A Late Christmas Gift for Mister Lawyer

The University of Houston Cougars just won their first bowl game in, well, a damn long time. The Mister traveled to attend. He's not back, yet, but I imagine he's in a very fine mood. Not a bad way to end the year.

Handy Snowman Ornaments

We did these last week. I got the idea from a message board, but here are the instructions that I read before doing it. I used the whole hand, rather than just the four fingers - either way it's adorable. I still need to spray with a clear sealant, just in case they decide to chip.

Handprint Ornaments

This is so easy - I hadn't been able to find the materials before Christmas, so it's a bit late.

You need:


~ Crayola Model Magic, original or glitter. I would suggest using white. One package per child.
~ A drinking straw.
~ Ribbon - about 6" per ornament.
~ Wax paper.
~ Flat surface such as a tray or cutting board.
~ Cornstarch.
~ Glitter glue, optional
~ Permanent marker, pain marker, or some other writing implement, optional.

Work some of your Model Magic into a ball, as smooth as possible. Then, on a bit of waxed paper, squish it into a pancake, maybe 1/2" thin up to 3/4" - it needs to be slightly bigger than the hand you intend to impress. I use the side of a cup to roll it flat.

If your Model Magic isn't very pliable, you can add a little water to it.

Take the hand in question and dust it in cornstarch - you may or may not need this depending on how sticky the hand is and how sticky the Model Magic is. I found that without it, I couldn't peel off the hand without damaging the image.

Place the hand on the Model Magic pancake and tell the child not to push - YOU push all the little fingers and hand parts down firmly. I have found that when the kids do it, they wiggle around a bit, leaving a less than desirable image.

Peel off the hand carefully and use your drinking straw to make a hole in it where you will thread the ribbon once dry.

Model Magic can be decorated when dry, painted on, glitter-glued on, markered on and so forth. Last year I put glitter around the outside of the white ornament. This year, due to some sort of a white Model Magic shortage, I bought the white glitter kind, so in the interest of simplicity, I will just be adding the ribbon and each child's name and age on the back with the year.

You'll need to let the handprint dry for 24-48 hours, but it is very lightweight when dry, which is fabulous.

A Puzzling Solution

Why didn't I think of this before?

I have two kids, each with a similar puzzle. They are 3 and 5 and frankly, not real good at keeping puzzle pieces together and, well, putting puzzles together.

So I took the puzzles, marked the back of each with each child's name and then flipped the actual pieces over and marked each piece with both the child's initial and the number of the piece; I numbered them 1 to 24, so if the kid needs a hint, they can look at the back without running to mommy repeatedly. Self-reliance for them and a little peace for me. Brilliant.

Not sure you can see this, but you get the point:

Happy New Year's Eve Breakfast

We made whole wheat pancakes today and they were excellent. The mix was a bit thick so I threw in some white grape juice because that was the closest liquid at the time. And I added some ground flax seed.

The 5 year old normally likes honey, but Mr. HoneyBear was mysteriously missing, so I gave him a little container of strawberry all-fruit to spread on and he had them that way - and so did I. Very good. The 3 year old isn't fond of sweets, so he had his plain, as did the baby.

What wasn't eaten has been frozen; pancakes are fabulous to zap and eat in a hurry.

So look, I have a Blog

Man, I hate that word. "Blog."

Seriously...makes me cringe.

But it is what it is and here we are. The story of me. A lawyer who has pretty much ditched practicing law for raising three little beastlings. It's not exactly glamorous, but I'm not in it for the glamor.