Thankful for the Hubs

Tonight I write this from my death bed as I am down for the county with some type of plague tummy bug.  So thankful that after 12 hours at the office he will come home, see me looking like poop and order me off to bed so he can make dinner and take care of the kiddos.

Tomorrow is his first day traveling with his job.  I am dreading this.  I just don't want to say goodbye as silly as that seems.

The inner Lindsay has a hard time getting all worked up with the "what-ifs" of travel...specifically if I am not traveling with him.  I am trying to squelch the inner Lindsay but the gag reflex keeps kicking in so I think she is trying to get out one way or the other.  :)

Hope you've had a great weekend...I'd love to know what y'all have been up to!

Girl Scouts Thinking Day

This morning Emma had Thinking Day with her Girl Scout troop and their entire service unit (which is comprised of about 20 troops).  Thinking Day is when they study different countries and think outside of their little area.  

Last year each troop put on a skit or performance.  Each troop had a different country.   This year each troop represented a country and put together a table of things for the other troops.  The troops went around and had a scavenger hunt of facts from the tables.  It was a lot of fun!
 Here's Emma with one of her girlie friends...aren't they adorable???
 While Emma was off tasting foods from different cultures and finding her facts this was what Cal was doing. He made friends with a little boy and they took turns playing games on my phone...so cute!  I was really happy he was content doing that most of the time as there really was nothing else for him to do!

As a side note I would like to say that the only time the kids are allowed to play with handhelds (their gamers or our cell phones) is when we go somewhere and I have nothing else to do to keep them occupied. Other than that time I am opposed to a lot of screen time and not letting them play them all of the time keeps them desirable when I need them to work!

 China was the booth next to us and they all dressed up as little panda bears...so cute!  Took me a while to figure it out though and I kept asking other moms why the China table was dressed as mice!  Oops :)
 Hey crazy hair!  You're still adorable!  He's doing a great job guarding my purse...and apparently a crock pot lid!  Great job little Bud!
 This booth was adorable!  All of the little girls had scarves around their necks...very chic!  Emma didn't want a packzi at the Polish table (basically a doughnut) but was thrilled to death when France had bread and butter.  Her Daisy leader was chuckling that she'll turn down a doughnut but get excited about bread and butter!  That's our little girl :)
Doesn't this look fun?  It's  fron the Australia booth...bread with sprinkles and some type of frosting!
 Here's Emma holding hands with her friend and getting ready to join up for their Friendship Circle.  Adorable!  They all had so much fun and it is always a blast getting to see her in action with her friends.  I am so thankful for this Girl Scout troop that she has an opportunity to make friends!

Piano Kitty

Tonight while Cal was taking a bath I was cleaning his room (which is adjacent to the bath).

Cal always insists that I sing him "soft kitty" in all his Sheldon-ness.

But tonight Nick was washing him and he was not a happy camper.  Nick kept arguing that he wasn't going to sing "soft kitty".

Wasn't. Going. To. Do. It.

That's when I heard Nick start singing "Piano Man"

All with lyrics changed around about taking a bath.

Oh Lord, this family of mine is so silly!

Corn and Cheese Chowder Recipe

Sunday morning Cal was sick and we were unable to go to church.  

I am so thankful for a church that asks people to not bring their children into the children's programs if they have a cough or a runny nose.  LOVE that!!!  Not that I love staying home from church (booooo!) but I do appreciate that they are making sure to keep germies at bay in a place that they could so easy run rampant.  

Anywho, after watching the Pioneer Woman while I should have been in a pew, I decided to make corn chowder (because she did and I think she's fun), but I have a recipe of my own, y'all...

 First I chop 3/4 of an onion and I snip 1/2 cup (estimatingly) into a pan with 3 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil.  Saute over medium-high heat until onions become translucent and the bacon renders its fat up for ya.
 While all of that is going on I chop 3/4 of a green pepper and 3/4 of a red pepper.  Dump in with a bag of frozen corn.  Sprinkle 3 tablespoons (or so) of flour onto everything and stir.  Now add 3 cups chicken stock (or for me as I was out, 3 cups of water and 3 bouillon cubes...its fancy up in here!)  Let simmer away...

