Thankful Thursday, Special Edition

Thanksgiving post, a little late. Despite not having to host a gathering, still a lot to accomplish. A lot of wishes and pleas this Thanksgiving, mainly for health and fortitude for loved ones, among all the things to be thankful for. Stressful times, they keep on coming. Good things and people keep us going.

Yesterday, while baking side dishes to share at a family gathering, I observed James and his sister at play. I love it when this happens. It was mainly KJS, their version of follow-the-(older sister)-leader.

James did really well with the math questions thrown at him. Zumba time on my old aerobics step was priceless to eavesdrop on. The game was is old Curious George memory game. Story time hit a detour and turned into ....

Adop-a-pet!

James his bedhead ... and Doug

Big Sister and Kitty Boy

Most fun baking ever! Hope everyone enjoyed a good day with family and friends.

Magic Marker Monday: Heart Makers

I know we're past Valentine's Day, but we had a couple of Life things drop on us (colds, family issues, etc.) and I am just now downloading and uploading photos take over a week ago.

This year, the kids made special Valentines for their grandparents. Big Sister decided that it would be best to use the Homework Desk, and supervised James:

I didn't get a shot of James' but Big Sister's was more elaborate anyway. The red is surprisingly hard for me to photograph:

Hard not to grin at all the Hearts

(P.S: I know it's Tuesday -- shhhhh!)

For more great masterpieces or to share some of your own, visit
5 Minutes for Special Needs for more Magic Marker Monday.

                     

Thanksgiving Baking: A Timeline

5:00-9:30 Fuel injection (aka making and enjoying a pot of Peet's Holiday Blend). Trying to keep a damper on my darling (loud) boy.

9:30-10:00 Assemble and bake 2 pie crusts. TV is off. Big sister is entertaining herself. James is stimming loudly and playing with his alphabet puzzle. Also butting in to ask for milk while I am up to my wrists in floury dough. Go away. I love you. Later!

10:00-10:15 Chop and prep ingredients for an egg white veggie quiche. Because the custard tart only uses egg yolks. There is no way I am either going to keep 12 egg whites in my fridge or toss them! Keep after James to turn it down as he stims "AAAAAAHHHH" and "EEEEEE." These disciplinary admonitions are met with dinosaur mutterings and scripting from Squidward.

I am keeping the red eye. This little stinker woke me up at 5am!

10:16 Send husband out for eggs. Could have sworn recipe called for 10 eggs. Nope, it's 12. How many do we have? 11. #chefFAIL

10:35 Husband returns ... with mint chip ice cream too. I love him!

10:30-11:00 Cheer Girl Child on as she squeezes tangerines for custard tart. Body count: 13. Glad I bought the whole bag. We've counted 23 seeds in one half - yikes! So glad she thought to strain as she squeezed.

Meanwhile: James helps stir the egg whiles and cream for the quiche, then runs off to the trampoline to yodel and jump some more. Bizet's Carmen is playing on the classical music station -- Yay!! Explaining themes and motifs to my 8 y-o daughter. Husband pulls James into back bedroom. I love him even more!

11:00-11:30 Quiche is in the oven and baking. Totally guessing at quantities, heat, and bake duration. Meh. Finish citrus squeezing and assembling materials for cooking the tangerine custard. Break out to fix lunch for family.

11:30 Start cooking custard and watching daughter do a fashion show for what to wear to dinner tonight. Exciting!

11:36 Quiche is done. guess what I am having for lunch? Mwa-ha-ha!

11:45 Custard is really starting to cook.

With my fabulous All Clad pot set, I scoff at a double boiler!

 11:50 Added final ingredients to custard.

 12:45 Poured custard into pie crust. Clean up time! Garfield and Scarlotti are duking it out in the family room, sound-wise. Assemble materials for Corn Souffle.

1:00 Custard pie in fridge. What is a scallion? Is it more like a green onion or a shallot?

1:01 Google sez: green onion!

1:01-1:14 Assemble ingredients for corn souffle. Love my hand slicer/mincer. Just like Grandma Lee's!

1:15 Corn souffle in oven for an hour. Time to rest my feet. Hoping I got the temps right because .. look what happened to our controls a couple weeks back during a cleaning?

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Too Early

James woke me up at 5-frickin'-ack-emma. And I really needed to sleep in, because I've been touched by a tummy bug. And I have to cook some dishes for Thanksgiving.

He is so lucky he is cute.

Slowly drinking coffee and coming up to speed. Luckily my good friend was up for some early morning texting. She's recovering in the hospital.

Family and friends, for you I give thanks (we can skip those 5am wake-ups & sick bugs).

Tackle It Tuesday: Juggling

I've been not posting these last few days because, well, more stuff fell onto my plate. My Dad's been in a hospital and is now a nursing facility. He'll be there through Thanksgiving, one of the holidays that my folks love to host. This is tough on us all, even though it's temporary. The kids are both off school for the entire week. James is at lose ends, and usually found draped over me. Unless I want him in a certain place, at which time he runs laughing in the other direction. Of course.

