Sleigh Riding

HAHAHA!!! No we didn't go sleigh riding! I'm mocking (I mean teasing) my husband who calls sledding sleigh riding. I always ask him where the horses are when he says that.

We went just after Christmas with the new sleds the boys received for Christmas but I've only had a chance to post the pictures now. You can't tell from the pictures but the hill is steep and at the bottom was a creek. Two dads had to stand at the bottom in order to catch kids and stop them from landing in the unfrozen creek. Sounds like fun right? It was for the dads!






Of course there was the inevitable crash with the tears that followed...


but...overall we had a great time!!!

What If???

What if you only had one week left with your child ... how would you spend your time with them?
Would you put off that run to the grocery store until later even though you are running low on things - and instead sit down and play pretend, hugging stuffed animals, talking on a toy phone, building blocks and pushing them on a play car?

What if you only had 3 days left with your child... how would you spend your time with them?
Would you surround them with toys and walk away or would you get down on the floor and read them a book, teach them their colors, sing them the alphabet song?

What if you only had 1 day left with your child ... how would spend your time with them?
Would you get mad at them because they dropped their food on the floor for the umpteenth time? Or would you make them their favorite meal, their favorite dessert and maybe even play their favorite game after dinner.

What if you only had one hour left with your child... how would you spend your time with them?
Would you waste a single minute getting angry at them for little things that in the long run don't matter? Or would you hold them, hug them, kiss them, tell them how much you love, how proud you are of them, how important they are and that they will always be a part of your family.

We often don't know what is around the corner but we have the opportunity to let our children know now where they stand in our hearts.

Serenity Quiz

Today I'm going to test your brain cells with a couple of photo questions. Look at the pictures below and the question that goes with them and think CAREFULLY before answering. The answer may not be so obvious.

What are the following items:

a)


b)



c)



a) If you simply answered Magic Eraser then I would have to say WRONG!!!!

If you answered the greatest invention of the 20th Century then you are correct.

b)

If you answered Picasso's lost work - that would have been preferable because then I could have made some money out of it instead of having to use the greatest invention of the 20th Century on it.

However, the correct answer is ... the result of sending a 4-year old to time out only he discovers a crayon and decorates a couple of doors instead.

c) If you answered a tornado hit your book closet but selectively ripped up only one coloring book. You would be correct IF you gave the name of that tornado - Giggles.

He was sent upstairs by his dad to read quietly and instead ripped every page out of the coloring book -quietly, of course.

What a fun week-end. Good thing we had a great game night with the Ryans & Gibsons to make up for it!!!

Family Project Continues

Of course I can't do anything half-hearted so not only am I compiling the recipes that we ate as we were growing up but I am making as many of them as I can so I can have the pictures to go with them. Names that I am calling myself right now are: overachiever, martyr, exhausted, and crazy (feel free to pipe in with any additional ones you can think of). :)

Many of the things we ate were not elaborate by any means... they were simple and easy to make. My dad likes things simple. He was a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Nothing fancy, weird and no foreign foods as this was going WAY too far out of his comfort zone. Over time he fell in love with Chinese food and Taco Bell (or as he calls it "the Taco Bells) but that is the extent of his foray into eating ethnic foods.

Here are the family recipes that I made this week:

*warning: the French Toast recipe is unlike any you will have seen before!!! There are NO typos in the recipe!!! YES it really calls for pepper! DO NOT put syrup on this French Toast!!!


Homemade Maccaroni & Cheese
(my great grandmother's recipe)

5 cups grated mild cheddar cheese
6 cups uncooked macaroni
3/4 cup milk
pepper
cooking spray

Cook macaroni according to package directions and drain. While macaroni is cooking set oven at 375 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with cooking spray. Pour 1/2 of the cooked macaroni into the baking pan and spread evenly in the pan. Sprinkle with 2 cups of the cheese. Sprinkle on some pepper. Layer on the rest of the macaroni and top off with the rest of the cheese spreading it out to cover the macaroni. Sprinkle on more pepper. Pour the milk over the macaroni so that it spreads out over the bottom of the pan (it will keep the macaroni moist as it bakes). Put in the oven and bake at 375 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes until cheese is melted and slightly crunchy on top.

