On Boogers

One of the best things about parenting are the fascinating conversations.  This is not sarcasm.  Nothing is Taboo with kids.  When you don’t bare the weight of social propriety, life is your conversational oyster.

Last night I had a lengthy conversation about boogers.  More specifically about one booger.  We were driving home from a pleasant evening with family.  It was late.  It was quiet.  I thought the kids had fallen asleep in the back seat when suddenly a little voice,

“Will you turn the light on?”

“Why Savannah”?

“I need to see if I got it. Yep!  Where shall I put it?”

“Put what Savannah?”

“My booger. Can I just throw it on the floor?”

“No!” (frantic search for a Kleenex begins)

“Can’t I just wipe it on my jeans?”

“NO!”  (John and I start looking around for the candid camera crew. Are we really having this conversation?)

“It’s just a small one.”

“That is not the point Savannah.  That is NEVER the point.” (I find a yellow, sticky note.) “Here Savannah.  All I can find is this sticky note.”

“Fine.” (She inserts booger into sticky note.) “Here Mom.”

“I don’t want it!”

(She’s shocked.) “What??? What am I supposed to do with it?”

“You’re supposed to hold it until we get home.”

“Can’t I just hang it on the baby’s car seat?”

Like I said – nothing is off limits, and even though I would have sworn under oath that we’d done everything possible to instill our traditional family values which are “boogers are very gross”,  we spent our entire drive home talking about the proper disposal protocol for boogers.  You just don’t get that as an adult unless you are blessed to have children.

 

Why do leaves change colors?

Leaves have lots of colors in them but all you see is green because they have so much green Chlorophyll.  In the winter when the leaves start to die, the Chlorophyll goes away and you can see the other colors that were always in the leaves.  These colors are called pigments.

To show you what I mean, we did a little experiment.  My dad and sister and I went out and collected 3 different types of leaves.

We put them into 3 different glass bowls.

We tore them up into tiny pieces.

Mom poured alcohol over the leaves.

Then we put all 3 bowls into a large pan and filled it with hot water.  This cooks it with energy from the alcohol and the hot water.

We covered them up and let them sit for 30 minutes.  We timed it on the microwave timer.

After 30 minutes, my mom put strips of coffee filters in them and we let them sit for over an hour.

The coffee filter paper absorbed all the mixed up color pigment and separated them.  This is called chromatography. (Crome-a-tog-ra-fy)

You can see that all sorts of yellows, greens, reds and browns were in the leaves all the time, you just couldn’t see them because of the green Chlorophyl.

SavvyTalk

$100 Cheeseball

Italian Cheeseball

Years ago some friends and I were going on a cruise.  On our way to the coast, we stayed the night at one of the girls aunts  home.  This woman’s generous hospitality caused her to order a gigantic cheeseball from her caterer for us to enjoy.  When I say gigantic, I’m not kidding, it was the size of a mixing bowl.

The 4 of us, together in the room with the cheeseball lost all sense of time and space.  It was as if we were alone in the universe with this cheeseball.  After some time had passed we became slightly self conscious of our  feeding frenzy.  Due to social etiquette only, we stopped eating  having already consumed half of our beloved ball of wonder.

We asked the aunt for the recipe and were politely declined.  She said it cost $100 and the caterer would not part with the recipe.

I’ve spent several years trying to perfect my version of the recipe.  This is where I am so far.  I actually like it better than the one we had.  It is still pretty expensive to make and I recommend doubling it.  In fact you may consider tripling it so you can hoard one cheeseball for yourself and then serve the rest to company.  It is very beautiful and makes an impressive display.  Here is the recipe.  If anyone discovers something to improve it please let me know.  Enjoy!!!

Cheeseball with Pesto and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients - I splurged, but you can use less expensive ingredients.

 

32 oz cream cheese softened

8 ounces of goat cheese softened

2-3 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning

2 clove of garlic crushed

About 4 ounces of prepared basil pesto

About 4 ounces of prepared sun dried tomato pesto

½ Cup of sun dried tomatoes chopped in processor.

¼ cup toasted pine nuts (toast them on the stove or in the oven if you can’t buy them toasted)

1 sprig of fresh basil

Directions:

Roast Pine Nuts on stove with a little olive oil.

 

Roast Pine Nuts in a little olive oil.

Cream together: cream cheese, goat cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic.

In a separate dish mix chopped sun dried tomatoes with tomato pesto.

Cover the inside of a bowl or pot with a cheese cloth.

 

Cover inside of bowl with cheese cloth.

Layer in this order on top of cheese cloth:

• cream cheese mixture,

• basil pesto,

• cream cheese mixture

• sun dried tomato mix

• End with cream cheese mixture

Layer cheese with pesto.

