Wash your hands afterwards

Little Guy turns 4!

2012-01-26T18:31:00.002-05:00

Little Guy has been a good sport about some birthday disappointments. The older kids talked him in to pizza bubble for dinner. I put it on the table and he was almost in tears because he apparently had no idea what pizza bubble was and expected something more pizza-like. Then I gave him the option of all the desserts out there. He picked cookies. I gave him all the cookie options, he picked sugar. Today, while helping me make the cookies he announced to the kids, "Mom and I are making sugar cookies even though there is no sugar on top of them!"

Shooting Technology in the Eye

2012-01-25T16:10:00.003-05:00

Here's something to blog about... technology. I have a love/hate relationship with it.

Our cell phones are currently several years old. Our contract lapsed and we could renew and get new phones and everything would be great, right? Wrong. We're simple people. While it would be nice to access the internet with something I carry in my pocket, I don't need to. And I sort of don't want to. I'm already a little annoyed at myself and my family by how much time we spend on the internet just because of laptops and wireless internet. I don't need that in my pocket or purse, distracting me everywhere I go.

That being said, there are no "free phone" options (or even any phone options that I can find) available that don't require I also pay X amount each month for a data plan. I don't want a data plan. I just want a new phone. I want to make phone calls, send and receive texts, take pictures, and listen to music. That's it. When we talked to the T-Mobile kiosk at the mall a few months ago, they guy actually laughed at our phones because they require we push the number 2 three times in order to text the letter C. But it works for us. We're a low technology people. Argh!

And now we can't listen to music on our phones because our music service was bought out by another music service and it is no longer compatible with our phones. It doesn't appear to be compatible with any phones that aren't web friendly.

Argh.

Updating without updating

2012-01-24T21:51:00.005-05:00

"We don't update our blogs

We are trainwrecks." -Weezer's "Trainwrecks"

This is how I feel. But seriously, whenever I've had a semi-coherent idea for a blog post lately, I've been in no position to blog or jot down a note. By the time I'm back to a computer, it doesn't seem worth the effort to blog about anymore.

I'll try to fix my brain. Until then, this is what I've been up to:

Books read so far this year:

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord

Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt

One Day by David Nicholls

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

TV shows watched:

Bones

30 Rock

Napolon Dynamite (cartoon)

The Simpsons

Up All Night

Revenge

Movies seen:

None. I keep meaning to get The Help from Redbox and I keep forgetting.

Back to the Movies

2012-01-18T09:23:00.001-05:00

For those readers who remember this post, listing the five movies I saw in the movie theater between 2005 and later 2010, you'll be shocked to see the list of movies I saw in the theater JUST THIS YEAR.

1. Tangled
2. Hop
3. Cars 2
4. Hugo
5. The Adventures of Tintin
6. The Muppets

They were all kids movies... but still enjoyable.

School Weather

2012-01-17T15:07:00.001-05:00

The kids and I have been working on a constellation project for school and today we broadened that out a bit to discuss the rotation of the earth and seasons. Looking around online, I found a website that had a lesson set up which included comparing a northern hemisphere city's winter months to those same months in a southern hemisphere city. The cities this particular website selected were San Francisco, CA and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At first it didn't strike me as a completely meaningless comparison... at least as far as trying to teach the extremes to elementary aged children. Then we looked at their average temperature graphs at Weather.com.

Rio de Janeiro's monthly temperature averages.

San Francisco's monthly temperature averages.

I realize these are different. Slightly. But both of these climates are SO mildly weathered compared to what I wanted to see. It would only have been worse had it been Los Angeles compared to Rio, since L.A. in the winter is not quite as cold as San Francisco. What I wanted to see was extremes, like this:

Melbourne, Austrailia. This isn't even as extreme as I wanted to see but Weather.com didn't have graphs for most of the South American cities that I looked at.

Lawrence, KS. I wanted to southern hemisphere extreme opposite of this.

I realize, this isn't very interesting to most/all of you. It is what's been on my mind today, and like I said a few days ago, I have nothing else to blog about right now, so this is what you get.

Nothing to Say

2012-01-11T13:05:00.000-05:00

I can't think of a thing to blog about. I haven't come up with an official list of resolutions. I didn't ever blog my list last year and I fear that may be why I failed so miserably on accomplishing much this past year. I had nothing to be accountable to. So... coming soon, my resolutions for 2012.

I could type up a menu because we've been trying some new recipes around here. And trying to eat healthier snacks, but it takes so much work to link to all the recipes, etc. And I'm feeling lazy today.

We gave the kids two weeks and two days off of school for Christmas/New Year's break. Usually we'd give them the entire month so their schedule matches up with Jed's college schedule, but we got a LATE start this year, and I thought two weeks was normal. Until we were at my sister-in-law's for New Year's and found out their kids had school the next day, the Monday after New Year's. The entire week I'd planned on giving my kids off. I figured normal schools would at least have Monday off. Nope. Not always. So we got back to school... not this Monday, that was a get organized, go to the library, grocery shop, first snow of the season day, but Tuesday.

Well, now I sound like one of those Facebook posts I hate... the monthly letter update as a status update. So I'm stopping. I'll be back with something to say... someday.

Girl Scout Cookies!

2012-01-07T18:21:00.002-05:00

For anyone who happens to be local and hasn't seen my Facebook post about it yet, Princess Sparkley is selling Girl Scout cookies. Orders are due January 20th. Cookies are $4/box this year. You pay us when we deliver the cookies to you (around February 8th). Here are this year's cookies: http://littlebrowniebakers.com/cookies/

If you are interested in buying any (and local), send us your email address and we'll send you the link. Thanks!

And everyone, tell me which is your favorite Girl Scout cookie! Mine are Tagalongs....mmmmm.

2011 Reading Goals

2011-12-31T16:17:00.001-05:00

I did it! This has been my best year so far for number of books and number of pages read. 100 books. 32,379 pages. Both numbers far surpass any other year total. I didn't reach this goal. And I probably read 85% young adult books, but I should probably just accept that that's how my reading list looks every year. :)

You can see all the books I read this year here: http://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/26010

Reading Goal

2011-12-28T15:58:00.000-05:00

Goodreads asked people to set reading goals for 2011. I decided on 75 books, a number I'd never reached but to which I had come fairly close. I far surpassed that goal, as well as my individual goal of pages read (I'm over 30,000 pages which is about 7,000 pages more than I've ever managed in a year before). And I'm at 97 books. 97! I should go for 100, right? The kids and I are finishing up Peter and Starcatchers with only about 26 pages to go. That's 98. Then I'll read them this quick chapter book (we've read the other two in the series in the past). 99. Here's my problem, book 100. I'm reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog and it's killing me. K-I-L-L-I-N-G M-E. The premise is nice, but I seriously feel like this book is WAY above my reading level. I keep wishing I was reading it on the Kindle where it's easy to look up the definitions of words I don't understand. Plus, the book is set in France and was translated from French so there are a lot of French words. I took Spanish in high school and college. Add that the two main characters are supposedly brilliant thinkers and I'm lost. I get the plot, and so far that's pretty boring. But I have to finish! One hundred books is in my sight...

Anticipation

2011-12-24T13:13:00.000-05:00

We open family presents on Christmas Eve. All ~~week~~ month the kids have been debating back and forth which present they will open first. Princess Sparkley bargains with Buddy, "I'll open your present first if you open mine first." Etc. In the middle of all of this, the 3 year old simplifies it for us all, "I'm opening all of my presents first."

Menu before Christmas menu

2011-12-20T14:09:00.000-05:00

I'm trying out some recipes I found on Pinterest this week:

Tuesday: South of the Border Sandwiches

Wednesday: Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes

Thursday: Mexican Chicken Casserole

Love the idea...

2011-12-20T10:29:00.000-05:00

I love the idea of this beautiful layered cake from Bakingdom.com, but I don't have the patience or talent to pull off something this beautiful and ... awesome. Very cool though.

Christmasy Menus

2011-12-19T18:41:00.001-05:00

     My family started the Christmas tradition of eating tamales on Christmas Eve several years ago. Something to do with living in southern California and the heavy Hispanic influence there. I think my mom started considering it sometime when I was in high school when she noticed that our favorite local Mexican food restaurant started taking tamale orders in November. She signed up. Then later, my brother-in-law decided he'd learn to make tamales and has taken over the tradition ever since. Jed and I sort of broke free from this tradition when we were living in California, as well as my entire family, and his parents. We decided to adopt the tradition of eating out at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve so that our little family had family time rather than always having to be at someone else's house doing something else for the holidays. We still do that today, but I love tamales.  So tamales have become our Christmas Eve Eve meal.
     I like the idea of making my own tamales, but that scares me a little. And I like the idea of tracking down some awesome Mexican restaurant in town that would sell me tamales, but I haven't done that either. Usually I just buy frozen tamales and fancy them up with chili, cheese, sour cream and salsa.

     On Christmas Eve, like I said, we go out for Chinese food. This year I've been toying around with the idea of making our own Chinese food. I'm still undecided. But I've come up with an extensive menu for if I do stay home (and if I had an army to feed). The problem is that going out, you are able to order four or five main dishes and I'm not sure that's something I'd be capable of pulling off at home on my own. Especially when there are only five of us to eat it all.

    Here's my idea for a menu to feed a crowd homemade Chinese food:
Crab Rangoon dip
Potstickers
Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken
Orange Chicken (or this recipe that I've tried before)
Pioneer Woman's Spring Rolls (but chicken, not turkey)
PF Chang's Mongolian Beef
Fried Rice (minus the chicken)
Egg Rolls (I'd probably just buy them frozen, but maybe try the linked to recipe...)

But that all seems like a ton of work... maybe we should just go out. :) Besides, there are only five of us, the above menu would feed us for half a week!

