ChambersMade

sign

2012-01-29T15:42:00.000-08:00

a sign that you may force your children to watch nerd tv...

2 weeks ago Saturday...
scene: mom in living room folding clothes and watching American Pickers*

boy child enters scene & sits on couch
boy child-"what'cha watching?"
mom-"American Pickers"
boy child-"YES, that is my favorite grown up show!"

this Sunday afternoon...
scene: boy and girl child sitting on couch playing their DSI's
boy child-"hey did you know one of the American Pickers needed to get glasses?"
girl child-"really, which one?"
boy child-"the tall skinny one, he needed it to see the junk they pick better!"

*important blog note-American Pickers is an educational show on the history channel this is not one of moms 'teen porn' shows talked about in past posts...
**American Pickers is available for streaming on Netflix
I was not compensated in anyway by American Pickers, Antique Archaeology, or the History Channel for this post

confessions

2012-01-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

*I heart yarn
....like really really love the stuff

*I try to justify it by saying things like I can decorate with it

....bowls of yarn are totally.100%.home decor....

*I start projects that I don't finish
...and usually know going into it that I'm NEVER going to finish the project...
...but if I can buy more yarn for my 'project'....well yeah...I have a problem

*I watch horrible tv shows...
....Beau calls my shows 'teen porn'...
...I might be addicted to 'the secret life of an american teenager'
that is a horrible show...is this supposed to make teens not want to have babies in high school...it almost makes me want to go back to high school and have a baby...almost!!!
....I also recently discovered 'switched at birth'...~~good~~ horrible teen porn stuff

*last night I discovered 'sister wives' on netflix

....I may or may not have watched the entire first season in one sitting!
....but I was working on an above mentioned yarn project so it was fine!

special blog notes...
*children are rarely harmed in my yarn obsession...unless making them behave in the yarn aisle without snacks is considered harmful.
*also children are never allowed to watch ~~my teen porn~~ 'mommy's shows' with me.

toothless

2012-01-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

boy child lost a tooth last night...
...no literally...
HE LOST HIS TOOTH

we're sitting at dinner talking about loose teeth
...both boy and girl child have multiple loose teeth right now...

boy child had dad feel all 3 of this loose teeth...
girl child wanted to have dad feel her loose teeth but then chickened out
...dinner continues...
boy child is eating a chicken leg...
gets some grisly grossness in his mouth and I tell him to go spit it out...
...dinner continues...

dinner is wrapping up...
boy child and I both clear our plates
girl child and dad are still at table...

boy child says, 'I lost my tooth'...
which is sort of a joke he does because his baby teeth are teeny tiny and he has gaps so sometimes it can look like there is a tooth missing when really its just his tiny teeth in his big ol mouth!

we all laugh...
then, 'No, really I just lost my tooth!'
dad...'Where is it?'
boy...'I don't know, I LOST my tooth!'
mom...'when did it fall out?'
boy...'I don't know I LOST it!'

big ol' gap...top tooth lost a few weeks ago
& then bottom one last night

family searches the table, his mouth, the floor
mom is now searching the trash thinking he spit it out with the grisly grossness
or threw it away with his dinner plate
(yes we were eating on paper plates...we're fancy like that!)

SHEESH...no tooth...
now dad is trying to remember if the tooth was actually in his mouth when he was feeling all the loose teeth...
he can't remember...

the boy and girl child were playing outside for a few hours before dinner...
...playing dragons and unicorns can totally make a tooth fall out, dragons loose their teeth all the time, so much so that they don't even KNOW WHEN THEY HAVE LOST ONE!!!!

I walk back over for a third look-see thru the trash...
....maybe I can find a piece of grisly grossness that can pass as his tooth and he'll never know
I really...
REALLY....to the tenth power REALLY!
don't want to try to find a tooth outside in the yard...at night...when it's cold....

then I step on something...
yep, a little teeny tiny tooth was just right there on the floor...

end of story...
nope...
that crazy disapearing tooth did a disapearing act on the tooth fairy also...

boy child all tucked snuggly into bed with tooth fairy box tucked all sunggly under his pillow

tooth fairy box from Michaels $1...
boy child opted to keep it unpainted

tooth fairy does the 'exchange'...
only she can't find the tooth...it's not in the box...
...she takes the box out from under the pillow
....her stealthiness usually allows her to make the exchange without removing the box from under the pillow...
she's almost a ninja!
STILL NO TOOTH
that poor little fairy was now searching all over for a teeny tiny little tooth...
NADA...

ninja tooth fairy leaves the scene before she looses her ninja'ness...

mom wakes up boy child for school...
boy child finds $ from tooth fairy...
boy child gets dressed...throws pj's on bed...pillow had fallen off bed throws that back on bed...
mom walks into room and sees a teeny tiny little tooth resting so sweetly on the edge of boy child's bed...

do you see the teeny tiny little tooth?

I think we may have a ninja tooth!

lovely

2012-01-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

...just lovely....
simply wonderful...

I have dinner in the crock pot
waiting for my Beau to get home from work

the kids have finished their homework
girl child is getting her math
& the boy child finished his first 'chapter' book

and they remembered something...
...something just amazing...
they have a backyard...
and they have been playing out there for the past hour...
playing unicorn and dragons
with walkie-talkie's and 'disguise glasses'
(not sure how that works)

I have all the ingredients for a cake ready to bake
....when the girl child gets in from playing we will put it together....

and rather than spend my time on facebook or pintrest or in blogland
....gasp I know...there really is a life outside of the computer...
I have been crocheting my lovely afternoon away.....

Them

2012-01-22T12:49:00.000-08:00

I'm fighting a war...

a war against...

them

this is my life right now...

'kill one and two take it's place'

they've been found in the living room

we don't eat in the living room

the master bedroom

no eating there

the office

occasional eating there

the bathroom

the opposite of eating there

the ~~dining room~~ eat-in-kitchen floor and wall

yes we eat in there...

and yes there was applesauce on the wall, no comment

the entry way

no eating

the hallway

no eating

the laundry room/garage/clothes hamper...icky...

no eating

the linen closet

seriously...GIVE ME A BREAK!

this means WAR...

I'm armed with the best I could find

and I'm given' them all I got...

I really can't take much more of this...

I'm going to end up with PTSD....

every little tickle on my skin and I flinch

oh...and bonus...

home with a sick girl...

so ants and sick kid and rain equals one stir crazy mom!

silver lining...my linen closet got the clean-out-purge-organization it needed!

word

2012-01-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

okay, so I'm pretty sure the whole

pick-a-word-for-your-year thing started last year (2011)

I didn't pick one last year...

wasn't going to pick one this year...

trying to get a pic of the kids
dressed for their Christmas concert @ church

but this pesky word just keeps popping into my head and heart

it stared back in early December

I kept hearing this word

softly hearing it whispered in my heart

the girl and I bought matching purple flats
she can wear women's sizes now!

and I decided ...

when I kept hearing in into January...

it must be my 2012 word...

or maybe it's my word for the 2011-2012 winter season...

maybe it's until our children graduate

maybe it's my lifetime word....

we raked leaves yesterday...middle of January

you may have noticed...all 3 of my readers

joking- I know I have like 7 people that read...

that I haven't been posting/writing a lot of blogs

the reason is my new word...

the girl child has always wanted a yard, with trees and leaves
so we can rake piles of leaves for her to jump into...
yesterday her dream came true...

I spent December enjoying our kids

soaking up the simple cozy memories

of just hanging out

the girl baked her first cake

we did nothing hugely important

no major trips (besides to the in-laws)

no major events took place

Gingerbread House competition 2011...
boys vs girls...in a blind voting the grandparents voted for the boys
so the girls house was consumed and the boys went on display

we spent December just being

lots of down time

lots of reading

lots of cuddling

lots of tv watching

lots of nice hanging out just being family time

and every time I started to write a blog post, I'd get interpreted to just hang out

and this word kept being whispered in my ear

before New Year's resolutions started

before 'what's your 2012 word?' conversations and blogs were being shared

this word kept settling on my heart

in this season of my life...
maybe the next few months
maybe days or even weeks
maybe the whole of 2012
maybe the next few years, or even decades...
the word that I want to...need to...cling to, hold close to my heart and remember is simply
cherish....
cherish my kids
cherish their laughter
cherish their words
cherish my marriage
cherish my family
cherish my God
cherish my health
cherish my friendships (new and old)

and that's that...
oh, and cherish my blog isn't part of that...
so I have some ideas, some blogs I've written in my head
some recipes I want to share
some crafts I want to finish and blog about
but if sitting down to write that blog takes time away from cherishing any of the above listed items it will probably go unwritten...

thanks for understanding....

lettered cottage linky party

professional pictures

2012-01-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

it's always a great day when you get professional pictures taken
decided to leave the family out of these shots and make them all about me...
yep, I scheduled my very own photo shoot...

it's a lovely little place
maybe you've heard of them,
I've heard talk that they are very popular and hard to get an appointment with

well gotta run,
California DMV is waiting for me!

oh designer Christmas tree

2011-12-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

oh Christmas tree...
how I love your branches...
your branches filled with memories and fun...
branches filled with perfectly-imperfect creations and ornaments created and chosen by our children

Norman, our Christmas tree this year

Christmas is about family
about children
and memories
and warm fuzzy feelings
and joy, love, peace...
and a perfect babe born in a stable...

my biggest Christmas pet peeve is the need to have the perfect Christmas
the perfect house lights
don't get me wrong...I LOVE house lights
the perfect door wreath
I love me a pretty wreath...but it doesn't have to be $75
the perfect plate of goodies to deliver to the neighbor
let the kids help with the goodies,
the perfect family Christmas photo/card
I love a great Christmas card, but does it represent YOUR family
and the worst of all...
the designer Christmas tree...
you know the one...
the house...
the family...
that has the designer tree...
the tree that is Perfect...
not an ornament out of place,
not a light or twinkle not where it's supposed to be...
and not one perfectly imperfect handmade kids ornament on it...

boy child's penguin-circa 2009

the families with these perfect trees talk about how 'special' the kids are because they get their own tree...
in their room...
with THEIR ornaments on it...

girl child's kindergarten present to us, 2006

I've never talked to any of these kids,
not sure how they turn out as adults,
but I can't imagine growing up in a house where the macaroni wreath with my toothless 1st grade smile ornament wasn't 'allowed' to hang on my mom's perfect tree...where the special weird snowman ornament 'Uncle Randy' gave me had to hang on a different tree out of sight from the perfect tree in the living room....

How has the beauty of Christmas gone from the perfection of a babe born in a barn to a what-ever-the-color/theme-of-the-season-is-perfect-kid-free Christmas tree?

I find it ironic and sad that our Savior was also not good enough to be the main attraction on the first Christmas...that he wasn't born in the 5 star inn with the newest nursery theme decorating his nursery...

boy child's ornament 2010-so.very.random!

I think our Christmas trees should be filled with kids...
with their uniquely handcrafted works of art
their hand selected ornaments
their love
these all point to the perfectly imperfectness of the first Christmas.
Christmas was never meant to be 'perfect'
we can't be perfect...
perfect was born for us on the first Christmas morning,
born to free us from the burden of being perfect

lollipop-boy child 2008
Popsicle nativity-girl child 2006

and that is my little Christmas soap box...let your kids hang their uniquely crafted artwork on your Christmas tree...show them that they are good enough for your tree, they don't need to be perfect to fit into your Christmas memories!

Seriously, what is more important, your designer Christmas tree or the heart of your child that feels loved year after year when they get to hang their hand crafted, uniquely picked out, cherished ornaments on the family tree!

boy child 2008

wasn't the meaning of that first Christmas so obvious?
that Christmas is for all children
for the imperfect of us all
for family
for love, peace, joy

both girl child's all pink heart painted at 7,
'Jesus loves me' given to us by a church that was
praying for her when she was in the NICU

I mourn the day when our grown children claim all their weird/unique/precious ornaments that they have created and collected over the years leaving our tree free from their memories, from their perfectly-imperfectness.

Merry Christmas

just because

2011-12-14T06:05:00.000-08:00

let me introduce you to a new friend of mine

Marcel...he (maybe she, I'm not sure) cracks me up

tell me you're not laughing...or at least smiling
'I have shoes and a face and I like that about myself'...

and take 2

hope you enjoy your day...

if the shoe fits

2011-12-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

...or sock...
and it's more like if the sock DOESN'T fit....

I made our (my Beau & mine) Christmas stockings 14 yeas ago...
and I guess the style back then was ugly...
or something close to that!

I've hated our stockings for about 10 years now...
not sure I ever really loved them...
but full on HATED for quite awhile!

this is how attached we were to our stockings...we couldn't even remember from year to year who's was who's...I think we settled on mine being the lighter one and his the darker...but I'm not sure it that was the original assignment!

anyways...off to the fabric store...
and I found some fabric that I LOVED...

oh, so pretty!...just a little Christmas decorating tip...don't get stuck in the Christmas fabric section...
rather than the ol' snowman/Christmas tree/Santa/candy canes/reindeer
decide what color scheme you want and look for fabric in those colors....
I wanted to stick with the green theme because of the tree skirt I made last year...
but also wanted it to not be too green....
I also like texture and corduroy is a favorite of mine...so I found our pattern fabric first and then off to the corduroy to match up colors...
I didn't end up using the polka-dots...might make a table runner with it...we'll see.

I traced our old stockings

adding more curve to the heel because it felt too straight

cut them out...
measured for the cuff

sketched out the toe and heel

printed off initials for them (so we can remember which one belongs to who (or is it whom?)

the 'B' is Lucinda Calligraphy and the 'K' is Victorian LET

cut them out

and then cut the heel, toe and initial out of the contrasting fabric

you will need 2 toe's and 2 heels,
(make sure to label them and draw an arrow for the top of them because they are both slightly football'esq shapes and look a lot alike once they're cut out!)
only one initial is needed unless you want one on both sides
and make sure to cut the initial out backwards (well, if you're cutting out on the wrong side of the fabric!)

the stripe fabric on mine is leftover from our tree skirt last year
the pattern fabric on Beau's is also on our tree skirt but I had to buy more

cut it all out...

sew them all together...

which I'm not quite done with yet...

