Walking Art

 

Last year I went to this event and my daughter really enjoyed it so it only seemed fitting to attend this again this year.  This is the seventh year the Chrysler Museum has had this event.  The event is open to the public and includes free admission.  The Chrysler Museum offers several family friendly and kid focused events throughout the year.

  For this event Halloween the Chrysler Way brings their art alive.  Through the museum various works of art are presented in a walking, talking presentation of the works of art displayed on the wall.  The kids are encouraged to wonder around the museum and find the works of art in a fun scavenger hunt game.

  Nothing is better than watching your kids figure out the walking individuals from the works of art.  They had fun getting autographs, identifying which picture the moving art came from and even stumbling on them near their pictures.

 

  This hopefully becomes a yearly tradition as some of the characters changed from last year.  Except we did recognize One from last year.

2014

2015

Check out their website for hours and directions!
http://www.chrysler.org

Date nights in November

  Young and in love.  I remember those days.  Fast forward 15 years and 4 children later.  I am not as young and maybe as bubbly as I used to be.  I do drag myself out of bed with a little less enthusiasm and its not because I had the privilege of staying out all night.  It is because I am on the go from sun up to sun down without a break and the scattered bits of fun are not as plentiful as it was when I was younger.

  I am going to share a bit about dates.  Dating doesn't need to be with your spouse.  If your spouse is in the military and deployed why stick around until he is back.  Maybe your spouse works evenings and sleeps during the day.  Maybe your a nurse and work the graveyard shift.  There are 24 hours in a day and we need to sleep some part of the day and I think we need to get out and about for some of it too.

  I have several kids so I not only think I want a break; I need one.  So grab your spouse, your neighbor, your friend, your sister and down the road we'll even throw in some adventures with the kids.  Let's share what we do for a date night.  I  will share some ideas and you can share yours.  Ultimately this is not a break the bank date night.  Lets discover some new ideas along the way to have fun!

  November 1st will start the kick off.  I will post a new date night idea everyday.  You obviously will not be going out every night but you may run across a new idea that week to do for the weekend or your day off.  I am hoping to stir up some ideas versus the dinner and a movie as well as some cheaper ways to celebrate time off.  Time off of work, house duty or wherever you put in the most time helping others than yourself.

  Date night is not about go broke or go big.  Just relax and unwind.  You time or couples time.  Girlfriend time or specific child focused time.  I think its about just relaxing for a period of time to regroup.  Time to smile and enjoy life amongst the work life that we do what seems like all the time.    You and whomever you choose to share this time with will both appreciate it as it is time you are enjoying yourself.  My list is just suggestions and if nothing else I hope you get inspired and maybe continue to set time aside for yourself. 

  Skip the traditional and do something unique. 

Friday re-cap

  This week started out so good.  I had my meals planned but because I was not home and too many leftovers from the weekend (pizza and Chinese) this resulted in my meals being bumped and those being consumed.  So the only meal eaten this week was chicken potpie.

 

So most of the items will get bumped to next week.  As excited as I was for the upcoming week now I just need to wait. 

So next week will include:
Shepard's Pie
Salmon
Gnocchi


This week I will be finishing up my pumpkin challenge.  I need to post my pictures from the last two days.  Next week is the start of a new month. November.  Turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie will be in the air.  My fall fashions, books, leaves and curl ups on the couch.

  I look forward to the heat coming on in my house.  I hate cold weather.  I will find time for me in the midst of the holiday cheer and you should too.  Its about to get busy and hectic and I need to just take one day at a time.

Rate your service (Yelp review)

  I am a Yelper.  You know one of those  behind the scene people that post their opinions on what she ate, where she went, how service was and of course posting photos along the way.

  A few weeks a good the food review group I referred to had a meet up at a local restaurant/brewery.

It was my first time hanging out with the group.  When you attend these functions you are privileged to a little swag.

At this particular function we knew in advance what we were eating too.

A meal description was sent to all attendees: 

House Baked Jalapeño Cornbread with Bacon Jam

Spicy Grilled Chicken Wings

Homemade Chips with Gouda Cream

 She-Crab Soup

and Grilled Chicken Avocado Rolls

and one tasting of Home Republic beer.

  Our job if we choose to accept it was to mingle with other Yelpers and get to know new people as well as sample the food, interact with the staff and observe the surroundings.

