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Happy New Year!

I love new things! New toys, new clothing, new furniture, new towels, new movies, new books, new phones, and well, you get the idea. New Years are also fun because they’re a great time to reevaluate your plans, where you’re at in life, and what you want to achieve in the next year.

I try to avoid random New Year’s resolutions, you know, things that maybe I’d like to do (like make it to the gym at least once a week) but don’t really have a good plan for accomplishing and focus more on making plans to accomplish what I want to do. Like, how can I make it to the gym once a week, with a toddler who naps, homeschooling a 1st grader, preschool, dance classes, music lessons, and a few other things like grocery shopping thrown in there, who has time to go to the gym.

Honestly, my motivation for going to the gym is so I can put the kids in childcare and enjoy 1 1/2 hours to myself without answering a thousand questions, pretending like the sky is purple, saying the correct words for “Elsa’s” coronation, toting the toddler around, and trying to clean or cook all at the same time – oh and, keeping the 6yr old focused on school work too. An hour and a half a week to myself to just exercise and take a shower undisturbed really would be nice – but factor in that it takes all that time and more to get everyone out the door, drive there, and then return, it makes for an all day affair for me just to go to the gym! I really am going to try to go more often, I just haven’t figured out how to work it into my school and activity schedule yet. I’ll figure it out eventually…

Anyways, back to new things. Which reminds me, New toys – the next person who gives my child a new toy is going to die! I’m kidding…kind of. After Christmas we now own FOUR child’s cash registers. Four! And a whole new bucket of play kitchen food – I think that makes 3 buckets total in my house! Today, I was working every single child’s puzzle we own so I can throw away all the puzzles that don’t have all their pieces, because, we received NINE new puzzles for Christmas. Nine! and I don’t have room for nine new puzzles, so the old ones must go! On the bright side, I also organized all the uno and skipbo cards back into their appropriate places so next time I want to play uno they’ll all be together – not sure when that’s happening. And I tossed a whole bunch of random cards and card games that I just hate. Now to just hide candyland and monopoly…

So…new things, new goals, for this new year, I have a few. One for each area because I need to keep things simple.

18 month old: He will learn to ask for water this year – currently he just goes around the house crying when he’s thirsty, some form of pointing or word for water would be greatly appreciated by all. I handed him a cup of water this afternoon and he just sat there and chugged the entire thing like he was dying of thirst. And then he was no longer cranky.

3yr old: She will learn to read – I’m thinking just the preschool hooked on phonics. She’s dying to read like her older sister so I’m going to order it for her and we’ll work on it every day. Maybe 3 letter words by the end of the year. She would be so happy!

6yr old: She will learn to write legibly – why is handwriting the most difficult subject ever? I have no idea! Reading and math are a breeze so I guess something had to be difficult. I can barely read it even when I know what she’s writing, so you know it’s bad!

Me: I will go to the gym once a week – just kidding, I know that’s not going to happen. Though, it would be nice! I do need to get a new exercise routine going though before we start trying for child number 4 later in the year. Pregnancy is way better when I’m active.

Parenting: With 3 there’s a tendency to let them get away with things that they shouldn’t because I’m busy and tired, just being more intentional and focused even if I don’t feel like it.

Marriage: I want to spend more time doing fun things with my husband. We’re actually making good progress on this already and we have a few things planned for next year so I just need to keep the ball rolling and we’ll be good here.

And that’s all the new stuff for this year. Plus the usual, you know, doubling my facebook and twitter followers, updating my blog regularly, cooking more meals from scratch, and figuring out how to make a milk gravy and biscuits that are actually edible!

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Christmas With Kids

I love Christmastime, I always have. But it’s especially fun with little kids! We start all our stuff on Christmas Eve.

First, we go to our New Year’s Eve service at Church. I don’t hear much of the sermon amidst the 3yr old closing herself in the seat, bumping into the people in front of us, and waving to friends two rows back. While she’s at it the 18 month old is eating a small candy cane, dropping the small candy cane on the floor, and feeding the small candy cane to me. I thought he had forgotten about it and decided to eat it so it was out of the way and he suddenly decided that he wanted it back. Not to eat, just to hold in his hands for the remainder of the service. He was quite sticky by the time we got home.

