Fingerpainting and Gum

In the Joy School manual, for this last week, they suggested finger painting with shaving cream. It seemed like a brilliant idea- it washes off, it smells good and the table top should be easy to clean, right?! It sure WAS fun.....


Delaney enjoyed it a lot. She was a bit unsure at first to get messy hands, but once she saw everyone else getting into it, she had a blast.

Yes, Callie had a great time too. All the kids did. In hindsight, I could have done a few things differently. Smocks would have been good. Most kids got at least some shaving cream on their sleeves. Mauricio is the most talented and had it all over his shirt, pants and even behind his ear. So smocks would have helped. Also, they all finished at the same time and it was awful trying to get their hands all washed while saying, no! don't touch anything! to those who still had shaving cream all over. Still, everyone enjoyed it a lot and we may do it again. Well, I may do it again with just MY children. 7 kids was a lot to do this with.


Now on to today's story. As I was getting ready for bed last night, I noticed what appeared to be hair in the trash can. Closer inspection revealed this to be true- a good 3 inches of hair, wrapped around gum. Hmmm... Now who could the culprit be? No question there- Marian is the only one sneaky enough to get gum at bedtime, and the only one quiet and stealthy enough to trim her own hair without drawing attention to the fact. Since she was already asleep, I had to wait till morning to assess the damage.

Thanks to daylight savings, we were running behind today. That is my excuse as to why I did not do a better job with her hair. Had I time to consider it, I may have attempted to taper around the front, or I may have been able to keep more hair on her.

Here is where she snipped of a chunk. There was still a little gum crinkled in her hair, which I think is why I didn't think about tapering the front. And did I mention I was in a hurry? Plus, it was darn hard to cut her hair! I could NOT get it even! I finally gave up and figured it would just look like I layered it a little.

This was how the back looked when I thought I was done.

Then I took this picture of the front and realized just how uneven the sides were. so I had to lop off a bit more from that side. I expect its still not entirely even, but too bad. I had pancakes to make and lunches to make and kids to get on the bus! Plus, Marian is a cutie pie, no matter how her hair looks.

Slacking

I like to post pictures.  That's the main point of blogging.  Well, that or being fantastically witty or wise.  Thus, I stick to the pictures.  Unfortunately, there are no pictures on the Apple, and that's what I'm using now.  We need to get a memory card reader so I can download pix to this computer and then I can post something interesting.

For now, let me just say that I am glad tomorrow is Monday and 2 of my children will be off to school.  I seem to have lost control in the last week or 2 and its hard work to regain it.  Marian is fighting more with Callie, and Callie has the scratch marks to prove it.  However, I have no idea when it happened, because Callie didn't complain.  It is possible the scratches came from when they were actually playing nicely.  Marian and Callie pretend to be puppies or kittens or tigers and crawl around with occasional snarls and such.  I will allow that the snarling and scratching may have gotten a little too real.  However, the "Shut-up"s and kicking are real enough and need to stop.

Joshua is now complaining about everything.  The very sad thing is that I recall doing the very same thing when I was a kid. "She's staring at me!  Make her stop!"  "She's annoying me!  Make her stop!"  It gets pretty old, pretty fast.  He's being pretty disrespectful to me as well lately and that really needs to stop.  He did spend a good part of the afternoon in his room, but its going to take more than that.  So this week I think I will have to be the mean mom and see if I can regain some control and get my sweet children back.

Delaney.... well, I don't quite know what I'm going to do with her.  I thought I had the cupboards latched securely, but alas, tis not the case.  She poured out some of my essential oils this week.  She got the salt and pepper shakers and destroyed Dan's yummy bread pudding (LOVE the Pioneer Woman's recipe).  She got into the bandaids and ripped most of them open and trashed the bathroom with the wrappers.  She has spilled more water than I care to clean up, and gone through more outfits than I care to wash.  She's wearing me out!  She has also decided she doesn't want her hair done anymore.  As soon as I start she shouts "Ouch!  Hurt!  Go WAY!"  And I'm not even touching her.  Silly pickle.

So, I am committing right now to be more vigilant.  To stop the bad behavior in the beginning and regain the love and peace that may never have existed here at all!  So let it be written; so let it be done!

Make Ahead Meal Tutorial

Some of you may know that I am part of a "Make Ahead Meals" Group. Every 2 weeks 7-9 of us get together. Each of us make 7-9 of the same meal and when we get together, we exchange them for 7-9 different meals. So, this time, I made 8 BBQ Cups. I met with my group on Monday an I returned home with: Apple Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Pork Chops, Spicy Korean Pork, Enchiladas, Chicken Macaroni Bake, Mexican Chicken, and my BBQ Cups.

I love this dinner group. It means I spend about 3 hours every 2 weeks making multiples of my one meal and in return, all I have to do every night is to pull out of the freezer what I want to eat tomorrow. This has saved me so much time, energy, and money, it is fabulous!

Now, I am no Pioneer Woman, but I thought you might like a peek at the process. So, I documented the making of the BBQ Cups. Here is the Recipe:

BBQ Cups
1 lb hamburger (or ground turkey)
½ cup chopped onion
1 clove crushed garlic(optional)
½ cup BBQ sauce
½ cup shredded cheese
1pkg uncooked refrigerator biscuits (or make your own dough)
Cook meat with onion and garlic. Drain fat and add BBQ sauce. Press biscuit dough into 10 muffin cups. Spoon meat mix into cups and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.


My pan is only big enough to hold 5 pounds of meat, so here is 3 pounds of ground beef and 2 pounds ground turkey. Hey, I like to make healthy choices when I can! Also, there are onions and garlic in as well. It does take longer to thoroughly cook such a large quantity, so I like to stand there with a book in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Not! I have Delaney wanting to be a helper. So I gave her her very own biscuit to play with, and she requires constant monitoring.

Delaney took her biscuit and immediately went for the knife. While she did have a very good time, I wondered what this said about her psyche.

Now, moving on to how we make our dinner..... here we see our meat is all cooked and drained. 5 pounds makes a lot of fat! Once that's done, you add your BBQ sauce. I use whatever is on hand, but I prefer the stuff that says "honey" or "brown sugar", over the stuff that's hot or spicy. And I like a lot of BBQ sauce on my cups! I add more than the recipe calls for and mix it in nicely.

Then we move to the table and make our assembly line. If you are lucky, like me, you can have a passel of helpers too. First, you need to press your biscuits into the (greased) tins. Next, I scoop the meat on top.

Callie was a wonderful biscuit separator, but not so good at the pressing and spreading. She worked fast, too. I had a hard time keeping up with her. I put the meat on top of the biscuits and then passed them on to Marian for the cheese.

Marian loves sprinkling the cheese on top. She was quite generous, but she also enjoyed snacking on the pieced that dropped on the table. She was pretty methodical and took a while to complete her job. When she was done, they looked pretty good.

Here you can see the ones in process, and some finished trays. It was actually pretty quick. Once done, it is time to cover them with foil and label them.

Darn blogger! This picture was not rotated this direction when I uploaded it! Still, you can see: covered with heavy duty foil- I like to double cover sometimes. And the label is printed with the recipe, thawing and cooking directions, and my name & number in case anyone has questions about them. Packaging tape is the best for affixing the labels, and you have to put them on before you freeze them, otherwise they won't stick.

Now I take them all to the freezer in the garage and wait for exchange day! See, not to arduous, and the benefits are wonderful! Plus, now you can try out a new recipe tonight. Okay, not if you are in my family and grew up eating tasty BBQ Cups!

Snow Day #2

I love it when I don't pay attention to the weather and get surprised with snow. Not really, but its better than knowing its coming, I think. Sunday was gray and icky and drizzly. By the evening (when I had to go out to a baptism), it was snowing slush. I did watch the news that night to see what was in store with the weather- snow and more snow. So, no school for the kids on Monday.

They were ecstatic. I was not. I'm not sure why. I mean, Joshua only came in to run to the bathroom and for a short lunch break. Other than that, he was out in the snow. Marian was in and out a bit, but she wasn't harassing her sisters when she was inside. Dan had the day off as well.He had to get up at Zero dark hundred to call in and the word was a 2 hour delay. So, at 8am, he was getting ready to go in to work and his boss called just as he was walking out the door and said, "stay home." Whew! It snowed till about noon.

Here is my manly hubby, shoveling the walk. He did the driveway too, and helped the neighbor clear out her car, since she did have to head in to work.

