Good Stuff :: Local Honey

Well, The Man's sick of hearing me go on and on about how much I love honey. That means you get to sit there and nod politely until I'm done. Sure, you could just click over to the next blog on your reader list, but then you wouldn't benefit from my wit and wisdom.

I've always loved honey. Probably due to an inexplicable early childhood hatred of jelly. Yeah, I was that kid. The weird cool one with the peanut butter & honey sandwich. I was a total social outcast so cool. Everyone wanted to be me. OK, so maybe that's not true. But come allergy season, there are plenty of people who wish they were me - you know, because I'm so smart and funny and incredibly easy on the eyes. Or maybe it's because I don't have allergies. Unfortunately, my Buddy Boy does.

This breaks my heart, and not just a little. I don't have to have allergies to know that they suck. But the upside of the diagnosis is that it supports my local honey habit. And by 'local honey', I do not mean running down the street to the closest grocery store to get you some Sue Bee clover honey. Local honey is made by bees collecting nectar and pollen from a wide variety of plants in your geograhpic area. It is raw and will probably crystalize if left in your pantry too long. (Which is OK, you know. You can still use it. Just warm it up a bit and it will liquify again.) You can usually find local honey in your regular grocery store. If you can't, you can defintiely find it at a Wholefoods, Sprouts, or any gourmet grocer.

So. What does this have to do with allergies, you ask? Well, funny you should ask! Everything, that's what. Everytime you consume local honey, it's like you're giving yourself an allergy shot. Only it hurts less and tastes a lot better. Now don't start thinking that eating honey is going to help with your cat allergies or your husband's lactose intollerance. Sorry. It wont. What it will do is help you build an immunity to the plants in your area. Every golden drop contains pollen from the plants that cause the problems. A daily dose of honey allows those pollens to get into your system in very low levels. This allows your body to develop antibodies. It's the same principle as taking allergy shots.

And now for the words of caution. We all know that giving honey to babies carries a risk - so don't do that. And, if you're prone to severe allergic reactions - you know, the oh-my-GOD-I-can't-breath-get-me-to-a-hospital-NOW kind of reaction - and you've never eaten local honey before, you might want to start with small quantities. But barring any of that craziness, I'm encouraging you to give it a try. It costs a little more, but it supports your local beekeepers and it could help you with those itchy eyes and runny noses. And besides, it's just plain yummy - especially with peanut butter. It's good stuff.

The Happiness Project :: A Double Rainbow

It was pretty stormy around here yesterday – inside and out. We have houseguests, including a 6yo and another 3yo. Yesterday afternoon, I was out number 4 to 1. Kids were screaming and burping and chasing the cats and spilling stuff all over the floors and calling each other “baby-head” (and just WHY is this funny?), and fighting and getting in each other’s way. I totally lost it, hit the sauce and spent the rest of the evening in a drunken stupor. I remained calm, cool and collected through the whole adventure…until dinner time when Buddy Boy announced he wasn’t going to eat any meatloaf because it was “scary looking”.

OK, it wasn’t a pretty meatloaf. I don’t like to make pretty food for my company…I don’t like to intimidate friends with my culinary superiority. I’m nice like that. But c’mon, SCARY?! And so what if it looked like dog food that could crawl off your plate at any moment? It still tasted good – and he loves the stuff. Well, the meatloaf crack was the straw that broke this camel’s back. I burst into tears and screamed at him to go to his room and never come out. I calmly told him to go upstairs and think about his actions. Two seconds later, he came flying down the stairs.

“You guys!! You guys!! You have to come see this!! It’s a rainbow!!”

Well, who could say no to enthusiasm like that. So we all ran outside and sure enough…rainbow. Actually, it was a double rainbow. And even though you can’t tell in the picture, it was a whole double rainbow – you could clearly see the beginning and the end. I’d like to say the remainder of the evening was as lovely, but it wasn’t. Whatever. We had a couple good minutes there. I”ll take what I can get!

This post is brought to you by Leigh vs. Laundry’s lovely Happiness Project. Come join the fun!

The Dingo Ate My Baby! (And Blogger Ate My Comments)

5:00 AM. My bedroom. Me. Sound asleep. (A rare and precious thing)

Buddy Boy tiptoes in, climbs onto the bed and lets loose the song in his heart.

“D-I-N-G-O! D-I-N-G-O! D-I-N-G-O! And Dingo was his name-o!!”

Oh yeah! More obnoxious than any alarm clock I’ve ever heard. But something about the substitution of the D for the B made it all a little hysterical – even at that hour. And in that early morning fog, my response was, “But the dingo ate my baby!!” The reference was completely lost on Buddy Boy, but since I screamed it at the top of my lungs in my best Aussie accent, he busted up laughing. Not a bad way to wake up after all.

