A Mom’s Life Made Simple

It is so cold outside! I know it was only a few months ago I was wishing for cold weather and now that it’s here…well I’m ready to see it go. Our heat isn’t working so we are using those little electric heaters which are working as hard as they possibly can but it’s just not enough heat at times. At the end of the week the low is supposed to be around 16 degrees. I understand that it’s already below zero in a lot of areas but folks here in North Carolina anything under 50 degrees is cold! I’m trying to find ways to keep warm, keep the kids happy indoors, and keep my sanity all at the same time!

Here is a recipe from a mom on cafemom.com that is bound to keep the little one’s warm and add a little fun for the older ones by letting them help make it.

Homemade Hot Cocoa with Peppermint Whipped Cream

Hot Cocoa Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• Dash salt
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 4 cups milk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peppermint Whipped Cream Ingredients:

• 1C Heavy Whipping Cream
  
• a dash (around 1/4 tsp) Pure Peppermint Extract
  
• 2-3 TBSP Sugar

Directions:

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa and salt. Add water; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in milk; heat to serving temperature (do not boil). Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Whisk until frothy. If desired, garnish with marshmallows, cream or cinnamon sticks. Yield: 5 cups. For Swiss Mocha Cocoa: Add 2 to 2-1/2 teaspoons instant coffee with vanilla. For Canadian Cocoa: Add 1/2 teaspoon imitation maple flavoring with vanilla. For Slim-Trim Cocoa: Omit sugar. Combine cocoa, salt and water. Substitute fat-free milk. Proceed as above. Stir in vanilla with artificial sweetener equivalent to 1/2 cup sugar.

In a metal bowl add Heavy Whipping cream, sugar and extract. Make sure that Whipping cream is cool (it whips up faster when chilled)- Using your wrist and elbow (not shoulder), whisk ingredients until stiff - around 3 minutes. Voila!

Top Hot Cocoa with Whipped cream and serve!

Cheap ways to keep the house warm

We have very drafty doors and windows so we’ve learned to put towels down at doors and keep the curtains closed at certain parts of the day. My mom has always used plastic at the windows and if I didn’t have children and pets that love to look out the windows or sit in them I would certainly be covering them.

It’s hard to keep little ones under blankets or sitting still so just bundle them up in footed pj’s and let the run around. They will be ten times warmer running and playing then they will sitting down on the sofa under a blanket bored to death and who cares that it’s the middle of the day and they are in pj’s as long as they are warm!

Keep unused rooms closed off. Our kitchen is ajoining to our laundry room and side door so with the drafty doors it seems to be one of the coldest rooms in the house which is why we tend to keep that door closed at all times unless we are cooking then we let the heat from the oven come on out into the living room.

Quick and easy activities to keep the kids happy during those cold days and nights from www.thesavvysource.com

Coffee filter snowflakes

Use a basket-style coffee filter (round shaped) to make a snowflake. Fold the filter in half three times. Cut out shapes along the edges of the folds to reveal a beautiful snowflake when unfolded. Discuss with your child the uniqueness of each snowflake made!

Snowball Fight for the indoors

If it’s too cold to play outside on a wintry day, and you and the kids are feeling cooped up, try this fun activity. Roll up a bunch of white tube socks to create “snowballs.” Tell the kids it’s time for an “indoor snowball fight” and let them burn off all that pent up energy! Be sure to put away the lamps first…

Skiing Cotton Ball Snowman

Supplies

2 cotton balls, 1 wooden stir stick, a small piece of paper, thin ribbon, glue and puffy colored squeeze paint.

Activity Detail

Take two cotton balls and glue them together. Then take two wooden stir sticks, like the kind for coffee, and cut them about 1-2″ long each. Glue the wooden sticks to a piece of paper side by side. Then glue the two glued cotton balls, one on top of the other, to the sticks with the sticks sticking out just a little bit in front to make little skis. This is the base for your skiing snowman. Next use some puffy paint or colored glue to dot eyes, nose, three buttons down the chest and a smile line for a mouth. Last, use some ribbon to tie a scarf around the neck and a little piece of paper to the top of the head to make a hat. Make a bunch of these, and you have a cute and original holiday centerpiece