I can't believe Christmas is less than 6 weeks away. Now don't yell at me for reminding you, I'm sorry if it causes you as much surprise as it did for me!
Thanksgiving has always been a family favorite for myself and my sisters and I want to pass that on to my kids. I'm thinking I need to find some Thanksgiving art projects for them. Carving pumpkins for Halloween was a huge hit. Even Shiloh loved scooping out the seeds. I only cut open one pumpkin at first as I was fairly convinced I'd end up having to do all the cleaning. But surprisingly enough all 5 were really in to it and I just carved the happy faces (happy faces mandatory, nothing scary or ghoulish allowed at our house).
Liam is starting a little 3 year old Pre-K play group in the beginning of December. I had been going back and forth on whether or not to enroll him; partly monetary reasons, partly wondering if he was emotionally ready, partly because potty training was required. He's been very lackadaisical when it has come to potty training. Let me tell you - enrolling him was the trick. He's so excited to go to "school" and play with friends that accidents are becoming fewer and farther between, with less reminders from me to go potty. If only I had discovered this motivating tool last year.... all that money spent on diapers.... *sigh*
The good news with him finally getting the hang of it at this age is Shiloh is completely picking up on what is going on. I bought her own little potty chair since she's such a tiny little pixie that she falls into the toilet (yes, even with the child inserts). She hasn't made the complete connection yet as to when she's supposed to rip off her diaper and sit on the potty, she does it all day long without actually going to the bathroom on the potty chair, but I have no doubt in my mind that she'll be trained around or shortly after her birthday.
Speaking of which, my baby's 2nd birthday will be here on New Year's Day. I can NOT believe that. Although she makes it hard not to notice. Shiloh seems to be gaining about a dozen new words a day here. What a talker, just like her sisters! She's also been sporting a more 2 year old like attitude and temper tantrums. I've taken to tickling her till she nearly cries when she starts with the foot stomping. She's very easily distracted still. Liam on the other hand.... waaaaay past that point. We have to address the tantrums full on, the split second they start, or look out world. He has a temper.
The football season has been over for two weeks now and I'm just starting to feel like we're recovering from the hustle and bustle of the last three months. The girls keep requesting ballet lessons and Isaac is pushing for ice or floor hockey. I told them we'd discuss it all in the new year. This Mamma needs a break.
On the kitchen front...... I'm looking for some fun recipes that include brown rice. We've done rice stuffing, met with some success. Only half my kids were interested in rice pudding. I have a lot of brown rice to use and they're tired of it as a side dish. Rice and beans is fortunately well liked so we are having plenty of meals with rice included. I'm wondering if anyone has anything unique or fun that calls for brown rice.
Hope you're all well! Get ready for t♦urkey!
3 comments:
what cute Pumpkins! Great carving job and congrats on the waning days of diapering!
I don't really like brown rice but I got a big bag on clearance and made this with it, among other things. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Magnificent-Cheesy-Brown-Rice/Detail.aspx
Also, you can use rice in meatballs or meatloaf instead of breadcrumbs or oats and that works well and makes the meat stretch farther.
oh this one looks really good too!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Brown-Rice-Breakfast-Porridge/Detail.aspx
I posted a black bean soup on my blog the other day that was super yummy. My Amelia is a dyed-in-the-wool bean hater, but she loved this particular recipe. I served it with a scoop of rice in the middle (we used white, but brown would do ya fine too), and grated cheese on the top. Do you do cheese? If you do, try making a cheesy rice pudding instead of a sweet one. My kids are not at all fond of traditional rice pudding or bread pudding either for that matter, but they adore the same dishes made in a more savory way with cheese.
Brown rice is also a great breakfast cereal. We do what we call "sundaes" with both oatmeal and rice... put out all sorts of "toppings" such as raisins, nuts, brown sugar or honey (you could even use sprinkles, etc if you want to live dangerously, lol) Add "syrup" or milk or cream or yogurt... I even use some sundae dishes I got at an end of the summer clearance a few years back. This has always been a tremendous fave with my kids from a very early age.
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