Friday Fill Ins

1. Spring is here!
2. I like the small of strong coffee, but not the taste.
3. I forgot whatever it was that I have forgotten!
4.Food is delicious!
5. Heads, shoulders, knees and tootsies.
6.Walking with my kids is my favorite form of exercise when it's warm enough out not to wear a coat!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner with Ken, tomorrow my plans include a marriage retreat and then HUNGER GAMES! and Sunday, I want to go to church and then visit with my family!

Play along here:

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Frances' school had the PTA Carnival on St. Patrick's Day this year. I had volunteered to bake a cake, and then in a moment of insanity I also signed up to bring food for their International Food Sale.  I baked a rainbow cake on Friday night. It was a ton of fun and a lot easier than I had expected.  I used two boxes of cake mix, divided it into six bowls and tinted each one a color of the rainbow.  (Sorry about the crappy iPad photo.) 

Then I slowly added each color to the middle of the baking dish.  You don't have to mix or anything. You just pour one color straight into the middle of the pan.  Each successive color pushes the next one outwards until your baking dish looks like this:

Bake as directed in your recipe and then decorate.  I just used white frosting and the used Skittles to make a rainbow on the top of the cake. I wanted somebody to be surprised when they cut into their cake! 

I also made a batch of black bean and corn quesadillas with a recipe I got from Budget Bytes. Easy, peasy, DELICIOUS!
Mix together:
1 can of black beans (drain off the clear liquid)
1 cup of frozen corn
1 package of taco seasoning mix (or less depending on your intended consumers)
2 cups of cheese
And add to tortillas and cook on both sides. Frances and I LOVED these. I think they were a bit too spicy for the boys, so when I try them again I will use less taco seasoning.

After preparing all that madness, I decided to make us some St. Patrick's Day shirts.  (Frances made the glasses at her after-school program on Friday.

We went to Fun Day and had...fun!! The kids got to play a bunch of canival type games and win cheesy prizes.  They got to watch a magic show too. Frances helped the magician turn a blue scarf and a white scarf into two polka dotted scarves.

After participating in the cake walk (and thankfully not winning a cake) we ate some lunch.

The kids chose facepaint over temporary tattoos and Henry got a cute frog for his cheek.

We went home for some well-earned naps and then, because I am a glutton for punishment) we went out to the park with the Washingtons and ended up having dinner with them too. We got home about 9:15 that night and were still able to get up for church in the morning.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Welcome Spring!
2. Sunshine and warm weather make me jump for joy.
3. There's a great big world out there to explore!
4. The people I work with are the thing I love most about my job.
5. Eyes tell you a lot about a person.
6. We weekend full of sunshine is what I'm eagerly awaiting.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to baking a rainbow cake, tomorrow my plans include Fun Day at Frances' school and Sunday, I want to go to church and spend time with my family!

Visit for more Friday Fill-In Fun!

Wordless Wednesday: Monster-Vision Edition

Parenting Answer

So, I asked a question last week about Frances being teased at school and got some good feedback. I have been thinking about it a lot and came up with a solution that I am hoping will work.

Ken and I are doing a bible study at church and last week we discussed what Jesus meant when he said “turn the other cheek.”  We talked about that he didn’t mean to run away or to fight back, but to stand your ground and let the other person know that you find their behavior unacceptable.

Two stories we talked about in class were about modern people who were used to being treated poorly and unfairly.  First was Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The story goes that he was walking by a construction site and came to a narrow sidewalk made for one person at a time. A white man came to the other end of the sidewalk, also intending to cross. He looked at Archbishop Tutu and said, "I don't make way for gorillas." Archbishop Tutu moved out of the way and said, "Neither do I."

The other story is about Blessed Mother Teresa. There is a good retelling of it here.  Basically, while begging, Mother Teresa went to a bakery to beg for some bread for the orphans she helped.  The baker refused and spat in her face.  Mother Teresa calmly wiped her face and said, "That was for me. Now how about something for the orphans."

Neither of these actions could be seen as running away. These people did not ignore the injustice done to them.  Neither did they fight against or attack the offenders.

We also had an issue last week at home. Frances and Henry were both supposed to be putting away laundry in their room.  Henry was singing loudly (some nonsense song) and Frances was whining at him to stop.  Finally she came out to tell me about it.  I asked her what Henry's job is. "To annoy me. <sigh; eyeroll>"  Yes, Frances. And is he doing a good job?  "Yes <sigh>"  (Can you tell we've had this conversation multiple times??)  I encouraged her to stop whining and sing along with Henry. She looked at me like I was crazy.  I reminded her that if his job is to annoy, and he tried but it doesn't work, then he will stop.  Sure enough she went in to her room and when he started singing, she joined right in.  It didn't exactly make him stop singing, but it did lead to lots of giggling and laughing as they make up some unintelliglble song together.

These are the stories I was thinking of as I was trying to solve Frances' teasing problem.  Here is the solution I came up with:

When kids start singing the “k-i-s-s-i-n-g” song to her and to *R*, she is going to sing along with them and laugh. When the song is finished, she is supposed to laugh and say, “That’s fun! Let’s do you next. Who do you want to marry?” The other issue is when they come and tell her that she loves *R*. I told her to respond with a smile and say, “Yes, and Jesus tells me to love you too.”  We discussed the importance of doing both of these things in a lighthearted way and to not be mean about either one. We talked about it a lot this weekend and she seems really on board. She thinks it is funny and she also thinks it will work. She is supposed to tell *R* the plan when they see each other on Monday.  I am guessing it will either take the fun out of it for the kids so they will stop, or it will change Frances’ attitude about the teasing so that it doesn’t bother her anymore.  I will keep you posted.

Parenting Question

Frances has a good friend at school in another classroom. He just so happens to be a boy.  They both like Star Wars and Dr. Who and other geeky stuff like that. She frequently plays with him at recess. I don't think she really has any good girl friends at school. Sometimes that makes me sad, but I have talked to her about it and she doesn't seem to be upset about it, so I try not to put my feelings on to her.  Anyway, back to this friend.  The two of them play together enough that the other kids have started teasing them.  They say she loves him or that he loves her. She has tried telling the other kids that she doesn't love him, but they keep saying it.  It hurts her feelings enough that she has been upset about it when she gets home. Yesterday when I picked her up from her afterschool program I saw her yelling at a little boy as she was walking out to the van.  When I asked her what was going on, so she he was teasing her about being in love with this boy.

I remember being on both ends of this type of teasing as a kid. It hurt my feelings then, but had no lasting damages.  My question is-What is the appropriate way for Frances to handle this?  I don't think running to the teacher every time it happens is a practical solution. I have spoken to her teacher so she is aware of it.  Most of the time it happens at recess when the kids are less-formally supervised. (Meaning there are teachers around, but not all the kids are within earshot.)  I have told Frances that it is okay if she does love this boy.  That loving our friends is quite normal.  That doesn't seem to help, because this seems to be the k-i-s-s-i-n-g- in a tree kind of love that kids tease about and she knows the difference.

I'm not sure there is a good answer to any of this, but I would love some input from other parents.  Thanks!!

Wordless Wednesday: Working Out Edition

Girl Time

Frances has been asking for "girl time" a lot lately.  She's also been misbehaving. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that the two are related.  She was supposed to have her first First Communion class last night at church, but it was cancelled because of a problem at church.  I already had a babysitter lined up for the boys. And I am smart enough to fear the consequences of getting between Henry and his Ariel time!
All signs pointed to girl time, so when I picked up Frances I told her we could spend the evening together, just us.  "You mean like 'girl time?'" she said.  :)
I asked her what she wanted to do first and she directed me to go home so she could get her purse.  "It makes me feel a little bit like a grown up, Mommy."  Then she decided we should go to Golden Corral because she was "one time behind the boys."  Apparently there was a time that the boys got to go to Golden Corral and she didn't. (I confirmed that with Ken this morning and he says it was a LONG time ago.)

This was after she went to the bathroom and used the vortex hand dryer on her head. Can you tell??

Frances made the largest salad I have ever seen with lots of strange ingredients.  To her credit she did eat almost all of it before I told her it was time to go dip some stuff in the chocolate fountain (which was more of a puddle for some reason last night).  As I was getting out my purse to put down a tip, Frances stopped me and asked me if she could leave the tip. She looked so proud of herself (and grown up) that I couldn't say no to her and she put her only $2 down on the table.
After dinner we headed to Kohl's. My mom had told her to look for a specific headband that Frances had wanted on a previous trip and my mom hadn't gotten for her.  We couldn't find that, but we did look around at lots of jewelry and clothes.  She didn't see anything she wanted (and neither did I).
I did end up finding a scooter for Henry that was on sale. It wasn't big enough for her, so she picked out a jump rope.  We paid for our stuff and headed home.
I'm glad I got to spend some time with my sweet girl.  I guess I needed some girl time too.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. When I heard Mandisa's Good Morning this morning I got really pumped for the day!
2. Today's weather makes me want to get outside (but it's supposed to rain this weekend).
3. Get ready for the weekend!
4.Home is where I love to spend time.
5. Hands make lots of good art projects for Mommy and Grandma.
6. It is wrong to put anybody down.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a movie with the kiddos, tomorrow my plans include getting some more organizing done and Sunday, I want to relax and spend time with my family!

You can see other responses and play along here: