Spring is in the Air

We've had a taste of spring here in the Midwest. I am well aware that it won't last (I have photographic evidence of a big snowstorm on March 20th two years ago) but it is nice to think that maybe this time it will hold on.


Even if it's just for a day or two we are taking full advantage of the spring weather. The shorts have come out of the closet. The sandbox has been opened. The bike tires have been aired up. The baseball stock has been replenished. The running shoes have been laced. The slide has been washed off. The garage has been cleaned. The first of the garden crop has been planted.


Don't these pictures just scream SPRING to you?




**Update: Since the writing of this post and the taking of these pictures Spring has indeed departed from Southern Illinois. Temperatures are back down into the 20s. I told ya so.

Moving On

Our computer problems are over.....for now.

Our desktop was so full of spyware and viruses that it was going to cost us $150 just to have it cleaned up. Brian started checking around and found that basic laptops run around $350 to $400 so we decided to let the old girl die.

Actually she is going to be stripped down to the basics and moved upstairs for the kids to use for their games. Which meant that I still wouldn't have a computer with interenet access in the house all day long. I had kind of gotten used to doing all of my blogging and emails at night, though, so it wasn't a big deal. I figured in a month when we get our income tax refund we'd go laptop shopping and find something. Little did I know.

A few days ago I heard a knock at the outside garage door around 4 in the afternoon. When I went to the door I saw the UPS man handing over a package to Brian (who had just pulled in to the driveway). As the big brown truck pulled away Brian handed me the package and said,

"Happy Birthday, Valentine's Day, Anniversary and Mother's Day."

Look what was inside.

Isn't it cute?

I love it!! It is so light and so FAST and the graphics are really crisp and bright AND it has a CD/DVD burner! I've never had one of those before!!! I'm still getting used to the keyboard and touchscreen mouse....and Vista....ugh, but so far I really love using a laptop. MY laptop. Hooray!

Giant Hershey's Kiss

I made this easy "little" treat for my husband for Valentine's Day* and he loved it....and so did the kids. He practically had to beat them off with a stick. I may make one for each of them next time.

Here are the step-by-step instructions (complete with really bad pictures):

Step One: Plug the small end of a funnel. Grease funnel well. (I used Crisco. I wasn't messing around.)

Step Two: Melt Hershey's chocolate chips in microwave stirring every minute.

Step Three: If you are making a solid Kiss just pour the melted chocolate into the greased funnel. I made a filled Kiss so things were a little more complicated than that. Coat the inside of the funnel with a pretty good thick layer of chocolate. The hot chocolate will not want to cling to the sides of the funnel, instead it will want to pool in the bottom of the slippery funnel. Just keep working with it and smoothing it back up the sides. As it cools it will adhere better to the funnel.

Step Four: Put the chocolate coated funnel in the freezer until sides (or whole Kiss) are set and very firm.

Step Five: Make your filling. I used my Oreo Truffle recipe for my filling, but you could use peanut butter, or anything else that sounds good to you. You can put in as much or as little as you like. I put in a lot because Brian loves Oreos.

Step Six: Remove funnel from freezer and fill with filling, being sure to leave room at the top for your Kiss bottom of chocolate (does that make sense?).

Step Seven: Make Kiss bottom by filling the remainder of the funnel with chocolate. Smooth it out and put it back into the freezer until it is set.

Step Eight: To remove Kiss from funnel simply pour boiling water over the outside of the funnel. It should slide right out into your hand.

Step Nine: Wrap the Kiss in aluminum foil and add a handmade flag. TaDa!

For more great recipes and tips check out Kitchen Tip Tuesdays and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays.

*Tune in tomorrow to see what he got me.

Manic Monday

Two Ideas*

Good idea:

Family Fun Magazine gave me this idea to encourage kids to practice the piano. They recommend burning a candle for as long as the practice lasts. When the practice is over the candle is blown out and saved for the next time. When the candle burns down to nothing then the little Mozart gets a special treat of some kind.

I ran the idea past Ryker and he loved it. What 9 year old wouldn't want to combine fire and music? We decided to try it for the first time last night. It worked great, but Ryker realized just long how it is going to take to burn that 12 inch taper down to the base. I think he is a little more motivated to practice now.

Bad idea:

When trying to light a candle that is sitting on your piano it helps to have matches....somewhere in your house. When you do find a match you still also have to find a box with a striker on the side so that you can light the thing. Barring that, I am here to tell you that it is a bad idea to attempt to light the match by striking it on your 9 year old son's jeans zipper. It tends to make him a little nervous and elicit a lecture from nearby 5 year olds about how dangerous the whole situation is. However, it does inspire a more whole-hearted search for a real match box.

*No children were harmed in the development of this post.

La Fleur

Wow! This may be one of the most shocking episodes ever. I mean, I always knew that they would all be reunited back on the island eventually but I never thought about when that would be. As it turns out it is 1970 something and Dharma is in it's hey day. I guess it was pretty naive of me to assume that they would land (or crash as the case may be) in the present day, but that's what I thought would happen. This brings a whole new dimension...and set of characters...to the show. Wow!

