If you give a Mom a cup of coffee

I picked up 'If you give a Mouse a Cookie' by Laura Joffe Numeroff at the library last week.  As I was reading it to O I thought, this book is about ME!  --Ergo an ode to Miss Laura......

If you give a Mom a cup of Coffee, she is going to ask for some coconut creamer.

When you give her the creamer she'll probably ask for some xylitol.

When she's finished she'll ask for a napkin.

Then she'll want to look in a mirror to make sure her make up is ok.

When she looks into the mirror, 

she might notice her eyebrows need plucked.

So she'll probably ask for some tweezers.

When she's done she'll want a towel to wipe the counter.  

She'll start wiping.

She might get carried away and wipe down every room in the house.

She may end up cleaning the floors as well!

When she's done, she'll probably want to take a nap.

You'll have to fix up the bed for her with a blanket and a pillow.

She'll crawl in, make herself comfortable and fluff the pillow a few times.

She'll look at her phone and open up Facebook.  

She'll scroll through the pictures of a fellow mama, and think 'what a great idea'

She'll get so excited she'll want to do that too!

She'll call for her children and some paper and and crayons.

She'll draw a picture with them.

When the picture is finished she'll have everyone sign their name

with a pen.

Then she'll want to hang the picture on the refrigerator (and snap a photo for Facebook).

Which means she'll need Scotch tape.

She'll hang up the drawing and stand back to look at it.

Looking at the refrigerator will remind him that

she's thirsty.

So...

she'll ask for a cup of coffee.

And chances are if she ask for a cup of coffee, she's going to want some coconut creamer to go with it.

Yeah that pretty much sums up my whole day.

Kitchen Disaster

(F this is for  you.  It is a fair warning to enjoy that yummy 'chow' for the next 17 days because you sure are not missing out on anything here--except for a few laughs of course)

I am a horrible cook.

I hate cooking.

I know that homemade meals from scratch are way healthier, so..........much to my family's dismay I continue to keep trying.  I may have a stubborn streak in me.  I may need to let this desire to nourish my family go.....or take a cooking class.

Today I figured out (one of many) problems I have.

I improvise and stray from the original recipe way too much.

I need to plan what I am going to cook BEFORE I go to the store so I don't have this problem.

I decided, 'hey I have this zucchini from the garden (it was the sole item I got from my attempt to garden in pots this year--but that's another story) and well I know I have had some really yummy zucchini bread at Mom Life, so maybe I'll try that.

I googled zucchini bread and after a quick glance at the first 5 recipes I jotted down the ingredients and thought to myself, 'hmm I only have about half of the stuff I need, but I dont' use that other stuff anyways so I'll just replace some ingredients.  Yeah, this is gonna be good!'

This is the original recipe                                                  This is what I used
1 1/2 c wheat flour                                                               1 1/2 c wheat flour
1 1/2 c cake flour                                                                 1 1/2 c almond flour
2 tsp cinnamon                                                                     2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg                                                                      1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp baking soda                                                                  2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder                                                             0 baking powder
1/2 tsp salt                                                                            1/2 tsp salt (plus extra thanks to Miss O)
2 eggs                                                                                   hmmm as I am writing this I don't think put                
                                                                                              those in...... 
1/3 c vegetable oil                                                                 1/3 c coconut oil
3/4 c sour cream                                                                    3/4 c plain yogurt
1/3 c buttermilk                                                                     1/3 c whole milk and I threw in a splash of 
                                                                                              vinegar cause I think I remember hearing
                                                                                               that this is a substitute?  Might have just
                                                                                               made that up
1 c brown sugar                                                                     1/2 c brown sugar   1/2 xylitol
2 tsp vanilla                                                                            hmmmm....I didn't add this either--I am not
                                                                                               helping myself here
2 1/2 c zucchini grated                                                           2 zucchinis I put in the blender I did not 
                                                                                               measure
4 oz dark chocolate                                                                3.5 oz dark chocolate candy bar--minus
                                                                                               1/4 of it (O and I taste tested it)


 Yes, I think I see my problem now.  Too much improvising, not enough planning.  I feel like I should be able to improvise though because I do that all the time when I make crafty things with no problems.  That bag I made hardly resembled the original.  Not to mention the hundred other things I have not posted that worked just fine.  Now if only those traits were transferrable to cooking....

...Because these may look edible.  They even smelled good.  They did not taste good.  BLECH!

