Labor (of love) Day

this weekend, i finally uploaded my photos to my computer.

i've been meaning to do this for a while. 

there are a lot of fun pictures to share, including some from my recent "how to use your camera you've had for 9 months lesson" with Sam Al-Khoury.

a huge portion of the photos involved my kids working on some sort of art project or another. 

anth has been on a painting/iron beading/sun-catcher kick. 

which, of course, i love. 

over Labor Day weekend, both of the boys and i had our own little creative adventures . . .

anth loves painting plaster figurines. 

this particular weekend included a monkey and a dolphin. 

this was a nice, easy, project to acquire at Michael's.

benny's?

not so much. 

as of late, the boys have been highly in love with the new version of Thundercats on Cartoon Network.

more specifically, ben loves an episode about the "Sword of Omens."

lately, he can be found brandishing pretty much anything and claiming it has the power of omen. 

or something to that effect. 

here is a visual of the sword for reference: 

note: while searching for the image above, i found a disturbing amount of photos of people who have tattoos of the same sword. 

okay, so i found like 5. 

but still. 

wow. 

i should really watch this show with bern and the boys to figure out what this sword can apparently do.

anyway. 

benny wanted a sword. 

and i was in my pajamas.  

so this is what he got. 

apparently, he was not impressed by mom's low-budget productions. 

(actually, he was upset about something entirely different and, apparently, unmemorable a few weeks later.)

but this next picture leads me to believe i offered him a reward if he stopped crying and took a picture. 

mom. 

of. 

the. 

year. 

my random little project on this day was food. 

one of my colleagues, alice, has recently turned me on to kale chips. 

i was working on these while anth was painting his dolphin. 

at some point, anth asked me to come over and help him with something, and i carried the baking sheet with the kale on it over with me. 

he took one look at it, forgot his question, and asked me what i was doing. 

i explained. 

"never mind, mom. i'm okay. i mean, that looks pretty gross already, so i really don't want to distract you and have that turn out worse. "

in(ter)dependence

benjamin likes to play sous chef in the savarese kitchen.
mainly when mommy is baking.
he is especially good at cleaning spoons with that pesky substance known as dough on them.

recently, ben's favorite thing to do is to stir.
note: i learned to stir the bowl a bit first before handing it off.
the hard way.
this is because when  you dont, and you have an eager child, this results in a small layer of flour on everything within a four foot range of said child.

he was excited to have the opportunity to stir up some brownies for me recently.
and, being the daddy's boy that he is, he is also always proud to show daddy whatever he has dreampt up, drawn, created, or recently accomplished.

bern came into the kitchen just as ben was finishing up his stirring responsibilities.
beaming, he declared, "look daddy! i'm making brownies all by myself! (pause)...with mom."

sometimes, there's not enough caffiene

this is often the case for me.
it was expecially so on monday.
when my mom, dad and i raided my kitchen/pantry area.
multiple times.
looking for my baking soda.

which i swore that i, of course, had.
because who doesn't have baking soda?

oh, that's right.
me.

remember this?

thankfully, my mom eventually remembered this old blog post.
becuase i didn't.
even though i wrote it.
and filmed it.
and it was technically a three part post.

and, yes, i am calling myself out.
i clearly have not had baking soda in my house for three months.
i am no martha stewart, but i actually do love to bake.
clearly, i have had a few things on the plate this quarter.

those of you who know my mother will not be surprised to find out that she has since gone to Kroger, bought baking soda, and made peanut butter cookies while i was at work today.
all is right in the world again.
thanks, mom.

my little coffee mate

i pretty much love coffee. 
and yet, i've mentioned before, i'm not ALL that amazing at making it. 
at least in a small batch for myself. 
keurig may just be the answer. 
in the meantime, the last coffee i bought was Macadamia Nut flavored. 
i usually go for good ol' plain coffee, but i felt a little...nutty?...that day. 
anth thinks that this coffee smells horrific. 