This is to prove that we DO dress Delaney for the weather. See- boots, hat, mittens, jacket.....

I know, this is an entirely different outfit, down to the jacket and mittens. Delaney likes to change clothes frequently! I wanted to show you that this is what she does after she's been out for 10 minutes. First she pulls off the hat. Next go the mittens, and last comes the jacket. She just tosses them on the ground.

5 minutes after she sheds her warm stuff, she's not having fun anymore. She was crying, but stopped when I pulled out the camera. I know, her hair is a mess. It got worse too, when it got stuck in her runny nose and dried. Gross. This is why she has to have her hair done, but it wasn't worth the fight yet then!

Here is Joshua and his friends. They took cardboard boxes and big Tupperware totes and made snow bricks to make an Igloo. They worked on it all afternoon and did a pretty good job. It was a "roofless" igloo.

I'll have you know Marian unzips her jacket and refuses to keep it zipped. She is wearing boots, mittens and a hat, so I do not complain. Neither does she. This is the half finished "Igloo". They packed the snow so tight, the thing may stand till summer! They got all the sides up pretty high and had a marvelous time. Poor Joshua came in around 5pm, just red cheeked, blood-shot eyes, and exhausted. He was so cold too, he had to take a hot shower to warm up and even then he complained he was cold. He sure went to bed easy though!

Today it was back to school, but a 2 hour delay. The 2 hour delay is just silly, but it meant I got to sleep in and had time to drag my feet. It also meant squabbling in the morning which we do not usually have.

Great things about this Week

I have discovered how to get the house cleaned. It is amazing! For Christmas, my parents sent me a cd of ragtime music. I LOVE ragtime music! How can you not wiggle and dance to it?! So that's what we do. We put in the cd and shake it to the music and see how much the kids can pick up before I stop the music. Sort of like musical chairs with toys. Or maybe not like that at all. I just know they have a blast. And I get a kick out of watching them dance. Dance may not be the right word, but it sure is fun to see!

Here we have Delaney feeling overwhelmed by the gyrating antics of her siblings. Marian is convulsing on the floor in some strange, yet vastly amusing dance move. Joshua is trying to break dance and Callie fell over spinning. I laughed much. Yes, I did.

And here is a clearer shot of it all. Same thing, except Callie is showing me her ballerina moves. They had me in stitches. Plus, they got the living room nicely picked up! (PS- Aren't Delaney's pajamas awesome? So ugly they are adorable!)

Also fantastic this week was the arrival of a box of chocolates. Most of you may know that my brother and his wife work for Harry and David. Don't feel bad if you are not familiar with Harry & David. I'd never heard of them till Adam got a job there. They do mail order fruit, chocolate and gourmet stuff. And while some of it is a bit odd, its all yummy!  Adam lovingly scoured their after season sales and sent me a huge box of goodies. (So I'm set for Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, birthdays...!)  If you wonder what a 38 pound box of future hip-padding looks like- here it is! I laid it all out on the couch so I could revel in it.

Okay, actually, I wanted to roll in it on the floor, but I was concerned that it might melt some of the chocolate. I did sample some and while the chocolate covered graham crackers are still my ultimate favorite (hence the presence of so many), I did LOVE the chocolate covered oreos. Ahhhh..... yep, add a nice 50 pounds to me right now. Wait. Why is it that 38 pounds of goodies will end up as more than that on me?

And the last really fun thing I wanted to share was my Activity Day. That was Wednesday evening. We talked about modesty and I had cut out 10 giant paper dolls. Yikes. That was a test of my (non-existent!) artistic capabilities, since I first had to draw it, then cut it out. Not so fun. Fortunately, "War Games" was on Sci-Fi channel, and I watched that as I laboriously snipped out my dolls from posterboard.

That evening the girls had a variety of craft stuff to design modest outfits for their dolls. They were amazing! I was really impressed with their creativity and imagination. I'm only posting one picture, since I'm not sure how all the other moms would feel about their kids' picture being here.

But check out the outfit! And the hair and the boots, I think are awesome. So yeah, it was a fun night!

And those were some highlights of the week! Now I'm going to have a pizza picnic on the living room floor and watch a movie with the kids. Because sometimes I AM the fun mom!