Teacher turned mommy... not as easy as it sounds!

A kind gesture

2012-01-26T19:28:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, Blake was playing on the porch after Richard left for work and he heard the recycling truck on the adjacent street. He asked if he could go outside and watch the truck. Normally I'd send him to the front window, but I'm trying to give him more responsibility and freedom in small doses. I told him that he could go outside if he stayed on the walkway and came back in after the truck turned the corner. He was really excited. I went on doing my morning chores peeking at him from time to time. I heard the truck turn the corner and was walking up to check on Blake one more time. As I was approaching the foyer, the driver was knocking on the front door. I opened it and he asked if I knew my son was outside. I told him I did. He replied ok just making sure you knew he was here.

Dixie then managed to get out the door so I didn't really get to thank him for his kindness. I thought it was extrodinary that he stopped his route to check on the welfare of Blake. I'm sure that since this was not an ordinary sighting he thought maybe Blake was out without permission. I am pleased to know that he is working in my neighborhood.

I typed up an e-mail and sent it to the company to let them know what happened and how appreciative I was of his actions. It's nice to know there are still caring people out there.

What do you "C"?

2012-01-25T07:02:00.000-05:00

It's C week... here are my pictures. More on my facebook page, add your there too if you want.

Colby, you had to see that one coming right?

Colorful cars crafts (we painted with cars again)

Caring (we went on a hike and I turned around to check on the boys and found them holding hands, they do care about each other when they aren't beating each other up)

Chick peas in a crock pot. Yep I'm making hummus again

Computer (photo by Colby)

Camera (ummm I don't have to tell you who took this photo)

What C pictures did you take this week? Link up to share:

ramble, ramble ramble

2012-01-24T08:30:00.000-05:00

No new recipe today. I am planning on baking this week so maybe I'll make a new recipe for next week? Yep I'm slacking.

Have you taken any "c" pictures this week? I have a few and the boys have already taken theirs. I'll have it up and ready tomorrow morning if you want to play along.

Life is starting to get busy again. Tuesday nights we have basketball practice, this should be fun(ny). They have games on Saturday from now until March 17th and then we slide right into soccer season.

This weekend we are going to Monster Jam. We still haven't told the boys yet. And what's even better is we have Pit Passes this year. So they will be able to walk right up to the Monster Trucks. I can't wait to see how excited they are to see the trucks up close and personal.

Blake got in trouble at school for not listening. As a teacher turned mommy, this is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I know my boys are never going to be "perfect students" it's just not their nature. They love to have fun and goof off too much. I'm not trying to change that, but I don't want them to seem disrespectful either. I know I'll probably never go to a parent teacher conference and have the teacher tell me that my sons are ideal students and they want more of him. But, I want them to be good students. I expect them to listen and behave. I predict that they won't be the "ugh I've heard about that child" kid. Or the "I don't know how to get him to behave" or any of those things. I just hope for top of the middle as far as behavior. I have to remember that he is 5 and he will get in trouble from time to time. But, that doesn't make it easier.

Colby and I are back into our routine this week. I'm hoping that with the exercise I can feel more myself and less exhausted. This is prime allergy time here in Orlando and my sinuses are informing me of such. Blake is struggling with it too.

Well I should get the boys ready for school and the day. Going to be a long day and a late night. Hope you have a fantastic day. Get out there and take your "C" pictures today.

I love my husband

2012-01-23T08:30:00.000-05:00

I don't often post about Richard, but he is certainly on my mind today. Today is his first day at a new company. He decided back in the early fall that the company he was working for wasn't pushing hard enough in the direction of his program so he began a search for a new company. He found a company that is breaking into the area that Richard likes to work in. In the process many other employees over and under Richard have moved over to the new company too.

Enough about that, Richard's job is just a small part of him. He is a loving and devoted father. Richard goes out of his way to make sure he spends a bit of time with the boys each day especially on the weekends. He is part of their daily lives. It is hard when he has to work late, but tries to be home to play games and read stories each night. On the weekends he likes to ride bikes, play basketball, dig in the sandbox, or just hang out on the couch with them. He likes to show them how to do the things he loves, building in with legos or wood, working on the car, fixing the bikes and of course computer stuff.

I love to watch the three of my guys interact, nothing makes me smile more. I also love the fact that when he is home he tries very hard to help me get done the little and big things I do each day. He helps in the kitchen, does chores around the house and takes care of the dogs. Every night he walks the dogs before bed and spends time playing with Dixie and scratching Abby.

I'm not sure he realizes how much I notice or that I even notice that he does all these things, but I do. I'm grateful each day that I met him and that we both realized we are made for each other.

long short week

2012-01-20T07:32:00.000-05:00

We had a busy week. Both of the boy and I have been fighting head colds/ allergy issues. Never a good way to spend a week, but that's life. Richard starts a new job on Monday so we decided to plow through a bunch of things that we needed to get done this week. Things like taking both my car and his truck in for servicing and things like that. This meant that our days were jumbled up quite a bit, but hey it's all done.

I didn't get to the gym much this week, I notice I'm dragging a lot more, but at the same time it's not really easy to workout when you can't breathe. Yeah that's just a minor detail (o:

Then there was the whole thing of Richard and Blake having Monday off. Long weekends are always appreciated, but short weeks always give a feeling of being off. Blake doesn't have school today either. It is the end of the term here so the teachers have a work day and the kids get a day off. So Blake only went to school 3 days this week.

I've decided to stay home this morning instead of going to the gym. I'm letting Colby sleep in and we will watch a movie and then go to the grocery store. I decided this was better than exposing them to more germs when they are already fighting colds.

So here is the menu plan for the week:
--marinated skirt steak and potatoes
--breakfast for dinner (I'm making pancakes for the boys and maybe french toast for Richard and I for a change)
--out for pizza (a big treat for the boys that they keep asking for)
--tacos
--fend for yourself (basketball practice on Tues so I don't plan for that night)
--pasta
--?? will decide soon I guess

Hope you have a great weekend

B Week!

2012-01-18T08:01:00.001-05:00

Want to share the information with your friends? Grab my button on my sidebar!

I hope you decide to play along. If you play on your blog, make sure to link up below. If you want, you can play on facebook instead. Here are our pictures this week...

Blake

Building

Bike ride

Blue Blimp

Bridge (taken by Colby)

Basketball (taken by Blake)

Bedtime stories (taken by Richard)

It's your turn! Link up below. Will be open until next Tuesday.

Buffalo chicken Mac & Cheese

2012-01-17T09:17:00.005-05:00

Richard went to an Orlando Magic game a few weeks ago and got to sit in the section that allows you to go into a special lounge. Pretty sweet! Anyway while he was there they they served dinner and one thing they served was Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese. When he told me about it I thought it sounded yummy. So I Googled it and made it.

Buffalo-Chicken Macaroni and Cheese

Courtesy Food Network Magazine

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 45 min

Level: Easy

Serves: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the dish
Kosher salt
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup hot sauce (preferably Frank's)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 pound yellow sharp cheddar cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 1/2 cups)
8 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
2/3 cup sour cream
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350
degrees F and butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Bring a large pot of salted water to
a boil; add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt 3 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the
onion and celery and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chicken and garlic
and cook 2 minutes, then add 1/2 cup hot sauce and simmer until slightly thickened,
about 1 more minute.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and
mustard with a wooden spoon until smooth. Whisk in the half-and-half, then add the
remaining 1/4 cup hot sauce and stir until thick, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the
cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, then whisk in the sour cream until smooth.

Spread half of the macaroni in the prepared baking dish, then top with the chicken mixture and the remaining macaroni. Pour the cheese sauce evenly on top.

Put the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl and microwave
until melted. Stir in the panko, blue cheese and parsley. Sprinkle over the macaroni
and bake until bubbly, 30 to 40 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

I used frozen chicken strips instead of getting a rotisserie chicken. I omitted the celery and increased the onion to a whole onion. I cut the pasta down to a 1/2 lb of pasta and used an 8x8 instead of a 9x13. I made the full batch of cheese sauce, but put half of it in a dish in the fridge to use another time. I did use all the sauce for the chicken and onion. I could not get shredded pepper jack so I used Mexican blend instead. I also omitted the blue cheese since neither of us is blue cheese fans.

This was really good. We felt it didn't have enough buffalo kick, but the hot sauce we used was wing sauce instead of straight hot sauce. I really liked the bread crumb topping it was super buttery. Richard didn't like it but, he doesn't like those kinds of toppings normally anyway.

Next time I will use more hot sauce in both the chicken and in the cheese sauce. We like a kick. I will only put the bread crumbs on half of the pasta too. I will also use more chicken. I think it would be really good if you grilled up a chicken breast that is pre-coated in hot sauce to give it a smoke taste too.

Got to love a long weekend

2012-01-16T09:53:00.000-05:00

There is still time to join in the ABC Photo Fun Challenge this week. I'll leave the linky up until Tuesday night. So post your "A" pictures. And start thinking of "B" pictures for next week.

Lately I've done a weekend wrap up on Mondays, but today is still the weekend here. Happy MLK day to all who have the day off, and those who don't. Richard took today off which is a nice treat.

We didn't do anything special this weekend. It was nice to slow down and just enjoy the weekend. We put all the Christmas boxes up into the garage attic, went on bike rides, cleaned the house, watched Monsters Inc, played play doh and made lego kits.

This weekend was on the chilly side, but it was nice out when the sun was shinning. The boys had a lot of outside time which they certainly need. Colby has figured out how to ride his bike so we are doing a lot of bike rides per his request. He is so proud to ride his bike instead of the tricycle.

We made yummy meatball subs, apple orange muffins, and lots of grilled cheese sandwiches. I think I've had hot chocolate every day this weekend too.

I decided to take some time to spend with each of the boys. But, I also took sometime to clean the house alone and read my book. Richard got to work out in the garage with his tools and has almost finished the new headboard for our bed.

Sounds like a good weekend to me. Well the boys are dressed time for another bike ride.

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Weekly Menu
Pizza out!

chicken fajitas

ham steak with rice pilaf

skirt steak (haven't decided how I'm cooking this yet)

baked potatoes with salad

He's only 5

2012-01-14T19:18:00.000-05:00

There is still time to join in the ABC Photo Fun Challenge this week. I'll leave the linky up until Tuesday night. So post your "A" pictures. And start thinking of "B" pictures for next week.

_____________________________________

There are times that I have to remind myself that Blake is just 5. It is during these times that I really know that we made the right choice not to push Blake into kindergarten this year.

Blake is very smart. There are things that he knows that I shake my head and think "how do you know that?" But, when push comes to shove he is a young 5. It is very easy to think of him as being older than he is, so when he does something that is very 5 it may come across as immature.

This week Blake got in trouble at school twice. On Thursday he came home upset because he had his "star moved". When I questioned him about his behavior he told me that he threw blocks. I had him apologize to the teacher and then he came home and wrote her an apology letter.

Friday morning he told me he was going to get his star back on the board. He proudly read the note to his teacher and I walked out the door. I was very shocked when I picked him up and he got in trouble again. But, even more so when he got in trouble again for throwing blocks. This really bothered me.

But the more I think about it. He is just being 5. No I'm not saying that all 5 year olds throw blocks. Nor am I saying that it is excusable to do it, and especially to do it again. But my thinking was that he should have rationalized the consequences of his actions and though about it and therefore not done it again. But, that isn't the way 5 year olds work. They work moment to moment.

After talking to him about the two incidences they were totally separate in his mind because the action was different. The first time he was throwing the blocks from one are into the next area of the room. The second time he and another child were throwing blocks into the air. Although both involved throwing blocks they are totally different.

I have always been concerned that others would get to know Blake and expect more from him. I just never realized how often I do it myself.

It's all about balance

2012-01-13T08:24:00.003-05:00

There is still time to join in the ABC Photo Fun Challenge this week. I'll leave the linky up until Tuesday night. So post your "A" pictures. And start thinking of "B" pictures for next week.

_____________________________________

Balance is something I find myself talking about often. Sometimes I'm talking about balancing time between Blake and Colby. Sometimes it's between me time and them time. Sometimes it's trying to get things done in the house and playing with the boys. But, it all comes down to balance.

I have a pretty good sense of balance. I can be a klutz, but for the most part I've got a good sense of balance. I really noticed it the few times I tried yoga, which is a fun but the class is at the time I pick Blake up from school.

I worry about serving the boys a balanced diet, even if the balance is over a week and not necessarily over the day.

But so many worries I have, and I'm sure other mothers do too, has to deal with this need for balance. When I feel life is in some semblance of balance I feel like I'm doing the right thing, but when it is out of balance I feel like I'm failing something in some way. I know that isn't the right way to view life and the world, but there it is for all to see. I need balance to feel... whole.

Hope you find the right balance you need to get through your day.

It's A week!

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my first ABC Photo Fun Challenge week. What better place to start than....

Want to share the information with your friends? Grab my button on my sidebar!

Ok lets get to the pictures:

Abby

Apple Computer

Aircraft carrier with airplanes (photo taken by Blake)

Alligator (photo taken by Colby)

Now it's your turn. Link up below with your "A" pictures. I can't wait to stop by to see what you have. Don't want to play on your blog, but want to play along?.... post your picture on Teacher Turned Mommy's facebook page.

Mixed up Play-doh

2012-01-10T20:33:00.000-05:00

As a teacher and as a mother I tend to be more rigid than necessary with things. As a teacher I unused to justify it as I needed to keep things organized with a room full of children. With my own sons, I think it's as much habit as anything.

The other day I decided that Colby needed some one-on-one focused time with me. So on Monday I opened up a Christmas gift of his and let him go to town playing with me. We decided to open up a play-doh kit.

Now as a teacher, and often as a Mommy, I had the rule that you used one color play-doh so that they colors don't get mixed up. I always felt this helped it stay in the containers better and no one was complaining about the colors being mixed.

