December rundown

We were so busy over the holidays I thought I'd just do a little summary of our pre-Christmas activities....

Shopping
Christmas shopping is so interesting with a child, isn't it? I never really got much done but we had fun. And one day I treated us to a peppermint chocolate chip shake from Chick-Fil-A.
(Truth be told, the shake was for me. But I'm lactose intolerant and couldn't have a whole one so I needed someone to share it with. It'll be our little secret)

Baking

Took the kids to see my dad and step-mom at their church Christmas play

I took Jordis to a party with my step-dad's family

(Before we went)

(With my mom)

(Learning to line dance with my step-dad)

I also went to a Christmas brunch at my mom's, lunch with my mom and shopping at The Morgan House, Jason's work party, and a progressive dinner in our neighborhood, none of which I have pictures of. Tis the season!

Lent

As most of you know, I've been having serious trouble finding a good church for us. If I like the service they don't have good options for the kids. If the kids like it, I don't (usually because of the contemporary rock band-type music). Some of them are too legalistic and others I just don't agree with. I'm pretty sure I've checked out almost every religion since we moved here. What I have learned though is that I do like the liturgical style of worship. Non-denominationally speaking there is a focus on Christmas and on Easter, but I like the idea of everything having a season, like Advent and Lent. I like the predicatable organization of it all and the preparation it involves. However, explaining it to the kids is difficult for me because I don't know a whole lot about it.

As luck would have it, my blog friend, Meredith, posted a great blog on her site about Lenten ideas. I liked her crown of thorns idea a lot and attempted to make it with the kids this week. First the kids had to get on their "chef clothes," and then we made some salt dough, and rolled it out into ropes.


Then I was supposed to braid it and place it in a circle on a cookie sheet. That proved to be more difficult than expected and resulted in lots of re-rolling and re-braiding. But after figuring out the best way I finally got it on there. Then I had to put in the toothpicks. We baked it, then brushed it with a mixture of Worcestershire sauce and water and baked it a bit longer so it was a little more brown.

The idea is that the "thorns" represent sins. Each day the kids get an opportunity to get caught being good and they'll be allowed to remove a thorn. By the time we reach the eve of Easter the crown will be empty and they can paint it and decorate it for Easter day, transforming it from a crown of thorns to a crown fit for a king. I'm not sure if they understand it, but they've been getting awfully helpful around here.

Let them eat cake!

Jason's cousin, Shannon, sent me this really cute recipe last week. I love Shannon and she's a great cook, too. Xander still asks me to get her potato salad recipe and he doesn't even like potato salad. But he liked hers.

I've seen this recipe in the past, but never really thought about making it because I usually just make a whole cake. However, Jason had to work and I was trying to find something fun for the kids to do so I thought it would be fun.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT ! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

First we got out our ingredients. I'm bummed that I've been out of real vanilla for awhile, so I had to use my cheap imitation extract. But I used nice pure ingredients for the rest, like unbleached flour and turbinado sugar.

The kids took turns mixing and adding ingredients.

We watched it cook in the microwave, then I took it out for them to share. Between the two of them they couldn't finsih it. I ate the rest after they went to bed and then the next night I made two more for Jason and me.

Such a fun treat!

January's almost over

I'm SO looking forward to February so I can focus on Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras. This month has been kind of lazy because it has been so cold. Global warming my booty. Last Friday after dinner I went to a friend's house for a spa party and this was what the thermometer said in the Jeep.

When I went outside my nose hairs were freezing. Later that night when Jason was at work he said it eventually got down to -23. That's without the wind chill mind you. Yesterday it reached 50 and I was out without a coat and had actually contemplated wearing flip flops. I quit wearing gloves earlier in the week when it was in the 20's. Too hot for such nonsense, ha-ha.

Comfort food is one of our joys this time of year, so the kids and I attempted to make our own hot pretzels. For whatever reason I couldn't get the dough to rise. I'm thinking maybe my water was too hot and I killed the yeast. Or maybe it was the fact that I chose to make them on the coldest day of the year. But oddly enough they still turned out, so I'll keep the recipe. Might try cinnamon sugar, too.

Xander has been taking a sports adventure class thanks to our MRDD funding. He really likes it and lately they've been skateboarding. I'm hoping this class will help him with spatial awareness and coordination.

Jordis has been my little helper around the house while Xander's at school. She loves to do anything that makes her a "big girl." Remember, she's 2 going on 12.

Yesterday we went to the nursing home to deliver the snowflakes we've been making. Jason's parents gave me some old coffee filters when they got a new coffee maker, and then I quit drinking coffee at home. Always trying to find ways to be less wasteful it occurred to me that they would make great snowflakes, so the kids colored some with markers and then I cut them out.

They're getting much more comfortable being there, so I'm happy about that. Yesterday they led the way and I didn't have to drag them behind me.

And finally, one of the things I like about January is clearance sales on winter items. I got Jordis this adorable dress for about $4 and it was normally a ridiculous $32, so I was pretty excited about that.

I can't pass up a good deal on something I know we'll use. If I can find Xander a new winter coat in the next week or two I'll be golden.

September's here!

I'm so excited it's September. It's the beginning of my favorite time of year. I think mostly because it's my birthday month (barely), so my enjoyment of it goes back as far as I can remember. But it's also when I'd get new school clothes, start thinking about my Halloween costume, and it wasn't so hot anymore. And it meant Thanksgiving and Christmas were on the way.

I still get excited about my birthday since it's always nice to know you've made it another year. And I look forward to Halloween so I can eat candy corn and cider and take my kids to the pumpkin patch and trick-or-treating. But I also love the turning of the leaves and now that I'm an adult I know the new season of my favorite shows is about to start.

Here where we live, September means it's time to talk about horses. The Little Brown Jug takes place here at the local fairgrounds, and runs simultaneously with the county fair. They shut down school for it and people even hang flags on their houses commemorating the event. As if more excitement is needed there is also an annual horse parade, so we decided to take the kids.

I was shocked at the number of people who turned out for this event. It was more pepole than we saw at the July 4th parade or the Christmas parade, so we thought it must be a pretty big deal. It wasn't. Xander soon realized we weren't lying when we said no one was going to throw candy. Jordis had more fun collecting leaves. We sat with one of my friend's whose husband is in the same line of work as Jason, so they talked shop. And I'm pretty sure all 4 kids ignored each other. But I did take a few pictures.

There was a 5k before the parade and Jordis watched intently, joining in with the adults in clapping for the runners as they came by.



Mounted patrol



These little guys were my favorite.



Something about the day made the kids really tired. We went to run an errand and they were both asleep before we got there.



The kids also helped me in the kitchen this weekend. My friend Jen has pear trees and when she came to visit the other day she brought me a bag full of pears.



I thought we'd make a pie or bread with them, but Xander said we needed pears with chocolate. So I found a recipe for a chocolate pear tart. It was actually called something fancier, but for the sake of the kids I called it chocolate pear tart. The kids cooperated better than usual and I didn't have to make either of them leave the table, so that was a plus.

They each picked what they wanted to pour into the bowl and grudgingly took turns stirring.



As excited as they were about it they didn't care for it too much when I let them try some.



But they had a good time and Jason and I have a sweet treat.