Life Has Happened Again...AND BAGELS!

 Hello, friends!

So much has happened recently since it has been almost a month since my last blog post. Unfortunately, there is no way that I can update you on everything that has happened, but I am going to hit the highlights as well as possible. 

While out of the ordinary I am going to bullet point those highlights and try to put everything in order as much as possible.

• Early July - Right after the 4th of July we took a couple week break from summer school. While we were on our break I finally found time to put together Kayla's "Princess Canopy". She has wanted one around her bunk bed for a long time, and I had purchased the stuff awhile back. Unfortunately, it took a bit of time to get it done. Once we finally did get it done it turned out really cute, and I think she loves it.

Kayla's Tulle Bed Curtains...What She Calls Her "Princess Canopy""

• July 9th - BAGEL DAY! - I decided to try making my own bagels, and they turned out fantastic. I don't plan on ever buying bagels again, as these homemade ones were SO MUCH BETTER! My whole family loved them, and I made them a few days later for my mom, sister and family in southern Missouri. Everyone liked them. I served them with strawberry, cinnamon sugar, and lemon blueberry cream cheese. YUM! Here's the recipe! You won't regret making them.

Bagels

   BAGELS

Dough:

4 cups flour

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

Water Bath:

8 cups water

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Put flour, brown sugar and kosher salt in bowl. Stir yeast into water and add to flour. Mix dough. Turn onto floured bard and knead for 5 minutes. Place dough into greased bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Divide dough into 12 balls and place half of them on each sheet. Let rise for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 425℉ and prepare water bath by adding water, brown sugar, baking soda and salt to a park pot and bringing to a gentle simmer. Poke a hole through the center of each dough ball and stretch a bit. Drop as many as will comfortably fit into pot and let simmer for 2 minutes. Flip them over and let them simmer for 2 more minutes. Take out and let drip. Place back onto baking sheet and repeat until all are boiled. Bake the bagels for 12 minutes and then flip over and bake 8-12 minutes more or until golden brown. 

Bagels Before Boiling

• July 11th - Our rock tumbler finished with a load of beautiful gem stones. We are pretty much keeping it going constantly. We put it in the basement where we can just barely hear the light hum of it running from the livingroom. It is completely unnoticeable unless you are purposely listening for it. It turns out beautifully polished rocks. We currently have it processing petrified wood. SO COOL!

• July 14th - We attended Civil War Day Camp at Prairie State Park in Liberal, Missouri. We went down on Thursday to spend time with family, and then spent the day on Friday out at the park. Day camp was lots of fun and we all had a great time. My sister was there with her family and my mom works there so she instructed part of the program.

Mom Teaches About Medicinal Plants

Cousins! (Mercy, Esther, Kayla and Alysia)

The Group Pounds Jerky into Powder to Make Pemican

Dana Makes Pemican

• July 14th-18th - Friday evening after day camp we headed towards home, stopping in Nevada to drop Kayla off to her mother for a weekend visit. Aaron wasn't feeling well and we stopped multiple times on the 2 hour drive home as he was getting sick every little bit. On Saturday he wasn't improving and by Saturday night/Sunday morning he was even worse. We ended up at the ER on Sunday morning at 1:30 a.m. He was so bad that they admitted him, and started him on multiple medications as well as fluids for dehydration. Aaron has been a diabetic for probably close to a decade, but was only recently diagnosed since he wouldn't go to the doctor before. Unfortunately, the diabetes has caused him to develop gastroparesis, and it will have to be managed with diet and medication. He was in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon. During this time there was a shuffling of children occuring as Monday I had to go get Kayla from her mother and then got the kids to my mom so she and my sister could keep them while we were dealing with Aaron in the hospital. I can't even begin to tell everyone how much we appreciated the love and support as well as prayers during this time. It has been rough, but Aaron is on the mend. He is still weak, but is finally able to eat again and has returned to work even though he needs to take things slowly.

Aaron at the Hospital When He Was FINALLY Starting to Feel Better

• July 20th-24th - My mother-in-law (Lisa) came up on Thursday and stayed overnight with us as I was supposed to take her for a procedure on Friday (scheduled long before Aaron's hospital stay). The procedure on Friday at Research Hospital went smoothly, but took longer than we thought it would take. They told her she would have to return on Monday so while she originally only planned on staying until Saturday we ended up getting to have her for the whole weekend. Her appointment on Monday went well, and she left in the afternoon. However...while she was here over the weekend her boyfriend decided to come spend some time with us and wanted to cheer everyone up. As a result we ended up having "Christmas in July". He even brought a small Christmas tree, as well as gifts for the girls, Aaron, mother-in-law and myself. He did way too much and spoiled us rotten for 2 days straight. Terry is a nice guy and he makes my mother-in-law happy. We are glad to have him in the family. 

Kayla Watching Mimi Unwrap a Gift

Alysia with Part of Her Gifts

• July 24th - The girl's have been studying local government and how things work at a county level so on Monday afternoon we visited the Clay County Courts to file our custody modification paperwork for Kayla and they got to see government in action. Kayla has officially decided she wants to stay with us with scheduled visitation with her mother, so with her mother's agreement the papers have been filed and we are just waiting now. We are not sure if there will have to be a hearing since all parties are in agreement, but if there is it should go smoothly and everything should be good. While there the girls had to get some pictures taken at the blue fountain there.

Kayla at the Fountain

Alysia at the Fountain

Alysia and Kayla at the Fountain

Let's see...what else is new? Kayla's mom sent the girls some diamond painting kits, so they are working on those as part of art class. They seem to be having fun with them. I'm working on one as well that Terry got me as a "Christmas in July" present.

This week we have a full week of school planned as well as preparing for a birthday part this weekend for Terry. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and fiancé and my family are going to throw a small get together for him and I'm going to make homemade pizza and a Jello cake (at his request). 

All for now. Talk to you soon!

Amanda