Well when Colby and I were playing this we through the rules out the window.

Colby had a great time just playing and making his ice cream concoctions. When Blake got home from school they took it out again and the two of them played together for a long time with it. They even took out the Monster Trucks and they got in the fun.

Sometimes you have to throw out the rules and just let them mix the play-doh.

What weekend?

2012-01-09T08:42:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have a weekend that feels as busy as a week? We did. Richard went for a bike ride in the middle of the day on Saturday. I let the boys watch Cars 2 so I could edit pictures. When Richard got home we took down the outside Christmas lights, then it was time for dinner. That day was done.

Sunday we slept in a while, ok well I slept in a while. After we got up and ready we headed out shopping for a new kitchen table. We have wanted one for a while since the table we have I bought back in the 90s when I moved out on my own. Needless to say it's in tough shape now. We spent most of the day shopping for that. Then we headed to BJ's to get a new battery backup for the main pc since the old one died Saturday night. We then went out to eat, a big treat for the boys. The problem was they hadn't had any active moments before that so they had a harder time sitting. It went, ummm ok, in the long run.

When we got home we decided to let the boys play outside for a bit. We got Colby to try riding his bike again, and this time he was successful. Which is good since he has really out grown the tricycle. We keep trying to convince Blake to give up the training wheels, but he won't let go of the fear still.

I wasn't feeling 100% all weekend which makes it even feel longer and less relaxing.

Oh well today is Monday whether or not I like it.

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Here's the menu this week:

Buffalo Mac & Cheese, yes this was on the menu last week, but it never got made.

tacos

ravioli casserole

burgers

beef curry leftovers

breakfast for dinner (here's the new pancake recipe we like)
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Back to our routine today. Drop off Blake at school, Y for Colby and I, pick Blake up, and then I think we are off to the grocery store.

Hope you have a fantastic Monday

December 2011 holiday picture re-cap

2012-01-07T11:36:00.000-05:00

Since I slacked off and never posted my project 365 for the last ummm 2 weeks of 2011, I thought I'd share a few of those pictures here today. (o:

We took the boys into Hollywood Studios to see the lights for the first time.

Tracking Santa on Norad

Santa brought a new basketball and a new hoop.

Canoe rides with Gramps

My favorite picture from the holidays
Don't forget to take an "Aa" picture to share on Wednesday! (o:

Toys R Us did not throw up in my house

2012-01-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

As I cleaned my house today I thought about this blog post. I don't think I've posted about my philosophy of "housekeeping" before. If you come to my house, don't expect it to be perfect. The only time my house looks perfect is when we are hosting a party or overnight guests.

Now note I didn't say don't expect it to be clean. My house is not dirty. My house is not a cluttered mess. Toys R Us did not throw up in my house. But, it is not perfect. There will probably be toys on the floor, bills sitting next to my lap top. Mail piles for Richard, especially if he is traveling. You might find assorted clothes and shoes here and there from time to time too.

I clean the bathrooms, mop and vacuum the floors, do laundry.... lots of laundry, clean the kitchen, do the dishes, feed the 6 of us, and many other house hold chores every day, ok some are every week, but you know what I mean.

I would rather my sons feel comfortable playing, exploring and learning at home than worry that they are going to mess things up. I don't want them to panic if they spill juice or milk. I don't want them to think mommy's going to be mad if I accidentally color on the table. Nope. Life is more important than a perfect house. I do not plan to live in a museum any time soon. But I do live in a house of love, laughter and learning.

So let me see if I can convince the boys to pick up their train track tonight so I can vacuum, if not... there is always tomorrow.

Florida cold

2012-01-05T08:13:00.000-05:00

I grew up in north eastern Massachusetts and still have a lot of friends up in New England. They like to make fun of me when I talk about it feeling cold here in Florida. These last few days have been down right chilly. We have had overnight lows in the low 30s. The orange groves are very nervous, bet you never thought about the effect of these cold fronts on all the produce growers.

These last few days we have needed to wear layers including hats and gloves. The first morning the boys were a bit confused about putting on all the garb, but were happy when they got outside and stayed warm. Tuesday was windy and cold, our official high for the day was 49, which means it was actually colder at our actual house.

Now I know many of you are thinking if it was 49 here we'd be having a heatwave, but you have to understand that last week we were in the 80s, so that is a big jump in temperature. We also don't buy as warm of clothes as people in colder temperatures. My "winter jacket" here would have been a late fall coat up north.

So I'm looking forward to the weekend when the forecast is back up in the 70s.
Hope you are staying warm and enjoying your winter weather. (o:

ABC Photo Fun link up

2012-01-04T07:42:00.001-05:00

Something I've never done on my blog before is a link up. I decided that when I wasn't going to do project 366 that I'd do a photo link up on my blog. My thought was to do it for Wordless Wednesday.

Here are the rule... there are no rules. Want to join for a week or the whole alphabet, that's up to you. If you want to link back to my blog, I'd appreciate it, but you don't have to. I just want to have some photography fun.

Each week we will do a different letter of the alphabet. You can look for things that begin with that letter, a picture of the letter itself and/or something that forms that letter. You can post as many pictures as you'd like.

Also, if you do not want to post on your blog, or don't have a blog, then you can post your pictures on Teacher Turned Mommy. not as easy as it sounds on Facebook.

I hope you choose to join me in this photography fun project. I've added my button grab box on my side bar, grab that if you want it too. (You can even encourage your readers to play along, if you want)

So start taking pictures of things that deal with A. I'll put the linky up next Wednesday for those who want to play along.

Cream Cheese Potato Soup

2012-01-03T16:42:00.000-05:00

It is actually cold down here in Florida this week, so I decided it would be a good time to make soup. Richard isn't a huge soup fan, but he decided he liked Panera Bread's Potato Soup. So google and I found a few recipes based on that to try.

This is the recipe I started with:
Panera's Cream Cheese Potato Soup
By Shawn H on January 08, 2006

Ingredients

4 cups chicken broth
4 cups peeled and cubed potatoes
1/4 cup minced onions
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, cut into chunks

Directions

Combine broth, potatoes, onion, and spices.
Boil on medium heat until potatoes are tender.
Smash a few of the potatoes to release their starch for thickening.
Reduce to low heat.
Add cream cheese.
Heat, stirring frequently, until cheese melts.

I started with a whole onion, two large russet potatoes and three cloves of garlic and the rest of the recipe as follows. After I got through the whole thing we decided it was too onion. So I boiled up another large potato to add to the pot. Added that and mashed up everything in the pot. While I was mashing I chopped up another large potato into bite size pieces and added that when they were fork tender.

I also mixed in 5 slices of cooked bacon and served it with cheddar cheese.

I took this picture the next day when I had leftovers for lunch since I spaced on taking a picture when I served it for dinner.

This was very hearty and yummy. I liked the texture that it ended up being. Richard felt it was still a bit too onion flavor, but he ate a huge bowl so I guess he liked it (o:

Next time I will only use a 1/2 an onion or less. I will continue to use the ratio of 6 cup of potato to 4 cups of stock to keep the thicker consistency. I will try this again, after we finish the second batch that I froze for another week.

4th Blogoversary

2012-01-02T18:58:00.001-05:00

I can't believe that Teacher Turned Mommy is now 4 years in the making. Want to read my first post? Go here.

Over the years my blog has changed, my sons have changed... a LOT, and well I've changed. I'm still a stay at home mom. I still love that I have this opportunity. I now have friends and playdates. We now go to the Y and I get time alone every day. I now am a better mother because I'm a better person. I've grown as my boys have grown, and I hope you can see that in my blogging.

I've tried lots of things on my blog, some have worked and some not so much. I will continue to do Tasty Tuesday for the fact that I really like it. I am not doing project 365, but will instead try doing a photo challenge on my own blog starting Wednesday. Tune in for more information on Wednesday.

I am sure things will progress and change in this next year, but one thing I'm sure will stay the same... I'll be here posting about life.

Thank you to all my readers. Hope you have enjoyed this journey with me and continue to read along on my adventures of Mommy-hood!

Monday Menu

2012-01-01T20:50:00.000-05:00

If you follow my blog then you know I'm an avid menu planner. I really don't know how people shop without menu planning.

This week we are having:
Mexican Meatzza, leftovers

American Chop Suey, leftovers

Potato Soup, this is a new recipe for me. It's based on Panera Bread's recipe. I gave you the link I'm using as reference.

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese. I'm making this because Richard had it at the Magic game the other night and really enjoyed it. I linked to a recipe I'm basing mine off of.

Chicken Enchilada pasta, leftovers

Root beer pulled pork. I saw this on Pinterest and said... yep got to try that.

What are you having the first week of the new year?
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Tomorrow is my 4th blogoversary. Tune in Wednesday to see my thoughts on a Wordless Wednesday link-up/photo fun thing.

top 11 of 2011

2011-12-31T07:07:00.003-05:00

I decided to post them in chronological order so I didn't have to rank them or anything like that. I hope you enjoy these 11 pictures of my boys from 2011.

Please answer my poll on my sidebar! Click here for more info.

2011 Review Extravaganza (part 4)

2011-12-30T07:46:00.004-05:00

Grumpy Grateful Mommy

Time for the last segment of the 2011 review. Let's take a look at October, November and December.

I discussed the stages of inventive spelling in two parts. here and here

I also talked about the difference between quality gifts vs the quantity of gifts. Something that is even more meaningful this week after Christmas.

I also took you trick or treating down memory lane before Halloween.

I shared some thoughts about parenting and the choices I've made for my sons. It's hard to be a parent these days and protect children from the world around them. See my thoughts.

Blake turned 5!

Touch a Truck

Turkey Day:

I talked about Pearl Harbor Day while reflecting on 9/11 too. How many days in infamy will we have in this country?

I reflected on the lack of unlimited outside time that children can have now a days compared to when I was a child.

I posted a new cookie recipe that was super yummy! Chocolate blossoms with candy cane kisses.

Blake sang in his holiday concert:

Please answer my poll on my sidebar! Click here for more info.

new layout and question...

2011-12-29T19:22:00.002-05:00

Ok you can see I made a new layout. No new information there. I've decided that although I really enjoyed doing project 365 it was a lot of work. I still have to post the last 2 weeks of 2011 still. Guess that means I need to get the pictures off my camera.

I was thinking that I do not want to take on project 366 next year, but I would still like to continue doing photographs on my blog. I mean who doesn't love a picture? I am debating on doing my own photo link up on my blog. I've been blogging for almost 4 years and never have done a link up before.

My thought was to do a weekly photo theme. I was thinking maybe of doing the alphabet and then colors? But, I don't want to even start if no one else wants to play. Soooo anyone interested? I put a poll up on my side bar so you can answer that way if you don't want to reply to the post.

Home again

2011-12-29T09:33:00.000-05:00

The holidays this year were a whirlwind of fun. We started on Friday and ended on Monday. We celebrated Christmas with my family on Friday. The boys had a blast playing with my nephews. We opened gifts, feasted on pot roast and ice cream cake and had lots of fun. All four boys went outside to play for a while before dinner and enjoyed playing cars together after dinner.

Saturday we had a quiet day together just the four of us. We watched the Polar Express, tracking Santa on Norad, packed and enjoyed baby back ribs for dinner.

Sunday we ended up having to wake the boys up around 7:30am. Richard and I really enjoyed that gift from the boys. I had woken up around 6:30 expecting to have already heard from the boys so when I could go back to sleep I was very shocked. The boys loved exploring their gifts from Santa. Santa doesn't wrap presents so they could explore as soon as they walked into the living room. We only had to open stockings. The boys loved playing with the cash register, the new Thomas tracks, and Blake really loved the new basketball net and youth size ball. Guess Santa knows the boys well.

After we had lunch we packed into the truck and drove 3.5 hours down to Richard's parents. We then went to Richard's aunt's house for Christmas with his extended family.

On Monday we celebrated our fourth and final Christmas with Richard's immediate family. We also spent time at the playground, taking canoe rides in the lake. The dogs got to play in the lake too, Abby went fishing for rocks and Dixie proved that she could do the doggie paddle. The boys actually played in the pool for a bit too, though most of us felt it was a bit cool for that.

It is so nice to be back home. Yesterday I spent doing laundry and putting away all the stuff that we got over the last few days. The boys have tried out some of their new toys and we've played a few of the new games.

Today we will have a quiet day for a change. That is why I actually had time to post. Tonight I'll try to edit the many pictures from this weekend and maybe think about changing the layout of my blog.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Enjoy these last few days of 2011... 2012 is just around the corner.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas

2011-12-24T13:27:00.001-05:00

From our family to yours!

2011 Review Extravaganza (part 3)

2011-12-23T08:40:00.000-05:00

Grumpy Grateful Mommy

Time to update you on the third quarter of 2011. I hope you have enjoyed my recaps. This time we are on July, August and September.

July brought about the end to the Casey Anthony trial and since it was pretty much in my back yard, I posted about the verdict.

Another blog post that I really enjoyed typing was titled All is not fair. It is based on an article that I read in a magazine. But, it was even more spurned on my Blake playing t-ball and the fact that it was totally based on everyone being "fair" instead of learning to play baseball.

July is also the month of our Anniversary. Richard and I have been married for over 7 years now.

Another post I typed about making choices and how teaching children that they have choices in everything they do.

In August I decided that boys needed more structure so we started up a new schedule.

One thing we did was projects and I shared a few. Color mixing, straw fun, painting with cars and shaving cream and boat fun.

Since I was talking a lot about projects I also typed up a post about process vs product when it comes to children's art.

One thing mothers struggle with is the balance between doing things that need to be done and spending time with your children. I posted about All of me, some of me and none of me time each day.

August also brought the first day of pre-K for Blake.

I posted about showing young children that they can read and that the process of learning to read takes many steps.

