Mischevious things Lucan did today.

We wall mounted the tv just after the first of the year because Lucan couldn't keep his grimly little hands was having troubles not touching the tv. But the other day I witnessed him climb atop the entertainment stand so he could get a better view of the tv. Problem solved.

Then Lucan decided he needed a new place to sit on the floor.

And then he couldn't quite view his microwave, so he needed a boost up.

His seat/step stool? Oh, just a bag of whole wheat flour I bought. That should teach me to put my groceries away the moment I get home.

After all of that action, Lu decided he needed a water break.

Out of my water cup.

I guess that should teach me not to leave my water within Lucan's grasp.

But the hard thing about the concept of "within Lucan's grasp" is that everything is within Lucan's grasp now. Only the things that are on the very center of the counter are safe. Everything else is liable to be touched or consumed. Like that bag of clementines for example.

Greedy little bugger.

 

That blurry blue thing in Lucan's hand? His sippy cup. Which he was wielding like a hammer to assault Fire and myself with. Lu's very happy about this.

Fire, unfortunately, is not so happy with being repeatedly whacked. This is Fire giving Lucan the stink eye and Lucan unflinchingly returning his gaze.

And this is what my days are like. Recording Lucan's terrible two-ness/twenty month-ness via digital camera.



Oh, was there football at the Superbowl? I thought there was just food ...

Until a team that I actually have a vested interest makes the Superbowl, I probably will continue to care about the food more than the game. Last year I think that we watched part of the Puppybowl instead. :) I don't actually know that I'll ever care too much as I'm not really a NFL person.

This year Lance and I both made a dessert. Lance got stuck making his own dessert because when I tried to talk to him about what else we should made, he shushed me so he could listen better to the Iowa State basketball game. How rude. I decided then he could do his own baking.

I made super yummy salted peanut chew bars aka salted nut roll bars. They got rave reviews from my consumer test panel. Lance made O' Henry bars. They were a little undercooked. There are no pictures to bear witness to the under-doneness.

 O'Henry Bars
4 cups rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the oats, brown sugar, butter or margarine, and white corn syrup. Pat into a 10 x 15 inch pan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Do not over bake. But at the same time, don't underbake either. This is where we had problems.
3. Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter. Spread over baked crust while hot. Cut into bars right away.

Salted Peanut Chews

Base:
1 Yellow Cake mix
1/3 cup margarine, softened
1 egg

3 cups miniature marshmallows
Topping:
2/3 cup white corn syrup
1/4 cup margarine
2 tsp. vanilla
12 oz. bag peanut butter chips
2 cups rice krispies
2 cups salted peanuts (no skins)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, combine all base ingredients until crumbly. Press in bottom of ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Bake 12-18 min.
2. Remove from oven, sprinkle on marshmallows and bake 2-3 min., until marshmallows start to puff. Remove from oven.
3. In large saucepan, heat corn syrup, marg., vanilla, and chips until melted and smooth.
4. Remove from heat and stir in cereal and peanuts.
5. Spread over marshmallows. Cool. Store covered. Enjoy yumminess guaranteed to follow :)

Lucan observations

I am no longer doing monthly updates because I'm not feeling it. Props to those mothers who continue to chart and monitor their childrens' growth past one year. Originally I thought that I would, but like all mothers, there are just some things that you say that you will never do (or don't do) that you go back on once you are in the thick of things. There are a few things that I do want to record here in blog land otherwise they will probably go unnoticed.

• Lu has finally gotten the hang of silverware. It took some time and some effort of me just not looking, but we've finally gotten there. Lucan actually gets quite unhappy if he has a meal in which he doesn't get some sort of utensil in which to feed himself.
• Lucan had his first bout of pinkeye just after Christmas break. I'm not sure who he picked it up from, but I'm positive that the fact that when he identifies his eye, he pokes his finger into the middle of his eye didn't help matters. Have you ever given a toddler eye drops? By far one of the more challenging things I've done. Trying to wrestle him into submission while at the same time pry open his eye, four times a day - not my idea of fun.
• At Lu's 18 month appointment, he was solidly in the 64% percentile for height and weight (25 lbs) and the 87% percentile for head circumference. Perhaps he is growing into his head!
• I am amazed by how observant Lucan is which is thus translated into him being able to follow some basic instructions. If we are picking up Lu's blocks, Lucan will help. If I point to a green block off by its lonesome for Lucan to go and get, he will. The other day Lu left his mixer on and I asked him to turn it off and he did! Smart boy!
• My smart boy continues to test his boundaries. He knows that he's not supposed to be on the table, but he will casually rest one knee on the table to see what you will do. After he gets scolded for being on the table he'll just sort of lean on the table. Like I said, boundary testing.
• Lucan's vocab consists of mommy, daddy, uh-oh, no, moo, bang, beep, hi and bye. He still loves to greet every single person he sees at the store with an innocent little "hi!" I'm telling you, you would melt if Lu said hi to you at the store. If not, you have a heart of stone must be hard of hearing.
• He knows what it means to wash his hands and when it's time to eat - Lu will go to the correct spot for these.
• Okay, does anyone else's child HATE to have their diaper changed? Like wailing, kicking, thrashing and head butting? No, just mine? Great ...
• Fav foods: clementines, cookies (Lance's fault), scrambled eggs, applesauce yogurt, yogurt covered raisins and of course pouches as a treat. Lance took him to Subway last weekend and Lucan ate all of the meatballs off a footlong (or is it 11 inches?) sub. Lance thought they were going to share it, but lo and behold, all Lance got was bread.
• Lucan knows where we store the cookies. He'll stand in the corner, by the microwave and just point and grunt to the container. Observant little boy.
• Lucan wants his own computer too. If anyone stands in front of the computer, he wants to be there too. Because Lu wants to bang on the keys or play with the mouse. Speaking of the mouse, we have a wireless mouse and it's been missing for a couple of days now. Pretty sure Lu had something to do with it.
• Confession: we watch television. Lucan LOVES Sid the Science Kid and is mesmerized by Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Lance likes to watch Dinosaur Train with Lu. It drives me a bit mad because there's no way a velocoraptor is happily co-exisiting with a brachiosaours.
• I can always tell if Lucan has been up awhile in his crib because he has thrown all of his blankets and stuffed animals on the floor.
• Cleaning up is fun, but making a mess is more fun. For example, we can't just get out a few blocks. We must dump the entire bag out onto the floor. Lu does help put the blocks back in the bag, but I'm pretty sure it's just so he can dump them all out again.
• After bath time we are in the regular habit of letting run around diaper-less. Case in point, Lucan peed on a library book the other day. Whoops.
• At bible study Lu will go from person to person playing with their ipad or iphone. If you don't have a fun electronic device, Lu is not interested in you. As a result, Lucan becomes other peoples charge at small group!
• This could just be optimistic of me, but I feel like Lucan is having fewer tantrums. Or it could be that I'm learning how to better avoid them. But last night we were at Granite City for two hours, including our wait time and food time. We had the nicest server, but she was really terrible. Three tables that got there after us had their drinks and food before us. I digress. Lu did really well. I held him for close to a half an hour while we waited and when he started spazzing out, I gave him a pouch for his hunger. I always keep his diaper bag well stocked with snacks and had told Lance to pack some emergency fruit and food (but he didn't). Luckily there was an emergency pouch, some goldfish and some organic fruit snacks. Mommy saves the day with snacks because it kept Lu from a meltdown!

Save money with me!

 

Here are my most practical (and impractical) tips for saving money this year:

1. Stop shopping at Hy-Vee and start shopping at Fareway. Lance and I are very conscious grocery shoppers. We menu plan once a week and tend to stockpile when we notice ingredients that we are sure to use go on sale. We have both noticed that Fareway consistently has better prices than any other area grocery stores. They may not have quite the selection as Hy-Vee (especially if you live in central Iowa and have access to the biggest Hy-Vee in the nation), but for the average family the selection is more than sufficient.

