Anyone else struggle with asking the right questions?
Yesterday, Hannah had asked a couple of times if they could stay up past midnight. Three guesses as to my answer, it was “No”. Finally, I asked “Why do you want to stay up?” She explained that tonight the Mayan calendar ended they wanted to see what would happen. Oh, ok! Well, “How will we celebrate?” The triplets decided we would celebrate with sparkling cider. Luckily, I happened to have a bottle in the fridge, it is the holidays. What do you know an impromptu party! Hopefully, they will remember the fun times and not the times I didn’t listen or ask the right question.
Anyone else struggle with asking the right questions?
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I was supposed to bring cookies to Hannah and Nick’s guitar concert. I thought, I’ve pinned a lot of Christmas ideas/cookies I’ll use one of those. Well…Sam had been asking to make gingerbread cookies for about a year. Ok, we’ll make gingerbread and white chocolate covered Oreo’s with crushed peppermint candy. I decided a boxed gingerbread cookie mix would be fine. After going to two stores I found a gingerbread cookie mix. Actually, I could have gotten it at the first store if I had read the package correctly. Dang. They were pretty easy to make so I decided to tackle the Oreo’s.
On Pinterest this looked like a kid friendly craft. We got out the Oreo’s and began to open them. Next we needed to add the stick/skewer. I had bought sticks at the grocery store but they were too big. Ok, I’m off to the craft store to find smaller sticks. The craft store only had the same size sticks. I remembered I had some smaller wooden skewers at home. Dang. They ended up working perfectly. We crushed the peppermint candies and melted white chocolate chips. The chocolate was a little thick so I looked it up on the internet how to make it a little less thick by adding some cooking oil. That seemed to help, but I discovered it was easier to spoon the chocolate over the Oreo’s rather that dip them in the chocolate. We added the crushed peppermint candy and they looked pretty good. Let me know what you think. I discovered if you read the package directions and think through the pinterest craft it can work, if you’re willing to go to the store a couple of times and pull your hair out, no problem. Anyone else have trouble reading labels? I have yet to get home from the store with just a plain can of tomatoes!!! We finally made it to an In and Out Burger! The boys got hats and swore they would
wear them the next time they cooked. Tonight Sam asked if he could help with supper. Of course I said “YES." He ran and got his in and out hat and got to work. Nick decided to get in on the action too, and pulled out his in and out hat. We had such fun making dinner. It’s the little things that count. You’ve got to love a kid who says “WAIT MOM, don’t take the picture yet, I’ve got to wipe the plate like they do on the cooking shows.” I’ve said it before “Presentation rules in our house.” Any other families out there with presentation issues? Fall in Texas – Picking up Pecans- Bring on the tree shaker! Ever heard of a tree shaker? I’ve learned it’s a John Deer tractor. Fall is a very short season in Texas. You have to take advantage of any cool day. We are lucky enough to have family that lives in the country and has several pecan trees on their property. My cousin called and invited us to come up and pick pecans. It’s a great learning experience for the kids, practically a rite of passage in our family. I told stories about Grandmommy working on the farm as a young girl. I think they understand better what her childhood was like. I told the kids we were picking up the pecans on the halves meaning we would share half of what we gathered with my cousins. Pecans are a cash crop so they were really doing us a favor by letting us come and share in their crop. It was a beautiful day, about 65 degrees no wind. The kids worked really hard for about 2 hours then it became work. The rest of the time they were trying to knock pecans out of the trees with sticks and were climbing the trees. There were so many pecans we were crawling around on the ground on all fours. Dang, it hurts to land on one. I’m tired and sore. Now the work will begin shelling the pecans and cleaning them. We’ll see how the kids do helping with that chore. The kids are asking for pralines, pecan pies and ice cream sundaes! I hope they will appreciate the pecans more since they helped. See below for praline recipe. Let me know how your pralines turn out! Belinda's Pralines 2 cups sugar (I use granulated sugar some recipes call for 1/2 granulated sugar and 1/2 brown sugar) 1 cup milk 2 T. butter 2 T. corn syrup 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. soda 1 cup pecans 1 tsp. vanilla Mix all ingredients, except pecans and vanilla, in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. When the mixture comes to a boil, add pecans and cook until it reaches 234 degrees on a candy thermometer. Stir often and watch carefully because it will reach 234 before you know it. Off the stove add vanilla and beat until creamy. This takes several minutes. (Some recipes call for letting it sit about 10 minutes then stir.) When it's ready the mixture will lose it's glossy sheen. Working quickly, drop by spoonful onto waxed paper. Makes about 2 dozen. Enjoy!!! The one thing that is taboo in our house is talking about daylight savings time!!! This is my one cardinal rule! We do not talk about changing the clocks or what time it is suspose to be... The best way to get over the time change is to change the clocks and be done with it. Don't talk about it, don't think about it. Just change the clocks. I challenge ya'll to try this.
