Kookie Krums

Oh Starbucks what have you done?!

I've been hearing about this infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte since the first hint of fall. At first I was not intrigued at all. I'm not a pumpkin girl. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever tasted pumpkin anything. Then I just kept hearing about it at every turn. It's so delish, it's to-die-for, it's the essence of fall . . . you get the idea.

So last night, I had some girl time with one of my most favorite friends, and we ended up at Starbucks. I still almost didn't give in, as I hated the thought of potentially spending $5 on a drink I didn't like. But I had to know what all the fuss was about. And oh my word of honor. The fuss is so not kidding. It absolutely was delish. In every way. I can't stop thinking about it. Trying to think when I can possibly wrangle my way into getting another. And why doesn't Dunedin have a Starbucks?!

a step behind . . . or twenty.

A big apology to all of my faithful friends and readers for this unannounced, unexplained, blog absense I've had recently. I can now officially say that I know what the end of my rope looks like and feels like! I told someone this morning that I wish I could keep a personal assistant in my back pocket just to keep me on track right now because I don't know if I'm coming or going most of the time!

Our family has been dealing with the death of my grandmother, as well as a very serious accident that another family member was in. Lots of emotion, lots of rearranging schedules and lots of putting things on hold. So please bear with me as I get caught back up and get back into the swing of things. My Hailey told me "Mommy, I just miss you," and I know just how she feels.

Things here at Kookie Krums have been moving right along, and we've done some very fun projects lately that I really am excited to show you and tell you about. Right now, though, I'm wondering where the year has gone. I need to finish packing up Halloween and unpacking Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I want to take a moment to say thank you, again, to my wonderful customers, most of whom have become very dear friends. You've offered to pick up orders early, rearrange your schedules, and even watch my children. You all are amazing, and I love you. This shop has become such a blessing, in so many ways. Now . . . back to those boxes!!

Is it Monday already?!

Is it just me, or does it seem like the weekends are just getting shorter and shorter?? Granted, I wasn't home for much of this one, but it still seems like it was here and then gone before I even got to fully relish that it was here to begin with. As a small business owner, there is literally always something business related to be done. Always. I could live in this cookie store. And if you ask my girls, I think they sometimes think I do. And as a wife and a mom, there is literally even more to always be done.  I have been making a concerted effort to get out of the shop at a reasonable time every day, so that I have as much time as possible in the evenings with my family. And most of the time I'm able to leave my work at work, even if my head is still spinning.

There are those times it goes home with me. Like last week when my sweet hubby helped me put together and stuff 100 boxes with cookies for swag bags. Or when we made tags for baby shower cookies and were cutting and pasting and hole punching while dinner was simmering on the stove. Daniel truly is a gem, and always willing to jump in and help with a project so I can get done. And the girls are always ready to check out what I'm working on and give an opinion - "ooohhh, Mommy, those are really cute. Could I try one of those cookies?!"

But when the cookies go home with me, then the regular household things just don't get done. So laundry piles, the dishwasher stays full, the toys remain scattered . . . you know, the usual. And I just have this thing where I don't want the weekends to be about chores. I want the weekends to be fun family times - relaxing, playing, enjoying.

So when I say today, is it Monday already, what I'm really saying is, "Is it already time to start a week of double duty since I took work home with me last week and now I have to catch up for then while working on now?! I would love to hear from you other business owners out there how you organize and manage it all, and any other tips from you other just generally organized people.

In the meantime, I think I'll just start my to-do list while I'm waiting for these cookies to be done in the oven!! Because a new week is here, and it is time to get rolling!!

Follow the yellow brick road

Last night I had a very special Mommy-Daughter date with Hailey. And I just have to share some of the random details, because it was just a funny night with my girl. I took her to see the 70th Anniversary special showing of The Wizard of Oz. You have to understand, for this Kansas girl, this was such a treat. I was so excited about the movie, that it's based in Kansas, and that I could introduce Hailey to a movie I fell in love with as a little girl.

One local theatre that I called was sold out, so while the other theatre said they still had 106 seats open, I wasn't taking any chances. I bought our tickets online, but we still went to the mall way too early. The lady behind the glass was doing her best not to laugh at me as I was asking in a panic if she thought, in her expert-movie-lady-behind-the-glass opinion, we had enough time to get dinner before the movie. Even though there was not a soul in line, and not a single person walking into the theatre, I still wanted to be very, very sure.