And onto Christmas day's menu:
Christmas Breakfast: regular breakfast, followed by one hour of 9AM church.

Christmas Brunch/Lunch: after church we'll opening presents, then we'll have our real breakfast at lunchtime.
Aebleskivers
Scrambled eggs
Sausage
maybe Hash Browns
OJ

Christmas Dinner:
Ham
Cheese Potato Casserole (aka Funeral Potatoes)
Magleby's rolls
Sweet Potato Casserole (my recipe has different proportions, but is very similar to this one)
Cornbread Stuffing (but my recipe calls for sour cream rather than plain yogurt)
Sparkling Apple Cider or Sparkling Grape Juice
Green Beans (or maybe just steamed green beans or steamed broccoli)

Still kind of a lot of food for five of us... but then there will be lots of leftovers too!

Christmas Dessert:undecided... I'll let you know.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-18T15:45:00.001-05:00

"I'm Bored."

2011-12-15T17:46:00.000-05:00

Today was one of those days. Our school days have slowed down a bit getting ready for Christmas break, so once school is out of the way for the day, Princess Sparkley pesters me every five minutes with declarations of boredom and questions of what can she do. I have very clear memories of doing the same thing to my mom when I was little. I even realized how annoying I was when I did it, I just couldn't think of a thing to do. And half the time I didn't even want to do what she suggested. Today, after her third declaration of boredom where my response was for her to unload the dishwasher (her daily chore) she finally did it. I even let her use glitter glue and scrapbook today, which are usually right up there with painting and Play-doh in the likelyhood that I'll allow it to happen. I desperately need to make one of these. An "I'm Bored Jar." Maybe one for me as well because I was a little bored today too.

I haven't posted a menu in awhile and lately, we've been all about menus... so here's what's on for this week:

Monday: Pasta Alfredo
     And I'm cheating and using a jar of alfredo sauce over radiatore noodles and freshly shredded Parmesan and going vegetarian with just broccoli. This is Princess Sparkley's FAVORITE meal!
Dessert: Grinch Cookies (I made these last week following the recipe, today I'm going to try a regular cookie recipe (not the sugar cookie mix in this recipe) and mint it up.

Tuesday: Ham and Cheese Spiral

Wednesday: Chicken and Rice Stir-fry
   This is one of my dad's go to meals. I'm going to assume it's from a healthy cookbook, because that's how he is, but I'm not sure. We ate it a lot growing up.

Thursday: Hawaiian Chicken

Friday: Nachos (or bean burrito filling)

Saturday: Black Bean Chili Over Rice
     A roommate in college gave me this recipe and for some reason, I really really like it. Maybe because it makes me feel like I'm eating sort of healthy.

Sunday: Chicken and Tortilla Chowder

Monday: Best Grilled Cheese and tomato soup (minus the tortellini so we can dip our sandwiches in it)
Dessert: Jed is in charge of our Family Home Evening treat, so probably these.

Stockings

2011-12-08T22:39:00.000-05:00

I realized this morning that I never posted (on this blog) a picture of this Pinterest project my friend and I did so we had a spot to hang our stockings.

I love how ours turned out. Thanks, Emma!

Almost Famous

2011-12-04T21:35:00.000-05:00

The other day I did a Google search for "Ruby Redfort book" since Princess Sparkley has been waiting (sometimes patiently, sometimes impatiently) for its release for over a year now. Ruby Redfort is the series that Clarice Bean reads in Lauren Child's (from Charlie and Lola fame) Clarice Bean books. And now, Child has FINALLY written the first book in the new Ruby Redfort series. But it doesn't come out in the US until March. Still, PS is thrilled that at some point it will be available to her. And I was a little excited that when you search "Ruby Redfort book," it brings up five images and numbers three and four are from my blog. Number four is even handmade by yours truly! It's like I'm famous! Sort of.

Christmas Countdown

2011-11-30T10:10:00.001-05:00

I like countdowns and decided that this year our family needed a countdown that was doing fun stuff together throughout December. I looked around on Pinterest and using this and this, came up with our new countdown.

I spent under $5 on this. The board was from Lowe's for $3 something. The clothespins were a dollar (I think) from Walmart. I borrowed the red paint, owned the green paint and used scrapbook paper, fabric, and Modge Podge to make the white, red Ho Ho Ho, and light green clothespins. The Santa clothespin for the 25 is a magnet I've owned forever but the magnet is too weak to hold anything up. The snowmen on each end are ornaments but we own A LOT of ornaments, so I cut a strip of the red fabric and made a new scarf for one of them and hot glued them on. The numbers are from here and here. This year I just let the kids color them. Next year, I'll get them printed all pretty.

And here's what we're going to do each day (not in order). Click to view larger.

Laura's Creamed Corn

2011-11-21T14:36:00.001-05:00

I'm posting this mainly for selfish reasons. I'm worried that I'm going to lose it. The Laura that this recipe is named after is my cousin's wife. Every Thanksgiving growing up, she'd make this creamed corn for our families to enjoy when all of us got together to celebrate. Yum!

Ingredients:
2 20oz. bags frozen corn
8 oz. whipping cream
8 oz. whole milk
6 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
pinch of white pepper
2 TBSP melted butter
2 TBSP flour

Directions:
Combine all ingredients (except last two) in pan and bring to boil. Simmer 5 minutes. Mix well. Blend butter with four and add to corn. Mix well and remove from heat.

My notes: This actually takes longer than I expect it to because the corn always freezes the cream and milk. So... take that into account when planning how early to make this part. I've also doubled it and had it turn out fine. It just takes longer and requires a bigger pot.

Weezer

2011-11-19T09:15:00.002-05:00

I stumbled upon this video on Pinterest the other day. (Yes, Pinterest, crazy. I know.) It's possible that I've already linked to it on here because it's one of my favorite Weezer videos.

So then I started watching all the Weezer videos on Youtube. I really like this one too:

And this one:

Really... all of them, but I'll stop now with these three.

Flashbacks

2011-11-18T09:38:00.000-05:00

When reading a book that needs flashbacks, which type do you prefer?

a) Flashbacks entered into the normal layout of the book like all of a sudden the narrator is remembering something.

b) Alternating chapters

c) Alternating parts (ie: Part 1 is present, Part 2 is a flashback, Part 3 is present, etc.)

d) Some other method my feeble brain cannot even imagine right now.

Break-Ups

2011-11-17T11:26:00.000-05:00

I would probably get a better response to this if I posted it on Facebook*, but I'm a little unsure that I want to announce to everyone I know that I'm writing something that could someday amount to a novel. So, I'm asking you guys.
I need to know break-up stories. But, specifically, I want break-up stories where the people ended up getting back together. I want to know why the dumper broke up with the other person. I'm assuming that because they end up back together, the dumper still had feelings for the dumpee, but I guess that assumption could be wrong.

If you want to respond but not on this thread, email me at: nanceisthewritingfish at gmail dot com

*I could get away with asking this question about prom on Facebook because no one had to know I was writing anything. Feel free to answer it as well if you didn't already on Facebook.

Survery of proms: Do most proms involve a dinner? I know mine did. But other formal dances had you go out for dinner on your own and just show up for the dance.

The general concensus was that you went out to eat on your own, but it varied by school. My prom fed us. I remember the food sounding fancy, but I don't think it was actually especially great.

What Gets Me Excited

2011-11-17T09:46:00.001-05:00

Jed is writing a paper about the 2003 gubernatorial recall election in California in which I got to vote for action movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm actually a prime example of what his paper is thinking about... I didn't want Arnold for governor, but I thought he'd have a better chance of winning than McClintock. Anyway, none of this is what gets me excited. Had you fooled, didn't I? At the end of the semester his professor is having the students present their papers. In a normal size class, this would be about 15 minutes per person. But this class only has four students, so instead of letting them go home early, he's having them each present for 40 minutes. Jokingly I told Jed he should open with food, a sort of mini reception for 15 minutes and then go into his presentation. I volunteered to make treats. Then I got SUPER excited (here's the part that got me excited!) because I have California-shaped cookie cutters (as evidenced here) and he's agreed to let me make California-shaped cookies for his presentation. I'm so excited! I'm a weirdo, I get that. But I still think it's going to be pretty cool. Along the lines of this. He really is so nice to humor my craziness. Thanks, Jed.

Update: His presentation was this week... here are the cookies:

Fall Leaves

2011-11-16T11:14:00.000-05:00

Find my old Thanksgiving posts here.

We don't have any trees in our backyard, but all of our neighbors have huge trees that hang into our yard, meaning we still got a ton of leaves falling onto our lawn. Jed and the boys went out back yesterday to rake. When I came out to see how it was going, this is what I found. Later in the day, the boys and I went out front to rake. It ended up just Little Guy and I and I told him my secret. That was the first time in my life that I can ever remember raking up fall leaves. I grew up on 2 acres of avocado trees in California, so I've raked up avocado leaves. But it's different than battling an ongoing season that will continually drop every leaf on the tree until there are no more leaves to fall. For instance, we looked out the back window this morning and saw that the lawn is partially covered in leaves again. And everytime I new leaf fell (as we were watching), Jed said, "Ah!"

Unpacking

2011-11-12T15:35:00.000-05:00

Unpacking... still? You ask. Yes. We moved over two months ago and there are still small piles of junk (in my room) that need sorting through. And there are two piles of boxes in the downstairs. One pile is 2 1/2 boxes of Jed and my stuff that I'm just not sure where to put it. Random stuff that has no place. The other pile of boxes down there is a mixture of toys, kid artwork, and junk gathered up from their rooms. As I've been unpacking, when I've come across junk or other items I'm not sure what to do with, I've been throwing them into these junk boxes. Today, we're tackling the kid junk boxes and let me tell you, my kids produce a ridiculous amount of paper trash. I went through it and trashed about two thirds. Then Jed went through my trash pile and saved some. But we're talking forests worth of their stories and artwork. Forests.

