We are in the prime of some great fresh berries. They are ripe and naturally sweet … and best of all, they are beginning to show up on the sales circulars for all the major stores.

If you haven’t frozen fruit before – and berries are an easy one to start with – let me give you some pointers.

1. The most popular berries are all freezer-safe: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

2. You can freeze any of these with or without sugar.

3. Wash them first, but make sure that they are completely dry before you put them in the bag/container. You don’t want ice crystals to form.

4. Berries will keep in the freezer for 10-12 months.

5. I prefer to freeze berries in a bag, because they will lay flat. (Make sure that it is a freezer safe bag.)

6. Mark your bag (before inserting the fruit) and label it with the name of the fruit & the day that you put it in the freezer.

Personally, I don’t like the texture of thawed frozen fruit to just sit down and eat, but I do love it for smoothies, ice cream topping, desserts, etc. Although I think that frozen fruit retains it’s sweetness, I don’t think that it retains the firmness that it has fresh from the store. {Just wanted to put that out there!}

Check your sales flyers and get started freezing! It’s a very simple and inexpensive way to make summer last longer!

… and remember, there’s no cents in paying full price, so check your grocery flyers for produce sales. (There are some decent ones in Houston this week!)

* This post is part of a weekly segment on KSBJ Christian Radio. For more on segments featuring Stephanie Click, the Texas Money Mom, click here.

Ever want to know what your child thinks of you? Read the poem they are required to write for a school project, then “gift” you for Mother’s Day. That, my friends, will clear up any misconceptions that you might have had about “who” you are in the eyes of your kid!

This little gem is from Miss Piper …

On the cover she had to draw a picture and write adjectives about me:

Cute, smart, stylish, pretty, generous, and lovely.

Thank you, sweet pea. I’ll take those!

Now, for the journaling which is accompanied by hand-drawn pictures:

My mom looks beautiful. My mom looks cute. My mommy looks stylish. She looks very pretty. My mom looks cool.

My mom likes TV. My mommy likes Modern Family. My mom likes to work. My mom likes Justin Bieber. My mommy likes pets.

My mom makes me feel loved, huggable, and happy. She makes me feel loved when I hug her. My mom makes me feel huggable when we’re about the hug each other. She makes me feel happy when she takes me places like school and to buy toys.

My mom likes to sleep, kiss, and dance. My mom likes to sleep a lot. She really likes to sleep with me! She likes to kiss me before I go to bed. My mom likes to dance with me. She loves to be a dance teacher. She used to be a dance teacher!

(Piper made an 85 on this project. Her teacher said that she didn’t include enough “detail sentences”. I’m going to embrace this 85, because Piper has been known – in her school journaling – to include details that we would have rather her not shared. So, I’m gonna be ok with a “B” just this once!)

So, how did we spend Mother’s Day 2012? What ultra-exciting things did we do to celebrate me? We did nothing. We watched movies all day and laid on the couch and ended the day like this:

I asked Don to take a picture, because this for me is Mother’s Day — it’s my every day. Piper always falls asleep in odd positions. {Seriously, who can sleep like that and not wake up completely sore?) Avery, my cuddle bug, loves to be close when he falls asleep. And, no – I’m not still nursing and trying to make the cover of Time magazine … along with snuggling, Avery is also my “I drool in my deep sleep” kid! And, of course, sweet little Butch can’t be 4 inches away from me at any given time, so he’s right there too … And, I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Crockpot Chicken Spaghetti that didn’t get made last week. {This is a Pinterest find for me! What’s the sense in pinning these recipes if I never make them, right? I’ll report back on this one as well, but it looks heavenly!}

Hawaiian Ham Roll Sliders (I made these years ago and had forgotten about them. They are a hit with the kids.)

Today is our 6th anniversary of living in Texas. I can very honestly say that moving here is the best thing that ever could have happened to us. I say it all the time, but I ABSOLUTELY, without a doubt, 100% LOVE living here. Thankfully, we all feel the same way. The kids love it as much as Don and I do. Sweet little Texans – they don’t even remember living in Tennessee.

As an anniversary activity, I thought it would be fun to list the 5 things that we love about Texas. (You’ll notice that the girls wrote sentences and the boys listed just one word. This is a true representation of how it goes in real life.)

