It could happen to you. You never know. Not even if you have a crystal ball...

Yesterday Mr Hubster and I were watching Fox News and there was this lady and her name was Krystal Ball. Kid. You. Not. I took a picture of the TV screen of her and her name with my iPhone and went to upload it to facebook. But it wouldn't let me update. And then I remembered that I've had this problem for a long time now. I really wanted to post the picture (with the comment: "Do you think she ever foresaw herself being on the O'Reilley show?" Clever, right? Just wish I'd thought of it. But it was all C.) so I googled my problem and I wasn't the only one it had happened too. Plenty of people swore that if you only deleted the fb app from your phone and then reinstalled it it would work. Sounded easy enough. But is there ever such a thing as easy? In the middle of the download my phone froze. What do you normally do when there's a problem with your iPhone? You turn it off and then you turn it back on again and the problem is fixed. Not this time. It would not turn back on properly. I was stuck with a cute little apple on my screen and that was it. C search around for info on how to fix this and found the answer. Not the one I wanted to hear, though. It had to be re... whatever the word is when you take everything away and start all over. From the beginning. Losing all your info. Yep. It was that bad. (And everyone with this problem had it happen because of the fb app.) But anyone with an iPhone know that you're supposed to sync it up so your info is saved. Well, last time I did that was in NOVEMBER. That's a lot of pictures, bookmarks, videos, contacts etc ago. Luckily I uploaded my pics to the harddrive three weeks ago so I only lost three weeks worth of photos. Still sucks! I was up until 2am restoring my phone. Putting on apps, organizing folders etc. Needless to say, I will do that syncing thing at least weekly from now on. And you should too!

Well, no blogpost should be without a picture and I wish I could post the picture of Krystal Ball. But that's obviously not possible so here's an unedited picture from my regular little camera of something I found on the floor a couple of days ago when it all of a sudden got very quiet around here.

Just because I need something to smile about right now.

Have fun syncing up!

What hole?

My mom sent me these iron on stickers called "täck en fläck" (cover a stain). They're great if your kid has a stubborn stain on a favorite piece of clothing. You just iron on a sticker and they can wear it again.

A few weeks ago I was looking through the clearing rack at Old Navy, looking for pants for E. I would never pay full price for everyday pants for her since they only last a few months and then she outgrows them so the clearing rack is my friend. This day I found a pair of super cheap pants! They had a tiny hole on one knee, but there was double fabric and the hole was only on the first layer so I figured I could fix that with one of the iron on stickers. And guess what? It was sew easy! And it worked out great. You can't see the hole at all and I think the pants are even cuter now. See for yourself...

Btw, she's been telling me all day that she looks like daddy. I guess he wears khakis quite a bit. (Without ladybugs, though. Just in case you were wondering.)

Our St Patrick's Day in Pictures

Swedish Meatballs

Can you believe I moved to this country without asking either of my parents for their meatball recipe? How can a Swedish girl survive without Swedish meatballs? I guess I could've just emailed them, but for some reason I didn't. Maybe I was really hungry and needed the recipe ASAP. Anyways, I brought a bunch of cook books with me from home and one of them was a cook book I got in 7th grade that's all about meat. So that's the recipe I've been using for 8½ years now. (Mamma,or pappa, there's room in my inbox if you ever find yourselves wondering what to fill your time with.)

Here is the recipe from the Meat Book:

(The recipe is in metric but I'll try to convert it the best I can without giving you measurements like 3.87562973465i47 cups of whatever. Yes, because lower case i's normally appear when converting.) 

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

(4 servings)

1 lbs ground beef (or chuck, or something like that)

1/3 cup rolled oats + 1 tbsp potato flour (or 1/3 cup plain bread crumbs)  

I use bread crumbs. I think you could use leftover potatoes too.

2/3 cup water, milk or beef stock basically some form of liquid. Some people use heavy cream.

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/5 tsp black pepper  

measure that one without metric cups, ha! (I do have a tiny little thing for that, but does anyone ever use it, I wonder?)

1 tbsp grated raw onion

(If you're making these for Christmas add a little bit of ground allspice. But not too much.)

 1. Mix rolled oats, potato flour and liquid, or bread crumbs and liquid. Let sit for 10 min.

 2. Add egg, salt, black pepper and onion.

3. Add ground meat. Work it all together, but not  too long or it will turn all "thread-y" on you. Well, it is my blog. I can translate how ever I want. Believe me, you do not want your meat thread-y. That would result in dry meatballs.

4. Fry a little piece of meat to make sure it tastes right. You don't want to roll all of your meatballs and fry 'em up just to realize you were way low on the salt. Been there, done that. If you're brave enough you could taste it raw. I'm not!

5. Wet your hands in cold water and roll little meatballs. Don't make them Italian meatball big. Think tootsie pop. Well, maybe not that small. 

 6. Fry the meatballs in a frying pan until evenly browned.

 7. My book says to put them in a pot once they are beautifully browned and keep frying them without added liquid for about 5-10 minutes on low. I put mine in the oven.

If you want gravy, and who doesn't, rinse the frying pan with some water after every turn. 

 Make sure not to use burnt grease. Pour the drippings in a pan and add beef stock until you have about 1 2/3 cups of liquid. Mix 2 tbsp flour with some cold water. Add to pan and stir. Bring to a boil and let boil for 3-5 minutes. Add a little bit of cream or half and half. You might need some more salt and pepper. And here is the secret to a good gravy. Sugar! A little bit of sugar or jam and it will be delicious. Lingonberry jam is da bomb with this!

I love my meatballs with boiled potatoes, gravy and lingonberry jam. How do you like yours?

The only thing missing is the lingon berries.

I also want to let you know that you don't have to roll the meat into meatballs. This meat is also great for little patties. Try making patties with a small piece of cheese in the center. That is delish!

Glutenfree Playdough

When planning for H's birthday party I knew I wanted to make play dough as party favors for the kids, and I wanted it to be sparkly white, just like snow. But if you've ever made homemade play dough you know that it won't come out white just because you don't add food coloring. It turns kind of beige. Not good for imitating snow. (Never play with yellow snow...) And I don't know about you, but I've never seen white food coloring. Does that exist? So I googled white play dough and it turns out that gluten free play dough is as white as it gets. I guess the flours used doesn't turn off white, like wheat does. 

My first attempt to gluten free play dough resulted in a sticky mess that smelled like pizza dough. I don't think you want me to share that recipe. But maybe you'd like to know what worked? Are you ready? Here it is...

(sorry, only picture I've got of it.)

Gluten free play dough recipe

1 cup gluten free Bisquick

½ cup salt

1 cup water

½ tbsp cream of tartar

1 tbsp oil

I also added glitter to mine. And of course you can add food coloring and spices or extracts if you'd like.

Mix everything together in a pot. I prefer a non stick one. Heat it up and stir until it turns into one big lump. Knead (I just love warm, fresh play dough) and let it cool down. Then Play!

Sparkling Attitude

I was sitting here going through an old devo notebook from 2009 and found something I thought was worth sharing. I had totally forgotten about it, which is why I always sit with a notebook during devo time so that I can be reminded some day. And considering my stinking attitude the other day I thought this was pretty fitting. 

I was reading "Women of the Bible" at the time and here is the page:

Now my head is spinning with ideas on how to put this reminder somewhere on my jewelry box so that I can be reminded daily, or at least on the days I leave the house and actually open up that box.