2. Quit buying convenience foods and start buying ingredients. For example: swap your morning granola bar for a big tub of oatmeal. Portion out enough oatmeal, brown sugar and raisins (because apparently the only way for Lance to be able to consume granola is with brown sugar and raisins) for the week and you have your breakfast on the go. We don't buy those frozen pre-made Bertolli meals although I think they sound delish. They count as convenience food!
3. Get rid of your expensive magazine subscriptions! This tip is especially for me as I LOVE magazines. I am currently subscribed to seven different magazines and am currently phasing over half of them out. But am I doing without? No, utilizing my local library card, I am able to use the online reader service called Zinio to read all my current magazines.

3b. Or find a friend that works for Meredith and have them bring you magazines that you like to read.
3c. Or find a friend who will graciously let you read their magazines once they are done with them.

4. Meatless Monday. This past Monday I made a new recipe from Dinner A Love Story. I was a little skeptical (the meal consisted of spaghetti, olive oil, caramelized onions, spinach and balsamic vinegar), but was pleasantly surprised. Cheap meal!

5. Regularly read a couponing website for couponing ideas and sales. http://moneysavingmom.com/ and http://thekrazycouponlady.com/blog/ are two great ones.

6. Figure out where your money is going and then do something about it aka: setup some sort of budget. For us, we do a version of Dave Ramsey's cash envelope system. We use our credit card to pay for gas because of all the extra points we get, but typically we stick to cash. One other exception is that I have a target debit card that I regularly use to get 5% off all my purchases. But the moment I get home I have Lance hounding gently reminding me about how much I spent and if I transferred the money from our cash folder.

7. For Christmas this past year, we did not use our credit cards, even with what limited income we have. We redeemed our stockpiled credit card points for gift cards to places where we knew we'd be shopping. For example, I used a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card to pay for gifts for both of my aunts and Lance used Sears and Home Depot gift cards to buy things for my dad and uncle. We also saved a portion of all of my promo paychecks to pay for gifts. I suffered through a particularly painful Halloween promo at the mall so I knew we'd be able to buy gifts this year. In my opinion, I wasn't paid enough to do this HORRID monster mash dance that I had to lead. Don't ask, there are no pictures or videos.

8. On that note, be willing to work hard to earn some extra Christmas cash. I got up at 5am on Black Friday and wrapped presents for 11 hours at the mall because I knew we needed the money. I was exhausted afterwards. I supposed that it didn't help that I had went out the night before and did a little pre-Black Friday shopping.

8b. Start contributing to a Christmas budget early in the year. Maybe this was relieve you from having to work terrible promotional events like me :)

9. Shop craigslist and utilize Facebook swap groups. I was telling my friend Mandy the other day that I got a large portion of my maternity clothes on craigslist. My philosophy is that if you can wash it and guarantee it's cleanliness, than you can buy it on craigslist. Lu got a play kitchen and tool bench for Christmas. Again - craigslist and FB swap groups! Besides I'm saving the environment by recycling some one else's toys :) Tell that to my recycle nazi husband!

10. The 10% tithe envelope. Every time we get a cash gift or I work a promo, 10% immediately comes off the top and goes into an envelope for giving to charitable causes. There are times when something will come up that I will want to contribute but I'll have a hard time because I don't know where the money will come from. Well, now we have a "giving to God" envelope so I can donate without having to worry if we actually have the money to do that because I know that we already have cash set aside. (This doesn't include the tithe money we regularly portion from Lance's paycheck.) 

This is how to save money the Kara way!

Success or Fail? A reflection of 2012's New Years Resolutions

Last year my four resolutions were as follows:

1. Learn how to make a Korean food dish.

2. Incorporate more vegetables into our diets.
3. Pay down 1/3 of my student debt.
4. Be content, but be fearless.

• I still didn't cook a Korean food dish. That stupid resolution is the death of me and will be my ongoing list of resolutions (three years running). Sigh. Does anyone know how to make Korean food that could help a girl out with completing her resolutions?
• I suppose my vegetable resolution is still a part of my ongoing list. Crap. Every time I vow to eat more vegetables I come home with bok choy. Does anyone else have that problem? No ... I suppose that's a Kara-specific quirk.
• I am happy to report that we will soon be able to pay off all of my graduate loans. We're pausing on writing that check until I go back to work that way there is knowledge that there will be a regular income flow.
• Be content, but be fearless. It's funny how God uses life circumstances to teach you about yourself. Last year when I wrote that resolution I had a predictable, full-time job. It wasn't a job that made me particularly happy, but it paid the bills and didn't leave me feeling bad at the end of the day. I think my thought process at that time was that I wanted to learn how to be happy with my job even if it wasn't the most glamorous of jobs. I also knew that we were planning on doing away with some major things in our life in order to save money and I was worried about that too. Well, look at where I'm at in 2013. Mid-spring I took a new job that I thought was going to make me happier or more "content." Instead I found myself a couple of months later jobless. I spent the rest of the year learning how to find contentedness. Fearlessness seemed to be out of the question. But as I sit here now, I realize that God granted me the opportunity to stay at home with Lucan, something that I would have never done voluntarily. While it certainly wasn't the situation I asked for, I do think that I found some fearlessness in 2012. Does this mean I can check off Resolution #4? :)1

For 2013 I'm not setting any new resolutions. I'm pretty sure that I still have plenty to work on from 2012!


Image source link.

May love surround you in 2013

December in pictures

We visited three different santas this December. (I know, Lance thought it was excessive too. But I forgot my camera at the first one, so we had to go to a second one. The third santa was entirely unplanned.)

You might think by this picture that Lucan was one of those great kids who love sitting on Santa's lap. Ha! The second picture is more like reality.

Yeah, Lucan got sat on Santa's lamp and promptly wanted his daddy back. At 18 months, Lucan still isn't a fan of Santa.

We went to this awesome Christmas celebration back in Lance's hometown. Lu got a treat bag, a coloring book and a really nice teddy bear. And Lance won $20! Holla back young-uns.

By looking at this picture, you might think that Lucan is peeping at his presents. The reality is, Lucan is kitty-hunting. I left a small opening among the presents for Fire to enter and exit underneath the Christmas tree.

I thought last year was challenging trying to get Lucan to sit patiently in front of the Christmas tree. Little did I know that it would be ten times more difficult this year? Why didn't you all warn me?

Silly little boy running around Grandma K's house.

This was a game of "putting on grandpa's giant hat" that I captured on film.  

Even with Lucan's enormous head, grandpa's hat still is too big for a baby noggin.

But it made Lu laugh in delight.

Sadly, farmer daddy had to go back outside to continue chores.

Fortunately Lucan enjoys playing on his grandma's baby piano. I have to hide the piano stool because Lucan uses it as a step stool and turns all the lights on and off again.

This year Lu had a bit of help opening his presents. If Lance got him started on ripping the wrapping paper, Lucan could do it. I'm sure next year will be a big year for present unwrapping.

Andrea, on the other hand, is a pro at unwrapping presents. My guess is that she'd enthusiastically unwrap everyone's gifts if they let her.

Andrea and her fabulous purple hat :)

Andrea (5 years-old), Lu (18 months) and Wyatt (2 years-old).

I tried to convince all the little kids to sit nicely in front of the Christmas tree and have their picture taken. This is what I got instead :)

Lucan hamming it up at Jessie's house.

Jessie wanted to have an educational snack time so she put together snowman made out of bananas, carrots, grapes and apple straws. I don't think that Lucan properly appreciated his educational snack. The saddest thing that January has ushered in is the end of Jessie's maternity leave. No more easy Thursday play dates at Jessie's house. Obviously I need to either find a job or more friends. I'm not sure that either sound particularly easy.

Visions of Christmas

Right ... let's pretend this very instant that this post was done before Christmas, not 3 days after the fact. And tomorrow you can pretend to be surprised by other Christmas pictures.



We had the white Christmas I oh so desired. 13 inches of white Christmas to be exact. In fact, the snow was so bad that for the first time in 7 years of working downtown, hubs didn't make it in because of the weather. That's bad folks. If you ever want a poster child for dedicated employee, Lance is it. He abandoned the idea of going in only after getting my car stuck in a snowbank, then after having a kind stranger help him dig out, accidentally locked the keys in the car (the car was running mind you) in the middle of a busy intersection. But this was not enough. It took him not being completely blinded with snow to decide to stay home. Even then I had to convince him at 10:30 AM not to go. Yeah, Lance is nuts for work :)

Lemon, rosemary, vanilla fragrance jars. Every year I tell myself that I'm not going to do any homemade gifts because, well, I don't need to. But every year, I find myself making something for all the women in my family. I originally got the idea from a cookie exchange I went to earlier in December. They were easy enough to assemble, so lo and behold, another homemade gift! You put your smelly ingredients in a jar and cover it with water. Then when you want to use it, empty the contents into a small crock pot (like a little dipper) or into a small sauce pan on the stove. Add more water to cover and simmer lightly. According to pinterest, this is the same smell that Williams Sonoma uses in their stores.

