Quick Tips for Hard-Boiled Eggs

Easter is around the corner, and so is the annual Easter egg decorating with the kids! I always used to have a problem with eggs cracking while they were cooking -- too many in the pot, rolling around... Well, I saw this tip on a cooking show once and I've tried it many times with great success. Next time you need to boil a large quantity of eggs, layer them in between a clean dish towel (preferably white or white-ish), fill the pot with water and let it boil. The towel cushions the eggs, they cook just as if the towel were not there, but they don't break as easily!

And "Gramby and Grandpa" always tell me (and I always need to ask -- now I can just read this post!) that for the perfect hard boiled eggs, you put the eggs into a pot of cold water, bring the pot to a boil, then turn the stove off, leave the pot's cover on, and let the eggs sit for 15 - 18 mins. Rinse the eggs in cold water immediately, and then you can put them in a container in the fridge until you are ready to use them.

Mom's Microphones

My girls LOVE to perform -- if you've ever been to my house, you can vouch for this... They love to get up on the fireplace hearth and perform for an audience, they love to jump on my older daughter's bed and dance and sing, they love to get the step stool out of the bathroom and stand on it in the living room and sing. And their microphones? My older daughter grabs the Swiffer (mop) out of the closet and my little one grabs the (yuk!) fly swatter...

Recently though, my 8-year-old has been into using reusing materials -- boxes, bottles, toilet paper rolls, you name it -- and one night she showed me a microphone that she made out of stuffing a piece of paper towel into the end of an empty paper towel roll. She went off to school the next day, and I decided to surprise with my own version of a homemade microphone. I started by crumpling up a piece of paper towel and then wrapping that in a small piece of foil. I put that on one end of an empty paper towel roll, and and then I taped the bottom edges of the foil to the cardboard tube. Then, I covered the tube with a piece of black construction paper and taped that to hold it in place (this also covered and secured the bottom part of the foil). Voila! Very simple, very cute toy microphone -- and I made it all out of things that I had around the house.

I made 2 matching microphones -- one for each girl, of course -- and I surprised them with their microphones when my daughter got home from school that day, They just love them, and I haven't seen the fly swatter out of the closet since then -- yay!

Thinking Outside the Box!

My husband finally had time to put together my new treadmill yesterday, and I don't know who was more excited -- me about the treadmill, or my girls, about the big box that it came in! As soon as my husband took the lid off and flipped it over onto the floor, we both looked at the box top and saia, "Oh, THAT will be a boat!" And sure enough, within minutes the girls had claimed it for their own! At first, it was a big bed, then it was a fort, then a boat. They sat and had a snack in there, they played together, and for a little while they read together in there.

Honestly, we laugh about how when babies are little they are mostly interested in the tissue and the boxes as opposed to whatever gift might be inside. But, even as they get older, I find that my kids have a great time making all sorts of projects out of any box they can find. Shoeboxes become "Webkinz" condos, tissue boxes become mailboxes or cars -- my older daughter recently made quite the convertible for her dolls out of a tissue box. Looking for something to entertain the kids? Give them an empty box, some safety scissors, and some markers and let their imaginations run wild! And hey, it's a great lesson in the 3 "R's" -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Update to Sobbing...

Hooray! As you can see, I have a new keyboard, so I am back in business! And, in addition to the new keyboard, we have some new (well not NEW, but newly reinforced!) rules for the computer desk -- no food, no drinks!! It was my girl's cup of water, but we all suffered together -- I could not get onto my blog or check my budget, and she could not get into Webkinz! $15 later at Staples, and we have a new (albeit Barbie-sized) Logitech keyboard. But we had not desire to spend a lot for a fancy keyboard -- just in case we forget the rules again...

Sobbing Ov Spill'd H2O

OK, H2O spill'd on -- can U gu_ss? Missing half of m k_boad... B back soon!

:)