Music Heals

I posted recently about attending the funeral of a friend who passed away after a year long battle with cancer.  Her funeral was heartbreaking for those left behind even though we know with true abandon that she is now walking in heaven.  She picked two very powerful songs to be played at her funeral so I thought I would share those with you today.

Even If-- By Kutless - you might want a box of Kleenex handy if you know someone going through some struggles right now, just saying!


Blessed Assurance by Jadon Lavik.  This song IS Betsy; everything it says is who she was and what she believed.

Too Cute Not To Toot

This week, as I've searched for ideas, I've run into the same problem over and over.  I find a great idea on Pinterest, I then click on the photo to go to the link and it either doesn't link to anything or it links to the main blog not the individual post.  I wish folks would post right to the post so that we can learn how to do some of those great things!

I did find this idea from All Free Sewing for a "Taggie".  It's a great baby gift but I think even young kids would like them in the car because of having the various textures on the piece.

Ok, I found a couple cute ideas over at Decore Allure.  I actually saw the idea for the Bandana blanket first and fell in love with it but there are a lot of ideas included in this one post!

Also from Decor Allure is this very cute playmat idea.

Enjoy your week and happy crafting!

Summer Preschool - Prepping for our year

Last week I shared what our curriculum would be this coming year.  This week I worked on some prep work - my goal was to get the first 6 weeks worth of lessons printed and ready to go for Josh.  I did get lessons 1-5 printed and part of lesson 1 laminated but I ran out of lamination and decided to hold off buying more until after vacation.  In same cases I wouldn't "waste" lamination but, since I plan on reusing this material for Nate next year, it is important for the stuff to last.  (I don't plan to laminate the stuff for Nate's lessons since this will be the only year we use that stuff).  I am going to buy two Caryola wipe off boards that allow you to put a piece of paper under the surface so that worksheets can be used several times without needing to make multiple copies.  I feel good about how far I got this week.  The other big thing I did was actually count out our weeks and lay out our schedule for the year.  After doing it both ways - "year round" and with the full summer off, I decided that I like the 6 weeks on/1 week off idea.  That allows us to take all of December off and end the second of May.  We will then have the rest of May, all of June and two weeks in July off.  I need the breaks probably more than the kids do!

 My stack of school papers - I love those plastic snapping folders.  I get them at target and they are perfect for storing each lesson.  Makes it easy to grab what I need each week.

Here's our calendar!  The red dates are holidays; blue are vacation dates and yellow are school days. 


The other thing I worked on was our vacation binders.  If kids have something to do in the truck the parents don't go insane HA!  My boys love maps so one of the things I did was print of maps for all of our destinations both coming and going. I then laminated them and made sure they had some markers to follow our trip :-)  (I just searched online until I found a map I liked and printed it . . .)

  I also printed some coloring pages of some of the things we would do and see and included a big photo of the bridge so that they would know what to look for as we traveled.

 I included these ABC pages which actually are for a different activity but I told the boys that they could draw a picture on each page of something they see while on vacation that matches the letter. Then, I laminated the ABC cards to practice writing their letters.

 Confessions of Homeschooler

(can't find the source for this as the moment - I saved it a LONG time ago!!)

One thing I did not get a photo of is a set of Alphabet coloring pages from Mr. Printables.  These will probably show up during our year of school too ;-)

My other main focus this week, of course, was getting ready for vacation.  That included, packing, cleaning, and making sure that all details were taken care of before we left.  I like to leave my house nice and clean so that when we come home, the only thing we do is unpack . . Trust me, Saturday evening, there was a lot of vacuuming and last minute pick-up happening!!!

Dining Room Update

I thought I would share a few minor updates I made in the dining room.  My dining room is really my "photo room".  It is where most of the family photos hang but I was really getting tired of my old displays and wanted to do a little updating.

