Pretzel Cabin

I saw this craft idea years ago in a Martha Stewart Magazine and decided I couldn't wait for President's Day to make it. It's really simple and my daughter and her best friend had a great time with this project.

What you need: 1/2 pint dairy container, peanut butter, thin wheat crackers, pretzel sticks, pretzel squares, graham crackers

Empty the carton of the cream and rinse thoroughly with hot water. Tape closed the top where you opened the container.

Spread a thick layer of inexpensive peanut butter all over the outside of the carton.

Be sure to fill the open triangle with peanut butter because it will show if you don't cover it with pretzel sticks.

Put all of your pieces in a dish so they're easy to grab quickly. It's also a good idea to use scissors to cut your pretzel rods to shape over this dish so the pretzel crumbs stay somewhat contained.

Use the checkerboard pretzels for windows, the thin wheat crackers for the roof shingles and the pretzel sticks for the logs. The graham cracker makes a great front door. My daughters best friend got a little creative and used a spare piece of pretzel for a small door knob.

You could even decorate this with holiday candy to make it for a festive occasion. If you make it without the candy, you can put it out for the birds and squirrels. Have fun, I know we did!

Walls of Perfume

I have a daughter. She is an amazing little person. I look at her sometimes and wonder where the last 10 years have gone. She truly is the most beautiful young lady I have ever seen. Her hair is thick and long and golden blonde. Her eyes are blue and caring. Her skin tans like a champ even through sunblock. She has the sweetest dimples when she smiles. And her laugh... her laugh can turn my day around, make me stop my housework and send me into giggling myself. She has an advanced sense of humor, impeccable timing with jokes and can do imitations better than anyone I know. But those are superficial.

What makes her the most beautiful to me is the person she has become. She loves people. She is kind, considerate, gentle and caring. She is, and always has been, happy to be wherever she is. She can make a friend out of thin air because everyone she meets has potential.

I am 100% in love with this bewildering princess.

The past week and a half, I have been walking the mile loop in our neighborhood after dinner. And each time I have asked her if she would like to walk with me. It has become one of the most wonderful pieces of my day. I think back about how I have spent my time in the evenings before I started this and it was never with her alone. The conversations we have had and the questions she is asking at this age are scary and wonderful all at the same time. And I think, when would she have asked that question if we didn't have this time alone? Would she have sought me out and specifically asked or would she have asked a friend and gotten incorrect information?

I love that she is comfortable asking about how her body is changing and what life was like when she was an infant, why do cars stop at the white line at a stoplight, can mosquitoes see color, why is soda pop bad for us, if milk is to feed babies, why are we drinking it? She is light to me!

So the other morning as I was getting ready for work, I walked into my bedroom and smelled this heavenly fragrance. I turned the corner into the bathroom and it was stronger. It wasn't the air freshener, but my best bottle of perfume. I went out and asked who had sprayed it and she confessed. I explained that it was costly and that if she wanted to wear some I would help her put it on next time. As I walked back down the hall with a grin on my face, I realized that she wanted to smell like me. Just like when her Nana got her a pair of sandals with a heel and she told me "Now I sound like you when I walk."

But the thing is, I don't believe any of the perfume made it on her body. I think she sprayed the wall on accident. And so for four days now my bathroom has reminded me that my daughter is always watching. She wants to be like me. And sometimes perfume on the wall is a good thing, because it reminds me to be who I want my daughter to grow into.

I wish you could know her the way I do, and you too would fall in love.