Words

2011-11-12T11:15:00.004-05:00

While typing, spell check informed me that "hideable" isn't a word. I thought, "that should totally be a word. What else do you call something that can be... oh, hidden."

NaNoWriMo

2011-11-11T17:19:00.004-05:00

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month right now. I always have ideas for stories and Jed challenged me (possibly last year as a New Year's Resolution) to complete one of my story ideas, so I thought I'd work on one of my most promising ideas that is possibly ten years in the making. Anyway, in working on this, I found myself spending a bunch of time online today researching tattoos. I don't have any tattoos. I have no plans to ever get a tattoo, but there are some cool tattoos out there. A few years ago Jed asked me what type of tattoo I'd get if I ever got a tattoo and I answered him immediately. I think I shocked him a little. Not only did I have an answer for him, I had it for him without pause. (For those of you who are curious, I would get a tattoo of this Charles Rennie Mackintosh rose. For those of you who know me, you might recognize it because I own a version of this necklace.)

Sitting around in college chatting with friends and roommates about what our vices would be if we weren't LDS, I could never come up with a definite thing. One friend was convinced she'd be a chain smoker. I always figured I'd probably be a drunk based on a childhood of sipping apple juice out of champagne flutes. But now, now I realize I'd probably be covered in thousands of dollars worth of tattoos.

And what does all of this have to do with National Novel Writing Month. Nothing and everything. But mainly, it's a great form of procrastination. Both the researching of tattoos and the blogging about said research and obsession.

P.S. What tattoo would/will/did you get? And/Or, what would be your vice?

My Kind of Gingerbread House

2011-11-07T22:49:00.000-05:00

found here

PMS

2011-11-03T22:20:00.001-04:00

Sorry, guys, if there are any of you out there that happen upon this post. I made the title straightforward so you can consider yourself warned.

I've never given much stock to PMS. Mainly, I took offense and immediately disliked any person, male or female, who blamed anything on it. Males because it's just offensive and I'm partially a feminist. Females because it seemed like blaming something because you're female. And like I said, I'm part feminist.

I'm not sure I've blogged this before, but I know I've thought it hundreds of times. I think everyone needs counseling, pschiatric help, a therapist, perhaps a life coach, whatever you want to call it. We all have problems and we all need help. I started wondering recently if the times when I feel the most like I myself could benefit from some sort of therapy coincide when I am also experiencing PMS. If any of my calendar keeping episodes of the past had ever worked out, I'd consider keeping track. But I tried to keep track of headaches and if they were associated with what I'd eaten or done, among other things. The longest this lasts is half a day. So, it doesn't look promising that I'll ever figure this out.
But... I do wish I could go back in time and monitor crazy things I've done in my life or super insecure moments of not only my adolescence, but my adulthood, and see if I was PMSing then as well. For instance, there was a time in 10th grade when Jed and I were in a fight (he and I had "gone out" but weren't currently) when he said something along the lines of, "if you want me to leave you alone, I will" and I said something like, "yeah, whatever" and we didn't speak for a year. I for sure don't know what that was all about, or why I wanted him out of my life for a year. But I know a year later I was desperate to get him back. Looking back, I'd very much like to blame that on PMS.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T13:19:00.000-04:00

A day late, but our weekend plans got messed up by snow on Saturday (in Pittsburgh, PA where we were supposed to be trick or treating at the zoo) so the kids didn't put their costumes on until actual Halloween day.

They had a Star Wars theme going: Clone Trooper - Commander Cody, Padme and Darth Vader.

Goals Shmoals

2011-10-27T14:46:00.000-04:00

It's a good thing I didn't actually post my New Year's Resolutions for this year because with just over two months left in the year, it's going pathetically. I was supposed to finish three Blurb books this year of our family blog (2010, 2006 and 2005). I'm in February of 2010. I have however far surpassed even my expectations for number of books read and pages read (I'm at 84 books and 27,291 pages and counting). I don't even remember my other goals (I did write them down somewhere, just not on the blog). I believe running was involved. That fizzled and died with my month long summer trip to California and Utah. Then life went back to "normal" and normal was unpacking a new place, homeschooling the kids, etc. So... I guess I should resolve to be better next year and make the most of these next two months. Wish me luck.

Egg Molds

2011-10-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

I'm both intrigued and a little creeped out by these hard boiled egg molds. Buddy might get a pack in his stocking.

buy them here, there are other shapes too
Seen on Pinterest via here

Halloweens Past

2011-10-13T22:00:00.001-04:00

I was remembering all the costumes my kids have had over the years, amazed at how many Halloweens they each have under the belts and since their costumes are much cooler than the punk rocker I was for several Halloweens in a row in the late 1980s, I figured I'd document my thought process here.

2002
Princess Sparkley was a SWEET PEA.
w/ cousins. Camarillo, CA*

2003
We'll say she was a PEA-HEN, but techinically, only the Peacocks have the fancy colors and feathers.
Somis, CA

2004
CINDERELLA
Camarillo, CA

2004
Buddy's first Halloween as a FISH

2005
LADY BUG and DINOSAUR/DRAGON
Lawrence, KS

2006
BUTTERFLY**
Lawrence, KS

2006
RED SOX BASEBALL PLAYER***
Lawrence, KS

2007
CANDY CORN and UPS MAN
Lawrence, KS

2008
BUMBLE BEE, MOUSE IN CHEESE and MAIL MAN
Lawrence, KS

2009
FIREMAN, DINOSAUR/DRAGON and WITCH
northern Virginia

2002
PIPPI LONGSTOCKING
northern Virginia

2010
ARMY MAN

2010
COOKIE MONSTER and Jed makes an appearance as GIANT COOKIE
****

What will 2011 bring?

I'll give you a hint, the kids have a theme going on.

*Yes, the year labeled on the picture is wrong. I don't know why.
This was pre-digital camera for us, so this is all I have on the computer.
**This is the year PS started throwing up just as we got her costume on to go trick-or-treating so I don't have any great pictures of her... she hadn't felt well all day.
***Buddy refused to dress up this year. Then we picked this costume and he ended up sleeping in it some days because he refused to take it off. He just barely outgrew it last year and still wore it all the time until I hid it away.
****How are there so many years that I didn't get not only a good picture of the kids together in their costumes, but not even one picture.

What. Is. This!?!

2011-10-13T20:54:00.001-04:00

I think I've found something worse than the house centipede. And faster.

What.

Is.

This!?!

It looks like a house centipede mated with a cricket. I vacuumed one up in our "basement" the other day. Then tonight, when I opened the back door down there to clear leaves from the drain so our "basement" didn't flood in the huge downpouring of rain we had, I saw this guy climbing up the door frame. EEK!

Cooking Mistakes

2011-10-11T16:02:00.000-04:00

Via Pinterest, I found this article.

I'm guilty of:
2. You don't read the entire recipe before you start cooking. I do this too often for it to be funny. Case in point, last Friday I was taking a soup (that I'd never made before) to a woman from church who just had a baby. The bottom two lines expressed that after you added the half and half you were supposed to let it simmer for an hour. In all my looking the recipe over I never noticed this. By the time I added the half and half, I had maybe 20 minutes before I needed to pour it into a giant bowl and deliver it to this ladies house. Luckily, it still tasted fine.

5. You overheat chocolate. I've learned my lesson though and I'm very careful when heating chocolate now.

6. You over-soften butter. Guilty. Often.

But other than the ones I don't even understand (like number 21 shocking my vegetables) I do alright. I even already bake my bacon in the oven because I always burn it on the stove. How's your cooking?

"Every Child is an Artist."

2011-10-10T14:10:00.002-04:00

My kids create enough "art" to take out a rain forest, so I've always needed a good art wall where I can display it. In Kansas our door was metal so we'd magnet all their art to the back of the door. I've thought before of pinning up some yarn and clipping the kids' art to it, similar to how a friend did it down her hallway in Kansas, but I'm loving these ideas. The first is actually what our curtain rods are right now, from IKEA.

from here

I love the quote on this one... from here.

from here

Peanut Butter No-Bakes

2011-10-06T15:20:00.001-04:00

aka Peanut Butter Rolled Oat Clusters

My brother always made these growing up. It's probably the only thing he ever cooked. Now Jed makes them. Pretty soon Buddy will be making them as well because he requests them as our Family Home Evening treat each week. I mentioned them to a friend at book club the other night and she'd never had the just peanut butter version w/o chocolate. It's our favorite.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
*optional: 1/3 cup cocoa

Directions:
Combine sugar, milk, butter, salt in 3 quart pot; stir. Bring to a full boil for exactly one minute. Remove from heat. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Add rolled oats; mix well. Cool slightly until mixture holds shape. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper and let cool.

Jed always dumps them from a spoon like pictured. I use a cookie scoop. I saw on another blog that some people put them in an 8x8 or 9x9 and after they cool you can sort of slice them like fudge.

My Babies

2011-10-06T14:36:00.001-04:00

We didn't hang up a lot of pictures at our old townhome because we were never really settled there and were constantly trying to figure out how we could move and where to. So these haven't been out in awhile and the kids were excited to see them. Plus I've been seeing a lot of the handprint versions on Pinterest. I originally got the handprinting idea from the wall of a nursery in a Pottery Barn Kids catalog before PS was born.

Today

2011-10-03T08:51:00.000-04:00

Today...

I am trying to remember how hot it was a couple months ago, and how much colder it still has to get. 47 degrees outside right now, 66 inside, and it took forever to convince myself to get out of my warm cozy bed this morning.

