LEGOs in the Oven

Over here we are on Christmas break.  This means that I stay awake until one in the morning finishing the latest book I have been reading and then waking up to boys staring at me saying something like, "Can you make us waffles again this morning?" at a time in the morning that I wished they would be awake at for a school week but never are.

I am a wee bit tired this week.

But the waffles I have been making? Awesome!  Except that they call for egg whites and I don't have  hand mixer and have you ever tried to get stiff egg whites without a beater?

Don't try.

Mine are sloppy at best.

Which begs to wonder...how awesome would those waffles be if I made them with a hand mixer?

Pretty amazingly awesome, I think.

Because I am determined to tell you about the lego in the oven and did not look on amazon for a hand mixer.  That is dedication to a post, let me tell you.

S3 really wanted an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas.  They only make them in pink and while I had lots of suggestions of getting one and letting him decorate it with duct tape I just could see the duct tape melting and the smell and the mess and yuck.  So for Christmas I got him some baking mixes, measuring cups I am even jealous of, measuring spoons, spatula, spoon and an apron.

Then I promptly forgot to get a photo.

Further evidence I am sleepy.

Today he made up some sugar cookies from a box mix.  Because sugar cookies are a fine breakfast food on Christmas break when Mama won't make waffles.  In his joy at baking he dropped some legos he had been working on onto the table in the kitchen that we use as an island.  When he pulled the hot cookie sheet out of the oven and set it on the table, it landed right on the lego.

If a hot pan is put upon a lego, said lego will stick to it.

I do not recall seeing any WARNING ad on the Lego box about this so I thought I would inform you all of this danger.  I am just trying my best to keep you safe.

S3 slid the cookie sheet back into the oven with the still suck lego on it and as he went to shut the oven he said, "Um, Mama, there's a lego in the oven."

That has never happened before but now that I think back on it all, I wonder how it never has.

I immediately shut the oven off and stood there for a moment wondering what to do next.  Keep in mind I only had a half of cup of coffee in me...which makes me wonder how I ever ended up agreeing to baking cookies with him in the morning if all I had had to drink was half a cup of coffee.

I could see my near future ahead...all the baking and fixing of food I have yet to do for even more Christmas parties we have to attend and all of the food smelling of burnt plastic.  It wasn't a pretty picture.  Or a good smell.

And then I thought (and I know this will shock you all at my brilliance) "I know! Take it out of the oven!"

So I grabbed a pair of tongs (which the boys call thongs and one day that will not be funny but right now it still is) and pulled the still solid but very mushy blue lego out of the oven.

It slid from the tongs/thongs and fell to the kitchen floor in a melted mess.

But then it was quickly solid enough to just toss in the garbage.

There could have been lots of way to tell you this story.  I could have told you the garbage started on fire from the smoldering lego.  The lego burst into flames when I pulled it out of the oven.  Lots of drama.

But none of that happened.  S3 just put the cookies back in the oven, turned it on and we waited for the smell too good to just be box mix sugar cookies to finish baking.

Then all the boys went outside to snow board down our itty bitty hill on our light covering of snow so I blogged you this story.  With only one cup of coffee in my system.

Welcome to our Christmas break.

It's the Little Details......

Four years ago a great man left this world to wait for us in Heaven. When we get there, he will have undoubtedly helped cook the meal prepared before us.

My father in law died five years ago today. We had found out he had cancer that July after they thought he may have a case of pneumonia, it was lung cancer that spread rapidly and he was gone on a rainy miserable fall day. The day he was buried, it was beautiful, sunny and hot – unusual for Michigan November's.


I will never forget the first day I met my unknown-to-me-one-day-would-be-future-father-in-law. He came in to visit my husband and and I hadn't ever met someone before who seemed so gruff, he was skinny as a rail and as strong as an ox, paid attention to the slightest details, and won me completely over on the spot.


My father in law never told us he loved us. My husband will always remember the day his dad told him he loved him. Nope, he didn't say it but he showed it in a million little details.

My father in law cooked for us. On Sunday's he laid before us a feast. There was never anything fancy, but it there isn't one person in our family who would say it was anything BUT the very best, top quality food. It usually involved stuffing. He made the best most moist stuffing. He made col-slaw, salad with the dressing on it because Western dressing is the only dressing worth eating, I suppose. He made ham or chicken. He made fried potatoes; fried zucchini with tomatoes and squash and mushrooms. He made pickles. He made huge mountains of mashed potatoes. When I would walk in the house in the winter, he would have apple sauce simmering on the stove. When he found out I have a fondness for good bread, he would bring home some loaves from the Hungarian woman at the market and set a bunch of fresh honey in front of me too, I don't think honey had been used in their house much before I showed up to the family.


He knew I loved flowers and would save discarded sunflower bundles from the market, bring them to life again miraculously for me and they would last a week in a vase on the table. He knew I loved peonies and would have big bouquets of them picked and wrapped for me when I would come over. He dug me up some peonie plants, I can't get them to bloom for anything. I feel like that would let him down. He was known in this area for his geraniums, he had a knack for growing top quality, heavy duty geraniums in the greenhouse out back of their house. I still have one. I feel like I have done something to keep his memory alive with that potted geranium.
He had a knack for finding beauty in junk. I'm not sure how he found the stuff he did, but our front porch is decorated with the metal wagon wheels he had found somewhere. The rock garden has the plow he found. I have a garden area with a huge picket fence square he found and saved from the burn pile. Junk turned to beauty, and he cared enough to save it for me and deliver it.
He died when I was pregnant for S4, we had told him his name before he was born. But there is hardly a week where he isn't mentioned, as in, “If Dad could see these boys eat.” “If Dad could see these boys play.” “If Dad could hear these boys talk like this.”

We miss him.

To everyone in the family, my father in law meant something different. I can only write to you from my perspective. It was a true honor to be his daughter in law and I am grateful for every year I was able to know him so I can pass a bit of him down to our four boys.

I've really wrestled with how to write this post. There are so many things I want you to know about him. His humor, his laugh, the way he snapped beans with a knife....

But what I miss the most is the way he paid attention to details. Oh, it could drive you insane don't get me wrong, but it was in the details that I felt loved. Sometimes I don't feel like making a batch of cookies for the boys, oreo's will fill them just the same, but it's the smell, the thought, the experience of the cookies that they love. S1 once wrote a note for me, it was a class project. It said “Love is...” and he had filled in “...Moma's chocolate chip cookies.”.

Don't underestimate the little things.

A Snippet of Conversations Here

S4 was getting a piece of my birthday cake. Not the one with peanut butter that technically could be called breakfast food because it has a peanut butter filling, no, the cherry one...which is a partial serving of fruit (along with chocolate, cool whip and coffee).

He is holding the fridge open so I am forced to get the cake out for him and he says "Moma, did you know that apples grow on trees?"

I am picking out the smallest piece of cake for him. But my wonderful mom loves us so much she cut us HUGE pieces. "Yup, I knew that."

"It's really true. Almost all apples grow on trees."

Silence as I did not correct him to say ALL apples grow on trees.

I put the cake back in the fridge as I got him a fork. "You know what would be even awesomer?" he asks me.

"What?"

"If cookies grew on trees. Wouldn't that be awesomer? Yup, it really would."

It's moments like this that I cherish...and also yank my heart strings. I'll miss them so much when they go to school in a few weeks...especially my baby boy.

Valentine's Day with Four Boys

Taking a short break from Flo and Joanie to talk about Valentine's Day. Valentines' Day with four boys is....an unromantic adventure.

They have to have valentine's day cards. They each have their own school party and three boys in elementary school is a lot of valentine's day cards. I have a hard time purchasing something for them that they don't care to fill out, that will just end up in the garbage at the end of the day and did I mention they just don't care?

I admire mom's who go all out for Valentine's Day. I really do. But it's one more area I fall short in the “cool mom” category. Or do I?

I do try to make the best of it. For instance, I ask them what kind of valentine's they would like...

S1 “Well, you know...anything hunting would be great.”

S2 “Red Wings. You HAVE to get Red Wings!”

S3 “Do they have blue? I want blue ones.”

S4 “You know, Moma.....LIGHTENING MCQUEEN!”

Great, the only one I have a chance of finding is for my four year old who doesn't go to school but has to have the valentine's like his big brothers.

So I headed off to the store. Obviously, they have no hunting valentines. But I found dinosaurs...which is no where close to hunting but at least it's totally boyish. I did find sports themed ones. There are no blue ones. I did find Scooby do ones though. And of course, CARS. At least one of my boys will be happy.

I looked at getting the candy ones. At least they would have candy to make up for the lack in cards but all the candy ones are soooooo expensive. They would be great if I had ONE child in school, but not three.

Why I mind buying Valentine's is because I would like the day to be special for the boys, but it's just not a boy kind of holiday. And I don't know how to make it special. Why can't we have a celebrate hunting day? THAT I could make special for my boys...then we would find hunting cards. Or, hockey appreciation day? But little boys aren't too interested in sending lovey dovey cards out. And if they were, I would be worried about them.

