A learning experience...for everyone!

The kids and I went for a walk today. The purpose for the walk was to bring some recycling to the bins, which happen to be on the other side of the apartment community. The Woodchip Playground is over there as well.

I feel I must complain about the recycling our apartment community does. They don't take all the things. You can bring plastic bottles, paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, glass bottles. I think that's it. If you have tin cans or glass jars, you are on your own. Would it hurt to have two more bins and then FREAKING TAKE ALL THE THINGS???? I'm not throwing that stuff away, but it's annoying to store it up in my apartment or car until we can get to a recycling drop off in town. The joys of apartment living, right? From what I have heard, we're lucky our community recycles at all.

That was not the learning experience though. We've already learned about that.

On the way home, we passed under some oak trees. They are dropping acorns right now. Acorns are kind of fun to look at, so I stopped and said, "Hey, look at these." I explained that acorns are seeds and new trees will grow from them if the conditions are right (and if squirrels don't eat them all). Then we started talking about growing our own oak trees, which led to us gathering up a handful of acorns to bring home. I'm no master gardener, so I offered to look up how to grow oak trees from acorns. It can't be that hard, right? They're just seeds. I sprout seeds all the time. Usually you just soak the seeds, then plant them when they sprout (or eat the sprouts, om nom nom nom).

Well, oak trees, you are much more complicated than I thought. Apparently, acorn seeds need to lie in dormancy for 1000 hours. I am not making that up. I read it on the Internets. The site I found suggested putting the acorns in a plastic baggie filled with peat moss and letting them sit in the fridge all winter. Really? Isn't that going to get moldy?

It doesn't matter because once Reese realized that these oak trees weren't going to grow for months and months, she was easily swayed by the suggestion that we should grow something else. Crisis averted, and I don't have to have a bag of dirt in my fridge all winter. I think that's a win for everyone.

But now we know how the whole acorn thing works. And most of our stuff got recycled. I'd call that a good morning.

Don't Be Scared!

It looks like MEAT, doesn't it??


Don't worry, it's totally not. This was our dinner last night, bean burgers, which were served on homemade rolls, with oven fries and steamed broccoli on the side.

Mmmmmm. The bean burger recipe is a modified version of the Black Bean Burger in Veganomicon. I'll let you google it if you think you might enjoy a meatless burger. I tell you, I think the key to veggie burgers that actually stick together is wheat gluten. I would call this recipe flexible, too. I used pinto beans and regular white onions. I do like a recipe that still works with some substitutions. I have a pretty decently stocked pantry, but sometimes you use the red onions for something else because you forgot that you bought them for Black Bean Burgers. I'm not saying I did that. I'm just sayin'.

Tonight was Breakfast for Dinner, which is kind of boring. I served individual hash browns, tofu scramble, and toast. And then oatmeal for the kids who complained about the tofu scramble. I didn't take any pictures. You all know what tofu scramble looks like, right?

I'd like to brag and hype up my dinner for National Vegetarian Day, which is THIS FRIDAY, but I haven't decided what to cook. My menu plan for this week seems to have ended today. This needs to be remedied. Perhaps Friday would be a good day for seitan? Or for a really easy meal you can make with stuff you have in your pantry? I'm torn. I want to show the ease of vegetarian eating, but I also feel like celebrating with fancy food. We shall see what happens.

It's Tuesday! Let's have a Round Up!

All right. I am sucking at blogging about our dinners. October is going to be a real challenge for me!! Last night we just had leftovers (aka Clean Out the Fridge Night), and the day before that I made vegetable pot pie.

October 1st, which happens to be this Friday, is World Vegetarian Day. Who's going veg with me? One day, people. I think everyone can do one meatless day. And if you're feeling really saucy, why not go veg for the entire month of October? Or just do meatless dinners? I'll help you by sharing what we're eating, point you to some other helpful blogs, and share some recipes and cookbooks I enjoy. Yay veg!!!

