Ideas, Please?

Lately I feel like I've been in a cooking rut. Nothing sounds all that great to make or to eat... maybe because the weather is stuck between winter and summer, so I can't even be sure from day to day if we will want a warm meal or a cooler one. Plus, I somehow have quite a bit of evening activities scheduled this week, which means I have a little less time than normal for meal prep. That doesn't help the situation!

Anyway, I need your help. What are some dinner meal ideas? (And remember that my husband loathes casseroles, so that won't really be a valid suggestion for my house.)
Thanks!

Because I'm Curious

I saw a friend mention this on Facebook, and I was shocked enough to go look it up.

It's the Breastfeeding Baby Doll.
Yeah, go ahead and follow the link. I promise, it's not pornography.
Although I DID find it highly disturbing.


So what's your take? Is it educational or just plain freaky?

Thoughts

I had one of those nights last night where I couldn't fall asleep until about 1 am because my mind was going so fast I couldn't calm it down. I haven't really had this experience since I quit teaching, although it was very common when I was a full time teacher. I think I've discovered my trigger: projects.

Since we've been here in Rochester, I haven't attempted too many projects. I've just let us get settled here, figure out our routine, etc. And I think we're in a really good spot right now - happy with life, getting most things done when they need to be done, and enjoying each other's company.

But all of the sudden, I feel this burning need to do spring cleaning. I want to wipe walls. I want to organize EVERYTHING! I want to throw out anything we haven't touched since moving here (which is a bit extreme since there is an awful lot of baby stuff that I sure hope we need again at some point!). I just want my house to be super clean! Well, folks, I guess that's my project for April. I made lists of all the things I want to do. I guess I'll have to report back how much I actually get through!

Are any of you spring cleaning? Or do you have other projects that keep you up at night?

Fakin' and Eggs

We don't really get into April Fool's Day much around here, but I DID make a fun dessert that Aidan really enjoyed. It's called (of course) Fakin' and Eggs!

The best part? It's super easy!

For the eggs, I just took vanilla candy melts (large white chocolate drop, typically used in candy molds - can be found at Hobby Lobby or in the Wilton cake section at Wal Mart), spread them out on a piece of waxed paper, and microwaved them for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes in 30 second increments. Then, I stuck a yellow M&M in each "egg white" with the "m" facing down. They need about 20 minutes to harden, and then they pop right off the waxed paper.

The "bacon" took a little more time but was still very easy. Microwave one Tootsie Roll midgee and one caramel square for about 8 seconds. They will be soft enough to smash down, then stack on top of each other. From there, cut the wad in half and stack it again so you have 4 layers of alternating candy. Cut this whole stack into thirds, and stretch each piece of candy. The colors will blend to look bacon-y. This will make 3 long pieces of "bacon," and you cut each piece in half to be a proportionate size to the eggs. You can add ripples to make the bacon look more realistic.

They are very tiny - the ones in the picture are shown on a plate from Aidan's toy dishes set. But he knew right away what they were supposed to be, and he loved that they were really candy!

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone! Did you play any good tricks?

Painting

Inspired by my friend Jessica (we taught together, she is now a mom also, and she posts all the fun projects she does with her kids, which is great fun for me to read about), I thought I'd share a fun painting project that Aidan and I did this week.

Put down some scrap paper (we used a junk mail catalog, which was perfect).

Lay a paper towel on the paper.

Using markers, color and draw fun designs on the paper towel.

Dip a paintbrush in water and paint over the designs. Watch the markers bleed!

Aidan was fascinated by it, and the best part was that it was virtually no mess! (Just a little marker smudges on the hands!)

Happenings

So what's going on here?

Mike is in Las Vegas for a week-long conference. Day one was mighty rough, but now that Aidan and I have found our Mike-less routine, we're doing much better. Except that Aidan is in bed sobbing right now. But otherwise we're great!

I'm still LOVING my calling as Primary chorister. In fact, I am going to make some beanbags tonight to use in Sunday's singing time.

Piano lessons are so fun! Not only is it exciting for me to be teaching them, but Aidan loves my students, too. He often will ask about them, and on lesson days he starts looking out the window, watching for them to arrive.

Trying hard to stay healthy with help from my sister Emily! (We're tracking together.) Mike, Aidan, and I passed around a pretty nasty cold last week, from which we are now finally recovering, so gym time is getting back to normal.

Finally getting around to maybe thinking about decorating our house. It's only been six months - that's not very long, right?!

We're getting temps in the 30-50 degree range! That means that the snow is melting! We can actually see patches of bare grass! I LOVE SPRING!!! :)

That's life here in Rochester! What's going on in your town?

New Baby

Sorry about the long absence. Someone pointed out that I only blog about Aidan, which is true. (In my defense, I do spend all day every day with the little guy!) So it took me a while to come up with other things to tell everyone about.

But, here's something awesome!

I got a new baby! This is my new piano that we had been saving for over the last 5 years. It is so nice! In fact, it's nice enough that I've started teaching piano lessons, which I have really enjoyed.

As a stay-at-home mom in a new town, obviously my social contacts basically all come through the Church. So you would figure that all of my students would be LDS, right? Ironically enough, not a single one of my students is. Also, they come from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds.

I have 2 Australian kids, 2 kids from Costa Rica, one student from England, 2 students from Nigeria, and a former student from Korea (he moved back already). Pretty unusual, isn't it?

Anyway, all of us have certainly enjoyed the new piano. Mike has even taken a few lessons!

He's certainly showing great progress, isn't he? :)