School starts. We scaled down our "school day" during the summer, just doing reading, handwriting and math review, then that died on our Utah/California trip. We came home to a new home we had to unpack and organize, so we started our school year a week late. And, even then, I hadn't mapped anything out yet, we've just been reviewing the things we've forgotten over the summer (handwriting, spelling, reading, multiplication tables (PS) and double digit addition and subtraction (Buddy)) and working on Geography and Spanish. Over the weekend I mapped out what we'll be studying in October so today, we officially are starting our PLANNED school year. Princess Sparkley in 4th grade, Buddy in 2nd grade and Little Guy is starting homeschool preschool with the letter A.

I still have a long list of stuff to do to get our new place all the way unpacked and all the way organized. The middle level (dining room, kitchen, living room) is mostly all there and organized. The upper level with bedrooms has some piles that need to be cleaned up, organized or attached to walls. The lower level is 100% better than it was, but still has a few boxes to unpack, and A LOT of toys to organize... somehow.

I start my reading list for 2011. Pathetic, I know it being October and all. So far I've read Franny and Zooey, a chapter of Beloved and I'm a few chapters in to reading the third Harry Potter aloud to the kids. I've read. A lot. More than any year in the past. But I've sort of ignored my list and read a lot of fun stuff instead. Now I've got to buckle down and better myself with some classics.

Halloween Prep

2011-09-27T15:55:00.000-04:00

Princess Sparkley: "What's the rule about when we can get out the Halloween decorations?"
Yep. I have to have a rule for that sort of thing. If there were no rules, chaos (or as PS says, "CH-A-Os*") would ensue.

My answer, "Not until October." She thinks this means October 1st. What it really means is that on October 1st, the rule may allow it, but maybe (most definitely) I'll say it has to wait until - fill in the blank. That's the way I roll. I'm not going to drop everything on October 1st to decorate for Halloween when there are still boxes to be unpacked.

Speaking of boxes to be unpacked... two Halloweens after we moved to Kansas, so, October 2006, we couldn't find our Halloween decorations box. We had a storage unit. It was buried somewhere in there. It was more work than necessary to dig through all of our stuff. That year we made cheap decorations out of paper plates, yarn and construction paper. And it turns out those decorations are among my kids' favorites that they never want me to throw out. But... contrary to Jed's belief, we are not all hoarders (although it's too soon to say for the kids) and I've had to throw a lot of them out as they've gotten torn, faded or lost. But because they were fun. And cheap. And kid-friendly. And because I keep coming across new, similar Halloween decoration ideas, I thought I'd share some with you.

Here are some we did that year we couldn't find our decorations:

This is the only picture I can find to show our Halloween cats, bats and ghosts. The cats and bats were just cut out free-hand by me and glued together by the kids.

Here's a better shot of the ghosts... paper plates with a spiral cut. And cute 2 1/2 year old Buddy.

from here (although we strung our yarn more haphazardly)

And here are the new crafts I'm excited to make this year:

from here

There aren't a lot of crafts here, mostly costume ideas and Halloween treats, but be sure to check out all my old Halloween posts here.

*It's impossible to try to spell it out phoenetically the way she says it... basically, she says it the way it looks and not at all the way it is supposed to be pronounced. It's awesome. She's a reader that girl.

Thinking about Christmas

2011-09-26T09:05:00.001-04:00

Yes... it's not yet October and I'm already thinking and planning out Christmas. However, I'm not shopping... yet. I'm wondering what you guys do for presents for your kids at Christmas time. Usually I chose a set amount of money for each kid and buy as much stuff for them as I can (on and off their list) without going over that amount. After last year, which wasn't even a big year, the kids had opened so many presents and gotten everything they had ever dreamed of by the end of opening family presents (from each other, grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc.) on Christmas Eve. Jed and I considered forgetting about the Santa presents. They'd already gotten SO much and were happy, but we just couldn't cancel Santa without warning... you don't want to offend Santa. So we went ahead with Christmas Day gift madness and decided that next Christmas would be scaled down... a lot. Now I'm trying to decide how to scale down. Here's what I'm thinking right now, but I would love your ideas or if you do anything interesting.

For each kid:
One Christmas Ornament per kid (Jed's family tradition)
PJs or slippers (my family tradition)
Each kid will buy a present for their siblings/parents
Either two gifts per kid (one from each parent) or one larger gift to each kid (from both parents)
Stockings (stuffed)
1 Santa gift
Two books (ones the kids really want) (we'll make these from Santa)

I'm not sure what I think about this set-up because 1) I know I'll keep finding more and more presents that I'm sure the kids HAVE to have. 2) This puts the majority of our gift opening on Christmas Eve (Jed's family tradition is opening family gifts on Christmas Eve. Mine is opening PJs on Christmas Eve). Maybe Santa can also get them new clothes they might need (Princess Sparkley would probably be on board with this... the boys, maybe, if it was Lego, Star Wars or sports-themed shirts).

What do you do in your family? Or what would you like to try?

California

2011-09-22T09:44:00.000-04:00

We spent the first week or so of our month "abroad" in Utah and the rest of the time at my parents' house in California. Jed was only with us for the first few days in California (then he flew back to Virginia to pack us up, move us, take two huge exams for grad school, and start school). We went to the beach four times, Hollywood, Disneyland, the Ronald Reagan Library, and played lots with cousins. We ate at In N Out Burger (at least three times), The Habit, Somis Market (about four times), The Nut House (for candy), and a great shaved ice place called Shave It among other things. Here are a few pictures:

So far...

2011-09-15T16:29:00.000-04:00

This is what's done. And it may have only been clean while I was taking the picture but is currently back to messy. Or, it's possible that there are stategically hidden boxes waiting to be unpacked but not visible in the picture. Lots more to do...

New Place

2011-09-13T12:40:00.002-04:00

The good:

Wood floors (especially under the table!)
Play/Bonus room downstairs
Unfinished workroom for Jed's office
Master bathroom
Bigger yard
Nicer neighborhood
Much quieter
Lots of storage space
A living room size and shape that makes more sense.
Rent is only about $20 more than our last place and we now have a lot more space.
Full sized washer and dryer in a laundry room.

The bad:

Super ugly from outside. I don't particularly care for the look of this type of roof. Oh well. We like the inside.
Fleas. We've already bombed the house twice and Jed still caught a flea on his arm this morning.
Neighbor next to our bedroom seems to use the TV as a white noise to fall asleep to all night.
Three levels of stairs is a bit tiring.
No blinds on any windows.
The bottom floor smells like dog.
More lawn to mow (and we only own an edger) but it appears the past renter left a lawn mower in the shed.
The kitchen leaves something to be desired, but it isn't teeny and it functions.
Full of boxes that I should be unpacking instead of blogging.

9/11

2011-09-12T23:05:00.002-04:00

Ten years ago yesterday, Jed and I were newlyweds living in an apartment down the street from his work at City Hall. This meant that he slept until about 7:45AM and then hurried to dress and run out the door to make it to work by 8AM. We were asleep when the airplanes hit the towers in New York. It wasn't until my mom called, waking us up to tell us the news, that we ran to the TV. I spent the next days, weeks, months watching the news. Between that terrorist attack and Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping nine months later, I watched more news than any other time in my life. It was an addiction.

At the time were weren't parents, but I remember reading articles about how parents should talk to their kids about September 11th. Jed and I sort of steered clear of the subject with our kids for several years. At first we'd come across it in nonfiction books about emergency vehicles or skyscrapers that Buddy would check out from the library. We started by just saying that some airplanes had crashed into a skyscraper and a lot of people had died as a result. This slowly, but without drawing attention to the terror aspect of it, turned into explaining that some bad guys did it on purpose. Just last week the kids asked about the one plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, asking why it just crashed into land and I found myself completely choked up and overwhelmed with the heroics of the passengers as I tried to explain that those people knew what was going on with the other planes, and fought the bad guys so they couldn't crash into another building and kill more people.

I was a little surprised when my 7 year old came home from church yesterday (September 11th) and said the teacher had asked them if they knew why the day was special. Only he and one other boy knew, and the other boy knew because his dad works in the Pentagon. I sort of wish my kids were enrolled in public school so I could get a glimpse of the textbooks that teach this aspect of American history. It's the largest piece of history in my lifetime, and I have no idea how future generations are being taught about it, except for what I teach my own kids. I hope we're doing okay...

Back

2011-09-12T17:14:00.000-04:00

After one month and one day split between Utah and California, we're finally back in Virginia. And a new house. While we were in California, sweet Jed moved all of our belongings, almost completely by himself, to a new townhome. So now I'm back, but busily unpacking, organizing, and then planning out our homeschool year which is getting an especially slow start this year with the vacation and then the move. Eventually, I'll be back for real. Until then... happy unpacking to me.

Totally Addicted to These...

2011-08-31T12:35:00.000-04:00

Random Happenings via My Cell Phone Camera

2011-08-31T02:35:00.001-04:00

These are the random pictures that end up on my cell phone camera because whatever we were doing wasn't worthy (such as Disneyland or the beach) of bringing the real camera along for the trip.

Eating marshmallows on sticks covered in sprinkles at the Rocky Mountain Candy Factory store at the outlet mall.

The kids got "face" painted at a church picnic in the park. Buddy was adamantly against it until Princess Sparkley persuaded him with the dolphin. Now, almost one week later he's only agreed to two baths and both of those have taken place with his dolphin arm up and out of the water. It's looking pretty sad... and dirty. I'm on the hunt for some sort of dolphin temporary tattoo.

There's a tunnel that goes under the road down the street from my parents. I loved yelling "echo" in it when we went on walks when I was little, so I showed it to my kids and let them yell "echo."

Little Guy and Princess Sparkley (who almost got stuck) got to ride in a truck shopping cart at Vons. They beeped their horns nonstop driving me crazy.

