Evan writing out Valentines to his classmates.

We’ll be away on Valentine’s Day so we’re sending his Valentine’s early for his teachers to give out. We didn’t do that last year & I felt bad. I’m really glad we’re doing it this year because it is great practice for Evan’s writing!

Link up your Wordless (or Wordful) Wednesday posts below! Please leave a comment after you link up.

I know this isn’t a “real” recipe but I saw the idea on Pinterest and I had to try it.  We spend so much of our lives trying to get Evan to eat.  He isn’t very picky but he eats like a bird.  It drives Dewey and I NUTS.  Sunday Dewey took Will and Nicole skiing so Evan and I had a Mommy & Evan day.  We were heading to the zoo so I wanted to feed him something before we left.  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are one of his favorites (ish) but we still have to cajole him to eat it.  Enter the peanut butter and banana sushi!

First take two slices of bread and cut the crusts off.  Use a rolling pin to roll the bread flat (you have to do this or it will fall apart)!  Spread the entire slice with peanut butter (or the nut butter of your choice).  Either spread 2/3 with jam or add pencil sized pieces of banana.  I then drizzled the banana one with a bit of agave nectar.

Soon to be sushi

Roll it up and slice it. I found that it cut much better if you sawed back and forth with the knife instead of trying to go through in one slice.

Banana Peanut butter sushi and Peanut Butter and Jam sushi

The banana ones look MUCH better than the jam ones. Evan thought the idea of peanut butter and banana was the GROSSEST ever but I convinced him to try one. Soon there was nothing left but crumbs.

Oh…and don’t forget to let them use chopsticks!

Go chopsticks...GO!

Forget it! I'll just use the ol' "stab it" method!

Such a quick and easy way to make lunch fun. What are your favorite preschool friendly lunch ideas?

First things first….I knew that I would have trouble saying goodbye to the option of having more babies.  I just didn’t know how hard it would be.  You see, I married a man who already had two children.  A man who promised me that we would have at least one child but almost decided to rescind that agreement.  So, after Evan was born, I brought up having another baby.  The answer was a firm and flat “No”.  I was none to impressed but I thought it wouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Then my friend Andrea got pregnant with number 2.  I got a little sad.

Then my friend Diana got pregnant with number 2.  She told me while we were camping.  I went inside our trailer and bawled.

It was soooo hard.  I think what was hardest was knowing that we weren’t having more kids and it wasn’t MY choice.  Going through life we talk so much about “choice” but this was a choice that wasn’t mine.  Some asked why I didn’t have an “oops” baby if I wanted one so bad.  I just couldn’t do that.  There are some decisions that one no vote means NO.  I would never want to bring a child into a situation where one parent was dead set against having him/her.

These days, the sting has lessened. Evan is older and more demanding (in some ways).  He is also out of diapers and communicative.  It would be really hard to go back to the days of diapers and baby puke.  Overall, I like my family just like it is but there are still times when I mourn the loss of the baby that could have been.

 What do you have a hard time saying goodbye to?

Pinterest Home Page

Okay…for those who haven’t heard about Pinterest – It’s a virtual bulletin board where you “pin” photos in order to back link to a webpage.  For example, I have loads of pins that are pictures of a recipe.  When you click on the picture it takes you to the blog/site where the recipe is.  This works really well for me because I love to pick recipes from pictures.  You get way more of a “yum…that looks like something I should try” thought from a picture than you do from a recipe title.  If this sounds like something you might like & you aren’t currently on Pinterest, leave me a comment with your email address and I will send you an invite (it’s invite only at this point).

Okay….on to the tips and tricks!

• People “follow” your boards on Pinterest.  I always follow them back because the more boards you follow, the more cool pins you get to see.  It is so much easier to repin something that is already on Pinterest than to find something to pin from the internet.  Plus you can always unfollow people that pin things you aren’t interested in.
• Install the “Pin It” applet to your browser toolbar.  That way if you do find something on a website you want to pin, it is super easy.
• If you do pin something from a blog or website, make sure you are in the post you want to pin (you can do this by clicking on the title of the post) instead of on the home page.  If you are pinning a recipe & you pin the home page, it will be very hard for the person who repins it to find the recipe b/c it will just link to the home page.  This one is VERY IMPORTANT!
• If you pin a recipe, DO NOT put rewrite the recipe in the comments field.  This is rude to the blog where you got the recipe because people won’t click through to get the instructions.  Also, this seems to be against Pinterest Terms of Service so your pin may get deleted.
• Try to tag the pin with information about what it is.  In other words a title of “Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa” is much more useful than “Yum! I want to try this!”
• Pin pictures directly from the original website.  Don’t pin from someone’s Pinterest roundup post.  You will still be able to get to the recipe, instructions, etc but it will be much more difficult.

