hump day halloweening!

we are getting closer and closer to halloween, which means soon, i'll have to pack away my skulls and bats and headstones and doll parts in mason jars (really)! but for now, i still get to dress up the kids' lunches with halloween goodies. 

on tap for hump day is homemade lunchables (with organic pepperoni and summer sausage, swiss and cheddar cheese, and crackers), pretzels (i needed something to fill that little space!), veggies (carrots, broccoli and cauliflower), and fruit (mini clementines- my son calls them "clementiny"- and kiwi). 

egg not-so-mc muffins

lunches for the littles are just leftover spaghetti and meatballs, veggies and grapes, so i'm not sharing those today. i'm sure you are all so devastated. trust me, they weren't cute or anything. it's like those pb&j lunches that i don't photograph. 

that said, i made egg mcmuffins for breakfast. well, not MCmuffins, i'm not freaking mcdonalds, after all! but, the golden arches has a monopoly on catchy names, so it stuck. perhaps, we'll call 'em egg not-so-mc muffins. 

a few years ago, i picked up a brand new muffin top tin at goodwill. it is supposed to make just the top part of muffins- you know, the yummiest part. but, they never really turned out the way i wanted. eh, call me old fashioned, but muffins should be whole. 

instead, i use the muffin tin to bake perfect egg circles. just grease the pan, pour in your scramble egg mixture (it takes far less than you'd imagine), and bake. i like it at 350 for 20ish minutes, but it totally depends on your oven. 

after baking the egg patties, i reuse the pan for assembling the muffin sandwiches. just layer a sliced english muffin with a slice of canadian bacon (my daughter will argue that this name is an evil joke: "it's just HAM, mom! this isn't BACON! that's just wrong."). then put your egg patty on top and slap a piece of cheese on that sucker!* these can be refrigerated overnight, or baked right away. if wrapped individually, they'll keep in the freezer, too. 

mine will be popped in the oven first thing in the morning, ready to help the kiddos start their day. pop the whole tin in the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes, until warmed  through. serve with some fruit and it's a delicious breakfast!

*if i'm making these fresh, to be eaten within minutes, i'll often layer a slice of tomato or some sautéed spinach leaves in there. for some reason, my kiddos don't like 'em much if they've been refrigerated or frozen with the veggies.  

leftover lunches!

mama had a rough day and wasn't prepared to make five little lunches this evening, so i packed 'em up with leftovers from dinner. we had kung pao chicken, brown rice, and stirfry veggies for dinner, so for lunch, the kiddos are getting what's left. instead of kung pao, they got the milder stirfry chicken, brown rice and veggies; oranges and strawberries; reese's cup; and yum yum sauce to dip. 

tuesday boos-day lunches!

this weekend was spent taking a well- deserved break. the oldest spent the night with a friend, the two littles had an extended play date, and one if the middles went to a nascar race with his dad. there were no soccer games, no commitments, no blogging, nothing but rain and knitting. 

then, monday came and back to school they went. and i was back to cleaning and chauffeuring and soccer momming. there are no photos of monday's lunch. i can't even remember what i packed.  oops!

i do know what i packed for "tombsday." see what i did there? tuesday, tombsday. haha. yeah, yeah. just humor me. 

nothing real exciting- mini subs; crackers and pretzels; mini salads; orange and strawberries; cheese cubes; and a treat. 

knitty knitty, holiday knitting!

so, all five of my kids announced they wanted mama-knit sweaters for christmas. in october. with 74 knitting days left until christmas. with all the other standard holiday knitting still to be completed. and my smallest kid is a size 6. the largest is a women's medium. we're not talking tiny baby knitteds. but, it's the first time they've asked for my wares, so i kind of HAVE to. 

i had some yarn in my stash already, and i had pattern already picked out for the boys, so i started right away. it's not the ideal yarn for a preteen boy's sweater, but it'll do for now. 

the yarn is malabrigo worsted weight merino yarn in autumn forest. the pattern is knitting pure and simple's children's tunic. 

knitting and rewatching season 5 of supernatural on the ipad. i love the way my stitches all line up in a pretty little row like toy solidiers. 

friday lunches!

looky looky! a tiny jackolantern full of veggies. don't they look yummier when they are all dressed up like this? kiddos are getting the usual broccoli and cauliflower (in the bottom of the pumpkin), with squash spears, sugar snap peas, and two kinds of cherry tomatoes. yummy!

