{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Deal of the Week: Tricycle

Matt's mom is here, and this is really her deal.  Cadence has had our nephew's old tricycle for a couple years now and is still too short to ride it.  It's nice and metal and classic-looking, but it was also big and she just couldn't ride it.  She and I had talked briefly about getting her a new one, especially since she has seen her friends riding theirs, but when I looked around even the plastic ones were around $45.  I just wasn't willing to spend that much.

Well, when Dassa arrived, Cadence asked her to get her a new tricycle.  (We're just going to skip over the implications of my kid ALREADY working her grandma for stuff.)  I pretty much said no, because of the prices I had seen.  But we looked at Walmart yesterday and this one was on clearance for $13!  That, I could agree to.  (And it didn't have princesses or Dora on it.  Ahhhhh.)

I bought her a Hello Kitty Helmet (also on clearance for $9.50).  She's already cruising in style.

Oh, and btw, I put the trike together by myself.  

Rainbows

²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,  for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 

Lamentations 3:22-23

Theme of the Week: Our Earth

Earth Day was yesterday and I thought it was a concept that Cadie could start to "get" this year.  She already helps me sort the recycling (a task she volunteered for) so we're expanding on the idea of taking care of the earth a little more.  I had to try to explain what a landfill was today, and how recycling works (it helped when I told her that her tool set from Green Toys was made from recycled milk bottles).  Here's some of our activities - We have enough to make this last for two weeks!

Reading: The creation story in our Jesus Storybook Bible, The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, Biscuit's Earth Day Celebration by Capucilli, Fancy Nancy: Every Day is Earth Day by O'Connor, and read Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? by Carle to Piper (it features North American animals)

Letter Awareness: E

Music: Sing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" and "My God is so Big", listen to Daddy's song "Green Clover"

Art: Coffee Filter Earth, Paper Roll Flower Prints (see pics below - we did this today!), Handprint/Fingerprint Tree

Nature Scavenger Hunt, like this one

Extras: Watch Blue's Clues, Season 2, Episdoe 5: What Does Blue Want to Make out of Recycled Things?  We also might put on our gloves and pick up trash at Daddy's school or at the park.  Maybe.

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Theme of the Week: Alphabet

Another Cadie-chosen theme.  For the past few months, she's been very interested in print, pretending to write, pretending to read, actually writing her name, etc.  I'm trying to be careful not to push her and let her tell me when she wants to "learn" something.

Because there's letters EVERYWHERE we're not doing as many activities with this one.

Reading: Alphabet Under Construction by Fleming, My First ABC Board Book, Adelaide to Zeke by Wolf, and Winnie the Pooh's ABC

Music: The ABC song (duh)

Fine Motor and Letter Recogition: Work on one of our many alphabet puzzles (seriously, we have at least 3)

Extras: Watch Super Why (because letters are featured so prominently in each episode), and play with the letters on Starfall

What's going on in my kitchen

Last week was Matt's spring break which means we were eating real meals at home quite a bit (we also were out of town some so we got to eat out at some great places, like Tupelo Honey Cafe, State Street Barbecue in Black Mountain, and La Pietra Cucina), so I was cooking more than usual, which I really enjoyed.

The salad above was part of my lunch today, and so good!  Lettuce and strawberries were straight out of my garden, with toasted almonds, shredded mozzarella, and balsamic vinagrette.  I've been eating a lot of salads from the garden.  My early vegetables have been hit or miss.  I think it got too warm too fast this year.  My peas seem to be doing well, as did the spinach and lettuce.  But for the radishes to get to a decent size, they had to stay in the ground way longer than they should have and were hot.  Like spicy.  Fine, but not what I had hoped for.  I think my cabbage and broccoli is giving up, and the jury is still out on the kale and carrots. 

Speaking of spinach, some of what I've harvested has made its way into green smoothies.  Matt is scared of them, but Cadence will suck them down like nobody's business.  Inspired by the recipe here, I've been using full fat plain yogurt with a few squirts of honey, because honestly, Cadence could use the extra fat and calories. 

I've tried out several new recipes I can recommend.  For Easter dinner, I made us a turkey breast in the crockpot, and I am never making a turkey in the oven now that I know how good (and easy) it is slow cooked!  My friend Susie told me that's how she did hers at Thanksgiving and she was so right.  I just salted and peppered the breast, plopped it in the crockpot, poured in a 1/4 cup apple juice and let it go on high for about 4 hours.  It was juicy and flavorful and falling off the bone. 

Some of my friends here have raved about the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and I thought this week was the perfect time to try it out.  Except I still haven't gotten the book, I followed the directions here.  I did it totally simple; I didn't buy any extra stuff, just baked the bread in a pyrex dish.  It. was. so. good.

