I can't believe that we have hit this phase of growing up.  Losing a tooth.  It seems exciting to me!!  Karis even asked me why I am so excited.  She doesn't seem to remember how anxiously excited she was to loose a tooth after a conversation with another child at our annual meeting last summer.  Silly girl!
The loose tooth & new one poking in.  Can you see it on the left there?

Pics from the park. My park buddies!

 Brennan & Reegan had that best time on the slide, just laughing & cutting up.  It's so fun to watch when they do that!

Sunday, God's DVD Day

At the end of the week we finally received our much anticipated paperwork to proceed with our visa applications for Spain.  This weekend we have spent much time preparing the application and getting all the papers in order.  We hope to submit it all sometime this week!  Finally!!  We feel as if we are finally moving forward!!



We have ALL kinds of Christian dvds for the kids.  Some of our favorites are Cedarmont Kids

Boz the Bear

Auto B Good

Max Lucado's Hermie & Friends

 

We even have several Veggie Tales dvds, probably 5-6 of them and our kids don't like a single one!

It has been ages since we have watched any of our Christian kid's dvds, so I started thinking about how I could force encourage the kids to watch them.  We have quite the satellite system setup, so our dvds have taken a back seat.  So I decided that from now on Sundays will be Christian dvd only days.  This is God's day, so what we watch will be a way to learn more about God and Glorify Him!  They weren't too excited about that when they wanted to watch Spiderman or 101 Dalmatians.  But eventually they accepted it.
Today we watched a couple of our Cedarmont Kid favorites.  One of our Bible stories this week was Joshua fighting the battle at Jericho and one of our Cedarmont Kids dvds has the song on it.  But my favorite today was Really Woolly The Tree of Life.

We'd seen it before, but it had been quite awhile.  Oh my goodness, what a precious story!!  It's about a beloved tree that the family has played on since the parents were kids and it will have to be cut down to build a new road.  The kids can't bear the thought of losing their favorite place to play.  With the help of their family and the wisdom of the Bible, they soon discover that sometimes, we must lose something we love for the greater good. It discusses the sadness of death and the joy of resurrection! 
Seriously, I got teary eyed and had chills at how it so boldly and simply shared the plan of salvation!  I will be plugging it in more often!!

Remember those Toasted Raviolis I blogged about?  Well, I found a store that sells frozen ones and snagged some up this week and made them for lunch today!  Homemade is wonderful, but these were definitely a close second.  Not to mention that it saves tons of time and my kids loved them!
Epicurious has a similar recipe except that we used regular milk and frozen raviolis.  They were great!!

We ended the day well by worshiping at our Sunday Gathering, Bridge Community.  Complete with taking the Lord's Supper.  What a great way to wrap up our Sunday!!

"Show Us Your Life" Mission Trips

Hi there!  If you're new to my blog then let me fill you in.  My hubby and I have been living in Europe for the past 11 years.  We moved to Russia in 1999 and lived there for almost 2 years.  Then moved to Prague, Czech Republic where we have been living for almost 9 years.  Sometime in the next few months we will be relocating to Madrid, Spain.  Same job (our main focus anyway which is media communications) but joining in with local International Mission Board missionaries there in the work the Lord is doing there.

I think people sometimes think "Europe" and that we've got it easy over here.  History, architecture, beauty, sure, it's gorgeous!  But we don't live the life of a tourist every day.  This is a lost part of the world!!  When you are battling the "We've got what we need to live, what else do we need?"  mentality, it can be a long, hard journey.  When things like pornography, prostitution, racism, evil, sin, oppression weighs heavy on this city and even the country as a whole.  It. is. scary!  But the Lord has called us to it and we are faithful in the call!!

One of our most exciting and really fall in our laps, only God can do opportunities was being a part of a Russian speaking church plant in the city of Prague.  There are many Russian speakers that move to Prague to start a new life.  We started out with 5 people (not including us) meeting in one of their homes.  And that group has grown to a church of 100 members or more.  We were just in the right place at the right time to help them through this process.  We got to see God at work in several lives and give their lives over to Him.  Praise God!!

Our church's first baptism!

A few of our members.

We are looking forward to new opportunities as we move to Madrid and being a part of what God is doing there!

I Was Wrong

Yesterday while I was out on the town I had a headache hit.  The first approach of administering ibuprofen didn't seem to be working.  It finally dawned on me this morning that it must be due to the weather, a barometric pressure change headache.  It always seems to happen when the weather changes like this.  Obviously I am self diagnosing here.  I'm good at that!  Ha!   The weather has gone from the 30s to the 50s at a rapid rate.  It makes sense.

Ok, so that's not what the title of my post is about, but due to the headache this morning I haven't felt like doing much.  I did some research online to see if there were other remedies that might help.  Jerry convinced me I should take a decongestant and I also found that peppermint oil is a good home remedy.  Something is working.  Maybe I shouldn't have taken them all at the same time because now I don't know which one it is.  Ha!

I had planned on doing some school today, but with this migraine type headache I was in no mood shape to do it.  Karis asked if she could do some school, so I got a few things out for them.  One being glitter glue.  I got to thinking about this nifty little invention and how cool it really is.  They can play with glitter without all the mess.  Even Brennan was getting into it!

 And I was still thinking how cool this stuff is.  Until about a half hour later when Karis points out some glitter glue on the bean bag.  Not cool!  I'm now thinking this stuff is the death of me!  Ha!  Ok, that's exaggerating a bit.    See that little shimmer of glitter.