Tips for Blogger

• Depending on what type of blogger you are, Pinterest can drive traffic to your site!
• If you have a “pinnable” blog post such as a recipe, craft or tutorial, there are no rules against pinning it yourself.  Just make sure this isn’t ALL you pin!
• Make sure to have a good photograph for each of your pinnable posts.  For example, I wrote a post about great websites for bloggers.  There really wasn’t a good pic to go along with it so I used a picture of puzzle pieces instead.  You have to have a picture for it to be pinnable.
• There are a plethora of “Pin It” buttons to add to your blog posts to make it easier for people to pin them (this is especially helpful if they are on your site on a mobile device like an iPad).
• Think outside the box for what is “pinnable”.  You would be amazed at how many Social Media articles are pinned on Pinterest!
• You can find out what has been pinned from your site/blog by going to www.pinterest.com/source/yoursitename.com (put your blog/site name where I’ve put “yoursitename”).

Hope I covered a few points that you haven’t thought of before.  If you have additional tips that I haven’t included, definitely leave a comment!

I am proud to announce that I have been chosen to be part of the 2012 Kinder Moms through Mom Central.  You may remember my posts (here, here & here) last year when I was a Kinder Mom.  Evan is SUPER excited that I was chosen again.  He loves Kinder surprise eggs.  Over the next few months, I will be writing about blog post prompts that Kinder has provided.  All of these prompts revolve around a very important idea….taking time to play is important.  I couldn’t agree more, which is one of the reasons I’m so happy to be involved!  Make sure to check out Kinder’s Facebook page for announcements about their 2012 toy line and exclusive contests!

This months post is supposed to be all about how I will be spending March Break with the family.  Umm….*blush*….I will be spending March break doing this….

….and no…Evan is NOT going.

I would feel guilty if we weren’t going to DISNEY WORLD in February.  We are so no guilt here. Not even a little teensy weensy bit.

A pic from our last Disney trip (we left Evan at home).

Now that we have that covered!  We try to go on some kind of trip with the kids every two years.  Two years ago we went to Disney and a Disney cruise (what can I say….we love Disney).  We talked about going to Mexico for  beach vacation this year but we gave the kids the choice.  It took them about 2.3 seconds to yell “DISNEY!”  Getting all 5 of us to Disney takes loads of planning on my part.  I started months ago with dinner reservations, hotel reservations, etc.  Thankfully with all that pre-planning, I can now semi-relax and get ready for our big trip.

One of the things I still have to do is make a list for what we take on the plane.  We have two flights on the way there with a 3 hour layover.  When I fly by myself I often fly by the seat of my pants because I can always buy snacks and magazines along the way.  Unfortunatly that does NOT work with kids.  I was reminded of this fact last time I flew with Evan when we were delayed by 2 hours & the plane ran out of food before getting to us.  Good times.

Some things I will pack for the flight:

• Granola (either homemade or we like the Costco brand)
• Granola bars
• Fruit leathers
• maybe a Kinder Surprise or two
• everyone will have an empty water bottle (for refills after we get through security)
• Nicole & Will’s iPods
• Mine & Dewey’s iPads (which I will load with new books and games for Evan)
• iPod/iPad/iPhone/BlackBerry chargers (why can’t they all be the same????)
• Books and toys for those times we can’t have electronic gadgets on

One thing I struggle with….should I take more/bigger food.  I would love to take sandwiches but I don’t like taking peanut butter on planes (because of possible allergies in other people) and I don’t like taking sandwiches that need refrigeration b/c you can’t keep them cool that long.  The rules around gels and liquids really cut down on what you can take.  Add to that the rules about taking fruit and veggies across the US border and it makes it even harder.

The other thing I’m going to pack?  A positive attitude.  I tend to turn into a stress ball when we take these kind of trips.  This time I am going to do my best to go with the flow and make everyone’s time as fun as possible.  It will be Evan’s first visit and I don’t want to ruin his magical time by being an ogre!  Cross your fingers for me that I will succeed!

Are you and your family taking a trip this Spring or are you planning a staycation?

Disclosure: I’m part of the Kinder® Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Robin from Farewell Stranger tagged me in a “Getting to Know You” post.  After a full night of working late and a BlogWest twitter party, this was the perfect post for me tonight!

Little ol' Me.