Hailey and I sit down in the food court to eat our oh-so-nutritious-dinner, and I asked her if she knew why this movie was so special to Mommy. She said no, and I said "Because this movie takes place in Kansas, and that's where I was born." She looks at me blankly, so I said, "Kansas is a state. Like Florida. I wasn't born in Florida like you were, I was born in Kansas." She looks at me very seriously and says, "Um, Mommy, I was born in CLEARWATER." And yes, she said it more loudly, and more slowly, in case I just wasn't getting it. I said, "Honey, I know, but Clearwater is a city in Florida. You were born in Clearwater, Florida." Again, I get the look like I'm just a little slow, and now she's kind of feeling sorry for me, so she says very quietly, "oh Mommy, I don't think so." Now I'm getting a little defensive, so I say, "Hailey, I think I would know. I was there." Then I get the big eyes, incredulous look, "YOU WERE?!" Um, who's the slow one now?! I remind her I had to be, since she was in my belly. Then she thinks for a minute and says, "So, Mommy, I been thinking about this, and I don't remember seeing any food come by when I was in your belly."  I'm seriously thinking I just might pee my jeans on this one, but I don't want to embarass her, so instead of falling out of my chair laughing, I compose myself and say, "Well, probably because you were in another part of my belly." 

On to the movie. First of all, you would have thought I was taking a family of 17 to this movie. I order some popcorn, which comes in something that looks like a three gallon bucket, order a small drink for Hailey, which looks like about a liter of fruit punch, and a medium soda for myself, two liters. Then Hailey decided she REALLY needed the Edy's Ice Cream bites (those are SO good by the way, all two that I was allowed to eat). I could barely carry everything, and had to keep asking Hailey if she was next to me because I couldn't see over the mound of food in my arms. I said to the guy behind the counter, "I cannot believe how ginormous all of these containers are," to which he came back with, "Well, you are at the movies." Really?? So that explains it??

Hailey chose seats in the top row, which is meaningless other than that it means that everything she says in her loud little voice carries down to everyone in the theater. Before the movie started they showed a piece with interviews with people from the original cast, various stories about the making of the movie, and all that fun, interesting stuff to those of us who knew this movie before DVD players. When that ended and the movie was about to start, Hailey says, "Mommy was that the movie? Is it over?" And I told her no, that was just an introduction to the movie. She says, "Oh good, because that was super boring." Cue the polite laughter from the sweet people around us who grew up with Judy Garland. As the movie progresses, the tornado comes through, and Dorothy walks out into Munchkin land, Hailey sits up straight, eyes wide, and says, "Mommy, I don't think they're in Kansas anymore!" Now everyone giggles, just as Dorothy comes out with the same line. I found this so funny, since 45 minutes earlier in the food court she had no idea what Kansas even was.

We both completely enjoyed the movie, and our time spent together. When Hailey was curled up in my lap and we were watching the movie together, I just realized that in that moment, life was beyond fantastic. And in the words of Dorothy herself, "I'm never going to go away looking for my true heart's desire again. Because if I can't find it in my own backyard, then I've probably never lost it at all."

A revised birthday plan.

So Hailey was sick on her birthday. And very disappointed about having to cancel her Disney trip. Everyone who called to wish her a happy birthday heard, "Well, I was supposed to go to Disney World and stay one night, but I got sick, so I couldn't go." It was so sad to listen to.

Then a wonderful thing began to take shape. A girlfriend, who was supposed to take her little girl with us for the Disney weekend, called to say that a friend had offered her tickets to Princesses on Ice, either Friday night or Sunday afternoon. I knew Friday night wouldn't work, and was worried about the time on Sunday due to schedules, etc. Then she was able to get us tickets for Saturday night instead! With the fever on its way out (we thought), we started to get excited.

Saturday evening came, and my little princess got all dolled up. We picked up our friends, and went out to a very fancy dinner at Melting Pot. Hailey's first experience with fondue, and she loved it!

She loved all the attention the girls were getting in their princess dresses, and was so excited to see a candle come out on the dessert plate! FINALLY . . . her birthday was happening!! We then headed over to see Princesses on Ice, and my little princess could not have been happier. Counting down all the princesses as they came out and told their story, until the final story of Cinderella. It was a magical evening, and she told me it was the best night ever.

Not quite what we had planned for the big "5" year, but she has a Disney trip rescheduled in a couple of weeks, and got a special night out. She's starting to act more like me every day. Including stretching out the birthday just as long as possible!!

 

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Wow. My girl is five years old. So hard for me to believe. There were many times I thought I would never have the privilege of celebrating a birthday with one of my babies. And now she's five. I am truly blessed.

I had a whole different post planned for today. I wanted to show you the adorable photo cookies we made for Hailey's classmates. I wanted to show you the goody bags we had fun putting together (even though in my daughter's opinion, "every girl should get a new outfit, and every boy should get a guitar." Not sure whose parties she's been attending, but those are some kickin' goody bags!!) I wanted to show you the cookie cakes I made for her class.

