Best products from r/BreakingParents

//This is a summation of several months of recent reading...it sounds like a lot, but it isn't as much as it sounds like.

Just finished reading The Phantom Toolbooth to my 5-year old for the 3rd time (first time was more to $spouse when the kid was still nursing, but I'm counting it anyway). It's an awesome book to read when you are a kid, and doubly-awesome to read aloud to a kid.

For me, I recently finished The Founding Fish by John McPhee (one of my favorite writers).

I just started reading Rust: The Longest War which seems good so far (similar in style to McPhee).

I've also recently read:

• Flagship by Issac Hooke,
  
• Outsystem by M. D. Cooper,
  
• Nightblade by Ryan Kirk,
  
• The Shadow Order by Michael Robertson
  
• Columbus Day by Craig Alanson
  
  All as part of some sort of Amazon Prime Kindle deal. I can't really recommend any of them. The first two are formulaic in the extreme, and because everyone is the best supersoldier/pilot/captain/hacker ever, and there's no question they will "win," and I just didn't care. I couldn't finish the 3rd, although it wasn't bad; I just wanted to read something else. I honestly can't remember anything about the 4th, it was that bad. The last one (Columbus Day) didn't suck.
  
  Also from Amazon:
  
  
• Red Hope by John Dreese, which so far is like a not-as-good version of The Martian by Andy Weir (I DO recommend The Martian, but think it is one of the very rare cases where the movie is better than the original source material).
  
• Meta by Tom Reynolds was decent.
  
  Most of the Amazon Prime Kindle selections are the first of a series, and while I like a good series as much as the next guy, I'm not going to bother with any of them, except for Columbus Day and Meta. Maybe.
  
  I mistakenly read Echopraxia for the second time, but it's good enough that I didn't mind. It has some pretty creepy parts, but I like what I've read of Peter Watts so far, and it's a fairly deep book in parts, so a second read wasn't a waste.
  
  The local library has some Terry Prattchet as a digital loan, so I read one or two Discworld books too.
  
  Anyone have any suggestions for a good biography of Eisenhower?

Oh there is only ONE way to make it. We got the recipe from Buena Vista, which invented the irish coffee.

It's really simple, here's what you do:

Take an Irish Coffee glass like THIS

Fill it with boiling water and set aside.
Now, you'll need 2 sugar cubes, drip coffee, Tillamore Dew, vanilla extract and heavy whipping cream.

Whip the cream with a tsp of vanilla until it is lightly whipped. Not stiff enough to put on pie, but stiff enough to sit on a spoon.

Now pour the hot water out of the cup, and we begin.

Okay:

• Put two cubes in the cup.
  
  
• Pour coffee into the cup until there is about a centimeter space at the top.
  
  
• Then pour a capful of Tillamore Dew into the coffee.
  
  
• Stir with a clean spoon.
  
  
• Now, take the spoon and put it over the coffee, and pour the whipped cream onto the spoon and let it settle on top of the coffee.
  
  
• That's it. It is the BEST IRISH COFFEE ON EARTH.
  

>What do YOU want for Christmas?

A REAL OFFICIAL BB GUN...oh wait...five minutes of peace and quiet? Doesn't exist. I'll settle for a battery drill set.

>What are you getting your little brats?

Whole pile of toys but I'm excited about some legos and these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OKCNTZ2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1P429YCY6IC5A

>What is the most ridiculous thing your kids asked for?

A giraffe

>Any special Christmas traditions?

Pissing off my sister in law.

>Whose more of a grinch, asa400 or CRoswell?

I used to hold the throne. This year, I am so pro-Christmas. It's gonna be huge.

>What is your Christmas morning booze choice?

Whiskey.

>Favorite Christmas movie?

Christmas Vacation.

I want a soda steam and a 3d body scan so I can have a virtual fitting dummy and use it to make a perfect foam dress form for way less than the $800 the company charges to have it done.

Kids are getting a climbing dome for the backyard and some smaller toys. Peanut is getting some magnetic letters and games, and Bug is getting a rocking mammoth and a sit n spin. My kids haven't really asked for anything specific, I haven't quite let them know that that's a thing... whoops?

Help is pretty affordable these days.

Small Great Things. I'm a Jodi Picoult junkieeee.

Also reading The Handmaid's Tale, but it's on my kindle fire, and I only get to read it when the midget isn't using it to watch YouTube videos and play ABC Mouse.