So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.
So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you!
Ok, I feel a little guilty posting this as a recipe because it is so easy!!! I had it for the first time almost 15 years ago at my (now) best friend’s bridal shower. Since then it is a go to treat for all entertaining I do during the spring. And I always get at least 1 person who has never had it and wants to know how to make it, so here it is in all its simpleness;).
Ingredients:
1 box of cream cheese (8 oz), you can use neufchatel instead of full fat cream cheese
1 jar of marshmallow creme (about 7 oz)
Strawberries to dip
Process:
Leave the cream cheese on the counter to let it soften and come close to room temperature. Either use a stand mixer (my fav) or a hand mixer and mix the two ingredients together. Put it in a nice bowl. That is it! You can store it in the refrigerator if you have any left over;). I tend to mix it up earlier in the day or even the day before but I do like it close to room temp!
I am a big believer that children should not have to take on their parent emotional problems. I personally was relied upon too much as a child for emotional support. The Kelly Clarkson song Because of You really resonated with me. I had a lot of adult problems and emotions dumped on me that I wasn’t equipped to handle. At this point I think of overcome those issues. But we do want to teach her children empathy, compassion and humanity. And we want them to show it. But do we want their compassion and support? Where is that line?
I was reading the ever inspiring Danielle Smith today. She recently lost a well loved friend to cancer and she is writing about the comfort her seven-year-old daughter was giving her. She talked about not expecting to receive something like that from her daughter because she thinks of her herself more like the supermom who heals her children’s hurts. As I’m reading this very sweet piece I really relate to Danielle because that line is always so fuzzy.
I commented about what a blessing and a gift this time it’s for both of them. but I wanted to expand on that beyond the size of a blog comment box. As a mom, it is my job to teach my children compassion and humanity. But it is also my job to teach them what it looks like to live this life with strength and dignity. We tell our children when someone is hurt to stop and help them up and brushed them off. We tell them when they are hurt it is okay to come sit with Mommy have her brush off their ouchies and kiss them and tell them that it all will be okay. But do we really want our children to no longer accept comfort once they are too big to fit on our laps? I think we all answer with a resounding no.
So that means we have to teach them by example. The example that even as adults is okay to cry, it is okay to be loved, it is okay to be comforted. I think that Danielle has a beautiful opportunity (that she is using). She has the opportunity to see that the compassion she so carefully taught her children to have for the world is really there. She gets to see that her daughter not only heard her words, but has seen Danielle’s actions and now actually knows how to comfort someone. Danielle’s daughter now knows it’s okay for Supermom to cry. It is okay for her to need a hug in sorrow. She knows that when she’s a mom is okay to hurt. She will know that she grows up her pain and her heart will remain to be the most beautiful part. And isn’t that the greatest lesson we really want to teach our daughters?
I think it’s wonderful that a child can have a good enough example in their lives that without our asking for their compassion they give it freely. And in that it brings us healing. That isn’t relying on a child too much, that is living life and teaching them to live life also.
And as a side note, when we feel self-conscious for letting our frail humanity show and forgetting to put on our cape that morning remember… Supermom got tangled her cape trying to hard. Moms of Steel are hard to love.
My kids are nothing if not entertaining! Sometimes I am a little embarrassed but even then it is usually funny. A couple super quick stories from my weekend;).
This weekend my kids were all in their (now former) babysitter’s wedding. They had met the groom’s mom and knew that he had a step dad. This is where you enter the scene. My NerdBug (10) is sitting next to the groom’s step dad. NerdBug asks him if he is the mom’s “current husband”. Luckily, it seems that the groom’s step dad and mom are both amused;). He just wanted to make sure that he had all the relations clear, he was meeting a lot of people he had never met;).
Skip ahead. See that giant grasshopper? That was on the kids’ play structure on Easter. We were talking about how huge it was and one of the kids said they had been seeing a lot of grasshoppers recently. I pointed out the fact that it was Passover and maybe it was one of the plagues (I know, the plague was locusts). It was sundown and getting dark so we were joking that it was another plague. Then NerdPie points out to NerdBug that if the final plague hit again (Death of the oldest) that he would be the one to die…. NerdDad and I looked at each other and just had to laugh.
These are the conversations in our family. Crazy…
Check out what I won!!! I won this in last week’s #WinTech chat from Western Digital! I can’t wait to plug them in and give them a go!!!
Hope you are having a great Passover! My kids wanted me to share this with you all!!!
Chili’s is once again doing their Kids Eat Free program!!!! They have a coupon that you need to take in order to get the deal. It is good from today until April 11, 2012.
I like Chili’s food a lot but my favorite thing is that you can get 2 kids’ meals for every one adult entree. That means we can go and get all 4 kids fed for free! And usually they will let you do the 2 for $20 deal to count as your 2 entrees but not every time. Check with your server.
Now go have a special night out with the kids!!!
Welcome Central Valley Today viewers! I hope you all had a great Easter weekend and are having a fabulous Passover!
So have you looked down the spice aisle and seen all the different types of salt? Ever wondered why there were so many types and what there were for? I talked about that today and all the details are over at NerdFamily Food. So head over and read The Salt of the Earth!
Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
Salt has always been a treasured ingredient. It brings preservation and taste! But now we have so many salt choices! When would you pick one over the other? Well, I can’t answer that question definitively but I can give you some basic guidelines to make the most of your ingredient and your money!
We are only going to talk about 3 basic salts. There are many, many types of salt but I am going to look at table salt, fine sea salt, and kosher salt.
First let us look at table salt. There are 2 basic types, iodized and non-iodized. We always have non-iodized salt but we don’t eat it. My husband uses it in his Neti Pot
Next we look at kosher salt. Kosher salt is not named such because it is kosher, just about all salts are, but because it is used in the process to kosherize meat. Kosher salt is larger than table salt so I don’t find it as good for just sprinkling on food but I always cook with it! It is perfect to add to dishes as you are cooking them. I find that is just gives you a better flavor than using table salt. Kosher salt is also great to make pastes, specifically garlic paste.
So last but not least in this journey is fine sea salt. I specify fine because there is rough sea salt that needs to be ground or is just really chunky on the tongue. Sea salt is a potent and delicate salt. What I mean by that is a little bit will go a long way but the flavor is delicate and more nuanced than table or kosher salt. One of my favorite uses is in popcorn! It sounds crazy to use such a “fancy” ingredient on something so pedestrian but it is great! I also use it as a finishing salt. I like to sprinkle the top of mashed potatoes and on the top of grilled asparagus. I also like to use sea salt as the salt component in home made vinaigrettes and other dressings. Another crazy sounding delicious use is on chocolate! It is great!! Over all, I kind of look at it as I do extra virgin olive oil. Don’t use it where you won’t taste its very special flavor. So raw uses are the best.
So that is my little salt primer. What types of salt do you like to use and how?
(This post’s existence, but not the content, was originally sponsored when it was first printed in August of 2010. The reprint and update is just because;)
Article first published at Label Daddy.
Passover is the celebration of God taking the Jews out of Egypt! The final plague was the Angel of Death taking the lives of the first borns in Egyptian households. Jewish homes that had the lamb’s blood on the door frame was passed over untouched. Get it? Passed over, Passover;)!
Are you celebrating Passover this year? Do you need some resources? Well, let me share a few!
Aish.com has great resources for all Jewish holidays, not just Passover! I always find great recipes, poignant pieces, and videos over there. A key post of theirs on Passover isHaggadah: An Introduction.
Another resource isn’t really information but food! I am now gluten free so Yehuda’s Gluten Free Matzo page is pretty awesome. You can see all the gluten free Passover options and order from them if you want to (but I have seen the boxes of matzo at Whole Foods). But when it comes to the actual Seder dinner the Chabad has a piece on what kind of matzo is really acceptable (it seems complicated).
Do you have a Haggadah? Looking for one you would like more? Uncle Eli has a kids version. I wouldn’t use it alone but it is entertaining and would print it for the kids to have at their seats. Looking for something a little more mature;)? Check out About.com’s Judaism page. They have a ton of options and a summary about each one.
There are some resources to get you going! Anything else you are looking for? Let me know in the comments and I will see what I have for you.
Happy Passover!