Oh, feelin' old

Sofia's CD player, which is well-love from all-night CD playing, is not functioning properly. It finally got so bad that tonight, she just couldn't go to sleep because it wouldn't play past the first song on any CD. So I got the inspiration to play some cassettes for her. I dug around in the office closet and came up with some Kings Heralds tapes for kids. The good stuff. I brought them into her room, and she looked at me, looked at the cassettes, and said, "What is that?"

I explained what they were, and that the music playing on them was what mommy listened to when I was a little girl. The understanding dawned on her face, and she said, matter-of-factly, "So that's what you listened to when your CD player wasn't working."

Apparently, the concept of the non-existence of CD players in my childhood had no place in her logic. I imagine it's the same look on my face when my dad told me that VHS did not exist in his childhood. What, no Blockbuster? How is that possible? And I'm sure nowadays, kids would say, "What's VHS?" Don't get me started on Beta. Or DOS. Or Atari. Good Heavens. When did I get so old?

Today's Happy Image

is brought to you today by Hobby Lobby....

I am so in love with the fabrics they have there right now. I honestly wanted each and every lovely scruptious bolt to come home with me. To do what, I haven't decided yet. But something marvelous. Or even just to look at. Love the colors, love the patterns, love the design, love the POTENTIAL!

Sometimes, you get what you pay for

Let me be very clear here. I love the Target Dollar Spot. I know the items there are usually of questionable quality, but come on people. It's a dollar! But I particularly love this time of year when they pull out the educational goodies. Sofia has been interested in learning the names of states lately, so when I saw this little lift-the-flap book, I was delighted. I'm going to take you on a little tour, give a little quiz, and see how well you know your states......


Here we have the states of the North East. I will admit, I'm no geography jock, but the NE states in particular are shaky for me. Let's start with that nice little blue flap in the upper left corner... do you know what state that is?

If you guessed Connecticut, you're right! I don't think I guessed Connecticut. I think I said Delaware. Moving on.

Ah, the great states of the North. See where my finger is pointing? That nice little blue state? Do you know what that one is?

If you guessed Illinois, you're.... wrong? Wait, I didn't know Georgia was in the North. Hmmm..... Moving on. Let's turn the page.

Wait a minute. Didn't I just guess this one on the previous page? This looks suspiciously like "Georgia." Oh, well. Maybe this time I'll get it right. Did you guess Georgia, too?

Dang it! Wrong again! It's really Arizona, of course. The great Arizona of the North. What a terrific learning tool.

When I looked for the lovely state of Texas, it wasn't included any where in this book. Maybe we really did leave the nation... Go Lone Star!

I'll just say, if you got 100% on this quiz, maybe you better head back to 1st grade geography... I know I'm checking into entrance requirements for myself.

Mama's big boys

We moved Sam & Ben into a different room and took the crib sides off of their beds. They are so proud to be sleeping in their new Big Boy Room. Oh, and they lovelovelove the firetruck sheet sets their oh-so-talented mommy made for them. I found an easy tutorial here for the bottom sheet, and I just modified it a bit to make a fitted topsheet and a pillowcase to match (haven't finished those yet....). I'm on my second set of sheets for them, and it's easy, and they feel super special to be able to pick out the material themselves. Win-win!

Saturday afternoon at the Fernandes House

oh yum

This was one of the items on the table at Friday night vespers.... my first jelly roll. I'm so proud.

Is it true?

Did it really rain? Sofia's face says it did!

Enchilada Lasagna

So here's the final product, and I know my food photography skills are painfully lacking. So believe me when I say it tastes WAY better than it looks.



With that said, this is a super easy meal that even the kids ask seconds and thirds of. It's kind of different every time I make it, because there's no recipe. It's basically enchiladas, but I very much dislike rolling up enchiladas, so in this version, I just layer it. Read on.....

Ingredients:

1 can enchilada sauce

corn tortillas, white or yellow (about 24)

1 lb. ground beef or 1 can Vegeburger

1 1/2 cups day-old rice

2 cups cheese (or more, depending on your affinity to cheese)

sour cream for garnish

You start with ground beef (in our case, a can of Worthington Vegeburger. Otherwise, for those of you who are carnivores, about a pound of ground beef, cooked and drained.

This is the best part--add old rice. Not moldy-old, but day-or-two old rice that's too dry to eat by itself. Add in, oh, about a cup or a cup-and-a-half. You also see I've added the enchilada sauce, about 2/3 of a can.

