Hallelujah!

Today was a momentous occasion! I bundled up my little crabbies after a delicious breakfast of Raspberry Applesauce Muffins (recipe below) and headed out into the bright sunshine. My eyes watered at the bright light after being caged up inside for a month...er, a week...okay a few days! My lungs inhaled the fresh crisp fall air. I stretched my legs and felt like a decent human being for the first time in a week!

Translated: The boys and I made a trip to the produce market today and got out of the house:) Sounded better the first time, didn't it?

We are finally mending! (I think!) I am afraid Samuel is catching a second round of this nasty cold/virus thing but praying not! I think after 8 days, my sore throat is finally leaving and I experienced my first headache free day! Can I get a woohoo?!

I am going to start taking some serious vitamins! I took the first steps in de-germing our home today. I ran around like a crazy lady disinfecting doorknobs, lightswitches, cabinets, my phone, the computer, anything I could with clorox wipes and lysol! Ben said the clean smell made him feel better already:)
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Zakkai is such a hoot these days, after his mad two-year old tantrums that is... Everytime he hears a strange loud noise coming from other apartments or outside, his eyes get really big and his voice gets serious and he says, "Mommy. Mommy, is that a dinosaur?!"

He also had a "snake" on his knee yesterday. I think I prefer "bees" to "snakes!" When he wants to do something independent or cute, he now tells me to look the other way or look at "Samel." But when I peek back, which I always do (!), he pretends to be bashful and grins at me. This child is going to be a class clown! Speaking of which...he saw a clown in a book the other day, asked what it was, and told daddy that he wanted to be one. Sigh.
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Samuel is ready for Christmas! I, oddly, got sent a JCPenney Christmas catalog a few weeks ago (seriously, Christmas when it's barely september?!) and he started looking through it and has picked out about 10 things he wants for Christmas and/or his birthday. (I hate to tell you, buddy, but you still have 9 months before your bday!) I think it's funny that he picked out very "boy" toy things: semi-trucks and radio controlled cars, train sets and matchbox car sets. I remember looking through the same catalog at my grandma's house when I was a little girl (this was back when you got Christmas catalogs in November, not for the 4th of July) and dreaming about barbies, dolls, dollhouses.....girlie things!

But can I admit to you? This goes no further than here. Samuel's excitement has caught on and I find myself excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas already! I am in a fall cooking, crafty, family, appley, pumpkiny mood anyways. Why not throw in some snow and a Christmas tree? (will someone please remind me about the endless days cooped up inside, the bitter wind, the frozen toes and fingers?)
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While I go off and dream about shopping the day after Thanksgiving with my family (7 weeks away!), you can ponder this muffin recipe from Itty Bitty Bistro that I adapted slightly:)

Raspberry Applesauce Muffins
1 c. whole wheat flour (or 1/2 c. wheat, 1/2 c. white)
1 c. rolled oats (I used quick-cooking oats)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c. buttermilk (I never have buttermilk on hand, so use 1 c. reg. milk with a little lemon juice)
1/2 c. raspberry applesauce
1 eggn

Toppping:
1/4 c. flour
2-3 TB brown sugar
1 TB butter, cold

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray or line a muffin tin.
• In medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon. Stir in oats
• In small bowl, combine brown sugar, buttermilk, applesauce and egg. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir until JUST combined.
• Divide batter among muffin cups. For streusal topping: combine flour and sugar. Sprinkle over muffin tops. Thinly slice and cube TB of butter and place a few little pieces on each muffin top.
• Bake 18 min or until done. Enjoy! (I think the flavor comes out better when cool:)

What's a mommy to do?

I ask you: what is a mommy to do when she and her kiddos are stuck inside for 3 days sick?

Make some Raspberry Applesauce (tasty and smelled delicious! I had to add a few more TB of sugar b/c the raspberries were tart. It's a strong flavored applesauce but delicious!)

And give it to her kids for snack...
And can a couple of jars...

And build a fort for two whiny, grumpy, stuffed up, stuck in the house-driving their mother and themselves crazy kids!
Throw in some books and cups of water..

And you have peace and quiet for 40 minutes.

What else is a mommy to do?

Knock, Knock Jokes and Conversations!

My Big Boys!!


The boys have been so funny lately! It is so fun to listen to them have conversations with each other. Sometimes they are hilarious because they make no sense!

For example: Each meal I let the boys choose which color of dishes they want to eat out of. They have some standard colors that they almost always choose. Samuel likes the pink because it is closest to red and Zakkai likes orange, which is usually his favorite color (unless of course, it is blue:). So a conversation might go like this:
S: "I choose pink! Zakkai can choose orange."
Z: "No, I choose orange!"
S: "No, I choose pink!"
Z: "I choose orange! Samel gets pink!"
S: "I choose pink and Zakkai gets orange!"

It's so ridiculous because they are arguing over nothing and are getting exactly the colors that they want!
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Or Samuel might try to drive Zakkai (and me!) crazy:
S: "Hey, Zakkai, your name is Zakkaw.
Z: (gets enraged) "NO, Samel! My name is NOT Zakkaw!"
S: (giggling obnoxiously) "Zakkawwwww!"
Z: (on the verge of tears)"Samel! Do not say that! It is ZAKKAI!"
S: (opens his mouth and I cut in and break up the fight)
The end.
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Tonight we introduced the concept of knock-knock jokes because "Joke" starts with a J! (J week, people!) Of course most of the jokes we remember from when we were kids go totally over the boys' heads, especially Zakkai, who was only half paying attention while devouring his dinner.

