Cake Decoration

I have always wanted to be able to decorate beautiful cakes.

I have the fancy pastry bag, but am not really sure how to use it, so I stumble along, and use it mostly to decorate gingerbread cookies.

For Miss Pear's actual birthday on Thursday I am making a Winnie the Pooh cake as I was able to get the pan on sale. I should be able to decorate it as it is just little star drops of icing and some straight lines - I can do that!

However, I am on the hunt for a good book on cake decorating! Any ideas or suggestions???

Our weekend

We had a wonderful long weekend!

Thankfully Mr. Pear was able to telecommute on Friday, which helped tremendously seeing as Miss Pear was out of her crib for good. Our big girl bed transition is going well, but slowly. With all the changes going on Miss Pear is needing more confirmation of security, so she would like it best if I would sleep with her. I love her like all get out, but that is not going to happen. So I sit with her and rub her back for a while, and then excuse myself, and return a while later. We are doing fairly well with the transition. With no bed rails we were concerned that she would roll out of bed, but thankfully that has not been a problem either!

The party on Saturday was low key and lots of fun! The small party was perfect for us for right now (we will have a bigger birthday party/housewarming party once we move!) It was like a three ring circus around our table, but perfect!

Sunday I woke up with an eye infection, which upset my balance, so we stayed home for most of the day. We did go out for a car ride after nap time because Miss Pear was not ready to be awake yet, and that was all she wanted. (Phone woke her up). Then friends came over to play once we returned home and stayed for supper.

Monday was restful, and we were bumps. It was delightful.

Today started at 4AM as Miss Pear woke up and could not seem to get back to sleep. She is napping now, and for all of us, I hope it is a long and restorative one.

Please pray for our new house as we are having trouble finding someone who will insure it because we are so close to the canyon and are therefore considered to be in a burn risk zone (despite the fact that there is a street, a green space, and a bike path between us and the canyon, and despite the fact that the fire hydrant is on our lot, and our home has sprinklers. This is a big problem as we need insurance for our loan!)

Bye Bye Crib

Miss Pear got out of her crib last night, and face planted onto the carpet. She bit her lip, which bled profusely, but is okay. However, she will have nothing to do with her crib.

So the crib has been dismantled and removed from her room, and we just have her mattress in there with a pillow headboard until we get proper bed rails and therefore set up the bed safely (harder to find rails because her big girl bed will not have a box spring right away so it is lower for her).

So Mr. Pear is in there right now trying to convince her to sleep, my shift is coming up soon. She spent the night with us, wedged firmly against me, so sleep was very elusive. Fortunately, Mr. Pear telecommuted today, and only had to work a half day.

Any ideas on making this transition???

Update: Miss Pear napped in her rocking chair, sitting up - would have nothing to do with the mattress on the floor idea, so we set up her big girl bed. On the toddler setting, the top of the mattress is below my knee, so we are just going to put a pillow down in case she falls (but she cheerfully rolls off our couch onto a pillow which is about the same hight and then immediately does it again....) We positioned the bed so that the corner she would usually scoot to for sleep is against the wall, and let her pick which sheets (purple floral or purple) and which quilt (purple big girl quilt or baby quilt - both made by Mr. Pear's mom), and she is going to help make the bed.

We have the long weekend to make the transition, and we might need it, but we are praying the Lord would be merciful and it would go smoothly, especially considering that we are having Miss Pear's 2nd birthday party tomorrow - a small one with one other family who we are really close to, and another lady who is given the honorary title of Aunt.

Oh, and the lip is not swollen, and is not looking the least bit infected! Thank you Jesus!

Frugal Friday - Cresent Rolls and Cream Cheese

In our little corner of the world there were great sales on cream cheese and crescent rolls. Of course a sale is only good when you use the product, so if you purchased these items too, here is a recipe adapted from Once a Month Cooking.

Chicken Packets

4 oz cream cheese
3 tbsp milk
1 cup chicken, cooked and cubed
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
2 packages of crescent rolls

Whip together the cream cheese and milk. Mix in the chicken, onion and celery. (this mixture can be frozen)

Unroll the crescent rolls. In each tube there will be 4 rectangles with a perforated line through them. Press the perforated line so that it will not separate. Divide the mixture up on each of the rolls and pinch closed however you like.