Don:
1. Weather
2. Cost of living
3. Schools
4. Arts and cultural opportunities
5. Attitude of the people

Stephanie:
1. I like that the cost of living affords us more opportunities as a family. No income tax, low unemployment, and high salary bases provides more for residents here.
2. I love how proud Texans are of their state! It’s completely contagious.
3. I love that we live in the medical capital of the US. People from all over the US come here for care. We felt that in full force last year when Don was sick. Although his illness was a mystery for quite some time, I always knew that there was no where else that we would receive the same quality of care.
4. I appreciate the religious values that are found here. Religion plays a huge part in the city and people are (for the most part) very respectful to those of other faiths. That’s important to me.
5. Anything you want you can find here! Anything.

Piper:
1. They have really cheap houses.
2. The weather is warm.
3. There’s a lot of stores to buy a lot of things.
4. They have good places to keep pets.
5. They have good schools.

Avery:
1. Weather
2. Schools
3. Houses
4. Great museums
5. Handprints in the driveway (When we were building our house, we came by the check the progress nearly every day. We were there the afternoon that they had poured the concrete for the driveway. We had the kids – in the very corner – put their handprints. Avery never wants to move, because we’d have to leave the handprints!)

Our meal plan this week is pretty straight-forward …

Monday – our Chili recipe is an easy one: 1 lb. ground beef, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato sauce, 1 can of tomato paste, and 1 packet of taco seasoning. Easy, easy, easy.

Tuesday – Pot Roast in the crockpot: I put the roast in a skillet and brown all sides. I sprinkle it with garlic salt as I’m browning it. After that, I put the roast in the crockpot with carrots, onion, potatoes and 1 packet of Lipton Onion soup mix. I cover it all with beef broth. I cook on low for 9 hours. It’s so so so yummy!

Wednesday – Kraft has a new product called “Fresh Take“. It looks like a breading mixture. I saw it in the store this week and thought it looked delicious. We’ll be trying it on chicken breasts. I’ll report back

Thursday – Crockpot Chicken in Spaghetti: this is a Pinterest find for me! What’s the sense in pinning these recipes if I never make them, right? I’ll report back on this one as well, but it looks heavenly!

Friday – we have a couple of events that will be pulling us several ways, so we’ll be eating on the run.

Saturday – we love making homemade pizzas, so we’ll divide up the ingredients and make (1) pepperoni pizza, (1) pepperoni, sausage, and black olive pizza, and (1) chicken pesto pizza.

Sunday – leftovers!

I have a lot of apps on my iPhone … a lot. Many. Pages worth. Really.

I have so many apps that I actually forget what I have and find myself sometimes saying “I wish there was an app for ‘that’.” When, in fact, there i

s an app AND I actually have it on my phone, but it’s lost in the sea of folders.

I’m going to try and do better.

But, last week, I was introduced to a new app called Posterity and it’s not going in a folder. In my world, you’re in the ranks with Pinterest and Facebook when you aren’t in a folder, so let that give you an idea of the significance that I think this app will have in my world of family memory keeping.

Forever, I’ve been keeping track of the funny things that my kids say. I had a time where I logged them via email, but truthfully – was falling down on the job. That’s when my amazing friend, Cherrell, gave me the gift of a lifetime: A children’s quote journal. I’ve done really well with keeping up with it. Honestly, it’s a treasure and between the journal and Project Life, I don’t think I’ve missed too many zingers.

With that said, what a God-send this would have been (and will be) for catching all the quotes that you don’t ever want to forget. Posterity’s interface is super easy to use – here’s a brief overview:

Click here to view the embedded video.

For me, I think $1.99 for this app is a steal. With each quote, I have the option of adding a pic, typing in the quote, and adding the date. There is also a timeline feature, so keeping them in order is easy!

Posterity has a Facebook page – be sure to follow them to get updates on how the app advances.

PS – I wasn’t paid or contacted at all about Posterity for this post. I just think it’s a super cool app that will be useful in memory keeping. 

Be sure to visit Jessica at The Mom Creative to get inspiration for your own Project Life.

Here’s what we were up to this week:

This necklace represents a very important part of my life. I only wear it during special times - the week before this was one of those! Only a select few people know what it means, but the bond that we share will last a lifetime!

Avery was so impressed that he finally learned to (kind-of) cross his eyes!

Allergy season is in full swing. With every plant that blooms, Piper's eyes swell more!

An article that I wrote for Sugar Creek's online magazine was out for proof. I was so thrilled with the great artwork that accompanied the article.

Piper's dance competition went great! Two platinum awards, a 6th place overall, a 2nd place overall, and a Little Firecracker "Class Act" award ... definitely a success.

Following the dance competition, we loaded up the car and went for our first family camping trip! We had a ball!

After a great night of camping, daylight broke and we enjoyed our final moments at the site.

My husband works a lot. Unfortunately, I’m not talking about his day job. I’m writing about the work that my husband does after 5 o’clock … probably some of his most important work – teaching kids to play music.

Music has always been a huge part of our family. Don and I are both accomplished musicians – Don played in the band/drumline all through college and I have a music minor and play several instruments. We are very passionate about every child that wants to learn to play music having the opportunity.

Although Don teaches many groups in our area, he travels to other parts of the country to teach a lot … like sometimes as much as 3 weekends out of the month depending upon the time of the year.

When our kids were little, we were both teaching band, color guard, dance, drumline – whatever we could get our hands into. We took the kids with us. We would hire the sibling of someone in said group to watch over them while we were busy. It worked because we had super easy babies – thankfully.

I always said that I would retire from teaching when it began to affect whether the kids could be involved in activities of their own. That time came 3 years ago. I gladly stepped aside and allowed Don to continue. Truthfully, it was a VERY easy transition for me. I’ve enjoyed being a gymnastics, dance, and theater mom. It’s a calling that I’ve looked forward to for a long time.

But, at the end of the day, the kids sacrifice A LOT of time with their dad. Since November, there have been 2 nights per week that he is gone completely. Because of his rehearsal times, he goes straight from work to the high school (an hour away) and doesn’t get home after rehearsal until the kids are asleep. This, coupled with his extensive travel schedule, equals the kids only seeing their dad about 2 nights per week … and actually less for Piper, because one of the nights that he’s home is an evening that she has dance class that doesn’t end until late.

On this particular day, those sacrifices came to a head – Don was leaving on a flight that he had forgotten was for that day (that’s another story!). Piper had a competition that weekend … he will miss it. Don told her “good luck” and “call and tell me all about it”. She responded “ok” and “sure!” – all the standard responses. But, about 45 seconds after his car pulled away from the driveway, it hit her that he was going to miss seeing her dance. She burst into tears. They flowed fast and it broke my heart.

Don misses so much with his own kids so that other people’s children will develop a love and appreciation of music. I think all of that is wonderful, but it’s times like this that I wonder if those kids ever stop to think about “us” – the ones left behind. Of course they don’t … I wouldn’t expect them too, actually. But it does make me shake my head on days like this!

On this day, as I dried the tears of a devastated little girl, I thought to myself “I hope that one day someone sacrifices for my kids in the same way that Don is doing. I hope that someone is so committed to teaching Piper or Avery something that they will put that talent above all else in their life.”

After I got Piper put all back together, I began to get Avery ready for a big event in his life – one that he’d been looking forward to for quite some time: A lecture by marine archaeologist and foremost authority on science regarding the Titanic, Dr. James Delgado. He was speaking at the Houston Museum of Natural Science – a lecture regarding findings on the Titanic and the science aspect of mapping the wreckage.

If you need to know anything about Avery, it’s that the child could defend a thesis on the Titanic. There is nothing that the boy doesn’t know. And, I’m not just talking about surface facts – he knows the nitty gritty things that go far beyond just your basic research. So, getting to hear a lecture from someone who is a leading expert and the last person who led an expedition to the actual site of the Titanic is a HUGE deal.

If there is one thing I’m not, it’s a history buff. This was something that was supposed to be a boy’s night – just Don and Avery. But, as mentioned before, Don had his flight booked for the wrong day … so with some help from great friends, I dropped Piper off and headed to the museum with Avery. I actually didn’t mind much. He was so excited that it was impossible not to be enveloped in his energy.

The lecture took place in a massive theater where they show IMAX type movies. It was large and I could quickly see two things: (1) Avery was the youngest person there and (2) he and I were quite possibly the only people without a PhD.

