The Icecream on the Cake

When Makenna turned four, I offered to make her a special birthday cake.  We went online (dial-up at the time - I nearly pulled my hair out!!) in search of the perfect birthday cake image (images take even longer to load!!).  We signed out birthday cake books from the local public library.  We discussed her ideas at length.  She finally decided on a Raggedy Ann cake.  I read up on cake decorating, learned all about different kinds of icings, bought special ingredients (spent far too much!), borrowed special sized and shaped pans, stressed about the decorating aspect of the cake (I can't even make decent icing, much less arrange it properly), worried that it wouldn't turn out, and on.  When I was done, I resolved, through tears and sweat pouring down my face, that I would never do that again.  Kind of like how I resolved never to have another baby the day Mason was born (yeah, that didn't work out so well, either).

All my resolve melted at Makenna's birthday party, when the cake was revealed to her and she loved it so much. All my blood, sweat, and tears were forgotten.  Any moms out there who can relate to that?

Since then, it has become a tradition that I make whatever birthday cake the kids want.  Anything goes.  You want a castle?  No problem!  A pirate ship?  I'd love to!  A candyland boardgame?  Comin' right up!  Butterflies?  Farmyards?  Carebears?  Mommy is AT YOUR SERVICE, and AIMING TO PLEASE!

But, truth be told, I'm really not very good at cake decorating.  It doesn't come naturally to me, and two years ago, a sweet friend came over to help me mix buttercream icing.  That's how far I've come in all these years.

So you can imagine my (inner) delight when my nearly decade-old daughter asked me to make an icecream cake for her birthday, and then showed me a picture of the simplest icecream cake on the planet.  The recipe claims it takes less than 15 minutes to make.  Now, to those of you who stop by the bakery and pick up a cake may think 15 minutes is a lot of time, but to someone who potentially spends multiple days crafting a cake, this feels like a "get out of jail" card.

Enough rambling.  Here's a really easy cake to make for any occasion calling for icecream cake..... 

WARNING:  This is super unhealthy and full of all kinds of stuff that a mommy does not want her kids eating.

Ingredients
1 box of 24 icecream sandwiches (you'll have some left over)
1 bottle chocolate sauce (you'll have some of that left over, too, unless you REALLY like it)
1 tub frozen dessert whip
1 or two chocolate bars (whatever kind you want)

 Cover the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan with icecream sandwiches.

Squirt a bunch of chocolate sauce over the icecream sandwich layer.  Spread whipped cream evenly over that.  Repeat with another layer of icecream sandwiches, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Crush chocolate bar (s).  I do it with an end of my rolling pin, leaving the bar in its package.  No dishes that way. :)

Sprinkle over cake. I also added a bit more chocolate sauce, because I'm from the school of thought that one can never have too much chocolate. 

Tada!  Simple.  And I had to wash one spoon and one knife when I was done. 



I dug up an old picture of the very first cake I made on that fateful fourth birthday. Don't you wanna just put that eyelash back where it belongs?

Ho Ho Hold on a minute!

Last night, our whole family slept in the camper.  Which wouldn't have felt so strange, except that when we woke up in the morning, it was Christmas.

Breakup with my Makeup

Today's post is going to be of particular interest to all my male readers (yes....both of you).  I'm talking about makeup!  Now, anyone who knows me know's I'm no fashionista, so don't worry, I'm not giving any advice on how to achieve the perfect smoky eye, or a perfect pout (although my four-year old could do the latter). 

Mostly, my interest in living with less "stuff" has been met with silence by those around me, and that's ok.  But a couple have commented how they wouldn't know where to begin.  I get it. Sitting in our homes and looking at a lifetime (even if it is only a 30 year-old life) of accumulated stuff can feel very overwhelming!   But the part that some may not know is that getting rid of stuff can make one feel GIDDY with excitement and a sense of FREEDOM!  I get such a high from ditching the unnecessary stuff in my life.....similar to the high I get when I lose 5 pounds (and I should know - I've done it lots of times!). It seems that each time I go through the stuff in our house, I keep getting rid of stuff that I overlooked the previous time. The thought of emptying out a cupboard, basket, or shelf and creating yet another infamous "self-help" donation pile gets me just as excited as <insert your favourite activity>.....it's so much fun.....That's my experience, anyway. 

So, today, just for kicks and giggles, I decided to snap pics as I was sorting through my makeup.  I knew it was loooong overdue.... For anyone who ever loved snooping in other people's houses to check out their "stuff", here's a sneak peek of my underwhelming collection of makeup, and the process of deciding what stays and what goes......it's really a hard process.  Step one:  Dump makeup onto counter or other horizontal surface.  Step two:  Put back what you use.   Step three:  Make a donation to the garbage can. Simple, right?

So....ahem.....here's goes.....

I took everything out of my makeup bag and place it on a sheet on the table.  This is what it looked like....

Overwhelmingly exciting, right?   The brown bottle with the black lid near the centre is my FAVOURITE.  It's foundation by Mac....if I could have one makeup item, it would be a toss up between lipgloss and this particular foundation.  Toot toot!  Go, Mac!

Anyway....

I picked up each item individually and challenged it to tell me why it deserved to be in my makeup stash.  Secretly, I suspected lots of stuff wouldn't give me a good enough answer to stay....

This concealer has been around for a very long time.  It seems to me I bought it while I was working at the Bethesda Hospital.  That's approximately a lifetime ago.  I don't need to google "how long is the shelf life of concealer" to know that this stuff is past its prime.  Besides, it was almost empty....Whew....one thing I dislike (I'm not allowed to say hate, 'cuz I'll get in trouble with my kids) as much as my own clutter is wasting.  So I felt good giving this tube the ole heave ho into the nearest garbage bin.  Goodbye, concealer. I never loved you anyway!

Next.

It doesn't take an organizing minimalist guru to know that when something is empty, it's ok to throw it away.  Next.

Eww.  Old, no lid, and basically empty.  Score one more point for team garbage.

I seriously think I may have worn the silvery blue one at my college grad dinner at the Fort Garry Hotel.  I think I've never consciously challenged the idea that one day, I may want to wear blue sparkly stuff on my eyelids.  Today, I did.  Goodbye 1990's highschool girl pencils.

So, you get the idea of how I came up with the garbage pile.  It's pretty basic, right?  (Side note: Does it concern you that this is my idea of a rockin' good time?   Do you wonder what causes someone to actually take pictures of old makeup and write about it?)

By the time I had gone through my stash, this is what didn't make the cut.....

Leaving me with this.....



So much easier to find what I'm looking for (which is usually lip gloss).....

Hmmmmm......what else can I get my purging little hands on?

PS.  Have you ever seen so many "....." 's in one post?  It's like I use "..." 's whenever I don't know what kind of punctuation to use.  Maybe no one else notices......I guess you'll all go check now, right?  And you'll know that I don't know how to use punctuation.....

Oh, the shame.....

School - Is it for kids or parents?



First day of school, 2010

 Recently, a survey went out, from my children's school, to all the parents of children who are signed up for kindergarten next year.  The survey offered two options:  children attend school for half a day, each day (the traditional/current method), or they attend every other day for a full day.  Based on the response received, the school would change/not change the current system.

I was surprised and saddened by the results.

The response was overwhelmingly in favour of change.

In talking to many different people (parents in our school, parents of children attending other schools, staff, etc),  a few pros to the new system repeatedly emerge:

1)  It will save the school division money because there will be no noon bus run.
2)  Teachers will have more time to teach because they will not need to do morning exercises every day with the same students.

and, without fail, the number one seller is:

3)  It's so convenient for us as parents.  You know, it cuts down on our daycare costs.  We can be gone all day, instead of being home at the noon hour.  It opens up more opportunity and freedom for both mom and dad to work or play. That sort of thing.  Right on.  Freedom one year sooner.  How lucky!  Woohoo!