With my immediate family, I am juggling schedules for kids, play dates, holidays, extra errand running, and visiting hours. Hey, I even helped troubleshoot fixing an iPhone over my Droid phone (I see some of you shuddering). Yikes. We are doing pretty well, but some things just don't get done as promptly as they used to.

The kitchen calendar and my spiral weekly/monthly planner for the year are getting workouts. I am using up the texting portion of my phone plan. We are using child care at the gym.

This morning we are getting the final ingredients for making some Thanksgiving side dishes to share. Then we are visiting my Dad. The kids really seem to cheer him up. James does well, except for when he loudly announces he wants to go home or bowling. If one of the patients is in pain and crying, that will set him off too.

Ah well. Learning, growing, managing. How are your holiday preparations coming along?

Tackling loves company!

Check out some other challenges this week
and pick up or share some tips at
5 Minute for Moms' Thankful week
in a series of Tackle It Tuesdays.

Magic Marker Monday: Happy Halloween!

One of my favourite things to do - drawing pictures together. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

For more great masterpieces or to share some of your own,
visit 5 Minutes for Special Needs for more Magic Marker Monday.

                  

Preparing for Halloween

For the first time, both kids are excited about Halloween. James asks every day if we are going Trick-or-Treating tonight. Just this week he's started asking if we can look at decorations. We've gone out to look, but decorations are scarce so far.

I think part of the reason they are so excited this year is because they had fun the last two years around our house, and therefore have good memories to make them anticipate what's to come. Also? Last year we were in SoCal for a few family events this time last year, and I was able to take them to the first ever Mickey's Trick-or-Treat party at Disneyland. Now there's a place that knows how to throw a party!

Funds are short, but I think we can pull together some decorations of our own from things we mostly have around the house / yard. Here's what I am thinking, Kids can help me cut out eyes, faces, and bats from a roll of butcher paper. We can acrylic paint it black and tape it over our big windows for an effect like this:

One of our scarecrows is falling apart. James has been asking about skeletons (they are using x-ray slides, black paper & Q-Tips to make their own at school). Hmmmm, I'll be I can swing something like this:

And finally, we can do something with the think plant pole in the front yard, where a tree (which was so excellent for Halloween and Xmas decor) used to be:

As for costumes, James is currently leaning toward being Willie Wonka (a la Tim Burton & Johnny Depp). His sister wants to be a witch. Kiki, specifically. She is so excited that she dressed up her doll as an Indian Princess:

Loving it!

Magic Marker Monday: Basic Holiday Fun

Halloween morning. It's after breakfast, the TV is off, the kids are literally bouncing around (love that indoor trampoline) yet I am still struggling to reach full awake status. What to do ...

Make cards!

We broke out our economy pad o' construction paper (big back to school sale at Target), scissors, crayons, sparkle pen, FREE stickers from Trader Joe's (just when I think I could not love them more!) and adhesives (both tape and glue stick). Result: almost 45 minutes of colourful fun:

James' card is the green one on the left.

Here is the inside of his card:

I traced his pumpkin and them helped him cut it out. I offered him the scissors in between his left & right hands and he chose his right. Yes, I am still obsessing -- shhhh! James wrote his name with crayon on the right.

Here is our collection of spooky creations:

Visit 5 Minutes for Special Needs for more Magic Marker Monday creations!


  

Giftulation!

Despite colds and a bit of GI bugginess, we had a great Christmas and quiet New Year's Eve.

Before I even opened one package, I had my best Christmas presents: watching the kids' faces as they opened their stockings and presents. Especially James. Two years ago he was so disinterested in the whole event that we just stopped opening his presents. It made me cry. Last year he was politely interested. What he really liked was playing with the tissue paper: Wheeeee!

*This* year, he ripped those wrappings and got into what was inside. Sounds awful to say this, but my heart sang. Because he was engaged and right there with us. Best gift hands down!!!

He loved his laptop toy so much he wouldn't put it down ...


... until his dad helped him open his bowling set:


Which encouraged him to open his toy stick/wand that makes things slide, twirl, and make noise:


He got a Leapfrog fridge Word Builder magnet set from his Nana. He and his sister have been playing with that, and his laptop. On his new bed. And they play really well together. THANK YOU!!!

Happy Halloween!

This is our first year that both kids really got excited bout and participated in Halloween -- yay!! James was a puppy (gotta love costumes that last for 2 or more years!) and his sister was a fairy queen.

James hung in there with us for about 20 houses. He loved walking around at night and being out with Big Sister. He said "Trick-a-Tee" at quite a few houses and was very good about saying thank you. The only tough times were at the homes with dogs. Especially the one with a friendly collie. "I want UP!!" Yessir! Irony, how I love you so.

Anything with flashing lights were instant fascination for him. I thought we'd never get him away from our neighbour with a strobe light on his front porch. We did get a splashing of rain after a bit, and headed home. James looked very pleased with himself. I am very pleased -- I know there is no way he's going to eat more than 5 of those candy pieces in his treat bag. Score!