Paper CTR Rings

A little over a year ago I was a Primary teacher in my church. When the Bishop and his Councilors gave me and my husband the call I was actually rather stunned and I don't remember exactly what I said but it was something along the lines of "Have you seen my husband?" since he's not really the super kid friendly image, don't get me wrong, he's a wonderful dad and all and he's great with teenagers but when I was a Nursery teacher (over the 18 month olds to the 3 year olds) I had him come help me one day and he literally stood there for most of the time having no idea what to do being surrounded by small children. Before I could question further though, one of the Councilors brought up how it was a class of all boys around 6-7 years old, and some of them were a bit um, hard to handle. It all became clear then as my husband worked at a boys home and got his first bachelor degree in recreational management and youth program and knew a lot about how to handle rougher kids.

Yep, my husband became the Primary bouncer. :) He does have a slightly Harley Davidson look to him since he is 6'2" and has long blonde hair and a mustache and goatee. And yes it was a rough class - I would come home from church exhausted. I have kids, and my boy is quite the handful himself. The biggest issue with this class was there was more than one hard to handle kid and they were hard to handle in different ways. We had a very aggressive boy who acted up constantly so most of the time Ian held him on his lap while the boy scratched his arms up. There were a few times I tried to hold him - boy was that crazy; got some nice bruises that day. Then there was a boy who was passive aggressive. If he acted up to the point I had to put him on my lap, he would become as limp as a rag doll and just kind of lay there not caring. There was a boy that was so fun, we'd ask a question about God or the scriptures and he'd raise his hand and give an answer like "Did you know you can tell a Whales age by his earwax?" Or he'd talk about dinosaurs since he knew all sorts of official names and such. We also had a boy that didn't talk. He had a literal condition where he couldn't talk to anyone besides family and a few friends. Happily he overcame that and talks a lot more to everyone now but it was a very interesting mix indeed.

Despite the craziness of it all, I did become attached to the boys and it's nice seeing them in the halls every now and then and some of them seem to still like me. Really they are all great boys, it was just combining them all (I hear the voice of Captain Planet in my head, "By our powers combined" LOL) and trying to get them to sit still quietly through sharing time and then sit for a lesson in a teeny tiny room was not the easiest task in the world. The really interesting thing too is it seemed to be the perfect thing to have us be their teacher - when it came time for the Primary program where the kids are all up front during the main sacrament meeting (that's 1 hour and 15 minutes sitting away from their parents, up in front for all to see, and in these lovely rocky squeaky chairs too) our class was the most well behaved. Other classes had kids rocking their chairs a bunch or talking or poking each other. Our boys all sat like angels. Sure they didn't really sing - we told them that was fine, just to move their mouths to look like they sang - but they did their parts and were really great. It probably was also due to my husband promising to give them a whole candy bar if they were good - yes bribery works some times ;)

So how does this all tie in to the paper CTR rings? Some of you may even be wondering what a CTR ring is in the first place - long story short, it stands for Choose The Right and to learn more about my religion you can go here. For the Primary classes, there are manuals with lessons in them. One of the lessons I was preparing for our rambunctious boys talked about the kids having a CTR ring.  I thought about this and how 1. we didn't really have the funds to get all the boys a ring, 2. a small thing like that is pretty easy for a young kid to loose and 3. wouldn't it be nice to have something we could use for the lesson that wouldn't be expensive and would be ok if it got lost or broken or if the kids didn't really care for it after 10 minutes?

And so - I created a paper CTR ring! Quick and easy, kid size, colorable, cheap, and no big worry about the kids loosing them/taking good care of them the way you would with a ring you bought. Without further adieu and rambling, here are the templates and pictures of how to assemble the rings - this is one of the few post that I do kind of hope people share and freely enjoy.

Print out your ring. It's best to print it on thicker paper such as cardstock but it also works on plain paper. Cut out all around and then cut where there's the dark line - but DON'T cut all the way through. You can see in the picture above how it's only cut half way where the dark line ends.

 

This next part is a little tricky, I hope my explanation and the pictures come out clear enough for you to understand.  You want to twist the paper around so the two halves of the CTR shield are close to each other and so the slits you cut are next to each other and then the two halves should slide together.

Here you can see the two halves starting to slide together.

