The Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom

The Weird Sisters - Book Review

2012-02-08T09:40:00.000-06:00

I've got to admit, I was finally excited about a BlogHer Book Club reading choice again. The last several I've done haven't been my typical style of reads or authors I haven't loved, but The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown is actually something I would have chosen, on my own, even if BlogHer hadn't sent it to me.

In the Weird Sisters, the aptly named Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia, daughters of a noted Shakespearean scholar, return to their hometown, ostensibly to take care of their mother, who has been diagnosed with cancer.

Cancer, however, is merely their excuse to return home. Rose, the oldest, is rooted there, using their parents as her excuse not to venture out beyond the academic world they were raised in. Bean, the middle, had fled to New York City, only to return home as a safe haven when success in the city hasn't panned out. Cordy, the youngest, has led the bohemian existence until the stability she'll need during her pregnancy only exists in the comforts of home

It's stated in the text, by the sisters' collective narrator role, "See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much," and none of the three sisters are prepared to deal with the other two upon their return. It's in reconciling their familial roles, their parents, and even the college-centered town in which they were raised, that they are somewhat able to work on their relationships with each other.

Have you read the Weird Sisters? Would you like to? Have your own weird sisters you need to talk about? (I don't, just one younger brother, so the sister roles in the book were quite interesting to me.) Join me over at BlogHer Book Club to chat about it!

Meal Planning Monday - 2012 Week 6

2012-02-06T22:00:00.001-06:00

Well, on the plus side, we've been still meal planning. The bad part? I have no clue where I wrote down weeks 4 and 5

This week:

Sunday - Superbowl - lumpia and dumplings

Monday - Taco stuffed baked potatoes

Tuesday - Citrus chicken stir fry

Wednesday - Beef stew with veggies

Thursday - Breaded pork chops, rice, veggies

Friday - Spaghetti and ... ? (Meatballs, meat sauce, sausage?)

Saturday - Going to Keystone

Not sure on treats and goodies yet, the kids only have school until Wednesday.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

MLK Weekend at Keystone

2012-01-17T13:55:00.000-06:00

One of the biggest perks to Colorado living has been our ski passes. We have season ones for Keystone and A-Basin, but we mostly ski Keystone because of the night skiing.

For MLK weekend, we decided to stay in Silverthorne and enjoy multi-days of skiing. It didn't hurt that the hotel had a pool and hot tub too.

The boy and his skis--they could be a little longer, but hoping to make it through this season

The girl resting up on the gondola on River Run

At dinner one night, Ben drew the mountains

F&B gondola-ing

F&B and Daddy on top of the Outback--we finally got to ski that and the North Peak

Meal Planning Monday - 2012 Week 3

2012-01-17T10:00:00.002-06:00

This week, we mostly stuck to our meal plan. We switched Wednesday's crock pot dinner for grilled sausages before church, because I forgot to take the chicken out in time. We also opted to stay in Keystone from Saturday till Monday to take advantage of the long weekend.

This week:

Monday - Tacos (quick meal on the way back from Keystone)

Tuesday - Fried Rice with ham and veggies

Wednesday - Olive Garden before church, gift cards from Christmas

Thursday - Meatloaf, rice, veggies

Friday - That roasted chicken I wanted last week!

Saturday - Going back to Keystone, maybe a stew in the crockpot

Not sure on treats and goodies, but I did make an awesome batch of egg mcmuffins to freeze for breakfasts.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

Why Women Need Fat - Book Review

2012-01-12T20:30:00.000-06:00

As with many of our BlogHer Book Club choices, Why Women Need Fat by William D. Lassek and Steven J.C. Gaulin isn't a book I would have likely picked up on my own. I just don't read health books, or diet books. Pass me a good mystery or biography any day and I'll dive right in, but this one wasn't quite my style.

But like any good book review, I dove right in, and learned a lot. I can't say it was the most compelling book I've ever read, and it's certainly not one you pick up to reread or recommend to a friend for a beach trip, but it was definitely interesting.

The main premise the doctors teach is that biology has much to do with weight loss and, conversely, weight gain. They advocate looking at evolutionary biology to see where, and how, weight issues seem to start spiraling.

The part that most caught my interest was the idea that the move away from the typical American diet, pre-1950 which included saturated fats to polyunsaturated fats, including the subsidies for corn and soybean, used for oils. These oils contain Omega-6 which also promote fat storage. They note that while corn and soybean themselves aren't bad, the processing involved to get oils leaves a less than desirable end product.

See, I knew there was a reason not to eat all the processed stuff! We keep persevering to eat more real foods, it can't be worse.

Thoughts? Come join me over at BlogHer Book Club to share your opinions!

Meal Planning Monday - 2012 Week 2

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

We did it! We actually stuck with our plan all week long!!!

The only change was rotating the ski day with the beef stew day, as it made more sense to put the beef stew in the crockpot early Saturday morning, and have it ready the moment we walked in the house that evening. This week's new option (the Meatball Sub Casserole) was a hit and will be back at some point.

This week, I'm a little unsure of the order, but at least I have a list of meals we are going to eat. We are having:

Sunday - Pizza night

Monday - Faith's favorite pork chops with cream sauce, maple carrots, rice

Tuesday - Spaghetti & Meatballs

Wednesday - Crockpot Roasted Chicken

Thursday - Pad Thai

Friday - Beef enchiladas (thinking of making a double batch and freezing one)

Saturday - Pretty sure we're going to stay overnight at Keystone, so not planning a separate meal

For treats, I'm going to experiment with my cake ball maker tomorrow.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

Meal Planning Monday - 2012 Week 1

2012-01-02T17:00:00.001-06:00

This year, we have two main New Year's goals regarding meals. One is to get back to meal planning. We eat out less and save more money when we have a plan in place. No plan and we end up defaulting to meals out, which is NOT a good idea. But this year, I'm also adding a new goal to try at least one new recipe per week. It might be dinner or breakfast or baking, but I want to try something new each week.

This week, we are having:

Sunday 1/1 - Dumplings (coming home from Keystone)

Monday 1/2 - BBQ Bacon Cheeseburgers, chili

Tuesday 1/3 - Meatball Sub Casserole New Recipe!

Wednesday - Fried Rice (what exactly I'm frying with the rice is still up in the air, need to look at leftovers and freezer first)

Thursday - Shredded BBQ chicken pockets (hoping for enough leftovers to make BBQ chicken pizzas!)

Friday - Beef and veggie stew

Saturday - Leftovers or stuffed baked potatoes, we'll be skiing at Keystone all day

For treats, we have brownies already made, plus some leftover Christmas cookies, so no baking right now

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

From Our Family to Yours ...

2011-12-25T15:20:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!!!

(This was our Christmas card photo this year,

taken at Keystone, CO, a few weeks ago)

Reindeer Cupcakes

2011-12-23T19:45:00.003-06:00

Shaun pulled an all night detail last week, so the kids and I made a batch of cupcakes so he'd have some snacks for a long, must-stay-awake night. However, even with sending some for him, some for the other guy on duty with him and sampling a few on our own, we still had quite a few cupcakes left over.

And then it hit! We made reindeer gingerbread, why not reindeer cupcakes? We had the M&Ms, we had the pretzels, we had the chocolate icing, and we had 8 left over cupcakes that needed to be iced and eaten.

I really think these would be a fun thing to make on Christmas Eve and leave out for Santa, except we're not home, and there are a billion different kinds of desserts at my parents' house already!

Ben seriously contemplated how to position the pretzel antlers

Faith was more concerned with the ideal eye placement

And voila! Reindeer cupcakes, and jammies, since we did this at night time.

Our Colorado Christmas, in pictures

2011-12-17T18:00:00.000-06:00

It's been a busy few weeks, getting ready for our first Christmas living in Colorado! We've been skiing each weekend which leaves the weekdays crazy-busy with all the shopping, wrapping, baking, etc. But we get to ski! Every weekend! This Colorado thing could really grow on me.

So what have we done? (Well, besides skiing?)

F&B got to see Santa at the Brigade Christmas party!

We baked lots of cute cookies, including these zebra nibbles and gingerbread reindeer.

Faith's class made gingerbread houses

Ben's class had a pizza and pajama party

We found our tree and ornaments in the basement and put it up!

I decided F&B were old enough that I could put my santons out in their reach.

(Santons are a nativity and provencal villagers that we brought back from France on our honeymoon.)

My curio holds some of my other nativities, for now.

We had a nice holiday lunch at the USO and Faith's highlight was a new book!

We've also baked more cookies (sherbet macaroons, chocolate peppermint, and jam filled sugar cookies). We went to a fun holiday village event on post. The kids stuffed stockings for one of the ministries at our new church. And somehow, I'm just about done with everything on the holiday to-do list!

ABBA You Can Dance Review

2011-12-16T19:00:00.003-06:00

We all enjoy a bit of ABBA in this house, especially Mamma Mia. Shaun & I've seen it live multiple times, back in Dallas.

But the true Mamma Mia/ABBA fan is Faith. She has been obsessed with the music since she was about 4 years old. While most 4 year old little girls dream about princesses and going to Disneyland to meet them, our 4 year old knew all the words to "Does Your Mother Know That You're Out" and dreamed of going to Las Vegas so she could see the musical live on stage. For her sixth birthday, we surprised her with tickets to see Mamma Mia at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, so her dream came true without us having to take her to Vegas. She saw it again, about a year and a half later, when the touring production came back to Dallas. And, she still wants to see it again. The movie gets a lot of play at our house.

When the option to review ABBA You Can Dance came up, I knew I had to do it for Faith. The review option sounded like it was for a Girls' Night In or something like that, but anyone who knows my daughter, knows this one is for her! As well, I like ABBA's music. It is certainly better than a lot of today's pop music, and I don't mind that Faith knows all the words.

The game did not disappoint at all. It features all the most important ABBA songs (according to Faith) which means it has the Mamma Mia soundtrack. Her favorites are Does Your Mother Know That You're Out (of course), Dancing Queen, and Mamma Mia, but she's also developed an affinity for Waterloo, thanks to the game. Despite it being featured at the end of the musical, she doesn't really consider it a part of the musical.

But even better than just dancing along with ABBA music is singing along with ABBA music. This version of You Can Dance also features a karaoke mode. We don't have a microphone (yet), but that wasn't about to stop my diva from singing her heart out. There is also a mini-musical mode, which features the opportunity to act in hour very own little ABBA musical, cmbing song and dance with a story onscreen.

For your own little ABBA fans (or the big ones too), you can purchase ABBA You Can Dance on Amazon, for approximately $30, which can provides hours of entertainment for the little 70s dance stars in your life.

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own. No compensation was received for this post, just a copy of the game to test.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Review

2011-12-13T11:00:00.001-06:00

I know, I know, totally not my type of post, but sometimes, a review opportunity crosses my inbox that just screams "Hey, your husband would like this." And that's what Assassin's Creed made me think of, my husband would like this!

Now, the catch is, the review is for the PS3. Husband technically has a PS3, but it's a Christmas gift from the kids. Since the kids do not know that Daddy knows he is getting this, it's wrapped, under the tree, and he's going to pretend to be surprised. (After all, I had to call him from Target on Black Friday to figure out if the game system I was holding was actually what he wanted.) Now, if necessary, I suppose we could have unwrapped the PS3 and had him play the game, but as you all now know, we live on a military base. There are plenty of people with plenty of video game systems, and one of my friends graciously volunteered her husband to test out the game for me since he already has an unwrapped PS3.

And the reviews are positive! It's a total guy game, the fourth & final in a series, following Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed 2, and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. This game concludes Ezio's adventure, who is now following the path of the legendary mentor assassin, Altaïr. This journey takes him to Constantinople, during the height of the Ottoman Empire, where he has to battle an army of Templars.

Highlights of the game include:

Being able to play as Altaïr, the character from the first AC game - Now, I don't know who these characters all are, but the first game seems to feature the mentor guy, then the next two feature Ezio. This version still features Ezio, but you can also be mentor-guy if you choose to do so, which seems to give the game a different spin.
Being able to play online as a multi-player game against other AC fanatics - Apparently, online gameplay also makes things better, so you can test out your skills as a player against others. I assume this is like when the kids play games against each other where they sword fight via video game.
The ability to create and use bombs during game play - Guys like blowing things up, I think that's just a fact of life. And now you too can blow things up in the game, by making your own bombs and setting them off in scenarios that need things blown up to help you advance.

(OK, I can't actually explain these things, but apparently they are really good things if you like these kinds of things. I assume it's a guy thing.)

Needless to say, my own husband is really looking forward to unwrapping his PS3 and trying the game out too, I just think he can wait another week or two!

Looking to buy Assassin's Creed Revelations? Today, it is one of the deals of the day on Amazon. Click here to check it out! It's available on the PS3 and the XBox 360.

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

The Lake of Dreams Book Review

2011-12-01T12:00:00.003-06:00

Kim Edwards, the author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, brings us a new novel, The Lake of Dreams.

Now, if I'm being honest here, I might be the only person in the world who didn't like Memory Keeper's Daughter. Scratch that; the one girlfriend who borrowed the book from me didn't like it either. It had potential, but it was lacking something for me, though I've never quite pinpointed what it is. My mom loved it and has no idea why I didn't enjoy it either.

So, I entered The Lake of Dreams with a bit of trepidation. I knew I was *supposed* to like the book, but was worried that it would resonate about as well as Memory Keeper's Daughter did, and then I was in for a dilemma dealing with writing a review. It is quite difficult to write a review when you don't enjoy a book, and even more difficult when you don't know *why* you didn't enjoy the book.

Thankfully, I really did enjoy The Lake of Dreams. The story begins when Lucy, the protagonist, returns to her hometown from abroad, to check in on her mother, who has been in an accident. While she reconciles her own role in her family, having been gone for a decade with work, she also discovers family secrets, dating back several generations. Who was her aunt Rose and why was she all but erased from the family records.

But, more than a mystery novel, The Lake of Dreams is a novel of self-discovery. Lucy learns more about herself as she searches the past, and the connection between the past and the present yields the answers.

Come join me and many other bloggers on BlogHer Book Club as we discuss our thoughts on The Lake of Dreams!

Thankful ...

2011-11-28T19:00:00.004-06:00

Wrapping up our first Thanksgiving in Colorado, it's been a good week.

F&B had the entire week off from school, and I am thankful that they have friends in the neighborhood so they could go out and play almost every day. They came home tired and starving, but happy.

We ran (well, mostly walked) the Turkey Trot 5K on Fort Carson, where I am thankful for the gorgeous scenery and not so thankful for having to hike up and down hills. There is a large difference between a 5K in very flat Dallas and a 5K in very hilly Colorado Springs.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, including a bacon wrapped turkey, that I am quite thankful Shaun's unit gave to us. They provided turkeys for the soldiers, and we received a lovely turkey that turned into a very nice Thanksgiving dinner for the four of us with plenty of leftovers for a later date. And I'm thankful that my husband had a 4 day weekend to enjoy the holiday with us, and help with the turkey cooking and eating and putting away.

I headed out Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving night. I am very thankful the weather was pleasant since I hit several stores, and I am thankful for the mess at Walmart which propelled me to go to Target sooner, which meant I snagged several items on my list. And I'm very thankful for the woman behind me in the checkout line at Target who told me that they had put several Netbooks back on the shelves, so I was able to get one as an extra surprise for the kids.

Our little house is almost unpacked and I am thankful we got a start on our Christmas decorations. There's still work to be done in the basement, but the upstairs is livable and showable to company.

Army Tales - A bit about grammar, and mountains, and Harry Potter

2011-11-17T23:00:00.001-06:00

Dear Babe:

Sometimes, the misuse of the English language makes me want to cry. Especially when it comes through quasi-official channels. Learning about homonyms should be mandatory for everyone and spell check is never a bad thing.

At that, I was wondering, are you in the Army or at Hogwarts?

Love, Me

---

Communication during training is limited at best. Because my husband had been out of the military so many, many years, he ended up having to retrain completely. Often, there is a program for soldiers re-entering the Army, but as with our luck, said program ceased to exist right around the time he rejoined. So for much of the first half of his training, I dealt with very limited communication, as in a handful of phone calls and mostly letters. I tried to work on the no news is good news principle and assumed that they would call me if there was a major problem.

