Alas, the oven has died...

How we respond when life throws us a curveball tells others a lot about out character. We recently received a curveball, our oven has died :(  


For those of you that know us well, we are bakers at heart; bread, cookies, pies, and even a cake or muffins thrown in for good measure frequently can be found cooling in our kitchen. Baking is a natural part of our weekly activities as a family. So now, as we research our options for what features are available (and which ones we're really willing to pay for) on a new stove, our life has taken a different course. 


Thankfully the stovetop burners are still working, so we have the luxury of taking our time to choose our new stove. The lack of an oven reminds me daily to stop and be thankful for all the blessing we do have. 


The next time life throws you a curveball, try to NOT panic. God knows your needs, and He wants to help you choose wisely your next step on this path of life. Whether you have the luxury of time to decide or not, let your true character shine through in your decisions. Should you happen to find that you don't like that part of you that comes out, maybe it's time for a little self-improvement, and a whole lot of prayer.


So until we decide on our new stove, you'll probably have to look elsewhere for your new favorite cookie recipe, but rest assured, we'll have other fun & encouraging things for you to read in the meantime. If you happen to be doing some baking soon, and have extras, we are great taste-testers (you might even make a blog cameo!)


Soon you will be seeing some reviews from us about apps for your smart phone or tablet. We're going to focus on ones that help kids learn while having fun, and ones that help parents stay organized. Hope to see you here again soon!

Muncie, IN Children's Museum Review

The Muncie Children’s Museum packs a lot into a medium sized space. While there are both larger and smaller Children’s Museums in the state, this one reminds me of the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, it’s “just right!”

Again and again over the course of the afternoon, both of our girls remarked “I wish you knew about this when we were little Mom!” Although they’re now 11 & 13, and almost as tall as me, they both had fun for 3 solid hours at the MCM. I would say that most areas are geared for ages 4-10, but there are easier and more complicated activities in many of the areas, so it can appeal to kids of all ages.

If you’ve got toddlers, the Tot spot is for you. With a treehouse (complete with a tire swing,) a boat, a farm stand, and 2 slides, your little ones may never want to leave. Thankfully, there are plenty of restrooms just around the corner in the museum hallway, complete with a changing table, just in case.

Older children will not soon get bored. There is a town, that includes lots of interactive activities to keep everyone busy. The Middletown Post Office, Marsh supermarket, Little Bell Creek School, Career Corner, or Munseetown Station should keep even your active kids entertained for quite a while. Emily (age 13) really enjoyed the Post Office. Besides having laminated “mail" to sort and deliver to the other buildings in town, it also has shirts to dress up in, and a mail bag to ease your deliveries. 

Did I mention that this is the MUNCIE children’s Museum? Thus, it has a HUGE area devoted to local native, Garfield the cat. I call this the “all things Garfield” area. There are displays showing how Garfield merchandise is made, and an area where you can try your own hand at drawing Indiana’s favorite cat.

So your kids like to climb? Maybe they want to be ants in the climbing wall (Arlene’s favorite part,) or go upstairs and learn about the 5 senses. When it’s warm outside, there is a great outdoor area complete with a treehouse to climb. Thanks to the high wall around the outside garden area, it was comfortable for a short while when it was only 50 outside with just a coat and hat.

It seems like animals are everywhere at the MCM. When we arrived and checked in, Laura (one of the friendly staff,) showed us the coat closets (painted like a Garfield mural,) told us where to find the restrooms, pointed out that there were animals on both levels, and encouraged us to enjoy ourselves (and come back to the desk if we had any questions.) The range of animals at the MCM are quite impressive: cockatiels, turtles, a tree frog, a tarantula, 2 rat snakes, an American alligator, and a bunny. My girls asked why we couldn’t get some hissing cockroaches like they had. I simply said “no!”

If you think this might not be enough to keep your children entertained, I haven’t even mentioned: the antique car, the train cab, the Semi cab, the tractor, the dinosaur area OR the water table yet!

The gift shop/ snack bar is a pleasant surprise. The gifts are reasonably priced, with many at or under $4, and some under $1. The snacks are chips, pretzels, & drinks, at the same price you’d pay at the gas station (much more reasonable than I was expecting.)

You might be wondering, what does all this cost, it sounds like fun!? General admission is $6 a person, ages 1-100. A family membership is available at the reasonable cost of $70/year or $120/2 years. 

If you’d like to try it out first, the museum is FREE on the 3rd Saturday of each month. Check out the details here: www.munciemuseum.com

One of the best things about their memberships, besides the obvious fun of going again and again, is that they participate in the ASTC Passport Program. We are big fans of this program. You can look up all the details at: www.astc.org/members/passlist.htm  

Minnetrista (also in Muncie) is another member of the ASTC program. With our family memebership from Minnetrista, we have visited (for free) the Carnegie Science Museum (Pittsburgh, PA,) and the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, IL.) If your family travels more than 90 miles from home frequently, I highly recommend joining a local ASTC member museum. It is a good investment.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Arlene's contribution to dinner today is one of our favorites- pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! We found this recipe online a couple years ago and have tweaked it a bit. It's a great recipe to use when you're out of eggs and still want cookies. The recipe says it makes 4 dozen, but we usually get 6-7 dozen out of it. We use our small kitchen scoop, so if you make them really big you might only get 4 dozen. The dough refrigerates well, so often we only bake half of them at a time. Enjoy!


Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (about 1-1&1/2  cups)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
12 oz (1 bag) semisweet chocolate chips


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In a large bowl, cream sugars, butter, pumpkin & vanilla together (make sure sugar & butter are throughly creamed before adding pumpkin)
3. In a different bowl, mix flour, baking soda, & pumpkin pie spice. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture (a little at a time.) Mix until well combined, then add chocolate chips.
4. Drop by teaspoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes or until set & lightly golden. Cool cookies on a rack.

The Apple Tree

This afternoon the girls asked to go spend some time outside. It was 50 degrees- In Indiana- in January! How could I refuse? They ended up sitting in the apple tree, one of their favorite places.


The apple tree never manages to produce apples for us to eat. It tries, it really does, but the squirrels in the neighborhood come and pick almost all of them by the time they are golf-ball sized. The ones that survive are so high up that we can't get to them. 


The job of our apple tree is not to provide apples (although that would be a bonus,) its job is to provide a place for whatever the girls need today: make believe, bugs to watch, branches to climb. So even though we may never eat an apple pie from our tree- it will stay right where it is. 

(The picture is from last Fall)

Besides, I need someplace to hang the bird feeder! 

Today we made 3 kinds of bread- round, rectangle, & square! Ha ha, it's really all wheat bread, but the girls wanted to do something different this time. We used to make it in the bread machine, but since that broke last week (after 8 faithful years) we are back to doing it the old-fashioned way, by hand. So, who wants to come over for dinner now???

A Good Sale

We've all heard that there are seasonal sales we should take advantage of to provide for our families and save money in the long run. However, many families aren't loaded with extra cash and need discernment about what will truly be a good buy for them. One of my favorite, inexpensive, seasonal purchases is new pins. That's right, I said pins! As in "I need to replace the pins in my pincushion because I've been doing a lot of sewing." January has been my traditional time to buy new pins, and make sure I throw out all the old ones. Even with all the years I've been sewing, I still manage to hit the pins sometimes while I'm sewing. Now that both girls are also using the sewing machine(s), I know we need new pins even more this year than usual!


So, now that I've got you thinking, you might be wondering what to do with all the old pins so they don't stab you (or your designated trash picker-upper!) I like to take a strip of masking tape about 10" long, and place the pins, with the points in the middle, down both sides of the top half of the tape. We stagger ours on both sides, so when the top half is full & we fold over the tape to seal the points inside, it sort of resembles a large centipede with shoes on.


Shiny, straight new pins always makes me want to sew something! Are you feeling inspired yet? On a related note, Jo-Ann's has their Notions items 50 % off through Saturday the 7th!

A New Year, a new ___?

New Year's Day has come and gone, and by now you've probably changed to your new calendar, or at least realized you need one! What comes next? Instead of making New Year's resolutions, which are often unrealistic, we prefer to make yearly goals. What would you list as your top 5 family goals for the year? Is there a book you've been wanting to read aloud as a family? Maybe you've been wanting to plant a butterfly garden, or go canoeing together. Maybe this is the year you've been waiting for- a real family vacation. Whatever your family goals- we want to encourage you to spend quality time together. The memories you make together will last a lifetime! Happy planning!