Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Life Gets Messy; That's How We Learn


Right about now you are probably thinking I have totally lost my mind.

Nah, been there, done that. It's long gone, friends.

Usually I am not great about letting my kids help me in the kitchen. I don't love cooking/baking and like to get it over with. Aron is AMAZING about letting the kids help, so don't feel too sorry for my kids.

On Michael's birthday I was making cupcakes and the Littles wanted to help out. Usually I find a way to distract them or tell them they can lick the entire bowl if they just wait and let me do the complicated and messy cupcake filling.

But this day I decided to let them do it. The batter was runny and dark, but they just wanted to help fill the cupcake tin! Then I kinda realized that if I'm always doing stuff for them they won't learn how to do it for themselves. Don't get me wrong ... they do plenty around the house where they get to make mistakes and learn. But in the kitchen it is time for me to grow some patience.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Good Cook Knives and Guest Post from Frugal Ferret

The following is a guest post from my pal Frugal Ferret. Enjoy and then enter the giveaway please!

"I have to admit… I am a knife snob.

If it’s not forged steel with a foreign name on it I don’t want it in my knife drawer… until now!

We received the set of 6 non-stick knives ($125 value) to test and my husband rolled his eyes while laughing stating that these would not pass OUR kitchen test. WOW were we WRONG!

After testing several of these brightly colored knives we soon fell in love for several reasons:

1.The bread knife {yellow} is our favorite addition to the “sacred knife drawer” – the blade isn’t flimsy like other bread knives and we can cut through our morning bagels or night time Italian loaves with ease.

2.The colors — I can’t tell you how many times I dig through the drawer looking for THAT knife because they all look the same. Now in our kitchen it’s “who has the blue knife?”

3.So far the edge has held very well and is still sharp as the day we got them {be careful – they are sharp!}

 4.LOVE the soft-grip handles which are ergonomic

5.Each comes with it’s own safety sheath – this is great for when we want to take them on the road

6.You will love that with the discount code below, these are a fraction of the cost of other knives

Below is a list of the knives we tested:
1.Nonstick Utility Knife, 5” blade
2.Nonstick Sandwich Knife, 5” blade
3.Nonstick Bread Knife, 7” blade {winner winner bread with your dinner!}
4.Nonstick Chef Knife, 5” blade
5.Nonstick Santoku Knife, 5” blade
6.Nonstick Paring Knife, 4” blade

If you are looking for a great set of knives that will fit your budget, consider these Good Cook knives and if you buy now, you will receive a discount of 30% off your entire order at Good Cook.

■Simply enter promo code: NONSTICK ■

Offer is valid through April 15, 2013

Safety note: Although every knife in this collection comes with its own fitted safety sheath, these products are not kids-in-the-kitchen friendly because they are very sharp. Please keep out of reach of children.

Happy Birthday to Michael/How to Make a Birthday Special

Today is Michael's 10th birthday! Of course I still remember being in labor with him, driving to the hospital, labor pains getting worse so my mom took Joel away from the hospital and to a park. He was born within a few hours and had these full lips that are still so gorgeous.

So things have been a little busy around here and Michael had a rockin' party on Saturday but it's really important to me that my kids feel special on their birthdays. It's just a thing I have ... maybe because my parents always made such a big deal out of my birthday. So this morning I was awake around 7 and everyone was sleeping and I asked Aron if I could run out to the grocery store really fast. Michael has gymnastics today and Religous Ed and I wanted him to be able to take some special things to those places. Everyone should enjoy a birthday! So here's what I got; allow me to take you on a tour:

*Keep in mind all you may see is sugar and processed food, but we don't eat this way all the time and birthdays are for sugar. You may quote me on that.

Here we have the illustrious powdered and chocolate donuts. We never have these unless Papa Dave drops them off unexpectedly, so they are a treat. Don't worry, I will also be feeding my kids eggs for protein, Mom!

For lunch we have something I got for FREE ... Fast Fixin's jumbo popcorn chicken and chicken nuggets. They sent me some free vouchers to try their product and I have been trying them and they ROCK! They are yummy and the kids love 'em. We also have some ice cream to top the brownies later. I got thte Hi-Lite because a little LESS sugar won't kill 'em.

Here we have an assortment of nastiness. Cupcakes for gymnastics. Cupcakes for Religious Ed. Chocolate chips to go in the brownies for after dinner. A sugar coma is imminent. Check on us at about 9 p.m., please. I also have napkns and NEON food coloring because I had a Q-pon. Aron asked if it was natural food coloring and I said yes, made from beets, carrots and green beans ... NOT! By the way, McCormick, the word TURQUOISE has a U in it. If you need me to proof future packaging for you, just give me a call and I'll do it for the steep sum of: FOOD COLORING FOR LIFE!

Then you have Mr. Geoffrey Giraffe call from Toys R Us and you have yourself a fun day in the making!

I'd like to thank Mr. McLoughlin for making this grocery trip possible, and for helping to make the existence of Michael possible.

Happy Birthday, Michael! I love you more than you can ever know and always will, no matter what.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Saturday Craziness/Homemade LEGO Banner

Last night was the Imagine Homeschool Community play! More on that here later, at my homeschool blog.

This morning I have one kid being picked up to go clean a stream with Scouts for a few hours ...

.. and another kid + Daddy going to her First Communion Retreat for a few hours.

My mom is getting her 2nd crown in 2 weeks then bopping over to my house this morning.

Then everyone reconvenes here at 1 for Michael's 10th birthday party. This includes my dad and stepmom, of course, and I LOVE when I get to see my parents in one day. Being an only child, they are the most important people to me in the world next to my husband and kids.

This year we are saving money and instead of going to the party store at $50 a pop x 5, we are using tablecloths we already have, decorating ourselves, using our own plates, etc. I guess you could call it a Year of Cheap Birthday Parties! Anyway, we have a Merida/Brave banner that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY and we tack it up to the wall and then we can just cover Merida's face with whatever we want for the boy parties! For Michael it's LEGO. For Joel it will probably be Pokemon. Anyway, I just pulled a LEGO image and pasted it several times and then put his name in the middle of the page and printed it out. Don't mind the wall; we don't live in a cardboard box ... my husband has stripped the wallpaper so we can paint! The square LEGO creation below the banner is courtesy of Michael.

Here's a picture of how we are trying to organize Michael's LEGOs lately: in knockoff Tupperware. The problem is we have too many and there is still a massive tub full of them!


Have a great day!

Friday, April 5, 2013

How to Take a Family Easter Picture


Had to get this post up since Easter was days ago. What a slacker I am! Anyway, this here's my cute little family in Easter garb. Before you judge, ask yourself if you know how hard it is to get SEVEN people to look amazing all at the same time? Well, do you? Okay, then you'll know that this picture is FANTABULOUS in my book.

Thank God for the timer on the camera and a husband who knows how to use it!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

McLoughlins