Baby Crazy Mom

  Our hot cocoa bombs were a great success! I sold far more than I planned, and it was a blast to make. Kasdyn loved helping, and it was a great activity to do together. We tried different flavors to prepare and the best ones turned out milk chocolate with a little white chocolate. And of course, gold sprinkles and mini-marshmallows inside! This is a favorite, and we plan to make them again at Christmas time and next year for Valentine’s.

  We recently borrowed a book from the library about Christmas time with Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read some of those books growing up, at a higher reading level, but we found this shorter children’s book adapted from the originals. It showed pictures and told stories of the kinds of simple pleasures the family enjoyed during Christmas time.  The children loved making treats with their mom. She would heat hot sugar and molasses, and pour it in twisty shapes over a pan of snow, allowing the candy to quickly harden. Kasdyn was mesmerized with this idea and asked to make them for Christmas. She did point out that their mom makes more treats than I do! Well, we’ll see when we get closer to Christmas… But my big take-away each time I read it is their stockings. Their simple, real stockings hung on the mantle were filled with one peppermint stick, a pair of likely-homemade red mittens, and Laura got a rag doll with button eyes. Christmas gifts were so simple. There was no commercialis...

  So often we find ourselves comparing ourselves to people around us, picture-perfect parents we see on social media, or the people in our minds we imagine to compare ourselves with. There are endless examples of other people showing a good day or a good picture. What we don't see is that everyone has flaws, mistakes, and insecurities. I love these pictures that show the "Instagram picture" and then the rest of the picture. But it's so hard to remember that sometimes we see other people's lives through a filter. It may look better than it is because you only see one part of it. It's important to remember that if we looked at ourselves that way it would also be easy to see one picture perfect aspect of ourselves. What is hard is to gain the confidence to be self-aware or short comings and still be patient and understanding with ourselves as we try to grow and do better.

  One thing I love about Kasdyn is that she doesn’t stop and think that we can’t do something. Nothing is impossible in her mind. She woke up yesterday and wanted to make poppy seed muffins. It never occurred to her the possibility that we wouldn’t have ingredients like poppy seeds, or that we don’t know how… she just likes poppy seed muffins so we went to the store, bought ingredients, and we learned how to make poppy seed muffins together. (They really aren’t hard, but this was my first time!) We tried this great, simple Costco Copycat Poppy Seed Muffins recipe and they turned out great! Seeing as these are my kids favorite kind of muffins, I think we’ll be repeating this recipe. My other favorite is Krusteaz blueberry muffin mix that comes with a can of blueberries. Tip: Do NOT drain the blueberry juice like the instructions say - there’s so much yumminess there you don’t want to throw away! Pour the whole can of blueberries and sauce in the mix and make like normal. They turn o...

  Today I’m thinking about how we can have the pure intense joy that so often we see in the faces of our children. I think about how Jayden smiles and squeals with delight when he chases our kitty or goes to catch a bouncy ball. I remember Kasdyn’s bright smile when she went rafting the first time. They both love to splash in the water. Children are so quick to feel that pure joy, and the way they focus on one thing at a time allows them to leave behind previous feelings.  How can we do that? How can we go from a grumpy frustrated day, and let things go? To enjoy the positives in that moment without that dark cloud of frustration or tiredness or grumpiness about other parts of our day or our life? If we could focus on those happy moments and those positive things, I think that would help us even with the harder parts of life where we feel that sadness, anxiety, or discouragement.  Thinking back to my psychology classes, we talked about how neural pathways get activated in...

  This was something I have always wanted to learn how to do and I just tried it out and learned and it was such a success!  Hot cocoa bombs are the new fun thing, and they were surprisingly fun and not too difficult to make. I let my daughter help me too, which she really enjoyed! First I coated the circular molds with chocolate  I tried some white and some milk chocolate so I could compare a few flavor combinations.  Once hardened, I scooped as much hot cocoa as I could fit, heaping full, in one half of the mold. Then Kasdyn sprinkled tiny miniature marshmallows on top. I dipped the other half of the circle mold into melted chocolate so the rim was all covered and then I placed the two halves together and let the chocolate cool to seal them. Being my first time, I did end up sealing extra with chocolate around the sides, but I decided to do it with the opposite chocolate - milk chocolate on white chocolate domes and white chocolate on milk chocolate domes. Then I d...