Pinned

This weekend I took the chance to do a couple of the projects I had found on Pinterest and marked to do with my kids.

I used craft sticks to make a "building set" as my kids call it. Just a dot of velcro on each end of each stick and they can put them together in many combinations. This is a new addition to our Sacrament meeting quiet bag.

The kids actually played with the sticks for almost an hour and had a grand time making their various creations.

We made a set of decorations for the playroom wall. I just traced a letter (first letter of their name) on some colored paper, then the kids used stickers to fill in the outline of the letter. I'll confess that I helped Rylen with his. I stuck the sticker creations in a frame and hung them on the wall. It's a fun, colorful addition to the playroom.

It was fun time with the kids for very little money. And stuff I would never have thought of on my own. Yay for Pinterest. :)

My Mother-in-Law's Amazing Crockpot Beef

I was just putting dinner in the crock-pot and thought I'd better share this recipe for amazing crockpot beef. My mother-in-law introduced us to this and it is SO good. We have made it regularly since she made it for us once. The best part? SUPER SIMPLE.

Take a beef roast (or pork... or chicken... we've tried it with all three. It's best with beef, but pork and chicken are very good as well.) and put it in the crockpot. Add a package of powdered ranch dressing mix. Add a package of powdered Italian dressing mix. Add about 1/4 c water. Put the lid on the crockpot and walk away. Let it cook 6-8 hours on low until the meat is tender enough to shred. Shred it with a fork and serve over potatoes or rice or on rolls for sandwiches.

It's so good and so easy. Love it. Thanks, Bonnie!

Another Quick Funny from Brekken

As annoying as he can be in all his 3-year-oldness, Brekken is a pretty funny kid. He's always saying stuff that makes us laugh. Or at least makes us go, "Whuck?"

He loves to tell us about long, convoluted "dreams" he has had (generally magically inspired by a conversation someone else was having) that always involve some crazy and improbable occurences. They're very straneg, but entertaining.

The latest thing he's come up with is to categorize injuries. If you refer to an "owie" on his elbow, he'll correct you and inform you that it is, in fact, a "boo-boo."

Because I kept getting it wrong, I had him lay it out for me last night.

Boo-Boo
A big injury such as a big bruise, bump or cut. It may involve blood. It generally requires ice packs, bandages, and a little rest time before returning to play. Seemingly small injuries may be upgraded to boo-boo status if painful enough. (For example, a small paper cut would not qualify in terms of size or blood, but could sting badly enough to be called a boo-boo.)

Owie
A mid-size injury. A small bruise or bump. A scratch. Generally does not involve blood. May require a bandaid or other first aid from a psychological perspective only.

Con-Tron
A small injury. Can usually be fixed with only a hug and a kiss to the afflicted area. (And no, I have no idea where the term "con-tron" came from. Brekken came up with this categorization of injuries all on his own and just informed us that the smallest injuries should be known as con-trons.)

A Vice I Can't Give Up

Today's post brought to you by Mama Kat's Pretty Much World Famous Writer's Workshop.

Mama Kat asked: What is the one ‘vice’ you can’t give up?

I have so many, it's hard to choose. There's my morning hot chocolate - I don't have it every morning, but I'd hate to give it up entirely. And my daily nap on the bus - I feel pretty cheated if I don't get that. The Cheetos I sometimes keep in my desk drawer - mmmm.... Cheetos. My beloved Kindle and iPhone, of course - I'm pretty addicted to them.

But when I stopped to think, my biggest addiction is probably Amazon.com. You can get everything from Amazon! Hot chocolate? Yes. Cheetos? In bulk. Apps and content for my Kindle and iPhone? Of course! Amazon could even help with the bus naps - eye shades and ear plugs could take care of the people who insist of turning on the reading lights and chattering away during the morning commute. (Seriously people, save that for the afternoon ride. The morning drive is for napping. The rest of us find the two of you extremely annoying. It's true. We've talked about it - on the afternoon bus.)

And if you use Amazon frequently enough, you can get the Prime membership. Which means that you get 2-day shipping for free every time. That's just even more addicting. It just shows up at your door in only a couple of days and for no shipping charge? Awesome!

Whenever I need anything, I just assume I can get it from Amazon. And I'm almost always right. New charger for the iPhone, the lotion I couldn't find at Target, a case of Cocoa Puffs for my cereal-obsessed children. I've been known to buy diapers or paper towels from Amazon just because I didn't want to drag all the kids to the store. (Though you do have to do a little planning ahead on that one - 2 day shipping is useless when you're down to two diapers in the box.) I just love how it's all at my fingertips and only a couple clicks away.

