Bacon Bits and Boiled Eggs

We are not big egg eaters in this house. I'll make an occasional scrambled egg but only a few of us actually eat them.
When it comes to boiled eggs and deviled eggs; the person who ends up eating them would be moi. Hence why I only boil one dozen eggs and hope that my Easter company eats them up as deviled eggs.
This year I boiled my dozen and my mom decided to boil and paint eggs for the boys too. Uh thanks mom. This leaves me with 2 dozen hard boiled eggs that I will have to eat myself.
I decided to take matters in my own hands and create my own deviled egg. I normally don't veer from a tried and true recipe but occasionally I get a wild streak. I know, someone should chain me to the wall with my crazy wild self.
Anyways..where were we? Deviled eggs and an experimental recipe.
I basically used spicy mustard, mayonaise, bacon bits, cheddar cheese, and of course egg yolk. I really just eye ball this kind of thing. I don't think you can go wrong with deviled eggs. I forked it up, stirred and plopped it in the the boiled egg yolk. The result was very tasty indeed! Good thing I don't have to share.

Thanks to Parent Bloggers Network and The Incredible Edible Egg for the inspiration. It's egg salad week, didn't ya know?

The Revised Food Guide Pyramid According To A 7 Year Old

There's two types of eaters in my family those that eat just about anything everything and would lick the bowl clean. Then there's the other type that gags just at the sight of anything green, yellow, or any color and grew in a garden.
Last night we had broccoli cheese soup, it was deliciousoso. One half of the family was singing my praises and kissing the ground I walk on and begging me for more and deeming me queen of the soup. Maybe not quite that, but they did love the soup. Then there's the two odd balls. The seven year old and the three year old. I can somewhat understand the three year old cause it's something new and a different texture, the seven year old literally choked and gagged just at the slightest taste of the broccoli. He really could win an Oscar for his performance.



Wonderboy has his own food guide pyramid. It looks a little something like this:



I have no magic spell to cast on him to make him eat his veggies and fruit. Some days he will make an all out attempt if the bribe of a yogurt on the go is involved. Otherwise he has to at least try it with out spitting, sputtering, gagging, or choking on the small bite I make him try. He never appears to starve to death, though he is a lanky little bean pole. He never complains about being hungry later and just deals with it.



You give this boy meat, starch and or a sugary substance and he'll eat til the cows come home. Yet he wont eat cake or cakie like items. I could go on for hours on the weird things he will eat and then yet in the same sense the foods he wont eat. It all comes down to how many days has he gone with only tasting one or two bites of food compared to actually eating a full meal. As long as vegetables are not involved, he'll clean his plate and be good for another three days or so.



This has been a blog blast from the Parent Bloggers Network who is also teamed up with Decepively Delicious.

This is a test of the American Educational System...This is only a test.

Gameboy is at that age where they are pumping tons and tons of information in their brains and it's a wonder it doesn't all explode.

This is the grade where all those important big state tests start to come up, where it is is imperative that they learn everything and anything about taking standardized tests, so that the school can achieve above and beyond the state average and so it can be labeled with the ever coveted Exemplary status.

It's a big thing here in Texas, and it really makes my blood curdle that the fate of the public educational system lies in the determination of one big test every other year. What happened to just getting back to basics?

Wonderboy who is in special education classes also will have to take the "dumbed down" portion of the test each year. Most of the kids in his class can barely read or write not because their "dumb" but they just are incapable in some cases of comprehending a test like structure, due to various disabilities they have. Wonderboy's teacher told me they were required to give the special ed kids a standardized test as well. Last year was the first year they implemented it. I was just blown away by this, I think his teachers were just as frustrated as I was.
I know it's all for one reason and one reason alone, the almighty dollar. It really is disheartening that they would rob these kids of valid learning time to focus on testing. So that's what my kids are learning with a sprinkle of cursive writing, multiplication, and a dash of science here and there.

Scholastic wants to know, 'What are your kids learning in school?' Click over to the Parent Bloggers Network to find details on this blog blast and to read about what other kids are learning in school!

Over the traffic, and through the puke, to the beach we go...

This was originally posted back in May '07. I think it states every parent's Grizwald vacation with young kids. I edited a few grammar issues.

Thanks to Parent Bloggers Network and Pick Packgo for hosting this week's vacation challenges with your kids.