You can grate the cheese to your hearts content while everything melds together in the pot, simmering gently away.  Use any cheese you like.  Use cheese to get rid of it. I don't care.  Just use cheese.  I think the one cheese that might give you fits though is Mozzarella just because of the stringyness of it when it's melted.  Maybe stay away from that guy.   I grate about 3 cups.  I dump about 2 and a half cups into the soup and reserve half a cup for sprinkling over bowls at the end. You want to turn your heat WAY down when you add the cheese.  You will also add 2 cups of half and half.  Or if you are me you can add 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of milk.  Do you know what cream and milk make?  Yep, you guessed it...half and half :)  You can also add 1/4 cup scallions (that's fancy for GREEN ONIONS)

Once the cheese has melted in the soup it's ready to eat.  Dig in folks.  You can sprinkle scallions and cheese on the top if you wish and enjoy!

Delish!  This recipe makes enough that we each had 2 bowls throughout the afternoon, Nick took it to work the next day for lunch, and I still have a large canning jar of it frozen in the freezer...perfect!

3 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil
3/4 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup bacon, sliced with scissors
3/4 of a green pepper, chopped
3/4 of a red pepper, chopped
16 oz. bag frozen corn
3 tbsp. flour
3 c. chicken stock
1 c. milk
1 c. cream
1/3 c. green onions, sliced
3 c. shredded cheese

Chop onion and snip bacon into a pan with butter and olive oil.  Saute over medium-high heat until onions become translucent and the bacon renders its fat. Add peppers and bag of frozen corn.  Sprinkle flour onto everything and stir.  Now add chicken stock and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn heat down to low and add 2 1/2 cup of the cheese; reserve 1/2 cup of cheese for garnish. Add 2 cups of half and half.  Or if you are me you can add 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of milk.  You can also add 1/4 cup scallions at this time or just save them all for garnish.  Once cheese has melted and everything has warmed through it is ready to serve.  Refrigerate leftovers.  

Rocket Pack

I want a Rocket Pack!  

Cal is always saying this, poor dear.  But I have no clue how to make a rocket pack.  

Thank heavens he finally asked when Nick was home!  

Daddies always know how to make rocket packs, right?
  By the way, is there anything sweeter than a little boys imagination coming to life with the help of his Daddys hands?  I don't think so friends...
 Look at that sweet face!  He is so excited to finally have a rocket pack!  

And now I Think (think being the key word here...) that I know how to make it too...
 On giant rubber band.  One empty cheesy poof container, and one throw pillow, and...
 Voila!  A rocket pack fit for an astronaut!  I love little boys!
His imagination is taking him so many places these days!  

Blast off!!!

Scholastic Book Clubs for Homeschoolers!

With Cal in preshcool, we get the opportunity to order from their book order sheets from Scholastic.  We just got our new round of order forms and I was thinking of how much I was going to miss Book Orders when we are out of preschool and homeschooling both of them (if we homeschool Cal...that's still being sorted out!).  


Anyway, then I got the crazy idea...

Can homeschools get book orders?  

And the great news?   They can!!!  

No co-op, no minimum numbers, nothing! 

Just go to the Scholastic Book Clubs.  You can just make an account as a teacher, indicate your school as a homeschool and then select what grades your school is interested in.  

Then you can view all of the book orders for all grades and order away!  

Why am I am so excited about this you may ask? 

First of all, I love book orders! Isn't it exciting to get new books?  I always loved this in school and was kind of bummed the kiddos were going to miss out on this with being homeschooled.  I think  you can even request the newspapery order form booklets.  I may do that down the road so the kiddos can have it in their hands and tell me what they want to order.  

Secondly, they have crazy good prices on books.  Phonics sets, math games, coin and time telling books, history books...the works, they have so many items you can use in homeschool.  Not to mention all of the great fiction books you can order for free time reading.  