Remember: "Knock Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?" (repeat several times just to annoy)
Then:
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Orange."
"Orange who?"
"Orange you glad I didn't say banana?!!" (you know you're laughing!)
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so we threw out the few knock-knocks that we could remember and then Samuel decided to make up his very own, very first knock-knock joke. Ready?

"Knock knock." (bright sparkling eyes)
"Who's there?" (waiting to see what he comes up with..)
"Apple!" (big grin on his face)
"Apple who?" (what's the punch line going to be?!)
"Um...apple angelina!" (he burst into giggles! Ah, the joy of childhood!)

So this fascinating joke fest at the dinner table led Ben to get out his computer and look up knock knock jokes because he's like that, you know:) Most of the time, I rolled my eyes because they were l.a.m.e.!!! But then he found one that went like this:
"Knock knock"
"Who's there?"
"Dot."
"Dot who?"
"Dots for me to know and you to find out!"

Is it weird that we both burst out laughing? Maybe that gives you an idea of our sense of humor:) or lack thereof....

H and I!

Greetings from the home of the sick people! We have now added Zakkai and Ben to our list of sickies:( Whatever this cold/virus is, it's nasty! I had a terrible sore throat for 5 days before finally going into a nasty head cold today. Hopefully, we will be on the mend soon!

I'm sorry I never posted about "H week." With so much going on, I couldn't fit it in and decided to lump it in with I:) I was sure you wouldn't mind!

H is for:

Hand Painting! These went into their alphabet books.


Hot Chocolate! Z, our chocolate lover, guzzled his lukewarm treat down with gusto but Samuel only took the teensiest sip ever and declared that hot chocolate was not for him. HUH?!

Horse! We saw this mini mama-horse at the apple orchard.


H was also for: Hungry, Helping, Hugs, Hands, Healthy, the song "If You're Happy and You know it!", Henry the train, Hello, books: "Snug House, Bug House", "Happy, Healthy Monsters", "The Hat" and "Hop on Pop." (That's all I can think of from my drugged-snotted brain:)

"I" Week is for:

Painting with Ice Cubes! A wonderful craft given to me by my friend J.
You sprinkle jello powder, any color/flavor, on paper and have the kids "paint" with ice cubes with popsicle sticks in them. At first it didn't work and the boys kept looking up at me like, "This is supposed to be fun?!" But as soon as the ice started melting, voila! It turned into a really great craft! And a little snack, too:)
Trying really hard to melt his ice...

Ikea! Ah, I love the excuse of alphabet weeks to make fun trips! I let the boys play with the toys for awhile and them treated them to a super cheap Ikea lunch! They had a blast!

Making an ice cream cone craft with Daddy! (closer pic to come)

Homemade Ice Cream! The boys chose peppermint flavor and we added crushed peppermint candies, chopped chocolate chips and some red food coloring. Yummy!

"Can I eat this now, daddy?"

And if your favorite color is red, who wouldn't love this ice cream?!

I is for Ice Cream Cones!

And last but not least, the Alphabet Wall! The "H" is made out of some paper they painted with their hands and the I is made out of the ice cube craft paper!

"I" is also for: illness (ha!), itchy, ice cubes, S learning how to spell "Ice", books: "Impatient Ian" and "Guess How Much I Love You" (yeah, I know that's stretching it but it's hard to find books with "I" titles!!), interesting, Indiana, and Illinois!

Hopefully, my brain will be clear enough to come up with good ideas for "J" week this week. As always, I'm always up for suggestions!

Craftiness and Exercise

Happy Friday! I am thankful that the week is almost over. It was really busy and I am fighting some cold or something, too.

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This morning I finished my latest crafty adventure. I say "adventure" because I am always learning and striving to perfect. I'm pretty proud of this one! My friend asked if I would make her special shirts for her two little ones to announce her latest pregnancy to her family. I took on the task and they turned out really well, with only a minor meltdown for me in the making:)

I stitched around the letter's on the sister shirt in pink.

The little boy's shirt is stitched in blue!
Aren't they cute??!! I love how I feel after I finish something like this. It confirms how much I would love to sell crafty things someday and how much pleasure I get out of making them for people.

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This is my newest workout dvd!

Another Jillian Michael's circuit exercise DVD. I must really be crazy! She always looks creepy on the covers of her videos, don't you think? Sorry, I got off track...

I loved the 30 Day Shred so much and felt like it not only changed how my body looked, but also how I felt about myself. Not to mention, who can't fit 20 min workouts into their day?!

The workout is longer on this video but you can choose different sections and not do the whole thing. Yesterday I did the warm-up, chose 3 different circuits (Shoulders and Chest, Triceps and Thighs and Lower Body Core, and, Cool down) and finished in about a half an hour. Man, oh, man are my triceps, butt and stomach sore today!

That's why I love Jillian: I feel like it really works everytime! Too bad she looks so creepy on the covers...

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And now I am off to undo my glorious work-out by eating homemade pizza and homemade....oh, wait, I can't tell you! It's to share for "I week" later this weekend:)