Squishy Fun

2 simple ingredients = a lot of FUN!

The kids & I are having a lazy morning and I could tell that the little one was getting restless so I decided to check my "Kid's Projects" board on Pinterest for some "pinspiration"!  I saw a pin about mixing cornstarch and shaving cream and I knew I had some on hand from other fun projects so off we went to the kitchen!

First of all, the kids had fun just shooting the shaving cream into the bowl...oh to be that easily entertained!  LOL

Then we tossed in some cornstarch.

Let the squishing begin...

Lots of giggles and squeals and comments about how cool it feels to squish and squeeze between their fingers!  Of course we had to periodically toss in more of each ingredient and see how the texture changed.  Tatym kept calling the cornstarch, sugar so I had to keep reminding her that it wasn't something she could eat!  LOL!

I had to get in on the fun:

It really was cool to squish around and after adding more cornstarch it started thickening up so you could mold it and roll it into balls.  

I love things like this where we can make a mess that's easy to clean up and that it entertains all of us at the same time!

Tatym had the most fun with is:

Once she was done we decided to keep it in the bowl and we'll check back in a few hours to see how the consistency has changed and enjoy some more squishing fun!

Mini Peach Cobblers

I saw a recipe floating around Facebook for these mini peach cobblers and knew we had all the ingredients in our pantry so I thought I'd give it a whirl!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
a dash of salt
3/4 cup milk
1 stick butter melted
brown sugar
cinnamon
1 can diced peaches

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*

Put 1 tsp of melted butter into each regular size muffin tin.

Combine the first 5 ingredients by hand.

Put 2 tbsp of batter into each regular size muffin tin (on top of the melted butter).

Put 1 tbsp diced peaches on top of the batter.

Sprinkle with brown sugar and then cinnamon.

 



Bake for 12 minutes.  (I actually had to bake them for closer to 20 minutes.  I waited until the top was browned and could put a toothpick in the middle and have it come out clean.)

Let them cool almost completely before taking out of pan.  The bottoms are pretty moist so I served them upside down and they were DELICIOUS!

Goodbye 2013...HELLO 2014!!!!

I absolutely LOVE the start of new years!  I love the clean slate, the endless possibilities and most of all, I love making resolutions!  As I was ending 2011 I had prayed for the Lord to give me a word to focus on for the upcoming year and He gave me "JOY" and it was awesome!  I hung cute little decorative things around my house with the word on it and it served as a reminder to focus on finding JOY in every situation.  For some reason I didn't ask for a word for 2013 but I wanted to go into this coming year with a focus so for the past few weeks I've been asking the Lord for a word.  Several different ones floated around my brain: grace (LOVE THAT), fruit (I've been studying the fruit of the Spirit), blessed, gentleness and finally the Lord shouted the word to me...INTENTIONAL!  For the past year I've said MANY times that I feel like I'm on auto-pilot, just doing what I need to do to make it through each day.  I haven't done as many projects with the kids that I used to or craft as much as I used to or gone on as many outtings as we used to among a bunch of other things.  Even in my Scentsy business I've just been skating by, not putting in much effort.  I want to focus on living INTENTIONALLY in 2014!  So with that said, here are some of my resolutions:

Spiritual Resolutions:
*Continue to try to spend daily time in the Word
*Aim to go to church more often (Being married to an unbeliever who HATES going to church with me makes Sunday mornings a major battle in my mind about wanting to be with my husband but also wanting to dig into the Word with my church family.  The last 6 months of the year I've probably missed more than I attended and that makes me sad!)

Marriage Resolutions:
*Spend more focused quality time with hubby
*Continue to work on submission--specifically in the area of spending $
*Add more fun

Parenting Resolutions:
*Dig into the Word with my kids daily
*Do more crafts/projects with the kids (at least once a week)
*Spend more time outside together
*Keep the tv off during the day

Business Resolutions:
*Be more proactive in filling up my party calendar
*Mail out cards to my downline for birthdays and Scentsy Anniversaries
*Schedule monthly meetings & offer monthly incentives
*Set a sales goal every month

Friendship Resolutions:
*Make more time for friends (schedule more girls nights and hanging out w/ kids)
*Invite friends over at least once a month for dinner & games (this will be so much easier once we buy a bigger house which is on our "to do" list for 2014 *squeal*)
*Be better at remembering birthdays

Those are most of my goals for 2014 and as you can see they all require being INTENTIONAL!!!  I'm super duper duper excited for this new year and I know the Lord has some pretty awesome things planned for us!  HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!!!!

Thankful, Grateful, Blessed sign

 

Well, it's almost halfway through October and I think I'm finally settled in to our new routine.

This is the first year that both of my children are in school.  My youngest is only in kindergarten and our school is still doing half-day kindergarten so that gives me 3 hours of being kid free.  I originally had planned on using my free time to keep up on housework and possibly running errands but plans have changed!  I now use that 3 hours to workout.  I spend about 1 hour 45 minutes at the gym then run home and get showered and dressed and run up to the school to pick up my daughter.  Then we usually have lunch, run errands and I try to squeeze in some housework before picking up my son and heading to karate, PTA meetings, church functions, Scentsy business, etc.  Needless to say I haven't had much time for crafting and I've been having withdrawls!  :)

Tonight I decided to work on a few projects that I've been itching to do!  My husband built me a pretty picture frame that has been sitting in our garage for a few weeks so I painted and distressed it (will save that for another post when it's completely done and hanging on our wall) and this wooden plaque that I got YEARS ago from At Home America has been sitting in my garage waiting to be repainted.  I saw a similar sign on Pinterest and wanted to make one for my front porch!

 

I used an orange paint sample that I got at Home Depot a couple months ago along with a chocolate brown sample.

 

 

I used 3 of my favorite fonts (Reklame Script, Yummy Cupcakes and Androgyne) for the words.

I used a orange glitter paint (Martha Stewart) and went over "blessed" to add a little sparkle.

I then sanded down the edges and used a dark walnut stain on the edges as well as across the front.

I LOVE how it turned out!

 

 

 

Fall Burlap Banner

Fall is by far my very favorite season of all time!!!  I'm lucky if I can wait until Sept 1st to pull out my fall decorations most years!  :)  This year was no exception!  After setting everything out, my mantle just looked so plain so I decided to make a banner.  I'm pretty addicted to banners on the fire place now and think I need to make one for every holiday & season! 

I still have a few yards of various colors of burlap and a roll of twine and I just went to Home Depot the other day and got some fall colored paints so I was all set!

 

I cut the burlap into 5" x 6" pieces and picked the Rustler font for the letters.

I thought 4 squares would look a little too plain so I decided to paint maple leaves on burlap for each end of the word.

 

 

I just love these sample bottles of paint that you can get at Home Depot for less than $3!!!  A bottle of this stuff actually lets me do several projects and I love not having huge cans of paint cluttering up our already cramped garage!

On my last trip to HD I had originally picked out 12 colors that I wanted to get samples for but wanted ot get some other things too so I decided to take it down to 6 so hubby wouldn't be as upset with me!  :) 

 

 

 

I love a more rustic look so I didn't want to sew the burlap so I used clothespins to attach the burlap to the twine and I love the way it turned out!!!

Here's our fall mantle:

Back to School Command Center

Today was my son's first day of school and kindergarten orientation day for my baby girl and the perfect day for my Thirty-One order to arrive!!!  YAY!!! 

 

(By the way, my friend Tawny is a SUPER FABULOUS Thirty-One consultant!!  If you don't have one already, you should join her FB group HERE where she posts the monthly specials and giveaways and all the other awesomeness of Thirty-One!)

 

Anyways, back to me.  ;)

 

A few weeks ago I shared about our dry erase board that I made to put at the top of our command center:

 

 

Ugghhh...those ugly coat hooks make me cringe every time I see them!  :)

I guess we've survived almost 6 years living with them, we can handle another 6 months or so until we buy a house!

 

This space is really small but we're working with what we've got so this is how it looks with all my new Thirty-One goodies:

 

 

 

I just love these colors!

The wall organizer is the perfect fit for our school calendar and has spaces for us to put any notes/school work that needs to be kept and I love that it has the dry erase marker to write on each area!

The 2 Littles Carry-All Caddies wouldn't both fit on the hooks along with the backpacks so I tucked one down below the two rectangle boxes and hung the other one up where I can keep an extra dry erase marker for our board and I can put things in them that the kids need to remember to take to school. 

 

I think it turned out really cute, especially given the tiny space we were working with!  I love that we now have a drop-zone for all the school stuff and the kids can keep library books and everything else  in the same area so no losing things!  PHEW!

I'm not a better parent than you are!

Why do we feel like there's a parenthood competition? 
Like there's a trophy to be earned at the end of 18 years? 

What if, instead of acting like it's a competition, we started to encourage each other, love one another, respect one another...work together instead of against each other?  What an amazing world it would be!

Whether you choose to homeschool your children, put them in a private school or put them in public school, it's OK!  I'm not a better parent than you are because I choose one way and you're not a better parent than I am because you choose something different.

I think it's safe to say that MOST parents do the best they can.

MOST parents worry about making the right choice for their family and want what is best for their child(ren). 

Who are you to say that what I've prayerfully chosen for my child is wrong just because it's different than what you choose to do?

Whether you let your child watch only Disney movies or occasionally let them see an R-rated movie at your discretion, I'm not a better parent than you are and you are not a better parent than I am.  We all view things differently.  Growing up, my mom's philosophy was that she didn't want to shelter us from the world and allowed us to watch all sorts of movies.  As for me, in my job as a parent, I'm a lot more picky about what I let my kids watch and hey, that's ok.  My idea of appropriate for my child may not be your idea of appropriate for your child.  I'm not a better parent than you and you are not a better parent than me.

Whether you feed your child only grass-fed meats, organic fruits & veggies grown on your own property and absolutely never let them have candy or whether you do the best you can with the income your family has or the busy schedule you have and feed your kid McDonalds a few days a week.  I am not a better parent than you are and you are not a better parent than I am.

Whether you choose to work outside of the home full time or whether you choose to be a stay-at-home mom, I am not a better parent than you are and you are not a better parent than I am.

Whether you allow your child to have a boyfriend/girlfriend at 13 or whether you're choosing to have stricter rules on boyfriends/girlfriends, I am not a better parent than you are and you are not a better parent than I am.

We are all doing the best we can.  We make choices based on our beliefs, based on what we grew up with, based on recommendations from people/sources that we value.  We don't intentionally set out to destroy our childrens' lives. 

We are all different and that's a good thing.  That's how God created us.  Instead of putting others down or questioning them on every decision they've made for their children/family, why not encourage them.  Give them a pat on the back for being a caring parent and whether you agree with their decision or not, it's not yours to judge.  It's not your child they are raising, it's theirs. 
And most importantly, remember the golden rule:
Treat others as you would want to be treated.
And
If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all! 

(And just for the record, obviously if you see someone putting their child in dangerous situations or doing illegal things, by all means, speak up and speak up LOUDLY!)