Monkey Butt Junction

by Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction | May 22, 2013

Rawr! {Wordless Wednesday}

I went to the Milwaukee County Zoo with Jack’s daycare on Tuesday. As Zoo Pass holders, Jack and I are regular Zoo devotees, but I was especially excited to see how Jack would enjoy our Zoo with the other Angelfish (the 3-year old classroom is called the Angelfish room, and these kids have some serious Angelfish Pride going. It is pretty cute).

The weather was perfect, the kids were in a great mood, but the most excitement came from the tigers. Those tigers put on a great show for the kids.

All of the little ones lined up by the glass portion of the tiger enclosure to get a better look at the big cats as they bathed and rested in the sun. One of the tigers was pretty interested in all of the little faces peering in on his bathtime, so he came up to the glass and paid a special visit.

Jack was face to face with a tiger.

What a fun day.

I just had the worst day

Everyone is fine. It wasn’t like THE worst day. But it was…something.

It started out great. I worked in the garden, took a bike ride to get some oven-fresh cinnamon rolls for the family, and then Jack and I were off to the beach for a few hours. That part was fantastic.

Then we had to do our grocery shopping. Our best grocery option on a Sunday is Wal-Mart, so Jack and I were off to the Wal-Mart grocery. Things were going well until Jack uttered the words that every mom of a newly potty trained kid dreads:

“Mommy. I have to go potty. NOW.”

Wal-Mart is big. HUGE. And we were at the farthest possible location from the restrooms. But I tried. Oh, I tried. I thanked my lucky stars for my fitness as I sprinted our cart towards the restrooms. But things declined rapidly.

“Mommy. I’m peeing in my pants.”

Oh, no. Not just his pants. His pants and my feet. Did I mention that I was wearing sandals? We were at the beach that morning.

I wanted to die.

Let me share the text I sent my husband:

But fortunately, my husband is really supportive and stands by me in times of distress.

At that point, Jack was soaked. I don’t even want to think about my poor feet. I tried to locate a Wal-Mart employee, to tell him, um, clean up in Aisle Two, but there was no one to be found. I went to the checkout line and told the poor horrified trainee checker. I felt bad for him, but worse for me. Jack had happily forgotten the incident.

We hurried home, and I told Jack to get undressed immediately and head upstairs for a shower. You’d think that the festivities would have ended there, but they did not.

No, no. They did not.

I heard a little voice in the bathroom as I was heading up the stairs to start the shower.

“Mommy! Somebody pooped on the toilet!”

Oh, dear God.

“See? There’s poop on the seat.”

There was, in fact, poop on the seat. Jack maintained his innocence, but I know the truth.

Pee and poop, all in the space of about thirty minutes. At least I have my Summer Shandy.

And if you see this on YouTube, just remember: don’t laugh. It could happen to you, too.

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Filed under Lighter Side

by Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction | May 19, 2013

One Bad Egg

No, this isn’t a post about the chickens. Their eggs are great.

This is about our Little Free Library, and why it is closed, as of today.

Just a handful of books, and the note. Everything was gone the next day.

In all, our community has been amazing about our Little Free Library. People love it. People were always so generous with their books and they respected the “take a book, leave a book” philosophy. Our problems have been few and far between. Until a few weeks ago.

A woman rolls up, empties all of the new books out of the Library, and leaves. Sometimes she leaves with her arms full of books. But she clears out all but a handful of romance novels that have been there for a few months. She never leaves a book, she only takes. And she takes almost everything, every single time.

I gave her the benefit of the doubt – maybe she didn’t understand the rules. I left a note clarifying that if you aren’t donating any books, please restrict yourself to one or two books. Well, she showed me: she took all the books AND the note this time.

I’ve had it. The Little Free Library isn’t here to benefit just one person.

It is there to benefit the wonderful people that we’ve seen sharing their books. The joggers who do a double take, stop and peruse, and then continue their run with a book or two in hand.

It is there for the older couple we met last fall. They thanked us for the “drive-up” library. The wife is an avid reader, but also disabled and cannot get to the public library or bookstores easily. Books from the “drive-up” library brought her hours of enjoyment. And they donated three BOXES of books, too.

The Little Free Library is there for the kids who find a new story and choose a book over a TV show one night because they found something interesting and new in the Library.

The Little Free Library is for all the geocachers, too. We love you guys, and we love that you’ve enjoyed the adventure that brought you here.

But it isn’t for just one woman. Because she leaves just the romance novels, I suspect she is scooping up the books and taking them to Half Price Books, where they buy books by the bagful for pennies on the dollar, and they generally reject romances. But whatever her motive, it is inexcusable. And I am pretty powerless to stop it.

It was a good run. I hope we’ll reopen again. But right now? One bad egg has spoiled a wonderful thing.

