Tuesday, November 24, 2009

And it is now Tuesday...

Thank you for the comments about the boys and the bummer outcome of the games...AND about my exchange piece. Stitcheranon brought up a good point about using negative reinforcement (referring to embarrassing the team by not allowing them to change out of their uniforms and having to parade through the rink and then through the hotel). While this might not have been the best way to handle this - especially when all the boys don't necessarily get equal ice time; not all the boys are disrespectful to the coaches; not all the boys have their heads in the clouds (or thinking about playing some computer game vs. the hockey game going on)...sitting the kids who weren't mentally present for the game and/or not listening to the coaches wasn't working, which is why I believe that the drastic measure was taken - "punish" the whole team. Personally, given the activities of the evening/post-punishment (which was a team meal at Famous Dave's BBQ) - I would have used the meat/cheese/bread we had in the coolers in the bus and made sandwiches for them to eat together in the lobby of the hotel and then sent them all straight to their rooms/to bed...I guess that is why I am not a coach.
Cool

I still don't have any stitching to show due to them all being either exchanges gifts of special projects - so I apologize for not being able to share anything like that. But I was able to get some stitching done yesterday while the boys were playing outside and my banana bread was in the oven.

We had a lot of banana's supplied for the hockey weekend (close to 20 pounds) - and even though the boys did eat a fair amount, there was still a lot left. I took home about 2 doz bananas. In that banana collection, there were about 8 bananas that were "good" bananas to eat, the rest were screaming to be made into banana bread. So I took out my big ol' mixer and whipped up 4 batches or 12 loaves. I kept 3 and was able to give out 7 at practice last night and I am hoping that DH will take the last few into work to share. I usually whip up banana bread once a month because we have a lot of bananas in our house hold as they are the recovery food for my boys for after their hockey practices/games. However whenever we have a few days w/o any hockey, sometimes they start to go bad and it becomes banana bread time. Here is the recipe if you are interested:



 Hockey Monkey Banana Bread
3 bananas mashed (about 2 cups)
1-1/2 cups of sugar 
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1/4 cup of milk
dash of baking soda
dash of baking powder
1TBS cinnamon (I don't measure, just usually dump some in)
dash ginger
dash nutmeg
1-1/2 cup of flour

Directions: Mash bananas and set aside. Measure out flour, baking soda and baking powder and set aside. Mix everything else up in a big mixing bowl. Taking turns, add a portion of the bananas and mix gently...add a portion of the flour mixture and mix...add a portion of the bananas and mix...add a portion of flour and mix...add the remaining bananas and mix...add the last of the flour and mix. The key to this bread, as I have found out, is the adding the flour and bananas little at a time and not mixing much at that point. You want to make sure that it all gets mixed up, but you don't want to over beat the batter after all the flour is added. Put the dough in greased bread loaf pans and put in a 350 degree oven for about an hour.

Well, I should go and get a few things done around the house...like sit and stitch. So at this time I will leave you with this...

just for today I will notice things that I will be thankful for...
Like the early morning walks that DH and I take together.
Like having this week with my boys at home.
Like the community I have built here in California and the blogging community on-line

Be grateful simply for being alive.  When you are grateful for life, pure and simple, your life becomes one you can be grateful for.  That may strike you as circular or even backward logic, but your attitude really does have an effect on how things work out.  When you can’t change your life any other way, you can still change your attitude.  When you do, your life changes.  You find more chances to love, and you will be surprised to see how much more love is returned to you.

Bernie Siegel


 May your Tuesday be filled with much love and happiness and remember to...
Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often! Lisa



 

2 comments:

Cole said...

I probably would have fed them from the cooler too :) I've never seen a sport with more politics though, and was amazed how it started with the real little kids too!

Wanna ship some banana bread this way?? Yummy!!

CindyMae said...

Thank you for the recipe. I was just thinking about how I want to make some Banana bread this year!