Family Recipes

I love to collect recipes.  One of my favorite presents from my mother is a recipe book of all of my favorite recipes that she made when I was little.  At my bridal shower, the guests brought favorite family recipes.  I treasure my collection of family recipes.  I am always borrowing cookbooks from the library.  I love to try new recipes with my daughters in hopes of finding new favorites for our family.  Last week, we found an oatmeal scone recipe that we loved.  My 5 year old told me that she wants to make these with her children when she is a mommy.  Sometimes its the little things that make the lasting memories.

Oat Scones
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp canola oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 400.  Mix dry ingredients in one bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in another.  Add wet ingredients to dry.  Spread on a round pizza pan.  Cut in pizza slices.  Cook at 400 degrees for about ten minutes or until light brown on top. 

When we make them, we add mini chocolate chips to half the batter.  The girls enjoy their scones with a hint of chocolate and I am a happy mama to see them eating oatmeal.

Enjoy!

Winter's End

Cold days, dark dinners
Holiday greetings
Family gatherings
Time to Believe...

Hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows
Sledding, giggling down the hill
Snowmen, snow angels and igloos
Trees glistening...

Runny noses with kleenix everywhere
Wood stove burning
Heavy coats, hats and gloves
Inside games...

Snow is melting
Muddy driveways
Tiny buds appearing
Birds returning...

Afternoons swinging at the playground
After dinner walks with sunlight
Spring is almost here
New beginnings...

The Start of a Day

It happens every morning.  It starts around 5:00.  I feel the footsteps going up my back.  I roll over.  A little while later, I feel her presence.  Her soft fur is next to me.  With half asleep eyes, I see a cloud of white fur in front of me.  I open my eyes a little more and see two blue eyes....staring.  I close my eyes, hoping to sleep for a few more minutes.  But I feel her eyes...staring.  So, I get out of bed and walk down the stairs with a four legged shadow following me.  At the bottom of the stairs, she runs ahead to her favorite kitchen cabinet.  She stands and waits.  I open the door of the cabinet and grab a can of cat food.  I open the can and hear a loud "MEOW!".   "Sshh...everyone else is still sleeping," I say in a quiet voice.  She runs over to her place mat and looks up with hopeful eyes.  I place her food in her dish and we both are happy.  Now "my time"  begins with early morning yoga, coffee and reading.  This is the way I start my day.

Time

"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have been thinking a lot about time recently.  How do we spend time as a family?  Are we spending too much time...
watching TV
playing video games
on the computer
rushing from place to place
going to scheduled activities and classes

Do we get enough time...
outside
reading
creating
building
exploring
playing
writing
having fun

I am going to focus on how I am using my family's time.  I am going to place our priorities on making time to enjoy the little things...
hugs
smiles
laughs
bedtime stories
family dinners
conversations
being fascinated with people
moments in nature
making our house a home
helping others
thank yous
I love yous

"The key is in not spending time, but in investing it."

Stephen R. Covey

Favorite Books

Here are our three favorite books this week. My three year old loves Treasure Hunt for Girls.  She not only loves to look for the pictures but she loves to make up her own stories to go along with each page. She begs me to play with her book each day and we just pretend we are inside  the book and make up stories.

My five year old loves Move Over, Rover!  by Karen Beaumont.  I have been looking for rhyming books and this has been a favorite for all of us.  We love the ending.

I am always looking for books for my eight year old. She is a great reader at school but is not motivated to read at home. She will read Babymouse and Diary of a Wimpy Kid books at home but is not willing to broaden her horizons.  I found Please Write in This Book  by Mary Amato.  I started to read it to her one night. Two days later she surprised me by saying she finished the book and enjoyed it.  I love when that happens!

Indoor soccer

It was an early morning indoor soccer game. The score was 4 to 2. Our team was winning. The other team tried to score a goal but the goalie blocked it. They tried again and the goalie slid to the ball and got it. Once again, the other team tried to score and once again the goalie blocked it but there was another player. She kicked the ball towards the goal. The goalie went running towards the ball. I held my breath. The ball went through the goalie's legs and into the goal. Now the score was 4 to 3. There were still two minutes left in the game. The goalie is still smiling. It was the longest two minutes. The ball came back to the goal. But the goalie was quick and stopped it at the line. The ball was kicked at the goal again and the goalie got it with a smile. The ball went to the other end of the field. I looked at the clock. Thirty seconds left in the game. The ball stayed at the other end of the field. Twelve seconds left. The ball is still at the other end of the field. Buzzzz! The game is over. I looked and the goalie is jumping up and down in excitement. We won against the first place team!  The goalie ran to her teammates and the whole team was jumping up and down. I took a breath and began to ponder, "Why does my daughter want to be a goalie?"

Snow!

The phone rang at 5:54 yesterday morning.  No school!  We made banana crunch muffins for breakfast.  We then tackled our snow suits and headed outside.  The girls grabbed their sleds.  We ran outside to the hill.  The sleds would not move more than a few feet.  With disappointed faces, we realized that the snow was too slushy for sledding.  However, we discovered that we could make snowballs.  After a few snowball throws, we made a family of snowmen.  As I was all alone with our snow people, I realized that all three girls were waiting at the door to go inside.  I guess our play in the snow was already over.  Time for hot chocolate by the fire while we read Snowmen at Night and imagine what our snow people will be doing this evening.

My First Blog

     I have decided to jump into the blogging world and start my own blog.  I am very excited and nervous about blogging and starting the Slice of Life challenge.  As I think about this new opportunity, the word that keeps popping into my head this morning is "hope".

• I hope to fill my blog with books, science experiences, arts and crafts, math activities, recipes, writing opportunities, and other activities and ideas that will benefit parents, teachers and children. 
• I hope that I have enough to write about. 
• I hope that others will be interested. 
• I hope to start organizing my home with playful learning spaces. 
• I hope that I can provide my daughters with a childhood full of joy, wonder and exploration. 
• I hope that I can raise my girls to be resourceful, creative and independent. 
• I hope that I can return to teaching when my youngest starts kindergarten. 
• I hope that I can enjoy each moment of this "snow day" with my daughters cooking, sewing, reading and playing. 
• I hope that my husband and daughters know that I love them unconditionally all of the time! 

Thank you for joining me on this journey.  I am off to make memories with my girls on our first snow day of the school year.