I don't know how your weekend mornings are, but around here they are crazy! No sleeping in here!! On Saturdays it's out the door early for dance class. Sunday mornings it's out early for church and Sunday school. I really try to make some kind of bakery yumminess for those mornings. Lately it has been muffins. Everyone can grab a muffin and a banana (if there are any left;) and out the door we go!
A few weeks ago I made banana muffins. Recipe is from allrecipes.com (although I added a few extra spices and dash of vanilla)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Spread into muffin tins.
Bake in preheated oven 25-30 minutes.
One week I made Oatmeal-cinnamon Muffins. Again from allrecipes. I added in some cut up apples and again a few extra spices. These were delicous!! And because of oatmeal and apples it worked great as a quick breakfast.
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
In a large bowl, combine oats and buttermilk; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in eggs. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and baking soda. Stir into oatmeal mixture just until moistened. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
This morning I decided to make pumpkin muffins on a whim. I was craving them and had some pumpkin in the fridge from yesterdays pumpkin oatmeal I made. Mmmmm, soo good!! This recipe came from food.com
1 cup pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup melted shortening
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teasoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
(I also added some milk because the batter seemed dry/thick)
Blend pumpkin, eggs, water, and shortening. Sift together remaining ing and add. Fill greased or paper lined tins. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
And that's how I try to save some time in the morning!!!
And how I enjoy evenings? sipping chai tea and snacking on sugar molasses cookies hot out of oven:) ahhhh, for another day;)
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The Rainbow Fish
So todays lesson plan was to be about being nice. I had a very hard time finding any assistance for this online. However, it all fell into place on accident!:) Gotta love that!!
I was needing to go and put my youngest down for a nap and on a whim decided to find an online story for the kids. I ended up on www.storyonline.net. There were a few stories to pick from and I ended up choosing The Rainbow Fish (how is it I have never read this book?!) It was really neat! The story was read and the kids could see animation. They actually ended up watching it twice! I couldn't believe it though...the story was PERFECT for the day! I was so excited, so quickly googled some crafts to go along with it..and Voila!
We talked a lot about the story. About how when the fish wouldn't share he had no friends and he wasn't happy, when he shared he made others happy and also made himself happy, and once he had shared he had friends...etc. Then I asked the kids how it felt when the other kids did/said certain things to them, and how it felt when nice things were said.
I found a fish shape online and cut out blue fishes. We then went around the table and said a nice thing about each person. I wrote these on the fish for them to take home. I also found another project on www.dltk-teach.com/books/rainbowfish/pcoffeefilter.asp. The kids colored with markers on a coffee filter. then they sprinkled water on them. (tip-don't introduce the water part until all coloring is done, otherwise they just want to skip the coloring and start playing with water;). I let them dry. During nap time I cut fish shapes out of the filters. Once they wake up we will finish by putting on a googly eye and attaching some tin foil to the fish to make shiny scales.
All in all I felt it was a successful day!! I will definetly use the story site again and hopefully find some crafts to match the story. Fun was had by all;)
ok...after nap update;) forgot the googly eyes, oh well. We also glued saran wrap onto blue paper and glued the fish on that to appear that he was in the water;) This was a tip I saw on the site;)
Joelle:)
I was needing to go and put my youngest down for a nap and on a whim decided to find an online story for the kids. I ended up on www.storyonline.net. There were a few stories to pick from and I ended up choosing The Rainbow Fish (how is it I have never read this book?!) It was really neat! The story was read and the kids could see animation. They actually ended up watching it twice! I couldn't believe it though...the story was PERFECT for the day! I was so excited, so quickly googled some crafts to go along with it..and Voila!
We talked a lot about the story. About how when the fish wouldn't share he had no friends and he wasn't happy, when he shared he made others happy and also made himself happy, and once he had shared he had friends...etc. Then I asked the kids how it felt when the other kids did/said certain things to them, and how it felt when nice things were said.
I found a fish shape online and cut out blue fishes. We then went around the table and said a nice thing about each person. I wrote these on the fish for them to take home. I also found another project on www.dltk-teach.com/books/rainbowfish/pcoffeefilter.asp. The kids colored with markers on a coffee filter. then they sprinkled water on them. (tip-don't introduce the water part until all coloring is done, otherwise they just want to skip the coloring and start playing with water;). I let them dry. During nap time I cut fish shapes out of the filters. Once they wake up we will finish by putting on a googly eye and attaching some tin foil to the fish to make shiny scales.