And then I planned to tell you about her birthday weekend. She picked two little girlfriends to invite, along with their Mommies, and we had a Disney weekend planned. The Bippity Boppity Boutique, the Nickelodeon Hotels, the Magic Kingdom, lunch with Tigger & Pooh & friends. A little five year old's dream birthday party. But then . . .

 

That's right. Hailey got sick for her birthday. Nice gift, huh?! She had a random fever yesterday that came in the morning, left all day, and came back last night. I took her to the doctor this morning to get the ok to go on our big birthday weekend we had planned, and he promptly said no dice. She has bronchitis. If you want to know the truth, I'm not sure which of us is more disappointed. We are like deflated balloons over here, and just keep looking at each other with poochy lower lips. So not the way we wanted to spend the day.

But it's her day, nonetheless. So I am off to put on our jammies and curl up on the sofa with way too many movies and big cups of juice. And I get to snuggle up with my five year old. I'm still a happy girl.

A Thankful Heart. Sort Of.

Hailey turns five on Friday. And, true to her mom's personality, she's been counting down the days for a couple of weeks now. We have a big weekend planned for her birthday, and she just cannot wait.

But . . . in the meantime, we've also been trying to talk about attitudes and our hearts, because of recent events (see Principal's office). It's a pretty tough sell to talk about a thankful heart when you're about to turn five and your birthday is a few days away. But I decided to try to make a little progress anyway.

Hailey and I are in the car, on the way to school, when I tell her we're going to play a game. We're going to take turns saying the things that we're thankful for. I'm really hoping this will open her little eyes and she will see that she has so much to be thankful for and the "I wants" will stop.

Me: Ok, I'll start. I'm so thankful we have a nice car to drive in. Hailey: I'm so thankful for all of my toys, but I really hope I get My Little Pet Shop for my birthday.

Ok, not really the direction I was going. So I explain that we're just being thankful for what we have, not asking for birthday presents right now. And we start again.

Me: I'm so thankful we have a beautiful house to live in. Hailey: I'm so thankful my birthday is in six days, so someone can get me My Little Pet Shop.

Me: We're done here. Wanna listen to the radio?!

I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how you teach thankfulness to your children! Obviously I need a new repetoire!!

The Failed Cookies.

WHAT?!?! How can this be?? Failed cookies? I ruined a batch of perfectly good cookies?? But I make cookies every. single. day. This is just not possible! These are all the thoughts scurrying through my head. Let me catch you up . . .

My girls went to a birthday party recently, with a "make and create" theme. Their party favors were jars of cookie mix, M&M to be exact. You can read the rest of the creative party ideas here. This jar of cookie mix has been sitting on the counter, staring at me daily, for weeks and weeks. Hailey asks almost every day if we can make the cookies from the party. But her timing is just terrible. She'll ask five minutes before bedtime, or when we're getting ready to walk out the door in the morning. We never seem to think about it when we actually have time to do it. And let's just be honest. When I make cookies all day long, the last thing on my mind is coming home to make more cookies. And several times I have told her, "I have M&M cookies at the shop, I'll be glad to just bring some of those home for you." I know, no mom-of-the-year here.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, we had plenty of time, and decided to make the cookies. At last. Hailey was beyond excited. She pulled a chair over to the counter, we got out the extra ingredients, and we mixed the dough. She carefully formed the little balls and placed them on the tray. We excitedly put them into the oven and set the timer. And re-set the timer. And re-set the timer some more. An hour and a half later, the cookies are still not cooked through, and I am finally ready to admit defeat.

The oven never heated up to the proper temperature. And the cookies never cooked through. My disappointed little girl finally gave up on her hope of eating the freshly baked cookies. I promptly got online and made an appointment with Sears to come and fix the oven.

To add insult to injury, I was trying to do 764 things at once, and had read a tip on Travis Cottrell's blog about cleaning the microwave. I was attempting this little mission while the not-quite-baked cookies were cooling on the stove top.  Because I couldn't quite remember how long Angela had said she turned the microwave on for, I just gave it my best shot - and way overshot this one. The water exploded (thankfully, the bowl did not), throwing open my microwave door, and pouring water out. On. Top. Of. My. Already. Shameful. Cookies. Something about raining and pouring is coming to mind . . .

Luckily, I had two little girls at the party, so we still have one more jar of cookie mix. A promise intact that we will make the other batch as soon as the oven gets repaired. A scoop of humility justly swallowed. And a sparkling clean microwave.

Third week of school. Principal's office.

Yep. That's my girl. I've resisted writing this post because it so hurts my pride. I really do not want to be THAT mom. And I really do not want to have THAT child. But I am. I do. And here we are.