 Here's a closeup of the intersection.

 

Here's a closeup of the inside. I put a piece of scotch tape on the inside where the two sides meet to help hold it all together. You can also put tape on the front if it's not sitting the way you want.

  As you can see, they come out a bit small four adult fingers, but they work great for little fingers.

Perfect! The kids really loved them and they fit their little fingers really nicely.  The kids also liked being able to color them with whatever colors they wanted.

This is a whole sheet of them - I was able to fit 7 to a sheet. I hope you can copy and print this image ok and have it come through clearly. I can't figure out a way to attach a pdf of it so it's to the right proportion and all. But if nothing else you can copy that first image which is only one ring but it's nice and big so it should come through clearly.

Swiss Egg Pancakes

Great Grandma's Swiss Egg Pancakes and a Love Story

Valentines Day may be over but I always like a love story and true love stories are the best. And when you can tie it in to good food it's even better! :)

I'm lucky enough to have known my great grandparents and I love hearing stories about their lives. My great grandpa Otto Schloss grew up in Germany and I loved to hear his German accent when he talked. One Sunday in June of 1925, Otto was at church. He sang in the choir which meant his seat was up at the front facing the congregation and he could see who came in. A beautiful young lady came in that had never been there before and Otto turned to his friend sitting next to him and said pointing "See that pretty girl? I'm going to marry her." His friend was very skeptical as they didn't even know who the girl was. After the meeting, Otto rushed to find the girl but she had left. Otto was crushed. He kept a vigilant eye out the following Sunday but the girl wasn't there.

The girl was Rosa Mundwiler, she was from Switzerland and she was going with her foster parents to immigrate to America and had stopped at church in Germany before they went on the boat. If their plan had gone through, Otto and Rosa would have never met but fate had a different plan. Pappa Dietrich, Rosa's foster father, was a hunchback and when they went to get on the boat the immigration officers would not let them go. So two weeks later they happened to come back to the church where Otto was and as soon as the meeting was over he made sure to greet them. The following Thursday was a holiday and his church Branch was having an outing in a park so Otto invited the couple and their daughter to come. He got to know Rosa and got her address in Switzerland. They wrote to each other and Otto called it "Love at first sight."

A year later Rosa her sister Hannah and Hanna's husband Fritz went to America. They sponsored Otto and he arrived in America January 24th 1927. Then, on February 5th, 1929 Otto and Rosa got married. Their "honeymoon" was to go to a movie and after the movie they found a black and white kitten which they kept as a "wedding present."

Otto and Rosa as newlyweds in 1929 and at their 50th anniversary in 1979

 Ahh Love!

On to the Egg pancakes! My dad said he grew up calling them "Grandma's Swiss Egg Pancakes" as it was a recipe from Rosa. I remembered them from when I was little and tried looking the recipe up online, figuring that "Egg Pancake" would bring up what I wanted. The recipes I found however were not like what I had remembered though so this very morning I called up my dad and got the recipe!

All the ingredients laid out, and the handwritten recipe

 I have to say that those beautiful roses are a Valentine's Day present from my husband - very special for us, he doesn't get flowers for me all that often and so I really appreciate it.

You need a cup that has a lid. The lids I have came with some sippy cups, I think you can find them with tupperware stuff also. You want a lid that seals well.

Of course this recipe is great for little helpers

Into the cup goes 1/3 cup milk

And 2 Tbsp. Flour

 I have these wonderful cute little spoons that have a Pinch, a Smidge and a Dash. If you don't have these just do a few shakes of salt from a salt shaker.

 Krissy has an easier time hitting an egg with a knife and then opening it rather than trying to crack it. When trying to crack it she usually doesn't hit it hard enough so she has to hit it more and she ends up smashing it to smithereens. However you crack an egg, make sure you put 2 in the cup.

 Now for the best part! Put the lid on and shake it all up! The kids loved doing this part and I've found that if they help out making the food their more likely to eat it.

fun action photo from the shake up

 Spray your pan or skillet (I love my cast iron skillet) with non stick cooking spray. Then, put a small dollop of butter in the pan and let it melt. ( I didn't worry about measuring the butter but if you want to be picky, I would say 1 tsp)

 You want the heat a little under medium. Often I will heat up my pan and then turn the temperature down just a bit more, especially with the cast iron as it will get too hot the longer I cook.

