Now I have to say... there really is a holiday for everything!

My daughter has been demanding cookies lately. In an effort to find a new vegan cookie recipe, I came across this site which declares that the last Friday of September is Vegan Baking Day.

How could I not participate? So instead of wasting more time looking for a cookie recipe, I whipped up a batch of....

http://thedeliberatemom.blogspot.com/2011/09/happy-vegan-baking-day.html 
 

The first drink.

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember....

http://thedeliberatemom.blogspot.com/2011/09/this-moment_30.html

Yay! It's Friday!!!!

....which means I am a day late - oops! Sometimes, life & home commitments get in the way of blogging - I know! The horror!!

But, never you fear - I carved you out a special time this morning, see? Well, actually, you can thank my good friend: her other commitments got in the way of our coffee date this AM! (I know, I know, this "other commitment" thing is just ridiculous when it comes to blogging and hanging out...... I mean, get real! ;-)

Well, folks, we are lucky little campers this weekend: there is so much on the go with Culture Days! This is a National initiative to celebrate our Canadian Culture.....

www.stjohnsmom.blogspot.com - for a link to activities in your area and the rest of this post :-)

Reading.... it is one of the great joys of life! To hold a book in one's hands, turning pages one by one to unfold a delicious story you find yourself completely lost in.... ahhhh!Pure BLISS!

And, of course, for our children, reading is imperative - it's a pre-requisite to most learning! Did you know that today is Raise-A-Reader Day 2011? Yep. In fact, today is the 10th Annual one! On this day, newspapers across Canada issue and sell special editions with the proceeds going towards the Raise-A-Reader program and initiatives. You probably saw volunteers selling this edition of The Telegram downtown earlier today or even around you school or community centre - I hope you picked one up :-)

Here are some ideas to celebrate Raise-A-Reader Day:

• make a trip to the library after school today
• serve a sandwiches for supper, or some other food that you can cut into letters; or see if Bulk Barn has some dry alphabet pasta and make alphabet soup! 
• want more ideas and some on encouraging reading as well? Head to www.stjohnsmom.blogspot.com - LOVE having you visit :-)

For weeks leading up to his birthday, Toad was adamant he wanted a chocolate cake, with strawberries and "regular old icing". The strawberries were NOT to be in the cake. The icing was NOT to be cream cheese icing NOR whipped cream icing. Just. Cake. And. Icing. And. Strawberries.

OK, OK, I got it!. Sheeesh!

Now, personal quirk alert: While I DO LOOOVE chocolate, I am not a fan of chocolate cake. It is just not chocolate-y enough for me. I browsed every cookbook and could not find anything I felt would be suitable..... that is, until....

~drum roll please ~

I came across a recipe for brownies I had written out from the back of some Chipits packaging years ago (I think this is it). With a few extra eggs, I figured it would work wonderfully. I would have to omit the chocolate chips (and the nuts, and change the icing), in order to satisfy the strict parameters being imposed upon me by the birthday boy, but that was no biggie...oh, the things we do for our children ;-)

I decided to top the cake with a butter icing from my grandmother's old cookbook - how quaint it felt to read the guidelines pertaining to the benefits of frosting a cake - "it will allow the cake to remain fresh and moist 3-4 times longer than an unfrosted cake". 

Here is the end result:

visit stjohnsmom.blogspot.com for picture and recipe.... enjoy!

I can't co-sleep. I tried with my first born child and I tried when my newborn was excessively colicky. I sincerely gave it my best effort and I grossly failed.

Does that make me a bad mom? I don't think so. But with all the hype, books and media surrounding attachment parenting I was beginning to feel like a bit of a failure....

http://thedeliberatemom.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-cant-co-sleep.html 

We had a birthday at our house this past week. It got me all mushy.... my boys are growing way to fast! I want to freeze them and have them this age forever! Last night, our youngest wanted to sleep in our bed. I said yes, and told DH he could move him when we went to bed, knowing full well he wouldn't. It was not the most restful sleep, but there will come a time when Toad no longer wants to crawl in with Mommy & Daddy, and ..... visit http://stjohnsmom.blogspot.com/2011/09/marvelous-monday-birthday-monkey.html to read the rest and see the card I made my son :-)

As I've shared before... we love reading. Bedtime in our house usually includes at least three books (and then there's all the books we read throughout the day)! I have decided to put together a list of my family's favourite preschool picture books. Since we LOVE books so much, it was very hard for me to limit this list... but here it is, our favourite preschool picture books for children 3 - 5 years of age.

http://thedeliberatemom.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-preschool-picture-books.html 


 

Today I realized something. 

I struggle with myself daily. I am always on a quest to better myself as I feel I am never good enough. Today I asked myself why and I think I found the answer....

http://thedeliberatemom.blogspot.com/2011/09/real-me.html 

The sun is shinin', in this windy city....

This Saturday, September 24th, is the World Wide Day of Play! Wooot!! So, if you are looking for an excuse to get down & dirty with the kids, this is it ;-) Here are some ideas to get your day started: