Five Minute Friday: Welcome

We started back to school and work this week. It was a welcome return to our regular routines. I'm not saying that we didn't enjoy the Christmas break. We did. I am never negligent in remembering how fortunate I am to have two weeks off at the holidays. That's not a work benefit everyone has. The kids and I spent a good number of days just hanging around the house. There was even a day when Henry wore shorts because I hadn't done laundry and we "weren't going anywhere anyway, right?"

It was a good break. But just as you cannot appreciate the sun without a few storms and you forget to enjoy the light unless it's broken up by dark; we start to take each other for granted when we are in each other's faces for too long. In our house absence makes the heart grow fonder! When I picked the kids up on Monday, we were all happy to see each other. The kids had enjoyed going back to school; learning, playing with their friends, and interacting with people other than the ones in our house.

2014 was a good year. It had it's ups and downs, but as a sunshine-y optimist, I tend to remember mostly the ups. When I remember the downs, I usually remember the life lessons learned rather than the actual events. I welcome 2015! I know it will be a good year too. Life is what you make it and I choose to make it a good one!

This post is party of Five Minute Friday. Click the link below for more details.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you; encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community...

It's a Black and White Issue

Have I ever told you that I am obsessed with penguins?  Really?!? I can't imagine that I've never mentioned it!  I think it all started with a school trip to the aquarium. There was a huge exhibit for the penguins with a thick glass wall from floor to ceiling.  Part of the exhibit was under water and the other part was above. As I was standing there looking at the penguins, one of them waddled off the iceberg, jumped in, and flew past me under water. I was fascinated.  The rest of my group went on to look at the other animals, but I stayed put.  I watched those penguins for as long as I could and I have loved them ever since.

I have quite the collection of penguin items at my house.  It seems that once you are a collector of something, people always know what to get you as a gift.  I've got stuffed animals (well, I don't have them anymore, the kids have confiscated them, but they are still MINE!), figurines made of glass, platic, wood, etc.; pictures, coffee mugs, shirts, socks (more pairs than I care to admit...), Christmas ornaments and more.  Oh,...and the license plate off my old car.  Someone stole one of the plates, so I had to get different ones, but I kept the remaining one (Shhhhh...)

The kids have even gotten into it. They don't just love geeky things for Daddy's sake; they love penguins because of Mommy, too!  For Christmas they got a set of plastic nesting penguins; presumably so they stop trying to play with my nice, wooden ones. There's a penguin pillow pet in the house, but I have to hide it next to my bed because the kids think it belongs to them!

Before I had actual children, I always dreamed of having a daughter named Penelope Gwendolyn.  Instead of calling her by that mouthful of a name, I would have simply called her PenGwen.  Frances is lucky I didn't saddle her with that name, huh?!

Why am I talking about penguins?  Because today is Penguin Awareness Day! Are you aware of penguins? Good!  I was worried I was going to have to run a campaign or start a petition!!  I'm not putting all my energy into that today.  I've got the day off from work.  According to the sign in my office there are two reasons for that.

The other thing we've got to be aware of is the amazing work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. My kids have learned about him in school. They know who he is from pictures and they can tell you why he is a famous person they study.  The thing is, I don't think they really understand why the things Dr. King did were so revolutionary!

My kids go to a school where their skin color is in the minority.  I'm not sure they've really noticed that either.  They have grown up surrounded by kids of all skin colors, from all different cultures and backgrounds.  They hear and see many different languages all around them throughout the day. They think that's totally normal and I like it that way!

Last year at Henry's Kindergaten graduation picnic, the families were instructed to bring a potluck item from their culture.  We had empanadas next to sushi next to fried chicken and potato salad. And it was delicious! When Frances' class wrote about holiday traditions this year I saw Christmas stories hanging on the wall next to Hanukkah stories, next to Dwali stories, next to stories about Santa Claus.  All just mixed in together. 

My kids are certainly learning that other people are different from them, but they are NOT learning that there is anything wrong with that.  To them, it's just normal that skin comes in all different colors, families come in all different shapes and sizes, and people celebrate all different holidays and traditions.  

I am thankful for the hard work that Dr. King and others like him did.  I have an enormous amount of respect for his non-violent but vocal methods.  I think we have come a long way since, and we have a long way still to go.  But I am thankful that my kids don't completely understand his work, because they cannot comprehend how some people used to have to drink from different water fountains or ride different buses. As Frances once told me, "That would mean that M******* would have to go to a different  school. That's just dumb!" Yes, dear, it is.  I'm glad you think so.

Ten on Tuesday: My Favorite Thanksgiving Foods

Turkey Day is next week, folks!  Are you all set?  Not here. I should really make a grocery list.  Thinking about making that list got me to thinking about a list for today, so I've compiled my favorite Thanksgiving foods. There's some saying about killing two birds with one stone, right?  Well, I'm not using any stones but technically this list will ultimately kill three birds: the one that actually ends up on the dinner table, as well as one to make this list and one on the shopping list. Poor turkeys!

