It's been a while

Hello sweet friends! I have recipes and cutesy Valentine things I intended to post. But, I logged on and decided I would go a little more into the life side of things. So here what's going on. :)

1. My sweet princess turns 19mos on Tuesday. She is still nursing. We are trying to wean but it's so complicated. She is allergic to dairy milk, soy milk, and almond milk. She didn't have a break out with coconut milk but apparently she doesn't like it much. She likes the almond and soy but it just doesn't like her back. :( It's kinda of hard to wean her from nursing when I don't have an alternative to offer her. So far we only had one day that she did not nurse at all. On average we have it down to once a day. The weekends however are another story. Whenever we are lounging around she's like hey I forgot I could be drinking milk right now. So lesson I learned from this I'm not 100% sure I would ever breastfeed another child. Everyone encourages you to do it for the first 12mos but no one tells you the hell it is weaning if you actually make it that far.

2. I'm having a little trouble balancing all the "jobs" in my life. Ya know wife, mom, teacher, individual, cook, maid. I just can't find a balance and as a result I have pretty much gone bald and have a nice belly to show for it. I decided to try out the Daniel Fast to pray about it more and listen for guidance from the big guy.

3. Mr. Spouse's goal for the new year for himself was to get back into church. So being the supportive wife I am.... I decided to go with him just cause. Well, I'm actually enjoying it and look forward to it. It helps that Pastor Eben is awesome at making self to text connections about the bible. :)

4. All natural... I've also decided to let the relaxer grow out of my hair and go chemical free. We knew from the beginning once we found out we were having a girl that we would not relax her hair ever. Well..I've decided if I'm being the person I want my child to be how would I explain my relaxed hair to her once she's older. I am transitioning to natural hair by wearing a sew in. I would of just chopped off what's left of my own hair but Mr. Spouse begged to go the slower route.

5. More natural... after the fast I also plan to begin to transitioning our family into clean eating. Ya know little to no preservatives, grass fed meat, organic, all that jazz. I just have to get Mr. Spouse on board. This route seems to always be pricey. This was also something we talked about doing as a family when I was preggo.

Well that's all folks. Sorry no recipes, no cute toddler craft projects. Hopefully, I can get some of that up soon after my fast and I see the light on how to balance it all. I hope you enjoyed my totally random post.

P.S.
If you are reading this and you knew me well pre-baby you are probably like WHO THE HECK WRITES THIS BLOG. Well folks it's me....the new me anyway :)

Quick and Easy Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe is pretty easy. I actually came up with it on my own. I guess the term quick is relative. It probably took me about an hour. That's pretty quick considering the way I learned to make them, which was DELICIOUS and completely from scratch took about 4 hours. I'll admit, I'm one lazy sister and a four hour dinner making session is just not on my agenda. I mean it could probably be done in less time once you are confident w/the recipe. But, after I had them I of course wanted more. So, I started browsing the web for a quicker version. I didn't really have any luck.I did find a quick cook method. But, it just didn't taste close enough. Here is what I came up with while trying it out on my own.

Your Ingredients

For the Soup portion
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon Celery Seasoning(The Kroger brand cost $1.00)
10-12 baby carrots sliced
1 cooked chicken
48 oz Chicken Broth
about 1/4 cup of coke

Dumplings
2 1/4 Cup of  Bisquick
2/3 Cup of milk

Directions

Pour the chicken broth and coke into your pot. I have no idea why it needs coke but it does. Not exactly the same without it. I'm sure when I originally learned to make dumplings she told me why it needs coke but I just can't remember.

Add in your salt, pepper, and celery seasoning. Now of course you could actually chop up some celery and just take it out before you eat. But, I'm lazy and this is quicker AND I can get a whole jar of seasoning that will last longer than the actually celery stalks and for less money.

Slice your carrots and toss them in. The amount is really up to you. That's just how many I used for ours. Mr. Spouse doesn't like a bunch of carrots in them. But myself and the little princess love them.

Get your broth going on a low simmer to get the flavors meshing. This is when you start to shred your chicken. I just picked a rotisserie one up from Kroger for like $5. I just pull it all apart and dump it in the pot. I even put the skin in the pot. It has yummy flavor that helps add to your soup flavoring. I just fish it out before serving. Ok, so now that everything is in the pot turn the heat up to medium. It should look something like this..

You need to bring your soup to a boil before the dumplings go in. While your waiting on that to happen we are going to make the dumplings. :)

Dump the 2 1/4 cup of Bisquick and 2/3 cup of milk in a bowl and mix together. It will feel like biscuit dough. I then sprinkle more Bisquick on the dough. I want it a little less sticky so I can roll the dough into dumplings without all the dough getting stuck to my hands. And the extra mix will help thicken your soup so no worries.

Once you have your dumplings and your soup is boiling drop the dumplings into the soup. Just let them sit for 10 minutes. Your dumplings will expand as you cook. (Keep that in mind when you are forming the dough balls.)  After 10 minutes carefully flip your dumplings over so the tops can cook. You are going to let the dumplings continue to cook for another 10 minutes. Now, sprinkle in a couple tablespoons of flour for thickening and stir it all together. All done!

Enjoy :)

Before we go I have to share a picture of the little princess. She heard the camera click on the first snap and automatically said CHEESE. So how could I not take her picture :)

And yes, that is a medicine thingy in her hand. She had just had her allergy medicine before we started cooking. She didn't want to give it up, it was empty so why fight with her. Gotta pick ya battles right?

Online Stories for Toddlers

I try to read with the little princess everyday. It's a part of our bedtime routine. Sometimes when she stays up later than usual we quickly say prayers and skip the book. At that point, she is not into reading a book. A friend of mine posted on FB a while back(yes Gomez if you're reading this I'm talking about you) that her hubby told her not to call b/c their son is watching youtube on the phone. I found it wildly hilarious and then I thought to myself what the heck is a 1yr old watching on youtube. So... I opened youtube and began to explore. Then I thought guh duh!! He's watching the same stories I read to little princess. So, I called little princess over and we started to watch. At this point she wasn't watching TV yet. We just started letting her watch TV late this fall. Anywho... I started looking for my favorite books. I'll share the videos that I like below. I have to say, the one wierd thing was when you've sang a song a million times or read a book and then you hear it read differently. It totally throws me off. :) I hope you and your little tots enjoy the book videos.

50 Below

 

Love you forever

 



Pete the Cat

I also have a double bonus for you. :) I mentioned above about letting little princess watch TV. The only shows we let her watch are Barney, Sesame Street, and Mickey Mouse Club. She really isn't a fan of Sesame Street yet. But she LOVES Barney because of all the singing and dancing. And she really doesn't care for Mickey Mouse Club she just likes the Hotdog song. So pretty much she just likes to watch Barney and that's fine with me. She even holds on to me and rocks side to side to the I love you song. And... gives hugs and kisses on the right part. SO STINKIN CUTE! I found the songs on youtube and they play over and over again. On the Hotdog song she waves buy to Mickey each time at the end of the song, starts to whine b/c she knows it's over, and then gets excited when she sees it's starting over. Kinda funny

Barney I Love You Song 15 times back to back

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog song 5X back to back

Enjoy!

 

P.S.

I big puffy heart Robert Munsch!!

 



DIY Gift Ideas

I'm sure if half the world is like my other half you haven't got a single gift yet. Well, before you go out in the madness I have a couple ideas for you.
1. Pedicure in a Jar

This was oober quick, easy, and cheap. I got all the items inside the jar from the travel section. So every item was less than $1. The nail polish was even $1. The brand was Fergie so I figured it had to be halfway decent. I used a little drawing tool in Word to make a label and tada all done.

 

 

2. Vanilla Olive Oil Sugar Scrub

 

 

I originally got this idea for a scrub from Amber at WillsCasa. Her entire DIY Christmas series is AMAZING and will make you feel like a slacker. Be warned :)This was one of her easier DIY if you are sewing challenged like myself. But, no fear if Santa brings me that sewing machine. Amber promises to help me step my DIY skills up to her level .(Amber if you are reading this remember boystown 101, accept the compliment my friend you are amazing) Anywho, I only had Olive Oil and Dark Brown sugar. I did a little reading and figured that could work all the same. Once again this was oober easy and quick. I literally had everything in my pantry. So, the cost of this was practically free except the two bucks I paid for the jar. I didn't follow a recipe. I just used a ratio. I did 2 parts sugar to one part oil. I also used 1 tablespoon of vanilla. The Olive oil smell was pretty strong. But, the Dark Brown sugar smell was the most potent of all so no worries. It smelled amazing by the end of the week when we gave it to her teacher.

 

3. Something for the toddlers

 

 

Layla's class did a book exchange but I also got small gifts for each kiddo. It was about $3.00 per kiddo. I found the oober cute little stocking totes in the dollar bin at Target. They had tons. Next, I got each little friend a train ornament and a teething toy. I put both of those in the stocking and did I little monogram initial with glitter glue from my craft stash.

 

That's all folks!

P.S.

I did my first Black Friday to get myself an awesome Cannon Rebel. I literally got the very last one :) I must say it takes beautiful pictures!!!

QR Codes In the Classroom

The last post I made I mentioned I was going to try QR Codes in the classroom. Well, I tried it and my kids LOVED it. I just took the textbook pulled out the important info from the chapter and made a QR code from it. I placed them around the room and the kids had to find them and scan them.

After they finished all the scans they had to color code their notes. I had them code by if the fact told about the tribes region, way of life, government, or a fun fact. Sorry, I totally didn't realize this picture was upside down.

After we finished doing 2 tribes we compared them using a venn diagram foldable. My principal did a walk through while I taught this lesson. He said it was perfect! I was glad but honestly I was secretly hoping he caught one of my QR code lessons. I knew he would think it was super cool. The kids did a good job on the foldables.

I decided to share my codes with you all. I hope your kiddos enjoy or that this has given you an idea :) Enjoy! I'm sharing these ideas with other teachers here and here.

Happy 30th Birthday Mr. Hubs

This post is a little late but better late than never right. Mr.Hubs turned 30 at the beginning of the month. I wanted to do something special. I know when it was little princess' birthday I talked about traditions. We decided to do a birthday lunch. But, school has started for me and I had to work that day. So, I started thinking what could I do that no matter the month or day of the week and it could still be tradition. And...what could I do that Mr. Spouse could duplicate it totally on his own when my birthday rolled around. I originally thought of a donut tower. But that idea was quickly tossed out b/c I already knew getting up early for fresh donuts and be on time to work wasn't gonna happen! So then cinnamon rolls popped in my head. I know making them from scratch would be best but it wasn't realistic for my little family. Mr. Spouse could not do that when my bday rolled around. So it was decided cinnamon roll tower using Grands Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls.

Birthday Cinnamon rolls
1 can of Grands Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls
Sprinkles
candles

Bake your rolls according to the package. I took mine out about 2 minutes before the max bake time. They will continue to cook on the hot cookie sheet once you take them out. This will ensure that your rolls are light and fluffy not hard as a rock.

Once they have cooled off just a wee bit spread them with the yummy icing that is included. I then stacked them to resemble a tower. I did four on the bottom and one on top. Next, dash on sprinkles of your choice. Lastly, add the candles on the very top.

Light the candles and call for the lucky birthday person!

Sing happy birthday and enjoy! I literally made this in between getting ready in the morning. It was quick and easy. I woke up about 20 minutes earlier than usual.

 

I also planned a surprise party for him that weekend. He had no idea. He walked in the door, heard surprise, and walked right back out the house. haha :) I just wanted to share his cake. It came out pretty cute. I will say it looked a lot better than it tasted. I know how to make cakes yummy but I can't exactly make them pretty so I had to hire a baker.

It was the game of life with all his accomplishments so far. :)

On another note, when I logged in to create this post I saw that I had over 2200 views. Just 18 little post (this makes 19) and that many views. I don't even know if that's alot. I'm not up to date on the average views per post for a new blogger. Anywhoo....I figured people must be a little intrigued. I've had a couple comments asking about the followers tab. I was a little chicken at first about doing that. But the reality is the number of followers doesn't matter, if people are lurking and enjoying it that's fine too. :) But, if you're lurking and you want to follow go right ahead! I'm doing my first Social Studies QR code lesson this week. If it goes well I'll upload the file and share :)

Sharing this idea here:
sixsistersstuff
iheartnaptime
chefintraining
skiptomylou
Cheerios and Lattes



October Dinner Menu Ideas

**UPDATE** I've added a follower button if you would like to come out and follow in the open :)

 

First off I just wanted to say, I'm oober excited about that new little button to the right! I guess the stats aren't lying, people are actually reading my little blog. Okay, menus...now I know it's almost halfway through the month at this point. Well, I had tons of food left over from last month. In fact I just went to the store on Monday. I've decided 20 meals a month is to much for my little family. We either eat a lot of left overs or go out to eat way more than I originally thought. It's probably a combination of both. The reason I say that is that the past two months we've had a ton of food left over. So much so that the only meat I had to buy this month was chicken. This month I think I planned like 12 meals or something. Ok now on with the food! It's Fall, well kinda...so I have tons of soups this month!

Pot roast
Chicken and Dumplings I made the chicken and dumplings this week. It made ALOT!!! We've eaten about 5 or 6 bowls and there is still a ton. I did add celery for flavoring and a 1/4 cup of coke.
Chili
Potato soup
Pepperoni Pizza Burgers
Chicken tortilla soup
Ground Beef stew
Taco soup
Skillet porkchop w/fried potatoes
Italian porkchops
Homemade meatballs and pasta
Fried fish-sorry no recipe here, Mr. Hubs just whipps that up when he wants fried food

Dessert Ideas
lowfat pumpkin muffins
pumpkin roll bars (love this idea)
cookie cake

Sharing this list on these wonderful blogs
skiptomylou.org
iheartnaptime.net
thisweekfordinner.com
sixsistersstuff.com
orgjunkie.com
scrapsoflife