Too Cute Not To Toot

This first idea featured on  Sugar and Dots is a perfect addition to my birthday plans for the kids.  I've mentioned a birthday board before and the concept of a week of birthday fun . .. I'm slowly (very slowly) gearing up to get it ready to start with Josh's birthday.  I think this idea will be added to one of the days.

Thinking along the lines of Birthday and Christmas (don't hate me HA) decor, I saw this fabric garland over at Lucky Star Lane and just adore it.  There is not a tutorial but it should be pretty easy to make using the appropriate themed fabric :-)

My goal right now is organization so when I saw this idea over at The Thompson Tales for corner shelves I wanted to share it and remember it!

I fell off my wreath band wagon after I made my spring wreath.  I didn't mean to but I just had a hard time getting supplies - it's no fun when you live 40 minutes from the nearest Hobby Lobby!  I'm ready to make a new one though so when I saw this cute pumpkin wreath from Watch Me Daddy it inspired me to start over.  For the record, I kinda need a wreath to get me through until I can put up a pumpkin wreath . .. .

Speaking of needing another wreath . . .I saw this one from The CSI Project and think it would work great especially if I use Sunflowers instead of "spring flowers".

Happy Crafting!

K-4 - Adding in some fun

Welcome back to another installment of our K-4 homeschool fun.  It won't be long and I'll have to change the title to Preschool AND K-4.  I'm slowly gearing up for adding to more boys to the mix each day and, let me tell you, those two boys can't wait!   This week I've added to new things for everyone.  One, I added a morning snack time.  I got tired of feeling like I was feeding three boys for 4 hours every morning so instead, we have snack time at about 10:00 every day.  This is a planned snack.  This week we had Pop-tarts on Monday because the boys love them, Chips, Salsa, and grapes on Tuesday, Cheese cubes with pretzels "handles" and raisins on Wednesday, Chex Mix on Thursday and Pudding Cups on Friday.  I try to make sure that there is at least one thing each boys likes each day.  This has really helped out with keeping kids out of the kitchen all morning.  Two, I added a fun activity each afternoon.  It takes a little more planning on my part but that 3-4 o'clock hour seems to be the "bored" hour for the kids so this helps give them some guidance and gets them back into playing. I'll share pictures each week of what we do.

First up though, here are some photos from this weeks lessons.

 Every morning Josh and I start with his Daily Notebook which includes things like the date, writing his name, working in telling time, the weather, numbers, letters and shapes.  Right now I am trying to get him to do this on his own AND trying to get it to take only about 15 minutes instead of the 45 it takes him now!

 

Now on to our fun activities for the week, not that school isn't fun!.  Monday dawned a cold, grey, rainy day which messed with my first, outdoor plan but, the day was saved when the people I babysit for arrived with a HUGE container of playdough.  Six pounds of it to be exact.  Monday afternoon we got out the play dough and cookie cutters and got busy.  The boys played for 2 hours and we had to "make" them put it away at dinner time.  It was a huge success especially when Darryl came home and played with them. 

On Tuesday, we celebrated the Munchkin's birthday with decorating cupcakes.

 The boys made me laugh.  Josh decorated his cupcakes to the "nines" with frosting, sprinkles and peanut butter chips; took one bite and said, "Lets save the rest".  Nate, half decorated one and then said, "I don't like frosting and sprinkles" and only ate his other plain cupcake. Silly boys.  Oh, and Josh brought friends to the party - see the bear sitting next to him?  There were 3 others on the other side of the table ;-)

Yep, slave labor helping to clean up after sprinkle fun with cupcakes :-)  Actually, they asked to vacuum and I was not about to argue!

We also made Peanut Butter TP bird feeders.

 So, Nate, who I thought would love this project, just ate all of his peanut butter then had me actually make his bird feeder.  Josh, who I was afraid wouldn't like getting messy did the best and made his own feeder. 

 The boys found places to hang their feeders in the tree and now we'll see if the birds eat them!

Notice the peanut butter face? HA  He didn't eat his peanut butter until he was done make his feeder but he still ate a lot!  (Neither of the boys ate dinner . .. they had enough protein from the PB to last a week, I think)!

On Thursday, my husband was home from work so we took the day to work in the yard.  Our "fun" activity was just that - the boys helped, played and took lots of Popsicle breaks :-) I finally gave in on Friday and got the play dough back out since the boys begged every day to play with the "clay". 


Currently all of our homeschool curriculum comes from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Devotions, Quiet Time, God and I time = Discipline in a good way

Twice a year I start looking at how to get my quiet time back into my schedule.  It is not easy to make time to have daily devotions when you have a very active 3 and 4 year old in the house, let me tell you!  A few months ago, I tried getting up at 6:00 - figuring I would be able to get ready and have my quiet time before the kids got up.  That worked for one day and then my 3 year old started getting up at 6:30 . . .then 6:15.  I'm not sure if he heard me up or what but that took the wind out of my sail so I started getting up at 6:45 and just getting ready for the day.  Some days he sleeps until well past 7:00 and some days he is up with me.  With that said, I'm really feeling the need to get back into a Bible Study as well as reading my Bible daily.  I need it for me - for growth, for encouragement, for conviction.  I need it for my kids - to see me reading my Bible, to prepare me for the battles I fight throughout the day, and to help me keep my attitude right while raising two boys!  Not to mention that getting up at 6:00 is not my favorite thing but, I'm leaning back towards getting up at that time again and this time, embracing the fact that my kids will see me spending time in the Bible even if it cuts my time short some days because they have needs first thing in the morning (Chocolate Milk and Pop-Tarts just can't wait!)

The time is the easy part, right?  What will I study?  The top pick on my list right now for a Study is a book I started probably 2 years ago and then got to busy.  Well, I need it now.

I am picking this book back up because I am finding that it is easy to be negative all day long.  My perfect kids are pushing the limit right now and, before I can move to books on raising Strong Willed Children, I need to get my attitude in the right place :-)

From there, for Bible Study, I am waiting for Good Morning Girls to publish their next Bible Study which starts in September.  I think it will post this coming week.  I love the SOAP study (Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer) and have some new ideas for the observation section thanks to my dad - thinks like looking for all of the verbs, finding lists, picking out the nouns and more.  Things to help me focus on God's word.  I have other things to add like scripture memory, prayer time, and even journal time for my boys - I've wanted to start journals for each of my boys since they were born and here they are creeping up on ages 4 and 5.  No time like now to get started, right?

I'll let you know how I do once I get started!!! 

Some Things I've tried

Many times when I write this post, it is about ideas I've tried from Pinterest but this one is a combo of things I've tried from there as well as real life things.Lets start with the real life stuff:

This is my new "best friend".  I love sweet tea.  I make it and I buy it - it is so good.  Yet I know there is a ton of sugar in it (since I make it at home) and sugar substitutes do not work with sweet tea.  My dad at some of this Arnold Palmer in his fridge when I was at my parents house a few weeks ago so I tried it and was quite surprised by how good it really is to drink.  Don't get me wrong - it is not sweet tea but it sure is refreshing :-)

I've tried so hard to get on the "Greek Yogurt bandwagon".  I even went as far as to buy these dips thanks to a sale at the store AND a coupon which gave me two dips for $2.00.  It's a good thing because they both went in the trash.  Talk about gross.  Seriously.  I'm so done with anything greek yogurt.

Raise your hand if you love Arby's curly fries?  Arby's used to be my favorite fast food resturant years ago.  I loved the turkey deluxe with a side of curly fries and cheese.  I was so sad when the chain changed their menu and no longer offered my favorite sandwich.  Recently I saw these fries in the freezer section of my store and decided to pick them up for dinner.  They were really, really good.  Of course, you must have them with cheese sauce so I tried this recipe from Serious Eats - a fantastic recipe for cheese sauce and so easy. 

So, I tried a couple new recipes recently.  The first is for the chicken from Pia Recipes and is Baked Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken.  This recipe came highly recommended from a friend but when I made it, the chicken had very little flavor, did not brown up on top and was dry.  Then, I thought I would try this new green bean casserole dish from AllRecipes.com, which usually does not steer me wrong but this was not very good. 

Some success and some failure but what fun is life if you don't try new things?  :-)

Food Friday - Chocolate Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Pioneer Woman

I'm always looking for new cookie recipes and this one really did not disappoint.  The cookie has a fabulous chocolate flavor and each one is filled with lots of white and chocolate chips.  I was surprised by the amount of butter called for but it gives the cookie a great, rich flavor.  I will admit that my first few batches didn't turn out well . .. I found that I needed to refrigerate the dough for a bit to let the butter firm up before I baked them for the cookies not to become paper thin.  Also, I made them bigger then I normally do and they turned out better.  

Ingredients

2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups white chocolate chips, or more to taste
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, scraping the sides once. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, and then add in batches to the mixer, mixing until just combined after each addition. Gently blend in the white chocolate and chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop, add 1 tablespoon portions to a baking sheet. Bake until the cookies are done but still soft and chewy, about 8 minutes.

Let cool on a baking rack. Yummy!

 

Weekly Menu - Nothing exciting

I have nothing exciting to post about with this weeks menu.  No food prep, no stories, no events - nothing! So with that in mind - here's this weeks plan

Friday - I'm going scrapbooking for the evening.  I'm hoping to be out the door by 4:30 so I'll leave something for Darryl and the boys - probably some frozen pizzas :-)

Saturday - At the time I'm writing this, I'm planning to head over to my parents for the evening so the boys and I can attend church on Sunday.  That may change but for now, that is the plan.

Sunday - The boys and I will grab McDonald's as we leave town; for dinner . . .Maybe grilled cheese and soup.  I have a recipe for French Onion Grilled cheese so I may try that for the adults :-)

Monday - Honey Siracha Glazed Chicken, Roasted Green Beans, Rice and Rolls.  (Something new off of Pinterest - lets see if it is good!)

Tuesday -  Fried Pork Chops, Eggplant Gratin, Mac and Cheese (really for the kids), Rolls

Wednesday - Darryl will have practice so the boys and I will have something simple like. .. Frozen Pizza

Thursday - Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta, Salad, Garlic Bread

For something sweet - Peanut Butter Chocolate Dessert!

My New Planner

On Sunday, I mentioned in THIS POST that I had found a new planner but I was patiently waiting for it to arrive.  I was like a kid in a candy store going to the mailbox every day only to be disappointed until . . .yesterday!  The planner is exactly as it was shown on the website and I think I will get a lot of use out of it.  The planner comes from Picket Fence Publications .  .if you love it, I would order soon.  Based on last years sales, once they sell out, they are gone.

 My new planner, The Home Executive (sorry for the sideways photo - blogger was giving me issues!).  It is a soft covered, spiral bound planner.  It is small enough to fit into my purse (with is a Thirty-One purse skirt - so nothing huge), small enough to fit nicely on my desk, yet large enough to have writing room!

 Each month has its own two-page spread.  I love the full size calendar for keeping track of the entire month.  There is also a recipe included in each month and a place for notes. 

 Each week of the month also has a two page spread.  The left side has three columns that you can use for anything - one for each member of the family, one for planning, one for . .. well, anything you need!  The right side has a place for meal planning (the first colorful column), a place for a grocery list and then another blank column followed by a highlight column - a great place to write down fun stuff about the kids. What will I use mine for?  The first three columns will be for "Morning", "Afternoon" and "Evening" so I can list my to do list each day.  On the right side, the blank column is where I list school/field trip/ect notes related to preschool.

Finally it includes fun things like a page for birthdays, babysitter notes and Stickers!!!  These are super cute and will add some fun to certain events :-)

I look forward to filling it in starting with this week!