birth order tendencies

After ten years of teaching, and spending many hours with many ten year olds, I believe there is great merit behind the idea of birth order behavioral traits. Give me two weeks with a child, and I can probably identify their place in the litter of youngins. This year I have a group of middles; an absolutely charming lot. Tonight I gave pause to the idea that my own children are living up to the supposed expectation of their own place in the family. Mind you, this is only a tidbit of the evidence.

exhibit A: Maddi has already determined the color of her parachute. I'm not sure what color it is, but it ends in "ologist" and requires schooling through the 26th grade. She has already scoped out her dream Land Rover and she knows how much it will set her back. She has researched the average hourly wage of a dozen or so medical fields. The girl is on task. Good thing she loves math and science. Go Madge and keep bringing home the A's. You make your mom and dad proud!

exhibit B: Hillary wears a white hoodie that says, "GO WITH THE FLOW." She doesn't wear it to remind herself to chill, but only to spread the good word. This girl is super casual. She's been laid back since birth. She can amuse herself to no end. I'll find her legoing until her fingers bleed, or petshopping in her room for hours. She casually keeps a journal and writes poetry. We try not to let her more-than-easy temperament go unnoticed. She is a gem. For the last two weeks, she has quietly curled up in the front room (home teacher room) to read 321 pages. Finally, someone is using it for the expressed purpose that I intended. It warms my heart see that chair enjoy a reader like it deserves. Hill, you make your mom and dad proud!

exhibit C: Little Henry. The last baby always gets to stay the baby. McDonald's? sure. Print color images of every Power Ranger? I guess so. Three jelly sandwiches before noon? of course. Unlimited cookies at Grandma's? One for each year, baby. You get the idea. The wonderful thing about Henry is that none of this goes to his head. He is one grounded baby. Stay golden, Little Henry. You make your mom and dad proud!

everyone loves a puppy

as seen on tv

Do my kids watch too much tv? Okay, maybe. Today I came to pick up Henry from a friend's house. I retrieved him and we got back into the car. I began to feel around for my cell phone. My cell phone is really thin. I'd say really cool thin, but about an inch too long. It's always falling out of my pants pocket when I sit down. I knew that I had it with me, so I checked my pockets, under the seats, between the seats, and on the road, under the car. I was just about to walk back into their house to call my phone. After opening all four doors, I found my sneaky little phone lying under a stack of overdue library books. Great! As I came back around to my door, Little Henry offers this,


"You should get a Smart Clip."

"Oh, and why is that?" (I am nearly on the ground laughing)

"You know, you can hook your phone to your belt, or to a bag strap."(motioning to an imaginary purse strap across his chest.) "You can use it for a flashlight, too."




He's four, right? Should a four-year old be able to retell, verbatim an infomercial? Probably not, but my oldest and my youngest seem to be mesmerized by that form of advertisement. They both almost perceive them as television shows......okaaaaaaay.

Maddi has been fascinated by those tv knives for ages. She just recently got over asking for the Silver Bullet smoothie makers. Hillary, not so much taken in by the savvy marketing techniques. Thankfully, this funny little exchange today came just in the nick of time. With Henry's 5th birthday only four weeks away, I almost forgot that I promised him these:

As Henry emphatically educated me about Bendaroos, he was quick to sell me on one final point:

"But wait, that's not all, Mom. If you order me Bendaroos right now, they'll send me two sets of Bendaroos, for free!"

This kid is so freaking awesome, I am totally ordering today.

kindergarten babies

These days, everything arrives earlier than it should. You know that it's Christmas before Halloween arrives. You are aware of Easter candy before all of the "be mines" are done with. Maddi has even "pre-registered" for 8th grade in the third month of her 7th grade year. One event sort of cannibalizes the other. Do I complain about it very much? Nah, not so much, but try to put my baby into kindergarten a minute before I am ready???? I don't think so! Going to kindergarten only leads to going to 4th grade and then to 7th grade. I have my girls to prove that. Henry was invited to kindergarten orientation day. I suppose I went somewhat willingly. The following evidence proves that everyone else IS ready and willing.

vintage audio equipment; who doesn't love a good book on tape?

Parker is 3 and rolled in like he owned the joint; no anxiety whatsoever. Who's gonna break it to him that he's not coming back for a while? Those red, Naugahyde chairs are sweet!

future alumni on the left. happy camper on the right.

best-buds forever? I sure hope so!

The best little sheetcake in Texas

In terms of cakes, I like them all. There is not one little cake that rubs me the wrong way. Every genre of cake has its merits. Even a borderline yucky cake is just "the little cake that could" in my eyes. I would like to share with you my very most favorite chocolate cake on the market. It was the signature cake of my Grandma Salt Lake. She could rock a Texas cake unlike no other. I'm sure that you have this recipe on file in your collection, but let me reintroduce you to an oldie but a goodie. I guarantee that it will put any boxed cake to shame. Today I am also pulling my original disclaimer card. (See original post) I am going to straight up rip off a technique used by one of my favorite foodies. *see http://pioneerwomancooks.com/ Adrianne, who is the sister to my good friend Ashley, gave me the original heads up on Pioneer Woman. Thanks, A. PW's blog is an absolutely beautiful piece of work. It comes off to me like art. Plan on sifting though her pages and losing track of time. One of the things I love the most is her photography. This girl has got it goin on. She's like some sort of photoshopping witch. It's also very obvious that her camera is all that. I've never been one for the cowgirl way of life, but she makes it look pretty sweet to me.