And lit candles at the end of the sermon are a great opportunity for the 3yr old to attempt to catch something on fire until her Daddy blows out the flame. While this is happening the 18 moth old is contriving ways to grab the flame part of my candle (which he never succeeded in doing). I was more than happy to blow out the candles after singing “Silent Night”.

Honestly, the kids weren’t bad considering their ages and that they rarely join us in the sanctuary. But it made for an entertaining evening.

After dinner and “Charley Brown Christmas” we all open one present. This year the kids had picked out these $1 metal ornaments at WalMart that have candy in them for their Christmas Eve present. They’re kind and share the candy with us parents. It’s pretty much the worst candy I’ve ever tasted – I think they forgot the sugar, and all the kids feel the need to share a piece with me! Thanks a lot kiddos…

After they go to bed we set up the geotrax set. This is one of my favorite parts. The kids are always so excited to see the train Christmas morning and it gives me a chance to make breakfast so we can eat before opening presents. While setting this up we watch our favorite Christmas movie, “We’re No Angels”. It’s one of my favorite movies, if you haven’t seen it, you should. Amazon Prime has it on instant stream if you want to check it out.

Thankfully the kids sleep till almost 8. And after playing with the train and eating breakfast it’s 10 before we get around to presents. After presents and the baby’s nap we head over to a relative’s house for lunch and more presents. We carry 1 box of presents out of the house and return with 4 – because we have the only little girls on this side of the family and Frozen is all the rage this year. Well, that and all the giant stuffed animal gifts for the 18 month old. And now you know why I’m constantly cleaning out toys! I’m going to have to go through the kid’s puzzles because I am now out of puzzle storage room. I’ve been putting this off for a while, should be fun tracking down all those tiny pieces and hoping there still some puzzles with all the pieces in one place at one time.

We have loads of new nail polish, puzzles, coloring books, candy, stuffed animals, cars, and other toys. The kids are exhausted when we get home so bedtime is pretty easy, and we parents crash on the couch until bedtime.

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Why I Don’t Have A Van

Husband (to me) “I want you to have the car that you want”. Me to husband, “I WANT a Mini Cooper, but that’s not very practical.”

Now you know how our van shopping is going! My husband remarked the other day that a mini-van seems to be some sort of status symbol among moms, you know, you have one kid and go buy the mini-van as fast as you can because now you’re a mom…or something like that. Hmmm, somehow, I missed the need for that status symbol. I’m still coming to grips with the fact that if I have one more child I will have no choice but to purchase a van.

Currently, I have 3 kids in the back of our SUV (yes, in their carseats). It’s kinda nice, I can reach them to do things like recover dropped flip-flops and share drinks. I know that’s not happening in a van!

So, why don’t I have a van? For starters they’re expensive! We’ve decided on a Honda Odyssey and my goodness, I can pay off my house, or buy a van! Actually, not quite pay off my house, but it’s pretty close. My SUV was nowhere near that expensive.

But really, it comes back to state of mind. I remarked to a friend the other day that I really sympathize with those girls who find themselves with an unwanted/unplanned pregnancy. You see, I didn’t plan my first child, she was a surprise. Now, when I found out I was pregnant, I was in a good position to be pregnant. I was married almost 2yrs, had 3 months of school left so I would definitely finish before the baby arrived, my husband had a good job – I actually wasn’t working at the time but I was getting ready to start hunting for a job for after school was over. My husband was excited, my family was excited, his family was excited. So, suddenly finding myself pregnant shouldn’t have necessarily been that bad.

But, getting pregnant just wasn’t in my plans for a few years. Once I got over the initial shock – actually, that happened at the exact same time that the baby arrived, I was happy to be a mom. And if I had to do it over, I wouldn’t change a thing. I love being a mom! That said, even though I now have 3 kids – once we had one child, why wait to go ahead and have more! Anyways, there just some things I haven’t done. I never joined the Mom’s group at Church – I just couldn’t. And I have not purchased a van. If people ask what I do I don’t say “referee, taxi service, chef, housekeeper, and mom”, I say, “I’m a graphic designer, I play in a band, I sew, etc.”.

Of course, there are some things I have done. I have a mommy blog (but you knew that already). I do all sorts of activities with my kids (just today we were at a kid’s event at the park). When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, my oldest will tell you that she wants to be a mom. But I’ve been holding out on the van. I’m sure I’ll like it once I have it, but what’s the hurry?