Please spread the word.

4 Comments

Filed under Green Living

by Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction | May 17, 2013

Eggs, eggs, eggs! Twenty recipes that use a LOT of eggs

We have a lot of eggs. A LOT of eggs. We only have six chickens, but they are seriously prolific. We get about 5-6 eggs a day, every single day.

I’m not complaining. I love eggs.

But if we aren’t diligent about our egg consumption, we can get a pretty massive egg backlog in a hurry. What can you do with a lot of eggs?

Plenty. Here are 20 great recipes that use a bunch of eggs:

Angel food cake requires a whopping 12 egg whites.

These Dutch Apple Pancakes require 4 eggs each (and they are amazing).

Pound cake takes five eggs.

Even better than pound cake? Coconut cream pound cake.

Deviled eggs are always fun. This recipe is excellent, and for extra awesome points use homemade mayo (made with some of your eggs, of course!)

I didn’t realize that homemade ice cream required eggs.

Speaking of dessert, how do Portuguese custard tarts sound? That’s one I haven’t tried, but the recipe sounds incredible. Six eggs in that recipe.

Egg bread is not only tasty, but a loaf of braided egg bread is really beautiful. Six eggs, plus one to glaze.

My personal favorite: I just call it “breakfast.” A bunch of eggs scrambled up with some crumbled bacon, sauteed spinach, green peppers, onions, and whatever other random veggies I can find. And cheese. Of course there’s cheese.

Quiches are an obvious choice, and this list of ten quiche recipes has lots of great options.

Someone braver than I am will have to report back on this Eggs Benedict Bread Pudding. That has to be someone’s cup of tea, but it is definitely not mine.

You can make your own egg noodles. Who doesn’t love big, fat egg noodles?

For the grain-conscious, a good coconut flour pancake recipe that uses four eggs is a wonderful option.

Of course, you could just hard boil a dozen and leave them in the fridge for some quick snacks. Because our fridge is often home to a lot of eggs, I mark our hard boiled eggs with a big “H” so that we don’t confuse them with the raw eggs.

Spinach Pom Poms not only sound like a great recipe, but they have a cute name too. The linked recipe even says you can freeze them.

Some breakfast pockets that are way tastier than anything you’ll find in the freezer aisle of the grocery store.

Frittatas are a great way to go through some eggs. This recipe is a winner.

Emeril’s recipe for creme brulee sounds fantastic, but I am not skilled enough to make it. But, if anyone wants to try it, I’ll supply some eggs. You’ll just have to share your creme brulee with me. Deal?

And last, but certainly not least, good ol’ egg salad never disappoints.

Happy eating!

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Filed under Green Living, Healthy Eating

by Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction | January 28, 2013

Ready, Set, Go! Hello Mornings Winter 2013 Begins

It’s here, it’s here! The Hello Mornings Winter 2013 challenge has begun!

(If you missed my previous posts on Hello Mornings, it is an online Bible study group based on Facebook and Twitter. The purpose of Hello Mornings is to get up early every day to spend some time with God through study or prayer. I did the last Hello Mornings study in 2012 and loved it.)

Morning comes early around here during the week. I have to be out the door by about 6:45 a.m. to miss the traffic rush hour and get to work on time, and before I can do that at a bare minimum I have to get myself dressed and ready, get Jack dressed and ready, and feed and water the chickens. The Hello Mornings studies definitely add another dimension to my morning schedule, but through some careful planning I’ve made my mornings more than manageable. In fact, I’ve really started to enjoy my morning “quiet time.” It helps center me for a busy day.

Prep work

Every night before bed I make sure that I have certain things prepped for the following morning. I lay out my work clothes and pack my gym bag. I lay out Jack’s clothes for him. I make sure that the food I’m going to take to work for my lunch is prepped and ready to grab and go. And for my Hello Mornings study, I make sure I have a section of the dining room table completely cleared off (with a preschooler in the house, there’s always some kind of project on our table – usually Legos, or trains), I set my Bible and my Hello Mornings binder out, I make sure I have a working pen, and I select a coffee cup and put it in the ready position on the Keurig. Having that coffee cup ready is more of a mental thing than an actual time-saver, but it works for me.

I also make sure that my sink is shining and all of my dishes are clean and put away. I get a wonderful mental boost when I start my day in a clean kitchen.

Buzz! Buzz!

My alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. I always allow myself one tap on the snooze bar, but I think as a part of this challenge I’ll try to wean myself off of that. I get up, make my coffee and fix a little breakfast – usually an egg or broiled grapefruit. I sit down with my Bible study, my breakfast and my coffee. I do my reading, write some notes, and spend some time contemplating the lesson of the day. It is a peaceful time for me – the house is quiet and I have the time to myself. It feels good.