now, each night i try to make sure to pick out clothes for the next day, pack snacks & sippies for the little kids, make lunches for the big kids, and get my coffee ready to i can just press the button in the morning. 
anth is aware of this evening drill. 
and, has decided to use it to his advantage. 
he has recently started to offer to "help" me with this process...as a bedtime-avoidance tactic. 
his help generally consists of him pulling up a chair and standing there talking about Legos while i do the rest of the work. 
because i consider all of this to be memory-making, i allow his version of help. 
(though, to his credit, when we are making desserts or dinner, he is a legitimate part of the baking/cooking process.)


the other night, while standing on his chair, he veered off of the usual topic of legos and started suggesting cookies at every interval. 
for their snacks in the car. 
for mom and dad's lunch. 
for himself in that moment. 
helpful. 


when i went to get my coffee ready for the morning, stopped talking about cookies and leaned in really close to study what i as doing. 
as i scooped the ground coffee into the filter, he leaned back in sudden horror and literally gasped, " mommy, no WONDER it smells so gross! it's made of DIRT!!!!"

a nutty idea

bern and i buy our boys plenty of their own food.
i'm not sure why, seeing as they tend to choose the snacks or food items we hold most dear.
perhaps we should buy more of those.

in the last two weeks, anth has decided that he LOVES my Special K Cinnamon Pecan cereal.
fine.
i'll be the grown up and share with you, small child.
this weekend, anth and i were discussing the particular joys of both cinnamon and pecans as we both poured our bowls of cereal.
"mom, they are like, the best."


now, bern and i have completely different palates. 
bern is to mozzarella/provolone as krystyne is to blue cheese/pepperjack.
so anytime the kids choose something that leans toward my preferences, i get excited. 

the cereal discussion reminded me of a recipe i've been wanting to make for a while now.
i regularly frequent the blog kevinandamanda.com.
she does a lovely job of posting pretty photos and sharing fun tips on recipes, photography, blogging, etc.
she posted this recipe for candied pecans that i have been itching to make.
(even more so, i just want to smell them cooking. yum.)

so, i went into the kitchen to grab the recipe i had taken down from the site.
anth likes to play assistant in the kitchen, so i thought we could celebrate our mutual participation in the All Things Cinnamon and/or Pecan Club by baking these together.

i came back out of the kitchen to find anth slowly picking his way through his cereal and creating a small pile to the side of his bowl.
a small pile of...yep...pecans.

me: um, honey. we can get some more of those at the store.
anth: oh, mom. i'm taking those things out of my cereal because they are DISGUSTING.
me: (sets down recipe)

perhaps i can convince benny...


(note: pecans are baking now. and smell like bottled perfection.)

brownies, part 2

anthony has become an expert stirrer. 
a word normally used to describe humans? 
not really. 
but you find a better one and i'll happily use it. 
typically, anth stirs the brownies (same ones from last week's post) for a bit and mom comes in to do the final job of making sure there aren't pockets of brownie mix. 
assuming this usual role, i realized that anthony had done it. 
he had stirred the perfect bowl of batter. 
thrilled with this bit of progress (those of you familiar with StrengthsQuest, Developer is my 6th strength...), i clapped and asked him, "anth, when did you become a perfect stirrer?"
he nonchalantly shrugged and responded, "mom, you know, when you're 5, it all just kind of comes together." 

mission accomplished

last night, my friend kelly was flying into Columbus and staying at my house after an 11 day stay in South Africa. 
today i dropped her off at the airport to make her way back to Wisconsin. 
boo. 
hiss. 


in preparation for her arrival, and to thank my hubby for running to the airport on my behalf, anth and i made brownies. 
of the box variety. 
which, i swear, are more delicious to me than the ones from scratch. 


the general drill is that mommy does the measuring and anth does the pouring and stirring. 
last night, standing on his usual chair pulled up to the kitchen counter, anth glanced over at the refrigerator and abruptly stopped stirring. 
"mom, can i stop stirring? i have something to accomplish." 
i asked him what sudden mission he needed to complete, and he informed me that one of his drawings was crooked on the fridge. 
"...and i'd really like to straighten that out mom. unless you think you can accomplish that for me."