Daily Dose of Sugar Mama

A New Phase

SugarMama — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:16:09 +0000

I love my blog.

But I used to love other things more- like playing board games with my kids and going on walks.

And where most bloggers can balance it all, I can’t. Not right now. It’s not that my blog is so crazy popular that I’m spending hours cranking out e-mails and material. It’s just, I spend a lot of time thinking about what to post next.

Honesty is my policy, so with that I’m telling you that this blog has made me a lazy mother and wife lately. It wasn’t always that way, and maybe I can figure out the balance. Or maybe, taking a break… a really long one… can inspire me some way.

Until I can figure it out I won’t be on my blog. My mind is racing with ideas to pursue in my life- I want to be an advocate for our young girls, perfect my cupcake baking, learn more about photography, and most of all, I want to be PRESENT in the life of my kids and husband.

I will be around. Some of my favorite people in the world are my blogging peeps!

Source: fabulouskblog.com via Sugar_Mama on Pinterest

InstaFriday: January 27

SugarMama — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:13:10 +0000

A new coffee mug.. $1.99 from Target

Reading this book…. it’s breaking my heart & hopeful at the same time

Girl was sick on Monday & cuddled with me on the couch. Love!

Girl wanted to bring her American Girl to basketball practice so that “Molly could learn some basketball skills”

School mornings with Teen. I don’t have any more to say about that right now.

Oatmeal & Ovaltine for breakfast. EXACTLY what I used to eat before school as well.

A smoothie. It’s okay… but I really just want my coffee. I’ve cut back on coffee for personal reasons, & I’m really not digging it.

Jellyfish

SugarMama — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:09:04 +0000

It’s Ocean week at Sugar Mama’s Daycare! That’s not the real name of my place, but let’s go with it on here, mkay? Last year we made these cute little crabs with their hand prints.

I don’t know if I’ve ever told you, but I’m not a big fan of hand print crafts. I know they are cute. I know the parents love them. But the kids do very little on their own. I paint their hands. I push their hands on the paper. And then they look at it. Done.

This craft was full on kid involvement. They loved the jellyfish stories, poems, & songs. By the time the day was done they knew want tentacles were, that jellyfish use electric shock to get their food, and to stay away from them in the ocean. They also learned that jellyfish do not have bones, a heart, or a brain. Did you know that?

The playroom has transformed into an ocean! And every time I walk to my desk the kids remind me NOT to touch the jellyfish stingers. Fun stuff!

List of books that include jellyfish:

Jenny Jellyfish: Suzanne Tate

Commotion in the Ocean: Giles Andreae

Fidgety Fish & Friends: Paul Bright

Somewhere in the Ocean: Jenny Ward & T. J. Marsh

Ocean Picture Pops

What I Love to Do

SugarMama — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:57:09 +0000

If I didn’t run a daycare in my home I would probably bake full time. I have a lot of room to improve, but I enjoy the process. I love delivering the goodies to friends, neighbors, etc and seeing the big surprised smile on their face. I love picking out cupcake liners, raffia to tie up my packages, and labels. I love stacking cookies “just so” to make them look so delicious.

But I really, really love is the time in my kitchen focusing on the recipe at hand. My mind is clear of everything that is currently stressing or worrying me. The house is (usually) quiet and sometimes I even talk to myself. And laugh at myself. When I finally get around to baking I always question why I don’t do it more often. The answer is very simple; it’s such a process that I don’t always have time for.

This weekend I made vanilla bean cupcakes with chocolate butter cream frosting from here. I didn’t change a single thing about the recipe because Joy is always very thorough in how perfect her recipes are (in my opinion). The vanilla bean was worth the price, and the frosting was awesome. Even Sugar Daddy said he liked it, and he isn’t a big fan of sweets.

Girl is trying to get every little leftover bit of frosting out of the bag! LOL!!!

My labels were made by her

Don’t you just love this little single cupcake container?! So precious! And the perfect way to deliver a special little treat to a friend.

InstaFriday- January 20

SugarMama — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:51:04 +0000

Wow! What a week it has been.

I have been so tired. What do you all do for that? And don’t tell me you work out regularly because that’s just not going to happen. Not to sound like an anti-workout type person, but I learned a long time ago that me and regular workouts just don’t go together.

Back to feeling tired… I think it’s the weather and lack of sunshine. I get this way every winter. Unfortunately I live in a state that is cold and overcast seven months out of the year. Have any of you tried one of those bright light lamps? I’ve heard they are good for seasonal moods.

