I've been trying to slow down and enjoy my food since I am eating smaller meals throughout the day and since I have IBS I have to stick to the foods that my digestive will be happy with. A lot of times I am eating while doing other things. Like browsing the blogs I follow.

I tried these new sweet potato fries and even though I haven't really taken to sweet potatoes in the past I love them. They aren't cheap and I finally looked at the fat content and YIKES they are a little too fattening. And turns out I was eating 2 servings at once. I'm sad about that because now I have to consider them a treat. Bummer

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R and R

DH is a school teacher and because of the snow we had in December we had 3 weeks of Christmas Break instead of 2. The best part has been sleeping in. Next week we will be back to our regular schedule and I don't think we are going to adjust well. I don't think I've been out of bed before 8:30 the whole vacation. Not counting Sunday. This morning I woke Cor and Mya up at 9:30. I was tempted to let them sleep and see how long it would take them to wake up. But our church schedule will change for the new year and we will be going to church at 11:00 a.m. So now I can get up at 8 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. Ballerina and Em have been getting up at their usual time around 7:30 a.m. but then they play in their room for a while. They get the cat to come in then they close the door on her. She is usually dying for attention in the morning so that works out for her. The little girls come in and beg one of us to get up. If we have bananas on hand we tell them to have a banana for breakfast which they love.

Along with a lot of sleep there has also been a lot of yelling. My children have given up on their communication skills and no matter how much we talk about it their first attempt at conflict resolution is yelling and/or screaming. It is always unaffective but they keep doing it.

Much to my family's dismay I have gotten really sick of buying cold cereal. I try to buy the semi-healthy kind and one that they actually want but then they only eat the one they want and the others just sit there. DH wants yummy cereals for him to eat when he is hungry late at night because that is when he eats breakfast. But if I get the kind he wants then the kids will just want it and won't eat anything else. DH even tried to buy some cereal when we were wondering around the store. But they were $4 each. I said, "No way am I paying that much for cereal." He was really sad.

So I have been making real breakfast. I made my own whole wheat pancake mix (even ground my own wheat) and this morning I put blueberries in it. The kids won't eat it because they will only eat fresh, unbaked blueberries. It's sad. I also make oatmeal. They like oatmeal and pancakes but they would rather have disgusting, mostly sugar cereal. Boo Hoo. I don't feel sorry for them at all.

Stop eating my bikini.

Tonight for dinner I sauted some zucchini from my garden and some yummy sausage we just bought at Costco. We had it on top of Angel hair pasta. Yum.

Ballerina ate all her sausage but she left her zucchini on the side. I started eating it. In her cute 3 year old girly voice she said, "Mommy stop eating my bikini."

Happiness is a Waffle Cone

I think everyone has a favorite food that makes them happy for me it's Waffle Cones. Thinking about or even saying waffle cone makes me happy.

Good Soup

A few years ago a friend got us the Bear Creek Chicken and Rice soup. It was so yummy but then I forgot about it for a while. So the other day I decided to grab a couple and try them. We had the Cheddar Potato for lunch one day and really loved it. Tonight we tried this one. The kids kept making yucky faces at it but most of them ate it. My pickiest eater Mya even liked it. Em wouldn't admit to liking it even if she did because this how she maintain her position of power being the 3rd child of four. She is not one of the older kids and she is not the baby. So you see she must exert her independence whenever she can. Plus she knew I had made Tomato soup as a backup and she knows she loves Tomato soup.
I noticed online they have many varieties so I am anxious to try Tortilla and Split Pea. I had the most delicious split pea soup when I was a kid and since I haven't had split pea that was ever as good as I remember it. That goes the same for lentil. I can make a decent soup and most canned soups just have a funny taste to me but Bear Creek seems to have it figured out so far.

Tonight I also made chocolate chip mini muffins with mini chocolate chips (CUTE!). I finally broke down and got a mini muffin pan. Yes Deena, I did it! And they are the cutest little muffins ever. I am feeling inspired to bake so I'll be posting more foods soon.

Chocolate and Nudity

Yummy! I made these for a baby shower I co-hosted for a friend from church last night. I learned how to dip strawberries and make them look fancy about 5 years ago and now I always keep melting chocolate on hand so in case I have a need to dip something in chocolate. Actually these turned out kind of messy but still pretty. The middle one is dipped completely in white chocolate. I like using the melting chocolate you find in the bulk section of the grocery store rather than using chocolate chips. It sets up faster. One of my dreams is to become an expert on all things chocolate. Or just do a lot of experiments dipping things in chocolate.

We've had this pond for 3 years. No one has ever fallen in until today. It was one of those Mother's intuition things. I had just asked the kids where Ballerina was. They told me she was in the back yard. I decided I better go check on her. Just then I heard her whimper and then she said, "Mommy I need you." I found her soaked from head to toe. She had been dressed so I took her back outside and took off all her clothes. I gave her a bath and she didn't want to get dressed. Only a few minutes later she is playing around the pond in the nude. I had some better close ups but this one I think is the most appropriate for the public. I think this will be her last summer where it is socially acceptable for her to run around our back yard in the buff. She tries to get out the front door nakedy but I don't let her.

Luckily she was able to get herself out of the pond and only got a few scratches on her back. I am grateful she is alright. I didn't get a picture of her all soaked because I felt bad for her, she was kind of mad about about falling in.