 Luckily an eraser sponge saved me.  I wasn't able to get all the glitter off, but I'm fairly sure I got all the glue, so the glitter should fall off in time!

Headache or no I was determined to get out, so I texted my friend, Rinata to see if they could go to the park.  And so we did!  I was cracking up at Brennan because he was adamant about wearing his gloves!  I told him that it was really warm outside.  What a creature of habit!!  We hit 55 today!  I told him to see once we got outside and he was still adamant, so I gave in.  Choosing my battles!  Ha!

 He played half the time with those things on, then we pulled out the snacks and Rinata talked him into taking them off.  And he left them off after that!  Silly boy!
They are holding on to a jump rope that we brought and sliding down.  They thought that was fun!

My twinks (as my friend Kellye calls them Karis & the twinks)11

We also saw our friend Milada & daughter, Katka at the park.  Here are all our kiddos having a good time!!  Such a great day to be outside!!

I am just so happy that Spring seems to be on its way!!  Finally!!

Tour Guide or Not

We had some colleague/new friends that were visiting.  We had them over for dinner last night and just chatted.  Then today I took them around town.  Now let me say that we have had our fair share of visitors, but I am the worst tour guide!  Ha!!  I pride myself on knowing a lot of the ins and outs of the city.  Hidden passage ways through downtown and other hidden spots, but I am awful on the info!  People will ask me what a statue is or a certain building and I haven't a clue!  Of course Prague is one of those cities that has SO much history that it is difficult to know and remember it all. 
Here are a couple of spots we stopped at today.  The Upside Down Horse & Wenceslas.  You know, the famous "Good King Wenceslas?" from the Christmas carol?  That would be him. 

"This was sculpted in 1992, three years after the end of Communist rule. It was to symbolize the topsy-turvy days of free enterprise, and what Wenceslas would think of it all."  That is one explanation I've read anyway.  I read an interview with the sculptor and his work is fueled by rage.  Wow!  How sad.  He sure needs Jesus!!

This is the proper statue on the square named for him.  Wenceslas Square or in Czech "Vaclavske Namesti" (and the national museum behind it)

We then went to see one of the few of these elevators left around.  I have no idea what it is called, so let me describe it.  It is an elevator that doesn't stop and has no door.  You just hop on when you can and hop off when it gets to your floor.  So it is circling around the whole time.  They are neat!

I don't know why, but I found this sign a little humorous. "GET OUT!"

I wonder what would happen if you didn't get out of the elevator?  Hmmmm....
Another building on our walking tour, the Fred & Ginger Building.   It does vaguely look like 2 people dancing.

We saw many more sites around town, but I didn't take a lot of pictures since I already have so many.  And I was busy talking!  Ha!

Cookies, Spanish & More

We have our Sunday Gatherings in the evening.  Reegan had a random fever over the weekend and even though she had no symptoms and was fever-free for just over 24 hours I decided to keep her home.  We had our long time play mate, Katka and her mom, Milada coming over today and we have had to cancel on each other so many times because of sickness!  I did not want to have to cancel again!  Plus we have a few other things going on this week that I wanted to try and keep her healthy.  So, we stayed home.  She was all for it until the rest of the family were getting their coats on and heading out the door.  Then the tears began and she wanted to go.  There was no way that she and I were ready to go by this point.  She just kept at it.  Finally I decided to bribe her with baking cookies and she took it hook, line & sinker!  Ha!!
We had a fun time making a chocolate chip cookie with a twist.  I wanted a chocolate with white chocolate chip cookie, but I didn't have enough white chocolate so I decided to mix in some semi-sweet as well.  So what would that be called?  Chocolate white & milk chocolate chip cookies?  Or Two Chip Chocolate Chocolate Cookies?  Or Two Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookies?  I have no idea, but they are good!!   She was a great helper!
Let me start off by saying that my mom gets a little scared by seeing my kids on the counter.  But it's a big wide area and I have full confidence in them doing it and they love it.  There are so many other things I stress over, but I have chosen that kitchen counter sitting is not one of them.  I also have to mention her pink dress and red gingerbread fleece.  She is quite the stylist these days!  Ha!  And she just LOVES that gingerbread jacket.  I wouldn't dare try take it from her even if it is a Christmas fleece!!  Ha!

Mixing up the dry stuff

adding in  the vanilla

 dumping in the butter mixture

now break up those chocolate bars (we're so deprived without chocolate chips!  Hee hee!)

Now add in those broken up pieces

And the end result was quite delish!! *Sniff*  Mmmmmmm!

We have had some cah-razy weather!!  Late last night I was on the computer and I saw a flash come from the window.  I was surprised and then heard the clap of thunder.  It followed with another 2-3 bolts and claps and then the downpour began.  What happened next is what I've never seen before.  The rain lightened up, turned into sleet and then big fat snowflakes.  This happened all within a few minutes!  It was quite a phenomenon!    And all day today it's been weird.  Sunny, then rain, then sunny again, then snow, then sun, then snow, cloudy, snow, rain.  I can't keep up!!  

I tried to make good use of my "me" time today.  My babysitter that comes 2-3 times a week came and I decided it was time I get comfy in my favorite coffee shop and study some Spanish!

I studied for a solid 2 hours reviewing 8 lessons until I just couldn't do anymore.  But I really enjoyed it!  I've done some listening to podcasts with the kids around and it just isn't the same as having that focused time.  

I finished up my "me" time with a little shopping and rushed home to get the house picked up for our friends to come over and play.  We had a good time.  Our kids can't communicate too well (Katka speaking Czech and us English), but they found ways to get around that.

We've had a busy but fun day!