 Take the lid off the cup and pour the egg mixture in! So easy this is Krissy pouring in what she shook up.

 Allow the pancake to cook for about 3 minutes. As it cooks, pull up on the edges allowing the uncooked batter to run down as shown in the picture. By doing this, the middle will be cooked through. I did a good job with this first one but some of the other ones I rushed so they broke up a bit.

 After letting the middle batter flow off and under, let it cook just a little more and then flip it to cook on the other side for about 3 more minutes. Doesn't it look nice and golden!

Mr. Wisk thinks it looks great!

 A trick I do with all pancakes (egg or traditional flap jack variety) is to keep them in the oven while I cook them up so they stay warm otherwise the first one can be quite cold when all is said and done. I do this by setting my oven to around 250° and once it's warmed up nicely, even before it reaches the temperature I set it to, I turn it off. The oven will keep the food warm but not cook it more. Do keep in mind that you will probably need to use a hot pad to get the plate of pancakes out of the oven since it will have warmed up considerably.

 See, you just open the oven, toss the pancake on the plate and then you can close the oven and cook up some more!

 We've found that especially when it comes to the kids, using a pizza cutter is brilliant for pancakes - you can cut through the whole thing rather quickly and it's even safe enough for them to help out a bit too. The egg pancakes are a consistency such that you can use your fork to cut them up a piece at a time if you wish.

 One of the greatest things about these pancakes is they can be sweat or savory. You can serve them with butter, jam, or syrup. The kids loved them with syrup. You can also eat them with bacon or sausages, or as my Dad loves to do - with ketchup! Yep, my Dad is one of those ketchup on everything type of guys. So I had mine this morning the way he traditionally has his, one half with syrup, the other half with ketchup.  They were wonderful and brought back a lot of memories. They will definitely be on the breakfast rotation, especially since they're something the kids will eat.

Now that I've shown it to you with all the fun pictures, here's the recipe all written out if you wanted a copy.

Great Grandma's Swiss Egg Pancakes
Makes 1 pancake
Ingredients
1/3 Cup Milk
2 heaping Tablespoons Flour
2 Eggs
Pinch of salt
Nonstick pan spray
Butter

Put the milk, flour, eggs and salt in a cup that has a lid. Seal the lid well and shake up. Heat frying pan on medium/low heat. Spray the pan with nonstick spray then add 1 tsp. of butter.  Pour batter from cup into the pan. Let cook for 3 minutes. Lift the edge of the pancake so that the batter in the middle runs off the side then cook 1 min. more. Flip pancake and cook for 3 minutes on other side. If making more, get ready in cup and shake up while other pancake is cooking. Keep warm in oven that has been preheated then turned off. Serve with syrup, jam, butter or ketchup.

I can Breathe! and Art Journals

You are probably wondering why I am posting this blue square. Why? Because it's a picture I took of the sky today! Where I live has had horrible HORRIBLE air lately with nasty inversion and mucky yucky stuff in the air making it hard to breathe and the schools haven't been allowed to let the kids out for recess due to the bad air conditions.  Needless to say, a lot of people have been getting sick and I myself have had a sinus infection which gave me a nasty awful migraine plus the kids have been really stir crazy with cabin fever. So today when I saw the glorious blue sky I was determined that we would go on a walk and spend some time breathing in the clear air. The kids were so excited to go to the playground and be outside. Here's a crazy video of me on the swing.

I also took this video of my little guy on the swing - warning it may get you a bit seasick as I was taking it while I was swinging and then while he was swinging, I think it's a fun dynamic but I had to stop swinging myself when I was done taking this video because I was getting sick.

I also had some fun with the fish eye setting on my camera - I took these really fun pictures of the trees with it and I love how they look so strange and yet they also look like they could be actually growing that way. I LOOOVE Trees so I love seeing pictures of them and taking pictures of them and yeah, you'll probably see a lot of tree stuff on the blog.

