Cookie Baking Night 04/30/18

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Allison, Rylar, Enzo, and Carissa (Carissa had play practice tonight but really wanted to be at Cookie Baking Night, so she came over a little later).

We made No-bake Monster Cookie Balls. Yummy.

Ingredients
2-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter
½ cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup mini chocolate chips
½ cup mini M&M candies

Carissa arrived after the "cookie baking" part was over. She joined us just as we were arriving home from a walk in the neighborhood. We all played in the yard for awhile enjoying the warm spring evening. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Caregiving-She's a Comedian (04/14/2018)

Since chronic urinary tract infections have been such a part of my mom's story for the past 3 years, I find myself in the habit of testing her memory to gauge the situation from time to time. I'm guessing this can be a little on the annoying side when she is feeling well. 

This is how our interaction went this evening at the dinner table. 

Me: "Do you know who I am?"

Mama: "Yeah".

Me: "Who am I"?

Mama: "Well, you're either Robert or John." (those are the names of my two brothers)

Me: "Okay. I see how it is."

Papa-Larry is hearing impaired and didn't catch all of the interaction, so he asked what my mom had said.

Me: "She said she's a Smart Aleck". 

Mama giggled. 

She passed the test. Her memory is sharp tonight and her sense of humor is intact. 

Cookie Baking Night 04/02/18

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo.

It was a snowy April night, but it looked like spring inside the kitchen. 

We made M&M cookies with spring-colored M&Ms

The secret to a good M&M cookie is very few M&Ms in the cookie dough and lots of M&Ms on the outside of the dough once you scoop them onto the pan. That way the M&Ms are visible on the outside of the cookie, and they don't cook into the dough. 

See, I told ya. 

Tonight we read lesson 11 from Leading Little Ones to God. The lesson was titled "God is Holy". The lesson was taken from Isaiah chapter 6. We learned about the seraphim, described as "shining heavenly creatures". They had six wings. With two wings, they covered their face, with two wings they covered their feet, and they used two wings to fly. One said, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of  His glory." The other answered, "Holy, holy, holy." It was an amazing picture that caused our imagination to wonder about these creatures devoted solely to praising God. It was hard not to ponder God's holiness when thinking of such a scene. 

Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; 

for the LORD our God is holy! Psalm 99:9

Amen!

Another Cookie Baking Night has come and gone and, as usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Cookie Baking Night 03/19/18

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo.

We switched up our order of events this evening. On this eve of the first day of spring, we decided to go for our first walk of the season before the sun went down. Uncle Greg was able to join us, and that was a treat. 

Greg picked up a very long stick and put it in the back of his coat. It looked like he had an antler coming of out of his head. 

This inspired the whole gang (especially the boys) to pick up sticks for the rest of the walk. 

Eventually Enzo had so many sticks, it took two hands to carry them. But, carry them, he did. He carried them on his shoulder for about a half mile. 

He said he was going to "put them in the campfire".

When we got to the house, Greg kept walking past the door. He said in a loud voice, "Everyone with sticks, follow me." 

And follow they did. 

He marched them back to the fire pit, which we could not see because it was covered in snow. Greg later confessed that he completely guessed at its location. He guessed with such confidence, no one was the wiser. 

Enzo was quite pleased with his accomplishment. Greg told him that sometime in the summer, we'll make a campfire in the backyard and roast marshmallows (okay, I added the marshmallow part, but I think that's a given). 

Once we got back home, we made our traditional "spring bird nests" with chow mien noodles, chocolate & peanut butter, and candy eggs. 

Clearly, Uncle Greg was the star of the evening. Truly, it's hard not to love him. I can see their point. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all (possibly even more fun than usual, if you can believe that). 

Cookie Baking Night 02/19/18

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo. After a few schedule conflicts, we finally celebrated Ethan's birthday (he turned 15 years old in the middle of January). For his birthday choice he wanted cheese pizza (with jalapenos) and peaches for supper. For his baking choice: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since the Winter Olympics are going on right now (Peoyong Chang, South Korea), we had our own version. We called it the Cookie Baking Winter Olympics. There was snowboarding (races with white rolled up socks balanced on a cutting board), speed skating (paper plates on the our feet made pretty good skates on the carpet), and the biathlon (scooting around on a rolling chair and taking three shots to make a basket at the end of the course--the fastest time won). 

There was a medal ceremony at the end. In this picture Ethan was awarded the gold (Twix candy bar), Carissa the silver (Three Muskateers candy bar), and Rylar the bronze (Snickers/peanut butter candy bar). 

As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Caregiving-The Lipstick 02/09/2018

 There was a lipstick on the table. When Papa-Larry and I walked out of the room, Mama found it. She still likes to look pretty. The hand might be a little shaky when it comes to applying it, but we think she looks beautiful. She looks like love to us. 

Cookie Baking Night 02/05/2018

Tonight was our first Cookie Baking Night of this year. In attendance this evening: Allison, Rylar, and Enzo.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we made peanut butter cookies with chocolate hearts in the middle. 

For our Bible lesson tonight, we read from "Does God know how to Tie Shoes?" by Nancy White Carlstrom. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it. It's a story of a little girl asking her parents questions about God. The parents answer each question from Scripture. 

Here's an example: 

"Does God know how to tie shoes, Papa?

By His Word the heavens and earth were made. He breathed and the stars took their place.

Mama, how does God talk?

Sometimes He whispers in a still, small voice. Like when you hold a seashell to your ear. Sometimes He roars over the water and His glory thunders." 

taken from Psalm 33:6 and Psalm 29:3-4

An added attention getter for our particular audience is that the little girl in the book asking the questions is named Katrina. The kids were surprised to hear my name in a book, and they giggled everytime they heard it. 

We finished the evening with a little art project taken from "365 Things to Make and Do" by Usborne books. This is also a book I highly recommend. It has a lot of fun ideas in it. 

We made robot pictures by cutting out various pictures from assorted magazines. 

We then assembled the pieces together into a robot shape. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all.