I'm the Mom of a Preschooler and a First Grader.

Today was Colin's first official day of First Grade. Lillian started her first year of Pre-K at the beginning of August. I finally got a slide show of their First Day of School pictures made. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I'm also a pretty bad food photographer.

Wow! Thanks to everyone that commented on my photos last week. I have to admit a few things: I suck at taking pictures of my kids. I didn't think there would be so many people that would comment on that post (I think the most comments on one of my blog posts, to date). AND I didn't intentionally set out to take a picture of the sky reflecting in the pond. I really just wanted to see if I could get a shot of the swans from the deck outside our hotel room. I didn't even think it would look good until I looked at the photo on my computer. (And Allison, I totally agree! If it were intentional, I should have gotten more of the hill in the shot. I'll try again next year!) So this week's You Capture Challenge (Food) was just that: A CHALLENGE! I didn't have a lot of time to take 200 shots of food this week, but I kinda had an idea of what I wanted. They don't look as nice as I pictured in my head, but I'll share them anyway. I got a jar of homemade apricot jam from a friend. As soon as I got it I wanted to spread some on hot biscuits. Don't know why, but I did. So I set out to make biscuits to enjoy some of the jam (well, right after I got my new range, since our old oven didn't work). Here is what I came up with:

My first attempt at homemade biscuits

A shot with the jar of jam

Close up

I know these aren't very good. But at least I tried. I didn't get very creative, but I promise I'll try better for the next challenge!

I'm a cook writing my first Tuesday food post.

I know last week I said I was rearranging my theme posts and moving my recipes/food posts to Tuesday, and calling it Tuesday's Tantalizing Treats, but I think I am just going to call my food posts "Tantalizing Tuesdays". What do you think? Seriously, give me your opinions. This summer I have tried a few really good recipes and I'm going to start sharing them by doing a short series on enchiladas (very short, just 3 recipes). The first one I found on a great food website The Picky Palate. I don't remember how I found it (quite possibly from Tip Junkie) but I love these enchilada's and so does my family! It is a great way to get the kids to eat leafy greens while still eating something with some taste.They were a little time consuming the first time I made them, but I think they will be easier to make the second time around. I used canned chicken instead of cooking and shredding fresh chicken breasts, it just made it easier. But other than that I followed the recipe to a "T". So try the Picky Palate's Fiesta Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas and let me know what you think. Sorry I don't have pictures, we ate them so quickly I didn't have a chance to take any!

I'm a Mom thinking she needs to slow down.

I remembered it was my blogoversary today, I really did! I have been going, and going and going, just like the Energizer Bunny all day. We had playgroup at an awesome park, and after I dropped the kids home (after putting in a load of laundry) I went to the grocery store, came home put groceries away, made Amish Friendship Bread, got back to the tile guy (yay tile for the bathroom renovation!) and am now making dinner and trying to get in my blogoversary post while cooking dinner and getting everyone ready for Back to School Night! SO: HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY TO ME! Maybe a longer post later? Two years of a blog warrants a nostalgia post right? Well I'll try! Thanks for reading.

I'm an amateur photographer taking on a challenge.

I've been reading a blog I'd had never heard about until it won an award at the BlogHer conference. I Should Be Folding Laundry won the BlogLuxe "Best Eye Candy" award (along with whatever). Why I hadn't come across it earlier, I don't know, since all I do is complain about having to do laundry! Anyway, in a effort to get her readers to pick up a camera more often, Beth issues her readers a photography challenge each week. I've decided I need to learn more about my camera (Pioneer Woman has some great tutorials) and I need to take picutres more often. So I'm taking her "You Capture" challenge (see button on the right). This week's You Capture Challenge is "Peace". No need for me to explain, you'll understand why these pictures envoke "peace" (or at least the first two).

I'm changing things around a bit.

