Food Friday - Butterscotch Magic Bars

Butterscotch Magic Bars
adapted from a friend 

One of the mom's made these bars for the "mom snack" at Friday School this last semester and I had to remove myself from the snack table or I would have eaten the pan.  I am a sucker for anything Butterscotch then add Sweetened Condensed Milk and, well, I'm sunk HA!  They are so easy to make and just so darn tasty! 

2 cups crushed graham crackers (about 1 sleeve)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into a pan that is lined with parchment paper and very well greased 8x8 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Allow to cool completely.

* A few pointers:
1) I am normally not one to use parchment paper but I learned from the mom who made these (as she had to pry them out of the pan) that these are sticky!  So parchment paper will save you a lot of work.  Once these had cooled, I just used the parchment paper to lift the whole thing out of the pan and set it on a cooling rack. 
2) These are not nearly as good warm.  They need to set up completely so allowing them to cool is the best thing to do.  Granted I may or may not have taste tested these well before they were cool :-)
 

Weekly Menu - The week with a Birthday Party

After months of dealing with my husband's stomach issues and him not being able to eat much of anything, guess who got an awful case of the stomach flu that had lasting effects past a week?  ME!  Uuugg!  I have so lost any desire to cook.  We are eating Cream of Wheat, Frozen Waffles, eggs, and crackers.  Seriously.  My "poor" kids are eating surviving on Mac and Cheese, Hot Dogs, and PB and J.  It just is not fun to cook when no one eats it!!  Darryl and I have always been normal foodies (meaning we don't eat weird stuff) but right now, we can hardly eat normal stuff!  Here's our menu for this coming week :

Friday - Darryl and I were talking the other day about how all of my "staples" are out of commisison right now - thinks like Chili, Lots of Soups, Sloppy Joes . . . . he can't eat any of them.  I miss them.  It would be different if my boys were 15 and ate everything I made but it seems kind of useless to make a huge pot of Chili that only I eat!  Anyway, I've decided to go ahead with Taco Night tonight.  We haven't had them in awhile.  Darryl can eat most of the taco fixings especially if I shred some chicken for him without seasoning. 

Saturday - We are celebrating Nate's birthday today with the grandparents so it is his choice - ready?  Mac and Cheese.  Yep, that is what he wanted.  Now, I am adding a little more to it ;-)  We'll add Chili Dogs with Chili from our favorite Coney Place by my parents.  Some chips and I'm going to make "Ken's Fruit Salad".  In thinking about Darryl, I'm going to have some cheese and crackers too. Of course, we'll also have dessert - cupcakes :-)

Sunday - I am planning to head to town after church to finish up some shopping so we'll have a roast, potatoes and Carrots right after church so I can hit the road.  I'm not really a "Sunday" shopper but our Saturday's are busy and by the time Darryl gets home, for me to turn around and go back to town - it just makes it too late.

Monday - I'm miss my homemade soups!!!  I think I'll make Chicken and Dumplings . . . .and bread.  Hopefully it won't bother our stomachs!

Tuesday - And what do I always make after Chicken and Dumplings?  Some homemade Chicken and Noodle Soup.

Wednesday - Breakfast :-)  Eggs, Toast, Hashbrowns, and fruit sounds good!

Thursday  - Oven roasted Pork Loin, Potatoes, Green Beans and biscuits.

Snowmen

Last year I saw this all over Pinterest last year and wanted to add this to my Christmas Decor this year:

I tried to be "sneaky" and just create this on the fridge but the kids caught me so I ended up with a little more than I bargained for :-)

 I created my snowman on the top of the fridge . .. but had help with the very last button . . .can you tell? 

 Josh then had to create his own snowman on the Freezer. 

 Finally, remember this from my Dining Room Christmas Decor?  Well, Josh and Nate worked together to create this snowman as well. 

All fun Christmas Decor!

Decorating for Christmas - The Dining Room

I have to say, I'm having more fun decorating this year and I think it is because I cleaned out all of my Christmas stuff back in July but totally forgot that I did it so when I unpacked stuff, I had so much less stuff and had room to add more and because I did it all once but left room to add little touches over the next few weeks. 

 This is one of my "new" fun things.  I decided to make the tree in the dining room "mine".  I picked up some pink, purple and silver ornaments and other decor to decorate it.  I do think that next year I will find pink and purple lights - I haven't found any yet - and add those.  I'm not usually a pink/purple girl but the dining room is a deep purple so I thought it would look nice :-)

 On my marble table sits two houses.  The gingerbread house is from Halmark and I don't care how many times I pack it away, the boys find it and bring it back upstairs so this tends to reside in our house year round.  It plays music and has flashing lights which makes it a huge hit.  I also have a Clayworks House which I love!

 The silver reindeer - I got them for a steal from Home Interiors; figured they would be junky but when I got them (years ago) they were beautiful and very "sturdy".  I've never found anything else like these two.

 The archway holds the adult stockings and I'm also using it to display the kids Bible Advent pictures. 

 This is Josh's creation - a very cool snowman.  There is more to this story but I'll save it for another post.  I will say that he looked at the previously blank wall and then looked at me and said, "Wow, mom, you built this plain wall just for me to decorate." 

 Last year the boys made these cute little trees :-)  I love having crafts that they made on display.

 Another craft from several years ago - Reindeer using hands and feet :-)

 What would Christmas decor be without bows ?  (Except . .. I think I need pink instead of red . . .or maybe purple . . .)

Finally the Table . . .just a simple $2.50 plastic tablecloth made beautiful by a red glass bowl filled with tealights.  Such a simple statement.

Homeschool Corner

This month, most of our Homeschool things will be based on our Christmas Activities.  I'm sharing our Book Advent activities on Saturdays in a post but everything else will show up here.  We've made  it through one week - this is what we did.

Our daily Grinch Countdown
This is the one thing I'm REALLY trying to do daily since it is, well, a countdown.  I've tried to keep this super simple (and cheap) but still fun for the boys.  The gist of it is simply that the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is broken up over 24 pockets.  Each day we pull a card, read the story, and pull out the item in the pouch.  The items include a little treat, a simple craft, an activity or a small toy.  I tried to plan ahead such things as going out to see Christmas lights or going to the movies to see something fun in order to make THAT the activity for the day.  We also have a Birthday and a Birthday Party to celebrate as well.  We normally do this every day after the extra kids leave - it is something fun to do before dinner and usually gives the boys something to do :-)

This is what we had this week:
December 1st - Opened their special ornament to put on the tree
December 2nd - Lego Men
December 3rd - Finger Tip Light Sabers (these were a HUGE hit!!)
December 4th - Make Door Hangers
December 5th - Magnetic Snowman Puzzles
December 6th - I had planned to take the family downtown to the Parade but two things happened 1)Mama got the stomach flu and 2)It is super duper cold so instead they boys opened . . .Matchbox Cars :-)
December 7th - See a Christmas movie at the Theatre
December 8th  -Tootsie Roll Bank (what is Christmas without one of these?)

After looking at what I wanted to get done in December, I decided that the best scripture Advent for us was this one :

Verge Network

I really liked the simplicity of it - just paper ornaments to color and hang out our little tree.  I have been wanting to pick up a copy of "The Jesus Storybook Bible" for awhile so this gave me a great excuse to do so (You don't need that Bible - but it does give you the option to use it by giving the pages that coincide with the ready that day).  We do this first thing in the morning before our book advent.  Below are some photos from our first week

I didn't take many photos this week - while the boys were coloring their ornaments, I read the book for our book Advent and then we moved right into our craft :-)

In my "December" Homsechool post I mentioned doing some unit studies . . . well, after looking at the items I have planned I realized that to add one more thing was too much for any of us so we are sticking with the Book Advent for learning; Grinch for Fun; and Scripture Advent for bringing us back to the reason for the season. 

Things My Kids say

* Phrases heard in our house while decorating trees: 1) "Mom, I need more hookers; I think about 5 should do it." 2) "Mom, are we out of hookers?" and 3) "Mom, there are sure a lot of hookers in this house today." That is all I have to say

* Nate informed me one day that he wanted Mac and Cheese and Spaghetti for dinner. I said, "Well, you must really love pasta!" to which he replied, "Mom, I don't like Pasta at all, I just like Mac and Cheese and Spaghetti."  

* I love how Kids don't always say words right and I seldom correct them - they will learn soon enough.  Josh was trying to fix something recently so he had to go get the "Pleasers"  . . also known as Pliers :-)

* Josh and Nate are very into telling things they remember such as Nate telling the store when "Dad and Josh were babies, Mom and I went to the jungle and saw a monkey with a hole in its head."  I can tell you, we've never been to a jungle nor have we seen a monkey with a hole in its head.  Josh was looking at photos from 2012 and asked me about one where Nate was crying.  I told him it was because his hands were so cold that they hurt.  He looked at me and said, "No mom, you don't know your photos.  He's crying because he was scared of the snow."  I hate to be the one to correct him but I was right ;-) LOL

* We have entered the "never" stage . .. such as . . "We have NEVER eaten that before" (even though we ate it yesterday), "We have NEVER done that before" (even though we did it last week), "You will NEVER be ready to  . . ." (even though I'm ready to do whatever in less than 30 seconds) and "I will NEVER get to do that again" (even though they get to do it tomorrow all over again) HA!

*The boys "discovered" the outside decorations that were "leftover" in the garage the other day and quickly started decorating.  I was informed that if we didn't use them all AND put the candy canes in the ground, it would NOT be Christmas.  Oh, and then they found the one strand of lights I did not use in the house and informed me again that they had to be used.  I'm so glad they love Christmas.

*Nate informed us that we needed to wash the truck windows because they were "rusty".  (umm . . Dusty?)

* We took the boys to see a movie and afterwards were talking about where to get dinner.  We mentioned Chinese food, which Josh wanted, but then we said we were sure if we wanted to go there.  Josh said, "Why?  doesn't dad want to eat dog food?"  . . ..I laughed so hard, why?  Because our dog's name is China so Josh will ask if we are going to eat at China's restaurant when we say something about Chinese . .. so to him, it makes perfect sense that it is "dog" food.  I should also say that to him, eating Chinese food is going some place where you get to fill your own plate AND you get ice cream when you go - since the only Chinese restaurant he has been to is a buffet :-)

Our Book Advent - Week 1

We started our Book Advent this past week - beginning on December 2nd.  This year, I picked only 15 books (not 24) in hopes we can actually do them all.  Weekends tend to have other activities so my goal is just Monday-Friday :-)  With that in mind, we do our book Advent in the mornings as our "Lesson" for the day.  This allows all three boys to take part in whatever activity we do that morning. 

December 2nd:

I found a cute Camel Craft on Pinterest (Just a photo) and thought it would be fun to start out with - a simple Envelope Camel.  Here is our Finished Product:

December 3rd:

To go along with "Dream Snow" we did a cute Snowy Windowpane  craft.  Here is our finished product:

I have to be honest, this was my favorite project this week.  They took more prep work on my part so that the boys could complete them but the whole "snow in the window" effect is perfect.  Also, the boys have asked to read Dream Snow every single night before bed. 


December 4th:

To go along with Mortimer's Christmas Manger we made Letter J Ornaments that looked fun.

So this was by far the favorite craft for the boys.  Glitter Glue rocks their world and we went through 6 bottles today ;-)  Through in some gems and life is good.  Ready?  This was a last minute change.  I had a totally different project picked out but just wasn't "feeling" it and didn't think the boys would get into it so I went searching for something else, came across this idea and ran with it . .. so glad I did.  Granted, I'm not sure the "J"'s will ever dry!

December 5th:

For this craft, I used my own imagination.  I had the kids draw a simple picture of a house and then we glued "snowballs" on the paper (cotton balls) to make our own Blizzard.

Lets keep it real - this project didn't go over nearly as well as I thought it would.  Josh just wanted to connect the dots he had made (while disobeying and drawing when I told him not to HA) and did NOT want it covered up with "snow".  Nate drew his picture and said, "I want snow but you glue it on mom" and the munchkin, well he loved it :-) LOL Oh well, they can't all be winners BUT Nate picked this book to read before bed so he at least liked the story.


December 6:

Today we made Christmas cookies.  I had the dough ready and the boys each cut out a few cookies of their choice; we baked them and then frosted them with decorations.

----We interrupt this week of book Advent due to the stomach flu----
Yep, I got hit with the stomach flu on Thursday afternoon and was done until Friday evening so we didn't read this book nor did we make cookies.  I have two "slots" to fill on our Grinch countdown so I'm going to add "Decorate Christmas Cookie's in one of those slots  . ..