on the menu for friday is organic pepperoni and summer sausage with baby swiss and cheddar cheese slices and crackers (aka homemade lunchables); veggies; oranges and strawberries; with a reese's cup for dessert. 

thursday bentos

like i said before, i celebrate halloween from the first day of autumn until the first weekend in november. that means, as of today, i still have 24 more days of halloweening left!

thursday's lunches were kind of a flop. i had wanted to make little vampire bagel sandwiches, so i did. but, while i was packing the rest of the lunches, the vampire teeth kind of spring loaded and tore the bagles in half. i mean, i guess it's fitting. it is halloween after all. BAGEL MASSACRE! 

to respect the dead and their families, no photos of the bagelcide will be posted. instead, you get the photos of the sole survivor. 

on the menu for thursday is turkey bagel sandwiches with spinach and cheese; crackers and pretzels; squash, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sugar snap peas, and two types of grape tomatoes; apples, oranges, and strawberries. oh, and a kitkat. just because. 

next time i make these, i will probably cut the center of the bagel out instead of just relying on the hole already there. ah well, you live and you learn. 

wednesday's halloween bento lunches

the kiddos didn't have school today, so they had to settle for non-cute restaurant lunch. don't get me wrong, it was yummy, but it wasn't mama-made bento-style lunch boxes. and it CERTAINLY didn't have googly eyes!

wednesday's "main course" is leftover-meatball kabobs, with pepperoni and mozzarella. there are also cherry tomatoes and basil in with the veggies. kind of an italian twist to their bentos today. they have vinaigrette dressing to dip the kabobs and their veggies in, and those containers are all googlied up. carrots, cauliflower, crackers, oranges, apple slices and zombie eyes round out their midday meal for wednesday!  

tiny newbie knitteds

several of my friends are pregnant and i am super happy. there are a few reasons:

1. it's not me who's knocked up!

2. i am seriously happy for these folks and their families. for real, warm and fuzzy happiness.

3. i love babies (particularly when it's not me who's knocked up)

4. i get to knit adorbs baby gear for adorbs babies (and yes, it requires the word "adorbs")

i have it on good authority that pretty needles make for pretty knitteds. and aren't these te prettiest dern needles you've ever seen?!? 

 

monday's spooky lunch

 

this monday's spooky lunch for the kiddos features homemade "lunchables," carrots, spinach, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, strawberry and apple kabobs, and zombie eyes. 

last week, the kids had salad every day. it was at their request, despite some of their friends insisting i had put them on a diet. grilled chicken salad is one of their faves. they also love taco salad, but i digress. my kids are weird, what can i say? they come by it honest, at least. 

upside down french braid

my oldest is a nerd. and before you get all butt-hurt on her behalf, she calls herself a nerd. she prides herself in this identity. when she ran for student government, her tag line was, "there's no better nerd for the job." she has plans to work for nasa one day. at 11 years old, she sat down with the college ranking issue of us news and world report and picked out her top three colleges. cal tech, mit, and stanford. in that order. no exceptions. and this isn't a pipe dream for her. the kid is smart. like really smart. like explaining my college level statistics homework to me when she was in the 6th grade smart. she won't graduate high school early, but she will be about half way through college when she gets her high school diploma in a few years. 

she's also a little bit of a jock. just a little bit. i mean, the kid swears up and down that chess is a sport, but she also plays soccer year round. she's tough on the field. she once had a coach who called her "the enforcer." 

the last time she wore a dress to school, it was black. she paired it with a ratty denim jacket and motorcycle boots. it was cute, of course. but the girly girls kind of scoffed at the whole thing. she is secure enough, though, so she was like, "whatevs, yo." but she hasn't worn a dress or skirt since then.

the point of all of this is to explain how NOT girly girl she is. she and her friends refer to dresses as "death traps." she'll wear one if she has to, for church or a wedding or something of the like, but they are not her go-to wardrobe choice. that said, she is at the age where she is experimenting with her personal style a bit. she's a skinny-jeans-boots-and-cardigan girl. usually with funky glasses. but this year, she started growing out her hair and wearing it in a side braid. she started wearing dangly earrings and asking if she could get a second ear piercing (after soccer season, of course). 

even with all this experimentation, sometimes she surprises me. when she came up with an idea of an upside down french braid, i was a little unprepared. so, i went to pinterest and checked out a few ideas and this is what we came up with.

yup. a braid. a bun. a bow. all we need is sparkles and ruffles and she'd meet her monthly allotment of girliness! still, super cute and maybe she'll let me do it for school one day.

 

zombie eyes

see these? aren't they cute? again- i need to come up with better adjectives. whatever. i'll get around to it.  

these are fun and easy to make- in fact, my kids like to help. these are a twist on the hershey kiss on a pretzel all over pinterest right now- but of course, halloweened up for the fun of it. 

this is not a photo tutorial, since the last time i made a batch, i didn't photograph the process. i figure if i explain it, you can figure it out. ;)

supplies: wilton's candy melts (your choice of color, here it's vibrant green), square pretzels, candy eyeballs.

how to: toss a bunch of pretzels on a lined cookie sheet. spread them out so they are in a single layer. eat the broken ones, they are yummy. 

at some point, turn on your oven. set it at 350. i don't preheat for this, and that's fine for my oven. use your judgment about your own oven. 

place a candy on top of each pretzel, flat side down. try to get them centered pretty well. i may not fuss about oven temp, but centered eyeballs is important, mkay?

pop the cookie sheet in the oven and check it after 2 minutes. these melt fast, and if you leave them in too long, you'll have a gooey mess on your hands. don't ask how i know. don't say you want to see for yourself. just trust me on this. 

when they are shiny, but still look solid, they are good to go. take 'em out of the oven then. 

now you get to do the fun part- make them into zombie eyes! while they are still sitting on the cookie sheet, press a candy eyeball into the melt. do it firmly, but not super hard. the candy melt will ooze through the pretzel holes a bit. you want that. you don't want ALL the candy melt to slip through the pretzel holes, though. you'll figure it out. 

once these are cool, they firm up. super easy for travel, for school lunches, for whatever. just don't carry them in your pocket. the candy melts will, uh, melt. it's kinda in the name. 

we do these with all sorts of variations- candy corn or mallowcreme pumpkins on top instead of eyes. a tiny piece of caramel on top of chocolate melts. one of those tiny pb cups on top- whatever- it doesn't matter. it's hard to mess up chocolate and sugar!

  

lunchy, lunchy, lunchy

so, my name is heather and i have a confession. i am one of *those* moms. you know, one who makes cute lunches.

i know, i know. but i promise, i am not packing my kiddos' lunches AT you. i promise. it's just that i enjoy making healthy treats that my kids will eat- and i discovered that the cuter i make their lunches the more they'll eat. really. if i stick a cherry tomato on a stick, my tomato-phobe will ask for two the next day.

also, i love halloween. it's my favorite holiday ever. i mean, i love it more than christmas. more than arbor day. i celebrate from the first day of autumn until the first day of november. one way i celebrate is with the kiddos' lunchboxes. 

i can't resist. i dork out EVERY YEAR when the stores start filling up with halloween decorations. usually, it's right after school starts. because i am about as big a dork about school supplies as i am about halloween, i stay pretty excited from late july through november. it might be why autumn is my favorite season.

there is so much cute going on in these photos. the roll up thingies on the far left are homemade pizza rolls. i'm lazy, so i use the premade crescent rolls (immaculate baking co makes an all natural version, and i think trader joes does as well). unroll them in a sheet and cut into strips. then i put a spinach leaf and a pepperoni slice on the dough, then roll up. i don't put cheese or sauce inside, as i've found they make the roll ups soggy. i send in some sauce for dipping. kids love to dip.

kids love food on sticks. this mom loves cute. put those together, you get food on cute sticks. i made these (i graduated nursing school and have too much time on my hands now- must. find. job). aren't they cute? gosh, i need to come up with a better adjective. whatever- these are bamboo skewers with monster stickers on the top. i can't remember where i found these stickers- maybe at target? who knows. 

 

yes, those are little cauldrons of grapes. and yes, the dressing containers have googly eyes. because i want to. because i'm huge halloween geek. because sometimes i like to embarrass my 7th grader.

i am fortunate enough that my kids think salads are a perfectly acceptable meal choice. and see the cherry tomato? remember what i said about my tomato-phobe? yup, that afternoon, my 6 year old asked if i would put TWO in his lunch the next day. 

so. it works. i'm having fun. i am dodging some side eyes from other moms, but that's okay. my rule of thumb is that as long as your kid is fed and happy, then you are doing just fine. there are plenty of times the kids are instructed to make a pb&j and grab a water bottle for lunch- i just don't take photos of it. maybe i should do that once or twice. here guys, this is the time i packed lunchables! just kidding. i don't take photos of that, either. ;) 