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Busy Busy Summer

So, my plans for the summer? They revolved around hanging out at the water park with the kids, teaching the girls to swim, working out more at the gym, and having some free time to get some stuff done around the house or just hang out with the kids. Oh, and hopefully some playdates with friends.

At this point in my summer I feel like I’m trying to accomplish all of that plus a whole bunch of unplanned work. Don’t get me wrong, work means I’m getting paid, which means I’m saving more money for that new, larger house that I want (or I think I want, I’m not sure I want to CLEAN a larger house), but I’m trying to do all of that plus all the summer stuff I had planned.

And if my summer wasn’t busy enough already, my oldest is participating in a pagent in a few weeks and I still haven’t cut out the dress I’m going to make her for it. I did actually bring the pattern, fabric, and pins up to the counter today so I can cut them so I’m optimistic that it’ll get cut out sometime this week. And I’m taking an extra music class.

So, last week: Monday was a filling at the dentist (exciting, I know) and running errands that just couldn’t wait any longer, Tuesday was music lessons and a meal exchange with friends, Wednesday was a playdate with a friend and VBS, Thursday was the water park and I took a meal to a friend who just had a baby, Friday was the mall and VBS, Saturday was projects around the house and other projects, Sunday was church and more projects(I try really hard not to work on Sunday but there’s wasn’t an option this week), Monday playdate with a friend and delivering a baby meal, Tuesday errands and music lessons,…you get the idea

It’s to the point where if we aren’t going anywhere for the day my 1yr old expresses his boredom sometime around 10am., and the girls are out of things to do by noon. Talk about a crazy busy summer! It’s almost 9:00 and I’m just now thinking about putting the kids in bed. Maybe I’ll take a shower and then get some more work done before I go to bed…or maybe I’ll put the kids in bed then just watch something on Netflix because I’m tired.

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Birthday Party Woes

So, I went to my daughter’s friend’s 6th Birthday party the other day and I find myself puzzled as to why we as parents continually put ourselves through this. Not that I hate birthday parties, but they all seem to operate the same way, and I can’t figure out why we all do it this way. I’ve been to over a dozen such birthday parties – children’s museum, bounce houses, pool party, splash pad, princess party, gym party, pizza party, and I’m sure a few more I can’t remember at the moment.

They all go the same way, a group of parents (usually just the moms and a few dads), most of whom do not know each other, all arrive at the designated party location. Every child present at the party knows the birthday child and usually knows a few of the other children so there’s a general mobbing/following of the birthday child as she plays because every child wants to play with her and they don’t know most of the other children.

The parents stand (or sit, if there happen to be seats) at the edges of the room and watch the kids play, if you’re lucky, you know one of the parents (other than the birthday child’s parents) at the party and you have someone to talk to, but over half of the room doesn’t know any one else at the party so you say hi to the person you happen to be standing next to, carry on a short awkward conversation about where your kid goes to school (I homeschool so my conversation usually ends with the other parent saying something about having a cousin or other distant relative that homeschools). Then you wait for an hour to an hour and a half while the kids play.

After playing the kids enter the party room and are served cake, icecream, and juiceboxes. Sometimes they even get pizza, chicken nuggets, or other snacks. Really nice hosts have over prepared and have enough food for the parents as well (which only half of the parents will eat because you feel awkward eating at a kids party). But, at most parties, the parents just sit (or stand) and watch as their kids eat.

Next, the birthday child opens presents – which are generally all toys, with lots of admonitions from parents telling their kids to back up and give the birthday child space. Your child receives a goody bag (full of candy and other small objects that will soon be lost or destroyed) and you go home.

Now, what I can’t figure out is why we do this to ourselves multiple times a year. First of all, why do we all stand by bored as can be and watch our kids play for over an hour? You’d think someone would have something for the parents to do. Second, why is there never any food for the parents – we’ve been there just as long as the kids and I’m always hungry come cake time. Usually if the host family provides the food there is food for the parents but if the food is catered by the party place then there is only food for the kids, you’d think they would provide something for the parents as well.  Third, why do we always purchase toys for other children – I dread all the toys my children receive on their birthdays, I never have room to fit them all, and yet I always buy toys (and so does everyone else).

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good party, but it just seems like there must be a better way to do kids parties instead of putting ourselves through this over and over.

