Summer Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Summer Vacation Day 1:

- Extracted loose tooth from girl child’s mouth. (This was good because she had been whining for days about it hurting her.)

- Boy child peed on both sofa cushions.

- Did 3 loads of laundry (when I normally do 1 per day) because boy child is having potty training regression. (Haha. See above.)

- Figured out that 101 Dalmatians is the perfect length to get the lawn mowed. (Seriously, I couldn’t have planned it better. “The End” popped up on the TV screen as I walked inside, meaning that that children had no time to create mischief.)

- Located and used plunger to deal with boy child’s overly enthusiastic usage of toilet paper. (Reminded self that he used the toilet and cleaned himself up – progress!)

- Finally convinced kids to have some outside time, not that we lasted as long as we hoped. (What’s up with the temps in the 60’s?!)
- Did I mention it was Friday the 13th and there was a full moon? (Or does that go without saying?)

Summer Vacation Day 2:

- Our first day of VBS. We are exhausted.

- Kids are cranky and refuse to play outside, and so they are passing time by annoying one another. Fantastic.

- Zumba for stress relief. Obviously.

Summer Vacation Day 3:

- Another day when kids get overtired at VBS and then refuse to play outside.
- Had to carry boy child out of VBS, kicking and screaming. (Cannot recall exact reason, but he was MAD.)

- Boy child poops his pants. {face palm}

- Girl child asks to do homework! {tiny victory dance}

- Zumba is not an option, so Mommy resorts to having a hard cider. (Note: It was terrible and I only drank half of it. Save your money and do not get Johnny Appleseed.)

- Fortunately, a hot bath helped. (Why haven’t I had one of those in so long?)

Summer Vacation Day 4:

- Boy child decided to frontload his tantrum for the day. He had an absolute meltdown over losing a single penny that he had brought to donate to the VBS offering.
- Success! They weren’t so crabby after VBS and we were able to go to summer reading program kickoff and see some fun science experiments. (Girl child informs me that we simply must buy some Mentos and Diet Coke… despite the fact that we eat/drink neither of those things and she has seen this experiment done three times – twice this week! Kids.)

- Learned that girl child has a weird gift: She can catch flies with her bare hands and then release them outside. Second day in a row! Have a mini Mr. Miyagi comes in handy when your flyswatter is missing in action. (Where can that thing be…?)

- Stress relief option for tonight: shopping without children. It’s a wee bit sad when going to Target alone is your definition of Heaven on Earth, but there it is. (The only issue is that you have no one to bounce things off which means you spend entirely too long in a dressing room debating whether or not to purchase elastic waist pants. Yes, they fit, which is HUGE, and they were comfortable and cute, but seriously? Elastic waist pants? Do you really want to go there?! You note material: rayon and care instructions: dry flat. Ha! As if! You wisely put them back and try to pretend you were never really considering them in the first place.)

Summer Vacation Day 5:

- It’s nice to hear them singing the VBS songs. Really, I need to keep reminding myself of this.

- Mommy is the one who is cranky and tired today. Working VBS is exhausting! (No wonder all those other moms just drop their kids off and leave…) It does not help that I am a teensy bit hormonal. (Tomorrow’s the last day for VBS! Then, I can rest a bit.)

- Boy child is being ridiculously loud. And for him, that's saying a lot. He normally only has the one volume setting: loud, but today it's just insane. 

- Why won’t they play outside?! They need it desperately! (And not just for the reason listed above, but oh my goodness, is that a huge factor.)

- Taking photos at softball game for some stress relief. (Yeah, the kids are finally playing outside!)

- Was planning to work on this blog post for more relaxation but accidentally deleted entire thing somehow… and now am trying to rewrite it from memory. {feel like crying} Good news, though, I don't think my brain is quite as decayed as I fear. Most of it is coming back to me.

- In happier news, I have a fabulous new Jamicure which makes me smile.

- Also, chocolate should be its own food group. That is all.

Summer Vacation Day 6:
- Boy child wet his pants during the last few minutes of the last day of VBS. (Fortunately, I had extra clothes in the van, and I had to at least be glad that he made it through the rest of the week without that happening.)
- Then the MAJOR meltdown happened. Cannot even explain what it was all about. He was upset that I threw his potato chips away, I think, and he wanted an ice pop.
- Girl child tore her fingernail and was extremely tired, so she was nearly in tears while all this was going down. (She wasn't the only one who felt that way.)
- Hallelujah! He fell asleep on the way home and napped for 3 hours. This gave her some good down time before getting ready for dance recital.
- I am not good at putting my seven-year-old's hair in a bun. Or applying red lipstick to her tiny mouth. These things stress me out beyond belief -- not to mention that she had her first ever costume-change during recital, and she performed at the beginning and at the END of the show, which is insanely long. It was after 9:00 when I finally got her from backstage (after waiting in that torturous line... WHY? Why do they make me wait every year when I just want to get her home and in bed?!)
- Also, it rained, so I didn't get any photos with decent lighting because we couldn't take any outside. {pouts}
- On the plus side, (because I really need to find a silver lining, and possibly some chocolate...) we made it through recital, made it through VBS, and made it through the first week of no school! It can only get easier from here on out, right?

Best Homemade Bubbles

Last summer, I tried out three different recipes for homemade bubbles, and I posted about our experiences here. This year, I had hoped to do a similar experiment and try out several more recipes for bubble solutions. However, I only tried this one. In part, time slipped away from me, but the main reason for not trying other recipes is that I really like this one! Recently, a few people have asked me for the recipe, so I decided it was time to share my current favorite bubble recipe.

This one has made the rounds on Pinterest and Facebook so you may have seen it before. When I saw it, people were claiming that it makes super industrial-strength, indestructible bubbles, so naturally I was curious to give it a go. The original recipe said to use JOY dish detergent, which I have been unable to find. So, I used Palmolive instead. I am not sure if the brand makes a significant difference, but our bubbles were pretty run-of-the-mill as far as pop-ability goes. With the right tools, however, this did create very large bubbles, and quite easily, I might add. Combine this with the fact that the recipe does NOT call for ingredients that are terribly expensive or more difficult to find (glycerin, for instance, which I used for last year's recipes) and it is a sure-fire winner.

