Friday Favorites: Short & Very Sweet

Amazingly, Hillary over at The Other Mama and I are channeling the same sort of theme for Friday Favorites.

Mine? CHOCOLATE!!!!

(Should insert picture of chocolate here, but I've eaten it all. Must find more.)

Admittedly, I'm all PMS-y right now, so this is a major nutritional requirement. But I can always be in the mood for chocolate. When I'm on my last nerve. When the boy brings home a great report from school. When I'm tired. When I'm busy. When I breathe. (Maybe that's why I haven't been knitting or scrap-booking as much-- those are so chocolate-unfriendly activities. Unlike time at the computer.)

I like all chocolate. Godiva is as wonderful as Hershey's. Sometimes I'm in the mood for caramel (Milk Way now has a delightful all-caramel filled one as well as their "dark chocolate" one!), sometimes crunchy, sometimes PB. Handfuls of semisweet chips are cheap in a pinch. Someday soon I plan to try ChocoVine, a chocolate flavored wine recommended by the ladies over at Southern Fried Snark. I've heard it's very good. I even gave it to my son's two teachers as an end-of-year gift, along with some gourmet chocolate-filled cookies. They deserve it!

Yep, and today is the last day of kindergarten for MLB. Quite bitter-sweet.

Sounds like a good reason for chocolate to me!

Friday Favorites: Carmel Apple Salad

This is actually a "fave" from 2 weeks ago, but with end-of-school picnics & Memorial Day upon us, we could all use an easy-peasy, sure-fire recipe. I got this from Sue C., one of the ladies I knit with (when the kids let me,) and when she made it, I nearly made a pig of myself. So, I decided to make it for the "Appreciation" breakfast that I'd brought MLB's teachers two weeks ago. I understand they all but licked the bowl, too. I hope you like it, too.

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CARAMEL APPLE SALAD

1 (3.4 oz.) pkg vanilla instant pudding

1 cup milk

1 (8 oz.) tub whipped topping (can use fat-free kind)

6 - 8 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into bite-size chunks

6 regular size Snickers candy bars, cut into bite-size chunks

(Optional: colored sprinkles or chocolate curls for garnish)

Mix milk and pudding until blended.

Fold in whipped topping.

Add apples and candy bar pieces, and mix well.

Chill until ready to serve. Garnish.

Serves 6 -10 (you hope!)

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Personal note: Please, PLEASE, remember to get the instant "no-cook" pudding mix. I wasn't thinking & grabbed a big box of the "regular" kind. I added it to the milk & thought, "OK, how is this going to thicken if I don't cook it? And how can I can add whipped topping to sloshy milk, or hot pudding. At 6:30 a.m. With 2 kids to get ready?" So I put the milk & mix into a microwave-safe bowl & nuked it 30 minutes at a time until thickened, and then flash cooled it in the freezer. It was much harder to properly fold in the whipped topping this way, and it took WAY longer than it should, but I got the job done. And it was delish. A different vanilla flavor to my taste buds, but I am somewhat of a super-taster. Consider yourself cautioned.

Another happy installment of the Friday Favorites carnival.

Coming soon...

to a blog near you! (Well, this one at least. Could be more.)

Janna at The Adventures of Motherhood has started a new blog, one dedicated to remembering who we were as kids, and where we might be going as adults. She loves having "Remember when..." conversations with her own mom & family, and would like to share those joys with her daughter someday. The best time to start someday is NOW.

Starting June 10th, and for the following 14 Thursdays, she and other linked up bloggers/FaceBookers/MySpacers will tell their stories about growing up, in as many or as few words as they like. (I like Strunk & White's admonishment that "Vigorous writing is concise." I'll admit: it's difficult to "Omit needless words.")

Sounds fun! Will you join me? Click here to get started, too.

Perspective

I HAVE THE BODY OF A GODDESS !!!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A squat, roll-upon-roll of fat Mayan fertility goddess,

but, hey, it's a start.

