Cooking Lessons

One of *my* goals for this summer, was to get Rachel in the kitchen, learning to cook. Really learning to cook. She has always helped in the kitchen, but I want her to learn the whole process. And, I might say, she is excelling! I have put her in charge of making breakfast every morning. So far she has made pancakes from scratch, muffins from scratch, eggs and smoothies.
I love watching her figuring it all out, and learning that mistakes are ok. Today she made muffins, but forgot to spray the muffin tin before putting the batter in. Oops! She is so proud of herself and what she is accomplishing.

I was thinking of getting Emma started too. But after making chocolate chip cookies on her own and dropping the egg, dusting flour all over the kitchen and dropping the whole bag of chocolate chips on the floor, I have decided to wait a bit, lol....

Summer Camp

My sweet baby girl (she's on the left) left for summer camp yesterday morning. She was super excited, and also a little nervous (Mom was a wreck). She went with her very best friend Lucy, and I cannot wait to hear all the details of how much fun they had! Of course we are being bombarded by thunderstorms, so Mom lay awake most of the night wondering how she was doing:) I have wonderful memories of Bible camp, and am so excited that she is now going to experience those memories.

Our first week of summer vacation went very well, despite my temper tantrum at 8:30 am Monday morning (Rachel and Emma thought it would be fun to see how much fighting/arguing they could do on the first day of vacation. Isn't that a riot???!!!!). Once I informed them how summer vacation was going to go, it's been a great week! We've been busy with craft projects,
science experiments and lots of reading. I am amazed at what little readers I have on my hands. Rachel (going into 4th grade) has never been to keen on reading, she's good at it, but it isn't the first thing on her list to do when she is bored. Emma (going into 2nd) is the opposite, she reads ALL.THE.TIME. We went to the library on Tuesday and stocked up on books, she got 3 Junie B. Jones chapter books, and read one of the books that night already! I love it. And being the little competitor that Rachel is, she couldn't let her sister have all the glory, so now SHE reads all the time!!

I am very proud of my girls (Alayna too, even if she makes me want to pull out my hair piece by piece) and the people they are becoming, I can't wait to see what is yet to come! Well, maybe I can wait, yikes!

Summer Grillin!

Nothing sounds or smells better than food cooked on the grill. I would grill everything, if I could (and actually, you probably could). So yesterday after perusing my Taste of Home magazines, I cam across a recipe that called for kielbasa sausage and potatoes. Umm, YUM! We have about 150 pounds (ok, not really) of venison sausage in the freezer that I substituted for the kielbasa. Doesn't it look delish??!!!

Why yes, it does, however do NOT flip it over or you will see the damage the grill did to the bottom. Grrrrr. Did I forget to mention that I am not a griller??!! Ugh, no matter how hard I try, grilling is just not one of my *thangs*. Not only did I burn this, but also a perfectly yummy packet of asparagus. Sad, I know. So, I will stick to being the queen of my oven, and leave the hubs to do the grillin.

Till next time......
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Ahhhh Summer......

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted, yikes! But with summer upon us, evenings spent outside until dark, and weekends spent at the lake, posting isn't the first on my agenda:) So forgive my lack of posting for awhile!

In the meantime, I added a little space and wanted to share it with you! I LOVE, love, LoVe to read. And I am happy that I am passing this on to mt girls. Emma reads aal.the.time. I think she would read in the shower, if she could! So naturally I wanted to add a bookcase somewhere to house all our books. I had this bookcase down in the family room, and the only thing I really used it for was to store all our DVD's and VHS tapes. I brought it upstairs into the hallway. I love this print, I bought it a couple years ago online, and have loved it, but didn't find the right spot for it. The frame I had downstairs with an old picture in it, so I took the old one out and put this one in and what a perfect fit! This frame I bought at a thrift store (brand new) for $3. I had taken pics of the girls this past weekend reading their books, and thought it would be a perfect place to have this! The quote says, "I think of life as a good book, the further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.:

We still have to fill it up with our books we plan to read over the summer, and I need to redo that lamp, but I love this special little place to store our books (and many thanks to my wonderful Aunt who is always sending me books!!).

So, I pray that each of you has a wonderful summer, and please share any and all fun ideas that you do with your kids during summer vacation:)

Blessings,

This Is What It's All About

And so it begins for us, summer at the lake! I am so ready for campfires (and mosquito's), pontooning (and mosquito's) picnics outside (and mosquito's)

lazy days of swinging for hours

and lots of playground fun.

This time of year (as busy at it gets) reminds me to slow down and enjoy my girls. Watch the excitement of summer through their eyes!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of you! I had a WONDERFUL weekend of relaxing, homemade cards, flowers and meals cooked for me (yay!!!). I had to show you what I made for my Mom for Mothers Day. I found this and knew I had to make one.
The bottom piece of wood I found in our garage, and the top three, I purchased at Crafts Direct. The bottom says, "You Taught By Example, I Learned By Love". To keep them together, I used Gorilla Glue ( a very.tiny.bit. I learned my lesson before, lol!) to attach the blocks to the bottom piece of wood.

I absolutely love how it turned out, and I know she will love it! I am so blessed to have the most wonderful Mom, she has always been there for me through thick and thin. Even in my worst times (and Lord knows there have been many), I always knew I could count on her. And in those days when she didn't know anything (aka, my teenage years) she never let me go. I couldn't imagine my life without her, she is truly my best friend and confidante. I love you, Mom!

Linking to:

Metamorphosis Monday

It's So Very Cheri

DIY Day

You're So Crafty Monday
Room To Inspire

Creations By Kara

DIY Club

Feature Yourself Friday

Tator Tots and Jello

Blueberry Oatmeal Coffee Cake

For those of you that don't know me personally, I looooove breakfast foods. Like, L.O.V.E. I could eat breakfast for lunch, supper and snacks. There is something ohhhh so comforting about eating a hot breakfast. Don't get me wrong, cereal and I have quite the love affair too, but bring on the soft, warm, doughy, dense, caramely anything, and I melt. Along with my favorite cup of joe, breakfast is my favorite time of the day.

So naturally I am always on the lookout for yummy breakfast recipes. This one I found on allrecipes.com and it definitely gets my stamp of approval!

Blueberry Oatmeal Coffee Cake

1 1/3 C. all-purpose flour
3/4 C. quick cooking oats
1/3 C. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 C. fat free milk
1/4 C. Canola oil
1/4 C. reduced fat sour cream
1 C. fresh or frozen blueberries

Streusal Topping
1/4 C. quick cooking oats
3 Tbl. all purpose flour
3 Tbl. brown sugar
2 Tbl butter

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, stir; In separate bowl, combine egg, milk, sour cream. Add to dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in blueberries. Pour into a greased 9 inch round baking pan. For the topping, mix oats, flour and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle on top of batter, bake at 400 degrees 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clear.