Yes, this post is a bit late but not as late as you may think (and you may have already noticed that I have a bit of a problem sticking to schedules - but I am working on it, honest). We live overseas and Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here. That has never bothered me much, we just went ahead and had our turkey anyway. However, this year I am attending classes and I didn’t feel quite justified in skipping class to stay home and stuff the turkey. Luckily, I also realized that trying to prepare a full Thanksgiving dinner after getting home at 2pm with two tired and cranky kids might not be the best way to celebrate a day of thanksgiving.

Therefore, I just decided to postpone Thanksgiving a little bit and we celebrated it today, on Sunday. And let’s just say that was a wise choice as it was still stressful enough. Not horribly, need-to-complain-about-it stressful but just enough to realize that it would have been a disaster in the middle of the work-week.

Today went fine though and I was very happy with the meal (the kids less so as you’ll see in a minute). We had turkey (obviously), stuffing (I LOVE the plain old bread stuffing), gravy (which the kids thought rather gross but I thought was fine), cranberry sauce (which at least B. really liked), sweet n sour beans (which I love and the boys at least tolerate), Pioneer Woman’s mashed potatoes (which even J. declared “better than I expected”), creamy corn (love it because it is the easiest dish ever) and marinated carrots (I like them, nobody else does). I also made some pecan pie but we haven’t tasted it yet because we were too full.

J. was really a great helper with the cooking. You know how they always tell you to get kids involved in cooking in order to get them to enjoy new foods? Not true in our case. J. basically didn’t eat anything (maybe a spoonful of cranberry sauce?). B. ate loads of cranberry sauce and a little bit of the other sides. However, he announced he wouldn’t touch any turkey (I think it finally dawned on him that meat comes from animals). He said “turkeys don’t like Thanksgiving” which is probably true enough. J. didn’t say anything but I noticed that he didn’t touch his meat at all (not surprising then that I buy the smallest turkey I can find).

As you can imagine we have lots of leftovers. Still, the food turned out well, even the turkey (last year I overcooked the bird till it was dry as dust - yes, I am paranoid in regard to food poisining) and I didn’t stress too much.

Grandpa took the boys on a small outing in the afternoon which left me enough peace and quiet to think about the meaning of the holiday. And you know what? Maybe to an outsider my life doesn’t seem exactly charmed but all in all I feel truly blessed. There is so much I can be thankful for and very little I would like to change (okay, I wouldn’t mind winning the lottery). Healthy, happy kids, a fairly comfortable home, friends and plenty of interests. What more could you want?

Last week was so busy that I missed taking part in Shannon’s WFMW blog carnival at Rocks in my dryer (and actually hardly posted anything at all!). This week isn’t much better, but I am nothing if not determined, so today I present you with something that really Works-For-Me (and not just on Wednesdays): my recipe for corn cookies.
I don’t know about you, but in our family there aren’t many meals that everyone likes (the boys can’t even agree on Spaghetti). Usually, one of the boys will gobble up the meal while the other refuses to even touch it. Not so with this recipe. And it isn’t just us either. I took the recipe in to the boys’ preschool and they have prepared it for lunch there several times - quite successfully.

Not only is it tasty, but also inexpensive, easy to prepare (no need to get hung up on the exact measurements) and fast. You can really sit down to eat barely 30 minutes after you start cooking - and you’ll even have time to unload the dishwasher and set the table! What more could you want?

After all that fanfare, here the recipe:

Yummy-in-my-Tummy-Corn Cookies

Ingredients:

• Small can of corn
• 1 egg, separated
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• Some oil for frying

How to make it:

1. Combine the flour, cornmeal, milk and egg yolk in a bowl, stir together and let sit for about 15 minutes. You can use this time to prepare a salad (which would go really well with the corn cookies - if your kids will eat it) or to set the table.
2. Put a generous amount of oil into the skillet and heat.
3. Add some pepper, salt, hot sauce etc. to the batter (according to taste)
4. Beat eggwhite until stiff. Drain the corn and stir into the batter. Fold in the eggwhite.
5. The oil should be hot by now. Drop batter by spoonfuls into the hot oil to make little “cookies” (mine are usually about 2”-3”). Fry for a couple of minutes, flip over and cook on the other side until golden brown.
6. Take out of the skillet and drain on paper towels for a moment to get rid of excess oil. Serve with tomato sauce /katsup for dipping and salad (if your kids are more amenable to it than mine).