Every birthday present. All my Christmas shopping. Many a Mother's Day and Father's Day present. All from Amazon. And since I'm lazy that way, sometimes I just go ahead and have Amazon wrap it for me, too. After all, Amazon has already found the present and is packing it up and shipping it to the recipient for me. Why shouldn't Amazon wrap it up for me, too? Amazon is like my own little personal assistant who takes care of these pesky chores.

Yep, definitely addicted. Give me Amazon or give me death! (Well, not death. That's a bit extreme. More like severe discomfort. Or intense annoyance. Doesn't have the same ring to it, but it's more accurate.)

And on that note, I've just remembered that my mother's birthday is coming up. Off to Amazon to take care of that...

Quick Funny from Brekken

Back on the Sunday before Valentine's Day, a sweet girl named Tessa in Brekken's Sunbeam class gave him a Valentine. It was actually hilarious to see... there she is, thrusting the Valentine at him, urging him to "Take it!" And he's backed up against the wall, hands behind his back, an expression of utter confusion on his face as he tries to figure out what he should do.

Between Tessa's mom and I, we managed to explain to him what was going on and get him to take the Valentine. Then fast forward to this week after church, when Brekken told me:

"Remember Tess that gave me Valentines? She pretty much loves me. That's why she gived me Valentines. She loves me all the time. So much. I think she cries and cries after church because I have to go home."

LOL - no lack of self-confidence for this one!

Bragging a Little

We had parent-teacher conferences for Haley and Preston last week, and I just have to brag on them a little.

Preston actually started out a little rough this school year. When they did the initial kindergarten testing, I think he was not paying much attention or was nervous or something, because he basically failed. Oh, I know they didn't phrase it that way when they told us about the test results, but he performed poorly enough on the tests that he ended up on what the teacher calls their "watch list" of students who are going to need extra help. He was put on an IEP (individualized education plan?) to help bring him up to standard. This was frustrating to me, because I knew he was capable of doing the things on the test (things like identifying shapes, counting, naming numbers, letters, and letter sounds) and did them at home. He just didn't do it during the testing for some reason. But now that he's settled into his kindergarten career, he has gotten past the testing roadblock and the teacher shared his current results. We looked at a little graph that showed where he is now compared to where he needs to be at the end of the year... and it was almost all: "Well, as you see he needs to be at an eighteen by the end of the year. He's currently at 37, so he's good there." With that, he is officially off the watch list and done with the IEP. He's doing great!

Haley continues to be a stellar student. The teacher even told Aaron that she deliberately saved Haley's conference for the last one of the day because she wanted to be able to end on a completely good conference. She's officially in 2nd grade, but is doing a lot of higher-level classwork. Often she has extra time in class (because she finishes her work quickly) and gets to help the 1st graders with their work. Haley LOVES this. Apparently the 1st graders love it too. The teacher said Haley is so good at helping them (and really helping them learn it, not just doing it for them) that the 1st graders all vie to have Haley as their helper. Haley also has a lot of those graphs like Preston's, showing that she has long since passed all her milestones for the year. And she's officially moved off the charts as far as her reading levels go. Right now they're rating her reading grade level at 6th grade... maybe 6 1/2. But they acknowledge that the reason for ranking her at that grade level is really because they just don't have tools in elementary school that will measure any higher than that. She could be reading at an even higher reading level, they just can't test for that using the elementary reader scales. Total smarty pants! (And frequently a smart-alek as well... but that's another post.)

Happy President's Day!

I hope you had a happy President's Day and did not spend it (as I did) trying to recover from a night of vomiting and other unpleasantness that may ensure I never eat another leftover again. (Believe me, I already have issues with eating leftovers and now having actually gotten very ill after eating some... no more!)

Since I spent most of the day in bed alternately sleeping and channel surfing, I was reminded of the fact that for some reason, President's Day is synonymous with Mattress Sales. I've noticed before, but just kind of in passing. But this time around, I spent some time thinking about it and formulating a theory.

We all know that Bill Clinton and JFK are pretty well known for their extra-marital activities. And then there's Thomas Jefferson. And it turns out that Eisenhower, FDR, Cleveland, and Harding all had some pretty scandalous love affairs as well.

Hmmm... perhaps the connection between mattresses and President's Day makes sense after all!