Oh well, I’m tired and so wearyBut I must go aloneTill the lord comes and calls, calls me away, oh yesWell the morning's so brightAnd the lamp is alightAnd the night, night is as black as the sea, oh yes
There will be peace in the valley for me, some dayThere will be peace in the valley for me, oh Lord I prayThere'll be no sadness, no sorrowNo trouble, trouble I seeThere will be peace in the valley for me, for me
Well the bear will be gentleAnd the wolves will be tameAnd the lion shall lay down by the lamb, oh yesAnd the beasts from the wildShall be lit by a childAnd I'll be changed, changed from this creature that I am, oh yes
There will be peace in the valley for me, some dayThere will be peace in the valley for me, oh Lord I prayThere'll be no sadness, no sorrowNo trouble, trouble I seeThere will be peace in the valley for me, for me

My week has been anything but fun. We had a scare with the possible mumps....
thank goodness it wasn't! However all the kids are snot nosed and cranky and
my poor immune system finally gave in and I felt really awful for a few days.
By the way, as I am writing this I am hearing all the toy bins being emptied
one after another on the wood floor...sigh, but I have no more energy to bother
with it right now. Yesterday was a "sneak outside and cry my frustrations out
then back in before any kids noticed I was gone" kind of day, to change another
diaper and wipe another nose. This morning was the icing on the cake...loaded 4
children into the van...and what do you know, I think we might actually make the
doctors appointment on time...but the van won't start!!!! So back out of the car
with Robby trying to diagnose the problem... which I admit at that particular
moment was NOT helpful. So back into the house, which is a total wreak....if I
could find the phone number of our maid...I'd call her and give her a piece of my
mind. (HA!)

Always thinking of the bugs....Robby seems to have a love hate relationship with critters. He either wants to put them in his pockets or he is having nightmares about them crawling in his bed. This morning Robby came to me and said "mommy I needed to get this toilet paper " then he held up a handful of crumpled toilet paper "so I could get the bug so the spider wouldn't have so much work to do". huh????? was my reply as I was still working on my first cup of coffee and still trying to wake up from the pm cold medicine I had taken last night.
So of course I asked him to explain how exactly he was "helping" the spider. Apparently he saw the bug and thought that he'd help out the "spiders of the world" because it is, after all their job to rid his bed of bugs (can you hear a mommy midnight "everything is OK go back to bed the spiders are our friends" talk in there somewhere???!!!) and he was going to "take care of this bug" so he could give the spiders a break from their "hard work"!!!!

Oh the mind of a little boy is such a wonderful thing! Do you think God made them that way so just when you think you might really lose it on them they say something so cute and amazing that you just melt all over again for them?

I think a bird flew threw the house, at least that would explain the looks on their faces!!!
sweet cousins, dear friends.
brotherly love!!!! my boys
Madelyn playing outside before the feast.
More Brotherly love.......my dear brothers!

A slight glimpse of our Thanksgiving day.....we are SO BLESSED!!!!

A little taste of home.
As a young girl I used to talk walk down to our local sari-sari store (a little shack type building with candy and soda and other misc. things) one of my favorite breads could also be bought there, and if you got there early enough you could buy them while they were still warm.
I was reminded of Pandesal when I was eating a roll last night, don't know why then...but it got me thinking that I wish I could have a warm pandesal right out of the oven...so the search began for the recipe....and I found it!!!!




Pan de Sal
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening1 tbsp. salt1 tbsp. sugar1 cup boiling water1 tbsp. active dry yeast4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour4 ounces plain crackers, crumbled (about 40 crackers)

Combine the shortening, salt, sugar, and boiling water in a large mixingbowl. Stir and set aside to cool to a warm temperature (about 110-115F).
Combine the yeast and warm water in a small bowl, stirring until yeast isdissolved. Set aside for 5 minutes. Gradually mix in flour to make adough.
Turn out on a lightly floured surface.
Knead for 8 to 10 minutes, untildough is smooth and elastic, adding flour as necessary to preventstickiness. Return it to the bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise ina warm place until doubled in bulk--about 45 minutes.Preheat oven to 425F.
Flour two baking sheets.Gently knead the dough again. Divide into 16 pieces and shape into buns.Roll the pieces in the cracker crumbs and place on the baking sheets, spreadwell apart. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. Bake for 15 minutes.
Transferto a wire rack to cool.

I had the chance to go to a WOMAN OF FAITH conference at the beginning of this month. It was so much fun!!!! Here is a picture of my friend and I sitting in the sun finishing our lunch. It was such an amazing time, we already have our tickets for next year!!!

Jack is now 18months old. He is into everything and has some spunk that the others didn't have at this age. He is our first to do an "all out temper tantrum". Yesterday I had to take something away from him, and he ran into the dining room and threw himself on the floor and started screaming and kicking....which I IGNORED.... So when that didn't work he pick himself up and ran over to me, threw himself at my feet and proceeded to kick and scream....someone tell him that he is number 4, and he'll have to try a lot harder than that to get his way.