If things are going well, I also like to get up and move around a little bit to start my day. As a yoga practitioner, sun salutations or a similar awakening, invigorating set of stretches are my favorites. I spend my days sitting at a desk so whatever movement I can get in during the day is welcome.

If all is going as planned, it is just about six a.m. by the time I finish my study and yoga, and it is time to get dressed, wake my son, and bring him breakfast. I’ve had an hour of time to myself and it makes such a difference in my days and my attitude. By the time 6:45 rolls around, I feel like I’ve accomplished the things I need to get done and I can leave my home knowing that my day has started off well.

I’m ready for this Hello Mornings challenge – bring on 5 a.m.!

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by Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction | January 21, 2013

I See the Moon

When I was little (and when I was much older, too) my Mom used to sing a song to me:

I see the moon; the moon sees me

Down through the leaves of the old oak tree.

I tucked it away in my memory with all of the other nursery rhyme songs, like Hickory Dickory Dock and Three Blind Mice. It was definitely one of my favorites. I particularly liked the touch that Mom added to it:

Please let the light that shines on me

Shine on the one I love – that’s you!

She was always embellishing songs like that. For example, I’m pretty sure that the real version of Eidelweiss didn’t include the word “fart.” But Mom’s version did. Mom’s was definitely superior.

I sing lots of songs to Jack. Most of them end up with him telling me not to sing, but he’s fond of a just few when I’m singing: Happy Birthday, the ABC song, Two Tickets to Paradise, and I See the Moon, the Moon Sees Me.

Funny how that one song, that one melody – something that my Mom said she heard on the radio in the 60s and that stuck with her – endured like this and found a place in Jack’s heart too.

And his favorite part? The one part that makes him say “Let’s do it again!” over and over?

Please let the light that shines on me

Shine on the one I love - that’s you!

Image Source: Planetsforkids.org

Hello Mornings: Winter 2013 Challenge

In August I posted about my decision to embark on the Hello Mornings Bible study challenge, and how that decision really had a positive impact on my life. The gist of the challenge is to wake up early every weekday to spend some time with the Bible. Participants can use a particular study guide, or they can do their own study, but the purpose is to get into the Bible on a daily basis. The real challenge was to make time for reading on a regular basis.

I loved the challenge. It kept me engaged and interested, and the daily check-ins with my lovely Hello Mornings group on Facebook really kept me accountable. The group was shepherded by an Accountability Captain whose took on the task of keeping us all engaged throughout the challenge. She posted insightful and fun questions, fun pictures and inspiring quotes, and generally kept us all thinking about the challenge for the duration.

I was so inspired by the challenge that I offered to become an Accountability Captain for the upcoming challenge. This next session starts January 28th and runs through April 26th 2013.

Would you like take on the Hello Mornings challenge and join me? Signup starts today: January 16, 2013. Registration is limited to just a one week window.

If you aren’t convinced, or if you want more information, please check out the Hello Mornings Frequently Asked Questions.

If you are ready to sign up and want to join me, registration starts here, and you can join my group at this link.

The Hello Mornings Challenge has been such a positive change for good in my life that I can’t help but want to share it with others. If you aren’t sure but you’d like to give it a shot, go ahead and sign up. I’ll walk you through it if you’d like, and I’d love to see you give it a try. No Bible study experience needed – I’m sure an example of that!

I hope to see you in the challenge!

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by Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction | January 14, 2013

Busy Box Giveaway: Frosty’s Busy Box from Tmuffin

Busy boxes are one of those great toddler/preschooler projects that so many of us say “oh, I can make those!” but we rarely have the time to actually sit down and craft them. Even though the components are always simple, actually putting them all together into one fun package is more of a task than many of us are up to – especially on those days that we need these easy diversions the most. The three most popular posts on this blog are about busy bags for toddlers, so I know that parents are always looking for things to keep their little ones busy on road trips, in new places, and even at home on quiet days. Even the most creative mom can appreciate an enriching toy/activity that’s already put together for her child to play with.

We had a serious need for a busy box a few weeks ago: we spent three days at a waterpark hotel for Jack’s third birthday, but he was too sick to do much playing in the water. Instead of three miserable days of trying to contain a sick-yet-energetic little guy in a hotel room, we were prepared with a beautiful Frosty’s Busy Box from Tmuffin.

And now, Tmuffin has one to give away to a random reader.

It was hard to get an action shot of Jack playing with the busy box that wasn't blurry - he was all over these toys!

