Getting ready for Christmas.

I have all the shopping done, and it would remain that way if only Hubster would stop dreaming up things to give the kids… *sigh* men. I have the tree up, and have started wrapping things.. All of my Holiday knitting is done, and I have been working on some relaxing things, I finished my Lady Sweater, I need to take pictures of it still but I love it, it turned out great. I am working on yet another shawl too…

I am also hunting down things that I need to pack into the trailer for a trip to No. Cal for New Years. It is much colder there than here, so I am digging out winter coats and sweaters and such. We haven’t worn these things since we moved here 2 years ago, and can’t buy things for truly cold weather here, so the kids will probably get a bunch of new stuff once we are up there  (we have coats, but the kids have few warm clothes.)

I am also working on putting together our Christmas Dinner menu so that I can get that shopping done and all the prep for that taken care of.

Friday is the last day of school here, until Jan 11th, so the kids will spend the next 3 weeks driving me totally out of my mind.. We will be able to take some of their Christmas presents with us on the trip but definitely not all of them. It will still help with the boredom of a long car trip.

Halloween

We had a good Halloween. My kids told me some time ago that they wanted to be a witch , a black cat and a broom, the witch and the black cat were easy, generic costume for the witch, ears and tail kit with black sweats and a little bit of face paint for the cat, but a broom.. now that was kind of tricky. I thought about it some… I could have gone to the home improvement store and gotten  the round tubing that is used for pouring cement pylons, but that was expensive, and for what I had in mind, heavy.

In my garage, I still had the box for the hot water heater that we replaced when we moved in (we switched from gas to electric) so I went out and cut out two sides from it.. brought it in and worked the long sides so that it would curl. Wrapped it around the child who would be wearing it ,and cut it so there was only about 3 inches of overlap, not 12. Once I got that cut, I wrapped it around her again, and measured so that if the edge of the cardboard were to sit at her hips, so that she can still walk, where her face would be,  and cut a hole out for her face. after that I cut hole on either side for her arms to stick out, this also means that the weight of the cardboard rests on her shoulders.

Once all the holes were cut, I wrapped it around her again, and taped it, using clear packing tape, into the tube that would be the broom handle. and then we pulled it off over her head. Just before we went trick or treating last night I helped her put the handle back on, over her head and then I took a generic faux grass hula skirt and wrapped around the cardboard at about her waist, making sure that it didn’t quite drag the ground, so she could still walk. taping it in several places around her body. on top of the grass skirt I wrapped two circles of silver ribbon, so that it looked like the wires that generally bind that style of broom. After much discussion the kids had decided that they wanted her to be a Firebolt, like one of Harry Potter’s brooms so I took a magic marker and wrote Firebolt near the top. I think it turned out cute. It won’t win any design or construction contests but it lasted the evening and all the neighbors loved it.

They were adorable, if I do say so myself.

Steel-cut Oatmeal cookies, take two

ok, this time, it is a win.. and oh so simple…

I did a bit more research into cookies made with steel cut oats. this time, not just searching for the names steel cut oats, but also irish oatmeal, scottish oatmeal and pinhead oats. I found one message board entry, somewhere, I don’t remember where, in which the author said they had simply substituted steel-cut oats for rolled oats in their favorite oatmeal cookie recipe and the results were really good, but slightly crunchier than their usually chewy cookie. So, bolstered by this discovery, I ventured forth and attempted my oatmeal cookies yet again

This time I changed little. I used entirely brown sugar instead of my usual 2/1 brown to white ratio, I did this because I just like the flavor of brown sugar better. The only other change I made in my recipe was instead of the usual 4 C. of rolled oats that I usually use, I used 3 C. of pinhead oats. I decreased the amount for two reasons…

1. the original recipe that I adapted years ago called for 3 cups, but I added a cup  because I liked the tooth of it, better, with the harder oats, I thought that the smaller amount might be better.
2. I only had 3 C of steel-cut oats left. (note to self, time for another trip to the health food store)

I will admit that I did use mini M&M’s in place of chocolate chips, but I don’t think of this as a change, this is something I do regularly, depending on which is cheaper when I am buying chocolate.

I baked them as usual, they did take a little longer to bake, and were still very soft when they came out of the oven but quickly firmed up when they cooled, to make a nice, chewy cookie. I let them cool for a few minutes on the pan, then moved them to the counter top to finish cooling, before sealing them in a zip top bag.

After the first batch cooled, I let the kids each sample one. The ones old enough to do more than just demand more cookies swear that these are better than my usual oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. And I will admit, that *gasp* yes, I even ate one of the baked cookies, they were good. I may have another some day, not today, but someday (*disclaimer, my someday comment is not because the cookies are not good, they are, but personally, I prefer to eat my cookies before they are baked) I think I may continue to make them this way.  We shall see what the Hubster has to say about them, but I don’t foresee any negative comments.

