Four is More

For the last few months, Yael has been telling almost anyone who would listen that she was four. Except she wasn't.

Conversations went like this:
Stranger, Friend, Acquaintance: How old are you?
Yael: I'm FOUR!
Me: Are you really four?
Yael: No, not yet.

But now...finally four. So she's been telling anyone who would listen - not even waiting for the question "how old are you?" She holds up four little fingers (I must take a picture of that) and tells you how old she is.

She's very excited about it.

She is quite a little four-year-old. Full of energy and opinions, hates to go to bed, loves to pretend with her dolls, has a "teacher voice," does a little tantrum dance when she is angry, carries my phone and keys around and drinks "coffee" (aka juice) from a coffee cup when she wants to play pretend. She loves to boss everyone around, she adores her brothers, and is blissfully happy to be the only girl in the family ("just me and mama!").

Happy birthday to my little girl!

P.S. here's what she looked like before.

Free Money? {Giveaway}

(I bet you think I'm giving away free money, huh? Close...but not quite. Keep reading, though, it's still a good giveaway!)

I don't think I've ever blogged about this before, but my cousin David Bach is a famous guy. He's a best-selling author of financial books and you may have seen him on shows like The View or Oprah. Yep, I watched him on TV today! (How cool is that? I even got to see him in person on Oprah once, which is a whole other fun story.)

His most recent book is Debt Free for Life, and it's quite a good read. David has really solid, normal advice for how to pay off your debt in a timely manner. His books aren't boring at all, which is high praise for a financial book, don't you think? I think he writes just like he talks, which makes me hear the book in his own voice as I'm reading it. But that's just me.

This book had something in it that I don't remember reading in any of his previous books. There's a whole section on "free money" - for real! I kid you not, I went to www.unclaimed.org (don't hit .com, that's a paid site) and I found $270 that I had "overpaid" at an allergist's office in Cincinnati years ago. I haven't mailed the form yet (my printer is out of toner) but that is just amazing. (I also found $16.70 that was owed to my husband. Nice but not nearly as exciting.) Now...I haven't received any money yet. But the thought that I might get that in the mail made me super excited.

I know, right?
(which is what my 9-but-going-on-teenage son would say.)

So, in honor of this fun, I'm giving away a copy of David's new book! Leave me a comment with your favorite money-saving tip and you'll be entered to win a free copy of Debt Free for Life by my cousin!

Other details:
Get an extra entry by sharing this post on Facebook or Twitter. Get one more entry by subscribing to my blog, either via RSS or email (if you're already a subscriber, just let me know that too). Please leave me a separate comment telling me that you did so. 

Giveaway ends Tuesday, March 1st.


Oh, and P.S., speaking of free money, Swagbucks (the best place on the web for free stuff) is turning 3, and they're planning a big celebration for February 28th. If you're not already a Swagbucks user, why not? Sign up here and you get 30 free Swagbucks to start, and then enter this code: 3rdBirthday124 to get an additional 50 in honor of their birthday (good until February 28th). I use Swagbucks every time I buy from LivingSocial, for example, and make it an even better deal! I have earned $25 in Amazon gift cards since I joined Swagbucks in November. Seriously!

Circle of Love

I have long admired these necklaces that I've seen on other people's blogs, and adorning the necks of friends. (I've entered more giveaways than I can remember.)

But none of them really spoke to the way I think of my children and myself as their mother.

When we chose our children's names, I was adamant that they be Hebrew names. Not just Hebrew in addition to their English names, but that they be pretty much the same in both languages.

We did pretty well, only one middle name that isn't the same in both languages.

So I wanted something that spoke to that for me. I searched for "Hebrew hand-stamped necklace" and found

Jewish Girl Designs.

And then I ordered this:

Isn't it beautiful? (And even though her prices seem to have gone up, they still seem pretty reasonable.)

I ended up ordering some beautiful necklaces for some lovely B'not Mitzvah girls as well, which they loved.

It's my favorite thing to wear.

Snippets of Warmth

A nice quiet week...not much happening.

We did have a birthday...but more on that when we have the party in 10 sleeps. Let's just say that the birthday girl has told everyone she meets that she is now 4.

It warmed up and before the snow all left, the boys made this snowman. Note that David isn't wearing a coat...now there's a Midwesterner for ya!

Who needs a mobile when you have a willing 5-year-old?

Friday is Purim Katan, mini-Purim. It's a rare day, it only shows up on a leap year...and this is such! There's not much in the way of observance but I'm thinking extra dessert is in order.

How was your week?

Puffy Pancake {How To}

I have a friend who doesn't cook. She claims that she can mess anything up. Her son spent the night at my house and I fed him this delicious Ima family favorite. I promised her that she could do it and she laughed at me. So, for my dear friend, here is a picture tutorial of how to make this recipe.

Easy-peasy, I promise.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees:

 While the oven is preheating, put about 2 tablespoons of butter into a 9x13 glass pan, and put that into the oven.

 Assemble your ingredients - 6 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour, and 1/2 tsp of salt.

 Make a pot of coffee to drink while you're making this. Oh wait, that's just me. My friend doesn't drink coffee :-)

Put all those ingredients into the blender. Crack the eggs before you put them in. No shells. Make sure the lid is on the blender before you start it up. Trust me on this one.

 Blend everything until it's nice and mixed up, a little frothy, and looks like this:

 Once the oven is preheated and the butter is melted and bubbly, take it out of the oven. Swirl the pan so the butter covers the bottom. Pour the blended mixture into the pan. Note my mad photographic skills that I poured and took a picture at the same time.

 Set the timer for 20 minutes. This is important if you don't have a personal internal timer.

 Take it out of the oven when it looks like this:

 Sprinkle with powdered sugar...also good with syrup, jam, or even nutella.

See? Easy-peasy. My kids love this for dinner and leftovers reheat well. If there are any leftovers, that is.
In fact, this is dinner tonight!

Sitting Still

Maternity leave is supposed to have a sense of recuperation? rest?

Well, something like that.

Except with baby #4, not so much.

Now, it helps that this baby is lovely. He really is. He sleeps pretty well, he eats great, and he's pretty good with lots of little people poking him and making faces at him and all the other things that big brothers and sisters do. And he's (relatively) happy to be moved around, shlepped in sling or carseat.

But there's been a lot of moving. A lot of running around. And not too much sitting still.

Part of that is my personality. I hate to just sit. I am always trying to get something done. Part of it is a need to continue the life and routines of the other three children.

But sometimes, ever so rarely, when I'm alone in the house with just the baby,
I look down and see this in my arms...

...and even though I can see, from my spot on the couch, literally 500 different things that need to be done...

I just sit still.

Snippets of the Week

Snippets of what's going on this week...

It's been very cold around here. Even inside the house.

I've been doing the 30 Day Shred. This is how cute I look while doing it:

 (honestly!)

Notice the book in the bottom left hand corner of that picture? That book caused a lot of drama this week in my life. It's a book about World War II and its atrocities. Yep, my 9 year old brought it home from school. There will be more on this in a future post, since it was an excellent book and has led to a lot of conversations...

While we're waiting for Purim to come, we seem to continue to dance to this song.



What's your favorite Purim song? I wish that there were as many Purim albums as there are Chanukah albums.

We've done a lot of hanging out and giggling...reading...watching movies...basically, your usual winter hibernation in Chicago!

 

Solly took his first bottle (always a stressful moment for a working mama)...and wait...how did he get to be two months old?

 What's been going on in your world?