I wasn’t feeling very well a few days ago, so Anna decided to cheer me up. She secretly drew a cheery picture for me. I was very impressed because she usually gives some type of hint that she is making a “surprise” birthday card or picture, but this time I had no clue she was even considering it! It also made me feel special because she was thinking about me. Here is a picture of the butterfly she drew for me.
In my search for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies a week ago, I discovered 2 recipes that were possibilities. As it turned out, neither recipe was the right one, but both were good. The one I posted previously was a light crispy recipe that worked quite well without egg.*
These cookies did not spread much in the oven, so they turned out to be heavy and chewy. Here is the recipe:
*To substitute for an egg, beat together 1.5 Tbs water, 1.5 Tbs oil, and 1 tsp baking powder for each egg. This will alter the texture somewhat.
technorati tags:recipes
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Luke and I just heard thunder and saw lightning for the first time since moving to Rhode Island!! The last time we experienced thunder and lightning was our last night in Tennessee over 6 months ago!!
Last week, Luke and I made plans for an at home date on Friday night.
Here’s how we planned it.
We would have our meal in our own kitchen while the kids enjoyed a picnic in the floor in their room. After eating, we would have our movie in the living room while the kids watched one in their room (on a laptop). Anna would be named official babysitter and have Luke’s cell phone to call us whenever she had a question. She even requested to change B’s diaper.
Here’s how things really went.
We had a nice peaceful dinner complete with a tablecloth, candle, and china. The kids were too caught up in their own picnic and coke (a special treat) to interrupt many times. We ended up watching our movie in short bursts in between checking on and tending to the kids. We took the phone away because Peter started calling for the fun of it. Anna did change B’s diaper and did a great job! The least interrupted part of the movie was when the older three kids had settled down a bit, and Bethany was in the room with us. Things went quietly from there until toward the end of both movies. We eventually got them settled again and finished our movie. Then Anna did bedtime routine with the boys including prayer and stories, and they all came for bedtime hugs and went to bed.
Conclusion
Some would say that the date was a complete flop, but I have hope for future dates with our 7 year old babysitter. Most of the interruptions were questions she had regarding her very first babysitting experience. That is understandable. I hope that after doing this several times, things will go a little more smoothly. And, hey, maybe by the time she’s 12 or 13, she will be able to babysit with complete confidence.
We are hoping to have dates like this once a month (although maybe not always with table cloth, candle, and china). Stay tuned next month for the results of “The 7 Year Old Babysitter II.”
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Luke has been teaching me how to edit the style sheet for my blog. It is SO exciting to see a change in my blog that I did (mostly by myself)! 🙂
The background picture is one we took in 2005 while on vacation in Texas. I used a tool called pipette to find colors for the links and headings based on the colors in the picture. This was very fun and quite addictive!
What do you think about my new look?
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A couple of days ago, I got a forward that said that the new US dollar coins do not include the phrase “In God We Trust” on them. Luke immediately looked up a picture and saw that it is actually on the side of the coin. I think the new dollars are pretty nifty, so I jumped at the chance to disprove this forward. Unfortunately, I sent a dead link to everybody on the forwarded list. 🙁
Now I know that some coins were actually circulated without “In God We Trust” on them. This was a mistake at the mint. I do not believe it was purposeful because other important information was also supposed to be on the side of the coin, including the year, mint, and the phrase “E Pluribus Unum.”
Below is a picture of how these coins are supposed to look. If you happen to find one that looks different, send it to me! I hear they’re selling for about $50 a piece on ebay! 🙂
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There are several baby products I have heard of or seen while visiting friends, that I had never seen in a store. Of course, I haven’t been to the big name baby stores, so that might be why. But today I stumbled upon a catalog that has just about any baby product you could imagine. They have baby gates that open and close on hinges and gates that reach wider than the average door. They have protectors for surge protectors, braces to keep furniture from tipping over on a child, an inflatable travel tent bed with UV protection, a bath stool with storage for bath supplies, car chargeable bottle warmers, a dishwasher basket that actually shakes to give cup valves an extra bit of cleaning, and the list goes on and on. I must admit that there are some products that seem to go a bit overboard – like the helmet to keep your child from hitting his head on the coffee table or the dome cover to keep a baby boy from giving you a shower during a diaper change. But for the most part, One Step Ahead has some pretty nifty products!! To see other items offered by One Step Ahead, go to their website:
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While reading history with AM, I learned that the Liberty Bell is 25 years older than the United States. I asked Luke if he knew that already, and he said, “no.” Then I came back with this bright statement, “Well, it’s been a while since this book was written. It has been longer than 25 years by now.”
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Last Wednesday night we were struggling hard to get to church on time. After getting the boys dressed, I mentioned that they weren’t wearing their belts. Luke said, “We don’t have time to put their belts on them.” I said, “It doesn’t take that long. Maybe a minute.” So he agreed (probaby figuring it would be faster to put the belts on them than to stand around talking about it :)). As we were driving away in the van, Luke mentioned that we were going to be late and jokingly said that it was the belts that made us late. So I joked back and said, “If we’re only a minute late for church, we’ll know it was the belts.” When we got to church someone casually asked what time it was. Bro. Bill said, “Oh, about a minute after.”
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Today AM said, “Mom, I wish I had learned to read when I was 3.” When I asked “why” she said, “Because if I had, I would be a good enough reader by now to read while sitting on the potty!” Hmmmmm. Wonder where she got that idea from? Maybe it has something to do with the books in the bathroom? I was hoping nobody would catch on to that….
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