Happy (belated) New Year: Chinese Year of the Horse

Happy Chinese New Year!!!  I know that I am about two weeks late, but between weather and the fickleness of planning with three kids, we only just got around to actually celebrating the Chinese New Year. Since we only have the two older kids on the weekends (the pros and cons of a blended family!) I try and plan at least one big sit-down meal and some sort of crafty activity to do with them. 

Two weeks ago, we celebrated Chinese New Year, which was at that point a week after the fact but it was awesome. I created a Pinterest board to collect ideas for Chinese food, crafts and decorations that I ended up almost completely ignoring. We are lucky enough to have a relatively diverse neighborhood so we do have a Chinese supermarket in town, so Hubby and I went there to try and find some decorations and food. Oddly enough, they had no little Red envelopes so I was disappointed. We picked up scallion pancakes, chicken dumplings, sweetnsour sauce, soy sauce, almond cookies, jelly candies, wasabi peas, red bean pastries, coconut flavoured cookies, Panda cookies, and some other random bits. I also had meatballs and chicken in the freezer that I ended up using. Weirdly, the meatballs were Italian seasoned which I did not account for when cooking them, but they turned out okay. 

Through Pinterest, I found great instructions for making paper fortune cookies. I was under the impression that no one in our family really liked the taste of fortune cookies, I was mistaken. Note for future parties, fortune cookies are an okay choice.

While Hubby was at work, the kids and I decorated a bit and then I tried to help them through making the fortune cookies. This was one of those stressful momma activities that I did not forecast. I tested out a few to make sure that I knew how to make them, I laid out all the supplies so that we all had our own circle template, glue sticks, pencils and scissors. I thought that this would limit the fights. I was incorrect. We were about two minutes into the project when the baby woke up from his nap so I had to go and get him. In the time that it took me to walk from the kitchen table to the bedroom and back, the two older kids got in a fight over gold shiny paper and ripped one of my scrapbooking templates. This did not set the mood well for me, I took the paper away all together, I still don't know if that was the best option but sometimes I need to wipe the slate and start over. 

The instructions were easy to follow, but our ten year old does not have much patience and when things do not work out immediately, a meltdown is imminent and our eight year old would much rather just do whatever grabs her goat before listening to any instructions. So while I was positive that this craft was in their ballpark, I was a little wrong. It may very well be a child dependent craft so heads up!

This was my template, I was able to get four cookies out of one sheet of 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper. I missed mentioning that to the kids and then just traced their circle into the middle of the paper, thus getting one cookie per sheet. Next time, I may just make them all and have the kids write the fortunes. That was hands down the best part of the entire project. We all wrote our own fortunes, some funny, some mean, some good, some random. Since Hubby wasn't here while we made them, we made him guess who wrote them after we read them outloud.

Reading them outloud and laughing about them all made up for the stress of making them. It was really fun while we were eating to giggle over Hubby guessing incorrectly. The tutorial I found here at Duitang, which is in Chinese but Google will translate if you need but the pictures were plenty to walk me through it. 

I wanted to do other crafts, but sometimes I run into a wall whether the kids are too old or two young for some things. So instead we just ate and laughed about some of the food that was not quite to out palate. Overall, it was successful, we ate tons of food and dinner lasted an hour with us just talking and trying lots of food. Happy Year of the Horse everyone! 

Thrift 2014: Score 1

Hubby was able to get out of work a little early this past Wednesday so I gave him a heads up that we would potentially head to the thrift shop, since I haven't been since November. Unfortunately, or maybe rather fortunately if you talk to my wallet, my father also had to go grocery shopping so he came with us. While neither he nor Hubby rushed me, I felt guilty walking through every single aisle like I enjoy doing so instead of getting a couple pairs of jeans (I am still in an odd shape from baby...how much longer can I use that?), I ended up browsing pretty quickly and was happy with the few things that I did manage to grab. 

