A defrost tray

 So we got this beautiful large freezer this year. It was wonderful except for the fact I never decide what I want to eat until like lunch and then the food does not always defrost in time for dinner. My husband was reading I believe amazing gadgets to have on the Chive. I honestly have no clue and he bugged the crap out of me how we needed it. So I gave in and bought it. I honest did not believe it would work. 

 So I set it on the tray 

 This is about 15 minutes later 

within 30 minutes.

I could not believe it. So if you want you own try click my link and buy it :D 

1 X Gourmet Trends Quick & EZ Defrosting Tray

The best part of this time saving tray is it was $14.06, and well worth it.

Flour tortillas

I feel tortillas should be a staple in any house not just us crazy Latinas. I use them for pretty much anything chips, burritos, random made up things, and my kids favorite quesadillas. So we are working on making them from scratch again. Going to the store and picking them is great but reading the labels terrified me with some of the listed things. This takes me 10 minutes ( I love my press and I move quick) and the taste can't be beat so it is worth making it. 

If you plan on this being a normal occurrence you should really look into a press they come in two different sizes a large and a small. Check out the quick link to Tortilla Press-heavy Duty Cast Aluminum Tortilla Maker 8''inch-metallic.

Ingredients:

6 cups flour (I use all purpose)

1 Tablespoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 1/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups hot water

Mathew was pressing the shortening into the flour. 

He then realized he had flour up his arm and was unsure about that situation. 

Directions: 

Mix flour, salt, baking powder really well. Add shortening and it it into the dough until it if crumbly, it is best to use your hands.

Making sure it was completely incorporated. 

This became a big game. 

This is before we add water. 

Slowly add hot water to make a dough soft enough to roll out. Divid up and roll into balls about the size of a golf ball. I was always told the size of a lemon but they go from really tiny to baseball size and I never understood the whole lemon thing. 

This is way to dry. 

This is to wet. 

It will look like this when it is properly incorporated. 

This is what the press looks like closed. 

Open it all out and you get this. 

Put your ball here. 

Fold it all back into place and squish. 

I open it rotate it and squish it again.

Cook on an ungreased skillet or griddle. 

Toss in a hot pan and cook it. 

I use my hand and rotate it. 

This prevents sticking. Flip it over and rotate it again. 

I like to store my tortillas in a play pot with a bread linen. 

Then continue until done. 

The kids had a blast doing this!!! and we made about 36 small tortillas. 

Starting a school binder

Living with Autism is tricky because the first several years you completey rely on a group of people you have never met before to help you decide what is best for your child. You trust them to help you decide how to handle the melt downs and how to handle the downs as well and the ups. 

When you first meet your team you don't even have an official diagnosis. 

I was lucky that I love to research, I am not even lying I really love to research things. 

Now I am testing the boundaries yet again. I refuse to let my son's disabilities define him. I want him to expand beyond what our society believes to be normal for a kid with autism. 

He has been stealing Yasser's school work and doing it on his own but his social skills are no where near where they should be.

To help keep things in order we have been working on binders and schedules. I started out by searching for cute prompts the create cards to help label everything. We have things for daily chores, brushing our teeth, etc. 

After I colored everything and cut it all out I then made a blue background and cut it all out. I have learned that if I make things his favorite color then he will pay attention and give it a try. 

I also learned to laminate things because sometimes they find there way into water when he does not like something. We bought  Purple Cows Hot and Cold Laminator, Includes 100 3 mil Hot Pockets, Assorted Sizes (3016c) It is also 100% amazing to own. We use it for school and some of our daily lives things. I will be added more pictures as I continue to sort and organize things. But right now our binder is my favorite and I look forward to seeing what happens as we add school. The binder is divided up into different sections. The first has a weekly outline, the second has daily sections which allows us to break up things by the hour and the third has calendars for the entire year. We also have an entire section of school work for when he gets bored and goes for something else to do. 

He will excel despite what the statistics show. 

