It’s cold here.   Well, cold in a Southern sense… like 30 degrees.  Brian’s off for a long bike ride this Saturday morning, and I’m in the mood to bake and be crafty.  Sounds like we’ll all benefit from this day!   Here’s some fun links that we might be trying today…

• A Better Banana Muffin – a lighter, healthier banana blueberry muffin that is on the agenda for this morning.  Gotta get rid of the frozen black bananas in my freezer!  If they’re good, I might even make a second batch to freeze for breakfasts.
• Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins – If I decide to balance out the healthy with a little not-so-healthy, these are what I might make as the second batch.
• Oh No!  The Snowman Melted – a fun little melted snowman craft project we might attempt today.
• Playdough Cookies - These would be fun to make in white, red and pink for Valentine’s day.
• A Valentine’s Collage – If I get brave and decide to break out the paints today, this is what we’ll do.
• Valentine’s Candy Pots – If I were really on the ball (which I’m not), these would be fun to make for Analise’s school friends.
• Marshmallow Lollipops – Hm, marshmallows, dipping and sprinkles… my kids favorite things to do!
• I Love You Garland – A fun way to showcase photos of those we love.
• Sugar Shack – Oh my goodness… lots of sugar involved in this one, but man, would this be fun to let the kids build and decorate!
• Valentine Garland – One super easy heart garland, if only I had pink and red pipe cleaners (and why does everyone call them “chenille stems”?  They’ve always been “pipe cleaners” for me!)

Can you tell I’ve created a folder called “TO DO with kids IF BORED”?  I’ll post pictures if we get anything done!

(*I found this in my drafts folder from mid-October… it was funny to read, and I’ll add a little commentary to the end…)

It was a lovely, rainy, cool fall day here.  Though it’s mid-October, our past couple weeks have been HOT, like mid 80’s.  Analise has had “fashion” problems every morning, and I’m not sure how we’re going to make it through the winter.  She doesn’t want to wear anything but dresses.  She had plenty of summer dresses, and most of the twirled.  But I’ve put away most of the summer clothes, because it’s supposed to be fall, along with the fact that she’s had a growth spurt and most of them are too short.  So we quickly wear out our short supply of appropriate warm-weather dresses before they’re clean again, and then we have problems.

She picks out the winter dresses, like corduroy, denim and long sleeves.  And though it’s fine in the coolish-mornings, by the time she goes out to the playground at noon and it’s 85, she’ll be overheated.  When I pick her up at 1:30, she’s always red-faced and sweaty anyway.  Not going to work.  So I point her towards her drawer of skirts and tops, or I pick out a cute shirt and pants.  No way.  She’s been so upset these past few mornings at her lack of options, it’s hard to believe clothing is causing such a fuss.  Ug.  Maybe fall will come soon so she can start wearing the other dresses hanging in her closet.  And maybe I shouldn’t bother getting her anything that ISN’T a dress for the spring and size 5T.  Unless, of course, she determines she doesn’t want to wear dresses any more.  Then we’d be in trouble!

**update from mid-January:  We’re still having the same dilemma.  It’s the dead of winter, which, in Alabama, means it can be in the 20’s in the morning when Analise goes to school and still in the 40-50’s by afternoon.  And they still go outside to play some days.  So we’ve been wearing the same dresses and tights all winter, and they’re wearing thing.  And short.  She’s sprouted a bit in the last couple months so that nearly all her 4T dresses (which is nearly everything!) are too short.  So Brian’s mom scoured the secondhand store clearance racks and found a few dresses to get us through to spring.  But, like I said in October, looks like I should ONLY be buying her dresses, and specifically ones that TWIRL, in 5T when the consignment sales start next month!  The fashion dilemmas of a 4 year-old girl… I can only imagine the issues we’ll have down the road!

So I just read this amazing post by one of my favorite bloggers ever (her personal blog is Rocks in my Dryer).   She just gets it… this joyful, exhausting, overwhelming, huge responsibility of being a Mom.  She gets it, and she knows how to communicate it.

