by Sarah | Jul 24, 2013 | All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Learning, All About Molly, All of Us
*This is a recycled post from a couple of years ago. I thought with school starting it would be a fun re-do for school lunches. All those [amazon_link id=”B00DE2PVTG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]bento boxes[/amazon_link] out there makes this possible!
(L – top to bottom. Cheese cutouts, Peanut Butter w/ banana strips. R – top to bottom. Peanut butter w/ orange marmalade folds, PB & grape jelly rolls, Nutella rolls.
Even my teen will make his own version of this for himself. Molly, the pickiest eater of them all, cleans her plate when I make this kid-friendly sushi. Since it was requested on twitter…I thought I’d post how I make them. And it’s super simple…and to be honest I got the idea from Pinterest and ran with it.
*~*
First, the supplies. Bread (1 slice makes 4 mini-rolls), a [amazon_link id=”B0000VLY7C” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]rolling pin[/amazon_link] (pizza & pastry roller if you have one), whatever fillings/toppings you want.
Cut off the crust (I keep mine to feed the birds) and roll the bread flat, or cut into strips.
Get your toppings on your bread. For fun I used a mini cookie cutter to cut the banana for some of the strips, and for others I just cut it in half and length-wise. I used my leftovers for a bowl of cereal 😉
Roll them. I rolled some in spirals. I’ve read that you should roll these tight, but w/ the jelly I actually roll loose otherwise all of the jelly is squished out. For the orange marmalade I rolled in both sides and then folded to the middle (securing with a small strip of peanut butter between the two edges).
Last but not least for a little extra fun I used [amazon_link id=”B000U3NHD4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]some little cutters[/amazon_link] I had lying around to cut out shapes in cheese (I nibbled on the scraps).
Usually I make less sushi and include some small strips of carrots for a well rounded meal. My kids totally scarf these down faster than you can blink.
Some other ideas I have yet to try, but plan to…
- Butter & cucumbers rolled
- Jam w/ sweetened whipped cream cheese strips or folds
- Herbed whipped cream cheese with cucumbers strips
- Carrot peel & herbed whipped cream cheese rolls
- Nutella and Strawberry strips or rolls
- Whipped cream cheese (sweetened) w/ blueberries
These do not take me a ton of time (Well, this one did but I was taking pics and making more than I usually do)…and the kids love them. They are SO worth a shot!! Try them!!
by Sarah | Jul 22, 2013 | All About Denver, All About Family, All About Indiana, All About Kennedy, All About Learning, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us
The weather is still in the 90’s.
The sun is still shining more days than it’s not.
But school starts in just 3 weeks here.
Right behind that is fall.
The summer is well past half over.
2013 is over half over.
Where did the time go?
I’m shopping for school supplies when just yesterday we were starting our summer reading lists.
Just don’t mention Christmas yet.
My heart can’t handle it.
by Sarah | Jun 27, 2013 | All About Denver, All About Family, The Teenager
In high school, and into what I (now jokingly) call my “false-freshman year” of college I dated a boy. A boy that I now look back in time and thing “What on earth was I thinking?” The dissection of that relationship is a blog post for another time and place, but needless to say, it wasn’t a great relationship to be in.
What aids me in that whole 20/20-hindsight thing is the new (to me) knowledge that my parents and friends couldn’t stand him. They hated him. Hated me dating him, hated him.
At one point I looked at my mother and said “WHY didn’t you tell me?” I got the counter answer that if she’d told me, it might have made me date him longer.
Not true, but still, I see where she’s coming from.
Especially now.
With my teenager dating.
With my son having a girlfriend.
He’s fifteen now. We’ve already lived through the heartbreaking loss of his ‘first love’. A string of very short-lived relationships, and now the one he’s in. It’s lasted some time now.
The husband and I, we have opinions.
We discuss his dating status, and his girlfriend.
But, much like other details and relationships in our life, we say nothing directly good or bad about her to his face.
We will listen when he actually talks to us.
We will try to give him un-biased advice to the best of our ability.
We will let him learn his own lessons.
Be they good or bad.
Because that is how you grow up.
Even if our heart aches every time his does.
Even if our joy at his is great.
Even if we worry.
Every day.
If we’re doing it right.
by Sarah | Jun 19, 2013 | All About Denver, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Autism, Blogging Life, Cystic Fibrosis, Hospital, Special Needs, Sponsored
With my first child, I never heard of cord blood banking. It was around, but I was young and trying to figure out how I was going to do this whole parenting thing, and it wasn’t a blip on my radar. With my girls, this childbirth thing was old hat, although the larger family freaked me out and I was worried about finances and our small home and all the little details. In both cases I heard of cord blood, I researched it (kind of), and dismissed it. After all, my kids wouldn’t ever be sick. Denver was healthy as a horse (I thought), and my other two children would be the same.
Hindsight.
Now that I have two kids with Cystic Fibrosis, a very young niece with cancer, and have a much broader view of the world thanks to blogging, I wish I’d made that choice.
Through cord blood banking, you can collect and preserve potentially lifesaving stem cells, and doing so could one day save the life of your child or a blood relative. You can bank even more stem cells by collecting them from 2 usable sources of stem cell-rich blood: the umbilical cord and the placenta. This service is called Placental and Cord Blood Banking, and it’s available only from LifebankUSA. Whether you choose Placental and Cord Blood Banking or Cord Blood Banking alone, there are many important reasons to choose LifebankUSA.
There’s only one opportunity to save your baby’s stem cells for the future…
As an expectant parent, your baby’s health means everything. Right now, he or she is protected in the womb and will soon enter the world. There is a lot to think about and prepare for, but an invaluable step you can take when your child is born is to preserve his/her stem-cell rich cord and placenta blood The ability of stem cells to save lives via cord blood banking has proven successful for replacing abnormal or diseased cells, and treating life-threatening blood disorders such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. In fact, since 1988 stem cell transplants have been used to treat some 80 diseases. No, Cystic Fibrosis isn’t on that list – but I imagine one day it will be.
I’m done having children, fate and biology means my body is no longer able to have them, but if I could, I’d bank the blood. I recommend it to those I know debating it. Sure, the odds of illness might be small – but then as I’ve learned, you just never know.
Today, LifeBankUSA is having a contest, and you can win a SpaFinder Gift Card worth $200. Just head over to Facebook to enter the contest. It’s super easy!! (All those links, and the top image on the page will take you to the contest!)
And seriously, consider cord banking. It’s worth it.
*~*
ABOUT LIFEBANKUSA
As the only company that offers cord blood, placenta blood and tissue banking — and the first to release placenta-derived stem cells for a successful transplant — New Jersey-based LifebankUSA is a technological leader that is pioneering key medical innovations in the field. Owned by the Celgene Corporation, a world-class biopharmaceutical company, LifebankUSA also operates a robust donation program and collects cells from anywhere in the US for use primarily in advancing medical research.
*~*
*Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by LifebankUSA. I was paid for this post, but all opinions are my own heartfelt truth. I never take my children’s health for granted, and you can’t pay me to lie about it.
by Sarah | Jun 13, 2013 | All About Denver, All About Family, All About Kennedy, Cystic Fibrosis, Special Needs
It starts early.
Actually, the night before in a way.
As the teen is put on a fast, and we all go to bed early.
Because we have to leave at 7AM to get to the hospital at 8AM.
So the teen can drink that sickeningly sweet glucose concoction.You know the one, the same one we drank when pregnant.
And then we wait.
For two hours.
For more blood to be drawn.
Then the girl gets her blood drawn – which holy hell it’s like she’s being murdered.
Then it’s onto x-rays.
And functions.
And then we meet…
THE TEAM.
The social worker who hasn’t got much to say, but comes in every year. Makes sure we aren’t being killed by medicine costs. That we have all the ‘help’ we need.
The nutritionist that always tells us the kids are too skinny and to fatten them up. She gives us orders for calorie/fat boosting nutritional supplements.
The nurse that takes cultures and histories and makes sure all is clear.
The research associate that clues us in to new research projects we can partake in if we chose.
We break for lunch, and return and wait.
As our hospital is a teaching hospital we then see the Fellow. Who talks to us, examines both kids and heads out.
Then the doctor. Who examines both kids, goes over x-rays and future plans.
This year we had a change from the patter as the teen is being prepared for his own care. His exam was held in his own room where she went over the (still surprising to me) aspects of CF and how it could affect him and his future. The things no teenager wants to talk about in front of their parent…I mean EW.
It’s a full day.
Long.
Exhausting.
It ends with us grumpy.
Ready to get the heck out of there.
And grateful for another year.
It’s called a “birthday visit”.
A celebration of an anniversary i’d rather forget.
Kennedy’s is June 11th.
Denver’s is April 29th.
We meet them in the middle.
But in both cases, I’d rather forget that day.
The day we “knew” for sure.
Not celebrate it with a painful, long, exhausting day.
Although if we have to ‘celebrate’ such a ‘birthday’.
What better way than in misery?
by Sarah | May 14, 2013 | All About Family, All About Molly, All of Us, Autism, Special Needs
Sometimes it’s a thought in the back of our heads.
Most days we try not to imagine that it might happen that way.
Our vision of ‘perfect’ for our kids was always, as most parents is, that they grow up and out, have their own lives, their own loves.
For the most part, we haven’t redefined that vision, that dream.
Some days, though…we worry about this one.
What if her quirks hold her back?
Her misunderstanding of emotion leaves her alone?
Most of the time we ignore the fears. We focus on her growth, her excellent development socially, listen to her dreams of being a model.
Until the day one of our myriad of doctors says, “That one may never leave the nest.”
It puts a rock solid lump in your belly to hear it from a professional.
I guess it’s a good thing my trust for doctors is in the toilet.
Because I refuse to believe it.
At least for today.
And for the future.
Until proven otherwise.
