You + Me

I'm back... I know life is crazy!! I usually put up a few things for Valentines but nothing huge.  This year taking down Christmas just didn't jive so I decided to make myself feel better by doing more Valentines!! :)
I saw this craft on Pintrest and loved it so here is my recreation of it.  And I will give you instructions on how to do it :)

Step 1: Use painters tape to add your stripes. I used 1.5 inch  tape so I spaced them 1.5 inches.

 All done.

Step 2: The pics are in the wrong order...  Work with me here :)  Paint your canvas in the color you chose.  While your paint is drying I traced this heart onto my felt and cut it out.

 Step 3: Glue your buttons on your heart.  I used Elmers clear glue.  I forgot to take a picture of mine while I was working so this is my friend Melanie's.  I would highly recommend gluing/attaching your heart before you do your buttons it will make the process easier. Lesson learned.

 Step 4: If you haven't already attached you heart to the canvas do so now.

Step 5: I used my cricut to cut the letters out in cardstock. I used my Xyron sticker maker to turn them into permanent sticker.  You could use stamps, stickers or vinyl to do these. I used what I had.  Happy Crafting!!

Chore Charts

So I have recently seen and been asked about kids and chores.  We are by no means perfect at this and my kids still fight us once in a while but for the most part this is a system that we have figured out and works for us.  We have 3 kids that are old enough to do chores. So we have a 3 day room rotation. The calender is labeled a,b or c each day.  They also have after dinner chore that goes with the same rotation.

Example:
A- Lainey: Bathroom
     Lilly: Piano room
     Gordon: Family room
B- Lainey: Piano Room
     Lilly: Family Room
     Gordon: Bathroom
C- Lainey: Family Room
     Lilly: Bathroom
     Gordon: Piano Room
Our kids are helped with the things they can't do by themselves.  I also went through and made lists of what is expected for each room.  We have a child that is very literal so having it written out for her and it doesn't change makes a big difference for her. When you first look at the list it may seem like a lot but with it being done everyday it makes things go quickly and they can get it done in about 5-10 minutes.  Here is an example of what is expected in a room.

Family Room:
Everyday:
Pick up floor
dust off surfaces
take out garbage if needed
Tuesdays and Thursdays:
Vacuum
Saturdays:
Vacuum
Wipe down dirty spots on walls
Wipe down baseboards

Our kids are paid for their chores with dimes.  Seems like not much but if they make their beds and do a few other things along with what is listed here they can earn about 3.50 a week. For a young kid that isn't bad.
Hope this gives you some ideas on how to get your kids to do their chores.

So Sweet!!! and Sour

So my hubby and I worked in a restaurant when we were teenagers. It was kinda like an old fashion American food. Chicken Fried Stake, Liver and Onions sorta place.  Years and years ago it was a Chinese food place and their sweet and sour sauce hung around.  It was so good to dip chicken fingers in!!  Tonight I made baked wontons.  I wanted something to dip them in. In the past I have continually made the ketchup, pineapple juice version in variation hoping to get a sauce I liked but to no avail. Tonight I started thinking about the sauce that we had at the Emerald.  My hubby was a cook so I asked him if he remember it. Nope. Sad face :(.... So I got on pintrest and searched most of what came up was the previously mentioned stuff.  I saw 1 recipe that looked different but I didn't have all the ingredients.  I found another that was promising but had a lot of ketchup.   I took the 2 and picked the parts I thought I would like and this is what was born!!

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar or rice wine

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp cornstarch 

1/4 tsp garlic powder

put pepper flakes in the bottom of the pan and heat till they become fragrant. Add sugar, vinegar, garlic and ketchup. Bring to boil. Mix cornstarch and water together and stir it in. Bring to a boil.  If it doesn't thicken add a little more cornstarch and water.

This almost seemed like a mix of the sweet chili sauce at Iggy's and a sweet and sour!!  I LOVE IT!!!  This is not my picture mine is lighter in color. I should be packing for our trip not blogging so.....

Faux.......

So our major trip for the summer is over and the kids start school in less than 2 weeks.  I am in the middle of a major hutch redo for my brother in law and his new bride. I have kinda run into a little problem and I am trying to figure that out.  So in the mean time I was going nuts without a project and reading way to many books.  I needed something to do big time!!  I have a whole bunch of antique windows that I have collected and they are just sitting around collecting all sorts of dust.  When I had the idea of turning one into a faux stained glass window.  I had this idea that I was going to use beach glass from the dollar store to do it.  Alas there was now beach glass at the dollar store so I picked up 4 bags of the round pebblish looking ones.  As I was driving home from the store I started thinking about it and wondering if I should try something else.  So after looking at a whole bunch of ideas now I can't decide what I want to do.  I always like feedback and opinions so I thought I would throw this up here.  I have at least narrowed down my ideas, I think....  Here are a few things I was thinking about doing.  Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.  I am pretty sure the window has lead paint on it so I will be dawning a mask and gloves and giving them a sanding on Monday and then I can't wait to get started.


Here was kinda the original idea, but I was thinking of doing some sort of pattern

But then as I looked at a few other ideas I kinda liked some of these.

A camping we will go...