I like our stockings to have a little more body to them

so I wanted to line them and have them padded.

and I didn't have material for the lining...

so off to the store for more fabric

and then I will finish them up today...

I'll update this post when I have them all done....

...to be continued!

AND
Done!

and because I'm not a real seamstress...
I just play one on my blog
I can in no way walk you through getting from

this

to this

I can tell you there was some seam ripping/frustration/under the breath mutterings that all happened but I'm not sure that is needed to get to the final product...

are pigs flying?

2011-12-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure...but it seems like they might be
or I might have gone crazy...

whatever happened...
the girl child was blissfully happy...
her love language is quality time
and when that quality time is spent doing something she has dreamed of...
well...she's then on cloud nine!

so we listened...
listened and shuddered a bit...
when she said she wanted to go to the mall for her birthday...

really...the mall...you're turning 11...
not 16 or even 13...
but 11...

after talking with a friend
(also a mother of one of girl child's best friends)
about how crazy someone would be to let a group of 11 year old girls celebrate a birthday at the mall...
she suggested maybe not having the party there...
and not letting them roam the mall...
but giving them a scavenger hunt to do at the mall...
thanks Kathy...brilliant idea!

so I asked all the parents of the girls she wanted to invite if they would be comfortable with me taking their girls to the mall...
assuring them that they would be 100% chaperoned by me the entire time
they were all fine with it...
so them I decided to take the plunge and do it...
...and NO...I haven't taken up drinking...

we also continued to let girl child believe that she was too young to have a party at the mall...
so she thought that the party was just going to be girls hanging out and do sleepover type stuff...
I had also asked all the parents to not let their daughters know the plan so it would be a surprise...

after all the girls arrived and the presents had been opened...
I had one more present...

it was the mall scavenger hunt list in a card...

I had made a list
I googled "mall scavenger hunt"
got a lot a different lists...
compiled some of what I liked
printed it off and met a friend at the mall
we went over the list to see what would work...
what wouldn't work
and what I could add to the list
I was able to add lots of Christmas themed stuff to the list because of her birthday being in December...
this would also be a fun activity to do with kids that you're trying to entertain over the long Christmas break...

some stuff they just had to find and check off the list
A video surveillance camera
5 business cards
A store catalog
A discarded receipt
A coupon
An unhappy baby or toddler
A pay phone (make sure your mall has one!)

other things they needed to DO (and I wrote some in code that they had to figure out)
Walk around the playground 3 times (no running)
Say Merry Christmas to 10 different groups of people
Keep your hands soft, get a some free lotion for your hands
Take a 3D peek (Old Navy had a 3D thing set up and handing out 3D glasses)
Get a small piece of wrapping paper for free
Eat for free at the Farm...

some things they needed pictures of them doing
A team member posing with a mannequin – both posing the same
Your team all wearing sunglasses
Your team saluting people as they exit Old Navy
A picture of the entire team in front of 5 different Christmas trees
Entire team modeling a feather boas or scarves
Entire team in hats
1 team member modeling a pair of 5 inch heels
1 team member kissing a mannequin on the cheek
Every team member needs a picture with an animal, and the animal must start with one of their initials.

some trivia questions or things they needed to count or keep track of
How many stalls are in the food court ladies restroom?
What does it cost to add bacon to your 6” sub at Subway?
How many couches are there in front of Macy’s?
How much does it cost to ‘live in a fairy-tale’?
How many candy vending machines are there?
How many restaurants are in the food court?
How much does it cost to wrap present 5 presents?
How many Christmas trees have a star on top?

and then the things that would cost them money...(their favorite part!)
Using ONLY $1.25 purchase a dozen of something from the food court (1 dozen for the entire team...not a dozen for each team member); sit and eat your purchase.
All team members need to make a wish in the fountain-you can’t toss more than $0.50worth of coins, total for the entire team
All team members must purchase a different scented hand sanitizer none of them costing more than $1.50
I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore...take a trip in a Hurricane
Cheese...squeeze in for a photo booth shoot.
Buy 1 package for your entire team a set of 5 lip gloss or chap sticks with animals on them, spend no more than $9

Buy a card of earrings with at least 6 sets of earrings costing no more than $10

if they found something for less they could put that $ towards something else on their list...

the lip gloss they got for $7 so they were able to spend extra on the earrings and the hand sanitizer they found on sale ($1) so I let them buy the little carrier things for the sanitizers for $0.50...making them $1.50 total...

They all got to keep their hand sanitizers and carrier things...

and then the lip gloss and earrings we came home and drew numbers, #1 chose her favorite lip gloss...then #2...and so on...then #5 had first choice on the earrings...they ended up with a card of earrings with 9 sets...and 5 girls...so the birthday girl (she got 3 gift cards for jewelry for the birthday) only took one pair

the girls had a blast...

we only had 5 girls...

that was the girl child's choice, but it turned out great because then I could drive them all

and also having a small group I just had them all stay together, no teams also meant the birthday girl got to be with all her friends and didn't have to choose...no drama!

and then bonus...the 'picture'part of the hunt has all the girls for great thank you cards latter!

the only thing I would change is NO photo booth...

it was WAY to small,

it cost $5...

for shots of chins and foreheads...

and this is the only thing that caused any girl 'issues'...

a few came out of the booth crying...sheesh...it's just a photo booth...

and then we came home for some birthday cake...

the cake is a bag with presents falling out...

fun times...Happy Birthday Girl!

What a Joy!

2011-12-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

our sweet precious baby girl is 11 years old today...
I'm thinking that might officially be a 'tween'...
eek....
and she doesn't know it but we are surprising her with
yikes...
a.party.at.the.mall...
yes I know...I might be crazy...
but it will be 100% chaperoned by ME
(yeah, I know, not cool mom! I know)
and there is only be 5 tween girls
and they will have a 'plan'...
it's going to be a scavenger hunt at the mall...
so no free roaming tweens on my watch!

here is my prayer for our baby girl today....
adapted from Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched her and known her.You know when she sits down and when she wakes up; you discern her thoughts from far away. You search out her path and her lying down, and You know all her ways. Even before a word is on her tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You protect her, You are behind and before her, and your hand is upon her. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. Where can she go from your spirit? Or where can she flee from your presence? If she ascends to heaven, you are there; if she makes her bed, you are there. If she takes the winds of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead her, and your right hand shall hold her fast. If she says, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. It was You who formed her inward parts; you knit her together in my womb. I praise you, for she is fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. Her frame was not hidden from you, when she was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld her unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for her, when none of them as yet existed.... Search her, O God, and know her heart; test her and know her thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in her, and lead her in the way everlasting.

Yes, the LORD has done amazing things for us! What joy!'
Psalm 126:3...Madison's Miracle Verse...
What a Joy is right...you are a sweet treasure from God and he has wonderful plans for your life!

Dirty Santa...

2011-11-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

they are in awe of how big dirty santa is

that's our new tradition...

since target went and closed their garden section...

taking our Christmas tradition and spitting on it!

girl child trying to pop off boy child's head

we were forced last year to find a new Christmas tree getting tradition...

getting our tree at the 'dirty santa' tree lot

their faces were over the top cheese in this pic...
just give me a nice simply smile...please

just to clarify...

we've named him dirty santa...

that's not the actual name of the place....

santa just looks like he could use some oxi clean...

a good long soak in the stuff...

but I get it...

year after year of being out in the nasty elements

and your whites aren't looking so white anymore!

i will love him and squeeze him and call him george

the kids could hardly contain themselves...
we never get a tree this early...
we always wait until after the girl child's birthday...(Dec 2nd)
I never wanted Christmas to crowd her birthday,
making her birthday not as special or something like that...
last year she wanted to know why we waited until after her birthday to get a tree
I explained my reasons...
she disagreed...
having a tree up for her birthday would make it seem more special...
only Dec babies get the opportunity for a Christmas tree up on their birthdays...
well played girl child...
so this year...
lights up...tree up
house decorated for Christmas...
all before December even starts...
I think I'm going to like this new tradition...

this is how I wanted them to pose in front of dirty santa...
but they just couldn't get their acts together and contain themselves for one nice dirty santa shot

dirty santa is a nice tree lot...
mr. tree man...
who thought I was weird when I asked if I could take a picture...
or maybe he just wasn't 'speaking the same english as us'
(boy child's suggestion....
he did seem more native to south of the border...)
anyways...

mr. tree man was very nice and friendly...
talked to me about his grandkids...
how he likes to sell trees because it makes kids and families happy...

he told me how nice and behaved boy and girl child were...
guess he wasn't hearing me ~~yell at~~ remind them to stop being crazy

and extra bonus...our tree came with a name...
a name at no extra cost...
in fact I think the name made it cheaper!...

boy child wanted to sit next to Norman on the way home...keep him safe...

Beau liked the price so much that he was okay with us keeping Norman's name tag on him....

what's your Christmas tree getting tradition?

the bird soup

2011-11-26T09:54:00.000-08:00

all the work....

which I LOVE....

that goes into the the Thanksgiving meal

and one of my favorite parts....

my own personal holiday tradition

....the day after soup!

the recipe in a nut shell

Bird Soup

1 turkey carcass or a a few of the larger bones

lots of water

you can skip the bone boiling stage if that grosses you out and just opt for chicken broth

2 lb bag of carrots, peeled and chopped

entire bunch of celery ( washed and chopped, don't throw out those celery leaves...they have amazing flavor to add to any soup!)

1/2-1 whole chopped onion

any other veggies you want; corn, green beans, broccoli, peas (save the peas till the end), potatoes, brussel sprouts, etc....

a 'dollop' or 2 of gravy

2 scoops or 7 of mashed potatoes

bay leaf

salt and pepper

rice or noodles (optional)

yep, I'm a bone boiler...

we save the turkey carcass (could there be a grosser word?)

and I boil it for hours the next day...

just water

and bones

and whatever meat the ~~vultures~~ family didn't pick off

all go into a pot

bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 1 hour, but 5-6 is great! just keep adding water when it starts to get low.

then the hour before you're ready to eat, grab another large pot, and put your colander/strainer in the top, pour the boney water through catching all the wonderful broth in the bottom pot,

now return the broth to the stove and add whatever veggies you want (if you have some leftover from a veggie platter that's wonderful to use), I usually put in the 'soup trinity' (carrots, celery, & onions), then add some turkey...lots and lots of turkey (the small stuff that isn't good for sandwiches)... a few dollops of the leftover gravy helps make the soup creamy, leftover mashed potatoes are great (I like to leave the potatoes out and then heat a scoop up in the microwave and scoop the soup over the top of the spuds in the bowl...yummy!)...toss in some salt and pepper to taste and a bay leaf or 2...

if you want rice in the soup toss in a handful about 20 minutes left in the hour, if you prefer noodles toss them in the last 10 minutes....

happy bird soup!

other leftover turkey ideas

turkey salad (like chicken salad...but with turkey...so yummy with cranberry sauce)

turkey pot pie

turkey tortellini salad

turkey enchiladas

creamy turkey spinach & pasta

what do you do with your turkey leftovers?

give thanks

2011-11-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful for so much...
I didn't jump on the whole facebook thankful challenge thing...
never have...
I not sure why,
maybe it seemed insincere for me,
although I know plenty of people that are doing it and they are 100% sincere in their thanks...

I am thankful,
I don't want you to think I'm not,
maybe I felt that facebook was too impersonal...
like I was posting my diary for all to read...
...so, then why would I post it on my blog...
...because it is MY blog and it's more like my online journal...
and I may never actually publish this post, we'll see!

I'm thankful for my parents that raised me in a Christian home
thankful for the country that I live in that gives me so many freedoms
....freedom to serve my Lord Jesus Christ
freedom to teach my children and other peoples children about his love
....freedom to learn,
not only allowed to be educated, but making it possible!
seriously, I remind both of my kids that it is such a gift that we live in this country,
education is huge, and it's GIVEN to all of us! no matter our gender or income...

I'm thankful for the people that came into my life at various points sharing with me God's love and truths...

I'm thankful for a college education (that we're still paying off)
thankful for an income to pay off my college education.

I'm thankful for meeting my husband at that college.

thankful for in-laws that raised my husband in a Christian home.

I'm thankful for the Christian couples that were in both of our lives at different times giving us the desire, goal, and tools for building a healthy Christian marriage.

I'm thankful for choices we both made before we ever met that led to pure, loving, wonderful sex life (yep, I went there!).
Thankful for communication with my husband.
Thankful for his love of God, his desire to serve God, his desire to share God's love.
Thankful for his love of our children.

I'm thankful for our children,
healthy, beautiful, loving children...
thankful for the health care, doctors, medicines and God's miracles that have blessed us with two healthy beautiful, loving children....
Thankful for all the people in our children's lives that have shared God's love with them.
thankful that they have a faith in God and a heart to share his love with others.

I'm thankful for a daddy's girl,
that will talk to her daddy about anything...ANYTHING!
thankful that she is all girl...all silly, giggly, sparkly girl!
thankful that she is loving, tender, hopeful, & kind
thankful that she loves God, and wants to serve Him.
thankful that she will not look for a boy to fill the needs that both God and her daddy have filled already!

Thankful for a momma's boy...
a boy that has a heart to share love with the 'women' in his life...
a boy that is tender and loving and gentle...
and rough & tough and funny and amazing...
thankful that he loves God and wants to serve Him.
thankful for a boy that will make an amazing husband
because he will look at his father to see how to love and care for his wife and children.

I'm thankful for the grandparents that our children have...
the legacy of love, marriage, and loving God that they share with our children....

Thankful for so much more...
for the turkey sitting in the kitchen waiting to be stuffed...

