Making Butter and Buttermilk

A few months ago I saw a short segment on tv about making butter and buttermilk out of whipping cream and tonight I was looking for something to do with the kiddos and we had heavy whipping cream in the fridge so I thought we would give it a try. After what seemed like a year of shaking here is what we came up with.

Before we poured the buttermilk off.

Separated.

Overhead view.

I think next time we are going to try the salted version, this turned out really good though. The kids were excited to see the process and have something fun come out of all their hard work. They are planning buttermilk pancakes for breakfast tomorrow!

PINK hair-o-meter

Just a quick update on the from brunette to bleach blonde to PINK head fund raiser. I started a pink hair-o-meter over on my facebook fan page and thought I would share it on my blog as well. As of right now we are $381 down and $1119 to go until I will be forced to dye my hair PINK. I don't really want to have pink hair but am willing to sacrifice my pride for a CURE!

So here is a sneak peek of what I will look like with PINK hair. I am pretty sure it will be a lot brighter but my photoshop skills aren't that great.

Works for Me Wednesday - Potty Training Post-its

Have you ever had a toddler who was learning how to use the big boy/girl potty but flat out refused to go in public for fear that the toilet was going to self flush?? Well when Lynner was around 2.5 years old we took her to Olive Garden for dinner and the toilet in the ladies room flushed on her SEVEN times which scared her half to death. She had been completely potty trained for almost six months at that point. A week later we were at Toys R Us and she was begging to go home. Not just asking, but BEGGING. I had no idea what was wrong with her, I honestly thought she was sick. What child begs to go home when they are in the middle of a toy store! I had several things I needed to do while I was there so I kept asking her why she wanted to go home and she never did give an answer, at least verbally, but when I heard the tinkle on the ground I instantly knew. When I asked her why she didn't ask to go to the bathroom she admitted she was scared. Luckily Toys R Us has diapers in the restroom so I was able to put one on her and still finish shopping. She had a dress on so we just tossed her undies and went on our way.

Fast forward a few weeks and I am on the phone with my momma complaining that I can't get Lynner to use a public restroom to save my life. I told momma that she was terrified of the self flushing toilets and that she flat out REFUSED to go. My momma was a smart, smart woman she instantly says "well buy some post-it notes and slap one over the sensor so it won't flush on her". Next trip to the store we buy some post-its and go into the bathroom and I show Lynner how her new "magic stickers" work and she was so impressed! Magic Stickers have helped so many children in my life since that day. We are getting ready to potty train The Fish and let me tell you one of the first things that will go in my potty training pack is some good ole Magic Stickers, aka Post-It notes. And that my friends WORKS FOR ME! For more ideas go check out Kristen at We Are THAT Family!

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Monday: 5 miles walking girls to school and back and heading to the post office also.

Tuesday: 1 mile

Wednesday: 6 miles, the girls both had a fun run at school so I participated with both of them.

Thursday: rest

Friday: 1 mile

Saturday: 8.2 mile training walk with Kindred Spirits

Sunday: 10 miles with Mel, a friend I met at last weeks training walk!

This weeks total : 31.2 miles!!!!

2010's total : 131.9 miles

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Friday,

Got in a full 5 miles on Friday between walking 3 miles in the am with The Fish and the dog and 2 miles in the evening with the dog.

Saturday:

Trained with the 3 Day team Kindred Spirits in Mukilteo for a total of 6.8 miles, met some new ladies and had a great time!

Sunday:

Walked 2 miles with Lynner and the dog and then immediately jumped on the treadmill and did another 4 miles. Boy am I wiped out tonight!!

This weeks total = 27.7 miles
2010's total = 100.7 miles WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO

Still looking for donations to raise funds for the minimum require amounts and for the next 4 weeks if you donate you could cause me to go from a Brunette to a Bleach Blonde to a PINK head!

Wanna see me go from a Brunette to a Blonde to a PINK head......

Yes you heard me right PINK head, that is if you all are up to the challenge. As most of you know I will be walking in the Breast Cancer 3 Day in San Francisco October 1st-3rd with my bff, Jessica and each of us is required to raise $2300 in order to participate. This year I am willing to do something drastic in order to raise those funds. I am willing to dye my hair permanent PINK, which my hair dresser, Michelle Ripley at Blonde and Beyond Hair Design in Marysville, WA has graciously donated her services for. She said it takes a very long time and requires that I go completely BLEACH BLONDE (which I have never done before) in order for the pink dye to take. I will be taking pictures of the entire process with my brand new Samsung DuelView.