A few interesting tidbits from last night:

Thanks goodness the time-travelling is over for a while. If I see the pharse "Three Years Later" or "Three Years Earlier" one more time I'm gonna scream.

I was a little worried when I found out that Juliette is now a mechanic. Now she'll be even more appealling to my husband. But it helped a little that she is head-over-heels in love with Sawyer (I mean Jim LaFleur) now and will probably get the snot beat out of her by Kate before it is all said and done. Little bitter....sorry.

Apparently in the early days of Dharma mothers and babies both survived child birth. So what happened? Was the leaky bomb unearthed? I suspect so.

Judging from the scenes for next week the tide has certainly turned. It looks like Sawyer (I refuse to refer to him as Jim) is running the whole show now. He may have even taken over Ben's role as biggest manipulator and liar of all time. Who am I kidding? That's a title that Ben has no danger of losing any time soon. But it will be interesting to see Sawyer in charge instead of Jack. Weird dynamic there.

Daniel has already spotted Charlotte on the island which means that Eloise is still there, at least for now. Does that also mean that Miles will run in to his parents and be completely shocked? Probably.

I continue to be impressed by the marksmanship of the Losties and Others. I can believe that a con man like Sawyer would know how to handle a weapon, but a fertility doctor from Portland that can shoot a man through the heart from behind a bush 50 yards away? Gotta hand it to Ben. He trained his people well.

The best line of the night goes to Sawyer once again: In response to Daniel's assertion that it makes no difference what they do because "whatever happened, happened", Sawyer says, "Thanks anyway, Plato."

I look forward to seeing how all of this plays out and how the history of the others is changed....which it technically can't be, right? How is that gonna work?

To check out some smarter people's theories head over to LOST Books Challenge.

Another Great Read

I know I’m about a year behind the rest of the planet, but I just read The Last Lecture yesterday. It has to be one of the most heart-wrenching books I have ever read! So I’ve been an emotional wreck for about 36 hours now and I got no sleep last night. My eyes are bloodshot and puffy and every time I look at my kids or glimpse the book jacket I burst in to tears. As a matter of fact I had to blog about it quickly so that I could try to stop thinking about it and move on with my life. That said, I completely recommend it.

If you are one of the other 3 people living that hasn’t heard of the book, let me explain. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, PA has a standard lecture series where they ask professors to give a lecture as if they knew they were dying and it would be their last one. The unique thing about Dr.Randy Pausch’s (professor of Computer Sciences) lecture is that it really was his last one.

At the time he gave the lecture he had been told he had 3 to 6 months before the pancreatic cancer that he had been fighting for a year would take his life. He was 47 years old and knew that he would be leaving behind a wife and 3 young children that probably wouldn’t remember him. Written for his children, The Last Lecture covers the same material as the actual lecture and gives a little more background into the life of Dr. Pausch. He is an unbelievably upbeat and optimistic guy and a tremendous teacher. The book (which sold over 2 million copies, while Pausch really only wanted the first three) is as hilarious as it is unbearably sad.

Dr. Pausch’s lecture is entitled “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” and in it he reveals his childhood dreams and how he was able to achieve all of them(working at Disney, being Captain Kirk, experiencing zero gravity, etc)….well, except for that NFL thing. He praises his parents and confesses his undying love for his wife and children.

“Children need to know that their parents love them. You don’t have to be alive to give them that.”

Just reading about Dr. Pausch’s life is enough to inspire greatness, but reading about his death (as he says, “Turns out dying is a great career booster.”) inspires hope and a real look at what is truly important in our lives.

No one should die without reading this book!!

You can also check out Randy Pausch’s website http://www.thelastlecture.com/ to watch the live lecture or for a look at his blog (be sure to read the e-mail from JJ Abrams), his obituary, a lost chapter of the book, and more information about fighting pancreatic cancer.

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

It's time for another yummy recipe.

This fall I froze a LOT of pumpkin. I made a few pies at the time, but most of our pumpkin crop was cooked, pureed and frozen for later use. Later is now.

Frustrated with my lack of freezer space, I decided to break out the orange stuff. I couldn't get the bags of frozen pumpkin because the cranberries were in the way. That is when I had what Oprah calls "an ah-hah moment", and I decided to search out a recipe that would incorporate both ingredients.

I ended up making some delicious little mini muffins and taking them to ladies night at Pottery Hollow (pictures of my latest creation coming soon) where everyone ooohed and aaaahed over them all night. I decided it might be nice to share the recipe with everyone. I of course, can't take any credit for it because it came straigth from allrecipes.com, as usual.

So here it is: Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped

DIRECTIONS
In a bowl, combine the first four ingredients. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar; add the pumpkin and oil and mix well. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the cranberries. Fill foil-or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

This recipe will make approx. 24 regular muffins. If you want to make mini muffins decrease the cooking time to 10 minutes. You will get close to 4 dozen mini muffins.

For more great recipes check out Tammy's Recipes and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays.

Manic Monday

The Coalwood Way

I've finished my first book for the LOST Books Challenge, The Coalwood Way by Homer Hickam.

To read my review go here.

Or check it out in my 2009 Reading List book reviews.