My boys are pretty great travelers and have endured hours and hours of driving since they were teeny tiny babies. They have always been used to a good 5 hour drive one way. I think we hit their breaking point yesterday. 8 plus hours of driving would do any boy in.

We left from Big D where we got the rental SUV since it's funner to trash someone else's car when your taking a 7 day trip. 10 minutes into the trip we hit construction..go figure. So we were stuck in traffic for a good 30-45 minutes going less than 5 miles an hour. The boys were already anxious and asking the number one question of all children 17 and younger when taking a car trip. "Are we there yet?" Yes those words are like nails on a chalkboard to any parent.

After we finally get out of the construction and actually moving more than 60 miles an hour the second most aggrevating question is "I gotta go potty!" Since we are training the Bossyboy to go potty, this makes traveling by car a bit more of a challenge. Needless to say I think we visited every Valero down I35.

When finally settling in, Bossyboy discovered a string from his car seat, which set off the other boys interest. This must have been some kind of magical string that gave super powers because some how all 3 children were fighting over this string. Leave it to my children to find something anything to argue about even if it's a piece of string. I could already see this was gonna be a loooonnnnggg trip.

The oldest was in dire need of something to do as he was already griping that this is boring blah blah I just wanna go home. So I gave him the map and told him to find 35S. I told him the town we were in and had him mark the towns as we passed through. This helped all a good 2 hours. He kept asking when were going to be in Wacko so he could mark it off. I had to explain there was a "wacko in Waco, but the towns name is not Wacko." He was still determined to call it wacko.

4 hours in and things are going fairly smoothly for the most part. The hubs and I had switched drivers and we were on our way again after stop number two thousand seventy two. Suddenly Gameboy is feeling ill, the vomiting kind of ill. Luckily a good Mom scout is always prepared as I had decided to keep the kfc bag for trash purposes. He was able to ralph in the bag no harm no foul. Thank goodness, we were in a rental.

We get 7 plus hours into the trip and were thinking were in the homestretch. We were getting excited. Then the sign for the beach said 53 miles. I think the hubs and I both were going to cry. So we start singing and playing little games and the hubs decided it's time to sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall. Yes we (the hubs and I) sang at the top of our lungs all the way down to 1 bottle of beer on the wall. We were laughing and carrying on as if we were drunken idiots, with out the actual alcohol. I really could have uses a bottle or two from that wall at this point. The kids were laughing at us and some what enjoying themselves. That got us through a whole 20 minutes. 30 more minutes to go. Bossy boy is crying to potty and we were determined WE WILL NOT STOP AGAIN! So for once I encouraged him to go ahead and potty in his pullup. He would not have it whatsoever.

8+ hours in we finally made it to the hotel. Its 11:30 at night Bossyboy finally relented to sleep. Hubs went into get our room and comes back with the news that they messed up the reservation and only have a room with a king size bed left. At this point I could care less if we stayed on a cot at the Salvation Army. I just wanted a bed but Hubs was furious. Since we didn't have much choice we took our king bed and our sweet children slept on the floor. Serves them right for making us stop every thirty minutes.

Getting Active With The Kids

The blogblast this week from The Parent Bloggers Network is how do you get up and moving with the kids? At first I didn't think I really had anything to offer as I'm not as active as I should be, except for going up and down the stairs a few dozen times a day with or without a 50 pound laundry basket full of clothes. Then it dawned on me our weekly walks races to the convenience store.

Just about once or twice a week the oldest son and I take an evening jaunt to the convenience store for our weekly gamble on the lottery. The store is about a quarter of a mile from the house. Not to far but close enough to give us a destination for a walk. When we round the corner from our house to the main street there's a stretch of empty parking lot that Gameboy and I race each other on foot. Some days I'll let him win if I'm not feeling to energetic. Other times I try to beat him with full force. He's always up for a rematch no matter who wins. This little race gives me just enough boost for my heart without to much exertion. We then get our purchase race back to the other side and walk the rest of the way home.

When he first started asking me to race him I had the typical mom mindset. No that's dangerous or it may have just been my subconsciousness of other people seeing me run, which probably looks like a featherless chicken flailing everywhere. I finally gave in to my competitive spirit and glad I did.

That my friends is my weekly workout session with my kid. We enjoy it and it really does a heart good. Join The Parent Bloggers Network and Ryka who is giving away not only some awesome shoes but an outfit to go with it.