Fold excess cheesecloth over the top, press firmly and chill for at least 2 hours or over night.  Invert cheese ball onto serving dish and remove cheesecloth.  Garnish with pine nuts and basil. Serve with fancy crackers.

IMPORTANT NOTE!

Your family will try to STEAL  and eat your cheeseball before it’s ready.  BE ON THE LOOKOUT!

Hannah Faye STEALING Cheeseball!

 

Perseus and Medusa

When I was a kid my dad loved the movie Clash of the Titans.  I remember watching it and being completely horrified and utterly intrigued.  That was about the extent of my exposure to Greek Mythology growing up.  My daughter, Savannah’s 2nd grade class is studying Greek Mythology and next week we are having a big Greek Festival complete with Olympic games, Greek food and Artisan exhibits.  As the room mother, I’m in charge of planning.  I thought it would be hilarious to recreate one of the famous scenes from Clash of the Titans.  The scene where Harry Hamlin who plays Perseus, holds up Medusa’s head.

I made this face-board for the kids. Hope these parents have a good sense of humor cause I can’t stop laughing.

 

Perseus and Medusa

State Fair of Crazies

You always know it’s fall in Big D when the Texas Star starts spinning and you can smell the Fletcher’s corny dogs.  My family loves going to the State Fair of Texas.  John loves all things food and fried.  The girls want to ride rides and see the animals.  I go for an entirely different reason…

People Watching

If you love to people watch, the State Fair of Texas is your ticket to paradise.  All the “crazies” flock to it.

This year I decided to host my very own “People of The State Fair of Texas” award competition.  Of course, we aren’t going to talk about the fact that the entire competition was up in my head and I was the only one enjoying it. What we are going to talk about are all the CRAZIES that come out to the fair in droves.  And when I say crazies, of course I realize that these people may be perfectly normal and nice, they just save their best outfits EVER for fair day.

Contestant #1

Is it Prince? Is it the reincarnated Michael Jackson? Maybe it’s Diana Ross. Whomever you are, way to rock the socks and sandals buddy.

Contestant #2

Never mind her colorful bosoms, this woman takes her lizard with her everywhere she goes.  This is not an exhibit.  This lady, with her equally exotic husband whom I couldn’t get a picture of, literally brought her pet lizard to spend the day at the fair.

Contestant #3

Excuse me sir, Richard Simmons called and he wants his shorts back.

Contestant #4

In an effort to show off her thigh tattoo has decided just to wear a shirt to the fair.  I think the funniest part of this picture is my little cousin pleading with me to take a picture of thigh tattoo lady.

Contestant #5

This is a choose your favorite ending outfit.  In my story he jumps up and dances with the Lake Highland Wildcat Wranglers.  A friend also suggested that he may be a bouncer in the evenings.

Contestant #6

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

Excuse me ma’am but I can’t stop staring at your delicious looking drum stick.

On Mercy

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

I was thinking about God’s mercy today, how it is new every morning, how it doesn’t fail.

It’s interesting isn’t it, to think that God who never changes, creates new mercy every morning for you and me who cannot be the least bit dependable even hour to hour.

I wonder why yesterday’s mercy won’t do for today?  Why does He tailor make it each morning?  Is it to get you through the day you are about to walk out?  I think so.

I think it’s a promise to bring comfort to us.  You know how you sometimes get the feeling that you’ve crossed the line – seriously – and it’s too much, to many times, to bad to ask for mercy?  Well, knowing that it’s “new every morning” means that He took all your crap into consideration and then made a brand new batch of mercy to cover it all.

The minute you slip up or screw up He invites you to throw yourself at His forever underestimated mercy.

His love never fails.

On Poop

Poop is a really big deal in our house.  The girls are fascinated when I change one of London’s stinky diapers.  In fact, the minute I get up to go to the changing table you can feel the excitement in the air.  Mom, does she have poop?  How do you know she has poop?  Did you smell her?  Did you look in her diaper?  Are you going to change her poop?  Can I watch?  Everyone come quick! Mom is going to change London’s poopy diaper!

4 Weeks Old

I’ve observed that the fascination with poop doesn’t go away when we grow up, it just changes a little.  Instead of a poopy diaper it’s a sordid affair, it’s a pregnant teenager, it’s a messy divorce.  Everyone wants to talk about it and see it and let everyone else know what’s going on but no one wants to touch it with a ten foot pole.

Only a mother and father can care more about you than the big, fat, stinky mess you just made.  Only a mother and father can look right past that poop and say “This is my child.  I love you.  Let me clean you up and hold you close.”

London

Thank you Lord for the mothers and fathers who will come over, pick us up, carry us to the changing table and clean you up our mess.  Lord send more mothers and fathers.