Friday, April 30, 2010

Is it really May?!

Well April has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Life has kept me so busy that blogging has been the last thing on my to-do list. I could have an up to date blog, but my husband and children like to eat, and clean clothing.  Okay so I like the clean clothing...my three year old could care less. ;)
I have come up with a few things that help me to multi task.
1. A mother must always be prepared when going out with her children. So while we are in the car I have a diaper bag, stroller, first aid kit, blanket, jumper cables...you get the idea...but sometimes you need seasonal things too. So in the winter I have extra hats and gloves, ice scraper, and other winter like needs in the car. Now that the weather is warming up and we are visiting a lot of parks I came up with a "park kit". It's a basket that I keep bubbles, chalk, bucket and shovel, ball, and a picnic blanket in. Now we are always ready for a quick trip to the park. These things ended up in the car anyway, so now they have a proper place (instead of under the seats).

2. Since we are at the park so often we are getting really dirty. Well I'm not really getting that dirty, but J sure is! My washer and dryer are in the master bathroom. So while J is soaking in the tub I sit with my stain stick and get out grass stains. Might as well get the dirt out of the clothing while I get the dirt off the boy! Even if your washer and dryer are not close to your bathroom you could still do this. Just bring the basket of clothing that needs to be spot checked (that would be most of my sons clothing) into the bathroom with you. I also fold clothes, clean the bathroom, and even read J a book. Not all at the same time - I'm not super mom!

3. Another thing that happens in the warmer weather is rain. Rain = Mud! Mud must have a magnetic pull that little boys can't stay away from. I had a shoe holder in my closet that I was not really using. It's more like a shoe cubby. Anyway it was taking up space and all the shoes ended up by the front door. So I just moved the shoe cubby down next to the front door. I put a lamp on it and it became a cute little table that works double duty. Now everyone takes their shoes off when they walk through the front door and puts their shoes in an empty cuby. My carpet is a lot cleaner because of this. Oh, and on a side not I hate carpet. You can never get it clean enough...sorry just had to vent a little.
These are just a few ideas that have made my week a little easier. Hope you get a chance to enjoy this warm weather...oh and don't forget to take your shoes off when you go back inside! :)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Bedtime Stories

I thought I would share a few of the book we are reading to J before bed. The first is "I'd Be Your Hero, A royal tale of godly character" by Kathryn O'Brien and illustrated by Michael Garland. It's about a little boy who imagines the adventurous life of a hero. The mother plays along and uses the opportunity to admire her sons godly character traits. Each page also has a verse from the bible that goes with each trait. It's on Amazon.com for $15.95 and they also have the princess version for girls.
 The other book that we have been reading from is "The Jesus Storybook Bible, Every story whispers his name" by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. This book is filled with wonderful bible stories that are so beautifully written, and everyone can understand them. My version also came with the entire book on CD. I keep the CD part in my car, and we listen to it as we are driving around town. This book is $11.95 at Amazon, but I don't think that's the version that comes with the CD. I got my book at our local christian book store.
Reading stories to my son is such a special time that we have together at night. My husband and I take turns reading to J, while the other puts baby N to bed.
I hope you get a chance to read these books. They also make great gifts for children. I'm sure the parents would be happy to have one less plastic toy in their home! :)
www.amazon.com

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Carrot Cake for Easter

Happy Easter! We are off to our friends house for an Easter Egg hunt after church. I'm bring the dessert and thought a carrot cake would be perfect for the Spring. I found this recipe at www.allrecipes.com and added my own spin to it.

Carrot Cake
4 cups of ground carrots
2 (15 oz) cans of crushed pineapple (drained)
1 and 1/2 cups of vegetable oil
2 cups of sugar
6 eggs
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of coconut
1and 1/2 cups of raisins

1. Preheat your oven to 375 deg. and then grease and flour 2 round cake pans. I also like to place some parchment paper at the bottom of my pan. It just gives the cake a nice finished look once it's baked.
( Please pay no mind to the pasty white arms...the flash was on, and ummm it's been a long Winter)
2. Peal and grind four cups of carrots. Here's a tip...so you don't have orange hands grate the carrots with plastic gloves on or even a plastic bag over your hands will work. Also laying down something to protect your counters from getting stained is a good idea.
 3. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients. (add the raisins last)
4. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 45min. or until you can pull a tooth pick out of the center of the cake without anything on it. My pans were looking a little full before I put them in the oven, so I put the extra batter into a muffin pan.
Make sure to add water to the empty muffin cups.


Now for the supper yummy cream cheese frosting!!!
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese
1 and 3/4 cups of powered sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (not the fake stuff please)
1 and 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1. First put a small bowl and the beaters to your hand held mixer in the freezer. You want them to be nice and cold when you mix your whip cream.
2. In a small bowl (the one you had in the freezer) beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.
See this is what it should look like. :)
3. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, powered sugar, salt, and vanilla. Beat this mixture until it's smooth.
4. Fold in the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream carefully!
5. Chill the frosting until you are ready to frost your cake.
It's okay if there are some lumps in your frosting...it gives it that homemade look. :)

I also tried to add some "carrots" made out of store bought frosting. They look more like orange peppers! Oh well I tried. ha ha!
 I realized that I had pealed too many carrots so I just chopped them up and made some ranch and dill dip to go with them. It made a great addition to our dinner that night.


Ranch and Dill Dip
Ranch (sold in powered form)
Sour cream
Dill

I just put about half a cup of sour cream in a small bowl. Then about a tablespoon of the Ranch powder goes on top along with a sprinkle of dill. Then I mix it up cover and let it chill in the refrigerator until dinner is ready. See easy!
Hope you have a blessed Easter with your Family and friends.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Thankful Thursday

It's Thursday again...time for me to reflect and thank God for all He has blessed me with!
1. I'm so thankful that the weather is starting to warm up. We made it through another winter!
2. I'm thankful for the mothers group that I am a part of. It's so encouraging to have a group of women to bounce ideas off of...and just to know that I'm not the only one going through things.
3. As always I'm thankful for my wonderful husband! He brought home a yummy box of chocolates all wrapped up with a bow ~ just because he loves me. Yah, he's the best!
4. This one is silly...but I'm thankful that J has finally started potty training. I'm so proud of him.
5. Since I bragged about one I need to brag about the other...N is now able to sit up by himself. My boys are getting so big. :)

Colossians 3:15
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Wonderful Water

Water is such an important part of our daily lives...and I just don't drink enough of it. I'm always running around taking care of my children, our home, and everything else that I forget to take care of myself. oops! Then I wonder why my head hurts and I have no energy at the end of the day. Hmmm dehydrated maybe?! |I've tried fancy water bottles thinking that I would drink more water that way. The only problem is that I would forget to fill it up, or forget it all together.  I also get sick of the bland water after a while. Let's face it...plain water is just not that much fun!
So the other day I had some ladies over and made a pot of coffee and filled up a pretty glass pitcher with ice water and out a few lemon slices in it. Everyone drank the coffee (except me, I'm not a big coffee drinker) and did not touch the water - figures right. Throughout the day though I kept going back and filling up my glass with the lemon water. It was so good and refreshing! By the end of the day I had just about finished up the entire pitcher of water. Yay for me! So I keep filling up the pitcher and putting fresh slices of lemon each morning. It's amazing how much better I feel just from drinking water.
Give it a try! You might find yourself drinking more water too if it comes from a pretty glass pitcher with lemon slices (or lime, or even orange slices would work)