Valentine's Crafts for Kids

              

There are tons of ideas online for some great crafts for your kids. Right now favecrafts has a free download for their 21 idea book for kids! Looks like a lot of cute ideas with stuff you probably have on hand.

Jello for today

We're a little under the weather here at our house so I'm thinking I'll be whipping up some jello. My aunt makes this great jello dish for our get togethers so I thought I'd share it! One of my favorites and definitely a kids favorite as well!

Raspberry Pretzel Jello Salad

Crust1/1/2 c. crushed pretzels (I put a bunch in a ziploc bag then crush them with my rolling pin)
3/4 c. melted butter
3 T. sugar

Crush pretzels and add butter and sugar. Pat into a 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Let cool before you add the other layers. You can do this part the night before if desired.

Middle
1 8 oz. cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
1 8 oz. tub cool whip

Blend cream cheese and powdered sugar together. Fold in cool whip. Spread on top of cooled crust.

Topping
1 large pkg. raspberry jello
2 c. water
12 oz. frozen raspberries

Boil water and mix in jello. Let cool slightly then add the frozen raspberries. This sets the jello. Pour on top of cream cheese mixture and spread around evenly. Put in fridge to set for at least an hour before serving.

Organizing my home!

It seems like such a long process to get everything organized in our home but I'm just taking it bit by bit, room by room and we're getting there. This is my project this week.

This is where it's going...scary I know. And I had to take two pictures cause I couldn't open the door all the way for you to see everything (how embarrassing).

We have this little nook area in our home and it's great for our computer deck but lately our little 2 year old has been all over it, pulling out EVERYTHING! So we're moving it down stairs to our extra bedroom which is a DISASTERS! This is going to be a big project with lots of cleaning, sorting, and throwing away! I'm hoping to work on it this weekend...I'll be sure to update you the after pictures!

My plan - this is going to become the reading area for the girls. I'm very excited for this. We're going to move their little book shelve (which I someday hope to paint when it warms up outside) out here, and I'm going to make a cover to go over the bean bag to match the area. On the wall I'm going to frame some book pages from one of their favorite books (not sure which one yet, there's so many to choose from!). I'll be bringing you updated pictures Monday so be sure to check back!

I’m participating with @orgjunkie in her 29 Day Organizing Challenge during the month of Feb. and you can to! http://bit.ly/ddpVMV

Dinner Date

One thing that I've found to be my favorite is baking in the kitchen with my husband. I do know some couples struggle with this but I really have enjoyed it. So for our date this week...we're making a tasty treat to share! Find your favorite recipes and try it out together (maybe go for something new!). This is great especially for those couples with children at home...send them to bed early and enjoy you're evening alone!

Remember:

 "Stressed spelled backwards is Desserts"

Time to get going!

Wow I've really let things go lately but NO MORE HEATHER! I'm back and ready to post everyday with some excited things!!

I wanted to show you my latest project that I'm working on! Ear warmers...I'm so excited that we finally got some snow!! These will be put to good use!

I'm now making ones for me and my other girl! We're going to be matching! Tutorial will come when they're all done!

Be sure to keep checking back cause I'm going to be putting up some cute Valentine's ideas for the whole family!

Bird Feeder

As we were leaving the house the other day, Megan was enthralled with all the birds. So I thought lets bring them to our house so she can watch from the window, so we made bird feeders today! She loved just planning in the seeds while mommy did all the work:) but that's how two year olds are which was just fine with me.

So first gather all your supplies (I'm sure you have most of it on hand, the best part!). You'll need a toilet paper roll (I used the card board from an empty wrapping paper that I had left over from Christmas), peanut better, bird seed and string.

First and most important, make two holes opposite of each other to thread the string through to hang it (forgot to do this the first time...makes for a bigger mess:0 )

Then spreed peanut better all over the outside of the card board.

Roll in the seeds...

 And you'll have you're bird feeder to hang outside! I'm sure all the birds are going to love this!



Good Morning Shake

So I have to say I love having shakes in the morning. They just add a little bounce to my day and my 2 year old is obsessed with them! So I wanted to share my mom's recipe that she's been making for years (aren't mommy's just wonderful! I can't wait until my kids think that!).

Fruit Smoothie

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 1/2 tablespoons dry milk

6 strawberries, frozen

2 apricot halves, frozen

2 slices bananas, frozen

flavoring (vanilla, orange, coconut)

1 pkg sweetener

Mix together well in blender.

Now you can do whatever fruit you'd like instead of what's listed. I just use whatevers in my freezer. Remember bananas are powerful so don't add to many of them. Also, I do orange flavoring, that's my favorite...it kind of takes the place of orange juice in a healthier way!

Enjoy! (I secretively can't wait for summer so I can make these more often and sit on the porch with my girls!)

Color Time

My two year old just loves loves loves to color...she's always asking to color. I found this way cute link for letters to print and color. I just printed out her name and let her color away!! Simple and easy for days like this!

It's Monday - Turkey Roll Ups

Time for a new recipe!! I love new recipes especially tried and tested ones!! So here's one for you!
There are so many different things you can do with these, we add chicken sometimes and I've also put corn inside as well! I've never put the bread crumbs on but that might be something new for us all to try. All very yummy and easy to whip together.

Turkey Roll-ups

1 can turkey (or 1 ½ cups cooked and diced)

4 oz cream cheese
bread crumbs
16 croissant rolls

Mix turkey and cream cheese with fork until well blended. Place large 1 Tb of mixture on top of triangle. Roll up in croissant roll and cover in bread crumbs. Bake at 375 degrees for 9 minutes. (can serve with cream of chicken soup for sauce). Mashed potatoes goes great as a side dish!

Stress!

Today is my day to vent about being a stay at home mom. I think we all have those days where we think to ourselves is it worth it? Can we really afford for me to stay home? And today is my day...it's been a very rough few days for me with many highs and lows and I'm sorry I haven't posted the last few days. I had the opportunity to work from home and didn't receive the job:( my heart broke and I seriously could just crawl up in a ball and cry all day. We struggled keeping me home with the kids and trying to get my husband through school. Today I've decided we need to "just keep swimming". I believe that's going to be my motto through these hard times. We can do it and we will do it!

Colored Bubbles

I just loved this idea that I found and it now has me wishing for warmer weather even though just last week I was wanting snow:)

It's simple to pull together. Just grab some of your bubbles (the dollar store kind will work but you might need to make them more soapy. We just add dish soap to ours.) and put a few drops of coloring in them. Then just just blow as normal!! Can't wait to try when the weather warms up!!




Thanks "Art is Basic" for the great idea!

Cream of...

This is the perfect option for all those recipes that call from cream of (chicken, mushroom, celery and so forth). It's a healthier and cheaper option and once you make it, it's going to last you awhile.

Cream of...

2 cups moo milk
¼ cup corn starch
¼ cup (or less) instand\chicken bouillon
2 Tbsp dried onion flakes
1 tsp basil leaves
1 tsp thyme leaves
½ tsp pepper

Combine all, mix well. Store in air tight container

to make:

1 c. condensed soup

1/3 c mix
1 ¼ c cold water
combine in sauce pan, cook – stirring until thickened. Add to recipes as called for.

Home Made Soap

So I went on a little adventure and decided to try and make our own hand/body soap! It wasn't too bad just a little busy but who cares if it's messy when it's just soap, it cleans everything it gets on, bonus!

So you start with just a bar of soup which I had on hand from some of the freebies that I get, start grating away. I ended up doing two bars because I doubled the recipe, I didn't want to have to do this multiple times. You need 1 cup of the bar (any brand will work great). Then you'll need 1 Tbsp of Glycerin, I got mine from my wonderful mother but I've heard you can also grab it at Target. If you don't see it on the isles ask your pharmacy, they might have it behind the counter. Next, you'll need 10 cups water.
After you've grated your bar combine it all in a large sauce pan and heat on medium until soap has completely dissolved. I then allowed it to cool completely before transferring it to my jug for storing. (it will thicken the long it cools, you could even let set over night).