Happy Thanksgiving!

the bitter sweet

2011-11-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

cranberry relish....
this is way better than any ol' canned cranberry jelly goop...
...what is that stuff anyways?

this has becoming a new tradition in our family...
it's a recipe from my sister-in-law's grandmother...
...my husband's, brother's wife....
she shared it with us a few years back
(can't remember now, but maybe 5 years ago?)
my mom made the recipe last year
and this is the first year I've made it...
so yummy...and so easy...
actually I should say the kids made it this year...
I was only in the kitchen for parts of the process
....the big knife process
...and the taking pictures process

girl child cutting and coring the apple
boy child peeling the orange
big knife sitting just haphazardly in the mix!

and this recipe is so simple that I actually walked them thru the recipe from the other room while I folded clothes!

lets pretend that I didn't just yell at them to stop yelling at each other

Grandma Grace Carlson's Cranberry Relish
Prepare at least 2-3 days before using so ingredients blend
1 pkg. cranberries
1 orange, peeled and seeded
1 lemon, peeled and seeded
1 apple, cut and cored, no need to peel
1 16 oz. can crushed pineapple
(I had a 20 oz can, that I just measured out 16 oz/approx 2 cups)
1 cup sugar

Wash cranberries in colander. Grind first four ingredients; cranberries, orange, lemon, apple. (Grandma used a meat grinder; food processor is best next option, and probably safer if ~~your leaving the kids unsupervised~~ your letting your kids make the recipe...). Add pineapple, with it's juice, and the sugar to the ground fruit. Let stand 1-2 hours and taste. Add more sugar if needed but keep it fairly tart.
Relish will sweeten some as it stands for a few days.
It will also darken, I was worried, I remembered it being darker, and when the kids were finished it was a pale pink, I think all the air bubbles from the food processing...it darkened up pretty fast, like within an hour...

I doubled the recipe because I think it's a nice gift to 'bottle' up and hand out to friends

lots of cranberry relish
there was one other sm jar already gifted to the piano teacher

if you give as a gift remind them that this needs to be refrigerated....

the Bird

2011-11-22T10:21:00.000-08:00

I've 'hosted' most of the Thanksgiving meals since we've been married...

so, 14 years turkey feast and maybe 5 of them have been elsewhere....

I love it...and really it's not something to stress over...

....or maybe it's because my family (in-laws included)

are low key, roll with the flow, kind of people

...yes, I'm thankful for our families...them are good people!

our menu this year...

the bird

mashed potatoes and gravy

stuffing/dressing

green bean casserole

salad

cranberry relish

rolls & butter

(no yams or sweet potatoes, none in attendance this year really like them)

and then the desserts

pies; dutch apple, pumpkin, & chocolate

molasses cookies

easy peasy...

I wanted to share a family secret recipe to make your Thanksgiving center piece, the bird, low-no stress and perfectly moist and juicy!

ready for it...

it's all about the bag...

the Reynolds, turkey size oven bags...so simple!

make sure the bird is defrosted

take out all the innards

stuff it if you stuff your bird

butter it up

toss a few tablespoons of flour and some salt and pepper into the bag

place the turkey in the bag

if you're feeling festive and creative you can put some rosemary and thyme on the top of the bird or even some lemon or orange slices

close up the bag

poke some holes in the top

and cook it according to the baking table inside the box...

no need for basting throughout the process

no need to add anything to 'brown-up the bird'

you can use a meat thermometer if you'd like

sometimes I have....

sometimes I haven't, GASP!

the bird is always perfect

don't ya just love stock turkey feast photos...?

does anyone really sit down with the bird whole!

I searched the intra-web and not one photo could I find of the feast with the bird all carved up and on the table...so funny!

have a great day...now off to do some 'cooking' with the kids!

and then they ate candy

2011-11-22T08:12:00.000-08:00

they ate a lot of candy
if fact that was their dinner...
let me explain
some history
we have a holiday-candy-rule in our house

all candy from one holiday must be thrown away on the next holiday

this rule became law for us quite a few years ago after New Years when we were looking around the house at all the bowls of candy and junk food left over from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and then the New Years junk as well...

so this is how it looks ... any holiday that might end up with candy is the house, Halloween is an obvious one, gets thrown away on the next 'holiday' we use this term lightly...

think any day that mail might not get delivered or that the kids might have something fun planned at school...

so after Halloween we choose Veterans Day as our throw-away-holiday...

Thanksgiving candy/junk food/misc desserts still hanging around you can choose Dec 7th (National Pearl Harbor Day) or wait until Hanukkah starts (a different day every year, this year it's Dec 21st), we usually go with the girl child's birthday on December 2nd as our throw-away-day
of course Christmas treats get thrown away on New Years
New Years on Martin Luther King Jr Day (one of the Mondays in January)
Valentines candy gets thrown away on Presidents Day
St. Patricks Day Candy (yes we have candy from the leprechauns that reek havoc in our house) gets thrown away on April Fools day...

and those are most of the candy-getting-holidays that we experience in our home and the holidays that we use as our throw-away-days...

we are also a bit on the stingy side when it comes to all that candy and our kids...
they usually haul in a boat load of candy on Halloween (with all the carnivals and the trick-or-treating and school parties), we let them eat a few pieces that night, get one in their lunch box the next day and then usually one for 'dessert' every night until the throw-away-day...
all Halloween candy gets put into one large family candy bowl the day after Halloween...
and then I start throwing away all the gross candy from day one...
I am not a lover of suckers or small hard candy so I'm usually chuckin' those before they hit the candy bowl
and then all the fruity chewy things go next
anything banana flavored is toast -seriously banana flavored candy is NASTY!
cheap chocolate never sees anything but the garage bag

so the above candy rule and some other events listed below led to the crazy parenting choice of candy for dinner....
this year on the Eve of Veterans Day we still had a LOT of candy...
I had not grocery shopped in FOR.EV.ER
I had no desire to create dinner out of thin air
Beau was off to a meeting
there was no school the next day (Veteran's Day)
...
so we called the kids into the kitchen,
showed them the candy bowl...
reminded them of the 'candy rule' and that the next day, Veterans Day, was the throw-away-day for all this candy...
and then told them that we decided they could eat candy for dinner...

their reaction when we told them they could eat candy for dinner

we took the bowl of candy into the living room, dumped it out and told them to eat up...
...sadly, we have no pictures of this, I think we were still in shock that we were letting them eat candy for dinner that we forgot to photograph the event....
we had 2 rules

no fighting
if you get sick, make it to the bathroom,
if mom's not making dinner, she's also not cleaning vomit off carpet!

after dumping the bowl of candy on the floor we turned on a movie and let them veg and eat candy...
around 8 pm they were both saying their were hungry
(parenting note: I had advised them to go with the 'protein' candy, stuff with peanut butter and nuts would fill them up better, they ignored this wise counsel!)
so the wonderful mother that I am, I popped them up some popcorn to fill them up!
we have decided that we MIGHT make this a family tradition for Halloween candy and Veterans Day Eve...the kids were so very shocked...they're still talking about it (and probably will for years to come)...
and surprisingly enough they really didn't eat that much candy, they put a small dent in the candy bowl, and were very willing to help me throw it all away the next morning!

thankful decor

2011-11-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

don't usually decorate for Thanksgiving...
it's more of an Autumnal (is that a word?) theme that gets carried thru...

well this year I added a little more to the Halloween decor....
dino bones & pirates
....so this year after Halloween
I packed away the dino bones & pirates
and pulled out some turkeys...

so Welcome,
come in a take a tour of our humble abode...

...give thanks pendant printed from publisher, I made some triangles and put a text box in the middle of each one and used a different font for each letter...then attached with some hemp cord

my 'mantel' aka piano...

close up...I printed off a definition of the word Thanksgiving...crumpled it up and placed it in a frame..

I also pulled out some scrabble tiles...spelling words I associate with Thanksgiving...
this one is 'pies'

more scrabble Thanksgiving words 'turkey' and 'potatoes'...
'framed' the thankful turkey boy child made at school, took an empty frame, taped some hemp cord across the top and clipped the turkey to it...he wrote what he's thankful for on the tail feathers
family, Jesus, home, friends, God, life...

blog tangent...
he made this in his public school...
this is just one of the reasons my husband and I have made the choice to 'public school' our children...who is to be salt and light to those kids if we take all the Christian kids and home-school or private school them? no need to argue this, I totally get that different kids and different families need different things, but our kids are wonderful kids and we feel that we have/are raising them up the way God would have us and one thing that these kids are called to do is take God's love into their schools!
end of tangent....

the top of the wall divider/record collection...scattered some leaves and gourds, and then filled a bowl with more gourds...easy peasy lemon squeeze...and festive...

and then I decided to jump on the whole 'thankful tree' bandwagon...
grabbed some sticks from outside and placed them in a jug thingy...
made a bowl of leaves...for people to write what they're thankful for...

and hang on the tree...also made a paper turkey and placed in a frame without glass...

one of the boy child's leaves...

and the girl child...yes, that says, 'I'm thankful for Shawn Cassidy'....
and no it's not 1977....but I'd much rather her crush on Shawn Cassidy than Justin Bieber...

and there you have it...the turkey day decor...
now off to shop for all the fixin's ....
yes,
I know it's only 3 days before...
yes,
I understand the stores are crazy...
but I have the smallest fridge known to woman kind (one step up from a dorm fridge!) and I can only hold a turkey in the fridge for a few days...
if I also want to keep food for all the other meals between now and the turkey feast!

have a great Thanksgiving week, day, feast!

menu Nov 12th-Nov 20th

2011-11-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

haven't made a menu in a long long time...

and it's showed in our nightly dinners...

nachos

bean soup

nachos

breakfast burritos

nachos

cereal

nachos

candy & popcorn (oh, yes we did...blog to follow)

I also have a confession to make...

My name is Kiera, and I am a pintrest addict...

a part of my self-induced therapy is to actually 'create' some of my 'pins'

and thus...the pintrest menu was born!

Saturday night: Lasagna Soup

Monday night: Chicken Tikka Masala

Tuesday night: black bean taquitos

Wednesday night: Chicken in Basil Cream

Thursday night: Honey Lime infused Chicken

Friday night: Zuppa Tuscana soup

Saturday night: Phyllo Dough Pizza

there you have it...

now off to grocery shop...something else that I've been failing at since I haven't been making my menus...

did she really just say that

2011-11-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

okay, so we have a girl child.
I've mentioned her a few times...
she's an amazing girl...
loving, compassionate, funny, joyful, quirky...
she's just amazing...

trying to get a picture of Halloween hair and makeup-take 1

and
she's also the opposite of me at 10 (almost 11)...
or at least the 10 (almost 11) year old me I remember myself being)...
she has some boy crushes,

take 2

would hang a picture of her teen idol in her room if we allowed...
her teen idol...no, not Justin Beiber or Zac Efron (sp)
.....no her teen idol is Shawn Cassidy...
yes we know he's 50 something
...she begs us to watch The Hardy Boys on Netflix
has a 1977 Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew book with pictures of Shawn in it that she carries in her backpack...
...and yes, she has his LP
(that's a record for those that aren't ~~cool~~ retro)
....I love that her friends all think she's crazy for 'crushin' on Shawn yet she still does!

'Say Shawn Cassidy' Take 3

anyways...that was a tangent...

so two things happened this weekend to make me realize that she's almost 11...

1st ...I asked her want she wanted to do for her birthday, (4 weeks away...yikes)...
her answer, "Um, can some friends and I just hang out at the mall?"
did she really just say that?!?!?
voice inside my head..."UM NO...and again NO, NO, NO...HECK NO!"
outside voice, "oh, um, I'm pretty sure you can't do that until your like 18..."

don't smile...take 4

2nd thing...she needed a jacket...a few years ago I would have picked one up that was pink and that would have been good...last 2 years while she was with me we'd wonder thru the coat section at Target or WalMart and grab one that she liked...
this year, Friday I'm in WalMart, I take 4 pictures of coats that I think she'll like and send them home to Beau (who's home with the girl child), she chooses one, I buy it and come home...end of story...not likely...
she thinks it's too green, it's too puffy, and not enough pink (I actually mentioned the lack of pink about 5 times on the phone, "really, she's sure that's the one she likes, there is barely any pink")....
so Saturday...off we go with the too green, to puffy and not enough pink coat back to WalMart...
She tries on about 6 coats at WalMart...all too something or other...puffy, shiny, crunchy (she actually said a coat was too crunchy when she moved her arms...)...

okay no biggie, I need to go to Target anyways, we'll grab a coat there...

(did I mention that our fall was only 3 days long and now we are in freezing winter temps...freezing for Redding anyways and the girl NEEDS a coat, this isn't a want thing...)

Target...no go...all to furry, fuzzy, animally, punky, black, puffy and yada yada yada...
and we came home, she had a too small coat from last year that she could wear to church today and then we'll go out again on Sunday...we'll get a coat no biggie...

so my afternoon...
Kohl's ...too weird, too plastic, too bright pink, too furry, too puffy
Old Navy...too straight, too scratchy (the outside not inside), too furry, too puffy
JCPenny's...too shiny, too puffy, too plaid
Sears...too plastic, too puffy, NOT pink
Macy's...she wouldn't even try any of them on here,
she walked around the racks, said, "yeah, NO."
Costco....bingo...we found it...pink, but not too pink, just the right amount of furry, and not puffy at all...
(by the way furry & puffy is a look this year)
but for REAL...8 stores...and I was out of stores...I am so thankful that I remembered Costco...
come on girl we live in Far Northern California...
these are the ONLY stores we have, I have NO other options...

and bingo...the girl is almost 11....
and 100% all pre teen girl!

take 5....love this girl!

A Little Bit of Magic

2011-11-06T05:30:00.000-08:00

okay, so last night I went to a
"welcome to the holidays"
party...
we were asked to bring a holiday snack munchie food
I decided to do the whole caramel corn thing

I found two recipes on my pintrest boards

Addictive Vanilla Caramel Corn source: Oh My Sugar High

Corn Syrup FREE Caramel Corn source: Amy's Food Room

so using the microwave popcorn trick from yesterday I made a boat load of popcorn
and then I combined the two recipes from my two pins...
I wanted a 'healthier' version so I made the corn syrup free version but then really liked the vanilla and sweetened condensed milk version...
so I guess taking out the corn syrup and then adding the sweetened condensed milk sort of makes it not as bad as it could be for you rather than maybe calling it healthy...
...creating...

Creamy Vanilla Salted Caramel Corn
16 cups popped corn, any unpopped kernels discarded, in a very large bowl (or split between two large bowls)
The caramel:
2 cups (1 lb.) brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2-3 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
sea salt (to taste)

1. In a large, microwave safe bowl combine the brown sugar, butter, water and salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring at a minute and a half. Continue cooking about 3 more minutes until mixture starts to thicken.

2. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Put back in microwave for another 2 minutes. Remove from microwave and add baking soda. The caramel will bubble and puff up as you do this -- keep stirring. Working quickly, but carefully (since the caramel is very hot), pour the caramel over the popped corn kernels and stir gently to coat. (I put the popcorn into a large paper bag and shook it all around)...

3. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two cookie sheet pans with parchment paper. Divide the caramel corn between the two pans, salt generously with sea salt (if you want salted caramel...this is optional) and bake for 45-60 minutes (depends on if you want a little chewy or all crunch, 45 for a little chewy, 60 for all crunch!). Stir every 15minutes. Cool briefly, then watch out...you need to pace yourself otherwise you might eat this all in about 7 minutes...

my kids kept saying, 'Wow, mom you really made this?'
guess that means it was good...

You've Got To Be Kidding Me

2011-11-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've heard rumor that you can make microwave popcorn with...
ready for it...
popcorn and a brown paper bag...
I have even pinned it over on my pintrest board

source: Squawkfox

yep...that's all...

so I researched this crazy idea on the intranet...
(ps Beau hates when I call it that)
Beau thought it was all just one of those things that you read online and shouldn't believe...
he laughed at me...

turns out it's totally true...
so, you can believe some things you read on the intranet...
(said that to make him cringe)

this was so easy that I'm not going to give you the tutorial in pic not words...

okay, so I will use some words...use just under 1/3 cup of popcorn

take it out when the popping gets to about 3-5 seconds apart

and bonus...you can reuse the same bag, over and over...

this was 5 popped bags...one bag, 5 times through the microwave...

okay...so, lets break this down...

1. ingredients that you're feeding to yourself and your kids...

White Pop Corn...or Yellow ...depending on what you buy...that's IT...pop corn...

or you can feed them this

and this is Jolly Time Healthy Pop Butter, 94% Fat Free

and you can choose to put your own butter and salt (or whatever you like)...

just butter and salt...

no partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Flavors (really, you can't even tell me which ones, just natural?), Annatto for coloring (cuz I like a good color on my popcorn), Soy Lecithin, Egg and Milk (yep, in my popcorn)....

2. One bag put into the recycle or green waste bin (not into a landfill, can you imagine how many microwave bags are in our dumps)

3. Cost $1 on 50 brown bags $1 bag of popcorn...$2 total for who knows how many HUGE bowls of popcorn...

4. Husband finally realizing that you are a genius! Who's laughing now

Meatball.Soup.Yum!

2011-11-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

I have had meatball soup just a few times in my life and it was always some sort of grocery store deli version...
which I've always liked...
and normally grocery store deli soups aren't the greatest...
So that got me to thinking...
if I like the grocery store deli version then how about I take a stab at making a homemade version...

so I searched for a few recipes online ...there are a ton...

source: For the Love of Cooking

and had one in a cookbook here at home...
so in true-to-me fashion...
I made a combo version using ingredients that I had on hand,
making a recipe for the very first time, and not sticking to the recipe...

Hearty Meatball Soup
Meatball recipe*
1 lb lean ground beef
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 egg
1 cloves of garlic, grated or chopped
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
Dried oregano, to taste

Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs together and form small balls, I made them smaller than I would make meatballs, more bite sized. Chill for 30 minutes.

Soup
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sweet yellow onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
2-3 stalks of celery, diced
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp Dried oregano
1 bay leaf
6 cups of beef broth
1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can white kidney beans or garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup pasta of your choice (my choice, orecchiette, the ones shaped like yamaka)
2 cups spinach rinsed and chopped
2 cups of green cabbage, chopped
Parmesan cheese, garnish

Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat, add the meatballs and cook for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned all over. Remove the meatballs to a plate. Cover with foil and set aside.

Turn the stove down to medium low and add butter, onions, carrot, & celery. Cook stirring occasionally for 4-5 minutes, scrapping the meatball goodness off the bottom of the pot. Add the bay leaf, beef broth, tomato paste to the pot, season with oregano, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Cover with a lid and let the soup simmer for 1 hour. Add the meatballs, pasta, beans, spinach and cabbage to the soup, cook until pasta is done (depends on the pasta you use) taste and re-season, if needed. Serve topped with Parmesan and some good crusty bread for dipping.

the family ate this up...it will for sure be on our menu a few more times this winter...
and bonus, we had enough for a few leftover meals this week!

*in a hurry, use frozen meatballs.

I don't mean to scare anyone

2011-10-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

but I figured with Halloween 3 days away it was okay to post this...

you may need to ask small children to turn away...

the picture you're about to see is.

so..

very....

VERY...

disturbing...

If you have nightmares you may not want to scroll down and see...

have you removed all little children from the viewing sight?

okay...

it it just me or is this beyond creepy!

I totally get the pillow pet thing...

totally wish I would have come up with that million dollar idea...
it's a pillow...it's a pet...it's a pillow pet...now give me $20 for one!!!

but really...Dora? creepy!

irony

2011-10-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

one of those things that drives me crazy...

the boy child leaves his shoes in piles around the house, usually with a day or two of dirty socks...
I'm always tripping over that kids shoes...

bigger picture...
OUCH!

wonder where he's learning his shoe-putting-away skills...
yep...all mine...
but if you notice mine aren't in a major traffic area and his are!

so I am totally justified for ~~yelling at~~ reminding him to put his away...
while my pile sits all nice and out of harms way...

I think I will start offering parenting classes soon...

Bluster Busting Beef Stew

2011-10-26T04:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a blustery day....
a good ol' tie down the patio furniture windy day!
and yep, mother-of-the-year...
I checked the weather on Google like every good mother does before her kids pick out their clothes for school...
it 'said' 70...
pretty yellow sun, shiny all bright, no clouds

so I told them to pick out shorts and tee's...
this is where the mother-of-the-year part comes...
I just glanced at Google...didn't really study it...
and I wasn't looking at the weather for Redding...
I was looking at the weather for Kelseyville (where the in-laws live)
Redding did have the pretty sun...
but also the note of '25 mph winds'....

yeah, so um....it didn't feel like 70...poor freezing kids
to redeem my mother-of-the-year award I decided to make a cozy dinner
~~made-in-the-bread-machine~~ 'homemade' bread with soak-your-bread-in-the-broth-stew...

Beef Stew recipes are all over the web...I have 'pinned' a few on pintrest

source Brown Eyed Baker

I looked over a few recipes online and in my own cookbooks...and not wanting to run to the store for anything...this is what I came up with a combo of all the recipes I looked at and what was in my fridge and pantry...

Blustey Day Beef Stew
1-1 1/2 lbs. beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 in. cubes ( I look for it on sale already cubed)
Salt and ground pepper
1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
3-4 stalks of celery chopped, including leaves
1 medium garlic cloves, chopped or grated
3 tablespoons flour
5 cups beef broth, divided (or 5 cups warm water and 5 tsp beef bullion)
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
4 medium potatoes, washed and cut into 1-in. cubes (don't peel...more vitamins)
6-8 carrots (about 1 lb.), peeled and sliced 1/4 in. thick

Dry beef with paper towel and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy-bottomed pot over medium high heat and brown beef with Worcestershire sauce, about 8 min.

Remove beef and add onions, celery, and 1/4 tsp salt and cook, scraping bottom of pan for brown bits until softened (about 5 mins). Add garlic and continue to cook for 30 sec. Stir in the flour and cook until lightly colored (1-2 min.). Add 1 cup of broth and vinegar, scraping the bottom and stiring until thick and flour is dissolved.
Gradually add the remaining beef broth, stirring constantly, scraping up the remaining browned bits on bottom of pan. Add bay leaves and thyme and return to simmer. Add beef, return to simmer, reduce heat to med-low, and cover. Simmer for 25 min.
Add potatoes and carrots, leave uncovered, increase heat to medium and cook for additional 30-45 min

if you like a thicker stew this is when you would add a mixture of 1/4 cup broth and 1 tablespoon flour (stir together before adding to stew, and slow stir into stew...I like brothy stew...so I didn't do this.

Also I ~~HATE~~ dislike peas (the one veggie I don't like, I even like Brussels sprouts....), but you can add a bag of frozen peas at the end, just rinse them in water, drain and put in stew the last 5-10 minutes

Discard bay leaves (or not, we always said the person that ended up with the bay leaf was exempt from dishes...and then it only ever worked for my dad for some reason!), adjust seasoning and serve with warm bread.
..
We had enough left over to bag and freeze

Yea for easy dinner some day next week...or month (I guess next month is next week!)

Red Beans and Rice

2011-10-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

about 2 months ago I was the host for my book club (we take turns hosting)...
and...
depending on the book and the host sometimes there is food served per the genre of the book...
we meet at 7, so usually there is a dessert but it can be a little late for dinner
(well, that's a late dinner for me...)
anyways, we had read the book Five Smooth Stones a book set in the south during the 60's (great book, I highly recommend)...
and the main character in the book was know for his great cooking ability, his specialty being Red Beans and Rice...so I decided to make some for book club, along with corn bread (my recipe is NOT southern but I like it and it's what I made) and a gooey butter cake (recipe to follow soon...)

anyways, the Red Beans and Rice were a hit with the family and the book club...and it will be a staple on our winter menu...the girl child loves it but doesn't like 'sausage' aka kielbasa & the boy child loves it and he doesn't like beans...so she eats his beans and he eats her kielbasa and I figure they are both getting a protein....

Red Beans and Rice
1 (16 ounce) package turkey kielbasa, cut diagonally into 1/4 inch slices
1 onion, chopped
3-4 stalks of celery, chopped including leaves
1 cup sweet peppers* chopped
1 clove garlic chopped or grated
2 (15 ounce) cans canned kidney beans, drained
1+ cups broth (chicken or veggie...or water and bullion)
1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper
rice (I used jasmine rice both times I've made it...we are in love with jasmine rice!)
Start/cook rice (per your rice cooking directions)...
In a large skillet over low heat, cook sausage for 5 minutes. Stir in onion, celery, sweet pepper and garlic; saute until tender. Pour in beans, broth and tomatoes with juice. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Serve over rice.

This is a very easy recipe and all ingredients that I usually have on hand, I've added it to my throw down recipe list!

*I get a big bag of peppers and use them in everything...I like these better than the plain ol' green peppers, sweeter...and bonus the kids like to eat them as a snack after school with ranch...

Sometimes you feel like a dumpling

2011-10-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

One rainy week and I was in soup mode...too bad the 80 degrees and sun came back...
okay, not complaining too much about the weather, I love this fall weather it is the best...but I got soup on the brain and now it's warm again...

found this recipe last week when I wanted chicken and dumplings, and since I've only ever made biscuit type dumplings I decided to give it a try. Everyone like them, I LOVED them, and ate it for lunch for the rest of the week!...but the rest of family voted that dumplings were meant to be in the form of biscuit not cornbread...they did like it just they want 'regular' dumplings next time...we'll see!

Chicken & Cheesy Cornbread Dumplin's
1 Tbs butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
2-3 stalks of celery
3 cups chicken broth
2-4 carrots peeled and sliced
1 cup frozen corn or peas
2 tsp fresh basil or 1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
dash of garlic powder
dash of pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
2 + cups cooked chicken, cubed
1 recipe cornmeal dumplings (follows)

In large saucepan saute butter, onion and celery until tender, add chicken broth, carrots and corn/peas and dried basil (add the fresh basil later if using), salt, garlic powder and pepper. Bring to boil.

In small bowl mix together milk and flour. Stir into veggie mixture, stir in chicken. Cook and stir until thicked and bubbly, stir in fresh basil if using.

Meanwhile make cornmeal dumplings.

Drop dumpling dough by rounded tablespoon into bubbling stew, about 8. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10-12 minutes.

Cheesy Cornmeal Dumplin's
1/2 cup flour
1/2-3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp sugar (optional) (original recipe didn't call for sugar, but we are a sweet cornbread family)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
dash of pepper
1 beaten egg
2 Tbl milk
2 Tbl oil

Combine flour, cheese, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, garlic & pepper. Stir in egg, milk and oil with fork until just combined.

enjoy...let me know if you prefer regular biscuit dumplings or cheesy cornbread dumplings...

it's that time of year again

2011-10-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

well, it's trying to be that time of year again...
soup time...we had a week of rainy weather, followed by a beautiful sunny weekend, then a rainy Monday and now a week of sunshine...
but I've got soup on my mind and heart...and had a request from Krystal for some soup recipes...
here is my list of soups that are always on my list...
Easy Cheesy Potato Soup (had this last week with company and made a double batch to enjoy for another whole meal...
Black Bean Soup, this is one that is such a great throw down meal because I usually have everything in my cupboard
Minestrone Soup, great with all the fall veggies
Sweet-n-Sour Beans...more of a chili/stew...but yummy and cozy non-the-less
the Good Ol' Family Chili...the secret family recipe...

and look for new soup recipes over next few weeks, I have 2 to share that we've already had...
Chicken and Cheesy Cornbread Dumplin's..

and Red Beans and Rice

I also have a few on my pintrest board (do you pintrest?) for this coming winter that I hope to make and share

Super-Delicious Zuppa Toscana

Chicken and Tortellini Soup

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Lasagna Soup

Barley-Beef Soup

Chicken & Corn Chowder

French Onion Soup

the list goes on and on...

and then I have the list from my own cookbooks

Meatball Soup

Split Pea Soup

Cheese Chowder

Butternut Squash Soup with Ravioli

White Chili

Cassoulet

and I'll stop now...

look for at least 2 soup recipes within the next week...and then I'll try to post one a week from now until Christmas...

trimmin' the pumpkin tree

2011-10-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

yep, we have a pumpkin & gourd tree out front...

yesterday the kids and I put the finishing touches on the autumn decorations...

