it might be genetic...

...or something like that...

so the boy child has some homework
but the girl child has loads and loads of the stuff...
....5th grade might just kill me us...

and the horrible mean mommy rule* in our house is
NO screen time during the week
...it's way too distracting for the girl child when she has homework to do...
and as a reward for her when the homework is finished, she just can't concentrate on the task at hand if...
at-any-point-in-the-near-future-the-big-shiny-box-on-the-wall-might-start-flashing-pictures-with-sound...
*mommy rule, because more than once daddy has broken the rule...

so poor child that is the boy child...
scene...
Monday afternoon...
2 pages of simple 1st grade homework is completed
...his sister has DAYS of 5th grade homework left
.....and no screen time till Friday afternoon...
poor miserable little child...
forced to look/read books
color...
play...
...the horrors...
I understand if you feel you might need to turn me into the proper authorities...

in the horrible black hole that was his afternoon he created this...

yeah, I know...

AMAZING....

do you see it...
yep...
he has never once read my blog...
and I don't write with nearly as many '...' as I type with...

yet...he has them throughout his story...
so, I have decided it might just be genetic...

'The Creature!...' by Wilson Chambers
One sunny day a little monster came along skipping on the sidewalk...
I stared at it, it stared right back...
Chapter 2
It went to my house...and went in to my bedroom and played with my toys.  It gave me a hug.
The end


and don't you worry, he's already planning a book 2...

blog edit...boy child did have help with some spelling...mainly US helping him sound out words and helping him guess letter combos that would make the right sound...and NEVER once did Beau have to correct a word that I helped boy child spell...

how to turn cardboard into rock...

...rock-n-roll that is...

the girl child was invited to a rock concert birthday party...

and asked to dress the part....

so because I'm so nerdy hardcore I decided to make her a pink guitar to take as part of her costume...

...I'm also trying to convince her to go as a rocker chick for Halloween...and was hoping a rockin' home made guitar might help convince her....

step one...trace guitar hero...or rock band...not sure which this belongs too...guitar onto oversized piece of cardboard...

step two...cut it out...

step three...take it outside and spray paint it pink...or other rock color of your choice...

step four...using the ring of a pint jar lid as a stencil, spray paint silver circles randomly onto pink guitar

step five...attach turquoise curling ribbon and hang on adorable rocker chick

step six....pick up friend other band members... embarrass girl child by lecturing them about no drugs or boy kissing at rocker party...

step seven...have them come up with rock band name...'glitter sis'...

step eight...continue the embarrassment by following them into party and taking pictures as we go...

introducing 'glitter sis' the newest chick band!

can you sense the, 'come on mom, get out of here' that girl child is oozing???
yep, me neither!
..........Rock On!.........

books

i have a confession to make

 we sorta like books around here...

there're so pretty...

different colors...different textures..

if you visited our home you will see them stacked here and there...

and there...

i collect family Bibles...love them

and there....

amazing books...twain's 'puddin' head wilson' is a must read...
and then sinclair's 'the jungle' and defoe's 'robinson  crusoe'

even stacked in the kitchen...

my husband has a bookshelf stacked to the ceiling in our bedroom with the lovely things...

 and a few more boxes left to unpack...

just a few....

they may get unpacked in the next year....

oh, and i have just a few on my nightstand...

and then a few more inside...

the girl child also has a small collection of books

still on the hunt for the right bookshelf for all her books...

the kids and i spent about an hour an a half the other day just reading...

totally recommend 'glass slipper gold sandal; a worldwide cinderella'
 fun to read the different versions of an age old story...
& then some WWII history from a little girls perspective
 'the little ships; the historic rescue at dunkirk in World War II'

we went thru a pile of book from the library...

and then we exhausted the library stack we grabbed two of my favorite off the shelf...

'roxaboxen' & 'christina katerina & the box'

these two are MUST own books....
but if you don't own them you need to visit the library and check them out...
both of these capture the essence of childhood and allow you to revisit it over and over again...

books are full of information...

 memories...

feelings...

history...

here is a great historic read...and emotional...

maybe just for me...but it's about the library women in the 1930's that took books into the appalachian mountains ...very touching story...and yes, i cried every time i read it...