Buddy worked hard pulling dead flowers and dusting at Grandma's to earn the last few dollars he needed to be able to afford a Lego Star Wars ship.

I went mattress shopping 2,600+ miles away from where the mattress is needed. Little Guy enjoyed testing them out.

And Little Guy has become a fair weather friend to my dad's giant chocolate lab who he's nicknamed Mr. Fenway. Everyone else just calls him Fenway.

Someday I'll plug in the real camera again and upload some exciting pictures.

Disney Taking Over the World

2011-08-26T00:34:00.000-04:00

I don't mind Disneyland (as seen here and here), but I can't stand that Disney seems to slowly be taking over the world.

Yikes!

2011-08-22T01:07:00.000-04:00

While I've already surpassed 22,000 pages read this year (my best year yet) I've failed miserably at this list that I created to expand my reading horizons. I haven't read any of the books on the list. I started Beloved but got put off my a human/animal relationship description that I really didn't want to read in the first couple chapters (or ever) and I haven't gotten back to it yet. I better get cracking.

So far I've read 22,415 pages in 68 books. Mostly YA books, but I love them! Here they all are:

Twenty Boy Summer

The Sky is Everywhere

Franny and Zooey

Fat Cat

Bloom

What Angels Fear

Matched

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

Notes from the Midnight Driver

Midnight Sun

Zen and the Art of Faking It

Rachel and Leah

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Charlotte's Web

Truck: A Love Story

The History of Love (2nd time)

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Moon Over Manifest

I, Emma Freke

After Ever After

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth

The Great House

Wolves, Boys and Other Things That Might Kill Me

There's No Place Like Home

The Mysterious Benedict Society (#1)

I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

Juliet

When You Reach Me

A Red Herring Without Mustard

Where I Belong

The Book of Tomorrow

What Happened To Goodbye

The Last Little Blue Envelope

Something Borrowed

The boyfriend list

Anna and the French Kiss

Where She Went

The boy book

The Treasure Map of Boys

The Ever-After Bird

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Suite Scarlett

Fly on the Wall: How one girl saw everything

Dramarama

Real Live Boyfriends*

Scarlett Fever

How to be Bad

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Close to Famous

Half Broke Horses

Gimme A Call

Fixing Delilah

84, Charing Cross Road (2nd time)

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

Look Me In the Eye: My Life with Aspberger's

Evolution of Me and Other Freaks

Truly, Madly

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

Fall for Anything

Sisterhood Everlasting

The Enchanted April

Withering Tights

Between Here and Forever

The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June

Uncommon Criminals

Deeply, Desperately

Learning to Play Gin

Finally

Cedar Mountain

2011-08-18T19:46:00.000-04:00

The first week of our vacation was spent in the mountains above Cedar City, Utah at my parents' cabin. While there we visited Duck Creek, Duck Creek Village, Bryce Canyon National Park, Cascade Falls, Aspen Mirror, Navajo Lake and Brian Head. We ate at In N Out Burger in Las Vegas, NV and 25 Main for cupcakes in St. George, Utah. Then we ate at In N Out Burger in Washington (St. George), Utah on our way to California. I think the trip would have been better for Jed if he'd been able to eat at In N Out a few more times. :) And, Princess Sparkley turned nine surrounded my her grandparents, her family and my brother's family while we were up at the cabin.

My most recent trip to Disneyland

2011-08-17T16:41:00.001-04:00

If you look closely in the background, the entire family is in this picture.

My First Trip to Disneyland

2011-08-16T09:39:00.000-04:00

That's me in the stroller. The back of the picture says 1979. So, I'm anywhere from 6 months -18 months old.

BBQ Sauce

2011-08-01T07:24:00.000-04:00

Seriously, I could eat this with a spoon.

From Essential Mormon Celebrations cookbook (here)
2 cups ketchup
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1/4 cup Worchestershire sauce
1/4 tsp Tabasco
1/8 tsp liquid smoke

Heat over medium in a saucepan for 5 minutes. YUM! It goes with this flank steak recipe (Friday's recipe on this menu).

Note: this makes a lot. I half it for my family of five and we still have some leftover.

Absence

2011-07-29T19:45:00.000-04:00

So... due to crap neighbors (ARGH!) who left suddenly a day before an eviction notice appeared on their door, we had to move all of our belongings 2-3 feet from the exterior walls so pest control could come spray bug killer of some sort. And the basic set-up of most rooms is to have stuff along the walls, right? And on some of those walls are our books. Hundreds and hundreds of books. Like this:

To move the bookshelves without breaking them, we'd have to unload them. And if I was unloading the books and packing them up, we should just move. Like that line of thought? We've wanted to anyway, and this, among other things, pushed me over the edge and caused me to jump on board with Jed, in his great desire to move out of here. Our lease is up Sunday (but all the potential places to rent we've set up have fallen through so far, the main one being a landlord that wanted to charge us $50 for phone calls regarding maintenance, which I'm pretty sure is illegal). We're now on a month to month lease. And packing. Now I'm a bit busy, because this, among other things, takes time. Plus, I think we're going to cancel our internet so they'll beg us to come back and offer us a reasonable rate. So... this may be it for awhile. Although, having said that, I'll probably have wonderful blogging ideas all weekend and week because of it.

Long Last Names

2011-07-29T19:24:00.001-04:00

I love finding super long last names. When they flash across the screen at a sporting event on the back of a player's jersey I quickly count the letters. Usually the really long ones are 12 or 13. Ben Roethlisberger (quarterback for the Steelers) has 14.

When we went to Arlington National Cemetery last November, I took these two pictures so I could remember to tell Jed about these long names.

15 letters!

14 letters

I was thinking about this today as I counted up the letters in my insurance guys' name, Toczydlowski: 12.

Running

2011-07-24T16:57:00.001-04:00

I started running last week. I figured since I failed to achieve my goal last year of running a mile straight without stopping, and it was already July, I better get a move on. I tried a few months ago when it was still cool and my self-diagnosed asthma didn't do well with the cold. This week, I walk/ran four times, each time just under two miles (never running a mile straight) and then it got too hot to go outside... maybe ever again. Those four times I went in the morning when it was still in the 80s. I'm not sure the 80s have existed in the past four days and if it did, it was probably three in the morning.

Right now, it's 94, feels like 102. And sadly, today is the coolest of the past four days. This is my ten day forecast. At least it is better than last week.

This is my mom's ten day forecast. Sometime next Monday she'll probably complain to me about how hot it is... at 78. But we're headed here soon, so I hope the 70 degree weather holds up!

Time Passing

2011-07-19T20:01:00.002-04:00

Last week seemed like it went Sunday - Monday - Sunday.

Just a minute ago, for a split second, I was pretty sure today was Friday. But it's only Tuesday.

So, last week went by too quickly. And this week isn't passing quickly enough.

Snow Cones!

2011-07-17T23:52:00.000-04:00

The American Girl of the Year... or whatever, right now is Kanani. Princess Sparkley is obsessed. We've been having Hawaiian parties and pretend snow cones for a few months now.

Buddy LOVES shaved ices. Whenever we go to our local ice cream shop, he gets a shaved ice. I don't think he's ever gotten an ice cream there, while the rest of us have never tried the shaved ice.

Buddy decided last week that he wanted to buy a snow cone machine. We looked into it, he had enough money but I'm one of those mean moms who usually doesn't even let her kids spend their money on what they want. I wanted him to save it up for something big, or possibly for our upcoming trip to California and Disneyland knowing that he'll be bugging me to buy him souvenirs as soon as we get off the plane. Then we happened to be at Target and we priced the snow cone machines. This one is $19.99 and currently 50% off (it's on the seasonal summer stuff aisle).

So... he bought it and is now the proud owner of a snow cone maker. He's LOVES it. And it's super easy (and cheap). You put in 5-6 ice cubes and press the lid. And we made our own syrup (thanks for the tip, Erin), although I think I'll try just juice or root beer next to be a bit healthier than Kool Aid and sugar.

The Greatest Sugar Cookie: Cookie 10

2011-07-13T10:22:00.004-04:00

For the end of the season T-ball party the coach ordered pizza and asked parents to bring a side dish or a dessert. I figured the parents would all be bringing healthy side dishes, and desserts are my favorite anyway, AND, my mom had just sent me this link showing how to decorate sugar cookies to look like baseballs. So I brought sugar cookie baseballs. They joined two other kinds of cookies and a cake. The only other food there besides pizza was a bag of carrots with ranch dressing and a bag of chips.

I followed a new recipe because even though I'm to the point where every recipe (except a choice few) tastes delicious, I still have several more I haven't tried yet. On first taste, I wasn't super impressed with these. But then I had tons leftover because of all the other desserts and the party so the leftovers stuck around for a few days I ended up really liking them when they were a day or too old and softer.

Notes: Watch the cooking time. I had to take some of my batches out early because they were getting to crispy on the edges and I'm not a crispy cookie kind of girl. And the frosting... the recipe with the cookies didn't work for me at all. I left out the egg yolk (!) and the 5-6 cups of powdered sugar seemed outrageous. I added three and it was so thick I ended up adding more milk.

Twins, no?

2011-07-11T11:28:00.002-04:00

Pudgy: A Puppy to Love by Pippa Goodhart

Book Reports: 84, Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

2011-07-09T22:17:00.000-04:00

Today I read this again:

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

And then read the sequel:

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

I first read 84, Charing Cross Road a few years ago and loved it. It's under 100 pages and entirely made up of letters, mainly between the American Ms. Hanff and Frank Doel at the British bookstore, Marks and Co., that keeps her supplied with the secondhand books she requires. Over more than 20 years, a great friendship is formed between not only Ms. Hanff and Mr. Doel but with his family and the other staff at Marks and Co. It wasn't until recently that I found out a sequel to this book exists where Ms. Hanff finally travels to London in support of the British release of 84, Charing Cross Road. The second book is her journal during her month plus stay in London. Both books are quick and charming.

