• Halloween Mystery

    'These blue gloves were hanging in our fridge since Friday night. The girls were very curious about what was inside these gloves and were being careful not to touch them per our instructions!'
    The most disturbing item that had the girls perplexed over the Halloween Weekend was discovered in our refrigerator on Friday night. Today they got to see what was inside the blue gloves this afternoon. They were pleasantly surprised to find edible green jello monster hands!
    'Our green monster jello hand. There was a fold in a couple areas, but it came out well otherwise. The girls thought it was great!'

  • Family Recipe: Mom’s Delicious Dirt

    Family Recipe - Mom's Delicious Dirt

    My Mom used to make this amazing “Dirt” recipe when we were kids.   This recipe uses gummy worms, oreos, lime jello, and cool whip.  I have had a variety of different dirt recipes over the years, but this is the one I grew up on.  The combination of these ingredients always taste delicious and gummy worms are super fun to eat no matter what!  The other day I was trying to figure out what to make for dessert for our Community Group meeting when the girls insisted that I make “Grandma Penny’s Dirt” since we had leftover gummy worms from another event!

    Mom’s Delicious Dirt Recipe:

    • 1 package of Oreos
    • 2 (6 oz) large boxes of Lime Jello
    • 1 container Cool Whip
    • Gummy Worms

    Put the oreos in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin or another item to crush the whole oreos into small pieces.  Take about 1/2 of the crushed oreos and press them into the bottom of a 9×13 dish.  Make the lime jello according to the directions on the box.  Once it is made pour half of it over top of the layer of oreos and put in the refrigerator to set.  Leave the other half of the lime jello in the bowl and put it in the fridge to set.  Once the jello is firm mix the container of cool whip into the bowl of jello.  Add the cool whip and jello mixture on top of the jello layer in the 9×13 dish.  Place the remaining amount of crushed oreos on top of the cool whip and jello layer and add your gummy worms.  (If you’re not planning on serving it within the next few hours wait until an hour or two before to place the oreos and gummy worms on top).

    P1110900c

    The layers of oreos blend really well together and make this a fun treat for kids of all ages!  I did take the pictures of the dessert before going to Community Group, however, in our rush to get home and the kids into bed before it was too late I did not get an individual piece shot of the dessert.  I am sure before too long the girls will think of another event I will need to make it for and hopefully I can get a snap shot of it at that time.

  • Jello Jigglers

    The girls had a lot of fun making Jello Jigglers after school to share with their friends who were coming over after dinner.  We had a great time doing this treat together while talking about memories, the girls day at school, and the fun we were anticipating having with our friends that evening.

    I remember making Jello Jigglers when I was a little girl with my Great Grandma Vi so this activity brought back a lot of sweet memories of my Grandma Viola.   It is wonderful being able to carry on this fun tradition with my girls too.

    The girls had a wide variety of shapes and animals from birds, flowers, Mickey Mouse, hearts, bears, rabbits, and more.  They had a blast choosing the cookie cutters and getting this special treat together to share with their friends.  I would say it was a big hit because there were only a couple “jigglers” left by the end of the night.  🙂

  • Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4

    RiteAid and Walgreens
    It was my third week of doing my new cash budget system – Groceries $40 for 4.   Although it has been a learning process the last two weeks this one has gone pretty well so far.  I have to admit, honestly, this week we stocked up on some good deals on special treats and items for road trips for the family.  It is always a learning and growing progress for our family.  We are continuing to utilize the food we already have in our pantry and freezer.  Here is my grocery spending for the week:
    • $2.29 at Walgreens for 3 boxes of Sugar Free Jello Pudding and 1 M&M Cookie (see picture below)
    • $9.99 at RiteAid for a 3 Mountain Dew ThrowBack (12 packs) and 1 free Diet Pepsi (12 pack). Jake really likes the Mountain Dew Throwback and recently I have been having a hard time finding it even on the shelves so we stocked up this week.
    Mommy was a softy since the girls were home from school on Monday and helping me run errands. I bought the girls a giant M&M Sugar Cookie that was on sale for 50 cents. Brina and Karlie were more than happy to share the monster cookie! =)

    It was great having my two little helpers along for a ZoobaLoobaDoo errand!   The errands were not quite as “efficient” but they did help and were super good during the trip!

