Make-It Monday!

We've missed a couple (or was it a few?) weeks, but we're back with a VERY simple Make-it Monday!!!

Sweet Potato Pancakes!!!

They may sound not so yummy, but my family loves them more than plain 'ol boring pancakes!! Here we go! Bake a few sweet potatoes... not yams! Make sure they are indeed sweet potatoes. There is a difference! Just bake them as you would a plain potato in the oven or microwave. Let them cool some then remove the skins and puree the insides in a blender or food processor. You will need to add some water to give it a pancake batter consistency. Don't worry about adding too much water, just keep adding a little at a time until it's nice and smooth.

At this point my favorite thing to do is to portion it out into 1 cup portions and freeze it in individual zip top bags! This way you're ready for Sweet Potato Pancakes anytime!

Next you will make you pancake batter. Any kind will do - the just add water stuff, a from scratch recipe or my go-to: Bisquick! Add 1 cup of sweet potato puree to your pancake batter along with 1 tsp. ground cinnamon. Cook them as you usually would and ENJOY!! The sweet potato adds extra vitamins and nutrients and your pancakes taste just a little bit sweeter without any extra sugar!!

Have a fantastic week!!

Smart Music

   I recently began listening (which means my daughter did too) to nothing but classical music, I heard that children who listen to and are exposed to classical music tend to be "smarter" than children who do not listen to classical music. Now all this hype, called The Mozart Effect, started in the early nineties when some research on the matter was put out by the University of California at Irvine. I must admit from the bits of research I've read its both interesting and amazing to me (I'll spare you all the details and scientific terms, as this is a blog and supposed to be lite reading!) As with any coin there is always a flip side, there are many who argue that it doesn't matter what type of music you listen to, it does not make you smarter. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong!
   I cannot say for sure what side is correct, I just don't know. However, I will say that there is definite educational gain to be had from listening to classical music! Since, we began listening to classical, three months ago, we have been exposed to concertos, sonatas, opera, chorales, composers, conductors, minors, majors; and on top of that there are so many cultures intertwined,  from Austrian composers to French and Italian operas...and even then the list goes on! How can all this not be gainful?!
  Sometimes while listening to the music we will try and picture what type of action goes with that music, for example, this sounds like a girl sneaking out to the kitchen in the middle of the night to get cookies, or this sounds like something sad just happened. I love that my daughter is listening and interpreting, and feeling the music, and I don't even have to worry about it! So much of what is on the radio these days is not child friendly, heck, not even adult friendly. There is a lot of "junk" out there. It warms my heart that my daughter loves to sing along with opera (I don't know how she does it?! The operas are usually in a foreign language, and well, very high pitched, none the less it is extremely entertaining for the both of us! ha ha! She loves when the fat lady sings! He he!) I know you've all heard the saying "garbage in, garbage out", is that not true for the music we listen to as well? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying, " that if you don't listen to classical music, you're listening to garbage." (please no angry emails or comments, ha ha!) There is a lot of great music out there, and as parents we all get to make the executive decision of what we expose our children to. I just thought hey, there's a chance those smart people at the university are right, why not give my daughter every advantage I can, especially if it's as easy as turning the dial or pressing play...I like to think of it as vitamins for the ears. If nothing else we have found something new that we enjoy!
   Those are just some of my thoughts on classical music and it's benefits, but I want to leave y'all with this question: If listening to Mozart can make you smarter, will listening to Lady Gaga make you dumber?

~Sonya

Kids Say the Darndest Things

   The other night I was sitting, reading a book and my daughter was across from me playing. She had turned the couch into a makeshift boat for her sock monkey collection and herself! They had to get upstream to be saved from the piranha! (At least that was the storyline I picked up from her narration lol!) I stopped reading and was just sitting there giggling at her playing! There are so many times that she says funny things and doesn't even know it!
   To this day my mother still reminds me of when I was a child and how I would ask for "chicken Popeye's" for dinner instead of "chicken pot pies", and how whenever we arrived anywhere; I would be in the back of the car saying, "don't forget the baby"! (Obviously I wasn't much of a baby if I was able to say that ha ha!)
  Over the years I have jotted down a few things that my daughter has said that have made me laugh or smile! I thought I would share some of them and see if they could bring a smile to your face as well! Most of them are from when she was a bit younger...but I'm sure when she is "old" with children of her own I will remind her of how cute and hilarious she was as a child!

