I’m back.

Sort of.

I mean, I’m pretty much recovered, but I feel like I’m playing catch up here. It’s not as though I just went MIA for a couple of days.  Really, there’s no rest to be had when there’s stuff to be done. And in our house, there is always stuff to be done.  There’s nothing funny about being sick, especially when you’re hacking and coughing and snotting all over the place, but I did have laugh-out-loud moment where I realized that I am truly no longer a kid who can curl up on the couch while my own mom brings me ginger ale and crackers (boo-hoo!). The other night,  I sneezed about half a dozen times in a row. When I looked in the tissue make sure the last of my brain cells weren’t in there, I saw green snot.

My first thought? “Oh, I really am sick.”  Typical mom response because as we moms know, if the nose runs clear, it’s all good.  Green snot means automatic day at home and possible trip to the doctor.  At least, that’s what it means when the bearer of the snot is of the toddler set. When you’re the responsible adult, you swig some ‘Tussin straight from the bottle and keep it moving. If I could roll around with an OJ IV drip, trust me, I would.

Thankfully, the girls and Craig have remained germ-free.  I even got a slight respite when I defrosted a chunk of leftover lasagna from the other week.  Oh! and my review of the lasagna!  It was really delicious. I was skeptical of using cream cheese instead of ricotta, but true to my finicky form, I decided if I halved the amount of cream cheese required and just added more mozzerala, it would be okay.  And it certainly was.  The spinach was a nice touch and even the girls liked it.  As a matter of fact, Coever liked the lasagna so much, she asked to have it for dinner two nights in a row. And get this. . .she ATE it.  I’m still reeling over that one. I think I have my dad to thank for that. He told her that the spinach was grass [insert marijuana joke here], freshly picked from outside.  She rolled that one around for about half a second before forking up spinach like she’d been doing it her whole life.  I wonder what other veggies I can “re-name” so that she’ll eat them.

These days, the girls have been all hopped up about Valentine’s Day.  Morgan’s class sent home a flyer instructing the parents to decorate a shoebox so that the children can bring it in for a Valentine’s exchange.  Seriously? What happened to the days of making a little construction paper envelope at school? Or how about the kid decorating their own box? This parental involvement is killing me softly, I tell you what.  I think the school decree to decorate the box was like a gauntlet thrown down. Either that or I am more feverish than I realize.   If I have to get out my crafty kit to decorate the box, then I’m about to wreck shop on the Valentine’s themselves.  No more pre-packaged, punch-out cards. I’m going full on craft-tastic.  I only have myself and Pinterest to blame thank.

In truth, this project is pretty simple.

Step 1.
Find a willing participant. Once I showed Morgan what I had in mind, she practically threw my camera at me and struck a pose.

Step 2.
Have your subject pose holding their arm outstretched, their hand in a fist.  We tried a couple different poses and decided to use these two.

Step 3.
Upload the photo to your editing software of choice and add your desired text.

Step 4.
Print out the images using 4×6 dimensions.

Step 5.
Punch a hole or make a small X above and below the fist so that the stick of the lollipop slides through the card.  I’d also put a piece of tape on the back so that the lollipop doesn’t slide out.

Forgive the quality of these images. I was trying to make dinner, take the picture, stop the girls from eating the lollipops, and bouncing from foot to foot because I needed to go to the bathroom, but of all the things going on, that one always takes last place.

I printed these out on regular paper, but I would advise using cardstock or photo paper.  The weight of that kind of paper is more durable and less likely to buckle under the weight of the lollipop.  I’m also considering uploading the prints to one of the many online photo websites (i.e. Snapfish, Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery) and letting them do the printing and cutting.

 And guess what? In 5 steps, I have justified spending countless hours on Pinterest finding things to demonstrate my prowess as a craft-master.  Everybody wins!  Now. . .off to the bathroom!