Frosty’s Busy Box is a lot of winter themed sensory fun in one small package. Jack spent a lot of time enjoying the scented Play-doh. He explored it with the stamps, he rolled it into little tiny snowmen, he colored on it with the markers and sprinkled it with glitter. He used the suncatchers to stamp figures onto the dough and he colored the stencils too. He had days’ worth of fun with it, and he still asks to play with this busy box. He certainly loves it much more than my own busy box creations. Plus, it all came in an adorable little bucket. What little one doesn’t love to have a bucket to put their treasures in? Because it is so self-contained, this is the perfect little kit to toss in the car for a trip to see family, or the doctor’s office, a restaurant, or any other place where little minds and hands can get bored and restless.

I encourage you to check out the Tmuffin website and subscribe to the newsletter. These busy boxes are just the tip of the iceberg there – you’ll find much more about babywearing, breastfeeding, and beautiful, gentle ways to connect with your children. And don’t miss the chance to print out a perfect “thank you for breastfeeding” card while you are there. I’m excited to see what Tmuffin has in the future, including a busy box subscription service.

If you want to win your very own Frost’s Busy Box, enter below using Rafflecopter! The giveaway closes this Friday, January 18, 2013. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Filed under Green Living

by Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction | January 6, 2013

Trixie Belden: Amateur Detective and Preteen Feminist Role Model

This piece was written for including in the Feminist Odyssey Blog Carnival, with an emphasis on women in literature. I immediately thought of my childhood literary heroine, Trixie Belden.

I was introduced to the world of Trixie Belden when I was eight years old. My new neighbor and best friend Michelle was a bookworm like me, and she had shelf after shelf of this wonderful series. She loaned me one book – Trixie Belden and the Black Jacket Mystery, the eighth book in the series. I was immediately drawn to the title character: Trixie Belden was a smart, feisty tomboy who always found herself in the midst of adventure. With the help of her best friend Honey Wheeler, she was not afraid to get right in the middle of whatever problem was afoot.

What a concept: a female heroine who doesn’t need rescuing. She’s not the sidekick, she’s not the tagalong, she’s not the girlfriend. Trixie was a rough and tumble tomboy, not exactly ladylike, but always true to herself.

My best friend and I spent the afternoon in her room reading. I was hooked.

I brought the book home to my mom, who recognized Trixie immediately. Unknown to me, the Trixie Belden series was started in the late 1940s, and mom grew up reading Trixie Belden, too. The following week, she bought me my first two Trixie Belden books. Over the years we’d go on to amass nearly thirty of the books in the series. To this day, a number of them still sit on my bookshelves.

These books were completely unlike the other books that shared the preteen section of the bookstore in the 1980s. Many of my friends were reading the Sweet Valley High books, which were fun reads but the stories focused on boyfriends, on their lives as rich girls, and other things that I just couldn’t relate to. They read the Babysitters Club, which were fun too, but they also suffered from the same boy-craziness that Sweet Valley did. Trixie, on the other hand, offered adventure in her own right. She was intelligent, she was daring, and while she occasionally had a love interest it was never, ever the focal point of any story. The stories were always about the mystery, and Trixie always led the way in thwarting the typically male, adult “bad guy” of the story.

That’s not to say that the stories weren’t without their faults. Many of the Trixie Belden books were written at a time when women’s role was in the home, and that is reflected in the division of labor among Trixie and her brothers. Though incredibly progressive, the books were definitely a product of their era.

Nevertheless, at age 8, Trixie was an incredibly positive role model for me. Her appeal came not from her clothes, her toys or parents’ wealth. Her appeal came from her willingness to persevere, to do what most people would tell a fourteen year old girl that she couldn’t do, and her success in doing it all. If she could do it, why not me?

As the mom of a son, I don’t have to worry about him having positive, fictional male role models to turn to: books, television, movies, and comics are full of strong, intelligent men. Even the books aimed at three year olds, at his age group, rarely feature a single, strong female lead. At best, they show male/female teams, such as the Little Einsteins. An improvement, but couldn’t we do better? Shouldn’t he have the experience of an adventure featuring a strong, female lead as well? When the time comes, I hope that the love of these Trixie Belden books carries on to a third generation, or at least, that he’ll give them a chance someday.

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Filed under Homesteading

by Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction | December 24, 2012

That post where I get all sappy

Merry Christmas Eve! Or as we call it around here:

Jack’s birthday.

Happy third birthday to my little guy, my “best friend,” my hugger, snuggler, train-loving, Daddy-chasing, hide and go seeking, wild and sweet boy.

We’ll spend Jack’s birthday celebrating a favorite tradition: watching White Christmas together as a family because that is the movie that we were watching when Jack entered the world three years ago. He was born while Bing was singing. What a treasured memory.

I’ve never experience so many smiles, laughs and hugs. Every day is full of something new and beautiful.

I’m so grateful for this wonderful little family of mine.

And, of course, because this post would be incomplete without a few photos, indulge me – won’t you?