What's Happening

What's happening right now at our house is definitely Christmas. You're probably thinking "Christmas? What about Halloween and Thanksgiving?" and you're absolutely right. But someone added cinnamon smell to our car via Stater Bros. pinecones and so the Christmas season has officially begun at our house. Also, all the magazines we love to peruse for toys have been arriving in our mailbox, so the result is a daily update of cut and paste lists for Santa. So that's what we've been up to. Christmas is the favorite holiday around here by far and we can't wait to get started!

Summer's Over Already?

I can't believe it! This summer went by so fast! We are halfway through the Half-Blood Prince, kept up with chores pretty well, but didn't get to the lemonade stand. Well, that's okay. It was a great summer and school starts tomorrow. Already!

SuMmErTiMe!

One week left,and boy are we ready for SuMmErTiMe! This Summer we really are going to have a lemonade stand! This Summer, no one is going to fight, ever! This Summer we are going to read all of the remaining Harry Potter books and write in our journals everyday! This Summer we are going to have a Friday Fun Day trip every week! This Summer we are going to finish renovating our house! This Summer we are going to keep our livingspaces immaculately clean! This Summer we will stick to our schedule and practice our times tables and swim and watch movies and make some really great memories! Yay for Summertime!!

Grandpa

Reasons Why We Love Grandpa:

1. He let us style his hair.
2. He introduced us to peanut butter and maple syrup, our favorite sandwich.
3. He could wrestle with the best of them!
4. He grew a beautiful garden.
5. He loved to travel,and brought us toys and goodies from his trips.
6. He wore really cool plaid shirts, like ours.
7. He loved bright colors.
8. He took lots of pictures.
9. He taught us to be respectful.
10. He always had time to listen to what we had to say.

Missing you Grandpa! You will be in our hearts forever.

On Motherhood and Spiders

I have never been a fan of spiders. If you check my facebook fan list, you will not see spiders. Not that spiders don't have their place in nature, they absolutely do, and there is something ethereal about a dew-kissed web glittering in the sun. The patterns are beautiful and simple, and some spiders make ones that are amazingly well proportioned, as if they have a built in ruler that scans the length of the silk and gives a digital readout at the bottom of their field of vision. But, unfortunately for all their craftsmanship, spiders themselves are less than beautiful because, well, they bite.

Even still, I would not squish one for that reason, and do not advocate pointless squishing of any living thing. But there is one thing that gives me the courage and ability to squish the ever-menacing creepy crawly scampering across my wall, and that is motherhood.

I did have a spider friend once. For years, she and her progeny lived in the corner behind my washer. She was my Charlotte, a wood spider, who I knew would never bite anyone living in my house, so I let her stay. It was oddly comforting to see her everytime I closed the washer lid and lifted the button to the sound of rushing water. She was always there, a friendly constant in my life. My boys would climb on top of the washer and just watch her. No one ever disturbed her. To do so seemed irreverent. We just happily coexisted in our own space.

But spiders are like humans in the sense that no two are alike. For some reason, our yard attracts large numbers of black widows. Just the sight of a black widow creates a sense of forboding, maybe because her venom can paralyze your nervous system and cause painful contractions of all your muscles, including your heart. Yeah, that's enough to create forboding, especially if you are a parent. My husband has to spray and squish them every so often to keep the population down. No one takes joy in this spider massacre, but it is necessary to protect the kids. It's hard for them to understand without going into detail, why we squish the black widow, but tenderly care for the lady bug. When they're little we keep it at a simple "they bite" and they understand without knowing that they are willing to kill you for no apparent reason. "They bite" is plenty of information.

In retrospect, I was really always afraid of spiders. When I was a little girl, my mom and dad would squish them for me and that would keep me "safe" from bites, or crawling on me, or if they were to happen to grow 20 feet and suddenly decide they wanted to squish me. Mom and Dad were always there, ready to squish. I never squished my own spiders. Even in college, sitting in Entomology class, marvelling at the wonder of spinnerets, when the discussion came to fangs, chills ran up and down my spine. But then I became a mother, and everything changed.

Books's birth was the most awakening experience of my life. He was precious, beautiful, and completely reliant upon me for everything. I could not even fathom allowing a spider to harm him. Suddenly, spiders were small.

I wonder if the bear and hen go through this same transformation, from relying upon others to preserve your life to sacrificing it to preserve your young. In that sense, we have much in common with animal life. Fear leaves and the only remnant is this aggression toward predators. Like a mother wolf, teeth bared and growling at the approaching threat, babies huddled behind her. She seems to be saying stay away from my babies or one of us is going to die. Circle of life. Or maybe I watch too much Planet Earth. Or too much Lion King. :) I'm sure husbands and fathers must experience this same sense of protectiveness, but I imagine for him the protective feeling encompasses the children and the mother. For animal parents it is one of their many instincts, but even for us humans it doesn't require any conscious thought that we need to protect them, it just happens, instinctive for us as well, apart from and above our enlightened understanding.

So without thought, I sacrifice a flip-flop, foot of toilet paper, or Kleenex to slay the dragons and keep my babies safe. Unfortunately, dragons still come. Last week, Bob woke up covered in little red itchy spots. I thought fleas had come in our house through some sleeping bags that had been stored in our garage, so I changed all the bedding and vacuumed and washed all the laundry, thinking that would solve the problem. I had checked all around and under the bed and there were no webs, so I figured it must be fleas. But a few nights later, Books was bitten too. Then this morning, the boys find me and say, "Mom, we know what's been biting us, can you get it?" So I follow them into their room and sure enough, there's a garden spider, deer in the headlights, caught climbing to the ceiling. I take my flip-flop and squish him. Whew... sighs of relief flow through the room from four little bodies. There is once again peace in the land, and I am happily the mother of four safe babies.

California Adventure Day

Belle

Sitting down to wait for the brudders to ride the Grizzly River Rapids ride.

Buzz, Books, and Bob after a yummy sour dough sandwich lunch.

Buzz playing hide and seek. He's hiding in the picture.

The kids were so excited they put Mickey on the Ferris Wheel!

Bob's Birthday

Friday was Bob's 8th birthday. We made rainbow cupcakes with double-decker frosting and fondant dinosaurs. The kids enjoyed helping make the dinosaurs. The fondant is kind of like Play-doh, only edible. We bought ours at a cake supply this time, but I'm going to try making it soon. Here are what the cupcakes looked like:

Fun to make, but if I had it to do over again I'd put the dinosaurs on after we got them to school because it was a warm day so the frosting started to melt and they started to slip. The kids didn't care, but it was kind of embarrassing to bring them to school that way. They still looked okay and got eaten. It made Bob happy because he loves sweets and was happy to have helped make them, and I think he enjoys showing off his younger siblings, too. The rainbow cupcake mix came out really great. You divide the batter into six parts and color each part a color of the rainbow, and then drop into the cups by spoonfuls.

Before we brought the cupcakes to school, we filled the familyroom with balloons and a few punching balls to surprise Bob when he got home. Later on we gave him his birthday present, a Nintendo DS with a Lego Indiana Jones game (which he has been begging for for a while now...) It really is amazing. If you blow on the screen, Indiana Jones blows out torches and blows up rafts. They are excited to get more games and I'm thinking it's time to reinforce video game time limits.

For dinner we went to Red Robin, where we saw Books's wonderful 2nd grade teacher, and had a nice dinner. We were pretty tired after that, and decided to save the birthday cake for the next morning so we could all crash when we got home! Really busy day, but I think one Bob will remember as being fun and a special one for him.

Chicken Nuggets

Here is an inexpensive way to make homemade chicken nuggets that are pretty close to the kind you get at fast food restaurants using chicken breasts.

Chicken Nuggets

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cubed
2 1/4 cups self-rising flour
2 T olive oil
2 T cornstarch
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 egg
2 cups water
1 quart vegetable oil for frying

Heat 1 quart of oil in pot or large skillet for frying. Using a candy thermometer clipped to the side of the pot or other thermometer, bring temperature to 360 degrees F. Combine flour, oil, cornstarch, salt, pepper, egg, and water. Mix well. Add chicken cubes to flour mixture and stir until all the chicken is coated. Using a pair of large tongs, drop each chicken piece into the pot separately and cook about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Makes about 50 chicken nuggets.

