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Bat Girl drank lots of caffeine-laced tea
It’s 3:30 p.m. We have exactly 2.5 hours before trick or treat starts. This comes with impending porch parties up and down the street with their enticing hot dogs, mulled cider and bowls of popcorn… and CANDY! It’s Friday night; and it’s warm. We’ve already had enough excitement today to last us until Christmas, so, we’re hunkered down in the basement, watching Mr. Magorium. We need our rest. Following today’s REVISED Halloween schedule (note changes underlined), I had exactly 85 minutes to pick up the kids at school, feed them something nutritious to last through the night’s sugar feast, transform them into their costume, and get them back to school in…
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There are 13 dark, dark things …
I am crazy busy getting these kids ready for Halloween, and also busy with a little surprise about a new writing gig (more later). So, here’s an archive post from last year. Happy Halloween! You would think that after spending the summer at the lake that I saw just about all there was to see. How wrong I was. I found something hiding behind these trees. The same trees I looked at across the lake all summer; the same trees you saw in the photos of all of those lake pictures I posted. Right there, in the tree line, something sinister is hiding. Maybe, this is that Nancy Drew Mystery…
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I could live for a lifetime on this love
Their cheeks were flushed bright red from the cold as they filled the room after their first morning recess. While their teacher began to explain their morning work of filling in the number line and counting by 2s and 3s, the kids settled themselves on the floor in a circle. I barely noticed that his head was down, and he was blushing. Ahhh, the teacher noticed; she stopped her talk, smiled, and looked at him and said, “Would you like to introduce our special guest this morning?†“Surrre,†he quietly said, as he jumped off the floor and ran to stand beside me, “This is my Mom,†he said before…
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If you insist, we’ll carve these pumpkins
If I could grow a pumpkin, I would etch my lad’s name in the pumpkin’s green skin when the pumpkin was just a baby. As the pumpkin grew, so would the name, in an earthy version of having a “name in lights.” The problem, of course, was getting the pumpkins to grow. Each year, the blossoms would come, wither and die, without leaving that green little pumpkin ball. This year, inspired by the Jack-In-The-Beanstalk seeds from Seeds of Change, I decided to give the pumpkins one more try and ordered pumpkins seeds. The pumpkin variety I ordered was a small pumpkin that would make a delicious pie, the packet promised.…
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How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds
This is the snack you want sitting on your counter on trick or treat night for the kids. Pumpkin Seeds, Pepitas, are loaded with protein, zinc, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and phytosterols — good stuff that boost your immune system. Pumpkin seeds, also known as pepitas, are at their nutritional best when eaten raw. Still, eating them roasted is a treat you’ll savor until next Halloween. Here is how to roast pumpkin seeds: Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups raw pumpkin seeds 2 teaspoons butter, melted 1 pinch of salt, optional. I have one who insists: NO SALT As you carve your pumpkins, scoop out the inside goop with the seeds. Rinse seeds,…
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The frogs we loved enough to keep
Mom, can we keep him? Sure, a few frogs might be nice, Keepsake of the lake! We picked out the frogs an aquarium was bought, The pet frogs were loved. A piece of the lake now, as real as it could be, right in our kitchen. Food turned out to be our one really big problem; crickets — and that’s it. The store-bought ones died. So the boys dug up their own big, fat, black crickets. They barely fit in each frog’s mouth: black legs hung out! Yet, the frogs were fed. The next problem was, the tank became polluted! The frogs ate so much. The piece of the lake…
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Definition of a cool kid
He knows exactly where you’ve stashed the Halloween Candy. He sneaks around and sticks his fingers into the bag to pull out a sweet morsel. Yet, he doesn’t hide this clandestine treasure. Instead, just before he tears off the orange and brown wrapper, he offers up one of the two tasty morsels he snatched and says, “Here you go Mom.”
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Vibrant Colored Playdough Recipe
This cooked play dough recipe makes a soft, pliable dough that kids, and Moms, can’t keep stop playing with. The addition of Kool-Aid adds vibrant color, (richer than you’ll get with food coloring) and a yummy scent. Cooked playdough lasts longer than the traditional uncooked method. Plus, adding a drop of Lavender Oil to the mix helps preserve the play dough, and of course, makes it smell AWESOME! Note: Add texture to your play dough by kneading in glitter, confetti, lentils, rice or whatever cool stuff is in season. I have two versions here: the large batch, and the average-sized bath. First, the large batch Play dough version: 2 cups…
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An ancient apple orchard
We had one of those weekends where we worked crazy hard. I dismantled the bean fort and saved all the materials, set up a compost system (more on that this week), we raked lots of leaves, and ordered our own blueberry bushes (trying to keep the traffic fine costs down). We also visited this beautiful apple orchard. The orchard is over 100 years old, and sits at a very large lake about 15 minutes north of our lake. (A lake SO BIG, they don’t have to worry about all of those turns.) The current owner’s great grandfather planted the apple trees. (And he is a grandfather himself now.) There were…
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