Breakfast Bar

A few weeks ago we were in the mood to make these, my girls and I. We didn't have all of the ingredients, but we weren't going to let that stop us. We went pantry shopping and found some other yummy things to throw in the mix and came up with something delish! I'm not sure they would make it back on the Eating Well web site, but they sure made it into our family cook book. Here we go:

 

• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon flaxseeds,we used the regular dark ones but I would love to try the golden ones soon.
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 cup Reeses puffs
• 1/3 cup craisins
• 1/3 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/3 cup chopped raisins
• 1/4 cup organic creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup organic sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Follow the directions in the provided link above. These are great to have for the mornings on the go.

P-U Stinky!!!

What stinks? 

Could it be the fact that E woke up at 6 am!!! this morning and woke up H too? 

Could it be the urine that leaked through H's diaper, again? (Seriously, she leaks through every other night. She's wearing a night diaper and she has 8 lbs left before the next size.) 

Could it be the passion fruit juice left on the ottoman by my 4 year old for my 1 year old to reach, and spill all over the floor and the clothes I just put her in? 

Could it be the broken pieces of glass all over the sink (and some on the floor)? 

Could it be the attitude of my 4 year old demanding to always get what she wants? 

Could it be the results of H's reflux on the clothes I just changed her into? 

Could it be the fact that H fell asleep in the car on the way to the dr's office (which I knew she would since it was her nap time) and then after me being very careful not to wake her up to bring her inside, the receptionists were really loud and woke her up? 

Could it be the result of H's reflux that had landed on me and the fact that I just now, at the dr's office realized that I smelled of vomit? 

Could it be the nurse giving me the shots too far to the center of my arms leaving me with sore, bumpy arms?

Could it be the fact that I had to give E a time out at the dr's office since she broke the rules we had just discussed before entering the building? 

Could it be the lunch (tuna) smeared all over my 1 year old's face and hair? 

Could it be the fact that I had to give her a bath before nap time since I was not about to put tuna baby down on freshly cleaned sheets. 

Could it be the toy microphone echoing in E's hands during H's nap time?

Well, as you can tell I'm having "one of those days" today. And although all of the above things mentioned stinks, literally or figuratively speaking, the thing that stinks the most about today is my response to the day, my attitude. That broken glass I mentioned above was from me being mad at E for leaving yet another glass out for H to spill so I threw it in the sink. Yeah, it looked like crushed ice, that's how much it shattered. How can I expect my 4 year old to make good choices when mine are clearly bad? I just can't seem to shake this attitude today and with each added thing it's not getting any better. So I sat down for a quick minute to see if any blogs were updated. Because that's what you do when you're upset at everything, right? Well, of course the only thing updated I hadn't already read was from this Godly woman. Not what I felt like reading right then and there but I clicked on the link anyways and Oh. Did. I. Need. Her. Blogpost. Today!!! I think she wrote with me in mind. Well, since she has no idea who I am, that I even exist, or read her blog it was probably written through her, by God, with me (and others like me) in mind. Check it out to see what I mean...

Chowder - iPhone Meditaion

I never thought I needed an iPhone. And to be honest, I still don't think I need it, but oh, do I enjoy it. Like the time I had to wait in line at Walmart for almost an hour. To buy something for $8. And I know I could have walked out of there without my item, but I had been searching high and low for it so I didn't want to risk it being out of stock later on.

A while ago I discovered another perk. I recently started memorizing Bible verses in English. I figured after being here for 8+ years it's about time to switch to English, right? This is where the iPhone comes in handy with all its apps. I have a few different Bible apps, all free ones I think. But I mostly use this one:

What I really like about it is all the different versions available. So when I go to read a new verse I look it up in a bunch of different versions. Not to find the one that best tickles my ear, but to find the one that is easiest for me to understand. Being a foreigner and all that... Now I have been doing this for a few months and recently come to realize that this process actually makes me meditate on the verse for awhile. Reading it over and over again and kind of looking at it from different angels. I love it! So much that I just had to share it with y'all. It's like breathing in happy air. If that makes sense to anyone but myself I don't know. I might have just lost most of you right there so with all that said... yay for the iPhone, and more Yay!! for the Word of God!