Here are some deals I've found I am planning on ordering:  
Abraham Lincoln , regularly $3.99...in the book order it's $1.00!  A buck!!!
E.B. White Treasury, regularly $20.48, on sale for $3.99

I am loving these prices in case you can't tell :)

You can check out the February order form for 1st graders here.  

The third thing that makes me so super excited about being able to use this book club is that there are Teacher benefits that you can use!  These appear to change monthly!!!  

This Month's benefit is that with a $20.00 or more order you get 10x bonus points and $20.00 to spend right away!  Did y'all get that?  Free books!!!  Plus they have a story app and you get 5 free non-fiction downloads to use!  I am envisioning this being really helpful with our science studies as I so often have a hard time finding a computer component for the areas we are studying.  Eek :)  

There are tons of other components to this too and I urge you to sign up and see for yourself!  I am so excited to get started in this as you earn points for free materials, there are coupons you can receive, they sell school supplies you can apply your saving too and so much more!  

Well I hope this was a help to you!  I'd love to know if you sign up and snag some deals I may not have found...you know me, always looking for deals!!!  

Happy Shopping dear friends!!! :)

Hobos

Let's talk Hobo's. 

Did you know my children think that basically anyone walking down the street is a hobo?

Mommy!  Check out that Hobo!  He's in a suit!

That's a lawyer, babe. 

Yesterday Emma asked me so do hobo's have teeth?

I have no idea where they get this stuff from, but it is too, too cute. 

Moreover, they call them hobo's like it's the 1920's or something...jumping train hobos are among us apparently.  Over dinner last night Nick politely tried to explain that "hobo's" don't like to be called hobo's, but maybe "homeless" was a better word...

I don't think he even made a dent. 

I love these children.  They crack me up and I love listening to them!

Hooray for Productive Sundays!

Sunday Cal woke up sick again!!!  Hacking, acting like he was going to cough up a lung, the works.  Luckily Nick didn't have to be at the office, so he was able to take Emma to church while I stayed at home with Sir Sick's a lot.  (that's his unofficial name heehee!)


Here's Emma all ready for church.  Isn't she just adorable?  She is really rocking the short hair these days.  And she was so super-duper excited that this was the last Sunday before Valentine's Day.  She's been waiting forever to wear this dress!  Love her! 
Here's Mister Sick's A lot  trying to get a little smile out.  Poor little man.  By the way, I've been curling my hair a lot like this lately...like it or hate it?  It actually takes me less time to curl all of my hair than it does to straighten my hair.  Weird I know.  But the curling business lasts a couple of days so that's cool too.

As much as it stinks not being able to go to church and having a little one sick, it was nice to get some extra snuggling time in and to be able to clean this place up a bit!

After Emma and Nick got home from church, I whipped up some corn and cheese chowda' and then we got to chopping crayons for our Valentine's Day gifts.

During naptime I started cleaning up our room that  is the kids play room, commonly called "the Blue Room".  Wanna guess what color it is?  It's like the White House all up in here, yo!

After naptime we dined on Waffles and Bacon for dinner.  I found this amazing waffle recipe over here at Momma Blogs Alot. Be sure to check the recipe out as it was super yummy and way easy!  I am always trying waffle recipes which have me separate the eggs and then fold in whipped egg whites.  As much as I love the end results of that, sometimes its just like "I'm a busy mom!  Enough is enough already!"  So I was on the hunt for an easier-peasier recipe.

After dinner we had a family game night of the Trouble board game and then some Mario Cart on the Wii.

Whew!  What a packed day!  We sure did manage to cram a lot into our day today as a family.  Tomorrow begins our week of Nick working 7 days in a row and, needless to say, I am less than thrilled about it :(  So I was really happy that we could spend some family time together.

Stay tuned this week!  I'll be posting a recipe for my Cheesy Corn Chowder and will also be posting on our fun Valentine crafts!

