Friday Feasting: Fluffy Pancakes

Fluffy pancakes

A "tried and true" recipe at the Young house.  We have always loved the buttermilk pancake recipes that we have made in the past, but we don't always have buttermilk in the fridge.  So, we googled and found that you can add vinegar to your milk to make your own!  This recipe already includes the buttermilk/vinegar variation plus is already adjusted GRANDE style.  The picture above shows what was leftover after feeding the 10 Young bellies at our house - plenty, as you can see!  We always use left-over batter to make "cookie pancakes", and if you leave them on the counter, they just seem to disappear.  Adding chocolate chips to our pancakes is also a favorite at our place.  Here, we added a special Halloween combo bag of white chocolate chip flavored orange pumpkins and normal chocolate chips.

Ingredients
4-1/2 cups milk
3/4 cups vinegar
6 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
2 T baking powder
1 T baking soda
1 T salt
6 eggs
3/4 cups butter

Directions
1.  Combine milk and vinegar into a bowl and set aside to "sour".  (wait at least 5 minutes)
2.  Meanwhile, mix up all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl (large enough to hold all the wet ingredients in a bit too!) - flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
3.  Add eggs and melted butter into the "sour" milk and whisk.
4.  Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until all the lumps are gone.
5.  Pour 1/4 cups batter onto skillet or griddle and flip once bubbles begin to appear on the top of the pancakes.  Cook until medium brown on the other side.
**optional - add chocolate chips, blueberries, etc... during step 4**

Enjoy!!  :)

Traditions

It’s been a busy season for us, full of celebrations. As we come down from Christmastide, we are into “birthday-tide” as four of our children celebrate their birthdays, one right after another. Our goal as parents, was to find ways to make memories, or traditions, rather than bombard with gifts soon forgotten.

Early on, our family adopted the tradition of letting the birthday child choose his or her meals, for the entire day! They were only limited by their imagination. Yes, sometimes we’ve gotten lobster (OK that was MY birthday!), others they’ve ask for nothing in particular. But always, a breakfast meal was in order. French Toast Casserole is regularly asked for as is coffee cake. Both very different from our norm, and cherished, as part of the celebration. But, one of the most celebrated is the birthday cake. Something they savor. A couple like cheesecake, others German Chocolate cake, and then there is the old fashioned yellow cake preferred by others.  And the cake always appears after dinner. We all gather. Tell brief stories of “remember when you….”, praying for a happy birthday, and begin another year when you blow out those candles.  Another year to grow. Another year of memories.

Traditions. Ties that bind us together for generations to come.

Monday Meme: Happy Goodbyes

Prayer and laughter are the best meds.  Sometimes they might cure a problem.  More likely, however, they will only help get through a tough situation.  Life tends to give us a lot of those—difficult circumstances or troubled times.  As moms, we need to get through those moments, with grace and patience if possible!  How are we to do that?

By choice.

We choose to be happy in whatever circumstance we find ourselves.  At times, we can’t help but react or over-react.  That’s when habit kicks in.  Do we shout out, or do we keep quiet?  Our actions speak louder than our words, and our kids are watching our lead.

I know it’s easier said than done, but I look for the positive, even if it’s just learning from a mistake.  What is the good?  If I am dealing with people, what’s the good in them?  It can be hard to find.  Occasionally, maybe the only good in that moment is their goodbye.  That’s ok.

We are to love our neighbors and our enemies.  We are all children of God.  That means every human has dignity, no matter what.  We are human, and we can’t please everyone.  Likewise, we can not expect to be pleased by everyone.  We simply can’t be vindictive or vengeful. 

We can pray for that person, even if it’s for a sooner-vs-later departure.  If we can pray for a happy death, which we do with every Hail Mary, we can certainly pray for a quick visit from someone who may push our buttons. 

So while we might appreciate some people more than others, we can look forward to an arrival as well as departure.  Both require love.  

"Love is patient; love is kind... Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking.  It is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries."

~1 Cor 13:4-5 

Friday Feasting: Fruit Smoothies

Fruit Smoothies

We make two batches for the 10 of us. Use any combo of fruit that you like, but for best results, some of it should be frozen for best consistency. 

Ingredients
2 c Frozen Mango pieces
1 c Frozen Cherries
1 c Frozen Pineapple
Milk (cow, goat, or coconut)
Yogurt, plain 16 oz, divided
2 tsp vanilla extract, divided
2 tbsp honey, divided

Directions
1.  Fill blender container 1/2 way with milk of choice.
2.  Add 8 oz yogurt, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp honey.
3.  Add frozen fruit in any combination of your choosing up to the point recommended by your blender. (We love mango so that is the largest portion of fruit.)
4.  Blend and serve.
5.  Repeat with next batch and remaining ingredients.

Enjoy!!  :)

Helping Out My Family

I couldn’t wait till my kids were old enough to have chores.  With babies coming every 1 ½ to 2 years, I just couldn’t keep up on my own, and my dear husband’s greatest desire was to have the house nice and neat and tidy.  *sigh*  Now, don’t get me wrong…he helped a LOT.  I can remember one afternoon when our first was a tiny baby.  I had actually gotten the baby to go to sleep in his crib instead of on my lap attached to my breast, and I was at the sink doing dishes.  Bryan walks in from work, gives me a kiss, and goes to grab the broom to start sweeping the kitchen.  I LOST it.  “How can you expect me to get it all done??  I’m sorry!!  I just hadn’t gotten to the sweeping yet!!  I JUST got the baby down, and I don’t even know what we’re having for dinner!!” **sob, sob, sob**  You know, those completely unrealistic expectations that you have for yourself when you’re a new mom.  

But…wait…now I have seven kids, I’m almost 15 years into this gig, and I still had those same feelings yesterday.   

Enough about MY issues, let’s get down to the meat of things.  I HAD to have a way to get my little guys who turned into bigger guys with more little people coming up behind, trained in the ways of keeping a house running.  You know and I know, I DEFINITELY can’t do this all on my own, not even with a broom-wielding husband!!

Generally, you get on the “chore chart” when you hit 6-years-old.  

(if you click on the image, you will be taken to the editable google doc)

You’re paired up with an older sibling till you are 7, then you are on your own.  Since mealtimes are the messiest, the chores are done after each meal.  Mom and Dad are in charge of Saturday’s chores, and everyone pitches in on Sunday.  I have a four-week rotation of chore charts, so you never have to do the same chore for more than a week.  I also have an “alternate” Week 3 chart, as the fifth child kind of throws things off.  Apparently, dusting and sweeping and lunch dishes are the “best”, and dinner dishes, laundry, and bathrooms are the “worst”.  Tee hee hee!

I have also had to make additional checklists for individual chores that didn’t seem to be getting done completely, a.k.a. the bathrooms.  I’ll print it out and stick it to the wall of the room that needs correct attention for about a month.  That seems to do the trick.  Well…until the next time I have to print it out and stick it back up there.  I’ve thought about doing it for every chore sometimes, as I feel like I spend a lot of my time calling people back to finish a chore correctly, but everything takes time that I don’t seem to have a whole lot of!!

Now before you think everything runs smoothly all the time at my house, let me just say that I still have to chase children down to get their chores done.  Especially my angelic, 10-year-old daughter when she has vacuuming for the week!  It’s not till the middle of day that my brain catches up and I think to myself…”hey, she never ran that vacuum this morning!”  My kids also know that evening TV or rainy day video games are NOT going to happen unless all chores get done.  I get to nag them a lot less because of these consequences.  Generally, everything runs pretty smoothly, and I don’t get dishpan hands!  (I HATE DISHES!!)