The bits and pieces of information I put together often came in the form of Facebook posts. This was awesome as at least I had a wee bit of a clue what was going on with my husband and it helped to know if they were out in the field or shooting things or whatever else it is they did there.

However, then there came the day where I read a post stating that soldiers were going to "repel down Victory Tower". (My research told me Victory Tower is a 40 foot high wall thing that the soldiers use ropes to navigate.)

One itsy bitsy teeny tiny problem--the word repel.

I know, I know, it's petty and I should be thankful for the volunteers that actually posted these things, and I was. Really. But ugh! Spell check is your friend, grammar check is your friend, and if you're going to post anything in any sort of quasi-official capacity, it is really in your best interest to make the right choice of words. Rather than focusing on the news from training, all I could think about was the word repel.

So, if you are talking about climbing down that 40 foot tower? You're going to RAPPEL. Same with climbing down mountains or climbing walls or anything of that sort.

Now, if you're going to REPEL something? You're going to make it go away or stay away or back away. Sort of like if you shout "Impervius!" and tap your glasses, rain is not going end up on them.

But unless you're going to Army training at Hogwarts? You're probably not going to learn to repel anything.

Someday, I'll have to blog about why I hate when people can't distinguish between the words sell and sale. That one is even above the there/their/they're and your/you're on my list of major pet peeves.

Twelve Tremendous Turkey-licious Ideas for Thanksgiving

2011-11-11T10:00:00.002-06:00

While looking for fun ideas to do with F&B for Thanksgiving, I started bookmarking a few favorites to try, then thought, why not share them here? So here are 12 of our favorite turkey related craft and cooking ideas, plus a bonus thankfulness one!

Turkey day bento, from me (over on BentoLunch)

Thankful turkey centerpiece from Crafts for All Seasons

Turkey veggie platter from Eating with Food Allergies

Design your own turkey (craft foam, feathers, and clothespins) I made a couple of years ago when Ben was in preschool (I still have the turkey in my kitchen)

Gumdrop-candy turkeys from design.wash.rinse.repeat

Three turkey pin/clip ideas from Bacon Time

Pinecone turkeys from Such Things

Gorgeous turkey cookies from Cookie Crazie (though a bit beyond my ability)

No sew ribbon turkey shirts, I love these, from Addie Baby

Turkey Rice Krispy Treats from Gimme Some Oven

A fun Plump & Perky Turkey craft to go along with the book from I {Heart} Crafty Things

Fruit gobbler centerpiece/appetizer on Family Fun

And a thirteenth, non turkey, because it's awesome:

Give Thanks Gratitude Board from Jellybean Junkyard

The boy's turkey project, or how to make turkey soup, by Ben

2011-11-09T19:00:00.001-06:00

Ben had a turkey project for school The assignment was to decorate a turkey, then to write about it.

So off the boy and I went to Michael's, found all sorts of turkey decorations, and pulled out the hot glue gun. Thankfully, I have a fair amount of skill with the hot glue gun and no feathers were harmed & no boys were burned in the making of this turkey.

For the writing portion, they were allowed to write anything they found interesting i.e.) the story of the first Thanksgiving turkey, a letter from a turkey saying not to eat him, how to make turkey soup, etc.

Ben chose how to make turkey soup, which I'm sure should have produced amusing results, except my kid cooks a lot and wants to be a chef when he grows up.

Ben's Turkey Soup:

Get one whole turkey.
Boil some water on the stove.
Add some salt and pepper.
Cut the turkey.
Put the turkey in the water, take out the bones first.
Set a timer for five hours and cook.
Serve the soup.

Yep, that's my little future chef, he is getting the general idea!

Army Tales: I so do not do critters in my pool

2011-11-08T14:00:00.001-06:00

(When Shaun was gone all summer retraining, I kept a private blog/journal of thoughts, thinking someday, I'd figure out what I wanted to do with it. I'm still not sure what I want to do with it, but some of the stories are too funny to not share, so I'll be posting them here sporadically. Most begin with excerpts from my letters/emails to him, followed by the whole story. It was a long 4 months. Trust me.)

Dear Babe,

It’s Thursday night and there is a crawdad in the pool.

That’s it! I am DONE with this whole freaking Army thing. You need to come home and get that scary-ass mini lobster out of my pool as soon as possible.

And while you’re at it, I need the carcass by the pool pump removed too, because I can’t go back there to look for the skimmer to remove the scary-ass mini lobster myself because of the small skeletal structure on the ground.

Love, Me

PS: See attachment.

---

Despite settling into our routine and feeling like I can do just about anything. (Smoke alarms? I've got this! Swim team and martial arts carpools? No problem!), there has to come a moment that throws me for a complete loop.

And tonight, that loop is in the form of a small scary, lobster-like creature, otherwise known as a crawdad. Boiling in a pot or crawling around a vat of ice at the grocery store is really no big deal. However, swimming in my pool? That's a big problem.

After careful examination from the patio around the pool, I decided that yes, this really is a crawdad. After last week's "Is it a snake or a palm leaf?" incident, I need to be sure that this really is a living creature, before inciting panic. Unfortunately, I am right. I am now the proud owner of a crawdad. And of course, Mr. Crawdad has to go swimming in the deep end of my diving pool.

My first thought is that I can get something to scoop him out with. Not that I know what I will do with him once he's out, but out of the pool is infinitely better than in the pool. I go off in search of our skimmer/pool brush combo. The device is not by the pool. It's also not on the patio and it's not in the garage. Then I realize, it must be in the fenced in area with the pool equipment, which brings me to problem #2.

The other day, while pulling a few weeds from around the pool equipment, I discovered a small, very deceased carcass of a former animal. I don't know what kind of animal it is, but it is now in the small, very deceased, and skeletal form. Oh crap. I can't go back there to look for the pool skimmer, I can't even walk in that area without freaking out. Now what am I supposed to do??? Oh wait, we do own a rake!

So, I lug the rake through the garage, through the gate and out to the pool. I lay on the patio close to the edge of the pool, roll up my sleeve and put the rake and my arm into the water. (Can crawdads swim? I really hope they can't.) I stretch, twist and contort my body, only to discover that the rake isn't quite long enough to reach the bottom of the deep end. The crawdad is still in the pool taunting me, but at least I didn't drop the rake in too.

I call the boy and the girl outside. I show them the crawdad and try not to emphasize how creepy I find it to be. I ask them which one of them would like to dive in and get it for me. No takers. I offer to take the diver to buy ice cream of their choice and let them eat the whole container if they want to, as long as they go get the crawdad. Again, no volunteers. I tell them to go get their bathing suits and they can both go in after it. At the point, they go back in the house and shut the door. Darn kids. What good are they if they won't fish icky things out of the pool?

Back to the drawing board. The neighbor behind us is home, but he doesn't have a pool, so I can't borrow a skimmer from him. I chat with him briefly, explain the whole situation from the crawdad to the missing skimmer to the carcass, and he offers to come fish it out for me if I can find the skimmer, but doesn't offer to remove the dead body from the pool pump area. It's still a dilemma, so I take the next most logical option and call Wayne-the-Pool-Guy.

Wayne-the-Pool-Guy is a former colleague of my husband's, so I at least know he won't think I'm completely crazy. Or, if he thinks so, at least he'll be kind enough not to say it. But, to complete my evening, I get his voicemail. I leave a long rambling message and mention scary crawdad in the pool and scary carcass by the pool pump and can he please send someone who will get both of these out of my yard and far far away from my house.

In the meantime, I head back in the house, making sure to lock the gates and doors behind me. I’ve decided that, if crawdads can somehow find their way into my swimming pool, they are equally capable of getting out, crawling across my yard and opening the door to the house. So to be safe, the door is safely bolted.

---

So, what became of the crawdad? Well, the next morning, I called Wayne-the-Pool-Guy’s office number. After laughing hysterically, the woman who answered the phone said she would have Wayne-the-Pool-Guy call me. He called a few minutes later and agreed to send someone out later that day. Upon arriving back home, the filter and vacuum were running in the pool and the crawdad was nowhere to be found. I’m assuming the vacuum ate him, because I am not OK with anything other possible explanation.

Meal Planning Monday, Week of 11/7

2011-11-07T09:00:00.001-06:00

I'm highly impressed with us this week. We actually stuck to the entire meal plan without going out. We did move Friday's pasta to Saturday since the leftovers were so overwhelming by Friday that we needed to get some of them eaten, but it was still the whole plan. Trying it again this week too!!!

This week, we are having:

Sunday - Chicken fried rice

Monday - Faith's favorite pork chops with cream sauce, rice, maple carrots

Tuesday - Sausage pie (kind of a quiche) with onion soup

Wednesday - Porcupine meatballs with cheesy zucchini squares

Thursday - Pork and pineapple stir fry (new recipe from a magazine)

Friday - Veteran's Day, so we are taking advantage of one of the fun meal offers nearby

Saturday - Stuffed baked potatoes, toppings to be determined

For treats, I have brownies right now and some zucchini that I'm going to turn into bread later this week.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

F&B's Weekly Reads

2011-11-05T11:00:00.002-05:00

I kind of miss keeping track of what the kids are reading on a weekly basis, so this week, I actually made a few notes and asked them to tell me a few of their favorites. Besides are own collections, they go to the library at school once a week, along with going to the library on base with me too.

Ben's picks of the week:

SuperDog: Heart of a Hero by Caralyn Buehner - Ben took this one out at school to discover he also owned it. ;o) He loved it, considering it has dogs and superheroes.
The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl - I love Roald Dahl, so thrilled that Ben grabbed this one off his shelf! He read it over two nights and told us all about the different ways the alligator tried to trick the people.

Faith's choices this week are a little more interesting than normal. Her fourth grade teacher has recommended she start choosing some more challenging books (note when I said this, I was wrong, but Mrs. S. says this and she does, lol) and she is getting set to work on her Battle of the Books list as soon as we get a few of the titles for her. So we perused her bookcases this week to come up with these:

The Boxcar Children (by Gertrude Chandler Warner - Faith and I read the first few chapters of it about two years ago when we were going to use it as a unit study for second grade. However, back then, it wasn't a great fit for her. She picked it up again this week and loved it! Now we need to get a few of the mysteries.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo - We always loved the Mercy Watson books and I grabbed this one from Half Price Books back in Dallas. Faith & I have a deal anyhow that I get to choose one of the titles she reads each week (to make sure she is reading something new and something at her level) and this was my pick for her. She loved it and came back to tell me it was "so good" and why didn't she read it before!
Charlotte's Web by EB White - This was always one of my favorites, so I was thrilled that she decided to read it finally. We read Stuart Little for school last year, so I was surprised that she didn't want to read this one till now. Apparently, it was also "so good!!!!"

Army Tales: I have tools, and I know how to use them

2011-11-04T10:05:00.006-05:00

(When Shaun was retraining, I kept a private blog/journal of thoughts, figuring someday, I'd figure out what I wanted to do with it. I'm still not sure what I want to do with it, but some of the stories are too funny to not share, so I'll be posting them here sporadically. Most begin with excerpts from my letters/emails to him, followed by the whole story. It was a long 4 months. Trust me.)

Dear Babe:

You know that the various building shows that the boy likes? Well, I’m living that now. All the things that didn’t break or need to be fixed before you left have decided to break as soon as I no longer had a live in handyman.

Can we fix it? YES WE CAN! I am now a cross between Handy Manny and Bob the Builder, except I have a cute purse instead of a tool belt. And heels instead of work boots, but those kind of suck to climb ladders with.

Love, Me

---

When my husband headed out for several months, he tried to make sure everything was set so that I shouldn’t have any major things to do around the house, other than working on organizing and packing for our eventual move. We’ve got a guy to take care of the pool, a sweet friend offered to cut our lawn, and another friend is a mechanic and promised to be over at the first sign of any car issues. In theory, everything should go along just swimmingly until he returns home.

But, in the process of taking care of everything major, we did forget about a few minor details. One of the garage door openers went out. I managed to pry it open with a knife, not cut off any fingers, and replace the battery after a trip to Target where F&B had to play a fun game of “Match the little flat battery to the ones on display”. We had light bulbs go out, which I managed to change without electrocuting myself or shattering bulbs on the tile floors. I’ve managed to get the garbage out weekly, water the lawn and gardens, pay the bills, basically all of husband jobs around the house without any major mishaps. I’ve even built things with the kids for the fun of it.

This doesn't seem all that evil, but it is.

And then the noise started. Beep.

At first, it was intermittent. One beep here, one beep there. Here a beep, there a beep …

Then suddenly, everywhere a beep beep!

Oh yes, it was one of the many many many smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that are sprinkled throughout our home. And when one is beeping, it seems like the number of possibilities are infinite. With a bit of help from the girl, I finally narrowed it down to the two systems right outside my bedroom door. This is both good and bad. While, at least they aren’t located on one of the ridiculously high vaulted ceilings in Faith’s second floor bedroom, they are still located on a ceiling that I can’t reach while just standing on a regular chair. And they are really hard to ignore, considering I have to sleep in that room, so they must be changed as soon as possible.

I puzzle over this for a bit, then decide to bring in the ladder from the garage. Again, I enlist the help of my daughter, who announces that the ladder has cobwebs on the bottom, so she’s not touching it, but she’ll hold the door for me. That works, so into the house comes the cobwebby ladder. I set it up, kick off my heels and climb up. (What, did you think I’m crazy enough to climb a ladder in heels?) I stand with my head between the smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector and BEEP! I nearly fall off the darn ladder because it is really really loud up there. However, I am no closer to narrowing it down to one of the two devices, though I think I am now several steps closer to deaf.

Faith fetches me the last 9 volt battery in the house, and, since I can’t figure it out, I change out the smoke alarm first. All clear, and BEEP! OK, it’s not that one. I take out the new battery, put back in the old battery, and change the battery in the carbon monoxide detector. I start to climb down the ladder, and BEEP! So, I switch it again. BEEP! And again. BEEP! And press the reset button. BEEP BEEP BEEP! For the love of God, why will this noise not stop???

At this point, with only 25% of my original hearing left, I decide that it must be both devices and I need another battery. BEEP BEEP BEEP! We have none. BEEP BEEP BEEP! I find my heels, grab F&B (BEEP BEEP BEEP), get in the car (where there are finally no beeps), and drive to Target. I buy the extra large jumbo pack of 9-Volt batteries that cost more than a week’s worth of groceries, then head back home where I am once again greeted by BEEP BEEP BEEP! I set the ladder back up, kick off my heels once more, climb up, and switch out the batteries in both devices, all while losing another 10% of my hearing due to the consistent beeping.

Then, all of a sudden, blessed silence. There are no beeps here. There are no beeps there. There are no beeps anywhere. The house is actually quiet. And, by this point, it’s not like I have enough hearing left to really care if there are any other noises, just as long as there are no beeps.

Soup time!

2011-11-03T18:30:00.002-05:00

Now that we are official Colorado residents, we've discovered something very important. October/November in Colorado? It's a heck of a lot colder than Texas. Shorts season ended pretty much as soon as we arrived here back in September, we've had to pull out hats, coats and mittens, my mom had to send the kids their snow boots, and we've already had two snows.

So that leaves us with 4 very cold family members, 3 of whom have to leave the house daily for work and school. Me? I work from home and get to drink coffee and wear my fluffy slippers. However, I've discovered the secret to warm lunches at least.

This was Ben's lunch last week, pre-Halloween. Note the thermos? It's filled with homemade chicken soup that was still piping hot at lunch time! Faith has one too, but with Princesses on it, and Shaun opted for a manly stainless steel and black version.

But there is a trick to keeping things hot till lunchtime.

First, boil water. Fill the thermos with the boiling water and put the cap back on it, let it sit.

Second, heat your soup. Boil it, not just warm it. You pretty much want it boiling hot. I actually skip the microwave and use a little stove top kettle to make sure it really does boil.

Third, dump the boiling water, then immediately fill with boiling soup. Wipe rim and seal immediately.

The catch seems to be that, if the container is already warmed from the water, the soup doesn't cool off that little bit from the cold container, thus staying warm longer.

Shaun reported that he tried to drink his soup at lunch time (noon for him) and it was still too hot, after I had prepped it around 7:15 am. F&B have said the same thing, that they have to open their soup, eat a few other things, then drink their soup after it cools a bit.

In case you were curious, Shaun has this Thermos with the built-in spoon, while F&B have the Funtainers (in Princesses and Cars). We spent a little more to get containers we knew would seal tightly and not leak.

The Halloween Cupcake!

2011-11-02T13:10:00.002-05:00

The tale of the Halloween cupcake begins back in September, in Dallas, shortly after we got the orders for Fort Carson. Faith had been planning on being a belly dancer for Halloween, but Halloween in Dallas and Halloween in Colorado are two different things, with a 20-30 degree temperature difference. (Side note: It was actually quite lovely on Halloween, just needed a sweater to go out.)

I saw a cupcake costume on Pinterest ages ago, traced it Lemon Tree Creations, and knew that Faith would be the world's cutest cupcake!

The Official Cupcake Costume of Halloween 2011

Now, I didn't take pictures in the process of making it. I probably should have, but you know, the moving thing and all. Faith picked the colors herself, although we had to skip the yellow & purple sprinkles since they didn't go as well as we hoped. She wanted two tiered icing in different colors and a brown wrapper. The wrapper is actually machine sewn, since I knew where my machine was (it's cut out similar to the post I borrowed the idea from, with a wrapped skirt, suspenders and fence-picket style cupcake pleats).

Testing it out to see the fit with clothes underneath

The sprinkles had to be hot glued, since I could find my sewing machine and we skipped the collar ruffle since she needed a turtleneck for Colorado weather. The headband is not a headband, we ended up going with a hair clippie. Three descending sizes of pink circles make the cherry, plus a green leaf and a brown stem! Easy and glued.

Painting pumpkins at school!

Since Faith's in fourth grade, Shaun was a little nervous that the cupcake would be too "cute" for school. I brought it for her class party and was amazed at the comments, especially the boys! The one boy at her table kept saying, "You made that??? The whole thing???" Everyone seemed to love it and she wore it to the commissary afterwards. Then, while trick or treating, a lady asked her if her mom made the costume. Faith said yes, and the lady told her that deserved and extra candy! :)

As for Ben? He didn't know what he wanted to be. So he was Alien Stitch. Again. But he was cute and toasty warm.

Menu Planning Monday, Week of 10/31

2011-10-31T11:45:00.001-05:00

Now that we are finally settled in our house, we realized that it's definitely time to start meal planning again so we do a better job of eating at home. Thankfully, we were able to get our freezer in the basement, so I'm slowly restocking it with all sorts of food to make eating at home easier. (Hello, $1.27/lb ground beef!)

This week, we are having:

Sunday - Parmesan pork loin in the crockpot, rice, veggies

Monday - Chili with tomato basil bread (warm bellies pre-Trick or Treat!)

Tuesday - Breakfast for dinner! Sausage, egg and cheese burritos

Wednesday - Citrus Chicken Stir Fry, Shaun's favorite

Thursday - Beef Enchiladas

Friday - Pasta of some sort--what kind completely depends on what kinds of leftovers we have, in case there is leftover meat from a previous meal

For treats, I have some Pillsbury stuff to try out for a blog review, so planning something from that!

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

Changes Changes Everywhere

2011-09-28T10:22:00.004-05:00

Well, changes we've known are coming for awhile that we just haven't shared with many others, but does explain my absence from blogging for the last little bit.

We've officially moved from Texas to Colorado! The view above is the view from our soon to be house on Fort Carson, which we should move into in mid-October. (Why Fort Carson? Shaun re-enlisted in the Army after a very long hiatus, and Fort Carson is where the Army sent us! We're OK with that.)

For the next few weeks, we are in temporary housing, which is all sorts of entertaining. After all, the kitchenette only includes a fridge and microwave, so I brought along a variety of appliances in the hopes that we won't have to keep eating take out till we move into our house.

F&B started school here this morning. After some thought, we decided, for now, not to continue homeschooling but to enroll them in school on post. It's located in our soon-to-be neighborhood and this way they can meet some friends who live nearby. They are both completely excited about school, so it's a great thing for them.

It also gives me more time during the day for writing. As of early September, I took on the role of food editor at MomTrends, so extra time to write is definitely needed. Fridays are dedicated to food news there, so I'll be writing the weekly recipe post/link up, food news and product reviews, fun!

Other than that, we are counting the days till we get into our house. I have craft projects begging to be finished, but no supplies. Faith's Halloween costume needs to be completed, I have a wreath for the front door that need a bit more work too, and a ton of other ideas just waiting to be created. That's the late October plan, unpacking, writing & crafting!

Big IQ Kids - Review

2011-09-15T23:00:00.001-05:00

In the chaos of starting the school year, multiple road trips, a food editing job and some other craziness that I will blog at some point, we also received our first review item for TOS Crew! This time, we got to check out BigIQKids.com. We're more on the technophile side of homeschooling, so this seemed like a good fit for us.

What is Big IQ Kids?

Big IQ Kids is, simply put, an educational website, featuring quizzes, games, and tutorials in a variety of subjects. Subjects include spelling, vocabulary, math facts and the US states, and range from free activities to premium memberships.

Unlike many online quizzes, it is customizable to the specific child and keeps track of their progress with each use, making sure that one area is mastered before the next is introduced. Each subject is also independent of the others, so a math whiz can move ahead even if their spelling level needs work.

Big IQ Kids Thoughts

Overall, we found it to be a fun program to use as a supplement to our regular curriculum.

Highlights included:

State Geography - We aren't doing a great deal of this yet, since we are just entering the beginnings of US History, but with our many roadtrips, it's great to add the visual without turning it into formal lessons.
Math Facts Drills - We always need more of these, for both kids. While a necessity, the computer makes the drills a little more tolerable for F&B.
Spelling Lists - I do like the option of adding our current spelling words to a program. It broke up the regular spelling lessons and provided some fun reinforcement for the week's words.
Computer Time - Again, we're technophiles! It is much easier to incorporate learning games into computer time, since both kids love to play on the computer.
Ease of Use/Ability to Utilize - So much of the site is customizable that it didn't feel like we were using it for the sole purposes of reviewing it. I was able to make spelling lists and select math facts based on what was in our current lessons. The only aspect that wasn't a perfect fit (for us right *now*) was the US states material, but it wasn't a huge stretch to use it and it was short/simple enough to just include it with the other tutorials.

More Information

While some aspects of BigIQ Kids are free (this would be the spelling and vocabulary programs), the fee structure for the rest of the site depends on what the user wants included and how many students they wish to sign up.

I highly recommend looking over their pricing page and their membership page closely to find the plan best suited to your family. Despite using the program, I found the pricing a little confusing when it came to figuring out what would be needed for our family.

I received my membership with Big IQ Kids via my relationship with The Old Schoolhouse Crew as part of their review team. The membership was given to me free of charge to use with my children in exchange for writing a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Slow Love - Book Review

2011-09-08T16:00:00.001-05:00

Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness by Dominique Browning, part of September's BlogHer Book Club found its way across my desk a few weeks.

The book tells the story of a high profile New York magazine editor who loses her job and learns how to live the slow life and appreciate the small things, during the downtime of unemployment. It's a simple, kind of sweet read, that I read in a few sittings. The concept is great, and it would be a great work of fiction. As a work of fiction, it's a bit profound and insightful.

The problem however? Well, it isn't fiction. After three years of a depressed economy, there are few people I've met that can take a year off and learn to live the slow life, much less have multiple houses and large savings plans to do this. It's hard to relate to a lot of what is written, simply because the luxury to enjoy a year off, to not worry about finances, to have a choice of which home to keep, just isn't an option for the average working person who loses a job. It's hard to relate to what the author was saying when, in the long run, her worries aren't the average person's worries.

Have you read Slow Love? What did you think? Did you find it relatable?

Join me and others on BlogHer as we discuss the book.

Our Top 10 Freezer Meals List

2011-09-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

One of the things on my to-do list is to build up my freezer meal stash since I'm almost out. I love being able to take something out of the freezer, defrost it, stick it in the oven, and that's dinner.

For us, we alternate freezer meals with regular or crockpot meals, because we do like a good variety and there are some things (roast beef, roast chicken, and lasagna) that must be made in the crockpot. And I love freezer meals that can be made in batches or from leftovers.

However, every time I go to look for freezer ideas, I have to dig out my own favorites, so I finally decided to stick them all into one post for my own reference (and yours too).

***Side note, for *ME*, my actual freezer meal definition is food that involves no more work at all on my part, just warming up--no cooking more meat, no preparing sides, no assembly, etc.***

1. Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas - leftover shredded chicken, fresh tortillas, cheese, sour cream and green enchilada sauce

2. Beef Enchiladas - ground beef and red enchilada sauce instead

3. Beef & Bean Burritos - new addition to my freezer repetoire, freeze individually wrapped for lunches or dinners

4. Chicken Pot Pie - no special recipes, pie crusts, leftover shredded chicken, mixed veggies and gravy, so easy! Easy to switch to turkey or beef too.

5. Ham & Cheese Quiche - one of the kids' favorites and also good for a last minute breakfast

6. Roast Beef Casserole - leftover roast, potatoes, veggies if you want them, in a creamy gravy

7. Breakfast for Dinner Casserole - again, no special recipe; shredded hashbrowns, cooked sausage or bacon, egg, and cheese on top

8. Shepherd's Pie - probably more of a mock shepherd's pie that is kind of comfort food; cooked ground beef, drained, mixed with canned vegetable soup and topped with leftover mashed potatoes

9. BBQ Pizza - made from leftover shredded BBQ pork! I coat the pizza crust with BBQ sauce instead of red sauce, then top with shredded pork, shredded cheese, onion, etc, and freeze. It's a completely different flavor than regular pizza, so it makes for nice variety!

10. Soup - it sounds simple, but I must have several containers of soup in my freezer at any given point in time; Shaun's favorite is a classic chicken soup, the kids love minestrone and my favorite is split pea, and those are just the faves! Perfect to have just for lunch or with sandwiches or burgers for a quick dinner.

Homeschool Plans

2011-08-29T14:30:00.000-05:00

It's back to school time for F&B! We decided to take the better part of the summer off from homeschooling, since many of their friends attend regular school and we wanted to have fun with them!

First Day kiddos!

This year, Faith is in 4th grade and Ben is in 1st. We're still using our rather eclectic curriculum. Every time I think I find one I like, there's always something missing or one part that I want to change, so I am giving up on that theory and just buying what I like.

Faith is still using HWOT for cursive, Saxon Math, and Spelling Workout. She also keeps a daily journal and we're using unit studies for social studies, science and literature. Our first literature unit is Mr. Popper's Penguins and for science, we're doing food chains and food webs. We're starting some very early American materials in social studies, but I think I may backtrack to some explorers first.

Ben is following where we left off last year with Saxon Math and Spectrum Phonics. Since he was already doing 2nd grade materials at the end of K, we just ended wherever and picked it back up. We're using readers from my grandma's classroom still and he still keeps his journal too. For science, he's learning about bean seeds and plants and for social studies, it's all about the American flag. We're going to start a literature lapbook as well, on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!

I'm kind of liking the unit study way right now. I ordered or downloaded single units, then we can pick the next one depending what seems to fit best, even integrating the different subjects.

My Pinterest Food Addiciton

2011-08-25T11:30:00.005-05:00

Pinterest might just be the downfall of any diet I might ever want to embark on.

Just a short perusal leads to so many recipes I must try, most of which feature things that probably aren't all that good for you buy taste amazing.

F&B and I made these amazing s'mores croissants the other day, found on Pinterest, but originally from Northern Cottage:

Seriously yummy croissants, we need to buy more ingredients for these, as a batch of 8 didn't exactly last longer than the afternoon.

Also on my list of "We have to try this, calories be damned!,

Apple Braided Bread from Eat Live Run:

Cake batter Rice Krispy treats from Gimme Some Oven:

Chocolate Coconut Bars from Martha Stewart (I've read that these taste like GS Samoa Cookies):

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle from Taste of Home:

Strawberry Shortcake on a Stick from Lemonade Makin' Mama:

Crockpot Baked Apples from Skinny Chef:

And this barely scratches the surface of my Pinterest food obsession, it doesn't even include the actual food yet!

At least F&B will be eating well.

Recycled Art - Tissue Box Car Wash, Retake!

2011-08-22T23:32:00.004-05:00

When we were still in Canada, Ben and I created a little car wash out of a tissue box. However, we were unable to bring it home, so I promised him we would make another one once we got home.

The bonus, I had my craft supplies on hand, so the result was a slightly more intricate car wash than the last version, thanks to some leftover felt, batting and my trusted hot glue gun.

The first take involved "garage doors", but it didn't take long before Ben decided we needed to remove these. They didn't really stay up during play.

Once removed, the car wash was perfect for play. The top hosted a sign made from scrapbook paper and mod podge, though I think it needs one more coat. The car wash is most aptly named "Ben's Car Wash". Scrap felt makes the ribbons that hang from the ceiling to push the car through.

Inside, paper towel rolls are cut to fit and covered in some extra batting I had laying around (it's hot glued in place). The rollers don't move, so they are offset slightly larger than your average Matchbox car. More scrap felt makes brushes for the entrance.

The upside down view shows the layout and some extra bits of hot glue that I wasn't all that careful with. I opted for staples to attach the felt and hot glue for the rollers. At 6, Ben is careful enough to not mess around with the staples, but I may add a bead of glue at the edges, just in case.

And one very happy boy with his little car wash, who also got to take a trip through the real car wash to wash the CrV. I think it made his day.

VeggieTales - The Princess & The Popstar Review

2011-08-21T12:00:00.001-05:00

When we got home from our Canada vacation, we found a great surprise waiting in our mailbox from the fun folks at Big Idea (otherwise known as the minds behind VeggieTales)--a sneak preview copy of the newest VeggieTales movie The Princess & The Popstar!

We're all pretty big VeggieTale fans, but Faith was especially excited for a girl themed Veggie story, and the Princess & the Pop Star did not disappoint.

As the cover states, the theme is a lesson in being yourself. In a play on the Prince & the Pauper, Princess Poppyseed, a farm girl, and Vanna Banana, a pop star, have a chance meeting where they discover that they look alike. Princess Poppyseed dreams of a life more glamorous than her family's farm while Vanna Banana dreams of a life less lonesome than her famous calling. The girls switch places with each other, only to discover that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. The life they already led is the life God wants them to lead and the one they were designed for.

F&B both really liked the episode, as did their sweet friend Abbey who got to preview it with them early. They were, as usual, giggling their way through the silly song in the middle; this time, it's "Astonishing Wigs", a bit of a fashion history.

The Big Idea people have also offered us a second copy of The Princess & The Pop Star to give away to one of our readers.

Leave me a comment telling me your favorite VeggieTales episode (mine has always been Rack, Shack & Benny) and make sure I have a way to contact you. For an extra entry or two, follow VeggieTales on Twitter and/or fan them on Facebook! The contest runs for a week and I will draw an entry next Sunday via Random.Org.

One Year of Ben ...

2011-08-02T10:00:00.001-05:00

Mr. Ben turns 6 in a week and I was looking through pictures of him as a baby.

I decided I needed a little something for me, so put together a "One Year of Ben" mini album.

{Click to enlarge, not sure why I cannot resize!}

The cover holds his hospital picture (which never looked like him and I don't like it all that much, which is why I'm not adding a picture of it). I might have to print a better one from regular camera shots and fix it with a picture that looks like my boy!

Then, the inside holds is professional photo from each month of his first year--one month through 12 months. I had his picture taken every month on the 8th.

I really love this, and it was much more fun to make than unpacking and organizing tonight! I cannot believe my baby is going to be 6!!!

Recycled Art - Tissue Box Car Wash

2011-07-26T23:00:00.002-05:00

This one isn't quite as fancy as some of Faith's Littlest Pet Shop tissue box creations, but I'm at my parents' house and my craft supplies are in Dallas.

Since we are heading home on Wednesday, I decided to make this one as a template to get an idea how to make it and promised Ben that we'll make one he can keep in Dallas (and I have Cars2 tissue boxes at home!).

That said, it's fairly impressive for no supplies at all!

The front view, with the cars coming out of the hanging carwash thingies (cut from a spare napkin, I'll use scrap felt on the next one). Ben found some cars that needed washing and some workers for the wash.

Back view or car entrance, with paper towel roll "rollers" for the cars to go through. Final version may feature some paint or a bit of fuzzy cloth to make the rollers feel like rollers, but this is still template version!

And Mr Ben himself hamming it up, he found a plastic pen thingie to use as a pretend hose. One last note, final version must feature some sort of string/yarn to be a hose.

Apparently, there's no need to buy the boy birthday gifts, cardboard is enough!

Packing the Perfect Kids' Travel Bag

2011-07-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

As mentioned before, we are in Canada for our annual summer visit to see my mom and dad. Although we've driven the last few years, this year, it's back to the plane trip. And with a plane trip comes packing a small travel bag per kid, that they have to be able to carry.

So, what goes in the perfect travel bag? Faith offered to lend me hers to illustrate:

A new book! She actually had a couple this trip, Sophie the Awesome is just one of them. Ben is loving the Sid Hoff books lately, so he had a few of those

Lacing cards - We bought ours at Michael's for $1, Ben has a boyish set too. They are quiet, non-messy, and easy to do, even when on a plane

Magnet dolls or books - Faith has princess ones that fit in a tin, Ben has a book style one with vehicles. Again, quiet and non-messy are the selling points and it's hard to loose pieces that stick to the surface

Word searches, crossword puzzles or mazes - Coloring books don't keep F&B busy as long as these do, so we usually have one or two in the bag.

Mad Libs - Faith loves these, and Ben can play along too, as long as you describe the kinds of words your looking for.

Wood & fabric paper dolls - I bought this from Discovery Toys when Faith was about 2 and it is our favorite travel toy of all times. Over the years, I've added extra fabric scraps to it to make new outfits, but Faith could design costumes for ages.

These are packed into rolling hand carries that they can manage on their own, because I don't need more things to carry in my own bag. I carry the snacks, and their iTouches, in case delays get long, but those are a last resort rather than first choice. Plus, if I can get them to find something fun to do, I can enjoy my book too.

Side note, other than books, all travel items stay in the travel bag till the next scheduled trip. They are much fresher that way.

New Rule - Vanilla Only

2011-07-06T13:28:00.004-05:00

We're in Canada, for our annual summer trip, and for F&B to spend some quality time with my parents. The kids are very excited to be here and have made a list of all the things they need to do with Nana & Dave.

Today, my dad decided to take them for a walk to the little corner store where we used to get popsicles when I was a kid. The store has put in a soft-serve ice cream machine, so he was going to surprise them with ice cream cones.

They left.

10 minutes later, they came back.

Faith came in first and was happy to tell me that there is an ice cream machine and it has chocolate, vanilla and swirl options. She picked swirl.

And then I saw Ben.

Ben picked chocolate. And if I didn't see the cone, I still would have known that as he had chocolate down his shirt, chocolate down his shorts, and chocolate all over his cheeks. Apparently, he didn't even get out of the store before the first disaster struck.

Since he was a mess, we put him out on the back deck to finish his cone and attempted to explain why you need to eat from all sides of the cone so that it doesn't drip all over everything. He seems to understand this.

And then, then he decides to lean over and take a bite from the top. And his bangs fall forward, right into the ice cream.

And he lifts his head up and the ice cream drips from his bangs into his eyelashes, where he blinks due to the blobs of chocolate in his line of vision.

I wipe him down, I put a cleaner on his clothes, I attempt to get the mess out of his now stiff & sticky bangs, then send him in the pool to clean off a little bit better. And this is only Day 1 of our trip.

New rule - Vanilla only. And maybe a dish instead of a cone.

Simple Puppets

2011-07-05T14:00:00.003-05:00

I found these puppet kits at Joann's the other day. For $1, they included all the felt pieces (with holes for stitching already punched), googly eyes, and string with shoelace like tips for easy stitching.

It was the perfect first sewing project for Ben, no needles required, but same technique. He got right to work on making his alligator!

The string was long enough to whip stitch the outside instead of a simple in and out stitch. Ben got the hang of it pretty quickly.

I was surprised how much he enjoyed making it!

Little bit of hot glue to attatch the eyes and teeth (my job) and voila! An alligator puppet.

For the first puppet show, our alligator learned to wink.

I had to promise to buy a few more kits for him and help him make a puppet theater next.

BlogHer Book Club, or What I've been reading lately

2011-07-03T21:21:00.001-05:00

I have briefly mentioned this in a few other posts, but I've been really excited to be able to join the BlogHer Book Club! It's a chance to receive and review some great books and check out others in genres that I typically wouldn't pick.

Since starting a couple of months ago, I've read and reviewed six books. Technically, I've read and reviewed eight, but two are still waiting to publish, and I'm finishing up review number nine in the next day or two.

My List, so far (the links will take you to my BlogHer reviews):

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok - By far, this is the best book I've read in the review series, and I can't stop recommending it, to the point that it's on the must-read list on a forum I'm on and I've passed my copy to multiple friends. If you're only going to pick one from my list, this is definitely the one! (And I just realized that the author commented on my review, which is extra wonderful.)

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks - This was the first book I got to review and I found it to be a great historical fiction novel. It is the story of a Puritan girl and a Native American boy, in 1660 Martha's Vineyard. She is a minister's daughter and he is the first Native American to attend Harvard (he was actually a real person, while she is a fictional creation).

A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz - I actually thought this one could be called "Everything I need to know, I learned from Jane Austen". It wasn't a book I would have typically picked up, but it's an interesting non-fiction piece. It was accompanied by a large tome of Jane Austen novels, which I still haven't delved into quite yet (while review book wasn't bad, I'm just not a Jane Austen fan).

Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan - The long awaited sequel to Waiting to Exhale! I enjoyed this one too, although the road to get to happy is full of a whole lot of sad, life changing events. I'm not 100% sure everyone got to happy by the end.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - It's kind of Twilight for grown ups, and not my first pick of genres. I tried to have an open mind and it was better than I anticipated. I do enjoy a good mystery and there is one within the novel. If you liked Twilight, you might very well like A Discovery of Witches too.

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen - Definitely not something I would have discovered on my own, it's more teen fiction than anything else. Dessen is a good writer and touches on universal coming of age topics, I definitely see why she's a popular writer for teens.

Khan is Coming, Part 2!

2011-06-29T21:15:00.004-05:00

Yes, Genghis Khan is still coming to Dallas!

Although I promised that we would be visiting the exhibit right after the last post, time has gotten away from me. However, F&B have a swim meet in Irving this coming Saturday. So since we're already going to be in Irving, we are going to take in the Genghis Khan exhibit at the Irving Arts Center this Saturday.

Since I wasn't sure how long we might have, we decided to each figure out what the one thing we wanted to see was

My Egypt-loving girl was thrilled to find out there was a whole new category of mummies to look at! The Khan exhibit mummy is a Mongolian noble woman, discovered in a cave in the Western Gobi Desert. Silk brocade robes, pearl earrings and other artifacts are displayed alongside the mummified remains of the The Princess Giant. Just perfect for Miss Faith

Mr. Ben was eyeing the bow and arrows, typical little boy! From the website, we discovered Genghis Khan’s powerful army used innovative siege warfare tactics to conquer walled cities. There is a full-scale replica of a traction trebuchet and a large siege crossbow.

As for me, I think this golden Buddha is so pretty! I'm looking forward to the artifacts--gold jewelry, ceramics, coins, seals, instruments and clothing. I always find those kinds of things fascinating (hoping F&B will let me read all the exhibit info too)!

The amazing Genghis Khan exhibit is hosted by the Irving Arts Center from June 1 through September 30, 2011. Besides the exhibit, the Art Center is hosting special events, including Family Khan Days.

This post is sponsored by the Irving Arts Center, host of the Genghis Khan Exhibit. I was provided with tickets to the exhibit and compensation for my time. All opinions expressed are my own.

Anything Muffins

2011-06-26T13:39:00.004-05:00

For swim team yesterday, I decided it was time for a batch of anything muffins!

This time, the anything muffins were chocolate chip for the kids, but they were seriously yummy. I should have doubled the recipe!

The Perfect Anything Muffin begins with my mom's base muffin recipe:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil (I used canola)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together till smooth.
Add whatever fruit you want and blend in. Spoon into cupcake lined muffin tins.
Bake at 350 about 20-25 minutes until done.
Makes 12 large muffins.

Then you add in your choice of filler ingredients. This time, it was about a half a bag of milk chocolate chips. We've done all sorts of fruit fillers, berries, pineapple, raisins. We've done yummies like chocolate chips, coconut and butterscotch chips. We've done carrots and zucchini. If it can go in a muffin, it can be in an anything-muffin!

Anything muffins are also a perfect kid activity. F&B love to make them and we've even made mix and match mini muffins!

Set out a tray, pick your own fillers and add the muffin batter!

Our original make-your-own mini muffins were a BentoLunch post and featured in Disney's Family Fun magazine.

The Joys of Pool Ownership

2011-06-23T22:00:00.001-05:00

When we bought this house 5 years ago, the one thing I wanted was a pool in the yard.

I knew it would involve money and upkeep, but I had no idea what that upkeep would involve.

There were the ducks that came for a swim.

There was the year, on my birthday no less, that there was a freaking *mouse* sitting on the hose to the cleaner and I had to get the neighbor's son in law to get it out for me.

There was the snake my dad found in the filter basket.

There's the big scary spiders.

There are bunnies who can't swim, including one on the day of Faith's first grade sleepover (so thankful I found that before I had 8 little girls here).

And then there's this ...

It's a crawdad. At the bottom of my freaking pool. Tonight. And my husband isn't here.

I cannot find the skimmer and I can't look back by the pool equipment because there is a little skeleton of some sort near the pump, so I'm afraid to go in that area.

The rake is not long enough, the neighbor does not have anything longer than a rake, so the crawdad stays for now.

Faith wants to know if she can keep him for a pet.

I'm locking the door in case he manages to get out of the pool. Just in case.

Meal Planning Monday, Week of June 20

2011-06-20T21:02:00.000-05:00

We mostly stayed with last week's plan, other than a night where we all said forget it and just ate sandwiches. Lots of swim team time is doing that to us.

This week, we are having:

Sunday - Pizza casserole

Monday - Rice with peas and leftover rotisserie chicken

Tuesday - Chicken parmesan, pasta

Wednesday - Out to lunch, sandwiches or snacks

Thursday - Citrus Chicken Stir Fry with rice and veggies, that we skipped last week

Friday - Stuffed baked potatoes with turkey taco topping

For treats, not sure yet, we have some leftovers along with cheesecake I made on Sunday. Maybe brownies.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

F&B's Summer Reading Update

2011-06-18T11:50:00.004-05:00

F&B are loving their summer reading project. They are both up to close to 30 books by now and our paper chains in the kitchen are growing so long I'm going to have to loop them up to make a second row!

They turned in the first of their summer reading packets to Barnes & Nobles for their first books. Next up, we'll start working on the Borders one or the library one. Of course, the rule is no book can be counted twice!

From Barnes and Noble, Ben chose Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig (I love these books, so yay!) and Faith picked Nancy Drew & the Clue Crew Sleepover Sleuths. I'm hoping she likes it as it's a whole new series for her to enjoy.

As for the library, I'm loving not having to *buy* multiple books per weeK! Faith has discovered a series called Baby Mouse that she is addicted to, along with the usual Geronimo Stilton and My Weird School books. She also finished all the Judy Moody books, so decided to read the Stink ones too.

Ben is liking a series of pirate books called Pirate Pete and Pirate Joe, and the Bones series by David Adler. He also discovered that many of the Syd Hoff books are at his reading level, along with the Frog & Toad series. He trades off between reading to himself and reading with me.

As for me? I'm mostly reading book review books--Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan was the last one, not bad.

My review of A Jane Austen Education is posted on BlogHer right now. And, if you'd like to win a copy of what I read, BlogHer is giving away the book and the accompanying Jane Austen Complete Novels here.

Khan is Coming!

2011-06-15T19:00:00.001-05:00

Yes, the Genghis Khan is coming to Dallas!

Well, maybe not *the* Genghis Khan, since he's been dead for around 800 years, but the amazing Genghis Khan exhibit is coming to the Irving Arts Center from June 1 through September 30, 2011. It features the largest collection of artifacts from Khan's reign, ever shown in a single event.

From the Irving Arts Center:

The story of Genghis Khan the conqueror, the myth and the man is told through a stunning and highly interactive world-tour exhibition. Genghis Khan: The Exhibition follows the life of a poor, illiterate child as he becomes one of the world’s greatest conquerors and leaves a lasting imprint on modern-day culture. More than 200 artifacts including gold jewelry, weaponry, silk robes, currency, tomb treasures and more are displayed alongside video-screens, hands-on activity stations and role-playing kiosks to create an educational and historical experience for visitors of all ages.

As a homeschooling mom, I couldn't let this opportunity pass. I went through our materials (and thanked my lucky stars that Faith has been working on some Middle Ages materials this year) and browsed Irving Art Center's Educator's Page for some study guides as we began to put together a mini-unit on Khan, culminating with a trip to the exhibit.

For Faith, I brought out two of our books--Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages book and Usborne World History: Medieval World. In SotW, we reread the chapter on Genghis Khan (The Mongols Devastate the East) and worked on the accompanying map to understand where we were in the world. We covered the pages on the Mongols in Usborne as well; the illustrations helped explain the whats and wheres of the khans. I scanned the Genghis Khan coloring pages from SotW so both kids had one to color and we utilized the vocabulary sheets from Irving Arts Center to prepare for understanding the exhibit. I plan to print the Quest for Knowledge before we actually head to the exhibit and work through some of it with Faith.

Faith and I also loved the Keen on Khan facts on the Arts Center website. Our favorite reason to be keen on Khan? You might be related! Nearly .5 percent of the world’s male population can trace their heritage back to Genghis Khan’s family. That’s nearly 16 million men!

For Ben, he tagged along a bit with Faith on the books and coloring pages, but lost interest in the heavy facts. Instead, I headed over to Enchanted Learning to find some more age appropriate China information for him. He did a simpler mapping sheet and more basic vocabulary, along with a booklet about pandas (he's in kindergarten, it's still China-related!).

Next week, we plan to head to Irving Arts Center to check out the exhibit and finish up a bit more of our mini-Khan unit. We're also hoping to take in one of the Genghis Khan special events, especially the Family Khan Days. F&B love a good art project! Their summer camps look amazing too, definitely something to consider.

This post is sponsored by the Irving Arts Center, host of the Genghis Khan Exhibit. I was provided with tickets to the exhibit and compensation for my time. All opinions expressed are my own.

Chocolate Cheesecake Strawberries

2011-06-14T22:30:00.003-05:00

I needed a little thank you gift for a friend this week and was trying to think of something a little bit different than my usual baking staples. I browsed all my bookmarks and finally settled on combining a few of them into this:

They are cheesecake stuffed strawberries, drizzled with a chocolate glaze!

We made a few extras to sample at home and they are absolutely amazing. Granted, we didn't even let them set before sampling, but they did set well.

To make:

Hull a dozen strawberries with a small sharp knife.

Using a baby teaspoon, lightly scrape the insides to make a nice hole for the cheesecake, but do not cut through the sides.

Blend 1/2 brick of softened cream cheese, 1/2 container of whipped topping, 1/4 cup of sugar, and a splash of vanilla, until mixed well (I used a hand mixer).

Using the very small spoon, slowly scoop cheesecake into each strawberry till just filled.

Set in the fridge for at least 2 hours (I set mine overnight to be safe, since the strawberries were the "crust").

