Fun in the snow

Yesterday we made our first snowman of the year, believe it or not.  Before we went out, we prepared a fun project for the kids.  I got this idea from Tad's cousin Jenny. Check out her blog: http://chambersstreet.blogspot.com/2011/02/oscar-is-only-2-days-away.html

We filled four squirt bottles with water dyed with food coloring. Then we all went outside and decorated the snow. We were soon joined by several neighbor children.  The poor snowman first lost his head (which was reattached through some very quick surgery, don't you worry, though he did come out with a broken nose. That couldn't have been helped).  He almost lost his eyes to five hungry children but thankfully I had some extras in the house.  Finally, he ended the afternoon looking like a snowcone gone bad!  But we had a fabulous time!  After I tucked Lucy in for bed, she asked me to go out and give the snowman an ice cube bath and read him a bedtime story.

I suppose we should be composting

Tad and I always talk about how we should start composting.  One of these days, we will get some books from the library and do it.  But for now, we save our coffee grounds for the plants and flowers.

This morning, Tad and I were looking for something to do with the kids. The museum?   The Mall? eeek!  Everything costs money.  Turns out, we didn't need to find something to do. Coen and Lucy collected all the leftover food, coffee grounds, etc.. that wasn't eaten or was going to waste and made "Monster Potion". Its disgusting.  But they are having fun with food and liquid that would otherwise been wasted.  And they've been at it for two hours. Tad and I have able to chat in kitchen. I read three chapters of my book.  That's a nice morning!  And it didn't cost a penny.

Cupcake cake!

My son's school has a Family Fun night tomorrow and a cake walk fundraiser. Even in these trying economic times, I wanted to contribute something!  I made red velvet cupcakes from scratch and cream cheese vanilla frosting--also from scratch.  You can find the red velvet recipe any where..just google it.  Its basically chocolate cake made with cocoa powder and red food coloring.  The frosting recipe:
1 8 oz pkg of cream cheese softened
1 stick of sweet cream spread softened
2 cups (and a bit more, depending on the consistency you want) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

All I had to buy (what wasn't already in my cupboards): Chocolate wafer cookies for the wings, eyes and eyebrows, pretzel rods for the branches, circus peanuts for the talons and beak, jelly rings and junior mints-also for the eyes) I made some baby owls out of the leftover cupcakes!

You take the good you take the bad you take them both and there you have...

Have I mentioned how much I love the library? Books, movies, music -- all you want and all for free.  Unless you are a late returner which we are from time to time. But that's not what today's post is about, really.

I went to the library to get several books about how to talk to children about the birds and the bees, the facts of life...SEX... because of my work.

In my job, I teach youth with disabilities about their bodies, appropriate touch, sexuality, healthy relationships and dating.  I teach a variance of these skills to youth ages 5-25.  Because of this experience, as of late, I have been asked to talk to PARENTS about how to talk to their kids about sex.  Now, get me in front of a room full of five-year-olds to talk about body parts? No problem.  Take a dating, hormonal, sexually experimenting group of teenagers and ask me to talk to them? No problem.  But parents?  THAT makes me nervous.  But I have now done two such presentations and they both went awesome. 

Last one I did, I had all these wonderfully illustrated age-appropriate books to pass around.  It's a touchy subject (no pun intended) so in my workshop, I told the group a story:

Coen had been asking me all about eggs and how babies are made in side of eggs. (We were reading the trumpet of the swan)  Well, that led to baby eggs and I told him about the sperm and egg and all of that without too many of the real particulars of sex, per se.  He seemed satisfied with all that so I tucked him into bed and kissed him goodnight.  Well, he must have pondered overnight because in the morning when Tad went to get him up (I had not told Tad about our previous conversation, having forgotten about it), Coen said..."But Daddy. How did you GET the sperm inside of Mommy?" 

Tad didn't answer, quite taken off guard.  It was a school day and he told him it was a long story and he'd explain later.  He hadn't asked again for a year.  And so I told the group I couldn't WAIT for him to ask again, because I was ready.

Well, be careful what you wish for indeed!  He asked me last week. Suddenly, I didn't feel so ready, but I told him.  I still had those library books and we read them together.  We had a great conversation. I showed him pictures of myself pregnant with him and pictures of him after he was born.  He seemed to think the whole sex act was a physical impossibility and that's fine with me.   I told him that it was really only something that grown ups do.

Whew.  Thanks Public Library.

Leftovers!