Over the weekend we didn't do a whole lot. I escaped the house on Friday night to have some coffee with friends. Saturday the children and I attended a fun festival at a friend's church. They had fake tattoos there, it was awesome. Then we went to the grocery store. I don't remember what we did on Sunday.

Monday was our homeschool group day. Families gathered together to share what we learned about the country of the month, Argentina. I made squash and black bean empanadas to share, but they were so good that I really wanted to eat them all myself. Reese talked about how people in Argentina have Christmas in the summer, she was pretty impressed that the seasons are opposite ours.

And today? We're staying at home, and I'm secretly glad. Some weeks I feel like we're on the go sooooooo much. The kids and I were able to enjoy a game of Candyland today. We didn't have to rush to finish our school-y stuff. I'll actually have time to get caught up in the kitchen or sew something. Maybe we'll get the bikes out or take a walk to a playground. I do like going places, but staying at home is nice too.

The only bad thing about staying home is the fighting. Ugh. Encouraging my children to get along with each other is definitely a work in progress. I'm reading Siblings Without Rivalry, hoping it will give me some ideas and insights. We shall see, and in the meantime, we just do the best we can. And I try not to yell and lose my temper too often.

Anyhoo, we have a couple literacy games that we want to play and a sequencing activity that uses the book Two Bad Ants. Have a great Tuesday, all!

Let's Be Real Today

Please consider taking a few minutes to read THIS

Plesae be gentle with yourself today, and I'll try to do the same. Big hugs, all.

Oh man

I think blogging our meals every night in October is going to be a challenge. But. I really want to do it, to show what regular (hahahahaha) people who eat a veg diet have for dinner. It's also fun to show off my funky thrift store dishes.

So here we have Tuesday night's dinner: Snobby Joes from Veganomicon, pita bread, baked kale, and apple slices. It was a pretty good dinner. I didn't care much for sloppy joes growing up, but now I like them. The pitas were made by me, and these had some awesome pockets.



Baked Kale (In case you want to try the deliciousness yourself)

You need: some kale (usually sold in bunches), olive oil, garlic salt, a greased cookie sheet, and an oven

Preheat oven to about 400 degrees. Wash and dry your kale. A salad spinner would work awesomely, but since I can't have nice things, I just shake it really good. Rip pieces of kale off the stem and spread out on the cookie sheet. Dab the pieces of kale with olive oil using some sort of pastry brush. Sprinkle with garlic salt (regular salt will work, but I think the world needs more garlic, don't you?). Bake for a time, like ten minutes or so, peeking in to check for browning edges. When the edges start browning, that's when I take the pan out.

Baked kale is crunchy and delicious. You might find it hard to share, I know I do.

Okay, last night's dinner was noodles and sauce because I was busy doing a colon prep for a colonoscopy. Lame.

Tonight I had the "I have no idea what to make" blues. So I turned to a handy vegetable loaf generator that I stumbled across called The Magical Loaf Studio

Basically you check off ingredients you have and the generator spits out a recipe. Careful, there are no promises that your creation will taste good. I've been lucky, and these loaf recipes usually go over pretty well. If you want the recipe for tonight's loaf, I can post it, but I think it's fun to make up your own. That's BBQ sauce on top. I'm sure you want to know if the kids liked this. They both said they did. Reese ate almost a whole piece, and Eli ate about three bites (pretty good for Eli, haha). We also had broccoli and apple slices. Apples are in season around here right now, and for some reason broccoli was reasonably priced too. I'll talk more about how our family eats with the seasons in October.

So there ya go! I'm really going to try to stay on top of this, I promise. Happy Eating!

Get Socialized!

I almost got into an Argument on the Internets the other day. Don't worry, I restrained myself. For one thing, the argument was on facebook and I get annoyed when people type a frickin' novel in a comment space (yeah, I do it too sometimes, and I annoy myself when I do it). Secondly, it was pretty obvious that I wasn't going to change the aggressive person's mind about anything. I have enough of my own stuff going on that I don't need to argue with strangers on facebook.