I posted a reflection on 9/11.

I became a soccer coach and Colby played soccer for the first time.

And most important thing that happened in September?? We got Dixie!

Christmas story countdown (part 3)

2011-12-21T09:32:00.000-05:00

The countdown continues. Can you believe there are only 3 days left? Are you ready? I'm.... almost!

Here is the next set of stories:

Christmas Song of the North by Marsha Bonicatto is a version of the 12 days of Christmas based on the flora and fauna you'd find in the North Woods of Michigan.

Welcome Comfort by Patricia Polacco is a wonderful story about how the next Santa is picked. Welcome Comfort is a young boy who starts going to Union City Elementary School. There he meets Mr. Hamp who he befriends. Welcome grew up in foster care and doesn't believe in Santa, yet Mr. Hamp helps him believe. On that first Christmas Santa takes Welcome for a sleigh ride. Turns out that Mr. Hamp is Santa and he has chosen Welcome to pass on this important job to after Welcome finds love and happiness.

Christmas Magic by Michael Garland. Emily decides that this Christmas is more magical than ever, and she is right. After making a snow-woman named Katrina, Emily find magic everywhere in her house. And to top if off... Katrina comes to life.

The Mighty Santa Fe by William H. Hooks is about a young boy names William who doesn't want to go to Great Granny Blue's house for Christmas because he will have to leave his trains home. Turns out Great Granny Blue has a few surprises for William including a magical trip on a train, the Mighty Santa Fe.

Harold at the North Pole by Crockett Johnson. Remember Harold and the Purple Crayon? Well Harold's on another adventure and this time he saves Santa on the way.

Cranberry Christmas by Wende and Harry Devlin is part of a series of books that take place in Cranberryport. Mr. Wiskers has to prove that he owns the pond behind his house and not Cyrus Grape, and at the same time prove to his sister that he can live in Cranberryport alone.

In Country Angel Christmas by Tomie dePaola, the country angels are asked by St. Nicholas to make the Christmas celebration for Heaven. They aren't sure they are up to the task, but find a way to pull it off. Even the littlest angels, Ari, Pip and Kira help make it a beautiful Christmas celebration.

Margret and HA Rey's Merry Christmas Curious George is yet another adventure with George the monkey. This time George goes to a Christmas tree farm where he climbs the biggest tree and ends up being taken with the tree to the Children's hospital where he gets in a bit of mischief.

chocolate blossoms with candy cane kisses

2011-12-20T07:36:00.001-05:00

It's Christmas cookie time. Every year the boys and I bake something to give to our neighbors and for Richard to take into work. Every year we bake cookies and usually that is what Richard brings in. This year we baked cookies for the neighbors too, some years we bake other things for the neighbors to mix it up.

I love to try new recipes each year so we don't always have the same things. This year I decided on something in my head and actually found a similar thing on the internet... isn't www a great thing?

I made chocolate blossoms and put a candy cane kiss on the top! I love to make chocolate mint things at Christmas time, isn't that tradition?

Hershey's Chocolate Blossom recipe

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
Additional sugar
1-3/4 cups (10-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S MINI KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates

Directions

1 Beat butter, 1-1/2 cups sugar, eggs and vanilla in large bowl until fluffy. Combine flour, cocoa and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Cover; refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until firm enough to handle.
2 Heat oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-1/8-inch balls; roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
3 Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from oven. Place 3 chocolate pieces on each cookie, pressing down lightly. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

I only made two alterations, one being I used the candy cane kisses instead of the mini kisses. The second is I used the dark cocoa powder.

This is a major keeper recipe in my book. I had a hard time finding the candy cane kisses, but you could make it with other kisses, such as peanut butter or caramel! I will be making these again.

I want to make these with regular cocoa powder and put a peanut butter cup on top of it. That sounds super yummy to me.

Did you make any yummy cookies this year?

project 365 (344 - 350 /2011)

2011-12-19T15:23:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe this year is almost over and that also means that Project 365 is almost over.

344/365

We buy a live Christmas tree to keep outside. We have an artificial one in the house, for a number of reasons. This is the real one after the boys and I decorated it. (please ignore the palm tree in the background that is in desperate need of pruning.. that is in our neighbor's yard)

345/365

My dad came over to watch the boys so Richard and I could go to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert and then out to dinner. Always a fun treat for the boys, and us!

346/365

Blake's holiday concert. His class sang Rudolph and Oh Hanukkah. All the kids in the concert sang Feliz Navidad.

347/365

I love seeing my boys play together, and when you can get Dixie in the mix... too cute.

348/365

The boys were unwrapping candy cane kisses for me. Check in tomorrow for the cookie recipe I used them in! Chocolate blossoms with candy cane kisses... yummy!!

349/365

Peanut butter peanut butter cup cookies... can you say yum-o? yes this was cookie baking week for me.

350/365

Colby was helping make spritz cookies.

pop over to either of these two sites to check out some more great pictures.

outside time

2011-12-18T19:20:00.000-05:00

I'm not one of those people who always says "when I was a kid...", but the last few days I've did a few times.

When I was a child, playing outside was the normal thing to do. All four seasons, yes I do know what seasons are even though I live in Florida now I didn't always, children spent most of the day outside. I remember being outside for hours. In many ways it was the norm to be outside and a treat to play inside. We were always on the go. You knew that any of the neighborhood moms would be watching out for you as you played. My house was kid central and we played there the most, but there were other houses we played at too. We just had to check in from time to time and let my mom know when we were changing venues. You wouldn't think twice to see our garage open and kids playing basketball in the driveway. Others riding bikes up and down the street. Soccer being played in the backyard or football in the front yard. We had a pond in our backyard and there were always kids walking through our yard to go ice skating, play hockey or things like that. Behind a friends' house was a huge hill and we went there to go sledding.

It was a time of fun and activity. We knew what our limits were. But, even more than that our parents knew that the other families had their eyes on us too.

It's not that way now. I'm one of the few stay at home moms in the neighborhood. My boys can play on the porch anytime they want, but they are confined to that unless I'm with them. Now it seems that the norm is to play inside and going outside is the treat. The boys were riding their bikes on the sidewalk this morning and I can't imagine leaving them out there on their own. Yes, they are 3 and 5 but that isn't the only factor. It's scary to think about all we know about the world. Although we live in a "good neighborhood" can I really trust that they won't be abducted if I let them play outside without me there? Could I trust them to go up the playground by themselves. No. What is the big difference there? I think as much as anything else there is the lack of extra eyes. There isn't a connection of mothers who are looking out not only for their own child but mine too.

This is not a dig on working mothers in the least. I soon will be one too, not for another year or so, but I plan to go back to work myself. It is the fact of life that neighborhoods are just so different now. Everyone drives in their driveway / garage, goes in their house and never comes out again. So many families have two full time parents so the only time the kids have to play is the weekends. It saddens me to see this disconnect. To know that my sons will never have as much freedom to be a child as I did. But it is reality.

So instead I have to get them involved. It's the balance that gets harder to find. Kids need to run and play and be kids. They need that physical and imaginary outlet of outdoor play. When you get them involved in sports they have the physical outlet, but it is structured. So I will continue to try to get them to the playground on a regular basis. Set up play-dates with friends and get them out as much as possible.

2011 Review Extravaganza (part 2)

2011-12-16T08:43:00.000-05:00

It's Friday so it must be time for the second installment of the 2011 Review Extravaganza!

Grumpy Grateful Mommy

April started off with a trip to A Day out with Thomas. Both my boys love trains. We took them in 2010, but then Colby got big into Thomas so we went in 2011 too. At this rate you might see us there in 2012 also (o:

I discovered the joy of making hummus. Which I'm totally addicted to still!

We also painted the house. That was a long week, but so worth it!

May was a busy month. I only seemed to manage to post project 365 pictures and Tasty Tuesday recipes. But that month had a few yummy ones like sticky chicken.

One decent post was called How dare you ask me? It was about in interaction at a splash pad with another person who questioned why I was a stay at home mom.

June is Colby's birthday!

I read and raved about the book Room. If you haven't read it... I suggest you do!

I finished up by talking about our summer schedule and trying to keep life sane.

Just to finish it off.... one picture. Blake played t-ball for the first time this summer. He liked it, but it was parent torture!

Changes!

2011-12-14T08:33:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in Saturday's project 365 post that every year we go to Avalon Aglow which is a local parade and tree lighting ceremony. We've gone every year since Blake was an infant. I don't have digital copies of them with Santa each year, but do have picture I took each year of them at the tree.

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Christmas story countdown (part 2)

2011-12-13T07:13:00.000-05:00

Last week I posted the first set of books the boys opened for our Christmas Story countdown. Here's the next installment!

Room for a Little One a Christmas Tale by Martin Waddell, is a beautifully illustrated version of the Christmas story as told by the "kind ox" who let Mary enter the stable.

Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold and Wivian Walsh. I think this is one of my favorite non-traditional Christmas stories. Olive is a dog who hears "All of the other reindeer" and thinks it is Olive the other reindeer. So she goes to the North Pole to help Santa deliver toys.

Rocking Horse Christmas by Mary Pope Osborne. A young boy gets a rocking horse for Christmas. They have many adventures together, but then the boy grows too old for the horse. He is left in the attic until one day the boy's own son finds the horse.

Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco, is written slightly above the level of my boys, but is a great Christmas story. A preacher and his family moves to a new parish. Things seem to be getting better until a big storm that causes a hole in the church wall. The preacher's son finds a piece of tapestry that he wants to buy to cover the hole. On their way home they meet a woman who turns out to be the person who made the tapestry many years earlier. She is a Jewish woman who was separated from her husband in the Holocaust. Come to find out her husband was also in the town and was the person who was coming to plaster the wall. It shows how intertwined our lives actually are is you look closely at the pieces.

Franklin's Christmas Gift by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark. Franklin learns that it is truly better to give than receive as he decided what toy of his to give up to a local toy drive.

Christmas Cookie week!

2011-12-12T15:23:00.000-05:00

Every year one of my favorite things to do is bake Christmas cookies. Ok yes I bake cookies all the time, but for some reason this is just different. Maybe it is because I bake a lot of cookies in one shot? Maybe because I give them away as gifts? Maybe it's because I make some that I never make the rest of the year? Who knows. It probably is a lot of memories of baking with my mom every year at Christmas

This is Christmas Cookie baking week for me. I am making snowball cookies (ie Russian tea cookies), chocolate mint blossoms, peanut butter peanut butter cup cookies, spritz cookies, and oatmeal caramel cookies.

I try to change what I bake each year. I try to have one chocolate cookie, one peanut butter, one sugar and then go from there.

Do you bake Christmas cookies? Do you bake the same ones every year? What is your favorite Christmas cookie?

project 365 (337 - 343 /2011)

2011-12-10T07:36:00.000-05:00

Look... I posted on time! Ok I edited the pictures on Thursday night. Friday night the boys and I had to pick Richard up from the airport so it was a longgg day and late night. Then I only got a picture on my cell phone that day and I almost never remember to upload them to the pc. Sooo... you get 1 day short of a week. (o:

337/365

We went to Avalon Aglow on Saturday to see Santa. This is a yearly trip for our family. Hmmm I should do an over the years post on this. I gave you an extra picture since Richard actually captured a decent picture of me and I know I don't show up in many.

338/365

Hey look the boys were playing with the train track. I know there hasn't been a lot of pictures of this lately, but trust me trains are still big in this house.

339/365

I don't think I've ever posted a tub picture before, but anyway... I couldn't pass up on this one. Dixie loves the water and on more than one occasion has jumped into the tub with the boys.

340/365

This is a site I see every day. We do workbooks every day in the afternoon. Blake does first grade books and Colby does preschool ones. They love workbook time. I can only hope they will love homework time??

341/365

The boys were finishing up an art project we did. We painted the hand print trees the day before. These came out super cute.

342/365

I was cleaning out my car. I actually took out the car seats to vacuum them and ended up taking them out of my car and Richard's truck and washing them too... yuck! Anyway, while I did that Colby decided to get in the front seat and put on the seat belt. I guess Dixie thought this looked like fun so she jumped into the passenger seat too.

343/365
I took a picture of the boys standing in front of the big Christmas tree at OIA (Orlando International Airport) and one of them wearing Santa hats with Mickey ears, but they are on my phone sooo you may never see them... hahaha!

pop over to either of these two sites to check out some more great pictures.

2011 Review Extravaganza (part 1)

2011-12-09T06:35:00.000-05:00

Grumpy Grateful Mommy posted about the 2011 Review Extravaganza and I thought it would be fun. For the four Fridays in December they are having you review your year. It's a chance to look back on the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2011. Hope you enjoy this trip in memory, and take one of your own. Link up if you want!

The first segment is January-March 2011.

A friend of mine from MA was down in Disney so we surprised the boys with a trip to the Magic Kingdom!

The big excitement of January was a trip to see Monster Jam. Anyone who follows my blog knows my boys LOVE monster trucks. They had a blast. You check it out if you want to see them loving the show and many of the trucks on my post from that day. And yes we are going back in 2012 we already have tickets!

February brought about the boys first trip to the dentist. They did... ok!

We took the boys on a hike in the woods on one of the bike trails we frequent, ok Richard frequents. They had a blast. And I got some great photos. Check out the post to see more photos from that day.

In March, Richard and I had a weekend to ourselves and the highlight was a bike trip. We both have mountain bikes but don't often get to ride together.

We try to expose the boys to a variety of entertainment and Mickey Magic show was just up their alley!

The other really big thing that happened in that time frame was Blake's reading ability blasting off. It really hit me how smart he was in March. Read this post to see how and why.

Since this was also the year of my first project 365, I have to leave you with one last picture:

Avoid the meltdowns

2011-12-08T14:37:00.000-05:00

The holidays are a crazy exciting time for children. They are wound up enough with anticipation of the holidays, but then throw changes in schedules on top of that and you are doomed for a meltdown, oh and the kids are too.