Please post on what you did this weekend...I'd love to hear from you!!! :)


Proud of Kazoo


If you notice anything about our little Emma-Kazoo, it may be that she has shorter hair.  Eleven inches shorter to be exact.  I am so super proud of her as Friday she got it in her head that she was ready to help a little girl with cancer out and wanted her hair chopped off.  So Sunday we took her to J.C. Penney's and got her hair cut.  (By the way did you know Penney's has free kids cuts on Sundays?  Ours was super easy to get into, by the way.  Saves SOOO much money between the two kiddos!)

So Emma's hair is going to Locks of Love and she is already talking about letting it grow out so she can do it again.  How cool is that?  You've all heard of Locks of Love, right?  It's an organization that makes wigs for Children who have lost their hair due to illness.  The minimum amount of hair they need to make a wig is 10 inches, so it has taken us quite a while!  But it was so worth it.  I'm so proud of Emma and her giving heart!

Today she wrote a letter to her cousin who's had a tummy bug.  I thought it was so sweet to see her write that she loves her and will be praying for her.  She always likes to do things for others to help them feel better or to know other's care for them.

Love my little God's girl!

What's a God girl you ask?  Well it's a club Emma and I started that we went through all of the attributes that Proverbs 31 talks about and we talked about how we can practice those in our everyday life.  We also made up secret signals for each other: one if we are proud of one another and another if the other needs a gentle reminder of how God wants us to behave.  So if you ever see Emma scrunching up her nose and itching it at me when I'm being naggy with Nick, now you know why :)

Anyway, thought I'd just take a few to brag on my little girl. She asked Jesus in her heart at the tender age of about 3 and a half and since then just has made us so proud.  She loves life and loves the Lord with her whole little heart.

Love her!!!


Once a Month Cooking

For the month of January I got this idea that I would do once-a-month cooking.  

What is it about you ask?  

Well the idea is that you spend one horrid day cooking EVERYTHING for that month, freeze it, and then you will have meals every night to just thaw out and eat.  So we did our grocery shopping...
 I used this book.  It was my mother-in-law's and I snagged it at a garage sale at her house.  I was very intrigued.  She told me that she had never used it.  I read it and thought I could do it  It assured me that you can fit a month of food into a standard freezer.
I was a little leery however, as our new fridge (isn't she beautiful???) has a pull out freezer drawer.  Also, the prepared meals weren't going to be the only thing in our freezer, so I just knew that there was no way it would all fit.

 So I did two week cooking.  Which this book has a plan for by the way.  Two actually.  A regular two week plan and a low fat two week plan.
I was going to do this after church on a Sunday, but we had a sick little one, so I was able to start early in the morning.  I had the meat out.  
 I chopped all of the vegetables for all of the recipes.  I had to chop a lot of onions!
 One of the first things I made was marinara.  Dumped everything in and let it cook for two hours.
Here it is all canned up.  It is so super yummy!

After this part I basically stopped taking pictures because I was in too much of a  rush to get things done.  Now I would consider myself pretty familiar with the kitchen.  I do a lot of cooking and baking.  So when it told me it would take all day I was a little over confident and thought that surely it wouldn't take me that long.  But seriously! Let me tell ya, I cooked from the 7a to the 7p.  Sunup to sun down, yo.  I was exhausted.  Exhausted!!!

I could not imagine doing a whole month as I only did 2 weeks, but it was so worth it.

As we approach the end of the month, we had one more meal and then we are done.  The two weeks of dinners has worked perfectly for us.  Here's why...I do like to use cooking as a way to express creativity.  Sometimes I like to play with cooking and try new things.  So I've probably cooked like that once a week.  The rest of the time has been us eating sandwiches on the run between classes we are carpooling too.  We also eat at Nick's mom and dad's once a week when they take one of the kiddos a week.  And a couple of times we have eaten out.

So that's it.  Once a month cooking for us was only two weeks worth of meals, but it was so worth it.  I can't wait to do it again because I am hoping (hoping being the key word here!) that I will get better and faster with the processes and will be able to accomplish more in less time.

