Valentine's Day

So Valentine's Day is coming up. I have never been one to get hung up on all of the hipe of the holiday, but now that I have kids, any holiday is fun because I get to make them little gifts and goody bags. But, better than giving them something, we like to give the grandparents something. All of our parents (the kids grandparents) do so much for us, that I like to show them the unexpected thanks in little homemade gifts from the kids - well, who are we joking, from me. PooPie likes to help until anything loud is turned on and then she runs and hides until I am done. I never do the same things and I never do them on the same holidays. I don't want it to be an expected thing for them. I want them to always be surprised with a "Wow, look what I got" expression. We are going to see some of Babe's family this weekend so I am going to prepare the Valentine's early. I am in search of the perfect little something, I just wish I knew what it was. I will be Googling up a storm and searching my brain to find something more fun then the heart-shaped rice crispy treats. Even though I will be making those for the girls for their goody bags, I want something with a little more of the "WOW" factor. Once I find the perfect something and have PooPie make them, I will post pictures.



I meant to get on here earlier than this to post pictures of our wonderful crafts, but I have been busy, what can I say. I was so excited that I found the cutest ideas for Valentine's this year and couldn't wait to see every one's reactions when PooPie handed them out, and it ended up being a flop. The in-laws weren't as excited as I thought they would be when their oh-so-cute grand-daughter/grand-niece handed them their presents, but what do you expect from in-laws, right? PooPie had a blast making the gifts and that's all that matters.


So first we started off with painting wooden hearts and when they dried I stuck a magnet on the back and we had a great gift. Simple and easy and lots of fun. PooPie liked this the best because she loves to paint and she didn't want to stop. I actually had to take some of the hearts away because she had painted them too much! While we had the paints out, we decided to decorate some plain paper lunch bags and make them gift bags. I had PooPie make hearts from her thumb prints which was so cute, but it didn't last long because she does not like to have the paints all over her hands (takes after her mom). Then I tried to get Mohawk to had her touch by painting her feet and making hearts out of those, but she wasn't having one bit of it - I don't blame her because it had to tickle:).

After we were done painting, we made Rice Crispy treats and shaped them into Hershey Kisses. This was so easy, but of course PooPie didn't really do much of this except watch and eat:) I loved this idea and will do it again some day. We made small ones since we were giving them to a lot of people. This will be a good treat for when the kids are in school and need to give gifts to all the kids. BUT, it is even cuter if you are making it for 1 person. My cousin stole the idea from me and made her boyfriend one big one and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. I wish I had a picture to show. Anyway, to make these, you just make the Rice Crispys (I died the marshmallow mixture pink for fun or you can add chocolate to make it more realistic) and when they start to cool, take a greased funnel (any size according to preference) and pack the Rice Crispy in. Pop them back out and let them cool completely on some wax paper. Then cover the Rice Crispy in aluminum foil and had a thin white piece of paper with a love note in the top. Cute as can be:)

Voila! Little Kisses!!! Cute!

Then the best craft/baking we did we the heart cookie cake. PooPie's first Valentine's Day, I made the cake with her for Babe. This was the first time that I included her in baking and decided that I/we would do it every year. Then last year, the second year of it, I didn't do it. To be fair, we weren't hear so it's not like I was just being lazy. But this year we started up our tradition. It was fun having both kids right there while baking. I love to bake and hope that both of my kids enjoy it as much as I do - I just hope they don't enjoy it in their belly's as much as I do:)!

Lara's Famous Meatloaf

Ok, so it's really not that famous, but it is definitely liked a lot in this household. Ok, so maybe not really liked a lot by the household, but more just by me. I started out by using my mom's recipe and have slowly started to add some stuff here and add some stuff there to make it my own. Also, Kraft Foods Magazine has helped me out by suggesting making them in cupcake pans and I love doing this.

I start with all the ingredients: Chopped onions and green peppers, bread crumbs, ketchup, hot sauce, worcestershire sauce, 1 egg, garlic (today used garlic powder), chili powder, season salt, salt, pepper, and of course 1 lb of ground beef.

