Brilliant:

An alarm clock that wakes you up with the smell and sizzle of cooking bacon.

Last Thursday afternoon the kids and I made
homemade marshmallows.  We turned them into Valentine treats by adding red food coloring, cutting them into heart shapes (with a cookie cutter) and adding red sugar sprinkles to the top.  Delicious!

I’m honored to have an article featured today as a guest post at Scribbit.  My article is about a favorite San Diego activity – exploring the tide pools at Cabrillo National Monument.

Michelle, the author of Scribbit, writes about her adventures as a mom in living in Alaska.  She always has great stories as well as recipes and craft ideas.  I think she is secretly hoping that my article sends some warm weather her way.

Last month I entered a photo contest sponsored by SDMTS (San Diego Metropolitan Transit System).  The purpose of the “Spot the Bus” photo contest was to highlight San Diego’s new fleet of NABI buses which run on natural gas instead of diesel.

Once the challenge was issued, I thought it would be fun to participate (i.e. there is a prize involved).  As Murphy’s Law would have it, I usually spotted the bus on days I didn’t have my camera with me.  Eventually I did get a few decent shots. This photo was taken at the intersection of University and College, just five minutes from my house.

So here is where you come in (please, pretty please).  My photo was chosen as one of 15 finalists. If you would be so kind, please vote for my photo.  Voting is open from February 9-27, 2009.  You can only vote once.  My photo is located in the last row, middle column.  Thanks!

My son Paul was named after my husband’s grandfather.  Nevertheless, Paul received a Bible for Christmas and he was excited to discover his name (or should I say, the apostle Paul’s name) mentioned frequently.

This past week Paul asked me to read about “Saul who became Paul” as his bedtime story.  The passage, Acts chapter 9, explains how Paul went from persecuting the church to encountering God and becoming a Christian.  I read the passage and decided to talk it over with Paul.  I’m always curious about what my kids learn or “take away” when we read Scripture together.

I started out saying, “I hope that one day you will be like Paul and tell other people about Jesus.”

Paul responded, “Yeah, but maybe I’ll be bad first.  Like until I’m twenty.”

I’m certain there is nothing Irish about these sweet confections but they do remind me of little potatoes.  The recipe looked easy to make and I had all the ingredients at home – confectioner’s sugar, shredded coconut, cream (I used half & half) and cinnamon.

I loved that these were ready to eat in two minutes and easy enough for kids to make.  They were tasty but too sweet for me.  If I made these again according to the recipe, I would not use sweetened coconut (which is what I had on hand). I would also try these again with a few variations like rolling them in chocolate or nuts.