    SaveALot | RiteAid and BiLo

    Groceries from SaveALot | RiteAid and BiLo:

    • $8.14 at SaveALot | RiteAid for 2 gallons of Milk, Popcorn, and Sugar Free Candy
    • $5.54 at BiLo for 2 packs Eggs (Dozen each), Gatorade Orange, Gatorade Fruit Punch, and Fresh Cabbage.
    RiteAid, Dollar Tree, and Winslett

     

    Groceries from RiteAid, Dollar Tree, and Winslett:

    • $7.99 at RiteAid for 3 (12 packs) Mountain Dew Throwback and 1 free (12 Pack) of Diet Pepsi (We are not Diet Pepsi drinkers, but since it was a free item we have reallocated it to someone who does!  I wouldn’t have done this deal again but  I had 2 – $1 off coupons for Pepsi products so the packs were less than $2 each).  Jake should be set for quite awhile after this week’s stocking up on the Mountain Dew throwback!!!
    • $3.03 at Dollar Tree for 3 bags of Sugar Free candy
    • $2.00 at Winslett’s Produce (a family store with fresh produce)  for 2 bags of Gluten Free White Cake Mix (we have several friends with Gluten allergies so this comes in handy for hosting and sharing)!  The bags were marked down to $0.99 from $4 each!!!

    It was our third week of the challenge – Groceries $40 for 4 and we spent $38.98 so we were close to going over again, but thankfully we did better this week .  I was able to stock up on some items for my man this week; Mountain Dew Throwback, Gatorade packs, and Sunflower seeds are perfect for traveling!  Do you think I missed him a little bit while he was gone on a work trip, ha!?    I am still trying to work out all the details of how to make the budget most effective for our family and I think some weeks will be easier than others.  I used some coupons, bought clearance items, and utilized weekly ad discounts to help save us a little extra on our grocery budget.  I hope to do better next week now that we have replenished Jake’s drinks!  We’ll see how I do!

    I hope to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

    Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.

  • Recipe: Sour Spiral Cookies

    Here was a fun recipe we made during our Christmas Baking Day on Saturday.  It was a good one to do in between recipes because several steps required some time in the refrigerator.  Although it does not take up a huge amount of room you’ll need space in your fridge and freezer to complete this recipe.  I doubled the batch so the cookies came out pretty big but they were a huge hit with everyone.  This was my favorite recipe that we made from Favorite Brand Name: Cooking for Kids, Kids’ Party Food on our Saturday baking day because it was unique and tasty.  I made my cookies with red and green spirals for the Christmas Holidays but you can do any two flavors of gelatin.  These are colorful, fun, and have a mix of sweet and sour all mixed into one delicious cookie.

    Sour Spiral Cookies

    • 1 package (18 ounces) refrigerated Sugar Cookie Dough (Here is our recipe for Sugar Cookie Dough if you need one)
    • 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons Lime flavored Gelatin (original recipe called for Blue Raspberry, I did Lime for the Christmas Holiday, however you can do any flavor)
    • 1/4 teaspoon Gel Green Food Coloring (match the color your gelatin mixture)
    • 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons Strawberry flavored Gelatin
    • 1/4 teaspoon Gel Red Food Coloring
    • All Purpose Flour

    1. Remove dough from wrapper; divide in half.  Reserve 1 dough half.  Place remaining dough half in large bowl.  Let dough stand about 10 minutes.  Add lime flavored gelatin and green food coloring to dough in bowl; beat at medium speed until well blended and evenly colored.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

    2.  Combine reserved dough half, strawberry flavored gelatin and red food coloring in large bowl.  Beat at medium speed until well blended and evenly colored.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour.

    3.  Roll green dough to a 10×6 rectangle on lightly floured waxed paper using lightly floured rolling pin.  Repeat with red dough.  Refrigerate both dough rectangles 1o minutes.

    4.  Place green dough rectangle over red dough.  Remove waxed paper from green dough.  Starting at 10 inch side, roll up jelly-roll fashion into tight log. Wrap in plastic; freeze 30 minutes.

    5.  Preheat oven to 350° F.  Grease cookie sheets.  Cut log into 1/4 inch slices.  Place on prepared cookie sheets.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are firm.  (Do not let cookies brown.) Cool on cookie sheets 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

    Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.  I doubled my batch of cookies since we were sharing them with family, friends, and neighbors.  It is a great cookie to make while you are doing other baking since it has time in the fridge and freezer.  The girls helped me make this one a little bit but with all the steps they will need to be older before doing this one on their own.  These cookies were a hit with my kids.