April Fools!

Well before I get to the pranks, here's James. I pulled out the jumper for James since I remember Sarah practically living in this thing when she was 4 months. James isn't quite a fan yet.

It's probably because he is too short and has the hand eye coordination of a....well a 4 month old.

Here is the next installment of Henry's school journal. His bff Myer is the subject for like 3 journal entries.

Myer is so nice. I like transformers.

They also studied the symbols of America.

She is a girl.

That was the takeaway from the Statue of Liberty lesson, huh?

And Erica got into my 3x5 cards.  I have about a dozen of drawings like these. She says this one is me. The staple on the face is a nice touch.

Sarah really wanted to play an April Fools trick and wanted to google for some ideas but I wouldn't let her. But she and Henry and Erica were so busy and sneaky Friday night right before bed so I knew she had thought of something. Here's what I found when I went to make overnight French toast after they went to bed.

The real brown sugar was taken to the play kitchen in the basement.

Some things I didn't discover until the next morning.

And even more discoveries throughout the day.

They got me good.

It was a funny trick. Mildly inconvenient since they took the real stuff to the basement.

Oh wait, there's more.

It's hard to be annoyed when you open the cupboard and see this little face.

It took me a long while to spot the fake in this set up.

Justin got them good by taping down the spray nozzle on the sink. Henry got soaked and cried but Sarah was just confused. They wore their swimming suits under their pajamas that night "just in case Dad tricks us again tomorrow."

My trick was to switch their car seat spots in the car. They were so confused but actually liked the change. But the joke was really on me because it was so dang hard to move them and nearly impossible to lift James's carrier all the way to the back.

The Art of Homemaking: Cookies

My last "doing right" post might lead you believe I don't like being in the kitchen. Actually I love being in the kitchen if I'm making what I like and that's dessert! One of the things I dislike about making dinner is measuring ingredients. I eyeball stuff as much as I can. But I love to bake where measuring is essential and I don't mind doing it at all! I have several sets of measuring spoons and measuring cups and even a kitchen scale so I can be as accurate and scientific as possible. Plus I've got cookie scoops, spatulas, whisks, frosting bags and tips, cake stands, tins, baking sheets, and 9 mixing bowls. But I want more of everything!

Last year I really stretched my baking skills by branching out and making pies but cake was and is my first love. I've been making cakes from a box since I was a kid, learned how to make frosting when I was 12 or so and have tried to hone my decorating skills once I had kids. I pretty much love any homemade frosting and think the "frosting" in a can is an abomination. Cake is fun to make and even more fun to eat.

Justin loves pie as much as I love cake but we're really not a fan of the other. If there were a Venn diagram of the dessert categories Justin and I love, we'd overlap with cookies. Thus cookies are the go-to dessert around here. (My kids have their favorite things too but they'll eat anything with sugar--they're kids.)

Here's my philosophy on cookies: You only need three, maybe four, killer cookie recipes. Cookies don't need to be fancy. Cookies are the quintessential comfort food. Who didn't love coming home from school to fresh cookies made by mom? Cookies are the solution to so many problems. Rainy day? Cookies. What to take to the potluck? Cookies. How do we help Sister So-and-So? Cookies. How can we befriend the new neighbor? Cookies. What can I do to make today more fun? Cookies. What do we need to pack for our trip? Cookies. How do I find a husband? Cookies.

That last one is true. I wriggled my way into Justin's apartment and into his life with peanut butter cookies in hand.  Here's the recipe:

"How to Catch A Boy Peanut Butter Cookies"
-recipe from my dear high school friend and college roommate Suzy Day Young

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 c brown sugar
3 T milk
1 T vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in stand mixer. Beat until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended.
3. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.
4. Roll into balls and roll around in a bowl of sugar. Drop 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. (Don't smush with a fork, keep them in balls.) Bake 7-8 min.

-These are in the regular cookie rotation today, especially if I need to remind Justin why he fell in love with me.

Here's the classic and ever essential chocolate chip cookie recipe. This one we get creative with and substitute M&Ms and other candies.

"Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies"
-from The Essential Mormon Cookbook by Julie Badger Jensen

1 cup butter softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 (12-ounce) bag chocolate chips

Cream together butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet by heaping tablespoons. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. Makes about 3 dozen.

"Soft Sugar Cookies"
My favorite sugar cookie recipe is from Annie's Eats. You can see the recipe there and make them and love them. I tried rolling them out and using cookie cutters but I don't think this is the best recipe for cut cookies. These are thick and buttery and another great excuse to eat frosting.

"No-Bake Cookies"
These are a Syme family favorite. We had these so much growing up but I've never inquired where the recipe came from. I love these in the summer when I don't want to heat up my house or when I want cookies NOW.

