Donation to Berlyn and Horses with H.E.A.R.T.

January 20th, 2012

Many of you have followed our family struggle with our son Berlyn and his Autism. We have our good days and our bad days. Some days, the tantrums are out of control and he screams and scratches at his ears and face when he has a sensory over-load and lately he has started rocking again when he gets anxious. On his good days, he speaks well and asks a ton of questions. He brain is over processing.

He is high-functioning with PDD (Pervasive Development Disorder). In October, he finally wrote his name and that was something that his doctor said may never happen. SO, we are thrilled that between all of our hard work at home and in the classroom where he gets much needed one-one-one, he is succeeding.

We have been struggling getting him any therapists since our state health insurance was cut because our income was $0.17 too much a month. Insurance was too high for us to buy through Larry’s work. We are back to square one with that.

Our name was given to Horses with H.E.A.R.T., a local non-profit company in Chino Valley to get some therapy for him. This is not just any therapy, this is a horse riding program for special needs. Our goal is to raise $600 to pay for Berlyn’s lessons. $600 pays for the entire years worth of lessons for him (24 group lessons)

My sister Jen and I are are taking Berlyn to a bowl-a thon on Feb 11 along with a few of our friends to raise money for Berlyn and Horses with H.E.A.R.T.

Any size donation will help get him involved in this amazing program If you can, please donate $5 or $10. Checks can be made out to Horses with H.E.A.R.T and write Berlyn – BAT (for bowl-a-thon) in the memo line. (mail checks to Horses with H.E.A.R.T, PO Box 2427, Chino Valley, AZ 86323 or take them by Mazy’s in Chino Valley anytime before Feb 8th). If you do mail a check, please send us an email so that we can mark you down on our list of his goal.

Berlyn and
Horses with H.E.A.R.T

You can also donate online through PayPal and I will get your name on our list. (paypal email is kris@krismazy.com). All donations over $10 will receive a receipt for their 2012 taxes that will be mailed right after the Bowl-a-thon.

Donations need to be in on or before Feb 8th for Berlyn to get credit.

Here is more information on Horses with H.E.A.R.T

We thank you so much for your support in this for our AMAZING son!

January 20th, 2012 by Kris Mazy | No Comments »

Recipe from Jen – French toast with berry syrup

January 17th, 2012

My sister and her family are eating healthier and this is one of their favorite recipes. She and her family eat Ezekiel bread. My family grinds our own wheat for most of our bread. Both are healthy options. SWG bread referenced below can be found in most grocery store freezers (Health food store is way cheaper she tells me!!)

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French toast with berry syrup

A yummy breakfast or anytime meal! My children love this but the berries will stain clothes (or faces), so make sure you don’t feed it to your not so neat kids the morning of their school pictures

Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Servings: 1

Ingredients

1 egg
1 slice SWG bread
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup blackberries
1/4 cup water
A few drops of Stevia, as per your taste

Directions

To make the berry syrup: Put berries and water in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook until berries soften slightly. Mash berries in pan, add a few drops of Stevia and continue cooking on low until sauce thickens slightly.

To make the french toast: Mix egg, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a shallow pan. Place slice of SWG bread in egg mixture and coat on both sides. Heat a nonstick pan on medium and place bread in pan, flipping after a few minutes.

Put your french toast on a plate and cover in berry syrup

January 17th, 2012 by Kris Mazy | Comments Off

Organizing tip #1 – Linen Closet

January 16th, 2012

Our Organized Linen Closet

Trying to organize the 7 of us has, at times, been an EPIC FAIL! There are certain things however that I really keep organized, because it makes our life just a bit easier! And trust me when I say that this is easy to maintain as well. Even my kids, when helping with laundry, can find the correct baskets to put items away with this system.

My linen closet is one of the most important things that I do organize. I always have the fear that someone in the middle of the night will get sick and I will need to change the sheets, but can’t find any fitted sheets or any pillow cases. I can just imagine myself trying to comfort a crying child while DIGGING through the closet, just making myself even more flustered. I still cannot imagine the horror that I would go through and would probably wake up the entire household in the process.

I started out by picking up a few of the $3 laundry baskets from the dollar store. They fit directly on my shelves in my linen closet. I also picked up 2 gallon zippy storage bags at the store. A twin set of sheets fit perfectly in these – I know BRILLIANT! I fold down all matching sheet sets – the fitted, the flat and the matching pillowcase along with a dryer sheet and fit it into the zippy bag. I then throw these into one of the laundry baskets in the closet. This basket is now the matching sheet basket!!! What an easy grab if I need to change sheets in the middle of the night (or any time for that matter!).

The kids pull their sheets off of their bed on their laundry day (another post on this next week) and grab a new sheet bag from the closet. The empty bag goes back in the basket so once I wash and dry their old set, it gets folded right back into the bag and bask into the basket in the closet. The rotation begins! And everything stays neat and tidy in my closet for the next person, the very next day to grab their new set of sheets.

I found some twin comforter sets at Target for $10 (marked down from $69.99) so I bought 4 and have left those in the bags. (For those who didn’t already know, my husband and I are on a waiting list for both foster kids and foster adoption along with emergency intake of kiddlings for singles and siblings 12 years and under, boy or girl) I wanted to have something new for new family members. The bags that those comforters come in are useful for my organizing. And will come out of the bags once we get kids. Those sets will go back into the bags if the kids don’t stay with us permanent.

I also have a laundry basket in the closet for just table clothes, baby blankets, afghans for the living room snuggle time, extra pillow cases, etc.

We change our table clothes at least once a day in the dining room sometimes twice or more. My kids are messy eaters! But, the table clothes do cover up my old table that needs refinishing. I don’t bag up table clothes like I do sheets, but I do fold them and keep them in their own basket. A HA! The Table Cloth basket! We even have smaller baskets in my pantry for our cloth napkins (don’t use paper in this house).

After the organization got going, I got rid of any sheets that I did have all 3 pieces except for the extra pillow cases. Goodwill was more than happy to take them, although, I wish now that I kept many of them to make skirts and dolls for my girls.

January 16th, 2012 by Kris Mazy | Comments Off

Free Entrance Days in the National Parks – 2012

January 15th, 2012

Our visit to Montezuma Castle National Monument

We try and take the kiddlings to visit different places around Arizona. There are so many things that you can see and do. There are several times a year that National Parks are free to visit. We decided to take the kids to Montezuma’s Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments. We had such a BLAST going. Our 4 youngest and my 2 nephews along with Larry and myself climbed into the Suburban and made an afternoon over the hill in the Verde.