Dr. Delgado took the podium promptly. He has one of those voices that you could listen to for hours. I was completely captivated by his stories of “under the sea” and his dedication to the site where the Titanic rests. I had not ever really thought of the fact that the wreckage site is grave yard for 1,000+ people. Often, I think of scientists as being a little reckless in their work just to prove their scientific facts and gather evidence, but I was most impressed with Dr. Delgado’s commitment to those who didn’t survive the voyage – that they are being left to rest peacefully and with the utmost respect.

Avery brought his Titanic: The 100th Anniversary book and following the lecture, he waited very patiently to see if perhaps Dr. Delgado would autograph it. There was a thick crowd of adults asking highly intelligent questions of things that I won’t even pretend to understand, but through the crowd – Dr. Delgado saw Avery. From there, it was truly like a movie. He parted the lessening crowd and excused himself from those who were closer than we, came to Avery and said “What do you have there?” Avery showed him the book and I said “He’d really like your autograph.”

From a place that I didn’t see prior, Dr. Delgado found a chair and sat so that he was at eye level with Avery. He asked him his name and a couple of questions about what brought him to the lecture. He was so wonderful to this little boy who shared the same love of a ship that will never grace the surface of the sea again.

And, just like that, my son who has never wanted to be anything other than a veterinarian … in an instant decided that he was destined to be a marine archaeologist. If you’ve ever seen the movie October Sky, one of my all-time favorite movies, it reminded me so much of how Homer felt about Wernher von Braun.

Avery was thrilled, and encouraged, and challenged. I found myself standing in the foyer of the theater with slow tears coming down my cheeks as – just as I had prayed earlier that same day – someone took a little extra time to make my child feel special. Exactly the same thing that Don is so skilled in doing was now being paid forth to my son through this genius of a scientist! And my heart was happy and full of gratitude to God for allowing me to share this opportunity with my son.

A night that he will never, ever, forget.

Obviously, this is not me. You will discover this as you read on.

Let’s begin this post with the statement that “I Do Not Splurge on Myself.” I just don’t.

Designer clothes for the kids – always

Vacations – yes

Nice restaurants – definitely

But, pricey finds for myself (technology gadgets excluded) … doesn’t happen.

However, when I passed the 1 year mark with ACE and had 40 pounds lost because of it, I decided to ditch the warehouse store jeans and buy some real ones. All the rage with the teens at the dance studio and with my super stylish friend, “Mrs. E,” are the Miss Me jeans. Granted, I’m not a teen, but I’ve noticed that they scream Texas fashion and look cute on most regardless of age or shape. However, they are over $100/pair and never go on sale.

Leave it to me to be on Macy’s website looking around and come across a style that’s on clearance. For the low, low price of $86 they could be mine. It’s a bargain, right? I completely justified it in my head and made it ok. The catch – they only had 2 sizes left.

Now, I’m not nearly as cute as my friend, “Mrs. E” and our bodies are completely different shapes, but I thought we might be close to the same size, so I called to ask what she wore. Like a true friend, she told me! It was one of the sizes left in stock!!! Hallelujah!!!

I promptly put them in my basket and hit “purchase” before I changed my mind.

I waited 3 days until they hit my porch. I was so excited, but had all the usual anxiety that happens when you buy something in a size that you think might be too small, but you’re hoping for your self-esteem’s sake that it’s not. You know that feeling?

The jeans were cute as can be. Exactly what I wanted and wouldn’t you know, those 28s pulled right up, buttoned and zipped with ease. Except I realized that they were major low-rise. So, low-rise that part of my crack was still showing. A good inch or more to be quite honest!

I walked shamelessly down the steps to show my ever-supportive husband. Piper was laughing hysterically behind me. I said “Don, look at these jeans.” His response – such a typical male – “You’ll just have to wear different panties.”

“Really. Different panties???” I responded. “This is my crack,” I said as I pointed out the obvious!

If I sat down, I would dare say that the waistband would have been at the top of my thighs. This was something that different panties, no panties, Spanx panties couldn’t help … it didn’t matter. The panties were NOT the issue.

So, needless to say, I took them back to Macy’s. I can not be the only person that has a little “junk in the truck”. What are we to do?

