Pretzel Dogs

I saw a recipe from Tasty on Facebook and decided to give it a try. It was easy enough for kids to enjoy helping make. Make sure to watch young kids during the oven and boiling water steps. You can see from my photos that they didn't turn out perfectly but they were still yummy.

Here is the recipe from Tasty. Check out their page for more video recipes.

Straight From Tasty https://www.facebook.com/buzzfeedtasty/
Here's what you need:
1 Package Cocktail Franks/mini hot dogs
1 Ball Pizza Dough
5 Cups Water
1/4 Cup Baking Soda
1 Egg - beaten
Sea Salt

Directions:
Bring pizza dough to room temperature. Cut the dough into strips and stretch/roll out. Roll up mini hotdogs in pizza dough so the dough wraps around twice - leaving the ends sticking out and cutting off any excess. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet until ready to boil.

Bring 5 Cups of water to a light boil. Add in 1/4 cup of Baking Soda. Once dissolved - boil wrapped hot dogs in water mixture for 20-30 seconds each (working in small batches). Remove and place back on baking tray. Brush each lightly with beaten egg and sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake in a preheated oven at 425˚F (220˚C) for 15-20 minutes - until the dough is nicely browned. Enjoy!

Pin it for later: http://bit.ly/pigsblank

The Anniversary of Princess Diana's death.

Today in 1997, Princess Diana and her companion Dodi al-Fayed were killed in a car accident in Paris.  

My parenting style is different.

I asked this question on my personal FB page: "At what flippin age do kids start to "remember" to replace the tp roll???? Ugh.... a small yet super annoying problem. Next time they sit without checking for a roll, Super Mum will not rescue them. They can MacGyver it."
Apparently this is a problem for most parents! The horror!! 

I made a video for my kidlets. Hopefully this will help my lovely kids remember to change the TP roll every once & while or maybe the fear of another Super Mum video appearing might help. Parenting win either way. ;)

Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/k4jkRMkZJPI

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month. Today is World Autism Awareness Day​. My husband & I have a child with Asperger's Syndrome which is also referred to as Asperger syndrome (AS), Asperger disorder (AD), simply Asperger's or high functioning autism It is an autism spectrum disorder that affects language and behavioral development. EVERY person on the spectrum is very different from each other!  There are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about Asperger's floating around and an awareness day and month could help change that.. My child has asked for their privacy in regards to Asperger's, which my husband & I fully respect and hopes the rest of you will do the same. Please support Autism Awareness Month by educating yourself & others, by asking questions if you do not understand, by not judging a child that is having a meltdown in public while a parent is trying to deal with the situation, do not exclude a child from gatherings because you think it would "easier" for them, and over all be UNDERSTANDING when a situation requires certain things, like the volume to be lower, smaller groups, not changing schedules, or whatever is needed. Do not judge a parent by believing they are pampering/babying their child. Please change your FB cover photo to this photo to show support. Thanks!

How I Spent Some of My Weekend

How I Spent Some of My Weekend

My family helped a family friend with their indoor petting zoo this weekend. Nothing is better than crocheting & knitting around a bunch of baby lambs and baby goats. One spunky baby lamb, BamBam tried to take my yarn off my lap and then tried to take my cell phone while I was pickup up the yarn. CUTE! My kids were even able to bottle feed some of the baby lambs. It was a fun weekend for the kids. This Knitting KnitWit loved feeling all the wool on the sheep. ;-) 

Animals are from Griffin's Willow Farms. The farm isn't open to the public but their store, Griffin & Co. in Kettering, OH is open to the public and sometimes has young farm visitors.

Welcome Summer 2014

Our annual end of the school year bonfire! We burned school assignments and roasted peeps while listening to music. I even tried to teach the kids how to line dance and some other 'old' popular dances. I think they had more fun laughing than actually dancing. My husband decided to download an astronomy app on our phones. The kids really enjoyed using it, even the teenager!! It was neat to see them aim the phone at different areas of the sky and name the stars, planets, and the moon. The app make it easier to point out constellations to them. There are tons of different stargazing apps to pick. I think everyone should download one and use it tonight. 

Bzz Box Starbucks

I signed up to be a Bzzagent! They send you items to review. Here is the Starbucks Blonde Roast box that they sent.

The blonde roast was very different from the regular roast. I was expecting a very light flavor but it was bitter. I didn't care for it at all.

Bzz Box Claritin

I signed up to be a Bzzagent! They send you items to review. Here is the Claritin box that they sent. It was full of coupons and two boxes of Claritin. 

Claritin lived up to the reputation the brand carries. Flavor wasn't horrible. No one was drowsy or acting different from it. We didn't have to redose because it actually lasted for the whole length of time! I liked that it was dye free for the liquid dose but wish the chewables were also dye free.

