Wordless Wednesday

I have not eaten BEEF in nearly 10 years, until this last weekend...



The nasty cheap drive thru ultimate cheeseburger!

HEAVEN!!

Porcelain Throne and the Laptop

Imagine for a moment the bathroom in your home. You envision the lovely porcelain basin there for your sitting pleasure. Your stack of important reading material close by, for those longer than expected moments. If you are a mom, it is quite possible you will see this image as a fabulous place of calm and quiet. I know for a fact that I am not the only mom out there that will shamelessly fib to her husband and kids about needing some time in the john, only because this grants her 10 minutes of silent alone time, and therefore the fib doesn't count. Ahhhh! Quiet. You reach for that new fashion magazine, er! parenting magazine, because again we are moms and we just can not stop, EVER. So instead we read the fashion or trash mag followed by our parenting mag, right?

Recently, I found myself following suit and doing the fib to H4L, "I need some time alone on the pot", only to discover I had with me a new "reading" material. Some how I managed to sneak myself into alone time, locked behind the door, propped up on the porcelain throne of peace and quiet, and there I was TYPING away. That is right my friends. Some how my cute little pink laptop has made its presence known in the bathroom. I have stooped this low. I have become that mom that fibs to the family for alone time and then is on the internet while active in the fib! Facebook, email, web surfing, I might have even made a purchase or two in there. My oh my what a treat I have found. My good friend "john" has shown me the way to quiet surf time!

Now what is really awesome, is you my readers will now always wonder, "Did she write this blog post while sitting on the pot?" HA!

Monday: A new week a new recipe

A friend of mine shared this incredibly sneaky brownie treat. She found it in the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. And I tell you I was intrigued and quickly whipped this up to see if in fact I could sneak veggies in with dessert! And YES I can! It is divine! My whole family loved it and this will be a regular in our household.

Spinach and Carrot Brownies

Non stick cooking spray
3 oz. semi or bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup carrot puree (about 2 carrots)
1/2 cup spinach puree (a couple handfuls)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 T margarine spread
2 tsp. vanilla
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

This really does end up as a yummy chocolate treat!

* Preheat oven to 350 - Coat an 8x8 baking pan w/cooking spray
* Melt the chocolate in a double broiler or over a very low flame
* In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine, & vanilla. Whisk until smooth & creamy, 1 to 2 min.
* Whisk in the egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt w/a wooden spoon
* Pour the batter into the pan and bake 30-40 min. Cool completely before cutting.

Memorial City Castle

Now that Baby DIVA is at a playdate friendly age, we have been out and about exploring our fine city and looking for fabulous things to do. And of course, my frugal self is keeping the frugal theme rolling in these adventures, always scouting out free or cheap fun for moms, dads and tots. This last week we had our first adventure over to a well known HOT SPOT playdate place. The soft CASTLE play area of Memorial City Mall.

I can definitely see why this is a hoppin' play date place. The castle is amazing. Gorgeous and caught my eye. I can only imagine what it must look like through the eyes of a toddler!

We teamed up with Love to Shop Mom and her little Miss Diva, and headed off to find the CASTLE. It was a breeze to find. The mall maps were plentiful and the mall was very stroller friendly. Quickly us moms and our tots caught site of the fabulous castle and it was ON. Baby DIVA shrieked with excitement as we parked the stroller, removed our shoes and were allowed access into the soft play area by a security guard behind a gated and locked entry, Which I found lovely, in a weird sort of way.

At first Baby DIVA had to do the usual toddler move, of "oh mom I am so shy, let me hide behind your legs". But she very quickly was invited in by all the bright colors and mystical decor that the soft castle had to offer. After a quick introduction and demonstration by me, showing her that it was safe, Baby DIVA became the Castle's Queen. She was totting about, climbing stairs, crawling through secret passages, sliding down drawbridges and swimming in the castle river, which is a blue pit of sorts that the tots adore.

We spent a good couple of hours at this lovely play area. Baby DIVA had a ball. I was impressed that there was not a huge crowd, we were there from about 10am until noonish. The weather outside was disgusting, so the small crowd made me very happy. The facility was very clean and the kids had a blast. I would highly recommend this play area to all local moms who are looking for an indoor fun and unique place to go! And the best part: IT IS FREE!!!!