 

 

 

 

more fun with wine glasses

as if wine glasses couldn't get any more fun... well, they COULD get more fun... if you fill them up to the brim with a cool glass of wine. what's your favorite? personally, i like something semi sweet- not overtly fruity like a flavored wine, but not with a bite to it either. my favorite is riesling, but i'll drink moscato. ah, hell, whoami kidding? if you hand me a glass, i'll enjoy whatever it is! ;)

in addition to wine, i also adore birdies. so much so that i actually have three tattooed on me at the moment! in particular, i love these stylized cuties. to make these stencils, i used my big shot machine and sizzix die cutters to cut out the birdies out of contact paper. instead of using the positive images, i used the negatives to stick on the glasses as sort of a "resist" for the armour etch cream. remember that this is super caustic and needs to be used in a ventilated area. if it gets on your skin, wash it off with soap and water.

this was the finished product! little love bird wine glasses... perfect for gifts for your favorite couple or just to make for yourself. ps: my contact paper had been left in the garage in near 100* heat and lost much of it's sticky, so it didn't have a great seal with the glasses. as a result, you can see that some of the etching cream seeped around the edges of the stencils. that's okay since these were a practice run and will be used for the mister and i. when you make these at home, make sure you have a really good seal around your stencil! :)

front porch prettying-up

lately, i've been spending a lot of time on my front porch and i've been taking note of what needs to be done to make it more enjoyable. in talking to the mister about it, we have decided to make it more like a grown-up clubhouse. we had a bench that we had inherited from my folks, that we sanded and painted a year ago, but that was pretty much it for the porch. i wanted to make it a pretty place that i enjoyed being, as i often hide out there when the kids get to be too noisy for me, or when i need to study a bit, or when i'm checking my emails, or when i'm enjoying an evening glass of wine.



the ladder in the above photo was one that the mister made for the kiddos' bunk beds when they were little. they haven't used them in a few years and i found it in the garage yesterday. wanting to put some plants on the front porch, i grabbed the ladder, painted it white and then faux distressed it with the sander and some "antique stain." this is an awesome tool that you spread on with a brush and then wipe off with a rag and leaves the wood looking aged. i found the tin sign at hobby lobby for 50% off and the colors will match the outdoor rug that should be here tomorrow. the cans are simply food cans that we've recycled into flower vases and herb planters. i sprayed them with a butter yellow paint and they look really cute. other cans are sprayed green and others are blue. it's a thrifty way to recycle some planters for herbs and other small plants. plus, it's great for those little wildflowers that the kids are always bringing me.

these little chairs were given to my twins when they were babies... and my twins are getting ready to turn EIGHT this month! they'd never been painted and quite frankly were not my favorite chairs. but, the kiddos loved them, so i kept them around. to fit in with the new porch, i painted them a light blue (those of y'all living in my area would refer to this as 'carolina blue') and then distressed them.

if you stick around the blog very long, you'll notice that i like the 'distressed' look. the simple answer is yes. it reminds me of farms and simple living. i am not the shiny, polished, elegant kind of girl... i prefer cotton and denim, clean lines and things that are worn in. i am also the youngest of 6, so almost everything i've ever own was previously loved before i got hold of it. maybe it all goes back to that. maybe it's because i have 5 kids of my own and i know that shiny and new doesn't last long in my house. 'distressed' is just giving things that will eventually get beat up a reason to look beat up. but really, i like it because i'm a bad painter and i like instant gratification, and the sander fixes a multitude of sins! i have spent time to make pieces have professional finishes and all that sanding and painting, waiting to dry, sanding and painting, etc. is so boring. with the distressed look, i can put on a coat, sand it and beat it, put on some antiquer and wipe it off (if it needs it), and be done. i love it!

instigator and enabler

to fully get the humor behind this post, you're going to need some of the back story.

you see, i look a little bit like a rebel. i am heavily tattooed- both of my arms are very full; my left arm is nearly completely sleeved. my feet are tattooed. my legs are tattooed. i have tattoos in places you can't see. now, they are all tasteful- pretty flowers, girly-ed up sailor inspired pieces, and my newest tattoo, a crafty tattoo. seriously. a ball of yarn and knitting needles, spools of thread, buttons, scissors, a tomato pin cushion, etc. my hair is always different colors (though because of nursing school, it has to be in the "realm of natural colors" and thus is staying a shade of red or black for the time being) and i have a few visible piercings. i'm loud and i've been told i have a big personality, for what's it's worth.