Swiss Heritage Days

*Note this is pretty photo heavy, and in no particular order.*

Playing games

Learning how to spin wool

The Loom

Making soap

Making Sawdust Dolls

BFFs

More Games

Sawing a log

Balancing

Old School Merry go Round

Climbing the Ladder

Ringing the school bell

The finished product from their spinning...Bracelets.

Planets and Crayons

We have a little girl loves learning about the planets.  So I pulled out my felt planets I made when she was like 1 (over zealous aren't I?) and I talked about the names of them.  We looked up in the sky to see if we could see the stars.  O told me I was mistaken when I pointed to a star and said it was Venus.  Of course, it couldn't be Venus, what was I thinking?  We played They Might Be Giants planet song

 

 I lined up the planets, we chose coordinating colors of crayons.

 I heated up a cookie sheet.  Laid out a towel.  I quickly drew a few circles in pencils, and then we were ready to color the paper (which was heated by the cookie sheet under it).  It melted the crayons quickly and O said it was like she was painting.  We've done this activity before (minus the planet theme).  O seemed to enjoy filling in  the circles to make them look like the felt planets.  

A closeup of the planets.  Look at how textured it is.

I colored the black in, but O did everything else on her own.

O is very proud of her work.  Even though it has been a week since we made this she is not ready to throw it away yet, and keeps calling it her 'masterpiece.'

Frustrated

I am frustrated so much the last few days.

I woke up with a headache two days ago, and our routine was messed up for the day.

Yesterday I woke up determined to be motivated and productive and get back to our routine.

It ended in a messy room, several half finished projects and half cleaned rooms.

I sent O to her room to nap and came back to find this.

 and this.

 and this.

I am tired, and have a bad attitude.  I want to be able to 'see the big picture' and realize 'they grow up so fast' but sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I just am tired of repeating myself 432 times.  Sometimes I do not want to play with my daughter, and sometimes I just want my daughter to take a nap so I can take one too.  Ugh.  

Sometimes I need perspective.  I am blessed to have a child.  I am incredibly blessed to be able to stay home with my daughter.  I am blessed to have a loving husband who is faithful and would do anything for me.  I am blessed.  I serve a God who cares about me, and loves me and is faithful.  

Geometry, Geography, and Some Doodles

Here are a few highlights of our school week.

Kindergartens are not really expected to know much about science.  It's more about the ABC's and 123's.  But I really like science, and it's hard for me to brush it off and not do any with her.  I have done a lot on scientific observation with O, and this kind goes along those same lines--sorta.  I found a worksheet online of unfinished pictures.  O just needed to complete the picture.  Ok, so it's not really science work, but I was using it as an observation tool :-)

We also did a little geometry.  O is learning the names of all the 3D pieces.

She just had to name the object and put it with the 3-part cards that had the same shape.  

Easy Peasy.

Geography this week included O making a whole lot of maps.  She mapped her room, the house, and our street.  Here you can see her putting a door knob on the house, because as she says, "how is anyone going to use the house if there isn't a door knob to let them in?"

Cuisenaire Rods

I know I have mentioned before we use Cuisenaire rods for school work.  Here are a few things we've been doing with them. 

Story Telling   

Believe it or not those pieces are not just thrown together.  There was an elaborate story with a squirrel and a fairies and people.  

Sorting by Color/Size

Determining who pulled the longest/shortest rod out of a bag

Making Snakes

Lining up the pieces from smallest to largest and making "The Staircase"

Taking those lined up rods, and turning them into a mini-labyrinth

I should mention here that we had a large set of red counting rods, which were the precursor to using the Cuisenaire rods.  The red rods were large (the tallest was 1 meter, well taller than O when I first presented it to her).  The rods were big enough for her to actually walk through our larger scale labyrinth.  That is how she came up with the idea to make a tiny one for her fingers. 

Skip forward several weeks to where we are now.....

(No, we did not do all of the above activities in one sitting.  One activity per day, and we did the same activity several days in a row--about a week)

Now we are giving the rods names.  The smallest white rod, is '1'

How many white rods does it take to be the same size as the red rod?  '2'

We also compare sizes again, this time using numerical values

'The 10 rod is bigger than the 8, by how much?'

Cleaning in Heels

I think I will forever remember Labor Day 2012 with me practicing walking in heels while cleaning the house.  I haven't worn heels (minus maybe 4 special occasions) at all in the last 5 years.  

I am preparing for the big formal for Officer Candidate School.  Let's just say I need some more practice.