The repurposing of a bag…

Last month some time, I picked up one of the several one skein knitting books that are out there, at my local library. I liked several things out of it, and I made a couple of them.. One of the things I made was a soap sack. I don’t know why, we haven’t used more than 3 bars of soap in the last 5 years, we are just a liquid soap family… But the urge struck, and I figured if nothing else, I could always give it as a gift. So I finished the bag (really fast knit, took me less than a day) and it has been sitting on my desk waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

Fast Forward to yesterday. I was sitting at my desk, watching my NCIS DVD’s and knitting when my 3yo runs up to me… both hands overflowing with marbles, telling me he needs a bag to keep his “Marmles” in. So, I looked around, and spot the soap sack. Solid fabric, so the marbles won’t fall out, good size, and drawstring top. Perfect. We dumped the marbles out of his hands into the bag, then we went into the play room and gathered the ones that he had dropped. He has been hauling it around ever since. As if it were his favorite blanket. I am guessing this is a repurposing win. At least this is putting the bag to us, and he loves it..

Zout

far better than Shout…

Over the years since I have been married and had kids, I have dealt with a myriad of stains on clothing. I have learned a lot of tricks for getting things out…

For small amounts of ink, hairspray works well.

for grease stains.. cola,

but by far and wide the best stain remover I have ever found is Zout, I first found it about 5 years ago, in Walgreens. I picked it up on a whim, and tried it…

We had this little dress for the girls, it was a really cute white dress with blue flowers… but one of the girls had spilled spaghetti sauce on it, long before, and it had become a set in stain, many times washed and dried, I had given it up as play clothes.  As a trial, I just *knew* it would never come clean, but the bottle claimed it would get out set in stains… I applied the Zout to this dress, let it sit about 30 minutes, and ran it through the washer. The stains came out, I was shocked. They came out so well, that my sister used the dress for her little girl, and my sister didn’t dress her in anything that showed the tiniest amount of wear or hint of stain, ever.

Over the years I have used it for many things, nothing as amazing as that first tomato sauce stain, but with 3 kids, I have plenty of opportunity to get stains out. And then this morning… Hubster was getting ready for work, when he discovered that he had left a highlighter uncapped in his uniform shirt yesterday, and now there was a huge yellow highlighter stain on his tan uniform shirt. So I tackled it… Of course, it being ink, I applied hairspray first… and it got a lot of it out.. but not all. So , I dug out my Zout… sprayed the area liberally, front and back, and set it on the washer… 30 minutes later I tossed the shirt in a washer full of cold water and let it run… the water in the washer turned yellow… But by the end of the wash cycle, the stain came out…

Zout saves the day again….

One day there was

a little boy, he was only three years old, but pretty quick thinking… He ran into the kitchen, where his mama was working, and asked “What ‘cha doing, Mama?” His mama tells him that she is making banana bread, because she realized that they had some bananas that were getting ready to go bad. At the same time she is measuring and adding the flour to the mixer, and greasing the loaf pans to bake the bread. The little boy looks at her for a minute, and says “I want some ‘nana bread!” then he looks into the oven. The oven is not yet hot, and is still empty. At which time the small boy sits on his butt on the floor in front of the oven and tells his mama that he can’t see the ‘nana bread and it needs to get in there soon so he can eat it.

He waited very impatiently for the bread to make it into the oven…. all of 5-10 minutes… But he was very patient for the hour that the bread took to bake. By then, his older sisters had gotten home from school, and they were all impatient to have some bread as an after-school snack. The bread had a very short life span, and was deeply mourned when it was gone.

Another day, another dollar…

Well, I managed to get through August and stay inside my food budget (I am refusing to go to the store tomorrow, the only reason I will leave the house is to take the kids to school, I swear!) which is something I have been struggling with for sometime… why? because things got more expensive, and I was trying to feed us on the same amount it took 2 years ago. (no, the family hasn’t grown.. but how much my kids eat, and cost of food has.) I am excited… and already working on a list for next month… LOL

The girls go back to school tomorrow, with it being Monday and all… I love them being in school, I really do… But there is this wonderful, elusive thing, that I miss so much on school days… it is called Sleep. Hubster gets home at 11pm, and I usually stay up and wait for him, talk to him about his day, etc. and get to bed around midnight… And the alarm goes off at 6. IF I have slept well, I get a max of 6 hrs a night, however, my 3 yo often wakes in the night, needing some attention. I often wake 2-3 times a night for no reason that I can fathom… and then there is that whole getting to sleep issue… sometimes it is easy, sometimes it takes hours. At least on the weekends, if the kids are semi-quiet, I can sleep a little bit later.