i have a friend who looks like my complete opposite. she is always well put together and polished, and though she has tattoos (including a very large one on her back), they are not as visible as mine. she is the vice president of the honor society at school, active on campus, was mentioned by name by the college's president during his speech at graduation. she's a wonderful person whom i adore, but for some reason, she has repeatedly been called a "bad influence." i think it started out as a joke by a professor and just grew from there, but everyone we've talked to about it says, "yeah, i can see that." maybe it's because she's so clean cut and you just KNOW that those girls have a wild side. even my four year old agrees, calling her a "party girl." what HE knows about party girls, i've yet to figure out, but when i do, you'll be the first to know. for whatever reason, it's been a running joke for us for a while now.

while on the phone with her this week, her husband chimed in on the topic. he said she's not a bad influence, she's just the "instigator." and if she's the instigator, he said, then i am the "enabler." this made perfect sense to me, though my friend immediately took offense to it. ;) which of course meant that i had to take the joke and run with it. my first thought was: wine glasses. because, well, i had a wine glass in my hand at the time. and the planning started right then and there.

the next day, i went to visit another friend who has a cricut machine. side note: if you don't have one, get one. they are super cool and make my big shot manual crank cutter look like a joke. if you can't afford one (ahem, like me), then make friends with someone with one and have craft parties at her house. seriously worth it. at any rate, we cut out the letters for "instigator" and "enabler" out of self adhesive vinyl and stuck them on the wine glasses:

the vinyl didn't stick very well to the glass, and i was concerned that one wash and they'd come off, so i decided to use glass etching to make it permanent. this stuff is caustic and not meant to cover large areas, i had a really hard time getting it even, but that's okay.

they are not beautiful by any means, but still pretty cool personalized wine glasses for my instigator and me. i think i'm going to keep at it, playing around with designs and cheapo wine glasses to see what other kinds of designs i can come up with. next time, i will follow the directions a little better and not cover the WHOLE glass with the etching cream and instead will just do small areas like it suggests.

popping the blogger cherry!

so, all the cool kids were doing it. call it peer pressure. here i am. actually, i was itching for a way to get some things out on paper. or the computer screen, as it were. as my kids come of age, they'll be journaling in much the same way, i presume.

it's summer time! no school for another 48 days for the children (and 55 for me). yes, i'm counting down. if you aren't, clearly you don't have older children... and/or puberty hasn't hit your home yet. puberty has hit us. HARD. it has chewed us up and spit us out and we haven't even hit the ugly stages of it yet. it has taken my normally angelic children (ahem, cough) and turned them into, well, not so angelic children. and i'm just talking about the eight and ten year old girls right now! enough of the whining, i suppose.

puberty has actually brought us to an issue that i wanted to address, though. we live in a small house. a three bedroom for the 7 of us. the girls share a room and the boys do, too. until now, it hasn't caused an issue. the basement is semi-finished into a playroom for the kids and there is plenty of space for them to play, plus all of the great outdoors, too. the girls, however, are getting the age where sharing space is causing more problems than connections for them. the mister and i have mediated discussions between them, tried to play therapist, had them talk to family members, had them write letters to each other, had them work with each other in the church, even. it's still an issue. they fight dirty. the old adage that boys beat each other up and then are buddies again, but girls hold grudges is definitely true in our home. i've seen it with my own eyes.

we've tried to come up with some solutions to this problem while still having them share a room, since building on to the house is not in the budget at this point. during a recent trip to ikea, i found their TROMSO beds, which are loft beds. i brought the idea up to the mister about un-bunking the girls' beds and either making loft beds or purchasing the TROMSO beds from ikea for them. i would then hang a curtain from the underside of each loft bed, effectively making that area each girl's "room." we'd make them a new desk (currently, they share a double desk), and i want to buy each one a beanbag chair because they remind me of my childhood and i was never allowed to have one when i was a kid. also, because the 10 year old is a huge reader, she definitely needs a wall lamp in her "room," thus making another trip to ikea necessary. ;) if you stick with the blog, you'll realize my deep love for all things ikea very shortly.

i think my plan will work. i just need to figure out a way to do it on a budget and if i can find some easy to re-purpose pieces from the thrift store, that would be even better. as much as i love my little wild monkeys, they do drive me crazy when they are fussing and fighting, but if this will help them get along better, i'll do what i can!