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I know he’s only trying to help, but sometimes when my husband is at the store to pick up the Milk and Eggs, he buys more milk than we need. There’s always a valid reason, “It was on sale!.” But rarely, is milk ever that good of a deal. Unfazed, he takes the carton of milk to our deep freezer that we keep in the basement so that the milk will get good and solid. And preserved. This is really not a good idea. Here’s what usually happens…

• A frozen container of milk takes FOREVER to thaw.
• The cream always get separated, and you have a mixture of of slush on the top and goop on the bottom.
• Sometimes, realizing that the gallon of milk is not thawing as quickly as we need, he’ll set the milk on the counter at room temperature to speed things up. This usually results in sour milk.
• Just when you think the milk is completely thawed, you pour it on the kiddies cereal only to find Ice chunks falling out of the carton and into the morning cereal.
• The expiration date is completely out of whack, as we usually pull it out of the freezer way past the date printed on the carton. This causes great confusion among the children in the household.

The grocery store is less than five minutes away; we could have easily had some nice fresh milk, flowing freely out of the container. Still, I love it when my husband goes to the grocery store.

The Parent Bloggers Network teamed up with Ore Ida to promote their new Steam n’ Mash potatoes. If you haven’t tried them yet, they are a pre-washed and scrubbed, peeled bag of cubed potatoes that you steam in the bag in your microwave. You simply add butter and milk and mash. Instant mashed potatoes — but they’re real! This is one shortcut that’s hard to mess up.

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While his big brothers are away at school, the boy, who believes brown eggs are chocolate, and I spend our mornings together cooking ourselves a feast. Because Eggs Are So Incredible and Edible, we began by mastering the poached egg. It’s our specialty: The Circle Egg Sandwich. (Recipe follows.)

Yes, this was his first try at poaching, and he ate all three eggs.

In honor of World Egg Day, Friday, October 10, and the inspiration of the Parent Bloggers Network, find a friend and share a circle egg sandwich. Because,

if you give a boy an egg, you’ve fed him for a day; teach him how to crack an egg, and he’s fed for life.

How To Make A Circle Egg Sandwich

You will need:.

• Egg Poacher
• Water
• Eggs
• Salt
• Bread
• Glass for cutting the bread
• Butter

1. Fill the bottom part of the sauce pan with 3 inches of water. Add some salt and vinegar and bring the water to boil.
2. Carefully crack the eggs, and drop them into the egg poaching inserts. You can add a pinch of salt to the eggs.
3. Once the water starts to boil, turn down the heat so that the water is simmering.
   Carefully put the poaching insert on top of the sauce pan of boiling water. Put the lid on so the eggs will cook.
4. We like a firm yolk, so the egg will cook for about four minutes.
5. Meanwhile, use a glass to cut your bread into the shape of a circle.
6. After toasting your circles, you can butter your bread. (Always nice to let the butter pop across the table as you do this.)
7. Lift the cover of the egg poacher, and check to see if the yolk is the way you like it.
8. Use a spoon to gently lift the egg out of the poacher, and slide onto your circle egg toast.
9. Top with the other piece of circle toast and enjoy.

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Frank Lloyd Wright. Did you know the illustrious architect had an affair? If you did, then you probably know whatever it was “that happened.” I didn’t know he had the affair, so I’m unaware of what happened… and so the ending of Loving Frank: A Novel, a work of historical fiction by Nancy Horan, is still a surprise to me.

Without thinking, I find myself in conversations with others about the book that I have not yet completed. As soon as my words I uttered, I then I find myself caught up in this precarious little dance, where I must let the other person know, (who usually does know about the affair and what Frank did), in no uncertain terms, that I do not know Frank had the affair, and I prefer to have what he did kept a surprise, revealed only by Horan herself; under her own timing.

I have it on good authority that whatever happens is pretty dramatic, because the friend who lent me the book screamed when she got to the part.  Fueled by my insatiable desire to find out what he did, I found myself devouring pages whenever I could; over breakfast, waiting on firefox to load before I wrote my daily post. Now, I’m at the 2/3 mark… almost to the end. This is the point where I stop reading the book. I’m satiated enough to put the book down, but no longer eager to see the book end, and say goodbye to Horan, Frank and Mamah. I do this all the time with books that I love.

So, if I want the ending to remain a secret, I must be careful to no longer talk about Frank, and let the long, leisurely ending unfold itself over the next week, when I will finish the book at my typically, long leisurely pace.

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One rare day, both of my boys (when I only had two) headed down to the basement playroom to actually play. Even more shocking, it was dinner time, the witching hour, and I was free to cook.

While I relished in this kid-free moment, when I was actually free to boil the water for the pasta without stepping over puzzle pieces scattered all over the floor in the kitchen, my youngest son, 2 1/2, declared that there was a squirrel in the basement.

“Ha,” I thought. What an imagination that boy has. We had large basement windows with deep window wells, and the house sat in a woods; so I assumed he meant he saw a squirrel in the window well… on the outside of the house. Now, don’t laugh — it could have happened; just a week before the boys did see a frog staring at them from the outside through the very same window. It could happen again, I thought. This time, with a squirrel.

I kept stirring and chopping, while he talked about the colors on the squirrel, what he should name the squirrel, and what he would like to eat.

Then, my son asked suspiciously, “Mom, is this squirrel gonna’ bite me?” At that, I quickly laid down my spoon, and ventured down into the basement steps to see my beautiful son sitting on the rug in the basement, face to face with a squirel. Inside, not outside, as I assumed.

I stood speechless, unable to think what to do. I calmly asked both boys to come upstairs to play with me while I cooked, while dialing Dad on the phone, asking “There’s a squirrel in the basement, and what do I do now?”

While I paced around and gabbed on the phone about options, my four-year-old simply grabbed a broom from the closet, and crept back down stairs and started chasing the squirrel with the broom. Stunned, I stopped talking and simply stared at him. Soon, my son had the squirrel cornered, and the squirrel scampered up the steps, where my two year old opened the door, and away the squirrel ran.

Not only do I live in a zoo, but my kids are the zoo keepers.

This story was inspired by the Parent Bloggers Network and Generation Next, announcing their brand-new product – iKnow Animals, Letters & Sounds. Created in partnership with the world-famous San Diego Zoo (where you’ll find Generation Next highlighted on the San Diego Zoo website as a featured partner!), this collection of media uses eye-popping graphics, beautiful music, and engaging video to not only help teach children to read, but actively involve them in helping the animals and the planet.

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I needed something to keep his toes warm and dry this winter through those long hours he spends away at school. As a bonus, the boots would also give him enough traction to run up the snowy hill this winter during the snow days we plan to spend at the lake. After studying all the options on the Vincent Shoes Web site, the same place I found the “climbing shoes” this past spring, I settled on this one: Lorenz. “our winter “diving” boot that helps combat that type of weather. It’s made of a neoprene-type material and covered with heavy duty rubber. Lorenz feels like a diving suit, and it really protects.” I couldn’t miss with a boot made like that.

I settled the shoes in their proper spot in the mudroom, where they’d be ready for their first wet, cold day — aI day I still hope is a long way off in the future. After careful consideration, the boy selected the boots on a day when it is still warm and dry.

To my surprise the boots are already getting some tough use while the weather is still warm. The boots just happen to be the perfect accessory for a good day of light saber action.

These boots; with their waterproof construction, and drawstrings tops are irresistible to any Mom; thankfully, they’re irresistible to little boys too. Special thanks to Vincent Shoes for the boots.

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Instead of watching the football game like the rest of the town; my girlfriend and I escaped to a quiet room upstairs and plugged the DVD that Victor Lu from Special Ops Media graciously sent me; and we’re so glad that we’re smart enough to make good choices with what little time we have.

The movie, Then She Found Me, (now available on DVD) is based on the novel by Elinor Lipman, stars Helen Hunt (Best Actress, As Good As It Gets, 1998) and Colin Firth (Mamma Mia!, Bridget Jones’s Diary). The film starts off with laughs and giggles; but soon develops into a complex tangled weave as Alice April (Helen Hunt) hungers for a baby; her husband (Matthew Broderick) leaves her for another woman and her mother dies. Then, two-time Oscar® nominee Bette Midler, steps into Alice’s life as her real mother.

Bette was full of enough half-truths to keep us giggling, and ultimately, temporarily kept April side-tracked enough to see the options, some she was still unaware of, in her life.

When you watch the film; be sure to take note of the chocolate-colored evening dress April wears to the gala with Colin; in that dress, she looked her lovely, graceful best; even though we agreed through most of the movie that Helen is just too thin; she looked worn-out.

The movie is beautifully done; the scene of April in the bath tub, while her mother washes her hair was especially poignant. While the love story runs in the foreground; the real story in this movie runs underneath; this is a story about a mother’s love.

Then She Found Me was directed by Helen Hunt and screenplay by Alice Arlen and Victor Levin & Helen Hunt. The film was executive produced by John Wells, Chip Signore, Louise Goodsell, Ralph Kamp, Victor Levin, Walter Josten, Jeff Geoffray and Howard Behar; associate produced by Moon Blauner; co-produced by Matthew Myers; produced by Pamela Koffler, Katie Roumel and Christine Vachon; and produced by Helen Hunt and Connie Tavel.

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So, don’t even think about taking it for yourself, kids. I’m talking about that last bottle of IBC Root Beer in the fridge. I don’t have a root beer everyday, I reserve it for special times.

There is an art to drinking and enjoying a tall glass of root beer. I stick the refrigerated, cold bottle in the freezer for 15 minutes to get it really cold. It must be cold enough. Fill a glass with ice, and pour.

Root beer doesn’t do a thing to help my low iron levels, it isn’t full of antioxidants, and it’s not low in calories. But root beer does make a great day better.

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as an entry for a contest sponsored by Brothers-All-Natural.

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I picked up this book at the library, right before we left for the lake, and the facts inside have turned out to be our most used tool, besides our marshmallow sticks, that we use up here. Of course, I never anticipated this much interest in frogs; who could have predicted the lake would have been so abundant with amphibians? Did you know that if a frog’s eardrum is smaller than her eye, she’s a female. Vice versa for a male.

If I had to put my finger on my most valuable, money-saving resource as a Mom, it would have to be our library card. Our family’s first child librarian, Sam, was always quick to set aside books he knew my sons would love. Of course Sam got to know us so well because we did spend quite a bit of time there – sometimes we’d go two times a week for a new pile of “adventures” to plow through. Of course, there was the weekly story times – a built-in playgroup that never leaves your own house dirty. There were the mountains of parenting books, cookbooks and how-to books I’ve devoured — actually books, I still devour. The library has faithfully carried me through each phase of Motherhood.

Children go through a frenzy of fads as they work their way through adulthood. From trains, to Buzz Lightyear and Woody, Batman, Star Wars, and even Madeline, the library has abundantly supplied all the “eye candy” to feed my kids’ curiosity and hunger to know more. The DK books, with their generous diagrams and pictures, have entertained the boys for long stretches of time in the afternoon as they poured over their pages. How awesome that those books never collected dust on my book shelves; because the frenzy for Buzz was all too quickly replaced by an obsession for Pirate Ships. The books are still available at the library, for another child’s obession. If pressed, I don’t think I could put a dollar amount on the books that have passed through our hands at home.

For me, there’s always a movie, a juicy novel, or a magazine to pour over when they kids give me a break. Sometimes, I pinch myself: it’s all free. Still, I do my part to support our local library with our fines — very abundantly.

Of course, you can always pick up some hot blueberries to save your family some money, but be sure to back up your adventure with this great book, Blueberries for Sal.

Still, families need lot of help saving money today. The Parent Bloggers Network is introducing Couponers.com, a tailored on-line coupon service that gives you constant updates for the products you buy the most, at the stores you love the most. Check that site out, and then, grab the kids and head to the library. And, if you’re a blogger, you can join the PBN blog blast too. Thanks PBN, last week, I won $250.

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Quentins, by Maeve Binchy, is a restaurant that serves as a meeting place in many Binchy novels. In this book, Binchy uncovers some of the clandestine meetings, heartbreaks, and stories of love and loss that have taken place in Quentins. The main character, Ella Brady, pulled me in, and I found Maeve to be a talented novelist, who know how to entertain and delight. Quentins, is nothing short of a delicious, saucy, plot-twisting great book.

For my recent trip to the lake, I picked up Firefly Summer, hoping to pull in the same penetrating characters, drama, and resolution as I found in Quentins.

The story in Firefly summer is also filled with dramatic characters, and Maeve is a master at giving us all the details of a lifetime in just two sentences. But the story here is much harder to bear.. this has been a tough read, full of hearbreak. My husband, watching some tears fall from my face as I read, asked, “Why do you keep reading it if it’s so depressing.”

“Because,” I said, “Maeve delivers not only the heartbreak, but also the lessons, the healing and the transformation that eventually comes as life continues to play itself out. For me, I must wait a lifetime for my own heartbreaks to be healed. Here, I can see almost instantly that time does bring healing, in surprising ways.”

It’s a lovely, lovely read.

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Apparently, there is something highly unusual about a Mom walking around the art museum, baby in sling, with three other little boys at her side.  Never mind the fact that the current exhibit just happened to be $10,000 – $3 million glass Chihuly Vases, standing, uncased, on glass podiums.  There was a hands-on educational program for the kids in the first floor of the art museum.  Part of the assignment was to go upstairs to view the current Chihuly exhibit.  At one moment, I looked up and noticed there were no less than four security guards circling our midst.  One of them, apparently the chief, stood back and talked into his walkie talkie, and said, “I’ve got them covered.”  We had no less than a four-ringed security escort through our entire visit.

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King Corp.

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