Winter Breakfast (for dinner)

A few years ago, when I was really active on Pinterest, I was inspired to make a "winter breakfast" for my kids to celebrate the first day of winter. They have remembered it fondly and have asked a few times when we could do it again. Jeff and I had been planning to put it together next week, on the winter solstice, but then we looked at our calendars and realized it just wasn't going to happen on that day. In fact, if it was to materialize at all, it would have to be today, and then only at dinnertime. So, Jeff got the kids out of the house this afternoon on a mission to do some good in the world, and I was able to put it all together while they were out. It was so much fun to watch the kids' faces light up with surprise and delight when they returned home and realized what was happening! We're a little early, but happy winter everyone!

Winter Breakfast

Brioche Wreath

Egg Muffin Christmas Tree

Pancake Snowman

White Hot Chocolate

Celebrating Winter

Today:

• I used a new formula of body scrub this morning to try to combat the ridiculous dry skin that this never-ending winter has made unbearable. It was a Vanilla Coconut Scrub (#5 on the list), that smelled divine and felt incredible on my skin. (I will just go ahead and count that as my Pin of the Week, even though it's been so long since I've done one, we might ought to call it Pin of the Month, or even more appropriate, Pin of the Quarter!)
• During breakfast, Clay asked me what a Binglebob was. When I told him I didn't know, he explained to me, as if I were a special kind of dense, that it is a fish. 
• I sent CC emails this morning, while assisting Max with some of his school work.
• I had an opportunity to leave the house without children for a few hours to attend a class about doTerra essential oils. I have been fascinated with essential oils for a while now and was thrilled to get to do this. I can't wait until my oils arrive and I can try them out!
• I didn't have lunch until 2:00. 
• The landscapers, who are absolutely transforming our property, said there was a chance they might finish the project ahead of schedule, and we could be relaxing on the completed patio within the next week or so!
• I was almost sideswiped by a wild turkey on my way to drop Ruth off at horse riding.
• We picked up Max's t-ball uniform, and he is super excited for his game on Saturday.
• I enjoyed some yummy Mexican food for dinner with the men of the family. Max's comment when we pulled into the parking lot: "You know what is so funny? That this is Mexican food, and it's not even in Mexico!"
• I had a delicious dessert (while everyone else had dinner) in Liberty Hill at the Dahlia Cafe, with Ruth, my mom and my cousin's sweet wife. 
• I left my baby girl with my mom for her first out-of-state trip without me. She and Nana are headed to NYC tomorrow, where they will meet up with Papa and have all kinds of amazing fun, I'm sure!
• The cows knocked our trashes over, which they do every Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, because that's when we take the trashes out for the weekly collection. But this time we outsmarted them with bungee cords. Ha!
• I ordered a tricorn hat for Weston for his half-birthday, because that is something he specifically wishes he owned and who am I to deny that kind of dream?

Sunday, Fun Day

Early this morning, Jeff took the boys over to Mimi and Grandpa's to hang out for the day. Then, he came home and picked up Ruth and me, and we dropped Ruth off with her new horse riding instructor so she could go into Austin to watch some of her classmates participate in a horse show. Jeff and I then made our way Austin, as well. We had one of the best brunches we've ever experienced at Jack Allen's Kitchen, which fortified us nicely for our major shopping trip to Sam's. Eventually, we landed at our Improv class, where we spent three hours being silly and pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones. At one point during the class, I literally fell on my rear. It was awesome. When the class was over, we hurried home for the Super Bowl party happening at our house. It was just us and Jeff's parents, but we had enough food to feed 10 times that many people. Sticking with our trend of themed veggie trays, Jeff put together this one (which I'm pinning on Pinterest for anyone needing some inspiration for next football season. Who knows, this might become someone's Pin of the Week at some point!):

The game was pretty ridiculous, but there was a whole other level of ridiculous going on at our house during the game, which included smoke detectors going off, two boys being drenched with water, a little boy getting sunscreen in his eye, and another boy having an opportunity to mop the bathroom floor as a consequence for some unfortunate choices. You know, a normal day at the Watts'.

It's what's for dinner

I bet you thought I wasn't really doing the Pin of the Week anymore. But, that's just because I haven't done one in, like, a month. (Really, it's only been three weeks, so there!) So, without further ado (and snark), I give you the Pin of the Week:

Rotisserie-like chicken in the crockpot solves the what-to-have-for-dinner dilemma.
Season it however you want. Throw it in completely frozen if you need to.
So very delicious. And, easy. And a huge hit with even the pickiest among us. 

(Almost) Perfectly Clean

In the Watts' home, everyone is expected to contribute. We have gone through several methods of chore distribution, including this one from 2012. The thing that actually seems to work best for us is to switch things up every so often, so that the chore schedule always kind of feels fresh. We've been through several methods since that post in 2012. The chores themselves don't really change too much, but the way in which they are displayed and distributed do, and it really seems to make all the difference in the level of enthusiasm the kids have for the chores. For 2014, we have adopted another new method, which I'll just go ahead and count as my Pin of the Week, since it's not likely anything more creative is going to happen around here this week. Assigning specific chores on specific days really gives the kids more focus and keeps them from being overwhelmed, and thus, the chores get done in a more timely manner, with less whining. (Or maybe that's just due to it being a new system, and everyone loves a new system at first.) Perhaps you all already knew and have implemented that in your homes, but I'm a little slow, so I'm just now having that lightbulb moment.

Anyway, what I really want to tell you is this: One of Weston's chores for this week is to clean the kitchen counters. He set to work on it yesterday and very quickly announced that he was all done. One peek at the kitchen told me the counters definitely weren't clean, so I asked him if he really thought it was clean and what he saw when he looked at it. He proceeded to tell me that, to him, it looked "perfectly clean." This seemed like a teachable moment, so I put my arm around his shoulders and began to walk around the kitchen pointing to obvious milk spots and sticky areas and crumbs. Each time, I would point and ask, "Does this look perfectly clean?" To which, he always replied, "No." There were quite a few of these areas, and by the time we were done, he was in tears. Finally, through sobs, he declared, "But you only picked out the dirty spots! The rest is perfectly clean!" 

A couple of things the classical model of education (which we employ in our homeschool) emphasizes are the over-learning of the grammar of any subject and the defining of terms to make communication more effective. Clearly, I need to be better at defining my terms, and Weston needs a bit more practice with the "grammar" of kitchen cleaning. Thankfully, we will both have plenty of opportunities over the next few years to improve in these respective areas. 

Pin of the Week: Veggie Wreath

I'm thinking of entering the food art industry, now that I've produced another cute veggie tray.
Pinterest makes a person feel like such a rock star.

Pin of the Week: Winter Breakfast

The original pin was so much cuter and really a whole tablescape,
but I live in the real world and am calling this "good enough."

On the menu:
Powdered donut snowman with Rolo hat, mimi M&M eyes and buttons, fruit roll-up scarf, and Reese's Pieces nose
Vanilla Cinnamon snowman pancakes with chocolate chip eyes and buttons, Reese's nose and bacon scarf
Sweet Rice snow
White Hot Chocolate with marshmallows

This was supposed to be our first day of winter breakfast, but we were not going to be home on that day, so we welcomed winter a bit early, with much joy and lots of sugar (which is really the same thing, I guess). Happy Winter, everyone!

(A note to my children: This is proof for you in the weeks/months/years to come that I was occasionally a "fun mom." You will need to remember this because it is not likely to happen very often, as "fun mom" is not my strong suit. But, I do love you all, and maybe you could taste a bit of that love in this silly breakfast!)

Pin of the Week

Thank you Pinterest and Ellen for this week's Pin of the Week.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Kitchen Love

I love home decor, but I've always been slow to decorate any house I've lived in. What it boils down to is commitment issues. A nail in the wall or purchasing new items just feels like a forever thing to me, so I need to be sure. And, by that, I mean I need to overanalyze until I lose interest in decorating altogether. But, last week, I was looking through some of my pins on Pinterest. The ones I create like a woman possessed, and then never do anything with. And, suddenly, I felt that I needed to do something productive with all those good ideas that other people had. So, I told Jeff I was thinking about doing a "Pin of the Week," and posting about it here on my blog, just for some accountability. And, then, before I knew what had come over me, I had ordered this wine/towel rack that I pinned eons ago, with the intention of turning it into a display rack for our rolling pin collection. It arrived, and Jeff hung it for me (using only one wall anchor!), and I love it! With that addition, the inspiration sort of started to run over, and the next thing I knew, I had bought baskets to organize a particularly rough-around-the-edges (literally!) cabinet that needed some serious organization. (You'll not be surprised to learn that it was the kids' cabinet, with all the plastic cups and plates, one of the doors of which had been broken off in an unauthorized game of hide-and-seek that got completely out of hand.) Then, while I was at it, I got out the wooden utensil collection we have been working on since we lived in Brazil. While there, we visited a museum that had the most amazing wooden utensil exhibit and decided we wanted a wooden utensil "exhibit" of our own. And, until today all the awesome wooden gadgets we've collected or been given from all over the world have been sitting in an unopened basket, waiting for me to get finished analyzing and never seeing the light of day. The decorating floodgates were already open, so it was time. And, now, my kitchen sink is flanked by wooden spoons and forks and things-I-don't-even-know-what-are-but-look-really-cool! And, it just makes me so happy to look at all the pretty little doodads. My kitchen has never felt so loved! And, I am in love with the way it all looks! I wish I would have taken the plunge years ago.

I am still going to try to do a "Pin of the Week," so check back in next week to see if I make good on that. I'm not promising it will be amazing, but it could be fun. And, it might just inspire you to take action on some of your long-neglected pins, as well.

This week's Pin of the Week: towel rack turned rolling pin display

Sanity saved, and it looks cute, too!

Wooden Utensil Exhibit

The (mostly) African Collection

A little chair repair

Recently a tiny terrorist toddler got his hands on an ink pen and went to work redesigning some of the surfaces of our home. One of the places hardest hit was Dad's Chair. This chair is just about the same age as Ruth, and it's been through some stuff, but the pen marks just really wrecked the appearance for me. My first attempt at cleaning up left an even more noticeable eyesore. Jeff told me to call a professional upholstery cleaner. But, unwilling to part with the cash that would require, my brain began to churn and I remembered something that completely justified all those hours brief moments I've spent pinning stuff on Pinterst. I had pinned a step-by-step tutorial from this blog on cleaning mircofiber furniture (which, if I'm honest, I figured I'd never get around to trying, like most of my pins). But the ink everywhere and water ring on the arm were driving me nuts, so I didn't think it could hurt anything to give it a shot. And, wasn't I pleasantly surprised that it not only got the ink out, it also got some of the other icky off! It doesn't look brand new, but it does look a heck of a lot better. And, I think with another round of scrubbing, the look will be further improved. It couldn't have been simpler. All I needed was rubbing alcohol, a spray bottle, a scrubby sponge and a bristle brush.

pen marks all over the seat
(this is only a small portion of the markings)

my first attempt at clean-up just made things worse

no pen marks and no water marks