My favorite snowman coffee mugs. A former boss gave these out about 4 years ago. I only have 3 snowmen and would love to have 4. So, if you have this EXACT snowman mug taking up space in your cupboard, send him my way :)

.

Every year after Christmas I vow that I'm going to do less baking the next year. Never works out for me. I made fudge (2 rounds, I swear I ruined the first, but it ended up being okay), peanut butter fudge, caramels, sugar cookies, ginger snaps and peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. So roughly around 700 cookies and 8 cases of Type 2 Diabetes. Lance just unearthed the compost cookies I made last year for Christmas. Whoops.

Below are triple chocolate espresso cookies.

This is the Christmas ornament I bought last year for Lucan's first Christmas. Isn't it adorable?

A Christmas Story

After Friday's horrors of the terrible Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, it goes without saying that all parents are holding their children a bit tighter. It's horrible. It's devastating. It makes me weep.

But Christmas reminds us that there is hope in a Savior. This version of the Christmas story was played a couple weeks back during church and I've been wanting to share it ever since then. This reenactment was done by some children in Austrialia. I think it's even more precious to me since Friday's shootings.

I'm not sure which is cuter: the sheep or the star.

Give those you love another hug today.

Kara's Cookie Tips

1. Use unsalted butter. Salted butter varies from brand to brand as to how much salt is actually in one stick. It can range anywhere from 1/4 of a teaspoon to 1/2 a teaspoon. But the use of butter and not margarine is very important. Butter in baking makes for a much more well-rounded, well butter flavor. It's important. Trust me on this.
2. Another butter tip. Soften your butter at room temperature for a couple of hours at minimum. It's also important to bring your eggs to room temperature because if they are too cold, they will not cream properly.
3. Quality baking pans are important. I use my 2 ton Pampered Chef stoneware pans combined with parchment paper. As a result, my cookies never stick to the pan and are always baked evenly and rarely burn.
4. Always stir the last of your flour or your mix-ins (chocolate chips, dried fruits, nuts, etc.) in by hand. When using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, there is the tendency to over mix in hopes of getting the last of the flour stirred in.
5. For uniform cookies, use a cookie scoop. My personal favorite is the small Pampered Chef scoop, approximately one tablespoon in size. This should be in every baker's cookie arsenal.
6. Another cookie scoop tip. Pre-scoop your dough and chill them for 5-10 minutes prior to baking. They won't spread as much and will come out much more even. And if your scooped dough has some pointy bits, you can push them in to make them even more round and perfect.
7. I think this one is generally a given, but let your cookies rest for 3 minutes or so after you take them out of the oven. You'll smash them if you try and remove them too soon.
8. Also another given, but worth mentioning: rotate your cookies halfway through baking. Most ovens cook hottest towards the back, so I always rotate top to bottom and side to side.
9. Good gravy, use a timer. There's nothing worse than going to all the trouble of mixing up dough only to burn it.
10. I heard this on Rachael Ray the other day, but there are stages to cookie making: mixing, resting, forming, resting and then baking. Essentially they advise that it is best to mix your dough up, form it into a mound, let everything rest for a little while, shape your cookies, chill the formed dough and then bake. I can't say that I do this for all cookies, but it is important for rolled cookies, such as sugar cookies, for the dough to be slightly chilled after you cut them out. It's also important to flour your cookie cutters in between use to prevent sticking.

10 tips for baking cookies. I didn't think that I had that many tips in me, but lo and behold, if you make enough cookies your start figuring out what works! I'm on like my 350 cookie in two weeks and I haven't even started making my Christmas cookies yet. I know, slightly overkill.

Photo credit