-After collecting her allowance money,"I'm doper, I'm stronger....I'm richer than you!" (That's when I stopped listening to Kanye West in the car ha ha!)
- after falling on her bottom, " Ow www Mom, I think I broke my butt knuckle!"
- What did the three wise men bring Jesus? Layla's response " Gold, Milk, and Sugar"
- steak sauce is "snake sauce" and she doesn't want A1 she wants "A2"
-in reference to my niece's contact lenses. " Oh, Emily you look so nice you have your eye tacs in!"
-"See ya later crocodile"
-"I want a  peanut-colada smoothie."
-"Mom, it's not an apple tree, it's a papercot tree!"

   Those are just a few of my all time favorites! Layla just recently turned 9yrs old and she usually gets the words right for what she's talking about now ,and sometimes surprises me with really BIG words (however, her spelling is quite hilarious still! It's very creative! For example julery = jewelry.) Time passes by so fast and the things to laugh at are new everyday, I wish I could remember all of them! I encourage you to keep a notepad on the fridge or somewhere handy. When something tickles your funny bone write it down. This way you can laugh in the present and in the future!
  I would love to hear some of your top favorites of what your kids have said! Kids are so funny and one can never tell what they're going to say!!

~Sonya

Introducing: Our pets!

We got a new "pet" today and I thought it would be fun to introduce him as well as the rest of our pets! I realize we don't have a lot according to some people, but it's a lot for our little house! We love them all! So here it goes!!

This is Myles! Myles will be 13 in July. I (Alicia) have had him since about 10 months before my husband and I got married. He was born in a litter my mom-in-law's dog, Honey had. He was the biggest puppy - SO fat, and once they were all full grown, he was the smallest. From about 3 weeks of age he would begin yelping once he heard my voice. He claimed me and has been mine ever since! He weighs in around 7 pounds and is still VERY loyal to me! Unfortunately, he does live his life mostly in lock down. He thinks it's Okay to mark his territory ALL over my house and I don't like that idea! So he comes out occasionally and does his business outside, but he's usually in his "bed"!

This is Princess Nalani. Princess, as we call her, turned 3 years old this month. She weighs in at about 10 pounds (yes - bigger than the dog!) We found her and the rest of her litter on the hill in my parents back yard. Her mama cat was very malnourished and we believe would have died within 24 hours had we not rescued her and the kittens (where mama cat came from is a VERY long and sad story). There was a total of 5 kittens, but only 3 survived. Princess and her 2 sisters were all spayed and given to good homes! Well, we kept Princess... obviously! I chose the name "Nalani" which is Hawaiian because it means "calm as the heavens" and I hoped she would live up to her name. Well, she can but mostly doesn't! She's a spaz who LOVES my daughter, sleeps on her pillow, shares her bathroom and kisses her (EEEEEWWWWWW) often... it grosses me out! I make her stop! She loves laying where she doesn't belong - my sewing table, the kitchen table, my husband's dresser, top of the entertainment center, kitchen counter... you name it! She also has extra toes and it makes her look as though she has thumbs! I can't go to bed at night without giving her some treats - she "yells" at me until I do! This cat is SO annoying, but so sweet and beautiful and I wouldn't trade her for any other!

This is Max! We just adopted Max in November from someone who was moving and could not take him and he is a perfect fit with our family! He is 6 years old and SO good with the kids! He loves sleeping on our daughter's bed (as you can see) and is so passive with the kids that I have no fears of him ever hurting them. He weighs in at 110 pounds (WOW!) and pulled me down the first time I walked him! He LOVES his long walks and HATES baths! This is the first time that we've had a big dog (well, my hubby had a couple growing up, but this is a first for me!) and so far it is a VERY fun experience! We love our Max-ee dog!

