Mud Pies and Egg Dyes

I had a lot of laundry to do this weekend. And I loved every second of it.

On Saturday, the weather was beautiful and we had zero obligations. So the small humans went outside after they got ready for the day and they basically stayed outside all day except to come in for lunch and snack. It was awesome. They got to play how I used to play when I was a kid. Digging holes, making mud, collecting sticks and designing forts. They also used the cul-de-sac and played a lot of two-square. This is a made up game that my oldest small boy human created because he can never convince enough of his siblings to play four-square with him. So he drew a rectangle that sort of looks like a domino with sidewalk chalk and we play with a basketball. He beats me and my big human almost every single time. I had a lot of red clay and grass stains to remove from pants on Saturday night. Almost everything came out except there is one pair of khakis that I need to work on more.

On Sunday, the Easter Bunny came early and left baskets and the small humans had a free day with the candy. Needless to say, not a lot of real food was eaten. I mean, who wants homemade waffles with maple syrup when you have just eaten a small bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs and a couple of plastic eggs filled with M&Ms? It's o.k. though because it only happens a couple of times a year when we let them have free reign on that stuff. Then after lunch we went to my mom's house for the afternoon. We painted pictures with watercolors, ate more candy(along with some fresh fruit and veggies), dyed a lot of eggs, had an awesome egg hunt, ate cupcakes, got more stuffed animals, ate hardboiled eggs and played outside some more. I had more messy clothes last night! But I think I got all the egg dye out of them which is amazing since one of the shirts was white!

I'm starting to think that dirty clothes are a sign of a good day.

Special K Loaf

For I Hope So...

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion chopped
1 can of mushroom pieces (optional)
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix (the box will have two pkgs so just save one for another time)
1 stick butter
7 cups rice cereal
5 large eggs
2 16 oz containers small curd cottage cheese (make sure it is small curd. something about the other size curds doesn't do well with this recipe.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Saute onions and mushrooms in pan with stick of butter. Add pkg of dry onion soup mix and stir well. In large bowl, combine cereal, eggs and cottage cheese and then add in onion mixture. Stir well. Put mixture in large baking dish that has been well coated with non-stick spray. Bake for 1 hr and then let sit for about 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Is this something I want to throw away in a few months?

This evening I went shopping for the easter basket items for the small humans. I didn't want to get them a ton of candy because let's face it, I'm a bit of a food nazi and they aren't just allowed to eat it whenever they want so that means the big human and I then have to dole it out and it's just no fun. But the alternative of letting them stuff it all in their faces doesn't appeal to me either so I just decided to give them a little bit of candy. I also got them each a new Playmobil person and I was trying to decide if I wanted to give them a stuffed bunny. Being the frugal shopper that I am, I wasn't commited to paying $2.99/bunny at Target so I thought maybe I would find something suitable at the Dollar Tree. Now, I must stop here and say, I feel like a failure every time I go in the Dollar Tree. Maybe it's just the ones here in my town but it really does suck. So I went in and started looking at easter stuff and after I had picked out a few things, I stood there and the realization washed over me that this is all crap that will end up in their rooms which I will then go through and throw away in a few months. And it suddenly wasn't worth it, even if they were only a $1/each. So I put them back and walked out of the store. I'm not saying that I am going to go back and buy the bunnies at Target but with those at least, I know it is something that they would play with. So we'll see how I feel about it tomorrow.

Scenes from a former vacation

My Mama Friends

Grrrrr....motheringdotcommune is down for server troubles that need to be fixed which means I am sans mamas. This does not make me a happy lady. Although it does bring to light my apparent addiction to that message board. What can I say? I'm turning into a crunchy mama and I like to talk/read/write/ with other crunchy mamas.

The Big Human and I have decided that the Easter Bunny is going to do an early visit to our house on Palm Sunday since he will be visiting the small humans at their mom's house on Easter Sunday. Which means that I have to get my rear in gear because the only thing that I have purchased for said easter baskets is the medium sized paper egg that will go in each basket. I have to buy those early from World Market every year because they sell out fast.

We are also starting to gear up for Spring Break '08. It will involve lots of beach time(hopefully! please weather behave!) and a quick trip to Alma to visit my side of the family. We may also see some gators. The small humans are getting very excited and have been looking at the pics from the last time we went to Myrtle Beach so they can remember all the fun things they did. I can say for sure though that NONE of us are looking forward to the car ride. But it's a necessary evil, right?

Can I donate it?

On days like this, when I have taken way too much ibuprofen and it hasn't really dulled the cramps, I wonder why my uterus is here. I'm not going to use it ever for it's intended purpose so can I just get it removed? Maybe donate it to someone else? Grrrrrr........Sorry for a TMI post and no pre-warning. Just deal, o.k.?

This morning on NPR, they did a story about Kraft discontinuing Postum. Really? Wow...isn't there an adventist version of that? Well anyways, supposedly now people are bootlegging it on eBay for a ridculous amount of money. And it's still for sale in Canada so now my big human is concocting a scheme in which we can get it from Canada and sell it on eBay. And I just so happen to know that a canadian friend of mine will be visiting my sister and her husband in a few weeks soooooo...he could bring us some but I want him to bring in the other coveted item sold in Canada but not here...KINDER EGGS! He so better get my myspace message and bring me some...if you are reading this Bart I want Kinder Eggs, o.k.? Santa brought them for the small humans in their stockings and it would be awesome for the Easter Bunny to bring some for their easter baskets. And I want them too! Stupid U.S. rules that won't let them be sold here!