Notice the extra effort in presentation. Salad would

make some nice “hair”.

I finally - with much lamenting and some late night work - got the crafts for J’s school’s Christmas bazaar finished. Just in time for the big day and, luckily, just in time for Antique Mommy’s Blog Carnival.

Now, getting these little people done was way more work than I had anticipated (hence the late night work) and getting all the necessary stuff was rather expensive. However, they did turn out quite nice:

The three kings

Sorry about the blurry picture of St. Nick - I had to take the photos at 6am, before sending them to school with J. as I just barely managed to finish them in time.

The pictures give a pretty clear idea of how to make these little people. Still, here the instructions for making the angel:

Things you Need (for one angel):

• A small flowerpot, approximately 1.5 inches
• One wooden bead each with a diameter of 4/5 inch and 1/2 inch
• Paints (red, gold, skin color)
• Stiff construction paper in dark red and skin color
• Very thin golden wire

And here is what you do:

1. Paint the flowerpot in red and let dry. Then use golden paint (or a golden pen) to draw on a design of your choice.
2. Paint the larger bead skin-colored and let dry. Use markers/pens to draw on a cheeky face (at least that is what I was trying to do)
3. Cut a pair of wings out of the red construction paper and decorate with your golden pen
4. Fold the golden wire so that you end up with a bushel (with a length of maybe 2.5 inches) and cut the top off so that it looks kind of like bristles on a broom.
5. Attach a piece of wire to the gold wire bushel and pull through the large bead. Pull the bushel at least partway into the bead (but make sure there is still enough “hair” sticking out at the top. Then pull the attached wire through the flowerpot opening from the top and then through the smaller bead (which serves to keep the angel from losing its head). Tie off.
6. Glue the wings on the back of the flowerpot. Maybe use your hot glue gun to attach the head of the angel more firmly (mine kept wobbling otherwise). If you want your angel to have hands (I ran out of time, unfortunately), cut them out of construction paper and glue on.

Now, these instructions read kind of complicated but it is actually a fairly easy craft (though the kings were quite time-consuming). These little angels would make great ornaments or nice little extra-gifts to be put onto a bigger present for decoration.

Of course, you are free to adjust the instructions according to your own taste. You can use the colors, fabrics, threads etc. that you like (I wasn’t quite so lucky as I felt rather bound by the instructions that were supplied) and/or have at hand. Also, these little flowerpot people could be a fun project to do with (slightly older) kids.

I am fairly new at this blogging thing and still continuously surprised by the process. I love getting comments, but lately (let’s say the last week or so) I have been just inundated with spam. Now I am not sure whether that just means the blog is getting a bit more well-known or if it was something I did. I mean, whatever gave anyone the impression that I would want to hype “life-enhancing drugs” - for want of a better description? Amazing.

On a more positive note, I just got my blog listed at MomDot, something I am quite excited about. If you have never heard about them before, here is their own description:

MomDot is a mom blog listing site that is run by mommy bloggers, trisha, alicia, and bridgette.They run contests weekly, reviews on awesome (and not so awesome) products for family and kids, and talk about their lives. But more importantly, they feature bloggers and mom boutiques to give them an avenue to get their name out there, also assisting in google links! You can head out and list your blog for free and talk to them about doing an interview about you. Head on over and see what MomDot is about!

Hopefully, this will increase traffic (though hopefully not spam, I have enough of that already!)

Do you know a romance lover but have no idea what book to get them for Christmas? Then read on as I share some of my all-time favorites. If on the other hand you have a weakness for romance novels yourself check to see if there is one you missed.

