Striving To Be Bold

The little boy I nanny for wanted s’mores, but the family had no chocolate bars. His mom came up with this simple idea, which I made yesterday.

It’s so very, very simple- but YUMMY!

What you need
- Brownie mix (prepare as usual)
- Large Marshmallows 
- Silicone cupcake holders (or cooking spray) I made the mistake of using paper holders and they were incredibly hard to get off!!

Directions
- Mix up the brownies and plop a little to cover the bottom of the cupcake holders
- Toss a marshmallow in the middle
- Smush down a little and pour brownie mix over it
- Bake 25ish minutes @ 325*

ENJOY!

Things that made me laugh in the last week…

1) Not sure if this would make me laugh or cry if it happened to me…

Photo from here

2)

Photo from here

3)

Photo from here

4)
We’ve watched this two weeks in a row after young adult group

5)

photo from here

There have been a couple of news stories lately that have caught my eye. I do enjoy reading the local news here and in that of my parents’ hometown, although not every day.

This story on the possibility of banning smoking while children are in the car is one I would have skipped reading until a few days ago. I was at a stoplight on the way home from work one day this week when I looked over. Right next to me was a woman smoking. Her window was cracked maybe ¼ of an inch. I could see smoke tendrils unraveling through the car. Just the thought of being in that car with her made me gag, as I have had friends who smoke in their cars and I find myself almost gagging while in their cars (even if they aren’t smoking at the time!). Sitting in the backseat of the car I saw was a little girl, maybe two years old. I immediately felt badly for her—after all, as the article says, she has no say in it, and yet she is clearly breathing in smoke. As I continued my drive I thought (in my non-nicotine-addicted mind), “there is a park RIGHT HERE, less than half a mile from the intersection. Couldn’t she at least stop there, step outside of her car to smoke??”

Photo from here

The second story that made me wince was this one dealing with people who jaywalk repeatedly. When I drive to work, it is still pitch dark. Almost every morning, there are multiple people walking across random spots in the road. There ARE crosswalks, they are not using them. On multiple occasions I have come close to hitting people because they are walking right in front of traffic. It’s like they do not look before they cross the road! It’s so dangerous.

Do you follow the news? Do some news stories scare you like they do me? Sometimes I wonder about this world…

We went to the zoo yesterday with some friends. It was a gorgeous, sunny day so we wanted to take advantage of it! However, the kids were all more interested in the men doing repair work than they were in the monkeys…

This past week was a hard one for me, work wise. By the end of it I just felt like a bad nanny. My job can be draining during weeks like this one!

First, a six-week house project began at my place of work. Granted they are working in the basement but it is WEIRD to have random men walking in and out of the house. Secondly, we didn’t see any of our friends. Stacy hopped off to Cali for the week (lucky girl!), Haley ended up with a sick kiddo, Elsa and I just weren’t able to coordinate our schedules… Being as we usually see friends 2-4 days of the week, I had an itch to talk to another adult by the end of the week, for sure!

Enter Friday. Tobin and I spent the morning at a toddler indoor play time. It’s at a local rec center- a huge gym filled with balls, bikes, tumbling equipment, and 40-50+ toddlers and their caregivers. After a little more than an hour, Tobin was ready to leave—and promptly fell asleep in the car on the way to get Derek from school. He slept for about 20 minutes, but it didn’t worry me. Ahem.

By Tobin’s normal naptime, it was apparent this day was not going to follow our normal schedule. With Derek fast asleep, Tobin voiced his displeasure about naptime until I finally gave up. After about a half hour, I could tell he was tired, but he’s been on a wacky sleep schedule since Christmas and his parents wanted to reverse that…so I kept him up.

The kiddo made my afternoon. Once Laney got home from school, he was a complete mess. I began to help him pick up the DVDs he’d dumped off the bookshelves earlier in the week, pausing to go to the bathroom. When I returned, this was his position.

Later in the afternoon, it happened again.

He woke up once I started to vacuum. Hopefully he slept well last night. I’m thankful for his silliness- especially at the end of a cold January week!

That is me in the middle. Yes, my mother let me out of the house like this. No, I have no idea why.