Anyway, the argument was about homeschooling. I know not everyone we come across or know supports our family's choice to homeschool. And you know what? That's okay. Everyone has a duty to do what is best for THEIR CHILD(REN). And how lucky are we that we can choose? I think I've said this before: I'm not against public school. I'm not against preschool. I just don't think that those options are right for every family. Am I glad options exist? Of course!

One argument that almost always comes up in favor of public school though really really bugs me. Socialization. If you keep your kids at home, HOW will they get socialized?? How will they learn to function in society??

Insert giant EYEROLL here.

We don't hide ourselves in a closet, people. In fact, none of the homeschooling families we know do that. We're out and about just about every day during the week, hanging out with friends, attending art classes, going on field trips, visiting the grocery store, the library, the post office. My children watch and participate in interactions with people of a variety of ages and backgrounds regularly. If they were in school? They would interact with a small number of adults, and a huge number of same age peers. Is that really real world socialization? What's more real world? A group of children from ages 3 to 12 negotiating a game on a playground or a group of 5 year olds sitting in desks?

I just see more value in the former group for our family at this time.

Yeah, I get a little touchy about the whole socialization thing. I should probably just worry about my own self and my own family instead of getting stressed out about what other people say. Especially strangers on the internet.

So with that, we'll go about our day. Today is Art Studio Day, which is always a good time. Before we head out the door, we're going to bust our butts and get our other work out of the way. Because we can. ;)

Tuesday Round Up!

It's been a busy few days, so here's what we've been up to, in no particular order:

Reese lost her first tooth! I should say, her front teeth were not loosened naturally. She and Eli were playing puppy, Reese had a rope between her teeth, and Eli pulled on it really hard. According to The Internets, her loosened teeth are not a concern right now because she's due to start loosing them anyway. How do I have a kid who is old enough to be loosing teeth???


I brewed my first batch of kombucha yesterday. It's pretty easy, and I hope it turns out okay. So far so good!

Here's the makings of one of our meals since I posted last. It's seitan stir fry. We eat a LOT of stir fry. It's quick, easy, and pretty healthy. I make my own stir fry sauce too. Om nom nom nom. When the cooking was finished, this stir fry also had green beans and broccoli, and was served over brown rice.

Reese and Eli got a surprise package from Great Grandma and Great Aunt Patti! Thank you!!! We love books, and the kids love to read.

So yeah. We didn't do too much over the weekend. On Saturday morning we went to a couple farmer's markets and also recycled. Recycling is a job here, definitely not as easy as it was in WI. There used to be recycling containers at the front garbage drop off, but some jerky jerks were just putting crap in the bins, so I thought they were removed. Then while driving to look at the car wash area, we found them again. But the apartment community doesn't take glass (??), so that means a trip to a recycling center. Not a huge deal, except that we've only been able to find one and it's way across town. Are we really saving the planet when we have to use a bunch of gas to recycle some glass? I don't know, but I feel better recycling. I suppose we were going over there anyway for the farmer's market.

The markets here are kind of lame, sad to say. I don't know if it's the season, but there aren't many fruits and vegetables. It's mostly crafty stuff, which, if I wasn't crafty, would be cool. Most of the offerings are things I can easily make myself. Reese did get some hair bows.

Sunday I took the kids to the pool. Yes, swimming in September. I never thought we'd be doing THAT. The water was chilly...it does cool way down here at night, but it's been in the upper 90s during the day. I am not complaining.

Well, I hope everyone has had a great start to their week. The kids and I are off to a La Leche League leaders meeting this morning, and since we already got half our homeschooling stuff done this morning, we don't have that much to do this afternoon.

That Quinoa Salad

You know, the one from Veganomican. For some reason Blogger won't let me cut and paste? So I guess you're on your own,but I made it easy for you at least. I found it online here:Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango
Happy Eating!

Oh, and I think someone owes me a brownie recipe? Hint hint.

Delicious Sandwich and a Recipe!!

Sometimes you just want a delicious sandwich for lunch. Especially when your husband got to go to Jason's Deli like three times this week. So what's a mama to do? Make one! This is a roasted eggplant and red pepper sandwich on a fresh baguette roll, spread with a white bean and sundried tomato dip.

You could make one too! It's pretty easy, maybe just a tiny bit time consuming though. But if you're hanging around the house, it's perfect. You can make your own bread or get some from your local farmer's market (or the store in a pinch). I sliced the eggplant into about 1/2" slices, salted the slices, then let them sit on a plate (this gets rid of the bitterness). I squished the slices with a towel to soak up the moisture, then placed them on an oiled cookie sheet, along with strips of red pepper. The cookie sheet goes in a 425 degree oven for around 20 minutes (just peek at it once in a while, flip about halfway through, bottoms should be brown when flipped).

While you're roasting your veggies, make up your sandwich spread:

White Bean and Sundried Tomato Sandwich Spread

This makes a freakton, but it's also good as a veggie or cracker dip.

2 cups white beans

4-5 sundried tomatoes, soaked for about half an hour in a cup of hot water and drained (reserve the liquid)

2 cloves garlic, peeled of course

salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp should do it)

1-2 tsp dried garlic chutney (you can get this at an Indian grocery store...don't have it? Try a pinch of cayenne...this sauce is good with a little kick)

Put everything but the soaking liquid in a food processor. Add a few splashes of soaking liquid and get the processor going. Add liquid until you get a consistency you like. Taste and season as needed.

When your veggies are done, assemble your sandwiches. Slice the baguette in half, spread the White Bean and Sundried Tomato spread on the slices. Layer roasted eggplant and red pepper on the baguette, adding some vegan cheese if you wish (I wished). Slap that bread together, get a napkin, and enjoy!

I think you could add other veggies to this sandwich if you like. I'd love to try it with some roasted zucchini, and maybe I'd put some sprouts on there too. Om nom nom nom. :)

Oh!!! I totally forgot to snap a picture of dinner last night, but I made seitan nuggets and mashed sweet potatoes. See? I have to practice this Taking Pictures of your Food thing because I forget. Happy Friday, y'all!

Oh Thursday, you Sassy Thing

Thursdays are generally home days. We have nothing going on, Eric has the car, so the kids and I are shut ins. After a hectic three days, I can't say that I mind. I mean, I'm still in my pajamas, yo. That, however, does not mean that work isn't being done. Today is the day that I catch up on chores that have been sliding. I also try to do some baking and/or prep work in the kitchen for the next week.

So far today, I've only gotten to the sheets, but it isn't quite 8am yet. In a little bit I'll run the soymilk maker and we'll start some school-y stuff (Reese requested that math be first, she loves math). After I get some bread going, I think a walk to the woodchip playground is in order. At some point today I need to clean up the kid bedroom.

Yeah, I clean the kids' room. I know I shouldn't. It's their room and they should clean it, right? But after many hours of standing in the doorway directing them what to pick up, I decided it's just easier if I do it really quick. Although I think today they're going to have to help me because it's time to purge again. They just have too freaking much stuff. Some of it has to go.

How do I get Reese and Eli to give up some of their belongings? We're going to target the books and the stuffed animals (who I swear are breeding in the night, by the way). I ask each kid to pick ten books and ten stuffed animals to share with others who don't have toys. It seems pretty painless, for the most part. I'm sure they'll get more stuff for Christmas and birthdays, and let's face it. When two people are sharing one bedroom, we really do have to put a limit on the amount of stuff.

So. Thursday. You're a welcome quiet day in our busy weeks. Thanks for stopping by!

What's your favorite day of the week? And...do you clean your kids' bedrooms?

Food...mmmmmmm

I love risotto. The reason I first decided I wanted to make my own was during the first season of Hell's Kitchen, wherein Gordon Ramsay yelled and pitched fits and was always harping about the risotto. There's nothing really super hard about this dish, but it does take patience and time.

Anyway, how excited was I when I got my Vegetarian Times magazine and found a risotto recipe? Very excited. Until I read the recipe, which uses the microwave. What, WHAT? I don't have anything against microwaves, we use ours all the time. But can you really call something risotto if you haven't taken the time to add the broth one ladelfull at a time, if you haven't stirred lovingly for upwards of thirty minutes until your rice is just the right texture? Questionable, Vegetarian Times, questionable.

But the actual recipe, Curried Butternut Squash Risotto with Cashews, still sounded pretty good. So I took my techniques and the ingredients and ran with it. Here's what I ended up with:

Sorry for the crummy picture. I'm still not super great with the camera. The plate on the left is baked kale, and if you've never had baked kale, you're missing out. So good. And the risotto on the right. You can't tell, but the consistency is exactly like what I've had in restaurants.

I thought about posting the how to for this dish, but it would take forever. So you'll have to do what I did: google and then practice. The basics for risotto are the same no matter what the recipe. Have fun!!

And I guess I'll post our dinner tonight real quick. I had some technical difficulties and meant to get this whole thing posted earlier in the day. During dinner, I took a quick pic of my plate, so here it is:

This is a stir fry with red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, and soy curls. There's some brown rice peeking out under all the stir fry goodness too.

You're probably wondering...do her kids really eat that stuff?? The best answer is...yes. Some of the time. On any given night we'll have a main dish, usually a grain on the side, and then some raw fruit or veggies that I know the kids will eat. They are not starving by any means. We do dish up a small scoop of whatever we're eating onto their plates and ask them to at least try a bite. Or at least lick it. Sometimes they eat it, like Reese gobbling up stir fry tonight, and sometimes they don't. No big deal. Kids can control two things, toileting and eating, and I'm not about to get into a battle about those things. We offer three good, nutritious meals a day around here, and I'm pretty loose with the snacks (as long as they're reasonably healthy). It all seems to work out.

So yeah. I'm going to be blogging more food because starting in October, I'd like to blog our meals for the entire month. October 1st is World Vegetarian Day, and October is Vegetarian Awareness Month. I wanted to share how a regular family eats vegetarian, and show readers that veg food doesn't have to be complicated, and it is kid friendly. If any of you would like to join me in a meatless October 1st, or a meatless month, that would rock!! I'll write more about it later, but start thinking!

Making Words

One of the activities Reese and I do together is from the 4 Blocks literacy program (I used to teach it a long time ago). This morning we worked with the -en family (hen, men, etc) and reviewed the -et family. You can see Reese sitting down...she's writing some words of her choice either from our making words lesson or from her word wall. The word wall has sight words on it.

While Reese and I were making some words, Eli was busily coloring his letter for this week, the letter F. At his age, we work on letter recognition, letter sounds, and developing a love of reading. Throughout the week, Eli will color more pictures of things that begin with F. We'll do some cutting and glueing and lots of reading.

So that's a little snapshot into one of our homeschooling activities! We're heading to our homeschool group this morning, Amazing Mondays, where we'll be exploding our volcano that we made last week. Expect pictures, and possibly video, soon!

I feel like it's been ages and ages since I blogged last, but I guess it's only been since Wednesday? Where in the world did the rest of the week go??

Well, let's see.

We are hot n' heavy into homeschooling. This is the biggest reason I maybe haven't been online as much as usual (which isn't a bad thing, haha). Reese is moving right along in math and so far we really love the Singapore curriculum. Lots of math games to develop number sense are being played. I love it! For reading this week we introduced a new word family, read our easy readers (Bob Books, and some pull out readers from some random reading curriculum), and did some writing. Thursday we had friends over and built our volcanos together (more on that later!!). On Friday, we went to the library and ran other errands. Here and there, Eli kept us entertained and also did some letter games.

See? Busy.

But I like it. I'm so glad that I get to watch my children learn new things. I get to see that sparkle in their eyes when they figure something out. Is it a lot of work? Oh yes. But worthwhile work.

The plan for today? There's an indoor Attic Sale that we're going to check out (yay for lookin' at other people's stuff!). A trip to Marvin's Market will happen at some point. But mostly just relaxing and hanging out, and maybe some sewing. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Vegan Pepperoni!!

Someone on one of my messageboards was having some trouble with a fake meat recipe, and it made me curious partly because I want the world to fall in love with fake meat and partly because it was a VeganDad recipe that I hadn't seen before. If you don't know VeganDad, he's a rockin' awesome vegan food blogger and has a lot of great kid friendly vegan ideas. His fake meat recipes are pretty great. So today I tried the pesky pepperoni recipe.

Here's what I ended up with after steaming:

It is sooooooo good, I can't wait to try it on pizza. If you are interested in the recipe, you can find it: VeganDad Pepperoni

Other things going on today...not a whole lot. The master plan was to go to the library, but Eli is pukey sick, so we're staying home. After spending the morning laying in my recliner and puking up anything that passed his lips, he's now pestering his sister. So, he's better? I don't know, we'll lay low until we have a puke free 24 hours. I think that's the rule. I hate the pukey sicknesses, so I'd hate to pass it on to some unsuspecting sucker at the library. And man, I hope I don't get it. Sanitizer and handwashing are my best friends today.

Ready for some pictures? Panama City Beach, Take Two!

We didn't get enough of Panama City Beach when we were there last time, so we decided to go again. This time we spent three nights and saw a lot more stuff.

The drive down was busy. I guess Labor Day weekend makes everyone want to get to the beach? We started the drive at about 3:30pm, and of course ended up stopping soon into the drive for coffee and drinks and potty. But look at this gas station! Gator Stop, what's that all about?


Alligators, that's what!! Can you see the turtle(s) too? It was pretty awesome.


Birds, too!

Don't worry, we were on the right side of a fence that looked like it would keep the gators in their pond. If you were so inclined, you could go into the gas station and buy a bag of Gator Food (aka marshmallows). We did not do that.

This one came right up on the grass to beg! Or to plot against us?

Back on the road, happy with slushies (I think these were from a different gas station though).

Reese looking a little tired, but don't worry, the sugar from the slushies took care of that.

We arrived at the hotel, Casa Loma as it was getting dark. We dumped our stuff and headed right down to the beach. The last time we visited Panama City Beach, we saw people after dark on the beach with flashlights. After asking the front desk, we discovered that the flashlight people were catching crabs. We vowed to be those flashlight people, and we were.

It was really windy.

Here's one of the many creatures we found on the beach. I expected there to be a few crabs, and that they might be hard to catch. The beach was littered with crabs, and if you were brave like Eric and went into the ocean, the crabs were bigger. Everywhere a light was shined, the crabs would scuttle away.

The next day, after swimming a whole bunch, we headed to one of the public piers. We got lucky in that the fisher people were so busy catching interesting fish. I think this is a Spanish mackeral.

Does this look like a shark? That's because it IS. We saw fisherpeople pull up at least three sharks while we were there, all around a foot and a half long or so. They are sand sharks.

After spending a while on the pier, we headed down to the beach to watch the sunset.

Walking on a pier and watching a sunset made us thirsty. Eric stopped at the Front Porch. Anything this crazy and gaudy must have good slushies. And they did! Stay away from the Long Island Iced teas though, yuck.

After we got back to the hotel, we went crabbing again. There was no way I was staying away from the beach at night.

The next morning, we got caffeinated at a coffee shop called Lagauna Beach Coffee Shop. Two of those are mine. It was a nice coffee shop, complete with kid toys. Eli declared it his favorite, and I think it had more to do with the Little Peoples than the coffee.

More time on the beach. We did some snorkeling, then decided to build a sand castle. It's more of a sand pile, I guess. I specialize in digging trenches, building sand piles, and adding on villages. The beach was awesome, by the way. It didn't get too deep too fast, and we found tons of shells.

Busy playing on the beach!

Eli wanted to play football. We made them wear life jackets in the ocean. Give us the Concerned Parents Award, please.

After we got tired of snorkeling and building in the sand, we played a quick game of Kubb.

It's a good beach game!

Both kids like playing.

After the beach, some resting. Check out that headboard.

I don't know why the bottom half of the pic is dark. Is it dark for you? Anyway, we went crabbing again. We just can't stay away!

Then the fun had to come to an end. We left around 11am on Monday to battle the traffic all the way back to Columbus. It was a really great vacation, and I miss the beach already. It's amazing to me how many creatures there are on a beach, and how big the ocean is. I was able to do some thinking and enjoyed my family. I can't wait to go back!

So much to do!

But I wanted to blog about the last couple days with some pictures because I said I would. And because I love you.

I have to tell you though, we're trying to get ready to leave for the weekend. It's crazytown around here. Eric has to work today, so I'll be doing the majority of the preparations. That's fair, because he had the hassle of booking the hotel. Anyways, the kids are picking out and packing their own clothes. All I'm doing is telling them how many of each item they need (ie 5 pairs of underwear, etc). They are so excited, it's pretty funny.

All right, some happenings from this week, in no particular order!

Reese and Eli started getting a kids' National Geographic magazine, sent to them from Great Grandma Wesson. Awww, look at them reading! They love the magazines. What a great gift!!!

It has been Lego mania at our house these days. Eli has become quite the Lego freak, but he's too little to build much so the job falls on Eric to construct. I don't think Eric minds at all.

And then a foodie pic. I think it was Tuesday when I had the stove/oven going most of the day. The pan in the front is some simmering seitan. When I make seitan, I make a double batch and freeze half. My idea of a convenience food, seitan in the freezer. The pan in the back is syrup. I know, I know, you're going to be flabbergasted and ask what I'm doing making syrup. Here's the thing. The syrup at the store has a bunch of junk in it that I can't pronounce, and we all know I'm not a fan of that. Real maple syrup is expensive. I happened to find what I consider a compromise recipe. Is it health food? Uh, NO. Is it probably better than the junk in the store? I think so. We needed a batch, so I cooked up some real quick. It's just brown sugar, water, cornstarch, and some natural maple flavoring. Good times.

So other than getting ready for the weekend, there's not much else going on around here. It's always a bit hectic, the "getting ready." We're bringing our own food to cook so I have my handy meal plan all ready to go. I still have a few things to prepare in the kitchen. Clothes must be washed and gathered up in a duffle bag. In my perfect world, the house would be clean before we go too so I don't have to come home to a disaster. Oh yes, I probably should pack for myself.

The Getting Ready is worth it, and I'm excited about the adventures we're going to have. Pics when we get back!

One of Those Mornings

It's been one of those mornings where things go wrong and people are crabby. Kids fight over silly things, computers don't cooperate, and my smoothie tastes too much like flax seeds. Boo.

Tell me you have mornings like this too.

It doesn't happen all that often, so I guess I should be glad for that. We're trying to get back on track. People have been fed, coffee is made, and plans for the day are being formed. I think that will help. Getting out of the house later will help too. It's looking like a great day to ride bikes and take a walk.

How do you get back on track from a bad start in the morning?

Hey you! Yes, you!

I have a mission for you, awesome blog readers. You can check it out at my other blog, I'm Sorry for Cursing, which can be found here: imsorryforcursing

Thank you!!

I meant to have a post with pictures tonight, but my computer is hassling me and I'm on Eric's laptop. Perhaps tomorrow? We shall see!