The Parenting Breakthrough: Real-Life Plan to Teach Your Kids to Work, Save Money, and Be Truly Independent by Merrilee Boyack


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A friend of mine told me about this book and said I had to read it. She loaned it to me and I am so glad I read it. It is full of so many helpful suggestions, particularly about teaching your kids to work. Like any parenting book, there were a few things I disagreed with or thought were a little over the top, but most of her ideas were extremely helpful. I thought the section were she listed by age what jobs kids should be able to do was particularly good. This book was definitely worth reading.




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The Mother in Me: Real-World Reflections on Growing Into Motherhood by Kathryn Lynard Soper

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book has been sitting on my dresser for several weeks. I was looking at the "clearance" books at Deseret Book and found it for $2.99. I vaguely remembered reading about it on some websites and thought it was worth picking up. I'm so glad I did. The other day I stuck it in the car figuring that since it was essays, it would be perfect to read when I am waiting to pick up at pre-school or piano lessons. I started reading it today while I was waiting at pre-school, read through baseball practice and finished the last couple essays after the kids were in bed. I loved it. It was the perfect encouragement for the stay at home mom. The essays were honest and real, but encouraging at the same time. There is something so comforting about reading that other mothers struggle with the same things you do. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it really only applies to moms, particularly moms of young children.



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The Forbidden Sea by Sheila A. Nielson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book was amazing! I can't wait for my girls to be old enough to listen to chapter books so I can read this to them. The story in this book follows a fairly typical fairy tale type pattern, until you get to the end. The choices the main character makes for her future are a little different than what you would find at the end of most fairy tales. I love the strength of the female main character in this book and I love what she learned about beauty and worth and how it important it is to recognize your own worth, whether those around you see it or not. There are so many great discussions you could have with daughters regarding this book. I checked it out from the library, but it is one I will be adding to my to buy list.




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Cleaning out the Closet

I have had sick kids since Friday, and I am about ready to scream.  I have been trying to make the best of it and finally tackled cleaning out my closet on Saturday.  I ended up with 5 garbage bags to take to D.I.  I am semi-horrified that I managed to get rid of this much stuff and still my closet is not empty.  I have such a hard time getting rid of clothes.  It is crazy because it's not like I feel any emotional attachement to them.  I just always keep thinking I might wear it.  This time I really tried to get rid of anything I don't regularly wear.  I found a couple of things I had completely forgotten about, a sweater that I wore to church on Sunday that is especially cute and I had only worn 2 or 3 times.  The entire time I was going through stuff I had to keep telling myself that getting rid of the stuff I don't or can't wear makes it so I can actually buy new stuff.  It feels great to have gotten rid of that much stuff, now the trick will be if I can stay on top of it.

Favorites

A friend gave the Paper Doll Game by eeBoo to my 4 year old daughter as a belated birthday gift.  This has got to be the best game out there for pre-school age girls.  It is so simple.  You are essentially taking turns dressing up your paper doll.  Games can be so hard for young children to grasp and this one is perfect.  The focus is really on taking turns.  There are no difficult rules to explain and it doesn't hurt that it is darling!  I have no idea where my friend got it, but if you are looking for it, you can go here. 

I ordered Hillary Lang's Kitchen Gnome Embroidery's for dish towel's here.   I finished my first towel and I love it.  My husband thinks I am strange, but I think the little gnome's are about the cutest things ever and I love the way the red trim I got to sew to the bottom of the towel's turned out.  The only thing I hate about these flour sack towels is that they require ironing.  I never iron, so the towel has not spent a lot of time hanging in my kitchen.  I kept trying to tell my kids and husband not to use it, it was just for decoration, but you can guess how well that lasted.

I spent yesterday making cupcakes for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet and I tried piping the frosting on for the first time.  I will definitely be doing this from now on.  I bought disposable piping bags from Michael's (used the 40% off coupon) and got a giant tip.  It cost a few dollars and saved me all kinds of time.  Frosting 3 dozen cupcakes would normally take forever and there would be problems with the knife sticking to the cake and the crumbs getting all over in the frosting.  None of that, slick and easy.  If you haven't tried it, you must, they turn out looking fancy and take you half the time and there is no messy piping bag to clean, just a plastic bag to throw away.

Valentine's Day Party

For Valentine's Day we decided to host a family dinner.  The rule was the food had to be heart shaped or pink or red.  We had a great time.  Here are some pictures of some of the food we ate:

 I made chicken patties and we cut a heart out of them with a cookie cutter.  One of my sister-in-laws made the most awesome flourescent pink mashed potatoes.  They will definitely be a stand-out in everyone's memory. 

 Another sister-in-law made these darling heart shaped jello's.  She also made rolls in a heart shape, unfortunately I didn't get a picture before the kids dug in and ruined the heart shape. 

For desert we had heart shaped chocolate waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and valentine sprinkles.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I saw a review for this book on a blog I follow. I then happened to see it sitting out on a display in the children's section at the library, so I grabbed it. I absolutely loved this book. I definitely plan on reading it to my kids. It is a simple story, the author describes as being inspired by Chinese fairy tales she read as a child. The author of the blog I saw the book on said that she loved the book because it illustrated values she wanted to teach her children. I agree! This book focuses on finding happiness and contentment with your life. It also illustrates the joy found in family. It was a quick and easy read and would make a great family read aloud.




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Football Valentine's Box

Coming up with a Valentine's box that is "cool" enough for a boy is not the easiest thing ever.  This one worked out to be perfect.  It was simple enough that my 3rd grader could really be involved in the design and because it was sports related, he was thrilled with it. 

Supplies:
shoe box
white electrical tape (could use masking tape also)
green construction paper
popsicle sticks
sharpie marker

First cut a hole in the top of the box for the Valentines to be dropped in.  Then cover the entire box with green construction paper.  Don't worry about making it perfect, when you are done covering the box in green paper you will take the electrical tape and cover the edges of all the paper.  This gives the box a more clean look and adds to feel of a real football field.  Use the popsicle sticks to creat goal posts.  You can glue them together if you want.  For speed and ease, we just wrapped electrical tape around the corners of our popsicle sticks and then used the electrical tape to tape them to the ends of the box.  Finally, I gave my son a sharpie and he went to town creating the field.  He loved drawing all the lines and trying to make it look exactly like his favorite team's stadium.  He even drew stick figure players and his own scoreboard. 

My visiting teacher dropped this off this weekend.  I have no idea where she got them, but I thought they were the cutest Valentine treat ever!  The best part was they are just regular glazed donuts, none of that nasty cream filling they put in some donuts shaped like this.

Happy Valentine's Day!



A New Cookie and a Favorite Dinner

I have to bring some cookies and recipe to share tonight for a church function.  It was the perfect excuse to try these fabulous babies from Sisters Cafe. 

The Sisters Cafe: Choco-kissed Cookies

submitted by Brittany - Sisters Cafe

adapted from: Family Circle magazine

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs

2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

48 Hershey kisses, unwrapped

Beat butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla in bowl until smooth and creamy, 3

minutes. Beat in eggs. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa, and salt. On low speed,

beat into butter mixture. Refrigerate 15 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into balls, 1 tablespoon each (size of a quarter).

Dip each ball into sprinkles, so one half is covered. Place sprinkle side up on ungreased

baking sheet, 1 inch apart. Bake until set, 9-10 minutes. Press an unwrapped Hershey

kiss into each cookie. Return too oven; bake 1 minute to set. Let cool slightly on sheet

on rack. Remove cookies to rack; let cool completely.

*If making M&M bites: roll dough into balls the size of nickels. Roll each ball in granulated

sugar then place on ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Bake 8-9 minutes then press

a single M&M into the center of each cookie. Return to oven for 1 minute.
 
 
My Notes:  Have more sprinkles than you think you will need.  I ran out and had to use pink sanding sugar for the final tray, it worked, but was not as cute.  These would be the perfect cookies to make with kids because they could unwrap all the candy and roll the cookies in the sprinkles.  Also, one small package of the Hershey's Hugs was more than enough.  I had 10 or 12 left over.  I think this would be really yummy with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on top too.
 
I realized last night that I made a dinner my entire family actually loves.  This is a very rare thing at our house, so I thought I would post it here, because maybe there are some others out there who have picky eaters and get tired of hearing the complaints.  It is pretty much a given that someone won't like what I make, so I generally just try to ignore the comments, but when everyone is happy with dinner I figure it is cause to celebrate.  This is another recipe from Sisters Cafe.  If you can't tell, it is a favorite around here.
 
Chicken and Dumplings


submitted by Erin (The Sisters Cafe)

3 c. cooked chicken, cut into large pieces

½ c. butter

1/3 c. flour

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

3 c. chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup (98% fat free variety works great)





Dumplings:

2 c. flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp poultry seasoning

1 tsp celery seed

¼ c. oil

1 c. milk


Blend butter, flour, salt and pepper in saucepan. Add chicken broth and cook until thick. Stir in cream of chicken soup and add cooked chicken. Put in a 9x13 pan. To prepare dumplings, mix all ingredients together and stir until moistened. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto chicken and gravy. Bake at 425° for 20-25 minutes.


We had this last night for dinner and it was the perfect thing for a cold snowy night.  I should have taken a picture, but I forgot and my husband to the little bit of leftovers for lunch, much to my son's dismay.  Of course tonight I am fixing a homemade tomato soup that I think all the kids will refuse to eat.  Oh well.

My New Love

My friend came to the door to pick up her girls from a playdate the other day and handed me this.  She said, "I have a little treat for you, I hope you like dark chocolate".  Let's be honest, I'm not too picky when it comes to chocolate, I generally enjoy it in all it's forms.  Until this moment, I would have said that I prefer milk chocolate, however, this little treat has changed me.  It is wonderful!  I have to admit, I have only recently discovered the joys of European chocolate and it definitely beats out my beloved Hershey's bars.  If you need to give a friend a special valentine, this is the stuff!

70's Fireplace Remodel

Here is the final product for my '70's fireplace remodel.  I am thrilled with it!  I despised the white lava rock!  The woodworking turned out exactly how I wanted and I am so proud of myself for doing the tile work all myself.  I have never tiled before and am excited that I did this with no help.  The glass tiles are exactly the look I wanted. 

A Crazy Life

My house is a complete disaster.  We are finally done with our fireplace remodel, but we have a few loose ends left to tie up before everything is back to normal.  My husband needs to wall mount the t.v.  I need to seal the tile and build some shelves so that the cable box doesn't have to hang out on the floor and I need to figure out where I want to hang all the pictures and stuff back up.  In the meantime, both my girls got a really nasty virus and passed it to me.  Then everyone got secondary infections, Brynne ended up with an ear infection, Paige got croup and I think both Paige and I ended up with sinus infections.  My girls have been completely miserable and as a result very needy and whiny and Paige had the steriod shot for croup which has made her completely grumpy on top of the sickness.  It is been nonstop crying around here.  I have to admit my patience level has been zero because I haven't felt good either.  We did happen to have a couple books from the library that we have loved, so although I would really like to post a beautiful finished product fireplace remodel picture, it may not come for a little while.  In the meantime, check out these fun princess books.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Laura Ljungkvist


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I saw a review for this version on a blog and I absolutely love the illustrations. I love the simplicity of the retelling. It is not nearly as scary as the Disney version. The ending was a little different, but I think I like it that way. We checked this out from the library, but I definitely plan on adding to our own library.




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Walt Disney's Cinderella by Cynthia Rylant


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I picked this up on our last trip to the library because I loved the picture and because I am a fan of Cynthia Rylant. I'm so glad I picked it up. I love that the illustrations are reminiscent of the Disney movie version, but re-imagined. I liked Rylant's retelling. Again it was fairly close to the Disney version, but enough updates to keep you reading.




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A Winter Craft and a Snack

Paige and I have been talking about what to do for an upcoming playgroup we are hosting and this snowman snack was one of the activities we have been planning on doing.  When I was at the grocery store this morning and the little boxes of mini powdered donuts were on sale, I decided maybe we could have a spur of the moment test run for our crafty snack.  Paige was thrilled when I picked her up from pre-school and told her the good news of the donut sale.  The second we walked in the house the project had to begin.  She and Brynne and I all got to work and created our masterpieces.  It only took minutes, but the smiles and powdered sugar little faces were priceless!  So here are the supplies you need:

powdered donuts (regular, mini's, or even donut holes would work)
pretzel sticks
chocolate chips (we used the mini ones)

For the play group, we think we will suggest the girls lay they donuts flat because they don't stay together real well, but it doesn't matter if you are eating them immediately, or if you are doing this with older kids, you could use toothpicks to make them stick together better.