I love to bring the holiday excitement into the lives of my children, but at the same time I still want them to behave, sleep, eat well and well... be happy. How do I do this? I keep them in routine. We do a lot of art projects. I dvr the Christmas shows instead of letting them stay up to watch them. We read Christmas stories. We limit the extra stuff during the week.

The weekends are always the time for busyness during the whole year, so going to a tree lighting ceremony, driving around to see Christmas trees, and those kind of thing occur here on the weekends.

We try to keep Christmas simple at home. The boys get gifts from Santa, oh and Santa doesn't wrap gifts here (o: Well not yet anyway. So there is no wait until all the gifts are open to enjoy. The get enough wrapped gifts from the relatives. We don't overdo with gifts either. We try to get one big gift for each child each year and then pick up other gifts we feel they will enjoy.

So if you want to keep your kids on a more even keel this holiday season... keep them in their routine and don't forget to get to bed on time. See if that helps you from having to used the empty threat of no gifts from Santa. This is something I've never said to my boys. I don't use empty promises or threats with them so if I don't actually plan on having them get coal then I won't say it.

A date that will live in infamy

2011-12-07T08:03:00.000-05:00

Pearl Harbor Day, a date which will live in infamy (F. D. Roosevelt). When I think about this day, this statement made at the time, it bothers me. How many people from my generation have ever given Pearl Harbor Day a thought? How many people remember the lives lost on this day? Not many would be my guess.

According to Wikipedia, On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941 America's naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by the forces of the Empire of Japan. More than 2,400 Americans were killed and more than 1,100 were wounded. The attack sank four U.S. Navy battleships and damaged four more. It also damaged or sank three cruisers, three destroyers, one minelayer and damaged 188 aircraft.

Why you ask am I speaking of this today, other than the date? I think there is another date in our history that could be said to be "a date which will live in infamy" and that is 9/11/2001. This is that date that will stick in the lives of so many of my generation, my parents generation, but will it have an impact on the following generations?

Just as Pearl Harbor is a date that is learned about in History class to us, will 9/11 just be a date learned about in History class to my children? Is this why History so often repeats itself.

So in your travels today, take time to reflect on those who lost their lives back in 1941. But, also think about the many thousands of soldiers who fight for our country each day. Think of their families who never know when the next day that will live in infamy will occur. Pray for our government that they find the strength to put the lives of these soldiers first.

We can only hope that history will never repeat itself.

Christmas story countdown

2011-12-06T08:04:00.000-05:00

I have move Christmas books than I could count. I wrap 24 each year as part of our Christmas countdown. I also put some out for the boys to read. This year I also sent some in for Blake's class. His teacher is loving me!

I thought I'd share some of the books we have in our Chrismtas countdown with you. I'm not promoting these books nor do I get anything from sharing... just the knowledge that I've shared with you (o:

The Christmas Blizzard by Helen Ketteman. Old Maynard Jenkins shares the story of the year Santa came to stay in their town because the North Pole was too warm. They needed snow to get the elves to make the toys. Hear the story of how this happens.

The Little Christmas Tree by Karl Ruhmann A boy and his father go into the wood to search for a perfect tree. This is the chance for the little fir tree to show how useful it really is.

The Wild Christmas Reindeer Teeka was asked by Santa to get the reindeer ready for Christmas eve. She learns that a loving touch is more productive than yelling and bossing around.

Santa and the Three Bears, by Dominic Catalano. Three bears find Santa's house a warm comfort from the weather. A variation on the Goldilocks style it ends showing that the best gifts come from the heart.

Snowplace Like Home! by Diana Manning The snow kids decide to find out what made their town special. With a bit of teamwork together they bring their town back to life.

What great Christmas books have you read to your kids lately? If you like this, let me know and I'll post the next 5 stories next week. (o:

project 365 (330 - 336 /2011)

2011-12-05T11:26:00.000-05:00

Yep, I'm late posting again, but with good reason... Richard put new hard drives in our main pc and I didn't want to upload new pictures until that was done. And he updated Windows, which means I got Photoshop Elements 10!

330/365

Guess it was story time on the couch?

331/365

Dixie had been digging in the sandbox. She was COVERED! I thought this picture was too cute.

332/365

Colby had hurt his finger back in the beginning of Nov/end of Oct. His nail decided it was done putting up the fight. I had a bandaid on it for a few days to prevent him from catching it on anything. The morning after it fell off I found this scene in the bathroom. I guess Blake felt that Colby needed one more bandaid.

333/365

Sandbox fun... yes and I was playing with PSE10 for this picture

334/365

Deck the halls with balls of holly....

335/365

We finally put the train around the tree, I forgot to have batteries ready when we put up the tree. That day the boys spent hourssss playing with it. At least, they were sharing and playing nice.

336/365

Blake wanted me to take a picture of him with Abby. He had decided recently that he wants to be the boss of the dogs. He sees me interacting with them and trying to train Dixie and now he wants to "help". Poor Abby liked it better when he ignored her I think.

Get up and moving

2011-12-02T11:15:00.000-05:00

I go through phases where I can't get to the gym as much as I'd like. I don't like to skip but if the boys aren't well or if we have things going on, well the gym takes a backseat.

The last few weeks I've managed to get into the gym 4+ days a week. Let me tell you I notice the difference. I can feel myself working harder and lasting longer. My clothes fit better and I feel more myself.

I workout for myself. I eat "healthy-ish". I could go back to counting calories and doing all that, but then the focus is on weight loss and not just working out. I like to workout and realize I'm doing it to gain strength. I'm doing it to eliminate stress. I'm doing it to feel better about my whole self.

I try to go to step aerobics and pilates on Tuesdays and then back to pilates on Thursdays. I do 30 minutes of cardio everyday (expect Tuesdays since step is already 45 min). I work out with free weights two or three days a week.

Why do I do it? I like putting on my clothes and feeling good about the way I look. I like to put on clothes and not worry if they will fit or not. I also do it to release stress. Any mother can tell you that it is a stressful job. Go workout for 30+ minutes and your stress level will go down!

Remember during this holiday season to take care of yourself. And working out daily is a great way to do just that!

picking books

2011-12-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

When I was in college I took a lot of children's lit classes. As many know I have a love of kid's books. I have just a few... hundreds. This is a good thing since both my boys love literature.

One thing that they stress in these classes is that children should read good literature. Often they say that you should not read/buy books that have characters from tv shows and such. When I was a teacher, I did agree with this for the classroom. All of the books that I read aloud to the class, were considered good literature.

There are some books out there now that they have based children's shows off the books such as Author, by Marc Brown; Frankin, by Brenda Clark and Paulette Bourgeois; Olivia by Ian Falconer and many more. Most of these shows are actually really true to character of the books.

When children are learning to read, you have to find books that interest them. You have to make a connection to thing that they know to get them involved in the story. So, what is the easiest way to do that? Get characters that they know. My sons have Cars stories, Thomas stories, and many others based on the characters they enjoy watching.

Do I think I'm doing a disservice getting these books... nope. I think you need to do a combination of both. So the next time you get books for your children try picking up one that is based on a character or theme your child is really interested in, and one that is not. This way you can engage them in both types of literature and literacy!

Let the countdowns begin... tomorrow

2011-11-30T08:18:00.000-05:00

Wow November was a long month this year for some reason. I'm so ready for December to kick in full force. I'm excited that my boys are so into Christmas this year. Blake woke up the other day and asked to listen to Christmas music. I hear the boys singing along with the radio all the time now. We listen to a 24 hour Christmas music station. The house is decorated. And best of all I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.

I decided I wanted to get some of the more daunting tasks done before the end of November so that I could enjoy the holiday season with my sons. I managed to get my Christmas cards done, ok so I was short a few envelopes and haven't bought stamps yet, but still. I have the boys shopping done, we have a few things to pick up or wait for them to be shipped and then stocking stuff. I have a few more small projects for the grandparents to do, but nothing major.

Tomorrow starts our Christmas countdowns. We have 3 this year. Each day we will open one Christmas story to read together. We have a magnetic cookie tray that we will take one "cookie" off each day to countdown to Christmas. This year each of the boys also made a Santa that is hanging on their bedroom door. Each day they will add one cotton ball to it to fill in Santa's beard.

I hope you are enjoying getting ready for the holiday season. I know we are!

Updated look

2011-11-29T19:35:00.002-05:00

I struggled with finding the right look for my blog this month for some reason. I think I found one that makes me happy. Hope you like it too (o:

Salsa Lime Chicken

2011-11-29T08:09:00.000-05:00

I found this recipe on Pinterest. I'm always looking for new chicken recipes and the fact that this is Tex-Mex... well that is a bonus.

Ingredients

1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup chunky salsa
12 flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed
Sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce, optional

Directions

Place the chicken in a 3-qt. slow cooker. Combine lime juice and chili powder; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is tender.
Remove chicken; cool slightly. Shred meat with two forks and return to the slow cooker; heat through. Stir in corn and salsa.
Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve in tortillas with sour cream, cheese and lettuce if desired. Yield: 12 tacos.

I omitted the corn since I didn't have any at the time. I added cumin, garlic powder and paprika. I also increased the lime juice. I juiced 2 limes, don't ask me how much liquid that is.
I took the chicken out for the boys after shredding. I also served this over rolls instead of in a taco wrap.

We found this a bit watery, but that could because I didn't let it cook in the salsa long enough. Richard tried it the next day and liked it a lot better. He also did it in a soft taco wrap and said that was the better way to eat it.

I will probably try this again. I'll use less lime and then let it cook longer in the salsa.

Deck the Halls with lights and ornaments

2011-11-28T08:22:00.000-05:00

What a busy few days! Ok it was a busy week. Blake had the week off from school. This was the first time in a few years that I've had Blake home for a whole week. Blake is very much a creature of habit, and the change was tough on him. But, it was all good.

Thursday we spend Thanksgiving with my family. The boys had a great time playing with my oldest nephew. There was good food, lots of laughs, a parade, some football and lots of fun.

Friday, Richard and I decided to go to the Y in the morning. Then we got all the Christmas stuff down out of the attic. I put away all the Thanksgiving decorations too. We then headed to UCF for the football game. Even though UCF won, but a LOT it was just and ok game.

Saturday, Richard had to work. His industry has a huge convention this week and he had to go set up the booth on Saturday. The boys and I went off to BJ's for Blake Friday sales... ok it was Saturday, but the coupons were still good. I then decided to get the house ready to put up all the Christmas stuff. I moved all the furniture out of the living room and vacuumed and shampooed the rug. Then moved all the furniture back in a different arrangement making room for the tree. The boys and I then went outside where I weeded the front flower beds and started putting out the outside lights. We then came back inside and put up all the decorations except the tree.

Sunday, we put up the tree. The boys helped me decorate it by putting all of their ornaments. They also helped put up some of the other ones too. We then went outside and finished the outside lights. Richard put the lights on the roof, while I put the lights on the palm trees.

So there you have our busy start of the holiday season weekend.

When do you deck the halls? In my family it was always the weekend after Thanksgiving and as you can see... I've continued that tradition!

project 365 (323- 329 /2011)

2011-11-27T20:10:00.000-05:00

323/365

We went to Touch a Truck. The boys had a BLAST!

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Richard's parents gave Blake a mini jack. The boys had fun playing with it.

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Colby's Thomas magazine came in the mail, the boys had fun going through all the pages

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Went to the playground with some friends. I snapped this photo of the clouds

327/365

Playing with a marble track

328/365

Turkey Day! Blake made the Pilgrim hat at school. Colby made the turkey hat at the Y.

329/365
This picture is on my phone. maybe I'll post it next week?

check that off the list

2011-11-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

I love getting things done. Especially when I can get it done ahead of time. I feel that way about Christmas shopping. I'm not one of those last minute people. I like to plan things out and then get it done. I've finished shopping for the boys, except for a few more things for their stockings. I've finished Richard's parents. I've finished my nephews. Picked up gifts for Blake's teachers. Picked up the special Christmas cards (parents, grandparents kind of thing).

So that leaves: my parents, Richard's sister and Richard (we only do stockings for each other). I have a few thoughts for Richard's sister. I have a few things for my parents, but need to figure out one or two more things. I have no clue what to get for Richard's stocking but that hits me at odd times usually. I still need to make the Christmas card for us to mail to the masses.

So for me I feel like I'm on the right path to be done with everything way before Christmas this year. Then I can focus on baking. Doing special little things with the boys and such.

I already wrapped the 24 Christmas stories to read as part of our Christmas countdown and this year I'm going to make Christmas countdowns for each of the boys... more on that later.

So, yep, I'm feeling good. Maybe I'll even find time soon to make my new background for my blog... maybe!

Happy Thanksgiving (eve)

2011-11-23T19:17:00.000-05:00

May your turkey be crisp and your stuffing fluffy.
May your pies be perfect and your leftovers yummy

May your blessings be many and your hearts be full
May your bounty overflow and your home aglow

Wishing you a Thanksgiving full of good food, lots of love, laughs and smiles.

Enjoy your turkey day!

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken

2011-11-22T08:34:00.000-05:00

This is a recipe that I've mentioned before on my blog, and some how never managed to post it as a Tasty Tuesday. Pretzel crusted chicken!

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Breasts With Cheddar Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

4 quart-size plastic food storage bags
4 small, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 5-ounce bag of salted pretzels, any shape
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
Vegetable oil, for frying

Yields: 4 servings

Preparation

Preheat a large non-stick skillet with a 1/4-inch of vegetable oil over medium-high heat.
Sprinkle a little water into four medium food storage baggies. Place 1 chicken breast in each bag and seal it up, pushing out excess air. Use the bottom of a heavy pot or pan and pound each breast until flat, just shy of busting out of the bag. Repeat with the other 3 chicken breasts.

