2012 Blue Jeans Week 5

I love my approach to documenting our lives.  I try to take a picture a day--of normal things, but as a friend pointed out this week, the snapshots usually don't show how busy or crazy things are.  I don't have photos of my kids screaming at each other or me screaming at my kids :)  I don't have pictures of the kids and Ben racing out the door 5 minutes late in the morning, or rushing to get dinner eaten before we run out the door for some other thing.  Maybe that is a good thing :)  I want to remember my days and the little things that made them special and make me happy--me yelling or my kids fighting really don't make me happy, but that does happen, and probably more than it should, but it is important to remember the smiles and the little things.  So, I take pictures of things that will help me remember the smiles, the little things, and what makes me happy.  Enjoy!

Sunday:  We celebrate our state's birthday every year with a sunflower cake.  This year we were rushed and frosting it didn't go as well as planned :), but it still tasted good!  More details if you want on this post.

Monday:  We have had spring weather in January, and today Ben and Mr J made a train track with the sidewalk chalk to run his trains outside

Tuesday:  Laundry day.  It has been my firm tradition since we got married that I only do laundry once a week--Tuesdays are my laundry days.  If you want anything cleaned any other day of the week, you are more than welcome to do it yourself ;)  my laundry mat is only open on Tuesdays.

Wednesday:  Spelling words are a part of life right now.  We try to come up with fun ways to study them.  Spelling them with letter magnets on the fridge is something Mr J likes a lot.  Anything that makes spelling more fun is worth it.

Thursday:  So I have this yoga DVD that I never use.  The kids found it and wanted to try it out.  I think they laughed more than anything.

Friday:  We got some rain, and Mr J went out in it to get the mail. 

Saturday:  Miss E has this fascination with cleaning out my fridge and organizing it.  I have no problem with her doing it, but she does get kind of cold, so she wore her gloves and winter hat to clean it out and organize today. 

Hope you have a good week and can capture the moments of happiness in your lives!

Cooking Tip #398

As I have mentioned before I am a "so easy and simple" cook, and I have learned a lot in the 16+ years I have been married and cooking, yet sadly I still have a lot to learn.  New lesson learned this Sunday. . .

Do not frost a warm cake--only frost a completely cooled cake

Cooking tip:  slightly warm does not equal completely cool

Sunday was Kansas Day, and we celebrate it at our house.  We have the tradition of making a sunflower cake on Kansas Day.

Some years it looks better than others :) (circa 2005)

So yesterday for various reasons that I won't bore you with we didn't get the cake made and out of the oven until almost 7 p.m.  We have scriptures, prayers, and the kids go to bed at 8, so there was no way the cake would be cool by 8.  The kids were not negotiable on having the cake tomorrow.  Sunday was Kansas Day, not Monday, so I said, okay, it is mostly cooled, just slightly warm, it shouldn't matter that much should it?  Um, yes it does matter.  My kids were standing, watching, and saying, "oh, dear Mom," but then followed it with, "don't worry Mom it will still taste good," as they piped on the flower and put all the chocolate chips on it.  I love my kids.  So at 8 p.m. we enjoyed a piece of slightly warm, badly frosted Kansas Sunflower cake, and everyone went to bed happy with visions of sunflower seeds dancing in their heads.

Celebrating Where you Live

Okay, we are going on our 3rd no school day here because of the blizzard of 2011, but we are surviving!  Over the weekend we celebrated our great state's 150th birthday!  Happy Birthday Kansas!

This is a tradition we have had in our family for a long time.  We always celebrate Kansas Day by making a "sunflower" cake.  This year the kids also made lots of their own sunflowers and signs to decorate the house with. 

Do you celebrate the state you live in?  I think it is a great thing.  My kids always look forward to it.  After New Years they say, "Kansas Day is coming up!"  January just needs a holiday to look forward to :)

This year we also made these cute sunflower cupcakes to take to our neighbors.  We put Hershey's Kisses upside down for the middle.  Celebrate where you live.  Celebrate life.

Being Consistent

Don't get me wrong, I love what I do. I have always wanted to be a mom and be able to stay at home with my kids. I feel so blessed to be able to do that, but sometimes being a parent is hard. It can be overwhelming, teaching them to eat, sit-up, walk, talk, potty train (HATE that!), wipe their nose, say please and thank you, cough in their elbow, wipe their bottom, eat their veggies, clean their room, say their prayers, read, be nice, don't hit, love one another, serve others, be honest, be polite, do your homework, wash the dishes, vacuum the floor, turn in your homework, and the list goes on, but above all as a parent you must BE CONSISTENT!!! That is a hard one I think. It is hard for me. Sometimes at night you crawl into bed exhausted and think, was I consistent in anything today besides yelling at my kids :) Yeah, some days are like that. You can get discouraged thinking you aren't consistent, you aren't doing things right, but then I got to thinking to day as I was decorating a cake for Kansas Day, because we celebrate that at our house, and we have for years. Maybe I am not too bad at being consistent. Take a look. . .

So maybe I am consistent (at making a funny looking sunflower cake every 29th of January and hopefully some other things). But the important thing is to be consistent about being consistent--you have to keep trying--never give up. Love, laugh, and keep going, and enjoy those sunflower cakes, spilled milk, good-morning kisses, mountains of laundry, sweet bedtime prayers, arguing kids, snuggling to read stories, and endless errand lists because Life is sweet, very, very sweet, and I would consistently not want it any other way.