Flour Power

In preparation for my new book club, I was making a bucket of brandy slush. Now the recipe requires sugar. Since my skills in baking usually come from a box, I don't have the need for sugar very often. Though I know I keep a bag around somewhere in the cabinet. In my search for the sugar, I move several canned goods and a few jars to get to the back of the cabinet.

Reaching my full arm in, I pull a bag out. I look at it and see it is all purpose flour.

Another arm reach, I pull out another bag. Nope. Another bag of flour.

In for the third time, you guessed it. Flour.

Maybe the fourth time will be lucky, I pull out another bag. Nope. Flour again.

Okay where did I get all these bags of flour. As I stated before, I don't bake much. Granted, they are small bags. The only thing I can think of is when I needed flour I went to the store and bought another bag. Weird.

On my fifth arm pull, I am graced with a bag of sugar.

In my extra effort to find sugar, here is the brandy slush recipe:

Boil 2 cups of water. Place 4 tea bags (black or green) in the water. Let cool. Take tea bags out after a few minutes.

Boil 6 cups of water. Dump 2 cups of sugar into the boiling water. Stir. Let cool.

1 can of frozen orange juice concentrate

1 can of frozen lemonade concentrate

3 cups of brandy


In an empty 1 gallon ice cream bucket, mix everything together and place in freezer.

When frozen, add three ice cream scoops into a cup and poor 7up or Sprite over mixture as desired and serve.

A fun and easy party drink to serve a big crowd. Enjoy!

Redneck Ice Fishing

Ice fishing is a tradition for us, but every year it's different hence the excitement that follows. Considering the great unpredictable Wisconsin weather, it's a mystery to all when the lake is actually going to freeze and for how long. Currently, the lake is partially frozen. In certain areas, it's six inches thick as you can see in the picture below.

To enhance the fun this year, we now have a fleet of snowmobiles. (Not just one like we had last year, but a grand total of three-handyman couldn't pass up the good deal). So this weekend was our family maiden voyage out onto the lake for a little bit of ice fishing. Since the ice isn't quite thick enough to drive trucks on yet, the snowmobiles came in handy. They also made it a lot easier for bathroom breaks and keeping the kids occupied (occasionally taking them for rides when they got bored).

After spending the whole day on the lake, we were missing one thing. No fish. That's right, not one bite. We were fishing for the big fish, walleyes, bass, or northern. As the sun was getting closer to the horizon, I was wondering if we would get anything.

In an attempt to increase our odds, we started our search looking through the ice.

One of the kids spotted one so we made more holes chasing the fish.

 Then the handyman stuck his arm down the hole and pulled out a bass. It was huge.

Now that is straight up Redneck Ice Fishing. How fun is that? The kids had a blast. In the middle of the lake, there is still open water. It might be hard to see, but it's there. Crazy stuff.

  

The Horse that almost stole Christmas!

Child #1 (9 years) doesn't exactly believe in Santa Claus anymore, but she still plays along. Child #2 (7 years) is on the border. She only believes when it is convenient for her. Child #3 (6 years) still completely believes in Santa Claus, that is, until a week before Christmas. 

I have to give a shout out to the wonderful world of Disney. A big thanks to their wonderful new show "Dog with a Blog" gave three impressionable children the idea about snooping for Christmas gifts around the house. 

For the most part, Christmas gifts are stashed in my bedroom where I don't usually allow the children to hang out unless one of is in the room with them. The one gift that Child #3 wanted sooooo bad was slightly larger than I wanted to stash in my room so down the stairs it went into the basement. My children don't particularly like the basement. It is partially finished and they tend to stick to that area. Of course, I find a great dark corner to stash Baby Butterscotch. I pack tons of boxes on top and in front of it. 

One fretful morning, I was doing the dishes when Child #1 and Child #3 come up from the basement asking questions about the oh so desirable horse Child #3 wants. Yes, I caught on too quick. I went down stairs to find that Butterscotch was unveiled in the corner where I left her. I was so pissed. I had to go for a run. I couldn't even talk to them about it. At first, I thought the Handyman had moved the boxes around to find something. 