1. One Summer by Karen Robards

A classic romantic suspense novel with a bit of a supernatural touch thrown in. When the heroine’s former student is released from prison after serving time for murdering his former girlfriend she is the only one willing to help him. But what will everyone think about her budding relationship to a presumed murderer? And more important, was he really the killer?

2. Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

A great book! Like almost all of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ books one of my favorites. Sensible Gracie is determined to start a new life and the first step towards her goal is to escort recalcitrant ex-football player Bobby Tom Denton towards his home-town where he is slated to star in a movie. Is she out of her league? Very funny.

3. Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale

A historical romance it truly transcends the genre. The Duke of Jervaux is a well-known rake but few know that he is also a brilliant mathematician. His life changes dramatically when he suffers a stroke (yep, in a romance novel). No longer able to speak, he is sent to a lunatic asylum. Quaker friend Maddy is the only one who sees behind his bizarre behaviour and determines to help him. But can she succeed?

4. The Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney

The story of four women who meet regularly in a women’s group. Best friends, they still struggle with jealousy and occasional pettiness. Then life becomes even more difficult: One of the group struggles with her inability to conceive, a second member has to finally face the true nature of her manipulative husband, a third woman falls deeply in love with a married man and the last of the friends is diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease. Will these challenges destroy them or will their friendship endure?

5. The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann

The first book in the Troubleshooters Series (you know how I love series books!) tells the story of Navy SEAL Tom Paoletti who finds love while struggling to track down a terrorist. The book also tells a secondary story set during the second World War. A good book both for fans of suspense/thrillers as well as for those interested in history.

6. Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie

A funny and entertaining book about two sisters filming a soft porn movie in a sleepy town. One of the sisters falls in love with the town’s upstanding mayor and a dead body adds to the excitement. A bit racy and hilarious.

7. The Four Seasons by Mary Alice Monroe

The three older Season sisters have never gotten over the accident that permanently disabled their youngest sister. Now, with Merry Season’s death, they finally have to face the secrets that have been kept for over twenty years. Will they finally be able to move on?

8. Daring to Dream by Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts is certainly one of the most popular and well-known romance authors and her Dreams Trilogy is one of my most favorites. In the first installment, Margo Sullivan, the housekeeper’s daughter who has made good returns to California when her world is shattered. Can she turn her life around with the help of her best friends?

9. Trust Me by Jayne Ann Krenzt

An entertaining easy read like many of Jayne Ann Krentz’s books. Desdemona Wainwright is hired to cater a businessman’s wedding but the groom is left at the altar. This turns into a piece of good luck as he then hires Desdemona to cater for his company and serve as his hostess. Soon their relationship turns into love but there are plenty of complications to keep the reader entertained.

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I am always looking for little things to make life easier (or at least manageable), and my latest discovery is something that might make a good addition for the weekly Works-for-me-Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my dryer. I don’t know about you but if my boys don’t get fed regularly (like every two hours at least) they turn into little monsters. Not that I am starving them. If they tell me they are hungry I will get them a snack (unless dinner is less than two minutes away) as fast as possible (or you know what will happen). But often they don’t say anything until it is almost too late or if they do it is when we are walking home from the store and are ten minutes away from the nearest food source (and ten minutes is definitely too long to wait for them).
Lately, we have especially struggled with this because of some changes in our daily routine. The first problem arises in the morning. J. has to be at the bus stop just before seven am and he is not a morning person. Which means breakfast doesn’t go so well. The second problem happens when he gets off the bus a bit before two pm. He is so starved that walking home and waiting for the ten minutes it takes me to prepare even the easiest meal are out.
Luckily, I remembered a cookie recipe that is easy to make and yields tasty and fairly nutritious (especially considering that these are cookies) treats that can help to keep hunger at bay until a proper meal can be fixed. (In a pinch the boys have also been known to just gobble down cookies!). So if you have the same problem with your kids (or if you need an easily portable snack for yourself) you might try these.