Savvy Tot School

Baby DIVA is like a sponge. She learns something new everyday. Every day is I am so amazed at her, the amount of knowledge she gains, the funny "new" something that she does, it is all breathtaking. She really is enjoying her Savvy Tot school. This last week we worked on Senses. At the beginning of the week I thought I would do a different sense each day, well toddlers don't really work with what you plan. I ended up just using our every day life and pointing out various sensory moments to Baby DIVA. We felt all kinds of material in her toy box. We heard many different sounds, like birds, and dogs, and airplanes, while relaxing at the park.

Next week will not only provide Baby DIVA lessons in Gardening, but will also harness another new found skill for Baby DIVA. Pink Haired Momma will begin taking care of a 7 week old Baby K-Dude 3 days a week, Baby DIVA will not be the only babe in the castle. Life lessons begin to take shape this week at our place! As wee tend the the garden in the backyard, Baby DIVA will learn the fine art of sharing momma's time.





I will let you know how that goes!

Houston Area Mommies

I know I have readers from all over the world and I think that is fabulous. I love the momma bloggin has connected me with such a diverse geographical group of people. It makes me so excited.

Today I want to share some information that is for my local readers. I am a member of a completely fabulous mom group here in the Houston area. Seriously this group is phenomenal. The women I have met in this organization are like sisters to me. We can chat about anything from recipes to how to beat PPD to catching our backyard grills on fire. Oh and we talk about our kids too. We also get together on a regular basis for playdates, moms night out, family days, book clubs, charity events, you name it. It is really wonderful to have a group of women with like minds, ie motherhood, that I can go to and talk to, have fun with and be friends with.

Now that I have gushed like a hormonal woman about how much I love this group, I would like to invite all Houston Area Moms to come and join this incredibly fantastic group. We have a community website. You are welcome to come have a look and see if we are a great fit. Check us out at http://www.houstonareamommies.com/. You wont regret it!

And for all of you fabulous readers out there that are not in the Houston Area, I have a little something for you too. My fabulous mom group is just one branch of a huge organization! It just might be that there is a group in your city too! Have a look and see http://www.themommiesnetwork.org/!

H-E-B Easter Deals and Gift Card Giveaway!!

Have you thought about what you plan on eating on Easter this year? Well if you are like me, you probably want something totally fabulous and super delicious but do not want to break the bank. And I have just the meal for you! From today through April 6, 2010 H-E-B is offering a incredibly fantastic Meal Deal that would just be divine sitting pretty on your Easter Sunday Dinner table.

Here is the deal:

Buy a H-E-B Spiral Sliced Ham, H-E-B Fully Cooked® Brisket, or H-E-B Fully Cooked® Prime Rib Roast

And then you get all of these items for FREE just by simply using the in store coupon!!!!

H-E-B Tea, assorted varieties
Ball Park 2 lb meat franks, 32 oz
Fresh Express Premium Garden Salad, 9 - 12 oz., assorted varieties
Kraft salad dressing, 8 oz, assorted varieties
H-E-B Entertainer or Bite Size Deli Crackers, 4.4 - 9 oz., assorted varieties
H-E-B Creamy Creations(R) Churn Style, 56 oz, assorted varieties
Kraft Natural Chunk Cheese, 7 - 8 oz regular, or 2% assorted varieties
Handi-foil oval or rectangular roaster

Whether you are looking for Easter Dinner or Easter Breakfast the H-E-B weekly Ad is a great place to start planning your delicious meals and to look at all the savings you can achieve. And it doesn't stop there! H-E-B has given me the privilege of having a little Easter Fun with my readers. Simply by entering this giveaway, you have the opportunity to win a totally fabulous $20 Gift Card to H-E-B! And believe this frugal Pink Haired Momma when I say H-E-B has such great products and fabulous prices, that $20 is gonna get you loads of grub!

So, here is how the Giveaway works:

Main Entry
Please leave a comment telling me how you would use the HEB gift card to entertain for Easter.

*You must complete this entry in order to be considered for the prize.*

EXTRA ENTRIES
Extra Entry 1: Follow my blog (or tell me that you already do ) in a separate comment
Extra Entry 2: Follow me, Pink Haired Momma on Twitter and leave a comment letting me know
Extra Entry 3: Blog about this giveaway and then come back here and leave a comment with a link to your post telling me you did so in a separate comment
Extra Entry 4: Follow HEB on twitter and leave a comment letting me know
Extra Entry 5: Tweet about this giveaway and then come back here and leave a comment with a link to your tweet in a separate comment. You may tweet about this giveaway as many times as you would like and may add an extra comment once a day for extra tweets!
Extra Entry 6: Grab My Button and put it on your site (or tell me that you already have it ) in a separate comment
Extra Entry 7: Subscribe to Pink Haired Momma (or tell me that you are already a subscriber)
Extra Entry 8: Follow me on Facebook and leave a separate comment letting me know you did so.
Extra Entry 9: Share this giveaway on Facebook and then leave a separate comment letting me know you did so.


That is a total of 10 possible entries guys! Pretty fabulous! Happy entering!!

**This giveaway ends at midnight on Sunday April 4, 2010. The Winner will be chosen using Random.org. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me before another winner is chosen. Must be 18 years or older to enter. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.**

***The opinions in this post are that of my own. I was not compensated through monetary means of any sort to perform this giveaway.

I took a "Spring Break"

My name is Pink Haired Momma. I am your average SAHM. I cook, clean, gossip, and love my daughter and my family. I pretend to be a Pink Haired Supermomma, most days. I believe that I can wear my Pink Supermomma cape, flip flops and sport and skirt all while frying some chicken and boucning a baby on my hip, with a blackberrry in one hand checking my emails. We all know what happens in reality.

I also am a mommy blogger. I love being a blogger. I love having a blog that I can ramble on about really cool products, fun stuff that goes in my life, and an outlet to share all things involving a Pink Haired Momma life. I love making fabulous connections to other moms and friends around the globe, all of whom can relate to pink hair and mommahood. It really is amazing, but it also is a time consuming hobby. As much as I enjoy it, it does come at the bottom of my list of to do's. And when the my Pink Haired world gets busy and/or I stop having fun blogging, and it feels more like an obligation that a fun outlet, I take a break. I might look like a Pink Haired Supermomma, but in reality I too can get tired and stretched too thin. Luckily, I do possess the Supermomma trait of recognizing this exhaustion sneaking up and know when to call it quits and take a nice break from whatever it is that is overwhelming me. Especially when the overwhelming cause is something I really enjoy doing.



And that's just what happened the last 10 days. I closed my laptop and did not go any where near my blog, or other people's blogs for that matter. I took a refreshing "Spring Break" from the blogosphere. I felt this was a necessary break. I wanted and needed to spend some extra time with my daughter and my family. I wanted to lay on the couch at night with my H4L and watch non sense on tv. I did not want to spend hours at night tapping away at my keyboard, so I didn't. And it felt great. And now I feel fabulously refreshed and ready to tap away again.

During my Blogging "Spring Break", this was how my days and nights were spent!

Unleash the Pink #7

Yesterday while I was reading some of my favorite blogs, I happened across a post from Kara @His, Hers, and Ours. Kara posted this lovely email she received. I read through it and tears came to my eyes. This single email sums up everything I want Unleash the Pink to bring out for myself and everyone and anyone who reads and/or participates in. I love this. Thank you so much Kara for this post, it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

So this week I am stepping out of the box and I PINKY DARE you to read the following passage, read it thoroughly, read it with a full open mind and heart. Then take with you what you need from and it and leave behind what you don't. Good luck!

READ THIS VERY SLOWLY.... IT'S PRETTY PROFOUND.
Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained.
We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet.
We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask ' How are you?' Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?
Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away..... Life is not a race.
Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
'Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!

The Momma Inch

You finally get the baby to sleep, whether it is a snoozit (nap as we call them), or night night time. This doesn't matter. Simply, the baby is sound asleep.

Thank goodness, freedom!