   This was a great night by all the food was great. (Avocado rolls were my favorite)  The staff was very attentive, the restaurant itself was a good size restaurant and you could see the brewery from the seating area.  Modern decor, chalkboards on the wall listing the nightly specials, table, bar seating as well as outside!  A bonus for this restaurant is the location.  It is about a block away from the beach and has free garage parking for your patronage! (Hard to find by the beach)

  This group is open for anyone to join and state your views of various places.  It doesn't need to be places you eat, you can review the zoo, local parks, even auto shops.  It's a place to write your opinion on the service, share great pictures and encourage or promote businesses.  Not all experiences, food or service is excellent and those are listed too.  

  Even if you don't join feel free to check out what's a great place to eat in your area and if your favorite place is listed as less than favorable give a review and put the story straight!

27th day of pumpkin

 I am in the home stretch of my pumpkin enjoyment.  I can even honestly say that I enjoyed every last sip,drip, crumb and bite of pumpkin.  I even managed another homemade concoction of my own.  As you know I am not a professional so try my recipes at your own risk.

  I have atleast one plan for another made up recipe but other than that; the remaining items will be made by someone else and tested by me!

Today's ingredients in their entirety!

1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt (always vanilla plain is plain for sure)

1 .5 tablespoons of pumpkin (not the pie mix)

Dash of nutmeg

Dash of pumpkin pie spice

Mix all together in the same bowl.

Enjoy!

This Post Does Not Contain Coffee

 Wordless Wednesday..... my post with less words and more pictures reflects a day out with my daughter.  We were picking up a treat, having fun and using math!

  Mommy had has found a new guilty pleasure.  You all already know about my love of pumpkin, but I also love the price of saving.  Wawa I have decided is the best spot to grab my liquid pumpkin.  Best price thrown into the mix makes it the pit stop when we run errands.

 Baby girl is choosing hot chocolate today.  Normally her drink of choice is chocolate milk but she likes to change it up.

 Wawa has all these shakers to top off your drink how fun is that?  Ahh, more marshmallows please!

 You want it you buy it.  Exact change only because when you indulge you stay on top of promos right down to the tax.

Thank you and have a nice day because now with some warm chocolate in my tummy this is the best day ever!

Thank you for reading!

Check out wawa the next time it's not just about the gas! They have a huge variety of food selections as well as a hot to go made to order section.

Who Is this Person

  Today it's all about me.  My name is Rose.    I am a mom of 4.  Residing in VA by way of upstate NY and made few pit stops along the way due to the military.  Besides NY I spent time in ND so I know cold weather and snow.  I may not share advice but will share the good, bad and ugly of my family journey.  I will share what worked for us and will learn along the way from my mistakes and your assistance.

  I do homeschool my younger children although due to their ages one is more cooperative than the other. So I just try to sneak in learning to my almost 3 yo when he's not looking.

  I enjoy working out.  I have an injury right now that has me taking a 2 month long break but when I'm done with this temporary lapse I will be back.

  I enjoy exploring.  I have an on going challenge to finish seeing all the state parks of VA.  I frequent local parks and playgrounds with my kids.  We take hikes, ride bikes and rent boats.  We put plenty of miles on our shoes this year.

  I am not a professional chef, baker or cook.  I do however know how to read and whip up recipes at sometimes even a moments notice.  I eagerly share the recipes I look up with you.  Right now I am working through a pumpkin challenge.  Everything in this challenge is not made by me.  I do include a pumpkin donut or latte that I pick up.

              

  Lastly, I review various products, post local specials and share samples and national deals with you as I become aware of them.

  I appreciate your company as I share with you what we are doing, seeing or being.  I am going to challenge myself along the way. Maybe start and complete a few books, some DIY projects and whatever else looks fun.  Misery loves company or happiness is having company.  Either way your always invited to follow my day.

1+1 math fun

  I don't post alot of what we are learning or working on but occasionally share some pictures of our day.  Today I am dedicating this post to Math.

  No matter how good or bad you are with numbers.  No matter if math is your least favorite class from school.  Math is in everything we do and is vital to our daily functions.  You need math when you make a purchase, sew clothes, buy a couch and need to fit it in you door or installing wall to wall carpet.

  You have to know numbers to tell the time, read a date on the calendar, count your money, for your clothing or shoe size. Its in your address and phone number. You also use it in cooking or baking.

  Math as much as I hate to admit it we need you.  So math lessons are an important part of our daily lessons.  We embrace math in all its glory everyday.

We are currently working on some of these math areas.
               
                     Telling  time.

                     Adding.

Money identification.

I am homeschooling my youngest daughter. She is not recognized as such because she is a newly turned 5 year old.  She is working on a mix of kindergarten and 1st grade work.  

In addition to hands on learning we use workbooks, computer programs, make crafts and take field trips.  We cook in the kitchen, have physical education and play music.

Everyday is full of new adventures.  All days are not always good.  Sometimes we don't accomplish as much as other days.  while some days fly right by.  It is a struggle but it is nice to have the ability to teach my child.  It feels enormously great to know I am responsible for what she has learned so far.

Young chef + pumpkin challenge

  In case you missed my Facebook post I am letting you know to go check it out!
  Young chef made pumpkin spice pudding straight from the box.
  A box pudding is a pretty fun project for a child to make.
  Essentially two ingredients and if there is a lack of patience; pudding helps that problem too.
  Cooking is a great way to help a child with reading and math skills.
  I have started a cookbook for my two older kids and it would be nice to help her start one.  She obviously can't read all the ingredients but if I made a key up in her book and transcribed it for her; we may just have a winner.

  I am not able to post the video here so hope on over there and check her out in action!

Meal plan 10/26-10/30

  Back again for a new week of meals.  I pull my recipes off the Internet from various sites for my dinners.  This helps me try new things , builds my culinary skills, helps to showcases many people who share their recipes, and provides you with new options without looking to far.

10/26 Monday Chicken Pot pie (to include biscuits posted)
http://wholesomemommy.com/deconstructed-chicken-pot-pie/

10/27 Tuesday Gnocchi (meatless meal)
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/236824/cheesy-baked-gnocchi/

10/28 Wednesday Shepard's Pie (my recipe which may be very basic)

Ingredient:
ground meat (seasoned and browned)
Mashed potatoes (buttered and prepared)
Cream corn (can)
  After the meat and potatoes are done I layer my pan meat first, followed by corn then spread mashed potatoes on top.  I bake it for 20 minutes. (Sometimes I broil it a bit for some color on the top)

10/29 Thursday Parmesan crusted salmon http://allrecipes.com/recipe/21176/baked-dijon-salmon/

So there it is folks! Two days this week are meatless.  No crockpot either!  This will also be the last week for my pumpkin challenge.  I'll miss that.  Just kidding, I will be eating it I'm sure; just not on a daily basis.

Reflections

  Fall is not over and winter is not close yet.  Hmm, is that like the glass is half full?  I want to take full advantage of the season and live everyday to the fullest.

 

 What my senses love about the fall!

Hearing:  I love to hear the crunch of leaves under my feet!  There is an odd silence in the fall maybe not so odd maybe all the bird I listen are gone!  I like the silence though!

Smell: So many smells in the fall.  I like the air in general I don't know if it's fresh air or dead leaves but there's something about it.  I also love the smell of fireplaces burning.  I don't personally have a fireplace but I enjoy the smell in the air when I'm walking around outside.

Taste:  Of course all things pumpkin and apples are not to bad either.  It's funny to say because I use canned pumpkin so what's the big deal; I could eat that anytime of year but it's not the same.

Sight:  All the leaves are a classic.  It never gets old.  I am not privileged to see the colors changing in VA (my part) as much as I have seen them in upstate NY but if I drive a few hours I catch sight of them.

Touch:  This one is a hard one.  What

touch is different than any other time of year.  I will choose cozy.  I like to be warm.  I love summer because no extra clothes are necessary.  In the fall however I have to regulate my body temperature more.  More sweaters, turtlenecks and sweatshirts.

  I do enjoy fall like any other season.  It is not my favorite but I make do and appreciate some points it brings to me and my environment.

Pumpkin Soup today for day 23 of 30!

  I wonder if I could have lost weight from this challenge if I stuck with a 100% pumpkin diet. I'm talking a whole breakfast, lunch and dinner deal.  I'm talking strictly meals and not desserts?  What are the benefits of pumpkins?  There's got to be something, right?  I will have to look that up.

  Today I was bound and determined to make a savory meal versus a dessert or breakfast item. Haven't I run out of those? What else is left?  Maybe a quiche?

  I have complied a list of a few options I would like to make but otherwise this challenge was not organized.  I just wanted 30 days of pumpkin.  I didn't have a specific item for each day it's just been whatever I made or bought.  It would have maybe took the fun away if I shared a preplanned list for the month.  So instead everyday I ran around figuring out what to do.

  Today just so happens to be soup.  I had an opening for dinner because we are low on leftovers so this provided another alternative.