P.S. Don't change the kids bedtime if the clock says it's bed time, goodnight! I really don't want to hear about this but if it works for you let me know. I'm pooped, but not dead! I got the outside decorations down in record time. We'll see how long it takes me to get it put away and in the attic!!! It's 11 A.M. and I've already broken a sweat (or a glisten)! Unfair, November 1, should be at least nippy. Below are the kids three Halloween costumes they had this year. Our annual trip to Catfish Plantation in Waxahachie, Texas. It's an old house that is haunted and has been turned into a restaurant. The kids dress up when we go (to scare off the spirits)! Then we come home and watch The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. I was the only one who stayed awake this year. Maybe they are getting to old. Dang. School Halloween party not quite so scary! Three little pigs revisited. When they were two they first appeared as the three little pigs. What a difference 10 years makes!!! We have hippy pig, Piggy-Wan Kenobi, and Piggy Davidson. Once long ago in a land far far away there lived three little pigs...
Halloween Postscript The kids are having a Halloween party at school. They choose to bring chips and dip and drinks. Have I got an pinterest idea for ya'll!!! I pinned a project turning juice boxes in to mummies. Once again I let the kids do the project. It was actually pretty easy, a little time consuming but I think it turned out well. What you need are juice boxes, white duck tape and googly eyes. Remove the straw from the juice box and cover the box with white duck tape. Leave a whole for the straw to be inserted. Attach the googly eyes and your done. I think they turned out great!!! At least I didn't have to use the "advanced" tape machine or the hot glue gun! Anyone else have one last Halloween project?
Halloween Decorations X3 - I took my own advice! As you can imagine Halloween is big at our house!!! Having three eleven year olds they want HALLOWEEN! This year I decided to let them really help and create the outside decorations. (Its number 3 from a previous blog about holiday stress.) The first decoration we put out is our witches broom and sign. Next comes “Bonnie” aka "Boney". Then they wanted to create new decorations. I was amazed at their creativity and enthusiasm!!! Sam really wanted to create a new creature so he created Scream. It is just a Scream mask and a black cape tied on a tree. Once Scream was up, then he wanted to stuff a skeleton costume and put it outside. I couldn’t think of anything to stuff it with (without going to the store) that would not ruin in case it rains. I keep my Halloween decorations in a black long storage bin. We decided to use that as a coffin with the skeleton inside. This worked great. Then he wanted to create a headless creature. So he put together a red cape tied on a pole with a fake pumpkin for the head. Nick came up with the idea to put a Jason mask on a pumpkin, a quick and easy decoration. Hannah cobwebbed the mailbox. It was so fun to see their confidence grow with their creations. They were proud of their accomplishments and that we used their own ideas. Our decorations may not be perfect or match exactly but it’s Halloween and there is a lot of love out there. I had enough energy left over to make monster cupcakes with the kids. An added bonus! Anyone else have Halloween gone wild? I'd love to hear other ideas and see pictures. Please leave a comment.
Perfection- A postscript
What is it with me and pencils? In the last blog I wrote about perfection and making a pencil cake for the triplets first day of “traditional school”. Well this year I was searching pinterest and I found these rolo candy pencils. Once again I think, I can make this and it would be great for the triplets to take on their first day of school. I get all the supplies ready and the kids and I sit down to make rolo pencils. All in all it went pretty well. There were a few issues with the double sided tape dispenser. Dang! During my struggles to get this thing to work my youngest son tells me it’s an “advanced” tape dispenser. It is a Scotch Advanced Tape Glider, out of the mouths of babes. At least this time I think I redeemed myself, with the help of my children. Well, maybe not a true comparison. Let me know what you think? Anyone else use those ”advanced” tape dispensers? |
I am an older mom with multiples. To say it the P.C. way, I have "advanced maternal age".
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