My Baby is 10!!!

My oldest, my baby is 10.  So let me take this opportunity to brag on my tween.  Ethan is the most kind and loving child I have.  Even at 10 he has more empathy than a lot if not most adults.  He truly has a gift for understanding how other people are feeling and then trying to connect with them and lift their spirits.  He is a kid magnet and a "Baby Whisperer," give your kid to him and he'll get them to sleep!  He has a calming and nurturing nature to his personality.  I can wait, but one of the things I look forward to when he is an adult is watching him become a father.  He is going to be amazing, but I'm fine with waiting a couple of decades to see it :).  He is smart and school is easy for him.  He loves reading and playing basketball.  I love watching him play and progress in skill and confidence.  

He is human and imperfect and every now and then I see the teenager emerging in him, but for today, he is perfect and he is all mine.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Butter

Today is perhaps the best Monday in quite awhile.  This morning we woke up in our new house.  It is Regan's 4th birthday.  My Mom, who is continuing on her fight against cancer, doesn't have to have surgery today!  And it's my 300th post.  So I'm going to share with you just how easy it is to make your very own homemade butter because making homemade butter is one of the most satisfying things to make!

What you need:

• Heavy Whipping Cream (use as much or little as you like, I usually do about 2 cups and I don't usually measure it, I just pour in half of the carton)
• Kitchen-aid stand mixer with the whisk attachment.  You could do it with a hand held mixer but this way is a lot easier.
• Salt or seasonings to taste.  I like a garlic herb blend or even cinnamon.
• A strainer, bowl for the strainer to sit and a mason jar to hold your buttermilk.  A dish or container for your butter.
• A loaf of fresh bread.  Okay this one isn't required but you'll want it!  Try this recipe, its easy!

What you do:

Put your cream in the mixer and turn it on low so it doesn't splash out.

It will turn into whipped cream, resist the temptation to eat it!  It will still be really white in color and fluffy.

A short while after the butter will separate from the buttermilk and it will be yellow in color.  Turn your mixer off.

This is the buttermilk.  Strain it into a bowl and then transfer the milk to a jar.

Get the butter out of the whip and squeeze out any excess buttermilk.  Then wash your butter by running it under cold water and kneading it with your hands for a few minutes.

Now you can add seasoning and shape it to fit in the dish of your choice.  

The time it takes to go from cream to whipped cream to butter will vary depending on how much cream you use and how cold your mixer bowl, whip and cream are.  I'm usually done in 15 minutes, start to finish.  To make butter faster, put your mixing bowl and whip in the freezer for about 10 minutes prior to starting.  That was easy wasn't it?  And now your hands are soft and you have buttermilk for pancakes.  People are always amazed when I tell them I make it myself.  I suppose it's because they are picturing me milking a cow and churning butter on the porch, not this girl!

Happy Monday!  Thanks for sharing this journey with me for 300 posts...here's to 300 more!

Spiderman likes ice cream and other fun stuff

How about some catching up?  I miss blogging.  So here goes.  Ellie is a Girl Scout now.  I have a ton of cookies in my garage and on my thighs.  But they are so good and Dale thinks I'm hot and cookies just come once a year, hah!  Jack likes to wear his Spiderman costume in public, especially to consume ice cream.  He's number 4 so I don't care what they wear as long as it is weather appropriate and even that is up for interpretation.  Regan will be 4 on Monday. She is so smart and turning out to be a really great little gymnast too.  Mom is in the hospital still trying to recover from her last surgery.  It's been hard on all of us.  We are moving to a new house.  One that will give each kid their own room!  We are beyond excited!  I started making my own butter.  I'll post the recipe soon, I promise, because really its too good not to share.  Here's some pics of our latest adventures.

Valentine lunch with Ellie

Spiderman eats ice cream at a Girl Scout meeting.

Lots of gymnastics

Sellin' cookies

The view from my office.

Making butter.

Having tea parties when we're sick

 More to come.   I really miss this creative outlet!  Have a great weekend, don't be jealous, I'll be moving :)! Working off all of those "Thin" Mints.

Thanksgiving Turkey Family Hands Craft

Last year we made a family turkey hand print.  It was such an easy craft to make!  I used ROY G. BIV to decide colors so there wouldn't be any squabbles.  No more babies in this house, so there won't be indigo or violet! I also wanted to use the same colors each year so that we can see the kids hand size progression.  I can't wait to get started on this years!  My husband was the exception.  He was brown for the base of the turkey and ol Roy doesn't have an appreciation for turkey color.  After it dried I drew a face on him, the turkey not my husband, and we put each persons name, color and what they were thankful for on the back.  So much fun and I love looking back at how little everyone's hand was and what they were thankful for.  In just a few years we are going to have one fat turkey!

