I woke up with no 'plan' or 'must accomplish tasks and asked the kiddos what they might like to do. It rained here really hard last night so we decided against the park or playing outside and decided to check out storytime at the main branch of the library. We haven't been to a regular storytime for quite awhile, especially at the main branch so this was a lot of fun. We did all the crafts afterward and stayed to play with the toys for quite some time. I think Noah shot baskets with the basketball hoop they had set up for at least 20 minutes.
When we left, I asked them what was next and they requested a trip to the store to pick a special lunch. So off we went. Trooping down the aisle, Kayla says "Mama, can we pick a new smell for the scentsy?" So we stood in the store and literally smelled every one of the wax tarts before finally settling on cherry vanilla parfait. They got their lunches (chicken strips, mac & cheese with a brownie for Noah and a build your own pizza for Kayla) and on the way out I let them climb up on the mechanical horse and go for a ride. Apparently this has made me the coolest mom ever - who'd have thought. Usually I am so focused on getting OUT of the store that it wouldn't even dawn on me that it might be something they'd like. I spent 2 cents (one on each kiddo) and made their whole day. Apparently it really is about the little things.
Stepping out of the store, though, I had second thoughts about the decision to stop for the pony ride as during the time we'd been inside the sky had turned literally black. We're standing there as a huge bolt of lightning streaked in front of us causing us to hightail it back to the car just as gigantic drops started to fall. We made it back to the car only a little worse for the wear and we're so taken with the storm that we sat in the parking lot just to watch the lightning storm for awhile.
Pulling into the neighborhood it was still raining a bit. We rounded the corner to find a huge puddle overtaken by an entire family of ducks going for a swim! Again, I'd normally probably grumble about having to wait until the ducks moved to make it home, but the kids were so excited about watching them it was all good. Can I remember this lesson more often? Next time I'm feeling stressed about making it to the next place, or accomplishing the next item on my to-do list, hopefully I can remember smelling all the scentsy, riding the pony, watching the lightning or enjoying the ducks puddle antics. I don't know about most Moms, but this is a tough one for this Mama and something I know I need to work on. I've said before that I never pray for patience (because then God tests it to prove you have it) but maybe I should pray for the ability to actually enjoy stopping to 'smell the scentsy'...
In other news around here, it's National Tapioca Day. I've actually never cooked with tapioca before so this was kind of fun. I made a traditional tapioca pudding (which I didn't know could be served warm or cold, I've only ever had it cold before) that everyone enjoyed. Then for dinner I made baked pineapple with tapioca. The kids LOVED this. It was kind of like a pineapple custard with a touch of cinnamon. I'd definitely recommend it for a ham or pork side dish, though it did go really well with our sausage cornbread bake tonight :)
I'm enjoying watching Scherzer dominate (again!) with a 4-0 lead in the 4th inning right now, and I'm off here shortly to prepared the Almond Buttercrunch for tomorrow. We're taking the kiddos to see Monsters University (finally!) in the morning and then we're going to a concert put on by the Detroit Philharmonic tomorrow night (I am so excited about this one). So until then...
Tapioca pudding
Noah riding 'Sandy'
Kayla, too!
Baked pineapple with tapioca
My latest creation - stuffed brownies. A layer of brownie, a layer of Cookies 'n Cream candy bar and then another layer of brownie. I'm thinking the possibilities with this one is endless - thinking my other half would devour them with crushed up reese's cups in between....
No comments:
Post a Comment