Place on greased cookie sheet and cook at 350F for 20 minutes.

My cost for this?
Cream Cheese - no more that $0.50 (I cannot remember if I used half a block that I got for $1 or half of a block that I got for 0.75)
Crescent Rolls - $1
Chicken - $1 (Foster Farm cooked chicken strips on sale for $3 with a doubled $1 off coupon)
Celery and Onion - such a small amount it was probably not more than 5 or 10 cents.

Total = no more than $2.60 for 8 packets.

Lunch is either 2 packets or 1 packet with fruit or salad.

Head on over to Crystal's to hear how the pro's do it - I am still working on the baby steps....

What I have learned by having our house on the market....

(Our town home, at least it is ours for 2 more weeks)

In two weeks, exactly, a crew of movers will be here putting all our stuff in boxes, so it seemed an appropriate time to post this, because after being on the market since September, we learned an awful lot....

1. God has a sense of humor (okay, I knew this before, but I have a new appreciation for it).

2. If you want people to come see your house, get 10 projects on the go so that you are in a bit (or a huge, gargantuan, did you get that name of that tornado) of a mess - guaranteed to work!

3. Buy lots of toilet bowl cleaner - people will treat you bathroom like a public restroom (at least I am presuming they are better behaved at home....)

4. It is helpful to have a good cleaning schedule and be faithful in following it.

5. God always meets me in my disappointment.

6. A microwave is a great place to store baking.

7. If you finish the drink in the jug, it is perfectly okay to put the clean, empty jug back in the fridge to hide it when showing your home.

8. My swiffer is my friend.

9. A relatively fine mesh bag is a great way to store tub toys so that they are not all over the tub.

10. If you want people to come see your home, just get sick.

11. It is really a good thing to make your bed first thing every morning - not just a compulsion I have!

12. There are some real estate agents that push all your buttons, but be nice to them, they will be advising the potential buyer of your home.

13. Physical inspections are a good thing, but don't take them personally when the buyer of your house asks for whiny nit-picky things! It is worth it to go buy a tube of calking just to build some good will.

14. If you want people to come see your home, tear a couple rooms apart for an in-depth cleaning and they will be right over!

15. If you microwave is full, store baking or dirty dishes in your oven.

16. God is ever faithful, and can be completely trusted.

17....and He is there when you cry out in frustration too, and listens and soothes....

18. God's timing is perfect.

Oh the Spring Time Bliss!

This post may be a shocker - after all, around these parts I post about books, house stuff, moving, and what God is doing in my life.

But I am Canadian.

And it is May.

So that means one thing:



The division finals are over, and the teams are set for the Stanley Cup Finals.

And I am thrilled. It is almost hockey bliss.

There is a Canadian team in the finals - Ottawa Senators (okay, we would be more excited if it was the Montreal Canadians - that would be hockey nirvana around here, but we take what we can get).

They will be playing the Anaheim Ducks - the hometown team for Southern California. If you are Miss Pear they are the Duckies. Probably not the image they are going for, but we teach 'em young around here - although we do work on Bible reading first.

Game 1 is Monday night in Anaheim.

Be still my heart!

WFMW - Best Errand Running Day

My Works for Me Wednesday may seem strange at first, but I encourage you to try it!, and it will not work for this week. However, next week is a different story!

If you want to run errands without lots of traffic in the parking lots, and without crowds in the store, studies have shown that there is one day that is far superior to all other days of the week to run errands. This works for everything: library, groceries, mall, pharmacies, and even warehouse stores. Yes, they did studies on this! Seriously! This has worked in Canada, and in California, so the study proves correct in my estimation!

The best day to run errands to avoid crowds is Tuesday.

I save bunches of time this way, and also money on gas.

Errands on Tuesday...works for me!

Camellias - because I love a challenge

When we started landscaping our postage stamp back yard almost 5 years ago when we moved into our town home, we splurged on one item - a Camellia.

A Camellia is a very beautiful flowering shrub. Ours has a showier flower that is more of a red, but you can get the idea from the picture below



Camellias are fussy plants that are very sensitive to salt in the soil, like specific soil and water conditions and are worth all the trouble because they are gorgeous! Plus, they bloom in the winter months down here, so there is a bit of color for a winter garden!