So what is your part in this you ask?? I need you all to collectively donate $1500 in the next 4 weeks for me to be willing to dye my hair pink and leave it that way for SIX weeks. Each donation MUST have your name (or anonymous) followed by *GO PINK* in order to count towards the $1500 goal. If you can only donate a little but know tons of people who would like me to *GO PINK* please by all means SPREAD the word! I will be updating my facebook page as each donation comes in with the grand total raised.

So if you would like to see me go from Brunette (see the sassy new do above).... to Bleach Blonde.... to PINK scoot on over and DONATE now!

Have any questions please let me know! Thank you in advance for helping us save the boobies!

Topped for a Year Raffle + YARN Winners Are....

The winners were selected on random.org

Amber (great job getting in that last minute entry!)

and Elizabeth

Thank you both for your generous donations! I will be getting your booklets and yarn in the mail soon!!

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Catching up...

Tuesday: Walked 3 miles in the am with The Fish and Bentley and surprisingly The Fish didn't cry the whole way after mile 1, it was amazing, he normally freaks out after 1 mile. I did an additional 2 miles picking the girls up from school as I walked to the post office before picking them up.

Wednesday: Repeated Tuesday morning doing 3 miles with The Fish and Bentley, it was a great morning that day as well.

Thursday: DAY OFF!

I plan on doing at least 5 miles on Today and I am going on a 6.8 mile training walk tomorrow with one of the Seattle teams. And then a slower paced 4 mile walk on Sunday, hoping to get the hubs to go with me.

This Weeks Total = 11.9

2010's total = 82.9 (so close to 100!!)

I can't believe I am posting this...

I have a huge issue with play dough. I don't like it. AT. ALL. It gets in the carpet, it gets in the wood cracks on the table, it dries up and makes a HUGE MESS. I have never liked it, EVER. But I am realizing that it may just be in important thing in my son's life so I am pushing aside my disdain for it and decided to make him some play dough to play with. His speech therapist thinks it will be beneficial in his therapy for learning colors, shapes, how to use scissors and many other things.

So on Saturday after going to see Elmo I decided that the girls and I would make 6 different colors of play dough for him to use during the week. And of course the girls were super excited to make play dough that was actually going to stay at home. I have made it many other times but normally we shipped it off to preschool classes or other friends, but never did it remain in our home to be played with. I know, I know, I have issues.

So on to the real plan at hand, teaching all of you how to make your own play dough. Ky Guy's day care provider gave me a recipe for Kool-Aid Play Dough many many many years ago and it has always been my go to recipe. I LOVE the texture, the smell, and well just about everything about it.

Kool-Aid Play Dough Recipe

1/2 cup Salt

2 cups Water

2 tbs vegetable oil

2.5-3 Cups Flour

2 tbs Alum (found near the spices)

2 packages of Kool-Aid in any flavor

Boil water and salt in a pot until salt is dissolved. While water and salt are beginning to boil combine 2.5 cups of flour, alum and Kool-Aid packages. Once water has come to a boil add vegetable oil and combine with flour mixture. Stir with spoon until well combine. Once the mixture is at a temperature that you can handle without burning your hands begin to knead the dough, adding remaining 1/2 cup of flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Be careful not to add to much flour as it will make your play dough dry out way to fast.

These are the six colors we ended up with.

#1 Purple = Grape Kool-Aid

#2 Yellow = Lemonaid Kool-Aid + yellow food coloring

#3 Hot Pink = Cherry Kool-Aid

#4 Red = Pink Lemonaid Kool-Aid + red food coloring

#5 Orange = Orange Kool-Aid

#6 Blue = Berry Blue Kool-Aid

The other day I found these great containers at the dollar store and picked them up knowing I was going to make play dough in the near future, they turned out working great for 1/2 batch and because I planned on giving 1/2 of each batch away it was perfect...except for the fact that I didn't buy enough so I put 1/2 in the containers and 1/2 in a Ziploc bag, both are great for storage!

After we got done making the play dough the girls, The Fish and I walked to Joann Fabrics with my 40% off coupon and found this great set of cookie cutters, prefect for our new play dough. With coupon the set was $9, I found it by the baking supplies.

We returned home and set up a table outside and the kids played for hours! I had some finish work to do on their picnic table so I was able to work on that while they played and we all enjoyed a great afternoon outside. The Hubs and Ky Guy were off fishing so it was a fun way to spend our afternoon without them.

Despite what the pictures show The Fish really did LOVE playing with play dough he was just avoiding the camera...silly boy!

I shared my project on

The DIY Show Off Parade

And

Making the World Cuter Monday

And

With Today's Creative Blog

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Today was a great day for training. I got in a full 2 miles this morning with The Fish and Bentley and The Fish didn't cry at all today! It helped that we were playing a game with Teddy Grahams called "Please Don't Eat Me". I was pretending to be the Teddy Grahams and making up voices for each one asking The Fish not to eat me. He was pretty amused by the whole thing...and hey whatever works right???

This afternoon Bentley and I headed over to the post office to drop off orders and pick up the girls from school on the way back home for a total of 1.9 miles.

This weeks total = 3.9 miles

2010's total = 71 miles

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Today I walked 2 miles with the dog and jogged 2.5 miles on the treadmill after having a great Mother's Day with my family. We went shopping for a new digital camera that isn't big and bulky to take with me on this years walk and I can't wait to tell you all about it! I plan on taking it on some of my longer training walks with me also so I have more than just words on these boring training posts ;). I hope to join up with the team I trained with last year to walk some of these longer walks with and meet some new people.

I am still looking for one person each week to sponsor my training miles, if you are interested in do so please shoot me an email.

This week's total = 20.6

2010's total = 67.1

la, la, la, la....la, la, la, la Elmo's World....

Last night the hubs came home and handed me 4 tickets to see 1-2-3 Imagine with Elmo and Friends and I was soooooooo excited, no really I was. I had wanted to buy these tickets for The Fish so he could go see Elmo live and when the hubs got the FREE from work I was overjoyed to take him and his sisters to go and see the show! We had a GREAT time and I highly recommend this show for all your toddlers. Lippy Lou (almost 7) and Lynner (almost 10) said they liked it much more than they thought they would also, so it was all around a good time for all of us.

Since we were able to get in for free I did splurge and get an over priced ballon and a t-shirt for The Fish and some cotton candy and popcorn for all. Total spent for parking and fun stuff at the show $45 and worth every penny.

Yum COTTON CANDY!

Teacher Appreciation

Ok so I know it was last week and I know I should have posted this sooner for all of you who needed ideas but guess what?? The school year is coming to an end here soon and I know all of you could use some ideas for teachers gifts for that as well.

A few weeks ago Lippy Lou's teacher asked me to help her with a crafty project because Lippy Lou is always telling her how crafty I am. I of course said YES! We planted sweet potatoes in recycled peach cans from the school cafeteria during earth day and the kids decorated the cans and I came in to take pictures of the kids so that their mom's would also receive a nice picture of them on Mom's Day! Little did Mrs. Hansen know that I also had a trick up my sleeve and the timing was prefect for Teacher Appreciation.

I went in on Wednesday and took pictures of each of the kids in Lippy Lou's class, came home and photoshopped them all and sent them to costco.com to print same day. I picked them up a few hours later and went to work. I used my cricut to cut out the flowers and letters, purchased 11X17 shadowbox frames at Michael's for 40% off, used pop up stickies to attach the "flowers" to the shadowbox and made up my own vase. In case it is hard to see the words say "Thank you for helping us BLOOM and GROW". Oh and yes I know one flower doesn't have a picture, that is because Little Suzy wasn't in class the day I took pictures, I have promised to come in and take her picture and get it ready for the flower before the end of the school year.

I worked until midnight on Wednesday on the first one and then again until 11 pm on Thursday for the second one, it was a lot of work but so well worth it. Lippy Lou has two teachers, Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Pheiffe. Mrs. Pheiffe is a student teacher who just recently took over the classroom for the remainder of the year for her studies. Mrs. Hansen has been a WONDERFUL teacher, easy to talk to, great to work with and awesome to bounce ideas off of when it comes to Lippy Lou's behavior at home. I couldn't have asked for a better teacher for her this year, we have truly been blessed beyond measure.

Friday morning I walked the girl to school proudly carrying each of the shadowboxes in hand. Lippy Lou was just BEAMING with pride. She showed anyone who would look and we got all sorts of ooohs and ahhs. We found Mrs. Pheiffe first and Lippy Lou prsented her with her box and she was excited to see all the kids shining faces. Then we set off to find Mrs. Hansen and found her walking down the hallway. Lippy Lou slowly walked up to her and turned her shadow box around and tears welled up in Mrs. Hansen's eyes...and yes in mine as well. She was so sweet and proceeded to parade around the school showing anyone who would look. it was so cute to see her so proud of her "kids". So if you get the chance to offer to do pictures for your child's classroom and make a shadowbox for your favorite teacher you should, they will love it!

Here's Little Lippy Lou from Tenbucktwo

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Yesterday I walked the girls to school and continued on to do a total of 2 miles in the morning and another mile to pick them up in the afternoon.

Today I walked with the 3 younger kiddos to Joann Fabrics to pick up some fun things I will tell you all about tomorrow for a total of 1 mile and then this evening I hopped on the treadmill to do a total of 3.5 miles in 46 minutes because the hubs is out fishing with Ky Guy and taking the 3 younger ones on a long walk just wasn't going to happen.

