Facebook Stati

Or is it statuses? I'm guessing statuses since it doesn't have a squiggly red line under it after I type it like stati does. But that's not part of my post.

My soapbox post today is about facebook statuses about your children. And not just about your children, complaining about your children. Incessantly. As in, if you look back at your last 10 stati, 9 will be about something your child did that did not make you type a :) or LOL.

These status updates are depressing. Sometimes I feel like Facebook is just a place to air dirty laundry or talk about how terrible your kids are and how they don't sleep or clean up after themselves or get sick all the time or have temper tantrums or make it harder to get out at night or....I could go on and on.

I'm sick of all of it, but I'm most sick of hearing about how much a newborn baby wakes up in the middle of the night and how tired the mom is. NEWSFLASH: The vast majority of newborn babies DON'T sleep through the night. Anyone who told you otherwise was WRONG. Babies get hungry. They wake up. They cry. They need you.

Reading those posts makes me angry for the baby. And it also makes me angry that while that mom is posting about how terrible it is that her beautiful newborn is wrecking her sleep schedule, there are women all over the world wishing, hoping and praying they were snuggling a newborn in the middle of the night.

So all this soapbox mumbo jumbo is to say: Cherish that baby. Because in a blink of an eye they'll be older and independent and won't "need" you. And you'll wish they were little again so you could hold them and snuggle and enjoy that just "mommy and me" moment.

Off soapbox.

Guest Post @ Blessed in the Midwest

I had the privilege of guest posting yesterday on Mary's blog, Blessed in the Midwest. Mary is a sweet, God-loving mama of 2 adorable boys and has great toddler ideas! Check out her cute blog and her Toddler Tuesday posts!

Tot School: St Patricks Day

Sweet P is 22 mos

We were on vacation over St. P's day, so I did a few things the week before and then another craft this past week. But nonetheless, she learned about the color green and definitely about leprechauns and rainbows!

Our sensory bucket was full of green items. I thought I had a picture, but I don't so here is a list of the items, instead!

- Green pom poms, green letters from foam puzzles, green poker chips from LCR game, green vegetable and fruit flashcards, Larry the cucumber (Veggie Tales) hand puppet, green magnetic fish, quilted numbers, March calendar tile, shamrock calendar tile, foam frog from a book, foam alligator from a book, alligator flashcard and green bells.

God's Rainbow Minibook: I found this rainbow minibook at Christian Preschool Printables. The words mimic the creation story as God's creates the rainbow. I handed her the correct color and had her color the page with the designated color. The book is so cute and easy to make. I can't wait to make more!

Build a Leprechaun: I cut out shapes for her to build a leprechaun and she helped me apply glue, then pasted them on a green sheet of paper. We have it hanging on the backdoor and she loves to point at it at say "Keckachaun!"

Color Matching Cards: These cards are from Homeschool Creations. I left them uncut and we talked about each of the colors and pictures. After we did all that, she got her magnetic fish and put the right color of fish on the color sheet. There are 10 sheets with 6 pictures, so I thought she might be overwhelmed if I cut out all 60 cards!

Reading on the couch. She LOVES that book.

Rainbow Color Matching: I can't remember where I saw this idea (because I didn't save it and it's been a few weeks...and my brain doesn't retain info well), but I drew a rainbow on a piece of cardstock, then cut out ROYGBV (I left out indigo) rainbows and put them all together. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, but figured it out last week. I cut out colored things from a magazine (gold fish, grapes, leaves, etc) and asked her what color they were. Then I said, "Where's the (whatever color the item was) rainbow?" She'd point to it and paste the item on the rainbow. Needless to say, I only had 2 magazines and only found 1 orange item and 1 purple item! I think I'll do this again with her.

Awesome.

That word defines our trip in so many ways. There were in fact some very awesome times, but there were also a few times when we said, "awesome" and didn't mean it at all.

Like when we clogged the toilet at our friend, Paul's house (who let us stay in his fabulous guest house). Or when we went into Urban Outfitters to get change for the meter on UT campus and I suddenly had to pee (real bad). My only option was a nasty port-a-potty out back where there was a band playing (did I mention it was South by Southwest in Austin?) and drinks flowing. It was all fine and dandy until a boy (I say boy because no way was he over 21) said to myself and my (beautiful, I might add) sisters, "Go get some free alcohol. It might make you prettier." Ummmm. Really? Auntie Rosita glared at him and told him he was about to get punched in the face, while I said, "Too bad it wouldn't help you." Nice? No, but I wasn't in a nice mood at that point. I had to pee and was being called ugly. He said some choice words and walked away.

But the most "awesome" event of the trip wasn't even part of the trip itself, but part of our flight home. On our 2nd leg, the turbulence was TERRIBLE because of the sweet tornado watch in Omaha (lovely, eh?). Luckily, Sweet P and I had a row all to ourselves. This made what happened a bit easier to, err, swallow.

Let me interject here to say I do NOT have a stomach of steel. I don't even think it's made of wood. And while I love roller coasters, I really shouldn't ride them because it seldom ends well.

Can you see where this is going?

I'd already gagged on the way up, but what happened on the way down was even worse. I felt my stomach turn as we hit bump after bump, so I did what any person who was obeying the fasten seat belt sign and unwilling to drag a 23 month old into a tee-ninsy bathroom. I tossed my cookies (or pretzels) not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR times in a barf bag (is there a nicer name for those things?). Something I've never done in my 30 years of life.

I was mortified and saying prayers that no one was witnessing this disgusting display (no one, of course, but my poor daughter). Poor Sweet P says to me, "Mama sad? Help you?" No baby, you can't help me. I just said, "It's okay" as I wiped my mouth with a baby wipe. Could there be anything more disgusting than vomiting in a plastic bag on an airplane? I think not.

That aside, we had a great time with Gammie and the aunties. We got to see lots of friends and family, celebrated Auntie Kannon and Gammie's birthdays and played outside A LOT! And as sad as it was to leave family and 80 degree weather (to come home to 45 degrees), it was nice to get home to our sweet Farmer and daddy. And since Sweet P turns 2 in May, that'll be our last flight for awhile (I hope).

Some pics from the trip:

With Auntie Kannon and Kannon (she's named after Auntie Kannon!) in Auntie K's sports bras

Examining RoRo's beads

Reading from cousin Noah's book

With Gammie at Kerbey Lane

The Girls!

How was your Spring Break?

Snickerdoodle Scones

Remember last summer when I chastised myself for not making scones more often? Well, I hadn't made them since that post until last Wednesday. I had a Pull-Up Potty Party at my house and decided that was a grandiose occasion that called for scones. I wanted something special so I googled around until I found a few to my liking and then added some things here and there. These scones are delish, but, to risk sounding like Paula Dean, they needed more buttah. Cuz ya'll, all pastries are better with more buttah. Also, my friend Amy thought I should name them Snickerdoodle scones since they tasted quite a bit like those yummy cookies. So without further ado...

The Recipe: Snickerdoodle Scones w/ Cinnamon Icing

What you need:

1/4 c sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (or a couple big shakes)

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1/2 c whole wheat flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

dash of salt

8 tbsp cold unsalted butter (it's gotta be unsalted)

2 eggs

1/3 soy milk (or use regular)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry blender or a fork until it looks crumby.

Beat eggs in a small bowl, then add the milk. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and combine. (I've found that mixing it works for awhile, then I just dump it out on the counter to bring it all together).

Dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead 12 or more times. Form the dough into a ball, then roll out with a floured rolling pin to form a large rectangle that is about 1/2 thick.

Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into 12 squares, then cut each square diagonally in half to create small triangles. This made about 24 mini triangles.

Place the triangles on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

The Recipe: Cinnamon Icing

What you need:

1 c powdered sugar

dash of cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp milk (or more if you want runnier icing)

Combine until it forms the consistency you're looking for. Drizzle on top of cooled scones or place scones top down into icing to fully cover.

ENJOY! These were so yummy and I loved the cinnamon flavor. This recipe reflects more butter.

Tot School: Valentine's Day

Sweet P is 21 mos old

I probably shouldn't even post this, but I want to document it and since I've been a lazy blogger lately, now is a good a time as any. Here's what we did over Valentine's Day week for tot school. Yep, a month ago.

Melissa & Doug Pull Along Farm Animals: Sweet P got these from Papa Ray Ray for Christmas and we finally got them out that week. She loves to pull them around the room. They are a little bit difficult for her to stack on her own because of the placement of the rods, but she loves to neigh, moo and baa with the animals.

Valentine's Day cards: Sweet P made Valentines for all the loved ones in her life! She did a really great job with these. I cut out tons of hearts (one of the many days I wished for a Cricut) and would ask her what color, rub some glue on the back and hand it to her. She decorated, stuck and stickered to her hearts content.

Don't you LOVE the head tilt with the coloring?

Heart sequencing: This was hard because there were too many colors, but she did well saying the colors and playing with the hearts. I can't remember where I got these so if you know, please tell me!

Playing in the sink: This is definitely a favorite activity around here. She was also practicing her smile for me!

ABC Hearts: This activity was a bit advanced for Sweet P, but I cut them out and put it together anyway. As you can see, she wanted to read instead. I ended up closing the folder and letting her put the hearts in the front pocket. These are from File Folder Fun.

Magnetic Fish: Having some fun in the basement with the fish. She's still working on these.

Art set from Auntie Rosita: She loves to color with her art set in the basement.

Butterfly Craft: Again with the cutting out hearts... I cut out several sizes and then let her do the glue and showed her where to stick them. We used a couple of stickers on the wings, too.

Reading: Lots of reading, of course.

V-day Sensory Bin: We played with this well after V-day.

Starfall.com: We LOVE Starfall around here. This is such a great website. Sweet P was OBSESSED with the letter V and the Starfall Van. We've probably watched that thing 100 times.

H is for Heart: Can't remember where I got this either. I had a list of V-day resources, but this wasn't on it! Still have trouble with this. We used raisins and she'd much rather eat them than put them in the circles. hehe.

And there you have our Valentine's Week! About time, eh?

I know, I know

Ya'll, I know it's not Christmas anymore. I know that in some parts of our dear country it's reached 80 or 90 degrees already. I know that you're probably tired of seeing that picture of my Christmas tree and snow covered farm. I also know that the farm isn't even covered in snow anymore! But hang tight, because we're working on it (sorta) and hopefully in the next few weeks we'll have something fun and new up there for you to gaze upon. Definitely a new picture of my cutie patootie. Until then...just enjoy the Christmas-year-round theme I've got goin' on.

Faux Tuna Salad

Ok, I'm going to share a kind of gross story, so skip to the recipe if you're not up for it. I used to love tuna. LOVE. Because if you didn't know, this vegetarian farmer's wife still eats fish. I don't eat it very often (and I NEVER eat tuna...not now), but every so often I dabble in sea life. Anyway...

Back when I was in TA in grad school I took one of those tuna/cracker packs for lunch (I shudder to think of it). When I opened it it was all oily (even though it was packed in water) and I was so grossed out I threw it in the trash. Ummmm. Let me explain that our "offices" in grad school were oh, ya know, closets. So dumping that tuna in the trash was a really, really, really bad idea. I went to a class at some point and closed the door. When I came back later to get my bag...no more tuna. EVER.

All that said, I still sometimes long for a tuna salad sandwich. Pickles, mustard, mayo, hardboiled egg. LOVE, but not willing to eat tuna. So last Friday I came up with an alternative and the faux tuna salad was born. There are dozens of variations out there, but this one is super basic and SO easy.

The Recipe: Faux Tuna Salad

What you need:

1 can or 2 cups of prepared garbanzo beans (chick peas)

1 tbsp mustard

1 tbsp mayo

1 medium dill pickle (chopped)

1 hardboiled egg (optional)

bread, chips or crackers to eat it with

Place all ingredients in a blender or mini food processor and chop until chunky, but not pureed. Add more mustard or mayo for a creamier consistency.

I didn't use egg this go round because I was hungry and didn't want to wait on the egg. It was great with chips and today I ate it on a sandwich for lunch. The Farmer doesn't even like mayo and he loved it as dip. I had to tell him yesterday to stop eating it so I could have it in a sandwich today (stingy much?).

The best part? It doesn't smell like tuna!!! But you'll be amazed how much it resembles the taste of tuna salad.

And a picture? Yep, don't have one of those, just take my word for it.