1. Mix and boil: 2 cups sugar, 2 T butter, 2 T cocoa, 1/2 cup milk
2. Add 1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla
3. Mix well then add 2 cups oatmeal. Drop from spoon onto waxed paper.

I could list and link like a dozen more recipes that are delicious but I really think these are the essential recipes.

I don't care if my kids remember my dinners but I sure hope they brag about how good they had it in the cookie department.

**And I wish I had pictures of each of these cookies. Next time I make them, I'll come back and add a photo. This "no treats until Easter" thing sure put a halt to my baking.

March and All Its Madness

This is Henry's poster for his family spotlight for his kindergarten class. I printed tons of pictures and he chose his favorites and helped me write our favorite things to do as a family. It hung for a week at school then we brought it home and now it hangs in his room.

Can you tell Erica has been out gathering rocks?

She had quite a collection in there!

Sarah and Henry filled out NCAA brackets this year.

Since Henry really gets into anything sports related, he was all over it and seemed to delight in choosing Duke to lose in the first round and taking his beloved Cardinals to the championship. I'm guessing he's going to be one of those boys in class talking about brackets and "seeds" and "upsets" and whatnot.

Sarah was much more systematic in her selections and stuck to the rankings for the most part. She also chose the Louisville Cardinals to win.

St Patrick's Day fell on a day that the kids were out of school. Because I'm trying to eat healthier, I've found some....let's say interesting....pancake recipes. This day I tried out pumpkin oat pancakes in the blender.

They were soggy discs of blandness. This is Sarah's plate where you can see even my most obliging child only handled one bite.

Henry took one bite and asked if I'd please make regular pancakes again. He did come back a half hour later and ate some more though. He said he liked these better than the banana-egg pancakes I made the day before.

Sarah went through her hoard of stuff in her room and found a doll for Erica to have. It's nice having a daughters five years apart as the older one is ready to give away her toys at the perfect time for the younger one. It's Christmas for Erica every time Sarah cleans her room.

And James wore frog jammies so he wouldn't get pinched. Although I told all my kids if anyone pinched James, I'd punch them in the bum.

Sarah had pinkeye this day. She ruined a lot of our outside plans and plans with friends.

So we got out the table tunnel. Still a hit around here.

The kids didn't want to share so they set the timer for 2 minute turns. There was a lot of beeping but not much arguing.

There was also fort-making.

A lot of fort making. It had been a long week of trying to keep the house together and making everyone do their jobs so I pretty much spent the whole day saying yes, sure, why not. The house was a mess but I felt calm inside.

Before lunch though, it had gotten pretty chaotic so I set the timer for 5 minutes and told the kids they had to spend 5 minutes putting things away they were finished playing with. It worked. Then we had green eggs and ham for lunch.

Sarah and Henry watched the end of a couple of basketball games on TV and I checked scores online. They marked their brackets accordingly.

I'm kind of impressed at their level of understanding since I was a freshman in college before I even understood what "March Madness" even was. I knew it was basketball but I didn't know if it was NBA or college or whatever. I don't think I even knew it was a tournament, maybe just the end of the season?? I knew there were lots of March Madness sales at car dealerships and furniture stores.(Justin is reading this somewhere and shaking his head at how the two of us got together.)

Henry got a little bored after lunch so he asked me for some ideas. Since St Patrick's day was half over and Easter is a way better holiday, I told him to make Easter decorations. This is what he made and I love them.

Sarah and Erica are watching Christmas movies on Netflix while making Easter decorations on St. Patrick's day. It was a weird day and this pretty much sums it up.

**I wish I could describe well the devastation Henry felt when he came home from church on Sunday and discovered that Louisville lost their game. His face crumpled, he collapsed onto the ground. There were tears and heart-wrenching sobs. He was so sad. I love his passionate heart.  

When Sarah found out, she shrugged and said, "My bracket's officially busted." That's my girl.

James at 4 Months

Baby James is 4 months! I really thought by now I'd have him figured out but in some ways he's getting harder. Or maybe I just thought I'd be sleeping a lot more by now.  I forget that by this age babies sleep much less than they did the first couple of months and there isn't much of a pattern or predictability to his naps. Plus it still takes a couple of hours of nursing/rocking/walking each night to get him to go to sleep. I forgot how challenging these "middle months" are in their own way.

Good thing he's cute.

What is it about baby boys that just melt my heart?

At his 4 month check he was 13 pounds and 24 inches.

He hates being on his stomach so I only do tummy time when I want him to be ornery which is never. Just kidding. We're up to like four minutes before he fusses and I roll him over.  He is so slobbery! He sucks on his hands all the time which creates a stream of drool but sometimes I see him just push spit bubbles out of his mouth with his tongue. He wears a bib most waking hours.

He likes to suck on his hands or any fabric like his bib or blanket. He has just starting to pull toys into his mouth and suck on them but we have to put them into his hands; he doesn't grab for them yet.