I got the kiddos ready and out the door early, I was pretty sure it was going to be a nice productive day…until I got home, checked the blog and realized that Blogger had eaten over a dozen of the comments on my giveaway post. And, since I’d already deleted the comment emails from my inbox, well, I was a little unhappy. How was I going to do my giveaway when the comments were…gone!?!? So, I wasted a few hours trying to figure that out and got nowhere. Fortunately, the comments reappeared yesterday. Now, if only I could get my kids to stop screaching, “The dingo ate my baby!!!”

Oh, and if you're wondering wtf I'm talking about, here you go (minute mark 3:39).

And if you haven't entered my giveaway - today's the last day.  So go here and tell me what's bugging you.

This post is brought to you by Follow Friday.

The Happiness Project :: My Wingman

Buddy Boy got in trouble yesterday for running around on the playground screaming that everyone was wearing dirty underpants. Whatever. At least he wasn’t swearing or sneaking cigarettes behind the dumpsters like I was at his age. Of course, I was mortified when his teacher told me this. And after I spent an acceptable amount of time lecturing my 5yo on the perils of potty talk, I spent a little more time searching for an appropriate baby picture for his Pre K graduation ceremony slide show. I think this one will do just fine. Ahhhh…my little ‘wingman’. He makes me incredibly happy – potty talk and all.

So?  What's putting a smile on your face today?  Join the happiness at Leigh vs. Laundry.

(Oh yeah, and just in case you’re wondering – which you shouldn’t be, because I’m a good mother…really…I am – that bottle was rinsed clean when Baby Buddy Boy got a hold of it. Drunk babies are not cool…and neither are drunk dogs nor drunk rabbits, but those are different stories.)

Hey!  Have you entered my giveaway yet?  There's still time.  Hop on over here.

The Happiness Project :: Another Happy Cuppa

Well it seems that tea makes a lot of people happy…at least judging by last week’s comments. So here’s another happy cuppa for ya. And this is one I can really get behind. Not that I couldn’t get behind the Kindness cup, I’m all for kindness…really. But this one? This one’s for me. Because I love to sing. And let me tell ya, I can sing! And when I sing, I sing at the top of my lungs from my heart. Which means I get a lot of funny looks when I’m crusin’ around town topless with my convertible hair flying all over the place. But they’re always kind smiles…because as y’all know…this is Texas, and you never know what caliber of kindness I might be keeping in my glove box.  (Just kidding...again...or not.)

So Happy Tuesday! Keep the happy going, wont you?  Join Leigh vs. Laundry and The Happiness Project.  You'll be happy you did.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts (And a Paper Flower Tutorial)

I’m reliable. You can count on me. Really. You can count on me not to listen to my voicemail. You can count on me to show up 15 minutes late. And you can count on me to be poorly prepared for just about everything. But in the end, I will get the job done. I will make a huge mess in the process, but I’ll get it done and I’ll have fun doing it.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week in our town. And surprise! I’m unprepared. Teacher Appreciation week is a big deal in these parts. I mean seriously, how else can all the stay-at-home moms around here one-up each other?!  We love our teachers.  Buddy Boy goes to preschool 3 days a week. This week’s activities include:

• Monday:  Teacher breakfast and flower presentation.  Moms make Teachers breakfast, kiddos give flowers to Teachers. (I will be up at some un-godly hour tomorrow morning making my secret weapon cinnamon chip scones. I will not be making a mad dash to the florist section of my local grocery store because the roses in my yard are amazing right now.)
• Wednesday:  Teacher lunch. Moms will be preparing salads, casseroles & desserts. (I’m off the hook for this one.) 
• Friday:  Teacher lunch and Teacher dinners. More moms preparing more salads, casseroles and desserts for that day's lunch. AND still more moms preparing meals to stock the teachers’ freezers. (Because…well…I guess preschool teachers can’t cook…or maybe preschool teachers are so incapacitated by the end of the year that they can no longer take care of themselves.) 
• Monday thru Friday:  Early release for Teachers. Moms come into the classroom and substitute-teach for a couple of hours each day so the real teachers can go home early. (Because that's what I pay all this money for -- so moms, not teachers, can teach my kid.)

I don’t know…I’m all for teachers, but it seems like overkill to me. What happened to the days where the kids saved their milk money, pooled it all together and then went out and bought Teacher a month’s supply of BubbleYum?

Personally, I’m a fan of the handmade Teacher gift. Something that comes from the heart and the hand of the kiddo. There will be a handmade gift from us this year, just like there was last year.  We made these awesome paper flowers last year and I think they turned out great.  Here’s a little tutorial.  It was tons of fun and the kiddos got to participate in just about every step. In other words, it really is a “kid craft” – suitable for a 2yo and a 4yo.  Here’s the list of what we used. We had most of this stuff just hanging around the house:

• Paper. I used old packing paper, because I’m all about reusing.
• Squeeze bottles. I used old water bottles.
• Acrylic paint. The kiddo paint is too chalky for me, so we used the real deal.
• Kid scissors
• Hole punches. I used a double hole punch and a 2” punch.
• Wire cutters/needle nose pliers
• Thin wire cut into 2” lengths. I used floral wire because I had it lying around, but any thin wire would work.
• Buttons
• Thick paper-wrapped wire stems (available in the floral section of your craft store)
• Glue (any kind – I used Elmer’s school glue)
• Plastic “pony” beads (I used clear because I didn’t have beads that matched my papers.
• Floral tape (optional)
• Scenting oil. You can use essential oils, your own perfume, even a drop of vanilla from your spice cabinet will work.

First we taped down sheets of paper, filled squeeze bottles with a dollop of acrylic paint mixed with about a cup of water. We shook up the paint and squeezed, splatted and splooshed it onto the paper. OK, so some of it got squeezed other places too. Hey, messy = fun, right?

Once the paper dried, the kids cut out circles. What kid doesn't love to play with scissors?! And for this project, the more irregular the cutting and the less exact the size, the better. It's a win/win. While the kids were cutting their circles, I punched 2" circles out of used tissue paper in coordinating colors. I also used the double punch to punch holes 'near' the center of each circle. Again, lack of precision gives a better end result, so kiddos strong enough to operate the punch could participate in this step as well.

Next, I threaded a button and 6 paper circles (alternating painted paper and tissue paper) onto the thin floral wire and twisted the wire on the back side to hold everything together.

This was Buddy Boy’s favorite part. Crumple everything up into little balls creating “buds”.

Then I attached each bud to a paper-wrapped stem with a drop of glue and slid a pony bead onto the stem to secure it all and give it a nice finished look. You could cover all this up with floral tape, but I couldn't find any 'craft' color tape to match my stems, so I just left it as it was. After the glue dried, we carefully unfurled our flowers.

The last step was to apply a drop of scent oil to each flower.

Voila!! A sweet smelling bouquet for teachers. We used them to dress up the outside of plain brown paper handle bags filled with homemade cookies.

Things Bug Me (So I'm giving some things away)

Ugh! Sometimes things just bug me! Like today. It’s what I call in inconvenient day. I know you know what I’m talking about…the kind of day where it’s just one inconvenience after another, after another.

The Man usually takes Buddy Boy to school on Fridays so I can be at the gym by 8:00. There’s an 8:30 yoga class that I love, and I like to get a good beating in on the treadmill before I get my chill on. Well, Mr. Man had an early flight this morning. No biggie. Buddy Boy can be a little late to school – it’s just Pre K. It’s not like the State’s gonna come after me for truancy or anything. So the day could have been fine, but nooo....

What do you mean the Kids’ Klub girl is running late?! This is cutting into my cardio time!

No! No! No! Not the gym-hoochy! Please, take your Juicy sweat suit, Coach tennies and all that perfume your wearing to the other side of the gym. PLEASE! Keep walking…keep walking…stop stopping! NO! Don’t stop. Not here! C’mon! There are 12 open treadmills over there! Arrrrrgh!

Oh tell me no! That’s not the Group Exercise Coordinator walking into the yoga studio, is it? You’re a rockin’ kick-box instructor, honey, but you can’t teach yoga for $#!+. Oh yeah, it’s definitely one of those days. Oh wait! She’s going into the spin studio. Oh, and there’s my little yogi. Whew!

Alright! Sweat’s on. Mat’s down. I’m ready to breath. Thumpa-thumpa-thumpa…! Seriously? Group Exercise Coordinator’s got to have the music that loud? She’s in the spin studio all by herself!

And so it goes. The inconvenient day. It will continue to be inconvenient. There will be traffic jams, and wardrobe malfunctions. The phone will ring while I’m running out the door to the Vet’s this afternoon, which will mean I’ll be running too late to stop for gas, which means I’ll have to fill up on my way to get the kiddos, which means I’ll have to find some way to duck chatty mom or we’ll be late for the Pediatrician, which means…(blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.)

Oh yeah. The whole day’s gonna bug me. No doubt about it. But I’m going to have some fun with it. Let’s play a little game, shall we? Tell me what’s bugging you today. That’s right…whine and complain until your heart’s content. You can tell me in a comment, you can rant about it on your own blog (but you’ve gotta link to this post and leave me a comment about what you’ve done so I know you’ve done it). Comments will close at midnight (CST) on the 29th. On the 30th, I’ll announce the 6 complainers who made the finals. 4 will be chosen in some random fashion, 2 will be my personal favorites. Then we’ll have a vote. Voting will close at midnight on the 13th. I’ll announce the results on the 14th.

The winner will receive this & this:

The 1st runner up will receive this.

The 2nd runner up will receive this.

And everybody else who left a comment will receive a coupon code for 20% these products in my shop. At least that way, the bugs wont be bugging us.


Oh yeah, and it's Follow Friday. Come play along.