Gap trench coat $6.99

D-signed size 7-8 girls jeans 3.99/ half price 1.99

D-signed I have only seen at Target so far, and these are in great condition, a request was made to widen the bottoms of the super skinny jean though

All in all, I spent a little over $11. I was proud of my little shopping trip (I am pretty sure that I did it in under 15 minutes but don't ask my Hubby), I got great clothes in great condition for less than half of retail price. I am in love with my trench coat already and I can't wait to pair it with skirts when it warms up!

Dropkick Murphys tee for G, he doesn't know who they are but Hubby and I are both big fans so it works 1.99

What we did this Weekend!

We have been trying to unplug as a family, and do activities that are separate from the television or electronics, mostly. It is an attempt, not a perfect system.  But for an hour this weekend, we succeeded and went for a gorgeous hike. It was still bitter cold but beautiful with the new snow, the frozen stream and the pups coming along for the trek. 

Hubby's motion picture of Juniata jumping over our little creek

a neat ice cavern/bridge that was created over the water

a neat tree that my little brother used to call a dragon/rhinoceros tree

while out hiking, we didn't see much wildlife but we did see what was left of this dead crow hanging from a branch. Our guess is that a hawk left him there after lunch but we had fun guessing the story and talking about how life works

The kids, the dogs and I looking at seeds to collect for the new Hamsters to snack on

Hubby's art photo through the seed pods

Me pulling down a milkweed pod for Cap to touch and feel the soft down on the seeds. Even he seems to like to take little hikes in our woods and giggle at the dogs (and fall asleep from the rhythm of walking)

Teething Biscuits Trial and Error

   First, a resolution update: 

Obviously, from my lack of posts, my resolution to unplug has been relatively successful. When it came down to it, I really think that I wanted to separate myself from social media and the somewhat petty emotions and obsession that results from it. The first week of the new year I had no internet access other than updates from my Etsy store. My biggest vice was checking Facebook continuously. While I was nursing, I always felt like I had to be doing other things, up until January, that was Facebook and Pinterest. Since the New Year started, I have finished a book that I have been sitting on for two months and am halfway through another. At this rate, I will finally finish this Salvatore series that James bought for me two years ago (in my defense, there are over 20 books in this series). 

Cap' enjoying new teething biscuits

This most recent week, I have buckled and scoped out Pinterest a few times. Mostly because I can't stay away and I was looking up recipes. Hubby had a bake sale at work to help a coworker pay for a relative's funeral (his job matches all funds raised by associates for things like that) so I looked up an amazing recipe for pumpkin bars that was so successful that there weren't any left by the end of day! So on top of doing something wonderful for someone else, I found a great new recipe that already has made it onto a hard copy recipe card in my vintage recipe box. 

Last week, Hubby had jury duty all week, thankfully putting away a bad person but it meant that he also had to go to his normal job after jury duty. It made for a couple long days and at least one burnt-out mommy day where I cried and we fought. But I got some sleep and we had a talk so it's all good now. (until the next sleepless night with teething coming!)

Speaking of teething...
I haven't seen or felt actual evidence of teething, and Baby Cap' has been drooling excessively since he was two months old, so I am not sure if we have started teething officially or not. We received gel teethers as a holiday present that he doesn't really like when they are cold, but enjoys just fine at room temperature. We found out over the holidays, while making chocolate covered pretzels (that we called Sonic Screwdrivers) that Baby really likes hard pretzel rods. Not really meant for babies, he was under very careful supervision when eating them but still went through almost an entire package in the past month. We then tried Nilla wafers. Warning, do not do this until chewing is a habit. They are too soft and again, not meant for babies.

I figured that we would have to buy some teething biscuits next time we went grocery shopping but then I remembered that I know how to cook and I have Pinterest. I looked up three different recipes and Cap helped me bake and test them out. All three recipes were so easy to make and I had all the ingredients on hand. All in all, I spent about an hour (once I take out all the nursing breaks, diapers breaks and other random intrusions) mixing and baking all of them. All I did was type in "teething biscuits" into Pinterest and pick out a random three to test.