This was a fast, easy, basic soup.  Although it had some spice added to it; it could be dressed up more to another level if you knew what you were doing.  Not me.  Remember how my ice cream and popsicle turned out?  I however really liked this soup.  It was a creamy soup, and although it tasted very much so like squash (which I like to) it seemed to have lost its pumpkin individuality.  I was amazed at how the texture of the pumpkin changed and it became creamy like soup. No grit, or lumps.

  This will be a nice soup I can make and will have my kids make and note the recipe because it is #1 good for you, #2 a great healthy choice #3 quick and easy soup for them to make #4 it's way better than soups in a can.

Thank you myrecipes; I can always count on you!

Weekly meal re-cap

  I can say my meals went fantastic this week.  I followed the plan each day.

Monday was corned beef and potatoes compliments of the crockpot.  Don't you love to set it and forget it.

 Tuesday was lasagna.  Even though I used cottage cheese and was going to add spinach it was a filling meal.

 Next up was copy cat Zuppa Tuscana soup.  My husband really enjoys this soup when we go to Olive Garden and actually honestly likes when make this one as well.

 Lastly, to end the week even though it was Thursday was our meatless meal.  It was black bean burgers.  No burger meal is complete without fries so I paired my burger with eggplant fries.  This was a big hit with my teen.  I was quite pleased with the results if this meal.

Friday the kitchen is open but it's a self serve deal.  All leftovers are fair game what little there were.  Of course pizza is always optional as well.

Did you see what my pumpkin consumption was for the week?  I made pumpkin cakes and pumpkin crepes in addition to a milkshake from Burger King and ice cream!

Stay tune for next week to see what's on the menu.  

A Customer Service Decline

  Remember when you went out to dinner and had great service.  You were seated at a table.  Drink orders taken then brought back.  Appetizer and entrees orders taken and brought to the table in a timely manner.

   One restaurant we have gone too has new computers on the tables.  We have gone a few times so I am used to seeing it.  You can order your meals, play games or trivia on these tablet like devices.  It never found it impersonal as I didn't pay much attention to it until it has showed up in a bother restaurant.  First at Chili's now at Olive Garden.

We ate out the other night at Olive Garden and the devices were there.  One table I observed a child playing on it ( I was told as I was seated games were unlimited for $1.99)the whole duration I was there.  Another table that was sat after me immediately passed it over to their toddler.  

My waiter instructed us when we ordered that we needed to put our kids meal request in the system. But he was standing there and just took all our other orders!  He preceded to attempt to use the machine but failed horribly.  So he took pen to paper and went back to old school order taking to complete our order.

At the end of our meal we again were directed to the device to pay our bill.  That didn't work our well again.  With a swipe of the card and no response we still handed over the card to be ran through the original register.  

Bottom line is what is the point of these devices?  To speed the process up? To entertain people young and old which leads to happier patrons overall?  To free up waitstaff to do their job more quickly and efficient?  To make things less personal between a restaurant, the waitstaff and their customers?

I personally as a customer like the interaction.  People need to talk.  Some of us have special requests, our kids certainly don't need to be trained to play games (for entertainment or shushed up) at the table, are we tipping for half the service if we are placing our order on a computer making us do half the work?  

I hope this is just a phase and the devices will go away.  Bring back the waitstaff so that we can chat.

This Pudding is All Mine (Kozy Shack's Pudding review)

  One day I was minding my own business completing surveys for various campaigns when I was granted a pudding campaign.  I love pudding.  Ate various kinds growing up.  I prefer the instant cold over the hot cooked one.  But nothing beats a pudding cup.

  The portability of a pudding cup alone makes it a great thing.  You can pack it in lunches, eat it at a picnic, in a car, or at home!  However those were the other pudding cups.  I received the privilege of tasting Kozy Shack's Indulgent Recipe puddings and my life has changed.

  These are a grown up pudding. Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Truffle, Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate.  These are sophisticated puddings that children would only gobble down without appreciating each bite. One after the other.  A slow bite, savoring each bite like it is the last is how this pudding should be consumed.

  The first one I ate was upstairs away from the children.  After that first one I have not looked back.  I don't know what my favorite is but I don't need to choose.  I can eat any one I want when I want.

  I urge you know to run out and grab a couple packages why because one only has 4 in it.  That will not even get you through the week.  These puddings are truly decadent and us adults need something of our own too!

All opinions in this review are my own.  I was given coupons to purchase these puddings.  My own negative opinion is they could be a little bigger! How about an adult size version of these puddings?