1. Mashed Potatoes--I like mine with lots of butter and some garlic in them!
2. Stuffing--Actually I call it that, but I prefer not to stuff it inside the bird, so I guess technically it's dressing.
3. Rolls--Ummm...maybe I am a bit of a carb addict...
4. Turkey--I put a few whole carrots, a couple of celery stalks and some garlic cloves inside to roast it.  Then the garlic gets smashed up in the mashed potatoes.
5. Cranberry Sherbet--Including this on my list makes me a little sad because I don't get to eat it anymore (story below)...so I'll also include...
6. Cranberry dressing--I've taught Frances my mother-in-law's secret recipe.  Ken claims it is neither secret nor a recipe, but I think it makes Frances feel a littler closer to her Grams (who is no longer with us).
7. Fruit Salad--This one doesn't always make it to the table, but when it does, I like to mix some tropical fruit with some whipped cream and pretend it's healthy!
8. Green Bean Casserole--technically this started out as Ken's favorite, but I have grown to like it too.  The only problem with making it is trying to keep the fried onions away from Ken until I've used what I need.
9. A relish tray full of sweet pickles, dill pickles, black olives and green olives.  We like to put the olives on our fingers and wiggle them at each other.  Wait!! I mean THE KIDS! The kids do that.  And I scold them...thoroughly.
10. Pie--Not pumpkin or anything, but I'll eat apple or cherry pie.  I just like leaving all the pumpkin pie for the rest of you to enjoy.  I'm generous like that.

My cranberry sherbet story: This was my grandmother's thing.  It's exactly what it sounds like. A delicious sherbet made from cranberries.  It's the perfect ending to a big meal, because as Grandma always explained, it trickles down in all the spaces between the food in your belly and helps settle it down so you don't feel as full.  Now, I don't eat Thanksgiving dinner with my family and Grandma's not around to make the sherbet.

I also should tell on our former neighbor growing up.  Myrtle lived next door to us and had standing permission to get get veggies out of our garden because we always had too much.  She also used to eat the raspberries, which was fine, as well. One year she had Thanksgiving dinner with us and someone offered her some cranberry sherbet. She declined, saying, "The seeds get stuck in my teeth and I don't like that."  We were polite enough not to ask if all the raspberry seeds got stuck in her teeth as well.

What is your favorite thing to eat for Thanksgiving?  Who does the cooking and where do you eat?

Halloween 2012

This year Halloween fell on a Wednesday. With Hurricane Sandy and its after-effects, it seemed like the day kind of snuck up on us. I was out of work on Monday and the kids were out Monday and Tuesday.  We had picked plenty of pumpkins during our many pumpkin patch trips, but having left them on the porch they had gotten eaten by bugs and squirrels.  The big one we got in order to carve had completely rotted from the inside out. (Be glad we don't have smell-i-vision on the internet yet!) I bought a new carving pumpkin from the store on Sunday and had left in rolling around in my car until Tuesday night.  We brought in the surviving porch pumpkins and let the kids decorate with these cute pieces.  Then we carved the (freezing cold) pumpkin.

The kids had fun scooping out the gunk inside the pumpkin and then I let them draw a picture of how they wanted to face to look.  Since there was only one pumpkin (and we have been working on cooperation and getting along), I switched Frances and Henry's drawings when they were done.  I had Henry pick his favorite part of Frances' drawing and let her pick her favorite part of his.  He picked the mouth she had drawn, and she picked his nose (hahahahahahahahha!!!)  That left the eyes, so I drew some shapes on a piece of paper and asked Benjamin which eyes he liked.  The result was a pumpkin with everyone's input and creativity:

Yesterday was such a fun day! I am glad to work in a place that not only allows, but encourages, costumes for the day. I dressed as Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games. One co-worker dressed in biker gear and another dressed as Steve Jobs.  We had students participate too with a pirate, a cat, a baseball player's wife (complete with jersey and HUGE ring), and Harry Potter.

 Ken dressed as the 11th Doctor from Dr. Who. I eve tied his bow tie (the first time I've ever attempted such a thing).  I bought him a sonic screwdriver, but apparently I bought the 10th Doctor's version, so he had to go buy  the correct one. We went from not owning any sonic screwdrivers to owning 2 (or maybe three) in less than 24 hours!!

 Benjamin refused all the costumes I offered him. We had been trying off and on all month, but he didn't want any part of it.  He ended up wearing the pants from last year's mouse costume, the jacket from Henry's dog costume last year and a frog hat.  He wouldn't say trick or treat, but he did say thank you at every house.  Henry was a knight and Frances was a witch.  They wanted to be Mike and Evie from one of their cartoons, Mike The Knight.

I told them to yell "Boo!"

 We didn't end up going out for very long because it was cold and windy. We went about two blocks of our regular route and then visited the ABC store and the ETMC.  All in all, they had a bunch of fun and got enough candy to make them happy but not enough to make them sick.

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.

