Lazy Saturday

I got REALLY behind with google reader this week.  I had 200+ posts that just kept building up.  Thanks to some late nights, I got it back under control, but whew!  It constantly amazes me how much information is transmitted instantaneously over the Internet.  Here are a couple of my favs for the week:

Capture the Tail - a fun tag-like game for Easter from Vanilla Joy

I recently had a horrible experience at Walmart and "called corporate" for the first time.  Southern Savers has this wonderful post about calling customer service as well as numbers/email addresses for several stores.

This post on credit cards from the Simple Dollar was very thought-provoking.  I don't ever agree with everything Trent says, but he is interesting and usually makes some good points in his posts.

Very fun weekend project!

A couple weeks ago my husband built our boys the coolest ball pit EVER!

Last year at a garage sale I scored an inflatable ball pit complete with a couple trash bags full of balls.  The ball pit has several holes that we patched.  All was well for a few weeks, but then the pit started deflating again.  Despite our best efforts, it just had too many holes to be salvaged.  So we stored the balls in a laundry basket.  This meant they spent more time dumped on the floor than actually in the basket - not so fun to play with :p  We looked ALL over last summer for one of those hard plastic swimming pools, but were unable to find one.  Finally my husband said "you know, I could just make a pit..."  My response was "this weekend?"  So he did.  I assisted.  Sort of :)  

This is the finished ball pit - cool huh?

My incredible husband built a wooden box with wood we had on hand.  Then we got 1" foam from Joann fabrics and stapled it around the top.  We covered the entire structure with vinyl (easy to clean!) stapled nicely.

Then he inserted the pvc/net from the inflatable pit and we filled it with balls.  We were going to put a rug in the bottom of the pit, but we forgot so it's open to the floor.  My boys LOVE it and I love that the balls are contained where they can enjoy them :)

Cuisinart Smart Stick

I received the Cuisinart Smart Stick as a wedding gift from a chef I worked with.  She told me that I would absolutely love it.

She knew what she was talking about!  I use this almost daily for a mulitude of tasks.  The chopper is great for fast food prep (onions, baby food, nuts, etc.) and the blender is great for pureeing soup/sauces in the pot.  The whisk attachment is only good in a deep bowl, but 
I have found that to be true with any electric whisk.  Cleanup is a breeze as almost all of the parts release easily and go into the dishwasher.  Light, easy to handle, and quick to use!  I love it!

If you'd like to see more stuff people love, head over to the Diaper Diaries for Things I Love Thursday :)

Discipline - part 1

I recently finished the book "Don't Make Me Count to Three".  It is "a mom's look at heart-oriented discipline" by Ginger Plowman.  It was a really helpful book on not just making your child behave on the outside, but getting to their heart/mind.  It's still a little early for a lot of the concepts for me/my boys, but I'm trying to apply as much as I can.  Here is my breakdown of the book and what I learned:

Chapter 1 dealt with "the high calling of motherhood".  Mrs. Plowman began the book by reminding me that although being a mom a lot of times feels like a forgotten/unimportant job, it is a vital, skilled job that we need to perform with passion.

"Being a mom is more than being cook, chauffeur, maid, counselor, doctor, referee, disciplinarian, etc. (just to name a few). It's about molding character, building confidence, nurturing, training, and guiding. There is nothing like the influence that a mother has on her child. A mother's influence has enormous potential to shape the person a child becomes, for good or ill."

This chapter was such an encouraging reminder for me!  Since the world in general does NOT value stay-at-home moms very highly, it is so easy to become discouraged and feel like I'm not doing anything important.  Plus, the challenge to parent with passion and be excited about parenting was motivating to me since I do tend to sometimes just do enough to get through the day and nothing more.

Chapter 2 is about the definition of discipline.  Mrs. Plowman first addresses how the world today associates discpline with "punishment that involves anger".  She then goes on to talk about how many parents today who are trying to set standards for their children focus only on the outward behavior.  "[I]f they can get their children to act right, then they are raising them the right way."

Both of these viewpoints are wrong/falling short of the true purpose of discipline, according to Mrs. Plowman.  She gives the Biblical definition of discipline and its purpose.  She sums up the chapter with this thought," We must help our children understand that their straying hearts produce wrong behavior...If you can reach the heart [of your child], the behavior will take care of itself."

Yikes this is a long post and I've only made it through two chapters out of twelve!

I guess I will have to split this review up over several posts...I hope you don't mind.  Writing out an explanation of what I learned really helps me remember and better comprehend things so I appreciate you being my sounding board :)

Marshmallow Worms

I'm linking up with two Tuesday carnivals: Tempt my tummy Tuesday by Blessed with Grace & Tasty Tuesday by Forever, Wherever.  Check em out!

This is one of those "keeping it real" posts.  I made marshmallows today for the first time.  Some parts went well, some parts didn't...

I used THIS recipe from Martha Stewart because I was trying to make homemade peeps.

Here are my ingredients - really simple.  Sugar, water, and unflavored gelatin.

Soak the gelatin in cold water.

Sugar and water, boiling to the soft-ball stage.

Combine sugar syrup with gelatin and blend for ten minutes.  This is when I started...

This is at 5 minutes...

This is when it's finished at ten.  See how it's holding its shape?  Then I was put it in a pastry bag and I was supposed to pipe the shapes directly onto colored sugar.  Here is where I had problems.  Up to this point it was pretty straightforward/easy.

This is my first attempt at a peep.  It's pretty pathetic looking.  It was IMPOSSIBLE to get the marshmallow to pipe nicely :p

These are supposed to be bunnies.  Don't laugh.  Okay, you can laugh, but just don't tell me you did.  After this I gave up.  Piping marshmallow just wasn't working for me.  As a result my kids are getting marshmallow worms in their baskets.  They will probably think worms are cooler than chicks/bunnies anyway.

Will got to try a marshmallow.  He thought the texture was kind of weird, but he ate the whole thing.

Have you ever had a recipe not turn out quite like you expected?