Firsts

I meant to post this a while ago.  But then it hit...a stomach bug!  Ugh.  All I could think about was sleep - and eating - and not eating - and not being sick again - and then disinfectant - lots and lots of disinfectant.  

What an amazing week of firsts! (a couple weeks ago now, ugh!)  A week that can really put a smile on a Mommy's face!
I can't really get into my daughter's first because I don't want to embarrass her.  It is very personal and the last thing I want to do is broadcast it to the world so that she never confides and trusts me again.  Anyways, it is a personal hygiene issue that I wish my mom had taught me when I was young.  There were a lot of things I learned from my friends.  I'm just so happy that my daughter and I have more or less the relationship I always wished I had with my mother.  It puts a smile on my face and if it were possible, I believe on my heart as well.

As for my son, I took him rock climbing for his first time. My daughter is a great rock climber as you can see she made it to the top with absolutely no problem.

My big man was much more apprehensive but we had a great time nonetheless. It was adorable to see him so determined to climb a foot off the ground, want to come back down, argue with his sister that he gets one more try, put on his determined face, and climb a foot off the ground again. When we were done,he we as so proud of himself, the whole way home he kept proclaiming "You didn't even know I could rock climb so well!" and with wide eyes exclaim "I didn't even know I could do that!" Gosh I love my babes!

(This last picture makes me look like the worst belayer, but I swear I'm holding that rope tight as ever and he was not going anywhere.)

Banana Nutella French Toast Rolls

One of my favorite things to do with the kids is have lazy Sundays together. We watch cartoons, cook a fun breakfast, and really try to spend some quality time together before people start running around. For breakfast, this morning, I attempted to make french toast roll. They were so yummy. The kids just gobbled them up!

What I did first was cut the crust off of the bread. But I'm not going to waste it because stale crusts are great for making bread crumbs. Then, we got up the rolling pin and rolled them as flat as we could. The kids really love this step. Nothing like a rolling pin to spice up Sunday morning cooking!

 Then as quickly as possible before the breaded tempted to return to its natural fluffy state I slapped on some Nutella and some sliced banana and very carefully made them into rolls. 

The rolls can be dipped into your usual French bread egg mixture. Mine happens to be an egg (or two), milk, vanilla extract, salt and pepper. I was able to get away with only using one egg for this recipe and kind of stretching it out with a little bit more milk than usual. Then I put the rolls on the pan. The beautiful thing about this for me was that my teeny tiny pan that usually calls for me to cook french bread one slice at a time was able to fit three comfortably I probably could have even fit 4 on. 

I sprinkled them with powdered sugar just make the kids feel extra special but you can always skip this step as they are just as good without.

Et voila! A fun family friendly breakfast for a lazy Sunday morning.

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing you an awesome 2014!  I hope everyone had a great NYE.  I know I did.  Here's how I spent mine:

Yup, the kids and I put our jammies on at like 8 o'clock because I was fully expecting me someone to fall asleep on the couch way before midnight. But I told the kids I'd let them try to stay up until midnight anyway.  Imagine my surprise when the ball dropped and both kids were still up.  Big man lasted until 12:03 and my little lady reluctantly hit the hay at 12:20 and took no more than four minutes before arriving in dream land.

2013 was an amazing year for me. I finally feel like I'm moving toward my goals and I actually accomplished some important ones.  I managed to get a job, go back to school, and spent some quality time with my babies.  Maybe when I say it like that it doesn't sound so huge, but as a single mom who was a stay at home mom for a few years after leaving a career that I was finding largely unfulfilling, looking for a new unrelated job without a whole lot of school in the field (I do have a couple degrees but that was for career attempt number one), no related experience, and even no unrelated experience in years, my job hunt was beginning to feel like there would never be a light at the end of the tunnel.  It was emotionally draining.  I was getting so incredibly frustrating and depressing.  It took me almost two years to even get someone to let me volunteer! But thank goodness I kept going.  I could not be happier with the job I have, the people I work with, the things I learn and so on and so on.  So with all of my goal-getting progress in 2013, 2014 can only get better!  

So instead of coming up with a resolution, instead I have a lost of goals to accomplish this year:

1. Get steadier job (mine is a temp position and may be ending shortly)

2. Find a new place to live
3. Get out of debt (except student loans - those will take a while)
4. As always, I hope to use my time to better myself intellectually, professionally, and create a fun, friendly, and happy environment full of good memories for my children.  I want to be the best super-est mom I can be!  (And yes, even the super-est of moms are allowed to make up a word every once in a while.)

Happy New Year!

Are you coming up with any goals or resolutions?