St. Patty's Day, Traditions

We are big time St. Patty's Day fans in our house because first of all, it's our wedding anniversary and second of all, we come from a strong Irish background on Grandma B's side. So we had the traditional Corned Beef dinner with a sweet Irish BBQ Sauce and Pistachio Salad and Irish Soda Bread and Blarney Stones for dessert. Blarney Stones are a homemade white cake cut into squares and frozen and then frosted with a thick gingerbread cookie-type icing and rolled in salted peanuts and refrozen. I was afraid to make the Irish Soda Bread because baking bread scares me. Yeast just does not like me. But I've been thinking the problem is that I have not been kneading my bread enough and this is why it does not rise all pretty and fluffy like I want it to. So this time I left it stuck in the Kitchen Aid with a bread hook until it had a "gluten window", which means when you tear a piece off and stretch it the bread does not break right away, but forms a thin "window" in the middle that is almost transparent. It seemed to work, and by the time it was done rising and baking it was quite fluffy and beautiful.

The one on the right has a Gluten Window

For something fun this year we decided to make Leprechaun traps, using the examples in this month's Family Fun Magazine. Here's the link: http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/feature/ff0309-to-catch-a-leprechaun/ff0309-to-catch-a-leprechaun3.html. They have several really cute Leprechaun trap ideas. Bob painted the rocks and pots and glued them together, and then he and Buzz made some rainbows for the backdrops. We left them on the table overnight and in the morning, the Leprechaun had run through them and rearranged them and left Leprechaun tracks! He also managed to turn our milk green... Sneaky little bugger!

Leprechaun traps before bedtime on March 16th

Leprechaun traps before breakfast on the morning of March 17th... Sneakers!! :)

The boys decided to take their Leprechaun traps to school and got to show their friends and in Buzz's class, a Leprechaun even ran through his trap and swiped his pot of gold!! It was fun and the kids' friends had fun too as one of the teachers gave them golden painted beans to take home as a remembrance.

Sundays and Callings

I love Sundays. I love the quietness of the day, the time to relax and clear my head, and most of all, I love that my family is together. Sunday in our house is often spent watching Planet Earth (http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/planet-earth/planet-earth.html) or The Living Scriptures (http://www.livingscriptures.com/), preparing lessons or going to meetings. I currently serve as the Secretary in our Relief Society, which is very enjoyable. For the past umpteen years I'd been in Young Women and Primary, and loved them both. I always have mixed feelings about changes, not wanting to leave my current callings, but excited to see what the future will bring, and love all three auxiliaries equally. I think this calling in the Relief Society is for me entirely. I feel like my battery is being charged right now, as I catch up on socializing and homemaking skills, and refresh doctrinal knowledge. Also much more of my time is being focused on my own children right now, and so I'm sure this is part of the plan, as they are enjoying this extra "bonding time" and so am I. I feel grateful to be in this good place in my life right now. Being a mother is the greatest, and I don't really want this "full nest" stage to ever end, but know that my children will grow up and things will change, but I also know that in a way they will stay the same. As my children were babies, I looked with dread to the future when they would develop their independence, and they have, but the blessing I have found in raising children is that as they become independent they do not grow farther away, but closer. I'm not sure how this happens exactly, but I'm just grateful for it, and hope with all my heart that it continues forever.

Buzz''s Birthday

Buzz is a 6 year-old!!

Buzz turned 6 last week! Buzz loves robots and wanted robot cupcakes, so on Thursday Belle and I brought him robot cupcakes at school to celebrate. When I made them I was picturing the whole body and legs and everything and wasn't sure how to do that, but this is what they looked like...


...no legs, but the black licorice worked well for arms. The boys and I made the heads the night before with paper piecing and then laminated them and taped them to a toothpick. That was fun because the kids played with the robot heads afterwards and got to take them home. So even though they were legless, they were okay.

The next day we went to Disney. It was fun, we got to go on about 6 rides in 4 hours. Buzz wanted a remote control Eve and Wall-e for his birthday, and we had money from Grandma to add to his birthday gift. Dad found a Wall-e and Evah at the Mall on Saturday, so Canon got his Wall-e and Evah. They are really neat... they actually communicate with each other.

We went to Chili's for dinner, which was fun because a large number of people sang Happy Birthday to Buzz, and they gave him this superyummy chocolate shake dessert! When Belle first learned to say Wall-e, she always called him "Walle-cake", so Buzz decided he wanted a "Walle-cake" for his birthday. I think all-in-all, Buzz had a pretty good 6th birthday.