After I came back from my run, the Handyman tells me the minute I left Child #3 took Child #2 downstairs to look at her prize possession. So Handyman follows their trail downstairs, they are so enamored by this toy that they don't even notice him behind them for five minutes. Finally Child #2 turns and sees him standing there. She ducks her head, says nothing and runs upstairs. Child #3 continues her ogling for another minute before she realizes the Handyman is behind her. She busts out crying and tries to explain her actions. He never said a word to them. Somehow they blamed the TV show. I figured the damage was done. I never said anything to them about it. They knew I was mad and that they were wrong. 

My dilemma was more about how to explain there was no Santa Claus. Do I just tell them all straight out or do I come up with some kind of cover for the debacle? 

I took the next six days to decide what I was going to do about this situation. Seeking advice from others (which everyone had a different take on it), I finally made a decision. On Christmas Eve, I told Child #3 that do to her snooping skills I returned the horse and she better hope that Santa Claus is real. This was the only reference I made about the issue. I even placed all the gifts from Mom and Dad under the tree on Christmas Eve so in the morning the new gifts added to the tree would stand out as Santa gifts. 

The question is does she still believe? I don't know, but we will play the Santa game for another year to find out. 

Here is the beloved Baby Butterscotch that almost took down Christmas. Happy New Year!

Holiday Funnies

Holidays at my mom's house tend to be somewhat formal. We eat in the dining room with table cloths, wine glasses, and candle sticks (the Martha Stewart gene must skip a generation). Good conversation and a few laughs take place when we share our meal together. All was humming along when I was asked to pass the pepper. Apparently, I didn't notice the awkward silence that hushed the table previously when my mother placed the pepper on the table (I was too busy trying to help my kids fill their plates). It was kind of hard to take the whole thing serious when this was placed in my hand to pass around the table.

I busted out laughing, which broke the ice. My brothers started and couldn't stop laughing either. No one wanted to mention the similarity the pepper grinder had to another item that could possibly be found in a specialty shop. To top it off, the thing has batteries. There is no twisting the pepper out. I am still laughing. My mother's response was "That's probably why it was such a deal at the store."

Another story that will go down in the family history.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Who doesn't like a fictional mystery? But reality sucks!

Okay so maybe not everyone likes a mystery, but I love them especially if they're really exciting and complicated. It's a given this is my choice of genre to read, although I will read anything and do love a good comedy. Now on the subject of television it's very similar for me. I gravitate towards shows that usually have a mystery to solve, which tends to always involve a dead person (how ironic, right!). My choice of shows are the Mentalist (bonus because this is also humorous), Criminal Minds (serious), Rizzoli & Isles (funny and serious), NCIS (some funny and serious) and so on.

Since I don't really watch a whole lot of TV, my children get to dominate the screen when I allow the TV to be on. There is only so much a person can handle of Disney and Nickelodeon. I've learned to almost dislike all the shows on these stations. So when my tolerance has tipped over the edge of the cup, I take over the remote and switch to something I want to watch (This doesn't happen very often, maybe once a month or so). If they don't like it, they can leave the room. Granted, I understand that not all my shows will be appropriate for my children's age level, but my philosophy is that they can't be kept in a bubble forever either. Child #1 consistently wants the world to be all rainbows, fluffy clouds, puppy dogs, and where everyone is nice to each other. We are constantly having to show her the world is not a perfect place and she has to make the best of every situation whether it is good or bad. Ironically, a lot of discussions come out of these shows where the girls will ask questions striking up good conversations.

With all this being said, I let the girls watch an episode of NCIS. Of course the beginning scene always shows the death of the person they will eventually investigate. This particular episode a person dressed as a clown shoots the intended victim. Definitely a mistake. The clown disguise freaked them out. All three of them slept in the same bed for 2 weeks. Child #2 kept talking about how she couldn't stop imagining a clown around every corner that would jump out at her and shoot her. After several weeks, they got over it. Then that horrible tragedy happened in Newtown, CT, which my heart goes out to all of those victims and families. I can't ever imagine the heartbreak they've had to endure. Bridging the gap between fiction and reality gets closer and closer. I don't know if I have the answers for my children, but honesty is the path I've taken. I'll keep my fingers cross that they'll be prepared to go out into the world and be productive citizens.