Back in the Kitchen

Hi everyone!

I know it has been a long time since we have been in the kitchen and sharing what is going on.  Life has been crazy busy and I am about to introduce some of the craziness right now!

I have been working on my very first Ebook(!); The Bunny, the Egg, and the Cross.  It is a basic program for parents with kids ages 2-6 (or even up to 8 or 10) that covers the Easter story from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday with a craft and short devotional each day.  There are also 2 extra crafts to show your children how the Easter bunny and Easter eggs can be applied to the Easter story as we know it.

I was inspired to write this book after using Truth in the Tinsel with my kids over Christmas.  They loved the short easy crafts and the little discussions that went with each day.  I searched madly for something similar for Easter.  However, I didn't find anything, so, I went to work....in the living room rather than the kitchen for once!

So, without further ado, here it is:

Download the Ebook as a pdf printable file for only $4.99 just in time for Easter!!!


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Blessings to all!
Nadine

The Star Jar....

Okay, so Alicia's sons teacher had the coolest idea!  It is human nature to focus on the things in our lives that are hard, frustrating, challenging, aggravating, maddening, hair-pulling.....you get the idea.  So, what can we do to help teach our children to focus on the positive things in their lives?  Or to look at the positive things about themselves?

So, here is what we came up with!  An upcycled kraft peanut butter container decorated with paper and stickers from around the house.  Easy to personalize for each child!

And inside, there are large sized popsicle sticks for either you or you and your child together to write on all the things that they are good at, "stars" at!  I happened to have enough star stickers to put a star at the top of each popsicle stick!  (By the way, I was able to find these sticks at the dollar store for $1.50 as opposed to the $5 we paid last time at Michaels!)

So, what kinds of things do you do to encourage your children and promote a healthy self confidence?

Blessings, Nadine

Pinterested......are you?

Okay, so I am sure most of you know about Pinterest but what do we do with all the pins that we create?  Is anyone actually using them or doing anything with all the cool things we see?

I know for sure a few friends have tried things out.  My friend Deana, over at Little Pink Cupcakes made the really cool laundry basket tower for dealing with piles of unwanted laundry.  My friend Dot, over at Busted Button was actually the creator of one piece I found floating around on pinterest.  So, I figured it was my turn to do something.

My little guy and I tried out the homemade crayon recipe!  Who doesn't have kids and a million little half pieces of crayons?  But the question was, how good would these new crayons be?  Better than the not so great $1 pack of crayons from the dollar store or the cheap bin at Michales?  Good enough to compare to the $5 pack of crayola crayons?  Check it out...

 

First, you have to find all the bits and pieces, peel the  paper off of them, and break them into smaller pieces (a pair of kitchen shears can be helpful here!).

 

Next, you get your handy dandy helper....

Who beautifully fills small silicone muffin trays with the broken crayon pieces.

Preheat the oven to 235 degrees and bake for 15 minutes or until crayon pieces completely melted.

I found in our new convection oven that we didn't need a full 15 minutes, just keep an eye on it.

Once done, let the new crayons cool completely in the trays.  Once they are completely cooled, they can be popped out and used or packaged for sharing!

So, to answer my own question....yes, new crayons can be made out of old pieces in a relatively painless, cheap and simple way!  The cheap crayons don't do as well as their more expensive counter parts.  We had a few cheap crayons in the mix and they seemed to lose most of their color and the wax floated to the top.  We rubbed the cheap wax off the new crayons and they worked great after that!

Got any great ideas for making new crayons or what to do with them?  We would love to see and hear from you!

Blessings, Nadine.

The Green Pasta Experiment

Ok, so I admit it, it was my drawer.. but I'm sure you can all relate to that one drawer in your kitchen where everything ends up.. and by the way, I only have 3 drawers in the kitchen so the stuff has to go somewhere! As Nadine had mentioned, I did bribe her with lunch in exchange for her organizational skills.

Here is the recipe I saw on Pinterest and then later found on my friends Facebook status.  I kept everything relatively the same, however, I used rice pasta (to stay gluten free) and I added about 1-2 Tablespoons of basil/tomato goat cheese.

The picture is of the full recipe. The recipe was a great size for the two of us to be completely full after licking the bowls clean, I mean eating everything off our plates.  My one suggestion if you are planning on trying this one out, is to go light on the lemon juice.  I didn't have any actual lemons on hand so I ended up just using lemon juice from the bottle - we both found it on the verge of being too lemony..is that a word?  Lemony?  Well it us now and I'm sure you know what I'm talking about!

So would I try this recipe again?  Absolutely!  Do I think my picky eaters at home would eat this for dinner?  Absolutely not... I think it would be too green for my DH and well the kids aren't into the exotic green colour of the pasta.  But I have promised myself that one day I will convince them to love avocados just as much as I do.. speaking of avocados, I should share my guacamole recipe with you soon.. mmm so good!  Until next time,

Happy Eating!

Alicia

A Day Full of Randomness

Ok, so honestly, most of the week has been full of random inefficient  mostly unsuccessful days :)  Other than a few organizational genius events here and there!  But in all excuse making fairness, my oldest has been home with a chest cold all week and my little one now seems to have the stomach flu.  But despite all that......craftiness happened! 
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I got tired of everyone asking who the girl in the picture frame was! (I don't know, she came with the frame, honest!)   Why I had her in the frame still years after being given it, I don't know......


But it was all worth it because look at it now!
I cut out a circle of pink card stock and prettied it up with some scrapbooking accessories that have been lying around unused I have been dying to use for ages!

The glass was still intact (which is a miracle in my house) so after a good clean with some Bon  Ami I have a dry erase "To Do List" on my kitchen counter that can be updated easily and is in site for quick reminders!

The other randomness of today?

I took a few minutes to admire my always clean and organized bedroom closet....

And yes, the closet is ALWAYS this clean and tidy!  That's why I didn't get a picture that showed the mess on the floor all around it.  And no, the cupboard doors aren't really purple, nor are there really butterflies, bumblebees and fairies on the wallpaper in our awesome master bedroom.

Spent a little time on pinterest looking for a way to do my hair without having to brush it.....

We did a quick safety check around the house today....

We're good.  There will be no falls in our home today from a height of greater than 3 inches! Whew!  Thank goodness for that :)

Not sure how we ended up with this set-up but he seems to like it so I won't complain!


And then it was time for a daily adventure.  We adventured a whole 3 blocks in the car in the pooring rain to help a dear friend with some organizational issues...

So all of the things on the counter came out of that one drawer that

is open in the picture below here.  Now everyone has a junk drawer!  We discussed this to help make my unnamed friend feel better.

However, not everyone has this much junk in their utensil drawer!

But she bribed me with some delicious lunch to organize it for her!  I got so distracted by the food I forgot to take an after  picture to show everyone.  But don't worry, I'm sure my friend will post one when she shares the recipe for the Pasta and Avocado we ate for lunch.  Stay tuned!  And feel free to share with us any of you unproductive activities...