Record Breaking Nativity

Not to long ago an attempt was made at breaking the record for the wolds largest live nativity.  The record was broken and an AMAZING music video was made from it.  I had to share it. 

A single good deed

A video to share

I loved this video and had to share it.  It is so true that the small acts stick with us

Simple dinner idea

Trish gave me an idea for dinner that is simple and the kids loved.  My parents eat with us most nights.  This makes coming up with meals hard as my dad is a very picky eater.  Although dad says he is not picky, just fix steak and potatoes every night and he would be happy.  Last night I made pizza rolls and even dad liked them.  The girls LOVED them.  These are not the most nutritious but not horrible either. The rolls were fun to make, and cheep, so I will make them again.
 

Pizza rolls are just canned crescent roll dough, and half a cheese stick. 

Then add whatever toppings you want.  Unroll the dough, add the meat half a mozzarella cheese stick and toppings of your choice. 

 Grandma and panda putting their dinner together

Do not add pizza sauce.  Use small amounts of toppings.  Roll up starting at large side, and put on a tinfoil lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 12- 14 minuets and tah dah dinner is served.

Dip the rolls in pizza sauce if you want. :-)  I used Canadian bacon, mushrooms, and olives.  Panda just wanted cheese on one and Canadian bacon and cheese on another. Tiger is big on peperoni so she ate that.  I took some homemade marinara sauce out of the freezer to dip them in.  I think I will make this next time Panda has a friend over for dinner.

What we did for Thanksgiving

Yes I know I am way behind. :-)  But I thought Id share a couple of cute pictures from Thanksgiving.  For school that week and for thanksgiving day Panda wore turkey hair. It was super easy.  I used construction paper feathers and glued them together to make a tail and scraps of construction paper to make the beak and waddle then glued it onto a bobby pin.  Googly eyes on booby pins and pipe cleaner legs.  And the cutest turkey ever was ready for school. :-)

The girls helped me get our house and my parents house all cleaned and ready to start the holidays.  Panda and Tiger were an awesome help getting thanksgiving dinner ready.  Panda made the pies.  She made pumpkin, apple and banana cream pies.  I was so proud of her!  The pies were delicious and enjoyed by all.  Tiger who is blind and has cerebral palsy in her hands tends to stick to (physically) simple tasks, she always helps with baking stirring etc.  This year she put her mind to it and decided she was going to take on one of the (physically) harder tasks.  She pealed all the potatoes for me, ten pounds worth. 

She did a great job.  Tiger did struggle a little with aiming the peals at the garbage,

but cleaned up after herself.  :-)
     We had my parents, and my two younger brothers join us for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was wonderful to spend time with everyone!  All four of my brothers live in town so we see everyone on a regular basis. It is still fun to get together and give thanks.  On Sunday we had my older two brothers stop by with their families.  Yeah! So happy to see my family. :-)

A child's prayer

Yesterday at church Tiger was asked to come to Relief Society (the women's meeting) and share something about prayer.  Her primary (children's) class came into sing the song a child's prayer to us.  After they sang it the Relief Society teacher asked the children if any of them had ever had a prayer answered.  Tiger nodded yes, and the teacher asked if she would share with us.  Tiger is never shy so she shared.

Tiger:  Yesterday when I was cleaning my mouse Jerry's cage, Jerry got loose and ran away.  I tried and tried to catch her.  Then I couldn't find her any more.  I love her so I was so sad, and scared I'd never see her again.  So I said a prayer.  I told Heavenly father I love my mouse, and I was scared she would be hurt.  I said I don't know where she is, but you do, so could you send her back to me.  After a little while my mom came in and yelled at me, cause she went to put her shoe on and there was a mouse in the shoe rack.  She put Jerry back in her cage and told me she'd better never find a mouse in her shoe rack again.  I didn't even mind the yelling, cause I was just glad to have Jerry.  So I said a prayer to say thank you to Heavenly Father, and that's all.

     I was so proud of her!  she was so poised and mature.  She is getting so grown up!  She was not given any notice that she would be asked to share something and was able to do so beautifully.  I didn't even know about the missing mouse, other than knowing the mouse had been loose.  And yes I snapped at her and raised my voice.  No I'm not proud of that, but I am proud of her.  I am proud that she turned to prayer for help and that she saw God's hand in her mouses return.

   

Kitchen cabinet cleaner 

Many people spring clean, my family has always done fall cleaning.  My dads family always used to join us for Thanksgiving.  That meant that the week before Thanksgiving we went on a cleaning spree. LOL  I teach, and so have the week of Thanksgiving off.  So, each year I deep clean my parents home during this week.  They live right next door, so not a big deal to head over. I wanted to get a head start today.  I decided to start with the cabinets.  Last year I some how missed cleaning the doors, so they really needed cleaning.  

         ICK!
 When I started to get stuff out to clean I realized I was out of wood oil soap.  :-o
This is what I usually use to clean the cabinets.  It is the middle of a snow storm here and I didn't want to drive into town to buy more.  What did we do before the Internet?  I got online and found a post at One Good Thing with a recipe for cabinet door cleaner.

1 part cooking oil

2 parts baking soda

couldn't be easier.  I found it wasn't cleaning as well as I wanted so I added 2 drops of blue dish soap.  It worked very well after that. You smear the paste on the wood with your fingers.

Then rub it off with a damp cloth.  For the crevices I used a toothbrush.  Worked like a charm.   WooHoo I have a new cleaner, and it is way cheep. :-)  I spent most the day cleaning cabinets inside and out. 