Friday Favorites: Snack-cake ERVs

This week I volunteered to be in charge of the "Special Snack" for my son's autism resource class. Since they were learning about emergency responders like policemen & firemen, I thunk-up some ERVs from snack-cakes. (The hardest thing was brain-storming what to use as wheels.) I have been told that the kids loved making and showing off their creations today. Not that artistic pride got in the way of eating their ERVs. This might not be an engineering marvel, like a space shuttle, but it's also a proud Huntsville creation. I hope you like them, too.

Snack-cake ERVs

(Emergency Response Vehicles)

Ingredients for each ERV:

White or vanilla frosting
1 Twinkie or other oblong snack-cake
4 Junior Mints
2 Reece’s Pieces (or other small, round candy)

in yellow or orange

1 Berry Candy (or gumdrop-like candy)

in red or blue (or two)
Red or Blue sugar sprinkles
(can omit if using red or blue frosting)

Step 1:

Unwrap, then lightly frost top & sides of snack-cake.

Step 2:

Attach 4 Junior Mints to frosting as wheels, using 2 per long side.

Step 3:

Attach 2 Reece’s Pieces to frosting as headlights, using both on one short side.

Step 4:

Lightly sprinkle with red sugar for a fire truck or with blue sugar for a police car; or leave plain white for an ambulance. (Can omit sprinkles if using red or blue frosting.)

Step 5:

Attach 1 Berry candy (or 2) to the middle of the top of the cake as the emergency light. Use a touch of frosting if needed.

Emergency Response Vehicles can be additionally decorated with candy strings, piped icing, alphabet cereal, etc.

Friday Favorites: My Son's Other "Mothers"

(I'm coming in at the wire with Friday Favorites, but we had a family wedding this weekend, and that's always a busy time, even if you're only a guest.)

I want to keep this "Friday Favorites" quick...

It's TEACHERS!!!

My son's school just wrapped up "Teacher Appreciation Week," and I DO appreciate all of the love & care & guidance that they give my son on good days & bad days (his days, not theirs). He's learned so much from them this year. He has been so impressed with all that they know. He's even said he wants to be a teacher when he grows up, since they know so much.

I say, "Go for it!" I have many cousins, aunts & uncles who are teachers, and think that it is a wonderful profession. I am not a teacher because I do not like homework, but these men & women do it out of LOVE not "like." I am so grateful. It was a privilege to bring them breakfast this week.

Every week should be "Teacher Appreciation Week." Tell all the teachers you know that you love what they do.

Sigh....

Through a series of unfortunate non-events, DLG gleefully escaped from her "caged" zone unnoticed. She proudly climbed up on a kitchen chair, unnoticed. And discovered my 1/2 full cold cup of mocha, unnoticed, except by God.

Mommie was busy reading other blogs. So God had APT do the "EMA test" thing, which then puzzled Mommie as to why DLG thought that horrid burring was hilarious. Investigating, Mommie arrived in time to hear & see previously mentioned mocha dumped out in the kitchen, for a happy puddle. A happy, sticky, dark staining puddle.

Two new shirts (one for each) and a new diaper (to replace DLG's poopy one) after a quick splash in the tub, DLG was securely reinstated to her "cage." And Mommie was mopping the floor.

I wondered at the broad splatter-pattern my lamented mocha made from the table top to the floor. And then I thought that there are many, many people through the ages who have studied this phenomenon and have written many a dissertation upon the whys & hows & whens, because dispersal patterns are important to many things like crop dusting, bombing raids, abstract painting, coral reproduction, cheese puff manufacturing and of course, that slice of buttered bread.

It's times like that when I really, REALLY wish I'd gone to Swanee instead........

Friday Favorites: MLB

I don't mean Major League Baseball, although that is fun & a (mostly) respectable sport that doesn't seem to last all year long. (Go Braves!)

MLB = Mommy Little Boy = my son.

