“The Mommy Times” is becoming “Supermom Moments,” and I’m so excited about our new home at www.PagingSupermom.com. Please drop by and become a follower!

I wanted to explain why I decided to make this change: I’ve discovered that I have this sort of ‘Supermom Ideal” that I seem to measure myself against. (Yes, this is probably not the healthiest habit.) Something will happen, and it will make me feel like a Supermom, and then something else will happen and it will definitely NOT be one of my “Supermom Moments.” If you’ve read The Mommy Times often you have probably heard me talk about Supermom.

When I was telling my good pal Aimee about Supermom, she thought it would be a fun theme for a blog. She also agreed to help me out with writing Supermom Moments. (HALLELUJAH!) It will be a welcome relief to have a partner in creating and writing and hopefully together we can meet our goal of posting every weekday. I am so excited for you all to meet Aimee — I know you’ll love her too. I hope you’ll come by www.PagingSupermom.com and become a “follower.”

Here’s to your own “Supermom Moments.” Cheers! –bettijo

My girls and I made Rice Krispie Treats on Sunday Night and after pouring them into the pan, we decided to make them into shapes. We used metal cookie cutters and the kids kept busy at it for a while. With damp hands, the Krispie Treat mixture was surprisingly easy to handle. In case you can’t find your recipe for Rice Krispie Treats, here it is:

• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 10 ounce package of large marshmallows (about 40) -or- 4 cups miniature marshmallows
• 5 cups rice krispies
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt the butter in a large pan then add the marshmallows and stir until melted. Add the vanilla then mix in the rice krispies a cup at a time. Quickly transfer to a greased 9×13 pan or countertop. Dampen hands (you don’t want them dripping wet, but a bit of water will keep the mixture from sticking to you) and mush out until evenly flat. Spray cookie cutters with cooking spray and cut out. The extra pieces from around your shape can be pressed back in or (my kids preferred method) popped into your mouth!

Store in an air tight container. The treats are best if eaten within a day.

I’m sure it’s just my imagination, but the star-shaped Krispie Treat did seem a bit yummier than the normal rectangle ones.

I am totally loving this new line of vintage-inspired aprons. Just looking at them makes me want to cook something! But since it’s summertime and super hot around here, I thought I’d share my favorite no-bake pie recipe. As the name suggests it has a deliciously fluffy texture and it is (of course) easy as pie.

Cloud-9 Pie

For the Crust:
1 package graham crackers
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar

Crush up the graham crackers in a food processor then add the other ingredients. Mix well and press into pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 7 minutes. Or take the easy way out (I usually do!) and buy pre-made graham cracker crust.

For the Filling:
1/2 pint whipping cream
8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1-1/2 teaspoons natural vanilla

Whip the cream until it starts to form soft peaks (if you have one, a stand mixer works best). Add the remaining ingredients while continuing to mix . Mix well then fill into pie crust. Generally there is enough filling to make two flat-top pies or one fuller pie.

Refrigerate for a couple hours until set. Serve with blueberry, cherry or raspberry topping. Even a drizzle of chocolate syrup or just eat it with nothing else at all. Whichever way, this light, fluffy and heavenly pie will be gone in minutes. Enjoy!

I love the super-crunchy dill pickles that they always serve with sandwiches at Corner Bakery. My little sister works there so I’ve gotten on a bit of a pickle kick. I was wandering through a local farmer’s market and saw a guy selling homemade pickles, which made me wonder how exactly one would make a pickle.

Turns out, it’s super easy.

Luckily I’m a fan of the big-crunch pickles which are easiest to make since they require absolutely NO cooking. (Yay!) After doing a little research, I created my own recipe for Spicy Dill Pickles, see below.

The editors at Real Simple are on a pickle kick too. When I was flipping through my mag this month I chuckled when I saw their recipe for homemade pickles. I’m going to have to give it a try.

Spicy Dill Pickles

12 pickling cucumbers (read this on how to pick good ones)
2 cups distilled water
2 cups white vinegar
8 stems of fresh dill (about 1-1/2 cups)
4 serrano peppers, halved
8 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons coriander, whole
1-1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

These are really so easy to make that your kids could even do it. Have them help you dump all the ingredients except dill and cucumbers into a gallon-size, lidded jar. (Try to avoid metal, wood or plastic. Glass or ceramic containers work best.) Stir the mixture and let stand at room temperature for a half hour or until sugar and salt dissolve.

Wash and slice the cucumbers into spears (quarter them the long way) or slices.

Add the cucumbers and dill to your pickling mixture. Put on lid and refrigerate for at least 10 days. The pickles will keep for a couple months.

NOTE: If you want to go with less spice, leave out the serrano peppers.

It is still missing the front door, but the girls don’t care; they love the new Playhouse that Daddy built for them. We had been shopping around for a playhouse/swing set to put in the backyard, but didn’t find anything that we loved. So when my husband’s folks came to visit in January and we wanted a project to do with them, we decided to build a playhouse.

Here we are breaking ground. The kids’ handprints in the playhouse footings. Laying down the floor. The playhouse is starting to take shape, and it’s time for Grandma & Grandpa to head home.

After Grandma and Grandpa left, Daddy finished putting the outer “skin” boards on, but then the project wasabandoned for about a month while we figured out how we wanted to finish it. Well I guess not really abandoned since the girls loved playing in it, painted or not.

With no real ideas flowing we decided to just paint it white. I was actually at Home Depot getting the paint when I picked up a copy of Dwell magazine and saw this house. It was the stroke of inspiration we needed to finish things up. We decided to use the brown and red color scheme that worked really well with the color of our house and our future plans to paint our barn red. Plus the high-contrast colors really played up the super-long rectangular windows, giving the playhouse the modern feel we were after.

The swings are definitely the highlight — thank heavens we put in two. We debated having just one swing and that would have been a BIG mistake. It is bad enough getting them to share when friends are over. I know this is kind of a random picture, but I really love the look of the ceiling inside the playhouse. I think the tin roof and skylights are so fun.

We had three leftover hamburger buns sitting in our bread box. I saw them when I was scrounging around for something to make for lunch and decided I should use them up. So I started spreading peanut butter and strawberry jam on the buns, but I was a bit worried my girls might balk at the buns and want “normal” bread.

Then I had a stroke of genius: I grabbed a banana and cut it up into french-fry pieces and got some strawberry yogurt out of the fridge for “ketchup.” I called the girls over and told them we were having silly hamburgers with french fries and ketchup for lunch. They looked around at the table a bit confused and then started laughing.

“These aren’t hamburgers,” Atty said.

“Sure they are. Just use your imagination,” I replied.

They quickly joined me as we dipped our silly french fries in the silly ketchup. We decided that the silly hamburgers actually tasted yummy dipped in the ketchup too. The girls giggled all through lunch and ate up every bite.

Has to be the best use for leftover hamburger buns ever!

I have been hearing this question from my kiddos a lot lately, and school has only been out for about a week — it’s going to be a long summer!

After a quick brainstorming session, I thought I’d share my top ten, fun and practically free things to do. Of course everything seems to be more fun if Mom joins in as well, so I picked things that I actually want to do:

1. Paint an ocean landscape with watercolors.
2. Play hide & seek in the house — we love to turn the lights out and play in the dark.
3. Create a fort in the living room with couch cushions, chairs and blankets.
4. Make popcorn and watch a movie.
5. Do a science experiment.
6. Bake cookies and make surprise deliveries to family and friends.
7. Blast the radio and have a dance party.
8. Make paper airplanes and have a flying contest.
9. Do word-libs puzzles. Let the kids choose the words then read them aloud and laugh.
10. Play dress up and go all out, then take pictures.