Place the pretzels in a food processor or blender and grind until fine. Transfer the ground pretzels to a shallow dish, add the thyme and some salt and pepper. Crack and beat 2 eggs in a second shallow dish with a splash of water. One at a time, coat each chicken breast in the egg and then the ground pretzels.

Add the pretzel-coated chicken breast to the hot oil. Cook in a single layer, in 2 batches if necessary, about 3 or 4 minutes on each side, until the juices run clear and breading is evenly browned.

I usually make these as tenders or nuggets so I don't have to pound it out thin. I've also started baking them instead of frying, less messy and healthier. (350 for 10-15 min depending on the thickness of the chicken pieces. I always cut the thickest one open) I've done it where I add spicy or honey mustard to the egg mixture. I've also used garlic powder, mustard powder, and more pepper in the mix too. It is easy to manipulate the way you want. The saltier pretzels are better.

As you can guess since we make them all the time we really like this meal. It is super easy and yummy. There are many ways to switch it up depending on what you like on your chicken and or pretzel. Blake really likes these too. They are crunchy, salty, and yummy.

I think next time I'm use garlic powder, chili powder and cumin on them... hmmm that sounds good too. dip them in salsa!

project 365 (316- 322 /2011)

2011-11-21T15:21:00.000-05:00

316/365

We had Blake's birthday party with his friends from school. Not many came, but they had a great time.

317/365

We headed over to Downtown Disney to the Festival of the Masters. They have people doing chalk drawing there, and let the kids do their own too.

318/365

One of Blake's friends brought him color changing cars for his birthday. The boys had fun dunking the cars in the ice cold water and warming it up again to change the colors back and forth

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More sandbox fun!

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The weather has been beautiful here lately. The boys decided to do workbook time outside. The dogs decided it made a good nap time I guess.

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Blake wanted some of the ice cream we made for desert. I had to laugh watching him lick the ice cream off his spoon. Silly kid

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Colby and I got to go into Blake's class for a Thanksgiving feast. The boys were all dressed as Pilgrims and the girls all as Native Americans. Blake didn't look very comfortable in his vest.

pop over to either of these two sites to check out some more great pictures.

project 365 (310- 315 /2011)

2011-11-16T19:35:00.000-05:00

310/365

pizza anyone?

311/365

Thanksgiving projects have started

312/365

Went to Epcot and they had begun transitioning over to Christmas. The boys were fascinated with the huge Christmas tree.

313/365

Want some pancakes with your syrup?

314/365

We went to a new playground near the local airport. Blake was finishing up dinner and the son was setting behind him. I love this picture.

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Dixie was watching the boys ride their bikes.

We also baked Blake's birthday cake

funk?

2011-11-16T11:07:00.000-05:00

In a funk. I seem to be in a blogging funk. I know I need to find time to edit pictures, but just haven't found that time yet. I've been busy with life. We are dealing with some health issues with Dixie, so that takes up time.

Monday was Richard's birthday so we did somethings to celebrate that. Yesterday Richard and I were at the specialist vet with Dixie. Today I've already been to the school to sign off papers to get Blake dismissed from speech. Then after we dropped Blake at school, Colby and I headed to BJ's to do a "big" shop. We needed meat, like we only had 1 package of ground turkey and that's it in the freezer. So we picked up chicken, ham steaks, skirt steaks and ground turkey as well as other stuff.

I didn't have a recipe to post yesterday, so there was no tasty Tuesday. Today well, there is lots on my mind, but nothing major to blog about. Little things like, menu planning for the next phase of birthday fun. We are celebrating Blake and Richard's birthdays with our families on Saturday. We are also going to Touch a Truck Saturday morning.

Maybe I'll get back into my bloggy groove soon.

Hope everyone had a great Wednesday.

Pictures to see?

2011-11-14T08:27:00.000-05:00

I bet you were expecting to see a post of pictures today. Yep, I know you thought, I'd have my project 365 pictues ready, or Blake's birthday party or something. But, sad to say I don't. We had a busy weekend.

Saturday we went out and ran a few errands before Blake's Nascar party. Then well there was the party set up, and the party and the the clean up. The kids all seemed to have a great time.

Sunday we got up and going again. This time we headed to Downtown Disney to the Festival of the Masters. This is an art festival that is held there every year. Some of the high lights are these really huge and very cool chalk drawings that are done on the sidewalks. They also have interactive stations for the kids. But the real reason we went this year was because of Lego. At the Lego store they were making a new Lego dinosaur named Brickly, and the kids got to make a lego "brick" to be included in Brickly. They had to make a four layer brick in either red, green or yellow. They then got a certificate of being a Lego master.

When we got home we quickly changed, packed the bikes, the bike trailer, the boys and Dixie and headed to a local bike trail. We met up with a co-worker of Richard's to go on a bike ride. This was the first time bringing Dixie with us. There were times when she was pulling Richard who was pulling the trailer, yep she is STRONG!

So needless to say I've yet to upload the pictures onto the computer to edit them so you will have to wait. (o:

Happy 5th Birthday Blake

2011-11-11T06:47:00.001-05:00

5 years ago today I became a mother. Hard to believe it. I love to watch both my sons learn and grow, but Blake never ceases to amaze me every day in what he knows and does. Blake is an athlete, an intellect, a caring child, a book lover, a sports fan, a great brother, a kind friend. He is stubborn, looks at the world as black and white, loves to win but is still a good looser. He sees the world with the innocence of a child, but comprehends a lot more than people expect. He and I might butt heads from time to time, but I love him with all my heart. In many ways he is a Momma's boy, but trust me he is all Blake!

I love you Blake Thomas and I can't wait to see what the next year will bring. Love, Mommy

My choices

2011-11-10T07:56:00.000-05:00

This week the boys and I have kept very busy. Busy is good! I told you already we went to see the Mouse. Yesterday we met up with friends at a new, to us, playground. This playground is located near Orlando Executive Airport. This was really neat as you can watch the planes take off and land. They also have air traffic control pipped into the pavilion.

These two trips got me thinking about changes in the world. Heavy I know! But, what I was thinking is that my sons will probably never live in a world where bags aren't checked. Where security is high around ever corner.

My friend and I were talking about protecting our children from the personality of other children. Trying to shield them from children who are trying to grow up too fast. I don't keep my boys in a bubble, but at the same time I want them to be kids. I don't want them to be mini teenagers at 5.

I'm not one of those people who is always saying "when I was a kid..." But, when I was a kid, kids were kids. They played outside. They played with friends. They played with toys that required imagination.

I guess some could say I shelter my boys. I limit their tv and technology use. I choose open ended toys that allow them to use their imaginations. I do art projects, play play doh, race cars, play sports and read to my boys all the time.

The world may force them to grow up. To realize that not everyone is fair. That not everyone is nice. But, I can help them be children and learn to love life.

Thanksgiving?

2011-11-09T12:51:00.000-05:00

Where is Thanksgiving? I am really beginning to wonder if Thanksgiving is soon going to be a lost holiday? Ok I know people aren't going to want to give up Turkey dinner, a short week, Thanksgiving football games any time soon. But, do you notice that we seem to be jumping straight from Halloween to Christmas. Actually I saw Christmas coming out in a lot of stores before Halloween this year. That's one thing, but at least down here the plazas and towns are putting up their holiday decorations already too.

We went to Disney yesterday and I knew we'd see Christmas stuff there. They begin it early so that those who visit in November can celebrate the Disney Christmas magic. Yep, it's a money thing too.

But, seriously does the Walmart plaza down the street really need their Christmas decorations up on the street lights now?

Will Christmas loose some of it's magical feel if they keep starting earlier and earlier? Will children not get as excited because it is norm for months to see Christmas everywhere? Will it motivate you to start thinking about Christmas shopping earlier? Who knows. But for me, Christmas season doesn't start until after turkey day.

Disney Question

2011-11-08T09:53:00.000-05:00

Oops I don't have a recipe for today. Probably won't be one next week either. Guess I'm slacking on the new meals/recipes.

I have Walt Disney World as one of my "likes" on Facebook. Today their status is a question that I found interesting.

If I could start my day with a hug from any Disney character, I’d hug ____________.

I quick looked through the list and saw many of the names I expected to see. I was thinking... hmmm who would I want a hug from? When I was a child the answer would be easy... Minnie Mouse. There is a picture of me shaking hands with Cinderella and I wasn't happy because she was blocking me from getting Minnie's attention at the parade. I'm not not, and never really have been, a princess fan. People who know me probably would not be shocked by that statement.

Mickey is my favorite character, but that seems so obvious. So then I was thinking who else? I'm taking the boys to Magic Kingdom and Epcot today to meet a friend I met on-line while pregnant with Blake then have dinner over at Epcot. I'll have to keep my eyes open and think, who would I want a hug from?

What about you?

Thankful

2011-11-07T11:35:00.000-05:00

On Facebook, I've been participating in posting one thing I'm thankful for each day from Nov 1st to Turkey Day. It's nice to slow down and think about all the things I'm thankful for each day. The first days are easy, the boys, Richard, the dogs, friends, family etc. But then you have to dig deep and really think. Today I posted that I'm thankful for the little things that make me smile. The sound of the boys laughing, watching tv with Richard, a smile, a text from a friend, hugs, that kind of thing. It's the time to think about the little moments in life that mean the most. If we didn't have these little moments of sunshine in our lives each day, what would our lives be like?

I encourage you to think about what you are thankful for? What makes you smile? What makes your day a bit more bearable? I know I'm enjoying this time of refection.

project 365 (302 - 309 /2011)

2011-11-06T20:30:00.001-05:00

302/365

This was our final game of the season. I can honestly say all in all it was a good time and all the kids improved their soccer skills. They each scored at least once during the season and seemed to have a great time.

303/365

The day before Halloween means pumpkin carving and cookie making around here

304/365

This was the moon Halloween night. Want to check out the boys costumes? I posted them on Wednesday.

305/365

What should you do on the first day of November? Why not take down Halloween and put up Thanksgiving?

306/365

We took the boys to UCF to tailgate before the game. I took the boys home while Richard stayed to watch the game. They had a great time and enjoyed playing. They got to wave to the players bus, meet Pegasus and Knightro.

307/365

A sight I often see. Blake with a pile of books reading. This is in the office at our house, one benefit of having been a kindergarten teacher, he doesn't go for want of a book to read.

308/365

Colby had a friend over for a play date.

309/365

We took the boys to go see a UCF basketball game. They had a blast.

Seriously?

2011-11-04T17:42:00.000-04:00

I was watching the news this morning to see the weather report. I caught a clip that I found disturbing. It was not graphic, it was not violent, it was not obscene and yet it still rubbed me the wrong way.

A 14 year old honor student was suspended from his middle school for hugging a friend. Yep you read that right. Don't believe me? Click here to read the ABC article on it.

Can you seriously believe that they have got so obsessed with good touch/ bad touch that they have made it against the rules to hug? Or hold hands? All I could think was I hope they don't have those rules in elementary school, because young children hug all the time. I used hugging as part of the process of making amends to a friend.

I can understand that they are trying to discourage "relationships" in middle school, but come on, isn't this a bit much? It says in the article that if they are caught kissing it is an out of school suspension. Do teachers really have time to police this stuff or want to, I can tell you the answer to that... NO!

So voice your thoughts. Is hugging bad enough for in school suspension? I think you know what I feel

TV trouble

2011-11-03T09:41:00.000-04:00

Over the years, I've limited what they boys watch on television. We go through long stints where they don't watch any tv at all. Then when they do watch it, it is typically limited to Disney Jr or Nick Jr. They also watch racing (Nascar and Formula One) with Richard. And the occasional football game.

Now that Blake is in school every day and getting to a more impressionable age he is noticing that he not watching some things that his peers get to watch. He has been talking about Power Rangers a lot lately. He tells me that he's going to tell his friends he watches Power Rangers, so then we get into a conversation about the truth vs lies.

But, it is hard as a mother to hear that her child would lie to fit in. I do not plan on letting him watch these shows. Instead I took a different route and talked about some of the things he really likes that his friends might not do such as watching Formula 1. We also talked about other things he and his friends have in common such as playing sports and such.

It is hard to find the balance between what you know is what you want for your child and helping them fit into their peer group. I know it will only get harder and if we can deal with being yourself and not caving in to the "expected norm" now at 5 then maybe we won't have as hard of a time at 15?

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T08:12:00.000-04:00

As promised... Halloween pictures. Blake was Mark Webber, a Formula One driver for the Red Bull team. Colby was a T-Rex, in the last picture you can see his tail.

Hope everyone had fun trick-or-treating, those who didn't have it canceled due to the snow storm.

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough?

2011-11-01T08:13:00.002-04:00

**Halloween pictures coming tomorrow**

I found this recipe on Pinterest. Who wouldn't be intrigued by something that tastes like chocolate chip cookie dough, but is healthy? Richard and I were going to a party and I was trying to figure out what to bring. I decided to do something different.

Cookie Dough Dip
Inspired by this awesome recipe.

1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained) (250g)
1/8 tsp plus 1/16 tsp salt
tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup nut butter (You can get away with using only 3 T. If you use peanut butter, it’ll have a very-slight “pb cookie dough” taste, so if you don’t want this, you can sub oil.)
up to 1/4 cup nondairy milk (Start with 1 T, and add more as needed)
Sweetener (see note below, for amount)
1/3 cup chocolate chips
2 to 3 T oats (or flaxmeal) (You can omit, but also omit the milk if you do)

Add all ingredients (except for chocolate chips) to a blender or food processor, and blend until very smooth. Then mix in the chocolate chips.
See the following link for a Sugar-Free Version.
Sweetener Notes: I used 2/3 cup brown sugar when I first made this for the party. Liquid sweeteners (agave, maple, etc.) are fine as well. You can easily get away with less sugar– some people will be perfectly fine with just 3 T for the whole recipe! And if you don’t want any sugar, be sure to check out the “no-sugar” version linked above. (You can also use stevia, if you like the taste of stevia-sweetened desserts. Try 2-3 packets of NuNaturals stevia, and add more sweetener if needed. I wouldn’t recommend serving an all-stevia version to party guests, though.)