My favorite Time Savers for the New Year

 I discovered this when I saw a video here.  I have been using baby powder so that I don't have to wash my hair everyday, but this stuff is amazing.  It has given me an extra day without washing my hair and I love it!  It is Rockaholic by TIGI and is called Dirty Secret Dry Shampoo.  The best part, I just so happened to find it in the salon at Wal-mart and it was buy one get one half off.  It was right before Christmas and I didn't have time to go searching at a beauty supply place or regular salon.  Wahoo!

 I know, these are nothing new, your basic Clorox wipes, but I have suddenly discovered that my kids are far more likely to do chores when I give them Clorox wipes to do them.  Don't ask me why that is so different, but I'm telling you, it works like a charm and they do a much better job.  Even my 18 month old will "help"  with a wipe.

 Okay, so I am a huge fan of Becky Higgins' Project Life.  I bought the kit last year and I have found that in 2010 I actually scrapbooked.  I didn't take a picture and journal about it every day, but I did it a lot of days.  I got a little behind at the end of the year and have been playing catch-up the last week or so, but I am amazed, I have a whole album full of stuff we did last year.  It is the perfect way to make recording your family's day-to-day life simple.  This is the first page in my new 2011 book.  I have been taking pictures and will have them all printed every few weeks.  It's no big deal if I get a day or two behind, I can just start where I left off.  You don't need to get out boxes and boxes of stuff to use it.  It comes with everything you need and if you want to make it fancier, you can add a few things here or there or you can just leave it alone.  It is amazing!

My biggest time saver of the new year is that I got to take off my air cast!  Happy dance!!!! (okay, so it is a very slow and careful happy scoot, but it is joyful).  My doctor told me yesterday that I don't have to wear the boot anymore.  I am getting around pretty good.  I am a little slow and rather limpy, but I can do it!  Happy new year to me!  The next step will be getting to wear real shoes!

2011: Better Organization, Really, this time I mean it!

I am a goal oriented person.  Nothing makes me feel better than to set and achieve goals.  My brother and sisters would consider me an over-achiever.  I am a planner, I like to plan out vacations, plan projects, plan meals, the works, but somehow staying on top of organization in my house seems to be just out of my reach.  There is nothing I hate more than going through closets and trying to decide what to get rid of.  It doesn't matter if it is my closet or my kids' closets, so they are constantly overflowing.  It doesn't help that I live in an old house with small closets but I should be able to get a handle on the situation.  For crying out loud, I am well educated and bright enough, I am even a hard worker.  The problem is with a husband, three kids and a dog, no matter how many times I try to organize things, it never stays that way.  I feel like since about the week before Christmas I have done nothing but throw things away.  You would not believe the amounts of garbage we have accumulated.  I am completely embarassed because my husband has become that person who sneaks around the neighborhood at 10 or 11 p.m. on garbage night looking for cans to fill.  I remember when we first got married we would watch out our window as one of our neighbors snuck around in his pajamas filling cans and we would laugh and laugh about how awful that was and now look at us!  Seriously and do you know what we have been filling the neighbors cans with all month?  Rocks!  I am not even joking.  You know all the awful lava rocks that were covering our fireplace?  They had to go somewhere and it was into all our neighbor's half full cans.  Lovely, I know, but I digress.  The problem with my organization is not entirely that I don't throw away, the real problem is junk is continuously coming in.  How do you fix it?  Any amazing ideas out there?  I am bound and determined to work my way through this house and junk more than I have ever done before, but how do I keep it that way?  Here's what I started with today:

For the entire month of November I had to have help everyday with my kids.  I have never been so embarassed.  Friends and family came in and helped me get my kids dressed, but they couldn't even get the drawers open.  Rather than have anyone see the drawers, I would try to make sure my husband picked out clothes for the baby who can't dress herself yet and put them on the bed.  Seriously, pathetic!  So a few days ago I cleaned out all of the clothes for my two daughters and got rid of a ton, boxed a bunch of outgrows up to put in the storage room and I thought I was set.  Now this morning, my 4 year old is complaining that the drawers won't shut, there's too much stuff.  AGAIN!  It hasn't even been a week and I haven't bought any clothes!  Is it just the folding?  Do I have the worst furniture ever (okay, so that could be part of the problem).  Someone tell me how you stay on top of it!

I am absolutely determined that 2011 will be the year that I SIMPLIFY.  Send me all of your tips, PLEASE!