Thankful for Family & Friends
Beautiful flowers from my brothers family!
A big thank you my sister-in-law Becky and my brother Lee for the beautiful flowers, dinner, and stopping by to see me this week! Their thoughtfulness brightened my day! It was great getting a chance to catch up, get a little fresh air, and see my sweet nephews play for a few minutes. Thankful for my family and friends!
It’s been a wild month, who knew how much a herniated disc in the neck clamping down on the nerves could cause so much pain in multiple areas of my body!? I am thankful for the doctors who figured out what was wrong, what was causing the shooting pains down my neck, back, left arm, and numbness in my left fingers this past month. I am not a big fan of doctors or hospitals, but praying that the epidural steroid shot in my neck earlier this week will fix it so I can get back to life as normal. I had the fun side effect of nausea, dizziness, and vomiting with the shot as well so that has been a challenge this week. The ceiling fans spinning, people walking by, reading, and even the TV would make me sick. A box of no-salt saltines, tums, a little bit of rice, and a couple of other bland foods have gotten me through the last few days. The good news is food is starting to smell good again and the room isn’t spinning anymore so hopefully that it is good sign.
I want to thank my family and friends who have been going through this journey and praying with me. Your notes, texts, emails, messages, and calls have been huge encouragement during this time. I am truly grateful for my amazing husband, Jake, who insisted that we continue going to the doctor until they were able to figure out the cause of the pain and who has pitched in helping me, driving me to the hospital/doctor appointments, helping around the house, cooking, cleaning, running errands, grocery shopping, taking care of the kids, balancing a very busy work schedule, and so much more. He has been such a blessing and encouragement during this time. I love him so much! The girls have been a big help around the house, pitching in when needed, giving me hugs, making their own school lunches, and taking good care of me too. I am a blessed!
Although, it has been a little extra crazy this past month it has made me slow down and reflect on my own heart and life. God is good all the time. We may never know why exactly we have to go through times of pain, but He ultimately is in control and can use it for His good. The medicines have helped some with the pain, but they have also made me a lot more tired and foggy feeling. Daily activities and multi-tasking have been more frustrating and helping the kids with homework has been very stressful while taking the meds. The kids especially have noticed a few things I missed or have not done correctly during this past month. I know that it has taken a toll on them too. Praying that the treatment I am doing now works so I can get back to taking care of myself and my family again.
Karlie told me a couple days ago “I am tired of you being broken Mom!” Me too kiddo!
Fresh & Healthy: Fun Fall Fruit to Add to Your Kids Lunch
Are you are looking for a sweet and healthy Fall or Halloween treat to send in your kids school lunch? Grab an orange, draw a pumpkin face on it, and stick it in their lunch box. They will love it! It is a fun, sweet, and healthy food for them to eat. They will be excited to eat their fruit at lunch. Doing something as simple as adding a face to an orange can motivate the kids to eat more fruit!
Thankfully, our kids have always enjoyed eating their fruits and vegetables, but adding a little extra surprise (like a pumpkin face) during the various Holiday Seasons gets them even more excited. What are your favorite healthy Halloween snacks that you like to send in your kids lunches? Our kids get enough candy sweets around Halloween Holiday so offering more healthier food options is always something we want to encourage. Another bonus is the orange provides extra vitamin C which is perfect boost for the kids immune systems as we enter the seasons were colds seem to spread like wildfire through school.
Make 1 & Freeze 1 Meal: Taco Lasagna Recipe
Make 1 & Froze 2 Taco Lasagna Meals! Yay!
I have been trying to do at least one Make 1 and Freeze 1 meal a week for dinner. The idea is we can eat the one meal that night for dinner and the other one will go into the freezer to eat at a later date when we are a little more pushed for time. I started doing this a couple months ago as I was preparing for my two weeks away on a work trip. I wanted to make sure there was plenty in the freezer for my husband to pull out the night before and either put in the crockpot or oven after picking the kids up from school.
This particular recipe is a favorite with our family. I was able to Make 1 and Freeze 2 Taco Lasagnas for a later dinner! Since I was already making up a big batch I was able to do more which will be a blessing later when we pull them out of the freezer. I like being prepared and having a back up plan. Whether it is a crazy week or busy weekend we have some options if we need them!
Another solution that I had to come up with regarding our meals is how to keep some food ingredients separate because we have one family member that cannot have regular refried beans or dairy. Once I use up the refried beans that I have in the pantry I am going to try making my own from black beans or other beans that can be eaten, but for now though I have come up with a simple solution that seems to work well for our family. I put a barrier between the refried beans and dairy side which keeps the items separate when cooking and eating.
I cut one small soft flour tortilla in half to use a barrier between the two sides. As you can see the side with refried beans is larger than the side without it because 3 of us eat from that side and only one from the non-refried bean and non-cheese side of the Taco Lasagna. PLEASE NOTE that the person in our family that has the food allergy will not go into shock or needs hospitalized if they encounter or happen to eat the food so while this option works for our family it may not be the perfect solution if you have someone with severe food allergies because there still is a chance of the food cross over (usually when serving). The food allergy is real and we have seen the side effects to veering even a little off her diet, but thankfully we have come up with a solution where everyone can share the same meal with very little adjustments. The person with the food allergy gets a lot of extra meat for protein instead of the cheese and refried beans.
Taco Lasagna still divided this time with a layer of meat and cheese. The side without the cheese gets extra of the meat mixture! I have shared our Taco Lasagna recipe in the past, but will post it below again so it is easier to locate.
Taco Lasagna:
- 1 pound ground Beef or Turkey
- 1/2 cup chopped Green Pepper (optional)
- 1/2 cup chopped Onions
- 2/3 cup Water
- 1 package of Taco Seasoning
- 1 (15 oz) can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (14.5 oz ) can Mexican Tomatoes, undrained
- 1 (16 oz) can Refried Beans
- 6 (8 inch) Flour Tortillas
- 3 cups shredded Mexican Cheese
In a large skillet, cook the meat, green pepper, and onion over medium heat until done. Add water and taco seasoning; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered 2 minutes. Stir in black beans and tomatoes. Simmer uncovered 10 minutes. Place 2 flour tortillas in a greased 13 x 9 pan. Spread half of the refried beans then half of the beef mixture. Sprinkle with 1 cup Mexican cheese. Repeat layers. Top with remaining tortillas and cheese (I try to add a little extra cheese if I have it and sliced olives if we have them in the pantry or fridge). Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until heated through and the cheese is melted. I usually take the foil off the last few minutes to let the cheese on top get a little crispy since our family likes it that way.
The top of our split Taco Lasagna! Everyone’s happy (those who want cheese and those who do not) and this is now ready to be put in the freezer for us to eat at a later time!
Orange Crockpot Chicken Recipe
I enjoy trying out new recipes! The ones that are easy to prep, include ingredients that are already in the kitchen, simple to cook, and receive a big thumbs up from our family are always my favorite! One of the recent ones we tried was adapted from New Leaf Wellness’ Orange Ginger Chicken Recipe. The girls and I loved it! Jake liked it too, but he isn’t as big on the sweet main dish recipes. This is a great recipe for the crockpot which means you could easily make one for dinner that night and freeze one for a later meal.
Orange Crockpot Chicken Recipe:
- 1 pound Chicken, cubed
- ½ cup Orange Juice (with pulp)
- ½ teaspoon Ground Ginger
- 2 tablespoons Honey
- 2 tablespoons Coconut Oil
- 2 teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes
Place all the ingredients in the crockpot and cook on low for 3 to 6 hours or until chicken is cooked through. Serve over rice. Compliment with orange slices!
For a healthier version you can cook the chicken for an hour and drain the excess chicken juices than add the rest of the ingredients and cook for the remaining time. Also, tastes great with brown rice!
Our Wall Street Journal Has Been Shredded!
Our Wall Street Journal has been attacked by the furry critter that thinks she rules our yard!
Some days, for whatever reason, our dog decides to shred our Wall Street Journal before we have a chance to get it picked up and out of the driveway. It doesn’t happen every day and there really isn’t any rhyme or reason to it (that we can come up with). We think she tends to shred it more when it gets thrown a little further into the driveway. Maybe she doesn’t like the news that day or she’s just playing or she’s mad at us for who knows what. We did uncover three of her partially decaying squirrels this week when we were mowing so maybe this is her way of paying us back. Sometimes she just tears the plastic off the newspaper and other days she gets the plastic and the newspaper.
It’s some what readable. Hopefully, there wasn’t any important news in the sections that are missing, ha!
School Projects: The Eye Ball Donut Creation & Writing Assignment
A tray of “The Eye Ball” Donuts ready to take to school
The girls recently had a writing assignment that they had to do for school. Brina came up with The Eye Ball Donut creation. For extra credit they could make their creations and share them with their classmates and teachers at school. We came up with a cookie creation using all the ingredients she mentioned in her writing assignment and they turned out fairly well. Instead of using cookies for Brina’s we used a powdered doughnut or in this case a munchkin for Dunkin Donuts. The donuts were a perfect treat to share with her classmates instead of cupcakes on Halloween. Karlie also did a cookie creation and writing assignment called Inside Your Feet.
The Eye Ball was super easy to put together and a big hit with Brina’s classmates.
Her tray of eye balls ready to be wrapped and delivered to school.
The Eye Balls did exactly what we wanted them to do – overnight the blue frosting that we used to attach the pupil part of the eye spread a little giving The Eye Balls blue colored eyes!
The Eye Ball Items:
- White Powdered Donuts (Dunkin Donut sells white powdered munchkins which are perfect for this treat, but you can make homemade if you want)
- Blue Frosting (we used the blue writing frosting but you could use brown or green, etc…)
- Edible Eyes (you can pick these up at Hobby Lobby, Walmart, etc…)
- Red Sprinkles
Once you have your white powdered donuts add a small drop of blue frosting and attached the pupil of your eye to your eye ball. Dip the bottom of the donut into red sprinkles and place on a tray. Let set overnight so the blue frosting will spread a little bit giving you a blue eye color.
The donuts turned out well and were a big hit with Brina’s class. It was a lot of fun putting these together with her and they were super simple. These would be an easy Fall or Halloween treat to do for a party or for fun.
School Projects: Inside Your Feet Cookie Creation & Writing Assignment
A tray of “Inside Your Feet” Cookies ready to take to school
The girls recently had a writing assignment that they had to do for school. Karlie came up with an Inside Your Feet Cookie creation. For extra credit they could make their creations and share them with their classmates and teachers at school. We came up with a cookie creation using all the ingredients she mentioned in her writing assignment and they turned out fairly well. The cookies were a perfect treat to share with her classmates instead of cupcakes on Halloween. Brina also did a cookie creation and writing assignment called The Eye Ball.
A few days before the actual assignment due date we did a trial run and experimented to make sure we could make her “skin, blood, bones, and ankle joint” to reflect the Inside Your Feet cookie as accurately as possible. We tried white sparkle writing gel (bottom right) but is blended too much, we tried straight white sprinkles (bottom middle) it was a lot of work and hard to get straight, we tried round white sprinkles (bottom left) too difficult to get straight, we tried pearl balls (top left) wasn’t too bad and would have been a more do-able option, and the final attempt was our favorite and probably the easiest option too, we used white writing frosting.
We didn’t have any feet cookie cutters and the stores we checked didn’t carry any so Jake made a set we could use with his 3D printer. Once again it saves the day!
Up close of the Inside Your Feet Cookie
Inside Your Feet Items:
- Sugar Cookie Dough or Brownies(we did some of each)
- Red Frosting (or white frosting with red dye)
- White Writing Frosting
- Red and White Mint
Make your favorite sugar cookie dough or brownies (your can make from scratch or buy a mix). The sugar cookies seemed to look more like feet with toes, but the brown mix had less steps to put together. Make your sugar cookie dough, roll it out, cut out your feet, and bake. OR Make your brownies first and cut out your feet after they are baked and cooled.
Once the cookies are cooled you can decorate by putting red frosting on the cookie. We did not go to the edge of the cookie with the frosting because Karlie wanted to show the layers of the Inside Your Feet Cookie (bottom – skin, frosting – blood and muscles, white – bones, and mint – ankle joint). Next add your red and white mint. Draw your foot bones with the white writing frosting.
The cookies turned out well and were a big hit with Karlie’s class. It was a lot of fun putting together with her.
What the different parts of the cookies represent:
- Bottom Sugar Cookie or Brownies- skin
- Red Frosting – blood and muscles
- White Writing Frosting – bones
- Red & White Mint – ankle joint
3/4 with Dairy + 1/4 Non-Dairy = 1 Whole Family Pizza
We have a member of our household who does not eat dairy. It is not a go-to-the-hospital-or-stop-breathing-dairy-allergy, but it is one that we try to be careful with because it does have noticeable effects when dairy is eaten. Over the past few months we have experimented with ways we can make only one family pizza with both dairy and non-dairy toppings. Our dairy-free eater is not a big fan of the soy or vegan cheeses either so after several attempts to “get it right” we have come up with a pizza solution that makes the whole family happy (both those who want cheese and those who do not).
We make one whole pizza crust that is non-dairy (see recipe below), add the sauce, and put two lines of pepperoni’s separating about 1/4 of the pizza from the non-dairy part of the pizza. Approximately 3/4 of the pizza gets cheese and toppings while the remaining 1/4 of the pizza gets sauce and extra toppings. When we cut the pizza we cut the non-dairy part of the pizza first (being careful to stay within the pepperoni lines). Everyone is happy with their special type of pizza, the dairy is avoided for the family member who doesn’t eat it, and we still only have to make one family pizza for our evening meal. It may be hard to make out the exact pepperoni lines in the picture above, but you can see the part that has cheese and the section that is noticeably more red in color with extra toppings which is the non-dairy part of the pizza.
We have done this multiple times over the past few months and it has worked so well. The only thing that may change in the future as the kids get older is one pizza may not be big enough for our family of four. For now it is a simple solution to accommodate all family members diets yet still be able to enjoy the pizza together. The one who doesn’t eat dairy thinks it’s awesome she has her own special section of the pizza and has fun choosing her extra toppings! While some of the other family members who think it’s not really pizza without a good helping of cheese are happy to eat their section of the pizza.
Homemade Pizza Dough
- 1 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
- 1 Tablespoons active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 2 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, Canola, or olive oil)
- 2 1/2 cups flour (can use all whole-wheat, half white/half whole-wheat, or all white)
Pour the warm water into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir to dissolve.
Add the remaining ingredients and mix.
Dump onto a floured surface and knead dough for two to five minutes until smooth and no longer sticky.
Roll out and shape onto a greased pizza pan.
Add pizza toppings of your choice. Bake at 500 degrees for around 10 minutes (until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned).
Makes one pizza!
Most of the time I will double this pizza dough recipe. Once the dough is made split it in half. Roll out one half of the dough for your pizza meal that night and put the other half in a Ziploc bag in the freezer for a meal later when you don’t have as much time to prep for dinner.
School Projects: Southwest Region Native American Pueblo House
Southwestern Region Native American Pueblo House Project
Karlie recently did a Social Studies project for school. She was studying about the Native Americans and the different regions. Karlie picked the Southwest Region and the pueblo house for her project. She had to make a pueblo house and write a paragraph on how the lodging benefited them.
Even though the girls are both in the same grade and have similar projects they rarely chose do to the same thing with their projects! The great part about them being so different is we have more opportunities to learn while doing various school projects. For this particular Social Studies Project Brina did the Great Plains Region with Tepee housing and Karlie chose the Southwest Region with Pueblo housing.
Putting the final touches on the pueblo house!
Karlie‘s Southwest Region Pueblo Paragraph: Southwest Pueblo Native Americans used pueblo houses that were made of harden clay. They lived in a village and their houses resembled an apartment building on mesas. The pueblo housing was beneficial to their way of life because the mesas helped cool the houses and protect them from sand storms. You can fit a lot of families into a pueblo apartment building. It is easier to help each other out because they were all together during bad weather or other hard times. In their village they grew corn, beans, squash, and cotton to help feed their families. All the people in the village worked together hunting, farming, and raising their families.
Karlie putting her title and name on her project!
Jake and Karlie put together this neat Pueblo House with items we had in the garage!
Pueblo Construction:
- Flat Pieces of Scrap Wood
- Wood Glue
- Speckled Paint
- Wooden Dowels
- Cotton Balls
- Markers
They took flat pieces of scrap wood from various wood working projects and glued them together to create this Pueblo house. The house has three levels. Once all the pieces are glued together and the glue has dried they attached the house to a flat board with wood glue. After the structure was put together we sprayed the whole pueblo with speckled paint (you can get this at Home Depot or Lowe’s). It ended up taking two coats of spray paint in order to get it covered well. The ladders are made out of small wooden dowels. The top windows and doors are cut out, but the other ones are drawn on with marker. The cotton balls represent the cotton the Southwest Region Native Americans grew in their fields. Inside the house on the top level there is a fire and a mat for sleeping.
Pueblo house is finished and ready to go!
We didn’t paint the back of the Pueblo with two coats of paint, but this picture gives you a glimpse at the top inside which has the 3D fire and mat for sleeping. The little storage “cubby” (as Karlie called it) with the paper in it on the lower left is where Karlie stored her written paragraph and ladders during transport to and from school.
Karlie so proud of her project! It was a handful to carry into school!
School Projects: Great Plains Native American Tepee Home
Great Plains Tepee Project
Brina recently did a Social Studies project for school. She was studying about the Native Americans and the different regions. Brina picked the Great Plains Region and the tepee for her project. She had to make a tepee and write a paragraph on how the lodging benefited them. On this Social Studies project Brina did the Great Plains Region with Tepee housing and Karlie chose the Southwest Region with Pueblo housing.
Making her designs on the tepee!
She finished the Native American designs on her tepee! Looks good!
Tepee Construction:
- Cereal Box
- Old White T-Shirt
- Elmer’s Glue
- Wooden Dowels
- Hot Glue & Hot Glue Gun
- Markers
Cut a cereal box into a semi-circle. Use Elmer’s Glue and attach the T-Shirt to the non-print side of the cardboard from the cereal box. Once the glue dries use the markers to create your own special Native American designs on your tepee. Cut out the door to your tepee. Hot glue the wooden dowels to the inside of the tepee. Once the glue dries stand the tepee up and hot glue it to the poster board. To help your tepee maintain its shape you can use rubber bands around it as it dries in place.
Brina’s Great Plains Paragraph: The Great Plains Native Americans used tepees because they were very transportable. They used the tepees so they could follow the buffalo and other animals while hunting them. Their main source of food was buffalo meat. The tepees were light weight, transportable, could be folded up, and carried to the next spot. they also used the tepee poles to carry buffalo meat. The tepees were shelter during the nights for the families and transportable when they were trying to find food. The tepees were a valuable tool used to help feed their families.
Brina’s social studies project ready to go!
She was so excited to hot glue her horse and a folded up tepee on her poster board!
Her tepee turned out well!
Brina was super excited about the fire because Jake used his 3D printer to make it for her project!
Awesome learning lesson about the Great Plains Native Americans and their transportable home – the tepee! It was a great project!