I got to Macy’s and decided that maybe it was just “that pair”. Perhaps it was the fact that they were on clearance that made them so goofy. With that in mind, I grabbed another 2 pairs – each different styles – and headed to the dressing room.

Nope. Visible crack with both pairs.

Back to the rack. Won’t be showin’ no crack.

LOL.

So, I did the walk of shame to the regular jeans department. I made myself feel better by realizing that I could probably buy 3 pairs of jeans for the price I paid for that one.

I was completely frustrated by the process but did find a God-send of a jeans idea. Levi’s has introduced a concept where you pick your “curve ID”. The choices are slight, demi, and bold. Gals like me with a bubble butt, we are “bold”.

Here’s the official definition from Levi’s:

The jean for curvy women with a very defined waist, hip and seat. The Modern Bold Curve honors genuine curves, hitting just below the hip and hugging your waist without gapping or pulling.

That sounds like me, so I grabbed a pair and headed to the fitting room.

Stars and flowers, they were perfect! I mean … P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

They retailed for $78 and were worth every cent.

Next, I grabbed another little gem. These cuties are from Earl Jeans and come in petite length. I’m still not used to buying smaller sizes, so I really didn’t think that these would work, but they, too, are a perfect fit. There was no “curvy or not curvy” – just plain ‘ol size 6P.

I couldn’t find the brand listed online, so I’m not sure if this is a Macy’s store brand or just a smaller independent label. The jeans are great, though and if you are looking for something with the bling of Miss Me, then I recommend these. The cut is very similar (except a slightly higher waist and more booty coverage), and the back pockets are all jeweled up!

The retail price is $54, but Macy’s was offering a sale of $31.99/pair for these. A steal, I tell you!

With summer coming upon me, these 2 new pairs will get me through for a while and now that I’ve found pairs that I like – I might just buy jeans more often. (A friend also recommended LA Idol, so I want to try those as well.)

Do you have a brand/fit that you love? I’d be interested to hear about it. With so many body shapes and sizes, no wonder there are so many choices.

I am one of those people who require a lot of sleep. It’s always been that way and I’m pretty sure that I’ve been that way from the womb.

As a child, my mom always worked, so I had various babysitters that always required me to nap. I never looked forward to it and many times fought the idea, but felt so much better when I did.

In high school, I was so involved in activities that it left little time for napping or much of anything. But, I can distinctly remember, in this case, a recurring instance from my senior year. I started the day with an hour of jazz band. We were mostly juniors and seniors – there were about 25 of us. A tight knit group, we were good players that did about 50% life and 50% jazz band! There were always these references to The Tonight Show. Talks about guest interviews, the live band that was used, etc, would happen. The show aired at 10:30 each evening and try as I would, I absolutely could not stay up that late! If I was lucky, I made it to 10pm. Making it to 10:30 was completely out of the picture!

In college, I wised up and scheduled my classes around being able to take a nap. (Seriously? Good grief.) But, if I was going to be able to stay up late and get any sort of studying done, then I HAD to have a nap.

Fast forward to today and I’m still the same way. My husband shakes his head at how I can sleep 10 hours a night (my perfect sleep amount) and then take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, only to sleep 10 hours again that evening! In fact, I can chug down a fully caffeinated Dr. Pepper and sleep for 10 hours. It’s definitely a trait that many envy, what can I say?

As far as my ability to breed others just like me, I have had 100% success. Both kids began sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old. Thank you, Jesus. (Literally.) Avery doesn’t require as much sleep – just a full 8 hours will do him fine. However, he’s my lounge-child. He wakes up around 6am every morning, but you will NOT hear a peep from him until time for everyone else wakes up. The time that the rest of us are spending getting our final set of zzz’s, he is using to wake slowly. He will read, or watch television (which he can operate on his own), or just sit in complete silence and ponder visions of who-knows-what!  Piper, on the other hand, is my exact sleep clone. She does best with about 10 hours per night and wants to nap every day. She was SO disappointed when she started Kindergarten and there was no nap time. It took her quite some time to adapt. But, now, if we are home on the weekends, you can guarantee that she will nap for hours on end.

I know so many people have kids that don’t sleep. I seriously don’t know how you do it! I’ll just leave y’all with a Southern, good ol’ Texas “Bless Your Hearts.”