I add it all together and unfortunately it is just a little bit of this and a little bit of that so there is really no recipe. Once it is all in the bowl, you have to mix, mix, mix and doing this with your hands is the best way.

Most people now put it in a bread pan and you can do that, but I have one very picky little eater and I am always trying to find ways of making food fun for her to eat. She loves cupcakes, so when I saw in Kraft's Food and Family Magazine (best magazine for quick, easy recipes) to put meatloaf in cupcake pans, I thought it would be great. They also give ideas to personalize the mini meatloaves. I like mine with ketchup in the middle and cheddar cheese on top. Babe likes his with BBQ sauce and PooPie - well, she really doesn't like it but she does like to choose what to put in it and it's always different. She will act like she is going to eat it, but she is a faker. If it's not fruit, it's a no go in her book!

And Ta-Da! Bake at 375 for 30 min - another part of the cupcake version I like, you cut the bake time in half. Let's get real, who has the time or brain to remember to make the meatloaf and put it in the oven an hour ahead of time.

Kraft's Meatloaves
1lb ground beef
1 pkg Stove Top Stuffing
1 cup water
3/4 cup Kraft shredded cheddar cheese

Mix meat, stuffing mix, water and add-ins (see below). Press in to a greased muffin tin. Make an indention in the center of each and fill with sauce (see below). Bake 30 min. Top with cheese and bake an additional 5 min.

Add-in options:
American Style -- add-in 1 tsp of garlic powder, sauce - BBQ sauce
Italian Style -- add-in 1 tsp Italian seasoning, sauce - spaghetti sauce
Mexican Style -- add-in 2 tsp chili powder, sauce - salsa

To Clean Or Not To Clean

When Babe and I made the decission for me to quit work and stay home to take care of PooPie, I do not remember anything in my job description except "take care of child". That was it, the decision was made for me to stay home and take care of our delicate little baby because we didn't trust anyone else to do it. Somehow, Babe went behind my back and changed my job description so now I am the child care provider, the resident chef (big mistake there buddy), pastry chef, maid, laundry person, and so much more. I guess I should have known that I was going to be doing all that because even working I was doing it, but I don't think I ever realized how much harder it was going to be with a baby hanging around, not to mention 2 babies! However, I embraced all my titles and went with it and have worked for 2 1/2 years to master the best plan that I could to get done all that I need to get done. It is far from perfect and it really does change from day to day and week to week, but I really think that I am almost to the point of perfecting my perfect cleaning plan.



As of right now, I have a chart set up in Word with just a couple chores a day for me to do. I only do 1 or 2 things that way I can usually get them done while PooPie eats breakfast and is watching t.v. and then we have the rest of the day to play and do what ever we want. On Saturday nights, after the kids are asleep, I go in and add in anything that we have for the week such as doctor appointments, Babe's work schedule, and the dreaded meal plan for each day - I really hate deciding what to fix everyday. Everything has a color, chores are one color, meals another, appointments another. Some weeks, I get a little ambitious and try to think of special cleaning things/decluttering for each day such as cleaning out my closet or my bathroom cabinets. I actually haven't had the time to do that since Mohawk was born, but hope to get back to that in the next few months. When I was following Flylady.com, the house seemed to be less cluttered, so hopefully I can develop my own edition of that soon.



Here is my basic cleaning schedule: (my chart won't upload so this isn't exactly how I do it , but you should get the idea)

Sunday:
Off

Monday:
Water Plants
Change my sheets, girl's sheets
Wash sheets and towels
Study
Walk, weights
Dinner
8-4

Tuesday:
Vacuum
Clean master bath
Laundry
Girl's laundry
Study
Walk, weights
Dinner
8-4

Wednesday:
Clean kitchen - counter, stove, fridge
Mop - kitchen, foyer, bathrooms
Study
Walk, weights
Dinner
8-4

Thrusday:
Clean girl's bath
Laundry
Study
Walk, weights
Dinner
8-4

Friday:
Vacuum
Dust
Study
Walk, weights
Dinner
8-4

Saturday:
Off