So, far I've made a couple of batches, and we've had lots of fun with these bubbles throughout the spring and summer months. It was a hit at Logan's recent shark-themed birthday party. We have even  packaged this in small peanut butter jars along with homemade pipe cleaner wands and given it for birthday gifts along with some other homemade goodies, so this also makes a nice gift.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups water
• 1 cup light corn syrup (I used Karo.)
• 2 cups dish soap* (I used Palmolive.)

* If using ultra concentrated dish soap, reduce to 1 1/3 cups.

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, add water and corn syrup. Stir until combined. Note: It is difficult to completely dissolve the corn syrup, so just do the best that you can.
2. Add dish soap. Sand gently until well mixed, avoiding creating bubbles as best as possible.
3. Dip wands into bubble solution and blow or wave to create bubbles. Tip: To make it easier, pour the solution into containers such as cake pans and pie tins. Set these on the ground (or any flat surface) and let kids dip their wands into the solution.
4. To store bubble solution, pour it into a container with a lid. This should keep for many weeks. As mentioned above, I like peanut butter jars for this. They are unbreakable, but secure.

Note: Any bubble "wand" will work, whether it is something you have saved from commercial solutions or homemade wands made from twisted pipe cleaners, which are a favorite of mine.

Plastic bottles with the bottom cut off work very well for young children who are just learning to how to blow bubbles.

We've also had lots of fun this year with a couple of fly swatters that I got in a 2-pack at Dollar Tree, which can be used two different ways: first you can blow bubbles, or you can wave them around to create lots of tiny bubbles. We have found that swatting up and down works better than side to side.

Also, don't forget to check your kitchen for possible "wands!" Slotted spoons and spatulas are two that we have found to work well. I've even had success with old glow necklaces, which make quite large bubbles!

So, don't be afraid to think outside of the box (or commercial bubble container) here! It's very easy and affordable to make your own bubbles at home.

{Tiny bubbles... make me happy!}

Mommy's Got Mad Skills!

Lately, I have been annoyed by the feeling of being boxed in by everyone else and their perception of who I am. When I vocalized this during the Puerto Rico trip, my sister-in-law, Jill, asked me, "Do you even know who you are any more?" She raised a good point! Who I am got kind of lost when I became a mom, and perhaps, became even more muddled when I switched from being a working mom to being a stay-at-home mom. So (in my mind at least), I have dubbed this the "Summer of Meg!" and I have been trying to take advantage of opportunities to try new things whenever they happen to be presented to me.

A couple of days ago, after watching my brother and his girlfriend try out my cousin's paddle board, I decided that I should try it, too. I ran up to the house and quickly put on my swim suit. In my eagerness to get going, I was already headed into the water before my brother, Ryan, was done giving me some some pointers. Normally, I am more tentative and try to get as much info as possible before jumping into new things, but I figured it would be much harder to chicken out once I had already committed myself to paddle boarding, and I really wanted to force myself to take on the challenge.

Naturally, it turned out that I should have given him a minute to finish explaining how to turn around. (This is why I usually figure things out before attempting them.) I had a slight scare when I got out far enough that the wind was starting to push me out into the bay, finding myself wondering aloud, "How do I turn around?!"  Fortunately, I was not far out, and I was never really in danger. I was just bound and determined to NOT fall into the water since the weather was more reminiscent of a September day in northern Michigan than the late-July day that it actually was.

So, I used my instincts and sat down (or squatted actually -- I don't really remember -- and my dear husband was kind enough to not shoot film or video of this portion of the show). Then, I pushed the paddle deep and hard until I was able to turn the board back toward shore. After turning around, I hopped back up, and noticed that I had a rather large audience, much larger than when I had started (and undoubtedly they were all thinking, "What?! Meg is paddle boarding?! Better not miss this!!).

Well, this meant that I had even more incentive to not fall in the drink. Most of the family was there watching, including my cousin John, the owner of the paddle board, and for some reason not looking stupid in front of him was imperative. I remember laughing and yelling, "I got this!" I was feeling more confident since I figured out how to turn around, how to get down and back up again, and most importantly, I did it all without falling in, so I hoped they didn't notice my legs were shaking a bit while I negotiated all this.

Safely back on shore, everyone seemed very impressed that I had stayed upright the entire time. My dad commented that he assumed that I would fall in. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dad! I informed him that I was highly motivated. My mom suggested that most people fall the first time they try it, but I am not sure what she was basing this on. Why were they all so surprised? Did I mention that I was highly motivated? The water wasn't as warm as I would like, and the air definitely was not warm enough for me to be getting soaked. The most telling of all was Mia's shocked reaction, "Mom! I can't believe you can paddle board!!" I replied, "Well, guess what? I've got all kinds of skills that you don't know about!" Clearly, I am not known for being an adventurous spirit, but maybe on I am on the right track with the "Summer of Meg!"

"Do one thing every day that scares you." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

{Trying something new...}

{I enjoyed my adventure, but I was relieved to return to shore!}

10 Things I LOVE about Puerto Rico!

While there were a couple of things that disappointed me about our recent vacation (Note: It really does rain quite a bit during the rainy season, despite my wishful thinking that this would not actually be the case.), it was overwhelmingly awesome! Since it is difficult to even know where to begin describing the trip, I thought I would break it down into a list of my favorites (and even this is difficult to rank according to my preferences):

10) Wrought iron details on windows, doors, fences, gates, etc.
Okay, I know that some of the family (we went with Brett's folks, his two brothers, and my sister-in-law) felt that this was disturbing, wondering why they needed to be so protected, but I really believed (and again, this may be wishful thinking) that this was at least somewhat used for purely aesthetic reasons. If they needed chains and gates, they could surely put them up without delicate scrollwork and other lovely details, is all I'm saying. I really want to insist that this is the Spanish influence on the architectural design of the area. There really was a lot of beauty to it, even in areas where things looked a bit run-down, otherwise.

{Cathedral door in downtown Humacao}

9) Little lizards
We saw many anoles in the backyard of the rental house we stayed at in Humacao. They mostly hung out and sunbathed and didn't mind us too much. They were slightly territorial, however, if another lizard ventured too closely and we could see them puff out their chests and do some interesting dance that I just called push-ups, presumably to look larger and intimidate the other lizards who were encroaching on their turf. These guys made me smile every time I saw them. We had one who hung out on the curtain rod in the dining room for a couple of days and then disappeared, I am guessing through whatever hole in the wall that he entered by. The last night, someone discovered a baby iguana hanging out on a leaf in the yard, where it stayed until we had to leave. That was very cool because I got some up-close photos with no trouble at all.

