Pankets all around!

In our house our 3 yr olds chant at breakfast is,"pankets, pankets!". My daughter is not in love with many foods but this is one. I'll admit on pancake day she has even eaten them for more than one meal...shhhhh.

I've always enjoyed pancakes but for most of my life I've always used the trusty box mix. Even after we moved overseas, believe it or not they sell boxed pancake mix here. The first two years we lived here I attempted homemade pancakes a few times but we couldn't find a recipe that we liked better than the easy peasy one. However, after our first child I decided I was tired of spending the bulk of my budget at the grocery store so I set out to save wherever I could. Soon after I found an IHOP copycat recipe. I was hooked. It took me a while in the beginning but after you learn the recipe you can whip them out pretty fast. I've also tweaked the recipe for my healthier days.

Today I tried something new. A few months back I discovered they made powdered buttermilk. Who knew?? My mother-in-law that's who. I generally just add vinegar to my milk but she offered to get me some to try. Absolutely! So today is my first try. It's definitely easy to use and for sure increased the thickness to my normal recipe. I'll be breaking this out again soon! Pretty cool product. Who uses buttermilk enough to buy a whole container for one recipe and watch the rest go to waste and overseas you may be a miracle worker if you find any! So two thumbs up for this product.

So are pancakes are all mixed up and ready to cook. Mommy is trying to finish up breakfast when at lightning speeds I'm the causality of a hit and run! Have any you ever been accosted by these deadly baby walkers while you were cooking? It crashs with fast speeds right into your ankles! Ahhhh......hold in the scream.....OK! No more walkers in the kitchen!

Peace has resumed and their are pancakes sizzling on the griddle. Mmmmmm. BTW, love this new pan for breakfast dishes!

My lil man who is new to finger-foods is quite the fan of pankets too! In fact he probably ate more than big sis (not hard to do).

I don't know what it's like at your house but breakfast isn't complete well....any meal really without a steaming cup of Joe.

All you need is your handy tea pot, grounds and a coffee press and coffee is a possibility anytime. Electricity not needed! In this world that is magic words! I'de love for everything in my house to be operated on something besides electricity. Any out there feel me?

If I had to have electricity to have coffee in the house we'd probably be in marriage counseling. So...my advice for the day, "Save your marriage, Get a coffee press!".

 

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Gettin Curly- Remington curler review

Have you ever been getting ready in a house without AC and little children running around craving attention and all of you need to be ready to head out the door within the hour? Is the diaper bag packed? Are the children dressed! Wait....have you had a bath recently? Is lunch in the crockpot? It will be 3pm before we return home. Breakfast has been made, check. Have I showered....yes yes that at least is done. Where is my Sunday school material? Read my bible, check. Now I better spruce up this mug before we greet the world:) Do we have electricity? Yes! Party dance! Ok, ironing done if necessary. Now...hair. It's 75-85 degrees in my house, do I want to stand under a blow dryer and hot iron for 15 minutes? Then I'll be so sweaty I pull it all up in a clip anyway! But,I'm would like to look nice. My quickly solution- hot rollers.

 

I know they aren't the most popular hair beautifying device but I admit I'm a big fan. I always grew up with them in my house. My mom probably still has the big white case of hot rollers. I used them all the time in high school. Well, for some reason after I left for college and got married I just never bought my own. You know how it is sometimes, we tend to put off spending loads of money on frivolities when we are on a tight budget and then I just forgot about them.

I got it into my head a couple years back that they were just what I needed to speed up my primping time overseas. I didn't want anything big and clunky because shipping is outlandish! So on Amazon I found these:

Remington ceramic compact curlers,12.95. You can see how compact they are in comparison to this 1oz tube of neosporin. Super easy and light to ship. They were a great Christmas gift I received. It is only a 10 piece model but I don't have thick hair so that works just great for me. If you have a full mane this may not do the job...But for me they have been great. I add my overseas adapter and plug it in. Go do one of the hundred chores that need to be done before leaving and come back 5-10 minutes later and they are ready for me. I take 3-4 minutes putting them in and again I'm able to multi-task. 5 minutes later and the job is done.