Here is my week in phone pictures. And let’s just say I am ready for some spring cleaning, or more like spring organizing. I’m heading to IKEA and the Container Store next month to stock up on some stuff to get my baking cabinet and pantry in order. Just typing that gets me all excited!!!

Rainy day craft… my kids are creative, what can I say.

ha ha ha ha ha…. bet you thought I fixed my hair this way… nope, it’s just how I let it dry. My poor daycare kids have to look at this all morning. LOL!

This is driving me crazy! And soon, very very soon, it will be organized and corrected. Looking at this picture now gets me anxious. Ugh!

Can you guess what these are? They are cupcake containers!!!! I am about to get my bake on & plan to deliver them to brighten people’s day. Unless of course the cupcakes don’t turn out well, then I’ll use the containers for some sort of daycare project.

Oh Stella, how I love thee…

I got Sugar Daddy some plaid flannel shirts from LL Bean for Christmas. I thought they made him look like a sexy lumberjack. Did I really just say that? Well, it’s true. And he wears them practically every day. Nights out with him are always fun!

Frantz, our sponsored child in Haiti, sent us another letter and picture. We’ve had him now for 5 years and I’ve kept every letter. Some day I hope to meet him!!! He will be 8 this summer.

Current

SugarMama — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:40:52 +0000

This weekend was filled with basketball.

Have I mentioned that Calem has a great 3-point shot?

He does.

It’s also an overcast day. I have a love/hate relationship with cloudy weather. I love it. But I think my body hates it. Have you even noticed that cloudy & chilly weather makes you want to just curl up and read, write, or watch movies vs being active? Maybe that’s why I like it so much. Because working out has NEVER been on my fun list.

Say “hello” to Flash. He hasn’t been on the blog in a while and he was feeling a little left out. He is THE best dog we have ever had (and we’ve had several dogs). And he’s also the least expensive… we got him at the Humane Society. Someone paid big money for him from a breeder; he’s a Labradoodle. Hyper and loveable.

And this is Stella. She is such a sweety but I think she’d prefer being in a home with less activity. She’s VERY bashful and chooses to sit in her kennel a lot to be away from the chaos. She’s a mini Australian Shepherd; a very smart dog, but annoyingly shy. She climbs up on the big play set in the backyard and sits there for hours. I often wonder what she is thinking about????

And you know me with randomness… I am copying the idea from one of my favorite ladies; Ms. Hannah

current guilty pleasure: Cupcakes! I recently made some Pb, Chocolate, and banana cupcakes that were AMAZING!

current nail color: Essie Mink Muffs

current playlist: Brandi Carlile singing Heaven and The Story & James Morrison

current read: Never Let Me Go and What Good is God

current drink: water

current food: chips and salsa

current favorite show: Parenthood. It’s my date night all by myself… and every episode I laugh and cry.

current wish list: new camera lens.

current needs: time with friends.

current triumphs: getting all 8 daycare kids to take a nap at the same time for almost 2 hours. Awesome!

current bane of my existence: laundry. Always laundry.

current celebrity crush: I’m not usually a jump on the bandwagon type of girl, but this guy makes my palms sweaty and this guy’s voice makes me silly

current indulgence: a lot of time by myself

current blessing: my best friend coming to visit

current outfit: jeans, v-neck sweater, socks, converse, dog tag family necklace, watch

current excitement: visiting Mall of America and IKEA in February!

current mood: grouchy and restless

current link: recently been visiting this blog a lot

I’d love to get you know YOU… if you copy this to your blog leave the link in the comments below. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to copy & paste with your own “current” stuff in the comments. Hope it’s been a great weekend for you!

InstaFriday: January 13th

SugarMama — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:30:28 +0000

I love random.

So here goes some of that random in my life this week….

Pb, Banana, & Chocolate- & Owls

SugarMama — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:51:50 +0000

I didn’t make up this recipe, so I won’t post it on my blog, instead I’ll direct you to the place I got it from. She has much better photos also!

I did change one thing from the original recipe. I didn’t wait for the chocolate to harden… instead, I piped it into the center of the cupcake using a frosting tip. Cutting into each cupcake just sounded too tedious to me, and I had a hungry clan of children waiting to devour them.

I started with cute cupcake liners that I found at Sur La Table… LOVE them!

I didn’t get a picture with these yummy sprinkles on the frosting, but they added great color and they don’t have that funky fake chocolate flavor

After the cupcake baked and cooled for about 10 minutes I filled them with the chocolate. Yum!!!