{One of our many backyard friends}

{Hola, baby iguana!}

The only time a lizard gave me a start was one morning when I went to grab my Flonase off of a shelf in the bathroom, and when I pulled my hand out, there was more than Flonase there. A baby anole was on my finger! The only thing was, I didn't realize what it was at first, so I gave a startled "Ah!" (I did not scream, mind you, since I knew it wasn't anything huge or heavy, just unusual to feel something there.) Once I realized what it was, I was truly amazed because it was on my pointer finger, and it couldn't have been more than 1 to 1 1/2" long from tip to tail and it was maybe a third of the width of my finger. I only wished that I could have gotten a picture, but it quickly sprung off my finger, onto the bathroom counter, and vanished just like that. I guess I can't blame him. I would run away from whoever was trying to shake me off, too.


8) Little crabs on the beaches (which I think are these)
Another animal that we saw frequently that made me smile each time was the little sand crabs at the beach. They were, for obvious reasons, quite skittish around people and would quickly dart into their holes in the sand. However, if they weren't nearby their hole, they would often freeze, which allowed me to get good photos of the scared-stiff creatures. A couple of my favorites included one frozen next to a foot print in the sand, and another that stopped to hide next to a coconut, which were all over the beach.

{I loved that he tried to hide by this coconut.}

Some other crab behavior that we observed was what I think of as "surfing." We weren't sure if they were running away from us or what, but I started to think that they were playing after watching for a while. Most of the time, the crabs scuttled sideways, low to the sand when they were headed for their holes, but not when they were headed for the water. Then, they got way up on their legs, as far as they could reach and they dashed -- really, really fast -- into the surf. Then -- I swear this is what they were doing -- they rode a wave into the shore, picked themselves back up again and dashed back into the water to ride another wave. It was immensely entertaining, and I enjoyed it several mornings while we walked the beach in solitude.

7) Brett let me shop as much as I desired.
This was good when it was raining. Of course, it was good when it wasn't raining, too. Most of the souvenirs we brought home were very reasonably priced, and the things that we spent a little bit more on, we had decided were worth it. The tricky part was finding authentic items that were not just tourist traps. It took some work to find things that were actually made in Puerto Rico. One thing we always like to get if we are traveling is a Christmas ornament. I can't tell you how many of these I passed up because they were cheap-looking and said "Made in China" on them. Finally, I found a hand-painted shard of gourd with the beautiful fort painted on it while we were in a cool shop called Ole! in Old San Juan. This was where Brett found his Panama hat, one of those hand-made items we felt was worth paying a bit more for. In Old San Juan, I found a really great dress, in one of my favorite colors: cobalt blue. It looked great with those cobalt sandals that had somehow made their way into my suitcase, when even I hadn't realized that I had packed them. (True story. I must have been sleep-packing or something.)

{Pretty new dress and a BRIGHT building!}

On a later day, in downtown Humacao, I found a nice little pottery shop that made me very happy, too. It had fun little trinkets in bright colors. Also, we just happened to find a very inexpensive women's clothing shop there so I picked up a fun skirt, and a practical tank top and shorts to wear to the rainforest, because for whatever reason all I had packed were dressier things. The shorts also happened to be cobalt blue, so that was a bonus. I wore that outfit with my new green head scarf from another nice artisan shop in Old San Juan called Artesanias Sarobey.

And earlier tonight, I took my inexpensive little art print to Michaels to get it framed with more bright colors to go with the city scene which includes, what else? Bright colors! I can't wait to see how it turns out...

6) Bacardi 
Okay, let me preface this by saying that I rarely drink. I have never been much of a drinker. I didn't handle alcohol well when I was younger and then, well, I spent years being pregnant, breastfeeding, being pregnant again, and breastfeeding some more (I logged over 4 years total just breastfeeding my two kids), so this was not something that ever mattered. Now, I am re-thinking that mindset ever so slightly. Not that I plan to drink huge amounts, or even that often, but this is good stuff, and it's worth it!

Poor Brett and everyone else had to deal with my craziness for the first couple of days. See, at home, I am basically the "activity director" and everyone, for the most part, does the big things that I want to do, and usually when I want to do them (obviously not all the time; kids are unpredictable, but you get the idea.) My in-laws are the nicest people you will ever meet, but they are NOT good at making decisions about what to do and when to do it. This drove me batty for two days, during which I frequently brought up the topic of rum and how much I would like to go on the Bacardi Distillery tour (which, for reasons noted above, must have come as a SHOCK to everyone). I was told to "relax" and "go with the flow" which if you can't tell, are not my specialty. Yes, I wanted to relax, but I wanted to do it on my terms, darn it!

{Good times!}

By the time we finally got to the factory tour, I was keyed up again. (Driving around San Juan did not help. Those people are C-R-A-Z-Y. They make Detroit drivers seem slow and laid back.) It was probably a good thing that we were told it would take about 30 minutes for the next tour to begin because that meant that we could go ahead and have our first complimentary beverage. Brett and I both chose one of the two options from their "classic" menu. I had the rum punch. He had a Cuba Libre. Y-U-M! And, it's worth noting that my brother-in-law was quick to point out that I immediately seemed much more relaxed. Finally. It only took two days of asking for rum for that to happen. I decided to be more proactive from then on, and I had 3 different daiquiris throughout the week at various restaurants. Plus, we came home with a bottle of Dragonberry, their strawberry rum, after I had it as my second complimentary drink after we took the tour.

5) Swimming under a waterfall in the rainforest
This is one of those things that we will look back on, I am sure, and continue to say "Wow! What a cool experience!" I am so glad we were able to do it. Hiking down there was about 30 minutes of very challenging work-out. The paths were very well-maintained, either with concrete or with rocks, for example, but it was quite steep and I could feel all of my leg muscles straining with the exertion. Other parts of the rainforest were mildly disappointing, but this was so, so worth the hike.

