Archive | Summer RSS feed for this section

It’s summertime!!!

18 Jun
It's here! It's finally here!

It’s here! It’s finally here!

ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 24, 2013:

Yay!!

Yahooo!!!

Woot, woot!!!!!

Today is our last day of school. Tomorrow is our first day of summer vacation.

At times during this school year, I seriously did not know if I’d make it through to the end of the year. But I did,  we did, and now it’s summer!

I.love.summer.

Today I will make the same type of disclosure statements to you that I made last summer.

I promise that my posts may not always be on time.

I promise that I won’t be sharing them on Facebook at 6:30 in the morning each day.

I promise that they may not always be on the same posting schedule as they are during the school year, so there may not be three a week.

I promise that I am putting my family first and spending lots and lots of time with them.

I promise to sleep late, wear sunscreen and eat supper on the beach. Often.

And I promise that if we do anything super-cool, or eat anything super-delicious I will share it with you so that you can do it too!

Enjoy your summer, enjoy your family, and remember that summer will be over in the blink of an eye.

Make the most of it!

Tags:

What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Summer Pasta Salad with Peaches

4 Jun
This salad was a hit all around!

This salad was a hit all around!

I’m always getting emails with recipes in my inbox, and every so often one of them will catch my eye and I’ll open it up. The other day I happened to notice a recipe from Cooking Light for a Summer Peach and Tomato Salad.

The name of the recipe, the combination of peaches and tomatoes made me click on it and read it. Of course other than peaches and tomatoes, yet not all the kinds of tomatoes they recommended, I didn’t have most of the ingredients for the salad. I didn’t have Sherry Vinegar or red onions or Feta cheese (I don’t even like Feta cheese) or fresh Basil.

Even still, the recipe stayed on my mind. I knew I wanted to try it one day. In the meantime, I still had to come up with my meal planning for this week, and one night we were going to be grilling pork chops. I went downstairs to my pantry to see what I could put as a side dish or two with the chops, and of course, we had next to nothing since we hadn’t done our “big shopping” yet. However, we had a box of pasta, we had honey and olive oil, I knew we had tomatoes, cucumbers, mozzarella cheese and….fresh summer peaches. I decided to do a variation on the Cooking Light recipe and make my pasta salad for the side dish, but add in some peaches with the other veggies.

“Ewwww….” my daughter said. “That sounds gross together.”

Excellent. A vote of confidence.

Not.

But no worries, I was going to try it anyway. To me, the tomatoes and peaches sounded like they’d go well together, and I looked up a substitution for Sherry Vinegar which said Rice Wine Vinegar which we always have and like to use.

I put on the water to boil and began slicing my peaches. As my pasta cooked and I sliced, that same daughter wandered into the kitchen.

“Can I help?” she asked.

I let her help despite her lack of confidence in this new recipe. As I sliced up the peaches, she threw them into a big bowl and added in the tomatoes, honey, olive oil and vinegar. As I drained the pasta, she peeled and sliced the cucumber and threw that in too. She took a taste.

“This is actually pretty good together!” she said.

I might’ve said, “I told you so,” but I will neither confirm or deny that.

We tossed in the pasta and mixed it all together noting how pretty the reds and yellows looked together. I was wishing I had fresh Basil to add a touch of green, and I debated adding another peach, but decided for this first time out, just to leave it all as is, and see how well this Summer Pasta Salad with Peaches went over with the rest of the family.

Well….I couldn’t have been happier. Everyone loved it and the combination of the peaches with the other fruits, veggies and seasonings was perfect.

My daughter redeemed herself by exclaiming over and over again how great this was together, and I was happy.

I would definitely recommend bringing some summer into your recipes too, adding in peaches and other summer fruits to some of your regular meals. Making this recipe made me even more excited for the end of school and the summertime and for all the delicious summer-only items that are starting to come into season now.

Next time you’re making a salad, think of Cooking Light and their recipe, of my Summer Pasta Salad with Peaches, and see what variation you can come up with!

Even though initially she thought this salad didn't sound appealing at all, she was my biggest helper and biggest fan of the recipe at mealtime!

Even though initially she thought this salad didn’t sound appealing at all, she was my biggest helper and biggest fan of the recipe at mealtime!

 

Tags: , ,

Fun Friday: In honor of National Chocolate Chip Day…Chocolate Chip Fruit Pizza

16 May
fruit pizza

This was such a great recipe, it got all thumbs up, all the way around!

This week I received an email message from a fellow cast member from last week’s Listen To Your Mother. The message was letting me know that today was going to be National Chocolate Chip Day!

I do believe that every day should be National Chocolate Chip Day and at my house, I celebrate on almost a daily basis.

Conveniently enough, I’d just tried out a new recipe from Skinnytaste, one of my favorite blogs for lowfat recipes. I’d received it in my inbox earlier this week and knew it was a “must try” recipe for sure.

The recipe was for a fruit pizza, and it looked so refreshing. We had some unusually hot weather on Sunday and Monday and I knew that Monday afternoon the kids would be looking for a nice cool snack when they came home Monday afternoon.

When I looked at the recipe for the fruit pizza, I had everything for it except for white chocolate chips. I decided that instead, I would use my semisweet chocolate chips, making the crust a chocolate chip cookie crust. It was perfect! I had a good mix of fruit, although slightly different options than she used on hers: I used blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and kiwi. I actually had more than enough, so that I ended up doing a side dish of all the extra fruit and they ate that as much as they ate the fruit pizza. I love seeing my kids eating so much fresh fruit, especially this time of year when the weather is warm and the delicious fruits are plentiful.

I am posting the recipe here just as it appears on the Skinnytaste blog. I do hope you’ll visit the blog however, I always find great things there. In fact, just last night I made one of her chicken recipes, and my daughter said, “I just love when you make this chicken!” So do check the Skinnytaste blog out!

Here’s the Skinnytaste Fruit Pizza recipe. I have just two minor modifications other than the semisweet chocolate chips vs. white chocolate chips: I bake with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, and I used nonfat plain yogurt instead of applesauce. Other than that, I followed her recipe as is. Everyone loved it, and it made a great after school snack recipe. I had enough that it lasted us for two days. I’d definitely make this again!

Fruit Pizza
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 30 • Size: 1 bar  • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 140 • Fat: 5 g • Carb: 24 g • Fiber: 1 g • Protein: 2 g • Sugar: 17 g
Sodium: 72 mg • Cholesterol: 10 mg

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all purpose unbleached flour (Gold Medal)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar, unpacked
  • 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate

For the Frosting:

  • 8 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

To Assemble:

  • 1 large mango, diced
  • 3 diced kiwis
  • 1 cup sliced strawberries
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 cup raspberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Lightly spray a 9 x 13 x 1.375 inch non-stick baking pan (quarter sheet pan) with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and stir to blend.

In another bowl, whisk the sugars with the butter, egg whites, applesauce and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a spatula in two additions until the batter is very well blended. If the batter looks more “crumbly” than smooth, add just a drop of water at a time (ONLY if needed) until it smooths out. Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Spread the batter onto the baking pan using the back of a measuring cup to smooth evenly.

Bake 14 to 16 minutes, until the edges are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don’t over-bake or your bars will be dry. Let it cool completely on wire rack.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting; in a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until well-blended.

Cut the bars into 15 large squares (5 cuts by 3 cuts with the knife). Then cut each square in half diagonally to create triangles. Spread the frosting in a thin, even layer over the surface of the cookie, leaving a small margin around the edges. Layer the fresh fruit over the frosting. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

 

Tags: , ,

Monday Musings: Make mountains out of molehills

31 Mar
So true!

So true!

Good friends of ours recently had a baby. As we are friends on Facebook as well as in real life, it’s been an amazing, heart-warming experience to watch their daily postings of experiences and photos as they journey through their baby’s first days and weeks.

Yesterday however, our friend posted this page from a book, which when I clicked through to the photo, attributed it to  “William Martin – from “The Parents Tao Te Ching.”

When I read what the page said, I immediately wrote and told her I loved it, but the words stayed with me all day.

As parents who are now more than a decade into this journey, these words really resonated with me. I have always found that making a big deal out of the  little things in life not only taught our kids an appreciation for those small things, but also gave us a new appreciation for them. Additionally, it made those things seem extraordinary and we always joked that in many senses of the word, we did in fact, make mountains out of molehills.

And, as this page in the book says, the extraordinary things do in fact, take care of themselves, for as often as we’ve made a big deal out of enjoying small things, we’ve had some pretty big things happen as well.

I look at our summer vacation months as a perfect example. When people say to us, “Oh do you have big plans for summer,” or something like that, I always say “No, nothing much,” but I clarify that the time goes by and the days fill up and before we know it the summer has passed. I look at our Summer Timeline as an illustration of just how many exciting events do fill our summer, but yet they’re simple pleasures, things like packing up homemade dinners to eat on the beach, bike rides nearby, night time walks through our neighborhood with flashlights, lemonade stands in our driveway that cause a traffic jam in the street, or visits to free events and happenings that take place throughout the summer. None of the things we do are generally costly or “exciting” at first glance, but they are priceless in experience and prove to be memorable for our family. They provide us with together-time, first and foremost, but they also provide us with an appreciation for the little things around us. And at the end of the summer, our timeline is full, wrapped around two walls of our living and dining room and we love nothing more than to look back on those days as fall begins.

Our February vacation week is another perfect example. We generally plan nothing that week other than the yearly eye exams or dentist appointments. But yet, by Friday, we’ve had a full week with a playdate here or there, a family dinner out maybe, or a movie. A good friend said to me this year, “You guys really know how to fill up a week!” And she’s right, leaving our week as a blank canvas really let us fill it with whatever came our way with no expectations to reach for. Nothing big, nothing expensive, and yet everything was fun, (other than the dentist,) but at the end it was hard to decide which thing we’d done had been the most fun of all.

Yesterday in church, part of our priest’s sermon included a challenge to us, to think about the lenses through which we view the world, and as part of his talk, he spoke about thinking of how we’re viewing the little things and making sure we don’t miss those little things as life goes by.

I hope that as our friends continue on their journey as a new family of three, that they too, get a new appreciation all of the little things in life as they show their little one life through their lenses. I hope that they too will enjoy making mountains out of molehills for their daughter as she grows. I know that it’s been a valuable practice for us as parents and I know that our kids have a true appreciation for the little things in life as well.

It’s like the age-old saying, “Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make all the difference.” It’s true. It’s the little things that are the most priceless of all.

 

Tags: , , ,

Monday Musings: Everything and the kitchen sink

14 Oct

MP910221049It’s October.

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

A friend was just diagnosed. It’s a scary time.

I have my mammogram next week. I don’t want to think about it.

I’ve actually been waiting for October to post a book review from a book I read this summer that I absolutely loved and goes well with this month’s honoring of those who have been affected by breast cancer. We read it for our book club book in July. I’ve waited a long time.

I had a great snack idea to share that went along with it too, which I wanted to write about and to tell you the story behind, as well.

But, I also struggled with this post because I believe in honesty and being forthcoming and because part of the story that goes along with the book and the snack isn’t pretty, but I can’t not add it in or I’d feel dishonest.

I never want people to think that it’s all rainbows and roses over here at our house all the time, with kids and parenting and all that goes along with it. I share lots of great ideas and lots of great and amazing happenings but I did want to share this too, because it’s part of daily life, it’s real.

So read on, for the review, the snack and the story. Today’s post will have everything and the kitchen sink for you.

******************************************************************************************************************

The Review:

This summer for our book club, we chose to read “All You Could Ask For” by Mike Greenberg. I’ve linked to his website here for the book rather than showing the cover of the book because I don’t want to use their image without permission.

It was one of the best books I’d read recently. I absolutely loved the story of the women characters in the book, joined together by the common thread of breast cancer. It featured a social media component, as the women first “meet up” online. You know how much I love social media, so I enjoyed that aspect of the book as well. I read the book every second I had the chance. I didn’t want to put it down, and when it ended, I was sad to see it go. I wanted to keep on reading, keep on following the story. I loved, loved, loved it.

I was amazed that the author, Mike Greenberg of the famed ESPN sports talk show had written the story. It had such a female perspective to it, such insight into the minds of how women, girls, think. Lots of girl-talk, chick-flick type of behavior. That part of reading the book, thinking of how he could’ve written it as a male author, was enough to keep me turning the pages alone!

The story behind the great snack idea:

So this summer, as we often do, we were taking a family walk after dinner one night. As we walked, I was slightly behind with my younger two daughters, while Don and Caroline were up ahead. We were walking and talking and I said to them, “Girls: I need to come up with an idea for what to bring to my book club this week. It’s a pot luck. I need either an appetizer or a dessert. Help me out.”

Total concentration.

Total concentration.

Elizabeth answered me, “Well Mommy, what was the book you read about?”

I gave her the cliff notes version, telling her the basic story line about the characters and breast cancer and social media.

“That’s easy,” she said. “Make cupcakes with white frosting and make pink ribbons on them!”

I was shocked. What a great idea! I loved it. I told her I loved it and promised that yes, I’d make the cupcakes and let them frost and decorate them since it was her idea. And I’d be sure to tell everyone in the book club that the amazing pink ribbon cupcakes were her idea.

Yes, yes, yes.

She was thrilled.

So we did. I baked, they frosted, she decorated. She was SO excited. Alex of course, wanted to decorate her own in her own design, so I gave her a plate with four on it while Caroline and Liz banged out the pink ribbon cupcakes.

It was great.

Til it wasn’t anymore.

And so it goes:

I was snapping pictures because Elizabeth had also made me promise to share her great idea on my blog when I talked about the book.

They were getting silly.

Fooling around.

Moments before it all got ugly

Moments before it all got ugly

“Don’t fool around,” I said.

“Let me take my pictures,” I said.

“Stop fooling around.” My stress level was intensifying. My head was about to spin around.

Are you getting it?

Seeing where this is heading?

Within minutes, it happened.

Someone bumped someone, someone knocked the container just so, and some of the cupcakes flipped over.

I lost it.

“You ruined them!” I yelled.

Elizabeth burst into tears and ran down the hall to her room.

They weren’t totally ruined. In fact, they were pretty salvageable. I righted them and packed them up and within a little while longer, I had to leave.

I went to book club with my cupcakes, but the pride and excitement I’d felt earlier was tainted now by my frustration and my bad mood.

We had a fun evening though, we discussed the book, who liked it, who didn’t, and why, outdoors over wine and dinner and then we all went inside for dessert.

I unveiled my cupcakes. They were stunned! What a great idea, how cute!!

I told my story. It didn’t seem as big a deal as it had been in the moment, of course, but a few said they’d have reacted the same way I would have.

I felt a little better. Validated, justified.

I got home in time to sneak into Elizabeth’s room to say good night and to tell her that her cupcakes had been a hit.

“But I ruined them,” she said, crying.
STILL crying.

I wanted to die. I felt so badly for her.

I felt bad knowing that she was still so sad and that this had in fact, ruined her night too.

I told her that they weren’t ruined and that although I still felt justified in reacting as I had, that was sorry.

I laid with her til she fell asleep that night, not something I often do, but I felt better when I left at least, than I had.

To this day, months later, I still have Mommy Guilt over the way the whole thing went down.

Lessons Learned:

But, I keep reminding myself that every day and every experience won’t be perfect. We aren’t perfect parents, they aren’t perfect kids.

Things happen. In the grand scheme of things, this wasn’t even a huge deal, but it weighed on me heavily and has for months and months.

During this month of October, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I will continue to make more of an effort to count my blessings, to remember and focus on the good and what’s gone well, and to remember that life can change on a dime. Overnight. In a split second.

If that were to happen, it’s the rainbows and roses I’ll want to remember, as well as the blessings I have and all the lessons I’ve learned.

Tags: , ,

Monday Musings: Remembering our summer

16 Sep
Even though it's not officially over, it's over.

Even though it’s not officially over, it’s over.

I know.

You’re going to say, “But it’s not over yet! It’s not over til it’s officially over!”

It’s over.

Finished. Done.

Gone, but luckily, not forgotten.

In fact, we spend lots of time thinking about, talking about and remembering all of the fun times we had this summer, thanks to a great new tradition that I started last summer: The Summer Time Line.

If you’re a longtime reader, you might remember when I wrote about last year’s summer time line. I wasn’t sure how it would work out, but it worked out great! And, even better, when we were all done reminiscing about our summer, we used all of the photos and labels to make a great summer scrapbook of memories. It was fantastic.

And we left room for this summer’s memories in that book!

So guess what?

This summer, starting on the last day of school, we began our summer time line for 2013.

On the last day in June, I put my plan back into action. While they were at school I ran out and got what I needed: a roll of doodle paper at Christmas Tree Shop, just like last year, and then I thought long and hard about how I’d utilized my labels last year for our scrapbook. I decided to go to our local learning store and pick up some bulletin board edging with all of their favorite colors to use for my actual line, and some name tags with peel-off backing for my labels. Those served two purposes: 1) they were prettier than the post-it note type of labels I did last year and 2) when it comes time to put them into the scrapbook we can just peel off the backing and stick them on the pages with the photos. Right now they are on the time line with tape. As an added bonus, the bulletin board edging is double-sided, so I can use strips of it from the same bag if I do it next year, just using the other design on the flip side.

Once again this summer, our time line is full of great memories.

Once again this summer, our time line is full of great memories.

When the kids walked in from school, they saw the blank canvas taped up on the wall, labeled Summer Memories 2013. I hadn’t told them I had planned to do it again this year and I wasn’t sure what their reaction would be.

“Oh yay! We’re doing that again,” one of them called out as they were halfway up the stairs.

I’d started the time line myself with one label: The Last Day of School. The last day kicks off our first day of summer.

And then it began. Every so often we would write up the labels, and when I could, a few times over the summer, I’d print out my wallet-sized photos. This year I was more liberal about printing out photos, knowing ahead of time that we were making a scrapbook. At one point I was kind of stuck because I didn’t have a printer for a short time. Once I got a new one, I was back on track.

Last year the time line stretched around the corner of the wall from the living room into the dining room. This year it went that same way and then by mid-August we were out of space again. So, we added a new strip of paper onto the opposite dining room wall with more bulletin board edging across it and printed out the rest of our photos from August and Labor Day weekend and week.

This year we spread onto a third wall with our summer memories.

This year we spread onto a third wall with our summer memories.

With that, our time line is done.

And now, as the air gets just a little crisper this week, and the sun sets just a little earlier each day, we look all around us at the memories we made this summer.

Soon, but not too soon, we’ll take the time line down and add the pages to our scrapbook from last year.

Maybe in the fall. Or before Thanksgiving.

Definitely before Christmas cards arrive.

But for now, we’re just content to remember what a great, great summer 2013 was and how lucky we are to have our memories.

The first two weeks of August filled one whole wall of our time line.

The first two weeks of August filled one whole wall of our time line.

Tags: , , , , ,

Fun Friday: Spanish Flan

23 Aug
Subliminal message for me.

Subliminal message for me.

Elizabeth wanted me to make flan.

Really badly.

She saw flan featured on “Sabrina The Teenage Witch,” and figured if it was so great on the show, enough that an entire episode was devoted to it, then it must be so great in real life too.

I had to make it.

She even found me a lower-fat recipe so that we could make one that everyone in our family could try.

We bought the key ingredients.

They sat on our counter for weeks.

I kept forgetting.

It’s not like I don’t ever do *anything* around here.

So I finally told her to get a piece of paper and write me a note and leave it on the table for the next day, a Friday.

I think instead of a note, I got a reminder poster. It was easily a 9×12 piece of paper.

But it worked, I remembered.

How could I forget, with a note like that?

That next day we set to work, making our flan. I personally LOVE flan. I love anything flan-like. Puddings, custards, things like that. Love them.

So I was very excited to try this out.

Recipe or science experiment? Both!

Recipe or science experiment? Both!

The recipe was easy enough to follow and it was one of those that was like a science experiment. I love that too. The sugar had to be cooked on the stove until it turned a light caramel color and liquified. The kids had never seen that before. It was neat to see and to show them.

The other very cool thing about this recipe was that you cook the flan “right side up” but you serve it upside down.

Once the sugar was liquified, Elizabeth poured it into a pie plate and it hardened right away, which was also very cool. (Cool to see, but hot to the touch, which we learned the hard way.)

She mixed the rest of the ingredients, poured them on top of the hardened sugar and then it was ready to bake for one hour.

Elizabeth was very excited that we were finally making her requested recipe.

Elizabeth was very excited that we were finally making her requested recipe.

Although the prep is relatively quick, the cooking and cooling parts in order to get to the eating part take some time.

While the flan cooked we ate our lunch, and while it cooled, we went and ran some errands. We came back hungry, perfect timing for trying out our new dessert.

I had a little bit of trouble getting the flan out of the pan. Although it was cool and we’d flipped it upside down, it wasn’t coming out. However, using a technique only known to soon-to-be-fifth-graders apparently, Elizabeth banged on the bottom of the baking dish which was now facing bottom up, and out it slid.

“See Mom? I told you that would work. I told you to do it my way,” she said.

This is how our flan looked when it came out of the oven, before we flipped it over.

This is how our flan looked when it came out of the oven, before we flipped it over.

I’m a big “I told you so” person too, so I can’t disagree. She did, in fact, state that I should try banging on the bottom of the dish.

We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon snack. We had both Cool Whip and Whipped Cream available for topping off the flan, since some people like one or the other. I had to restrain myself from having more than one piece. I was trying to lead by example, but I really wanted at least two slices. I had to walk away. Literally.

Before I share the recipe that Elizabeth found with you, I have to share one more funny tidbit. The girls had recently seen the movie “Napoleon Dynamite,” which is a really silly movie, but the kids got a kick out of it. In this very silly movie there is a character named Lafonda. Having just seen the movie, Elizabeth decided she would actually name her Spanish Flan.

The name she chose: Laflanda.

And now, without further ado, here is the recipe she found for Spanish Flan, on one of our favorite sites: Allrecipes.com.

Our finished product, Elizabeth's special request: Spanish Flan.

Our finished product, Elizabeth’s special request: Spanish Flan aka Laflanda.

Ingredients
(From Allrecipes.com)

Recipe makes 1 – 9 inch round

  • 1 cup white sugar

  • 3 eggs

  • 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

  • 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully pour hot syrup into a 9 inch round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour egg mixture into baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil.
  4. Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Let cool completely.
  5. To serve, carefully invert on serving plate with edges when completely cool.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday Musings: raising socially conscious kids

19 Aug
You wouldn't think that buying a doll could help others, but it can.

You wouldn’t think that buying a doll could help others, but it can.

This has been an amazing, interesting summer.

We have had our usual tons of fun at the beach, visiting with family, and taking advantage of some local tourist attractions we hadn’t visited yet.

But there’s been more than that, and it’s really had me thinking over the past week or so.

Our kids have been really trying hard to find ways to make a difference in the lives of others more than ever, this summer.  They seem to have really found a global awareness of the plight of others, to have developed a true social consciousness. I find the whole thing interesting, amazing, and of course, I’m so proud of them. They’ve always wanted to find ways to help others, they’re always asking and searching, but this summer it seems they’ve found ways on more than one occasion to put their desires to help into action.

Summer started out with Elizabeth’s birthday, which she dedicated to raising money and supplies and creating crafts for the local Ronald McDonald House. The idea was one she came up with herself, and I wrote about it here. We were so proud of her.

We are grateful to be able to help others with these bags of snacks and drinks, but those who receive them are giving blessings to us in return.

We are grateful to be able to help others with these bags of snacks and drinks, but those who receive them are giving blessings to us in return.

Then came the second Healthy Lunchtime Challenge/Kids’ State Dinner 2013, which although we didn’t attend this year, we were privy to all of the excitement that we got to read about on our Facebook group page. It was on there, that I read this article about Braeden Mannering of Bear, Delaware, this year’s HLC winner from that state. In the article I read about Braeden creating what he called his “Brae Bags,” which he keeps on hand, filled with food, water and brochures; “a soup-kitchen-to-go” as he calls them, to help people who are in need whenever he encounters them. I was particularly struck by Braeden’s idea of his bags because all of my kids are always asking what we can do to help those who are homeless or in need, whenever we pass them on the road. I never had a good answer, until I read the article about Braeden. I thought it was such a great idea that I read it to my kids and they agreed. We went out a few days later and bought supplies to fill our own bags (cereal bars, a bottle of water, fruit snacks and two pieces of hard candy) which we handed out to people as we came across them in our travels. We first filled six bags and within about seven days we filled six more. We keep them in a cardboard box in our car, ready to go. It gives us all a great feeling to be able to help someone else in need. We filled our bags with items from Dollar Tree, so it’s not a costly way to help others, and the value far outweighs the cost. Although we are helping others, it is us who leave feeling blessed. It’s reminded all of us how lucky we are and how little it takes to help someone else.

It was this tidbit that sealed the deal for Elizabeth. She fell in love with the doll and the ability to help others with her purchase.

It was this tidbit that sealed the deal for Elizabeth. She fell in love with the doll and the ability to help others with her purchase.

Recently we started to give our kids an allowance each week. It’s a new initiative at our house and so far it’s gone well. It’s good to see the girls working hard, saving money for college (part of their allowance goes into savings) and saving money for fun things they’ve always eyed but been unable to buy. Elizabeth found a new kind of doll at Target, and I was fascinated when she told me all about the Hearts for Hearts dolls and why she wanted to buy one. It turns out that each doll is from a particular country and comes with their own story. The doll she first fell in love with, as she tells it, was the one from Afghanistan, and the biggest thing for Elizabeth was that by purchasing her, learning her story, which is quite sad, she was helping girls from around the world who are less fortunate than she is. You can read more about that here. This doll is one of her top favorites and since she’s gotten her, she’s already started planning her next purchase.

And finally, for now anyway, around the same time, Elizabeth stumbled across another Target initiative. They’ve teamed up with FEED USA, to offer a wide variety of products designed to help feed children and families across the country. That’s all she needed to hear. Having gone a whole school year last year with the same backpack from the previous year, I’d promised her an update for this school year. When she saw that Target had a backpack in the lineup of items for the FEED USA program, she insisted that had to be her backpack. Each item in the product line has a number stamped on it, the number of people it will feed by your purchasing it. Her backpack which would cost $28 at full retail price (I never pay full price for anything) and would feed 28 people. She was thrilled. We had to order it online because our store is sold out of many of the FEED USA items. I used my Target Red Card which got me free shipping and saved me an additional 5% off the price and I had a $5 Target gift card as well. For $23 we fed 28 people. Since the backpack hasn’t arrived yet, I don’t have a photo to show you. Once I do, I’ll add it in.

So all in all, it’s been a great summer. We’ve spent time with family, been to the beach, a mansion, and a water park. We’ve fed 28 people across the country and helped at least seven of those who are homeless in our own community. We’ve also helped to ease the plight of girls less fortunate than us around the world and given some comfort to those whose children are receiving treatment at our local hospitals. We’ve been busier than I thought.

Our awareness of others in need and of our own blessings has been raised significantly. I can’t point to just one thing that made the difference, but rather a combination of things we’re all involved with, from church, to school to scouts, to national events, to our dinner table conversations. Whatever it is, I’ll take it. I like the socially conscious people that our children are becoming and I hope that we as parents can help to encourage that type of social awareness even further in the coming months and years so that when we let our children go out into the world on their own, we can be proud of the adults they’ve become.

Tags: , , , ,

What’s For Dinner Wednesday: DIY Pasta

14 Aug
Choose your own toppings. You can have all of it, some of it or none of it!

Choose your own toppings. You can have all of it, some of it or none of it!

I know I’ve said it before, but it’s awfully hard to come up with new and exciting meals AND please the taste buds of five different people.

Last week we were having the “what to have for dinner” dilemma again. It was a nice night and warm, so we didn’t want to heat up the kitchen a whole lot by turning on the oven.

Don looked around and sized up the refrigerator and pantry situation.

It was looking like pasta.

Again.

But wait! Not just plain old pasta. Not again. Not this time. Even though plain old pasta would make a couple of people pretty happy, there were others of us who were craving something bigger and better.

So Don came up with a compromise.

DIY Pasta. A pasta bar of sorts. Build-your-own pasta dinner.

He boiled up some linguine, made up a quick marinara sauce.

I liked it all!

I liked it all!

Then, he sauteed some shrimp and veggies; a whole bunch of different veggies all mixed together. He used Valerie’s cast iron skillet to cook them up.

The house was smelling wonderful!

And the best part: we were going to be eating outside on the deck, a favorite summer treat that we do as often as we can.

Once everything was finished and ready to go, we lined it all up on the outdoor table in a row.

You could have plain pasta.

You could have pasta with sauce.

You could have pasta with sauce and some veggies or lots of veggies or veggies and shrimp!

You could add cheese on top, or not.

It was truly a customized meal, and it was fun to watch the kids build their pasta dishes.

I, of course, ate it all. I took linguine, added sauce, and threw my shrimp and veggies on top with some cheese.

It was another A+ meal by Don, and we all enjoyed whatever part of it we chose to eat.

So if you’re looking for something fun and different this week, look around your pantry and  your fridge and see what you can throw together to create your own DIY meal!

The kids had fun building their own pasta dinners!

The kids had fun building their own pasta dinners!

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Monday Musings: The value of a staycation

5 Aug
I felt like I was away on vacation yesterday, even though we were less than an hour from home.

I felt like I was away on vacation yesterday, even though we were less than an hour from home.  Photo credit: Caroline Cowart

Yesterday was Sunday, and on that one day, three very random and totally unrelated things happened to me that really got me thinking.

The first thing happened on the way out of church in the morning. Our priest was sitting on the bench near the walkway as we walked to our car. He said to me, “Are you guys around this week or do you travel?”

My somewhat cynical answer was, “Yes we’re here, we never travel.”

Because in general, we don’t often get to take trips. We stay close to home other than the occasional visits to out-of-state family, which we do enjoy whenever we get the chance to do it.

Once home, we were sorting out our plans for the day, and what we’d originally planned on doing got nixed because one of the girls has Swimmer’s Ear, something we’d totally forgotten about when we were making our water-based plans.

We thought about what we could do instead, last minute, and I remembered that we had five free passes to The Breakers, a mansion in Newport, RI, about 45 minutes or so from here, courtesy of the reading program the kids participate in at the library. Of the five of us, only Caroline had been there on a field trip with the teen library program a couple of years back, and other than Caroline, the kids had never been to Newport even though we live so close to it.

So we grabbed some coupons for dinner, our cameras and sweatshirts, and jumped in the car.

On the way there, I was texting continuous photos of the ride, over the bridges, crossing the bay, and into Newport, to my out-of-state friend, Paula. She’d mentioned that visiting Newport was on her bucket list, and so I was helping her to “see” it along with us.

“Imagine that?” Don said to me on the way. “People hope to see Newport one day before they die, and here we are jumping in the car at the last minute, on our way there right now. We’re so lucky.”

He had a point. We *are* so lucky.

We arrived in Newport, taking the long way through town to show the kids the sights. In the car, they were bursting with excitement as they took in the sights around them.

They were giddy.

We may not live in a mansion but we can visit one whenever we'd like to!

We may not live in a mansion but we can visit one whenever we’d like to! Photo credit: Don Cowart II

We toured The Breakers inside and out, for free, along with tourists from all over the country and even all over the world, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We had an inexpensive dinner at a local restaurant with our coupons, without breaking our budget. Then we hopped back in the car and went to enjoy the streets of Newport.

It was a gorgeous night. We had a blast. So much fun.

And we felt like we were on vacation.

We had.The.Most.Fabulous.Day.

We watched the sun setting over the bay. We saw yachts, went window shopping, heard a live concert from some of our favorite bands, went to an arcade, bumped into friends, had ice cream, and I even splurged and bought the kids Newport t-shirts ($10 for all three, I couldn’t resist!)

And later on, when I posted a photo on Facebook, a friend of mine from high school commented on it, noting how wonderful a staycation in Rhode Island can be.

She too, was right. We are incredibly lucky, living in the Ocean State. We can be to the beach in less than an hour, all summer long. We have many, many free summer events taking place throughout the season. The scenery is incredible, no matter where we are. The food is amazing; we get to eat many delicacies that people travel hundreds of miles to get a taste of.

Without leaving our home state, we are blessed with a vacation, or as my friend Sarah said, a staycation, that can’t be beat. Many people would give anything for what we have.

And so last night when we arrived home, happily exhausted from our amazing day, I rethought my cynicism from that morning’s answer to our priest. I’m not normally a cynical person, and I do try to count my blessings on a daily basis, being thankful for what I have rather than wanting for more. But this time, I think I needed a reminder.

Several reminders.

We may not travel often, per se, but we do get around and we are incredibly blessed to live where we live, to have what we have and to be able to do what we do, without a whole lot of effort or expense. We don’t need to rent a beach house, board a plane, or take a vacation week off from work.

We are incredibly lucky.

We are blessed.

What are the chances we'd get to hear the Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray and Smash Mouth while we were walking through Newport?

Listening to the bands: What are the chances we’d get to hear the Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray and Smash Mouth while we were walking through Newport? Pretty good!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →