Gardening: Even The Dog Helps Out

I love involving my kids in harvesting - since that is where the real payoff of gardening comes into play.  However, my dog thinks he needs to get in on the action as well.  His pea-picking turns into a doggie salad bar, and sometimes leaves pea vines strewn across the lawn.

Cooking & Entertaining: Emma's Hollywood Cafe

This year my girl decided to make it a Hollywood themed neighborhood cafe.  Here's a photo-explanation of this crazy tradition:

Her Hollywood Cafe sign is a bit hard to read, but it guides customers to the back yard.

Here is the menu she came up with - complete with cutesy, movie-themed names.

Finally had a reason to use my favorite movie poster! (Thanks Ang!)

A couple days of cooking - maybe 8-10 hours total prep time.

Lots of food!  She'll use the leftovers on her nights to cook in the coming weeks.  Thank heavens for freezers!

With 5 tables, hopefully the wait time wasn't too long!

Cousins make great wait staff.

Every countertop was covered with assembly-line food to fill orders.

Love the chance to visit with old friends.

Emma chose wisely when making her menu - the food was delicious. 

The price for eating at the cafe was a generous donation for the local food bank.

We had a ton of food to drop off and it made the folks at the food bank pretty happy.

All in all, it was a successful cafe.  It teaches my kids to donate time and effort to help others in need.  It teaches planning, cooking and food-service skills.  Most of all, it teaches them what I call, "motivation for higher education" as they decide that working as a server, or cook may not be the way they want to spend the rest of their life.   Are there cheaper ways to donate food to the food bank?  Sure, but few are as fun!

Summertime: Deliberate Training

Admittedly I'm a bit type A/list-aholic about some things.  But being raised by a professional homemaker, I was taught to approach homemaking as professionally as any paying profession.  Summertime is an ideal time to do a little deliberate training on skills that otherwise fall through the cracks during the hectic school year.  Each year we make up a summer plan and we usually get almost everything done on our list.  We schedule in one "lazy day" each month of summer vacation where we don't have any chores or activities planned so we can just lounge around.  Otherwise, we're living out our summer checklist. 

Aren't you glad you don't live at my house?  *grins*

Entertaining: Raising Party Planners

I'm starting to see the fruits of my party-planning all these years.  My daughter spent over an hour last week planning out her Summer Cafe menu, theme, decorations, etc.  This doesn't surprise me about my daughter.  However, what does surprise me is my 13 year old boy's increasing ability in the party-planning department.  Since he's too old to be an enthusiastic participant, last night I proposed to hire him as party planner for one of the summer parties this year.  He jumped right into the role and spent 2 hours last night writing down ideas, looking through books and Pinterest pins, mapping out areas in the back yard, writing a supplies checklist and making a timeline/flow-chart for the activities. 

At one point, my son said to me late last night, "Mom - when I get going on this planning I get so OCD.  This is all your fault."  Yes.  Yes it is.  The more your kids see your efforts, the more it piques their own creativity.  Not sure we'll ever conquer the handwriting, but at least we are well on our way to teaching some entertaining skills.  Stay tuned for updates on how my daughter's cafe and my son's science party turn out. 

Cooking: Trying 24-hour Cajeta

I saw this recipe in Family Circle Magazine, and thought I'd give it a shot. 
http://www.familycircle.com/recipes/desserts/ideas/rick-bayless/
Here's what mine looked like from start to finish (it was more like 18 hour cajeta):

9:00 pm 2 quarts milk, 2 cups sugar and 1 cinnamon stick

6:30 am

10:30 am

3:00 pm

Since it was very lumpy, and my immersion blender is on the fritz, I blended it in the food processor.

Here's the final result.  Makes a great thick caramel sauce, but my husband said the cajeta he ate in Mexico wasn't so cinnamon-flavored.  Next time I'm going to try the can of sweetened condensed milk cooked in the can recipe.

Gardening: Explaining the Odious Task of Thinning

You kids won't learn all gardening tasks first hand at a young age.  I still find myself looking forward to gardening alone while the kids are in school.  But I always make sure that I talk to them about everything I do in the yard -- from pruning, to weeding, to planting, to sprinkler adjustment.  I try to give them as much exposure and especially explanation on as many gardening tasks as possible in the hope that someday, some of it will 'bear fruit' in their own yards and gardens. 

As you can see by the photo - my most recent garden task was my most odious: thinning the peaches from my peach tree.  I hate this - mostly because being such a fruit lover, I hate killing potential fruit.  Still, it is an unavoidable job if we are to get any decent peach harvest whatsoever.  So even though I did this while the kids were at school, I showed them how many peaches I took off the tree and explained why it is necessary to thin fruits and occasional vegetables (carrots, etc.).  My kids know that I hate this job and they usually tease me about it this time of year, but at least they are learning about orchard care and the price one pays for a decent harvest. 

Cleaning: Earning a Bedroom Makeover

My daughter is 10 and is getting antsy for a new look for her bedroom.  I agree that it would be nice to patch, and repaint the battered, scribbled-on walls.  However, the last thing I want to do is to repaint and redo her room just to have her deface, damage or pig-sty-ify it.  Plus, I'm not a "give your kids something for nothing" kind of mom.  So I drew up a little contract for her to sign which involves a 2 month probation period to see if she can be trusted to care for a new room.  We'll see if it really happens this summer, or if she needs a bit more maturity and drive before she gets that room makeover. 

Official Room Makeover Contract

In order to qualify for a room makeover, the recipient must fulfill the following requirements for a minimum period of 2 months:

·      Bed made neatly every morning

-       sheets pulled up

-        straightened mattress

-       folded blankets

-       decorative pillows in place

·      No clothes on the floor

-       folded neatly in drawers

-       hanging in closet

-       truly dirty in clothes hamper

-       no wet towels on the floor

·      No garbage on the floor (papers, wrappers, etc.)

·      No slamming doors or kicking walls, doors or furniture

·      No toys, dress-ups, or other items left on the floor, under bed, under chair, behind bed, etc.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Each day your Mom will check your room.  These checks will be at different times of the day so as to assure that your room is kept clean at all times of the day.  If your room passes, you will receive a  ✓.  If you fail in any part of the inspection, you will receive a ✗.  You are allowed 5 ✗.  Any beyond that will disqualify you for a room makeover.  At the end of the 2 month probation period, if you have qualified by keeping a neat room, you will receive: new paint, a new desk and a new dresser. 

You will be expected to participate in wall-patching, prepping and painting as well as any other work involved with the makeover.  If you fail to qualify, you may make another 2 month attempt next spring/summer. 

Mom signature: _______________________________________________  Date: ___________________________________

Emma signature: _____________________________________________  Date: ____________________________________