(I was under the mistaken notion that we would see lots of wildlife and beautiful, brightly colored plants. In actuality, we heard the coqui -- the native frog -- perhaps, once the entire time because there were So. Many. People. We went on Saturday, so that may have been our first mistake, but then again, it might always be that busy. Who doesn't want to hike in the only rainforest that is part of the US National Park system?! We saw very few bright flowers except near the visitor center, and as for wildlife, we saw a rooster and a feral dog, not exactly animals that we hadn't already seen all over Puerto Rico.)

I should not complain, though, because as we were nearly back to the van, I saw a mongoose dart across the path. Brett was the only other one to see it because I screamed, "Look! A mongoose!!!" loudly enough that he turned and noticed it before it ran away, presumably trying to get very, very far away from the screeching lady who kept yelling for everyone to "LOOK!" In case you are wondering, the only reason that I even knew what this animal was is that approximately 60 seconds prior to the sighting I had made a stop to read a sign by a picnic pavilion which said something to the effect of: "Mongooses are the most rabid animal in all of Puerto Rico. Please do NOT feed them or release them from cages if you come across one in a cage." Um, no problem. Who does that?! Aside from having to worry about contracting rabies, they're quite speedy and have no desire to be around humans. Do you suppose that is because they've heard one too many ladies screaming for others to look?

Anyway, back to the main highlight of the rainforest (other than the really, really nice gift shop at the visitor center, which obviously cried out to be shopped at -- try the dried bread fruit chips. So good!): the waterfall. It goes without saying, that this water was icy cold, but after hiking for that long, it was refreshing. The main problems were all of the people (photobombs, anyone?) and the fact that we had to climb over, down, and around, several large and quite slippery rocks just to get into the water. Eventually, we made it into the water and even managed a few pictures. This will definitely be one of our best memories of the trip.

{How cool is this?!}

4) Beaches! 
All of the beaches we went to were different. My brother-in-law seemed to think it was strange that I was compelled to beach comb every single time, and I tried to explain to him that there were always different shells to find, but I am not sure he understood. Fortunately, Brett is patient and he has spent enough time Up North with me to know that I do this. Every. Single. Time. I'm a treasure hunter. It's what I do. (If you read about the shopping, then maybe you can relate.) And, I don't do it the whole time. I reach a point when I know I can stop. I only collected sand from two of the beaches we went to, for example, so that shows some restraint, don't you think? (You're probably wondering why... I have a craft or two in mind, don't worry!)

The first beach, I just think of as "Our Beach" because it was a few step away from the rental house, and because Brett and I walked it several mornings and we were almost always the only ones around. One morning there was a many on a horse and another morning there was a lady sitting on the sand (she did not look like a local), and then one morning there was a jogger who had a hard time staying on the path while Brett took photos of me in my bikini leaning against the palm tree. That was part of the fun of our beach. We got to take silly "model" pictures that were fun for both of us. I felt pretty and he enjoyed it, plus I figured he deserved it for all the beach combing, all the shopping, and all of the two days worth of crazy Meg that he endured before I finally got my Bacardi! We also saw lots of crabs, some shore birds like herons, and some of my favorites: pelicans.

{"Our Beach" is adjacent to a nature preserve.}

{A favorite "model" photo of mine. LOVE the feeling of escape to paradise!}

One morning there was a pack of three feral dogs that joined us briefly. I honestly think they were organized about it, too. The two large dogs poked their noses into our beach bag, and finding no food there, decided to roll on our beach towels, before running off. Meanwhile, the short dog, who may have had some chihuahua in his lineage, came right up to us and started licking my legs. I didn't even realize he was there until he did this. He was so friendly, I almost bent down to pet him, before realizing what I was about the do. He licked me a few more times before deciding that I wasn't going to give him any food, and then he trotted off to join the others. These were the most forward of all the feral dogs that we encountered during the week.


We never actually went in the water on "Our Beach" other than walking along the shore and getting our legs wet. Others in the family went at some point and claimed it wasn't that bad, but it always looked murky to me. This was the most debris-strewn of any beaches we went to and walking along we would see all sorts of garbage: baby bottle nipples, pacifiers, a Lego brick, OJ containers, Dawn dish soap bottles, many plastic bottles and cups, and tons of shoes, mostly flip flops, although there was one bright colored dressy wedge sandal that seemed to sad to me to be washed ashore. There was even a rusted, broken cage from a shopping cart, of all things!

The next beach that we visited was Lucia Beach, which I think was about a 10-15 minute drive. It was raining that day and there were large waves, which I found LOTS of fun to play in (but I've spent enough time at Lake Michigan, I suppose, that this didn't seem frightening to me). However, most everyone else was put off by the undertow and they didn't really want to spend much time there. The most interesting thing was driving to the beach, which required us to go through a palm grove. When leaving, there was a herd of cows passing through the palm grove, followed by these white birds (some sort of heron, I think). We saw cows everywhere in the Puerto Rico countryside whenever we drove someplace, and they were always trailed by these birds, however, it still surprised me to see them at the beach. It should not have, since they were obviously "free range," but it did, nonetheless.

On another day, we went to one of my favorite beaches: Seven Seas Beach in Fajardo, which was about a half hour drive through the mountains. The water was very calm with no surf at all. There wasn't too much sun that day, but the rain held off at least. We just floated on top of the water, which was nice and relaxing. This was a super beach for beach combing, with many unusual shells and lots of nice beach glass (a favorite of mine from all my time spent Up North). The most memorable thing about this beach was the school of fish that swam up to us in the shallows and went in and out of our legs. I was curious to see them because the others said they were there, and I wasn't even believing them until I saw them myself. Unfortunately, once I saw them, I had to get away because they kept touching my legs, which freaked me out! Jill was the only one who didn't seem to mind, or at least she didn't mind until they started nibbling at her knees. Josh thought they were coral cleaning fish. They were up to 8 inches long and kind of silver-ish from the side view. There was also a pack of wild dogs here, who entertained us by running around and playing together. Two could swim, but the other two could not, apparently. And one pregnant girl just lazed in the sand nearby us. This was the first time I was able to actually sit on the beach and read a book!

One afternoon, everyone did their own thing, and Brett and I drove the the nearby Palmas Del Mar Resort to check out the beach there. It was a beautiful, sunny day! However, the surf was quite rough, and while I enjoyed it at first, it became too much and we had to get out of the water. The good news was that they had beach chairs here so I had a comfy place to do more reading. The beach was obviously groomed, so it was clean, and in retrospect, we should have brought money since they had a little place that we could have gotten drinks, if for no other reason than I could have had that drink on the beach that I thought was in store for me. (It didn't happen, but I'm not complaining.)