Living with Speech Problems

Yasser hit every single milestone usually ahead of time. She was always our little over achiever and it made it hard when we had Gill-G. I knew that he would not be like his sister because not every kid is holding their own head up at birth. I am not even joking she got the nickname super baby because of it. It was not until Gill-G was 6 months that we started to worry he could not roll over still but the doctor we had at the time love to tell me they all develop at their own time. At 10 months he got up and walked so I figured I may have been over reacting. At 2 years old I started to really worry, my son still had no voice or sounds even. Yasser was talking by the time she was 18 months. At this point we moved back to New York and we had a new doctor. Someone who heard my concerns and saw that they were real serious, we would start our journey to getting real answers. It would be about 6 months before Gill-G would start making baby noises and by the end of the year we would start to understand a few things. We knew what to look for, so when Hulk man showed signs we knew how to handle it. After a year of doing Speech therapy with both boys and two years for Gill-G part of me still is worrisome because some of the time I still have no clue what they are saying and it frustrates them. Yasser is really good with it but I am deciding it is time for something different. Over the next few months we are going to learn ASL as a family. My goal is for us to sign as we talk so one day the boys feel comfortable. Later today we should be done putting up our flash cards and our new books will be here. ( I will post pictures) Our kids has made our life extremely interesting. Learning to live with strong willed, smart, anxiety, autism, apraxia, sensory processing, dermatographia, and allergies can be tricky. As I figure out how this works and what works for us I will share what we are doing. For more information on Apraxia check out http://www.apraxia-kids.org.

It has been way to long...

Things were all over the place for awhile and it got overwhelming but we are back and we are more organized and in a better place. 

                                                     

I want to start with we completed our first year homeschooling with Yasser and it was a long crazy year. We combined first grade with kindergarden because she was comfortable with kindergarden before the year even started. We are starting second grade this year. She is also bridging into Brownies with our girl scout troop. I am very proud of my little lady because she worked hard to earn all of the pins and patches she could. We are also in to works of losing our first two teeth!!! I really have no clue how I feel because it does not feel that long ago she was depending on me for everything.

                                                                        

Gill-G had huge changes in his life. For starters we have the official Autism diagnose but he also has apraxia with anxiety and horrible allergies. The good news to it all we were able to start putting together plans to help him work around stuff. Now we are in a much better place and starting to see the unusual child emerging. It is honestly nice to see. We finally got rid of our gross green blanket and don't spend day and night upset. We are starting Kindergarden this year after catching him doing his sisters school work for her ( he just turned 4 so I didn't want to push but he can do math in his head and basic reading). Lessons were learned and now we are in for a really great year. 

                                                                          

Hulk man well he is just Hulk man with more mysteries than answers but we have either been learning how to accept and deal with more or he is getting better. I really have no clue anymore. But we love him and plan on another great year except this time we with be keeping up with our blog. Even Justin agreed to start typing and writing more. My weekly schedule has a blog typing section blocked off every week :) Thank you everyone for not giving up on me and checking every so often. 

Brown Sugar

One day a long while back I ran out of brown sugar and was in the middle of a recipe. So I did ever ones favorite thing and pulled up pintrest and looked for a substitute. Time went on and I learn a few things about my sons eating habits and what we were doing wrong. Process food makes the kids completely insane so I started trying to figure out affordable ways to still feed him things without depriving him of anything. Apparently some of the treats I find unnecessary  are a crucial part of childhood. I do not get it but what ever thats why I can be super mom right? Well brown sugar is very important to some baked goods. MY quest began and I started hunting for raw brown sugar and not finding what I wanted. I did get the brilliant plan of making my own. I can go to our local Amish market and buy bulk raw cane sugar less than $10 for a 5 pound bag. That is so cheap it is scary. That I used molasses and sugar.  It really is that simple.

The more molasses the darker and stronger the sugar. For this I used white sugar. This way you can see the color change. 

I poured the molasses first then slowly added sugar until it was the color I wanted. 

The beautiful brown sugar. It taste great the kids like it in the oatmeal. 

About Me

                         I am a 24 year old mother to 3 my younger two are special and my daughter is sassy. I have a loving and somewhat supporting husband. Very hard to always support someone when they have no clue what direction they are going in.  I worked in kitchens for 7 years did some medical training (pays off for broken bones and CPR needs). I give up on school for now I tried the whole "you can do it with kids' but lets face it online classes with 3 kids all under 5 is almost impossible, still do able for someone else but not for me. I am an artist the problem is I LOVE love love all forms of art. I paint and draw. I even do some wood working and photography. I also cook and am working towards 100% local and process free. Oh and I am a Girl Scout leader and homeschooling. I could lie to you and say and my house is spotless but cleaning is not my strong point. I am way too focused on other things to remember about cleaning. I get in moods and make it sparkle almost like a magazine but my boys make sure it does not last more than 5 minutes.