The kids and I have no major appointments this week, which is good. Although my oldest hounds me every day “Did the library call yet?” she is waiting for a book on inter-library loan, and is a little bit impatient.

*sigh* Guess I better go put away the laundry before Hubster gets home…

Adventures in Bento’s

I have recently become somewhat familiar with bento boxes, mostly for packing lunches for the kids. They love them, they are cute, compact, and  you are able to get a surprising amount of food in them.

We packed our first bento lunches last night. Nothing spectacular, a couple hard boiled eggs, some baby carrots, a piece of banana bread and a granola bar each. While we were at it, we made a list of things they want in their lunches… I hit the grocery store today and got it all…  As we packed tomorrow’s lunches this evening, I took pictures.

My younger daughter, she eats slowly, so she can’t eat a large lunch in the 20 minutes that they have for lunch at school. Here was her choices for tomorrow.

lunch #1

top section is cheese and ham, cut into pieces to fit on crackers, included in the lid but not shown, middle section is grapes, and grape tomatoes,bottom section is cantaloupe.  When the whole thing is stacked and belted it looks like this

Lunch #1 stacked

My older daughter eats more, and she eats much faster, so she can take more to be eaten in her 20 minutes. She chose to take two 2-later boxes, and here they are.

lunch #2 box 1

Top section has grapes, grape tomatoes, and raw broccoli florets, middle (actually the bottom of the bento) is cantaloupe pieces, and on the bottom is the top of the box, it has her flatware and some wheat thins crackers.

Top section has cheese, ham and crackers, middle (again, actually the bottom of the bento) has salad, just prebagged salad, mixed with raw spinich,  and the top  has more ritz crackers for her ham and cheese.

Lunch #2 stacked

This is both containers stacked and belted.

My girls love the system, we put the containers in thermal bags, with reusable ice cubes, and cloth napkins (which we use around the house anyway) and they are happy.

I do want to note that yes, there are a lot of fruits and vegetables in my childrens’ lunches, no I don’t force this on them, these are what they CHOSE for their lunches, and yes, my 9 year old actually wanted salad in her lunch.

Another upside is they love helping to chose what goes into and helping to pack their lunches. So far, it has been fun.

Some things I have realized..

yes, even in I have deep moments.

1. My children are teaching me tolerance ~ I can tolerate them running and screaming through the house for about 3 hrs.
2. My tolerance is not yet perfect ~ after about 3 hrs, I am forced to find them each separate jobs so that they will be quiet and stop running.
3. Knitting is teaching me patience ~ I can wait almost forever when I have my knitting with me.
4. My patience seems  conditional ~ if the kids are with me, or if I don’t have my knitting, my patience is apparently absent.
5. Knitting has also taught me that time is relative ~ when knitting a sock, those first 8 inches seem to just fly by, but that last inch, though worked at the same pace, can take hours.
6. There is no such thing as too much yarn ~ just trust me on this one. And don’t ask how much yarn I own.
7. I love my extended family, and sometimes I love them more the further away they are from me.
8. In some ways, I am a very old fashioned woman ~ I love cooking, canning, putting up food, making things “from scratch” as in not using mixes, taking care of my family (though the whole washing dishes by hand thing, it is for the birds)  and just in general being a homemaker.
9. In other ways, I am very modern ~ I love my computer and internet, and I am not willing to give them, or my cell phone up. (mind you, cell phone is our only phone, we gave up a land line years ago)
10. Knitting has taught me to plan ahead ~ it is easier to use up extra yarn than to find more of the same color and dye lot to finish a project.
11. I have learned that beauty is relative ~ I have a red circular shawl pinned to one wall, I knitted the shawl, and dyed it myself, I am very proud of it and I thin it is beautiful, I have had people ask me why I have a huge doily on the wall.
12. I have learned that by the age of 3 children can no longer hear the sound of their mother’s voice.
13. A child who loves to read is a gift, though sometimes you may wish that she reads slower, so that it is easier to keep her in reading material.
14. A child who doesn’t love to read, sometimes just hasn’t yet found something she enjoys reading.
15. Time spent reading is never wasted. Trust me on this one, ignore the rest of my family.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!!

I love you, Tomorrow, you’re only a day away!!!

ok, yeah, I have Annie stuck in my head now, but this does express my excitement about tomorrow. Hubster will be home after 3 weeks away. I can barely contain my joy. He is back in this country again, for which I can only be thankful, I was a little worried about those long flights.

I have done a lot of house cleaning, trying to make sure everything looks good when hubby gets home. Major battling with the Laundry Monster, I swear dirty clothes hide everywhere and I can never get caught up.

*sigh*

I decided to try a shortbread cookie recipe, I found it on the Pioneer Woman website, looks good.  I have lots of serving ideas…

I am preparing for school, what to pack in lunches, what do we still need to buy, what we can get away without buying yet, and what is on sale where.