I-am-starving-cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cups butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons molasses
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups oats
• 1 cup nuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins

Preparation:

1. Beat butter with sugar till creamy.
2. Add molasses (coat the measuring spoon with oil first to get the molasses off easier) and eggs.
3. Mix flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda and add to butter/sugar mixture.
4. Stir in remaining ingredients and drop onto greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake for about 10 minutes at 400°F.

I was going to add a picture of the cookies but the boys ate up the last batch and I am all out of moasses (which is fairly hard to find around here). So the next batch (and the pictures) will have to wait until I can make a trip to some fancy store in the city to get more molasses. But never mind, go ahead and bake up a batch of these cookies and you can make your very own picture (if the kids don’t get to them first)!

Christmas is really coming close now. I can’t believe St. Martin’s (November 11 th) is right around the corner. High time to start making our St. Martin’s lanterns for this year.
One of the nicest traditions here is the annual St. Martin’s parade that takes place right around the Saint’s special day. Usually organized by nursery schools or churches, the observance consists of some sort of family service (with the story of the Saint), followed by a lantern-lit parade through the dark neighborhood and often concludes with some sort of snack/treat.
I guess you could reuse your lantern year after year (if you don’t have a couple of boys who are likely to destroy it the first time around and if you can find it again next year). However, here most preschools/playgroups make one every year. My boys’ preschool never makes St. Martin lanterns. That’s just fine with me as making the lantern is a great activity for Family Moment Monday.

This year J. decided he wanted a Star Lantern. Instead of getting instructions and following a template we just came up with our own version:

All you need to make one of these is some stiff posterboard, transparent paper in various colors, and one of the round cardboard thingies you see in the pictures below.
And here are the instructions:

Cut out two star shapes from the posterboard big enough to cover the round paper thingies. J. was a bit impatient so his stars are a bit small - doesn’t really matter though.

Cut holes into the star shapes.

Cover the holes with transparent paper. Cut a hole in the bottom cardboard circle so that you basically end up with two “rims”. Cut a long piece of cardboard (about 2 to 3 inches wide).

Glue one star on each rim. Use a glue gun to attach the length of cardboard to the two rims (I know, I know - you have no idea what I mean by that. That’s why I have added in the pictures. Take a look at the finished lantern and you’ll see what I am talking about). Make sure to leave a space to put the light through.

And there you go, one cool St. Martin lantern. I will post later this week about our St. Martin’s celebration on Tuesday and the lantern walk which is scheduled for next Sunday.

Good morning, Christmas lovers. I just noticed that Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer is hosting a give-away for personalized Christmas cards. I already entered but wanted to give you all a chance to do the same. So if you are like me and need some extra-impetus for getting started on writing your Christmas cards or if you would like to save money this year while still sending out professionally designed cards, go right on over to Shannon’s blog and check this out.

The other day (I’ll admit it was over a week ago; I just didn’t get around to posting) I took the boys to the local children’s museum. That is always a fun trip in itself, but now, before Christmas, they are offering a special activity that I love (we already took part in this program last year): All about chocolate.

Yes, you heard right. Chocolate can be quite educational. And if you like chocolate as much as I and B., you’ll be delighted to hear it. Anyway, I realized that many of the activities could just as well be done at home, either in a homeschooling context or just for fun. So I thought I would give you a quick rundown on what we did and you can pick and choose any (or all) of the activities you would like to do with your kids.

Part One: Where does cocoa come from?
In the first part of the program they explain basically that cocoa is a main ingredient of chocolate and where it comes from. Some (and admittedly the most interesting parts) of this you won’t be able to do but here goes:

• Talk about what gives chocolate its taste (cocoa) and where cocoa grows (rainforest)
• Look at a globe or map and let kids identify where there is rainforest (right around the equator). They also put on a CD with “rainforest sounds” which was fun.
• At the museum they had a fake cocoa tree to look at. You probably don’t have one at home (though you never know). Still, you might be able to see one at a botanical garden etc. If not, just find a picture in a book (not quite the same but still).
• Then everyone got to taste a real cocoa seed. Probably you won’t get to do this at home but don’t worry - it doesn’t taste good at all.
• Here a quick info on how cocoa is made: First the fruits are cut off the trees with big knifes. Then they are put under huge leaves in the sun and left there until the fruit rots away (yuck, that may be more than you wanted to know). Later the cocoa beans are roasted to give them the right taste.