I love how it looks and it lasts all day! Another pro compared to traditional ironing. Now a note for those who are ready to rush out and buy curlers. You may need a little practice to break in the style you want. I have farely kinky hair so I only need about 5 minutes or its serious Shirley Temple. So beware curly heads! If you are more of the straight haired type you may need longer. I suggest using larger curlers on top for more voluminous curls and smaller ones on the bottom for the thicker longer parter of your hair. Give it a spray and you have an all day look. If you've never given it a try and you are short on time as I am numerous times give it a go! I think you'll be happy with the results.

 

 

 

 

 

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Decorating the Dryer

This is what we affectionate refer to as decorating the dryer:) Does anyone else live somewhere with no closets or laundry rooms? In the little country we live in, dryers are a very rare thing to see. Mostly you will see clothes hanging on flat roofs from clothes lines strung out and on balconies, windowsills and sometimes bushes. When we moved here I decided we needed a dryer for those 3-4 months of rain we receive every year. Luckily those times are within the time of the year we generally have electricity. Little did I know this expensive commodity would be half the size of States side dryers and pretty low heat BUT I was thrilled when I bought it.

For the first few years we owned it, it was in an extra room we didn't use. Without kids we had lots of space! However, after our first arrived we moved into a smaller space and had nowhere to hide our big appliance. Our washer was already in the bathroom, where would we put this big dryer? Solution, the only free corner was our daughters room. So that is when the idea of trying to blend the lovely dryer into the decor of the room. Luckily, the receiving blankets match the decor of the room. Fold and hang to fit! Voila!

I'm pretty sure this will not be in any famous magazines but it's how we roll in 3rd world countries:)

 

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Blog Swap!

Hello Fellow Bloggers,
I recently started "keeping house in the himals". It is a blog based on living in a third world country. I am aware "There is nothing new under the sun":) I'm sure you all already have blogs you like to check out regularly and some people just don't do blogs. We won't be getting too serious at "keeping house in the himals". You are sure welcome to come on over and check it out. It is made up of performances based product reviews for living in a third world countries and how we uniquely accomplish domestic challenges with limited resources. I am initiating a blog swap. I would love for everyone to come give us a look and for those of you with your own blogs please leave a hello and your blog name in the comment section. Look forward to seeing them all!

Pig, Apples & Bread

I'm so excited to finally get to the food posts! My dad once said that "Some people live to eat and some people eat to live". I must admit I am very happy to be in the first group! The #1 thing I wanted to blog about was food but as moms of little tykes will attest many times meal prep time can be the most stressful time of the day! So, though I was eager to write scrumptious posts most meals were thrown together amidst crying children and a tired mom:) But today I was finally able to accomplish my goal; Food pics!

On the menu tonight is Pork cubes (because that's what they sell here), applesauce and homemade stuffing.

My apples were pre-boiled unlike the recipe will instruct because I began by prepping baby food and decided to do it all at once. You can't beat doing two things at once. I'm including pics of the baby food and my all time favorite Baby Bullet. If you live overseas and don't have baby food at your disposal or you are feeling frugal and are wanting to make your own there is one item you MUST have; Baby Bullet blender. It is awesome. It not only will grind your rice, oats,etc. it also blends your food to a beautiful creamy smooth texture. For some strange reason I get a thrill out of seeing my beautifully smooth baby food sitting in baby bullet cups ready to go. The blender also includes 6 storage cups, a freezer 6 cup tray, a cookbook, spatula and a large food cup all for $59. I am on my second Baby Bullet. Not because they are a faulty product but because I have to use it on a transformer and they ware down products a lot faster. So I used it to death! It lasted till my daughter was 2. Below you will see boiled apples and frozen bananas that I blended and the little warrior prince waiting for them.

 

 

And time-out for munchies. Is there any ladies out there that get a whole meal made without leaving the kitchen or having the whole family in the kitchen with you:). If so please leave me your secret in the comment section. No, I don't really mind if my stress level isn't too high ( which that never happens of course!). So this is break #1.

And break #2 for the prepared Apple banana baby food.

It was mmmmmm yum. Especially the stuffing! I admit it tasted better then the quality of the pic:( Sorry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Clinique Eye Liner Review

Clinique Brush On Cream Eyeliner review

Have you ever taken the time to put on all your make-up? Get everything looking just right. Only to realize 2-3 hours later you could barely tell you had applied any eyeliner at all! Grrrr... Us busy ladies don't have time to be reapplying make-up all day long! Why would we take the precious time we do have to apply something that wears off so quickly?!