...off to read now...
pick up a book and get lost for awhile...

starbucks doesn't just serve coffee

I'm sure you knew...
that starbucks has other things besides coffee...
which in our-not-so-humble-opinion
          is not the greatest coffee ever....

my Beau, the boy child and I were there a few weeks ago, waiting for the girl child...
just killing some time and we didn't really want to sit for an hour and drink coffee...

so we ordered a cookie....
     .....a giant monstrous cookie!

I'm not a big fan of cookies sold at coffee place...
they're usually dry,
     over cooked,
          lacking flavor
               and horribly overpriced...

well, this one wasn't....
we might not love starbucks coffee...
but HELLO...they got the cookie thing dialed in!
I'm thinking they might want to rethink the whole coffee shop thing and go for a bakery...
except I think that the rest of the world might actually like their coffee...

anyhoo....

we couldn't stop thinking about the amazing oatmeal cookie at starbucks...
we were talking about it for days...
so I did want any self respecting...
(tangent, I just had to sing the R-E-S-P-E-C-T song to spell it)
...any self respecting person would do and googled "starbucks oatmeal cookie recipe'....
and low and behold, we must not have been the first to fall in love with their baked goods!

so here you have it...with a few twists...I doubled the recipe
...I posted the double version, so no need to double this one...
     ...well, you might need to double it, because these don't hang around for long once you make them!!!
I also took out the golden raisins that the recipe called for and replaced them with dark chocolate chips...
added some butter flavor crisco rather than all butter
and of course doubled the vanilla...
so here is my version of starbucks crack outrageous oatmeal cookies

Outrageous Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

3 cups old fashioned oats (not quick cooking)
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup raisins
1  cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried cherry-cranberries*
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
6 tablespoons butter flavor Crisco
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.
2.  In a medium sized bowl blend oats, flour raisins, cranberries, chocolate chips, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3.  In a large bowl beat butter, Crisco and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla; beat until combined.
4.  Gradually add oat mixture to butter mixture; beat until combined.
5.  Form 1/4 cup balls (or use a large cookie scoop) and place 2 inches apart onto two lightly greased baking sheets.
6.  Bake about 12-16 minutes, until cookies are golden brown, but still soft. Cool on sheets before serving.

* I used the cherry cranberries, I buy all my dry fruits in bulk at WinCo and their cran-cherries are usually cheaper than the straight cranberries, sometimes I buy the cran-strawberries....
you could also use dried strawberries or cherries rather than cranberries

special notes...starbucks had extra raisins on top of the cookie and the recipe called for that also, so if you want to mix up extra raisins, cranberries and chocolate chips and sprinkle about 2 tsp on top of each cookie before baking go ahead...

the second time I made these I dumped in too much vanilla (I wasn't actually measuring it, I was just pouring, got bumped and dumped in too much)...so I added a 1/4 cup cocoa...making Chocolate Oatmeal Raisin Cookies...very good also....
second time I also used whole wheat flour...just as good....the cookies were WAY darker with the whole wheat flour and cocoa...

we shall have cake for breakfast

 but it's practically like veggie oatmeal, so it's good...right...right?

so I had a huge zucchini from a friends garden...
and I needed to use it since it's been hanging out on my counter for about 2 weeks now...and then I was thinking I can make a nice healthy breakfast for me and the boy child...
...girl child spent the night at a friends house...
...Beau is still in bed....

when I'm making cake for breakfast I like to make it whole wheat so I feel better about feeding it to my kids...so this is what I do....
ready...major news break here...
when the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups flour...
...I use 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour...
crazy amazing, I know...

blog tangent...as I was standing in my kitchen making cake breakfast I looked up at my cupboard and decided to share with you my beautifully organized life....

and then because I'm real...I decided I'd show you the other side of the same life...

blog tangent over...

and here is the recipe for the veggie oatmeal otherwise know as Oatmeal Zucc Coffee Cake....

Oatmeal Zucc Coffee Cake
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/4 c. oatmeal
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/4 c. dairy sour cream
2 c. shredded zucchini
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla


crumb topping
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. oatmeal
1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. softened butter
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 9 x 13 inch pan. Combine all coffeecake ingredients at low speed. Put in pan.

Mix topping ingredients minus the pecans until crumbly. Sprinkle 1/2 of crumbs over 1/2 of cake...mix pecans into rest of crumb topping and sprinkle over rest of cake.
(my family doesn't appreciate the gift of nuts in desserts breakfast foods)

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cut into squares. Serve warm with coffee...or milk