And I just now tried out the chocolate peanut butter babies here, which sounded awesome having no added sugar and no baking!  When I saw dates were on sale at Ingles, I couldn't resist making these today.  I love me some chocolate.  Most days, I need me some chocolate.  They were delish and quick, which is kinda what I need since I'm attempting to do laundry, entertain Cadence, blog here, and wash dishes during Piper's nap.  Yikes, I have emails to reply to too.

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Strawberry "Cheesecake" Ice Cream Pie

I love cheesecake.  It was my birthday dessert request for many a year and it was my wedding cake.  I LOVE it. 

Back at Christmas, I made an amazing peppermint ice cream pie following Jenae's directions over here at I Can Teach My Child!  I figured you could take her basic recipe and change out flavors and come up with some other delicious ice cream pies.  When I saw some Edy's ice cream on close out at the store last week, I decided I would try a strawberry cheesecake ice cream pie.

And it was a total success (and super easy!). 

Here's what you need:

a block of neufchatel cheese (low fat cream cheese), a carton of strawberry ice cream, a container of cool whip, and a graham cracker pie crust (not pictured).

Here's how you do it:

Cut the block of cream cheese in half and put one half out to come to room temperture.  If you can be that patient.  If it's only softened a bit, you'll be fine.  You may also want to let the cool whip and ice cream soften slightly. 

Dump that softened half block of cream cheese in your mixing bowl with half the carton of ice cream and the whole container of cool whip.  Either use your mixer with a paddle attachment or a lot of arm strength to mix until everything is, well, mixed up.  Then pour that deliciousness into your pie crust and put in the freezer for at least two hours. 

The store bought pie crusts come with a plastic lid thing-y that I flip over to cover the pie in the freezer. 

You can garnish with some strawberries or whipped cream.  Yum!

Let me just say that this isn't particularly healthful, but I did use low fat cream cheese, light ice cream, and lite cool whip and it's still really good.

I think in the summer this would be yummy with peach ice cream and that chocolate or coffee ice cream in a chocolate crust would be really good too. 

Linking up to:

Super Easy Ham and Cheese Muffins

Got leftover Easter ham?  These muffins are really easy and delish!

Mix up self-rising flour, milk, mayonaise, ham, and shredded cheese.

Drop into greased muffin tin.

Enjoy!

Easy Ham and Cheese Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup self-rising flour

1/2 cup milk

3 tbsps mayo

1/2 cup diced ham

1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but I think swiss would also be good)

a pinch of garlic powder (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Drop spoonfuls into 9 greased muffin tins (I simply spray mine with a no-stick cooking spray) until each tin is about half full.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Makes 9 muffins. 

P.S. Hey, Mom, this is, of course, a variation on your mayonaise biscuits.  I took them to playgroup last week and they were a hit.

Egg hunts (yep, plural)

 

He is risen indeed!

from simplemom.net here. 

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Fabric on Canvas Bird Art

So, I've been working on this project in little bits for months.  Months.  Because in the evenings I'm either too tired to work on things or I'm trying to spend time with Matt.  So this was completed in 5-15 minute increments. 

The wall behind Piper's crib was totally blank.  I wanted something there because it's exactly where the glider faces, so I was staring at a blank wall a lot.  I also wanted something very affordable, and matching with the other fabrics and colors in her room.  Here's what I came up with:

Little birds on tree branches.  Decoupaged on canvas.  They were simple and affordable. I got the two pack of canvases at Wal-mart for $8 or $10. I had the fabric and the decoupage medium on hand, as well as the foam brush I used to apply it. I simply cut everything out of fabric, placed it on the canvas and brushed the decoupage stuff over it.  I freehanded the branches and leaves, but for the birds I found templates online.  The flowers are my beloved yo-yos.  I could make yo-yos all day long.  Well, maybe not, but I do enjoy them. 

The canvases had visible staples all around the edges so I hot glued bias binding around, and it looks a little wonky. I'm telling myself it adds to the homemade charm. (But I may rip it off and fix it later if it's driving me nuts.)

They are kind of intended to represent our family.  Matt and I are the larger blue birds, and the girls are the pink and purple birds.  These pictures are not great, but they are cute. 

You can also see the ribbon mobile I made and the framed scripture (Isaiah 30:29) above her crib.  The rain forest crib soother is not that cute, but handy.  Some sunny day soon I'll take pictures of all of her room and give a tour.

 

I'm linking this project up to:

Theme of the Week: Bees!

We didn't do a theme last week because we just had too much going on!  This week - again, per Cadence's request - bees!

Reading: Buzz by Wong, Happy Bees by Yorinks, Beekeepers by High

Letter Awareness: B

Music: I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee

Extras: taste honey, look for bees in our yard, some activities from here and maybe visit a bee hive!

First Day - April