I used brown sugar, real milk, and almond butter.

This was really good. It did taste like cookie dough. I had someone ask me for the recipe after the party. I severed it with pretzels and graham crackers. (the pretzels were more for the chocolate peanut butter hummus I brought too).

Next time think I'll try the peanut butter instead of the almond to see how that tastes. I'd also like to toast up the oats before adding them too.

Trick or Treat down memory lane

2011-10-31T13:47:00.000-04:00

2010

2009

2008

project 365 (294 - 301 /2011)

2011-10-30T12:59:00.000-04:00

294/365

Took the boys and the dogs to the playground. They had a lot of fun in the tennis courts

295/365

296/365

Sneak peek at their costumes. I will take better pictures on Halloween. This was a birthday party for a classmate of Blake's

Colby had a piece of shredded cheese dangling off his chin. I thought it was too funny

297/365

We dropped Richard off at the airport. The boys were watching him check his baggage.

298/365

I gave the boys white paint and black paper and told them to paint ghosts

299/365

Dixie was digging in the sandbox. Colby decided to test out the hole

300/365

Tailgating desert

301/365

The Toys R Us Big Book came in the mail

pop over to either of these two sites to check out some more great pictures.

Catching up

2011-10-28T10:33:00.000-04:00

Wow I never did get around to posting yesterday. Guess that would be because we were busy? In some ways we were less busy during the day. Colby woke up with a cough so I skipped the Y. But instead we came home and while he watched movies I fixed both their costumes, cleaned up and made some decisions. After picking up Blake, we made a batch of finger cookies. These are very cool. We are bringing them to tailgating tomorrow, and Richard brought some to work today too. Then we had an early dinner before soccer practice. After practice we drove straight to the airport and then back home. The boys are happy to have Richard home again, ok I am too (probably more than them).

Blake doesn't have school today. We decided to have a lazy morning so the boys are watching Cars. Soon we will head to the grocery store to get everything for the meals this week.

Pretzel chicken
tailgating (we only need to bring desert)
individual Stromboli
pressed sandwiches (since it's Halloween)
steak fajitas
leftovers (haven't decided what yet)
mock chicken parm

We are making candy-corn sugar cookies to take for a soccer snack tomorrow. Then maybe watch It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

I started working on my new background and topper for November. Seems like I just made this Halloween version. Hard to believe we will soon be talking about Christmas. But, first I have to get through Halloween, Richard traveling again, Blake and Richard's birthdays and Thanksgiving. Yep, another busy month here.

bits of this and that

2011-10-26T10:10:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that October is almost over. I have so much to do to get ready for the weekend. Blake doesn't have school on Friday. Saturday is our last soccer game and we have a UCF football game. Then Monday is Halloween (as you know)

I signed up to do the last snack for soccer, so I need to figure out what I'm doing for the snack. I might make muffins, we will see. I need to make desert to bring tailgating. I was thinking of doing a Halloween treat, but then they moved their pink game (for breast cancer awareness) to this weekend since the last game it rained buckets and well almost no one went to the game. Then I signed up to bring cookies to Blake's Halloween party at school. Guess I'm going to be baking just a bit the next few days.

Last night I made a new pancake recipe. I've always been lazy and used the big yellow box mix, which is fine, but shocking since well I make a lot from scratch. The pancakes turned out really well. The boys enjoyed them. Blake devoured almost the whole batch. Colby ate a few too, but he was more into the bacon. I cooked a pound of bacon, put 3 slices in my omelet and Blake ate 1 slice. Colby polished off the rest of the pound. No wonder he also drank 3 glasses of milk and then two glasses of water.

The boys and I did two art projects yesterday too. I love the fact that they are both big into the holidays this year. They are talking about Halloween a lot, but they are also starting to talk about Christmas too. Quite often I'm having to read Christmas books now, and sing Christmas carols. I know the holidays will be a lot of fun for them.

I've been very good this year, I have not broken into the Halloween candy even though the bags are sitting on the dining room table. I'm back into working out 4-5 days a week. I love the routine this puts into my day. It also gives Colby more time with other kids and in a different structured environment. The weather has been nice here so the boys are playing outside a lot when they are home.

Ok this post is a bit of a ramble, but hey that's what was on my mind at the time. (o:

Chicken and Corn Chili Stoup

2011-10-25T08:43:00.000-04:00

I found this recipe in Family Circle, back in the February issue, but am just trying it now. I have a folder in the drawer with my cookbooks of recipes I cut out to try later. Since we had a cool front I decided it was time to try out a new "Stoup" recipe. This recipe is Chicken & Corn Chili soup. (Note it was a soup, but I'm making a Stoup)

Chicken & Corn Chili Soup
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion chopped
1 green bell pepper cored and chopped
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can low sodium chicken broth
1 1/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
1 bx frozen corn, thawed
2 cans cannellini beans drained and rinsed
shredded cheddar cheese

--Heat oil in large pan over medium heat. Add onion and green pepper. Cook, stirring 5 min. Stir in cumin, coriander and chili powder; cook 1 min

-- Stir in chicken broth and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer. Add chicken. cover and simmer over low heat for 10 min or until chicken is cooked through

-- Stir in corn, beans and salt into pot. Heat through. Spoon into bowls and top with cheese

I added chopped carrots and a jalepeno. I used RoTel chopped tomatos with chili's and did not drain the can. I also increased the cumin (apx 2 tsp) and chili powder (apx 1.5 Tbps). I did not use corriander, but instead added paprika (apx 1 tsp), garlic powder (apx 1 Tbsp) and ground red pepper (apx 1/2 tsp).

I used a little less than 1/2 a box of stock in a box.

I grilled the chicken breasts ahead of time and just added it to the stoup towards the end of the cooking time

I also omitted the beans (I'm not a bean fan)

This was really tasty. It needed more heat in my opinion, but if you follow my blog you know we like heat! I loved the heartiness of it. Richard wasn't a fan of the carrots, but I liked the sweetness. He isn't a fan of cooked carrots. We ended up serving it with tortilla chips, which added another layer of crunch and salt.

I will be making this again. I think I will either add hot sauce, more jalapenos or get a RoTel with the habeneros to increase the heat level. If you like just a bit of heat, you will probably really like it the way it is written.

Pumpkins, some good, some... not so much

2011-10-24T08:13:00.000-04:00

As promised on Friday, a late project post.

Last week, we did two pumpkin projects, both found on pinterest.

The first turn out as a royal flop. We were supposed to make homemade play dough. Then make pumpkins with Mickey ears. Here's the link to the original post, in case you want to try yourself. I will admit that I can think of a few reasons why it flopped. I only had sea salt at home and coarse salt at that. It was super humid that day which effects dough consistency. I was also trying to make them bigger than suggested.

note ours turned out flat. Mine is the left, Colby in the middle (I helped him), and Blake's on the right.

As you may have seen yesterday in project 365, we also made circle pumpkins.

I cut 30 orange strips of paper and 2 green. Then stapled them into circles. I drizzled glue on the paper and let them go to town. These came our really cool, in my opinion.

project 365 (287 - 293 /2011)

2011-10-23T08:22:00.001-04:00

287/365

The boys decided to try out their bounce back race cars in the sandbox. They had a blast playing together

288/365

What a busy day that was! We had soccer in the morning then headed to a petting zoo which had pumpkins at the end.

289/365

The beginning of the Halloween costumes!

290/365

The boys went out to ride their bikes. Colby has recently learned to pedal his tricycle, and is very happy about that fact.

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Richard had a turn around business trip so on Monday he was up at 5am to fly out. Then on Tuesday he was up at 3am to fly back. He was a bit tired when he got home. At one point it laid down to rest, Colby went and got his pillow and baby blanket for Richard and then cuddled up with him.

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The boys have been out in the sandbox playing Monster Jam a lot since the weather is beautiful (notice the long sleeves?) I really liked both these pictures, so you get to see both of them

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A sneak peek at one of the art projects we did that week. Yes, I found it on pinterest! (Have you checked it out yet? You should!)

pop over to either of these two sites to check out some more great pictures.

end of the month craziness

2011-10-21T15:03:00.000-04:00

Ok, yes I know I usually post projects on Friday, but I haven't had a chance to edit the pictures yet. To be honest I haven't had a chance to get them off my camera yet. Yesterday I worked on Colby's Halloween costume. Today we have done a bit of this that and the other thing. Including making cran-apple crisp, cooking chickpeas to make 2 hummus dips to bring to a party tomorrow night, going to the playground and much more. I need to finish working on Blake's costume tonight. We have a birthday party on Sunday and the kids are wearing their costumes.

Last night we had a make-up soccer game, then stayed and watched the High School's Homecoming Parade. The kids were as excited for that as they were for the game.

It seems like the closer we get to the end of October the busier my life gets. I'm also working on Blake's birthday invitations. He is having a party with his classmates this year for the first time. In the past it has been a combination family and family friend party. Now that he's in school full-time I decided it was time to let him have a kid party.

Richard is traveling next week, oh and the week of Blake's birthday. Yep lots to do before the party!

Well I must get back to my chores. But, I will get the project post out soon... I promise. Project 365 will probably be late too... oh well such is life!

Quality vs Quantity

2011-10-19T12:23:00.000-04:00

As the holidays, and Blake's birthday, approaches, it gets me thinking about toys and what the boys do and don't need. I probably am in the minority with a few things I think, but hey that's what opinion are all about!

In the last five years I have yet to buy my sons a birthday gift. We do something special with them the day of their birthday, but don't get them gifts. Our goal is to make the day special to them. Last year Blake was sick on his birthday, but we still took brownies into his class and made his favorite meals. For Colby's birthday we watched his favorite shows and spent a lot of time playing Thomas.

This year Blake will get to bring snacks in for his class on his birthday. The next day we will have a party for his classmates. He will take him out to dinner on his birthday at the place of his choice. The next weekend we will have the family over for dinner.

For Christmas we buy each of the boys one special bigger gift and then some gifts to share. We ask them to tell Santa one thing they really want and try to accommodate that in some form. At this point all the gifts are from Santa and none of them are wrapped. This means when they wake up they walk in and can see all that Santa has brought.

We don't buy them a ton of stuff because we are trying to teach them quality over quantity. They don't need a ton of stuff that will break within the first week of playing with it. They need a few really good quality items that they can play with over and over. They need items that mean something to them. I've always found that when children have too much stuff they appreciate the stuff they have less.

I know many people think that children need to have the biggest pile at Christmas. That children expect to get the most. But, isn't that taught? I also don't make sure they have the same number of items. Why should number mean anything? I choose items that I think one or both children will use and enjoy. I try to spend about the same amount of money, but I won't buy cheap items to fill in the missing money or number of items.

It always drives me crazy when people buy kids things that you know will break. Why buy it? What is that teaching children? Wouldn't it be better to buy them 1 good item than 5 cheap ones? I think so.

Chicken enchilada Pasta

2011-10-18T07:32:00.000-04:00

Richard and I are Tex-Mex fans. We have some kind of Tex-Mex every week. But, having tacos, fajatas, or such over and over can get old. At least we can switch up the protein. When I saw this recipe for Chicken Enchilada Pasta on Pinterest I pinned it. (Have you tried Pinterest yet? You don't know what your missing and I'm not as obsessed with it as many) Then a few weeks ago I decided it was time for a new main dish recipe!

CHICKEN ENCHILADA PASTA
2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 {4 oz.} can diced green chiles
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
2 {10 oz.} cans green chili enchilada sauce
2/3 cups red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cheese
1 cup sour cream
Penne pasta

Optional toppings
Avocado
Green Onions
Black Olives
Tomatoes
Sour Cream

--Cook chicken, drain, and shred. Meanwhile boil pasta according to package and chop the veggies.
--Heat the olive oil in a deep skillet and cook onions for about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper then cook for another 3-5 minutes.
--Add cooked chicken, green chiles, cumin, chili powder, salt, & enchilada sauces. Let sauce simmer for about 8-10 minutes.
--Add cheese and stir until the cheese is melted and heated through. Now toss in the sour cream, but whatever you do, DO NOT bring to a boil! Cook on low heat or the sour cream will curdle. Stir until sour cream is well mixed and heated through.
--Drain pasta, return to pot. Pour sauce over pasta and mix well. Serve and garnish with avocado, tomato, green onion, and a dollop of sour cream.

I grilled 2 chicken breast, this way I could serve the boys the plain grilled chicken. I also used one green and one orange pepper instead of red, cause that's what I had! I did not use any of the optional toppings. I used up the sour cream I had or I would have put that on mine.

This was really good. Richard was leery at first since he isn't a creamy fan. But, we both enjoyed it. I wished I had used hot enchilada sauce, but I couldn't get it where I picked up the ingredients. I wished it had more of a kick. I also think I would like less pasta and more chicken and veggies, but that's just me.

I will be making this again. I will bump up the heat level. Maybe, add in some jalapenos? It would make a good dish to serve to company since it was Tex-Mex without knocking you off your seat, even if Richard and I prefer it that way (o:

weekend update!

2011-10-17T06:47:00.000-04:00

Weekend update:
We had a fun and busy weekend. Blake had no school on Friday, teacher in service day. We went to the Y, a rare treat for him now, then to Publix. The boys had a blast playing out in the backyard together. I made a batch of muffins, and they went straight into the trash, yep screwed that recipe up major! Richard came home early and mowed the lawn while the boys played out front. Colby was trying again to ride his tricycle and finally mastered the whole pedaling thing!