Knitting Behind Bars

I am proud of all the good that Lynn Zwerling is doing with Knitting Behind Bars. She is using knitting therapy to help prisoners deal with stress while helping charities at the same time. The prisoners only make hats. They are allowed to keep their first hat or send it home. The rest of the hats go to need children. The prisoners feel they are doing good after doing some horrible things. Some even skip dinner or extra earned privileges to attend the two hour once a week meeting. Check out this news story about them.Knitting Behind Bars ABC Here is another news story: ABCNEWS

 You can read about it on their blog: http://www.knittingbehindbars.blogspot.com/ or on their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Knitting-Behind-Bars/338815966148226

They can not accept donations of yarn or needles because of the strict rules applied by the prison but are allowed to accept monetary donations. You can find the paypal on their blog.

FREE Printable Coloring Book about Recycling & Littering

FREE Printable Coloring Books about Recycling & Littering. 

Curby's Recycling Fun Coloring Book
http://www.mcohio.org/services/swd/docs/Cuby_27s_20Coloring_20Book_20_New_.pdf

Lucky the Ladybug Littering Coloring Book
http://www.mcohio.org/services/swd/docs/Lucky_20the_20Ladybug_20_Book_.pdf

Source: Montgomery County Solid Waste District Website

First Weekly Kindness Challenge #KKWKC

It is time for the First Weekly Kindness Challenge #KKWKC. Visit my post explaining the challenge here.

The first challenge is a simple one. You do not even need to leave your computer to do so!

#KKWKC  Challenge #1
Post a nice comment on the wall of THREE Facebook friends. Something to make them smile. That is it. Do you have five minutes to make three of your friends feel a little bit of virtual love? Share that you completed this challenge on my FB page, in the comments here, or inbox me. I can't wait to see the kindness spread!!

Next week will involve your arm. ;-)

Silly Share Saturday

Here are a few things that made me smile this week. Click the title to view the videos.

Lucy the dog decided that she wants to the chicken nuggets that are cooking in a toaster oven. The only problem for her is that the toaster oven is on a high counter. hehehehe
Lucy the dog caught on camera getting chicken nuggets. 

A janitor made his job of snow removal a little more interesting.
Janitor's Revenge

Oh my goodness! You will laugh at this. Watch all the clips. The last one is my favorite. I am sure every dad would like a Trunk Monkey for when his daughter starts dating.
Trunk Monkey

This is just something to make you smile.
Irish Version of 'Cups'

Have you seen car snow art popping up everywhere?? I love it!

Looking for Guest Bloggers

Do you have something interesting to share with the world? It could something serious or silly. Once a week I would like to feature a guest blogger. Guest bloggers need to have their own blog, blog type FB page, or website.  The topics need to be family friend to a point. Let me know if you would like to be a guest blogger by inboxing my FB page. https://www.facebook.com/knittingknitwit Thanks!

2014 Weekly Kindness Challenge

I know a lot of us come up with a list of new year resolutions that we really try to complete but our focus is usually stolen away by life. Life can make us lose focus on what is truly important. I believe kindness is one of the important things that has been lost. This year I decide to have weekly kind goals instead of resolutions. My friend asked if I could share them every week so other could join in. Each week a new goal will be updated on my blog and on my blog's Facebook page. The first weekly challenge will be post on 01-12-14, that is this coming Sunday. Please join in and share your photos and experiences with by posting on my FB page. I hope we can all bring a little kindness to those around us.

I will probably post organizational weekly tips and challenges as well. Organized people tend to be happier and save money. This is going to be a great year! 

The Disney Postcard Arrived!!

Do you remember a few post back about sending a letter to a Disney character? If not, check the post out here: Write to a Disney Character The postcard arrived this week. My daughter was excited to add it to her postcard collection. She is going to write to a different character next week. This is a great way to sneak in handwriting practice. Here is a front and back view of the postcard. I cropped off the part that showed our address.

More School Area Photos

Here are some more photos of our school area. The first set of photos of other parts of our school area are posted here, School Room & Garden Update.

 My son's desk

 My daughter's desk

 Shelves between the desks. Top shelf holds our flashcard box. 

The next shelf is our outgoing box; like box tops, papers to be scanned, mail, items that needed returned, etc..

Each child has a yellow bucket with their daily needed items;  rulers, glue, crayons, etc.

The red and yellow pails hold pencils.

The last two shelves hold the printer/scanner and teacher guides.

 The white rolling table is used by a child when I need to use their computer to enter a lesson. I use it a lot when they need me close.