After cheesecake is set, melt a little chocolate to drizzle over the tops of the strawberries. Chill to set chocolate.

***My note - Next time, I may try dipping the bottoms of the strawberries in chocolate first, to firm up the base. I thought of this *after* I had already filled them with cream cheese, so no such attempt could be made this time.

I also borrowed the egg carton presentation idea from another bookmark of mine suggesting using it to gift mini-muffins. It showed options for decoration it in scrapbook paper, which I still do want to try sometime. This time was all about making sure the strawberries worked.

Meal Planning Monday, A New Week

2011-06-13T09:00:00.001-05:00

We did very well sticking to last week's plan, then I headed out of town for three days for a writing trip, so Wed, Thurs, Fri, I was wined & dined in Florida. Saturday night, I took the kiddos on a special date night.

This week, the kids have swim team every morning and TKD every evening but Wednesday, so it's time to make good use of my freezer stash.

This week, we are having:

Sunday - Creamy Ranch Pork Chops, Maple Carrots, Cheesy Zucchini Squares (F&B's pick)

Monday - Quiche from my freezer stash (since we didn't have it last week), fresh rolls, fruits

Tuesday - Vegetarian Burgers & Chicken Patties for a blog post review

Wednesday - Turkey Teriyaki Meatloaf, Rice, Veggies

Thursday - Stuffed Baked Potatoes, toppings are questionable until I see leftovers

Friday - Citrus Chicken Stir Fry with rice and veggies (another Faith request)

For treats, I've already made a loaf of Blueberry-Banana Bread and a dozen Sweet Potato Cupcakes.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

Date Night with F&B

2011-06-11T23:30:00.002-05:00

Since I've been in Florida for the last few days (and in the process missed my children's very first swim meet ever), I decided to make it up to the kiddos by taking them for a Mommy-Faithie-Ben date night.

After church, we headed out for pizza, where everyone was happy that their favorite pizzas were on the menu, while I lamented the absolutely ridiculous trend of wearing one's pajamas in public. It may not be a fancy restaurant, but it has chairs, tables, and you do sit down to eat, you should wear pants. Pants are one of those things that are never really a bad idea, unless you're at the beach. (My friend Ali sent me this hilarious flow chart on whether or not you are wearing pants, as I was lamenting the lack of pants via Facebook. I love it!)

But I digress.

After pizza, I took the munchkins to Half Price Books, where we found all sorts of delightful books for $1. I am now the proud owner of M Is For Maple: A Canadian Alphabett; Don't Know Much About George Washington; and The Everything Kids' Gross Cookbook.

In a slight lapse of judgment on my part, Ben chose Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, then spent the next while laughing hysterically at the title. In a slightly greater lapse of judgment on my part, Faith chose a Guinness Book of World Records for Kids. I now know more bizarre facts than I ever needed to.

The way home yielded an impromptu singalong to the soundtrack from Hairspray, always entertaining, since it's one of Faith's favorite movies. It also provided a nice break from the endless world record facts.

Any other awesome ideas for date nights with the kids? Last week, we did pizza, popcorn and movie night at home, and I promised them we'd try to do a Friday night RoughRiders game this summer.

Our Summer Bucket List - The First 10 Items

2011-06-09T10:00:00.007-05:00

F&B and I have been creating a list of the things we want to do, or redo, this summer.

1. Make sidewalk chalk paint again:

2. Make monster face bookmarks:

3. Create some thumb, hand and foot print art and write a story to go with it:

4. Make cupcake magnet cards:

5. Make paper bowl jelly fish to decorate the kitchen:

6. Learn simple sewing skills and make hedgehogs:

7. Experiment with more popsicle flavors:

8. Work our way through the Scrap Kins Build-it Book to make more recycled art (we reviewed it for MomTrends in April):

9. Participate in several summer reading programs, with the added rule that each book can only be used once, along with building our own reading chain of books:

10. Make silly band soaps, or snowglobe soaps (mostly, I want to try making soap):

More to come, I'm sure, as we keep cataloging the ideas we find on Pinterest!

Follow the pictures or the links to find full directions for all projects on their original sites.

Wordless Wednesday - Belly Dance

2011-06-08T10:00:00.002-05:00

(Several years ago, when we were in Turkey, I bought Faith a belly dance costume. She was going on 5 and the smallest size was still too big on her. While looking for something else, I found the costume in my drawer and she is loving it.)

Math Blaster Site Review & Giveaway

2011-06-07T15:35:00.003-05:00

We received an email a couple of weeks ago from Knowledge Adventure, asking if we had tried their Math Blaster website and, if not, would we like to? Faith and I are always up for fun new activities for school, so we said yes.

Right now, she is almost finished with Saxon 5/4 at the end of third grade, so our plan is to start 6/5 in the fall. She has a good solid basis in her math facts and concepts, but she has a tendency to get bored with math easily. My hope was that this site might catch her eye and we could let it take the place of some of her other math drills.

What is Math Blaster?

Math Blaster is futuristic-themed online game, with an emphasis on math skills without being boring. The site was created by Knowledge Adventure (the same folks who produce the JumpStart games). New players become recruits at Blaster Academy. By playing games (and in the process, reviewing math concepts), recruits advance through the ranks to join the Intergalactic Space Patrol for even more adventures, and more math, of course!

Bolt Crusher game, got to save the little robots from being crushed!

Math Blaster Thoughts:

I love that the games are actually interesting to Faith! We've tried out so many learning games where the games themselves are actually boring, so the novelty doesn't last all that long. She is actually willing to play on her own, not only when I suggest her playing it. Her favorites are Alien Wrangler (think riding a mechanical bull, but it's an alien, and the more facts you solve, the longer you stay on), Bolt Crusher (a fraction game pairing fraction batteries with robots to solve the equations), and the Monster Morph Lab! Faith explained to me that the Monster Morph lab allows you to collect the DNA components of new monsters and morph them together in your lab to actually make these aliens. It's like being your very own mad scientist!

Alien Wrangler! And you thought mechanical bulls were tough.

I also love the ability to select levels of math within the games. While the games are geared more towards Faith's age, the ability to select easier facts means that Ben can play some of the games too. It sometimes seems that her schoolwork holds more interesting activities, by virtue of the fact that she's almost 9 and can read & write well.

Ben spends a lot of time wanting to try her activities, so he was thrilled to be able to play some of the games too. Even the ones where he can't type quickly enough to answer, he can do the math while Faith or I do the typing for him. His current favorite is a racing gameAnd added Ben bonus is that he is also able to use Jumpstart.com with our account, so there are extra games at his level too. His current favorite game is Hyperblast, a racing game where different aliens stop you to ask math questions before you proceed.

Faith's very favorite Morph Lab part, she loves making the new creatures.

Faith also loves the control panel, where you get to design your character, select the outfits, and even create an about me page. Users can also set up a BFF list of other friends who play Math Blaster, which Faith cannot wait to try out!

More information:

A basic membership is free at MathBlaster.com.
An upgraded membership is available for purchase on a monthly, yearly or lifetime basis, and includes access to Jumpstart.com and 4 downloadable Jumpstart games.

Even better, would you like to win a 3 month paid membership trial to try out MathBlaster for your kids? Leave me a comment below telling me why and I will select a winner via Random.org on 6/15/11. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.

Disclosure: I was provided with a membership good for Math Blaster and Knowledge Adventure at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.

Meal Planning Monday, Week ???

2011-06-06T09:00:00.002-05:00

I've been slacking a wee bit on my meal planning. We have been eating at home, but I haven't been doing a great planning it in advance. I need to get back on that bandwagon.

Since I've got plans later this week, I figured I would plan from last week up till Tuesday night as a start.

Wednesday - Grilled sausage on buns, chips, pasta salad

Thursday - Faith's last night of Brownies, so out to eat to celebrate

Friday - Spaghetti with meat sauce (ground turkey), garlic bread

Saturday - Pizza, berries & cream for a treat, and movie night

Sunday - Leftovers since it was a pool day

Monday - Hamburgers in brown gravy, rice and veggies

Tuesday - Ham and cheese quiche, fresh rolls, fruit

And for dessert, I have a batch of chocolate-zucchini muffins.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

2011-06-02T23:30:00.009-05:00

Last night was F&B's last night of church classes for the school year. They take a summer break, then pick it back up in the fall. To celebrate, they each had a little class party. Ben's group was doing a BBQ with all the boys, so I was good to go on that one.

Faith's group was doing an in-class party and after making ice cream cone cupcakes for Ben last week, I had promised to make her something fun too.

The answer? Pink Lemonade Cupcakes!

These are lovely, yummy cupcakes, with just a hint of pink lemonade flavor, topped with vanilla icing (in pink, of course), and star-shaped sprinkles because her class is Stars.

There are two options for making these. 1.) You can make a lovely white cake mix of your very own. Or 2.) You can use a boxed white cake mix, especially when your intended audience is 8 and 9 year old girls who have palates that don't know the difference between painstakingly handcrafted cupcakes and using a mix, especially when you have to have 24 cupcakes at church in less than two hours.

The Non-Mix Way:
1 Cup Butter, softened
3 Cups Flour
1 3/4 Cups Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Cup Milk

The Mix Way:
1 Box White Cake Mix
3 Eggs
1 1/3 Cups Water
2 Tbsp Oil
***Check your box to be sure on this, this was the kind I had in my cupboard***

Either way, combine all ingredients along with 1/2 cup powdered pink lemonade mix (this must be the sweetened kind). Beat with mixer until smooth.

Using an ice cream scoop, place one scoop of batter into a muffin cup. If you haven't used ice cream scoops for batter, it is the best thing ever.

Bake per package directions if using a boxed base, or bake at 350 for about 15 minutes if using the from-scratch version.

If you want the batter pinker, you could throw in a drop of red food coloring or two. Mine seemed pink enough as is.

Ice with pretty swirly icing, top with sprinkles and serve!

Ten Fabulous Free Things to do in Dallas-Fort Worth

2011-05-31T12:00:00.001-05:00

Today, I'm taking part in C.R.A.F.T.'s travel edition--creating really awesome free trips! The challenge? Find 10 fun, fabulous and free things to do in your city.

Welcome to Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas!
Home of cowboys, The Cowboys, country music and really great barbecue.

I've lived here since 1997. I moved here for grad school and to be closer to my now-husband, and, 14 years later, we're still here. Despite the fact that Dallas is often thought of as a place to go shopping, eat out, and not a whole lot of other things, there's quite a bit to do. Both zoos are amazing, as is the Dallas World Aquarium. The State Fair is here for 3 weeks every September, and we absolutely love the Dallas Summer Musicals series.

However, the goal today is fabulous and *free*, so without further ado, my favorite free things to do in Dallas!

1. Trammel and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art - This has long been one of my favorite things to do in Dallas--a free private collection of Asian Art with changing exhibits.

2. Dallas Farmer's Market - A huge, local farmer's market, located downtown and open almost every day of the year.

3. Walking and biking at Katy Trail or White Rock Lake - Katy Trail is a walking/bike path that runs along an old railroad route, while White Rock Lake a great city lake with hiking trails and fishing.

4. Thanksgiving Square - A sanctuary to give thanks, with a chapel, beautiful grounds and a museum.

5. Grafitti Art in Deep Ellum - We love Deep Ellum for pictures! The graffiti murals/art are amazing to look at and make an awesome photo backdrop.

6. Irving Arts Center - The museum itself is a Smithsonian affiliate and many exhibitions are free. We're a very excited about the (pay-for) Genghis Khan exhibit coming up!

7. Farmer's Branch Historical Park - Several historic buildings are housed in this park, including a school, church and several homes from different time periods.

8. Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth) - This museum consists of a smaller collection of international art, focused on quality instead of quantity, while the building itself is amazing.

9. Amon Carter Museum (Fort Worth) - A larger collection of American art, located in Fort Worth, with some great exhibitions planned for the museum's 50th anniversary.
architecture.

10. Fort Worth Stockyards & Cattle Drive - The quintessential Texas experience, there is still a cattle drive twice a day!

Honorable Mention - Fort Worth Botanical Gardens
- It's not quite free, but at $1/person admission, it's definitely frugal, and very pretty to walk around or have a picnic.

Sunny Side Up Show Chica Puppet, in progress

2011-05-27T22:20:00.006-05:00

A friend of mine was mentioning on Facebook that she was unable to find a Chica puppet for her little girl, and that there isn't merchandise from the Sunny Side Up Show.

Since I always need a new project, I googled what the Sunny Side Up Show is, what Chica is, and realized, "Hey, that's not as hard as I thought it would be." So off Mr. Ben and I went to the store to get felt, and I managed to sketch out a workable pattern.

It still needs to be sew together, but I'm thinking it is coming along fairly well. The color is somewhere between both pictures, they are taken with my iPhone so I could upload to Facebook.

Cut, pinned, ready to sew (iPhone pic)

Template and first attempt, the body is too long (iPhone pic)

This is what Chica looks like, I kind of like the saying

I was thinking of adding batting to the wings/head, but wondering if that might make it too heavy ...

Homemade Rocket Pops

2011-05-24T21:38:00.006-05:00

The kids are a big fan of the popsicle and we've experimented a lot with different flavors--these honeydew-kiwi ones are a lovely, all-natural bright green, for example. I've also espoused the idea of popsicles for breakfast, always an option when you make your own with real fruit.

Since we're good on those options, today, it was time to make trickier popsicles, our own rocket pops!

Ours are all-natural, made with strawberries, blueberries and vanilla yogurt, so again, these have breakfast possibilities!

To make, you'll need berries, yogurt, popsicle molds, and a melon baller. Well, you really don't *need* the melon baller, but it is so much easier to layer the popsicles than with a regular spoon.

My berries were frozen, so I brought each flavor to a boil (separate pots), then drained and pureed them with my mini-chopper.

From there, I used a melon ball scoop of strawberry puree, wiping up any extra that stuck to the edges. That was followed by a melon ball scoop and a half of vanilla yogurt (again, wipe the inside edges if it drips), then a scoop of blueberries, up till the top. Add the popsicle sticks, chill and serve!

Perfect layering, yummy and healthy!

Nutella Cookies

2011-05-23T22:27:00.003-05:00

Some things are just too awesome not to share. While flipping through Pinterest last week, I found and bookmarked a link for Nutella cookies because everything is better with Nutella.

And amazingly enough, I had a half jar or so of Nutella left, so Nutella cookies it is!

The cookies themselves are more cake-y than cookie in texture, and I think I skimped on the Nutella too much. Faith loved them, they aren't too sweet, which is her preference.

4-Ingredient Nutella Cookie Recipe (adapted from Tasty Kitchen)
3/4 cup Nutella
1/2 cup Sugar
1 cup Flour
2 Eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Blend all ingedients together well.
Form into 1″ balls, place on a cookie sheet.
Bake 7-8 minutes or until set. Cool.

The original recipe called for 1 cup Nutella and 1 egg. I didn't have enough Nutella, so added an extra egg and a smidge more flour to get the texture right.

New plan = buying more Nutella to try again!

TKD Tournament Time!

2011-05-22T20:50:00.003-05:00

Yes, again! This time, we were off to East Texas, so we were able to get up on Saturday morning and leave from home. It's a lot easier than having to head up the day before, even if it was a bit earlier than any of us want to be awake.

When all was said and done, Miss Faith came home with two first place trophies, one in patterns, one in sparring, for her division, and Mr. Ben took second and second in his (although my slightly unbiased mommy vision thinks he should have had first in patterns, but that's another story).

And videos of my little fighters!

Faith winning her 1st place match:

And one of Ben's earlier matches:

Five Fabulous Bloggers

2011-05-18T21:30:00.001-05:00

I had the opportunity to pick five bloggers I find fabulous and write a post on it.

Now, most of the time, when you read these lists, you read the same bloggers over and over again--the Pioneer Woman, Dooce, Kelle Hampton, etc. All of these are awesome blogs, and yes, I do read them, but there are so many fabulous blogs out there that don't have the big names behind them but are still absolutely awesome to read.

Read more ...

Pasta Personality and Recipes ...