On Monday, I was called to pick up Hailey from school because she was running a low-grade fever. It was gone by the time I picked her up, and she had no other symptoms. I had a doctor's appointment already scheduled for her that afternoon for something unrelated, but while we were there he checked her out and said she was absolutely fine. Tuesday morning, Daniel took her with him on a few errands before she could go back to school after the 24 hours had passed.

Earlier that morning she had told me she didn't want to go to school, she wanted to stay with me. I explained that now we're in "big kids" school and we can't just have days off with Mommy anymore. School is now for real. She then said she didn't feel good, so we had another conversation about the importance of telling the truth. I thought we were both clear after our conversation. Then came the errands with Daddy before she could go back to school.

When Daniel dropped her off at school, the meltdown happened before he could even pass her off to her teacher, and continued long after he made his exit. It's always so awkward leaving your child screaming for you as you walk away. You just know the ones you're leaving your child with are just not liking you at that moment, and you feel bad for walking away from your child when they're that upset, even though you know that's what you have to do to calm them down. At least it usually calms them down. Not this time. As she was sobbing and crying for her Daddy, her teacher, Mrs. Ray, tried to console her. When that didn't work, she put her in a chair at the back of the classroom until she could compose herself. She managed to do this for a brief time, and then digressed back into meltdown mode. Mrs. Ray then told her if she couldn't make good choices and pull herself together, she was going to have to drop her clip.

This should have placed fear in her heart. Anything but dropping the clip! The clip is a series of colors, based on behavior. When your behavior is good, and the clip doesn't move, you earn a sticker. The stickers then accumulate into prizes. No sweet kindergartener wants to have their clip dropped. Oh, except mine. When threatened with dropping her clip, Hailey looks up at Mrs. Ray through teary eyes and says "Would you please drop it for me?"

The next threat came with being sent to the principal's office if she couldn't get it together. What child have you ever met that has the smallest desire to visit the principal's office?? Again, that would be mine. When Mrs. Ray told Hailey that she would have to go to the principal's office if she couldn't start making good choices, Hailey stood up from her chair, reached up to take Mrs. Ray's hand, and started walking. No fear, she's ready to go.

As the assistant principal is talking to Hailey, she tells her that if she cannot stop crying and start making good choices, she's going to have to call her Mommy. Again, this should strike fear in the heart of a child. Again, not mine. She tells the assistant principal "Oh yes, that's a good idea. Would you please call her?" This wise woman then explains to my not-so-wise-child that calling Mommy does not mean that she will come get her, it just means that Mommy has all day to think about the poor choices that Hailey is making, and will be very sad when it's time to pick her up.

And this finally does the trick. Hailey turns her attitude around, kicks out the alien that has apparently invaded her body, and is back to her normal happy self.

When I picked her up, she readily told me that she "threw a monster fit and had her clip dropped and had to go talk to another lady in another room." Oh, is that all?! She then told me, "But I did tell Mrs. Ray that I do really like Kindergarten, just so she knows." Thanks for clarifying, because we were all starting to wonder!! And it's only week three.  How many weeks until summer vacation?!?!?!

A vacation from vacation . . .

So this was us about a week ago. Down in the Keys. Playing in the lagoon at a resort we were only pretending to stay at. Blissfully on vacation. We rented a house on Duck Key, and Hawks Cay Resort is on the same Key. An amazing, beautiful resort. With an amazing, beautiful pool. And an amazing, beautiful lagoon. And amazing, beautiful lounge chairs surrounding it all. The girls, Aunt Cathy, and I headed over to the lagoon every morning and walked into paradise. The girls loved playing in the lagoon. Cathy and I loved lounging in the sun. It was perfection.

And now we're back to reality. Do you ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation?! It's so nice and relaxing while you're there, but then you come home to a world that kept turning. Mail is a couple weeks piled up. Answering machine messages are now in that "do I even need to call back after this long" stage. Laundry is, well, there. It sometimes seems so overwhelming, it seems like it would be easier just to go on another vacation! There's no easy way to jump back into life except to just jump back into life.

So here we are, a week later. Trying to get back into the swing of things. But I'm still thinking about our time away. Precious memories. Amazing milestones. K has always been SO afraid of water. Didn't want to go in the pool. Sometimes didn't want to even take a bath. Definitely didn't want anything to do with the beach. And look at her in this picture. On vacation, things just don't seem as scary. It was absolutely huge for her to be sitting out in the water, playing in it and feeling comfortable. It really makes my heart smile. Sitting in a lounge chair, watching my two girls play together. Knowing in this moment, even though just for this moment, the world has stopped turning, and we are in paradise. Ahhh, vacation.