And it breaks my heart to leave it, but leave it I must.

So I decided to take cuttings of it to try take a part of it with us to our new home.

I knew that these were fussy little plants, but wondered how hard it could really be.

So I called the local nursery where I bought it, and they were not sure it could be done, but consulted a reference book, and said it could be done, but to ensure that I got one plant at the end of this, I should take numerous cuttings, and they provided the detailed instructions, which I dutifully wrote down.

When we went to get our supplies we again talked to the experts, and again they were very leery of my chances of success, warned me of this, but again provided detailed instructions, and then helped me select my supplies.

So Saturday night, all three of us played in the garden. We followed all the instructions:

1. Fill 6 inch pots with soil mixture
2. Take cuttings.
3. Remove all but top two leaves from cuttings.
4. Peal lower bark off
5. Dip cutting in water up to bark line
6. Dip wet cutting in rooting hormone mix (make sure little ones are not near this step, this stuff is poisonous! So clean up very well afterwards!)
7. Plant cutting without knocking the rooting hormone off.
8. Water with fertilizer
9. Place cuttings in spot outside where they will not get any direct sunlight, only indirect light.
10. Pray like crazy.
11. Water with fertilizer as needed to keep the soil moist. Do not let pots sit in water.

Even if a cutting takes, which I am praying at least one will, these plants are extremely slow growing, so it will be a couple years before I could take them out of the pots and plant them in the ground. But I am hopeful, and it will be very special to have this little memento from our first house that we bought together.

Meals for Moving Part 1

I decided to do it, I decided to prepare meals ahead of time and move them with us so that it is easier for us. However, I do not have time to do a massive cook in the next two weeks, so on Friday I went to Cena To Go, a make and take meal place, to assemble 6 meals for 6 people, which ended up being 12 meals for our family of three.

The six entrees I selected from their monthly menu are:

1. Authentic Chicken Enchiladas
   
2. Beef Greek Gyros with Cucumber Sauce
3. Chicken & Smoked Gouda in Puff Pastry
4. Chicken Parisien
   
5. Classic London Broil
6. Lime Grilled Chicken with Sour Cream

And I confess, I grabbed a bag of Raspberry and White Chocolate Chunk scones from their freezer.

This was my second trip to Cena To Go. And once again I was completely impressed by the incredibly high standard of cleanliness and food handling. While they must maintain professional food handling standards, as someone who is familiar with those standards I can say that they go above and beyond.

When you arrive with your cooler in hand, they quickly greet you and offer to help you with your cooler. They get you organized and settled by discussing your menu with you, offering you lemonade, scones, and coffee, getting you your apron, and showing you around. As this was my second trip there, the owner recognized me, and we talked about what I had selected.

The store I go is booked solid evenings and weekends, but is very quiet during the day, so at the time slot I went, I was the only one there. Sometimes this results is either poor service, or feeling like you are being watched like a hawk! Neither one happened. While I was assembling my meals, Joan, the owner, was doing her work and chatting, and Michelle, who works there, was doing her work and chatting. While we were all chatting and working, I no sooner finished at a work station and it was immediately cleaned! Questions about recipes were quickly and expertly answered. When I took the last label because I divided my puffs into three meals rather than two, labels were quickly produced so I could label my meal. When I forgot to put my sour cream in cups to take with me, and had moved on to the next station, it was done for me.

The recipes I chose all smelled delicious when I was making them, and they provide an incredibly high quality of ingredients, particularly the meat!

It is fun to assemble your meals when everything is prepped for you and all right there, and you are forbidden from cleaning up after yourself! It took me an hour and a half to assemble my meals, and there was no preparation or real planning or clean-up required of me! I showed up, assembled, put meals in my cooler, came home, and unloaded my cooler into the freezer.

I also appreciated that both times I was there they quickly offer to help me to the car with my cooler.

This was my second trip there, and I am very confident that once again, each meal I have put in the freezer for my family will be delicious and healthy for us. I love that I can adapt the recipes for my family by skipping things and even doing substitutions for allergies.