2011-05-18T13:18:00.003-05:00

Do you have a pasta personality? Apparently, everyone does. I happen to be spaghetti and meatballs, which is kind of interesting, considering I'm a much bigger fan of pasta and cream sauce!

Read more and find my recipe ...

Meal Planning Monday, Week 12

2011-05-16T23:30:00.000-05:00

Last week, we mixed up our freezer meals with some other simple favorites. We ended up with tortellini in a tomato cream sauce, grilled chicken burgers with a pasta salad, and a leftover night.

This week, we have a TKD tournament on Saturday, so I'm only planning on 5 weekday meals. I'll be surprised if we have dinner at home on Saturday night, so it seemed easier to plan for 5.

In no special order, we are having:

Meal 1 - Turkey Tacos, Albertson's had ground turkey on for $1/lb two weeks ago and I bought 20 lbs to use in lieu of ground beef.

Meal 2 - Gnocchi in cream sauce, with garlic bread, unless I make the mac&cheese style gnocchi a friend linked to on her FB page.

Meal 3 - Stuffed baked potatoes. I have quite a few potatoes in the pantry, so the freezer stash can stay in the freezer and I'll make a fresh batch for one night. Since we already had tacos, thinking of topping these with roast beef and gravy.

Meal 4 - Soup and sandwich night. I could really go for a yummy soup right now, debating between lentil, beef barley and a few others. I have ground sausage in the freezer, so maybe sausage pinwheel sandwiches.

Meal 5 - Turkey Pot Pie. This is from the freezer stash, Faith asked for it.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

Summer Reading Garland

2011-05-15T21:47:00.007-05:00

Since we are well on our way into our summer reading books, I wanted a way to keep track of them.

Obviously, we'll do several summer reading programs, but those sheets get turned in when the kids claim their prizes. And a notebook log just isn't a whole lot of fun.

We did a bit of thinking, a bit of cutting and organizing, and came up with Summer Reading Garland. OK, these are pretty much paper chains, but they are really cute. Each link has a title of one of the books the kids have read and they can keep adding on to the bottom.

We put our summer reading station on the staircase in the breakfast room. That way, I can store the paper chain links, marker and stapler on the stairwell edge and the chains are hanging from our display rod. The bamboo cup to hold all the pieces was from the Dollar Tree and perfect to keep it organized. (If you're wondering about the display rod, it's a wrought iron curtain rod from Target that I installed to hang artwork, the original post is here.)

Ben agree to help me out and showed off his first 11 links of his chain. His is blue and green, Faith's is peach and lavender. If you look closely, I do have to help him write the names on the links. He doesn't usually write that small or without lines.

The kids are now in a serious competition for who has the most links on their chain. I haven't told them yet that there really is no prize for the winner.

Interested in our list of summer reading programs (and other fabulous free/frugal summer fun)? It's all in this post.

Apricot-Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

2011-05-13T12:04:00.005-05:00

While Blogger was down yesterday, F&B and I headed to the kitchen to do a wee bit of baking and ended up making homemade granola bars. I rave about these on my bento blog all the time, but have never shared them here.

These might be the best granola bar recipe I've tried. They don't contain peanut butter at all (yay, Faith hates PB) and there is no added sugar, they are sweetened with honey and whatever filler you choose to use. We opted for dried apricots and chocolate chips this time. In the past, we've used dried apples and cinnamon, dried blueberries and strawberries, dried cherries and chocolate chips, probably some other combos I can't think of.

Homemade Granola Bars:
3 1/4 cups rolled Oats (or combination of oats and other whole grains)
3/4 cups Whole Wheat flour (or all-purpose)
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 T. Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
1/2 cup honey, at least
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups "Stuff" (I used about a cup or so of chopped dried apricots and a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 325.
In a large mixing bowl combine oats, flour, baking soda, and any spices you want to use.
In a separate bowl, combine vanilla, oil, and honey.
Pour wet mix into dry and stir to combine.
Stir in the "stuff" you want to use.
Spray an edged cookie sheet or pan with cooking spray and press VERY firmly into cookie sheet. (I used a 7x11 pan that was perfect for this).
Bake at 325 for 18-20 minutes until top is turning golden brown.
Remove from oven and firmly press down bars again with a spatula or similar, and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Cut into bars--they are hard to cut if you allow it to completely cool.
Allow to finish cooling completely before removing from pan.

Two notes:
1. Press the bars firmly down in the pan with the flat edge of a spatula before baking. Do this again after baking, and once more before you cut it. If they aren't packed down, they will crumble.
2. Regarding the honey, start with the 1/2 cup. If the mixture seems too crumbly, keep adding honey by the teaspoon. The amount needed seems to depend on the fillings. The chocolate chips melt a bit, which seems to require less honey, whereas the apple-cinnamon ones seemed to require more, based on the dryness of the cinnamon.

Fabulous Free and Frugal Summer Fun

2011-05-11T00:05:00.002-05:00

I'm in an alliterative mood, as one can likely tell by the post title.

Slowly but surely, I've been building our summer list of things to do. F&B will still take taekwondo 4 nights per week and they are also doing summer swim team through the local parks and rec department. That's 5 mornings per week. And yes, my mission is to exhaust them.

We also have a membership to the smaller local science museum, and are getting one for the Dallas Zoo. A friend sent us a set of passes to the big science museum downtown, including the exhibits, planetarium, and Imax, and we have a free set of passes to Six Flags from the school year reading program

All that said, I'm still compiling my list of free or low-cost items to fill the days. So far, I have:

Cinemark Summer Movie Clubhouse listings ($1 per show or all 10 for $5 in advance)

Studio Movie Grill ($1/kid, $2/grown up for kid movies at 11am on each weekday)

Apparently, Regal Cinemas and AMC have these as well, but the close theaters to us are all Cinemark.

Kids Bowl Free (2 free games, per day, all summer)

Borders Summer Reading Program (free):
Read 10 books, get 1 free

Barnes & Noble Summer Reading (free):
Read 8 books, get 1 free

Half Price Books Summer Reading (free):
Read 15 min/day in June/July, get a $5 gift card

Lowes Build & Grow (free):
Building projects 2nd and 4th Saturdays, not just in the summertime!

Home Depot Kids Workshops (free):
Building projects 1st Saturday, not just in the summertime!

Michael's Stores Make & Take Crafts:
These vary, so look for things labeled "The Knack" on the store calendar.

All these should be available anywhere. Free things to do in Dallas itself is coming soon in another post!

Something for me

2011-05-10T00:08:00.003-05:00

Typically, most of my favorite crafty items end up being gifts for someone (ie. the Mother's Day muffin tin, several pretty pails I've made, frames, etc).

This time, I finally made a little something simple for me. I fell in love with the colors of the paper and decided I wanted it as a frame for a spring-y pictures of F&B.

Still trying to decide what orientation I like better--wide or tall. I may just wait till I find the perfect picture and that could make the decision for me.

Tall frame?

Wide frame?

I don't know, it's rather simple, all things considered, but I just think it's so pretty with the color scheme.

Meal Planning Monday, Freezer Edition

2011-05-09T11:11:00.002-05:00

We took a small break from meal planning the week my parents were visiting, then again last week because we were on the go quite a bit.

But since the summer season is upon us, the kids are going to start having swim team in the mornings, 5 days, and TKD in the evenings, on 4 days. Needless to say, I've been building my freezer stash of meals so we'll be sure to eat at home quickly and easily. All my Easter leftovers were a great start to building up my stash again.

Even better, with freezer stashes, there's no prep, so I don't have to plan specific meals for specific days, we can just grab one and go.

Stacked up in my freezer, we have:

Meal 1 - Ham and Cheese Quiches - I have 3 of these, using leftover Easter ham, we'll serve with soup of some sort.

Meal 2 - Sour Cream Turkey Enchiladas - These are loosely based off this Food on the Table recipe, but I used leftover shredded Easter turkey in lieu of chicken, and I layered mine like a lasagna casserole instead of rolling individual enchiladas.

Meal 3 - Turkey Pot Pie - I have two of these, also with the leftover Easter turkey. They are just premade pie shells filled with the shredded leftover turkey mixed with gravy and a package of frozen veggies, then topped with a second pie shell.

Meal 4 - Shepherd's Pie - This is probably not real shepherd's pie, but I remember my mom making it and it's pretty yummy. Saute ground beef till cooked and mix with a can or two of alphabet vegetable soup. Pour it into a pie pan and spread leftover mashed potatoes over top.

Meal 5 - Beef Enchilada Casserole - This is a favorite of ours with red enchilada sauce and lots of cheese.

Meal 6 - Stuffed Baked Potatoes - These are more of a side since they require something else with them, but still, the work is done. They are doubled stuffed with a bit of cheese and bacon. We'll top with sour cream and probably grill some chicken on the side.

Meal 7 - Turkey Soup - I have 4 two-person containers of turkey soup, also from the leftover turkey. We'll have this along with burgers or sandwiches one night.

My current plan is to intersperse these with other easy favorites (citrus stir fry with the meat precooked in the crockpot, crockpot lasagna, spaghetti/tortelli/pasta dishes, etc).

As for desserts, I need to bake something, Faith mentioned lemon squares, which sounded good to me too.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

What My Children Are Reading - 5/7/11

2011-05-08T23:30:00.000-05:00

We're taking a small break from our Bluebonnet series of reads, mostly because I need to take F&B to the library.

After Easter week and all its miscellaneous Easter themed reads was over, F&B were mostly reading for fun this week.

In honor of Star Wars Day, Ben really enjoyed:

Operation: Huttlet (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) by Steele Fiipek
The New Padawan (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) by Eric Stevens

I truly have no idea what these were about. Shaun read them to him and I am just not that into Star Wars to find out for myself what they are about.

As for Faith, I still can't keep up with what she is reading (too many and all over the house), but she was telling me all about one book this week.

It's Raining Cupcakes by Lisa Schroeder - It did make her want to make cupcakes. Apparently, there are recipes in the book.

As for me, I'm dividing my reads between A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter by William Deresiewicz and Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell.

And, in case you are interested, my review of Girl in Translation is up on BlogHer now. That was my sitting-up-till-3am-to-finish novel.

Recycled Art - Wrapping Paper Roll Light Saber

2011-05-04T17:40:00.007-05:00

I have now learned that May the 4th is Star Wars Day.

I didn't get it at first--a blogging buddy had to explain how "May the Fourth Be With You". Then I got it. Ben, once I explained it to him, loved the idea.

So we've made Star Wars cookies (recipe here), a Star Wars themed bento, read a couple of Ben's Star Wars books, and we made a light saber!

It was another fun recycled project, with a wrapping paper tube, a sheet of tissue paper, a bit of extra tin foil and some tape. I rolled the tissue paper first, sealed it, then the tinfoil handle, then finally the thin band of tinfoil to hide the joining line (and hopefully prevent little fingers from unsealing the edges).

Ben is very excited to play with his "life saver". Faith is requesting one in pink. I'm thinking birthday party potential for Mr. Ben!

Mother's Day Muffin Tin Frame

2011-05-01T19:31:00.007-05:00

With Mother's Day on the mind, I've been chatting gifts with several of my friends. This year, I got my mom a beautiful hand drawn sketch of F&B (her only grandkids). I didn't draw it though, a talented friend of mine did.

But in terms of what to craft, I realized I have never blogged this muffin tin and it is possibly one of my favorite things I've ever made. It hangs in my mom's kitchen in Canada, and I actually made it right before Ben was born, hence why it only has baby Faith in it, and the lack of creating it pictures. (The only picture I have from when I made it was taken in June 2005.)

Simply, it's a 12 cup muffin tin, covered with scrapbook paper, embellishments, ribbon, and a poem I found online about cooking in "Grandma's" kitchen, which had to be changed to Nana since my mom has been Nana since Faith could talk. The inset pictures are Faith baking and cooking at our old house on a visit with Nana when Shaun & I were in Vegas years ago.

To make, all it took was the supplies, a bit of hot glue, scrapbook tape and ModPodge, plus a bit of sandpaper to sand down the muffin tin so the tape would stick. ;o) I attached hooks on the back so it can hang, but it would probably look cute on a stand if you have the counter space to display.

E-Book: The Curiosity Files - Puffer Fish Review

2011-04-29T18:30:00.000-05:00

We received an opportunity to try out and review the unit study The Curiosity Files - Puffer Fish. Currently, we are loving unit studies for science and history, as well as letting the kids direct some of the topic interest in these areas, so this seemed like a great fit for us.

With two school age children, it's hard to find science programs that hold the interest of a kindergartner and a third grader, while still presenting the material at their respective levels. At the same time, I really love when they can study the same subject material. It seems like we can do so much more when they aren't learning about completely different subjects. Unit studies seem to be the best compromise--the kids can learn about the same topic, participate in many of the same activities and experiments, then I can differentiate in the final product.

What is The Curiosity Files?

The Curiosity Files is a series of unit studies in e-book format, published by The Old Schoolhouse. After purchase, the PDF file is downloadable, and does require a PDF reader to view as well as a printer to print the assorted work pages. The series, recommended for ages 8-13 years, features Professor Ana Lyze who specializes "in the obscure, the abnormal, and the bizarre," and her discoveries of unusual animals, insects, weather, gems, and more. Like many kids, the truly bizarre seems to intrigue my kids. While other kids picked typical zoo animals to study in Faith's zoology class last year, she chose the platypus.

Each Curiosity Files unit includes:

Bible study, discussion ideas, and memory verses
Math, history, and geography investigations
Literature and suggested book list
Writing, spelling, and vocabulary activities
Beautiful copywork pages (manuscript and cursive)
Science observations, projects, and experiments
Discussion questions
Art, crafts, and drawing and coloring pages
Lapbook/notebook pages and helpful lapbooking links
Special needs, hands-on discoveries
Internet resources and video links
Complete answer key

All this leads to a variety of options, from using the unit as a science based study only, to creating lapbooks, to using it as a full unit study across several disciplines. Our choice was creating a notebook/lapbook from the materials while still using our core curriculum in certain subjects.

The Curiosity Files - Puffer Fish Thoughts

With 85 pages (though covers and advertising make up 6-7 of those), Puffer Fish provides lots of material for a full unit study or just a science based unit. Although we focused mainly on the science aspect of puffer fish, the math and language sections provided a nice break/supplement to our regular curriculum. I was also pleased with the addition of handwriting pages and verses to use. I like handwriting practice to relate to some part of our curriculum and it was nice to have it already included.

As a bonus, several templates for a potential lapbook are included. Even if you don't choose to make a lapbook, mini-books can be fun to create. We have really been enjoying lapbooks lately to showcase our work, so any help in that department is appreciated.

The material was very age appropriate for Faith (age 8.5 years, 3rd grade). Some of the material beyond Ben's level (age 5.5 years, kindergarten) but that was to be expected. With some simple modifications, he was able to do many of the activities and enjoy learning about the puffer fish too. I wouldn't hesitate to purchase other Curiosity Files to use with both children--the benefits to using the same unit outweighed the modifications needed for kindergarten.

Other highlights, in my (our) opinion:

Word searches and crossword puzzles - Faith loves these. They provide a great refresher on what we've learned and she really enjoys word puzzles.
Web resources within the PDF - I really appreciate links being given, versus some units we've tried that say "look up information on topic z." I can look things up, but it's much better if a list of relevant resources are provided.
Book list - Similar to web resources, I totally appreciate having a list to start with than having to find my own.
Arts and craft ideas - F&B love making things and the craft ideas were wonderful. We did made the puffer fish plates and Faith enjoyed the step-by-step drawing instructions, she's my aspiring artist!

More Information

The Curiosity Files Puffer Fish e-book is available for purchase here at the Old Schoolhouse store, for $6.95.
Other Curiosity Files e-books are also available for purchase, ranging in price from $1 to $6.95, with a 9-pack bundle available for $46. All files are downloadable.
The CD version of the 9-pack is also available for $49.

I received my copy of the Curiosity Files Puffer Fish from The Old Schoolhouse Crew as a tryout for their review team. The copy was given to me free of charge to use with my children in exchange for writing a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Garden Time Again

2011-04-28T23:40:00.000-05:00

It's April in Texas, Nana & Dave are visiting, and that means it's time to try our hand at gardening again.

Last year, we learned a few things. 1. The stupid bunnies, ducks and birds ate an awful lot of our plants. 2. We never did get any zucchini. And 3. Our better growing season was actually September through December, versus the summer.

With those lessons learned, it's on to this year's garden. We have cantaloupe and watermelon (both were successes last year), a yellow bell pepper, a few rows of beans (new this year), grape tomatoes, random tomatoes that Lowes had on for 50cents because they had no labels, and "wild" tomatoes that were already sprouting in our lawn, probably from the aforementioned stupid bunnies, ducks & birds.

F&B planted several rows of green beans, a favorite of both kids and a recommendation from Nana because beans apparently sprout quickly and the kids are all about instant gratification. While eating watermelon from our garden in December was really really cool, F&B would have been much happier with that same watermelon in June. Beans could be very very helpful this way.

Mr. Ben enjoyed his mini shovel and posed for me with it. He does like digging in the dirt, just as long as that dirt doesn't get on his hands.

Next up, I have a few spice pots I want to start on the windowsill in the living room. If we grow our own basil, we could make really awesome fresh pesto!

Wordless Wednesday - Star Wars Cookies

2011-04-27T23:30:00.000-05:00

iPhone pic, baking with F&B, we needed Star Wars cookies. Yoda is my favorite.

Seafood Chowder, Spices and other kitchen thoughts.

2011-04-26T23:41:00.000-05:00

After cleaning, organizing, throwing out expired versions, and combining multiple half-opened jars of similar contents, I have 35 different jars of spices in my kitchen cupboard, along with two kinds of vanilla (homemade and storebought), 3 jars of homemade spice blends from my mom's gardens, and a jar of bay leaves.

Look how pretty, all the spices lined up nicely now!
And I need more lentils.

Unrelated, I made a very awesome seafood chowder in the crockpot last night. Shaun and my dad each had a couple of bowls, and my not-a-big-soup-eater husband requested that this is added into our food rotation because it might be the best soup he's had. I'll take that.

Slow Cooker Seafood Chowder:
2 cups frozen corn
1 can cream-style corn
2 cups chicken broth
1 large onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 carrots, chopped in rounds
2 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1 cup half & half or whole milk
2 cups seafood--crab meat, shrimp, calamari, etc (we used shrimp and crab)

In slow cooker, combine both corns, chicken broth, onion, celery, carrot, spices, stir to mix. (**I also added a heaping spoonful of garlic.**)

Cover and cook on low about 6 hours.

When ready, remove about half of the chowder from the slow cooker and pulse in the food processor till smooth, return to crockpot.

Add half & half and seafood, turn to high and cook 10-15 minutes more.

Our Egg Hunt

2011-04-24T22:45:00.002-05:00

We had our egg hunt earlier in the day, before the thunderstorms rolled into North Texas. I've gotten smart over the years and started color coding the eggs. Faith's eggs are pink, purple and yellow, Ben's are orange, blue and green. And of course, as anyone with more than one kid would tell you, they are equal in number and contents.

It was a casual sort of day, so F&B wore new outfits that they got in their baskets instead of their dressy clothes. They still looked really cute and at least they were comfy.

Faith seems to take a rather methodical method to egg hunting, especially when staking out the yard.

Ben's version involves running a little more willy-nilly through the yard and hopefully not stepping on eggs (we had a few very close calls).

No one fell in the hedges, so I consider that a success in itself. And, if you remember last year's hunt, everyone is walking on their own two feet without the need for a basket strung over their walker.

This might be my favorite picture. I told the kids to count their eggs so we had them all (12 each). Ben had 11 and decided that my dad must have hid the last egg in his pocket. Now look to the lower right of the above picture. ;o)

Twas the Night Before Easter

2011-04-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

And nothing was funny, as the children were sleeping, awaiting a bunny ...

Actually, the children are sleeping, because they had quite a busy day and are kind of on the grumpy side of normal. We had some serious Easter prep to do today!

Nana and I headed to Target to finish up some last minute Easter goodies, including some egg fillers for F&B. We also needed a couple of little goodies from Auntie Carolyn and Miss Barb et al., so Target was a great solution.

We also had to color eggs, very important in the F&B world.

Faith took egg coloring very seriously.

And Ben made some really pretty pastel eggs.

Both kids read Easter books with Nana tonight, and Ben read an Easter book to his Dave as well. We premade Easter breakfast (apple stuffed French toast in the crockpot, will share this after we sample it, since it's a new recipe), and started prepping the very large Easter dinner. There are 4 adults (me, Shaun, my parents) and two kids, along with a 12lb turkey and an 8lb ham. I'm prepping for leftovers, and a plethora of freezer meals.

And tonight, the Easter Bunny came to visit! He left a few goodies for F&B ...

A basket of books and candy each, a craft kit (mummies for Faith, gummy bugs for Ben) and a fun surprise to share--a Wii Active Life Explorer game and mat.

Let's just hope the weather cooperates so the Easter Bunny can hide eggs in the yard too!

Easter Cookies

2011-04-22T15:53:00.004-05:00

While at Target the other day, we found really cute Easter cookies in the dough section, so we made our very own sandwich cookies! They were Pillsbury brand, slice & bake, but after baking & cooling, they could be spread with vanilla icing to make sandwiches, then rolled in sprinkles for decoration.

Being a very smart Mommy, I bought two packs, so one tray per kid!

And being a not-so-smart Mommy, I forgot to take pictures of the finished product. But they were yummy, and well worth $1.75/pack.

If you have time, check out my thoughts on "The Best Part of Waking Up" and more information on the new Folger's jingle contest, including chances to win!

Wordless Wednesday - Kick, the sequel

2011-04-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

Faith, working on high round kicks in our living room today:

One of Our Favorite Easter Traditions

2011-04-19T23:20:00.001-05:00

Actually, this is probably one of our favorite holiday traditions in general. I do this for several holidays (Halloween and Christmas, of course, plus a smaller bit for Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day, etc).

It's time to bring out the big basket of Easter books!

When Faith was really little, we happened upon Barnes & Noble, shortly after Easter. They had all their Easter books marked for 75% off, so we bought her a whole bunch that year. But, since she was little, and the books were holiday books anyhow, we tucked them away till the next year. We did the same thing after Halloween and Christmas too, and built up a huge collection of holiday books.

The next year, when we brought them out, she was fascinated with all the new books and we read them over and over leading up to Easter. After Easter was over, we decided to put them away again, to save them for the next year. Sure enough, the next year, it was like we brought out a whole new bag of books.

Over the years, we've added to the collections. For Easter and Christmas, we have a mix of religious and secular holiday books. There are regular picture books and characters like Clifford and Spot and Corduroy. Basically, if we found a cute, well-priced holiday books, we got them and put them in our box. (Side note: we do the same thing with all our Christmas themed Little People; they are much more interesting if they only come out at Christmastime.)

Both kids have been waiting for the Easter books to come out, so the 30 or so books are now officially out of the box and in the basket in the guestroom, until I move them downstairs for reading for the next week or so.

I love when my plans work!

Meal Planning Monday, Week 10

2011-04-18T22:55:00.000-05:00

Last week was a bit crazy. On the plus side, we did stick to eating at home, but the negative was we threw the better of the plan out the window. Monday night, we had the pool up and running, so we ended up spending the evening outside and just eating sandwiches. Monday's fajitas got bumped to Tuesday. On Wednesday, I received a review package via UPS with tortellini to try, so we had that. Thursday, we had so many leftovers, we had those. And so on. But again, we ate at home, so that counts for something!

For this week, we are having:

Sunday - Sushi night! Tuna, salmon and crab sushi for Shaun, spam musubi, tamago and extra rice for the kids.

Monday - Pizza night out by the pool

Tuesday - Chicken alfredo or chicken stir fry (going to precook the chicken in the crockpot, then we can decide at night which one we'd rather have)

Wednesday - Hamburgers in brown gravy with rice and veggies

Thursday - Breakfast for dinner, sausage, egg and hashbrown casserole

Friday - Crockpot lasagna since my mom and daddy are coming for Easter

Saturday - Taking my parents and the kids to Scarborough Faire

For dessert, we have a few cupcakes leftover, but we'll also need a birthday cake for my dad, plus Easter cookies, so I don't want to overbake right now.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

Recycled Art - Tissue Box Challenge

2011-04-17T19:05:00.009-05:00

This week, F and I have been busy working on a tissue box challenge. The challenge is to create something fun with your children, by reusing a tissue box.

It seemed to fit well into our recycled art motif, so we got to work and ended up building an expandable dollhouse! It will be even more expandable once we use a few more tissue boxes.

The first two rooms--living and dining

I cut the top off an empty tissue box, then Faith and I went through my stash of old scrapbook papers. I saved lots of bits of smaller stuff as well as extra things I just won't use. She picked wall and floor colors, then we cut it to size and glued it in.

The windows are cut with a craft knife and the curtains are made from more scraps of paper folded and cut to resemble curtains. Their primary purpose is to hide the slightly messy window cuts. So far, so good.

Dining room close-up, I need to add a bit more glue to the wallpaper

The furniture is made with recycled cereal boxes and recycled toilet tissue rolls. The chair bottoms and table stands are cut from tissue rolls, the tops are cut from cereal boxes. I free cut the tables but used a circle punch for the chair tops. The couch is the seam of a cereal box for support, the bottom part is a smaller box from soup mix (expanded and turned inside out).

Living room close-up, we're going to try to make a lamp for the table.

Let's see, the kids also made a bunch of plates from cereal boxes cut with a circle punch and drew assorted meals on them, it occupied them for quite awhile!

F&B's cereal box plates!

Faith and I are seriously enjoying this project, we just need to get a few more boxes for rooms. I think next up, she wants to make a bedroom for the animals!

What My Children Are Reading - 4/16/11

2011-04-17T18:00:00.001-05:00

This week, we're still working our way through some of this year's Bluebonnet Award nominees. If you're not a Texan, or if you are and don't know what the Bluebonnet Awards are, I've got the explanation in this post from a couple of weeks ago.

We added two more titles to our Bluebonnet list so far, then Faith surprised me by picking a third Bluebonnet title as her favorite book she read to herself this week.

The Duchess of Whimsy by Randall de Sève - This is the story of the lively Duchess of Whimsy and the rather bland Earl of Norm. The Duchess is the life of the party, the Earl is a bit dull, until she realizes that there might be something to simplicity. Faith and I loved this one, she wanted it to be her pick except I had already used it!

Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story by S.D. Nelson - Our second Bluebonnet title for the week, this book is based on the life story of Black Elk, a Lakota leader in the 1800s. Faith noticed some similarities to the American Girl Kaya books that she just read and I enjoyed the history. That said, it is really *long* for a picture book and I found it a difficult read-aloud for an 8 year old. Ben didn't even listen to this one, he was reading with Shaun instead.

The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler - This was Faith's second pick of the week, and also a Bluebonnet nominee. I have not read it, but she reported that it was funny and that she really likes how the dog is trying to solve the mystery. And she'd really like to get the other two books in the series. I think that can be arranged.

Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates by Patrick O'Brien - I have no earthly idea what this book is about. Shaun read it to Ben, Ben told me it was his pick of the week, and all I've managed to discern is that it involves dinosaurs. And pirate. And space things. All of these are things Ben likes a whole lot. And there's another Captain Raptor book that they read too, called the Moon Mystery. It was a good daddy-son bonding book, I think.

Now as for me, I spend the other night up till 3am reading Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. I highly recommend it, it was a couldn't-put-down book for me, hence why I was up till 3am. I love books like that.

Recycled Art - Chipboard Coaster Thank You Note Magnets

2011-04-16T21:53:00.012-05:00

Because that title is exceptionally short & witty, isn't it?

I was perusing Dollar Store Crafts today and saw this post asking what can you do with chipboard coasters.

Now, I have a really large question of chipboard coasters, in that I save every coaster I come across that is usable. I've used them a lot for mini scrapbooks and for embellishments on regular scrapbook pages, but I have a feeling that is the standard answer and that the person asking is looking for new ideas.

So I pulled these off my fridge, took pictures, and decided I needed to share my thank you note magnets!

On one side of a restaurant chipboard coaster, cover it with some sort of pretty patterned paper. Embellish it a little, and add a picture of the birthday boy or girl! In the above, Ben's has one patterned paper, a couple of ribbons and a rub-on embellishment. Faith's has two patterned papers, some pop-dot butterflies and ribbon. (FYI, she's 3 in that picture, Ben is 1 in his.)

Now on the back, cover it with plain or very light colored patterned paper. Write your thank you note on the back, affix a flat magnet to the upper center, and you've got a thank you note, a birthday picture and a magnet all in one! They fit into invitation envelopes that I bought at one of the office stores nearby.

Even better, it's recycling in its finest. I reused coasters, used bits and ends of scrapbook paper with no other purpose, and I did not go buy thank you notes that will be subsequently thrown in the trash. Earth friendly and cute!

What's Your Spring Celebration?

2011-04-15T15:32:00.002-05:00

Spring is in the air in north Texas. The days are bright and sunny, the weather is simply gorgeous and we've been able to spend lots of time outside. Even better, everything is so lovely and green for pictures. We've already done our bunny pictures for Easter (outside with beautiful real bunnies) and still need to take some bluebonnet shots. Bluebonnet shots are a Texas tradition, I've got several sets over the years, including some with really little F&B.

iPhone pic preview of our Easter bunny pics!

Things That Make Me Happy Thursday

2011-04-14T23:40:00.001-05:00

I had much more to write tonight, but the with the thunder, lightning and the fact that my internet stopped working on everything but my phone seems to indicate that writing long and complex blog posts are not the best idea in the world.

So with that, I spent today compiling a list of things that currently make me happy:

Making sushi (not to be confused with actually eating sushi, that makes me ill); it's happy and crafty and therapeutic, all at once
Goo Goo Dolls on the radio in the car
My new car (it's a 2011 Honda CrV, so cute!)
Buffalo Sabres winning playoff game #1
My very old Kate Spade sunglasses which are still cute
The awesomely nice guy who works at the meat counter at Kroger and always stops to chat with me
Jellybeans
The new issue of Every Day with Rachel Ray
Watching F&B ride their bikes outside in the gorgeous weather
Science museum passes in the mail from a friend
Awesome new sheets for my bed with an extra high thread count

Maybe I need to do this every Thursday, it's something to think about ...

Wordless Wednesday - Kick

2011-04-13T23:00:00.003-05:00

{Taken a couple weeks ago in Louisiana, Benjamin competing in patterns, he won 2nd for his division, plus 1st in sparring}

Easter Chickie Cupcakes

2011-04-12T22:30:00.005-05:00

I was a little bored the other night, so had to experiment a little bit.

The cupcakes are yellow cake, with a spoonful of Nutella in the middle. Very easy to make and so yummy. They're topped with white icing, dyed green coconut "grass", jelly bean eggs and little Peep chickies!

The kids are loving them, and I think they are too cute.

Linking up to:

Meal Planning Monday, Week 8 & 9

2011-04-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Two weeks this week, since I realized I forgot to post last week's menu. It was a crazy busy week, so I'm just thankful we ate at home 6 out of 7 days. (We did go out for pizza once.) As for how week 7 went, we were able to stick to our whole plan, which made me quite happy.

But on to the meals!

Last week (week 8), we had:

Sunday - Hot turkey sandwiches on fresh rolls
Monday - Creamy pesto and sausage, garlic bread
Tuesday - Homemade chicken soup, chicken burgers
Wednesday - Turkey sloppy joes
Thursday - Quiche with turkey & ham
Friday - Shaun's not-quite-stir fry with ground beef and veggies
Saturday - Pizza

And the plan for this week (week 9):

Sunday - Stuffing & Meatball Bake with peas

Monday - Steak or chicken fajitas (depends on what I have more of)

Tuesday - Tangy BBQ chicken with rice & veggies

Wednesday - Cheeseburger & fries casserole

Thursday - Stir fry with chicken and stir fry veggies in freezer

Friday - Potluck at church!