For this next month I've been researching new recipes to use.  This FabuLESS website looks amazing!!!  I am a HUGE Money Saving Mom fan and she has some great recipes and advice as well.  And I haven't checked it out too much yet but I can't wait to dive into the Thriving Home's website about freezer cooking.

So there ya go! I know I talked about this before with some friends and I am so, so sorry that it has taken me about a month to get this written.  And please let me know if you have any questions.  I would love to help!  And I am getting ready to do my freezer cooking for next month, so maybe we can all do it together :)

DIY: Valentine's Day Wreath

Every year I loathe the day Nick tells me that I have to take down the tree. 

I really wish I could be one of those crazy cat lady people who keep it up all year. 

That's not weird, right?

But alas Cal's Birthday is the 7th of January and we like to have a party and so I have to get all of the Christmas items cleaned up before people come.

This year in an effort to not cry everysingle.day after the tree is gone, I've decided to decorate for Valentine's Day early.  Usually Valentine's decorations consist of me throwing stuff up about a week before the day. 

But not this year my friends, not this year! 

But alas I found, I had no wreath!  How can one not have a Valentine's Day wreath? So I decided to make one!!!  (Impressed aren't you???) Here it is friends:

What do you think?  Cute? 

 I started with these items.  I am considering this a free craft because I didn't go out and buy anything for it...but of course I had to of bought them at some time, right? I bought the wreath form a huge long while back, but then could never figure out what to do with it. 

<Update> You do not need to have one of these forms!  You can fashion a wire hanger into a circle, cut out a circle from an ice-cream bucket, anything.  Get creative!

The yarn I bought from Goodwill when Emma had a kitty cat party and we hung yarn from the ceiling...I got a trash bag of yarn for $2.00.  Not bad for yarn I never really had a use for...until now!

 So I wrapped the yarn around the hoop thing (was that some type of pioneer game?  No?)  for what felt like a kajillion nights of tv.  until the darn thing was done. 

By the way, I know you're loving my pjs...cooking utensils on pajama pants are hot, let me tell ya. 

 Then I simply free-styled some felt hearts and hot glued those puppies on.  Just felt pieces I had left over from other projects. 

I hung it with some sweet lace that Nick's Aunt gave us.  I love when people bring me huge boxes of remnants and say "here"  LOVE that...it's like a treasure!

So voila!  Look around and see what you can create today!  Has anyone made any fun (and maybe cheap) crafts for Heart Day??? 

My Buys: Carter's Clearance

Yesterday we went to the Outlet Mall near our house.

We all went and it was so much fun.  It was pretty cold but it was sunny and beautiful outside.  On the way Emma was telling us that while there we should look for pajamas "Because seriously guys, everytime I put p.j.s on I wake up and am an inch taller.  So we need new pajamas."  She's so silly!  And while she may be exagerating a teensy-eensy bit, she was right, she's growing right out of all of her clothes!

Starting last weekend, I had been getting emails regarding sales going on at different stores there.

One of them was Carters. 

We scored some amazing deals!  If you have a Carters near you I encourage you to go.  Run!  Hurry. 

Here's what I got, in order of the pictures:

Blue half zip sweatshirt/track jacket for Cal: $3.19 on sale from $30.00

Shirt for Emma (I thought this would be super cute for her gym class!): $3.19 on sale from 18.00!

2 piece purple pajamas for Emma: $3.19 on sale from $32.00

3 piece pink pajamas for Emma: $3.19 on sale from $34.00 (that's a 91% savings, y'all!)

3 piece space pajamas for Calvin:$3.19 on sale from $34.00!

I should tell you that I do not usually find anything at Carters.  For the quality a lot of time their clothes are just too expensive for me.   I usually prefer to shop at Gymboree, Hartstrings, Hanna Andersson.  But I always look. 

Yesterday I saw this super cute red tulle skirt for Valentine's Day!  It was some crazy price like 38.00 or something.  Wha???  I just can't fork over that much money for something she'll wear once, maybe twice.  Yoinkers.  But like I said, I always look.