Saturday was super crazy busy. We had a soccer game at 9:30am. It was a good game. We only had 5 players show up (we play 4 on 4) so everyone got a lot of playtime. Then we came home, showered, had lunch and were off again. This time we went to the farm. The boys had a blast seeing, touching and learning about the animals. We haven't been in almost 2 years so it was fun to see them experience it again, but older. Colby was right in there trying to touch all the animals. Blake did better than I expected, but he still isn't quite comfortable with going up and touching them. I have lots of pictures to edit and share.

Sunday we had a quiet day home. We filled the back of the pick up with Goodwill stuff. It always feels good to clean that stuff out of the house. Each of the boys had to pick 3 things out of their toy boxes that they don't use anymore. Some went to Goodwill and some of the others will go to the Y's childcare today.

Today is Monday and I'm up early because Richard is off on travel again. At least this time it's only for 2 days.

Hope you have a great weekend. This week's goals for me... get the boys Halloween costumes made! Guess I should buy candy too. Do you have your costumes ready? Candy purchased?

project 365 (280 - 286 /2011)

2011-10-15T08:28:00.003-04:00

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Watching tv, a rare and fun treat

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What to do on a rainy day? Play in the bathtub with your clothes on of course!

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Splash! Just a bit of rain fell over the weekend. Check out yesterdays post to see how I turned the puddle into a learning activity.

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Richard taught the boys to play checkers

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Watching a tv show while Mommy showers

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Can you tell that Dixie likes Colby?...

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And Blake? Please read me a story too.

pop over to either of these two sites to check out some more great pictures.

Making streams, bats and more

2011-10-14T13:22:00.000-04:00

We have done a lot of projects this week...

I gave each of the boys a piece of white paper, some red and yellow paint and told them to paint it for a pumpkin (I don't know why Colby's red paint looks orange in the picture, but it was red)

The next day, I cut them into pumpkin shapes. The boys then took black paper shapes and made them into jack o'lanterns.

Another day we decided to do a project. The boys couldn't agree on one, so we did two.

I traced their hands on piece of black paper, cut a circle out and then face pieces to make bats:

I gave them a sheet of white paper divided into three sections.

Over the weekend it rained a little, as in they recorded almost 7" of rain from Friday to Sunday. There was just a little bit of water in the sandbox. The boys had a lot of fun jumping in it, check out tomorrow's pictures to see more of that. On Monday I decided to give the sandbox a hand drying out and do a project with the boys at the same time. All the water was collected in one end of the sandbox. So we made rivers, lakes, islands, and streams.

Yes, the monster trucks had to test out water ways too.

Dinner changes

2011-10-13T13:01:00.000-04:00

Like so many families we have picky eaters here. The strange thing is they are picky in two different ways. There are somethings that they both eat, but there is a lot that one will eat and the other won't.

Blake eats meats, bread, pizza, apples, bananas, grilled cheese, hot dogs, carrots, peanut butter, tuna, french fries, bagels, cereal (dry), pancakes, waffles, bacon and more.

Colby eats yogurt, peanut butter, cottage cheese, pasta, rice, apples, grapes, oatmeal, cereal (with milk), jelly, carrots, dried strawberries, rice cakes, pancakes, waffles, bacon and some more

Do you notice how few overlaps there are?

I have always made them what they want for breakfast and lunch. I will probably always do this for I feel that there should be times when they get to pick their own foods. This way I can also eat whatever I want for these meals.

I always tried to come up with meals that I could modify for one boy or the other. There are sometimes where I was making three meals for dinner too which is too much.

I've started serving dinner family style. I will still make some modifications from the meal I make Richard and I when needed (ours is too spicy or has sauce or such). The meals are served on the kitchen table and the boys portion out what they eat. They are encouraged to take a bite of each thing on the table. This seems to be helping a lot. They are serving pretty realistic portions for themselves and are not fussing at us as much. It makes for more dishes, but hey if it gets them to eat and means I don't have to make extra meals... why not?

How do you serve dinner? Do you serve everyone the same thing or cater to tastes?

Busy times

2011-10-12T11:15:00.000-04:00

It seems like there are no slow times around here ever anymore. I love having my Android just for the shear fact that I have my calendar with me at all times. Out of 31 days in October there are only 7 days that didn't have something on the calendar, and I know that will change before the month is over. November isn't looking any slower. I love keeping busy in a lot of ways because it means the boys and I are occupied.

This is what my mornings look like now:
Wake up
Take Dixie out
Feed Dixie breakfast
Wake up the boys
Get dressed myself
Finish making breakfasts (Richard usually starts this)
Start a load of laundry
Clean breakfast dishes
Clean kitchen
Say goodbye to Richard (which means walking both dogs too)
Finish getting the boys ready to leave
Pack waters and snacks for Colby and I
Give Abby a treat
Put Dixie in the bedroom and give her a treat
Load everyone into the car (at least Blake can do his own seat belt)
Take Blake to school (get both boys out of the car, sign him in, drop him off and then re-load Colby)
Drive to the Y
Get Colby out of the car seat again
Check in at the Y
Get Colby checked in at the Y
work out
check Colby out of the Y
walk back to the car and load in
Drive home
let Dixie out of the bedroom
swap laundry
let Dixie outside
get Colby situated either on pc or watching a movie
finally take a shower
then I can do a few things around before I have to:
pack Blake a snack
check to make sure Colby still has a snack
put Dixie back in the bedroom
make sure doors are locked
load into the car
drive to Blake's school
take Colby out of the car, check Blake out, go to his room and pick him up
load everyone back into the car
drive home
make lunch

hey look it's 12:15 finally, morning's done

Next year will probably be worse when I have the two boys going to two different schools.

thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies

2011-10-11T11:08:00.000-04:00

I'm always on the search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Sometimes I want a crispy cookie, sometimes chewy and sometimes soft. I found a recipe for a thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe, and decided to give it a go.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp (10 5/8 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed (7 oz) light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
~1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks

Directions:

Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower middle positions and heat the oven to 325. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chunks to taste.

Roll a scant 1/4 cup of dough into a ball. Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough's uneven surface. This will give the cookies a bakery-like appearance. Place the the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until the cookies are light golden brown and the outer edges start to harden, yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15-18 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets to retain their chewy texture.

These were really good. Richard told me to "keep this recipe." Even as they got "staler" they were yummy. Richard said they were then good milk and cookie cookies. I will certainly be making them again.

Next time I'd like to put in chocolate chunks, hmmm or maybe combine chocolate and peanut butter chips? I think this is a great recipe and hope you choose to try it too.

Parenting books

2011-10-10T14:18:00.000-04:00

I don't think I've ever recommended a parenting book before and that is for a good reason, I don't typically read them. I read a few when pregnant with Blake and realized that I either agreed or disagreed with them, so what was the point. If I agreed, than that meant I was already doing it. If I disagreed, it meant I'd never do it.

I was recently shopping at BJ's, a store I never leave with just what is on my list, and was looking through the book section. I came across the book "Have a New Kid by Friday" by Dr. Kevin Leman. For the most part, both my boys are good kids. They are certainly not SuperNanny material. But, they are far from perfect. We had been having some attitude and behavior issues with both boys. I'd tapped all my teacher instincts and decided it was time to do something different. While floundering I noticed the book and picked it up on a whim.

Richard and I agreed to try it out. We also agreed to both read it together. Each day there is a different parenting thing to do with your child. One of the biggest premises of this book is in order to get them to change, you have to change yourself. It is about building relationships, setting boundaries, being consistent, building their self-worth instead of self-esteem and maintaining the premise that "B doesn't happen until A is complete".

I think the thing that helped us the most was one of the first things you learn. "Say it once, turn your back and walk away." It's not always easy, but the more we stick with it the better things are getting. My boys are better behaved, I'm happier and we are getting along better. What more could you ask for?

I strongly recommend Have a New Kid by Friday to anyone who feels they need a bit of parenting support. The whole back of the book is an A-Z list of things that parents ~~stress over~~ deal with on a day-to-day basis.

I am not being paid for this review, I have not even been contacted by them, it's just my thoughts an opinions as a teacher turned mommy.

project 365 (274 - 279 /2011)

2011-10-08T19:37:00.001-04:00

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Colby's first goal in soccer

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Dixie LOVES water. Richard was spraying the "poop" in the backyard since we have a LOT of it now. Dixie was running in and out of the spray from the hose. She was dripping wet in this picture.

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What book are we reading now?

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The boys were throwing the quilt over Dixie and playing peek-a-boo with her. All three were having a blast.

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It's a dog's life!

Richard and I went to the Weird Al concert, which was a ton of fun. We tried to take some pictures with his cell phone. I liked the way this one turned out, yes it wasn't a great picture, but rather cool at the same time.

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Chopped my hair!

pop over to either of these two sites to check out some more great pictures.

fall trees and spider webs

2011-10-07T15:45:00.000-04:00

We may not have the season of fall here in Florida, but that doesn't mean we can't do fall projects. I saw variations on both of these projects on Pinterest, I just made them my own.

I traced the boys' hand and arm onto a piece of brown paper. We then took torn pieces of red, yellow, orange and brown paper and glued them on as the fall leaves.

The boys first scribbled lines on a piece of paper with a black marker. Then I put black paint on a piece of cardboard and gave each of the boys a cup (those are the cups that fruit comes in we use them as paint containers They dipped the bottom of the cup into the paint and used that as the spider body. They then painted the legs onto the spiders.

).

(yes I made one too to demonstrate the legs, but notice mine looks NOTHING like theirs!)

Inventive Spelling (post 2 of 2)

2011-10-06T09:12:00.000-04:00

I talked about the stages of writing yesterday. Many parents see inventive or phonetic spelling and think their child is doing it wrong. They want to correct what their child has written, but this is not the right approach.

When your child begins drawing pictures we all gush over the pictures even if they look like nothing. For some reason we understand the process of drawing progresses from scribbles to actual drawings. We do not feel the need to tell a child they are drawing a picture wrong. Well the process of writing is the same thing. Children have a natural progression of steps to learning to write. They goal is conventional spelling, but going through the steps will help your child gain confidence as a writer.

When your child writes something ask him/her to read it to you. I always say "you wrote it, you read it". I'm not saying there is never a time to spell a word for your child, I spell it when they are writing to others. If they are writing for homework, on a picture, or just for fun I do not spell for my sons (or the children I taught). I will help them stretch out the word to hear the sounds. This means saying the word slowly but still stuck together as a word. Focus on the consonants and do not correct them if they skip any. The process is on what they hear.

When I taught children to slowly sound out words I told them to pretend they are pulling an elastic. They pull it out slowly then "snap" it back together. Remember to always say the word slowly then again correctly. (tttabbbblll, table)

A great way to work on this is to help your child sound out words without writing. We do it a lot in the car. With Colby I focus on the beginning sound, what does the word dinosaur begin with? Blake does it all with writing now. He is able to sound out the words himself, with some help from time to time.

When children insist in spelling it correctly it means they've either been corrected too many times or are afraid of spelling it incorrectly. Once they've mastered spelling phonetically and begin to read more fluently they will begin to want to spell it as it is in books and can either find the word to copy, or will begin to develop their written vocabulary. The first step of this is teaching children to spell sight words, but this typically does not happen until kindergarten.

When you work on writing for the writing process you should not focus on the process of penmanship. This needs to be addressed at a different time. The process of learning to write neatly (don't get me started on correct form and doing it by the book, that's a different post), should be separate from learning to get your thoughts down on paper. When children write their brains work a lot faster than their hands so they will most likely not write as neatly as if they were copying text for penmanship practice. At this stage in life it is two very different skills. You should also not panic about letters written backwards, upside down or incorrectly in other ways as this too is developmental. (Dyslexia can not be diagnosed until second grade) If you want your child to write their sentence neatly, have them do it as an edit. We teach children to go back and read their work and edit it if necessary. You could have them go back read it and edit for error and then copy it over neatly for "publishing".

Any child can write. You just have to help him/her to see that their functional writing is acceptable. So next time you do a coloring project with your child, encourage him/her to write about what they drew and then read it to you. You will be surprised to see how proud they are of their own work.

Inventive Spelling (post 1 of 2)

2011-10-05T10:16:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted a how to help your child post in a while. My last few focused on reading, but just as important as reading to learn to read is learning to write.

Children go through functional levels of writing.
The first time you see your child write most likely you will see a bunch of scribble lines. This is the first step in seeing that writing is connected to words.

Then you will often see your child make shapes or letter approximations. This shows they they understand that symbols have meaning.

Then next step you will often see is random letter that have little to no connection to the picture. This show that your child has learned that letters are connected to words.

The next you will see them string random letters together. This show that they are understanding that there size and spacing of words.

The next step typically is to go back to single letters, but this time the letter should be in the word they are "writing". As teachers we encourage the beginning sound, but when they do it on their own some children write the ending sound. This shows that your child understands that the sounds they are saying in the word is connected to the letters they are writing. In this step they typically just label the picture.

The next step is to string together the phonetic sounds they hear in words. For example if your child is writing the word table they would write it as "tbl". Children will typically add the ending sound then begin to hear the middle sounds. Vowels are usually absent unless they are the beginning sound. They also typically continue to just label the pictures at this stage.

The next step, which has to be encouraged a bit, is to begin writing in sentences. They typically squish all the words together and have to be shown how to add spaces between the words. But this is the big step into transitioning to conventional print.

Tomorrow I will continue with this post by showing you how you can help your child progress through the stages. So next time you see your child writing random letters, realize they are writing.

Cran-Orange Apple Muffins

2011-10-04T11:07:00.000-04:00

I was going through a breakfast rut and decided I wanted muffins. I've made a lot of banana things lately and decided I wanted to do something different. I had just bought granny smith apples at BJ's and I had small boxes of dried cranberries so I decided to make cran-apple muffins. I couldn't find a recipe for that without sour cream or plain yogurt (neither of which I had). So I then found this recipe for Cranberry Orange Muffins.