Mac 'n' Cheese

Books loves to eat Macaroni and Cheese and always has. He loves the boxed kind, but his favorite is old-fashioned Mac 'n' Cheese done on the stove. Here is his favorite recipe:

Mac 'n' Cheese

cooked elbow macaroni
2 T butter
2 T flour
2 cups milk
1/2 lb American Cheese, chopped
shredded cheddar cheese to taste
10 shakes of salt

Melt butter in medium saucepan. Add flour and stir until a paste forms. Pour milk into pan. Add cheeses and salt. Stir continually until cheese melts and sauce comes to a boil, scraping the bottom of the pan.

Pour sauce over macaroni and serve. To reheat, add a splash of milk, microwave 30 seconds, and stir.

Love and Bragging

By now it's probably apparent that I love to brag obnoxiously about my kids. I do and I'm okay with it. I think they are great and deserve sincere praise. I believe all kids are great and deserve sincere praise, and don't get it nearly as much as they need it. Are my kids perfect. NO WAY! But are they great? Absolutely. Does that make me a supermom? Lol, not by a longshot! They are great because of who they are, and only they can make the choices they make, I can't make them for them. No mom can. We love them and set boundaries, and if we are firm in keeping them we can teach them our values, but we can't make them into who they are. Their greatness is entirely their doing. That's what I believe anyway, and thats why I believe wholeheartedly in bragging about kids.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 T vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs until light and fluffly. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Add chocolate chips.

Form into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes.

Mini Pizzas

Easy Mini-Pizzas aka "Kid Pizza"

1 Bag Crispy English Muffins
1 Jar Ragu Pizza Sauce
Whole Mozzerella Cheese, grated
Pepperoni

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place english muffin halves on a cookie sheet. Spread with pizza sauce, top with mozzerella cheese, and pepperoni. Bake until cheese is melted and pizzas are crispy.

Mary and Martha

I've always been intrigued by the story of Mary and Martha. I think the understanding of it has always been above my comprehension. It has always seemed to me that what both women were doing was valuable, and I could never understand why Mary was choosing the better part.

Martha was busy working around the house, taking care of the physical needs of the family. She noticed that Mary was not helping, and asked the Savior to bid her to help.

Mary was sitting at the Savior's feet, listening to Him speak.

Jesus told Martha she was careful and troubled about many things, and that Mary would be allowed to do what she was doing because she had chosen the good part, which would not be taken from her.

Maybe Jesus was teaching a lesson in priorities. Although what Martha was doing was much needed in the household, it seems like Mary was more in tune with the spirit of the Savior's teachings. He taught that the first and great commandment of all the commandments is to love God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, and the second is to love one another as we love ourselves. Maybe Mary understood that those commandments come first and understood what it means to give them priority. Mary wasn't being lazy as Martha may have surmised, she was actually serving.

So Martha was hardworking and well engaged, but Mary understood the purpose for the engagement, which is love, and love was her priority. This helps me understand what things I need to do first and where my priorities should be. Although I know part of making my family happy is to keep things clean and organized, if I am in tune with my family members and able to surmise what they need from me, I can be like Mary, choosing the better part.

I know that sometimes reading a book to one of my kids is more important than cleaning behind the sofa, or anything else I could be doing at that moment, for that matter. There are so many busy moments from the past that I wish I could relive and sit down and read that book with one of my kids. But I can't. Parenthood doesn't come with instructions, and a person doesn't suddenly become perfect when they become a parent. They continue to grow and hopefully with each child become more patient and giving of self, so I can forgive myself for my past parenting mistakes, and look forward to the daily opportunities to choose to make my family happy.

"38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heart his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
Luke 10: 38-42

Clam Chowder

One of our family favorites is Clam Chowder. It's easy (thanks to Campbell's) and good on a cold night. We make ours New England style. It reminds me of nautical things, boardwalks, beaches, and the East coast. It's good with a loaf of soft french bread for dipping. This is the recipe:

2 stalks celery, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 cans Campbell's Cream of Potato Soup
4 cans Campbell's Cream of Celery Soup
3 cans whole or 2% milk
2 cans clams
cracked black peppercorns
shredded parmesan cheese
Goldfish crackers or Cheez Its

Boil celery and carrots until softened. Drain. Into pot with vegetables, add soups, milk, clams, and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Dish into bowl and top with shredded parmesan and crackers. Stay warm. :)

Rainbows and Silver Lining

Several years ago, our family decided to take a vacation to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park (with a stop off in Canonville, Utah just for fun). We wanted to have a rugged and bonding experience, so we rented a motorhome and drove the trip. I think it was one of the best weeks we've had together. I don't think any of us will forget passing around cheese and crackers and summer sausage in the car, picnicking in an open field in the middle of nowhere with our baseball equipment handy, or especially, the rate at which our hearts were pumping as two year-old Buzz went racing down a trail on the other side of the wooden fence at the top of the Grand Canyon (I think just remembering it raises my blood pressure!...) 