I didn't have any cute storing containers for my soap so I just cleaned out a milk cartoon and put it in there. I didn't have any funnels to make this an easy process so my mom and I put our heads together and came up with this:)

 I just punched a hole in the bottom of one cup and used another to scoop it out! Worked great!! I now have a TON of soap stored and ready for when we run out!

The Shower Head - Clean at last

Who doesn't love to take a shower? It's seriously my time to relax and I feel so good afterwards. So I wanted to get the best out of my shower and that's not going to happen with the head looking like this.

So I started searching for something to clean it. Guess what they said, vinegar! I swear everything says vinegar and baking soda is the magic for cleaning anything. So I'm putting it to the test. If it can clean that crap off mine it's will work for any ones!
I just filled a bag with vinegar and tied it on with a rubber band! As easy as that...

Wow check that out! Wonderful...now I'm off to shower!

At Home or In Town...you choose

So today I thought I'd list two different date ideas for this weekend. For us it's easier to have a date at home since I'm nursing but ever so often we need to get out too. So take your pick...

At Home

I've been thinking a lot that my husband and I don't get enough time just to talk. With a two year old running around and a three month old that loves attention it's hard to focus on each other, so this date is geared for taking the time to talk.
Before we got married we had this great book that listed tons of questions you should ask before getting married, it was great! But I started thinking, what about after we get married? There's certainly more questions to be answered...so I started looking and found this great list. It's from the dating divas and I just love it! All you have to do is print and clip. You could even add them to a cute little jar to pull out of. Imagine this by candle light, really getting to know each other! Perfect

In Town

I love the idea of a restaurant crawl and it works no matter where you live but add a little twist...each place has to be somewhere you haven't been before! Find a new place that just opened or one you're been wanting to check out! Simple and easy!!

Hope you all have a great weekend and find some time for each other!

Pantry Organization

So I'm not the expert when it comes to organization but it is a love of mine. For my birthday this last year all I wanted was a day to myself to organize:) silly I know but I just love it. So for Christmas I received some boxes for my pantry to organize. I was like a little kid on Christmas morning, I just wanted to play with my "toys"! So I took before and after pictures so you can see what I have done...and guess what, it still looks like this! I love that it's working for us!!

Before:

After: 

Highlights:

Here is where the kids food is...baby food in one and snacks in the other (perfect for my husband who always has a hard time finding a snack for our two year old!)

This shelve was the biggest improvement...the chip shelve! Finally I can see what we have!

And the awesome idea I snagged from Pinterest. Perfect for us cause as you can see we don't have a very big pantry and our kitchen isn't much bigger so this works GREAT!

Now all I have to do is label each container and it will be complete!

Valcanoes!

Check out the fun time we had making our home made volcanoes with just baking soda and colored vinegar!

Just spread some baking soda out on a tray (we used paper plates) and watch the volcano appear as you add little drops of vinegar on top!

Split Pea Soup

So I had a good friend from high school who was in need of some freezer recipes and that got me thinking that I need to add some good ones on here! If you have any of your own feel free to shoot them on over to me and I'll add them for all to see! (we can all use good quick freezer meal ideas!)

The first thing that came to mind is soups...especially for this time of year! They are so quick and easy and freezer very well. Here is my favorite Split Pea Soup recipe

1 ham bone
8c. water
1 lb dried split peas (= about 2 1/4c.)
4 medium carrots, cut to bit size pieces
1 medium onion
1 bay leaf

Rinse peas. Combine everything into pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 1hr. Mash some afterwards to liking (we like big chunks so I don't mass to much).

If freezing: divide into individule size containers. Allow to cool slightly before freezing.

(A ham bone is a flat peice of ham with the the bone still in it. I found mine at Walmart in the middle bins that they have, my mom gets her's at Sam's)