And this is the newest member of our family! This is Teddy Bear, my 5 year old son's pet Venus' Flytrap! He is a tiny little thing and has 5 mouths. My boy wanted him SO bad but was afraid to hold him (even though he was in a little plastic box)! I told him that if he would not hold his new pet, I would not buy him! He ended up holding Teddy Bear the rest of the time in the store and all the way home! He keeps pausing his afternoon movie to go check on Teddy! We will see how Teddy Bear grows and see if he helps out when those pesky flies get into my kitchen!!

Well, those are my families pets! What interesting pets do you have?!

~Alicia

Make-it Monday!

Today is Monday and that means we're gonna start the week off right by making something! It could be a recipe, it could be a craft or as in today's idea... Raspberry Cordial! We thought it would be fun to make the beverage that inspired the name of our blog... plus it's super yummy!

First: We gathered our ingredients!

For the recipe from this book, we needed 600 g. of frozen raspberries (no sugar - just the berries), 1 1/4 cups of sugar, 4 cups of boiling water and 3 lemons. We did have 3, but only 2 made it into the picture!

Our first step was to put the berries and sugar into a saucepan and cook over medium heat stirring occasionally until all the sugar had dissolved. This was supposed to take 20-25 minutes...

We set the timer. We stirred occasionally. (Thank you to the lovely Miss Layla, who is 9 years old today, for her hand cameo in the picture below!)

 But it was more like 12-15 minutes for us.We then mashed the berries and syrup thoroughly which was not hard since it was mostly mush.

Then comes the fun (and often messy) part! Pouring it through the strainer! We gave it a little extra help with the masher as well. You DO need a fine mesh strainer to get out all of the seeds.

Look at all that steamy yummyness!!

Next we squeezed 2 of the lemons and added the strained lemon juice to the strained raspberry mixture. At this point, the kitchen was smelling SO unbelievably good!

We had an extra lemon courtesy of Zao - Just in case!

Then we added the boiling water! SO close to being done!!!

We were supposed to let it cool, but we couldn't wait THAT long, so we just poured it into glasses, topped with a very thin slice of lemon and ENJOYED!

You will probably want to make a double batch so you're not sad when it's gone...

Awww!! Cute girls so excited to drink some!

Don't forget to share a toast to a job well done!

Enjoy the beauty and yummyness and always, ALWAYS have seconds!!

Make-it Monday!!

Today is Monday and that means we're gonna start the week off right by making something! It could be a recipe, it could be a craft or as in today's idea, making a low-sugar Easter Egg hunt!

Since Easter is just 6 days away, we thought it was a good idea to have an Easter Themed Make-it Monday!

Last year I had decided that I did not want my kids having tons of candy for Easter. They did the Church Easter Egg hunt and already had enough! My kids are not fans of coloring eggs (which is fine with me!), so we tend to hunt for plastic eggs filled with goodies. As you can see in the picture above, most of our eggs have the kids names on them. They know that they are only able to collect the eggs that have their own name on them. I have equal amounts - they count - and I have a HUGE variety! Some are shaped like eggs, some like Lightning McQueen, a few "High School Musical" pennants and even princess crowns! Oh - and how can I forget the Autobot Symbol?!

We like to hide them in fun places and sometimes in plain sight! This one took my kids quite a while to find! OK - enough about the hunting! Now on to the filling!

Unfortunately, last year I was not thinking that I would have this blog, so I did not get photos of what we put inside of the eggs, but here are some ideas!

For each of my kids I purchased a 100 piece puzzle from the dollar store (or maybe it was the Dollar Spot at Target - I can't remember!). We (my sister helped me with all of this!) opened the puzzles and put 10 pieces in each of 10 plastic eggs and put the empty box in their baskets! They were giggling opening the eggs and finding just a few puzzle pieces and later had SO much fun putting them all together!

Small toys. I am a couponer and last year I got some crazy awesome deals on Littlest Pet Shop which my daughter loves, so I put a couple of those in eggs! They are small enough and with just 2 packages of 2 pets each I was able to fill 6 eggs! Four with the little bobble head pets and 2 with their little accessories! For my son we got a small LEGO set and sorted the pieces between about 6 eggs. I think that was his favorite thing!