I love this time of year...

the pumpkin tree...
we have a dead tree in the back, so I broke some limbs off and placed them into a large glass beverage dispenser that I got for $5 at a yard sale...
and then it chipped and is no longer very good for beverages, but perfect for holding straw, some fake pumpkins and gourds and then the dead sticks...
then we strung some fake small pumpkins and gourds onto the dead limbs using some hemp string.

the front chair with a little fall decor...a small honeysuckle wreath that I made after trimming down our honeysuckle bush, some fake fall foliage, small fake gourds and pumpkins, some bones, and Owlie our owl is perched on the small wreath.

what a minute...did I say bones, yep, bones...
if you have a boy child
(which I highly recommend getting one, they're pretty darn cute)...
you might just have an abundance of fake dinosaur bones floating around the place...
perfect for a little Halloween'ish vibe to the autumn decor
... just scatter some here and there...

Our autumn'ish front door wreath, I just pulled out the green leaves and flowers that I had in it from this summer and put in some autumn'ish foliage

and clipped on a sweet feathered friend...

....the book pages are left over from about a year ago when I decorated the wreath for my book club

took our usually ships that we use for decor in the 'office' and added some pirate flags...

...pirates are fall'ish right?

sure hope so, because here is a little more pirate decorations...

some weird 'Goonies' paraphernalia...

you always know that ~~geeks~~ movie people when they say, "you have the doubloons from Goonies!?"

I'm not even sure what a doubloon is...well, these are I guess...

Beau got these from someone from my youth group reunion that we went to last year...

and then lastly...the piano...my version of a mantel since I don't have a mantel to decorate...

glass thingy full of pears and some fall foliage...a white pumpkin,-dollar store...

some 'spider webs' (used dryer sheets, torn a bit)

some framed pictures of Halloween's past...

& a bust of Lincoln...
bust are kinda creepy & cool all at the same time,
some nice lady gave it to Wilson at a yard sale for free...
I wanted it, and was having Wilson hold it for me, she said, 'oh, he loves it so much he can have it for free'...score...

framed the kids school pictures and added some spider webs, pirate patches and some old skeleton keys are hanging on the boy child's frame...

and that's it, that's our autumn'ish/Halloween decor...
we will add carved pumpkins in a few weeks, but they only last for so long so we usually do it the weekend before Halloween....

take home lessons from this blog...
1. if you see something small and AWESOME at a yard sale, have your cute child walk around carrying it, maybe even stroking it with love, make sure the person in charge of the yard sale notices the love that your child obviously has for the object and get said object for FREE....
2. oh, and decorating trees isn't just for Christmas....

Warning

2011-10-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to warn you about something

VERY SERIOUS

yes...that's right...
my van is protected by a passive security system...
not sure what this is..
the door locks maybe..
the fact that the windows are rolled up... possibly...
at least it's not a passive aggressive security system...
that would just be annoying!

it might be genetic...

2011-09-26T20:26:00.001-07:00

...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...

2011-09-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

...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

2011-09-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

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

last day of summer!

2011-08-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

YIKES
it's my the kids last day of summer

it went too fast...

too many things that we wanted to do didn't happen...

so I am fully embracing this last day of summer...

this may or may not have been my breakfast...

and I'm not sure if the kids polished these off last night at midnight or this morning....

not sure what was happening here....
I may or may not have been reading
and ~~ignoring the kids~~ letting the kids explore their creativity...

it's the last day of summer so don't judge me for my brunch...

or my lunch...

it's the LAST day of summer....
tomorrow it's back to alarm clocks...
~~thrown together~~ lovingly packed lunches...
~~finger combing hair in the car drop of lane~~
clean and tangle free hair...
~~dreaded hours of homework~~
precious on-one-one mommy and kid time

it's the last day of summer...
the kids are trading in their flip flops for 'close-toe' shoes...
their swimsuits and towels for backpacks and folders

it's the last day of summer for the kids

time to pack up the clone trooper and TMNT costumes....

today is my last day of summer....
I think I need to read some more...

priceless moments

2011-08-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

the kids and I hit the farmers market last Saturday...

Beau was going to the library sale and he likes to wait in line....

and well,

well, the crew that shows up early and waits for the library sale is a very interesting mix of people...

so rather than wait around and people watch

(it is a good group to people watch with, but maybe not with the kids in tow)...

anyways, rather than wait the kids and I walked over to the farmers market...

I wanted some peaches and some honey...

got both, and the peaches were gone by Sunday afternoon...

yeah, I know, I take amazing pictures...don't be jealous!

so back to the farmers market for us on Tuesday morning...
I ~~wanted~~ needed to make a peach cobbler...
arrived at the market around 11 and the peaches were almost all gone, I asked for 10 lbs because some ladies at the office wanted some too...and some for eating...
it was the last pickin's of the day and she sold me her last 10 lbs,
& they were all seconds and needed to be used that day...
took all 10 lbs to the office
only got rid of maybe 2.5 of the 10 lbs
& I was left with just less than 8 lbs of peaches...
that needed to be uses asap...
so I set to work peeling those little guys...
and before I knew it I had a helper...
the girl child came it,
donned her apron
found a knife
and asked me how she could help...

before I knew it she had taken over all the peaches and I had moved onto making the 'cobbler' part...

it was great working together with my girl..

she peeling and slicing peaches, me mixing up the cobbler...

talking about girl stuff....

laughing...

and then cleaning up the mess of peach juice all over the floor and counters...

and then enjoying the girls first cobbler...

this was only 1 of the 2 cobblers we ended up with, the other went to our neighbors...

it was a bubbling, golden bit of heaven...

I love a good cobbler....

but a girls' first cobbler...that's just priceless...

Whole Wheat Peach Cobbler

peaches

6-8 peaches-peeled and sliced

1/2-1 cup sugar

(depending on the sweetness of the peaches, you may be able to cut this down to 1/4 cup)

2 Tbs cornstarch

2 tsp vanilla

cobbler

1 1/2cups whole wheat flour (or regular if you want)

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

pre-heat oven to 350

place peaches, 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla into large saucepan, stir over med heat until mixture begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

while peaches are cooking mix up cobbler,

mix all dry ingredients together, and then cut in butter. once mixture is crumbly slowly add in milk.

pour peaches into a greased 13x9 inch pan and then drop spoonfuls of cobbler over top of peaches...

bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes until cobbler is golden and bubbling...

serve warm with vanilla ice cream and or whipped cream...

or for breakfast...

no judgement...

it's whole wheat, oats and peaches...that's a good breakfast...

and well it's better than doughnuts...

check out this amazing recipe book...

"New Recipes for Good Eating"...check out how happy the mom is feeding her kids the doughnuts she just fried in Crisco......

A+wesome

2011-08-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

so the boy child's version of this shirt is done...

I had planned on making the boy version yellow...
like the yellow memo paper...
i heart those yellow pads of paper...

but, um, yeah, he has his own opinion
and he said NO...
never...
not going to wear it if you do it yellow...

so I went white like he ~~demanded~~ requested

seriously mom...

well, I know I'm cute, but really mom...

are you almost done...

pure torture!!!
since it's sort of hard to see all the pictures on my oh, so patient model...
looking at it, the top left (his right side) stars and music notes...
our right his left is an orange guitar with flames and "Rock On" under it
then below the stars and music notes on our left/his right is "A+wesome"
then under the guitar on the right/his left is a rock...he wanted a rock under 'Rock On'...
then under the "A+" on our left/his right is a bike riding up the red line of the 'paper'
and lastly on the right/his left is a homework eating plant with the words 'Math Yum'...

I suggested strongly sketching out all of your images ON a piece of lined paper so you can see how it looks...
and then also using a sewing/fabric/disappearing ink marker to do the sketching onto the shirt before you break out the permanent markers...

i heart art

2011-08-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

my girl is a little nervous about going back to school...
5th grade is making her nervous...
so I made her a little shirt to help calm her down...

I saw this cute shirt on a blog last Friday...

source-The 36th AVENUE

I liked her version of the Old Navy shirt...
but actually liked the ON one better...

Old Navy version...via The 36th AVENUE post

so...I bought the girl a plain white t...
washed and dryed it...
gathered all the materials...

ruler
washable fabric pen (to sketch the lines and doodles before using the sharpies***)
***sharpies***

and have some fun...

I really liked how it turned out...

...but then...then I learned a very painful lesson...
***Sharpies*** aren't as permanent as I once thought...

and yes, I heat set the shirt before it got wet...

I let the girl wear it to church on Sunday and then...
then... the 'popcorn incident of 2011' happened...
and well, popcorn butter...water...and bleeding of sharpies...

***Blog Note***...do not attempt to make this shirt with Sharpies unless you like the bleeding look...
...so now off to the store to buy REAL fabric markers...

wow...they aren't as cheap as Sharpies...and Sharpies aren't cheap!
and I couldn't get a decent package with a good combo of colors...
I really liked the color combo of the first Sharpie shirt I made, but couldn't find that color combo in a single package of fabric markers and I was NOT going to buy two different packages...YIKES...
so anyways, I had to settle on a different color combo...
but this combo won't bleed like the Sharpie version...

hey, you have a birdy on your shoulder...

mom, you said NO pictures of my face...

and the girl is very happy with it also...
now the boy child wants a boy version...off to create!

shooting for the stars

2011-08-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

yesterday I was remembering that a few times in high school and college a few of us would get together and watch a meteor shower in August...

got me thinking...

does that happen every August...

so I got on google and learned, that YES it does...

read some more about it...

it's called the Perseids meteor shower and of all the meteor showers throughout the year it's the 2nd best (the best being Geminids shower in December)....

it does happen every August...

the 'peak' nights for viewing are the 12th & 13th...but we'll have a full moon, making the sky possibly too bright to see very many of them....

1 week on either side of those dates will also work for viewing the meteors...

and the best time to view the meteor's is around midnight....

so the girl child had a friend staying the night last and I told them around 8 that I was going to wake them up at midnight to watch a meteor shower...

the response was lots of jumping and screaming...

and then the questions of what and why...

what was a meteor shower?

what would happen if a meteor landed in our backyard?

why wake them up at midnight?

why can't they just stay up until midnight?

answered all their questions and tucked them into bed...

stayed up until about 11 myself, tried to make it to midnight, but my eyes were just too heavy...

set my alarm...

woke up at midnight...

went outside to check it out before getting the kids up...

and the sky was too bright with the combo of the moon and the city lights...

so I went back to bed, not going to wake up sleeping kids to look at a nothing sky...

all asked me this morning why I didn't wake them up...

now I'm thinking I should have woke them up...

maybe tonight I can convince Beau to pack up the car and drive north a little out of town to see if we can catch a few of those falling stars...

some lessons I learned when shooting for the stars..

1. rather than tell the kids of what 'might' happen surprise them when it DOES happen...

2. IF you tell kids something is going to happen...it's best to follow thru even if it's not as great as you were hoping...

3. I'm way older than I was in high school and college when I would stay up late with friends watching these...

I'll update this post...if/when we try again tonight....

who knew

2011-08-06T22:11:00.000-07:00

we all had one...

we loved the Zelcro close...
we HAD to have one...
we doodled hearts and flowers all over it...
but did you know....
that the Trapper Keeper....
is a 'keeper' for this...

your 'Trapper'....

Yeah...Beau and I...
and when I say Beau and I...I mean Beau...
discovered that a 'Trapper' was a folder...
and that's where the name 'Trapper Keeper' came from...
cuz you KEEP your Trappers there...

were we the ONLY ones that never knew this???

Bag Lady

2011-08-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

or Tote Lady...whatever...

my friend

Mrs. Smith, of The Smith Hotel...

...yep...you read that right...

I'm friends with THE Mrs. Smith...

of The Smith Hotel...

yep...I know her...

we hang some times...

I even... sort-of.. single-handedly...

might...have... possibly...

even taught her daughter how to ride a bike last night...

...or maybe I had nothing to do with it and it was just pure magic...

not really sure...

anyways...back on task...

my friend Mrs. Smith over at The Smith Hotel is having a giveaway...

yep...she is...

and it's this amazing canvas The Smith Hotel tote...

take it to the farmers market

to the pool or beach ...
or dried up water feature in your backyard...no judgement...

or the library....

now that you know you need this...
here's how you can get your very own!!!

All you need to do is be a follower...
of The Smith Hotel...
not ChambersMade...but that'd be nice too...
and leave a comment! ...at The Smith Hotel
...not ChambersMade...but that'd be nice too
Enter a second time if you let your blog followers know!
(leave a comment at The Smith Hotel when you do)
Contest winner will be announced on August 9th!

This tote will also get you 10% off your purchase anytime Mrs. Smith is at a show!
If you don't win this tote now-you can still get one!
They will be available at her booth over at Oregon Street Antique Mall too!

Plus the first 10 customers that purchase $30 or more at The Burlap Harlot Show will receive one FREE...
so don't you fret....
you have lots of ways to get your hands on this pretty little thing...
but the easiest...
and cheapest...
free-est (just made up that word)...
is to go over and become a follower of Mrs. Smith at The Smith Hotel.

now back to reality...
hanging out next to my dried up water feature in my backyard!
.

sleepy

2011-08-02T06:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I dragged myself thru the day...
I was so sleepy...
I couldn't keep my eyes open, yawning all day long...
I had had not 1
not 2
but 3 cups of coffee...

almost had cup number 4 but it was 3 pm and decided that wasn't a good idea...
ended up going to bed at 8:30...
yes, the kids are gone for the week and mom's in bed at 8:30...that's how we party!
since I went to bed at 8:30, I was wide awake at 5:30 this morning,
I stroll out to the kitchen to make the coffee...
and grabbed the coffee out of the freezer...
and just before I pour the beans into the grinder I realize that I had just grabbed the decaf...
the same coffee that I had used yesterday...
....decaf....
today will be better...
I will have regular coffee today and hope that this mom can make it past 8:30!!!