On our last full day in Puerto Rico, we stumbled upon (there is no other way to describe how we found this one) a place called Escondida Beach near Guardarraya, while we were driving along the southeast coastline (amazing views!). This was a Sunday, the only weekend day that we were at a public beach, and it was quite busy. The sand was nice and the water was clear and the absolute warmest that we had experienced. Literally, it was like bath water. It was very calm, however, we didn't float quite as well as we did at Seven Seas Beach, for whatever reason. There were some very pretty flowered trees all along the shoreline, and we learned how handy they can be. We just used them as a place to drape towels and shirts, but after the rains quickly blew in, we suddenly understood by the local people had hung tarps between the trees. They just sought shelter while we were scooping up our things and dashing to the van, which we ended up doing again later, when another rainstorm blew in off the water. These things came and went quickly, so it made sense for people to come prepared to sit them out, before going about their beach days.

3) Food
I ate so many delicious things on this trip! I know that Brett was very concerned that I would NOT like the food because I really don't like spicy things, but I had read two guidebooks and I tried to convince him (and myself) that it wouldn't be spicy, but savory and sometimes sweet. The food of the Caribbean, I thankfully confirmed, is not at all spicy. It's delicious! I think I may have gained a couple of pounds there (and that is saying a log because my metabolism generally makes it so that I don't lose or gain, I just maintain). It probably did not help that so many things were fried, or that they seem to eat a lot of meat, which was no problem to my way of thinking, since it wasn't spicy. One of my favorite foods, other than those dried bread fruit chips, was something called pastalillo, which was a pouch of fried bread stuffed with meat. I chose the pollo (chicken). We bought this from the kiosk on the beach that last day. Also, on the beach there, a vendor came along and sold me passionfruit ice cream, which was delicious. Other goodies that I enjoyed were arepas (more fried bread) made with coconut, which was surprisingly yummy considering I typically don't like the taste of coconut and mofongo (a local specialty, sort of like a "cake" of fried plaintains -- which taste nothing like bananas, as I assumed they would, by the way -- made with oil and garlic, and sometimes including meat). Some mofongo that I tried was better than others, but the place to get them that made the best was La Palmira "Casa del Mofongo" which was right outside of the neighborhood where we were staying.

{Beach food!}

2) Bright colors
I am sure you have already picked up on the fact that I LOVE bright colors. Our house has walls painted in every color of the rainbow and I pretty much always wear bright colors. It was so nice to shop somewhere that had clothing in bright colors because that can often be tricky to find here in Michigan. I was so happy to see buildings painting in bright colors, everything from pink to blue to purple to lime green and vivid orange. I took tons of pictures just of houses and other building in bright colors, just because. Even the roadways were covered with bright colors on the concrete barriers and overpasses! It made me so HAPPY to look at them all! Old San Juan was especially brilliant for this, but we saw tons of other colorful places all around where ever we happened to be. Our rental house was a brilliant shade of yellow, for example. And all of the interior walls were painted in bright colors, too. It was extremely cheerful, and I could not get enough of the bright colors. While there were not too many colorful flowers to see in the rainforest itself, they were everywhere else: at the beach, along the roadside, in front of houses and restaurants and other businesses. Everywhere we looked, there was brilliant colors and I never tired of them!

{A BRIGHT building in Old San Juan. LOVE the door!}

1) Spending time with my hubby without kids!
This was our first-ever vacation without our kids, and for that matter, the longest (a whole week!) vacation we have ever taken. Before leaving, we were asked if this was our second honeymoon, since we flying out on the morning after our 12th anniversary. I remember laughing in response, "No, in order to take a second honeymoon, we would have to have GONE on one the first time around!" I don't think I have to tell you how remarkably relaxing that is to spend that much time together without children clamoring for our attention. Now, if we can just figure out how to get away on a regular basis, we will be all set. (And even though they are great people, I would love to do this without all the relatives!) Yep, Mommy got a taste of the tropics, and she could get used to it! We decided there are lots more islands that are begging for us to come visit them someday...

{Our "fancy" dinner night}

Lessons from a Lemonade Stand

Last Thursday I let the kids try their hand at running their very first business: a lemonade stand. While this is not something I ever had the opportunity to do, it seems like something every kid should do at least once during childhood. Mia really wanted to do this at some point in the summer, and I for reasons that I can't really explain given how busy we are preparing for our vacation, (Tropical island! No kids!! Ring any bells?) decided to try to cram that into our already bursting-at-the-seams schedule.

Before agreeing to this venture, I had Mia brainstorm a list of items that we would need to buy or make before setting up shop. She came up with: table, chairs, sign, pitcher, cups, balloons, and of course, lemonade. For that, I had an interesting recipe I wanted to try: watermelon lemonade (which I found in the June 21, 2013 issue of All You magazine, page 4). And, I happened to have lemons and watermelon on hand, which meant that this was as good a time as any to test the recipe and run a lemonade stand. Two birds, one stone.

Sweet Pink Lemonade (makes 12 servings)

• 6 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 cups watermelon, chopped 
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups lemon juice (from about 8 lemons)
• ice

1. Bring 6 cups water, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to a boil, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove pan from heat, cover, and let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Puree 4 cups chopped watermelon in a blender (I used my food processor for this.) along with 1 cup of water.
4. Pour syrup and watermelon puree through a strainer into a pitcher. (This step was really messy!)
5. Stir in 2 cups fresh lemon juice. (The kids helped with the squeezing, but this was mostly a job for Mama.)
6. Serve over ice. (Hard to do when you're sitting outside for a couple of hours...)

Sounds pretty good, right? It is! However, this is a fair bit of work to put into a kids' lemonade stand endeavor. So, lesson #1 I learned is that when making a lemonade stand, don't knock yourself out making fresh squeezed lemonade from organic lemons and pureed watermelon. Seriously, I doubt that our customers knew or cared how much effort went into making the stuff. *If* we do this again, I will probably just use frozen lemonade concentrate or perhaps, more lazily, a powdered drink mix. For some reason it seemed important to keep it real, but in retrospect, I don't think it mattered.

Setting up a table and chairs was easy. Getting balloons blown up was trickier. I don't have that much hot air, it seems, and the kids are a bit young to be much help in this arena. Making a sign shouldn't have been as time-consuming as it was, but being perfectionistic, I decided to do it myself using my Cricut and some yellow and pink card stock. (I am not sure if this was the right choice or not. Mia could have done the lettering herself, of course, but I didn't think it would be as legible, so I wanted the cut-out letters to hopefully get more attention.) One thing I made sure to highlight on the sign was the word "fresh" because after all that effort, I wanted people to know they were buying a quality product! Is there a lesson here? I'm not sure, but I think it is still related to #1: don't overdo things; Keep it simple.

Now, came one of the more difficult decisions: what price to assign to a small paper cup of fresh squeezed lemonade? Initially, I was thinking only a quarter because the cups were small kitchen cups, but after all of the work invested in my kids' lemonade stand, (and thinking about having to hand wash my lemon juicer, large pot, and assorted food processor pieces...), I made the executive decision to charge 50 cents per cup. I figured $1 was too steep, and 50 cents was the next logical choice. Lesson #2 is that everything has value, including Mom's time. (However, Mom is also the person who makes sacrifices, so I decided not to charge the kids for my time or for the materials we used to make their lemonade. I'm still debating whether or not that was the right decision. I wanted them to see some "profits" but I also wanted them to recognize that everything came at a cost. Tough stuff, when you really think about it, and I thought it was just lemonade!) I think that *if* we run another lemonade stand, I really should let them have the true lesson in economics. This was just the intro course, and I omitted some of the critical learning.

Lesson #3 was more of a lesson for the children with regards to persistence. About half an hour into the waiting game, Mia announced that this was boring. (Shocker, I know!) I tried to remain optimistic even though I didn't think we would get many customers. We live on a paved road off of a dirt road, so we're kind of isolated. Our only hope was the neighborhood people and given that it was the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, it didn't seem like we would get too much business. I reminded the kids that they had to be friendly and wave to all of the cars that passed by. Logan jumped on this idea immediately, and waved enthusiastically while yelling out out to each passerby, "Hi! We have a lemonade stand!!" Amazingly, we started getting customers right after this, so there is power in positive thinking.

There really are good people in the world. I think this lesson #4 hit home for me, perhaps, more than it did for Mia and Logan. Once the neighbors started showing up, they would buy more than one cup, so that meant $1 instead of 50 cents. I honestly did not expect that, because, again, I was worried that I was overcharging in the first place. Then, we had two people who made donations/tips to the lemonade stand, just because they were supportive. One neighbor said, "Here's a tip just for being an entrepreneur." Isn't that nice? (It made me feel like I should do a better job of supporting lemonade stands...) But the one thing that really impressed me was when the UPS delivery man stopped his truck just so he could buy two (again, not one but two!) cups of our by-then lukewarm lemonade. While I was a teensy bit upset over the people who promised to "come back later" and never did, in the end they sold 13 cups and got paid for more than that, which exceeded my expectations of what we could achieve in a two-and-one-half-hour window on a Thursday afternoon in our neighborhood, where people pretty much keep to themselves.

Mia learned a lesson in responsibility (#5). Our neighbors across the street actually set up a bouncy house while we were working at the lemonade stand. (We had been invited over to bounce earlier in the day, and had taken advantage of their hospitality for about a half hour.) This was a very tough decision for her, but ultimately, she decided to keep manning the stand instead of going off to do the thing that would have been immediately gratifying. I was, admittedly, shocked that she made this choice, especially after watching her weigh the choices in her mind, and seeing how hard it was for her to decide to stick with her business plan!

Lesson #6 is one on being prepared. Lemonade stands are a sticky, messy business so have lots of towels on hand for cleaning up all the spills. The drink dispenser may go haywire at some point from too many little hands fiddling with it, so make sure your extra cups are easily within reach because you may find yourself filling cup after cup, trying to keep up with the gushing. (Must not waste any of that fresh squeezed organic lemonade with pureed watermelon!) Oh, and don't forget a bag to hold all of the used cups, like I did. Sunscreen seemed like an obvious choice (check!), but little did I know, we would actually need an umbrella before the afternoon was over! Make sure your kids have their own water bottles so they are not tempted to drink up the lemonade supply. I made sure that we had change before heading outside, not knowing that we wouldn't really need it. (Nice people!) And I figured having hand sanitizer available couldn't hurt.

Once the rain got too hard, we shut down the lemonade stand, and headed inside, where I counted the money. When all was said and done, I gave each of the kids $3.50. As Brett pointed out, this wasn't the profits, it was the revenue. I had decided not to charge them the $3 for the lemons or the $2.50 for half of a watermelon that was used. Sugar and cups were such small amounts that I didn't know how to calculate the cost for those, and then there was the issue of my time. Undoubtedly, it is valuable, but it was all a gift, because I wanted them to have the experience. Lesson #7 was to just plain enjoy life! We had a good/exhausting/sticky afternoon, and we may have come out ahead by a dollar of so, but the real lessons had more to do with earning money. (This is fortunate, since there wasn't much money actually made when you do the math.) It was more rewarding for me just to let them enjoy the feeling of success, while we kicked back and finally enjoyed some of that sweet pink lemonade. I think we all earned it.

Homemade Non-Petroleum Jelly

So, spring is in full bloom, and we are rapidly spiraling into summer! That means lots of skinned knees and bug bites, and oh, yeah, feet that were not quite ready to be seen in sandals. Luckily, I think I have found a super solution to all of these warm weather woes that is simple, affordable, and not chock-full of chemicals. Since I had so much fun sharing some ways that I pamper myself with homemade beauty products, I felt it would be great to share some helpful tips on "surviving summer."

My first tip is to make your family some non-petroleum jelly, which I learned about here. (I was actually on the hunt for DIY tinted lip balm recipes, and found one that called for Vaseline. Yuck! I refuse to put something petroleum-based on my skin and lips these days, so I first had to locate a recipe for making my own non-petroleum jelly before I could try that. More to come on how that lip balm turned out.) This is very easy to do with only two ingredients: olive oil and beeswax.

My beeswax came from Michaels, and with a coupon, ended up costing about the same as I would have paid at the natural foods store, $10 a pound. (In retrospect, I wish that I had just bought it there. I don't think there is a difference. I was hoping to find it in pellet form instead of the big block, but no such luck, so I purchased one labeled for "candle making." Again, I don't know if this matters. I suspect that beeswax is beeswax, so my personal advice is just buy it where you find it, or try looking online if you want to save yourself the run-around.) I started out with extra virgin olive oil, and ran out just before I had enough, and had to substitute the remainder of the "light tasting" olive oil that was on hand. I don't think this makes a huge difference, but when I make my next batch, I will first make sure that I have enough extra virgin olive oil. (I love it for cleaning and moisturizing my face, so I figure it is awesome for lots of other stuff, too!) I love this stuff, so I will definitely be making more when the first batch runs out. It will be handy for winter dry skin, too, but I don't want to think about that just yet...

{2-Ingredient Homemade Non-Petroleum Jelly}

Ingredients:

• 1/8 cup grated beeswax (about 1 ounce)
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Grate your beeswax. (I first had to chop my big one-pound block into smaller pieces, using my chopping tool left over from my chocolate business days and a cutting board.) Grating the beeswax reminded me of grating Fels Naptha to make my own laundry detergent, except that the soap is softer, so this required a bit more elbow grease. Don't worry, though, once you get through grating your beeswax, I promise that this is smooth sailing!
2. Add grated beeswax, along with olive oil, to a small sauce pan. Melt over low heat. (The original blogger also suggested that you can use a double boiler, but I decided to make this easy on myself and just used a single pan, which worked fine.) I found that this took about 5 minutes.
3. Pour the melted contents of the pan into a container to cool. I used a clean half-pint canning jar. I am not sure how long the cooling process takes exactly; I checked after an hour, but it wasn't ready. Since it was late at night, I just went to bed and let it sit until morning, which was obviously plenty of wait-time.
4. Add a lid once the non-petroleum jelly is cool. I have also taken some and put it into smaller containers to store in other bathrooms and/or take with us on-the-go. 
5. Apply as needed. Here are some ways we have used this so far:

-- lip gloss (Super shine + moisture = all you really need, minus the parabens and other nastiness!)

-- bug bite balm (I can't swear that this actually takes the itch factor away, but we are doing well with our placebo-effect mentality. It seems to work for us, so it's at least worth a try.)

-- boo-boo salve (If you are avoiding anything that is petroleum based: Vaseline, Aquaphor, even the store-brand Neosporin we were using contained mineral oil -- Boo! -- this is a great, safe alternative for skinned knees and other boo-boos.)

-- cracked heel cream (I personally attest that this works better than any of the commercial products I have ever tried for dry heels and that is with or without slipping socks on over top.)

-- cuticle cream (Have I mentioned that I often need this since I have a bad habit of biting/picking at my cuticles? Well, this does a great job of repairing the damage overnight. It's not perfect, of course, but this works nicely on hands as well as feet.) 

-- It should work on dry skin anywhere else on the body, too. Plus, I am sure there are other uses that I have not even thought of yet. Possibly a diaper rash salve? I would do research first, though, before using with cloth diapers, but it would certainly be okay with disposables. I am guessing if I added a few drops of essential oils like eucalyptus or peppermint, this might would work as a homemade vapor rub, too. I wonder if this would soothe a sunburn? I may give it a try at some point, although, I hope I don't have to test this out any time soon! Feel free to share other uses that you have for non-petroleum jelly.

Play with Your Food

I have been out of sorts today. I returned from a trip to the hospital feeling a bit grumpy because the tests should have given me answers, but instead I only have more questions. The one good bit of news that I have to keep reminding myself is that if they couldn't find a solid mass, then it probably can't be the really scary c-word. Unfortunately, it wasn't a cyst either, so who knows what the painful lump is? I have to follow up with my doctor tomorrow and go from there... Anyway, I was grouchy with the kids (which was pretty unfair to them) and so I tried to make up for it by serving a fun lunch. They're very forgiving, so I think we're good now.

{Make a watermelon sandwich: 1) Cut a piece of bread into a wedge. 2) Spread on strawberry jelly. 3) Add raisins for "seeds." 4) Cut green grapes in half and arrange to make the "rind." 5) Serve to a couple of cute kids. (Don't be surprised if they pick off the raisins and say, "eww." It doesn't stop me from trying to serve raisins every now and then.) Thank you, FamilyFun magazine for a yummy idea!}

{And now, have an "octapple".}

{Isn't it cute? I made one for each kid. 1) Cut a granny smith apple in half. I cut out the seeds and inside stuff as best as I could. 2) Arrange more halved green grapes to me the tentacles. 3) I used two dollops of Cool Whip for the eyes (since I didn't have a mini marshmallow on hand). Then I topped the Cool Whip with two mini chocolate chip eye balls. 4) Spread 6 mini chocolate chips with peanut butter to adhere the mouth. 5) Serve to a couple of cute kids. (Don't be surprised if they won't eat the green apple. It is tart, after all.) Thanks again, FamilyFun magazine.}

Red, White, and a Little Bit Blue

So once again this summer, I feel like I am "behind" with my blogging. I know, it probably didn't affect too many people because I can't imagine too many people were worried by my lack of posts, right? And really, it's not that big of a deal because I have been busy doing what's important: making memories with the kids (and trying not to be a grouch in the process, if I am being completely honest, because sometimes I have all of these ideas and trying to do all of them and have fun at the same time ends up being kind of challenging at times.)

Also, in case anyone is wondering whey there haven't been more craft ideas lately, there are two reasons for this. The first one I mentioned. It is summer. We are enjoying life -- outdoors -- as much as possible. And the rest of the time? If Mia wants to do a "project," as she calls them, she comes up with her own almost every time, which is a welcome break, in a way. (And Logan does not like to get messy with paint and other crafty materials. Now dirt, sand, mud, ... totally another story. He's definitely a boy.)

