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!