Because he's starting to become more aware of those around him, I see him get a little nervous when unfamiliar people hold him. He's doing the best out of all my babies when it comes to other people though. He's still pretty chill about sitting in his chair while the chaos of our house surrounds us. Plus he's got his siblings' faces in his face most of the time. He never lacks for attention. He is very happy and it's so easy to get him to smile and laugh.

We pulled out the puppy gym that sings songs and dangles toys for him to grab. He likes it for a few minutes then he wants to be held and carried around while I do stuff. 

He's just so cute and little and sweet and loves his mama.

New Floor Reveal!

Imagine you have a cardboard box with puppies. The puppies are getting kinda too big to be penned in this box and they have discovered they can climb out so you are constantly catching wriggly puppies and placing them back in the box only to have to go catch another one and put it back. This goes on and on for about an hour until they tire themselves out and go to sleep. This is what bedtime is like at our house.

Poor James is the last one to go to bed so he tags along during all the shenanigans.

Erica and Henry share a big double bed but sleep on it sideways with a pillow to separate them. The pillow really needs to be a wall to keep these two from bugging each other and giggling. We can't quite talk Sarah into switching rooms with Henry (not that I blame her) because she'd do a better job keeping Erica quiet at night. I took this picture because Henry is a great reader and reads to Erica sometimes which is helpful. Later he takes her bear and calls her boo boo butt which is not helpful.

James was so cute watching hunting videos with Justin. Justin starts the kids early. James sounds a lot like an elk.

Sarah is so good about practicing the piano. She's doing really well with her piano lessons. Her teacher thinks if we got a real piano instead of a keyboard, she would get even better quicker. We'll see. I gotta find a great deal on a used piano and then Sarah pretty much will have to commit to taking lessons for the rest of her childhood to justify the expense and the trouble of getting it in the house.

And here is the floor all done! I kept thinking once the house was clean I'd take pictures but my house is never all the way clean so here it is anyway. The couch slides around a lot. I'm looking for a rug for this area and I hope that will help the sliding furniture problem.

I got this entry rug at Costco today. I like that it's long so that people can stay on the rug to take off wet shoes but I think I want something wider though. We'll see.

And the kitchen. I love that the floor hides most dirt and spills so much better than the light linoleum. But crumbs show up a lot more. I should have picked floor the same color as goldfish crackers and bread crusts.

Next on my project list: Painting the table and chairs a grayish beige color. Or "greige" as it's called.

If you're wondering if greige is just a fancy word for taupe, here's what google says:

Warm greige has a yellow undertone (from the beige). Warm taupe gets its warmth from the red undertones. Similarly, cool greige has blue undertones (from the gray) and a cool taupe comes from their green undertones. In conclusion, greige and taupe are not the same color.

Isn't that clear??

The Art of Homemaking: Dinnertime

Notice the title isn't "I'm a good cook." I'm not and my cooking skills aren't what this post is about. I'm not really bragging here, just dumping all my thoughts about dinner making.

We eat dinner as a family every night with very rare exceptions. Sometimes Justin works late and we don't wait for him. Sometimes it's cheese sandwiches or crepes but we still eat together. Why? Here are a few reasons.

- Justin and I were both raised this way so doing it any other way would be weird.
- My kids and husband are important so I'm willing to spend the time and effort.
- I like to eat.
- It's cheaper than eating out.
- It's healthier than eating out.
- Dinnertime teaches my kids to help out, sit still, and reinforces the fact that we are family unit.

If you'll notice "I like to cook" is not on my list. I don't really like to cook. I might if I only cooked when I wanted to and not every single day. Sometimes I really don't want to cook and going into the kitchen is downright painful. Luckily Justin likes to cook and he handles most of the cooking on the weekends and will even whip up some French toast if I've had a bad day during the week.

But for the most part, I'm there, chopping, stirring, mixing, baking, sauteeing, grating, opening cans. My biggest Pinterest board is my Dinner one. I am always looking for new recipes because even though I've been married for 10 years, I still feel like I'm still building my repertoire of recipes and cooking skills. I like recipes with few and simple ingredients. If I started a cooking blog, it would be called, "The Lazy Chef" or "Cooking Shortcuts with Di."

Ever had dinner with 3 little kids and a baby? It's not all pleasant conversation and good table manners. We've had to institute dinnertime rules.

Notice how "Stay in your chair" and "Sit up in your chair" are two separate rules. I had to get specific there.

I have to plan my meals a week in advance because I do not do well on the fly. It's like I have to mentally prepare all day to make taco soup.

We recently watched the documentary Cooked by Michael Pollan. He made me feel like what I am doing is important. We are teaching our children that nature feeds us, not restaurants or corporations. Our history and values and culture are passed down through our home cooked meals. Making dinner is noble. Thanks Michael Pollan for keeping me motivated! And thanks to my Mom for setting such a great example.