Saturday - Chili with ground turkey

And I just baked a batch of cupcakes, so that's desserts, for now!

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

What My Children Are Reading - 4/9/11

2011-04-10T19:34:00.001-05:00

Besides the rest of our regular reads, we are continuing on this year's Bluebonnet Award nominees. Not a Texan or don't know what the Bluebonnet Awards are? I've got the long version of it in last week's post.

This week, we continued our list with two more Bluebonnet selections.

The Hallelujah Flight by Phil Bildner is the story of the first African Americans to fly from coast to coast in the US. They were nicknamed the flying hobos due to their old rundown plane, and they flew from stop to stop depending on the generosity of others during the Great Depression. All three of us enjoyed this one, especially tracing the journey maps in the back of the book.

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According To Susy) by Barbara Kerley is a biography of the writer, with the notes coming from a journal kept by his daughter, reflecting what she wanted to share about her father. Faith and I liked this one, it was too long/serious for Ben.

I asked F&B to nominate their favorite non-Bluebonnet books this week too!

Faith chose Judy Moody Goes to College by Megan McDonald. Her favorite part was that, when Judy went to the college, her art was hung up and she won the first place ribbon. I haven't read this one, so that's about all I know on the book.

Ben's pick was Dragon Pizzeria by Mary Morgan. His favorite part was the guy who cooked all the different kinds of fairy tale pizzas. I read this to him, the dragons run a pizzeria in fairy tale land and have to make all sorts of funky pizzas for the fairy tale characters.

And, in case you were wondering what I'm reading, I just finished an advanced copy of Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks.

Presenting the (finally finished) Kaya lapbook!

2011-04-09T23:31:00.001-05:00

Finally finally finally!

This little lapbook has been several weeks in the making. It includes one dead printer, one misplaced book, and many many "we'll finish it after TKD/Brownies/church/life" moments.

I've mentioned how we're not thrilled with our current history curriculum and I need to seriously find something I like better. However, that isn't truly possible until the fall, and I don't just want to buy the first thing I find.

So Faith and I decided that we'll work through several of the American Girl books and do some history research from there, then make lapbooks on what she has learned. After some discussion, we decided to go back chronologically and the first historical AG book is Meet Kaya, circa 1764. So Miss Faith read it and we learned quite a bit about the Nez Perce Indians during that time.

Today, we finally finished putting her lapbook together, mixing historical facts and literature information from Kaya. On the left (looking at the picture), she has a flap book of Nez Perce words and translations, along with a flap book report, and a book talking a little about Kaya's horses. The middle section includes a literature booklet called "Who is Kaya?" and a more historical booklet called "Kaya's World". The upper one is based on the actual AG story while the lower one is facts about the Nez Perce world at the time. The map book in that section shows where Kaya would have lived. The right flap includes more facts on the world in 1764 and a drawing of a Nez Perce bracelet where Faith tried to make a similar pattern.

Of course, no photo shoot at my house would be complete without just a little bit of goofiness. Ben went up the back stairs, then came down the front stairs to pose for the picture with Faith.

Aren't they just happy little critters?

Recycled Art - Soda Bottle Jellyfish

2011-04-08T15:30:00.010-05:00

Faith and I got a cool book in the mail the other day to review for MomTrends (a site I sometimes write for). It's about making art from recycled materials, so we can't wait to try it. As well, this month's Family Fun magazine has a pretty cool cardboard dollhouse with egg carton furniture that we also want to try.

But until we get on those two projects, we've got another one to share, thanks to her Brownie leaders. It's a soda bottle jellyfish, all out of recycled or scrap materials.

To make Mr. Jellyfish, you'll need an empty/rinsed 2 liter soda bottle, leftover birthday ribbons and some scrap cardstock. You'll also need a good sharp pocket knife to cut the bottle and a hole puncher.

For the body, cut the end of the bottle off, sand if needed to remove any sharp edges. Punch holes around the edges, then slip knot colored ribbon through each hole. Make eyes out of cardstock (we used my scrapbook tools for this) and adhere to the body. Voila! A jellyfish

He makes a lovely hat, as Faith demonstrates, but I think we're going to add one last ribbon through the top center to hang him up.

Linking to:

What My Children Are Reading - 4/2/11

2011-04-04T23:16:00.001-05:00

Like all good Texans (some good Texans? or at least the ones who like to read?), we're making headway into this year's Bluebonnet nominees. If you're not a Texan, the Bluebonnet Award was established in 1979 to encourage Texas children to read more books, explore a variety of current books, develop powers of discrimination, and identify their favorite books. (Yes, I borrowed that directly from their website.)

Kids who read at least 5 of the current year's titles can vote on their favorite one. The last two winners, The Uglified Ducky by Willy Claflin (in 2010) and Help Me, Mr. Mutt! by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel (in 2009), were high on our lists. Faith and I were also very partial to Martina the Beautiful Cockroach by Carmen Deedy from the 2009 list.

Two years ago, we read 14 of the 20 (and I read an additional two others that caught my eye but were too old for Faith), while last year we only managed 10 of 20 due to length, age level, and interest level.

We're starting again with a new list and going to try to add a few per week to our reading list. Our first three choices were:

Imogene's Last Stand by Candace Fleming - Yes, we've read this before and it made one of our "What We're Reading" lists last year, but Faith & I loved it, so we're including it again. Imogene is a little girl who loves all things history, and is in a fight against her town to save the local historical society from becoming a shoelace factory.

Louisa: The Life of Louisa May Alcott by Yona Zeldis McDonough - This one is a longer picture book that tells the life of Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women. Faith read one of my old copies of Little Women awhile back, so we both really enjoyed this one. I hadn't realized that Little Women was loosely based on her own life, and Faith was quite delighted with that information.

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer - This was a truly unique find this week. The entire book is fairy tales told in reversible poetry. Read down one side first, then reverse the order to read the opposite view, F&B were laughing quite a bit because the opposite view often comes from the fairy tale villian. I can't imagine the talent and patience it takes to be able to reverse one's writing into a second coherent verse.

We did read a bunch of other things this week--plenty of other library books (several series ones for Faith, random fun stuff for Ben), but none that stuck out as much as the Bluebonnet selections. We'll share more next week too, can't wait to see how many of the 20 we make it through this year!

Do You Tumble?

2011-04-03T23:43:00.001-05:00

I'm still trying to figure out all the nuances to Tumblr, but so far, I'm finding it a lovely way to save all the cute ideas I find online. And it is much better than my big bookmark files in Firefox!

So far, I've mostly Tumbled cute food ideas, crafts for me and crafts for the kids, but if you're interested, it's aptly titled Me and F&B, and located at:

Http://bentolunch.tumblr.com

And, I'm currently posting from my phone, so auto correct errors may occur. ;o)

This week, we're giving away a copy of the Tangled dvd, hop over to this post to enter to win!

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

2011-04-01T16:59:00.004-05:00

A few years back, I participated in the Ultimate Blog Party on 5 Minutes for Mom. And being the deeply organized person that I am, promptly forgot to do it again. This year, however, I saw the link on several friends' blogs, so I made a note (literally, I have a post-it on my desk) to do it too.

Anyhow, up there, that's me, and F&B, my 8 year old princess and 5 year old superhero (my husband was taking the picture, it's rare to have pics of the 4 of us). The picture was taken in Canada, on the Lake Erie shoreline, a few blocks from my parents' house. We actually live in Dallas, Texas.

Random things you may (or may not) want to know about me:

1. Once upon a time, before F&B, I used to be a middle school teacher.

2. Now I homeschool them instead. F did two years at a university model school (half school/half homeschool), this is our second full year all-out homeschooling.

3. I'm obsessed with all things bento, and have been making/blogging bento lunches for almost 4 years now! You can visit me there at http://BentoLunch.net

4. Lots of cool things happened from that blog, including an opportunity to create bento lunches for Disney and a family trip to McDonald's headquarters with several other bloggers to learn more about McD!

5. Non-blog related, one of the coolest things I've done is hiking into the Pyramids in Egypt with baby Ben on my back in his MeiTai.

6. I really love to travel. Really really love to travel.

7. I want to live in Europe someday, just for a year or two, to really experience it. France would be my first pick, but I'm flexible! ;o)

8. I love to read and most years opt for a 50-book challenge with my friends. You can find me on GoodReads, even though I'm way behind this year.

So, that's me, sort of, kind of, in a nutshell (OK, the nutshell isn't too far a stretch, really). Leave a comment with your link, I'd love to find new blogs to read!

Meal Planning Monday, Week 7

2011-03-28T23:43:00.003-05:00

Late this week, because it took me this long to figure out what we were having. Being away for two days messed up the rhythm to my menu planning (in that we start discussing meals on Saturday night).

For this week, we are having:

Sunday - Creamy Bacon Pasta with Garlic Bread

Monday - Sausage Fried Rice (we did leftovers last week Thursday instead of fried rice and we still wanted that)

Tuesday - Breaded chicken, baked potatoes, veggies

Wednesday - Roast Beef in the crockpot, rice, veggies

Thursday - BBQ porkchops, rice, veggies

Friday - Chicken Enchilada Bake

Saturday - After church, so pizza, breakfast for dinner, etc

For desserts, I made a quick batch of muffins, but we'll definitely need something else, maybe cupcakes!

I'm also reserving the right to turn one of these meals into steaks on the grill if we remember to go get propane for it.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

Pioneer Thoughts, from Faith

2011-03-22T01:14:00.005-05:00

I've been pretty vocal on how I really want Faith to read the Little House on the Prairie series. My mom bought it for me in Grade 2 and I read the series many, many times over the years. Since my own set is somewhere at my parents' house, I slowly pieced together a set for Faith via Half Price Books and it's up in her bedroom, in the bookcase, just begging to be read.

I may have mentioned to her a few times (OK, a whole lot of times) how much I truly love those books. Earlier, she asked me if she could start reading them or if I wanted to save them for a school assignment. Yay! I told her to go ahead and read as many as she wants, we don't have to do a related assignment or we can some other time. I am more than OK with her just reading them for the sake of reading them!

So she took Little House in the Big Woods to TKD with her today, to read during Shaun's class. She came home and told me she read the first chapter, but had a few questions.

Faith: OK, first of all, what's a bladder?
Me: Well, it's kind of a sack of skin/tissue inside you, sort of near your stomach, and that's where your body stores pee, before you go to the bathroom.
Faith (looking thoroughly disgusted): EWWWWWWW! The book said her father *blew* up a pig bladder. And then they played *ball* with it!
Me: Yes ...
Faith (even more perturbed): And they roasted a pig tail! And then they *ate* it! They actually ate a pig tail.
Me: Yes ...
Faith: I would not have been able to survive in pioneer times at all.

You know, I think she's right about the last part.

Meal Planning Monday, Week 6

2011-03-21T22:54:00.002-05:00

A little late in the day, but we had to figure out what would work this week for meal plans. Last week was lovely, we actually stuck to the meal plan 100% and managed a trip to the Asian Grocery to get rice and assorted foods I cannot buy at Kroger (including fresh rice noodles). These are going to be on the meal plan for this week, of course!

For this week, we are having:

Sunday - French Onion Soup, Chicken & Swiss Quiche (Ben's pick)

Monday - Crockpot Chicken Soup, Chicken Burgers on Buns, Chips

Tuesday - Pad See Iew (Thai dish with rice noodles, sweet soy sauce, chicken & veggies)

Wednesday - Crockpot Lasagna, Garlic Bread

Thursday - Fried Rice (Shaun offered to make this)

Friday - TKD tournament

Saturday - TKD tournament

For desserts, we're not baking this week. We'll finish what we have and use Girl Scout cookies for the rest.

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday on OrgJunkie!

What we did on our Spring Break

2011-03-20T23:50:00.005-05:00

Although my original plan was to do school through Spring Break, we ended up taking a bit more time off, just because. I do believe that may be the beauty of homeschooling, it's not like I don't have the flexibility to enjoy a few more days with the kiddos.

So, what all did we do?

We went and had lunch at our favorite pirate themed McDonald's, where Faith made the discovery that boys really are kind of smelly. There were a fair number of boys around her age there, and she did *not* enjoy going in the slide after them.

We had tickets to a sneak preview of Hop, which F&B and I loved. It is seriously a cute movie and we highly recommend it.
I got to see the three of my Disney series of bentos publish on Disney's Family.com! Check out Pirates of the Caribbean, Toy Story, and Cinderella so far!
F&B had their Easter pictures taken with real live bunnies, which was awesome till I realize I can't buy every single picture she took.

We got to make our first visit to the CVS Minute Clinic after Faith ended up with an ear infection. While the ear infection wasn't fun, our visit was quite nice (nice nurse and we didn't have to wait).
Faith had another Girl Scout Cookie booth sale, which brought her total up to abut 350 boxes. Unfortunately, we're almost out of time, so I don't see her breaking the 400 mark.

We did not, however, spend time at the usual Spring Break haunts. As much as we wanted to go to the zoo, the mall and the science museum, I think we're going to wait till the rest of the world is back in school. I forgot how crowded places are when school is not in session, it can all wait till next week.

What My Children Are Reading - 3/19/11

2011-03-19T23:17:00.003-05:00

I've been slacking on this meme, and it's one of my favorites too. F&B read so much, I love the chance to actually share what they are reading, plus it holds me accountable to figure out what the hits and misses were on any given week. I'm going to try starting to post on it again.

This week, Ben has been finding more and more books he can read to himself without help from the rest of us. We finished the 4 first grade readers I had from my grandma's classroom (I learned to read with these too). Now, he's moved on to all the First-Start Easy Readers that belonged to me and/or my brother. I cannot find a comprehensive listing of them, but they are adorable, simple, and illustrated better than the Bob books. I know there's one more set of 6 hardback readers floating around my mom & dad's house, so hoping they find them for Ben!

Ben's picks this week (next week, we're going to keep a real list of what he reads):

To read to himself, he chose Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, even though several pages caused him to get out of breath during his dramatic readings. To listen to me read to him, he chose Jigsaw Jones: The Case of Hermie the Missing Hamster. He discovered that one at Half Price Books a few weeks ago for $1, so I got it for him. Faith never read the series, so it was new for me as well, always a bonus when you're reading things out loud.

As for Faith, it's hard to keep up with what she is reading at any given point, unless I trip over the books she leaves around. Her picks this week:

It should be noted, my not-quite-evil Ramona plan worked. I had her read Beezus and Ramona for school a few weeks ago, and left her the rest of the series in her room if she wanted to read it. She finished Ramona the Pest already and is almost done with Ramona the Brave. For school, we've also been looking for a different history program, so for the time being, we're reading the American Girl books and doing projects on them. We started with Meet Kaya which she really enjoyed, we may need to hit the library for more of those.

Decorating Plans

2011-03-14T16:52:00.001-05:00

Being that Faith will be 9 this year, we're trying to figure out if we need to redo her bedroom. I've been browsing the bedroom furniture at various stores, trying to get an idea of how I want her room to look this time.

I did the current look when we moved in here in 2005, so it's all the stuff I picked when she was three and a half years old. It's cute, but it's starting to seem a little young for her and although her three year old plans involved a being a ballerina, it didn't stay with her much past kindergarten. These days, she's more into taekwondo, Hello Kitty, reading, drawing, riding her bike and scooter, and so on. I'm not sure I want an overly themed room, but something that will last another 5-6 years.

The current look:

Pink walls, white shelves with teddy bears on them, double bed (that is staying) along with ballerina bedding.

Dresser with ballerina frames, ballerina wall decor and a ballerina piggy bank. To the right, the door leads to her bathroom, also in ballerina themes, and to the left is the door to the hall.

At the corner near the foot of her bed is her Madeline dollhouse, and directly in from the door to the hall, there are two bookcases and a chair.

Thinking all the big furniture stays, but trying to figure out a decor plan. I'd like to not paint the walls, but depending on what she picks, that may not work. She's also moved away from all pink, all the time.

So inspire me! Find me something awesome for an almost 9 year old, that won't set me back an arm and a leg, and can work with the furniture she already has. Lasting more than a year or two is a plus too.