Serve with ketchup (sounds weird to some but is very good!).


French Toast

5 large eggs, beaten in wide bowl
1/4 cup milk
1/4- 1/2 tsp pepper (according to taste)
slices of bread (white or wheat according to preference)
cooking spray

Heat a non-stick frying pan to medium heat on the stove and spray with cooking spray. While pan is heating up mix together the eggs, milk and pepper. Spear a slice of bread with a fork and dip it in the egg mixture covering both sides of the bread with it. Place it in the frying pan. Add more slices of bread covered in egg mixture until frying pan is full. Flip to the other side when it has browned on one side. Brown the other side and remove from pan. Continue cooking slices of bread covered in egg mixture until the egg mixture is all gone. French toast is good served with ketchup or with Spaghettios.


Don't knock 'em till you try 'em!!!

Lessons

Learning new things can sometimes be fun, painful, scary, intimidating or all of them at the same time. Such is the case for Wannabe as he is currently enrolled for ice-skating lessons. There was only space for one child and I chose Wannabe because he needed something of his own and I wanted to see if doing this could build his confidence. It was a risk, I know, because he fell down A LOT. the first class (but the other kids fell down more).

He has really caught on quickly (not just a proud mother typing here). And is zooming along - as quickly as one can for having had two lessons - and he only fell down twice in the the second lesson. Quite an improvement!

Keeping Out of Trouble

Maybe you have been wondering why it has taken me so long to post something new... then again... maybe not. I, however, have been getting sick of seeing the same thing everytime I pull up the internet as Brett has set my blog as my internet home page so I know it is my cue to put up something new when I cringe at the same photo appearing over and over when I click on Safari.

But I haven't picked up my camera since Christmas so I didn't have any new pictures to share and I thought... what in the world HAVE I been doing????? oh right.... this....


This is my latest project (because we all need to take on at least ONE herculean task) of writing my family history.
I'm quite confident that my family hates me by now with the almost weekly assignments I have emailed them with (although I did take a break during the month of December). It isn't your traditional family history with old people, dates, deaths etc. This one has to do with collecting family stories, anecdotes, recipes, etc. Like the time my sister threw a book at me at church when I wouldn't share a treat with her that my secret friend gave to me, and the fact that our fridge was filled with food that had people's names on it and heaven forbid you ate something that belonged to someone else! Come to thing of it I still hide food from my husband that I don't want him to eat to be sure I get my share... I hope he doesn't check the Corn Flakes box!

Anyways, I've spent hours and hours at it this week organizing what everyone has sent me so far into some kind of coherent order. Not an easy task but I hope the end result will be worth it! I've decided that no matter how much you write of your personal history whether 2 pages, 20 or more, it is worth it to those you leave it for.


And hey... I'm already at 30 pages and that doesn't even include my dad's numerous poems or the photos that will be included.

Wish me luck!

Surviving the Holidays

Yes I managed to make it through Christmas and New Years'. The kids had a blast opening presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.


They were also able to dig into the Gingerbread house that I had purchased at a fundraiser. The size of the gingerbread house had all of kids eyes popping out of their heads (we had a big family dinner on Christmas Eve). I think they had more fun breaking it apart than eating though and it made a huge mess.
I might rethink buying the biggest house idea and go for something smaller with lots of candy on it. Food for thought.

We missed my sister and her family as she was sick with a deadly sinus infection. Can sinus infections be deadly? If not deadly then at least voice changing as she sounded like a man when we spoke on the phone. They were sorely missed for Christmas but she and her husband still made it up a few days later for which I'm grateful.

Now I just have to survive the kids being off-track after all the Christmas hype.

Help!!!!