Dec TIL...

Dec 1st...Comfort food. Everyone has comfort food. Some people don't like to admit what it is...it could be a sweet like chocolate or pie, it could be a salty like chips or beef jerky. Mine, well it is oriental...Fried Rice to be exact. My mom swears it is because I spent the first three years of my life eating food prepared by my mamasan in Japan. I am starting this December with a rocking cold and decided to kick it off with a huge wok full of pork fried rice. I LOVED it. The kids thought otherwise and ate leftover ziti like the good little 1/8 Italians they are. Do you have a comfort food? any reason why?

Books

I have the hardest time remember when books come out that I want to read and I have this little OCD part of me that will worry that I am missing a book. I know, weird. So...this is my on going list to help me remember. If I am missing something...let me know!

9/28/2010
Torment
(book 2)

1/4/2011
Awaken
(house of night)
Entice
(Need series...book 3)

1/18/2011 (it has been delayed!)
Shadowfever
(fever series...book 5 or 6, can't remember)

2/2011
The Sookie Companion
(novela)

3/2011
The Dark and Hallow Places
(3rd book...forest of hands and teeth)

4/2011
Bite Club
(morganville...book 10)

5/2011
Hard Bitten
(Chicagoland Vamps...4th book)

7/2011
Forever
(wolves of Mercy Falls....3rd book)

unknown date:
Dead Letters
(Sookie #11)
Bitterblue
(graceling companion)

Crayon Leaves

It's been awhile!!! But, I am ready to get back into the swing of things here on Blogger. The kids and I have been up to (no) good. Crafting for the Holiday season has begun. On Friday, we get to decorate the house for Halloween...then Thanksgiving....the Christmas! So exciting. I love this time of year.

First craft for the fall....Crayon Leaves. I remember doing this when I was a kid in school to make 'stained glass'.


What do you do w/ old crayons? We tried recycling them but I felt cancer calling me while I was breathing those fumes. So, instead, we turned to wax paper.

Materials:
Old Towel
Paper Towels
Iron (preheated to really hot)
Crayon
Scissors
Wax Paper

1. Kids pick out fall colors from their crayon buckets
2. Kids peal the paper off the crayons (which is a big treat for my kids...they are obsessed w/ doing this and are not usually allowed too)
3. Open your scissors and shave along the top of the crayon creating little wax curls.
4. Take the shavings from two different colored crayons and sandwich them in a piece of wax paper.
5. Place the waxpaper on top of the old towel & Place the paper towel on top of the wax paper
6. Slowly move the iron around on the top of the paper towel. Peak underneath to see if the wax is melting. HEADS UP: dont let the melted wax leak out of the side of the wax paper.
7. Set wax paper aside to cool/dry. Takes about three minutes.
8. Cut out into leaf shapes (or, what ever you feel like making)

We enjoyed making different color combination for the marble look. Lucy loved helping cut out the leaves. Tommy liked being Mr. Distructo w/ the peeling of the crayons.

ps First few weeks of school have been great but I am really looking forward to fall break. Have big plans (pumpkin' patch, crafts, library, books, pj movie day!).

See other projects at:

Week 1 Down

A crazy daisy week...but it is over. We had a very busy but wonderful week. Lucy survived her first week in school-based preschool. She did wonderfully Tuesday on...Monday was a little touch and go w/ the no napping situation. Tommy is going to Mrs. Cynthia's house like usual, so his schedule didn't change. DJ is settling into his new school. Third grade is fun but a new challenge. I don't even have words my job yet...let's see if I figure that out in the next few weeks.

We just finished getting ready for this week. We have a tradition (a whole two weeks long) of braiding Lucy's hair into Octobraids. That is right, 8 lovely little braids that when they are undone Monday morning, her hair is a fizzy as a...i dont know...freshly washed fleece blanket comes to mind.

This week includes online assessment, students starting to check books out of the library, Tommy's first school day w/ Gram on Tuesday, early softball games for DJ on Tuesday, Curriculum nigh for DJ on Wednesday, my Birthday on Wednesday, and DJ's fantasy football draft on Saturday. I hope to squeeze in a few workouts and healthy meals along with laughter and maybe a wednesday starbucks run. We'll see.