I’m not sure I was fully aware, back then, how incredibly taxing those days were. I operated much of the time in survival mode, buzzing between a pediatrician visit to a botched bedtime to a temper tantrum to an explosive diaper (or three). And I loved it – make no mistake. For all the exhaustion, there were many times that were so precious they did (and still do) take my breath away. But the intensity of the demands had me bouncing back and forth constantly between joy and discouragement, wonder and fear. I remember feeling guilty, sometimes, knowing there would never be a sweeter season in my life, so why was it that I sometimes just wanted everyone to go to sleep already?  (Quoted from Parenting.com)

I read this just this evening, and it moved me to tears.  Seriously… this is where I’m at most days.  And she continues at the end of her post (which you really must read!), to say that after all is said and done we will think, “this is very good”.    And today of all days, I had a glimpse of that.

We were busy all day, out and about doing things, enjoying each other, having fun.  Analise was in rare good form today… very sweet, obedient, not whiney or teary, full of grace… the girl I know she can be.  Josiah was bouncy and playful, sweet and charming.  And I enjoyed my kids today.  It was balm to my sometimes beat-up Mommy ego that is constantly fighting  with tantrums, colds, diapers, cracker crumbs, rundown trains and tears.   I know this calling as a Mom is awesome and holy and full of great rewards (another fantastic post),  but today was a much needed glimpse of those rewards.   And at the end of the day, this post (quoted above) wrapped it up for me.

Ok, I chuckled about this title all afternoon.   Forgive me if it lead you to believe anything else!

I know it might sound crazy, but I made my own hamburger buns on Friday.  A couple friends had tried this amazing recipe, and promised it was easy and worth the effort.  So decided nervously to try it out, and let me tell you… I may NEVER buy buns from the store again!  These are so good.  And SO EASY!  I’ll post the recipe fromKing Arthur Flour (the only flour I use – it’s awesome!), and the post a few of my notes.  Again I say… these are so worth the small effort!!

Ingredients

* 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 large egg
* 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
* 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Directions

1) Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients—by hand, mixer, or bread machine—to make a soft, smooth dough.

2) Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 hour, or until it’s doubled in bulk.

3) Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round 1″ thick (more or less); flatten to about 3″ across. Place the buns on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until very puffy.

4) If desired, brush buns with melted butter. Or brush lightly with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water), and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

5) Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, till golden. Cool on a rack.

Notes from Kristine

• I mixed my dough in the KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook.
• Because it’s dry here right now, I used the full 1 cup of water.  I had to add about a half-tablespoon of extra flour to get the dough soft and smooth (it was grainy and sticky).
• I let it rise for about 1hr 15 minutes, and it still didn’t seem to have quite doubled.
• I floured my surface, dumped it out and formed it into a log (more notes on this on the actual recipe page from King Arthur Flour). I used a piece of dental floss to cut the dough, and my pieces came out a little misformed, but that isn’t a big deal to me
• I used the “proofing oven” idea from the recipe reviews (heat a glass measuring cup of water for a couple minutes in the microwave, and put it in the cold oven with the dough to rise).  My buns didn’t seem to rise very much, but we were in a hurry to get dinner done, so we baked them anyway.
• They still turned out delicious, beautifully golden, and I honestly had 2 for dinner, one for breakfast and another for lunch yesterday!
• The recipe reviews also say you can sub 2 c King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour (which I use often!) for 2 c. of the all-purpose, you can use EggBeaters, or you can even sub honey for the sugar.

Ok, leave me a note if you try them!  I promise… I’m not an accomplished baker.  Anyone can do these!

Ok, I know most of you think I’m creative, but I get my creative ideas from all kinds of great blogs.  I spend too much time on the internet (gasp!  the first step to recovery is admitting it…), but I’m trying to redeem that by putting into action the cool things I find (which at the moment, are collected into a HUGE list of bookmarks in FireFox).   So here are a few good moments from this past week…

It’s January, so of course, it’s a good time to be celebrating (or dreaming about!) snowmen.  So I made Analise and Josiah these cute and yummy snowmen milkshakes.  I just realized mine weren’t quite the same as the blog, but here’s where I claim creative liberty.   And yes, Analise is dressed as Cinderella

Lauren and Anna came over to play on Thursday.  I made snacktime and mealtime more interesting with a muffin tin.  They LOVED it!  I might serve more meals in muffin tins.  I even gave the kids fun little fruit picks for spearing their food and dipping.

Snacktime with strawberries, grapes, graham snacks, yogurt and whipped cream for dipping.

Lunchtime with hotdogs, grilled cheese, chips, ketchup, carrots and ranch dip.