Back Again

2011-07-07T12:17:00.002-04:00

We've been out of town for almost two weeks. We started in Richmond with family while Jed attended an economics thing at the University of Richmond. Then we headed to Ohio to visit Jed's parents. During our trip we saw: Jed's sister and her family, Jed's parents, Jed's younger brother and his family, Jed's maternal grandparents and an aunt and uncle. Not bad. We also:

Wright Patterson AFB Museum

Made it on the Jumbo-tron at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati and saw some great fireworks!

Raided Grandma's basement for Star Wars paraphernalia. Meet Darth Little Guy.


Visited Grandma's city pool where the big kids had a ton of fun going down the slides. There was even a little slide for Little Guy (but he was still grumpy some of the time).

Highest Point in Indiana: Hoosier Hill

Went on a fun family walk Sunday evening along an old canal towpath.

Visited the Ohio High Point.

Stopped in Pittsburgh on the way home and took a ferry over to Jed's grandparents' island cottage to say a quick hello.

This isn't even counting all our new counties (I'm sure Jed will get around to that on his blog) and the fact that Jed and I finished West Virginia... meaning we've now been to every county in West Virginia. And the other good news, we've run out of exciting ways to travel to and from Grandma and Grandpa's in Ohio so either they need to move, or we get to go there the normal way from now on.

Social Butterfly I Am Not

2011-06-29T10:24:00.000-04:00

Growing up I can remember my mom describing my older sister as a social butterfly. That was an appealing image to a little girl like me whose favorite word was glitter. A social butterfly sounded pretty. Besides, I spent most of recess time in preschool flapping my arms around being a butterfly. But when it comes down to it, and when I'm mature enough to face the truth and be who I am, I am not a social butterfly. Not even close. I don't hate people. But, given the choice, I'd much rather curl up with a book or a movie than be forced into a social situation. Still. I don't mind socializing with people I'm already comfortable around, but throw me into a crowded room at a party and I'm likely to retreat. A cabin in the woods for a week with just my family, nature and some enormous stacks of books sounds like a dream vacation. A cruise sounds like a nightmare to me. Forced socialization, although with everyone being the newbie, maybe it wouldn't be so horrible. Maybe.

Just some random thoughts.

Health

2011-06-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

The problem with having a kid with a medical condition is the complete "new parent" lack of knowledge that comes with it. I've gotten to the point in my almost nine years (!!!) of being a parent that I'm some what comfortable with parenting emergencies/illnesses, etc. But with Little Guy, I never really know so I end up calling his cardiologist and explaining what's going on so they can just tell me it's nothing. This happened when Little Guy was starting to crawl and would crawl around all day like a mad man getting red in the face and sweaty. Was this good for his heart? I took him in and his doctor told me it was totally normal and if he was tired he'd stop and rest. Two summers ago at my parents' cabin and a very high altitude in southern Utah he was having a hard time breathing so we took him to the ER and he had some breathing treatments. With him, because of his heart, I take everything a lot more seriously than I think I do with my older kids.

The other night he went and got his blankey and complained to us that he got hurt, and the injured location was under his left armpit. It didn't appear that there was an outside reason for this to hurt. He told us maybe he was hungry and then laid down while eating a roll. After a few seconds he was off running again, but with his arms folded tightly, sort of like he was hugging his chest because it hurt. And he was still telling us he hurt. So I called his cardiologist and spoke to one of her associates who basically said if I was really worried, take him to the ER (doctor speak for: they don't want the liability) but based on his last appointment (just over a month ago) he couldn't be having any problems this soon. By the time I got off the phone, Little Guy was running around like normal claiming he didn't hurt anymore. But anytime he comes to us sick or hurt especially if it's anywhere near his heart, we panic.

Usually his heart condition isn't a part of my everyday life. He's a normal kid right now. And healthy. But every once in awhile it creeps in and I'm left panicking like a new mom with an infant who has a cold for the first time. It's not a feeling I like.

Vacations

2011-06-23T11:27:00.001-04:00

This summer we're visiting: West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Unfortunately they are all states we've already been to. (See picture of Princess Sparkley's cool Girl Scout vest state patch.) We almost got to go to Atlanta, Georgia for a layover on our flight from here to Las Vegas. Instead, our flight is DC to LAX to Las Vegas. Which is sort of funny because we're only flying into Las Vegas to make it easier for my parents (who live 1 hour from LAX) to pick us up and take us to their cabin in southern Utah. After a week or so at the cabin, we'll be driving back to LA for the rest of our visit. So we almost got Georgia, but not this time.

I'm super excited to be going to California. We moved from there in September 2005 and the last time our whole family visited California was January 2007. So, Jed and the big kids haven't been to California in more than 4 1/2 years. I don't think Buddy remembers it at all, he was only 17 months when we moved and coming up on 3 when we visited. Little Guy and I flew to California for a wedding in March of 2008 but that was still 3+ years ago, and he was less than two months old. So, I'm excited. Actually, that might be an understatement. I'm WAY excited! We're already making lists of the places we want to see, where we want to eat, things we want to do, people we want to see. Woo hoo!

Fourth of July Planning

2011-06-22T09:48:00.002-04:00

Books:
How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA
McDuff Saves the Day
The Scrambled States of America

Food:
Firework Sugar Cookies
Ice Cream Sandwich Pops (hat tip: The Crafty Crow)
Stained Glass Jello (hat tip: The Crafty Crow)
Fourth of July Caramel Corn (hat tip: Tidy Mom)
Peach Cobbler
Apple Pie
Apple Pie Squares
Fourth of July Cupcake in a Jar

Crafts and Experiments:
Fireworks in a Dish
Firework decorations
Patriotic Ribbon Wand
Paper Fireworks
Lady Liberty art project
Patriotic Fabric Pennant
Fourth of July Blow Art
Handprint Fireworks

Happy First Day of Summer

2011-06-21T10:00:00.005-04:00

My kids started their new summer journals yesterday. We spiffed them up a bit with spray glue and scrapbook paper. Princess Sparkley chose sea shell paper (anticipating hitting the beach later this summer when we get to go to California!!). Buddy chose a bright sparkly blue design. Little Guy chose Thomas the Tank Engine paper and I made him a little book with printer paper stapled inside. My goal is to let them draw a lot, write a lot, and include a lot of photographs. Which means I have to actually get prints made (or buy color ink for the printer) of some of our summer adventures. There are also some great journal ideas here and here and here.

Mostly, we all need to get in the habit of being better journal writers. But also, Princess Sparkley needs to work on her handwriting and capitalization skills. And Buddy needs to work on his handwriting and spelling. Little Guy, is just enjoying drawing and writing so much lately that he'll probably have the most fun with this. He can even write his own name all by himself, half the time he writes it completely backwards, but he's also our only lefty so maybe we have some kinks to work out.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-06-20T22:00:00.000-04:00

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Little Me

2011-06-20T00:01:00.001-04:00

Me, 31... I mean 27 years ago today.

Umm... yum.

2011-06-17T09:18:00.000-04:00

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Funfetti Cheesecake-cakes

I've been trying to hunt down a chocolate mint brownie recipe that could be this one... for 10+ years.

S'mores Pie

2011-06-16T09:59:00.000-04:00

If you haven't noticed, I'm sort of anti the traditional S'mores. Not that I don't love the graham cracker/ chocolate/marshmallow combo, it's just such a mess. And sort of requires a campfire. Today I came across this fun idea.

Picture and recipe/idea from Shelly at Cookies and Cups.

She also has an older post for mini S'mores pies.

Kindle eBooks

2011-06-16T09:19:00.001-04:00

Jed got a Kindle as an early Christmas present last fall (since he needed it for all the PDF articles he was reading for school). We've mostly downloaded free or 99 cent books onto it. Recently we've been given some Amazon gift cards for recent holidays and have branched out our Kindle purchases. Right now, in preparation for flying to California and Utah for a month, one week of that time being at my parents' cabin with no TV, etc., I'm trying to find lots of books we'd be interested in reading to buy for the Kindle. While looking around for cheap picture books (hoping to find some stuff for Buddy to keep up with his reading practice) I came across this:


here

As someone who LOVES candy, especially candy involving chocolate and peanut butter, I'm sort of intrigued by the idea of this book. I might have to give it a try.

Love this!

2011-06-15T10:36:00.000-04:00

I went to the grocery store the other day just to get a prescription for Buddy. While dropping of the prescription, a couple went by pulling this grocery basket. I tried to follow them for awhile so I could sneakily take a picture but failed at that. Instead I went searching for my own basket. I wish they'd had these in college when I never needed a giant cart, but carrying milk around in a handle basket was too heavy.

High School

2011-06-13T16:55:00.000-04:00

My dream last night involved hanging out with a bunch of the friends we (Jed and I) had in high school. And then this morning, I realized that I graduated from high school fifteen years ago today! I remember when it seemed like people who has been out of high school fifteen years were old. Shoot, I still think that people who graduated fifteen years ago are old, I just can't believe how quickly fifteen years passed by.

Healthy "Ice Cream"

2011-06-10T10:00:00.001-04:00

We tried out this banana "ice cream" recipe last night. Bananas are one of the few fruits Princess Sparkley will eat. And the only ingredients are frozen bananas, a bit of peanut butter, and chocolate chips (I'm leaving out the walnuts). I made PS peel the bananas and chop them into one inch pieces. I think I froze mine too long (the recipe says an hour but I just stuck them in there before dinner and didn't get back to them for awhile). Plus, my food processor is teeny tiny so I used my blender instead... it ended up working, but I'm not so pleased with my blenders frozen fruit chopping abilities to begin with.

