I Did It!!

We have been trying to potty train this little one for almost two weeks. From day one, he has been great about "peepee" in the potty, but forget trying to get him to "poopoo"!! We tried everything... special underwear ("Don't poopoo on Mater!!"), but nothing worked. So we resorted to bribery! If you will poopoo in the potty (and Mama or Daddy has to see it there! He tried to tell me he pooped the other day, but I never saw it, and his heiny sure was clean, so I'm not sure he really did), then you can have a new hotwheels car!!

Well, he pooped in his pull up (that he wears when we are out) on Sunday after church. Then he didn't go for THREE DAYS. I was beginning to panic. Yesterday, he finally went...in his underwear. **Sigh** I was about to give up. Today, he has been fine. He got up from his nap, and went potty (#1), and then suddenly said "I have to poopoo!" and RAN to the potty. YEAH!! He did it!! Tiny did a HUGE #2, and here he is with is new hotwheel. He is sooooo happy. We have five more cars to go!

Tiny with his new purple cadillac hotwheel.

Yummy Ribs!

We have a great grocery store here in Texas called HEB. Ours has a little cooking area called "Cooking Connections" where they have chefs that make at least three dishes each day. The idea is to present quick, easy and tasty dishes that you can prepare yourself. They had a wondeful dish called "Easy one hour Ribs" a couple of weeks ago, so I just had to try it.
You can see by the empty tray, they went over well! And as you can see by my lovely shirt, they went over well ON me also!

Here's Your Title!

I am a delinquent blogger. I have been negligent. I apologize. Life sometimes gets away from me.

I was reading a new blog today, of another homeschooling mom who has six kiddos... and one a teenage AS boy! (For those who read this and DON'T know, my oldest son has Asperger's Syndrome). It was refreshing to read that maybe my teenager is not so different from other AS kids. Life can be very trying with a teenager with AS.

One thing she has done in her blog is give each child a nickname, so I think I'll do the same. Here out, my wonderful dear husband will be known as Bugman, as we own a pest control biz and it is befitting him. Bubba14 is my oldest son, as that is the nickname his brothers have already given him. Legoboy11 is my second son. He's the math/science freak and of course, Lego (and Starwars) obsessed child. Third in line is my kindergartner LittleJ6. He's the one that Dobson was observing when he wrote "The Strong-Willed Child". We just started "school" with him (learning to read) and he loves it! Last, but not least of course, is my youngest, who will be 3 tomorrow! "Tiny" (as Bugman calls him) is not so tiny! He has a genetic disorder called Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome. Among other things, he was born with part of his intestines on the outside of his body. Anyway, he is quite a large boy... 3 tomorrow, and wearing a size 12 shoe, and size 5 clothes.

Bubba14 is quite the challenge these days. He is in drama, which is wonderful, except that the dramatic come home with him. Everything is a major event. Yesterday, he took a math test. He got two wrong. Even though he got a 90 on the test (he has a fit until we give him a "grade"), he began the diatribe on how horrible a student he is, and I had to suffer with the whoa-as-me attitude for hours. What is a mom to do? And then there is his play... his drama class is putting on "The Mouse Trap" in about two weeks. The drama teacher asked the kids to ask people to the play and "reserve" tickets. Well, Bubba took that seriously, and he is constantly making lists of who we should invite and we need to make sure that we reserve their tickets. Sigh. One day, I will go crazy with this!!

Time to get the show on the road here. Bugman is playing Uno with the kids before he leaves. I have a brief moment to shower now.

Just some other pics...

This is my brother... my "little" brother. He's actually about 13 inches taller than me. He took my camera and snapped this pic by holding it out at arms-length in front of him. Pretty funny.

This is my dad and my second son. My Dad lives in KC, KS.

This is Grandpa and my third son.

This is my third son, again, and my nephew, my brother's kid. They are about six months apart in age. My son is older. I love seeing the cousins together. My brother has all boys (he has three, I have four. His wife is expecting their fourth child in June. We're not sure what it is yet!).

Check out the Clean Craft Room!

I am having a Mom's Night Out for my co-op this Friday, so I wanted to get my craft area all spic-n-span. I just had to take pics to show off, cuz it doesn't look like this often!!

This is my main stamping area. The green thing is a large cutting mat.

These little drawers hold fun things like embellishments, fibers, my acrylic stamping blocks, tags, etc.

These are my ink pads (most of them). I actually have more, but they are ones I don't use very much. This is a cassette tape holder I found about ten years ago at Big Lots. It was like $5 and well worth the money!! I label each pad with a sharpie, with it's color, so that I always know what color is what without pulling it out.

This is one of the two turnstiles I have from pampered chef. This one has my tools, like my crop-a-dile, scissors, paint brushes, etc.

These are some clear drawers and boxes I got from the office supply for organizing desks. Each item is sold separately so you can customize it. I have my markers, my templates, adhesives, tapes, and paint markers in here. You can also see my heat gun in it's holder there on the right, and my Ott Light.

This is on a table to the left of my stamp area. There are some tilt bins with things like sponges, small stamp pads, stippling brushes, etc. The small drawers in the middle have some stamps, more little stamp pads, etc. The large drawers on the left have paper and stickers. You can barely see the edge of a drawer unit on the far right that have stamps in them.

These carts and drawers have stamps in them. You can see off to the left on the shelves there are all my crafting books, as well as binders with unmounted stamps, a box full of envelopes, and boxes with paints and glazes.

Another shot of the carts and shelves. You can see another two draw sets on the left, that have more stamps. All drawers are labeled, and all stamps categorized so I can find what I need. Most of the big carts are on wheels, so I can roll them around to make it easy to get stamps, as well as the fact that they are blocking a book shelf full of books used for homeschooling!!

Last picture! These are the built in shelves above my stamp area. The bottom shelf has all my cardstock in magazine holders by color, and boxes of markers. The top shelf is all my craft magazines (The Rubber Stamper, Somerset Studio, Cloth-Paper-Scissors, Belle Armoire, etc.) The cabinets on top have old issue of mags, plus boxes of stamps I don't use much (like Christmas, etc.).

Now, to make it messy again!!

Best Banana Bread EVER!!

Okay, I am a picky banana bread person. I have been searching for a great recipe, one that had whole wheat, didn't have sugar, and stayed moist. Is that too much to ask?? I assumed it was, until now!

We attended the Heritage Homestead Craft and Children's Fair in just north of Waco. I bought all three of their cookbooks they had for sale. This is the recipe they have in their desserts cookbook. All recipes are made only with items that they have on their farm. It is the most awesome recipe! You can't even tell it's "sugar free" (meaning no refined sugar).

1/3 Cup Coconut Oil
1/2 Cup Honey
3 medium bananas, mashed
2 eggs, beaten
1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/4 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 325. Lightly butter a 5x9 bread pan. Mix together the oil and honey. Beat the eggs, and add to the oil and honey. Stir in the mashed bananas.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and pecans.

Alternately add dry mixture and hot water to the banana mixture, mixing after each addition. Pour into a buttered bread pan.

Bake 55 to 60 minutes, until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then remove and cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing (but we never make it that long, LOL).

It is sooo yum. My kids fight for it. I usually find those great buys on bananas at the store (they'll have a big bag of them, the really brown ones, for 50 cents), and make two or three loaves at a time. Enjoy!!