Add about a cup or two of cheese, and cook it all together until it's nice and bubbly, and the rice is tender.

Meanwhile, spray a 9x13 casserole dish and coat the bottom with about half of the enchilada sauce you have left in the can. Here I am using the store brand, but I really prefer the Rosarita brand. Yum.


Then, layer your corn tortillas in the bottom of the dish. No need to cook them in butter or anything, just slap 'em on in there.

Then just layer half of your meat mixture, you can add more cheese if you like, then another layer of tortillas, the rest of your meat mixture (and optional cheese), then a final layer of tortillas.

At this point, I would usually be adding the rest of the enchilada sauce from the can over the top of the bare tortillas, but guess who forgot to save some. So if you didn't forget, do that. Then sprinkle cheese on the top of all that.

Bake at 350 for about 30-45 minutes, and voila! Easy, delicious meal that you may or may not have leftovers of.

Oh, and P.S., the rice in the top picture is also old rice, I just added some of Filipe's homemade salsa and cooked it for about 5-10 minutes until the rice was tender. Perfect Spanish Rice!

Picture this

What do you suppose this picture is of?

Is it:

a) modern art

b) World Championship Competition for Pick-up Sticks

c) Ben

If you answered "c" you know my kids! I'm thinking of renaming my blog "What did the boys dump out today?"

Teaching Consumerism

Sofia has been begging me for several days to take her to the "toy store" so she could buy something with her own money. Since we've been learning about money this week, I thought it might be a good idea.

So today, she got her money, put it in her wallet, put her wallet in her purse ("just like a mommy!") and we went to Target.

Gotta love the Dollar Spot.

She perused the aisles, trying to find something that was just right. She made her selections (some blueberry lotion and a flower clock), then we headed to the cashier. She had a moment of panic when faced with the reality of engaging with a stranger, but I knew how much she had looked forward to it, so I pushed her into it. She gave the very nice lady her cash, and got some coins back. She was silent until she got back to the car, THEN and only then did she break into a smile.

Here's to teaching a four-year-old about the joys of spending.

P.S. The pictures are awful because I had to be sneaky, stealthy, and quick. She hates pictures.

Cooked Goose

That's what we felt like, anyways, as we fed the ducks at the duck pond with our friends.

I also felt like we owned our own daycare center, with 7 kiddos between the two mommies. Quite the parade!

Goodwill rescue, Part I

So you may have noticed a few blogs down there on my list.... I LOVE those crafty, thrifty, decory (I know, not a word) bloggers. They are downright inspiring. I want to try virtually every project they show, especially the ones with tutorials. But I'm not really much of a follow-through kind of person. I like ideas, not action. And I generally don't have the materials on hand, or the know-how to use them.

But a few weeks ago on a "mommy only" trip to town, I came across this headboard at Goodwill. It reminded me of a project I saw here on Centsational Girl, one of my all-time favs. And she's a huge proponent of spray paint, which I've never used, but have been flirting with lately. So I took this little $5.99 diamond-in-the-rough (I hope) home and stored it in the garage.

Keep in mind this is a first-time project, so I may have done some steps wrong, or skipped them altogether, but I'm pleased with the outcome. Here's what I did:

1. Sand the ugly little bugger. I just used a medium grit sanding block, and I wasn't especially thorough in the little groovy turny things, which may have hampered my paint coverage in the end, but it's not too bad.

2. Wipe it down, make sure all stickers & dust is off.

3. I used Valspar's Porcelain White in the Satin finish. It's white, but not too white, but not too beige.

4. I gave it about 3 light coats, when all was said and done. I don't know if priming it first would have reduced this, since I was painting over a dark wood, but whatever. This is me watching the paint dry.......

5. Oh, yeah. I'm done.

So it's all nice and painted now, and I have to decide what to do with it.

Soon we will be switching the boys' room and the guest room for a variety of reasons, but this means that I will have the "new" guest room/sewing room as a blank slate for me to decorate any which way I please. So I bought some new paint, Frosty Mint, or something like that. A lovely shade of green. And I don't know how this is going to fit, but I'm going to make it. I haven't decided if I'm going to use it as an actual headboard for the bed (that's why I left the holes in the legs, in case I need to attach it to the bedrails. Otherwise I would have puttied them and painted over them. Still might have to. We'll see), or perhaps some kind of decoration for the wall. Maybe attach upside-down hanging bundles of dried flowers? I'm thinking pretty cottagey/shabby chic kind of look.

Any ideas?

brave little flower

I was on my way back from taking out the trash this evening when I noticed this little guy. Apparently, he escaped the jaws of my lawn mower more than once, judging by his height. He grows just enough into the too-much-dirt-so-there's-not-much-point-in-mowing-there patch. Grow tall, brave flower. Grow tall.

My heart longs for thee, oh Pacifier!

The boys chewed holes in all of their pacifiers, so we're trying (again) to call it quits. They did fine yesterday, but today's a different story. I put them down for their nap around 1:00, same as usual. Within 45 minutes, they were still jumping and screaming and giggling, so I went to check on them. Sam had moved his crib next to the changing table, and had emptied the drawer of all of the diapers and the entire box of wipes. Oh, mama was not happy.

The shenanigans continued for more than two hours. Finally, all was quiet. I gave them about 20 minutes to be sure, then I snuck in to see the damage. This is what I see:

Notice anything missing?

Yes, they had taken off their shorts as well as their diapers and deposited them on the floor. Little punks. So now I get to anticipate washing sheets after they wake up. And we get to go through the whole process again tonight. What a blessed day.

Happy 4th!

Need some input!

Okay, so about a year ago we installed drawer pulls and cabinet knobs on our kitchen cabinets. Looks great! Problem is, now I'm thinking of replacing our kitchen faucet & light fixtures. When we chose the drawer pulls, I picked the satin nickle because it matched the door handles we replaced throughout the house. But know, when I'm thinking faucet, rubbed bronze is stuck in my head. So I went to Lowe's and picked up a rubbed bronze set to see which I like better. The satin nickel makes the kitchen look sleek and more modern. The rubbed bronze makes it a bit more elegant (I think), and maybe matches the dark stone in the countertops.

Here are the choices.... what do you think?

Two minutes

TWO minutes. That's seriously all it takes..... I'm actually kind of surprised they didn't hit the bookcase. That was probably next on the agenda, minute six.

I'm not generally a fan of gratuitous nudity, but this was too tempting....

Aren't they precious?
This was moments before they squeezed the entire bottle of bath wash into the tub.

Two minutes. That's all it takes.

I love the public library!

I finally got my act together and skulked in to my local library to pay my $28.79 fine. Normally I'm very good about returning library materials on time. The month of May was the exception. The bulk of that fine was a replacement fee for a DVD the kids lost. I'm guessing it ended up in the trash. I love 2-year-olds. But after that was taken care of, we were free to roam the free books & movies. The kids got some good movies & books, and mommy got a couple of goodies too. I can't wait until naptime!!

Never give up hope

Sofia has never been the girlie-girl. She rarely plays dress up, despite having some lovely frocks to do so, she loves to rough-and-tumble with her daddy, have races with her friends, and fights with her brothers. So it is no surprise that taming her wild-child hair is consistently a source of friction for us. Ever since before she could speak, she has resisted all forms of hair management. We have been taking baby step, trying to acclimate her to looking domesticated. First, we convinced her to let us put barrettes in. Then, about a year later, the pony tail ("kitty tail" to her) was introduced. But she has been fiercely opposed to braiding her hair. I do not know why. I cannot think of a traumatic moment that may have scarred her memory. And we have tried every technique, every possible person, from older "girlfriends" to Aunties, to Grandma. NO ONE has been able to convince her even to try it.

This week, we have had highs in the 100s, and her hair has been completely unmanageable. I have tried barrettes, kitty tails, everything. Nothing could keep it under control. Finally I told her that she could either let me braid her hair, or we were going to cut it off. At least I gave her a choice!

Tearfully she submitted to the braids. I did one on each side, and she was CUTE!!!! Of course, I wasn't allowed to take pictures. But at least we made that step, though by force.

Well, today as we were getting dressed she ASKED for a braid! Anyone who knows Sofia realized how monumental this is. Not only did I not have to force her, she asked for it, and she LET ME TAKE HER PICTURE!!

This may be the most stubborn child I have. No amount of coercion, bribing, pleading, tearful weeping or threatening can make her do something she doesn't want to. But then, BOOM! out of the blue she will do it, pretending all the while it was her own idea.

Without further ado, here is my braided beauty: