Cut Kid Clutter

I read a Good Housekeeping article a while back about helping with kid clutter - you know, all the little bits and pieces your kiddoes leave in their wake - toys, books, Barbie clothes, whatever.

The article suggested this: "Cut clutter by telling your kids that anything they don't put away during the week will be placed in the "Saturday Box" - meaning they don't get back a toy left out on Monday until Saturday. (To defeat rescue attempts, she keeps the box in the trunk of her car.) Usually the kids are so eager to hold on to their stuff, they put it away in 15 minutes."

Might be worth a try.

Kid Clutter?  Try a Saturday Box.

Dear Germany...

Dear Germany,

While I am a huge fan of your cabbage, your beer, my maiden name, your frankfurters, your shepherds, your birthday cakes, and your sausages - I am not a fan of your pancakes.

German Pancakes

While these pancakes had a great flavor, I'm sort of a texture-kinda gal, and I didn't really care for the way they felt in my mouth.  It was kinda like shrimp.  Shrimp has a good flavor to me also, but it feels like a squishy sponge when I eat them, so therefore I don't eat them.

German Pancakes

If texture doesn't bother you, then try these german pancakes out.  They really do taste good and they're very easy to make. 

Dankeschön

Recipe To Try - M & M Cookies

Me love cookies.  But I have a problem...I have been searching high and low for a good cookie recipe and haven't been able to find one.  I wanted to find a cookie recipe that made the cookies crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside - one that doesn't turn out as hard as a rock like usual!  I think I found it.

The original recipe can be found here.  I've tweaked the recipe just a tiny, tiny bit just by adding more M&M's to the mix and by baking the cookies longer since I was using an insulated cookie sheet.   

Here it is:

Ingredients

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups candy-coated milk chocolate pieces (about)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, shortening, and vanilla thoroughly. Add flour, salt, and baking soda to creamed mixture. Blend well. Add 1 cup of M&M candies (or more or less).
2. Drop dough by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Slightly push a few candies on top of each dough ball with remaining candies.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 9 to 11 minutes.  If using insulated cookies sheet, bake for 14 minutes.

This recipe doesn't seem much different than any other cookie recipe I've tried.  The only thing different is the shortening instead of butter.  Maybe shortening is like a magical ingredient or something.  

One hint I learned from this recipe is to stick a few M & M's on top of the dough after you drop them onto the cookie sheet.  That way you have nice, pretty M&M's showing on top of the cookie after they're baked.

Nom nom nom nom.

End Of School Year Party Treats On A Budget

End of School Year Party Treat

I'm no Martha Stewart, y'all, so please bear with me.  I needed to come up with an end-of-school-year treat for my kindergartener's classmates.  We're on a tight, tight budget because my husband (who is the sole breadwinner in this family) is on strike for the 5th week.  Anyway, who doesn't like homemade cookies?  You must be crazy if you don't.

I found this printable at this cute website.  I printed out two pages of those and cut all the circles out with a pair of scissors because this homegirl does not own a circle cutter!  I bought cute treat bags from Walmart.  I wish now that I had bought just clear treat bags because the pretty cookies would have been decoration enough.  But anywho, I bought the decorated bags and the kiddies will just have to deal with it!

I cut out some paper the same width as the treat bag, glued the circle I'd cut out earlier on it and stuck a cookie in the bag and folded the piece of paper over the treat bag and stapled it.  I had my daughter write her name on each one so her classmates' mamas would know what an awesome cook and supermom I was her classmates would know who they were from.

I thought they turned out pretty dang cute and the cookies are delicious.  I'll bring you the recipe for the cookies tomorrow.

End of School Year Party Treats

Happy Birthday, George!

Guess how old George Strait is today.  Just guess.  He's 60!  I hope I look half as good as he does when I'm 60.  Happy Birthday, George!

(Why does this make me feel, like, ancient?) 

Happy Mother's Day!

Since I will be basking in all things motherhood tomorrow, I thought I'd pass this along while I could.  Always try to remember this:

And if you keep this glass filled with wine, it will help you to keep calm!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, LADIES!!!

Hey, I Love These People, Y'all! Hey, I'm Serious! Hey, I Mean It!!

I just can't get enough of those Robertsons. I'm kind of partial to Si but all of them crack me up.


(And yes, I labeled this as educational because I think kids these days could learn a lot from these folks.)

You Want How Much For That Mother's Day Card?

I was grocery shopping yesterday and I decided to look at Mother's Day cards.  I needed to buy one for my mom and my mother-in-law.  After searching what seemed like a hundred years, I finally found the perfect one for my mother.  It was just a plain 'ol Hallmark card.  It didn't have any 3d special effects - it didn't sing at you when you opened it - it didn't have anything attached to it.  It was just a plain, old card.

I put it in my buggy and decided I better flip it over to see how much it was.  When I saw the price I almost fell the heck out right there on the floor.  I said, I'm coming, Lizabeth.  Lawd, help me.  Does Hallmark think I'm some kind of fish-eyed fool?  Do you know how much that dang card cost????  $5.59!!!! 

So, Mom and MIL, y'all are getting some homemade cards from us this year.  I think those are more meaningful.  They are to me!

So save some money and make your own cards.  And if you really want to make your mamas happy, you can buy them some of this instead - it's delish!! 

Wimberley Valley Sweet Red - Good 'ol Texas Wine

You can all gather round with a glass of this sweet Texas wine and propose a toast to Hallmark this Mother's Day.  What you propose is up to you. 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, Y'ALL!!!

Recipe to Try - Poblanadas - (and how to roast a pepper the redneck way)

Poblanadas

I found this recipe on the Just a Pinch website.  I love that website because you can search for recipes that have received a blue ribbon and also filter the results putting the highest-rated ones first.  I think every single recipe I've found on Just A Pinch has turned out really good and this recipe was no exception.


This recipe is called Poblanadas because it's enchiladas with a poblano pepper in it.  You have to roast the pepper, which I had never done before.  I don't have a newfangled gas oven, y'all!  I have an electric Corning oven that literally is older than I am (I will be 40 this year - shhh, don't tell anyone).  So I couldn't just turn the burner on and char the pepper because my stovetop is glass, and I'm pretty sure there's like 40 years' worth of dried chemicals and stuff on the glasstop that I don't want to be putting in my belly.

Anyway, I rubbed some olive oil on the poblano pepper, after I washed it of course.  I slapped that sucker on a little pan and stuck it in my toaster oven!  Oh, lordy - I feel like that housewife of New York that has the toaster oven cookbook!  I set the toaster oven to 400 degrees and let it cook in there until it started bubbling up.  I then placed it in a glass bowl and covered it with foil.  It said to use plastic wrap, but I didn't want to pass out from fumes.  And that's how I roasted the pepper.   

Follow this link for the complete yummy recipe.

Teacher Appreciation Gift

So this was my attempt at a teacher appreciation gift.  I had the best of intentions - I really did.  Here goes:

I found this saying here about teachers planting seeds.  There was no printable so I had to figure out how to do that myself.  You can copy it if you want since it's so fabulous - ha ha!  Here's what I came up with:

 

Next I put some seeds in a ziplock baggie and stapled that to another piece of paper I printed out about what kind of plant it was.  I just copied the information from Burpee and tried to make it look prettier.

 Then I took some double-sided tape and taped the two pieces of paper together.

Next, my daughter painted this pot.

I wrote a little note to my daughter's teacher (using my daughter's words) on the water-catcher dealybopper.

Names have been covered up to protect the innocent

 I took the plant that was grown from some of these very seeds and potted half of the plant into this pot.  Then I poked some holes in the papers I taped together and stuck some jute twine through it and tied all that to the pot.  I had to put a few dabs of hot glue on the twine to keep it from slipping.

Wouldn't it be simply grand if I had a picture of the final product?  That would be awesome, right?  Well, just imagine it looked something like this only less toddlerlike:

A certain ding-ding forgot to take a picture of the final product.

Wouldn't it be all cherries and roses if that was the end of the story?  Ahh, but it's not.  Enter this chick:  

This chick who totally had a cat party all up in that plant last night and destroyed it and made it look like this:

So thank the Lord up above that I originally only potted half that plant and there was another half still left on the porch.  I repotted it this morning before my sunshine left for school - that way she won't be giving her teacher something that looked worse than that Charlie Brown Christmas tree Sam the cat left us with this morning. Yay, me!

Frontier Forts Days - Come Out & Get Your Frontier On!!!

From the Stockyard's Station Website:  A free, two-day heritage event where the Stockyards National Historic District is transformed into an authentic representation of Texas frontier life.  There will be fort camps, artillery demonstrations, military parades, Native American exhibitions, live music and a train robbery!

Best of all, this event is free.  According to the Fort Worth Stockyards Facebook page, this event is Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12 from 9 to 5 at the Stockyards Station, of course.  Your kids can march with the soldiers and learn about life on the frontier.  Sounds like fun to me!  Giddy-up!

Low Cost Spay & Neuter in Arlington

Did y'all know that Arlington Animal Services and Texas Coalition for Animal Protection (TCAP) offer low cost spay and neuter for animals on the second Friday of every month?  You have to make an appointment though so you better call now.

Also, they offer low cost vaccinations and Frontline and heartworm preventative.  Sounds like a good deal to me.

As Bob Barker used to say, Help control the pet population, have your pets spayed or neutered!

Mayfest Starts Tomorrow

Hope everyone got their discount tickets while you could because Mayfest starts tomorrow at 3:30.  We will be there with bells on - not really with bells on because that would be just too dang loud - but we will be there with kids in tow.

Check out The Highway 80 West band on the Riverbank Stage starting at 5:45.  I might or might not be the mandolin player's little sister...that depends on how well he plays!!

Lots of fun stuff to do and see and yummy food to eat and drinks to drink!  

Mom Accused Of Taking 5-year-Old Daughter In Tanning Booth

I...have...no...words!

Are you for real?  Like, really real?  Help us all.

Fort Worth, I Love You

The other day while I was driving down the road on my way to Target, we passed by two teenage girls who were in the median, you know, that grassy area between two roads.  Guess what they were doing.   Just guess.  Take a wild guess at what they were doing.  Come on!

Believe it or not, they were riding horses.

Right here, smack dab in the middle of this big, beautiful metropolis known as Fort Worth, these teenage girls were riding their gorgeous horses.  When I saw them, I said, Yes, ma'ams - you go, girls - you ride those ponies.  I LOVE IT!!  Fort Worth, I Love You!!!

It made me wish for a more simpler time.  Wouldn't it be cool if we all rode horses wherever we needed to go?  That would be so awesome.

So today, I'm on my way back from taking my daughter to school and I see this:

Fort Worth Waffle House Horse

YES, SIR!!!

Can you see it?

Fort Worth Waffle House Horse

Yes, that's a gorgeous horse parked outside of Waffle House in Fort Worth, Texas.  And while I didn't actually go inside the restaurant, I know there's at least one amazing person eating breakfast in there - one amazing person who had the juevos to ride that pony across 820 and park that sucker right there for the world to see... that or they've had their license revoked for DWI's or something - but let's go with the first thing I said because I'm a glass half full type of gal!

Fort Worth, I Love You!!!!