All in all I felt it was a successful day!! I will definetly use the story site again and hopefully find some crafts to match the story. Fun was had by all;)
Joelle:)
Friday, November 9, 2012
a thankful turkey
Yesterday we did the cutest craft! I called it our thankful turkey. I saw a picture of a craft-making a turkey out of hearts. It looked so cute, we had to do it!
As I cut out all of the shapes/parts of the turkey I talked to the kids about being thankful. To make it easier for them to understand I told them being thankful was a lot like being happy for something. So then we went around and I asked them what they were thankful for/happy to have. Of course they all said the same things;)
I had cut out large hearts to be the "feather's". I had them color them while I put together the turkey's. Once they were done I wrote on what they were thankful for on each heart and finished putting the turkey's together.
Final step was google eyes and button noses;)
They seemed to enjoy it and I thought they turned out so gosh darn cute:) I hope they got a little out of the thankful talk too;)
As I cut out all of the shapes/parts of the turkey I talked to the kids about being thankful. To make it easier for them to understand I told them being thankful was a lot like being happy for something. So then we went around and I asked them what they were thankful for/happy to have. Of course they all said the same things;)
I had cut out large hearts to be the "feather's". I had them color them while I put together the turkey's. Once they were done I wrote on what they were thankful for on each heart and finished putting the turkey's together.
Final step was google eyes and button noses;)
They seemed to enjoy it and I thought they turned out so gosh darn cute:) I hope they got a little out of the thankful talk too;)
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
memory saving
I am a memory saving nut!! I have so many ideas and so many different projects;)
I take a ton of pictures. I then store them on my computer, upload them to shutterfly for safe keeping and ordering, and also upload them for digital scrapbooking. My home's walls have lot's of pictures and collages all over. (I love getting 101 free prints from shutterfly!) I do a year in review photo book on Heritage Makers (AWESOME sight for digital scrapbooking!) I also have a book started for each child-I do scrapbook pages (again digital on Heritage Makers) and put them in a book. I make many random photo projects through the year. With all of this though, I still feel the need to also have an old fashioned photo book (unfortunatley I am wayyyyy behind:( AND then also keep a family blog that I try to upload at least once a month, sometimes more. My plan is to start converting my family blog into a book to order so I can have an actual written copy here at home to store with my year in review in book.
Phew! It's a lot, and I am sooooooo behind on a lot of it, but I so love and cherish our family memories. When I was pregnant with my last baby (she will be one this month) I spent the whole 9 months starting and completing the other two's scrapbooks. I was sooo excited:) and am now way behind again. Need to get going!
What do you do to cherish your memories?
I take a ton of pictures. I then store them on my computer, upload them to shutterfly for safe keeping and ordering, and also upload them for digital scrapbooking. My home's walls have lot's of pictures and collages all over. (I love getting 101 free prints from shutterfly!) I do a year in review photo book on Heritage Makers (AWESOME sight for digital scrapbooking!) I also have a book started for each child-I do scrapbook pages (again digital on Heritage Makers) and put them in a book. I make many random photo projects through the year. With all of this though, I still feel the need to also have an old fashioned photo book (unfortunatley I am wayyyyy behind:( AND then also keep a family blog that I try to upload at least once a month, sometimes more. My plan is to start converting my family blog into a book to order so I can have an actual written copy here at home to store with my year in review in book.
Phew! It's a lot, and I am sooooooo behind on a lot of it, but I so love and cherish our family memories. When I was pregnant with my last baby (she will be one this month) I spent the whole 9 months starting and completing the other two's scrapbooks. I was sooo excited:) and am now way behind again. Need to get going!
What do you do to cherish your memories?
Monday, November 5, 2012
in the persuit of saving money
Along with just about everyone else now-a-days, our family is always looking for ways to save money. One of our biggest problem areas is the grocery store.... We have recently started doing stock pile shopping, using coupons, and eating what we have;) We do a lot of our stock pile shopping at Aldi's. We have also found that we can actually save money at Target, not just spend lots! When we are going to Target I refer to the ad and print our store coupons from the store's site. Many times these coupons correspond with sales. Also we have signed up for their debit card. It's linked to our checking-just basically a debit with the Target logo. Using this we save 5%. I was so excited to find this as it's another excuse to shop Target:)
I am loving the spaghetti we now make buying cheap spaghetti sauce. We buy the sauce at Aldi's for about a dollar. At first I wasn't so sure about it as it was pretty blah, and watery. BUT we have found we can make it fantastic. It is kind of fun to make it different every time by doctoring it up. The hubby adds seasonings and cheese, I add fresh mushrooms, peppers, onions, and carrots. It's a great way to get more veggies in our diet's too! Such a cheap delicious meal!