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Easter Eggs

Made our own easter egg dye this year and tried out a new way of dipping them.

1/2 C hot water

1 T vinegar

several drops of food coloring

I WAY overdid it on the food coloring so our eggs (and fingers) colored in about 5 seconds. Next year I’m using less food coloring!

One new idea I had from a magazine this year was to wrap the eggs in lace and then after they dry they will have the lace pattern on them. Maybe it was my lace, or the extreme strength of my egg dye, but it didn’t exactly work like I expected. It did still give the eggs some textured color which was cool and with the lace bunched at the top (bind with a rubberband) it made a great handle for the kids to dip the eggs without getting their fingers too messy.

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Getting ready for spring

The start of our garden for this year. This is the first time I’ve started seeds inside and I have been shocked by how fast they grew. This is after less than a week from when I planted the seeds.

Now, if it would just warm up enough for me to go put the plants in the garden!

I let the kids pick the seeds this year so we have sunflowers, strawberries, corn, cantaloupe, pumpkins, and lots of different peas! I also got some hot peppers but they failed to sprout so after I plant these in the garden I’ll put some more soil in and try again.

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Barley Bread

My 4yr old has been begging me for weeks to make her some barley bread. I think in Sunday School they heard the story of the feeding of the 5,000 and the little boy with the loaves had barley bread. My 4yr old definitely thought there must be something special about barley bread!

So, I found some barley in the cupboard the other day and decided to give barley bread a try. Luckily I have a wheat grinder so turning barley into barley flour was noisy but pretty easy.

Next, I had to find a recipe that only contained ingredients that I have on hand. Fortunately, that wasn’t too hard and this is what I tried:

Ingredients (Makes 1 Loaf)
  • 3 cups barley flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus extra for skillet
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk

    • Directions


    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 9 inch cast iron skillet with some vegetable oil and place in oven while preheating. (Why a cast iron skillet? It is the secret to a perfect crust.) If you don’t have a cast iron skillet then grease an 8 inch square pan and set-aside (not in oven).

    In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix thoroughly.

    In a separate, smaller bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium-low speed, mix together the sugar, 1/4 cup oil, eggs, and milk. Slowly add the egg-mixture to the flour mixture until everything is just moistened.

    Pour batter into the cast iron skillet or prepared pan and bake 30 – 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (internal temperature 190 degrees F. Cut into squares and serve warm.

    As you can see, it turned out light, fluffy, and crumbly, just like a cake. The barley was surprisingly mild tasting and my kids and I loved it!

    I’ll definitely be making this recipe again.

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    Easter

    Easter with little kids is so much fun! From the fun Easter dresses to all the tasty food, and the multiple egg hunts. Easter at my house is always lots of fun.

    I like to do Easter dinner for my family so the next few posts are going to be my favorite Easter dinner recipes. I calculated this weekend and I used over three dozen eggs, two boxes of butter, and almost a gallon of whipping cream! Mmmmm!

    I get out my nice dishes and cloth napkins and have lots of fun. This year my 3yr old got to help me set the table. She didn’t quite get which side of the plate the knives and forks went on but we had fun!

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    Graham Cracker Houses

    My husband had a great Christmas idea four years ago. This is the fourth year we’ve done it and we always have a blast! Instead of gingerbread houses – which are a lot of work – we make graham cracker houses.

    We invite a bunch of friends over and make graham cracker houses. This year, I assembled the houses earlier in the day so they were set before the party and kids trying to put candy on them. It worked out really well.

    Graham cracker houses are really easy, and a great holiday party idea if you have kids (or if you just like playing with candy and icing)

    My house. I actually did this the day after the party before I cleaned everything up. The trick to a good house (in my opinion) is the icing. It’s just powdered sugar and water, and you want it to be thick enough that it doesn’t run but thin enough that you can pipe it. I put my icing in a plastic bag, cut a hole in the end, (a very tiny hole) and pipe the icing out so I have good control over where it goes.

    Side of my house

    My 3yr old’s “house”. It looks like a tent to me. She made two other houses as well. The party this year was so much fun for her and her little friends! I just handed them bowls of icing with spoons in them, piles of candy, and let them have at it.

    And, a melting house. This batch of icing was a tad thin and ended up slipping but I think it looks pretty cool!

    And, as a plus, these houses are just as much fun to eat as they are to make!