So I make the boys cookies. In the shape of hearts. Because the one way to make sure that my boys feel loved is a full tummy. So cookies I will make them. And why can I spend hours making special cookies for my boys? Because I LOVE my boys, but I don't' love all the kids in their classes. So, forgive me all 4th, 2nd and kindergarten classes....you just get flimsy cards my boys didn't want to fill out anyhow. But my boys will know beyond a doubt their Moma loves them, and that is more important to me by far.

We Made Christmas Cookies

Rarely do I do a blog with mostly photos but sometimes a photo is worth a thousand words so, well, let me explain the photos.

My mom has these awesome Christmas cookie recipe she has handed down to me. Okay, really she probably got it out of some cookie recipe book of Christmas ideas in the check out line in a grocery store when we little but it's our family recipe and it's a tradition and there a million happy memories surrounding these cookies. She has perfected it, she and i have tweaked it and oh my, they are scrumptious.

S4 has been very anxious to put the 'sparkles' on the cookies. But he was happy to help roll out the cookies. My plan was to have cookies baking for the boys when they got off the bus and then they could decorate their own cookie before making their own.

Husband was home (being laid off now) so he snapped a few photos. Oh look how happy we look. It really is a cute photo. You must realize, S4 has on this apron, but no pants. He is good on wearing pants only out of the house. otherwise, they just slow him down.


mmmmm! Don't they look yummy baking! My cookies are boring circles (snowballs I call them). We have a polar bear, a reindeer, a Christmas tree and a snowman cookie cutter.

The boys were ecstatic to get home and see I had cookie dough all separated for them and ready for them to make their own cookies. I had thought this up ahead of time...if everyone has their own dough and their own cookie sheet and their own frosting germs might not be so bad and then when they are starving (again or still) they can just grab the cookies they made. A brilliant idea, don't you agree? Really, it is. See S3? He is already sneaking tastes of the cookie dough.
S1 took a diligent approach to cookie making. I see a potential great pizza crust maker in his future...which is good cuz his moma can't make pizza crust to save her life.S2 said "Oh, this is cool, dude" many many many times. His cookie dough got rolled out so thin you could see the table through the dough. I made the dough up and it needed a light dusting of flour. In the time it took the boys to make cookies, they went through an extra four cups (approx) of flour. They think their cookies are scrumptious still, however.S3 was worried about the dough stuck on his hands. He hadn't noticed I kept seeing him sneak pieces to eat so when this was stuck I could see the "I really want to eat this but I could get in trouble" look on his face so I said, "Just eat it off!" Oh man, after that almost all of his cookie dough just disappeared. I seen S1 began to nibble a bit, S2 said it was great and S4 claimed the whole idea to be disgusting.S4 FINALLY got to put the "sprinkles" on the cookies. This was what he had waited for with anticipation for FOREVER.Here is one of my circle/snowball cookies baked, frosted and sprinkled. Notice my fancy spancy Wendy's napkins. When these cookies are still warm they are just the best. Like, I can eat way too many warm and nibble once in awhile on the regular 'room temperature' ones. I hadn't even eaten one at this point but prepared this cookie all ready for Husband who had run outside to do something......
And apparently it wasn't going to well with the plow truck. He was kinda too busy to eat a cookie....This is love. He is trying to get the fan belt on and he still sorta smiled for me. Notice he is not looking at me but still concentrating on getting that fan belt on.....

Only the boys ate the cookies rolled out, cut out and frosted on this table. It's scary a little, isn't it. But I love this picture, you know they are having a great time!Husband even made it in to enjoy the cookie and survey the mess. He didn't say anything other than "yup, this cookie is good."Here is S1. He made a monster cookie.S2 couldn't wait for me to take this photo. Notice the deer has blue eyes. He spent a long time decorating this one 'just right'.I love these photos of S3. He hardly noticed me taking pictures of him until I told him I needed to see if the cookie was good when he took a bite. I think he liked it.This picture of S4 eating the cookie is just great. I decided to add the photos of him dancing around with a cookie because that is just S4. He is always doing something like this.It took a LOT of elbow grease to get the table clean. I had no energy to make more cookies after that, but I still have a bunch of dough left to make some more cookies today... alone. I would not take back an evening making cookies with my boys...it took close to two hours...but I would so not eat anything they made either! And I just wanted to share a little snapshot (okay, a lot of snapshots) into our making Christmas cookies adventures.

I hope you loved this post! I just have to say, it took nearly five hours to get all the pictures on it. My computer went super duper duper duper slow (that's an understatement!) but I think it was worth it to share it with you! Besides, I was busy in between times checking out Carrie Underwood's dresses on her TV special (that girl can sing! I would love all those dresses and heels...I'd have no where to wear them but they sure are fun to see!) and getting a few things taken care of for the next day.

Hope you have a chance to enjoy making Christmas cookies with your kiddos!