Family Musings

But, I want to share these easy waffle cookies Charlotte and I made this morning. These are a super simple cookie that can be modified in many ways. Add Craisins or other dried fruit to the batter to combat the 2 sticks of butter in the recipe! Use them as a base for an ice cream sundae, instead of a cone or waffle bowl.  Make them look like snowflakes by sprinkling powdered sugar over them. Add orange extract instead of vanilla and serve with hot mandarin tea. Almond extract would also be a yummy addition. How else would you modify these yummy waffle cookies ?

Another creation from Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make I didn't have access to green pull apart licorice for the vines, so I made swirly, vine-like things from green melting chocolate. The smaller cupcakes were dipped in hot icing before getting the orange sugar. I've also made owls , corn on the cob , and rabbit hole cupcakes.

This morning Charlotte and I sat at the table having some fun with a few simple Thanksgiving activities. None of these are original to me and were pretty simple and uncomplicated for her to do. The first one I really want to share with you though is a fill-in-the blank drawing of a pilgrim girl. I am so impressed with how Charlotte filled in the blanks of her face. And, while I think this looks like a piggy little pilgrim, it is just adorable to me! Another activity we made was a "Sharing Book." This idea came 100% from Sprout Online. Charlotte wasn't as ready to share her things as I would have hoped, but then again, she is two and I was asking her to abstractly tell me what she wanted to share. In the end, she decided to share her paper (twice), sandbox (which we don't own), and her books (maybe she'll be a Reading teacher someday). To vary her access to art materials today, I busted out a glue stick and fuzzy pom poms. (I know, such variety is amazin...

I love making photo books. They are a quick and easy way to document a major event or even the small events throughout the year. Especially when you don't have any room or time for serious scrapbooking. While I like making photo books, I often need a little nudge to get them going and done. In case you are like me, you might need some help too. So here are some ideas for making a themed photo book: based on the months of the year and various activities you did in each month; an ABC book with something about your child that relates to each letter of the alphabet; or you could also use a photo book to chronicle a major event in your life, such as a vacation, wedding, or the birth of a child . And here is some more of a nudge from an email I received today... " Snapfish has launched an effort with Rachael Ray in which Snapfish is giving viewers the opportunity to receive 50% off their own customizable photo book [no limit either!] using promo code from November 25-December 2, a...

When we went to Disney for Charlotte's haircut recently, she wanted to stay for the parade. This is what happened 2 minutes before the parade started. When we went to Disney for Charlotte's haircut recently, she wanted to stay for the parade. This is what happened 2 minutes before the parade started.

The other night at the dinner table, Charlotte looked at me and asked, "What are you eating Mommy?" I replied, "a salad." She asked me again, "What are you eating Mommy?" And again, I replied, "a salad." Two more times we repeated this exchange. Finally, after she asked me for a fifth time, "What are you eating Mommy?" I started giving her silly replies. "What are you eating Mommy?" "My fork. "What are you eating Mommy?" "Mary's hands." "What are you eating Mommy?" "Paper." "What are you eating Mommy?" "Your nose." Here, Bruce interjected with his own question. "Charlotte, what are you doing?" To which Charlotte replied, "playing a game with Mommy!" That made me laugh out loud that she even knew we were playing a game. What a fun child she is!

"Grateful not only for the blessings I can count, but for the ones that can not be measured." For a few years now, I've slowly collected some Thanksgiving decorations in a frugal way by only buying them after the holiday. All with the good intentions of using them the next year. Well, you know what they say about good intentions. Good. (Because I don't, what do THEY say about good intentions?) Anyway, after a major reduction of goods was attempted when we moved to Lakeland in 2008, I fought to keep my holiday decorations on the promise that I would use them and not forget about them. Guess what happened. Yep. In 2008 I didn't decorate for Thanksgiving at all. I didn't even put up the 3' pre-lite tree I bought for Christmas. So this year, lest I be forced to give all of my Thanksgiving decorations away, I am using them. And I might even add to them when the post-Thanksgiving sales make everything 75-90% off. For those of you who are interested, here ...

While yesterday Charlotte had her first hair cut at Disney's Magic Kingdom, I don't want to overlook the fact that the day was also Mary's first trip to Disney. Mary is only 10 weeks old and wasn't very involved in the trip, but I thought I'd show a picture or two of her first visit. Hanging out in the Baby Bjorn Sleeping while Charlotte got aforementioned haircut And her first picture in front of Cinderella's Castle

It took me a long time to finally be ready for Charlotte to get her first haircut. And at the end of the day, I'm not even sure she realizes she had it cut. Here is the story, mostly in photos, of Charlotte's first haircut. First, the barber, Michael, plied her with Mickey stickers. Lots of Mickey stickers. Then, he gave her even more Mickey stickers to keep her distracted, once she finished the banana in her hand though. After a little squirt of water, the first cut happened. I wasn't looking too closely because I was trying to help Charlotte focus on the stickers. Then, because the banana was all gone, it was time to see if the Mickey sticker tasted any good. Since Momma did make Charlotte leave the house without any breakfast. (We ate it in the car.)  Still completely oblivious that Michael is cutting ~2 inches off of my hair... Sharing my stickers with Michael's cheek. Notice the short hair?  Not liking the bangs getting cut. Rocking her ne...

How to Save Money with Coupons - Part 1   Before I go on with the how's of saving money, I'd like to address the very important "why" of saving money. If you will, please allow me some liberty as I re-write on of my favorite passages of scripture, 1 Corinthians 13.1-3. If I speak in the tongues of coupons and of sales, but have not love, I am only a squeaky cart or a clanging cash register. If I have the gift of savings and can fathom all FLIPs and all sales ads, and if I have a stockpile the size of a mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my stash to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. You see, it does us me no good to spend $8 for $100 worth of groceries if there is no love in our my heart. It does me no good to have 40 cans of green beans, 28 boxes of cereal, and 10 tubes of toothpaste, if  I don't also have a giving heart to go along with it. We are clearly taught by the Bible to be good...

You might have seen these at your store recently and wondered if they were any good. You might have also thought, gee, those are kind of expensive. Well, let me tell you, they are very good if you are looking for a crunchy snack, but they don't have to be expensive. Especially when you can win some for free right here! (Plus there is a $1 printable coupon available online). You could win the same gift set I was sent (see picture below) just by following the instructions below. Included in the gift set are 1 full size sample of each of 4 flavors, 1 pair of binoculars, 1 stainless steel water bottle, 1 super cool flashlight (just ask Charlotte if you want to know how cool it is), and 1 backpack (that doubles as a great small diaper bag)). How to Enter: There are four ways to enter and you can do any of them you like, for up to four entries: Leave a comment telling me you want to win , Subscribe to my RSS feed, and leave a 2nd comment telling me you did so, or already are ...

It seems I've really been confronted lately how lonely it can feel to be a SAHM and with how hard it is to develop deep, meaningful friendships as an adult. There aren't many places to meet other people if you are a SAHM. After all, work outside of the home is the primary time consumer of most adults. So while the rest of the world has a built in place to make friends, SAHMs spend most of their time with the knee-high to a grass-hopper set. And while our children can be joyful and entertaining, they aren't yet able to discuss the most recent elections, the pastor's Sunday sermon, or what is happening in the neighborhood in the same way as a fellow adult can. Personally, since I've moved to Lakeland, I've started to make close friendships with two other SAHMs. Unfortunately, they both moved out of state within 6 months of us really beginning to connect. And, while I keep up with both of them through Facebook and our respective blogs, it just isn't the sam...

I completely blanked that I had a giveaway back in the beginning of September (might have something to do with the birth of Mary about that time!). So, tonight, I asked Random.org to find a winner for me: True Random Number Generator   Min: Max:   Result: 56   Powered by RANDOM.ORG     And the winner is Blakesmom , who shares that her snacking weakness is ice cream. I know my husband can relate to that, especially if it is cookies and cream flavored! Congratulations Cherice. Make sure you send me your mailing address so we can get your prize pack out to you as soon as possible.

We are now at the end of my journey through the scrapbook my mom made for me as a bridal shower gift some 11 1/2 years ago.  Here are the last two pages from my wonderful book and they are all about my husband, Bruce. You can see there was a time when he actually had hair, and I had bangs! Yikes! What was I thinking? Bruce and I went on a lot of dates to Disney because it was free (his dad works there) and there were a wide variety of things to do. One thing we rarely did though was go out to eat. I can count on the 2 fingers the number of times Bruce took me to eat at a restaurant (not counting meals at Disney). Yep folks, 2 times. That is all it took to court me. And, one of those times was the night he proposed. We went to Chili's. Yummy. Since one of the reasons I am sharing the scrapbook here is to tell some of the back story to the pages my mom put together, I thought it would be interesting to share how Bruce and I met. Bruce is a way better story tell (he really sh...

Sorry for my longish absence from Family Musings. I've been busy with play , Facebooking , therapy , and napping. There are so many things I want to share but when I sit down to write them out, my brain is too tired to make them, funny, clever, or sometimes, even intelligible. So in the mean time, while you wait for me to get my act together, I'll just share this picture of Mary taking her midday nap today. And yes, I normally put her on her tummy on the floor for this nap. Don't all babies nap peacefully on the floor?