I am saddened because these three reasons, in my opinion, do not address the needs of the ones for whom the school system was created - the children!  The division benefits, the teachers benefit, the parents benefit.  In my experience, that's where the conversation ends.  Sure, we can always justify our arguments, showing ways that the students are better off in the new system.  We humans are great at gathering evidence to support the way we think, aren't we? I sure am. But, in all honesty, are we really considering what is in the best interest of the kids?  Really?  Or, in our more vulnerable moments, would we consider the suggestion that our choices may be motivated by self interest and convenience at times?  That it would help make our kids fit better into our life, either as it now is, or as we would like it to be.

Sometimes kids are so inconvenient.

I don't know who voted for the change in our school, as I don't even know more than one or two students who are going to kindergarten next year (and one of those is mine:)). Without knowing, however, I believe they are moms and dads who love their kids and are making a tonne of decisions for their family regularly, just like me.  I acknowledge that some families have a unique situation, and parents have different considerations when making decisions.  I recognize that some situations are more delicate, and parents are required to make hard choices - choices that they don't want to make.  I get that.  And my heart goes out to these families.  I am not seeking to place more guilt on their weary shoulders.

I am simply asking the questions that I have not heard being asked.  And challenging us to think for ourselves, and not allow ourselves to be swept away by the current school of thought (pun intended).

I've not heard anyone consider if being inside a school for 7.5 hours on a warm spring day is the best thing for a typical, energetic 5-year-old boy.  I've not heard anyone challenge the idea that an extra half hour of "learning time" per day is the best thing for our kids.  I have not heard the question "Do our kids NEED to learn more?"  I learned my abc's in kindergarten and started reading simple words in Grade 1.  My kids knew their abc's by the time they reach their fourth birthday, and were reading three months into kindergarten and chapter books by the end of grade one.  Why are we pushing our kids to achieve more?  Let's not forget that they are five little, short years old.

And at the forefront of my mind, I am really curious to know....what's really propelling this change?

Quotable Quote

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone.  The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” Lin Yutang, 1895

Floating Shelves

What do you think of floating shelves? I think they look modern, clean and simple.  And, because they don't sit on the floor, you never have to move them to clean behind them (I do what I can do support my lazy lifestyle!!!)!  

Check out how they can look in a kitchen...


                                         Apartment Therapy


Or a family lounge area.......


                                         Decor Pad

They really could be used in any room of a house.  At least, that's what we think.  Since our recent basement mini-makeover, which I talked about here, we've been talking about moving our books from our hall closet to the area beside the woodstove in the basement.  I think books add to the cozy factor in a space, and we love the idea of having them easily accessible when we're cozying up by the woodstove. I've had my eyes open for bookshelves at local thrift stores and kijiji, but haven't found any that fit our style and budget (veeeerrrrrrry cheap!).

Then I remembered something I'd seen done a long time ago in blogland somewhere.  Why not build floating shelves out of wooden hollow-core interior doors?!??!  By the time you could say "hollow-core doors - whaaaat??" we were back from the Steinbach MCC with two lovely doors for a grand total of $10.  I apologize for the lack of "in progress" pics - we got a little carried away with the project and snapped zilch-o pictures....

Here is the space we were planning to put the shelving (please excuse the horrific lighting - I forgot to adjust the camera settings)....

We (as in Jeff) cut down a 2" x 4" we had laying around in the shop, to make it narrow enough to fit inside a hollow-core door.  He then screwed it securely to the studs on the wall.   We decided we wanted the shelves to be approximately 12" deep, so he cut the door down to our desired width.   Then, it was just a matter of sliding the open/cut side of the door over the strip of wood on the wall, and screwing it in place.  Our kids helped paint it, using leftover paint from the basement.  Here is the after:

And here it is with a few things haphazardly thrown onto it....

So there you have it.....this is what we do for kicks around here.....