40 x 40 Goals - Book Club

Despite taking a break from diligently working on my 40 x 40 goals, I haven't forgotten them!  One of the things I wanted to work on first was to find a book club that I could be part of for at least 6 months.  Little did I know that there was one right under my nose :-)

See, I follow a blog called Bring the Rain, which is written by the wife of one of the members of the group Selah.  I just happened to click on something called "Bloom" on her Blog and low and behold, it was a book club.  It has been something that she and a friend of hers have been doing for awhile but now have joined forces with another site called (in)courage to hose the book club.  I'm so excited to follow this through!

The first book we are reading is One Thousand Gifts written by Ann Voskamp.

I'm so excited to get my book and start reading.  Basically, we read a chapter a week and than follow on the blog once a week to see the video from the book club.  If you are interested in reading more on this club, just check here!

So, this works toward another of those 40 x 40 goals that I posted long ago!  Progress is being made little by little :-)

Subway Art

Ever since I really starting looking at all the Arts and Crafts ideas that show up in blog land, I kept seeing a theme over and over - that is Subway Art. 

One of the blogs I follow, While he was Napping, is giving away this awesome piece based on those old "Conversation Hearts"

And that is just one example!  Isn't it super cute?  Every season, milestone in life, and just life in general can have a neat "Subway Art" created - I'm thinking this would look cute in my kitchen and than I could change it out each month/holiday/birthday for something different.  Since my next project is my kitchen . . .I think this just became decor!

So check out While He Was Napping to see this specific idea but also check out her whole site - she has some really fun date ideas on there too!

Valentines Countdowns

Valentine's Day Countdowns

I think that I shared both of these ideas at some point in some post but I wanted to show you my finished product!

First of all is the Countdown that we are going to be doing with the boys throughout the WHOLE month of February.  I decided to start this countdown February first instead of starting it 30 days before Valentines day.  We were already during our Winter Unit in January and I wanted to save the hearts for February

Is that awesome or what?  Josh has already noticed it and wants to start using it now!

You can get all of the items you need to make this same countdown from a great blog called mydeliciousambiguity.  She e-mails you the numbers and cards with ideas on them as well as the instructions - it is just a small fee but so worth the time it saves. ! 

The other countdown calendar that I'm doing is the "14 Days of Valentines" with Darryl

This idea comes from Love Actually - click on the "shop" section at the top of her blog and scroll down that section until you get to the 14 days sections :-)  She also e-mails you the basics of what you need, again for a small fee.

The ideas are cute - like each telling your favorite dating memory or taking 15 minutes to look through your dating scrapbook; sending each other a love letter through the mail and sending a text to each other on one day.  We will be pulling the card the night before (so we will pull our first card on Jan 31st) so that way, we know what to do the following day (some require a little planning like picking up a small gift or getting a card)  It's just a fun idea to do some special things together!



Weekly Organizational Challenge - Week #1

I've linked up with A Bowl Full of Lemons and am participating in her Weekly Challenges all dealing with cleaning and organizing!  I'm so excited because this fits right into my whole theme of "Simplify" that I am working on throughout this year. 

What better way to start than with building a Home Management Journal.  We can't have organized lives without a way to organize all of the important things that cross our paths each day!  Ironically, one of my "simplify" projects I'm working on is re-doing my control journal and routines to make them work better for me.  So this comes at the perfect time! 

I have my supplies to get started:

I already have my binder I use for my control journal but it is just plain green - so I pulled out some pretty scrapbook paper to change the look of it.  Plus my trusty label maker, highlighters, pens, a hole punch. 

What's my first step?  I'm going to use that scrapbook paper to make my binder pretty and label it so there is no question what it is. 

I'll be posting throughout the week showing you my progress but also (hopefully) sharing some freebie downloads and probably a few things you can pick up through creative Etsy shops out there too.  You can check out A Bowl Full of Lemons to get some of those ideas now!

I'll be linking up over at:



Happenings In this House

Wow!  Another week has flown by and it's time to show (and tell you ) about some "Happenings in this House"

First, I wanted to give an update on my sister-in-law, Nora. 

(Isn't she Beautiful?)

She did have surgery on January 16th.  When she went in, the doctor was pretty confident that he would be removing the entire left lung but God had a miracle in the works!  When all was said and done, they "only" had to take the upper lobe where the tumor was sitting.  They did not have to break any ribs and she did not end up in ICU nor did she have to have a breathing tube left in after surgery - all things they expected to have happen.  Of course, they did a biopsy of lymph nodes to find out if it had spread . . .the doctor let them know before she left the hospital that everything was clear!!!  She goes back soon (if I remember right, it was 3 weeks after surgery, so soon sounds good!) for a scan to look for any other cancer; than she goes back in 6 months and than annually, I believe.  The type of cancer she has does come back sometimes which is why she'll have that annual scan to make sure nothing is popping up anywhere but at this point, there won't be any chemo or radiation!  It's just amazing!

And now, here are some photos from our week:

Playing trains with dad - Darryl built "tunnels" out of mega blocks while they were playing so now, all week, Josh has been trying to build them too!

One of Josh's favorite places to sit has always been on the arm of the couch looking out this window.  I can't rearrange my living room because he would lose "his window".

Nate and his (almost) always happy face.  He loves the camera!

The rolling of the eyes is a new thing he's doing - he does it when he is being silly.

"I've got my snack and I'm ready to go" - Nate makes some very funny faces sometimes! 

The boys had some laundry basket fun one day.  Nate LOVED riding in the basket and Josh LOVED pushing.  But Josh did NOT want to ride LOL  They all laughed and laughed and laughed during this whole play time

See, he's laughing :-)

Another night, they played "Under" and "Over" - the Under part (Josh crawling under Darryl) was easier than the "over" part :-)  But they all had fun!

Nate is stylin'!  hahaha  And yes, that is a dog toy, one of his favorites :-)

A couple of fun stories to share!
Lately, when Josh is playing, he will stop all of a sudden look around, put his palms up in the air and say "Whereisit?" "Whereisit?" "Whereisit?".  Most of the time I cannot figure out what is "missing".  Today, though, he was playing with his tool bench when he started asking that and pointing to one of the pegs where the tools hang - he was looking for his hammer.  A while later, he was playing with some other toys when he came running over to me with the hammer and said "SEE!!!" and than took it to his tool bench.  It was just so cute!!
Than, his other "new" word is "ewwwwww" :-)  We had fried rice with dinner and he kept saying "ewwww" and throwing it on the floor.  I guess we are little dense because it took us awhile to figure out that he wasn't being silly but rather was actually telling us he didn't like it LOL  He wanted "Cheeeeese"  (Mac and Cheese) instead.

Nate surprised is recently.  We were sitting at dinner one night this week when Darryl looked at Nate and asked, as we both do, "Would you like more rice?" (Or whatever is for dinner) and Nate said "yes".  Just like that LOL  We both looked at each other and said - "did you hear what I heard?" hahahaha

So there we go!  That's our Happenings for the week!

Valentine's Units and other Teaching Helps

It is hard to believe that we are looking at the beginning of February already! I wanted to share a couple of February Units that I'm using to plan our February lesson plans! 

First, here is a great Valentine's Unit from one of my favorites,  Musings of Me.  She does such awesome work and is so willing to share.  Make sure and check out her entire blog because she shares a multitude of ideas.

Than, Moo Moo's and Tutos has supplied another unit based on the letter "H" (for hearts).  She also has a great blog so check out her other posts for inspiration in other areas too!

Than, 1+1+1=1 shares her Valentine's Sensory bin.  We are still playing with our winter bin, but I'll have pictures soon of our February Bin!

Than, a friend shared this link to Story Time for Me.  I checked it out tonight and loved it.  There are different age levels (I didn't dig through the site yet) - I found ages 1-4 and 4-8.  Josh and I sat and listened to two different stories and he really enjoyed watching the story being told.

I'm always looking for different ways to interact with my kids and this is just simple way to do something with reading.

Snickerdoodle Muffins

Talk about some sweet, yummy goodness!  I was a little hesitant to try this recipe I've had for awhile because of the most recent HORRIBLE new recipes I've tried but, it was laying on the counter, I had all the ingredients, and it really did sound good.  I'll just say that these are a little bit of heaven on earth.  If you like Snickerdoodle's and you like muffins - you will LOVE these!!  My husband has told me that these are the best things EVER and I can make them every single week . . .forever!  And, honestly, they are that good. (I found this recipe over at Oopsey-daisy)

Snickerdoodle Muffins

Muffins

2 c. flour

¾ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. cream of tartar

¼ tsp. salt

½ c. butter, melted

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Topping

1 c. sugar

2 T. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Either butter a 12-cup muffin tin or use cupcake papers.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In another bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Stir until combined.  Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix lightly with a fork.

Fill the muffin cups with batter.  Top each muffin with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.  It can be applied heavily.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

My Notes: 

* I did not use muffin cups but next time I would for this simple reason, the cinnamon/sugar topping sunk into a lot of the muffins so, when I took them out of the pan, some of that goodness stayed behind.  With the liners, you could lick the paper :-)  hahaha

* I think I over filled my muffin tins - I filled them about 1/2 full and some of them kinda ran over so next time I"ll put a little less in each one and make more muffins

* Today, with making 18 cupcakes, I put 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the topping on each muffin - you think it is alot but you'll want ever bit of that goodness on the top :-)

I'm linking up over at Comfy In the Kitchen!