So I guess if you are on here looking for a little snippet of advice, it would be to not disregard stores for deals.  I mean, honestly, it has been probably 2 years since I've found a deal at Carter's, but I look every time I go there.  Nick thinks this is a huge waste of time, usually...but not yesterday!  And really he doesn't hem and haw too much, he knows what I am doing and trusts me to hurry it up if I'm not finding anything. 

And if you will need Christmas pajamas for this Christmas, they had oodles on sale!!!  I had my eye on some super cute ones but they didn't have any matching ones in the sizes we will need.  Oh well! 

So super happy with what I found.  The Lord always provides!

Happy Shopping!!! :)

Buried Treasure

This is my coffee station in our kitchen.  Before this I had a janky microwave stand that we had gotten from a garage sale.  All it was was a stand with a shelf below on wheels.  All of our business was out in the open and it got real wobbly, real fast.

One day I went downstairs and spotted this little beauty hidden under the basement stairs.  I asked Nick to drag it out.  It was hideous, dirty, and covered with just, ew, gag me, grossness.  We measured, figured out it would work in the spot where the "lovely" microwave stand was and ta-da, we have a coffee station.  It took a lot of scrubbing and painting and just tidiness to get it to where it is today.

I love it!  The big drawer hold all of my bags and canisters of coffee, the upper small drawer holds my coffee filters, scoops, and sweeteners.  The lower small drawer holds the dog's canned food.  The cupboard holds the dog food container and onions and potatoes.  It works perfectly!

Anywho,  fast forward to the past two years of life.  I've always wondered about the top of this table.  I figured it must have had something, but Nick assured me it was probably long gone.  Nick had this upside down cabinet shoved in the back of the basement that held paint and other crap.  I asked SEVERAL times if that was something worth while and he always said no.

And that brings us to last week.  I guess I should explain to you that I do not go into the basement because it is dark and scary and horrid.  Well not as horrid as it could be, but it is Nick's space with tools and everything.  Besides it is a Michigan basement, which for you non-basement or old house people, means that our basement is brick/cement part of the way and the rest is "why hello dirt".  Yep, just opened up to the dirt under our house.  So now ya know...if Nick goes missing, start digging :)

In our basement is also the original "dorothy of wizard of oz" storm cellar stairs, which would have led outside.  They now lead to the underside of our solarium's floor (an addition) and do a great job of holding paint cans.  Nick got the idea that we could find another place for my paint can obsession and make that into a root type cellar for overflow of paper towels, and potatoes, and the such.  How handy this will be!

While he was moving things around, he went to this nook area of our basement behind that furnace.  This is the part that meets dirt so we really just don't go back there.  We've lived in our house for close to 8 years and we've peeked into that area once. ONCE.  Not joking.

So Nick decided that would be a great place for shelves for said paint cans, but first all of the junk back there would have to be moved.  Junk that came with the house.  Junk that wasn't ours, but is now.  I guess it's been our junk for 8 years but I digress....

While he was back there he found a lot of really cool stuff!  I'll have to post what he found...I need ideas for what to do with some of the stuff and I would love to year y'all's opinions and ideas.

So Nick was cleaning and he called me down to show me what he had found.  He showed me the near cleared out space and we had to pass by this upside down cabinet that caught my eye...
I looked at it and then passed by it again and REALLY looked at it.  It looked like a hutch for my coffee station flipped upside down.  I looked closer.  The latch was the same...the wood was the same...the hinges were my last straw...

they were the same!!!



I made Nick drag it out of the dark nasty corner to check it out and ...
ta-da!



It's the top of my coffee station area.   Based on research I've found it's from Coppes Kitchens in Nappanee, Indiana.  I need to do some research (and some scrubbing and cleaning and painting on this nasty thing) but I am so excited!  I am such a nerd, I know, but I thought this was neat that it was hiding in our house this whole time.  Very vintage...lead paint and all, oh joy!

I'll post pictures of it was we progress.  I'm so excited!!!