Before I found this fantastic product the time expectancy of my applied eyeliner was a few hours at best! It often wore off in less time if I spent any time out in traffic on the back of my husbands motorcycle or driving my little blue scooter. We who live in hardy environments need hardy products to keep up with us!

Not only do I have to deal with environmental influences but from the day I started wearing make-up I have had the tendency to rub my eyes:( I remember my junior high days when I tried to sneak wearing make-up before my parents allowed me to. Well.....I'll tell you I was a pretty sad sneak! I came home from school looking like a raccoon from rubbing my eyes. It didn't take a detective to figure out my discretion. That put an end to that! I was back to clear mascara for a few more years. Also, for many months during the year I am plagued with allergies. Due to all of these contributing factors I was VERY excited to find this product a few years back!

I did an all day progression of pictures for you to see the greatness of this product!

 

 

 

 

While not the greatest view of me, I think you can see how well this product works!

I give it an A+ for third world living. It is a small container but last at least 6 mo. You can learn to apply it as thin or as thick as you like.

You can find it on their website here.

Brush-On Cream Liner | Clinique

 

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Saul's not so small sacrifice- The small things matter!

 

I have recently been reading in I Samuel. I haven't been able to get away from this story of Saul and his sacrifice. It has been really challenging me. I don't often post devotionals but as I have been mulling on this the Lord keeps pushing me to share what He has done in my heart. So here goes!

I Samuel 13:8-11

This passage is the story of Saul taking the place of the prophet and sacrificing.

In the above verses, if you did not already know the severity of the situation from hearing the story previously it would seem like a mundane paragraph. Samuel didn't come, the people were restless, Saul sacrificed; Plain and simple. In fact when I was reading it I skimmed through it so fast I didn't even realize what story it was until I got to the end. Rrrrrrr.......reverse and re-read. Although it didn't seem like a big action scene to me, I don't think it was small thing to Saul. Biblical procedures were very well known back then. I think he knew the position he was stepping into but he was panicking because his followers were straying.

Have you ever been in that position? You had things planned out. God had given you a path to start on. You were following Him and you thought you knew how the Lord would bring it all to pass. You thought because you were following God's plan in your life that things would always make sense. You thought your choices would always be clear. Then....one day things got confusing. All your plans and expectations fell to pieces in a matter of minutes crumbling around your feet. You stood confused and possibly feeling rejected wondering, "What do I do now?". I know God said follow this path....I know he hasn't told me to do anything differently but things don't make sense anymore. So you spent hours agonizing over your confusing situation and conniving what the best plan would be to get out of your present predicament. You came up with what seemed like the answer but you knew it was different from your last marching orders from above. This is when we land right where Saul was. Will we follow our own devices and solutions or will we stay faithful to the directions we've been given?

Many times we insert our own ideas into the problem solving of our life even though we know it doesn't match Gods plan He's given us. We think His plan isn't working right now. My solution makes sense to me and I'm sure He'll understand. When all God wants is us to stick with the plan and wait for Him to bring His will to fruition.

Here is where the Lord has really been working me over.

Often times we read stories like this and think, "big deal he made an offering". That's not a big deal. However, it's the small things in life that make the biggest difference. It's the small things we say to our children, the small things we say to our spouse, the one and two and three days we don't come to his word for guidance and to be fed. All these small things make up our lives. They seem insignificant to us. We think I'll do right when it really matters, but we won't. Many small moments of yelling at our children build a habit of anger and frustration. Many small snipes at our husband build a resentment, distrust and disrespectful attitude towards our husbands. Many days of ignoring the needs of fellow Christians because of selfish desires lead to a self-centered lonely Christian. Many days of disregarding our need for spiritual food and a relationship with the Lord leads to utter chaos and break down in every area of our lives. It truly is the small foxes that spoil every vine in our lives.

My Prayer:

Lord help me not to pass off small sins of anger, laziness, pride and selfishness that will build and bury me underneath its weight. Help me to have a sensitive heart that greaves at mistakes made but also embraces your long suffering forgiveness. Help me stand guard against the attitude that small things don't matter! Help me to build a life that glorifies you through many small good things built into something great.

 

 

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