• At that point the kids got some cocoa beans that they had to grind to a powder on a huge mortar and pestle. Unless you have access to cocoa beans (we don’t) you’ll have a hard time to recreate this part of the project. If you think your kids would really get into this activity (or if you just want to show them the hard work involved in making cocoa the old-fashioned way) you could just do it with some other kind of bean
• Then hot cocoa was prepared by pouring hot water over the ground cocoa (you could easily do this with store-bought cocoa). Now, without sugar this will not taste very good. However, that was the way the Aztecs originally prepared it and “chocolate” actually means “bitter water”. The aztecs even added other spices to make it spicier.

Part Two: Make your own chocolate
Next the kids got to make their very own chocolate. All you need for this is cocoa powder, powdered sugar, powdered milk and coconut butter.
Just mix 1 teaspoon each of cocoa powder and coconut butter with 1/2 teaspoon of powdered milk and powdered sugar in a small pot and warm gently (best in a hot water bath) while stirring constantly.
Once the mixture is a smooth consistency you pour it into small molds and let it sit for a bit to harden. Voila - your very own chocolate. Of course you can experiment by varying the amounts of sugar/cocoa and by adding nuts etc.

Part Three: Tasty treats with chocolate
The kids then went ahead and made three different types of treats:

• The littlest kids used a small brush to smear melted chocolate on Graham Cookies. Yum.
• The bigger kids made some sort of chocolate truffles with ground nuts. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the recipe but I am sure you can find one you could substitute.
• My boys made almond splitters:
1. Boil some water and put a bunch of almonds in for a couple of minutes. After that the kids can easily slip off the almond skin (or of course you could buy your almonds already prepared)
2. The kids cut the almonds into long, thin slices (yes, my three year old did this but you’ll definitely have to be there and watch little ones)



3. Pour the almond pieces into melted chocolate, mix together well and drop by spoonfuls on a piece of baking paper. Let cool off (best in the fridge) until firm.
4. Enjoy!

A while ago Shannon at Rocks in my dryer announced a themed edition of her popular Works-for-me Wednesday Blog Carnival , and I have been planning to write a long, detailed review of the best children’s toys for it. I was all set to write it for next week but just realized that I got my dates mixed up and that it is already this week - oops.
But I am nothing if not flexible (right), so I will just use this opportunity to introduce the MOST FAVORITE TOY at our house (I will still write the long, detailed review of various great toys during the next week or so - stay tuned if you are looking for more Christmas gift ideas).
Let me start out by saying that we have many toys, almost all of them good quality, pedagogically worthwhile stuff. However, my kids (especially J.) really aren’t that much into toys. But there is one item that both boys love and that also consistently gets used when other kids come over to play.
In case you are wondering what I am talking about, it is Big Blocks .

Our set is a bit smaller (just eleven pieces) and not exactly the same but I think it is close enough.

I know these blocks are VERY expensive (though after hearing about the $85 baked potato nothing should shock you any more) and they do take up a bit of space. But these are really the best toys we have ever had! My kids use them in a hundred different ways. Over the last couple of years they have built ox carts, castles, tractors, horses, tents, ships, and many other vehicles with them. We use them to play store or set up a puppet theater. They are used for obstacle courses and as weapons (unfortunately). These are truly the only toys that my kids play with constantly.

If loving grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. keep asking you what to get for the youngest member of your family and you just don’t know what to say because the play room is already bursting with Legos, Playmobil and Barbies that older siblings have accumulated over the years, then this is your answer. These blocks are great for everyone: toddlers crawl over them, little ones use it vor pretend play and they can be used to sit/lie on for older kids (I actually got them instead of a small couch for the playroom).

I can honestly say that for us they were worth every penny (which is more than I can say for some of the stuff we have). Big Blocks really work for us!