A little while into the babes slumber, some circumstance or another arises that draws you into close proximity of the crib, be it you are making sure your kid is still breathing, you might be putting a toy in the child's room, whatever it may be you are near the crib.

And then it happens. Baby stirs.

OH CRAP!
You hit the floor.

Flat as a pancake, or well a lumpy swollen pancake in my world. You lay there flat as a lumpy swollen pancake for a moment, hoping, praying, not breathing; if I just lay in lumpy in silence babe will go back to sleep. After another moment or two you breathe again realizing the babe is in fact asleep. Not wanting to take a chance your slowly take your lumpy self and "inch" crawl your way out the door. You reach the door, satisfied with yourself and your extended freedom of at least a few more minutes.

You my friend have just completed the Momma inch! Have you ever done this? Share your story with me! I must do this at least once a week. In fact, I am writing this post only minutes after completing my own "Momma inching"! You would think I would just learn to stay out of the babies room, but I am quite hard headed!

Wordless Wednesday

We are so proud of Baby DIVA's graceful eating habits!

Spring is in the dirt!

H4L and I got busy this last weekend, not like that goofballs! We got busy cleaning out our front yard. Mostly because WE want our home to be beautiful and lovely and inviting. We also have found a fabulous fondness to planting and growing our own foods and herbs. But I will not lie, part of the reasoning behind our total re do of our front yard, is in fact that nasty letter we received from the ever annoying Home Owners Association griping to us about how it has been spring for a whole 5 minutes, why haven't we cleaned up the dead vegetation from winter wrath! UGH! They make me so mad. But at least they got us going! What about you? Is your HOA an annoying thorn in your life?

Before: Ugly, Winter burned, neglected

Cleaned, feeling better

Reshaped, re soiled, re planted, grass planted

The beginnings of a fragrant, happy front yard herb garden

Side view of our handiwork

Monday Madness! What new to cook?

Quick shredded chicken sandwich

What you need:

leftover chicken, shredded
1/4 orange bell pepper diced
1/4 rd bell pepper diced
1/4 orange bell pepper diced
1/4yellow onion diced
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Can of Cream of mushroom soup
salt, pepper, garlic salt, poultry seasoning to taste



What you do:

Shred the chicken into small pieces and set aside.

Slice up the onion and bell peppers. In a skillet saute them with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, just until tender.

Add in the cream of mushroom soup and mix well. Cook until the cream of mushroom soup is warm.

Add in the chicken and mix well.

Add in your spices. Mix well then cover and allow to simmer for a few minutes.


Serve on hoagie rolls hot!



Okay this was a kind of impromptu, throw together, last minute, Uh-oh, what am I gonna cook recipe. It was fabulous. Great way to utilize that left over chicken, FAST, and delicious. This recipe was devoured by Baby DIVA and H4L. H4L even packed himself his lunch for the next day before I cleaned the kitchen. When he does this, I KNOW the recipe is a keeper!

Savvy Tot School

Color week was totally fabulous. We learned about YELLOW, because the sun was shining almost every day. We learned about BLUE, because the sky was solid blue, no clouds to be seen. We were fascinated by the color GREEN, as we watched the grass begin to grow and buds of winter tortured plants begin to wake up. All of the color activities planned for Savvy Tot School this week were shaken and stirred and new ones poured out, all because we had fantastic weather this week. It is wonderful to be able to expose Baby DIVA to natural learning!

To start off color we, we dined on a fabulous and "colorful" meal. Followed by reading of "color" books daily, that we carefully chose at the library. We also enjoyed our every morning drawing on the porch door coloring session with our super cool window crayons, which always includes at least one taste of a color. Thank goodness for non-toxic.

We also made a Hi-five board. This week to be used for color, but can be utilized for many many other themes. I traced my hand print on various colored foam boards, and then cut them out and glued them to a large board. Baby DIVA then could "Hi-five" the color we were discussing. She of course didn't exactly follow this game by the rules, but she did loved dragging the whole board around the house and attempting to say "Blue".

I think of of Baby DIVA's funnest color activity was whip cream painting!



All in all it was an incredible week. Lots of outdoor play, loads of colors to see, and tons of loving with my Baby DIVA!! Up next: The senses!