Join me over the next three weeks for my yearly Thankful Thursdays in November.  I am really grateful for so many people this year and I love the time for reflection.

Halloween 2012-The most original title ever.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and it also happens to be Dale and Ellie's birthday so the house is always hopping on October 31st.  This year I am back at work so I bought (gasp, this was really hard for me for some reason) Ethan and Jack's Spiderman costumes.  Although if you can make a homemade Spiderman you are one bad ass Momma!  Regan was going to be a pumpkin and I had plans of making one of those super cute orange tutus that are floating around Pinterest.  However a few weeks ago she did a 180 and wanted demanded to be a ballerina AND she wanted to wear stuff we already had...super bonus.  Regan is the winner.  Ellie wanted to be Barbie originally, until I brought up being a zombie and she was begging to be a "walker".  I watched a lot of YouTube stuff on The Walking Dead make-up, which was pretty awesome and I probably would have watched them all anyways because I'm slightly obsessed with the show.  The fake blood was super fun and I did her make-up in about 10 minutes.  We practiced doing it last week which really helped and if you are going to do makeup I highly suggest doing a practice run.  Oh and it was fun to boot.  I got her dress at Goodwill so that we could tear it up, dirty it up and blood it up and then toss it.

I think I'm going to start taking blog pictures with my phone from now on so excuse the lack of quality.  They go straight to my Picasa Web Album and at this point I'm too lazy to put that memory stick into my computer at home, when I'm there.  And I miss you guys, I miss writing and that web connection to the rest of the world, so from here on out its phone quality okay?  So take a look at my cutie pies.  Oh my how I love them!

This was their stash.

Spiderman plays with Barbie.  Love it.

Jack flexing his muscles.  He does it to the front and not to the sides!

I didn't even have to tell her to put her feet that way!

Oh my how I love that this is what they did when I told them to pose together.

Cheese for Mommy!  Ethan's muscles are adorable.

Mom lets go the candy is out there!

Ellie post blood.  Nevermind the mess in the back.  Yes that is a beer can, I'm pretty sure  you need one before and at least one after taking 4 kids trick or treating.

I used tattoos, fake blood and make-up.

This head wound was my favorite.

We did some claw marks on her back too.

Ellie was the only one that went through the haunted house in our neighborhood.  It was pretty scary.  She got really scared by the zombie at the end, but he was a cool teenager and said "oh we're bro's lets go eat them together!" and she laughed and told him how great his makeup was.  Oh my do I love her and how brave she is, my little Halloween baby!

Ten on Ten on the 12th of October

I'm getting there.  Eventually I'll get my working mom rhythm but until then just bear with me :).  The tenth was a fun day.  I picked my oldest up from running club and came home to find my sweet girls curling their hair with my mom.  Good memories.  I love that she was doing something my Gram did with me.  So here is my ten on ten on the twelfth.  Head on over to Rebekah's blog, a bit of sunshine, if you haven't yet and check out her amazing work and the other entries which are amazing too!

6am- My breakfast buddy and Tom Jones.  Love this kid even early in the morning.

7am- I'm out the door, but they are all chowing down still.  Love these cuties.

8am- Already on the second cup.  

9am- Time to moisturize.  I'm a bit obsessed with all things L'Occitane

10am- Beautiful organization. By year and date beautiful!

11am- Smile on work buddy.

12pm- Sometimes I eat lunch at my desk just so I can get some Pinterest in.

1pm- Unfortunately there wasn't an express line.

2pm- The view from my office.  Well, someone's office.  The view of a picture from my office.

4pm- Good gracious she's mine.  Her curls had given up about 30 minutes later, just like mine used to do.

 So there it is.  I really love my new job, I'm just still working out the balancing act of how to keep it all together, remain sane and be 100% present with my kids when we are together.  Well the 100% present part I'm loving and love being that way for my kids, its trying to get my laundry routine down that I'm struggling with!

Back in the Saddle Again

Last week I started working full time again.  I have had many a day/night where I questioned myself, my intentions, my goals and what was best for my family.  There were tears, mostly on my part, during my last few days as a stay at home mom.  I tried to savor those afternoon naps and would tear up at the thought of missing our afternoon cuddles.  I had to keep reminding myself that we could still do that on the weekends and it would be okay.  There were a few tears from Jack and even a sad hug from Regan the first week, but Mom leaving for work is old news now.

Since starting back to work we have had more family dinners and I feel more engaged with the kids while I'm home.  I think it has to do a lot with me not wanting them to feel like I am choosing to be at a job over them.  I am loving my office and couldn't be happier with where and who I work for.  Such a welcome change from where I was working before, which left me feeling drained and pessimistic towards working, period.  The human factor was what had me worried but that is a thing of the past.

