List + Poll

• It was warm here last week, which gave me an excuse to make orange cream popsicles.  Yet again I turned to the woman with whom I have a love/hate relationship: The Proverbs 31 Woman.  I'm kidding, of course; the Bible doesn't have popsicle recipes.  No, once again I'm talking about Martha Stewart.  I love this recipe because it's easy and quick and only has four ingredients.  This time I made it with fat-free plain Greek yogurt rather than the full-fat plain yogurt Martha demands, and there was no noticeable difference.  The kids and I love these, which, naturally, means it's time to mess with the recipe and screw that up for everyone; I bought frozen pineapple juice today, so we'll see how pineapple cream pops go over.  It sounds right around eight times more disgusting now that I'm typing it than it did when I was starving in the grocery store this morning.  Snack time, kiddies!

• Our yard is tulip heaven right now:

• Derek and I are in the midst of a dispute on how to pronounce a specific word, because one of us says it correctly and the other is wrong.  (This is what healthy marriages are built on, fyi.)  I have polled a panel of experts and results have been inconclusive; this is also known as me calling my sisters and spelling out the word for them to pronounce, then demanding their husbands do the same.  Three out of four pronounced it correctly (My Way), and one was sadly wrong (Derek's Way).  I felt no compunctions about calling either sister with this request, as it is nowhere near the strangest thing I have ever said to either one of them, and because I remember once going to Kelli's house and being told that I needed to be the deciding vote on the proper pronunciation of the word "pendulum," as Kelli said it one way and Aaron said it another.  (My sister and I both say "pen-djew-lum," Aaron says "pen-dew-lum."  I tell you this because I know you care.)  

Now here is your chance to cast your vote:  The word in question is "LAWYER."  I want a fair fight- ahem, discussion- so I'm not going to disclose which of us pronounces it which way.  I'm attempting to put a survey on the upper right, there, that will be up for one week, but if that doesn't work, leave your answer in the comments.  And may the best pronunciation win!

I Love Her, I Love Her Not

Although I did spend a large part of yesterday believing it was Groundhog Day and taking photos of Derek moving snow hither and thither, I also did other stuff.

I continued in my quest for the title of Woman Most Frugal and made a big ol' jar of hot cocoa mix.

Dear Martha Stewart,

You make it awfully difficult to hate you when you post penny-saving delicious hot cocoa mix recipes on your website.  I do have to wonder how much cocoa you go through every winter, though, when one recipe makes enough to feed the five thousand sans miracles.  I bet it would be a delicious complement to loaves and fishes. 

A firm handshake because I get the feeling hugs make you uncomfortable,

Kristy Crisler

Really, though, that jar up there is one of my giant Ball jars, not the regular canning sized ones, and that's half a recipe minus four servings.  It's also made from three ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.  Find it here.

If you need more convincing, it is Adelaide-approved:

An hour playing outside in the snow gives a girl wild hair, and is the reason I made the cocoa in the first place- first because nothing's better than hot cocoa after cold snow, but second and more importantly because it's winter and we've been spending oodles of time together inside, so when they go outside and leave me in here aaaaaalllll by myself I need to positively reinforce that like the dickens.  Martha understands.

It's also Caedmon-approved,

and Atticus-approved.

I think this means we can give it the Crisler Seal of Approval.  I can't decide if this would please Martha- she seems terribly achievement-oriented- or if she'd meet this announcement with disdain.  She's a tough one to read.

Probably best if I don't mention any of this to her, as I didn't follow her exact instructions (skim milk rather than whole, gasp!), plus I dumped cold milk and mix together in my handy dandy Cocomotion-thingy instead of "warming the milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat, taking care not to let the milk boil..."  This would no doubt be construed as outright defiance in her eyes.  Or maybe it wouldn't.  I don't know.  As you can tell, Martha and I have a complicated relationship.