 My son's desk again. You can see their weekly goal dry board hanging on the side of the shelf unit.

I put how many lessons in each subject they need to complete by the end of the week. It helps us a lot!!

The side of my desk. The corkboard now holds our days of the week signs. 

The small shelf unit is for their daily work. Each shelf has one lesson. The kids start at the top and work their way down. It helps them focus, know how much they need to complete, and stops them from looking for assignments. We also use a binder system.

This is the only time you will see my desk look this clean. The top of it has shelves for my crafts, school books, sewing pile, and a everything else that doesn't seem to have a place in the house.

#FMSphotoaday craze

I decided to join the #FMSphotoaday craze because everyone seems to be having a lot of fun with it. You can read about the photo challenge and about the mum who started it all at Fat Mum Slim. Basically she posts a monthly list on her blog with a daily photo topic on the last Monday of the month. People share photos on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and their personal blogs while using the #FMSphotoaday to connect. Fat Mum Slim aka Chantelle picks photos for the Fab Four daily. She actually picks 8 photos, 4 each from Facebook and Twitter. You just have to use the # to enter. You will be able to find all my photos for the challenge on my Facebook Page, Instagram, and Twitter. Click the word to find & follow.

Here is October's Photo A Day Challenge.

Here is my first #FMSphotoaday.

10.6.13 ~ 8 o'clock

Waking up to peaceful rainy day.

Demolition

We have watched a house down the street go through different stages of preparation for demolition. We saw them gut part of it, firefighters set it on fire & rip the roof apart for practice, different rescue dogs practice their craft, and even a company set up a decontamination unit around the house to run different scenarios . It was interesting to watch everyone practice their valuable skills. I loved that they used the house for something good before tearing it down. Everyone is thankful the city fought to remove this unpleasant and unusable house from our neighborhood. The site is now green area.

I took the kids down to watch the city tear it down. We sat across the street and an official asked us if we planned on getting closer because it wouldn't be a good idea. REALLY? We were about 6 plus ft behind the yellow rope. No sir, I am going to let the kids crawl under the rope to investigate the process closer. That answer stayed inside my head but not my daughter's. She said," No sir. Why would we plan on disobeying the police officer (he told all the onlookers to move back about 3ft from the rope) to get closer to the dangerous conditions and possible endanger ourselves or the workers?"  He just looked at her and said, "Oh, good point." and drove off. I was embarrassed that she spoke rudely to the official. That is not like her. Her reason was she didn't like to be spoken down to like she was an idiot. I was talking to my daughter, oh heck I should just call it what it was, I was lecturing (evil parenting nowadays) her about treating others how we would like to be treated when a construction worker came over to high five her for finally getting rid of the official. Apparently he was trying to tell them how to do their jobs. They think he just picked us as an easy target to boss around. I later told my kids that is still not a reason to be rude and he probably was just trying to make sure we were safe but didn't know how to say it.

I had an 12 yr old boy, 8 yr old girl, an almost 4 yr old boy, and a 1 year old girl with me. Who do you think enjoyed it the most? Yup, the 1 year old girl. She cheered each time something big came down. The other kids found it insteading but nothing like she did. They all thought it was neat that the crew was spraying water on the wood while the equipment tore down the wall. They jumped with fear when a guy almost lost his head when a huge side wall flip towards him instead of the way it was suppose to fall. We even walked down the next day to watch the removal of all the remains. I asked the kids to share what their favorite part of the house removal week with each other. Here is what they said. They liked watching big equipment destroy everything, watching the firefighters hack the roof with axes, and the guy almost losing his head. Nice kids.

 Down the street, about 3 houses away when we took this photo.

 On the corner, about 2 houses away.

Across the street, in the lawn of a neighbor's house.

Write to a Disney Character

Did you know that you could write to your favorite Disney Character and they will reply back?!?!?! This was exciting news in my home. My daughter decided right away that she need to draw a picture for Rapunzel. I think she created a cute drawing. There are two address, one for FL and on for CA. We are going to mail one for both but my daughter needs to decide which character needs a letter from her first. ;-) Here is the first one. I will let you know what she receives when it comes.

Yummy Gluten Free Pizza

We decided to give the new take and bake certified gluten free pizza from Donatos a try. They will deliver it or you can pick it up in their stores. Donatos also offers a lot different gluten free items in their stores. The two pizza smelled so yummy while they was baking in the oven that my two kids and the two kids I was babysitting kept asking if it was ready. :-) It tasted as good as it smelled. The kids asked for seconds and thirds. My kids love Donatos! This is the first gluten pizza we have ever had so we have nothing to compare it with but it was delicious. It tasted better than any frozen pizza from the supermarket. Here are some photos of the packaging.