The kids all ate it and thought it was ice cream. It was yummy, very strong on the banana. We liked it for a healthy summer treat.

The Food Pyramid is Now a Circle

2011-06-09T11:43:00.000-04:00

A New S'More

2011-06-07T21:59:00.001-04:00

Jed and Buddy were reading this book* together last week and I overheard the part where they described a S'More being made out of chocolate chip cookies and marshmallows. Brilliant, I thought.

To make it simpler for the kids to create as their Family Home Evening treat, I bought this Nestle chocolate filled chocolate chip cookie dough. I baked the cookies, removed them and allowed them to cool. Then I flipped half of the cookies upside down, added a large marshmallow and stuck them back in the oven until the marshmallow looked soft and fluffy (maybe 3 minutes). Then I stuck the sandwiches together and allowed them to cool for about 5 minutes. They were still really messy... but yummy. Although next time, I'll use a normal chocolate chip (not the chocolate filled ones, which were kind of gross). If I liked the hard cookies like Chips Ahoy, those would probably work best because they aren't going to be all flimsy and warm like a freshly baked cookie is. But they were good...

*Jed hated that this book was marketed as for new chapter book readers. There were a lot of hard words that a first chapter book reader shouldn't be expected to read. He gave up reading it WITH Buddy and just read it TO him.

Camping Necessities

2011-06-01T12:36:00.000-04:00

On Jed and my recent camping trip, we borrowed everything from his sister except a tent and two sleeping bags. We didn't even remember to bring our hot dog fork (the only other camping supply we own), but that was okay as she supplied us with everything we could possibly need.

While on the trip, we were making mental notes of the things we'll need to own for future family camping trips.

camping stove (and pots, pans and utensils)
pie iron (because I want one)
camping chairs for the family
lanterns
better sleeping bags for two (possibly all three kids)
air mattress and pump
foam sleeping pads (for the kids)
a screen house!!!

A screen house is high on my list. Here we are sitting in it, reading books, remaining completely unbothered by bugs (which we could hear buzzing around trying to figure out how to get in). The only bugs that made their way in were caterpillars. We kept driving past other campsites where people were sitting in the shade versions of these, but without the netting to keep bugs out. WHY!?! This was completely awesome and made the camping trip 100 times more tolerable than it would have been otherwise. Mosquitoes love me. Bugs freak me out. I came home completely mosquito bite free. Yea!

YA Lit.

2011-05-29T13:47:00.000-04:00

So, my goal of reading more classics isn't happening. Even my goal of reading more adult novels isn't happening. I've read 37 books so far this year, and more than half of them are young adult lit. And even some of the books that I've grouped as adult literature still have teen protagonists. But I like them. I started reading Toni Morrison's Beloved on our camping trip and decided after one chapter that I needed the Cliff's Notes to go with it, and then I checked out a stack of YA books from the library that I'm quickly working my way through. You can see my recently read in my sidebar, or here.

Yearly Photos

2011-05-26T14:14:00.000-04:00

I have always been really good about the kids' doctor check-ups and yearly photos. But now I've slacked. Princess Sparkley turns nine in August and we still haven't gone in for her eight year old check-up. Buddy turned seven last month, and I'm hoping I remember to schedule him a seven year old check up soon. Little Guy is luckily still little enough, and gives us reason for a little bit of worry, that he doesn't miss check-ups... yet.

As for photos, Rachel took our family picture and some great photos of the kids in June of 2009 just before we left Kansas. Princess Sparkley's and Buddy's that she took are still their most recent, professional pictures. I took Little Guy in to JCPenney for his two year old picture (again, he's still little and the difference between 18 months and two is huge where as seven to eight is not so much). But Little Guy turned three in January and I just haven't gotten around to it. Jed told me I need to just take one myself (the free route) so while we were out exploring with Jed's family when they were in town for his graduation, I snapped some pictures of the kids.

Little Guy had his lip out and for whatever reason, refused to look at the camera. Buddy did wonderfully. I actually got a few good pictures of him. Princess Sparkley is just looking at me with attitude. And really, I think she's looking over my shoulder, waiting for me to be done taking the picture so she can move on with her life.

Busy Weekend

2011-05-25T11:53:00.001-04:00

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday morning:

Saturday night:

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

The Greatest Sugar Cookie: Cookie 9 and a review

2011-05-19T09:01:00.002-04:00

Using these that Princess Sparkley gave Buddy for his birthday last month and using this recipe, I made a batch of Star Wars sugar cookies.

I dyed the dough rather than trying to intricately frost them, like on the Williams-Sonoma website. I even dyed dough black. I think next time, I'll use a chocolate roll out cookie recipe for Darth Vader rather than black food dye.


Little Guy direct quote: "When I grow up, I going to be Darth Vader."

The cookies were really good. Soft, which I like, but a little too easily crumbled for this recipe. We took a bag to some friends and most of the Yodas were without ears by the time the cookies reached our friends. I didn't love this cookie, so I'm giving it 4 stars. Jed really liked it, if this was his blog, he'd probably give it 4.5 or 5 stars. But this isn't his blog, so it's getting a 4.

As for the cookie cutter review. I've never used a cookie cutter like this, with an imprint made and a little springy button. I liked it. I especially liked that the design made it so I didn't need to frost them. My only complaint is that the dough needed to be really to not stick in the cookie cutter design. I actually started flouring it a bit in between each cut which helped a lot.

Plans

2011-05-18T17:03:00.001-04:00

I need to plan better. First, I just looked at the clock and saw it was 5 PM. We're normally 5 PM dinner eaters because Little Guy's bedtime is 7PM. So it's dinner time, and about 5 minutes ago I let the boys have granola bars for a snack. I had no idea it was that late. And second, what I had planned for dinner tonight is this salad. But Jed won't be home for dinner tonight so of the four people who will be here, only Buddy and I will eat salad. And saying he'll eat salad is a stretch. He'll have a tiny scoop. Princess Sparkley will stick out her chin, roll her eyes and look annoyed, then start crying about how lettuce makes her gag. Little Guy will demand clean noodles or pizza. So you can see why, instead of making dinner right now, I'm avoiding it.

Kids

2011-05-14T18:00:00.002-04:00

"Remember [Princess Sparkley], lots of Grandma's books don't make sense because they are missing pages because they are like thousands of years old." [Buddy] to [PS] while she reads them a Star Wars book from [Jed]'s childhood.

First Drawings

2011-05-12T10:23:00.000-04:00

Little Guy mostly just scribbles stuff. Sometimes, after the fact he'll tell me what it is based on what it now looks like to him. For Mother's Day the kids all drew pictures for their grandmas. He told me he wanted to draw an owl. Rather than draw an owl for him, I just pointed and told him what shape to draw where. Result... he drew an owl! Then, all on his own, he drew a baby owl. And a few hours later, he tracked me down and told me he felt like drawing more owls. Now I just have to convince him he can draw more than owls. But aren't they cute?

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T14:47:00.000-04:00

Little Guy and I went grocery shopping yesterday and all on his own he was super interested in everyone with flowers and wanted to buy some white ones. So he picked out a bundle of white carnations for me for Mother's Day. Princess Sparkley made me a felt corsage and a candy flower bucket. Buddy created a Lego corsage, and some giant Lego flowers for me. And right now, I'm baking myself this cake.

Too Much Celebration

2011-05-05T20:19:00.000-04:00

Easter was the end of April this year only four days before Buddy's birthday and Jed and my anniversary. Then Cinco de Mayo/my dad's birthday. And Sunday is Mother's Day. All super squished together this year. I blame it all on the late Easter. Coming up quickly is Father's Day, which, this year, is the day before my birthday. And in the middle of all this, Jed graduates with his Masters degree. Fun and exciting but I'm running out of fun ideas.

Monday- leftovers

Tuesday- Foil dinner with Kielbasa (sort of like this, but I'll make it up as I go)

Wednesday- Garlic Parmesan Chicken and Noodles
(A lot of work, especially if you hate pulling chicken off the bone. I would use regular chicken next time, and a jar of Alfredo sauce. It was very similar to this recipe, which is much better.)

Cinco de Mayo:
Thursday- Slow-cooker carne guisada
Churros or Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie

(Carne guisada was pretty good. Nothing special though. Churros were good, but a little too eggy for me. I don't like being able to taste the egg in stuff. We didn't make the chocolate sauce, just sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar a la Disneyland.)

Friday- Homemade Pizza Pockets
(I made up my own insides to the pockets, just spaghetti sauce, cheese and sausage or pepperoni. I didn't add enough sauce this time. And only one of my calzones actually looked like a calzone. The dough was soft and sweet. I liked it. But the recipe says 18 servings and my family of five finished off all the calzones.)

Saturday- Sweet and Sour Pork and Baked Brown Rice

Mother's Day:
Sunday- Blueberry Cheesecake Flapjacks
Dessert: California Fresh Orange Cake

(The cake was delicious! It totally stuck to the pan though. Use parchment paper on the bottom of your pan, or this tip, except I put my cake pan in a shallow pan of HOT water, worked for me.)

Monday- Steak and New Potato Toss
(Yummy, except the raw garlic in the vinaigrette was a little strong for me. But this was sort of a healthy take on meat and potatoes.)

Trying soon:
Breakfast Casserole
Chantilly Potatoes
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Chicken and Black Bean Green Enchilada Rice Bake

Summer Dessert

2011-05-02T14:00:00.001-04:00


Recipe here

This looks super fancy but is very simple and yummy. The downside: both pound cake* and raspberries are expensive. Although, you could use a cheaper fruit. Strawberries or blueberries would be yummy. I actually made two of these, one with a frozen Sara Lee pound cake, one with a Target bakery pound cake. Both similarly priced (just under $4). The frozen pound cake sliced better so my actual dessert slices looked like the one above. I don't recommend letting it thaw for 30 minutes before eating. That just made the ice cream melt more and it fall apart more. And the raspberries, while tasty, are still frozen solid, even with the 30 minute thaw. This makes it sound like a bad recipe, I liked it. I just ate another slice for my lunch dessert. But I wish there was some special formula to keep the raspberries soft while the ice cream stays frozen.

