Parenting
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Banana Stuffed French Toast
We eat this French toast once a year – every Christmas morning. It’s our Rausin family tradition. While Eric cooked, I practiced taking pictures with my new Cowboy table top studio. My family got tired of watching me take hundreds of pictures from all different angles trying to catch the perfect light. New Years Goal #1: Become a better photographer. Notice I wrote photographer and not cook. Ingredients: Sugar 2 Tab. – Sugar 1/2 Cup 2 Tab. Water Butter 2 Tab. – Butter 1/2 stick Unsalted 2 Large ripe bananas (peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds) 1 One Pound unsliced egg bread (Cut into 6 slices) 2 Cups of Whole…
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Inspiration in Our Backyard
Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Winter Estates. Ft. Myers, Florida. Thomas Edison Quotes: My philosophy of life: Work and look on the bright side of everything. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. All progress, all success springs from thinking. If parents pass enthusiasm along to their children, they will leave them an estate of incalculable value. I would like to live about three hundred years. I think I have ideas enough to keep me busy that long.
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Epic Success Cake!
Here’s Kai’s birthday Epic Success Cake from last year. I just spent the past three days without home internet service and I learned three things. I don’t like checking Facebook and email on my phone. Too addicting. A part of me likes to be out of touch. Suddenly, I realized my whole life could be one status update after another. I’m not even close to being witty enough to make a trip to the gym or grocery shopping sound interesting. Although yesterday I could have contributed an interesting post as my iPhone went flying behind me twice while I was running on the treadmill. Just try to listen to “All For the Best” from Godspell without going faster and faster and…
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The Glee Project Audition Part II
I sat on the bench and pulled out my Kindle trying to pretend I was distracted and calm. Inside my stomach was churning. I had every faith in the world that Arielle’s personality would shine through but I was worried about her singing. From what I understood at the time there would be two rounds of auditions. Anyone who made it through the first round would get to sing for Mr. Ulrich. I hoped and read and hoped and read. Eventually, I got up and bought some coffee. The woman behind the counter offered to add Kahlua. I chose the whipped cream instead and headed back to my bench. Moms…
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The Glee Project Audition
If you can listen to music and read at the same time I recommend listening to River, by the cast of Glee, as you read this. It’s beautiful and fitting for this post. This is the story of how an idea, a hope, a what if?, led to a dream coming true. It began many months ago with several conversations between my daughter, Arielle, and me about a TV show she discovered called The Glee Project. I watched how her eyes lit up every time she gave me an update on the latest episode. I heard passion in her voice and knew instinctively what she was thinking. One day, I asked the…
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Ornaments or Auto Air Fresheners?
This post contains several ideas for an ornament recipe I found on Martha Stewart’s holiday website. The ornaments have a strong cinnamon smell and can be used to decorate a Christmas tree or as a car air freshener to keep you in the holiday spirit as you shop. Teachers, these ornaments are easy and inexpensive to make. If you are looking for a project that will include all of your students regardless of religion – keep reading… Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian is the story of a man who captured beautiful photographs of snowflakes. Wilson A. Bentley was the first to discover that no two snowflakes are alike. (A wonderful lesson for…
