Chocolate Peppermint Syrup, Oh Yes!

Our daycare provider shares my love of all things peppermint chocolate flavored. I love to pamper her with the occasional unexpected treat, as she is so wonderful to my girls when I have to work. So of course I thought of her when Rachel from Southern Fairytale shared her fabulous hot chocolate recipe with me. So much more frugal (and made with love!) to bring this yummy treat occasionally when I pick up the girls.

When I was considering ideas for homemade gifts this holiday season, the hot chocolate mix immediately came to mind. Who doesn't like decadently delicious hot chocolate this time of year, anyway?

Then I read Amy's peppermint mocha recipe that I had been seeing all over twitter and pinterest. Not only was it genius, but buried in there was the super simple idea of making peppermint syrup! I had to make some right away. As I was stirring my syrup and checking to see if I had the right amount of mint extract, it hit me - how fabulous would it be to stir in some hot chocolate mix to the still hot mint syrup? That was my own genius moment, as it was as spectacular as I'd imagined. Many thanks to Rachel and Amy for providing two delicious recipes that were a match made in heaven.

If you'd like to make this yourself, follow Amy's directions for peppermint syrup (all the way at the bottom of her post), and then after the syrup is finished and still hot, whisk in hot chocolate mix to taste. Refrigerate and enjoy as chocolate mint milk, hot minty chocolate or a peppermint mocha!

Keep little hands warm with those unmatched socks

The Christmas season brought many magical moments with it this year, with both girls being in the perfect age range for enjoying our holiday traditions. In addition to those rapturous family moments, this season also brought several rounds with the stomach bug. The best way I found to keep the girls hydrated while they were sick was with the beloved Popsicle, more specifically those electrolyte freeze pops. In so doing I found a use for all of the mismatched socks the dryer seems to give me - as a sleeve to keep little hands warm! When not in use as a hand warmer, this particular one moonlights as a sock puppet, drawing smiles and giggles out of even the sickest little ones in the house. :)

Making mornings smoother with an evening routine

Those of you who read the last post in this series might have anticipated today’s topic? What better way to prepare for a stress free morning than with a little evening preparation!

Each evening I make an effort to complete the following items:

Prepare lunch
Choose everyone’s clothing
Put together a reminder list for the morning
Pack Sweetpea’s preschool bag
Load the dishwasher
Lay out or write down (on the reminder list) breakfast ideas
Identify wake up plan

I find that the best time to pack lunches is as I’m cleaning up after dinner. I believe this elegant and effective idea came to me via Meagan Francis on twitter. If we have enough food for a meal later in the week, I package it accordingly, and the remainder is portioned into lunch sized containers and put either in the refrigerator or the freezer. If we have a lot of food already in the fridge, it’s nice to have some things stashed in the freezer for later!

Both girls like to choose their clothing (already!) and given the option would change their minds multiple times each morning. To reduce this frustrating time suck, we choose outfits ahead of time and I have them get dressed at daycare. Somehow they never have outfit attitude with the daycare provider like they do for mama. I pack clothes in the daycare bag and put it in the car the night before. I also carry an extra pair of shoes in the car for each child – I don’t want to admit the number of times one of them has arrived without footwear…

I am a list mama, and if I need to remember something – especially in the morning – it needs to be written down. An added bonus of this strategy is that it helps me decompress and empty my brain at the end of the day, which makes it easier to relax and unwind. The last thing I want is for my mind to be racing when I finally get to lie down at night. This list goes under my car keys on the kitchen counter.

Sweetpea started preschool this fall, and her class made special bags for transporting to and from school each day. Anything that needs taken to school gets packed into that bag, and projects or notes to parents come home in the bag each day. I empty the contents and reload as necessary. This bag gets put into the car the night before so it doesn't get left behind.

It’s funny how a pile of dishes in the sink when I wake up bothers me – the thought of them sitting there all day, waiting for me to return home is what gets me. Somehow I don’t mind them at all when my bed is singing its siren song at the end of the day. To keep myself from being tempted to waste precious time in the morning, I rinse and load anything that is dishwasher safe and call it “good enough”.

As with lunch, a little prep for breakfast is a big help. I try and have two options available to give the girls a choice in the morning. They love to be in control of their breakfast (are you noticing a pattern here?!) and I like to be able to give at least the impression that I’m being flexible and giving the girls their way!

Wake up plan – this is the topic for the next blog post in this series – for now suffice it to say that I spend time thinking about how I’m going to get the girls up and at ‘em each morning. They like some predictability, but we also like to mix it up from time to time.

Do you have an evening routine? What tasks do you complete each evening in order to smooth out your mornings?

No More Morning Mania! Tips for more peaceful mornings...

Going back to work has brought crazy back to our mornings. I hate it when my failure to plan causes melt downs, stress and widespread grouchiness. It's so much nicer to savor the mornings at a leisurely pace than to rush through them sprinting to the car in a desperate attempt to be on time.

This is the first in a series on making mornings more peaceful -regardless of what your day might hold, I hope you'll find some ideas that get it started in a positive way, and in turn share what works for you!

First things First: Have a plan, write it down, review/revise it as needed, and STICK TO IT! For me, that means a morning and evening routine and a wake up time that allows me time to reflect and get prepared before the rest of the family wakes up. A plan also allows me to be realistic about what I can get done before leaving the house, and a minimum list of accomplishments that, once complete, mean the day will get off to a good (enough) start. It's amazing what I think I can do the next morning when I'm wilting from exhaustion and just want to go to bed...my routine keeps me honest and provides a bit of a reality check.

Do you have a morning and/or evening routine? How often do you revise it?