I love that I will be able to quickly provide healthy meals for my family while still going about the business of moving! I love that there will be no chance for us to fall into the "eating out trap" that is a weakness for us.

I was very pleased with both my food from and experience at Cena-To-Go, and would very highly recommend them. From a price perspective I can certainly make cheaper meals, but when you need help, it is definitely cheaper and healthier than eating out, and than buying prepared food at the supermarket. It would also be great if you were trying to begin preparing food in advance for your family in either a Once a Month cooking fashion, or just a couple meals here and there as if you pay attention, they are teaching you the basics.

I am only disappointed that there is not a Cena To Go near where we are moving, it would be a special hour and a half trip to come back here. But maybe we can plan a girls morning out....

Moving and Meals

Our home inspection was completed today, and everything is wonderful, we have no repair requests. Shocking, I know!

Living next to the canyon has made one insurance agent refuse to even quote us! Unfortunately it was the one through work where we would have received a generous discount! Please pray that we would find a good insurance policy that we can afford!

So moving is coming closer, and here is the problem I am facing. Miss Pear is allergic to both nuts (severely) and "normal" potatoes (sweet potatoes are fine). She is allergic enough that cross contamination with nuts is a huge concern, cross contamination with potatoes just requires Benedryl.

So we have to be careful!

Yet, as we move, we don't want to be eating out for a week straight, and I don't want to be spending large amounts of time in the kitchen once we move trying to make meals and stock the freezer (words you thought you would never read here, I know!) Miss Pear is already off kilter, and once we move she is going to need even more attention (we are praying she will love the new home and adjust quickly).

A friend of ours has offered their freezer with a promise to bring up our food the day after we move, which is very sweet. And make a second trip the following week, which is even sweeter!

So I am thinking about taking full advantage of this wonderful offer in order to not be eating out, and to not be eating junk.

I am thinking about going to one of those make and take meal places to make us a full compliment of meals. There are two near us. A dear friend of mine and I tried out Cena to Go and we loved it! We split the meals, and I have to confess, I wish we had not! And the Dream Dinners near me is having an introductory special. In both places it works out to be $3-4 a serving, much cheaper than eating out, and much healthier too!

While it is more expensive than making it myself, I think I might need the help!

It would certainly take one big thing off my plate for the first two weeks and allow me to focus on settling my family (and checking out the parks with Miss Pear!)

WFMW - Forcing Bread to Rise

I love to bake bread - if you have read much of my postings you will see we do it a lot!

But sometimes I don't have the time or the patience to wait for the bread to rise!

You see, I use active yeast the most because I get great deals on it at Costco, and the recipes generally yield two or more loaves, rather that the breadmachine yeast which generally has recipes that only yield one loaf and is generally much more expensive (and not just because you need more - one tbsp of bread machine yeast generally yields one loaf while 1 tbsp of active yeast will generally yield two loaves.)

So what is a girl to do?

Cheat of course!

I turn my oven on to warm or 200F, and let it run one cycle then turn it off while I am mixing my dough. Then I place my dough in a glass bowl and cover it, and pop it in the oven. Yes, some heat does escape at this point, but that is okay, the point is that the oven is warm, not hot.

Updated to add: A sweet commenter just pointed out that Alton Brown says to include a pan of water at the bottom of your oven when you do this, and we always agree with Alton Brown in kitchen stuff, it is the rule around here!

I find that this cuts the rise time in half, and uses very little extra gas.

This tip also works great in getting your bread to rise when you are running the air conditioning or your house is just a bit on the cool side.

Cheating at bread making...works for me!

Why I do not hire a House Cleaning Service

Here in Southern California we have more than our nationally proportional share of very wealthy families. We also have a large population of undocumented workers who will clean homes for a very low price, which forces the amount that cleaning services can charge down as well.

As a result it is very common, in some areas even the norm, to hire a housekeeper or cleaning service to come in and clean for you. They do either weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly cleaning.

I confess, that there are two occasions that I have resorted to a cleaning service.

The first time was over a year ago when I broke the cuboid bone in my foot and severely sprained my foot and ankle. My poor husband was trying to do everything and work full time, and I could barely hobble from chair to chair. It was bad. We had the deacons from church and friends delivering us food, and we cruised right through my freezer stash. Mr. Pear is very talented in house cleaning, but could not do it all, and family was not nearby to help. So we had a service come in twice, with two weeks in between the visits, then I took over again.

The second time was when we were racing to get our house on the market, and just need a good top to bottom cleaning done pronto because we had been busy with other things, had been sick, and had been stressed to the max (Mr. Pear's job was ending, and in God's perfect timing, he signed a contract with his new company in the last week of his old job, so the race was on to get our house sold!) To make the weekend listings we had one day to do all the paperwork, clean house, and do the mountain of things necessary to prepare a house for sale, finish one job and accept another. If we had family nearby, and friends who did not work full time, we could have asked for help and done this ourselves, but that was not an option in our situation.

Now I could make all kinds of ideological answers for why I do not hire a house keeper, including arguments like being a stay at home wife and mom makes it seem silly to have someone in each week, and the squandering of family resources. (A friend of ours with two little ones aged 2 and 3 months is listing their home, and are in the same boat as us - no family nearby to help, and we are moving so we cannot help in the time she needs, so she quoted a cleaning company to come once a week - $80 a week!)

All those would be valid and reasonable arguments.

But the real reason is that if I am going to pay someone big bucks to clean my house, and in a one income family it is big bucks, I should not have to tidy before they come - yet I always felt the compulsion too, and I should not have to double check before they leave to make sure everything was done, which on 2 of 3 occasions major things were missed! And most importantly, I should NOT have to clean behind them after they leave, and yet I was!

At the end of the day, the truth of the matter is that no one can clean a house as well as those who live in it! We know where the dust accumulates, we know the problem areas to check, and we know how to clean those tough spots! We know what it takes to make our homes as clean as we want them to be.

So I would like to encourage anyone out there who is lamenting the chore of cleaning house, and is considering getting a service in for regular cleaning (obviously there are special circumstances were we just need help and family and friends are not available!): It is just not worth it.

I would encourage you to get a plan together to get caught up, get a plan together to maintain your home, and stick to it. I know of two excellent books to help get you started:

Sink Reflections: Overwhelmed? Disorganized? Living in Chaos? The FlyLady's Simple FLYing Lessons Will Show You How to Get Your Home and Your Life in Order--and It All Starts with Shining Your Sink!

More Hours in My Day: Proven Ways to Organize Your Home, Your Family, and Yourself

On days when I am the most discouraged and tired, and the cleaning cannot possibly be put off, I remind myself that my family is worth it, that my work honors the Lord, and that no one can do it as well as I can.

Then I ask the Lord to strengthen my hands, to not let me grow weary of doing good, to help me, and I launch in, even if it is just in 10 minute increments of alternating work and rest, until the jobs are done.

Oh my! Moving Stuff!

Well, the sense of relief is passing. That was our big emotion when we found out that we had a house!!!!!!! The excitement was there, but it was not the chief emotion!

Of course gratitude to our gracious Lord is our top feeling, we are talking after that!

Now the panic/anxiety of moving is setting in.

Our schedule is this:

June 6 - Happy 8th Anniversary to us! - close escrow on our town home
June 7 - Close escrow on our new home, movers pack us (movers are scheduled!)
June 8 - All our stuff is loaded on a truck and we move to our new home
June 9 and 10 - a weekend to begin unpacking and helping Miss Pear become accustomed to her new home
June 11 to June 31 - unpack! It is my goal to be rid of all our boxes that are being unpacked and not stored (such as seasonal decorations) by the end of the month!

We have a home for our moving boxes, some friends of ours are listing their house so that they can move to a newer house with a better layout for their family, and they are happy to take our boxes!

In honor of this wonderful event, I have added three new books to my reading list!

All New Square Foot Gardening

Sink Reflections: Overwhelmed? Disorganized? Living in Chaos? The FlyLady's Simple FLYing Lessons Will Show You How to Get Your Home and Your Life in Order--and It All Starts with Shining Your Sink!

More Hours in My Day: Proven Ways to Organize Your Home, Your Family, and Yourself

I am already thinking about my new household schedule. I have been a die hard Emilie Barnes girl, but I love the idea of doing my "Spring Cleaning" throughout the year so that I don't have to do "Spring Cleaning"! So I am reading both More Hours and Sink Reflections and will likely end up with a blended type of schedule!

I am also interested in reading Square Foot Gardening as I would like to do a bit of gardening, but not use up too much of the yard as we want to have room to play out back! So I am interested in this! We are looking into a CSA in the area, but I would still like to grow our favorites! I would love to be able to can spaghetti sauce from what we grow!

7 Random Things Meme

I have been tagged to tell you 7 Random things about myself by Joyful Days.

Random is good, Random I can do! At least I think so....


1. The last pet I had as a kid living at home is a yellow naped amazon parrot named Lionel. He lives with my parents on a golf course, and everyone loves him. He spends a lot of time outside in the summer, and the golfers call "Hi Lionel!" to him as they golf by. Lionel gets into calling hi back to them, even long after they have left, and this embarrasses my mom. Lionel also enjoys a good game of pool.

2. We opened escrow on our first house today, and I am so excited! (We currently live in a town home) We are hoping to plant fruit trees in the back yard - Orange, Juice Orange, Tangelo and Satsuma Mandarin , and maybe also a peach and apricot as they come in dwarf varieties too! I think our philosphy with our little back yard is going to be that if it cuts into play room out back, it better contribute to our family (as in give us food!)

3. I love quilting, cross stitching, embroidery, knitting, sewing, and pretty much any craft that involves needles - but when it comes to needles in the context of vaccinations, IV's or giving blood, I am scared spitless. Yes, I do appreciate the irony of that.

4. I was a BSF children's leader for 3 years - two with the Jr. High group and one with the grads 5 and 6. Both were great, but God gave the Jr. High kids a very special spot in my heart.

5. I LOVE to cook and bake! Before I was a mom I was dubbed the Dessert Queen (Or was it Dessert Lady, I cannot remember) as such was my love for baking.

6. When we finish our citizenship paperwork, each member of my family will travel with two passports - One Canadian and One American. (We are about 4 years away).

7. I did 9 years of 4-H - 5 years of sewing, and 4 years of Candy Striping at a Care Home.


Now for tagging people....hmmmm.....If you read this post, consider yourself tagged!

A complete MIRACLE!

It is a complete miracle! Our counter offer was accepted! We are the very proud owners of a house! The one at the top of this post actually!

We just found out before supper, so as soon as Miss Pear went down for the night I quickly logged in to tell you!

It really is a complete miracle. In September, when we started looking in this area, there were no houses in our price range, and even the town homes in our price range were kind of run down and icky, and not really suited to our family and lifestyle. (Translation: people who spend time in their homes!)

By waiting all this time, house prices have dropped and are now in our price range!

We have been praying for a house for a very long time, even before we knew where we would be moving to with whatever new job Mr. Pear got! So this is a huge answer to prayer.

I prayed for a house.

A house that had a backyard for our family to play in:

And if at all possible, a good working kitchen

(on the right hand side is the counter and the fridge - a kitchen made for serious cooking and baking!)

We prayed that it would be close to work and on a quiet street - and it is.

We prayed that it would have room for visitors as we have lots of them - it has three bedrooms and a loft that can serve as a guest room when the bedrooms are full. And the bedrooms are a nice size - hard to find around here!

And we have a canyon view which cannot be built on as it is a regional park.

And it is not smaller than were we are now! (Our town home is 1417 square feet, the house is 1508! Going into a house in a more expensive area makes this fact another miracle!)

It is a great home, and we open escrow on Monday!

The funny thing is that Mr. Pear sees the street of houses we are going to live on each day on the drive to work, in the distance, and always thought that they were very nice looking, and interesting! Now he gets to live there!

Praise the Lord! He is so merciful to His children - even when they act like stubborn toddlers in the midst of a temper tantrum....

It is indeed all about the Lord, what He is doing, what He has done. This is a complete gift from Him, we are just along for the wonderful ride.

We said all along that it would take a complete series of miracles for us to move, and move into a house.

Our God is still in the miracle business, and is overwhelmingly generous with His children.

Thank you SO much for praying with us through this, we cannot tell you how much that means to us, and how much that helped us!