The other thing I wanted to blog about is Art Journaling. I love Art (funny tangent story, I was on the color guard in High School and when we had our first meeting to get to know each other I said that very thing "I love Art," and everyone laughed because the band instructors first name was Art - but I didn't know) anyway, I love all kinds of art, painting, drawing, sculpture, all sorts of visual art. I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I took summer art classes. I went to college with the intent of majoring in Art and was starting to take classes but I never was able to get in to the program. This ended up being ok since I found costume design which is artistic also and I loved it but I had never known/thought of it as a major. Now I really admire art and often I'm more comfortable admiring art instead of doing it. I love to do art but there's a lot of times where what is in my head doesn't come out on the paper. Conversely with costumes/sewing in general, there have been times where I can have an idea in my head and whip something out quite well.  I do feel I have artistic talent though and lately I've been missing doing art a lot. While playing around on Pinterest I started finding a bunch of artwork that I really like and some of it is the kind/styles that I've always liked and wanted to try out but never gotten the guts to do it. Mixed media is one of the main styles I'm referring to and in looking up (and drooling over) various mixed media stuff on Pinterest I found some really cool tutorials done by Tessha Moore. I liked them A LOT and so I went to her website and I went CRAZY watching all her tutorials and I spent hours, yes hours, looking over her journal pages and stuff on her blog and I even made a journal using her directions she has on her website and at YouTube http://youtu.be/1z6qmXGRrsE

So how is it that I have done a lot with art over the years and liked a lot of mixed media and yet I don't recall ever hearing about these Art Journals?  - yes there's my whole memory issues again but still, I was simply blown away by these Art Journals that Tessha has done. Then I got a little curious, especially when Tessha mentioned other people doing this kind of thing, so I googled "Art Journal" and O MY GREAT GOLLY! Wow! This is so amazing - this is huge - this is something I need to do!!

 I mean look at these pretties:

From Miles Beyond the Moon (love that blog name)

From art-journaling.com - see! There's even a whole website about it

From jans-gonestampin.blogspot.com

From Magpie's Nest ~*~ Patty Szymkowicz

From Allen Designs

From The Tin Goat 
This one is one of my favorites - it reminds me of
James Christensen, he's one of my all time favorite artist

From Teesha Moore

Also From Teesha Moore
I had to post two of Teesha's because it was
so hard to not post 10 or more of hers

And yet I have this huge part of me holding back.

Whyyyyyyyyyy??? Why must I be afraid?? Blah blah, I feel so silly about it - but I'm afraid it would go the way my attempts at scrapbooking have gone - I get everything out, spend tons of time trying to figure out what I want to use and what should go where and I do a page or maybe even two but then I freak out, FREAK OUT, because I cut the pictures - they are marred forever and this part doesn't look just right and my handwriting is awful and should I really have done that color there and that was hours of work for one little page and there's no way ever that I'll get these boxes and boxes of stuff scrapbooked so why even try. Whew, I'm really letting a lot out here - I hope I can find time to blog other than late at night before bed, who knows what I will end up writing. wink wink :) But really, I was watching some of Teesha's videos thinking "I have this great piece of wrapping paper I've saved for just that kind of thing, but if I use it then it's gone so I should just hold on to it." But I loved how Teesha was just slapping things together, working fast and just going with the flow - I want to be able to do that - and not tear it apart the next day. It's the same thing with this blog. I'm putting a lot of energy and exertion into not going back to old post and changing things.

One way I get around that part of me that holds me back is to go about things in a different way. For example, I made my mom this huge 80 page scrapbook but I did it by scanning in the photos and doing a digital scrapbook. With that I could alter the pictures and add in all sorts of fun font captions and easily change it and save it and do multiple types of the same page and pick which one I liked best. A lot of my best sewing projects happen when I make up my own pattern and don't think about it much but just go with my gut feelings. So yes it's true that I don't have the fancy moleskin paper or expensive paints but I did have a sheet of poster board that was the same size and so I was able to make the blank book. I think I'll have to just go for it and start working on making my own Art Journal. It will take time since I don't have a ton of free time but I want to stop simply looking at these pretty things, I want to try and make them myself. And the same goes for this blog - I want to just keep going with it and it's ok if I post about a party I did last week or a couple years ago, it doesn't have to be in chronological order, it doesn't have to be just like the other blogs, it's mine and I can make it what I want.

And hey - I could blog about my art journal as I work on it - thus catching two birds with one stone kind of thing.

Yep - I'll have to do that.