I have always been a recipe girl--everything from a recipe, no "winging it". In our new ways of ,cooking what we have,e I have learned to "wing it". This is another great advantage to our new money saving grocery shopping.
Also I LOVE our stock pile day--I LOVE putting it all away and seeing our stock pile:)
What ways-shopping, cooking, or anything else-have you learned to cut costs??
mmmmmm, the beginning of fantastic spaghetti:)
I am loving the spaghetti we now make buying cheap spaghetti sauce. We buy the sauce at Aldi's for about a dollar. At first I wasn't so sure about it as it was pretty blah, and watery. BUT we have found we can make it fantastic. It is kind of fun to make it different every time by doctoring it up. The hubby adds seasonings and cheese, I add fresh mushrooms, peppers, onions, and carrots. It's a great way to get more veggies in our diet's too! Such a cheap delicious meal!
I have always been a recipe girl--everything from a recipe, no "winging it". In our new ways of ,cooking what we have,e I have learned to "wing it". This is another great advantage to our new money saving grocery shopping.
Also I LOVE our stock pile day--I LOVE putting it all away and seeing our stock pile:)
What ways-shopping, cooking, or anything else-have you learned to cut costs??
mmmmmm, the beginning of fantastic spaghetti:)Friday, November 2, 2012
First week complete!
Soooooo after starting daycare in July, I decided to do a few changes. First week went great!
Sunday I sat and planned out our week. I wanted to do a learning activity for every day. As the kids here are young, it had to be short and to the point!
I googled, googled, searched, and pinterested for ideas;) It ended as follows:
Monday- the letter A and an apple song (kids loved the song and after just a few times I had it memorized;) lots' of smiles every time I sang it)
Tuesday-the number one and a project-oil sun catchers.
Wednesday-shapes (my daughter was the only one here for this and I thought about skipping, but I didn't! I prayed the night before to be a better parent and to put my children needs first, and remembered this;)
Thursday-I am special theme
Friday-alligator puppets and an alligator song (again, it was a short and catchy song that the kids just loved! Lot's of laughter as I chased them around singing it)
I had a binder with 5 folders, one for each day, and had my ideas/printed worksheets (I found the pages on education.com and some other sites I don't remember:( will include the sites in the future.) in each folder for the day. It was ready to go and we were easily able to get our "daily lesson's" done while the babies napped or gave us a few minutes. My daughter LOVED it and it was so wonderful to see her so excited about learning. She took a folder for herself and every day put her activities in it-she was so proud!
Sunday I also sent an email to the parents letting them know what I was doing, I like to keep them updated!
What a pleasant Friday! Good day with the kids-lots of fun and laughter, a good school report for my son, and now a little blog time with my diet coke and the sun streaming in! Later movie and popcorn with the kids! A fave activity of theirs!
What kind of weeks did everyone else have?
Where do you get children's activities and projects from?
our alligator puppet:)
the letter A!!
shape book!
Austyn holding up her "I am special book"
Number 1!
My new best friend!!
Take care!! Joelle:)
Sunday I sat and planned out our week. I wanted to do a learning activity for every day. As the kids here are young, it had to be short and to the point!
I googled, googled, searched, and pinterested for ideas;) It ended as follows:
Monday- the letter A and an apple song (kids loved the song and after just a few times I had it memorized;) lots' of smiles every time I sang it)
Tuesday-the number one and a project-oil sun catchers.
Wednesday-shapes (my daughter was the only one here for this and I thought about skipping, but I didn't! I prayed the night before to be a better parent and to put my children needs first, and remembered this;)
Thursday-I am special theme
Friday-alligator puppets and an alligator song (again, it was a short and catchy song that the kids just loved! Lot's of laughter as I chased them around singing it)
I had a binder with 5 folders, one for each day, and had my ideas/printed worksheets (I found the pages on education.com and some other sites I don't remember:( will include the sites in the future.) in each folder for the day. It was ready to go and we were easily able to get our "daily lesson's" done while the babies napped or gave us a few minutes. My daughter LOVED it and it was so wonderful to see her so excited about learning. She took a folder for herself and every day put her activities in it-she was so proud!
Sunday I also sent an email to the parents letting them know what I was doing, I like to keep them updated!
What a pleasant Friday! Good day with the kids-lots of fun and laughter, a good school report for my son, and now a little blog time with my diet coke and the sun streaming in! Later movie and popcorn with the kids! A fave activity of theirs!
What kind of weeks did everyone else have?
Where do you get children's activities and projects from?
our alligator puppet:)
the letter A!! 
shape book!
Austyn holding up her "I am special book"
we put different likes in the book and a handprint on the back.
Number 1!
My new best friend!!
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