Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Sybil Cupcakes

Yesterday hubby asked if I wanted to make some cupcakes for his work party.. umm SCHYEA! I was happy to make some goodies for other people. I mean my kids would eat them all if I let them, but this momma is not THAT nice.

So I planned on baking up some Chocolate Chip Cupcakes and S'mores. The smores were looking oh-so-yummy. And I could have for sure chowed on a few myself, but I am not that big of a fan of marshmallow... well, unless its marshmallow fluff on a pb sandwich :p

Last night though, I had a few taste testers that were up late with me while I got my bake on. Now I LOVE my taste testers- with all my heart- but I do have to think about their taste buds.. I mean for one- he likes to eat chili and eggs mixed together -BLAUGH! and the kids... well... they like anything that has sugar in it. But still I take what they have to say and alter what I need to.

The S'mores were the first test. To me, they looked AMAZING!!! But some reason, they all had a hollow middle. MOTHER FLAPPER! How the heck did THAT happen??? Hubby chowed down on one and I got rave reviews.... for a while. When he started eating the bottom of it (which was crumb batter) he was not too pleased. Hmmmm.... I tasted it and in fact had a few spoonfuls of the batter and I didn't taste anything wrong with it.... Hmm so what do I do now???
Well... The first batch I decided to get a little WILD and I drizzled carmel over the tops and on a few of them I added a piece of milk chocolate carmel Ghirardelli chocolate. YUM. The second batch of S'mores, I made a few adjustments and didnt fill the cups up as much. But I think with a glass of milk and a fork- it could possibly be ....heaven :)
Smore Cupcakes








The next batch of cupcakes up for trial and error were my SYBIL Cupcakes.. Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. Where these cookies... or were these cupcakes?? The receipe looked amazing but the mixture wasn't looking as wonderful as it sounded.

In the end- my taste testers were once again divided on the taste. Love and Not love. Grrrrr.. great! So I HAD to take a bite and try it myself. It wasn't too bad. It wasn't overly sweet like I thought it would be. And how cool is it to have a COOKIE in the middle of a cupcake. VERY COOL!

Ok so now that it was WAY past my bedtime, I decided to clean up and save the frosting part for the morning. The goal was to create Cookie Dough Frosting. This should be yummy.

......................................................MORNING.................................................

Well my allergies decided to once again attack me in the middle of the night and I woke up with a face that felt 3x bigger. My body seems to be swelling everywhere :( My son asks me every day if I am pregnant again and my daughter was all dramatic in her ways asking if I was too. Ugh. No. Maybe its all the batter I am eating... Maybe its all the stress I feel lately... maybe its that soda that I just can't stop drinking... maybe its those crazy kids that seem to force me to eat junk food. Dang- I need to get me a friend to keep me occupied at the gym so I KEEP going.   ok... where was I???

Oh yes- frosting. So I followed the directions but I have to be honest it was looking at little sketchy to me. But I trusted it and kept going. After I added everything I did my little taste test and well, I was not impressed. Great. Well its too late to do anything else- I needed to deliever these in 10 min. So instead of covering the whole cake, I did a little squirt and added some chocolate chips. Now, the littlest of the taste testers LOVED it and ate it in record time. 

So I feel like I had a failed day/ night on these cupcakes. I did find another recipe that looks a little better so I think today I will try this other one... and maybe some vanilla... hmmm... well maybe I should just wait to see how the day unfolds first :)







Monday, June 11, 2012

Morning MADDNESS

Lucky me got hit HARD with not only some sort of allergies but also a head cold. Can you utter M I S E R A B L E. Yes, that is I. Terribly miserable. My head feels like it has been smacked by a baseball bat. My eyes are so puffy and so itchy, I can't stop itching my face, I have scratched the corner of my mouth so much that it has been bleeding, my nose is stuffy and wont stop running.... ok - wth?! Why does it have to be stuffy AND runny. That is SO mean. My throat is so itchy that I cant stop making nasty growling sounds to make it feel better. Last night I was not able to breath through my nose- which made it so I couldnt sleep. In the 2 hours that I was able to sleep- I had to sleep with my mouth open..... which- you know when you are sick - does not equal out to a nice situation.

I swear something must have died and shedded itself in my mouth. Sucking on sand would have been more enjoyable. 

Because our room is still under renovation- our "bedroom" is still in the living room. I have not minded that at all ... until this morning..... My kids were eager to make sure I was up with them at 7:30am - which isn't really that big of a deal unless you are going on no sleep and your mouth is not producing spit of any sort.

My first goal of the morning... the coffee pot! And for anyone out there.... just so you know.... formula in the coffee pot does not produce coffee. I would love to say that this was my first time trying to use formula, but sleepy me... sadly this was my SECOND attempt to make coffee with formula. Not on purpose of course.. the can is sitting right there and well... it has a scoop in it so I was just in pilot mode. FAIL!

** DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE COFFEE WITH FORMULA ON THE COUNTER ON SLEEPY MORNINGS- you will not get far***

I am not sure what upset me more... the fact that I just wasted formula or my coffee wasn't perking fast enough.

Finally I had a nice hot- sweet - cup of coffee and I was enjoying it as I was doing my morning reading on fb. Thankfully the kids were still quiet from eating breakfast and enjoying a little bit of cartoons. But here is where the morning starts to melt.

The kids finish eating and we start on our chores. I give the kids a fair warning that because I have got no sleep that I am honestly a crabby mommy today and to PLEASE (I was reverting to begging as only a mom can do) listen as best as they can and follow directions fully! I get up from my seat to start directing children to their chores and the next thing I know..... ugh... one of my boys has spilled my WHOLE cup of coffee ALL over my DESK... let me repeat so you feel my pain.. MY WHOLE CUP OF COFFEE.. that sweet- hot cup of therapy ALL OVER my desk. I was in no mood to deep clean my desk. Papers that were covering my desk were not- soggy. The dust that had collected in the back of the desk- behind the monitor was not... ummmm GROSS. After having my little temper tantrum (because after all I am no perfect mom) I grabbed the paper towels, cleaning solution and a sponge and got to cleaning. I have to admit that after a few minutes of "therapy" cleaning I then got into cleaning lol. Next thing I knew I was scrubbing everything on my desk and managed to dust my "office". Still not sure if that was a good thing or not- as my nose still wont act like Sybil. 

So I guess in retrospect, he did me a favor :)  I now have a sparkly clean desk :)



In mothering we are given daily lessons in life... and as much as I enjoy the organized life,I am grateful for the messes that my kids give me :)

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

I'm Sorry

There is nothing like perspective that can SLAP you on the face and leave a red mark. This morning my hubby sent me this youtube video.


After watching I felt like I was about 1 in. I have found myself too many times getting angry or frustrated with my parents for a handful of things. I guess I don't realize their age at those moments. At times I guess I expect them to act like me - 30 something. But they are set in their ways- their minds not too sharp, hearing not too great... I was and have snapped to quickly when they didn't hear me the first time or had me repeat myself what seemed like 20 times. It is easy for us to forget how often they repeated themselves to us as we were young children or babies... or the messes we made... or the mistakes we made. And at times - as a mom- we would get frustrated but never treated our kids out of anger (at least I hope not)....

 So to my parents who have just loved and cared for me all through my years- I am sorry that I did not pick up the phone to say "hi" or just repeated myself when you needed me to.

To my children... I am sorry for those moments where I rushed you or did not give you my full attention to watching you jump over a line in the sidewalk.... or listen to your very long story.......

I am human... I make mistakes.....my heart is always right but I fail to feel it at times. Please accept my apologies for not always doing what is right.

I LOVE you all so much and today I make a public promise to do better :)

Will you forgive me?

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Cupcake Confessions

I was writing the last line to the post... and it all got erased :( This has been my kind of day... and there are no more cupcakes to eat:(

I am not exactly sure how this all started but this cupcake craze hit me HARD. I have become a little obsessive- one might say, but it is so much fun to bake something, decorate all cute and give these little goodies away. It's pure happiness... in a wrapper :)

I had been cruising the Better Crocker website looking for dinner ideas when THIS recipe popped up.. I call it a sign from God lol- cupcakes for dinner!!!!

Holy Monkees- these were SO good! I made them- gave only 1 to each kid and then realized that by morning they were all gone. But I can not nor will I admit that * I * was the one that had a somewhat large midnight snack. Nope. NOT ME. Will. Not. Confess.

I figured that was so much fun, I would do more again but get a little creative on them. So I gathered up boxes of pudding and cake and these oh-so-delicious thin sugar cookies that I put in a lock box so that little fingers could not devour- Here is the end result- before the pig fest began :)


I personally HATED the chocolate frosting. But the cream cheese frosting was AMAMZING!!! You will have to try these..