Recipe #1

The first one seemed easy, I just didn't have any baby cereal on hand and was hoping that oatmeal would suffice as a substitute. Don't do that! I would definitely cook them longer if I did it again and I would use the blender on the oatmeal to make it more of a fine powder. I found the recipe here at Ashley Thunder Events. It was an easy recipe to follow...as long as you actually follow it. I ended up not giving Cap any because they were too soft but Hubby and my younger brother both really enjoyed them!

Recipe #2

The second recipe was the one I was originally most excited about but I think that I overcooked them a bit and was heavy handed on the molasses. I am a chronic anti-measurer, it's an issue. The dough was really great and I loved that I could make them into neat shapes and finally use my dinosaur shaped cookie cutter for something. I also used a dog bone shaped cutter and then cut some of them into long rectangle shapes. Cap seemed to like them just fine, the adults in the house, notsomuch. I found this recipe here at Lil Sugar. 

Recipe #3

This third recipe ended up being my favorite so far. A couple things that I would change? I would make a double batch and a larger loaf. I would cook it longer to make them harder and I would potentially flavor it. I would also use whole wheat flour and a healthier sugar option. I didn't want to buy special ingredients in case I ended up not liking how they turned out. I found this recipe here (via Pinterest) at Spilling the Beans. This one was the winner as far as I am concerned, they ended up being the right size for Cap's little hands, they were easy and all the adults liked them as well so while all the recipes will end up in the recipe box, these are the ones that I am going to make more of this weekend with the older kids to help!

Happy New Year: Resolution? Unplug

          

Happy New Year to everyone! From my family to yours, we wish the happiest and healthiest of years. As for us, we will be spending a quiet evening watching the Texas A&M football game against Duke, a spaghetti dinner and sparkling black currant juice at midnight, potentially some homemade apple pie vodka. 

Since it is New Year's, I do feel like I have to share the obligatory resolutions that I have decided to work on. On the top of my list (besides being the best Momma that I can be!) is to unplug. I know coming from a blog where I am obviously connected, this may sound hypocritical but I have set up guidelines to make my life less about being always available and always finding the answer and more about living in the moment. I will (try to) write all my posts on Sundays, my one day where I am free to have my own time with the internet. The rest of the week I want to be available to my kids and to myself. I read articles like this at Click Orlando, this at PsychCentral, and this on the Huffington Post website. 

I sometimes look around and see all four of us attached to electronics and wonder what each of us are thinking that makes it so that whatever is going on in the screen is better than the conversation that we could be having together. Not that it is always as drastic as that but I want to know how everyone's day was either at work or at school, I want the kids to tell me about a book they are reading or to tell me all about the origins of Thanksgiving, or how long division bores G because he knows how to do exponents and square roots, how E loves dolphins and if they are the smartest animals in the world or not. I want to have conversations with my family. I do not want my face glued to the phone screen, scrolling through Pinterest while I am at their concerts, checking Facebook at breakfast, or checking emails at bedtime. That's not what I want the kids to see and that's not who I want to be either. 

Without being connected all the time, I want to find time to finish sewing projects, to paint more, to read tons, to keep the house kept up, and find ways to show Hubby and the kids how much they mean to me. 

To unplug, this is my main goal, but not to just unplug but to reconnect and stay connected to my friends and family in a deeper, more realistic way. 

My 2014 Resolutions:

1. Unplug

2. Read more (reading list to follow)

3. Focus more energy on my Etsy store, KikiGrace

4. Halve my craft stash (destashing crafts are great posts)

5. Exercise 5x week (get back to pregnancy jean size, I am already at pre-baby weight)

6. Pare down my clothing

7. Finally sell/donate/rehome piles that I have been sitting on

8. write more letters

9. more family time

10. Buy a house!!!