Easter Hunt 2008

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Good Friday was the perfect day for our annual Easter Egg (stuffed with Chocolate and Candy) Hunt. The day was seriously the most perfect day. It was warm; the sun was shinning and despite all the snow we had a great time.

The kids hunted until every last egg was found and then they really got down to business consuming as many jelly beans, mike and ikes, and chocolate eggs as they could before we cut them off.

After the baskets had been safely stashed in the vans, we headed off adventuring. We choose a new location this year and since there was plenty of snow on the ground still, we went to see was we could find.

We found the best spot for a snow ball fight. There was a hill that had drifted over, forming different levels and coves, making perfect spots to hide and run and jump. At first the fight started as kids against the dads, but after awhile Tricia and I became the targets. I tried to reason with them and threatened anything and everything I could think of, but the delight in hitting me with a snowball was so much fun, they didn’t care about the consequences.

After an hour of pelting each other with snowballs, everyone was soaking wet and ready to head back for round two with their Easter baskets.

Why does this Ham taste like Chicken?

Ham is our family’s favourite meat. It is the one meat that both my kids love and will eat tons of without having to be threatened or cajoled. The problem being that I don’t really like ham leftovers. I haven’t really found a good casserole dish that uses up the remaining ham and really there are only so many ham dinners you can eat. As a result I always like to have company over when there is ham on the menu.

I’ve had a ham in my freezer that I’ve been saving for Easter and was really looking forward to. This morning before my meeting, I did all the dinner preparations so we could just take the ham out of the oven, cook up some veggies and tada Easter dinner would be really.

I had ward correlation this morning, when I got home the kids had their coats on and Spencer was ready to drive us to church before he had to head off to talk in another ward. I quickly programmed the oven to come on at the right time, threw the ham in the oven and ran out the door.

I walked in the house after church expecting to be greeted by the tantalizing aroma of perfectly cooked ham, but all I smelled was the stinky garbage. I checked the oven and it quickly became apparent that I had miss programmed the oven and there sat a raw ham.

A few years ago this would have devastated me and I would have freaked out. Apparently I have mellowed in my old age – I just defrosted some chicken breast threw on a little teriyaki sauce (thanks Anne) and popped it in the oven.

I guess we’re having ham tomorrow – want to come for dinner?

True Confessions

I probably shouldn’t be writing this because I am tired and my censor seems to be toned down, if not totally off when I am tired. I named my blog Confessions of a stay at home mom – but then all I do is present all the good things in our life – but it’s good because there are a lot of good things. Plus whenever I read everyone else blog their life seem perfect so I try to pretend that mine is too – although it is pretty good just needs a bit of tweaking and relocation to warmer temperatures.

The end of February/beginning of March is the hardest time of the year for me. The winter blues peak and I am so tired of the bitterly cold I feel like I’m not going to make it. With the warming up of the temperature so does my outlook on life.

I think my kids share in my feelings of the long long cold winter and are ready for the warm temps and time outside. The fighting and frustration seem to be at an all time high and my patients seem to be at an all time low. In an effort to once again bring some serenity to our family I am trying to implement some changes! I’ve started a nightly “love note” at the dinner table telling my children and hubby why I love them and why I am proud of them. Nolan seems to really like this, but Jarom feels he should be the one to write on the card.

Today at Gymkids I was talking to the other mom’s and one mom was telling me that her friend attended a parenting course, the instructor told her for two days to just completely praise her children; to put a positive spin on everything and ignore all the bad behaviour. I am really willing to try anything and so I’ve tried to put this advice into action.

During family prayers tonight when Nolan kept touching Jarom just to be annoying and I really wanted to say, stop touching your brother or there will be no ice-cream for you, Instead I said, “wow, look at how much you love your brother, you’re always touching him”. Nolan stopped and looked at me for a sec and then nodded and started hugging Jarom, then me. A much nicer result I must confess.