We did put some candy in them, but not much. Maybe 10 eggs worth. It may not be an issue for most, but I try to avoid things like jelly beans which are loaded full of food coloring and make my son behave like an out of control Tasmanian devil! Instead we stick with things like Reeces eggs or Reester bunnies, some M&M's (he does OK with just a few), small chocolate bunnies and Hershey Kisses.  Also, since we had a 10 hour drive coming up the day after Easter, we made sure that the kids had fun stuff to do in the car in their baskets like a Toy Story mini marker/coloring page set for my son. He STILL loves that thing!

Another thing that we love to put into eggs is quarters! The kids love hearing the jingle of the change inside and my daughter LOVES counting up how much money she has! I'm sure my boy will like it too - once he learns that skill! For now he counts how many coins he has!



We do our best to keep it fun - even including the dogs!

Most importantly, we make sure that our kids understand the TRUE reason for Easter: Jesus is Alive! He rose from the grave to save us from our sins! He has given us the opportunity to live forever in Heaven with Him! Have a wonderful Easter! I hope that some of these ideas can inspire you to have a very fun egg hunt with your kids while not sugaring them out too much! I'll try to take more photos of this year's hunt to share in another post!

~Alicia

Whining & Arguing Included

  When it comes to motherhood I have two pet-peeves: whining and arguing! Both of these "skills" my daughter seems to be an expert. She is eight years old and whenever her words come out sounding like an overly tired two year old I want to run screaming for the hills!
  She has a thing I like to call the "whiner voice". You know the sound, for all children have a whiner voice! It varies in tone to match their individual set of parents, but all children have this feature! A feature I truly wish was not preinstalled! Often times when she makes a request/demand in her whiner voice I give in and gratify her. I know that is not exactly demonstrating my best parenting skills, but I'm only human and sometimes I just really want some peace and quiet!
  However, I don't want you to think that I always indulge her, because I do not. This my friends, is when she automatically deploys a new tactic, arguing (I am almost positive that all children come installed with this one too)! You may think that arguing is not as bad as the whiner voice, but that is not the truth! Remember if arguing has commenced that means we've already been through the whiner voice stage, which means my nerves have already been worked. (lol)
  One day deep in the trenches of argument I told my daughter "Just stop arguing", and her reply was, " I'm not arguing with you, I'm having a conversation with you". My initial thought was that my daughter is a clever one, and some day she might make a great lawyer, and after that I wondered if she knew the difference between arguing and conversation?! So, I made her go and get the Webster's Dictionary (By the way have you ever read a biography on Noah Webster? Fascinating stuff, no joke!). I made her look up both argument and conversation and write out the definitions. (See, I do have some parenting skills after all, ha ha)
  Argument was "to go against" and conversation was " to share ideas" (that is the simple break down anyway).  She was not happy about having to look up words in the dictionary, nor was she happy about having to write out definitions, but now anytime an argument starts to erupt all I have to do is mention the dictionary and it almost instantly ceases.
   All this whining, all this arguing it really does get on my nerves and make me want to pull my hair out,  I myself am not innocent when it comes to these two faults though. For not being able to tolerate whining I sure am good at it. I wonder if it makes the hair on the back of  God's neck stand up when I come whining before his throne?! It makes me think of Martha (you know, in the Bible...you can check it out in Luke 10:38-42). She whined a little about all the work she had to do while her sister Mary was enjoying Jesus' company. I often whine about all the work I have to do and how little time I have to enjoy just being still! Perhaps it is a wise idea to spend my time with Jesus enjoying his company and not whining to him.
   Do my arguments echo through God's ears and make him grind his teeth with frustration?! Whoa! I just had a  light bulb turn on! Did I say argument and God in the same sentence?! Who am I to argue with God almighty, the creator of everything?! Surely he knows all, and knows best and it is not my place to contend with him! I must understand that it is okay to conversate with God but not argue with him, I do not ever want to "go against" him!
I am so glad that our Heavenly Father does not simply gratify me because he wants some peace and quiet after a long day of listening to every one's complaints. What a wonder it is to know he will forever stick to his word and has no weak moments or lapses in judgement, how reassuring that when I falter he does not! On many occasions I have told my daughter to "check your tone" and "think before you speak", from now on I shall be reminding myself of these things before I talk to God. :)

~Sonya