So don't worry, I'll still be here to share my funny stories, DIY's, food and Ten on Ten's, just maybe not as frequent as I was before.  I'm working on some fun costumes for Halloween, although I must confess there will be a store bought Spiderman in the mix.  I may be creative and crafty, but I wasn't messing with Spiderman.  Ellie is having a Spa Birthday Party at the end of the month also.  Before I know it these kids are going to be all grown up.  I can't believe she will be 7 already!

Happy Friday!  Next week I will be posting about my new go to dinner pockets and a make-up brush holder I made for free.

Football Wreath

It's Friday and in Oklahoma a Fall Friday night means one thing, Football.  Tonight is the big Game against Union and while there is no way I'm venturing out anywhere near where the game is (no way I'm messing with that traffic) here is my team spirit, wreath style.  Ellie is a cheerleader this year (ugh, I am really trying to embrace it) so we are going to lots of little football games.  So I decided to make a fun tiger football wreath with some stuff I already had on hand.

By now you may have figured out that I'm cheap thrifty.  I've been using the same twig wreath from Hobby Lobby since last year and I've re-spray painted the letter to match at least 3 times.  Why not right?  So this $6 wreath, that I got with a coupon too, has served me really well.

Let's Make It!

I took leftover golden yellow tulle from a game day tutu I made for Regan and wrapped it around the wreath.  I made a bow from tulle and wide black satin ribbon.  Next I cut 6 inch (approximately) strips of yellow and black ric-rac and tied the pieces on.  I attached a stuffed beanie baby tiger I had (from high school) with ribbon.  I picked up a stuffed football from the dollar store and hot glued a pipe cleaner to the back to attach it to the wreath.  I spray painted my trusty letter J gold and hung it in the middle of the wreath with a gold ribbon. Took me about 10 minutes from start to finish!  Happy Friday everyone!

Easy Peach Cobbler Recipe

When I say easy I mean easy!  Seriously you won't believe you made this so quickly and with simple ingredients.  So lets get started and forget you're on a diet, I did!

Ingredients:

1 stick or 1/2 cup of Butter

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

2 tsp. Baking Powder

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 cup Milk

1/2 cup of Peach syrup (from one can of peaches)

2 15 oz cans of Peaches in Heavy Syrup

Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup of AP Flour

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of Softened Butter

Dash of cinnamon (optional)

Let's Make It!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt that big ol' stick-o-butter and pour into 9x13 pan.  In large bowl combine flour, baking powder and sugar and stir with a fork.  Next add 1 cup of milk, peach syrup (just open the can and drain the syrup into a 1/2 cup) and stir until just combined.  Pour batter into pan over butter (it's okay if the butter resists having batter on it and goes to the sides).  Lastly add the the 2 cans of peaches, syrup and all, evenly over the batter.  Put into the oven for 25 minutes. 

While that is baking make your crumble topping.  Combine all ingredients until there are little clumps formed but there are no clumps of butter.  After the cobbler has been in for 25 minutes sprinkle the crumble on top and bake an additional 15-20 minutes.  

Serve it with some vanilla ice cream or some freshly whipped cream.  I had mine on the porch.  It was divine with the cooler weather and sunshine.  I almost got out there before the kids did!

September 2012 Ten on Ten

What a fun and exhausting 10th, I took four kids to the dentist by myself, enough said.  I know its the 12th already but here you go.  The pics are all from my phone.  I didn't even Instagram them so excuse the lack of quality.  I love this time of year, so full of change and excitement.  Number 10 may just be my favorite.  Make sure you check out Rebekah's blog, a bit of sunshine, and see the other Ten on Ten entries.  Beware, you will stay up past your bedtime looking at fabulous pics :) don't say I didn't warn you.

5am-My new workout buddy, meet Tom Jones, he P90X'd it with me.

6am-It's a straight hair, coffee and bagel kind of day.

7am-I love that she helps the little ones

8am-Waiting to see the dentist at the bottom of the jungle.

9am-Regan is a superstar.  4 kids and ZERO cavities.  Go Me!

10am-Waiting for the older ones to be finished.

11am-Lunch and ice cream to celebrate being cavity free (and not having to make lunch!). 

12pm-Tom and Regan.  Note the outfit change.  Of course we can't wear a shirt with ice cream on it.

1pm-First undies, clean and ready to wear.  I'm not sure I'm ready though.

2pm-My big boy (who would not stay still) in his new undies. He's been asking to go and I'm hoping that he will potty train a million times easier than Regan, or Ellie or Ethan (crossing fingers).