Seriously, When is my 'Mom of the Year' Trophy Arriving?

Yet again, my amazing mothering techniques were on display for all to see today. It's Wednesday, so you know what that means. Yep, Tiny Tots day. The Sliding Mat of Danger was back again, but the teacher had it turned on its side, so it wasn't near as tall as it has been in the past. In fact, the mat was so short, I could reach about 3/4 the way up. (Are you impressed with my use of a fraction? I am.) So Kyle was first to climb The Mat of Danger, and since I was able to reach farther, I was giving him a little help. Problem was, I helped him a little too much. As he neared the top, I gave him a little extra boost, which sent him up and over the top of the mat and pinned him between the wall and the back of the mat.
And what did I do? Did I scale the mat myself to rescue my child? Try to run behind it in case he dropped to the ground?
Um, No.
Rather than actually trying to save my child, I choose to use the Jan Approach to critical situations: I screamed out.
"Oh no! I've lost him!"
Of course Kyle was busy putting on a dramatic showcase all his own. As the teacher climbed up behind the mat to rescue him, I just knew I had traumatized my child for life. But, surprisingly, the little dramatist shook it off and went right back to Danger Mat climbing. I couldn't believe it! In the end, the day turned out just like Kyle and I like it...crisis averted and hoopla aplenty.
(And by the way, my "helping" was much more minimal for the rest of class.)

Lip Service

Just add this to the list of things I never thought I'd say.
It was right before bedtime when I found myself chasing Kyle around the house screaming, "Get Baby Jesus out of your mouth!" "Kyle! Stop! You can't eat Baby Jesus!" I guess JR's Christmas play didn't have much of an impact. Poor Baby Jesus. He was almost eaten by a hippopotamus, He's been thrown down the stairs more times than I can count, and last night He was a stand-in for Kyle's pacifier. I'd say that's a Savior you can count on!

It's Play Time

This is my 300th post of the year, Yeah me! My goal was to have 300 blog posts this year, but don't worry, I won't quit on you now that I'm there. You know me, so goal and task oriented. (Is that laughter I hear out there?) I'm telling ya, being married to Jason for 8 years has really rubbed off on me. I was telling him the other day about a situation and the words, "and it's just so frustrating because it's so disorganized, and you know me, I really like having a plan" actually came out of my mouth. I started laughing as soon as I heard myself say it. I'm still the master of the multi-task, but my ability to make plans, to-do lists, and write things down has increased tremendously around all these A-type Ingersolls I live with. And what is the subject of my 300th post you ask? Oh just a few of my favorite things: JR, Kyle, Reed, and a Christmas play.

Isn't this the sweetest picture ever?! I know, I know I'm the mom that was taking pictures during the prayer instead of praying. But come on, how could I miss out on that little snapshot? So the Christmas play at church was really sweet. JR was very upset that Kyle and Reed were going to attend. He kept saying, "But they'll be bad, they'll make too much noise." Thankfully, they did a great job. They clapped and danced along with most of the performance (it helped that there were lots of songs), and if they even looked like they were thinking about "being bad" Jason and I handed them a cookie. Yes, our parenting skills are really quite amazing. Here they are dancing along. I'm not sure they realized they weren't actually in the play.

Here are some shots from the evening, and then a video with JR saying his big line. He was so excited to get "a part" and practiced and practiced. I kept telling him he got the best line in the whole play..."Jesus makes Christmas!"

It Was a Party!

I know I've gone 2 days without updating, but I've been in fast and furious baking and cleaning-up mode. I was getting pretty nervous that I would be the one eating all these baked goods when it started snowing yesterday. But with 44 people coming by last night, I'd say our open house was a huge success. Jason's Texas chili (7 pounds of meat worth) was a big hit with the Coloradoans, and my baked goods seemed to go over well with our younger guests. And you know it was a fun party if we were too busy to take pictures! Harry took this one of Jason and me before the party started, and it's the only one we took all night. Although, I did snap some pictures of the tables right before the guests arrived.

Sausage, craker, and cheese platters also a huge hit. Leftovers = none!

Baked goods area

Candy cane kiss brownie bites...super yummy

Beverage center (And yes, that's that the super yummy slightly famous coffee punch in the punch bowl.)

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I Told You So!

I told you the next thing you knew I was going to be making food posts! Our Christmas Open House is this Saturday night (If you live in Durango please swing by) and I started baking for the party last night. You might be thinking, "Jan, Did you say 'baking'? But you aren't a cook." No, a "cook" I am not. But I'm a decent baker since there's no guess work, it's all right there on the recipe. As my aunt, Pam-Pam, (who was an amazing cook) used to say, "If you can read, you can cook." I'm not so sure about that for actual cooking, but baking...absolutely. So last night was tea cake night. Tea cakes are one of the messiest, labor intensive, pain-in-the-hiney cookies you can make, but I remember making them at Christmas with my parents when I was little, so I guess that's why I want to do it every year. That, and JR must have said, "This is so much fun" at least a dozen times. Now this particular tea cake recipe was Memaw's (my mom's mom), and is so old it doesn't even have a baking temperature written on the recipe card since she made them in a wood-burning stove. (Which would have to significantly increase the pain-in-the-hineyness factor of these cookies. It's a wonder they ever got made.)

I started out trying to take pictures just like a real food blog, but that got blown out the window after the first shot.

Standard food blog shot: the ingredients (except half of them aren't even in the picture, and JR is...obviously you see where my priorities are.)


And then we'll just skip a whole bunch of steps of measuring, pouring, and mixing and we'll jump right into the rolling and cutting out.

I have to say, Harry was an amazing cookie maker last night. I'm now convinced rolling dough (for dumplings) is an inherited Chinese trait. I kept telling Harry, "Wow, This is obviously in your genes." You'll notice Harry is using Ayi's Chinese rolling pin. You'll also notice by a shot of Reed's foot that I had Reed and Kyle plopped right up on the island. Great, now I'm going to have the Board of Health after me too.


We finally had to give Reed, master of getting in everybody's business, his own dough to "play" with. Although in his mind there wasn't any playing going on...just lots of Top Chefing.


Look at the concentration on that face, making sure his cookie-cutter is in just the right place. And in classic Kyle and Reed fashion, you'll notice Kyle in the background. He was playing with the sink.

Woo-Hoo! Perfect cookie!

So after the rolling, cutting, and decorating (green sprinkles were the choice last night) the cookies go in a 350 degree oven (but I always have to call and ask my dad to make sure since, like I said, it isn't on the recipe).

And I know I'm supposed to have a picture of the finished product. Yeah, oops...forgot that. But all the boys were really busy eating the practice cookies (our first batch) for dessert last night, and said they were delicious. Plus, the first thing out of Reed's mouth this morning was "Cookie! Cookie!" All of which point to a total success in tea cake making.

I'm So Well Rested!

Such a wonderful morning I had! School was delayed for 2 hours and I made the executive decision not to tell JR before he went to bed last night. (If he had known, he would have been up at 6:00. Telling JR he gets to sleep in is a sure fire way to have him awake 5:58.) Thinking it was a normal school day, I heard the elephant thudding, I mean, pitter-patter of JR's feet at 7:42. 7:42...Ahhh. Sleeping in was beyond fabulous! The babies and I headed out to Tiny Tots and we were the only ones there. How come the native Texan was the only one at The Tots?! What's up with that, Coloradoans? Well, maybe it had to do with people's cars around town still looking like this. (And please forgive my poor picture taking skills...these were shots taken as I drove by.)

And before we go, let's check in with the Ingy Kitchen Counter Weather Station. Shall we have a little look-see?

Yep, that's what negative 2 looks like, Texas.

Yard Art Doesn't Really Work Here

We Texans thought we had gotten a lot of snow yesterday. Here's Jason using his brand new snow blower. You might recall when we were moving here Jason was told we needed a snow blower. His reply, "I have a leaf blower. Will that work?" We have learned that indeed, no, a leaf blower would never work.

What a difference a night makes. Here's Jason snow blowing about 7:30 this morning.

Jason had a little trouble trying to get to the office this morning.

It snowed so much, Durango cancelled school! (That very rarely happens.)

JR sledding with our across the street neighbors in their front yard.

More front yard sledding


I learned another good lesson last night. It's fine to decorate the front porch for Christmas.

But I now see why I was the only one with yard art.