Six years

2011-07-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

our bouncing...~~screaming~~ crying, hungry, I-don't-do-schedules...little boy was born.... six years ago...

our big blue eyes heart breaker

got my big sister wrapped around my little finger...

so cute they'll forget that I don't sleep...

eating machine...

threw all of our concepts of parenting out the window...

little boy...

He's our lover and our fighter...

sisters playmate....

Mom's cuddlier...

Dad's buddy...

God knew I fell in love with his daddy so he gave me another JUST like him

summer check list

2011-07-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

done
family reunion....check
crater lake visit with snow in June...check
2 weeks of swim lessons for girl child...check
4 weeks of swim lessons for boy child...check
taking kids to oldest cemetery in shasta...check
boy child scaring girl child at cemetery...check
hike to whiskeytown falls with the family...check
VBS...check
volleyball 'camp' for girl child...check
6th birthday party for boy child...yes...6th birthday!!!...check

in process
girl child off to 'math camp' aka week at Aunt & Uncle's....check
boy child off to baseball camp with grandpa...check
grown up boy and girl...um that's us...finishing packing up the old house....

to do
six flags with family and friends
kids week at grandparents
one week of relaxation before school starts!!!

maybe's
kayak whiskeytown lake
kayak sacramento river
hike a few more falls
boy child riding sans training wheels followed by a family bike ride

it's Summer

2011-07-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

and I'm NOT on vacation...

it's the opposite of vacation
I'm the resident cruise director...
...or at least that's what I feel like some days...

but it's summer...
and it's still nice to not have an alarm wake me up every morning...
well, with the exception of this week...VBS...Vacation Bible School...at church...
I have been waking without an alarm for 6 days of the week...
love waking up on my own..
.even if it's early, because I'm an early bird, I still like that my body is in control of the wake up time and not an alarm...

I love letting my kids stay up late without a bed time...
letting the girl child read until she falls asleep...
letting them stay in their jammies...
aka undies...
until noon....

but because it's summer...
and I'm NOT on vacation...
it's almost the opposite of vacation...
because...
well, going blog public...I'm that mean mom...
the mom with math sheets that she got from the teacher on the last day of school...
the mom that MAKES her kids journal about stuff during the summer...
the mom that insists on piano practicing...
swim lessons...
drawing time...
quiet time...
reading time
the mom that makes her kids sort their dirty laundry, fold and put away their clean laundry...
the mom that makes her kids clean toilets and dust the living room
make their beds in the morning
fill and empty the dishwasher...
and limited...VERY limited screen time...

well, because I am that mean mom...I have limited screen time myself...
and having limited screen time is a good thing for myself...
a good thing for my kids...
and GREAT thing for my family...
but it means that my blog IS on vacation...

I will pop in a few times...but don't be sad for me not being on vacation...
I really do love summer with my kids...
I love ~~making~~ having them do things that they wouldn't choose to do...
having them get creative...
~~forcing~~ encouraging them to play together...

I am truely blessed by my children...don't get me wrong...they drive me crazy just like any other self respecting mother...
but I am blessed...
our kids are almost 5 years apart and different genders (hence the girl child/boy child thing)...
this was something that really bothered me when we had boy child...I thought they were going to be too far apart and by being different genders they would NEVER get along...have nothing in common...and just not be friends...
this is not the case, my kids love the same things, laugh at the same things...annoy us the same way...
they get along amazingly well for the age and gender difference...

wow, sorry tangent over...
and I'm out...
because it's summer...and I'm NOT on vacation!
the ~~monsters~~ kids are asking for food!

True Independence Day

2011-07-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

I am an all American Girl that loves a good 4th of July parade, BBQ and fireworks show...

I get teary when I hear the Star Spangle Banner and will actually cry if I happen to see a service man or woman in uniform when I hear the National Anthem.

I am proud to be an American...

but I am teary on this Independence Day for another reason

today I am celebrating a different freedom...

today our 5 year old son accepted Jesus into his heart...

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," these are words that wars have been fought over...and today, because of those wars, our children have the opportunity to grow up in a country that allows them to worship God and live a life that God has called them to.

'for freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.' Galatians 5:1

how to strip with a chair

2011-07-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

and make money...
okay, maybe not MAKE money, but don't spend money...

I had this chair on our front porch at the money pit house for over 2 years...I got it for FREE at yard sale...
my goal when we moved was
1. to NOT have it sit in our entry for another 2 years and look shabby...and it was shabby, NOT shabby chic!
2. re-do it without spending any money...use only what I had on hand...

step 1...take pictures of free chair that's been sitting on your front porch for 2+ years

step 2...strip all the paint off*...this is harder than it looks, especially since the paint seemed to be just falling right off...basically this chair was a tease!

step 3...take pictures of your cute toes

step 4...strip some more

step 5...spray paint black....

step 6...realize that one can of black spray paint isn't enough...and since the goal is to do this for FREE and you only had one can...find another color of paint that you like...and have...and start brushing away...

step 7...glue all back together and take cute pictures in your back yard with yellow flowers...that may or may not need to be mowed away!

step 8...put in entry all finished and FREE with other FREE decorations...

'Chambers' sign...I just made a few weeks ago...really enjoying it...

jazz playing ant plant holder...from friends as a house warming gift

black rocks from our side yard...

and not that I didn't have many perfect weather days to do this project...
I love the fact that I choose today when it was 197 degrees outside...
okay, so it's only 101...but still genius me...choosing to strip on a very hot day!

*I would like to thank all the people that helped in the stripping process...
my good friend Rayna and her husband Robert started the stripping with me a little over a week ago...
my kids both spent some time helping...
and last but not least, I could not have done with stripping without the help of my husband!
He appreciates when I put my heart into stripping!

I'm linking up with

campout FAIL

2011-07-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

yep, lame-O mom...

campout with the kids in the back yard...

tent set up...check

sleeping bags and pillows...check

game of Uno by lantern....Check

all crash and sleep amazing...check...until 11:30

11:30 crazy wind wakes up crazy paranoid mom...check

crazy paranoid mom lays in tent for an hour listening to crazy wind and imagining crazy drugged out teenagers sneaking through our backyard to steal pot from our neighbors garden...

note...I have no idea if our neighbors are growing pot...but last night at midnight I was totally 100% positive that they had a legit pot garden growing, minus electric fence and man-eating dogs...making it possible for the crazy drugged out teenagers to sneak through OUR backyard hop the fence and steal all their pot...

yeah...so crazy paranoid mom, wakes up kids at midnight-thirty and packs them into the safety of their own beds...oh, and lays in bed hearing the police chopper hovering over our backyard capturing the crazy drugged out teenagers....

crazy paranoid moms finally falls asleep and wakes up to a totally undisturbed tent site in our backyard...
yeah, imagine that...
not one crazy drugged out teenager...
no pot garden in our neighbors backyard....
no police helicopter raid in our backyard....

hmmmm.... example 1007 why I don't watch scary movies...

...and just so you know...kids know nothing about how crazy and paranoid their mom is...

I told them the wind was too much and keeping me awake...

it's that time

2011-06-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

had to search for the perfect spot....in the jungle...

forge the river and waterfall to find the perfect place for the tent.

it wore the kids out finding the perfect place...

so happy that we have a back yard so the kids can now experience a normal childhood rite of passage...camping in your own back yard...

Cheese

2011-06-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

13 years and I still can't take a decent picture...well maybe now I can blame it on the photographers...

and this was the place that I was going to post some of our really cheesy wedding photos when we learned that even with a professional I have a hard time taking pictures...but I have NO idea where I have packed or unpacked our wedding album!

so instead...

getting ready to head out for our anniversary date and we asked the kids if they could take a picture of us...and this is what we got!

boy child's attempts

not too bad, a little prom pose and I'm slouching...but overall not too bad!

girl child's attempt

this was probably one of my best picture smiles E.V.E.R...and it's blurry!

totally had my leg lifted in the 'kiss' pose and she cut it off!

not too bad...probably not going to frame it, but we have taken much worse...and by 'we' I mean me!

and just to be safe, we settle for our standard, take our own photo of my

'kiss-him-on-the-cheek-so-no-one-can-tell-that-I-really-can't-fake-a-smile-pose!'

Happy 13 Years (yesterday) to my Beau!

Summer Menu II

2011-06-20T07:59:00.000-07:00

so the heat is here....
and the grill is here...

so I can now make a true summer menu!

this is the plan....
grill, grill, grill...
and a few salads!

looks something like this...
Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs
Grilled Steak Salad
Hamburgers
Grilled Chicken Salad
Orange Marinated Pork Tenderloin
Hamburgers
Lemon Pepper Grilled Chicken with Alfredo Pasta
Hamburgers
Sour Cream Marinated Grilled Chicken
Grilled Chicken Burgers/Sandwiches

and now off to shop...

The Power of Women

2011-06-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

okay, yep, I know it's Father's Day...
so why am I blogging about the power of women...?
because we create the Father's...
huh..?

yep...bear with me...
this is a soap box of mine
ladies, sisters, daughters...
listen, you get to choose the man that will become the father of your children...
that is huge!
YOU GET TO CHOOSE!
You have the option...
the choice....
the power...
the responsibility of choosing the man that will become the father of YOUR children....

with that choice you change the world,
girls...you can choose a boy that's not ready to be a man,
ladies...you can choose a man that doesn't choose to act like a man
or you can choose a man that has the desire to be the best he can be and looks to God for his guidance....

Girls, Sisters, Daughters....

do not take this amazing choice that God has given you and allow peer pressure, low self esteem, or a moment of weakness to choose the wrong father for your children...that choice is all yours!

I am so thankful today, Father's Day, to say that at the crazy young age of 18 I met and fell in love with a man that would one day become the father of my children...
at the age of 20 I committed to being that man's wife....
and at the age of 23 I became the mother of his little girl....

photo by Betsey Walton Photography

I am thankful to say that I had the power to choose this amazing man to become the father of my children....
and with that power I changed the world by giving 2 amazing children the best father they could have....

thank you Beau for empowering our children to be who God has created them to be,
to honor God,
to love life,
to respect themselves and others,
to take responsibly for their actions,
to love music,
to love weird random Japanese things...

pirate family

Happy Fathers Day to my babies daddy!

making woopie!

2011-06-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

yep, and sharing it with everyone!

I made woopie...

pie that is...for the first time on Memorial Day and took them to a party...and they disappeared!

I made them again for a dessert party we had at our place...and they disappeared...

so I made them again last night, we just had grandpa over and 3 other friends...was hoping that the woopie pies might last thru the night (you never know with grandpa sleeping in the same house as them...

and we had one survivor...but I won't blame it all on my father-in-law, there were only 2 left when we went to bed!

so I had never actually had a woopie pie until I made these, still have only ever had these so I'm not sure how they compare to the 'real' thing or other versions...but I have to say, I like making this kind of woopie...they turn out amazing and they are SOOO easy...crazy easy!

Woopie Pies
pies/cookies
1 package chocolate cake mix
(I had used both double fudge and devils food)
8 tbl (1 stick) butter; melted
1 large egg

for the filling
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter flavored crisco (can't go cheap on the fat)
1 large pasteurized egg white*
2 tsp vanilla

1. Mix together cake mix, butter,and egg until combined. Make into 1 inch balls, place about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes; putting one sheet of cookies on the top rack the other on the middle and then switching them at 5 minutes.. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan, then transfer using a metal spatula to wire rack. Cool for 30 more minutes.
2. Make the filling: Place the powdered sugar, crisco, egg white, and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute. Spoon about 1 1/2 tsp of filling onto flat side of one cookie and top with second cookie to make a woopie pie!...
3. Try not to eat the pies as you're making them, share the woopie love!

*the filing is uncooked and uses a raw egg, make sure your egg white is pasteurized so you don't get sick off of the woopie...pie...
or you can use ice cream and make ice cream sandwiches instead of making woopie...it's up to you...ice cream or woopie...pie!

yuckiest and bests

2011-06-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

we have a night time routine of 'yuckiest and bests'*...

but I just felt like making a list of my yuckiest and bests of my summer so far...just because

yuckiest
kids saying, "I'm bored"
best
having math sheets ready for when kids say, "I'm bored!"

yuckiest
'summer' starting with rain, rain, and more rain
best
that rain, rain, and more rain filling up the lake for lots of summer swimming

yuckiest

sticky heat from all the rain...

um Redding...our heat is a 'dry heat' didn't you get the memo!

best

5 yr old boy child's cute tush in his boxer briefs because it's too hot to put clothes on

yuckiest

laundry

best

teaching the boy and girl child how to sort their own laundry...take it to garage...sort it into larger bins...and for the girl child to be able to move the washed clothes from the washing machine to dryer, then start the dryer...and for the boy child to move dried clothes from dryer to basket to love seat...and for kids that are learning how to fold their own clothes...ladies my laundry days are numbered...can I get an AMEN?!

yuckiest

weeds

best

having a yard, weeds and all...loving the new back yard to send the kids outside!

yuckiest

training for a tri in snow-water-lake
best

actual tri water feeling like a bath after training in snow-water-lake

yuckiest

rocky entrance into ocean

best

'winning' the 'ramp' portion of the triathlon...

check out that 'rocky' entrance...and notice the first one down!

yuckiest

getting a flat tire on mile 1 of a 12 mile ride

yuckierst (that's a made up word for those that were wondering)

not knowing how to change a flat or even have a spare

the most yuckiest

getting that flat during a tri with freezing winds and crying for 4 miles

stupidest

continuing to ride on that flat because I really just didn't know what to do without a spare or a way to fix it!

best

doing a tri with a wonderful group of ladies and little to no damage done to tire rim even after my stupid choice to ride 11 miles with a flat!

tri ladies minus Ricki

flipped this one

best

road trips with girl friends and a fun 'mixed tape' CD

yuckiest

breaking down on the road trip and not knowing where we are because of rocking out to fun 'mixed tape' CD.

road trip-minus Brandy!

yuckiest

creepy-man-with-dog in the middle of NOwhere parking his truck across from us when we're broken down for 2 hours...and changing his clothes 4 times...and watching us the WHOLE time...WEIRD!
best

creepy-man-with-dog in the middle of NOwhere leaving after an hour with lady in nice car!

yuckiest

being broken down on side of road for 2 hours having to pee the whole time, finally making a pee-tent out of the car doors and huge blanket only to have a nosey lady (that never offered to help 2 ladies broken down) call the cops on me for peeing in public...and when did Road 68 aka middle-of-stinkin'-NOWhere become public?!?

best

tow truck driver deciding to pee staring right at nosey lady and waving to her!

yuckiest

being dropped of at creepy-deepy muffler shop at 7 pm on a Saturday to get car fixed by 2 men that are missing most of their 'grill' (and we're not talking car!)
best

creepy deepy muffler men staying open 2 extra hrs, working/looking at car and telling us it will get us home and only charging us $5....

yuckiest

walking 4+ blocks, trying to find a place in Emeryville to get $5 for the upcoming toll bridge..only to have non-English speaking lady at the Shell station not understanding that I only need/want $5 cash back NOT $10...
best

having an extra $5 to pay creepy deepy muffler men because of non-English speaking lady at the Shell Station...(that was a totally thank you Jesus moment!)

best

God having his hand in all that happened this past weekend!

