Cooking with Kids. Did I Survive?
There is a noticeable difference between 2nd and 3rd grade. I don’t remember this from my own experiences in elementary school (maybe I blocked it out?), but I have noticed it with my oldest now in 3rd grade. Yes, the work is harder, but the biggest difference is the expectation of the student. It’s all about personal responsibility and building independence. Ding, ding, ding! Those are some parenting buzzwords you can take to the bank. Except that independence thing…my babies can stay home forever. Kidding! So, so kidding. They are going to need that independent trait so they can get rich and buy me that home in the south of France.…
Pomegranate White Chocolate Cookies
A lot of good things happen when Kroger has pomegranates on sale for a dollar each. And by good, I mean mouth-watering. Before this produce sale, I knew two things for certain: 1) I like pomegranate juice. 2) Pomegranate juice is expensive. Here’s what I did not know: 1) The least annoying way to get the pomegranate seeds out of the shell. Clearly, extracting those suckers is why the juice is so expensive. 2) The proper name for that shell and the seeds. (It’s the rind and the arils, by the way.) 3) What to do with the vast amounts of arils that come out of two pomegranates. To solve the…
Giant Tic Tac Toe
I was going to call this post “what I did with the rest of that giant cardboard box,” but I didn’t want to bury the lead. To recap a long story, I was too lazy to recycle the giant box our new AC unit came in, so it has been sitting in our basement since, oh, August or so. Not long, really. I finally turned part of the box into pumpkin art, but there was still A LOT of box left. Turns out AC boxes and refrigerator boxes are very similar in size. Here’s what I made with it: A giant tic-tac-toe board! How fun is that? Especially if you are…
Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween, my pretties! Only one more day until my children get to dress up and get free candy from strangers! I can never decide if I want them to: a) get candy that I enjoy and will pilfer when they are asleep (aka the parenting tax) b) get candy that I am powerful enough to resist This year we made our annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch. This one at Washington Farms is our favorite. If only they let the adults bounce on the jumping pillow. Doesn’t it look like fun? Why hasn’t a gym opened yet with jumping pillow fitness classes? Hmmm…maybe I should open one of those. I’m soaking…
Danish Pear Pie
I have a dear friend from Denmark. She’s one of those genuine, salt-of-the earth people. If I was ever sick or injured, I’d want to recuperate at her house because her kindness cup runneth over. A couple of years ago she brought dessert over to our house – a pear pie. I know it won’t surprise you to know that I was skeptical. Pears, in my book, should be crisp and crunchy. Not mushy, cooked and ripe-tasting. I realize I am in the pear minority. Well, I was wrong. I freely admit it. Every rule has an exception and this pear pie is mine. I begged and pleaded asked nicely for the…
Thanksgiving Cards – Free Printable
You may not be old enough to remember this, but people, millions of people across this country, used to pay their bills by mailing in a paper check in a paper envelope with a stamp you actually had to lick. This was before Al Gore invented the Internet. A few things have changed since then, like online bill-pay. I’m glad I’m not an envelope salesperson. By my own calculations, we have had the same box of 500 #10 letter-size envelopes for over 15 years. We’ve moved that box of envelopes 8 times in 15 years. The ridiculousness of that statement is almost too much to wrap my mind around. Now you know…
Arrow Mantel Art
Brace yourselves. Today I’m going to show you a work-in-progress. I thought it would be super fun to see how long it takes for me to figure out how to finish what I started! That was sarcasm, folks. Seriously though, I have a feeling it’s going to take me awhile to figure out how this project ends. It all started because I needed art for the mother of all mantels. It’s probably 8-feet long. As most things begin around here, I had an AWESOME idea and a spare piece of plywood. I’m running out of spare pieces of plywood though, so I might have to stop blogging then. 😉 Through a bit of…
Cinnamon Broomsticks
I don’t know how I’ve lived my entire life without knowing about cinnamon broomsticks. Am I late to the game or do they not have them in the Pacific Northwest? Or the Midwest? Or anywhere else that I’ve lived? Are these a Southern thing? So many questions, so few answers. To make up for lost time, I bought 4 broomsticks. I thought that showed restraint. Then my local Kroger sold out of them and I regretted not buying more. But, last weekend I saw two new boxes arrive! I may or may not have called dibs. A friend told me about these seasonal creations. I didn’t quite understand what a cinnamon…
Camouflaging the Dog Door
I’ve been waiting for months for the outside temperature to drop below 90 degrees so that I could paint our exterior doors. I could have painted them during the hottest temperatures of the summer, but that would require keeping the door open for awhile and that defeats the purpose of getting our AC fixed. I’m pretty sure I would have melted too. It’s okay if you want to feel sorry for me. Last week our daytime temperatures held in the low 70s, so I knew it was time to paint! We have a beautiful back door. Except someone ruined it by installing a dog door. This is nothing against dogs, it’s…
Cardboard Pumpkin Art
Our AC was replaced this summer. This happened in August in Georgia and I may or may not have professed my undying love for the AC installer man. Despite that awkward exchange, he was super nice and made the GIGANTIC box that the AC unit came in into a fort for my kids. Of course, they loved it and played with it for a few days before they moved on to other things. Here’s the embarrassing part. It’s October and that box is still sitting in the basement. Every time I get on the bike or treadmill (which is 5 days a week), I spend 30 minutes thinking that I need…
