V and Co: i miss my sewing machine...but...

 i haven't touched my sewing machine for over a week. maybe it's been almost two.
sigh.
i really miss it.
i have been thinking of a butt load of fun things to make...and yet...no sewing and no crafting has happened.

no, instead i find myself traveling in the car to and from concert band, jazz band, orchestra, gymnastics, reading camp, and scouts. phew!
every morning we are up and at em.
man, i spend a lot of time in the car.
but it's okay, my kids are happy and active in things they like. and it gets us up and moving as a family early in the am.
i can't complain, i also enjoy the time i have in the car with each individual child to each individual activity we are heading to or from.

this year we have our summer schedule again (but this time i laminated it, thank you very much! oh and i spelled vacuum right this time!)

every day they are responsible for things that aren't on the list (i.e., pick up room, make bed, take laundry up to the laundry room)
i put pick up rooms on wednesday as a more "deep clean" pick up room, as in check the closet for all the stuff that was stuffed in there to hide it, remove all excess toys on top of dressers and so forth.

and this year we added a fun little experiment to our chore list

this year we have added timed increments to each chore, and a small allowance to be earned for each chore completed either by or before the time is up.
for example for bathrooms they each have 10 minutes of hard work (each child doing something different) and when the time is up they get either 25 to 50 cents depending on the chore (bathrooms are 50 cents, dusting is 25 cents).

what?
too cheap you say?
nope.
not when you go to the pool everyday and their snack bar consists of items from 25 cents to 4 dollars.
my kids love to earn their day's snack junk at the pool by finishing up small increments of chore times.

oh go ahead say it "but vanessa you have a teenager! wont he totally say "whatever, don't care, i have money from my birthday anyways.""

yeah, well here's my answer: no work= no pool or video game time or friend time. so you can either work and get paid enough for the snack bar or you can get nothing and the whole family suffers that day.

it's never come to that thankfully. because my kids know i'll do it. i don't threaten, i follow through.

i also have decided that 5 to 10 minute increments of time is a huge amount of time when there is motivation to get the chore done.
every day we have finished most of our chores by 10 even in between all the traveling we have been doing for the summer activities.

my minions are doing awesome, and i love that this experiment of small timed increments has worked out so well.
we go to bed with a relatively put away, clean house, and wake up having to just hit the scheduled chores to keep it up.

i think i may try this on just me when they go back to school. because let me tell you when you only have 5 minutes to pick up the master bedroom and you don't want to be the only one that didn't do it in the allotted time, you'd be amazed at just how darn fast your butt can get in gear. i think i'm going to give myself 10 minuted every day to tackle the storage room that houses all my fabric scraps. perhaps a scraps giveaway and listing some fabric in the shop? hmmmm. we'll think about that later on.

i've said it before, and i'll say it again. one of my favorite things about the midwest is the fireflies, and the clouds.

 this looks like it's some kind of smoke billowing from some far away fire...but they aren't they are clouds. this was the scene when i looked east from my back yard.

and this is what i saw when i looked west later on that evening on my husband and my walk. 

i love the midwest clouds. my husband is like "why are you so weird about the clouds?" and i'm like "they totally look like "Toy Story" clouds and then at other times they do weird things like...blah de be blah blah blah." yes, by that time he tunes me out. what can i say i like them. it makes me happy. happy makers they are.

so yes, i've been feeling like i really would love to put in some sewing time. and i will here and there. (there has to be a rainy day in there again sometime right?) or perhaps one day the kids just decide they want to stay home and make quilts one day instead of going to pool. no? well maybe. you never know.

but for now, i'll enjoy the things that are making me happy till i can get back to the other thing that makes me happy...sewing.

:) we'll talk soon.

V and Co.: snicker doodle ice cream cookies

one thing is for sure. having the kids around 24/7 is quite the shock the to system that might throw you in for a tail spin after having them be gone for 6 hours at a time for the school year.
here's a fun and easy way to get a few "awesome mom" points and you might just get a few minutes of quietness due to the fact that the kids will be stuffing their pie holes with the yumminess of these treats.

 first things first you will need individual cups of vanilla ice cream kept frozen. (these obviously are from walmart.)
and then you will need snicker doodle cookies.
the recipe i used goes as follows:
SNICKER DOODLE COOKIES:
ingredients:
 3 3/4 cups flour                              2 eggs
 1/2 tsp baking soda                        1/4 cup milk
 1/2 tsp cream of tar tar                   1 tsp vanilla
 1/2 tsp salt                                     3 tblsp sugar
 1 cup margarine/butter                  1 tsp. cinnamon
 2 cups sugar
preheat oven to 375 degrees
directions:
-stir together flour, soda, cream of tartar, and salt. set aside.
-beat butter for 30 seconds in the mixer, then add 2 cups of sugar and beat until fluffy.
-add eggs, milk, and vanilla; beat well in mixer till smooth.
-add dry ingredients, one cup at a time until it's all combined and mixed well.
form dough into 1 inch balls and roll in the mixture of the 3 tblsp sugar and cinnamon.
-place the balls 2 inches apart (optional: flatten a little bit, i never do cause i'm lazy like that.)

cook for around 8 minutes till just slightly golden brown.
cool on cool rack.

for the ice cream cookies cool completely otherwise the ice cream will melt. i would say even give it a full day of cooling if you can.

 now onto the the ice cream cookie part!
your cookies should be fully cooled down, and your ice cream cup should still be frozen.
get just a little bit of cinnamon. as we will only be using a pinch in each cup.

 for each cup you will need two cookies and pinch of cinnamon and a spoon for mixing. :)

 just place a pinch of cinnamon in each cup (if you are having your kiddos help either do the cinnamon yourself of have them use the cinnamon dispenser and shake a little into the cup)

because we don't want the ice cream to melt we will just mix the cinnamon a little bit.

then scoop up the ice cream and place it between two flat sides of the cookies.

eat and enjoy your yummers snicker doodle ice cream cookie.

and enjoy the little bit of peace and quiet you will get while your kiddos nom nom nom on the yummy cookies. 

V and Co signing off on how to survive having your kids home after you've enjoyed er i mean...you've had a school year long of 6 hours a day where your kids are being perfect angels to those awesome teachers of theirs! 

bring on summer. 

i'm grabbing it by the horns!