*we started when the girl child was pretty small, 2 or 3 and was having trouble with the whole concept of time and days and all that, she's say, 'it was fun playing with grandma today,' when we hadn't seen grandma in 2 weeks...so we decided we'd review the day and have her pick out her yuckiest thing that happened and her best thing that happened and then during night time prayers we'd pray for both the yuckiest and best asking God to help whatever the yuckiest was and thank him for the best...we're still doing it and the kids love doing it...

Summer Menu Installment I

2011-06-02T17:07:00.000-07:00

tomorrow is officially the first day of summer in our house...
well, it's the first 1/2 day of summer since the kids have a minimum day at school...

okay, blog tangent...
I can't get use to the term 'minimum day.'
I grew up in a school system that called it a 1/2 day of school...
pretty sure it wasn't truly a 1/2 day of school...
the facts; were we got out earlier than normal and that felt like getting done with your prison sentence early...so we called it 1/2 day...
and now when my kids have a school day that isn't as long as a regular day I call it a 1/2 day and everyone looks at me funny and says,
"what's a 1/2 day?"
really? it it that crazy to call a minimum day a 1/2 day?
okay tangent over...

so summer sort-of half starts tomorrow...
maybe it's a minimum summer day...
I'm not sure

it's the start of summer and payday all rolled into one glorious day...
and to celebrate ....
drum.roll.please.
I will be going grocery shopping for the first time in
FOR.EV.ER!
like maybe almost a month since I've gone and done
real
honest
to
goodness
grocery shopping!

that is very very sad, and yet very very true!

so since our cupboards are bare
our fridge is empty
the freeze is freezing some butter and old fish sticks

I decided that I should probably make a serious list and to make it real I needed to make one of those menu things...

and with summer I have burgers and grilling on my mind...
2 problems with that...
Northern California has yet to get the 'it's summer memo'
and we have no grill

so my menu will reflect the lack of heat and and grill...and not look like a summer menu AT all...
well, maybe just a little...

Friday-minimum day of summer...dinner is actually McDonald's*...
Saturday-dinner meeting at our place-Salad Bar
Sunday-light dinner and large dessert
(Welcome Summer Dessert party at our new digs)
Monday-
Tuesday-
Wednesday-Nacho Bar
Thursday-company that requested Lasagna
Friday & Sat-I'm out of town for my next tri so the family is on their own, I'm guessing pizza
Sunday-brinner probably puffy pancake, eggs and bacon

and now just a list of random menu ideas that I will plug in whenever it works.
Cheddar Roast
BBQ pulled Pork Sandwiches
Ravioli's
Easy Cheesy Crock Pot Chicken (new recipe for the family)
Taco Pie
Pork Chops and Applesauce
Cashew Apple Chicken Salad

and that's all I have for now...
hoping that when it's time for our next installment of summer menu I will have more summer menu items on the list!

*side note...our family 'fasted' McD's this school year! we took the kids to the 'restaurant' of their choice on the first day of school and it was non other than the golden arches and we told them that the next time we'd go was the last day of school...the 'fasting McD's' rules were hazy, but pretty much, the kids could eat there if someone else took them and then we once had a friend (who shall remain nameless) that brought Beau and I lunch from McD's...and how do you say no to 100% chicken meat in those golden nuggets and oh so golden fries?!?!...but as a family we have not eaten at McDonald's all school year, not driven thru either!

You Got Some 'Splaining to Do!

2011-05-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

okay...

so the big move is pretty much over...we have the stuff in the attic and basement to still move over, but hey, there's a reason it's all in the basement and attic...we don't use it/know we have it/even need it or want it anymore...so we will slowly go thru it all and do lots more purging as we pack up those two areas!

But if we moved how come our stuff is still at the other place...how can we have 2 places at once...

That is answered with the why we moved question.

I know our move was a little surprising for many, but for us it's something we've be planning since last fall...

(obviously not planning too well if we still have stuff to move!)

maybe mentally planning since last fall.

our house...our home...our fixer upper...our money pit...

was a house we bought when I was 9 months pregnant with Wilson...

we bought it at the peak of the market

(not that we knew that at the time)

we had a 5 year plan...

the plan...

Year 1...put some money into the place, make it livable

(believe me it wasn't when we bought it!)

move into once it's livable but with a long list of repairs still needed...slowly fix issues here and there...with the little money we have...

and then...

we'll have lots of sweat equity poured into it and refinance!

Years 2-4....take all that cash from the refinance and turn our money pit into a wonderful before-and-after-HGTV-quality-makeover! (with professionals doing the majority of the work, because we can now afford the pro's since we poured enough sweat equity into the 1st year!)

Year 5...~~Get a hit HGTV Reality Show because of the amazing transformation our house went thru!~~ Sell the lovely fixer-upper, make loads of $ and buy our dream family home!

5 year plan meets reality!

Year 1 came and the real estate market hadn't fallen, but it was hovering...we were at a plateau status with our money pit, couldn't refinance because we just were level...so let’s wait another year...fix things here and there with more creativity than money!

Year 2...market is slipping, but that's okay, it's just temporary, we'll wait it out and sell when we have enough to just buy a house without as many problems...

Year 3...we...okay me...went with the 'La-La-La fingers in my ears this isn't really happening approach'

Year 4...the market was so bad that I chose the more effective 'head-in-the-sand-approach' when it came to how bad the whole 5 year plan was looking

Year 5...we really just didn't even talk about 'the plan'

Year 6...yeah I know 5 year plans don't have a year 6...

Year 6...we sit down and I am forced to take my head out of the sand...I am forced to admit that the money pit is more than a cute name I affectionately call our home...it truly is a money pit and every dime we spend on the house is a total waste.

Beau and I did a lot of talking......a lot of praying...I did some crying...

we talked to professionals

we sought out Christians that would give us honest advice on our situation...

the situation being...

we were in a house that was too small for us...

a house that needed lots of repair that would cost lots of money...

a house that would never be worth the money it needed in repairs....

a house that I was emotionally attached to...

a loan that was getting ready to 'adjust' to a price that was WAY out of our budget...

We made the hard choice to try to begin the process of selling our house via a short sale...

and also had to accept the fact that if it doesn't sell in a short sale we would/will be facing a foreclosure.

so that is where we are now...we have a 'sale' date for our house of August...

We began looking into rentals in January, knowing that when the right one came up God would lead us to it.

In the months we were searching for a place to move we were able to pay off all our credit card debt and make a dent in our recent car loan.

I am still mourning the loss of our house...

I am mourning the loss of my dream to have the perfect HGTV before and after pictures...I had a sense of pride in this house that I was an ugly duckling that I could see the swan inside of it...I never saw the tens of thousands of dollars that it would take, I just saw the potential that it had...

but that potential was taking money away from my family, opportunities from our kids, time from my marriage and no house is worth that.

We are now proud renters...

We are living is someone else beautiful house...

a house that I can still make a home...

a home that has tons of indoor and OUTDOOR space for my family...

a home that will not drain our family financially, physically or emotionally...

a home that is in a safe neighborhood...

(....yes, I still hold onto the 'Viva Downtown' dream, but the riff-raff that would meander thru our yard at night and not let me feel safe having our kids play outside is not part of that dream...so I say let the 20 something hipsters without kids fulfill the Viva Downtown dream...we'll come and visit...

and the best thing happened the first morning in our new home...

a sleepy little boy wandered out to the living room and asked,

"Mom, can I go outside and catch frogs?"

because we finally have a home that is a place for kids to be kids!

and a bonus...here is a pic of Beau mowing our lawn...

something we haven't had in 13 years of marriage!

and once we get totally settled, unpacked, pictures up on walls, etc. I will give you a tour of our new home room by room!

Moving

2011-05-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

ugh! packing, packing,
tossing, purging, packing

boxes, tape & sharpies

and the occasional,
"where did I put that one thing that's really important and I needed it today?"

I will sit down soon and catch you up on all of it
the how, why, what
as soon and were settled and unpacked...

but to give you the short story

our current house is old
~~it has no closet space, storage space, breathing space~~
it is quaint
~~it has too many awkward issues~~
it has loads of character
~~it IS the money pit~~
it has lots of potential for the future owner to personalize

our current house has NO back yard
or side yard
or suitable outdoor space for our children to play

our kids...
girl child 10 yrs old
aka ~~know-it-all~~ older wiser sister
boy child 5 1/2 yrs old
aka ~~annoying~~ exuberant little brother
these two, lovely, sweet children of ours...
currently share a room...they NEED their own room
...I will be the first to tell you the wonderful benefits of children/siblings sharing a room
...but with the gender and age difference we have out lived the benefits of sharing and are ALL looking forward to the two of them having their own space!

and now my break from boxes, packing, purging is over and I must return!

Summer Lovin'

2011-05-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

....the kids have the count down going,
they know that we only have 15 more days of school...
15 days until...
....

UNTIL

...

SUMMER BREAK

Summer is...
amazing
it's staying up late
it's sleeping in late
it's slumber parties
swimming parties
lake parties
camping
VBS
BBQ
4th of July
a week at grandmas....
and then...
then....
it happens.
....
..."MOM....I'm soooo BORED!"
....
how can something so wonderful in the eyes of every child turn out so boring?

source-Brassy Apple

I think I might make this little beauty and hand it over to whatever child whines to me that they're bored
directions at Brassy Apple

I also stumbled upon this blog early this week with 100 activities to do over the summer
http://www.digitalreflections.typepad.com/digital_reflections/2009/06/100-free-things-to-do-with-your-kids-this-summer.html

and my goal is to have my kids read over the list and make a list of their own, they can choose up to 30 things off this list (there is a 100 to choose from).

I'm hoping that some of their 30 overlap so we don't end up with a list of 60 to do before summer is over!

I have already counted and there are 70 days of summer vacation..
so even if we end up with 60 activities we can double up and do more than one on certain days, and then we will have some weeks that none of these happen
(VBS week is enough entertainment all on it's own, and wears me out, so I get a free pass that week!)...

so I'm almost ready...
I'm getting mentally prepared for the moment when I hear the words...
'Mom...there is nothing to do...I am so bored'...

I think I will also make up a list of chores that I get to assign to the kids that tell me they are bored...

hmmm

2011-05-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

some pictures that might help with the crypticness of this blog

so Becky you were right...
and NO, I'm NOT pregnant...
that would be more than slightly tearful in my book....

I will blog more soon about the
what
where
when
why
how
because...

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

here are some totally random photos for Mother's Day

yeah, I know this is a Christmas picture, but it's the only one I could find of me with my mom when I was a kid...so hint, hint Mom...I need some more pictures of my childhood!

a picture of my mother, my daughter and I, the day that Wilson was born. I know I look amazingly great in this picture! But I think it's a sweet picture of 3 generations!

two other amazing mothers in my life are my mother-in-law...I am so blessed by her in my life!

and my sister-in-law...a wonderful mother, an amazing aunt and a special friend

...what can I say, the Chambers men marry well!

Thank you mom you gave us so much growing up. The hours you put into our lives, the prayers you prayed over us (and still pray) the foundation of faith that you instilled in my life has been my rock. Thank you for being an amazing mother and now friend.

Kathy, you have been my mother-in-love...I knew when Beau and I were dating that you were a nice person, and I have realized over and over again since them how truly blessed I am that you are Beau's mother and I am honored to be part of your family. Thank you for also laying the foundation of faith in your family and raising boys that love and follow the Lord, that became Men that lead their family towards the Lord!

Julie, I remember Luke bringing you 'home' and we all knew that you were that special one. And I have so enjoyed watching you grow as a mom these past 2 years. I can't believe that it's been 2 years and that it's ONLY been 2 years. The wisdom and patience that you posses as a mother is amazing and I am always blessed by our time spent together. You always encourage me and I am so thankful that our children get to grow up together!

Happy Mothers Day!

changes

2011-05-06T10:52:00.001-07:00

just a heads up, there are big changes on the horizon for the ChambersMade household...

good, wonderful, slightly tear-ful changes...

a Scone-ful week

2011-05-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

So I had this idea last week that I'd do a few English sounding recipes because of the royal wedding and all...
and then I did none of them...because I won't post a recipe that I haven't actually made so since I never got around to making any of them I couldn't post them...
and by English recipes I mean scones...
and scones and a few more scones...

all that blabbering to say, that I finally got around to making these yummy scones yesterday for breakfast
and it's actually my own recipes because I totally tweaked the recipe I was following so much that it's nothing like the original!

oh, and if you've never made scones before, please do...
they are so easy to make and so worth it!
think sweet biscuit...
and if you've never made biscuits SHAME ON YOU!

nothing like a nice warm scone right out of the oven with your cup-o-Joe...
and I'm always amazing at how many scones my kids ~~devour~~ daintily eat for breakfast!
and hey, whole wheat, fruit (dried cranberries are a fruit right), dairy (yogurt)...that's a well rounded breakfast!