I've sort of introduced my son via his room, his quirks, his observations and his diagnosis, but he's really a neat-o kid who has a lot to offer. Usually. In my blog & FaceBook, I refer to him as "MLB." I want to keep him anonymous for all of the usual reasons. "MLB" is actually his idea. His baby sister just ADORES her father (& big brother); she's also cute (as is her big brother.) Her daddy had been calling her PYT (pretty young thing), but then when it was obvious she has been "Daddy's Little Girl," he changed it to "DLG." ("Are you DLG?!?!?" giggle-giggle!)

So, brother pipes up with "I'm MLB!"

?????????

Oh!

And so he is.

May is his birth-month, and since you've only seen one picture of him from Easter, here's a few more to catch you up:

This one of my favorites! His smile goes from his toes to his hat! I got lucky snapping that one with a non-digital camera. He's about 3 months old here and he's wearing his first baseball outfit (given to him by Trish W. when he was 3 days old). Of course, that's Daddy. Oh, that quirk to his smile? MLB was born with a complete unilateral cleft-- except for that anomalous band of skin under his nose. A month later we would begin a 3-month series of corrective operations.

MLB is 9M here, and cutting his first teeth. He's now six months past the repair of his lip & his scar has healed to almost unnoticeable. The palate was repaired in November. What I wish I have is a fish-face picture; once the palate was repaired, and he could create negative pressure, he was making kissy-fish faces all of the time. And demonstrated he no longer need help with his bottles, thank you.

A few months past his 1st birthday. MLB is having too much fun at the Hubschers' Fourth of July party. He's just a swangin'!

MLB is waiting to go to MMO. He's 2 and it's August, so this is his first day. The boy is very smart: see how he's matched up each letter with its corresponding number, using his magnetic letters & foam numbers? We didn't teach him that. See how he's quirky: the series had to start with "1." ("0" = "10" here.) Not long after this he further demonstrates his intelligence & quirkiness: he recites the alphabet "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXZY" because, we deduce, that he doesn't like endings, so if the "Z" doesn't come at the end... He also boycotts the use of "zero" for about six month since it's "nothing." Did I mention he soon became a self-taught reader & obsessed about numbers & math? By age 3?

MLB is 3 years old & ready to party! (Homemade cake, can you tell? But he wanted balloons. 3 candles + 1 to-grow-on.) He's just blown out the candles, with Paw-paw's help. In a minute, he's going to stick his fingers in the icing. With Paw-paw's help. (Funny, every time I stick my fingers in the food for a taste, my Daddy smacks MY hand. Still. How come?)

Another favorite, this time mid-May at 4yo. MLB & his Daddy before a baseball game. MLB loves sports because sports are full of numbers. As a toddler, he'd watch games on TV with his dad to see the players' shirt numbers and the score. Since baseball is just et-up with statistics & the use of numbers in all aspects of the game, he likes baseball. Not that we have a problem with that.

When MLB was 4 1/2, we welcomed a baby sister (remember, DLG?). He likes her a lot, and was very anxious for her to arrive. We told him it would be in January. By the time New Year's Day was over, he was demanding to know where was his sister! Here, she looks very startled that her newly minted 5-year-old brother wants to hold her after a birthday dinner.

Still five, but now it's August. His first day of Kindergarten at the elementary school he'll be at through 5th grade. This is actually monumental. He loves school & the other kids, and does not cry about being left. But after all the problems we'd had in previous years in trying to find him a "school" program, and having to change because of his ADHD & ASD, well, it's nice to be "home."

And now the picture from Easter. For once, he's the only one looking anywhere near the camera & not goofing off. He'd be glad to tell you exactly how old he is here, but it's not quite six & I think I'll keep the exact date fuzzy as well. But he doesn't look much different right now-- except right now he's in shorts, a t-shirt and peanut butter. (Sigh.)

So, there was my favorite son. And only one, so I can't lie.

Happy Friday Favorites!

And Hillary over at The Other Mama has had some exciting spring additions, too! She's now on WordPress, and next week will be the grand opening of her on-line store, Mint Julep Monograms! (Link to link soon.) I know you'll be charmed by MJM; I've already got 2 orders in with her, and I'm plotting more. Which says something since I'm not a monogrammed/personalized kind of gal....