The Worst Cookbook Title EVER!

How in the world did the folks at Scholastic and Disney let this title slip past their editors?

Recipe For A Nightmare

Tonight, Judah was demonstrating with his toy suction-cup bow and arrow what knights (I'm assuming Medieval) used to do when they would "shoot em into the castle".

A little later, I heard him saying, "I need to get some fire on my arrows..."

Why do I suddenly feel like I should a.) destroy all household matches and b.) sleep with one eye open all night long?

Family Funnies

Daddy has had Jury duty all week.

Of course Jeff can't talk about the trial, but that hasn't stopped little Judah from peppering me with tons of questions about where daddy's been all week.

His 5 year old understanding about our legal system was a bit sketchy, and all he knew was that police arrest the bad guys (and gals), and that somehow they go to this place called a court where somehow a judge is involved and that people can end up going to jail.

After fielding an unusual number of questions about trials and courts and judges and jails, I finally said to him, "If the jury determines that the person on trial did break the law, then the Judge will eventually say, "Guilty" and the person who broke the law will go to jail."

"How long do they have to be in jail?"

"Well, that depends on what the person did. For a speeding tickets, you usually just have to pay a fine at the courthouse and attend defensive driving school. But if you get caught drunk driving, you can go to jail for a long time and get your license taken away. If you do something really bad like kill another person, you can go to prison for years. Sometimes people even have to go to prison for the rest of their lives for what they've done. That's why it's so important to obey the law."

I looked in the rear-view mirror and Judah looked crestfallen. "But I don't want daddy to go to jail!"

"Daddy's not going to go to jail...he's a juror."

Poor kid...no wonder he had so many questions!

I suppose now would be a good time to dig out a movie with a legal trial in it to show him exactly what being a juror is all about, to allay his fears as to why his daddy was at that big place called the courthouse.

:: :: :: ::

You know your child was born in the 21st Century when they are snuggled beside you on the sofa while listening to their favorite storybook being read then suddenly jump up to go to the restroom and say, "Can you please pause the book until I get back?"

:: :: :: ::

Judah has begun a new phase of life...learning his letters and numbers.

He's also a budding artist.

If I do say so myself, he's getting quite good at both writing and drawing.

Unfortunately, I've been finding evidence of it all over the house.

And I do mean all over the house.





And occasionally, when he sneaks into mom's scrapbooking supplies, on himself.



Because that wasn't enough of a canvas for his work, he also opted to spread out onto one of daddy's Bible commentaries. He's very proud of his penmanship, even if his J's tend to end up upside down most of the time.



**note to self: hide all spray paint and sharpie markers, stat!**

:: :: :: ::

Last Sunday morning, on the way out to the car for church, I overheard Jeff commending Judah for being fully prepared for the service, having remembered his Bible and everything.

Not seeing a Bible in Judah's hands, I wondered what Jeff meant, until I heard Judah mention, "It fits in my pocket."

Judah long ago lost his little orange Gideon's Bible.

Upon further investigation, I discovered a darling little black pocket-sized Bible with shiny gold edges on the pages...which I recognized from the Youth Group room at church.

Yes. The church Youth Leader's son stole a Bible!

Aghast, I mentioned this to him, and he quickly replied (albeit a bit shamefacedly), "No...I borrowed it."

**shakes head in shame**

Perhaps a little refresher course on the 10 Commandments is in order?

:: :: :: ::

Judah has had a playmate over this week.

They have gotten along famously this boy's boy and a girly girl.

Instead of playing house, they play "Campeen". Using Judah's very own little shovel and rake, they take along a couple of stuffed animal dogs and their coats, and they set up various camps around the back yard.

It's kept them happy for hours out in the fresh air and sunshine.

It wasn't until they cracked open Judah's costume tub that we ran into a little snafu.

Having dual sets of both cowboy and knight costume sets left over from the days when big brother was a little guy and we watched Cousin K on a regular basis, the kids were happy to pretend for at least an hour.

But our darling little guest drew the line when they switched from "Cowboy" to "Knights", and in her charming little girly girl voice said, "Dis knight helmet messes up my haiow!"



This morning, they've been playing with bathtub toys in the bathroom sink and it's gotten awfully quiet all of a sudden.

I'd better go check on them as I don't need any repeats of the toilet water incident.

Silly Boy

The other evening, we were driving home late from a day trip. The kids were wiped out in the back seat and Jeff and I were chatting about a situation we know of that has been heavy on our hearts recently.

In reply to something I'd brought up, he said, "That's like that passage that says, 'When your child asks for bread would you give him a Scorpion?'"

He couldn't remember the exact wording of the passage, but the principle was there, and was a perfect analogy for what we were discussing.

From the back seat, Judah says brightly, "I would like a scorpion! For a pet! Or a tarantula."

Oh, mercy.

Poor boy wants a pet of his own so badly.

Perhaps we'll need to be getting him a puppy sooner than we thought.

Somehow, caring for a puppy doesn't seem quite so bad in light of poisonous desert creatures living in our house. With us. With Judah as their caretaker and the ever present possibility of them escaping. Or inflicting injury on members of our household.

I wonder if we could talk him into a Pygmy goat?

Observations From The Back Pew

When our youngest was a baby, we had grand intentions of keeping him in the church service routinely so that he would learn to be quiet and attentive and reverent from a young age and remain so throughout his childhood. "Train up a child" and all that.

It seemed to have worked quite well for big brother.

But since our second son's birth, things...haven't quite worked out that way.

Little brother has a completely different personality.

Where big brother was compliant and eager to please mom and dad, rarely ever getting into trouble in church, little brother simply can't sit still. If he's not talking far too loudly, he's exploring the territory, checking for gum beneath the pews, drawing on the backs of offering envelopes, loudly getting his offering money ready for the ushers to collect, playing with the short pencil or pulling out the little gold plastic stopper thing that holds the empty communion cups on the back of the pew.

I find myself constantly on alert, trying to anticipate his next move and hopefully avert disaster.

I shudder to think what this will translate to when he gets to Kindergarten.

Anyway, on Christmas Eve, our family was sitting in our usual spot on the aisle within steps of the back door of the sanctuary. The quicker we can escort our distruptive dear son out of the sanctuary, the better for everyone.

That particular night he was hopped up on sugar from a jumbo candy cane and who knows what other goodies had been in a little stocking a friend had given him just before the service but which I hadn't discovered until he was nearly through with it, foil wrappers and cellophane hanging out of the pockets of his Christmas slacks.

The poor, sugar-deprived boy works pretty quick when goodies are involved, because there is always the possibility that mom will intercept it and opt to put it in her purse and 'save it for later'.

At any given time, I have at least a couple of suckers and some hard candies rattling around in the bottom of my purse from these search and destroy type occasions. Yes, Judah dislikes that I do this, but this mom wants to control the sugar intake around here as much as possible because I loathe taking care of sick children and expensive dental visits.

So our Music Director got up and said, "In a few minutes, we're going to have someone turn out the lights for our candlelight carol sing...but first, our Pastor will come and share a few announcements."

Singing Carols is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time. But as I tuned into what our Pastor was saying, I was kind of surprised to see the stage lights above him flicker off. Then on. Then the left bank of lights flipped off and on. Then the right.

Judah was no longer sitting with us in the pew. A quick glance to the light switches in the back of the sanctuary confirmed my suspicions. Yes, little brother had taken it upon himself to that 'someone' to turn out the lights. Only without having been asked to do so.

Talk about mortifying.

And yet oddly hilarity inducing.

I started to giggle silently. I tried to hold them back, but as I pondered over what might have possessed Judah to do such a thing, I ended up in a shoulder shaking silent laugh that I'm pretty sure was every bit as distracting as our boys antics.

By this time, Jeff had assessed the situation, grabbed him, returned the lights to their previous settings and was already back, little brother firmly wedged between us in the pews.

Then Jeff saw me trying not to laugh.

And then his shoulders began to shake, and we both went through that whole self-talk thing, Don't make eye contact...don't do it.

Failing miserably, we both ended up acting like a couple of misbehaving kids in church.

How could we possibly work up a good 'stern' face to discipline our son when we ourselves were acting up in church?

Anyway, all that to say how happy I was when little brother was invited to go with the elementary aged kids to Children's Church even though he's not yet a Kindergartner. Though I had my suspicions at first that she'd been asked by the powers that be to please, please take him out, we were pleased to hear week after week since that he's done very well in class.

Win-Win, I say. We get to hear a sermon--in it's entirety--without distraction and he gets to hear a Bible lesson in a place where it doesn't matter if he's got the wiggles. WooHOO!

So last evening, Jeff got a call asking if he could fill in for the Children's Church leader as she was moving to a new house this weekend.

This morning, we found ourselves waaaay out of our comfort zone, teaching little kids and singing every single Sunday School song that has motions to it during the course of the morning.

Just a quick aside: If you have small children and haven't worked with them in a classroom setting before, you might want to give it a whirl just once, because otherwise you have NO IDEA the kinds of information they unwittingly reveal to their teachers about your family.

Stories that for whatever reason are indelibly marked upon their brains are blurted out during the course of the class to the wide-eyed shock of their teachers.

After listening to a couple of sisters tell just such a story, which painted a very vivid picture about their household, I sat back feeling pretty confident that thus far, my boys hadn't ever been so... indiscreet. Started patting myself on the back for it, actually. In fact, I believe I may have actually got a little sanctimonious and proud.

Maybe you can see where this is going? That whole pride goeth before a fall thing?

Well, it all started when Jeff told about the 10 Lepers that were healed by Jesus, but only one returned to thank Him for it.

Jeff asked if any of the children knew what leprosy was. There was a hum of speculation and one very bright little girl raised her hand and said, "A skin disease that is very contagious."

"Very good!" Jeff replied. "In fact, it was so contagious that people who had it were kicked out of their homes and even their villages or cities, and had to live far away from other people because they were considered 'unclean'."

He went on to talk about how it was a "dread disease. It was incurable. Nobody wanted to catch it. It began with spots of discolored skin, which would then become somewhat gangrenous and gross and which would result in large, horrible, smelly sores which would eventually deaden nerve endings and could cause fingers to fall off."

Unexpectedly, Judah pipes up and says for everyone to hear, "Oh...like what my mom has!"

Say WHAT???

Being that I haven't had so much as a band-aid on my fingers in the last year I was mystified as to what would give him that idea.

As we laughingly discussed it on the way home, I thought perhaps Judah was referring to the 'Science Project incident' in which my thumbs were lacerated by a broken Christmas bulb.

Then Jeff reminded me that maybe it was the time I'd contracted ringworm from a friend's cat.

The time I may have overreacted just a tad because I knew how contagious and hard to get rid of that stuff was, and didn't want anyone in my family to get it.

Perhaps Judah had just picked up on the contagious part.

Incidentally, nothing works better for ringworm than lavender essential oil rubbed into the area and allowed to dry, then liquid bandages (in the nail polish type bottle) painted over the area and worn for 3-5 days until it smothers the ringworm to death.

Believe me...in the two weeks before I finally hit on that remedy, I tried everything from tea-tree oil on down to wasabi powdered horseradish...the latter of which about burned off the top three layers off my skin.

Anyway, after discussing this with little brother, we're pretty sure that's what he was referring to. Although there is a HUGE difference between ringworm and leprosy.

Oy, I cringe thinking about the kinds of word pictures our son has routinely painted about our family in the few short weeks he's been in that class.

It just doesn't get much worse than insinuating that your mom has leprosy!

Finally Well and A Yummy Valentine Recipe

**cough, cough**

It's kinda dusty here. Anyone out there?

Mom?

So having gained momentum from a very busy and productive Holiday season, I wrote out a big long to-do list for the month of January, and set to work on it.

I was on a roll and literally didn't have a spare moment to blog.

I made some serious headway on my 'list'. Supplies for more garden beds purchased? Check. Supplies all stacked together for my Fair project entries? Check. Craft room in some semblance of working order to work on Fair projects? Check. Crochet project for the fair done? Check.

Things were going great until I got slammed with a really bad cold (possible bronchitis) about midway through the month. That had me laid out flat for a week and on light duty for a couple of weeks thereafter.

Productivity ground to a halt. I was basically out of commish.

Which makes me so mad. I don't get sick often, but when I do, it's a doozy.

And Jekyll and Hyde-ish. The normally chipper, even-keeled version of me disappears and this cranky, pitiful person comes to stay in my place. Not pretty.

When my kids saw me moping around in my pajamas for the fourth day in a row and began to wonder if they'd ever get their mother back, I knew I had to rally, if not for my own sake, for theirs. But it still took me a couple of weeks to get my usual get-up-and-go back.

Thank God, I'm much better now.

Since then, of course, I've been playing catch-up on everything I fell behind on.

I even did some early spring cleaning. This is what my pantry looked like AFTER it was cleaned. I neglected to take a BEFORE shot...and probably wouldn't have posted it anyway, because it was that bad.



Things were once again going great...until Jeff and the boys got sick, too.

And wouldn't you know, both strep throat and whooping cough are going around, so I had to be extra vigilant. Fun.

Anyway, I have learned something valuable from these experiences.

At the very first twinge of a sore throat...use this stuff liberally. (We got ours from our local health food store.)



Nips. sore. throats. in. the. bud.

The Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) in it is some seriously awesome stuff for killing germs.

The same company also makes ear drops which worked wonders with the last ear ache our little guy had. Two applications in his ears and the infection was gone, never to return...and we didn't need to visit the doctor or get any prescription antibiotics.

Grapefruits are being hailed as something of a wonder food, and are full of all kinds of antioxidants as well as beneficial nutrients and compounds that help fight an array of illnesses.

I was reading recently that certain compounds found within the white pithy part around the fruit are very beneficial in fighting off the effects of Malaria. Powerful stuff, that grapefruit.

Anyway, when my friend's husband came down with his third case of strep throat recently, a friend of hers mentioned that "Echinacea and activated charcoal will have him feeling great in 2 days."

We've long been fans of Echinacea in our family, and though I've heard of activated charcoal caplets before, I'd never heard of it used for sore throats.

However, when Jeff came down with a major sore throat late Saturday evening, I remembered that little nugget and went out and got some. Swallowing was painful.

He's been on it for nearly 24 hours now, and woke up this morning feeling much improved from yesterday.

Anyway, it looks like that will now be a permanent part of our illness fighting arsenal.

:: :: :: ::

Yesterday evening was our annual Valentine Dinner at church.

I was to bring dessert.

Jericho had also needed some treats made to sell at his Awana bake sale Sunday morning.

What's a mom to do when she just doesn't feel like baking?

Make things that barely qualify as homebaked, that's what.

For the bake sale, we made 'Turtles' out of pretzyls (a rounded 'heart' shape), Rolos and pecans.

And for the dinner, I made Neopolitan Cake.



This cake cuts into beautiful slices.

For the cake, you will need:

• 1 chocolate cake mix (we used a dark chocolate mix)
  
• 1 strawberry cake mix
• 2, 8 inch pans (for each mix), greased and floured. If you happen to have a 10x3 round pan for wedding cakes, each mix will fit into that pan, making a very large layer cake for a crowd (which is what I did). I recommend that if using 8 inch round pans, that you wrap the extra cakes in plastic wrap and freeze them away for a super easy dessert for another time.
  

For the Vanilla Cream filling/icing, you will need:

• 1 box (5.1 oz.) instant vanilla pudding
• 1.5 cups cold milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (if you can find the clear kind, it won't yellow your icing)
• 2 cups whipping cream, whipped
  

In a large mixing bowl, blend together the pudding mix, milk and vanilla. Let this set up for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a smaller mixing bowl, whip the cream until it's no longer 'soupy'. Then, fold the cream into the pudding mixture and blend well.

Using a large bread knife, carefully cut your cakes into 2 layers (I did 3 layers with the 10x3 pan). You can stick toothpicks in around the edges as a 'guide'.

On a cake plate, alternate the colors of cake, sandwiching a dollop of the vanilla cream mixture in between layers, spread around with the back of a spoon. After putting the next layer on, you can eyeball it and press it down if it doesn't seem to be level. This will squeeze excess filling out the edges.

The remaining filling goes on top of the cake.

This cake will need to be kept refrigerated.

Yummo.

:: :: :: ::

Menu for Valentine's Day Dinner

This Ribeye Steak recipe
Cauliflower Mashed 'Potatoes' (steamed cauliflower made as I do my garlic mashed potatoes)
A Colorful Salad

:: :: :: ::

And finally...to my Valentine of nearly 20 years (dating) and nearly 18 years (married)...HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!



It's hard to believe but I've now officially spent more of my life WITH you than WITHOUT you...and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Love you, Babe!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Christmas break was a long one this year in our household...3 weeks long!

Not that I'm complaining, mind you...I love having the family home altogether. But things were a little frenetic to say the least.

In addition to all the usual activities and preparations leading up to Christmas (parties, cantatas, etc.) then Christmas and New Years (with our annual New Year's Eve bonfire), we also had a snow day



Ice Skating with the cousins











an aunt visiting from Pennsylvania (I regret to say I don't have a single picture of her due to camera problems) and a family wedding.

Oy...the wedding!

This was the LA Lakers themed wedding I'd been asked to help the happy couple plan for the week of March Madness, but which back around Thanksgiving or so (after I'd already said yes) suddenly got backed up to early January. Yikes!

There I was, trying to get my Christmas cards and packages out on time while also making 100 custom wedding invites. It was crazy.

Thankfully my friend Linda from church was able to step in and help with making some of the wedding reception decorations.



Oh, and the pew bows. Below...the poofy tulle creations.



Everything turned out just as we'd envisioned. And the bride was thrilled with how it all turned out...which was good, because keeping the reception from looking tacky yet Lakerish was quite a challenge, let me tell you!

Here is the sweetheart table at the head of the dance floor.



The arrangements had LED votives inside to prevent a fire hazard. They glowed beautifully for the evening reception.



See's Candy had chocolate bars that came in the perfect colors...and the little bags contained puzzles of the bride and groom for the guests to put together while the pictures were being taken. Every place setting had a different photo at each table (8 in all)...which were the very same ones used in the guest book.





I can't take credit for making this lovely cake or the next one...but I did have to position the topper and the flowers (the yellow flowers I made from cut apart artificial lei's...because hibiscus flowers are hard to find in December) and because those turned out so well, I am gonna take a little of the credit. However, it was a place called The Cakery near the venue that was responsible for the delicious and lovely cakes.

From the groom's cake you may gather they are die-hard Laker fans. And you would be right.



Also note the groom, groomsmen and ushers shoes...the Black Mamba series from Nike.





Incidentally, it must be noted that the very expensive (but talented) florist that made their boutan--bouten man corsages ended up using the exact same silk flowers I used on the cake and pew bows (not quite laker purple, but it was all that was available, and so everything was at least matchy... a really happy accident. The Lord made sure all those details were tended to for us)

Here is the lovely bride and her darling flower girl





And again, the bride with her bridesmaids...wearing the flower girls jacket because she was shivering and it was all that could be found.

Yes, you read that right...flower girl. She's a petite little thing.

My favorite part of all the wedding decorations, however, was the guest book table which I put together as part of their wedding gift from us.

Those were actual cheerleader pom poms made from vinyl tablecloth in Laker gold. The guest book was made of black and white photos of the couple on black pages, which guests could sign around in white pen...and which constitute the first few pages of their expandable wedding album scrapbook.





Then there was the un-decorating after the wedding.

Here we had our Martha-esque/Laker PomPoms all in a pile, ready for the garbage. I must admit it was a little painful to see after all the time spent folding, cutting and pulling the layers apart. I had become rather protective of them after spending so much time with them.



But alas...it was all over before we knew it.

I must add that if Jeff hadn't been home handling all the day-to-day stuff over those three weeks and taking the boys out for blocks of time here and there, I would never have gotten everything done in time. He's the man, and a really good sport about it all.

He even mixed up cookie dough and stuff for the boys and I to bake and decorate for Christmas.





Generally, after a two or three week spurt of heavy activity like that, I have to take at least a week off to recover and catch up on all the stuff that fell through the cracks in the meantime.

Things like un-decorating the house after Christmas.

Our decorations were left up waaaay longer than most folks would.

We actually kind of like to stretch out the Christmas ambiance as long as possible...particularly sitting in living room together in the evenings with just the Christmas lights on, sipping hot chocolate or hot tea.



The tree, however, was the first thing to come down, being a 9 foot tall fire hazard.

Then the decorations sat around a while, because I was too tired to put them away they were so pretty.



After the wedding, I just didn't have the energy to reorganize it all for storage right away, and so it sat around taking up surface space in the house for days. (Read: "Here, honey...here's your breakfast. Just move those Nativity Scenes aside, okay?")

In fact, my Christmas decorations only just got packed away in the attic this evening.

It couldn't be helped...we simply had to take off some time to have fun.

I realized I needed it more than ever when a few nights ago at dinner I crossed the line by joining in one of the never-ending conversational threads amongst the males in my house...what our family should do in the event of a Zombie apocalypse.

Which, as we all know, is just soooo likely to happen. **voice drips with sarcasm**

I still can't believe they wore me down. I needed some girl-time, stat!

On Saturday, we took a day-cation to my Sister-in-laws house. My guys all went hiking with my brother-in-law while us gals spent some time poking through some wonderful shops in downtown Temecula, California. It was a lovely day.

The only thing to mar it, though not horribly, was that in my haste to get to the antique shops, I'd forgotten to switch over Judah's car seat to his uncle's car.

Which meant the guys had to make do and took Judah with them using the standard lap belt in his uncles car (a one time deal, as we're sticklers for following the rules.) However, because it was a gorgeous day and everyone came out of the woodwork on the back roads, they hopped on the freeway for a short distance only to get stuck in more stop-and-go traffic.

It was during this period of time that Houdini Judah decided to unlatch his restraint and open the car door and see what the holdup was. ON THE FREEWAY!

I do not make these things up! That boy has shaved at least a couple of years off my life already, not to mention given me every gray hair I have. I shudder to think what his teenage years will bring!

All was not lost, however...on that particular excursion I totally scored in finding this gorgeous Milk Glass platter for $17 dollars.



And miracle of miracles, even with church activities on Sunday, I even had a little time to work on my two latest crochet projects as well.





Ahhh...a much needed and relaxing 3-day weekend!