Oh, and one more thing. I got my stitches out this morning so I am just now getting full usage from my left thumb (amazing how much I rely on that digit and never knew it until recently) after slicing into it with a serrated kitchen knife on July 3. I was attempting to cut a cantaloupe in half while apparently distracted by a couple of kids who were begging me to frost sugar cookies that weren't yet cool, and this was supposed to keep them occupied for a bit. This caused me to panic a bit. The first thing I did was call Brett to tell him that I might need him to come home a little early (it wasn't quite 3:30) since I cut myself and might need stitches. I was running it under water because I freaked myself out and couldn't think straight enough to remember what to do next. Thankfully, Brett reminded me to put pressure on it. See, that's why I keep him around, that and he is pretty good at folding laundry (even without being asked).

First, I tried a paper towel but it was sticking to the wound, so I spent the next half hour with a damp washcloth wrapped around the injured thumb, while continuing on with the important business of frosting star-shaped sugar cookies. Yes, I somehow figured out a way to hold a cookie in my bad hand and frost it at the same time. (Thankfully, it was my non-dominant hand that got hurt.) You didn't think I was going to let the kids down did you? So, Brett came home while we were finishing that up, and I was not nearly as worried once I realized the bleeding had stopped.

{These were supposed to have red popping candy on them like the ones in FamilyFun, but it turned out that the stuff we had at home was pink, so we just used red and blue sugars.}

Still, it didn't look the best, sort of purplish-reddish, and I wasn't really sure how deep it was so I wondered if it would get infected. So, I did what seemed logical at the time. I decided to do as many chores as humanly possible (three loads of laundry, dishes, cleaning the stove top, finally cutting that melon and putting it away, etc.) to see how this affected my day-to-day life. This, folks, is apparently how a stay-at-home-mom gauges the severity of an injury. I decided that getting it wet probably wasn't the best thing for healing purposes. Then, I showed my cut to Brett, and he informed me that it made him queasy just looking at it. So, obviously, I turned to my friend the Internet to determine the next course of action. When I Googled "how to tell if a cut needs stitches," two of the three first websites suggested that if I hadn't had a tetanus shot in over 5 years, I would want to get that and have the doctor examine the laceration at the same time to determine whether or not stitches were needed.

I decided I did not want to go to the ER to sit forever and wait while all of the crazy people who were undoubtedly setting themselves on fire (hey, it's been insanely dry lately, and fireworks are just plain dangerous, so of course it makes perfect sense for the state to legalize them this year...), so once I determined that the Urgent Care was open, that is where I went. I got there around 8:00 pm and was just leaving at 9:00 pm when they were closing. I will skip over the details of how I nearly passed out when I got the shot of lidocaine ... and just let you know that I was looking very festive for the 4th of July when I left (with two lovely blue stitches on my previously reddish thumb which was then wrapped in a yard or so of white gauze). Good thing I went when I did, because it turned out that they were closed the next day.

My sense of humor seemed to be intact during this ordeal. I remember apologizing about turning green and breaking out in a sweat, saying that I "always think I can do this." The nurse later asked me how much of the melon I had gotten cut, and I told her it was the first slice, and after I finally tasted it later in the night, it had turned out not to even have been worth cutting. Ha! I also remember telling her that I was glad that it had happened to me and not one of the kids. While walking out the door, I told the receptionist to have a nice holiday and thankfully didn't jinx us by informing her that I had gotten our holiday crisis out of the way early, so we were good, right? She agreed that we should be in the clear. (In an unrelated note, this was the last time I have had a break from the kids. I really know how to celebrate "me time," huh?)

After I got home, I thought it was a good thing that I had made and hung these paper stars before cutting myself.

The next day, I was determined to make these Lady Liberty crowns (from the June/July 2012 issue of FamilyFun Magazine), and fortunately, I was still able to do some crafting even with my thumb being useless. They turned out pretty well, too.

I was feeling ambitious after that, so I made these red, white, and blue strawberries using my Dove Chocolate Discoveries Chef Series white chocolate (with some help from the tempering unit). They looked good and more importantly they were very yummy.

Then, I made these red raspberry, strawberry, and blueberry parfaits for dinner. This was another idea from FamilyFun, but I couldn't find the starfruit for garnish, and ours aren't in fancy glasses. And mine look much messier. There is definitely a technique to this, but the article didn't tell what it was. The best we came up with was putting the Cool Whip into a baggie, snipping off the end, and piping in in. (I would have used my DCD pastry bag but then I would have had to wash it by hand and I wasn't really up for that with my injury, which I was trying to keep as dry as possible.)

At the fireworks, Mia gave us a running account of the names of the fireworks. So funny! Here are some of my transcribed notes. She mentions the "Cheer Colors," and then tells me that she already told me "all the kinds of fireworks," but after I asked her to tell me again (so I could try to get it recorded) she says that one is called a "Dribble Blop." She goes on to describe something "kind of like angels or fairies or something. It's just gold. It's beautiful!" The next part I caught was, "Wow! That was bright. That is called 'Bright Blossom.'" When I asked her to tell me about another type of firework she replied, "Well, the 'Puffball' ones are round and big." A bit later she says, "That was called a 'Gold Hanger'. I've never seen 'Gold Hangers' before." She concludes by saying, "That was a 'Cherry Tree.' I'm getting tired of telling you fireworks."

{How cute are we?}

{I had to include this one just for the look on her face.}

After looking at my thumb on Friday when I got to switch from gauze to a plain band-aid, I noted that it was red, white, and blue: white stripe where the band-aid had been, red "boo-boo," and blue stitches. So festive. And it was funny to see me at the beach, I am sure, with my latex glove secured with a rubber band which cut off circulation somewhat but did the trick for keeping the are dry. Fortunately, it healed well. I kept it amazingly dry despite a few showers, and one bath in cool vinegar water. I got sunburn in a few spots like my shoulder and upper thigh, and hilariously, parts of my tummy where I apparently did a lousy job of applying sunscreen. I was the only one in the family who had this problem so I will just go ahead and blame my injury and not the fact that it was the first time wearing a bikini in approximately forever. By the way, if you get a sunburn, a 15 minute soak in a lukewarm bath with 2 cups of apple cider vinegar really does help. I got that tip straight from Green Grandma's Vinegar Fridays. I think I took the glove off for this photo, but you can sort of see how I am holding it upward to prevent any possible wetness from Lake Michigan. So, it looks like I am giving a thumbs up for the fun we had with Daddy home for 5 whole days.

{Seeing these two together was my favorite thing about the beach.}

{Logan loved when Daddy picked him up...}

{Except that he kept losing his shoes!}