I have TERRIBLE natural light in my kitchen, so everything always has this strange color that makes my food look terrible. But, I promise you, these were pretty… and delicious!

Oh… ooops! How did this photo get on here?! The frosting is amazing! And the recipe makes a lot. What else was I supposed to do with the leftovers?

New Year & Hello

SugarMama — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:37:50 +0000

The weather here, like most places, has been super mild. I’m not complaining, but I do miss snow. I miss bundling up in my favorite sweaters and thick wool socks. If it’s going to be overcast, it might as well be chilly. That’s just my opinion.

And I realize we are already into the second week of January, but seriously! I can’t get used to it being a new year yet! 2012 just sounds so foreign to me… futuristic will you. It’s going to be a fantastic year though, I can feel it in my bones. It’s just gotta be! Last year too much time was spent complaining. WAY too much.

I spent the last several days trying out a wide angle lens and loved it. BUT, I realized very quickly that I will not be happy with the off brand. You know what that means? It means I have to save a lot of money. It means budget grocery shopping and saying “no” to some daily things that can add up. It means dying my hair myself and having my husband trim it. And I’m okay with all of those things. Low Maintenance is my middle name. But just look at how cool that picture is! I can capture the entire room!

In the picture are 6 of my 8 daycare kids… the two missing are a brother and sister.

1) They are identical twin boys

2) She is a sweetheart! And her mom is pregnant (another daycare kid soon!)

3) She is a twin to the girl near number 4 with the purple glasses, but they are not identical

4) He is brother to the twins at number 1

5) That is an afghan my Grandmother made YEARS ago and it’s one of my very favorite things. And do you see the sad looking plant on my desk? I have since replaced it with a Bird’s Nest fern which I named “Birdie” . I name my plants if I like them.

I walked around outside taking hundreds of photos with the wide angle lens. Like this shot. Normally, I could care less about seeing a picture of my house, but I just love what the wide angle lens does to a photo. Have I mentioned how much I really liked the wide angle lens? Oh, and yes, those are blue Christmas lights on our house. And they are awesome. Daniel picked out dark blue lights and neatly trimmed our entire house; every angle. I was SO against blue lights at first… now I love them. And I love him.

Girl got a neat book for Christmas that has activities for Mom & Daughter to do together. One of the ideas was to pretend to be at a restaurant at dinner time. She decided to do this for for all of us. She made menus, seated us, took our order, and served us. If you look closely, the menu lists drinks and next to wine and beer it says “Must show ID”… LOL! I love her attention to detail. And, yes, under “beer” there are several choices from foreign dark lager to cheap light domestic. We like a variety. Oh, her waitress name was “Bean”. I love her.

This week we received the results for Teen’s Freshman ACT results. Um, he is smart. And I have to admit that I envy his ability to test well. I was an AWFUL test taker, and that is part of the reason I’m scared to finish my degree. Cade has the same problem I do with test taking. Poor kid! The way the school system is set up a kid really needs to be able to test well. Otherwise, it’s a challenge. Teen scored in the 100th percentile. Yes, 100. It’s crazy! And what makes it even more awesome is that he scores that high in math AND English AND science. I would love to have some of his smarts.

But you know what I love most about Teen? Moments like the picture above. I love him.

Daily Inspiration

SugarMama — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:00:31 +0000

I posted a few months ago about the Daycare room renovation, and it’s also the area for my home office. You will notice beside my desk there are two large framed cork boards. One is for the daycare kids; to display their art work. The other one is for me… I call it my inspiration board.

I have re-arranged things on it, but for the most part the same scriptures, quotes, and cards remain in place. They are a constant reminder of what inspires me. My husband made the boards… I could have them all over the house and love it!

1: A favorite quote and poem… the poem reminds me of the woman I AM, even when I’m feeling not quite myself

2: Letters from our Compassion child in Haiti, A favorite scripture, and another favorite quote

3: Post cards I got while attending Blog Sugar– I adore! My favorite one is the rocking chair and it says “Will it matter?”. Julie made it & it reminds me that right now is not forever… a time will come when I am older (and wiser) and I will remember the things that really DID matter. When I am stressed I ask myself “Will this matter?”. There is also another favorite scripture.

4: Cards from friends are a constant reminder of the goodness in this world. The one card with the tennis shoe and striped socks says “Don’t blend in” and it was sent to me from a friend. She said it reminded her of me, so it’s a reminder to be authentic… to just be ME. There is also a photo collage of my daughter saying “I love you”. I love her so much!