Savoring

Last week, we were snowed in. Plans were changed, school was put on hold, parties were rescheduled. This week has been a little bit more complicated than usual as we have tried to adjust. Today was the Valentine’s Day celebration at school. AJ and I joined Reese’s first grade class for snacks, games, and demonstration of sugar-highs.

AJ thought he had fallen asleep and woken up in candy land when we arrived in Reese’s classroom with the party going on. Junk food everywhere.

Reese had to counsel him not to put the fruit roll in his mouth all at once. I don’t buy fruit rolls, so my kids think they’re better than candy.

(Side note: are Reese’s two missing teeth and her dimple not the most adorable things??)

What did I say about sugar highs? Just imagine 16 six-year-olds, loaded with sugar, at the end of a school day….blind folded and drawing hearts on the chalkboard. It was the cutest thing ever. The class cheered and clapped after every child had a turn.

After the kids’ parties, I had a little party of my own. Tonight I attended a get together with a bunch of women from church. We chatted, we snacked, we had a discussion about relationships….and then we learned how to make chocolate truffles.

Did I get your attention with the mention of chocolate truffles?

Do I have your attention now?

Two amazing ladies taught us how to make lemon, cherry, orange, and mint fondant, peanut butter truffle, and chocolate truffle, and I hand rolled and dipped about two dozen chocolates.

And, yes, I licked my fingers.

Oh, boy, was it good! So good, in fact, that I might just share some tricks and recipes that I learned.

But I’ll do it another day when I don’t have so many things going on. Tomorrow we’ve got basketball games, birthday parties, Cub Scout banquets, graduation celebrations, and special VIP concert tickets (yes, I’ll be telling you all about that later).

Because despite all I have going on this weekend, I am choosing to savor the wonderful night I just had. The time with friends. The time with chocolate.

I thought I’d share this fun Fishful Thinking activity in the Optimism section (because February is Optimism month, after all!) Speaking of Optimism, I love finding extra resources and articles backing up what I’ve learned about the benefits of optimism from Fishful Thinking. I found a great post from Aaron Wong about 10 benefits to being optimistic. It’s a great read!

Savoring Foods Activity:

Select various food/snacks, such as Goldfish® crackers, yogurt or fruit….or in my case, CHOCOLATES. Eat one of the items you selected and notice all the different tastes and textures. Take turns naming out loud something you notice. “I notice it has a cheesy taste.” “I notice that it makes a little crunching sound when I bite it.” “If I just let it sit on my tongue it feels like it starts to melt a bit.” Repeat this with the other foods. Take an index card and list as many attributes of the food as you can. After 5 minutes, compare cards to see the different things each team noticed. Take another taste of the food and see if you can notice something listed on the other team’s card.

And I can almost guarantee that no one will complain about a family-togetherness activity that involves taste-testing foods. Mine sure don’t.

So what’s on your schedule this weekend? Are you craving chocolate like I have been all week? How do you savor the good things in your life?

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About Lolli

Lolli has written 3740 post in this blog.

I became a mom in 1996, and in 2005 I had my fifth. Yes, 5 kids. In 2007, this blog was born (my 6th baby that will never grow up) and I've been sharing recipes, photography tricks, parenting tips, and everything in between. (Formerly Better in Bulk)

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