Ingredients

1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for preparing the muffin tin
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
2/3 cup granulated sugar, plus up to 1 tablespoon for topping the muffins, if desired
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Put the cranberries and orange juice in a small saucepan, and bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Remove berries from the heat, and set aside to cool and plump. Drain off any excess liquid and set aside.
Lightly brush a 12-muffin tin with butter. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with an electric hand-held mixer in a large bowl, cream the butter, orange zest, and 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
Fold the flour in 3 parts into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk in 2 parts, until just combined. Fold in the cranberries. Do not over mix. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin and sprinkle the tops with sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool muffins in the pan on a rack. Serve warm.

I decided I wanted to make them with the apples still since that was my original thought. So I used 1/2 c. dried cranberries instead of a whole cup and added a chopped up granny smith apple too.

These were good. There wasn't a whole lot of orange flavor to them. They were very moist. I felt like they could have handled the whole cup of cranberries and more apple.

Next time I may eliminate the orange all together and use apple juice to reconstitute the cranberries and use a whole cup of cranberries and 2 apples. If I was going to do the orange flavor again I think I'd use the zest of two oranges and more orange juice to the heated mixture

Quarterly Top 5 #3

2011-10-03T10:24:00.002-04:00

Ok yes, I know I've posted a LOT of pictures lately, but I didn't want to miss out on this one since I played along before.

Jump over to Naptime Momtog and join in the fun!

I couldn't pick 5 so you are getting six (o:

project 365 (267 - 273 /2011)

2011-10-02T20:15:00.000-04:00

Look I'm caught up!

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Gran and Gramps got to come to a soccer game. The boys were resting at half time. (Richard's picture)

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The boys are taking advantage of the sandbox a lot more these days.

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Blake wanted me to take a picture of him with Dixie.

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The boys aren't the only one enjoying the sandbox lately

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How'd you get in there Dixie? Even after we moved a few things to let her out she wouldn't leave the pantry, so Abby joined in the watching of the pantry door.

I posted the two weeks of project 365 that I missed this week. Check here and here if you want to see the updated pictures.

project 365 (260 - 266 /2011)

2011-09-30T07:49:00.001-04:00

If you tuned in yesterday, you know I'm trying to catch up on project 365. Here is last week's pictures.

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Making a puzzle with Grampy. They love working on this map of the USA at my parent's house.

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Bubbles!

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All my kids on the porch at the same time, and no one was fighting!

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Making another puzzle of the USA at home. Dixie is camped out in her favorite spot under the kitchen table.

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Don't take my chair!

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Dixie wanted to help make the train track, or lay on the track or take the trains. We finally got her to chew her rawhide next to the track.

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Isn't she cute sleeping? Just like a kid, so cute while sleeping, but boy can she make a mess when she wants. It poured that night and she loved playing in the puddles in the sandbox. By the end she was covered from nose to tail!

project 365 (252 - 259 /2011)

2011-09-29T08:14:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to going through all the pictures that I've neglected the last few weeks. Here is my attempt to catch up on project 365. I'll post some today, some tomorrow and hopefully this weeks over the weekend.

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Colby decided to "help" wrap a birthday gift. Not sure the plane and monkey wrench were exactly the right tools, but hey he tried.

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Soccer season started again.

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This picture I took with my cell phone and well it's still on there sooo I don't have one to post, oops!

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Colby fell asleep on our drive up to vacation. If you follow my blog you know this was because he got sick on the trip... oh joy!

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Beach day! We were swimming in the ocean, but they had lakes in the park we were at, and the gator was close enough to get that picture (with a bit of help with my zoom and cropping)

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Zoo Day. The boys had a blast especially when they got to feed the giraffes.

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Colby was playing with his trains while we packed the stuff to leave. This was the only day he wasn't sick.

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Which one of these things is not like the others, which one of these things just doesn't belong?

Tune in tomorrow for more pictures, including some other Dixie pictures!

Best of Friends/Worst of Enemies

2011-09-28T08:34:00.000-04:00

Two boys, and two dogs means never a dull moment. I never know which pair I'm going to be dealing with at one time. Blake and Colby are best of friends/worst of enemies. They love to play together, but they also love to argue and disagree together. This is why I had them close. When you argue with people you love and live with then you learn how to disagree without hurting feelings. (No I'm not saying that only children don't learn this, it just has to be fostered with others outside the house)

At least with the boys we can talk things through, explain consequences and help with the learning process. We can show them that they love each other and that love will help them overcome the differences.

Abby and Dixie are working on establishing some kind of relationship together. They went through a week of Abby ignoring Dixie, we think she was hoping if she ignored her Dixie would go away. This week there is more play and more "fighting". The dogs are trying to establish who is the alpha. This is not a fun thing to deal with, but necessary.

I have second guessed this decision, but know it will workout in the long run. It makes you wonder if you are doing something wrong. But, I know it's just part of the learning process.

Anyone have experience introducing a puppy to an older dog? How long did it take for the two to accept each other?

Banana crumb muffins

2011-09-27T06:48:00.000-04:00

I was in the mood for muffins, and decided to use some of the bananas I have in the freezer. (Whenever the bananas get good and brown, I put them in the freezer for baking). I looked on line for a banana muffin recipe and found this one for Banana Crumb Muffins.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

These were good and super moist. I really enjoyed the crumb topping.

I will probably make these again. Not sure what I would change.

Menu Planning

2011-09-26T08:46:00.000-04:00

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, then you know I like to cook and bake. I love to bake, it is my true kitchen passion. I love the chemistry and exactness about it. I love to tweak the flavors and hope that it doesn't mess with the chemistry of the recipe. Cooking is fun and is done more frequently. I like that with cooking I can toss in whatever I feel like and hope it tastes good.

I am constantly searching for new and exciting recipes. I find I'm drawn more to baking recipes since well I can make up my cooking recipes and can't make up baking ones. I really like Pinterest for this (and for kids crafts).

One thing that I have done forever is menu planning. I sit down with Richard, and sometimes the boys, and plan a week's menu the night before I go grocery shopping. We have a few things that make it on the menu every other week or so, but I try to mix it up as much as possible.

I am not one of those people who likes to have the same thing all the time. I know there is a push to go back to the whole notion of meat on Monday, Italian on Tuesday, Mexican on Wednesday etc... but even that thought is too routine for me.

When I menu plan, I plan two weekend meals and 5 weekday meals and don't necessarily assign them to a given day. I shop for all the ingredients and pull the meats out of the freezer and have everything on hand. This way I can decide what works best for that day depending on time and mood.

For example this week's menu is: Burgers (that was Sun), Hummus chicken (a new version of this be watching for it on a TT recipe soon), ravioli, Teriyaki-Beer Skirt Steak, chicken fajitas (one of our staples), and waffles with bacon.

If you don't menu plan, I suggest you try it a few weeks and see if you like it. I like having everything set and only have to decide which night to make what. (I typically don't plan what to bake unless there is an occasion)

random weekend thoughts

2011-09-24T20:17:00.000-04:00

I hope you are having a great weekend. It has been busy and hot here. Even thought most of the country is preparing for the start of fall, we are still in full blown summer mode here. We don't typically cool down until the end of October/early November and that is just cool enough to put on a long sleeve shirt or jeans, but not both.

Here are a few random thoughts that have popped in my head the last few days:

--Having a puppy with kids means a lot more puppy proofing then when you are single

--Having it rain on soccer practice day means trying to explain to children that no you can't practice on another day instead

--Being the coach of 3 and 4 year old soccer is a good workout for the coach

--Trying to balance 8 kids in and out of a 24 minute soccer game is harder than it sounds.

--Reading directions for simple things is too funny. We bought Dixie a retractable leash, it had a huge set of directions including the fact that you should wear pants and long sleeve shirt and gloves when using it to prevent accidental injury... seriously??

--Homemade bread with butter is yummy. Made that to go with Orecchiette with Mini Chicken Meatballs tonight.

--I'm in a breakfast slump, I typically eat Chobani yogurt or cereal, but I'm in the mood for something else. Colby suggested banana bread, that is a thought, we will see.

--I have a ton of pictures to go through from the last few weeks. I haven't stopped doing project 365, I just haven't gone through the pictures to get them up. I've had my hands a bit busy with the extra ~~child~~ dog in the house.

--Sometimes you have to stop and set the ground rules again to get things back on track.

--Just finished reading The Help. It was good, onto Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky. I love picking up a new book.

Little known Facts

2011-09-21T12:59:00.000-04:00

Ok yes, I've been quiet lately. Well for a week I was away, so that was a good excuse I think. But, I haven't found my groove yet. I love my blog and don't want to give it up, yet I need to find the motivation to get back into it. I've lost a lot of readers and have few to no comments on my posts so it makes it hard to get excited about posting. So if you are out there reading this, give me some love to let me know you want my blog to live on. (o:

Yes, I talk about my kids a lot and not much about myself, that's just me. So here are a few little known facts about me.

--I don't like eating the same thing over and over. Most meals that I make that have any kind of leftover gets frozen. Even if I go through a kick of eating salads, sandwiches, or that kind of thing I change the type each day. I've always been like this. Richard on the other hand could eat the same thing every day, makes for interesting meal decisions.

--I decided when I was in the sixth grade that I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. I had many people, especially teachers of mine, tell me that I'm crazy. They all suggested that I go into engineering or some kind of physics or chemistry job. I know I could have made a lot more money doing those things, but I went with my heart and became a teacher.

--When I was growing up one of my main goals in life was to leave the town I grew up in and never look back. I transfered high schools going into my junior year and had almost nothing to do with my classmates that I grew up with after that. When I went to college my parents moved out of state and I have almost never been back to my home town since.

--I moved to Orlando because I didn't get along with the principal I was working for in Massachusetts. We didn't see eye to eye. My brother had moved down to Florida the year before. I said that if I was going to make a change I'd make a big one and moved down here. I bought a house before I even moved down.

--There are very few people in my life who I would consider a true friend. I have a lot of people who are great acquaintances, former co-workers, former classmates that kind of thing. But, when you are a true friend of mine, you know it and it's for life.

--I started blogging because Richard wanted me to have an outlet for my feelings of motherhood. I tend to keep things bottled up and only show the good. I have kept blogging because I have enjoyed the various things I've learned and the people I've "met" along the way.

So if you are out there, and enjoy my blog... let me know (o:

Our family just grew

2011-09-18T21:22:00.000-04:00

Richard and I have been talking about getting a puppy for a while now. The boys want to play with Abby, but seeing as she is already 11 years old, well she doesn't like to play much anymore. We wanted the boys to have a dog that could run and chase and keep up with our very active boys.

Meet Dixie!

Blake picked out the name. We just told the boys it needed to start with the letter D and be a girl name

shhhh!

2011-09-16T11:42:00.000-04:00

Did you miss me? If you follow me on facebook, then you know I was away on vacation. I wish I could say it was a fantastic, restful, fun vacation, but that would be an untruth.

The day before our vacation, my grandfather passed away. We felt it was best to spend that Sunday out with my family. This meant that no packing was done, and we still had a few errand to run before we could go away.

Ok this is still do able. We got a very late start and in the mist of all the packing, list making, prep work for vacation, Colby started hacking again. I was already packing the nebulizer in case Blake's cough came back from the week before. We took out time driving up an even stopped at an outlet mall to do a bit of shopping. When we finally got the hotel Colby was miserable. Hey look, he has a fever.

So the next two days he would feel well enough to do one thing, but we didn't do any of the things we'd planned. We went to the beach for part of one day. We went to a zoo another day. Oh and that's about it.

Blake had a hard time not being on the go while we were away. He was excited to be able to go to breakfast in the hotel each day. And liked going out to eat which is a big treat. Richard took Blake to a playground one morning just to get him out of the room.

Colby began to feel better on Thursday, yes that was the day we drove home. Oh well... such is life!

9-11

2011-09-11T08:22:00.001-04:00

Ten years ago today our country was united, not by something positive, but a major tragedy. It is a day that sticks out in my mind, a day that I can describe in detail. It was a day of fear and sadness. But the next day, was the first of many days that was time to show your pride. There were American flags flying everywhere. People were proud to wear red, white and blue. People stood up and said, you may break our buildings, you may try to damage our properties, but you will not break our spirits. You will not scare us. You will not bring fear, but bring pride.

I look at the life today and say, why did it go away. At what point did people stop waving the flags? At what point did we say it was ok to relax and not feel the need to stand up and scream "I'm proud to be an American"?

Life often gets in the way of doing things. But as we reflect on that tragic even that unfolded before our eyes ten years ago today, take time to stand up again and say:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. ONE nation under. INDIVISIBLE, with liberty and justice for ALL!

Then say a prayer for those who lost their lives that tragic day and the days following. As for peace for their families, as well as the many heroes that emerged from those ashes. As as always to thank the men and women who put their lives on the line each day to protect those freedoms that we often take for granted.

Firecrackers

2011-09-10T21:33:00.001-04:00

Today was the boy's (and my) first soccer game of the season. Richard did a great job taking photos. Here's a quick slideshow of them.

project 365 (245 - 251 /2011)

2011-09-10T12:27:00.001-04:00

245/365

We had breakfast for dinner. Colby decided to cut up his own pancake and did a great job at it too.

246/365

It has been nice enough outside to play in the sandbox, can you tell this was early morning?

247/365

More sandbox fun. This was the only picture I took that day, shocking I know

248/365

We met up with some friends to go swimming and have lunch to celebrate labor day.

249/365

Boys and I went outside to get in a little soccer practice.

250/365

Blake saw a rainbow out his window when he woke up. He and out went outside to check it out.

251/365

Just a few cars, and that's not all of them.

pop over to either of these two sites to check out some more great pictures.