Snow Fun

Noah and I did this last week and I forgot to post the idea.  It was way too cold to be outside (at least I thought so) so I brought a little of the outside in.  Super easy activity for little ones.  

All you need is:

a tub

towels

bath toys

scoops/shovels

I also gave Noah a spray bottle with colored water in it - he really liked that.

Oh! and your little one might want to wear their gloves.

Creamy Potato Soup

2 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
4 c. chicken broth
salt and pepper
3 lg. potatoes, cubed
3/4 c. milk
3 T. flour

1.  In a stock pot bring celery, carrots, broth, salt and pepper to a boil.
2. Add potatoes, cook for about 15-20 minutes.
3. In the meantime mix flour and milk.  Then add flour mixture to stock pot and stir until thick and bubbly - add some shredded cheddar cheese for a bit more flavor if you so desire.

Creamy, warm goodness on a cold winter day!! Enjoy!

(Thanks Joanna for sharing your recipe)

Weekly Menu

Week of January 31:

Monday - Meatless Spaghetti, salad, garlic monkey bread
Tuesday - Homemade Chicken Nuggets, Cheesy Potatoes, Peas
Wednesday - Tacos, Jello w/ Fruit
Thursday - BLT, green beans
Friday - Pasta Primavera Alfredo
Saturday - Leftovers
Sunday - ??

Week of February 7:

Monday - Creamy Potato Soup
Tuesday - Turkey Pot Pie
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Beef and Vegetable Soup
Friday - ??
Saturday - ??
Sunday - ??

Any suggestions for the days that I don't have planned?!?  Pass them along.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Noah and I have enjoyed baking some yummy, warm breakfasts on these cold winter days.  I found this recipe, for Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, on another blog which again I can not find the link too but here is the recipe.  We had fun trying out the recipe and eating up all the yummy-ness, plus it doesn't take nearly as long to make as actual cinnamon rolls do.

1.  Make your pancake batter, I use Bisquick mix.

2. To make the cinnamon filling

    1 stick butter

    1 cup brown sugar

    2 T. cinnamon

*after mixing the ingredients, microwave for 10 minutes until melted and smooth. I put it into a pastry bag to swirl into my pancakes but you could just put it in a zip lock and cut a tip off.

3.  Cream Cheese Icing

    2 cup powdered sugar

    3 oz. cream cheese

    1 t. vanilla

    4 T. milk

*mix until smooth, set aside

Pour your batter into the skillet into pancakes and swirl in the Cinnamon Filling, flip - be careful the sugar will burn, so don't get your skillet too hot.  (We learned our lesson with the first pancake)

When you serve drizzle with Icing and Enjoy!!

Organized...

 Household Planner

I can't say that I have ever felt 100% organized but it is a work in progress and maybe that is what it always really is - schedules change, contacts change, jobs change, etc.  But I am attempting and I am feeling pretty good about it.
A couple of weeks ago I read this post on a blog I check out frequently and with the baby coming and I will soon be having grandparents and others in the house to lend a helping hand I thought what better time to start my own household planner.  I did edit mine a bit to fit our needs.  Mine includes:

Calendar - exactly what is sounds like a calendar for the entire year

Contacts - with contacts I not only included family, but daycare, dr.'s office, hospitals - I also attached a Google maps.

Cleaning - this is started but I haven't been able to really get into the routine of it and mine is not as detailed as the post describes - I simply have the days of the week and what cleaning task get accomplished on that day.

Schedules  - instead of adding the daily schedules for the kids as part of cleaning I made a tab specifically for our schedules, I also included our dogs schedule.

Community Resources - I added this tab because when we moved here this summer our realtor  gave of this great packet/list of community resources: plumber, electrician, lawn care, etc. and I have found it very useful but have also left it floating around our office so now it has a home and if anyone is watching the house for us while we are away or if we need someone to come and look at something our list is handy.

Things to Do - parks, events, museums in the area that are fun and family friendly (and usually at little or no cost)

Activity Station

We have this great sit at counter that manages to always find itself cluttered with everything from the daily mail, to craft projects to lost game pieces...the list goes on.  So in my attempt to keep the counter decluttered and have a home for specifically the table activities and crafty things that Noah and I work on at the table I put together a cart of items - so far it is working.

I brought the kitchen cart that we had in our laundry room up and placed it under the bar in this empty area - fits great.

Purchased 4 snap top tubs from Wal-Mart (only $4 each) and they have great latches that stay together when little hands pull the tubs off of the cart and they land on the floor.  

I plan on rotating the materials in 2, maybe 3 of the tubs but currently they are housing:

Craft Materials: paper, stickers, pipe stem cleaners, pom poms, etc.

Playdough: cookie cutters, plastic knives, small rolling pin

Bristle Blocks (will rotate with other table toys)

Empty Tub (it is always good when I end up with an empty tub we will see what we fill it with)

The cart also has:

Noah's Art Box: glue stick, watercolor, markers, crayons, child safe scissors, chalk

Large Floor Puzzle (that is rotated with other games and puzzles)

And we use the top of the cart to leave projects to dry or if we need to finish something later

How do you get organized, I would love to hear your ideas and what works for your family and household.

Felt Wine Bags and Gift Card Holders

While going through my pictures I found another project that I made for the holidays.  I found the idea originally at Infarrantly Creative so I made my own for some friends and family.  The no-sew part didn't agree with me - I burnt the felt so I went ahead and stitched it up, which I think I like even better because I could use different stitches.  The snowball ornaments were part of the same post and super easy to make.

I also found the idea to make my own gift card holder out of leftover felt scrape....I am horrible at keeping track of which blog I find the ideas but it is not my original idea, sadly.  So somewhere out there in blog land is a great little gift card holder tutorial but I do remember that the post did not use felt.
I basically cut two pieces of felt into rectangles, on one of them I cut a slit large enough to slide in the gift card, sewed the two together (I decided to leave a raw edge).  I used some more scraps to make a little 2" circles and layered them, then hot glued a bell to the middle as I gathered the fabric around it.  I then used hot glue to attach it to the felt.

Ribbon Trees

 

A fun, easy holiday project - you can give as a gift or like me keep for yourself!

I don't recall where I saw the idea I think it was one of Michael's workshops or it could have been in a magazine anyway - I can't claim it as my craftiness!

 Materials:

ribbon

scissors

hot glue gun

cone shaped styrofoam or I found these cardboard ones at Michael's (less mess)

 cut ribbon in approx. 2" strips

fold over and put a little hot glue at one of the ends to hold the loop

put a dot of hot glue at the base of your cone and start attaching the ribbon loops and work your way up