January Reward for Scripture reading...

Here is the reward for January's scripture reading.  I bought some ariheads and some big smarties and put them in a bag and attatched the note.
january reward

I plan on giving the kids who return their calendar a treat and those that want can return them next week.  If they haven't read they can either finish January and still recieve the treat or start fresh with Feb. and get the treat at the end of the month.

Valentines Gifts

I am so excited with my valentine gifts for the kids.  I am even more excited that I have them done before February.  When I had lots of spare time and a lot more energy I use to write my kids letters every year to tell them how proud I was of them and their accomplishments.  So this year while looking around for ideas I kept seeing different types of “subway art” representing Valentines day.  So I decided to create my own “Love Art” as I refer to it as.  I used Picnik.com (Hurry now because their Premium package is free  until April 19th because they will be closing down )  So I adventured into it because I don’t have the amazing skills to use Photoshop Elements and Picnik is AMAZING. 
I created each child a page and then I will post it in a frame.  Each page tells them their age, their talents, their physical features I adore and just that I love them.  A Note: Set the measurements 2400 x 3000 to get a perfect page for an 8 X 10 frame.

I hope they enjoy these, now I need to make one for my sweetie, not sure if I will show that one

I finished my lovely husbands...I love it

Homemade pretzels

  Week 2 

So making pretzels seems like an impossible task.  I have never made pretzels because I thought it was way to complicated.  Now I think we will making them often, they were easier then expected and way yummier then those store bought ones.  I learned from a couple of mistakes.  I saw this recipe in Woman’s Day magazine and it looked easy.

Soft Pretzels
1  1/4 oz active dry yeast ( 2 1/4 tsp)
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 1/2 to 4 3/4 c. flour
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp baking soda

1.  In a large bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, salt, and 2 c. of flour.  Warm 1 1/2 c. of water, add the water and 1 tsp oil to the flour mix.  Using and electric  mixer, beat until smooth, about 2 mins.
2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add 2 c. of flour( 1/3 c. at a time), mixing until the dough begins to pull away from the side of the bowl.  Turn dough out onto floured surface.  Knead in 1/2 c. of the remaining flour until dough is smooth (add more if still sticky), about 5 minutes.
3.  Coat a large bowl with the remaining tbsp. of oil. Place the dough into the bowl, then turn it so it is oiled-side up.  Cover with a clean towel and let rest in a warm place until it doubles in size.  About 45 mins.
4. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (we didn’t have paper so we used tinfoil, make sure you spray with oil before putting in oven. Preheat oven to 400* .  Punch down the dough and cut into 8 pieces (they were really big, you could even cut them into 16 pieces for smaller sizes)

In the meantime put some water in a saucepan ( I used my wok because it was the perfect size), add 2 tbs of Baking soda to the water and get it to a simmering point.

with lightly floured hands (don’t put flour on counter because you need the friction)  Roll each piece in 1/2 “ rope.

then take each strip and make a U shape then take ends twist and fold over  to make the pretzel shape.  Use water to secure the ends to the dough.

Next gather all the topping you wish to use on the pretzels for example: parmesan cheese, salt, cinnamon and sugar, any other toppings plus melted butter.

Once your water is simmering put in a pretzel and turn it after 30 secs and after 30 secs take out and put on tray.

After taking out of water add toppings…

Then put in oven for 8 minutes, take them out and turn the tray around for another 8 minutes.  Take out of oven

And enjoy……

I hope your Pretzels turn out as yummy as our did.

Book of Mormon Reading Chart for 2012

So this year in Primary we will be studying the Book of Mormon. I wanted to find a fun and easy challenge for my class of 9 years old. I have a mix of kids so I wanted something easy for them to follow but also not so overwhelming. I have decided the reading into the 12 months. I will give them a month at a time, at the end of each month they will return the calendar showing they read all of the months reading and then they will get a prize. Not a piece of candy prize but a prize that has some spiritual and thoughtfulness in it. Not sure yet what each month will bring regarding that. I made a bookmark to start them off with that has the dates for them to remember to turn in their calendar's. Here is the calendar for Jan and Feb.
    
I finally figured out how to make it so you can download this.  Go to the bottom of this post and click on BOM chart.
Here is the book marks for the reading guidelines.  I used the LDS scrapbooking Blog Train, love it.  This month’s theme was CTR
There are 4 bookmarks on each page with a combination of boy and girl.

    
I hope the kids love this idea, I do.  I am planning on following the plan, but I may read more then listed. 

Have fun and enjoy...
Download Book marks
Also I have completed the whole year for calenders...you can download them Here or click on the pictures.