Thursday 24 May 2012

Microwave Meringues



Yes, these meringues only take one minute to bake in the microwave and only need 2 ingredients!!!  I use to make these when I was a kid, and loved watching them grow in the microwave :)

So here goes, super quick, so that you can get making some, mmmm.

Ingredients
1 egg white
2 cups icing sugar (approx.)

Mix the two ingredients together in a bowl (I used a medium egg, so if you use a larger/smaller egg then you will need more/less sugar), then keep adding little amounts of icing sugar (if needed) so that you can hold it in your hands without it sticking to you....I find it easier to 'knead' it towards the end on a worktop that's sprinkled with icing sugar, so that it's no longer sticky...and as you can see by my fingers, you do get a tad bit messy, but it's worth it :)

 

Put some greaseproof paper on a microwavable plate, and make 3-4 small balls (about the size of a 10p) and place in each corner.


Place the plate in the microwave and set the timer for one minute...I have a 700W microwave, so you may need to adjust your timing according to your wattage.  They should hopefully come out looking something like the picture below...just give them a second to cool, peel them off and put aside.  Now roll some more balls and use the same greaseproof paper over and over again, and keep zapping :)


This recipe makes about 24-28 meringues, so there are plenty to go around...now that hard bit is deciding what to go with them.  I chose large dollops of cream and summer fruit, mmm.

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Faith in God books...for Parents

We've just recently had a new Faith in God leader called and she asked to visit with our eldest two children in our home so she could introduce herself, see what goals they had achieved and to set new ones.  On asking to see the kids books, only one was produced, and the other was lost...again!!  It's probably with all the odd socks and pens that mysteriously go missing in our house...sooo got to find that place one day ;)

Anyway, to help out I got down 'our' copies of the Faith in God booklets that have listed against each goal the date and what the child has done to achieve it.  Our new leader thought this was a great idea, especially as books go missing (quite frequently) and leaders can change.  So I thought I'd share it, in the hope that we can always be one step ahead of those missing books ;)  I keep our copies on a high shelf, so that there's no chance of them getting muddled up with kids ones...or getting lost for that matter!!


I would love to hear what do you do to help your children with their Faith in God goals etc????


Thursday 10 May 2012

Temple Ordinance Card Holder Tutorial

I use to keep my printed Ordinance Cards on the fridge with a simple magnet, but after being embarrassed handing across one card with a splash of tomato sauce on it, I wanted to make something that would protect my cards but still keep them in a place where I can see them on a regular basis.  So below is the result, it's super easy and fairly quick, and luckily didn't cost me a thing as I had everything I needed to hand, but even if you don't it still shouldn't cost too much :)



Materials needed
clear CD sleeve
card
double-sided tape
adhesive magnet tape


I started by cutting off the flap on my clear CD sleeve (but you might be lucky and yours might not have one), so that I was left with a square...if you look closely you'll see I made the back a bit larger than the front, but this isn't necessary.


I chose some pretty card and printed off the first line to the words of the song 'I love to see the Temple' using a font size of 26 with a free font called 'Daniel' ...this link is great for loads of other free fonts too, they have hand picked a load of free fonts from the web, so definitely take a look.  If you don't have a computer you could write on some words or use stickers instead.

Then I placed my Ordinance Card in the sleeve and placed it on top of my printed words to make sure it was all lined up and central.  I marked with pencil either side at the top of the sleeve, placed a ruler on top and slid the sleeve and then cut with my rotary cutter.  This was then my guide for cutting the rest of my card, I made sure my card slightly smaller than the sleeve to make it fit in nicely without warping.


I then stuck double-sided tape to either side of the card and carefully slid it into the sleeve and stuck it into place, and then attached the adhesive magnet strips on the top and bottom. 


I flipped it over, put my cards in and it was done :)  When my cards are facing outwards I love the fact that the words of the song are so apt for the person on the card.  I hope you like this post, because I've loved the simplicity and easiness of it, but also how effective and pretty it is.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

He Truly Loves Us

What a giggle we had last tonight for FHE, it was one of those good ones....so here goes :)

Some of the children have been using rude and cheeky words to each other (nothing too serious, in case you're worrying, or wondering), which hasn't made for a nice atmosphere in the home when they've been said, so we decided we needed a conference talk that was apt for this....and Paul E. Koelliker of the Seventy's talk jumped out at me, maybe it had something to do with the title 'He Truly Loves Us'.



I shared how Elder Koelliker had spent some time with two missionaries and as they were reflecting on their day and the people they had met they had these 3 questions....but before I read the quote below I asked everyone to listen for 3 concerns that the missionaries had-
 “How can we help each individual develop a desire to know more about Heavenly Father? How do we help them feel His Spirit? How can we help them know that we love them?”
I actually ended up having to read this 3 times as the two youngest children kept being a distraction (nothing out of the norm there then)...but we got the right answers in the end.  We then jumped to the next story about another couple of missionaries that knocked on somebody's door and got this reaction -
The door opened, and a rather large man greeted them in a less-than-friendly voice: “I thought I told you not to knock on my door again. I warned you before that if you ever came back, it would not be a pleasant experience. Now leave me alone.” He quickly closed the door.
 We talked about how these Elders would have felt and what their reaction could have been....and then we read what they did -
As the elders walked away, the older, more experienced missionary put his arm on the younger missionary’s shoulder to comfort and encourage him. Unknown to them, the man watched them through the window to be sure they understood his message...as he witnessed the expression of kindness between the two missionaries, his heart was instantly softened. He reopened the door and asked the missionaries to come back and share their message with him.
As we discussed how this simple action of Christlike love helped to share the gospel, we shared how our thoughts, actions and words can be an example to others....and now this is where all the giggling begun with our game.

We had one of the children sit at the front of the room with a headband on...or in our case a length of spotted fleece, while another child handed out one small piece of card and pen to each family member.  All of us had to then write a nice word at the top of our card that described the person sat at the front.


One by one we put our card in the headband and tried to describe the word by sharing things the person does to be the word we had chosen and then the person wearing the headband would have to try and guess what the word was...it was lovely to hear everyone share different examples of how this person was being a good example to them, and it was also great because everybody was using good words towards each other...and the children couldn't wait to picked to go next.


You might be wondering where all the giggling came from but we laughed because the fleecy headband made people's hair go funny and kept slipping down, some of the explanations of words were hilarious as were the guesses....I think we will have to remember to play this game again sometime soon, and not just to get our kids to use nice words but to have a good old laugh together :)

We summed the evening up by reminding everyone that we can be good missionaries through the way we act and the words we use, and that through these simple everyday things we can feel His love as will others around us.