*Wendy pointed out that I could buy a pound cake mix. I did look at the store and didn't see one but they do exist. There are also a lot of recipes for pound cake online. Next time I think I'll try this recipe or this one or this one.

Camping

2011-05-02T11:55:00.000-04:00

Jed and I are going camping, without the kids, later this month as a cheap way to get away and celebrate our anniversary. Throughout our marriage, we slowly started acquiring camping stuff. But we sort of stalled after sleeping bags and a tent. We do own one mess kit/cooking set and a hot dog fork, but that's basically so Jed and Buddy (and now Little Guy) can survive a Father/Son Campout. We've never actually gone camping as a family. Girl's Camp aside, I don't think I've ever gone camping. My family owned a tiny motor home when I was a kid and we usually just trekked up to our primitive cabin with a gas stove, etc. This camping trip will be sort of a dry run without the kids to figure out what we're doing. I was sort of liking the idea of snacking for breakfast and lunch and then after one night of hot dogs, finding a restaurant somewhere for dinner on the other nights. But then I sort of got excited about camping meals (it doesn't take much to get me excited about new recipes, and this is an area I've never tackled).

I've found tin foil dinner recipes (this one with a hint about potatoes), camping steak, omelet in a bag (which I've made before at home and are delicious, but then I read that boiling the plastic bag isn't good... but for a campfire meal, I think I'll let that slide), and I grew up making grilled cheese sandwiches in a pie iron in our kitchen.

What other camping tips do all you experts have for me?

S-E-V-E-N!

2011-04-28T13:30:00.001-04:00

My middlest turns seven today.


Buddy - 9 days old

Buddy spent all yesterday trying to convince me that it was his birthday. Or that "birthday eve" should be celebrated by opening all presents that involve Legos.

Buddy - 7

Happy Birthday!

Happy 10th Anniversary!

2011-04-28T09:25:00.007-04:00

I think this was a few weeks before we were engaged. Approx. January 2001. California.

April 24, 2011. Virginia.

Happy Anniversary!

He points out to me on a fairly regular basis

that I made a huge mistake in marrying him,

but I still argue that it wasn't a mistake.

He doesn't believe in there being

one person that's your perfect match,

but I do, and he's mine.

What I Wore Today

2011-04-27T15:30:00.000-04:00

I'm slightly amused by bloggers who capture their outfit each day (or ever). Mainly I'm amused because I have no style whatsoever, so it would be humorous for me to try a similar post. For instance (without photos, sorry) I spent the first part of today wearing yellow capri pajama pants (that I actually love) and a stained, old, white v-neck t-shirt. Then I showered and changed into a tan shirt and a dark brown skirt. Then I took out the trash (wearing gray flip flops from Old Navy) and the skirt was blowing around in the wind a bit much for my comfort and I changed into denim Bermuda shorts (and an ugly brown belt because Jed makes fun of people that don't wear belts). Can Bermuda shorts be denim? So, I'm back to my "t-shirt and jeans" and I guess I'm okay with that. It's always one of those things that is someday. Someday I'll buy a new wardrobe. And it will be fashionable and make me look fabulous. And I'll buy lots of trendy accessories. And shoes to go with every outfit. And a bag to either match (or not match, depending on the current style). While I'm at it, I'll also chop my hair short and go to the salon every six weeks to keep it looking good. Someday.

Easter Oufits

2011-04-24T13:50:00.001-04:00

I was going to make Princess Sparkley this skirt, but wanted to use some fabric I already owned (trying to thin down my massive collection of fabrics) and I didn't own an entire yard of any one fabric. Nor am I handy enough to attempt a patchwork (of sorts) skirt. So I found this pattern and it was super easy (and I even did the more complicated version). You'll recognize the fabric (the inside of the cherry blossom skirt is the polka dot fabric on top of this skirt) from last year's Cherry Blossom Festival bubble skirt, that never quite worked right for PS's height and skinniness.

I have a hard time convincing Buddy or Little Guy to wear a sweater vest... ever, plus I couldn't find one in brown. But I LOVE them. And I knew pink was definitely out. So I headed to Old Navy and found Buddy a nice dark brown polo shirt. I was hoping they'd have a similar one in the toddler sizes, they didn't (quite). So then I was hoping that the extra small in Buddy's sizes would work for Little Guy, but they didn't have an extra small (and I think it would have been way too big anyway). I looked around at a few other stores and saw nothing. (Until after I made the tie and I looked again at Target and found a brown and white striped polo shirt.) A friend on Facebook had linked to this little boy tie tutorial last week, but it involves some sewing by hand (I am only a passable seamstress with a machine, but by hand, I sew like a 6 year old). Today, after failing at finding a 3T/4T brown polo, I decided to sew a tiny tie for Little Guy. I did some research, and found this tutorial, which was perfect for me. He often claims pink as his favorite color (although at the store when I held up a pink polo shirt, he told me he wouldn't wear it because "pink is for girls"), so I told him the pink dots were Easter eggs, and that seemed to assure him that this tie was cool.

The tie.

Matching.

Princess Sparkley asked why Jed and I ever match them. So we tried this year.

The skirt.

Happy Easter!

The Lip

2011-04-24T00:38:00.000-04:00

Little Guy has been Mr. Grump as of late. But even in all of his grumpiness, I still love seeing his little bottom lip stick out when he's so sad. He's trying not to laugh here (because he's really grumpy), but I'm trying to get a picture of his lip and it makes him giggle, even though he's still grumpy and very mad at me.

Perfect Eggs

2011-04-22T12:50:00.000-04:00

This may be a little late for those of you who are on the ball and already boiled your Easter eggs for dyeing. Me, I just realized this morning that we need to dye them tonight or tomorrow morning and frantically hard boiled some eggs this morning. The second pot of eggs, I totally forgot to go back and check to lower their temperature once they started boiling. Luckily, making hard boiled eggs is not my specialty, and a couple of Christmases ago Jed got me this Egg-Perfect Egg-Timer. This thing is awesome. When I ran into the kitchen to find my second pot of eggs boiling frantically and the egg-timer dark all the way to the middle (meaning: hard boiled) I was worried that this batch of eggs was going to be all gray yolked and gross. It wasn't! It was perfect. I love this thing. Even when I forget to pay attention, it worked (which may have been a fluke, but I'm saying it was magic).

Buy it here

Neighborhood Hangout

2011-04-20T12:57:00.000-04:00

Growing up, I was one of very few kids on a cul-de-sac with, at the time, four homes (now six). My parents and siblings always told fun stories about the house we lived in before (that we moved from when I was 2 1/2) and how it was the neighborhood hang out for all the kids on the street. It always sounded fun and I blissfully imagined growing up and having my home be the neighborhood hang out. It's not. And I'm actually very very happy that it's not.

Why aren't we the neighborhood hangout:

1. We aren't very outgoing people. So we don't actually know most of our neighbors past "hello."
2. We live in a mild ghetto (can I coin that phrase?) so the second my kids step outside, they are bombarded with kids whispering "ask your mom if you can bring your bike out," "do you have any chalk?," etc. Then they borrow said bike and my kids aren't sure what to do about it. Little Guy takes his tricycle out and refuses to get off it because there's a herd of toddlers/preschoolers hovering over him.
3. I'm not really a fan of kids. I know. I know. I have three. I like my kids. And I like some other people's kids. And I tolerate some kids. But in general, I don't really like kids. So, having them all swarm and take advantage of my more timid (probably a downside of homeschooling) kids who just want to be liked, doesn't make me happy. And they swear. I'm pretty sure when I walked past a group of 8-11 year olds yesterday, one of them was saying some sort of "not it" rhyme that involved the F-word. Nice.
4. There's a certain group of 8-10 year old boys that the second my kids walk outside, they make my kids "it" in a game of tag or hide and seek. This is how it goes. "Can you count to 20? Okay, you're it." And they run away, leaving my kids, who don't want to play, in the dust, forced to retreat back inside so they don't get in trouble for not counting.
5. When we come in for dinner, usually right around 5, we tend to leave the door open with the screen closed. But if we do that, a bunch of kids are starring in our screen while we eat dinner.
6. There are certain parents in the neighborhood that are on the ball and if their kids are outside, they are keeping an eye on them. I tend to be at the computer, near the front window, or out on our step. Other parents just let their kids roam free for hours on end with no knowledge of how poorly behaved they are.

This is all of course worse than normal this week because it's Spring Break for our local school district. I know I have friends whose houses are sort of the neighborhood hangout. Do you enjoy this? I don't think I would mind if it was my kids' actual friends. Or perhaps if I knew their parents. But as is, I'm happy to stay out of the mix.

Don't Dress Your Little Girls Like Tramps

2011-04-19T13:53:00.001-04:00

This is an excellent article, unfortunately, I'm afraid the parents who need to read it, won't even stop to think for a moment it applies to them, if they see it at all.

Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps By LZ Granderson, CNN Contributor

I love this part:

I don't care how popular Lil' Wayne is, my son knows I would break both of his legs long before I would allow him to walk out of the house with his pants falling off his butt. Such a stance doesn't always makes me popular -- and the house does get tense from time to time -- but I'm his father, not his friend.
Friends bow to peer pressure. Parents say, "No, and that's the end of it."
The way I see it, my son can go to therapy later if my strict rules have scarred him. But I have peace knowing he'll be able to afford therapy as an adult because I didn't allow him to wear or do whatever he wanted as a kid.