Monster Toast PBJ

I am seriously excited to share out latest toddler project with you guys today. Seriously! Ha ha. I had so much fun making Monster Toast Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches with the Toddler.

At the moment, there are 2 things that The Toddler adores - Peanut butter and Jelly and Painting. (Well, actually he loves Play-Doh too, but that doesn't count.) So Today for lunch we made Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches with Monster Toast. Nothing terribly original, but, oh so much fun!

What you need:

• milk
• bread
• peanut butter
• jelly
• paint brush (a clean one!)
• food coloring
• ice cube tray or something else to keep the colored milk in
• toaster (obviously!)

Start by mixing your milk and food coloring in the ice cube tray. Use less than a teaspoon for each color per section (they won't use it all) and one drop of food color.

Then let them paint their little hearts out using the bread and the colored milk.

Note that if they paint too much in one area, it creates a soggy milk crater. (as you can see in the picture above where The Toddler's paint brush is.)

Then toast it. Notice the milk crater in the center of the left piece of toast.

If you are feeling brave, you can allow your kid to apply the peanut butter and jelly to each of the slices of toast. I was brave, but he also needed some help. Just watch for rogue butter knives coated with peanut butter and jelly. Those are scary.

All done.

Eat it.

Or at least let your kid eat it...since they got to make it and all....
You know, now that I look at these pictures...I guess this could pass for moldy bread...ewww...

P.S. dump the leftover painted milk into their cup and add some more milk. They'll never know the difference...as long as the cup has a lid on it. Or you can tell them it's special milk. Ha, ha.

;)

DIY Chalkboard Talk Bubble.

This is a belated Christmas present. I had serious procrastination issues this past Christmas season. I was still recovering from my sprained ankle, I had a respiratory infection, my blood sugar was all over the place, and I also managed to sleep wrong and hurt my neck (and I wasn't able to get adjusted until several days after Christmas). I was a wreck. Needless to say, the last of my homemade Christmas gifts didn't get finished. My husband and I just finished this one last week. (Yes, I am horrified that it took me so long to complete this.)

A couple of months ago, my son felt that needed to climb up his dresser. This was the result.
He did this, not once, but twice. TWICE!! But he hasn't done it since.

After the second time he pulled the dresser down, it was apparent his dresser had seen better days. So we replaced it. Obviously there was no hope of reselling the dresser, so we took it apart, and saved some of the pieces.

We made this chalkboard from the bottom board of one of the dresser drawers. And here's how we did it.

Even thought it isn't pictured, be sure to draw the outline of the talk bubble onto board. My husband is nice and mathematical and so he drew and measured the outline with a ruler and a protractor. A compass would also be good, but I haven't owned one of those since high school geometry...that is the subject that you need a compass for, right?

Once you have the talk bubble outline, use a Jigsaw to cut along the outline. (A Jigsaw is a power tool that cuts - in case you didn't know, because I didn't until my husband educated me.)

Then use chalkboard paint to paint the bubble. (I found my paint at Hobby Lobby) Make sure to follow the directions on the paint bottle. Mine required 2 coats of paint, and I had to prime it with chalk after it dried and before using it.

Finally, add a saw-tooth hanger and magnets to the back. (I don't have a picture of that, but I'm sure you get the idea. :) )

Serious and ridiculous fun. Oh yes.

Truthful Tuesday Confessions

Guess what time it is? It's time for another Truthful Tuesday Confession. So unburden yourself with your latest light-hearted confession. What ridiculous information do you want to share today?

• I haven't been feeling well. I've been having lots of problems with low blood sugar. Massive headaches, emotional outbursts, and extreme fatigue are just a few of side effects I've had. So after reading up on this issue, I've decided to follow a diet that helps regulate your blood sugar by cutting out most carbs and sugar for a couple of weeks, and the slowly add the complex carbs back in. I've been following the diet plan since Friday. Since I've cut out my sweets, I feel so much better! It's not as hard as I thought it would be, but in the evenings, I really miss eating something sweet - like a cookie. 

• I like Christmas, but I'm not a huge fan of decorating my house. My husband and I put up our decorations 2 weeks before Christmas, due to the fact that we were hosting Christmas at our house this year. I put our decorations away 3 days after Christmas. It's not that I don't like my house to look festive, it's more that the decorations seem to clutter things up and take up too much space (like the tree). And I have a toddler who wants to touch everything. We have about 3 or 4 less ornaments than we started out with a couple of weeks ago. 

• I used to HATE having incomplete sets of dishes. When my husband (or I, but usually it was him) would break one, we would glue them back together - because I didn't want my set to be incomplete. But then after The Toddler came around, broken dishes were no longer high on the priority list. They found their way to the trash. Oh well.

Goals for the New Year

I'm not a huge fan of making New Year's resolutions. I used to come up with things that I wanted change about myself throughout the year, but would wait until New Years to take action. I rarely kept those resolutions, mostly because I put off taking action for so long that it became harder break the habit, and I no longer had the motivation. About 6 years ago, I wanted to start exercising consistently. But I had it in my mind that I was supposed to wait until New Years to start. And then I had a revelation - "Why should I wait until New Years to make this change? Why not do it now while I'm motivated???" Duh. So using that motivation, I developed a consistent exercise routine, and I've managed to continue over the years. At this point, exercising has become a habit. I'm not always motivated to exercise, but I've been doing it for so many years, that I end up doing without too much of a mental battle. So I want to encourage everyone to consistently look for ways to improve yourself. Don't wait until the New Year to make a change, make it at the time that you see the need to change. Use the motivation to develop a new habit. You just might surprise yourself and realize how much you can accomplish when you have the motivation. :)

For this reason, I rarely make New Year's resolutions. Instead I make them all year round. However, this morning after talking to my husband, and then listening to the pastor's message about changing things in our spiritual lives, I've decided to make a couple of my own resolutions...or maybe we should just call them goals. Because that's really what they are. (I believe that I am contradicting myself, due to the content in the previous paragraphs, but I'm ok with that.) So here are my goals for this year:

• To spend more time in prayer and reading the Bible - From the time that my son was born, I've struggled to keep a consistent quiet time with God (quiet time = praying and reading my Bible). Some days are easier to accomplish this than others, but when I make the time, my state of mind is always better. 
• To have a more Christ-like attitude - We've all been through difficult times. I have. But it has always been a struggle to not become cynical from these conflicts. 
• To get back in shape - spraining my ankle has been horrible for my fitness. I've lost my endurance and gained some inches too. Sad face. 
• To blog consistently - If you look back to my previous posts, (don't actually do it) you will see that from 2009 to 2011, my blog was rarely updated. Sad. I want to do better at this, even if my life gets chaotic, which I'm sure it will at times, I still want to update regularly...even if it's not as consistent as it is now. 
• To at least consider growing my photography business - Staying at home with your child is very exhausting and time consuming. This is the biggest reason I haven't worked at developing my photography business to a larger scale. It's not that I don't want more business, but I'm afraid of gaining more clients than I can handle without neglecting my family's time. I need to figure out the appropriate work load amount.

My goals for this year are definitely not anything extreme or overwhelming, but just a couple of things to keep in mind throughout the year. I am pleased with these goals. Do you have any goals for the year? Share.

My son's goal for the New Year is to do more stunts. Like the one he did on Friday night by spinning around on an office chair and flying off at a high speed straight into a door - which resulted in a concussion, vomiting, and a trip to the ER. In case you are worried, he is fine - at least his now. My state of mind is still recovering though.

BTW - my husband and I worked on a great project this evening. I can't wait to share it with you guys. Watch for it later this week. :)

What's In My Purse - The Mom Edition

On occasion I come across blog posts where people take pictures of what they have in their purse. They always seem to have interesting items. It's amusing. Well yesterday, right before was leaving to run errands, I realized my purse was really heavy. And you know, I've really had a hard time finding smaller items in my purse, so I decided to quickly clean it out before I left. And then I got an idea - to do a post about what's in my purse - the mom version of what's in my purse. Ha!

So here's what I found -

2 wallets (yes, 2 - they are both mine, and it's a really long explanation), a baby wipe container with dried up wipes, 3 tubes of hand cream, 1 bottle of hand sanitizer, a mirror, lipstick (amusing since I rarely wear makeup because I'm too lazy), tinted chapstick from Burt's Bees (the closest I usually get to wearing makeup), a comb, coupons, a busy bag (more on that in a minute), a devotion book from church, a red plastic spoon (I don't know why that was in there), a hair clip, a sugar-free lollipop, a Fiber One bar (I think that's been in there for a while), a sanitary wipe, and a ring with various baby care items - brush, comb, nail clippers, and temperature strips (I think I've used that whole contraption ONCE)

In addition to all that junk I also found:

7 cars (one is not pictured. I found it after I took this photo)

One giant pile of TRASH

which also included an old shopping list, expired Chuck E Cheese coupons (scary place), 2 nursery claim stickers to pick up The Toddler from the nursery at church, a coffee stirrer (?), a half eaten coupon (courtesy of The Toddler), and a movie ticket stub from Captain America

And 9 pens. The purple ones are from church. Somehow they always end up in purse???

I mentioned a busy bag as well. In case you aren't familiar with busy bags, they are small bags with a little activity to keep you kiddo entertained and quiet while you are out an about. I usually pull this out when we are at a restaurant, waiting for our food...and even at the coffee shop (yes, sometimes I go get coffee with a friend!!).  Here's what is inside mine:

We use these paint swatches and paper clips for matching games.

So there you go! Now you know what I have (or had) inside my purse. And in case you are wondering, yes, I do have a REALLY BIG purse. (It used to double as a diaper bag before The Toddler was potty trained). What's the most unique item in your purse?

Truthful Tuesday Confessions

I've decided to start a weekly (or semi-weekly, maybe?) theme on my blog - Truthful Tuesdays - where we can all confess the ridiculous actions and thoughts we have on our mind. Why? For fun.

So do you want to know my confessions today?

• It took me over a year to enjoy being a stay-at-home. The first six months after my son was born were incredibly difficult, and beyond stressful, due to an unexpected move, my son's sleep issues, his challenging feeding issues, and his reflux. I felt very alone and no one seemed to understand why I was having such a hard time with my son - especially when it came to my son's feeding issues. (We ended up having to taking him to a feeding clinic for several months that helped him get over his feeding problems). There was so much stress during that time, and it seemed that everyone seemed to think I was being overly dramatic about these conflicts. I was so overwhelmed with all of these issues, it was hard to enjoy being a mom. Earlier this year I really found my groove and started enjoying being at home with The Toddler.
• During the winter I sleep with socks in bed. I take them off in the bed once I warm up and usually forget to take them out. (My husband finds this annoying. I don't blame him). One time I found 8 pairs of socks in my bed.
• I find Lima beans horrid. Over the years, I've tried them several times to see if maybe my taste buds have changed, but alas, they have not. 
• One time I walked into a wall around 5 AM when I was half awake. My husband was out of town and my son started crying. So I walked across the house to my son's room and totally missed the entry way to the hallway and walked straight into the wall. (What can I say? I know I'm amazing. I had a nice, swollen and bruised nose after that. The good news was that I didn't break it.

There you go. You should feel privileged that you know pointless information about me. Now it's your turn. Confess. You know you want to.

An Awesome Snack + An Anniversary

I have a new favorite afternoon snack - Whole Grain Toast spread with Nutella and topped with banana slices. It's nothing profound or even terribly creative, however I find it so satisfying and delicious, that I look forward to making it every afternoon. It makes me sad when I run out of bananas or bread before I can go grocery shopping again. I recommend that you try this amazing, satisfying, chocolatey -goodness snack.

In other news, the spouse and I celebrated 7 adventurous years of marriage with an indulgent dinner at The Melting Pot. Have you ever been there? They serve fondue. It's amazing. We had four courses - a cheese fondue appetizer, a salad, a fondue entree with a variety of surf and turf, and one amazing chocolate fondue for desert pureed with raspberries and peanut butter. Oh, it was good. So very good. I think I want to go there again - just for that chocolate fondue.

Our younger and skinnier days. Like the spouses' hair? I like him better bald. :)

I'm looking forward to 60 more years of adventures with this great guy!