So, when pioneer woman posts a recipe, she organizes the information in a way that a four year old could carry out the directions successfully. Pictures for everything, and I mean everything are offered. I love the way she stages all the ingredients up front so that you can get the full visual experience. I also love knowing what brands she is using. She continues by showing every ingredient being added to the mix. While it is extremely thorough, it seems like a lot of work and maybe tmi. But go on, check her out yourself. I know you will find something that you can't resist trying out.

So here goes, Texas cake goes big time. Hold on....Here are the playaz. Let's address the butter/margarine debate. I've made it using both evils. Honestly, margarine performs the best. You will get a taller cake using the marg. On this day, I only had the butter. You can even go 50/50 using margarine and shortening. I'll let you decide.

Here are the bad boys. Yes, you should use half and half, or at least, whole milk... isn't everything big in Texas?

no worries, that 'lil divot will just get extra frosting.

you knew I'd bring this little genius out.

i know, it's hard to watch.

wait for it......

Yes!! so i got a little weird on my frosting detail. tried something new and it is bugging me.

My photos are not making me a happy camper. The taste of this cake does, however. Your guests will eat it all up and your kids will beg for a piece in their lunch.

Here's the recipe:

• 1 cup margarine
• 4 T cocoa
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 eggs, beaten

Melt the fat, cocoa, and water; bring to boil. Pour over flour and sugar. Add buttermilk, soda, vanilla, eggs and mix well. Bake 20 minutes at 400. Grease and flour your jellyroll pan.

the frosting goes like this:

• 2/3 bag of powdered sugar (eyeball it)
• 1/2 cup melted butter (butter here for sure)
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/4 cup milk product of your choice(half & half, i said)

Mix this together. You will probably need to add more milk. Just add it slowly. You cannot mess up frosting. Beat it as long as you feel like. The whippier, the yummier!

*it's possible that you may pour the batter in the pan, only to realize that you to forgot to add the baking soda. Pouring it back into the bowl and mixing the soda in will make you feel old and bird-brained. No worries, I think it might turn out just fine.

sister

Guess which one is me?

yep, it's me, "chins" right there in the middle of two of the most loving people in the world.

Tiffany, my dear sister celebrates her birthday today. She has always been a tough act to follow.

She was born with physical aptitude that neither my brother nor I were blessed with.

*auditions for Nutcracker, en pointe...check.

*slalom water skier...check.

*100 and 400 meter hurdler (record-holding)...check.

*volleyball spiker...check.

*viewmont vykettes...check.

you name it, she could do it.

It could be enough to really make a person angry and resentful if she wasn't so darn wonderful inside. In my ninth grade year, she took me to the track, (on my request) because I had asked her to help me see if I could get my body to fly over a hurdle in the way that she could. Knowing the basics about genetics, I thought it feasible that I may have received a similar set of track-star DNA. It didn't take long for me to realize that her long, lean legs had something that had eluded me during heavenly registration day.

Later, I stole her old volleyball shoes out of her closet hoping that I might be able to "vibe" off of them and actually serve the ball inside the court lines, rather than behind me. It was a no go. For a tall girl, my unusual skill set was a real mystery to the athletics staff at VHS.

Tiffany was an all-star then, and now. These days she performs the mom, wife, nurse, cook, daughter, and sister duties with the same excellence and grace as she did the talents listed above. Lately, and not surprisingly, she's got a mean game of badminton.

She is my very bestest sister in the whole world!

Happy Birthday!

I love you!

chagrin

Funny how life has a sense of humor. I had the house all to myself tonight, so with nobody to play with, I ate 2 bowls of cheerios, ran some laundry, placed a book order and ran the vacuum around the house. I was "puttering" as my mother would say. Thought I'd suck up the latest dead of my not-so-friendly box elder bug infestation just outside my front door. It was right then and there on March 6th that I saw this:

I'm sure this tiny tree is just laughing at me, knowing that my words have turned against me and he's standing right there to mock me about it. Does anyone remember my earlier post/rant? I went off about how Mr. Ihrig just wasn't feelin it in terms of moving our beastly Christmas tree. It was just too darn heavy for me to move all by myself, so I had to wait it out. Hmmm. does this little coniferous fellow look that intimidating? I'm not sure that I could lift all 24 inches of him out of that pot. Whatever, I guess I've just really let myself go. Seriously, I'm going to post this and then it should take me about 2 minutes to get rid of the tree. What on earth is my problem?

I think I feel a post coming on... something about wanting some meaner neighbors. Somebody needs to move in that would just ring the door and say, "Nice potted fake Christmas tree. Can I borrow an egg?" Yeah, that's coming next, meaner neighbors needed on Quail Run.

Would you like feet with that?

Would you pay $3.69 plus tax for this?

I did today. I have a roomful of toys here at home priced at $3.69 plus tax, that have a street value of approximately 3 cents. Little Henry and his charming "please mom?" strikes again. Oh yes, I know that you pay for food somewhere in that cost, but can you count that as food..in good conscience, being a mom and all? Usually, Henry chugs the chocolate milk and jets away to play in what I call the "zoo section" of the eating establishment. Whose idea was it to combine bare feet and eating under the same roof? Really? Today Henry changed it up and I really got my money's worth. He ate all but one nugget.

If you've been to McDonalds lately, you know that they've gone "full disclosure." I know that the 89 cent hamburger I ate contained 230 calories and the small fries added another 250. (Insert sorrowful guilt here.) I'd say they've gone a bit heavy-handed on the savvy marketing tools. I'm no genius, but I can clearly see that they are working me hard core in the subliminal messaging center of my brain. The color scheme is neutral, the artwork edgy and adult, and I can even watch CNN to see that the sky is really falling while continuously refilling my diet coke.

But where else can you do this....

or this?

You know it.....AT A PARK! And we will in about 25 more degrees. More posts soon to come from the real great outdoors.