My my my, it has been a LONG TIME!!!  I have had the blog on my mind a lot lately and have actually wanted to post! Live has been crazy busy!   The hubs and I each have a brother getting married. Today My M-I-L and Sister in laws did a shower for Rashelle.  I was in charge of the food and the decorations and providing the space.  Since we were doing a camping shower I decided to do dutch oven desserts.  It was raining and the oven had some issues but in the end we ended up with some scrumptious treats!  I was asked for the recipes for all 3 so I am gonna share them all here with you!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

	Topping		Cake Batter
4	Tbs. butter	1	yellow cake mix
1	cup brown sugar	1	cup pineapple juice
8	pineapple rings	1/3	cup water
8	maraschino cherries	3	eggs
		1/3	cup oil

Prepare Cake Topping: Melt butter in bottom of a 12" Dutch oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter being careful not to touch the sugar once it has begun to dissolve into the butter. Carefully place pineapple rings on top of the brown sugar, 7 around the outside and 1 in the center. Place a maraschino cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. Prepare Cake Batter: In a mixing bowl combine cake mix, pineapple juice, water, eggs and oil; mix well. Spoon cake batter carefully over the top of pineapple rings. Spread batter evenly to edges. Bake: Cover Dutch oven and bake using 10-12 briquettes bottom and 14-16 briquettes top for 45 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes or so in the oven with the lid cracked. Next run a rubber spatula around the inside edge of the oven to loosen the cake. To turn the cake out, first lay a piece of parchment paper across the top of the oven so it lays flat and replace the lid so that it holds the paper in place. Make sure you have an available lid stand resting on your table for the next step. Using gloved hands place one hand on the lid and the other hand under the oven and carefully lift and flip the oven over so the cake falls onto the lid. Rest the oven upside down on the lid stand and tap the bottom and sides of the oven lightly with your hand to make sure the cake didn't stick. Then lift the oven off the lid. The cake will be resting on the parchment lined lid and can be cooled this way or slid off the lid using the parchment paper. Allow cake to cool slightly before service. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream as topping. Serves: 8-10 Chocolate Lovers Delight 1 1/2 cup water 1 (10 oz.) bag miniature marshmallows 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1 chocolate cake mix; prepared as directed 1 cup light brown sugar 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips Line the bottom and sides of a 12" Dutch oven with heavy foil. Mix the water, cocoa powder, and brown sugar together and pour into the Dutch oven. Add marshmallows and spread them out evenly. Pour prepared chocolate cake mix over marshmallows. Sprinkle chocolate chips over cake batter. Cover oven and bake using 8-10 briquettes bottom and 14-16 briquettes top for 60 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream. Serves: 10-12 Raspberry Cobbler 1 cake mix yellow, white or vanilla 1 cup melted butter 2 boxes Danish Dessert 1 bag frozen or fresh raspberries Cook Danish Dessert according to filling directions and put in the bottom of a lined dutch oven. Sprinkle cake mix over top of the filling. Pour melted butter on top and bake in at 350 for about 40 minutes until top is golden and bubbly. I was going to post but my computer is apparently out of memory and won't let me load the pics off the camera.  Happy Dutch Ovening :)

Vomit.......

Warning this post may contain to much information of a vomitus nature. Yes I know that vomitus isn't a real word but I like it and it is my blog :). Consider yourself warned!! Also this post will contain no pictures as no one wants to see this!
So my eldest daughter who is 8 1/2 vomits a lot.  In the last 3 weeks or so we have had 3 episodes of her vomiting.  Let me just say that she is the worst when it comes to keeping it contained.  I have been projectile vomited on multiple times.  I do not handle this well. I do hope that she never takes up drinking because she doesn't handle puking to well.  If the Hubby is home it is his job, mostly because he would rather clean up 1 pile of puke rather than 2!  We are trying to figure out what causes this.  We usually lean towards dehydration which she seems to get dehydrated at the drop of a hat.  I am also wondering if emotion plays into her vomiting incidences.  School started 2 days ago and we are still in the thrill stage.  She seems to also have issues with eating to much junk.

So here is the point of this post.... Do you have any children that do this?  She is a very healthy child otherwise.  Any tips or advice would be great. We are starting a food journal for her, and we are going to start monitoring how much water she is drinking.

When Life gives you lemons, make Lemonade... No really

See that thing on the side bar that says "Tip of the Week"?  Yes you mean that tip that has changed oh 1 in the entire time?  Yep that's the one!!  Well this post was going to be a little tidbit for there but the more I thought about it the more I had to say.  Lemons!!  Lemons are great little buggers and are really pretty useful.  If you are anything like me I run across recipes that call for fresh lemon juice or lemon zest and I don't have any.  La sigh :(.  So usually the next trip to the store I end up picking some up and then they sit because I can't remember what I was going to use them for.  So then after about a week or so the skins start to look a little sad.....

This is where the tips come in.  My husbands grandfather is a chef.  He has studied all over the world and has won some pretty major competitions, (at least that is my guess his trophies/plates are all in French).  He gave me this fantastic idea to do with the lemons before they go bad.  Start by juicing them, then you freeze the juice.  I suppose you could even zest them and put the zest in with the juice if you desire.  Grandpa Hans puts his juice in ice cube trays and then when he wants a glass of lemonade one cube and couple spoonfuls of sugar and water, and TA DA you have a single size serving of fresh lemonade.

I put the juice in freezer bags and toss them in the freezer.  Then when I need it I thaw off as much as I need and away I go.  This can be done with all citrus juice!

Another thing that you could do with the leftover peel is to stick them in a bottle or jar and fill the jar with vinegar.  Wait one week and you have a completely green, chemical free, super cleaner that combines the power of citrus and vinegar.  Remove the lemon peels and  mix 1 part cleaner to 1 part water and use anywhere!  This could also be done with limes, oranges, or even grapefruit.

Garbage disposal a little stinky??  Next citrus fruit you peel stick the peels down the disposal and run.  Then your drain will smell much better!

Hope you find at least one of these tips helpful!