Now the girls and I are going to have a movie night. Panda is making brownies, and Tiger is making sugar cookies.  I still have to come up with a treat to contribute.  I am thinking grape and cheese kabobs to balance out some of the sweet. :- )

New Family Member

Here she is getting to know grandma, who loves her.  We are in love with our new puppy and the puppy loves us. :-)  We brought our new baby home yesterday afternoon.  She is a six month old Shih-tzu and very cute.  She was very personable with her old family.  But turned very timid when when we got her home.  She was so sad last night. :-(  We let her out to potty at 8:30 and she would not come back.  We have a fenced yard and she kept running around the fence trying to a way out.  Poor baby.  I spent half an hour coaxing then chasing her, to get her back in.  She slept well and woke up much happier.  She has been playful and cute all morning.  My mom came to meet her and they instantly bonded.  She will not leave my mom as long as my mom is here. LOL.  But when moms not around she prefers Panda so far.  We are enjoying having a dog again.  We lost our beagle last month and have been missing her.

Braces

Guess where we went after school Thursday?  Ill give you a hint. 

Yes that is a missing bracket on Pandas braces.  There was also a bracket missing in the back of her mouth.   Ooops.  So off to see the orthodontist we went.  They used a different glue this time.  As it was getting close to time for her first adjustment they did that as well.  Panda was thrilled to choose turquoise bands for her top braces, and pink for the bottom.  I'm thinking the excitement of the braces will wear off after a few adjustments.  I hope she isn't to sore at school today.  If she gets hurting to bad she can call my dad and spent the day hanging with him.  But, Panda LOVES school.  She has to be almost dead to willingly miss it.  So I'm a little worried that even if she is in great pain she wont tell.  She is eleven years old now so I try to just let her know the options and then respect her choices.  I hate respecting her choices.  Why cant she just stay little?!  LOL  Oh the hardships of mommyhood. :-)

Class Turkeys

On the last Friday in school of each month the girls classes have an end of the moth party.  Celebrations are not allowed during the month. So the end of the month party incorporates all  birthdays and holidays in the month.  Every child is welcome to bring treats.  I don't send treats every month, but I do send them Halloween, Christmas, Chinese New Years, and the girls birthdays.  This year I decided to send them for thanksgiving as well.  I wanted  something easy that would look like a lot.  I came up with turkey suckers.  :-)  They were so easy to put together, and came out looking great!  They were made of Tootsie Pops, Hershey's Kisses, and construction paper.  These suckers are simple enough for kids to make/help make.  They would be great as party favors or to decorate the kids table.

1.  Make a pattern for the tail feathers  I free handed a feather shape, but a fan or leaf shape would work too.

2. Next trace the shape a million times  (or however many times needed for the number of turkeys you are making ;-) )

3.  Cut out tail feathers, there the hard part is done.   Note: if you want to make beaks and waddles for the face save the scraps from the tail feathers and trim them to fit.

                                                    Panda doing the hard work for me

4.  Assemble turkey.  Hot glue the tail feathers on one side, the Kiss on the other, and add a face if you want.  I just drew the eyes on the foil. I kind of wish I had bought small googly eyes to glue on.  I used paper scraps to make the beak and waddle.

And now you have a cheap easy turkey to send to school, or decorate the kids table with.

Thanksgiving Tree

I saw clever idea on Pinterest a Thanksgiving Tree.

  

      The idea is to hang the tree where the family can see it.  Then as you think of things you are grateful for you write them on a leaf cut out of construction paper and stick it to the tree.  As I am working hard to teach a sense of gratitude to my children, and also to be more grateful myself.  This sounded like a great idea. A few small issues and one larger issue came up.  I didn't have any brown paper to make the bark.  Solved I did have brown paper bags from the grocery store.  I pulled open the seams of the bags, and cut the torn edges I had made so they were strait.  Then I laid them out in a large rectangle and drew a tree on them.  The folds from the bag shape looked awful. :-(  I took the bags and wadded them up, then smoothed them back flat to look more like bark, kind of.  Turned the bags over and taped them all together, making sure the tree I drew on the front all lined up together.  Then I cut the tree out, and using painters tape I taped it on the wall.  On the entry table near the tree I put a basket with construction paper leaves, painters tape, and pencils.  There, all ready to show our gratitude.  Larger issue that came up?   I lack artistic talent. LOL.  Oh well the kids love it and have been putting lots of leaves up. :-)  Panda insisted on labeling it. :-)  Love it!  May be a bit of a crafty fail, but it is a family nailed it!

 Documentary on Orphans

As many know, my daughters were adopted from orphanages in China.  The orphans of the world hold a special place in my heart.  Last night I watched a documentary on Netflix Called MotherIndia.
This Documentary shows the life of a group of young orphans living on the streets in India.  My heart broke to see children as young as three years old begging on the streets to survive.  There are over 31 million orphans in India alone.  Only the lucky end up in orphanages.  How I wish I could help them all.  Watching  this show made me want to wake my children up so I could hold them tight.  The story that was hardest for me to hear was the child who got lost on an outing and never found his way home.  Are his parents still searching and hoping to find him?   Most of the children were runaways, abandoned, or truly orphaned.  If you have netflix this is well worth watching.  Off to research charities that help orphans in India

Introduction

At the request of friends I am starting this blog to help others keep up with our crazy life.  I chose the name Mormon Mommy fail because, while I am a Mormon Mommy,  I am not a super put together never a hair out of place, bakes bread every day, can sew a prom dress in three hours Mormon Mommy.  I am a single, working mom of two wonderful girls.  I love to try new things and new crafts, and sometimes fail spectacularly.  I work hard to provide the best home possible for my awesome daughters.  I was blessed and lucky enough to adopt my girls from china when they were little.  Both my girls were considered medical/special needs.  I at times will talk about the fact that Tiger (age 8) is blind and has sensory issues, or that Panda (age 11)  is medically fragile, and has seizures.  Both girls are A students who are thriving at home at school and socially, so differences do not define my children or our family, but the do at times play onto our lives.