One great way of saving money is making meals so big they last a few days. Today I will be making lasagna! Two lasagnas actually. One for my family (which will likely last for the next three, possibly four days) and one for my neighbor who just had a baby! The other perk of long-lasting meals is that you have to decide what to have for dinner less nights a week!

I make mine with ground turkey and eggplant mixed into the sauce (or just eggplant for all the vegetarians)

The cheese is mozzarella, of course, mixed with cottage cheese and one egg.  Sounds weird, I know but it makes for a great tasting lasagna!!!

I will try to enlist the help of my children for chopping and stirring on this wintry day off!

Right now they are watching library rented videos and eating banana flax seed muffins I made because we had two bananas rapidly approaching rot! 

I think my husband snuck back to bed!

I'm sending solidarity to those heading to Madison for more rallying today!

Backwards Walker Man

Solidarity Wisconsin

Tad and I have a date tonight! An overnight!  I could not be happier.  I definitely am in great need of some kid-free time together!  We were planning on getting dinner somewhere (we saved our Kalahari allotment of cash by eating all the food we brought in the hotel and sharing meals out) and going home to watch a movie and sleep the blissful sleep of a parent who's children are not going to be calling them at 6:30 in the morning, wanting to get up.
 
But in light of Scott Walker's budget bill and all the peaceful protesting in Madison, we'll be dropping the kids off and heading straight for the capital.  I just hope that if the tea party tries to incite violence or anger, that this group of state workers, teachers, firefighters, nurses etc.. fighting for the unions continues to organize peacefully.   And hopefully some advocates of NOT allowing the state control over Medicaid benefits such as Badgercare (which we are on!) and health care that affects the poor and people with disabilities, which is another backward idea Walker put in his budget...will be there fighting as well!

I think being part of a protest action, fighting alongside others against this Budget which was not even allowed the democratic process it should have had, is a great way to spend a date night!

Oh Laura and Mary Ingalls with their shining eyes

Well...  we arrived at the water park in the afternoon on Tuesday and the after playing on the slides and in the wave pool until 7:00 (the kids' usual bedtime) we headed back to the room for dinner.  I made pizza and listened to Coen on the phone with his grandpa, so proud that we were about to eat dinner right at BEDTIME!  Well, of course the next day there were a lot of easy tears and quick frustration and by the afternoon, when Coen was upset about not getting to have yet another frosted cookie, I pulled he and Lucy aside, sat them down in the hotel lobby's suggested "family photo spot" in front of a couple of brass gorillas and we had ourselves a little chat.

Coen and I have been reading Little House on the prairie and it struck me, as we read, that every time Mary and Laura Ingalls get a Christmas present, they are SO appreciative.  And what is in their stockings? A piece of candy and a pair of mittens...that's it.  So I asked Coen, why do you think they are so happy about just getting those things?
And he said "Because they don't have very much, and so getting anything makes them happy."
Brilliant.
So I said "Yes, and you and Lucy have SO much. You have so many toys and you get so many great things. And you get to go to the Kalahari every year! Some kids never get to go.  And I get frustrated when you get upset when you can't have ANOTHER cookie instead of being happy that you even got a cookie. Or when you get upset because the sucker I gave you was so small instead of being happy that you GOT a sucker at all!"
I went on with my pep talk and I really think he understood.  Lucy on the other hand interrupted me to point at a giant wooden alligator, yelling "What's THAT?!"  But at any rate, I got a lot of 'thank-you's' out of both kids for the duration of our time there.  We'll see how long it sticks.  But in this economic climate and our personal economic climate..I want my kids to know that what they have is a lot and what they are is incredibly lucky.

On a side note, on the way home we were talking about why Coen had woken his sister up in the morning so early.  His response, with wild hand gestures: "Well, she was just laying there sleeping, but her face looked like it WANTED to be woken up!"

Yep.

Reconnecting

I know that this blog has been about living simpler and that sometimes it tailspins into just stories about my everyday life...  Now, more than ever, we have to live simpler. The loan we got from Tad's parents is run out and we are truly living on my income alone...  Every two weeks, I pay the bills and then we have enough to spare to buy groceries (thank you Woodmans and Aldi for helping me stick to my $75 a week budget!) and gas up both cars. That's it.  So today, I need an oil change.. and what are we going to do? Charge it. Oh well.