Just wanted to let you know that I am changing my recipe day from Wednesday to Tuesday. I have a few new recipes I've tried this summer and I'd like to share them with you, so I'm going to change Wednesday's Wonderful Recipe to Tuesday's Tantalizing Treat. Even though not all of the recipes will be "treats" per say, at least it should be a "treat" for me to share them with you, right? (OK...so I couldn't come up with a "t" word for recipe or food. So sue me). So look for a new recipe on Tuesday. My kid starts all day school next Thursday, so I'll have more time to blog! :)

I'm just getting around to Post Secret Sunday

I don't know why I didn't do this post on Sunday. I read the secrets, I read the replies, I just can't get it together. Maybe when school starts next week for my youngest (just Pre-K, but it will be 4 hours a week to do what I want/need to do) I will get more organized. (You should hear the laughter in my head right now) Anyway...this week's Post Secret postcards were fairly tame compared to other postcards. Some were funny (I LOVE the cookie one-NSFW and not safe for kids and the medicine cabinet one) but most were just things that needed to be said. I personally didn't find any of them shocking, or so sad to the point I cried. I did say "Good for you" few times, and "Awww" once or twice, but I liked these postcards because they were just declarations. Maybe by saying out loud "I don't know how not to be lonely" the person writing the card decided to figure out why they feel that way. Or by sending the Audrey Hepburn message it really did let someone out there know they are OK, without having to compromise their whereabouts. The one I am really curious about though, is the Craigslist secret. Seriously? You met your girlfriend where? And who's to say she's not still on there? And even if she's not, who's to say she won't go back? And what kind of diseases do you think she might have? I know, I know...some of you are saying "People change!" "Why not give help give her a second chance at life!" And I'm all for trying to help another person get a better life, but to me there is a fine line between having a girlfriend that USED to be a prostitute (as in, you met her at a bar/club or the supermarket and you find out about her past during the relationship) and paying someone for sex THEN making her your girlfriend. It just seems a little too weird to me! OK...my rant is over. What do you think about this week's secrets? Did any of them make you feel any differently that I did? Do you have any opinions about the Craigslist secret? Oh...and about the cookie secret. I've never thought about shaping the cookies I make like that. Not even when I was in college, or before I had kids. Is there something wrong with me? Is there something wrong with the people that DO make them? I just wonder if I was brought up too conservatively, or if other's were brought up too liberally. AND I wonder if there is a happy medium. An in between that I can teach my kids.

I'm a Mom updating you on the "gummy bear"!

Since a few of you have asked, the reason I didn't post a pic of the water logged gummy bear is because we (I) messed up and didn't check the experiment until later in the afternoon. by that time the gummy bear had lost it's shape. BIG TIME! The pic I took didn't even look like anything but some funky stuff on a napkin. So I deleted the pics. And if you want to see what a water logged gummy bear looks like, do the experiment. It's pretty easy!

I'm a scientist too!

So not really. I bought my son a science experiment book at the Target Dollar Spot (I LOVE TARGET!) hoping to help relieve some of his summer boredom while doing school work. We've read, and done math (he LOVES Math) and done some writing too (he hates writing) but I thought some science experiments would be fun. I told him we would do the experiments last week, then he turned on the TV and I haven't seen him since (well, OK, I've seen him, he just hadn't been interested in the science book until today). We did two fun experiments this afternoon, and he said I could take pictures and blog about them (he is usually the one kid in the pic sticking his tongue out instead of smiling). Experiment #1: Blue Goo Ingredients: 1 cup corn starch 1/2 cup water few drops blue food coloring Directions: Mix ingredients together with your hands! It makes a goo that is "hard" when you are stirring it, but as you pull your fingers up it becomes watery and stringy. The science part: This mixture is called a colloid which means the cornstarch particles are heavier than the water particles which suspends the cornstarch in the water (do I sound smart or what!?) Other colloids include Jello (gelatin suspended in water) Milk (milk fats suspended in liquid) and Oil Paint (particles of pigment suspended in an oily liquid). Here are a few pics: Experiment #2: Growing Gummy Bear (overnight experiment) Ingredients: water gummy bear (you can eat the leftovers, we did!) ruler Directions: Measure your gummy bear and write the measurement down. Place the gummy bear in a glass and cover with water. Set the glass aside and wait overnight to see if your gummy bear grows, gets smaller, or stays the same. The science part: this experiment explains the process of osmosis. The gummy bear is "dry" so to balance the "wet" with the "dry" the gummy bear soaks up the water and grows bigger the more water it absorbs. Here are more pics! Doing these experiments were a lot of fun, and it didn't take too much time. Colin enjoyed doing them and learning a little more about science. Now if he'd only practice his handwriting a little more, so he could learn to like that too. (Sorry there are no captions under the pics. It took me too damn long to get them where I wanted them within the post. I guess next time I upload pics, then write. Maybe it will be faster!)