The Mediocre Mom's Guide to Greatness

Friday March 12th, 2010

Today’s Activity:

Baking day!  Start some Amish Friendship bread.  I would suggest scrolling down and reading the comment from Baked that was left Nov. 20th, 2007.  Also, it is easiest to store this in a plastic Ziploc bag and just massage the bag rather than stirring the dough.  Once you get to day 10 then go here to learn what to do next.

Note:

If you’ve never done this before it is a lot of fun and it about 10 days you will have some yummy bread!

Evaluate:

OK- let me translate this recipe for you.  I’ve only done this before after someone gave me the start and this was the recipe I found.  While the recipe helped me I would suggest a few differences.  First off save yourself some dishes and just mix the yeast and water in your liquid measuring cup.  Second, put the flour and sugar directly into a Ziplock bag and mix it in there.  Also, read the comment that I mentioned before and when you give this to someone make sure you give them the information included in the comment as well as the baking directions that are in the second link I gave you above.  Hope that helps.  Also, the kids weren’t too disappointed that we didn’t actually bake something today because Max just wanted to go play with friends.

Also, if your little ones are anything like mine they will think that smooching a Ziploc bag is WAY more fun that stirring something with a spoon!

Tags: Amish Friendship Bread, baking, indoor, recipe
Posted in Average Length Activities | No Comments »

Friday February 26th, 2010

Monthly Goal:

Today I played go fish with Max.

Don’t forget to leave a comment about something good you did today so you can be entered in our drawing for a $25 GC.  Go here to learn more about our giveaway.

Today’s Activity:

It’s baking day.  Bake something yummy.

Note:

If you are sick of all the Valentine treats then bake something non-sweet.  I just might make a spinach artichoke dip to pare with tonight’s dinner.

Evaulate:

My mom got the perfect brownie pan for Christmas and she had not used it yet.  Max loves that infomercial and has been begging to borrow it.  So today we did.  Elese decided that she suddenly doesn’t like brownies.  We did use a mix and usually I use my MIL’s scratch recipe so that could be it.  Max, on the other hand, couldn’t stop saying “This brownie is perfect!”  I have to admit that they were pretty darn good…but bad for my diet.

Tags: baking, indoor, perfect brownie pan
Posted in Average Length Activities | 2 Comments »

Tuesday February 16th, 2010

Monthly Goal:

Today I said yes when my kids asked for treats.  They ate WAY too many sweets but you should have seen the look of surprise on their faces every time I said yes.

Don’t forget to leave a comment about something good you did today so you can be entered in our drawing for a $25 GC.  Go here to learn more about our giveaway.

Today’s Activity:

Today is Mardi Gras.  Do a little research and have your own little Mardi Gras at home.

Note:

Don’t forget to play some Jazz music in the background!

Evaluate:

I went a little overboard and decided to make some homemade king cake.  It didn’t turn as pretty as the real thing but I think it tasted better.  The kids enjoyed having an extra treat before bed and learning a little bit about Mardi Gras.

Tags: baking, Mardi Gras
Posted in Average Length Activities, Cooking, Holiday | 1 Comment »

Friday February 12th, 2010

Monthly Goal:

Today I let Elese take her time as we walked home from dropping off Max for school.  I enjoyed watching her collect sticks and sing a little song she made up, “Magic, magic come alive and count to number five.  One, two, three, four, five!”

Don’t forget to leave a comment about something good you did today so you can be entered in our drawing for a $25 GC.  Go here to learn more about our giveaway.

Today’s activity:

It’s baking day!

Note:

If you would like you could bake something Valentiny and leave some on a neighbors door step as a special Valentine surprise.

Evaluate:

We were having a cookie exchange for a church activity so we decided to bake my favorite cookies, Rolo cookies.  We’ve made them here before.  Here’s the link with details.  My kids love them and they can help unwrap the rolos without getting in the way of the actual baking.

Recognition!

Joylyn took her kids to the adventure club at their mall.  I’ve never heard of that but it sounds like fun!

Come on ladies!  You all deserve some recognition.  What did you do today?

Tags: baking, Giveaway, valentines
Posted in Average Length Activities, Cooking, Giveaway | 1 Comment »

Friday January 22nd, 2010

Today’s Activity:

Bake something yummy with the kids.

Note:

I’m making my favorite new bread recipe.  If it is ready in time for dinner serve it with Jam and call it dessert!

Evaluate:

Our day filled up pretty fast today so I wasn’t able to actually bake the bread but we did get the dough mixed and we are going to make it tomorrow.  That is one of the great things about this recipe, you don’t have to make it right away, in fact you could even wait up to 2 weeks to bake it!  The kids weren’t too excited about making the bread because they just wanted to play but once they started helping me measure stuff out they couldn’t agree on who got to help me next because they both wanted a turn.

Tags: baking, bread, indoor, recipe
Posted in Long Activities | No Comments »

Friday January 8th, 2010

Today’s Activity:

It’s baking day.

Note:

Here’s the recipe I’m using.  I’m going to be making these. You have to scroll all the way down to get to the recipe. I may even borrow the perfect brownie pan that my mom got for Christmas from her Brother-in-law.  Max LOVES that infomercial!

Evaluate:

This was not my best baking ever but at least I had fun with the kids.  They turned out pretty good but not really as good as I had expected which works out great for the diet.    The main thing I didn’t like is that the actual brownie was very cakey which my husband loves but not me.  Plus I messed a few things up in the recipe so if you are choosing to do this recipe read it before you start actually cooking.  For instance I used cocoa instead of melted bakers chocolate.  After adding the cocoa I read that if you choose to use cocoa then it should not be added at the same time you would add the bakers chocolate.  I’m not sure if this REALLY effected the end result but it did make me wish I had read through the recipe first.

Tags: baking, brownies, BYU mint Brownies, indoor, mint
Posted in Average Length Activities, Cooking | No Comments »

Wednesday January 6th, 2010

Today’s Activity:

Although the mistletoe is put away show your husband you appreciate him by giving him a big hug and kiss when he gets home from work.

Note:

It’s great to show your kids that mommy and daddy love each other by letting them see you show each other affection.

Evaluate:

Well I’d love to tell you that this was great but it wasn’t.  Here it is 11pm Tuesday night and I’m off to bed while my husband is still at work.  Occasionally crappy work weeks happen and this is one of them.  Steven (my hubby) produces a local TV show.  52 episodes a year with a crew of 2 and an office manager and his boss.  When people in the buis learn that they do 52 episodes a year they are in shock.  Most shoes do about 22.  It’s a lot of work for not a lot of people.  But…sometimes we get to go on fun family trips with a camera tagging along.  Anyway, his bosses Mother-in-law passed away on Saturday and the funeral is tomorrow.  So my sweet kind husband is helping his boss prepare a video tribute for the funeral.  The thing that is most frustrating to me about this is that he really needed his big hug and kiss.  He took such good care of me and the kids while we were sick and now he is sick and can’t take a day off work because the show wouldn’t get done if he did.  So he is putting all of his time and energy into work when he should be resting.  When I spoke with him today I was going to stop by the office and I asked him if he needed anything and all he wanted was a big hug and a kiss.  Unfortunately when I called to tell him I was on my way he was gone because he had to go on a last minute shoot.  But…there is always tomorrow morning for that big hug and kiss.  Sad to say I couldn’t find any recent pictures of us kissing so this one of us from  10 years ago will have to do.

Prepare:

Friday is baking day so make sure you have all the ingredients to bake something yummy.   I’m going to be making these. You have to scroll all the way down to get to the recipe.

Tags: baking, indoor, kiss, Marriage, prepare
Posted in Marriage, Quick Activities | No Comments »

Friday November 6th, 2009

Vote: To vote for our costume contest click here.

Today’s Activity:

Have you been craving your favorite cookies?  Well today I give you my permission to cheat on your diet so do it!  Just because we all want to be a size 0 doesn’t mean we should deprive our kidos from yummy treats.  Cram everyone into the kitchen and start baking.

Note:

Don’t have a favorite kind of cookies (yeah right!)?  Well then try my new favs.  Rollo cookies!  They are the very best when eaten right out of the oven so break out the stretch pants and treadmill and start eating.

Evaluate:

I should have thought this through a little more…do we really need more sweets in our house less than a week after Halloween?  So I halved the recipe.  I thought about bagging it all together but once we got going I realized how badly I needed some time with my kids.  Things have been a little stressful around here and once I took a moment to just bake with my kids I felt much better.  It’s funny how just watching a child be happy about the simplest things (like dumping flour into a bowl) can make you feel better.  If you don’t want to add another treat to your house at least do something.  Let your children brighten your day a little.

Tags: baking, cookies, indoor
Posted in Cooking | No Comments »

Wednesday November 4th, 2009

REMINDER:

Today is your last chance to enter the costume contest!  We haven’t had a lot of entries so far and I would be so sad if we had to just bag it.  Please check this out for more details.

Today’s Activity:

It’s that time again.  Schedule a sitter for a night out with your sweetie*.

Note:

Plan something HE would want to do for this date night.  Surprise him with an action movie you really don’t want to see or maybe even double date with HIS friends.  This activity is about making you happier but if you make your man happy he just might give you a nice back rub as a thank you…or maybe chocolates.

Prepare:

Friday is another day for baking something yummy.  You will be making your favorite cookies and if they’re your favorite you will probably already have all the ingredients but if you don’t take a quick trip to the store today.

*If you are a single mom then plan a night out on your own, you deserve it!  It can be a girl’s night out or maybe you’ve wanted to ask someone out for a while.  Whatever it is make time for you!

Tags: baking, Contest, Costume, date night, prepare, sitter
Posted in Quick Activities | No Comments »