What I Made Wednesday {Movember 'Stache on a Stick}

Learn more.

 30 days has November: that's 30 days of opportunity to spread awareness for cancer-screening of prostate and testicular cancers. Men around the world become walking billboards for the cause as they grow moustaches in solidarity, hence Movember. Here's a terrific website if you'd like to learn more, click here.

To spread the word, it starts with the youth of the world. Explaining Movember to kids in a fun (and delicious) way may very well save a parent's life (or even their own, one day) - you never know.

3 different styles!

 If you've been a regular visitor, you know I'm Room Mom for my son's Homeroom. I'm always looking for fun ways to make them feel appreciated (the Target dollar aisle at the front of the store is my favorite stomping ground). So, while I was roaming the aisle at my local Michael's store and stumbled upon a moustache candy mold - why, it had Movember awareness written all over it. The kids had a blast with these, and, now, know a little bit about Movember.

What You'll Need

Chocolate mold from Wilton #2118

Lollipop sticks

Milk chocolate melting wafers

White chocolate colored yellow melting wafers

I did not wrap these but you could also place them in a cellophane wrapper.


 What You'll Do
Melting chocolate is easier than you think. I'd be careful, though, with the white chocolate because it tends to scorch easier and quicker than milk chocolate. When that happens you have no choice but to throw it out. To make sure you don't cry if this happens, melt the chocolate in small batches in case things go awry.

Dump half of your chips into a microwave safe bowl.

 Set your microwave to only 45 seconds. Remove and stir with a rubber spatula. BE PATIENT. Keep placing back into the microwave for 10-second intervals, stirring the chocolate between nukes. The microwave will not completely melt the chocolate, you stirring it will - remember that!

 Using a small spoon, fill the mold only half-way with chocolate. Tap the mold on the counter to release any air bubbles that may be sitting at the bottom of the mold. Be pretty generous with your taps. This will ensure a smooth, holeless surface to your chocolate. Take the lollipop stick and place it in the groove of the mold. Turn the stick in a circular motion in the chocolate to coat it. This helps act as a glue. Next, spoon more chocolate on top, covering the mold and making the top even with the mold's surface. DO NOT OVER FILL. You'll have more to clean-up around the finished product.

 When you pop your mold into the refrigerator, be sure to ensure that the lollipop stick is still embedded in and covered with the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to harden, about 15 - 20 minutes. You'll know its done when the bottom of the mold gets a bit frosty on the inside.

Grab a cushy towel and place on the countertop. When the chocolate is ready, remove from the refrigerator and flip the mold over onto the towel. The padding will prevent the chocolate from breaking. The chocolate falls out quite easily and quickly - trust me.

More than likely, you'll have chocolate left over in your bowl that was not entirely used for your molds after the first batch. No worries! Just clean-off the spoon and spatula. When you are ready to mold again, just heat the chocolate again like you did before. Reduce the time by 10 seconds since you are not working with as much volume as when you started. Chocolate and water are not friends. At all costs, do not accidentally get drops of water into your chocolate. If this happens, add more chocolate than you think you need to dilute the water and continue to melt until it reaches a smooth consistency.

What You'll Need to Know to Finish

If you overfilled a few, you'll see you'll have to "clean-up" some of the excess after it hardens. You should be able to just break it off, or, if there's a thick overfill, take a knife and trim it off.
Place the finished chocolate suckers onto a baking sheet until you are ready to store in an airtight container and place in the fridge. I didn't wrap these, but instead placed them in a container and took them to school the next day. My son said they were a HUGE hit with the kids! 

Happy Movember!

You Gotta Check Out: Shari's Berries

Happiness is finding this package on your front porch.

'Tis the holiday season. Time to put a little effort and planning into gift-giving for those that are hard to buy for. The added stress of it just takes away some of the joy in our days of wanting to be merry and bright. Want a killer gift that will win anyone over, anytime? Check out Shari's Berries. I warn you to have a napkin at-the-ready as you browse their deliciousness (you know, to wipe up the drool).

It was my first time ordering any kind of chocolate-covered strawberries from an online store. Quite frankly, I didn't think the concept was even possible. Too many obstacles like shipping, compromising taste and quality, freshness, etc. The contents of my order proved me wrong as Shari's Berries seems to have flown over every hurdle, delivering luscious, chocolate-covered goodies right to my door.

I ordered the Hand-Dipped Fruit Trio.

Hilarious!

Let's start with the shipping. Every detail is met to ensure top-shelf quality. Beyond choosing the exact date YOU want it delivered to your door, beyond the e-mails informing you of your order's shipping status, the packaging itself is an engineering marvel. They thought of everything from padding the inside of the box, to having little absorbent doilies under each berry to catch any natural juices, to incorporating 2 ice packs to keep your order cool no matter whose porch it gets delivered to! And, to top it all off, they do it with a great sense of humor. Check out the verbiage on the box - hilarious!

Don't even talk about the tastiness! Each plump strawberry is blanketed with a rich, creamy chocolate and coated with either nuts, mini-chips, or even a white chocolate coating with milk chocolate drizzle. I purchased the Hand-dipped Fruit Trio, which included chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate-covered cherries, and a chocolate-covered caramel apple. I know Shari's is known for their berries, but my ultimate flavor experience came from the chocolate-covered cherries - YUMMY! They're like maraschino cherries, stem on, and covered in a variety of chocolates from milk, white, and dark. You've got to try these!

I hope you take the time to browse Shari's Berries and see if you can't find that perfect gift for someone that's hard to buy for. Hey, everyone eats and everyone will enjoy this special treat. Each box even comes wrapped in a ribbon, ready to give! You can trust that the experience will be one that won't disappoint. Explore the Internet for some wonderful coupons for savings you can use.

Special thanks to Shari's Berries for giving me the opportunity to review their product. 

Although Shari's Berries provided me with $65 off any order to review their products and site, the opinions of my experience are represented honestly and are strictly my own.

Gratitude Journal Monday

Try not to invite hardship into your life, but sometimes the unwelcomed guest makes an appearance at your door with pounding knuckles and you just have to let it in. Like any uninvited guest, you make the best of it and count the days, hours, minutes, until it leaves, hoping the pieces left behind in its wake are still salvageable in recreating a life you've come to recognize, find comfort in, and adore. But, isn't it always refreshing when you take that clear sigh of relief when hardship passes. It's because of the hardship that your world is fresher and more appreciated. It's like when you have a nasty, nasal-congested cold. You can't breathe, your mouth gets dry because oxygen only has that one inlet due to the detour sign at your nasal passages. You lay in bed and you think about how nice breathing used to be before you caught this nasty cold. You vow never to take breathing for granted ever again. You bare down to the simplicity of being and doing, that hardship has stripped from you. Yet, when it's all over, you come out of it more appreciative and that's why hardship must be let in. It balances out life when things get a bit too comfortable and gratitude falls to the wayside. Be strong. Do you hear any knocks at your door? Open it with the confidence of knowing it's only for a moment.

So much to be grateful for this week of Thanksgiving. Please join me and share your gratitude declarations.

346. I am grateful that, through hardships and challenges, our gratitude for the simple and basic increases.
347. I'm so grateful to my son who shows me daily, what life is really all about.
348. I am thankful my rigidity is fading away as my wrinkles become deeper and I grow wiser - it's a trade worth making.
349. I appreciate the beautiful, consecutive days of sunshine and good weather we've enjoyed.
350. I am grateful I only have to drive 2 more days, back and forth to school - woo-hoo!

Happy week, friends, and safe travels in your journey.

Goodbye Week. Hello Weekend. Lessons Learned: Take 70.

Outside of Caribou Coffee

Goodbye parent coffee and learning tid-bits of what to expect in Middle School next year - YIKES!
Goodbye $700 to remove 2 pine trees in the backyard: victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Goodbye beautiful letter my son wrote to God; would love to have shared it with you but somethings are meant to be just between him and The Big Guy.
Goodbye lingering Halloween candy that, unfortunately,  finds its way onto the dessert menu in my home every night.
Goodbye early planning stages of the Christmas dinner menu - I'm thinking Beef Wellington.

Hello rising anticipation of my Shari's Berries order - YUM!
Hello escalating excitement of my most favorite holiday of the year - Thanksgiving.
Hello working diligently on our Christmas wish lists and hoping for the best this year.
Hello homework weekend for kiddo and working weekend for me - but it's all good.
Hello to really trying hard to get to my most dreaded chore: ironing.

Because I was sick last Friday I feel I owe you a really deeply thought-out Lesson Learned for this week, but something happened that I must share with you. Something so horrific, so unbelievable, my gag-reflux is starting up again as I type. Consider this a PSA (public service announcement) to all you Hostess-product loving compatriots. Let me take a breather. OK, I'm ready to continue on with my story.

I've always placed Twinkies and Ho-Ho's in the same category as cockroaches - the only things to survive a nuclear war. I thought the "freshly-baked" goods had so many preservatives, they could last practically forever. I thought the "Best by:" stamp was merely a formality. I had a box of half-eaten Ho-Ho's in the basement pantry for quite some time; Best By: September 2012. Not so bad. There were exactly 3 Ho-Ho's left and I brought them up after dinner: 1. to get rid of them, 2. to break the cycle of Halloween candy after dinner (as if this choice was a big improvement).

I tossed a pristine, white-wrapped Ho-Ho to Super Hubby, who declined by not catching it, and to kiddo, leaving mine next to him at the table. I poured the milk, sat down, unwrapped my devil's-food goodness, bit in, and immediately ran to the sink. Something just wasn't right. I spit out the contents of my mouth and was trying to figure out what that awful taste was. It was like somebody had injected petroleum into the white filling and dipped it into a tinny vat of toxic waste. I asked my son if he had opened his, yet. He did and, the way he had opened his, the coated chocolate fell off and exposed the cake part of the Ho-Ho. He smelled it and verified that something was wrong. It wasn't until he commented that his cake part had all this green fuzzy stuff all over it that I realized the Ho-Ho's had GONE BAD! Was this possible? Could a Ho-Ho go rogue? It's not like they were years old, just a few months.