Cherry Vanilla Scones

1 cup dried cherries

or my cheater cheap version

1 cup cherry flavored dried cranberries

2 teaspoons vanilla*

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

(or go with 2 cups of whatever you have,

I like to have some wheat so it seems healthier)

3 Tbl brown sugar (or raw, if your going the healthy route)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup butter, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon orange or lemon lest

1 beaten egg yolk

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1 tea vanilla

1 recipe Vanilla Glaze, recipe follows

(optional, I didn't make so you don't see it in the picture)

Place dried cherries (or cranberries) into small bowl, pour 2 teaspoons vanilla over the top and then pour enough boiling water over them to cover. Let stand for 5 minutes and then drain well.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine flours, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Using a pastry blender cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Toss in orange zest and drained cherries/cranberries; until coated.

In a small bowl combine egg yolk, yogurt and vanilla. Add mixture all at once to flour mixture, using a fork stir until combined. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface Knead dough by folding and gently pressing dough for 10-12 strokes. Pat into a 1 inch circle and either cut into 12 wedges or cut circles using a biscuit cutter.

Place scones onto an ungreased baking sheet, bake in a 400 oven for 7-9 minutes.

Vanilla Glaze

mix together 3/4 cup powder sugar and 1 tbl vanilla until you have a drizzling consistency.

*Vanilla Tip...not sure if I've ever shared my tip for cheap good vanilla. Buy it from a Mexican Grocery...I buy my big bottle for $8...Yep $8 for 33.7 oz of Really Mexican vanilla or $4 for 8 oz of imitation Safeway vanilla???

this little shopping secret allows me to use lots more vanilla which, in my opinion, is the key ingredient in many baking recipes!

don't have any idea where a Mexican Grocery is...either google it or look it up in the old fashion yellow pages, or talk to someone at your favorite Mexican restaurant...the Mexican store I go to is in the small shopping center as one of our favorite Mexican restaurants!

historical day

2011-05-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

okay so yesterday might have been a biggie for the United States and the world
(bin Laden going down and all that)
but in our house it was also one of the biggest days a child can have...
the boy child lost his first tooth...

toothless Wilson

interesting fact...the girl child lost her first tooth 3 months before she turned 6...

the boy child lost his first tooth 3 months before he turns 6...

Madison the week she lost her 1st tooth...wow she is so little!

also...
just something to talk about if you have not had a child lose a tooth before...or if it's been awhile for your family...

before the dad rips that loose tooth out of the kids mouth maybe he should have a little private conversation with the mom to make sure there is any money in the tooth fairy bank (aka mom or dad's wallet) before said tooth is removed from child's mouth...

also...good to remember that your child has lost their VERY FIRST tooth....
written the tooth fairy a nice note...

and is anxiously awaiting the $$$ under the pillow
BEFORE you fall asleep in a pile of drool on the couch watching old movies on netflix only to wake up and drag yourself zombie like to bed forgetting 100% about the little boy sound asleep upstairs with all the faith in the world that the tooth fairy will be visiting!

also good to know where the kids keep their cash...
so when you wake up and have your first cup of coffee and remember that the tooth fairy did NOTHING the night before you can raid their stash (to be replaced later...I promise)...
sneak into their room to 'straighten up their covers and kiss them good morning'
while slipping THEIR own money under the pillow with one hand and removing the tooth with the other!

my own form of torture

2011-04-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

making the girl child clean out her clothes and it's torture...
these are the rules
*does it fit
*do you wear it
*do you like it
if the answer is 'no' to any of those it goes in the donate bag

and seriously...every.single.item...
she takes it out and asks me...
"should I get rid of this?"...

so again I say
"does it fit...do you wear it...do you like it"

and she will say,
"well, I sorta like it."
me-"but do you wear it?"
her-"well, not really"
me-"why not?"
her-"cuz it doesn't fit me any more"
me-"so did you answer 'no' to the does it fit question & the do you wear it question?"
her-"well, sort of, I guess"
me-"than it goes in the bag"

then the next item

she takes it out and asks me...

"should I get rid of this?"..

so again I say

"does it fit...do you wear it...do you like it"

and she will say,

"well, I don't really wear it."

me-"why not?"

her-"cuz I really don't like it"

me-"so did you answer 'no' to the does it does it fit & the do you like it question?"

her-"yes"

me-"so it goes in the bag"

her-"but it does fit me"

me-"doesn't matter, just one 'no' and it goes in the bag and this one has 2 no's"

and then the opposite...

the boy child wants in on this torture...

getting his own bag without asking and filling it

only my rules for him are different...

*does it fit

*does mommy want you to wear if for some event or picture taking opportunity that she will force you to wear something that you'd never wear unless there was some serious bribing going on

*does mommy have some vision of you wearing it all the time and looking like some adorable little boy that would never live in Pokemon and Bakugan t-shirts

so now while I am once again going thru the above conversation with girl child I am taking clothes out of the boy child's bag and saying,

"well, I thought if we happened go to a nice garden wedding this summer you could maybe wear that"

have we been invited to a wedding?

do we even know anyone getting married?

would I even take a 5 year old boy to a wedding?

"and this shirt would look really handsome if I got one in the same color for your dad to wear and I got a picture of the two of you playing catch together in our back yard"

can I ever get Beau to wear what I want him to?

do they ever play catch in our back yard?

do we even have a back yard?
NO.NO.NO

why did I decided to do this on spring break?!

What a Joke

2011-04-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

I have been so bad about training for the upcoming tri in June...
like crazy lazy and
it's-going-to-actually-kill-me-this-time
bad about training!

a friend and I have planned to go running this morning around 9...
and if I don't flake on her (this is the 3rd run we've scheduled together and I flaked on the other 2)....
then if I actual meet up and run with her this will be the 3rd time in the month of April that I've actually gone running!
What?
yeah, you read that right....
I'm 'training' for a triathlon and I have only run 3 times this month!
well, not 3 times...IF I run today that will make it 3 times...and I have till Saturday to make it 7 times...IF I were to run EVERY day this week I will have only run 7 times the entire month of April...
yeah I blogged my training goals back in Feb...and I was supposed to be running 3 times a week...NOT month!

one of those runs WAS a 5K that I did...
without running almost all winter I signed up for a 5K.
knowing that it would force me to 'train'...
and guess what, I didn't, I totally flaked
showed up the day of the race planning on just walking the whole thing...I actually ended up running most of it and felt pretty good minus the shakes from taking one too many 'hits' from my inhaler....
yeah...my allergies, asthma and overall 'winter lungs' have put a major bump in my running!

My training goals also included swimming
crazy me...I have swimming down in my tri training...
was supposed to swim at least 7x in April...still have yet to swim ONCE...not once..
I WILL go tomorrow...I PROMISE....

oh, and biking...
yeah, but I don't have a bike...
I will also make a call on that today, I have a lead on a bike I might be able to borrow, need to get in into my possession!

okay...so my purpose in today's blog was to embarrass myself into training for this tri.
Or maybe it was more of a confession of my non-training sins and then my penance
(is that the word, I'm not sure since I'm not Catholic)
is to now kick it into gear and over train in the 6 weeks I have left until the actual event!

and if you have stayed with me while I drone on about my failing to train...
your job as my friends is to please keep my accountable...
ask me if I have been running...
if I have hit the pool (at all) or the lake (CRAZY)...
if I have found a bike...and ridden said bike...
please keep me accountable because if I actually die in the triathlon then I will hold all of you as accessories in my death!

menu...April 25th-May 5th

2011-04-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

I did the worst thing E.V.E.R on Saturday!
I went grocery shopping without a menu or a list...
okay, I lied, I had a list..a list with like 7 things on it...
7 things for 2 weeks worth of meals...thinking I might need more...

so I did the, walk thru the aisle and think of meals while putting random food into my cart...
I have to say I didn't do so bad and it was sort of nice because the kids were at home and the store wasn't crowded....

meals that I thought of during and after shopping...
salad bar (all the fixings/toppings and everyone gets to make their own salad)
potato bar...(ditto of the above)
french bread pizza
french onion chicken (chicken coated with french fried onions)
tacos/burritos/nachos (make beef in the crock pot and get 3+ meals out of it)
Egg McMuffins
French Toast
Spaghetti and Meatballs
sweet-n-sour beans and cornbread
peanut chicken
stir fry with rice and egg drop soup

...
and that's all I got!

recap of Easter

2011-04-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

so this is is for those that have nothing better to do with their Monday...

or for the grandmas and aunts....

boy child checking out the goods...and comparing the goods...

forgot to take a picture before we left for church so, this is the kids in the car

and my loveliness

and check out his joy, he is so full of joy on Easter morn!

the 'bunny' always comes while we're at church to hide the eggs...thanks grandma and grandpa

Grandpa with his bowl full of jelly beans...

okay so I'm going to let you in on a not-so-little secret....
I take horrible pictures...
the camera comes out and magically all the joy in my life is sucked out of my body
and I become mean, angry, confused, hurt, sad, annoyed, tired..

so Beau hates family picture time...
he can smile on demand and look great...
Farrah hair and all! (yeah, time for a trim or some product!)

the kids hate picture time...
knowing that mom will not take a good one so we have to take tons...

not sure why they hate it when I'm the one with all the issues...

maybe that's the problem...
maybe I am absorbing all of their negative energy right before the camera flashes!

not too bad

lets try the squat position...

really, look at my legs and the crazy contortion I was doing to not step on my plants...the rest of the family didn't care!

and the squat pose wins!

finally...sort of okay, we'll take it...

picture with the grandparents...

real smile? or his he grabbing my bum? you guess!

love that girl...

and the boy with the missing face...

take 2!

2011-04-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

okay so you all saw my post a few weeks ago about having our Spring Open House and Craft Boutique....
well...
the problem was that March happened...
and March didn't get that whole memo about
'In like a lion...OUT like a lamb'
and it decided to just embrace the whole LION concept...
so basically our open house was a bust with crazy....
I MEAN crazy weather...
and we had tons of people say,
'wait, I wanted to come, really we did, but the weather was just too crazy to be driving around in'...
so, since we love all our friends and family and other people that like to buy our stuff...
we are having our
3rd Open House and Craft Boutique...Take 2!!!
minus the wind, rain, hail, and crazy!

and we also all said...
'wow, we won't have to make anything for it, we have so much stuff already!'

...and guess what...we're all liars and made more stuff...more spring/Easter/Mother's Day stuff....

cutie little birdie block that wants to go home with you

some 'harlot' pendents that Mrs. Smith has been making....

bowl of eggs and a sweet bird...all for the taking

need a sweet bow tie for your little boy this Easter?

Mrs. Smith unique facet necklaces....

so even if you came last month...come again and check out our new stuff...
and if the weather kept you in last time...we promise we won't call you names like sissy and chicken
...we'll be nice...

so just come and have a nice time shopping and hanging out with the ladies!
visit our Open House and Craft Boutique facebook page for directions.....

"Is that how you were raised?"

2011-04-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

I know my own parents would ask me this question as a child...
and I, in turn have asked my children the same question....

last week at school the girl child had what we will call...
'the granola bar incident'
during lunch, girls were being girls, laughing and having fun...
and then before she knew it one of the girls had taken Madison's granola bar...
she asked for it back and never got it back...apparently the bar ended up getting passed to someone else and that person ate it...
long story short, we had Madison tell the teacher that the granola bar was taken out of her lunch..
blog note...we don't care about the granola bar...but as a parent I would want to know if my child took someones else lunch and gave it to other people...so that being the case we had Madison let the teacher know...

Madison's teacher is an amazingly fair teacher who has a heart to mold and guide her students not only to be good learners but to be positive citizens of the world.

When Madison teacher was talking to the girl that took the granola bar the girl was very remorseful and sorry, and said that yes she took the bar and knew that she shouldn't have...
the teacher than asked the girl...
"Is that how you were raised?"...
knowing the answer to that question already...
OF COURSE NOT!...

the mother of this little girl had now taken the "granola bar incident' to the principle because not only is her child innocent (her story changed once she talked to her mom), but now, because of that simple rhetorical question, the teacher has accused the mother of teaching her daughter how to steal!
when the teacher said, 'Is that how you were raised?'...the mother took that to mean that the teacher is implying that the mother has been teaching the girl how to steal?!?

seriously...
SE.RI.OUS.LY!!!

wow, have you ever heard of a rhetorical question?
(made myself chuckle, asking a rhetorical question about a rhetorical question...yep, I'm a nerd!)

when I say to my child "Where you born in a barn?"

...I'm not calling myself a cow...I'm reminding them that our home is a home and you treat it as such, NOT a barn....

when I say to my child, "Was I born yesterday?"...
I'm not saying that I am younger than them...I am making the point that I WASN'T born yesterday and that I might just know what I'm talking about....

when I ask, "Would you jump off a bridge if all your friends did?"....

I'm not asking them to jump off a bridge...I'll hopefully letting them know that just because your friends choose to do stupid stunts I would expect them to make safe choices!

and when I say, "Is that how you were raised?", when they've done something I don't think they should have done...I'm not saying, 'I raised you to steal...or talk bad...or throw your garbage on the ground...etc" I am saying that NO you were NOT raised like that and you KNOW better!

the crazy "granola bar incident" of '11 will hopefully serve as a reminder to Madison that we do what is right no matter what.

we are not raising our children to be tattlers,
but we are raising them to stand up for what is good & just,
for themselves and others.

Our 'rule' or guideline on talking to an adult about something and making sure it's NOT tattling...
Did something or someone get hurt/broken/damaged or can they get hurt/broken/damaged?
...and we look at that in a "big picture" answer...did Madison having her granola bar stolen get hurt? NO...but would it hurt this other girl to get away with taking something that's not hers?...YES...
AND, Yes, that IS how I was raised!