Those are some fantastic (and frightening!) memories. But mostly, I remember long talks in that motorhome as we drove. The weather was so beautiful, with a clear blue sky and scattered showers. When we arrived at Bryce Canyon, we were awed and inspired by the beauty of its creation. It was surreal. The pottery coral colors glowed against the cornflower blue sky, as did the still wet blacktop road and glossy greenery surrounding the viewpoint washed clean from the recent rainfall. But the most breathtaking vision was the rainbow beginning at one of the peaks in the rocks and disappearing into the sky. It reminded us of the rainbow given so long ago, as a promise to the good-hearted Noah, and of the promises we had made to each other, and to our Father in Heaven. 

As we drove along that stretch of road we encountered occasional clouds, some light and fluffy, some dark and grey. The white ones hung in the sky, fluffy cotton balls inviting us to rest our weary heads upon them, but playfully staying high in the sky out of our reach. Then there were the dark ones. When they moved across they dominated everything, grabbing the light with a sort of natural osmosis and laying like a wet blanket over our once happy sky. Our mood fell and smiles melted. But as we gazed out the windows wishing for the light to return, we noticed something. Each dark cloud was illuminated from behind by a streak of light, even brighter than anything we had seen before. The silver lining. We reflected upon the silver linings in our own lives, and how when our dark clouds come and threaten to smother our happiness, that silver lining is ever-present, and ready to shine through the darkness, and it does when we allow ourselves to see it there behind the clouds. 

Today is a cloudy day. I am smiling because as I picked up my children at various times, two of them pointed upwards, and gazing up at the sky, proclaimed that our sky is full of silver lining, and that makes our sky particularly beautiful today.

Disney Dayz

Buzz with Tigger and Pooh. They were so much fun!

We are a Disney family. We love to go there in the rain, day or night, any day of the week, and never get tired of it. We especially love to go in the rain because the lines are short (5-20 minutes usually) and well, we just like water. Disneyland really is a happy place for us. We took Books to Disneyland for his 11th birthday on Tuesday and then we had a day off of school on Monday, so we took the opportunity to get another Disneyfix. It was really pouring in the morning, but we loved it~! The kids were able to ride Big Thunder Mountain, the Matterhorn, and Peter Pan in 20 minutes, and Pinocchio, Snow White, Dumbo, Star Tours and Splash Mountain were all 5 minutes. We fast passed Indy, and Small World and Space Mountain were each 10 minutes. We walked right onto Winnie the Pooh and Pirates of the Carribean. Small World was fun because they added dolls that represent Disney characters. The lady who works in the Winnie the Pooh candy store said there are 32 of them, and we were able to find 24. We also discovered they have some really delicious candy in their candy shops. We tried a Valentine candy apple (yum!) and the Goofy Cotton Candy is the most delicious cotton candy ever! We are looking forward to going back one day next month.

Buzz, Belle, and Bob with Lightening McQueen on Books's Birthday

Chicken Noodle Soup Simple

Mom's do not get sick days. It's the law.

So what do we do when we are "not sick" but still have a week of dinners to provide our hungry families? Order pizza, of course. But since in our house we are spoiled by Costco pizza and the only other pizza we will eat is Petrillos, and neither of those deliver, one remaining option for us is chicken noodle soup. When I am "not sick" and go to Costco to pick up my pizza, I like to get 2 roaster chickens to make dinner easier for the next few nights. After arriving home, they can be carved to produce plenty of pre-cooked and seasoned chicken to create with. That chicken is soup for my soul, the springboard of many semi-homemade meals for a not-sick mom. Some ideas for things we like at our house are Chicken Enchiladas (still working on mole for these... but a friend has given some good authentic ideas...), Chicken Quesadillas with salsa and sour cream, Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Chicken Caesar Salad, and of course, Chicken Noodle Soup. This is my recipe for Simple Chicken Noodle Soup for a "not sick" mom:

Simple Chicken Noodle Soup

12 oz. package egg noodles
3 cups frozen mixed vegetables
6 cans chicken broth
3 cups roaster chicken, carved
dash of pepper
dash of celery seed

dash of italian seasoning

Cook noodles according to package directions. When there are 5 minutes of cooking time left, add 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables. Cook for remaining time and drain. To large stock pot, add chicken broth, chicken, pepper, celery seed, and italian seasoning. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Add noodles and vegetables. Serve hot with sour dough toast.