Not too long after that, I got sucked into some other very creative sites and I entered into my stubbornness mind of wanting to create that exact thing. Ok so I gave myself this new challenge of figuring out HOW they decorated this one cupcake to make it so smooth looking. I poked and prodded my crafty friends and then found out that it was POURED Fondant. Ha! Who knew?! Now I was a mission. I MUST master this. I MUST get this... so I loaded up the boys and we headed to walmart for some goodies that were already made so that I could play with frosting. The mix for the poured fondant was actually super easy.



 I had to of course try to get a little fancy. I SUCK at frosting... Only because I am picky on what I want to create and right now I do not have the tools to do the trick, but I had fun with my little frosting dots and adding a little bling to them. 

I heard that these cookies got rave reviews from all the little taste testers I had.

ANd once again.. I got sucked into another site and found this Oh-so-yummy- Cherry Almond Cupcakes. I instantly started drooling. mmmmmmmm. I can totally already taste that goodness!!

Cast Of Characters
 Cherry yummies


 breaking eggs and just trying to get no shells and the whites in the mix. Tricky tricky
 mixing all the goodness together....
 pour a little and then lick everything clean as best as I can.... get full on batter and forget to eat the cupcakes! Batter is better!




 take one piece of each of the cherries that I cut and plop it in the middle of each cup of batter.. so you have a hidden cherry in each cup!!








I really have a lot of fun making yummies and I hope to keep doing more. A part of me would love to open a little cupcake shop but then again I wonder if they are THAT good to anyone else to actually do that. But it would be a lot of fun to have a little bakery- filled with colors and fun. A friend of mine had this great idea for a glass wall where kids can watch the goodies being made and also having a kids bake night and food fights.. hehehe. I think that all sounds like fun!

As for me, my wooden spoons and my confessions to my cupcakes.... Here is to another cupcake adventure!




...... Next story I will have to share my cake ball fight.... I HATE these things!....




Saturday, May 26, 2012

Got Milk?

I figured this might be an appropriate title for this post... and if that title gives you ANY indication on whats coming... hang on... it's gonna be funny... well.... at least it was in this house!

Up here in good 'ol Dickinson ND- school gets out in MAY. As my kids were counting down the days till school is out with such enthusiasm... I on the other hand was not looking forward to months of tattling, screaming, fighting, crying, begging- I also wasn't looking forward to the kids doing the same!

So Wednesday was the kids last day of school- they all had fun things planned in their classes- some included a beach party, movies and ... and I know there was more but I think I zoned out for a moment.

As I loaded the kids in the car I said I prayer to myself on how thankful I was that I didn't need to get out of the car and ever more grateful of how large my sunglasses were.... Lets just say if you saw me that morning my picture would be found in one of those awful photo blogs that everyone looks at and laughs... I was NO sexy thang that morning!

No sooner as I gulped my coffee and moved our bedroom and bathroom to the living room- hubby came home to tell me that our kindergartener (Christopher) needed to be picked up. They think he has pink eye. Nice. A perfect start to summer vacation.
The next day 2 other kiddos woke up with crusty eyes and with a closer look- I shudder- yell at them to NOT touch me or their face and notice that their eyes were a little red and goopy.

That is a fun word to say GOOPY heheheh.

I had to accept that now 3 kids of mine have pink eye. UGH. I hit up my wonderful facebook friends and moms and ask their advice. I wanted to know if there was something I could do BESIDES take them to the doc for meds.

Oh the joy I got out of the advice they gave!!


I was not raised up in a family that did holistic treatments... in fact I was not even familiar with it till I moved to Sandpoint. Even then I was still a little hesitant about how well things worked. With my last c-section I was open to ANYTHING to help with pain and recovery... So when my kiddos got this nasty pink eye I was super open to anything that can help- that last thing I wanted to do was take FIVE kids to this doctors office. So my dear friends told me that my like gold booby milk will cure it!!! I had to ask again to make sure I heard right.... " so squirt my kids eyes with my breast milk"? Oh- THIS was going to be funny!!
The first thing that popped into my head was that controversial cover on Time Magazine... was I mom enough?!! HELL YEAH!!! I got the goods- and I am not afraid to use it! How is THAT for a new cover?!


My Milk Can Do What?
Whether you are surfing the internet or flipping through your favorite parenting magazine, you have probably come across numerous references to breast milk. You may have also discovered that breast milk isn’t only used for breastfeeding your child. In fact, breast milk is often used to help heal minor illnesses and injuries. But what can breast milk supposedly heal? Well, breast milk is purportedly able to heal:

  • conjunctivitis or "pink eye"
  • ear infections
  • scrapes, scratches, and cuts
  • sore nipple
*** Taken from pregnancy info.net *** 

To know that my mommy boobs contain SUPER POWERS, I wanted to wear a cape and tights and shout at the top of my lungs as I slide across the kitchen floor- " Here I Come To Save The Day" (sung in my proudest Might Mouse voice)

Now- the fun part- telling the kids.  Baby Jack wouldn't care and would probably lick his own face of the "spilled" milk- if his tongue would reach that far... Now of course I had that vision of just lifting my top and "aiming", but I thought I would save my money for family trips instead of therapy sessions for my kids of their mom squirting milk in their eyes... sure was a funny thought though. I told them that I was going to put medicine in their eyes and this "medicine" would be breast milk. I had to get all "medical" and use breast milk other wise my boys would be rolling on the floor laughing because I said "boob". The 2 older boys looked at me like a deer in headlights.

... headlights???!!! Bahahahaha- I just made a funny!

 After they asked me again and I confirmed with them that yes in fact I was going  to put my milk in their eyes, that is when the "EWWWW grosss MOOOOMMM" came out. And then came the laughing. Little Charley Joe wanted to follow along so he chimed in with his shrieks and laughter. Of course hubby couldn't be left out of  the peanut gallery so he asked if he could be treated too... hmmm MEN!

No- I did not embarrass my kids and squirt from a distance, I merely filled up a medicine dropper and then dropped a few drops in their eyes. I think my oldest gave the best performance of the night- acting like I was pouring acid in his eyes.

So what's the verdict...... It's helping :) In all seriousness, it makes me happy to know that I am able to heal my kids with my magical healing boobs :)




Here is a poem I found that is cute
TWAS THE BREASTFEEDER’S NIGHTTIME

‘Twas a holiday eve and the babe was asleep,
Swaddled tight in his crib he made not a peep.
My boobs were depleted from feeding all day.
“Please don’t wake. Sleep all night,” to the babe I did pray.
But his lips, how they moved, as he lay in his bed.
Visions of milky breasts danced in his head.
Dad in his boxers and I in my sweats,
Could we get some shuteye? Go ahead, place your bets.
The moon on the breast of my t-shirt did glow,
Gave a luster to leaking spots set to grow.
My nursing pads were soaked, they fell out of place.
My bra had unsnapped. How I missed sexy lace.
For months I’d been feeding our babe everywhere.
Coffee shop, park bench, museum, movie chair.
All my modesty gone, nothing shy anymore.
If the kiddo was crying, I knew how to score.
And now with the holidays, things often got dire.
While out buying gifts, I sometimes drew ire.
I breastfed in clothing stores. Changing rooms rock.
I breastfed in bookstores. To the stacks I did flock.
When from the babe’s room there arose such a clatter.
We sprang from our bed to see what was the matter.
Away to his room we flew with a flash,
Threw open the door, in the dark I did crash.
What a klutz I can be, ‘twas those bags made me fall.
Sacks for our trip, all arranged in the hall.
We were going to Grandma’s, a five hour drive.
Holiday time—Will I make it alive?
One big huge duffle held all the babe’s stuff.
Diapers, wipes, onesies. Did I bring enough?
Now don’t forget burp cloths, crib sheets and toys.
Books and Bjorn, we’ll exhibit such poise.
On breast pump, on bottles, on stroller and boppy.
On car seat, on cradle, on blanket and binky.
Fill the back of the car, fill the trunk with our haul.
And we’ll drive away, drive away, drive away all.
Now don’t forget stopping to feed long the way.
Gas stations, McDonalds and rest stops, oy vey.
Of course there’ll be lots of those diapers to do.
Get out the Purell, you’ll be covered in poo.
When we finally arrive, now what will await?
Lots of food and embraces, it’ll be really great.
No, no one will not fight. I will not shed a tear.
Ok, a white lie— but rejoice in who’s here.
And what about wine or a champagne or two?
Will it make my milk bad? Old wives tale or true?
And will anyone say, “Can he now take a bottle?”
“How long will you breastfeed?” How these questions can throttle.
Now back to that “clatter,” the babe and that noise.
We had rushed right on in, leaping over the toys.
When what to our wondering eyes did appear,
Our babe still asleep, oh how sweet, oh how dear.
His cheeks, how they glistened, his hair soft and furry.
And I smiled when I saw him, despite all my worry.
How delicious, his belly, moving in and then out.
How precious, his lips in a sweet little pout.
He had not woken up! He did not need to eat.
He had had quite enough, his day quite complete.
And so back to our bed we did quietly crawl.
Happy Holidays to one, happy sleeping to all.
© 2006, Andi Silverman, www.mamaknowsbreast.com
 


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

MOOoooo

Here is a check of mommy reality for ya.... Actually a funny moment.. Made my heart skip- beat- smile...

I was sitting at my desk doing some editing.... when lil Jack protested that he was hungry NOW.. so I lifted him - pulled up my top and began to feed him. At his 8 months stage he has this really weird way of eating... kind of like cirque du soleil style. Not sure why he does that or what he gains from it, but its amazing to see how far my nip can stretch. {Like that visual huh}

So as I am editing and feeding, my tazmanian toddler comes over to watch for a few. He first shrieks that just seeing my boob was gross, then decided to watch for a sec when he asked what I was doing... like he has never asked or watched before... so i explained that I was feeding baby mommy milk.

So I go back to feeding my little hungry-acrobatic monster, when I noticed that my toddler was still standing there watching... When Jack was finished, he popped off like a soda cap and gave me that milky smile. Just then my toddler looks up at me with those big beautiful blue eyes and says " ok, my turn!"


Friday, May 4, 2012

You Belong In A Zoo

Not sure if that quote is better suited for me or for my kids :)

Rebecca came up for another visit so we did what we do well... PLAN and PLOT. During this visit she was going to be here during Matty's birthday so we planned a family day out to the zoo in Bismarck

We loaded up the kids, took some potty breaks, I had an emotional breakdown... and finally we arrived :) Charley had never (that he could remember) going to a zoo. I have been many times- although none have been to a HUGE SUPER zoo- that is on my Life Bucket List. He was excited to see some Lions, Elephants and Giraffes. AS for me... the monkeys always get me and I love to watch the elephants. They are just AMAZING to me. In fact, I wouldn't mind having one as a pet. I shall name her Sasha and she would so loveable and witty :)


Ok, so our family of 8 made our way thru the gates and were greeted by mini horses- which you could not help but make sweet baby sounds at them.. heheheh. But in the corner of my eye I spot some feisty goats. BABY GOATS. Oh my word- now they are adorable!!! And HUNGRY! And they too get feisty. A few of them were trying to get to the other zoo visitors who were feeding other goats- and they would RAM each other.. it was HILARIOUS! ..... Ok I just noticed that I am typing a lot with my caps.... is that strange??!! There was this one goat- no idea if it was male or female- but I am going for male- he was climbing up the short fence to get to people so he could eat more. Silly goat.


As we wondered around following the paths thru the zoo, we were all just in awe of what we saw. Not that it was anything SPECTACULAR, but it is neat to see animals that you don't get to... Like Otters. I love those creatures. They had only 1 in the pool and he was playful! He would swim circles for the people that were watching thru the glass.. then he would climb up to his tree limb and stand there and pose for everyone that was watching from up top... it was great.. and he kept doing it - over and over lol.


OHHHH Another cute creature I would LOVE to have are those adorable Prairie Dogs.. oh my goodness they are so cute!! They look so cuddly... and fuzzy... yes- ME WANT!!


Some of the other animals I enjoyed wathcing were the Bears... ohh yes.. I could have sat there ALL day. They too were playful. And man, they are so cute!! When we lived in Idaho, I wanted to see a bear so bad- while I was in my car- with the windows rolled up of course. They were a lot of fun watching :) *sigh*
OHHhhhhhh. They had some wolves there too... not anything like the wolves back in Idaho but it was really interesting watching them scan everyone. It reminded me of the movie "The Grey" - If you haven't seen it- you should. I thought it was going to be a cheesy remake of Alive but it was really good!!

 Ok so... these wolves would lock eyes with you and walk back and forth against the fence line- back and forth- back and forth. Almost... wait- yes- it WAS creepy. In the next  fenced area- they had some bigger wolves and I DO believe the alpha male was in there because he would NOT let any of the other wolves get close to the fence.. He would actually growl and snarl at them... all while he was watching us all. F R E A K Y.


Over all it was a nice trip. I think next time I will leave the dramatic emotions at home and enjoy being a kid again at the ZOO!