Heather's Handmade Life

Dear Mommy Wars, here’s why you frustrate me

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Heather Laura Clarke

(Updated March 25, 2015) Wow! I was thrilled to be contacted by The Huffington Post this afternoon about reprinting this piece, so you can now find the full text over there. Getting published on HuffPo was one of my career goals for 2015, so I’m incredibly pleased. It’s like getting a big shiny trophy, only without having to dust off an actual trophy. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Could this be my favourite screen-grab to date? I think so! 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Dear Facebook friends,

Trust me when I say I didn’t mean to stir anything up by sharing that HuffPo article everyone is talking about. (It was written in response to this one.)

Read the full article here

I read it quickly, noticed that she was a freelance journalist (like me), agreed with several of the points, and shared it along with a comment along the lines of “these are some of the reasons why I’m choosing to stay home and freelance at this point in my life.”

See, no daggers! No accusations! I certainly wasn’t out to pee in anyone’s Corn Flakes, or however that expression goes.

The first couple of comments on my shared post were other moms who have chosen to stay home with their children while they’re little, and they agreed with the post wholeheartedly.

But then the working moms started commenting, and I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach …

Continue reading over at The Huffington Post

The unexpected absense

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Heather Laura Clarke

7 boredom-busters for March Break

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Heather Laura Clarke

1 Comment

I can’t believe next week is March Break. The kids are still too little to have no idea what it is, so they won’t realize anything is different until Monday rolls around and we don’t drive the preschool carpool.

Since we’ve been having horrrrrible weather lately (So. Sick. Of. The. Snow. OMG.), I figure we will need some major indoor entertainment.

So this week in “The Mom Scene,” I’m talking about seven ways to keep kids busy that don’t involve iPads and LeapPads or pads of any kind.

“… I’m not really the parent who plans educational activities, but I “invented” an activity that felt sort of science-y. It started when I found a couple of rock-hard bags of white sugar on the shelves in our basement. I Googled how to soften it, and it sounded like a ton of work. So I dumped a bag into a shallow plastic container, set out a bowl of warm water and some measuring spoons, and let my daughter go wild.

I called it “Snow Sand” (patent pending) and she loved dripping the water over the sugar to watch it melt. After the sugar had thoroughly turned to mush, we made a brand-new activity out of washing out the plastic container in the sink. She’ll take any excuse to stand at the sink and pretend to wash dishes.”

Read the full column here. May your March Break be merry and somewhat whine-free.

DIY paint chip art

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Heather Laura Clarke

The best present is a present you can eat

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Heather Laura Clarke

2 Comments

A lot of people do not like cooking (*raises both hands*).

A lot of people don’t have time or energy to cook, especially when it’s just for themselves (I lived off frozen fries in my pre-kid days).

And when you’re an articled clerk at a law firm and you put in a crazy amount of hours each week? Yeah, you really do not have the time, energy, or desire to cook for yourself.

So when Little Sis turned 27 (!!!) a couple of weeks ago, I decided the best gift was something edible. Lots of somethings, actually. Enough to keep her fed around the clock for as long as possible.

I had to make this collage in MS Paint, like it was 1994 or something, because PicMonkey has been down for hours.

She’s a hard person to buy for, but I had a feeling this would be appreciated. I grabbed a pen and started scribbling ideas on the side of my grocery list one day.

Breakfast food
Snacks!
Lunches for work
Dinners that can be made quickly when she finally gets home
Desserts

My sister is actually a much better cook than me — she uses spices, even — but I do have the time advantage. So I send Darling Husband to the grocery store with a list, and spend literally one entire day in the kitchen making the following …

BREAKFAST

Her favourite chocolate-chip pancakes

(My seven-year-old electric griddle died while making the FIRST pancake, so I had to do all of them on the stove in a frying pan. Like a peasant.)

I wrapped each one individually, and they each got their own inspiring message, of course.

Apple juice boxes

(She never buys herself juice, but she loves stealing the kids’ juice boxes.)

MID-DAY SNACK

Individually wrapped chocolate-dipped granola bars. Mmmm.

LUNCHES

I kept it simple because I wanted to make dishes that would freeze well (and, you know, because I’m an incredibly simple cook). I filled a bunch of containers with individual portions of homemade meat sauce and shells, and another bunch of containers with my famous turkey meatballs {recipe here} and brown rice, with veggies.

DINNERS

Pizza

Little Sis loves my homemade pizza, so I made a vegetarian one and a pepperoni one (using our favourite “good” pepperoni). I also made garlic fingers with lots of cheese, mmmm. Everything was frozen, uncooked, on disposable pans with the baking instructions.

Nachos

We are hardcore nacho people. So I made an Emergency Nacho Survival Kit with Tostitos, salsa, and pre-shredded Tex Mex cheese.

DESSERTS

Peanut Butter Cafeteria Squares

This is one of Little Sis’s favourite desserts {recipe here} because she used to love the peanut butter bars they sold at our elementary school for like 20 cents. I find them a little TOO peanut buttery, but if that’s your thing, you’ll like these.

Peanut butter cookies + PMS cookies

Keeping with the peanut butter theme (I used almost a whole jar that day!) I made three dozen classic peanut butter cookies, forked and all, and packaged them up with baking instructions.

I had a bit of dough leftover, so I decided to make giant-size PMS peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips and M&Ms. Each package contained one for her, and one for her roomie. There’s also a disclaimer that it’s totally OK to just eat the dough. #YOLO

***

I intended to deliver everything fresh, so Little Sis could decide what to freeze and what to keep in the fridge. But a darn snowstorm struck the next day, and we had to postpone her birthday celebrations for another week. So I stuck it all in the deep-freeze, and packed it into this tote right before we left for the city for Birthday Attempt #2.

It was still freezing out, of course, (*shakes fist at Canada*) so I was able to leave the container on the floor of my mom’s garage until it was time for presents.

She had a few helpers when it was time to open it …

… I think she liked it! 🙂

***

This gift was great for my sister, considering her chaotic work-life these days, but my mom actually said she’d love something like this, too, because she hates cooking for herself. I might be onto something here.

Wouldn’t this be a nice gift for a new mama? I’m not a “new” mama, and if someone gifted me a giant crate of prepared food? …

HELL TO THE YES.

******************

Related gift ideas (that also involve food)

For Little Sis’s 25th birthday, I put together 25 little gifts that all connected to reasons we love her.

Best Friend and I started a new tradition where we take each other out for lunch around our birthday, instead of exchanging gifts. We LOVE it, and it’s so nice to catch up without the kids. It’s even become a quarterly thing, as we try to sneak in a Christmas lunch and a spring lunch, too.

For Little Sis’s 26th birthday, I made a “Big Night” kit (everything she needed for a party, including some alcohol, yeah) and a “Morning After” kit (everything she needed for a day of feeling blah on the couch).

For my in-laws for Christmas this year, one of their gifts was this basket of foods and products from where we live. A good idea for people (like them) who have absolutely everything under the sun!