I've got a box of Twinkies downstairs that has occupied space on the shelf for years. I'm scared, very scared. That box will just be tossed. I dare not open the contents for fear my home becomes marked with Do Not Cross tape and Danger: Toxic Area signs.

Maybe Ho-Ho's are a nuclear war staple. I can make my own penicillin and start a black market after Armageddon, trading for sticks and stones and have the cave of my dreams. 
 

Have a great, gag-free weekend!

Living Inside Out

Picture brought to you by my beautiful bloggy friend, Suzan. Check her out here!

What good is having a heart if you don't show your love? It's time to live inside out. Begin by telling others how important they are to your life. Express your love in a way that the world sees your caring and kindness of others. Love is to be shared, not hoarded. Love must be shouted to the world, not silenced. The love you show can be your legacy. Let it flow freely and it finds its way to those who need it most. All you have to do is make love available.

I want to believe love is contagious. If we begin to take actions that equal love, that feeling will spread. What better time to start an epidemic then now; we've never needed it more. Live your love out loud and you are bound to influence others. Love can be pretty powerful stuff! Start showing yours today, and don't stop. Love is a verb, so get moving!

Thank you, Suzan, for inspiring today's post with your awesome photo! She's an awesome photographer (although she'd never admit to it) and was kind enough to send me this photo, saying it reminded her of me and my blog. Smile! Check out Suzan's blog and get to know this soon-to-be published author. Click here.

What I Made Wednesday {Shares on Display II}

Today continues the Shares-on-Display display case at my son's school. This post will get you up-to-date but this is the second month of having students sign-up for the month's theme, bring in their items to share, and have them displayed for a month. It's so much cooler than Show-n-Tell, now that they're older. This month's theme: Trophies, Medals, and Ribbons.

For this display, I had the kids that signed-up bring in any awards they wanted to display, along with photos. Thanks to the dollar store, I picked up the die cuts with ribbons and medals as a theme. The stars at the top and bottom is just metallic gift wrap (again, from the dollar store). You may not be able to tell from the picture, but this display is very shiny! My son helped me put shiny stickers all over the white area in the middle. And, I took shiny gift packaging to scatter across the floor of the case. Without knowing it, it made for a very cool reflection of red on the silver letters at the bottom of the case. Totally unintentional between you and me, but I'll take credit for having "planned" that;-)

Each month my intention is to finish the phrase, "5th Graders Are..." to whatever the theme is for the month. So, last month, the theme was Best Halloween Costume Ever, and the phrase was, "5th Graders Are...Mysterious", because there was only one piece of costume displayed and kids had to figure out what they were. This month I went with "5th Graders Are...All Winners!" I added the word "all" at the last minute because I didn't want any child who has never won a trophy to feel left out.

To display the kids' names and the reason for the award, I made display cards that look like ribbons. I took a stars-and-stripes themed scrapbook paper, glued it down onto foam core, and took my beloved X-acto knife and cut out a ribbon. I then cut-out circles where I wrote the information and used foam stickers to attach it to the center of the ribbon I made. I want the info area to be removable so the person who does this next year can re-use the ribbons.
Get it?


Make your school cool by volunteering to take over a dusty old display case and claim it for the kids. This case actually occupies the main hallway through 5th grade and all grades pass it to go to the library, so it gets a lot of looks from kids of all ages. I know my son and his classmates have really enjoyed it and the school loves the look! Again, for this tradition to continue, be sure to think in terms of "re-usable" so next year's lucky volunteer has an easier go at it. So, go! Make your school cool!

Help Me to Understand

I have no connection with these words. Do you?

This is for all you runners out there. Please, help me to understand. What is it about running? What is this obsession you have with pounding feet on hard pavement until your lungs feel like they are bleeding needles? Why do you welcome strains and pains the next day just to do it again and again? Having ice packs on my knees does not a fashion-statement make. I want to understand you, dear runner. You talk about it as though you are flying through the air, an out-of-body experience. Your words about running certainly got my attention and I wanted a piece of the action.

I bought my running shoes, I created my running playlist on my iPod, I stretched, I inserted the ear buds, and I was off. It.was.torture. If it wasn't for Katy Perry's redundant encouragement of labeling me a Firework, I may not have made it back home. More than my colors were bursting, that's for sure. Dear runners, you are so kind to the novice. You try to encourage me to keep at it and promise that, when I "break through the wall", I'll be able to run forever (the thought is nightmarish to me).

I tried it. I didn't like it. I'm over it. Just help me, dear runner, to understand it?!?!