Her Questions:

1.  What’s your superpower?

Well, it depends on who you ask! If you ask Dewey, he would say that I am “Rules Girl! Here to enforce rules wherever she goes!”  Yes, he says it often…can you tell?  I would say my superpower is multitasking.  I am a crazy multitasker!

2.  What blog do you never miss? (And you can’t say mine because (a) that would be BS and (b) this is not me fishing for compliments.)

Hmmm…I always read Notes from the Cookie Jar, Tales from the Fairy Blogmother, A Lot of Loves and many others that I can’t think of now after a glass of wine.

3.  If you could change your name, what would you change it to?

When I was younger, I wanted to go by my middle name, Elizabeth.  These days, I’ve finally come to terms with my name.  Yes, it’s weird and , yes, everyone spells it wrong.  It is what it is.  I just wish I was a bit more “merry” to go with my name.

4.  Do you consider yourself a “blogger” or a “writer”?

I consider myself a blogger though I’m starting to change that.  I love writing but I’ve never been one to write without a reason.  I am going to change jobs to one with a huge technical writing component.  Not sure that will improve my blog writing at all but one can hope!

5.  What was your biggest failure and what did you learn from it?

Hmmm….I can’t remember one huge failure.  I feel like I fail in a million little days every day.  One failure I think I have is that I didn’t try harder to figure out what I was passionate about in university.  I chose a major that I knew I could get a good job in.  Thankfully, I have figured ways to weave what I love into a career built on that degree.

6.  What’s the most embarrassing song in your collection?

Anything by REO Speedwagon.  I love them & their cheesy selves.  Anytime they come up on my iPod Dewey laughs incessantly at me.

7.  Are you shy?

Ummm…no.  I am very outgoing in most situations.  I’ve done lots of outside sales positions which would kill me if I were shy.

8.  How do you prioritize yourself in your own life?

I don’t.  Ok…I try to sometimes but it is hard.  I work full time, have a son, two stepkids and a husband who works crazy amounts and is in a band.  Sometimes it’s hard to remember that I should get to do what I want too.  I’m getting better at it though.

9.  Where do you stand on chocolate?

I like chocolate but I don’t lust after it like many people.  I like sweets in general not just chocolate.

10.  What’s your biggest source of inspiration (other than your family, etc.)?

These days it’s social media.  When I see how many people I connect with every day from near and far I am amazed.  It has helped me reinvent my career and meet people I never would have encountered otherwise.

11.  What do you hope to do this year that you’re really excited about?

Some of the things I have on tap this year that I am super excited about are: Going to Disney World with the kids, going to Mexico on a couple trip with my husband, attending BlogWest and Real Growth Retreat for Women in Business …and that is just now through April!  Crazy, huh?  This year is going to be a great year of new beginnings for me.

Now it’s my turn to tag 11 bloggers and give them 11 questions to answer.  I hope they will play along!

The rules:

1. You must post these rules.
2. Each person must post 11 things about herself on his/her blog.
3. Answer the questions the “tagger” listed for you in her post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
4. You must choose 11 people to tag and link to them in the post.
5. Go to each blogger’s page and mention that you have tagged him/her.

I’m Tagging:

• Shan at Tales From the Fairy Blogmother
• Marilyn at A Lot of Loves
• Jen at Family, Food, Fitness and Fun
• Sami Joe at Peek Thru Our Window
• Catherine at The Dabels Divulge
• Leslie at Ruff Rumminations
• Shash at Shasher’s Life
• April at Frugally Green Mom (did you know she’s my cousin?  Yep!)
• Sarah at Mama Craft
• Yes I know that is only 9 but I’m getting sleepy…..if you read this & want to join…Yay! Leave a comment and let me know!

My Questions:

1. What is the one thing you wish you were better at as a blogger?
2. What is your favorite way to treat yourself/pamper yourself?
3. Do you (or have you in the past) work outside the home?  If so, what do you do?
4. What is your favorite thing about blogging?
5. If you could magically be anything you wanted to be (without needing additional education or childcare) what would you be?
6. Do you like to travel? If so, what is your favorite destination?
7. Are you an adventurous eater?
8. How would you describe yourself?
9. Have you ever met your online/blogger friends in real life? What was it like?
10. Do you have a best friend? How long have you known them?
11. Do you still live in the same town where you grew up?

Even if I didn’t tag you….feel free to participate!  You can either write a blog post or just answer in the comments.

Quick Peanut Butter Curry

Coming up with something new and exciting to cook after a full day of work is hard. Thankfully I have a few blogs that I go to over and over again for inspiration! Dinner With Julie is one of those. When I saw her recipe for Quick Peanut Butter Curry, I knew I had to try it.

Quick Peanut Butter Curry
Adapted from Dinner With Julie

1 medium steak…about 3/4lb
vegetable oil
2 or 3 garlic cloves
2 tsp curry paste (I used mild)
big spoonful of peanut butter (probably close to 1/4 a cup)
1/2 to 3/4 can of coconut milk

Season steak with salt and pepper.  Slice thinly.  Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet.  Sear the steak slices until browned.  Remove the slices to a plate.

Add the garlic cloves and curry paste to the skillet.  Cook for a moment and then add the peanut butter and coconut milk.  Cook for a few moments to thicken and add the sliced steak back in.  Serve hot over rice.  We like steamed broccoli on the side.

Recipe Notes:  Serves 3 normal or 4 small portions.

Evan's first try at ice skating!

Link up your Wordless (or Wordful) Wednesday post! Please leave a comment after linking up!

I am swimming in clutter.  No really…I am.  Or maybe it’s drowning.  Everywhere I look there is a PILE of toys or paper or craft supplies or or or or.  I am plagued by the “But you might NEED it one day”.  I am also plagued by the fact that members of my family seem to have the hoarder gene so I must fight against piles!

My first line of defence is reducing.  I try to buy less junk.  I prefer products with less packaging and I am reading more online these days.  We do get the paper every day because Cherry, our nanny, reads it.  We’ll see if we continue that when our new nanny arrives.

Then there is recycling ….aka donating or putting it in our big blue bin (I LOVE Calgary’s recycling program).  I used to save stuff for a yard sale but that yard sale never came.  We are just too busy and there are too few nice days in Calgary to waste them having a yard sale.  Now I keep a box in our laundry room for donatable items.  When it’s full I take it to donate or I wait until a charity has a donation drive where they pick stuff up.  There’s one this Friday…SCORE!  I also keep a bag in our pantry for recycle items.  I then empty it in our blue bin when it’s full.

Reusing is sometimes harder to do.  Once you’ve used something for it’s original purpose it is often hard to think outside the box for a new use.  We often repurpose household items into craft supplies and I even have a guest post with upcycling ideas but I really feel I should be doing more.  One thing that totally bugs me is when things need to be thrown away because someone didn’t take care of them…like stale chips (because they weren’t closed properly) or dried up markers (left out without lids).  I ran across an idea the other day for ways of using markers that were dried up & thought I would try it out with Evan.

I spend an hour doing this to find a marker that works!

Repurpose Your Dried Out Markers as Watercolor Markers

Supplies:

Old dried out makers (though the ones with a bit of moisture in them seemed to work better)

A cup of water

Thick craft paper to draw on (because it gets a bit wet)

He left this one in the water a little TOO long.

Dip your dried out marker in the cup of water for a few seconds. Put the tip against the lip of the cup to let any excess water drain off. Draw on your paper like it is a watercolor paintbrush.  I was amazed at how well this worked with most of the markers (there were a few that were beyond reuse).  Some of them looked like they weren’t going to work but then the color appeared as the paper dried.  We will definitely do this again!

My little artist using his repurposed markers.

Here are some other neat ideas I found for repurposing dried up markers: permanent marker removing marker, coloring on snow or weave a pen jar for your desk.

What are your favorite ways to reduce, reuse or recycle?

Relax?  What’s that?  Anyone that knows me knows that I am wound a bit tight most of the time…okay…maybe more than a bit.  I do like to relax, though, I just don’t do it very often.  Even when I try, I have this little voice in my head that is saying “You should be doing _____ or you should be doing _____”  That little voice rarely shuts up unfortunately.

One way I do like to relax is to travel.  No, the actual travel isn’t relaxing but often the destination is.  Dewey and I often go to Mexico during the winter.  We leave Evan at home so it’s just the two of us.  We go to a tiny resort that only has 75 rooms.  There’s no night life to speak of which means no late nights.  Just endless days of eating, drinking and laying on the beach.  HEAVEN!  Add in a book or two and very little internet or cell phone coverage and I finally start relaxing.  I don’t know about you but if I have a working cell phone and an internet connection, I can’t turn off my brain.  Then I fritter away my holiday and miss out on all that wonderfully mindless time.

We’re kicking around the idea of booking a trip to Mexico but we haven’t decided.  This year we’re going to Disney so it may be hard to fit it in to the budget and the vacation calendar.  I kinda hope we figure out how to though b/c it would be so wonderful.

How do you like to relax?