This weeks total = 16.1

2010's Total = 62.6

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Now that the wind storms are over and the sun is shining bright I have been able to get out and get walking! Yesterday morning I took The Fish and Bentley on a 2 mile walk which included dropping the girls off at school. It was a beautiful day and a very refreshing way to start the day.

I came home after the walk and finished up some stuff for work and became some maniac cleaning machine. I was having some emotional/PMS/grieving issues yesterday and I turned it into something positive by cleaning the house. House looks great and I am feeling better! After the clean fest, cooking dinner and delivering packages to the post office I set out on another 2 mile walk with the dog.

During the many training walks I often reflect on why I am out there, who I am walking for and just how amazing walking 60 mile is. I also think about fund raising and let me tell you one of the ideas I got from a fellow walker is something big and you will soon find out just what it is I have up my sleeve and Jess is game to do the same. I can't wait to share our shenanigans with you, but for now I am keeping quiet on the whole thing. A hint....it's PINK (like you didn't know that already) :P

Yesterday's total = 4 miles

This week's total = 8.6 miles

2010's total = 55.1

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Yesterday was a huge milestone for me. I needed to go get some paper and other supplies for mailing out my donation letters from Staples and I decided that I would take The Fish for a walk, it was 3 miles round trip and since he wasn't up for anymore walking I brought him home and dropped him off with Ky Guy and took Bentley on a 1.6 mile walk to pick up the girls from school. So yesterday I did a total of 4.6 miles which put me over FIFTY miles training so far! I was exited to hit the first big milestone in training. Here's to another 600 or so!

This week's total = 4.6

2010's total = 51.1

Breast Cancer 3-Day Training Log

Wow it's been awhile since I have updated on this and I am ashamed to say I haven't walked much since updating...

Here's the low down on my walking.

Thursday 3/29 = 2 miles

Sunday 5/1 = 2 miles

Last week's total = 13 miles

2010's total = 46.5 miles

Last weekend was my step dad's funeral service so I was out of town for a few days and yesterday we had a TERRIBLE wind storm that I wasn't about to walk out into. I plan on passing up 50 miles total today so I will be checking in with you soon!

Picture of Motherhood

When I first read Kirsten's post at We are THAT Family about motherhood it brought back so many memories. With The Fish turning 3 this month I am instantly drawn back to the time of his birth and his NICU stay. The picture above was taken by a nurse who fished my camera out of my backpack. At that point in his stay in the NICU we were not allowed to hold him but had finally been given permission to "cradle" him in our arm. I was so comforted by being able to bond with him in this way and so exhausted from the c-section/stress/lack of sleep that I was out in a matter of minutes. I am forever thankful that his nurse caught this moment on film. In all it's imperfections this picture is perfect. I am forever grateful that we made it through that stay and we now have a lively almost 3 year old *tear* running around our house today.

Mother's day is a bitter sweet time for me as I lost my mom 3 years ago after her long battle with many sicknesses. I am blessed to have had her by my side for 29 years, but still miss her tremendously. She was my rock, my best friend, my mommy!

Happy Mother's Day to all those mom's out there.

Kirsten over at We are That Family is hosting a giveaway that is all about motherhood, check it out.

Topped for a Year Raffle + YARN!

This Raffle comes to you from the amazing woman behind the name Tot Toppers, Kate Oates. Kate has graciously offered to donate TWO of her brand new Topped for a Year pattern booklets to be raffled off with a skein of yarn each for two lucky winners. I have purchased a beautiful skein of Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica in blue for the Master Charles (February's Pattern) for one raffle winner and Cotton Twirl by Crystal Palace Yarns in light blue for the Sunny Textured Cap (June's Pattern). Each raffle entry can be obtained by donating $5 to my Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk. You can donate by going to my personal donate site www.the3day.org/goto/inhonorofcatherine. Once confirmation of the donation is received I will put your name on my excel sheet one time for each $5 donated, so 4 times for $20, 6 times for $30 etc. At the close of the raffle I will choose two random winners using www.random.org. All raffle entries must be received by May 15th at 12 pm EST in order to qualify. The winners will be notified via email and on my blog on May 16th.

Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica in Blue

Crystal Palace Yarns Cotton Twist in Light Blue

As each week goes by I get closer and closer to day one of the Breast Cancer 3 Day which means I am one day closer to the deadline of having raised $2300. To date I am at $670 which means I still have to raise another $1630 and right now I feel confident with your help I can reach my goal!

A special thank you goes out to Sarah Parker at Wildfibers in Mount Vernon, WA for helping me select the yarns for this raffle. Sarah is truly a special woman who I am grateful to get to see each time I make the trip up to Mount Vernon for yarn!