Coffee Ground Taste Test

I could not resist snapping these pictures when Michael stuck his fingers in the basket of used coffee grounds and took a big taste.

Bread of Life, Playing with Tools, Dinosaurs and Playdough

I made some whole wheat bread dough to put in the freezer for later use. Or rather, I started making it and Amanda took over. She loves to cook and bake and is becoming quite the young chef. I even slipped in a lesson (just a little one) on fractions. And yes, she's still in her PJs. She loves her cat pajamas.





I froze the dough in balls to use later to make homemade hot pockets.



This recipe is called Bread of Life and is found here.

I also made a pineapple cake. And it's quickly disappearing. I think I have a house full of eating machines today.


Doug and Michael tackled some repairs today in our downstairs bathroom. I think they really just wanted an excuse to play with the tools.




And a whole herd of dinosaurs invaded our playroom!


Michael and Hunter were both very wound up this evening, running up and down the hall, throwing toys, climbing everything in sight. So I got out the play dough. They only played for about 15 minutes but they had fun. And by the time they got tired of playing with the play dough it was close enough to bed time to go ahead get them ready.




I found some links to some sites with fun playdough activities that I thought I would share: Scholastic - Playing With Playdough and Playdough Letters.

I'll Take That - I Think

I was working in the kitchen a couple of days ago and listening to this audiobook. Amanda and her friend Holly walked through the kitchen and I overheard the following conversation.

Holly: "What is your mom listening too?"

Amanda: "I don't know. Something for boring smart people!"

I'll take that. I think.

Busy Kids

The kids stayed busy today, doing a lot of fun things.

Austin brought out the hand puppets and played with L. and Gianni for awhile.


Amanda brought out the balloons and they had a blast with them too. It looks like a party.

L. enjoyed watching Austin play games on his gameboy.


Amanda did a cool project with the kids using the letters of their names. First she made large versions of the letters in each child's name and had them color them.







Then she cut them out. I think here she's trying to tell me "Enough pictures already!"


Then she had each child glue the letters of their name onto sheets of construction paper.



She then used the completed papers to create a wall display in our playroom.


Austin made the macaroni and cheese for lunch.





Austin and Gianni made up a game involving words written on index cards. I never did quite figure out the rules of the game but they stayed busy creating and playing this game for about two hours.



And right about now, this is looking to me like a really good idea. Actually Doug was very kind to me this evening and watched the kids for about an hour so I could go take a nap. Bliss!

No Sleep!

11:00PM - Go to bed

11:05PM - Remember that I forgot to set up baby monitor, go downstairs and set it up.

11:20PM - Just falling asleep, two police cars go flying by with lights flashing and sirens wailing. I wake up.

11:33PM - Just dozing off, third police car goes by with lights flashing and sirens wailing. I wake up again and toss and turn. I wonder why the business across the street has to have a light flashing in their window all night long. It's shining in my eyes!

12:05AM - I hear over monitor that a parent is picking up her child.

2:10AM - I hear the second parent picking up her child.

4:00AM - I hear the coffee maker come on. This doesn't usually wake me, I don't know why it did this time!

4:45AM - Doug gets up to get ready for work.

5:15AM - My alarm goes off. I reset it for 30 minutes.

5:45AM - Ok, Ok, I'm up.

6:00AM - The first two daycare kids come in. One goes back to sleep but the other one is wide awake. This day has definitely started.

I'm so glad tomorrow is a holiday!

Oversleeping, Fun and the Printer Incident

Often I've tried to write blog posts on specific categories or subjects but somehow my life just will not stay in neat little boxes. So I'm going to try something different. I'm just going to blog each day about the things that are important to me that day. My family, the kids in my care, what I'm learning, what we're doing. Each part of life intertwines with all the others and too try to separate them feels very artificial too me.

My morning started out a little less than stellar. Because I slept most of the night on the couch to be near an overnight daycare child who was not feeling well, I overslept this morning. When I woke up at 7:15 and looked at phone I realized a parent had tried to call me 13 times and had texted me several times. That's when I remembered she was scheduled to bring her child at 6:45. I immediately called her and found out she had tried to drop off her child and when she couldn't get an answer from me she took the child to her mother's. Her mother brought the little boy over a later. This is the first time in the ten years I've been providing child care that this has happened and I felt awful about it. Thankfully they were very understanding.

Amanda decided this morning to help the little kids make kites. So she went outside and found some sticks, got out paper, crayons, tape and string and set to work.






Austin has been a little quiet the last few days. Yesterday he was complaining of a headache and I gave him some Tylenol right away. If he doesn't take something immediately when he begins to get a headache it can turn into a migraine. He says he feels fine today but he looks tired. This has been his main free time activity today. Along with Mahjong on the computer.




He did do his chores and he also went with Doug to take the trash to the landfill after Doug came home from work this afternoon. And this evening he seems a little more like his usual self, even horseplaying with the younger kids



While working in the kitchen - cooking, loading dishwasher, putting away clean dishes, all that fun stuff - I've been listening to this audio book.

While listening the caught my attention. "If you don't consider your life as part of your business plan you may find yourself outwardly successful but inwardly miserable." Since I've been thinking today about how all of life is intertwined this seemed like an affirmation to me. What I do in each area of my life effects all the other areas of my life.

Another subject covered today was a vision board, or goal collage. This isn't exactly a new idea, I've read of it often before. But I found myself thinking today how much fun it would be to do one and to have Austin and Amanda each do one as well. I found some interesting reading about dream or goal collages here , here and here.

I've also been reading this book, a few pages at a time. This one may take me awhile.


I made one of my favorite meals for dinner this evening - Chicken Chow Mien over rice.



We all like it except for Amanda who says it would be good if it had anything in it she liked. She doesn't like celery or onions and really isn't a big fan of chicken. Unless it's chicken nuggets. Can you say picky eater?

The one year old pulled the printer off the shelf on top of Michael's head today. Michael and printer are both fine. Michael now has another dramatic story to tell. The printer has been moved into another room. The one year is just mad that he can't do it again.

Although it was much too warm for any snow to stay around we actually had a few flurries today. I really wish all the rain we had yesterday would have been snow. I'm ready for the white stuff. Hot chocolate and a good book while watching it snow outside. The stuff dreams are made of.

Dream. That's what I'm going to go do shortly. Maybe I can catch up on the sleep I missed last night so I don't oversleep again in the morning.

Don't You Wish You Had a Couple of These to Cuddle?