Reflections on Laundry

What is it that makes clean laundry so special? Is it the warm, fresh smell that comes from the dryer vent or the comforting hum as the clothes are being transformed from a dirty heap into neat stacks of soft, fluffy, clean apparel? I admit that sometimes laundry is tedious for me, and mine is not always done in a timely and efficient manner. Socks are lost, clean clothes are mixed with dirty and rewashed, and yes, there is even a hunt to make sure they are all put in the right bins before they go to the washing machine. I am far from the perfect laundress.

But are there many things better than snuggling up with a warm, soft, fresh blanket that someone has just washed for you, and brought to you straight from the dryer on a cold, wet day? As I wash and fold my piles of laundry today and reflect upon the people I care about, it is apparent to me that laundry is love. It is one small and simple way to tell my family they matter to me, and with this thought my laundry is not at all a task, but a joy.

Books's Birthday

Tomorrow is Books's birthday. I can't believe my baby will be 11! He is growing so fast and I am so proud of the young man he is becoming. He is strong and happy and a good big brother. He hasn't asked for a gift, except that he wants to go to Disneyland with his brothers and sister, so we will be making a visit to Mickey's House tomorrow. One thing about Books that makes me proud of him is his respect for others. Books always treats others with respect, uses respectful titles, and is a great defender. Happy Birthday, Books! You know who you are, and I am so proud of you! Love, Mom

English Toffee

Every Christmas, my older brother used to make English Toffee as a gift for family members. He would package it beautifully and the aroma was heavenly. It was the most delicious candy in the universe. I have tried many times to duplicate it, but mine is never as good.

True to my heritage, however, I make English Toffee for the kids' teachers for Christmas every year. It's not my brother's, but when I don't rush it, it's pretty good. Here's my recipe:

8 sticks of butter
4 cups of sugar
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped pecans

Grease 2 cookie sheets with butter. In a large saucepan, melt butter. After the butter is melted, add sugar. Bring to a boil. With a candy thermometer clipped to the side of the saucepan, cook and stir the mixture until the candy thermometer reads "hard crack" stage (between 300 and 320 degrees). Remove from heat and pour toffee onto cookie sheets. While the toffee is cooling, melt chocolate chips in a small saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly. When toffee is cool and hardened, spread melted chocolate over candy. Sprinkle with pecans and refrigerate at least one hour or until completely set.

note** the biggest mistake I make with English Toffee is undercooking it. If you don't cook it long enough, it is chewy and sticks to your teeth. When it is cooked long enough, it is kind of crumbly and easy to break. You can break it by placing a knife about two inches from the edge and forcing it into the candy. This creates a nice random break in the surface. Then it's ready to eat!

Friday Fun Day!

Every Friday is something to celebrate in our house because we have what we call "Friday Fun Day". Friday fun day means the week is over and it's time to kick off your shoes, enjoy some Playstation, and eat some ice-cream. We have tried various ice-creams: Cold Stone's, Foster Freeze, McDonalds Soft Serve, Ben and Jerry's, and 31 Flavors. So far Foster Freeze's rootbeer freeze is the winner, and most requested choice by my kids. It really is fabulous.

Friday Fun Days are therapy for all of us. The boys get to visit the amazing worlds of Star Wars Legos and Looney Tunes and Belle and I get to enjoy some quiet time just the two of us. She likes to sit on the back of my chair and brush my hair while I type.

Swim Meet 1/09

The boys swam in a dual meet last Saturday. It rained! Books says it is fun to swim in the rain because it feels like you are getting a back massage. Books improved his 50 Free time by 1 second. We use our in-between events time to do reading logs. We're still working on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I was a timer for the first time also. I think everyone swam really really fast. Maybe too fast. Oh well. Fun day!