Halloween 2011

This year for Halloween Frances wanted to be a cat. She actually created her own costume from things she already had. We did end up buying her a tail and ears, but the rest was her own creation.

Henry waffled back and forth about a couple of different things he wanted to be. He finally settled on a dog (big surprise, huh!?!)

And since cat and dog were already taken, I decided to make Benjamin a mouse.

Since Frances' costume was homemade, I bought a brown sweatsuit for Henry and a grey sweatsuit for Benjamin.  I found some felt in the craft box and added some details with the hot glue gun.  I think they turned out rather nice. And I spent more money on candy than I did on costumes!

 We went out to visit Daddy at work for our first stop.  I always get a little giggle about visiting Ken at work. I really wonder what people think about this lady dragging her three little kids with her into the liquor store!!  Last night as I was getting Benjamin out of the van, the guy parked next to me made a comment about trick-or-treating at the liquor store.  I laughed about it and commented, "When Daddy's gotta work, this is our only choice!"  Incidentally, this might be my favorite Halloween picture this year:

Especially the way one ear is flopped backwards!!

After visiting Daddy, we went over to my work because the girls had asked earlier if we would stop by.  They got some candy there and banged around on one of the computers before we headed over to Franklin Street to collect candy. We parked at a friend's house and walked down the street and back up.  When we got back to the van, Frances said, "Where are we going next, Mommy?"  Ummm..HOME??  She had enough energy to keep going, but her brothers were definitely spent (and so was her mom!)

Incidentally, I couldn't find my big plastic candy bowl that I usually set out on the porch, so I took two McDonald's buckets from last year and filled those with candy.  We are not usually home when the majority of the trick-or-treaters are out, so I just leave the bucket on the front porch.  It is actually pretty rare for us to get trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, which is why we go a few blocks over.  Anyway, when we got home, both buckets were empty (yeah!) so I refilled them and put them back out on the porch. I heard a few rustles out there while I was putting the kids to bed and then later when I was sitting on the couch.  When Ken got home at 9:30 I asked him if there was any candy left in the bucket. "What buckets?" he says!  Turns out somebody took not only the candy, but the buckets as well!!  Well, the jokes on them-I was hoping to get rid of those things anyway!

And just in case you think Ken and I are no fun, we did dress up.  We didn't get to spend any time together on Halloween, but we spent weeks planning our costumes and collecting pieces, so here we are:

Dr. Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian Institution and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth.  You can't see the "cocky" belt buckle I bought him, or the shoulder holster he was wearing, but I know they are there and that makes me happy!

Super Scary Sunday Supper

Halloween is Monday, but we all have work and school, so I decided to cook up a Halloween meal on Sunday this year.  I had a ton of fun getting everything ready, and it was a pretty well balanced dinner too.
We had:  Mummy Dogs,

 Witch's Fingers,

 Monster Mouths,

 Goblin Eyes,

 Ghosts,

 Zombie Brains (I forgot to take a picture of the steamed cauliflower, sorry), and Peek-a-Boo Brew.

That clock is wrong, btw, but it keeps getting unplugged and I refuse to keep setting it!

Frances LOVED it!!

 

 Henry (who was over tired from lack of a nap) whined that he was "scared of his dinner," but finally acquiesced.

And Benjamin?  Yeah, he was over tired from his lack of a nap as well. He licked the Nutella and white chocolate chips out of his Monster Mouth and then tried to throw the rest of his food around the room while screaming.  I put him in his bed to chill out and he fell asleep (and slept through until morning!)  GOOD TIMES!!!

**This stuff was all pretty easy to make. If you want any directions, just let me know!**

Halloween Snow?!!

I really didn't want to believe all the hype I was seeing on Facebook and hearing from friends, but my denial didn't matter.  We had a Halloween Snow!! It started late Friday night with some drizzle and freezing rain. By the time we work up Saturday morning, it was a Winter Wonderland.  Except that it's still Fall!! And will be for another 7 weeks!
I frantically dug through all the winter boxes in the basement to find snowsuits and boots. Poor Benjamin didn't have anything I could find. I tried this, but he HATED it!  He couldn't even move!!  I only took one picture before he started BAWLING and I rescued him from it. We all laughed hysterically as I was trying to get it off.  Is that wrong??

 

Once we all got suited up, we ventured outside to check things out. The bigs had a good time jumping in snow and throwing it at each other. They tried to build a snowman, but didn't have the patience to finish.  They did enjoy playing hide and seek with the pumpkins on the picnic table that had ended up buried!

Benjamin just stood in one place and looked around.  He dropped his pacifier a few times and cried until I picked it up for him.  But basically he just stood there.

I noticed that our immediate neighbors on both sides lost some trees. We don't have anything in our yard that would be big enough to worry about, really.  I did clean the snow off of our dogwood so it wouldn't break.  Thankfully it looks like there was no housing damage done.

My neighbor's tree hit her house, but I don't think it broke anything.

After all that, we went inside to eat lunch and take naps. By the time the kids woke up the snow was mostly melted and we were left with just wet and cold.