But I'll tell you what. I am lucky to work for an organization that sends me to cool conferences. And this afternoon I am leaving for the Kalahari indoor water park hotel in Wisconsin Dells.  And I'm bringing my family with me.  Coen and Tad will miss a few days of school, but that is okay. Tad spent 10 hours on Saturday getting caught up and then ahead on his homework. Coen will bring along his readers and do his daily reading in the hotel room. And well...Lucy's just going to skip a few days of daycare, saving us cash!

So the four of us will drive to the Dells this afternoon and spend time togehter. No rushing anyone in to coats and snowpants.  No one will be going anyplace they dont' want to go.  We'll be together.  Either playing in the waterpark or sitting by the fireplace in our room.  And I can not wait to reconnect with my family and rid us of the winter blues~!

I will not be blogging for those four days, dear readers.  But enjoy the sun!  And I'll enjoy the florescent Kalahari waterpark lighting.  And my family.  And when I return, I'll reconnnect with my blog and try to share some more money saving tips and recipes!

Schmalentines

When I was in my twenties and still looking for love (and getting discouraged often) I started making Schmalentines.  What are Schmalentines, you might ask? They are the anti-valentine. They can be as disgusting, vulgar, cynical as you want and they are lots of fun to make. 

This year, I got busy making homemade valentines for my son to take to school and my daughter to take to daycare.  Of course, after all my labors, my son likes them so much.. (they were made out of dragon pictures he had drawn and pasted on to colorful paper...) he wants to keep five.  So now i have to spend Sunday night make five extra valentines so he has enough to bring.  Jeeeeez! Of course, Tad gently reminded me as I grumbled as I pasted and cut that I made it my job to MAKE valentines, when we could have just bought some...and furthermore if Coen wants homemade valentines, he would make them himself...   He was right, that jerk!  But oooh do I love him! 

All of this led me to say...as I did, years ago: Valentines Schmalentines!  Here are a few for your perusal. Happy Schmalentines!

Whatta week!

Well...just to update you, I did not buy Willie Nelson tickets. Now I'd like to tell you that this is because I am so full of self-control, however, this is not the case. I began typing up emails to parents asking for different babysitting dates, including the night of the Willie concert, when I saw that I actually have to WORK that night.  So I've been saved by my own schedule.  Here's hoping he comes next year!

That was the beginning of the week.  My in-laws came home on Sunday from Florida to watch the super bowl with us and planned a stand-by flight back on Tuesday morning.  On Monday morning, Lucy's daycare provider called us to say she was ill and unavailable that day.  Panic!  But lucky for us, Tad's parents were still in town and they gladly took Lucy for the day.   Tuesday Lucy goes to my parents so that was covered... But on Wednesday we got another call and found that we would be without Lucy's usual daycare for the rest of the week!  Now, Tad absolutely cannot skip any school and I had classes, presentations, meetings and appointments ALL week!  Normally I can take Lucy to the office with me and she does really well, but this was my week:
Monday:  Meetings all over the city at several MPS entities
Tuesday: Meeting with Milwaukee County, Meeting with a Transition Advisory Board, Meeting at a high school
Wednesday: Legislative visit day in Madison all day, meeting with legislators
Thursday: Four classes at Morse Marshall school
Friday: Support group at St. Charles Alternative school, Sex ed talk presentation
Not exactly a group of events one can take a three-year-old to....
So we had my parents take Lucy on Wednesday and Friday (I am overwhelmed at their generosity!) and our friend Jenny came over on Thursday with her son so that I could go teach my four classes.

Aside from that Tad has had piles of homework and the two of us were up until 11 or 12 every night this week working on it.  Not to mention a meeting at Coen's school for each of us Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. 

 It has been an incredibly stressful, worrisome, scramble of a week and I am so very glad its over.  However two good things came of it:
1. We now have $200 worth of daycare credit! Whoo hooo!
2. I have a very profound appreciation for all of our in-place daycare. Tad's parents--MY PARENTS--and Lucy's daycare provider (here's hoping she is well on Monday). I feel so thankful for that help and the solidity of it (usually)  Not having 2/3 of it this week made life real hard!

Blue eyes cryin' in the rain

Well...my eyes are not blue.  And there's definitely no rain.  But I am cryin'.  Here it is: The first concert that it is breaking my heart not to go to... Willie Nelson.  He is coming in March and I want to go I want to go I want to go I want to go!!!!!  How can I not?!!!!  I grew up with Willie Nelson singing me to sleep, singing me awake, playing all the time on my parents' record player.  When I hear his voice, I am ten years old again, cozy in my bed, listening to the sounds my parents and their friends having a party downstairs.  I want to go I want to go!!!

So Willie Nelson is coming to Milwaukee and it hurts my heart to miss it.

I am trying to decide if it would be terribly irresponsible for me to charge these tickets on my credit card.  We have one income.  A broken washing machine.  Other broken things.  And already a growing credit card bill.  But I want to go.

What should I do?  Buy them?  Or wait and try to win them?  I am not sure, but the pre-sale is tomorrow!  I'll keep you posted on how irresponsible I get!

A reminder from my 23 year old self

  Tonight I am bored.  Tad went out with some friends and I put the children to bed.  I cleaned the house.  Walking around, mopping and dusting with my iphone in my back pocket, playing a Mason Jennings station on Pandora...  I felt a little melancholy.   I am bored. It is February.  I just finished a week with a lack of usual daycare coverage and a snowstorm.  This means that I have been in my house and entertaining my children non-stop since Tuesday at noon. (Aside from a brief foray to the office today, accompanied by my daughter).  Tad had plans tonight. So yes. I'm bored.  I live in Wisconsin and its February, of COURSE I'm bored.

  So anyway, as I listened to music, and moved around my house... cleaning it, the music got me thinking, as music does.  So my thinking path started out with me feeling a bit resentful. Yes, resentful, I'll admit it.  I went over how hard I have been working at work and how much work it is to be a mother and remembered when I was single and childless and I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.  I wallowed in that for a while.

 But then, my mind and perhaps a song, took me back to the age of 23.  It was a night much like this one, winter in Wisconsin, probably even February. I was home with my sister, Beth in our lower duplex on Frederick Avenue, students at UWM.  We were bored.  We were single and young and interested in going out and looking for some action.  Some music, some bars, someone to flirt with.  I remember being so frustrated and just so BORED and thinking that someday I would fall in love and have a house and a family of my own and then I would never feel like that.  Funny.  I guess we always have something to wish we had, no matter what we do have (and don't realize).  But here's the thing.  That night, as Beth and I walked through the dark snowy night to the bar down the street, I remember looking in windows of houses and seeing people moving around and thinking...'I wish I were in that house.... I wish I were in that one...' 

  And now, here I am, 12 years later.  And I can say this with absolute honesty.  The house I'm in, the one with the lights on and a warm glow coming out...the one with the kids sleeping upstairs and the husband who will be home in a few hours and put his arms around me until I fall asleep... The one where a woman sits in side typing on her laptop, listening to Iron and Wine, a little bit bored...  THAT is the house I want to be in.  I began to want to be in my own window, and stop looking into others probably when I was about 27.  Just before I came home from the Peace Corps.  And once I was happy with my own window, I found Tad.  And as soon as I met him, I remembered that night when the 23 year old girl was looking in windows.  And the moment I knew my life was going to be lived with him as my partner...I knew that there would be no more windows I longed to be inside of...

  I guess it may sound a  little overly romantic.. but its the truth. And I will get bored no matter where I am and what I do.  So tonight I am done cleaning my house. And I am going to keep on listening to music, and try to dust off the boredom and appreciate the quiet of the snow outside and the songs that I am hearing.

Good night.

Groundhog day, Snow day!!!

To say 'dang it' or to say 'darn it'...That is the question.

This morning I went into the kitchen and saw that both Tad and I had forgotten to put the thawing pork into the fridge overnight. 
"Dang it!"  I said, throwing the possibly bacteria-ridden, illness-inducing product into the garbage.
"Mommy!" Came a shout from Lucy. "You said 'dang it.' You should say 'darn it'; its nicer."
Hmm..is it nicer? I wondered who told her that. 

At any rate, tonight's dinner was ruined and I was saying far worse things in my head than 'dang it' or 'darn it'

But when I got back to my desk after a staff meeting at work, I saw that MPS is cancelled for tomorrow due to the coming snow storm and early dismissal today.  I had planned on a regular night, waste not want not and all that and just fashioning some dinner out of other in-the-house supplies.  But now...

SNOW DAY!!!! 

I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some more pork for my previously planned pork and hominy stew and some bread and some other provisions--mostly chocolate flavored. 

We are having a good dinner tonight and dessert after. Tomorrow will be a sudden middle of the week weekend day and we'll have homemade zucchini bread and smoothies and watch cartoons all morning long!

Oh. Wait.  We have no more zucchini.  Darn it!