Large Family Life

Posted on December 6, 2013 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

Apollo doing his “schoolwork”.

A week from now I will be on a plane flying to the other side of the world. I will be spending my 38th birthday and Christmas in New Zealand. It doesn’t seem real yet. Probably because I have way more on my to-do list than I can actually accomplish in a week.

Tilly has been working on improving her already amazing nature photography. She still has some photo cards for sale in our Etsy shop if you are looking for gifts still! She has also taken an online guitar lesson (I’ll be blogging about that soon) and has been cleaning apartments and babysitting to earn money for her Teen Missions trip to Malawi.

Judah and Enoch have been painting apartments again this fall. Judah also has a sweet job replacing lights in these lighted santa hats and lighted baseball caps. A friend of mine sells these on Amazon and has had way more business than he anticipated this holiday season. Several nights a week find us downstairs with an assembly line of teens (and me) replacing batteries and packing hats. Judah is working hard to be able to go on another Teen Missions team (this time to Guatemala) next summer. He is also pulling straight A’s at the community college. And this is his first exposure to the classroom!Apollo has been busy peeling garlic for Chuck. Yes, you read that right. Garlic. He knows his daddy loves onions and is convinced that these cloves of garlic are actually onions (don’t even *attempt* to correct him). So he keeps himself busy peeling garlic for Daddy to eat when he gets home from. Apollo is on a major daddy kick right now. Which is perfect timing since I’ll be gone for over two weeks in a bit.

After a little research (on Facebook, where else?) I have decided to take my phone to New Zealand. This means you can keep up with our travels on either our Facebook page or Instagram (littleearthling). I am hoping to update the blog a couple of times while in NZ, but won’t be able to post photos from my nice camera until we’re home.

Also, I will have a few more products reviews than usual coming up (being the holiday season and all). The good new for you is, I have several giveaways coming up as well!

Have a great weekend, my friends. I am so very excited to be prepping for our Christmas Movie and Hot Chocolate Bar! We did this last year for the first time and had so much fun.

Convos with my Three Year Old

Posted on December 5, 2013 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

Apollo woke up this morning and immediately asked, “How old is Dad?”

Me (groggy): Ummm…42. Why did you ask how old he is?

Apollo: Because I never knew.

Fair enough.

Silence.

Apollo: How old am I now?

Me: Three.

Apollo: Awwwww. I’m still three?

Me: Yes.

Apollo crying.

Me (trying to distract him): What do you think the best age is?

Apollo: Every other age!

Sometimes there is no making a toddler happy.

First Snow 2013

Posted on December 4, 2013 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

The snow came early this year. Here in our little corner of the Pacific Northwest, only 20 minutes south of the Canadian border and a thirty minute drive from the ocean, snow is completely unpredictable. We might get a few inches that stay for a week or two…or we might only see it fall from the sky not actually stick. More often we get a simple powered sugar sprinkling.

For my children, any amount of snow is a treat. They woke up Monday morning to the surprise of a full inch or two on the deck.

Apollo doesn’t remember snow…so he was particularly delighted.

The pictures of Kalina and Apollo were taken first thing in the morning…when it began to snow again in the afternoon, Jubilee, Tilly and Hezekiah ran outside and danced in pure delight.

Snow. A little white gift falling from the sky…too wet to build anything with or to shovel. We didn’t even get enough snow to cover the green grass. It is frozen (literally) right now as we are experiencing a cold snap. It won’t last long. It never does.

For more delightful snow pictures, check out these posts from: January 2012, Thanksgiving 2010, and Snow 2010.

eMeals to the Rescue!

Posted on December 3, 2013 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

{This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and eMeals all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #eMealstotheresuce http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO}

Often times for me, the most stressful part of cooking for my large brood (herd? gaggle?) is doing the meal planning. I have used various methods over the years, many of them posted on this blog. I’ve tried planning by the month, the week and batch cooking. And too many times I’ve had no plan at all. I haven’t felt like I’ve really been on top of meal planning for months…That’s why I was so excited (I mean, really excited. Like, I couldn’t stop talking about it excited) when I learned about eMeals.com.

Registering with eMeals takes about two minutes. You get to select between 13 eating plans (including: gluten-free, low carb, paleo and two slow cooker plans) and the one I chose: classic. You then select the number of people you are feeding (the plan actually only when up to six but I simply double the recipes).

