Who needs to plan when you can procrastinate?

I'm starting Christmas presents now. I still won't get them all done in time. Planning ahead does nothing but prolong the period of guilt I give myself.

Yet another reason why Procrastination ROCKS!

Hey, so yeah...

So yeah...

Here's what I've been doing in no particular order:
- homeschooling three children
- keeping a house in running order (somewhat)
- potty training the last of four kiddies
- renewing my love of yarn, thread, and all things crafty
- changing my hair color several times
- working with the high school and college-aged kids at church
- trying to remember what my friends look like
- spending time with family

Here's what I haven't been doing, once again in no particular order:
- blogging
- I still don't scrapbook


Seriously though, I may just stop this blog and move on to another one. I feel like a particular theme for blogging would help me keep it up. For more info, check my Twitter.

Do you know the muffin man?

Fact: I like to bake when it gets cold.
Fact: I have shredded coconut in my freezer.
Fact: I have bananas that are getting mushy.
Fact: I do watch The Office.

My kids like muffins. I think I've established this in a previous post. I like to put fruit in them for the health factor, but plain banana-nut and apple muffins are getting old. I was playing around with a basic recipe and came up with a tropical muffin. I'm thinking of calling them Banana Colada muffins, but I'm pretty sure that one of the kids will tell Pastor Scott that Mommy gives them Banana Coladas.

So here's the recipe:

1 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/3 c. shredded coconut
canned pineapple (chunks or crushed)
1 small ripe banana
milk (I used soy milk and it worked great)
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 beaten egg
1 t. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. If you feel like making way more work for yourself, feel free to skip this step and just grease the muffin cups. I don't know anyone who enjoys scrubbing muffin cups, but hey, whatever floats your boat!

Mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and coconut in a bowl.

I used pineapple chunks, so I put about 8 chunks and the banana in my mini food processor and pureed it until all the lumps were gone. If you use crushed pineapple, you could just mash the banana with a fork and skip the processor. Put the banana and pineapple in a measuring cup, and add enough milk to make the total liquid amount 1 cup. You could definitely play around with the amounts of banana and pineapple. Add more pineapple than banana if you want, but don't exceed 1 cup total.

Stir the pineapple mixture, oil, egg, and vanilla into the dry ingredients. It's going to be a little thick. Spoon it into the muffin cups, and bake for 20 minutes.


If you really wanted to get fancy, you could add a teaspoon of rum extract instead of the vanilla. Oh, and don't omit the oil, the banana doesn't add enough fat to keep them from getting too dry.

If you want to destroy my sweater...

I'm such a proud Mommy! It seems that one of my children has adopted my love for yarn. In fact he loves it so much, that my stash is no longer safe, and I have gotten very good at untangling masses and re-winding balls.

I'm wondering how hard it would be to teach someone without opposable thumbs to knit or crochet...

Seriously, though, Goliath LOVES yarn, and I have to be very careful about what projects I leave laying around. On the plus side, he might actually enjoy a hand knitted sweater (if it ever gets cold enough here for him to need one).

Oh, and please ignore all the little bits of things in the corner. My vacuum cleaner won't fit in that spot and I'm too lazy to deal with the tube thing. You may also notice the little plastic ball shoved into Hubby's speaker. Monster discovered it would fit perfectly when he was about a year old. He was so advanced for his age!

Downward Dog sniffing your hair anyone?

We got the kids a dog for Christmas. Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, we adopted a beautiful, two and half year-old (non-pure bred) black lab. Yes, I know all about the numerous animals waiting to be adopted in shelters nationwide. No, I would never pay for an inbred puppy from a puppy mill.

What we wanted was a calm, already housebroken, big dog that would be good with the kids. I don't see the point in little dogs, and let's face it, the dog is going to get stepped on at some point. I would prefer that he doesn't get broken when it happens. What we got was a 62 pound dog named Goliath who thinks he needs to be sitting right next to or on me no matter what I'm doing.

Take this morning, for example. I've been slacking on the yoga over Christmas break. How much concentration do you think I can manage with all four kids running around? Well, I started back today, and the dog was more than happy to help. Laying on my back meant kisses to my face (ugh, dog breath); downward facing dog meant a wet nose on my neck and snuffling noises in my ear; warrior pose meant the dog trying to peek under my legs.

He's even helping me type right now. Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun.

Just getting back in the flow of things- HA!

Yeah, I know it's been a while. It was Christmas- I totally blame Christmas.

I'm gonna ease back into this blogging thing by sharing a website I found through momlogic. Which is also an excellent site, by the way. It's called Tampon Crafts, and how could you not like it already?

I'm also sharing a video of Aunt Flo playing a tampon pan flute. Oh yeah, I said Aunt Flo. Enjoy!

Uh, duh Mom! Do you see a doggy here?

He wants "wed." My poor, little, sick Monster wants "wed." Only his Mommy (maybe his Daddy) would know that he means Gatorade. He knows that when your tummy hurts, you get Gatorade, but he doesn't remember what it's called, so he asks for "red."

I think I may have to add another language to my resume. Not only do I speak English and ASL, but I also speak monster.

I'm still learning, though. Earlier this week, he told our Pastor that he didn't have a Daddy anymore. I could've sworn that's what he said. Pastor Scott and I laughed and asked him to repeat himself, which he did, in a very condescending tone. Turns out he was commenting on the fact that Pastor Scott left his doggy at home. Of course, he acted like we were idiots because we didn't notice the missing dog.

I figure by the time I learn to speak it fluently, he will have grown out of it. I have to admit, that makes me a little sad.