 This is my new favorite display.  I was at a friends house recently and she had hung up large canvas prints of her daughters and it made a huge statement.  I knew I wanted to do something similar but I did not want to spend much money since I plan on changing out the large individual photos at least once a year.  After doing some searching, I found that I could print 16x20 posters from Snapfish  from $14.99 each.  Even better, they often have specials where you can buy one/get one so I was able to get both for $14.99! 

 I hung family photos and baby photos together.  I'm not 100% happy with this arrangement yet.  I would like to maybe pull out some other older photos - like Wedding Photos of my parents and all of my brothers just to add to it.  Maybe a family photo of both Darryl and my families at about the same time frame.  I think that older photos really show family history.  I also need an updated photo of my In-laws to put on that wall too :-) I recently saw an idea on Pinterest that I love so I may follow that inspiration.

Finally, on another wall, I hung our wedding photo and then the two memory boards that house current family photos.  I will say that I need to update the frame for our wedding photo.  That will be on the list for one of these days when I end up at Kohl's - my favorite place to buy large frames since they are almost always on sale.

I love the changes. I rarely move furniture so when I "rearrange" I move artwork.  It really does freshen up the look of a room.  Now . . .to do touch up paint :-)

Some things I've Tried Recently

It's summer and that means  . .Flies.  Every year I have about 5 flies that think they need to live with me.  I don't care if I kill one, there are always 5 and it drives me nuts.  I had seen an idea on Pinterest using this simple cleaning supply:

 I decided it couldn't hurt to try and mixed up a spray bottle using half water and half Pine-Sol.  Now, I wipe down my counters and the dining room table using this mix and guess what?  It kinda works.  We  were eating dinner and there was a fly buzzing around yet it refused to land anywhere near the table.  I've also noticed that the flies are avoiding the kitchen.  Now, I guess I need to also clean every other room in the house with this cleaner too!

Sometimes I try new recipes that aren't really "recipes" but rather little things that go along with something else.  One of those was a Creamy Avacado Dressing from Krista's Kitchen. 

In the recipe, this dressing is meant for a salad but an idea on Pinterest was to use it on Taco's and that is why I made it.  It is pretty tasty - a little like a gourmet mayo (which sounds not so great with Taco's but it works!)  I've also used it to dip some fries in and also a cheesy breadstick!  I tend to use ranch dressing instead of ketchup and I think this is a great substitute for the Ranch.  Oh, I also used it in a Tuna Salad instead of Mayo and it was really good as well. 

Another recipe I tried recently comes from Stilletos to Legos and is the "famous" Zero Calorie Slushy".  I think it should really say "Zero Point Slushy as far as Weight Watchers points. 

I altered the recipe a little because I thought two bananas was a bit much .  For a "healthy" ice cold drink, this was pretty good.  I will say that by the time I had about 1/4 left, I was done.  It got almost bitter - which the second banana might have helped with, actually.  I did not add any sweetener to it but I might try that next time. 

Food Friday - Spinach Queso DIp

Spinach Queso Dip
adapted from Haystacks and Champagne

I had originally planned to make this for a Ladies Meeting but, looking back, I ended up just making cookies that night because it had been a long day :-/  So, I ended up making this to go with lunch on my husband's day off and it was so good.  The spinach adds nice color to the normal cheesy dip but really doesn't impact the flavor (unless you are my mom and hate spinach, then she is SURE she can taste it HA!).  I did this in a pot on the stove since it was a last minute addition to lunch but, personally, I think Velveeta melts better in a crock pot so if I was making this for company I would use the slow cooker for sure! 


HOT SPINACH SALSA QUESO DIP

• 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 lb Velveeta cheese (2% fat--this is the reduced fat version)
• 8 ounces cream cheese (light)
• 1 jar salsa (I used 3/4 full jar of a 16 ounce jar)
• A handful of chopped cilantro (optional-but good)

Now there's 3 ways to make this:

1) Cut the Velveeta and cream cheese into cubes and place all ingredients in a microwaveable-safe dish. Heat until cheese has melted and stir to combine all ingredients.

2) If you prefer, you can place all the ingredients in an oven safe dish and bake until the dip is heated through--continuing to stir to mix all ingredients. I usually put the dip in at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes--keep an eye on it as it depends on how deep your dish is--it can take as little as 10 minutes or as much as 20-25 minutes to have all the cheese melted. When it's hot and bubbly, it's ready!

3) OR, you can place all ingredients in a crockpot and heat until cheese has melted (continuing to stir the mixture to combine ingredients). It should take somewhere around an hour to have the cheeses melt (but check as crockpots vary). This particular method is great if you can leave it on the low setting--then your dip will stay warm for a while. But I bet it won't last!

Serve warm with tortilla chips. Heaven! Should make a small crowd very happy before dinner is served (like 4-6 people). 

Weekly Menu - What we take on vacation

First up is Food Prep!! This is what I prepped for this week:

 It actually took me two days to do food prep because I didn't realize I was out of ziplock bags until I was home from the store.  On day one I prepped - Spinach for smoothies and salad; lettuce for salads, grapes, pineapple, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and lemons/limes (for water).  With the fruit I also prep small bowls to send with Darryl in his lunch.  I also made a batch of my new favorite Salad Dressing - an asian dressing that is to die for. 

 On Sunday, I finished up by prepping bags of smoothie stuff that go in the freezer until needed, pickle/ham roll-ups for snacks, mix for homemade Ice cream and finally, the large square container has Darryl's lunch stuff - cookies and poptarts ready to go into his lunch to making packing it a little easier at 3:30 AM :-)  One other item not in this photo is extra Pork Chops that I cooked on Sunday for dinner.  I planned extra so I could slice them up into strips to use on salad throughout the week.

Food prep takes a lot of work, I'm not going to lie.  On Saturday, between shopping and prepping, I spent about 4 1/2 hours working on "food".  We are eating a lot more fruits than we used to though so that is good.  The smoothie prep is new this week - I'm going to see how it works out and decide if it is worth the time to do that or just to mix them up each morning.
On to other things!!

I'm in the midst of cleaning, washing, packing, and printing (all of our stuff we need) for vacation.  I shared our extended menu last week so today I'll just let you know what we normally take with us as far as food.  (I know, thrilling, isn't it?)

We are staying in hotel for 5 nights and that get a little pricey as far as snacks and drinks.  The hotel offers free breakfast which is a HUGE plus because I don't have to pack simple things for breakfast.  With kids, I know we will be up in time to catch the breakfast too :-)

Anytime we go away, I always pack drinks.  Pop machines are so rediculously expensive that to not carry your own drinks is crazy, right?  We will be taking our cooler and I think the room has a fridge.  (I don't trust those little fridges though - things can freeze so fast in there!!).  So, I always take a carton of Pepsi and Diet Sprite.  Plus a Package of bottled water since it is easy to add Crystal light packs to those and have lemonade for both the adults and kids :-)   This year I'll be adding Juice Boxes to the packing list for the kids.  I love them because they are easy to throw into my little cooler that goes in the kid bag for when we go on day trips.  Chocolate Milk is a must ;-)  I'll pick up some of those little Chugs to keep in the cooler for bedtime for the boys.

What about snacks?  Some times I WAY over pack when we go away and I'm trying not to do that this time around.  I would like to limit it to basically one snack per person. I have found mine - it is this awesome chocolate drizzled carmal corn (YUM!).  For the kids, I will pack poptarts and Breakfast bars along with some crackers/cheese boxes that they love.  Finally, for Darryl - I'm not sure ;-)  He loves Fig Newtons so maybe those plus he also likes the cracker/cheese boxes too ;-)  The nice thing about vacation is that you pick up stuff along the way like Fudge, or special cheeses, or crunchy fun stuff.  This year I also plan to pack fruit - grapes, strawberries and apples and cheese sticks.  Three out of the four of us love fruit (Nate, not so much) and fruit is a great snack to take alone on day trips too!

That's it :-)  With breakfast at the Hotel, we only plan a light lunch/snack and then an early dinner.  Then, everyone can have a snack before bed if needed.