Each Wednesday I get a complete meal plan (breakfast, lunch, dinner and side dishes) emailed to me…along with the recipes and grocery lists. Seriously. All in one place. I’ve been a member of eMeals for a few weeks now and let me tell you I am impressed. I love being able to pursue the meal plans and love not having to pull out a bunch of recipes to come up with my grocery list. It’s all right there. I’ve been printing my meal plans and then clipping them together. More than once one of my children has snatched and made meal suggestion for me!

Now Obviously, I’m not following the plan three meals a day, seven days a week, but I love the inspiration it gives me to think outside the box a bit. I love the new recipes and the variety from the meals I’ve fallen into making simply out of habit. If there is a meal that doesn’t look appealing me, I fill in one of our family favorites.

Last night I made Sticky Chicken and much to my delight, I only needed to buy the chicken and honey, the rest of the ingredients were in my kitchen already. I was even more delighted to score the chicken at $.99 a pound! When I went to store I intended to buy two packs of drumsticks but they only had one left, so I grabbed a pack of chicken breasts (same price!) instead.

Sticky Chicken:

12 chicken legs or thighs 1 cup ketchup

1 cup honey 1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (I used minced garlic instead)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9×13 inch baking dish and place chicken at the bottom. Combine the ketchup, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce and garlic powder in sauce pan over medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes while stirring. When mixture just starts to boil remove from heat and pour over chicken coating all sides. Bake the chicken uncovered for 90 minutes, turning chicken halfway through. Serve the chicken and sticky sauce with steamed rice.

This was easy, easy, easy. I could have put Jubliee (11) in charge of this meal.

Yesterday I had a busy day out of the house, so I prepared this in the morning and covered it with plastic wrap. I then popped it in the oven when I got home (removing the plastic wrap, obviously).

This chicken tasted amazing. 9 out of 11 children loved it and the other two “liked” it. Not bad…I can tell you we will be making this recipe again.

And as far as eMeals? I am so happy to have a year’s subscription. Already it has helped to relieve the mealtime stress from my home. Even my kids enjoy reading the meals plans and offering their suggestions.

And guess what? If you use the promo code: RESCUE you can save 35% on a one year subscription to eMeals (offer expires December 15). I think this would make a great gift!

You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

My Life as a Bad Movie

Posted on December 2, 2013 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

{Thanks again for all of the input on the blog name. I am about to go respond to individual comments. Right now I am trying to decide between not changing the name at all, or blogging under the Little Earthling Photography site…}

You probably remember last week’s Sunday Excitement when I had to make a quick exit from church with kids…Then there was the Series of Unfortunate Events that happened when Apollo was a baby. I just literally shuddered as I re-read that. You would think by now I would have given up…

Church went fine and dandy yesterday. Chuck left early on in the service to tube-feed Apollo. The other children were well-behaved. The serviced ended and the children were happy to snack on the doughnuts provided. We loaded up in the van and stopped for fuel. We were a little more than halfway home when Apollo announced that he had to go pee. His bladder was understandably full after the feeding and our arrival home was delayed by the gas stop. Apollo got more and more frantic and Chuck decided to pull off the highway onto a side road. We live in a rural area and he knew this would likely afford us privacy. When he turned down the road, a full-sized van turned behind us as well. Chuck kept driving (and Apollo kept squirming) until he turned onto another road. Chuck pulled safely to the side of the road and Enoch got out with Apollo so he could relieve himself into ditch. There was no one in sight. Enoch and Apollo were positioned between the van and the ditch. All was well until the white van turned on to the road just behind us….slowly passed us by (chuckling at the sight of Apollo relieving himself) and pulled into the driveway just ten feet in front of our van. We were just discussing the irony of stopping in front of the very driveway the van needed access to, when it slowly pulled out and turned around. This time, the van full of (as my children called them) “middle-aged ladies” smiled and waved enthusiastically like old friends as they drove past us. Like we had just made their day.

Ummmmmm….

I have no idea where the white van full of ladies was headed. I have no idea why they turned down the same road we did…and into the driveway directly ahead of us. I have no idea why they found Apollo peeing into a ditch so inspiring. I have no idea why I’m telling all of this to you.

And I have no idea why my life always plays out like a bad movie.